Chapter Text
“Aren’t you just dying to wake up the krogan?” asks Kasumi. Shepard glowers.
“Jane has already appealed to my curiosity,” cuts in EDI. “It was unexpected to discover that this did in fact have some effect. However, I cannot countermand a direct order from the ship’s captain.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical? She was genetically engineered for ‘perfection’ herself, right?”
“That’s what I heard,” says Kasumi. She always sounds quietly amused, but she isn’t mocking, Shepard reminds herself.
“So we have a tank-grown krogan whom Okeer claimed was the cream of the crop, and we’re just not gonna use him. Fantastic.”
“Krogan can be unpredictable at the best of times,” says Kasumi.
“You’re siding with Lawson?”
“I didn’t realise we had to declare allegiance.” As usual, most of Kasumi’s face is hidden, but Shepard can tell she isn’t smiling.
“Sorry. I’m in a shitty mood. I should go eat some of Rupert’s cooking so I at least have an excuse.”
*
It isn’t that she has cabin fever - between a spacer childhood and two years in prison, there isn’t much chance of that happening. If anything, she’s still getting used to having the run of the ship. She’s just frustrated - frustrated that Lawson hasn’t given her the chance to prove herself on the field yet; frustrated at Chambers’ questions, which are a lot less subtle than she thinks they are; frustrated at the knowing looks she gets from the crew every time she goes to talk to Vakarian. And that’s another thing - Vakarian never approaches her. He never approaches anyone. He’s talked to Ken and Gabby maybe a couple of times about upgrades to the main guns, and she thinks he's exchanged a few words with Taylor, once. Other than that, he shuts himself away in the main battery.
It’s not like she’s hurting for company or anything. She and Kasumi are basically roommates, and have become close, occasional bickering aside; Ken and Gabby are always good for a game of cards; she often drops in to talk to Mohandas in the med bay; she exchanges dirty jokes with Rupert every time she walks by. Even Taylor is alright if you catch him in the right mood.
The fact is, Shepard is a big girl who’s faced death enough times not to pussyfoot around, and she can admit that she has feelings for Vakarian besides friendship. She doesn’t expect anything besides friendship back (though she’s willing to risk getting shot down), but right now she’s getting a whole lot of nothing.
Her father would probably have told her to give him space, but she’s her mother’s daughter through and through, for better or worse. She approaches the battery doors and steps through.
“Hey Vakarian, I was just gonna grab a bite. Care to join me?”
“Oh, Jane. I was actually - ”
“Calibrating something? Come on, V, when was the last time you ate?”
“Forgive me if dextro MREs don’t give me much of an appetite.”
“Do you want me to talk to someone, see if they can get in some better rations for you?”
“There’s not a lot of point. I’m the only dextro-DNA alien on the ship.” He says ‘alien’ like it’s some kind of an insult. Shepard wonders if someone’s been giving him hassle, or if he’s come up with this neurosis all by himself. “Anyway, I can live on that stuff, even if it’s not exactly gourmet.”
“What do the quarians do for food - on the flotilla?”
“I think they grow things. Have garden ships.”
“Hmm. Well, if we cross paths with the migrant fleet maybe we can make a trade. Lawson for a vegetable box seem fair?” Vakarian’s injured mandible twitches, and then he seems to wince. She pretends not to notice. “Won’t you join me? I hate eating alone.” It’s a lie. Shepard doesn’t hate doing much of anything alone, lucky for her.
Vakarian casts a reluctant look at the gun, then turns back to her. “Sure, I could probably use a break anyway.”
*
Vakarian shrinks under the curious glances of the crew, and Shepard can’t help but feel a little impatient. They would have looked their fill by now if it didn’t take wild horses to drag him out of the gun battery. The way he picks at his mush of food is what Hannah would have called ‘bird-like’, though never within Turian hearing. The thought makes her smile despite herself.
“Hey, Kasumi pointed out that I didn’t really get a chance to keep up with the latest vids while I was on the Purgatory. I hadn’t really thought about it, but she’s right. She wants to show me ‘Talons’. You should join us.”
“Isn’t that the human horror vid where crazed Turians attack? All the Turian reviews said it was terrible, which I guess isn’t surprising, but… I’m not sure I’d be the intended audience.”
“That’s the whole point, Vakarian. You watch bad horror movies so you can make fun of them. Or maybe you’d prefer ‘Fleet and Flotilla’?”
“I’m not sure what you’re implying,” he replies slyly.
“You know exactly what I’m implying. So what’s it to be, offensive anti-Turian propaganda or thinly-veiled cross-species erotica?”
“When faced with a choice like that, I don’t know how I’m supposed to decide.”
“Come on, V. I’ll let you hold my popcorn.”
“Well, in that case…”
*
Shepard may have had slight reservations about putting a master thief and an ex-prison guard in the same room together, but a quiet kinship soon settles over them. Of course, she’s the common factor between them, but she almost feels a little out of place. A little loud, a little brash, a little - spiky. Kasumi is so composed, and Vakarian so withdrawn, that Shepard feels as though she’s talking too much and taking up too much space.
That’s just at first, though. A half hour into the vid, Vakarian is dumbfounded enough to have come out of his shell a little (“we don’t have shells!” he shouts at the screen, where a human actor in some kind of unconvincing holosuit portrays a rabid Turian. Shepard resists the urge to apologise on behalf of her entire species - hell, she’s not from Earth).
He does indeed hold her popcorn for her. “What would happen if you ate some?” she asks him during a lull in the action (a pretty human girl has retreated to the sewers, for reasons which are unclear).
“Probably nothing, or indigestion. But worst case scenario, I get ileus. And if it’s left untreated, or surgery goes wrong, I could die.”
“There goes my idea for a dare,” she jokes.
“It’s pretty rare, but there’s one story about a Turian mining ship that got knocked off-course, crash-landed on some nothing little garden world. The crew got so desperate for food they ate some of the local wildlife - amino-based. They were rescued two days later, but at that point half the crew was past help. Too late to operate. If they’d just stayed hungry a little longer, they would have been fine.”
“Hunger can’t be reasoned with,” Kasumi puts in quietly. There’s a sore point there, Shepard sees instantly - she’s used to sizing people up for weaknesses; it’s hard for her to turn it off, even among friends. The silence afterwards is in danger of going on too long, making Kasumi feel too exposed.
“Shh,” Shepard says, “I think this chick is about to eat it.”
*
Vakarian retires to his cubby in the battery soon after the vid is over. Shepard considers the night a success, though. They all bonded, she thinks - and she’s glad Vakarian and Kasumi have had a chance to get to know one another. Gun to her head, if she had to trust anyone to watch her six, it would be those two.
She’s thinking of mixing herself and Kasumi a nightcap when EDI calls her to Lawson’s office. She tries to remember the last time she did anything particularly insubordinate, and draws a blank.
She’s none the wiser as she steps into the office.
“Jane,” Lawson says coolly. “There’s been another colony abduction, this time on Horizon. Solus thinks he’s developed a countermeasure to the seeker swarm. We should be there by tomorrow morning. I’ll want you on the ground.”