"Your voice," John Shepard answered thoughtfully. He gazed at her face, her delicate looking pale lavender skin was so enticing and he could see her vivid purple irises faintly glowing from what little light there was in the room while drinking in the sight of him in return. She smiled a shy crooked smile, seemingly unsure of what to make of his answer. He reached out and brushed his hand along her cheek. "Your voice, especially filtered through your helmet, has a musical quality to it." He shifted, easing himself down onto the bed and gently pulling her down along with him. As she settled down beside him and laid her head on his chest he continued. "And it's expressive. But if you really wanted to know what drew me into loving you, I couldn't point to any one thing."
Surprised at that, she lifted her head so she could look down into his eyes. "Nothing?"
"Everything," He answered with a smirk. Trying to do his best imitation of her voice when she'd first confessed to having feelings for him he elaborated. "An alliance officer finds a young Quarian engineer in a skintight suit." A three fingered hand swats playfully at his chest and he chuckles before continuing. "Who has exactly the evidence he needs and then selflessly joins his crew to be dragged around the galaxy and into numerous battles in defense of people who shun and insult her at every turn." He turned to face her directly, the tone of his voice taking on a higher pitched, teasing tone. "How could he possibly develop feelings for her?"
"Bosh'tet," She retorted with a laugh and a playful shove.
He retaliated by tugging her into him, savoring the contact of her bare skin against his as she landed on top of him. She snuggled into him for a moment then shifted to lay with her head on his shoulder so she could look up into the skylight. His arm snaked under her back and his hand with all of its five fingers rested on her stomach.
"I'm serious though, there is no one thing I could point to and say this is why I fell for you, nor is there one time I can say I went from liking you to loving you. Have you ever wondered why you're the last stop on my rounds?"
"Sometimes," she admitted with a hint of jealousy.
"You've heard the human saying, 'saving the best for last'?"
"A few times. That's like asking for the bad news before the good news?"
He sighed, "This war is draining Tali. On the first Normady, after we'd defeated Saren and Sovereign the council just slapped medals on us and swept us under the rug. Then there was Cerberus and having to watch my back while most of my adopted family turned away because of a logo. We had to go though all those missions for the crew so that they could put their affairs in order before facing death in an uncharted portion of the galaxy." Tali put her hand over his and gave it a gentle squeeze as he continued, his voice growing increasingly irritated and angry. "We came back with everyone alive and well plus exabytes of data on the reapers and it was ignored. Then I was locked up and tried for delaying the reaper invasion."
"And now your world burns while you run around appeasing all those who wouldn't listen and got caught with their… pants off?"
John chuckled, "pants down, but it's close enough. " He lifted his hand off of her stomach and felt her begin to play with his fingers. She slowly flexed them closed, one by one curling his hand into a loose fist before reversing the process. "Have I ever told you I like when you do that?"
Her amusement was audible in her voice, "No, I don't think you have. But you were telling me why you always came to me last in your rounds."
His other hand reached over and rested gently on her stomach. "Because you could…"
"I could?" She prompted gently after a moment's silence.
"…Recharge me? Reassure me perhaps. On our first tour I think it was that you almost always seemed upbeat. You managed to ignore all the bad and treasured even the smallest act of kindness. You had a contagious energy and an inspiring generosity and there were many times when that was exactly what I needed. When I came back and you saw me with Cerberus you still trusted me even though you had no good reason to. You came with me on a Cerberus ship and even that didn't dampen your spirit, you were bolder, more confident but still radiated that cheerfulness and hope I needed."
"Until I came back as a Admiral," she said sadly.
"That playful, not innocent yet innocent spark is still there if what we did earlier is any indication," John said coyly. "And I think I made the Admiral blush."
She stopped playing with his hands and smirked when he lifted his head to look down at where their hands were still joined together. "Bosh'tet."
"You should find some other Khelish curse words, that one is getting boring," he teased.
She resumed playing with his fingers and he lowered his head back to the pillow. "It just fits so well."
He shook his head and used the arm wrapped under her to give a gentle squeeze, "So what brought on this line of self consciousness?"
She sighed slightly, "I guess I still have a hard time understanding why you still want me when you can have someone you can be with anytime. How long did you spend sterilizing all this space so that I could be here without my suit? How much time did we lose so I can get undressed and how much more do you have to lose to-" His finger placed gently against her lips stopped her and she felt him move, carefully shifting both of them until she was lying on the mattress instead of him and his lips were pressed firmly to her forehead.
He pulled back, looking deeply into her eyes, "I care so deeply about you and it's like nothing I've felt before. I love you Tali'Zorah vas Normady and you see all the scars that run deeper than my skin and all the problems I hide so well from everyone else and instead of flinching away you lean in to catch me in your embrace and show me I'm not so bad." He smiled gently at her, "Every second we have with you out of that suit goes by much too quickly. But Tali, it also means everything to me to share those precious seconds with you. We share something deeper than physical affection and in or out of your suit that's what's most important."
It was her turn to smirk as she leaned up to capture his lips for a hard kiss before pulling him down onto herself. More words, as he would agree in the morning, would have been simply a waste of time to precious to not enjoy fully.
A/N: My first Mass Effect fan fic done. Probably a bit to sappy for the characters but you can complain in your reviews if you so desire. I also have the beginnings of a draft on re-writing the ending in a way that I would feel is more plausible and more complete. No idea on when or if I'll actually finish that however.
