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"Yeah, okay, you get back here before your lungs get any soggier."

"...Please don't ask me about the stupid relays. Hiddekel is off a branch relay in Pirate country. If I let myself worry about it I'm going to puke." She fiddled with the mug. "Yeah, Azure said he didn't want drell clients...I guess since he wants a drell partner, and they're fucking rare on Omega?"

"Is that something that would bug you? Raising kids with no other drell around? Everyone on the Citadel is a young, in transit person..."

"Ah, well I guess that's one way to draw the line." He nodded, "he probably could afford it. His choice."

The question surprised Hadas, he hadn't even thought about it. "Well... yes and no, like I don't mind having my kids live here, I lived here and I turned out... all rightish. On the other hand, its lonely at times. So I guess what I'm saying is I would like them to grow-up on the Citadel until they're like 10 then maybe find someplace where they can meet others of their age... I dunno, I heard that some people want to try and settle on Earth, a little commune in the desert, humans don't use it anyway so it shouldn't be that difficult to set up but you know how territorial they can be. If they succeed, maybe we could settle there and commute to the Citadel."

He smirked, "but you know, that's still a bit off."

"I think it's kind of sweet."

"I don't want my kids to be the only drell in the class, with teachers who let them coast." She inspected the backs of her hands. "...You had a baby with that woman."

"I know, but I was talking of our children," he smiled, "I, okay it sounds disparaging to the child but it's not. It's not really mine, it's clear she wants me to be part of his life but not as the 'father' just as the guy who has a stake in it and I'm thankful for that, but the child is hers and her husband's. My role is secondary at best. When I talk of having kids it means more than just have a copy of half my genome walking around. That's the least of it. It means getting talking about a name, help it guide it as it takes its first steps, not needing a photo because I was there when it gets born. That kind of thing."

"I know I'm getting all tangled-up here, and sound like a horrible, possessive person. But I hope you understand what I'm getting at. Like if you and Azure had a kid and I would help raise it day in, day out, imparting some of my values and sensibilities, that kid would be more mine than the child 'that woman' had with me. DNA matters so little in the scheme of things."

"You don't sound horrible. I know it's theirs, it's just...it's stupid. It like, hurt my feelings that you were...I don't know that you had unprotected sex with her without asking me. I didn't think that was the deal. I certainly don't do that. We haven't established our family yet."

"...I feel like I'm always waiting, until you come back, until I finish school, until the relays come up or someone notices my work and I get a full time job. I don't even know what I'm waiting for, I just want it all now, you know?"

"I know it doesn't actually work like that, nothing's replaceable, I've seen what happens when people act like careless tools. On the other hand, it's not like I'm going to be a Spectre."

"I used condoms I'm sure of that," he said, "but things get woozy," he added sheepishly. "I'm sorry... I was dumb, giddy, careless and drunk on whatever concoction Rammoth served us. I shouldn't have agreed to join them at their camp to celebrate."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting it all, you just need to be smart about it, once I'm on the Citadel we should have a long talk about it, face to face, we'll talk about kids, and your career and where we'll live and whether we want extra rooms for our guests. So we get our lives together, set goals and stuff."

"...It was fun. Get an implant, you wuss."

And of course, she was tempted to launch into all of it now. But Kayana swallowed the lump in her throat and said. "Yeah. That sounds good."

Hadas didn't argue it, mostly because he was a wuss when it came to doctors.

"We should also talk about holding a wedding reception well multiple ones, one for the our friends and stuff, and one for the community."

She perked up. "...Traditional dress?"

"Like, real traditional dress. Where you're actually dressed?"

"Yes full traditional dress, for both of us, so can strut our stuff." He smirked, "hmm, you know, this might sound like a flight of fancy but. I think we might be able to hold the one for our friends and family on Earth. Get some big tents, plop them up in the middle of the desert and everyone who's invited can come over on a charted ship."

"Should be doable, we'll need to run the numbers, but yeah, I think we should explore the possibility."

"Hadas, you ahh...you get that we are the only species that enjoys standing around at high noon in the desert? If we drag the aliens out there they'll want us dead."

"Hold a potluck on the Citadel, and a purification ceremony on Earth. We can make our wedding celebrations a part of that.."[/color]

"The turians wouldn't complain..." He sounded reproachful, "and it's a dry heat. But your idea sounds fine too, only less, adventurous..."

"Turians means bringing completely double food and cooking supplies. Like, down to the serving spoons. More to the point, Vindi is obscenely busy, and Harrad has a weak leg, thrashed lungs and a kid in school."

"I'm not trying to wreck your fun. But yeah, weddings are for the community. And if I'm going to have ceremony I'm kind of happy to have it without having to explain it to a bunch of hot itchy aliens who don't care. "

"Yeah, yeah," he waived his hand dismissively, "you're making sense. But I'm not happy with the potluck idea."

"I don't feel it. It just sounds and feels so... cheap."

"Exactly, Hadas, I have no money. I blew through an extra two months expenses getting Pickle fixed up, she grew like two inches eating all my food. Why do you think I'm crawling the walls about this grant?"

After a minutes pouting she smiled. "...You're the one who draws the salary. You decide how to spend it."

"It's our wedding, so we decide together. I think we can hold it at the temple, and maybe we can order the dextro food from Vindi, I hear she's a good cook."

"We've also have to decide where we should live, I know you love your place but my place is bigger and nicer."

"Well it has potential to be nicer." Hadas added after considering that while it was bigger, he had not really moved in as such, having been travelling and spending his time on Kahje.

"I want to be serving food to Vindi, not chaining her to the stove. But we can discuss that when you get here..."

"Your place. The location's not horrifically inconvenient, and we'll need a second bedroom for one reason or the other. Besides, my neighbor keeps trying to get me writ up for 'causing a disturbance'."

Practicing martial arts in the living room, drum-heavy traditional music, yelling at the screen while reading CDN...

Hadas chuckled, "well there's not much danger for that," the place was on the third floor of a large terraced building, build against one of the larger and oldest arcologies of the Citadel. It stood above one of the larger commercial promenades leading to the giant structure, with a never-ending street market, with stalls and shops opening and closing at all hours of the day. It was loud but inside it was bearable.

There had been no way in world that Hadas could have afforded the place if it wasn't for the collapse of the Citadel real-estate bubble. Just after the war there was a high demand for living space on the Citadel. Prices skyrocketed and for the then con man it was easy to sell stuff he might not technically been the owner of, very easy even as the lease registry office had been turned to ash by the Reapers.

Of course the best part (at least for Hadas) was when life-support began to restored to large parts of the Citadel, suddenly there was more than enough room for everyone, prices tumbled, especially for places in less than premium locations. Like an apartment near an arcology, with a permanent street market going on.

"We've got all the rooms we can want, so why not just turn two into guestrooms, I can always move some of my old stuff past the door we need even more room." if you opened what looked like an out of place door you got into the archology, a small section had been 'lost' and was now only accessible by the apartment, for all intends and purposes it was included in his lease. He had talked to his neighbors and found many of them had similar access points, although none of them were as confident in exploring it as he had been.

"Do you want me to go in and clean it before you get here?" She yawned.

"Nah, it shouldn't need cleaning, I've set one of those cleaning drones up, and I've been there like three weeks ago. But I wouldn't mind if you picked up some groceries, some fresh fruit and cold-cuts would be nice." Hadas instinctively went for an energy bar.

"If you need some credits I can wire some over."