I know I said "No sequels", but this kinda hit me in the middle of the night. Enjoy! (I hope!)
Whenever she was looking for him she could never seem to find him. She considered his knowing exactly how to annoy her one of his most irritating traits.
Commander Susan Ivanova understood she'd made a error in judgement, but it was one that she wanted to apologize for - if she could only find him. It'd been almost a week since she'd, well, overstepped the boundaries of polite teasing and had brought Sheridan and Garibaldi into the joke of catching Marcus in the buff coming out of the shower.
She had asked John and Michael over breakfast the next morning if they had known there was shower in the MedLab 3 Burn Unit. Apparently they were as surprised as she had been, but then their quarters possessed water showers so they didn't need to go looking for one either. That's when they ask how she found this apparently well-kept secret. Susan had hemmed and hawed but eventually they knew which buttons to press and pulled it out of her. She was surprised Marcus himself hadn't heard them laughing all the way down in whatever corner in Brown sector he holed up in doing whatever it was he did during the day.
So now Susan Ivanova, Commander of Babylon 5, poked at the dingy shadows in some of these same corners in search for the well meaning ranger who she'd all but shamed into hiding.
Her stomach growled as she passed a food cart with sandwich like fare at one of the better vendors in this level. She sighed at her mission being delayed a few minutes more as she fished in her pockets for a few spare credits. After receiving her meal she moved to the end of the table where some condiments were supplied. She spooned on a couple spoonfuls of onions on to the the open bun.
"I rather like the brown stuff myself, but then I tend to lean to the spicy side," came the voice who's owner she'd been searching for. She spun on her heels to see Marcus Cole standing directly behind her arms crossed with a rather smug look on his face.
"I've been looking for you everywhere do you know that!" She snarled, although she had no idea why, as she angrily slapped a yellow colored sauce on to the top.
"Yes. I've been following you for a while now. Finally got hungry. What's up, Commander?" he said appearing to be not the least bothered by her surly mood.
She looked up at him incensed at the fact he'd been trailing her for god knows how long. She had noticed he used her title, something he never did. What was he up to? "You knew I was looking for you and you instead decided to follow me and make me look like a fool?"
A wide cheshire smile entered his face then he looked away, over to the food vendor. "Good afternoon, Mister Yin!" he greeted genuinely.
The ancient little asian man smiled a wide toothless smile, picking his spoon back up, "Marcus! Almost thought I wasn't going to see you today. The usual?"
"Yes, please, and a side of those amazing dumplings," he smiled stepping back towards the man and started a line of friendly chitchat during their transaction as Susan silently raged. "And please tell the ravishing Mrs. Yin I said hello. Here you go, keep the change." Marcus finished handing him some credits and shuffled the paper tray of food into one wide hand as he walked back down to where she stood. He silently leaned past her and nonchalantly piled on a healthy amount of the spicy brown sauce onto the top his sandiwch and then popped a steaming hot dumpling in his mouth with his fingers and made a face of blissful appreciation. He opened his eyes again and pointed a wet digit down at a rickety table with two rather questionable stools.
"Shall we?" he said with a still full mouth and moved onto one without bothering to see if she was going to answer, let alone follow.
She sighed and moved to the table, almost tossing her food down in front of her as she sat down. Marcus was too busy eating his heavenly dumplings and making faces. "You about done?" She asked crossing her arms.
He looked up at her with surprise, "I'm sorry, Commander! I wasn't thinking. Would you like one?" then he held out the little tray of dumplings he'd been working on. "I have a some left. Please, help yourself."
The title again. He was making a point but damn if she could see it now. She could understand if he was still angry, He deserved to be and she'd let him have that, but this fracking childish insolence was almost too much to bear. She sighed irritably, attempting to shove any previous anger away. "Cut the 'Commander' crap will you? You're really not making this easier. I came to apologize, alright?" She sighed. "And since when did you ever address me properly anyway?"
The Ranger gingerly fished another steaming hot dumpling out of the paper tray and looked at her expectantly with wide green eyes that teased her as he chewed . He sucked one fingertip clean with a audible smack and waited.
He wasn't even going to respond to that, she thought. She didn't apologize often, and he damn well knew that. He merely sat there eyeing her expectantly.
She rolled her eyes, "What?" she asked exasperated raising her hands.
He spoke calmly. "I believe I heard something about an apology somewhere in the middle of that verbal assault. Or was I mistaken?"
She cringed at that purposeful poke. She set her food back down and rubbed at the spot between her eyes "So help me god if I make it through this day without killing you-" she muttered, mostly to herself.
At that Marcus stood up wiping his mouth with his thumb and pitched the remainder of his uneaten food in a receptacle a few feet away. "Well, this has been pleasant, but it's obvious we've both wasted enough time today. If you will excuse me, I have some more pressing issues that I need to attend to," and he swooshed off without so much as a second look at her.
Susan cursed herself for going off on a tangent, slamming her fist down onto the table. She had come down here to apologize and she was damn well going to do it! She found herself bolting after him.
Always a half a corridor behind she struggled to keep up with the long legged Ranger, at times losing sight of him completely only to catch sight of the back his duster rippling around a corner.
She came to a screeching halt in the middle of the Zocolo. She spun around methodically scanning the crowd looking for a tall sable-haired head amongst so many cue-bald races that whirled about her. She lost him! She cursed under her breath, her lip curling viciously up in disgust.
"Damn it!" she huffed, her chest heaving from the run. She bent over and braced her hands on her knees and took a several deep breaths to steady herself. She stood back up, propping her hands up on her hips still winded and helplessly glanced once more around the crowd. It was useless, he was gone.
Seeing it was a hopeless task she turned to head back to her quarters to change - and was met amused green eyes of Marcus Cole inches from her own. "You're really bad at this you know," he replied with a mischievous smirk.
"You son of a-" Susan spurted out as he began to laugh so loud that the entire Zocolo turned to see what was going on.
It was at this point Marcus swept forward and bridged the space between them, "Apology accepted," he whispered huskily as a hand suddenly gripped her at the base of her back. Another appeared the back of her head as she felt herself bent backwards into a deep dip before she even had a moment to realize she was now locked in a mind-blowing kiss in front of the entire packed Zocolo. Before she even knew what she was doing she found her hands at the back of his neck holding on for dear life. Her lips resisted as he pulled away, spinning her back to her feet.
She stood in a stupor, jaw agape, staring at his smirking triumphant face. "Now we're even. Susan." He winked giving her a cocky two fingered salute. She was still too stunned to do more than stand there and watch as he vanished into the crowd as if he were a ghost.
"Oh my," she gasped as she became aware of the hundreds of eyes upon her and gulped as the chuckles began. Her hand went to her mouth hiding her stunned smile.
She snapped back, dropped her hand, curled her lip, straightened her back, tugged down her uniform jacket and swiftly began to walk away with the most determined look she could muster. The further away she got from the Zocolo the more her smile returned and she found it harder to push back now that she was out of the public eye. She finally stopped in a secluded corridor and collapsed against the wall, blowing out a stiff breath as the kiss raced back into her consciousness. " Woah."
Susan shook her head to clear it as she smoothed a hand down the back of her tousled hair, and began her long trek back to her quarters where there was a cold shower waiting for her. She somehow doubted it would wipe the smile off her face.