Thane picked up the tray that Gardner had laid out for him, thanking the mess sergeant as he returned to the elevator, heading back up to the loft.

"It should be a sin to look that good." Kelly murmured, gazing at Thane's retreating back, giving a longing look to the drell.

"He is definitely a handsome young man," Chakwas agreed beside her.

"For a drell, I suppose he is." Miranda shrugged at the two women.

Kelly turned in her seat to stare at her in disbelief, "For any species! What I would give to have a man like him."

Thane stood in the elevator, waiting for the long ride to end.

He really hated to admit it, but he was a bit nervous about this night. He wanted things to go well and please his Siha.

He remembered the first time he had spent the night with Irikah, they had gone to the dance club for the first time where they had shared some drinks, ate dinner, talked, danced for some time, then he had taken her home. He had no intentions of staying, he had just walked her home and kissed her goodnight, but she had grabbed the front of his jacket and stopped him.

"Stay with me tonight." she had whispered. Just like Shepard. Thane closed his eyes and clinched his jaw, trying not to slip into uncontrolled memories. She had taken him inside and led him to her living room; they had watched a vid together. When it was over he had sat there, stiff, not knowing what he was supposed to do.

Thane smiled when he pictured the amused look she had given him, before taking his hand and leading him to the bedroom. That was the first time they had been together, it had been their fifth date. He wasn't sure how long humans waited to have sex, for drell it varied depending on how close you were or if the relationship was serious, for Irikah and him they had been in love and sleeping with one another after five dates wasn't uncommon but not something you wanted your parents knowing. Irikah's father had scared the shit out of him when he had first met the man. Him, an assassin who could kill the older drell with no trouble at all, but he had been nervous knowing he was sleeping with his daughter and the man might find out.

He did not want to move to fast with Shepard, he didn't want to ruin anything, fear of losing his new Siha was too great and they were already putting themselves in danger every day. One of them could be killed at any time and the thought of her dying scared him more than he liked to admit. He had never known fear like this other than when he had met Irikah and when Kolyat was born. Love made you know fear that others could not even imagine, fear of losing the people you care for most, fear of never seeing them again, fear of hurting them or seeing them in pain.

Thane didn't want to dwell on the mistakes he had made in the past. It pained him too much to think of the things he had done and tonight was supposed to be a night for his Siha and him to enjoy. He would always love Irikah and never forget her, also he would never forgive himself for letting her die, but the gods had seen reason to bless him with another Siha and he would not screw that up again.

Thane glanced down at his omini tool remembering the information Mordin had said he had sent to him. He set the tray down and stopped the elevator; he opened up the message, hoping it could tell him something about human courting customs. Thane's eyes grew wide in shock at what the scientist had passed on to him. If Mordin wasn't a salarian, I would say he was a bit sexually disturbed. The whole message was detailed instructions on how to please a female human sexually. There was a diagram of a naked human woman, pointing out the different erogenous areas and how to stimulate them. Thane was pretty sure the vid links at the bottom where pornographic sites, three of them were from Fornax. I'm going to kill that salarian.

This was the last thing Thane needed to see before going into that room, he had just taken a cold shower for that very reason. Thane caught a section titled, 'Performing oral sex on your human partner', before he closed the message and omini tool quickly. Thane pressing the button to resume his elevator ride to the loft, picking up the tray of food. The gods must be toying with me tonight. Thane had had several sexual encounters before meeting Irikah, two being asari and three drell, but he had never developed any meaningful feelings for the women, only taking pleasure in their bodies and them in his. There had only been two women in his entire life that had truly awoken him and could call his heart their own, and he had failed one of them miserably, the other resided in the loft above him. I cannot lose her, I love her. Thane was just as startled as Maria at his own confession, but not at all displeased or unsure. The ease at which he could admit those words was freeing and he knew that he possessed something special in his life in regards to Shepard and he would not spoil it by taking this night to fast. Thane had that same determined look in his eyes that he had left with; trying not to think about the message Mordin had sent him as the doors opened and allowed him to step through them.

Twenty five minutes earlier . . .

Shepard stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself and one in her hair. She took her clothes off the toilet seat and held them up at eye level, giving them a scrutinizing look. God let this be a good idea. She got dressed and applied her normal light make up before leaving the bathroom, brushing out her damp hair as she went.

"EDI. Where is Thane?" Shepard called to the ceiling.

"Mr. Krios is currently in the men's bathroom on the crew deck showering Shepard." EDI informed her.

"Good. Tell me when he leaves please. Also, can you dim these lights and don't let anyone but Thane up here for the rest of the night and don't let anyone bother us unless it's important. Like the ship is under attack important, got it?" She put the brush down and moved to a cooler that was under her desk.

"Understood Commander, logging you out," EDI dimmed the lights before logging off.

Maria unlocked the cooler and pulled out a long thin bottle with alien writing on it and two wine glasses. She had had Garrus pick this up for her why he waited for Thane and her to come back with Kolyat. I really hope he likes this, not sure what he prefers to drink, if he even drinks alcohol at all. Probably something I should have asked him. Shepard had found the drell beverage on the externet one night, thinking it would be nice to have with a night with Thane; it was supposed to be the equivalent to human wine. She filled the two glasses with the sweet smelling, light blue liquid. Maria paused as she stared at the wine, shrugging before taking a drink from the bottle. Mmmm tasty, she thought, while licking her lips of the sweet liquid, she set the bottle down on the table with the two glasses. Maria turned to look at the clock on her night stand, it had been fifteen minutes and Thane still wasn't out of his shower.

Shepard remembered her taking with Mordin before Thane's mission, about the drell and her relationship, and decided to take a look at the information the scientist had said he had sent her. She walked over to her computer and clicked on the info that Mordin had sent her about drell. What came up on the screen made her choke out a shocked cough.

There was a fully naked drell with similar coloring to Thane, only the difference was the green of his scales fade into different shades of blues causing a kind of rainbow effect between green and blue. The blue around his midsection reminded her of the blue scales Kolyat had. And I'm going to stop that thought right there. Picturing my boyfriend's son naked is not something I want to be doing. On the diagram there was different section of the drell marked. The highlighted areas explained to her how sensitive the region was and how to stimulate it. Apparently, the frills on their necks were very sensitive, causing arousal and pleasure to build up if kissed, licked, sucked or bitten. That explains his strong reaction when I was kissing his neck. She moved her eyes lower on the diagram, drell had no nipples, but the areas around this drell's stomach had lines of bright red outlining his much defined abs. 'The bright colored areas on male drell are areas hypersensitive to stimuli. The coloring of these areas will range from many different types, but will be the brightest on the body. This is opposite of female drell. These areas will cause varying effects of pleasure or if damaged can cause pain. These zones on drell also range from a number of different areas on the body, the neck and reproductive areas are the only two places that all drell share the same bright markings, other sensitive spots will be different or similar for each drell' the caption read. Shepard remembered seeing a hint of red right at the lining of Thane's pants, on both sides of his hips, the same color as the red on his neck.

Shepard moved the screen down lower, reaching the spot that she was most nervous about, and interested in. What the fuck? 'The drell penis averages about seven inches in length; every male has different shaped ridges along the shaft of the penis, and can stay erect for many hours even after multiple ejaculations. *Warning: Ingestion of fluid will cause mild to severe hallucinations, usually lasting three to six hours durations depending on human. Skin to skin and oral contact without the ingestion of semen is significantly less, though a small chance that mild hallucinations may occur is still possible. Fortunately, partner will adapt to hallucinogenic effects with prolonged and repeated contact with drell partner. Pills and ointments can be given for side effects of rashes and hallucinations so as to speed up immunity and ease symptoms.*'

"Shepard, Thane Krios has exited the showers and is now on his way up to your cabin." EDI's voice rang out, startling the Commander.

"Thank you. EDI, do you know if Mordin sent any ointments or pills up to my room?" Shepard asked.

"Yes Shepard. Doctor Solis sent up a package containing lotions and a bottle of pills for effects of drell skin contact and hallucinogenic. They are in your top desk drawer." EDI told her before logging off for the final time.

Shepard logged off the message and turned the computer off. Then she pulled back in her chair just enough to pull her desk drawer open, inside was the ointments and pills. The lotion was meant for after the rash had developed so she wouldn't need that, she also wasn't sure she would need it at all, she hadn't developed a rash from the skin contact they have had so far, but they also hadn't done anything to extreme so she would keep them, just in case. Shepard took the pills out of the drawer and held them up so she could read the instructions. 'Take before sexual contact with partner, will help reduce symptoms of hallucinations, itching or chafing.' Shepard read. I'm not sure if I should take this. He may not even want to do anything with me tonight, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to try to get those pants off him tonight.

She had already made her choice when she decided to ask him to stay the night. After the mission she had felt emotionally drained; those weren't pleasant memories she had told his son, and she hadn't wanted to be alone. Also, she couldn't help the flood of emotion that came when she admitted to herself that she loved him, she wanted to take this to the next level and she was sure that he wanted to as well. Maria wasn't naïve by any means and knew when a man wanted her. But Thane was too much of a gentleman to push things without her giving him a clear sign that's what she wanted, that's how she knew he wouldn't get in the shower with her, but she used it to her advantage. She knew what she wanted tonight but she wanted him to want it as well. She also didn't want to take it too fast because she wasn't sure how long drell waited to have sex. But she saw the look in his eyes when they were together and when she had teased him, that look meant he wanted her.

"Here goes nothing." She spoke out loud before popping a yellow pill into her mouth and swallowing it. She put the pills away and slid the drawer closed just as she heard the elevator doors swing open. Shepard stood from her chair and walked over to the center of the second landing, facing the door as Thane walked in with a tray of food.

Thane walked through the door, looking down at the plates of food in his hands, checking if everything was there. Crap. I forgot drinks, I'll just go back down and . . . Oh my gods. Thane looked up at the vision in front of him, stopping in his tracks, his mouth hanging open. Arashu be praised, and guild me through this night.

Please, don't kill me. I just wanted to get something up and I promise the next chapter will be up tonight, this is taking longer than I thought. Again you should all worship the very ground my beta walks on because she did an awesome job helping me with this. Hope you all like, and reviews really do help me post faster.

P.S If your plan to kill me was to send Thane after me, I am totally cool with that =)