A/N: This is a series of one-shots set post-ME2 but before ME3. Just some fluff with Shepard and one of his/her romances (and maybe others). Each chapter will have a different Shepard (i.e. different backgrounds and paragon/renegade attitude). I will do female Shepard's with male romances. I'm gonna put an extra emphasis on completing this series since Mass Effect 3 is already out. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Mass Effect owned by BioWare & EA (Electronic Arts) International
Mass Effect: A Single Moment
Jacob & Kasumi
Shepard rolled the purple liquor around in her glass and stared at the wall behind the bar lined with exotic, alien alcohol. The room bordered on quiet except for the hum of the ship as it slid through space in a mass relay jump. Kasumi Goto, nestled on the couch, watched the commander with only a confident smile showing through her hood. With her fingers interlocked around her knee, she waited for her answer.
"I knew you were a bold one, Kasumi." Shepard emptied her glass in a single gulp. "But this…wow."
"Oh, c'mon Shep, I'm not asking for much. Just a taste."
"Like you'd stop at just a taste." Shepard chuckled and turned around, leaning against the bar. "I know you Kasumi. You don't sample, you take."
"And I know you, Shep." Kasumi said in all seriousness. "You're not one to cross. I may be the best thief in the galaxy, but I don't make enemies of women like you. Besides you said it yourself, we'll be all going our separate ways soon. Think of it like a going away present."
"Hell of a present." Shepard refilled her glass with the asari brandy. "What's in it for me?"
Kasumi's smile widened a bit. "Good, you're looking for a price, now we begin negotiating."
"A hundred and twenty two." Jacob huffed. "A hundred and twenty three."
Jacob Taylor counted off his crunches in the empty Armory Room. Normally he would have music blaring from the speakers, something with a repetitive beat and heavy bass lines. Something to time himself and get his blood pumping. But not today, he had some things he wanted to think about, specifically someone.
Jacob was no stranger to the unordinary. He was a member of the Alliance Corsairs once and had his fair share of dubious jobs and his work with Cerberus was far from what the Alliance would call 'routine'. But the woman he saw brought back from the dead, she was in a different league.
Shepard was as hard as any soldier he had ever come across with a history to match. She grew up on the streets and ran with the Tenth Street Reds, a street gang with a very violent reputation. For a girl to not only be apart of the gang, not a piece of tail for the members, but as its top enforcer was not only bewildering, it was almost unbelievable. And what she did on Torfan. Bloody and brutal, yet victorious. Shepard was not just a woman, she was a living legend.
And he was dating her.
After his relationship with Miranda fizzled, he decided it was time to take time off, focus on business, on Cerberus. And then Shepard came into his life. He thought himself not worthy of her affections. Hell he never even thought about being together with her. But she made him think about.
The reason it did not work with Miranda was that he could never tell what was a lie and what was the truth, or at least if she considered him someone she could tell the truth to or just another pawn. He knew he was not being fair about her, but the guessing games and half-truths finally got to him.
Shepard was not like that. When she wanted you to know something, she made sure you knew it. No guessing games, no subtle innuendos, just straight up in-your-face truth. It was refreshing, albeit a bit daunting as well.
"Three hundred." He slumped to the floor, getting his breathing under control. Once that was back in pace he got to his feet and grabbed the towel on the table.
"Still keeping that body of yours to chiseled perfection, Jacob?" The dark haired vanguard smiled. He could never get over the fact that the slim woman in front of him was the same woman who wielded a shotgun whose recoil alone would break a normal man's arm, biotically tackles Geth Destroyers, and head-butted a full-grown krogan to shut him up.
"Like I said, the Alliance didn't invest so much time in me to so I would sit around and get fat. Besides I need to keep in top shape to keep up with you, girl." He wiped the sweat off his brow with the towel.
"I know." She sauntered into the room. She passed the tables that held the some of the guns she had found during their mission to find and stop the collectors. "I'm thinking about throwing a little party for everyone. One last hoorah, ya know?"
"You mean before you have to see the Alliance?" Jacob splashed his mouth with some nutrient-fortified water from his bottle. "It's not right. You buy the galaxy precious time and they want to nail you to the wall for it."
"Pass the buck isn't something new to the Alliance." Shepard planted her butt on Jacob's work table and viewed the passing stars out the port window. Jacob's M-22 Eviscerator and Shepard's M-300 Claymore were in pieces on the table as Jacob planned on working on routine maintenance for the guns after his morning workout. "I can take the hit, but it'd be best if I went there alone. I doubt High Command will be so lenient on you and the others."
Jacob sat next to Shepard. It was odd talking to a superior officer who wore civvy clothes while on duty, but he was currently shirtless himself so it seemed more natural, he supposed.
"I just hope what we did will matter to the Alliance and the Council." Jacob said in a hushed tone. "I'd hate for everything we did get pushed aside by backroom politics so the Reapers could come in and steamroll us."
"They'll listen." Shepard firmly replied. "Even if I have to smash it into every councilmen's' head."
Jacob smiled, though he still felt like persuading the Alliance military board and the Citadel Council would be an uphill battle. Nothing else was said for a moment as the two Cerberus agents watched the star go by.
"So." Jacob started. "About us."
"No." Shepard said with disturbing quietness. "Not now."
"Ok." Jacob knew when to drop a subject. "So where is this party? Citadel?"
"Nah. With C-Sec the way it is, they'll bust any party worth throwing. And Omega's out too." Shepard scratched the side of her nose with a nail. "We could really cut lose there, but the last thing I need is for my engineering crew to get swindled into slavery by playing poker with some Blue Suns goons or Tali to get a fatal infection by having unsafe sex with a turian male prostitute." Jacob laughed and shook his head as Shepard continued. "Besides, Aria is Queen Bee there and I don't get along with Queen Bees, know what I mean?"
Jacob nodded, still smiling. "Alright, so where're we having this blowout?"
"Illium, my good man." Shepard sported a sinister grin. "A place where everything's good and legal but the buildings don't look like they were glued together with shit from a krogan after drinking a liquefied turian."
"You always manage to put the loveliest images in my head."
"Well let me put some better ones in there for you to think about." She leaned into him and put an arm around his shoulder like they were old friends. "A club where the drinks keep coming and the beat goes all night long. Add in some asari-brand entertainment, and we got ourselves one hell of a night."
"When you say 'asari-brand' are you talking about strippers or hookers?"
Shepard shrugged. "Who says it has to be one or the other?"
Say what you wanted about Shepard and her methods, she looked after her own. He could not think of a captain in the Alliance that would arrange for their crew to get laid. A few years ago he would have questioned her ethics, but after a frustrating term in the Corsairs and time in Cerberus, he began to see the up side of operating without red tape and the rule book being thrown in his face.
"We'll be hitting Tasale system in a few hours and I have some things to discuss with Liara." She pushed herself off the table.
"You're scientist friend that became the galaxy's biggest eavesdropper? You two going to go over Reaper information?"
"Nope, about the party." She winked. "Who do you think set it all up?" She began walking backward to the door. "Speaking of which, you are coming for dinner, right?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Jacob smiled.
Jacob hated that all he had to wear was his Cerberus uniform. Not that he would show up to Shepard's quarters with a tux and cummerbund with a corsage, but something less…work related. Although with Shepard, she would probably appreciate something like tight pants and a muscle shirt.
He rapped on the metal door. Shepard said he could walk in anytime he wanted, but he still knocked. The door opened soundlessly. The lights had been turned down and the music was soft rather than her usual selection of heavy and loud.
"Hey, baby." Shepard called from the dark. "C'mon in."
The doors shut behind him. Shepard stood beside a white cloaked table with two blinking candles. She had on the black formal wear that Kasumi gave her, a simple black number that definitely fit her, something that put a smile on his face.
"Always wondered when I'd be able to see you in that. Kasumi told me that it suited you-" A shimmer caught his eye, small beads of light that wisped through the dark corners of Shepard's room. Instinct kicked in as he reached for his gun that he did not have. Shepard took Jacob by the arm gently.
"Now, now, Jacob, you can turn off your bad-ass killer mode." Shepard smoothly said. "Alright, c'mon out before he hit's you with a biotic pull."
The shimmering bloomed into a bright kaleidoscope of miniature stars flaring up at once. Someone was deactivating their Tactical Cloak. Kasumi.
"Damn it, woman, don't tell me you're a voyeur…too."
Jacob lost his breath. Kasumi wore something that was part lingerie, part skimpy kimono with a big, lacy, crimson bow on the back and, somehow, a hood that covered most of her face.
"Very nice." Shepard took Jacob's arm. "A bit…flashy, but nice."
"Thanks, Shep." Kasumi ran her hands over her form. "Tailor made silk from Thessia."
"What is this?" Jacob asked angrily.
"What does it look like, Jacob?" Kasumi voice was pure sex.
Jacob did not answer, instead he frowned. He cast his eyes to Shepard whose face had a look of sympathy. "I know what you're thinking Jacob and you can stop it. Your father made those women serve him. We want to do this." She drew him into a kiss, one that took him out of the moment and into another with just him and her. When he opened his eyes again, unable to remember when he closed them, her hand stroked his chin. "Got it?"
Jacob's eyes lingered on Shepard's face. The softness of her features always took him off guard considering the woman had a kill count that most likely neared the quadruple digits. But he had to get over the fawning and make a choice.
He leaned into Shepard for another kiss as his arm wrapped around Kasumi's waist and yanked her into the couple. The master thief let out a gleeful squeak. Funding Shepard's party would take up a good chunk of some of her reserve money, but it was worth it.