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“It’s raining.”
Waiting for extraction couldn’t have been worse. They were five days in and two dead comrades later. A human female sat behind a console. She sat on top of metal crates, her hands were ungloved and occupied with making some kind of instant ration. It was some slew of brown paste with dehydrated bits of cabbage. She shook a bag lightly with the paste in it while some chemical reaction caused it to warm and steam up. She began to work on another portion, a green paste with some kind of purple hue. It looked disgusting, but it smelt akin to beef roast to her.
Another person stood by an open door, leaning against the wall. It was a quarian man with a sniper rifle, he was outside the edge to keep a lookout. The rain outside began to pour, its acid began sizzling the ground and everything it touched. He wasn’t obscenely tall, but he was the expected build for a quarian. Lithe, sinewy even, much like the drell but slightly taller if only by a few centimeters.
The human woman stared at his direction before she spoke again to break the silence. “Hey, Sal.” No response. “Earth to Sal’Edor.” She waved absently. “Sal’Edor vas Kolwat?”
The quarian’s gray faceplate turned to her with a lightly accented, “Huh? Yes.” The human motioned with her hand to the food. “Eat. Nothing’s going to come out anytime. We’d hear them come meters away. They’re so damn loud anyways.”
The quarian reluctantly left his post and positioned his black sniper rifle down to the floor. He sat with a knee up before the cross-legged human girl. His mask was directed at her, most likely eyeing her as he had for the past few days. It was his first time meeting a human woman, much less being stranded on a world with one. She had an equally curious name: Lieutenant Charlotte Hayes. He liked the sound of it. Had it been spelled “Shar’Lot”, one could easily have mistaken her for a quarian.
He remembered the first time she took that clunky helmet off. At first it was hard for him to discern her from her male counterpart, an N7 Paladin, who was equally armored to the teeth. The male human had fallen and was out of medi-gel, as much as she was. He was suffocating from some kind of ailment and doubled over after pulling his helmet off. Sal watched as the human woman unlatched her helmet, tossing it aside and pushing the man to the ground, his back flat on the floor and face constricted with difficult breathing.
The quarian was surprised to see a pretty face underneath all that grungy and grimey armor. Lieutenant Hayes had a very fair complexion, smooth skin, a straight but cute button nose and large blue-gray eyes. Her deep brown hair was bound messily up in a loose bun, but sweaty and wavy strands stuck to her cheek and the nape of her neck.
Charlotte swiftly pushed her lips against her male counterpart, breathing outward and continuing to do so while unlatching some seals on his breastplate and pushing it forcibly down. The action surprised Sal. Was she kissing him? He decided that she might have not, or perhaps he was mistaken. He didn’t know much about human customs.
“C’mon Jax, you can do it, man,” she said between breaths. Shortly after the fourth push to the chest the human man began to cough out outrageous amounts of thick red blood, and shortly after a spasm of coughs it sounded as if he ceased to breathe. The woman sat on her knees with her head bowed down, cursing under her breath. She had a few streaks of tears, it was clear that it was her first time seeing a person die in front of her.
Sal’Edor wasn’t sure if they had known each other before, but he rather not ask. They were both N7 operatives, shot down planetside and instructed to mesh into the remnants of a quarian/geth infiltrator unit. The geth unit performed optimally until it exploded after their first assigned objective. Some kind of electric bolt shot by a fumbling scion had short-circuited its shell and left the squad short of an operative. A few days later their third colleague, the N7 Paladin, had fallen due to his incinerated lungs.
But the human woman’s words snapped him back to the present. “Here Sal,” she said, her hand had a tube of the purple smush and she held it out to him. “Eat.”
Despite their crippling circumstances, she was quite cheerful. It was the last of their rations. The last of their medical supplies. All they could do now was wait, but Charlotte was intent on surviving as cheerfully as possible.
The quarian slowly took the tube from her while she looked back down to her remaining rations, she used her bare hands to scrape bits of the weird smelling food from a tangible bag. Sal’Edor’s eyes were on her, as they usually were. He thought her quite pretty, even for quarian standards. It was just a strange thing that someone like her was armed with so much ammunition and firepower. During firefights he found himself naturally by her, two engineers who sat behind cover, throwing grenades like beads at a Mardi-Gras festival. Of course he knew little about Mardi-Gras other than what she had told him a few nights ago.
Sal’Edor reached over his mouthpiece to remove it. He noticed that the human girl’s large eyes were shifted and she probably could see his mouth beyond some of the sterilizing fog. It made him self-conscious and he turned away slightly, inserting the tube and slurping the contents out as quickly as he could to avoid her gaze.
“You have a mouth, right?” the human woman asked. “I think I saw teeth, like flat white teeth. And lips. Like humans.”
He was still squeezing out the last bits of the tube into his mouth.
The expression on the Charlotte’s face lightened and she was smiling, “You’re not going to tell me, anyways, huh?” She was half-laughing, “I always thought you guys had sharp scary teeth and mandibles like turians.”
Sal didn’t respond, but he liked to see that smile on her. It might have been only a few days, but he suddenly grew as curious about her as she seemed to be with him. She often asked a lot about quarian customs, how he was raised, if he had family. From what he drew, she was a single child from Bekenstein. Her father was a discerning businessman dealing in weaponry, but during the eve of the Reaper War her home was attacked. She had been on the Citadel completing procurement orders when she had gotten the call of her homeworld’s destruction. She had grown up around guns all her life, and in her pain she signed up to the Alliance. Within her first week of training it was clear that Charlotte wasn’t just a colony girl with knowledge of weapons, she was quite good at engineering them and had a good aim. She was slotted into an accelerated N7 program shortly after and graduated only months into the conflict. But the only tragedy Sal really saw was how young she was. Judging by her demeanor she was in her twenties.
Sal’Edor’s story seemed less stellar. He was born and raised on a quarian ship like all quarians of his time. His pilgrimage took him to Omega and he had roughened up from that experience. He discovered his innate skill for sharpshooting and brought back several weapons back to the Flotilla. He was welcomed into the Kolwat, a marine vessel. He wasn’t that much older than Charlotte, but he had much more experience in war than her, given the plight of his people.
The human girl was not short of any curiosity, though. She seemed interested in his basic biology, what he could and couldn’t eat, and how quarians got along. No one really knew what quarians looked like. He had heard stories that if he were to find himself in an interspecies squad, “remove your mask!” would be the first thing they’d ask. This human, at least, had more tact and respected his choice to not show himself so openly, although a part of him wanted her to ask.
“Hey Sal,” she began. “What do you plan to do once you’re back?”
It was one of those other talks again. She wanted to know more about him. Every night it was a similar topic.
“You know,” she said, “Provided we survive this.”
The quarian was quiet. It was the first time he actually felt less quarian and more human. Instead of an answer that would benefit his collective well-being, he felt selfish for wanting something else, something a little more personal. “I,” he was unsure what to say. His accent wasn’t crippling, he had been told he spoke well. He didn’t have a working translator, but at least he was able to speak to her. His mouthpiece was removed and it was the first time Charlotte could hear what a quarian voice sounded naturally. It was clear. His voice was male from what she understood. There were no strange pitches like the grumbling of the krogan or the flanging style of the turians. “Well, I haven’t thought that far,” he lied.
“You know,” she replied, “I would’ve at least wanted to know what you look like.”
He didn’t say anything back. Only the rain answered for him. He began to reach for his mouthpiece to place it back before she spoke again.
“But,” she added hastily, “I understand that you can’t. Not with this kind of environment. I could always wonder though.” Her face turned away and focused back on the empty containers from the food.
Sal felt bad. He turned his face to her. Fog was still generating in his mask, so at the very least he was breathing in air he wouldn’t choke on. Some of the mist spilled gently away from his mouthpiece, obscuring his face, but he decided that if they were to die tomorrow he’d at least want to give her that much. He decided to take the hint. “You asked if we had a mouth, lips, and teeth.”
Charlotte turned back meekly and nodded.
“Well, if you want,” Sal’Edor was unsure, but he held out his omni-tool, “I could lessen the fog so that you could see a bit more.”
He pressed a few buttons and he could see the mist dissipating slightly. The girl sat herself closer to him, leaning in with her large blue-gray eyes looking intently into him. She was able to make out a straight nose, some glowing white eyes, but the mouth she was able to see quite clearly. He had a cupid’s mouth, although it looked like he had three black markings, or a tattoo, streaked from his bottom lip to the base of his chin. She couldn’t see any further than that.
“Could you see?” he said.
“Yeah,” she replied and then giggled, “I saw flat teeth and a really handsome mouth. I had imagined something scarier.”
He wasn’t sure what to think about that. But she was talkative. She always was.
“So what do you think of humans?” she asked casually.
“What do I think?” he repeated.
“Yeah, in terms of beauty.”
The question threw him off a bit. For the last couple of nights they had been flirting like this, or at least he felt it was flirting. Perhaps she caught him. Maybe he had called her name in his sleep. Maybe even worse. Maybe she found that he had been taking herbal medicines in the event that he might just find himself in need of it.
“I’m not,” he paused, rethinking his words, “I think human women are quite attractive. If they look like you, that is.”
She smiled. “Really now?”
“Yeah,” he replied. She drew herself closer to him. It was in that moment that he realized that their eyes were locked onto each other. He wasn’t sure why, but he had been overcome with so many thoughts that he must’ve forgotten to turn his sterilizing fog back on. His eyes widened, she was looking directly at him.
“You know, I feel the same,” she said. “You’re not really good at hiding it, either.”
What was she saying? Was he caught? It then dawned on him that she must’ve known. How could he be so careless? She was an engineer! She could’ve easily hacked into his personal diagnostics, in fact he probably lifted permissions in the event that she needed to save his life. It was embarrassing, she probably knew all along how many times he overclocked his nerve stim while he watched her sleep.
But that look she was giving him somehow lifted his worries. He didn’t feel half as ashamed. She was nearly pressing herself at his mask, hands reaching up to the seals by his ears. Her breath was warm, it seemed like she wanted to-
He grabbed her hand and was quiet for a moment. “This is serious for me,” he found himself saying.
“I know,” she replied. “It is for me, too.”
The comment somewhat shocked him, but he felt through all that flirting of hers, she was probably wondering how viable a future would be with a quarian. She might’ve been a little naive, but he had started to feel that way too. It was only a few days, but with all that time together and the slim chances of actually making it out alive, it was hard not to think about such things. He looked away briefly. “How far do you want to take this?”
“Well, I half-lied about just wanting to know what you look like.” He could see that she was smiling. “I’d like you to take me somewhere, after all this. If we survive.”
He found himself smiling too. When he turned back to her eyes were still on him. He gently guided her hands to lift the glassplate off his mask and pulled the remnants of his hood down. “How does the Kolwat sound?”
“How about Rannoch?” she added.
His face was bare now, but it seemed that she didn’t seem neither scared or terrified. For all he was aware, he must’ve looked quite normal given the circumstances. Here was a girl who had probably been at breath’s length to brutes, hustled by husks. He was sure he wasn’t hideous. In fact, he was told countless times how history had considered quarians beautiful. Perhaps that was what she was thinking now? Charlotte was smiling at him. Her eyes were focused on his.
“I’d like that,” he said softly while he paused for a second before he leant in. She smelt like oil, but that was what was expected. She had this faint scent of some kind of sweetness about her. Under all that gunpowder he could make it out. Gradually his eyes lowered and his lips pressed against hers. She was warm, soft, and a wet tongue began to coax him out, almost surprisingly. His eyes closed shut and her picture remained in his mind. He found his hands wandering on her, estimating at its latches and surprisingly finding them without much guesswork. Humans weren’t that different, after all.
He found himself undressing her, pieces of armor went off as he leant and pinned her to the ground, stripping her to her undergarments. They were quiet, save for the steady pour of acid rain and the sound of their kissing. His eyes opened slightly to see that she wore a basic white top and a black band underneath. He slid his hands under her shirt and shifted it free, and he could feel the soft texture of her breasts. She shuddered lightly under his touch. Their lips were still planted on each other.
Her hands swept on his chest but they were unsure, only touching. She probably was afraid to press onto something that would cause a fatal reaction. He broke their deep kiss and placed his hands back onto hers. He was straddling her by now and she was half-naked. She had such a luminous skin tone and her breasts weren’t large, but modest. Her pink nipples were perked from the cold of the rain, ripe for the taking.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. He lifted the latches on from his sides and a loud hissing sound broke the rhythm of the pouring rain. A thick sterile-smelling steam began to accumulate around them. Piece by piece he pulled garments over his head, untied wires and tossed them gently aside. From what she could see, he was nearly human himself. He had short dark tussled hair, a straight tall nose and again the cupid lips. His brows were angular but dark and defined, and it seemed that he had no other body hair. He had black markings from his forehead to his brows, and again the three marks on his chin that descended down to his collarbone, where it splayed out into different patterns around his body. He had a darker olive skin tone, just like a human’s.
With his top off he began to focus on her again, he leant down to partake in her breasts, his warm tongue whipping around her left nipple and his bare hands cupping and pinching the other. Her breathing began to quicken and wonderful little sounds began to come out of her.
Just like quarians, he thought. Or at least, what he’s known from vids. As he suckled gently on her he felt a hand wandering all over him, finding pause when it reached the edges of his covered waist, the ridges of his abdomen. He was lithe and taut. And her fingers began to tuck themselves slowly into his waist, and they slid smoothly past the warm metal surface of his nerve stim. He pulled back briefly to look at her.
Some coarse hair, just like a human, and the jackpot. He could feel all five fingers touching around his shaft. His human partner grinned and licked her lips. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?” She was having trouble wrapping her hand around him, but her touch was like fire, “The vids lied.”
“Vids lie all the time,” he breathily replied. “Why do you think our women have such wide hips?”
She giggled, half in embarrassment and half in nervous anticipation. “I don’t know if you’ll fit.”
“But you’re damned curious to find out,” he teased. His hands slid under her and propped her up, unzipping the front of her pants and hastily peeling them off. She was wearing a pair of white panties, but she had been so saturated that he could see through her. “Absolutely curious,” he said while he gently moved her underwear to the side, keeping them on yet exposing her most delicate parts.
He could see that she was biting down on her bottom lip as he gently touched that sprig of flesh peeking out from her folds. It elicited a soft sound from her, and he proceeded to touch her in a circular motion. His mouth found her other breast and began to suck hard on her pert nipple. She bent her back with higher pitched moans.
Quarians only had three fingers, but they were thick. He carefully slid his first finger down to find that she had excess skin around her. He pulled back and looked down. She was pulsating, absolutely hungry. The tiny hole was squeezing in and out, but a thick clear liquid kept on seeping through.
“I’m...” she was embarrassed. Her voice was quivering.
“I am too,” he said to reassure her. “Let me know...” His finger gently pushed in, “If you want me to stop...anytime...”
“Ah...” another deep breath, “Ahhh please don’t!” But she didn’t seem to feel pain. Instead her legs were spread further apart, her hips were bucking up as if he wasn’t pushing deeply enough. When his knuckle was at her edge he began to slowly pull in and out of her. Keelah for vids.
A tiny stream of warm red blood dripped from his knuckle, but she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she began moving her hips against his hand as if she wanted more. She was biting her bottom lip still in between moans and half-closed eyes.
He quickly pulled out and began to unbuckle his pants. She looked to him while licking her lips, shifting her body up and propping them with her elbows. They did not speak, but once he exposed himself he could only imagine what she was thinking. Her eyes grew wider than ever and her mouth gaped slightly. He was no different from a human man, save for his obvious size.
“Do you want to...” he wasn’t sure what to say next.
She repositioned herself, while he was on his knees. Some sort of primal instinct kicked in her. Her hand wrapped as much as they could around him and her lips opened. A few shy licks to the tip, and a deep breath in. He smelt good to her. Clean. Of course he did, he was a quarian. She opened her mouth and took him a little past his tip. He could feel her soft tongue swirling around him, and held her face in his hands to help guide her.
When she began humming he couldn’t help but utter a few low noises. He ran his hands through her hair. Her dark brown bun had become undone and her wavy wet strands were all over, all the way down to her bare back. She was having so much difficulty throating him that she moved to lay her back to the ground, stretching her neck straight out to keep a better angle.
It was then he could push further in, maybe halfway, and he could see her mouth stretched to its capacity. Her tongue flicked violently against him, causing him to moan a little louder before withdrawing and grabbing her. He had a firm grip on her arm and spun her around, back to the ground again, but this time facing him again. His other hand smacked against her bottom before sliding swiftly under her knee, propping her up and spreading her out as much as he possibly could. He positioned her leg over his shoulder before he felt her hand grabbing him.
Her thumb and fingers were wrapped around his tip, she teased him by rubbing him up and down at her wet entrance. Sal’Edor made a low noise, smiling lightly before he tried to push in, only to find that she shifted away.
“You,” he made a low growl, “Tease.”
She gave him a sultry look before leaving her hands and guiding them back to his face. She held him there before she turned her head to kiss him. His hips began to dig lightly at her, his tip trying to widen her before pulling out. Eventually he pumped in low enough. She broke the kiss and moaned loudly once he thrust himself completely in her.
“Sst...Sal!” she was gasping. It was enough to encourage him. He began to push deeper in, so much that he could feel the end of her limits walling him in. His instincts began to take over and he thrusted slowly at first, speeding up to a steady and quick rhythm.
Aside from the pouring rain, the only other things one could hear was the woman’s pleasured cries and their skin slapping against each other. She could feel his testicles swinging violently against her, sticking for only a brief moment onto her wet body.
She was near screaming now, breathing heavily and being relentlessly pumped into. She glanced down with her half-opened eyes and saw her lower abdomen. A smooth bulb kept on surfacing out, her skin was pulled taut each time he thrust inward. She could feel her opening straining, stretching at its limits in vain to accomodate him. She felt a trickle of warmth exit out of her and it dripped down from his shaft. He had broken her.
Sal’Edor was breathing heavily, the heavy steam around them still lingering. It now smelt different, it smelt of their joining. He liked this smell quite a bit, it was the kind of scent that he wanted to wake up to. He hastily grabbed her waist and rolled to his side, positioning her on top of him. She was happy to oblige and began to swing her hips into him, her knees planted on the ground.
With a few bounces she felt it unsatisfactory and repositioned her feet to the floor, her knees bent up and her hands at his shoulders. He supported her by grabbing her bottom. As she began to churn into him he could only moan louder. Her breasts were swinging up and down with the sheer force of her body. He could see them down there. Her skin was stretched at its capacity, all around his shaft and as she pulled up he could see her inner flesh dragging along his smooth surface. His veins were bulging. He had never thought his first experience would be like this. Not until he met her, that is.
When he was near his limits he turned her with her back inwards, her front out. They faced the same direction as he entered her from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist and her hands planted on the ground to support herself. He thrust quickly in and out, causing a strange whimpering moan from her. She was near her peak.
Charlotte could see her abdomen bulge out with each of his hearty pushes. He must have been ripping her apart in there, but she felt so deepened with pleasure that it overrode any possible pain she had. She freed one of her hands, feeling that he was supporting her weight above him, and held it over her lower stomach. She began to press back, causing her quarian mate to breathe in more loudly.
“Tease,” he growled at her as he quickened his pace.
But he could feel her opening tightening and pulsing back out. She was probably ready to receive him. He turned her back down, rolling atop of her. He licked at her throat and kissed it, sucking the skin while pressing her hips down and pumping rhythmically in it. He could feel her voice pitching higher, her breaths more shallow.
“Sss...s-s-Sal..!” her voice was shaking.
He could feel her tight grip around him, tighter than he could ever have possibly dreamed. There was a short pinching sensation before she screamed aloud his full name. He could feel her shiver and her opening pulsating in and out. He was nearly done, as well, as he gave her a few more sporatic thrusts, moaning quite loudly before he reached his climax. He jerked violently back, his liquids ploughing relentlessly in her. She was so filled that he could feel his juice spilling out from underneath them. He breathed in heavily and laid atop of her, his face buried in the sweat of her neck. For a few moments all they could hear was the same pouring rain and their strained breathing.
“That was...” Sal’Edor was exhausted. He pulled back to look at her pretty face.
She smiled back.