Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

On God's Doorstep

Once upon a time, Ramirez might have had the upper hand against Adam, but being married to the Saint of Anin, arguably one of the best close combat fighters in the known galaxy, did have its perks, and besides, Adam had been punched one too many times out of the blue in the past few days to fall for it again.

Ramrez threw the first punch, a wild uncontrolled haymaker, unusually sloppy for him allowing Adam to easily sway out of range causing Ramirez to overextend and lose his balance.

The sloppiness of his performance was a testament to just how upset the marine was as, usually Ramirez was one of the most accomplished hand to hand specialists in his marine unit courtesy of neo spartans. But, truth be told, Ramirez hadn't been himself for weeks, and their little run in with Renegade had finally served to put him over the edge.

Ramirez staggered, only just managing to avoid plowing face first into the floor before managing to right himself and coming back around for another two swings, both of which Adam dodged with ease.

Celex and Sunny had just stepped forward to intervene when Ramirez let out a roar of frustration, and tackled Adam to the floor, a move which, while Adam had not been prepared for, he certainly handled with some measure of skill. The two of them went down in a tangle of limbs, but by the time things stopped rolling, Adam had Ramirez locked in a rear naked choke.

At first he was hesitant to squeeze, but when Ramirez tried to dig his elbow into the fleshy part of Adam's inner thigh, he decided that this had gone far enough.

He squeezed

Ramirez struggled

Adam squeezed together, and finally Ramirez tapped out, but only just as he was beginning to feel dizzy, the blood supply to his angry brain finally cut off enough to choke the anger and allow him to see reason.

Ramirez slumped, the fight leaving him as soon as it had come.

The altercation itself happened in a matter of seconds, too fast for most of the people around them to have properly reacted. Many simply looked on in shock and confusion. Sunny was standing off to the side ready to intervene, but seeing Adam had things handled, she had not stepped in.

Celex hovered, also unsure.

Krill Cowered behind the tail end of the shuttle.

Hardly any one expected a rear naked choke to turn into a hug, but that's exactly what happened. With the fight finally drained out of him Ramirez sagged against his friend, and Adam didn't stop him, instead wrapping his arms around his long time friend.

Silence filled the room for a very long time, the two men on their knees in the middle of the shuttle bay.

The shuttle crew turned to their work to give them some privacy.

Sunny and Celex backed down and relaxed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, lo siento, no sé qué me pasa. No puedo-" WIth every word his voice grew with agitation and frustration, threatening to boil over until

"Woah, hey, slow down. It's okay."

Ramirez pulled back to look at Adam confusion and exasperation showing through the pain on his face, "No, Its not okay... I. I attacked you and I.... those things I said earlier."

He tried to look away, to pull himself away, but Adam grabbed him by both shoulders and forced his friend to stay fast where he was, to look him in the face, "I forgive you." He let that hang on the air for a second before "Yeah, that did kind of hurt, and you were being a bit of an asshole, but I get it. This is the maverick we are talking about."