Work Text:
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya awoke from her sleeper pod with a strange sight: the ceiling of the corridor was absolutely covered in hanging threads of silver plastic.
“What… is this?” Was all she could think.
Tali saw the portable kitchenette set up next to Kaiden’s workstation. The chairs there had been unbolted from the floor and presumably taken to the storage bay Joker affectionately called “Liara’s Lair”—foldable tables now sat in their place. Had she overslept from the exhaustion of a mission and missed a shift?
Without a second thought, she headed over to the Captain’s Office to regain an understanding of the world around her and apologize if need be. As the doors slid open, an empty sight beheld her. “He’s not here,” Tali thought to herself as her eyebrows furrowed in growing anxiety.
She headed over to the elevator, waiting for the lift to arrive so she could ask Garrus in the vehicle bay if he knew what was going on. As the shutter door for the elevator opened, she saw Dr. Chakwas and Navigator Pressley laughing and hooking arms together; a slight blush on both their faces as they descended the port side stairs.
“Why hello, Tali! How are you, dear?” Chakwas said, greeting Tali in that warm grandmotherly voice reserved especially for her.
“Have you seen Shepard? I-I need to speak with him.” Tali blurted out in earnest.
“Indeed I have. I just saw him upstairs a few minutes ago heading into the comm room.”
Tali nodded, taking the elevator down. She didn’t want to interrupt any important calls Shepard might have and he usually left Chief Engineer Adams a memo for how long he expected calls to take in case any important matters needed to be brought to his attention. Of course, that was the official reason. Unbeknownst to everyone else on board, the real reason was so Tali wouldn’t be stuck waiting outside fidgeting nervously as she got lost in her own thoughts.
She didn’t see Garrus working on the MAKO, but assumed he was just out of view. As the starboard door to Engineering opened for her, she was met with the most alien sight: nobody was there. Never in all her dreams and nightmares could she imagine such a concept. There should at least be a skeleton crew. Where was everyone?
She saw an unsaved text editor document open on Adams’ terminal, beckoning her to come closer.
Tali,
You probably don’t understand what’s happening and least of all why nobody’s overseeing maintenance. We’ve gotten it all done early so we can participate in Christmas activities for the day. Commander Shepard knows that as a quarian and the hardest working engineer on this vessel, you won’t understand the implications of what that means. He’s asked me to leave you a note informing that you are under orders to take the day off—barring any sudden emergency that’ll result in the ship undergoing spontaneous unplanned disassembly, of course.
- Adams
As Tali exited Engineering, she couldn’t help but remain confused by the current turn of events. Even Garrus and Wrex were laughing together as they carried a crate from Requisition Officer Postle’s shop over to the elevator.
“You know turian, maybe you’re not that bad after all!” Wrex said grinning as he set down the container.
“Hey Tali,” greeted Garrus. “Shepard’s been looking for you. You on your way up or are you planning to work on everyone’s day off?”
The absurdity of the statement sent her head spinning. “Everyone’s got a day off?”
“Yeah, I thought it was strange too. Apparently the Alliance makes work exceptions for specific events and holidays.”
“But- Ev- Nobody’s even looking after systems in Engineering!”
“I know. Joker and Adams are drunkenly debating ship specs in the cockpit.”
“Th- The PILOT and the CHIEF ENGINEER are drunk!?”
Garrus nodded.
“Mm-hmm” was all Wrex had to add.
Unable to believe what she was hearing, she joined the two frenemies in the elevator.
The shutters opened to the sight of Kaiden waiting to use the elevator. “Ah, great! You two got the drinks! I was just about to grab them myself.”
“Drinks?” Tali asked.
“Yeah, Postle’s got a brewing station hidden somewhere on board and he just told us he hid the first batch of mead in that ‘weapons shipment’.” Kaiden answered.
“Makes you wonder how many containers are full of the weapons the idiot hopes on selling.” Wrex said.
“Or if any of it is contraband.” Garrus added.
“Never thought about that. Anyway, go unpack the drinks on the table next to my workstation. I’ll go heat them up in a bit.” Kaiden instructed.
“Warm moonshine? Who the hell would want to drink that?” Wrex chided.
“It’s not exactly moonshine. It’s also a sugary drink that the Vikings—a Scandinavian group of ancient raiders and warriors—used to drink,” Kaiden explained.
“Huh. Maybe it won’t be so bad, then.”
Tali had had enough of this conversation, and headed up the starboard staircase to the Command Deck.
Sure enough, there was Joker groaning in his seat as Adams sat in the Forward-Port Point Defense Operator’s seat, explaining something regarding how “explosive static capacitor buildup was a factor to be considered” in their argument.
“Chief Adams?” Tali said, more unable to believe her eyes rather than a greeting.
“Taliiiiiii!” Adams said happily. “How’s my best engineer doing?”
“Oh! Well, thank you sir, but I-”
“Nonsense! You know this ship better than I do. Hey, hey, c’mere.” Adams said, curling his finger.
Unable to disobey an order, Tali cautiously took two steps forward and leaned in.
“Between you and me, I honestly think you should be Chief Engineer at this point.” He confided.
“What!? No! Sir, I couldn’t-…” Tali paused, realizing his drunken state might either lead him to make a mistake or at least not remember this interaction tomorrow. “Really?” She asked quietly.
He nodded sagely. “Yes, really. Never in all the ships I’ve served upon have I ever heard about let alone seen anyone as talented as you are.”
She couldn’t help but smile, her confidence momentarily boosted as her heart swelled with pride. “Thank you… Sir.”
“If you two are done having a moment, Shepard’s probably still looking for you and I’ve yet to explain why Adams is wrong.” Joker chimed in.
Turning around to face the CIC, Tali walked away with a smile. She made it halfway across the deck until she bumped into Ashley. “Heyyyyy you! You want somof my drink?” She offered.
“Oh. Um. No thank you, I-”
“Ohhh riiiiiiight! I forgot with that pretty little cloth of yours. ‘M sorry. You can’t drink my drink because of th’ germs, right?”
Tali nodded, unable to believe that Ashley, the most by-the-books soldier she had ever met, was drunk as well.
There was no way she had done that intentionally, right?
“Williams… Are you… drunk?” She asked cautiously.
“Whaaaat? Me? Nooo, there’s no way. I just had a little drink! And then another with Kaiden. And… then three more with Liara.”
Something about seeing the Gunnery Chief like this brought out a giggle from Tali. “So… is Shepard on a call or is he looking for me right now?” She asked.
“Call? No, he’s never had a call. God I wish he was, he’s wearing that old boot camp T-shirt that makes his pecs pop out so much and it’s hard to keep my eyes off him.” Ashley said.
Tali’s eyes widened. “You have a crush on the commander?”
“Mmmmm.... I kind of used to? I can’t tell if he was too dense to tell or if he turned me down.” She admitted. “I wouldn’t be mad if he had eyes for you though. You’re like a little sister to me, y’know that?”
Tali didn’t even know her eyes could widen any further. “I’m uh… going to go look for the Commander. Is that alright?”
“Mm-hmm. Hey, if you see Kaiden, can you let me know I’m looking for him? I miss looking at his cute little butt.” Ashley said with the beginnings of a grin almost as wide as a Cheshire cat.
Tali nodded slowly. “I’ll… do that.” She walked away, descending back down the starboard staircase. She rounded the corner and saw her Commander wearing a ridiculous looking hat made of red felt and white fur as he paced between the mess hall and the sleeping pod corridor with an uncharacteristically nervous glance being thrown around in every direction. All that melted away once he locked eyes with her.
“Tali!” Shepard greeted with a smile, making a beeline straight towards her.
Tali couldn’t help but smile back; her eyes turning into sideways crescents behind the mask.
“I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Oh?”
Shepard held out a box that was about 60 centimeters on all sides towards her. “Merry Christmas! I got you a present.”
“What!? N-No, I couldn’t possibly accept-”
“Tali.”
“I-I mean I could, but-”
“Tali.”
She took a deep breath and calmed down. “Yes?”
“The entire point of this holiday is to give things to others without expecting anything in return. Especially for people we care about.”
They both felt their faces flush with red.
“Erm… I mean I uh…” Shepard tried to take back awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed with his words for once.
“No! No, it’s ok! I… Thank you.” Tali said, her voice growing softer as she gingerly took the box from Shepard’s hands.
There was a moment of awkward silence between the two. Mostly Shepard, content with rubbing the back of his neck as Tali tried to distract herself from the implications of his statement by looking at the bizarre box wrapped entirely in a patterned paper.
“There’s no erm… How are you supposed to open this?” Tali asked.
“Huh? Oh! You uh, tear the paper off to reveal the box underneath. I don’t really know why we do it either. Mostly to keep the contents a surprise, I guess.”
“Hmmm.” She replied with a thoughtful nod, absolutely fixated on the box.
“...Normally you start with where the tape is- Hey, do you want to grab a drink together? Maybe head up to the comms room?” Shepard said, hopelessly attempting to salvage the situation as he pointed to Kaiden’s workstation with his thumb.
“With you? Of course.”
Tali and Shepard walked over to the table, him grabbing a drink and the two of them nearly grabbing the same glass. Him, more absentmindedly and her more distracted by his presence enough to almost forget the fact she’d need a more untraversed environment if she was to drink something without a lid.
“Oh! Shit, hold on,” Shepard said in alarm. He quickly jaunted across the room and opened his wall locker, grabbing a bag of what Tali knew was sterilized nutrient paste canisters by the rattle they made when he ran back over. “I had Officer Postle clean and refill these old containers you used with mead so you wouldn’t be left out,” he explained. Her heart melted over how considerate he always was to her; how he made accommodations yet somehow never treated her any differently than anyone else.
Shepard held out a canister for her and Tali grabbed a long tube-like straw from one of her many suit pockets. Sticking the self-proclaimed “emergency induction port” into the windowed tube, Tali clipped the beverage onto the lower of her two abdominal belts and followed Shepard upstairs.
The booze hit her empty stomach with a warm fuzzy feeling that comfortably rested at the bottom of her belly like a liquified rock. The feeling couldn’t compare with the time she spent with her commander, however. Despite how she always wanted to commit every treasured second with him to memory, she couldn’t help but notice the decor of an obese elderly human wearing a hat identical to the one Shepard wore plastered on top of the privacy wall reading “NORMANDY”.
Shepard noticed her quizzical stare and gave a chuckle. “That’s Santa. Or Saint Nick, depending on who you ask. In human folklore, he’s a man that travels the entire Earth in just one night delivering presents to all the children in the world.” He explained.
As the duo slipped behind the wall, the doors to the communications room opened and resting in the center sat a tree whose branches were covered in hundreds if not thousands of thin, green, needlelike leaves. Just to add to the absurd sudden decor, this tree was covered in lights, painted and blown glass orbs, and a human’s star-shaped decoration on the very top.
All Tali could do was gasp and marvel at the unexpected sight much like how all Shepard could do in the moment was stare at Tali’s mask with a smile and admire how all the colors shimmered, warped, and painted her purple biopolymer visor oh so vibrantly.
“It’s beautiful…” Shepard accidentally mused aloud.
Tali turned to look at him. “It is! Keelah, I could never even imagine seeing anything like this back on the fleet! Why is it here? Is this part of the tradition?”
“This…” Shepard said, gesturing to the beacon of holiday spirit, “is called a Christmas tree. People used to cut them down from forests just to put them in their homes for the month, but people mostly stopped doing that after First Contact. Not really sure why. There’s probably a lot of history behind it, but that’s never really been my forte. Maybe one day I’ll get to see a real one. Either way, I hear the fake ones like this smell almost as wonderful.”
Unable to fidget, Tali ever so slightly rocked from side to side. “To hell with it,” she thought to herself as she momentarily shut off her suit’s olfactory filters. The room had probably gone through enough air cycles to be clean enough and the area in general had seen criminally low foot traffic in Tali’s eyes considering the sight before her. She took a deep breath in through her nose and paused, savoring the registration her brain was processing.
Shepard couldn’t hold back the flash of the confused look he momentarily gave. He wasn’t a quarian, but he could tell from Tali’s body language that she might’ve done something risky with her suit.
“You…. You get to smell this every year?” She asked quietly.
“Not me, personally, but yes; most humans do.” His heart sank when he saw Tali’s eyes sink to the floor. “Hey! Why don’t you… open your present?” he quickly said, hoping the gift would be enough to distract her from the returning realization of her constant prison.
Tali nodded softly, sitting down in the seat Shepard offered her and trying to bury her feelings so she wouldn’t ruin the moment. Shepard took a seat next to her as he amusedly watched her fondle the box trying to look for a seam to try tearing into.
The sounds of tearing paper filled the air before that iconic sound of cardboard scraping against cardboard followed. Lifting the lid off of the box, there was a bounty of items before her. The first thing she grabbed was a Mk. VIII rail extension with frictionless materials made specially for her HMWSG shotgun—another gift she had gotten from Shepard months earlier right in front of a befuddled C-Sec requisitions officer. Tali smiled, reminiscing the memory of Shepard shutting down the racist bosh’tet’s objections.
Gifts #2 and 3 were a box of artisanal dextro chocolates and a small canister of decontamination gas. “I uh… saw it on the citadel and thought you might like to try some.” Shepard explained.
“The decontamination gas?” Tali joked.
“What? No! No no no no no! I mean the chocolates. I just got you the gas in case the airlock’s sterilization sequence wasn’t enough to act as a clean room for you.”
Tali wasn’t sure if the fuzzy feeling in her stomach was from the mead or him anymore. He’d gotten her this as a precaution despite already having planned a strategy for her to unmask long enough to eat something, and it proved how much he cared yet kept treating her like an equal.
“I was just pushing your leg but…” Tali tried to reassure, her ability to speak freezing up when she saw the Omni-tool worn by the generic human Specter display model now delivered to her in this box. Her fingers lightly traced over the engraving on the frame reading “HMOT - Master's Edition”.
“Shepard, this is… This is too much…” Tali said softly as her voice broke up.
“If you think that’s too much, wait until you see what the last three are.”
Tali’s eyes scanned the inside of the box. She tried lifting up the OSD at the bottom. Nothing. “Three?” She asked with a mix of confusion and curiosity, hoping the question didn’t sound selfish.
“Put your new Omni-tool on. The first gift I want you to see is on there.”
Tali delicately undid the straps and suit attachment lock, but practically tossed her archaic Omni-tool onto the ground once that was done. Donning the new one with a frenzied excitement. None of her files were on here, but who cared with the sheer number of new softwares, engineering tools, and virtual design suites on this? “All of these softwares… are for me?”
Shepard paused, awkwardly realizing that those may have meant more to her than the actual gift. “N-No… Those come standard. Check your photo album.” He felt reassured hearing her squeak.
“Is that… How did you even get a picture of this?”
Tali had been referring to the fact that she’d been given a photo of her staring at the Normandy for the first time.
“I mean you’re friends with a Specter, Tali. All I had to do was ask C-Sec for the security camera footage.” Shepard boasted. “Grab that OSD case out of the box.”
She did so, momentarily staring at it as a whirlwind of thoughts regarding the possibilities flooded her mind.
“You remember how you were injured and had to sit out the mission on Solcrum? And how I stumbled onto a hidden geth outpost on Casbin? Well, these two disks contain all the geth data I could carry back. You’ve done so much for us—for me—while on this mission I couldn’t help but give you a copy. Would this be a good pilgrimage gift for you to give?”
The dam broke, and Tali’s choked sniffs became a full-blown sob of joy. “Yes! Yes! Oh of course it is! Keelah, how could any gift even compare? How could I even repay you for this?”
“It’s Christmas, Tali. You don’t need to. And besides…” Shepard said, grabbing a refilled canister filled with a strange liquid out from the bag of mead, “This might be the most unique one of them all.”
Tali set down the OSD case on her lap and carefully took the container from him—holding it in her hands more carefully than if it was a newborn baby. “Thank you, but… I have no idea what this is.” She sheepishly admitted, looking at the bile yellow fluid with specks of grey through its window.
“Right, that one would need explaining…” Shepard said, rubbing his jaw. “I’ve uh… Been talking to some Salarian STGs for a while. Kirrahe helped me get my foot in the door after what you did to help save him and his unit’s lives back on Virmire. It’s an immuno-booster. I figured if you should have one of this caliber if you ever had a suit breach or if you ever find a special someone you ever want to link suits with.”
Tali couldn’t even cry anymore, let alone form the words for how much this act of thoughtfulness meant to h-
Wait, did he just say “link suits”? She’d remember if she’d accidentally mentioned that to him, right? Yes, yes she would. Because there wasn’t a way underneath Tikkun's distant shine she wouldn’t remember the way she was feeling as hot in her suit as she was right now. But on the other hand, there was no way that Shepard—her best and closest friend, a galactic council Specter, a walking talking piece of interspecies history, a paragon of virtue, her commander—felt the same way, right?
“Umm… Shepard? I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but the most intimate thing we can do with another person is to link our suit environments. We get sick at first, but we adapt to each other. It's our most important gesture of trust—of acceptance.” Tali took a deep breath and swallowed. It was the moment of truth, apparently and it was time to “face the music” as the humans say. “I haven't trusted anyone enough for that, though. Except… Well, no quarians. If you know what I mean.”
“I appreciate the thought, Tali, and I feel the same way.” Shepard said calmly.
“I know. Well, not t-that I know, but I-I didn't mean it like that. It's um... Wow, it's really hot in here. It's just that the tradition also signifies a willingness for u-u-um... Intimacy.” Tali let out a sigh. “I wasn't trying to... It's not always like that. It's more... Keelah, how did we even end up talking about this?”
Shepard saw her unspoken wish to fidget denied by the fact she currently held the two most valuable items in her entire life and decided to ground her by placing a hand on one of her shoulders. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Tali. I know what I said. I feel the same way about you.”
In that very moment, the universe stood still. In fact, everything outside of this room may as well have stopped existing and she wouldn’t have a care in the world. She bolted upright and lunged over to hug Shepard without a second thought. She didn’t even care when she heard the flimsy outer plastic OSD casing crack when her hand-crafted immuno-booster canister landed onto it.
“Really? I didn't kn-... Your cabin doesn’t have a lock override, right?” Tali asked.
“Yes, but-” Shepard answered before getting a finger pressed up against his lips.
“Shepard, I’ve wanted you more than you can possibly imagine. You alone are among my wildest fantasies of anything I could want in the entire galaxy. I’m going to your cabin, flushing it with the gas, and then I’m going to kiss you until this immuno-booster wears off.” Tali stated with a tone of authority that came with the confidence boost from her unexpected emotional high.
“And then we cuddle while you try your chocolates?” Shepard asked.
“And then we cuddle while we try my chocolates.”