#and we agreed on shenko
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they literally invented boyfriendism but okay
(i am still in the process of playing the trilogy and im in me2 right now and the lack of kaidan content is making me die)
#mass effect#mass effect: legendary edition#mass effect 1#mass effect 2#shepard mass effect#mass effect shepard#john shepard#johnny’s shepard gifs#mshepard#kaidan alenko#mshenko#shenko#mass effect spoilers#maybe#my gifs#funny story actually#before i decided to engage with the fandom here on tumblr i was talking to my sibling#like#“what would a good ship name be for them i can't think of any”#and we agreed on shenko#this was without looking at any ao3/fanart etc#so. imagine my shock when i see the tag#i felt like a fucking psychic or something
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can we talk about how the mars mission + huerta visits were the ultimate hurt/comfort angsty reconciliation fluff... IN CANON
#mass effect#shenko#shepley#kaidan alenko#ashley williams#i get the complaints about it knocking the VS out of the plot for a couple of missions and i agree but also.#i wouldnt trade the 'VS gets hurt' plot for anything bc its just so deliciously angsty#like think about it. garrus getting a rocket to the face is only talked about for a couple voice lines and then they all move on#we get the mars mission. shepard carrying VS to the shuttle. and then worrying about them.#THEN THE HOSPITAL VISITS (3 of them!!!!!!!) with optional flirting and connection and then the DRAMATIC STANDOFF#where if you have high affinity from visiting. they will just believe you without any persuasion needed. BC THEY TRUST YOU AGAIN AND AAHHHU
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Black Spot (aka Shenko Pirates) Chapter 6
"Days break. As do vows." [AO3]
Rating: Explicit, 18+ only
Tags: Prompt Fic, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Enemies to Lovers, Pirate Captain Shepard, Navy Admiral Kaidan Alenko, Renegade Shepard (Mass Effect), Renegade Kaidan Alenko, Biotic Shepard (Mass Effect), Some Plot, POV Alternating, Eventual Smut, Shameless Smut, Oral Sex, Rough Sex
[[TW/CW: Food, sex references, itty bit of suicide ideation]]
[Previous Chapter]
[All Chapters]
Dawn came and they were still awake. There was nowhere dry to lie down on; even sitting soaked them through. Everything was wet, so they couldn’t even start a fire. Their clothes wouldn’t dry. Their skin wouldn’t dry.
Shepard groaned, “This is horrible.”
“Yeah, well… We’re alive.”
Bone-weary, they had abandoned their shirts and settled together on what used to be their roof. Their soaked skin stuck together, but it kept them from shivering.
His arms were wrapped tight around her.
It was just for warmth.
“Doesn’t change anything,” she grumbled.
“What?”
“You know this changes nothing, right?”
“Right. Yeah, of course.”
She squeezed the forearms locked across her chest.
The sun was rising.
“Doesn’t change anything,” she barely repeated, and finally fell asleep.
* * * * * *
“Move.”
Kaidan felt something tickle and scratch his face.
“Move!”
Whatever it was came down a little harder, this time against his chest.
“Wha-?!”
“Get up! You’re on the roof.”
She’d been prodding him with one of the fallen palm leaves. He bolted upright and rubbed his eyes, “I’m what?”
She was pushing him over to the side and tugging on his bedding, “Our roof! I’ve been tying it back up.”
Kaidan noticed the shade covering his head, “Oh, well done. Thank you.”
She grumbled.
The sun was powerful, high in the sky, and made the damp a distant memory. There was a fire going too.
“How long have you been up?”
Shepard just shrugged and continued working.
“Thank you.”
“You already said that.”
“I know! Still…” his mouth was dry, “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
Kaidan yawned, “Did you get a chance to boil the water yet?”
At least there’d been one positive to last night’s storm. They stuck their buckets facing upright in the sand every night in case of rain. Both were already overflowing by the time Shepard and Kaidan stepped into the trees.
“Water, but no breakfast.”
“Ah. I’ll go do that then.”
“It rained, so there’s plenty of chicken beetles.”
“Lucky us.”
* * * * * *
Their fruit and beetle kabobs were actually a lot better than most of the rations he’d had in the Navy. Often, he’d hear his crewman telling stories of pirates eating bugs and rats; laughing cruelly and feeling superior. But then he’d catch those same men shamefully eating ship pests not even a day later, alone in some shadowy nook. And what they ate wasn’t fresh and roasted between banana and coconut.
“I’d give anything for a bath,” Shepard complained.
“What? You weren’t wet enough last night?”
They immediately turned away from each other, eyes wide and cheeks flushed.
“I didn’t mean—” Kaidan blushed profusely.
“Right!” she agreed too loudly.
He tried to say something else, but the words tripped over each other.
Shepard beat him to it, “We should talk, yeah?”
Kaidan swallowed a little too hard and it stung in his chest, “About…?”
“Don’t play dumb. I know by now you’re not.”
“Okay. So, me and you?”
“That’s just it, there is no me and you.”
“I’m not saying there is, not like that. But we are here on this island together. And we are…”
“Fucking.”
“…Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Kaidan took a full breath in and out, “So, we should stop?”
Shepard squinted, “Do you want to stop?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t say we should stop.”
They continued eating for a bit, but the conversation wasn’t over. A pause hung over the moment.
“I don’t mind it,” Kaidan eventually murmured.
Shepard finished chewing, “You what?”
“I don’t mind it,” he stated clearer, “Doing that with you.”
She smirked, “You’re going to have to say the word if it’s gonna continue.”
He glared at her, “Fucking you! I like fucking you.”
“There we go! And thank you,” she hesitated a bit, “I like fucking you too.”
“And we might die here!”
“Exactly!”
They high fived.
Her hand lingered in his for just a moment. Then she snatched it back.
“It changes nothing though,” she said, looking away.
His voice was rough, “I know.”
Looking desperate to change the subject, Shepard blurted, “Hey! I think I know how to make soap.”
* * * * * *
Liara taught her how to do it years ago. Shepard didn’t know why she was walking Kaidan through the steps. It wasn’t like he was a biotic too. Not that it was impossible otherwise, but the process was a little different.
They fetched seashells and seaweed, gathering a nice pile of each by the campfire. Then Shepard used her biotics to turn the shells into dust and the seaweed into a paste. Kaidan combined them while she extracted oil from a coconut and added it to the mixture. Finally, Shepard essentially sped up time, and they were left with a solid, pale green block of hygiene.
“Oh, thank god!” Kaidan exclaimed.
“Can we share for now?” she panted, “I’m exhausted.”
“Share?! Who cares about sharing? Shepard! I could kiss you!”
“No!” she suddenly got serious, “We don’t do that!”
“I didn’t mean—It’s an expression!”
“Yeah? Then why do I have to keep reminding you?”
“I’m sorry. It’s not intentional, but I’ll be more careful.”
“You better be,” she glared, “But you know what?”
“What?” he asked hesitantly.
“We have soap!" she shouted gleefully.
He matched her exuberance, “We have soap!”
* * * * * *
“Bastard!”
Shepard laughed, “Did you just call the water a bastard?”
“It’s cold.”
She threw her head back and cackled.
They’d practically sprinted over here, then climbed down the ledge to the base of the waterfall before they even set up their camp. It took every ounce of willpower to shed their clothes before jumping in.
Kaidan dipped his head under the steady stream first, “It’s really the perfect pressure.”
“Then let me under!”
Shepard swam under and felt the sting, “Ah!”
Kaidan frowned, “I’ll get the soap,” and swam over to the riverside where they left it on a pile of their clothes.
She saw bright, new scratches along all his scars.
He came back insisting on washing her shoulder first, “It might hurt though.”
Shepard stared at the cut that was healing on his neck. She saw her blade pressing against it until blood came out. She felt her lips on it in the dark. Her face grew hot.
“I don’t care.”
“Right. Just, uh, just tell me if it gets too much.”
She turned around in the water so her back faced him. Her hair was short, but she still moved it out of the way.
Motherfucker!
“You okay, Shepard?”
“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Sorry, it’s a little infected.”
“Yeah, so wash it out.”
“I am!”
It felt like his sword was slicing through her all over again. She started resenting the heat of his skin.
“Almost done.”
He spoke like he was soothing a child or a horse, but not in a way that was patronizing. What was the word? It was… It was…
Kind.
“Oh, fuck off!”
“What?”
“You don’t have to act like this just because of… everything.”
“How am I acting any different?”
“Let’s start with you cleaning out a wound you inflicted.”
“I’m sorry about that, Shepard. I wish I hadn’t.”
“But that’s not true!” she was getting more frustrated than she expected to, “You meant it! And you’d do it again, and you will do it again.”
“It’s finished.”
“What?!”
“Your back. I did what I could.”
“Don’t change the subject!”
“I’m not.”
“Then answer me.”
Kaidan sighed, “Yes, it’s a temporary truce. But—”
“Nope! Don’t do that. You’re turning away again.”
Shepard turned around and looked him in the eye, “When this is over, if we make it out of here, it goes back to how it was. I’ll go back to my life, and you’ll go back to hunting me.”
He swallowed, “I know.”
“That’s just how it is," she stated plainly, "Now turn around and I’ll do your back too.”
“Oh, I only did your shoulder. I didn’t wash your whole back.”
“Then finish me off!”
He raised his eyebrow.
“Later,” she winked, and turned back around.
They washed each other’s backs before taking turns with the soap. It was disgusting to realize how filthy they were. Sure, they’d rinsed off every day, but soap finally touching their skin made it sing with relief. They could tell how bad it had been by how good it felt in contrast.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Shepard.”
There was so much lightness in his voice that it changed to a tone she’d never heard before.
“Words are cheap,” she teased.
“Oh?”
“So, I guess you’re gonna have to find a way to make it up to me.”
“Get on your back,” he answered; so fast that it was like he’d been waiting for the right moment to say it.
She let herself float to the surface, “Is this your thank you?”
Kaidan swam into the space between her legs. She lifted her head up to see him and almost sank, so put his hands under her thighs to steady her.
“If you want it to be,” he said as his head bobbed over the water, her cunt in his face.
She put her hands on his head, pulling at his hair as she ran her fingers through it. Her whole body felt lighter than air.
“Do it.”
She cried out in anticipation as he got closer and met her with his tongue.
Her head started rushing with realities of the present. The Admiral, the hand of the State that spent years trying to snatch her, was massaging her folds in his mouth. His head—his neck—was between her thighs. She could crush him if she wanted, squeeze and drown him, all while floating on her back by a waterfall as he ate her with reverence.
He either knew what he was doing or paid close attention, because it wasn’t long before her legs shook and squeezed him as pulsing sensations worked over her violently. He didn’t stop until she twitched with overstimulation.
He held her steady above the water until she was ready to stop floating.
“I’m gonna have to make more soap,” she said stupidly.
Kaidan laughed.
[Next Chapter]
[All Chapters]
#shenko#prompt fill#estrella shepard#kaidan alenko#mass effect#mass effect au#full fic#fshenko#shepard x kaidan#kaidan x shepard#shenko pirates fic#BrishFics#smut
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5!
The song is I Don't Wanna Know- New Found Glory.
I'm glad I got this song, it's only Shenko list anyway.
Some post ME1 fluff~
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
The wisps of his black curls fluttered gracefully against his forehead with the gentle gust of his snoring. The human radiator turned in the cot; the amber eyes fought to stay open.
"You know, a picture would last longer," Kaidan mumbled as he swiped the remnants of sleep from his eyes.
Mary snickered, "that's rich coming from you."
"Shepard," he begged, voice still ragged from sleep, "when will you let me live that down?"
"You stared, and it was cute… Alenko."
Kaidan's eyes rolled, "the awkward ways we meet."
She returned with a smile, pulling a blanket of red hair over her shoulder. Kaidan shuffled from the cot, taking his place behind her running his hands down her almost bare back, stopping just before the mark. Instead, his lips pressed into her shoulder, traveling to the nook of her neck, inching upwards until…
"Kay," Mary whined, it was a not now, despite how much she might crave him.
"Mary?" he breathed from his grin.
"Next time we make it to the Citadel," her voice faded, this is where the Commander struggled with bravery. She would fight a Reaper without hesitation, but acting on her feelings? Now that was a tricky feat.
But Kaidan was patient, always so patient, his lips ghosting down to her shoulder. Only when the timer had reached past her point of chickening out did he interject, "we should?"
It didn't mean he was going to let her out of it. The Commander squirming was a novelty and he would have a little fun with it.
She huffed loudly, "the picture thing got me thinking, well more than the picture thing…," oh, she was rambling, "but related to that, and another conversation. But mostly, having something like a picture from you for…"
"Yeah, the picture in the wallet thing doesn't work without a wallet," he smiled up at her, "or for that matter, when is the last time you saw an actual photograph?"
"All this tech certainly makes things less… romantic," she agreed, glancing away to some fascinating albeit barren corner of the room.
"So, you plan on keeping me around?"
Mary held up her hands, lining up the corners of her thumbs and pointer-fingers to a spot above her monitor, "the extremely gross PDA picture will hang riiiiight there!"
Kaidan's eyebrow raised, his arms tightening around her, "I know we've been avoiding fraternization charges, and the crew has kept things quiet… but a picture on the wall, Shepard?"
She dropped her arms, running her hands along the flesh of his arms, the pliable strength of his muscles grounding her to the moment, "I wasn't going to do it without you, but I want to come clean. To do this thing for real if… because… if you want this to be a thing to start with…"
If possible, she was pulled in tighter, the skin-to-skin contact lighting the biotic energy that tangled beneath their skin, "I told you already, Mar, I don't take this sort of thing lightly."
"Me either," why couldn't she look at him? There was so much more she wanted to say, to do in this moment. But she was stuck, the words weighing heavy in her mouth, sludged up by all the fears and a strangely burning sensation that emanated from her mark—the biggest reminder of why she did not fall into this sort of thing. Love was dangerous, compelling, exciting, even longed for… but to say it? To act on it? Foolish. Mary had already learned that lesson.
What was she doing here?
"So," Kaidan countered gently to the thoughts in her head, "we go to the Citadel to find something for us. Then talk to Alliance brass?"
"Yeah, that would do."
"And after?"
"I don't want to know," Mary corrected herself, "I mean hopefully, us… somewhat together."
He smirked, burying his nose into the crook of her neck, "I guess we'll test how much the Alliance believes us about the Reapers."
"Yeah, sure. We'll be separated in five minutes."
Kaidan laughed into her neck, breath tickling her skin with a wave of goosebumps, "relax, Mary, we'll work something out. You're resourceful."
"There you go, charming the pants off of me."
"Does it count if they were already off," he murmured, lips moving to claim her mouth, hands grasping at her hips desperately.
"Brace for evasive maneuvers!" Joker screamed over the ship's intercom.
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Today in "dumb conversations that are dumb but let me practice characters' voices," have a mid-ME2 fic on the mental gymnastics of post-Horizon Shenko.
“So Shep, that picture on your desk,” Kasumi says as the ground crew recovers in the cargo bay from boarding the ‘abandoned’ Collector ship. “That’s the guy from Horizon, right?”
Odd choice of topics, but conversation tends to get odd after rough missions. Everyone is looking for a distraction from whatever fresh horror they witnessed.
Shepard stiffens. “That’s Kaidan, yeah. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering why you have a picture of your ex-boyfriend on prominent display, that’s all.”
Shepard blinks. “Kaidan’s not my ex. We’re still together.”
Now it’s Miranda who’s blinking while her brain stops working.
“Hold the fucking comm,” Jack to the rescue, for worse or extra worse, “you think you and the pretty boy are still a thing?”
Shepard shrugs. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s not like he broke up with me.”
“He called you a traitor and a terrorist, Shep,” Kasumi gently reminds her. "Most people would call that a dealbreaker. On either side."
“We had a fight. Couples fight.” Shepard shucks off her gauntlets. “He apologized. I know you all know that because you read my personal mail like it’s an Extranet gossip page.”
Miranda can’t deny that. Even Grunt peeks in now and again. Although she does quibble a bit at Shepard calling whatever that mess of words was an “apology.” Miranda would’ve at least demanded jewelry as tribute first. Not that she can’t afford her own, but it’s the principle of the matter.
“I understand that the loss of a partner is difficult, Shepard,” Samara says in her kindest voice, “but it is better to let go of false hope and accept the present than it is to languish in denial.”
Shepard glares at her crew. “Where the hell are you all getting this? Kaidan never said he wanted to break up.”
“Didn’ he piss and moan about you betraying the Alliance before running off with his knickers in a twist?” Massani asks. “Last time a woman was that mad at me, I lost a fuckin’ ball.”
“Look, I’m not thrilled with what Kaidan said either, but it doesn’t mean we’re broken up. Once I defeat the Collectors, we’ll hash things out between bouts of reunion sex.”
“Jesus.” Jack whistles. “And I thought the Cheerleader was deluded.”
“The biggest delusions I see here are your fashion choices,” Miranda shoots back. “I hate to say it Shepard, but I agree with Jack. You heard Alenko on Horizon and read that message. He even told you he’s seeing other people. It’s over.”
“Look, I’m not thrilled he went out with someone else, but I was presumed dead at the time and I wouldn’t want him to mourn me forever.” Shepard adds under her breath, “Although would another year or three of mourning have killed him?”
Miranda chooses to ignore that. The Illusive Man wanted Commander Shepard exactly as she was. Apparently she was and is insane.
“I believe the point the team is attempting to make is that your relationship came to a natural, albeit tragic, conclusion,” Thane explains, his face strained.
Shepard’s nose wrinkles. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means bitch, you died!” Jack screams. “That is the ultimate breakup move!”
“Me dying doesn’t mean we’re broken up!” Shepard yells back. “That wasn’t my fault! Why is everyone acting weird about this?”
Tali and Garrus exchange looks, Tali twisting her left leg back and forth as she fidgets. “Shepard, it has been a very long two years. I know you didn’t experience them as we did, but you can’t ignore how much time has passed.”
“And it’s not as if anyone could’ve predicted Cerberus would retrieve your body and advance medical science a couple centuries just to bring you back from the dead,” Garrus adds. “People move on because they don’t have any other choice.”
Shepard huffs, crossing her arms. “Okay, normally I would agree with you, but this is Kaidan. Moving on isn’t really his brand.”
Tali exhales louder than usual through her port. “But… no, no. I see your point.”
“Yeah, the logic there is almost sound.” Garrus shrugs. “Alenko’s worse than most turians at moving on. Still. Seems like a lot to bank on, Shepard.”
“Nope,” Shepard says, shaking her head. “We're definitely still together. We’ll go to couples counseling once I’m no longer affiliated with terrorists.”
“Cerberus is not a terrorist organization,” Miranda protests.
“Sure, Miranda, keep telling yourself that.” Shepard waves her off. “Kaidan is Kaidan, so I’m skipping to the part where I research which wedding venues are most likely to survive a Reaper invasion. Some of these waiting lists are stupid long even if you’re both asari.”
“Are you people shitting me here?” Jack demands, turning slightly blue. “Death means you’re broken up! No returns, exchanges, or rebounds! It’s my #1 way of ending relationships because it works every time!”
“Well, I didn’t fake my death, Jack, so maybe that’s the difference!”
“Shep, darling, dearest.” Kasumi pats Shepard’s shoulder. “Sorry, but Jack is right. Dying—whether it’s real or faked—is the ultimate boss breakup move. I used the old ‘fake your own death’ trick a few times myself to end relationships. Well, that and to get out of paying taxes.”
“What about now that Keiji is dead, Kasumi?” Shepard asks.
“It was very rude of him to go and actually die on me like that,” Kasumi says, visibly annoyed, “but yes, I would consider us broken up, in the sense that if Jacob here wanted to bend me over the armory bench, I’d allow it.”
“Real generous of you.” Jacob frowns at Kasumi.
“What?” Kasumi asks innocently. “It’s not like grayboxes have a vibrator option.”
“This conversation is ridiculous,” Shepard snaps. “Who cares what I think about the status of my relationship? It’s my business!”
“I agree,” Grunt says. “Battlemaster has no need for your semantics. She will rut with the whole galaxy and the squishy human she favors should be honored to carry her eggs.”
Shepard sighs heavily before patting Grunt’s head. “I appreciate the effort.”
Jack snort-laughs. “Guess the fishtank didn’t come with alien sex ed.”
“Don’t you people have better things to do than talk about my relationships?” Shepard demands.
“Not particularly,” Thane says. “There is a reason you can always find us in the same rooms, available to talk at any time of day or night.”
“So this is why the Alliance invented busywork,” Shepard mutters. “And seriously, faking your death just to end a relationship? Who the hell does that?”
“Like... everyone? Duh.” Jack rolls her eyes.
“No offense, Jack, but your track record works against you here,” Shepard says frostily.
“Let’s expand the sample set, then,” Kasumi suggests. “Everyone, raise your hand if you’ve ever faked your death to end a relationship.”
Miranda looks around the room. Jack’s hand is up immediately, of course, along with Massani. “Every few years you get a bint you just can’t shake,” he says with a laconic shrug, "an' I only got one ball left to lose." Then Jacob shifts uncomfortably before putting his hand up.
“Jacob,” Miranda says, glaring at him. “I thought better of you.”
“Look man, I tried telling it to her straight, but she kept slashing my car’s hoverfield generators,” Jacob protests. A pause, then: “I probably should’ve stopped hitting that after the third time.”
Jack nods gravely. “Never stick your dick in crazy.”
“I assume you’d know from experience?” Miranda says, sweetly poisonous.
“Hey, if someone fucks me and then is surprised that I went psycho after, that’s on them. It’s not like there weren’t warning signs. I even got a red flag tattooed on my ass. You wanna see, Cheerleader?”
Miranda grimaces in disgust. “For gods’ sake, no.”
Jack grins. Smug cunt.
“Okay, so a few of you have faked your deaths instead of breaking up like normal people,” Shepard says, rolling her eyes pointedly at Garrus, “or filing a restraining order.” That one she looks directly at Jacob. “Real mature, guys. But a few of you being cowards doesn’t mean it’s some universally accepted way of breaking up with people.”
Kasumi looks around the room. She stares Miranda dead in the eyes. “Anyone else?”
Samara squares her chin and raises her hand.
Shepard throws her hands in the air. “Really, Justicar?”
Samara doesn’t even blink. “In my maiden years, I was sometimes cruel. It is the folly of youth.”
Once Samara breaks, Thane follows, saying only, “It was kinder to think me a ghost.” How predictably and cryptically quixotic.
Garrus is the first real surprise. “Et tu, Garrus?” Shepard asks.
“Great. Now my translator is stuck on Shakespearean English,” Garrus mutters, rubbing at his in-ear comm’s implant site. “And yes. Not proud of it, but I did it.”
“Anyone else?” Kasumi asks.
Mordin blinks at all of them. “Salarians not prone to romantic attachments.” Then, stroking his chin, adds, “did once fake death to stall reproductive contract negotiations.”
“I think that counts,” Kasumi says.
“I’m with Shady over here, that counts.” Jack holds out her fist for Kasumi to bump.
“Shady, huh?” Kasumi fist bumps Jack. “I like it.”
Grunt grumbles a bit. “I have not yet had the pleasure of rutting with this body beyond what acts I perform upon myself. There are many ways I have found so far, some better than others.”
Garrus puts up a hand. “If this is going to turn into a diatribe on teenage krogan masturbation, I’ve got a very big gun to calibrate.”
“Quiet!” Grunt roars, and Garrus wisely shuts up. Grunt rests his chin on his hands. “The tank speaks mostly of war, of violence and bloodshed, but there are whispers of the Warlord Kredak hiding in a pile of rubble from his mate for two years, living off only his hump, only to be found conquering the southern clans ninety years later.”
“That’s... kind of a reach,” Jacob says.
“We counted Mordin,” Miranda argues, and oh my god why is she entertaining this nonsense.
Kasumi and Jack, the self-appointed judges, confer quietly among themselves.
“We’ll allow it,” Kasumi announces.
Grunt giggles and officially raises his hand, happy to be part of the group.
Tali tentatively raises her hand and asks, “Does it count if I just took advantage of the Normandy’s crash to make someone think I was dead?”
“Wait, who were you knocking suits with in that getup?” Jack asks, grinning.
“No suit-knocking, alas.” Tali sighs, frustrated. “We were chatting on one of those Extranet dating sites. He seemed nice at first but kept wanting to talk about the infection I would get if we did have sex. So I set up a VI to reroute his messages to a fake death announcement.”
“Still counts,” Jack declares.
Kasumi grins. “I concur.”
“Human suitor?” Mordin asks.
Tali tilts her head. “How did you know?”
“Human sexuality uniquely adaptive, high variability. Potentially quarian fetishist, more likely sexually aroused by sickness and/or weakness. Likelihood of becoming victim of Munchausen’s by proxy... high.” Mordin sniffs. “Wise to ghost. Suggest blocking omni-code as well.”
"Already done, but he kept getting around my filters with burner accounts. It seems he finally stopped a few months ago."
“I told you to stay off Bumpr, Tali.” Shepard scowls at her. “That site is a cesspool. But I’m glad me dying painfully in the empty vastness of space helped you ghost a creep.”
“I am aware of the suitor in question and have blocked all attempts he has made to contact Tali’Zorah. So far he has generated 97 additional screennames with the intention of evading my block,” EDI announces.
“Oh.” Tali ducks her head. “Thanks, EDI.”
“I am pleased to assist.”
“Why do the Collectors want humans again?” Garrus asks, his mandibles tight against his face in disgust. “They’re all perverts.”
“Uh, EDI? The term you’re looking for is ‘sockpuppets,’” Joker says over the comm.
“Joker?” Shepard says, head in her hands. “Are you listening?”
“Hell yeah I am. I’m gonna put a transcript of this conversation in my virtual scrapbook. It’ll really lighten things up between the ‘staggering loss of human life’ and the ‘suicide mission into the galactic core’ pages. Gives the reader a break, y’know?”
“If I may interrupt for a moment,” Samara begins, “what is a Bumpr?”
Jack’s laughing so hard she almost falls off the crate she’s perched on. “It means someone likes their dick strange.”
“Bumpr is a popular Extranet dating site that specializes in only matching users from different species,” EDI explains. “While founded by humans, the site also has a significant asari userbase.”
“Yeah, EDI, half those asari are dudes back on Earth catfishing,” Joker says over the comm. “Wait, is that everyone now?”
Miranda tries to shrink down and avoid notice. It’s not something she’s historically succeeded at doing.
“I think we missed the Cheerleader,” Jack says with a vicious little purr. “How about it, Cheerleader? You ever rig an explosion and skate out the back?”
“No explosions required to end any of my relationships,” Miranda snaps.
But…
“I took a long-acting paralytic to fake a two-week coma,” Miranda confesses grudgingly. “He moved on in six days, so when I ‘woke up,’ I accused him of cheating on me and stole his cat.”
No one speaks.
“You stole his cat?” Joker is aghast. “You monster.”
“He was a Terra Firma activist who wanted open war with the turians and the cat is living a very happy life with a former associate who needed an ESA. I have pictures on my omni-tool if you’re curious.”
“Duh,” Kasumi says. Miranda sends the photos and there’s a pause to admire the adorable cat and her new turian owner. Even Jack is murmuring “kitty!”
Massani is less impressed. “Fat lot of work you did just to steal a fucking cat when could’ve just gutted ‘em both like fish.”
“He loved that cat more than anyone in the galaxy. But I actually did kill them both a few years later,” Miranda remarks. “It was during the course of a mission, so business, not personal.”
“Okay!” Shepard yells. “I see no one on my ground crew knows how to use their fucking words, but that still doesn’t mean that Kaidan and I are broken up just because I died.”
“You’re recruiting for a suicide mission, Shepard,” Joker reminds her. “None of these people would be here if they had healthy emotional attachments.”
He’s not wrong. Hope Lilium explicitly screened dossiers for that.
“Does that mean you’re here because you’ve faked your death to break up with someone, Joker?” Shepard asks.
“Of course not. Never had the opportunity.”
A suspiciously long pause.
“But I did have someone else fake their death to break up with me.”
“Ouch,” Kasumi says, while Jack starts chanting “one of us!” Grunt joins her.
“Yeah, seriously guys, read some self-help books or talk to Chambers. Not a great way to get dumped, let me tell you.”
“If it would improve your emotional well-being, Jeff, I could inform you that I have also never faked my death to terminate contact with another party,” EDI offers helpfully. “Although the reverse is also true.”
“Well if you wanna join the club, feel free to pretend to off yourself forever,” Joker mutters.
“All right. This has gone on long enough.” Shepard’s face is bright red. “Everyone on this ship is ordered to shut the fuck up and get therapy. But only after the suicide mission. Are we clear?”
“Yeah, doubt any psych not named Kelly Chambers would approve of their client going on a literal suicide mission,” Joker says. “Not great for the extranet reviews.”
“Joker!”
“Yeesh, fine. Shutting up now.”
//
2187
The party has been wonderful so far. Shepard’s apartment is gorgeous, and it’s lovely to have a moment to breathe with people she likes and trusts (or at least grudgingly respects) after so long on the run.
Shepard is mingling, but she stops by and kisses Alenko before hopping off to contain the shooting gallery that Wrex, Zaeed, and Garrus are drunkenly assembling.
“You two make a good couple,” Jacob says to Alenko. “Pretty impressive you both moved past your breakup and made things work. I'm sure that wasn't easy.”
Alenko’s brow furrows. “What do you mean? We were never broken up in the first place.”
What.
#mass effect le: boogaloo#mass effect#shenko#me2 crew#wtf did i just write#tw: gendered slur#tw: ableism#miranda lawson#jack mass effect#and yes#legion too#if i can figure out the logistics i'll add more#lita writes stuff
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nightmares turn to dreams
for @flaine1996 as part of the @masseffectholidaycheer
Part 2 of 2: after (fic) [part 2: before (music)]
aka Thane & Kaidan during ME3, and how they’ve dealt with their lives after they met Shepard (background F!Shenko) because how you do a thing matters.
*
Hospitals are too damned bright.
This one's at least got big picture windows, so it's not all that fake white sterility.
If Kaidan thinks about it too much it makes him feel worse, though, because he's inside a space station. It's not real sunlight, it's not real fresh air, and yet it fools him for a moment every morning when he first looks "outside", and wants to crack the window to let some of that in.
But the outside's not much different than the inside, even with all the cultivated plants and water out there. (There are plants and water in here, after all. They'd wheeled him to the atrium as soon as he could manage sitting up, and they let him walk himself there now that he's a bit more mobile.)
He misses the wind off the seashore, the tang of real pine as the air starts turning cold, the way frost makes the inside of his nose tickle. (It'd be a terrible idea, of course, sitting outside in a Canadian autumn in the shape he's in, but he wants it, beyond rhyme or reason or logic.)
Or maybe he wants it to be summer, sitting on a porch drinking a cold beer.
Nothing quite like a cold beer on a hot day, his grandmother had told him once, back when he'd been granted his first spare sip of his father's drink, and almost spat it out again at how dank and bitter it had tasted. She'd had a quirk of a smile on her face, and the rest of the adults had barely smothered their laughter at his expression. Though you might not agree with me on that one just yet.
Or ever, his mother had answered, shaking her head over her sparkling water. She never did drink beer, and seldom used wine for anything other than cooking, either. Some of us still don't.
"You still with me?"
Kaidan blinks, makes himself focus on Tiana, his physical therapist. "Sorry," he answers, his voice rough in his too dry throat. He reaches out a hand, and she slips a water bottle in it before he can even ask. He drinks, tries not to think too much about how different the tepid liquid is from the beer in his memory.
Tiana shakes her head when he passed the bottle back, a smile clear in the flare of her mandibles. "No apologies necessary. We're almost done."
Kaidan sighs out a breath in relief, ignores the ache in his thighs and back, and makes himself do one more rep, than another.
"There we go," Tiana sighs with him as he finishes. "Time to cool down."
Kaidan nods, and doesn't bother trying to speak again as they go through the familiar routine. Sweat is slick on his skin, and he hates how exhausted he is, hates the dull throb from the neutral amp they'd put in to make sure his biotics didn't flare during his recovery.
SOP for head wounds; he knows that, but that doesn't mean he likes it.
He never thought he'd miss that sharp-sweet pressure from his L2 implants, that constant background he'd forced himself to accept over the years, but now that it's temporarily suppressed he doesn't quite feel like himself, almost as off-kilter from the change in the static between his ears as from relearning the shape and stretch of his body.
He wonders, a little, how much worse it must have been for Shepard, to wake up with everything different around her, body and mind and galaxy...
He shakes his head, and makes himself focus on the here and now.
He's got it so much better than she did, he doesn't have anything to complain about, not really.
He's not isolated, he's got messages from his folks waiting for his reply, even a quick note from Anderson in his inbox. He's got a tech analysis to go over from Tali, who asked for a second opinion, and a rant from Garrus about their current REV that ends with a truly bewildered how the fuck does this damn thing make me miss the Mako?
Nothing from Shepard, but he understands that, he does. They need more than blank words on a screen. She'd come to visit him, he knew that, but he'd been too far gone, not yet awake, and he wishes...
He just has to wait.
He's getting better, even if it's at a frustratingly slow pace...
Unlike his standing dinner engagement. Krios is never going to get better.
He and Thane eat together most days.
They don't ever talk about Shepard, the one thing that they have in common, the one thing that brought them together...
It's nice, actually, to talk to someone who didn't know him before, who has no expectations, no preconceptions. Who goes still whenever Kaidan does, whenever one of them thinks of something from their past that's too heavy to let slip away quickly.
Only tonight, Thane doesn't go silent, as if he can tell that Kaidan's worries are closer to the surface than usual.
"She keeps a picture of you."
Kaidan blinks, his fork hovering somewhere between his plate and his mouth.
"In her quarters, on her desk." Thane blinks, more slowly than usual, the movement of his eyelids easy to follow. He exhales, heavy and rasping. "A reminder, I think, not just of why she fights, but how she chooses to do so."
Kaidan closes his eyes, puts his fork down with a soft tunk. It aches, twisting and bitter, somewhere in his chest where his heart's supposed to be.
He'd failed to be there for her, and yet she acted like he had been, and he wasn't sure he'd ever forgive himself...
Thane scoffs in the back of his throat, the noise softer and deeper than one Kaidan would make, caught in the dregs of his illness, in the shape of his mouth and tongue. "I do not say that to make you feel worse, Alenko."
Kaidan manages half a smile, opens his eyes. "But I'm good at feeling guilty, Krios, what else should I do?"
Thane rolls his eyes, his expression soft. "Not that."
"You any good at taking your own advice?"
"I have made my peace—"
Kaidan scoffs that time, louder and sharper. "No, you haven't. Settling into dying isn't the same thing as accepting how you lived."
Thane is truly still this time, his hands pressing down on the table hard enough that Kaidan can see the shape of the seam through the thick joint in his middle finger.
"There are things I've done..." Thane trails off.
"I killed my first man when I was a teenager." Kaidan shrugs as Thane tilts his head, clearly listening, even as he doesn't quite lift his head enough to meet Kaidan's gaze. "And sure, it was provoked out of me, was mostly a protective instinct, and I'm not sure there was a way to have stopped it, not with everything else that was happening..." He trails off this time, swallows. He knows Thane is waiting for him to finish, recognizes that he's not trying to stop, that he just has to line up the words properly. "But for just a moment I was glad I'd stopped him, proud of what I was capable of doing to another person, and no matter how horrified I was a moment later, I will never again not know that about myself."
Thane nods, slow and steady and understanding. Kaidan had thought he'd understand. Not a lot of people would. "And then what did you do, once you learned yourself?"
Kaidan huffs out something that's not a laugh. "I got lost for awhile."
"Perhaps I should let myself get lost." Thane's voice is thick, and a little damp, and Kaidan can't quite tease out the emotion from his illness.
I don't think you have the time. But Kaidan knows not to say that. Doesn’t even want to, really. Thane doesn’t need the time, after all, not like Kaidan had, all those years ago.
"I don't know, I think that's hard to do when you've found yourself again, already." Kaidan lets himself smile; it's not entirely happy, but it's there, and he sees the tension in Thane's shoulders ease at the sight of it. "You've got Kolyat, and your memories. And the Normandy."
"We both have Shepard."
Kaidan nods. He knows he does, knows he will, when he can stand on his own, when she comes back. It might not be what it was, nothing's ever exactly what it was, but they'll still have... something. They'll make it enough, he's sure of it. "We'll always have Shepard. And she'll always have us."
"Always?" Thane doesn't have an eyebrow to raise, but the expression's familiar nonetheless, sardonic but not as heavy as he was a moment ago. Thane doesn't have much time left.
“How she chooses to fight, remember?” How you live matters, even when you're not around to see the consequences. Kaidan knows he'll never forget Thane Krios, and the company he had during this odd oasis in his life. Knows Shepard never forgets any of her friends. Kaidan's smile is a bit easier this time, and it widens even further when he sees Thane smile back, small but sincere. Thane understands. "So yeah. Always."
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12 from the fluffy prompts for f!shenko please!
Thank you so much for the ask!
“This reminded me of you.” from this list
Rebecca Shepard x Kaidan Alenko; ME3, Citadel DLC; 1548 words
Spending the first few days of mandatory shore leave chasing your own clone and recovering your stolen ship was not how Rebecca Shepard had envisioned the time off. She hadn’t expected Anderson to give her his apartment either, but she wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead she decided to spend the time as ordered: off duty while she caught up with friends, took it easy, and spent quality time with Kaidan. Granted her shore leaves had always been hit or miss on whether other people enjoyed them with her but Kaidan was different. She knew him. Really knew him and thought she might be able to find things they both enjoyed doing.
That’s why she stopped into a random store in one of the lower wards market districts. It screamed Kaidan Alenko. The ward itself was home to a mixture of races and was a prime area for tourists to frequent. And that was what she was at the moment. Not the Commander, not the Savior of the Citadel, not the galaxy’s beacon of hope against the impossible. Just a tourist looking for a gift for her nerdy boyfriend and did that shop fit the bill. Thankful she actually listened to his random facts at all hours of the day and night, she was sure to find something he liked.
The whole concept of the store was based on interesting and unique things from Earth’s past. As one of the newer species on the galactic scene, humanity was still a curiosity to some. The oddities of Earth’s pop culture from past centuries permeated the shelves, racks, and display spaces in the specialty shop.
Shepard roamed the aisles looking for a specific pop culture icon from the late 20th-early 21st centuries. Surely they had something related to his nerdy obsession. After all he had been through and all he did for her, he deserved something familiar, something comforting, something distinctly Kaidan.
Finally at the very back of the store, she found it. All sorts of items: tee shirts, hats, figures, plushies, OSDs with movies and TV series, models, and much more. But one thing in particular caught her attention. A box containing what looked to be a collection of several items. Ones she knew Kaidan would love.
Her target acquired, the Commander- turned- tourist quickly paid for it and made her way back to the apartment. If she were lucky, Kaidan would still be out with Cortez, Vega, and Joker at the arcade. She could wrap it and surprise him.
Hopefully…
~~~~~
“Hey, Becca! I’m back,” Kaidan’s voice called from the living room.
“I’m in here,” she shouted from the bar area. The large box sat on the coffee table in front of her as The Battlespace played on the large vid screen but muted.
The Major rounded the wall partition as he commented, “Joker still wants to have that party. Tried all evening to get Steve, Vega, and me to convince you to agree to it.”
“I told him I’d think about it,” Rebecca groaned from the couch.
“Yeah, well you know Joker. He gets an idea and won’t let go until he gets his way,” Alenko replied as he came to stand by the couch, the artificial fire crackling behind him.
“Yeah. I know but all I want to do right now is spend time with you,” she said tossing her red hair over her shoulder. “Alone.”
“I’m all yours tonight, Becca,” he assured her as his whiskey-colored eyes flickered to the coffee table. “I promise.”
Shepard grinned. “Something catch your eye, Major?”
“You always have my eye, Shep,” he said with a lop-sided grin.
“You’ve gotten better with your flirting,” she noted as he approached the table.
“Who said I was flirting? I thought I was simply stating a fact,” Alenko commented, winking at her.
“Kaidan,” the Commander murmured as she felt herself blush lightly.
“It’s true,” the L2 biotic said as he pointed to the box. “But what it that?”
“It’s a box.”
“Becca.”
“It’s a wrapped box.”
“Shepard.”
“It’s a wrapped box with something allegedly inside it.”
“Rebecca Jane Shepard!”
The Commander laughed as she held up her hands as if in surrender. “Okay! Okay! No reason to sound like my dad.”
Kaidan made a face. “Don’t ever say that again. That’s just…weird.”
Rebecca laughed again as she motioned towards the box. “It’s for you.”
“Me?” the Major asked in surprise. “From who?”
She frowned as she replied indignantly, “Me, Alenko. Unless you have other women gifting you things behind my back.”
“Hell, no,” the second human Specter exclaimed as he reached for the box.
“No guys either?” she teased as he sat down on the couch beside her.
With the box in his lap, he gave her an incredulous look. “Sweetheart, while I do like both men and women, I only love you.”
Shepard was left speechless by his honesty as he quickly kissed her cheek. He gave her a grin and began to unwrap the box. Her once emotionally reserved Lt. was not so any longer, and it suited him. It suited him very well.
“You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“You always say that, and you know I’m gonna do it anyway.”
“Yeah, well I still think you don’t have to…”
The Commander grinned as he went silent. His fingers traced over the edges of the box as his eyes flickered from one image to another on the side facing him. She leaned forward to look at him better. His expression was one of surprise and something she couldn’t place.
“I found it at an Earth novelty shop in one of the wards,” she said softly.
Kaidan nodded as she continued to look over the box.
“This,” Rebecca said motioning to the focus of his attention, “reminded me of you.”
“I had some like these when I was a kid,” Kaidan murmured as he opened the box. “My mom found them somewhere. Used to put them together to distract me from my biotics when I got frustrated with them.”
Shepard smiled as he pulled out several smaller boxes, each of a different model kit. She watched as his smile widened as he told her the name of each ship the model was supposed to build. A look of fondness for a childhood memory on his handsome features the entire time.
“This one’s an X-wing—Red 5. Luke’s ship…This is the Millennium Falcon—a YT-1300…Ummm, this is a TIE Fighter and a…TIE Advanced—Vader’s I think…A Star Destroyer—Venator class used during the Clone Wars and a…Oh wow! It’s the Ebon Hawk!”
Shepard recognized all the ships except the last one from binge watching the Star Wars movies and series with him in the hospital. “Come again?”
He turned to her excitedly. “It’s the ship from a couple of Star Wars video games. I had an emulator for them growing up. I might still have it…”
“So it’s a good thing?”
He nodded with a broad grin. “It was a fun couple of games. I can show them to you some time but…”
“But what?”
“Well, my mom used to say the pilot of the ship sounded a little like me,” he said rubbing the back of his neck, clearly a little embarrassed. “It might be weird.”
She looked at him thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s just one more thing that can remind me of you. You are weird in a special kind of way.”
Kaidan gazed at her happily. “This mean a lot to me, Becca. Just like you do. Thank you.”
“I’m glad,” she said looping an arm though his.
He went back to inspecting the model kits as she laid her head against his shoulder.
“You know,” she began, “when you get those put together I think there might be enough room to display them in the case in the loft.”
He turned to her. “You’d put my model kits from Star Wars with your models of real ships?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Umm, because they’re not—”
“Not what, Kaidan?” she asked. “They are important to you and you are important to me.”
He looked at her with cynically. “While that does sound sweet and sincere, is that really the only reason?”
“Well, of course it is,” she replied. Shepard paused and winced. “Welllll, that and I think most of them look badass…except for the TIE. It looks like a messed-up eyeball.”
Alenko laughed. “Oddly enough that was a nickname the Rebels and New Republic pilots gave them. The TIE/LN starfighter and the TIE/D Defender specifically. I—”
“Alright, my handsome nerd, I get you are excited and I’m glad you like them, but I thought we were spending the night together. Alone. Do I need to be jealous of the model kits?”
“No, Becca. I’m all yours,” he said setting them aside as he leaned over. Kissing her, he suggested, “We could watch the movies though.”
“Hmmmm,” she said. “We could as long as it isn’t too distracting.”
“If you want my full attention all you ever have to do it ask.”
“I know. And I love you. You and all of your nerdiness too.”
“Oh good. I was worried…”
“Kaidan.”
“I love you too.”
She smiled. Rebecca would always love him. Everything about him. Everything.
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F*ckuary Day 13- “Bend Over” (Mass Effect, Shenko M)
I did it! Took me the entire month but this is the last prompt.
--
The side of Rose Shepard’s boot dragged across the door as she backed into her quarters, but Kaidan Alenko’s grip kept her from falling and she closed her eyes as his hands fisted her uniform jacket.
“How...how much time?” she managed to ask between heated kisses.
“An hour.” Kaidan replied, his hands already going for the buttons of her jacket. “Or, at least that’s how long EDI can run interference.”
Rose let out a laugh as Kaidan finally got her jacket unbuttoned and pushed it off, revealing her sports bra and the litany of scars from years in the Alliance. “Should I be concerned that you’re talking to an AI about our sex life?”
“I framed it as ‘de-stressing’ and I think we all can agree that you need to relax.” Kaidan scraped his five o’clock shadow against her neck as he kissed her shoulder, giving him a thrill as she let out a slight noise at the action.
Hands bumped against each other as Rose went for his own jacket and laughter bubbled out or him, if Kaidan was honest with himself, he was making up for lost time. Nearly three years without her and finally clearing the air between them meant that he didn’t want to waste any more time.
“I got it.” Kaidan said as he took Shepard’s hands in his and pressed feather light kisses against her fingers.
As he took off his jacket, Rose toed off her shoes followed by unbuttoning her pants. Standing before him in just her underwear, Rose watched as Kaidan’s jacket hit the floor and lunged towards him, wrapping her legs around his waist.
Kaidan automatically grabbed her thighs to support her and as they resumed kissing, made his way into the small office area. Datapads clattered to the floor as he pressed her against the desk and felt the need straining against his pants. Breaking the kiss, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Turn around.” he replied breathlessly before taking half a step back to give Shepard room to move.
Rose just smiled as she slid off the desk and slowly turned around, her gaze lingering at the wet spot on Kaidan’s boxer briefs and giving him a smirk before fully facing the wall.
Kaidan closed the space between them and pressed a gentle kiss where her shoulders met her neck as his hands settled on her waist. Hooking the fabric over a finger, he then pulled them down and let gravity do the rest of the work. “Bend over.” he whispered into her ear, smiling as she shivered.
Rose did as Kaidan said, pressing her ass against his erection and closing her eyes at how good it felt to feel him against her. A hand settled on her hip as the other started to lightly skim across her body. She braced her arms against the desk as the touches continue, never staying in one place too long and no pattern to it.
She felt the pressure between her legs increase as Kaidan’s hand palmed a breast and lingered for a few seconds before moving on. Shifting slightly, Rose heard the rustle of fabric and then felt him fully against her. Letting a noise slip out, she bit down on her bottom lip as he nudged her knees apart before entering her and his hand moved its way down her stomach.
Afterwards as they lightly dozed on her bed, Kaidan’s hand entwined with hers, Rose brushed her nose against his. “Thank you.” she whispered.
“For what?” Kaidan mumbled, mostly asleep.
“For not giving up on me. On us.”
Kaidan slowly opened his eyes to stare at Rose and gave her a lazy smile. “It was worth it. You’re worth it.”
“You think your parent’s cabin in the interior is still around?”
Kaidan thought about the question for a moment before answering, “Possibly. It’s pretty remote. Even for Canada.”
Rose laughed at the statement. Tucking the sheet around her, she continued, “I was thinking...after the war, when we’re finally able to get an extended amount of leave, maybe...maybe we could go back there.”
Kaidan hadn’t dared to really think about what would come after the war, not after Thane had sacrificed himself during the attack on the Citadel, and it really hit home that there were no guarantees everyone would make it out of this. But to hear Shepard talk about planning for the future gave him a tiny spark of hope. “I’ll have EDI put it in your planner. A year from now, we’ll be at the cabin for a month.”
“That sounds like a plan to me.”
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ghosts.
to be entirely honest, i got overly ambitious with this one. another wip i started earlier this year and decidedly didn’t finish. you’ll probably be able to tell where the original ended i picked it back up -- but i liked the concept, so here it is.
f!shenko. post-alchera, post-me1. mention of major character death.
-
"I've never liked attending funerals, mourning people in general. Reminds me of everything I failed to do, and if I couldn't do anything, then that I should've been able to," Her eyes bore into his, head in her hands, "It's so many should'ves, and not enough 'dids'."
"You did all you could."
She's just out of reach, eyes downcast at the gardens of the Presidium. Still smoking, still mangled. She'd always said she hated the color black, hated mourning, but had worn it anyway. He's not sure what to do, looking at her standing there, but he reaches out for her anyway, "Did I?"
"Kaidan?" He retracts his hand from where he'd reached, pushing his elbows off the railing to face Liara. Dressed in black, accepting the human tradition though looking uncomfortable. Tired, not all there with dark circles etched underneath her eyes, "Tali is looking for you."
It takes him a moment to find his voice as Shepard disappears, Liara taking her place, "Why?"
"She...wanted to say goodbye before returning to the flotilla." Her voice is quiet, hoarse. The Asari hadn't been taking the death well, one of the more affected crewmates after the tragedy. He doesn't know why, but it isn't as if she didn't care for Shepard as well.
"So soon?" It'd only been a few weeks since Alchera, not even a full month yet. He hadn't expected anyone to stay if they didn't want to, the investigation against Saren had been over for months now. And they had only been here for Shepard regardless. Now, they didn't have any reason to be together, much less on the same ship. He didn't expect to become so attached to all of them, watching them go wasn't something he wanted to do.
"She didn't give any reasoning to her departure, if you were wondering," Liara answers, "Possibly, she isn't interested in staying."
"Is there anyone staying?"
"Garrus mentioned wanting to return to Citadel Security. I believe Wrex will return to either his mercenary lifestyle, or to Tuchanka," She pauses, turning her big blue eyes back to him. It was odd to think she was still just on the cusp of becoming a young adult in Asari culture, yet at times, times like these, was when her younger nature came through. The whites of her eyes were a bloodshot red, puffy. She'd been crying again.
"I trust Liara. She's a bit naive, but she's brilliant. Wish I was like that when I was her age -- or however that translates to us humans," Shepard's voice again, as if she's standing behind him. Her fingers ghosting over his own, her head on his shoulder, "Poor girl though. Losing her mother. Can't imagine how much that hurts. She doesn't talk about it, little worried she's deflecting from the problem entirely."
"I met her family today. They were very kind, and expressed their gratitude that I'd been a friend of her's. They didn't seem surprised, but I suppose when one dies, no one acknowledges the fact you're Asari. Only that you knew them in their life, and they cared about you enough to tell those they cared about who you were," Liara continues, snapping him out of his thoughts as Shepard's presence fades, "Losing their daughter though, that must've been devastating for them. She was a lovely person."
"It never gets easier," He responds in agreement. He hadn't had the heart to talk to Captain Shepard when he'd seen her around. He's almost glad he hadn't seen the youngest Shepard daughter milling around, after having met her after Shepard's first near death experience, Kaidan doesn't think he could find any other words to comfort her with, "I can't imagine what they're going through."
"I understand you were close to her, Lieutenant. I will not pry, but I offer what condolences I can," She offers him a gentle smile, pulling at the corners of her mouth while a tear slides down her cheek, lip quivering, "I did not expect for her to become so much to me so quickly. Why I find myself more upset about this than the events of Noveria, I'm surely broken."
"You're not broken, Liara. It's natural to grieve."
"For someone you knew for a few months instead of the woman who raised you?" Liara questions, "I think about this, some days. Had she not come to find me on Therum, whether I'd even be here today. How even though I was an alien to her, that she still cared for me as a friend. She did not mind me, in fact enjoyed my company. She did not poke fun at me when I didn't understand human mannerisms. She taught, she guided. Answer me this, Kaidan, why was she so important? Why is it impossible to stop thinking about her?"
I wish I knew, "She was a friend. Inspired a lot of people. She appreciated everyone, gave them purpose. It's normal for us to miss her, she gave her life so the rest of us could get off the Normandy," He answers, "There aren't a lot of people like her. Doubt we'll meet another Shepard in our lifetimes."
"Ashley gave her life to save ours, Kaidan. Maybe it was because of us, maybe I will feel horrible about it for the rest of my life, but I don't think I made the wrong decision, if that's what you're asking. I...would've switched places with her in a heartbeat, if it meant both of you would live. But fate doesn't work that way, and I chose you."
She'd been a mess then. Angry, frustrated, sad. Pacing around the mess late at night when she couldn't get to sleep -- he'd watched her fall apart. Losing Ashley had destroyed her, and yet she somehow made it sound like the right decision. It echoes in his head.
He still wonders if she chose right. He wonders if he chose right, going ahead to the escape pod instead of stubbornly staying with Shepard and forcing her along with him.
Now he'd never know.
"I suppose," She says shakily, gently wiping away rogue tears with delicate hands, "Ah, you are right. Still, she is someone I will not forget easily, but grief is finite. It is better we see her for how she was in life -- someone we were lucky to meet."
"That's all we can do," He agrees. And he echoes the sentiment, maybe it had been luck that drew them together. Maybe circumstance, he can't quite place it, "You know Shepard, she wouldn't have wanted us to wallow in that sadness."
"I do not believe Shepard intended to die," Liara gives him a quizzical look at the comment, before a gleam of understanding flashes through her eyes, "Oh. No, I suppose not. I do hope that where she's gone, that she's at least at peace for once. She's done so much for the galaxy, it is only fair that she finally rests."
"Vancouver, you said?" Liara grows quiet while Shepard's presence fades back, "I like the idea. Never been up there, but after this cruise, we'll carve a little time out for us. How's that sound?"
Her grin isn't really there, nor is the kiss that she'd pressed to his cheek just a moment after the sentiment was made. None of her is, "Yeah. It's only fair."
Liara takes her leave a little while later, the silence beginning to suffocate the both of them. The procession begins to thin out sometime after that, but he's still struggling to wrap his head around it. And he shouldn't be, not after she's already been gone so long. A part of him misses her more than he can verbalize, or even really rationalize.
What he'd give to have her back.
"The galaxy didn't end after Virmire, as much as I was convinced it would. Ash’s mom even called me once. I thanked her daughter for her service, and we talked for a while. Didn’t rip in to me for it, even though I deserved it," Soft, yet firm. He remembers how she'd leaned against a railing similar to this one, a lazy half-grin on her face before turning to him, "If anything happens to me, no one sets the galaxy ablaze. That's how we get villain origin stories."
He should move on, he hasn't even known her that long, and yet she's all that he can think about.
He's not sure he wants to live in a galaxy without her.
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Fictober Day 29
Prompt: “Back up!”
Fandom: Mass Effect
Rating: T
Pairing: Shenko
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"If they would stop shooting at us that would be great." Shepard ground out as he hid behind cover. It was hard enough to get a good spot to try and get a shot of the enemy, but even if he had one it was near impossible to line up a shot with how much fire was pouring out of the destroyed building.
Kaidan was to his side trying to take a shot whenever he could. He glanced around the corner, pulling back quickly as the enemy opened fire. "Any ideas commander?"
"None." He grumbled in annoyance, "James, any luck on your end?"
"Negative loco." The comm crackled, "place is locked down tight."
"A moment commander, but I have scans of the building, perhaps they'd be of assistance?" Glyph's artificial voice came through clear, somehow it had no static even though the drone was in the shuttle halfway across town.
"That'd be great Glyph." Shepard tried to line up a shot but a round of gunfire towards him made him drop quickly as he pulled the trigger. He was sure he missed it.
"Overlaying them on your HUD now."
The maps he was staring at suddenly disappeared and then reloaded. "Perfect, thanks."
"Of course commander."
"Shepard there's another ship coming in, you guys might want to head that way when you can.” Liara sent an indicator of the ship to the marines on the ground. “Looks like only four on board from here.”
“Sounds like our way in.” Shepard looked around the wall he was hiding behind, ducked down, and scooted across and back into cover on the other side. Kaidan followed a moment after, and the pair worked their way around the line of broken walls to where the ship had landed.
It was a small, simple transport, nothing like the Kodiak, but that’s all they needed. Shepard signaled Kaidan forward, the biotic hurrying into position as Shepard switched to his M8.
“James, where’re you at?” He called. A blip popped up on his HUD, just on the other side of the wall. “Made it inside?”
“Yeah.” James whispered over the comm, “I’m not suited for sneaking so not sure how-” He cursed as gunfire erupted across the signal. “Never mind, looks like the party found me.” What sounded like Vega shouting what sounded like ‘come get some Cerberus bastards’ crackling through.
“Hold tight, we’ll be there to back you up soon.” Shepard turned to Kaidan, “Let’s clear the landing zone.”
“Sure thing Commander.” The biotic nodded, readied himself, and both spectres vaulted over the wall opening fire. Once the landing pad was cleared the double-checked to make sure their targets were actually dead, and then rushed inside, kicking down the door and sweeping the room.
The first room was empty, but the second was full of Cerberus troops milling about. Judging by the sound of gunfire James was in the next room over and these soldiers were unconcerned about how well their comrades were faring. Fine for them, while it would mean it would take longer to get in to back James up, it also meant he likely wasn’t nearly as overwhelmed as they thought. They opened fire while running for cover as the troopers in the room noticed the newcomers.
“James, how’re you holding up?” Kaidan shouted over the comm.
“Still kicking, nearly clear I think.” He let out a shout followed by more gunfire.
“Sounds like he’s fine.”
“Sounds like he’s having fun.” Shepard corrected, earning a laugh from his lover.
The gunfire around them stopped and they peaked around to see the cause. From the looks of it, the radio in their helmets was glitching out as they fought with their buckets a moment before a loud screeching sound echoed through the room.
“The hell was that?” Kaidan winced. His question was answered with the arrival of a banshee phasing through the wall. “Oh, that’s bad.”
Cursing, Shepard slapped the M8 onto his back and pulled his rifle free. Checking to make sure it was loaded he hurried to the opposite side of the room Kaidan right behind him. They found cover away from the firefight that broke out as the Cerberus troops turned their attention to the reaper monstrosity attempting to whittle down its barriers in hopes of bringing it down. The banshee seemed unfazed by their efforts, though the shimmer around it seemed to dim with each shot that bounced off the invisible shield.
Shepard propped the Black Widow on the wall, carefully taking aim. “I don’t think they’ll appreciate our help but…” He held his breath, lined up the shot, and pulled the trigger putting a bullet right between the creature’s eyes. He fired twice more, the first taking down the barrier, and the other two the banshee herself. Exhaling he popped the heatsink and reloaded. “I’d rather fight Cerberus to that anyway.”
“Agreed.” Kaidan checked his barriers and readied himself to charge as his commander took aim once more and took out some of the troopers that seemed to still be realizing the banshee was dead. He managed to take out six before they realized what had happened. As Shepard was lining up the next shot a grenade landed next to him. Kaidan lunged, shoving him away and the pair laned just out of range of the explosion though the indicator for their barriers flashed a moment before recharging to full strength.
Shepard lay sprawled under Kaidan, his rifle still in hand and a surprised look on his face. “You know if you wanted me under you so bad you could’ve just asked.”
The biotic huffed a laugh, “Maybe I just wanted to be spontaneous.” He grinned as he pushed himself to his feet, avenger in hand, and ready.
Shepard returned the grin with one of his own, stowing his widow and returning the M8 to his hands. He went to say something in reply but an explosion near the far side of the room and James shouting cut him off.
“Loco, are you and Blue seriously flirting right now?” They could see him kick a trooper in the back and open fire on those around him.
“I would like to note that this is an open channel,” Liara added in.
Kaidan let out an awkward laugh as he jumped into the fray.
“Ah leave us alone.” Shepard shot back as he opened fire.
“We sure will once we get back to the Normandy,” James returned, “I’ll avoid your quarters for the next few days. Maybe a week. I don’t want to risk seeing you and Alenko doing the horizontal tango.”
“Are you three done yet?” Liara spoke up before they could continue.
“Just finishing up..” Shepard dropped the last of the troopers, “Done.”
“I’ll send Cortez to pick you up then, and see you back on the Normandy.” The comm fitzed and disconnected, and the roar of engines alerted them to the Kodiak landing just outside. The team scrounged for supplies quickly and ran for the transport, leaving before any reinforcements or further reaper forces arrived.
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if I can do a second one, ♫ Kaidan Alenko
So this is arguably kind of a shenko song, but. I feel like more than that, it's.. kinda what Kaidan looks for in love. I love you and you love me / so we never demand and we never agree / I love you and you love me / and there's new fruit hummin' in the old fruit tree. The steadiness of it, the laid-back feel... This song is about choosing to love someone over and over again every day, and like the stable domestic low-key joy of two people to make that choice about each other. I would put this song on a playlist about Kaidan in pretty much any ship, not just shenko. Big Kaidan/Steve vibes too imo
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51 for smut prompts for whatever pairing you'd like, please? :)
Thank yooooou for the prompt! I went with Shenko for this one. Rated E, 3476 words long, and there’s way too much talking before things get gross.51 - “What? Does that feel good?”
Snug between dozing’s haze and wakefulness’s deluge, Shepard sent her fingers on a fact-finding mission to place the whereabouts of her pills. With her face stuck in a drool-sticky pillow, it was following a full minute of fruitless fumbling that the Commander’s eyes finally snapped open. She saw the bedside table bare save her datapad; she reconciled that the bottle could be nowhere else because she needed it first goddamn thing in the goddamn morning. Shepard considered the possibility that her memory was getting hinky again; however, before the heavy breathing and hard sweating started her down a pre-meds wig-out, Kaidan was coming over, heralded by his particular gait upon the grated flooring.
For all the no-nonsense of his supremely concerned expression, his “what’s up?” sounded pretty nonchalant.
“My pills. They’re not…I can’t…” Standing, Shepard’s eyes did the room a one-over, cataloging contents and cramming them in every category except ‘found ‘em’. “They’re gone. I don’t know what I did with them—where I left them—but I…”
“Okay. Well. Shepard”—Kaidan slowed his approach to match his tip-toeing tone—”that makes sense. Do you remember the conversation we had with the doc last night?”
It clocked her like a krogan head-butt. Chakwas discussing taking Shepard off the Nalpressin; Chakwas committing to taking Shepard off the Nalpressin: it had made sense those hours ago, but now there was a black hole swallowing her insides which not even a few, favorite expletives could escape.
“Not today, Alenko,” dismissed Shepard, moving towards the door in a quick march. “I can’t start this today. I’ve got—”
“You’ve got what?” Kaidan placed himself between her and the exit. “Today is the perfect day to start this. We talked this all over last night. We made a game-plan; figured out a schedule. We—” He sighed as they stood face-to-face, their bodies separated by only two careful feet. “Look. We’ve got troops working support and evac on Dekuuna, but you don’t have to be down there. Hell, I don’t have to be down there. And I won’t be. I’ll be here, giving you whatever you need.”
“So… my drugs, right? Because I need my drugs?”
Kaidan’s expression killed her sarcastic hope stone-dead.
“Alenko, you don’t—you can’t appreciate why I need those pills. But you will.” Arms folded at her chest, Shepard paced to avoid his expression. “Give it ten minutes. You’ll see why I can’t command this ship, or run this damn war, without them.”
“I know the implants make things difficult.”
Shepard started to chafe at the sweet, supportive attempt at understanding. It ended in real laughter. “You’ve gotten a glimpse! A couple scars lighting up; a little twinkle in my eye! You have no idea how bad it gets. When I first wake up and start—and start thinking, and—”
But there was no point in illustrating how the impending stress could have her bright and buzzing like a Silversun Strip advertisement. If Silversun Strip advertisements hawked bodily melt-downs. There was a good chance she’d have a good day, so why show her hand until necessary?
Kaidan conceded her point with a poignant stare. His voice had been run over coals and jagged concrete; it smoldered raw with awful seriousness. “Maybe not. Maybe I haven’t seen how bad it can get. But I know what Chakwas said. Combined with the Mexodoctricil, and how long you’ve been taking both… Hes, that’s something you might not come back from.”
Shepard put her back to him. Facing the music could be hard when he was the one singing.
“I told you I can’t do this unless I know there’s a future for us,” Kaidan said close behind her. “And for us to have a future… You have to be there, too.”
There was a subtle twinge; a pinch in her skin along her upper arm. She’d once described it to Doctor Chakwas as being similar to having her bra suddenly unclasp, but this was infinitely worse than allowing her tits a little down-time. Shepard knew that, under her shirt, her implants were relaxing while the rest of her refused to. What had brought her back from the dead—what kept her alive—was lighting her up like an inhuman glowstick. It was manifesting in a physical reminder of all that Cerberus had done to both her and the galaxy, and it was displaying it in a way that everyone could see.
The Nalpressin had always helped. It subdued the stress which riled the implants. It ensured that she didn’t look like a Cerberus science experiment, which, when dealing with diplomats or instructing soldiers, was pretty damn paramount.
“Neither of us are going to make it to the finish line if I can’t lead.” Shepard turned to him, her heart in steel. “Maybe that’s the cost.”
Kaidan frowned, wee and heartbroken. Shepard succumbed like the sap she was.
“I’m not sure why I said that, either.” Rubbing both eyes with her palms, she ambled into the middle of the room. “Alright, Alenko. Take point. What are we doing and how are we doing it?”
“Well”—Kaidan followed her with a suspiciously pronounced swagger—“Doctor Chakwas suggested a healthy dose of optimism. Some goodwill towards others. I thought maybe we’d work the mess. Or run down a few chore lists.” He sounded like he was quoting an instructional vid on leadership ploys. “‘The appreciation of your crew and subordinates will do wonders for your disposition and for morale.’”
“Okay, we’re breaking up.”
Kaidan’s snicker slid into a sly smile. “How about listening to music, or… Hey! You mentioned you started painting during your, uh…”
“My house-arrest?” Shepard tossed the possibility around her brain like a ball of paper. “I don’t know. I always got distracted far too easily from that. I once sat long enough that my brush dried because of a conversation outside my window. And it was a conversation about tax brackets.” She frowned. “Next?”
“Yoga.”
Shepard laughed. “Yoga? Really?”
“I’ve… heard good things. About how it helps with stress. C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Jaw ajar, Shepard positioned herself at his side. “You’ve done yoga? Mr. Adrenaline-Junky Alenko has participated in the act of yoga, of all things?”
“You know, I told mom that was a funny first name,” Kaiden baited, moving to her back. “No, but honestly? It’s not my thing. But it might work for you. Now, keep your hips like this…”
As Kaidan positioned her legs, leaving tasteless comments to flower on Shepard’s tongue, a call came over the comms requesting So-And-So to report to the What’s It, Deck C. Distracted by Kaidan’s handsy lack of distance, she missed the specifics but that was enough: the Commander remembered there was a ship running around them, and beyond that ship was a galaxy in crisis, as well as a system whose elcor civilians were being evacuated from their home planets amidst reapers, war, and chaos.
“What was that?” Shepard dislodged from the stance she’d been put in. “What’d they say?”
“It’s nothing,” Kaidan assured her, brow furrowed. He glanced at the ceiling. “Hey, EDI? Can you cut comm chatter to Shepard’s cabin, please? Have Liara relay anything important.”
“Of course, Major.”
Taking a few steps, Shepard wondered strenuously at the announcement. Then she felt it: a subtle letting of her skin at her stomach and cheek, as though a knife had sliced through flesh, forgetting to offer pain but most certainly leaving its mark.
Shepard started to sweat. She caught Kaidan’s expression. It flickered like a candle flame: wavering and then righting like everything was fine.
“Fuck.”
Making for the door which would lead to Chakwas’ reprimands and eventual relenting, Shepard glared as her XO got in the way for a second time.
“Shepard, no.”
“Alenko!”
“C’mon.” Taking her wrist, Kaidan steered her back into her quarters. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? Is this nothing?” Pulling out of his grasp and then her shirt, Shepard held her bare arms out at her side in an invitation for scrutiny. “Look. Look at this one. And this. I think I can feel one on my back. And this—and this is after something I half-heard and had a really great morning with you. I know that keeping my stress down is supposed to help, but… It doesn’t. The scars show up no matter what. And I know what I agreed to last night, but honestly? I was afraid Chakwas was going to take me off the Mexodoctricil instead. Because that? I need.”
Kaidan closed the distance between them. He had failed to plan beyond that. His beautiful eyes were simply a well reflecting back at her. After a long, presumably empty, moment, however, Shepard began to feel the weight of it: his staring, and his measuring. He studied the split skin on her arms, and, when Kaidan held her cheek, his thumb brushed back and forth over broken flesh.
“It’s not that bad, Hes,” Kaidan said as his other hand held her face, too. “And I am not going anywhere.”
Tiredly, Shepard gravitated to his touch. As Kaidan padded the offensive scar, her skin slowly awoke, yet in a way so far from scar-born shame, or guilt. It tingled, teasing a gasp to creep through her breath. His caresses caused every new inhale to be born confused, and hassled. Shepard bit her lip; hummed soundlessly under a blooming smile.
“You okay?”
Eyes closed, Shepard rested her palms on Kaidan’s chest, nodding. It spread from her cheek to the rest of her. It was the only thing she could focus on, though, in fact, she could focus on nothing, fixated singularly on swimming in this strange spiral of sensation. “Yeah. Yeah, just don’t—just don’t stop. Keep doing that.”
Kaidan sounded way too impressed with himself. “What? Does that feel good?”
Looking at him, Shepard beheld skin that glowed as well, but not with a suggestion of inhumanity or machination. Kaidan’s biotics spread across him like waves of starlight, lapping forward and bathing her in blue which was soothing, and intimate.
Shepard felt pulled from her body to a place of comfort; to a space of pillowy nothing layered in a dream. Kaidan moved closer, smelling of regulation soap, plus the woodsy cologne he was conserving by rationing its use. And he still stroked her cheek.
“I think I figured out a way to relax you,” he purred in her ear.
Shepard blearily opened eyelids that bore the weight of galaxies. “No.”
As she moved off, scooping up her sloughed shirt from the floor, Kaidan asked amidst disbelieving sounds, “what do you mean ‘no’?”
“I mean that we’ve been going slow and taking our time for the last few weeks. You’ve said it a dozen times: you don’t want to rush into things. And I’m not going to let you forget that just because I need to be coddled.”
“Jesus.” Kaidan shook his head as she tucked in her clothes. “It’s not coddling. I want to help you. I want to be here for you. And letting you turn yourself into a zombie with that medication isn’t going to help.”
Shepard smirked. “But getting your dick wet is?”
“That’s not what was going to happen,” Kaidan shot back, voice deepening. He sighed his particular Kaidan sigh. “Hes, what do you want? From me? From us? Do you want someone you can trust, and who’s got your back? Or do you want someone who’s just going to follow orders? Be straight with me.”
Shepard ran a hand down her face, considering. “Well. I can tell you what I don’t want.”
Kaidan nodded once. “Okay.”
“I don’t want what happened after Ilos. I don’t—” Her steeled and steadied voice crumpled to a memory-bought sucker-punch. “I don’t want to use you again,” she whispered.
In truth, she’d been hiding behind Kaidan’s reluctance. As the weeks passed and he paid deference to his own emotional health instead of jumping the gun (and Shepard along with it), the woman had been utilizing Kaidan’s caution as a barrier. Touting that she was ready for ‘whatever whenever’, she was actually terrified.
Those years ago, after Ilos, and Saren, Commander Shepard had marched to his quarters and meant it when she said it wasn’t worth the risk; that he wasn’t worth the risk. They’d broken regs in bunking together. Circumstances had been heavy, but they were soldiers. Commander Hestia Shepard had given everything to get where she was, and some subordinate wasn’t worth the hit to her career.
Kaidan took it on the chin like everything. Shepard hated herself for that. She hated herself like she’d hate anyone who’d broken his heart. And she wanted so badly to never use him like that again.
“So don’t,” Kaidan said, looking over her expression.
For him, it was that easy. It was part of what she loved about him.
Holding her hand, Kaidan led her to the bed. She sat, and he took her boots off. He kicked off his own, and joined her. Cuddled into his chest as they lay out, Shepard couldn’t say she was blissfully distracted, but she was comfortable.
“Does the Nalpressin just help with the implants?” Kaidan wondered, stroking through her hair. “Or does it affect something else?”
“Probably. It’s not like they made it for back-from-the-dead Cerberus science projects whose bodies can’t take the heat. Not sure there’s really a market for that.” Shepard sighed. “So, probably. It probably affects something else. Maybe it keeps me a little calmer—a little clearer in the head.”
“You were taking it when you had the problems with your appendix, right?”
“Right.”
“Then, Shep,” Kaidan said with tender trepidation, “it sounds to me like those pills can’t be the only answer. Because you were on them and your body still broke down. You can’t do this all by yourself.” He pressed his lips to her crown, speaking against her skin. “I think you need to let someone else steer for awhile. Trust your crew, and the people around you.”
Snorting, Shepard craned her head so she could see his face. “What I’m hearing is someone wants more control.”
Kaidan smirked. “Well, you know me. And, yeah, I do. Especially if it means taking some things off your plate.”
She choked on a wave of thankfulness.
“I love you,” Shepard said, brushing his nose with hers.
“I know.”
After he’d peeled off their uniform tops, Kaidan lay between her legs, peppering her neck with kissing. His fingers drifted beneath her undershirt, stroking in circles as he explored between her collarbone and earlobe, leaving puffs of wet breath and approving sounds on her skin, Shepard meanwhile writhing dreamily. He moved to her jaw; he lingered there amidst affectionate pecks, kissing towards her lips before pulling back. His lids were heavy over beautiful, brown eyes.
“How you doin’?”
Shepard’s breath fluttered in her chest. “Who am I? Where am I?”
Chuckling, Kaidan continued lower. Pushing Shepard’s undershirt up, the attention he showed her hip bone and navel had strangled giggles thick in her throat. The sensation wavered between tickling and agonizing. It was kneading, and needling, and it was just plain nice.
Nipping her skin, Kaidan worked down her torso lower, and lower, his nose skimming along in its own teasing way, until he was letting the zipper of her pants. Shepard clutched the bed sheets.
“Kaidan…”“Is this alright?”
Feeling herself finally unfurling, Shepard melted into it. “Yes.”
As he discarded her skivvies with her pants, the arousal in her belly turned from the suggestion of wanting into angry demand. Kaidan started at her inner thigh, kissing from just above her crooked knee, but being naked, exposed, and displayed was excruciating. He was there—he was right there, taking his damn, sweet time—and the only thing that kept Shepard from exploding was a hissed “c’mon, already,” as her own finger charged towards her clit.
Kaidan batted it away. “Don’t make me tie you down, Shepard.”
The bed shifted as he did. Tossing her legs over his shoulders, Kaidan, flat on the mattress, pressed his mouth to her slit, tongue burying without the predictable preamble which would’ve allowed Shepard some composure, or prep time. But no—Kaidan slid inside, groaning to taste her, and began tongue-fucking her, her taut legs around his head held in a hard grip.
Shepard cursed silently with every flicking insertion. His tongue wriggled around to throw off the rhythm. Shepard balled her fists; she pressed into the mattress, soundless in her sublime misery. Her legs shook the longer Kaidan pushed through her folds and pulled out audibly, the evidence of her wetness smacking terribly at his mouth. At last he eased off, kissing her skin before lapping lazily, grazing her clit with no real concern—with no real care that one or two swirls would have sent her over the edge. Instead, Kaiden chased away the frenzy of her need as he slowly brought her beyond desperation, and back to simpler, sweaty, softer want with his self-indulgent licking.
“Damnit, Kaidan,” Shepard wheezed.
The man snickered. She could feel the breath from his mouth. “I know, eh? Love the view, by the way.”
As he licked long and slow at her labia, Shepard’s limbs lost their weight. Her body went numb as her orgasm began to build deep within, but it was an echo. Far away, calling for her, it was a glint of silver in the dark.
“Kaidan, please.”
Eyes wrenched shut, she felt Kaidan replace his mouth with his fingers. With the way the mattress moved, she knew he was sitting up, watching as his fore and middle fingers rubbed easily between her lips.
Finally penetrating together in a harsh pinch that immediately satisfied, Kaidan’s pumping wrist heightened in speed, clearly taking cues from Shepard’s breathing as it wavered from dead to desperate. What depth he lacked was made up by how perfectly he filled her; how he had her stretched around him, the heat of his fingers and knuckles intense. Knowing she needed something else—something more—Shepard’s lips parted to speak, but her plea came out a cry as the fingers between her legs began to pulse with a torturous, tangible hum.
“Fuck.”
She looked to him. Kaidan’s biotics blazed across his skin, collecting and culminating in an all-encompassing focus at his eyes. Shepard whined under the heaviness of that stare which pinned her in her body like hunger, or pain—something that made her conscious of only here and now. And here and now was only the throbbing of her pussy as Kaidan’s thumb pressed at her clit, his biotics thrumming through it, bringing all the numbness from her thighs and belly to concentrate until it was breaking and bursting in an orgasm that was complete, satisfying, but somehow smaller than it seemed it should have been. Shepard kept waiting for it to grow in intensity, but it tapered off.
The waves of her afterglow were soft. Kaidan’s eyes were soft.
“Whew.”
Shuffling up to lay her head on the pillow, Kaidan joined her, inviting her to cuddle into his chest. Something about his posture—a stiffness at his spine—had her eye-balling his expression.
“What?” she asked.
“I expected… theatrics.” Kaidan shrugged. “Screaming; violence.”
“Honestly? Me, too,” Shepard admitted. “It has been a while.” She smiled with lopsided pragmatism. “Who knows. Might be my sleeping pills. They make things… hazy. It could be a hundred things. But…” Shifting so she could look him in the eye, she got caught-up in staring at Kaidan’s lips instead. “It was definitely something I needed.”
Kaidan brushed her brow under an apparent pretense to push hair from her face, but her cut was too short for that. He just wanted to touch her.
Shepard kissed him.
“Now, what about you?”
“I’m good, Hes.”
“Oh, I bet. Light as a feather and stiff as a board.” Sitting up, she hoped to inspire both their lazy butts towards something more constructive. “C’mon. You’re supposed to be distracting me.”
Where before he had touched at her brow, now he reached out to brush her cheek. It was where he’d touched her before; where their boots-knocking had started. ‘It’s not that bad, Hes…’
She could feel him on her scar just as she knew that wary distance in his eyes. How deep those thoughts went; the black pool whence they rippled.
“I told you. The scars don’t go away. Not really.”
“But I thought… I wanted to…”
Shepard’s nails scratched calmingly through his sideburns. Kaidan’s voice had cracked with self-disappointment, and the crows feet darkened. The man knew his limits, but he’d placed his bar of personal responsibility far too high. In a soldier, that was inspiring; however, back to basics—back to where he was only human—it was more pressure than a person deserved.
“You can’t fix everything, Kaidan.”
His head canted. “I can try.”
Laying back on his chest, Shepard closed her eyes. He made her want to try, too.
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The Ring
“This is hopeless,” Kaidan said, running his hands through his hair for probably the fourth time in as many minutes. “All these rings are wrong. Too big, too gold, too clunky…”
Across the jewellery store, Joker, who had already had to trade out his cybernetics for actual crutches due to the many many laps around the Citadel, threw back his head and heaved an overdramatic sigh.
“Dude. Just buy a ring already.”
Kaidan gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to hit the pilot, or at least knock his stupid hat off his stupid head.
“Well maybe,” he shot back, far more sarcastically than he’d intended. “If someone’s robot girlfriend hadn’t already given her the perfect ring, we wouldn’t still be scouring jewellery stores.”
Damn, it seemed that over four hours of looking at shiny pieces of rock and metal had gotten to him more than he thought. At least Joker had the grace to look properly admonished.
“Okay so… maybe you don’t get her a ring,” he suggested, patiently. “Maybe you do something different like… I don’t know.” Joker paused, his gaze flickering over the various counters. “An engagement bracelet or an engagement tiara or… wait, is that a replica Avenger?”
It was. From the First Contact War too, decommissioned and missing its thermal coil, but dented and beaten in that special way that suggested the piece had seen real action.
“It’s perfect.” Joker hobbled over and scooped up the rifle from the display, where Kaidan had been admiring it with his eyes instead of his hands. “C’mon, can’t you just imagine getting down on one knee and handing her this gorgeous piece of weaponry?”
Was it weird that he could totally imagine that? But was it the result of four hours of shiny rocks and metal, or was legitimately a good idea?
Fuck, he was far too tired to judge.
He couldn’t even decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that Joker thought it was a good idea.
A vague memory floated to the surface of his mind.
They were in her cabin, though he couldn’t recall whether it was the SR1 or SR2. Either way, it had been one of those glorious evenings when it was just the two of them having dinner, reading reports and being normal.
“You know,” she’d said, a distinct twinkle of mischief in her eyes, “This. Us. Is probably the most normal thing to happen to me in the last ten years.”
He hadn’t been sure whether she’d meant it as a good thing or a bad thing and he’d been a little too terrified of the answer to straightforwardly ask.
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” She had smiled like she knew what he’d been thinking. “I like it.”
“Me too,” he’d agreed more than a little relieved.
“I’ll stick with the ring,” he decided, pointedly ignoring Joker’s answering groan, because yes, they would be going to another jewellery store and another and another until he found the perfect ring.
And then maybe, maybe, he could start getting his head around the proposal.
Later, he found himself alone in the apartment. Shepard was with Miranda or Tali or… Jack? Possibly all three? Didn’t matter, she was out and would be for a few hours, which meant he was free to closet himself in the study with the extranet and multiple datapads displaying several different brochures.
The problem was that that every single brochure had that ring.
And not just that ring, but little pop ups that said ‘as worn by Commander Shepard’.
If you had told sixteen-year-old Kaidan Alenko that one day he’d be considering dismantling a sexy AI robot lady with murderous intent, he wouldn’t have believed you.
But damn, he could have killed EDI.
Because yes, obviously a ring made from metals of all four council homeworlds bonded together was perfect for her. So perfect that there had even been a slew of ‘Commander Shepard Engaged??!!’ headlines from some of trashier publications, when she’d dared to wear it one day for one stupid swanky charity event.
One singular event. Which, of course, wasn’t putting any extra pressure on his search for an actual ring at all.
Not to mention the practical concerns. At the end of the day she’d still have to wear it under her armour (at least, he hoped she’d want to wear it under her armour) so it had to be small enough to fit and not impede her movement, yet still big enough to be noticeable.
Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. Maybe what he really needed to do was narrow the search.
Okay. It couldn’t be anything too large, so those were out. He didn’t want anything too small, so those were out. More stones were just more things to get lost, broken or chipped as a result of her day-to-day life, so those were out. Which left…
Hundreds. Hundreds of single gem rings; their stones cut in a variety of ways, square, pear and something called ‘princess cut’, that he was almost sure Shepard would shoot him for even considering. And if having innumerable cuts and shapes weren’t enough, there were an almost equal number of metals and alloys to choose from.
Palladium stood out. He was sure that Shepard would appreciate the fact that, if the Normandy were stuck between systems, they could always melt her ring down for that extra tiny bit of fuel.
That said, he’d rather that she didn’t have to sacrifice her ring to keep the Normandy afloat. It was, after all, definitely something she’d do and would land him back in the exact same situation he was in now, trying to find a replacement.
So maybe not palladium.
There was one ring he kept coming back to, and dismissing, because it was too simple, too normal. It was white gold with a single square cut diamond set close to the band. He wasn’t even really sure why he kept looking at it except that… for some reason he could clearly picture it on Shepard’s finger.
Maybe…
Maybe the ring didn’t have to be something grand and filled with symbolism. Maybe it could just be… normal.
Because, by god, something in their lives ought to be.
He had it up on the screen, finger hovering over the ‘order’ button when he heard the door to the apartment swish open.
He clicked order before he could think.
“Hey,” Shepard said, sticking her head into the study.
“Hey,” he replied, scrambling to block the screen as best he could.
“I picked up some grilled cheeses on the way back – you want in?”
“Sure!” He managed to squeak out the word before she mercifully left the room.
When he turned back to the terminal it was to see the words ‘Order confirmed’ flashing on the screen. He bought a ring. An actual engagement ring. A beautiful, small, perfect engagement ring.
Now all he had to do was propose.
Shit.
(part of my ‘Shenko Ever After’ series on Ao3!)
#Happy N7 day everyone!#Just a little bit of fluff#usually my N7 day things are so sad#this was a nice change of pace#mass effect#kaidan alenko#Kaidan Alenko / Femshep#Commander Shepard
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“What are you doing up? Come to bed.” for shenko
A/N: I have no idea how long ago @alyssalenko sent this request but I finally wrote a response. Yay! Hope everyone enjoys!
“What are you doing up?” Kaidan asked as he stepped through the door into their quarters aboard the Normandy.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Shepard admitted. She was sitting at the desk in the tank top and shorts that she usually slept in, looking over some documents on the computer, "So I figured I’d catch up on some paperwork.”
“You must be desperate,” Kaidan teased as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head before sitting down on the edge of the bed–everyone knew just how much Shepard hated paperwork and the lengths she’d go to avoid it.
“Hoped it would put me to sleep,” she shrugged and shot him a small grin, “no luck yet.”
“At least Command will be happy,” He unlaced his boots, pulled them off, and dropped them to the floor before taking his socks off and tossing them into a nearby hamper.
“For once.” Shepard turned the chair, watching him.For More Read Below or:https://archiveofourown.org/works/24455770
Kaidan felt her eyes on him, basking in her undivided attention as he grasped the hem of his shirt, taking his time and pulling it slowly over his head, muscles flexing. It followed his socks into the hamper. He winked at her as he stood up and unfastened his belt and unsnapped his pants, hooking his thumbs into his waistband and tugging it down slightly. “See something you like?”
“Always.“ She licked her lips and looked him up and down, unable to tear her eyes away.
His cock responded to her gaze, hardening and pushing against the restraining fabric. Making sure she was still watching, he pushed his pants down over his hips and let them pool at his feet, smirking as her gaze immediately focused on the bulge in the front of his boxer briefs.
With a soft sigh, Shepard shook her head as if to clear it before turning back to the computer. “I should finish this up.”
“It can wait,” Kaidan climbed into the bed before pulling back the covers on her side. "Come to bed.”
Saving her work, she shut down the terminal and stood, stretching before padding the short distance across the room to their bed and slipping in beside him. She snuggled up to him as Kaidan covered them with the blankets and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against him, so his chest was flush against her back.
“Love you.” He whispered in her ear.
“Love you, too.” She answered with a contented sigh as she tried to get comfortable, her wiggling pressing her bottom against his length.
“Shepard,” he muttered in warning, “Keep that up and we won’t be sleeping.”
Without hesitation, she pushed back against him again.
“You asked for it,” Kaidan growled and nipped her earlobe, thrusting his hips towards her and driving his quickly hardening cock against her ass.
“Kaidan,” she whimpered needily.
He rained open mouthed kisses down the sensitive skin of her neck, to her pulse, enjoying the noises of pleasure she was making. He nipped and sucked the skin, finally biting down and leaving a bruise, marking her. Shepard inhaled sharply as Kaidan lathed his tongue across the area, soothing the pain.
Sighing in pleasure, Shepard tipped her head and gave him easier access to the tender skin of her neck, encouraging him. Kaidan sucked in a bit of skin a second time, biting down, darkening and enlarging his mark; he loved seeing his visible mark on her, claiming her.
“Mmmmm.“ She moaned as she felt heat pooling in her stomach, her need for this man, skyrocketing. "Yes…”
Kaidan’s hands drifted south, grasping the hem of her tank top and pulling it off her, tossing it somewhere behind him. He let his hands wander, exploring every curve of her body and cupping one of her breasts. Using the pad of his thumb, he circled her nipple and made it pebble. After a moment, he turned his attention to the other nipple and repeated his action, Shepard arching her back, pushing her breast into his hand as she rested her head on his shoulder.
“K–” Was all she managed.
“What?” He asked as his hands abandoned her breasts and travelled downwards.
“I–I need–need–” Shepard stuttered, unable to complete her thought.
“Hmmm?” He asked as his fingertips traced the waistline of her shorts. “What do you need?”
She felt a hot rush of desire flood her body and head south, pooling between her thighs and fueling the growing ache inside of her; she needed him.
“You.” She admitted. “I need you.”
He pushed her shorts down her hips and off.
“Commando.” He groaned appreciatively as he lavished attention on her needy body, touching and caressing her soft skin.
He slipped his hand between her legs, tracing gentle circles around where she wanted his touch most, Kaidan slipped a finger into her overheated body, slowly working it in and out, Shepard seeking friction and grinding her clit against his palm. A second finger quickly joined the first and worked her body into a frenzy of need, in and out. When he plunged a third finger into her heat, Shepard was nearly pushed over the edge of oblivion into ecstasy. She bit her lower lip. It felt as if her body was on fire and she was willingly throwing herself into the flames.
“God,” Shepard moaned.
"So hot.” He mumbled as he pressed a kiss against her neck.
After just a few more strokes he pulled his fingers out of her.
“Kaidan!” She whined, hips stuttering at the loss–she needed something inside her. “No. Need you inside.“
She started to turn over to rid him of his boxers, but he held her in place, spooning his body behind hers and adjusted her leg to give him easier access. He pushed his boxers down and kicked them off under the covers, pressing his rock hard erection against her wet entrance.
“Ready?”
“Yes,” Shepard breathed as she pressed back into him in a desperate attempt to impale herself on his cock and relieve the growing ache in her body. “Please.”
Kaidan held her hips still and pushed into her, inch by inch, drawing out their pleasure; he didn’t want to rush this, wanted to savor every last precious moment. With one powerful thrust, he hilted himself inside her hot pussy, making her moan in relief. The feeling of fullness was overpowering all of Shepard’s senses–all she could think about was his cock stretching and filling her center. After giving their bodies time to adjust, Kaidan started rocking his hips, small movements that teased both of them.
“So tight,” He whispered, nipping at her ear. “So hot.”
“Kaidan…”
“Hmmm?” he answered as he pulled out her heat, leaving just his tip inside her, before plunging back into her.
“Fuck me hard. Now.”
“Yes ma’am.” He grinned and he slammed his cock into her heat, hilting himself inside her in one almost violent thrust, repeating it a second and third time.
“God.” She moaned as she thrust back into him, meeting him stroke for stroke.
Kaidan set a hard and fast pace, driving himself deeper into her welcoming heat with each stroke. As their passions built, all other thoughts fled; all they could think about was the all consuming fire inside their bodies and the need to extinguish it. As their pace grew faster and more frantic, the more overwhelming the need for release became. Pushing back into his powerful thrust, Shepard screamed her release in the form of his name. Feeling her walls slam down on his cock was the final straw. With one last powerful thrust that rocked both of their bodies, Kaidan followed her into ecstasy, spilling his essence inside of her heated and willing body.
The feeling of his warmth filled her, pushing her pleasure to even greater heights.
“Yes.” She moaned as her walls milked him for every last drop until they were both spent.
Sweaty and worn out, they laid tangled together on the bed, trying to recover, their breathing heavy. Kaidan was the first to regain some strength and reached down, carefully pulling his cock from inside her, both of them groaning at the loss. He lay back on the bed and rested his head on his pillow, still gasping a bit for breath.
Still smiling happily, Shepard rolled over and snuggled against him, his shoulder her pillow. They were pressed together from shoulder to hip, their legs tangled together.
“I’m glad I couldn’t sleep.” She mumbled into his chest, exhaustion hitting her all at once.
“Me too.” Kaidan agreed, pressing a kiss into her sweaty hair. “Though if I’d known, I would’ve tried to get up here sooner.”
“You came soon enough.” She teased as she drifted off.
“We both did.” He laughed, closing his eyes and following her into slumber….
The End….
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kaorinndesu replied to your post:
May As Well Be, Day 31: The Night Sky
Can we make this a canon ending please? 😭 ❤️
Thank you for sticking with me through the 3 months this one-month challenge took me! LOLOLOLOL! I completely agree! SHENKO deserves a freaking happy ending, filled with fluff and love. It is my favorite fic to read. You know Kaidan just wants to whisk his Shepard away, wrap them up safe and warm, and say "fuck off" to the rest of the world. So glad I finally got to try my hand at it, and I'm thrilled you liked it!
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Something Simple
Art trade fic from a few months back for @commander-sarah I found it in my google docs today and realized I hadn’t posted it yet. It’s post-trilogy Shenko fluff, so that just had to be rectified.
---
Today had been hard. Good, but hard.
“Hey, K?” Miranda began, not even bothering to open her eyes as she slouched down on the sofa until she could rest her feet on the coffee table.
“Yeah?” The sofa shifted as Kaidan sat next to her.
“Next time I suggest having friends over the same day I have PT, please slap me.” She wiggled her toes, feeling the sparks of lingering pain in her bad leg. “I love Ash and Garrus, but that was... pushing it a little.”
Kaidan chuckled. “They wear you out, Shepard?”
“Nah, Trish wore me out in fuckin’ PT,” Miranda corrected around a yawn. “They just sealed the deal.”
“Losing that much at Skyllian Five would be exhausting,” he said teasingly.
She opened one eye to glare at him, but it lacked heat. “You didn’t make out much better than I did, Alenko. You don’t really have room to talk.”
“But I did make out better,” Kaidan smirked in amusement. “So there is a little room to talk.” He reached over and tucked Miranda’s hair behind her ear before it could slide in her eyes. “But I will remind you next time.”
“Thanks. I think it’s partially this place,” she mused. “It’s a great apartment, but it feels kinda... small when we have company. So then I worry about being in the way with having my leg up and that’s tiring after a while.”
“So what’s your ideal place, then?” Kaidan asked idly, slipping his hand into hers and interlacing their fingers.
“Bigger than this, smaller than your parents’ orchard,” Miranda said after a moment’s thought. “We don’t need that much space. I don’t know what I’d do with it, honestly,” she admitted, free hand playing with her necklace. “I grew up a military brat, I’m used to small quarters. But something with enough space for me to leave out my guns when I’m working on them”--a meaningful look toward the footlockers wedged in the corner behind the Christmas tree--”multiple bedrooms in case of company. A nice kitchen, so you can make me more of your Canadian delicacies,” she teased.
“Wow, so, you want the whole deal, M?” he deadpanned. “House, dog...” he briefly lifted heir joined hands. “Ring.”
“If it’s you offering, then, yeah,” Miranda nodded. “I do.”
“And if I was, what kind would you want?” he probed, sitting back on the couch and absently rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
“Which one?” she asked, amused.
“You just did house, so.. both of the others, I guess.”
“Lots of dogs, all kinds of dogs,” Miranda smiled. “We could just go clear out some shelter, adopt every dog they have, and I’d be happy. As for ring... nothing fancy, that’s for sure. Stones are too likely to snag on shit, so just a band of some sort.” She fought the urge to smirk at his expression; focused and earnest, clearly making mental notes. “Something simple.”
“Simple, right.” Kaidan nodded. “Makes sense.” He yawned. “Damn, you got me doing it too.”
“Maybe it’s time for bed,” Miranda said glibly, making no move to get off the couch.
“Maybe it is,” Kaidan agreed easily. He kissed the back of her hand before letting go and pushed to his feet. “C’mon. It’ll be more comfortable than the couch.”
Miranda just grunted at him. He was right and she knew it, but right now she was plenty comfortable where she was.
“Oh, it’s snowing,” Kaidan commented, glancing toward the window.
Miranda swiveled to look, but her angle was wrong from the couch. “K, if you’re lying to get me up off the couch, I’m making you sleep on the floor.”
“Swear to God, Shepard,” he promised.
Miranda let out a sigh and levered herself upright, almost toppling as she tried to balance on just her good leg. She very deliberately ignored the crutches leaning against the wall and hobble-hopped until she could see out the window. It was indeed snowing. “Hope that sticks around til Tuesday.”
“Pretty sure it will,” Kaidan said, watching the fluffy white flakes drifting from the sky. “This is the kind that sticks around once it builds up, and the weather’s supposed to stay chilly between now and then.” He shot her an amused look. “You want a white Christmas, M?”
“Hell yeah, I do,” she laughed, watching the snow. “It’s my first one, I wanna hit all the fuckin’ cliches from Earth vids we can.”
“Duly noted,” Kaidan grinned. “Now, I believe you said something about bed?”
“I did,” Miranda laughed, and followed him down the hall.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Kaidan’s prediction proved correct; the snow did stick around for Christmas. Enough so, in fact, to make their neighborhood picturesque as a greeting card. Miranda was thrilled, which Kaidan promptly teased her for. She was too excited to care, curled up on the sofa in a snuggly warm sweater and mismatched Christmasy socks, her one concession to ‘holiday spirit’ wardrobe-wise.
“You can tease me later, Alenko,” she laughed, whacking the couch cushion next to her. “Sit your ass down and let’s do presents.”
Kaidan chuckled as he complied. “Impatient, are we, M?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Miranda grinned. “I got you the best present ever and I wanna see you open it.”
“Oh, well, we’ll see about that,” he ribbed, something serious yet mischievous in his eyes.
She almost called him on it, but the opted to instead reach over and snag the small box with his present from under the Christmas tree. “Merry Christmas, K,” she said, grinning like a kid in a candy store as she handed it over.
Kaidan was half-smiling even before he had the clumsily-done wrapping stripped off. It turned into a full smile of flat-out astonishment when he saw the small metallic case. “Alright, Shepard, who did you threaten or blackmail or whatever to get this?”
“That’s hurtful,” Miranda said with a laugh, miming a hand over her heart as she watched him pull the slim black omnitool band from its resting place. “I just reminded a couple of Saronis Applications board members of the part we both played in saving the Citadel a few years back and the damn galaxy far more recently, pointed out it would probably boost sales even more to say one of the Spectres used their latest tech, and there ya go.”
“You were diplomatic for me?” Kaidan smirked. “I’m touched.” He secured the omnitool to his wrist and tapped it to life, glancing admiringly over the readouts before closing it down. “It looks great, M. Now.” He reached down next to his side of the couch and pulled up a box, both larger and better wrapped than her gift had been. “Your turn.”
“Already trying to outdo me?” she teased, tucking back her hair before tugging on the vibrant red ribbon tied around the box. “This is almost a work of art, K. You get to wrap all the birthday present from here on out.”
“Only if you buy all the birthday presents from here on out,” he countered with a smile that belied his nervously fidgeting hands.
“Deal,” Miranda agreed promptly, tugging away the wrapping paper. She could handle brightly lit and noisy stores so he wouldn’t have to if he would handle the wrapping so she didn’t have to. She carefully opened the box-
And found another box, just as neatly wrapped as the first one. She narrowed her eyes at Kaidan. “You bastard.”
“That would sound a lot more intimidating if you weren’t laughing,” Kaidan said, grin plastered across his face. “Keep going.”
Inside that box, there was another box. Miranda balled up the paper and threw it at him before opening that box. To find another box. “Kaidan-!”
“Just one more, I promise,” he cut her off.
Miranda gave a long-suffering sigh and very dramatically opened the last box. Inside was another box. Only this one was small, velvet, and instantly recognizable. Miranda’s head snapped up and she raised an eyebrow at Kaidan. “Really?”
He nodded, grinning wide. “Really.”
“You wanna shackle yourself to this hot mess forever?” she joked, gesturing at herself and wiggling the toes of her bad foot for emphasis.
“Longer,” Kaidan said, still grinning as he reached over at took the box from her. He flicked it open to reveal--as requested--a simple platinum band, gleaming against its red velvet cushion. “Miranda, will you-”
“Yes.”
“Dammit, will you let me finish the question, Shepard?” he laughed.
“Sorry.” Miranda’s voice lacked any hint of an apology. She folded her hands in her lap and shot him a mischievously expectant look. “Ask away, Major.”
“Miranda, will you marry me?”
“Oh, hell yes!” she said fervently, pulling him into a fierce and passionate kiss before even giving him a chance to slide the ring on her finger, a fact he rectified when they broke apart for air. “‘Bout damn time,” Miranda teased softly.
“Oh, hush, you,” Kaidan laughed, and kissed her again.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
“So,” Miranda began, after several more minutes of making out that almost landed them on the floor at least twice. “For Ash’s party tonight... do we tell people, or just wait from them to notice on their own?” She held out her hand, looking at the ring again.
“Oh, definitely option B,” Kaidan said, capturing her hand to press a kiss against her palm. “It’ll be more fun that way. And we have observant friends; the cat’ll be out of the bag pretty quick.”
“I like the way you think,” she chuckled, tracing his jawline with her fingers. “I might kiss you for that.”
“Hang on, I have to check with my fiancée,” Kaidan deadpanned, barely holding back another grin. “Should make sure it’s alright with her before I kiss a war hero.”
“I think it’s okay,” Miranda whispered, moving in for the promised kiss. “Very okay.” She linked her hands against the back of his neck, the cool metal of her ring making both of them grin.
Kaidan had very clearly won this Christmas, Miranda conceded to herself as she kissed her fiance breathless, but that was alright. There was always next year.
And all the years after it.
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