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When Shepard walked into the armoury, he hadn’t expected to find Zaeed clad only in an undershirt, a pair of briefs, and a pair of crew socks. His armour was spread across the center counter top, and Zaeed cleaned a small corner of a chest piece with a cotton swab. He didn’t look up from his work as he absently said, “Hey Shepard.”
Zaeed’s posture didn’t shift or change now that Shepard was hesitantly in the room. He stood confidently in his underwear, and he raised a sock-clad foot to rub the back of his leg. Shepard replied a soft, “Hey,” as if his voice would destroy the quiet, peaceful moment. He added, “Have you seen Jacob?”
“He said he’d give me some space to do my work,” Zaeed said. “Didn’t peg him for a prude.”
Zaeed leaned forward as he moved onto another piece of his armour, and his ass slightly jutted out in the process. Shepard tried not to visibly swallow. Part of him always suspected the back of Zaeed’s armour had some sort of padding, maybe for extra support to his back or just to protect him from stray bullets, but Zaeed’s perky bubble butt seemed to be the real thing. It wasn’t a secret that Zaeed was built like a brick wall, but it was different seeing him without his armour. He was still thickly built, and Shepard found the softer stomach that hung out of his undershirt and over his underwear band endearing. His chest had a light dusting of black and grey hairs though it thickened around his pelvis. Otherwise his body was littered with tattoos and scars. They intermingled together so thoroughly that sometimes it looked like the tattoo was designed to have a scar breaking it apart. Burns, bullet wounds, thin blade wounds - Shepard thought Zaeed had probably been hit by every weapon at least once.
“Can I help you with something else?” Zaeed asked. His eye shifted to Shepard and gave him a confident smirk as he replied, “Or should I charge tickets to the show?”
Shepard laughed a bit sharply, embarrassed at his transparency. He moved to the other side of the table - the only way he’d be able to keep his eyes off Zaeed’s ass - and said, “Actually, if you feel like talking, I’d like to hear more about your armour.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Shepard said. “We’ve been out in space a few times and, uh, it’s kind of weird that you don’t have anything protecting your head or arm. Unless you’ve got secret biotics, I figure the armour is making some sort of barrier that keeps oxygen circulating outside of your armour.”
“You’re right,” Zaeed said.
Shepard looked over the armour. “Really? I couldn’t spot any spot on the armour where a generator for that sort of thing would be.”
Zaeed leaned a bit closer to Shepard and coolly said, “I have secret biotics I exclusively use in lovemaking and when I get spaced.”
Shepard’s eyes widened, and a smirk crossed Zaeed’s face as he returned to cleaning. Shepard frowned. It wouldn’t be easy to get that image out of his head. He said, “Hey, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”
“Why are you so interested?” Zaeed asked.
Shepard shrugged. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but you’re one of the main staples of my team. I just wanted to get to know you a bit better, and you clearly care about your armour.”
Zaeed stopped working to openly stare at Shepard for a moment as he clearly internally debated over whether or not to tell the story. It was odd. Zaeed always acted like an open book, and he wasn’t the type to hold back a story. Shepard let his eyes run across the pieces of his armour to keep from meeting Zaeed’s eye. A lot of them were clearly reforged scrap - likely from other pieces of armour. He didn’t dare touch any part of it, and he suspected if he touched anything, Zaeed would bat his hand away.
Zaeed turned back to his work and said, “Yeah, there’s an extra shield generator inside that has additional support systems if I’m spaced or if my shields fail.”
“So you have an extra layer of protection.”
“Yeah,” Zaeed said. “I know you like the yellow on the armour because it draws fire away from you, but it’s designed like that. One, I’m Zaeed fucking Massani wearing bright yellow armour. I’m not fucking scared of whatever you throw at me, and I’m not gonna hide myself from you. Two, I mean, yeah it makes me more of a target, so it’s good to have the backups for when I inevitably take additional fire.”
“I mean, you’re also a sniper, right?”
“And I’m confident I can do that undetected in yellow armour,” Zaeed said with a shrug. “Next question.”
“Hold on, so the yellow is entirely a celebration of your ego?” Shepard asked.
“It’s strategy,” he said. “It’s not like I’m wearing a yellow catsuit. It’s armour. It’s meant to protect me when hit. Next question.”
“The pauldron,” Shepard said. “It’s from a piece of Krogan armour, right? And it’s in your blindspot.”
“Yeah,” Zaeed said. “I can’t see shit out of that side, so I can’t tell if anything’s coming my way. So it’s partly an extra layer of protection, and it looks pretty bad ass.”
“That it does,” Shepard said with a smile. “When did you put this together?”
“A friend of mine put it together while I was nursing my wounds,” Zaeed said. “I’ll be honest, yellow wasn’t my first choice, but I don’t regret letting him convince me.”
“Wait, so the yellow is someone else celebrating your ego?”
“I mean, if it’s someone else celebrating, I wouldn’t call it my ego,” Zaeed said with a huff. “He knows my strengths and weaknesses and if you need to call the yellow a celebration, it’s celebrating that.”
Shepard laughed, and he got a slight smile from Zaeed, though his attention stayed firmly on the upkeep of his armour. Shepard said, “So it was after Vido shot you?”
“Yeah,” Zaeed replied. “I had a nasty infection because I couldn’t get it to heal quite right. Finally reached my stubborn ass out for help. This Krogan, Qursan, he made a bunch of the Blue Suns armour for us back in the day, but we eventually switched over someone who could produce them faster and in bulk. But he had a soft spot for me, partly because Vido and I helped him get his start in smithing armour, and partly because I’m so god damn cute.”
Shepard couldn’t help himself. He interrupted Zaeed to ask, “And that’s why he didn’t add any armour to your ass?”
Zaeed grinned. “There’s still some reinforcement there, but yeah, he said he just didn’t have it in him to cover up one of my best features.” He continued, “Anyway, if you can believe it, he had started dating this Quarian exile - a Nise’Gaallo. I guess it started while I was wrapped up in Blue Suns business. The Quarian designed most of the fancy shit in the armour, like my backup shields. He knew a lot about making big technology fit naturally in small armour. It really suited Qursan’s armour well. I can tell you they’re a damn strong team when working together.”
Shepard was surprised. “A Quarian and a Krogan?”
Zaeed smiled and shook his head. “I don’t get it either, but they worked perfectly together, and they got my armour made in record time on top of helping me fight off infection. I owe them both a lot and, yeah, I could probably afford better looking armour now, but this armour has protected me through a lot of things that should have been fatal. I don’t even like taking it off that much.” Zaeed frowned as he continued, “I just feel more secure in it, you know? Can’t trust anyone these days, and that includes mass-produced armour.”
“Yeah,” Shepard said. He could related. He didn’t exactly feel secure on a Cerberus ship to begin with, and it surprised him that Zaeed talked so openly about being insecure without his armour as he stood in his underwear in the armoury. Shepard thought everyone could blindly see how little he trusted the ship he lived in, but Zaeed’s insecurity certainly didn’t show. Shepard admired it, but he thought Zaeed would brush off any real heart-to-heart or compliment.
So he said, “So what’s the emblem stand for? Is it some kind of mercenary thing?”
“Oh Christ,” Zaeed said with a laugh. “It’s a symbol of Clan Strukar. I made fun of Nise and Qursan for their Krogan/Quarian relationship, and Qursan said his clan was known for embracing outsiders. I, uh, I obviously was at a pretty low point after losing the Suns. I’d lost everything and it destroyed a lot of the trust I had in other people. Hell, those two worked pretty damn hard to regain it. Qursan welcomed me into his clan, which I’m pretty sure is just him and Nise, but, I don’t know,” his voice trailed off for a moment, and Shepard waited patiently. After a beat of silence, Zaeed said, “It felt good to be a part of something again, and it’s comforting knowing that whatever shit is thrown at me, I can always go back and lick my wounds there with them.”
“So no one’s ever recognized the emblem?”
“Sometimes Krogan do,” Zaeed said. “I always thought it was just, like, Qursan’s signature on my armour, but now that we’re talking, I’m wondering if maybe he does have an extended clan somewhere. Anyway, no one’s claimed to be a part of it, but no one’s accused me of salvaging Krogan armour. It’s pretty clear to Krogan that it’s their own kind’s workmanship made for a human frame. Anyway, maybe I’m a sentimental asshole, but this’ll be the last armour I ever wear. And I’ll be proud to die wearing it if we kill ourselves going through the relay, Shepard.”
“And you think we will?” Shepard asked.
Zaeed laughed. “No. I think we’ll survive and be god damn heroes.” Zaeed looked over his armour and said, “Now are you going to want to watch me get dressed, or are you going to give me a few minutes of privacy?”
Shepard tried to sound innocent as he replied, “You mean I don’t get to see how it all goes together?”
Zaeed laughed. “All right, stay,” he said, “but I know you’re just here for the show.”