Out of the frying pan, into the freezer. Liara didn't know what more could be in store for her today, but she was trapped in the cursed sky-car again, hanging onto anything that could function as a reliable handhold. At the very least, there was relaxing whimsical music instead of the aural-piercing pipes and blood thumping drums. She tried to focus on what sounded like a lute and a flute, but there was a very real danger soaring straight at them - multiple times throughout the drive.
Every part of her was honest-to-Goddess praying she was bruising Shepard's wrist for certain, now.
Bless the seat belts, because Liara was certain she wouldn't be in her seat without them. The sky-car lurched sharply and they'd done a nose dive upwards. She swore she was inches away from smashing her head off the dashboard when they'd suddenly stopped atop a traffic checkpoint bridge. Her question was left to be answered by no one when Shepard promptly left the cabin as soon as she parked.
"Please tell me there's actual ground for me to step on...?"
Liara hesitantly opened her door, but didn't dare undo her seat belt until she dipped her foot out to ensure there was a reliable floor to stand on. She held onto her belt for dear life as she saw hundreds of sky-cars zip down just ahead, before disappearing under the checkpoint. A shadow fell into the cabin when Shepard returned, casually slinging her arm across the door frame as she beamed that cheeky grin of hers.
"Y'plan to get out any time soon, love? View's much nicer out here."
"You couldn't park closer to the edge so I could more easily fall to my death?" Liara blurted, flushing when that hearty laugh filled the car. She panicked when the vanguard began to climb back into the driver's seat. "I was not serious!"
"Know you're not," Shepard's grin grew even wider, if such was possible anymore. "I'm gonna sit in here with ya 'til you're ready to step out and see the view." She looked forward, though blindly held her hand out. "Y'can squeeze my wrist real hard any time you get anxious 'bout the height. I won't let ya fall, doc." Her eyes deviously bounced back in a side-glance. "Unless it's to fall on me."
Liara huffed, but her bite was lost when her gaze swivelled over to her open door. Her throat tightened at the sight of all the racing sky-cars. There was a heady dizzying rush threatening to overwhelm her, up until scarred fingers cupped her chin and turned her head to face Shepard. The Commander had an uncharacteristically serious look.
"You'll miss all the best things in life if y'let fear hold you back - if y'let that voice in your head tellin' you that you can't do it, win. Don't listen to that shite voice, love. You can do it and you'll feel amazing for it too."
"Doubtful," Liara blurted, her gaze trying to return to the sky-cars outside, but the fingers on her chin tightened. She flushed fiercely when the vanguard suddenly neared, closing her eyes as she braced for the kiss. No such thing happened, and her breath hitched, fighting desperately for space in her chest when it was painfully hammered away by her heart. A new wave of heat consumed her complexion when warm lips pressed just before her aural.
"I've got something to focus your mind once y'step out there, love. You'll forget the cars exist. I'm gonna go set it up real quick, be back in a jiffy."
The lips pressed in against the tip of her jawbone.
Cold air blanketed her when Shepard left just as abruptly as she came, true to her flighty ways. Liara's curiosity was compelled to go demystify what it was the Commander was doing, but fear rooted her in her seat. She refused to undo her seat belt, her grip tightening on it as she watched the sky-cars.
Sounds clattered noisily outside the cabin, and she tilted her head to the side to watch Shepard through the car's mirrors. The vanguard appeared to be carrying a box of... Cans?
Shepard's gaze meandered until it snapped to the mirror, and Liara didn't look away quick enough to avoid that blasted smirk.
"You're missin' out, love!" Shepard yelled over her shoulder as she came into the view of the car's front, using her body to shield what she was setting down on the middle of the checkpoint's bridge. She turned around and tapped the space between her eyes. "Just keep lookin' here, I'll never look away. Promise. You were born to be brave, love, and now's your chance to prove it to yourself."
That was some confidence. Liara knew for a fact she didn't possess any such bravery, but there was a small measure of comfort in focusing only on Shepard - and the curiosity of what she hid behind her. The asari sighed and reluctantly undid her belt, though crawled over to the driver's seat to exit out the way the Commander had.
It was a true and tried assertion that the ground indeed remained on this side.
"The things this insane human has me doing... Why can't she do this to Tali instead?"
Yes, yes, torture the poor quarian more, she hadn't been punished - for no reason - enough.
Every part of Liara quaked incessantly, and she swore it was just as bad as finding out that she had ten seconds left to live. She felt foolish for the way she extended her leg, toeing at the ground for a good length's time to determine it wasn't going to buckle beneath her as soon as she stood on it. She blushed when the human laughed over it, huffing with an indignant grumble. "It is impolite to make fun of others, you know..."
"Aw, all my sorries, love," Shepard grinned, a bounce in her gait as she approached - with a pistol in her hand.
Before the archaeologist knew it, her forearm was taken, pulled in and spun about as if she were a puppet dancing on a string. A firm presence conformed to her back, an arm curled around her waist with fingers splayed on her stomach. Her chest kicked and she nearly choked on her own gasp over realizing the precarious position they were in. The only thing that gave her brain something else to scream incoherently about was the pistol being stuffed in her hand.
"Your dominant hand is your right, right?" Shepard murmured somewhere behind, up until her mouth found a comfortable nest just behind the asari's aural. "C'mon, what are y'waiting for? Take the gun, then support your wrist with your left hand."
"C-Commander, we can't shoot up here," Liara protested, fighting with every muscle spindle and fibre not to just run away from here.
"It's fine, this isn't a real gun. It's a fancy laser one meant to practice and hone a sharpshooter's accuracy. Those targets there have sensors and when you fire, it will display your score on the back here." Her thumb tapped the side of the pistol's back, where there was a tiny screen. "No offence, love, but I noticed y'got a bit of a bad hand. We need to get ya a good one before y'end up shootin' me in the arse, yeah? Lemme tell ya, not a fun one to recover from. Why y'so tense? C'mon." Her fingers splayed on the abdomen had given a firm poke. "Relax here. Breathe, and breathe normally. Then hold your breath at the end of breathing, yeah?"
"That... Makes no sense."
Shepard chuckled, and it was warm and purry and breathy and by the Goddess Liara wasn't supposed to be thinking about breaths in this manner.
"Curse her," she inwardly grumbled, clenching her teeth as she tried to ignore the body formed around her back.
"Right, yeah. Okay, so just remember the KISS method."
Liara's blush invented a deeper shade. "Pardon? The what?"
"Keep it short and simple, but I prefer: keep it simple, stupid." The Commander's head exaggeratedly tilted to the side so that she could look at Liara. "No matter how hard you try, you can't stop a natural process, yeah? But you can't breathe while you're shootin', or it'll malign your shots with the wobble. So you gotta hold your breath at the end of your exhale. It's called the respiratory pause and that's the best time to control your breathin', but y'don't wanna force the air out. While your paused, your chest muscles are relaxed and it won't be as uncomfortable trying to hold your breath then."
"I... See..."
Barely. Liara understood, yes, but that whole bit about Shepard giving her something else to focus on?
Lies. All lies.
"H-how long does this pause last for?"
"Depends on your condition and state of mind," the Commander shrugged. "Normal circumstances? About eight seconds, ten at most. Visual acuity is the first to suffer from lack of oxygen, so I don't recommend holdin' for long or your aim's bunged up anyway. Y'can have some air in your lungs - or whatever it's called for asari - to help change your natural point of aim if you need to, and-"
"Commander, this is a lot."
"Good thing we're here to practice it then, innit?" Shepard settled back as she pressed her mouth behind the aural, her hand slithering along the asari's arm to help position the pistol. Her splayed fingers pressed in on Liara's stomach. "Relax. Focus. Line the pistol's dot sight up with the target and raise the gun to about eye-level."
There was a misunderstanding here that needed to be rectified immediately.
"Commander, this is impossible," Liara blurted. "I-I can't focus or relax with you behind me."
Deceptively innocent humming brushed her jawline and sent goosebumps shivering down her spine. She dared angle her head to try to look at Shepard with a silent plea, hastily turning back front with how close she came to the human's lips.
"Then call this the ultimate test for a distracted shooter," the vanguard murmured huskily. "You won't get normal circumstances out on a battlefield. And I really don't wanna get shot in the arse again, doc... Unless you're gonna kiss it better if y'pelt me."
"My aim isn't that bad," Liara protested, feeling the searing heat return to her cheeks over the mental imagery unfolding against her will.
"Love, last time I saw y'take a shot, it was my whisky glass. I can tell when you try not to so you can use your biotics, but you put yourself in dangerous positions to get close enough for it. And what if I need cover fire? Aim won't matter then, unless I'm running up straight ahead of ya. And I've seen you shoot. Not to toot my horn, but I got the best aim on the ship, N7 and all." Shepard came into peripheral view with that devious smile again. "Just lemme have my fun already, it's my turn to be the smokin' hot teacher."
Liara groaned.
"You exist solely to embarrass me, I am certain of it."
"Guilty! Now..." A harsh press in with the splayed fingers, forcing the air up Liara's belly to kick at her chest. "Relax. Or desperate times are gonna call for desperate measures real soon."
That threat did wonders, for Liara truly didn't want to see what other mischievous scheme hid under the Commander's sleeve. She closed her eyes to focus on her breathing, before she felt relaxed with the rhythm that naturally swept her away. Her cheeks remained hot whenever she'd felt the little ways the vanguard would shift in her position, checking posture as she would fix the pistol's aim for Liara every now and then.
"Good," Shepard whispered, her tone losing it's husk and melding with the strange tranquility ebbing into the aura that's blanketed around them. The sounds of traffic drifted away - a momentary distraction that reminded Liara where they even were - and she followed the instructions as if it were being programmed into her. "At the end of your next exhale, don't try to hold your breath, or you'll suck a bit in. Just let it end, drifting, as if you're waiting for the next breath to be fed into you. Think of your lungs as a pump, or machinery. A switch you flick off and on."
Another adjustment. The pistol was getting heavy to hold up so high for so long. She let her arms slack a little, until Shepard's hand returned and slid under the elbow for support.
"You're almost there. One shot, then give your arms a break." A beat. "Just for that, that tells me we need to start beefin' up your arms in the gym too."
Liara groaned again. "Not more drills."
"Yes, more drills. Better to complain about drills than complain 'bout how cold the dirt is when you're dyin' in it."
"In that circumstance, I think I'd have more pressing concerns than the temperature of the dirt. And my suit would prevent me from feeling it."
"Well... Whatever! Listen here, you," Shepard's splayed fingers beamed upwards to jaunt a pokey finger under the painful hollow of the asari's chin. "This wasn't s'pose to get science-y. Take your dang shot before we fall asleep here from you draftin' up another bloody thesis. We need something to measure here - there, that should be all science-y and tantalizin' for ya, get your knickers in a twist."
Somehow, somewhere, a chuckle bubbled in Liara. She found it amusing to have somehow turned the tables - and so easily too - to annoy the human. Good. It was suitable enough punishment for enduring this torture. She didn't take her shot far too seriously when her breath returned, not truly understanding the gravity of the score that illuminated up on the pistol.
Until Shepard inhaled sharply.
"Oh my fuckin' god, doc. 39? What were you thinkin' when you were aimin'? Do you think all our targets are as big as whales?"
"First of all: I do not know what a whale is and you should not be insulting them like that anyways. Second of all: I tried," the asari huffed, "What happened to all that talk and support earlier?"
"That was before findin' out I can shoot better than ya, blindfolded."
Liara shot over a frown, hurt by the callousness of the jests even if in a teasing tone. The Commander immediately stiffened and smiled guiltily.
"Took it too far, did I?"
"Very far."
"Shite..." Shepard blew out a halfhearted nervous laugh. Her hand apologetically slid over to cup underneath the asari's wrist and her eyes aimed back forward. "For what it's worth: sorry, love. Can we try one more time? I'm sure you'll be a quick study, with that brain of yours. I know you can do anything y'set your mind to - proof with you standin' here, yeah? Heights and cars ain't so scary now, innit?"
What a horrible reminder. Liara forced herself not to look, not to listen, training her aim on the can target down the bridge. She inhaled in sync with Shepard, and they both chuckled when they each tried to exhale to the other's pace, skipping out of sync. Once more. The fingers stretched on her abdomen and gently pressed in. She grew comfortable with the body conformed to her back, a natural feeling as if two pieces of a puzzle connecting together. She smiled at that thought.
Air drifted away, swimming off with the tidal wave she'd conjured within her mind. She rose her arms a touch for the dot sight to line up with her eyes. Her finger curled over the trigger and she pulled it towards her in one decisive smooth motion, the recoil controlled with a steady grip on her wrist. Her eyes lit up with the score on the pistol's screen and she let out a cheer as she whirled around to face Shepard.
"82! I did it! Is 100 a perfect score?" She missed the look on the Commander's face as she twisted back front, taking a step back to nestle in on their position before. She'd blindly reached and grabbed a hand so that it curled around her waist, pressing fingers in against her stomach again. "Push in if I tense again, that helped me relax before. And touch my elbow if my shoulder tenses too, those kinetic cues assisted me greatly, I believe. What do you think?"
Why was the human quiet?
"Oh no... Is 82 not a good score? Did I get worse?"
Her heart plummeted with disappointment, her hope crushed, when Shepard inhaled sharply again. Her pride simmered when the vanguard settled in behind her with an uncharacteristic seriousness, but her statement left Liara puzzled as to what her score meant at all anymore.
"Let's do that again, love."
Regardless, she was in the zone now. She could do anything she set her mind to.
"And I will get a perfect score."
Shore leave was over, but harmony still lifted Liara's spirits - harmony in spirit and mind. It sailed in a little tune she hummed as she worked away on her data discs with a newfound focus and confidence. She ran tests for Dr. Chakwas in the analyzers in the mean time, setting timers down for when to check in on the diagnostics of blood draws. She had lost herself in her work that she jumped in her skin, startled, when she felt pressure on her back again - but only between her shoulder blades. When she turned her head as far as she could, all she could see was the tuft of vibrant red hair.
"C-Commander?"
Silence, and with it, concern brewed. Shepard rubbed her face in a little hard and her arms hung uselessly, her hands brushing the backs of Liara's thighs. It conjured a fierce blush with it.
"Why does everything have to be so difficult, doc?" The Commander groaned, her face sliding upwards to squish in the asari's nape instead.
Liara faced forward, unable to quell this blush, but there was something overwhelmingly giddy about it all too. She attempted to dive back into her work, though not with the same focus as before, listening to the human grumble something about Alliance politics - though much of it was incoherent with it muffled into Liara's suit.
There was a surprising calmness that returned to her hands and steadied them, and she elected to resist the temptation to work on her data discs as she instead worked on analyzing the reports that came up for the tests that completed first. She smiled away, the corners of her lips permanently hitched whenever Shepard would follow even the slightest movements, adjusting so that her face would remain perpetually glued to the suit.
Reports have never been more amusing than now, and Liara quietly typed away on her terminal. She had to change how she stood often, with the pressure weighing in more heavily upon her back - accompanied by more and more silly little complaints.
It was... Nice to see and hear this, actually. It was awful news, of course, and she could sympathize with how frustrating it would have been to a person who seemed all about action - and swift resolutions as a result. It did not come as a shock to Liara that policies, processes and red tape had been such a woe to this restless human. She hummed along whenever her opinion was asked - something to the effect of 'don't you think so too?' - though she felt, and was proven right, that it was more of a rhetorical question.
A deep sigh tumbled out and appeared to mark the conclusion of Shepard's rant, though she still stayed glued, even in silence. Her knuckles seemed to be experimenting with how they brushed the backs of the asari's thighs. She'd turned - slowly, so as not to hit the human's cheek with her shoulder - and smiled shyly as she gestured to a fresh pot that still steamed down at the corner of her work desk.
"Coffee, Commander? Freshly brewed."
"Shite, y'like coffee more?" Shepard mumbled as she head over to help herself to the only mug here. "And here I thought y'were a tea kinda lass..."
"Well... I do prefer tea, but I couldn't find any. I have kept forgetting to ask you where you-"
And the Commander was gone.
Liara was left with a half-filled mug in her hand and a brain-full of questions, staring at the empty room and the door that hissed shut after the vanguard. She chuckled to herself and returned to work, nursing her coffee regardless of the promise of tea. Her lips automatically curled upon the sounds of that door hissing again minutes later, accompanied by a breathing rhythm that was clearly disrupted by what it naturally wanted to do: relax, even out - not panting or heaving.
"Here we go," Shepard set a coaster down, accompanied by a teapot. "Much better, innit?"
It was a Goddess-send that Liara was able to suppress her laugh and maintain a veneer of professionalism. She'd looked over at the dishevelled human with a smile wrangled out of her, no matter how hard she tried to stop it. "Thank you, Commander. You did not have to, but I appreciate your thoughtfulness."
"Oh... Well... Nothin' to think about, is there? Tea's better, hands down." She held out a spare mug, while she stretched her free hand. "Let's swap, since I drank out of that one."
"You are not the only one who has," fired a quick thought in the back of her mind, and she turned back to her machines to hide her blush after they'd made their exchange. She stiffened a little when Shepard came and casually leaned on the table, a genuine curiosity lit up on her face as she sipped away at the rest of the coffee.
"Dr. Chakwas makin' you work like a horse again, huh? Did you have to learn how to do all this for her or is this something you did anyways 'cause of school and digging in peoples' bits?"
"Excavating for artifacts," Liara corrected timidly, her cheeks throbbing over the crass summary of her field of work. She shook her head. "She taught me how to run these tests and how to make sense of the diagnostics. It wasn't too difficult, I used similar devices during my tenure as a research assistant for the biology unit at the University of Serrice."
"You used to work for the university you studied at? Jeez, most stories I heard, people wanna run far away from school - not work for it."
"I have heard those stories often too," Liara chuckled. She smiled over at the Commander. "I suppose it was a severe lapse of judgment, on my part."
"Heh! I'll bet." Shepard grinned and cradled her mug up to her lips. "Biology, huh? S'that where y'learned all about your sweet and salty buffet of worms?"
"Perhaps," the archaeologist shrugged humbly. "It's difficult to pinpoint where exactly I've acquired all my knowledge from. I had tried to spread myself out as much as possible, to learn all that I could - many things haven't exactly helped me in my field of work, admittedly, but likewise, the few things that have had made a phenomenal difference in my discoveries. Nothing should be underestimated, no matter how small. After all, look where my discovery of intestinal parasites led me to, just by learning how to classify worms?"
"Mm," Shepard hummed, that slippery varren-like smile pulling on the corner of her mouth. She didn't say anything else, surprisingly, and it seemed as though she elected against whatever she thought when her mouth opened, then closed. She pointed her chin at the teapot. "Want me t'pour you a cup? Would be a shame for that to go cold."
"Oh, right." Liara helped herself, relaxing with a contented sigh when she'd sipped from her cup. Her eyes slipped shut and she held it up to her nose to take in the scent.
There was another scent in the air that she'd acquired a taste for, an unusual medley of aromas of gun lubricants, the Alliance standard soap, and powdered chalk from the workout sessions in the gym. This time, there was a faint mustiness of carefully preserved books that lingered after them from their trip to the library. This overbearing presence - or rather, this larger-than-life presence, was beginning to become a fixture in her daily routine, like a couch she expected to be there upon coming back home. An analogy she didn't dare share aloud, and repressed her urge to laugh over it. She drank her tea again as she opened her eyes, an underlying amusement burrowed in her muscles, for some reason not immediately yet known to her. There was this strange current of excitement that would spark inside of her every now and then.
Upon opening her eyes, she observed the human exploring her curiosities as she'd twisted a little to try to make her own sense of the diagnostics report on the blood analyzer. There was an adorable look of pure bewilderment, the emerald orbs swimming with intense persistence and a timid desire to learn.
If only someone had given this mind the opportunity to grow the way every individual being should be so privileged to.
Frustration and defeat overwhelmed and won, it seemed, and that feral sharp edge returned to those eyes that seemed to dearly want to be anything but. Shepard sighed and shrugged a little to herself as she began to turn back to leaning on the table - and in doing so, something compelled instinct to ignite and made Liara move. Her brain hadn't caught up with her - or perhaps it had, and listened to sound reason, as she came up with a decisive stride. Her arm curled around the vanguard's hip to set her mug of tea down on the desk, while her other hand surged up to bury in those red tresses.
Those feral eyes melted away with surprise, and Shepard's coffee spilled a little on the ground when Liara framed the jaw to pull in for a kiss. She'd held onto her cup of tea as if it was a foundation to solder her here, exploring her curiosities over how a human's hair and ear felt like. She followed the curve under the lobe, her nails tentatively skimming along the Commander's scalp, and she'd pulled back when there was a deep groan.
"Did that hurt you?" Liara whispered, startled when the human answered her - but with swift movements rather than swift words.
There was a mission for her to join the table with their mugs, it seemed, and she'd chuckled nervously over feeling something soaking under her thigh, glancing over to see that her tea had been knocked over as well. She wasn't given time to mourn her mug when greedy lips dove underneath to trail kisses along her jawline, ending at her aural.
"You're makin' it extra difficult not to unwrap you, doc - didn't expect to add you to the list of my whinging away," the guttural grumble resonated. "'Specially when you kiss me like that." She seemed to struggle to pull away, even if a few inches. "Not that I mind, but what's gotten into you? Something tells me you aren't really thinkin', here."
"I'm not," Liara blurted, hooking her arms around the Commander's shoulders. "What's gotten into you? Something tells me you wouldn't stop here."
"Aye, no," Shepard chuckled, "Definitely don't want to stop here." A conflicted look marred her face, and she forced herself to take a step back. "But I gotta."
Adrenaline tanked when worry surged forward. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No! No, definitely not. I just... Y'know? I can't." Another step back, a nervous laugh, a sharp pivot to rush for the door. "I've got the runs, gotta run, later! Drills still at 0800 sharp!"
True to her hurricane nature, the Commander was gone as fast as she came. Liara's chest kicked back to life when she remembered to breathe. She was stunned, speechless, and upon her fingers grazing her lips, she panicked.
"What came over me? Oh, what if I made the Commander uncomfortable? She was so forward about what she wanted, before, and now..."
Liara scooted her bum a bit further back as she curled over her lap, burying her head in her hands. Her mind was furiously working to connect the pieces of the puzzle together, but everything moved so quickly that she couldn't quite remember just about anything she might've observed that could be a potential clue, to help solve this new mystery. She sighed, still evermore lost over where she stood in regards to their... Relationship. If it could even be called a relationship.
"Goddess, that sounds so tawdry. All my talk about not being as promiscuous as most other asari in their Maiden stages are, yet here I am." She absentmindedly chewed at her lip. "Perhaps she's disapp-" her head shot up with hope when the doors hissed open. A red head poked in, curiously with a nice scarlet blush slashing across the nose.
"Hey. Y'wanna nap together on me bed?"
"Do I...?" Panic returned. "No!"
"Aw, nuts. Well, that's alright love. Just figured I'd ask to see where you're at with me here. I'll go kiss th'pillow instead, then. Remember: drills are at 0800 sharp!"
And off Shepard went again.
Incoherent screams dominated Liara's mind, and she stared at the door in disbelief. Was that human seriously suggesting... What on Thessia was she actually suggesting, actually? Would it have been an innocent nap? It seemed quite the extreme to go from kissing, to denying the kiss to continue, to coming back and asking that they potentially engage in...
Well.
A racy act, to put it politely.
This was perhaps one of the most confusing mysteries she's ever had to solve to date. She wasn't sure what to make of the Commander's intentions anymore, with how she could be so close and so far away at the same time.
Close, again, apparently - when Shepard marched right back into the room, and Liara laughed when the kiss awkwardly missed it's mark, landing on the corner of her lips instead. The tables were turned and her breath hitched in her chest when she was pulled by her hips to sit at the edge of the desk. It seemed that the human was missing the mark on purpose, kissing all around but not on the mouth. She seemed to struggle and war with herself, and it took only an arched brow to make her confess.
"I like what we got going, doc. I don't wanna ruin it. I really want that nap, though - I won't do nothin' to ya or kiss or just... Just nothing, promise. All I want is t'hug something other than a flat pillow. You've got... Well, you've got bones, at least. It's somethin'."
"Are you trying to say that's all I have?"
Shepard grinned mischievously. "What d'ya think we'll be working on in our drills tomorrow? Then you'll be shootin' 100s even while blindfolded."
Liara groaned.