I'm Only A Culinary Student!

by Midweekcomic13

An average culinary student took a nap at a bad time. Now he is stuck on Omega station with only his clothes on his back, school bag and his trusty kitchen tool set. He is not a hero and realize that pain and death is very common on the station. He's a realist and trying to help Shepard when you are only a teenager with no skills but cooking is suicide. He only wants to survive...

2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect franchise

"Normal Talking"

"Thoughts"

"Speaking through radio, phone, etc"

Warning: This story is not for the light hearted as it can get pretty graphic

A self-Insert Fanfiction

Response to reviews:

Guest (greavy): Yes Shepard will be in the story but it will be pretty later on as the story progresses, if Lurima get his voice back will be kept a secret for now. Next, yes, this is a proper that I will be continuing on till the Mass Effect 3 I hope. It will be a long time as with the time loop in it. Time and death is not a concern for Lurima. Finally, on the romance thing, don't worry about a thing. The parring might come to a surprise for you and other readers.

Chapter 2: Exploring The Hostile Station And Finding A Haven

As I woke up from my sleep, several things I felt immediately as I fully regain my senses are the grumbling and empty feeling of my stomach, dry, sore feeling of my throat, and the throbbing aching feeling on my left eye.

I groan and wince as I momentarily forget that my throat is still sensitive from its wound. I open my single good eye and notice that my glasses have a bit of a smudge from rubbing against my pants when I cried to myself.

Irritated I took out my glasses small cleaning cloth and try to get the lenses clear of the smudge as best I can. No matter how thorough I clean it, there will always be a bit of a small stubborn smudge on the lenses. I always hated when this happens to my glasses, the smudge always make my eyes uncomfortable and now with only one eye, it is going to be a problem sooner or later.

I move my left hand slowly and rub my bandaged eye to sooth the throbbing feeling, "Man…If this keeps up, I'm going to have a headache by the end of the day..night?" I mussed before realizing that Omega is almost always looks like it is in night time as it is always dark, "great..now by body clock going to be wrecked"

Again, I resist a sigh and took out my bag and got out one granola bar out of five that I always bring with me. I gingerly tore the warping off and took small bites to savor its sugary taste.

As I ate my food I took out my phone and went through several pictures of me and my parents. As I look through several pictures, happy memories grace my mind and I found comfort in it. I smile softly and thought, "Even though this is Omega and I have slim chance of finding away back home.." My finger traces a particular family photo of me and my parents on my high school graduation ceremony, "…I would do anything to get back to you mother..father.."

I finish up my small snack bar and drank a bit of fresh water from my tumbler and it soothes the sore feeling from my throat. I turn off my phone to save the battery as I don't know if Mass Effect even supports twenty-first century gadget anymore. Everyone in the Mass Effect universe seems to use Omni-tool as a multipurpose gadget that replaces phones and other electronics into one simple handheld device.

Thinking of tool, I need weapons other than my knives. I need a range weapon as almost everyone on Omega has a gun as it is a criminal top destination. As I thought on how to get a weapon, I just remembered that from my first 'loop', the Batarian I…killed..had a gun with him and in my mental breakdown moment, I completely forgotten about it. "I could also get their Omni-tool and some, credit was it called here?" I thought

With that in mind, I put my water tumbler back to my bag and I stand up with a huff and grunted in pain that originate from my back. Probably from sleeping in an uncomfortable position for a long time, I shrug the pain off and pick up my bag and secure it on me.

I took a deep breath and try to find my way back to the Alley I originally woke up when I first got here.

As I retrace my steps, I couldn't help notice that there are less people in the area now than it was when I first walk here.

"Maybe it is nighttime on Omega right now" I thought

As I walk I notices that some of the Omega resident walking pass by seem to be taking glances at me, soon it was making me nervous as I don't like people looking at me, human or aliens. Another one of my social issues and it would have be fine if my friends or family are near but since I am alone, my heartbeat started to pick up and my breathing becomes quicker.

I don't know what timeline it is in the Mass Effect universe is right now. If it is just sometime after the first contact war or Relay 314 Incident, then humans must be pretty rare sight for people living in the Terminus system to see if I remember correctly.

I just hope that they are looking at me because none of them have seen a human up close, and not because some of them are slavers and humans are going to be in demand soon. I'm just a short teenager, pretty weak and easy to be snatch for quick money making from the slave market.

I'm getting paranoid

I try to ignore the negative thoughts and I just focus on walking and take deep calming breaths while occasionally looking behind my back. It was a torturous walk in my mind and soon I manage to find a familiar looking alley way.

I found myself walking in silence as the place look deserted as it has been last time; I try to get my bearing straight and try to find the alley where two bodies were left to rot. It took a while and a lot of wrong alley later; I finally found the ally with two bodies lying there undisturbed as it had been when I left.

The Turian body doesn't have much blood on it except for the chest area where the knife was lodge previously. The Batarian body is a bit different; its skin is a bit paler than its original dark orange colored skin and a large dry pool of blood surrounds it.

I clench my hand and walk towards the body, as I got closer I noticed that the dead body doesn't smell and I thank my luck for that. I went on to search the dead Turian first and as I try to move the body, it is stiff as if it were frozen and his limbs won't move if I don't use all of my strength. After awkwardly trying to move and search the body, I eventually found two thin rectangular card-like objects and store it in my pocket. I try to find the Omni-tool on the Turian by starting at the wrist and eventually the whole hand as I can't find a single trace of it.

"Where is it, where is it.." I thought to myself and I search carefully along the hand of the dead Turian

Finding nothing I give up and move on to the Batarian body. I scrunch up my face in disgust as I see the open wound on its neck has exposed sliced up flesh. I try to ignore it but my eye keeps lingering on the wound and I start to feel some stabbing pain on my neck that I swear is just my imagination. I didn't notice it but my hand somehow found itself on my neck and rubbing the bandage softly as if to sooth a lingering pain that's not there.

I force myself to stop thinking about it and search for anything useful on the dead body. This time the Batarian body isn't so stiff as the Turian so it made my job at hand easier.

Eventually I found a gun that look like a pistol with two barrels for some reason; it has a blocky rectangular shape with a curved gripped that is comfortable to hold on my hand. It has a dark black color and has a heavy weight to it; I just hope that the recoil of this pistol would be manageable for me.

I examine it closer and find that it doesn't have a slot for thermal clips or an eject button so I'm guessing it must be mass effect 1 era weaponry as the second and third mass effect game uses thermal clips.

"Well, this is good. I won't have to worry about ammo and only need to worry about overheating " I happily thought to myself. Things started to look up as now I have a range weapon and I have a chance now if I ever got into a firefight.

"Not that I will involve myself to one" I thought grimly to myself while stripping off what seem to be a flexible magnetic lock for the pistol on the back of the Batarian body. "Huh…" I started to think, "…I wonder how I didn't notice or remember the gun on his back before I knifed them?..."

I didn't bother to think long about it and I try to attach the magnetic lock on the midpoint of my back and to my fortune it clings on to my t-shirt. I holster the pistol and make sure the grip face my right side to my dominant right hand. It seems to stick on pretty solidly and I jumped and shake by body to see how strong the magnetic lock is.

It didn't disappoint me and cling on to the pistol with a tight grip. Satisfied, I scavenge anything else I can find on the Batarian body and found three similar looking card-like the one I took from the Turian. I store it away and move on to find the important Omni-tool I so dearly need

"Come on, where are you little Omni-tool" I thought to myself as search on the cold hand of the Batarian.

Lo and behold I found it; at least I think it is. I found an almost transparent ring around the Batarian right wrist; I tug at it and found it is firmly stuck to the dead body hand. I examine the ring fully and trace it with my finger to see if there is a release button. To my luck I felt I one of my finger put some pressure on a particular part of the ring and it came off with a soft *click* sound.

My face brighten up in glee and put the rather flexible transparent ring around my own wrist on my left hand and heard a satisfying click as it snap back in to full circle. "Ok..now how do I use it?"

I tried to do various gestures like flicking my wrist, stretching my arm quickly and waving my arm around. After a lot of tiring and embarrassing movement I thought angrily, "How the hell do I use this! Come on work dammit, turn ON you stupid Omni-tool!"

As soon as I thought Omni-tool, orange light encase my arm and I see the familiar shape of an Omni-tool that I see a lot of time when character in Mass Effect use it. I was practically jumping up and down in happiness, I finally manage to get the thing to work, and all I needed to do was think it to be ON.

I don't know how that is possible but I'll take it anytime, I try to work out how to use it and I found out that, aside from the palm of your hand, everything else is a hologram. I try to work out the controls of the Omni-tool and soon an orange screen pops up with numerous symbols that I think is an alien language

Confuse I look at the screen and waited for it to go away, when I waited for a few minutes and the screen still hasn't change. I try to manipulate the Omni-tool with the palm of my hand and I think I made a mistake as suddenly, the numerous symbols on the screen change into a large symbol that suddenly pops up and pulsing repeatedly like it's a warning of some sort.

"Ok, alien language, I can't read that. Let's see if there is English in this device." At least I hoped there is and English language option in the Omni-tool

I quickly try to undo it but suddenly the Omni-tool flickers a bit before the orange hologram disappear completely.

I blink in surprise before I thought, "Turn On Omni-tool" but it didn't turn ON and a dread feeling fills my mind. "ON!, I said turn ON Omni-tool. ON! Omni-tool ON!" I thought frantically while tapping furiously on the Omni-tool almost transparent ring.

I screamed in my mind so it turns on but all my attempt bear no fruit and soon I gave up on it

I shut my single eye in frustration and want nothing more than just scream there to my heart's content. But I resist that notion lest I want to suffer a painful feedback from trying to do so.

I massage my temple as losing the Omni-tool gave me a frustrating headache, once the aching subsided I took the useless Omni-tool from my wrist and store it in hopes that I can repair to working condition. A pretty slim hope as I can't even communicate with anybody on the station.

I check if I have everything on me and the extra stuff I got from the two dead bodies, once I'm satisfied I got everything in place I head out to explore the station in hopes that I can other humans on this criminal infested hell hole

Leaving behind the two rotting corps for the second and final time

X13131313X

Unknown Amount Of Time Have Passed

I don't know how long it has been since I arrived on Omega, it could have been days or a week have passed since I started to explore Omega. What I do know is that I finish my last granola bar some time ago and I'm currently moving on with only fresh water that I have on me.

I thank myself for bringing two large tumbler of fresh water with me, but water isn't enough to sustain me for the long run and my stomach constantly demands food 24/7. My body is getting more and more thinner as time pass by.

I can even clearly see the bone shapes on my fingers

When I am exploring the streets of Omega to find any human, which I have no success to find them at all, I tended to stick to the shadows and avoid any crowded area. I found out that the station is really really massive if you are there in real life and the way the structures are built on Omega made the streets more like a maze.

I mentally groan at remembering the times I got lost or made several giant loops that got me back to square one.

Thankfully I didn't need to use my acquired pistol at all for self-defense while I explore Omega

As time goes by, I'm getting weaker and weaker. Soon I couldn't even walk a few minutes without having to stop for breath.

I'm also hungry; I am sooo hungry that I even played with the Idea to steal some alien food and eat it right there on the spot. But I remember that there are two types of food In the Mass Effect universe. Levo or Dextro Amino acid.

If I accidentally eat dextro type food, I would have an allergic reaction that could kill me

I'm not taking that chance, even if I can somehow loop back to when and where I first woke up on Omega

Currently I am sitting down and lay on my back against the alley wall as I try to use my shaking hands, which is currently holding a tumbler that held the last few milliliters of fresh water. As I hesitantly brought the tumbler to my dry lips, I can't but feel the throbbing pain on my left eye socket and the sharp sore feeling I have on my throat.

Both bandaged wounds got infected as I found out sometime ago

The previously white colored bandage are now soaked in blood that is drying

I have a mild constant headache that I can't remember when it started. I can't even inhale air without letting out an involuntary whimpers of pain as sharp stinging pain stabs ruthlessly at my throat.

As I drink down the cold water, I force myself not to cough it out and let the water flows down my throat. Tears prick my single tired eye and I throw away the now empty tumbler with excessive force and quickly hold my neck with both of my hands.

The pain is indescribable and I started to cough up blood that splatters on the ground in front of me, I am gasping for air and it only serves to make my pain even worse.

I fell down on the ground to my side, further dirtying my battered and slightly ripped red hoodie jacket. I clasp my mouth shut with my hands forcibly and try to stop my painful coughing, I curl up into a fetal position and close my eye and wait for the pain to go away as it had like last time I drank water

"Make it stop, make it stop" I chanted in my mind

Minutes passed by and the pain still haven't stop

In fact it is getting worse, my hand is now soaked in blood and tears freely escape from my single closed eye. The next thing I know, I passed out because of the pain and exhaustion

X13131313X

XdreamX

I open my eyes and I see the familiar white wall of my University kitchen, I'm currently sautéing some blanched vegetable and I gave the cooked greens to my partner who is assembling the food on the plates.

I can hear and smell the familiar sounds commonly heard in my university kitchen, my classmate talking and passing different kitchen tools and ingredient to those that requested it. The yell of my chef saying that the restaurant has open and it's serving time. Aboyer shouts of request to the different groups in the kitchen to send their food to the front, so that the waiters may take it to the awaiting guest.

It all sound familiar to me during my practical hot kitchen class

Next thing I know, I'm punching down bread dough while my partner taking ingredient measurement for another pastry product. The steps is routine now to me and I repeated it with precision efficiency

Measure the ingredient

Mix the dry ingredient together

Add in and incorporate the wet ingredient to the dry mixture

Knead dough well till smooth or do a windowpane test to see if it is kneaded well enough

Let it ferment in the proofer for the required time

Take the risen dough and punch it down and put it into the desired mold

Let it ferment a bit more

We bake it in the oven and after baking, let it rest and you got yourself a fresh piece of pastry goodness

A normal routine in my University Pastry class

I always like pastry class as it doesn't have the pressure of getting the food done in the limited time to feed your guest. When we wait for the dough to ferment, my classmate use this chance to catch up, gossip and generally have small chat with each other.

I did none of that and just settled to talk with my pastry chef and occasionally help her with other pastry product. She is a nice early forties year old woman and is eager to give tips to her little chef's in training.

One of the few people I'm comfortable talking too and even initiate conversation with her, which I rarely do willingly.

I was happy now and currently laughing from one of her many funny past tales of working in one of the many restaurant she worked for previously before she became a chef and lecture in mu university.

It is one of the many happy memories I have and I cherish it all

Xdream endsX

My sweet dream ended and I am greeted with the same a dull headache, but strangely the aching feeling has gone down a tone a bit to a more manageable level. I also feel a lot healthier and my stomach isn't growling in hunger anymore, but I can still feel some empty feeling in my stomach.

With a mental groan, I slowly open my single eye and saw blurry image of an unfamiliar ceiling

"Wait..ceilling? Wasn't I outside when I passed out?" I thought as I am confused to where I am currently

I ran my hand to my face and notice that I am not wearing my glasses, I sat up slowly as my body is still tired from lack of energy and look around me to find my glasses. I turn to my left and saw what I think is a table and ran my hand along it to find what I hope is the item I wanted.

My hand bump into something and I grab it, I felt a familiar shape and weight of my glasses and with a relieve I put it on and examine my surrounding more properly as I can see better now.

I seem to be on a somewhat comfortable bed with a thin warm blanket draped over the lover half of my body, the room is a bit cramped but I didn't mind as it was comfortably warm in here. It has been so long since I had a warm place to sleep and sitting here on the bed nearly made me cry out in joy at how comfortable I am right now. It has been so long since I lay my body on a comfortable surface.

The room itself is pretty plain with only a bed, a mirror, what look like a cabinet and a small trashcan. But it is pretty furbished and I can't help but notice how the carpet, at least I think it is, on the floor look a bit old and pretty roughed up.

I swing my leg over the bed and the blanket was dragged with it but my feet got loose and I notice that I am bare feet. I put them down on the soft fabric lying on the floor. I shudder at the feeling of my feet touching the soft fabric, but I push the feeling away and I willed by body to stand up.

I slowly push myself up and felt my leg shake a bit at the sudden weight, I place my hand on the table beside the bed to stable myself and adjust my feet to the weight. When I take my time to try and adjust my feet, I had a slight nagging feeling something was missing.

Then I looked down to examine my legs properly as the blanket had fallen off

I am missing my pants and I'm only wearing my boxer…..I trace my eye down to my chest and I finally realize that I am not wearing my black t-shirt.

I am completely naked and not wearing anything but my boxers

I try to comprehend it and a few seconds pass by with me not making a single motion and my single eye are still glued to my bare chest.

…..

…..

…..

"AHHHHH!" I mentally yelped and frantically grab the blanket on the ground and quickly cover myself with it.

I knelt down and grip the blanket tightly around myself, even if I am a boy I am still NOT COMFORTABLE BEING MOSTLYT NAKED IN A STRANGERS ROOM!

I stayed knelt down on the floor for a few minutes before I calm myself and stood up. I notice that the knife on my hips are gone as well as my gun but I kept a mental note about it later.

I walk slowly towards the mirror with the blanket still wrapped around me. Once I got to the mirror, I examine myself as saw that my blood soaked bandage on my left eye socket and neck got replace by a more clean and new white bandages.

Strangely, both are tied in the same ribbon knot…

"Huh.." I thought strangely, "..I thought the future are supposed to have more advance bandage than this…I thought Medi-gel is widely use in the Mass Effect Universe"

Now that I took a look at my new bandage, I finally notice that the pain on my wounded left eye socket and neck seems to have disappeared. Though I wouldn't dare to try to talk and test if it brings any pain. I don't want any more pain thank you very much.

I trace the new bandage with one hand softly and mentally make a note so I remember to give my thanks to the person that treated my wounds.

Turns out I wouldn't have to wait long

I heard the familiar sound of a door sliding open and I turn my head towards it, I blinked and saw an Asari standing there looking a bit surprise like myself. But she smiled at me at spoke in her species language to me.

"Great, the first alien that seems nice to me and I don't know what she is saying" I thought to myself

I just look at her warily as I don't know if her intentions are good or bad

The Asari seems to be wearing the generic civilian clothing of the mass Effect Universe but it has a little bit of dirty on it and has some slight wear and tear to it. She also seem to wear an apron…strange

She is also tall, almost as tall as the Turian and Batarian I….killed a while back

She finally notices that I am not responding to her and look at me with a confused expression; she said something in her language as if asking me something. I didn't respond to her as I don't want to offend her if I say something wrong accidentally.

Her face change into frustration and my single eye widen and hope that she is not angry at me for not responding to her, but her expression quickly turn into one who realized something and reached down to her pants pocket. She got out what seem to be an earpiece and walks towards me.

My body stiffens and backs up a little as she comes near me. She saw this and she immediately stops walking and holds up her hand in a non-threating motion and said something in her language. Then she slowly came up to me and shows her hand palms up towards me.

I see the earpiece and look up to her face in a questioning manner, she just smiles and move her hand closer to me. I realize she wants me to put it on so I reach out slowly with my free hand and took the earpiece gently from her surprisingly soft hand.

I examined it for a second and saw it is just like a regular earpiece you get from earphone but it is missing the wires. With that I put it on my right ear

When I done that she suddenly spoke, "-an you understand me now little one?"

I'm surprise that I suddenly can hear her speak in English and felt it is a bit weird for my right ear to hear English, while my left still can hear her talking in her species language.

I remembered that she asked me a question and I just nodded at her but slightly irritated at being called 'little one'

Her smile widens more and continue to say, "Good, I see that you are awake now little one. I was getting worried that you wouldn't wake up after three days of sleeping"

"I slept for three days!" I thought to myself in great surprise

I look at her with a surprise face and she said, "I found you lying down on the alley next to my shop little one. You're lucky that I found you, you were running a high fever and nasty infection got into your wounds."

Her eyes narrows and said in a serious tone, "You almost died then if I hadn't tended to your fever and wounds"

She places a hand to her hip and said in a stern voice, "Aren't you going to say thank you to me little one? I did saved your life and I'm sorry but you are being rude to me by not saying a word since I talked to you"

When I heard she ask me to talk to her, my breath hitched and I felt like I had been stab in the heart as I am suddenly reminded of my status as a mute. My single eye looks dejected and looks down on the floor in sadness

"Well?.." she said patiently as she waited for my answer

I hesitant for a second before looking back at her, points a finger to my bandaged neck and I mouth some words while shaking my head left in right.

She look confused before covering her mouth lightly with her hand in realization and with a gasp she said, "Ah, you…you can't talk can you little one? That's why there is that wound on your neck…"

I just nodded at her and I close my single good eye to stop the tears poling around it and my head looks down in sadness. I heard her say, "Oh you poor little child.." I heard some shuffling and I suddenly felt something grab hold of me gently.

Panicking in surprise, I look at what is holding me and saw the Asari hugging me gently and I felt a familiar sense of dread as the only time aliens touch me, it was associated with pain and death. I quickly struggle and try to get away from her in fear. She just hugs me tighter and said in a motherly tone that warms my heart

"Shhh, don't move little one. Its ok, you're safe now, I'm not going to hurt you, and nobody is going to hurt you. You are safe now little one, shhhh calm down now…"

She comforts me and I stop struggling as she meant no harm to me and instead I grab on to her and pull myself closer as it has been so long since anybody touches me with gentle care when I first woke up on Omega.

I felt myself crying on her shoulder but I didn't care, while I was exploring Omega, it had taken a large mental toll on me from all the hunger, pains and loneliness. But I kept all the emotional feeling closed up and stayed that way for so long that when she whisper comforting words to me, the flood gates burst open.

No sound came from me with exception from the occasional gasp and sobs from the crying, tears ran freely.

I don't know how long I cried on her shoulder but eventually I stop crying and gently push her off of me and wipe away the tears that still lingers from my single eye and on my right cheek.

"Feeling better now little one?" she ask me, I nodded slowly and gave her a small soft smile and mouthed thank you to her. She seems to understand what I meant, "Your welcome little one, I'm just glad that you are not rude little boy" She said with a smile, the last part being said as a joke to brighten my mood

It worked and I laughed mentally while suppressing an urge to chuckle at her small joke

Her smile widens a tad bit wider when she saw my mood brighten up a bit. "What is your name little one? I can't keep calling you little one forever now can I?" she said before remembering that I can't speak and added with an embarrassed face on her, "Oh, that came out a bit wrong.."

She reach into her apron large pocket and took out an old rectangular pad with a screen that seen better days, she says "Here use the touch screen to write down your name"

She gave me the old touch pad after she taps on it a few times; I grab it and see what look like white paper represented on the screen. I use my finger and try to trace my name clearly for her to read.

I show it to her and she took out and odd looking glasses and put it on. She reads, "Lurima..Namia, but I can just call you Luri if I want?" She puts down her glasses and looks at me for conformation. I just nodded to her and she raised a single eyebrow and said, "Isn't Lurima Namia a girlish name for you little boy?"

I just shrug at her and she just sighed at me, "Well.." she started to say, "…At least I won't have to call you little one or little boy anymore huh Luri?..."

I just nodded and smile happily as I can now communicate to someone in English after so long

She smiles at me and said, "Well then Luri, my name is Lizinda T'Zaris and how about we both cook some lunch for the both of us? It's only fair for you to help me as I closed down my shop for three days just to nurse you back to health."

She pause and look s at me before saying, "You do know how to cook a bit right Luri?"

As soon as I hear the word cooking, she fully grabs my attention and nodded vigorously at her when she asked me if I could cook.

She smiles and stands up before holding her hand for me to grab

I grab her hand and she helps me up, but I forgot that I am wrapped in blanket and it slid down on the floor. Exposing my almost naked body to her, with a yelp my face flushed in embarrassment and I quickly wrap the blanket around me and avoid looking into her eye as I am embarrassed to my core.

She laughs at his and said, "HahaHa, I forgot that I took your clothes off to wash all the sweat and dirt. Come; let's get you some fresh clothes to wear now ok?"

My face is still red in embarrassment, but I nodded to her, stood up and follow her out of the room, bringing the blanket wrapped around with me.

I don't know why she goes so far to even close her shop to help me but I didn't think much about it, she is the first alie-I mean person to ever care for me and I am forever grateful for that. I would do everything in my power to repay my debt to her.

But right now, I am doing the one thing that I have always been good at that I have been deprived of from ever since I woke up on Omega.

Cooking

X13131313X

AN: That's a wrap people; I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the last one but think of it as a thank you gift for those that followed my story as I didn't expect to have a number of followers in the first few hours alone. The rest of the chapter will hopefully be longer than this so I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

P.S Lurima Namia is a name that if you take the letters and arrange it differently, you would get my real name. Virtual cookie to those that got it, as it is really simple.

Till then, I'm out for the midweek and now reading a comic at 13 bye bye.