A/N: Ermahgerd, Valentine's Day is coming up/is today, depending on where you are. Either way, this is my attempt at a slightly crack-ish Valentine's Day story, featuring none other than Commander Shepard herself! Please rate and review, as I love every single review I get. Also, got an ideas for a story you'd like me to write? Send me a message!
Disclaimer: I am just a bagel in space, I own not Mass Effect nor Shepard.
Shepard stared at the abomination before her, green eyes shinning like daggers. This foul being had to be lying, the was no other possible explanation. She quickly looked over to its comrade and sure enough it was telling the truth: today was Valentine's day.
With a huff, Shepard tossed the two calendars onto the ground and tossed herself back onto her bed with a thump. She had always despised Valentine's Day, for as long as she could remember she had hated the useless holiday. Maybe this was because every year, without fail, everyone except her was given a Valentine from someone they loved. Or, maybe it was just because she hated how crowed public places would get on that day. Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter, for it all resulted in the same thing: Shepard hated Valentine's Day.
She knew exactly what would happen today: everyone on the ship would get a Valentine from their special someone, then they would go on leave to have a 'romantic' night out, and Shepard would be all alone. It was because of this that Shepard dreaded leaving her room today, though she knew that she could only prolong it for so long before she had to leave.
With a sigh, Shepard looked up at her window and into the cosmos, losing herself in a memory. She would have stayed this way too, if it wasn't for the sound of someone knocking at her door. Groggily, Shepard walked towards the door and opened it with a click. Standing outside was Kelly, a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Hello Commander." Kelly chimed with a smile, "Here's your coffee."
"Ah, thanks Kelly." Shepard said with a smile, reaching out and grabbing the warm beverage. She had almost forgotten about her morning coffee, almost. When Shepard noticed that Kelly was still standing in her doorway, she suppressed a small frown: she already knew what Kelly was going to ask.
"Is there something you need Kelly?" Shepard asked as she blew some steam off her coffee.
"W-well yes, there was one thing" Kelly stuttered out, unsure of how to ask.
"..." Shepard only responded with a raised eyebrow, which practically said 'Well, go on, I'm listening'.
Kelly sucked in a breath in preparation "IwaswonderingifIcouldhavelea vefortoday!" Kelly blurted out, the words falling together as one.
"Sure." Was Shepard's only reply, not fazed by the question. That, or she was just a master at the poker face.
'Oh thank you Commander!" Kelly replied with glee and a huge smile, before walking out of the room with a slight hop in her step that wasn't there before.
The door closed with a click, leaving Shepard alone in her room yet again. She looked down into her coffee, as if this coffee held the secrets of the universe. Sadly, she had no such luck: it was just a regular, boring, not awesome cup of coffee. Shepard resigned herself to drinking it, before turning to look at the door. Her frown deepened as she stared at it. There was no avoiding it: Shepard was going to have to leave her room today.
Shepard turned her head left, then right, before assuring herself that the coast was clear and stepping out of the elevator. Looking around, she couldn't find a single person in the room. 'Go figure' She thought with a sigh 'I bet they're all having a wonderful time'
She had at least hopped that someone would still be there, but it looked like they had all left already. Shepard took one more look around the deck, before stepping back into the elevator and going down a floor: someone still had to be on the ship, and she was going to find them no matter what.
There was no one else on the ship. Shepard had reached this conclusion after searching every floor and finding no one. Well, she hadn't searched every floor, she still hadn't searched the last floor with the engineering core, but she didn't expect to find anyone there either.
The elevator doors opened suddenly, jerking Shepard out of her thoughts. She was going to need to buy a new elevator, preferably one that didn't interrupt her when she was angsting. Rolling her eyes, Shepard stepped out of the elevator and decided to humour herself with a search of this level, though it wasn't like she was expecting to find anything.
A quick search of several rooms seemed to be in favour of her theory that no one was here, now she just needed to check the engineering room to make sure she was absolutely correct. Shepard opened the door with a click and was surprised to find Tali standing in front of a console, typing rapidly.
Shepard barely managed to keep her jaw from falling through the floor as she stared. She had not thought, that of all people, Tali would be the one without a valentine. After managing to reattach her jaw, Shepard walked over to Tali and tapped her on the shoulder. In retrospect that probably wasn't the best plan, but it seemed like it was at the time.
Tali let out a squeak and shout her elbow out, which went and met Shepard's nose for a nice cup of tea and some biscuits. Shepard held her nose and tilted her head backwards to prevent the blood from spilling on the floor. When Tali saw who she had hit, however, she began to apologize like the sun was about to explode, in fact she might have broken a record for how much she apologized.
"Shepard I'm so sorry-" Tali began for the fifteenth time, before being cut off by Shepard
"It's alright Tali, I'm fine. Just help me clean my nose off or else I'll look like a tomato" Shepard said with a laugh as she clutched her nose.
"Oh yeah, sorry!" Tali said as she resumed cleaning off Shepard's bloody nose.
"So Tali." Shepard began, wincing slightly as the rubbing gel was applied. "Why are you down here by yourself? Shouldn't you be out enjoying Valentine's Day?"
"O-oh, well I didn't really have a Valentine or anyone to go with so I just decided to stay here." Tali said, her voice just above a whisper.
Shepard felt a wave of guilt wash over her as she heard Tali speak. She spent so much time in the engineering room that she didn't have enough time to go out and meet new people. Oh boy, was Shepard going to feel guilty over this in the morning. Suddenly, as her nose felt like it was burning with the passion of a thousand dying suns, she had an idea. Whenever she was left out n Valentine's Day, Shepard would always go and eat some comfort food before falling asleep, but what if she and Tali could hang out instead? It seemed like a great idea, what with both Tali and Shepard being friendless that day.
"Hey Tali, how about we hang out today? You know, go and watch a movie, go to lunch, that sort of thing." Shepard said as the last of the rubbing gel was rubbed in.
Tali pondered this for a moment, before finally saying "Alright, that sounds like fun!"
Shepard felt her spirits lift and herself smile when she heard Tali's answer: Maybe she wouldn't be alone today after all!