An instant could change a lifetime. A millimeter to the right and she might not be here. Might not have shared a serene moment of clarity, or watched the heat drain from the Roekar resistance like a cracked reactor core. It was so hard to focus on the here and now when she kept revisiting his face, so certain, so ready to die for the sake of his people. Leanna Ryder realized in the instant she thought him dead, that she had already fallen for Jaal. But when he introduced her to his family, took her hand and lay with her staring up at a fabricated galaxy, she knew he had fallen in return.

"Are you here right now?" Liam asked, snapping his fingers in front of Leanna's eyes.

A bit of her broth sloshed from her cup as she leapt back into the present moment. "Damnit," She hissed, sucking the burned finger. "Sorry," she sighed, "I've… been thinking a lot lately."

"You said you wanted to talk to me." Liam crossed his arms, leaning against his workbench with a sly half-lidded expression she'd seen many times before. Usually it was when he was lounging around shirtless, inviting her to set her dinner down and take a quick sip of him instead. Seeing him half covered in engine grease, wearing his grungiest workshirt, she doubted that was what was on his mind right now.

"I-" She drawled on far too long, spilling the broth again as she swirled the cup nervously. "I do. It's… it's about Jaal."

"It's about how torn I am," She thought guiltily. "Between an insane infatuation with a man who came onboard espousing how much he expected us all to prove ourself as evil as the Kett, and a man who hasn't failed to make me laugh since the day I awoke from cold sleep…"

"Oh, yeah," Liam replied flatly, "He was asking about you, too."

"Oh?" Leanna sipped her broth, wincing at the bitter aftertaste of the extra electrolytes Lexi insisted she take daily.

"Yeah," he continued, arms still folded, gaze focused with a rare razor-sharpness. "What did he say?" Liam coughed, dropping his pitch in an obvious impersonation of their comrade, "'Am I correct to assume that holding hands has the same meaning for your people?'"

With a choking snort, she spit the broth across the room, speckling the steel plated wall. "HE-," She coughed to regain her breath, "He asked you THAT?!"

Liam finally smiled, one hand loosed from his chest enough to drum a tempo on his other elbow. "He did."

"Liam, I-" Leanna started.

"No, let me finish," He admonished, breathing in deeply before continuing, "I told him it did. And that you and I…" He stared back at her with a softened expression. "That we needed to talk."

"I had Jill remove my chemical blocker," Leanna blurted out, crimping the aluminum cup as her nerves spiked.

Liam flopped down on the couch, side-eyeing a new broth stain angled across the far arm pad. "Fat load of good that will do you with an Angaran ."

Leanna finally smacked the cup down on the edge of his workbench, where at least the stray liquid could be cleaned up. "Will you just let me explain-"

"I thought we were 'serious', Leanna," Liam interrupted. "But if you want Jaal-"

"I want you BOTH!" She shouted over him, before clapping a hand over her mouth and shooting a paranoid glance to the blessedly soundproofed, air-tight door.

Liam stared, mouth hanging open a little as he guffawed, "Both…? What? At the same time?... In.. in the same room-" humor cracked through the flatline of his brows. He smirked behind a thoughtful hand raised to his upper lip. "I didn't think you were that kind of kinky-"

"You don't know me very well," Leanna rebutted before she could shut-down her knee-jerk sarcasm. "I mean, besides, you've seen way more of Jaal naked than I haavveee...uhm." Her mind reeled back to that strange encounter with a bizarre clarity. The wide canyon between her culture and Jaal's was never more clear than the way the Angaran had strode out without an ounce of nervousness as he bore his privates to public scrutiny.

"As," she coughed, her cheeks on fire as she turned back to Liam, "You've seen AS MUCH as I have, I mean-"

A long silence drew out between them. It was her turn now to stand, muscles clenched as she closed her arms over her chest, picking at the bottom edge of her shirt from beneath her arm. As she took in the distant chill of his expression, a way through finally struck her.

She leaned over him, propping herself on her fingertips, sliding slowly down from his knees. "This feels good, right?"

Furtively, he glanced up at her. "Course," He grunted softly as her hands cupped the outside of his hips, her breath inches from his. "But I thought I signed up to be more than just a sperm donor ."

"You are," She crooned. "Now, this?" She held a palm lightly over his right arm. "How does THIS feel?"

He blinked slowly back at her, before risking a quick glance down at her hand. "Um… doesn't feel like anything? What's this game now?"

"It's a small mass effect field," She whispered. Drawing her fingertips across her face, the skin first reacted fluorescent pink, and then bright cyan before returning back to her 'natural' dark shade of umber. Between vitiligo treatments, scar-reduction implants, and SAM's handiwork, her cheeks felt like more a touch screen than skin cells to her. She had long ago learned that she could alter it with a gentle pass of her biotic fields.

He squinted at her like she had assigned him a pop quiz, before his expression finally relaxed. "Oh, I think I'm getting this now."

"I should have…" She licked her lips, staring down at the hand that was still pulsing a quiet, invisible melody in folded space-time against the edge of his arm. " WE … should have… talked about me a little more before I said I wanted 'serious'."

"Are you breaking up with me?" Liam asked plainly.

With a pained sniff, Leanna choked out, "No! I love you, Liam Kosta…" She wiped snot from her nose and looked deep into his eyes before asking, "Do you want to break up with me ?"

"No," He replied gently, finally leaning in to pull her towards him by the seams of her pants. With a rumbling growl, he buried his face into her collarbone, and inhaled deeply. "Alright. I think I'm starting to get it. We're all working together all the time. I've seen this kind of thing in crisis management. Emotions can heat up when the adrenaline is this high-"

"Liam," Leanna called, gently tilting his head up to face hers as he squeezed her to him. "I'm not cheating on you. That's not what this is. I need you to… understand something about me."

"What then?"

"I'm not monogamous," She whispered hoarsely. A dozen broken relationships, and six-hundred years through dark space didn't make it the explanation any easier. You'd think she'd have note cards and slide shows by now.

"I mean, relationships aren't easy for anyone-" Liam countered.

"I will never BE monogamous," She continued, hands cupping his cheeks as she frowned.

His eyes wandered, suddenly lost, "What? I mean-"

"I need to tell you one more thing, Liam. I need you to understand. I. LOVE . YOU . How many other people have you heard me say that to?"

He licked his lips as he looked to the ceiling, like he was back in primary school, being asked to explain how to divide fractions. "I… no one, honestly."

He finally settled his gaze back on her, and blinked uncertainly. "You… you hadn't even said it to me… until now."

"And how many people have I slept with since you asked me if we were 'serious' ?"

He cracked a smirk despite the tension, "I'm starting to wonder."

"None."

"Okay…" He nodded slowly. "Andromeda's a…. A new galaxy, yeah? What does this mean. For us, I mean?"

"It means, I feel something for Jaal almost as strong as I feel for you. " She inhaled deep and slow, and forced the breath out despite a grimace. "But… If you told me, right now, that you didn't want me to approach Jaal, I wouldn't."

He huffed as he placed his head back against her chest, his breath warm and moist over her breasts as he contemplated. As he remained there silently, she felt his hands slowly drawing lines past the seams, fingertips staking claim to the soft joint between her thighs and hips. She spent so long in training, forced march in a powersuit, or on reduced rations, it felt like the only spare bit of pudge she had left some days. And Liam was sneaky enough to already know if he squeezed there-

"Stop avoiding the subject!" Leanna gasped as he squeezed into the plump bottom of her butt, pulling her hips forward until her knees were locked into the crevice of the cushions and her mound was square against the bulging fly of his sweatpants.

Fingers locked into his hair, she bit her lip until the steady pressure of his hands pinning them together drove her to moan into his fro. It seemed to be what he was waiting for, as he finally answered, "Okay."

"That easy?" She panted, wiggling her hips against his until she could hear the distraction in the delay of his words.

"Sure. I mean I trust you," He chuckled before pulling her into a deep kiss, breaking away just as fast. "But, ah," He pushed her to arms length as he fought for breath, "I'm still plugged up, you know?"

She blinked a few times before she realized what he meant, and snorted at him happily, "You don't have to unlock the safety on your gun right away, goober."

"And I guess I don't have to worry about an alien knocking you up-"

She punched him hard in the arm, and shoved him sideways on the couch. Before he could catch his breath, she had found the perfect spot to straddle him where even a slight adjustment of her legs meant one agonizing tease after another.

"Liam Kosta," Leanna tutted. "Are you getting snide with a superior officer?"

"Pulling rank now?" Liam grinned like a fool, until she rocked her waist forward, rubbing up his length with a heat that left him speechless.

She winced as she leaned over him, placing a hand to each of his wrists to press his arms to his sides.

"What?" He replied to her absent frown.

"It's just," she leaned down to whisper in his ear, "you got me so wet, I think both our pants are going to have to go in the wash."

With a twist of his wrists, his hands were free, his thumbs in her belt-loops before she could adjust to the rise of his knee. "Well, I can fix THAT, at least."

Her shirt slid over her head in one sinuous cross of her arms. With an arch of her hips and backwards tumble Liam was able to pull her pants down to her calves, before he stopped to stare.

"Do you always walk the Tempest in commando?"

Leanna's face tinged magenta as she flicked him a wicked smile, "Course. Have you seen initiative-issue underwear?"

"I did once," He crooned as slid his hand along her slit , pressing intently along the edges of her labia at a speed slow enough to make her whimper. "I recall you weren't so panty-free when you first jumped my bones.

"Was I?" Leanna winced as he continued to stroke from top to bottom and back again as an excruciatingly stalled pace.

Grunting impatiently, she fell back against the armrest opposite him and pointed back to him. "Pants off, Mr. Kosta."

He chuckled, fumbling to loosen the drawstring and shift the waistband down as the six-hundred year old springs and cushions wobbled beneath him. Soon the the wretched clothing was discarded, just before he finally lost his balance and fell forward against Leanna's chest with a distressed grunt.

"Ow. Liam, my spleen-"

"Sorry, heh, couches, right?"

"... Please tell me you aren't keeping that disgusting shirt on?"

"What?" Liam smirked as he pressed his chest to hers, "Are you saying motor oil and conductive fluid don't turn you-"

"OFF!" She snapped, tugging the shirt over his head before he could finish laughing at her disgust. She threw it backwards without a glance. They both cringed as it produced a clang, something large dragged downwards, and finally a sharp, brittle smash.

He leaned forward to see as she went rigid with fright, before he eased back down to his comfortable spot pressed chest-to chest between her legs. "Nothing I can't fix," He murmured, silencing her concerned protest by locking his lips to hers and grasping a breast in hand.

Between the thrill of him gently rolling her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and the hungry way his tongue fought with hers, she hardly felt him positioning his length between her legs until he broke the kiss just long enough to whisper, "Can I?"

She answered by leaning forward and taking his earlobe in her teeth, and pulling him forward by the pressure of her mouth alone. All it took was a hummed acknowledgement between her lips and he thrust in with a purpose.

She nibbled a little longer. The few times they had run back to third base, she had tried a few more new tricks on him, but the ears had always been like a launch button for the poor man. Not that she was complaining as he returned to kissing her deeply between ragged breaths.

Liam was a master of playful deflection and targeted questions most of the time, but in bed? The man was amazingly direct. When he wasn't leaned down to plant a quick bite on her nipples or suffocating her in a breathy kiss, his eyes were laser-focused on hers. Locking eyes with him made her feel like she had never left the Milky Way. Like the whole of the Pathfinder initiative was a bad dream, the Kett a terrible nightmare and all the uncertainty of terraforming and entire nebula a bad movie script.

"I'm close," He muttered against her shoulder.

"Bring it," She grinned back at him, biting her lip as she reached down to stroke her clit. He could always tell when she did that. He would squint at her with an expression she'd seen in her male lovers before. That look that meant, "Shouldn't I be doing that?"

She dissolved it in her usual manner, by slapping him on the ass and hissing into his ear to fuck her harder. Liam hadn't complained before, and he didn't now, panting next to her ear as they rutted faster than before, locked together so tight it felt like the skin of her chest might tear if they moved any faster.

Her blood was rising, heat flushing over her chest and through her cheeks as she pitched her head back and howled.

"Come for me," He repeated, lips brushing over her neck as he thrust. A tingle washed over her, from her feet and her stomach and neck, mind focused on holding him close to her as her toes twitched in time to each stroke of her clit, each thrust of his cock pushing her past the orgasm and into a half-painful plateau.

He gasped as he finally finished, a few shakey thrusts more before he lifted his head up, their chests pulled apart with a sticky 'pop' that immediately sent them both into giggles. He leaned down to kiss her once, twice, and laughed as she laughed, smothering her laugh in another kiss that she still giggled through.

"You're not half bad at that, Liam." She panted.

"That's it," He scoffed, reaching over for a pillow to smother her with.

She fought back playfully, regaining her freedom from under the pillow by fighting dirty and tickling his sides until he fell off the couch.

They lay there a while, regaining their breath with her arm dangled off the edge, delicately touching his hand that rested at the baseboard below the cushions.

Liam looked at her sidelong for a long time as she gazed at him through half-closed lids. Eventually he glanced away, "I'll… talk with Jaal."

"About getting to … 'know him better'?" Leanna propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him wide-eyed. "You will?"

Liam keeps looking away, "Yeah. He can't think you're sneaking around behind my back. Or that… I'm gonna challenge him to some kinda duel of honor over you."

"Oh yes," she chuckled, "we need to make sure he knows we left all that dueling at ten paces and lynching loose women in our old galaxy." Leanna sighed as the joke obviously didn't change the stern set of Liam's expression, "But you'll need some time?"

Liam: "Yeah," he murmured, staring at something far past the ceiling. Yeah… it's gonna be weird for a while."

He tugged her down to the rug next to him, where she snuggled close to wedge his arm between her breasts as she nestled her head against his shoulder. In turn he rested his chin on the top of her head. She yawned, "But it's always best to just get the weird out in the open, yeah?"