Ridley Reborn Chapter 9

Ridley walked towards his sleeping quarters and yawned. Samus had spent about three hours torturing him, and he ached all over. She had stripped him almost bare, tied him to a chair and proceeded to use various means of inflicting pain to get information out of him. He had been honest from the start, but she had needed to make sure. Still, that didn't give her the right to break several of his bones even though they could quickly be restored by his zero suit. He slumped onto his bed and closed his eyes, turning off the lights. Rolling over, he made himself comfortable.

It was then that he noticed his arm was wrapped around something soft and there was a sound like a small weapon being charged. Samus fired her paralyzer at him right in the chest and the shock caused his muscles to contract painfully, making him roll out of bed and onto the floor. “I thought we agreed I was going to sleep in here for now.” Ridley mumbled something incoherent while the effects of her attack wore off. Finally he sat up and spoke.

“When you said you would sleep here I assumed you'd be joining me, as in 'I'll sleep here, in addition to you' not 'I'm kicking you out', and had I known that this would happen I would have told you where you could sleep.” Samus eyed him suspiciously. “Is your grasp of human conduct really that poor?” Ridley sat there for a moment. “I still don't see what the problem is though, considering that I'm not going to try anything. I thought we had established trust between us after the interrogation.”

Samus lowered her weapon and stared at him, not sure how to phrase her next words. “Humans don't normally sleep in the same bed unless they're...” She trailed off, trying to come up with a term he would understand. “Unless they're mates. Or if they're like you and naive enough not to think of that particular thing.” Ridley watched her face turn scarlet and wondered if she was thinking the same things as he was now. “What are you staring at?” Samus asked, annoyance creeping into her tone.

“You, isn't it obvious? Why do humans ask questions like that? It's redundant.” Ridley had to leap sideways to avoid getting shot at a second time. Samus scowled and put her pistol away. “You're not sleeping here tonight, go find somewhere else.” Ridley stood and walked out of the room slowly, sighing. “Tomorrow you're the one sleeping in the pilot seat.” Ridley reached behind his head and snatched the pillow she threw at his head out of the air. 'Predictable', he thought.

“Good night, Hunter.”

“Good night, Ridley.”

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Ridley yawned and sat up, looking around. His back ached from the uncomfortable position he had been sleeping in and he rubbed it, trying to soothe the cramp. He smelled something unfamiliar and turned the chair around to find Samus tinkering with some spare parts, some of them already neatly stacked and producing a flame. On the top of the contraption she had set up a metal disk with raised edges and a handle, and something inside it was making a sizzling sound. He stood slowly and walked over to it. Inside were two white things with yellow centers and they were emitting a scent that made his stomach growl.

Samus looked at him for a moment and smirked. “What have you been eating? There's no cooking equipment here so I had to make my own from scrap material.” Ridley poked the white things and jumped backwards, his fingertip feeling like he had just touched plasma. “What the heck are those things that you need to heat them up so much!?” Samus laughed, putting the finishing touches on what looked like a box with two slots on one side. “They're called eggs, and it's not as high a temperature as you might think. When was the last time you touched something that was hot enough to hurt?”

Ridley sucked on his finger to ease the pain and thought. It had been when he and Samus had last fought, when she hit him with her plasma beam. “It was out last fight, when I was still...the old me.” Samus nodded and set the box down, inserting two thin and porous things and pushing a button. “So you're not used to the temperature range that humans can handle. We're a lot more fragile than dragons, that's for sure.”

Ridley shrugged and glanced around. “I don't see why we're not just eating the food in those tubes, it's very satisfying. I especially like the ones with those red sauces. Tomato or something like that. What's the point of eating things like eggs, or whatever you just put in that box?” He looked at Samus, who was now using a long and thin piece of metal with a wide piece at the end to lift the eggs off of the disk and onto another one, this time white and made of a kind of stone.

“If you eat food like that all the time your digestive system will get upset with you and you'll get sick, so you should only use food like that in an emergency.” She pointed to her zero suit. “I have a matter compression chamber in my suit that lets me store fresh food indefinitely, so I eat it whenever I get the chance.” Ridley blinked, then looked down at his own suit. “I wonder if the pirates did anything similar with mine...probably not.”

Samus took the porous things out of the box after they popped out with a “ding” and put them next to the eggs on the disk, handing him it along with a bottle of orange fluid. “Eggs, toast, and orange juice. Enjoy.” Ridley set the disk down on the counter and picked up one of the porous things first, taking a bite. It was wonderful, and he scarfed down the rest of it along with the other piece. “These 'orange juice' things are great.”

Samus hung her head. For such a brilliant strategist he was still an idiot. “That's the toast, the orange juice is in the bottle.” Ridley blinked, then looked away to conceal the redness of his cheeks. “Whatever, it's not like it matters. You can't expect me to pick up on ever little nuance of your language overnight.” He took a sip of the orange juice and sighed. Samus scowled at him. Yep, an idiot.

“And I eat the eggs how? I can't pick them up.” Samus threw a fork at the back of his head. “Use this.” Ridley picked it up and blinked, poking one of the eggs with the pointy part. The center began to leak and deflate, and he watched it ooze slightly. With a shrug he stabbed at it, shoving it into his mouth whole. He chewed carefully, trying not to burn himself, but it had a taste similar to a treat he had enjoyed when he was very young.

He turned back to Samus, who was busy preparing her own food and purposefully ignoring him. “Thank you, Samus. I...enjoyed that meal.” He walked off into his room, leaning against the wall and panting slightly. His chest was stiff and tight, and he felt lightheaded. Smiling, he let his gaze drift upwards.

Samus smirked slightly as she continued to cook. She didn't get to do it very often, but the fact that it had earned her a compliment, and from Ridley of all people, made her feel somewhat proud. She glanced at the door to his room and wondered idly if he had a crush on her. It was somewhat obvious, and it fit the way he had been acting around her. Still, she didn't feel the same way. He was a new comrade, perhaps, but nothing more. Still, it had been nice when he had complimented her...

Her thoughts were interrupted when her comm link began to ring. She answered it almost instantly, and her eyes went wide as she heard the news.