Hey y'all. How y'all doing? Good? Well then we'll just get to it then.
"I feel as if I'm about to walk into a nest of thresher maws." Liara put the back of her hand against her forehead. She and Shepard stood to the right of the raised dais where she would give her lecture, hidden by the speaker systems. There was a podium on the dais, but no one stood behind it yet. People were streaming in, some in groups, some alone. They were all scientists, academics of some sort, and reporters: mostly humans, a few asari, and the odd salarian or quarian. Miranda was already seated a few rows from the front, an empty seat next to her.
"You'll be fine." Shepard rested her hands on her shoulders, kissed her forehead. "Just imagine the entire crowd naked."
Liara made a face; she truly did not understand humans sometimes. "How is that supposed to help?"
"Well, if they're naked, they're more vulnerable and… hell, it's supposed to help, make you feel more comfortable." Shrugging, Shepard let her arms fall to her sides, tightened her grip on her cane. "That's what Anderson always told me. 'Imagine the Council in their skivvies,' he told me."
"I fail to see how imagining a room of two hundred people nude except for their undergarments is supposed to put me at ease. If anything, I would find it distracting and in bad taste." Liara glimpsed around the speaker and wanted to disappear. "Goddess…" There were so many people, so many scientists and scholars, so many people that were at least as smart as her. "I don't know if I can do this."
"Hey," Shepard cupped Liara's cheek, turned her face so that their eyes met. "You are the best person I know, and certainly the smartest. You'll be fine. You just get up there, say your piece, blow all of their tiny little minds, and it'll be fine. If you get nervous, I'll be in the audience, you can just look at me and know that I have never been prouder of anyone in my entire life." Shepard's voice was that mixture of gentle and stern that Liara always found to be utterly reassuring.
Her pulse slowed, but a ghost of doubt still lingered. "Are you certain, Shepard?"
"Damn right, I'm sure, woman. How dare you question me!" Shepard grinned and kissed Liara chastely on the lips. "You'll be fine."
Liara smiled and nodded resolutely. "Well, the great Commander Shepard is never wrong, so I suppose I believe you." She smiled and returned the kiss with one of her own. The hum of conversation was growing steadily louder as more people gathered, but Liara didn't hear it. Instead, she considered how Shepard could always make her believe anything was possible. She made an entire galaxy believe they had a chance against the Reapers, even when it appeared that everything and everyone was already lost. It shouldn't be a wonder that she was able to put Liara at ease, to make her feel safe. "Now unless you're prepared to give one of those stirring, pre-battle speeches you give, you better sit down before I lose my nerve again."
Leaning in, Shepard kissed her cheek, squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You'll be great. I know it." She turned reluctantly and left her lover by the dais alone.
"How is she?" Miranda asked as Shepard settled into the chair next to her, slipping her arm from the cuff of her cane and leaning it against her leg.
"Nervous as I have ever seen her, honestly." Shepard replied, glimpsing at her watch. There were still groups of people filing in, more than had been at the social the previous evening. The lecture wasn't supposed to begin for another ten minutes, and it appeared that there wouldn't be enough chairs for them all.
Miranda tilted her head. "She's one of the most powerful people in the galaxy. You'd think after removing and replacing the Shadow Broker with herself, a little thing like a talk on Prothean language would be easy." She had accompanied Shepard and Liara during their confrontation with the previous Shadow Broker, with the yahg, and had been promptly knocked unconscious during the fight. What she did remember was how disgusting the creature was, and that wasn't just human prejudice coloring her opinion.
"I still get nervous before every mission. Got nervous. As many as I had been on. Tell me that makes sense." Shepard shrugged; the correction of her verb tenses was not lost on her former executive officer. "And snakes. I hate snakes."
"Snakes?"
"Yes, I hate snakes. They're gross and venomous."
"Not all snakes are venomous, Shepard." Miranda could not help but point out, smirking. "You've died, you know. And you're scared of snakes?"
Shepard glared at her, indignant at the accusation. "I didn't say I was scared! They make me uneasy. If I see one, I'll kill it. I'm not scared." She crossed her arms over her chest, nodded at the dais. "I think Liara's nervous because this is the first time she's been taken seriously as a scholar and publically recognized for it. Which she deserves."
Miranda did not mention that Shepard deliberately changed the subject. Instead, she followed her gaze to the dais, where Liara stood off to the side. Her hands were folded in front of her, and she seemed calm, poised. "She's an amazing woman, Shepard."
"Careful. I might think you were hedging in on my territory, Miss Lawson."
"Perish the thought, Commander." Miranda reached over and tucked an errant lock of red hair behind Shepard's ear. "You need a haircut."
"Go to hell, Miri." Shepard responded amiably.
"I've been there." Miranda responded coolly, settling back in her seat. "I served under your command, remember?"
At that, Shepard chuckled. The lights dimmed as a matronly human woman stepped up to the podium and adjusted the microphone. She was old, with the look of a librarian who rarely abandoned her books for the outside world. The murmur of the conference attendants swelled and then quieted as the old woman introduced Liara, and Shepard dropped her voice to a whisper. "Bitch."
"So, how do you think of yourself?" Miranda asked, taking a small sip from her wine glass.
There ended up being a few functioning restaurants in the city. Most had converted over during the recovery process as cafeterias and distribution points to feed the survivors. But a few managed to reopen with a very limited, very expensive menu. It was nearly impossible to get a table without a reservation several months in advance. But of course, Miranda could be very persuasive. She may have mentioned that Commander Shepard was in town, and would love to visit such a fine establishment.
There were a limited number of tables, but they had immediately been shown the best table in the house, a darkened booth isolated away from the other patrons. Their table was dimly lit with candles, more for ambience than practicality. Since this was one of the only functioning restaurants left in the world, its clientele was exclusive. No one spoke too loudly, meals were served in courses, and the waiters wore black ties.
The sort of place the commander never would have frequented if she had been given a choice. Liara and Shepard sat on one side of the booth, leaning comfortably against one another. The asari was practically glowing, a small smile never fading from her lips. The lecture had gone very well, and the rest of the day she had been the center of attention as fellow academics pestered her with questions about her research. So much so that she ran over her allotted time by over an hour, and no one complained.
"What do you mean?" Shepard idly turned the stem of her own wine glass between her thumb and forefinger.
Miranda sat opposite the couple. "It is my understanding that female dominants can think of themselves in a variety of different ways. Are you a domme? A goddess? A mistress?"
Liara had been mid-sip of her own wine, and nearly sputtered into it. Even in the dim lighting, Miranda could make out the blush that colored her cheeks. Shepard merely seemed amused. "Ah. I don't know if I've ever given it much thought, Miranda."
"No? Well, Liara, how do you identify yourself?"
The asari plaintively glimpsed at her lover, as if for rescue, but Shepard shook her head, and Liara sighed. "I don't know if I have ever thought about it either. Outside of what we are, that is."
"Then what are you as a couple?" Miranda asked. She had expected a more direct answer, from either of them. Watching the interplay between the two of them was always fascinating. Only someone who was aware of the precise nature of their relationship might catch the subtle cues, the small gestures of submission from Liara, or the casual assertions of Shepard's authority. But it was one thing to be aware of a different cultural practice or relationship, one thing to read about it on the extranet, but quite another to actually know someone engaged in a different-than-the-perceived-normal practice. The scientist in Miranda got the better of her. It was nothing she would have given any thought to before, if her two closest friends had not been engaged in it.
"I'm Shepard's." Liara said quickly, taking a sip of her wine to mask her discomfort with the conversation. Liara had always been so introverted, so uncharacteristically proper for an asari.
"And?" Miranda blinked, surprised that she hadn't had to prompt for more information than that, that Shepard encouraged her lover to continue.
"Well, I am yours and I trust you, and I always have. I trust you to do what is best for me no matter what. To take care of me, protect me, love me, to guide me to be the person I want to be." Liara worried her lower lip between her teeth as she thought. "And I wanted to give you all of me, to show you that I trust you with all of me."
Shepard pulled Liara close to her and kissed the top of her head. "And I love Liara. I want to be… the best person I can be for her. I feel better knowing that I'm not just responsible for myself, but for another person. Now," She took a sip of wine and set it down on the table. "Come on, Miranda. What's with the questions?"
"I am curious to understand. I've never been in a relationship like yours, never met anyone who has been in such a relationship." She left out that she had never been close enough to anyone before to really know what they were like personally. Before Shepard, she had been so focused on the professional, on her work, that other people were merely tools or variables she had to puzzle into her plans. "I'm not judging. I am just curious."
The commander nodded, in the way she did whenever she was mulling something over, considering her words carefully. "Liara is mine. And I am hers. She's my lover, my bondmate, my wife in practice, and simply mine, and what we share is…" She paused, and Miranda noticed her turning the leather bracelet fastened around her opposite wrist. "A promise. She promises to love, to trust, and obey. And I promise to love, to cherish, and to care for her." She smiled lopsidedly at Liara, who was gazing up at her with open adoration. "About right, love?"
"You left out the part where you enjoy having your way with me in whatever way you like, Commander." Liara said quietly, her face faintly lavender, but her smile purely mischievous.
If Miranda had been drinking, or eating, she might have choked. As it was, she carefully maintained her expression of polite attentiveness, which broke when she saw Shepard's jaw drop in astonishment, and she chuckled.
"Liara!" Shepard exclaimed, clearly torn whether to be more surprised or scandalized by the normally conservative asari. But she laughed, and then shrugged helplessly at Miranda. "Well… she's right."
"It seems you've had more of an influence on her than either of us thought, Shepard." Miranda commented, and the women fell silent as the waiter arrived with their main course. As he set the plates down, she thought of what Shepard had said. She had always loved Liara; it had been clear from the first time Miranda saw the two together, even though that first meeting on Illium had been tense, awkward. She had understood their unconventional relationship since Shepard first confided in her about it, but she wanted to hear it in their words, how they defined themselves.
She hadn't determined why it was important yet, beyond a natural curiosity. "How did you end up… in that sort of relationship?"
"It just sort of evolved naturally," It was Liara who spoke this time, since Shepard was busy chewing and waved the question off to her bondmate.
Swallowing, Shepard arched a brow. "Why? Want to join us, Miranda?" She teased, clearly hoping to needle past her former executive officer's unflappable composure. She had always loved teasing Miranda, who was always so proper, so reserved, but in a very different way than Liara.
"Who says I hadn't already considered it, Commander?" Miranda felt a thrill of triumph as Shepard's jaw dropped again, clearly not expecting to be teased back. Usually, she just rolled her eyes at the commander's antics, sighed heavily and ignored her, or at the most came back with a scathing remark. Even Liara seemed amused by the sudden turn of tables, and she patted Shepard's back sympathetically as she coughed.
"Okay. That's it. Enough of this before both of you make me choke on this steak dinner." Shepard gestured emphatically with her fork and knife. "Tonight is supposed to be about Liara and her lecture anyway, celebrating how much academic face she owned today."
Miranda smiled and reached for wine glass, holding it up. "Then to Liara, a beautiful and talented woman who is reinventing everything we thought we knew about our past." She paused as the other women held up their glasses, Liara a little shyly. "And, as Shepard so eloquently put it, owned academic face. May this be the first in a very long list of scholarly accolades."
The women drank, and Liara smiled at her, reaching for her hand across the table. "Thank you, Miranda. It means a lot to me coming from you." The warmth of the asari's skin was missed immediately as her hand was withdrawn. "Now, we've covered unconventional relationships and polygamous sexual activities. What else do humans consider polite dinner conversation?"
A little bit of transitory filler. I'm kind of in a prompt-y mood. So if any of you fine readers have an idea of something you'd like to see in this fic, give me a head's up. I can't promise it'll be included, but I will fo' sho make an effort. Where do y'all want to see this fic go next?