When she woke up in the morning, she was glad she wasn't hungover.
A few more shots of the terrible whiskey had done enough to settle her body and let her sleep, but it had done absolutely nothing for the terrible mood Vakarian had left her in. Self-pity, confusion and mourning were not a recipe for good sleep.
So, before her alarm went off, she pulled herself out of bed to interact with her new crew instead of wallowing any longer in dissipating dreams that left her vaguely unsettled. She showered, and dressed in bodysuit and armor and stepped outside of her room.
To her mild surprise, the alien teammates she'd picked up were sitting at the mess table… including Vakarian.
Of course. Sitting facing the door to her cabin, relaxed and sprawled across a chair.
Wrex was taking up most of the near side of the mess table, Tali on the end and Vakarian next. She quietly grabbed a ration bar and sat in the available seat, the one next to her buddy from last night.
"Ready for groundside?" She asked, looking at Wrex. The huge krogan just grinned and chuckled darkly. Shepard raised an eyebrow at him but he just shook his head.
"Am I ready to go pick up an asari from some quiet deserted ruins? Sure, but I'm also ready to go kill something."
"Fair enough." She responded, opening her ration bar. There was nothing like processed proteins in the morning.
"I'm just ready for you guys to leave us in a standard orbit long enough for me to look at the drive core." Tali said. "I've never seen a ship like this before. It's exciting." She was sure that there was a grin behind that murky purple mask.
"I'll make sure engineering knows you're allowed free reign down there." Shepard nodded. She went back to choking down her ration bar and tried to fight through her morning haze. She didn't realize she was staring blankly at the table top until something moved in front of her.
A mug of steaming black coffee sat next to her hand.
"You said two sugars, right?" She looked up at Vakarian, mid-chew, and really wished she knew what was going on in his spiky head.
"Yeah." He nodded at the mug again. She swallowed at the rations stuck in her throat—was it rations? She glanced at Wrex who seemed to be smirking—or whatever the krogan equivalent was—and picked it up to take a sip.
"Thanks."