Pure fluff for a competition on the forum 'Aria's Afterlife.' Happy Valentine's Day, and enjoy!
Shepard's bed had become something of a guilty pleasure for Tali ever since she had shared herself with him for the first time about a week ago. It had simultaneously been the most awkward and selfishly satisfying time of her life, and she was sure Shepard hadn't enjoyed it at all. But he had told her it was the best he ever had before they took on the base, and had given her full access to his plush cabin afterwards.
She naturally decided to make the most of it. While being around Shepard was the main motivation, it did come with other benefits that she enjoyed immensely. Privacy was nice, and Shepard had even shown her the small stock of dextro wine he kept for when Garrus came up; but the best part was most definitely his amazing mattress. It felt like she was sleeping on clouds while her head was gently caressed by feather pillows, if not by Shepard. And all that still somehow happened while her suit was on. She had taken to lying on it even when she wasn't sleeping, and it was only better when her new lover joined her, offering his chest as a pillow and softly massaging one of her arms. It felt to Tali like they had spent hours over the past couple of days just lying against each other comfortably, talking and drifting in and out of consciousness.
So after returning from clearing out what seemed like the thousandth Blue Sun's base, Tali could hardly wait to get back to Shepard's, and now hers too, cabin for some rest and relaxation. She had checked in with Ken and Gabby while the Commander went through the process of peeling off his armor, and the engineers had assured her they had everything taken care of. Not particularly eager to argue, she had left them with the order to let her know via omni tool if they needed anything before heading back to the elevator. She went straight to the bed when she reached her room on the top floor, flopping onto it face first and humming contentedly.
She wasn't sure how much time passed, maybe a few seconds or maybe a few minutes, before Shepard caught up to her. He laughed when he saw Tali spread eagle on the mattress, causing her to promptly blush and roll onto her back. "Hey," she greeted as casually as she could muster.
"Hey yourself," Shepard returned, a wide grin still on his face as he descended the short staircase and made his way over to Tali. "I didn't mean to disturb you."
"You didn't," she assured him, propping herself up on her elbows as he sat at the edge of the bed near her feet. Shepard took hold of one of them before she could get another word out, his hands heading straight for the latches on her boots. Tali let out another blissful hum and dropped back down to her back while he took her shoes off for her. "You have to stop spoiling me," she teased, her state of complete relaxation both affirming and contradicting her point simultaneously.
"Oh, so you'd say no to a massage then?" Shepard teased back, walking his fingers up the bottom of one of her feet.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," she answered, giggling slightly as Shepard's numerous digits unintentionally tickled her toes. She wasn't sure if she would ever get used to him having two extra fingers on each hand. At least she wasn't as bad as Shepard though. Every time they held hands he would whisper something about spot or lock or something to her, and then refuse to explain it.
Tali was distracted from her train of thought when eight fingertips pressed firmly into the bottom of her right foot, and two thumbs made little circles on the top. She groaned happily and sunk into the mattress as tension started to flow out of one foot, and then eventually the other. "Mind rolling over?" Shepard asked, switching to softly rubbing her ankles.
Tali burst into a small fit of giggling as she obliged. "Sure."
"What?" Shepard asked with an amused grin as he moved to straddle Tali's legs and started working up from her feet.
"It's just funny," she started as she brought her chin to her shoulder so she could look back at him. "You just tell everybody else what to do, but you ask me so nicely."
"Would you rather I ordered you around? Maybe it would spice things up," he responded coyly, sliding his hands up Tali's inner thighs. She held her breath and felt her heart rate spike higher and higher the nearer he got to her core.
Shepard got dangerously close, but he forced himself to stop before he reached it. He chuckled when he realized just how tense her thighs had become. They started to relax again though when he ran his hands up to the back of her calves and dug his fingers into her toned legs. "You're such a tease," Tali breathed, returning her head to a more natural position as his digits made their way back down her thighs, maintaining a similar pressure the whole way.
Shepard laughed. "As much as I want to, I won't do anything until you're recovered and ready," he returned, his hands reversing direction when they reached her knees. "So how are you feeling?" he asked; that grin from earlier returning to his lips.
"Much better," Tali answered in a more serious manner, yet still having to suppress a laugh of her own as his hands found the sensitive flesh that was her rear. "My nose is clear, and I only get the occasional headache and fever temperatures now."
"That's good," Shepard stated as he continued his progression and found several knots in Tali's lower back. "Because you seem like you could use some more stress relief soon," he added as he pressed the flats of his knuckles in and rotated them ninety degrees back and forth. She moaned in appreciation as he forced her muscles to start loosening up. "Something stressing you out lately?"
Tali found she was only able to speak at intervals when there was a short pause in Shepard's motions. "No…well…yes…sort of…it's…not…a big…deal."
"What is it?" Shepard persisted with obvious concern, gradually continuing the massage up her form.
Tali released a sigh when he moved on from her lower back, able to speak normally again. "It's just that I'm worried about disappointing you, I mean it's been a whole week since you destroyed the collector base and I haven't been able to take my suit off because of my reaction and I'm sure you wanted to have a, um, celebration like a lot of the rest of the crew did and I did too but I feel like I'm holding you back from that if we're together and I want us to be together but I don't want to-"
Shepard had been able to make it up all the way up to her shoulders, starting his way down one of her arms throughout her rambling before finally cutting her off. "Tali," he interrupted sweetly, and she immediately stopped talking when she realized how long she had been going. "We've had this discussion before. I wouldn't care if you could never get out of your suit, I'd still want to be with you."
He was right, they had had similar discussions before, but they always seemed to have more of an 'I can wait' vibe. Tali didn't realize it went as far as he had just told her, and told her like it was common knowledge. "Really?"
"Really," he answered meaningfully, accentuating his point by placing a soft kiss on her palm before switching to rub her other arm.
Tali paused before responding. She could tell he had meant everything he said; he didn't want what anybody else could offer, he wanted her. It didn't matter to him that she was trapped in a cloth and rubber prison. It simply didn't matter. "You don't know how much that means to me, Shepard," she told him gratefully, appreciating his concern for her health all the more due to her new perspective.
She felt his hands return to her shoulders, but they were surprisingly still. "Tali, I-" he started, but he closed his mouth and cut himself off before going any further.
But his fingers still weren't moving. Tali could feel his eyes burning a hole in the back of her shawl. "What's wrong?" she asked with rapidly growing anxiety. Her commander, the famous Commander Shepard, stumbling over his words? Could that even happen?
"Nothing's wrong," he answered promptly, probably a little too promptly. He resumed massaging her shoulders, but it was obvious to Tali that he was focusing on something else. His motions weren't as involved as they had been moments ago.
"Shepard," she persisted, rolling over under his legs and effectively stopping him from continuing. He could tell she was looking up at him worriedly through her mask, made all the clearer by her hands carefully planting themselves on the outer sides of his legs. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he repeated, not even bothering to do anything with his own hands. "It's just that, y'know, I think…" he trailed off. Tali could see an inner conflict filling his eyes. She waited a few seconds and was about to prompt him again, but he continued on his own, making a decision. "I love you."
Tali felt her heart skip a beat. Then two. He had never said those three words to her before. He had never said those three words to anyone as far as she could remember. Tali stared up at him with wide eyes, realizing the impact of what he had said and letting it sink in. He started right back, never breaking contact with the glowing orbs that shone at him through her visor as he anxiously awaited her reaction.
"You know…I think…I love you too."