I blink slowly as my mind starts up after a night of rest, and I'm wondering why I'm so warm. My eyes roll down to the head of cobalt hair under my nose. Zaira seems to have rolled over in her sleep, as I can feel her breath brushing over my throat.

A soft groan and the shifting of a body behind me makes me remember the events of last night. Right, Dahlia's in bed with us after garnering enough sympathy from Zaira to let her sleep with us.

I lift my head up a bit and look down. Between the pale skin of Zaira's stomach and the tanner pigment of my own is a dark blue arm, fingers splayed over the muscles there. Carefully, I reach down and pull her arm up. She's lucky Zaira is curled up, otherwise she'd also be touching her stomach.

"Mmmm…" Dahlia hums, pressing her nose into the back of my neck. "Good morning."

I shuffle myself around and look at the former pirate. "Morning." I whisper back, "You might want to get dressed, Zaira's going to wake up soon."

Dahlia smirks lightly, running her hand down her front. "You really want me to cover up? I don't mind you looking at me."

Believe me, I'm well aware. "I know that, but we're going to get up and people generally go about their days dressed."

"Shame, that." She mutters before nodding. "Alright, just a second."

Dahlia rolls out of bed and stretches, yawning quietly. This has the obvious side effect of showcasing her bare body for me, muscles and skin all taut and tight. If I didn't already have my morning lumber, I definitely would now.

She knows this, and turns a smirk at me over her shoulder. "Like what you see?"

I think someone might have some confidence issues. "Yeah, duh."

Dahlia purses her lips and bends to retrieve her clothes. "You're no fun to tease. It's like modesty is a suggestion for you." She grumbles.

"'Tis." I answer simply, unabashedly watching her dress. She does it slowly too, like a reverse-strip-tease.

Once she's fully dressed, her countenance turns shy and she looks down and away, blushing lightly and rubbing her arm. "Could you…come over here for a sec?" She asks, again shyly.

I nod and carefully extract my arms from Zaira and stand up. "Sure. What for?"

Dahlia throws her arms around my neck, her cheek warm against mine. I carefully bring my arms up and hug her back, feeling somewhat bemused by all this. She pulls back a little and presses a kiss to my cheek before backing away, blushing even more heavily.

"Thank you for sparing me, and listening to my story." Dahlia murmurs, quickly exiting the room.

Fucking-a, she's like a tsundere without the tsun-tsun, and teasing instead. Huh. Not exactly a problem for me if she's attracted to me. Not like I mind or anything.

I turn back to the bed, seeing Zaira curled up on the bed even more, her face buried in the pillow. I should probably wake her up, but how? I could do many things, but…I like a certain one more than others.

Quietly, I creep over to the bed and kneel on the mattress, gently pushing her onto her back and leaning in to kiss her lips. She stirs a little as I move down, lightly pecking her chin, following her jaw all the way to her throat, pressing small kisses on her soft skin until I reach the junction of her neck. I lightly lick her, pulling the blanket away and fastening my lips to her neck, gently sucking.

Zaira moans in pleasure, her eyes fluttering, before they shoot open as I mercilessly tickle her now-exposed sides. "Gah! Saul!"

I press her down with my body as my fingers dance over her ribs and I lower my head, fluttering my eyelashes on her neck. She's giggling uncontrollably, her feet kicking the air. "Stop it!" She manages to choke out between laughing fits.

I respond by taking my hands from her sides and sliding them under her thighs and tickling her there. Her giggles get even louder and her kicking more frantic. The back of the thighs are very sensitive, both for sexy purposes and fun purposes. True story.

"No! Ah! Stop it!" She doesn't sound very convincing, but I finally pull away and look down at her with wide smile. Zaira looks up at me with a happy grin, her breasts heaving with every deep breath.

"Oh, what would her troops say if they knew the great Commander Shepard giggles like a little girl?" I ask sardonically, shaking my head in mock shame.

"What?"

I poke her sides for emphasis, drawing a little giggle each time. "Like. A little. Girl."

The offended look on her face is massively hilarious, as is the tone she yells with. "Little Girl?!"

I nod sagely, crossing my arms over my chest. "Yes. A little girl."

She flings herself up, and says, "I'll show you little!"

I hop off the bed and make a beckoning motion at her. "Come at me, babe!"

She does. Zaira leaps from her bed and latches onto my upper body like a vice, her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. Her momentum and weight knock me off-balance and drive me to the ground with her on top. She takes advantage of this to pin my arms down, scooting up so that she's straddling my stomach and then shoves her breasts in my face. "How are those for a 'little girl'?" Zaira says mockingly, twisting her shoulders to rub her boobs in my face.

Not that I mind. "I don't…know," I try to say, though my words are definitely muffled. "I may need more proof than that."

Zaira pulls back, grabs my face and slams her lips on mine, her tongue diving through my lips to tangle with mine. And even though she's winning the battle there, I am not lying idle. One hand goes into her hair, seizing the cobalt locks in a tight but not painful grip, and the other goes between her shoulders to massage her spine.

She gasps at the sudden pokes, opening her mouth in surprise, which is what I was planning on. I intrude into her mouth, taking the battle to a new front.

We separate, eventually, Zaira leaning back on my hips with a catty smirk. "How's that? Am I still a 'little girl'?"

I smirk. "Oh, you're definitely all woman, but I may need to call you that again if this is the reaction I get."

She gives me a dead-pan look, shifting her hips to get comfortable and gasping as my morning condition rubs against her lower region. Her nails dig into my chest and her eyes go wide.

She looks down at me, biting her lips in indecision, before closing her eyes and slowly rocking her hips.

I usually wear sweat-pants when I sleep, but I'm glad I didn't last night.

Dampness soaks through her fabric and mine as she moves a little faster, her eyes closed and her breath hitching with every movement. I bring my hands up and lay them on her rear, gently massaging her cheeks.

Zaira slowly leans over, pressing her face into my shoulder to muffle her quiet moans, though I can still clearly hear the little whimpers in the back of her throat.

I turn my attention to her neck, licking and gently biting her smooth skin, careful not to leave a lasting mark. She gasps suddenly, her hands tightening in my hair and her teeth fastening to my skin as a flood of wetness spills over our connected groins.

Zaira pants into my ear, "Well…that was sudden."

I chuckle lightly, rubbing her back. "Tell me about it."

I can feel her frown a little before she sits up and looks down. Ah. I seem to have slipped out of my boxers and left evidence of my enjoyment on our stomachs, moreso hers than mine. We really need a shower now.

I watch as Zaira debates something silently, staring down at my stomach. Hesitantly, she scoops a bit of it up with her finger and brings it up to eye-level. Is she going to…?

Yup. She sticks her finger in her mouth, licking the white stuff off and tasting it. Well, I'm aroused again.

She frowns slightly, but not in a bad way. More of a thoughtful way. Apparently undecided, Zaira wipes off the rest on me and licks it off, humming in thought before doing the same to remainder slowly dripping down her abs. "Hmm."

"Thoughts?" I ask simply.

She jumps a little, looking down at me with a fierce blush coloring her cheeks. "It's not bad…not good, but not bad." Then, Zaira looks down, seeing the tip of my arousal pointing straight up at her. "Oh."

"What, did you think I wouldn't be aroused by your little taste-test?" I question lightly with a raised eyebrow.

She doesn't answer my question, instead, she lightly touches it with her fingers, softly stroking the sides and biting her lip. Zaira looks up at me, her countenance suddenly shy. "You know, it occurs to me that I haven't been very nice," Zaira whispers, running her nails over my skin. "You keep giving me pleasure, but I haven't returned it."

Kind of untrue. It's not as if I didn't get any enjoyment out of bringing her to her orgasm, and it's not as if I can't restrain myself. But, I'm not going to bring that up right now.

She grips my length firmly, gently pulling and pushing. My eyes slide closed as I let the sensations flow through me, her soft but calloused hand providing an interesting but altogether enjoyable feeling.

The shifting of weight on my legs makes me look down, seeing that Zaira as slid down, lowering her head to be on the same level as my length. There's a gleam in her eyes, a sort of pseudo-captivated and intensely interested look that reminds me of a cat with a new and interesting toy. I purse my lips to refrain from chuckling at the thought.

Her yellow eyes flick up to meet mine, her hand maintaining the speed. "I'm close." I warn her softly, feeling the pressure gathering under my stomach.

She seems to know before I say it, already moving up and taking the tip in between her satin lips just as it happens.

She pumps gently, coaxing all of it out and swallows it all, nary a drop escaping her mouth.

Zaira releases me and sits up, licking her lips. "Well, it's actually better-tasting straight from the source," She muses absently.

That's both weird and very hot. But, time has gotten away from us, and as much as I would like to spend all day in here exploring each other's body, we have a mission to complete.

She comes to the same conclusion and stands, offering her hand to me. I take it and get pulled to my feet and into a fierce kiss. I return the gesture and wrap my arms around her, deepening it before pulling away.

"We definitely need a shower now," I comment with some humor.

Zaira smiles and pushes us into the bathroom, stripping the remaining clothes away and turning on the water.

As I wash her back, she speaks quietly. "You know, if you want to take it further, I wouldn't say no."

I nod and start on her hair. "I figured, but call me old-fashioned. I haven't even taken you on that date yet, and I kind of don't want to have your first time be on your thin mattress."

Zaira quirks an eyebrow, her soapy hands tracing over my stubbled cheeks. "Does it matter what I want?" She asks rhetorically, but I answer anyway.

"Of course it does, but do you want your first time to be here?" I riposte, rinsing her hair out.

She shrugs. "Not really, but I don't think I can wait for much longer."

"Well, after this, we're going to the Citadel to deal with Nassana. Let's have our date after that and see where the night takes us from there?" I ask, directing my hands down her front. I'm washing her off, but I can't help but sneak in a few quick gropes of her breasts. Would you?

I would. And am.

Zaira smirks and fondles my crotch. Turnabout is fair-play, as they say. "I like the sound of that." She murmurs, pressing her lips to my cheek. "All the more reason to finish this mission quickly."

…

Breakfast is a hurried affair, tension permeating the atmosphere and gods, I've been using big words. What's up with that?

Anyway, we finish our food and armor up. As I know what we'll be facing, I stock up on incendiary grenades. "Do you really think you'll need that much?" Garrus asks, having witnessed me squirrel away fifteen of the disc-shaped explosives.

I shrug. "You never know, and I get the feeling we'll need these."

Our tramping through the ship in full armor draws some attention from the crewmen, naturally. Dahlia gets left behind in the Med bay, of course. She probably won't betray us, but no one's taking the chance. Chloe and Chakwas can both take care of themselves, but just in case, they've both been left with a pistol each. Chloe's is my Tagger. I gave it to her a while ago and it fits her well.

Of course, the airlock is packed with the full team, and the first person we see when we step out is a dark-skinned human wearing what I call 'Colony Clothes'. A simply-but-well-made shirt, pants, boots with a belt and pack on his back.

"You're here!" He cries in relief, approaching us while wringing his hands. "You need to talk to Fai Dan, he'll fill you in."

"What's going?" Shepard asks, loosely cradling her rifle.

"You need to talk to Fai Dan, he'll fill you in," He repeats as a Geth Rocket Trooper fires a shot at his back.

"Geth!" I shout, reaching over and yanking the kid into cover. He hits the ground roughly, and I turn to make a barrier only to see the rocket hovering in front of the group.

Liara stands with her left hand outstretched, the blue glow of biotics wreathing her body. She grunts and thrusts her hand, hurling the rocket back at the Geth.

We dive forward as more robots pour out of the staircase, firing as we go. "That was nice!" I hiss to Liara, holding out my fist.

"Thanks," She replies, looking at my hand oddly.

"You're supposed to bump it." I whisper, popping up and firing off Invictus, relieving a trooper of its head.

"Oh!" Liara grunts in realization, lightly tapping my fist.

Eh, we can work on that. I roll out of cover and dash forward; the last trooper is cowering behind its' shield emplacement, not looking in my direction. The flashlight head flashes as it turns to me and I spray a burst of fire at it, the heat making the materials squeal. As the Geth lights up, I plant my left foot and land a straight kick straight to its chest, throwing it over the edge with fire trailing behind it like a small, sad comet.

There's something sadistically fun about doing that.

Our footfalls echo off of the stone as we jog up the steps, which is broken only by the electronic grunting of a few Hoppers bouncing off the walls.

The little bastards don't stop; landing for a second to pop off a few shots and then hopping away before we can shoot them, like hostile bouncy-balls that shoot BBs at us.

An orb of biotic energy emerges in the middle of stairs and hangs there, humming as two of the Hoppers get caught in field and slowly orbit it. They are subsequently filled with bullets and the Singularity fades, job done.

Cautiously, we head up the stairs once more, and as we come to landing, something catches the corner of my eye. Reacting on instinct, I reach out and grab at it, managing to snag the last Hopper's leg. I yank it back and slam it against a wall before throwing it at another. Wrex fires a burst into it's back as he goes.

The next landing is the colony itself, or what remains of it. A few well-worn and bullet-pocked barricades guard the entrance, each with a few armed colonists standing behind them.

They visibly slump in relief, and one calls back, "Reinforcements!"

Passing these people, it's easy to see that they're getting to the last of their abilities. Down to a man, everyone looks heavily fatigued, with bags under their eyes and tired faces.

Our group passes through the separated halls of a disassembled freighter, and coming out the other side, we meet two people. One is a man, with weathered, stern, but not unapproachable face, and he's talking with a woman. She has short black hair, and unlike the others, is wearing armor. And what seems to be an irritated scowl.

"Thank the Makers you're here," Fai Dan says with relief, "A little while longer and we might not talking now."

The woman snorts derisively. "Feh. Tell that to the rest of the colony. Oh wait, they're dead."

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan barks at her, making the woman look away. "Please excuse her, recent events have been rough for all of us. I'm Fai Dan, the leader of Zhu's Hope. And you are?"

Zaira nods. "I'm Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy and these are my squad-mates. We came as soon as could. I need to know why the Geth are attacking you. What's so important about this colony?"

Fai Dan shakes his head, a concerned look on his face. "I don't know! They just appeared out of nowhere-"

A panicked voice screams over the sudden sound of gunfire. "Geth!"

Fai Dan and Arcelia share the same look of fear, followed by the man drawing his pistol and crying out, "Stand strong! Protect the Heart of the Colony!"

I could hear the capitals in that sentence. The entrance is flooding with Geth, the stark white of Shock Troopers intermixed with the dull gray and bright red of regular troops and Rocket troops respectively.

As I roll behind a barricade, I tap a button, switching one of my launchers away from the flamethrower setting to the missile setting. Popping out, I fire off several rockets into the concentration of Geth, not really caring to target any specific robots. I open fire with Invictus when the launcher overheats, the heavy rounds punching through their armor.

"Liara!" I hear Zaira call, just before a Singularity opens in the middle of the pack.

Leaning out, I aim a Warp at the glowing ball of energy, and I appear to not be the only one to do so. Two more Warps from Kaidan and Wrex impact the Singularity at the same time as mine, increasing the explosion by a ton.

The detonation is hard enough to send a small tremor through the building and throws up a big cloud of dust. I switch on the EMS setting in my eye and scan through the cloud. Just one left…Invictus kicks in my hand…Headshot.

"The Geth are coming from the top of the tower!" Arcelia shouts as the cloud fades. "You need to drive them off! Without collapsing the colony!"

Some people are so damn picky. 'Oh, our colony has been reduced to thirty people, and that give me the right to order a group of bad-ass commandos around! Keep the destruction to a minimum, please!' Pleh. Knocking a Prothean skyscraper down with our powers combined would be awesome! But…not in line with 'saving the colony'. Damn.

"Kaidan, Wrex and Garrus, stay down here and be on the lookout." Shepard orders, the rest of us moving up the stairs once more.

The characteristic thud and squeal of Hoppers makes me sigh. I hate those little bastards. Zaira pivots on her heel, quickly whipping out a burst of fire that results in one of the Hoppers hitting the ground without a head. She must've used her Adrenaline Mod to land a shot like that.

Another Hopper is lifted into the air by Liara, and I shoot it once before spinning and firing an Overload that clips another, and it tumbles down the shaft and out of sight.

Reaching the top, a panicked voice calls out, "No! There's too many!" A colonist breaks out of his cover and is immediately perforated with bullets, blood spraying from his chest before he collapses to the ground.

Tara flicks a grenade through the door, followed by a squeal and the crackle of electricity. Firing through the door at the defenseless robots, we move through and come to a split in the path, one way leading down into some tunnels, and the other, up to our objective. We take the stairs, coming to an open crescent area with a few troopers and drones buzzing about.

They get taken down quickly, but there's no time for us to celebrate. A rumble overhead preempts the appearance of a Geth dropship as it hovers overhead and drops down reinforcements, consisting of a few Shock and Reg troops, a pair of Destroyers and a Juggernaut. The really want the Thorian, damn.

Bullets fly, as combat is met once more, and fuck, there is not a lot of cover. Oh, well. "Shepard!" I call over the fire, pulling a Trooper into the air with my biotics while I holster Invictus and draw my lightsaber. "I'm going in!"

"Alright!" She calls back, blowing the floating Geth out of the air with a rocket. "Wait, what?"

Too late! Energy flows over me as I target on of the Destroyers and time slows to a crawl. The world stretches, and I'm hitting the Geth with the force of a large truck.

The grey robot crunches against a far wall, and I use my momentum to spin, cutting through the other's legs before separating everything above the shoulders from every below.

The Juggernaut turns its attention on me, firing off a rocket. I push my biotics into my sword and bat the projectile into a wall before swinging at the Geth and releasing the energy. A crescent of purple force lashes out, knocking the gun and hands off of the Juggernaut. I jump forward and bring my blade down, leaving the red Geth to fall to the ground in two halves.

Turning, I'm ready to fight some more, but they don't need my help. The last Geth is brought down by a blast from Tali, and the dropship flies away like a little bitch. Or a big bitch.

"That's the last of them," Ashley states, kicking one of the bodies. "We should tell Fai Dan the tower is clear."

Zaira nods and turns to head back to the colony. I head for the back of the room, finding a small kit and a medical station, policing the contents of both. Sledgehammer rounds, nice. Zaira would use those, and you can never have enough medi-gel, and I could hand some out to the colonists. Oh wait, I should save some for the colonists later, they'll probably need it more then.

I catch up to the others as Zaira is conversing with Fai Dan. Apparently, the Geth attack did a lot of damage, go figure, leaving the colony low on supplies, mainly water, food, and power. Plus the remaining Geth in the tunnels.

And judging by Shepard's countenance as he lays out the problems, we'll be handling those before tackling the main problem, namely, the other Geth in the ExoGeni HQ.

The conversation ends, and she turns to the squad to relay orders. "Alright, here's what happening: Zhu's Hope is low on water, food and power, and they'll need help to survive. Garrus, you, Ash and Kaidan will deal with the water problems. Talk to the blonde woman over there to find out what needs to be done."

The team heads out as she turns to the rest of us. "They need to stock up on food, and there's a infestation of Varren nearby that will definitely help, except that they have an Alpha that makes hunting them dangerous. Wrex, that sounds like you. Nihlus, Liara, I want you two on the power problem." She turns to who's left: Me, Tali and Tara. "There are also Geth in the tunnels, and they have transmitter. I want you guys to deal with that."

I look to the two ladies and nod. "Alright, we'll get it done. What are you gonna do?"

Zaira glances around before leaning in and whispering. "Something feels off about this place, but I can't put my finger on it. I'm going to poke around a bit, see if I can find anything."

Sneaky, I like. "Cool. Ladies, let's head out."

We head back up the stairs, but instead of going to the crescent area, we hang a left and descend into the tunnels, crossing a short bridge and opening a door. The first thing I see when the door slides open is a bright red laser pointed at Tara's head.

She dives to the side as a powerful shot rings out, tearing a chunk out of the stone. Another shot impacts my shields, and I take cover next to Tali as a Drone pops up over a ledge above us and opens fire. Tali fires an Overload at it, popping the shields, and I send Jade at, turning the light green as it turns to fire on the other Geth.

The drone brings down one sniper before exploding by the other, and Tara rolls out with her sniper out, landing a quick headshot on it.

"Nice." I say to myself, but anything else is interrupted by a loud roar.

A Krogan in crimson armors is charging our position wildly, head down and picking up speed. I launch a pair of missiles at him, stumbling the warrior with the force, but the actual damage being mitigated by his shields.

Tara opens fire on him with her pistol as Tali and I target him a brace of Overloads. The Cryo Rounds slam into his armor, bringing him to halt as he freezes over, and the quarian shatters him with a well-placed shot from her shotgun.

Two more Krogans charge at us and I toss a Warp at the frontrunner, engulfing him a small explosion. Tara and Tali knock the other's shields out and freeze him, and I lift him into the air and slam him on top of the other, shattering him and leaving the other on the ground, slowly regenerating.

Tali steps up and shoots him in the back of the head without a word. I'm so proud!

Cautiously, we enter the next room, only to find the transmitter innocently sitting there, humming quietly.

"Let's tap the network and see what we can find, huh?" I ask, directing half of that at Jade and the engineer.

"Let's." Tali agrees, bringing up her omni-tool and starting her hack into the network. I follow her progress, cutting through the firewall while Jade rips whatever information she can before we get detected.

Cutting the hack short after the network becomes aware of the intrusion, I tilt my head at the transmitter. "Would you do the honors?"

"Gladly," Tali nods and strides up to the transmitter, sticking a grenade between two important bits and setting a timer.

We turn and walk away as it explodes, heading back to the colony. "Shepard," I call over the comm. "The transmitter and the Geth are taken care of. We'll be back soon."

"Good. The others are nearly done as well, so we can move on soon." She replies, "I haven't found anything suspicious just yet, except for a discrepancy about a food shipment."

Well, that's something we can look at later. For now, we're heading back to Zhu's Hope before making our way to the ExoGeni HQ.

…

…

…

A/N: Well, I didn't say it would be too much longer, did I?

So, to answer one persons question, no, Zaira's not a homophobe. Imagine going to a bar or a club (you weirdos) and having someone you're not attracted to constantly hitting on you while you're trying to relax. That's what happened. Just that. She was irritated, and she snapped, that's all.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Why not tell me? Why not review?

No, I'm not trolling for reviews, why would you say that? Haha…

Read, Review, and Enjoy.

Stay Awesome.

~Soleneus

P.S.: You what I don't like? Author's notes that are long. You know what else I don't like? Author's notes that are long and have that thing where they bring in a character and trade dialog with the authors. Seriously, I wish they'd stop doing that. So annoying.

Saul: "I know, righ-"

NO! Not happening! Fuck off!

I was tempted to name this chapter 'Forever 21' but I like to think I have more taste than that.

Stay Awesome Some More.

~still Soleneus