Authors notes: Mass Effect is the property of BioWare

I know have a very gorgeous editor for these things so there should be less stupid misstakes now :)

Chapter 4: Breakfast and a half

Thane awoke to the incessant bleeping of his alarm. Cursing the splitting noise he sat on the edge of his bed and looked at the time.

Seven o'clock.

What a god awful time. Thane had slowly grown to hate the mornings since coming to Umbra. Each one signaled the start of another day of biotic exercises and workouts, not how he would normally spend his time. With a concerted effort he raised himself off the bed and walk towards the bathroom. He didn't have a room mate so was able to enjoy the freedom of sleeping naked without any judgment, plus it meant no-one to occupy the other bed and irritate him with conversation. He started a shower and stared into the mirror, running his hands through his hair and resting them on the back of his neck. He thought about what he was doing, how could he be so caught up with Kat? He'd only met her three weeks ago and only talked to her once, yet he couldn't stop thinking about her. Every now and then he would be reminded of her. He got into the shower and saw his shampoo; a pink berry concoction and was instantly imagining Kat's pixie cut hair. The light blue shower gel reminded him of her eyes, the crystal clear blue eyes he could stare into for days.

Jesus, pull it together Thane. You're supposed to be a man after all, not a seven-year-old girl.

It was eight o'clock when Thane had finally finished drying himself off and gotten into his UBA uniform and he thought it was about time he ventured out into the academy, class started at eight forty five but he felt like breakfast was in order. He put a teal hoodie over his uniform, zipped it up and prepared for the outside world. The living area was already full of people of all shapes and sizes bustling around, grabbing whatever food was on offer before rushing back to their friends. Thane sighed, he had always been slow to make friends and even at age eighteen he hadn't gotten the hang of it. Glumly he grabbed some toast and made for a distant corner of the room. As he walked his mind wandered, day dreaming about things that could never happen and slightly out of reach fantasies he desperately hoped would. His trance was broken when he bumped into a figure walking the opposite direction to him, without thinking he turned to apologise but was beaten to the punch.

"Shit sorry, wasn't paying attention. My bad."

The mysterious person apologizing to Thane was slightly taller and bulkier than Thane but not in a threatening way. He had light brown hair that hung just above his shoulders. His eyes matched his hair, hazel in colour and they looked friendly, the sort of eyes that gave away an inner kindness. He smiled at Thane and patted him on the shoulder, similar to how the teacher had on his first day.

"Uhh it's ok." Thane rushed out slightly taken aback. "Don't worry about it, easy mistake to make." He forced a slight smile and the stranger nodded.

"Sweet. I'm Rick by the way" Rick offered Thane a hand that Thane cautiously shook in return. "And you are?"

"Thane."

"Oh yeah that's right, Commander Shepards son right? Man, he must have been a strict dad growing up." Rick stroked the stubble on his chin as if lost in thought.

"Actually he was the soft one, my mum was the hard ass" Thane looked around out of habit. If Jack were there she would not have been happy.

"Really? Interesting. She wasn't a soldier too was she? Just my dad was in the navy and he came down on me like a tonne of bricks whenever I cocked up."

Thane laughed slightly and shook his head. He loved his mum but always found it hard to describe her to people.

"No. Well not really. She fought along side him in the war but she was technically a criminal the whole way through."

"Oh yeah." Rick clicked his fingers and looked frustrated. "Jack right? Man from what I've heard she would be someone I would not want to piss off."

"You got that right" Thane said accompanied by another quick glance to either side. The two shared a small laugh before Rick spoke up again.

"So where ya heading? Haven't seen you around here for breakfast before, you eat up in your room or what?"

Thane felt awkward once again, he didn't really know how to answer that question without sounding like a loser and it seemed that Rick hadn't cottoned on to it yet. So he thought he would ride this as far as it went and just brush it off.

"Nah I'm just not really a breakfast sorta person, never get up early enough."

"Ahh makes sense, ok well why don't you come sit with us today?" Rick gestured over to a table with two more people sat around it; a girl and another guy.

Thane contemplated the question for a brief second before a large hand was placed on his back and he was lightly pushed forward towards the table.

"Nope took to long, you're ours now." Thane looked back over his shoulder to see Rick grinning and couldn't help but smile to himself as he took a seat between Rick and the girl. As he sat down he finally got a good look at the other two already eating their way through breakfast. The other guy was shorter than Thane but about the same width. He had black hair too, but his was cut short around the sides with more on top. He was more tanned as well, his skin was olive and Thane could see the tips of a tattoo sticking out from under his t-shirt sleeve. He didn't look up as Thane sat down. The girl sitting next to Thane had red hair that stopped just bellow her shoulders and was left freely out of a tie. She looked up towards Thane with green eyes as he sat down and greeted him with a smile.

"Oh hello. I'm Lindsey and this is Steve." She brought a hand across her mouth and spoke in a fake whisper that was just as loud as talking, "He's not very friendly, best keep away from him"

"I heard that" came the disapproving response spoken into the table. Rick and Lindsey laughed to each other before looking back to Steve.

"Come on now, play nice Steve."

"One day I'm going to ruin your pretty face Lindsey" Retorted Steve.

"Careful now sailor, that's no language for the breakfast table. Save it for when we're alone. Anyway we've got company, say hello." Lindsey raised an eyebrow at Steve as she said it and smirked as he raised his head. Thane saw a smile on his lips when he looked at Lindsey and guessed they were a couple.

"Yes ok love."

"Called it" Thane thought to himself.

"Yeah I'm Steve, you alright?"

"Uhh yeah I'm good." Thane answered not really knowing what the question meant. "Sorry so it's Lindsey and Steve right? And you two are…?"

"Yep. Don't ask me what I'm doing with him, I think I'm just going crazy"

"Don't lie, its because of my beautiful face" Steve said, circling his face with his hand while remaining completely emotionless.

Thane laugh but was quickly silenced by an elbow to the chest from Lindsey.

"Shh don't laugh you'll encourage him!" she scorned through her own laughter.

They continued to talk, joke and eat for the next half an hour until class started when Thane had to leave them and head in the opposite direction. He waved goodbye to the trio and was invited to sit with them tomorrow morning as well which filled Thane with warmth. Thane smiled and started walking towards the stairs down to the practice room. He hummed a tune to himself as he went, blissfully unaware of his surrounds until his ears burnt with his name.

"Thane? THANE?" came the girls voice from behind him

He gave up on his song and turned his head to see where the noise was coming from. Thane's stomach leapt at the sight of the person calling his name before instantly falling through his feet remembering last night.

Kat was walking towards him and a smile came across her face as he turned around. She waved warmly towards Thane and he awkwardly returned it and smiled back at her, managing to look calm despite the tremendous yelling inside his head telling him to run before he embarrassed himself anymore.

"Thought you were just going to run away from me again for a second there" Kat joked when she got close, grinning slightly as she looked up at Thane. The two of them began walking to the practice room together.

"Yeah sorry about that, I just didn't want to embarrass myself any more" His gut panged with the awkwardness of last night. His actions burned deep in to his mind like ancient etchings on a cave wall.

"Honestly I don't think you could if you tried, that was like professional level embarrassment."

Thane let out a small laugh, he could hear the sarcasm in Kat's voice and it fell well on his ears.

"You might as well at least try and make friends, Rick and that lot seemed to like you" Thane thought to himself before proceeding.

"Please, you haven't seen anything yet." Thane quipped back at Kat. "A few more meetings like that and you'll truly know what embarrassment is"

"Ok"

Thane thought that reply came a little bit too quickly. His train of thought however was interrupted almost instantly as Kat spoke up again.

"I mean it is what friends do. Hang out and stuff." She stuttered, placing particular emphasis on the word friends.

"We're friends?" Thane asked. He couldn't help himself it just slipped out. It was so new to him that such a gorgeous girl would want to be friends with him that he wasn't sure what to think of it, or even to believe it.

"Well yeah." Kat replied with a laugh. "That ok with you combat?" She cocked her hip and crossed her arms, staring at Thane with one raised eyebrow and a mischievous grin on her face.

Thane mimicked her eyebrows and stared back into her icy blue pearls, smiling as he answered her.

"Combat?"

"Oh yeah. So, we friends?" Kat asked with a joking voice like she already knew the answer, but Thane swore he could detect a very, very slight hint of apprehension as she spoke.

"Well because you asked so nicely I've kinda got to say yes haven't I?" Thane couldn't help but smile warmly as he answered her.

"Good, because class was starting to get boring on my own." Kat walked past him before adding "And you walking into things might liven it up a bit."

Thane could only shake his head and smile as he followed his new friend towards the stairs leading down. He found himself being drawn towards Kat as she walked, her hips swaying from side to side slightly with each step, her slim frame and tight fitting clothing exemplifying her already amazing body. Thane couldn't help but stare at her arse as she walked. It enticed him and so he found it physically hard to look away when she turned around to speak to him. Thane was certain she saw him blushing.

"Come on, we're late. Watch yourself on the stairs klutz." Kat joked with another smile.

"When you fall over I am going to point and laugh"

Thane took Kat's loud laughter as a sign that she could take a joke and made the effort to make a mental note of it. But she was right; they were late so the two of them hurried down the stairs to the practice room for the first lesson of the day.