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“Ryder,” Jaal glanced down, at the man in question, who was drawn in on himself and practically glued to Jaal’s backside. He had his arms held tightly together across his chest and his head lowered as he shivered. The man looked up, as wide-eyed as Jaal could see through his helmet. He made a noise like huh? me? and Jaal turned to face him.
“You have been walking very closely to me since we arrived,” Jaal stated. He didn’t seem annoyed as one might expect, just genuinely curious. “Why is this?”
Ryder was so damn glad he had his helmet on and it obstructed any outside view of his face, because holy shit, he turned
red.
He coughed out an awkward laugh, and took a stiff step backwards, giving Jaal space. “Uh.” Ryder’s line of sight flickered to Vetra, who was standing a couple feet away by a heater, warming her hands. He wondered if she could hear them. And if she was smirking right now.
They stood in a small Angaran outpost, taking momentary shelter as Vetra and Ryder needed defrosting before heading out to the next Kett base. It was hard to pull a trigger when your trigger pulling fingers were frozen into ice.
Ryder looked back to Jaal, who was watching him patiently. “Sorry,” he said quickly.
“For why do you apologize?” Jaal scanned his face.
Ryder raised a hand, going to scratch at his head as he often did when he was flustered, but his helmet was in the way. It fell awkwardly on his thigh, and he rubbed his gloved palm over the metal plating as some way to expend his nervous energy. “Well,” he began, “Turians are not much better at handling the cold, but Humans are even worse, and Voeld is….very cold.” That was an understatement, for sure.
Jaal nodded. “It is.”
“Even with my suit, I’m freezing. And Vetra’s all suited up, too, and metal just retains all the cold. But you aren’t wearing a metal suit, and you’re warm--you give off heat. So when we’re not able to stand by the heaters, you’re the next best thing,” he admitted, “I didn’t really realize I was being that obvious, but I guess...uh, yeah. I’m sorry. I hope you didn’t think I was creeping on you.”
“Oh,” Jaal’s eyes widened for just a moment, out of surprise, and then he relaxed, “Ah, no...not at all. I thought you were nervous about being on a new planet surrounded by unfamiliar aliens.” Straight to the point, as always. Jaal had only been a part of the crew for a couple weeks, and he had learned pretty fast that Jaal--or really just most Angarans--tended to say it as it was. At least he was honest. Ryder could trust that his words could be taken as they were, without any room for deception.
But he was still caught off guard when Jaal continued on to say: “If you would like to stay close to me for warmth, I do not mind, so long as it does not hinder our movement.”
Ryder blinked. “Oh...are you sure? Really, it’s fine…”
Jaal uttered a noise, something like a grunt. Like a verbal shrug. “I do not mind,” he repeated simply.
“Thank you, Jaal,” Ryder muttered, ducking his head. He scooted closer. For a moment he thought, what if he puts his arm around me? Like some stupid romantic vid scene? And his heart stopped, but (fortunately, or unfortunately, Ryder couldn’t decide) he didn’t. He simply stood there, letting Ryder press close to him, and they both put their hands up to the heater.
Vetra snickered.