I have no confidence about how this chapter, so please don't flame me. I take constructive criticism though.
"Having fun?" He said this to himself after both Hacket and Hannah are out of his sight.
Despite given the order by his superior/mother to enjoy the party and having fun in the process. It is an order that he may have a hard time fulfilling and the reason why is because he is seen by most of his peers as a sort of a stick in a mud and what he views as fun may not be the same to the next people. To John fun are when he is shooting his gun, cleaning his gun, reading old battle tactics and reviewing said tactics for possible uses in future battle, but those same things are the reason why he earned a Valedictorian title in the first place.
Having a tough time deciding on the best way to have fun, John then decided to take a walk around the party to look for something for him to occupy himself with and walk he did, but even after a few minutes of walking around in the ballroom he still can't figure out how to have fun in the party. He first think about trying to converse with that raven haired beauty he saw earlier, but he quickly dismiss it because he thinks that he didn't have any chance with her.
'What was I even thinking about earlier? She's way out of my reach.' He said to himself.
'No John, you better off dating someone like... Holy.' As he tries to convince himself that she is out of his reach. His eyes then suddenly gaze upon another woman, a woman that immediately takes his breath away when he gaze his eyes upon her. That woman in question though is not a real woman or in this case not even a human, but an Asari. And yet despite the differences between him and her John just can't seem to take his eyes away from her.
The Asari in question was indeed beautiful by human standard, but she looks rather young compared to all the Asari that are currently standing in the same room with her and to add the white dress she's currently wearing are modest compared to what the other Asari is wearing and even what the raven haired beauty are wearing, but John just keep staring at her like she is the most beautiful being in the room. It is not the same thing with the raven haired beauty he saw where he a felt a rather strong sexual attraction from her earlier, but with the Asari he felt something different. Meanwhile the Asari he's ogling at notices the gaze that John has given him and gaze right back at him until their eyes meet with each others.
And when their eyes met with one another, they immediately can feel each others feeling and that something happens that they both can't explained. The two of them didn't know what is it that they are feeling or what to call it, but they felt an undeniable attraction towards each other. Is it love that the two of them are feeling right now? It can't be, because there is no such thing as love at first sight and yet that is probably the closest emotion that the two are currently feeling right now.
The two then continues to stares into each other eyes from a distance in what seems to be an eternity. John wanted to bring an end to the awkward staring so he can talk to her, but as he opens his mouth so does she.
"Excuse me." "Hello?" The both of them spoke at the same time.
The timing of their greeting surprises John and caught him off guard, but he decides to continue on anyway with his introduction. "My name is..." "Do you need?" Both of them interrupted what the other are saying.
John was surprised again by how she interrupted him or he interrupted her, but he then quickly returns to what he was doing earlier. "My name is..." "I'm sorry!" Both of them interrupted each other sentence again.
The two seemingly frustrated at the lack of progress, then take a few moments off to process everything, but as then they immediately burst into laughter after realizing how ridiculous they were when they're cutting each other. The two continues to laugh despite what the other guest might think of them. Hearing her laugh however only serves to strengthen John's resolve to get to know her better.
"I'm sorry if I come out a bit wrong earlier, but let's start from scratch. My name is John Shepard with the Confederate Navy." John introduces himself first to the Asari.
The Asari then of course introduces herself to him. "Nice to meet you John Shepard, my name is Liara T'soni."
"Nice to meet you miss T'soni." John offers his hand so he can shake hand with her.
"The pleasure is all mine Mister Shepard." She said to him while shaking their hands together.
Now that they finally know each others name John is now feeling ready to ask her something. "So what's a lovely lady like you doing here?"
The Asari laugh at his vain attempt at flirting, but decided to play along with it anyway because she feels the same way and wanted to know him better too. "Why? I was invited here Mr. Shepard just like you do." She coyly said to him.
"Of course, I'm sorry for even saying that Ma'am." John apologizes to her for being too obvious.
"No need Mr. Shepard I know you're trying to hit on me, but I don't mind talking to you some more if you don't mind." Now its Liara's turns to flirt with him.
"Why of course. I don't mind it all. Go ahead and shoot." John not minding it one bit.
"Well this a question I want to asks since you introduces yourself me, so who are you Mr. Shepard?" Liara asks him a question.
"Who am I?" John have to admit that it's a bit of a headteachers to answer because how can you really answer something like that.
"Yeah, just tell me who you are. What things do you like or what is your hobby?" Liara asks him to tell him more about himself.
"Oh that? Well then for starter I'm 23 years old, I'm in the navy, I love to exercise, reviewing battle tactics and in my free time I shoot my gun." John tries his best to describe himself, but his limited experience with the fairer sex only made it to come out as awkward.
Liara put her hand on her mouth and presumes to giggles at his awkwardness. "My you are an interesting person Mr. Shepard." She said sarcastically.
John however is still experienced enough to notices her sarcastic tone. "Well maybe you can tell me about yourself then?"
"About me? I will be one hundred and sixty years old this year. I major in Archeology and I enjoy listening to music." She describe herself.
"One-hundred sixty?!" John has heard that an Asari can live for a long time, but still he can't help to be surprised when he hear about it in person.
"An Asari lifespan is ten times to that of human. Didn't you know that?"
"Yes I knew that already, but I have to say you look very beautiful for a hundred and sixty years old." John complimented her about her age. Even though she's technically older than him John feels like she is younger than him.
"Why, thank you very much Mr. Shepard?" Liara turns her gaze down and blushed a little when he said she is beautiful.
Despite her attempt to hide her flushed face from him. John can still notice the purple tint spread across her cheeks. 'So an Asari blush purple, interesting?' He thought to himself, but when Liara's gaze turns upward to meet him. His trail of thought suddenly grinds to a halt when he saw her face and blushed like she did.
'So a human blush red, interesting?' The Asari Liara thought to herself after seeing the different shade of blush human have.
In a trance after seeing her face up close John then shakes his head in order to removes himself from the trance and afterward he then clears his throat before speaking to her. "Ms. T'soni may we speak somewhere private." John wishes to move to a more appropriate place.
"Okay." With a blush on her face she agreed to his demand.
But when John is about to take off he realizes that he didn't know anything about the Embassy. "So where do you think we should go?" John asks his Asari's entourage about a perfect place to continue their conversation.
Liara however just smile this time and help him to show him the way. "Follow me mister Shepard. I know the perfect place we can chat." Liara gestures towards John to follow her.
Liara suggested the balcony upstairs and she told him to follow her until they reach their destination. On the way John notices that despite the confusing layout of the embassy she seems to have no problem navigating through it and this causes him to probe her about it. "You seem to know your way around."
"Well, I have been staying here for the last two month." She clarify.
"I see. You must be the daughter of a Diplomat for you to have been living here?" John makes his assumption about Liara.
"That is correct Mr. Shepard." She playfully answered.
"I knew it." He snaps his finger after she confirmed it herself.
The two then share a brief laugh before continuing to their destination. Upon arrival the two were mesmerized after seeing the beautiful moon on the horizon. Liara then walks toward the railing so she can get a closer look of the moon."So beautiful..." She make a remarks about the moon.
To that the two of them are in agreement but to John the figure currently gazing at the moon is far more beautiful. As Liara is occupied with watching the moon. John uses the opportunity to take a closer at the Asari from behind and the word beautiful accidentally comes from his mouth.
Hearing John said something she immediately turns around to face him. "Did you say something mister Shepard?"
"Uh no I didn't say anything." He tries to deny it.
"If you say so." She then turns around to gaze at the moon again.
John can't help himself when he blurted that out to her and how can he when he is in the presence of a beautiful creature like Liara and seeing her bathe in the moon's light did not help one bit. "Miss Liara. If may I be so bold?" John asked from behind her.
"If I may what?" Liara turned around to ask another question.
"May I call you by your first name?" John looked at her straight in the eyes.
Liara was taken by surprise by his bold request, but she pays no mind and walks towards him to grab both of his hands. "Only if I can call you John." She added.
He then take both of their hands up to his eyes level so he can plant a kiss on top of her hand. "Of course, Liara." He said with a satisfied look on his face.
Liara however blush at his action and this is probably the first time in history that a human can make an Asari blush. "J-John can you please take your hands off mine?"
"Of course, Liara." He gently removes his hands as per her order and bows slightly to her in a gentlemanly manner.
Liara cannot believe that a human can make her lose her composure. If her friends and family know about this they would tease her to no end and as an Asari she still has reputation to keep. "Thank you John." She said to him while hiding her face from him.
Oblivious to her feeling John just keep smiling at her like nothing happened. While it is true that John might have learn some social skill from back in the Academy, but he remains clueless when it comes to woman.
Although John was simply being courteous in his act. Liara took it the wrong way and saw him as being arrogant. Liara refusing to be taken by his pace starts by asking another question. "I want to ask you something else. Is it true that human are obsessed with guns?"
John didn't seems to be surprised after hearing this from her. It comes to no surprise that she will ask this of question of him. If the human were known for something it would be their love of firearms.
"Yes. Why do you ask?" John simply reply.
"Nothing I am just curious about it that's all."
"Well if you must know about it. We human sees guns as a tool to achieve our freedom. Not to mention It also thanks to gun that we managed to unify the human race under the banner of the Confederacy. So yeah, in short we love our guns."
"But from what I heard your species took it a step further and still isn't gun dangerous?"
"No, a gun is a tool and like any other tools it is only as dangerous depending on the intention of the user." John try to explain to Liara about his point of view on gun.
"Still gun kills is it not?" Liara on the other hand remains skeptical about the prevalence of gun cultures in humanity.
"Let's just agree to disagree then?" John seeing that this is going nowhere decided to just drop the issue.
"Agree. Its getting too political anyway."
Even though he decided to drop it earlier, but after seeing a chance to make Liara sees his way John decided to seize the moment by asking her this. "Say, you want to get out off here and have some fun?"
"What do you mean by having fun?" Liara took a step backward when he said that.
"Like you know? Going out into the wood and fire a few round." John explains to her on what he meant earlier.
"Oh, I thought you meant something else." Liara feels relieved after hearing it from him. "But no John I don't think its proper for me to go out in the wood and started shooting." Liara explaining her reservation towards his suggestion.
"Trust me. It will be fun." John tries to assure her.
"I scantly believe that and beside you don't have your gun."
"Ah, I was hoping you might help me out with that."
"Are you suggesting that I should go and grab your gun from the storage room, give it back to you and then we go out into the dark wood alone at the middle of night so we can shoot?"
"When you put it that way that does sounds a bit shady." John scratch the back of his head out of shame. "That's okay though It's not like I expecting that you would go along with that.
But then Liara remembered at how the human managed to get the best of her earlier and saw the perfect opportunity to get the upper hand from the human by doing something unexpected, but also because she somewhat found him attractive. "You know what John I might regret this, but okay I will get your gun.
"You would?" John was surprised by her decision to say the least.
"Yeah, just wait for me outside near the stable and I will bring your gun." She said to him as she walks away from with a promise to returns his gun.
