Chapter 17: Date Night

The Normandy

Lia was nervous, to say the least, she was going to go on her date with James. She had grown quite fond of the human when talked to him on her omni-tool, but this time she felt something more for the large human and that scared the crap out of her. She looked in the mirror for what must have been the third or fourth time, seeing if there was something she needed to improve, though it was hard to see with her suit on. Then she thought about the kissing…and she froze up, kissing meant taking off her mask, taking off her mask meant letting James see her face. What if he didn't find her attractive? She had seen quarian couples break-up after years of being together due to revealing their faces to each other, though Tali had told her that quarian women were considered attractive to human males, but what did she know? Shepherd is the only man she ever showed her face to. So many things could go wrong on this date…best to bail out now and save them the both the trouble…She was about to open her omni-tool, until she saw a hand laid on hers.

"Damn Lia, will you just relax?" Kasumi asked.

"I can't Kasumi, I mean what if I mess up, what if I say something stupid?" she asked nervously.

"But you shouldn't be nervous; didn't you say you went on a date with him before, on Illium?" Tali asked.

"But that wasn't really a date, it was more me paying him back for helping me" she said. "This is something else differently; I mean what if he doesn't like me?"

Kasumi came over and put her hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, he does, you're a great girl" she said. "He would be lucky to have you"

Tali smiled. "I felt the same way when I started dating Wayne"

Lia looked at her. "Really? But you and Shepherd make it look so easy"

The older Quarian chuckled. "Only because we worked to make it last" she said. "A relationship with a human is not easy, and I had my share of doubts too, but in the end it was worth it"

She then smirked. "Very worth it"

Kasumi looked at her. "Ok, ew, like I need to hear about my cousin and his girlfriend doing the nasty"

"Uh sorry, look the fact that he took the time to know you, means a lot, you'll be fine"

Lia hugged her two older sisters. "Thank you" She walked out of the room, and took a deep breath, she took the elevator and went to the meeting spot.

James' Apartment

Meanwhile not far from the Committee building, James was getting ready too and he was equally nervous. Lia was unlike anyone he's met before, he enjoyed talking to her, and he wanted to be with her. While he wasn't new to the dating scene, dating an alien was like starting over; he felt like a teenager again on his first date.

"James chill, it's a date, not a job interview" Cortez said.

"I want this to be perfect" James said.

"I have to say, I'm kinda impressed, I mean you usually just let your muscles and your charm do the work, but now you're putting a lot of effort in this"

James sighed. "There's a reason, Esteban, you know me well enough to know that I don't have the best track record with women" he said. "I mean remember Maggie?"

Maggie Pearson, she was the school slut, everyone in school knew that. She screwed every guy that moved, there were even rumors that some of the male faculty had done her. James being James…, who could only see the good in people, dated her, not knowing she was dating a guy from a rival on the side. She was only found out when Robert decided to record them going into the movies while Cortez and Robert was on a date. "I told you that bitch was bad news" Cortez said.

"Then there's Sasha…" Sasha Wong, the woman who prided herself on being the queen bee, as she was the most popular girl in College, brains, beauty, and she was loaded. Every guy wanted her and James was no exception, however the girl was famous for being a heavy partyer, her father Isaac Wong was getting sick of her antics decided to cut her off. This pissed her off and so she decided to date someone who her father wouldn't approve of…James was the perfect fit, due to his background. She even lies to her father that she was going to elope with James, stupid yes, but then again rich people often falls into that category. Her father backed down, and James was dumped the next week.

"Miss Daddy problems, only dated you to piss off her rich father" he said. "Pettiest little thing I have ever met"

"And let's not forget Tamera…"

Cortez shuddered. "She was a horror story, even before the drugs, you gave her all those chances and she still left you for the red sand"

"Which is why I want this to be perfect, I mean Lia is too good to be true" James said. "Especially for a fuck up like me…"

Cortez put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll do fine, unlike your other dates, I actually like this one" He then looked at his omni-tool. "You better go, you'll be late"

Downtown Toronto

Lia was on the corner waiting for James, she was still nervous, but thanks to the talk from earlier she wasn't as nervous. As she waited, the humans around her stared at her, some with looks of confusion or curiosity, it made sense, most of them never seen a Quarian before. And then there was the look of a suspicion that she was used to, she feel small under their gaze.

"Hey, Lola" Lia jumped when she heard a voice behind her. "Whoa, sorry sorry, didn't mean to startle you"

"Oh Jimmy, don't worry about it, just new to this" Lia examined James; he had on a grey buttoned down shirt, grey slacks and dress shoes. The quarian blushed, she thought he looked handsome, and then she looked at herself and started to curse her immune system. She wished she could wear something other than her suit for once, but life didn't work that way. James spoke up.

"Ready to start?" he asked. Lia nodded and they walked down the street. As they walked, Lia saw other couples, and saw how they interacted, some of them were holding hands, but the one she was interested in was the couples who had their arms around each other.

"Should I try that….?" She asked to herself. Lia put her arm around the waist of James, he looked at her and she quickly relented. "S-sorry!" James just smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, causing her to blush.

"Don't worry about, we are on a date" he said. Lia smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist again. "Feels nice, right?"

"Right" They made it to their first stop, a movie theater, it seemed old. They went inside of the building, the smell of popcorn, and other foods filled the air. There were a lot of people in there, though the lines were short. They came up to the booth.

"So, what should we see?" James asked. Lia looked at all the choices, none of them she had ever heard of before, human movies weren't as wide-spread in the galaxy even on a human colony like Terra Nova. She then pointed at one of the posters.

"How about that?" James looked at the poster and then back at her.

"Nightmare on Elm Street, you sure about this Lia?" the Quarian nodded. "Alright…" That turned out not to be such a good idea on her part, good thing about horror movies it makes you closer to your date, bad thing about horror movies, the nightmare's afterwards.

Lia shuddered. "Remind me to never do horror movies again" They were walking down the street where James was laughing, in fact he hadn't stopped laughing since they left. The Quarian huffed and crossed her arms. "I hardly find this funny, Jimmy"

"Don't blame me, you were the one covering her eyes through most of the movie" James said amused. Lia turned her back, and James wrapped his arms around her. It felt good to be in his embrace, he was really making it hard for her to stay made. "Okay, I'm sorry, but I will say this, you were cute that's for sure"

Lia blushed. "I…well….that's….um thank you" she then heard her stomach growling. "Uh, I think we should eat…"

"Yeah, I got just the place…" The couple was then in front of a restaurant called the Goddess Café in downtown Toronto, the restaurant was asari owned, but specialized in levo and dextro foods. The human woman at the entrance looked at the couple strange as it was her first time she seen a interspecies couple other than asari or turian. Nevertheless she guided them to a booth in the front and gave out the menus. Lia looked at her menu, turian soup and meats, it had been a long time since she had real food and not reserves, they even sterilize it, then her eyes went wide.

"Keelah, just look at these prices, Jimmy are you sure we should eat here?" she asked concerned.

"Don't worry about it, Cortez hooked us up, he's friends with the owner" James said. "Speak of the devil"

"Not a very nice thing to say to someone whose giving you a discount" Lia looked back and saw an asari in a red shirt and a short black skirt she was wearing black high heel shoes. She was dark blue with light purple markings on her face, the asari looked at her and smiled. "Oh, and whose this cute thing?"

"Back off Zerri, Lia's my date" James warned.

Zerri gave an amused smirk. "Defensive aren't you?"

"No cautious, Cortez warned me you like to flirt with the customers"

Zerri scoffed. "What's the point of owning a business, if you can have some fun?" she asked. "Besides, I'm not like that anymore, bondmate you know, so what will you have?" After talking for a while their food finally got to their table. She had turian meats that had been turned into paste and James had something call a T-bone steak which didn't look that appealing to her. She tried her food and her eyes lit up.

"Oh Keelah! I didn't think it was possible, but they made nutrient paste tasty" Lia said.

"I take it's hard for you to eat actually food?" James asked.

"No, not as hard as Tali, you see I'm not from the Migrant Fleet, I'm an anuk" Lia said.

"I'm sorry what?"

"It means the child of exiles in Keelish, I come from a quarian commune on Terra Nova" she said. "Because I lived on a planet all my life, my immune system is much stronger"

"So how come I don't see you out of your suit?"

"I still need it, Quarian immune systems are still inherently weak, and if you're from the Migrant Fleet even more so"

James lowered his head. "So being with me is dangerous to you…" he said sadly.

"Not really…from what I hear from Tali, humans cause less of a reaction to Quarians" she said. Lia then blushed. "I know it firsthand"

"How?"

"I sorta walked in on them one time…" James laughed hard. "It's not funny, it was very awkward"

James stopped. "Sorry, so Terra Nova, huh?"

"Yeah why?'

"You just seem to get human phases better than Sparks"

"Of course, I've talked to humans since I was born" Lia said. "Wait, Sparks?"

"Tali, she seems excitable, you know, like sparks" James said. "Some people just don't fit their names, you know?"

Lia giggled. "You are a strange human, you know that?"

James smirked. "Like you should talk" they laughed and talked the rest of the night. After a while they took a walk in a park, it started to feel natural being together, not awkward like in the beginning, it felt right. Lia had to wonder if this was what Tali felt when she was with Shepherd. James spoke up.

"It's beautiful…" Lia looked at him. "The stars…I used to look out in the sky when I was kid and just looked at the stars"

"Is that the reason you joined Alliance?" Lia asked.

"The adventure was part of it, but it was mostly because I needed to get away…" he said. "My life wasn't what you called the greatest; my dad was an abusive drunk, who always needed some excuse to beat me or my mom up"

"Keelah…" she gasped.

"The scar on my face, I got it when I was ten, one day my dad just snapped, and came at me with a knife" he said solemnly. "He said I was a failure, and how he regretted I was ever born, mom came home and saw me on the ground and my face all bloodied up, and tried to stop him, but gotten stabbed multiple times"

"What did you do?"

"I shot him with a gun I saved up to buy" he said. He then laughed bitterly. "Most kids save money for a stupid toy or game they wanted, but I bought a gun because I was so fucking scared of my father"

"And your mom…"

"Died in the hospital, with one of her arteries cut, she bled out…" James said. "There I was orphaned at ten"

"There must have been someone…"

James smiled briefly. "My tio, Carlos Garcia, my mom's brother" he said. "He's the only one that kept my life from going into a death spiral, it was because of him that I joined the Alliance, he made me see I was better than the experiences in my life" Lia smiled.

"I'm glad…that you joined the Alliance" she said. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have met…"

James smiled. "I'm glad too" After a while they went back to the base.

"So, we're here…" Lia said.

"Yep…" The couple just stood there, waiting for the next move of the other. Lia spoke.

"So what happens now? I mean we've been on a real date and…."

"There's something between us, I don't know" He said. "Both of us are in a pretty complicated situation with Shepherd"

"Oh"

"But I do know, I want to see you again, if you're willing" Lia smiled and pounced him. James chuckled. "I take it, that's a yes" He then heard a hiss; it was Lia taking off her face plate.

"Wow…" James was awestruck at how beautiful Lia was, her face was a light purple with dark lines running across the bridge of her nose. Her hair was short and white, Lia looked bashful as James examined her face. She smiled nervously revealing some sharp canines, which seemed opposite of her sweet nature. But it was her eyes that caught his attention, Lia's eyes were solid white with no pupils with added to her alien features but no less detracted from her beauty. He then snapped back to reality.

"Lola, won't you get sick?"

"A little, but this is worth it" Lia pulled James in for a deep kiss on the lips, James blinked but then wrapped his arms around her waist as he returned the kiss. Time seemed to stop for them, as their passions heat up,they stopped catching their breath, any longer kissing and the quarian really would get sick. Lia put her face plate back on and got off of him. She smiled as she went inside. "Goodnight, Jimmy…"

James smiled back. "Goodnight, Lola" As James walked back with to his apartment with huge grin on his face, he then jumped up and yelled at the top of his lungs:

"THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

See you Next Time! As always Review and Comment.