As the door opened and Liara came into view, an all too familiar rush of emotions hit Shepard like a wind. The utter shock in Liara's eyes and voice was evident as she called his name.
"Liara", Shepard spoke, unsure as to what his next words would be as he came to the apartment unprepared, "May I come in?"
"How… how did you find me here?", Liara asked anxiously.
"For a silent information broker, you do leave quite a bit of trail behind", Shepard answered, giving her a weak smile as he coughed nervously, still expecting the answer to his question but not wanting to appear too forceful.
"I, uh… Listen, Shepard. About before…", the asari began stumbling over her words, rubbing her forehead awkwardly.
"Liara, I came here to make sure where we stand", Shepard said firmly, "I want us to talk like we did before – without either of us wearing a mask and pretending to be somebody we're not."
"I didn't pretend to be anybody, Shepard", Liara replied in an equally unwavering manner, "I told you what I'm doing and what I'm after and why I need to get the Shadow Broker for what he did."
"And I understand that", Shepard raised his hand to cut her off, "But you still made it look like you don't care about me anymore. You wouldn't talk to me at all. Do you even still feel the same about me?"
A sad look on her face, Liara seemed unsure while she avoided Shepard's gaze for a while as he watched her intently.
"I need to know what's going on with you, Liara, and I can't go on until I do", Shepard spoke after a moment of silence.
"Come on in", she finally said, turning around and walking towards the window on the other side of the room.
The door behind Shepard closed as he walked through it. He spared a moment to look over Liara's apartment. The first thing he noticed was a picture of Ilos which brought back lots of memories, both good and bad. There were several artifacts placed in displays around the room. Shepard guessed that they had to be Prothean in nature, given Liara's fascination with the species. He proceeded towards the window she was looking through, the rain outside still pouring down. He had gone through it in a haste when he discovered where she lived, so his hair was still a bit moist.
He couldn't quite read Liara's expression as her gaze stared somewhere into the city, her hand on her chin.
"Shepard, when you were gone…", Liara began, "When the Normandy was destroyed… I felt like I was in a dream that just wouldn't stop – a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from... A two-year long nightmare."
Tears started falling down Liara's face and she made no effort to stop them. Shepard never wanted to see her so sad and vulnerable. Failing in restraining himself from doing so, he tentatively wrapped his hand around her to comfort her, scared that she might brush him away. He was surprised when she buried her face in his shoulder as he held her instead.
"I'm so sorry that I hurt you", Liara whispered as she cried, "But for the first time in two years, I felt like I was finally waking up, and I just couldn't believe it… I just…"
"Don't worry", Shepard comforted her, leaning his head on hers, "Nightmare's over, Liara. For both of us."
"So much has changed… But I still feel the same, Shepard. I want you back in my life… I wish I had made that clear earlier, I'm sorry", Liara continued, her voice wavering ever so slightly.
"I want that too, Liara", Shepard assured her, "And I can help you, if you let me. The same way you helped me time and time again. I need you."
For a long time, neither of them spoke. The only sound in the room was caused by the contact between the raindrops and the window of the apartment.
Liara had taken comfort in Shepard's embrace and her tears had slowly stopped. Holding her again felt so right. It made him feel complete again. Liara's assurance that she still returned his feelings gave him no small degree of comfort, as well. This was what he needed to go on – this was what he had longed for ever since he had woken up on the operating table back in the Cerberus station. Shepard was back, and so was Liara.
After a period of silence, Liara pulled her head back and looked into Shepard's eyes, their faces inches away from each other, feeling of bliss reflected from one eye to another. And then the asari wrapped her hand around Shepard's neck, closed her eyes and leaned in for a soft, tender kiss that he had yearned for ever since the last one had abruptly ended. It was everything Shepard had remembered it to be and more; the blissful sensation from the contact was overwhelming, his heart racing at the touch. Much to his regret, the need for air soon became too powerful to ignore and their lips soon parted.
"I need you too", Liara admitted, looking into his eyes earnestly and confidently. Any sorrow left from the fallen tears was now replaced with mirth.
Shepard leaned in for another, more passionate kiss, his hand stroking her back. Liara gently caressed his hair as their tongues left wondrous feelings in their wake, each battling for supremacy, yet locked in a perfect harmony.
"Goddess, I need you", Liara breathed out, her hands fumbling around the clasps of Shepard's armor, trying to get them open. Shepard put both of his hands on her shoulders in response, momentarily stopping her clumsy efforts, and looked at Liara with concern.
"Liara, are you sure? It's been two years for you…", Shepard asked before he was cut off by another quick peck on his lips.
"All the more reason I want to do this, Shepard", she replied firmly, "I want us to be one again. I want our minds and our souls to be together once more… It's been too long. I want to make things right."
"I know… I feel the same", Shepard spoke before the two of them shared another passionate kiss, "Take me to heaven, Liara…"
The asari then proceeded to oblige to Shepard's request, running her hand through his hair as their kiss intensified. While Shepard continued to stroke her back, the need for contact that did not go through the material of his armor and the fabric of Liara's dress became especially urgent. Luckily, she had already begun working on the issue, her hands finding all the latches on his body armor, and with a little help from Shepard himself, soon his shoulder padding, gauntlets and chestpiece found themselves lying on the floor of Liara's apartment.
A few deftly placed kisses along the length of Liara's neck earned Shepard a passionate moan escaping her mouth, and then she retaliated by nibbling at his hear, bringing them back on equal footing. While all that was happening, her hands had already started working on his leg armor, Shepard painfully aware of their proximity to his arousal, wondering whether Liara even knew what she was doing to him with the mere power of her touch, and wondering how he managed to keep himself on his feet from the overwhelming sensations all this time. He could only hope that he performed half as well as she did in his attempts to make her feel the same.
Soon, the remainder of Shepard's armor joined the pile that had amassed around them, and Liara wrapped her legs around his waist as he reacted swiftly, moving his hands to accommodate her new position while having to defend himself from another attack on his lips.
"That way", Liara breathed out amid the kisses, nodding her head towards the stairs next to them that what Shepard hoped they led to was the bedroom. He didn't even get much of a chance to look that way as Liara's lips were once again on his.
It wasn't long before he started climbing up the steps while Liara had now diverted her attention to his neck as she bombarded it with passionate kisses, apparently not realizing that she could make Shepard fall down the steps as his legs threatened to wobble to a dangerous degree, but he couldn't bring himself to either warn or stop her. Thankfully, by the time he was once again overwhelmed with sensations, he had reached the top, barely managing to take notice of the bed in the dark close by.
Liara had to relinquish her hold on Shepard as she unattached her legs from his waist when they neared the bed, but made sure to keep contact as their tongues danced together in yet another lock of their lips. His heart was beating uncontrollably, threatening to fly away in the pure bliss he felt by simply being in Liara's presence again.
Shepard soon started working on the asari's purple dress, somehow managing to find the clasp to get it undone, and started sliding it down, revealing more of Liara's perfect skin that he still couldn't get a decent look at with his lover's lips on his own. A subtle flare of Liara's biotics illuminated the two of them, drawing Shepard's attention to the seemingly more purple color of her flesh. She got out of her dress, which had already fallen on the floor while her hands made short work of the buttons of his shirt, taking it off as they kissed.
With no obstructions in the way, Shepard could no longer refrain from keeping contact between Liara's skin and his, absorbed in the heavenly feelings of every touch, the love in his heart for her responding to each one with a special beat of its own just for them.
Liara slowly directed Shepard towards the bed, giving him no room to manoeuvre and soon he found himself on the smooth surface, the asari joining him, her hands on either side of him as she looked at him lovingly, her wonderful blue eyes locked on his while she glided her way across to him. Mesmerized by her beauty, he wrapped a hand around her and pulled her towards him for another passionate kiss.
"You're so beautiful", he whispered as soon as their lips parted, a shy smile on Liara's face in response that made him melt, and he added, "I can't believe you're really here…"
"I'd give anything for this to be real…", Liara breathed out, "But I know that I'm not dreaming anymore. It's you."
A soft, tender kiss shared between them said more than their words could. Liara's biotic energy still gave a weak surrounding light while she tugged on Shepard's pants, struggling to get them off until he gave a helping hand.
Once they were out of the way, Liara worked her way back to Shepard, their lips colliding once more while she caressed the length of his arm, their fingers intertwining in their own embrace when she reached his hand. Even with the contact they had, it was still not enough: Shepard's heart ached for the imminent joining of their two beings, to see Liara once again in the light that enveloped her like the sole angel in a galaxy full of sin, the one ray of brightness in a dark world. And as if reading his thoughts, Liara gazed into the depths of his eyes and uttered:
"Embrace eternity!"
And just like that, everything disappeared – everything but them. They both journeyed to a realm that Shepard hadn't been to for too long. It was like being enveloped by a cosmic layer of light. It was a world inhabited by Shepard and Liara alone – their minds, thoughts and souls – and it constantly changed to their will. Every feeling that either of them experienced echoed across to the other. Every kiss they shared opened up another part of their lives, each filled with emotions, some of which long forgotten. They revealed themselves to each other as who they were – their fears and desires, memories of the past and hopes for the future. It was a place where both of them felt safe, far, far away from the troubles of the world they lived in.
"Join with me, Shepard…"
Mirages of the present were the source of the physical sensations that Shepard still felt as he sensed Liara's skin on his hands as he explored it – swimming through an ocean full of life – a life embodied in everything that was Liara with Shepard controlling the waves that went across; the waves that truly gave it life. A single, passionate kiss sent them into a typhoon that brought them together, joined them, made them one.
"I need you, Shepard…"
"I need you too, Liara…"
Slowly, out of fear not to cause any unintentional harm to the one he loved, Shepard moved in as he gently pushed inside between Liara's legs while her hips moved against his, the urge for contact now too powerful to ignore. His name echoed across the ocean – or the room – or maybe both – and he responded with her own name escaping his lips in the explosion of pleasure that both of them felt. Liara's soul was bare as it stood in front of his mind's eye; a cleansing purity that he found himself engulfed in. Here, he could see glimpses of every memory of him and her, of the love between a man and a woman that made the core of its very essence. There were darker memories scattered around – ones of sorrow, regret, anger and guilt – new parts of Liara he didn't remember being there before. But together as they moved in harmony, their bodies somewhere out there locked in a full embrace, their lips joined together, they managed to erase these spots, leaving only love in their place, strengthening one another. Shepard could make out his own memories that Liara seemed to have taken him to, pleasant reminders of the things he loved and cherished in his life – her standing above all of them. His own grief and worry was mirrored there, as well, only for it too to be lost somewhere in the nothingness.
"You're beautiful…"
"I love you, Shepard…"
Shepard was overwhelmed with pleasure from the synchronous movement of their bodies, the way they just fit and completed one another, and overwhelmed with love that he could just feel Liara had for him as their spirits intertwined in one, their feelings for one another being the glue that brought them together, love that was reflected from within himself.
"Liara, I love you so much…"
He could feel Liara's joy somewhere in their shared consciousness as he uttered the words, though it was difficult to notice amid the bliss that surrounded their one identity. Shepard's name had escaped her mouth once again as she reached her climax, the sensations of their physical joining still echoed as if from a distance that was slowly returning. Taking a hold of her by placing both of his hands on either side of her, he gently relinquished himself from her while maintaining the grip on her arms, and proceeded to embrace her as she buried her head in his chest, her hands seeking comfort in his, and slowly the entirety of his senses was brought back to her apartment. Their mental connection and bond, however, always survived past the joining – it lingered on and a part of it had stayed even after his death, and now that they found each other again, it was strengthened to a degree that a part of either one had been left in the other.
"Liara… That was…", Shepard barely managed to say, still breathless, "There are no words."
"I don't think any are needed", Liara looked up, and only now did Shepard see that tears were running down her eyes, though these were nothing like the ones she shed before – these were tears of joy and love, and the mirth in her eyes could only confirm that was so. His thumb moved across her face to catch them as they fell. She ran her hand down his cheek in affection as she said, "Thank you for this, Shepard. I… I needed this. I was lost without you."
"So was I", Shepard replied, giving Liara a quick, soft kiss, "And if anything, I should be the one thanking you. You made this possible."
"No, Shepard. We did", Liara corrected, snuggling even closer to Shepard while she pulled the blanket of her bed over their bare bodies with her free hand, "Could you stay here for the night? Please?"
"Of course, Liara. For as long as you want me to", Shepard assured her and meant it.
"Thank you", she beamed at him, "I love you."
"I love you too", he returned the smile as he stroked her back affectionately, their lips meeting together one last time.
There were still things they would need to sort out, he'd need to figure out a way to help Liara in her hunt if she still wanted to pursue the Shadow Broker, and he still had his own mission to worry about, but right now, there wasn't a place he'd rather be. It was moments like these that he fought for – and he wanted to savour them for as long as he could. Besides, his team back on the Normandy knew of his past with Liara and he had informed them that he was going to find her, so Shepard figured they'd get the picture if he didn't come back to the ship right away.
All that mattered to him was sleeping by his side. The troubles of tomorrow did not matter. As of the present moment, Shepard couldn't think of a more perfect way to make things right.
The End