A/N: This story was inspired by a deviantART image, which you may find by googling ghostfire shepard's present. You'll notice that the first three paragraphs of this story (bolded below) were taken directly from the artist's caption. The rest of it is all me.
"Are you sure this is what Shepard would want? He seemed to prefer me out of my suit. Why put more clothes on?" Tali's voice sounded uncertain as she nervously stretched the waistband of a pair of silky black panties.
"Not those; these," Kelly answered with a little grin, holding a matching set against the quarian's envirosuit. "Unless his psychological profile is completely off the mark." She paused to consider that, then put a hand on the fidgety girl's shoulder. "Don't worry, you won't be wearing them long anyway."
Tali emitted a noise somewhere between a squeak of surprise and a word of protest that ended up being neither. The asari shopkeeper glanced in their direction.
"Now you've done it," Kelly laughed. "Come on, you're buying these."
As blood rushed to her face, Tali was suddenly glad for her visor.
Tali let herself into Shepard's cabin. He wasn't immediately in sight, so she called out his name as she walked further in.
"Tali? Is that you?" came a muffled voice. The lavatory door was closed.
"Yes!" Tali replied. "I'm sorry! Am I too early? I can come back..."
"No, no! It's okay, just give me a second."
Tali sighed in relief. She had been looking forward to this evening tremendously. Weekly trysts were too infrequent, and this might be their last chance to be together for a long time. She wandered over to the aquarium, immediately spotting the latest additions: two jellyfish puffing their way in between the skald fish, paddle fish, and schools of tiny sunfish. She remembered how Shepard had admired the aquarium in Liara's Nos Astra apartment and had been looking for jellyfish ever since. He must have finally found them in one of the Citadel shops.
Tali turned as the lavatory door hissed open softly. Shepard stepped out, buttoning up a black dress shirt. Despite the anatomical differences of his species, she found him quite attractive. Certainly, the features of his face were arranged pleasantly enough by quarian standards. The irises of his eyes were a startling blue instead of quarian white, but she rather liked that. After a couple years of being around humans and asari, she had even gotten used to the idea of Shepard's five-fingered hands. Oh, what he could do with all those fingers! If she had one selfish wish, it was that he would let his hair grow out a little so she would have something to run her own fingers through.
"You look handsome," she offered.
"You too," he replied, then frowned. "Except replace handsome with a more gender-appropriate adjective. Never been a big fan of referring to women as handsome. It makes me think of my Aunt Frances for some reason. Not that she isn't a beautiful woman, because she is." He shook his head. "Did this conversation just get weird? Um, what I meant to say is you look gorgeous as always."
Tali giggled slightly in spite of herself. Normally she was the one to babble. "Thank you... John." His first name still felt funny rolling off her tongue, but he kept insisting that she use it when they were alone together.
Shepard reached out and ran a finger down her visor. "Why don't you take this off? The room has been sanitized, the air purifiers have been running all day, and I just scrubbed myself down."
"Ooh, you really know how to get a girl going," Tali gibed as she reached up to disconnect her visor. Truth be told, she knew she had little room to poke fun. She had talked Shepard's (surprisingly delicious) ears off about the series of shots she had been taking for the last month. At her request, Mordin had devised a treatment that essentially immunized her against Shepard's DNA and most allergens commonly associated with human contact. 'Cross-chiral interspecies sexual contact generally ill-advised,' Mordin had tsk-tsked when Tali blushingly approached him. 'Except for asari, of course. However, honored that you would ask. I will help.' The treatment the salarian scientist devised seemed to work. After her last encounter with Shepard, she had only gotten a slight case of the sniffles for about a day. It had been torture waiting a whole week for their next date, but Mordin and Dr. Chakwas had insisted on it.
Shepard took the visor from her with a small smile, then leaned in for a kiss. His lips were hot and his mouth tasted of mint. She melted into him for a long moment before they separated. He took her hand and led her over to the divan. They sat down.
"How was your day? Do anything exciting?" she asked, leaning against his shoulder and sliding one arm behind his back.
"Nothing much. Just helped Thane find his long lost son and stop a political assassination."
"Oh, is that all?" She punched him playfully in the gut with her free hand.
Shepard let out a dramatic oof. "All in a day's work. I owed him. He's going to stay on the Citadel and try to make peace with his son."
"Oh, that's nice," Tali muttered absently. In truth, she had hardly known the drell assassin, and her mind was currently on other things. Shepard's hands were wandering over her envirosuit, undoing clasps. He knew exactly where they all were and was making quick work of them. Her headpiece was already off, tumbling onto the cushion next to her.
She tried to rise. A mirror! "My hair..."
"It looks great," he reassured, tugging on her hand. With a yelp, she fell into his lap. "I heard you spent some time with Kelly on the Citadel while I was keeping the peace."
"Mm hm." She was having a hard time concentrating. Shepard's mouth was on her neck now, moving down to her shoulder. "We went shopping."
"Did you buy anything nice?"
Tali slowly untangled herself from Shepard and stood up. "Why don't you be the judge of that?" She smiled as she shimmied out of her unfastened suit, letting it fall to the floor in a heap. Shepard's eyes widened as he took in her smooth skin, silken white panties and matching bra.
Tali started to ask what he thought of her gift, then squealed as Shepard shot up from his seat with a growl. He scooped her up off the floor and carried her over to the bed.
Keelah!
"I love you, John."
Upon hearing the declaration, Shepard quickly propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at Tali with cobalt blue eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but she interrupted.
"Wait. Let me get it all out… I've loved you for a long time. Almost since we first met."
"Almost?" He feigned indignance.
"What can I say? It took me a little while to get used to the idea of loving someone with cauliflower on his head. She reached up, lightly tugging on his ears." Shepard laughed. She loved the sound of it, how it made his face crinkle.
"But it never occurred to me that you might feel the same way," she continued. "After we defeated Saren, I went home to the Flotilla. Oh how I pined for you like a lovesick schoolgirl for weeks after that. I was pathetic, you have no idea." She looked away, eyes watering. "Then I got that message from Alenko saying you died. And I realized I had never told you…"
Shepard gently turned her face back toward him with one hand. He smiled reassuringly as he wiped away rogue tears running down her cheeks.
Tali continued. "That crushed me, John. I'm not going to make that mistake again. You're going back to Earth in a few days to be tried by those ungrateful Alliance bosh'tets. I've been summoned back to the Flotilla to speak to the Board about my father's vacated admiralcy. So I'm saying it again. I love you. I don't know exactly what this is to you, but I want you to know how I feel."
Shepard leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips before speaking.
"And you should know how I feel. I love you, Tali'Zorah. More than anything. I denied it for a long time – thought I didn't have time for it. When I saw you on Freedom's Progress, I realized what an idiot I had been. You mean everything to me. Do you remember when we went back to the Flotilla to deal with your trial? The pass-phrase you had to recite before they would let you dock?"
Stroking her hair, he repeated the words. "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began. I don't know what that's from, but those words perfectly describe how I feel about you, Tali. You are where I begin, and you are where I will end. I'm going to get through this trial, and you are going to help your people. I will return to you. That's a promise."
More tears streamed down Tali's face. "And I'll be waiting for you," she said softly. "That's my promise." She pulled him down, lips against lips, flesh against flesh, desperately trying to find a way to get close enough.