A/N: This completely ignores the ending of ME3, and is a happily ever after for Commander Shepard. It's canon up until the Catalyst.
Secrets
It is an abnormally long day on the Citadel, and Shepard is cleaning her apartment. The offer of someone else to scrub down counters with antiseptic and picking clothes up off of her bedroom floor has been made multiple times by multiple people, but she finds that monotonous tasks are her best friend.
Cleaning means she cannot be thinking too hard. Cleaning means she is not haunted by the faces of the dead.
Shepard finishes scrubbing down the kitchen, although it arguably did not need another round of stainless steel polishing, and makes coffee. She taps her foot and fingers as the coffeemaker churns and finally drips down into the cup.
And once she has taken a few sips of her own, she makes a second and walks up the stairs to where Liara has set up a very complicated office. Shepard carefully navigates the wires that might be snares to keep people out from how precariously they are placed. It is evident that Liara has spent several decades working entirely alone.
"I brought you coffee," Shepard says, setting it down on a table and narrowly avoiding electrocution.
"Thank you, Shepard," Liara replies, smiling faintly. Little things. It is little things that make the Asari feel so loved.
Shepard starts to leave the room, seeing that Liara is deeply engrossed in her work, but then she sees something that piques her interest.
"Why do I see my name on that screen?" Shepard demands, doing a double take. Liara is completely silent, which Shepard takes as a bad sign.
"Your name is on many screens, Shepard. You did save the galaxy. Lots of people are interested in you," is Liara's feeble excuse.
Shepard squints at her girlfriend with great scrutiny and a healthy dose of skepticism. Liara clears her throat and shifts her weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. She may be a very good information broker, but she is a pitiful liar.
"What are you looking up?" Shepard crosses her toned arms and continues examining Liara.
That gaze absolutely kills the Shadow Broker. Shepard has a way of getting people to do what she wants; she would have to develop that skill at this point.
"I am... checking your extranet history," Liara admits with a small cough.
Shepard's eyebrows near touch her hairline. "That's uh..."
"You were behaving strangely and I only wanted to see if there was something wrong," Liara says brightly, and if she were not so calm and innocent about it, Shepard thinks she might have been livid.
It is not unlike the time that Liara looked up Shepard's files mere days after they met each other and analyzed her entire past. Maybe Liara was born to be an information broker, Shepard muses at the sudden, sharp memory of yet another awkward moment.
"You can always just ask," Shepard says uncomfortably, and she would screw a Batarian to get out of this situation. "I didn't realize I'd been behaving strangely lately."
Liara blinks and Shepard can tell she is hiding something. "So I realized. Just some odd and interesting searches about termite communication and slow cooker recipes."
Oh yeesh. "You didn't read my e-mails, by any chance?"
"I was not there yet," Liara lies and Shepard sighs.
But, for the sake of what she is certain Liara found, Shepard plays along. A pretend surprise is always better than yet another awkward altercation. Shepard nods, jolts forward without the grace of a talented vanguard, and kisses Liara on her cerulean cheek. Liara closes her eyes and smiles faintly at the abrupt touch, and Shepard is on her way.
[X]
"Kasumi, Kasumi," Shepard breathes, although Kasumi has not yet answered the call.
Shepard is crouched in the Citadel vents with her OmniTool as the only illumination in the grey shadows. She controls her breathing as she tries not to feel panic at being enclosed with no escape. There are not any geth heretics or reapers or mercenaries or assassins here, crouching in the ventilation ducts, watching Shepard awkwardly call her elusive friend.
But Shepard checks anyway. She cannot afford not to.
Finally, Kasumi answers. "Yes, Shep?"
"Liara read our e-mails. She knows about the heist," Shepard says nervously, tapping her foot on the metal.
"I told you we should use the darknet for our communications, but, oh well." Kasumi shrugs, a small smirk beneath the shadows of her hood.
"I'm pretty sure Liara could get into the darknet too," Shepard snaps before instantly regretting it. Kasumi has been going well out of her way to help Shepard with her secret plan. "She's a very good information broker."
"So I've heard." There is a slight sparkle in Kasumi's eyes that makes Shepard regret taking her with her to Hagalaz. Shepard considers Kasumi one of her closest friends, but she does not come off as the most trustworthy type. But if anyone can keep a secret, Kasumi can, and Shepard intended for the mission to remain hidden from everyone.
"I think we should still go for it," Shepard says and Kasumi hesitates.
"Last time we got caught during a heist was not very pleasant," Kasumi says and Shepard grimaces. No, no it was not. "But, I do like you, and I don't think Liara is going to call C-Sec. We're still on, Shep."
Kasumi is gone before Shepard can say another word. The retired commander slumps against the metal lining the vents and sighs. She then jumps, smashing her head as a keeper scuttles by, and she takes that as her cue to leave.
[X]
Shepard sees that Liara knows about the heist because she very blatantly excuses herself for the night, claiming to be visiting Aethyta. Maybe that part isn't bullshit, but the small smile Liara could not keep off of her face revealed that she is well aware of what Shepard is up to.
Kasumi meets Shepard by leaping down from a rafter and uncloaking, which nearly gives Shepard a heart attack, to Kasumi's laughter.
"We get in, we get the target, we get out," Kasumi says, as if it needs establishing. Shepard only has the energy to nod.
"Good," Shepard says with a sharp nod.
They are at the elaborate Reaper War Exhibit in the Citadel Museum in the Presidium. Kasumi disables Avina with an overload before Shepard even notices. She certainly picked the right companion for this.
Shepard is invited to the grand opening next week, and she has been dreading it. Facing the past is going to be painful. She tries her best not to think about it. But right now she is fine with going to the museum, because she is using it to start her future.
A future with Liara. A wedding, and those promised little blue children.
"I once had a boyfriend who checked my extranet history," Kasumi remarks as she disables an alarm Shepard was about to trigger. The thief frowns for a flicker of a second; Shepard usually is not so distracted. She stays frosty at all times, in Kasumi's experience. "I got rid of him quite quickly. He still thinks I'm dead."
"You faked your death to get out of a relationship?" Shepard asks, stunned. Kasumi shrugs and keeps walking.
They glance around for the Therum section. Shepard knows that there is one, and it includes rubble from the mine where Liara was doing her research.
"So, you saved the damsel in distress?" Kasumi inquires as she pauses at a glass case containing priceless Thessian gems. She looks genuinely pained as she pries herself away from the opportunity and continues following Shepard. "I'll go back for those."
"Of course you will," Shepard replies with a small smile. "I did rescue her. But she rescued me a lot more times. If anything, I'm the damsel in distress."
Kasumi laughs faintly at that. "Commander Shepard, Savior of the Galaxy, Damsel in Distress? Hm. Well, I'm not one to criticize what you role play in bed."
Shepard swallows and ignores that comment. "For fear of being too wimpy, the only thing I never regret or wish I had done differently is saving Liara."
She expects Kasumi to laugh again, but the thief's eyes just sparkle. Kasumi seems strangely contented by that thought.
"I sure don't regret not destroying that greybox. You deserve her, Shep," Kasumi says, patting Shepard on the shoulder.
They finally reach the Therum section and Shepard leans back as Kasumi makes quick work of the locks. She is looking for anything ring shaped, or that could be properly melted into a ring. Kasumi finds one much more quickly than Shepard thought.
"There you go. No way she says no to this hideous hunk of metal. Diamonds are a girl's worst enemy, I think it goes," Kasumi says with a wink and Shepard shrugs it off, rolling her eyes.
"Will she say no?" Shepard asks and Kasumi shakes her head.
"Seeing as she knows about this whole operation, I'm guessing she's going to be thrilled," Kasumi says and Shepard feels a strong wave of relief. "And she better snatch you up quick, because half the galaxy wants into Commander Shepard's bedroom."
"You can say that again," Shepard admits, shaking her head slowly.
[X]
Shepard proposes in the Presidium. It is not the most unique or original proposal. It is just in one of a million small cafes, overlooking the water that gets filtered into what she and Liara wind up drinking. They are sitting there, and clearly Liara is waiting for Shepard to break out the proposal.
"I don't, uh, exactly have any violinists or champagne lined up," Shepard admits, rubbing her neck. But Liara just smiles. "Liara T'Soni, will you marry me."
Shepard thinks she might vomit at first; she did not anticipate that reaction from herself.
"The ring is from Therum. It's made out of the mining equipment they recovered," Shepard says as she fumbles with it and holds it out to Liara.
The Asari takes it silently, quite a difference from proposals to human women.
"I would be honored to marry you," Liara says warmly and Shepard looks around to see that no one is even applauding. She does not think any of the passersby even notice that Shepard just proposed. Perhaps that is a relief. "Not that I didn't have it figured out for the past three months."
Shepard can only laugh.
"You are a very good information broker." Pause. "So, uh, what do you think of those slow cooker recipes?"