Simply Love

Why must love happen extraordinarily?

Can love not be simple?

Must it be a perfect match?

Must the love be filled with problems?

Why can the love not have a simple balance?

Filled with things to work out

But also has things that just work

Love should make us laugh

Love should make us cry

Most of all Love is as simple as it is complex

This love is simple

As it started with simple words

'Talk about awkward…' Nel thought warily.

She knew about the whole 'Turians aren't fans of humans' shit but this was a bit extreme…She was trying to make a delivery for Bailey and the Turian across the counter was outright glaring at her! The rest of the employees were much the same, acting as if she were some sort of plague.

"Do you need something?" the turian hissed.

Nel took a deep breath and held out a data pad. "Bailey sent me down here to have you sign off on the inventory you ordered." She responded.

"And why couldn't Bailey come down here himself?" he asked suspiciously.

"Bailey's been swamped with work." She said blinking.

The Turians began roaring with laughter and Nel blinked before frowning with anger. The Turian smirked at her. "The human's too swamped huh?" he asked in a taunting voice.

Nel glared. "The C-Sec soldiers he works with at the front entrance were shot yesterday trying to protect someone. As thanks, Bailey and I have been doing their share of work so they don't have to come back to piles of it. So if the lot of you can't grow up and show some respect for that then sign the damn data pad so I can leave." Nel snapped.

The Turians fell eerily silent as they stared at Nel. To her credit, she didn't even flinch under their stares. She held out the data pad for the Turian to sign without a word. He signed it and Nel stormed out of the store, now in a shitty mood. Bailey warned her that the people that worked there didn't like humans…he could have said something about the extent of that dislike…

"Hey, wait!" Nel didn't stop. They probably weren't talking to her.

"HUMAN!" Now Nel stopped. Human…her?

Nel turned; the Turian behind the counter was running at her. He stopped and seemed to think about something for a moment.

"Don't clutter my workspace." He said and shoved her datapad in her hand.

The Turian left and Nel raised a brow but said nothing else. Walking through the Ward was a lot easier if you weren't human, but at least Nel had a few friends there. Bailey was one friend of course, but she did befriend a Quarian and the Presidium Groundskeeper.

Nel padded up the stairs as quickly as she could. The stairwell was more dangerous than the Dark Star Club to be honest. Nel waved to the Used Ship Dealer as she passed and the Volus waved back almost cheerfully. Nel wouldn't admit it, but she had a major soft spot for ship models. The workers there always teased her by finding ones she didn't have and putting them on display just to get her worked up because she couldn't buy them.

Sure they'd send her it after so long but it never ceased to stop annoying her while they displayed it.

"Bailey," she addressed her friend when she reached the desk.

The man grinned at her and a feeling of dread settled in her chest. "Two more packages at your desk." He snickered.

"Are you kidding me?" Nel asked, her tone an octave higher than normal. A strained smile graced her lips.

"Nope, go check." Bailey began to laugh.

Nel stuck her tongue out at Bailey before turning to leave and walking to the door. As it opened Bailey called after her.

"Have fun Nelly!" he called.

Flipping him the bird, Nel left through the door and went down the hall. "Good morning Salem." Nel said to the guard as she passed.

"Good morning Nel." He replied with a yawn.

Nel giggled softly and went through the other door. The other C-Sec officers teased her as she passed to get to her terminal and Nel rolled her eyes or growled at each of them. Nel gawked at her desk. Bailey had forgotten to mention the packages came up to her knees.

"For heaven's sake what's in them?" she murmured.

Nel walked over and palmed at the box before deciding to open them at home. "Aren't you going to open them?" Juno asked, a human officer.

Nel shook her head at the woman. "I'll open them at home." Nel smiled awkwardly.

"Does it say who they're from?" she asked.

Nel put her hands on her hips in mock annoyance. "Well aren't you nosy today." She replied.

Nonetheless, Nel looked around the box and saw there weren't even tags for delivery. "Hey, Rills," Nel called to the Turian, "Did you see who brought these up this morning?" she asked.

The Turians shook his head before going back to work. Nel sighed, it was bad enough they had anti-human politicians, but now her co-workers weren't tolerating them? This was starting to put a weird edge on her job.

~o~ After Work ~o~

Nel rubbed her temples wearily as she hefted the two boxes into a transit car and hopped inside. She could not wait to just sink into her couch and eat leftover Chinese food. Pressing a few buttons, she set course for her apartment. Nel leaned back in the seat trying to relax after a full day of work at the Citadel. The Turian shop suddenly crossed her mind.

The one Turian that returned her datapad…

He was being nice by returning it yet it managed to make it sound rude and like a nuisance. It was confusing…scratch that, he was confusing.

Finally her apartment came into view and Nel hopped out of the transit, making sure to grab her things, and sent the machine on its way. Nel waved to the doorman as she passed and clicked the elevator button. The lift pinged, notifying her of its acknowledgement of the request, and opened its doors. Nel pushed the button for the seventh floor and waited as the doors closed.

The elevator seemed to go slower than ever but Nel was tired. When the elevator finally stopped at her floor, she bumped straight into a familiar face.

It was the shopkeeper.

Nel felt her face take on a light blush as the two tried to maneuver around each other. Finally, the Turian gave an annoyed click and tightened his mandibles. He grabbed Nel's shoulders, turned in a circle, and pressed a button, closing the elevator in Nel's face. It was an odd exchange, but Nel wasn't about to complain.

'I didn't know he had an apartment here…' Nel mused thoughtfully.

Nel keyed the door open with the pass code and let out a grateful sigh as she managed to get in the door, let her things drop on the counter, close the door, and slump against the low cabinets. Nel was utterly exhausted and she imagined Bailey was too. They were both sharing a doubled load of work so she wasn't surprised she felt so tired.

Suddenly her stomach growled.

She sighed when she remembered a little tidbit about the Citadel. She had been reaching for the phone to call in an order but the thing about the Citadel was…well…they didn't deliver food like humans did. Businesses on the Citadel had a harder time delivering due to the sheer size of the Citadel. There weren't enough people, if any, who knew where everything was to deliver food. That and the sheer size of the place presented another problem.

It would make sense for a business to expand, but human government was nothing compared to the Citadel. Most places didn't bother trying to expand due to the complexity of the forms and the lack of efficiency the people supposed to be signing those papers had.

Nel yawned and hauled herself to her feet to make her way over to the fridge. She smiled when she spotted pizza in the freezer and decided that was more appetizing than leftover Chinese ramen. Taking the pizza from its packaging Nel popped it in the oven as it preheated and set the timer to twelve minutes cook time.

Satisfied by her handiwork, Nel activated the vid screen.

"Tele-Visio, turn on." Nel said aloud.

The smaller, portable TV in her kitchen clicked on and Nel grabbed the remote to channel surf. Most of it was boring celebrity news or some retelling or twisted version of old news. Nel sighed and clicked on something she always liked to re-watch…

Brain Games

The games were fun and, well, mind blowing. Nel enjoyed the animation they showed to make it simple. It made her feel smart. Nel finally remembered the packages from earlier that day.

She retrieved them from the dining room table and went into the living room to open them. Carefully shaking them near her ear, Nel cautiously peeled the tape off by hand and flipped open the lids.

She was shocked…

"No…freaking way…" She lifted the gift from the box.

So that's the first chapter. Please tell me what you thought of it. I'll have the second chapter up and running soon. I've got two other Mass Effect stories if you want to read them. See you next chapter…well I hope so at least.

Songbird 0.o