„You have a bad influence on me, really"

[2181 CE]

Finishing his shift, John Shepard stepped out of the office building located on Zakera Ward. The glowing lights of the area dazzled him for a brief moment, since the pretty much static envinronment of a C-Sec department had numbed his senses in the past few hours.
He took a deep breath and stretched his arms to regain some of the alertness he had felt like five hours ago, before this particularly dull shift had bored him to tears.
On the one hand, it was always a relief when no illegal AIs tried to blow up a district, but on the other hand, he felt a bit useless on days like these.
At least they pay well for it.
He looked around, somewhat more alert.
Jane was supposed to be around here somewhere. In the morning, she had said she'd have training not far from this office and that she might even have an opportunity to buy a few things in the nearby shop for dinner.

"We can come home together and I'll cook something nice for a change" she had said, smiling gracefully up at him "we eat too much cafeteria crap."

That was Jane for you. She even cared about her family's dietary habits.
The memory of their short morning conversation brought a smile to his face. The day might eventually have something pleasant in it, aside from staring at status reports.

He looked around, hoping to spot Jane among the bypassers. Asari, Turians, Humans and, suprisingly, a Quarian walked by, but he couldn't see Jane anywhere.
She might still be around the shops.
Before he tried to call her, he decided to check out the route leading to the shopping area. He kind of liked that path anyway because it reminded him of Earth with all the plants and decorations that imitated a natural environment. Not that he had a problem with the Citadel, but it was good to see some green here and there.
After approximately a minute of walking, a familiar voice reached his ears. He turned his head in the direction it was coming from and quickly spotted a woman with red hair. No one else on the Citadel walked around with that color on their head.
Too damn red.
Jane didn't see him because she was talking to someone, probably one of her friends.
As he moved closer, he got a better view of them and immediately realized that something was wrong. Judging from her gestures, Jane seemed to be annoyed.
Altough, knowing her general attitude towards people, she was probably trying really hard not to offend the guy she was talking to.
Jane and her generous soul.

The guy was clearly drunk; the clouded expression on his face and his unbalanced posture gave it away. He had light brown hair and he wore the male version of the dark blue training uniform that Jane wore as well, as she always did until she got home and changed into something leisurely.

John got close enough to be able to hear their conversation.

"…Mark, you are a nice guy, but you're not exactly sober right now and even if you were, I'm not really -"

"Oh, come on!" Mark interrupted. "I wasn't proposing, ya know."

"Yes, I caught that." Her tone was less polite. "Still-"

"Admit it that you girls like me," Mark said and he grinned at Jane.

Jane buried her face into her palm.

Another idiot who wasn't willing to leave Jane alone. And John was damn sure this was not the first time she had rejected him.

"I believe she said 'no."

The tone of his voice was not exactly as polite as Jane's, though it wasn't exactly threatening either.
They both looked up at him, suprised. Jane's expression immediately changed from annoyed to concerned.
She knew John was not as civil as she was when it came to drunk morons or any other type of nuisance. She tried to de-escalate the situation.

"Mark was just about to-"

"WHAT?"

After a minor time-lag, the drunk guy realized that John was talking to him.

"What…" he repeated provocatively as he straightened up so he could look John in the eyes. "This ain't none of your business, so go to hell."

Without a sign of suprise in his cold blue eyes, John nodded.

"Oh, I see."

Before Jane could interrupt, or Mark had a chance to make another incautious reply, John stepped forward and punched the guy in his face.
Mark wobbled back a few steps and flailed around with his hand, searching for something to grab. He finally reached a wall, which successfully stopped him from flopping onto the ground.

"She is my sister, by the way. "

A few pedestrians stared at them for a second, but they quickly decided to mind their own business.
John looked at Jane. She was staring at him with an expression on her face that signaled something like Please don't hit him again. Since he didn't want to stress her any further, he decided not to continue Mark's behavioral education.
Meanwhile, Mark stood at the wall, trying to process the situation.

"I'm glad we understand each other," said John in a diplomatic tone, then grabbed Jane's shoulder and pulled her in the direction he'd come from.

"Thanks, I guess," Jane muttered. She wasn't overly fond of unnecessary violence, but her definition of unnecessary was different from his.

"Any time. " John nodded.
He glanced back over his shoulder to make sure Mark was not trying to follow them. He did that just in time to get a nice view of Mark's rapidly approaching fist.
Sadly, the next second, it reached the back of his head.

The grass is green all around and the air is filled with the scent of wood. The sun fights its way between two clouds and casts its light on a little red-haired head in front of him.
The voice of his new mother reaches him from behind.
"They seem to be getting along well…"
A pair of shining green eyes stare at him.
He leans forward and grabs her hand.
"Come on Jane, I'll show you Grunt!"
"Grunt?" Her mouth stays open as she stands up.
"Granny's dog. He's huge! You'll like him."
They start to walk towards the house, holding hands.
She trips over a dog toy, but he catches her before she could fall.
"Hey, watch where you step!"
She's laughing as if she's having fun.
"Sheesh… father was right. You do need someone to look after you."
He shakes his head and bends down to her level.
"It's okay. I'm your brother now! I'll protect you."
She's smiling again, and she grabs his hand and pulls him towards the house.
"Show me the doggy, brother!"

Why am I hugging a tree?
That was the first question that crossed his mind as his eyesight came back.
As his ears started functioning again, the memories of the last few minutes came back to his mind. He immediately knew how and why he'd gotten acquainted so closely with the tree.

"Now get the hell out of here before I decide to throw you off this level!"

Jane? Yes, that is definitely Jane's voice.
He turned around as quickly as his throbbing head allowed him to.
Mark was still there. But he was at the wall again and his nose was bleeding this time. And Jane… Jane was glowing. It didn't take him long to realize that she was covered in her blue biotic aura.
Mark surely realized it as well, because this time he took the advice and limped away quickly without uttering one single word.
The glowing faded away and Jane turned around. Her face was a mixture of anger and distress.

"Damn it, John!" she yelled at him and grabbed his arm.
A few bypassers were looking at them anyway.

"It's… okay, I'm okay," he muttered and started to blink rapidly so that the world might stop spinning.
It actually did after a few seconds.

"The hell you are! " Jane yelled again, somewhat quieter. Her bag was on the ground, but an orange escaped, which ended up at John's foot.

At least no one was staring at them anymore.

"What… what happened?" he asked, picking the orange up. He didn't fall on his face, which meant that the hit wasn't strong enough to cause permanent damage.

Jane seemed to be calming down.

"I… punched him." She looked away. "I didn't hit him hard, but I think I accidentally used my biotics… so I might have broken his nose, I don't know.

John couldn't help but grin.
Jane breaking someone's nose. Now that's not everyday stuff.

"It's not funny! " she scolded him. "I just wanted him to go away."

"Well, he did."

"Yeah, after I threatened to launch him into space."

"You are lovely when you're threatening people."

Jane stared at him resignedly, her mouth half-open.
He stepped forward and closed her rosy-red lips by pressing her jaw from underneath with two fingers.

"Here, like that," he added, still grinning.

"Goddammit John," she swore again, but her face twitched as if she wanted to smile. "So I assume you're alright and we can go home without you punching anyone else on the way?"

John's grin disappeared and deep sadness replaced it.
"Why are you so hard on me?" he asked petulantly. "I just saved you from a molester!"

Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, and I had to finish what you started."

"Admit it, without me, you'd be still wasting your breath on him."

She sighed and slowly shook her head. Then, for some reason, she blushed.
She's cute when she blushes.

"You have a bad influence on me, really," she muttered, seemingly pondering on something. She reached for her bag, but John picked it up before her.

"Nah, I'm just looking after you, as I promised," he replied.

Jane sighed, then hooked arms with John and pulled him towards the public transport station.

"Then you should practice, 'cause you're not very good at it…"