Based on a prompt from omegastation on tumblr for Non-Shepard-Ships-week: James/Kaidan + "Are you flirting with me? Because I really can't tell."
The name, get it? Major Alenko flirting? Major flirting? Get it? Gosh, I'm so sorry. (No, I'm not, I'm still giggling about it.)
Pull, pull, let it burn, pull, pull, let the burn strain, pull, pull, one more - pull!
James finally let his arms stretch and relax and let go of the bar when his feet touched the ground. Stretching his shoulders, he looked around. He always did that, to see if Cortez or the cute mechanic Sarah were watching him. He could admit to being a little vain, he worked hard to make his body look like this, he won't scoff at some appreciating looks.
But his eyes found neither of those two instead he saw Major Alenko looking at him with that smirk playing on his lips. James had seen this smirk a couple of times and it made the man look ten years younger. Alenko leaned against the lockers and he didn't even pretend to be busy with something else.
"Enjoying the view, Major?"
"Can't deny it, Lieutenant," Alenko said and the smirk turned into a full grin.
"Maybe I should charge something for the show."
Kaidan laughed out. "You'd make millions."
James felt a flush crawl up his neck and pretended to massage the insides of his hands.
Alenko pushed himself off the lockers and walked over to the terminal that Cortez normally used. He typed something into it, the smirk making room for his normal, somber expression. When he shut off the terminal, he looked up to James, giving him a nod. The smirk was gone and James kind of missed it.
The door to the hangar opened and Sarah, the cute and bubbly mechanic entered.
"Oh, have I missed the gun show?" she asked, winking at James.
"I'm afraid so," Kaidan said and slipped through the hangar door before it closed. His face was pulled into a frown and he stared on the projection of his omni-tool on his arm. James missed the smirk even more now and he wondered what kind of bad news Kaidan had found on the terminal.
Sarah was pouting and James did a few more pull-ups to appease her. He hurried to the showers afterwards, he had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
His instincts had not been wrong. Just as he strolled into the mess hall after his shower, his omni-tool buzzed with the order to suit up and meet Shepard and the team at the shuttle in ten. He made a short turn towards the cockpit.
"Joker? Where are we?"
Joker's hands flew over the translucent controls in front of him and while tilting the ship to a good angle over the planet, he also pulled up a display with information for James.
"Still over Rannoch, the quarians asked us for another favor. They lost an Admiral Koris down there."
"How do you lose an Admiral?"
"Apparently one of their armed school busses crashed on the planet, right in the middle of a geth defence system," Joker said.
"Sounds interesting." James turned on his heel and hurried down to the hangar.
As he put on his armor, he watched Shepard and Garrus talking quietly over something on her omni-tool. Their heads almost touched and there was the kind of familiarity about them that showed how close they were. James felt a pinch of envy at what they had. It was obvious from just watching them that they not only loved but also respected each other.
"They're a great pair, aren't they?" Kaidan said at his side.
James startled, he had not heard Kaidan come in. The major could move surprisingly quiet in his armor. "Yes, they are."
"Never would have thought it possible, back on the first Normandy. I wasn't even sure about Garrus being on board. He seemed to be more like a wild cowboy back then," Kaidan said.
"A turian? A wild cowboy?" James looked at him in disbelieve. All the turians he had met so far had been as rule abiding and duty fulfilling as if they wanted to make Employee Of The Month every single day.
"Oh yeah," Kaidan said with a grin, "Garrus is not your usual turian. He's a tough guy, makes his own decisions."
"Sounds like you admire him?" James asked teasingly.
"Well," Kaidan shrugged. "Those are definitely qualities I admire in a guy," he said and walked over to the shuttle. James could have sworn that he had winked at him but after a second he wasn't so sure anymore.
He climbed into the shuttle and was surprised to see Tali waiting inside. With Garrus taking up the single seat and Shepard and Tali using the left bench, James could only squeeze himself next to Kaidan on the right hand bench. Their armor scraped against each other as he sat down and the Major smiled at him. The smile looked good on him but it quickly disappeared when he looked out of the front window.
Rannoch looked wild. The surface was littered with metallic structures, some of them old and overgrown, others new. The geth were obviously not concerned with garden design and let the natural fauna on Rannoch grow as long as it not interfered with their technology.
James didn't have much time to take in the look of the planet, they had to fight through waves of geth troopers and Primes until they reached an AA-Tower.
"We need to shut that thing down," Shepard said and looked to James. "Can you take care of that?"
James choked on his spit, "Me? Okay, Commander, I'll do what I can." He stomped over to the control panel and looked at it, wondering which blinking control could shut down the tower. Nothing looked familiar. He finally resorted to his tried and true method of kicking the thing.
Behind him he heard barely suppressed giggles and turned around. Shepard had her hand over her face, trying to muffle the sound of her laughter, Garrus next to her chirped like a bird. Tali stood a bit to the side and she seemed to be distracted but Kaidan came up to him, a wide smile on his face.
"While I admire you technique, I may have a better idea," Kaidan said warmly and moved to James' side until their armor scraped against each other again.
"Yeah, thanks Commander," he said, realizing that she had pranked him.
Shepard laughed loudly now, "Sorry James but I just love your special technique at this."
Kaidan chuckled as he took his helmet off and leaned over the flickering control panel. James decided that it wasn't so bad being the butt of the joke if it made people smile a little. They could all use some smiles right now. Like Kaidan did just now.
Kaidan's hands flew over the controls, similar as Joker's had on the Normandy but the system kept beeping at him. James could see by the frown on his forehead that Kaidan was growing increasingly frustrated. He knelt down and tried to remove a panel at the bottom of the gun but it didn't budge. Finally, Kaidan looked up to James and grinned. "Looks like we need your special technique after all," he said and moved to the side.
James knelt down and grabbed the panel cover with both hands. He kind of regretted that his armor covered his arms, nobody could even see his muscles working. Yes, he was vain but he worked hard at his strength and when he pulled off the panel with one hard pull, he grinned proudly at Kaidan
Kaidan grinned back. "Now that's a sight I like to see," he said and James could have sworn that he winked at him again.
"What sight?" James asked.
"The controls of course," Kaidan answered and grinned even more. He pulled out control chips until the tower shut down, grinning all the time. James didn't know what to make of all this, was the Major flirting with him?
He didn't have time to think about that any longer because then all hell broke lose.
And hell didn't stop for days.
After weeks of constant missions, the Normandy was finally on the way to Earth and they had time to rest. James settled down in his workout corner and cleaned his armor. It was simple work, good for thinking and James had a lot to think.
James knew how to flirt, he was the flirtmaster. He flirted with everyone, Sarah the mechanic, Private Westmorland, Cortez or Lieutenant Franken and many more. They all flirted back, some easy like him, others were more shy. Lieutenant Franken always blushed all the way under his beard and Private Westmorland giggled like a little schoolgirl. Even Shepard flirted back and sometimes she even blushed. But with Kaidan, he lost all his tools.
The man was either way too professional or just clueless as to how damn attractive he was. He was turning heads left and right but never did anything about it. Men and women alike were watching him, showing their nicest smiles, engaging him in conversations. He was equally friendly to everybody, charming, polite and professional. And James - James's brain just turned into a sludge of dumb whenever he tried to joke with Kaidan and ended up staring at the man like he just lost the ability to speak.
At last, James was fed up with himself and the next time Kaidan lit up the room with one of his smiles again and said something - James grabbed his arm and cleared his throat. He didn't even remember what Kaidan had said, something about the view? It didn't matter, he needed to know where up and where down was.
"Major, are your flirting with me?"
Kaidan chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I..."
"I don't mind if you do," James blurted out. Way to go for sounding desperate. "I just needed to be sure, you know, guy like you, not exactly short of options."
Kaidan looked up to him and James felt his heart take a jump at the blinding smile directed at him. "Thanks for the compliment but I'm sure the options are way more limited than you think. And to answer your question, yes, I was flirting. I'm admittedly not very good at it."
James had never been one for long thinking and he wasn't about to start now. He took a step forward and - he almost kissed him. Almost but not quite did his lips brush against Kaidan's and he could feel his breath on his own lips.
But Kaidan stood so very still - too still and James stepped back to give him space. He didn't look offended, he looked rather sad.
"Sorry," James said, not sure what he was apologizing for.
Kaidan shook his head. "No, don't be sorry, I'm... I shouldn't have..." He rubbed his neck again and a frown grew between his brows. "I shouldn't have led you on, there's still regs..."
James straightened, shoving his blossoming emotions far down in his mind. "Of course, sorry, let's just pretend this never..., you know, chalk it up to the world ending and shit."
He turned back to his workstation and only looked up again when he heard the hiss of the door closing. Kaidan had left.
There wasn't much time to think about the rejection, if he wanted to call it that. Maybe less of a rejection and more a missed opportunity? Whatever it was, he couldn't think about it any longer as Joker announced the descent towards London, Earth. James hurried to strap himself in one of the seats. Compared to the smooth travel through relays, a trip through a planet's atmosphere was like a ride on a wild bull.
James turned on the feed from the frontal camera of the Normandy on his omni-tool and harshly pulled in a breath. London was literally burning. He had not seen the city in a while and this was just heartbreaking and infuriating.
The mood on the ground improved considerably when knowledge of Shepard's arrival spread around. The young recruits squared their shoulders and stood a bit straighter when she came over to them. She spoke to each of them, encouraging them, giving them much needed hope. James left them, looking for a quiet place to gather his thoughts. He found a room in a partly destroyed building that housed a few chairs and tables. It looked like a break room. A break room from the war?
He took off his breastplate and the backplate to recheck the medigel and omni-tool connections. He had done this on the Normandy already but it calmed him down to do it again. When he unscrewed and reset a connector, a sound from behind him made him look up and fumble for his weapon.
Someone moved out of the shadow in the dark corner of the room. "Don't shoot me, Vega," a familiar voice said. Kaidan stepped up to his table, a shy smile on his face. James jumped to his feet and froze. His hands strained towards the man but he stopped himself. He had no right.
Kaidan looked up to him, still wearing that shy smile. "End of the world, eh?"
"So they say," James said, his mouth too dry to swallow.
"If that is so then..." Kaidan stepped closer and stretched up to James. "Then I don't want to regret never having done this," he said and his lips touched James'.
Oh dios mio, his lips were so soft! James only needed a moment to adapt to this new development and then crushed his lips against Kaidan's, kissing him with all he had. They pulled at each other, hands tangled in hair, gauntlets scraping, Kaidan's breast plate pressing uncomfortably against his chest.
"Stop," Kaidan said against his lips, "let me just..." He fumbled with latches until the upper part of his armor fell to the ground. James pulled him closer again, cherishing his warm chest pressed against his own, only the fabric of the underarmor between them. Kaidan kissed along James' jawline, down his throat and James groaned. He took Kaidan's head in his hand and kissed his mouth again, their tongues touching and stroking. His codpiece was getting uncomfortably tight.
James kissed Kaidan's neck, taking in his unique scent of cologne and biotics. Kaidan moaned quietly and shivered in James' arms. His hands found the rim of James' shirt and slipped under it, stroking over his back. James took a sharp breath, why did every touch from Kaidan feel more intense than anything he had known before?
Kaidan's hand moved lower and stopped at the edge of his codpiece. James left Kaidan's neck to look at him. "You sure?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kaidan said and began to undo the latches that held the codpiece in place.
"End of the world, right?" James said but Kaidan shook his head.
"Not just that, not just... ," he looked up to him, suddenly serious. "You better not do anything stupid, you better come back to me."
"You too," James whispered into his mouth as he unlatched Kaidan's codpiece. It fell to the ground along with his own and the two men surged against each other, grinding, the friction such a relief and still not enough.
"We don't have much time," Kaidan murmured, his hand working its way into James' pants. James groaned when Kaidan closed his hand around his erection, slowly pumping.
"Enough time," James huffed, pulling Kaidan's pants down in the front and stroking his penis through the fabric of his underwear.
"Fuck!" Kaidan moaned, pulling himself closer to James. He buried his face in James' neck, softly biting him and James could only moan as well. With a new urgency, he pulled down Kaidan's underwear and wrapped his large hand around Kaidan's and his own penis, stroking them both with a firm grip.
"Oh fuck yes," Kaidan moaned, throwing his head back. But James pulled him back to him, kissing him, swallowing both their moans in kisses, grinding, rubbing, faster, closer, their legs shaking until they both shuddered and sighed and spilled over James' hand in final bliss.
They stood, holding each other until their breathing had normalized. James pressed another kiss on Kaidan's lips, gentler this time. Kaidan kissed him back, a soft chuckle coming with it.
"As if we're horny teenagers," he whispered.
"I don't care," James said, his voice hoarse with more emotions than he was willing to admit. He wiped his hand clean on a paper towel and they both tucked themselves back in. "I don't care, I just..." his voice almost left him, "don't die on me."
"Same," Kaidan said, laying his hand on James' cheek, "Don't do anything stupid. No matter what happens," he looked up as if he could see the Reapers coming down from the sky, "I will find you."
"Te encontraré," James said, looking into his hazel eyes. He would find this man again no matter what it took. No Reaper war would take him away from him.