AN: My style seems to be rather sporadic, as you may have noticed. My first story on here was a romance with lots of 4th wall breaking humor. Half well received, half criticized.
To each their own.
My second story, for those who have read it, was a glance into the thoughts of a character that, while intended to be a blank slate, still has a personality. The one we give them granted but it is one.
Seriously. How would you feel shouldering the fate of the world?
My third story was simple love time. Hey it's nice once in a while. Like a bath or something else along those lines.
So here's another character introspective. I may be using that word wrong. Oh well.
For the inspiration, I was listening to Sonne by Rammsteine and looking at this image too much.
art/The-Longest-Day-444692734
If the link doesn't work, the picture is called The Longest Day. It shows Shepard standing in the shower, armor still on as the blood washes off him. It's a vulnerable moment.
Anyway, you've waited/slogged through long enough.
Shepard was many things. He was a soldier and a leader. He was a living legend if you went by the tales on the extranet. He had defeated Sovereign and saved The Citadel. He had vanquished Saren and his Geth army. The extranet never did remember to state that Saren and the Geth were serving Sovereign, not Saren.
Shepard had survived a lot. He had survived the Batarian massacre on his homeworld of Mindoir. He had survived the rigorous biotic training regiment on Grissom Academy. He had even survived the Thresher Maw attack on Akuze.
To reiterate, he had survived a lot.
He had even come back from the dead. The same terrorist organization that had killed his entire unit on Akuze, barring him and Toombs, had brought him back.
He supposed he was a zombie now. What a touching reminder.
But of course, for all that he was, the one thing he was not was a human. Both in the literal sense and the metaphorical sense he supposed.
The galaxy didn't see Commander Shepard the person with faults and problems. They saw the hero, the madman, the traitor, the savior, and many other tasteful words.
So when the Commander returned from a mission, covered in blood and hobbling along, no one on the SR2 paid any attention. They didn't notice him limp along to the elevator and take it up to his cabin in silence.
Naturally he didn't notice Tali'Zorah see the shuttle enter the bay from the engineering room window. She saw him in his state. So she did something about it. She called the elevator back down and took it to the third floor for a visit.
Shepard made his way into his cabin, turning right into the bathroom and up to the shower. He turned the hot water on and simply leaned into it as it washed the blood and exhaustion off him. He closed his eyes and ignored the galaxy around him.
Which means he didn't hear his cabin door open a short while later and two sets of feet come in. He didn't even notice as they entered his bathroom, one moving in closer to shut off the water. Even its absence did not remove him from his tuned out state.
A pair of thin arms wrapped around his torso did however.
He slowly opened his eyes, finding himself face to face with Tali. No sound of acknowledgement was given. She simply hugged him and he let her. When he felt a second pair of arms wrap around him, he turned his head to see Garrus giving him a hug as well as he could.
It came to him then and there. They knew he was human.
And so he leaned on them as they held him close. Together, the galaxy faded away from them in their little moment.
