We Could Die Tomorrow Anyways
Chapter 1
Miranda Lawson wasn't one to like being wrong, it came with the catsuit, the rank she held in Cerberus and her genetic tailoring. There was no denying that she wasn't supposed to be anything but perfect, her father had tried to control every aspect of her life for that very reason. And despite it all she wasn't, only adding to the amount of animosity she held for the man.
Because invariably, no one was perfect.
It wasn't as if the woman was disagreeing with not being perfect, she knew she wasn't, but it certainly had been biting at her for some time. The thought that she was in a form a failure, after all she was supposed to not be, kept her awake some nights. Shepard would come by to talk with her after a mission, the black haired, blue eyed operative having to force a welcoming smile to mask her exhaustion from the constant missions Shepard took her on and her lack of sleep. Some visits Lawson couldn't even come up with enough energy to engage the Commander in conversation, sending her away with a dismissive tone and usually muttering something along the lines of having a lot to do, and not enough time to do it in.
She'd feel a pang of guilt at the sad expression that would cross Selene Shepard's face, pale blue eyes lowering as dark eyebrows knitted together before she left with a noticeably deflated goodbye. Miranda would almost always lock her office door and curl up to sleep in her lavish bed after that, trying to force sleep to claim her. Of course it only fought her harder, leaving her sleepless, angry and slowly it felt like she was slipping into some sort of slump.
No matter how hard she tried to, Miranda didn't seem capable of pinning it exactly to the source. Shepard had helped her keep her sister safe, and she'd even met the young Oriana, to Lawson that couldn't be the reason behind her sleeplessness. The Collectors were next on their list, the Normandy and its crew slowly growing closer to jumping through the Omega Four relay every single mission more. Now it was the mission they were going to go on, everyone as ready as they could be and countless lives depending on them succeeding, not all of them human lives either.
Despite the insane notion that they were going to take on the Collectors and possibly the Reapers as well with only their recreated Normandy, Miranda was confident they could do it. She'd watched Shepard spend countless hours collecting resources on the fringes of space, recruiting people of all sorts of backgrounds and skill, fulfilling some of the most obscure requests; all of it mounting to this mission they were about to partake in. Surely that couldn't be what was keeping her awake.
Miranda gave a long groan of frustration as she twisted on her bed, fingers curling around the soft sheets as her body seemed to rage with an internal fire. She was dressed in only a pair of panties and a loose undershirt, the chill of the Normandy's air making goosebumps rise along her pale skin. Normally, she would just try to curl up under the blankets and keep the chill at bay, but her body was growing to more then uncomfortable levels of hot and so she twisted one way and then another before giving a hiss of frustration at the futile effort and tossed the soft blankets with a biotic blast across her room. They hit the door loudly, the raven haired woman panting hard before she slumped back onto the now bare bed.
She was rather tempted to strip down completely, not as if the small amount of clothes she was wearing already was doing her any good either way at keeping warm or cooling off. With a grumble, the woman removed the minimum clothing she wore, tossing them across the room with biotics just as well. Nude, she shivered in the chill but still felt like she was on fire from within, making her grit her teeth with frustration. What is wrong with me?
Miranda stared up at the ceiling of her office, hair tumbling around in a mess around her. Suddenly jolting up, Lawson swung her legs over the edge of her bed and got to her feet, nearly running out the door to her room. With the crew having been abducted by the Collectors, she had no fear of someone seeing the less than appropriately dressed XO.
It was a few short moments of running to Chakawas's medical office, the doctor's absence actually gaining a frown at the operative's lips. Miranda quickly crossed over to where Chakawas kept her more over the counter type of medicine, fingers ransacking the meticulously stored bottles filled with pills and liquids until she found what she desired. Pulling out a sleep-aid, the woman easily popped the top and shook two little pills into her hand. There was no way she could afford to be sleep deprived on the Collector base, it could get her and others killed if she were.
Miranda mindfully placed the container and the other bottles back as they were, her own desire for perfection not allowing her to just walk out no matter how much she needed to take the medicine and lay down. When she left, walking over to the kitchenette to get some water to take with the pills, Miranda was unaware of the pair of eyes watching from behind. Just as she was about to sip a bottle of water down, a rather snide voice came from behind.
"Where the fuck are your clothes?"
Jumping with alarm and embarrassment, Miranda dropped the pills and bottle, water spilling everywhere in a moment's notice as a hand went to cover her breasts, thighs pressing close together as another hand went to hide them from the intruder's gaze. "Jack!" She sputtered, pressing herself against the refrigerator.
The tattooed woman gave her a leering grin as she crossed over from the shadows, dressed like she normally was with her prisoner jumpsuit pooling around her waist, the top undone and nothing but leather straps covering the ends her modest chest and connecting around her neck. The look she gave Miranda, sweeping up long muscular legs to her wide hips and then large chest before settling on the stunned expression on her beautiful face made the operative blush fiercely. "I didn't think you were the type to go streaking Miranda." Chuckled Jack, having placed herself in the way of any escape the now red faced woman though she'd have.
"And here I thought you never left your hole." Replied Miranda with as much venom she could muster when she was so flustered.
"I do eat you know." Snorted Jack, reaching down to pick up the discarded pills and half empty water bottle. "You're taking meds?" Her eyes narrowed, brown pupils seemingly darkening in the dim, the only light on the whole deck coming from a white light in the kitchen area and the emergency lighting that never went out along the flooring and ceiling. She held one of the little pink capsules in-between her fingers, trying to discern its purpose before she looked at the nude Miranda with a lopsided grin. "This is your anti-preggers pill isn't it Cheerleader?" She asked.
"What?" Gawked Miranda, reaching out with a hand to snatch the pill only for Jack to pull it back. "Not that it's any of your business, but it's a sleep aid, not a birth control pill." She said after a second and successful rescue of the pink capsule, popping it in her mouth before Jack could take it back. The second one remained in Jack's control however, tightly held between the tattooed woman's fingers, death written on each knuckle one letter at a time.
"I think you're yanking my chain Cheerleader." Sneered Jack, a surprising lack of malice on her words. Miranda snorted, turned her back to the convict and opened the fridge to get another bottle of water, downing the first pill in one swig.
Blue eyes glared angrily at Jack. "I'm not some whore you know that right?" She said stiffly. "I might use sex appeal to my advantage but that doesn't mean I just spread my legs for anyone."
For some reason Miranda couldn't quite comprehend, the bald woman laughed, and for another set of reasons she couldn't understand either the sound made her heart start raising and the fire that had slowly been put at bay return. "Maybe not anyone, but I bet plenty enough for the shoe to fit."
"You would know how many that would take wouldn't you."
Before Miranda could even blink Jack had slammed one hand against the cold metal fridge, a snarl pulling at her plump lips, and a yelp escaping Miranda despite her best attempts not to. Jack laughed smugly, not moving her arm that had Miranda backed into a much smaller amount of space, Jack taking up enough space that remained to have their hips nearly touching. "Fuck you, those Cerberus assholes raped me and you know it. You saw the proof on Pragia, you even helped me blow that place to kingdom come." She snarled in Miranda's face.
"Jack, obviously we made a mistake when we-"
"Oh no, cut the shit about 'we made a mistake' because I'm sick and tired of it." Jack cut her off, biotics rippling along her for a moment before she pulled back. "You're not even worth it anymore. If you want to be some sucker with your panties in a twist listening to whatever the Illusive Asshole has to say, then why the fuck not right?" She didn't move however. "It's your life you're screwing up, not mine."
Miranda stared at her, out of breath and her mind running a thousand times over on what just happened. That Jack had just refused fighting her, had just told her essentially she didn't care anymore for their fight over Cerberus. It was like twisting a key in a lock that had just waited for the turn, for the will to unlock it. "You're not the same convict we picked up on Purgatory are you?" She asked.
Jack narrowed her eyes, and then gave a laugh. "I guess I'm not." She replied. "You can blame it all on Shepard, damn that woman and her white horse." A laugh actually escaped Miranda, and she found herself smiling at Jack, both of them confused by it when it had slipped away from her face. "What the hell was in that pill you took?" Asked Jack, the second one popping up between her middle and index finger, holding it up to Miranda's lips as if suggesting she took it.
A blush worked itself across the nude woman's face, a few thoughts slipping into her head as Jack pressed it slowly against her lips. Without giving it a moment's thought, Miranda opened her mouth and took the pill and the ends of Jack's fingers in her mouth, giving a low moan as she deftly removed the pink capsule from the stunned convict's fingers. Miranda sucked down Jack's fingers until she'd pulled herself off them and gave a resounding pop as her lips smacked together free of the tattooed woman who was blinking slowly.
"What the serious fuck is in those things?" Jack sputtered at last, wiping her fingers clean on the hanging top of her jumpsuit. "Those are really just sleep aids?" Her brown eyes darted from Miranda's blushing face and the way she was biting her lip seductively, to her exposed and hardening nipples. She was pretty certain she could smell a rising aroma of arousal in the spaceship's air.
"I'll be honest, I haven't the slightest idea, but I'm pretty sure they're not the ones doing this to me." Miranda came on strong, taking Jack further off-guard, making her tough-girl act falter even further. "You know, I've gotta confess that I'm actually finding it nice to be wrong for once."
Confusion knitted Jack's brow together. "Excuse me Cheerleader?"
"I was wrong about you Jack." Said Miranda, leaning forward some. "I thought you would never change, that you were mistake, a psychopath and total bitch with no value for life other then your next hit or kill."
"Who says I'm not still looking for another kill?" Asked Jack, trying to piece her mask back together but the either drugged or aroused Miranda was doing a number on that defense, her own body slowly starting to react the way the operative no doubt wanted despite her best attempts to stay the rising feelings.
"You did actually." Miranda replied, blinking slowly. "To Shepard on the last mission we went together on. Remember investigating the derelict Reaper?"
"Of course I do, the whole place tried to kill us dumbass." Subject Zero managed to sarcastically reply. "What the fuck does that have to do with anything?"
Miranda pressed their hips together, heat rising up her. She'd figured it out, the reason she couldn't sleep. Right there before her, the woman that was so vivid and violent and passionate, had been running through her mind. Before it was just her anger with Shepard for even taking her on the mission, surely in the beginning she would have been a liability. But Shepard was a tough lot to argue with, and throw in the Illusive Man himself thinking Jack could have been an asset and she didn't have much of a case beyond her own dislike.
But then she had watched her on every mission Shepard took them along with, either foolishly or ingeniously pairing them up often when she took either one of them off the Normandy. She'd told herself it was because she didn't trust Jack, and most likely it had been before. But slowly her gaze was drifting from her face and hands to her rather open chest and her hips, and she couldn't deny that the convict had a nice ass.
"In the shuttle Shepard asked if you knew what you were going to do after all of this. Surprisingly enough you said you were actually looking at jobs in the Alliance of all places." Miranda elaborated, feeling confident. "When Selene questioned you on why, you said you figured it was starting to get time to stop just running around killing and do something worth doing."
Jack was frowning, but not moving away from Miranda's motions, making the operative smile as if she were about to checkmate Jack's king. If she was going to at last be honest with herself, she'd have to be honest with Jack as well. "So I'll say it again, it's nice to be wrong for once. I'm jealous of you Jack, how you've managed to grow and change, you're not who you were and you're better for it."
"If you're about to confess your love for me I'm going to slap you right into that fridge." Jack threatened.
Shaking her head with a laugh, Miranda wrapped her arms around the convict's neck, leaning against her entirely. "Nothing that drastic." She whispered in Jack's ear, placing a kiss on full red lips a moment later. Jack's arms snaked their way around Miranda's waist, pulling her against her as they deepened the kiss, a small gasp of approval escaping Miranda as she ran her hands down Jack's sides, making the convict shudder with want.
When they pulled apart, Jack's eyes were narrowed as she tried to catch her breath. "What the fuck was that Cheerleader?" She gasped. Miranda however, didn't give her an answer, and instead planted her lips on Jack's neck hungrily, the woman shuddering once more, fingers shifting up to grab handfuls of long black hair. "Shit!" Hissed Jack through gritted teeth, her chest rising faster as her body was catching on fire.
Slowly working her way down from a slender and scarred neck to a heavily tattooed collar bone, Miranda keeping her eyes closed as she planted one kiss after another until she'd reached her target, the first of Jack's barely concealed breasts. She'd just reached to pull back the leather strap when Jack yanked her up by her hair painfully, making her yelp in surprise as she was held by her hair.
"Two seconds to give me a good enough reason not to smear you across the walls for that." Jack demanded with a low snarl, biotics rippling across her body once again.
Miranda was quick to respond though, and purred the words out so seductively that Jack's underwear grew noticeably wetter. "Firstly we could die tomorrow, and secondly you seemed to have liked that kiss, I bet you'd like to taste more then my lips." A hand rubbed between Jack's thighs, only egging her on.
Jack looked at her with narrowed brown eyes, there was no denying that she wanted to fuck the woman until she was senseless, but the way it was coming about was never what she'd expected it to be. Deciding that now wasn't the time to be thinking with her head and rely on the instincts that had kept her alive all this time, Jack gave the operative a leering smile. "Alright, but if we're doing this we're doing it the way I want to. No soft pillow talk shit, no ooey gooey love crap." Her words came out huskily. "I'm going to fuck you silly."
Miranda gave an enthusiastic nod.