Below them the world burns. It burns and there is nothing anyone can do to put out the fires, their only hope now is survival. It's hard, being the hero. For a little while Shepard would like to just be a man and not think about tomorrow and what he will be required to do. He leans his head on the cool glass and closes his eyes. He doesn't register the footsteps behind him, if he pretends he doesn't hear maybe the person they belong to would leave him alone. He is startled by a hand on his shoulder and another circling around his waist, forcing him to turn around and look.
Kaidan.
The only other human Spectre ever. They go a way back, to Virmire and beyond. The only one who knows the man behind the mask, the only one who calls him by his name when they are alone. Riley.
There is nothing gentle about the kiss, it's hungry and desperate and exactly what they both need. Time for other things is later, when they lie sweat-soaked and languid on Kaidan's narrow cot or maybe on Shepard's comfortable double bed. That's when the masks fall away and it's just Kaidan and Riley, the bond between them not love, cause there is no time for love in time of war. It doesn't have a name. But it's very existence is enough. They have each other.