Some conversation before the shopping trip

You finish up your large plates of foods, enjoying the sensations you didn't think it was possible to miss until living off the nutrient goop that you endured on the ship, at first you felt almost overwhelmed by the variety of flavors and textures. Although you did also get the impression that the shimmer leaf tea might be exaggerating certain sensations and feelings, and after the second cup you swap to water, which being the hotel that it you were staying in, was needlessly extravagant with a large glass bottle with a sign proclaiming how fresh and rejuvinating this water was coming from the vast glacier reserves of one of the many ice worlds, which get pictured as scereen places of spirituality but in reality of more than often inhospitable hell holes that only the unlucky or **** call home.

You sit and have pleasant conversation with Viper as you both give some time for your food to settle as the two of you had eaten a great deal more than you should of, but after so long without a good meal it was almost a tradition to celebrate the real food with a bout of over indulgence. The conversation meanders as you swap the more intresting war story equivalent of your lives up to that point, which given your stark differences in build and ways of thinking actually made for intresting and insightful means of passing time and getting to know each other better.

You had learnt that Viper was always in security back on the home world she shared with Ant and Jacque, originally part of the local law enforcement agency that spanned the Northern hemisphere of the world, which Viper maintains bred the more hardy of their people, and given her build you didn't feel inclined to disbelieve her. She was of course like many other youthful recruits, quickly learned that the ideals of laws and justice were often not the first and foremost of the principals many law enforcement organisations followed, and that policing and protecting those who pay the taxes came before the rest of the populous.

The tale was one so frequent it in itself was almost a cliche, but jaded by her more seniors colleagues approach to upholding the peace and order, and determined to do was was just and right for the people, that of course she was branded a rebellious upstart and dismissed as quickly as the law enforcement agency could manage by various underhanded means, overtrumped misconduct and insubordination charges, keeping her under surveillance to catch her every mistakes, and even downright fabricating charges raised by clients for being mistreated and falsely arrested. Naturally like all the others who didn't adapt Viper found herself out of a job, and like many before her she took to private security for a smaller corporation, which while still focused of pleasing the stakeholder and keeping share prices at optimum growth, seemed to have a good focus on doing so within ethical standards which would earn sneers and disdain from their larger and less scrupulous competitors.

"So yeah stuck it out in private sec, until the company was taken over, and well when it came to finding work I run into this older ornery bastard in a bar who claimed he could drink me under the table. Long story short I carried Jacque back to his ship after making him eat his words, and well I think you can work the rest out from there." Viper said with a broad nostalgic smile on her face as she looked at a spot just over your right shoulder in a manner people tend to when reminiscing.

"So you drunk him under the table and he offered you a job." You reply with a giggle as you pour more of your glorified melted ice water into a glass.

"Well not at first, he stumbled into the same bar later the next day looking a sorry sight, and once he stopped asking if I could end his suffering from the throbbing headache that only Akaran Brandy can provide, he got talking and then made his offer once he heard my story." Viper replied with another grin.

"Didn't you have a hangover then?" You ask sipping your cold water and enjoying the cold sensation run from your throat down to your stomach

"Nah, like I said people from the Northern half are made sturdier stuff." Viper replies with a proud look before she takes another sip from her own mug. "So I don't think you ever told me how you ended up on the run, not properly anyway, whats that about?" Viper ask as turns her gaze to you.

"Well I wish I could say that it was down to a more noble ideal like your own, but honestly it's more like the lesser of selfish acts." You reply with an almost sigh as you think back to how your life was before you left.

"Go on." Viper says after a brief pause. Her words draw your eyes back to her and you see a friendly reassuring look of encouragement.

"Well I'm pretty sure I've told you that of my parents, I got on great with my mother, but my father not so much." You begin wonder how best to summarise your story, as you didn't like to dwell on it yourself. "Well when I neared my coming of age ceremony, because elves can't just have a regular 18th birthday." You say with a smile as you shake your head, as Viper smiles and nods. "Well as the ceremony drew nearer my mother took ill, and in the short space of a few weeks I watched her deteriorate infront of me, with my father providing the best help he could afford, but nothing." You say with a the sadness of her loss feeling like and old and bitter wound opening back up.

"I'm sorry Val." Viper says slowly reaching over the table and rests one of her strong hands on your shoulder as you move your hand ontop of her and hold onto it for comfort.

"So yeah, she just about saw me turn 18 and celebrated my coming of age, but passed away shortly after, and with that my father became even more emotionally dull and started grooming me as some tool to further his dynasty, he didn't see me as daughter just purely and heir, maybe even a game piece on some over eloborate game he played with the other rich or noble types of my home system, to be given away or traded by way of marriage contracts." You continue shaking your head.

"Well that sucks." Viper replies tightening her grip on your shoulder with a reassuring squeeze which helps lift your spirits.

"You know with hindsight I reckon that him distancing himself was to try and avoid the pain he felt when he lost my mother, I never understood what she saw in him, but she often told me that he was so passionate and energetic in his earlier days, but I think by the time I came around his wealth had corrupted his outlook. I sometimes wondered if I stayed that maybe I could of gotten through to him, and tried to help but well I was younger and angry with a mixture of grief and frustration, and well I ran away with some help from my Mother." You say with a sigh as you think back to the night, creeping through the long, dark and cold hallways of the house that masqueraded as a home.

"How?" Viper asks with a look of confusion, but keeping her warm reassuring arm on your shoulder.

"Oh right, well we used to play in the forest area on the land the estate owned, and often when we couldn't spend time together we hid gifts and trinkets for each other to find, and well my mother set up one last one for me, and inside was what I needed to get off planet and start running." You say with a weak smile.

There was a long silence after you finished as neither of you could find the right words to help pick up the now rather somber mood.

"Well shit, sorry to hear that you never had a fully functional family and now more or less none." Viper says her arm giving your shoulder another firm reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks, I get I'm kinda used to it." You reply with another weak smile.

"Well I'll tell you what." Viper says suddenly standing to her feet and slowly walking round the table where she unceremoniously drops down next to you placing an arm around you. "I know we can't be blood relatives, but how about you think as me as the big sister you never had." Viper says with a grin.

Her words catch you off guard in a rather alarming and unsettlingly more frequent way. You pause for a moment blinking as your brain processes what Viper said before your brain scrambles to reply. "Like a sister?" You manage as your brain flounders and comes up short in forming a sentence to adaquetly address all the questions now running in you mind.

Thankfully Viper picks up in your tone, and pulls you closer to you. "Yeah like sisters, my partner in crime for all the fun stuff I don't want to share with the rest of the crew." Viper says with a grin.

"So a sister with benefits?" You ask your brain in its normal mindset of playing the lone wolf character suddenly trying to work out what kind of trick this was.

"Alright maybe not the best example, but after your story I dunno I just wanted to try and say you weren't alone, that I'm cheering your sexy ass on from the sidelines I guess." Viper says rubbing the back of her neck with her free arm.

"Oh I think I get it now, sorry I'm just normally more used to short term friendships, but yeah I like the idea of having a friend out there, especially one who can move like you in the sheets." You reply with a sweet smile as you rest you head on Vipers broad shoulder.

"Mmmm you haven't seen anything yet, you should see what I can do with a real bed and some prep time." Viper continues as you feel the warm vibrations of her words as the rumble through her strong body.

"Guess you'll show me tonight, I'm all yours remember." You reply with a smile enjoying the warmth and the sweet embrace you've found yourself in as your mind begins to process the idea of having someone beyond a one night stand, fence or ally of convenience.

"True, but first we got some clothes to buy, that should help sway the mood a bit, and don't worry about cost, the nearby systems are lousy with fabrics and textile production so you'll find outfits going very cheap." Viper says with a reassuring smile as she disentangles her arm from you and slowly gets to her feet offering a hand to help you to your feet.

The knowledge was good to hear, as while the credits that Jacque had given you were more than generous you had to keep some back for emergencies, get some essentially bits of kit to replace what you abandoned, lost or otherwise needed to replace from your adventures. Hearing the clothing shops should be competitively priced might give you a lot of breathing room for some additional clothing that definitely would fall into the luxury camp over necessity.