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for-the-sake-of-color · 1 year

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Why do something sexy and shotgun the smoke, when the much funnier option of blowing in his face is right there

Exerpt with the relevant version under the cut (xcom edition)

Kix started to immediately look for an exit out of the gym when one of the Eldars, Margo, he thinks by the hair, began to approach him with an intense look in her eye. He wasn’t fast enough, though, and without a word she grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out into the hallways.

“Kix. I’m here to talk about Nihlus.”

Fucking hell, of course she was, “What about him? I’ve been following your Major's stupid rules, I’ve left him alone, I’ve gone away, what could you possibly want now?”

“What did my brother say to make you such a fucking coward?” She replied, pushing him back

And, “Excuse me?” Kix replied, shoving her hands off, because where did the Eldars store their fucking audacity? Every single one of them was full of shit

“What did Jet say to make you treat Nihlus worse than the dirt on the bottom of your boot? Or is the asshole part all you?”

So she didn’t know? Just their leader's initiative, then? “Well I don’t know about you, but if the second deadliest guy you know threatens to disappear you, a sane person, I think, would listen.”

A flash of anger appeared on her face before it tempered down and she replied, “and, of course, you listened to him. God forbid either of you care what Nihlus thinks.”

And Kix got a little annoyed because, “how was I ever supposed to know what he thinks if he never says it?” because even when they had been on more pleasant terms, Nihlus never talked about himself, never gave a warning when he did insane shit, and never gave context when he did say something. Kix could never figure out what was going on in that templar's head

And that look of anger faded from her face to be replaced by disappointment as she stepped back, “You know, you’re supposed to care enough to actually ask him. But I guess the Commander can’t always be right about bonds,” and then she sighed,

“Jet isn’t going to kill you if you talk to Nihlus, because if he tries, I’ll have his balls. But you know, if you are just going to keep being an asshole and treating Nihlus like a weapon and not a person, just… keep leaving him alone. He’ll probably get over you eventually, move on. And he actually deserves something good, I think. Certainly someone better than you,”

And then she left, and Kix deflated as he watched her retreating back.

Kix… got to work finding out where the templar had gone off to. Because he didn’t actually hold Lorraine's death over Nihlus' head. She had chosen her side long ago. Such as it was when you became a civil enforcer, because he had looked her up in the advent databases they were capable of access to after they got back, which was a fairly hefty request that he had been surprised the Commander approved without question.

Lorraine had often traded the lives of her fellow humans and even coworkers, just for perks and luxuries, to live a soft and comfortable life. He had wanted to go back in time and stab the bitch himself when he got to the part in her file that she had tried to sell out him and his brothers and their encampment when she first moved into the city, although they had already been packed and gone to xcom at that point, lucky for them. It was what had put her on the radar of civil enforcement in the first place.

He didn’t quite know what he was going to say to Nihlus, though, when he found him. The blame was no longer entirely on Jet, and it hadn’t been since Kix had been promoted to Captain, the gap in their power of their command on the ship diminishing somewhat. No, as much as he hated to admit it, Margo was just a little right. He hadn’t been a coward in fearing Jet, he thinks, because yea, still the second deadliest guy he knew, but he had definitely been a coward, because with as long and as hard as he had been avoiding the templar, he didn’t think he would get the warmest reception, so even when he had been fairly sure it wouldn’t get him killed, it had been so much easier just to stay away. Had gotten into the habit of it, even.

He didn’t deserve the warmest reception from the templar, but he hoped he could get an apology out before he got a fist to the face? The least they could do is work their way back to civil terms, if for no other reason than the ship was not the most massive place and he would like to stop retreating when he was just trying to exist, for fear of running into or being approached by the man.

Kix… couldn’t find Nihlus anywhere. Not even the avengers logs could tell him where the templar had disappeared off to, which was odd. His last location check had been in the bar and then just… nothing. His location stopped pinging pretty much right after he left.

That… worried him, some, for sure. Because if he wasn’t on the ship, and he hadn’t been sent on a mission, and he hadn’t, then where was he?

He thanked his lucky graces when he saw the Commander approaching from the end of the hall, a strange grin on his face as he stared down at his tablet. If anyone knew where the Nihlus was, it would be the Commander. And if he didn’t, then something was very, very wrong.

“Sir-” Kix started as he stood in the Commander's path, saluting as he tried to get his attention

“He’s on the roof taking a phone call, there aren’t any location sensors up there because no one is supposed to be up there when we’re in flight, but it’s clear enough, tonight, and we’re parked, and the sky is beautiful” The Commander interrupted, glancing up at him, and Kix could see his sclera was a blazing red, in stark contrast to his almost glowing piercing blue eyes. Right. Right, yea, the Commander was also one of those psychic types. And right now, based on his look and smell, Kix thought he might also be stoned as hell.

The Commander grinned at him as he stood in brief silence before saying, “Tell Volt when his next batch is ready, my beds all his again. He did a great job this time,” and then he walked off, leaving Kix to puzzle out what the hell that was about, because…

Was the Commander fucking Nihlus for drugs???

Kix had thought the Commander and Bradford had a thing going on? And even if they didn’t, why would the Commander just tell him that? And it’s not like it changed much? Kix had no claim over Nihlus.

But what else could that have meant?

Nihlus took a drag off his fifth joint of the night, as he listened to his daughter ramble on about her day on the other end of the comm, wind calm enough for both as the Commander had ordered the Avenger to… hover in place for him, until he was done. Offering to smoke out the Commander in exchange for various perks around the ship anytime he managed to get some weed delivered to them from his little home growery at templar hq had honestly been nothing but a good decision, well worth the trade. And Nina was doing an amazing job with the plants while he was gone. Green thumb, just like her father.

“So then I hit it with a bolt because the damn thing wouldn’t stop charging at us and just die, and I was really hoping it would smell like bacon, you know? But the boar had so much fur it just smelled like when we tortured that one guy,”

“Right,” Nihlus replied as he exhaled, “the advent guy with hair like a gorilla,”

“Yea, just like that guy smelled, maybe a bit more like dirt, but anyways, I thought it was dead, even though it was twitching a little because you know how they twitch sometimes with lightning,”

Nihlus hummed in affirmation as he took another hit, Nina continuing,

“But then I get closer to it, and the damn thing hops up and charges at me again! Ripped a hole straight through my pants! Almost got my leg! And at this point I was wondering if Oscar’s Moms tacos were even going to be worth trying to kill the fucking beast-”

And Nihlus turned to the sound of the lift doors sliding open behind him, whispers of a familiar mind echoing gently.

“Babygirl, did you spike my weed with anything?” Nihlus interrupted his daughter as his eyes met with Kix’s, who wore the strangest look on his face

“Uh, no? Why?”

“Because… I think Kix is actually about to talk to me. Something must be up, I’ll… call you back,” He said as the medic began to walk his way, hanging up the call

Nihlus took a drag, and leaned back on the railing. “Fett.” and then he exhaled, blowing the smoke at Kix's feet, “What do you want?”

“Two months ago your company leader threatened to kill me if I talked to you again. Apparently, Margo says that’s no longer in place, so I’m here to apologize. I’m sorry for ignoring you.”

And Nihlus blinked at him because he had honest to god expected him to be here to try and buy weed off him too. He took a hit. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that, though?

He exhaled, “Why would he do that?”

Kix crossed his arms, “He didn’t like how I spoke to you when I thought you murdered Lorraine. Which I’m… also sorry about,” and Kix rubbed the back of his neck, “never did say sorry for that one, you didn’t deserve that, you saved my life.”

Huh. Inhale. Jet was trying to do some micromanaging in his life behind his back? His immediate reaction to someone disrespecting him was death threats? That was… that’s-

“That’s so sweet of him,” Nihlus replied, exhaling. He really was treating Nihlus just like family, an actual, proper little brother. It warmed him inside, but, “I’ll cut his trigger finger off if he does it again,” because the last two months sucked.

The look on Kix's face as he spoke was hilarious. He snorted as he listened closer to Kix hidden whispers, easier to do when no one else was around. The medic was wondering why not even the adopted Eldars knew how to be fucking normal about lying and manipulation.

Nihlus almost choked on the hit he had been taking, and once he regained control of himself he said, “Did you really come to the ‘going out on suicidally dangerous missions and brutally killing aliens’ organization expecting rational and grounded people?”

“When no one else is really trying to fight the aliens, you’d think we are the only sane people still around,” The medic replied, thinking of his late Ex, of all those people living in the city centers, living every day of their lives as if they weren’t one wrong word away from a bullet to the brain.

Nihlus hummed again in reply, and then sighed, because he’d smoked this joint to the bone, and he only had one more left for the night. And it surprisingly sounded like Kix wanted to keep talking to him. And the strangest part was, Nihlus thought as he brought out his last joint and started to light it, that the medic had only the mildest of sexual intentions about it, despite their history. If you could even call a single blowie a history.

Nihlus leaned his head back as he studied the medic, exhaling. Genuine interest?

“What the fuck do you want, Fett? Like” and Nihlus waved his hand some, “what do you actually want from me? Because can't be that you actually want to know me? If it was, you would have tried before Jet stopped you. Or is it the temptation of something you couldn’t have that drives you to seek me out now that you think you can?”

“Maybe I do just want to get to know you.” The medic said defiantly, and strangely. truthfully, because he hadn’t come up here expecting to be able to get any action, because Kix thought he was-

This time Nihlus did choke on his lungful of smoke and it took him almost a full minute to regain his breath again, before he said, incredulously, “You think I’m fucking the Commander?”

“His bed?” was all Kix said, and okay, okay, yea, when the Commander had put it like that, but,

“Do you have any idea how loud a room full of peoples thoughts are when you’re trying to sleep on a whelp of a mattress? He’s not in his bed when I am.”

And Nihlus couldn’t help but be puzzled by the concern he felt from Kix, “Do you usually have trouble sleeping?” because wow, Kix had been tracking him? And knew where he usually slept. Which was the troop barracks. And if he was in there all the time, then he would have problems wouldn’t he? Kix figured.

It should have surprised Nihlus less than it did, “You’ve been following me?” Inhale

Kix put his hands up, “Not really, opposite, actually, I've been avoiding you, mostly.” said as almost a chuckle

Oh right, because that made it all better, exhale, Nihlus was so glad the medic could take practically abandoning him so lightly.

“You really have a lot of nerve, Fett. What do you want? Drugs? Sex? Power? You aren’t here for friendship, you think I’m some crazy disgusting freak and you don’t even like me, Jet’s orders must have been a blessing for you, So what the fuck do you want?!” Nihlus finished with an angry Jab into Kix's chest, flinging ash on him before Nihlus stepped back, turned around, and took another hit, trying to calm himself.

Nihlus was more mad at himself than this man standing behind him. He knew what people thought of him, could usually hear it, knew his ability to do so was part of the general population's dislike of him as a whole. Nihlus also knew the way he thought wasn’t particularly normal either, his processes or his conclusions. He was called disturbing more times than he could count. No, Kix's dislike of him didn’t shock him. But he had wanted Kix to like him, had thought maybe he could make it work if he tried hard enough.

He wanted to snap something into pieces. Hope was a treacherous thing that would bleed you dry, and he had been weeping like a stuck pig for months.

“I’m sorry,” Kix replied simply, and Nihlus didn’t catch more than that in his thoughts, because he had stopped listening. He wanted to be over this already. He wanted to be done being yanked around.

Nihlus let his head drop before shaking it after taking another hit, “Why would you be?” Exhale. “I’m not wrong, and you’re not denying it”

“Because I want to like you, so I need to get to know you so I can, but I’ve really been dragging my ass on that. We should talk more, now that I wont die from it,” and Nihlus started listening again, only to be stunned with the realization that Kix may not like him, but he was endlessly fascinated with him. Had made liking Nihlus a challenge that he would achieve, by hell or high water.

“You are wrong about one thing though,” Kix said lowly as he had stepped forwards and besides Nihlus, laying a hand on Nihlus lower back, on the bare Kevlar now that he had taken off his harness. Ballsy motherfucker, he was, “I don’t think you’re disgusting. Quite the opposite, actually.”

Nihlus turned his head to look at the smirking medic, and blew smoke into his awful, handsome face, because he didn’t deny the crazy freak part, not that he was wrong about that one.

“I’m not going to fuck you,” Nihlus stated, because he could feel the desire still sitting deep in the man, and he wouldn’t be a booty call after Kix had been such an ass. He was not going to let the man worm his way back in just to be a quick fuck.

But Kix was steady, confident, that… wasn’t his goal, “I don’t expect you to, what you choose to do is your own decision,” what was his goal here?

Nihlus pointed his finger in Kix's face, and said almost accusingly, “but you still want it,”

And the bastard just shrugged, although he still hadn’t taken his hand off Nihlus' back, “I want a lot of things I won’t shed tears over not getting. Hope we can get back to friendly, though.” and… that was his goal. He wanted Nihlus to like him again.

Kix genuinely wanted to repair what he had broken.

Nihlus… offered him the joint. He wanted Kix back. Even after all these months the medic still had Nihlus down bad without needing to do a damn thing to get him there. It was as close to a peace offering he was going to give him, though. Because his refusal to acknowledge Nihlus whole existence had still hurt more than one night's worth of ‘sorry’ and some flirting.

Kix took it with the hand that had been holding the railing, and met Nihlus gaze as he watched his lips curl around his fingers at the end of the paper, the light dip of smoke swirling around his head, as Kix inhaled deeply; And then took the arm which had been wrapped around Nihlus back, and used it to turn his head to him, and settled his thumb on Nihlus lower lip, leaning forwards.

And Nihlus thought for almost certain he was about to kiss him. And… Nihlus was going to let him do it, by the gods he was weak for it, but he was going to let Kix kiss him. Practically craved it. But once the medic was hovering less than an inch away, and Nihlus had parted his lips, leaned into it, Kix just… gently blew the smoke into his mouth, and leaned back with that damned smirk.

“The Commander was right,” The infernal tempter said, moving his hand down to Nihlus waist, “this is a pretty good batch, where’d you get it?” taking another hit before offering it back to Nihlus, who kinda wished Kix was horrible at smoking so he would have been able to taste him on the end of the joint. Unfortunately, dry as a whistle. Also unfortunately, Kix seemed to be nowhere near as out of his depth here as Nihlus was.

Nihlus cleared his throat, “I uh, we. I grow it. Always been good with plants. My- I have someone taking care of them at the moment, and she knows what she’s doing.”

“Someone huh? You have a someone?” and Kix was trying to measure out in his head if Nihlus was taken, if not by the commander than by anyone. He wanted to know if Nihlus was pursuable past the flirting.

“She’s not like that,” Nihlus replied, and he had no idea what possessed him to say next, “I’m very gay and very single.”

“Oh,” Kix replied lofty, “That’s… good to know,” and he was mentally noting Nihlus down as very available

“I’m not going to fuck you,” Nihlus repeated, firmly, knowing it was an absolute lie if Kix decided to test it

“I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to,” said the bastard who seemed to have learned the rules of the game. Because he knew Nihlus wanted him to. But he wasn’t going to be the one to make the first move now that Nihlus had laid the line.

And that was… comforting. Because Kix was definitely planning to toe the line, but he wasn’t going to push it.

They finished the joint, standing in relatively comfortable silence, and Nihlus… let Kix hand stay exactly where it was. And maybe it was the touch, and maybe it was the weed, but Nihlus was feeling ballsy enough to lay his head back on Kix's shoulder and let himself relax as they gazed out onto the horizon.

Their beautiful little intimate moment was interrupted by Nina calling him back on the phone. He let it ring for a good three minutes before Kix finally looked down at it and asked,

“Should I give you some privacy for that?”

And Nihlus let out a long suffering sigh because, “She’s definitely not going to stop calling until I answer it, so probably. Hell if I know where she gets it from,” he finished under his breath, mourning the loss of Kix's arm from around his waist. It was getting a little chilly in the late evening air, and his warmth had been more than a small comfort. He would have to go in soon anyways, though. The Avenger did have places to be.

“Alright. You… Want to meet for lunch tomorrow? At 1400 maybe?”

Nihlus titled his head with a smirk, “Maybe I’ll be there.” because he was still allowed to be a little petty. Kix had ignored him for two whole months.

If he wasn’t so enamored by him, the ease of the medics bright smile in return would have annoyed him because there was just no phasing him

“I’ll see you later then, have a good night, Nihlus,” Kix said as he stepped back further and prepared to turn away and go back inside

Nihlus thought about grabbing his arm, of pulling him back and giving in and kissing him until they were breathless, now that it seemed to be an option. But… his daughter was calling, and he needed to give whatever this was some time and some space and not immediately dive right back into the deep end.

So instead, he replied to the medics retreating back, “Goodnight, Kix.” And tried not to regret letting him walk away as he picked up the phone.

There was always lunch tomorrow to do it, if he really wanted to test those waters.

Also heres an Xcom poster of the Boys

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