For Those Who Wait: a Mass Effect fanfic 1/4
Title: For Those Who Wait, 1/4
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: F!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko
Spoilers (if any): Mass Effect 3
Summary: An expanded version of what happens after that dinner date on the Presidium.
A/N: A fill for several prompts on the Mass Effect Kink Meme, so it contains explicit sex, light bondage, spanking, biotic play. This is obviously too racy to put on ffnet, so I'm putting it here until I figure out a way to censor it enough to put elsewhere. Makes references to my other Mass Effect stories but it's not necessary to read them first.
Kaidan just barely ducked the equipment container flying at his head, and threw himself to the side to avoid another one following right after it. His body slid across the smooth, polished floor, and he scrambled to hide behind a console, feeling the deck shake as the heavy boxes bounced behind him. Despite having some immediate cover, he knew it was a bad position - his opponent was fast, cunning, and powerful. There was no way he could survive while staying solely on the defensive.
He peeked over the edge of the holo display, but the enemy was nowhere in sight. Thinking fast, he vaulted over the computer, making for the last pile of cartons that was still stacked in a neat column - it would be a much better hiding place than the waist-high console.
Or at least it would be - if it weren't for the singularity that suddenly burst into existence right in front of him.
"Shit!" Kaidan hissed, lunging for the nearby rail even as the powerful gravity well reached out to pull him in. He could see the stack of cartons leaning, and hear the ones that'd fallen on the floor sliding as they were drawn in, too.
It was all over if it caught him, but what could he do, besides wait until it weakened and collapsed? The problem was that he was helpless, a total sitting duck, even if he'd managed to catch himself. No, he had to escape right now, right this second. Taking a breath, he tried to relax his death grip on the cool metal rail in order to pull himself along it hand over hand, but the singularity was way too strong, and he had to grab on again before he lost his hold entirely.
All right, so he couldn't pull himself out using brute strength, but there had to be another way to extricate himself. Wait, there was! But could he modulate his biotics with enough precision to cancel out the mass effect field? Too little, and there'd be no effect; too much, and the opposing oscillation of his own dark energy might cause a detonation. Having seen what a violent, full-force combination could do to an enemy - or a group of enemies - in the field, he really didn't want it happening to him.
Kaidan turned his head, catching movement in the corner of his eye. Crap, no time to think about it. Freeing one hand from the rail, he formed a quick mnemonic in the direction of the singularity while keeping hold with the other, and felt the lightning arc through his body as the eezo nodes in his system flared with power.
The biotic explosion was almost gentle, like the effect of a practice grenade, but it still knocked the breath out of him as it sent him flying into the rail, where he bounced back into the stack of crates. As he tucked himself into a ball and rolled out of the way of the falling boxes he'd knocked down, he hoped it had surprised his opponent; he'd been expecting it - but there was no way she could have.
Sure enough, when he uncurled, he saw the enemy was down, sprawled in an untidy heap of black and red limbs against a carton; she must've been quite close when he set off that detonation. Still, even though she looked unconscious, he crept forward with caution, barrier up to full strength - his opponent was a master of surprise attacks, and it wouldn't do to underestimate her. She made a tempting target, though, and once he had his prize in hand - the battered N7 patch magnetized to her armor - he'd be the winner of this game.
With one hand raised, fingers ready to form a mnemonic, Kaidan bent down, reaching for the patch on his opponent's chest. As expected, she moved in that instant, but his mnemonic wasn't even half formed before she'd grabbed his arm and planted a boot in his stomach, flipping him onto his back.
Damn! He'd been expecting a biotic attack, not a physical one - his barrier didn't help him. In desperation, he raised his hand again to try another mnemonic, but a mass effect field already held him immobile. All Kaidan could do was let his head fall against the floor and sigh in defeat as his opponent pressed her knee against his chestplate and peeled off the Spectre logo from his armor. When the stasis wore off a moment later, she held out her hand, magnanimous as ever in victory; he took it and let her pull him to his feet.
Kaidan pulled off his helmet. "Goddammit - I was so close!" he complained, pinching his fingers together to illustrate just how much.
Shepard unsealed her own helmet, revealing short black hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, her gray eyes dancing with amusement as she handed the patch back to him. "You were - almost got me with that explosion. I really wasn't expecting that."
"Is it safe for Lieutenants Vega and Cortez to return to the shuttle bay, Commander?" EDI's disembodied voice said.
"Yeah, we're done, EDI," Kaidan answered, waving at the two men on the engineering deck, where they'd been watching them through the windows. He narrowed his eyes when there seemed to be a suspicious amount of omni-tool waving going on up there. So, there was a betting pool already.
"Can't win 'em all," Shepard said with entirely too much cheer as she led the way to their equipment lockers, her hands busy undoing latches and loosening straps as she went.
"Says the woman who wins two times out of three," he grumbled as he did the same.
At the lockers, she turned her back to him so that he could help her out of her armor; the wordless display of trust never failed to warm his heart. It only took a moment to pull all the pieces off, he'd had so much practice at it by now, though he was tempted to take his time over the task; the impulse to bury his nose in her hair and take in the familiar scents of sweat, soap, medi-gel and metal was difficult to resist. The combination of such mundane odors shouldn't smell so sexy, but it was linked forever in his mind with Shepard.
Then it was his turn to present his back to her so that she could help him with his own armor. Was it his imagination, or did her hands seem to linger on him just a little longer than necessary? Did she lean a little too close? He suppressed a shiver when her fingers brushed his neck near his amp port as she disconnected the power modulator in the back of his gorget.
Maybe it was just born of sexual frustration, an overwhelming need to touch her, or maybe it was just the pleasant buzz of using mental powers fueled with the adrenaline still running through his body, but on an impulse, he fired up the eezo nodules in his system again. Instead of using his biotics in an offensive manner, he modulated them into a gentle dark energy field, not even strong enough to be visible to the naked eye, and expanded it outwards from his body.
He heard her indrawn breath as their barriers began to intersect and merge, and turned around to face her; she was still very close to him, almost close enough to kiss. Her eyes had closed, but he could feel her biotics reacting to his, a thousand rippling tendrils brushing through his hair, touching his face, sliding beneath his undersuit. It was an indescribable sensation, like standing under warm rain - if raindrops could be alive and intelligent and move of their own volition.
Then they jumped apart when they heard the hiss of the elevator doors opening, and Kaidan inwardly cursed the rotten timing as both of their dark energy fields dissipated. Shepard's eyes were open again as she turned towards her locker, her face a little flushed. His face felt hot, too.
"Mornin', Commander, Major," James greeted them as he and Steve stepped off the elevator, completely oblivious to the fact that Kaidan wanted to throw the pair of them across the room with his biotics.
The other marine had two cups of coffee in his hands, while the pilot had one of tea. "Brought you guys your usual."
The fragrant scent of fresh-brewed coffee wafted towards Kaidan's nose, weakening his resolve to strangle the lieutenants; he decided to forgive James for the interruption. This time. He cleared his throat and said, "Thanks, just put it down somewhere - we're almost done."
"I'm glad you suggested wearing armor for practice, or we'd both end up black and blue," Shepard said, sounding a little breathless as she began to strip out of the undersuit, leaving her in just a black sports bra, shorts, and socks. Since they'd decided their training sessions would only last for an hour, neither of them had bothered with the hassle of hooking up the plumbing.
"Wouldn't want Hackett to know you beat your subordinates, right?" He grinned, ducking a blow she mimed at his head, and tried not to stare at his half-naked commander as she stretched. She had to be doing that on purpose. "I'm surprised you're not wearing that godawful armor you like so much."
"Don't blaspheme this early in the morning, Kaidan," Shepard said with a mock scowl as she put on a shirt with too much efficiency for his liking. Then she grimaced. "That thing's a collector's item now, with Earth... being what it is. The right buyer would pay a fortune for it, so I can't afford to get it banged up anymore."
"Right," he drawled as he pulled on his pants. "So it had nothing to do with the fact that it made you stand out on the battlefield like a krogan at a hanar poetry reading, which meant all the bad guys just loved picking on you."
Shepard threw a towel at him. "Shut up."
Kaidan caught the towel before it could hit him in the face, and chuckled. "I guess all this biotic exercise must doing you some good if you're feeling so frisky at this time of day."
The commander paused in the middle of combing her hair back into some semblance of order; since she'd used her fingers, tufts of it stood up every which way, and Kaidan had to stifle an urge to reach out and smooth them down. "Yeah... you know, I do feel better - less on edge."
"I was talking with Liara the other day, and she said she thought Javik might be interested in joining us - probably just so he could tell us primitives we're doing it wrong."
Shepard's eyes widened. "Really? I admit, I'm pretty curious about Prothean biotic techniques."
"So is Liara - if you know what I mean." He waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Kaidan!" she scolded, then covered her mouth to hide a laugh.
He shrugged, unapologetic, as he walked with her back towards the elevator. "Well, I remember her as a lonely kid -"
Shepard snorted. "That 'kid' is a hundred and nine years old - older than you and me put together."
"You know what I mean! Anyway, I remember when she had a serious crush on you - not to mention a bad case of hero worship - even if you don't."
She smirked and elbowed him in the ribs. "And you didn't?"
"That was different." Kaidan coughed. "I wasn't lusting after you because of a vision from a Prothean beacon - I was lusting after you for completely unrelated reasons. See? Totally different."
The commander snorted, then laughed. "Really? You'll have to tell me, some time. Well, don't worry about Liara - she's long since gotten over me. She's grown up a lot, these last three years."
Kaidan wasn't sure whether to be indignant that she thought she needed to reassure him, or grateful that she really wasn't interested in Liara. To cover his confusion, he picked up the cup of coffee that'd been left for him on the workbench. The hot liquid, bitter with added electrolytes and antioxidants, sluiced some of the usual post-biotic exercise weariness out of his system.
"How was the workout?" James asked as he leaned against a console, sipping his own coffee. His eyes only wandered over the commander once before sliding away, so Kaidan decided to let it go.
"Good," Shepard said, blowing on the tea Steve had set out for her to cool it. "Sorry for all the extra work we're making for you -"
James interrupted with a wave of one beefy arm. "Pfft, don't worry about it. I got nothin' to do now that I've cleaned out practically everyone on the ship at the poker table."
Steve looked less than enthusiastic as he took in all the fallen crates littering the shuttle bay floor, but still said, "Not a problem, Commander."
Shepard noticed the pilot's reticence, of course, and turned to Kaidan with a smirk. "You take the left, Major, and I'll take the right."
"Aye aye, Commander." Kaidan hid a grin when he saw Steve's wide eyes; James had seen them in action, and wasn't impressed anymore. Blue coronas surrounded Kaidan and the commander as they began using their biotics to stack all the boxes back into neat piles. It was such easy work, compared to taking down Reaper troops, that he didn't even spill his coffee.
"Show-offs," James muttered. "Hope you put them all back in the right order - I got a system, you know."
"Rummaging is half the fun, Mr. Vega," Steve called as he headed for his work area.
"Depends on what and where, Esteban." James turned back to Shepard. "So... scuttlebutt says we're heading to the Citadel next, Commander," he said in a suspiciously offhand manner.
That was news to Kaidan. "We are?" he asked, ignoring James's knowing smirk, and also the way his palms began to sweat. Did Shepard remember he'd invited her out on a date?
She nodded, finishing off her tea and throwing the empty cup into a receptacle. "Yeah, I've got some business I have to attend to - meetings, reports, shopping, that sort of thing. EDI's already set up a liberty rotation, if you're worried you won't see any action."
"Hey, you know me, Commander - if I can't find some, I'll make some."
"I'm sure you would, James. Well, I'm going to hit the showers," Shepard said, waving a hand. "Thanks for the tea, Steve."
"You're welcome, ma'am."
Kaidan saw an opportunity to take James aside, and draped a friendly arm around the younger marine's muscular shoulders. "I'll be getting a cut of the profits, right? I know you've got a betting pool set up."
James opened his mouth to deny it, but was perceptive enough to realize Kaidan wasn't above holding him upside down with his biotics to shake out Kaidan's share of the credits. He sighed, looking mournful. "Fine, fine - I'll set up a transfer to your account."
Feeling cheered by the prospect of being able to afford a more expensive meal at Apollo's than planned, Kaidan gave the other man an friendly slap on the back - it was like hitting a side of beef - and said, "Good to hear it." In a louder voice, he called, "Gotta go, guys."
Kaidan tossed his empty cup and hurried to the elevator after the commander. Once inside, Shepard gave him a curious look. "What were you discussing with James?"
"Oh, nothing - just giving him some friendly advice." He cleared his throat. "So, uh, Shepard... you still interested in having dinner with me?"
"I haven't forgotten, if that's what got you looking so worried," she teased.
He relaxed just a little, but not enough to stop himself from babbling. "What time's good for you? I could make reservations - but if you don't know when you'll be free, or something comes up, that's okay, too. I'll just, uh, improvise. Oh, I know a place that, ah, still has steak - it's not as classy, it's just a small shop down in the Wards, but the food's good, and -"
"Kaidan," Shepard said, her smoky voice dropping an octave and taking on that hoarse rasp she saved just for him. His mouth snapped shut. Reaching out, she took one of his sweaty hands in hers. "How does 1800 sound? We can meet back here at the Normandy, since I doubt you'd want to follow me all over the Citadel the whole day."
He frowned, even though she was rubbing soothing circles into the back of his hand with her thumb. "I wouldn't mind, actually; I'd feel better if you had an escort. It hasn't been that long since Cerberus tried to take over the Citadel - they might still have agents in place, just waiting for the chance to get the jump on you."
The fact that he felt much more confident thinking about her security instead of their date didn't fail to tickle his sense of the absurd.
"I'll be fine. C-Sec's been much more vigilant since the coup," she assured him, ignoring his disbelieving snort. "The people I need to talk to might feel too nervous, seeing not just one, but two Spectres."
He gave her a worried look. "Just who're these people, anyway? I mean, only criminals would be scared of Spectres, right?"
"Spectres are like tax auditors - no one in their right mind wants to see one up close and personal."
Chuckling at her rueful smile, he said, "I guess you've got a point there."
The doors opened on the crew deck, but Kaidan was reluctant to let go of her hand; he was just glad it was still too early in the day cycle for there to be anyone waiting for the elevator.
"Isn't this your stop? Or did you want to use my shower instead of the ones in the men's bathroom?" Was it his wishful thinking that was coloring her words with more than a hint of sly suggestion?
He swallowed, trying to dismiss the sudden image of Shepard clad in nothing but soap suds. Doing his best to ignore the voice of his libido, which was screaming at him to take her up on her offer, he managed to shake his head and say, "See you at breakfast?"
"Sure thing."
Was that a disappointed sigh he heard? Nah - it was probably just the sound of the air cyclers. Kaidan gave the commander a little wave over his shoulder, then scuttled to the men's room to engage in conduct very unbecoming of an officer before he exploded out of sheer frustration.
Being a romantic in this day and age just wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: F!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko
Spoilers (if any): Mass Effect 3
Summary: An expanded version of what happens after that dinner date on the Presidium.
A/N: A fill for several prompts on the Mass Effect Kink Meme, so it contains explicit sex, light bondage, spanking, biotic play. This is obviously too racy to put on ffnet, so I'm putting it here until I figure out a way to censor it enough to put elsewhere. Makes references to my other Mass Effect stories but it's not necessary to read them first.
Kaidan just barely ducked the equipment container flying at his head, and threw himself to the side to avoid another one following right after it. His body slid across the smooth, polished floor, and he scrambled to hide behind a console, feeling the deck shake as the heavy boxes bounced behind him. Despite having some immediate cover, he knew it was a bad position - his opponent was fast, cunning, and powerful. There was no way he could survive while staying solely on the defensive.
He peeked over the edge of the holo display, but the enemy was nowhere in sight. Thinking fast, he vaulted over the computer, making for the last pile of cartons that was still stacked in a neat column - it would be a much better hiding place than the waist-high console.
Or at least it would be - if it weren't for the singularity that suddenly burst into existence right in front of him.
"Shit!" Kaidan hissed, lunging for the nearby rail even as the powerful gravity well reached out to pull him in. He could see the stack of cartons leaning, and hear the ones that'd fallen on the floor sliding as they were drawn in, too.
It was all over if it caught him, but what could he do, besides wait until it weakened and collapsed? The problem was that he was helpless, a total sitting duck, even if he'd managed to catch himself. No, he had to escape right now, right this second. Taking a breath, he tried to relax his death grip on the cool metal rail in order to pull himself along it hand over hand, but the singularity was way too strong, and he had to grab on again before he lost his hold entirely.
All right, so he couldn't pull himself out using brute strength, but there had to be another way to extricate himself. Wait, there was! But could he modulate his biotics with enough precision to cancel out the mass effect field? Too little, and there'd be no effect; too much, and the opposing oscillation of his own dark energy might cause a detonation. Having seen what a violent, full-force combination could do to an enemy - or a group of enemies - in the field, he really didn't want it happening to him.
Kaidan turned his head, catching movement in the corner of his eye. Crap, no time to think about it. Freeing one hand from the rail, he formed a quick mnemonic in the direction of the singularity while keeping hold with the other, and felt the lightning arc through his body as the eezo nodes in his system flared with power.
The biotic explosion was almost gentle, like the effect of a practice grenade, but it still knocked the breath out of him as it sent him flying into the rail, where he bounced back into the stack of crates. As he tucked himself into a ball and rolled out of the way of the falling boxes he'd knocked down, he hoped it had surprised his opponent; he'd been expecting it - but there was no way she could have.
Sure enough, when he uncurled, he saw the enemy was down, sprawled in an untidy heap of black and red limbs against a carton; she must've been quite close when he set off that detonation. Still, even though she looked unconscious, he crept forward with caution, barrier up to full strength - his opponent was a master of surprise attacks, and it wouldn't do to underestimate her. She made a tempting target, though, and once he had his prize in hand - the battered N7 patch magnetized to her armor - he'd be the winner of this game.
With one hand raised, fingers ready to form a mnemonic, Kaidan bent down, reaching for the patch on his opponent's chest. As expected, she moved in that instant, but his mnemonic wasn't even half formed before she'd grabbed his arm and planted a boot in his stomach, flipping him onto his back.
Damn! He'd been expecting a biotic attack, not a physical one - his barrier didn't help him. In desperation, he raised his hand again to try another mnemonic, but a mass effect field already held him immobile. All Kaidan could do was let his head fall against the floor and sigh in defeat as his opponent pressed her knee against his chestplate and peeled off the Spectre logo from his armor. When the stasis wore off a moment later, she held out her hand, magnanimous as ever in victory; he took it and let her pull him to his feet.
Kaidan pulled off his helmet. "Goddammit - I was so close!" he complained, pinching his fingers together to illustrate just how much.
Shepard unsealed her own helmet, revealing short black hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, her gray eyes dancing with amusement as she handed the patch back to him. "You were - almost got me with that explosion. I really wasn't expecting that."
"Is it safe for Lieutenants Vega and Cortez to return to the shuttle bay, Commander?" EDI's disembodied voice said.
"Yeah, we're done, EDI," Kaidan answered, waving at the two men on the engineering deck, where they'd been watching them through the windows. He narrowed his eyes when there seemed to be a suspicious amount of omni-tool waving going on up there. So, there was a betting pool already.
"Can't win 'em all," Shepard said with entirely too much cheer as she led the way to their equipment lockers, her hands busy undoing latches and loosening straps as she went.
"Says the woman who wins two times out of three," he grumbled as he did the same.
At the lockers, she turned her back to him so that he could help her out of her armor; the wordless display of trust never failed to warm his heart. It only took a moment to pull all the pieces off, he'd had so much practice at it by now, though he was tempted to take his time over the task; the impulse to bury his nose in her hair and take in the familiar scents of sweat, soap, medi-gel and metal was difficult to resist. The combination of such mundane odors shouldn't smell so sexy, but it was linked forever in his mind with Shepard.
Then it was his turn to present his back to her so that she could help him with his own armor. Was it his imagination, or did her hands seem to linger on him just a little longer than necessary? Did she lean a little too close? He suppressed a shiver when her fingers brushed his neck near his amp port as she disconnected the power modulator in the back of his gorget.
Maybe it was just born of sexual frustration, an overwhelming need to touch her, or maybe it was just the pleasant buzz of using mental powers fueled with the adrenaline still running through his body, but on an impulse, he fired up the eezo nodules in his system again. Instead of using his biotics in an offensive manner, he modulated them into a gentle dark energy field, not even strong enough to be visible to the naked eye, and expanded it outwards from his body.
He heard her indrawn breath as their barriers began to intersect and merge, and turned around to face her; she was still very close to him, almost close enough to kiss. Her eyes had closed, but he could feel her biotics reacting to his, a thousand rippling tendrils brushing through his hair, touching his face, sliding beneath his undersuit. It was an indescribable sensation, like standing under warm rain - if raindrops could be alive and intelligent and move of their own volition.
Then they jumped apart when they heard the hiss of the elevator doors opening, and Kaidan inwardly cursed the rotten timing as both of their dark energy fields dissipated. Shepard's eyes were open again as she turned towards her locker, her face a little flushed. His face felt hot, too.
"Mornin', Commander, Major," James greeted them as he and Steve stepped off the elevator, completely oblivious to the fact that Kaidan wanted to throw the pair of them across the room with his biotics.
The other marine had two cups of coffee in his hands, while the pilot had one of tea. "Brought you guys your usual."
The fragrant scent of fresh-brewed coffee wafted towards Kaidan's nose, weakening his resolve to strangle the lieutenants; he decided to forgive James for the interruption. This time. He cleared his throat and said, "Thanks, just put it down somewhere - we're almost done."
"I'm glad you suggested wearing armor for practice, or we'd both end up black and blue," Shepard said, sounding a little breathless as she began to strip out of the undersuit, leaving her in just a black sports bra, shorts, and socks. Since they'd decided their training sessions would only last for an hour, neither of them had bothered with the hassle of hooking up the plumbing.
"Wouldn't want Hackett to know you beat your subordinates, right?" He grinned, ducking a blow she mimed at his head, and tried not to stare at his half-naked commander as she stretched. She had to be doing that on purpose. "I'm surprised you're not wearing that godawful armor you like so much."
"Don't blaspheme this early in the morning, Kaidan," Shepard said with a mock scowl as she put on a shirt with too much efficiency for his liking. Then she grimaced. "That thing's a collector's item now, with Earth... being what it is. The right buyer would pay a fortune for it, so I can't afford to get it banged up anymore."
"Right," he drawled as he pulled on his pants. "So it had nothing to do with the fact that it made you stand out on the battlefield like a krogan at a hanar poetry reading, which meant all the bad guys just loved picking on you."
Shepard threw a towel at him. "Shut up."
Kaidan caught the towel before it could hit him in the face, and chuckled. "I guess all this biotic exercise must doing you some good if you're feeling so frisky at this time of day."
The commander paused in the middle of combing her hair back into some semblance of order; since she'd used her fingers, tufts of it stood up every which way, and Kaidan had to stifle an urge to reach out and smooth them down. "Yeah... you know, I do feel better - less on edge."
"I was talking with Liara the other day, and she said she thought Javik might be interested in joining us - probably just so he could tell us primitives we're doing it wrong."
Shepard's eyes widened. "Really? I admit, I'm pretty curious about Prothean biotic techniques."
"So is Liara - if you know what I mean." He waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Kaidan!" she scolded, then covered her mouth to hide a laugh.
He shrugged, unapologetic, as he walked with her back towards the elevator. "Well, I remember her as a lonely kid -"
Shepard snorted. "That 'kid' is a hundred and nine years old - older than you and me put together."
"You know what I mean! Anyway, I remember when she had a serious crush on you - not to mention a bad case of hero worship - even if you don't."
She smirked and elbowed him in the ribs. "And you didn't?"
"That was different." Kaidan coughed. "I wasn't lusting after you because of a vision from a Prothean beacon - I was lusting after you for completely unrelated reasons. See? Totally different."
The commander snorted, then laughed. "Really? You'll have to tell me, some time. Well, don't worry about Liara - she's long since gotten over me. She's grown up a lot, these last three years."
Kaidan wasn't sure whether to be indignant that she thought she needed to reassure him, or grateful that she really wasn't interested in Liara. To cover his confusion, he picked up the cup of coffee that'd been left for him on the workbench. The hot liquid, bitter with added electrolytes and antioxidants, sluiced some of the usual post-biotic exercise weariness out of his system.
"How was the workout?" James asked as he leaned against a console, sipping his own coffee. His eyes only wandered over the commander once before sliding away, so Kaidan decided to let it go.
"Good," Shepard said, blowing on the tea Steve had set out for her to cool it. "Sorry for all the extra work we're making for you -"
James interrupted with a wave of one beefy arm. "Pfft, don't worry about it. I got nothin' to do now that I've cleaned out practically everyone on the ship at the poker table."
Steve looked less than enthusiastic as he took in all the fallen crates littering the shuttle bay floor, but still said, "Not a problem, Commander."
Shepard noticed the pilot's reticence, of course, and turned to Kaidan with a smirk. "You take the left, Major, and I'll take the right."
"Aye aye, Commander." Kaidan hid a grin when he saw Steve's wide eyes; James had seen them in action, and wasn't impressed anymore. Blue coronas surrounded Kaidan and the commander as they began using their biotics to stack all the boxes back into neat piles. It was such easy work, compared to taking down Reaper troops, that he didn't even spill his coffee.
"Show-offs," James muttered. "Hope you put them all back in the right order - I got a system, you know."
"Rummaging is half the fun, Mr. Vega," Steve called as he headed for his work area.
"Depends on what and where, Esteban." James turned back to Shepard. "So... scuttlebutt says we're heading to the Citadel next, Commander," he said in a suspiciously offhand manner.
That was news to Kaidan. "We are?" he asked, ignoring James's knowing smirk, and also the way his palms began to sweat. Did Shepard remember he'd invited her out on a date?
She nodded, finishing off her tea and throwing the empty cup into a receptacle. "Yeah, I've got some business I have to attend to - meetings, reports, shopping, that sort of thing. EDI's already set up a liberty rotation, if you're worried you won't see any action."
"Hey, you know me, Commander - if I can't find some, I'll make some."
"I'm sure you would, James. Well, I'm going to hit the showers," Shepard said, waving a hand. "Thanks for the tea, Steve."
"You're welcome, ma'am."
Kaidan saw an opportunity to take James aside, and draped a friendly arm around the younger marine's muscular shoulders. "I'll be getting a cut of the profits, right? I know you've got a betting pool set up."
James opened his mouth to deny it, but was perceptive enough to realize Kaidan wasn't above holding him upside down with his biotics to shake out Kaidan's share of the credits. He sighed, looking mournful. "Fine, fine - I'll set up a transfer to your account."
Feeling cheered by the prospect of being able to afford a more expensive meal at Apollo's than planned, Kaidan gave the other man an friendly slap on the back - it was like hitting a side of beef - and said, "Good to hear it." In a louder voice, he called, "Gotta go, guys."
Kaidan tossed his empty cup and hurried to the elevator after the commander. Once inside, Shepard gave him a curious look. "What were you discussing with James?"
"Oh, nothing - just giving him some friendly advice." He cleared his throat. "So, uh, Shepard... you still interested in having dinner with me?"
"I haven't forgotten, if that's what got you looking so worried," she teased.
He relaxed just a little, but not enough to stop himself from babbling. "What time's good for you? I could make reservations - but if you don't know when you'll be free, or something comes up, that's okay, too. I'll just, uh, improvise. Oh, I know a place that, ah, still has steak - it's not as classy, it's just a small shop down in the Wards, but the food's good, and -"
"Kaidan," Shepard said, her smoky voice dropping an octave and taking on that hoarse rasp she saved just for him. His mouth snapped shut. Reaching out, she took one of his sweaty hands in hers. "How does 1800 sound? We can meet back here at the Normandy, since I doubt you'd want to follow me all over the Citadel the whole day."
He frowned, even though she was rubbing soothing circles into the back of his hand with her thumb. "I wouldn't mind, actually; I'd feel better if you had an escort. It hasn't been that long since Cerberus tried to take over the Citadel - they might still have agents in place, just waiting for the chance to get the jump on you."
The fact that he felt much more confident thinking about her security instead of their date didn't fail to tickle his sense of the absurd.
"I'll be fine. C-Sec's been much more vigilant since the coup," she assured him, ignoring his disbelieving snort. "The people I need to talk to might feel too nervous, seeing not just one, but two Spectres."
He gave her a worried look. "Just who're these people, anyway? I mean, only criminals would be scared of Spectres, right?"
"Spectres are like tax auditors - no one in their right mind wants to see one up close and personal."
Chuckling at her rueful smile, he said, "I guess you've got a point there."
The doors opened on the crew deck, but Kaidan was reluctant to let go of her hand; he was just glad it was still too early in the day cycle for there to be anyone waiting for the elevator.
"Isn't this your stop? Or did you want to use my shower instead of the ones in the men's bathroom?" Was it his wishful thinking that was coloring her words with more than a hint of sly suggestion?
He swallowed, trying to dismiss the sudden image of Shepard clad in nothing but soap suds. Doing his best to ignore the voice of his libido, which was screaming at him to take her up on her offer, he managed to shake his head and say, "See you at breakfast?"
"Sure thing."
Was that a disappointed sigh he heard? Nah - it was probably just the sound of the air cyclers. Kaidan gave the commander a little wave over his shoulder, then scuttled to the men's room to engage in conduct very unbecoming of an officer before he exploded out of sheer frustration.
Being a romantic in this day and age just wasn't all it was cracked up to be.