"I'm curious about something" Kaidan said, as the two sat before the fire having just enjoyed the meal he'd prepared – and managed not to burn despite distractions, in the end. "You don't cook?"

"I don't cook" Shepard confirmed, with a shrug of her shoulders.

"At all?"

"At all" the blonde repeated, rolling her eyes in a teasing fashion. "You realise you are not making Human Spectres or Alliance Majors look terribly intelligent at this moment, as you struggle with this basic concept".

"I just can't get my head around how you can manage to completely avoid cooking. What about when you're here on your own?" He questioned, sliding an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "Or when you were grounded for six months? Just – you must cook, sometimes; you mean you're just not very good at it?"

"Let me put it this way Kaidan" Shepard explained, twisting her torso so she could look up at him. "I live off whatever they serve up in the Mess, and ration packs, at all times. Other people might complain that that the food we get served on board is awful – me, I'm just happy to be eating stuff that wasn't freeze dried" the blonde explained with a shrug, settling herself more comfortable against his side. "The very rare occasions I have attempted cooking have generally ended badly".

"And here I was thinking there was nothing you couldn't do" Kaidan teased gently, toying with her hair. "I must say Shepard, I'm amazed. You can broker peace between turians and krogan, you can trash talk Reapers like they're drunken vorcha scum and you can walk away from the worst fire fights I've ever seen raring for more – but you can't manage to make yourself dinner?"

"I've had other things to worry about then becoming a domestic goddess. If you were hoping for a housewife, you're with the wrong woman" she huffed.

"I could teach you" he offered, still chuckling as his fingers stroked from the blonde strands down the line of her neck.

"I'm too impatient" Shepard said, shaking her head. "Even when I was young...my mother had tried to teach me, on Mindoir. Anything that required chopping, varying cooking times, supervision – I lost interest. I'd rather eat crap that can be ready in a minute then slave over a stove for an hour to create a culinary delight", the awful prospect of cookery lessons prising the truth out of her. "Why do you think I eat out so much?" she added with a rueful grin.

"Well, I had assumed that was because of your love of tumbling through aquariums" he retorted and Shepard sat up, pulling away from his embrace slightly so she could turn and face him properly.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that" she said, raising one eyebrow in a fashion that Kaidan found both dangerous and incredibly sexy.

"No, I think you said you didn't want to talk about it. I agreed nothing" he told her, still grinning. "I haven't even had a chance to tease you about your clone yet" he reminded her.

"Only because during the fight, you were actually focusing on picking off targets rather than making snarky remarks, unlike everyone else – since when did being shot at become a good time to try sarcasm?"

"You're just annoyed they were stealing your act" Kaidan pointed out, leaning forward to kiss her, not at all bothered by the way she was sulking – he knew her too well. When she was angry, everyone knew it, this was her blowing off steam as he gently provoked her, and he found it endearing rather then intimidating.

"I was having enough crap dealing with the clone trying to steal my act, I didn't need the rest of the squad trying it on as well" she argued against his lips, climbing onto his lap and straddling him, her hands moving to cup his face. His own arms looped around her waist and he kissed her back, and she knew him so well she could feel that he was still trying not to smile against her mouth, and she broke the kiss but stayed in the embrace.

"At least you can feel confident now that if I was a clone, you'd have noticed it. That was a very poor imitation of me" the blonde pointed out, offering him a smile. There had been a very brief moment of concern in her mind he would doubt her once more with the arrival of the clone.

She well remembered how he had looked at her on Horizon, so conflicted, one moment embracing her as though he couldn't wait to have her back in his arms, the rest filled with suspicion as though she might knife him in the back. She remembered on Mars, the way he had questioned her, even comparing her to the Cerberus husks. It had taken time to persuade him, it had been as much from her actions as her words she suspected – she did not want to return to that place in their relationship where he watched her with a wary gaze. But today there was no doubt in his amber gaze and he chuckled now, unconcerned.

"I don't know, she got your farewell dead on" he reminded her with a smirk.

"I do not sound like that" she argued, kissing him harder to silence him.

With his mouth on her own, his tongue and teeth grazing her lips, his curling hair laced between her fingers as his own hands roamed her back, it was easy to forget the stresses that made up almost the entire fabric of her life, and just focus on this moment. On the two of them together, finally carving out some time that hadn't yet been disturbed by gunfire. As his fingers reached the hem of her top and began tugging it upward she lifted her arms, breaking the kiss just long enough he could strip her of her top and caress her skin. His fingers moved along the planes of her back, his mouth exploring the line of her collarbone and the hollow at the base of her neck as she sighed and arched her spine.

Her own hands caught his shirt by the neck and tried to yank the clothing up, an attempt that lacked finesse and was not successful until he let go of her and removed the offending article himself. Whilst he was reaching his arms above his head, Shepard slid off his lap, dropping to kneel on the floor before him, her hands moving up his thighs.

"Shepard – you have how many beds in this apartment? You can't wait till we get to one of them rather then defile the sofa" he questioned her, stroking a strand of hair back from her face as he leant forward.

"Hey – on the Normandy there's no choice but the bed. I thought you might like to try variety while we could. And there's a floor here as well".

"I think I'm getting too old to make love on the floor" he murmured and Shepard laughed, getting to her feet and offering him a hand.

"Well then – take your pick of the beds...but don't take too long deciding".