They left the station early the next morning. It was easy to jump on a shuttle and head out into the unknown. Konstantin was fairly sure it was just his imaginings, but there was an excitement in the air around the dock as they joined the other passengers in boarding the small ship. It had always been this way for him. He always felt especially buzzed whenever he was traveling. It was like a drug, the anticipation. When he sat foot on the vessel he knew that anything could happen. They could end up on the dark side of Monte's seventh moon, sharing a drink with some unknown gracious host. Or maybe join a caravan over the widespread planes on Toskangar. You never knew.

His newly acquired traveling companion didn't seem as excited about the change as he was. With half closed eyes she shifted next to him, answering him as if she was running on autopilot, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. Konstantin caught her yawning more than once. But he couldn't be tired. Not when the world lay before him, ready to be explored, and with some luck, written about.

When they reached their cabin it was already housing someone. A large dark blue krogan lay on one of the cots, snoring for all he was worth. The trip would take three days, taking them to a spaceport where they would have to change shuttle and spend another two before they reached their destination. Konstantin looked forward to chatting with the different passengers. But this particular passenger could give them some trouble if they decided to sleep during the same hours.

The cabin was small, containing only four beds, two of them resting on heavy metal beams from the wall above the others. The cramped middle isle made Konstantin wonder how the krogan managed to wedge himself in here at all.

The turian woman slumped down on the opposite side of their roommate. Nestling an arm around her shoulders and feeling the warmth spread in his chest when she rested her head against him he joined her.

"So Sola, huh?" he murmured, not to wake the bear that slept. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss her admission the night before. Their morning consisting of gulping down some breakfast and then being off.

"Yeah," she smiled and nuzzled his neck affectionately.

"Does that mean I'm officially off the hit list?" It was mostly in jest he said it, but he couldn't help but wonder if this held some deeper meaning for her.

She snorted.

"You're safe."

When Sola didn't continue he let the subject rest. He knew he couldn't push her or she'd shut him out. It was a delicate walk on a tightrope, gaining her trust, but he felt it would be worth it in the end.

While his friend bunched up under the covers in one of the bunks he drifted out to the mess. It was more like a common area really. A few old games, a holoscreen, a sofa and a few tables. Everything with that second hand, grunged up look things got when it was used by hundreds of people. They served food in a small kitchen, even though you had to pay through the nose for it. Most passengers brought their own, either eating it cold or, on longer trips, heating it up in the common kitchen.

Konstantin ended up spending most of the morning talking with an asari maiden. She had a few interesting stories to tell, and the traveling author paid her in kind. It wasn't until early midday when Sola finally decided to join them. They ate in a shifting company, people coming and going around them. Later in the evening someone whipped out a deck of cards and they sat down together with four others to make the hours before bedtime go faster.

"Truth be told, I'm kind of glad to be off the station," a salarian with creamy white skin and shifting eyes told them.

"How's so?" the female batarian next to him asked as she discarded four cards onto the pile in the center of the table.

"I was living in the same district as Pass Cerozy," he answered and shuffled the deck once before continuing. "They found him dead this morning."

"What?" Konstantin almost jumped in his seat.

"Yeah." Nervously the alien laughed. "He had fallen asleep and apparently simply not woken up. Good riddance to bad trash, I say, but since he was head of security in the area the whole district is of course a mess now. The Sisters moved in to claim the territory..."

He kept talking, but Konstantin didn't hear any more of it. Somehow the presence of Sola next to him doubled. It was like he could feel her even if he didn't look. Glancing at her she flicked her mandibles in a simple smile, the same smile she had given him all day. She didn't seem nervous or jumpy or in any way like the news of a certain high standing elcor that served them dinner the night before had died affected her in any way. She just played a card and continued listening to the salarian prattle on about how his brother now had to move, and all the troubles in finding a good apartment on the seedy station.

It wasn't that he didn't know what she did. He had the image of the leader of the gang that had hunted him two nights past fresh in mind, thank you very much. Maybe talking to her and seeing how her eyes now glittered with juvenile sparks as she once again folded her cards and lost the round had made him momentarily forget. Being on the shuttle from one space to the next had always felt like no-mans-land to him. A place were everyone had an anonymous face. Whatever they worked with, or whoever they knew, once they stepped foot outside the hull didn't matter. They all had to live under the same roof for a time. They all hovered in the space above their life while they did, like a pause of nothing between two breaths.

The news the salarian brought shoved Konstantin uncomfortably back down to hard ground.

"Human!" the batarian woman bellowed and woke him up from his inner reverie. "You going to play or what?"

Konstantin blinked, confused, down on his cards. He couldn't bind the different painted shapes together to make any sense of the game at the moment.

"No," he said and threw them all away. "I... I need to... Yeah..."

He rose from his seat and walked away with his head still spinning with thoughts, making it all the way back to their, currently, empty cabin. It was a relief to sit down and run his fingers through his hair.

Had Sola killed him? Or was it the other guy, the turian with the stripes, that had ended the crime lord's life? Did it matter? Why had she come with him to the dinner anyway? Was that her real reason? Did she care about him at all?

The door swooshed open, two steps against the metal floor and then it closed again.

"Konstantin?" He didn't look at her until she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

Wetting his lips, his mouth suddenly dry, he searched for a way to answer that.

"Yeah, sure..." he mumbled as he scoured her face. It looked just as creamy pale and beautiful as this morning. Those dark, deep eyes he felt holding so much more than she ever spoke, looking at him with light worry. "I just needed some air."

Sola sat down next to him on the cot, but remained quiet, the question hanging in the air. After a short period of tense silence he had to grab it and give it form.

"Did you kill him?" he asked, his voice low. It was just one of those questions you had to whisper.

It took the turian a while before she opened her mouth.

"Don't go there," she said, her voice carefully restrained.

"Why not?" he had to know.

"Because you won't like what you find." She rose from her seat beside him and paced a few steps in the limited space, knitting her fingers together in the back of her neck, avoiding looking at him.

"I don't care!" suddenly Konstantin was angry. She was so mysterious all the time, hinting at the answers but never giving in to any of his questions. Couldn't she just be honest like a normal decent being? He glared up at her.

"But I do!" she exclaimed heatedly and pointed at herself, returning in kind with dark, stormy eyes. "You don't want to know the details of my work. It would break you down into tiny pieces. That's why I didn't think this..." she gestured between them. "... was a good idea. You wouldn't survive one day in my world."

"How would you know!" he responded, offended. "You don't know me!"

"Yes, I do!" she retorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively. "I've seen it before. People like you being dragged down into the dirt and destroyed. You're..." She hesitated. The poisonous tone fading and her arms dropped to her sides again with a sigh. "You're kind. A gentle soul. I can't... I don't want to see your optimism about people die." She hung her head and picked at one finger with a talon nervously, as if she was embarrassed by her own words. "Not if I can stop it." She was mumbling now, and wouldn't look at him.

The fight went out of him and Konstantin took to his feet and grabbed both of her upper arms gently. Squeezing them reassuringly before sliding his hands down to hers. He disentangled her fingers and twined his own into them. She cared, and was scared for him. It was a guilty relief to hear.

With a deep sigh he rocked forward on his heels and nudged his forehead against hers for a second.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, searching for her eyes. "I just... I want to know you." There they were. Dark pools on a worried face.

Her mandibles fluttered softly in a weak sardonic smile.

"I'm not a very nice person to know," she said and turned her face down again.

"Hey..." Konstantin lifted one hand and put a knuckle under her chin, lifting it up to meet his eyes. "I happen to think that you're pretty sweet." He tried a warm smile. She didn't look convinced. "And if you really don't... I mean... Can't you just... change career? If you don't like it, I mean."

She scoffed at that.

"Sure, change career, mhm..." Sola didn't sound very serious.

The ironic undertone she had cut into Konstantin and he had to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. He couldn't understand how she thought so little of herself. From what he had seen she was a remarkably strong woman. Probably the strongest he had ever met.

"How about we get some sleep?" he offered after he felt her relax against him. "We've been up forever."

Sola nodded and they prepared for the first night on the vessel. Before Konstantin had fallen down into the deep slumber he felt his covers being lifted and a warm body sliding in next to him on the narrow bed. He pulled the spiky turian close and breathed in her scent as she burrowed in against his chest.

"I just want to be close, for a little while," she whispered in the darkened cabin.

"Sure," he agreed without a second thought. It felt great to have her in his arms. "For as long as you need."

The funny thing about secrets and the grains of sand they spread in a relationship, was that they tended to surface more than once. They lay just under the surface, constantly irritating you until you couldn't take it any longer.

Konstantin was all for solving a good mystery, but when he didn't get anywhere in a while he grew bored and frustrated. During the five days trip to the vacation facility he slipped questions into every day conversations.

"So, Sola Merkasia, huh?" he started on the second day of the trip. She had made such a big deal about knowing her name that he figured that was a good angle to start on. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

They were sharing a private meal in a corner of the common area.

"I don't know," she said and glanced up at him from over her plate. "Why is it?"

"Sola's a common enough name among turians," he mused. "But I don't think I know anyone else by the name of Merkasia."

"I should hope not," she gave a soft laugh and took a sip from her water glass.

"Why?" he wondered. She sounded as if he was lucky to not know anyone else by that name.

"We're not a family you much would like to have contact with. Or most people who value their life don't anyway." She took a bite and swallowed before continuing, running her eyes up and down of what she could see of him, her face intrigued. "I'm not sure what you are yet, since you like to keep me around."

That's when the last puzzle piece fell in place for Konstantin. She was born and raised on Omega. She killed people professionally. Her family was not to be trifled with. Big krogan thugs backed off when they saw her.

The utensils clattered down on his plate and for a moment he had to stare at her.

"You're Zenot Merkasia's daughter," he breathed, trying and failing to wrap his head around the fact.

Sola's nose wrinkled at the mention of her father's name, like she didn't like to hear it.

"Yeah," she admitted. "Took you long enough to figure it out." She cut another piece of the big green vegetable she was eating.

"I don't exactly move in the crowds of drug dealers." He blinked and shook himself to try to restart his brain. It had somehow overloaded during the last few seconds. "Not enough to recognize the markings of the big cartel leader's family anyway."

"Fun fact." The turian, wanted in most of terminus space, gestured with her knife in the air. "I don't actually share the same markings as my father." She grinned and motioned to her face with the utensil. "I took my mother's. Pissed him off to no end too." The grin grew wider and there was a spark of mischief in her eyes, like she was reminiscing about good memories past.

"Why would you do that?" He wouldn't have been surprised if his eyes were bulging by this point. That sounded like suicide.

Sola just shrugged and kept eating like it was nothing important or life threatening to make a crime lord mad.

"I was fourteen," she said in an offhand way. "Young and rebellious, trying to gain some independence from my all controlling parent."

Controlling parent? Suddenly Konstantin realized something.

"He ordered the death of Mr. Cerozy, didn't he?" He leaned in on his elbows and saw how his table companion suddenly froze stiff for a second.

"Yeah, yes, he did." She avoided his gaze and stopped eating.

"Is that... how this works? He says someone has to die and you do it for him?" This seemed a delicate matter for her. Konstantin threaded lightly, his voice soft and low. Giving her every out to stop responding. As much as he wanted the answers he didn't like to push her into something she felt uncomfortable with.

"More or less." Sola nodded slowly and glanced up at him. He wished he could read turian facial expressions better, he had no idea what to do with this one. There was so much in those deep dark eyes of hers he longed for her to tell him. Shared pain was halved pain after all, if only she would trust him.

Reaching out to grab her hand across the table the usually so stable shields she held cracked and he got a glimpse of a much older woman beneath. Someone who had seen too much. Maybe done too much.

Two heartbeats and then she shrugged, shaking her body and head to clear the vulnerable moment and her shields scrambled down into place again.

It was all but impossible to not look her up on the extranet after that revelation. What information he found was surprisingly scarce. He had only heard rumors about her father, the big crime king, his small empire surrounding a few systems around Omega. He was supposed to have his pinkie in most pies around the outlaw space, but no one had been able to pin anything solid on him, not even Aria. The people he couldn't dodge he bribed or got rid of.

There was another rumor that floated around in the same circles that he had a daughter who carried out his sentences. She was feared in her own right. The things she had done indescribable for someone with as simple a life as Konstantin. He could only guess what kind of retribution she had acted out in favor of her father. He remembered a series of murders on the Citadel a few years back. Details of the victims had been left out in the media reports. A fact that kind of speak for itself.

He was having a hard time reconcile these two turian women together. The carefully protective person he came to know. Who had made him breakfast to say she was sorry, and helped him, without asking for anything in return, from ending up on the wrong end of a gun when he went to a late night dinner party. To the ruthless and coldhearted assassin who made trained mercenaries back off and cover. The longer time went by the harder it was to see that side of her.

The fourth day of their trip they lay in her bed, entangled by their limbs. Him still warm and sweaty from the previous exertion. Sola was breathing hard in his ear and swallowed thickly to regain some moisture in her dry mouth. It had started when they saw the krogan they shared the cabin with trudge out into the common area to get some food. It was a pain to be this close to her every night and day and not be able to do something about the cravings in his body due to people being constantly around. That first night together had been mind blowing. Awakening urges in him he didn't even know he had. His control had been slowly deteriorating during the last days, and now when he finally saw a chance to be alone with her he grabbed her hand and dragged her into their shared space.

It had been a wild struggle of getting their clothes off and touching each other as much as they possibly could. Earlier nights had supplied subdued kissing and soft caresses. But every time it had started to flame between them they had been interrupted. This time the pace was not slow. It was gasps and frantic pulling and when he finally got to push inside her he thought he was going to die it felt so good.

In any other situation he would probably have been embarrassed with how quickly he finished. But he made it up to her by crawling down her body and making her squirm until she screamed his name. It wasn't perfect, but it was an outlet they both seemed to be needing.

Now he held her tight and slowly brushed his lips against her forehead. Konstantin was warm and relaxed and she smelled wonderful in the aftermath of the quick rumble. The space surrounding them felt safe enough for him to voice another one of his questions.

"Do you enjoy what you do?"

The small laugh she let out tickled his neck.

"I thought we both did," she said and he felt her mandibles flare in a grin.

He chuckled.

"No, I mean... What you do." And in an even lower voice. "Kill people."

Sola's body tensed for a second before she drew a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. Her coarse fingers played on his soft chest.

"I guess," her voice vague. "I haven't given it much thought, to be honest."

He found that hard to believe. Confident in their relation, he pressed.

"You must have, I mean... you end lives."

"That's not all I do." Sola pushed him away from her so she could look up at him. She seemed irritated. "Most of my work is surveillance, information gathering. Just because no one ever notices doesn't mean it ain't true."

"But... Haven't you ever wanted a normal life?" Great work, Konstantin, you've made her upset and completely ruined the mood. Oh well, can just as well run with it then.

"What is normal anyway?" she argued. "What you do? Travel around the galaxy looking for something to write about?"

"But..." he started, a bit sad she seemed to think so little of his job.

"No!" she interrupted him and rose up to her knees, looking down at him. "You don't get to decide what's normal. I'm great at what I do, one of the best." Her dual voice had started to flang so much even he could hear it. Why did she get so upset by this anyway? It was just a simple question.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I was just curious." And because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, he added: "But you have to admit it's a bit screwed up."

Three fingered hands curled together hard before releasing and repeating the pattern. Konsantin was suddenly very aware of how little clothing he had on to shield from sharp talons in this vulnerable position. Pale mandibles flared sharply before pulling in tight against her face. She seemed to be on the verge of loosing control. But before he had a chance to back off and retreat she said with a disturbingly even voice:

"I've never known anything else." Too many emotions flickered past her eyes for him to catalog. "I was shaped into a tool for my father to use from the day I could walk. I sold my first drugs when I was six. I tortured my first captive when I was ten. I killed my first victim when I was thirteen. So don't you fucking come here and tell me I should try to better myself. You don't get to decide what is 'normal'." Sola jumped gracefully down from the bed, pulled on a pair of pants and her tunic before Konstantin even had a chance to melt what she had said.

"No, wait," he blurted out when she opened the door. He had sat up and reached out for her without even noticing it.

The dark eyes she turned on him shilled him all the way to the bone, and suddenly he didn't have as hard a time to reconcile the two women.

"Don't follow me," she sneered and were gone in a swish of the door.

Sola didn't show up until they were scheduled to dock to the luxury station the next evening. It had plagued him, what she had said. He hadn't known about her early years, how could he? It wasn't fair to be so cross with him, and yet he couldn't blame her for being upset. It was beyond him, to imagine what it must have been like, growing up with those parents. Pushing her into a life of crime and death.

Konstantin had grown up on a peaceful planet together with his family. Gone to school with all the other kids in the neighborhood and been given the privilege to choose his own path. He had parents who loved him, friends he could trust and a safe bed to come home to every night. It was hard for him to realize not everyone had had that.

Now he was afraid he had lost her with his ignorance. But her reaction had been so sharp, he had to wonder if something else lay beneath it. If maybe it wasn't just his questions that spurred her to lash out at him. Would he get the chance to find out? To be given the opportunity to say he was sorry and make things right?

He hadn't been sure of that before the airlock closed around him and a dozen other passengers. Someone made their way up behind him and he started when he felt her cold hand sneak into his own. Turning his head to the left she gave a weak flutter of her mandibles, her eyes unsure.

Konstantin was just so happy she was still coming with him he didn't know what to say. He didn't have a chance too figure it out before the door in front of them opened and people started to move around, pushing to get off the shuttle.