"So giant plant, hm?"
Shepard looked up from her coffee to see Kaidan leisurely leanng against the back of her chair, a eyebrow raised as the corner of his lips tugged into a smile.
"You were there, Kaidan. Pretty hard to miss."
"I know," he said, pulling out the chair beside her and sitting next to her, their arms barely touching. "Just trying to spark some conversatin, that's all."
"If you wanted conversation, why not try a 'how are you?' Or, 'what some company?'"
Shepard watched his facial expression. He was being incrediably confident and bold compared to his usual shy self; going head first into an unproffessional conversation with her. If she didn't know any better, she would say he was being flirty. And there she went, flirting right back. He let out that husky chuckle Shepard had grown fond of hearing and swept a hand through his hair, as if to push back nerves.
"Well I suppose when you put it like that, Shepard; but I wouldn't really consider that an odd conversation starter for us. What was it you said to me the other day? 'Kaidan, I need you to go and help clean off the mako. I don't want pyak guts all over the windscreen when I've got colosshites firing at me.' And I'm pretty sure I just nodded and said 'yes ma'am.' Now stop me if I'm wrong but i think that's a bit different to 'hello Kaidan, would you mind helping Garrus clean off the mako so nothing obstructs my line of vision on our next mission?'"
"Wow, who gave you some vitamen smartass?"
"I've been taking lessons from Ashley. She's taught me to 'live wild'."
Shepard smiled, drinking her tea and resting the side of her head on her hand, which was propped up by her elbow on the table. She was smiling up at Kaidan, subconciously moving so he was the only thing in her vision. He, himself, was doing the same thing on the opposite arm, his head tilted the other way. Neither realised Ashley was up in the cockpit with Joker at this time; not even noticing the brief snicker that came from the intercom before Joker remember to mute it. They were just looking at each other, both contemplating what to say next. Eventually, Shepard broke the silence. She brought up a topic that Shepard felt had to be aired, even just in good humour. She was too curious. Not jealous, simply curious.
"So do I have to worry about you two breaking some regs, Lieutenant? She really showing you how to live wild?"
Shepard waited for his usually nervous spluttering; the caught in the act face and the speech he'd usually pull. But she got no such thing, to her surprise.
"Ha, no worries there, Commander. Ashley's like the sister I never had. But she is being a bad influence, I'll give her that. Trying to convince me to break a couple of regs here once and a while. Yea know, be rebellious every now and again."
They didn't hear it but there was a large intake of breath from Ashley, while Joker watched the footage with eyebrows raised, a grin across his face. There was nothing better than seeing higher up officers doing embarressing normal people things. Especially when it came to Shepard.
"Well, when you decide to go and break those rules, Alenko, give me a call. I think I need a bit of release."
Back in the cockpit, Ashley was almost going red, trying to keep in the squealing, while Joker finally broke and burst into a rib cracking laugh at Ashley. Meanwhile, as Ashley hyperventilated with excitment over her projected dubbed 'Shenko', and Kaidan was internally freaking out over the fact that Shepard had indirectly just agree to break regs with him, which was now an idea put into his head by Ashley, Shepard was clueless. She had given Kaidan a wink with her reply, a blatent flirt by her, and watched as the confidence that had been bursting behind his eyes faded away, only to be replaced by the shy look he so often donned. Shepard wasn't sure if she felt victorious for getting him to blush with a simple wink, or disappointed that her fun banter was probably now gone. He looked away, frowning, and Shepard got a shock when she realised that maybe she had offended him somehow.
"Uh, I'll take that wink back if you go back to being a smartass. Didn't mean to, um, make you uncomfortable."
He turned back to her, staring right into her emerald eyes with his own brown, and made her shiver with his next words.
"You'd never make me uncomfortable, Shepard."
Joker groaned, telling Ashley that Kaidan was turning out to be a total chick flick kind of guy, and if he could just interrupt them to make it all stop. Ashley promptly attempted to cause damage to his ribcage with a jab of her finger.
"Shut your face, Joker," she whispered sharply into his ear before sitting back into her leather chair. All she was missing was popcorn.
Shepard tried everything to pull her eyes away from his, her muscles feeling like they had just gone through a long workout because she was so tense. But she couldn't tear them away. It was like two magnets pulling together. He just sat there too, going over hw stupid and cheesy his last words had been.
"Wh-what were those rules Ashley was trying to get you to break?" she asked quietly and cautiously, nervous about his reply.
If he said what she thought he was going to say, she had no idea how to react. She noticed him swallow and move his eyes away briefly, before moving them back to hers and opening his mouth to reply.
"She said I should-"
"Commander, there's a vid comm coming in from Captain Shepard if you want to take it now. Do you want me to-"
Joker's interruption was interrupted by a crashing noise, the sound of something being broken, and a faint yell that sounded suspiciously like Ashley saying 'moron!' and then a loud 'ow' from Joker.
"Uh, Joker?" Shepard asked, straightening up, trying to get her previous conversation out of her head for the time being. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yea, Commander. I think Ashley just broke a part of the ship and me, but I'm fine. Do you want me to patch it through?"
Always her damn mother. Had she been a couple of minutes later, Shepard would've gotten the end of that conversation, but no. Her mother just had to call now. Standing up, she sighed, not even looking down at Kaidan, and turned to leave for the comm room.
"Go ahead, Joker."
She felt Kaidan's eyes following her until she reached the steps and then turned to give him a very quick salute wave, letting him know they would talk later. Oh yes, they would definity talk later. When her mother flickered up in front of her, Shepard couldn't refrain from letting out a fed up sigh.
"Oh well, if this is a bad time I can always come back and talk when I'm not in charge of my ship."
Shepard gripped the bar of metal infront of the vid comm, her knuckles going white from the pressure. "Sorry, Mom. Tired and stressed. Just delt with a giant mind controling plant. You know, normal day at the office on the Normandy. What is it that you wanted?"
Her mother gave her a reassuring smile, to which she rolled her eyes, and then turned to frown at her daughter; a look of concern across her brow. "I was just checking in, honey. I know this Saren mess must be taking it's toll on you. In my experience, the best way to.-"
And Shepard drifted off, completely forgetting her mother was even talking to her, and instead she found herself with an identical frown as her mother, thinking about her and Kaidan's conversation.
"Dora? Hello?"
Shepard's head zipped back up to her mother, eyes wide after being caught not listening.
"Sorry, Mom. I've got things on my mind; making it hard to think."
Her mother studied her facial expression and the way she stood for a moment before giving Shepard an enthusiastic smile.
"It's a man, isn't it? My daughter has finally found the male species. Oh, he must be on your ship then. Honey, fratenisation is against the regulations, you know that. But I won't stop you, because I fratenised and look what happened. I got a beautiful-"
"Mom!" Shepard exclaimed a little too loudly, her face now red from embarressment.
It still surprised her how this woman was able to manage a whole ship without turning it into a soap opera.
"I never- I never said anything about a guy. And there isn't one, okay? Well I- I don't think so. Just- just leave it, okay? I'm not going to go and frat and end up pregnant with some war hero."
That's right Shepard. Insert some humour and everything will obviously be fine.
"My, my; someone's awfully humble. And trust me darling; either there is, or there isn't a man. Now by your reaction I will continue to believe that there is. Well, good luck with that anyway, honey. I must be off; there's some angery batarians I've got to deal with. I love you, Dora."
Shepard replied the 'love you', only in a dead pan tone in contrast to her mother's chirpiness. Strange how a fifty year old woman like Hannah Shepard could tire Shepard out more than a swarm of geth. She did always see right through Shepard though. Maybe she was right.
A/N: Hola guys! Thank you for all the alerts, favourites and reviews! Virmire is up soon, so hold onto your panties. Thank you to .D for betaing again :)
Next time:"You gotta come back, Ash. It's gotta be you, me and Alenko. We're a team. Are we understood?"