Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all related concepts and characters belong to Bioware; I'm just playing in their sandbox.
Series: Downtime
Notes: Tali is my most favorite squadmate (right up there with Garrus), so I was especially nervous while writing this because I really wanted to do Tali justice. Turned out a touch more angsty than I intended, but it didn't end up taking over, so I'm content with that.

The new Normandy ran just as quietly as her predecessor did, and after two years back in the Flotilla, Tali had to readjust again to living on a ship without the pervasive hum of engines and the rattle of life support systems. At least she was acclimating faster than last time, even if it was to a Cerberus ship.

(No, not a Cerberus ship. It's Shepard's ship, even if it did have that awful yellow logo painted on the hull.)

Still, there were some nights where the silence was too heavy and sleep just wouldn't come. On those nights, rather than toss and turn (and grumble highly inappropriate phrases she had learned from both the Fleet Marines and Shepard that her mother would have been horrified to hear), Tali would get up and quietly head down to the hangar where the sounds of the Normandy's large cooling fans reminded her of the comforting hum of the Neema. Once in the hangar, she'd climb to the top of one of the taller stacks of crates (just like she did in the cargo holds of the Rayya after she'd received her first enviro-suit) and make herself comfortable.

Sometimes she would tinker with Chiktikka vas Paus, making repairs or improving the combat drone's performance as needed. (And she did not coo at it like Shepard did with her sniper rifles. Tali had some dignity left.) Sometimes she read: news articles, a novel Shepard or Kasumi had recommended, the latest issue of The Technology Interface Journal or Galactic Mechanics. Other times she wrote letters to Kal'Reegar and Veetor to ask how they were doing and what was the latest scuttlebutt going around the Flotilla.

Most of the time Tali planned out what she wanted her house to be like if – when – the quarians reclaimed the homeworld. Her father couldn't do it for her; he broke that promise when he began activating geth aboard the Alarei. (She hated him for that, just a little bit, and she wanted to scream and rage at his betrayal of her and all the quarians believed in, but she wouldn't because he wasn't worth the effort, not anymore.) Serving under Shepard, however, had taught her to persevere even when the rest of the universe had disappointed her, so she built her dream home on her omni-tool and in her mind.

Tonight, with the Normandy humming soothingly around her, Tali focused on constructing her bedroom.

First and most importantly, her bedroom would be a clean room. She might have to wear an enviro-suit on the rest of the homeworld, but in the comfort and privacy of her own home she wanted to do without the thing whenever possible.

So.

Hardwood walls and flooring, perhaps? It'd be more difficult to create a seal for a clean room that was primarily wood rather than some prefabricated material, but it'd be easier than the natural stone she wanted the house to be built from, and it could be done. Tali made a note on her omni-tool to research easily-maintained types of wood later, thought a moment, and added a stipulation for anything that naturally came in a pale gold tint.

The bed was going to be large, no question about that. No more sleeping on a cramped cot or bunk, not on the homeworld! More wood for use in the frame – in a darker tone than the walls and floors. Lavender sheets for the mattress and a dark violet comforter; sheets and comforter both would need to be made from something that was soft and easily cleaned. Maybe something similar to – what was it that humans used? Cotton? Oh, and lots of pillows, in violet and blue and gold! Mother had practiced embroidery in her spare time and Tali still had a few of the pillows she had made years ago. Those would be perfect.

She wanted plush rugs for the floor, with geometric patterns. A tapestry or two for the walls, maybe framing the windows (difficult, but not impossible to install in a clean room, and it would be glorious to wake up in the morning with the feeling of sun on her skin), and some paintings, too: perhaps a reproduction of that "Starry Night" piece Kasumi had shown her in an art book last week. She'd need a desk, too, come to think of it, for an extranet port and as a place to put pictures of her friends – wooden, again, made to match the bed frame. And with the way Joker went on about the subject, it couldn't hurt to get a leather chair, either.

Tali yawned and checked the time: 0300 ship time. Keelah, she had to be working again in a few hours, it was definitely time to try to get some more sleep. She saved the notes she had taken and then climbed down the stack of crates she had used as a perch, stretching her limbs carefully once she reached the floor to get her blood flowing properly again after sitting in one spot for so long. As she walked to the elevator, Tali made a mental note to ask Shepard later on what would be an appropriate number of rooms to set aside for guests. There was no point in having a cozy home if she couldn't invite Shepard and Garrus or any of her other friends to visit for a while, after all.