Chapter eleven

It had happened. Kaidan had finally asked Shepard to have a meal with him when they were at the Citadel the next time they docked there. He wrung his hands together nervously before sending the message to the Commander's terminal, unsure if he was really ready for this. Would he ever be ready? He didn't think that was truly possible, but it was done now.
The thought of confessing to Shepard was still frightening to him, probably more so than any Reaper force. He laughed nervously at the idea of him being more afraid of Shepard's rejection than actual Reapers. How silly he seemed, but he was aloud to be silly once in a while, wasn't he?

The Normandy was flying through the vast expanse of space smoothly, as she always did and Kaidan admired the passing stars. Shepard would probably not even get the message until later; he was suppose to be sleeping right now. Though Kaidan was sure the man would probably be awake. He couldn't say anything for right now. He too was suppose to be asleep, but he hadn't been able to.
Instead he had written the message, deleting it once, re-wording it and then repeating the process all over again. He didn't want to make it sound too forward, but at the same time he wanted Shepard to know that he would look forward to spending time with him. In the end he had simply left it at a simple 'lets hang out' message, figuring that would be better.

Giving his brow a light scratch as he sighed deeply, Kaidan made a move to stand up. Since he was feeling tired now, and since he had sent the message – he decided to get some rest, if he could. Tomorrow they would reach the destination for their next mission and he would need some rest if he were to be at his best for the commander.
Getting killed or hurt now would suck. Badly.

It didn't take him long to fall into a deep sleep and by the time he awoke again, he felt refreshed. His migraines weren't that bad today either, which meant he felt completely good about himself right now.
There wasn't time for him to enjoy the feeling of being content however, as Joker patched in a message to the crew, telling them to be ready for evasive action against Cerberus ships. He realized he had slept longer than he should have, or that Joker had arrived to the destination earlier than expected. Either way, Kaidan quickly got into his armor and gathered the weapons he needed and moved to join the others.

Shepard was talking to Joker and EDI, it didn't take him long to notice Kaidan's approach and he offered a wary smile before returning to the pair about the mission and what they could expect while down in Grissom Academy. That's when Joker noticed the Cerberus ships, and it was decided that Shepard would take a small team and slip past the Cerberus vessels while Joker led them off with the Normandy.
Kaidan had to admire how quickly Shepard adjusted with a new plan when things didn't go as they had expected. They had known something hadn't been right about the signal and suspected Cerberus were involved but they hadn't been certain until now.

It was then that Kaidan had realized he had been gazing at Shepard intently and that Liara was smiling at him with that knowing smile of hers. He quickly averted his look and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, his face flushing slightly.
However, it didn't take him long before he glanced back to Shepard again. He cursed himself out for getting so easily distracted to the point that Liara could tease him for it without even saying a word. Kaidan eventually had to keep his gaze off to the side, to avoid anyone else noticing the look of admiration (and more) that he held for his commander.

He began to remember the first time he and Shepard had met, and all of the adventures they had been on together. Fighting the Thorian. The geth, Sovereign.
He hadn't meant to get lost in his thoughts of the past, and the sudden mention of his name from the commander's lips had startled him. The mission, Shepard had decided; was to be done by Garrus, Shepard and Kaidan himself.

"Just like old times. Right Kaidan?" Garrus said chuckling, the three of them usually had spent most of their missions together in the past, and it pleased Kaidan to see that Shepard still trusted him this much to take him along for the ride like always.