Shepard looked at himself in the mirror, his hair and eyebrows black as they had been years ago, and remembered an event in his past.
Shepard looked in the mirror, bags under is eyes growing. His black eye made his blue eye more noticeable due to the stark contrast, something Shepard didn't want; his eyes were no longer warm and inviting. The warmth had been replaced by the cold, and instead of inviting, his eyes were threatening, rocks at the bottom of a snowy cliff.
"You shouldn't be doing this, Shepard." Tali said, walking into the room.
"It's just a fight." Shepard said, coming back to reality. His hair was nearly completely gray, with only specks of its' former ebony shade.
"It's a fight club! It's illegal!" Tali said. "You just got out of an asylum a few days ago and the first place you went to was a fight club. The press would have a field day with this!"
"The press is already having a field day with my life. As Udina would say, it's a shit storm." Shepard said. "And I don't have a damn umbrella."
"I'm trying to help you, Shepard." Tali said. "I'm getting all of our old crew members to help, too.
"And I appreciate it," Shepard said, "I really do." Shepard wondered why Tali didn't run, embarrassed, at the sight of her Commander shirtless, sweaty and bruised. In the men's room of a warehouse, no less. 'She's changed,' Shepard realized. 'I am too, and there's nothing either of us can do.'
Shepard briefly remembered a lyric from David Bowie's song Space Oddity: 'The earth is blue and there's nothing I can do.' Shepard felt very much like Major Tom, hopelessly unable to fight. Then, an idea implanted itself in Shepard's mind. It was villainous, illegal, and lethal for either one or both of the parties involved.
"I'm going to kill the Illusive Man." Shepard said aloud, shocking Tali. "And I'm doing it alone."
"Shep!" Haku said, waving a hand in front of the Commander's blurry eyes.
"What?" Shepard asked irritably.
"You need to focus, and, more importantly, shave." Haku said, continuing the, as Michael called it, 'androgynous eye for the Commander guy' make-over. After Shepard shaved, Haku held out a facial cream. "To remove the bags under your eyes." Haku explained.
Shepard grudgingly did as Haku said, and left the bathroom looking younger. He still looked threatening, though, but Haku relented, realizing she couldn't do much about his demeanor.
Michael looked, entranced, at a children's television show, giggling at the physical comedy and toilet jokes.
Haku shook her head while smiling, then turned the television off.
"Ah!" Michael said, surprised. "Oh. You're back. Where's my nachos?"
"We didn't leave the apartment." Haku said, standing in front of Shepard. Shepard was taller than her, but she doubted Michael could see him, the tunnel-vision youth not noticing things unless they were pointed out or on a television screen.
"I didn't notice." Michael said.
"I know."
"Don't have to be so patronizing," Michael said, then "What's patronizing mean?"
"Get a dictionary." Haku said.
"What's a dictionary?" Michael asked, the sides of his mouth twitching.
Haku realized he was holding back a smile. "Are you joking around?"
"What's joking around mean?"
"Look at what I did to Shepard." Haku said, taking a step to the side.
"About time Shepard left celibacy. Bet the monks were about to go get him a girlfriend they felt so bad for him." Michael said, then focused on Shepard. "Hey, you look younger."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Haku said.
Michael stood and bowed. "You're welcome, Private. Commander. Hey, I'm a higher rank than you! Don't worry, though. I won't pull rank. Much."
Shepard's eye twitched, and Michael's life flashed before his eyes. It was a rather short life, most of it in front of a screen, in front of a gun, behind a gun, or wishing a certain girl in Aria's crime syndicate noticed his existence, his crush on the human going unnoticed by all.
"Don't kill me." Michael said.
"Don't worry so much, Mike." Haku smiled. "I'm trying to make Shepard a better man. Which is why, tomorrow, we're going to give him a surprise!"
"Hm?" Shepard grunted. "What is it?"
"It's a surprise, so I can't tell you, or Mike, for that matter. You'd just make him tell you."
"I don't like surprises."
"But surprises are fun." Haku protested.
"Yeah." Michael smiled. "The best kind of prize is a sur-prize!"
Shepard sighed, sitting on the couch. "When tomorrow?"
"For lunch." Haku said.
"We're meeting people, then?" Shepard asked.
"Yep." Haku said, surprised he'd worked that out from two words.
"How many?"
"One person."
"The Illusive Man?"
"No."
"Didn't think so."
"Why not?"
"No one could find the Illusive Man faster than me."
"How do you know that?"
"I'm Commander Shepard, and-"
"This is my favorite shop on the Citadel." Michael smiled, sitting upside-down on the couch.
Shepard grabbed his ankle, then pushed, toppling the teenager to the ground.
"I did that for Lawson, and that was only once." Shepard said.
"Because Lawson, renowned for wearing sexy, skin-tight clothes had so much need for armor." Michael said, on the ground.
"Do you want to die?" Shepard asked.
"Well, I can't live forever." Michael shrugged.