David Goodman 1: Students and Teachers

Written and submitted by Full-Paragon

"All passengers for the 9:00 AM flight to the Citadel, please report to Gate A-32. Again, all passengers for the 9:00 AM flight to the Citadel, please report to Gate A-32."

For the last time, David Goodman checked his boarding pass. Gate A-32, 9:00 AM to the Citadel.

"Alright mom, dad, this is it." He reached out and hugged his parents one last time. He couldn't believe it. He was actually leaving Earth!

"You take care son," His mom whispered, her cheeks stained with tears, "We'll be praying for you."

His dad was doing his best to hold back his own tears. "Let me help you with the bags."

Normally David would have refused, but today he was willing to let his dad help him. After all, it was a long way to Earth from Thessia. He walked up to the ramp, took his bags and gave the pass to the flight attendant. With a final wave, he stepped onto the ramp and headed to the interstellar passenger vehicle.

"Welcome sir, which seat are you in?" The flight attendant asked when he entered the shuttle.

David gulped and tried not to flush. As a part of accepting the teaching job on Thessia, the government of Relldonna had paid for his transportation on an asari line of shuttles. This was his first time actually getting close to an alien, even if he had minored in xenostudies.

"Um, section 12, seat E." John stammered, trying to speak sari. Technically his translator could do it for me, but he wanted all the practice he could get.

"Right this way sir!"

As the first one to his row, David got first choice for stowing his carry on. He used his biotics to lift the bags and set them in the compartment. He wasn't a very strong biotic, but it had helped him get the job on Thessia. Most asari were biotics themselves, and having a non-biotic teach their children would be a little strange to them.

He was just about to sit down when a woman dragging a large carry on with several actual paper books under her arm approached. She was about 7cm shorter than David with curly red hair and several tattoos, the most noticeable one being a turquoise owl on her breasts.

"Is this section twelve?" She asked, glancing down at her own pass.

"Yup, need a hand with that ma'am?" David asked, smiling and pointing to her carry on.

"It's Lyla."The woman answered, holding out her bag.

"David," he replied with a smile, taking the bag and lifting it up with biotics. "Nice to meet you Lyla."

"Oh wow," Lyla gasped, "You've got biotics?"

"Yeah, that's not going to be a problem is it?"

"Oh no, wish I had biotics."

Lyla turned out to get to window seat next to David, and they sat down and chatted a bit about their lives after Earth. Lyla was a successful author, eager to get out from Earth and see a bit more of the galaxy. David was happy to share his own dream of being able to teach off world, and being one of the few "aliens" allowed to immigrate to Thessia.

"I am a bit jealous," Admitted Lyla, "But I'm not really that into asari. Turians now... Yummy!"

"Seriously?" David laughed, "they look like metal dinosaurs."

"But they're so tall! And I hear their very well equipped."

"Woah! TMI!"

It was a rather long trip to the Citadel, it took almost 10 hours just to get to exit the Earth's atmosphere and get to the Mass Relay. Civilian shuttles were not meant for speed, rather being cost effective and efficient. Military ships could do inner system runs in a tenth of the time it would take a civilian model.

To pass the time, David ended up buying a few of Lyla's books on his data slate. The first turned out to be a tawdry romance set in a prisoner of war camp during the first contact war which he skipped, but the next was an interesting tale set in ancient Earth during the days of the United States of America. David easily finished the book before they even got to the relay though, and ended up napping for a few hours.

After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived at the Sol Relay "Woah, there it is!" Lyla gasped, "Look at the size of that fucker!"

Peering out the window, David couldn't help but be impressed. Humanity had only discovered the Sol Relay a year before David was born, and in the twenty five years since its discovery a lot had changed. David's parents had grown up in a world where aliens were a myth at best, but by the time David was 8, the first Contact War had been fought and won and humanity had taken it's place on the galactic stage.

As a part of the first generation of humans born after the beginning of the age of interstellar travel, David had grown up hearing about how awesome aliens were. He was still pretty stoked to see an actual, live asari for the first time, and was ecstatic to be going to the Citadel, even for a few hours.

The next few hours were a series of boring jumps from one Relay to another. Even though the relay jumps were instantaneous, the shuttle still had to wait in the queue. Even with several vessels departing each second, with hundreds of ships that amounted to quite the wait.

Finally, they arrived at the Citadel. There was plenty of "ooos" and "aaahs" from the passengers, even the stewardess took time to peek out the windows at the Citadel.

"Makes the relays' look small." David commented to Lyla.

"No shit, I wonder how many people live there?"

"Thirteen point two million, according to the last census." David answered reflexively. When Lyla rolled her eyes, David smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Sorry, teacher instinct. Citadel studies are a part of every beings education."

"Right. I'll call you if I ever need to know random trivia." Lyla laughed.

Before long they were docked, and the weary travelers made their way onto the Citadel. They exchanged contact information and promised to keep up over the extranet, then parted ways. David had a few hours to kill, and shamelessly spent them gawking at aliens and going to all the tourist traps in the docking bay. He bought a "Keepers be Keepin'" T-Shirt from a vendor and a took some pictures to send to his family back on Earth.

When the time came to head back to the docking bay though, David got a little lost and had to ask for directions. Spying an engineer with a name tag that read "Andrew Bates."

"Excuse me sir, could you tell me where the Thessia Sky's dock is? I'm trying to get to the 15:35 flight to Thessia." David asked the engineer.

"The Thessia Sky dock, huh? Right on the top floor. Take the elevator over there if you want to get there in a jiffy." Andrew gruffly nodded towards a glass elevator just right behind them.

"Thanks!" David called, hurrying to the elevator. He was already on board when he realized the engineer had been the only human employee he had seen on the Citadel so far. He shrugged, after all, humanity was still taking it's baby steps out to the stars.

Once he was on the shuttle, David was practically vibrating with excitement. He had to show his passport and travel papers to the asari stewardess, and noticed that he was the only human on the shuttle. Thessia have very strict immigration laws; it was almost impossible for a non-asari that wasn't bonded to travel there.

"So, going home to see your mate?" A pretty young asari that sat next to him asked. At least, David thought she was young. She looked like a maiden, but he had to remember that she was probably over 100 years old.

"No actually, I got a job teaching at Matriarch Ilinaga Elementary in Relldona on the Ferrtold continent."

"Really?" The asari asked, giving David a look that made him feel like he was being appraised.

"Um, yes. David Goodman, by the way."

"Tella Ne'vass."

The eight hour flight to Thessia went by surprisingly quickly. Several asari gave David that some odd look Tella had when they found out David was single and moving to Thessia, and several of them asked odd questions such as, "Do you like children?" Obviously he did, David was a teacher. "What sort of home do you want?" A quiet one with a wife and kids someday. That one provoked an odd reaction. Tella and the other maidens sighed and lost interest in him for a while, but several asari who looked like matrons and even one that David thought was a matriarch suddenly became VERY interested in him. It was rather unnerving at first, but they were all so kind and helpful in regards to particularities of the sari language, what food was safe for a human, and tips on how to behave in social situations David found himself relaxing a bit.

He had always been a fan of the asari, at least since he had hit puberty, and had seen more than a little of the "Blue Porn" that had made it's way into human space. He had tried to kick the habit once he found out he would be teaching asari children, and had gotten rid of his data cache a month before he left Earth. Humans frowned on teachers with porn collections, and David had no reason to believe that asari felt any differently.

When David caught his first glimpse of Thessia after 6 hours, it took his breath away. It wasn't the deep blue of Earth, but a lighter, shimmering blue-green that made it look like a brilliant star.

"It's beautiful! So different from the vids!" David commented, a goofy grin on his face.

"Oh Goddess he is so precious!" He heard someone whisper, "He's not going to last long at all..."

He looked around to see if he could identify who had made the comment, frowning a bit as he did so. Not last long? Did they think he wasn't cut out to be a teacher? Kindergarteners could be rough sure, but he didn't think asari would be any harder to handle then his class back home on Earth had been.

Finally it was time to leave, and David skipped down the ramp, his bags floating behind him. Literally, he sometimes subconsciously activated his biotics, and his bags floated after him with a blue glow. At the end he saw several asari in formal robes holding up a sign that read, "David Goodman."

He hurried over had shook the waiting asari's hands. "Dr. Ulri'ah, Matriarch Benezia. It's an honor to finally meet you in person."

"It is our pleasure, Mr. Goodman." Benezia answered warmly, shaking his hand. "The board of Matriarch Ilinaga Elementary is excited to have a human on the staff. Why, I remember when my little Liara was in Mr. Thanapolis's class. He was a turian, but he got my Liara so excited about the protheans in his class she started digging all over the park for ruins!"

"I hope I can live up to the same standards, Matriarch. Hopefully I can get Liara just as pumped up about the protheans as her old teacher."

"That won't be possible I'm afraid." Dr. Ulri'ah, the principle of Ilinaga told him, "Dr. T'soni graduated last year, majored in Prothean Archaeology. Mr. Thanapolis passed away some 20 years ago now, Goddess rest his soul."

That was David's first bit of culture shock. In his head, he knew that asari were long lived, but to realize a woman who didn't look much beyond her 40's to him was over 800 years old, and that her daughter who was considered to be barely out of college and thus relatively David's age was almost 100 and a Doctor of Prothean Archaeology was hard for David to swallow. He knew his "kindergarteners" would be between the ages of 9-12, and be in his class for three whole years before they moved on. Developmentally, they would be at about the same level as a human 5-6 year old, but it was still a little crazy to David.

Benezia was actually leaving on a flight to the Citadel herself, she was a member of the Ilinaga board but also very influential in galactic politics, and David felt honored to meet her. Ulri'ah took David in an air car to Relldona herself. Thankfully, it was only a 90 minute ride and fairly close to the spaceport.

"Everyone is so excited to meet you! We try and keep a few aliens on staff at Ilinaga, it's good for everyone." Ulri'ah told him.

"I'm excited to meet my students, I know school doesn't start for another week, but I'm pumped myself."

"Oh, I'm sure they are very excited to meet you too." Ulri'ah said, waving that aside.

Her answered puzzled David, and for some reason his expression made Ulri'ah laughed. When he asked, she just winked at him. "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough. You'll have your pick of the town, let me tell you."

"You mean I get to choose my students?" David asked, still utterly lost.

"Oh no, you get to choose your teacher." Ulri'ah cryptically answered, "But you can't choose me."

At that, David gave up and changed the topic to the curricula of Ilinaga and what sort of duties he could expect. It was something Ulri'ah and the board had already gone over him with, but the principle was happy enough to clarify a few things.

Finally, they got to Relldona. It was a fairly large city by asari standards, but they had never had the numbers that humans did due to their long lifespans and reproductive cycles. From what David remembered, it was home to about 4.3 million people, but it was small compared to the urban sprawl that was Greater Phoenix, home to over 28.4 million spread out over 38,000 kilometers. Relldona was spread out over proportionately a larger area, with a lot more parks and greenery then David's desert home. The edges were all smooth, graceful lines with tall spires and sweeping designs that were aesthetically pleasing, even to a human eye.

When they got to Ilinaga, David was impressed with the schools beauty as well. Far from the blocky constructions he was used to, it was built in the shape of a rounded dome with flying buttresses and elegant carvings of children at work and play. Out front was a large, hand painted sign that read "Welcome Mr. Goodman!" in English. Hundreds of little handprints decorated the sign, and by the way the letters were formed, David had to guess that his own class had been responsible for painting it.

He stepped out of the air car and hundreds of little asari voices screamed, "WELCOME MR. GOOFMAN."

He smiled, asari sometimes had trouble with the hard "D" sound, since their own language was mostly softer vowels and consonants. He was probably going to need to get used to being a "Goofman" for the rest of his life.

"Thank you! Hello Ilinaga Elementary!" He bellowed back, as loud as his impressive lungs would let him. He liked to brag that he could be louder than all the students in any of his classes combined, and there was some truth to the statement. His own clear baritone easily carried over the higher pitched asari, and several of the children giggled and covered their ears, not used to such a deep voice.

"Class 3, please line up to meet your teacher." Ulri'ah announced, using her omnitool to amplify her voice, "Parents and staff, I know you are all excited to meet our new teacher, but please wait until he has met his class. No exchanging phone numbers until AFTER the party, and no invitations home until it's time for visitations. That means you Belin!"

That got a laugh from the crowd, but David was too busy meeting his students to give Ulri'ah's words much thought.

"I'm Tess, and I'm 10 years old and I've never met a human and my mommy says you're a boy does that mean you have a stick in your pocket instead of a special place?"

"Do humans really have boys? Are you a boy? I think I'm a girl but mommy won't tell me and daddy died two years ago he was a salarian."

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"What's that stuff on your face and head? Where's your tentacles? Even Mr. Reldi has tentacles on his head but he calls them stalks."

"What's your name? I forgot. Mine's Polly."

"..."

Though he only have six students, David could already tell this was going to be an exciting year. Tess was already asking awkward questions he wasn't certain how to answer, Olpa was a member of a monogendered species that really wanted to be a girl, Kiha apparently needed lots of bathroom breaks, Mota was making comparisons between him and Mr. Reldi the teacher before him, Polly was going to need lots of help remembering her work, and Citti was hiding behind Polly and looking at him shyly. They were all very cute though, and David knelt down to introduce himself to each of them. The first five were very enthusiastic, but the most he got out of Citti before she ran to hide behind her mom was "Don't let them make fun of me."

"Oh don't mind Citti." Polly said dismissively, "she's just a pureblood."

"Polly!" Her mother gasped, blushing furiously.

Giving Polly his best Teacher Stare, David asked, "Polly, is that how we're supposed to use our words? What do you think you should say to Citti?" He wasn't quite sure what a pureblood was, but from the way Citti burst into tears and her mother glared at Polly's mother it couldn't be anything good.

Looking down and scuffing her feet, Polly furtively glanced over at Citti and mumbled, "Sorry Citti."

"I am so sorry Mr. Goodman, it won't happen again." Polly's mother promised, dragging her over to a tired looking batarian who nodded to David.

"Human. Don't mind my little girl. She's just got a lot of energy. And don't worry, I left the Hegemony for a reason. We won't have any trouble unless you start it."

To David's shock, the batarian was female according to his translator. He guessed it was just normal for asari, but to him dads should be, well, dads. A bit of his old fashioned upbringing he guessed.

"There won't be any trouble from me, Mrs?"

"Akkar." The batarian woman answered, nodding to David. "See you later."

After that, David walked over to Citti's mother. "Hi, I couldn't help but notice the way the other girls were treating Citti. Does she have a problem with bullying at school?"

The mother glared at him, "You heard what they said," She spat, "Just because my mate left me doesn't mean that Citti isn't just as good as the other girls, even if she is a pureblood."

"I'm sorry, I must have missed that in my xenostudies class, what's a pureblood? I take it that it's an offensive term."

The woman flushed and glanced down at her daughter who was clinging to her skirts. "Oh Goddess, I'm so sorry, I'm making a horrible impression. I'm Delana, Citti's mother. A pureblood is a child of two asari. Citti's dad was my mate from our time in the huntresses, but she couldn't handle the stigma of fathering a pureblood child and took off for the traverse with all our old gear when Citti was three. She doesn't even remember her father."

Something clicked, and David remembered that there was cultural stigma surrounding mating with another asari. "Don't worry Ms. Delana, I don't tolerate bullying in my classroom, from students or parents. I'll treat Citti just like she was the child of two humans. That's pretty normal where I come from, even if they do have two mommies."

"How do they have tw...?" Delana asked, the stopped and forced a smile onto her face. "Thank you, Mr. Goodman. Redli was a good teacher, but he was 37 and getting a bit old to effectively manage the girls."

"Call me David, Ms. Delana. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other." David said with a smile, walking off to talk to a few more parents.

As he left, he heard Citti say behind me, "I like him."

To his surprise, he heard Delana answer, "So do I."

A few weeks later, David was getting more and more of those appraising looks. It was starting to make him jumpy. The only asari that didn't make him feel like a piece of meat on the chopping block were students and Delana, who was quickly becoming his best friend. She wasn't the only parent in the class who was single, Belin, Tess's mom, was as well and was the worst of the bunch and made David feel slightly uncomfortable. Even though he didn't have kids of his own, David found himself hanging out with Delana and Citti after school more then once.

One day when Delana was showing him her and Citti's favorite restaurant, he had had several offers from teachers and parents to do the same, but he had turned them all down since they gave him those looks as well, he asked Delana about the strange looks.

"You mean you don't know? That's why they brought you here after all. We don't have any students with human fathers." Delana told him as they watched Citti play in the small playground.

The restaurant reminded David of McDonald's with it's colorful play area, though the food was much higher quality. Asari didn't seem to go in for "fast food." Probably because of their long lifespans.

"What does not having any half humans have to do with anything?" David asked. Technically the girls were all asari, but most of them referred to themselves as half whatevers, except for the handful of purebloods.

"Oh Goddess, you are precious!" Delana laughed, "I'm tempted to start giving you looks myself."

"Please don't, you're the only single asari I've met who doesn't and a few of the bonded ones do too, even the principle."

"You can say that, and you really don't know?"

"I really don't know. What, am I for sale or something?"

"Only if you want to be." Delana answered coyly, smirking at him, "Or are you into males?"

"Good God no!" David protested, "I'm not like that at all! I like girls! Well, and asari, but I've never really thought one would be interested in a human. To be honest, I sort of imagined you would all be like you and Citti, more interested in your own kind even after I read all the books and watched the vids."

"Did a few of those books and vids come from Fornax or Azure?" Delana teased.

In response, David flushed deep red.

"Oh you can't be serious!" Delana cackled, "That's why you don't get it! You really think we're all like the porn vids! Asari on asari is your favorite, am I right?"

"I'll have you know I haven't watched any in two months." David grumbled, peering into his drink. "I know that isn't something parents approve of their children's teachers watching."

"Humans maybe. For asari, as long as you don't try anything with our girls, we expect you to have certain appetites, shall we say. That's why everyone's looking at you."

"They think I'm a pedophile!" David nearly shouted, his face now flushing red, "Now see here, I think there's a special place in hell for those kind of people, and if ANYONE, anyone at all hurts MY girls I will personally gut the stupid, disgusting bastard! I will FLAY THEM WITH MY MIND!"

David realized he was shouting now, and sheepishly glanced around to see several asari, not a few of them parents at the school, looking at him.

"Er, or I'll report them to the proper authorities."

"HELL YES HUMAN! I'll hold them down while you do the flaying!" Mrs. Akkar shouted, pumping her fist. She was there with Polly, who was playing with Citti. "Grumbar'll help too, he's still got his old shotgun and krogan love that stuff!"

Grumbar nodded from his seat next to Akkar, keeping his eye on his own daughter who was only five, about two in human terms. "Yup. Flaying. Love it." The male krogan rumbled.

David sat back down, afraid to look at Delana. When he did, he saw she was actually give him THE LOOK now.

"Oh crap, now you think I'm one too." He groaned.

"No, now I think you might be bond mate material." Delana corrected.

For a moment, David's mind went totally and completely blank. Then the coin dropped.

"Wait, everyone's looking at me like that because they want to get into my PANTS?!"

"Lots of asari find humans attractive. I thought I preferred the females myself, but I'm starting to see the... Benefits... to the males. You're so passionate, and I've seen how strong you are. Your muscles anyway, I wouldn't scream about your biotics."

"You can't be serious." David groaned, "Are all asari this horny?"

Delana put her hand suggestively on David's leg. "Well, it looks to me like you are."

Feeling the surge in his loins, David shrugged. "Guess I am."

"Goddess take it," an asari behind David muttered, "My money was on Belin"

And that was when Delana had to explain to David about the pool the school had quietly had running on him. Apparently, it was something of a tradition to see how long it took the alien teachers to find an asari mate, and who it would be.

"I can't believe everyone was betting on my love life!" David seethed as he and Delana sat down on her porch. They had taken Citti home, and she was quietly playing in her room.

"Oh, it's all in good fun. Everyone knew you liked asari, why, the principle even had a hacker check your personal computer to make sure you were into asari."

"What?!" David spluttered, coughing and spraying Delana with the asari wine he had been drinking. "Sorry about that, but do you seriously mean that the principle checked my porn stash?"

Laughing, Delana wiped herself down with a napkin. "Of course. There are not many non-asari on Thessia, and the principle wanted to make sure she had a good match. Humans are just popular right now because your species is so new, and because you look so much like us, even more than the turians or salarians. Maybe that's why I don't mind being attracted to you so much."

"Right, because you prefer other asari. I understand there's a cultural stigma attached to it, but why?"

"It is generally believed that we grow and advance as a species by mating with other species and broadening the gene pool. And there are... Other problems. There is a possibility for a recessive genetic trait to pop up with pureblooded asari. I pray to the Goddess everyday that Citti is not affected."

"Wow. And here, I thought I knew about asari culture." David remarked, "Guess I have a lot to learn. Like what, for example, a man would have to do to get an asari to go on a date with him."

Delana smiled. "Well, the asari might ask that man to go to services this Athamday with her and her daughter."

"Well, that sounds pretty good." David agreed, "But I'll want to take things slow like. Hell, I'm still a virgin."

"Really?" Delana asked, burying her face in her glass."That sounds... Fascinating."

One Year Later

"Earth smells funny." Citti pouted, still worn out from the hours long flight from Thessia. They had had a short layover on the Citadel where Citti had napped, but like all small children travelling was difficult.

"That's not a very nice thing to say about your future daddy's planet." Delana evenly replied, holding the child in her arms.

David had paid for the trip to Disneyworld in Florida with the money he had gotten out of the betting pool. His two new best friends Akkar and Grumbar had miraculously guessed the perfect time and person that David would begin dating and given David a rather large cut of the profits. It was a bit strange for the earthling to say his two best friends were a krogan and batarian, two species humanity most decidedly did not get along with, and that he was dating an asari. He hadn't proposed to Delana yet, but he was going to be getting a ring here on Earth. They were meeting his parents at the hotel, and he wanted the perfect moment.

As they were exiting the spaceport, David spied an advert for "Gaither Blade and Bling" with a picture of the absolutely perfect ring for Delana. It had a spiral of sapphires surrounding a large diamond, and best of all it was within David's budget.

"Hey Del, why don't you take Citti over to the Spacies and let her rest while you get something to eat. I'll check on the rental car."

Once he was sure Del wasn't looking anymore, David hurried over to the small shop. Inside was quite the impressive array of swords, axes, knives and other weaponry, but David ignored it and made a beeline for the counter.

"Gaither Blade and Bling, what deal can I cut ya?" The large hairy man behind the counter drawled.

"I want that one." David stated, pointing to the ring from the sign and slapping down his credit chit. "That's the ring I'm going to use to propose.

"Oh really? Asari really dig that style." grabbing a new issue of Blue Rose by Fornax, the man said, "need any inspiration or study for your soon-to-be bondmate?"

"No. Er, wait, yes. But only if it comes free with the ring."

Smiling like a sated lion, the man answered, "It's already included. Need a bag or a love box?"

"Love box for the ring, bag for the magazine." Taking the box, David opened it and stared at the ring. "Are you sure asari like it?"

"Well, the style originated on Armali, its been the "in" for the last 350 years. The cluster here symbolizes the Embrace around the superior diamond, the center of your life. Its also a common elcor gift, but since you didnt go too red when I asked about Blue Rose or ask for GenitElcor, figured it was an asari."

"I'll take that as a yes." David said, there really was a lot his xenostudies class hadn't covered, and swiped his credit chit. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with the magazine, but Delana had hinted that she now possessed a few human and asari pornos. "Thanks, I hope she loves this!"

"Are you kidding? THE Blue Rose is in that one, as is Brio K'Gol. There's also an article on how to introduce a hanar third party. Thank you for supporting small business, and good luck in your marriage or bonding!"

To David's great embarrassment, he knew exactly who the shop owner was talking about, and his pulse quickened slightly. He forced it down though, and went over to the Spacies to get Del and Citti.

A few hours later, David sat with his dad in the ground car they were taking to the hotel. His mom, Delana and Citti were all in the other car to get a chance to chat.

"So, an asari huh? Guess I never really figured on that one." His dad mused.

David shrugged. "She's really special to me. She was the first person on Thessia to really make me feel comfortable, and she's well..."

"Smokin' hot?" His dad teased.

"Yeah, pretty much. Citti's sweet too, and I always wanted kids. Delana said she would love to have another girl, though it takes longer for asari."

"I trust you son, you've always had a good head on your shoulders. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, tomorrow I'm taking her to dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant in EPCOT. I'm going to give her this." David took at the ring and his dad glanced over at it.

"Damn, how did you afford that on a teachers pay?"

"Asari pay their teachers a whole lot better than humans do. And I sort of won a betting pool at work."

"What kind? They play sports on Thessia?"

"Er, yes, but was actually in regards to who I would start dating. I cheated."

"Now that is some good thinkin'."

The next evening, David's parents took Citti back to the hotel after a long day in the park, and David did his best to keep from brimming over with excitement. He was pretty sure Delana had figured out what he was up to, she was a bit faster on the uptake then David when it came to behavior, and she was dressed in a stunning red gown with sparkling ruby earrings.

"Damn, do I really think she would ever want me?" David asked himself, but then he remembered the times Delana had called to hang out, or the fact that she had been the one to ask David out on the first date (and the second). "I've got to do this. I can't let her get away!"

He had planned things out beforehand, calling the restaurant to let them know he was proposing (He had gotten the idea because the Coral Reef Restaurant was number 4 on the list of places to propose in Disney World) and a special carriage would take them off to the hotel afterwards. Provided Del said yes, of course.

By the end of the meal, David was sweating and red, the ring in his jacket pocket feeling like it weighed a thousand tons and the room seeming to bend around the image of the angel before him.

"David, are you alright?" Delana asked, "You look like you're getting sick."

"I am sick." David said before he could think, "And there's only one thing that could make me better."

Oh Christ, he thought to himself, I've got to be the sappiest guy ever.

"Delana Pi'ror, will you marry me?" David asked, going to one knee and proffering the ring.

Time seemed to stop, and David felt like he could sense every single thing going on in the restaurant. The chime of glasses of champagne, the whisper of voices, the eyes of everyone in the entire building as they focus in on the man who was either about to be the happiest in the entire building or the biggest fool in the world.

Suddenly, the ring glowed a soft blue and floated out of the box. David's mouth went totally dry, and he felt like he was going to die. But Delana held out her finger and the ring slipped on as if made for it.

"I believe the culturally appropriate thing to say, would be yes." Delana whispered, tears of joy running down her face.

Springing to his feet, David swept Delana off hers as he glowed with more biotic force than he ever had in his entire life, lifting his newly engaged sweetheart and the entire table off the ground.

Four months later, Delana Pi'ror became Delana Pi'Goodman, and David legally adopted Citti. He gave up his Alliance citizenship and took up the Thessian citizenship that came with becoming a legally recognized asari bondmate. He had a krogan as his best man, and a batarian was among Delana's bridesmaids. People commented that the ceremony, which took place on the Citadel, was one of the most beautiful, if eclectic they had ever attended. It wasn't everyday that a marriage Ceremony was performed both by a priestess of the Goddess Athame and by a Protestant Minister.

When they arrived back on Thessia, David continued to teach while Delana prepared herself and conceived a child. Twenty eight sol months later, Dora Pi'Goodman was born. David thought the good times would last forever.

He was wrong.

Authors Note:

I'm Full-Paragon, and this is my favorite colab on the Citadel.