"I'm superior in many ways..."
.
"Did you add the eggs already?"
"I..."
Oriana sighed. "Miri, are you sure you're cut out to be a housewife?"
Miranda's head shot up from the datapad showing the cake recipe she'd tried to make sense of for the last twenty minutes. "Pardon?"
Oriana pointedly looked at the undefinable glob on the table in front of her sister and Miranda's eyes narrowed. She didn't like having her competences questioned... "I'll have you know that I am, in fact, more than capable to keep house."
Oriana quickly charged at the table and got her niece to safety just as a cloud of flour threatened to cover the baby who was skeptically inspecting her mother's work, poking it with a tiny finger. Once Emily was safe in her arms, Oriana shook her head and stated, "Yes, but you can't bake."
Miranda braced her hands on the table and sighed heavily. "I know."
Oriana eyed her sister skeptically. "I thought you like to be precise..."
Miranda gave a sarcastic laugh. "This recipe is far from precise..." Noticing her sister's raised eyebrow, she motioned towards the datapad in front of her. "It says here to add a pinch of salt. What's a bloody pinch?"
"A pinch is a pinch," Oriana stated helpfully, shrugging her shoulders with a smile.
Miranda's narrowed eyes bore into her. "Why thank you. Why don't you add the bloody pinch of salt then?"
"No swearing around Emily," Oriana warned, mockingly covering the baby's ears, which Emily found very amusing as she squealed in delight and grabbed her aunt's hands with her own.
Miranda shook her head, giving another sarcastic laugh. "You should hear Shepard, most of the time she sounds like a drunken sailor..."
"Don't make me take your daughter away from you two..."
As soon as the flour had settled, Oriana approached her sister once more and handed her Emily. "Here, you take her and I'll take care of... that..." Her eyes narrowed as she inspected what her sister had managed to... 'produce' so far. She sighed and looked at the ingredients still standing on the table, untouched. A mischievous smile on her face, she set to work and without looking up, offered, "And while I work, you can finally tell me what's so special about Shepard..."
Miranda blinked in confusion. "I don't understand..."
Oriana rolled her eyes while she kneaded the dough in front of her. "Oh please, you've been avoiding that question the entire time. You told me about her incompetence and all the things about her that drive you insane, but you never told me why you're still sticking around in the end..."
"That's not true, I told you about our first date. That was... nice..."
The insecure tone in Miranda's voice made Oriana pause for a minute until she nodded. "True, that was nice. But I'm sure you've had dozens of other people taking you out on dates and giving you jewelry, so that can't be it..."
"She carried our daughter..." Miranda absent-mindeldy ran her hand through her daughter's soft hair, smiling down at her.
Trying to hide her smile at the display, Oriana turned back to the task at hand. "Yep, that proves a lot, but you could have found someone else to carry a child for you, you even could have adopted..." She reached for a baking pan. "From what I heard, you're not one to easily commit yourself to someone else... and stay..."
"Who told you that?"
"Jacob..."
Figures... Miranda rolled her eyes in annoyance and ran a hand through her hair, unintentionally leaving a trail of white from the flour still clinging to her fingers.
"I was loyal to Cerberus for many years," she protested and Oriana shook her head, smiling.
"Cerberus doesn't keep you warm at night..." the younger Lawson sister singsonged.
Miranda huffed. "That's ridiculous. I don't need someone to keep me warm at night..." Although I have gotten used to it by now... Damn it!
"Then what is it?" Oriana raised a hand, "And just in case it's something I don't want to hear, keep it censored, please..."
Miranda rolled her eyes. "It's not... well, not just that... I mean..."
"Hm?"
Biting her lower lip, Miranda remained silent until her sister turned away from the oven, having finished the cake in only a few minutes. Oriana raised her eyebrows expectantly but Miranda averted her eyes. They fell on Emily in her arms, the baby beaming up at her happily.
With a sigh, Oriana nodded. "Fine, I give up." She turned back to the table to clean it up as she heard a whisper.
"Her eyes."
"Hm?" She turned back around but her sister still evaded her eyes. Still, Miranda spoke, a bit louder this time.
"It's what fascinated me when all I had from her were pictures to help me rebuild her. And when she awoke, she still had those eyes... She has a way of looking at you that makes you feel like there's no one else in the room but you..." She smiled at Emily as she continued, "And she has these dimples in her cheeks when she smiles. Emily has the same ones..." As if she knew her mother was talking about her, Emily shot her a dimpled smile which caused Miranda's own smile to widen even more and she confidently went on, "Out of all the people I've met, she was one of the few seeing through my mask with ease. She was the one patient enough to wait for me until I was ready to open up and even after learning all these things about me, things I'm not easily willing to share, she still stayed... And she still looks at me with that expression... as if I'm the most interesting person in the galaxy, even with all my insecurities and doubts..." She sighed. "I feel safe with her. Comfortable... Plus she's strong and caring and loyal and moslty reliable and-"
Miranda involuntarily stiffened as she felt arms wrap around her, but quickly relaxed when she heard Oriana's voice. "Aww, I knew you could do it! See? Wasn't that bad, was it?" Her sister smiled up at her but Miranda just huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Complacency doesn't suit you..."
Unimpressed by her sister's remark, Oriana turned to Emily still in Miranda's arm and winked at her. "You make sure to kick your mommy the next time she tries to hold back her feelings," she told the baby and Emily giggled, wiggling in her mother's arms.
Miranda turned her head back to her sister, a sudden fear gleaming in her eyes. "Don't tell her I said that!" she warned but before Oriana could reassure her that she would never even dream about telling Shepard what she had just revealed, they heard the front door open and both turned to see Shepard enter.
After greeting the varren that immediately sped towards her, the former commander hastily approached the kitchen but slowed her pace as soon as she noticed the two sisters waiting for her there. She slightly turned her head, trying to hide her face from Miranda, but not even all those years of domestic bliss had managed to decrease the former Cerberus operative's watchfulness... She freed herself from Oriana and approached Shepard, turning her face to get a closer look at the deep cut right above her eyebrow. "What happened?"
Shepard turned away and started rummaging through the kitchen's cupboards. "We ran out of medi-gel," she murmured.
"You... what? How many units did you pack?"
Shepard opened another cupboard and gave a short laugh. "Obviously not enough..."
"That's not a proper answer." Miranda's eyes narrowed as she stepped behind Shepard who was kneeling in front of another open cupboard door. "You didn't just kill this one guy..." she concluded.
Shepard shrugged, shooting her an apologetical smile. "We may have encountered some merc bands on our way home..." she admitted.
Miranda rolled her eyes and sighed, turning away. "Drawer to your left," she added and Shepard thankfully opened said drawer and found the medi-gel unit she'd been looking for.
"Ah, better," she announced as soon as the gel set to work, closing the wound immediately and thus stopping the blood flow. She took the offered towel from Oriana to clean her face and then smiled at all three of them. "I'll just go upstairs and change into new clothes." She closed her hand around the open medi-gel unit still in her hand and hastily approached the door. "I'll... just take that with me..."
Miranda groaned. "Where else are you hurt?" she demanded but Shepard just waved her hand dismissively.
"Ah, just some scratches here and there..."
"Of course..." Miranda shook her head and secured the wiggling baby in her arms. There was no way she'd let Shepard hold her with all that blood still on her clothes – and god knows how many wounds underneath them... "Will you be presentable for our party tomorrow?"
"Yeah, don't worry. It'll just take a minute." And smiling at Emily, Shepard added, "I'll be right back and then I'll put you to bed. Deal?"
Emily squealed in agreement and Shepard nodded, smiling in satisfaction. She suddenly paused in the doorway and turned back around, sniffing. "Is that a cake?" Squinting her eyes towards the oven, one of her eyebrows rose. "Huh, I didn't know you could bake..."
Miranda's narrowed eyes and her growl made the former commander immediately leave the kitchen and speed upstairs to check her wounds and get fresh clothes.
After a while – which was way too long to take care of 'just a few scratches here and there', as Miranda decided – Shepard had taken Emily out of Miranda's arm and had vanished again to put the baby to bed while Oriana tried her hardest to convince her sister to watch the sequel to the vid they'd watched before.
Just as Miranda rolled her eyes and nodded, hoping that would shut her sister up, Shepard sat down on the couch between the two sisters and while Oriana was occupied with the terminal to start the new vid, Miranda didn't waste any time to grab Shepard's fresh N7-shirt and pull it up. Her eyes immediately shot back to Shepard's.
"Just a scratch, huh?"
Shepard bit her lower lip as she gently freed her shirt from Miranda's grasp and pulled it over the long cut running from the right side of her ribcage to her left hip bone, now sealed by medi-gel. The former commander shrugged. "I don't even feel a thing..." she smiled.
"Well, in that case I'm sure you won't mind if I do this..." With a devilish smile, Miranda lifted her legs and placed them in Shepard's lap, the former commander immediately wincing at the contact. But Shepard quickly recovered and, after taking a deep breath, turned her head back to Miranda, forcing a smile.
"Not at all," she breathed through clenched teeth.
Miranda rolled her eyes and placed her feet back on the ground, gently slapping Shepard's shoulder – silently hoping she'd hit another 'scratch'. But as Shepard didn't react, Miranda swung her arm around Shepard's and laced their fingers as she leaned against the former commander's arm, her head resting on her shoulder.
"I'm glad you're back..." she murmured as quietly as possible.
She shot Oriana a warning look as her sister approached the couch and Oriana simply grinned, mouthing 'Awwww' before she sat back down on the couch just as the vid started.
"I hope I didn't emotionally drain her too much..." Oriana shot a worried glance at the pair of feet hanging from the edge of the couch, the entire sleeping figure of her sister momentarily obscured by the couch's back.
Shepard waved her hand dismissively. "Miranda? Nah, I think that's impossible..." She gave a short laugh before she leaned forward and hugged Oriana, whispering, "I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it."
The younger Lawson sister smiled. "Well, I certainly did..." she declared as she turned towards the door, pausing again. "Take care of her," she ordered over her shoulder before she left the house and approached a waiting silhouette leaning against a skycar in front of the house.
Shepard raised her hand and Danner waved back before the two of them got in the skycar and sped into the night.
Whistling for Cal to get back inside and locking the door behind her, Shepard walked back to the couch and kneeled in front of it, contemplating Miranda's peaceful expression. "Tired?" she whispered, earning a groan from the raven-haired woman on the couch.
A smile spread across Shepard's face as she leaned forward. "Why, Ms. Lawson, did the youth tire you?"
A hand was weakly raised but didn't even reach the back of Shepard's head, instead settled for a soft slap on the former commander's arm. Unimpressed by that, Shepard reached under Miranda's body and lifted her up, her former XO's head rolling to the side to rest on her shoulder while she was being carried upstairs.
Niftu weakly raised his head as he saw the two figures enter the room, but as neither of them seemed to intend on bringing him food, he curled back into a ball and dozed off again.
Shepard gently laid Miranda down on the bed and, after taking off her pants and shirt, pulled the blanked out from under her former XO's sleeping form and covered her with it. She turned away and was about to leave the room when she felt a hand on her arm.
"I love you."
She paused and then slowly turned back around, smiling at the motionless figure under the blanket, but Miranda had already fallen asleep again.
"I love you too," she whispered before she left the room, heading downstairs to clean the mess the two sisters had left in the kitchen.
A/N: With a special round of applause for "Guest" (whoever you are) for being right with their prediction back in July last year (wow, has it really been this long already?).
Next up: Shepard's back, let's get this party started! Who will appear? Who will embarass Miranda? Who will take a naked dive in the pool? (OK, that last one won't happen, sorry... :) Plus there's no pool, sadly...)
