During Mass Effect

Tidbit #1

Maha's POV

I quietly looked down at my workspace below me. Appreciating the small but deadly pistol in my hands. The tiny clicking soothed my frayed consciousness as I took apart the heavy pistol for cleaning. I laid the ammo in a perfectly neat line next to detached grip of the gun, I paused for a bit...examining the line of ammo until I found the flaw that tempted to make my eye twitch out of annoyance, I straightened the single block of ammo before weakly blowing a strand of inky black hair that threatened to block my vision. Sometimes making the world go black and shadowy, I sometimes felt disarray when that would happen, when my long wavy locks would block my vision I would feel vulnerable, like the enemy could see me but I couldn't see them...let's call it paranoia I suppose. The workbench before me creaked slightly when I set the multiple pieces of my pistol down, I started with the grip. That's where most of the bacteria probably was anyway. I polished it and smoothed out the smeared natural human oil that tainted my gun, soon I was able to see my currently stoic features reflecting back at me.

I set the grip down and reached down to pick up an escaping piece of ammo, a low whistle caught my attention and I snapped straight up, realizing that I was being watched. My gaze flit around the mass hanger that carried the almost indestructible Mako before laying my eyes on a certain Turian who leaned heavily on the Mako's side, he must have been working on the old girl, she did get a bit battered from the last run she pulled. I smiled slyly in his direction before rolling my almost black eyes at his ridiculousness. I sighed, knowing that Turians had very, very sensitive ears, I whispered out, "Keep whistling at me like that and I might just have to come over Mr. Vakarian.." I heard a light scoff from the other side of the room and tried not to laugh at the obviously flustered Garrus who tried to busy himself with the Mako again, dropping utensils from time to time when I snuck peeks in his direction. My head snapped over a few feet next to me, Wrex was leaning at his usual spot, but this time..he was toying with his shotgun. He shook his head and looked over at me with a slight sneer. I wrinkled my brows at him and shrugged my shoulders, feigning pure innocence. "What?!" He exhaled silently and muttered under his breath, "Go to his bunker if you need to, but don't do anything stupid here or I'll personally throw both of ya out the airlock." I chucked, my long wavy hair bobbing gently, a familiar flanging voice jittered up and I tried not to scoff, Garrus was giving himself a death wish, "You're just jealous, Wrex." I turned to see him busying himself with the Mako again, his mandibles flaring from time to time to indicate that he had been pulling off a signature Turian smile. Wrex merely grunted and shook his head, "Keep talkin' boy…" I knew Wrex was only joking; such was his nature of jokes…they usually consisted of multiple but funny death threats.

I looked over to see Ashley shuffling though her locker, her workbench filled to the brim with different types of ammo and weapons; she was the gunnery chief after all. But there was a certain air about her that seemed to scream, 'Don't fucking talk to me or I'll laser beam you to death with my glower power.' I didn't care, we often got into debates and arguments due to our clashing personalities, I know I shouldn't question what was up with her now, but curiosity got the better of me and general concern took over. Sure she could be a bitch sometimes, but I was capable of the same thing. I cautiously approached her until I was standing above her crouched form, "What's up?" She looked up at me and sighed exasperatedly, "Nothing...just…anxious." I cocked my head to the side and put my hands on my hips. What was worrying her? I cleared my throat and inquired on, " Wanna talk about it?" Her light brown eyes found mine and her heavy lashes brushed against her pink cheeks. She sighed again, "Don't you...I don't know, feel weird with...them aboard?" I looked at her quizzically before briefly glancing over at Wrex and then Garrus. I knew full well that they could hear even the slightest whisper within this room; the question was...were they listening?

My gaze returned to Ashley again, "Not the slightest, I learned long ago that that kind of attitude doesn't help." Ashley stood up, she was by far much taller than me, hell I was only five foot one, everyone was a giant to me. Her expression hardened. "It's not an attitude, I'm just expressing how I feel around them and I sure as hell don't trust them or feel safe around them." I looked at her, disbelief clear on my lips. "They are our only hope to finding Saren in his tracks and you're sitting here moping about your fucking xenophobia? It's been 26 years already, you can leave when this is done." Ashley gritted her teeth, her jaw clenched and it was clear she did everything in her power right now to hold back and not slug me. "...It's not fucking xenophobia, I just don't trust them. They're suspicious and we can't trust them, not this quickly, Shepard should realize that." I huffed exasperatedly. How can she not realize that she was indirectly just being racist?! Someone cleared their throat in the hanger before going back to work again and I had known Garrus had been listening.

Wrex sauntered over to him and watched from a distance as the two women bickered vehemently towards each other. There had been a lot of cussing, pointing, and harsh tones. Wrex chuckled heavily, clearly amused by the show the two human females put on. "Heh heh...these catfights just keep getting better and better…looks like your girlfriend is about to loose her shit." Garrus stood up from his crouched position and sighed heavily, these fights were becoming hell of a lot more frequent...why couldn't they for just one day, ignore each other. "She's not my girlfriend...yet." He shook his head, his iridescent blue green eyes surveying over Maha and Ashley, "And these catfights are not entertaining, Wrex...someone could get hurt…or accidentally fly out of the hanger." Wrex snorted, resting against the Mako. "You're a terrible liar Garrus, I know you think these catfights are entertaining." Garrus rolled his eyes and crossed his long arms across his chest, after a moment of silence his mandibles flared and he threw his taloned hands up, his voice flanging strongly in annoyance, "Okay fine..maybe they are just a little amusing." Wrex grunted a chuckle and looked back at the still arguing females, "This is why when females are mad and have guns in their hands on Tuchanka, us males steer clear out of the way." Garrus set his utensils down looked back the fight, "Come on you big brute, we have to stop this before Shepard does."

They both hesitantly sauntered over towards the females, Wrex warily nodded his head towards Maha and Garrus visibly gulped. "Alright, ladies..ladies..let's not get our bloomers in a twist here...break it up before Shepard finds out." Ashley glared at Garrus, "Bloomers? Are you fucking kidding me?" Garrus's eyes widened and he whispered at Wrex, "Aren't those what human females call their undergarments?" Wrex shrugged awkwardly, "How the hell am I suppose to know, wise crack?" Maha snapped back at Ashley, "OI, he didn't do anything wrong, don't you dare talk to him that way you bitch!" Wrex whispered a bit disppointed, "Why doesn't she defend me like that?" Garrus looked back him, "You don't want an answer to that." He turned back just in time to see the two girls lunge at each other Garrus and Wrex quickly intervened, the Turian grabbed Maha by the waist, his long fingers wrapping around her frame easily. He hefted her up off the ground easily, fighting off her thrashing while Wrex blocked Ashley's line of sight. "Get her outta here, Garrus." Garrus huffed exasperatedly and threw her over his shoulder, "Would you stop squirming! This fight is over, we're going to have a little talk."