A/N: While I know I have other pieces requiring an update, this refused to leave me until it was finished. The idea was random and it won't go away, so I'm going to placate my muse. I like the idea and I hope you enjoy this bit too, because there were other couples out there besides Shepard and – in my head canon – Kaidan. If you feel so inclined, please do leave a review! I appreciate every single one, no matter how miniscule it may seem. :)
Disclaimer: Mass Effect belongs to Bioware. I'm just playing in their sandbox.
Citadel security was routine enough – even boring at times – until the Reapers hit and the refugees started pouring into the docks by the ship-ful. How he got stuck babysitting said refugees while his homeworld of Palaven burned, Antarius didn't know. He never resented his job until the war started; security was honorable enough, but standing in the docks day after day, directing incoming refugees, was not so honorable. Not when his people were dying by the millions.
It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about ditching the Citadel for home but that would have meant he was abandoning his post. The turian in him wouldn't allow him to do such a thing.
So he stayed. And they came.
Being bombarded with questions about loved ones and exposure to intense grief started becoming his new routine. Every face belonged to someone who had lost a loved one and it showed. Until one day, there was one that wasn't.
He arrived at his desk to find a young human standing nearby. She had to be young, although he had to admit that he wasn't good at judging alien ages. A teenager, maybe. Fairly tall, with long blonde fringe pulled back tightly – humans called it hair. Easily a colonist. It wasn't anything of her looks that drew his attention, it was her face; not an ounce of grief on her features. She smiled freely, talking to others as they came and went. After all the grief Antarius had been subjected to over the last couple of weeks, he found himself drawn to her carefree, almost happy, demeanor. It felt uplifting – if out of place – among this dingy, overcrowded, anguish-filled place.
When she turned to face him, hours later with her hands folded behind her back, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing here?" Then he flinched ever so slightly, the words said far more harshly than he'd intended them to.
Instead of being offended at his gruff exterior, she seemed amused. "Waiting," she chirped.
Not something unheard of. "Waiting? Waiting for who?"
"For my parents. They put me on the rescue transport and said to wait for them here." She smiled warmly. "They said they'd come find me as soon as they can."
Definitely not unheard of. In fact, it sounded all too familiar. "Well..." He sighed a bit, but couldn't bring himself to tell her that she was holding out for something that may not happen. Too many came to the docks looking for family, waiting for family, only to be crushed when news came that their family wasn't coming. He cleared his throat, going for a softer approach, "I guess this is a safe enough place." Then, not knowing why, he added, "Look, if anyone bothers you, let me know. I'll take care of them, okay?"
This made her grin. "Sure thing sir. Thanks!"
He couldn't help but smile back.
Returning to the grief-filled docks on his next rotation didn't feel as foreboding as it had the last time. Seeing as how all the refugees ended up filtering through his station at some point, he wasn't completely surprised to find the cheerful young woman standing nearby. Strange that he hadn't asked her for her name, too distracted by just getting her to talk – her attitude, in these desolate times, was almost addicting. If someone such as she could hold out hope that her parents were alive and on their way, then why couldn't he? His race was tough; there was no way the turians would go down without a fight.
She was chewing thoughtfully on her lip when he came back from retrieving an updated list of known war casualties which was, already, out of date. By the time the list reached his talons, thousands, even millions, more had perished at the reaper's hands. But, as always, some information was always better than none.
Antarius set the data pad on the desk. "Hey there." His dual-toned timbre caught her off guard, the slight jump in her stance the only indication of such.
"Oh! It's you!" She half-waved in greeting as her green eyes found him. "Hey."
Tapping his talons on the desk, he asked, "your parents get here yet?"
"Nope!" She pursed her lips and then shrugged, not allowing any sort of pessimism to settle over her. Admirable. "It's okay. I mean, they'll get here. They always keep their promises. They..." She wrung her hands and nodded. He could see her mind working, trying to put together a plausible excuse as to what was taking her parents so long to arrive at the Citadel. "The next shuttle was probably just late or something. That's all."
His pale steel gaze dipped downward; he knew what she refused to acknowledge. If her parents weren't here now, they most likely weren't ever going to be. Rescue transports were quick – in and out, to be as efficient as possible. More often than naught, lately, they were being shot out of the sky at an alarming rate. Reapers were as efficient in their destruction. "I'm sure you're right," he said reluctantly, before adding, "I look forward to meeting them."
The mood went decidedly downhill from there, they both could feel it. She sighed. "Hey, I think I'm gonna go get something to eat." With that, she turned away and was, once again, going to leave without dropping her name.
He couldn't let her do it this time, his curiosity over such a simple thing almost driving him nuts. "What's your name kid?" Kid? What the hell?
"Oh, guess we never did get to that part, did we?" She grinned and flounced back over to him, extending her hand across the desk in invitation to his. "I'm Casey."
He didn't understand why extending his talons out toward her human fingers made him nervous but it did. He'd certainly never had a human fetish but spirits if seeing Casey hadn't become something he anticipated with a little bit of excitement. He shook her smaller, rather fleshy hand and offered up his name.
"Antarius, huh?" She giggled as she took her hand away. "Turians and their names. Well, I gotta go. See ya next time."
Next time implied she would be coming back. Somehow the thought made his shift a little more bearable.
He didn't see her for a few days. Although, it wasn't as if he was actively looking for her among the assembled bodies that nearly doubled each day the reapers continued on unchecked. Not that the galaxy at war was just sitting on their talons; not only had he seen Commander Shepard, he heard the news of what she was doing out there – like, for example, doing the impossible by forming an alliance between the turians and the krogans with a cure for the genophage.
Never had he thought to see that. The cure and the alliance.
Near the end of his shift on day four, Casey approached his station looking a little more fatigued than she had the last time they'd chatted. Dark shadows were evident under her eyes that hadn't been there before. She rubbed at one as she approached, his eyes picking up the subtle suppression of a yawn. Was she not sleeping well? Hell, none of them were sleeping well – what a stupid question to ask himself.
"Hey," she mumbled in greeting.
Antarius offered her a slight nod, setting aside the updated casualties list. Third update in four days. He was certain they'd added hundreds of thousands of names to the list – either missing in action or killed. If the vids were an indication of what was happening out there, those who died right off were spared a fare worse fate. "Hey." She leaned against his station on her arms but said nothing. After a few minutes of morose silence, he opted to try and start a conversation since she appeared reluctant to do so. Perhaps she, like so many others, just wanted someone to talk to in these hard times. "Still waiting, I see. Any news yet?"
"No, but...they promised, right?" She shrugged it off but he could see her doubt in the way her eyes avoided his when she answered. Working Citadel security, you learned quickly to pick up on all sorts of unusual behavior and tells. He'd certainly learned how to read humans better. "They'll get here soon."
His mandibles pulled in tight, his way of frowning. Her optimism had certainly suffered. She didn't sound quite as sure as she had when she'd arrived. "I'm sure they will." His relief chose that moment to alert him over the communications line that his shift was up and that he was on his way. Jake showed up a few seconds later but Antarius couldn't bring himself to leave Casey appearing so dejected. Stepping around the desk, he laid his talons on her shoulder and met her eyes. "I have to go but I'll check in on you later, if that's okay?"
She gave him a small smile. "Okay."
Casey was so out of it the next day when he approached, she didn't even notice him. He waited a matter of moments, scanning through the contents of the latest information data pad, but she remained silent, leaning on the counter and keeping her eyes locked on its surface. He found himself worried. "Hey," he offered in greeting, hesitant.
"Oh..." Casey blinked and lifted her gaze to him. "Hey..."
Now he was definitely concerned. She didn't seem at all like herself. Though, he supposed, he didn't really know her all that well, did he? "Looking mighty low today. Are you okay?" He had an uncomfortable thought; not all the refugees handled their grief in a good way. Had someone hurt her? Or harassed her? "Has anyone been bothering you?"
"No, it's not that." She offered him a small, yet strained, smile. "I'm fine."
She wasn't fine. He could see that, but he knew he didn't know her well enough to press if she didn't feel like confiding in him. She was comfortable with him enough at least. It seemed that way, at least. "Ah. I see. So..." He rubbed at the back of his neck, unsure. "Any news?"
"No. They just..." She frowned, lips pressed together thinly. "Their shuttle must be real slow, that's all." He could hear the frustration in her voice. "Do you...do you think they're okay?" Now he avoided her gaze with a swallow. "They promised me they'd come get me, no matter what they had to do. But it's been so long, Antarius."
"I don't know kid...Casey. I'm sure they'd be happy though," he offered, laying his talons on the back of her hand, trying in some way to comfort her. "Knowing you're safe and all..."
"It's just..." Her eyes teared up and he felt his heart clench. He didn't like seeing her so sad. He preferred that happy girl he'd met and the infectious way she spread her optimism through him and the refugees. "I just miss them. I miss them so much."
"I know." He squeezed her hand, carefully because she was so fleshy, then withdrew it as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "Is there anything I can do for you? To help? I'd like to help you..."
She sniffed and he was glad to see that he could bring a smile to her lips, if only a small one. "Nah, thanks though. You know...for listening to me and giving me someone to talk to. I'll be okay." This time it was she who reached out; he didn't know how to react to the feeling of her flesh on the back of his hand, but his heart skipped a beat in response.
"No problem, Casey. It's my job." He cleared his throat, feeling suddenly like a youthful turian on his first date. What was it about this girl that made him react in such a way?
"Just your job?" Were her cheeks just a tad red? Spirits, was she blushing?
"Maybe a little more than that." He confided with a nervous laugh. "Hey, Casey?"
"What?" She was grinning now, obviously excited. Sure, he wasn't that old, but wasn't liking such a young human wrong? She had to be, what, 16? Maybe 17? But hell, he couldn't imagine a day going by without her now. She was as much a part of his routine as the rest of this. "Are you going to ask me out now?"
He shuffled his stance and cleared his throat. "Would that be a bad thing?"
She smiled, a smile that illuminated him to the fact that she might hold just the tiniest bit of affection for him as well. She pressed her hands to the desk and used them to lift herself somewhat over it, leaning across toward him, just enough to plant a kiss on the side of his mandible; a equivalent to a human peck on the cheek. "Nope!"
Leave it to a small human female to bring a little light into his life just when the galaxy was plunging into darkness.
Women.
Some things carried cross species just fine.