TW: Set in Cornerstone

Nano has never been scared of heights– mostly because she'd decided very early on in life to just destroy anything bigger than her– but as she climbs up towards 'home' on a rickety ladder she could throw farther than she would ever trust it, with arms that protest every movement, she thinks maybe she could understand why most people were. It's been a good five minutes since she's been able to look anywhere but at her own hands.

(Reach, grab, pull.)

The wind is a bit more of an asshole the higher she climbs, too. It pulls at her clothing until it's strong enough to pull at her limbs, like it's fighting to throw her off. She spends about as much time clinging to it as she does dragging herself up.

(Reach, grab, pull. Reach, grab, pull.)

Honestly, she's just glad the storm has let up. She can't imagine making this hellish trek in the same rain and thunder that's been plaguing the area since they first set off on their jobs.

(Reach, grab, pull. Reach, grab, miss, reach... reach...)

She's going to kill the first Sir she sees once she makes it to the top.

"What'd they even wanna build up here for?" Nano grumbles as she's forced to literally hop up to the next rung.

"Impulse, mostly," replies a soft voice from above her.

Startled, Nano jerks and misses the step she'd been aiming for, netting her only open air. She has to wait a bit for her life to finish flashing by, but thanks to her cramping fingers she isn't any closer to falling to her doom now than she was before. The looks she shoots up to Ross, peering down at her through a small gap in the dirt, is scathing enough that he tucks away his grin.

"Sorry," he says, sounding anything but. "Long climb?"

"You're gonna find out just how long a fall it is if you keep that up."

Ross laughs, soft but amused, and leans into the hole. He's not that huge, especially in comparison to Lalna, but the looser edges still give slightly beneath his elbow, knocking loose a few clumps of dirt as he stretches out a hand to her. "How about I just take your word for it?"

Eager to be back on her own two feet, Nano grabs on and closes her eyes against the shower of dirt as he hauls her up.

"I regret letting you guys take the build," she sighs, plopping down on what she assumes are the front steps to their shared house. Ross hums and settles next to her.

"Not too bad a view, though."

"Pass."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Saw enough of it on my way up, thanks. Which reminds me." Nano shrugs the backpack from her shoulders with a sigh. It bounces once on the slime before settling, lumpy and heavy and solid enough to start sinking. "I come bearing gifts."

"Sounds like a medical problem," Trott says in lieu of a greeting.

"Who's coming where?" Smith calls out, from under the foundation of the house. A moment later he squeezes through a gap, suit jacket abandoned and sleeves rolled up but all of him soaked in a thin sheen of slimy water. Nano wrinkles her nose at him.

"That's disgusting."

"I've been covered in worse."

"I take it back. That's disgusting."

"Mate, you're sticky and purple. I don't think you have room to talk."

"You said you had something for us?" Trott butts in, gesturing to the bag Ross was already eagerly rifling through.

"For Ross," Nano corrects. It takes a lot of effort not to roll her eyes at how immediate Smith is to sulk, his brow drawn into a frown and arms crossed tight over his chest.

"How come Ross is the only one who gets anything?"

"Because Ross is the one who likes marble, and that's what I've got." Ross aims his smuggest face at the other two, and Nano once again laments her life choices because Smith looks so offended and she's not sure she can handle being left to deal with these children. "I also have plenty of stone and ores for the rest of you." She waits a beat before tacking on: "And if you ask me nicely, I might share some tools with you tools."

"Oh, sure." Trott smiles. "How does 'please stop hoarding everything' sound?"

"Please stop being a selfish prick?" Smith chimes in.

"Please don't leave us defenseless up where mobs spawn every other second?"

"Please do your fucking job?"

"Wow, don't I just love to hear you lot plead," Nano drawls, unimpressed, but throws Trott the other pack. Smith snatches it from the air with a cheer. That dealt with, she turns back to Ross, who's back on his feet and eying the half-built house like he's laying out plans. It takes a couple tugs on his sleeve before he blinks and looks down at her.

"There's still a ton of that marble back in our mine. A couple different pockets, actually. Lal was digging it up when I left but our chest space is pretty sparse down there so I doubt he's still at it."

"Thanks. I'd come help mine it, but..." he trails off with a vague gesture. Nano smiles.

"It's fine. I'd rather you stay here, anyway. Any house those two built would either blow up or become self-aware."

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" Smith interrupts. "Like, in a hole or a ditch? I'm sure Lalna misses you in his."

"I'll put you in a hole," Nano mocks, which sounds nothing like Smith at all because the voice she uses is about as deep as Trott's but twice as slurred. Trott, drawn in by the verbal tussle, puts himself between them before things can get physical.

"Probably enough of that now, thanks," he begins amicably. "That storm won't stay away long and we've got more important things to provide than a sideshow. So, Nano, it's been great, and good on you for scoring brownie points with Ross, but–" He turns to Nano shoos at her with a both flippers. "Flux off, yeah?"

"Rude!" Nano huffs. She tosses her hair over one shoulder as she stands, just to show how displeased she is. "See if I ever make a special trip out here again."

"Oh, hang on a second," Ross says, finally rejoining the conversation around him. He holds the straps of her bag open like a coat so she can slide her arms through. "I figured you'd want this back so I just went ahead and emptied it."

"Thank you," Nano replies, pleased at the treatment, and sticks out a purple tongue at Smith as Ross moves behind her to slip it on. Unable to return the favor, Smith flicks her off instead. She only catches the start of Trott miming something rude as well before Ross sidles back in front of her, blocking them both from sight. It's instinctive, the way he brushes away the little clumps of dirt that are still clinging to her from the climb up and adjusts the straps of her bag to fit again; she's not even sure he's aware he's doing it, if it's a habit he'd even be able to break, but Nano lets herself preen anyway.

"Always an exception, I suppose," she muses, and Ross just offers her a cheeky grin along with his hand. It looks huge in comparison to her own. Most do.

Easing back through the hole in the dirt and onto the ladder is quicker this time. He kneels down, following her as she descends, and before he lets go, Ross gives her hand a squeeze and presses a kiss to her bruised knuckles.

"Watch your step going down," he says. "It's a long way to fall."

Nano smiles wryly and pulls her hand free, wrapping it tight around the topmost rung. Ross pulls away from the hole, blotting out the sparse bit of sun that's managed to escape the storm, and shoves his hands in his pockets. It looks like he's looming, and she can't help but laugh.

"Isn't it always?"

(Lean, slide, let go.)

Credit to walfs on Tumblr