I know! Isn't it crazy?! Believe me, if there's one WIP I will finish even if it takes years, even if it kills me, it's "Rocks and Shoals". Kolyat and Oriana, my little shits, I love them so much. I actually have about 4.5k words already written for the next chapter, but I'm not finished with it just yet.

For those unaware, "Rocks and Shoals" is my Kolyat Krios/Oriana Lawson post-war fic in the Mass Effect fandom. Lots of wading through PTSD. Lots of grief and healing and clashing personalities. A bit of salty teens. A bit of found family. Very slow burn. They gotta get right with themselves before they can get right with each other, basically. I adore writing this piece.

Honestly, my biggest issue with it is that I wrote all the posted chapters in past tense way back then, and now I write everything in present tense, so the tonal shift might be jarring for some readers. But eh. I don't have the energy right now to go back and change the tense in the last nine chapters, and if I consciously try to write in past tense now, after not doing so for so long, I'll keep tripping myself up and never get into the flow of it. So I'm just going to write it as I feel and put an author's note about it in the chapter, lol.

And since you made me so insanely happy by asking about "Rocks and Shoals", I'm going to give you a little snippet. <3 So this is directly after Kolyat beat the shit out of that guy and Oriana had her little flashback/breakdown and Kolyat kind of lost it, you know, emotionally.

* * *

“You’re lucky the guy’s not comatose after what you did to him,” she snaps. 

Kolyat grabs her wrist, stopping her.  “Yeah, I get it, Lawson.  You can stop with the sanctimonious lecture now.” 

She purses her lips, frustration marring her features.  She drags her hand from his hold.  “Do you, though?” 

He gives her an impatient look. 

“Do you get it?  Really?” 

Kolyat rolls his eyes.  “What are you going on about now?” 

“You could have seriously hurt the guy!” she shrieks, hands thrown up in the air.  “Hell, you could have been seriously hurt.” 

“And what was I supposed to do?” Kolyat growls, his hands curling along the tabletop beneath him.  “Let him rob us?  Hurt you?  Or worse?” 

“We could have settled it without violence.” 

Kolyat scoffs.  “Yeah, sure.  Because the blade he pulled was clearly not an indication of his propensity to violence.” 

Oriana throws the cotton swab in her hand down onto the table, her chest rising in her vexation.  “And now you’re suspended for it.” 

“Don’t particularly care, Lawson.”  He rubs at his temple, the one not especially bruised.  His head is throbbing and she’s not making it any better. 

“You should,” she bites out. 

Kolyat slaps his hands along his thighs in surrender.  “You’re right.  I should.  Can we go now?”  He moves to stand fully. 

She pushes him back down with a hand on his shoulder.  “You’re still bleeding.” 

Kolyat gives her a baleful look.  “I’m fine.” 

“You’re not,” she says, a sharp breath sucked between her teeth, and then she glances to the floor, her brows furrowing, her jaw grinding.  “You’re not fine,” she croaks out. 

The break in her voice throws him, and he has to clamp his mouth shut, watching her. 

She peers up at him with a heated gaze, eyes wet with unshed tears.  “So stop saying that you are,” she bites out, her anger bleeding into her voice, her exhale of frustration sharp and ragged. 

Kolyat stares at her. 

“It’d be okay if you did, though.  It’d be okay to just... kind of break a little.” 

He thinks maybe he did. 

* * *

You can read it here if you want to scream with me about Koliana: Rocks and Shoals. Please be kind. I'm a way better writer now, lol.

So glad you asked about this, anon! You have my forever love for that one. <3

Play the WIP title game with me!

Koliana - “Rocks and Shoals”

Chapter Seven is up for my Kolyat/Oriana post-war fic.  Please love my little shits.  I thank you in advance.

To The Seabed - Part Two of Rocks and Shoals

Chapter Seven: Off All Things

In a post-war galaxy, Kolyat and Oriana found each other when they went looking for themselves.

* * *

Kolyat was beginning to regret ever agreeing to a ceasefire.  Not because it hadn’t made things peaceful since (it had) or because he wasn’t getting work done in a timely manner (he was), but rather, because all that calm and quiet and general niceness (entirely on her part, really) had just given him so much fucking time to start noticing all the little things he never wanted to notice in the first place.

Mostly about Oriana Lawson.

For instance, she had a bad habit of leaving half-eaten food in the conference room. He remembered many a time when he came back after break to find a cold plate of creamy pasta – creamy because it had sat for just that long – stinking up the room like the toasty inside of a gas-riddled volus’ suit.  He had stopped in the doorway, face scrunched painfully from the smell, and then stalked right back out.  Dragging her from Bailey’s office for the sole purpose of forcing her to confront the slow-growing pasta monster in their work space had become an almost ritual.  At first she was fiercely apologetic.  Then she was only mildly ashamed.  And eventually her humility had dulled into an unabashed disinterest framed by the words ‘I’m working’ and a dismissive wave of her hand.

Kolyat’s frown dipped so low she had actually voiced her soft surprise at his face not cracking from the sheer force of it.

Can be read here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7384384/chapters/26708190

And here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12032207/7/Rocks-and-Shoals

100 word drabbles for Mass Effect

A series called Moiety.

Chapter Forty: Almost

* * *

   “You know, Lawson, you could just –”  Kolyat stopped mid-insult as Oriana glanced up from her datapad, eyes bleary, a harsh line crinkling her brow.

“What, Krios?” she snapped, a withering sigh breaking from her lips.

He blinked at her.  She blinked back.

If they held the stare any longer, they might have found that frustration was a poor cover for loneliness.

But instead he looked away, as he always has.  And she only frowned, as she always has.

“Get some sleep,” he muttered, swallowing his intended sarcasm.

Her lips parted, soundless.

He almost loved her.

She almost let him.

Koliana (Kolyat/Oriana) - “Take-Backs”

Alright kiddies, I’m super excited to bring you my first piece of Koliana trash, because I fucking love these little shits and they are slowly taking over my psyche.  So here you go, my asshole Kolyat with a soft spot for Ori.  From a prompt by @dustierhoades, “a gift out of the blue, for no reason” with the pairing of my choice.

Take-Backs

“Kolyat stares at the necklace for a long moment, and Oriana begins to worry that he might just strangle her with it, but then he’s reaching out an expectant palm.  ‘Give it here.’  She pulls it protectively against her chest.  ‘No.  You gave it to me.’” -  Kolyat and Oriana.  The perils of gift-giving.

Can also be read here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11892279/1/Take-Backs

And here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6531574

* * *

           “Here.”

           Oriana looks down at the small parcel he holds out to her.  It’s a box, cupped in his teal palm, wrapped rather messily in brown paper.  She glances up at Kolyat, a confused look on her face. “What is it?” she asks.

           He sighs, stretching his hand out closer to her.  “What does it look like?”

           She blinks down at the package once more.  “Like a box,” she deadpans.

           Kolyat releases a low growl and grabs for her hand, shoving the parcel into it. “It’s called a gift, you moron.”

           Her head snaps up at that.  “It’s called I know, you ass.”

           Kolyat’s lips purse and his brows lower over annoyed eyes but he makes no move to antagonize her further.  Instead, he drops his hands from hers and crosses his arms over his chest, watching expectantly.

           Oriana cradles the gift in her hands and peeks around the paper wrapping.

           “Will you just open it?” he asks impatiently.

           She rolls her eyes, but starts to peel apart the wrapping.  Inside is a smooth white box that she pops open to reveal a thin silver chain with a charm dangling from the center.  She pulls the necklace out of the box and holds it to the light.  A slow smile breaks across her face, and then it drops, only minutely, mostly out of confusion, just as her brows furrow.

           “What’s wrong?” he asks nervously, arms still crossed.