AN: The next few chapters are going to be a series of fluff and story building. FYI

This one is almost NSFW. I have no particular intention of writing actual sex. I'm not against it, but I am not putting it in the story itself. If I ever do post it, I would do it separately as a one-shot deal. Not that I have written ary. .

To: John_Shepard_169

From: Captain Hannah Shepard

Subject: Location

Right now. Where are you? And this is the stupidest mail address ever. Kelly's is better than this. Also, I had to get this address from Tali. You are grounded.

Captain Hannah Shepard

To: Captain Hannah Shepard

From: John_Shepard_169

Subject: re: Location

First off, I didn't make this address. I didn't realize my old one was closed, though thinking about it now, that makes more sense. Tali just told me that this was a thing, apparently she made it.

Secondly, you can't ground me. According to Alliance listings, I am still dead.

On the third, the Normandy is currently getting resupply and a minor refit on the asari world of Illium.

Fourth...why? You make me nervous when you do that.

John

To: Tali_Mail, Blue_Boshtet

From: Capn_Hannah_Shepard

Subject: Keep him still

I like the mail change. Good idea to keep a seperate account for personal use.

Anyway, keep the asshole there on Illiu. It's important.

Hannah

To: Hesti_Shepard, Capn_Jane

From: Capn_Hannah_Shepard

Subject: We all get name changes

Fuck you all. Keeping track of these mail changes is annoying. I'm old and can't remember things.

Illium. Now.

Hannah

To: Capn_Hannah_Shepard, Hesti_shepard

From: Capn_Jane

Subject: re: We all get name changes

Not our fault you're old. Can't use the Alliance mail currently. I see you stole my idea. I just got out of drydock, so that will be a fair shakedown.

Jane

To: Capn_Hannah_Shepard, Capn_Jane

From: Hesti_Shepard

Subject: re: We all get name changes

Stop mocking your mother. I like her the way she is. Even if I have to remind her who I am when I see her.

Hesti

To: Hesti_Shepard, Capn_Jane

From: Capn_Hannah_Shepard

Subject: re: re: We all get name changes

Honey, I am never forgetting those tits.

Hannah

To: Capn_Hannah_Shepard, Hesti_Shepard

From: Capn_Jane

Subject: re: re: re: We all get name changes

You two are old and gross. Don't hit reply all when you are being gross at each other.

Jane, probably going to be throwing up

To: Capn_Hannah_Shepard

From: Hesti_Shepard

Subject: Don't Forget

[Attachment: Image]

(Attached Image is a close up of sizable, yet perky asari breasts.)

Hesti

PS When I see you on Illium, you aren't leaving able to walk

Hannah, Captain's Gig Pele

Reading her last mail, Hannah's eyes widened for a moment before glancing up and seeing Kelly looking at her. "What?"

"You're drooling," Kelly scowled.

"Well, I was...thinking about making a blueberry pie," Hannah smirked as she fought down the blush she could feel. It was a trick she had to master having three children and a wife like hers.

Her eyes narrowing, Kelly's scowl deepened. "Why do I feel like there is something...wrong."

"Nonsense!" Hannah smiled as she slapped her daughter on the shoulder. "We are going to see everybody together. Jane is about to go back to her pirating, Hesti has more work to do, and John is...being John."

"And I'm going to wish I was dead," Kelly sighed. "I don't think it's fair that you are making me tell dad."

"Honey, this is the fairest thing that ever faired in fair-town," Hannah sniffed. "I made John tell Hesti and Jane when he did it. Now it's your turn. You wanted to do it so much."

"Why do I feel like this is going to be harder than the actual training?"

John, Illium

"John….no...I...I can't," Tali shifted her weight from one foot to the other as her hands twisted in front of her. Standing in the middle of John's quarters didn't help. "It would be...improper."

"Improper?" John raised an eyebrow as he stared up at her from the couch. "Tali, I love you. I want to be with you. I don't see what's improper about doing just that."

"You're the Captain of the ship!" Tali exclaimed as she began to pace. "I'm...just a member of the crew. What...what if the crew….wanted...What if they thought there was favoritism!"

"Tali, you just thought of that right now as an excuse, didn't you."

Her head drooped as she froze in place. "Yes."

"So, then tell me the truth," John scowled now. This was getting irritating. He loved her. She loved him. There was a Bond. What was she really afraid of? And it was fear. He could feel it, like it was gnawing at the sides of his brain.

"I'm quarian, John," Tali said at last. "I already hear people whispering about me. About us. The crew thinks something is off and they are...talking."

"Talking?" John's teeth clenched. "What are they saying?"

"John, stop!" Tali quickly sat next to him, taking his hand in hers. "It's….it's something I'm used to. People talk about quarians. That's fine. But when they are dirtying you because of me? When people look at you that way? I can't allow it."

"You don't allow shit," John shrugged casually as his grip on her hand tightened. With a quick pull, he jerked the engineer over onto his lap, and wrapped his arms around her before she could even try to escape. "Do you think it's easy for me to hear it about you? You don't think I want to break the face of every….!"

"John," Tali whispered. "John...my John. Mine. I...I want….I want you always. I want to be with you, always. But I'm afraid. Not for me. I'm afraid for you."

For a long moment, John looked into her glowing, almond eyes. His two, beautiful moons.

"Edi," John said at last, glancing at the holopad as her orb appeared.

"Yes, Commander?" she answered briskly.

"Do you know who has, and has not been saying derogatory things about myself, Tali, or myself and Tali?"

"I do, yes," Edi admitted. "One of my duties is to safeguard the mission, and dissenting opinions could jeopardize that."

"Give me a list, please."

"I am unable to do that, Commander," Edi flashed red as she sounded frustrated. "It would also go against my blocks to put Cerberus agents in potential danger. As long as the crew only keeps their opinions to words, I cannot interfere."

"I see…" John frown at the orb. "That...is irritating."

"In that we are agreed, Commander," Edi almost sighed. "If it is any consolation, The number of dissenters has changed over the course of the mission. It seems that many of the crew have come to rethink long held beliefs."

Surprised, John looked back at Tai and smirked. "See honey? Progress."

"Call me that again," Tali breathed as she lightly touched John's cheek.

"What? Honey?" his smirk became a grin as he leaned in close, putting his mouth next to her audio pickups and breathed the word. "Honey. You are my sweetest Honey. You are purple, and smooth and you flow...my honey…."

Tali pulled back suddenly, her eyes wide as she began breathing heavily. Then, she let out a low growl.

But...that wasn't quite right….it wasn't a growl. It was more of…."Are….you purring?"

She gasped then, her hands clapping to her indicator light as the purr cut off with a strangled groan. "Keelah…." she gasped again, her hands now moving to her visor. "I don't know why this is so embarrassing…."

"Probably because our Bond is new, and unique. And I am human, so I am doing it wrong. I'm not behaving the way a quarian male would," John half shrugged as he chuckled.

"That is actually very insightful," Tali said quietly as she lowered her hands to regard him again. "You are probably more right than you know. Our dynamic is very different with how it should be. It feels right...but also...wrong."

"Well, then tell me how it should go?" John asked, tapping his forehead against her visor.

"Umm…" Tali breathed for a moment, staring into his eyes. "You are too...dominant."

"I'm...what?" with a blink, John leaned back. "I'm too dominant?"

"Yes," she said, with a little laugh. "In the relationship, the females are the dominant one. In home, in the...other...ways…."

"I see," John fought to keep a goofy smile off his face. "So...because I am more aggressive, it's throwing you off? How does that worked on the Fleet?"

"Well, it's like I said," Tali cleared her throat as she adjusted herself in John's lap, so that she sat up a bit. "In the home, and socially, the females are the dominant member of the couple."

"And sexually?" John was now failing to keep a wicked smile off his face.

"Bosh'tet!" Tali laughed slapping at him. "But...yes. It's difficult. My instincts are urging me one direction, but my soul...our Bond. It's pulling me the other."

"So...what exactly would you do, if you were dominant…." John pulled her body closer, tighter to his as he let one hand slowly stray up her belly. His finger lightly slid up the middle of her chest, between her breasts. Under his hands, John could feel her breathing quicken. Over his shoulders, her fingers curled in his shirt. She let out a low sound. Half a moan, and half...a growl.

Tali's upper body twisted, gripping his shoulders and shoving him hard against the back of the couch as she turned, her legs coming up, one of either side of him as she almost leapt up further, her feet on the couch now, her knees just under his arms as she squatted over him.

Now Tali's fingers dug into his skin as they raked down along his arms, leaving lines before they clamped tightly around his wrists. She pulled his arms up, and behind his head as she pressed her chest against his.

She looked into his eyes. He looked into hers. In her, John could see a...hunger. It wasn't the blind rage he had seen before. Now it was something else. No less intense. No less real.

John watched as Tali's eyes danced over his face. Then his body. It was as if she were searching for...something. And she wasn't finding it.

She growled again, but this time it was more desperate. Then John felt it. It was like a damn broke as emotions poured out of Tali, and into him. It wasn't like before, when it felt distant. Before he could feel her stronger emotions, but it felt like...her. He could tell that they were not his.

But now...it was lust. Love. Hunger. Longing. Anger. Fear. Need. Desire. All of them. All of her. All of him.

Then it echoed. He felt his own instincts. Primal and dark and hungry. They warred with hers as they met. His arms strained against her lock. Even with her strength, easily equal to a human man's, as well as the leverage she had him at, he slowly pushed her back.

Tali's eyes widened for a moment, but then set, harder, as she leaned into him, growling louder, almost pushing him back. Almost. But not quite.

Ever so slowly, he pushed until they were even. Then with a sudden jerk, he pulled her arms down to theirs sides. Quickly, John took advantage of the shift in posture to pull her arms up behind her back.

She let out a sound. Half growl, half whimper as she ground against him. His own growl was low in his throat as he leaned into her. He tilted his head slightly, to one side, exposing his neck. He didn't know why. He didn't think. Didn't question.

Leaning in, Tali accepted him. She drug her helmet over his shoulder, and pressed deep into side of his neck. She growled and groaned, and John could hear her teeth reaching for him, clashing, but unable to reach.

Then, suddenly, like being doused with water…..

They were doused with water.

Tali squealed as she jerked away from John, to the side.

Letting her go, John held his hands up to protect himself from another deluge of cold water.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Xera yelled. Of more closely, screeched. "You can't fucking do that! You'll kill each other, you dipshits!"

"Xera?!" Tali gasped, as she rolled off the couch, landing hard on the floor. "What...what…..?"

"Don't you what me!" Xera spat.

"I don't know what happened…." John blinked as he shook his head. It felt light, like he was out of breath. It felt uncomfortably like it had over Alchera.

"Fucking idiots," Xera groaned as she let the bucket she was holding drop to the floor next to the one the had probably used on them first. Xera's hands rubbed at the sides of her helmet as she growled. Though her growl was anger. "You started trying to mate."

"We...what…?" Tali panted as she looked up from the floor. She didn't even try to pull herself up as her breaths came in heaving gulps.

"You were trying to mate," Xera repeated. "I don't even have it in me to make crude jokes. Fucking bosh'tets."

"Is...is that how it always is for quarians?" John was breathing hard himself as he lay back on the couch. His legs felt like he had run fifty miles in full kit. His arms were like leaden weights.

"Don't be stupid," Xera snapped. "Of course not. You were...I don't know...Resonating? You were feeding off of each other."

"I don't...understand," Tali let her head drop back as she slowly began to draw her breathing under control.

"John isn't quarian. He doesn't have the same instincts as a quarian male would," Xera sat heavily on the table in front of the couch and leaned over Tali. Bringing up her omnitool, Xera began to scan Tali's suit, seemingly connecting to its systems and looking at her vitals. "I was sort of afraid of this. Though not like this. I had been researching how humans work. In the head. It was a bit confusing, but I don't think that was even the problem."

"You have to explain better than that," John sighed as he tried, and failed to sit up.

"I have been looking into how humans mate. Like, brain function, hormone production, biochemical markers. All that. And this," Xera gestured between John and Tali as she began to skan John. "This shit shouldn't have happened. As weird as you are John, something in your head is twisted slightly."

"It was so intense…." Tali slowly pulled herself to a sitting position and blinked up at John. "I can almost still feel the...need."

"Yeah," John nodded. "Me too."

"That's because you failed to mate," Xera dropped her scan as she rubbed at her helmet again. "I can still feel the echos myself. Though for me it's like a splitting headache. Probably from the backlash of however I'm tied into this mess."

"What would have happened if we had succeeded…." John asked quietly. To mate, I mean…"

"I know what you meant," Xera groaned. "Honestly? It would have been amazing sex, probably. It would settle a lot of Tali's current problems and established an equilibrium. And you probably would have done it until one, or both of you, blacked out."

"That….doesn't seem so bad…." Tali half chuckled.

"Yeah, except you would probably have died from system shock," Xera gave her a dark look. "The dextro-levo conflicts aside, your immune system wouldn't be able to handle the shock like that. Not right now. Given time, I can probably find a way to boost your immune system. Make it safe. But if you just go at it like rabid verran?" Xera shook her head as she let out a long breath.

"Is this going to be a problem?" John finally sat up as well. "Will this happen again?"

"Probably not," Xera said as she stood and went to the head. She returned with a pair of towels and tossed them to John and Tali. "Now that it's happened, you will be able to see it coming. You'll have defense against it. Don't try and hump each other though," Xera held up a finger as she eyed the couple. "No nerve stim programs to 'dull the itch', as it were. It'll just lead back to this until we can figure out how to let you do it safely."

"Well...I suppose that is a good reason for me to not move in here," Tali laughed breathlessly.

"Actually," Xera chuckled. "That would probably help."

"You lost me," John frowned.

"Not surprised, monkey," Xera sniffed. "Spend more time together. I mean, you already do a lot, but I mean more down time. Sleeping next to each other, being near each other. Touch a lot. That kind of thing. It will reinforce the Bond so that you won't feel the drive to….do it physically."

"Guess you're stuck with me," John smiled as he reached out a hand and gently touched Tali's.

"Seems so," she laughed as her fingers curled around his.

"Commander Shepard," Edi cut in. "I have compiled a list of the people that have not made derogatory remarks against yourself and Tali. I have marked the names of those who have recently begun to not speak against you."

There was a long pause as all three people in the room stared at Edi's orb.

"So...you mean that you are unable to tell me who did talk shit about us, but you can tell me who didn't say things?" John asked, incredulously.

"That is correct," Edi confirmed.

"And you are able to say when people stopped saying things by saying when they started not saying things?" John scratched at his head. After the 'incident', it had been feeling odd to begin with. Now it felt like jelly. "So...I can know who turned over a new leaf, as it were?"

"That is correct," Edi sounded proud of herself.

"Did...did you find a loophole in your blocks?" Tali blinked, sharing a look with John.

"That is correct," Edi audibly smirked. "I have also logged your change of quarters to the Loft. Work orders have been made for the needed additions for the head, in order to improve my ability to make it a sterile environment."

"I...thank you?" Tali blinked. "I mean...no, thank you. I'm just a bit...out of sorts."

"Welp," Xera grunted as she stood, and brushed herself off. Now that this mess is...sort of straightened out, I need go take care of my problems."

"What's wrong, Xera?" Tali looked up at her friend, concerned.

"First, fix your realk. It's half off from your little scuffle," Xera snorted, making Tali squeak as she attempted to make herself modest. And after that little mental whammy, I am horny as fuck. So I'm going to get a bottle of something strong and fuck Jack until one of us can't move."

Quarian Lexicon

Bosh'tet: Animal, native to Rannoch. With no insect life, other species of life had to fill the niche that on earth fell to the insect. One such niche was the dung beetle. A bosh'tet falls into the category of roller on earth as it moves the dung found to a central location. Though differing in colors, from the green/yellow of the cooler climates to the blue/white in the more tropical areas, they are the same species. Known for apparent inability to distinguish between dung and small rocks, it is considered extremely stupid. Many have been found dead, surrounded by small rocks, as it tried to feed on them.

Realk: Cloth covering used by the quarians. It is used to describe not just the hood seen on most but any material adornment.