Just got the new Linkin Park album (don’t judge me!) and was struck by the final song. It screamed a specific scenario to me:
After Mass Effect 3. Renegade Shepard chose destruction without enough resources and Earth gets scorched. Love interest looking back, frustrated and grieving.
“Sure you don’t want me to nab a Spectre-grade one? Okay… Nah, you go ahead. Garrus and I will guard this plant from any Geth attacks.”
Brown eyes twinkled with laughter as Kaidan nodded and headed off toward the shop. Shepard shot an amused, crooked smile to his back before turning to grin at Garrus.
“We should set up a perimeter. Don’t want anything happening to this defenseless, uh…what is it?” She poked the green and purple plant.
Garrus leaned against the railing. “Hell if I know, Shepard. It’s a plant.”
She laughed and leaned backwards against the same railing, mystery plant between them. Quiet, companionable silence drifted on the air. A few moments later, she couldn’t help but tilt her head to try and peer through the store window. While Kaidan could certainly take care of himself, she still couldn’t be too careful: they had angered a lot of powerful people going after Saren. The Citadel should be safe and public enough, but until the mission was totally completed, keeping their guard up was only wise.
At least, that’s what she told herself as she watched her lieutenant through the glass. Surrounded by dozens of biotic amps, he looked like a kid in a candy store.
“I don’t understand you at all.” Garrus’s deep, alien voice cut through her thoughts.
Shepard twisted and rested her hip on the decorative half-wall as her bright green eyes swiveled to rest on the turian. What was he talking about? “Few people do, Garrus.”
He shook his head. “I’m pretty good at reading humans, Shepard; it comes with C-Sec training. Hell, your species is probably the most expressive out of the lot of us. It’ll take me years to get you figured out, though.”
“What brought this on?” While it was true that she was exceptional at hiding her motivations and feelings, the commentary was pretty out of left field.
The turian gently jerked his head toward the amp shop. “I can tell, you know.”
She wasn’t very good at reading turians yet, but her friend certainly looked like he was amused. Shepard sighed and gave Garrus a steady stare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He’s worse about it than you are, to be fair. I knew the second we met: the quiet, preemptive glances around, protectively hovering around your six…being constantly tense until you’re safe after a mission.”
Her gaze quickly shot back to the window and the man behind it. It looked like he might have found one that worked for him, and the asari disappeared into the back room. Kaidan turned to look out the window and their eyes accidentally locked. Her stomach quickly filled with those annoying butterflies again. She spoke to Garrus without breaking the stare.
“It’s not that simple, Garrus.” A few moments later, she managed to rip her eyes away and focused instead on the plant in front of her. “Far from that simple.”
Garrus shrugged and pushed to stand straight. “Well, it should be. You’re both too smart to let something like that affect your work. Just…don’t bottle it up too much. That won’t end well for anyone.”
She couldn’t help a wide smirk as she looked back up to her friend. “Now you’re giving me lectures? Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing. Not my first rodeo.”
“…Rodeo?” Mandibles twitched in confusion.
Kaidan walked to stand next to her, bag in hand. “What about rodeos?”
Shepard quickly pushed down the feeling in her chest that bloomed when she realized they were standing close enough that she could feel his skin’s heat. “Oh, I just used an expression with it and now the turian is confused.” She bit her tongue to fight the blush erupting because of the look Garrus was shooting her. She did know that one already: smug, knowing. “…Let’s go, I need a new gun.”
Garrus burst into flanging laughter as she stormed off toward the C-Sec office. Kaidan just looked confused, following closely.
That was her motto: new guns fixed everything. Even embarrassing feelings about a subordinate.
_____________
Cross-posted to fanfic.net as usual!
To: Alenko, Kaidan «alenko@spctr.cit »
From: Shepard, Kaelia «shepard@spctr.cit»
Re: Feeling much better
Kaidan,
Don’t think I didn’t notice the email change. What kind of trouble are you making for the nurses? Better not be flashing them that smil Don’t get kicked out too fast or I won’t get to see you. We’ll probably make one more stop at the Citadel after I take care of a little problem the turian primarch saddled me with. Everyone always has a damn prob
Having Wrex on the ship makes me miss y It’s nice having Wrex back. You’ll never guess what he’s demanding in return for his support: a cure for the genophage. He always was one crazy bastard. There’s no other choice, so that’s my mission right now. Cure the genophage for Wrex…hell, it’s kind of ironic when you consider Virmire. …I miss Ash
I’ll pop in when we stop for supplies and see if you’re there. Hope you didn’t drink that bottle all by yo I’ll just shoot you another message if we miss each other; things are crazy, it could happen. Take care, Major. I lo
Kael
Shepard
P.S. – I’m glad we got to talk before, too. We are good tog
P.S. – Do you think you’ll want to join the Nor
P.S. – Eat all the solid food you can; rations suck.
To: Alenko, Kaidan «kalenko@alliance.gov»
From: Shepard, Kaelia «kshepard@alliance.gov»
Re: Doc says I’m ready for visitors
Kaidan,
I can’t begin to expre
Thank god you’r
I lov
It’s good to hear you’re going to be alright. I wa We were all really worried about you, especially Dr. Chakwas. I had to drink her under the table to distr She was there on the Citadel, you know. She took over primary care until you were stable.
So I’ll be on the Citadel in a few days, but I have to go to Grissom Academy first. Pretty sure you know of it – it’s that Alliance school for gifted students. They have a lot of biotic students there. We found a fake distress and response signal, and we’re worried Cerberus might be behind it…I won’t let them take a bunch of poor kids. If anything, I want to put a bullet in the Illusive Man’s head for trying to kill y They’re not getting their hands on ANYONE if I can help it.
So I’ll see you in a few days, Kaidan. Please take care; I couldn
So I’ll see you in a few days, Kaidan. Take care until then; we need you at 100%, Major.
Oh, and you should definitely accept the Spectre position.
Lia
Kaelia
Shepard
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…”
