Falling Away

Chapter 2

By Voodoo Queen

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Author's Note: Thank you very much to all who took the time to read the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my own original characters and my measly, little plot. All the good stuff belongs to their respective copyright holders.

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The Presidium was the central hub of life on the Citadel but Kolyat had never taken the time to really explore during the time he'd spent on the station. When he'd left Kahje he'd done so with a singular purpose and hadn't anticipated spending more time on the Citadel than was necessary to complete his task. His plans had fallen apart quickly and the reunion with his father had further complicated things leaving him little time to even think straight let alone sightsee. Now, however, placing C-Sec flyers in the windows of various businesses and at strategic foot traffic locations, he could appreciate the engineering marvel the Citadel was.

The artificial sun light was comfortably warm on the exposed scales of his face and arms. All around him people of different species and races shopped, socialized, and ate together. It was peaceful in the sense that the buzz of those around him helped to drown out his own thoughts and kept him focused on his task. It felt good not to think and simply do. The task he performed was cathartic in its own way, allowing him the freedom of physical movement which helped to burn off some of his nervous energy. It was certainly more enjoyable than being cooped up inside the C-Sec offices performing menial labor tasks and definitely provided a greater sense of accomplishment.

Kolyat was about halfway through the stack of flyers Baily had provided him and still had quite a bit of ground to cover before he could call himself done for the day. He was loathe to admit it but he was actually enjoying himself for the first time in a long time. Being outdoors, simulated as it was, had lifted his spirits somewhat. The artificiality of the environment didn't really bother him all that much. He had spent most of his life in simulated environments, first the environmental domes on Kahje that protected his people from the smothering humidity of the Hanar's planet and now the carefully cultivated greenery inside the Citadel's hull. One day, he mused absently, it may be nice to feel the true heat of a sun upon his iridescent, blue scales and grass sprung from actual earth beneath his feet rather than its industrially produced equivalent.

He paused in his work momentarily and looked down at the flyers he carried and studied the photo pulled from the surveillance tapes himself. The suspect in question appeared to be a pale-skinned human male. Dressed in dark clothes, a hood pulled up over his head throwing his face into shadow, it was hard to discern the man's features for certain. Still, he hoped his work, as pleasantly distracting as it was, wouldn't be in vain and that someone would recognize the grainy image on the paper. Glancing around himself he scouted for another location to place a flyer when his eyes landed on a storefront with a sign implying that the shop in question catered to the culinary tastes of the dextro-based crowd.

With a sigh, Kolyat made his way through the pedestrian traffic and pushed his way into the small shop. The chime on the door must have alerted the Turian shopkeeper of a potential customer as the female came out of a small room in the back just as Kolyat reached the counter. The turian's mandibles pulled wide in what the drell assumed was a smile. If he were honest, however, turian smiles were more than a little intimidating what with all of those razor sharp teeth. Not wanting to be rude, however, Kolyat forced his dark eyes away from the woman's mouth and returned her smile with one of his own. His own full lips stretched to reveal perfectly straight, white teeth.

"Welcome," the shopkeeper greeted. "How can I help you? Looking for anything specific."

"Uh, well," Kolyat began. "I was actually hoping you could help me, uh, C-Sec, that is."

"Oh," the turian cocked her head in a birdlike manner. "How so?"

"You see," Kolyat handed the woman one of the fliers and proceeded with the same explanation he'd given every other shopkeeper he'd spoken to since he'd started the job. "There have been some muggings down on the docking level. C-Sec has been able to pull a picture of the suspect from the security cams. I'm out here today handing out fliers to see if anyone knows the man in this photo or has any information on his whereabouts. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind posting this up, maybe in a window or somewhere near the register in the hope that maybe one of your customers may recognize the guy."

"I see," the shopkeeper gave Kolyat a once over, apparently noticing his blue uniform with the C-Sec insignia for the first time. The woman nodded. "I'm always happy to help the community in any way I can Officer…." The turian laughed albeit a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry I didn't get your name."

"Krios," Kolyat began, "But I'm not an-"

"Officer Krios," the woman cut him off and nodded, mostly to herself, before pressing on. "I'd be happy to put one up in the window. Anything to help make our community safer."

"Uh, th-thanks," Kolyat stuttered.

"Oh, no!" The turian smiled again. "Thank you! Its people like you who put on that uniform every day and put their lives in danger so that the rest of us can sleep in peace at night who deserve the gratitude. I'm just glad I can contribute to the cause in some small fashion."

Kolyat watched at the shopkeeper scurried away to stick the C-Sec flier up in the front window of the shop. Seeing his opportunity to escape from the overzealous and seriously mistaken turian, he slipped out the front doors and back into the throng of people moving through the Presidium. He slipped into a narrow passageway between two stores to regain his bearings. The woman had absolutely no idea who he was, he realized. She didn't know that his father was a master assassin who had abandoned him as a young boy. She didn't know that his mother had been brutally murdered by his father's enemies. She didn't know that he had attempted to get closer to his father by following in his footsteps by nearly murdering someone.

The shopkeeper had seen the blue C-Sec uniform and had immediately thought the best of him. She saw someone who served the community and protected its citizens. She saw someone who stood up for what was right and what was lawful. She saw a good person with a great sense of civic duty. It didn't matter if it was all a lie or not, that he wasn't that person. For that one moment he didn't feel like a delinquent serving out a community service term. He was…"

"Officer Krios," Kolyat let the words roll off his tongue. It did have a bit of a ring to it, didn't it? Kolyat Krios, C-Sec Officer… Ah, what was he thinking? He shook his head but couldn't stop the smile that still pricked at the corners of his mouth. "Officer Krios…hmph…yeah, right." With a final huff Kolyat pushed away from the wall he was leaning against determined to finish up so that he could head back home to his tiny apartment when his good mood came to a sudden, bone-jarring halt.

"Ooof!" Kolyat wasn't certain exactly what it was the knocked all of the air from his lungs. He felt as though he had run full tilt into a brick wall but then again, he had also hit the ground with all the grace and finesse of a drunken varren causing all of his fliers to scatter all over the place. It could have been either/or.

"Hey, blue lizard man, watch where you're going! Next time I smash you instead of move you out of way!"

Kolyat was able to gain his senses back in enough time to see a krogan shoot him a rude hand gesture and disappear into the crowd. Krogan…Kolyat growled. They were built like tanks and just as personable. Pushing himself back up into a sitting position he looked around as fliers he had been so carefully placing around the Citadel were trampled under the feet of the space station's residents. Most of whom seemed to take great care not to notice the drell sprawled on the ground in the middle of the pathway gathering up his wayward papers.

"Rude ass people."

Kolyat was startled out of his internal diatribe by a voice just behind him. His first instinct was to assume that the voice referred to his blocking of the traffic and the mess that had been made. He opened his mouth to snap back regarding what the speaker could do with their 'rude ass' when it suddenly dawned on him that the speaker, a human female, had knelt down beside him and was also gathering up the fliers. His mouth snapped shut as he contemplated this new development.

"I mean," the female continued on unaware that the drell was carefully dissecting her possible motives for lending assistance. "The krogan I kind of understand. I think it's a cultural thing, you know? The asari or even the salarians, though, I'd have figured one of them would have at least stopped to ask if you were alright."

Kolyat watched the female out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't had much interaction with humans outside of the ones that worked for C-Sec, mainly Bailey. The only one outside of C-Sec he had really had a conversation with was Commander Shepard and by conversation he meant the man had punched him in the face…hard. It really wasn't the greatest of first impressions on either end he supposed. He could feel his memory tugging, trying to pull him down into a fit of solipsism which he resisted. It was better to focus on the here and now, life was less painful that way. Besides, he wasn't quite sure what to make of the human helping him.

He wasn't the greatest judge of alien features but she seemed young, possibly around his own age. She had that strange, silky mass of hair most humans seemed to sport sprouting from her head in waves of reddish-brown that cascaded down just passed her shoulder blades. Honey-colored eyes refracted the ambient light giving off sparkles of deeper browns and almost-orange. She had soft-looking, pale skin which, he noticed, in contrast to his own scales seemed to be covered in a nearly-invisible down. A smattering of 'freckles', he believed they were called, were dusted lightly over the bridge of her small, straight nose and her high cheek bones. Her full lips were quirked in a bit of a half-smile as she continued to lament over the state of unhelpfulness that permeated modern intergalactic society. It appeared she dressed for comfort rather than fashion. A light gray oversized, apparently male, shirt hung off of her slender frame and was secured around her waist with a wide black leather belt. Black leggings covered her toned legs and her feet were clad in gray flats. He supposed another human would have found her attractive. His drellish mind, meanwhile, was busy committing every last detail to memory.

"It isn't like it would have killed someone just to stop and ask if you were okay, you know?" The female shook her head sadly and reached for one final piece of paper. Smiling fully now, she neatly straightened the fliers she had gathered and turned toward Kolyat, extending the stack towards him. "Here you go. I think that's all of them."

Kolyat looked from the offered stack to the woman's face before snatching them from her hands and rising quickly to his feet. He knew he should have thanked the woman for taking the time out to stop and help. He knew she could have easily ignored him like everyone else and gone on about her day. Self-preservation, however, was a hard habit to break. Instead of words of gratitude what came out of his mouth was a snarky, "I didn't need any help."

"Oh," the female's eyes widened slightly and her smile faltered. "I just thought-"

"If I needed assistance, I would have asked for it." Kolyat felt something inside of him twist uncomfortably at the look of disbelief and anger that was beginning to take shape on the human's previously open and friendly countenance and so he busied himself with attempting to organize the stack of fliers in his hands rather than look at her. "Now look, they're all backwards and upside down. Thanks for making more work for me." Kolyat rolled his eyes. "I really appreciate it."

"Wow, okay," the female looked at him incredulously. "You know what? Excuse me for giving a damn. If I had known you were such an ass I would have left your shit lying on the ground and kept right on walking."

"Yeah, well," Kolyat shrugged his broad shoulders seemingly unaffected at the woman's harsh words. "Maybe you'll remember that next time. Not everyone wants or needs your pity."

"Pity?" The woman scoffed. "I was just trying to be nice and help you out."

Kolyat crossed his arms across his chest. "Well don't."

"Unbelievable," the female shook her head. "I don't know where all your hostility is coming from and quite frankly, I don't give a good goddamn. I don't have time for this bullshit. Have a great day, asshole."

It was Kolyat's turn to look incredulous as the woman flashed him a very vulgar, very human hand gesture before stomping off away from him and back into the crowd. Instantly, he was swamped with regret. He was almost glad that his mother wasn't around to see what had just transpired. He knew the warm, loving woman would have dragged him painfully away by his frill and skinned him alive if she'd ever heard him acting so rude toward another person...especially one who'd just done him a service. She'd taught him better than that. Hell, even his wayward father would have expressed his disappointment if he'd been within earshot.

It's not like it would have killed him just to mutter a simple thank you. It was just that things like that were hard for him and fear of dismissal or even outright rejection sometimes made his mouth say things before his brain could fully comprehend what was happening. He wasn't quite sure why this incident should bother him so much. It was just another encounter among many in which he had headed off unwanted concern and the potential for disappointment. Besides, he assured himself, the Citadel was a big place and the chances that he would ever bump into the human again were slim. He should just brush it off and go on about his business. He still had fliers to distribute, besides.

A beep from his omni-tool alerted him to a new message. Kolyat sighed in both annoyance and relief. He was annoyed by the interruption and relieved to have something to focus on other than his horrid treatment of a good samaritan. Opening the message, however, caused his stomach to churn in both renewed irritation and concern. The message was from his father.

Son,

I had an appointment today with the doctor's at Huerta Memorial to discuss the progression of my condition. I do not wish to alarm you or worry you needlessly but I do feel that there are some things that we need to discuss in terms of making plans for the inevitable. I wish to make this situation as easy to bear for you as possible. I pray you understand.

It would be my pleasure if you would join me tonight for dinner at Apollo's Café. I wish to hear of your progress at C-Sec and how you are adapting to life on the Citadel. Most of all, I simply wish to be in your company.

I will be awaiting your reply

~T.

Kolyat's fists clenched and he ground his teeth. His father wanted to meet to talk about death…again. He suddenly felt the need to punch something. He wasn't sure if he was angrier about the fact that his father refused medical intervention other than the palliative or the fact that the older drell simply wouldn't hurry up and die to put an end to his emotional upheaval. He wondered often lately if things would be different between them if his father wasn't sick and they didn't have his imminent death hanging over them like a guillotine blade waiting to drop. Maybe he would be able to open up and possibly even forgive the man for the past if he didn't seem to be in such a rush to leave him behind again. Maybe…

Father,

I will meet you at Apollo's at 1830.

~Kolyat

Kolyat shot back a quick message to the man who had helped to give him life. As much as he would have liked to be able to simply ignore the message or tell his father to fuck off and leave him alone, he couldn't. He cared, not a lot, but too much for his own good, he knew. He would only end up being hurt again in the end. He always ended up bearing the brunt of the pain and disappointment regardless of the situation, it seemed, but he couldn't just walk away from the man. He wasn't like his father in that respect, he told himself. He didn't just up and leave when things became too tough to carry on. He would not abandon his responsibilities. With renewed determination, Kolyat Krios set out to finish his shift.

End of Chapter 2