A/N - Again, thanks for the reviews, everyone! sorry about the mistakes in the last paragraph, that's what I get for trying to rewrite as I proof read. :) Thanks once again thedeadflag!
2169 CE - Local Cluster/Sol/Earth/Europa/UK/London
Charing Cross
The hotel room was moderately furnished, with an emphasis on simplicity and neutral colours, with a desk and terminal adjacent to the expansive window, itself opposite a basic two seat couch. Having booked ahead and not accounting for company, the centrepiece of the room was one comfortable, welcoming double bed that Liara was looking forward to crawling into after weeks of economy class cots she had used on her travels.
Dumping her backpack beside the desk Liara sighed, contented. She watched out of the corner of her eye as the red headed girl sidled into the room, quietly closing the door behind her before nervously examining the room around her. To try and ease the tension, Liara looked at the bed.
Walking up to the foot of the frame, she turned around and let herself flop backwards and patted the space next to her, fixing the girl with her best attempt at a disarming smile. Liara didn't think it was possible but the girl managed to deflate and shrink further, an almost pained expression flashed across her face, much to the Asari's confusion.
The girl stood opposite Liara and retracted her arm into her shirt before sliding it over her shoulder and repeating the action with the other. The girl looked up, catching Liara's perplexed expression. She gave an exasperated sigh.
"Can we just get this over with?"
Her voice wavered with plea. Liara's bewilderment only grew.
"Excuse me? I- I do not follow?"
The girl gave a frustrated whimper.
"You. You told Flea you wanted a- an escort. And I know what you Blues are like, especially the young ones, I've heard the stories, with your freaky mind shit." At this Liara gaped. Oh.
"I – uh, what? No. No no no no no." Liara blushed furiously; convinced she had permanently turned purple.
"I- I just need someone to make sure I don't make a fool of myself and end up in some kind of mess."
An hour in and that's the fool part gone flying out the window. Magnificent work, T'Soni.
"I assure you that whatever you may have heard is not true. We, at least I, am certainly not like that. I haven't even- an- and you - you're little more than a child. That... I- No."
The red headed girl considered Liara for a moment, both flushing from the awkward exchange.
"Oh" she said finally, voice still quiet. She flashed a weak smile at the Asari before sheepishly putting her shirt back on.
"Good." She perched herself on the end of the bed, eyes darting anywhere but Liara.
Alright, Liara, salvage this. Just talk to her. You can't possibly dig yourself any deeper. Liara cleared her throat.
"I do not think we have been properly introduced. I believe the human custom here is to converse and learn about one another over some tea?" The girl snorted softly as Liara began searching for appropriate implements.
"Yeah. Something like that."
They sat in silence while Liara brewed and poured the drinks. The human equivalent was different from what she was used to, but it would suffice.
"You know, you're alright, Blue." The girl finally said, accepting her mug and moving over to the couch.
"If you insist on calling me that, I will have to insist upon calling you-"she quickly examined the girl, concluding her most prominent feature was her hair "- Red." The girl, Red, smiled and shrugged indifferently. Liara continued.
"Regardless, I would like to properly introduce myself. I am Dr T'Soni but I would prefer if you called me Liara."
"Oh, well, then. Pleased to meet you, Blue." Red replied, a devilish grin spreading across her face, taking childish glee in teasing the Doctor. Liara was just glad to have broken the tension, happy that the pair had found amicable footing. Silence fell again, as Red took another long sip from her mug.
"What about you, Red?"
"What about me?"
"What should I call you?" At this, Red's eyes went to closely examine her mug. Again she shrugged.
"Red's fine."
"But it is hardly a name, is it? What's yours?"
"I- ahh," Red shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "I don't have a name." Liara frowned, perplexed.
"How- why don't you have a name?"
"Nobody ever asked." Was Red's abrupt response. Liara did not falter in her gaze.
"Look, I- I don't know. I guess I had a name at some point. I mean, I must've had parents, and they had to have called me something. But," she gave a deep sigh "As far back as I can remember, it's always been me. Just me. According to the feds, I don't exist. If something happens to me, it doesn't matter, because you can't miss what doesn't exist; what doesn't even have a name, right?"
Wrong. Liara mused, but kept the thought to herself, unwilling to interrupt Red's chance to vent. Giving a final shrug, the child gave Liara an apologetic look. The Asari took a sip of her own tea, never breaking eye contact, before setting her cup down.
"I am asking you, now. What would you like me to call you?"
Red raised her eyebrows, taken aback by the unexpected question.
"I- I don't know," she furrowed her brow, considering the question. "I'll have to think about it."
Liara considered the child as she was deep in thought. Liara wondered, silently, the last instance someone had spoken to Red, purely for conversation. Grimly, she came to the assumption that it had been probably been some time. Red was snapped from her reverie with a question that had plagued Liara's mind since first setting foot in the Chapel.
"You're so young. Why did you join your gang?" Liara was familiar with the concept. Gangs and cliques existed in all shapes and sizes across the Galaxy, from hardcore mercenaries to schoolyard hang outs and were ultimately always bad news. Liara had always hated the concept. Usually because it was another way for her peers to alienate and exclude her. She had always preferred her own company anyway, or at least, that's what she had convinced herself.
"Well, I-" Whatever response Red had prepared was cut short, her omnitool bleeping with an incoming call. She frowned at the orange instrument, before looking to Liara for permission to answer it.
When it was given, Liara saw the reverse image of a boy, only slightly younger than Red appear above her forearm, looking flustered, even through the orange glow. She noted how Red's features seemed to soften, calm warmth radiating from her face.
"Mama, That huge scary guy, Pitt came down to the shack and said you were gonna be gone for a week and were gonna be outta the country and then that Flea guy came in and said you might not come back and then Ivy kicked him in the shins and Roo and Luis started crying but we managed to calm them down and everyone is worried about you and if they're making you do bad things..." He trailed off, pausing for breath. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, David," Red replied soothingly. "But yeah, I've got a job to do and I'll be gone a little while. I was going to call you, but the time's just ran away from me."
"Mama, who you with? If they hurt you, I'll- I'll- I don't even know what I'll do."
She chuckled and glanced outside, into the black night, thinking before turning questioningly to Liara, motioning to the boy's image. Can we- Liara nodded encouragingly, amused by Red's sudden change in demeanour. She addressed the boy again.
"Okay, it's too dark now to come tonight, but I promise I'll visit first thing tomorrow and I'll bring my new friend so you can judge her for yourselves." She called me her friend, Liara beamed. "Can you hold the fort for tonight?"
"Yes Ma'am!" he replied, snapping off sarcastic salute with his left hand.
"Affirmative, soldier," she replied in kind, before adding in a quieter tone, "I love you guys." The boy only groaned as he cut the connection. Red stared absently at where the image had been a content smile on her face. After a moment she returned her attention to Liara.
"So, Blue; where were we?" Liara returned her gentle smile.
"I believe I was asking why you joined your gang?"
"Oh, well, I, uh," She absently ruffled her hand through her hair, before gesturing to her omnitool. "I guess there's your answer. I got kids that needed looking after." It was Liara's turn to furrow her brow.
"That boy, he called you his mother. I am not so adept with Human biology but you appear nowhere near old enough to have carried him." Red let out a snort, blushing slightly at the Asari's blunt approach.
"Nah, David's only a few years younger than me. He was the first one I met, actually." Red's softened features tinged with sadness.
"I must've been about seven. I was rooting through some garbage in some alley in the ass end of nowhere. I heard some shouting and then gun shots, before some skeevy looking guy bolted past me. I went to see where the sound came from and then I saw them."
"David was sitting, sobbing, surrounded by two bodies spilling blood everywhere. I guess they were his parents. He saw me and he ran up, clinging to me like his life depended on it. I tried to get help but no one was around and I didn't have this thing yet,"
She waved her arm, still encased in orange.
"It's not like I could've called someone." Her face turned grim.
"So I did the only thing I could do. I sat there and hugged him until his sobs slowed down. He asked me to help them, to tell them to get up." She fixed Liara with a pained expression.
"How do you explain to a little kid his parents are never going to get up, wake up, Blue?" She slumped.
"I didn't know what to do with him; he didn't have any other family. We visited the local Cop Shop every day for a month, checking the Missing People boards, but his picture never turned up. That's when I realised he was just like me. Another kid who'd fallen through the cracks. I knew how it felt; it was cold and lonely and scary."
"But I could make it different for him. I could look after him; make sure he always had someone to talk to, to keep him safe. I could give him what I always wanted. And I guess it gave me purpose too," Red added, almost as an afterthought.
"He gave me something to focus on and work for, goals to achieve, y'know?"
"And that was fine, for a while. We made quite the team. But as time went on, we picked up more strays. We ran into some, rescued others from some shady types. They became my kids.
Eventually, there ended up seven of us, including me. I can't look after that many, not on my own."
She reclined on the couch, empty mug in her hands.
"So I joined the 10th Street Reds. They offered me protection in return for some," It looked as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Dirty work."
Liara grimaced in sympathy. The human gave her a reassuring smile and shook her head.
"I had nothing, I was nothing. I didn't even have a name. But they made me a Red and gave me a title. Sure it's far from perfect. But if that's what it takes to keep my kids safe..." She trailed off, before giving another resigned shrug.
"That's what it takes." They were silent for a moment, before Red gave a chuckle.
"Listen to me rambling. I've never talked about myself like that before. Feels weird putting feelings into words." Her eyes met Liara's.
"Thanks, Blue." The Asari only blushed. Red rose to her feet with a start, examining the emptiness of her mug, before taking Liara's and brewing another round.
"But that's enough about me for one night, what about you? You're a doctor, gotta have good some stories?" She sat back down, handing one steaming mug to the Asari. Liara only shook her head.
"I am not very interesting, I am afraid. What time I do not spend reading text books, I spend digging in archaeological ruins. Actually, one of the things that fascinate me about Earth is the sheer volume of relics and remnants of civilisations gone before. It is much different from my home planet, Thessia."
"I've always wanted to go off world, Y'know, get lost among the stars" Red's eyes lit up. "What's it like? Thessia?" she asked, a childish sense of curiosity in her voice.
And so they talked, long into the night. Liara spoke animatedly about a vast array of topics, from Asari culture, her personal experiences growing up and her mother in particular, to her interest in the Protheans and fascination with archaeology and Earth. She explained her theory on Asari and Humanity having a recent common ancestor, more so than any other species, noting how several ancient cultures had oddly Asari like naming conventions. She worried she may have been boring the human but every time she met her eyes, she saw a child in awe of her, hanging on to her every word.
In truth, Red didn't hang on to every word. Not that it wasn't interesting, it was. But every so often Red began to lose herself in the Asari's cobalt eyes or watching as enthusiasm radiated from her face, giving an endearing glow to her beautiful blue skin, or as the purple freckles wrinkled with her nose every so often. She was like an ocean and Red was more than happy to be swept away in her features.
She felt her own cheeks heat up as she realised she had sat for the best part of ten minutes just basking in the Doctor's beauty, not taking in a word she had said about Protheans. Something about bean cans and conduits? As time wore on, both parties relaxed and conversed in a more sluggish manner, as fatigue and tiredness set in. After having run out of things to talk about, Liara yawned.
"You were right; it does feel strange to talk about oneself at length." Red gave a slight nod, who was resting her head against the arm of the couch. Liara took the mugs and placed them on the desk.
"Thank you for the opportunity, Red."
Turning around, she saw the child, now sound asleep on the couch in what Liara imagined to be an uncomfortable position. She sighed, bemused, looking over the human. She looked peaceful, innocent lying there. Cute.
Cradling her, Liara was careful not to wake the child as she walked over to the bed, tucking her in safely. It's about time someone returned the favour. Taking the bed throw, Liara curled up on the couch and took one last look at her human companion.
She lay for a moment, thinking over the events of the day and all they had discussed. Here was a teenage girl, who had lived more in her few years than what Liara had done in almost a century. She did not know whether to feel envious for such an interesting life, or relieved that she had yet to experience such hardships herself. Either way she was glad to have met the interesting human and to have made a new acquaintance. Liara smiled.
She had called me her friend.