Shepard exhaled heavily and rolled her neck before methodically beginning to take her armor off. Their mission had been rough. James had taken a shot to the shoulder and was getting patched up by Dr. Chakwas; Ash had rolled an ankle but it was nothing that a week or so of rest and some ice wouldn't fix. Shepard had come out mostly unscathed, for once- a few scrapes and bruises, but that was all. Her exhausted muscles told a different story, though, and all she wanted to do was get out of her armor and up to her quarters to take a hot shower.
Piece by piece her armor returned to the rack, until finally she stood in the armory in just her compression suit. She stumbled into the elevator and slapped the control panel to take her up to her cabin, leaning heavily against the wall as she made the ascent. When the door finally opened on the Normandy's top floor she staggered into her quarters. Shepard was momentarily disappointed that Liara wasn't there waiting for her, then decided that was probably for the best. Her bondmate would have wanted to help her wash her troubles away, and Shepard didn't think she had enough energy for the other activities that would likely come from that.
Leaving her compression suit on the floor, Shepard cranked the shower dial as far to hot as she knew she could take and stepped into the steaming water. Forehead against the wall, she let the stream massage her aching muscles. She lost track of how long she stood there- longer than was wise, she knew, given the limited water supply on board any ship. Reluctantly, she turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, toweling off enough of the moisture from her skin to keep from dripping water all over the floor of her cabin. She crossed the room to her dresser, pulling out clean clothes and quickly pulling them on to ward herself against the chill of space: boxers, cargo pants, bra, tshirt, socks-
She frowned, looking for the missing item. She checked the other drawers, just to make sure she hadn't put it away somewhere else. No luck. She glanced over at her desk to see if it was hanging over the back of the chair. Not there, either.
Where the hell is my hoodie?
She loved that hoodie- it kept her warm and was comfortable at the same time. She kept meaning to grab a few extras from requisitions but she always forgot. Grumbling, she shoved her feet into her boots and headed back toward the elevator. Maybe she'd left it down in the laundry.
Shepard tried to ignore the goosebumps that raised the skin on her arms and made her hair stand on end as she took the elevator back down. Why Alliance Navy uniforms were short-sleeved she would never understand. Navy vessels were maintained at a steady 16°C. Some people acclimated. Others- like Shepard- didn't, even if they'd spent their entire life on board a ship. She needed that hoodie.
Her hoodie wasn't in the laundy. It wasn't in the crew quarters. It wasn't in the mess, though she did take the opportunity to make herself a cup of hot chocolate while she was there. She leaned against the counter grumpily while she sipped it, trying to figure out what could possibly have happened to it, before she realized the only place on the ship she hadn't checked. With a chuckle, Shepard made a second cup of hot chocolate and refilled her own, then carried both mugs out of the mess and into Liara's quarters.
And there was her hoodie, wrapped around a certain asari who had fallen asleep on top of the blankets of her bed. With a fond smile, Shepard crossed the room, leaving the hot chocolate on the table. She kicked her boots back off and managed to wiggle the covers out from underneath her bondmate before slipping in behind Liara and wrapping an arm around her waist. She pulled the blankets up over both of them, snuggling in and enjoying the warmth.
"Mm… Shepard?" Liara asked groggily, and Shepard kissed her gently on the back of her neck before pulling the asari more snugly against her.
"I had to look all over for my hoodie before I found it," she teased Liara softly.
"I missed you," Liara whispered back, pulling Shepard's hand up to kiss the back of it. "It smells like you."
"I'm here now, love," Shepard reassured her. "Go back to sleep. We'll talk later." With a mental note that she definitely needed to get a few more hoodies, Shepard curled herself around Liara and they drifted off to sleep in each other's embrace.
