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“Ryder, no.”
Saoirse ignored her, choosing to focus on tweaking her jump jet’s capabilities on her omnitool. She just needed to reroute a little more power to it from…somewhere.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“I think she’s ignoring you on purpose, Vetra.”
She could hear Vetra sigh in frustration behind her, and could nearly feel Cora’s disapproval. “I’ll be fine, guys, relax. This isn’t even the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
“That’s really not reassuring,” Vetra said. Saoirse looked over her shoulder in time to see her mandibles twitch in worry.
With a shake of her wrist, Saoirse’s omnitool deactivated as she stepped into Vetra’s personal space. She pressed a kiss to her cheek and Vetra gripped her wrist. “Do you really have to do this?” she asked.
“Come on, Vetra,” she grinned, “you know I’m an adrenaline junkie.”
“Also because Scott dared you,” Cora added dryly.
Saoirse’s grin grew, turning to look at her friend as Cora rolled her eyes. “And he’s waiting at the bottom for me. Can’t let my brother down, right?”
“You really could this time,” Vetra said. “I don’t think anyone would hold it against you.”
Saoirse cocked an eyebrow at her. “Would Sid let you live down a dare like this?”
Vetra’s mandible twitched again. Saoirse was pretty sure she was annoyed this time. She still wasn’t great at reading turian expressions. “Sid would know better than to dare me to jump off a cliff into Prodromos.”
“Don’t be so sure of that, Vetra.”
Vetra exhaled, a deeply repressed sigh evident as she closed her eyes. Saoirse’s cheeks were hurting from her grin. “Babe, please don’t give her any ideas. She’s bad enough already, you’re not helping.”
“It’s what I do.” She pressed one last kiss to Vetra’s cheek and squeezed her hand before slipping away. “Take the Nomad, I’ll meet you in Prodromos.”
Saoirse turned and primed herself, rolling her shoulders before taking off into a run. She’d given herself about 15 meters of space before the jump, and she used her biotics to shove herself off of the cliff, remembering to keep her shoulders as aligned with her hips as possible to get the most out of it.
She felt like she was flying, her charge carrying her the initial distance. She faintly heard Scott’s voice yelling at her from the ground, but she could barely make it out over the rush of the wind. She grinned, her biotics fading, and her jump jet kicked in. She threw her arms up, shouting in victory as the jet thrust her past the marker she and Scott had set up not even an hour ago.
“Pathfinder,” SAM chimed in her head, “you have successfully completed the 35 meter jump your brother dared you to do. I suggest you land slowly.”
Saoirse cut the jump jet, letting her descend quickly, before kicking it back on for the last bit. This was the tricky part; if she came in too fast, she’d end up with a broken leg and wounded pride, but if she came in too slowly she’d be bored with the descent.
She’d take the risk.
She cut the jet about three meters from the ground, letting gravity work as she folded in on herself, and hit the jet to throw herself into a roll, using her biotics to bounce herself into a landing. Dust kicked up around her as she landed on her shoulders and back. She threw her legs out before they hit the ground, twisting to roll sideways to let the momentum draw itself out. Saoirse leveled out on her back, breathing hard as she kept her eyes closed until the dust settled.
Scott and Peebee were the first to make their way over to her, laughing and chattering excitedly. “You blew past the mark by almost five meters, Saoirse,” Scott said.
“Did I?” she asked, still a little breathless. “I just kinda rolled with it.”
“That was terrible, Ryder,” Peebee laughed. “I think you gave Vetra a heart attack. Can turians even get those?”
“Uh,” Saoirse replied, blinking against the sun that was almost directly above her now. “Is she mad?”
“I don’t know if she is, but I am,” someone else snapped. Lexi’s face floated over her as her own omnitool lit up, scanning down Saoirse’s body. “This reckless streak has got to stop, Ryder.”
“Hi, Lexi,” she grinned. She’d deal with a mad Vetra as soon as she got her breath back.
Lexi huffed, squinting down at the Pathfinder once again. “You took the power out of your boots and you took it from the environmental regulators. Ryder…”
“I’m fine, Lexi, really,” Saoirse said, trying to be reassuring. Going by the look Lexi gave her, the doctor wasn’t buying it.
Scott stuck his hand out, and Saoirse took it readily to pull herself into a sitting position. He couldn’t lift her while she was in full armor, and wasn’t about to strain him so soon after he got out of the medbay. He had a grin on his face that she hadn’t seen in years, before he got wrapped up in Alliance training and all the rules and regulations it brought.
If it takes stupid dares to get her brother back out of his shell, she’d do them all damn day if she had to.
She heard the click of the Nomad’s doors behind her as she went to stand, and Vetra was standing next to it and staring her down hard.
“Vetra -,” Saoirse started, but Vetra interrupted her, closing the distance quickly, holding onto to Saoirse’s waist as she rested their foreheads together.
“You’re an idiot,” was all she said, voice exasperated but fond. Her grip told Saoirse she was still a little unnerved by the jump; Vetra was holding her waist so tightly she was sure she’d have a mark.
She grinned up at her instead. Closing her eyes as she pushed her forehead further against Vetra’s. “I’m your idiot, though.”
Saoirse heard Lexi lecturing someone in the background, but she was content to focus on Vetra in front of her, shifting until she was tucked under her arm and snuggled up to her shoulder without shame. She felt her laugh as much as she heard it, and easily ignored Peebee’s shout to get a room.
If jumping off of cliffs got a smile out of her brother and got Vetra’s arm around her waist and hand carding through her hair just the way she liked, she would have no problem doing it every day.