Ideas pop into my head and I want to use this as a place I can put them down without disrupting the flow of Changeling. This is canon to my particular Shepard and her and Kaidan's story in my other fics. Not beta-ed, because they are quick little things so all mistakes are my own. I hope you enjoy! Thanks~
"So what made you join up?" Kaidan says it casually. They lean up against his console, eating sandwiches they'd begged Ash to make for them. Shepard hates cooking and the extent of Kaidan's skills is MREs. She's smiling in self-satisfied victory, just a tiny lift of her small, pretty lips. Ash had been unable to resist the combined might of their puppy dog eyes, when she had sat in the mess with her own massive and very mouth-watering sandwich. Shepard and Kaidan had dubbed it 'Operation Sandwich Time', and they always got the mission done.
"What?" She asks. She looks up at him in puzzlement, taking another big bite. He thinks Shepard makes eating like a pig look charming. Maybe he's just a sick, sick man.
He clears his throat and clarifies. "The Alliance. What made you join up?"
She stares at him, chewing thoughtfully.
"Sorry, ma'am. I didn't mean to pry. I was just…curious. I told you about how I joined and I-I thou-" Kaidan's rambling again, cursing himself for forgetting who he was speaking to. She's not just Shepard, she's his CO and they are not just friends hanging out on a lunch break.
"Oh yeah. Your 'romantic dream'." She laughs, but it's not mocking. It's like she thinks his reason for joining up was…cute. Her nose wrinkles slightly, distorting the freckles across it.
"Ha, yeah, pretty silly." He chuckles awkwardly. "Sorry to bother you-"
She stops his apology. "It's no bother. I was just surprised. No one really asked me before."
She picks little bits out of her sandwich, toying with it and leans against the console again. She's not looking him in the eyes anymore.
"I joined because I was…I guess, I got in over my head with some things. And when you get desperate there's far worse places you can go than the Alliance."
He hadn't thought it would be like that, she's so Alliance through and through he'd thought she might have been a Spacer, with family already joined up. He hadn't wanted to ruin the light mood with bad memories. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be." Shepard raises her gaze back to his. "It's in the past now. I'm a big girl."
"If you don't mind me asking: what 'things' did you get caught up in?" His curiosity about her, to learn everything he can, makes him far bolder than usual.
"Ah. You have to know me pretty well for me to tell you that." She's firm and he knows he won't hear anything personal about her today. They always seem to talk about his past, but he wants to talk about her.
"I'd like to get to know you. Um…I m-mean, I might have been reading things wrong but-"
"Hey." She reaches out, and places a hand on his bicep briefly. The contact sparks a little, a small static discharge. They both ignore it. "I'd like to get to know you, too."
Kaidan has to fight back a ridiculous grin and ignore how his arm burns. Her touch does weird things to him. Weird, very non-regulation things.
"So, what's your favorite food, color and what's the first thing you did when you discovered you had biotics?" He says it in a rush, half joking.
"Um." There's that ten-thousand megawatt smile of hers, like she thinks he's funny. It makes Kaidan wish he had a sense of humor like Garrus or Joker. He always wanted to make her smile like that.
"This is me getting to know you." Kaidan leans on the console with her, not looking her in the face and giving her time to answer.
There's lightness in her voice, like she's trying to hold back a laugh as she answers: "Ok, I like hamburgers, all kinds of blue, and I made my brother's toys float. Now you, same questions?"
"Steak sandwiches, green and I accidentally knocked my mother's china case down." He says promptly.
"Ha! What?!"
"Yeah. Let's just say my control wasn't very good back then. I was trying to grab the ball I'd thrown up on top of it down…and well the whole thing came crashing. It was the only time I've seen her go that shade of red. She's pretty short, y'know, maybe a little shorter than you." He waves a hand over her head, measuring the height. "But damned if my Pa wasn't terrified when she finally lost her temper."
Kaidan chuckles a little, remembering that day. It was before he knew that the biotics singled him out of a crowd, before he learned to hide them. Kids didn't like it when you could throw a ball further than them with just your mind.
"'Finally'?" She queries.
"Yeah, my Ma, she doesn't get angry easy. She's pretty calm through everything, keeps dad grounded."
"Oh, a bit like you I guess?" She's teasing him again, but her face is earnest.
"You think I'm calm?"
"Oh hell yeah." Shepard nods fervently as she throws the leftovers of their sandwiches in the trash. "Garrus and me, we're always running around crazy in the Mako and then there's a serious voice from the back: 'Commander, don't you think we should ease up on the accelerator?'"
He lets out a bark of laughter, and she smiles again. "Maybe I just like having all my limbs intact."
"Mmm hmm. Well I like it." She says coyly.
Shepard moves to grab herself a bottle of water, throwing over her shoulder. "I don't know if you've noticed this but I'm pretty stubborn and a little pig headed."
"No! Not Commander Shepard! You're the very model of restraint." Kaidan mock gasps at her, pulling a scandalized face. She's giggling in earnest as she hands him his own water.
"Oh shut it you." She says as she gently punches him in the arm.
Once their laughter has died down he shakes his head. "No, really. You're not pig-headed."
"Yes I am. Anderson is forever telling me how much he wants to strangle me sometimes."
"It just means you're passionate for what you believe in. Passion isn't a bad thing." He argues. She has no idea how he sees her, how amazing she is.
"Oh yes, ha. I am a very passionate woman, LT. I'll have to show you sometime." She looks horrified as soon as she says it, the easy smile sliding off her face. For his part he chokes on his own saliva.
"Oh my god. And apparently, I have no mental filter either. I am so sorry Alenko, I didn't-"
Kaidan doesn't want to hear her apologize. He wants to offer up a little bit of himself the way she has, even though he might look like an idiot. "Maybe you will. I-I'm uh, I'm pretty passionate myself."
In his head he mentally builds a noose and jumps off. He is terrible and rusty and so bad at flirting.
'Oh god, shut up Alenko. She'll think you're the biggest creep.'
"Uh huh. Really now? Guess it's always the quiet ones, right?" She smirks at him and it goes straight to places, it's definitely not meant to. His heart does a funny little flip-flop.
"Shepard!"
"Coming, Garrus. I'll catch ya later, LT."
She leaves him a little punch-drunk, and way too pleased with himself.