It was nighttime on the Normandy.
Lights were low, and with the exception of the quiet murmur of air circulating through the life support systems, there were no sounds on the crew deck.
Despite the dim silence, Liara was awake.
That wasn't so surprising in and of itself. The young doctor often had trouble sleeping in the three weeks since coming aboard the Normandy.
She had spent many months on Therum, and before that on various dig sites throughout the Milky Way. She had grown accustomed to sleeping in caverns, in tents, and even in the open air. Although not relegated to the claustrophobic environs of a sleeper pod like most of the Normandy's human crew members, the lab space granted her as a cabin was far more constrictive than she had grown accustomed to.
The door to the lab, like all hatches on a spaceship, was pressure tight. From the medbay, there was no indication of activity in Liara's room. Usually what activity there was tended to be restricted to Liara's terminal. The exception of late was that when Liara wasn't working on her Prothean research, she spent her time practicing using her biotics. The maiden was still unsure in her surroundings, with her role onboard, and most importantly, confounded by the ship's puzzling captain. Although she had been honest with Shepard that her biotics had usually been more than enough protection when she was alone in the field, she typically only had to use them as a deterrent. Her first few forays planetside had left her feeling completely drained, and she had felt ashamed that she was not contributing more to the mission. Hence this night, if an observer could see into Liara's room, they would have been treated with the flickering blue light of biotic activity.
The maiden was enveloped in wisps of electric blue, a look of intense concentration evident on her delicate features. A small singularity, no larger than a few centimeters across, drifted slowly from where it formed over Liara's cot, towards the door separating the lab from the medbay.
As her eyes followed the drifting sphere, her lips whispered a quiet count, "Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fif..."
The singularity evaporated.
'Well,' thought Liara, 'it still isn't twenty seconds, but at least it isn't the ten I was down to when I came on board.'
She closed her eyes and sighed. Neither the confines of her lab, nor the quiet of the ship were what was keeping Liara awake. It also wasn't working on increasing the strength and duration of her biotic abilities that made slumber elusive. In fact, exercising her biotics made what was keeping her awake even worse.
Liara was hungry.
She turned in her chair to check the time on her terminal. It was after midnight. She had waited long enough.
Without putting on shoes, Liara slipped from her room. The maiden walked quietly through the medbay, into the crew area, and finally to the elevator to the lower deck. She wished again that the ship had emergency stairs. If there were any, she had never discovered them. At least the elevator was as quiet as it was slow.
Liara exited the elevator into the darkened cargo hold, and immediately moved to her right where the field supplies were stored. Her feet felt like ice as she slowly moved to the storage areas along the port side of the hold, but she continued to move slowly and quietly.
The crew prepared the shore party's equipment before every mission. For Liara, that meant that the armor that she had been assigned would be clean, charged, and the pockets filled with medi-gel and field ration bars. Although the quartermaster had issued her a pistol, she was expected to maintain her weapon herself. It was the ration bars she was seeking now.
Several late night visits had already allowed her to confirm the knowledge she had gained from observing the crew. The first locker would be heavy weapons ammunition. The second would be first aid supplies, and the third would be weapons upgrades. She slowly opened the fourth locker, where the solid and liquid field rations were kept. She reached in without looking, knowing the energy drinks were high, and the ration bars she sought were in containers on the bottom. She almost lost her balance from reaching into the locker when instead of encountering the rations, her hand sliced through empty air.
She whipped her head around, opening the locker further. The space was empty. She didn't understand. It had been full or nearly so every time she had opened it before. She frantically looked around the bay, but saw nowhere obvious where the supplies she sought could have been moved.
Liara slowly closed the door to the locker. She considered attempting to search the hold, but after a moment regretfully discarded the idea. She was afraid of waking Wrex or Garrus and she wouldn't have an explanation for her presence. Defeated, her shoulders slumped as she made her way back to the elevator.
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.
Liara slowly made her way back towards her lab. She wasn't sure what she was going to do next. They weren't scheduled to make planetfall for another two days, which would be the first opportunity she might reasonably expect to see where the crew had moved the supplies used by the shore parties.
She was still deep in thought with her head down when she opened the door to her lab. She was temporarily blinded by the full lighting that greeted her. Her hand flew to cover her eyes, but she was still able to make out the form of the person sitting on her cot.
Commander Shepard.
Holding a container of ration bars.
Liara felt her heart miss a beat. She felt faint. She didn't know what to do. She barely stuttered "C-Commander..."
Shepard help up her hand, palm outward. Liara stopped speaking, but the young Asari looked like she was ready to throw up.
"Liara," she started, "why did you.."
"I am so sorry Commander! I will never do it again! I do not know what came over me..."
"You'll never do what Liara?" Shepard tilted her head in confusion. "Eat? That's what Dr. Chakwas and I have been discussing that you need to be doing more of, not less."
Shepard put the container of ration bars aside, opened the box and removed two. Then she stood up, and walked over to the trembling Asari. She kept her movements slow and her voice soft. She didn't want Liara to break down, and the maiden was clearly terrified. She took Liara's hand and pressed the two bars into it. "Here, this will get you started". She then gently put a hand on Liara's shoulder, and led her back the way she had come, into the crew area.
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.
Shepard took Liara to the mess area, and sat her down at a table. "This is going to take a few minutes, so I want you to eat those while you wait. I haven't done this in a while, but I think I remember my way around a kitchen."
Liara removed the wrapper from the first ration bar and took a small bite, not believing what she was seeing. Commander Shepard had turned around and walked over to the Normandy's compact cooking area. Dressed in an N7 t-shirt and a pair of cargo pants she could have been any random person making a late dinner. But she wasn't. She was Commander Shepard, and she was cooking for her. Liara struggled with her feelings as she watched Shepard cutting vegetables. She was ashamed and embarrassed. She felt unworthy of the attention she was receiving even as the commander turned and flashed the occasional crooked grin her way. Liara's hands were shaking by the time she moved on to the second ration bar.
Shepard didn't take long to finish, and returned to the table with a tray containing food and tea for Liara and coffee for herself. The tray also contained nearly a dozen condiments, most of which Liara couldn't identify.
Shepard was obviously pleased with herself as the placed the food in front of Liara. "I've seen Asari in human restaurants before, so I'm reasonably sure that I'm not going to poison you. I'm usually more of a breakfast person, so that's what I made. This is a spinach mushroom omelette and fruit salad. I don't know what kind of foods you like, so I brought every potential topping we have. I also don't know what kind of tea this is, but it's the blend I've seen Dr. Chakwas bring to you every morning". Shepard put the tray aside, and took a seat across from Liara with an expectant half smile.
Her smile faded when Liara's head remained bowed over her food. Her expression turned to concern when a tear landed on the table.
"Liara, what's wrong?"
Liara sniffled. "I never meant to impose."
Shepard worked to keep concern from becoming anger. "Impose? You thought we wouldn't feed you?"
"You have, Commander. Your crew has."
"It obviously isn't enough! You're starving yourself!"
Liara's voice became even quieter. "I eat as much as I ever have."
Shepard sighed. She reached across the table and gently lifted Liara's chin until they made eye contact.
"Liara," Shepard began, "You've told me about growing up with Benezia."
"Yes Shepard."
"And her entourage included a great many acolytes and commandos, yes?"
"Yes."
"And she didn't feed them?"
"Of course she fed them Shepard! But she didn't feed them around the clock! She didn't personally cook their meals!"
This tactic wasn't working.
"Liara," Shepard took a deep breath before she started again, "Just like Kaidan and I, you're a biotic in a combat operation..."
"Just like the commandos at home!"
"Let me finish. I've seen Asari commandos. They aren't much for stand up fighting. Their strengths are stealth and sabotage. When we're running combat ops I eat 7,500 calories a day, Kaidan is closer to 10,000."
"10,000," Liara did the math in her head, "That's nearly 65,000 energy units!"
Shepard didn't know the measurement Liara was converting to, so she let it pass.
"Yes, 10,000." Shepard paused. "Given how much you use your biotics, you probably need to be closer to 12,000, at least until you put back the 10 kilos you've lost."
Liara looked horrified.
Shepard tried to lighten the mood. "You don't need to eat it all back in one sitting, but 'eating as much as you ever have' won't work for you anymore. You don't spend your days analyzing artifacts in excavations, you spend them fighting Geth."
When Liara didn't respond Shepard nodded toward the plate. "Eat your food before it gets cold."
"Yes, Commander." Liara lifted the first forkful of omelette to her lips. It wasn't an unpleasant experience, and the next bite was a larger one.
Shepard watched approvingly as Liara ate her meal. When Liara emptied her tea, Shepard refilled it, and topped off her own coffee.
Liara finished, and looked at Shepard expectantly.
"I'm sorry Liara. This was my fault. I should have spent more time with you, made sure you were acclimating to your role as a member of the team. I know that this was outside your realm of experience, and I neglected my responsibilities. I always asked if you were OK, but I didn't act when you so obviously weren't."
"Shepard, do you always take such a personal interest in your crew?"
Shepard took a sip of her coffee as she ignored the question. "We need to put a couple routines in place so that something like this doesn't happen again. First, starting this morning, you'll eat with the squad. They have 3 meals a day, and so will you. I'd say that if you need more to tell me, but I don't think you're able to recognize how much food you actually need yet. We'll let Dr. Chakwas make that determination."
"Commander, you don't eat with the squad."
Shepard looked into her now empty coffee cup, a distraction that wouldn't work a second time. "I do now."
She looked back up to Liara. "Second, I'd like you to train with the team. That includes PT and weapons training. PT is every day, but anyone on a shore party that day is excused. Weapons practice is every other day, so long as the cargo bay isn't scheduled for use."
Liara sat silently.
"Do you have any questions?"
"No Commander."
"Then go to bed, and I'll see you at breakfast."
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.
Liara woke early, after having cried herself to sleep. She paced in her lab until 07:00, then walked through the medbay on her way to the mess. Dr. Chakwas smiled at her and wished her good morning as she passed. She wondered if the human doctor had spoken to the Commander about the previous nights conversation. Liara decided she had, as otherwise Dr. Chakwas would likely have asked where she was going.
Chief Williams, Lt. Alenko, Wrex, and Commander Shepard were already seated. Chief Williams seemed to be eating something similar to what Liara had been served the night before. Wrex looked like he was eating a rack of meat the size of a varren, and Liara paled when she saw the size of the serving Lt. Alenko was eating, which was next to the empty plate he had already finished.
Shepard only had coffee, but she rose when Liara walked past on her way to the kitchen. Liara picked up a plate, but didn't know what to do. Everything looked so... filling.
"It helps to select foods with the most calorie density," Shepard said from the position she assumed at Liara's elbow. "Otherwise you have to eat more, and more often. I like the cranberry almond oatmeal, and you already know my inclination for omelettes".
Liara and Shepard made their selections and returned to the table, Chief Williams was seated next to Wrex, with Lt. Alenko across from Chief Williams. Liara sat down next to Lt. Alenko and Shepard sat between Liara and Wrex at the head of the table.
"I hear we have you to thank for this tea," started Lt. Alenko. "It's become quite a hit with the crew."
"It has?" asked Liara.
"Definitely!" replied Alenko.
Liara smiled slightly. "It's a Thessian blend I selected because it travels well, not because it was anything special."
The conversation drifted from various species' food preferences to mission objectives to skyball. Liara ended up promising to recommend other teas she considered higher quality so they could be purchased the next time the Normandy stopped for provisions. Shepard seldom joined the conversation, but did make several suggestions as to foods Liara should try. Liara finished breakfast and returned to her room after having filled her plate three times.
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.
As Liara dressed for the morning PT, she reflected that breakfast had not been the ordeal she expected. She wasn't certain what she thought of human food yet, but she wasn't hungry for the first time in weeks. Considering she had been worried that she might be thrown off the ship a few hours before, the commander's requirements weren't nearly as loathsome as she feared.
Eat well, exercise, train.
If it meant pleasing the commander, Liara decided that she could accept those conditions.
A/N: Assumptions here include:
FemShep/Liara (eventual LI)
Early in ME1
Therum was the first priority mission completed
It hasn't been relevant before, but Shepard is:
Colonist / Vanguard / War Hero
This is probably as early in Liara's timeline as I'll go. This was the first Liara idea I had that I wanted to turn into a story, but in an effort to do it justice, I did two other one shots first were easier for me to write. I did have some difficulty with the dialog between Shepard and Liara after Shepard cooks. I still think it's simple, but I also think they were early enough in getting to know each other that there wouldn't have been the openness you see between them later, and I tried to imply Shepard's interest in Liara without stating it. I could have done more by changing POV back and forth, but that seemed overly complex for such a short scene.
For those who have asked, I'm not planning on writing about her and Shepard meeting on Therum. That's already canon, and many others have already put their own unique spin on it.
From here I'll start moving forward again, filling in more ME1 blanks, passing through Liara's time as an information broker on Illium, and then moving through ME2 and ME3 on my way to some post-ME3 stories.
As always, feedback is welcome and desired.