So this chapter is a long one. It will have a time-skip, and it will show a performance of Shepard and Oriana dancing, some hot stuff. – However, it will also include lots of flashbacks between Oriana and Shepard, so you guys can understand what happen to them during this time-skip. – Also, I will post a video of a tango dance, which will be the dance Shepard and Oriana will dance. I loved that video, and I find it perfect for this fanfic, so if you want to watch it and picture that's Shepard and Oriana, feel free to do it.

Enjoy! – Sorry for any typo.

Dance: watch?v=NUy9MXzUrVo

Chapter 5: Stay away

Time-skip: December 18th

Academy – The Performance Stage

"Oriana, you have 15minutes to be ready." Some of the older students said, as he was approaching the backstage where everybody was preparing themselves for this play. – Each year the academy had their theme, and this year was the dance one. So the play today is about the different types of dance within the all races, this is already the third day they have been doing this, but today is the last one, and its Oriana's time to show what she's capable of.

"Okay!" Oriana replayed as she went back looking at the mirror and allowing one of another student put her make-up. "Come on Shepard, where are you?" She thought as she looked down at her phone, waiting for some text from Shepard.

Shepard really accepted on joining the ballroom dance classes, and Oriana was delightful to know about that, but things got even more interesting the very moment their tango class started.

"Hum...Oriana has no pair..." The professor Sha'ira thought as she looked at her students, most were humans, but there were asaris, it seems the gentle ballroom dance doesn't call the other races to join them.

"Shepard?" Sha'ira spoke out as she looked around to find her new student.

"Yes?" Shepard quickly showed up by her teacher's side, she was putting one the proper shoes for this.

"You will be Oriana's pair. I know each one should have a male as a pair but we don't more." Sha'ira explained as she watched the human's male with each human female or with the asaris. There's a reason why Sha'ira done that was because there had to be a strong member from the pair to be able to hold the body weight of the other one like it was a simple feather. But since she didn't have any more males, she had to use Shepard as Oriana's pair.

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult..." Shepard perked up an eyebrow.

"It's a compliment, dear. You are a tall girl compared to the rest, and I bet you are strong as well. We will try it out with Oriana and see if it works." Sha'ira said as she pressed her palm against Shepard's back and forced her to approach Oriana.

"Well, it seems I will be your guy." Shepard chuckled before bump her elbow slightly against Oriana's arm.

"Y-Yeah, it seems so..." Oriana said a bit shy, as she took a deep breath and controlled her emotions.

"Ok guys, let's start this! Basic steps for now." After finishing her sentence everybody was already doing what their teacher said, this was their fifth tango class, so they knew what to do, but not Shepard..

"Hum, do you know any of the basics steps from tango?" Oriana asked Shepard.

"Nope, not at all. But I'm a fast learner!" Shepard wiggled her eyebrows before chuckle.

"I hope so, or else you will get yelled by the teacher lots of times." Oriana giggled at Shepard's eyebrows before step closer to her, then she took her hand within hers, placed Shepard's hand on her side. "First the right position." As Oriana kept talking she placed her hand over Shepard's shoulder and with her free hand she grabbed Shepard's other hand and brought her closer, remaining the right distance between them.

"I'm already enjoying this." Shepard was only teasing the young girl around.

"Focus, Shepard!" Oriana tried to sound mad, but she was giggling while talking.

"Oriana, your shoes." A student spoke as she brought some high-heel shoes to Oriana.

"Thanks." The 14year old girl, now looked like she was 20year old woman. She had a beautiful dark dress that had a cut on the side, going up to the middle of her thigh, revealing her entire leg, then it had a whole on the back, revealing her skin as well, and it ended right above her bottom. Her short hair was all wavy(see on the video), then she had some white long earrings and her make-up was the final touch to finish this "mask" of hers. – She knew she had to look seductive, womanly, charming for this dance, it was tango after all, and despite the all other students Sha'ira had in her classes, who were already or almost 18, Oriana was the only one who had the right skills to do this, she was a true perfectionist, and if she keeps training, she will be a true pro.

After putting on her shoes, she stands up, already being used to them, because she had to wear these, when her teacher gave her the new tango dance steps.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Shepard shouted a bit as she ran through the hallways of the backstage, she was breathing a bit heavily, but she seemed to be fine, she took the pills that will make her lungs normal for couple hours.

"Shepard!" Oriana said excited as she approached the older girl.

"Sorry, there was traffic. Anyway, I will get ready." Shepard told her before walk away. "You look beautiful by the way!"

"Always charming..." Oriana mumbled under her breath as she watched Shepard going away to get herself ready.

"Oriana you are the youngest, but you are the skilled one in here. So I will request you to show your tango skills to the entire school at December 10th. There will be a play with all kind of dances, it will last three days, and you will be on the last day, along with other students. – But of course, your performance will be alone, with your pair." Sha'ira explained the dark haired girl.

"I'm honoured, Miss. Sha'ira. I believe Shepard will be too." Oriana replayed her teacher with a big smile on her face. – Her and Shepard have been working hard on the tango classes, mostly because of Oriana, one day she opened up with Shepard and said one of her dreams was to be a pro on tango, so Shepard saw herself forced to train even more with Oriana.

"Good, and she better train a bit more, Oriana. You are perfect, but she still needs a bit more practice."

"I will make sure she will have everything right."

"I hope you don't disappoint me."

"I won't!"

"10...9...8...7..." One of the students started to count as he waited for everybody to get on their right spots.

"Let's do this." Shepard mumbled behind Oriana with a smile, before peck the younger girl's cheek, and then she left the backstage, and went right to the stage. The all lights were turned off, so nobody could see who was on the stage.

"4...3...2...1...Go Oriana!" The student finished the counting, and then pointed his hand forward the stage as Oriana pushed the curtains away and stepped in.

The very moment she was on the stage, one light turned on, and it was pointing at Oriana.

"Shit, it seems somebody is prettier than you cheerleader." Jack mocked Miranda who was right by her side. Yes, Jack was sneaky enough to sit besides Miranda on the chairs, just to piss her off the entire play. Jack was only here because her friend Aria was on the break-dance show, but since she's now here, she rather bother Miranda even more.

"Shut up." Miranda mumbled, as she frowned. Oriana indeed looked beautiful, and older...which was something that made Miranda's nose wrinkle a bit, she didn't wanted her innocent young sister to look like this, but she knew this was one of Oriana's passion, this tango dance, she had never seen her sister passionate about something more than this. Hell, she even started to spend less time at home or with her, just to go train.

The music slowly started to play as Oriana started walking towards the middle of the stage. Her steps were slow and beautiful. When she approached Shepard from the behind, and the light keep following her, people could now see there was somebody else, but they couldn't see the face, because that person was looking down.

((Watch the video: watch?v=NUy9MXzUrVo - This is Oriana and Shepard's show ;) –Plus I won't type the entire dancing movements))

Oriana's arms slowly rose, as she pressed her palms firmly against Shepard's chest, but right under her breasts, so she wouldn't touch where she shouldn't. – Then all of sudden, Shepard looked up at the light, revealing herself, in a beautiful dark suit, with a white shirt underneath it.

"Oh shit! Is that Shepard?!" Jack half yelled half whispered, as she looked shocked at the stage.

"Impossible..." Miranda mumbled as she felt like standing up from the chair and jump to the stage to stop whatever was going to happen.

"So this was what kept her so busy this entire time." Kelly mumbled, she was on Miranda's other side.

"You knew any of this?!" Miranda snapped, looking at Kelly.

"Of course not! I'm as surprised as you." Kelly quickly shot her hands up, like she was surrendering.

"I'm not surprised, I'm shocked and angry!" Miranda kept her hot temper, as she gripped tightly onto the arms of her chair.

"Chill, cheerleader. Let's just enjoy this." Jack smirked as she leaned her back against her chair.

Miranda didn't said anything else, she leaned her back against her chair as well, and watched the show carefully, making sure that Shepard shouldn't touch her sister, but of course, that was too much to ask. The entire dancing was full of touch, groping, on places that Miranda didn't wanted to, of course it was only her sister thighs, which was already a private spot for Miranda, but that's not the point. Shepard's the one touching her sister! Why Oriana never listen to what she said!? She can't believe her sister has been spending this entire time with the damn new girl, she told her sister she was only trouble and she wanted her far away from the blonde girl, but of course, nobody ever listens to her.

There was a part of the dance(Video: 01:28), that Shepard had spin her sister around, and now Oriana held her both arms up, and Shepard's palms remained on her sister's upper back. While doing that, their faces were only inches part, and everybody could see that their lips touched, not a kiss, just a simple brush of lips. How? The damn stage was big, so the own Academy had students with cameras that filmed them, and behind them, there were large televisions so everybody could see up close how their movements were, so when they focused on their faces, Miranda snapped.

"She's kissing me sister!" Miranda shouted as she slammed her fist against the arm of the chair.

"Shut up, queen bee. If you call that a kiss, then we have no chance." Jack joked around.

Miranda felt like hitting Jack, if she couldn't it Shepard, she was going to hit Jack. But Kelly grabbed her arm. "Miranda, just calm down, okay? It's a dance; your sister wouldn't like to know her older sister got in a fight while she was dancing, right?" Kelly almost made puppy eyes, trying to calm down her friend.

"Huff, fine." Miranda sighed out annoyed, as she placed her palms over her lap, trying to control her anger.

The pair kept dancing, and Miranda just felt like hitting somebody, but since Kelly amanged to calm her down, she was just trying to not focus on Shepard, and just focus on Oriana, to try being happy for her sister's performance, because this is what she wished for. A performance to show the school how skilled she was, no matter how old she was. But it was so damn hard to ignore Shepard's figure, when her face remained so closer to her sister's.

(Video: 02:29) When Shepard grabbed Oriana and lifted her up from the ground, dropped her over her shoulder, making Oriana spin around, then come around the back of Shepard's neck, and land on the ground on the other Shepard's side. Made everybody gasp, and they all clapped at the same time, it was indeed something worth of their cheer.

"She got some mad skills." Jack mumbled as she hit her elbow against Liara's arm. "Don't you think, blue?"

"Y-Yes." Liara mumbled, as she rubbed her arm softly trying to ignore the small pain from Jack's hit. She was sitting here, besides Jack as well, with Tali on her side. The girls were excited about this plays, and when they tried to invite Shepard, she said she would be busy with other things more important than stay on the chairs and watch everything, and she was right. She was busy at being the star.

"Amazing." Kelly said with a small smile, as she looked at Miranda and saw her simple nod.

(Video: 02: 35) Shepard was holding Oriana as the younger girl simple lay over Shepard's arm, allowing her left arm to fall besides her, slowly. Then Shepard slowly brought her up, and their faces, once again were close, and the cameras focused their faces again, and this time, nobody could tell Miranda it was not a kiss, that it was a simple dance. It was a true kiss and everybody knew it! Everybody could see on the large televisions, Shepard with her lips pressed against Oriana's, giving her a soft kiss, it was not a brush of lips, it was a true soft kiss.

"Enough!" Miranda shouted again, as she stood up from her chair and began to move away from there, she would go to backstage, and have a conversation with Shepard.

"Miranda, wa-" Before Kelly could grab her, the dark haired woman was already walking downstairs, leaving them behind.

"Shit just got real." Jack mumbled with a grin as she kept watching the pair dancing. After the soft slow kiss ended, they kept dancing for another minute, and it ended.

Shepard breathed heavily as she held Oriana on her arms, then when everybody started clapping, and whistling, she finally brought the younger girl up, and allowed her stand up on her both feet. Oriana smiled and kept holding Shepard's hand, as the both faced everybody and bowed, thanking their cheering, before go behind the curtains, back to the backstage.

"You were amazing, Shepard!" Oriana said excited as she left Shepard's hand, and then jumped on her, lunching her arms around the older girl's neck.

"Not better than you." Shepard chuckled as she caught Oriana in her arms and hugged her tightly before spin her around a bit, and then place her back down on the ground. "Told you, I am fast learner." Shepard winked at Oriana.

"I have no doubt anymore. I'm still all excited, everybody seemed to love it!" Oriana kept her exciting tone, like a little girl fangirling, now it was clear she was showing her true age, but Oriana was a mature girl for her age, if you had a normal serious conversation with her, it seems you are talking with an adult. But she knows how to divide those things, so sometimes she looks childish, and other times she looks like an adult.

"Of course they loved it! They loved you. It's all thanks to you, really. I wasn't even thinking about joining those classes, but now I don't regret it."

"See, this is why you should listen to me more often."

"Yes, boss!" Shepard chuckled. "Anyway I'm going to change. See you later, princess." Shepard winked at Oriana before walk away to a small room so she could change her clothes.

Shepard's Cabin

Shepard removed her dark blazer and threw it over the chair, before sit down on the chair and sigh out. Finally, she was relaxing, and her lungs seemed just fine, the pills effect would last another hour, so she wasn't worried. She was all nervous on the beginning of their performance, but since it lasted so well, she just felt like smiling, and be happy about Oriana. She done the right thing for the young girl, and that would make her sleep better at night.

When she was about to remove her white shirt, somebody knocked on her door, but before she could replay, it was shot open as three human guys stepped inside. They looked students as well, because of their uniform, and they probably had between their 16-18Yer.

"Hum, may I help you?" Shepard perked up an eyebrow, as she wondered who the hell was this guys.

"Oh, of course you can. Come outside, now." The taller guy, spoke. When he finished his words, he showed his small knife to Shepard, clearly telling her this was going to get ugly, and she better remain quiet, or else things would get worse for her.

Shepard gulped, and frowned. She had no clue who this guys were, but she wasn't going to sit around and figure out, she was going with them, she could handle this, it wouldn't be her first time facing a tough guy before. Pushing herself up from the chair, she approached the three guys, who were the same height as hers, and they simple pushed her forward, making her start walking in front of them, as they went to the back of the school, were nobody would be, because most of the school were at the stage watching the final dances.

"Miri, you came!" Oriana called out her sister, with a big smile on her face, she was going to change as well, but when she was about to remove her outfit, her sister showed up out of nowhere, and seemed rather angry with something. "What's wrong?...Y-You didn't liked it?" She thought her sister would be upset about her performance. Maybe it wasn't good enough for her sister?

Miranda was walking around the hallways from the backstage to try finding Shepard, but there was no damn sight of the damn blonde girl. When she approached her sister, she forced a quick smile, the very moment she noticed Oriana was worried that Miranda didn't liked her performance. "I loved it, Ori. Don't worry." Miranda told her, as she gave a pat on her sister's shoulder. She liked her sister performance, she just hated the fact that Shepard was the one dancing with her. "But that kiss...is something you should explain." Miranda looked at Oriana, folding her arms in front of her chest, waiting for an explanation. If she couldn't get information out of Shepard, Oriana would help her out.

"Good!" Oriana was happy again, when her sister told her she loved it, but then her happiness dropped, and her shyness took over here, when Miranda spoke about the kiss. "You see that...T-That was part of the d-dance..."

"I'm not stupid, Oriana." Miranda frowned.

"B-But it is!" Oriana's voice got a bit shaky, she couldn't tell her sister the truth, and she wasn't going.

The day before...

"Shepard?" Oriana rushed her way towards Shepard who was by the bench within the empty dance classroom.

"Yes?"

"I know... we only know each other for couple of months now, but I really need to ask you a favour..."

"Okay, what it is?"

"I don't want you to think I'm weirdo, but it's really important for me if you would agree to help me out. If not, then please don't share this information with anybody."

"Hum... the more you talk the more doubts I have. So just spill it out." Shepard chuckled.

"Well, you see...I need you to be my girlfriend." Oriana mumbled the last word.

"You what?" Shepard asked. "I really didn't listen that last part..."

"M-My girlfriend!" This time she said a bit more loudly, and even though there was only her and Shepard, she still felt very embarrassed and covered her hands over her mouth.

Shepard open her eyes wide, looking at the younger girl, wondering if she was serious. "I'm flattered, Oriana, but..."

"N-No, wait! It's not real! It's just pretend." Oriana's voice was a bit shaky; she was hoping Shepard wouldn't leave her hanging.

"Pretend?" Shepard perked up an eyebrow, now getting more curious.

"Y-Yes...you see, I have a boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend. His name is Ed, he is 16, tall, red hair, pale, freckles, green eyes. But anyway, we are dating for almost a year, but things have changed, he's possessive, mad, jealous, and I can't do anything without telling him first. So I tried to break-up with him, and he just laughed, saying that was impossible because my entire family loves him, and they pretty much want him to stay with me, since he's wealthy too." Oriana was rambling a bit, but she only had the courage now, so she was going to spill it all out.

"He doesn't understand I don't want anything else with him anymore, so he won't leave him alone, I even said to him, that I was a lesbian and that would be one of the reasons of the break-up. That's why I need your help to pretend to be my girlfriend, so he will understand that it wasn't a lie." Oriana finished her words with a deep sigh, before look up at Shepard, her big dark eyes, almost sparkling. "Please, Shepard, I will do anything for you after this is finished. We only have to act like a couple time to time, we only have to hold hands, be friendly to one another, and a kiss that only lasts seconds."

Shepard remained quiet the entire time, listening carefully to what the girl had to say. She could understand Oriana's story, she could understand what the girl was going through now, because she already went through to a possessive jealous weirdo boyfriend, and she isn't going to let this stupid guy to control Oriana's life. So she will help her.

"I could do your homework for a month, or two, no! The entire year! Then I coul-" Oriana was trying to do some offers, so Shepard could really help her.

"No." Shepard started as she picked up her bag.

Oriana felt like her all hopes had been shattered.

"No need to do my homework. I will help you, and you don't have to do anything for me. I will be happy to put that guy in line." Shepard chuckled.

"Really?!" Oriana gained back her hope and joy.

"Yes, girl, really." Shepard shrugged as she smiled.

"Thanks, Shepard, thank you so much!"

"Stay away from my girlfriend!" Ed shouted as he threw fist, hitting Shepard's left cheek, leaving a cup on her lower lip, hell it was so strong, that sent Shepard to the ground

Shepard gasped in pain, as she stepped back and held her cheek, she could already feel blood in her mouth from the cup on her lip. "She's not-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Ed shouted again and kicked Shepard's stomach, making her fall on the ground again.

Shepard groaned again, and rolled a bit on her side, as she held her stomach, she felt like puking, but the only thing that came out from her mouth was a spit of blood, landing right over Ed's shoe.

"You fucker-" Ed kicked Shepard's shoulder, moving her away from him, as he looked at his two friends. "Grab her."

The two students simple nodded and got besides Shepard, both grabbing her arms and lifting her up from the ground.

"You are obviously new here, or you knew you shouldn't mess around with me." Ed smirked at Shepard.

"Go to hell." Shepard looked at Ed with a smart ass grin as well.

"Nah, uh." Ed kept his smirk and threw another fist, this time on her face, right under her eye. "Behave around me, alright?"

Shepard bit down on her bloody lip, controlling herself to not let another groan of pain escape her lips.

"Oh, does it hurt?" Ed asked with a smart ass tone, before throw another fist, this time on her other eye, but above her eyebrow, leaving another cut there.

Shepard still remained herself shut, not allowing herself to give him such pleasure, even though she could feel already blood from her eyebrow fall down, and over her eye, rolling all the way down over her cheek and end on the bottom of her chin.

"We will try something else..." Ed put his hand in his pocket, and from there he removed his knife, the same one he threaten Shepard with. He placed the small blade against Shepard's cheek. "Are you a screamer?" He asked her only being inches apart from her face.

"Go to- AGH!" Shepard was going to insult him, but then he interrupted her. He pressed the blade harder against her cheek, and made a deep cut, trailing it down and ending besides her lip. When she groaned in pain, he simple laughed in victory. The two students dropped her body on the ground and stepped away from her.

"This is a simple warning, Shepard. You better keep yourself away from Oriana, or things will be worse for you. Oh, and if you tell anybody, you won't be the only one I will hurt..." Ed watched Shepard roll a bit on the ground, to try ignore her pain. His last words were clear, if Shepard told anybody what happen, he would go after Oriana as well, and the poor girl was only trying to get away from him, so there was no way Shepard was going to tell anybody.

"Let's go." Ed said as he began to walk away and the other two followed him.

"Bloody hell..." Shepard mumbled under her breath, as she got on her palms and knees, and tilted her head down, watching small drops of blood fall on the ground under her. The blood from her lower lip was all in her mouth, so the only blood that was falling was the cup on her eyebrow, and the deep one on her cheek. It hurt like hell, she remembers this awful pain, pain of being tortured in some fights that you couldn't handle. She didn't fight back because it was about Oriana, or else she would make sure he would swallow that damn knife.

"You!" Miranda shouted as she rushed her way towards Shepard, not really caring the girl was on her fours. Hell, she didn't even knew what the hell happen, since she only got here now, she tried to get information from her sister, but she did not said anything to her, only said it was part of the act and told her to let it go, and not worry about it. But Shepard was going to tell her, oh she would...

Shepard took a deep sigh, as she spat out the blood from her mouth, and then slowly rose herself from the ground. Still feeling a bit dizzy, she took two steps back and finally gained some balance on herself.

"Listen, you have no right to-!" Miranda was about to yell at Shepard, till the blonde girl turned around to face her, and Miranda saw how horrible her face looked like. She was speechless now.

"Left you without words?" Shepard tried to keep her sassy personality around Miranda. "What do you want, Miranda?" She closed her eyes for a second and brought her hand up and placed her fingers softly upon the bruise on her eyebrow, before groan lowly in pain again.

"I-...what the hell happen to you?" Miranda frowned, for some odd reason she felt worried about her, she didn't knew why, but she felt.

"Well...why the hell do you care?" Shepard finally open her eyes, well half of them, as she looked at Miranda. "If you are here to yell at me because of your sister, then get over it. – We are dating, deal with it; go scream against your pillow, go punch a wall or something. – I would tell you to beat me up, but somebody got here first." Shepard chuckled a bit at the end of her words, or at least tried to. Her belly hurt like hell from the kick, and she felt like her lungs were getting a bit messed up.

"Because-..." Miranda was going to explain why she cared, or if she even cared, till she found out, she really didn't had any explanation for that. As Shepard kept talking about her sister, the only thing that Miranda listened at first was the dating part. "You two are dating?!" She snapped, then Shepard told her to get over it, to go scream against a pillow, to punch something, but not her, because somebody got there first...Who beaten her up? That was the only question in her mind now.

"Yes, we are. Don't worry about her, she will be probably in better hands now than before. Oh, and there won't be any sex till marriage."

Miranda shook her head, pushing those thoughts away from her mind, she couldn't care about Shepard now, her sister was more important. "This is absurd!"

"Maybe...its love, Miranda. It does not have an explanation, if you don't know that, then one day you will." Shepard gave her a friendly smile, and that friendly smile warmed up Miranda's heart, it even made her blush for a second.

"I'm leaving now...tell your sister I will call later..." Shepard mumbled, and turned around; walking out of the school, like there was nothing wrong...like nothing happen.

Miranda simple watched Shepard walking away. That smile...

Yeah, long chapter, but I loved to type this! I got my damn all feels, and I was dying to type it, that's why I done it on the very next day after the last one. xD – So surprise! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one will still be a bit about this, and maybe another time-skip, I'm still thinking about it.

Oh also, as I post the chapters, post on the reviews who you really want Shepard to be with. I see reviews saying Miranda, others saying Liara. Obviously there's some Shepard and Miranda stuff in here, feelings getting mixed up, but love is a weird thing, right? Maybe an asari in the middle will change everything, or maybe not. It's up to you, my fellow readers.

Stick around!