The Diner

When Miranda and Lionel finally found their own place and started living together, finally felt like they were actually starting a new chapter of their lives together. It was a few firsts for both of them: living in your own home with the person you love. What made Lionel even more proud of this achievement was the look of unspoken happiness in Miranda's eyes whenever they would look for a place, or when she first entered their apartment. He knew that living with the man she loved wasn't her only first, it was the first time she had a place of her own. They both had finally a place they could call home.

Moving in didn't take too long, they had their friends come and help out and at the end of the day, they all celebrated with a small party.

Things went well right away. They seemed to be falling into the normal zone. For a while Miranda and Lionel actually started to feel what normality was like, they felt normal: a normal couple living together in a normal home, with normal jobs that didn't threaten their lives every three seconds or less, with the normal chores you get to do at home and fortunately they still had Glif who helped out with the house chores neither were capable of doing. Considering the circumstances in which they had first met and got to know each other, they both found it amusing to see what the other was like in normal home, or rather, finding out the other's hidden talents and small secrets.

For starters, Miranda discovered that unlike what he seemed to be Lionel was actually a very neat man. She also found out that he was a very good cook and quite collaborative when it came to house chores, sometimes too collaborative for her tastes. Lionel himself was quite impressed when he found out that Miranda was a pretty good cook herself and surprised to see that whenever she was doing two-thousand different things at the same time she tended to leave a small trail behind her, like a drawer half open, her personal datapad forgotten on the table while she was doing stuff on her work one, the first thing she was doing before having to do something else left half made, small things like that. Theirs was becoming the life of a normal couple, whose only argument topic revolved around who was doing the dishes or laundry.

Even work was great. As soon as he got the sling off his arm, Lionel immediately started his new job. Considering his previous position, Miranda was surprised to see him so pumped about training soldiers, but it made her happy seeing him come home with a huge grin on his face telling her about his day and his young recruits. She found it amusing that Lionel clearly couldn't fathom why his soldiers were so star-struck when they saw him. Who wouldn't? He was The Shepard.
On the other hand, Miranda was having some trouble with her new job at first, but nothing she couldn't handle. Mostly it was because of the nightshifts she wasn't used to have, but nevertheless necessary as there were some things her nightshift colleagues needed her attention on. Lionel knew she loved her position, he could see it from the satisfied smile she had whenever she returned home. The only thing that bugged her was that the Alliance scientists and engineers were extremely wary of her and in order to do something she had to organize everything with an iron fist.

It was one particular day that broke the harmony of the situation, mostly on Miranda's side. It was Saturday and the couple had decided to spend the nice sunny day out. Not many people recognized them, but they had grown used to those who did and stared as they walked by, Lionel's arm around her shoulders with his fingers laced though hers and Miranda's free arm around his waist. At about lunch time they stopped by at a local diner to go get something to eat. They were still deciding what to get when Kaidan suddenly entered the diner… with a child, no older than one or two years of age, in his arms. Kaidan immediately spotted the couple and walked to them with a smile on his face.

"Hey guys! It's good to see you! How are you two doing?" Kaidan greeted.

"Hey Kaidan! Long time no see. We're great. How are you holding up?" Miranda greeted.

"Kaidan! Good to see you, pal. What brings you here? I thought you were on Ilium, if not transferred back on Earth!" Lionel greeted and then it took one look for Miranda to freeze when she saw her partner's eyes light up like never before, when he saw the child "And who's this little guy?" he said with a smile.

"This is Tony, my nephew… sort of. He's my cousin's kid" Kaidan said "I was on Ilium, actually, but I'm off duty this week-end, so I thought why not go visit my cousin since I haven't seen him since this little guy was born"

"I see. You want to join us?" Lionel offered.

"I'd love to, but I have to say no. I'm just grabbing something to eat, my cousin is waiting outside in the car" Kaidan replied.

"And… you took your nephew with you?" Miranda couldn't help but ask.

"He's in a bad spot, with a very energetic dog… and -hey- I get to see this champ once every lifetime, I'm kidnapping him whenever I get the chance!" he said smiling at the boy in his arms.

"You can't blame him. I'd do it too" Lionel said standing up and giving the little boy a small tickle on his side.

"You want to hold him?" Kaidan asked "Hey, Tony. Do you want to meet the great Shepard?" Lionel didn't reply, but he already had his arms out and a huge smile on his face. The little boy gave Kaidan a timid smile and nodded his head and Kaidan passed him into Lionel's arms. Miranda smiled tenderly at the view of Lionel interacting like a dad with a child in his arms, but then that smile became melancholic as a pang of what felt like guilt gripped upon her heart. The two of them had no secrets, except for one that Miranda hadn't shared with anyone. Soon enough, though, the child's little arms went looking for his uncle, once more and Kaidan took him back.

"So" Lionel said with a clap of the hands "Let's go order up?"

"I'll be right behind you" Kaidan replied. Lionel sent Miranda a smile and went in line, while Kaidan remained a moment longer and turned to the brunette "Hey Miranda, would you mind distracting Tony while Lionel and I go take our orders?" he asked. Miranda's eyes widen in panic.

"I have… no idea how to…" she tired, but Kaidan had already placed the little boy sitting beside her and left behind Lionel. Miranda remained silent for a moment, with a small kid beside her, her hands up not knowing what to do and her brain had completely turned off for a moment or two. There was one thing that Miranda loved but at the same time was terrified of: children. Never in her life she had to deal with children and the only child she had actually dealt with had been her sister Oriana, whom she left to another family as soon as she escaped from her father's grasp. Not to mention that, no matter what children represented to her, family, she had long resigned to the fact that she was never going to be mother material, for various reasons, especially the one she had never shared with anyone.

Well, now she had a kid sitting beside her and she couldn't really ignore him, especially since he was her friend's nephew. She shifted in her booth to sit more comfortably towards the kid and tried to distract him, like Kaidan asked her to.

"So, how old are you?" she asked with a friendly smile, but the kid was still looking towards his uncle "Hey, Tony" Miranda called again gently, giving him a little tap on his shoulder with a finger "How old are you, little man?" she asked him again "Are you… two?" she asked making a two with her fingers. The boy nodded with a shy smile. Then Miranda got an idea, she took a paper napkin and tore it to roll up the pieces in small balls, the boy watching her.

"Tony, do you want to play a game?" she asked, after making a small goalie with the ketchup and mayonnaise bottle. The boy nodded his head and she explained him the simple task: tossing the small paper balls between the bottles with their fingers. The little boy played along immediately, tossing the small papers into the opening. Seeing that for his height it was a little hard, Miranda picked him up and placed him on her lap, encouraging him as she played with the boy.

"Hey, would you like to see something very cool?" she asked him, unable to control the smile that was now ruling on her face, as she got another idea.

As they waited in line, Lionel turned around for a moment to look back and saw Miranda with the child on her lap, gently using her biotics to throw the paper balls between the two bottles, with Tony looking at her giggling in awe. He couldn't help but think of how beautiful she looked in that moment.

"…you in?" Kaidan finished to say as he looked back at his friend. It was then that he realized Lionel was completely captivated by something. He followed his gaze and a smile broke on his face as he saw the infamous Miranda Lawson with his nephew on her lap, a smile so bright and happy he never saw on her face, gently tickling the boy's sides with her biotics making the child squirm in laughter in her arms. Kaidan looked back towards his friend and saw how warm and tender his gaze and smile were on her.

"Oh God… I can't believe I just saw it" Kaidan said with a small chuckle.

"Saw what?" asked Lionel looking back towards him, knocked out of his trance, confused.

"You just gave Miranda 'the look'!"

"What look?"

"The 'I-want-to-have-kids-with-you' look" Kaidan explained with a smile. Lionel let out a nervous laugh, glancing back at his Miri, with a tiny smile.

"I…" he started and looked back towards Kaidan "I guess it would be nice to have a mini-Miri or a mini-me running around the house"

"You could also finally put that extra room at use" Kaidan suggested smiling "And frankly, I can see you guys as parents. I had my doubts on Miranda, but now that I see her, I think she'd make a good mother"

"She'd be an amazing mother…" Lionel replied glancing back at Miranda and Tony for a moment "We're just taking things one step at a time. We've never even talked about it, actually"

"After having literally been through numerous close-to-death situations, through a Collector's base, hunted down by Cerberus soldiers and assassins and three months living together… you never thought about having kids?"

"I mean- I thought about it, but Miri and I have different backgrounds and this -you know- being in love, living with your partner, having a calm stable job, having a taste normality, these are all firsts for us both-"

"-Wait- are you telling me that Miranda Lawson is your first love?" Kaidan interrupted surprised at the news.

"I've had girlfriends before, but it has never been serious. You're in the Alliance as I am, you know how hard it is to actually have an love life!" Kaidan chuckled, nodding his head in agreement at that "But with Miri… it's different… she is different… and I never felt like this before" he continued returning serious " And because of how different our backgrounds are, I don't want to rush her into things that she had long resigned that she was never going to have because of her job in Cerberus. I don't want to put pressure on her. As I said: we're taking things one step at a time" Lionel said, a tiny smile grazing his lips as he thought of next week-end's agenda. Kaidan smiled at his friend's words.

"I have a good feeling about you and Miranda" he said "You guys deserve your happy ending" Lionel smiled.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it" he said giving Kaidan a manly pat on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Miranda had been so enraptured by playing with Tony that the wait for the two men seemed to have passed by in a moment, not to mention that she didn't even notice they had arrived back to the table, as she was playing at making faces with the boy. That was until Kaidan's voice brought her back to reality.

"I see you two are having fun" he said failing to hide the smile, as he had just seen the ex-Cerberus making a face sticking her tongue out to the boy on her lap. Miranda immediately straightened herself up, clearing her throat, never feeling more embarrassed in her life.

"This one's yours" she said not even looking at Kaidan and passing him the child, who immediately hugged his uncle. Lionel held back a chuckled as he placed their trays down on the table.

"Well, it was nice to see you, Kaidan. I'll see you next week-end for the guys night out" Lionel said bidding his goodbyes and sitting back down.

"You too. I'll see you next week. Miranda, it was good to see you and thank you for keeping Tony occupied"

"No problem. It was good to see you" she replied.

"Say goodbye, Tony"

"Bye" said the little kid, waving his small hand.

"Bye, Tony" Lionel cooed as Miranda waved her hand, the Rear Admiral did not miss the boy sticking his tongue at her and Miranda doing the same in playful reply.


So... this was supposed to be a much longer chapter, but I realized it's better to split it up in two chapters... so... if we get this story to 13 review I'll post the chapter TOMORROW!
How did you like Miranda in this chapter? How did you like Shepard in this chapter? What do you think about their live together under the same roof?
Let me know with your reviews and constructive criticism is very well accepted.

See you next chapter! (Hopefully tomorrow!)

The Princess of Stars