Impulse settled for a moment, a moment she was going to get mouthy with answers. There was something in the way Liara held her, looked at her, that encouraged reflection.
And then she was stumped, even with realization.
"I... Haven't been seeing what I've been thinking. I've always been thinking about what I see."
Waves of blues swum about serenely, and she marvelled all the colours up close. She needed to take more time to study details and intricacies, the way Liara had. It was always then that she'd found herself gravitating more and more then. She felt more at peace, then, when she'd renewed her focus on learning rather than reacting, to memorize rather than taste.
"Let that be your next mission, then," Liara murmured. "Contemplate on what you see when you think. Perhaps then it will help you figure out you just as well as your desire to figure out me."
"Could we meld for it?" Gale asked hopefully. She'd smiled - almost sympathetically, even - when heat intensely radiated from the archaeologist's face.
"I prefer to be clothed upon introspecting what you see when you think of me, Gale."
That drew a laugh, and the vanguard grinned devilishly. She made a stalwart effort then to try to wipe it off so that she'd exude more reassurance rather than mischief. "Swear on me life you'll be clothed, love. I haven't... Really..." Her head fell back against the pane, stumped again as she'd realized a new fact. "It's weird, now that I think about it - I haven't thought of us rutting or what it'd be like. I've felt..." Her brow pinched, groping for how to express what she was feeling.
How could she, when even this feeling was new to her?
"I've almost not wanted to," she murmured, looking out at the stars. A frown tugged her lips. "Think I've run away when I have, 'cause I don't want to make you dirty because of me."
"You're not a dirty rat," T'Soni softly reminded. "You and I are not as different as this divide your mind has conjured - I say conjured because there truly is no divide between us, Gale. From what I see and understand, your perception needs... Not work? Not change, either, but rather... Revelation, I suppose. You feel what is there, but you see things that are not. As a result of this discordance, all harmony is lost."
"What I'm hearin' is you're not opposed to us ruttin'," Gale grinned cheekily, though the way the asari deadpanned - as if asking 'can you please be serious?' - helped her settle back down. "I dunno if it's just because of perception, love. I wish it were, but I don't think it's that simple. If I think about it... If I were to put us there, in my mind, I think I'd be stumped, 'cause I wouldn't know how to touch you the same way I feel. It's always been rough and dirty, always been impolite about it all too. But you're... I don't know. I can't even think about doing that kinda shite to ya. Tears me up just tryin', now."
"C-Could you try another time?" Liara flushed. "When I'm not around?"
"What, ain't I thinkin' up the answer to your question right now?"
"No! Goddess, no, there is no time limit on it." Unfortunately, the archaeologist leaned back and created space again. "It's best without pressure."
"So no meld?"
"I'm positive I absolutely will not be clothed if we do it right now."
"Oi, oi, oi, sounds t'me you gotta work on your perception too, love," Gale laughed, her cheek aching with her crooked smirk. "Seems to me I ain't a dirty rat t'ya, but a horny rabbit instead."
All that blood rushing to T'Soni's face couldn't have been good for her. Gale didn't even get the chance to tease and mention as such when the archaeologist clammed up completely, and had rushed out the rec room in a last ditch attempt to save herself before she'd exploded. She wouldn't make it out unscathed.
"That's the fastest I've seen ya run to date, doc! You're puttin' all your records in the drills to shame!"
Shepard grinned deviously when she'd caught some incoherent noise - perhaps even a choke for air - as the doors hissed shut in the asari's race for privacy. Privacy wasn't Gale's forte when it came to thinking up ways to occupy herself with, but she wanted to at least try to put in sincere effort to try this reflection thing of the doc's before she'd give up and declare herself hopeless. It was clear that Liara didn't have any intention to be rushing to demystify herself and talk about herself... But if the vanguard's perception of her was clouded and biased, then she couldn't rely on things she was learning from observing and talking anyhow.
Arse parked on the couch, Gale crossed her legs. She stared at the lesson board.
It still made her blood burn.
"That's different. That's not what she's about." She closed her eyes with a sigh. "What do I see when I think of her?"
At first, Liara was in a regal dress - the kinds Gale would chance upon as a child, looking through the window of bridal shop. She always felt like she was only learning through a window. She tried to experience it once, to at least touch the soft looking fabric, only to be shouted at by adults as her hands were slapped away, and fear chased her out the store.
Liara's felt that soft, in her suit, but also... Without it. Not naked - but her personality...?
Soft wasn't it.
"What do I see when I think of her?"
A tupperware of Cranachan. Dainty fingers travelled up the bottleneck of whisky with a shy smile that veiled devilish ideas.
{Is today a special day for you?}
Every day was extra special when Liara was there to share it.
These didn't feel like answers, though. They felt like more feelings, and Gale would've been brain-dead daft if she hadn't already realized she had scary-strong feelings for this asari.
"So what do I see when I think of her?"
For a moment, she could see a sun in her memories, and her mind journeyed back to the hot days out in the streets. She sought out the shadows to stay cool, and snuck in the Old Hag's garden to steal raspberries to eat something refreshing. She'd giggle and dash away like mad whenever the Old Hag caught her, throwing a slipper along with curses. She'd bring the raspberries back to Garrett, and he'd sneak her into the areas blocked off for fancy tourists, hiding in the tall grasses as they'd watch people go traipsing all over their castle.
They'd get to play and climb inside once the sun was down, and the place was closed to tours.
Every night, laying on the battlements, they'd pinch each other and wrestle before wiping their hands on their tattered clothes, eating their prized collection of raspberries - and taunting each other as to whom stole the most. She remembered the stories Garrett used to make up every time they looked at the stars and saw rockets soaring up in the skies to go to space.
{One day, we'll be on a rocket like that.}
Petty dreams to keep themselves upbeat, to trick themselves into believing that there was more to life than the one they've been condemned to.
"But what other choice did I have? Trick myself, or off myself. Not a choice, innit?"
These memories ebbed and flowed. Her shoulders began to buzz with annoyance, yielding nothing useful to the answer she was seeking for the question she was asking. Her mind just decided to be an arsehole to her for no reason, with memories that meant nothing to her anymore. What good were they, now that she was in space, as a Spectre?
Why was she still whinging about the past?
{You're flying different colours now, Boss. That's the only thing different about ya.}
Garrett's last words. It made that buzzing stronger, and she gritted her teeth. It snapped her resolve and she bounced off the couch, her stride brisk as she decided to go to the gym. Maybe if she'd physically exhausted herself, she'd have some kind of miraculous mental clarity then. She needed to vent this steam and ignore what Garrett said.
How can somebody ignore a truth that's always there, though?
{You're just a rat in more languages, now. What's the Council do for humanity since makin' you Spectre? Nothing. We're nothin' but rats to be used by all of them.}
There was no way that was the full truth. It couldn't be. She was made Spectre by her own might and right. She claimed this position. It wasn't just some political hand-me-down. She could do what she wanted and needed as a Spectre and say fuck the Council any time she wanted.
Then they'd revoke her status.
Then the Alliance would demote her, sweep her under the rug like Captain Anderson to avoid any public pressures, scandals and embarrassments. It'd set humanity back.
"What the hell have we even taken a step forward in? We've barrelled into this universe, demanding things."
Chaos was swallowing her mind, where disjointed thoughts spun off and fuelled each other. This was supposed to be simple - a simple reflection of what she thought of Liara when thinking about her. Why the hell was her brain going arseways and thinking everything but about the doc? It's not like she was terrified, or anything. She wanted to be close to the archaeologist - to get even closer. She wanted to learn and give that being a chance that Liara was different from the rest of the uppity asari snobs.
Fuck, Gale just wanted to be wanted for her, not for what someone could get from her.
"I'm not givin' her anything. Haven't been. She's the one who's been givin' me stuff, doing these lessons and all. She's been there for me even when she doesn't know how. She hasn't asked anything for it either. She's just... I dunno what she's sticking around for, though. I haven't been charmin' to her. I'm just like the Alliance, barrelling in, demanding things. I just been all up in her face, sayin' I like ya, I wanna kiss ya. Now she knows for sure I haven't put a single goddamn thought about why, if I'm gettin' my knickers in a twist tryin' to think up of whys."
Somehow, her mission to head to the gym had been diverted along the way, and she realized where her mind was leading her when she was half-way through the med-bay. Try as she might, she couldn't do this on her own. She'd fall apart from all this whinging, these unwanted memories. She at least had enough sense to knock on the door before she entered, smiling apologetically when she'd found she had disturbed the good doctor from her work.
Liara's brow rose in surprise. "You've already got your answer?"
"Not even close," Gale chuckled, rubbing her nape. She knew she looked pitiful with the way the asari's expression shifted into one of concern, and she shook her head. "Bad thoughts. I need help, please. I really do promise you'll be clothed if we meld. Please? I just need... I don't know. I need help focusing, somehow. Can we be on the sea stack again?"
T'Soni set aside her vials and syringes as she turned around, leaning against her desk. Her smile was as tranquilly beautiful as ever, but it was melancholic, as if she'd already known what bad thoughts plagued the vanguard. "Gale... There's a strong chance I'll be seeing all of what troubles you right now. I can meld with you, but are you okay with that?"
"I just want the answer." Gale crumbled a little, her own worry gnawing away at her inside. "You've already seen shite stuff from my past and haven't run. I want the answer to that too."
"Would you accept the answer that I simply care for you?"
"Yeah, but why? There's got to be more to it. It's not as sim-" Gale caught on when the asari smirked, and huffed as she marched to the bed. "Listen here, you smartarse, y'don't get to switch up on me like that. S'just not fair."
"No? I thought you preferred simple answers."
"Yeah, well...!" She worked her boots off and fell on the cot. "Not with this."
"Very well." Liara came and sat on the edge by the vanguard's head, gently coaxing her to move so that she rested on the lap. "Would you accept the answer that I don't know yet, myself?"
"You're like an all-knowing worm of all bookworms, there's no way you don't know."
T'Soni chuckled. Her cool hands slipped over the human's temples, massaging them. "I'll pretend I only heard the last half of that. It's the truth, however. I've been reflecting about us a great deal."
"How far did you get?"
"That we're total opposites."
Gale deflated. "Man... Seriously? After all this time?" Her eyes slipped shut, relaxing to the tender ministrations easing the tension away from her forehead. She braced herself for the hard truth and forced the question out her mouth. "D'ya think you actually like me, doc, or has everything been my fault 'cause I been pushing it on you? Maybe it'll be less confusing if I'm not in your face all the time."
Nothing, for a bit. It was murder. She needed an answer now, but she knew the archaeologist always needed time to think, to draft up and edit her essays. Liara inhaled slowly, releasing with a serene sigh. The vanguard opened her eyes to study the face upside down to hers. There was a peaceful smile, then.
T'Soni gave a half-assed shrug. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"That's what you came up with, after all that time?"
"I'm making a conscious effort to be simple with my answers."
"It doesn't work when they're still vague as fuck!"
Gale groaned when the asari laughed - she was sure she was being teased and taunted now. If it weren't for how bloody blissful the fingers felt, massaging all the tension away, she'd be up. She'd totally be up, and, and maybe punish this, but mostly just try to pull out more of that laughter too, and jesus did she ever have it so bloody bad. She was hopeless, and she couldn't even figure out why.
"It's her fault for makin' it all complicated. It's definitely all her fault. It could've stayed as simple as me caring about her."
There was that truth nagging her, though, that she knew it was her own fault. It would've stayed simple, but she had to go and complicate it all by having issues with having feelings for something she usually had issues with. She sighed and melted back on the cot as she relished the warm fingertips, steady and consistent in the way they drew circles. She couldn't help but want to reciprocate some of this and blindly reached up, her shoulder at an awkward angle as she tried to massage the asari's knee. Her hand was gently warded away and placed back to rest on her stomach.
"Just relax," Liara cooed soothingly, "Don't worry about me."
"Oh." Gale shifted a little, even though she was uncomfortable. "Are you doin' that thing again?"
"That thing called helping you relax so I won't be evicted out of your consciousness before we meld? Yes."
"Listen here, you," the vanguard smirked, chuckles skipping out of her. "You're gettin' real sassy, now. I like it. I like that I get t'be the one who sees it." She paused. "Hey, what d'ya like about me?"
Hums droned for what felt like a century, before T'Soni answered plainly. "Your hair."
"I don't mean literally!" Gale groaned. She knew for a fact she was being tortured on purpose now, as if to serve her a point on a cold platter. "Go back t'your complicated over-detailed ways."
More hums. The archaeologist was planning to murder her like this, wasn't she?
"Oi, what've I done to deserve this? Are you mad at me or somethin' right now?"
"Hm... Perhaps."
"I give up on life." Gale's body followed suite with her soul. She'd shot a deadpan look of her own when Liara's gentle laughter danced in the air. "You're doin' this on purpose."
"Guilty."
Shepard sighed. "Well, I know she isn't mad. Just overly playful, I guess, to get back at me for all the times I've been teasin' her, maybe. Fuck, could she just spit it out and tell me? She's not gonna though. Suppose I do deserve the teasing, for all the times I been messin' with her. I can respect that."
A beat.
"But does she have to make it so hard to respect that? Damn..."
Welcome moist warmth was pressed to her forehead when Liara had raked her bangs out the way to kiss. She melted with contentment and closed her eyes, trying to put her efforts into conjuring the images of the Old Man of Hoy again.
Tingles buzzed along her scalp as the dainty fingers experimentally weaved through her hair, alternating with tender scratches and shy strokes. She'd felt it parted at times, as if to inspect and study what was burrowed underneath her hair, and honest to god prayed she didn't have dandruff or skin flakes hidden in there. She swore she was relaxed enough to meld, but kept quiet so that the asari would have what was apparently fun for her, to sate whatever millions of curiosities she had now.
"Feels real nice, this," Gale murmured. A sigh tumbled out of her as a pleasant tingled travelled all the way down her spine. "Weird, too. You're touchin' me head, but it's like you're touchin' my back too, sometimes."
"Nerve endings," was all Liara said, though it sounded as though her voice was gruff and rusty. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Back in the library, while I was studying the history of evolution among your species, I came across anatomical charts of your nervous system. I didn't study it in depth, but I will now."
"Of course you will," Gale smiled to herself.
"I presume you have that sensation because I'm touching nerve endings that are travelling along the pathways needed for your brain to process and interpret the information." Liara palmed the side of the vanguard's head, spreading her fingers out as she slowly coaxed them into the hair and slid over the other side. "Does it happen with more generalized touch like this? Or..." A couple of fingers slid underneath her scalp, nails scratching lightly. "This?"
"That, for sure," Gale groaned when the tingles buzzed harder. She made a mental note to be gentle with grabbing hair next time, if it felt this good.
Until she remembered asari don't have hair.
"Fuck... I gotta start doin' whatever she's doing and get my hands on some of them 'anatomical charts' for asari. I wanna massage her like this too."
Lips pressed to her forehead again, coaxing warmth through her skin. She'd shifted again and cursed herself when there was a familiar ache growing between her legs. She couldn't undo all this progress and bravery now, she refused. She'd just have to keep her mouth shut about it.
"If we fuckin' meld now, my promise will be for shite, though. She won't be clothed. I'll be seein' a different set of blue cheeks."
What she used to consider foreplay - and get turned on from - was rapidly changing. Liara wouldn't shut up with all her science-y facts, and still it was really doing it. There was some kind of explanation behind every touch, and the whys and hows. Gale struggled to focus on the lesson about blood vessels and crowns and something asari regularly practised that was akin to human's chakra alignments.
Something something, energy flowing something, harmonizing something, mind body spirit something. So much was lost to the fog - and the panic of impending doom if they meld now. She was racing to think up an excuse to not meld, trying to tell herself to get up and run out of here in case the excuse wasn't going to be bought...
But all of this felt so bloody wonderful.
Part of her wondered if this was also the doc trying to reflect and seek out her own answers, but the thing was, she was still giving. So, what, she'll just like anybody who's happy to receive?
"Who the fuck wouldn't be chuffed to bits, receiving this?"
This couldn't turn sexual or sensual or the least fucking bit intimate. This had to stay science-y, or Liara was gonna be the one who'd run and make up excuses and never want to touch again. She kept regaling all her knowledge, and Gale was ready to fall apart when the cool composed hands stroked down the sides of her neck, following her jawline.
"You're really tense here," T'Soni noted worriedly. "Do you clench your teeth often, when you sleep?"
"I'm fuckin' clenching my teeth and my legs right now, doc," Gale growled in her head. Her hands were recruited next, and she struggled to keep her fists relaxed. "Dunno," she managed innocently, somehow.
"You probably carry the most tension in your shoulders, especially in your line of work."
"I'm carrying the most tension in me heart, love. Why y'gotta go and make this even harder on me?"
When those hands cupped her shoulders, she couldn't take it anymore. She ripped herself away, jumped up off the cot, and made a dash for the exit before her rash ways screwed her over. She marched like she was on a mission to the showers, determined to blast herself with the iciest temperature possible, to quell the heat throbbing between her legs. Her mind was chaos for a different reason, albeit a good reason.
But she didn't want to sully Liara.
Water felt like daggers upon her skin, though it only prickled her face and her arms. She ignored the looks from the other marines when she'd realized she'd stormed in here in her uniform. She raked her hair back out of her face and drenched herself, shivering intensely. Then she turned off the shower and left without any explanations due.
Puddles trailed after her as she meandered through the halls of the Normandy without aim, entering and leaving her quarters several times. She must've looked like a madwoman now. She certainly felt mad, with the way the blasted thoughts wouldn't fuck right off, and she grew conflicted in her search for an answer to Liara's question now that she'd begun to imagine them rutting the way she always did with other asari.
"She deserves better. I treated them like mangy mutts, 'cause they wanted to be one. It turned them on 'cause I was still the inferior one in their uppity minds."
Gale evicted the thought viciously when Liara was in such a position, in her mind.
What was more probable was that all the bloody science-y bits would worm their way into sex, and honestly? Shepard didn't mind that. She smiled at the thought of it, even, found it endearing. She wanted sex between them to be awkward more than anything. She wanted the shy smiles, the uncertainties, and she wanted to cheer on her support with Liara being brave enough to do what she found utterly terrifying to her. If they didn't even get their end away, that was fine. It was the journey and the exploration that mattered most.
It was them embracing these strange feelings - without explanations - that mattered most.
"Maybe... Maybe I won't get the answer I'll understand. Maybe I'm not meant to." Gale entered the rec room, staring at the lesson board.
Her blood didn't burn as much anymore.
"The heart and the mind are different. The mind can't feel for the heart, and the heart can't explain for the mind."
{What do you see, when you think of me?}
"I see the mind, when I think of you. I see your mind, how brilliant it is. You help me see my mind too. You give me what I've been missin' out on all these years. Awareness. I been livin' like I'm on auto-pilot, 'til now."
"Commander?" Liara whispered tentatively behind her, and she sounded immensely worried. "Are... You alright? Did I do something wrong?"
Knowing what a bizarre state she must have looked like she was in, Gale turned around and beamed a reassuring smile. "We're like that."
There was that panicked confusion again. Laughter bubbled out of Shepard when the asari glanced over her shoulder, as if she was ready to run and ask Dr. Chakwas for a sanity check, this time. Gale didn't give her the chance to and grabbed Liara's hand, jerking her close to cup her jaw and kiss her.
"We're like that," Gale murmured again, "We're opposites, yeah."
For a glorious second, a smirk danced upon the archaeologist's lips. "You've been reflecting a great deal about us, and that's as far as you've gotten?"
"Oi, oi, oi, she's still bein' a smartarse, this one..."
Something that demanded punishment, but for now? Gale just wanted to revel in her revelation.
"I'd wager we've both got different perceptions on the same answer."
"Mm. Perhaps. What conclusion have you reached?"
Creativity wasn't Gale's strong suit. She couldn't do these brain games the way the brainiac could... But she could do heart games the way no one else could. She stripped her drenched shirt at the expense of Liara's composure, and grabbed the asari's hand. Gale pulled back the cuff of the suit and gently unearthed the rope so that it could breathe. She rested the hand over where her heart beat.
"Do you feel that?" Gale whispered. "It's thumping pretty hard, innit?"
There was an endearing marvel that struck across Liara's face, after she'd calmed down with the daft shirt. She seemed to concentrate pretty hard on measuring the actual heart beat.
"I mean, at this point, I'd be a daft tit not to expect that from her."
And it made her smile. It grew when the archaeologist finally nodded, after a time. Curious blue eyes panned back to hers.
Then Gale shrugged. "That's all I got."
She laughed when Liara admonished incredulously. "I was expecting something sweet!"
"What, I'm not enough?"
"There were so many things you could have said, and-"
"Well, yeah, but I wanna be original. So that's all I got. See? Original. 'Cause you were expectin' all those daft cheesy pick up lines like: my heart beats because of you, or my heart skips a beat because of you, or my heart beat is you, right?"
T'Soni withdrew her hands and crossed her arms with a sulky huff. "It doesn't make it any less sweet even if you say them. It's the meaning behind them that matters most."
"Yeah? That so?"
"Yes, that's so! Otherwise, everything we say could be countered with that logic that it's already been said by somebody else. Proverbs and colloquialisms would no longer bear wisdom. Even things like expressing one's feelings would no longer hold any weight to them, especially if we feel the same feeling over the course of time. That would then suggest that my feeling yesterday does not mean as much as today's feeling if I express them both - which is simply untrue. It all matters."
"Hm... That is a good point." Gale pretended to walk around as if she was musing. She'd walked over the door and pressed the lock button, then turned around with a devious smile. She thoroughly enjoyed being an observer now, watching the intrigue and intricacies of the mind before her, working furiously to demystify her next move. It was glorious to watch the blush slowly consume Liara's face as realization dawned in her eyes. "Uh huh. I'm not the only one with ideas now, am I?"
There was a part to play, that the mind needed her to play, and she was happy to oblige. She peeled off her wet slacks and socks, then slung them over on the tiled parts of the floor so that it wouldn't drench the carpet or couch. She smiled confidently even as the poor archaeologist took on deeper hues.
"Like I said before: the couch has deep roots in it, love." Gale slid her hands over T'Soni's hips, pulling her close. "So I want the window pane to have them, next."
"W-we're doing this now?" Liara glanced over her shoulder. "Here?"
"Do you prefer our first time be on the couch, or your cot? Or my bed? Does it matter? We'll tag them all, some day - if not the same day."
"We're conversing about this now?!"
There was no way Gale could keep going with this act, and she already fell apart so much sooner than she'd like, chuckling. She reassuringly kissed all over the dark burgundy face, enunciating her words along each pit stop in her trail. "I just wanted to rile you up a bit, love. I'm sorry I couldn't resist."
T'Soni huffed indignantly. Her hands came up to shoulders - and the vanguard expected to be pushed away, but instead winced when nails bit skin to pull her close. A flushed face hid in her neck. "That's cruel, even for you, Gale."
Disappointment seemed to eek into the atmosphere. Gale turned her head to get a better look, but the asari buried her body in to hide away. With a sigh, the vanguard embraced and kissed Liara's temple. "Sorry for teasin', especially since you've been doin' so good with all the scary bits t'ya." Her eyes slipped shut, and she tuned in to the slow expansions and falls for every breath T'Soni took.
The silence was deafening.
"How 'bout this? I promise I will never do that to you until you make the first move that y'want to. Swear on me life that I'll try not to joke 'bout it. Will that make the whole idea less scary, between us?"
Liara stiffened. After a time, she nodded. "I would appreciate it if there is more serious care given to the thought and the... Act."
"If only you knew just how serious I am. S'pose that's on me to prove to her, innit?"
Gale hugged harder and kissed the temple again. She nodded, then, too. The tension in her arms melted almost instantly from such confirmation, and she began to feel that blasted guilt upon realizing she'd taken it maybe a wee bit too far... Again. As usual. She sighed at herself and inched back for enough space to rest her head on the asari's shoulder. She blindly felt along until she'd captured a hand and drew it to her heart.
"I need you the way my heart needs to beat, love."
Silence, again. Right, a thesis needed to be drawn up first.
But then Liara laughed.
"Goddess, that was awful."
Gale's head whipped up in a fury, grinning at the one who was becoming more and more comfortable with her smug side too. "Oi, I'm bloody tryin' here! Here I am, thinkin' y'want some sweet chocolate, and... Just what kind of chocolate d'ya like, then? And don't be a smartarse, trying to be all 'reflect on it' and shite about it. Just friggin' tell me already."
Liara leaned in and kissed, but her shyness prevailed with the way she moved so reluctantly. Shepard coaxed confidence into her, having recently learned that a bit more assertiveness is drawn out when the asari's lip is bit and pulled. She wouldn't let this be a distraction to make her forget the question either, though. Her resolve to not make any moves was threatened when two hands splayed on her chest, coming daringly close to her breasts.
Something warned her that T'Soni might be enacting revenge, for all the times she's been teased.
"I like the ones that have - as you humans say - a kick to it."
Gale smirked. "Now you're speakin' my language."