Bailie and Jeff debate comic hero powers. - @virusq
The orange lights on Tactical's display blurred together into a hazy line. Blinking sleepily, Shepard pressed her palms to the heat between her hands, a sealed tumbler full of coffee clutched in her lap. She sank back into the big, bulky chair, usually vacant in the cockpit. Joker was right, the leather on these things was butter smooth. A long, soft sigh escaped her. Everything hurt. The exhaustion was an ache living deep inside her bones, yet still she couldn't sleep. If it wasn't the dreams, it was the duty.
Joker sat a ways off to her left, in his usual and rightful place at the helm. He was staring intently at his displays, occasionally tapping out something with astonishing speed. Every once in a while, he'd smile at whatever he was reading. In those instances the light would catch him in a particular way, framed in the holopanes and surrounded by stars dragging on by. These were the kinds of moments no holo could capture. Comfortable silence.
She swiveled the latch on her tumbler and brought the coffee to her lips.
He focused on her with laser-like intensity. "Hey, you can't have that up here," he said, although it was more of a complaint than an instruction.
"Mmm, I know," she replied. Vanilla roast. The good stuff.
"Look, we lose grav and that stuff blorps out everywhere, it'll get into everything, cause all this sensitive stuff to short out and then bam, we lose life support. Turning us all into meat popsicles wouldn't be your best command decision."
"It has a lid," she said, holding it up and closing it with a click. The way he narrowed his eyes at her made smile. He was too much fun to wind up.
"I thought you went to flight school? That's like day one stuff," he grumbled.
"I remember on day one reading that beard hairs can detach and get into the console." She tapped her finger against the cup. "Technically speaking, you know," she continued, going for another sip, "your face oughtta be smooth as a baby's butt."
He tugged sharply on the bill of his cap. "Pfft, yeah, don't threaten me. You're bluffing. You know how I know?"
"How's that?"
He shot her the kind of grin that made little butterflies in her belly take wing. "I know you think it looks good."
She shook her head and smiled. "The urge to issue orders right now is almost overpowering."
"That would be a flagrant abuse of authority," he sniffed.
"Hmm," she said, crossing one leg over the other. "You didn't seem to think it was a flagrant abuse of authority when I ordered Miranda to stop snooping on your extranet activity."
"Well, I-"
"Or when I let you write off that holovid array as a business expense."
"Yeah, but-"
"Or when I ordered Gardner make you a different curry because you hate coconut so much."
"It's an allergy!"
"No, it isn't." She sipped again. His frown was adorable. "I trust you not to get beard in the console. You can trust me to shut this lid if we lose grav," she said and winked. "Besides, you're just jealous that I have one and you're not due off for another three hours."
"Stop being so right all the time, it's annoying. It's like your superpower or something."
"Right all the time and annoying? I don't know. I can think of a few people who have that market cornered," she laughed. "Though if we're talking what superpowers we have, I think you have too many to name."
He paused, the ghost of what might have been a warm smile flickering across his features. "Anyways, you're not supposed to say something nice. You're supposed to say how mine is I have a deplorable excess of personality or whatever."
"Hey, you went there, not me." Shepard smiled. Trading jabs was fun, but glimpses of the softness he was almost open with was where it was really at. It was amazing, really, the ability he had to ease away some of her soreness. All it really took was a laugh, a shared look, a flash of genuine affection in his smile and she forgot how much she hurt. Everything was just easier around him. Some tension melted away from her shoulders.
"If you could choose, what superpower would you have?" he asked. "And don't cheat and say to just think the Reapers out of existence. Everyone wishes for that."
Shepard pressed her lip to the coffee lid in thought. "Regeneration, I think," she said after a moment. "Just keep going, no matter how much damage I take."
"You already kinda have that one," he said with a grin. "Try again."
"Well, with regeneration I'd stay young forever," she added, making sure to bat her eyelashes exaggeratedly. "Give an asari a run for her money."
Joker shrugged. "You haven't aged a day since I've known you. I mean, let's not get technical and count the reasons why. Just take it as a statement of fact and move on." He turned back to his viewscreen, scrolling lazily through whatever he was looking at, leaning on his elbow closest to her. "I guess mine's obvious."
"Flight?" She asked. "You've already got that."
"Yeah, I was gonna say 'be irresistible to women,' but you know. Then I figured, damn, already got that too."
Shepard swigged the last of her coffee. "Ugh, don't say what we both know out loud like that. Cheapens it."
He paused in his scrolling and looked off out the window. The smile in his voice was clear as he said, "You know, sometimes you make it really hard to keep it professional when we're at work."
"Oh, is that what we were doing?" She chuckled. "Apologies, then, Flight Lieutenant Moreau. As you were."
"Okay, okay. I think the power I'd have is the ability to manifest coffee whenever I want." He said and stretched his arms in front of him.
"Again with these things you can already do," she said as she lifted herself up out of the seat. She folded her arms. "How do you take it?"