As he watched the krogan floating in front of him, delicately suspended in an envelope of biotic energy, John Shepard polished off his beer and made himself a promise: he would never offer to host a party again.
It had gone well enough at first, such that it was hard to pinpoint the exact moment at which the mood had crossed the line from "pleasant hangout" to "debauched rager." Perhaps it had been when Cortez and Vega mildly suggested that they could put the biotiball conference finals on one of the apartment's many vidscreens. Zaeed had swiftly gotten wind, cursing how much money he had riding on the team that was down at the half, which subsequently spawned a pool of child bets from several people who didn't even follow the sport.
Perhaps it had been when EDI's mobile platform approached him, asking if he'd like to "adjust the sonic environment to match growing blood alcohol levels." The AI had specifically requested to be responsible for curating the evening's playlist. Shepard had accepted, thinking it would be another of her many experiments in studying organic behavior. He accepted her second offer in the same spirit, only to hear the music shift from glorified background noise to high intensity house, the lights dimming and refocusing to suggest a dance floor. He'd been about to interject when a collective "whoop" and rush to the dance floor made it obvious the issue was settled.
Or maybe it had been just moments ago, when Shepard joined a discussion in progress about biotics as it became a practical demonstration. Vega was running his mouth — as usual — and Liara, bolder after a few drinks, called his bluff. She levitated him a few inches off the ground, which was all well and good until Wrex and Grunt wandered by.
"Betcha can't do a krogan," Vega said, pitching his voice so that they could hear.
Liara let him drop gently as all eyes looked at the two krogan. Wrex and Grunt looked at each other.
"I'd wager Wrex and James have roughly the same amount of meat in their heads," Miranda said dryly. Jacob stifled a laugh.
"Oh no," Wrex rumbled."I'm too old to fool around drunk like a whelp."
Then the rumble became a chuckle as he clapped Grunt on the back.
"But I'm not too old to watch him do it."
Grunt slowly blinked his glazed eyes at Liara before cracking into a lopsided grin. Shepard doubted he was even following the conversation.
"Do me next, do me next!"
Shepard sighed, feeling like a party pooper and loathing it. The particular moment at which the party had gone off the rails wasn't clear, but it didn't matter. The point of no return had been passed, the alcohol flowing freely, and not even Commander Shepard could rescue anybody from their inhibitions.
If she could see his internal monologue Shepard's mother would call him a worrywart; she'd say that his grandmother had been the exact same way, obsessing over trivial nonsense. The keen tactical instincts that made him cool and collected on the battlefield apparently didn't translate in more casual situations.
A ping from his omni-tool shook Shepard out of his reverie. It was from a priority sender, he'd silenced all other notifications early on in the night.
Tali: heyyyy captain... need ur help. Mihgt have a suit breach, downstqirs bsthroom.
Dont take too longgg…
Shepard smiled but didn't know what to make of it. A suit breach was a serious issue, and he knew they could happen at inconvenient times for even the most diligent quarian. At the same time, she only called him "captain" when she was flirting with him.
Grunt guffawed, listing slowly upside down, a giant drunk lizard baby in a translucent blue womb. If Liara was exerting herself, she wasn't showing it.
"Please try to get him down gently, Liara. And watch the artwork," Shepard said, turning away from the group.
"He'll make it back to the ground safely, Shepard, though I cannot make any promises about what he'll do once he's back on his own feet," Liara replied.
"I might hurl… again," Grunt said.
Shepard made his way to the kitchen to recycle his empty, his thoughts wandering (as they often did) to Tali. Between cleaning up the Normandy after the hijacking attempt and planning the party, both of them had been busier than usual. He hadn't got the chance to pick her brain about what parties were like on the flotilla, other than her confirmation that yes, quarians did have them and yes, she did enjoy them.
He'd still been setting up with EDI when Tali and Garrus arrived, loaded up with dextro provisions and booze. Tali had matter-of-factly assumed command of non-levo protein preparation, a responsibility which Garrus gleefully abdicated. Shepard did allow himself a breath of relief as he watched her unpacking sealed vials of sterilized liquid on a section of the counter clearly marked "DEXTRO ONLY". At least he could cross "embarrassing cross-chirality mishap" off his list of potential stressors for the evening.
When everyone else started showing up, she quickly got to chatting with Liara, Ashley, and Kasumi, sipping on one of her sealed dextro coolers through a straw. He was pleased to see that she was getting some girl time, and resolved not to bug her while he caught up with the others. He'd been surprised when Jack joined the group, although he knew Tali could talk to just about anyone, and the convict's soft spot for her had grown since the mission against the Collectors.
Of course, his peace was not to last, and Tali dragged Ash to the dance floor after his miscommunication with EDI. Shepard could only watch as she swapped her mixed drink for little tinctures of some unholy looking fluid that she promptly shot, two in a row, hooking them right up to her induction port (which had recently been used for far more than just "emergencies") and throwing her head back.
He'd been about to ask her how much she'd had to drink when she started dancing, and all of a sudden he was a horny teen at his first high school dance again. The way she moved was hypnotic, careless and happy, arms and hips and legs effortlessly gliding through space like she had been designed for it. Every muscle and line in her body undulated, fluid and self assured at the same time. He couldn't stop watching her, wouldn't dream of interrupting her grace with his own fumbling. Ash was impressed too, laughing and smiling, holding her friend's hand.
Then Vega must have finally convinced EDI to add his recommendations to the playlist because the music changed. Definitely from Earth, 21st century rap or hip-hop maybe, and Tali just shifted, her movements slower, dirtier, sexier. She understood the beat intuitively, despite the sound originating from a planet she'd never been to and from far before she was born.
Shepard knew he wasn't the only one staring when Tali turned around, her back to Ash, and pressed her ass up against her, grinding against her hips as she threw her hands up in the air. Ash looked surprised for just a moment, polishing off her drink before throwing her head back and giving a whoop. The other dancers gave a drunken cry in response, and suddenly Jack wandered by, summoned by the promise of a good time.
"Shit, Shepard! I didn't know there was a party girl under that bucket! What the fuck is a fun little thing like her doing with a pussy like you?" Jack yelled, backing up on Tali and adding herself to the front of the train.
Shepard could only shrug as Jack cackled.
Eventually Tali had taken a break, and he'd been about to grab her when Joker had grabbed him first. He was obliterated and in the middle of a greatly embellished retelling of how they'd hijacked the original Normandy from C-Sec, insisting Shepard provide firsthand testimony for his captive audience of EDI, Javik, and Traynor. Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard saw Tali talking with Zaeed and Wrex, of all people. He'd had to talk them out of a knife throwing competition, which hadn't been easy when EDI had assured them that she could easily patch any sections of the wall that happened to be damaged…
Shepard smacked his forehead. Knife throwing, a suit breach… Tali's message was beginning to make more sense. It might be bad, she might even need her suit repair kit. He turned on his heel, deciding to make a detour to the master bedroom. Oh, the perils of booze.
As he rounded the top of the stairs, the image in front of him hit Shepard with more force than certain mass accelerator rounds.
Garrus Vakarian, his best friend, former C-Sec renegade, the dark knight of Omega, and — saliently — known absolutely hopeless failure at picking up women, was posted up against the wall like some sort of teen romance vid star, one arm supporting his weight and the other resting confidently on his hip. Tucked underneath him was the slim form of Kasumi Goto, the best and least famous thief in the galaxy, her back pressed against the wall, tracing her fingers along the face paint that marked the scarred side of his face. He couldn't hear anything over the bassy bounce of the music downstairs, but Garrus was murmuring in her ear, and Shepard could see Kasumi smiling underneath her hood.
They hadn't noticed him yet, he realized, or else one or both of them definitely would have opened up on him for the ridiculous expression he knew he had plastered on his face. He took a moment to collect himself, tried to put on his most casual, least plastered face, and resumed his pace up the stairs.
"Hey kids," said Shepard, hopefully nonchalantly.
He saw the turian's back stiffen as his head jerked up to look at him with eyes wide, mouth and mandibles frozen in the middle of the interrupted syllable, looking far less an apex predator of Palaven and far more a startled prey animal in the forest of some garden world.
Enough time passed that Shepard figured Garrus might stick like that permanently, but Kasumi came to his rescue.
"Hey, Shep," she said, far more casually than either of the men. She cocked her head slightly towards him, but didn't take her eyes, or her hand, off of Garrus. "I think Tali was looking for you."
"Yeah, she messaged me," he replied. "She's in the bathroom downstairs. I guess she had a suit breach."
"Oh," said Kasumi, without a hint of surprise. "Well, it sounded like she really wanted to see you. Wouldn't want to keep a girl waiting."
Something about her tone stuck out to him in a way he couldn't identify, but he brushed it aside. Garrus still hadn't said anything.
"You read my mind," Shepard said, and unable to resist the opportunity, added, "I'll get out of your hair. Or rather, your hood and fringe."
Kasumi giggled lightly. "Okay, that was a good one. Come on," she said, interleaving her fingers with Garrus's talons, pulling him toward the stairs and out of his stupor. "We should get back to the party."
Shepard looked his friend in the eye, channeled Wrex, and nodded. "Garrus."
"Shepard," the turian croaked as he passed.
It took all the willpower Shepard had trained over the course of his adventures to suppress his snickering. As they moved out of human earshot — but not the range of the aural implants he'd received from the Lazarus Project — he could make out Kasumi whispering.
"See, that's what they don't teach you in cop school. In my business we'd call it a diversion. You should write it down in your little detective notebook."
"Spirits… He's never going to let me live that down. And you! Just letting me gape like a vorcha. You're lucky you're cute… for an alien."
Shepard shook his head and smirked as he made his way down the hall to the master bedroom. The typical ball-busting was all well and good, but more than anything, he was relieved: his down-and-out friend was finally getting some action. He thought back to that excruciating night with the turian female in the club – not even Shepard's intervention had been enough to save Garrus from a three-course meal featuring his own foot.
Maybe trying out some interspecies relations was just what Garrus needed. Maybe they had that in common, Shepard mused. It had never come up overtly, but he'd long suspected that his turian friend had a thing for humans, whether he knew it or not.
Shepard opened the drawer of the nightstand on Tali's side of the bed. There wasn't much inside, because she didn't have many possessions that didn't fit on her person; just some spare tubes of nutrient paste (he'd learned she was a fan of what humans would call a "midnight snack") and the suit repair kit. It was a rectangular container, small enough to hold in one hand, that held swatches of suit material and some specialized components that couldn't be fabricated with an omni-tool.
It was odd, he realized as he walked back down the hall. She'd never asked him for help with suit repair before. Sure, he'd sat with her while she worked on it herself, asking questions and passing the time, but she had to know most of it went over his head. Maybe this was another important relationship milestone in quarian culture?
Shepard quickened his pace to the bathroom, bowling by a dazed looking Grunt who barely acknowledged his presence. The inebriated krogan shuffled off in the other direction and mumbled something unintelligible as Shepard rapped on the bathroom door.
As the bathroom door opened, any lingering thoughts in Shepard's head about the party or his friends hooking up or quarian customs flew out the airlock. He stood in the open door, dumbfounded, taking in the sight in front of him.
Tali was looking at herself in the mirror, elbows propped up on the edge of the sink, holding her chin in both small hands. Her back was almost parallel to the floor, and her ass was staring him in the face.
It's not like he hadn't seen it before. Hell, he'd seen it outside of the suit, done far more than stolen glances or given it a surreptitious pinch when they passed each other in the elevator. But something about the angle, the way she was standing, almost presenting herself in a way he never would have expected…
Shepard was ripped back to one of his earliest fantasies; the one that had popped up sometime after he knew he was hopelessly smitten with her but refused to admit it, still lying to himself that they could never make it work and she wouldn't be interested.
He was walking into Engineering, dismissing Ken and Gabby on some bullshit pretense. Tali didn't even have a chance to turn around before his hands were on her, wandering all over her curves, and she was leaning back against him and moaning and he'd ripped a hole in her suit with his bare hands and he was bending her over her workstation and fucking her brains out and she was loving it, screaming his name as she —
"Shepard!" said Tali, louder and far more fraternal than usual. "Are you going to come in?" She didn't turn around, though he met her luminous eyes through the mirror.
Shepard silently thanked the quarian ancestors for the interruption. He took a step through the door – one more step would put her right up against him. He was acutely aware of the tent in his pants, and tried his best to hide it with her suit repair kit.
Tali stood up and turned around, regarding him with crossed arms.
"Took you long enough," she said, and he chalked up her surly attitude to the booze.
"No honorary quarian ever leaves their ship without their suit repair kit," He said, drumming his fingers on the container for emphasis but taking care not to move it too much.
"Plus, I saw you trying your hand at the knife throwing contest earlier, and figured it was worth making a detour."
Tali hoisted herself up onto the counter, letting her long legs dangle off the side.
"What are you implying? This knife in my boot isn't just for show, you know. Zaeed even said I was very good! I believe his exact words were 'best technique I've seen out of a beginner with the wrong number of fingers," she said, taking a stab and failing completely at the old merc's accent.
Well, she clearly wasn't in any imminent danger. Maybe she fixed her suit without him.
"Quite the endorsement, coming from a guy like him. If you ever decide that life in engineering isn't for you, you have a second career already lined up as a hired gun." Shepard said.
Her already luminous eyes lit up, and she kicked her feet back and forth. "Ohhhh, I like the sound of that. I could be the leader of the galaxy's first quarian mercenary company. I'd be such a badass."
He laughed. "Something tells me you might have some trouble attracting clients. Most of the mercs I've run into are way uglier. Or they're covered in scars or tattoos or something."
Tali giggled, then hiccupped. "It's funny you mention that… I was actually talking to Jack earlier, and she showed me some absolutely beautiful designs from one of her favorite artists. One in particular really spoke to me."
Shepard's mind went blank. "What?"
She brushed it off. "I can tell you about that later. It's not why I asked you to come find me."
Tali pushed herself off the sink, back to standing, then brought her hands together above her head and arched her back in a long, feline stretch. Shepard tried not to stare too conspicuously at her chest. She was definitely up to something, a prank maybe, but he was too inebriated to put it together.
Willing himself to focus, Shepard simply stated what he knew.
"I take it you don't have a suit breach."
He felt her eyes fixed on him, expression utterly unreadable behind her mask.
"No," she said vaguely, "I don't."
"So…"
Tali sauntered up to him, holding his gaze until she was close enough that he'd have been able to smell the filtered turian brandy on her breath if not for her helmet.
"I want you," she whispered, balancing on her toes, unsteady in one sense but unshakeable in another, putting her faceplate close to his ear. "Here. Right now."
Shepard's mouth suddenly felt very dry. He felt her gloved hands snaking up underneath his shirt, exploring his abdomen as he struggled to put words together. He knew that alcohol made her more bold, but he'd been prepared for basically anything but this.
"Uh." What the fuck? That's the best he could come up with? He felt the heat rising in his face. Was he actually embarrassed?
"Hmm?" Tali purred, noticing his uncharacteristic reaction. "Is the great Commander Shepard speechless? No words of inspiration for the poor, needy quarian?"
He didn't even notice one of her hands leaving his chest until he felt it grabbing his erection over his pants — almost painfully swollen, no hiding it now — her three long fingers, typically strong, even more confident under the influence of alcohol.
"Easy on the hardware, Chief Engineer," Shepard grunted.
Mercifully, she relinquished her grip, apparently appeased that she'd gotten under his skin. She stayed in his space, leaning against him, fingers now tracing his chest muscles, expecting his answer.
He cleared his throat and tried to be diplomatic. "I don't think it's a smart idea, right now. Can we wait until after the party?"
Tali pushed off from him and turned her back, looking at herself in the bathroom mirror for a moment before turning to face him again. She had one arm across her chest, propping up the other at the elbow as her fingers played with the edge of her veil — a very human gesture, Shepard realized. She must have picked it up during her extranet research.
"So you're saying you don't want to push me up against that sink and find out what I'm wearing under my suit?"
It was like she had read his mind. Shepard gulped. He wondered if she'd ever spoken so explicitly about their romantic activity, and if she had, certainly never without wringing her hands.
"Tali… I know from you telling me, and also from experience. Quarians don't wear anything under their suits."
He watched her eyebrows wiggle suggestively behind her visor, saw the smirk in her silvery eyes.
"Exactly! I knew you'd see it my way."
"You know that's not what I meant," Shepard said, rubbing the bridge of his nose and trying to focus. "And you know I have my hands full out there. Between the belligerent krogan and the biotics demonstrations, we'll be lucky if this whole ward is still attached to the Presidium by morning."
Tali blew him off. "Please. You have Miranda out there," slurring the woman's name for emphasis or on unintentionally, he couldn't tell. "And Samara! Do you really think they will let anyone get too crazy?"
He had to admit, she had a point. Before he had a chance to respond, she had changed the subject, putting a finger to her voice modulator in mock contemplation.
"I am an admiral, you know. Going by the Alliance chain of command, don't I outrank you? I could just order you to do it." She snorted. "Ha – to do me," sending herself into a fit of giggles.
"That's not how it works," said Shepard, flatly, conscious of the fact that he was getting nowhere as she kept laughing.
Alright. Time to change tactics.
"You've had a lot to drink," said Shepard, rubbing her shoulders gently. "I don't want to take advantage of you." She'd confessed before that it made her all giddy when he went into "defender of the innocent" mode, and though the sentiment was genuine, he wasn't above laying it on thick to get her mind off its current track… however enticing it seemed to him.
Tali made a noise that sounded like her suit environment had decompressed, which he realized was her scoffing at him.
"I'm asking you to take advantage of me!" He loved hearing that fire in her voice, even when she turned it against him.
"And besides, I'm not that drunk," she said, drawing it out as if to prove her point. "If I was, could I do… this?"
She produced her omni-tool with something of a flourish and tapped across its interface, and he heard the door cycle and lock behind him. She held her pose dramatically, inviting his response.
"Honestly, yes. I'm pretty sure I've seen you hack more complicated systems in your sleep," Shepard said. Sensing the opportunity to get off the back foot, he lowered his voice.
"Do you really think I brought you along on all those missions against the geth just to watch your sweet ass when you charged into shotgun range?"
He swore Tali's eyes were twinkling behind her visor as she cocked her head.
"The Admiralty recognizes and accepts your flattery," she said, her tone haughty and proper. "But it won't help you here. Nobody's getting through that door until I unlock it. Well, EDI probably could, but I think she has her hands full with Joker."
Shepard remembered the pilot getting more and more fired up after the discussion about firearms in the Normandy's cockpit. He silently hoped that neither Joker nor his eggers-on had managed to locate any firearms with which to turn theories into target practice.
Dragging his mind away from that topic and back to the task at hand, he figured there was no other option than to deploy the trump card.
"Tali… as much as I want to… what about your suit? There's no way this room is clean. Hell, I saw Grunt in here not twenty minutes ago, emptying at least one of his stomachs."
She threw her arms up in frustration, swaying a bit as she lost her balance.
"Damn the suit! How many other girls on this damn station can just, on a whim, get drunk at a party and mess around with their boyfriend in the bathroom?"
Shepard winced. He'd clearly hit a nerve. "Probably a lot. Arguably even more if their "boyfriend" is an asari," he conceded, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Do you think I'd even be suggesting this if I hadn't already thought it through? I'm a quarian… I think I know how to protect my own immune system. I was planning to take my suit off tonight anyway, so I'm already loaded up with immune supplements. "
She had him there. Shepard sighed, wondering what to say, before she spoke again.
"Please, Shepard. I'm not… delicate. I want to be impractical, and risky, and spontaneous, just once. I can handle this," said Tali, her voice softened. Not that drunk, not even really arguing anymore. "And I've thought about it. A lot."
"All right," Shepard said softly. "But for next time, maybe go with a different excuse. Something other than 'suit breach'... For the sake of your captain."
"I can do that," Tali said simply. "Honestly, I never imagined I'd have a captain so concerned about my well-being…I never imagined I'd have someone like you." She wasn't teasing him at all anymore, her tone plain and small.
"Well, not just a captain…" he heard himself saying, his heart seized in a grip by her voice, bringing back a flood of memories of their mutual confession — of finally attaining release from the pent up feelings that threatened to consume him as he held her for the first time, more than friends.
Before he knew it Shepard was reaching out, under her hood, fingers feeling for the now familiar release that would free her visor from her helmet, letting him look into her eyes, the almost pure white of her irises barely contrasting with her sclera, letting him press his lips to hers, feel her breath tickle his nose, run his tongue across the pointed tips of her fangs —
She was stopping him. Hands gentle but firm around his wrists.
"No," Tali said, quietly. "That's part of the deal – my mask stays on. You're… not wrong about the risk. But as long as I'm not exposed to anything in the air, I should be okay."
The dejection must have been plain on his face as she ran a hand along his jaw, through the stubble he'd been letting grow longer after she told him she'd liked it.
"Don't worry," she added, huskily. "You'll get plenty of face time after the party, in our decontaminated bedroom."
Any lingering sadness or concern in Shepard's mind was brushed away by what she implied.
"You're a real pervert, you know that?"
"Mmmm...you love it," she teased. "Now get over here."
He drew her closer but gave her some space to work, her hands working behind her back to unsecure the long purple fabric that snaked around her abdomen to her legs. Tali bet down, bumping her helmet against his chest and giggling, as she unsecured the clasps that secured the covering around her thighs. With the cloth unsecured, she twisted at her waist while keeping it in her arms, gently depositing it in a heap on the counter — the one physical keepsake she had to remember her mother.
In spite or perhaps because of his intoxication, Shepard took a moment to study her. In their other intimate moments, her envirosuit had been an afterthought, an obstacle swiftly removed by frantic need. Her normal attire did little to hide the sleek lines and curves of her silhouette, but the bare black suit underneath left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Her bust and slim stomach flowed together at her waist, seeming almost impossibly narrow considering her incredible hips. Her thighs, powerful but slight, seemed to go on forever. His lizard brain suddenly understood why quarians adorned their suits with elaborate coverings — she really did look more naked without it.
She turned back to him, only her veil and the glossy nanoweave skin of her suit remaining, and the drunken realization reached his mouth ahead of his brain.
"Huh. I always thought that was all one piece." He ran a finger along the inside of her hood.
"Oh no you don't, you bosh'tet. I see what you're doing. No new lessons on quarian culture until I've had my fill," Tali breathed, hands roaming all over him again.
Fuck it, thought Shepard, the thudding in his chest and the tightness in his pants overwhelming any clearheaded answer to her obvious lust.
"As you wish, Admiral vas Normandy," he growled.
He hooked his thumbs into the seam in her suit that was now exposed in the middle of her ribs, hearing a faint hiss as her suit atmosphere dissipated with the broken seal. Teasing her, he worked the lower half of her suit down slowly, eliciting a pleased gasp as his fingernails left the top half of her suit and met her skin. Shepard relished the way she reacted to his every touch, no matter where or how small.
A flash of the palest lilac and Tali's skin was exposed to the air, supplanting the deep purples of her visor and veil as his favorite color. She gasped again as her exposed rump met the cool metal of the counter. A sense of libidinal pride washed over him as he tugged the suit down around her hips to the knees of her boots, watching a slick wet filament trail from between her legs and then eventually snap. Since their first night together before they transited the Omega-4 relay, he'd never had an issue getting her off, but there was "wet" and there was "drenched". She was loving this.
Shepard hoisted her up onto the counter and was on his knees in one motion, spreading her legs as far as he could get them with her suit bottoms still half on. He ran his hands along the outsides of her thighs, and while the pleasure he took from touching her bare skin didn't equal her own, it was close.
Her skin had surprised him during their first time, and not just its lavender hue. There was no hair anywhere but her head, at least not in a human sense; instead her skin was covered in tiny "setae" (he got the technical term from Mordin). Tiny bristles that could be felt but not normally seen. It was impossible to tell just by looking at a naked quarian, but touching their skin would reveal an incredible softness — another layer of sensation kept hidden beneath their suits.
He knew it had something to do with Rannoch's symbiotic biosphere, the native plant life relying on mammals to carry and disperse pollen. This had put images in his head of her, unsuited and radiant, walking through a field of flowers, spreading life and light with each step. He knew it was bullshit — he'd set foot on Rannoch, knew it was an arid world — did whatever cacti analogues they had even pollinate? In moments like this, the irrational fantasy burned into his brain, it just made him feel all the more lucky that they had found each other, that hands as rough as his could touch skin softer than velvet.
Tali shivered at his touch, and he let his breath tickle her core while drinking in the scent of her. She was practically dripping with anticipation. He kissed and sucked on her sensitive inner thigh, usually a sweet spot that drove her crazy. He was used to taking it slow, building her up gradually in response to her extreme sensitivity.
The alcohol within her was having none of that. "Would you stop teasing me," she pouted, as he looked up to meet her gaze with a smirk. "I've been so turned on all night so would you please just– Ohh…" she trailed off as he pressed his whole mouth into her slick folds.
Thankfully, Mordin's cautions about the "dangers" of dextro/levo oral contact had ended up being mostly overblown. The first time they tried it, there had been some mild itching on both of their parts — enough to warrant a dose of antihistamine for her, whereas he just decided to put up with it. After a couple more attempts, though, their bodies began adjusting to each other, and the itching had faded to a slight tingle, an almost anesthetic sensation, which Shepard had come to find quite pleasurable. Tali evidently saw it as a bonus too, if her recent request to "get more practice using her mouth" was any indication.
Shepard didn't know if it was just a lack of data on human-quarian relationships or some specific compatibility in their individual bodies, but he didn't care in the slightest, the familiar fuzzy numbness enveloping his lips and tongue as he eagerly lapped up her taste of her was equally intoxicating — cool in spite of her heat, clear, with an almost floral subtlety, and the barest hint of sweetness. He kissed her lips and ran his tongue up and down, lavishing her with the attention she obviously craved.
"Oh, yes… John … you're so good at this… oh, Keelah…" Tali whimpered, urging him on.
Her anatomy was similar enough to what he knew that he required little prompting, and recently he'd had a lot of practice. He parted her lips with his thumb, exposing the vibrant purple within, teasing her clit with one index finger while easily slipping the other inside. He felt further in, searching for the spot he knew was there, further up and deeper in than a human woman, harder to stimulate with his finger but easier with a different appendage. Shepard knew he'd succeeded when his motion — more pressing a button than the human standby "come hither" — sent a shock throughout her body, sending her hips bucking involuntarily.
"Right there," Tali begged. " Yes...just like that, keep going!"
He repeated the motion, and she got louder and louder, almost wailing, making him wonder if this bathroom was anywhere near as soundproof as his cabin on the top deck of the Normandy. Shepard moved his mouth upward, teasing her clit with the flat of his tongue and then using the tip, dragging it around, across, and over the top. At the same time, he slid a second finger inside of her, joining the first in stroking her insides.
He knew she was close when he felt her greedy hands on the back of his head, and focused on preserving his current pattern of tongue and hand movements. Tali was practically shrieking, the motion of her hips losing its rhythm as she mashed her sex against his face. Shepard felt her thighs, muscular and deceptively dense, clamp down on the sides of his head, her whole body convulsing as she came. He enjoyed the pressure, painful as it was, and a small but very aroused portion of his brain wondered if she was strong enough to crush his skull with her legs.
After enough time had passed that he began to wonder if he'd suffocate — there were worse ways to die, Shepard mused — Tali released her vice grip and he was free to breathe. He rose up and pressed his forehead against the top of her helmet, both of them drinking deep lungfuls of air.
"That was a good start," Tali said, still managing to be sultry even as she fought for breath. "But I want more."
"You know, Miss vas Normandy," he teased, using the pet name that he knew drove her wild, "if you keep being this direct, a guy might just get used to it."
"Oh?" Her tone innocent even as she unbuckled his belt, slid down his pants and boxers. "Would that be such a bad thing?"
"Not…" He trailed off as she stroked him along his length. "...at all."
"I'll keep that in mind. Now no more talking."
Tali turned her back to him and bent over, assuming the same position she'd been in earlier, confronting him again with his countless fantasies. Only now her ass was bare, lavender cheeks pressed against his erection — so hard he genuinely wondered if it might burst, the blood thundering through his ears and heart in time with the bass of the music outside.
Collecting the shattered pieces of his wits, Shepard found himself surprised at her choice of position, although with how riled up she was, he supposed he shouldn't be. Normally she preferred to be able to touch him and kiss his face, although that option clearly was off the table. Not that he would ever dream of complaining about their current arrangement.
Her fingers were searching for him even as he guided himself to her opening. Shepard grunted as he slid inside her, all the way to the base, suddenly extremely thankful for the gauzy film of booze clouding his perception. He felt Tali writhe underneath and around him, her voice trailing off from a shuddering moan into a gasp, and he clenched his abdomen to avoid losing control.
Grabbing her slim waist, he slowly withdrew himself from her almost fully, savoring her whimpers. Then after a moment of anticipation, he slid forward, pulling her ass all the way back to his waist.
"Keelah," Tali cried, arching her back deeper than he thought possible, "Don't s-stop!"
Not one to disappoint, Shepard obliged, maintaining his grip and bringing her back out and in again.
After a few more thrusts, she synchronized into a rhythm, pushing herself back onto him with force as he thrusted with his hips. Her arms straightened out, gripping the edge of the sink, Tali's hooded head dropped below her shoulders.
Shepard had come to treasure the tenderness, closeness, and intimacy which had characterized their growing sex life. With the lingering risk to her health and the cultural implications of shedding her suit, these moments carried an almost ritual significance.
This was totally different — degrading, bestial, filthy. Her undisguised lust had activated something within him, a subconscious and sublingual drive that was shared across their two races. Shepard let his mind go blank, finally discarding the last of his thoughts and worries. This was a deeper form of communication, and he knew exactly what she wanted, because he wanted it too.
The sounds she began to make pushed him deeper into ecstasy, her accent growing thicker, his translator struggling and failing to keep up as she slid further into inarticulate moaning.
Looking down again, seeing her perfect, tight little ass bouncing against him, his hand was in motion before the idea had even made its way into his head.
"O-oh!" Tali squealed with delight and surprise as his hand made contact, her spine stiffening as her head shot back up, the delicate skin already blossoming with a violet flush. "Shepard! Yes!"
He grinned to himself with the satisfaction that only comes from satisfying a lover. Slapping her again in the same place, this time he let his hand linger, gripping her soft flesh as they continued their pounding.
Shepard grabbed one of her shoulders, then the other, pulling her up off the counter and closer to him.
"Fuck," he panted, the change of position sending a wave of pleasure as her insides shifted around his cock. "You're so fucking tight," He said, almost without realizing. There hadn't really been much dirty talk in their previous encounters — Shepard knew she could get loud, but he'd tried to be intentional about not overwhelming her as she adjusted to the twin experiences of being with him and being outside of her suit.
Tali's only response was a moan, louder than before, but he thought he'd heard a hint of a question as it trailed off.
Deciding to forge ahead, he let his hands slide from her narrow shoulders, catching both of her arms just above the elbow, pulling her up further. "You like that?" he ventured, pushing past his own feelings of awkwardness, his voice a low growl.
"You like taking my alien dick?"
Her response was music to his ears. "Y-yes," Tali gasped, her tone desperate, her voice hitching in time with each repeated thrust. "So big, so full.. I love.. I love it!"
Her body would have told the truth even if she'd said nothing at all, writhing in his grasp as they continued their rough pace. Her voice had been getting louder all the while, her moans more rapid and less coherent.
This was clearly working for her, and fuck it, he felt like sharing.
"You know, I thought about this every single day we were apart," Shepard murmured, and he saw the pleading look in her eyes that he'd hoped for the second she turned her head to look at him.
"The way your skin feels, the way you taste, how wet you get when I've barely even touched you. I couldn't get you out of my head. You helped me through a lot of lonely nights," Shepard said. "...and showers," he added, with a smirk.
She gasped and he felt her insides clenching around him — a reflex or intentionally he had no idea — but it was enough to make his head roll back and stop his thrusting, their hips locked together.
"Shepard… I..." Tali started, but trailed off, a tinge of her old embarrassment returning.
"You what, Tali?" Shepard said, hoping the roughness in his voice would conceal the eagerness he felt. "Do you have something to share?"
"I thought about you too," She confessed, grinding her hips against him urgently, wordlessly begging him to resume. "When I got back to the flotilla. I didn't even have my own quarters, but I couldn't help myself. I started with my NervStim but it wasn't the same, didn't feel like you… so I used my fingers, turned my emulator off so nobody would hear me."
The image burned into his brain, and he couldn't help himself from groaning out loud.
"The second I first saw you back on the Normandy," Shepard breathed, thrusting again, "it took all my self control not to rip your suit off and take you right there on the war table."
"Oh… Keelah… John," Tali practically sobbed.
Shepard let go of her arms and pulled her back to his chest, their bodies fighting one another as their hips bucked in unison. She laid her head against him, and her arms were free to wander, one hand gripping his shoulder and the other snaking through the short hair at the back of his head. Instinctually, his hands found their way to Tali's chest, massaging her and feeling her hard nipples even though the thick material of her suit.
Mentally cursing it for deadening the sensation, Shepard smirked as he had another idea.
"Tali," he said, striving for his most authoritative voice. "Seal your suit at the neck."
He caught himself wondering whether that was even something she could do even as she instantly complied, hearing her omni-tool appear behind his head, beep rapidly and then disappear in the same breath. A faint hiss and puff of air near his hands told him it was safe, and he was hiking up the top of her suit, exposing her perky breasts.
Shepard's hands were on her again, skin to skin this time, each one a perfect fit for the size of his melted into his chest even more as he pinched and teased the small purple peaks of her nipples, grinding her whole body against him, as her slickness began to drip onto his balls and coat the insides of his thighs.
"Show me," He growled. "Show me how you used your fingers when I was gone."
Her hand crept down her stomach to between her legs, and he saw her start working her own clit expertly. He compensated when he felt her buckle at the knees, and he supported her weight as her breath caught in her throat.
He looked up at her face, trying to see her expression through her visor, and saw that she was looking not at him but at the mirror, drinking in the sight, bright eyes fluttering.
"I never imagined– This is– it's so hot, to be able to see.." Tali said, as much to herself as to him.
He followed her gaze. The beautiful, lithe quarian body pressed against him, hypnotically rolling as they joined and separated with perfect rhythm, each new rapid thrust sending a ripple throughout her whole body. Urgency radiating off of her until it practically saturated the air, him obliging, dominating, making her his own.
"The second we get back to the Normandy, we're doing this again, in the bathroom of my cabin, with your mask off," Shepard grunted, tweaking her nipples for emphasis, earning him a gasp of pleasure. "I want to see that pretty little face while I make you come."
Not that the picture in front of him right now wasn't the hottest thing he'd seen since he first peeled her out of her suit. He felt himself getting lost in the combined visual and physical stimulation when she grabbed his left hand by the wrist. Snapping back to awareness, he immediately started to wonder if he'd gotten too rough or hurt her in some way, until he felt Tali pulling his hand off of her breast and upwards, guiding his fingers into a grip around her slim neck.
She had managed to surprise him yet again. But after all the fun she'd had at his expense, Shepard wasn't just about to give her what she wanted — even though he knew now exactly what she was after.
"Oh," he teased, leaving his grip in place but applying no pressure. "Should I be doing something here?"
She gave no immediate answer, instead tightening her grip on his wrist as she moaned.
"Just do it… you know what I want," she managed to say, panting.
"I know. But I want to hear you beg," Shepard murmured, right into her helmet's aural pickup. God, he hated her helmet at this moment for obstructing her ears — pronounced, almost deer-like, and unimaginably sensitive. He wished he could take one between his teeth and nibble on it.
When her voice resolved into words, her tone was quivering, desperate.
"Choke me," she asked. "I want you to choke me."
It wouldn't take much effort on his part. He knew the neck was the thinnest and most flexible part of her suit, the most receptive to touch and body heat — knowledge he'd acquired in a far more tender context than their current one.
Shepard closed his grip slightly and her response was immediate, her cries of arousal becoming at once deeper and more delirious.
"Oh yes," Tali gurgled. "Fuck me... please… keelah, please, I'm so close… fuck me!"
Hearing that word in her voice sent lightning through his veins. Not Khelish, but English, and one she'd definitely never used before.
He obliged, quickening his own pace, knowing that his own point of no return was dangerously close.
"Keelah," Tali cried as her body froze up, "John, I'm — John — John — " drifting off into silence, not even breathing, driving her whole body against him, shuddering in silent ecstasy as she lost herself in oblivion.
The sound of his name in her throat was all it took, the last straw, the most perfect sound in the galaxy, and after a few more halting thrusts riding the wave it finally crested and overtook him. Shepard buried himself as far as he could within her, emptying his mind, his soul, his very being in pump after pump inside of her. He could feel himself moaning but couldn't hear anything, the brief transcendence of the hardest orgasm he'd ever had in his life obliterating his sense of time, the universe, any anything apart from the being in front of him.
After an indeterminate amount of time Shepard belatedly realized they had both slid down the wall, his bare ass on the cool tile floor, still inside the slim quarian gathered in his lap. He could feel her panting against his own heaving chest, her masked head resting back on his shoulder. He wasn't sure if he'd passed out.
"So… satisfied?" Shepard was surprised at the sound of his own hoarse voice.
"Hmmm…" Tali replied, and he knew right away that she was, giving him a dry laugh. "I think so… at least for now. Ask me again in a little while."
"Hah... what if you pounce me again? At this rate we might be better off installing sterilizers in every room of this apartment," he said.
"Now there's an interesting idea. The architecture presents some intriguing challenges from an engineering perspective."
Now it was his turn to laugh.
After what could have been one minute or ten, he felt Tali pull herself up and off of him. He willed his body to follow but was quickly humbled, sitting back down and blinking away stars.
As his vision cleared, he saw her pulling up her suit bottoms, drawing them up to her ass just as a thick white glob of his seed threatened to escape. She did a little shimmy to get them all the way up and over her hips, and Shepard looked up to see her looking back down at him, unmistakably smug. Shepard blinked.
"Don't worry, you can help me clean up later. You might want to take care of yourself now, though — there is still a party going on, after all."
He looked down, saw the state of himself, and hurriedly went to buckle his pants as Tali adjusted her envirosuit and expertly donned her purple suit covering. She gave herself a quick once over in the mirror, adjusted her veil, then turned to him, fixing the collar of his jacket for him.
She stopped, and her eyes met Shepard's own, either searching or studying. Abruptly, she pulled herself into a hug, arms wrapped tight around him, her head laid sideways across his broad chest. Instinctively, he returned her embrace, wrapping her up in his arms.
"Thank you," Tali whispered, her voice thick with emotion. He swore he could feel the sincerity, a physical presence in the air, the same way he'd felt her desire earlier. "I love you."
Shepard thought about what to say, turned over the possibilities in his mind, deciding the simplest route was often the best.
"You never need to thank me. I love you too."
He heard the door cycle and open, and she held his gaze again as she walked backwards out, her eyes bright. Then she winked, turned around, and walked away, sashaying in a way that would have been obvious even without all the time he'd spent reading her body language.
Shepard chuckled. He took a moment at the sink to rinse his face and mouth, checked himself in the mirror, then headed out the bathroom door. He exhaled, feeling as if an enormous weight had lifted off of his shoulders. Maybe he'd grab another drink, then try his luck on the dance floor. Maybe he could get the hang of party-planning after all - if the Reapers gave him the chance.
As he moved down the hall and the sound of the party grew louder, he heard a familiar accented voice pierce the din.
"Hey! Jack! I've been thinking about those designs you showed me…"
If anybody gets this far — thank you for subjecting yourself to my first fic, and I feel like I owe you an explanation.
I'm an embarrassingly shameless Talimancer, and I finished my first playthrough of the third game long before the release of the Citadel DLC. After I found out about the party, I couldn't stop thinking about incorrigible horndog Tali having her way with an unsuspecting Shepard. I couldn't find the fic I wanted to read, so I wrote it myself.
I would be remiss if I didn't shoutout Tairis Deamhan, VenomRED, Andrio, T. Bryson, servantofclio, and Xelleca. All of their fics are way better than this one and you should read them.
I write for my day job, but I've never written any fiction to completion, let alone smut. Needless to say, I had no beta readers, so any comments are greatly appreciated (even if you flame the shit out of me.)