Summary: Sometimes even new habits can be hard to see end. So it is as leave concludes for Kaidan and Nyx.

a/n: Written for a Hug Me Valentine's Day Drabble Prompt from painterofhorizons

Last Days

After a week on leave, Kaidan had gotten used to their morning runs. They'd match one another's pace for most of the path they took through the bustling Vancouver neighborhood, then she'd make some comment or remark about the length of his stride or taunt him for running so slow and take off.

The first time it happened, he thought his height would give him a stride advantage which would allow him to catch her easily. He found out the hard way that just wasn't going to happen. She beat him back to the apartment, by how long he couldn't be sure, but by the time he got to the courtyard out front he felt like he was the only one of them breathing hard.

After four days of the exact same thing, he was prepared and paced himself for it when she darted off. Except she didn't. What she did do was take a left instead of a right, leading them off their well-known path. He stayed with her, their footfalls resounding off the smooth surfaces and their rhythmic breathing echoing in their ears. She seemed to know exactly where she was headed, and Kaidan, like he had more times than he could count, followed her lead.

It only took about a dozen blocks before the familiar structures and flashes of the Human Alliance insignia popping up here and there announced where she was headed. Ten minutes later, Nyx slowed her pace then carefully wove through the foot traffic skimming the edge of the bay.

There floating in the bright clear blue sky, amid other vessels there for repairs and inspections, rested the Normandy. By comparison, to some of those behemoths, she was tiny, but she could fly circles around them, he knew.

Nyx laid her hands on the balustrade and leaned against, her chin cocked upward enough that he guessed that's where she was looking. Her fingers tightened around the round metal and Kaidan watched the gesture weave through the muscles in her arm. It was almost palpable the tension in her shoulders. He'd felt it dissipate after those first few days, but over the last, he'd felt the tightness creeping back in. He could guess the reason, though he tried to blank thoughts of that from his mind.

Without hesitation, he stepped up behind her, his chest flush against her back. When his hand slipped around her waist, she leaned back against him, her hand encouraging his embrace to tighten. The other arm draped over her shoulders, his cheek resting against hers.

"I'm going to miss this," she said just loud enough for him to hear her over the crowd as she nuzzled against him.

"There's nothing to miss. I'll be there, too." He knew his argument wasn't entirely valid. He knew things wouldn't be like this once they were back on the Normandy. He wouldn't just be able to do what he did on that street, where they were just two anonymous human runners. He squeezed her tighter and felt her hands respond similarly.

"I know. But it won't be this easy. This free."

Kaidan tucked his nose behind her ear, savoring that feeling-her in his arms, pulling his arms tighter around her-trying to commit the way she fit against him to some kind of muscle memory, as if he could. "I don't want to think about that, yet," he admitted, pressing a soft kiss on her neck.

He felt the movement of her chest with her sigh, but she stayed silent for quite a long time. Her fingers just traced indistinguishable shapes along the forearm hooked around her waist.

"I love you, Nyx."

Before he could say more, she shifted in his arms, which he loosened just enough to let it happen smoothly before tightening them again. His nose brushed hers, filling his vision with nothing but her impossibly blue eyes.

"I'll try to stop thinking about it," she told him.

He smiled and the hand at the back of her neck cradled her head. "Good. We've less than a day left. I want it to be ours."

She shifted and lurched forward. Her arms which had been draped over his shoulders, clung to him in a way that made his skin tingle. Holding her at least as tightly, Kaidan lifted her off the ground.

"You are amazing, Kaidan," she mumbled against his neck. Then leaning back in his arms, Nyx rested her forehead against his. "You know I love you, right?"

Kaidan grinned, with a quiet laugh. "I've heard rumors to that effect."

"Totally true." Her kiss was soft, lingering, but still far too chaste, far too hasty for Kaidan's preference. "So, should we head back? Or grab breakfast?"

"We better do something or we're going to cramp up and the day will be shot."

Her wide-eyed look seemed to mirror his own sentiment-the last thing he wanted that day was to be laid up with a Charlie Horse or worse.

"What no race?" he asked when she set a pace similar to what they'd run at earlier.

"No race." She bumped his shoulder with hers, giving him that sweet smile that made his heart flutter. The one he'd come to know what just for him.