Shepard rested her shoulder against the bathroom door frame and brushed her teeth. Her duffle bag spilled fresh BTUs, balled socks, and hair rubber bands across the foot of the bed. It was only one night passing by the Citadel, barely twenty-four hours, but it was worth the skycar ride. Anderson's apartment could have even felt like home, if only it wasn't just one more good thing come too late.

"Where's your floss?" Shepard asked over the bristles and foam.

Kaidan was slouched against the headboard engrossed in his datapad. "By the sink."

Shepard spit a mouthful of mint into the sink and rifled through Kaidan's toiletry bag. She strolled back lacing the floss between her teeth.

"Full polish and detailing, eh? Gums are getting lucky tonight," Kaidan kept his eyes on the datapad, but the corners of his lips quirked up.

Ever since he discovered she didn't have floss in her medicine cabinet, he'd been an obnoxious dental snob. Her routine worked just fine. After Cerberus's tampering, her enamel was probably galvanized anyway.

"Hey." Shepard snapped the floss between her teeth. "My dental health is excellent."

"Excellent or adequate?"

"You want my gums to be the only thing getting lucky tonight?"

"My, you're presumptuous. I'm just here for the better mattress and the hot tub."

Shepard lowered the string from her mouth. "Mattress, huh? That attitude, I'll put a pea under your side. You'll be tossing all night." She gave him a pointed look.

"I can read between the lines. And if I'm a princess, what's that make you?" Kaidan tossed his datapad on the nightstand. "They're always dating frogs."

"Better kiss me then and see what you get." Shepard dropped her floss in a waste basket.

"Don't need to tell me twice." He bounced out of bed and grabbed her by the waist. "You're beautiful and look nothing like a frog."

"Afraid your frog comment would leave me with a complex, huh?" Shepard grinned and smoothed his collar. "Of course, I'm not a frog. I have teeth. Teeth with excellent, above-average dental quality."

She leaned into him and inhaled his soft breath in her face. He had used the same toothpaste. There was something so domestic about sharing toothpaste and floss. She couldn't stifle the smile when their lips brushed. Heat flared through her veins. She loved the way he kissed her, tender and earnest but sensual and impassioned too. His fingertips indented into her hips and drew her closer.

"So," Shepard pulled her lips away. "Which did you come for? The mattress or the hot tub?"

"Hot tub."

"Hot tub it is." She walked two fingers up his chest with a smirk. "There's wine downstairs."

"Better and better." He pecked her lips and shot toward the stairs.

Shepad chuckled and meandered into the bathroom. She kicked the tub's faucet on with her foot. Her Omni-Tool flashed on the sink's vanity with a new message. Her eyebrows bunched reading it.

"Ah." Kaidan paused in the doorway. Stemmed glasses sagged in his hand. "Problems? Do we need to leave?"

"What? No. It's not that." Shepard sighed. She tossed her Omni-Tool on the sink counter. "It's Garrus."

"Garrus?" Kaidan set an open wine bottle by the tub. The glasses glinted in his other hand as he drew closer.

"I suggested he take Tali to pick out suit mods. Everyone else wears human armor. Except Javik, but it's Javik ... Anyway, Garrus asked her, but she said she'd go on her own tomorrow. When he said tomorrow was fine, too, she realized all her gear was up to date and nevermind. She's freezing him out. I don't get it."

"Well." Kaidan folded his arms, clinking the glasses under his elbow. "It's probably because Tali asked him to the Armax Arena last week and he said no."

"Tali asked Liara to the arena too," Shepard said. "It's not like it was a date. Plus, he already agreed to play poker with James and Joker at that time. She knew that."

"She knew that, but it was the only open time slot at the arena. Besides, Liara wasn't going to stick around. She was going to realize she forgot something and leave early."

"That's unnecessarily elaborate. How's Garrus supposed to know that?"

"It makes the invitation more casual starting as a group. Less pressure."

"It makes it confusing."

"Confusing?" Kaidan scoffed. "She's been giving him the signals for weeks. She told him how nice he looks in the new Phoenix armor, complimented his swagger after nailing the Cerberus scout on Titus. Does she need to literally throw herself at him? I don't think he'd get it even then."

"That's because literally throwing yourself at someone is still confusing. I'd sooner think she forgot to secure her footwear than bumping into me was a romantic pass." Shepard stepped up to Kaidan. "He complimented her, too, you know. Said her input/ output records were very thorough and well-calibrated."

"Very thorough input/ output records? Well, that's poetry."

"He said well-calibrated." Shepard ground a finger into Kaidan's chest. "Well-calibrated from Garrus? Damn right that's poetry."

"Sure. 'Garrus, you look strapping and ruggish today.' 'Thanks, Tali, nice calibration readings last week.'"

"Well, then if -" Shepard's voice raised then caught. She grinned. "This turning you on too?"

"Oddly, yes."

Shepard laughed and hooked his neck with her elbow. "Kaidan, you're the finest piece of equipment I've ever enjoyed uncalibrating. See? Perfect pick up. Garrus knows his stuff."

"Complimenting armor works too. Works better. Shepard, you're so sexy in your armor, but for some reason, I keep imagining you out of it. See."

"Poetry." Shepard slipped the stemmed glasses out his hand and set them on the tub. "Complimenting calibrations or armor both work, but it needs flare. We should give them pointers."

"I think it's better if we let them work it out."

"Agreed. With some help."

"Shepard …"

"What?" Shepard shrugged a shoulder. "If someone helped us out, maybe we could have had more times like this together."

A smile played on his lips, and he laughed. "Yeah, I'd like to think that, but you're pretty contrary. If someone suggested it, it might have just taken that much longer to get here. We'd have fewer times like this."

Shepard bit her lower lip with a grin. She tried to hold back the laugh, but it broke through. "Yeah, you could be right." She poured wine into a glass and handed it to Kaidan. "What a bad choice that would've been."

Kaidan clinked their glasses. "Hear, hear."

Shepard slid her eyes down Kaidan's body. "That's a lot to wear into a hot tub."

"I was planning on taking off my boots."

"I'll help you take off more than that."

"Well, I am royalty." Kaidan grinned. "Can't be expected to undo my own buttons."

"No argument." Shepard fisted his collar in one hand. "I'm glad we figured out the signals and stopped dancing around each other. You mean a lot to me."

Kaidan's eyes brightened. "You mean everything to me. I'm glad we figured it out too."

Shepard took a sip of wine before setting her glass on the counter. She sidled up to him and tugged at the first button on his collar.

XXX

"Shepard, what are you doing here?" Kaidan stopped over the table.

Shepard and Garrus looked up from their menus. Shepard caught Kaidan's eye with a wink. His stomach was already starting to feel queasy from this.

"Hey, Kaidan. Didn't know you'd be here. Thought you had that, uh … thing." Shepard smiled cheerfully.

Garrus's eyes narrowed. He glanced between them. "What thing?"

They hadn't planned the story out that far. Kaidan opened his mouth but nothing came out. Heat rose up his collar. He had to think of a 'thing.' His mind raced. He could say the firing range, but it wasn't really a 'thing.' Perhaps he was at the Spectre offices, but that suffered the same drawback. It wasn't really a 'had that thing' sort of answer. Shepard should have left it at 'didn't know you'd be here.' Now it was on him to come up with something convincing on the fly. This was exactly why he suggested they practice.

"Practice?" Shepard had laughed earlier that morning giving him an open-mouth view of cornflakes. "Grab a sharpie. I'll write your cue cards. Practice! You really want to sound practiced?"

"Not sound practiced, be practiced." Standing barefoot in her kitchen in pajama pants, he'd waited while she took another loud bite of cereal.

"Improv's more natural. I'll help you out if you choke."

"When I choke." Kaidan clutched his hot coffee. "Garrus will see right through me."

"You did a great job with the security guards at the casino. I don't know what you're worried about. You even worked up some tears."

"This is different."

Now, here they were with Garrus's eyes thinned into slits and fixed on Kaidan's face. This long pause while Kaidan searched for an answer wasn't helping the situation.

"Your secret Spectre thing finished early?" Shepard offered up. She lazily swirled a straw in her ice water.

Secret Spectre thing? Kaidan shot her a frown. Garrus might ask about that now. A secret Spectre thing was even harder to explain than a general 'thing.'

"Yes. That's what happened," Kaidan said woodily.

His crossed and recrossed his arms trying to smear off the sweat dampening his palms. Lying to friends never felt right. Lying to the enemy or to a stranger on a mission for a good reason, he could do that. Poker? He could do that, too, but this? Kaidan paused. He hadn't thought of it that way before. This was just another game. Frame it that way instead of being a lie and knowing he could come clean later, this might be all right. It was for a good cause, wasn't it? His breathing slowed.

"Secret Spectre thing?" Garrus set his menu down and folded his hands. "Are you investigating the Leviathan with Shepard? Or a separate investigation?"

Kaidan shrugged. "Can't say. That's why it's a secret Spectre thing."

Excellent. The answer was right there in the wording. He just had to clear his head to hear it.

"He wouldn't tell me either." Shepard rolled her eyes and slouched back in her chair. She was so natural at this. That wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"So, whatcha doing here?" Shepard continued. "Thought Apollo's was your meal shack of choice."

"I'm here for the same reason as you, I imagine. Dextran and levo food options." Kaidan kept his voice light. As long as he avoided Garrus's C-Sec-interrogation gaze, the conversation was starting to feel more natural.

"Garrus and I haven't ordered yet." Shepard looked at Garrus. "Okay if we expand the party?"

Garrus's eyes slid to Shepard. "Convenient you insisted the waiter place us at a bigger table when we came in."

"This spot has the best lighting," Shepard said dismissively. "Pull out a chair, Kaidan."

Ignoring Garrus's scrutiny, he pulled out a chair across from Shepard and sat with a thump. He glanced around them.

"It is perfect lighting," Kaidan observed with a nod. "Bright enough for eating, dim enough for intimate conversation. I'd say, this table," Kaidan knocked on it, "best lighting in the whole damn place. Good eye, Shepard."

Shepard's eyes pinned him with an incredulous stare. Her lips twisted to the side. Oh. Now he was overdoing it. Dammit. She should have let him practice. Strangely enough, Garrus actually seemed to relax at the same words that had made Shepard frown. Garrus's shoulders lost the building tension, and he eased back against the chair.

"Is the fountain over there soothing enough, Kaidan?" Garrus chuckled, putting an elbow on his armrest. "What about the squares on the floor? Remind you of bathroom tiles? And the decor? Expensive but tasteful? Big place, isn't it?"

Kaidan's brow tightened in a knot. His lighting soliloquy was exaggerated, granted, but worse than outting Kaidan's nervous fumbling, Garrus was actually accepting it as normal. Kaidan shifted in his seat. Those were comments from years ago. The big places comment no one forgot. Kaidan had said it one too many times maybe. But Garrus seemed to have kept track of a lot more than that. Kaidan opened his mouth, but Shepard interrupted.

"So, Kaidan, you didn't say. Why a dextro/levo restaurant?"

"Oh, uh, good question." Kaidan tried to refocus from the distraction. "Glad you asked, Shepard. I'm meeting someone."

Garrus's attention had wandered to the menu, but it must have come off stilted because Shepard scrunched her face at him. She tapped her ice water as if for emphasis. The meaning could be anything. Did he need to chill like the ice, or did she want him to order water? He frowned in concentration at her glass. Shepard cleared her throat drawing Kaidan's attention back. She mouthed something.

"Why're you mouthing 'stay cool'?" Garrus asked.

Shepard didn't miss a beat. "Kaidan's touchy being teased about the 'big place' comment."

Really? Kaidan narrowed his eyes at her. He'd been teased about it enough, sure, but he was a good sport. He thought he was anyway. Now she was going to tease him about it now, too, but in a roundabout way. Fine. First rule of improv was to go along with it. If she said he was upset about it then ...

"Makes me furious." Kaidan smiled and slammed a fist down on the table. The silverware rattled. "So glad there's a fountain over there. I'd lose my mind without that soothing trickle. And the excellent lighting." He grinned at Shepard. She pursed her lips but stopped short of any open sign of annoyance. She was the one who wanted to go there.

Shepard sighed. "Back to the earlier question."

"I'll need the transcripts read back. I'm so enraged, I can't remember anything before 'big place'."

Garrus gawked at them. "What's going on? I thought we were just out for dinner, Shepard."

"We are out for dinner. Kaidan crashed us."

"Had to get in on the lighting," Kaidan said.

"Well, guess I can't blame him there. Makes sense," Shepard allowed.

"No, it doesn't." Garrus focused on Kaidan. "Why are you here if you didn't expect to find Shepard?"

"Oh, yeah, that's the question from earlier," Kaidan said. "It's coming back now the red's clearing. Right. Why am I here? Pure coincidence. I'm meeting someone."

"Who?" Garrus asked.

Kaidan nodded at the door. "Ah. There she is."

Tali lingered in the restaurant's entryway. Her mask rotated looking around the room and stopped on their corner.

"Kaidan." She crossed the room to them. "You didn't say Garrus and Shepard were meeting us."

"We invited Kaidan to join us," Shepard said. "Garrus and I were just about to order when Kaidan showed up. The more the merrier, right?"

Garrus sat up higher in his seat and straightened his visor. "Tali, didn't know you'd be here."

"Would it have changed anything if you knew?" she asked.

"I, uh .. well, I … I suppose not."

Shepard smirked at Kaidan from across the table then nodded at the empty seat beside her. "Sit down, Tali. Join us."

"You don't mind sitting with them, do you?" Kaidan asked. "I scoped out the restaurant. Best lighting? Right here."

"If you say so." Tali slipped into the empty chair. "Kaidan, I thought you wanted to discuss the retrofitting on the core drive. You had so many questions."

"The core drive is getting retrofitted?" Garrus asked.

"Just a few small adjustments."

"It'll need calibrated," Shepard said idly and took a sip of water.

"I could help with that," Garrus said. "I'd need to know a little more what I'm getting into."

"You'd have to leave the battery," Shepard warned. "Probably have to clock in hours down in engineering."

"I have some free time between adjustments in the battery. I can leave scans running."

Shepard craned her neck suddenly looking for something. She waved at an asari straightening plates on a nearby table. "Waiter, we need some drinks. And another menu."

The asari reoriented the final plate and sauntered to their table. She locked eyes with Shepard.

"Another menu," Shepard said with emphasis and winked.

"But we have enough menus," Tali said.

"Menus," Shepard repeated slowly and didn't take her eyes off the waiter.

A small smirk lifted the corners of the asari's mouth, and she gave a slight nod. That must have been the phrase Shepard decided to go with. Between mouthfuls of cornflakes she'd mumbled a string of possibilities.

"Ah, yes, yes. Menus," the asari said. "It appears you have enough already. I do have some unfortunate news, however."

"What?" Tali asked.

"I see you have two humans in your party," the asari said. "I'm sorry to say, but our levo chef went home ill. We only have dextro options, unless you're only wanting drinks."

"What?" Kaidan balled his hands on the table and drew in a deep breath. "So glad there's a fountain over there."

"Why?" Tali cocked her head.

"Soothing." Shepard patted Tali's wrist then redirected her attention to the waitress. "Well, that is upsetting."

"You don't look that upset," Garrus observed flatly.

"Barely keeping it together here," Kaidan said.

"Well," Shepard said, "looks like there's nothing here for us humans to eat."

"You can stay for drinks," Tali said.

"Too hungry," Shepard said. "Right, Kaidan?"

"Ravished."

Shepard scooted her chair back. "Guess we better hit Apollo's after all. Apollo's don't server dextro, though, so why don't you guys just stay here?"

"Wait," Tali said. "If we get orders to go, we can bring it back to your apartment."

Shepard paused pushing in her chair. "Well, that, uh … I guess that could …" Her eyes flicked to Garrus, and for a second, there was a pause like a ball suspended in the air.

"The food will get cold," Garrus said quickly. "Maybe we should just let them go, Tali."

"Oh?" Tali sat taller and touched the silverware on the table. "I guess if the food could get cold then …"

"Well, I just mean, hot food's better hot. Better to get our money's worth," Garrus said. "Not that I'm saying you have to pay."

"I can pay."

"Why don't I pick this one up?"

"You guys seem like you're settled," Shepard said. "Sorry this didn't work out."

Garrus's eyes glinted Shepard's direction, bright and sharp. He glanced between her and Kaidan then folded his hands on the table. "You're right, what a nice coincidence us four meeting here like this. Shame the levo chef went home sick."

"Indeed." Shepard said airily.

Kaidan tugged her arm. "Let's go. Enjoy the lighting, you two."

"Lighting?" Tali asked.

Kaidan guided Shepard toward the door.

"Lighting," Garrus said behind them. "Bright enough for eating, dim enough for intimate conversation."

The door closed behind them, and the tension eased from Kaidan's chest. That it had turned transparent in the end eased the nagging worry of it being a lie. Shepard looped an arm around Kaidan's waist.

"Success, Kaidan. You're right, though," she rested her temple against his shoulder, "next time, we practice."

"Next time?" Kaidan steered her toward Apollo's.

"Got a lot of friends left to matchmake, Kaidan. What do you think about Liara and the new requisition officer?"

"How about we leave it to Cupid and focus on eating steak?"

"Ah, the ultimate love story. Kaidan and steak."

"What?" Kaidan hugged her closer. "That's not my ultimate love."

"Whiskey?"

Kaidan kissed her forehead. "Don't even get me started on you and your hamster."

They laughed, leaning together, and hurried to make their reservation time at Apollo's. The lightning there was even more perfect.