Chapter Text
November 2204
“Target is in sight, El,” said the diminutive human teenager into the comms on the omnitool on her right arm. Her blue eyes were locked on the adolescent asari across the plaza, who was engaged in a close-up conversation with a teenage male human of some indeterminate origin.
“Copy that, AK. Looks like that gross meathead she’s with is going in for the grope. It’s time to send in the kid,” came the reply over her comms. Annika’s lip twitched in conjunction with a raised, bright red eyebrow in an unconscious mirror of her mother’s very similar expression; generally it was the one that indicated impending doom. Her other hand was holding firmly to that of a smallish turian boy who despite being five years her junior was almost as tall as she was, and she was not shy about being annoyed about that.
“Damian, you remember what we talked about, right?” she asked the little turian.
“Yep. Go to Gisele. Tell her it’s her watch. Hold her hand and don’t let go,” he said dutifully, his eyes shining with adoration for his older sister. “Also, that I have credits for ice cream.” Annika rewarded him with a smile.
“Good boy. And?”
“Don’t tell mom and dad,” he said with a nod. She kept smiling.
“Perfect,” she said, her eyes darting to the asari and back to her brother. “Alright-- you’re on in three, two--”
“Annika, why shouldn’t I tell mom and dad?” he asked. “Dad says you should always tell the truth, even when it’s hard to do and you’re afraid Mom will give you that look she gives you. That one! The one you’re giving me right now.”
Annika realized that she had narrowed her eyes at Damian and was already standing hipshot, knowing that’s exactly what their mom looked like when she was about to chew you out, and didn’t want to think about what that meant.
“...Because we’re just having a fun game with Gisele and it’s no big deal,” she improvised. “They won’t care about it by the time they get home anyway.”
“Oh,” he said. “Ok.”
Annika patted his shoulder. “Go on. It’ll be fun.”
“Ok, bye then,” he said, and wandered off into the sparsely populated courtyard of Apollo’s Cafe, making a beeline for the asari girl.
“We’ve got a lock,” Annika murmured into her omnitool, watching as the boy ran up to Gisele and hugged her enthusiastically. The asari hugged him back, while scanning the crowd around over his head, and Annika knew the moment he delivered his lines when her smile turned into a frown, and she mouthed a word that looked suspiciously like Annika’s name.
“Scoped and dropped. Meet me at the rendezvous,” Annika said with a grin and dashed off across the terrace. She took the stairs up two at a time, quite a feat for someone who had barely broken five feet in height, and dashed down the walkway around a C-Sec officer that muttered, “Walk!” with little to no actual shits given. As she turned the corner to the elevators, Annika nearly collided head on with another, slightly taller, teenage girl in cargo pants and a tank top bearing the logo for some band or another that would have been right at home on earth of two hundred years past. Her chestnut hair was dyed through with bright pink streaks and she was grinning madly.
“We’re free, biiiiiitch!” she said, holding drawing out the ‘i’ sound as she held a hand up for a high five. “Let’s go find something interesting to do.”
Annika met the high five and laughed hard, flushed with victory and rebellion. “Hell yeah,” she agreed and Eleanor quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Whoa, now, AK. First you ditch your responsibilities, and now you’re swearing?” Annika looked a little embarrassed, but Eleanor only whistled low. “I mean, I figured we should probably start slow today, but you’re catching on pretty quick.”
Both their omnitools began pinging a call from one Gisele T’Soni, and they exchanged a look. Annika hit ‘ignore’, but Eleanor responded with a brief vid message that consisted of a hastily-cobbled-together clip of Annika saying “Hell Yeah” over an animated cartoon varren humping an omnitool.
“El, wait-- what is that?!” said Annika as she saw it briefly flash past, but Eleanor had already snapped it shut and grabbed her forearm.
“Let’s get out of here and down to the Wards.”
###
“I can’t believe you,” said her mother with that tone, standing… hipshot with her jaw set just the way Annika had imagined her earlier that day. Her father stood arms crossed, his large frame taking up most of the doorway behind her mother, as though he were lying in wait to be Good Cop-- which to be fair was generally their shtick. “What were you thinking?”
“That I’m thirteen years old and I’m tired of being the default babysitter!” Annika shouted at her, going from zero to raging beast at lightspeed. “I just wanted to go have fun today and instead I got put on baby duty and it’s not fucking fair.”
“Watch your language, young lady,” said her father from the doorway, his tone mild but warning.
“You still have responsibilities to this family,” said her mother. “Responsibilities to your brother that you don’t get to pawn off on someone else just because you want to hare off with Eleanor.”
“Who said anything about El?” said Annika, loathe to give up her co-conspirator.
“The bad dye job and the newly-pierced eyebrow, maybe? Because god help the dumbass that decided to mutilate my minor child without parental consent, but I imagine if anyone would know someone dumb enough, it’d be Eleanor.”
“That’s so unfair! It’s my hair! And this isn’t about you!”
“She’s got a point though, pumpkin,” said her dad, and Annika lost it.
“STOP TREATING ME LIKE A LITTLE KID!” she cried, her hands and forearms glowing blue with static electricity as she gestured emphatically with balled-up fists.
“Then stop acting like one,” said her mother calmly.
“Well maybe you should have sent me to Grandpa instead of sending my baby sister!” Annika growled and swept her arm in a violent arc, sending a sofa cushion smashing into the wall and exploding in foam bits.
“Good choice with the pillow,” said her dad, lazily. “I always hated that pattern.”
Annika had been at the point of crying in frustration, and yet, she couldn’t help a small snort at her father’s antics. Especially when her mother turned slowly on her heel to fix him with a baleful glare that said he was next on her shitlist.
“It’s just not fair,” she said in a shaky voice.
“What’s not fair?” said her mother. “That you have everything you could possibly need or want and all you have to do in return is not be a fuckup and watch your brother for two weeks?” Her dad stepped up and set a hand on her mom’s shoulder just as Annika’s eyes widened, a sure sign of an impending explosion.
“What your mother is trying to say is that if you have a problem with your responsibilities, you need to negotiate them, not ditch them. You still have to contribute, but we’re not unreasonable. And you’ve spent every other break with grandpa for the last three years.” Annika was glaring at her mother, who in turn was glaring at the three-fingered hand on her shoulder while her father calmly added, “We do love you, you know.”
“Do you?” Annika bit off, even though she knew in her heart that was totally unreasonable. “Is that what you call this?”
“Yeah, actually,” her mother sighed, tired. “Just-- go to your room. We’ll settle this later.”
Annika made a disgusted noise and stomped her way up the stairs.
“Think the Hierarchy will take her early?” Shepard muttered to Garrus as he leaned over and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“Nope. You wouldn’t let her go anyway,” he rumbled in her ear.
“I wouldn’t,” Shepard agreed. “Nor will I send her to Wrex or sell her to the Shadow Broker. I worked too hard for that kid to give up now.”
“I’m partial to her myself,” said Garrus. “She reminds me of my favorite person in the galaxy.”
“Shuddup,” Shepard said with no heat whatsoever.
“No really, the resemblance is uncanny,” he said. She smacked at the side of his head.
“Then go do that magic,” she wriggled her fingers, “where you convince an angry biotic redhead not to kill all the things.” Garrus kissed the top of her head.
“I’m on it.”
###
“Annika!” her brother whispered as Annika stomped past his door.
“What?!” she answered, angry and embarrassed and ready to turn it all on her pesky, tattling little brother.
“I’m sorry you got in trouble because of me,” he said earnestly. “Gisele was super nice like always, and I bought her ice cream like you said to, but then she called mom anyway.”
Annika was trying hard to stay mad at the brat, but he looked so pathetic standing there in his doorway as though this were all his fault.
“Maybe tomorrow you can just leave me here?” he said. “I can watch vids and build models, and I won’t tell, I promise.”
“I’m not--” She looked hard at him, her anger dissipating almost entirely into feeling like a total pile of varren vomit. “I’m not leaving you alone, booger,” she said with a sigh. “I just needed a break today.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, looking down at his bare, shuffling, taloned feet. “I think your hair looks pretty all black.”
“Hey,” she said. “Hey, c’mere.” He cautiously trudged up to where she stood in the hallway, still looking down, and she put her arms around him. “You were totally safe with Gisele, but I shouldn’t have left you. Shepard-Vakarians stick together, alright? Even if you’re my annoying baby brother. So don’t apologize.”
“I love you, Annika,” he said without reservation, and she was powerless to resist him.
“Me too, booger,” she answered, then straightened up. “Go do something fun. I’mma go break stuff.”
“K,” he said with a shrug and slipped back into his room.
Surprisingly stealthy for a nearly-seven-foot-tall turian, Garrus waited on the stairs until Damian’s door was shut before closing the distance between himself and his eldest child.
“Damian thinks that the galaxy rises and sets around you, you know,” Garrus rumbled quietly. Annika froze in place, shoulders set in a guilty half-hunch. “Which of course you know, because you used to carry him around and tell people he was your pet brother.”
“Daaaad,” she said. “Can we not?”
“You’re the eldest, Annika,” Garrus said. “It’s your job not to kill your siblings, and set an example by not making your mother’s head explode. Which sounds crazy, I know, because I was an eldest and look where it got me.” Annika rolled her eyes at him.
“I”m not going to give you the turian familial responsibility speech. You know it well enough.” she watched him with some surprise; that’s exactly what she had been waiting for. Instead her father half-crouched to look her in the eye as he settled a hand on her shoulder. “I’m just going to remind you that whenever you want to be pissed off at a thing, we can go to the range and I will let you shoot the crap out of anything and everything until you’re done. Hell, I’ll even teach you to shoot the Mantis once you can hold the thing up.”
“And the Widow?!” she said excitedly, forgetting for a moment to be angry.
“Yeah, no. Nice try though,” he said. “My point is that you’re right. It’s not fair. You didn’t get a say in your birth order, and you’re stuck being the responsible one. Damian as the youngest will apparently never do any wrong, and Lauren gets to sit in the middle and be jealous of both of you. But it’s your job to be the leader and the example, and if you’re going to do a thing, you need to do it right. Not for anyone’s sake but your own.”
Annika looked down and muttered, “That was kind of the turian responsibility speech, dad.” Still, she wrapped her arms around him and held on tight.
“I guess it kind of was,” he agreed, hugging back. “I must be getting old.” After another minute, he patted her shoulder. “Go on. I’ll ping you for dinner, alright?”
With that, she felt lighter, if not less stupid. Annika still shoved the door to her room open, peeved and faintly embarrassed, only to have her scowl melt into confusion and then a huge grin.
“K-Shep?” she said incredulous and giddy at the same time. A gangly, extremely young krogan in street clothes sat cross-legged with a book in the middle of Lauren’s bed. She looked up and grinned hugely right back.
“Hi! Mom and Dad sent me!”
“K-Shep!” Annika yelled and barrelled into the krogan who was just beginning to unbend her legs and sit up, sending them both flopping back onto the bed in a laughing pile of adolescent limbs.
“It’s just ‘Shepard’,” said the krogan, trying to sit up again.
“Not around here,” said Annika, still laughing. “Too many Shepards. We have to be specific.”
“There are Shepards everywhere, it’s true,” agreed the krogan. Even on the Citadel, most krogans were armored at all times, but this girl was wearing what looked almost like earth civvies, the top somehow altered to zip around the still relatively small hump of her back. “My parents were perhaps a bit enthusiastic in honoring Auntie.”
“Yes, but here ‘Shepard’ is just ‘mom’, and so, you’re K-Shep,” said Annika. The krogan girl made a face and shrugged.
“That, um. Sounds really dumb out loud. Dad calls me ‘Vhorr’?”
“What’s that mean?” Annika asked.
“It’s um. A thresher maw grub,” said the krogan girl. “It’s kind of gross, and a little weird, since I am literally the last krogan that wants to fight one. I’d rather design a temple for one or something. Anyway, Mordin’s the one busy learning to kill things, so it’s clearly my job to continue to buck our namesakes.”
“If you’re gonna do a job, do it right, I guess,” Annika shrugged as she half-quoted her dad. “If you say so. Vhorr, then?”
“Vhorr,” she agreed, correcting the ‘r’ sound a little.
“Awesome.”
Annika’s omnitool pinged with a message from her dad.
from the squealing, I’d say you found your surprise?
She ignored it. “I can’t believe they didn’t tell me you were coming. Jerks!”
“Don’t be mad. It was supposed to be a surprise,” said Vhorr. “Mom and Dad want me to go to school here on the Citadel, and Shep-- your mom and dad said I was welcome here. That’s pretty much it.”
“Wait-- you’re staying?” said Annika with a bounce. “That’s so great!”
“Maybe,” said Vhorr. “I’m visiting. I haven’t made up my mind.”
“The Citadel has the best engineering schools,” said Annika, in a wheedling tone. “For um. Schools that have been reconstructed in the last fifteen years.”
“So does Palaven for that matter, but dad’s not sure about sending me out there alone. Dad, um. Doesn’t think I can take care of myself,” Vhorr said with a shrug. “I guess he’s not wrong. But he and mom figure if I go here, at least I’ll survive long enough to learn things.”
“Ugh. That’s true,” agreed Annika. “Nothing interesting will happen to you with mom and dad on duty.” She sighed. “Lauren’s on Palaven now. Can you believe she’s palling around with grandpa and Aunt Sol while I’m stuck here babysitting for the rest of the school break? So lame.”
“I heard,” said Vhorr with an arched eyebrow.
“Oh god, not you, too.”
“I like your eyebrow, though.”
Annika made a disgusted sound and threw herself dramatically backwards onto the bed. Her omnitool pinged again and she rolled her eyes as she checked it.
EL: hey, assbutt. heard you got busted hard.
AK: jerk. Gisele called mom.
EL: I know. she messaged me first and said she was gonna
AK: why didn’t you stop her?
EL: ...it was more fun to rile her all up?
AK: dammit el
EL: kidding. tried. failed. sent her more humping varrens. she told my mom, too.
AK: crap
EL: yeaaah. no proof i was involved though lol.
EL: feels bad tho. her and jack are fighting over ‘bad influences’. i’m like, i’ll just be over here hacking your terminal, mothership
AK: crap. sorry
EL: it’s fine. they’ll get naked and get over it.
AK: ewwww
EL: what they’re adults. you don’t think you parents get nasty on the regular?
AK: I HEAR MY MOTHER CALLING AND I HAVE TO GO
EL: she’s probably naked. give her a minute
AK: I hate you
EL: so, again tomorrow?
AK: can’t. babysitting. K-Shep’s here though!!!
EL: fucking sweet. i’ll come over there, then. we’ll legit study or something.
AK: no we won’t
EL: no we won’t, but it’s cool we’ll think of something. tell her i said hey
“Eleanor says ‘hi’,” Annika said to Vhorr. Vhorr waved awkwardly.
AK: she says hi back. should we invite gisele
EL: she’s probably pissed.
AK: probably. anyway going
EL: smell you later
AK: plzno
Annika exhaled as though exhausted. “Best worst day ever,” she said. “I’m kind of an asshole, but I had a bunch of fun, my best krogan is here and mom did not kill me. And dad says I can shoot the Mantis if I can hold it. Pfft. I can totally hold it.”
“My mother would have headbutted me into next week for that kind of disobedience.” Vhorr said thoughtfully, tilting her head at Annika. “I guess. I mean, we’re generally allowed to whatever mostly, so it wouldn’t have been about my brothers or something.” She shrugged. “You’re just lucky.”
“I guess,” Annika allowed.
“It wouldn’t be so bad to stay here,” said Vhorr, looking around the room.
“It would be the best!” said Annika. “I mean, Lauren will be back in two weeks and you would probably get roped into family responsibilities and whatever, but.” Annika grinnned. “We would have fun!”
“Uh huh,” said Vhorr.
###