They had only just returned from their last ground mission, and the team worked in comfortable silence. Shepard and Liara were polishing their armor in the shuttle bay before putting it away for the next mission. Garrus perched on a storage box at Shepard's side, dismantling his sniper rifle to add a new mod. Cortez was checking the shuttle for damage, occasionally responding to a good-natured dig from Vega, who was working out in his usual corner of the shuttle bay.

Shepard liked this kind of quiet. Everyone radiated self-satisfaction from a job excellently done. These were the rare moments when she could sit back and take pride in her work. She smiled at herself:

I sound like a mother hen, clucking over her children. I can't take all the credit, but damn, am I proud.

Garrus looked up at her, pausing his work to brush a stray hair from her face. She tried to keep her hair back with an elastic band, but it always seemed to get away from her. She smiled at Garrus, nuzzling his hand briefly before they both returned to their work.

She could feel Liara's grin from the other side of the room.

They settled back into their silence again, everyone focusing in on their work. Vega's occasional grunts ceased, and she heard him drop to the ground from his pull-up bar and move over to his workbench. He began to hum quietly, the tune a catchy one that pulled at memories somewhere in the back of Shepard's mind.

She couldn't remember the title, but the tune was familiar. She turned the notes over in her mind as Vega hummed, trying to catch up to the strain.

Pursing her lips, she started to whistle, following along with Vega's tune, looking across the room to where he worked. He looked up, catching her eye and smiling.

Garrus gave a slight start, and Shepard glanced over at him. He stared at her, his head cocked to the side. She smiled, breaking the flow of air over her lips. Her whistle melted away on her mouth.

Garrus straightened his head, his mouth opening to say something, when Vega interrupted:

"Oh, you know that one, Lola?"

"Yeah," she called over to him. "Can't remember the name for the life of me, but I'll never forget the tune."

"What about this one?" he asked, and started to whistle himself – a different tune this time.

"Easy," she scoffed, whistling the next part of the tune back to him. "You gotta try harder than that to trip me up, Vega."

"That a challenge, Lola?"

"Maybe," she said, a wicked grin on her face.

"That's pretty bold. You sure you can take it?" He retorted, as always, unable to resist friendly banter.

"Anything you can do, Vega, I can do better," she replied. Challenge issued.

He whistled another one. She finished it with her own higher-pitched vocal fluting.

He nodded, impressed.

"But I betcha don't know this one," he said, whistling a more complex one.

True, she had do reach deep in the recesses of her mind for that one, but she found it, ending the cadence and breaking into a triumphant cackle.

Garrus's head had been snapping back and forth between the two as they whistled, and now he tilted it again, giving her a mystified look.

"What is that noise?" he asked.

"Whistling. You've really never seen someone do this?"

"No," he said, his mandibles still slack against his face. He looked utterly dumbfounded as he asked: "How do you do it?"

She pursed her lips, showing him with a few short bursts that sounded like bird calls. He blinked, his eyes widening. She stopped whistling and squeezed his hand warmly.

"Sorry, big guy," she said to him. "It's not on the list of turian skills. You need lips to do it."

At his continued look of amazement, she leaned in close and whispered to him: "But it's okay. You've got plenty of other… skills."

A strange puffing noise behind her caught Shepard's attention and she turned around to see Liara blowing air out from between pursed lips furiously. The sight of her usually dignified blue friend with her cheeks ballooning out and frowning in frustration startled a laugh from the commander.

Liara stopped, crossing her arms, her narrow eyebrows furrowed.

"I can't do it," she said.

"Sure you can," Shepard said. "I mean… I think you can."

She demonstrated again, and Liara formed her lips into a little "o," blowing air out in a futile attempt.

"Try sucking air in, instead. Sometimes that's how kids learn to do this."

"This is something you take time to teach children?" Garrus asked, his quizzical look growing more and more pronounced.

Shepard laughed again:

"It's not like it's required curriculum in human schools. It's just something kids learn growing up. Some can do it more easily than others."

"Lemme guess," Vega piped in. "You were a whistling whiz kid?"

"I'm a natural," Shepard quipped, whistling a jaunty tune to make her point.

Vega joined in and they whistled happily, Liara puffing away in the background, trying to join in. At the final chorus, Shepard harmonized, trilling a high note into the silence.

Cortez crawled out from behind the Kodiak, clapping in appreciation.

"What'd I tell you, Esteban?" Vega asked, pointing at his friend. "Mad skills, bro."

Shepard smiled. Liara, having given up her attempts, laughed softly and returned to polishing her armor.

Garrus wrapped an arm around Shepard's shoulders, and she grinned up at him. He was shaking his head, at a loss for what he had just witnessed, as he pulled her into a hug.

"Every time I think I'm beginning to understand humans…."

"You do just fine, Garrus," she soothed, planting a kiss on his mandible. "You do just fine."

Author's note: I've had some time on my hands, so I thought I'd try out something totally fun and silly from the kmeme. Let me know if you like it!

Original prompt:

Asari and Humans tend to be compaired alot. Female Humans have the most obvious similarties obviously. The only really obvious physcial difference about them is the hair and tentacles (not including the blue skin).

So anon's, even though hair seems to be uniquely human what about something else. Like whistling. I mean not everyone can whistle, took me years to get it right!

Anon wants to see F!Shepard and Vega whistling a tune that would make most of us humans catch on pretty damn quick.

Bonus
- Garrus is completely bewildered by it
- I will name my first born after anon if you fit the "Anything you can do, I can do better" quote somewhere.. anywhere...
- Liara tries her hardest to whistle
- Joker joins in
- if Anon wants an LI please make it Garrus. Otherwise complete and utter comradery is good