Chapter Text
Well, all things considered, this was a shitty visit to the Citadel.
Alistair sighed as he walked towards the Presidium, entire body still aching. They had said he was fine after what had happened, but… he didn’t feel alright. A soreness had settled into his bones and wouldn’t leave no matter what.
“Commander, swing left.”
Kaidan’s voice behind him led him to veer slightly to the mentioned direction. Just in time, he missed slamming into a pole. Alistair swore he heard the man sigh – definitely was him. Bo usually just told him to echo-locate or something like that – behind him.
“Thanks.”
“You really should get that looked at, Commander.”
What was there to look at? His right eye hadn’t worked since Akuze. It was a miracle he even had the damn thing still, the hell he went through. Replacing it might just throw off his balance and - what many considered to be a lack of – aim. Besides, the one dead eye and the heavy scar that accompanied it was great for intimidation.
He needed that. It was hard to intimidate people when he only came up to their chin.
Alistair shook his head as he got back on course. “Let’s keep going. Probably shouldn’t keep the Council waiting.”
Hopefully, he at least sounded calm. It was all a ruse. Really, he was about ready to die on the spot from nerves. It wasn’t every day that you went before the Council, especially to tell them something they probably didn’t want to hear. And oh, they really didn’t wanna hear all about the shit that had been beamed into his head by the weird antenna of doom back on Eden Prime.
It had a proper name, but it was a fucking antenna of doom so there.
“There’s no way they’re going to believe any of this.” Bo was as much used to this as he was, so she was probably right on the credits as always. At best, the council would just give their small group some weird ass looks while patting them on the head and sending them off. Udina would have a temper tantrum, he’d get a headache, and they’d all go back to the Normandy wishing they’d never done it at all.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It was like clockwork.
“We still have to try, though.” Kaidan was far more optimistic. How, Alistair had no clue, but it was good to keep him around just for that. His tone changed, however, as he suddenly swung around. “Commander-”
“I know, I know, swing lef-”
He didn’t swing left nearly fast enough, unfortunately. Or maybe it should have been swing right. Neither of them had really gotten communication nailed down. And instead, something got nailed by a 140 pound biotic.
Alistair felt himself collide into something hard that was far too warm to be a piece of architecture. The fact it let out a strangled noise that might have been annoyance and shock definitely meant it was sentient. Since it came down with him and he didn’t hear bones or electronics cracking, that narrowed down the list of species he would have to apologize to in a few seconds. Luckily, it wasn’t a Krogan. They were built like tanks and he still had bruises from the last time.
“Oww…”
“That’s my line.”
The slight hum that came with the smooth voice confirmed that the dulcet tones were translated. So did the weird fucking knee jutting into his side. From the looks of things, Alistair had run smack dab into a Turian.
Wouldn’t Alec Ryder be proud?
Alistair jumped to his feet, face turning red enough to match his hair. He would have offered out a helping hand, but his victim was already pulling themselves back up to their full height. Naturally, they were at least a head taller.
“Watch where you’re going.”
Alistair couldn’t speak at that moment, thanks to the fact his tongue had shoved itself down his throat. It was the voice, of course. When it came down to it, he was a weak man for voices. Even translated, this one was hot. So was the Turian it was attached to, for that matter. And as was just his look, said dream in blue armor was giving him a rather put out expression.
Wasn’t he just the master of first impressions?
Since his commander clearly wasn’t able to speak, Kaidan filled in. “Sorry about that. He has some vision problems and didn’t see you coming.”
“I was standing still.”
Oh, why couldn’t Eden Prime had killed him? Alistair’s face was full on crimson now as he managed to find his own special brand of dumbassery. It was right where he had left it, of course, next to his social anxiety and inability to aim straight. How had he forgotten that?
“I’m having a whole lot of vision problems.” Red faced, he began to walk away and only paused once more to glance back at the annoyed Turian who looked to be heading back to the C-SEC offices. Maybe he had just gotten out of a bad meeting too; he could feel for the guy.
He had also basically felt up the guy too. Yep… he was going to be thinking about him for quite some time.
“Again, really sorry… please don’t arrest me for hit and run.”
The bad joke leaked out between his lips before he could stop it. Somehow, his face managed to get even redder. At this point, all he could really do was book it the fuck out of there and hope nobody caught it on film. Problem was, there was no way to do it politely.
The Turian blinked in surprise and his mandibles twitched. “Uh… right.”
Yep… he was dead. This was truly hell.
Luckily, Bo had his back as she pushed him forward. Maybe it was his imagination, but her gaze lingered on their hit and run victim for the briefest of moments. “Didn’t we have a bunch of useless aliens to talk to? Or did we just come here for tea.”
Of course they came here for tea, but that came after the universe’s most pointless conference. Still, it was the kick in the ass Alistair needed to get back in as decent a frame of thought as possible. Focused, he began to move forward, towards where Anderson and the Council were waiting for them.
Though, he did spare one last look back at the Turian he had smacked into. He was already heading in the opposite direction, definitely not maybe catching one last look as well. That was fine by Alistair, because it saved him some extra embarrassing.
Plus, he got to watch his ass move.
“Focus on the talking asses, not the walking one.”
She was right. Alistair frowned as he went back to work. There were much more important things in mind. Besides, it was likely he would never see the other man again if he was lucky. It was kind of hard to come back from something like that anyway.
Oh well. Easy come, easy go.