Note: This story is just a little bit of fluff inspired by the true life tales of my recent attempt at home renovation.
Many thanks to VelvetFire and unadvisedelvira for being my Mario and Luigi for a few days.
Fixing a Hole Where the Rain Gets In
On the outskirts of Vancouver, Liara relaxed on the porch steps of a small cabin and watched the reeds beside a pond sway back and forth in time with a light breeze. She couldn't be more comfortable, lounging in one of Shepard's gray tank tops and a loose pair of olive trousers she'd found in a drawer in the cabin. The asari closed her eyes and breathed in the solace and serenity of her environment, grateful for the blessings given to her.
Shepard destroyed the Reaper forces over six months ago. It took months for the crippled Normandy to make the trek from the jungle planet back to Earth. Liara's face beamed as she recalled the moment Hackett informed her that Shepard was alive and recovering from her injuries at a medical facility in London. From that moment on, everything that occurred was beyond her bravest hopes. After Shepard was released from medical care, the Alliance moved them both back to the headquarters in Vancouver and gave them a cabin on a beautiful, peaceful stretch of land well outside of the destroyed city.
Barely any homes remained intact amongst the rubble and devastation left by the Reaper invasion. Even this remote cabin bore the scars of war. A gaping hole marred the outer wall on the back of the cabin and the kitchen floor had long since collapsed revealing the ground beneath. No one knew what occurred here; no survivors lived to tell. Perhaps a cannibal lobbed a grenade at a soldier making his last stand in the only cover he could find. Perhaps a family hid beneath the countertops, praying to escape detection. A chill ran down Liara's spine as she imagined the scene.
The asari pushed the images from her mind. This was now her home with Shepard and she intended to fill its atmosphere with every bit of joy and love that flowed through her mind and body. Damaged as it was, the cabin was still a mansion compared to the living conditions other survivors endured. The couple had access to running water and limited access to electricity, luxuries that few in the galaxy could claim. The cabin was small, merely a living room with a table, a bathroom and a kitchen. Most of the usable items and furniture that must have filled the house had long since been looted, no doubt by civilians running from a war they could not fathom and taking anything they could to survive.
Shepard had covered the gap in the wall with a large piece of plastic when they first arrived. They had both been too busy coordinating with the Alliance's rebuilding efforts to do anything about it and the plastic covering remained months later. The northern nights chilled the asari to the bone and the wind that tore past the thin plastic covering and blew through the house took her breath away at times. Every night, Shepard and Liara laid together closely on the floor of the living room, skin on skin, as much for warmth as it was for affection. On more than a few nights, the close contact did not suffice to combat the bitter winds. The asari's cheeks blushed to a dark lavender as she recalled a few of the creative and intimate methods they explored to ward off the chill of the night.
As interesting as these experiences had been, Liara longed to fix the problem. As the Shadow Broker, she was accustomed to having limitless resources readily available. However, now her network was in shambles and access to communications was limited. She had to rethink her approach. The broker certainly had the clout to lean on the Alliance for materials and a team to repair the home. In her heart, however, she could not bring herself to take those resources away from survivors with more desperate needs than her own.
Today was as good of a day as any to find a solution. Shepard was gone for the day; she'd been called away to the headquarters early in the morning for an urgent issue. If Liara worked quickly enough, the repairs could be finished before Shepard returns. How could she fix anything without materials? Liara thought of Tali and the corners of her lips lifted in a smile. If the quarian had been here, she would have salvaged anything usable on the property months ago. Very well, I'll have to do the same. Assured in her own resourcefulness, she walked through the field behind the cabin. Spotting a fence in the distance, she jogged across the length of the field and the grass whipped against her trouser legs as she went.
The black, wooden fence bordered the edge of a deserted ranch. The only remnant of the ranch's inhabitants was a brown cow who stared at the asari with disdain as it chomped on the tall grass. Liara surveyed the fence and decided that the wooden planks would meet her needs for repairing the cabin. She looked back at the cow and said, "You wouldn't look at me that way if you knew I was about to save you from a life of imprisonment." The cow continued its disapproving stare as Liara used biotics to pull the planks free of the fence. Rusty nails protruded out of each board loosed from the fence. She carried each board across the length of the field until she amassed a sizable pile of boards next to the cabin.
Liara carried one of the boards into the kitchen and sized it against the hole in the wall. The board fit well enough but she had no hammer to nail it into place. However, the asari would not be deterred. Using biotics, she lifted the board in place and kicked the board with all of her strength. The board gave under the force of each kick as the nails sunk deeper into the kitchen wall. Sweat covered her body as she continued her work.
In a few hours, all the boards were in place and the gap on the kitchen wall was more or less covered. As it turns out, kicking boards is not as accurate a method as one would hope and there were sizable slits between the boards. Liara realized that the night winds would still seep into the house. If she had some cement or some type of building compound, she could use it to fill the slits between the boards. Unfortunately, no such materials were available. Come on, think T'Soni. What did people do before they had cement? A smile spread across her face as she recalled an archeological dig she participated in during her student days. The ancient asari used mixtures of mud and grass to build primitive dwellings. Encouraged, the maiden walked outside and gathered the thick mud on the bank of the pond. Pushing the thick mud between the slits had the desired effect and before long, the wall was weatherproofed. The asari smiled in satisfaction as she wiped the mud off her fingertips.
Now it was time to fix the floor. To make enough space in the kitchen to complete her work, the asari used biotics to move the refrigerator and the stove into the living room. She attempted the same routine with the dishwasher until she felt an unmovable force tugging against her biotic field. Looking behind the dishwasher, she saw two pipes and a thick wire attached to the appliance. The thickest pipe was white with a spiral design and slid off easily when she tugged it. Next, the asari studied the thick wire. The wire was shielded but cut in the middle and seemed to be secured with a black tape. She began to pull the tape off and discovered three wires individually taped beneath. Humans certainly have a strange approach to doing things. Although the asari was experienced with working with electronics, she'd never seen such a haphazard attempt at connecting electrical wires. Liara laughed to herself as she pulled the tape off each individual wire.
The laughing stopped abruptly when her skin grazed against an exposed livewire. The shock buzzed her whole body and her omni-tool bleeped and flickered in response. The shock was over as soon as it began and was more startling than painful. Grabbing a discarded piece of tape, she covered the livewire to prevent her from making the same mistake again. Liara lifted her wrist but her omni-tool only flickered a few times before dying completely. She had to laugh at herself. Who could imagine a Shadow Broker without a functioning omni-tool?
The last pipe was thin and copper and attached to the dishwasher by a bolt. Liara didn't have a wrench and it only budged after several minutes of work. She could tell she was making some progress because drops of water fell off the edge of the bolt. Her gaze followed the length of the pipe, seeing that it connected to a device that seemed to also supply water to the sink faucet. Reasoning that water could not be running through the pipe if the faucet was off, she determined that the dripping came from water left in the pipe from the last time the appliance was used. I'll just continue to unscrew this and eventually it will stop dripping. Liara soon found out how wrong she was.