„That one is yours. "

Adams waved a hand in the direction of the bunk bed in the left corner of the room.

Kaidan sighed, setting down his duffle bag on his new bunk. The sheets were made so tightly that Kaidan thought he could bounce a credit chip off of it. He would have to remake it later.

Adams undressed and took his shaving kit.

"I will just grab a shower. Do you want to come grab something later?"

Adams, who had shown him around, flipped a towel over his shoulder and paused, expecting an answer.

Kaidan forced himself to smile. He did not feel comfortable with the situation, so it didn't end up as a thousand megawatt smile, but it was one.

"Sure, I will be here."

He wanted to add something, a joke about the mess, that always worked well to break the ice, but Adams left for the shower as soon as Kaidan had finished his first sentence.

"He was just a bit sweaty from the day."

Kadian said to himself. He tried to convince himself that the other man wasn't avoiding him, but ultimately failed.

It was just too similar to his last assignment. Everyone was friendly to his face, but always vanished the moment it was appropriate.

Everyone seemed to tip toe around biotics, constantly expecting an outbreak of the space magic, feared the loss of control. The people thought the further away they were from the biotic the safer they were.

Outward hostility was rare, but every time he overheard some sarcastic remark it hurt.

Command had its fair share of people whom Kaidan considered decent, and others… well, jerks. He'd been around the galaxy to know that every race had their saints and devils. Having assholes in Command didn't come as surprise to him.

Kneeling down beside his bed, he reached under the frame and pulled out his storage unit. Opening it, he cradled his shirts carefully as he placed them on the mattress, careful not to crease the fabric.

It usually started pleasant enough; someone was showing the new guy around. He would introduce Kaidan to everyone and most importantly, show him the pleasantries of small shortcuts in between regulations.

You were a bit unsure, a bit socially awkward, but that was okay, that would be put down to being the new guy.

After placing his last shirt on the mattress, he turned around and leaned against the bunk. A sigh heaved from his chest. He was tired. It had been a long day, and trying to make new friends was never easier. Kaidan could feel another migraine coming on just thinking about it.

Bringing his fingers to his temple, he applied a bit of pressure to relieve the tension. L2 implants, a gift and a curse, though it was more of a curse with the unbearable headaches.

He didn't want to screw this up, but who was he kidding.

It would only take some time until someone would figure out what was different, if it wasn't already known from his files.

He would expect, just expect to hear some offhand commend, some passive aggressive remark and would keep listening to the sarcastic undertones in conversations. He would think and double think his words until he would seem hostile while he just wanted to say the damn right thing.

Kaidan took a deep breath. No time like now. He would keep trying. He was on a new ship, he had a new chance. He took a few last possessions out of his bag, then folded it down and waited for Adams. He did not make him wait for very long.

They went to the mess together, grey uniform walls slowly drifting by. Adams did most of the talking, as expected explaining all of the small things about the ship and crew that was not written down anywhere, but if it was it would be worth its weight in gold.

The lean man by Kaidans side did raise an eyebrow at the sight of the Kaidans portion but didn't say anything, instead he launched into a tale about how once they had found a bug in the stew. The tale existed in pretty much every kind of food distribution camp Kaidan had ever been in, but it was light heartedly told and he found himself relaxing more that he had in months, and suddenly going cold again as he remembered this might not take long.

The rest of the day had been equally strangely nice. Although Kaidan had to stop his habit of assuming that anything said to him was a back handed comment.

The rest had been a strangely easier than he thought it would be. Not that he was complaining, he found the change to be refreshing, but a little off-balancing as well.

A.N.:

So, hello to this little Mass Effect story and a huge thanks to Andrithir for making this way better than it was.

What can I say about this? I like Kaidan and I like whump stories, so here we are :)

I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think.

I do not own Mass Effect and make no money with this piece of fiction.