Midnight Snack

Summary: Biotics tend to run hot. A high metabolism, paired with heavy exertion can leave a person ravenous. *Smut and fluff ahead, consider yourself warned*

a/n: Welcome to Kaidan Porn Week! This will be the first in a series of at least nine fictions that wound up all being Shenko focused. Pardon my obsession with my OTP: Nyx Shepard and Kaidan Alenko. They range from ME1 to ME3, though most are based in ME3. I will caution that many of these were inspired by plotting ideas and work on Nyx's WIP, so there might be a few that could reappear in similar or highly edited forms. For those that did stem from plotted ideas, they were fleshed out and I present them here-for this occasion-for your reading pleasure. I'll be posting at least one fiction every day of the 14th of March through the 22nd. Some are friskier than others, but I hope you enjoy them all. Almost forgot, thanks to Chyrstis who allowed me to spam her with short-notice fiction that needed eyes. She is amazing. 3s

-1-

The shifting was minute. There was no sound. The gentle slide of the slick fabric merely a whisper of a caress, at least until she was gone. The new awkward position of his arm combined with the missing warmth that had been tightly snuggled against his chest caused Kaidan to shift and stretch. By the time his eyes finally opened and focused in the darkness, Shepard was out of sight. He could guess why. Leaning up, he rubbed at the back of his neck. The kids at BAaT would trade off midnight runs to the mess hall and the snack machines. Some of the biotics Alenko had met in the service called the increased metabolism running hot, because even when they were not actively using their biotics their metabolism would still skyrocket. It was the primary reason he always had something to snack on in his pocket. But sometimes it felt more random, like the hunger would just spike even in the calm times. He knew he was as guilty as Shepard when it came to stealing away to the kitchen in the middle of the night.

The commander, his commanding officer, he let himself remember for a moment as he sat up, easily became one of those decadent things that he knew was probably bad for him, but he did it anyway. Nyx was a temptation he could not break the taste for. Even when it was nothing more than good conversation laced with feeling like a complete idiot, which their first cruise together brimmed over with. All too often it was accidentally intentional. Kaidan knew the regs, better than anyone. Despite this, the lieutenant still sought her out, still allowed himself to fall prey to the unintended meetings, still let himself linger in her presence when he could justify it and too often when he could not. No matter the reasons he should not have, Alenko kept allowing himself to slake that thirst to be with her. She became an oasis; and mirage or not, he was perfectly content, at least for now.

The combination of clatter from the kitchen and indiscernible muttering made him grin. Tugging his boxers back on, he crossed the utilitarian apartment. The light from above the cook top cast a strange peachy glow to the room and created weird shadows. Shepard was crouched awkwardly, trying to keep the contents of the cabinet from spilling out onto the floor before she could get them back in.

"You know-"

Her distraction let the flood fall. She leaned there for a moment and stared at the dozen or so pans that littered the floor around her.

"Sorry," she said, shaking her head. "Wasn't planning on disturbing you."

"You do realize that all the food is in pantry, right?"

"Yeah. Couldn't find anything that struck my fancy." The grin was sly and the sparkle in her eyes danced, making him smile in return. "I was going to boil an egg, but then…"

He laughed lightly as she gestured to the cabinet and the pans she was carefully restacking to return to their rightful place.

-2-

Shepard realized when she created a stack of like six saucepans, that Kaidan's cabinets were way too well stocked for someone who lived alone. It reminded her of the cabinets at her grandmother's and that woman regularly cooked for an army of children and grandchildren.

"How does a single man even have this much cookware? Seriously. Especially one that's on cruise six to eighteen months at a time." She glanced over her shoulder at him and he merely shook his head, laughing softly.

"I have a mother and two sisters who are concerned about my ability to survive on my own," he explained as he grabbed the last two pots from the floor, putting one away and setting the other on the counter. "Plus this was my first cruise where I was actually on the duty roster. My other experience out in the fleet has been highly limited and usually reserved to temporary postings."

Kaidan winced with the revelation. Shepard could guess why; he had told her why, but she was not about to bring that up. Her hand found his wrist quickly and pulled at it gently, encouraging him to turn toward her rather than away.

Meeting his warm amber eyes in the awkward light of his kitchen, she knew she had been right that first night she met him-he was a monkey wrench. Lieutenant Alenko managed to squirrel up the smooth running mechanism that was her life. He made her reexamine some factors Shepard took as givens for someone like her; Kaidan made Nyx want things she had long ago cast away hope for. Although she was still glad she had not with the stupid idea that raced through her mind that night, she would not change anything about the way they met or what happened after, no matter how trying it had been.

"So," she crooned, her hand tracing light patterns across his chest, "Normandy was your first."

He grinned at her clear implication and stepped closer to her. "Yes, she was. For so many things."

When his mouth met hers, all thought of the reason she had come to the kitchen faded completely. In the past seventy-two hours, the two of them had fluctuated across the spectrum burying the needle in delicate romance before crossing the chasm to pure lustful passion, as well as several spots in between. In the limbic space of this collection of walls, they mostly left concerns or rank and regulations beyond the threshold.

In a flash, the tenor changed, but they were becoming used to that. In this place, innocent could become heated in a blink, with no fear of consequences. His hands were strong on her waist when he lifted her onto the counter. Shepard knocked the pot off the island and ignored it as it clattered off the opposite wall and danced on the floor noisily before coming to rest. His mouth was moving up her belly, chasing the soft fabric his hands were busily gathering in an effort to uncover her. The blue Canucks jersey quickly joined the pot, somewhere in the darkness. Hands on his shoulder and his neck, Nyx could feel his body shifting as he stepped out of his boxers.

His desire for her thrilled Shepard, mainly because she chose to believe him when he claimed that he wanted all of it-all of her. Alenko did not distinguish between the woman and the soldier, somehow he found a way to be fine with both. The barest spark lit her skin as his hands moved over her thighs. Combined with the slightest hint of his field, she could not help but recall the first time he had projected it. The intent, meant to be wholly innocent that time, had not turned out that way at all.

Nyx was learning quickly that there were great rewards to Kaidan's control and precision, and when his heated gaze met hers, she knew that the calculating engineer finally overcame the initial stroke of frenzy. Kissing his way down her body, her eyes never left his. They told her all she needed to know-not only did they hint at the depth of his feelings, but the shock of silver blue rimming the iris preceded an intense sensation produced by the crackle of his biotics against her skin.

It was something Nyx did not feel comfortable reciprocating. She knew her issues with control in that arena, and she had always tried to control her body's responses when it came to sex for fear her biotics could flare uncontrollably during. Kaidan was the first biotic Nyx had been with and he did not hold back. With him, she felt like he could at least protect himself if something untoward did happen, so that first night, when he asked her to let go, not to fight her reactions, she gave in-to all of it-him, their feeling, the illogical passion of it all. Just as she much more easily relaxed and simply let herself react to him that night in his kitchen. Leaning back against the counter with her thigh draped over his shoulder, his tongue combined with his sharp tingling touch to push her into that shuddering moment where everything disappears.

-3-

That deep, unmuffled, shuddering moan preceded by his name was a sound Alenko was quickly finding himself addicted to. Her hand, which she had fisted in his hair, loosened and began to lightly caress his scalp. It was the sign that prompted him to plant long, slow, wet kisses on her hip, along the edge of her rib cage, across her breasts, to her shoulders. Her body was languid, softer and slower than it had been a few minutes earlier. There was decadence in the way she kissed him. It was greedy and wanton, like him, but unhurried.

Kaidan knew days like these were numbered. His apartment was a place where the real world did not factor, where they chose to ignore everything beyond themselves and each other. It was selfish. And maybe a little foolish, but he wanted nothing more than to steal every free moment he could get with Nyx. As she started to giggle, he kissed her belly and leaned over her as best he could.

"What's so funny?" he asked, kissing her again along the rib cage.

"This was not quite what I was thinking when the urge for a midnight snack hit," she replied, sitting forward. Her eyes searched his for a long moment and Kaidan waited. Without a word, her lips met his and she wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders.

A part of him thought he understood it-the look, the kiss, the embrace. But it was the silence that was the hardest part with Nyx. The promise, the possibility, was something she shied away from, she said, because in her life few things were certain. Kaidan held her as tightly as she held him, wishing in the back of his mind that the words would come.