When Liara got the call from Triton Station, her initial reaction was disbelief. "You are bringing Miranda back to the Normandy?", she snapped at Shepard. "After everything she has done to us."
"I know this isn't ideal," the commander replied defensively, "Which is why I'm giving you a head's up. I'm not happy about it either, but we need her."
Liara raised an eyebrow skeptically. "She cannot simply tell you where to find this clone?"
"No, but she can help us locate her. She knows a lot about the people and equipment connected with the project, things that you and Alliance intelligence can track the movements of. If we cross-reference enough of this stuff, it should be possible to figure out where the clone's base is."
Liara shook her head. "And that will be easier to do with her help. Very well. Be careful though, Shepard, I do not trust that woman in the slightest."
"I will. She's going to be confined to quarters when she's not on duty and when she is, someone's always going to be keeping an eye on her." Shepard paused. She had some misgivings about sharing her last thought, but she decided to go ahead and do it anyway. "I do think Miranda may have changed," she added, "At least a little. I'm not saying she's a candidate for sainthood, but she really does seem to want to stop Cerberus."
The asari sighed, resigned but still unhappy. "I suppose we will see."
As much as she wanted to rely on Shepard's judgment, the wait for her bondmate to return was only making Liara more anxious. The Spectre was always quick to see the best in people, even those with dubious pasts. It had served her well at times; she had taken troubled individuals like Wrex and Jack and turned them into valued allies after all, but in this case, Liara simply couldn't bring herself to trust Miranda's alleged change of heart. She suspected the woman was planning something and, though she tried to keep working, when the scheduled arrival time for Shepard's shuttle approached, she couldn't resist the urge to go and meet it. Nor was she alone; word had spread that the infamous Miranda Lawson was en route and much of the crew had turned out to see her.
"I can't believe she's coming back here," Tali said to Garrus while shooting a furtive look over at Liara, "After what she did to her and Shepard."
"I cannot believe the commander permitted her to live at all," Javik opined.
"Well, Shepard's funny like that," Garrus quipped. "Not as quick to put bullets in heads as some people. Me, I'm with you."
Liara said nothing. The more she thought about seeing the operative again, the angrier she became. The woman had thrown herself and her Cerberus whores at Shepard and when that failed, she had resorted to kidnapping and murder. With all of the good people that had already died in this war, Miranda getting another chance to burn them was intolerable.
She was still stewing ten minutes later when the shuttle landed and as the door opened and she saw her bondmate walking out next to Miranda, something in the asari just reacted. Without even thinking about what she was doing, Liara stepped out of the assembled crowd and grabbed Shepard's head in her hands, pulling the human close for a fierce kiss.
Shepard was caught completely off-guard. She and Liara usually avoided public displays of affection; dating someone serving on your ship was already complicated enough without making a big show of it, and yet, she couldn't deny the force in the asari's kiss. Her lips parted automatically for Liara's eager tongue and as the Shadow Broker pressed close against her and her hands ran through Shepard's hair, she could feel herself begin to stiffen against her lover's body.
Feeling Shepard's arousal press against her, Liara pulled back, but only after planting a final, smoldering kiss on her bondmate's lips. As she stalked away from the shocked Spectre, she shot a vicious glare at Miranda, reminding the operative that despite all of her sick games, she had failed to split the two of them up.
Gasping for breath from the kiss, Shepard couldn't quite find anything to say. Fortunately, no one else did either, both Miranda and the rest of her crew seemingly stunned into silence, at least at first. As she hurried her prisoner to the elevator though, the commander could feel the spell starting to break. Though she couldn't quite make out the details, she could already hear Vega whispering something to Garrus and Tali giggling under her mask. As best she could, she tried to keep the blush off of her freckled face, but Shepard could already tell the next few days were going to be long indeed.
After spending the next several hours going through stolen personnel records and captured shipping manifests, Shepard's concerns about the length of the days ahead seemed to be justified. The whole time they'd been working, Liara had kept starring daggers at Miranda while Javik, Tali, and Garrus had scarcely been friendlier, the prothean in particular seeming as if he was always about thirty seconds away from smearing her against a bulkhead with his biotics. Miranda meanwhile had retreated into an icy detachment, whatever vulnerability the operative had shown Shepard back on Triton Station disappearing in the face of the crew's hostility.
Nor was the problem at hand designed to cheer her up. The whole notion of a clone running around, raised by Cerberus and doing their bidding, made Shepard's skin crawl. Was the woman indoctrinated? Lied to? Bribed? She wasn't sure whether she should pity her doppelganger or hate her, but either way, the topic exhausted the commander enough that when she saw Liara hurrying after her while she waited for the elevator back to her cabin, she wasn't sure she had the energy for an argument.
"Hey," she said wearily as the asari approached, "I know you don't like having Miranda here, but we have to deal with it, at least for a little while."
"I know." Liara reached out and pulled Shepard to her for a kiss, less angry than the one she had given the commander before. "I am sorry if I embarrassed you earlier," the Shadow Broker offered by way of apology. "I'm not certain what I was doing. It is only… I put my faith in Miranda, Shepard. After you died, she came to me and promised that Cerberus would help you. She betrayed that trust. The things she did and tried to do to both of us…" She could feel her anger returning at the memories. "I cannot forgive them."
"She didn't succeed," Shepard said softly, stroking a hand along the side of Liara's head. "I'm still yours. I always will be."
"Then show me," Liara whispered into her ear. As the scent of the commander filled her, the asari felt a sudden, overpowering urge to reaffirm her bond with her lover in the most visceral way possible. "Fuck me," she purred, her low tone somewhere between a plea and an order.
Liara had long ago lost much of the shyness she'd had when they first met, but there was still something about hearing those words from the asari that lit a fire in Shepard. Behind them, the elevator doors slid open and by she pulled the Shadow Broker through them. Liara's hands were running over her body, un-tucking her uniform, while her mouth nibbled at Shepard's neck, and the commander found herself both surprised and aroused by the asari's almost violent enthusiasm.
The elevator finally arrived at Shepard's cabin and Liara practically threw her lover out of the doors, leading her across the room and pushing her down onto the bed. Even as the Spectre settled in, Liara tossed off her white coat before climbing on top of her bondmate. As Shepard's arms wrapped around her, Liara started planting kisses all over the commander's face while running her hands over her torso, caressing the sleek muscles underneath her uniform. Against her clothed azure, she felt Shepard's cock stirring, and a whimper of arousal escaped her lips at the contact.
"God, Liara," Shepard murmured, her hands sliding along the Shadow Broker's sides, "What's gotten into you?"
"Soon enough, you." Liara pulled her own shirt up over her head to let Shepard's strong hands caress her breasts and she rolled her hips, increasing the pressure against Shepard's growing erection.
The commander laughed a little at the asari's joke, but she couldn't deny how contagious her bondmate's need was. Sitting up, she took a hard, blue nipple into her mouth, tugging gently on it with her teeth. Liara went rigid above her, her fingers pulling urgently at Shepard's dark red hair, and when she released the slick bud, the asari shoved her back down onto the bed. Her hands grabbed the sides of Shepard's shirt, yanking it open and spilling two buttons onto the floor. The commander opened her mouth to say something, she wasn't sure what, but before she could, a biotic glow appeared around her lover.
With a few swift applications of her powers, Liara ripped off the remainder of her lover's clothes, shoes and socks, pants, bra, and boxers cast aside with little regard for their condition. Shepard's gorgeous curves were laid bare beneath her, and she cupped one of her full, firm breasts in her hands, stroking the nipple with her thumb while her other hand found the swell of Shepard's ass.
"You're mine," she growled hungrily, her mouth nipping at Shepard's other breast. "No one else can touch you like this. No one." She slid her hand over the Spectre's erection, sliding her palm up and down the rigid shaft.
"Just yours," Shepard promised, her length throbbing eagerly in her bondmate's grip, and as if to reward her for her pledge, the asari bent down, taking a neglected nipple between her dark lips.
The asari enthusiastically suckled on her commander's breast for a moment, but though Shepard had slid a thigh between her own for Liara to grind against, her need was too great to wait long for more. She unbuttoned her own pants and Shepard took the hint, her strong hands sliding them off along with Liara's already-damp panties. Once she was fully naked, the asari slid further down Shepard's body, stopping when her face was hovering just above her bondmate's cock. She could feel the heat radiating off of it, and she bent over, placing single, wet kiss on the head.
"This is mine," she insisted as she licked a drop of clear fluid off of it's tip. "Not Miranda's. Not Yeoman Chambers'. Mine." In a single, practiced motion, she took Shepard as deep inside her mouth as she could. Shepard's hips pumped unconsciously and Liara felt more of her lover's pre-come spill out of her, a salty taste she greedily swallowed down before withdrawing her mouth.
Shepard groaned when the asari pulled off of her cock, but her disappointment was short-lived. Liara climbed back on top of her, her wet azure sliding over Shepard's erection. Looking down at the aroused Spectre, she added huskily, "And I'm yours. Forever."
Shepard ran her thumb along the asari's clit to help make sure she was ready, but there was no need. The Shadow Broker immediately started lowering herself onto the Spectre, and in spite of her bondmate's tightness, Shepard had no trouble pushing past her wet entrance.
Liara moaned with pleasure as Shepard filled her. There was something desperate in her need that night, something that went past simple desire. As soon as Shepard was buried snugly inside her, she started moving once more, pressing her hips down to get her lover as deep inside her as possible.
Beneath her, Shepard groaned at the friction of Liara's azure moving up and down along the shaft of her cock. The asari pleaded, "More," and Shepard did her best to comply, grabbing Liara hips so she could fuck her harder. Liara was no shrinking violet when it came to sex, but the energy in her motions still surprised the commander, her eyes filled with a fierce possessiveness Shepard was unused to seeing there. As she continued thrusting, Liara bent down, her kisses along the Spectre's collarbone turning into a hard bite when Shepard stroked the asari's clit with her fingers. The commander suspected it would leave a mark, but right then she didn't care, the slight pain overwhelmed by the pleasure she was feeling.
With each desperate thrust, Liara could feel Shepard's movements becoming more strained, gasps escaping her throat every time the asari pushed down against her bondmate's cock. The Shadow Broker knew Shepard was close to release and just the thought of it made her clit twitch against the human's touch. More than even her own orgasm, she craved Shepard's pleasure, wanting to share the feeling of her lover coming undone for her, and her mind reached out instinctively, grabbing onto the human's thoughts. Shepard opened up to her, and what she felt as they joined sent Liara over the edge almost instantly.
Her mind was flooded with Shepard's deep and abiding love, not just for the ecstasy Liara brought: the clinging warmth of her azure, the practiced touch of her hands, the wet pleasure of her tongue, but for Liara herself. Feeling it, the asari let go of the strain she had been feeling, her jealousy dissolving in the reassuring love of her commander. She screamed loud enough to wake the protheans from their graves, her release ripping through her body like fire, her azure clamping down around her lover as she came.
Shepard followed after her almost instantly, the tightening around her shaft combined with the heat in Liara's mind more than enough to push her into climax. She gripped her bondmate more tightly as she came, spurting over and over again into Liara's warm azure, filling it until she felt like she had nothing more to give and she slumped wearily back onto the mattress.
Her body and mind collapsed into a blissful haze, but she was kept in the moment by the feel of delicate fingers stroking her cheek. Liara was looking down at her, her blue eyes wide, and Shepard placed an affectionate hand on her bondmate's stomach. "Are you okay?", she asked tenderly. "I can't remember seeing you quite that way before."
Liara breathed hard, trying to bring her thoughts back under control. "I am. I… thank you for that, Shepard. I cannot fully explain why, but it was what I needed tonight."
The commander grinned. "No need to thank me. It was fantastic. But if this was about Miranda, you have to know you don't have anything to worry about. She may be pretty, but these days I like my women blue and, you know, named Liara."
The asari smiled, her doubts more than assuaged by their meld, replaced by a twinge of guilt over her earlier behavior. "I do. I realize we have to work with her and I will try to be more civil in the future."
As Shepard returned her smile, Liara promised herself that she would figure out what had made her react that way in the first place. Shepard may have slept around before they met, but the commander had never been anything other than faithful to Liara. She should trust her. She did trust her. And that was why this didn't make sense.
So, what is up with Liara? Can Miranda be trusted? What is special about Shepard anyway? I'd love to see your thoughts in the reviews, and thanks for reading.