New Beginnings

Insecurity

Tali was standing in front of the door, Garrus informed me when he got up to look through the peep hole. We were both naked, and had to find something to cover ourselves up. I wore Garrus´ shirt because the dress was too complicated to zip, Garrus wore his pants and covered his torso with a blanket that was lying around.

“We’re coming!” he said as he struggled with the pants. I chuckled.

He finally opened the door, and I could swear Tali was glaring at me behind the mask. I went to say hi, tugging Garrus’ shirt a little lower with a hand.

“I see you two have been catching up” she said, putting down the bags she was holding.

“What’s in the bags?” I asked

“Food, dextro” she said “I thought maybe with everything that’s going on you hadn’t been grocery shopping…”

“But you only got dextro” I said, hugging Garrus from behind, a subconscious protective move.

“Sorry, I’m used to bringing Garrus food. I kind of forgot about you when I was there, sorry Shepard” she said, a little drily.

“It’s ok” I said “we ordered food on the extranet”

Tali was staring at the mess we had in the living room.

“Sorry about the mess” said Garrus. “Do you want to stay for …” he checked his omnitool “wow, lunch time already?”

“No, it’s fine” said Tali “I’ll come back some other time, when you two are …decent” she said, looking up and down at me. I instinctively covered myself up.

Tali left after saying goodbye really fast- Maybe too fast.

“¿What’s with Tali?” I said. Garrus stared at me with a questioning look.

“What do you mean?” he was oblivious, or I was overreacting. Maybe both. He put the blanket aside and took the grocery bags to the kitchen, I followed and nonchalantly helped sorting them into the fridge.

“I felt a certain… vibe from her” I said, sniffing a box of milk that had probably been there since the war ended- I tossed it into the garbage can.

“Maybe she felt a little uncomfortable, we were… uhm, almost naked there Shepard” he neatly stacked the last few things remaining in the bags.

“She seemed annoyed” I said, folding my arms and leaning on a counter. “Like I was the one interrupting something there”

“I seriously have no idea, Shepard” he looked genuinely puzzled. Garrus didn’t know how to lie, he had a tell I couldn’t remember, but his face was nothing but honest.

 I was still a little uneasy, and Garrus noticed. He took my hands and kissed them softly.

“Maybe she’s not used to you walking around, that’s all” he said, dismissing the subject. But I just couldn’t shake it. Did Tali have a thing for him? I knew who would have the answer to that: Liara. She knew everything, and what she didn’t know she could investigate. I didn’t want to bother Tali with it, just in case it was all in my mind. Maybe she was really just trying to adjust to seeing me again “and trying to steal my boyfriend”  an annoying thought crossed my mind, and I shook it out of my head. No, Tali was my friend… as far as I could remember. But had something changed?