A Little Less Action, A Little More Conversation, Please

Posted on Sun Feb 27th, 2022 @ 9:33am by Alden Loxley & Tristan

Mission: Li Shen's Bazaar
Location: Fortune's Echo
Timeline: Ghost to Li-Shen's Bazaar - 8hrs to go

He'd chosen to talk to Tristan second for more than one reason, the second being that it pissed Alden off to be lied to. A bare-faced lie in front of pretty much the entire ship's compliment hurt twice as much and took a little longer to shove the resulting ire down deeper inside. So, he'd spoken to Daiyu, met the puppy and taken a quick shower so that there'd be enough water to go around.

Alden didn't want to yell at Tristan. He didn't want to raise his voice, get irritated or argue. He did, however, want to know why the kid had decided to go wandering around on Ghost for no reason he could fathom besides inviting trouble and danger. So, he knocked and immediately entered the boy's room, not waiting for permission but storming straight in.

The ruckus Alden walked into was confusing at first. There was a flying of blankets and a yelp from the young man as he pulled the cloth over his body. As the room settled, Alden found a very naked Tristan, laying in his bed with the blanket barely covering his body.

"Alden," the young man said, his voice shaky as he pulled the blanket further over his body, trying to hide what he was doing before the man burst in. "How can I help you?" The young man's cheeks were tinged red with embarrassment, hoping that the older gentleman didn't catch a glimpse of what Tristan had been doing to himself while he was alone.

Not his first naked walk-in. Definitely unlikely to be his last. The boy's yelp was comical, and while Alden's mood wasn't currently light enough for him to laugh, he didn't bother to hide the automatic smirk.

"You can quit jerking off," Alden stated, the wonky grin undermining his irritation just a little. "You can put some pants on. And then you can tell me why you left Echo to go walk around outside."

"I went to help get that box off the roof," Tristan said, not moving from underneath the blanket. His pants weren't exactly close and he didn't think Alden would appreciate a show right this moment.

"And then you left Alison and vanished. For over an hour," noted Alden with the tone of someone who'd had enough with today. He did glance swiftly around the room for the boy's trousers though and lobbed them towards Tristan and his bunk. "Need a sock too?" He asked with the casual air of someone waiting for an unwanted punchline.

Tristan did his best to try and put on his pants, while also concealing what he had been doing from Alden, though he was doing very poorly at both. Eventually the blanket fell aside and Tristan pulled up the pants as fast as he could.

"I just wanted a look around," he said, softly, not looking up at Alden as he lied once more. The young man stood, but stayed near the bed.

"Qing Wa Cao De Liu Mang," said Alden on a frustrated exhale, then went straight into further cussing. "Wong Ba Duhn, Go Hwong Tong!" He didn't want to admit that Ali was right - he was far too soft when it came to waifs and strays - but it had been a stressful day, he was exhausted and Tristan was standing on the last strand of his patience.

"Tell me the truth, now," he said, tone exasberated. "Quit jerking me around," Alden scrunched his face up at the repetition of that phrase and threw the boy's own hoody at him. "Tristan, get dressed, stop lying to me and tell me just what exactly you were up to out there, or I'm kicking your butt off this ship and leaving you to hitch on the next poor sucker's boat outta Li Shen's."

"Please don't," Tristan begged, "I- I'll tell you. I just..." A tear rolled down his cheek.

The young man sighed. The rouse had gone on long enough. And now, he was given very little choice. "I'm afraid that if I tell you, you won't want to keep me either."

That tear's presence tugged at Alden's soul, but he pushed down the emotion when he reminded himself it was either him or Alison for this conversation. He needed to know if he could trust the kid and now, with them all safe and moving through the Black was about the best time and place for working on through that issue.

"I don't want to," Alden pointed out. "If I wanted rid of you you'd have been ditched a long while ago. But..." Flashes of the carnage on Ghost haunted his mind and made him pause. He clenched his fist and felt the emotion wash through him, cold and hard and heated still. "I need to be able to trust you, Tristan. I need to keep my crew - all of us - safe. So what the..." There was cursing for a few cathartic seconds. "... is going on with you?"

Tristan sat down on the edge of his bed as he pulled the device he picked up on Ghost from his backpack and set it down next to him.

"Before I joined your crew, I lived a very privileged life on Airen. My father is a high-ranking Alliance officer, actually. My mother is a wonderful woman who took care of me and our house. My father wanted me to join the Alliance as well, to follow in his footsteps. But I didn't want that." Tristan looked up to Alden, trying to gauge his feelings as he revealed the information about himself. "I knew my father wouldn't allow me to do anything but what he wanted for my future so I...ran away. Took as much as I could carry and booked passage to the Rim. This is how I found your ship on Newhall. There was an incident on the planet so I snuck aboard your ship to try and get away from there. And that's when you found me."

Tristan took a deep breath. "I get messages from my mom every so often, pleas for me to come home. I'm officially listed as missing on the Core worlds and the Alliance is looking for me." Tristan pushed the device closer to where Alden was standing. "A few days ago, I had another message. Someone I don't know who told me that I needed to retrieve this device on Ghost or my mother would be in danger. So I snuck away to this facility that was filled with dead bodies, found the device and ran back here. It appears to be some sort of location device, but I don't know the location it's pointing too. It doesn't seem to tell me much."

As Tristan began to tell the tale of his Life Thus Far, Alden let his stance and his expression relax and simply listened to the boy talk. No tension in the older man's face or shoulders revealed his internal emotions, there was only calm as Alden stood resting back against the cabin's wall.

My father is a high-ranking Alliance officer.

No reaction.

But I didn't want that.

Still no overt sign of any issue.

I...ran away

A momentary furrowing of Alden's brow and a shift in position as if he'd simply stood too long in one position.

There was an incident on the planet.

A soft sigh. Alden nodded. This was where they'd picked up on their relationship and it drew his attention entirely to the object sitting silently alongside Tristan and Tristan's backpack. He didn't speak until the boy came to a natural stop though, and when he did, Alden's voice was calmness personified.

"You shoulda told me," he stated. "You coulda told me. I woulda listened, and I still woulda helped you. But did you ever consider your own safety, or your mother's broken heart?" Alden had some experience of hurting his sole remaining parent and it was never - had never - been something he intended or enjoyed. He raised an eyebrow and regarded the device without making any move towards it just yet.

"It's a proximity tracker," Alden said. "Military grade. I've used them before. Short range, countdown in metres. You'd need to be close to whatever it's keyed into." He folded his arms across his chest and let his gaze lock with Tristan's again. "So, what's your plan now?"

The kind words of Alden made Tristan tear up as he just looked down at the tracking device. He shook his head. "I don't know what to do," he said. "I just wanted to get away, to live a life that was of my own choosing, rather than the one that was being forced on me. I just...didn't expect something like this to happen. I don't even know what this is," he said as he picked up the device. "I don't know what it points to or what it means."

Tristan's gaze slowly raised to meet Alden's. The tears in his eyes causing his vision to get slightly blurry, but he willed himself to keep them contained as best he could. "I need help... Please."

Alden took two steps closer to the younger man and then reached out both arms to envelop the emotional kid in a fraternal hug. If only, he thought, as he pulled Tristan in against his chest, this conversation had been a couple weeks ago, but at least they were here now, talking. Owning up. Coming clean. This had been the stowaway's last chance and, finally, Tristan had come through. He gave him a firm squeeze, then finally spoke.

"I'll help you," Alden stated, clear and direct. "On one condition. You need to make contact with your mother and let her know you're okay. And while I'm totally fine with you withholding your location, you have to promise me that you will keep in touch with her. Deal?"

Being pulled into the embrace completely overwhelmed Tristan and his ability to hold himself back. He sobbed into Alden's chest, no doubt staining his shirt with the tears that refused to be held back. It took a moment for Tristan to gather himself before he just nodded in the embrace.

"Shiny," said Alden, with a gentle firmness that seemed to signal at least a temporary end to any 'hostilities'. He stood still for the longest moment, simply imbuing the younger man with supportive strength within that hug, then took a half step back and maintained contact with hands on Tristan's shoulders. "Now, tell me all about this message from someone you don't know. Was this the first time you've heard from them?"

Tristan nodded as he pulled out the interlink device, replaying the message for Alden. "This is all I have. And the place I went too..." The young man shuttered as he recalled what he saw down on Ghost. "It just had this," he said, gesturing towards the tracking device.

"Okay," Alden noted, though it really wasn't. He took a serious, calming breath and canted his head to regard the message then turned his attention back to Tristan. "Well, I guess all we can really do from here then is wait for either the tracker to pick up with its location or your mystery boss to make contact again." A shadow crossed his face for a moment, and he added. "If that happens, you'll tell me and we'll figure this out together. Right?"

It wasn't really a question, it was more a demonstration of Loxley's limits, Tristan's last chance, a literal and very real line in the proverbial sand.

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