"Hey."

Rhys jumped, accidentally catapulting the bite of pancake on his fork across the room. He looked up to find Fiona watching the pancake chunk slide down the wall, a distinctly unimpressed expression on her face. Then she crossed her arms, and Rhys knew he was in Trouble.

"H-hey Fi, what's up? I… was definitely not expecting you. Kiiiinda concerned how you got in without me noticing, to be honest." Ah, his traditional defense of aimless blabbering.

Fiona pulled out the chair next to him and sat, keeping her cold gaze focused on him. Oh god, she was gonna murder him and he didn't even know why.

"So. Are you gonna be my brother-in-law or what? Cause I really gotta prepare emotionally if I'm gonna have to point to a corporate hotshot and say he's related to me. Do you have any idea what that'll do to my reputation?"

Rhys's brain could not handle this level of complexity. Which answer did she want? Which answer would get him out of this alive?

"Rhys," she prompted, leaning a bit closer, "Breathe. I'm not gonna kill you." If she'd thought the answer was going to be anything other than yes, her statement might not be so truthful. But she knew Rhys well enough to see how utterly devoted he was to Sash. He just needed a little encouragement once in a while.

"I-I-I… obviously, I would love to- um, well, you know, but I, uh, don't know how Sash-..." Sighing, he watching his fingers turn the fork over and over. "I don't know what she wants to do."

"Now this may come as a surprise, but you can actually talk to her. Right to her face and everything," Fiona teased.

"Heh. How do I ask that?" Rhys asked the fork, "'Hey, are you planning on ditching me or what?'"

Snorting, Fiona replied, "Come on, what do you think she wants?"

"What if I'm wrong?" Rhys suddenly met her gaze, momentarily startling her. Sighing, he put up a hand when she started to speak. "I know, 'better to find out now', but I can't. I-... I can't face it. I don't want to lose her again." Swallowing thickly, he swung his eyes away, apparently to study crack in the wall.

Oh for-... this guy was just too adorable. "Hey, buddy, relax. If it helps, I've never seen her like this. Not even close. She's-... she's a big fan. Ok?"

He tore his gaze away from the utterly fascinating failure in engineering and looked at Fiona again. "Did she say something?" he demanded eagerly.

Chuckling, Fiona got to her feet. "Even if she had told me anything, I wouldn't tell you. Sister confidentiality." When he opened his mouth, panic in his eyes, she added, "This conversation is confidential too. Don't worry."

Tipping her hat, she headed for the door. "W-wait! Did you… seriously drive all the way here to torture me?"

Fiona shrugged. "Eh, it was on the way."

Rhys just groaned and got to his feet. They performed their traditional hug, which involved each squeezing harder and harder until someone capitulated. It was a silly ritual, and they'd made it a competition to ignore the actual emotional significance behind the gesture. Because they real reason they hugged was that life had made them keenly aware that this could be the last time they saw each other. Nobody wanted to think about that - hence the compression challenge. She won this round, though she couldn't help but feel it was an unfair fight today.

Pausing in the doorway, she looked back at him. "By the way, ventilation."

"Huh?"

She pointed at the open duct cover in the ceiling. "Always the weak point," she said with a smile, waving to him as the doors slid shut.

"So… give me a heads up before you make that cheesy corporate nerd my brother-in-law, huh?" Fiona requested politely, idly handing Sasha the cleaning fluid she'd requested.

Sasha froze and stared at her sister in complete confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Well, knowing you two, there's fifty-fifty odds you'll just elope. I need time to brace myself emotionally to be forever linked to that guy. It's gonna be hell on my reputation as a badass Vault Hunter."

Sasha turned her glare to the bolt she was polishing, as though it were the cause of all her problems.

"I… don't know where we're going."

"Do you know where you want it to go?" Fiona asked, kicking her legs off the table.

"I know I don't want to lose him." Sasha's voice had grown tense, and she was scrubbing the bolt with extreme prejudice.

"Sounds like you're in for the long haul."

" I am."

"So you don't think he is?"

Sasha paused in her fretful cleaning, her mournful gaze on the bolt. "I like to think he is. But I thought Felix was too." She looked over at her sister, who was leaning closer. Fiona's hand enveloped Sasha's as she sighed, "I don't want to be wrong twice."

"Rhys is a good guy. He adores you." God, not only did she have to be related to an ex-Hyperion, but here she was defending him.

"I know," Sasha said, tugging at her goggles.

"C'mon, he's a big ol' softy. You know he'd melt if you got married."

There was a little smile, at least. "He would have so much fun planning the wedding."

Fiona snorted. "Hell yeah he would. He 'n Janey would have a blast."

Sasha tapped the table with the bolt, her eyes focused on the opposite wall.

"Do you… really think he's…?" she asked the wall.

"Duh." He wouldn't be alive if I thought otherwise , Fiona added mentally.

Sasha pondered this concept for a while. So long, in fact, that Fiona gave up and went back to flicking cards at the hat rack across the room. She had almost managed to get a card stuck on one of the hanging hats when Sasha startled her: "What should I give him?"

"Socks?" was Fiona's automatic answer. Sasha looked at her with exasperation.

"I'm not giving him engagement socks."

Whoa, it was a hundred times weirder to hear Sash seriously talking about engagement. A nice weird, but weird nonetheless. It took Fiona a few moments to fully process.

"How about a ring? Nice and simple."

Sasha thought about this, her fingers idly spinning the bolt. "Ok, yeah, I can make a ring." Her gaze turned to Fiona. "Thanks!"

Sasha went back to her business as though nothing had happened. As though she hadn't just been talked into marriage with a two minute conversation. As though she hadn't just decided to spend the rest of her life with a person.

As though Fiona's little kid sister had not just said she was going to get married.

"...what, that's it?" Fiona demanded. Sasha looked at her, brows raised curiously.

"Huh?"

"I had a harder time convincing you to eat your vegetables!"

The rag paused mid-scrub on the bolt. "I… I just needed to hear it from you," Sasha told the rag.

Fiona stretched to hold her sister's hand again. "You'll be happy together," she reassured, adding with a smirk, "Or I'll shoot his sorry ass."

Laughing, Sasha leaned over to hug Fiona. "I know we will. Thank you."

The little dork started humming as she cleaned the rest of the bolt assembly. God, the two cheesy nerds deserved each other.