Hi everyone! Sorry about this, but I couldn't help it. This one's been running through my mind for a while. A Dragon Age/Mass Effect crossover! Rated M for everyone's favourite asari/human paring. If it isn't your cup of tea then by all means, go drink from a cup you like!

Shepard and Hawke are left unnamed and without description for reader comfort. Mainly so it doesn't burst fantasies all around. They're both women though...

A note to everyone following my other crossover story. Apologies - I've been busy over the summer. I will pick that up again! I promise!

None of the characters are mine. Apart from the pilot. He doesn't last long, though. With thanks to Bioware.

Hope you like!

Edit: I changed the title of the story mainly because I just got to know an old song by Elvis Presley called I Love You Because and I figured a line fitted Liara and Shepard - I love you because you're you. In fact, the entire song fits. Just go listen to it, okay?!

Because You're You

Chapter 1

The shuttle hummed softly around Shepard as she rested her head back against the cool metal wall behind her. The time was 0700 standard hours on a Friday, and she was taking Liara back to her base on Hagalaz. The newly appointed Shadow Broker was sat opposite her, staring down at a data pad she had held in her thin, dainty hands. The silence was a little tense – issues unspoken hung between them like smoke from a fire.

Shepard shifted her weight slightly, watching the asari she loved with tentative affection. Liara looked up from the pad, her lips forming a ghost of a smile. Things were not 'good' between them. Shepard knew that, and accepted that without question. The two of them had gone through too much for things to just be alright. Yet a part of her mourned the loss of the innocent asari. Liara was not the stuttering xenoarchaeologist Shepard had fallen in love with a little over two years ago. She was the Shadow Broker now. They were the opposite sides of the same coin.

"Five minutes till landing, Commander." Called the pilot; his voice was an intrusion. Liara looked back down to her pad.

"Affirmative."

The silence stretched between them. Shepard did not like silence – it did not suit her personality. She cleared her throat, but was at a loss. What could she say after the disastrous night she and Liara had shared?

She could recall every detail with painful accuracy. She had invited Liara to the Normandy for a drink, but they both knew that there would be very little 'drinking'. While Liara had been given a tour around the ship from Kelly Chambers, Shepard had escaped to her quarters and flew around the room, trying to tidy it. There were far too many empty bottles of alcohol to hide. She had comforted herself as she had stuffed them under her bed – Liara wasn't likely to look under there.

She had just rescued Liara's favourite wine from her almost empty liquor cupboard, and poured it into two glasses, when the door flew open and the asari had padded nervously into the room. Shepard had straightened and peered at her, swallowing before having a stab at small talk. They had humoured each other – Liara had revealed that she had recovered Shepard's dog tags, and she had accepted them.

And then their conversation had turned down a much more serious road; Shepard's feelings. She'd lied, of course. She didn't want to burden Liara with more strife. There was nothing to worry about. Even now, though the haze of a memory, Shepard could see the hurt this lie had inspired within Liara.

Back in the shuttle, Shepard sighed softly. The talk hadn't been the worst of it. Liara had made her promise to return, and Shepard had joked about having lots of 'little blue children'. The truth was she doubted she would ever return. It wasn't that she didn't want to; it was just that death seemed to hang about her like some sick version of a guardian angel.

At thought of this she peered at the asari again, tasking herself to remember every detail of her beautiful face. Her heart ached in longing; this would be the last time she saw Liara before she made the suicidal journey though the Omega 4 relay. In knowledge of this, she and Liara had made love with heated desperation. But all was not well.

In an attempt to shelter Liara from the worst of Shepard's memories of death she had not allowed a meld until the very last possible second, when Liara was begging for release. At memory of her death, Shepard felt her breath grow short and shallow. She could still feel the cold. The choking panic as realisation had dawned on her.

"Shepard?" A soft voice broke the haunting. Shepard snapped to the present, staring into those achingly beautiful blue eyes. "Shepard, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She replied gruffly, reaching forward and patting Liara's knee. In company their relationship was strictly professional. There was a pause as her hand lingered on the asari's leg.

"Commander?" Joker's voice on the intercom made them both jump.

"We read you, Joker."

"We're detecting an anomaly five clicks on your starboard side. EDI thinks you should go check it out. It's no big deal – we're getting serious interference on our scanners and we can't pinpoint the anomaly to get a sufficient reading."

"We're on it." Shepard tapped on the cockpit wall behind her and the heard their pilot respond affirmative. She returned her attention to Liara.

"So..." the Commander began, wishing she wasn't so clumsy with words. "What do you plan to do, oh great Shadow Broker?"

"Help you in any way I can." Liara smiled sweetly.

"How so?"

"By extorting, blackmailing and disposing of anyone who dares hinder your effort against the reapers."

Shepard answered dumbly, "Oh."

Silence fell again. The Commander watched the asari's eyes grow hard and determined. This is what Liara had become; a hardass information broker. It was almost a shame she had forgotten her innocence. And all for Shepard. Guilt erupted within her at thought of this. She wished Liara had forgotten her. She wished the innocent asari had moved on with her life. Death was inevitable, especially if the reapers or the collectors were involved.

Shepard was about to restart the conversation when darkness suddenly enveloped them.

"What the – Shepard to Normandy, do you copy?"

Silence.

She got to her feet as the shuttle rattled alarmingly and opened the hatch to the cockpit. The pilot was slumped over the controls, out cold. With a nasty curse, Shepard shook his shoulder, trying to get him to awaken. He did not respond.

"What's going on?"

Shepard glanced back. Liara had stood up and was hovering behind her, looking concerned.

"We've lost power. Andrews has gone cold on us." With a sigh she ducked into the cockpit and settled into the empty co-pilot seat, grabbing the controls and kicking in emergency power. The shuttle thrummed to life for a few seconds before cutting out again.

"Shit."

Shepard hesitated for the first time in her life, briefly remembering Captain Anderson's comment about the UT-47 Kodiak. It was a three-million-credit coffin. With mounting worry she glanced out into the depths of space. There was nothing there – just the coldly indifferent glitter of a billion stars. Space was indifferent to anything and everything. Shepard knew that first hand.

Even without power, however, they appeared to be moving.

"What the fu–"

There was a sudden ear-splitting explosion and the world dissolved into a sea of white light. Shepard struggled to breathe – she felt as though she was being squeezed into a narrow rubber tube and she couldn't quite draw enough air into her lungs. Panicking, she struggled before everything went black.