Shepard's Apartment, 2000 Hours
"John?"
Tali poked her head in through the open door, looking first to the left then the right for any signs of John, hearing nothing nor getting any answer. The rest of her body followed her head through the door as she walked, slightly timidly, into the apartment, shutting down the datapad she had in her hands as she kept walking forwards, swiveling her head all around as she admired the tastefully furnished apartment.
Keelah, this is one apartment? And John's now? How in the name of sanity Anderson could afford an apartment like this… Alliance admirals must get paid better than I thought.
"John?"
Tali called again, having reached the bottom of the stairs across from the door, looking up to the landing above, quickly hearing a progressive series of bumps and drops, a few curses thrown in for good measure as John poked his head out from the room looking for the disturbance, propping himself up against the door jamb as he saw Tali, smiling slightly before there was another crashing sound, causing John to look back, curse under his breath and run back into the room, the display earning a few giggles from Tali. Eventually, John re-emerged, looking slightly beleaguered.
"Hey, Tal. What's up?"
Tali looked around gesturing at the apartment as she talked, her voice joking and with a bit of awe mixed in.
"Oh, just wanted to see the… estate, you've set yourself up in."
John laughed, setting something down before walking out, casually jaunting down the stairs, Tali turning to follow him as he made his way to the kitchen, pulling down two rocks glasses from a cabinet and setting them on the kitchen island. He was sporting a pair of service-pants, sans boots, and instead of service armor on his torso he appeared to be wearing only the undershirt and his old – perhaps too old – N7 sweatshirt.
"Oh, yes, the over-sized apartment gifted to me by my old CO. You know, Anderson never mentioned this place? Not once. I've known the man, what, ten years now? You'd think I'd have learned about something like this."
Tali laughed, nodding as John pulled out a bottle of familiar liquor, mild and slightly sweet with a small bitterness in the after-taste, one of the few drinks produced for both dextro and levo life forms. As he poured, Tali pulled out her emergency induction port, the system much simpler than the filtration input located on her wrist, but John gave her a slight scowl, shaking his head as he slid the glass over towards her, leaning his elbows against the island, taking a slight sip of his drink.
"Apartment's sterilized, you're good to take your mask off."
Tali smiled internally, chuckling slightly – I might have known he'd already taken care of it – before reaching up and un-sealing her mask, inhaling deeply through her nose as the covering came off and fresh air rushed at her face, the scent of the apartment slightly unfamiliar, but not unwelcome – a combination of polished metal, comfortable leather, and the slightly crisp tint of sterile air. She reached down and picked up her glass, sipping it before looking up at John and nodding, smiling as he stood up, gesturing towards the incredibly open living room, the two making their way over to the couch facing the fireplace and taking easy seats.
"Well, it's your space now. Do you think you'll be able to use it all?"
John laughed into his drink, taking another sip, his gaze distantly fixed on the fireplace, the images beyond and within playing in his eyes as he took his glass down, resting it in his left hand.
"Hardly. I feel guilty, having this much space when there are so many refugees down at the docks. How many do you think we could fit in here?"
"Depends on whether you're willing to stack apartment-pods or not."
"Clearly. It is a little oversized, isn't it?"
Tali looked around, her eyes roaming over the upper-level landing, the vaulted ceiling, taking a sip of her glass as she looked at the fireplace wall and behind her at the huge bay-windows, eventually looking back at John.
"A little. But you know something?"
John raised an eyebrow, turning his head slightly from the fireplace towards her, the left corner of his mouth lifting in mild curiosity.
"Hm?"
"According to the galaxy, so is the man that lives here."
John rolled his eyes, chuckling lowly as he set his glass down on the table, raising his hands in faux surrender.
"Well, who am I to argue with the galaxy?"
Tali laughed, setting her glass down and standing up, putting her hands on her hips as she threw them to the left, raising an eyebrow and lowering her glare at John, who quickly put on his "guilty puppy" look (that's how Kaidan had described it, though, having never seen a "puppy", Tali was uncertain what exactly that was supposed to mean).
"I don't know, maybe Commander John Shepard?"
John's face got incredulous as he tented his fingers over his chest in pretend offense. Tali laughed and reached up, unfastening her entire helmet, pulling her veil down as she undid the oxygen and filter tubes in the back, the assembly breaking apart in the front, the filt-light extending forwards, a mechanical click being heard as the helmet unlocked, hinging around the port-disk in the back. She lifted it off, rubbing her gloved hand through her short-cropped hair, releasing it from the helmet-encrusted state it was perpetually locked in, sighing slightly as she felt the air around the rest of her face. She set the helmet down on the table, walking over to the kitchen, talking behind her as she went.
"Keelah, it feels good to get that thing off."
John set his glass down, standing up to follow her, his sock-clad feet padding softly against the floor in contrast to her still-suited clicking step.
"I can imagine. I get itchy after just eight hours in my helmet."
Tali, having opened a cabinet, looked over her shoulder, smiling slightly at John as she did so, raising an eyebrow in goading sarcasm.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly expect those pyjak-suits you call armor to be terribly comfortable."
John stood opposite her across the kitchen island, crossing his arms, raising his left eyebrow and throwing his hips slightly to the left, giving her a look.
"Oh, you're insulting my suit now?"
"Just stating the truth."
"Well, what else would you have me do? Fight naked?"
"Could be interesting…"
John shook his head, his cheeks readening slightly, Tali tittering with laughter as she continued to look through the cabinets, clearly intent on finding something.
"Looking for something Tali?"
"Well, for how much I love talking to you, I'm starving. Do you have anything to eat?"
John simply pointed to the cabinet directly in front of Tali's knees, causing her to squat down, rifling through before pulling out a few components, setting them out on the cabinet, boxes and cans of various colors with names he could barely read, not to mention understand.. After setting all them up, Tali stood up, crossing her arms and staring at them, picking one up after about half a minute, reading it on the back. John spoke up, a thought crossing his mind.
"Tali, do you even know how to cook?"
Tali turned around, her face mildly indignant as she held a can of food, gesturing at John with it. John stood up from leaning against the counter, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow again, continuting "the look".
"Of course I know how to cook John! I may be Quarian, but I'm not completely inept at life skills! Do you honestly think I can maintain a Eezo core like The Normandy's, get us out of the galactic center despite basically all of our systems being crashed, and not be able to cook?"
John stood there, continuting to look at Tali.
"It can't be that hard! I mean, first you just have to open the can, then you… cut… the food, and then… apply heat."
"Apply heat?"
Tali grinned sheepishly, setting the can of food down in front of John, hanging her head slightly.
"Alright, I don't… exactly, know how to cook. But I've watched some vids."
Chuckling, John pushed himself off of the kitchen island, walking around to Tali and giving her a hug from behind, their height difference making it very easy for him to look down and plant a kiss on the top of her head as she leaned back into his gesture, resting her arms on his as they wrapped around her abdomen. She smiled slightly as she felt the mild rumble of his voice come through his chest into her back as he spoke.
"Well, I may not know how to cook dextro, but I've been told I'm pretty decent with Levo. You wanna see what we can do?"
Tali turned around, hooking her arms on his shoulders and hooking her hands behind his head, smiling as she reached up and kissed him shortly on the lips, pulling away and smiling at him as he returned the gesture.
"Sounds like a deal, Commander."
"You're the one eating it, sounds like you're in charge here, Admiral."
"Alright, let's see what we can find."
The two broke apart and leaned, side-by-side, against the central island, Tali's omnitool up as she scrolled through the recipes she had acquired during her searches. Once they decided on one, Tali and John went to work, identifying the ingredients, measuring out carefully and searching for substitutes for Turian cooking methods in a human kitchen. Though it was an entirely foreign environment, John and Tali found themselves falling into a familiar rhythym, thoughts and requests still anticipated as they worked back-to-back, John taking care of the cutting and preparation while Tali worked on the stove. Like a perfectly timed clock, they handed ingredients, bowls, utensils, and quips back and forth with practiced ease, their compatibility clearly not just relegated to the battlefield.
Silversun Hotel, Room 3215, 2100 Hours
"Liara, you called?"
Traynor poked her head through the open-door, looking around the foyer of the room as she tentatively walked in, answering the message she had received a few minutes ago from Liara, From farther inside the room, Traynor heard a reply, muffled by the distance and sounding strangely excited for Liara, the Asari not typically known for her emotional outburst.
"Traynor! Yes! Please, come in here!"
Traynor walked forwards, her softer slippers padding across the plush carpet as she walked into the room. While the Alliance typically furnished rooms for their crews on shore leave, it was typically in a cheap apartment, colloquially called "The Alliance Stables", when not in barracks. This time, however, Hackett had apparently received an influx of credits purportedly taken from Cerberus, the source of which Traynor suspected was an infamous information broker.
Thus the hotel that they had been furnished in was one of the higher-end business hotels on the station, still not incredible luxury, but certainly better than the sheets-as-thin-as-tissues accomodations most Alliance sailors and marines had come to expect. Traynor padded over the thick carpet, past the entrance-hallway and closet to a small kitchenette, beyond which was a small living room with a surprisingly expansive view of the Citadel. To her rright was a small hallway which led to a bedroom, inside of which could be seen a Queen bed and a small suit-case, open but empty. In the living room, she found Liara, lounging on one of the couches, lying with her feet propped up on the hassock, flicking through something on her omnitool. Unlike her typical outfit, Liara was now sporting what appeared to be a pair of white lounge pants with a light green V-neck shirt, both seeming to be made out of the same slightly iridescent material. The image presented was in stark contrast to the typical, professional, cool Asari that Traynor usually saw that she paused slightly as she saw her, staring for a second before regaining her composure and walking forwards.
"Liara, you called?"
Liara smiled, slightly, almost sheepishly, sending something that could have been described as butterflies flying in the base of Samantha's stomach, though she denied it ardently, and sat up, closing her omnitool. Her voice sounded mildly concerned, but significantly less stressed than Traynor had usually heard it, the tension which had been so omnipresent on board the Normandy evaporated, causing Traynor to smile as she listened.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Oh, no, not at all Liara. I was just reading a book I've been meaning to for a while, I was getting a little bored, honestly."
Liara smiled as she heard, gesturing to the couch next to her, Traynor taking a seat and falling Liara's lead as the Asari relaxed, leaning back into the arm of the couch closest to the windows, smiling at Traynor as she too put her feet on the hassock and draped her arms across the couch. Due to wartime regulations, she was still in her service uniform, but had foregone her combat boots in favor of her slippers, left her shoulder pads off, and left her shirt only partially fastened. It was technically out of regulations, but a common look for service members in their own residences on shore leave.
Liara spoke, her smile faltering slightly as her voice contorted slightly into a mild nervous grimace, the butterflies in her stomach erupting into what any Asari would recognize as a purple blush on her cheeks, but she hoped Traynor wouldn't pick up on, though she still had herself convinced she didn't know why she was blushing, or why her stomach felt like it was doing summersaults every time she caught Traynor's smile.
"I'm glad… well, not glad you were bored… but rather that I wasn't interrupting anything. I was wondering if you'd… well, I've found a… I'm… Goddess, I'm making an idiot of myself aren't I?"
Traynor laughed, endeared slightly by the blush she could see deepening around Liara's cheeks and the nervous darts of her eyes around that had appeared as her statement had disintegrated. She smiled warmly at Liara, who had since stopped talking and had bowed her head, looking at Traynor with what seemed to be a mild pleading, hope that she wasn't making as much an idiot of herself as she seemed to think she was.
"Join the club, Liara. I've been making an idiot of myself since I stepped on the Normandy. Do you know what I said to EDI before I knew she was an AI?"
Liara laughed slightly and went to open her mouth before Traynor cut her off, grimacing slightly and waving her hand at Liara as she remembered the reputation of the woman she was speaking to.
"Don't answer that, you probably have it recorded. Either way, so embarrassing."
"I can imagine, Samantha…"
"Please, just Sam."
Liara smiled and nodded her head, before adding.
"In that case, my closer friends just call me Li."
Inside, the voice that was still convinced it didn't know why she was blushing nor why her heart was beating faster spoke up:
No, Liara, none of your friends call you that.
Traynor, blissfully, seemed to be unaware of the internal dialogue.
"Alright, Li. That's… odd, but it fits. At least like this. Well, I mean, not to say it doesn't fit other times, but when you're… lounging? Damn, now I'm the one with my foot in my mouth."
Liara giggled, slightly – very slightly. Very, very slightly. And certainly not because Traynor is cute like this – as she raised an eyebrow at the expression, Traynor soon seeing and laughing slightly as she picked her face up from the palm she had very sturdily set it in.
"Old human saying, basically meaning you're making a fool of yourself."
"Ah. Well, don't worry, Sam might take me a while to get accustomed to as well."
"So we can both make idiots of ourselves. Great. Anyways, was there something you wanted to ask me?"
Liara nodded, took a deep breath before gathering what felt like all of her courage to speak, forcing the statement out with deliberate, precise, and planned precision, nodding slowly every few words as she heard them successfully leave her mouth.
"Samantha… Sam, I was wondering… if you would… like to… watch a vid… tonight." She paused, slightly, before realizing she had missed a critical part. "With me."
Inside Liara's head, the voice was speaking up again, seeming to laugh, before Liara silenced it as best she could:
Goddess, you had more trouble with that than you did dispatching Cerberus on Mars, didn't you?
Traynor smiled, uncharacteristically large, feeling her heart pick up its pace as she heard the request.
Sam, come on. She's just asking you as a friend. I know you're having more and more trouble denying why you're getting so… nervous, titillated really, but this is just a friend's request. Nothing more. Calm yourself.
"Liara… Li, that sounds fantastic. What did you have in mind."
Liara's blush deepened as she brought up her omnitool, selecting the film and streaming it to the view screen that was mounted on the wall across from them, while the voice inside her head yelled and banged against the mental cage she had tried to silence it with:
Liara? Liara! No, no, we swore we would never tell anybody. You're the Shadow Broker, a published and respected Archaeologist who was right despite the criticism of her peers! You're over a hundred now! Nodody needs to know, nobody should know you still watch these kinds of movies!
Traynor looked to the screen, seeing the title that had been brought up, and laughing slightly as she turned her body, facing the television now, but ending up a few inches closer to Liara, noticeably to both herself and the Asari, though they both were pretending, ardently, valiantly, that this lack of distance wasn't the point of focus for both of their minds.
"Li, really? Blasto IV?"
Liara, blushed, sheepishly, looking at Traynor's grinning face before back down at her own hands which were laid out in her lap.
"I admit, I have a slight propensity for children's movies. Even still. If you'd rather watch something more… mature, I won't mind."
Traynor laughed, smiling at Liara again as she looked at her, certainly not admiring how adorable the sheepish grin like a child with their hand found stuck in the cookie jar was – and certainly not how adorable it is that this is the same woman who is the galaxy's most feared information broker.
"I think you're adorable… I mean… it's adorable, well… the movies…"
At the first statement, Liara's head had snapped up, looking Traynor directly in the eyes with what almost seemed like hope, though Traynor kept asking herself whether she was projecting her own hope. Traynor looked around, awkwardly, feeling her first statement, and the blunders afterwards hang in the air as the color drained from her face and her head stayed fixed forwards, eyes darting. She stood up, hastily, slapping her hands gently on her pants as she did so.
"Well… I'll get some snacks?"
Liara, as if broken from a trance, took a sudden intake of breath as she focused back on her omnitool, pulling up an order service.
"Ah, yes. I'll order some dinner. Have you eaten?"
"Uh, no, I haven't."
"Does Asari fare sound acceptable?"
"I haven't tried it, but there's a first for everything."
Traynor walked over to the kitchenette, bringing out a large bowl and filling it with what appeared to be the Asari equivalent of popcorn, though she couldn't be sure, talking to Liara while she did so across the Apartment.
"You know, for how much I appreciate the invitation, I can't help but wonder why I was the one invited?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're… you're Doctor Liara T'Soni. Shadow Broker. Leading Prothean Archaeologist. Member of the team which brought down Saren and the one who found The Crucible. I would have expected you to invite Garrus or Tali or Shepard, even Boyd. Not me."
Liara paused, hanging her head slightly as she began to speak, slowly, almost timidly.
"Well… Garrus is dealing with the hierarchy, Tali and Shepard are… indisposed, and Boyd and I don't know each other that well." Liara sighed, heavily, almost sadly as Traynor walked over, handing her the drinks she had prepared. "The truth is, Traynor, I don't have many friends on The Normandy. You're one of the few."
Traynor sat down, closer to Liara than she had been before, the two equally acutely aware of the mere centimeters which separated them as Traynor set the bowl down in between them, looking at Liara.
"Well, you certainly know how to flatter a girl."
Liara smiled, blindly reaching into the bowl and grabbing out a piece while using her omnitool to load the movie, stopping dead as soon as she put it in her mouth, looking at Traynor, speaking slowly, barely hiding laughter and failing to conceal a small smirk.
"Sam… do you know what this is?"
"I… assumed this was Asari popcorn? I mean, it looked… similar?"
Liara laughed, continuing to chew and swallowing before picking up another piece, looking at Traynor, mirth evident in her eyes, the Specialist still monumentally confused as to what was so funny.
"No… the closest human equivalent to this would probably be croutons."
Immediately, Samantha's face turned brilliant red as she grimaced in embarrassment, her left palm coming up to hold her face as she bowed it, Liara laughing at the display and the thought. After a few seconds, she reached out, grabbing Samantha's wrist and moving her hand away from her face. Liara was acutely aware of the contact, it felt almost electrifying to her as she moved Sam's hand out of the way; Samantha was too far embarrassed to notice beyond the reassuring presence the head and alien-textured skin brought.
Liara moved her face to Sam's field of vision, smiling as she spoke.
"It's alright, I don't mind. In fact, I almost prefer these to the typical snack."
Samantha looked at Liara, and then began to laugh, both at how distraught she was feeling and at her own cultural mistake, confusing Liara for a while before she began too, the two of them laughing heartily as the movie began. They continued to make comments and quips to each other about the movie, Liara speaking of the first time she saw it, Traynor of the parallels it had in human film, their jokes bouncing between them and enjoyment genuine as two friends who had grown with each other in the face of an intergalactic war, the bond of genuine friendship and amorousness layered on the comradery of struggle to create a connection which was stronger than either would admit, or even really knew themselves.
Eventually, however, the fatigue of the past months away caught up to them both, and four eyelids found themselves sinking low over two sets of eyes, the both of them falling asleep with their heads back, mouths open and breathing heavily, almost peacefully, certainly more so than whenever they were on the Normandy. The movie played itself out, Blasto saving the day and the credits running out before the screen turned itself off, the apartment dark and quiet as the two women slept deeply next to each other, Liara snoring softly as Traynor uttered slight gibberish in her sleep.
Traynor's dreams were not peaceful, hadn't been since she received the news of her sisters, images of their conversion, of awful phantoms assaulting The Normandy, wearing their faces underneath their masks, desecrating their memories as they commandeered their bodies, stealing their forms to inflict pain and death on the universe. Pain struck her heart as she watched them drop from a Cerberus shuttle, faces blank and eyes devoid of anything but the synthetic glow of the robotic violations of their bodies, seeking her friends out in their scope and firing on them with the vitriolic hate which had been uploaded as they had died, terror their last emotion. But her heart broke equally when she watched her friends gun them down, bullets tearing through the flesh which she once knew, still loved, the corpses dropping, empty, devoid of humanity, but the connection to the people who once were so dear to her in life and had evolved to be all the more so in death undeniable, painful, heart wrenching.
Liara's dreams were no better as her mind, her ever-active imagination filled it with constructions of the news she received daily, the casualty reports and astounding destruction of which she was painfully informed taking nightmare qualities beyond the horror it already contained. She flitted from her burning home to the obliterated streets of Cipritine, watched as ghoulish cannibals took children, as banshees tore through elderly couples cowering behind shared love and a short dividing wall. Her mind created in incisive detail the burning of the galaxy around her, and she was but a passenger on the cavalcade of guilt-ridden horror.
The two of them did not sleep peacefully, both tossing and turning with the invective images of their mind beating them into the dark pit which threatened always with the war. Eventually, their hands found each other, clinging as ships in a storm do to their harbors, their minds finding the warm presence in the cold void of their own terror, clutching to it desperately. They eventually laid themselves down on the couch, holding each other as they slept. Liara's mind, so desperate for the affection, so denied the feelings which it had developed for the human woman, reached out to find Samantha's, Liara appearing besides her in her dream as Shepard gunned down the shell of her sister again, passing over the corpse as one would an enemy, ignorant to the pain which was held in her heart as she watched. Traynor reached over and took Liara's hand as the scene changed, the variance of fantasy which dreams are made of molding the scene to one of Liara's horrific scenes of mass death and destruction, the evisceration of happiness and peace by a threat practically unstoppable but by a desperate attempt at an unknown technology. Liara looked at Traynor and smiled weakly as the two felt the connection through their contact, dreamed though it may be, the combined strength it gave, the safe harbor and unyielding caring, love even, flowing through their hands.
The two ceased turning on the couch and held each other all the closer, unaware of the connection that was occurring, convinced it was just a figment of their active emotions and imaginations again, as it had seemed before, just more tactile, more relieving.
They slept, for the rest of the night, holding each other close, faces mere centimeters away, more peacefully than either had in months.
Author's Notes
First of all: if you aren't, you should follow me on tumblr:
I tend to reblog a lot of mass effect stuff, as well as all of my fics, you can even find some assorted pics of the Shepard's I write, if you're ever curious. Plus, it's a great way to find other writers in the ME fandom. So, follow me!
Next, prepare yourself for unusual amounts of fluff, we've started to take shore leave. There will be plot points, but plenty of very fluffy fluff to come. Hopefully I manage to keep it realistic and believable for the characters, if not let me know.
Traynor and Liara have been a bit of a tricky part for me, I honestly believe the two characters fit together, and I've been trying to bring them together well, but I fear I'm about as hopeless with romance in my writing as I tend to be in real life, so I honestly have no clue how well I've done. Either way, after the last chapter I figured it was time to start throwing them a little bit closer to each other, and this was the result. I think it turned out pretty well, at least somewhat believable. Biggest thing was Liara's slightly more relaxed persona, the Liara that has taken a break from The Shadow Broker for a bit. I've always imagined that Liara kept a bit of herself that we saw in ME1, the more innocent young Asari, hidden away, locked beneath all the walls and safeguards she needs to carry out her tasks.
And of course, John and Tali fluff. Admittedly, I may have stolen the idea a little bit from Kaidan's Citadel scene, but I thought it'd be kind of fun. I've always thought Tali would have a basic idea of how to prepare food, but actual cooking would be a bit… alien, to her, since she's never needed to. I dunno, seemed fun to me. I think it worked to.
As always, please let me know what you think, I love getting comments and feedback! And if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see while we're on shore leave at the Citadel, by all means let me know! Please!
But above all, enjoy!
SotS