„You have a bad influence on me, really"

[2182 CE]

Finishing his shift, John Shepard stepped out of the office building located on Zakera Ward. The glowing lights of the area dazzled him for a brief moment, since the pretty much static envinronment of a C-Sec department had numbed his senses in the past few hours.
He took a deep breath and stretched his arms to regain some of the alertness he had felt like five hours ago, before this particularly dull shift had bored him to tears.
On the one hand, it was always a relief when no illegal AIs tried to blow up a district, but on the other hand, he felt somehow useless on days like these.
At least they pay well for it.
He looked around, somewhat more aware of his surroundings.
Jane was supposed to be around here somewhere. In the morning, she had said she'd have training not far from this office and that she might even have an opportunity to buy a few things in the nearby mall for dinner.

"We can come home together and I'll cook something nice for a change" she had said, smiling gracefully up at him "we eat enough cafeteria crap too often anyway."

That was Jane for you. She even cared about her family's eating habits.
The memory of their short morning conversation brought a smile to his face. The day might eventually have something pleasant in it, aside from staring at status reports or monitoring activity.

He looked around, hoping to spot Jane among the bypassers. Asari, Turians, Humans and, suprisingly, a Quarian walked by, but he couldn't see her anywhere.
She might still be around the mall.
Before he tried to call her, he decided to check out the route leading to the shopping area. He kind of liked that path anyway because it reminded him of Earth with all the plants and decorations that imitated a natural environment. Not that he had a problem with the Citadel, but it was good to see some green here and there.
After approximately a minute of walking, a familiar voice reached his ears. He turned his head in the direction it was coming from and quickly spotted a woman with red hair. No one else on the Citadel walked around with that color on their head.
Too damn red.
Jane didn't see him because she was talking to someone, probably one of her friends.
As he moved closer, he got a better view of them and immediately realized that something was wrong. Judging from her gestures, Jane seemed to be annoyed.
Altough, knowing her general attitude towards people, she was probably trying really hard not to offend the guy she was talking to.
Jane and her generous soul.

The guy was clearly disoriented; the clouded expression on his face and his too-casual stance gave it away. He had light brown hair and he wore the male version of the dark blue training uniform that Jane wore as well, as she always did until she got home and changed into something leisurely.

John got close enough to them to be able to puzzle out what Jane was saying.

"…Mark, you are a really nice guy, but you are not exactly sober right now and even if you were, I'm not really -"

"Oh, come on!" Mark interrupted. "Don't play hard to get. I wasn't proposing, ya know."

"Yes, I caught that." Jane nodded. "Still-"

"Admit that you girls like me," Mark said and he grinned at Jane.

Jane buried her face into her palm.

John's face quickly changed from relaxed to stern.
Another idiot who wasn't willing to leave Jane alone. And he was damn sure this was not the first time she had politely rejected him.

"I believe she said 'no."

His tone wasn't exactly friendly as his sister's, though it wasn't exactly threatening either.
They both looked up at him, suprised, as he appeared practically out of nowhere. Jane's expression immediately changed from flustered to concerned.
She knew John was not as polite as she was when it came to drunk morons or any other type of nuisance. She tried to compensate.

"He was just about to-"

"WHAT? "

After a minor time-lag, the drunk guy realized that John was talking to him.

"What…" he repeated provocatively as he straightened up so he could look John in the eyes. "She's your bitch or what? 'Cause it ain't your business, so go to hell."

Without a sign of suprise in his cold blue eyes, John nodded.

"Oh, I see."

Before Jane could interrupt, or Mark had a chance to make another incautious reply, John stepped forward and punched the guy in the face with a well-placed right hook.
Mark wobbled back a few steps and flailed around with his hand, searching for something to grab. He finally reached a wall, which successfully stopped him from flopping onto the ground.

"She is my sister, by the way. "

A few pedestrians stared at them for a second, but they quickly decided to proceed.
John blinked at Jane. She was staring at him with an expression on her face that signaled something like Please don't hit him again. Since he didn't want to stress her even more, he decided not to continue the education.
Meanwhile, Mark just stood at the wall and seemed to be trying to adapt to the situation.

"I'm glad we understand each other," said John in a diplomatic tone, then grabbed Jane's shoulder and pulled her in the direction he'd come from.

"Thanks, I guess," Jane muttered. She wasn't overly fond of unnecessary violence, but her definition of unnecessary is different from his.

"Any time. " John nodded.
He glanced back over his shoulder to be sure that Mark was not trying to follow them. He did that just in time to get a nice view at Mark's rapidly approaching fist.
Sadly, the next millisecond, it hit the back of his head strongly enough to cause a short blackout.

He's ten years old, sitting outside the house.
The grass is green all around and the air is filled with the scent of wood. The sun fights its way between two clouds and casts its light on a little red-haired head in front of him.
The voice of his new mother reaches him from behind.
"They seem to be getting along well… though, I never doubted that they would…"
A pair of shining green eyes stare at him.
Enough of sitting.
He leans forward and grabs her hand.
"Come on Jane. I'll show you Grunt."
"Gruuunt?" Her mouth stays open as she stands up.
"Granny's oldest dog. He's huge! You'll like him."
They start to walk towards the house, holding hands.
She trips over a fallen branch, but he catches her before she falls on the ground.
"Hey, watch where you step!"
She's laughing as she straightens up as if she's having fun.
"Sheesh… father was right. You really need someone to look after you."
He shakes his head and bends down so he can look her in the eyes.
"It's okay. I'm your new brother for a reason! I'll protect you. All the time."
She's smiling again, then grabs his hand and draws him towards the house.
"Brother! Show meee Grunt!"

Why am I hugging a tree?
This was the first question that crossed his mind as his eyesight came back. The second involved the current date… among other things. As his ears started to function again, the memories of the last few minutes came back to his mind. He immediately knew how he'd gotten acquainted so closely with the only real tree in a twenty-meter radius.

"Now get the hell out of here before I decide to throw you off this level!"

Jane? Yes, that is definitely Jane's voice.
He turned around as quickly as his throbbing head allowed him to.
Mark was still there. But he was at the wall again and his nose was bleeding this time. And Jane… Jane was glowing. It didn't take him long to realize that she was covered in her blue biotic aura.
Mark surely realized it as well, because this time he took the advice and walked away quickly without uttering one single word.
The glowing faded away and Jane turned around. Her face was a mixture of anger and distress.

"Goddammit, John!" she yelled at him and grabbed his hands.
The few bypassers were all looking at them anyway.

"It's… oookay, I'm okay," he muttered and started to blink rapidly so that the world might stop spinning.
It actually did after a few seconds.

"The hell you are! " Jane yelled again, somewhat quieter. "You were leaning on that tree motionless for almost half a minute!"

"Half… a minute?" he repeated and looked around.
Their bags were on the ground, but nothing else indicated that something had happened. At least no one was staring at them anymore.

"What… were you doing for half a minute?" He turned to Jane.

Jane let go of him with her left hand. She seemed to be calming down.

"I… punched him." She looked away. "I didn't hit him hard, but I think I accidentally used my biotics… so I might have broke his nose, I don't know.

John couldn't help but grin.
Jane breaking someone's nose. Now that's not everyday stuff.

"It's not funny, goddammit! " she scolded him and let go of his other hand as well. "I just wanted him to go away."

"Well, he did."

"Yeah, after I told him that I never want to see him on the streets again… and threatened to use a throw on him."

"You are really lovely when you're threatening people."

Jane stared at him resignedly, her mouth half-open.
He stepped forward and closed her rosy-red lips by pressing her jaw from underneath with two fingers.

"Well, not like that," he added, still grinning.

"Goddammit John," she swore again, but her face twitched as if she wanted to smile. She grabbed John's hand on her jaw and placed her other hand on the back of his head.

"So I assume you are alright and we can go home without you punching anyone else on the way?"

John's grin disappeared and deep sadness replaced it.
"Why are you so hard on me?" he asked petulantly. "I just saved you from a molester!"

Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, and I had to finish what you started."

"Admit it, without me, you'd be still wasting your breath on him."

She sighed and slowly shook her head. Then, for some reason, she blushed.
She's cute when she blushes.

"You have a bad influence on me, really," she muttered and let go of him with both hands, then picked John's bag off the ground and handed it to him.
She seemed to be suddenly pondering on something.

John took his bag and picked up Jane's as well before she could reach it, then he lifted both of them over his left shoulder.

"Nah, I'm just looking after you, as I promised."

Jane sighed, then hooked on his right hand and pulled him towards the public transport station.

"Then you should practice it, 'cause you're not very good at it…"