A/N: Little bit longer this time - it struck me that these two would have a fabulous connection if only we were able to talk to her in any detail. This is likely the last one I'll be putting up for ME2, I have one more in the works for Liara post-LotSB.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

Shepard made her way slowly into the observation room, taking in the woman sitting quietly on the sofa. She'd been to see Kasumi before - after the mission that had ended so tragically for her - but they hadn't really spoken about anything important. She figured it was time to change that.

She sat herself down, facing the woman who had her knees drawn up to her chest. Neither of them spoke for a good few moments, before Shepard broke the silence with a sharp intake of breath.

"I can't say how sorry I am that you had to destroy your memories, Kasumi. I can't imagine having the moments I spent with someone I love lost from my head forever."

Kasumi nodded slowly, looking down at her pulled-up knees. "It is difficult. It can hit me at different times during my day. I can be eating a meal and remember that Keiji loved the food I'm eating. And yet, I can't remember any situations in which we ate it together."

Shepard reached out to place a hand on Kasumi's knee briefly. "I sometimes find myself wishing that love could be as simple as it is in those books of yours. First meeting, courtship, a simple misunderstanding easily solved... happily ever after."

Kasumi smiled. "I wouldn't have taken you for a reader, Shepard. Especially not of fiction. Large tomes of military strategy, perhaps."

"We all need our escapes. I tend to keep mine on my omni-tool, well hidden in sub-files. Helps maintain the mystery."

Kasumi stood to look out of the window at the stars rushing past. "You speak as if you have experience of my situation, yet there's not enough sadness in your eyes to suggest such a tragedy. Regret, perhaps." She turned to face Shepard. "Like you feel you've missed your chance."

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're perceptive." Shepard said, smiling a little. She watched as Kasumi's eyes lit up at her lack of denial.

"So there is! You know, I heard rumours..." She said, bouncing on her heels before rushing over to sit back down. "Forgive my excitement, but... well, you know I'm a sucker for a good story."

"What rumours?" Shepard asked, relaxing against the back of the sofa.

"That you and a recently promoted Staff Commander fell in love on the original Normandy, starting an epic romance of the ages instrumental in the defeat of Saren."

"I wouldn't say 'instrumental'." Shepard protested, before wincing. She'd walked right into that one.

"So it's true! How exciting." Kasumi beamed.

"It's a little hard to classify it as an epic when one of the people involved is dead for two years before being revived by a terrorist organisation."

"Nonsense! That is just the, as you said earlier, 'simple misunderstanding'."

Shepard laughed. "Simple? I wish it were. Then perhaps it would have been easily solved."

"What happened?" Kasumi asked, watching as Shepard was silent for a moment, deep in thought. Eventually she sighed and shook her head, apparently resolved.

"We saw each other again on Horizon, one of the colonies attacked by the Collectors. He was less than pleased that I was with Cerberus."

"But he forgave you, of course?"

"Kasumi, is he here now?"

Kasumi's face fell. "He didn't leave you there? Oh no, that's not right at all!"

"Perhaps you should tell him that." Shepard said, getting up and walking to the bar. "That he's wrong because he went off-book."

Kasumi scooted to the edge of the sofa, placing her elbows on her knees and resting her head on her hands. "And you haven't heard from him since?"

Shepard couldn't hide the way her mouth quirked. "He sent me a message some time after. Apologising."

Kasumi's face lit up again. "See! Now that is promising indeed. What did he say?"

"That he was trying to get on with his life - he had gone out with a doctor on the Citadel - but that seeing me had taken him back to square one."

"The Citadel, you say?" Kasumi mused, a devious grin gracing her features.

"Kasumi. You're not going to kill her." Shepard warned, but there was amusement in her words.

"Come on, I could be in and out before anyone even knew!"

Shepard laughed properly now. "Because Kaidan would accept that she'd died in mysterious circumstances after being mentioned in a message to me as 'just one of those things'?"

"You visit him wearing the dress from the Hock job and I don't think he'll have too many complaints." Kasumi said. "He won't remember his own name, let alone hers."

Shepard rolled her eyes, but couldn't deny the little flash of excitement she felt at the thought of him seeing her in that dress. She had looked pretty nice, if she did say so herself. Military girl scrubs up well.

"I should really be going." Shepard said, eyeing the alcohol within arm's reach. "Don't want to be inebriated when we go through the relay."

"You replied to his message, right?" Kasumi asked, just as Shepard was about to walk out of the door.

She turned guiltily on the spot. "Not exactly." Off Kasumi's growl of annoyance she threw her arms up into the air. "I didn't know what I could possibly say to make it better. I keep alternating between anger and despair and neither of those are ideal moods to write an email to your ex."

"Just tell him you love him." Kasumi shrugged. "Humans never do that enough. We're about to leave on what everyone tells me will be a suicide mission. There's a good chance we won't come back, and he deserves to know."

Shepard nodded. "I will. I'll do it now."

"Promise me." Kasumi said, suddenly more serious than Shepard had ever seen her before.

She didn't need to be a genius to work out that the other woman's resolution stemmed from feelings held deeper than concern over a friend's love life. "I promise, Kasumi."