Oh my! I did not expect such a reaction to Teiron! I was...kinda floored. Like, really. So, yeah, gonna try my hand at something sorta plotless and fluffy. I've got a couple other ideas, not sure if they're going to be one-shotty or if I'll link them together in a narrative. I'll see what kind of reaction this gets first. It's been over a decade since I've written anything without a clear end before (beyond what I've already written about their future) so I'm flying blind, I'm sorry! And since I moved the location of this story I should probably drop the line that Shepard shows back up after this chapter :)
The eternal afternoon of the Presidium was one of those thing on the Citadel that Teiron would never get used to. The wards had regular day/night cycles, though each was set to a different schedule, but the Presidium remained forever at two in the afternoon. It was why she didn't come up here often. It bothered her, when she was exhausted and ready to collapse in bed, that it should look like lunch time. She'd worked nights before, and it reminded her of that, and she didn't particularly like being reminded of that.
Today, however, was not about her. It was not about how much she hated the pretense and the stuck-uppery that seemed to permeate every living soul on the Citadel's central ring. She would have thought, what with the explosion a few centuries before, and the attack by Sovereign a few years before that, that the people living here would have become a bit more normal. It hadn't happened. Everyone up here thought themselves better than everyone else, and it showed.
She could feel the eyes on her as she walked along the bridge. Feel the condescending attitude that radiated from the people as they looked at her and her daughter, seizing them up, judging them on clothes that were more than a few seasons out of fashion.
Most people thought that asari by and large were independently wealthy. There were simply too many asari for this to be true, but for the most part those of her people who weren't kept mostly to themselves, and to asari space, than these stuck up types in this constant sunshine. While it was true that few asari had children unless they were prepared for the costs of a half century of care, she wasn't that unusual. She didn't think she was that unusual. Yes, she worked long hours, and no, she couldn't give Erra everything she wanted, but she could give her this.
And at only 22, Erra was still too young to notice the stares and the whispers as they passed. The girl had never been up here, had spent her entire life in the wards, and it was nice to give her this one day to take in something that Teiron didn't want her daughter to want, but would do everything in her power to give if she ever did.
Teiron's Omni-Tool beeped. She glanced down at it and groaned. She'd told her boss she needed the day off the Friday before, when it was clear that the generators would not last long enough to keep the school open the following Monday, but apparently he hadn't been listening.
"Everything okay, Mom?" Erra asked, innocent wide eyes looking up at her.
"Perfect sweetie. Mommy's gotta take this call." She looked around quickly and spotted an ice cream stall between an arms dealer and a clothing store. She fished out her credit chit and palmed it, glaring as her omni continued to beep. "Why don't you go get some ice cream. I want strawberry okay?"
Erra's smile was worth the scrimping they'd have to do the following week to pay for the over priced human sweet. It was all teeth, her eyes dancing in joy. She grabbed the chit and skipped over, joining the long line. She turned back and waved, Teiron returned it as the accepted the call.
"Yeah," she answered, "what do you want Horus?"
The volus on the screen appeared as angry as a volus can appear, what with their enviro-suits. "You...were supposed...to be here...half an hour ago," he said.
She did her best not to roll her eyes. "I told you last week. Power's down in half the ward, my daughter didn't have school today, and the babysitter can't work Mondays. You said I could have today and tomorrow off to watch her."
"I don't...have...any of the paperwork."
She bit the inside of her cheek. She hated this damn volus, more than she hated most people. "It's in your inbox, under the folder marked 'leave'. It's dated Friday." She wouldn't sigh, she wouldn't complain. It was just part of what she had to deal with. Goddess-forsaken dead-end job.
The volus turned, clicking away at a terminal out of her view. He made the volus equivalent of a grunt. "Oh. It does...seem to be...in order. I...will...see you tomorrow."
"Day after," she said. She looked over at Erra; she was still waiting in line. She caught her eye, and Erra waved again. Teiron smiled. It was worth it. She had to keep telling herself it was worth it.
"Of course. Day after." The call ended suddenly and it took all Teiron's willpower to not throw her omni into the lake below. Eying the lake she saw a familiar asari surrounded by a group of human teenagers. It bothered her, in distant sort of way, that Illira Shepard was up here teaching human children and hadn't brought her normal class up for the same lesson. She knew that Illira hadn't been the one to stop classes that day, though, and didn't let herself dwell on all the social implications.
She glanced back toward her daughter; she'd moved forward in line but still hadn't reached the counter. She tried to make herself enjoy the artificial sunlight, the permanent contentedness that infused the Presidium. She closed her eyes and leaned against the railing. She could hear Illira talking, lecturing, but couldn't make out the words. Erra would want to go say hi, but for the moment she let the noise drift up and around her.
"Teiron?" a quiet voice broke through her internal musings.
At first she thought she'd imagined it. This voice had haunted her dreams for more centuries that she cared to remember, and she'd resigned herself long ago that she would never hear it again. Even when she discovered who her daughter's teacher would be, the idea of running into this particular asari again had never crossed her mind. Liara T'Soni had never made it entirely easy to figure out what they had meant to each other, but in the four decades since the death of Commander Shepard, Teiron would have figured she'd have heard something. It wasn't as if she'd changed her number in the last two hundred years. It took her a moment to realize that the voice had been real though, that she could feel the body attached to it standing next to her and she finally opened her eyes.
And there she was.
She was wearing a dress very similar to the one Teiron had first seen her in, all those years ago. Green and clinging in all the right places, outwardly conservative but in asari fashion hinting in a way that made it much more erotic than if she'd simply been naked. The cut was slightly different, conforming to modern style, but otherwise almost indistinguishable from the one she'd seen in a bar on Illium long enough ago that she shouldn't really be able to remember it. Liara could easily have stepped right off the page of a fashion magazine.
Teiron felt her mouth go dry, and for a moment couldn't think of anything to say. She felt the smile cross her face, felt it widen as Liara returned it, but there was no conscious thought behind it.
"Li-Liara?" She cursed herself for the stutter. Great first impression, Teiron, she chided herself.
"I thought that was you. It's...been a long time."
That was the understatement of the century. The last time they had seen each other Liara had looked liked she'd wanted to be anywhere else, and Commander Shepard had made a few mistimed and inappropriate jokes at their expense. She hadn't heard from Liara since.
She'd kept track of her, though. Not that doing so took that much effort. Shepard had quickly become the poster child for not only the N7 program, but the Systems Alliance and the Council Spectres as well. Her name was attached to the cure for the Krogan Genophage and by extension the Krogan Renaissance that had swept the race for the last few centuries. She was called the backbone of the Geth-Quarian Civil Defense Force, a spectre-like operation that patrolled the terminus systems. And the T'Soni-Shepard bonding was still talked about. There hadn't been a spectacle like it since, not even with the birth of any of their children. And when Shepard had lived to be nearly 200 Liara had been shoved into the limelight again. There had been movies, books, a line of clothing, all dedicated to the galaxy's most well-known couple. Even when she'd wanted to cut all ties, something would happen and T'Soni would be back in the news and indirectly in Teiron's life. Like when Erra came home and told her that her new teacher was a Shepard.
"Couple centuries, give or take." It surprised her that there wasn't any bitterness in her voice, that she sounded completely earnest. That she was completely earnest.
"Is everything alright?" Liara nodded at Teiron's arm, where the Omni-tool had gone dark just moments before Liara had spoken.
"Oh? This? Yes. Just work. Are you living on the Citadel now?" She wanted to ask about Shepard. If Liara was dealing with the loss this time. She didn't.
"No. Thessia." Liara looked over at Illira. The young woman was standing in a sea of raised hands. "I came to f- um, my eldest and youngest live here. I came to visit."
"Are you-"
"Mommy look!" Erra interrupted, skidding to a halt, the large ice cream cones almost toppling to the floor. "The man asked who my mommy was and I pointed at you and look he gave me extra!" She shoved one of the cones up at her mother's face, and Teiron took it with an embarrassed smile.
"Liara, this is my daughter, Erra. Erra, this is Liara T'Soni."
The girl spun, wide-eyed to look at Liara. Her jaw dropped and she stuttered, "Y-you're M-ms. Shepard's mom! The guy thought I was pointing at you! Oh! Is it true? All the stuff they say? About you and the Commander and your mom and the ship and the big ships and the geth..." The girl's eyes narrowed suddenly, and her smile fell away. "How do you know my mom?"
Teiron opened her mouth to apologize, or maybe chastise Erra, but before she could Liara had laughed and dropped down so she was on eye level with the young asari. "Some of it is true. But not very much. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Erra." Liara held out a hand, and Erra took it cautiously. "I've known your mom for a very long time, and we were...friends, for a while."
"Oh. I'm in Ms. Shepard's class," Erra said as if that explained everything.
"Well, I hope she's teaching you something useful. When she was little, she tried to teach her teddy bear algebra."
Erra pursed her lips in confusion. "What's a teddy bear?"
"A stuffed toy. I did not understand it either, but Illira's father was insistent. Bears are very large, very dangerous earth mammals and humans make toys of them for their children. I believe it is a throw back to when they had to be fierce hunters." Erra looked suitable awed at the information.
All the uncomfortable tension that had been building was gone. Liara seemed like a different person as she spoke to Erra. She was at ease, smiling and laughing with the girl. Teiron felt her heart ache and pushed the feelings aside. They would talk for a few moments today, but it was highly unlikely that they would see each other again afterward.
She tried to burn the image before her in her memory just the same though. Liara, squatting down beside Erra, her eyes sparkling. Erra looking as if all her birthdays had come at once. It was beautiful and strange and perfect, and much too fleeting.
Liara stood and Erra scurried over to a bench and sat down to eat her ice cream. Teiron held out the cone she was holding. "Would you like some?"
Liara smiled. "No. I believe I have had more than my fair share of that particular earth delicacy. Shepard insisted on keeping gallons of it in the house, but I seemed to always be the one eating it." As she finished speaking, Liara seemed to think perhaps she shouldn't have said a word. Teiron hadn't exactly been looking forward to talking about Liara's lover, Liara's bondmate, the father of Liara's children, but she had expected it. They had spent nearly two hundred years together, after all.
"They sell it by the gallon?" Liara looked up suddenly and smiled, Teiron's question letting her know there were no hard feelings. How could there have been? She couldn't blame Liara for not loving her. It wasn't Liara's fault.
Liara chuckled, "Yes. She had it shipped to Thessia from Earth. It was..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "She's beautiful," she said instead.
"She's a handful, just ask your daughter. Wouldn't trade her for anything though. She's killed my drinking habit, don't know if I should thank her for that or not."
"They do do that, don't they? Just wait until she grows up and figures out how to get into the liquor cabinet."
They shared a laugh that only parents can understand and fell into an easy silence. It took awhile for Teiron to think that perhaps it shouldn't be so easy. That she should be uncomfortable and wanting to leave the presence of the woman who had broken her heart. She dismissed it, it was better like this anyway. They had never been anything more than good friends.
Illira's class was breaking up, the students wandering away. The asari was left the clean up the Crookes' radiometer she'd been demonstrating. A few passerby's stopped to watch the spinning vanes, and she was left to answer the questions of the mingling adults as well as the ones from the teenage stragglers. Liara turned to watch her daughter, a content, proud smile twisting at her lips. Erra slipped between then, standing on tip-toe to lean her arms on the railing.
"She took us out to the docks and outside the atmosphere fields when we studied that. Remember? When I had to take my pressure suit? How come she didn't do that with them? It was fun, I got to hold the lamp!"
"Probably couldn't get clearance to take a bunch of diplomats kids outside," Teiron mused bitterly, squeezing Erra's shoulder.
"All the docks are on lock down until later this evening, actually," Liara answered. She started after she spoke, and shrugged. "I should go. It was...nice seeing you again Teiron. And it was a pleasure to meet you, Erra." She smiled, weakly, and turned away. She merged into the crowd on the stairs, and Teiron thought she saw her look back but it could have just been wishful thinking.
"I'm gonna ask her to dinner!" Erra shouted, and tried to skip away. Teiron grabbed her hand, pulling her up short.
"No. She's here to visit with her daughter, sweetheart."
The girl wrinkled her nose. "Don't call me sweetheart. And why not? It's not like she's my teacher! And she's nice! I wanna ask her about The Shepard!" She tried to pull away again.
"It's not 'The' Shepard. She had a name, use it."
"Fine. But please? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease? She's like famous! And you know her! I'm gonna be the most popular kid in school! Please mom? I'll just ask!"
Teiron had learned long ago that when Erra turned those big, sad eyes on her there was nothing she would deny her daughter if it was in her power to give it. "Alright. But if she says no, accept it! You understand me? And don't go asking personal questions. She's a person, not a way to increase your popularity at school."
"Duh, mom. Gimme five minutes."
Teiron let go of her hand, and watched her daughter weave in and out of the crowd. She looked down at Illira, and saw Liara walk up to her. Erra tripped on the grass, and Teiron watch Illira laugh as she helped the child to her feet. They spoke quietly, her daughter bouncing in place, the older women laughing at her.
And then Liara was nodding.
And Erra was clapping.
And Illira was looking up at her, a knowing smile on her face.
And Teiron might just have thought that moment was perfect.