Yearning.
"You can fight like a Krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard."
She has a certain way of walking, but it's hard for him to describe. Her hips don't sway like those models with their tiny waists and noticeable assets. She steps with a strong confidence, as if she knows she cannot lose. But that self-belief becomes more subtle with each passing day. He can see how the war is affecting her, draining her and making her doubt. She doesn't show it though, she can't.
She's the great Commander Shepard, the hero of the Citadel and humanity's shining beacon. If she were to fall, who's to say that others wouldn't too? So she stands tall, maintaining that air of assurance.
But the war is brutal, with every win comes two more losses. The Reapers are always a few steps ahead of them and though it might pain him to see that, it hurts her even more. She has warned them for years that they were coming, yet her cries were ignored. She died once because of the ignorance of the Council and when they finally did listen, it was too late.
He finds it almost ironic, the superior aliens chose not to heed the warnings and now that the war was on them, they were begging her for help. If it had been him, he would have told them to—pardon his language—fuck off.
Yet it was not him. He was just another faceless grunt, disposable and only worthy of being thrown into the pits of battle. She faced them, keeping her calm, composed figure and addressed them with proper conduct. Though out of the reaches of the councilors ears…ear holes…hearing range, she cursed them out. He liked that.
He liked many things about his commander. She was a soldier, just like him and human too. She wasn't a self-righteous prick, but a truly kind person. She fought for peace and righteousness. She wasn't xenophobic like most still were to this day, she was polite and respectable, though she did have her own fair share of hatred for the stupid and reckless. The universe wasn't black and white to her, it was grey, blue, green, purple—it was filled to the brim with every damn colour imaginable and she fought for them.
Plus she was witty too. Who didn't like that?
He didn't know how she could do it, face all of that death and still come out with her head held high. Maybe it didn't faze her, maybe she was just used to seeing morbid and depressing stuff like that. For all he knew, she could have been an emotionless VI who went through the daily motions. But he knew better than that. She was affected, but she chose to keep it to herself.
He wanted her to talk to him, he was willing to listen to her troubles and wanted to be her shoulder when she needed it. There were many things he wanted to tell her, but he just couldn't and man, did it kill him. Still, he's the soldier and she's his superior officer, nothing more. But even so he still has to wonder, why does everybody expect her to save the whole galaxy? Sure she was Commander Shepard, but she was still human too and even she made mistakes.
Those mistakes were more deadly and cost dozens of lives, a price he knew she hated paying. But in the end it would be worth it. Millions would still live and would forever remember the lost, young and old. War was costly and nobody came out unscathed, he had the scars to prove it. She did too and she wore them proudly. At the end of the day they were both fighting for the same thing, the end of the Reapers and the war.
He would stand by her, making certain she succeeded and would never let her fall. He would be her support, making sure Lola lived up to her name. No matter how bad it got, he knew she'd survive, after all nobody was better than Commander Shepard.
And she was a hero. They never failed and always kicked ass. Besides, heroes needed sidekicks, right? Well, just call him hers.
"Lieutenant James Vega, reporting for active duty, Lola."
Disclaimer: Mass Effect belongs to Bioware.
A/N: Not much to say about this one-shot/drabble/short story/whatever you call this. I've always wanted to dabble my hands in writing Mass Effect and now I can say I truly like it. I've always liked the idea of a possible relationship existing between James and Shepard, but sadly Bioware didn't make it so.
So, I decided to make it happen myself. You can see how well that turned out. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I may attempt a few more pieces like this with other characters too.