The Allure of Stained Glass
Summary: Shepard and fellow former N7 trainees have a final party together to celebrate their graduation from the program.
I'm back with another fic for the wonderful couple! Enjoy.
Shepard combed the strands of hair back behind her ear with her fingers as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
This was it, or rather this morning had been it. The nervous outbreak of sweat on her hands had stopped some time ago. She was now officially a part of the N7 program, the deadliest force in the Systems Alliance. The same one that was going to be the most rambunctious this night. That was only because of the graduation party taking place downstairs in the largest room of the base, otherwise with high ranked officers around they would be on their best behavior. Tonight was the exception, well, as long as no one ended up shooting a bullet into another graduates' head.
When tomorrow came around the newest soldiers would be assigned to ships and start their first real mission. Just thinking about it made her heart pound. She would finally be in space, going out and exploring the galaxy like she had always wanted.
Tomorrow, she reminded herself. For the rest of the day she was celebrating along with everyone else.
Her hand finally found the dark pink lipstick that had been crammed in the back of the drawer, with a smile she removed the cap then applied the color to her lips. Clicking the cap back on she smoothed out her dress for what felt like the tenth time since she had started getting ready to head downstairs and join the others. She looked back up and away from the nonexistent wrinkles on her dress that resided in her mind.
Little black dress was the perfect way to describe her current attire. It stopped just above the mid-thigh mark, no sleeves, round neckline, with short straps of a lighter see-through material that continued down her side in a curve towards her front before curving back away again. That same material covered most of her back in a smooth dip. Then there was the black faux leather heels, adding on four inches and a quarter to her already above average height. Her toenails sticking out from the peep-toe. Silver buckled straps crossed over her feet, though they were more for show, the zipper in back was what had made it possibe to get her foot in the heel.
Shepard ran her hand through her long dark red locks, feeling the cold metal of an arrow shaped silver ring along her cheek as she made sure there was no knots in her hair. She was ready then, there was nothing else to do. Smoothing her hands over the dress once again she stepped from the room she had shared with three other canditates for the past four years and into the hallway.
Her heels clicked softly on the smooth cement as she followed the sound of music that thudded through the floor the closer she got. When she opened the door to the lunch room of the training facility the loud music assualted her ears. Loud beats made the air hum, there was constant shouting above the music to be heard by friends and colleges.
"Shepard!"
She turned to see one of her bunkmates, Nozomi waving her over towards a seatless table. With a smile she headed over, "Hey, Zomi." she laid a hand on the table to have a glass of alcohol pushed into it a second later.
"Two for the laides, two for us." Ryder said as he slung an arm around Nozomi's waist, pulling his girlfriend close as she laughed.
"If I'm a lady where's my margarita?" Orazio, a bunkmate and friend of Ryder's said taking up the other available space at the table. Shepard shot him a smile as she raised her glass of beer to take a swing.
"You want one? Get it yourself." Ryder hardly glanced at his friend, all of his attention was on Nozomi, the bright blue flowing dress she wore was likely a factor to him being too distracted to come up with an even more snarky comeback like usual.
"Such a gentleman. How did you score such a prize Zomi?"
Ryder shot Orazio an irritated look but Nozomi just laughed. "Oh, I don't know, but luck was involved." When the two started kissing Shepard looked away, taking another drink from her glass.
"So, how did you get stuck with these two?" she asked Orazio, ignoring the annoyed huff to her left.
"Luck apparently." he replied with a grin and she smirked in return. Orazio chose then to lean forward and she already knew what he was going to ask, "Dance with me?"
"You know I don't dance."
"I know you say you can't, but I haven't ever actually seen that you can't."
There was a reason for that, which she had previously stated. "It's not a pretty sight." she said, glancing around, hoping to find one of her other roommates to get out of this conversation. Just as she was beginning to think they were lost in the throng of people dancing she recognized a form at the corner of her eye and turned her head to see a pair of dark eyes looking back at her. Kai Leng, an even better alibi. "Sorry, I got to go." she said, even though she wasn't. Shepard had turned her head only slightly to look back at Orazio before walking off and leaving the empty bottle of beer behind on the table. When she looked back to where she had seen Kai he wasn't standing there anymore.
She sighed for a moment then walked quickly forward to get lost in the crowd before Orazio noticed that she wasn't going in any particular direction. Shepard swiped another glass from a passing tray as she walked, making polite chit chat as she passed through what felt like a never ending crowd. She was sure she was going in circles by the time she heard a familiar voice call her name and she squeezed out of the throng.
"Pania, you just saved me from suffocation." Shepard said as she slid into a seat at the table, her feet thanking the chance to sit down and not putting any more preassure on the soles for now.
"I think it's safe to say a breather mask would help anyone in there." Pania raised a hand to fan at herself for a moment. "It feels like the air conditoning stopped working again."
"Or it could be that your drinking warm beer." Cadence said, head resting in her hands as she looked at her friend with a playful smile.
"Is it?" Pania gripped her glass for a moment then sighed. "Damn," she removed her hand and went back to fanning herself. "No wonder it feels so hot in here. Along with all those warm bodies I'm surprised no one has passed out yet. I need a cooler."
"Coming right up," Cadence motioned a server over and took every bottle from the tray. Shepard watched as Cadence popped open a can of coke and poured it into a glass filled to the brim with ice before adding some rum and swiping her finger along the edge of a margarita to reapply the salt to the new glass before sliding it across the table to Pania.
"I see you two are the life of the party." Shepard said, enjoying the feel of leaning back on a plush chair for once.
Pania laughed before taking a sip from the drink to moan a moment later and rest her head on the back of the wall behind her. "That's just what I needed," she licked the salt from her lips.
"That's just what I needed." Cadence said, laughing when Pania punched her in the shoulder a second later.
"Does your mind ever vacate the gutter?"
"I have a permanent address. Hump Bump Street."
"Ooo, that's creative." Pania said while directing a wink at some man on the dance floor and Shepard laughed. "Well girls, I got a bed to lie in tonight so I will see you later." Pania got up, taking her new cold drink with her.
Shepard shook her head with a smile as she looked back to Cadence who was now mixing drinks again at the table with the assortment she had gotten from the tray. "Play with me Serah." A shot glass slid across the table to Shepard and she caught it before it went sliding over the edge. "Nice. You shoot first." A coin slid across the table this time and Shepard picked it up smiling a second before throwing it down on the table to bounce up then back down into a empty glass that Cadence had set in the middle of the table. "Again." Shepard grabbed a few more coins that now littered the table since Cadence had opened a pocket in her purse and spread them out.
After the sixth one she missed and her friend let out a hoot. "Drink!" Shepard tossed back the beverage in her shot glass to have it refilled a moment later and then watched as Cadence started flicking the coins toward the glass, only stopping when she missed and drank her penalty shot before it was Shepard's turn again.
It went on for awhile, people joining in and leaving whenever they felt like it. Cadence continued to take drinks from the servers for the purpose of the game, her goal seeming to be getting the other players drunk.
"-And then?"
"It flew right off, way to the ceiling, past the moon."
"You mean through the ceiling?"
"Yeah, yeah..." one of the players muttered before sinking into their seat and proceeding to snore on the table. Laughter filled the air and Shepard pushed herself up slowly.
"I'm going to the bar, need more alcohol for your concoctions?"
"Nah, think were good here for now." Cadence said, with a wave of her hand at the dozen of drinks on the table all at various stages of being empty.
Shepard smirked and moved from the now crowded section of the room, a hand always on a passing person, table, or chair to make sure she didn't fall over. When she got to the bar she leaned heavily against it. "Carolt, nuts." she supplied before turning around to look at the room. People were still dancing, unless they were playing quarters with her roommate that is.
"Shepard."
She glanced to her side, hoping it wasn't Orazio, who she had succesfully evaded for the rest of the party. "Oh, hey. I was looking for you earlier. Where did you run off to?" She turned to grab her drink before looking back to Leng as she took a sip from the glass.
"You were looking for me?"
"Mhmm," she managed to get out around the glass before turning when she heard a bowl set down behind her and grabbed a handful of nuts to start popping them individually into her mouth while she talked, "When you were hugging that wa-" the nut bounced off her lip to hit the floor, "eh," she pushed the last few nuts in hand to her mouth, chewing slowly.
Seeing his arched brow at the corner of her vision she couldn't help but giggle. "How badly did you lose the game at the table?"
She puffed out her lip at his question. "I didn't lose. I left because those servers stopped coming around and I was getting hungry."
"'Cause nuts are so filling." Shepard grabbed another handfull of them and started throwing the nuts towards her open mouth again. "You know most of those are going to end up on the floor." she rolled her eyes at him, focusing back on the dance floor. It had actually calmed slightly, as about half of the room was now empty. It was entirely possible those people had decided to continue their party somewhere else. She giggled again at the thought as Pania had been one of the first to do that.
One of the men on the dance floor had turned and she caught his eye with a smile. He had smiled back and she was about to push away from the bar when he looked away abruptly. With a sigh she settled back on the bar, glancing over to Leng who was still standing at her side. Shepard look back to the mass of bodies, smiling brightly to draw someone from the crowd, though whenever she met their eyes they seemed to turn away a second later. She turned her head away after awhile, only pausing when she noticed the way Kai's eyes were slightly narrowed. The answer to why no one was coming over hit her hard then and she leaned forward until her chin was resting on his shoulder, "Leng, are you trying to be my watchdog?"
There was a brief cough as if he had gotten something caught in his throat. "What?"
She laughed at his reaction, even in the dim light she could see a slight dark shade on his cheek bones. "You are," she murmured, raising a hand to run a finger down the side of his neck. For a second she was focused on the feeling of his heart beating beneath her skin and then she leaned forward again to hiss softly, "Dance with me."
"Shepard-"
"It's Serah." she murmured, inching closer to his ear. When she was almost close enough to dart her tongue out though he ducked away.
His hand was on her shoulder and pushing her back down so she was leaning fully against the bar once again rather than his frame. "You can't dance and I don't dance. I'm sure all your other drunk ideas are go-" she grinned at him, leaning forward again to give a suggestion, "golden tickets to cannibal chocolate land." she let out a huff, leaning back now and turning to look at the dance floor, not even listening to his words anymore.
If he wasn't going to give her what she wanted she would just get someone else to do it. She spotted who she was looking for quickly enough and raised her hand to begin a wave, "Ora-" fingers wrapped around her hand and brought it back down quickly to her side.
"Fine. But I'm not going to promise that I'll be any good at it."
She smirked at this, taking another sip from her glass. "I can teach you."
He let out a puff of air. "Right."
"I didn't say I was a professional." she said with a light scowl.
"You can teach people while drunk?" he sounded skeptical.
"One of my many skills." Before he could say anything else on the matter she grabbed his arm to steady herself as she walked forward, dragging him along with her. She stopped before even reaching the dance floor, turning to face him. "Here," she grabbed his hand, trying to remember that lesson her dad had given her back for her high school prom. She pressed his palm to her waist before letting go and moving her hand up to sling over his shoulder, not caring if her position was correct or not anymore as thinking about it for too long just made her head pound. Sliding her other hand down his arm she grasped at his fingers before starting to sway slowly. "See? Piece of cake."
"A piece of cake would have been a better choice than nuts."
"Shut up about the nuts and just dance Leng."
"We're hardly moving, I don't think this constitutes as dancing."
"Shut up."
"As you say."
She smiled at that and continued swaying, leaning forward a few minutes later to rest her head along his shoulder. "The room's spinning," she murmured, closing her eyes to stop the feeling and just pressed her body against him.
The hand on her waist trailed up and she let out a soft sigh at feeling his fingers glide over the fabric and up her back. She was glad of how much effort she had put into getting those knots out of her hair as his hand reached the strands just halfway up her back. His fingers continued their course smoothly up and she leaned against him when his hand stopped at the back of her head, fingers brushing along the nape of her neck.
"Shepard," she opened her eyes, turning her head slightly to meet his gaze, "you look like you're about to pass out."
"Gee, thanksss. That yur way of carming a lay? 'Cause if-t-is you need prastise, stat."
"You hearing yourself?"
She paused for a moment then grinned, "Slurry slushie."
He had looked away from her for a moment but she still heard his low chuckle, saw the upward tilt to his lips. "Come on, Miss Slushie," her body was lifted just slightly and her hand on his back grabbed at the black tux, the other one leaving his fingers to wrap around his torso as he carried her from the room. She wasn't quite the whole way down the hall, though she had muttered a complaint when he stopped to click away at some machine in the hall before continuing down and opening the door to hers.
Judging from the lack of noise her other roommates were either still up or sleeping somewhere else tonight. She could feel herself lifted higher before being laid down on her bed, relinquishing her grip on him to grab the blankets instead. Shepard opened her eyes slightly when she felt hands run along her outer and inner thighs, feeling the fabric of her dress straigtning out and going back down to its former placement. It must have ridden up when he had set her down. She smiled before glancing towards where she heard foot falls. "Watchdoggy, yu levin? Not a verie goov watchie."
The footsteps sounded closer now and there was a scraping of what sounded like a chair across the floor. "I'm a better 'watchie' than you are at dancing." She let out a huff and there was that chuckle again. "Your piece of cake."
"Hmm?" she raised her head slightly to see a circular dark chocolate on her desk in a wrapper. "ah, thanc yu." she raised her hand, reaching out to pat at his clothed leg, rubbing for only a moment as her eyes closed a second later as she passed out.