Ben loved his bed. It was soft and squishy and- right, Dad's files.

He dug into the box, fingering his way to the very body, passing years of files and photos. He grabbed the omni-tool from the top, gripped a file from the very bottom, and popped it in. Mechanics moved beside him.

"Creator Benjamin, would you like for your lights to be dimmed?" The small, geth model on his desk seemed to blink as he asked. The red reading light unwound its self, standing on two feet and and faced its back of tubes and switches to the white baby-geth. A gift from Auntie Tali and Uncle Kal. Ben nods from across the room, and the white geth clicks of a button of the red transforming light, dimming the room like a movie theatre. Ben motions for the AI to come over to him and watches and it climbs a mountain of sheets to reach him, then the slope of his arm, coming to rest on his shoulder like a pirate's loyal parrot. Tech really is a boys' best friend.

The play button on his 'tool has been blinking as if it knows the information its holding is important, and flashes an order for Ben to play it. He does, pressing a ring finger to it, and sees his father come onto the screen.

»»»

His hair is like ink, think and smooth, and his fingers are like quills, scraping the surface and digging into the tight locks. His eyes are forced onto the screen, focused on something most defiantly not in the room, and Ben's pretty sure his father doesn't know it, but Kaidan has a stupid, boyish grin on his face.

Kaidan's mumbling something that the camera's not picking up, but his voice is getting stronger. And with a breathy quality, and the force of unknown feelings in his chest, Kaidan finally says, "I almost kissed her." He probably shouldn't be as excited as he was, because a kiss shouldn't be a big deal but it was. Everything just seemed so special around her. The motion of her sliding lips was more beautiful than anything Picasso could had even dreamed of painting, or Galileo wished was in the vacuum of space. The commander was a brilliant star, better than the imagination.

And his son did not see the memory, and the effect did not travel across an omni-tool. You really just had to see her to believe in what Kaidan saw. Even Ben has had his first kiss and he knew he liked it but he hadn't been so shell-shocked afterward, maybe it was a matter of maturity, but it wasn't a matter so important the authorities needed to be notified. His father on other hand...

Kaidan was looking as if he had seen heaven. The light in his eyes was too bright to come from the blue light in the corner of the room, and Ben was almost positive it was illegal to show that much teeth on an Alliance Vessel, but Kaidan just could not stop smiling. But that was contagious even threw the vid.

Ben's face grew back into a line of concentration when his father started to talk again.

"We were so close, and then Joker interups us! Damn bastard, I know he was looking." Kaidan groaned, "I'm never going to hear the end of that one" The grin on his face said that Alenko clearly wasn't sorry for the action he almost committed.

"But... God, now I'm never going to be able to just plain forget about it, either! I was so careful to not cut corners and come close to breaking regs... but I can't even think of the possibility of ignoring her. Especially now." There was a hint of a snort "I don't think anyone could ignore her. She's amazing. I didn't think regulation toothpaste could smell so good. And I've never even liked the smell of sunflowers but it was just so fitting of her. She fights so hard and gets even more pissed when a geth sets a foot on grass. Must come from never seeing Earth.

"I'm gonna take her sometime. Yeah... Just her and me, sitting on the beach, overlooking English Bay. I could rent the house from my parents for the weekend, and set up the heater at night so we could fall asleep in the living room, playing cards. Even if she always beats me. And I could throw a sheet around her and rub her to show the static that would run across it. She's always liked electricity.

"Joker'd make fun of me for being a dreamer" If possible the look in is eyes got a little farther, and his smile got a little bigger, "But I wouldn't give a damn"

Kaidan moves to stand. The camera clicks off, and the video feed ends.

Maybe it was just Ben, but it looked like his father had just made a decision.

A/N: Hi, guys! I just couldn't resist some new tech in Ben's room. I may not seem like much, but I have made ten reviews on one story! It means a lot to me and I really want to hug you guys for it so consider this your cyber-hug-thing :). If you want, I might make a chapter about the origin of Terra's name. Just inform me of request and I'll try to do some. I have an idea for a shenko story that takes place in mass effect one (the beginning of this amazing series), but I'm a little worried that it might be a little late for me to post a story that will take a while to finish, since the series is over (at least in Shepard's story) except for the DLC we're waiting for.

*And if you don't get the end, Kaidan's decision was to visit Shepard's cabin and bunk with her. ;)

Crap... Long author's note..

Thank you for reading!