He motioned the waitress over with a nod of his head.
"What'll it be?" she asked, looking at both of them. The human's was half empty and the Drell's was almost gone. Interesting…a human and a drell sitting together, obviously digging each other… Oh well, when you'd been around as long as she had, you were bound to see any number of odd things.
"I'll have what he's having," Shepard replied, pointing to the green liquid the Drell slowly swirled in his class.
"You know that stuff is bad for humans, Drell too," the waitress pointed out, writing down their order when Thane indicated he'd have another with a gesture of the glass. Oh yea, cards were in play here tonight. She wished them both the time of their life. It wasn't like she'd been getting any lately…
"I am not drinking for my physical health." "My health is the least of my concerns." They spoke at the same time, one voice a deep throaty male, the other smooth husky female.
"Like this stuff's good for me," she joked as the waitress walked away. She drained the rest of her drink and set the glass on the table.
"I have observed that most individuals drink to either lower their inhibitions, or to forget," Thane commented before taking another small sip of his drink. For him though, it was to become numb. He couldn't stop the memories, but he could, when he chose to, drink himself into oblivion, where even the memories couldn't find him.
It wasn't often that he felt like this, but sometimes… There was so much he had to make up for in his life. So many things he'd done, so many things he hadn't done. His son didn't even know him anymore. And then the memories would start, not the good ones he could escape into. No, there were the ones that haunted his soul, the ones that ate away at the peace he struggled daily to attain through prayers and meditations. These memories drove him to…
He focused on her face. Up close she was even more striking, for a human. Older than he'd originally thought, but still younger than himself. Pale grey eyes that looked like some of the storm clouds that would roll in off the oceans of Kajea regarded him from an oval face. In the dim light of the bar he could just make out a network of fine scars that covered her face like some kind of spider web. There were more on the backs of her hands and on her arms. He wondered what she'd done to get them. He also wondered what her game was. As a general rule, humans kept to themselves. They weren't known for doing the whole interspecies thing.
"So which one are you? Getting drunk to get lucky, or getting drunk to forget?" She'd always been a straight to the point kind of girl. His eyes were so dark and deep she could fall into them. And for an alien, he had the most perfect lips, the kind that said, "Come suck on me…" Pale green scales with darker pattern markings, he was arrestingly attractive, for an alien. The pale red ribbons of flesh that ran under his chin, up to his ears? They looked so soft. Would they feel as soft to the touch? Oh, and that chest, all open jacket thing displaying such a broad expanse of soft, shimmery, green goodness…
"I might ask you the same question," he answered her question with one of his own. Were all humans this direct and to the point? Or maybe that's what he sensed about her, that living on the edge of danger aura that she exuded.
The waitress arrived with their drinks and set them on the table. His omni-tool glowed briefly as he paid for their drinks. After taking her first sip and relishing the shudder that passed through her body as the alien liquor burned its way down her throat, Shepard replied, "If I finish this, I'll be anything you want me to be. You aren't here waiting on anyone, are you?" She hadn't thought of that. What if he was waiting on someone? A girlfriend? A wife? She took another sip of the Ryncol.
"An interesting proposition, and no, I am not waiting on anyone, Ms.?" Even as his mind rebelled against the urging of his body, he felt his blood stir as heat pooled in his groin. It had been a long time… He reached for his glass and took a long pull. Perhaps if he could just drink his body into submission.
"Just call me Arizona." It was where she'd been born on Earth. "And you are?" It was kinda surprising that he didn't know who she was, but then Commander Rebecca Tucson Shepard was supposed to be dead. Drink more, faster, before that particular little bug starts crawling around in your head again. She took a long pull from the glass of green venom.
Not her real name he was sure. With all his years of training, he'd learned how to read people. His life often depended on it. He was silent for several moments before saying, "I am called Rakha." It was the closest thing he could think of on such short notice and under the growing effects of the Krogan poison, green, drink thing… Rakhana, the Drell home world, it would have to do.
Damn, when did her drink get empty?
Did someone empty his glass while he wasn't looking?
Shepard noticed the bar was still full of people, fuzzy, blurry people. Fuzzy Garrus and Fuzzy Jacob, as well as a few other crew members, who were all going in and out of focus, were now hanging around the bar. She didn't want them following her, or knowing anything about where she was going, or, hopefully, with whom.
"Big brother" Garrus was so damn protective of her, and it had only gotten worse since Horizon. Granted, they had a long history of being there for each other. She couldn't ask for a better friend. But right now she just wanted a warm body, preferably the one seated next to her with the "come suck on me" lips. A distraction from the life of being Commander Shepard, a life that was so screwed up right now she didn't even know who she was or, more to the point, why she was.
"So, Rakha," she paused after saying his name. She was sure it wasn't his real name, and she didn't care. This wasn't about names and getting to know each other. It was about sex. Plain and simple sex. Well maybe not so simple, and definitely not plain vanilla. More like JD and Ryncol and hot, drunk "lets try something different" sex. "Interested nor not?"
She'd never done a one night stand before. It had never been her style. But that was before, before the whole being dead thing, before signing up for a suicide mission, before Kai… Fuck him. She was on a one way ticket to hell. There was no happy tomorrow, no great love story waiting to be written in the stars. There was only here and now. She could well be one of those husk soon. That thought caused her to shudder.
Interested or not… His body had made that decision as soon as she pulled up a chair at his table. Even now he felt his groin begin to tighten. He had denied his body for over a year. The alcohol and her nearness, it was too much. "I have a room upstairs," he said, already standing and reaching for her hand to help her up.
Shepard glanced toward the bar to make sure Garrus and Jacob were occupied as 'Rakha' guided them toward a rear corner of the bar where the back exit was located. She couldn't stop a smile that played on her lips. He must have scoped out the place, too.
Thane placed his hand on her lower back, guiding her toward the rear exit. His hand brushed something hard stuck into the back of her jeans. She'd come to the bar packing heat. She'd approached him. She hadn't really wanted to know his name… Dark thoughts began to crawl through his alcohol fogged mind.
Outside the bar, in the dark of the alley, he forced her up against the wall, leaned his body into hers and covered her mouth with his. The kiss was wild. One hand going up to tangle in her hair and the other around her waist, his tongue sought entrance to her mouth and she opened to him without resistance. Her hands clutched at his shoulders and she sought to get closer. Her teeth nipped at his lower lip, sucking it into her own mouth where her tongue stroked the tender flesh.
It was no problem to get his hand under her top, the pretext of touching her, of pulling her closer. It was no problem to suddenly flip them around so that she was standing between his legs, the gun deftly removed and placed in a coat pocket. With that taken care of, he could enjoy the feel of her rubbing against his already throbbing cock. Could enjoy the feel of her soft skin on the palms of his hands. He still didn't trust her, but she was too drunk to even notice the missing piece. He could handle her… He sucked in a breath when her hand slid down the front of his pants, cupping him in a firm grasp that had him moaning into her mouth.
"Upstairs," he managed to say, loathe to stop but unwilling to fuck her right here.
"I want you," she whimpered when he pushed her away, her eyes glazed with passion and need. It was all he could do not to strip her right there and bury himself in her.