Cayde walks in the hall of heroes seeing Ikora finishing for the day. Talking to the last warlock, she looks up, hearing heavy footsteps from boots of the hunter exo coming towards her. She gives a warm smile to her teammate. "Welcome back, Cayde how was the trip?" She asks him, dismissing the rookie warlock.
"It went well." He tells her as Ace materializes the small box in its hunter's hand. "I went with one of your warlocks, Nax."
"Oh?" The female warlock says a bit surprised. "How did that go? I hope she wasn't too rude to you."
"The trip fine; she wasn't rude at all. It only went south when someone freaked out overhearing her name." Cayde says, letting out a sigh.
The human warlock shakes her head in disappointment. "I am sure she was displeased by that action, making your ride back unpleasant. But thank you for getting my book for me." She takes the book form the Exo hunter's hands and turns to her many piles of books, collecting them to head home for the day.
Cayde watches her pack up her things. "Hey, Ikora? Why do people freak out hearing her name? Are the rumors true about her?"
The Warlock Vanguard stops and looks at him. "I am sad to say it's because of what happens when she arrives here at the tower. As for the rumors, you know I ignore rumors. But That's all I can tell about this subject; it is not my story to tell, it's Nax's to tell."
"Yeah, I try that, but she didn't want to tell me anything," Cayde complains, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Well, if memory serves, I think one of your hunters found her and brought her in." Ikora offered him.
"Yeah, who?" His tone fill with excitement
"The one she was asking about a while back. Evie is her name."
The excitement drains away, knowing it will be a long time before that hunter comes back from her mission. He glances at his mess on his part of the table; he knows it will be even longer for him to find that report among others' pile.
As if reading his mind, she gave another smile to him. "If you can't wait for your hunter or the patience to find her report, then maybe it's best not to worry about it and let it go."
"I don't understand why you can't tell me. I would tell you about a hunter if you asked." He said grumbling.
"It's because she is my warlock and not one of your hunters."
Before they argue, the commander interrupts. "Cayde." He calls out to his teammate. "Before you worry about a guardian that is not in your ranks. How about you finish going over your reports for the day and set up a few recon missions for your guardians.
The hunter vanguard groans throwing his head back, knowing this will take a few hours to finish.
###
After hours of paperwork, Cayde stretches and lets out a loud groan glancing at his blue friend. "I'm done." He announces to his leader.
Zavala looks up from his clipboard and giving a curt nod. "Thank you, Cayde; you can go for the day."
Cayde gives a lazy salute and shuffles out of the hall and into the almost empty plaza. "I could use a drink right now." He says, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the traveler before he heads towards one of his favorite watering holes, where he can throw shuriken at targets.
###
Before he even opens the door, he can hear a large crowd hooting and howling. Knowing tonight is not a crucible game tonight; So, he wonders what is going on. He enters the bar and sees the crowd of hunters watching a remarkably familiar warlock throwing the shuriken with one hand and holding a drink in the other. Every time she hits or gets near the center of the target, the crowd will let cheer.
Cayde smirks, glad to see her in a better mood; he heads to the bar and order as he watches the crowd enjoying the show.
After a few drinks, Red comes up to the bar greetings his friends. Unaware that his Vanguard is sitting right next to him. "So, what do you guys think?" He asks, watching Nax throw another star.
The hunter dress in all in blue gives Nax a once over and looks at his friend Red. "You're aiming to sleep with the feral warlock, huh?" He asks, taking a sip of his purple liquid.
"How many drinks do you think will it take to get her in bed?" Red's green hunter friend asks.
Red let us out a groan a little, "So far, drink number five, and she doesn't look tipsy at all. But I am not going to give up. I mean, who can say they slept with the feral. Besides, she must be wild in bed." He orders two more drinks as he and his friends laughed.
Listening to this, Cayde was about to say something when Nax came bounding up, placing her empty glass on the wood polish bar. "One more, please." She says to the bartender with a drink in her hand she turns to Red. "Do you want a turn to throw or play around?"
"Nah, I'm good, but how about we head out to my place?" He moves closer towards her placing his hand on the small of her back.
The warlock's blue eyes look at him for a moment and take a sip of her neon green drink. "What do you want to do there?"
"Well," He moves his hand down her back. "I have a few movies we can watch. I can make you a few more drinks." Red's hand rest on Nax's butt and gives it a bit of a squeeze.
She did not flinch from his touch; she just listens and looks at him, slowly taking a sip from her drink.
Seeing one of his hunters acting like this, Cayde could not sit and pretend he is no longer here. He begins to stand up just as Nax starts to speak.
"Red, do you want to sleep with me?" She asks bluntly.
The exo almost spit out his drink from her response.
Red, this did not alarm him; he just gave a broad grin. "If it's on the table, I won't say no."
The awoken takes another sip of her drink. "Alright."
Both Red and Cayde had a stunned look on their faces.
"Really? I mean great let me just pay them,"
"But we have to do it on Zavala's bed." She tells him, watching the hunter breaks out into laughter, thinking she is joking.
But seeing she is not laughing as well, he stops. "You're not joking, are you? "A feeling a dread wash over him.
"Nope, I heard he has a waterbed, and I always wanted to do it on a waterbed. Besides, the thrill of getting caught by our commander is a big turn on for me." She tells him, leaning in close to him. "You're not afraid of getting caught by the titan, are you?"
The hunter vanguard turns away from the two covering his mouth to prevent his laughter from being herd.
"That's impossible." Whines Red. "There is no way I would do that; Zavala will kill us."
Nax moves away from Red. "Then that's a no, for me; I'm afraid." She places the glimmer on the bar to pay her tab. "Thanks for taking me out. Red, it has been fun, but I do not think I will be doing it any time soon. So, see you!" She says happily with a smile on her face as she left the bar.
"Oh god damn it!" Red growls are kicking the bar. "I can't believe this! I thought for sure if I have gotten her drunk enough, she would say yes."
Having enough listened to these hunters, he singles the bartender letting him know that he is finished drinking and put it on Red's bill. "Well, boys." He calls out loudly, getting the attention of the three young hunters. "Though that was fun to watch you crash and burn, you need to learn that's not how you get a girl to sleep with you. I have to say what you did and say make us hunters look bad." He gets up from the stool and stands in front of the three. "If I found out either of you three tries this again, you. You will be begging to go out on Zavala's patrols." His blue optics turns an angry orange glow. "Do I make myself clear?"
All three gave a loud audible swallow and nodded their heads simultaneously. "Yes, sir."
Hearing them acknowledge what he said, Cayde's optics turn back to their bright blue color, his voice going back to a chipper tone. "Good." He pats the scare Red on his shoulder. "Red, it's been fun, thanks for the drinks." He turns his back at the three and heads out of the bar. Hearing Red cry out on how much Cayde's tab is.
###
Walking out into the chilly night air, the Vanguard begins to head back to his apartment. He only stops when he sees Nax sitting on the railing, looking up at the traveler. Approaching her to see if she is okay, he can tell she is not; her cheeks glisten in the moonlight, a sign that she has been crying, and a deep frown is on her face.
Beeze is hovering in front of her trying to comfort her. "Don't let him bother you, Nax, Red's ghost told me that he is terrible with all the females."
"Your ghost is right." The exo hunter says, getting closer, watching her rubbing her cheeks with the back of her sleeve. He leans on the railing next to her.
Nax gives him a forced smile. "Hey Cayde, what are you doing here?"
Playing along, he shrugs his shoulders and looks up at the traveler as well. "I was heading home, and I notice you here sitting on the railing. Is there anything wrong?"
"Wrong? Nothing is wrong." She forces her voice to be happy and chipper.
"Nax," His voice warm as he notices the strain in her voice. "I was at the bar tonight, and I overhead everything that happens." The response he gets from her is her body stiffening up, as she tries not to show him she was not hurt by what happened. He chose not to press it, seeing her reaction and continue. "Well, don't worry about him. His Vanguard already dual out his punishment."
Nax turns to Cayde, looking a bit confuse and surprise. "I don't think he needed punishment."
"Of course, he did, he shouldn't treat a woman as something to conquest."
"What did you do?" The blue awoken, ask a bit surprised.
"I left him a vast bar tab to pay, to make sure it was a large one, I did a round of drinks for everyone at the bar."
Imagine the look on Red's face getting the large bill made her let out a sad chuckle. She looks back at the traveler. "Hey, Cayde?"
"Hm?" He responds, looking at her and back at the traveler as well. "What's up?"
"Have you ever wondered if the traveler makes a mistake."
"Oh, yes, all the time. I mean, why would the traveler reborn me? I mean, I'm reckless, careless, and sometimes a lot of stuff that I touch or mess with either break or blows up." He uses his fingers to count off his flaws. After he finishes, he looks up at the warlock. "Have you ever wondered why?"
She nods her head; her posture changes to a more defeated pose. "Yeah, nights like these, I wonder why a ghost was wasted on me, why I was reborn."
Seeing the defeated posture, he can see how broken this warlock is. Nax has been shunned and most often feared by her class. Where the other half just wants something from her. He is in unknown territory for him. But luckily, her stomach did save and growls. Pushing himself off the railing, he begins to stretch. "I'm hungry, are you hungry?" He asks her.
Nax thought about it while her stomach growls again. She looks at Beeze as he stays silent and does small twirls. She looks back at Cayde; she can see the whole look on his face. "I could eat." She said, getting off the railing and joining him.
"Great! I know a wonderful ramen shop you will love." Exo tells her, leading the way to the marketplace set up right by the tower.
###
The smell of cook meat and noodles waft out of the open door and into the streets, the sounds of laughter mix with the sound of sizzling meat. Cayde stands in the door's entrance and holds the curtain up to allow her to come in without ducking her head. "Try one bowl, and I guarantee that you will be hook." He promises.
Nax walks into the small shop. A group of hunters and titans are sitting in one of the back booths laughing and drinking as they share a large food plate. "Welcome to Spicey Ramen!" He leads her to the counter to two open seats waiting for them. "Hey, Lina!" He calls out a middle-aged human woman at the other end of the bar.
Lina looks away from the customer she was taking orders from to see who was calling her. Seeing the exo, she smirks. "Yeah? What do you want, you old bucket of bolts?"
Cayde chuckles. "Two ramen specials." He calls out, holding up two fingers as they both sit down. "Oh! And a bottle of your best sake!" He turns to who's Nax, still in a sulky mood looking at the menu hanging on the wall. "Trust me; you have to try the special."
Nax only nods slowly as she picked the wood counter.
"Hey, don't let Red or Fin get to you; they're dumb asses." He tells her as Lina places down two sake cups and a bottle of sake. He takes the porcelain bottle, pours for each of them, and raises his cup.
Nax takes her cup as well, knowing he wants to make a toast.
"Here's to finding out what the traveler wants from us." He takes a sip and sees a smirk on Nax's face and take a drink as well.
As they wait for their meal, they would drink some more sake., which loosens Nax's lips.
She tells him how the older warlocks are assholes, and the rookies are assholes in training.
Cayde chuckles and pure her some more, allowing her to blow off some steam, figuring she does not have anyone to let it out, so why not him?
"Another thing! Red is such a man whore." Feeling a nice buzz going and her cheeks begin getting redder, she looks around the room as Cayde let out a bark of laughter. She notices a small little black creature walking on the counter near a young huntress. It did not take long for her to realize the tiny creature is a kitten. A feeling of joy and excitement takes over her, and without thinking, she let out a loud squeal of delight, making Cayde almost spitting out his drink.
He watches the warlock jumps out of her chair and runs over to the young huntress he known as Eve.
Without thinking, Nax scoops up the black kitten and begins to nuzzle the meowing creature. "Who's a cute fur baby? You are! Yes, you are, itty bitty baby." For a moment, she is in utter bliss until she notices the female hunter watching her with a surprising look on her face. 'Crap I did it again.' "A, are you this baby's momma?" She watches as the question throws the female hunter off.
"I suppose?" Eve's tone was more of a question than an answer.
Nax gives the kitten one last nuzzles and place it back on the counter, watching him shake his fur out. The warlock looks at the huntress recognizing her. "Are you Eve?" She asks, tilting her head a bit. The awoken tries not to smile, seeing another confused and shock look on Eve's face.
"I am, do I know you?"
This time the blue warlock did smile. "Nope, but I know you through Evie." Nax gives her an apological smile and sticks out her hand towards the human hunter. "Sorry, I'm Nax." She begins to brace herself for a freakout.
The seconds begin to tick by as both women try to figure out what is their next move.
Eve reaches out her hand and gives a firm and quick handshake before letting go of her hand. "Nice to meet you. You know me already; I'm Eve." She says as she grabs a paper towel and wipes up the spilled liquid. "You said, Evie? I have met her a few times. I like her, she's nice."
Nax watches her takes another sip from her sake, a bit surprised that she is not freaking out like Fin. After a few more seconds, ticks by the awoken tilt her head to the side again. "You don't know me to do you?"
Another look of confusion appears on Eve's face. "Should I?" The human props an arm on the counter and leans on it. "I don't socialize much. Perhaps with some of my fellow hunters and Cayde there." She uses her other hand and points her finger to Cayde behind Nax. "But I stick with Vale and David the most. Is it bad I don't know you?"
The blue-skin woman gives a brilliant smile. "No, no, So, the rumors only travel through warlocks, huh. It seems like your Vanguard doesn't know either."
"Rumors? They are always around. Vale is a warlock and the social bug of our team to know about the rumors. However, he does not believe in them as it is like judging a book by its cover. As for David? He could care less; titans do not care about rumors. Sure, they will investigate who started them, but only to shut them up. David does that when it comes to rumors about our teams, the bad ones that anyway." Eve picks up her drink again and begins to grin into it. "It's all quite entertaining really, and always inaccurate.
The huntress relaxes as she hears the warlock chuckles. "I usually listen to rumors with a grain of salt. It's just," The awoken gives a melancholy sigh. "People here freak out, thinking I'm going to attack them." Nax watches as the huntress relaxes a bit more and letting her guard down. She claps her hands together to change the subject. "Anyway! Sorry to freak your kitty out and bug you. It has been a while since I have seen a cat or dog. Evie says I have a bad habit of bothering people with pets, and it gets worse when I'm tipsy."
As he watches the interaction between the two from a distance, the Vanguard smiles as he takes a sip of his sake. 'Good, I'm glad she is feeling better.' As soon as he finishes the thought, their food arrives. "Nax!" He calls out to her and watches as both women turn and look at him. Seeing a playful grin on the hunter's face, he knew she would cause trouble for him like the time he had to pay for her ship repairs.
"My food is ready. I'll see you around!" She turns around and heads to her spot on the counter. Halfway through, she stops and turns around. "Oh; If one day you want to get back at your guys, there's an area in EDZ that's known as a huge mudslide. You could get them there and push them down. They will be cover in the mud. See ya!" Nax turns away and hurries back to Cayde.
"What was that about?" The Exo asks as he hands her chopsticks.
"Oh um, I've noticed a kitten on the counter, I never see them at the tower or out on the mission, so I had gotten excited to see it." She explains, taking the chopsticks and break them apart. She lowers her head and closes her eyes. "Thank you for this meal." She digs in the spicy broth burning her tongue a bit, but the ramen is terrific. The warmth spread from her throat and through her body. Drinking the cold sake help soothe the spicy burn.
Cayde smiles a bit, hearing her letting out a sound of delight as she eats her meal. "I'm guessing it's good?"
Nax nods as she slurps up another noodle. "It's excellent, thanks for taking me out; this meal makes me feel a lot better."
He nods, and they eat in silences for a bit.
"Hey." Cayde begins placing his empty bowl down. "I have a thought."
"Hm?" The awoken, placing her empty bowl down as well.
"Why don't you make this a thing?" He offers her.
Nax almost spits out her sake and looks at him, confused. "What do you mean? Make what a thing?"
"Going out to eat in the evening. I know tons of food shops that I am dying to show someone. Also, you have a bad habit of forgetting to eat a meal. I see this as a fair trade-off. You get me out of work at night, and you get a free meal out of it."
Nax thinks about this proposal. 'Eating alone does suck, and having dinner with someone will get Ikora and Eve off my back. But this might affect my research.'
Watching her expression change a few times, he can tell she weighs the pros and cons, so he interjects. "If you are worried about missions, we will just have dinner when you're not on one. Just something to kill time during your rest periods."
Nax nods her head. "Alright, I will take you up on your offer. But if one of your places sucks, you will have to pay the piper."
"Oh? He smiles at her. "What do I have to pay?"
"You will," She thinks of something he will hate. "You will have to go to the bookstore every week to buy a book." She told him, smiling.
He thought about it. "How about if my places suck, you can pick the place, and I'll pay whatever you want on the menu. Sounds good?" He holds his hand out to her.
Nax places her chopsticks down and shakes his hand. "Deal."
"Great! Let us get another bottle of sake to celebrate. "He says, ordering another bottle, and once Lina places it in front of them, he pours them each a glass and holds his up for another toast. "To dinner, friends."
Nax chuckles and picks up her cup. "To dinner, friends, may our meals be tasty."
"That's the spirit!" He laughs, and as they toast, their second bowls arrive.
While they enjoy their meal, the Vanguard notices Eve paying for her dinner and stumbles out of the shop. A bit concern, he excuses himself to get some fresh air and watches as she struggles home. "Hey, Ace calls Zavala."
"At this hour? He might be asleep, Cayde." His ghost tells him.
"Call it a hunch, but I think he is still in the hall."
"Alright." Ace sighs as it begins to call him. It did not take long to hear the commander's booming voice.
"Cayde? What is it? What's wrong?" The titan's tone sound worried.
"Hey, big blue, so listens, I'm at this ramen shop, and I happen to order too much take out, so of course I can't carry it all the way home by myself. I would have my ghost help me, but I remember the last time I did that, and you gave me a lecture on how my ghost is not a bag. So, I need your help carrying them."
There is silence on the other end of the call, and the Exo wonder if the awoken hung upon him. But Zavala answers back by giving an irritated sigh. "Alright, send me your location."
"Thanks, buddy." Cayde has Ace send the location to a ramen shop on the same street as Eve is going back home. Finishing his call, he heads back inside to rejoin the warlock. Arriving back, he notices there is a plate of fried dumplings. "What's that?"
"Oh, I saw them on the special, and I want to try some fried dumplings." She looks to him and realizes she might be pushing it. "Sorry, I'll pay for it." She says, reaching for her glimmer.
He reaches over and takes one of the dumplings. "Don't be their good, and don't worry, I'll pay for them." He sits back down and finishes his bowl and taking a few more dumplings.
After an hour or two, they both finish three more bowls of spicy ramens, two more appetizers, and six bottles of sake.
By now, Nax begins to become tipsy and sways a bit on her stool.
Seeing this the exo decided it is time to call it a night. He pays the bill and helps the warlock off the stool. As they leave, he can see her stumbling Cayde knows; there is no way she can walk home even with help. "Hey, Nax?"
"Hm?" She responds, stumbling a bit.
"You live in the tower, right?"
"Yeah, I live there," She answers leaning on him.
"Great, what's your room number?"
"Hm, why do you want to know? Do you want to,"
He suddenly stops her placing a finger on her lips, "No, no, little warlock just wants to take you home to sleep this off. Now room number, please."
"Hm, twenty-four-eleven." She grumbles through his finger.
"Okay, little warlock time for a piggyback ride." He crouches down in front of her to allow her to climb on his back with ease.
Watching Cayde crouch down, the inebriate warlock climb on his back and warp her arm loosely around his neck. "I'm not too heavy, am I?"
"Nah, as an exo, I can carry anything with ease." He begins to head back to the tower with a warlock falling asleep on his back.