Posted by Civilian Jezem (Upstanding Citizen) in Side sim: Dinner at Jezem’s

Posted by Civilian Thyr Th’arialat (Resident) in Side sim: Dinner at Jezem’s

Posted by Civilian Jezem (Upstanding Citizen) in Side sim: Dinner at Jezem’s
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It had been a week and a half since Shivan had seen Jezem. And a lot had happened in that week. Shivan’s shop was… Not exactly set up, but he’d used the metal and materials Eryn had left to start him off with to make some of his first merchandise. His injury was doing better, still sore, but at little risk of reinjury.

During the over a week Jezem was gone, Shivan had stayed at the apartment above his shop. Now that he was back… Well, Shivan remembered how Jezem had acted before he left and decided to drop by. He considered just walking in like he still lived there, but instead, he decided to be polite and rang the doorbell of the stately house his friend and his friend’s husband lived in. Judging by the time, Argam should be home and Jezem should be finishing cooking, unless their schedule had changed.

~ Thyr

The door chime, a soft series of musical notes, rang and Jezem looked up from the kitchen counter. Before he could do anything, Argam hopped up from the living area couch, “I’ll take care of it, dearest.” Jezem resumed his artful plating of their dinner, but kept an eye on the door just in case. Argam opened the door and smiled upon seeing Shivan, “Thyr! Come in, come in. You don’t have to ring the bell, we’ve told you many times you are welcome. But come in, we were about to start dinner.” The Ferengi lead the way across the threshold and to the new dinning table.

Jezem pulled a third plate from the cabinet and began to plate the food. Tonight’s dinner consisted of a savory, meaty curry served over caramelized chunks of starchy vegetables. Made with enough Orion spices to make even Jezem’s eyes water. He placed fresh sprigs of mint-tasting herbs on top and poured three glasses of a thick yellow drink that could soothe the fiery burn of orion spice. Jezem balanced the plates and a tray for the drinks on his arms and carried them over to the table.

“You look healthy and remarkably in one piece,” Jezem casually commented while setting the table.

Jezem

Shivan stepped into the house and followed Argam. So they really did replace the table. Then again, if he were obscenely rich, he probably would too. He took his usual seat. “I am capable of taking care of myself.” As long as ordering cheap takeout and not getting knifed counted as taking care of oneself. “Where’d you go? You disappeared for a week.”

~ Thyr

“Of course you are,” Jezem answered in his best patronizing tone. He did note that Shivan seemed to be healing well, and boasted no new injuries. That’s good. He was worried. Not worried enough to hire a tail on the Andorian or talk Argam into dropping by, but still. It was nice to see Shivan well. Jezem took his seat beside Argam and began to eat, “I went off-world visiting several of the nearest trade hubs and stations.” He began, “Made a few inquiries, lined a few pockets, and called in a few favors. I hoped to learn how far the Syndicate was on your trail.”

Little did Jezem know it was to someone else’s credit that Shivan boasted no new injuries. He’d nearly gotten into a fight with a Klingon and been rescued… By a Starfleet psychiatrist. His luck truly could not be worse. Shivan chuckled darkly. “After my final job went south… I had to cross them pretty good to save my own backside. We can hope they’re nowhere near finding me.”

He paused to take a few bites of curry, “I couldn’t find much but I learned a bit about their movements. They’re not active in this sector, just so you know. I’m also happy to tell that you’re getting your money’s worth out of that identity. And that you owe me, I took the time to clean up your trail some and strength your fake’s legitimacy.” The heat of the curry made Jezem’s eyes well with tears. Jezem took a long gulp of his drink to bring cool relief.

Jezem

Shivan visibly relaxed a little at the news. “Good. I.. I didn’t have time to tidy everything up, so thank you.” Finally some luck on his part. They weren’t close. They weren’t active here. And his new identity was throwing them off. He took a bite of the curry. It was hot and Shivan’s eyes welled too but he ate without complaint, taking a second bite before a drink of his beverage.

~ Thyr

“Eryn is the type to keep her word. With her keeping your other debtors off your back that means we have time to plan.” Jezem stabbed one of the crispy vegetables with a bit too much force. While out and about Jezem attempted to make contact with some of his old associates but no luck. All of his points of contact were either out of date or no longer associated with the person he hoped to reach. When he and Argam cleaned house in preparation for life in Federation space, he’d cut all his non-Syndicate connections without second thought. “How is the shop coming along? What is your break even point? Have you vetted your suppliers?”

Jezem

Shivan nodded. “She will keep my debtors off my back unless I do anything illegal.” He took another bite of the curry. It was very spiced, but so good. Then he stared at Jezem. “My what? Vetted my suppliers? I haven’t… I don’t have suppliers yet. I have a couple chunks of metal and some handle materials. I’ve made some things that’ll be sellable and I’ve started cleaning up the shop.”

~ Thyr

Argam alternated bites of curry with sips of his drink. It seems he couldn’t handle more than one bite at a time. He stopped mid-bite to stare wide-eyed at Shivan, “But then how will you restock your merchandise after a sale? You’ll need a steady supply of metal and crafting supplies to ensure a smooth operation. I could-” The Ferengi trailed off after a sharp look from Jezem.

A look that Jezem then turned upon Shivan, “Did you create a starting inventory so you could track how much you used to make each product?” With which he could use to estimate how much raw supplies he’d need which he could then use to calculate cost of supplies.

Jezem

“Not exactly, but I do know how much metal I started with. I needed to know how much I had to know how many things I could make.” Shivan shrugged at both of them. “I was never good at all this business garbage.” Jezem knew that. That was why Jezem paid his dues.

~ Thyr

Jezem groaned, a look of long-suffering upon his face, “Alright. I don’t know what I was expecting. No, actually I do know what I expected. I had expected you to do the bare minimum of research into running a business.” Jezem’s fingers flexed around the utensils in his hands, “Tomorrow, I’m going to sit you down and lecture you on the basics of running and managing a business.”

Jezem

“UGH,” Shivan groaned, taking another drink of the drink. “Fine.” Business stuff was so boring. He hated when Jezem did business stuff. He finished his curry in record time and then finished off his drink. Jezem’s food was amazing. He rubbed his own head and looked between them, “Eryn set it all up, I don’t know anything about businesses.”

~ Thyr

“Which is why I’m going to teach you until I’m satisfied you can balance an account book and calculate your break even point. This is your cover business, your deal with Eryn to manage this shop. I have my hands full helping Argam with his business dealings I don’t want to be managing yours as well. If you want to keep your neck clean and stay afloat on this colony then you better come prepared to learn.”

Shivan sighed childishly. “I hate finances.”

Jezem stood to clear empty plates from the table. He shuffled around in the kitchen for a bit before returning with bowls of shaved ice doused in creamy, floral tasting syrup and topped with crumbles of dried berries. “Anything else I should know about?”

Jezem

“No.” The answer came too quickly. Shivan was usually a great liar, but with all the help Jezem was giving him lying to him made him feel bad. “Dinner was good, as usual, Jezem.”

~ Thyr

“No?” Jezem had set down his and Argam’s bowls of dessert but purposefully held onto Shivan’s. He gave Shivan a look. A look Shivan would remember from their Pavlajia days. The look of the captain assessing the information given to him and deciding if it was trustworthy or not. Jezem kept hold of the bowl, “I can’t imagine you spending all your time working in that shop. Did you go anywhere? Meet anyone? Do be specific.”

Jezem

“I went to a bar.” Shivan told him the name and location of the place. “It’s a shady place, but I broke no laws.” He was beating around the bush. Jezem would end him when he found out.

~ Thyr

“You broke no laws?” Jezem pounced on the admission, his gaze intense. “That’s an interesting remark to make about visiting a bar, which isn’t illegal in of itself. Did you see anything you shouldn’t have? Talked to anyone you wouldn’t want to be seen with?”

Jezem

“Not by choice!” Shivan said, squirming under Jezem’s intense gaze. “I got pushed around by some Klingon and this guy decided he had to help me.” Shivan glanced between Jezem and Argam. “I have no idea what someone like that was doing there!”

~ Thyr

Jezem slammed the bowl onto the table, hard enough to crack the ceramic. Argam carefully slid from his chair and began to back out of the room. Upon catching Shivan’s eyes he gave the man a pitying look that might as well have said ‘sorry, you’re on your own. Good luck’. He knew that look in Jezem’s eyes, the tension building in the orion’s body. Better to get out of the way now and worry about cleaning up the mess later. Argam did take his bowl of dessert, however. He hated to think of something so delicious being wasted.

“Someone like what?” Jezem demanded.

Jezem

Shivan shot Argam a look. Don’t leave me! but the Ferengi slipped away with his desert and Shivan was left alone with Jezem’s anger. Shivan would not be too intimidated by Jezem, though. He met Jezem’s gaze. “A Starfleet psychiatrist.”

~ Thyr

Jezem snarled, pressing into Shivan’s space, “Don’t tell me, he figured you out before you could speak five sentences because you panicked? Sisters help me, Thyr. You insist you don’t need help but when I leave you alone for a week you’re being rescued from barfights by a Space Boy head shrink?” He’s going to murder him. He’s going to murder both of them and dump their bodies together into the first space swamp he could find.

Jezem

Shivan met him, holding his ground as Jezem invaded his space. “He made me because I was paranoid! I didn’t panic!” Okay, he did a little bit. “I didn’t need his help! The man should mind his own business!” Shivan sighed and backed away slightly, having to move his chair to do it. “Besides, he’s not going to turn me in. He blackmailed me into talking to him.”

~ Shivan

Jezem blinked, rage momentarily forgotten while he parsed that particular sentence. Didn’t turn him in. Because blackmail. “He’s blackmailing you?” And like that the rage switch flipped on and Jezem advanced, “And just what do you plan to do? Let him string you along until he grows bored with you? How could you let yourself get into this situation?”

Jezem

“Once he figured me out and decided not to immediately haul me in, what was I supposed to do? Say no?” Shivan shouted back, slamming a fist into the table. “How about I march myself to the Starfleet compound?” He stood from his chair, in Jezem’s face as much as Jezem was in his. “I don’t know what I plan to do! You want to meet him, do one of your little assessments lime you did for Eryn? Go ahead! We’re meeting Wednesday, 7 pm, at a coffee shop a block from my place!”

~ Thyr

“It would have been his words against yours!” Not to mention Shivan had one of the most powerful allies he could hope to have on this rock in the name of Eyrn Romanov. Anything that man could have alleged against Shivan would have been laughed out of her office. “You let your emotions and your paranoia get the best of you. How do you possibly hope to stand a chance against proper Syndicate agents when you’re jumping at your own shadow?!”

Jezem

“It still is. How dumb do you think I am?! I haven’t told him anything!” Shivan banged his fist into the table again. He’d very, very much like to punch Jezem right now. Why did he think Shivan was hiding? But Shivan was angry now. “I’ll do fine! I don’t jump at my own shadow, I don’t jump that easily at all!”

~ Thyr

“I used to think you had some sense in that stupid blue head of yours but now I know you only have rocks between those ears.” His body trembled with rage. How could Shivan be so impossibly dense? Jezem wanted to smack him upside the head. Fantasizing about the day he could physically smack sense into that head. So Jezem did. The orion lunged forward, spitting mad and striking out with hands curled like claws.

Jezem

Shivan defended himself, blocking part of the strike but failing to prevent it from colliding with his head. He tackled Jezem, throwing his body weight at the Orion. “I do! I survived all by myself for years after you disappeared with bozo big ears over there! Leaving us without warning!”

~ Thyr

He didn’t need to hit hard. Jezem only needed to draw blood. He kept his nails long, carefully filed to subtle points. Perfect for scratching, gouging, for fighting like a wild animal. Jezem snarled as his back hit the floor but he didn’t stop attacking. “Argam bought me out! The crew were ready to move on!” Six years was a long time for a Syndicate cell. “I was ready to move on!”

Jezem

“I wasn’t!” Shivan shouted, trying to block those claws of Jezem’s with his arms. He had to lower his guard against Jezem’s nails to punch him in the shoulder. “But I did survive for years! And I wouldn’t be here if my job hadn’t gone wrong! It wasn’t even my fault, I was set up!”

~ Thyr

Jezem grit his teeth against the pain of that punch. He kicked out, attempting to knock Shivan off-balance long enough to exploit a new opening. “It’s not surviving to be one bad job away from failing to pay your dues! Did you learn nothing from the Pavlajia? From me?”

Jezem

His kick caught Jezem in his injured side, causing him to grunt and succeeding to knock him off balance. “Of course I did. There hadn’t been a lot of jobs going around! Work was slow, nothing I could do about that! I didn’t have a choice but to take the bad job!”

~ Thyr

Jezem pressed his advantage, careless of how much blood he drew or where it went. “Because you were a sad dog without a master.” Sisters, he didn’t just want to physically hurt the man, he wanted to his words to burrow into that thick skull, “You only knew how to follow orders, and now look at you. Just some mangy, half-feral mutt who doesn’t belong anywhere!”

Jezem

There was no blood besides the scrapes from Jezem’s nails. But there would be if Jezem hit him there harder. The old injury was forming a fresh bruise and looked newly irritated. Jezem’s words infuriated him because they were right. He was best at following orders. He belonged nowhere. Certainly not here. Instead of responding he threw another punch aiming for Jezem’s head this time.

~ Thyr

Jezem flinched back, not so blind with rage as to not recognize the danger of a head blow from Shivan. “Even now if I told you to bark you’d bark.” Jezem launched himself anew at Shivan, throwing his weight behind the attack. “If I told you to bite you’d bite.” He threw a punch but it was too low, it’d only hit right below the neck and to the side. “Eryn told you to heel and you heeled. Don’t lie to me. You want someone to take the lead. To take away all the responsibility so you don’t need to have a care in your world.”

Jezem

Shivan wasn’t fighting with any sort of his regular style. But his punches were still powerful blows simply because he knew how to throw a punch, and had the body weight to back it up. Shivan was thrown off Jezem and landed with a grunt. Another bruise would form along his collar bone. He swung a fist, trying to keep Jezem away. “I don’t know what I want!” He said angrilt, “but I don’t need you to tell me what I want!”

~ Thyr

He danced away from each swing. His rage finally beginning to cool and with it Jezem fought with greater caution. Jezem eyed Shivan, carefully watching for the telegraphs of his next swing, “Then what do you want from me? What do you want me to do?” Jezem darted forward, swinging his fist in tightly controlled arc.

Jezem

Shivan threw another punch, less concerned with where he hit Jezem, and more concerned with just hitting him. “I don’t know! I don’t want you to get bored and walk away from me!” He blocked Jezem’s swing from his body, but took it to his arm, soon to be another big bruise.

~ Thyr

Sisters. He should have walked away. He should have let that klingon take her pound of flesh. Let the Syndicate take their dues in blood. That was the cost of their lifestyle. Yet here he was. “I am not going to walk away from you,” Jezem said with fierce conviction. He was too slow to dodge the next punch. He breathed through the pain and continued, “You are mine and I wont let anyone else take what is mine!” Not the Syndicate. Not Eryn. No one but him.

Jezem

There was hesitation in Shivan. He didn’t throw his next punch, though he was ready to. “Why? Why do I matter to you?” It certainly wasn’t money, and that was the only reason he mattered to anyone. He didn’t understand.

Anyone else would have left him to die with the Klingon debtor. And if the few who might have helped him out of that, anyone in their right mind wouldn’t go near him with a ten foot pole after finding out about the Syndicate. He was essentially a walking dead man.

So why was it Jezem cared this much? Why did that psych bother to blackmail him instead of turn him in? And, no, he didn’t believe that “you look like you need help” BS. No one was that.... selfless. Why would Eryn bother to give him the shop? His intel on whatever small fry crime might be going on here wasn’t that useful. Certainly not worth the risk or expense of hiding someone from the Syndicate.

But out of all of them, Jezem confused him the most. “I can’t give you anything! I have nothing left!” He swung his fist at last, but more out of anger with himself. “I’m good as dead!”

~ Thyr

Even Shivan agreed. This was a waste of time. An unnessicary risk that could put Argam in danger. If the Syndicate knew what he was doing now then he would lose his status of good standing. There was nothing Shivan could do or give that would equal the cost of failure. Jezem stepped back, and maintained distance between himself and Shivan.

He’s not a captain. Not even a criminal anymore just the spouse of a wealthy merchant who cut ties with the past to live peaceful lives. Sisters, was it the excitement that he craved? The challenge? Or was it because even his black heart held a sliver of compassion for his former crew. Jezem was no longer the person he was three years ago.

“Shut up! I don’t care about repayment. I don’t care if you ever repay me.” Sisters help him. Jezem closed the distance, throwing punches because he could and not because he cared if they hit. He didn’t care if he was hit. “I’m helping because I am selfish. Because it’s what I want. I can have anything that I want and what I want is to see your stupid ass survive your own stupid choices!”

Jezem

“But why?” Shivan demanded. Several of Jezem’s strikes landed. His ribs. His shoulder. His chest. His arms. He threw his own punches back. He didn’t care where or if they hit. These parts of their fights were the most productive, emotionally. But also rather physically painful for them both.

“I’m nothing! I don’t matter!” He shouted. It wasn’t true, they’d had fun together - whether they’d admit it or not. Sitting together watching Orion soap operas. Shivan withstanding Jezem’s Orion cooking. Heck, even shopping had been fun for them.

But Shivan didn’t see it. The way he saw it, he was an asset with anything useful wiped out of it. He belonged dead in that alley with the Klingon. He probably deserved his fate with the Syndicate. He was avoiding it because that’s who he was. A coward. He threw several more punches, the strength behind them increasing as he lost himself in his own emotions.

Anything Jezem or Eryn or Séan offered him was too good for him. He deserved what he had been before he found Jezem here. A half starved space street rat, on the run with nowhere to go. One of Jezem’s punches caught his injury, and it was all he could do not to cry out. He stumbled back, a hand over the slowly scarring spot on his chest. “You’re risking everything. For what? Blue garbage with rocks for brains.” His voice was laced with pain, both physical and emotional.

~ Thyr

Why? Why is Shivan so obsessed with why?? Did it matter? Why must Jezem explain himself. If he couldn’t answer that for himself than there was no satisfying answer that he could give. There were shallow answers. Things like Shivan was so pathetic and sad and hopeless that Jezem couldn’t resist helping. Because Shivan’s fear and misery was too funny to pass on watching. That listening to his half-heart complaints about the soap operas was fun.

Sisters, the pain. Violent purple and green bruises bloomed across his arms, chest and sides. Jezem was panting heavily from exertion, his strength waning. “You’re worth it to me!” Shivan was a blue idiot with rocks for brains but he was Jezem’s and why wasn’t that enough? It was Jezem who had a price, sold for seven bars of latium. A price he had to painstakingly build for himself until Argam came and not only matched that price but increased it.

The next punch knocked Jezem back and over the side of the couch. He wheezed. Every breath hurt and his blood buzzed under his skin. “Have I ever. . .” He panted, eyes closed. “Have I ever-Sisters, you are frustrating.” Jezem didn’t even know what he wanted to say.

Jezem

Shivan’s body was sore. Dark blue and purple bruises had formed and were still forming all over his body. He could withstand pain. His breathing was heavy, the result of exertion mixed with pain. He could go after Jezem again. He’d knocked him back. But his body protested any movement. The skin had been broken over his injury, and it oozed blood slowly. It was painful, but not harmful. He would be fine.

Jezem didn’t have friends. He had pets. And once upon a time, Shivan had been one of those pets. But Jezem was out of the game now. There was no reason to help. And there was nothing of worth in Shivan. He couldn’t imagine what Jezem saw that made him worth it. Finally he let himself drop to the floor, sitting with a hand behind him to support himself. “Have you ever what?”

~ Thyr

Jezem blinked then squeezed his eyes shut, “Lights dim to 25%” The lights of the room dimmed and it didn’t ease the pain but it helped. Body sluggish, he lifted himself until he could sit upright. Jezem glanced over Shivan, noting the injuries. Not the worst they’ve done but still ugly.

He heaved out a long breath, “Have I ever failed to see a mission through? No matter how ugly or intense I saw our ship and our crew through, didn’t I?” Rival cells, botched heists, stupid robot birds designed to explode. . . They went through hell and back and this would be no different. “Stop asking stupid questions. I said I’m helping you and that’s that so by the sisters quit your whining and deal with it.”

Jezem

Shivan looked up at him. “…yes.” He folded his arms, pulling himself up against the wall. “You see everything through. That’s why the crew trusted you as a Captain.” He took a deeper breath. He’d bruised Jezem pretty good. He pointed vaguely at a few of the forming bruises. “Sorry about the marks.”

Jezem waved a tired hand, “You better not expect me to apologize in return. Because I won’t. You deserve every one.”

He sighed and shrugged. “We both know how pointless it is. I’m a dead man either way. Except this way, if the Syndicate ends up being the way I go out, they’ll take you down too. Eryn…” He sighed again. “I have no idea what her motives are. The little intel I might get her on this ridiculous rock can’t be worth the time and expense of helping me. And that shrink is just weird.”

~ Thyr

“Can you stop thinking for five minutes?” Jezem rubbed a hand over his face. An action he regret when he pressed against a bruise forming on his cheek. “We’ll figure out what Eryn’s deal is. We’ll figure out that shrink’s deal. Don’t worry about me. Me and Argam-” He paused, considering his words carefully, “We have plans in place. So don’t worry about us.

“You do? Good.” Shivan said. “I’ve started setting up my own plans.” Once he had money he planned to set up safe houses, hiding places, and hopefully a reliable way off this rock, an exit strategy if he needed it. He wouldn’t tell even Jezem where all of them were.

“Look. You want to be useful? Then bring me the first aid kit from the kitchen. You hit almost as hard as a klingon.” He waved in that direction. The kit would be in the cabinet under the sink. Restocked since it’s last use some time ago when Shivan almost bled out on the old dinning table.

Jezem

Shivan dragged himself up to his feet. His body protested the movement, having stiffened some in the short time he was sitting there. “Good to know I can still hit hard enough, then.” He grinned, “I should study that Klingon martial art/mediation thing.” He headed out to the kitchen and found the kit after peeking in a few of the cabinets. He picked up the little box, took it back out to the couch, and handed it to Jezem. Then he plopped back down against the wall. “There you go.”

~ Thyr

“You? Klingon martial arts?” Jezem scoffed, “You’d grow bored. They take meditation surprisingly seriously.” Blah blah blah being a warrior is the highest honor. Battle is worship. Blah, blah. Jezem much preferred the Orion approach to martial arts: how to be deadly and sexy at the same time for fun and profit. No bullshit battle honor or sanctity of a good fight.

“I guess you’re right.” Shivan said with a shrug.

Jezem took hold of the kit and dug around until he found a single dose hypo of pain killer. Which was immediately jabbed into his neck. “Uuggh, that’s good shit. Our dear medic was holding out on us.” After grabbing a number of adhesive bandages and some antiseptic ointment Jezem closed the kit and tossed it onto Shivan’s lap, “Patch yourself up before you bleed everywhere.”

Jezem

“Our medic was as big a sadist as you are.” Shivan commented, catching the kit tossed at him. He used some of the antiseptic ointment and then a bandage, then closed the kit and set it aside. “There. No more bleeding.” It was nearly done bleeding on its own anyway. The injury wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been a week ago when Jezem left. Another week… Well, maybe two now, and it would probably be healed.

~ Thyr

“Heh,” That was probably right. Jezem would have made for a terrible doctor, well, terrible if he was bound by codes of ethics. Without that he’d have done just fine. “How’s your side doing?” Jezem had saw it was bleeding. They really should stop agitating that. Oh well.

Jezem

“I’ll be fine.” Shivan said. It hurt, they really had agitated it. But Shivan wasn’t one to show weakness. ‘I’ll be fine’ usually meant ‘I’m not actively dying’. Shivan would be a terrible doctor. He was too dumb. And he hated people. “So are you going to come to my meetup on Wednesday or not?” Explaining his new bruises to Séan would be interesting. He doubted the strange shrink would be surprised.

~ Thyr

“Of course I’m going to your little therapy session.” Jezem said. Like it was ever a question if he would or not. He had plenty of time to plan should he believe this psychiatrist was a threat to Shivan’s safety. Jezem carefully stood and stretched his aching body. After which he paused to stare down at the assortment of bruises on him. If there had to be one downside of orion-style clothes. . . it was that they did not hide anything. Guess he’s adding a stop to the hospital to his schedule for tomarrow.

Jezem

“Trust me, it’s not voluntary.” Shivan growled. “He’ll also turn me in if he catches me doing something illegal.” His situation was so precarious. “Maybe I should leave.” It was an offhanded suggestion, but somewhat tempting. “Too many people here already know.”

~ Thyr

Jezem whirled to face him, “You leave and I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself. That psychiatrist is nothing Eryn can’t handle. One word from her and he loses his career and reputation. Secondly, if he’s a threat to your or my safety then Starfleet is going to declare him MIA because they won’t ever find the body.” Jezem stalked to the table before Shivan’s stupid infects him and he starts throwing punches again. Their desserts were melted liquid goo and some had leaked onto the table through the cracked bowl. Just great.

Jezem

“I don’t trust Eryn,” Shivan said simply, pulling himself up. He went to the kitchen and picked up materials to clean the dessert goo from the table. “Sorry about the desserts.” He really was. Jezem’s food was delicious.” He sighed and started wiping up the goo.

~ Thyr

“Hmm,” Jezem left the cleaning to Shivan. He padded his way through the kitchen to the freezer door and pulled out the remaining batch of shaved ice. Digging through the fridge he was able to find some leftover cream and syrup. Enough to make a small bowl for each of them. While Jezem worked he answered Shivan, “And you shouldn’t, but I trust her to follow her own morals. Turning you over to the Syndicate just because would go against her personal code.” Every criminal, every single one, had their own morals and ethics. And every one could be counted to follow whatever they were, sometimes even to the death.

Jezem

Shivan cleaned the table. He set aside the cracked bowl. “I think I can repair this. I’ve read about it.” He put away the cleaning supplies. “I know she wouldn’t do it just because. There are ways to persuade people.”

~ Thyr

“Don’t bother. I can buy a whole new set.” Jezem set the fresh bowls of dessert down and gently eased himself into his chair, “Persuade her? If anyone tried her lips would become tighter than the strings of a Ferengi coin purse.” Jezem sighed after his first bite of shaved ice and cream and the fragrant and floral taste of the flower syrup. Sisters, this tasted so much better than he thought.

Jezem

Shivan took a bite out of his own bowl. It was delicious. He sat at the table, sitting slowly, and sighed. “I suppose.” He ate a little more dessert, then, “You still planning to bore me to death with business 101?”

~ Thyr

“You aren’t getting out of that.” Jezem leveled Shivan a flat look. “If I must I’ll make you take a test. And the business classes won’t stop until you pass it.” He could make a test. He’ll search for a template and come up with some questions. Should be simple.

Jezem

Shivan sighed a long sigh. “Please, no test. I didn’t become a criminal to go to school.” He finished his dessert in record time. Since coming to Oed, he’d started gaining his weight back. He was starting to fill out more, like he used to look. “You’re good at making spaces look nice, right? I don’t know how to set up the shop floor space. I’m not an interior decorator.”

~ Thyr

Jezem smirked around his spoon, “Good thing you aren’t a criminal right now, are you? Thyr seems like the studious type. The kind of person who would study to ensure his new business takes off. Thyr, who isn’t a criminal” Jezem hummed, “Leave it to me. And don’t you dare bring up decorating around Argam. Ferengi have no taste and he’ll insist on doing it himself.”

Jezem

Shivan laughed. It was the first time Jezem had heard him laugh like that since his arrival to Oed. “Oh, no. I do not want to live or work in anything that looks like that hideous bathroom.” He scowled at Jezem then, “If Thyr seems like the studious type, I think you have the wrong person.”

~ Thyr

Despite himself Jezem cracked a smile, “Thyr is a goodie-goodie who smiles at children, thanks police officers and salutes every Star Sailor he comes across. He also pays all his taxes plus extra because he is a good citizen who believes in helping his community. Because if widdle Thyr ever stepped one toe outside the law then he gets thrown in jail then drowned in his prison toilet by a Syndicate assassin.”

Jezem

“More like disemboweled with a prison shank,” Shivan muttered, glaring at Jezem. “If I ever have to salute a star sailor I might have to throw up in my mouth first. And I hate children.” He complained. “You didn’t… Happen to hear what I did while you were doing recon last week, did you?”

~ Thyr