Just want to start off with a small note! The little fic-lets I’m going to be uploading to tumblr here are short exercises more than anything. They’ll be unedited, raw, and a couple hundred words at most. Blurbs! YES, I will call them blurbs. This is the first of my blurbs. :3

MASS EFFECT 3 SPOILERS - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

The dull roar of the ocean was comforting, steady as a heartbeat. Shepard reveled in the sensation of shoving her feet into the hot sand beneath their towel. Over a year had passed since everything went to hell in a hand basket; she had spent most of that time in recovery.

A familiar hand plopped two cans of beer on the towel, its owner soon following. He shot her a warm, sweet smile before cracking his drink open and leaning back. Everything was so…idyllic. Her hand drifted through the sand, catching on something sharp. She lifted it up and was blindsided by a memory long held at bay.

She held a seashell in her hand.

Would have liked to run tests on the seashells.

Shepard leaned forward, elbows on knees as she turned the simple shell in her hand.

“What do you have there?”

She looked over to him through the tears she couldn’t stop from forming. “A…seashell.”

Kaidan frowned and shoved to sit next to her, hand gently rubbing her back. “What’s wrong?”

“Did I…” She cleared her throat. “Did I ever tell you about Mordin?”

He paused, thinking. “Mordin. The Salarian scientist who was with you during the Collectors. He died curing the genophage, right?”

Shepard nodded. “Yeah…but did I ever tell you about him?”

“No.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Shepard staring at the seashell and Kaidan watching her with concern. The only sound was the waves as they broke against the shore. He gently reached to kiss her sun-warmed red hair.

“Do you want to to?”

She nodded and finally tore her eyes away, up to the horizon.

“The first time we met was on Omega. He had a clinic…”