Chapter 1 edited and finished!

Ari squirmed in her seat as her patience waned, checking the time on her Omni-tool for the umpteenth time. She sighed nervously, putting her attention back to the skycar lot. She was so focused, she jumped when a hand was placed over hers.

Elena gave a comforting smile to her friend. "Hey, they'll be here, don't worry about it."

Ari sighed, "I don't know… I feel like should have worn a dress, like you." The young quarian woman was grateful for her friend for introducing her to human clothes now that she had no need for the suit, but she felt that the ones she was currently wearing were too… informal. She was wearing a red tank top that was cut off a couple of inches below her breasts, and a pair of jeans that were cut off at the upper thighs. "Short shorts," as they were called, made her feel like she may as well have just gone out wearing a human two piece bathing suit.

"What? No way. You went through nineteen years hiding that gorgeous face, and took on the risk of that immunity therapy and that reverse engineered bacteria thing. You deserve to show off some skin. Besides, I know my brother. He'll splooge when he sees you in this outfit."

Ari giggled at the foreign word "splooge" when her translator picked up on it, and then there was a short pause.

"Do you really think I'm pretty?" She asked sheepishly.

"I said gorgeous Ari. And yes, by human modeling standards, you would qualify as a ten out of ten without a doubt."

"What do numbers have to do with a person's looks?" Ari asked, confused by the compliment.

"It's a rating system some humans use."

"Oh…" The quarian girl had the sudden desire to compare herself to someone. "What would you be?"

"Probably an eight, maybe a nine," she answered with a smile.

Ari took a moment to examine her human friend. Shoulder length deep brown hair that she had decently brushed and neat. Light blue eyes went well with her dark blue lipstick that covered lips. She sported double D breasts and an evenly sized rear. From what she could tell, she was beautiful despite wearing little makeup besides the lipstick.

In comparison, Ari's hair was black and wild, going down to her shoulder blades, and was rather hard to brush, but very soft and "silky", according to Elena. Her eyes were white, like all quarians, and she had a grey-lavender skin color that was a shade or two darker than Elena's light tan. Ari's body was much more voluptuous than hers, though. Despite her short stature, her breasts were pretty big, and her rear, well… Pretty much all quarian women had nice asses, and she had excellent hips to go with hers. According to Elena, she'd be considered "bootylicious" by a lot of human men.

Despite the compliments, she was still concerned. "Don't you think these clothes are a little too… casual? I mean, you're wearing that skirt…"

"This? Oh, I'm wearing this because Braxis gets turned on when I wear a lot of his favorite color. That's why I'm wearing blue lipstick to match it."

"Keelah, you two are always horny. Are you sure you're not just with that turian for the sex?"

Elena laughed. "Coming from the quarian girl who has been trying to get into my brother's pants since she met him."

"No! Just since I started doing the immunity therapy…"

"You still wanted to, though."

"Shut up you bosh'tet."

"Anyway, this isn't some kind of ceremony. We're welcoming home soldiers and taking them out for dinner. I plan on getting into the bed with one of them before the night is over. You on the other hand," She stopped for a moment, suddenly remembering Ari's relationship status, "Isnt this your first date with him?"

"Its my first date period. And Im really nervous. I haven't been this nervous since I tried levo food for the first time."

"Don't be. Van isn't a xenophile. Hes actually told me a once how he would definitely date a quarian if he didn't have to worry about accidentally killing her."

Ari's eyes lit up in both surprise and relief. "Really? He said that?"

Elena nodded, smiling at her friend's visible emotion. The smiled faded after she fell silent again. She sighed, "Now what?"

"Does he ever talk about me? At all?"

"Sometimes. He once asked me if you had a boyfriend, and he always wanted to see your face."

Ari looked like she had just handed an award. "Well then, I guess he'll get his wish, huh?"

"There are also some things he's said I probably shouldn't mention," she said, grinning deviously.

"What? What you mean?"

"Oh, nothing, I shouldn't have said anything…"

"Come on Elena! Stop messing with me! What are you talking about…"

"Oh look, there they are."

"Keelah! How do I look? Should I run to the bathroom and…"

"Ari. Go."

The quarian girl squeed before running out of the café, and towards the black Alliance shuttle landing in the skycar lot.

Van had no idea how Commander Shepard had done what he did. He stopped an invading force of Geth controlled Reapers, then died and rose from his grave, destroyed the human harvesting Collector base, then managed to pull together the biggest force in recorded history to stop a galaxy wide threat. And then, took control of them, using them to aid the galaxy in rebuilding and progressing in what they had lost. A geth unit Van had once worked with said that he had a "less than .045 chance of succeeding in his mission." Yet despite the odds, he managed to keep diplomatic peace between the galaxy's races and even have a stable relationship.

In comparison, Van felt like a lesser being. Like he had done nothing to aid the fight against the reapers. Despite the words of the Awakened Collector he had once fought alongside, he felt empty. Like there was no purpose for him now that the war was over.

"You are different from the rest. You have something that the galaxy will need when the time comes for it."

Van had no idea what the Collector had meant, but he was happy for the comforting words. He may have not had much in mind for the future, but he certainly had a story to tell. Fighting alongside people of all races, even Hanar, was exhilarating. Testing out his new abilities was even better. He had ripped the arm of a Brute off, tossed husks across the battlefield like rag dolls, even broken through a banshee's barrier with a single punch. He had been dubbed the N7 Juggernaut by most of his division.

Opening up his Omni tool, he looked through some of the pictures he had taken. Himself arm wresting Urdnot Norv. Dual wielding an N7 typhoon and an N7 piranha. His team in front of a massive pile of at least four hundred reaper infantry corpses. And.. His heart sank a little when he came across an older photo, from before the war. He had remembered using this photo as his terminal background back home. And then realized how much he had changed.

It was back from before the Collector harvestings, when his sister had won a good few hundred thousand credits playing some lotto on the extranet. Elena had invited her turian boyfriend, Braxis, along with Van, and her new quarian friend that Van had never met before, to Illium for a week in the most famous of cities. They had gone wild with those credits, with Braxis modding the shit out of his weapons and armor, and Elena buying some high quality clothes, a small wine collection, and a top floor suite after winning a bet at a casino. Van and Ari however, had similar ideas. And that was where their connection blossomed. As it turns out, Ari, like Van, was a hardcore gamer and artist. She held reputations as being the consultant and Gamekeeper for three MMORPG's and the developer for two of their DLC's. She also held the top score for Van's favorite first person shooter, Dark Space. When Van found out about all of that, he almost went total fan boy on her.

They had bought enough video games and accessories to compete with the best of the galaxy's MLG's, and rushed back to the Illium suite, where they turned one of the six rooms into a total gamer environment.

The picture itself was of the four of them finishing off the night together by sharing a few wine bottles on the balcony overlooking the city. It nearly made him sad just how happy they looked together, almost like a family. But thanks to the reapers, he knew that would never be the same again…

The pilot called from his seat at the front of the shuttle, "Alright everyone, last stop. Its been good working with you."

Van closed his Omni tool and looked over at Braxis sitting across from him. He was hard at work, trying to beat his old score at the tactical warfare gaming app Ari had introduced to him a while back. "Hey, Braxis, you get the cred transfer message yet?"

The turian in royal blue Turian uniform paused his game before closing his Omni tool "No. I think we have to wait until tomorrow before they get the deposit in."

"Figures. They're probably still trying to work out how they are gonna pay off their war debts.

"I'm sure everyone is."

As the shuttle landed, the door access light turned green and the vehicle depressurized, before the door hissed and swung open…

At first, Ari didn't recognize Van at all. The Van she remembered was shorter that Braxis, and had longer hair and less prominent muscles. The man she saw standing next to her turian friend was…

Making her wet…

Okay, yes. She couldn't resist the fact that the sheer sight of that alpha male of a human was making her desperately horny. But along the lines of physical features, he was actually as tall as Braxis now, and totally ripped. His hair was cut into the buzz cut style that was now dubbed as the "Shepard Style," with the majority of the hair removed and then combed back. To put it simply, he was at least twice as hot as he was before.

The quarian girl was still very excited to see him, but approached the man with caution for two reasons. One, she wasn't fully sure that it was Van, and two, if it was Van, she was afraid she would get so wet it would become visible through her clothing.

"Um… Van?"

As he got off the shuttle Van turned towards the familiar voice, but was met with an unfamiliar, but gorgeous young woman. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Braxis looked around Van and saw the short woman, and chuckled. "So Ari, I see the immunity therapy worked out well."

"Wait… What the fuck…" Van turned toward the woman in confusion, "Ari?"

"Hi, Van." She squeaked nervously, "Welcome ho…" She suddenly squealed in surprise as the massive human wrapped her arms around her in a bear hug, lifting her off the ground effortlessly as if she weighed nothing.

"Ari! I missed you, gamer girl!"

Ari blushed deeply and she felt breathless for a moment, either from her feeling krogan grade steel muscles as she hugged him back or how they were nearly crushing her rib cage.

Braxis watched the humorous human and the quarian as if they were kids. Then he felt someone nudge his arm.

"Should I stop them before he suffocates her?" Elena asked sarcastically, smiling at Braxis.

Braxis wrapped one arm around her shoulder and gave a short laugh. "No, I think he'll figure out his strength eventually." He returned his eyes to Elena's, and nuzzled her hair gently. "I really missed you," He whispered.

She quickly pulled him into a deep kiss. Because of the turian lip situation, the kiss was filled with tongues in each others mouths. When she pulled herself from him, she gazed into his jungle green and brown eyes. "I missed you too. So much."

"So much" was a bit of an understatement. She had been thinking about him constantly, whether it was at work, with Ari, or at home, trying to satisfy her undying lust for his turian dick.

Yes, that last one was a really nice feature of him, considering her "mild reaction" to him and all, but that was just one of his amazing features.

Braxis was from one of the more "genetically lucky" clans of Palaven, one where (statistically) 99.7% of its members were, by turian standards, attractive, smart, and charismatic. Many of his clan ended up on TV or some other form of media. Braxis himself, when not serving the hierarchy, had co-starred in two movies, modeled for several magazines including Fornax, and been a model for a video game character.

She remembered his red tinted skin and plates fondly, along with his shining, metallic, silver facial markings and those larger than average mandibles and longer than average fringe.

The thought of what else was larger than average on him suddenly came to mind, "Don't forget that promise you made me."

"What promise? I have no idea what you are talking about…" He cringed as she pinched the sensitive flesh on the nape of his neck. "Ow! Okay, okay, save your feisty energy for the vid."

She released him and gave him a satisfied look, then put her own arm around his waist. "Come on, lets go before our reservations expire."

"You are still a devious, evil woman," Braxis muttered, rubbing his sore neck.

She smirked teasingly, "Love you too."

NEXT CHAPTER: Dinner and developing romance conspiracies

If anyone has questions on these 4 characters, do not hesitate to ask. There are some questions I wont answer, as they are important for da story and/or shmutty goodness.

P.S. This story is a M!shep/Tali and F!shep/Garrus supporter (sibling situation, you know...) Control ending.

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