The Ones We Forgot
Ishk crouched behind his bunk bed in the dark, hoping to see her as she walked into the room to find him. Sure enough, an asari in a long, flowing blue dress entered the room like one of the pretty dancers he'd seen on the vid screen. Her footfalls were quiet and graceful as she searched for his hideous form. He had always been enchanted by her skin color, the naturally dark blue hue made him think of the first time he'd seen clean water inside a blue tupperware container.
"Ishk? Please, Love, I only want to see you. It'll be alright."
Her voice sounded so soft, so wonderful to his ears, that he actually had to stifle an involuntary grunt to stay hidden. He sometimes hated being a vorcha. Seeing how much worse his species were compared to others by simple virtue of their existence pained him. His kin on Heshtok could barely think far enough ahead to get dinner, much less for their social standing in the galaxy.
Sometimes he wondered why mother Allyna had started teaching him at all, instead of letting him grow up in the mire that was Heshtok like his siblings. He would never understand why she'd chosen him as her personal favorite out of hundreds.
"Ishk, my Fiata. I can see you back there. Please, come talk with me. I know you're scared." Her soothing voice made him stand from his crouching position behind the bed and poke his head from around the mattress, still flustered and afraid of being admonished.
"Ahhhrrrk! I- I did not mean to hide from-"
"Ah ah, Ishk. You know not to lie. You aren't in trouble, Fiata."
"I Sorry, Mama Ally."
"It's alright, come here." She crouched in the middle of the room with her arms wide, her kind smile illuminated by the sunroof in the room behind her. He gripped the edge of the bed in hesitation, his claws leaving little holes in the fabric until he worked up the courage to leave the corner of his room. He kept his eyes down, scanning around his feet in discomfort the nearer he got to Allyna.
When he got within a feet feet of her, he lunged forward into her waiting arms, needing the comfort... but afraid of it as well. Even after living in this sanctuary of a mining facility for three and a half years, he hadn't completely let go of his rough upbringing on Heshtok.
"Hush, My Love. Shhh." Her soothing words made him realize he was snorting in fear, a slight bit of snot trailing down his nostrils as he mewled softly into her shoulder. The terror from the tv show still danced in his head. The horrible noise and scorching laser tearing through great swaths of aliens who had only a moment to scream before disintegrating. His whole body trembled now, sagging against his in-all-but-name mother as he let go of the tension.
He was always mindful of his claws now, after months of reminders from her to not touch everything for fear of hurting people. He heeded her again now, tucking his hands behind her back to hug as lightly as he could. His snorts and hiccups slowing enough for her to let him go, she stood from her crouch beside him and helped him off the floor.
"The Reapers are far, far away, Fiata. We'll be alright. Now come along, there are still lessons to finish." She half turned to face the door, beckoning him with one arm outstretched in his direction.
With a small sniffle he wiped the drool from his face with the back of his hand and stood, nodding silently and following behind her. They left the sanctuary of his room and headed for the main hall, the other vorcha still sitting quietly and watching the news screen he'd ran from earlier. It no longer showed the nasty machines called Reapers, instead showing a pretty asari lady with a stack of papers talking too quickly for him to understand.
"Letya, please, turn that off for now." Allyna called across to the other asari in the room, who bowed her head and did as she was asked. The others snapped out of their state of paralysis, speaking quickly amongst each other in both fear and excitement. Some of the newer orphan vorcha had a look of pure thrill at the prospect of reapers coming here, but they had yet to learn anything beside anger and hate.
"Please, calm yourselves! We are in no danger, I assure you." Allyna called across the class in an effort to quiet the throng of clamoring vorcha. When she went mostly ignored her expression and voice turned more stern. "Shall we send you to the mines early today, then?"
The class as one grew quiet, eyes shooting to hers to show they were paying attention.
"That's better. Now, we were discussing proper annunciation of the asari dialect. For example, my name is Allyna T'Nala. All-ee-na Ta-Naa-la."
Ishk took his seat on one of the long cushioned benches near the back, listening but not truly hearing what she said as his eyes wandered back to the now dark vid screen. She had said they wouldn't come to Parasc, that they were too far removed from the fight to matter.
Please be right, Mama Ally.
