Needs Moar Tali. Repostan!
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EnvyPrompted by a discussion sparked by
Collider--------------
It was early into the third shift on the
Normandy. Tali was exhausted; she had been doing the work of three people, and she had worked nearly 20 hours. Ken and Gabby were off ship on the human Time of Joining.
What was it...a honeymoon? she asked herself as she entered the mess hall.
She opened the fridge and grabbed some of chilled food tubes. Smiling to herself, she elected to go with a tube of wine to go with primarily protein based tube, judging by the color coding. Tali almost felt spoiled here on the
Normandy.
Gardner had done his homework as she read the tube; it was not often that a quarian would be able to meat based paste. Knowing this, Gardner has slowly added more and more of the various meat pastes as a mix to the ones Tali was used to receiving. Now, she could eat a wide variety of pastes without a reaction. She was grateful, as the quarian
really wanted something to savor.
Tubes in hand, she made her way to a table in the mess. Tali sat with an audible groan. It was good to get off of her feet. As she was debating the merits of getting another engineer from the colony, she noticed that Miranda had also gotten a plate of food and was now seated across from her.
She nodded a greeting. "Hello Miranda," Tali said, her voice tired.
"Long day in engineering?"
"Keelah yes," Tali said after having more of her paste. "Those two really do more work than I thought." She looked around quickly. "Nothing I can't handle, of course."
Miranda only laughed softly. "Of course not. Nothing is impossible for the perfect engineer." They laughed and ate in companionable silence for a moment. Finally, the commanding officer sighed.
"I envy you, Tali," she began as she set her utensils down.
Tali looked over at the brunette in shock. "W..What?"
"I do," she said again with a small smile. "When you first joined the ship, I wanted to dislike you. The Illusive Man had not planned on you, nor on what possible effect you would have on the Commander."
Miranda shook her head with a smirk. "He was unsettled enough with the revelation that one of the commander's oldest friends was the bloody Archangel."
"Really? That wasn't planned?" Tali asked.
The human answered, "Not at all. The initial plan was to keep Shepard as far away from his previous friends and contacts as possible. After the changes he went through when agent Vakarian joined the team, the plan was reconsidered." Tali tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"I noticed it on Freedom's Progress," Miranda said to the unspoken question. "And again when we found Garrus. His stance would shift slightly, and suddenly, the Commander Shepard that had saved the Citadel was in front of us. I figured out what was missing then."
"What was missing?" the engineer asked, her dinner abruptly forgotten.
Miranda took a sip of her drink, then answered, "Trust and Acceptance. I don't think either the Illusive Man or I had factored how important that was to the commander." Finally, Miranda looked up and stared straight into the quarian's eyes.
"And that is I envy you Tali," she said softly. "For the longest time, all I have ever really wanted was to be accepted; to not feel like an outsider even among my own kind. I thought I needed find someone as engineered to be perfect as I was. When you arrived, you and the commander had that from the moment I saw you two on the ship. The easy comradery, that casual acceptance of who you each were."
The human bowed her head. "I hated you for that. That you had what I wanted. And I didn't understand how you did it." She let out a laugh. "When in reality, I needed to learn how to accept myself, and trust others."
Miranda looked down at Tali's left hand, at the platinum band that was attached to the outside of her suit as a visible example of the actual ring worn inside the envirosuit. The human reached out with her own left hand to grasp Tali's, and inspect the ring. Finally she smiled.
"I think I finally understand Tali" she said as she let go of the quarian's hand. And now the only thing I envy about you was that you learned it before I did. That you did not waste
years learning such a valuable lesson."
Tali could only nod as she sat there, stunned. She saw Miranda smile at her before the human got up and moved off. It was then her mind finally understood what she had seen and what she had heard. She stood quickly and grabbed Miranda's hand.
"John taught me," Tali blurted out as Miranda looked back at her in surprise. "And I didn't understand until he was gone. Then he came back, and I understood."
She smiled, even though Miranda couldn't see it. Releasing the human's hand, she gave Miranda a brief hug. When she released it, she grabbed the brunette's left hand again, smiling all the while at the ring now on the ring finger.
"When did he ask?"
Miranda's smile was warm as she looked down at her own left hand. "A couple of days ago, when we were all on the Citadel. We went back to the place we met, and he asked me there."
"Congratulations to both of you," Tali said after a moment. "If you'll excuse me, it's time for me to get some sleep." She made her goodbyes, then headed up to deck one, where her man waited for her.
Tired as she was, it had been a good day.
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