Unexpected assignment
A/N: A second chapter has been added to this story on request from a few people, and for that chapter I upped the rating. The first chapter is rated T, while the second is rated M. The second chapter is mostly smut, but the first one is fluff :)
Disclaimer: Bioware owns all
"You want us to do what?" The woman beside him stared at their commanding officer with pure disbelief in her eyes. Kaidan had the exact same expression but unlike her, he kept his mouth shut.
"You will keep an eye on the target from inside the club and let us know when he leaves and where so we can have him followed. To not draw to much attention to yourself you will be pretending to be a couple"
"But... why can't I do it alone?" The woman glanced his way and he saw that she wasn't a fan of this plan either.
"This is a gentleman's club. A woman sitting alone would draw suspicion, if not company. And before you mention it, the same would be true if Lieutenant Alenko went in alone. A couple would arouse less suspicion"
"But what couple would go to a place like that?" Kaidan spoke up for the first time. He had been speechless when he first heard the plan, and not in a good way. The Alliance actually wanted him to take this woman he never met into a strip club and pretend to be together? He did not like this plan at all. Not that she wasn't beautiful, he had reacted to that the moment he saw her, but he had no idea who she was. He was not comfortable with this.
"There will be other couples in there, it's not unusual. You will not stand out in any way. I'm sorry for the inconvenience but this has to be done in a matter of hours and you're both here with no other assignment. We do not, of course, intend for you to engage in any physical contact outside that of holding hands or being close to each other. On that part you can relax"
Kaidan didn't feel relaxed at all and from the look of the woman next to him, she didn't either. He was not one to frequent clubs and the thought of taking this woman he had never met before into a room with a lot of half naked dancing asari made him very uncomfortable. He could only imagine that she was feeling the same thing. When none of them thought of any other way to get out of the assignment the commanding officer continued.
"You will arrive at the club in 1900 hours and keep us updated of the target's movements. We will provide you with photos and information that may be crucial for you to recognize him. Good luck"
With that, the hologram of the commanding officer flickered out and the two lieutenants were left standing in the empty room. Kaidan glanced nervously at the woman beside him and she gave him a small smile that he returned and held out her hand.
"1st Staff Lieutenant Alexandra Shepard"
"1st Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko"
Kaidan shook her hand and it was an awkward silence before she spoke up.
"So, I guess we're gonna get to know each other a little better then we thought when we stepped into this room" She smiled dejectedly and started walking out of the room beside him.
"Yeah, I'm still a bit shocked. This really isn't the type of assignment I'm usually sent on" He smiled back and she laughed. It was a bright and clear sound, the kind that would make everyone who heard it smile.
"No shit, I thought he was kidding at first!"
They both laughed for a while and some of the nervousness about the assignment started to disappear. After all, he thought, what am I required to do? Sit in a club and talk to this woman while we track the movements of one target. She seemed easy to talk to and she was in the same situation he was so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. They soon got outside and she walked to a skycar that was obviously hers.
"Shall we meet back here at around 6:30 and go there together? Probably won't be as convincing if we don't arrive at the same time" She smiled at him and he suddenly felt his stomach fluttering, but if it was because of nerves about the assignment or her smile he didn't know.
"I guess it's a date" he replied with a sarcastic smile and he heard her laugh as she closed the skycar and sped off. He wandered back to the small apartment he had on the station and started looking for some civilian clothes to wear. He rarely wore any other clothes then his armour or uniform but if he dug deep enough in his closet he was bound to find some. He decided on a pair of grey jeans and a black t-shirt that fit reasonably well. He didn't want to stand out after all.
He was already waiting when he saw her car land. When she stepped out of the car he felt his breath catch in his throat. If he had though her beautiful before it was nothing to what she looked now. She was wearing tight black jeans and a simple red top that left about a cm of her stomach bare, and was low cut in front. She had let her dark hair down and it was long and straight and came down to her lower back. She had put make up on and it made her green eyes seem even more piercing then they had before. To top it all of she was wearing high heeled boots that went up halfway to her knees. He realized he was staring at her and forced himself to look at her face, only to find that she was checking him out in the same way. She suddenly looked up into his eyes and smiled.
"Not bad, marine" She said appreciative before she took his arm and started walking towards the club. It was a short walk and he was getting more tense the nearer they got, and when he looked at her he could tell she was too, by the way her light smile didn't reach the eyes. He felt like he had to say something.
"I have to tell you, I'm really not comfortable with this. I never... I mean, I'm not..." He suddenly couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound completely pathetic. I never go to places like this? I'm not the sort of person who frequent a strip club?
"Me neither" She gave him a reassuring smile. "But since we don't have any other choice, let's just make the best of it. For starters, that means we'll have to order drinks to look normal and I could really use something with alcohol in it right now"
"Me too" He chuckled and felt his nervousness decrease again. Somehow she just seemed able to calm him down.
"It won't be so bad, we'll just sit down with our drinks and talk and keep track of the target. It'll be over in no time"
He wondered if she was trying to reassure herself or him but at that moment they arrived at the club and walked in. It was worse than he had imagined. The music was loud and the place was packed. Half naked women, not only asari, danced on stages and went around the guests to offer them private dances. He felt the woman beside him tense up at the sight and his face tuned slightly red. He wanted nothing more then to turn around and run, but she held his arm in a firm grip and steered them to the nearest bar. They ordered two beers which he paid for and started looking around for a spot to sit down that would have a good view of the place. He took a few steps away to look in another direction when he found himself face to face with not one, but two asari dancers. He tried to turn around and walk away but one of them grabbed his arm and wondered if he'd like to see her dance. He said no and tried to leave again but the other one blocked his path and smiled. They were obviously trying to be inviting but he really didn't want the other lieutenant to see him like this and think he asked the two dancers to be here. Before he could try to leave again, however, Shepard wormed her way in between the asari and him and put one hand on his chest while the other one snaked through his arm.
"Sorry ladies, this one is taken" she smiled apologetic at them and steered him away toward a booth she had found on the upper floor.
"Thank you" he said with his face burning. "They kind of ambushed me. I wasn't trying to..." he didn't know how to finish the sentence. I wasn't trying to get a lap dance?
"I saw. They're aggressive at this place" She stated matter of factly but he could see from the corners of her mouth that she was a bit amused. They reached the booth and he had to admit that it was a good spot. They could see the whole club downstairs and it was reasonably private. The only part they couldn't see was behind them but that was a smaller portion of booth's like theirs. She sat down and he sat down beside her, suddenly nervous again. She shifted closer so that their bodies were touching lightly at the shoulders and the thighs.
"We're supposed to look like we're together remember?" she whispered to him and he shivered as he felt her breath ghost across his neck. "And speaking of that, is it alright if I call you Kaidan? Sounds kind of weird if we're referring to each other by last name or rank"
He turned his head to look at her and saw that she was smiling now. Some of her tension seemed to have disappeared now that they had found a booth. She was quite close and he felt his mouth go dry.
"Yeah that's fine. And I can call you Alexandra?" He thought his voice sounded weird but maybe she didn't notice.
"Just Alex will be fine" She turned her head to look out over the club and he released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. She leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs to seem more comfortable. He suddenly realised that he was sitting stiff like a stick with his arms on his sides and probably not looking natural at all. He forced himself to relax a bit, took his beer from the table and leaned back. Despite their now relaxed position they kept scanning the place for the man they had seen in the material sent by the Alliance that afternoon. He saw a man that looked familiar and nudged Alex to get her attention before he nodded in the man's direction. She studied him for a while before nodding back and smiling at him for finding the target.
Kaidan hoped they wouldn't be joined by someone who wanted to talk as they hadn't made up a cover story for who they were, but he guessed people often kept to their groups in a place like this.
"You want another beer?"
He looked down at his half full bottle but decided he would probably need more alcohol to get through the night and said yes. He offered to go and get them but she just smiled and said it was her turn to pay. He watched her move through the crowd and reach the bar. He realised that she had chosen the bar closest to their target, probably to get a better look and be sure it was him. When he looked at her beer bottle at the table he saw that it wasn't empty and chided himself on not coming up with it first. It wasn't his first time watching a target but he came across as a complete rookie. The target was sitting at a table with some associates and hadn't moved since they saw him and it occurred to Kaidan that they had no idea how long he was planning to stay here. He turned his eyes back to the bar but Alex had left. He scanned the club for her and found that she was on her way back up the stairs but apparently she had company by a good looking guy that followed her. He hesitated, not knowing if she wanted the attention or not, but when he saw him put his hands on her waist and her shaking them off, he was on his feet in no time. He reached her within moments, just as the guy that had followed her grabbed her arm and whipped her around. Kaidan had no idea what he was doing but seeing that guy not taking no for an answer made him see red. He stepped up right behind her and let his hands snake around her waist, feeling her tense up.
"There you are, I was looking for you" He said it in a low register of his voice with his head bent down towards her hair in a somewhat intimate way. He could feel her relax when she realised that it was him. The other guy released her at once and stepped away while mumbling something about not knowing she wasn't alone. Kaidan dropped one hand but kept one on her waist as they went back to the booth and sat down. He was still so mad that he didn't notice that his arm was around her shoulders before she lent in and rested her head against him.
"Thank you" she said softly. "but I could have kicked his ass you know"
He chuckled.
"Yes, but that would kind of blow our cover wouldn't it?"
"Yeah but it would have felt good" she sighed. He found he liked having her leaning on him like that and the thought made him realize that it had been a long time since he had held a woman like this. He pushed the thought out of his mind. This wasn't a date, it was a mission. Crap, the target!
He quickly jerked his head around to search for the man they were supposed to watch and was panic stricken when he couldn't find him. Alex seemed to have come to the same conclusion at the same time and their eyes scanned the whole bottom floor until they found him going up the stairs. The relief of finding him quickly turned into annoyance when Kaidan realised that they weren't gonna see the target from this spot and it would look very suspicious if they changed booth all of a sudden. The man they were watching kept walking and disappeared somewhere behind their backs. Kaidan cursed under his breath and looked at Alex to see if she had any bright ideas. She looked torn between something and suddenly she swung her right leg over him and was sitting in his lap. He was so surprised that he could only stare at her and she gave him an apologetic look. She leaned in and he didn't move an inch, still shocked.
"Sorry but it was the only way I could think of to keep track of him" she whispered in his ear and her warm breath made him shudder involuntary. He was suddenly very aware of her face so close to his and her warm body above his. She straightened a bit to glance at the target and he could see right down her top. He forced his eyes away as he was starting to feel more warm then was appropriate and hoped that she wouldn't see, or feel, his reaction to her being so close. His heart was pounding hard in his chest and he was glad she was the one keeping track on the target because his mind was focused on completely different things. She looked down at him again and from her amused smile she knew where his thoughts had went. She bent down and picked up both his hands, that had been laying useless beside him, and put them on her waist.
"Appearances, remember?" She looked like she was trying not to laugh and he managed to grin back and squeeze her waist in response, which actually made her giggle. She leaned her head in to rest against his forehead with her hands on his shoulders.
"This was actually kind of fun" Her mischievous smile made him chuckle.
"Not as bad as I feared, but the night is still young"
She giggled again and he thought is was the cutest sound. She glanced back up at the man they were tracking and suddenly her mouth was pressed against his as she kissed him. His eyes widened in surprise and she broke the kiss off.
"Sorry but he saw me. Think he's getting suspicious"
He hardly registered what she said. All he could think of at that moment was the feel of her soft lips on his and her hands that had moved up into his hair. She rested her forehead against his again.
"God, I hope I haven't botched it now"
Kaidan's hand seemed to be acting on it's own as it moved from her waist up her back until it was in her hair at the base of her neck. She pulled her head back a little to look at him and he saw surprise in her eyes along with something else that he couldn't really place. Before he changed his mind he pulled her towards him and kissed her. The feel of her lips against his own sent every nerve in his body on fire, and he was vaguely aware that his other hand slid down to her hip and pulled her close. He could feel her hands in his hair again, pressing them closer. She parted her lips and his tongue was in her mouth, melding with her tongue and the intense feeling made his biotics flare without him noticing.
Other people noticed though, and they broke apart as someone shouted in surprise. At first they just looked at each other and then around them, unable to comprehend what had caused the reaction from the other guests. It took several seconds for him to come to his senses and realize that he was, in fact, still flaring and he quickly got his biotics under control with an apologetic grin at Alex. She giggled but then her expression changed as she suddenly remembered why they were there and searched for the target. She found him at the same moment he walked out one of the doors and put her hand to her ear and spoke in her comm.
"He is leaving through the exit on the second floor, sir"
She listened to something the officer in the other end said back and then answered a quick "Yes, sir" before shutting of the comm and returning her attention to Kaidan. She had a genuine smile on her face that made him smile as well just by looking at her.
"Our mission is officially over" She traced one finger down the line of his jaw and he shuddered. "But I don't want to get up" Her mischievous smile was back and it made his heart pound.
"And I don't want you to get up, but if I accidentally flare my biotics again we're gonna have a mob after us" He put a loose strand of her hair back in place behind her ear.
"Then maybe we should continue this someplace else" Her eyes sparkled and her hands moved down his shoulders to his arms.
"My thoughts exactly"