Chapter Text
Okay, so maybe Cayde-6 wasn’t paying attention to whatever the hell Zavala was saying, but could you blame him? There was a new guardian in the tower- a hunter. Cayde saw her slipping around corners, looking in wonder at each vendor and each Guardian that dashed past her. Her Ghost wasn’t bobbing around and showing her the mechanics of the place, which seemed a little out of place for a new Guardian. Finally, she drifted closer to the table that the Vanguard was surrounding, and Cayde could hear a snippet of whatever she was mumbling under her breath.
“... you are actually such a pain in the ass- What do you mean I have to speak to one of these guys-” Ah, she’s talking to her Ghost. “Don’t just leave me like that- Oh my god! Fine! Whatever! I can figure it out on my own!” The new Guardian grumbled a couple curse words under her breath, and stormed directly to Cayde, Zavala, and Ikora. She approached Cayde first, most likely because he was the closest to her.
“Hi. Sorry to bother you, but would you happen to be the Hunter Vanguard?” Her words were polite, but anger was sprinkled in her somewhat bitter undertone. Cayde just couldn’t jump at this incredible opportunity faster.
“Uh, shouldn’t your Ghost be- uh- giving you directions and stuff?” He asked meekly. Her eyes lit with a burning fire of annoyance.
“Currently, my “Ghost” is being a dick right now, and refuses to tell me who I need to talk to so I don’t die on the field. Can you just answer the question?”
Cayde’s face plates shifted into a frown. “Oh- oh, gee… I don’t… that’s… I mean- your Ghost is supposed to be helpful? What- oh no… Oh, did you offend your Ghost?” Cayde let out a loud, dramatic gasp. This seemed to piss off the hunter even more.
“I didn’t do anything to piss the little shit off!” Cayde broke character for a moment as a snicker bubbled from his metallic lips. The Guardian almost seemed too wrapped up in their angry rant to notice. “It just waltzed up to me, decided to revive me out of fucking nowhere, say “hey, you’re gonna go save the world, but right now you’ve gotta go run from these stupid monsters who want to kill you because I decided it was a good idea to revive you from the dead in the middle of evil aliens’ territory!” so now I’m over here, trying to learn how to fight for the lives of all of these people, and it’s refusing to help me, because I’m “being difficult!”” Finally, when the Guardian took a breath, she noticed that Cayde was unsuccessfully smothering laughter.
“Cayde. Are you messing with the new recruits again?” Ikora chided, obviously overhearing the hunter’s frustration. At this point, Cayde couldn’t hold it back anymore. All of his laughter tumbled out, and the Guardian looked around, confused.
“You were joking?” The girl stared intently at Cayde. He merely chuckled, and threw a hand on her shoulder.
“Yeah, the name’s Cayde. I’m the Hunter Vanguard. Welcome to the fight, kid.”
The Guardian stood there for a minute. A grin finally broke through the confusion on her face. “Oh my god,” She chuckled. “I cannot believe I fell for that!”
Through his tears of mirth- figurative tears of mirth, that is, because while Exo’s still have the human emotions and reactions to cry, they can’t actually produce tears- Cayde-6 was finally able to get a good look at the Guardian. He originally thought that she was a very pale human, but upon further inspection, Cayde realized that she was in fact, an Awoken, but instead of blue or purple skin, her skin had a fairly abnormal warm undertone. Of course Cayde had seen it before, but not often. It seemed to compliment her glowing orange eyes- (how had Cayde not noticed THAT before?!) and her reddish- orange hair.
“Yes, I can’t believe you fell for it either!” A new voice sniffed. Cayde looked over the shoulder of the new recruit and saw her Ghost flash into appearance.
“Hey! Get out of here!” The Guardian immediately snapped.
“Weren’t you just complaining about how I wasn’t around to help you?”
“You heard that?”
“I hear everything you say, Wynn. Did you not know this?”
“Well I didn’t because you happened to not tell me! ”
“Wait, did you say your name’s Wynn?” Cayde cut in. While the banter between the Guardian and Ghost was frankly hilarious, Cayde was sure that the duo had things to do, and missions to accomplish.
The Ghost perked up, as if to speak, but the Guardian, “Wynn”, waved them off.
“Yeah, I’m Wynn, and this is my Ghost, Kaiser. In case you can’t tell, he’s an asshole.” Wynn growled in the direction of the floating bot.
“You’re not exactly the epitome of kind, either,”
“Well that would be one of the very few things we have in common.” Wynn snarled back.
Cayde merely laughed and put a hand on Wynn’s shoulder. “I got the stuff you need right here, kid,”
“Who’re you calling kid?” Was Wynn’s immediate response, but with a much softer undertone than the sharp and bitter voice she used with Kaiser.
“Well, you may have been my age in your first life, but you were kinda just re- born. Me, on the other hand, I’ve been a Guardian for a couple centuries now.” Cayde responded with a wink.
Wynn’s face blanched. “Wait- what?”
“Good luck, kid!” Cayde pushed the basic starter hunter armour into Wynn’s arms and began to walk away.
“Hold on- Cayde?! Hold the fuck up! Centuries!? How long will I be doing this?”
And here, Cayde just had to be that mysterious asshole. He only responded with a chuckle, and turned the corner.
“ Cayde!” She shrieked in response.
The second he turned around the corner Cayde’s shit eating grin turned to something a little… softer. He felt a connection to this girl- Wynn. It wasn’t love. He knew it wasn’t love. Love was reserved for somebody long gone.
Cayde peeked around the corner, and glanced at Wynn. She half playfully and half angrily flicked Kaiser when he floated a little close to her head. Then, she finally turned away from the two remaining Vanguard surrounding the table, and a mischievous spark glimmered in her eyes. A kind of glimmer that Cayde rarely saw in anybody else but his own reflection. And then he knew- she was going to be his trusted ally, his partner in crime, his…
His friend.