The morning after his conversation with Shepard aboard the stranded Mako, Kaidan was sitting in the mess with a cup of what claimed to be coffee but what he was sure wasn't and a killer migraine that looked as though it had decided to bother him all morning. Kaidan was sitting with his head bowed and his fingers massaging his temples when he heard footsteps approach him.
"You alright lieutenant?" asked a groggy voice.
Kaidan looked up to see Shepard standing across the table from him with her mug. She smiled at him sleepily as she absent mindedly tried to flatten her hair. They hadn't talked much since their mission yesterday.
"Just another migraine. One of the many joys of being an old model biotic," Kaidan grinned as he took a sip of his drink and grimaced. "You're up early."
"One of the many joys of being an exo," Shepard muttered with a yawn as she proceeded to fill her cup. "I hate early rounds."
"I take it you're not a morning person," Kaidan said as she sat down and started sipping her drink, seemingly without any aversion to the strange taste.
"Mornings suck, even in space," Shepard replied.
They sat in silence for a few seconds before Kaidan cracked his neck and Shepard let out a small laugh.
"What?" he asked her.
"I used to crack my bones all the time when I was younger," Shepard said as she drained the contents of her mug. "It really annoyed my mother. Maybe that's why I did it so much."
"I got the habit from my dad," Kaidan replied as Shepard got up to refill her mug. "I don't know how you can drink that stuff."
"I need my coffee, or imitation coffee in this case, in the morning," Shepard said casually as she sat back down at the table. "I become a rather less likeable person if I'm forced to go without it."
Kaidan laughed and took another drink from his cup. The strange taste seemed to disappear if he concentrated on something else. The lieutenant had put a lot of thought into how he could talk to Shepard without making a total idiot of himself as he'd done on several previous occasions. From now on, before Kaidan said anything to Shepard, he would seriously think about what he was going to say so it didn't make him look stupid, in love with her or both.
"I can't imagine you not being likeable," Kaidan replied.
So much for his plan of thinking things through. Maybe he was tall, dark and stupid just like Joker had said.
"I've never met anyone who seemed to like complimenting as much as you Lieutenant Alenko," Shepard said as she looked over the rim of her cup at him and grinned. "I wish you wouldn't look so mortified when you did it though."
"I'll try not to next time ma'am," Kaidan said with a small smile.
Joker was going to have a field day when Kaidan told him about this conversation.
"I still have some time to fill in before I start my rounds," Shepard said after a moment. "So, since I shared yesterday, it's your turn today to tell me about your family."
"Let's see," Kaidan said thoughtfully. "My mother and father live back on Earth in Vancouver. My father was a soldier. He retired just before the First Contact War."
"Any siblings?" asked Shepard.
"A little sister called Kaelyn. She's seven years younger than me" Kaidan said with less enthusiasm than a person talking about a rock. "The apple of my parents' eyes and the perfect child in their opinion."
"I take it you don't get along with her," Shepard said with a grin.
"Don't get me wrong. I love my little sister," Kaidan replied. "We just have a very competitive relationship. I was never well behaved and my grades weren't good. Kaelyn was a straight A student who never missed a day of school and never got a detention."
"Surely your parents were proud of you when you enlisted with the Alliance," Shepard enquired.
"They were eventually," Kaidan replied. "And then Kaelyn enlisted. My parents heaped so much praise and so many congratulations on her that I'm surprised she wasn't buried alive."
"It sounds like she's trying to be like her big brother," Shepard laughed. "What rank is she?"
"She's already a chief," Kaidan replied. "I will say this about Kaelyn though. She's one of the most naturally talented soldiers I've ever seen."
"Is she a biotic?" Shepard asked curiously.
"No, thank goodness," Kaidan grinned. "I'd hate to come up against her if that were the case. If she had biotic abilities on top of her other talents, it would take a squad of Krogan to bring her down."
"She sounds like an impressive soldier," Shepard smiled. "I wouldn't mind serving with her sometime."
"She's as stubborn as anything," Kaidan replied. "That's why no one ever argued with her. I swear she could argue underwater if she wanted to."
"You said you were never well behaved," Shepard said quietly. "Looking at you now, I find that hard to believe."
"My rebellious teenage years were a little more rebellious than most," Kaidan said with a smirk. "Being a young biotic with basically no control over my abilities, I got into a lot of fights. I'd hate to think what kind of a person I'd be today if the Alliance hadn't accepted me. I'd probably be a merc or something worse."
"Then you and I would probably have ended up fighting sometime in the future," Shepard grinned.
"Thank god I didn't go down that path then," Kaidan laughed. "I'd hate to get into a fight with you."
"Then don't get in my way in the morning before I've had my coffee," Shepard smiled as she stood up. "Thanks for the talk lieutenant."
"Anytime . . . Commander," Kaidan said with a soft smile, happy that he finally felt confident enough around Shepard to address her as Commander instead of ma'am.
oooooooooo
"I finally called her Commander," Kaidan said to Joker as he settled down in the seat beside him.
"Nice," Joker smiled. "And it only took you three days too. You'll be calling her Shepard by this time next week. Do you think you'll be calling her your girlfriend by the end of the month?"
"Why do I even bother talking to you about the Commander and I?" Kaidan said with a small scowl.
"Well who else are you going to talk about your love life with?" Joker teased. "So what's next for the two of you?"
"I don't know," Kaidan said thoughtfully. "Besides, she's going to be busy for the next few days and there isn't much we can do on the ship."
"Well, actually there is," Joker said casually.
"Like what?" Kaidan asked, missing the glint in Joker's eye.
The pilot didn't elaborate anymore on his comment, choosing instead to raise his eyebrow to convey its full meaning. Kaidan looked at him blankly at him for a few moments before frowning.
"I'm going to pretend I have no idea what you're talking about," he said in a low tone.
"What're you two whispering about?"
Kaidan blushed at the sound of Shepard's voice and turned in his seat to look up at her.
"Nothing Commander," Kaidan said as he shot a sniggering Joker a dark look. "Was there something you needed?"
"I just came to tell Joker that Captain Anderson said we need to make stop at the Stratus Space Station," Shepard replied.
"Inputting the co-ordinates now," said Joker. "Did the captain say why we were stopping there?"
"We're picking someone up," Shepard said as she leaned against Kaidan's seat. "He wouldn't tell me much else."
"Must be a VIP if Captain Anderson wouldn't even tell you all the details," Kaidan added. "What else did he say?"
"Just that his name is Nihlus," Shepard replied.