Shepard grunted softly as a cold handcuff clasped firmly around her left wrist. "That's a bit tight. Could you loosen it a little?"
"Yes, Shepard."
"No, no...call me 'Commander'," she replied seductively.
"Commander." The asari unlocked the handcuff and readjusted its grip on Shepard's wrist.
"Much better."
The nude human woman relaxed on the bed; her arms spread and raised above her head. Her asari partner leaned over with a look of confusion that betrayed her inexperience with what her partner referred to as "bondage". "What do I do know, Commander?"
"Anything you want, Liara," a sly smile played on Shepard's lips.
Liara smiled and flashed Shepard her super-seductive bedroom eyes look before proceeding to bombard the human woman's tender flesh with kisses. Shepard moaned as the asari's lips brushed over her more sensitive areas. Her body writhed and the handcuffs twisted against her wrists as Liara continued her explorations into Shepard's lower depths.
"Tell me this is better than exploring a dig site, Doctor."
"I don't believe I can say that, Commander."
Shepard looked up at Liara, "Really?"
Liara crawled back on top of Shepard and kissed the human slowly; deepening the kiss after a few moments. She never answered the question and soon Shepard forgot about it and everything else in the world. Liara's conscious plunged into her own; reminding her of why she only made love to asari.
A week had passed since Commander Veronica Shepard and Liara T'Soni helped defeat Sovereign on the Citadel. The pair spent most of their free time together...in bed. Shepard loved sex and she loved asari. She fancied herself some kind of "passion artist" and had many years of experience...especially with that species. On the other hand, Liara was new to the whole sex thing taking Shepard as her first lover. Needless to say, the asari was enthusiastic to learn from one of the experts in the field.
Sometimes, Shepard wanted to pretend the relationship with Liara was just sex but she couldn't deny that she cared about the asari. They drew close to each other as they spent every day together over the past six months in spite of Shepard trying to seduce Liara from the moment she rescued her on Therum. Eventually Shepard's charms won a night of passion with the doctor but it felt different from the many others she'd experienced before with different lovers. Shepard often found herself pondering her relationship with Liara during the rare moments of downtime. Are they a couple? Is it a temporary thing? She decided to enjoy it while she could...and damn was she ever enjoying it.
The current hand-cuffed love making session couldn't last as long as Shepard desired since her mother expected her and a few of her friends to show up for a small dinner party. Her mother was Captain Hannah Shepard of the Alliance Navy; a proud woman who looked much like an older version of Veronica. Her mother was as "boy-crazy" as she was "asari-crazy". Shepard's parents divorced many years ago while she was still a teenager. She didn't know all the details but expected her mother's wandering eye caused the split.
After Shepard and Liara satisfied each other in the bedroom, they hopped into the shower together for a tiny dessert. Shepard was wary of taking Liara to her mother's party. Her mother wanted her to settle down with someone and to stop following her own approached to romance. Shepard never brought her lovers to meet her mom nor did she ever have a proper girlfriend. She feared her mother would jump to the conclusion that her and Liara were going to get married very very soon and have lots of blue children. Shepard prayed her mother wouldn't drink too much at the party because then there's no telling what kind of things she'd say to her and Liara.
Shepard leaned over and kissed Liara's neck, "You smell wonderful," she whispered while inhaling the asari's fragrance. Their taxi continued to make its way to Hannah Shepard's Citadel apartment. The Alliance stationed her mother there to assist in recovery after the Sovereign and geth attack. They were nearing their destination soon since Shepard's own apartment wasn't that far from her mother's. Both women donned a dress for the evening. Shepard wore a simple black number with exposed shoulders. The dress showed off a bit of her legs...her finest feature. Liara wore a long white dress with gloves; both items trimmed with blue and silver thread.
They arrived at the party a half hour late. Shepard searched for her mother but couldn't spot her right away. She did find Garrus and Kaidan sitting in chairs close to the balcony. The Lieutenant waved at her and she proceeded to join them, cutting through a crowd of her mother's friends.
"You guys having fun?"
"The drink is good. I can't believe your mother has turian whiskey," Garrus replied as he lifted his glass.
"She's a good hostess. She made sure to stock up on dextro food and alcohol when she knew you were coming."
"You both look different from your usual selves," Garrus noted as he looked at Shepard and Liara. "I barely recognized you without the armor."
"Likewise," Shepard stated.
"Good to see you Garrus...Kaidan," Liara acknowledged her fellow crew mates with a slight nod and they both returned the gesture.
"Having fun, Lieutenant?" Shepard asked.
"I spoke with Captain Shepard for a few minutes. Your mother is an interesting women."
"Yeah, she is."
"I think she's flirting with me."
"Yeah, she is," Shepard sighed. She was now almost positive her mother had hit the bottle before the party even started.
Hannah appeared behind Shepard with a glass of brandy in her left hand. "There's my baby!" She wrapped her right arm around her daughter's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. Shepard smelled alcohol on her mother's breath; confirmation of her suspicions.
"Hi mom."
Hannah kissed her again on the cheek, "You look simply gorgeous in that dress. Oh!" She quickly turned her attention to Kaidan, "Do you need another drink, Lieutenant?" She smiled and stepped closer to where Kaidan sat.
"No thanks, ma'am."
"'Ma'am'? How formal. You can call me 'Hannah'." She turned her attention back to her daughter. "What will you be drinking tonight, dear? Oh, and your guest..." Hannah winked at Shepard before looking over at Liara, "...Liara, right? What would you like to drink, dear?"
"I will have whatever Shepard will drink," Liara replied.
"And what would you like, dear?" Hannah asked her daughter.
"I'll have what you're drinking. It seems effective."
"Seems like I'm the trendsetter for the evening," Hannah laughed as she left to prepare drinks for Shepard and Liara.
"See, I told you," Kaidan remarked as soon as the older woman left the group.
"Oh, I believed it...I know my mother."
Garrus looked at his nearly empty glass, "She didn't offer to get me a refill."
"Sorry, Garrus. Maybe one of her friends here has a thing for turians?" Kaidan joked.
"I'd pour my own drink if I were you, Garrus. I wouldn't trust my inebriated mother to always grab the turian stuff."
Hannah returned with two glasses of brandy after a few minutes. She handed one to Liara and then Shepard before walking towards the balcony. Standing behind Garrus' chair with her hand on the balcony door, she motioned for Shepard to join her outside with her free hand.
Yeah, here it comes, Shepard thought to herself.
"Excuse me for a moment. Apparently, my mother needs to speak with me in private this very instant," Shepard addressed her friends and then followed her mother outside, closing the door behind them.
"Ronnie..."
"Don't even start, mom," Shepard spoke as quiet as possible not wanting those closest to the balcony doors to hear her.
"Don't start what?" Her mother, however, wasn't trying to be discrete.
"Keep it down...please."
"Well, that's no way to talk to your mother. What would your friend in there think of you?"
"Yes, yes...get it out out of your system."
"You've never brought anyone to meet me before."
"Who says I brought Liara here to meet you?"
"Come on, tell me what's going on with you two. I can tell something's there by the way she looks at you. Are you actually," Hannah let out a mocking gasp of surprise, "dating someone?"
"I don't know why you would get that impression. This apple didn't fall too far from your tree, remember?"
"I sure as hell know you are sleeping with her. I don't see how you could resist. She's quite stunning."
"What?" Shepard prayed to every deity worshiped by every species that Liara didn't have super-powered hearing. It seemed her mother turned up the volume of her speech a bit with each sentence.
"You know 'what'."
"Why can't you be a normal human mother and disown me for shacking up with asari?"
Hannah approached Shepard and kissed her forehead, "Because I love you, dear."
"Fine. Yes."
"So you are a couple?"
"I...don't... No, no, we just..."
Hannah laughed, "You want that. I can tell."
Shepard made a half-snorting laugh sound, "How?"
"If this 'Liara' was just another fling you wouldn't get defensive when I asked you about her."
Shepard's cheeks turned red. She pinched at the fabric of her dress over her thighs for a brief moment in thought before speaking again, "Maybe."
"Let's go back inside. I'm sure she misses you."
They both returned to the group to overhear Liara, Garrus, and Kaidan reliving the final battle against Saren and his forces. Shepard worried that her mother would pull Liara off to the side next and badger her with questions about their relationship. Luckily, she engaged the asari in front of the others.
"So, Liara. How did you meet my daughter?"
Ah, dammit, Shepard thought before taking a large sip of her brandy.
Liara told Hannah the tale of the geth attack on Therum and how Shepard and her team rescued her from the Prothean device. Garrus and Kaidan had wandered a bit from the group to talk amongst themselves and people watch. Her mother then asked Liara a bunch of questions pertaining to her academic career and research.
Okay. So far so good.
"Well, Liara. You are quite the beautiful, intelligent, and well-mannered young wom...asari. Are you single?"
Here we go, Shepard downed the rest of her drink.
Liara froze, "I..."
"Is that a proposition, mother?" Shepard was to annoyed for 'mom'.
"Of course not," Hannah laughed, "I'm not the one chasing after every other asari I meet."
Shepard whispered, "Nah, you're too busy drooling all over the Lieutenant."
"Well, he is quite handsome." Shepard noticed Kaidan look over towards her mother for a second before turning back towards Garrus. Before she could speak another word, her mother grabbed her cheeks and kissed her on the forehead again. "I love you, Ronnie!"
Shepard never felt more embarrassed in her life, "I love you too and stop calling me that!"
"I thought her name was Veronica?" Liara interjected.
"It's a nickname I gave her when she was about three years old. You didn't answer my question."
"She doesn't have to answer because it's none of your business."
"Fine, you win." Hannah noticed a few of her other quests admiring a painting hanging from her apartment. "I'll be back...I need to mingle with the others."
Shepard and Liara remained in awkward silence for a moment after Hannah left. They never discussed the status of their relationship together. Shepard didn't know how Liara felt about it or how the asari defined things between them. Shepard didn't know how she defined it either but her conversation with her mother gave her some food for thought.
"I'm sorry about that, Liara. My mom's very...ah...nosy when she's had too much to drink."
Liara smiled warmly at the human, "It's no trouble, Shepard. She is just..." Liara's expression was now somber, "...very different from my own mother..."
"I'm sorry," Shepard knew the wound created by Benezia's death was still fresh.
"I'm fine, Shepard."
"Shall we join the others?"
"Yes."
The pair walked over to join Garrus and Kaidan and they spent the remainder of the evening chatting about the war or poking fun at some of the other crew members like Joker and Wrex. Garrus regaled them every krogan joke he ever heard in his life. Shepard didn't speak much since she couldn't get the conversation with her mother out of her mind.
At the end of the party, Shepard and her friends said their goodbyes to her mother. She promised her she would call in the morning and the two of them would go out to lunch.
"Liara, you can join us tomorrow if you'd like," her mother added.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude."
"No, please do! I wouldn't mind,' Hannah gave an encouraging smile to the asari.
Please say no, Liara.
"I would like that," Liara answered to Shepard's dismay.
Dammit!
Shepard kissed her mother and said her farewell.
Shepard and Liara sat together silently in the taxi ride back to Shepard's apartment. Shepard broke the silence first.
"Do you want to spend the night at my place again? I mean, you have a bunch of stuff there already and it's late..."
Liara smiled, "I have spent every night at your place this past week."
"Well, yeah. I just thought maybe after meeting my mother you would think...I am crazy. But I'm not exactly like her am I? A few similarities here and there but..."
"I do think you are a bit 'crazy' as you put it but not because of your mother."
Shepard returned Liara's smile with one of her own, "Oh...great!" and then kissed her on the cheek.
Upon returning to Shepard's apartment, the two immediately hopped into the king-sized bed—being a Spectre had its perks. Liara fell asleep a few minutes after Shepard wrapped her arms around her. Shepard remained awake for another hour thinking about the conversation with her mother and the feelings it stirred within her. She was confused and afraid and elated. She didn't know exactly what Liara meant to her or what she meant to Liara or if they were a couple or just friends who had sex. Shepard did know that she enjoyed the time spent with the asari and loved the feel of her body tucked away in her arms that moment. Everything about the situation was new to her and thrilling. She decided not to overanalyze it and enjoy every moment just in case it ended soon.
A/N: I know my portrayal of Hannah Shepard is a horrible offense to something because she wouldn't act this way in her position but I am using liberties! As far as this 'story' goes, I'll probably add on more one-shots of Shepard and Liara's hijinks throughout ME1/ME2/ME3 as I come up with ideas.