7 years

story:

Despite the foul mood that she wore like a cloak, when Ezrael heard the distant tapping of claws on the metallic floor she swiveled an ear in the direction. As quickly as her eyes fell on him, the red bled from her bio-mechanical irises and the cool golden hue of Sirius's own eye color filled hers, deflating the rage that had been building over the course of hours.

"Hey, Ez," he called, a couple footsteps away now. "Fighting with the ship again?" He had a smirk plastered on his tan and grey muzzle, his eyes crinkling at their corners in a playful expression.

"Hey—" Ezrael replied, shifting the data chip that was sticking out of her mouth to speak. "Lift took a vren. Again."

Her expression was at first, an angry snarl, but softened into a sort of half-smile as she looked Sirius up and down, noticing his partially unzipped jumpsuit. He was being a teasing brat again. The urge to lick her muzzle was palpable but she let out a grumble instead, adjusting the dead, green circuit chip in her teeth.

"These vraking circuits keep on frying. Ship can handle torpedoes, pirates, Reapers, vraking rail guns, laser weapons... But it can't handle a minor power surge in the main reactor without blowing half of the minor systems."

She kept grumbling her annoyance deep in the back of her throat, almost mimicking an alligator's growl. Sirius chimed in suddenly, waving a bag of Veska Kibble in the air above her face.

"Figured you could use a break from this. Brought you some kibble, look, it's veska style," he practically hummed the Veska Kibble commercial while doing so and only stopped when Ezrael let out a snort of a laugh and put a hand out.

"When you're on the go and you're low on dough, it's Veska Kibble!" he sang, waving his hands in the air dramatically to the jingle.

"Alright you clown, give it here already," she said with an undertone of sassiness, and snatched the bag of vacuum sealed pre-cooked, pre-seasoned kibble and popped the cap off, squirting it down the back of her tongue and swallowing.

"I swear to Fenris, I'm gonna rip Damian's damn head off for this bullshit," she said after emptying the bag into her maw. "His damn shipyard built this ship, you'd think it would be utter perfection with how neurotic that eunuch is."

"You know... I'm an engineer right... I could help speed things up," Sirius said with his typical smile, though in the back of his head he thought to himself, 'and help keep Damian's head attached while I'm at it..'

Ezrael waved a hand back and forth and then with a grumble said, "Fine, give it a go. Get that fuf in here."