Kasumi

Boredom. The bane of his existence. Alex sighed, sinking deeper into the couch he'd dragged down from the bar on the Crew Deck, and idly stared at the shadows on the ceiling, trying to make out shapes in the darkness. He toyed with the idea of going up to Shepard's cabin and making her entertain him, but it was the middle of the 'night' (how these people kept track of time in the middle of space was a mystery even to him) and if he woke her up just because he was bored, she would probably send him out the nearest airlock.

He stilled when he heard the familiar whir of his door swishing open, flicking ice-blue eyes towards the entrance as the brief flash of light dimmed again as someone stepped inside, letting the door snick shut behind them. It was pitch black in his room—he had no need for light since his eyes could see even in the darkest environments—but he easily picked out the hooded figure of the master thief living a deck above him.

He felt a brow rise to vanish in his hood, and tilted his head slightly to watch her creep into the room. What was Kasumi doing here? In his room? In the middle of the night? He debated with himself on whether to stand up and make his presence known, but she had to know he was there. Did she honestly think he was asleep?

He remained silent as he watched her flit around his all but empty quarters, fingers fluttering over the few things he'd taken from other rooms on the ship and put in his own in an effort to be more human. The only thing in the room with any real value to him was the information he'd stored on the terminal Shepard had assigned him, and even that wasn't anything incriminating. Just articles he'd found on the Extranet about the 200th anniversary of the NYZ Outbreak, a few old-fashioned pictures of Manhattan taken from the United North American Archives, and a couple songs from the old days that Dana had been fond of. Alex knew better than to become attached to material things, so if Kasumi had come here hoping to find something to nick she was going to be disappointed.

He lifted himself up slightly to lean on his elbow as Kasumi settled herself in front of his terminal, fingers silently padding over the holographic keyboard as she searched for something. He watched as she glanced around cautiously, eyes passing right over where he was draped over the couch a few yards away, before she turned back to the glowing screen with a small smile.

What was she up to?

Alex slid off the couch like a ghost, sliding up behind her to peer over her shoulder at the files she was looking at. It looked like she was just browsing through his search history. He wondered if she'd find the articles on the Black Plague and the sixty-seven different ways to remove a man's spleen as entertaining as he had. His eyes widened fractionally as she began to fiddle around in the file with Dana's music in it, wondering what she could possibly be getting at. She seemed as confused as he was, since she was squinting at the old mp3 files as if she'd never seen them before.

The Extranet didn't use mp3 files nowadays; sound files like that had gone out of style at least a century ago, so it was plausible that she had no idea what she was looking at. He smirked.

He supposed seeing a folder with titles like Thriller and Billy Jean and nothing else would be rather intriguing. Dana had always had a thing for Michael Jackson. Alex could not for the life of him figure out why.

Alex bit off a laugh when Kasumi tried to 'open' Thriller and instead heard the creaky footsteps and hinges of the intro, immediately slamming the terminal off, as if afraid that would have woken him up.

"Enjoying yourself?" Alex asked casually, and watched with great amusement as Kasumi leapt from the chair, whirling to face him. Or, she tried to whirl to face him, but Alex was standing so close over her shoulder that she only succeeded in slamming into him and stumbling backwards. He caught her wrist with one hand to steady her and tilted his head, grin widening at her flustered expression.

"Lexi!" Kasumi fumbled. "I thought you were asleep."

"Obviously."

Kasumi blinked owlishly, staring at where his grip still held her wrist hostage, but she made no attempt to remove it. She knew firsthand how futile it would be to try and break out of his grip. Her dark eyes flicked back up to his, as if wondering what he planned to do now that he'd caught her. Alex wondered that himself.

He liked Kasumi. She was always so happy about everything; it was a nice counterpoint to his constant I hate you all attitude. Sure she had a penchant for teasing him and touching him and pulling his hood down whenever he walked by, giggling when he glared at her, but she was one of the few humans he could safely call a friend.

Friend. Alex sighed and released her wrist, stepping back to give her some space. Kasumi beamed up at him; nothing in her expression hinted that there had been any doubt Alex would let her go. He frowned at that. Was he really that predictable?

"What are you doing in here, Kasumi?" he grunted, folding his arms and attempting to glare down at her. But her expression didn't change in the slightest, so he gave up and just waited for her reply.

"Exploring," she replied back, cheerily, smiling wide. She looked remarkably like a child who'd wandered into a room full of candy. "Your room really is incredibly boring, Lexi."

"You were expecting fluorescent wallpaper and stuffed animals?" Alex rolled his eyes as Kasumi giggled, pushing past him as if he couldn't have stopped her, and resumed her search through his room. Alex watched her with amusement. "You really have no shame, do you?"

"Shame for what?" Kasumi called back as she picked up an empty holo-frame he'd taken from Shepard's cabin. If he had any pictures to put there, he would have. But no one took pictures with him.

"Nothing," Alex grumbled, reaching her in one stride as he plucked the frame from her hands and put it back. "Don't touch my stuff."

Kasumi smirked at him, utterly unafraid, and Alex felt himself relax slightly. She really did remind him a lot of Dana sometimes. He could remember how Dana would smirk at him just like that whenever she did something to irritate him. She had known Alex would never hurt her, so she had felt confident enough to bother him however possible. Poking the dragon with a stick, Alex mused wryly.

"I know that look," Kasumi hummed, a dark brow vanishing in her hood, and Alex quickly rearranged his face into a scowl, unsure what expression he'd been making.

"Get out of my room, Kasumi," Alex growled, relaxation gone. God only knows what kind of face he'd been making while thinking about Dana. Whatever it had been, it was far too human for Kasumi to be allowed to see it and live. But since she was a friend, he'd let her off easy. "Now."

Kasumi held up her hands innocently and all but skipped back to the door, smiling over her shoulder at him. "No need to get all growly, Lexi." Growly? "Shep's more fun to tease anyway." And with that, she waved at him once before bouncing out of his room, leaving Alex alone in the darkness.

He flexed his fingers, frowning.

Alone. He furrowed his brow, sitting heavily back on the couch, hearing it creak dangerously under his weight. Being alone had never bothered him before. In fact, he'd gone out of his way for the past two hundred years just to stay alone.

He stared at the door where Kasumi had vanished to go bother the rest of the crew, and shook his head, leaning back on the couch with a sigh.

He'd worry about it later.

A/N: I've had a few people asking for more interaction between Alex and the ME crew / NPCs, and this is what happened. They'll be one-shots taking place at various points during ME2 (during CDC, hur hur...), and are a direct result of my obsessive need to write.

Let me head off the inevitable questions I'm sure to get once people realize I'm posting things again: Yes, I'm still alive. No, this doesn't mean CDC is going to start up soon-I'm still working my butt off with other things. Yes, I still love you all. Especially you. Yes, you. With the face.