#kaideng

Kaidan: Hi :)

“Come in.”

There was a hiss, signaling the door to her cabin opening. Neneng looked up to see Kaidan. She put down her datapad and smiled.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I heard it was your birthday.”

“You heard right.” She noticed that he was hiding something behind his back. “Kaidan, you didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I know.” He gestured towards the couch and the two of them sat down, all the while Kaidan kept what was behind his back hidden. “I noticed you’ve been feeling homesick, so I pulled some strings. It’s just a synthetic copy, but I think they did a good job making it. I almost couldn’t tell when I saw it myself. Plus it means you won’t have to worry about watering it.”

As Kaidan took out what was behind his back, a familiar scent hit Neneng’s nose. Her eyes widened slightly. She was suddenly sent back to those days of walking up and down the EDSA traffic, garlands in hand, hoping that she could sell enough for her to be able to eat. Sometimes it would take her sunrise to sunset to earn enough, with only those small white flowers to keep her company. The days with the sun shining bright were especially difficult, as the heat would only intensify the smell of the flowers. The long days and heat meant that it could take more than one wash to get rid of the scent fully. Neneng felt queasy.

“Sampaguitas.” Kaidan pointed the bouquet towards her, causing her to back away slightly. “I figured you could put them here somewhere. So you wouldn’t feel as homesick.”

“Right, because they’re the national flower of the Philippines.” Neneng smiled, trying to hide the fact that she was trying to control her gag reflex. 

“Happy birthday, Neng!” 

Kaidan held the bouquet out to her and after a moment of hesitance, she took it. Neneng immediately regretted it. The smell became too overwhelming. She tried to hold down the rising feeling in her throat, but it was too much. As much as she didn’t want to hurt Kaidan’s feelings, she couldn’t control her own body and made a gagging noise.

Kaidan frowned. “You don’t like it?”

“What? No, I love it!” She gulped, trying not to gag again.

“You’re trying not to puke right now.”

“Kaidan.” She put down the flowers on the coffee table. “I really appreciate you getting them for me, it’s just that, well, I really hate how they smell.” Neneng went on to explain how she had spent too much time around the flowers as a child.

“I should’ve just gotten you a flag,” Kaidan said when she finished.

“That probably would’ve been a better idea.” 

He gave her a small smile and looked down.

“Hey,” she said taking his hands in hers, “I really appreciate that you went through all of that trouble. It was really sweet.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She put a hand under his chin, pulling him in for a kiss. As they pulled apart, Neneng made another gagging noise.

“How about,” Kaidan said as he grabbed the bouquet, “we take these down to engineering and throw it in the garbage compactor.”

5. Paragon, Renegade or neutral?

Neutral! (really paragon but with a lot of renegade sprinkled in there lol)

8. Share a headcanon about your main Shepard.

Neneng’s last name isn’t really shepard. She was self conscious that her name sounded “too ethnic” with her very obvious tagalog last name so she changed it. I think the Philippines would still have a very heavy catholic influence that far into the future. So she was seeking refuge in a church and got inspired by the phrase “The lord is my shepherd”. She spelled it wrong because, ya know, she grew up on the streets.

9. Share a headcanon about your Shepard and their LI.

I think I may have mentioned this before? So Kaidan noticed that Neneng was a little down because of homesickness. Being the good bf that he is, he thought what better way to help than get Neneng a garland of sampaguita. It’s the national flower of the Philippines so the smell would remind her of home. She can keep it on her desk or something and when she’s feeling homesick, she can can just sniff it, right? A fool proof plan! But you can’t really get one unless you go to earth. So the next best thing was to requisition a synthetic version that was almost as good as the real thing and have it sent to the Normandy. When he got it, he was so so happy. He was so certain that Neneng would love it! He gives it to her and as soon as the smell reaches her nose she gags.

When Neneng was growing up on the streets of edsa, she had to sell the sampaguita garlands to make money as you do when you’re a poor kid in the Philippines. The smell of them just reminds her of those days, especially the hots ones, walking around car to car just making sure she had enough to at least get through the night. Just her and the garlands every day and night before she was old enough to start doing stuff for the reds. The smell would stay on her no matter how much she washed. She grew a strong disdain for the sampaguita.

So it was kind of awkward explaining the whole thing to Kaidan and Neneng feeling really guilty for hurting his feelings and gagging out of reflex. She appreciated the thought though but she couldn’t keep the garland and paid Kaidan back no matter how much he insisted that it wasn’t necessary.

10. Who is your Shepard’s best friend and why?

Kasumi! The two of them really clicked! Plus Neneng really liked having another asian person in her inner circle.