"I fold," Garrus huffed as he pushed his cards to the center of the table. He crossed his arms, as irritated as Shepard had ever seen him.
Shepard grimaced as he eyed his own cards with annoyance. This hand was bad, but then again all of his hands had been bad. The cards were not in his or Garrus' favor tonight. Tali was cleaning them out.
I've never played Skyllian Five before, she'd said. The little liar. If she'd never played it before, clearly she was experienced at some quarian equivalent. She was a regular card shark. Of course it didn't help matters that her helmet obscured her features, giving her a perpetual "poker face".
"What's it going to be, Shepard," she chided, her voice ringing with smug satisfaction.
It would be that much more satisfying to wipe the smirk off of her face if he could see it.
She clacked a few credit chits between her tapered fingers. "We haven't got all night."
"Yeah, yeah.." Shepard eyed his cards again. If the next card drawn was a King, or an Ace, he'd be in the clear, but it was a low probability that he'd be so lucky.
Good thing he'd always been a risk taker.
Shepard pushed the rest of his chips towards the center of the cargo crate that served as their improvised poker table, trying to keep his voice even. "All in."
Garrus took up the mantle of dealer and drew the top card from the deck. His eyes darted from the card to the remaining players, mandibles flaring.
"You guys ready for this?"
Both Tali and Shepard nodded. Shepard gripped the few cards in his possession so hard the bottoms started to wrinkle.
"Are you sure? I don't want anyone holding any grud-"
"For the love of Mike-" Shepard said, palms sweaty from anticipation. "Garrus, just put down the damn card!"
Garrus complied, slamming the card down with more force than was necessary, letting his hand linger over it. He gave one last look to Shepard and Tali before slowly moving it away. Shepard fought to keep his eyes from widening as the card was revealed: An ace! With this new card, he had a full house. He could still win this and earn back his credits and his dignity.
Tali briefly peeked at her cards before looking back at Shepard, that damnable mask giving nothing away.
They both stared at each other, neither wanting to concede and turn over their cards first.
"Aren't you going to show what you've got, Shepard?"
He held out a and towards her. "Ladies first."
Tali snorted at that. "Please, I insist."
"Would someone just show some cards?" Garrus interjected, breaking the stalemate. "The suspense is killing me!"
"Fine," Shepard started, absently bending the corners of the cards in his agitation. "We'll do it at the same time." He knew it was a juvenile request, but he didn't care. He wanted to hold onto that faint glimmer of hope that he might actually win this for as long as he could.
On the count of three, the cards were flipped. Russell proudly displayed his hand: A straight flush. The chances of Tali having something higher that were astronomical. It was too bad that she didn't know that.
Slowly, Tali turned over her cards, the makings of a galactic flush laid out in front of her. She neatly folded her hands atop the crate, her head cocked to the side in what Shepard understood to be her "innocent" look. Not only did she beat his hand, she'd completely blown him out of the water. He'd never stood a chance.
"I win again, I think."
Shepard stared down at the cards in disbelief. He'd considered himself good-no-great at this game, winning tournament after informal tournament, which is why it'd struck him as so bizarre that he'd lost to her.
He didn't look up as he heard Tali push herself up from the crate, readying to go. She stuffed as many credit chits she could fit into one of the pouches at her hip, leaving the rest where they lay. "So I'll see you both in the morning to help me with the diagnostics for the engines, right?" Shepard groaned.
"You won't try to back out on me will you?"
"We'll be there," Garrus said as he laid a hand on the commander's shoulder and shook. Shepard nodded numbly.
How could this happen?
As Tali took the stairs to return to her station, Garrus trotting after her. He gave a quick look around, despite their confines on the narrow staircase, making sure they were alone.
"Level with me, Tali. You cheated, didn't you?"
Tali chuckled, the sound odd and distorted by her breather. "Cheating is such an ugly word."
"No one's that lucky, so I don't know what else you'd call it."
"You guys are just too easy to read."
Garrus looked at her quizzically, his mandibles flared in dismay.
"Well, when you've got a pretty good hand, you do that," she gestured towards his mouth. Garrus quickly snapped the appendages to their proper position, an embarrassed hum emanating from him.
"Shepard has a lot more tells than he'd probably admit," Tali continued. "He licks his lips, he shakes his leg, and those aren't even the really obvious ones. If he gets a good hand, forget it!" She started up the stairs again, stopping once she mounted the landing. "You both might want to work on that before we have a rematch. You might just prove to be more of a challenge."