Meh, edited for awesomeness.
A very short Halloween chapter in the spirit of the holiday. There'll probably be another one tomorrow or the next day, I'm just working on the final touches on it. And I used Shepard's name, because I just don't see the kid NOT using it. But you can skim over it. It's utterly unimportant :)
The first bit is dedicated to Sirrocco, even though it'll probably be next October before she actually reads it :-p
"Tick-or-Treat!" the three Shepard girls shouted in unison.
"Oh, look at how cute you girls are! Let's see, we have a fairy princess, a doctor, and what are you sweetheart?" the kindly old lady asked Allison. Liara and Shepard stood behind their daughters, beaming at them. Shepard had insisted on bringing the girls here, back to earth, where her mother had grown up, now that Kiyett was old enough to get into the spirit of the holiday. They'd taken Illira, before Allison was born, but since asari by and large found Halloween to be a rather silly holiday, Thessia wasn't, as Shepard put it, 'A great place for a good candy haul'. Suburban Ohio, however, left Liara worrying about the dentist bills.
"I'm my Daddy!" Allison said, proudly. Sporting a wig, cargo pants and Shepard's old N7 jacket (which Shepard had spent the last week painstakingly retailoring to properly fit her seventeen year old daughter), Liara had to admit that, sans skin color, she did look quite like her father.
"Yeah? And who was your Daddy? Was he a soldier for the Alliance?" the old woman asked, dropping extra chocolate into each of the girl's outstretched pillowcases.
"She's right there. She's Commander Shepard," Allison intoned, dropping her voice as deep as she could. Liara thought she even did a rather good imitation of Shepard as well.
"Your mommy is Commander Shepard, huh? I seem to remember her fighting off some geth in my younger years."
"No," Allison sighed, rolling her eyes. This wasn't the first time she'd had to explain, and she was finally beginning to understand why Poppi got so upset with humans. "My mommy is Doctor Liara T'Soni. My Daddy is Commander Illyna Shepard. Do I look human?" The last was mumbled under her breath. Old ladies were nice, but man they just didn't understand genetics at all.
The old woman raised an eyebrow at Liara and Shepard, smiling good-naturedly at them. It wasn't often that they got asari in these parts, and if they wanted to call women 'Dads' she figured that was their business.
The couple gathered their daughters back up as a group of zombies approached.
"Mommy, I'm sleepy," Kiyett yawned. The couple fought off the older girls' cries to stay out later and made their way back to the hotel.
Kiyett was asleep before they'd even made it back to the room, her pink glittery wings pinching Shepard's arm as she carried the girl up and tucked her into bed. Illira tossed the surgeon's mask she'd been wearing in the corner, found an open spot on the floor and dumped the entire contents of her pillowcase out onto it. Allison watched, awed, as she began to separate the candy into piles. She clutched her own bag close to her chest, not wanting to risk their stashes getting confused.
Liara joined Illira on the floor and motioned for Allison to join them. Shepard, having undressed their youngest and got her safely tucked away scooped her middle daughter into her arms and plopped down between her wife and eldest.
"How'd you do, Illy?" she asked.
"It's mainly chocolate. But check it," Illira said, sliding the dozen or so tiny bags of candy corn towards her father.
"Mmn, Halloween crack," Shepard said, grabbing one and ripping it open.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"We can share," Shepard grinned, "Anyway, who made your mom let us come in the first place?"
"What's crack, Daddy?" Allison asked. Personally she thought the candy her father was holding looked like little flat pyramids, and nothing like a long hole in the ground.
"How many times have I told you to watch what you say," Liara said, exasperated.
"You are just no fun, Liara. And crack means that once you start, you can't stop eating them." Shepard held out one of the tiny orange, yellow and white sugar pieces to her daughter, but Allison leaned away, pressing her head back into Shepard's chest to get away from it.
"I don't wanna eat those forever," she said.
Liara laughed and stole the candy from Shepard. "Smart girl, Allison."
"Like mother like daughter, I suppose."
Allison dug through her own bag, sticking her head all the way in. She tossed her own bags of candy corn at her father, who scooped them into a pile at her side. She dug deeper, finding a few kinds of candy she recognized and promptly pulled a few out. Shepard inspected them before letting Allison pick two before bed.
An hour, and decidedly more than just two pieces of candy later, Allison and Illira were tucked into the bed with their sister.
"Best night, ever," Allison yawned, still wearing Shepard's old jacket.
"You know it, baby," Shepard said, kissing all three of her girls on the forehead.
Liara came up behind her, leaning her head against Shepard's shoulderblade. "I'll admit, it was rather fun."
"So, I can book the standing tickets back to Earth every year?"
"We'll see. For now, I have plans for you in the other room." She pressed a kiss to Shepard's shoulder and pulled her away from their daughters.
"But it's Halloween. She'll love it."
"Halloween is the most ridiculous holiday humans ever dreamt up. And you want to take Erra and I out so she can what? Take candy from strangers? I've spent the last twenty years teaching her to do the exact opposite."
"I had the same reservations at first," Liara sighed. It had been centuries since her own daughters were young enough to go trick-or-treating, and she missed it, though she'd have never admitted that to Shepard. "She'll have fun, and you get free access to all the chocolate she brings home."
That seemed to get through, much like it had to Liara when Shepard had mentioned it all those years ago. "So, she just what? Walks up to various apartments dressed as some scary monster and people give her candy which I then steal? This is fun?"
"Yes, yes it is. Please, Teiron? She'll have so much fun. And I might just have brought Kiyett's Justicar costume from Thessia. She will look so cute in it."
Teiron sighed. They had reached the school, and she dropped Liara's hand and turned to face her fully. "You always knew I would give in, didn't you?"
"I just know you that well," Liara said with a huge smile.
A week later, Erra was standing in the living room, going through some of the biotic movements she'd been taught in school. She couldn't so much as shove a glass across a table, but she knew most of the proper movements already. She thought she looked fairly impressive, standing there looking just like Justicar Fela. Her mom and Liara had helped her fix it so that it looked just like the one in the show.
She hadn't been entirely sold on the idea at first. None of her asari friends were going, and though the human kids at lunch had been talking about it forever, she hadn't seen the draw. If she wanted candy, she just asked her mom, and assuming it wasn't close to dinner, she usually got it. Still, once she'd put on the costume the first time, she'd been sold. It was like when she was twelve and had been in the school play. She hadn't had any lines, since those roles had gone to the older kids, but she'd enjoyed dressing up for it. She was super excited to go to where some of her human friends were going out tonight and show off her costume.
Liara came out of the back of the apartment, holding a canvas bag, and dressed as something Erra just couldn't believe. Well, she couldn't believe that Liara had dressed up at all, but dressing up as Blasto's asari lover was not something Erra would ever have thought Liara would ever do. Seeing her mom come out after Liara though, caused Erra to fall to the floor laughing.
She was dressed in Liara's old armor. She'd worn it once for Erra when they had caught a replaying of Normandy Rising on the vids. Liara had laughed through the whole thing, especially when the actress playing her had gone into battle wearing a dress. Erra had asked what she did wear, and the next time she'd returned to the citadel, she'd brought the armored outfit with her. That was before she and her mom had gotten together, and when they'd both been insisting they were both friends, but the armor had stayed there all the same.
Erra thought her mom didn't look half bad in it, really. She was a bit taller than Liara, though, and so the jacket sat a little funny, but it wasn't as horrible as it could have been.
"Are we going now?" she asked.
Liara nodded, and hurried them all out. They went to the human part of the ward, where already families with small children were walking the streets and ringing bells.
They were met by some of Erra's friends, and they continued on as a group.
"So, you always let your children go and take candy from strangers every year?" Teiron asked George's father, who was holding his youngest daughter's hand.
"Yeah," he laughed, "I suppose we do. We always check it first, though. It's all in good fun."
Teiron grunted, and Liara laughed.
She really did love Halloween.