Disclaimer: This author in no way profits from the writing of this story. All characters, dialogue, or other referenced material from the Mass Effect trilogy belong to BioWare.
Author's Note: This story does not necessarily follow any particular timeline and may not be considered chronologically accurate.
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After another two rounds of three sets of twelve repetitions—this free weight stuff included way more math than Cass would have guessed—James told her they'd finished the work out. Still feeling like a snail on the bottom of an ocean, in more ways than one, the woman moved without animation back to the section of the cargo bay where James had a small gym set up.
Vadix looked up at their approach, some emotion flashing across his features, but it was gone before her sluggish brain could identify it. He watched her with an expression akin to concern though he spoke to her impromptu trainer.
"Done already?"
Near the corner of her vision, James shrugged, the motion accentuating the muscular hills of his arms. "Yup, Cintia breezed through it like a champ."
"Cintia?" Vadix asked the question before she could.
James shrugged. "Fits her better, I think."
"How's that?" Cass wondered aloud dazedly, beating the turian to the punch.
Again, his shoulders raised and dropped quickly. "Famous model my best friend's older sister idolized. Always thought she was hot, but a bit of an enigma too, like there was more to her than her looks." Then James snorted, scoffing, "But maybe that was just our boyhood fantasies talking. At the very least, you," he gestured to Cass, "don't give up on something just because it's new or difficult."
One mandible wafted away from the turian's face in a gentle half-smile. "Couldn't have said it better myself." He still held her gaze and Cass felt something in her stomach stir, her body recognizing a communication attempt before her mind did. But the contents of his look slipped away just before his eyes slid to the marine who had spoken again.
"Would you be willing to spot me?"
Something about the casual question and friendly tone pulled Cass fully out from the withdrawn state of her foggy mentality. Her eyes finally focused on the scene before her, noting Vadix was making room for the other man. Seeing them actually getting along of all things, compared with the ice of their earlier greeting, was strange enough for the redhead to forget (momentarily, at least) her worries about being broken beyond repair.
With the grace of a jaguar, James settled onto the padded bench, his shoulders centered beneath the same silver bar Vadix had hefted, the alien standing at the head of the bench. It was now resting in a cradle, suspended in the air, with several thick black circles attached near the ends.
It looked like a gigantic free weight.
Cass gasped, nearly tripping over her feet as she rushed forward. "What are you doing?" she exclaimed.
Both men looked at her, a single eyebrow—or brow plate—raised on each face. James was lightly gripping the bar while Vadix's talons hovered above the human's knuckles.
It was almost comical.
Scratch that.
It was entirely comical, and the woman couldn't stop the giggle from leaking out of her mouth.
James turned away then rolled his shoulders, and likely his eyes as well, while the turian simply looked back to face the man in front of him.
And then, without any additional communication, the human was lifting the weighty barbell. Up until his arms were fully extended, then down until the bar nearly scraped his pecs. Up and down, up and down.
Eyes widening with each repetition, Cass was astounded by the strength involved. She didn't know how much each singular part weighed, but she figured she probably couldn't even lift the bar by itself.
"Ten," James huffed, placing the barbell back in its cradle. "Now we double the weight."
Cass thought her eyeballs might pop out of her head. "Double?" she nearly shrieked. It was already too much, surely.
The man, now sitting up, winked at her. "Make it a double," he teased, sounding like he was quoting something more than just putting in a drink order. Shaking his head when he saw her vacant expression, he waved it off as he stood, helping Vadix add more weights to the bar. They made quick work of it, and before the woman realized it they were back in position, the human lifting the bar once more out of its holder.
This time he only lifted it off his chest once, the tendons in his thick arms nearly bursting from his skin and shirt.
"Why?" Cass inquired, her mouth feeling suddenly parched.
"Why, what?" he countered, his eyes slinking toward her before he mumbled something to the turian.
She watched them remove a couple of circles, feeling even more confused and rather helpless. "Why ten before, but one now? And why change the weights so often?"
Chuckling, James grinned again. "Oh, that. It's just part of my daily workout, mami. Helps with strength gains, since I don't really need to focus on muscle gains anymore, now do I?" Flashing a wide, sultry smile at her, he flexed for her before lying on his back once more.
Somewhat detachedly, she looked him over from head to foot and back. "No, no you don't," she murmured, likely too soft for him to hear. As he lifted the bar several times, pausing after every third rep, her eyes roamed his body, feeling more dispassionate than she ever had before, about anyone.
The smooth lines of his legs, the more slender calf muscles transitioning into full trunks above the knees; the hard planes of his abdominals just below bulging pectorals, looking more like a small table laden with two overturned shallow bowls than a stomach; the tense, billowing muscles of his upper arms fading at the elbow into packed tissue and ending in calloused hands, a man who knew how to work and work hard.
For one moment Cass allowed herself to envision being atop him, gripping his skin with her fingers, nails digging into the solid steel. His own grip would surely encompass her curves: ass, hips, and breasts. He'd fill her, pushing her physically as well as sexually, driving her toward oblivion as she rode him.
But.
Her eyes continued traveling, taking in the sight of her partner as well. Where James was thick and brawny, Vadix's body seemed lean and sinewy. Both men were powerful in their own right. Despite her lack of experience with turians in general, and her ignorance as to what "physically fit" would look like in this alien race, Cass couldn't help but sensually trace the outlines of her partner.
The cloven toes peeking out from the hem of his pants, fabric clinging to the broad musculature of both upper and lower legs; the slimming of his waist, accentuated by the cut of his standard issue uniform in a way that human women and asari would kill for; the sudden distinctive cowl that protruded from his chest, creating a shelf that seemed to beg to hold her chin, one that would tip her face upward until she lost herself in his crystal eyes.
Both men were powerful, yes, and both were undoubtedly attractive.
But.
Only one appealed to Cass with an intensity that made her stomach flip, a passion that extended beyond mere physical desirability.
The realization hit her like a stampeding keenra, nose horn pricking her heart while the very ground seemed to shake in time with the swaying of its spinal upright scales. Eyes lasering onto him, she instinctually sought his attention.
Vadix was still hanging over the sweating marine, their partnership oblivious to her own internal exercise.
Breathing with relief, the redhead clamped her jaw together. Whatever epiphany she may—or may not, she mentally denied—have experienced, Vadix had made it very clear that he was interested in pursuing a relationship with the turian woman he'd met. And Cass wasn't about to interfere in that.
Like her ears had been stuffed with wool that was now disintegrating, suddenly external sounds began to register in Cass's mind again. James was speaking.
"…as I can remember, really. Started as a way to get out of the house, with the added benefit that it enabled me to fight my own battles with a bit more muscle."
"Humans allow their children to fight in battles alone?"
"Oh, no, no, sorry. It's just a figure of speech," James coughed, covering a snicker. He was sitting up again, feet planted on the ground and elbows planted on his knees.
Vadix was leaning on the barbell, a puzzled expression covering his face. "What an odd figure of speech," he murmured.
With a shrug, the human moved past the cultural difference. "What about you?"
Confusion increasing, the other man queried, "What about me?"
A bark of laughter broke the tension. James clarified, "I mean, why'd you start lifting? Got a girl back home you're trying to impress?"
And just like that the dispersed tension shifted from between the men to between Cass's shoulder blades.
But Vadix easily shook his head. "Oh, no, there's no girl, nothing like that. I guess it was similar to you, started working out seriously so that I could stand up for myself."
A sense of solidarity settled between them, their shared experiences unexpected and unifying.
"Kids can be cruel," the turian finally murmured.
James hummed in response before hooting, "Mm, but fuck them!"
One silent human heartbeat passed.
Then Vadix was slapping the human on the back, both chortling.
"Wait."
The woman's voice sliced through the air like a blade.
Both men looked up at her, surprised, like they'd forgotten she was there.
The marine was the first to break the quiet. "What's up, Cintia?"
Her head slanted marginally, an automatic reaction to the unfamiliar nickname, before Cass looked at the turian. A storm of emotions was warring beneath the surface, raging, yearning to be released. But she forced it all down to quote as calmly as possible, "'There's no girl'?"
She watched his eyes narrow, moving inexorably across the floor at her feet, unseeing his surroundings as he thought through what Cass was asking.
Like the time-out of an automatic light, she could pinpoint the exact moment when Vadix realized to what she was referring. Lifting a single eyebrow, she wordlessly prompted him for an explanation.
Clearing his throat, the turian opened his mouth to answer.
No words came.
"What's the big deal?" James interrupted the nonverbal interrogation. "So what if he's single?"
Cass waited longer than she thought necessary to give him time to answer.
Objectively, she had no reason to be angry. In fact, she ought to be rejoicing: if she understood correctly, this meant that Vadix was completely unattached and, arguably, hers for the taking.
So why was the woman fuming like she'd found out he was cheating on her?
"Wait, are you two secretly together?"
This question, though not aimed at her, made Cass feel like she'd been punched in the gut.
James was glaring at the turian, all evidence of their newfound friendship having disappeared. Cracking his neck twice, he looked like he was about to slug Vadix, muttering something that sounded a lot like "Fuck me".
Could have been "Don't fuck with me" though. Cass wasn't sure.
Still she waited for the answer to this and every other question hanging in the air.
Again, Vadix cleared his throat, alternating his focus between the two humans closest to him until he settled on the woman, the obviously more dangerous one. "Cassana, I can explain."
"Did you lie to me?" The accusation tore out of her chest, leaving a gash somewhere near her heart.
He looked down at the ground for a long moment before glancing back up at her. "I was just trying to protect us, protect you."
Cass opened her mouth to retort but the other man stopped her. "Okay, cálmense. This sounds like a conversation you two need to have in private. I'll have a word with you later." James was standing between them with his hands raised, palms outward—not unlike Cass had stood when they'd first arrived.
Oh, how the tables had turned.
Without another word, the woman stalked toward the elevator, unsure whether she even wanted to continue this conversation.
Unfortunately, Vadix had far longer legs than she and easily caught up before the elevator doors could close.
Queue the most awkward 27 seconds of her life, to date.
Neither had spoken before they arrived at the galaxy map and Cass wasn't about to. Some part of her knew it was juvenile, but she planned to give him the silent treatment until he came clean.
That same part of her mind was trying to convince her this was a good thing, that if he wasn't in an exclusive relationship then she didn't have to avoid certain interactions or circumstances. Or hopes.
But it was the principle of the thing: he had been untruthful, deceitful, with her.
What else could he have lied about?
What if this was simply a revelation of his true character?
Though this seemed unlikely, the present situation triggered all the times she'd been lied to before, and all the times she'd chosen to believe him, simply because she'd loved him—or so she thought.
"Cassana."
His voice behind her was a plea, the sound raw and vulnerable.
Don't cave, she commanded herself.
"I thought if I pretended to be in a relationship then I would be less likely to do something that would endanger our careers."
He was practically keening, her entire body seemingly vibrating in response with the need to comfort him.
"I realize now it was an absurd idea. I didn't mean to hurt you, and I'm so sorry I did."
Cass dug her nails into her forearms, focusing on the pain points in her skin instead of the pain in the turian's voice.
"I'm sorry, Cassana. I know it was wrong. I was just afraid."
She couldn't stop the reactionary head tilt at this last sentence. When Vadix didn't speak again, Cass assumed he had noticed her posture shift.
Slowly she turned around, gauging the distance between them—and whether she needed to increase it. But he'd remained by the door, just far enough into the training room that the automatic sensor couldn't recognize him.
Part of her longed to close the physical gap that separated them.
But the woman stood firm, keeping her arms folded tightly across her chest. She licked her lip once and swallowed before speaking, hoping her voice sounded stronger than she felt. "What exactly were you afraid of?"
Vadix looked down at the ground quickly, rolling his head between his shoulders as though its weight was suddenly too much to bear. He mumbled something, too soft for her human ears to hear.
"Come again?" The syllables came out far sharper than she'd intended. Then again, maybe she wanted to hurt him too.
His strident azure gaze met hers once more, like waves crashing against a rocky stalwart shore.
"You."
Breath catching, Cass couldn't even muster the air to splutter.
"And myself. I was afraid of myself, too."
Her mouth gaped, disbelieving.
Then Vadix's expression shifted once more, from fathomless certainty to hesitant adventure. "But I can see now what I was most scared of."
He took a single step toward her, small for a turian, enormous for this turian, and continued speaking in that same low tone, "I was afraid of wanting you."
Cass felt her own desires begin to rise from the ruins of her past, glass edges hazardous with hope, willing to gamble it all for a sprout of potential.
"I was afraid I'd want you too much."