So, this is a companion to Ashara Shepard: The Fourth Life, illustrating some of the moments that didn't fit naturally into the main story but that I wanted to show anyway, many of them romantic and/or smutty. They are part of the larger plot, but I think in most cases can be enjoyed without reading it. (Though I hope you do read both) This first one is set right before the Chapter 13, the beginning of Where They Travelled.
"So, asari really don't have weddings?"
Liara smiles indulgently at Ashley. The newly promoted captain is looking quite striking in her dress blues, and Liara eagerly anticipates seeing Shepard in hers. They make her look particularly dashing, but it has been some time since Ashara has had occasion to don them. Normally of course, Liara would have watched Shepard as she dressed, but apparently, there is a old human custom that it is poor luck for the couple being married to see each other on their wedding day before the ceremony. As a result, she had, for the first time in months, spent the night back in her own cabin and she has to admit that it has built her anticipation for what will come next.
"Not as you would think of them. Because we can share thoughts with our partners, for my people, it is the certain knowledge that both people wish to spend their lives together that makes them bondmates. This commitment can then be registered for legal purposes, but that is a mere formality."
Ashley is incredulous. "But no ceremony? No party? No relatives getting drunk and making fools of themselves?"
Liara laughs. "Captain Williams, I would never have guessed that you were such a romantic."
"Hey," she insists, "Just because I can snipe down a charging krogan with one shot doesn't mean I can't be a girl sometimes."
"Fair enough. To answer your question, we did once have communal ceremonies marking the establishment of a committed bonding pair, but they fell into disuse after we began to have regular contact with aliens. We found it simpler to adapt ourselves to the customs of those we fell in love with."
"But what about when two asari get bonded? Like Benezia and Aethyta?"
Liara sighs regretfully. "Such unions are no longer seen as desirable. They still take place, but because of the stigma against them, a public celebration is considered inappropriate."
"I'm sorry." Ashley shakes her head, clearly annoyed at herself for bringing the subject up. "I know you got a hard time about that as a kid."
"Do not worry." She grins. "Of late, I am far better known for my bondmate than for my heritage."
Ashley smiles back. "I think these days we're all better known for our association with Shepard than our families, which in my case…"
She's interrupted by the buzzing of her omni-tool, and Garrus' voice breaks into the conversation. "Get a move on it, Captain. It's time."
The cargo hold of the Normandy isn't exactly the kind of fantasy wedding location most people would dream of. The crew have certainly done their level best to prepare the room for the ceremony. In spite of their busy schedule of relief work and the shortages that still plague the galaxy a year after the Reaper War ended, they've managed to scrounge up some decorations. Flowers and streamers festoon the hold, and there's even a carpet leading up to the make-shift alter they've erected. None the less, it's still a cargo hold, with crates of supplies moved off to the side of the room and two Kodiak shuttles serving as a backdrop for the happy occasion.
Ashara Shepard wouldn't have it any other way. This place has been her home, and the people here are the only family she has left, her blood relatives having died long ago on Mindoir. There are certainly a few more that she wishes could be here with her and Liara today. Miranda, who brought her back from the brink of death twice, is elsewhere on Alliance business. Wrex is still overseeing the reconstruction of Tuchanka. Aethyta, Liara's only surviving parent, though alive, has been annoyingly elusive.
Still, those that matter most to Shepard are here, her closest friends: Garrus, Tali, Ashley, and of course her bride-to-be, Liara T'Soni. The Spectre had wanted to do this before the crew start to go their separate ways. Tomorrow, she and Liara are going to move into their home on Thessia, and with many of the others planning to leave after that, she's glad to have this final moment with all of them together.
Behind her, Tali seems to have finally gotten everything set up. The quarian had been both surprised and thrilled when Shepard asked her to officiate at the wedding. "Hey, you're an Admiral of the Quarian Flotilla," Ashara had reminded her, "Even if you're currently detailed to the Normandy." With Garrus serving as her Best Man and Ashley as Liara's Maid of Honor, everything has worked out nicely. She's glad her bondmate and her successor as captain of the Normandy have become so much closer. Back on the SR-1, Ash had been suspicious of Liara, but that's long in the past.
Garrus informs Ashley that they're ready to begin and as the elevator hums into action and the wedding processional starts to play over the loudspeakers, Shepard fixes her eyes on the door, eager for a glimpse of her bride. Of course, they're both brides, but they decided to arrange matters this way in accordance with asari custom.
Lacking a traditional conception of male and female due to their unique biology, they instead assign titles on the basis of roles. A mother and father for instance are the names given to the asari who birthed the child and the one who's genetic code was mapped. Since asari bonded to aliens generally bore the children, they considered it appropriate for them to take on the female role. "Besides," Shepard thinks to herself, "I probably look a lot more butch in my dress uniform than Liara… will… in…"
The thought trails off mid-sentence as the lift doors open and she gets her first look at Liara in her wedding dress. To Shepard, the asari looks absolutely beautiful in pretty much anything and especially nothing at all, but right now, she's leaving her stunned. Her bondmate has chosen a gown of white and blue, relatively simple, but elegant, and its pattern suggests the jumpsuit she was wearing the day that they first met on Therum. Of course, that outfit didn't have a cut that so tantalizingly displayed the tops of Liara's breasts, nor did it's thicker fabric cling as appealingly to her soft curves.
Every eye in the room goes to the asari, but Shepard can't tear hers away, enraptured even as the service starts. "Dearly beloved," Tali begins, following the human form, but though she's doing a perfectly good job of performing the ceremony, Ashara hardly notices, her attention fixed on her beloved.
They've written their own vows, and it's Shepard who's supposed to go first, but when she looks into the asari's bright blue eyes shinning with love, it takes her a moment to remember where she even is let alone what she's supposed to say. "Liara, I…" She swallows and finds her voice, trying to convey with her words the depths of her feelings for her lover.
"It's hard for me to know where to even begin, except to say that I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you. The things that happened in the last few years, well, I don't think that anyone could have been ready for them. I certainly wasn't, but I found a way to get through anyway, and it's because of you."
"You won my heart so fast I barely noticed when it happened, but you also became tougher and more capable than I ever expected, the best partner anyone could have asked for. Even when it seemed like there was no hope left for me, you never gave up, and without you, I wouldn't have gotten this second chance. And you kept me believing not just that we could win, but that there was something worth winning for, something worth coming back to. I love you Liara T'Soni, and now that the war is over, I can't think of any better reward than getting to spend the rest of my life with you."
Liara bows her head and Shepard can see her blinking back tears, but when she speaks her voice is clear and full of happiness. "Before I met you, I had been a solitary person. I had never even considered taking a bondmate and instead, your love convinced me to become the youngest asari in 5 generations of the T'Soni family to do so. It is, I suppose, one more thing we can add to the list of incredible feats you have accomplished." Some of the audience laughs, and Liara continues.
"You said that I never gave up on you. How could I have, when I loved you so much? You have done so much for me, and made me so much stronger than I ever thought I could be. It has been my privilege to fight by your side these last years, Ashara Shepard, and nothing could give me greater joy than to say that I will be your wife."
Shepard can almost feel Tali beaming with happiness for them from behind her helmet as she declares, "I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may kiss."
Ashara steps forward and wraps her arms around Liara's back even as her new wife throws hers around her neck. Their lips come together, and as Shepard feels Liara's soft lips parting for her, the small crowd around them bursts into cheers. The kiss deepens, her wife's nimble tongue sliding into her mouth, the sweet warm taste of Liara filling her senses. For a brief instant, Liara's eyes flash dark and their minds touch together, just long enough for the word, "forever," to be sent into Shepard's thoughts, and her "always" to be heard in return.
The reception passes in a blur. Comrades and friends come to offer their congratulations and good wishes for the new life she and Shepard are about to start, but though she's grateful, it's hard for her to think about anything but her wife.
Liara hadn't expected to be this deeply touched by the wedding; they had pledged themselves to each other over a year ago after all, and yet, this is different. That day on the Citadel had been a hopeful promise, the sharing of a dream that maybe, just maybe, they would survive long enough to achieve. This ceremony is an affirmation that they've made it, that they're really ready to begin their new life together.
With a final hug from Tali and an exhortation from Joker to "Take pictures," she and Shepard make their way together towards the elevator, and as the doors close behind them, Ashara is already pulling her into her arms.
"God, you look fantastic." Her new wife's breath is warm against her cheek, Shepard's voice low and sultry. "I haven't been able to think straight since the moment you came out of those doors." Eager fingers caress Liara's thigh, the satin delightfully smooth when it rubs against the blue skin beneath it.
"I am glad you approve," she manages, even as Shepard's other hand is curving around the back of her crest, playing its way along a particularly sensitive ridge that Ashara knows she loves to have stroked.
Her knees start to feel weak as Shepard purrs, "I can't believe I get to spend the rest of my life doing this." The doors open behind them, and the couple stumbles out of them, falling through the entrance to the commander's cabin. They don't even make it to the bed, Ashara pushing her up against a wall, her fingers tracing their way up the slit of her dress to caress the bare skin of her leg.
The asari can only whimper into Ashara's kiss as she feels the lacy scrap of white underwear she's wearing begin to be lifted. She loves when Shepard is like this, so turned on, burning so hot for her. No one Liara's ever met arouses her the way that Ashara does, and to be able to have the same effect on the woman she loves is intoxicating.
The tips of Ashara's fingers start to brush over her inner scales, and she can tell how wet she already is, digits gliding so easily across slick flesh. Her hand clutches at Ashara's dirty blonde hair, trying to keep herself from collapsing entirely. Shepard's free arm supports her, wrapping around her waist, and when she feels her lover enter her, Liara lets out a soft cry, her eyes already starting to fleck with darkness.
First one and then two fingers thrust inside the asari, and before her self-control can vanish entirely, she chokes out, "Wait."
"What is it?", Ashara asks, her fingers sliding out, but not before brushing tantalizingly over Liara's clit, further testing her crumbling resolve.
"Together," she gasps, and with a supreme effort of will, she summons enough biotic power to push Shepard gently back in the direction of the bed. "You need less clothes," she insists hungrily, and Ashara gets the message, rapidly removing her uniform even as she lays back on the sheets.
Liara kicks off her shoes before letting her dress slide off of her shoulders and finally bending down to remove her now-soaked panties. In spite of her desire, she forces herself to walk slowly towards the bed, knowing how much Ashara likes watching her naked body, loving the intensity in the way those pale green eyes are starring up at her. By now, the human has succeeded in removing her shirt, bra, and pants, but before she can get to her green silk underwear, Liara stops her. "Let me," she purrs, dropping down onto the bed beneath Ashara.
The asari swiftly kisses her way up Shepard's bare leg before removing her panties. The commander is wonderfully aroused, her wet folds slick as Liara enthusiastically flicks her tongue over and between them. She dips her tongue inside for a moment, eager for more of the rich, thick taste she can never get enough of. Between her legs, her own clit is throbbing desperately for more, but Liara can wait a minute if it means pushing Shepard as close to the brink as she is before they meld.
Her wife moans as Liara takes her clit into her mouth, sucking on the hard point and when Shepard's fingers frantically caress her crest, the asari knows she can't hold off any more. She cocks her head up and her eyes are black with desire, latching on to Shepard's willing mind.
The mixture of love and desire she's so used to fills her, but as strong as she can remember it being, and a rush of images flow through the bond. Therum… before Ilos… after Hagalaz… after the war… Goddess, they've had so many wonderful moments, and the thought of how many more they have to come fills her with indescribable happiness. "Always," she whispers, repeating what Ashara sent to her at the wedding, and when, "Forever," comes back from her wife, Liara can't wait any longer.
She glides up Shepard's body, brushing the erect tips of her dark blue nipples over the warm skin beneath her before falling into her wife's arms. Strong hands pull her close and a thigh parts her legs, sliding expertly over her slick core even as she feels Shepard pressing herself against Liara as well.
They move together, thoughts and bodies flowing as one, the bond making it deliciously easy to find just the right angles and share the pleasure that results when they do. Every time Shepard runs her thigh along the engorged length of Liara's clit, the asari can feel herself moving a little closer, and she runs her tongue over her lover's ear, whispering in her mind, "I love you."
"I love you too," she hears back, "More than anything else in the galaxy," and Ashara's hand caresses her backside, pulling her tighter, increasing the friction between them. Liara can't last much longer, and she doesn't want to, the desire to come and feel Shepard do the same incredibly strong in her mind.
"God, yes. Together." She can hear the response to her unspoken need, and Shepard's other hand slides down between them. Her fingers curl inside Liara's soaked entrance, and that's what finally does it, the sensation of her lover inside her pulling Liara over the edge even as a final press of her thigh against Shepard's swollen clit does then same for her. Their climaxes merge through the meld, twinning and heightening their pleasure, drawing it out over a timeless moment.
Even as it passes and the meld slowly recedes, Liara still finds it too much to move or even speak, content to just hold and be held, to enjoy the rapturous smile she sees on Ashara's beautiful face. She knows this won't last forever. There's still desire in her wife's eyes along with happiness, and she feels it too, the intensity of the craving she feels for Shepard not easily satisfied despite the bliss they've just shared. But that's a good thing. There's no more war, no need to drag themselves away from what they can't get enough of. They have the rest of the night to be satisfied and a lifetime to enjoy this together.
Hope you enjoyed this; I know it was pretty sappy, but I apologize for nothing. This couple just brings out the romantic in me. The next one will feature Jack and Miranda's first time and will definitely be less sweet. In the meantime, I will try to figure out the tangled web of the next chapter in 4th Life proper.