Teal Deer (Making The Case For Nero/Ayel)

[jheti]

Countdown is canon, and says this: Spock has been living on Romulus forty years. Nero has been in the mining trade for at least twenty. Ayel served at least one tour with Nero before Romulus was wiped off the map.

Mananda is Nero's wife. Mananda says, "I know that look. That's the look that tells me my husband is about to disappear for another three months."

One haul takes a minimum of...I forget what the books specify as a Romulan year, and they're flexible canon; let's pretend for the sake of the argument that it's the same as Earth time.

So. One haul takes a minimum of ninety days. I doubt very much that one haul is one tour; it would be a bit like saying one mission to one planet = one tour for the Enterprise.

Nero and Ayel have known each other for a year at the absolute minimum in canon. Long enough to trade banter over drinks. Long enough that Nero, repeatedly shown to be paranoid even while he was all sparkly-happy sane and his life was perfect, asks for his opinion and makes sure he's coming along BEFORE he goes rushing off to try and save Romulus.

This does not sound like "I hate his rotten fishguts and can't wait to put him off my boat" to me. It sounds like they might even be friends.

That doesn't make them lovers!

I'm not saying it does; bear with me. This is called context. It's what you put subtext in to hold it together.

Okay. Let's pretend that Nero and Ayel don't hate each other and might be friends. Nero is very, very much in love with Mananda, who is in love with him right back, and he's definitely just floored with joy/reverence/awe/love that they're having a son together.

I adore that. It's my favorite page in the entire graphic novel. I want a t-shirt with that panel on it. I ship it hard, people.

But this isn't a case for Nero/Mananda; that's already canon.

Here's where the conjecture comes in.

Nero and Ayel are drinking buddies and Nero just found out that junior is gonna be a boy.

Does that sound like something he'd keep close to the vest? After they've already had the, "If I'm right, Ayel, hanging will be the least of our problems" conversation?

Hell no. It does not.

This means:

Ayel knows Nero loves his wife. Ayel knows Nero is about ready to bust at the seams, he's so proud of having a kid, like he's the first guy to ever help a lady make one.

Ayel knows what it's like to lose everything.

What we don't know, in canon, is what Ayel's take on the situation is.

I honestly don't think a codependent sympathy blowjob is ENTIRELY outside the realm of possibility.

Here's the piece that seems to be missing for some folks:

*Off-key and flat* I have a theory...

Nero loved Mananda so much he will never look at another woman. He'll never even be able to. He's nuts because she's gone. That's canon.

This doesn't leave him without options.

Ayel didn't leave him, and hasn't left him after twenty-five years AND a stint in Klingon prison. (Hey, Paramount: deleting scenes doesn't make them go away.)

I imagine that if Ayel were truly unwilling to go with Nero, if he hated him, he could have made a break for it THEN and, at worst, died being true to himself and his honor. By Rihannsu standards, it would be a valiant and necessary death.

In short: Ayel left with Nero because he wanted to go. One can argue that he wanted the glory, on that mission, and got the proverbial 99 problems instead. Yes. I think so, too.

But he listened when Nero screamed for vengeance. He, too, burnt his grief into his skin.

Ayel stayed.

Probably--I'll concede this, it's very likely--because he couldn't leave, at first. At first. But in all that time, in a quarter of a century, he's had at least one clear, verifiable canon chance to escape, were it his desire.

It doesn't seem to be.

Defense rests.