Boy Meets Turian

A/N: Because I always play a female Ryder, I've had this headcanon that Sara is the super snarky, outgoing one while Scott is shy and a bit more serious – it would make him a good match for Avitus, and what's a better way for them to meet than through a cliché romance trope?

Hence this dumb little fic; it's something low-pressure that I could have some fun with between longer stories.

Anyways, I'm experimenting with significantly shorter chapters than my previous story, so expect new chapters every couple of days while I polish them up. Smut will be coming in chapter three!

Chapter One

Another day, another set of escape pods to track down.

Another day of Nexus politics to deal with.

Another argument with Addison about how the new turian colony should be set up.

Another day of expectations that he could never hope to fill.

Another day without Macen.

Those days and months had blurred together since Meridian, every mission and conversation merely amalgamating into the endless white noise of a life that had no real meaning. He had friends, of course. They sure as hell weren't enough of a reason to get up in the morning, but they helped him make it to the end of the day and that was the best he could ask for at times like this. Sara Ryder and the rest of the Pathfinders had become confidantes (as much as anyone could with their schedules), and he had made quick friends with Tiran and Kesh the same way everyone in Operations made friends – by bonding over a mutual hatred of Tann.

Yet it wasn't enough. It never really had been, he supposed. Back home - he couldn't think of Heleus as home yet - he played Spectre when he wanted to run away from being Macen's bondmate and played white picket fence when he wanted to run away from being Spectre Rix, Slayer of Mercs and Pain in the Councilors' Asses.

Right now, he was playing Pathfinder to run away from just about everything else in his life. Maybe it was commitment issues, maybe it was grief. Maybe it just came with the territory – it didn't matter much at the end of the day, anyways.

In the end, his time on the Nexus boiled down to a single schedule:

0800: Alarm goes off.

0800-0900: 6 snooze alarms go off.

0915: Dextro coffee. (Macen had a never-ending stock of what he called 'Sumatra blend'. Avitus thought it tasted disgusting, but grief does strange things to the taste buds.)

0925: Go back for a second cup. Sneak in a hit of Palaven whiskey if he has a meeting with Addison that day.

1000: Meetings, unfortunately.

1130: Hit the target range. Imagine the target is Tann's smug face.

1200: Head across the station to Ark Natanus and look at a datapad the whole time so no one will bother him.

That was how he bumped into the tiny human, who had been briskly making his way across the station in the opposite direction – unbeknownst to Avitus.

An armful of datapads spilled out of the human's grasp as he landed on his ass with a mix of surprise and indignation. Avitus, turian that he was, merely stumbled for a second and stared at the human sprawled out on the floor in front of him.

"Hey, watch where you're going," he loudly huffed.

When Avitus finished processing what had just unfolded, he reached a claw out towards the human, noticing the way his chestnut brown hair had been messed up and framed his face perfectl-

Okay Avi, get your head back in the game.

"You know, you really shouldn't talk to a Pathfinder that way. Something about respect and all that."

The human gave a sheepish look that Avitus couldn't quite decipher as he grabbed the claw and hoisted himself back up onto those toned thighs and-

Spirits, I'm not THAT desperate for a lay.

… I'm not, am I?

"Oh, sorry, I, uh… was a little distracted." Was he blushing? Avitus didn't know human mannerisms well, but he was pretty sure that the red cheeks meant he was blushing. "You're Pathfinder Rix, I take it?"

Avitus grinned, his mind relishing a nice break from the usual format. "Last time I checked my ID card, yeah."

"Well, uh… I'm Scott. Scott Ryder. Maybe you've heard of me?" Quieter, he muttered, "or maybe not, I guess."

Huh. It was strange seeing a Ryder that didn't have the presence of a rock star, but he certainly looked the part despite his apparent lack of charisma – he bore a striking resemblance both to his sister and to their father, who Avitus had met a few times before departing the Milky Way.

He reached down to pick up the datapads and handed them one after the other to the human – no, Scott – confidently.

"Scott, huh? You can just call me Avitus then. I've heard a lot about you from your sister."

Avitus was really starting to wish he had heard more, though.

When was Ryder planning to mention her brother is so cute?

He paused, scratching his fringe as he quickly reviewed all the information he had on Scott – it was an old Spectre habit that he had never been able to ditch. Age? He's a twin, so 24 like his sister. Combat role? An educated guess on Avitus' part landed Scott somewhere in the support category.

Soon, though, Avitus found himself subconsciously drifting to other questions. Gay? Bi? Pan? Avitus was pretty sure he had heard something about an ex-boyfriend from his sister, which was as good an omen as anything. Into turians? If Sara was any indication, hopefully.

Wait, shit. Back on track. Occupation? He was pretty sure that Scott had been in the Systems Alliance before. Rank? He was technically on the Pathfinder team, so pretty high.

"Wait, shouldn't you be off galivanting across Heleus with her?"

Scott crossed his arms and pouted. "I should, but a certain someone has been using every excuse she can to avoid coming back to the Nexus ever since Harry cleared me for duty. She thinks being born a minute before me makes her my protector," he groaned.

Avitus simply laughed and casually leaned against a nearby column.

"You can't blame her too much. Wouldn't want to ruin that pretty face of yours, would we?"

Wait, did I just say that out loud?

Now Avitus knew Scott was blushing, and he blushed a light blue himself when he heard the words leave his mouth. The human fidgeted with his hands and looked down at the floor as if he saw the most interesting thing in the world.

Truth be told, he did have a bit of a baby-face, though a light smattering of facial hair helped him to look his age. Avitus towered over him, but he was well-toned regardless - the skin-tight Initiative outfit Scott wore made that abundantly clear. Avitus hazarded a guess that Scott had been hitting the gym particularly hard to make up for his time spent on the hospital bed in Ark Hyperion.

Thinking about it, Avitus spoke up once again: "Of course, it probably doesn't help that Vetra's maternal instincts have been rubbing off on her."

"Oh god, don't get me started on them," Scott huffed. "Vetra is definitely encouraging her, probably because she hasn't seen me in the field before. I'll have her know I make a damn good sentinel."

"A sentinel, huh? Don't see many of those around." Sentinels had a poor reputation in the turian military, owing to the fact that biotics were distrusted and engineers were viewed as weak by many soldiers. Combine those facts together and anyone could tell why sentinels weren't common in many of the militaries back in the Milky Way. Of course, the things that drew them away from military life drew them toward recon work with groups like Blackwatch and the Spectres.

Macen had been a Blackwatch sentinel.

That's okay, it's not like I wanted to enjoy this conversation. That's just fucking fine.

Scott shrugged. "It's not as glamorous as other work, but I like being able to help others out and hold ground. Works for me, you know?"

"Yeah, I understand," Avitus mumbled. His confidence had come crashing down in an instant and he felt guilty when Scott's expression became one of confusion.

When he saw seen this human, he had instantly begun eyeing him up and flirting, so eager to find some companionship and stave off the loneliness that it felt pathetic. He should still be mourning Macen, shouldn't he?

"Sorry, I should, uh, get going. I have a… thing to do." Avitus turned around, neck flushed blue, and began to walk away before he made an idiot of himself. Par for the course.

When he had walked all the way across the room, though, he began rethinking what he was doing. Should he be mourning Macen after all this time? He would have wanted Avitus to not be alone. And this human, Scott… he was cute.

Avitus was sick of not doing anything for himself, and for once he wasn't about to let his grief get in the way of his happiness. Fuck it.

He stopped in an instant and turned around to walk back to Scott, who was still standing in the middle of the hallway with a befuddled expression, scratching his head.

"Would you want to get a drink later today? Maybe get to know each other a bit?"

Maybe he'd regret this – he stared at Ryder hopefully, trying to determine whether or not that would be the case. He still didn't even know for certain whether not this person even liked turians, and one ex-boyfriend wasn't proof that Scott was still interested in men.

Hell, my life is just a string of bad decisions. What's one more?

"I… I'd like that, I think. I mean, I would," Scott stumbled over his words. "That sounds like fun. What time?" He had a goofy grin that he was clearly trying and failing to hide, and his hands were tangled up together at his waist as if he was fidgeting.

Avitus hadn't expected that kind of a response – maybe it was a good idea after all. He perked up, adjusting his posture to be more confident, and let his subvocals take over to indicate suggestiveness.

"2100. I'll be at the bar – first round is on me."

Scott, a smile still plastered across his face, began to walk to wherever he had been going in the first place – but not before shouting back, "you drive a tough bargain, Avitus, deal!"

Huh. Maybe I'll need to toss out that schedule for once.