Her heart pounded when she watched him step onto the ship. Her mouth went dry. Her palms began to sweat. She bit her lip to hold back shouting his name, she tucked one of her legs behind the other, so she wouldn't throw herself into his arms, like she she so desperately wanted to, and she kept her head angled down so she wouldn't be able to see the perfection of his features.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

She'd met him sometime ago, on the citadel whilst on shore leave. An engineer out at the bar for a drink, rather than working, was rare, but her crew forced her out. So there she was. Stuck in the crowd of people. Praying to not be noticed as she sipped her cold water. Then he stepped in.

Even off work, he stood tall and proud. She felt intimidated. They locked eyes, for just a moment, before he turned his gaze to an Asari stripper. She only acknowledged that with a nod and another sip of water.

The lights hurt her eyes. The music made her stomach churn. She wanted nothing more than to curl up on her room on the Normandy, and sleep the night away. If she could just sneak away. Some of the other engineers littered the dance floor. She watched her brother do a shot game with Kaidan. No one's attention was on her, Engineer Jane Shepard could leave as she pleased.

She nodded to the bartender and dropped down from the stool. After glancing over her shoulders twice, she jogged to the door. Not fast enough to cause a scene, but enough to get her out of their quicker.

Then, she was stopped. A firm hand placed upon her shoulder. The smell of cinnamon and discipline. She looked back to be met with chest plates, then up to see a face. The turian who stood tall and proud had his hand placed on her shoulder.

"Can...can I help you?" She murmured. She highly doubted her heard her beneath the blasting music, but she was too frightened to repeat the question.

"I'm glad I caught you," his voice was smooth, it caused her heart beat to speed up in her chest, "You're not...leaving are you?"

She nodded, "I...want to go back to my ship. This isn't really my kinda place."

"Ah, you're on Shore Leave," he spoke with his hand planted on her back as he lead her back to the bar, "then I'm sure your captain wouldn't mind if you had a few drinks."

"I don't drink!" She blurted out before he could sit her back down at a barstool.

He just chuckled in response, "I can tell, you had a glass of water before I even got here. I just want to sit down and talk to you." He said with a slight shrug of the shoulder.

He pulled out a chair for her to sit down at an empty table, and she took it hastily. He slid it back in when she'd sat and took the chair across from her.

"It's… rare to see a turian who doesn't hate humans," she began, mentally punishing herself for this being the only conversation starter she had. She took a lock of her bright, red hair in her hands and stroked it ever so slightly between her fingers.

"I see the potential in you humans. I know you'll go far in the future,"

"Is there a reason you wanted to talk to me?" she turned her head away while continuing to stroke her hair.

"You had a sad look in your eye,"

She glanced down now, "A person like me...I don't often come to places like this. I like to be somewhere a bit more quiet."

"I know somewhere we can go," he said with a smirk.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He stepped by her with no words, their eyes only locking for a brief second before her turned back to captain Anderson.

"We're happy to have you aboard, Nihlus," he said with a firm handshake.

"I'm happy to be here, sir," Nihlus stated, tall and proud.

As Anderson and Nihlus' conversation droned on, more and more crew members began to clear out from the CIC, having already met Nihlus. She was the last to leave, taking one final glance back at his face before going back down stairs for a weapons training. She lightly scratched the scar on the side of her neck.

Jane paced back and forth in the armory. Her thoughts were only of him. He told her he was going to be here, just a few nights before on bid message, but seeing him brought a whole new light to it. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She hoped...no prayed to any god that was listening, that they'd have some time alone to talk. They rarely ever got that since he was so busy with his spectre work and she had things to do on the Normandy.

Occupying her time was hard. The crews buzz was all about that new, cool turian aboard. She tried to work on her weapon, but then she heard the news that he was walking the ship, talking to the crew. What if her saw her? What would she do? What would she say? She hadn't prepared for this.

The elevator opened, and on instinct, Jane's eyes were drawn to him. He hadn't changed much in the slightest, it'd only been a few weeks since they last met. Brown plating and white clan markings. His were so extravagant. They always intrigued her, when he slept at night, she stroked her fingers across them and wondered how he made them so perfect.

One by one, he talked to the crew, asked for names, jobs, and how they liked the other crew members of the Normandy. She prayed that he would just glance over her, she thought she wanted to talk, but now her nerves had kicked in. She was terrified to face him.

He stepped over to her. His footsteps heavy. His back straight. She continued to look blankly at what she was working on, whatever the hell that was. Her leaned over her, taking a long sniff of her hair. Her body seemed to turn into stone, she was so tense.

"You still smell like me," he sighed just beneath his breath, so no one could hear.

"You said so yourself," she started, "it'd take some pretty strong stuff to get the bonding pheromones of a turian off." She was surprised at how easily the words were spilling out now that she was saying them, it felt natural.

"And your bite?"

"It scarred. What about yours?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"In the same place. Just beneath my armor, were no one can see it," he reassured.

Nihlus placed his hand gently over hers. It felt warm to the touch, even beneath his gloves. She never wanted the feeling to leave, but he had too.

"I can't draw too much suspicion now, nobody can know about us. But I promise I will find some downtime before the mission, so that you and I can get to know each other better,"

She only nodded in response as he stepped away and talked to another crew member. She felt like her heart was going to leap from her chest.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

She gazed up at the flowers and ponds on the presidium. The air smelled so good up here. So fresh and sweet. This is what earth smelled like. This is what home smelled like

"So this was the place you wanted to show me?" She rubbed her finger against a petal that had fallen and landed near her. It was soft to the touch.

"Not very many people stop by this late at night. It's quiet, just like you like."

"That it is,"

They sat in silence for some time. Just sitting next to each other, watching the occasion petal fall and listening to the sound of rushing waves. The only thing that could make it more authentic, was chirping birds.

She didn't know why, but she rested her head on his shoulder. He was soft like humans, but the firmness of his plates was nice too. She supposed.

"I first saw you on a video with your brother, some time ago," he suddenly said, "I thought you were pretty attractive, for a human."

"Oh…" was all she could whisper out.

"I was trying to flirt with you tonight, but I guess I'm not that good at it,"

She she her head and lifted herself up from his shoulder, "I'm just super dense. It's not your fault."

He only smirked as a response. It was then that she noticed that his eyes were green. They stood out against the brown of his features.

Nihlus placed a hand softly against her cheek. She didn't know what to say or what to do. She knew he had intentions to kiss her, however turians did that, but she couldn't even decided whether or not she wanted to accept it.

He leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. A shiver ran down her body and she closed her eyes, and led a shaky finger tip up to his fringe. She didn't know what she was doing, but it felt right. He purred ever so slightly and her cheeked curled into a little smile.

He pulled away before her fingers could fully dig into his fringe.

"By god I'm ruining it, I haven't even introduced myself before I start trying to kiss you," he sighed, "I'm Nihlus." He smiled while extending a hand out to her.

"Jane,"