Chapter 3

Melina was working in her office when she heard clanks coming from Teyshan's room. They were not subtle noises either. The bangs rattled the thin walls of her home. Curious, the woman stood up an made her way over to her guest's room. Peering in she was caught by surprise. Teyshan was taking off all of his armor and dropping it onto the floor next to him. The large pauldrons that covered his shoulders added so much bulk to his form, seeing him without his armor and only in his under-suit threw Melina off a bit. Walking closer to the door she leaned in growing curious.

"Yes?" Teyshan inquired, curious as to why she was just standing there.

"I am not… used to seeing you without your armor on, you look so different." Her voice was soft.

"Mm. I am cleaning my armor, I do not like to sit in such filth" Teyshan said quite plainly.

"So you are saying my house is to dirty for you?" Melina joked.

"No human I am saying my armor is filthy an I wish to clean-"

"That was a joke Teyshan, sarcasm. You'll get the hang of it soon. Once you are done cleaning your armor why don't you follow me outside. I've got something you might enjoy" Melina interrupted raising her hand up. A warm smile followed afterwards. The look of complete confusion on Teyshan's face made her day.

Pulling away from the door Melina walked away an went outside to the back yard. Now that the woman had grabbed the Prothean's attention he left his armor in a messy pile on the floor quickly following her outside. It was bright out, the light change made Teyshan blink several times. While looking over to Melina, his mouth slowly opened, pulling the top corner of his lip up and exposing a part of his teeth. This was an expression Melina had grown to know. The Prothean only made that face when he was unsure of something. A bright smile spread acrossed the woman's face. Walking up to Teyshan she placed an older Widow Sniper Rifle in his hands. Taking a step back an placing her hands on her hips she then nodded.

"Target practice. I figure we could shoot off a few rounds to pass the time"

"Your gun is old technology" Teyshan deadpanned.

Chuckling at the look of disappointment on the Prothean's face Melina only shrugged. She walked over down to the end of her yard an picked up the bottles laying all over the ground, setting them up on the tree stumps. Occasionally when Melina had time to kill she would shoot off rounds to keep her skills honed. Granted her heart had called for science, her brain still yearned to shoot a gun every now an then.

"Ok, I loaded it with practice rounds. I don't want to be blowing any holes in my neighbors house" Melina called out to Teyshan from the other side of the yard. She walked back an stood a ways from Teyshan wanting to give him room. Two eyes looked forward while the Prothean's other two looked over at Melina, it was like something was cooking in his head. Yet she still couldn't read what he was thinking. At this point she didn't want to know. She had to many encounters with his memories to really want another dose of them drilled into her head.

"I will show you how a master can shoot." Teyshan finally spoke.

"Prove it then almighty Prothean" Melina retorted.

It was nice to see Teyshan finally warming up to the woman. He was always so closed off and emotionless. Over the past few days Melina had began looking forward to seeing her guest every morning. Learning what little stories he would tell her, when he felt like speaking. He was growing comfortable an that had brought a lot of tension off from her shoulders.

The Prothean walked over to the small boulder that was set up for balance. Kneeled down, resting the barrel of the gun against the rock, he had closed only two of his eyes. His larger right eye had focused into the scope. Teyshan closed his mouth, took a deep breath in. His hand reached up towards the trigger an wrapped his finger around it. Steadying himself an breathing slowly out his finger squeezed the trigger of the widow.

PING PING PING!

The Prothean didn't miss a beat with the rifle. He was a seasoned warrior. All of the acrylic bottles fell own onto the ground. Teyshan looked up from the rifle and over at Melina who was pretty impressed. Standing up Teyshan walked over to Melina an roughly set the sniper into her arms. Grunting a bit she took a step away from him an loaded the gun back up with more practice rounds.

"Not bad.." She beamed.

"Prove your skill Melina." Teyshan fired back. His sub harmonics wavering. From the sight of it, it had appeared a small smirk was tugging at the edges of his lips. The sight made Melina's eyebrows raise. The Prothean walked over an set the bottles back up for her to shoot. Promptly moving out of the way when she was ready.

"Alright.. But I've got nothing to prove." Lining up her shot, Melina focused in on her targets an squeezed the trigger with ease. The acrylic bottles flew off the stumps with deadly accuracy. Unlike the Prothean though Melina ended up missing one bottle before her rounds ran out.

"Dammit!" She cursed. Leaning back from her position she could see that the Prothean looked amused.

"Nothing to prove." He remarked.

"Yeah yeah.." Melina shook her head feeling slight defeat.

That evening Teyshan had grown quiet once more. Melina didn't hear a peep from his room let alone any clanging of his armor like earlier in the day. Sitting up from her office chair, the woman pattered over to Teyshan's room to only see his armor neatly piled on top of his bed. She didn't really stay long standing outside of his room. It felt rude to be staring at all of his belongings. The Prothean seemed more settled in. His armor, when not being worn was always in a neat pile. He didn't have many things. Melina didn't know if Protheans were a materialistic species or not. Teyshan seemed to hold in his armor in high honor though. Sighing deepley Melina started walking back to her office when she noticed her back door was left wide open.

Curiously the woman turned herself and stepped to the back door. The evening was cool, a light breeze tussled her shoulder length brown hair. Leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms loosely her eyes darted down to the ground. Teyshan was sitting down in the grass. His legs were tucked up under him, his hands on his legs. The Prothean had his back turned to her. Melina was about to pull away from the door to leave him be until he spoke up.

"Yes?" he inquired

"Eh. You were quiet. I went to check in on you to find my backdoor open, that's all." Melina's voice was soft.

"Sit."

"Oh, ok sure." Melina didn't hesitate. Walking over to her guest, the woman sat down next to him, crossing her legs in front of her. She combed the curls out of her face with her fingers before dropping her hand down to her lap.

"The stars.." Teyshan began. "To only think there is nothing but war and chaos in them." The Prothean looked over at Melina, his golden eyes staring so intensely into her own. Her breath hitched. Looking away from Melina, Teyshan looked up at the stars once more.

"You retired, why?"

"My contract ended with the Alliance. I had always wanted to explore the sciences after I served my term." Melina replied, her voice was gentle.

"Yet you do not fight the Reapers."

"I supply information on any new technologies I find in the dig sites to the Alliance to help aid the soldiers on the front lines." Her eyes closed

Teyshan stopped gazing up at the stars and looked over to Melina. His top lip was pulled back a bit. His larger eyes blinked, followed by his two smaller eyes. They never all just blinked at once.

"Did you tell your human Alliance about me?" He inquired.

"Communications are down at the moment so I have not." She sighed softly. The war was making things worse. "Only if you want me too, I can have them send a shuttle if you wish to fight the war, perhaps with Javik" Melina looked over at him curiously.

"No" he quickly replied.

"No?"

"No, I had fought for many years. Endless battles, endless pain, the empire fell, I am tired of fighting. Not weak, just tired" Teyshan surprisingly said.

Melina had always heard of the tireless resolve Javik always had in his fights. Not wanting to give up. Javik wanted to make sure the Reapers fell, that they had heard the battle cry of the last Prothean. The woman would just assume Teyshan had the same resolve. Just assumed he wanted to fight and avenge his fallen people. That was her mistake, not every individual was the same an she felt ashamed for pushing the idea.

"You are welcome to stay here as long as you wish Teyshan. I won't be kicking you out into the street." Melina broke the silence.

"I can help." Teyshan suggested

"With?"

"The dig site, I feel like your cause is honorable enough for this war. You are not wasting your life away, not on a weak cause.." Teyshan closed his eyes, looking away from Melina. "If you will allow this."

"Of course, you have a better idea on what things are then I do. It will help give the Alliance intel quicker then if I did it by myself. A noble cause" Melina's face suddenly burst into a smile.

Teyshan only nodded. Melina's eyes darted over back to the night sky and sighed happily. She leaned back on the palms of her hands stretching her legs out in front of her.

"You Melina are a friend" Teyshan's voice was soft. Looking from the night sky over to the Prothean, the woman's smile grew even wider.

"So are you Teyshan, so are you."

Authors Note:

Thank you to everyone that has followed my story. I appreciate the views and all of the love. I must apologize for a lot of my grammatical errors. It's been ages since I have written any stories but I feel like things have gotten smoother the more I write. Reviews are very much appreciated 3