Chapter Text
“Good morning Aloy” came Gaia’s neutral tones through the speakers of the base. Aloy groaned, at the early wake-up - burrowing back under Kotallo’s muscled arm and into his side. “No thank you” came the muffled words from the redhead, joined by Kotallo’s rumbling laughter. “Sweetling, you know Gaia wouldn’t wake you up for no reason. Let’s go up to her now and see what’s happening.” he had said persuasively. At Aloy’s mute refusal, clinging petulantly to his warmth he sighed. Peeling away, and ignoring her whines of protest, he rolled her roughly into the sheets and placed her over his shoulder to carry to Gaia’s room.
He walked stoically through the base, Sylens scoffing in disgust and Beta laughing at her sister’s misfortune as they all made their way to Gaia. The reason why soon became evident as the electric doors swished open to show a drone feed a few miles away from the Memorial Grove where a swirling wind was gathering speed as it moved towards the Tenakth Settlement they’d only visited last week. Aloy to see Dekka who had all but adopted her, and Kotallo to see Hekkaro and play the best game of Strike to be had on the continent.
Seeing streaks of black moving within the wind funnel Kotallo leaned forward to see better, barely catching Aloy as her wriggling dislodged her from his shoulder and almost sent her over the railings. He made sure the covers were secure before placing her on her feet. and focusing again on what they were being shown. “Are those BOARS?” Aloy demanded, apparently focused on something other than licking his shoulder blades in retaliation for his kidnapping of her now she’d been put down.
“Holy Shit…” was a wide-eyed Beta’s contribution to the discussion, whilst Sylen’s muttered something in the background about seeing if he was allowed back in the Sundom yet. “As you can see,” interjected Gaia “The restoration was successful, but a fault in the systems has caused this unique weather system to form and without more scans and data I am unable to formulate a solution.”
Sylen’s grave and brooding look at the data floating in front of them was interrupted by the two sisters arguing over what they should call it. Beta flipped her now shoulder-length hair over her shoulder, grinning at her sister as she voted for ‘Pork-nado’ arguing it was closer to the name of the crazy old shark movies they had watched in fits of laughter one night. Not to be outdone, Aloy insisted that only people from ‘crusty oldiewonk space prison’ called it pork and that ‘Boar-iccane’ was clearly the superior name for it. They quibbled on, devolving into childish insults.
“Ginger.”
“Nerd”
“Elisabet wannabe.”
“Kota, she hurt my feelings” Aloy pouted. “What do you think we should call it?”
Kotallo loved Aloy with every fibre of his being, and it was never more evident than when he happily allowed her to rampage through life, arguing and causing trouble like the force of nature she was. That being said, he had instituted some limits with close friends and family to try and even the odds somewhat. “You know the rules.” was his only response as he patted the sleep-mussed locks of her hair, and he laughed as Beta and Aloy moved to face each other.
Each stared the other one down, two of the largest intellects in the world at this time ready to do battle for naming rights. “I won’t go easy on you.” Aloy warned, green eyes intense. “I don’t need you too.” grinned Beta. “Get on with it.” came Sylen’s contribution through gritted teeth. In unison, the two women bounced their fists, chanting “Rock, Rope, Arrow.” Aloy cheered, her clenched fist beating her sister’s pointed index finger. “Arrow breaks on Rock!” she chirped, happily hanging off Kotallo’s arm and sticking her tongue out at the younger girl.
“Boar-iccane it is.” said Sylens, his deadpan almost breaking through Kotallo’s carefully projected calm. “Now, can we actually leave and get the data we need to resolve this situation or am I the ONLY person to feel like this should be urgently fixed?” There was a silence for a few moments before Aloy asked if she could get dressed before they left, visibly enjoying the emergence of the pulsing vein across the older man’s forehead that showed he was quickly reaching his limits. Beta stifled a laugh as she left down the stairs to prepare her gear, leaving the three of them standing there, Gaia’s golden figure gently glowing in the background.
Aloy looked at Kotallo expectantly, and he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek before gathering her and the sheets up to take her back to their room. They left ahead of Sylens, and he happily pretended to not see her making faces over his shoulder or hear the other man’s frustrated snarl as he broke off across the main room to prepare his own gear. Without anyone to torment Aloy pressed herself closer to him than he had thought was possible, breathing in his scent as she brushed her lips against the sensitive skin of his neck. Prepared for this Kotallo walked faster to their bedroom, lifting her away from his body to give her a deep kiss that made her squeak before he dropped her on the mattress.
“But.” she protested. “But nothing, we haven’t got time.” he’d rebuked and laughed as she shrugged with one shoulder, smiling up at him. They were dressed in short order and almost ready to leave with the others when Aloy ran back inside, shouting that she’d be back in a minute. She came back a few minutes later slowly dragging something heavy in a shower of sparks as it scraped against the metal floors of the base. “I was,” she panted between each pull “going to…save this…for something…SPECIAL” Kotallo caught her as she nearly toppled over, then his mouth dropped open.
“Aloy…is that what I think it is?” Aloy shifted, blushing like she was offering him a flower she picked from Zo’s garden instead of a lethal cybernetic weapon he could strap to his own body. “If you think it’s a solar-powered prosthetic built with more Zenith parts and a working clawstrider jaw, then yeah - I guess.” she admitted bashfully, toeing her boot in the dirt - explaining how she’d worked with Morlund on it to get everything working and then snuck it in at night with the help of an overridden charger. She squeaked as his arm crushed her to his body, voice choked with emotion as he declared it the best present he’d ever received and promised to be a worthy husband to her always.
It was at that point that Aloy remembered some of what Dekka had said about Tenakth courting, and realised she had accidentally gotten married because she thought it’d be cool to watch Kotallo cut a pig in half out of the air. After a brief moment of consideration, she had mentally shrugged and leaned into the deep kiss Kotallo had pulled her into, genuine tears rolling down his painted cheeks. Beta cheered, happy to go along with it seeing her sister had no objections whilst Sylens deeply contemplated the edge of the cliff.
Eventually, Kotallo had been persuaded to keep moving with the promise he would be flying with Aloy, and she had gently dried his tears so he could look his best when he got to use his arm for the first time. Beta stood behind Sylens, and mouthed to Aloy “You OWE ME”, grinning as her sister nodded. Sylens broke his silence only to whistle for his own sunwing, leaving the other three to suppress laughter as it came into view - a bright pink tongue flopping comically out of the corner of it’s mouth that looked suspiciously like a dyed leg wrap Aloy hadn’t worn for some time.
Aloy, with iron self control hopped onto her own sunwing, tastefully painted in Nora blue and Tenakth grey (neither Aloy, nor Kotallo could have claimed the same for themselves after they’d finished that particular project) and without a hint of a smile told Sylens that they would meet by the grove as Kotallo took a seat behind her - wedding present safely covered and strapped to his back. He simply waved at the pair, as they took off - apparently not trusting himself to speak. Beta was close to breaking point, when the sunwing swung it’s head round, make-shift tongue flapping stupidly with the movement and she choked. With a look of defeat, Sylens just told her to laugh and get it over with - taking on a look of pained tolerance as she did just that.
Meanwhile in the sky, Aloy had set a bearing on the Sunwing then wiggled round so she was sat in Kotallo’s lap, held in place by one hand that dwarfed her hip as they traded soft kisses, Kotallo still fighting back tears of overwhelmed joy at the events of the day. Aloy ran her small hands over his shoulders and chest, trying to soothe the man, but also enjoying the opportunity to grope the sculpted body of her husband. She froze for a moment, brain rebooting as she realised she found that very sexy and attacked, Kotallo not even giving a murmur of complaint.
Things on the other Sunwing were distinctly less cordial, Sylens had seemingly retreated into himself after ripping the fabric out of his mount’s mouth and mounting it - giving Beta only a few seconds to get on or be left behind. She occupied herself in the silence by sending out data titled Boar-iccane to the rest of the family. Zo sent a small video clip of Baby Vale with a carved model of a boar, shouting “Oink” and thanked her for the warning. Alva sent a ‘meme’ from the old ones data they’d retrieved of a little pig in boots captioned ‘looks like rain!’ that had her choking.
Erend sent a short message asking who the hell thought Boarnado wasn’t the obvious, and best choice of name - and also he was setting off to the Grove now with several barrels of Oseram ale pulled along by a Bristleback- claiming they’d be essential for ‘clean up.’
Beta had mentally face-palmed and forwarded Erend’s message to Aloy’s focus, before seeing a chat from Talanah open on her interface.
Talons-Ahhh!: I have let Avad know, keep me updated on the situation. He’s asking how Aloy is - what do I say?
BetaThanU: She just married Kotallo by gifting him a solar-powered chainsaw arm - metal as fuck. Sure Avad will appreciate :)
Talons-Ahhh!: Uhhh, he’s crying, like - a lot. Still stuck on why they call that bastard Blameless Marad - he totally blamed me for it. Everyone knows she isn’t interested. >:-(
[A picture arrives of Avad sobbing on the steps of his throne, eyeliner running everywhere. Marad has a hand on his shoulder, sending a haunted, thousand yard stare at the camera.]
BetaThanU: OMG, saving that - actually hilarious! Better go, see you next time you’re in the area :)
Talons-Ahhh!: Might be soon if he keeps up this level of hysterics, by the sun. D:
With a flick of her eyes, Beta dismissed the chat screen with a small laugh. Although she generally tried to keep the peace within the base (even with Sylens who was pricklier than a bristleback on full alert on his best days) she had the same love for chaos as her sister, and she knew her new brother would find Avad’s tears hilarious as well. She’d show him the photo later, unsure if she’d be interrupting something right now.