A/N: Okay so I don't know if anyone else took notice, but Javik confessed his feelings for Liara in the Citadel DLC. Yeah I got super pissed and possessive. Just thought I'd give some context for the part with Javik. Was I the only one who didn't like that asshole? He was crazy powerful in a fight, but FUCK he was such an asshole! At least Zaeed was a funny asshole, but Javik really had no redeeming qualities. I especially lost any chance of liking him after his fight with Liara after Priority: Thessia. Such an asshole! GRRR! And I'm also raging about the fact that some dude on YouTube made a fan vid alternate ending which included Liara and Javik having a baby. I raged so hard I can't even tell you. I mean did that dude not even understand Liara's character at all? As the game progressed, she actually came to hate Javik because he was so completely opposite of everything she wanted the Protheans to be! She came to realize how cruel they were and how much he sucked! There's no way in hell she would ever fall for him! So yeah, if any of you love Javik . . . I'm not sorry. I just can't see Javik and Shep's "relationship" ending in a positive way. Maybe it's just me.

P.S. On a happier note, YAY! Rae D. Magdon gave me permission to use her magic ejaculating dildo idea! So you can expect that in future chapters. XD This story is getting increasingly kinky, I've noticed. We'll call it "character development." How's that? XD XD

Chapter 18

Shepard and Liara stood staring at a kiosk of the Zakera Cafe, adding what seemed like mountains of food to their order for delivery. But Shepard wanted to be prepared for this party. She really didn't want Grunt eating another lamp. After sending out all the invites, Edi had generously (and enthusiastically) offered to cook for the party. Shepard rested her chin on Liara's shoulder and grinned as she watched Liara order more and more food.

"You still don't think we have enough?" Shepard teased.

"I'm sick of our apartment not having any food around," Liara replied. Shepard could hear that adorable crabby edge returning to her voice. "And I want to cover my bases for future cravings."

"I see," Shepard nodded. Then she reached out and added a couple of asari cookbooks to their inventory. When Liara gave her an inquisitive look, Shepard kissed her cheek. "I told you. I want to learn to cook proper asari meals for you."

Liara looked back at the kiosk, then added a few human cookbooks. "Well fair is fair. If you cook asari meals for me, I'll just have to cook human meals for you."

Shepard kissed her cheek again with a grin. "You're too good to me."

An hour later or so, they were wandering the Silversun Strip, enjoying the lights and buzz of people. But what Shepard loved the most was that she could hold Liara's hand the entire time. She didn't have something else to do. She had nowhere else to be. She had no mission to accomplish, no people to see, no worries, no nothing. It was just a normal shopping spree with the love of her life. It was heaven.

They were sauntering at a lazy pace when Liara suddenly stopped dead. Shepard glanced over at her fiance and nearly burst out laughing at the expression on Liara's face. They had stopped in front of Fornax's Fornicating Fun Emporium and Liara was staring at it with a mixed expression of horror and wide-eyed curiosity.

"I'm game if you are," Shepard encouraged. She'd actually been wanting to get some things in there for quite a while but she never seemed to have the time. Until now.

Liara was obviously conflicted about it, to Shepard's continued amusement. She was about to drag Liara in when her omni-tool began buzzing. She glanced down and saw it was Javik, to her surprise.

"I gotta get this, want to meet me inside?" Shepard asked, giving Liara a quick peck on the lips.

Liara bit her lower lip hesitantly, but Shepard saw her curiosity win and the asari nodded. Shepard took several extra moments to watch Liara's hips as she walked away before answering the call. His aesthetically unpleasing face appeared on the holo-display and he greeted her with his usual glare.

"Commander," he said in his deep voice.

"Javik," she replied. "Need something?"

"I wanted to inform you I must decline your offer to attend another human party."

"Oh," Shepard said, a little surprised. "Why?"

"In my cycle, if we were to ever meet face to face again, I would have to challenge you to a battle to the death," he replied bluntly.

Shepard blinked. "What? Why?"

"Because I desire your asari. But you single-handedly did what my entire race could not do. You united the galaxy and defeated the Reapers. Out of respect for you, I will not challenge you to a battle. It is beneath me to feel this way for a Primitive, and it would be insulting to us both to challenge you over the asari."

When he finished speaking, his face settled into his usual stony glare, though Shepard heard his voice change slightly when he talked about Liara. It sounded softer, full of longing. It was more than Shepard could handle. The possessiveness (that Liara seemed hell-bent on unleashing) bubbled up in full force. She had dealt with so much of his shit during the war, so many intentional acts and comments of superiority. And to top all that off, he blatantly insulted the entire asari race after watching Thessia planet burn, to Liara's face.

"Javik," she said, forcibly making her voice not shake with anger, "you can call me primitive, you can call me soft or weak, you can insult me all you like, but don't you ever speak that way about Liara to me again. I get it. All us damn Primitives were in our early stages of evolution during your cycle. But allow me the brutal honesty you're so fond of sharing: your cycle is over, and all us damn primitives have evolved fifty-thousand years. I can only be so understanding to you position, and I've hit my limit. I wish you luck with whatever you do with the rest of your life, and I hope you find whatever happiness is possible for you in this cycle. But for the love of god, stop being such an insufferable asshole!"

All four of his eyes blinked several times. Then to her surprise a low chuckle resonated in his throat. "I do not like you or your cycle, Commander Shepard. But I respect you. Someday, perhaps, we will meet on the battlefield and I will win the asari. But today is not that day. Be well, Commander."

The holo-display went dead on her omni-tool. She could hardly think straight she was so angry. Not an easy feat, considering how well she controlled herself under normal circumstances. But a Prothean risen from the dead wasn't exactly normal. She walked into the Emporium, trying to calm herself as she approached her bondmate. She temporarily forgot her anger, though, when she saw what Liara was looking at with rapt attention. She came up behind Liara to look over the display of toys in front of them.

She'd never been into dildos, but the display filled with them in front of her were quickly making her rethink the possibility. She'd never seen such an assortment before. There were toys designed for humans in all sizes, shapes, colors, and various vibratory levels, and there were some that she guessed were modeled after turians, krogan, quarians, and some she wasn't sure about (and didn't really want to know based on the spikes protruding from the sides). But it wasn't the impressive assortment that caught her immediate attention; it was main selling point on the front of each package in bold letters: EXPERIENCE THE THRILL OF EJACULATION!

Shepard felt herself flush about six hundred shades of red, but she couldn't stop herself from reaching for one. She picked up the package and began reading the features on the back. Apparently this is what happened when curious asari maiden scientists got together with salarian scientists looking for a challenge. An ejaculating dildo. Not only that, but a dildo that would ejaculate her fluid, not synthesized fluid.

"I'm sold," Shepard said with a huge, goofy grin. "Want to get a blue one for you, too?"

Liara looked over her shoulder at the human with a look of shock. "You . . . you'd be open to that?"

"Only with you," Shepard said with a grin. She kissed her bondmate's cheek. "Unless you're not into the idea. That's okay too."

"How about we start with you and go from there?"

"Sounds good to me. Wait, how do you know what this is? Should I be worried?" Shepard said with a teasing arch of her eyebrow.

Liara fixed her with a scolding look. "All asari go through extensive sex-education in school, seeing as we can mate with just about every sapient species in the known galaxy."

"Oh right. Sorry," Shepard said. "You know, that explains why you seemed to know exactly what you were doing our first time. I've been wondering about that."

"I always thought the male anatomy was a little . . . horrifying. But if it were you inside me . . .," Liara trailed off. She bit her lower lip, giving Shepard a shy look with those beautiful sapphire eyes of hers.

Shepard wrapped her arms around Liara and rested her chin on her bondmate's shoulder. "I'm with you. I've never been into toys, but the thought of being inside you like that is definitely appealing . . ."

They both fell silent, losing themselves in the pleasant image. It didn't take long before Shepard was ready to be very much alone with Liara.

"I need to get you home, T'Soni," Shepard said, her voice sounding a bit husky in her own ears.

Liara turned to looked at her with an amused smile, then her eyes trailed down to Shepard's lips.

"I believe it is I who needs to get you home, Commander," Liara growled softly. "I can feel another craving coming on."

Shepard focused back on the pile of toys to stop herself from dragging Liara to the nearest bathroom. "I don't want to hurt you, so want to go with a smaller one just to be safe? Maybe four or five inches long and one and a half to two inches in girth?"

"Asari don't have hymen," Liara said bluntly.

Shepard bit back a grin. Her candidness on the topic always surprised and amused Shepard, considering how private she was with other people. "Really?" she asked.

"In school there was always debate about the evolutionary purpose for human females to have such a strange biological trait. The majority of people seemed to agree that it was a form of population control. Unlike planets like Tuchanka with little variety of plant and animal life, Earth has one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the galaxy. So it makes sense that nature would find a way to keep one species from overpopulating. Krogan lack such biological restraints because their planet is not very diverse. Or so conventional logic would hold. There is still much debate on the topic. But seeing as asari have no males, it doesn't make much sense to have the 'hymen birth control.' Our birth control comes from our long life spans. I have wondered for quite some time if evolution made us compatible with other species to encourage our population to grow. Before asari discovered space flight and other species, Thessia's population was remarkably well balanced. The population stayed around 2 billion for thousands of years. It wasn't until we went into space that our population began to grow exponentially."

An amused smile entered Shepard's lips. "I'm sure there has been many a nerd debate on Earth about how and why asari are sexually female, considering they don't actually get pregnant from sex. So it makes sense that there would be nerd debates among asari about why humans have such a seemingly pointless thing as hymen."

"The agreed upon answer to that seems to be, evolution gave asari extra incentive to reproduce. We believe the universe is connected, that evolution is universal, not restricted to each individual planet. The fact that we can mate with any species cemented that belief. So it makes sense, under asari theories of the universe, that we would be able to relate to other species in a sexual way. If we couldn't, we would essentially be cutting out half the population of the galaxy for possible mates."

Shepard snickered. "Well that's certainly true of human males. And probably krogan. Not true of salarians, but not sure about turians or quarians. Men are men, that seems to be a universal truth."

Liara kissed her cheek with an adoring smile. "I'm very grateful you're a woman."

"I'm grateful you're you," Shepard said, kissing her cheek.

Liara rolled her eyes with a playful grin. "Smooth, Commander Shepard."

"I try. Now let's get you home so we can do it like girls with magical toys," Shepard said with a wicked smile. Liara swatted her chest.

A few minutes after checking out, they began sauntering back to their apartment. Despite her arousal, Shepard wasn't in a huge hurry to get home. She very much enjoyed holding Liara's hand, strolling through the Citadel with not a thing to do. It was wonderful.

"What did Javik want?" Liara asked after a few minutes.

Shepard remembered their conversation and scowled. "He wanted to inform me that he can't attend the party."

"Oh?" Liara asked, turning to face Shepard. "Why?"

Shepard debated with herself for a moment. She didn't want to cause Liara any discomfort, but she also didn't want to lie. They had been through too much to start playing those kinds of ridiculous games. "He said if he ever sees me again, he'll have to challenge me to a battle to the death."

"Whatever for?" Liara asked, concern entering her eyes.

"Apparently, in his cycle, Protheans used to fight each other to the death for a desired mate."

"He . . . what?" Liara stammered.

Shepard felt that possessiveness boiling up again. "He said if he ever sees me again, he'll challenge me to a battle to the death to win you." Shepard looked away, letting out a small snarl. "Like you're some kind of damn prize, or trophy. The fact that he sees you that way . . . he doesn't even see you, he just . . . he doesn't know a damn thing!" Shepard's hand tightened around Liara's.

Liara leaned closer to Shepard, squeezing her arm reassuringly. "You see me, Shepard, and that's all that matters to me. Javik be damned."

"I guess I can't blame the guy for falling for you," Shepard said. "What's not to love?"

"Flatterer," Liara said, a light blush spreading across her cheeks and she looked away with a shy smile.

"It's true, you know. There's not a thing I don't love about you." Shepard leaned in closer to Liara's ear, lowering her voice to that tone she knew drove her lover crazy. "I love the way you talk. I love the way you look at me when you get excited about something. I love the way you feel against me. I love the sounds you make when I touch you. I love the way your eyes fill with wonder when you discover something new about my body that you can exploit. And I especially love how much you take shameless advantage of me. You are not my trophy, you are not my prize. You are my heartbeat, my life." She paused, then added out of spite, "Beat that, Javik."

"Who's Javik?" Liara asked, her voice slightly breathless.

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise when she heard how clearly aroused she sounded. Apparently she need to whisper sweet nothings in Liara's ears far more often. Her cheeks were flushed and she was giving Shepard the kind of look that generally preceded immediate nakedness.

Shepard laughed. "Who indeed? But a better question is: who gives a shit? Now let's get home before we end up on galactic news. Or the cover of Fornax."

A/N: Oh man I make myself laugh. XD Did anyone else crack up like crazy when that crabby ass batarian news guy on Omega said "Who is Archangel? WHO GIVES A SHIT?!" It cracked me up! That's what Shep was referencing, in case anyone didn't ever hear that hilarious line.