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Drip.
Drip.
“Thanks, I think,” Ashley says, tilting her head back against the wall as she tries in vain to stop the bleeding from her nose. It’s not pouring blood, at least, just dribbling. What’s not helping matters is that she’s still soaked from that fucking hell-canal on Virmire, so the blood is mixing with canal water and getting everywhere. The white parts of her armor are far from pristine, but this is still gross.
“‘Thanks you think?’” Nihlus repeats from her side, incredulous. They’re sitting in the hangar together, having been triaged by Chakwas to not be at immediate risk of dying but still requiring medical attention at some point. They were given orders to find somewhere to sit and wait while she patched up Kaiden and Tali. He’s holding his left arm at an awkward, pained angle. “You think you’re grateful for my saving your life?”
Ashley feels her face flush. “Shut the fuck up,” she mutters, though he raises a good point. If he hadn’t been on Virmire with the Normandy crew, if he hadn’t been willing to drop what he was doing and come help—
Shepard had been put in an impossible situation, after all. Ashley’s never felt her stomach drop like it had when Shepard had announced she was going to go save Kaiden.
“Thank you for saving my life, Nihlus,” she says, voice lilting in a mocking manner. “There. Happy?”
“Almost,” he says. “Is there anything else you can offer me in gratitude?”
“We live on a ship, Nihlus. I have hardly any possessions, and though you have your own room, it’s practically a shoe closet. You wouldn’t have anywhere to store anything I gave you.”
He hums. It’s a strange sensation when she’s pressed next to him on the wall like this.
“A kiss, then,” he says after a moment.
Ashley snorts and immediately regrets it. Wincing due to the pain of her nose, she says, “Really? That’s what you want?”
“I’ve never kissed a human,” Nihlus says, his mandibles flaring. “I admit, I am curious.”
“Yeah, but given your reputation, I’m assuming you’ve kissed an asari. It’s probably pretty similar.”
“‘Probably?’ Goodness, do you have xenophilic experience I don’t know about?”
Ashley counts to ten and focuses on breathing through her mouth. “For fuck’s sake.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Nihlus says, clearly disappointed. “And that does make the prospect of receiving a kiss for being your savior infinitely more valuable. I get to—what’s the human phrase? Pop your cherry?”
“That applies to virginity. I’m not a virgin.”
He tuts at her. How a turian can even make that noise is beyond her understand. “Semantics, Ashley. You’ve never had relations with another species. You’re a virgin as far as that is concerned.”
The absolute persistence of this man. “My nose is bleeding,” Ashley points out.
“Fortunately, I am not sensitive to levo-chirality fluids,” he responds, sounding chipper.
Fluids. What a word choice. “It’s fortunate only for you. Some of us would prefer you have a reaction.”
“Come now, Ashley, if that happened, then who would have saved you?” he says.
“Don’t remind me,” she grumbles, shifting in place. Cursing whatever supernatural force brought her into this situation, she steels herself, then turns and plants a kiss on his mouthplates. It’s a strange sensation, kissing someone who doesn’t have lips, and especially weird to feel the sensation of his hard mouth move beneath hers. She pulls back quickly. “Happy now?”
“Exceedingly,” Nihlus says with a wide turian grin. There’s a smudge of reddish-brown on his mouth now. Ashley tries not to dwell on it too much and sits back against the wall, feeling her cheeks flame.
How utterly infuriating.