Alert whomever the fuck cares about this sort of crap. I'm writing an actual story again. Y'know, if that actually matters at all.
Bah. This is what I get for being happy.
You guys ever read Solace Before the Storm by Way of the Sheikah? Well I wanted to make something in that vein without of course being a copy paste of it. So expect my usual brand of mannerisms and personalities.
Finally, though I hate to ask for leniency, forgive me if this isn't as strong as it could be. As always I'll accept constructive criticism but cut me a little slack otherwise.
Okay, I think that about it does it. If you have any questions leave them in your review and I'll address them when I can.
Deep breath now.
Ciao
It wasn't hard to notice when Shepard and Tali first began their relationship. There were the little cues that the crew picked up on. How they paid more attention to each other, engaged in the other's practices more often, generally spending more time together. This drew rumors but nothing definitive. For most of the crew, it was a wonderful thing to talk about as it gave them something else to fight for.
The others either didn't care or were not too happy about the idea of them being together.
So fuck those people.
Anyway, the first big sign they got was the actual recruitment mission itself. They had to go to Haestrom to recruit Tali for the fight against the Collectors. Like everything else they had done so far, it sounded easy by comparison.
With Shepard filling the tech aspect to combat, he brought along Thane and Grunt as the biotic and combat aspects to balance the situation out. Really it made sense. Thane and Shepard would hang back, sniping and throwing out biotic and tech attacks respectively while Grunt charged right in with his Claymore shotgun and blitzed the Geth to bits. He could shrug off the sun's effects thanks to his armor and Shepard and Thane stuck back in the shade and provided support.
A sound theory in mind, but the execution was anything but. Surprisingly, it wasn't Grunt that broke formation as they had all expected. No it was Shepard who ran off headfirst into the fray, caution thrown to the wind. However he had managed it, he had overclocked his omni-tool and it was raining down Overloads and Incinerates on all the Geth.
For Thane, Grunt, and the Quarians there, it was like watching the wrath of a god fall upon the Geth. By the time they finally caught up with Shepard, he was ripping the head off of a Geth Colossus with a feral expression on his face. Thane had seen the same expression before and it was on his face after he saw what had happened to Irikah.
Obviously this woman means a great deal to him. I shall have to ensure her safety as well then. He had recalled thinking this at the time in one of his many moments of Solipsism.
When the mighty beast exploded, Shepard quickly moved to the door and knocked hard enough to leave a dent in it. Evidently he was not in the mood for playing around. When the door opened, his shields ended up getting a shot from Tali's shotgun.
"Shepard! That was you? Oh Keelah I'm so sorry I didn't mean to-" She cut herself off when Shepard just strode up to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She blushed deeply at the contact and he just had a wide, content smile on his face as he held her. Tali's embarrassed state made her miss the pleased sound Shepard made as he held her close. Eventually though, he pulled away, keeping his hands on her shoulders and looking right into her eyes.
"Look on the bright side Tali. At least it was only me you shot and not somebody important." He grinned and she shook her head, smiling all the while.
"Bosh'tet."
"Gotta live up to my reputation. Now then, can you join me now Tali? I'd hate to have to rescue you again. It would be the only way we could talk at this rate." She nodded, looking through her data on her omni-tool quickly.
"I promised to see this mission through and I did. Now I'll join you Shepard. If the Admiralty doesn't like it then can go to hell. I just watched my whole team die." She moved to his side, the deaths of those who came with her hanging over hear heavily.
"Maybe not the whole team ma'am." She looked up to see the red and gold suit of Kal'Reegar as he entered the observatory.
"Reegar! You made it!"
"Hah, I and damn near everyone else. If this is your old captain, then all those tales you told of him were nowhere near the real thing. It was like watching the Ancestors themselves rain down heavy fire on the Geth." Shepard chuckled at the praise.
"Nice to meet you Kal'Reegar. Sorry I didn't say hello before taking the fun out of your day." The marine laughed and gave a proud, respectful salute to Shepard.
"If that's what you call taking the fun, I can't wait to see what you call fun in the first place sir." He let his hand drop and looked to Tali. "Unfortunately ma'am, we should get back to the Fleet. At least before more Geth show up."
"Actually Reegar, I won't be going with you. I'm joining Commander Shepard." Reegar smiled and gave her a salute as well.
"I'll pass on the data then." He looked back to Shepard. "Take care of her Commander. She's your problem now." With that, he left to return home.
"Hmm my problem now huh? Well despite the Cerberus thing, do you plan to cause trouble Tali?" He grinned at her and she returned it.
"Only to you and Garrus. Everyone else I'll probably just sick Chatika on." He laughed and headed out with her at his side.
"If Chatika is what you send to everyone else, I shudder to think what you'll do to Garrus and I. Probably hack our omni-tools to do something indecent every second."
"Bah. Not creative enough. I was thinking of hacking those implants of yours. Make you dance like my own little puppet!"
"Oh no! The truth has been revealed! The great Shepard is just the puppet and the evil Tali'Zorah is pulling his strings!" They had a good laugh at it all, trading jokes and friendly banter on the trip back to the shuttle. On the shuttle however, Grunt kept insisting that Shepard teach him, "how to bring hell down on my enemies!"
Shepard kept saying he'd tell him when he was older.
They eventually landed back in the Normandy's shuttle bay, Grunt and Thane moving back to their quarters while Shepard gave Tali a tour of the ship.
"So over here we have a brand new human invention. We call it, an elevator that is faster than the piece of crap elevator on the SR1. Marvel at it's speed and lack of crappy elevator music!" She giggled at his comments and followed him inside said elevator, watching him set the destination for deck two.
"Very impressive! Who would have thought it would take the Normandy blowing up to get a better elevator!" As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them and covered her vocalizer while looking at Shepard. "Keelah Shepard I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up." He simply shrugged and pulled her hand away gently, making her blush again at the contact.
"It's okay Tali. It really doesn't bug me that much. I find ignoring it really tends to help anyway." She shook her head sorrowfully.
"That's not healthy Shepard."
"Nor is charging into a warzone full of trained synthetics who don't feel pain or fear without regard for strategy or caution. But I did it anyway, and look how it worked out. I got you, most of your people got out safely, happy ending." She sighed heavily and looked down at her feet.
"I don't know how you do it Shepard. Shrug all this off like it was nothing." She saw his hand grab her chin and gently tilt her head back up to face him, deepening her blush in the process.
"May you never find out Tali. Otherwise you'll become exactly like me." He looked up at the ceiling and exhaled hard. "I don't want to be me." He let go of her and stepped back as the door opened up to the CIC. He stepped out and headed left, her following after a short pause over his words. They passed through the armory and into the communication room where Jacob was waiting.
A short bit later and she had left, fuming after Jacob's last comment.
An AI?! A Keelah damned AI?! Did those idiots learn nothing from us! I hope it kills all of them!
She had moved back into the main wing of the CIC and was going back to the elevator when a voice stopped her.
"Excuse me? Miss Zorah?" She didn't want to deal with who this was but she was a Quarian. Others first, always.
"Yes?" The voice belonged to a redheaded woman with a cheery smile on her face. Like all other crewmembers, she wore the standard Cerberus uniform.
"I'm Yeoman Kelly Chambers. I mainly function as the Normandy's psychologist. Though I know there is bad blood between Cerberus and the Quarian people, you can come to me whenever you need it, if you need it of course." Tali deflated slightly from this but her guard was still up.
"Right now I'm wondering how hard I should laugh when your AI kills you all. Is that something you really want to get into Chambers?" To her surprise, Kelly only laughed in reply.
"Oh my. That does sound like fun. But I need to get back to my post. Still, if you need anything, don't be afraid to ask." Shepard exited the tech labs at that time, greeting Kelly before moving back into the elevator, Tali's eyes following him the whole time.
"Well Tali, shall we finish the tour?" She nodded and moved back at his side, getting as close as she could without being too noticeable. As the doors closed, Kelly smiled from her workstation at the two of them.
Looks like Tali has more than feelings of friendship for her Commander.
They continued their tour, ending at Engineering where she was introduced to Ken and Gabby.
"It'll be great to work with someone of your experience ma'am!" gabby cheerfully saluted Tali.
"Aye. It'll be great tah have another grease monkey down here." Ken's comment made Shepard laugh and earned him an elbow from Gabby.
"Sorry to disappoint Ken but she's a little more than that. She's your new Chief Engineer." Tali's gaze snapped to Shepard at that.
"I'm the Chief Engineer? Shepard that's kind but I don't-"
"Tali, do I or do I not run this ship? Besides if I put either of these schmucks in the role they'd do nothing and make the other do all the work."
"I resent that Commander!"
"Bite me Ken." They all had a good laugh and Shepard ended the tour at Tali's workstation.
"Jacob should have gotten you all the clearance you'll need by now Tali. If you need anything else, don't be afraid to ask. My cabin is up on deck one anyway so come up whenever you need me." With a parting smile, he left her to her work and headed back to his own. Like she always did, she watched him go with a dreamy smile on her face. Still, work had to be done and as Chief Engineer after all…
It was some hours later before it had become the human time for dinner. She wasn't looking forward to the nutrient paste but what other choice did she have. She set the maintenance cycles to run while she headed up to deck 3, Ken and Gabby following her out.
"Time for grub eh Chief? Let's hope Rupert put those new supplies to good use." It would have been a delightful prospect were it not for her physiology.
"I'm dextro remember? And even then I have to eat purified food." Ken hit his hand on his face, a gesture she didn't understand, and groaned.
"Sorry ma'am. Plum forgot. Didn't mean tah be a jerk." She raised an eyebrow at this.
"You didn't mean to, yet you did anyway. Do you think anything through?" That drew a laugh out of Gabby.
"If he did he'd have never gotten anywhere. Ken works on impulse and I clean up the mess. Pretty soon I'll clean it up by tossing him out the airlock."
"Ack! You're horrible woman!"
"Like you could last without me."
The doors opened to deck 3 and the engineers stepped out, moving to the kitchen where some of the other crew and ground team were.
"Here you go Officer Vakarian!" The smiling face of Rupert Gardner gave the dextro meal to Garrus, the turian looking at it with surprise.
"I expected something…well more along the lines of military crap. Instead I get this which now I feel bad about eating." Rupert just chuckled.
"If you like I'll throw it out and slop something out of a can onto your plate." Garrus chuckled as well before moving to a table.
"No this is good! I'd rather not eat out of the trash like Grunt!"
"Hey!" The perfect Krogan shouted out, a mouthful of who-knows-what spewing out in the process.
Tali smiled at it all. Even on a Cerberus ship there was the same life back on the old Normandy. She eventually got a tube of nutrient paste, with an apology from Rupert for not having anything better, and grabbed a seat off in the corner for a meal alone.
As luck would have it, good luck in this case, she didn't get to eat alone.
"Care for some company Tali?" She looked up to see Shepard, Garrus and Thane standing around her table.
"Oh! Sure!" Shepard smiled and grabbed a seat across from her, with Thane at his right and Garrus next to Tali.
"So since Thane is the only one at this table who wasn't part of our first crazy-ass adventure, I suggest we waste his perfect memory with stories from the good old days." Garrus' wit had improved over the couple years and it showed as it drew a giggle from Tali and a smirk from Shepard.
"Now now that's not fair. He's too busy remembering how many kills he has over you Garrus." Thane smiled at Shepard's reply, chucking internally when Garrus groaned.
"Dammit Shepard you should know by now. I am the best in the galaxy. The end. Besides, I'm up by five from Samara's recruitment."
"You were in the lead until Haestrom Garrus. I am currently in the lead by 13 Geth units."
"Those do not count! I wasn't there for those and I know Grunt and Shepard weren't paying attention."
The four chatted through their meals about many things, including Thane and Garrus still bickering about their contest. Even with Haestrom's trauma still fresh in her mind, Tali found plenty of opportunity to smile and laugh along with the mood at the table. Eventually they all parted, Garrus returning to the Main Battery and Thane back to his quarters. She was about to go back to engineering when a hand on hers stopped her. She looked at whose hand it was and found it was Shepard's, drawing another deep blush from her.
"Is everything okay so far Tali? The crew hasn't been giving you any trouble?" His concern was touching as always and she found herself wishing she could hold his hand.
"No. Ken and Gabby are nice and Rupert even apologized for only having nutrient paste but it's been alright otherwise."
"Well that's good. I'd hate to have to fire them out of the cannon into a sun for ruining your day." She smiled and giggled softly.
"Preferential treatment Commander? That doesn't sound very smart of you." He smiled at her, a soft, caring smile at that.
"What can I say? I'm protective of those I care about." He got up after that and went back to his own work, leaving her to smile lovingly at his words.
So how was that for a start? Leave suggestions and constructive criticism as you like.
I don't have a regular schedule so expect updates to be sporadic at best.
Ciao