HUMAN PRACTICE

"Liara." A voice called from behind her. It seemed so distant and unimportant. Actually, what had the voice just said?

"Hm, yes?" She automatically replied anyway. Disinterested, so utterly lost in the wall of text scrolling along the monitor right in front of her eyes.

"Liara." The voice called once more, but this time it came accompanied by a warm hand that gently touched her cheek. So startled was the Asari scholar by the contact, that she jumped off from her chair and practically toppled every one of the assorted items that littered her desk.

"C—Commander," Liara managed to eloquently stammer while her electric blue eyes danced wildly all over the room.

Shepard's response was to simply shift her weight from one leg to another while she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Doctor," she began in a patient voice that had an undercurrent of something else. What it was, Liara could not tell. "You really ought to be more aware of your surroundings, or even at least what happens outside this room."

Finally, Liara's gaze actually landed on the person before her. This human and her strange behavior, her untimely and unannounced visits, her bizarre red hair and sparkly green eyes. "Commander, I—" Liara touched her forehead in a nearly futile attempt to collect her thoughts. "Commander, you know I am not a very sociable person, and that my work in this Prothean data requires the utmost concentration."

"Commander, Commander…" Shepard rolled her eyes in a diminutive show of exasperation. "How many times have I told you to call me Jane or at least Shepard, hm, Doctor?"

Just how insufferable could this human be? Why was she here, interrupting important work? Surely it was not merely for the act of socialization, and even more certainly not to check in on the progress of the decryption of the Prothean texts. Shepard had not even bothered to ask about that! Furthermore, the amused undertone that colored the human's words was not entirely lost on Liara. Nearly, but not entirely. So, was that it? Was Shepard coming all the way down to the lab almost every artificial day cycle for some form of personal amusement?

Liara fumed silently and almost huffed aloud at the thought. Disrespectful, brash, perhaps even ignorant. Were all humans the same? Lieutenant Williams was also not very disproving of that argument. However, even if she was young, Liara had managed to cultivate her stoic composure in order to be discrete. It had been one of her mother's very important lessons in life, so she knew that discretion meant being able to raise your brow, instead of your voice. She also knew that this practice would serve her well for her entire life, and that was quite a long time to say the least.

However, in the end Liara was not yet a master of the practice, so her anger seeped into her voice and her manner. She too crossed her arms before her chest. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Commander?" Liara asked dismissively while leaning against her desk, adopting a posture of imperious grace.

In response, Shepard let out a loud sigh. Perhaps she had managed to infuriate the human at least a little, Liara mused. A tiny smile appeared in her lips as she savored the small victory, but it was almost immediately stolen from her. Without any warning, Shepard was upon her, both arms surrounding her, warm body pressed against her own.

"You know," Shepard said in a tone Liara had never heard before. It was deeper, lower, somewhat serene, it was almost charming. She had no idea that Shepard could make a voice like this. "It's so cute how clueless you are, but even my love for cute things has a limit, so get a clue already."

Liara felt a warm hand slide along her cheek until its fingers came to rest on the side of her chin, leaving an almost tingling sensation left in their wake. There was a strange dissonance between Shepard's usual demeanor and the delicate touch of her hand right now. Then, her head was turned around effortlessly by that same hand, as if actually compelled to do so more than forced. Or, perhaps it was more that Liara actually did not feel like resisting, there was something that felt so natural and reassuring in the human's general behavior. Still, was Shepard about to initiate a physical assault on her? Surely she had not angered the human so much as to warrant any form of aggression. Then again, humans were creatures of great impatience and rushed, unpredictable reactions. Well, if that was the case, then she was ready to reply in kind, she might be no soldier but her control of biotics had always been praised by her mother.

As Liara opened her mouth to voice a warning, both her voice and her thoughts perished in her lips when Shepard sealed them with her own. Liara knew what this was. It was not a practice unheard of in Thessia, but it indeed was more of a Human practice. Actually, it had gained quite some fame after the humans came flaunting it left and right into the galactic community. However, Liara herself had never even seen any more of it than textual descriptions in gossip articles. It was so strange.

She knew not how to correspond Shepard's motions or how to react to such a violation of her personal space, Liara was at a loss of words and actions. Conversely, the Asari scholar was not at a loss of thoughts. Perhaps this was a way to gain some psychological insight into the inscrutable Commander Shepard.

The contact was soft, so very soft. Shepard had always appeared so rough and hard to Liara, that she had come to believe humans were of a denser molecular composition, similar to that of Turians. It also was so warm. Perhaps too warm, when the warmest and most emotional thing Liara had seen of Shepard were veiled jokes aimed at her. What was more interesting was that Liara noticed her own body react unconsciously to the contact, and even more interesting than that, the fact that time seemed to be stretching out right in front of her. Everything began feeling so distant, as if they were isolated from everything else. She felt…

…

… Shepard's warm, moist, soft tongue slide into her mouth, her own lips parting to allow the intrusion without presenting the least amount of resistance. The sensation was almost overwhelming. A warm shiver ran down Liara's back, and then it seemed to rebound and come up her throat as she unwillingly made a noise that she did not know herself capable of. For some reason this prompted Shepard to further bear down on her. Their center of gravity shifted completely out of control and the chair might have just not hold. Liara felt just a tiny wave of panic, but instead of losing her balance, it just came naturally for her to put her arms around Shepard's neck, holding the human as if she were a lifeline.

It was an exquisite sensation that pervaded her entire body, consumed her mind, and all of it basically emanating from a single point of contact—their lips. Liara felt the need to have more, take more of Shepard inside herself. She unwillingly reached out with her biotics, a sudden burst of blue energy enveloping them both for just an instant, and then she knew. Liara came to learn what the clue she had to get was. Regrettably, the kiss ended right then. Had Shepard noticed? No, the redheaded woman was smiling down at her, impishly so, as a kid does after committing some act of mischief. Then, just as unexpectedly as she had arrived and then done everything else, Shepard left. Liara felt that somehow the room had grown just a little colder. Nevertheless, now she knew what she had to do.

As she turned around to continue working on decrypting the Prothean texts, Liara touched one of her dainty fingers to her smiling lips, and recounted in her mind the fascinating experience of her first kiss.