The Perk, Tuesday Morning

[not_a_whiner]

It'd been an... eventful two weeks. First they'd broken a bunch of ex-Cerberus scientists and their families out of the stalemate they'd been in with their former employers. Then Hackett had seen them flying around clearing Cerberus and Reaper hotspots, so tac teams could set up beachheads and recover research

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

"It really is you," Jack said, striding into the coffee shop and offering Kaidan a hug. "I wasn't going to believe you were really coming until I saw you. How are you?"

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan was more than happy to take the hug; he returned it firmly. "I'm okay," he said. "Happier when I'm keeping busy, these days, with everything going on. You still holding the fort here?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Trying to, anyhow," Jack nodded. "It's been quiet, at least for me. For all I know things are insane as usual up at the school. I'm glad to see you're still in one piece."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan smiled wryly. "Not for lack of the enemy trying," he said, pulling away. "But yeah, I'm still more or less intact."

[goforthe_optics]

Tali didn't exactly have a habit of stopping by the Perk, not after that one incident with a dextro latte and a careless barista. She was only passing by after an early (and ultimately fruitless) morning trip to the warehouse district, to see if there were any bits of machinery lying around that she could scavenge.

She caught a glimpse at the edge of her peripheral vision that made her pause mid-stride and turn to look through the window. The man inside looked familiar, but there was no way it could possibly be him, could it?

[not_a_whiner]

As luck would have it, Kaidan had just finished his coffee. He caught a flicker of something metallic in the corner of his own eyes as he put the cup down. Instinctively, he glanced that way, and...

Was that a quarian helmet?

[goforthe_optics]

The only one (as far as she knew) on Fandom. And that was -- it had the cut of an Alliance uniform, though the design seemed a bit different.

"There's no way," Tali muttered, but now she had to push the door open and step inside for a closer look. "Kaidan?"

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan's face molded into a frown. "Tali...?"

...and then lit up.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were busy, y'know, with... Fleet stuff."

Admiralling sounded like it involved being too busy to make island house calls, especially now.

[icecoldfrost]

"I found you!" Emma, don't sound so surprised or delighted. You're a telepath. Of course you're going to find people you know when they show up on an island this small. "Have you eaten yet, or just trying to subsist on coffee alone?"

[not_a_whiner]

"It's still early days, Emma," Kaidan said. At this point, she'd earned that wry, slightly tired smile upon her arrival. "Coffee first, then I'll see if I can think about some grub."

[icecoldfrost]

"Don't think, you're on vacation. Thinking is not for vacation," Emma informed him, pulling out her phone and tapping at the screen. "I assume you still eat like a biotic."

Yes, Emma was ordering massive amounts of delivery to the house. Shush. She wanted steak anyway.

"Ugh, you should have shown up yesterday, then I wouldn't have had to teach. I could have just put you in front of the students to talk about how biotics work, and I could have read my book."

[not_a_whiner]

"You're teaching?" Kaidan asked, then regretted it; he should've said thanks, first. (He could hear his mom's lecture in the back of his head.) "Damn, now I feel out of the loop. When did that happen?"

Or had she already told him and had it just slipped his mind in the craziness these past couple of weeks? Now this was going to bug him.