Lana felt her heart sink deeper and deeper into her chest the further she walked towards the room, the Commander in front of her, her eyes staring into the navy of his coat. She knew that she was an admired and useful coworker for this sort of thing because her ability to see through lies and deception came second to none, especially in first impressions. Nevertheless she wanted nothing to do with it. The fact she had to simply stand there and talk to someone was enough for her to refuse. She didn't want to speak to anyone she wasn't close to, not since that day...

The door opened with a beep as they stepped into the room. It was a simple lounge-like room with silver walls and two unoccupied couches, Lana wasn't focusing on that though. In front of her, all in a line, stood probably ten people. All of them stood up straight, arms behind their backs, their eyes staring off into nothing. With a quiet sigh, Lana scanned all of them carefully. Most of them were humans, with a look in their eyes which signaled to her that they all wanted to be somewhere else. Not that she could blame them. There was a drell, an asari as well as a quarian. Again, another human. And a turian...

As soon as her eyes reached him, they were locked on his, maybe because he was the only one in the room who was looking at her. His eyes were a deep green, almost emerald color, and they stared with an almost concerned expression. He looked a bit younger than her as far as turians went, with fairly long horns and mandibles. Lana concluded he was probably in his early twenties. Lacking face paint, his skin was a healthy tan brown and he stood a little taller than her. He wore typical red and silver turian armor, outlining his broad shoulders and hips. His facial features were quite prominent and quite masculine for a turian, although there was a timidness about him. Perhaps it was the way he stood or the way he looked at her. Either way, Lana liked him almost instantaneously. She found herself unable to break the stare she was holding with him, until she found herself smiling at him. His mouth opened slightly as if to say something, before looking away and staring down at the floor. Eventually, Lana obstructed her gaze at him by looking to the Commander and nodding. Nodding in response, Commander Davis pointed to the door and the two left the room, but not before Lana turned to give the turian one more curious look.

Outside the room, Lana felt strange. She couldn't remember the last time she shared eye contact with someone for that long.

'It was probably just because he was looking at me...' she thought to herself.

"So Lana, see anyone you like the look of?" asked the Commander.

Lana nodded. "Yes sir, the turian."

"Ah. Vann... Oros, is it? Yes, Vann Oros is his name. Why him in particular?"

"I... don't know. I just like him. He doesn't look like he'd... lie? Yeh, I don't know." Lana attempted to explain with a laugh.

The commander grinned, frowning in confusion. "Well if you're sure, then I trust you, Lana."

"Thank you commander. May I go now?"

"Of course, go ahead."

Lana grinned at the Commander, turning on her heel and walking away.

'Vann Oros...' The name of the turian she had chosen repeated in her head like a broken record. Shaking her head, Lana made her way back to the Crew's Quarters. Back to her same boring jobs.

As she expected, the turian was chosen for the job not long after. She often passed him as they made their way somewhere, almost always glancing at each other just as they passed each other. Lana didn't understand for the life of her why she was so interested in him, often scolding at herself mentally for what a stalker she'd become. He wasn't necessarily handsome or had an attractive personality, but their was an aura of mystery about him that almost taunted Lana's curiosity.

'Not like I'm attracted to him anyway.' she thought to herself in reassurance.

She desperately tried not to listen in to any conversations she overheard about him, but what she could make out from what others were saying was, as she thought, he was very shy and spent most of his time engrossed in his work in armory. She was pretty certain that her friends had noticed her curiosity about him, so in what ever way she could, she tried to forget about him and his diamond green eyes. It seemed to work well, once again Lana was focusing on her work and friends. That was until...

"Lana, can you do something for me please?"

Lana turned to see Jason, with an oddly smug grin on his face. She could easily infer that he was up to something once again.

"Of course, Jason, what is it?" She replied with a sly grin.

"I need to modify some assault rifles but, sadly, I'm all out."

Lana raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"So can you run to someone in armory and ask for some for me? Maybe... Vann Oros?" Jason mocked.

A deep growl and a smirk escaped Lana's lips and she almost flew from her chair.

"Of course, Jason!" she sang sarcastically, snatching the list of guns from her friends hand.

"Thank you very much." He jeered.

"Welcome... dick."

"Bitch."

The two laughed as Lana left the room, heading towards the Combat center of the ship. On her way, she couldn't help but look around the ship and think of it in such a negative light. She really did hate it. It was probably one of the only physical things that made her truly miserable, mental things, well that was a different story all together. She often wondered how she'd kept a smile on her face for so many years, despite the inner regret she always felt. How long can a person keep it up? What is breaking point? So many questions she couldn't answer. Finally she reached the door, hesitating as it opened. Suddenly feeling slightly nervous, she peered in to see if anyone was there, and there he was. Vann's back was turned to her, not noticing her presence, and was busy working on some sort of weapon. Lana took a purposely rather loud step forward, causing him to notice her and turn to face her. Almost at once the two were staring at each other again, saying nothing. For once, it was actually Lana who looked down.

"I... a friend sent me. He's an engineer, he needs some of these."

Lana handed out the list to Vann, who simply stared. After a few seconds, he approached her slowly, reaching out and taking the list from her. He examined it quietly, before nodding and looking up at her.

"I have some of these..." he mumbled.

Vann turned to look at the guns on the shelf beside him, searching through them for the correct ones. Not saying another word he scooped up the correct ones and handed them to Lana, who took the with a smile.

"Do you... need help with them?"

Lana nodded. "No thank you, I'm fine."

The two stood in silence, staring again. Lana noticed that Vann was frowning, as if in deep thinking.

"Is something wrong?"

Vann jumped slightly, and found himself searching for an answer. Lana could not help but turn her head in confusion.

"It's nothing, it's just... ah... your eyes.."

Lana raised an eyebrow, her hand reaching to her cheek.

"My eyes?"

"Yes. They're... it's just... you seem sad."

It was then that Lana frowned. How? How did he know? She could see Vann nearing closer to her, still gazing into her eyes as if they were some difficult, interesting book. She couldn't help but look away.

"What happened to you...?"

Lana felt the sudden need to sob at the sound of that question. For the first time in a long time, she wished to tell him everything. She wished to let out all the pain and sorrow locked up inside of her. Shutting her eyes in a bid to prevent any possible sign of tears, she turned away towards the door.

"I have to go."

It was then that he touched her. A hand on the shoulder was enough for her to attack, flinging the turian against the nearest wall, leaving him to collapse to the ground in horror. The shock in his eyes was enough for her to realize her mistake. With shaking hands she reached for the guns she had dropped, backing away towards the door with stumbling feet.

"I-I..." She stammered, unable to find her words. "I-I'm sorry..."

Tears flooding her eyes, Lana fled through the door, guilt crawling in her skin like a parasite. She heard him shout for her but couldn't bare looking back. She just kept running.

'What have I done?' questions of regret flooded her mind.

'Why did I do that?'