Thessia, Shepard's home.
Shepard would often sit on the couch, pretending to relax, but instead listening to Liara directing her Shadow Broker / Evil Empire business. She muted her in-ear translator and simply enjoyed the sound of her voice. It was so beautiful.
Most of the time, she didn't understand anything, as Liara talked with people in their own languages. When she was using English, Shepard didn't listen to the words anyway. Her voice was just a caress.
Sometimes it felt like the asari were cheating. It was just unfair.
Liara talked to the twins using several different Asari languages. Shepard used standard Alliance English most of the time. She never thought about it, she was just used to it. Everyone used in-ear translators anyway. Lots of friends came to visit. The girls went to school, spent a lot of time on the extranet...
One day, while Tali and Garrus were here, Shepard realized her kids were actually speaking both Quarian and Turian fluently.
She tweaked her in-ear translator, switched it on and off, changed the voiceover settings... there was no way around it. Did the girls even need one ? Could anything stop them ?
A few days later they had a little conversation.
Shepard
"Girls, how many languages do you actually speak ?..."
Lara
"Hmmmmm... High Asari from school, the usual Asari from Armali, mom's Asari which is just a little bit different cause she's mom, Asari from Lahna cause we have friends from there, then your English, Garrus' Turian although it is different from standard Turian as you hear it on the net, then Tali's Quarian... hem..."
Sara
"Mom tried to teach us Prothean but... you know, dead languages. Oh yes, Krogan !"
Lara
"ShepaaaaRRRRrrrd. Hehehehe."
Sara
"Headbutt ! Yes ! They use that like punctuation, it seems. Gotta learn this. Boom. Hehehe."
Shepard
"You use translators ?"
Lara
"Sometimes. You know I put the translator in my left ear, so I can hear it and in my right ear I hear the original. After a while both make sense at the same time. It's fun !"
Sara
"I set mine to standard Batarian. So daddy, when you speak to me I also hear it as batarian ! I'm learning. Next time we visit godmother Aria on Omega we'll be able to understand what she says to her henchmen ! Hehehehe."
Lara
"Yessss... like who she wants to murder and stuff."
(both twins giggle for a while after that)
Shepard is overrun. The cute little monsters have won, again.
Shepard
"Girls, I need you to do me a favour. Please teach me mom's Asari. I would really like to talk to her without using that translator."
Sara
"Like we do ? Really ? Cool !"
Lara
"We could teach you high Asari instead. It is more common..."
Shepard
"What language do you use with mom... or between yourselves... when you really want to express personal things, you know, things in your hearts ?"
Sara
"OK, mom's asari, then."
Shepard had no idea how hard this would be. With translators, almost no-one bothered learning foreign or alien languages these days. Asari languages were complex, and even more so for a human. English was so trivial in comparison.
She had to read, study, learn... all the while keeping this a secret from Liara, hiding the books and the vids.
The girls were awesome. They supported their dad all the way, and never slipped a word to Liara. She was the damn Shadow broker and she didn't even find out. That was epic.
That was also the final nail in the coffin of her gloomy feelings. She was focused, like old times.
Shepard felt she would never be ready, so one day she just decided to go ahead.
When she realized, Liara was floored. She felt so in love, so proud. That was the most beautiful gift Shepard could offer her, yet it was something completely immaterial. The gift of being closer to each other. She was also amazed that they could make her a surprise of that scale. And when she spoke asari, Shepard had this funny sexy accent which... turned her on...