Stupid quarians, starting a war when there was already a war. Stupid geth, reaching out to the reapers. Stupid quarians again, wanting to fire on the goddamn geth dreadnaught their team was still fighting through.

James leaned out of cover and shot the geth trooper advancing on his position. It went down in a flurry of distressed trills. He rolled from his cover against a pillar to behind a console ahead. Tali took the spot he'd just vacated. James scanned the higher ground of the walkway for Shepard. She hung back, eye pressed against the scope of her Widow to take down shields, finish enemies and manoeuvre her team.

Shepard's voice came over his earpiece, calm and in control. 'Head down, Lieutenant. Hunter on your eleven.'

She fired in his general direction. He trusted she took down the hunter's camouflage for him and popped up to spray a carnage shot at it. The hunter staggered. James pumped another two rounds into it, his shield soaking up damage in return, before the geth's light finally winked out and it collapsed. He ducked back behind cover as yet another trooper came around the bend ahead. These pinche geth were endless.

'Rocket trooper on your two, Tali,' said Shepard.

A drone materialised next to Tali. 'Get it, Chiktikka.'

'You named it, like a pet? You can't just get a dog or something?' asked James, waiting for a pause in his target's gunfire.

Tali snorted. 'When this war is over, I might build one.'

'You can have the one wandering around my hangar bay, if you want.'

'Focus, you two. I'm coming up on your nine o'clock. Three bogeys remaining.' Shepard's tone turned wry as she added, 'And that's my robot dog and my hangar bay, Lieutenant.'

'Ooh, bonita, I like it when you get possessive.'

Adrenaline short wired his brain, making slipping back into flirtatious banter easy. Her soft laugh wove its way down his chest to settle in his stomach like a sip of fine aged whiskey. A man could get used to that.

He dispatched the trooper and moved forward again, tucking himself behind a pillar. With only two geth left, hopefully they could get off this ship before the quarian fleet started firing. The distortion of a cloak caught his eye as it moved past a pattered section of wall. Tall, broad… and on the walkway.

'Commander, prime heading your way,' he said. 'Moving to intercept.'

'I see it,' she replied. 'Just take care of the other two.'

James frowned even though she couldn't see it. 'You can't take on a prime alone.'

'I'm not alone. Chiktikka's up here—shit.'

Underneath the gunfire, James heard the familiar whir of a turret setting itself up. He looked over at Shepard. She was trapped against a section of wall, the turret covering the doorway on her right and the prime coming up on her left. He could only see the top of the blast shield of the turret, so he couldn't help bring it down. The drone, Chiktikka, tried its best but turret rounds ripped through it and it dissipated.

'Cover me, Sparks,' he said motioning to Tali his intent. The prime was coming up too fast, undaunted by the overload and rifle rounds Shepard threw at it.

James activated his fortification and broke from cover. He let off a wild shot at one of the troopers as he sprinted past it and up the stairs of the walkway, flanking the prime. The turret turned to track him, whirring to life. He aimed his shotgun and it clicked uselessly. Crap. Out of ammo. James threw a frag grenade underneath the turret instead and rolled into cover. He was completely open to the prime, but it was more focused on rounding the wall to get to Shepard than it was on him. The grenade went off, metal screeching as the turret tore apart.

'Shields down,' said Shepard, and James didn't know if she meant the prime's or her own. Either way, he had to move. Another geth, a rocket trooper, had spotted him.

James charged towards the prime, which had finally rounded the corner and focused entirely on Shepard. He took a rocket to side, warning lights flashing on his HUD that his shields were down too. A glance at Shepard as he cleared the wall showed her crouched low, a gash on her cheek leaking red, and no cover to hide behind.

'Targets eliminated,' said Tali.

It would've been better if the quarian had done that before James had lost his shields and was almost on top of a prime, his fortification sent to charge his gauntlets and just his armour to protect him if he seriously misjudged this gamble. This stupid, stupid gamble. He roared as he leapt at the hulking geth. The charge from his gauntlets fried across the prime's body. It spasmed and lurched under James's attack. It didn't go down though. It elbowed him in the gut and James stumbled back, winded. His HUD still flashed red. His shields weren't coming back online for another two seconds. The geth turned to him, gun raised. Gamble lost.

'James, get down.'

The distinctive smell of primed eezo filtered through the open faceplate of his helmet. He wasn't proud of it, but at Shepard's barked order he simply flattened himself against the floor. A warp field singed his shields just as they came back online and that blue corona slammed into the geth. James rolled away before it could crush him. It collapsed, light winking out less than arm's length away from his prone position.

'Clear,' said Shepard, coming to stand above him. He grinned up at her and she answered with a scowl. 'That was reckless.'

'Worked, though.'

She shook her head, still angry, and stalked off. That was not the thanks he was expecting. He climbed to his feet with a groan. James rubbed his abs as he followed Shepard and Tali down a ladder to free that trapped geth, Legion. Then the quarians started firing and they were running, which sucked. The ship falling apart around them sucked too. Wedging into the back of the geth fighter sucked a lot, even if Shepard was against him head to toe. It sucked to be engulfed in that faint smell of strawberry that lingered under heat sinks and eezo and recycled air while her hard armour jabbed his sore stomach. At least the pain distracted him from the way her ass was pressed against his groin.

When they returned to the Normandy, she muttered about ripping apart short-sighted quarian admirals as she unclipped her weapons and stormed to the elevator. For a second, he thought she was going to take the weapons to the war room with her, but, as usual, she dropped them on his weapons bench as she passed it. She turned once she was in the elevator, arms crossed. Her glower deepened as she spotted him rubbing his stomach. He let out a relieved breath when the doors shut on her livid face.

Tali hopped out of the geth shuttle that was now awkwardly lying on its side in the hangar bay. It took up what little space there was left. He had no idea what the hell they were going to do with it.

'I've never had Shepard as mad at me as she is as you right now,' said Tali, heading to the elevator as well.

James trailed after her, placing his guns on the weapons bench next to Shepard's. He would come down to clean them after a shower and post-mission check-up with Chakwas.

'She's mad at your admirals, not me,' he replied.

Tali cocked her head and he didn't need to see her expression behind that tinted faceplate to know she thought he was an idiot. 'She was worried about you.'

James shrugged. 'She's worried about everyone.'

'Not everyone runs at a prime with no shields and no ammo, bosh'tet.'

He shrugged again. 'Her shields were down and she was cornered. Better me than her.'

The elevator returned to the hangar bay and he motioned for Tali to enter first. She leaned back against the elevator wall, studying him with those glowing eyes as he pressed the button to take them to the crew deck.

'What?' he asked once the silence got too uncomfortable for him, which admittedly wasn't very long. There were too many people on this ship giving him long, thoughtful looks.

The doors slid open and Tali pushed off from the wall. 'Nothing. See you.'

She made a beeline for Garrus's hideout in engineering while he trudged into the medbay. Some prodding, a painkiller and a shower later and he was back in the hangar bay cleaning the weapons and talking smack with Cortez. He was halfway through cleaning Shepard's Widow when a message from her came through on his omnitool.

My quarters. Now.

He contemplated not going, but military doctrine had been drilled into him so deeply that he couldn't imagine disobeying his CO. Go up. Get chewed out. Seethe when he was back down here. Get it done quick, like ripping off a band aid.

James made his way up to the captain's deck. Shepard's door opened for him automatically. She was back in her BDUs, her hair damp from a shower. She paced before her bed on silent, bare feet, a scowl on her face as she read something off the datapad in her hand. Whether that anger was because of whatever she was reading, the confrontation she most likely already had with the quarians or him, he didn't know. It was probably all three, and now he had to face the storm that was Shepard. He should've kept his armour on.

He came to a stop at the top of the stairs, feeling a little safer up there.

She tossed the datapad onto the couch and rounded on him. Dios mio she was beautiful when she was all fire and brimstone like that.

'I thought we already had a conversation about stupid heroics.' She pointed a finger at him. 'You almost got yourself killed today.'

He pointed at himself too, incredulous at her hypocrisy. 'Me? You were the one out in the open without shields. Again.'

'I was handling it.'

'Really? To me it looked like I'd need to scrape up what was left of you and bring it back to the ship in a bag.'

'I had a warp field primed and my tech armour was ready to detonate.' She stepped within reach of him. 'Are you questioning my tactics?'

'I'm questioning your sanity.'

'If you don't like it, Vega, you're welcome to leave when we get back to the Citadel.' She waved her hand in the air, wafting the smell of her strawberry shampoo towards him.

'I don't want to leave you,' he said, and the way he said it, angry and raw, was too revealing.

Shepard snapped her mouth shut and stared up at him. His blood pounded in his ears. He hadn't meant the 'you' to slip out. Her gaze roved over his face, reading emotions he'd never in his life been very good at hiding. Bizarrely, amazingly, underneath that searching frown lurked an echo of the desire and curiosity that he felt every time she entered a room. They were teetering on a ledge and he could either take a step off it or walk out of the room.

You ever gonna make good on all this flirting?

Fuck it. He descended the steps, closing the distance between them before he could overthink things again, and kissed her.