Hey everybody, I hope you have enjoyed reading my story so far and I would definitly appreciate your feedback on it. I have been super busy and bogged down with life. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to write for this again for at least a about 4 or 5 weeks. I will finish this, I promise, but life has to come first. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter IX
Vallok knew what he was feeling was more than a bit of anxiety, he sat at the table waiting for Valerie. Trying to calm himself down he took a deep breath focusing on the skycars that flew by. The Presidium was lively and bustling with patrons and customers heading to shops and Restaurants/Bars. Looking around one more time, he opened his omni-tool checking the time and messages. Leaning forward in his chairs he folded his arms onto the table looking around nervously once again. It was unlike Valerie to be late, let alone not even send a message to tell him. Taking another deep breathe he leaned back in his chair trying to relax. Noticing Vallok's discontent a female turian walked over to the table flaring her mandibles in a smile at him.
"You're looking awfully anxious." She said tilting her head looking inquisitive.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Vallok tried to keep his answer's short, trying to keep the attractive woman at bay.
"Mind if I pry and ask why?"
"Waiting on a friend." Hoping she would give up, he continued being vague.
"A friend huh?" Her brow plate lifted, trying to pry to see if he was taken.
"Mhm." He nodded his head.
"Excuse me." Valerie walked by the turian woman almost pushing her out of the way.
Vallok flared his mandible's glad to see her, as he stood up from the table politely waiting for her to sit first."What took you so long?"
The female turian that had shown interest glared at them both and scoffed, walking past Vallok back to the shop area. Valerie narrowed her glare as she watched the young turian woman continue walking down the walkway area. "Who was she?" She let her gaze fall back on Vallok's softened face. She was surprised by it, for the first time in the 5 months she came to the Citadel he had began to lighten up.
"Don't really know."
Valerie nodded her head looking around at the cafe then back at Vallok. "Why did you call me here?"
Taking a deep breathe he looked out over the balcony at the passing skycars as the hummed by. "Alright, I'm going to C-Sec academy and I just wanted to make sure you were alright with it?"
Looking into his eyes, she struggled to find what to say. Looking down at the table for a brief moment she took a deep breathe as well. "If it's what you want to do..."
"Val, I know you don't like the idea but..."
"I don't like it Vallok, I held you in my arms as you died. Caused by the same type of people you would be going after. I don't want to have to worry about you." Valerie fought hard to keep back her tears as she cleared her throat.
"Listen, Val I know it's dangerous, but I will be careful. That's the only promise I can make. I can promise to come back, but there is no guarantee" Vallok knew she was having a hard time with it. He moved himself closer to her, letting his talon fall underneath her chin turning her head to face him. Letting his other talon wipe away the tears that had fallen from her eyes he touched his head to hers, letting his chest almost purr. His heart sank as he put his arm around her shoulders and tried to comfort her. There was always the possibility of being killed in C-Sec, but if an officer did their job right they would be alright.
Valerie turned into him nuzzling her face into his chest trying to think as a few more tears welled up in her eyes. The thought of him being in C-Sec didn't bother her, it was the constant worry that would come with it. Muffled by his chest Valerie spoke softly. "Why?"
Letting out a sigh, he put his hand on the back of her head touching her fringes. "I want to do something that feels right and this feels right."
Finding his answer a little odd she lifted her head from his chest looking at him with a puzzled, but still sad look. " What?"
"Since I got here I haven't been able to find anything that I can do well and...don't regret doing. C-Sec feels right."
Silence came between them for a few seconds as she looked out over the balcony trying to collect her thoughts still wiping away what was left of the tears. "If it's what you want to do..."
Vallok nodded his head looking at her as she avoided his stare by looking out over the balcony. "It'll be alright Val. I promise I will tell you before I do anything stupid."
Still a little upset she smiled, chuckling at his joke then turning her head to look at him again."Ok."
Flaring his mandibles he looked into her eyes trying to reassure her. He found himself lost in her green eyes for a moment before shaking himself out of it. " Are you alright?"
"Yeah." Her face still looked somber as she looked back into Vallok's eyes.
"Come on, I got something that will cheer you up." Getting up from the table he held out his hand to Valerie smiling with a flare to his mandibles.
Putting her hand in his she got up, going along with whatever he had planned. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
"We're heading back." Shepard still glared out the window at the transport.
"What?" Vallok couldn't help but looked puzzled by the Commanders sudden mind change.
"Not ready to do this yet. We are going to head back to the Citadel and drop you two off." Shepard walked off the bridge down the walkway to the CIC.
"What the hell was that about?"
The pilot shrugged his shoulder and tapped again at the holo screens in front of him, disengaging the docking procedure. Still a little confused he turned to walk off the bridge down the walk way, listening in on the conversations between the crew members. Talk of disappearing colonies and missing friends. He found it odd that he hadn't heard much about the disappearances or missing people. Touching the elevator control the doors opened, he got in and touched the screen queuing the Engineering Deck. The lift hummed as it lowered into the ship, letting Vallok's thoughts begin to dwell on Zoey again. He couldn't hake the odd feelings he had towards her, she was a human yet he felt attracted to her. It bothered him that he felt that way about her being that she was a different species and she was his partner. The lift beeped opening it's doors, throwing him from his thoughts.
Stepping off the lift he looked around the hallway for anyone around. The deck was empty and all Vallok had for company was the hum of the drive core. Walking into his make shift room quarters he let out a deep sigh, sitting down on a table bringing him back to Zoey. She wasn't exactly not his type, but she really did seem a little psychotic and ready to kill. He shook his head almost disgusted with him self for thinking about her like that, not once during all of this did he think about Valerie. How would she handle it all? Taking a deep breathe again he grabbed his pistol looking at it fondly before beginning to strip it down to clean. They say with the heat sink technology you wouldn't have to clean the guns anymore, but Vallok still preferred the older models. There was less that could go wrong with them. As he ran a cleaning rod through the barrel the thought of Zoey popped back into his head.
"Damn it!" He slammed down the gun and the cleaning rod, looking around the room. "EDI?"
"Yes."
"Where is Zoey?" He shook his head to himself, knowing it might be a bad idea but he didn't care.
"She is currently on the Crew Deck in the mess area."
"Thank you." Getting up from his table he left his gun and walked to the lift once again. He couldn't believe how irritating it was to have to use the lift to get up and down all the time.
The lift beeped as it hit the Crew Deck, opening its doors to the chatter of crew members again. Turning the corner his eyes searched quickly for Zoey, which sat at the table looking down the food in front of her. Walking over calmly he sat at the end of the table quietly. Continuing to pick at her food she hadn't noticed that Vallok was now sitting across from her quietly.
"Ehmm." Vallok cleared his throat catching her attention as she jumped
She looked up from her food glaring at Vallok scoffing, before looking back down at her food. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to apologize for earlier. I lost my patience and about last night, I thought about it, I will admit. I stopped though and you know that." She looked up from her food again studying Vallok's face.
Looking back down at her food playing with it, with her fork as she struggled to find her words."I'm sorry I got upset. You didn't deserve it, I know nothing happened and at the time I was a little...confused."
"Come on let me buy you a cup of coffee." He stood up walking over to her giving her his hand.
"The coffee is free." She smiled looking up at him.
"Well then it will be a cheap date." He flared his mandible back at her.
Grabbing his hand she stood up from the chair and they began walking to the serving area. Grabbing her a cup and pouring the dark brown liquid in the cup he couldn't help but notice the overpowering aroma of the scent she had. Most humans had a certain scent to them, but he had began to ignore the different smells, but she was different. It was sweet and different.
"What are you doing?" Zoey made him snap from his trance.
"Hmm. Oh I was just..." He tried to think of an excuse.
"You were taking in deep breathes."
"Yeah, I was smelling the coffee."
"Ah." He handed the hot liquid to her, relieved she couldn't tell it was a lie.
Walking over to the table they both sat down. Zoey took a sip from her coffee and looked curiously at Vallok. "Don't you want any?"
"I can't ingest human food. Turian thing."
Nodding her head she seem to struggle with saying whatever she had on her mind. "Can I ask you about Turian's, I haven't had much...interaction with them, you, well not you but your kind..."
Not being able to help himself he smirked as he lifted his brow plate. "Yeah, I'll answer what I can."
"What makes Turian's different?"
Looking at him intently waiting for an answer, he took a minute to think about the very broad question. "Well for starters we have armor plating the protects us from solar radiation, ummm...we also have a keen sense of smell."
"So can you smell, like people?"
"Yes, it's actually somewhat hard to visit new ship's because of the smell's."
"Can you smell me?" She said with a smile on her face.
"Yes, I can." Vallok was glad that unlike humans he couldn't blush to show he was a little embarrassed.
"And?" Her smile turned devilish as she waited for his reaction.
"Well..." He fumbled for words before Zoey stopped him.
"It was a joke Vallok." She chuckled at him, before taking a sip of her drink.
"What about...your...mating habits?" She tried not to sound to awkward in asking, but it couldn't be helped.
Not bashful about the subject, he stepped straight in without hesitation. "Well what do you want to know?"
"Well...can you...do it with other species?"
"Well, we've been known to take Asari as mates before, but I haven't really heard of...well wait a minute. I remember something about a Turian - Human couple not to long ago. Other than that though it really just stay's with in Asari, and other Turian's."
"Is it frowned upon for a Turian to be with a human?" She took another sip from her coffee trying to break eye contact to avoid the awkwardness.
"Well it's not frowned upon, more like uncommon."
"Why?"
A little unsure himself he scrunched his face trying to think. "I don't really know."
"Well would you be willing to try it personally?" She looked away from Vallok, looking around the room slowly.
"Why you interested?"He looked smugly at her and couldn't help himself. He knew she was serious, but he wasn't really sure how to handle a relationship, with a human.
She tried to hide her face as it became red and tried to regain her composure. "I was just wondering."
"No you weren't..." She looked up at Vallok looking to see if he was serious.
"Vallok we had a nice night and I was wondering if..."
"An hour ago you wanted to rip my head from my shoulders."
"I was a little mistaken and I had a headache. We can consider it foreplay." She smiled at him making a joke to hide her true feelings.
"Well if that's how you want to play it?" He looked at her flaring his mandible's.
She smiled a little and nodded. "Yes. Hey do you want to get lunch, I'm starving?"
They both got up from the table walking to the serving area, Zoey grabbing a tray of food as Vallok grabbed one of the Dextro tubes. Vallok sat down at the table playing with the tube he had in his hand looking at it with disappointment. It wasn't quite what he really wanted, but it would have to do. "So what is Palaven like?"
Snapping himself from his thoughts he looked back up her. "It's hot to most and there is a constant pounding radiation from our sun, because we have a weak atmosphere."
"Sounds like a real vacation spot." She smirked as she sat down with her food.
"Don't get me wrong it's beautiful, just not my kind of place anymore." Letting his thoughts drift as he looked back down at the tube in his hands. He really didn't dislike Palaven...just some of the people on it.
"Anymore?" She looked curiously at him putting her fork in her mouth then chewing on the food.
"Yeah, long story. One I would rather not tell."
"I understand." She looked at him intently watching him dig deep into thought. "So what brought you to C-Sec?"
He shook off his thought's of Palaven, focusing his attention back on the conversation."It was just something I decided to do, after Val..." He stopped thinking about Valerie. Was it wrong what he was doing? Even if they did have a fight, when he left does that give him the option?
"Something wrong?"
He dismissed it, all he was doing was talking to her and a little flirting. Nothing to serious. "No, just remembered something. It's nothing."
Vallok pulled Valerie to the floor flaring his mandible's amused by Valerie's resistance to dancing with him. Finally getting to the floor they swayed together as the music became slow and called for a more gentle touch.
Laughing as Vallok guided them, as they danced together. "Not fair you know I like this."
"Yet you resisted?" Still smiling.
"Maybe I wasn't in the mood."
Still floating across the floor he nodded. "Well you seem to be in the mood now."
"It wasn't by choice, but I figured since we are here and you're offering."
"Ah, so you're an opportunist then?" She rolled her eye's paying him no mind anymore.
"Gasp, how dare you roll your eye's at me."
"I just don't know what to do about you anymore." She chuckled again.
"As if you ever knew what to do with me?" he tilted her out as they slowly spun.
"You know there was a time when I was able to keep you under control." Pulling herself close to him as the music turned into more of a salsa dance.
"Under control? That's what you called under control? I got shot." He flared his mandible's, mocking her as their pace became dirty as their legs intertwined.
"I never said I was good at it." She smirked at him as he let her head lean back as he held her up with his arm.
"Obviously." He once again flared his mandible's smiling at her.
They danced to the music letting their bodies mix together, making people clear the floor for them. Valerie was always a sucker for dancing, but she hated how he knew she did. He would always pull the card of dancing to get himself out of trouble or to cheer her up. People watched the two turian's glide across the dance floor, swaying together to the rhythm of the music.
The music stopped as they stopped with it standing close to each other looking into each others eyes."You've gotten better."
"Well I like to impress the ladies."
"Yeah? What woman would tolerate your arrogance and pompous personality?" Vallok shook his head leading her away from the dance floor to the bar.
"Apparently this one.." He leaned in and kissed her, making her flare her mandible's.
"Well I'm actually doing charity work in your case."
"Ouch! Here I was thinking you just liked me for my body."
"Well...not just." She smiled looking him over and flaring her mandibles and lifting her brow plate at him.
They both laughed for a minute looking at each other. The smiles began to dissipate as Valerie looked away from Vallok. "Valerie."
She hesitated before looking back at him. He could tell that the C-Sec choice was eating at her still. "Val, I know you're worried about my joining, but I can handle myself."
Her gaze became softer as she shook her head for a moment. "I think it's natural for me to worry. I want you safe and I know you can take care of yourself, but I don't want to loose you."
He knew she had every right to be worried and there was nothing he could say to make her feel better about it. "I'll be careful, that's all I can guarantee."
"Can we go back home?"
"Yeah." They both walked from the bar and walked to the Skycar area.
The ride back to the apartment they were silent and hardly spoke a word to each other. Vallok felt bad about putting her through this, but it really was the only thing that felt right.
"Why do you carry that fossil of a gun?" Zoey tilted her head curiously at it as the sat in her quarters sipping down drinks.
"Well, first of all it's a damn good weapon and second of all it's a reminder." Vallok's looked down at the gun in it's holster quickly thinking about his mother.
"Can I ask what the reminder is?" She could tell it hit close to home with him and didn't want to push it.
Hesitating a minute Vallok pulled out the gun to look at it before laying it on the table. " It's a Karpov Pistol XI, and there was only six ever made. My mother gave it to me before I left..."
"So it's a reminder of your mother?"
"Kind of, it's a reminder of my family...something I should never forget." He glared at the pistol as it laid on the table.
"Pretty loyal to your family huh?" Her ignorance of the situation was refreshing, but it made it a little harder to talk about.
"Not really, it's a long story and very complicated." Looking up from the pistol he looked into her human eyes admiring their deep color.
"I understand." Vallok just stared into her eye's almost in trance with them. "What?"
"Nothing you have beautiful eye's." He flared his mandible's as he broke his stare.
"Is that supposed to melt my heart and make it easier for you to get in my pant's?" She looked at him playfully with a half baked smile.
"I don't know is it working?"
"Sadly yes." She finally let a full smile take her face as she brought him in closer to her as she pressed his lips against her's. Vallok opened his mouth slightly feeling her tongue tease at his flat lip's. Their tongues touched and flickered over each other causing both of them to get closer.
Vallok wasn't sure what he felt for her, but all he did know was that he enjoyed her time and touch. He wanted her so bad, but was it weird? He was a turian and she was human, is it strange to have such desires with a member of a different species? These questions raced through his mind as he tried to make since of it all. He eventually had to shut the questions out of his head and just let his feeling's take control. He hadn't ever felt like this with anyone and he didn't want it to stop. Sitting down on the bed he let his hand's run down her curves as they pulled away from each others mouth. Both of them a little lost on what to do next.
Zoey took lead and started undoing Vallok's armor, letting the snaps unbuckle. His armor fell to the ground as she started tugging at his shirt lifting it over his head and throwing it aside. She began tugging at his pant's, before Vallok pushed her hand away gently as he started to undo them and take them off. She had never looked at turian's in a love interest point of view, but she loved looking at the turian in front of her. Vallok started to undo her shirt unbuttoning it all the way down and then opening it. Her body was beautiful in his eye's, he stared at her bare breast's for a minute taking in the site of her. She undid her pants and pushed Vallok down onto the bed and began to straddle him smiling as she did. Apart of her was worried about him fitting or it possibly hurting, she felt his member rub against the inside of her leg throbbing for her. Lowering herself down onto him she gasped as he went farther into her, only stopping to take a breath again. Vallok's chest began to rumble in pleasure as his head laid back on the bed, feeling Zoey go up and down the length of him. Vallok could feel his primal side fighting to surface, but he tried to control it for her sake.
Carefully he rolled her over pinning her underneath of him, letting his hot breathe beat against her skin. His control began to slip as he began pushing inside of her, making her moan which drove him over the edge. Never have been with a turian Zoey didn't know what to expect as Vallok's heart began to pump faster and as he picked up pace thrusting inside of her faster and faster. His plates began to run her raw and each thrust went deeper and harder, making her begin to hurt. Her hand's tightened on his shoulder's as she tried to deal with the pain, only driving Vallok to go harder. He had never felt such pleasure before in his life, she drove him wild and he couldn't figure out why. Her body quivered underneath of him as she reached her orgasm. Vallok continued pumping into her as he got closer to reaching his climax, Zoey moaned louder as he let his fluids go into her. They panted heavily as he rolled off of her laying on her bed, catching his breath. Zoey smiled at what had just happened as she rolled over laying her head on his chest feeling his deep breathes, as he chest rose and fell.
"You know you still owe me for calling me easy there big guy." She smirked to herself closing her eyes still laying on his chest.
Vallok brought his arm around her shoulder's as she laid on him watching her." What was that for then?"
"Well you wanted that as much as I did, so that doesn't count."
"Hmm, well I'm sure we can work something out." He smiled laying her head on the bed as he put himself back on top of her.
"Show me what you got." She smirked at him before he began kissing her body, letting his tongue tease her skin. The spent the night together, and fell asleep.
Vallok opened his eyes running his talons through Zoey's long black hair, letting his thought's take him over. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty about what had happened. What about Valerie? He loved Valerie and she had always been good to him even in bad time's and good. He felt confused when he thought about Zoey, he was confused on how he felt. Unsure of it was love or curiosity, maybe it was just physical attraction? He had to tell her something when she woke up, what was it going to be though? Taking a deep breathe, he had to figure out what he felt.
Vallok lifted her head from his chest gently and got out of the bed getting dressed. He needed time to think and a quiet place to do it.
