Squishy/Beir – Present.
Reegar ordered us to a meeting the next morning. I knew why, but my stomach still lurched a little with apprehension. The rest of our squad caught on quickly. Reegar gave us a soft, short speech, stating he didn't expect us to willing give our lives, even if he knew all of us had already decided we would.
After, he apologised for bringing us into this position and briefed us on what was going to happen. Our squad saluted him and eventually trickled out, leaving me alone with him.
I glance over at Reegar, but he looks away and his shoulders are stiff, his posture betraying his pent up frustration and perhaps guilt.
"Reegar," I start and reach to touch his shoulder. He ducks away before my hand touches his suit, but turns to face me.
"You should go get ready," he says. For a brief moment, something flickers through his eyes under his mask, but I can't make it out with the visors separating us. He looks away again, and as I leave, I realise it's the same emotion running through me.
Regret.
There's too much left unsaid between us, and now it's probably too late.
Kal'Reegar – Rannoch.
When we crash landed on the homeworld, we only had a few minutes of arguing about Squishy blowing up my plane before the geth found us, naturally. Squishy was still trying to pin this entire situation on me somehow, when I had to practically force him into cover before he got shot. A bullet flies shy over our heads and Squishy cringes.
"Now what?" he mutters.
I'm about to retort that I couldn't possibly know because I was never meant to be in this situation anyway, but hold it back. I take a moment to assess the situation, then glance over the top of the rock acting as our cover. "Hold our position."
"Until when?" Squishy glances at me but he's holding his pistol ready for battle. "Until Shepard comes and saves us? Until the geth kill everyone?"
I pause and know I can't really answer his question completely, then sigh. I open my mouth to reply, but Squishy interrupts me quietly. "I'm sorry."
"We'll get through it," I reassure him as I draw my weapon and ready myself. "Maybe you can try and get in contact with the fleet."
Squishy nods and his omni-tool flashes to life, scanning the comms built into it and trying to establish contact. He mutters to himself in annoyance and I figure the geth are interrupting the signals being broadcast.
"How long is it going to take?" I ask when I'm back in cover after killing a geth.
"I don't know," he replies then looks at me. "If you need my help-"
"Not yet," I interrupt. "I can hold them for now."
Squishy nods and busies himself trying to get in contact. The geth aren't pushing on us too hard yet, but it's only because most of the fight is in space right now and not on the ground. It could change, and I just pray Squishy can send a call for extraction before it's too late.
Squishy/Beir – Rannoch.
When I hear what Shepard's done to the geth, I'm a mixture of surprised and worried. I'm not sure giving the geth organic level intelligence is the best idea, not because I wanted them all dead instead, but I've grown up fearing them so much I'm worried they'll try and wipe us out. But then, the fleet seems to have backed off and so have the geth.
I glance up at the sky then at Reegar. He's still, fingers still poised on his gun out of habit even though the geth have stopped attacking us. Maybe when we get extracted someone will explain all this to us, but we're hardly a priority and even though they received my distress signal, they told me blatantly we'll be waiting a while when there's other people about to die who need them more.
Reegar shifts and I don't realise at first what he's doing, but when I do, my breath hitches in my throat and talking becomes difficult. He's dropped his gun and it starts off with Reegar pulling off his gloves, his pale fingers brushing the sandy ground of Rannoch with awe as he's crouched. Then, he's reaching for his helmet, and before I can try and say anything, he's pulled it off, and the only thing I can focus on is his angular, accented features, just like mine, and the thick brown hair spilling down over his suit. It's in dreadlocks, the total opposite of mine, which is a deep black, silky impossible-to-tie-up sort.
Reegar... He's every bit as handsome as I'd imagined, and in my disbelief that I'm seeing him bare makes his name slip from my lips without me noticing it at first.
He turns to me, and he's smiling. "I think our people have waited long enough to get out of these blasted suits."
I try and say yes, but the word fails me so I just nod instead. Reegar reaches for my own helmet, but then stops himself. I realise he won't do this for me, and he shouldn't, either. It's something I have to do for myself.
So I reach for my helmet, undo the buckles, which feels so foreign and unusual to do because we don't remove them unless absolutely necessary, and I let the cage come free. I squint into the sun as the protective shading of my visor leaves my eyes, and I bring my hand up to shield them, before Reegar catches it in his own.
He's tugged off my glove in seconds and before I can stop him, he's pressed his face into my palm and he's breathing in deep my scent. When he pulls back and smiles at me, I'm still too dumbfounded to respond, and the only thing that shakes me out of it is when his hand curls around my sharp jawline and brings me closer.
When our lips touch, everything else gets drowned out. I don't hear the noise from the flotilla and geth. The only thing I can focus on is Reegar kissing me, and how right it feels, like it should have happened years ago, and shouldn't have needed our homeworld retaken to provoke it.
