#that's why she wanted to keep him away from cerberus

[calshepard]

after experiencing priority mars for the first time, I was personally losing it with shenko. they're arguing and yet, the moment one of them looks away the other is looking at them like 🥺

[maxpilote]

I started replaying Mass Effect because I wanted to romance Garrus Vakarian. But because I'm a weird ass, I couldn't JUST play Mass Effect 2 and 3. And because I play at weird hours and have access to the internet, I've had a running commentary going on my Facebook.

Things I have said about the Mass Effect trilogy, thus far:

I love the first Mass Effect game but Bioware is a coward for not letting my romance Garrus Vakarian until the sequel. LET ME HUG MY DINOSAUR BOYFRIEND!

Garrus in ME1: You know, you've shown me that it's always worth doing the right thing, even if it's a hard decision. I'm going back to C-Sec. Garrus in ME2: My moral compass died so now I'm Batman.

Garrus: I hope you know what you're doing. That's the secret. I don't.

Do I love Mass Effect 2 as a game? Yes. Do I hate the cover system almost as much as I hate certain CEOs? Also yes.

I'm sorry but a fucking Batarian lecturing me on my moral choices is a fucking laugh.

I'm really trying to be mostly paragon but that reporter really be testing my patience. I did not come back from the dead for this bitch to needle me.

Honestly, the biggest difference between ME1 and ME2 is that Shepard not only has more of a personality, but can also swing wildly to both extremes of said personality. Yea, I'll help this guy not bleed out. But I'm gonna be a bitch about it. And that's paragon. ME 2 Shep just woke up from being dead and is frankly over everyone's shit.

Seriously. Shepard woke up from being dead and decided that she was just fucking over all this bullshit. Even the paragon options have an edge of anger to them. lol

Bruh. After you break Jack out of prison, a guy named Billy sends you a very cheerful message saying that he has to kill you because you shot at him. LOL Okay. Go off, dude.

The struggle with paragon and renegade actions is constantly mixing up my right and left! lol

There should have been a side quest where you're doing something important and then Billy shows up. And it's just played for laughs. Oh, that would have been a perfect little addition to the Citadel DLC.

I ran out of witty things to say because I did the Kasumi loyalty mission. Not only did she make me wear a dress, but the mission was bugged and I had to restart the final fight three times.

I forgot about the greatest character in Mass Effect 2: The asari matriarch working in the bar on Illium who has a Krogan dad and really likes asses.

I kick a guy out of a window and Garrus "Archangel" Vakarian said that I was being harsh??? We will talk about this later!!

Every now and again, Miranda says something I agree with and then I want to punch myself in the mouth.

What I thought my Shep should have said after the Samara recruitment mission: "I don't know what the fuck an Ardat-Yakshi is but I know it's about to be my problem."

Me: I hate Miranda. Miranda: I hate myself. Me: Okay. It's not fun if we both do it.

Samara: Shepard, you're going to be bait for my murderous daughter. You'll need to go in alone and unarmed. Garrus, standing five feet away: Excuse me??

I can barely flirt with Garrus and he's an awkward dork. I think Samara has way too much faith in my ability to be smooth. Ma'am, I just got back from a mission where I head butted a krogan!

I love Kal'Reegar. You got a question? Best go ask the nerds. He's just there to kill shit.

Shepard. Everytime you touch a Prothean artifact, something goes terribly wrong. MAYBE STOP TOUCHING THEM!

FFS WHY is Cerberus letting me keep an INERT PROTHEAN ARTIFACT on my COFFEE TABLE!? They have to know my history with these things.

[short-honey-badger]

An Outlaw, a Sheriff, and a Deputy walk into a bar... 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Shamrock makes good time to Valentine, making the usual eight to ten-hour ride on horseback in six hours. Cerberus is sweaty and run ragged, but the Arabian had refused to stop even when Sham had urged him to. It was like the horse knew how important it was for his rider to get to the town, and Sham appreciated the beast for his urgency. He doesn’t even bother to tie Cerberus to the post and jumps from his back once he is in town, leaping the fence in his haste and bursting into the sheriff’s office like hell is licking at his heels.

“How long has she been gone?” Shamrock demands the moment he steps inside the building, and John, the other deputy on duty when you are off, is quick to respond.

“About a day now, give or take. We gave chase, but Shanks split off from the rest of his crew, and we got led on a wild goose chase. Sorry, sir,” John says with a quiet sigh and shuffles the wanted posters on his desk.

“We’ve got people out lookin’ though. Hopefully, we’ll hear something soon.”

Shamrock snarls and slams his hand into the wall, the old wood splintering but leaving his knuckles bloodied and full of splinters. He shakes his hand and breathes deeply to calm himself down. He needed to have a calm mind if he wanted to find you quickly.

“Put out the word to the other towns. I want every lawman out looking for her,” Shamrock demands, “Rhodes, Saint-Denis, even Annesburg. Everywhere god damn it.”

John nods and stands from his desk, “I’ll get it done, sir.”

Shamrock nods and watches John leave before sitting heavily in his chair once he is alone. The velvet box sits heavy in his pocket, and he can’t help but fish it out and crack it open to look at the rings inside.

They belonged to his father and late mother, a woman whom he and Shanks had hardly known. She had passed a few years after she had them. Tuberculosis. Her death had destroyed their father, but Garling had never stopped loving her and had never taken another woman to bed after her passing.

Sham knew that you wouldn’t be happy to live in Saint-Denis, but he was confident that you would learn to love your life there. You wouldn’t have to worry anymore or deal with dangerous outlaws who always thought they had the advantage over you just because you were a woman. He wanted you to have a safe, pampered life after all the work you’d put in, and Shamrock knew that he could give you that.

Now his brother had ruined it. Had taken the good thing in Shamrock’s life and had stolen it like a thief in the night. Just like all the other good things that had come into his life, Shanks had to ruin it for him. Garling had set them up well in their youth, but Shanks had grown bored with city life and had run off at the first chance he could. Shamrock had been so upset, so disappointed in his younger brother that he’d immediately gone into law enforcement, and to his surprise, you had followed right after him.

Shamrock had thought that you would work at the stables. You had a way with horses that few people had, and it was always a delight to watch you work with the beasts. He had sworn to himself that he would make sure you would have somewhere to rear the animals when he made you his wife, but none of that would happen if he couldn’t get you back.

The Sheriff had to wonder why Shanks had stolen you away in the first place. This wasn’t the first time that his twin had come into town, raising hell just to get your attention, but he had never pulled something like this before.

Shamrock sighs and snaps the box closed, tucking it back into his pocket to keep it safe. He would do whatever it took to get you back, but even with civilization building, the east was a wild place, and it would take time to find you again. But that wouldn’t stop him, and he would punish his twin after he found you.

He huffs to himself and glares at the wanted poster, his twin smirking right back up at him. Maybe he’d have Shanks watch Shamrock marry you. He knew how much his younger brother loved you. But Sham loved you too, and he wasn’t about to let Shanks get in the way of that. Not this time, and not ever.

@nocturnalrorobin @sanjisleggy @mit-suri @forever-a-night-owl @sordidmusings @shanks-is-a-daddy @mfreedomstuff

[ananiel]

So i decided to combine my two passions, lies of p and greek mythology, and i have created this Little piece as a tester, to see If anyone would be interested in stories like this. If You want more please let me know!

--------------------------------------------------------------

The idea i was going for this piece was a hades like You, that's basically taking to role of hades and Carlo who takes the role oh persephone, and for him to be distant and for her to respect IT, but when he tries to warm up to her, She still keeps the same coldness, but to slowly, slowly warm up to the idea and basically to eachother, this is a bit of like, a final of this idea, and If anyone is interested în more of this story, or in general a story like this, please let me know, IT is my pleasure to write

.

.

.

The grand halls of Olympus glittered with divine light, the gathering of gods and goddesses in full force. It was the kind of celebration that demanded the presence of every deity, even those who preferred the solitude of their realms. That meant she had to come.

Carlo had expected her to appear, but he had not anticipated the sight of her in full regalia—draped in dark flowing silk, her presence ethereal, her every movement commanding respect. It was ironic; for someone so removed from the rest of the gods, she carried herself with the kind of dignity that made it seem as if the entire world revolved around her.

He tried to approach her. Tried to initiate small talk, to do what a husband should. He had realized, far too late, how much he had done to push her away. He had spent so much time resenting their forced union, so much time whispering his distaste to Romeo, that he hadn’t seen how much effort she put into making the marriage work—until she stopped.

So he tried now, in the grand halls of Olympus, reaching for her hand in a gesture of public unity. But the moment his fingers touched hers, an unnatural chill spread through his bones. He nearly flinched.

Her hand felt like the brittle bones of a skeleton.

His breath caught in his throat. He turned to look at her, but she did not meet his eyes. She did not say a word. Just as quickly as he had reached for her, she withdrew her hand and continued walking, greeting the others with a polite nod, as if he had never existed.

She had done it on purpose.

Carlo clenched his jaw. That was what he had wanted, wasn’t it? To be rid of her touch? To not be reminded of his status as the consort to the Queen of the Underworld? And yet, why did it feel as though his own cruelty was now suffocating him?

When they returned to the Underworld, he made an effort. It was not much at first, but he knew he had to start somewhere.

He would bring meals to the judging room, quietly placing plates of food beside her as she worked. He would linger in the halls, watching as she ruled over the dead with a fairness even the mortals could not claim from their own rulers. He would sit beside Cerberus, scratching behind the monstrous dog’s ears as she worked, hoping for just a moment of acknowledgment. He would read through some of her cases and offer his opinions, even though she had never asked.

For a while, she said nothing of it. But she also did not turn him away.

One day, a particularly troubling case reached her desk.

A passion nymph had been brought before her, her long brown hair cascading in wild waves around her shoulders, her eyes sharp with desperation. She had committed a crime—not an ordinary crime of anger, nor one of survival. No, this nymph had killed.

The victim? A mortal general, a man of great renown. She had loved him obsessively, beyond reason. And when she could not have him, she ensured that no one else would. Yet, her plan had backfired in a way she did not expect. Instead of his soul being bound to her, as she had hoped, he had been deemed worthy of Elysium, the paradise of the afterlife.

And now she was here, in the depths of the Underworld, begging for his soul to be released.

"You have everything," the nymph accused, venom in her voice. "You are a goddess, a queen, a ruler of death itself! You have a perfect husband, a perfect life, and you can't let me have that? What if I want your husband, hm? What if suddenly my red-haired boy is not enough?"

The room fell silent. The other souls awaiting judgment looked on, their spectral eyes burning with curiosity. The judges themselves—the mighty figures who served under the Queen of the Underworld—remained composed, though there was a flicker of something in their ancient gazes.

Before she could answer, before she could decree the fate of the nymph, another voice cut through the chamber.

"I would never go for someone so bitter and jealous," Carlo snapped, his voice sharp enough to cut through the air like a blade.

The nymph turned toward him in shock. The Queen of the Underworld, however, remained still.

Carlo took a step forward, his hands clenching into fists. "You don't love him. You never did. If you had, you wouldn't have destroyed him. Love isn't selfish, it isn't possessive. Whatever you felt for him, it wasn't love." His green eyes flickered with something dangerous. "And don't you dare compare yourself to my wife."

The nymph paled.

For a moment, the Queen of the Underworld regarded him with an expression he couldn't decipher. Then, she turned back to the nymph and, in a voice as cold and final as death itself, delivered her sentence.

Carlo watched her, his heart pounding. He didn’t understand why he felt lighter, why there was a strange sort of warmth coiling in his chest.

But he did know one thing—he could no longer deny the truth.

He had made a terrible mistake.

And he would do whatever it took to fix it.

Over time, he did more than just linger.

He sought her out in the quiet hours, when the weight of her duties pressed upon her shoulders. He sat with her as she combed through the laws of the dead, making gentle observations. He played with Cerberus, and when she eventually sat beside him, her hand brushing against the hound's fur, he swallowed his pride and whispered, "I was wrong."

She didn't answer right away. But she didn't leave either.

And, in time, he no longer had to reach for her hand.

One day, she simply let him take it, warm and whole, no longer a skeleton of what she once was.

The Underworld, and their union, had changed.

But, finally, it had changed for the better.

[lymmielove]

fairy tail headcanons bc why not

Natsu has the neatest handwriting out of the kids the grew up in Fairy Tail (Gray, Erza, Cana, Levy, etc..), Erza has the worst one.

Romeo's last name is actually Rose. His Dad and His Mom divorced, and he chose to have his Mom's last name since she raised him better anyways. So, his full name's Romeo Rose. Wendy told him his name was pretty. He blushed with pink fire coming out of his nose

Speaking of Romeo and Wendy, they're besties. They be gossiping about guild drama behind all they backs. Wendy knows about shit she shouldn't because Romeo was both literally and figuratively born in the guild

Lucy has Aquarius. Yukino has Scorpio. The two wizards are straight pen pals bc of it

Loke and Aries are dating. Ophiuchus was the only Zodiac to know.

Rogue cannot handle alcohol. He drinks mocktails

When the Barbie Movie came out, The kids who grew up in Fairy Tail dressed up in extravagant pink. Gajeel, Lucy, and Juvia went to go see Oppenheimer.

Romeo, Wendy, and Sherria are the friends you wouldnt expect to be friends

During when the gang was gone for seven years, Romeo got all of their clothes from when they were kids. He keeps them in his room. The gang knows, but doesn't comment on it seeing as they practically raised the kid.

Romeo's mom is a member of Quatro Cerberus. She was banished from Magnolia on something she didn't commit. After The GMG, she was allowed back. The Fairy Kid gang calls her "Auntie Enno"

Levy is the most "like that" out of the Fairy Kids. She has a glock and everything. When she was younger she always wanted the smoke.

Freed is the most "like that" out of the Thunder Legion. The Wizard Saints fear him. The Council fears him. Laxus loves him.

Bickslow's babies have deemed Lisanna as they mama. Bickslow doesn't mind.

Lisanna came back to the guild and immediately turned bi. Too many hot ladies and pretty men.

Yukino's first kiss was Minerva when they were like 12. Yukino didn't know it was Minerva until she met her in Sabertooth.

Minerva, Sting, Rogue, Orga, Rufus, and Yukino all had a plan to try and off Jiemma. Sting just snapped enough to get him early.

Yukino actually constantly compares herself to Lucy a lot. Yukino's dream was to get all 13 zodiac keys, but Lucy has them, so she backed off. She came very close to breaking all her contracts even after when she had her convo with Lucy. Her and Ophiuchus had a very heartfelt convo afterwards.

All dragons have a "dragon thing." Wendy can stop storms in their tracks several countries away. Gajeel's a human metal detector and magnet. Sting's a human glowstick. Rogue can bend rooms to his will if they're pitch black. Natsu has the highest spice tolerance in all of Earthland, AND he sheds scales regularly that can be mini-bombs if used correctly.

All dragon slayers (THAT HAD DRAGON PARENTS) are 85% dragon and 15% human. I didn't make the rules. They all have tails and horns and visible scales.

Dragon Slayers have a hoard network where they share treasures (i'll elaborate on this later)

[contrivedcoincidences6]

Sweating out Confessions

Sweating out Confessions - Spooky66 - Mass Effect Trilogy [Archive of Our Own]

Thank you @ageless-aislynn for being my beta! And also thank you to @nestadekarios for always being my #1 fan!

***

Shepard, heartbroken after Horizon, ends up running into Kaidan once more giving them a second chance at reconciliation.

***

In a daze, Shepard called Joker to pick them up and take them as far away from Horizon as possible. Her heartbeat was loud, and her companions' voices faded into the background. 

At first, she thought she couldn’t speak over the lump in her throat, but somehow, her voice sounded perfectly normal. 

She’d always excelled at pretending nothing was wrong. 

Kaidan’s form had long ago retreated but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from where he had walked off. Maybe he’d come back and they could talk privately and she could tell him everything. Maybe then he’d hold her and she’d feel whole again for the first time since coming back to life. 

But he didn’t come back and after a couple of minutes the static filling her head cleared and she allowed Garrus and Kasumi to lead her away to the landing zone to wait for pick-up. Garrus said something about giving Kaidan time to cool off. Kasumi said something about ‘exes’ as she laid a hand on her back and Shepard stopped listening. 

Numbly, she nodded at their affirmations but continued looking around, hoping to see him again before taking off. 

As the shuttle landed, there was no sign of Kaidan and with a sad look back over the settlement, the shuttle doors closed, one final separation between them. 

‘Loved’ in past tense rolled through her mind as they flew back to the Normandy and she remembered him telling her he loved her as they lay in the tiny beach house they’d rented. She’d been too choked up for words and kissed him, knowing she loved him but the words had felt too big for her mouth so she showed him instead. The memory began to fade, the love and joy in his eyes replaced by anger as he said, ‘I loved you’. 

Her reasons for not contacting him had made sense at the time. When she’d first woken up she hadn’t had access to comms, she’d run to a terminal and tried to message him but was blocked. By the time she was able to send a communication she had a full understanding of the situation, she wasn’t a captive but also didn’t have a choice. In her cabin, there was a picture of her and Kaidan on shore leave that they’d taken of themselves smiling in front of the waves on their last day. 

Shepard’s arms were wrapped around Kaidan’s neck as she kissed his cheek. She’d frozen in place the first time she’d seen it. They knew about her and Kaidan and wanted her to know it. 

After that, she hadn’t tried to contact Kaidan, even on the terminals in Omega where she communicated with Hackett in highly encrypted messages, the danger was too high. Kaidan could take care of himself but the lengths Cerberus had gone to bring her back and the control they exerted over her made her want to keep Kaidan as far away from them as possible. She reasoned with herself that he had probably moved on and contacting him would disrupt whatever new life he had. 

Deep down she feared that if she found out he was with someone else it would finally be too much for her but she didn’t allow those thoughts to take hold. 

She reported to Hackett who had all but ordered her to stay with Cerberus for the time being, it wasn’t quite a black op but it was not far off. He wanted the Collectors defeated and found the information she sent on Cerberus useful. Shepard knew it was as much support as she was likely to get from the Alliance. 

The weeks wore on and she missed Kaidan desperately. Sometimes she’d wake from a nightmare of her death in space and reach for him. They’d only shared a bed for a couple of months but the comfort of his arms haunted her. 

On Horizon all of her decisions had been laid bare as she saw the hurt and betrayal in Kaidan’s eyes and she finally questioned why she hadn’t reached out only to feel that same sick feeling she felt when she thought of him with someone else. Shepard had told herself she’d been doing it to protect him, and that was partly true, but as he glared at her demanding answers she knew that in her fear she’d hurt him deeply. 

Once they were back on the Normandy, after shouting at the Illusive Man, Shepard grabbed a bottle of whisky and went to her room where she spent the trip to Illium getting progressively drunker until it didn’t hurt so much to look at the picture on her desk. 

He’d sent a message apologizing a few days later and telling her about his grief and guilt after her death. Shepard read and reread the words, sick over how much pain she’d put him through.

A dozen drafts sat in her inbox for two weeks until she finally decided on something simple: ‘I love you, Kaidan, I always will.’ 

They were words she should have said two years ago but as the weight of her current mission pressed down on her, she couldn’t die again without letting him know.

There was no response back and she was almost glad because she couldn’t afford to let her thoughts slide to him as they prepared to go on their aptly named ‘suicide mission’. 

It was almost two months after Horizon when Hackett sent a location and a small data cache through their encrypted messages. The only instructions he provided was ‘Reaper tech I need secured. Leave at drop point after. Go alone.’ 

It was annoying to stop everything she was doing to secure Reaper tech, but she stubbornly needed to prove to herself that she was still Alliance. So, swallowing her irritation, she plugged the information into the galaxy map, ready to be a good soldier. 

It was located on a planet called Boro in the Pylos Nebula, right on the edge of the Traverse, dangerous territory. There was a small Volus colony on the planet but it seemed far out of the way from where Shepard was headed. 

Apparently, the Alliance had secretly sent an expert in ancient alien tech there a year ago to begin research on the area. The last message they’d gotten from the man was the location of the tech he’d found and a request for further aid. 

That was a month ago, he’d not responded to any messages since. 

A storm was brewing making her journey and landing rough, Shepard was not the best pilot but managed it well enough. And she was within walking distance of the outpost. 

She’d begun to gather her things, preparing to spend the night in the outpost as the storm would make it impossible to find the tech she was looking for when the pounding started on the hull of the shuttle. 

Shepard sighed, some lunatic was out in the storm yelling at her to show herself. 

Beyond frustrated by this point, Shepard grabbed her shotgun and opened the door, ready to kill whoever it was that was trying to get in the way of the mission, when the door opened to reveal a familiar form. Even behind his helmet, Shepard recognized Kaidan. His eyes went wide as he recognized her. 

“Shepard?!” 

She could hardly hear him over the storm but could see the tension in his shoulders, he was not happy to see her.

Slinging her shogun to her back she stomped down the gangway and shoved her helmet against his, the only way to hear each other over the storm. 

“What the hell are you doing out here, Kaidan?” 

Her voice was thunderous in her helmet. 

“Me? Unbelievable! What are you doing here?” he shouted back. 

“Classified,” Shepard said before turning back into the shuttle to grab her things. 

She marched past him toward the outpost as the shuttle closed but he grabbed her arm and rammed his helmet back against hers. 

“I don’t give a fuck about what Cerberus classifies! What are you doing here?” 

He was angry, but she also knew he wouldn’t shoot her so she pulled her arm out of his grasp and kept walking towards the outpost. She didn’t need to hear his footsteps to know he was following. 

They stood in a silent standoff together in the airlock waiting for the cue to take off their helmets and as soon as the pressurization finished, Kaidan practically threw his helmet off and turned on her. 

“Shepard, I’m done messing around, what are you doing here?”

“I wasn’t messing around, Kaidan, I was getting out of the storm and I told you it’s classified.” 

“If you’re planning on taking this tech back to Cerberus I won’t let you,” Kaidan said but didn’t reach for his weapon. 

Shepard’s sigh was filled with the exhaustion of the past months, hell, the past three years. 

“I’m not here for Cerberus, if you haven’t noticed I’m here alone.” 

The silence stretched between them as Kaidan tried to decide if he believed her. When he didn’t respond, she made her way into the small prefab building where they’d be waiting out the storm. It looked like a one-person research station and Shepard looked around. It didn't seem like anyone had been there for some time but she wondered about who used to live there and where Hackett had gotten this intel.

There were two rooms and a bathroom. A lab area that was bigger than the rest of the place combined and a small living area with a full bed, a kitchenette, and a small desk. After her short tour, Shepard sat down at the desk to unpack the few supplies she brought with her. Thankfully she’d thought ahead to bring some rations just in case. She’d be set for a couple of days, she glanced behind her to Kaidan’s pacing form, they’d be fine for a couple of days. 

He continued pacing, clearly working something out, while she shot off a message to the Normandy about being grounded by the storm. 

Finally, after a few minutes, he spoke. “You’re working for the Alliance.” 

It wasn't a question so Shepard didn’t answer and he continued, “Is that what this whole thing is? Some black op? Have you been alive this entire time working for Hackett?” 

At the accusation in his voice, anger clouded her vision and whirled around in her chair to face him.  

“I was dead! I suffocated in space until the Shadow Broker found my body and was going to sell it to the Collectors.” She paused for a breath, trying to calm herself but her irritation and grief compelled her to continue, unable to stop if she tried.

“Cerberus told Liara that if she could get my body from the Shadow Broker they could bring me back so she did and here I am! For two years my body changed through more hands than I can say. I didn’t choose this!”

“Liara gave your body to Cerberus?” Kaidan asked, in a voice cold enough to freeze the air around them. 

“Yeah, it’s fucked up but I’m alive,” Shepard said. 

She didn’t add that she’d been furious at Liara too when she’d found out, it didn’t seem helpful. At her core Shepard understood why Liara did it, Liara had always been in love with Shepard. It was an awkward fact that had always sat between them. Shepard had considered what lengths she might go to bring Kaidan back from the dead and had decided to let it go. 

It still made her squirm to consider strangers poking and prodding her body for two years but, she was alive and even though there were some days she wasn’t happy about it, it was overall a good thing. 

Kaidan flashed for just a moment, the dark energy disappearing as quickly as it had appeared, looking almost like a trick of the light. His fists were clenched at his sides and he turned away from Shepard. She’d never seen Kaidan flash, something she’d never held back on when angry. She understood his fury, she’d been pissed too, but it still stung. 

“Why are you here?” Shepard finally asked, breaking the tense silence. 

“Anderson told me to check it out. Apparently he and Hackett aren’t communicating,” Kaidan responded, still looking away his voice gruff. 

With a loud sigh, Shepard leaned her elbows on her knees and stared at the floor, wishing she could find the right words to make it all better. She’d been so nervous on Horizon and had fucked it up badly and she didn’t want a repeat, but her own anger was starting to get the better of her. 

“I get your mad, Kaidan,” she said after a few deep breaths, “I haven’t handled any of this well. For me it’s only felt like a few months since I was on the SR1, it’s hard to wrap your mind around missing two years. There’s a lot I wish I’d done differently but I was scared and confused.” 

He turned back to look at her with raised eyebrows, his eyes softer than a moment ago and so she went on, still unsure of where she was going with it. 

“They have this huge captain’s cabin on the ship. It's got a giant fish tank, a queen bed, and its own bathroom. Absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary.” Kaidan cocked his head at this change of subject so she pushed forward.  

“Anyways, do you remember that picture we took on shore leave? The one in front of the ocean we were sunburnt to hell? It was the last day…” 

Kaidan nodded as she trailed off, he didn’t smile or look wistful as she often felt looking at the picture he just watched her with an unreadable expression. Shepard swallowed the now familiar lump, looked back down, and kept going. 

“It was in a frame on the desk in my new cabin. They must have gotten it off my Omni-Tool and they wanted me to know. It felt like a threat. It was all like that the first couple of weeks just constant mind games with the Illusive Man and my XO. It’s not so bad now but at first I was just trying to get my bearings.” 

Hazarding another glace, she found him standing stiffly with crossed arms. 

“But honestly it’s all just an excuse I-” she cut herself off, not ready to admit her hidden reasons for not reaching out. 

Haltingly she finished, “I should have sent you a message, I’m sorry.”

If he noticed her pause he didn’t let on, his shoulder sagged and he rubbed his forehead. 

“Thanks, Shepard,” he responded tiredly, “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did on Horizon.” 

Shepard grinned, but it felt strained. 

“You already apologized for that.” 

Shrugging, Kaidan finally sat down on the bed only a few feet away. 

“What can you tell me about your mission?” he asked after a few beats of silence. 

She shook her head, unwilling to verbally acknowledge what Kaidan already figured out. It was dangerous enough with just her and Hackett knowing about their agreement she didn’t want Kaidan in on it too. 

“Fine, but let me take the tech back. I’ll loop Hackett in, it’s better than having it sit on a Cerberus ship while you take it to a drop point,” Kaidan said. 

Static erupted from her Omni-Tool followed by Joker’s voice, distorted by the bad connection. 

“Hey Commander- an Alliance shutt- backup?” 

Despite the broken message Shepard understood what he was asking. 

“Negative. Not sure if you can hear me but I’m just going to wait out the storm, I’m fine.”

“Aye-” 

Shepard sighed at her Omni-Tool and continued to take off her armor. 

“Once comms are online we can figure something out.”

***

Hearing Joker on the line had brought back the animosity he’d felt towards the pilot since Shepard’s supposed death. 

“Joker’s with Cerberus too, huh?” he said, needing something to fill the heavy silence. His tone didn’t come across as easy going as he’d been shooting for. 

Shepard nodded and began to take off her gloves.

“I woke up alone during an attack on a Cerberus ship. Once I got my bearings, they showed me the SR2 and Joker was there to pilot. All very convenient.” She almost spat the last part and once again he was left to wonder about her relationship with Cerberus. 

On Horizon she’d defended her position but she also seemed to not fully trust them, especially if she was feeding information to the Alliance. 

“There’s very little Joker wouldn’t do to fly the Normandy again,” Kaidan said bitterly.

Shepard chuckled despite his bad mood.

“He’s obsessed with his new leather pilots seat.” She paused for a moment and sighed. “I was hard on him about it at first but I think he ultimately joined cause he was mad at the Alliance and Council for dropping the preparations for the Reapers.”

Kaidan shook his head, he blamed Joker after her death and said some things he regretted but the anger was still there. Guilt replaced the anger though, at the thought that Joker would stand by Shepard while he’d refused. 

He glanced at her again, she was silently taking off her armor and methodically placing it in neat piles on the ground. It was something he’d seen her so many times and the intimacy of it all made him turn away. 

The room was humid and his thoughts were heavy, Kaidan felt suffocated. After removing the heaviest of his armor he knew he needed to find the environmental controls and get the air moving. 

He turned around and stopped in his tracks to see Shepard in a loose white tank top and Lycra shorts. Sweat and rain dampened the tank top and it stuck to her body in ways that made his heart race. The same scars that ran across her cheeks were scattered on her arms and legs but it didn’t stop him from wanting to run his hands along her muscled legs and kiss his way down her chest. 

Shepard cleared her throat and his face grew hot as he looked away. 

“Chakwas says the scars will fade eventually, right now they’re just keeping me up at night.” Her joke fell flat from the strained tone in her voice and he understood that she believed he was looking at her scars. He swallowed, suddenly needing a drink and not sure if he should correct her misconception or just roll with it. 

Cowardice won out and he gave a chuckle that was as weak as her joke and they lapsed into an awkward silence as they each arranged their armor and got themselves settled. 

He went looking to see if they could get some AC while Shepard pretended to be busy on her datapad. They had no access to the Extranet and their comms were cut so he assumed she was playing a game or taking notes trying to give her hands something to do. 

Kaidan felt that same restlessness as he poked around the building and finally found the enviro controls. As he waved his Omni-Tool over it and adjusted the air, he tried to think of what he could do next to keep busy other than staring at Shepard’s glistening muscles and wondering if she was real. 

Deciding it was safest to stay out of the living space, he made his way into the lab looking around and finding nothing of interest. Anderson had told him the Reaper tech would be in a shielded site not far from the outpost so they wouldn’t be able to find it till tomorrow. Still he copied some of the notes of the man who had been here before them, saving them on his Omni-Tool before sitting down to read some of it. 

The researcher, a man named Saul Mesa, had left little behind and much of it didn’t make any sense but he assumed Hackett’s people would know what to make of it.

Anderson had told him that Mesa had disappeared and they needed the tech secure but the more he looked around, the more he wondered if Saul would be at the site. There was almost no trace of whoever had lived there before except for scattered data pads and an old mug of moldy coffee. 

He wanted to voice these thoughts to Shepard but was held back by the small voice that still asked where her allegiances were. She hadn’t confirmed his suspicions that she was working for Hackett which had, at first, convinced him it was true but now he wondered if it was just wishful thinking. 

Before all of this he’d been doing ok, not great, but he’d been finding himself occasionally enjoying life without crushing guilt. He’d ended a date with a kiss and had only spent a few minutes hyperventilating in his apartment with the same sinking realization that he’d never be kissing her again. 

‘You can now.’ 

The thought hit him like a rocket to the chest, here she was within arms reach but still so far away. He leaned into the doorway and spotted her slouched by the bed, still tapping away on her datapad. 

She didn’t seem to see him and he took a moment to really look at her: except for the new scars, and missing old scars, she looked the same. Long straight nose, violet eyes, and slightly pursed lips he wanted to kiss again so badly. When he’d known her she’d worn her long brown hair in a standard military bun but now her hair was cut short and messy. He wondered if she chose to cut it or if it was done to her. 

The glowing orange scars were, of course, new. He was sure she believed that they disturbed him but it only served to make her more striking. 

As if sensing his gaze she looked up and locked eyes with him, shooting him a smirk to let him know she knew he’d been staring. 

Kaidan leaned against the door and looked at her openly now, trying to project confidence despite his hot face. 

“Can I help you, Commander?” she asked in a lilting tone.

“Just trying to figure you out, Shepard,” he responded and she laughed. 

“I’m an open book, what do you want to know?” 

Her eyes danced as she watched him try to decide what to ask, clearly uncomfortable under her amused gaze. 

“Why did you cut your hair?” 

He had to stop his grimace as the question left his mouth, what a horrible way to start out. 

Shepard’s face fell a fraction and he wanted to call the words back into his mouth but it was too late. 

She ran her fingers through her short hair and sighed. 

“It wasn’t my choice. Don’t like it?”  

Kaidan searched for the words to tell her that he didn’t care at all about her hair or about her scars, or about how her freckles seemed rearranged but saying so would make him more vulnerable than he was willing to be in the moment.

“It looks nice,” he said lamely after too long a pause and his face grew warm again as she chuckled. 

“Well thank you, you know how vain I am.” 

She was joking but he heard the undercurrent of uncertainty in her voice. Shepard wasn’t someone to care about how she looked but he had the feeling she cared a great deal that she looked slightly different than she used to. 

He also suspected she cared about how he perceived her. But he was so used to a confident and unruffled Shepard that he was not quite sure how to respond. 

He just knew he had to say something. 

“Shepard, it doesn’t matter how you wear your hair, you'll always be the most beautiful person in the room.” His heart beat faster as he said it. 

Startled violet eyes stared at him as if trying to figure out if he meant it or was just being nice. 

“You’ve always been the only person to call me beautiful, you need your eyes checked,” Shepard said, chuckling but the smile stayed in place as she deflected. 

Shrugging and returning her smile, Kaidan felt that warmth in his chest that only Shepard could bring out. Every time they’d talked on the SR1 it would make itself at home in his chest. 

“Gemma,” he said and then faltered at the sound of her name leaving his lips and realized he hadn’t said it in years. 

Shepard seemed surprised too and waited for him to continue but whatever teasing thing he’d been about to say was lost in the way she looked at him, so pleased and unguarded. 

And so he asked the question he’d been wondering for weeks now.

“Did you mean what you said in that message?” 

Despite the AC, the air felt heavy again with the question hanging between them. Her answer came fast but the seconds between felt like a lifetime. 

“Of course, no matter what Cerberus did to me that’s never changed.” 

Part of him wanted to rush across the room, take her into his arms and tell her he loved her too, that he’d spent two years mourning a relationship that had lasted a couple months but he couldn’t move, the risk paralyzed him. 

She watched him in the heavy silence for a moment with a sad but kind smile on her face before she went back to whatever she was doing on her datapad. 

Suddenly tired, Kaidan sank to the floor, unsure what to do next he pulled out the notes he found and started to write up a report for Anderson. 

They sat in silence like this for a while, each trying to find something to do to avoid what was brewing between them. Shepard moved to the bed, still on her data pad, looking for all the world as if she were right at home but Kaidan could see the slight clench of her jaw and the stiff way she was moving. 

After an hour passed like this, Kaidan landed on a book he found on a shelf in the living space, some corny Asari romance but it kept him busy and kept his eyes away from Shepard’s reclined form. The storm raged outside, wind beat against the thin walls loud enough to nearly drown out Kaidan’s nerves, the book was not enough to distract him. 

He’d missed Shepard for two years and now he was fairly certain this was her, though part of him wondered if he was just deluding himself. Even if it was her, he couldn’t be with her, not while she was with Cerberus. 

Doing anything was a recipe for another heartbreak that he wasn’t sure he could withstand again. Still, she looked so damn good laid out on the bed. Minus the glowing cybernetic scars, she could be straight from one of his daydreams. 

After a long time of not being able to focus on his book he decided to try conversation again, it was a dangerous tactic but he had to do something. 

“I heard Tali joined you,” he said out of nowhere. 

She looked up at him with wide eyes and he felt his face warm. 

“She sent me a message, she said something about you guys going to the Migrant Fleet?” 

“Oh yeah, that was a whole cluster fuck. They were putting Tali, of all people, on trial for treason. I went in, knocked some heads around, and they let it go.” 

He was certain there was more to it, Tali’s message hadn’t been big on details but he could feel the Quarian’s gratitude in the short message. 

“It’s good to have her back. Frankly, I think she was ready to get away from the Fleet after everything. She goes by Tali’Zorah vas Normandy now,” Shepard said, a grin on her face and pride in her voice.

Kaidan’s heart squeezed at the clear joy written on her face. Most people who didn’t know her considered Shepard to be a serious sort but the fact was that she was just careful who she let see her in this way. 

“Not many humans have seen the Migrant Fleet, what was it like?”

She proceeded to describe the various ships in the Fleet in great detail. She’d grown up in Chicago, watching as starships that would span the galaxy were built in the shipyards in her neighborhood. The excitement for ships, aliens, and space travel had never left her. 

It was something Kaidan had loved about her from the start. When she would start on a topic she enjoyed, her eyes would light up and gone was the N7 officer, veteran of Akuze, and the first human Spectre and in her place was a little girl who once read stories about aliens and stood for hours outside the shipyards, spying on the progress of ships as they took shape.

The conversation flowed naturally to some of her other companions and their various adventures. She told him of seeing Wrex on Tuchanka, her colorful description of the Krogan home world gave away just how much she’d enjoyed herself there. 

“Bet you felt right at home,” Kaidan said, unable to keep the flirt from his voice. 

Shepard boomed out a chuckle. 

“God, I love the Krogan,” she said in agreement. “That trip accomplished a dream I’ve had for a while now, too: got to kill a Thresher Maw on foot.” 

Her glowing smile did little to dim the anxiety that filled him at the thought of nothing between Shepard and a Thresher Maw but air and armor. 

Seeming to sense his unease, she waved her hand, signaling it was no big deal. 

“Grunt and Garrus were with me, we did great! First people to do it since Wrex. It was nice to knock his ass off the throne, can’t have him getting soft.” 

Kaidan rubbed at his forehead more out of habit than any approaching headache, because as they conversed, he knew this was really her, this was Gemma. Back from the dead, she sat in front of him as wild and bright as ever which meant she could die again.

“Hey.” She shifted forward on the bed, trying to catch his eye. “If I can take a Thresher Maw on foot, the Collectors will be a breeze, right? I can handle myself, Kaidan.” 

And she could of course, no one could do it like she did but usually he was with her as she squared up against the worst the galaxy had to offer. Reality crashed in on him then, he still didn’t feel right going with her but the idea of not being by her side cut to the bone. 

Usually so good with words, Shepard didn’t seem to know what to do about this sudden shift in mood and they stayed in this silent stalemate until Kaidan could breathe again.

“It’s really you,” he whispered.

“I feel like me,” Shepard responded in the same low tone. 

He looked up to meet her eyes, shining like two amethysts under the sun. 

It hurt more than he would have expected a couple years ago but it was like he was burning up inside. The reality he’d tried to accept for two years was false and here she was. The most incredible person in the world, the woman he’d fallen in love with hard and fast, who had loved him back, was alive. 

The galaxy had mourned with him, making his own private grief feel unreal compared to the masses who cried as they held a funeral without a body. 

But here she was, as beautiful and whole as she had been the night before the Collectors had torn the Normandy, and his life, apart. 

He was somewhere between wanting to kiss her and run away as fast as he could, storm be damned, when the power went out. 

A sardonic laugh sounded in the darkness from the bed. 

“Bed time I guess.” 

***

Kaidan seemed to be processing and she left him to it as they both awkwardly got ready for bed in the light from their Omni-Tools. She felt lighter than she had since waking up, Kaidan had smiled at her, he’d looked at her the way he used to. Hope bubbled up inside her despite the lingering feeling that he didn’t trust her. 

From day one, he’d done this to her, she was a hardened career woman, raised with no one and nothing, a veteran of Akuze but he could make her blush like she was thirteen again. 

They spent a few uncomfortable minutes trying to figure out sleeping arrangements with Kaidan saying he’d sleep on the floor and Shepard insisting he was being ridiculous. 

Eventually they ended up in bed, facing away from each other, both waiting for the other to fall asleep first. 

This second life had not given her much rest, sleep was often hard to come by if not impossible. The trauma of her death along with the constant feeling of being monitored and isolated wore on her mind. It was impossible to keep those fears at bay while ignoring the warmth of the man next to her and sleep refused to come. 

She and Kaidan had only been together for a little over three months before the attack on the Normandy. A week of that time had been spent on a modest beach vacation where they’d spent most of their time locked away in the cabin they rented. The night before the attack on the Normandy, she’d gotten off her shift late and he was in her bed waiting for her. Too tired to do anything more than fall into bed, she’d cocooned herself against him, comfortable in the time she thought they had left. 

Shepard tried to push those thoughts from her mind as Kaidan’s breathing evened out but with him so close, it was hard not to remember what it felt like to be held by him, the way his fingers felt trailing down her body, the way his lips felt against hers. 

After some time of watching the storm, listening to Kaidan’s breathing, and feeling his heat at her back, Shepard finally fell into an uneasy sleep. 

She was on Horizon, pushing towards the turrets and keeping her eyes out for Kaidan at every turn and with every frozen colonist, her stomach grew more uneasy. As they fought through one more wave of Collectors, she finally saw him, frozen like the others they’d come across, but the relief that he wasn’t on the ship almost made her sag in place. 

In a moment her relief turned to horror as a new squad of Collectors landed in front of them, blocking her path to Kaidan’s frozen form. She watched, between waves of attacks, as the Collectors loaded him into a pod and carried him away. Screaming and firing her weapon, she tried to push through the attackers, but they just kept coming until she was watching the Collectors ship take off. 

On her knees, she watched them fly off, her throat raw from screaming his name. 

“Shepard!”

She clutched her head, drowning out the familiar shout. 

“Gemma, you’re safe!”

Waking with a gasp, Shepard tried to adjust to reality. 

It was a dream she’d had variations of since Horizon, one that had grown more frequent and violent since they’d infiltrated the Collector’s ship. If Kaidan hadn’t woken her, she knew the dream would have shifted to finding his body on the ship, which usually led to EDI waking her up from the nightmare, asking if she needed to call Dr. Chakwas. 

As her heartbeats slowed, she realized that she was pulled tight against Kaidan, their legs intertwined, the only thing between them was her fists which were clutching his shirt. He was rubbing her back in soothing circles, repeating the same comforting phrases in a whisper as she got her bearings. 

Without thought, she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face against him and to her surprise, he returned the embrace and laid a kiss to the top of her head. It all felt so familiar, he smelled the same, his body fit against hers as it had for the few short weeks they’d shared a bed, and her heart ached. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled against his neck after a couple minutes. 

Feeling suddenly embarrassed she started to pull away but his arms remained locked around her. 

“It’s okay,” Kaidan whispered against the top of her head. 

Nightmares were not something she was unfamiliar with before her death, even six years after Akuze she would still occasionally wake with a thudding heart, dry mouth, and the pained faces of her squadmates burned onto her eyelids. Kaidan had only witnessed this once, he’d held her then just like he was now until she’d fallen back asleep. 

But she didn’t want to sleep now. Usually when she woke up from her Horizon nightmare it was to an empty cabin but this time he was beside her, solid and warm, holding her. 

She laid a tentative kiss against his neck, moving her hand into his hair, and pulling her body closer to his. 

Kaidan breathed deeply but his hands didn’t stop their comforting caress of her back. 

Pulling her face back, she laid her forehead against his, cupping his cheek in her hand and running her thumb along his stubbled skin. His eyes were closed but she watched him for signs that he wanted her to move away. Instead he seemed to be fighting his own desires. 

“Kaidan-” she started to say, breaking the heated silence, but she was cut off by his lips. 

Unable to help the moan that escaped her, Shepard melted into the kiss. 

His lips moved against hers with a sudden intensity, and his hands stilled, no longer soothing, but possessive, one cradling the back of her head, the other pressing firmly against the small of her back.

It wasn’t like the night before Ilos, or the other nights they were together, it felt more desperate, like they both knew it would change nothing but couldn’t help but give in. 

At least that’s how it felt for her and Kaidan’s moans and trembling hands were her confirmation that he felt the same. 

He moved his fingers along the hem of her tank top before slipping under the fabric to stroke her heated skin. 

Electricity raced down her spine and the smell of Eezo filled her senses as she flared under his hands. It was almost embarrassing that he could draw such a response from her, doing so little, but he seemed to like it, and started to pull at the hem of her top. He broke them apart for a moment while he removed it before they crashed back together like the shore to the tide. 

It still wasn’t enough, she needed to feel more of him against her warm, alive, real. 

Nearly frantic, she attempted to pull his shirt over his head in one quick movement but failed, drawing an awkward laugh from both of them as he finished the job for her, revealing the skin she’d been so desperate to touch. 

The moment of lightness settled between them and for a moment, she just stared into his eyes, the color of whisky, pupils wide with desire. He ran his fingers down her cheek once before bringing his lips back to hers. She finally removed her bra, pulling her body against his, skin to skin. 

And she was alive for the first time since waking up. 

One of his hands moved to her breast and he rolled his thumb over her nipple, causing her body to beg for more. It hadn’t forgotten those nights on the beach with the warm salty breeze flowing over them or the chilly nights on the Normandy where the fact that it was so clearly against regs didn’t seem to matter anymore. 

“Kai,” she whispered as he moved his mouth to her neck and trailed kisses down to her chest, finally pulling a nipple into his mouth. 

He was over her now, filling her senses and touching her in ways her own fingers had not been able to replicate. Overwhelmed, Shepard clung to his shoulders and let out the kind of noises she’d never been able to vocalize in their time on the Normandy where they always had to be quiet. 

When he moved to the other nipple, her hips lifted, grinding against his abdomen desperate for his touch. His fingers creeped down her belly, beneath her underwear, and between her legs to lay soft touches everywhere but where she wanted them. Opening her eyes in consternation, she saw his own amber eyes watching her with amusement. 

“Tease,” she said and batted at his chest. 

She felt the rumble of his chuckle and couldn’t stop herself from returning his smile. He’d called her a ghost on Horizon and it had been the truth: she’d haunted the halls of the SR2 during the day with empty conversation and filled her cabin with the cries of the dead at night. 

But now she was smiling again and she felt her heart beating wildly against her ribs like it was trying to break confinement to get to him, like he could resurrect her. 

Taking a fistful of his hair, she pulled his face to hers, their lips clashed together with every unspoken* need she’d felt for the past months. It was deep and hungry, all sharp edges and unspoken promises, the taste of the salt from her skin still lingering on his tongue. 

The gentle patterns his fingers were making across the sensitive skin between her legs, the softness of his lips, the scratch of his stubble, and the subtle scent of Eezo combined to take her to a timeless place where the past couple years never happened. 

The trance broke when his fingers finally found her clit, drawing a cry from her as she released his lips. 

“Kaidan,” she whined, reminding herself that this was indeed real and praying she wouldn’t wake up alone in her big empty bed on the Normandy. 

His teeth grazed her ear in answer as his fingers took up a rhythm he’d become familiar with years before. 

She came embarrassingly fast, the feeling of his fingers, his chest hair scraping against her nipples, and his lips on her neck driving her forward at a punishing pace. 

Her vision narrowed as a corona of light erupted over her body, engulfing them both in buzzing dark energy. Kaidan kept up his pace as she shook in his arms until she pushed his hand away, feeling too sensitive. 

The light of her biotics faded as her breathing evened out and instead of feeling satiated, she wanted more. Driven by the rapid beating of his heart and the erection pressed against her hip, she flipped him over on his back. 

Straddling his hips, she took a moment to admire him, flushed and grinning under her, before diving back to his lips with another desperate kiss. 

Her hips rolled, impatient for more delicious friction, drawing a moan from both of them. The tight grip of his hands on her thighs to the desperation in his kiss made the ache low in her belly almost unbearable. 

Unable to wait any longer, she reached between them to position him at her entrance and let out a curse as he angled his hips, sliding inside of her in a quick movement. Needing more, she sat up, stabilizing herself with her hands on his chest as she took up a quick pace. 

When she would lay in bed and imagine being with him again, she used to dream about slow and passionate love making but her body wouldn’t allow a slower pace as it chased another release. 

“Gemma,” Kaidan groaned, knuckles turning white on her thighs as he threw his head back in pleasure. 

*** 

He couldn't look away from the vision of a flushed Shepard moving above him, her breasts moving in a wild, beautiful rhythm as she rode him hard and fast. One of her hands moved from where it rested on his chest to slide up her body and cover her breast, Kaidan had to close his eyes to focus on not cumming. 

Over two years of celibacy was making it difficult to manage, however, especially with the sounds she was making. The lonely nights, Cerberus, the Collectors, all seemed insignificant compared to the gift of getting her back. 

Shepard’s biotics activated regularly during sex reacting to her body’s signals, and until he’d slept with her, Kaidan had never allowed his control to slip in that way. He’d been terrified of flaring and scaring, or even worse hurting, his partner, especially since he’d not been with another Biotic until Shepard. 

Their first time together, light had erupted over her skin when he’d gone down on her, covering his own skin in a comforting buzzing and startling him. He was familiar with her biotics by then but not in this context. In bed, Shepard’s biotics felt warm and soft, like she was delicately running her fingertips along his skin. 

It was intoxicating. 

He still hadn’t been able to bring himself to lose control until they were off the Normandy and in their little beach house away from any expensive equipment and prying eyes. Shepard had been as surprised by him as he’d been by her the night before Ilos but she seemed to enjoy the act as much as he had. 

Gently, he called on the dark energy inside him and focused it on one hand which he then brought between her legs to stroke her clit. 

With a shout, Shepard came, quicker than he’d anticipated. She contracted around him, throwing her head back as her rhythm became erratic. He watched her in the throes of ecstasy and kept up the buzzing pressure as she shook. After a few moments, she stopped shaking and collapsed on his chest with heavy breaths and slick skin. 

“Holy shit,” she finally croaked out. 

He ran his fingers down her back, covering them both in his corona, and kissed the top of her head. They laid there like that for a minute as she collected herself before Kaidan gently rolled her over. 

Instinctually, her legs circled his hips and she drew him near as he began moving again at a slower pace. By her slight twitches and moans, he could tell she was still sensitive and decided to slow the pace. He’d been so focused on keeping his field up while she came it had bought him some time and he intended to use it. 

The thought that this may very well be the last time he made love to her landed in his thoughts like a grenade. He closed his eyes, trying to put it out of his mind, but he couldn’t stop the cascade of emotions that followed it. 

Their last time together had been a couple days before the destruction of the Normandy, it had been quick and sweet. Shepard had been busy when he interrupted her and had needed to get back to work right after. 

He used to think about what he would have done differently if he’d known it was their last time and he used to picture it much like this, desperate and passionate. 

A caress on his cheek finally got him to open his eyes. He didn’t know exactly where Shepard’s thoughts were but based on the sheen in her eyes, he guessed her mind had drifted to the same dark place. 

She pulled him down to meet her lips in a long kiss, then rested her forehead against his. They were as close as physically possible, but it still didn’t feel like enough. The thought of putting any space between them, let alone light-years, was unthinkable. 

In the throes of passion, he was tempted to announce his intention to abandon the Alliance and join her on the SR2. She clearly wasn’t happy with Cerberus. He could keep her safe, stand with her when she defeated the Collectors, and sleep by her side at night. 

It was a beautiful fantasy that he let himself live in for a few precious minutes while he made love to her. 

The feel of her around him tight and warm, her nipples brushing against his chest with each movement, and the feel of her fingernails gently scraping over his scalp and back continued to stoke the fire low in his gut. 

The world turned white when he came, all else faded but the feeling of her surrounding him. 

When he returned to himself, he kissed her, tracing the inside of her mouth with his tongue, scraping his teeth gently against her lips, and not pulling away until he was desperate for breath. 

His fingers traced up her chest and neck to cup her cheek where he felt wet tracks left by fresh tears. He pulled away to look at her, suddenly concerned, he’d never seen Shepard cry. Vulnerability was not a word he would’ve used to describe the Commander. Even when they were together, and she’d let him glimpse her softer side, most of her walls had stayed firmly in place. 

It’s why her declaration of love had shocked him, Shepard didn’t let herself show weakness. Even to him. 

“Hey,” he whispered as she started to turn away from his gaze. 

He tilted her head back to face him and met her red-rimmed eyes. 

“Maybe we can just stay here,” she said, attempting a smile. “What do you think the chances are that someone comes looking for us?” 

He met her weak smile with one of his own. 

“Do you have enough rations to last us till the Reapers show up?”

Shepard let out a watery laugh and buried her face into his neck, stroking her hands down his neck and back in silence. For a few minutes, they stayed like that, wrapped in each other, until Kaidan finally got up. He padded to the kitchenette and returned with a few damp paper towels, gently cleaning between her legs. 

She watched him move about with quiet affection and pulled him into a kiss when he climbed back into bed.  

They curled under the blankets facing each other, exchanging slow kisses and saying nothing. 

There wasn’t much to say, they were back in reality. When the storm cleared, they’d have to find the Reaper tech, and then he’d fly back to Alliance space and she’d go face the Collectors. 

Despite everything weighing on them, they fell asleep quickly, wrapped around each other. It was the easiest Kaidan had fallen asleep in two years. 

***

An insistent beeping from her Omni-Tool woke Shepard some hours later, and with a sinking sense of disappointment, she realized the storm had cleared and their comms were back up. 

Kaidan was wrapped around her from behind, his face nestled against her neck, one hand resting on her belly, and his legs tucked behind hers. 

Despite the beeping and the clear skies, Shepard lay paralyzed for some time, unable to leave the comfort and warmth of his arms. 

In the end, it was her fear that they’d send someone after her that made her move. 

As soon as she shifted forward to grab her Omni-Tool Kaidan pulled her back to him, and she knew he’d been lying awake and unmoving too. 

“If I don’t answer, we’ll probably have a very put-out Turian busting through the airlock within the hour,” she mumbled. 

Despite her words, she turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

Kaidan hummed in response, leaning over her to grab her Omni-Tool for her. 

She opened up the comm to a very frustrated Joker. 

“Shepard?! What the hell? We were just about to send a rescue party, where have you been?” 

“I was asleep, I found shelter for the night. I’m about to go secure the tech. I’ll let you know when I’m done,” she responded shortly. 

“That’s all you’ve got to say? There’s an Alliance craft down there, please tell me you’re not going to add murder of Alliance personnel to your rap sheet,” the pilot snapped back. 

She sighed. 

“How about you worry about keeping the Normandy in one piece till I get back and I’ll worry about my mission.” 

“Jeez, excuse me for worrying. Joker, out.”

Shepard laid her forehead against Kaidan’s chest. 

“You should probably comm Hackett, tell him you made contact with me and you’ll secure the tech,” she said after a couple minutes. 

Kaidan’s eyebrows raised but he did as she said. Hackett, as always, kept his cool demeanor and if this whole exercise hadn’t been such a waste of manpower he’d have believed it was planned the whole time for them both to be there. 

They got dressed in relative silence, helping each other into their armor with lingering touches that said what words couldn’t. 

“I’ve got what we need to shield the tech in the shuttle,” Shepard said as they finished getting ready. 

“Cerberus tech?” Kaidan asked.

“Yeah, top of the line. I’m sure you brought your own but our people might find it useful.” 

Kaidan tilted his head at her words. 

“Could you get in trouble for handing that over to the Alliance?” 

His voice was curious and concerned, a huge improvement from suspicious and frustrated. 

She waved off his concern.

“I’m sure the Illusive Man knows I’m in contact with the Alliance and feeding them intel. And I’m sure he’s not happy about it, but what can he do? Take away the Normandy? Then who would defeat the Collectors?” 

She couldn't help the grin that crossed her lips at the thought of irritating the Illusive Man. One of the small enjoyments she had these days was making his life harder. 

“Aren’t you worried that he’s using you, Shepard? What if he’s counting on you sending information back to the Alliance?” 

Her grin fell at his words and she turned away, ostensibly to set up their inter-helmet comms, but really to hide how much his questions annoyed her.        

“Come on, Kaidan, I’m smarter than that. You don’t think I haven’t considered that already? Everything I send is checked over by Hackett and his people. I’m not some green recruit, I know how to work a black op.” 

He sighed. 

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to- I know you can handle yourself. I’m just worried,” Kaidan said, sounding defeated. 

Turning back to face him, she cupped his cheek, stroking it with her thumb. She couldn't feel the heat of his skin through her glove, but she needed the connection all the same. 

“I know,” she whispered and gave him a long kiss. 

They were fully armored except for their helmets and she realized, with a lump rising in her throat, that this would probably be the last time she could kiss him. Definitely before leaving Boro, but with the suicide mission looming, it could be their last kiss ever. 

Kaidan seemed to sense her thoughts and pulled her to him as tightly as their armor would allow. 

Even though the kiss felt infinite, time eventually caught up with them, and they pulled apart. They put on their helmets, and Shepard was glad to have something that covered her face, hoping it would hide most of her feelings from Kaidan’s sharp gaze. 

But when she looked over at him, his amber eyes gave everything away. 

There would be no hiding from each other. 

Outside, the weather was lovely and she got a look at the lush alien landscape. Boro’s atmosphere was toxic to humans and its flora was different than most Shepard had ever seen, but it was lovely all the same. 

They picked up the shield at her shuttle before heading off to the marked location of the tech in the land rover that was parked in front of the research station. Kaidan insisted on driving, claiming that Shepard would kill them both and then they’d have to send out another team to find them. She’d feigned offence but smiled under her helmet at the familiar jab that had often been thrown her way when they’d been searching for Saren. 

“What do you think happened to the researcher?” Kaidan asked, a couple minutes into their drive. 

“Indoctrination,” she responded, and he glanced at her in surprise at her quick answer.

“I could be wrong, but from the intel I had, he’d indicated he didn’t have the proper equipment to shield the tech.” 

“You don’t think he’d know to stay away from it?” 

She shrugged. 

“Maybe. But I’m not sure how many people actually believe the stories. We know it’s true cause we’ve seen it, but he might have thought he’d be fine with shorter visits. He seemed to have left in a hurry, on foot. That doesn’t exactly scream clear-headed decision making.” 

“True,” Kaidan conceded. “Think we’ll find him at the site?”

“Maybe, if he abandoned the station recently he could still be alive. But I think you and I can handle one indoctrinated scientist,” she responded wryly. 

The site was marked by a tent that blended in well with the trees and plants nearby. Both soldiers held their weapons ready as they approached, but there was no movement outside. 

On Shepard’s cue, they pulled open the flaps of the tent, entering weapons first. 

Inside, they found Mesa hunched over a shiny black object. It sat on a tarp, paneled and about three feet tall, and the moment Shepard laid eyes on it, a wave of unease settled in her gut. 

Mesa spun to face them, flashing a small pistol. 

A strange smile graced his face that made Shepard’s discomfort grow. 

“Commander Shepard,” Mesa said, sounding pleased to see her. 

“Hello, Dr. Mesa, please put down the weapon. We’re here to secure the tech.” 

She kept her tone even despite the gun she was pointing at him. 

“I can’t let you do that. I’m responsible for protecting it until they return.” 

A cold chill ran down Shepard’s spine.

“And when will that be?” 

“Sooner than the galaxy is ready for.” 

At those words, he raised his pistol, and in the blink of an eye, Shepard’s own weapon discharged, drilling a hole right through the man’s heart, killing him instantly and, she hoped, painlessly. 

“Shepard!” Kaidan cried out. 

“We were going to have to kill him anyways, better to do it before he got a shot off,” she responded before he could argue further. “Better off dead than indoctrinated.” 

She could feel him ready to fight her and she held up her hands to stop his words. 

“We need to get this secured. We'll take his body back with us for proper burial.” 

Kaidan glowered at her but said nothing as she shielded the strange object. 

As soon as it was safely behind the shield, the feeling of unease passed and both of them sighed with relief. 

In silence, they loaded both the artifact and Mesa’s body, wrapped in a tarp, into the rover. 

When they were on their way back to the base, Shepard finally broke the silence. “I know you think we could have saved him but we had no way to subdue him. You’d be flying back with him plotting against you the entire time, just waiting to strike. There was no safe way to deal with this and soon we’ll have many more indoctrinated people on our hands, we can’t be bringing infected people back to the Alliance.” 

Kaidan sagged in his seat. 

“I know, I just- it was so fast, you didn’t even try to talk him down.” 

“Do you really think I could have talked him down?” she asked gently. 

His silence was answer enough. 

After securing the tech and Mesa into Kaidan’s shuttle, they stood together wordlessly, staring at the rover Shepard was going to take to her own shuttle. 

Kaidan reached for her hand and pulled her into an embrace. 

“Please be safe, Gemma.” 

He sounded broken, and Shepard closed her eyes against the tears that gathered there. 

“I’ll do my best,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt in her own survival. “You do the same.” 

“Come back to me when this is over,” he said finally, and released her. 

She nodded in response, too choked up to say a word, and got into the rover. 

Looking back at him one last time before driving away, their eyes met and she held his gaze for as long as she dared, trying to memorize his lovely whisky eyes, warm as sunlit resin and holding the promise of a future that would never be hers.

With a breaking heart, she turned away and headed back to the shuttle. 

Back to her life of captivity and a mission that held certain death. 

***

Two months later 

The crowd gathered in front of Alliance headquarters in Vancouver was restless. Reporters, various Alliance personnel, politicians, and curious civilians all waited with bated breath for the person who’d been recently labeled a mass murderer, responsible for the deaths of over 300,000 Batarians. 

Kaidan stood among them, face stony and gut churning. Soldiers held the crowd back, but Kaidan was with Councilor Anderson and therefore had a front row spot to watch as the shuttle containing Gemma Shepard arrived. 

The two men said nothing as Shepard was escorted out of the shuttle in manacles, with armed guards flanking in front, behind, and sides. 

Shepard’s chin was held high as she was marched towards the shouting crowd, her face betraying nothing. 

She was unchanged from the last time he’d seen her but as he watched her, he could see the signs of distress that he was sure no one but he and possibly Anderson would pick up on. 

He could see her quick shallow breaths, the way she bit the inside of her cheek, and the slight wrinkle between her eyes. She was pale and thinner than when he last saw her, with dark smudges under her eyes. 

“She looks tired,” Anderson commented, almost to himself, sounding for all the world like a worried father. 

Kaidan just nodded at this assessment, not sure how to feel. 

When he’d heard the news, he had simply not believed it. There was no way Shepard had been responsible for the destruction of an entire system. 

He’d gone immediately to Anderson, believing they would have to defend Shepard from these accusations. But when he’d arrived, Admiral Hackett was there as well, already in deep conversation with Anderson. There they broke the news that it was indeed Shepard who had flung an asteroid into the Alpha relay. 

Hackett had apparently just gotten back from visiting Shepard on the SR2 and had heard the story directly from her. The Admiral was insistent that Shepard deserved a medal for what she’d done but acknowledged that there would have to be a trial, something Shepard would be turning herself in for after defeating the Collectors. 

That day Kaidan’s view of this Shepard had changed. He was no longer sure it really was her or, if it was her, how much she’d been changed. A small part of him knew it was unfair, that she’d had to make an impossible decision in the worst situation imaginable. But 300,000 souls were exterminated on her call alone and he couldn’t sync that up with the Shepard in his head. 

As she got closer, she kept her eyes trained forward until they suddenly flicked in his direction and their eyes met. The veil fell. She was no longer unreadable; her eyes were pleading with him, desperate and shining with unshed tears. 

He didn’t know what expression his face held but whatever it was seemed to cause her further distress, until she finally looked away. Despite his confusion about who she actually was now,  he felt his heart break a bit as she pulled herself back together, turning her gaze towards the doors ahead, carefully ignoring the jeers and shouted questions as she went. 

Kaidan watched as she disappeared through the door, not knowing when or if he’d see her again and questioning why the thought of not seeing her again hurt so bad after all she’d done. 

As he headed back to his quarters, he felt the weight of the day settle on his chest like a stone. 

He felt a cold emptiness that seemed to stretch out, an endless void that grew as the realization began to settle in: Shepard was well and truly gone. 

Perhaps that was Shepard’s body and maybe even her mind but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the woman he’d loved so dearly truly had died with the SR1.

And there would be no resurrecting her.

[sentientcave]

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Read on AO3

Chapter 4- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

<Prev Chapter - Next Chapter >

Contains: OC x Gaz, Lorelai "Rory" "Scout" Blackmoore-Price, Age gap romance (Scout is roughly 25), Annoying old men, Schemes and Plots, Poor decisions, alcohol mention, Inadvisable Flirting, Gaz does know what he wants and he should probably not go for it

~5.7k - 18+ Only - MDNI

Betting that Gaz would keep his distance after their conversation in the car had been a miscalculation. He must have been watching like a hawk, waiting for her to make her escape. Stupid mistake, only distracting two of Cerberus’ heads, leaving the third free to lock his teeth around her ankle and drag her back into her own personal hell: Being managed like a child.

And worse, he had the audacity to look smug about it, as if he already knew exactly what she was up to.

“No,” Rory said, crossing her arms defensively. “I just needed some air.”

“Which is naturally why you snuck out the back door, yeah?” He settled against the wall, tucking his lighter back into his pocket. “I’m sure you think you’re pretty clever, gettin’ Soap all turned around, but you’re gonna regret that.”

“Am I?”

“Well, you would if you had any sense in that pretty little head of yours, but I suppose the jury’s still out on that.” He glanced down the alley, the silver hair at his temples catching the light for a moment. He braced the foot of one boot flat against the bricks behind him, the very picture of casual nonchalance.

“Oh, so you think I’m pretty?” Rory asked innocently.

He raised his eyebrows, half hooded eyes flicking back to her. “It’s well established by now, isn’t it, darl? If you were anyone else, I’d’ve had you a thousand different ways by now.”

It’s the matter-of-fact tone that got to her, like there was no question that he could’ve and would’ve taken her home the day she bumped into him in almost this very spot, despite all her insistence that she wouldn’t have accepted him while he was still on the rebound. He was so confident, infuriatingly so. Rory wanted to take him down a peg, but didn’t quite trust herself not to prove him right. “A thousand, huh? You haven’t been around that much, I don’t think even your ego has that much stamina.”

“You’re just beggin’ for someone to shut you up.”

“And yet, no one rises to the challenge.”

“It would be wiser to just wait till you get bored of hearin’ yourself yap,” he pointed out. “If I do something about that mouth of yours we’re gonna end up in the backseat of my car.”

Rory scoffed, ignoring the very real flutter of desire that descended from her stomach. He was hotter when he got a little mean, that condescending smirk on his lips devastating to what little restraint she had. It was only that mile-long streak of mulish pride that kept her reactionless, unmoving. “You’re not half as irresistible as you think you are.”

“I have a very high opinion of myself. Probably still makes me pretty hard to resist.”

“Who’s yapping now?”

Gaz tossed his spent cigarette to the ground, a shower of sparks ricocheting up and over his boots before they fizzled out. Rory let her eyes linger on the orange embers for a moment too long, too slow to do more than back up as he stepped forward.

Her shoulders hit the opposite wall, knocking the air out of her, leaving her without any more words to throw between them as a flimsy shield. He braced one forearm against the wall, his other curling around her waist. “See, the trouble is, I’ve already figured you out, Rory.” He pulled her hips closer to his, fingers digging into her flank, arching himself over her, face much too close to her own. “You get quiet when I get my hands on you, don’t you?”

Rory swallowed hard, resting her hands on his shoulders, arms locking up before she could push him away.

"The only thing I'm left wondering," he continued, lips barely grazing along her jaw on his way to her ear. "Do you get quiet because I've called your bluff, or because you've gotten what you wanted all along?" He let go of her waist so he could push her loose hair out of his way, fingers threading into it with a deliberate kind of slowness, like he wanted to make sure he was noting exactly what touches made her breath catch.

“It’s not— I’m not— I don’t want anything from you.” Rory winced at how uncertain she sounded. The heat from his skin bled through his shirt and into her palms, the bitter smell of cigarette smoke and his cologne, vanilla sweet and rich like coffee, somehow reminiscent of a lazy morning in bed.

“Alright.” He started to pull back, but couldn’t go far when Rory reflexively grabbed his shirt. “Ah, there’s the truth of the matter. You just don’t want to admit how badly you do want this.” He settled his body against hers again, smiling mockingly. “You don’t want to give it to me, hm? You want me to take it.”

“Shut up.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He moved himself closer, his very noticeable erection pressed against her, lips ghosting over the tip of her nose, than so close to her lips that she could feel the soft puff of air when he spoke. "Well, I want you to ask. So where does that leave us?"

"I think I hate you,” Rory told him, tilting her chin up to glare at him.

He laughed darkly, unimpressed with her declaration, intent on having a conversation when he could just have what they clearly both wanted. "I think you like me. Tell me you haven't been thinkin' about last night all day long."

“Didn’t we talk about this?”

“We did. But lets be clear. I’m not going to let some idiot put his hands on you. So either you admit that you want me, and I give you what you’re looking for, or we go back inside and you get nothing.”

“Fine. I admit, you are a tiny bit more interesting than this town typically offers. But it’s not gonna mean anything, understood? One time thing, just to get it out of our systems.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” He grabbed Rory’s hand and started walking, glancing over his shoulder as though he expected Ghost or Soap or even John to materialize out of the darkness and shoot him for even thinking about it.

It was a bad idea, but somehow knowing that didn’t make her dig in her heels or protest. She was dizzy from his cologne and the few drinks she’d had, acting irrationally, not in her right mind—

— Except she knew that she was in her right mind. Infuriatingly clear-headed, unable to blame her actions on anyone but herself. And Gaz, at least a little.

He had no right to be as attractive as he was. No business flirting with her or keeping her from flirting with others. If she knew was was good for her, she’d put a stop to this, instead of letting him lead her by the hand down the street, his brown eyes gleaming with triumph when he glanced over his shoulder.

Gaz unlocked the car and opened the door, shoving her into the back seat, his hand protecting her from hitting her head. She shifted over to give him room to drop in behind her, shutting the door firmly behind them.

“Now, come here.” His voice was little more than a growl as he hauled her roughly into his lap, his fingers curling around her neck to drag her down for a scorching kiss.

His lips tasted bitter-sweet, like cigarettes and the rye and coke he’d been nursing all evening. If she’d been paying more attention, she might have realized sooner that he’d kept himself from drinking too much just to keep an eye on her, well aware that she would try something.

Asshole.

He was so annoying and smug, it was too easy to forget how well-earned that arrogance was. Gaz wasn’t some green boy, and she couldn’t run circles around him nearly as well as she thought she could. As clever as her plan had been, she hadn’t banked on the fact that Gaz had been watching her flirt shamelessly with Ghost and Soap, and hadn’t liked it one bit. She’d made him jealous and now had to pay for it.

He controlled the kiss, plush lips light against hers one moment, demanding the next, pulling back when she tried to deepen the kiss, reeling her in roughly when she tried to get enough distance to say something bratty. Gaz was a captain, after all. Used to getting his way, to having his orders followed, to controlling every situation he entered.

When Rory finally relaxed into him, letting him lead, he hummed against her lips, pleased, hands beginning a more thorough exploration, sliding over the silky material of her dress. He kissed down her throat, hooking his fingers into her dress and pulling the neckline to rest below her tits. Calloused fingertips pinched her nipple roughly, making her gasp. “Fuck. Aren’t you pretty.”

Rory ran her nails down his neck lightly, grinding her hips down against him. Gaz groaned in response, wedging a hand between them to rub her clit through her soaked panties.

“This all for me?” he purred. “You—” His phone started ringing, cutting him off. He pulled it out of his pocket, seeing Soap’s name on the screen, and tossed it on the seat next to them, ringer off. It went dark, and then lit up again.

“Just answer it. Tell them you took me home.”

Gaz grumbled, but picked up the phone, holding it a little away from his ear so that Rory could hear as well. “Hello?” His other hand returned to her clit, rubbing a tight circle around her clit, fingers finding their way under the cotton to her wet centre.

Rory clamped her hands over her mouth, glaring at Gaz.

“Where’d th’ two of ye run of tae?” Soap asked. “Si’s on the warpath lookin’ for ye.”

“Rory wanted to go home. I’m driving her back.”

“Withoot sayin’ goodbye? I dinnae think so, Gaz.” Soap’s voice was sing-song, teasing, like he already knew exactly what was going on.

“It’s true. You can talk to her, she’s right here.” Gaz grinned wickedly, offering Rory the phone.

Rory was going to kill him in the most painful way she could imagine. Her hands shook as she took the phone, and he continued his slow, torturous touching, not at all helping. “Yep, r-right here. Had an— ah— headache. Just want to go-o to bed.” To Gaz she mouthed the words stop it! but to no effect.

“Doesnae sound like ye’ve go’ a headache, lass. Sounds like Gaz has his hand in yer pants.”

“Well he doesn’t,” Scout snapped. “Goodnight, Soap!” She ended the call and threw the phone onto the seat. “Oh, you bastard. I’m going to— Oh!” Gaz slid a finger inside her, grinding his palm against her clit instead. She braced her hands on the back of his seat, letting her hips rock back and forth on his hand, chasing more. “I hate you so much,” she panted. “You’re a fucking menace to society.”

He responded by kissing across her chest and sucking one of her nipples into his mouth, tongue swirling over sensitive skin, pulling an unmuffled moan from her. When she sucked in another breath to scold him, he bit down lightly.

The door opened, and Ghost braced on the roof of the car and the top of the door, leaning down enough to look at them. “Wun’t do that if I were you, Garrick.”

Rory yelped and shoved Gaz back against the seat, yanking her dress back up with her other hand. “Go away, Ghost!”

“No. Out, you little tramp. Should’ve known you were up to somethin’ the minute you put your ‘and on Johnny’s leg.”

Gaz gripped her hips tightly, keeping her from moving even as she struggled to do as Ghost said. “She can do what she likes.”

“So long as what she likes is you, yeah?” Ghost beckoned with one slightly crooked finger, his dark eyes meeting Rory’s. “Out. On the double, little Price.”

Scout finally managed to peel Gaz’s hands away and awkwardly climbed out, Ghost giving her a hand as her feet hit the pavement. “Could you all stop this?” she asked. “I’m just trying to get laid.”

“No, you’re actin’ out for attention, ain’t you?” Ghost slammed the car door shut before Gaz could climb out after Rory, and braced a hand on either side of her, leaning in, his eyes dark, shadowed by his brow and the angle he leaned over her. “Well, you’ve got it, kid. Din’t listen t’good sense, so this is your last warnin’. I’m not gonna hold their leashes any longer. You behave the way you’ve been behavin’ tonight again, you’re gonna find yourself bent over the nearest waist-‘igh object or pushed up against the nearest wall. You think we’re possessive an’ overbearin’ now? ‘Ow do you think Johnny’ll act once he’s gotten between your legs?”

Scout grimaced. “Ah.”

“As for ‘im,” Ghost continued, pointing at the car window behind her. “There’s no way he’d ever let you go again. So unless you’re lookin’ to become the next Mrs. Garrick, I suggest you keep yourself in check.”

“Right. Well. Thank you for the warning.” She tried not to show all her embarrassment on her face, but it was hard to keep from crumbling under Ghost’s stern gaze. The game didn’t feel fun anymore, and she just wanted to go to bed, drag the covers up over her head, and hope that no one ever mentioned any of this ever again.

“Last night should’ve been warnin’ enough. Your old man’s not above killin’ us for touchin’ you.”

“You’d think that would be reason enough to keep them from responding to my flirtations in the first place.”

“Well it’s not. The fact that you’re off limits just makes you all the more temptin’.”

Rory crossed her arms defensively. "I don't see how that's my problem."

"Its only your problem if you make it your problem."

"Are you gonna let me flirt with other people?" she asked.

"No," Gaz said as he climbed out the other side of the car. "We're not."

"Then you've kinda got me by the balls here!"

Of course, that was what they wanted, wasn't it? For her to have no one to go to other than them, but they could point to all the warnings and take no accountability if anything happened. Fucking typical.

“Shit luck,” Gaz said unsympathetically. “Are you gonna come back with us and behave? Or should I take you home?”

Ghost snorted. “Not you. Not leavin’ you alone with ‘er. Johnny an’ I will take ‘er. You stay ‘ere an’ figure your shit out, got it?”

“Like you’re so much more trustworthy.”

“I’m not the one who was just fingerin’ ‘er.”

“I’d like to go home, just so I don’t have to spend any longer with you lot. But I’ll walk. It’s not that far.”

“Not ‘appenin’. You’re like a cat in heat, can’t let you out without supervision or you’ll come ‘ome with kittens. Let’s go, kid.”

“Wait— I’d better put my jeans back on.” Rory opened the car door again and bent over to retrieve her abandoned clothing from the floor of the backseat. “Doesn’t matter who takes me home, if I get back in with less clothing on than I left in, dad’s gonna have an aneurysm.”

“Christ alive,” Ghost grumbled. “Should be illegal to sell dresses that short.”

“It’s not my fault I’m tall,” Rory complained. “Stop looking at my arse, you pervert.”

“Next time keep your goddamn trousers on.”

Rory wiggled her way back out, jeans in hand. “Alright, let’s go. Where’d you park?”

“Lot across the street. Gotta find Johnny first.” Ghost raised a few fingers to his mouth and whistled, piercingly loud. Distantly, someone whistled back.

“Got your husband whistle trained?” Rory asked.

Ghost put a big hand between her shoulder blades and pushed her forward, steering her toward his vehicle. “Be glad I ‘ave ‘im so well trained. ‘E was ready to drag you off an’ adjust your attitude hours ago.”

“You’re all awful.”

“Shunt’ve encouraged us.”

“I haven’t been fucked in months! Excuse me for wanting to find an easy lay in a cheap bar. If I’m driven back to my ex I’m blaming you lot.”

Gaz trailed after them, in no rush to return to the bar alone. Probably still thinking about how he was going to explain himself to the other soldiers. “What’s so great about him? You clearly didn’t want him before. Why lower your standards?”

“He’s many things, but a lousy fuck is not one of them. It’s not a good idea to re-open that door, but—”

“You’re not gettin’ back with ‘im,” Ghost said, a note of finality in his voice, as though he had any say in the matter. “‘Onestly, Scout, get your ‘ead together.”

“Found her, aye?” Soap called out, jogging down the last block to meet them.

“Wasn’t that ‘ard. Just ‘ad t’find Gaz’s car.”

Soap grinned, leaning heavily on Gaz’s shoulder, filling in the gap between Gaz and Ghost, fully boxing Rory in against Soap’s stupid blue muscle car. “Shoulda made a break for it, Gaz. If ye’d drove a mile’r two out into the country ye could be fuckin’ her by now.”

“Johnny,” Ghost said tiredly. “Don’t give them ideas.”

“Dinnae be a stick in the muck, Si, ye’ve ne’er been one tae leave a pur lass wet an’ wantin’ either.”

“Gross. Can I please go home now?” Rory complained. “I really have no problem walking.” Walking would, at the very least, give her a chance to burn off the simmer of extra energy that was building, and put the thought of the three men in front of her out of her head. The flirtation with Gaz was bad enough. She really didn’t need to think about the other two old perverts like that either.

It wasn’t fair that they were all so hot.

“Let’s go, kid.” Ghost opened the passenger door and tilted the seat forward so Rory could climb into the back seat. “

"Right. Yeah." She clambered in past him, jolting at the sharp crack that sounded behind her.

"Ow! What was tha' for?" Soap exclaimed, cradling one hand with the other, glaring at Ghost.

"No touchin'. You should know better."

"That's no' fair! Gaz had his hand doon her pants."

"I thought you weren't going to hold their leashes," Rory said, leaning forward from the cramped backseat.

"I'm not gonna stop them from givin' you what you're askin' for, but you weren't askin' for him to fondle you while you climbed into the car." Ghost snapped the seat back into place, nearly hitting Rory with it, and slammed the car door shut, turning to the others with a frown etched between his eyebrows.

Rory started wiggling her jeans back on, ears straining to pick up their conversation that they were having outside the car, with no luck. They were keeping their voices low, nothing more than indistinct rumbles reaching her. Soap slapped Gaz on the shoulder before circling around to the driver’s side, and he and Ghost hopped in.

"Aw, looked better without the trousers, lass," Soap said, twisting to look at her, blue eyes disappointed when he found her legs now covered. He shifted back toward the wheel and started the car, sighing wistfully.

"Johnny," Ghost said warningly.

"Dinnae fash yersel, Si, it's no' like ye weren't thinkin' the same."

"I think we've all thought about Price's little girl enough."

"Oh she's no' so little. The lass is half leg."

Rory leaned against the window, meeting Gaz’s eyes through the glass for a moment. He looked serious, thoughtful, arms crossed over his chest, his sleeves pulled tight across his biceps. Those arms weren’t just for show, either. The way he’d pulled her into his lap earlier was going to stick in her head for a long time.

Gaz knew exactly how to touch her.

Fuck.

How was she supposed to function now? How was she supposed to act like nothing had happened between them? They had to live in the same house until one of them finally moved back out. It would probably have to be her.

At least she could move back in with her mum, for a little while. John would be hurt, but he’d get over it soon enough. It wasn’t like they were all that close. They could go back to their monthly phone calls and visits on special occasions. Better that then him find out she’d been fooling around with one of his friends.

It was a good thing that Ghost had stopped them when he did.

Or maybe a bad thing.

At least if they’d fucked, there wouldn’t be anymore question about what it felt like. She could at least put it out of mind. Move on.

As it was, she might spend a long time thinking about those long, clever fingers and how they felt curled inside of her. How his body would feel pressed against her, stretched out over her, how he would sound in her ear as he pushed inside her.

She was going to wear out the batteries in every vibrator she owned trying to forget about him sleeping across the hall. She couldn’t let herself be tempted.

“Quiet back there,” Soap remarked. “Y’alright, Scout?”

“I’m fine,” she said tersely.

“Don’t be pissed at us, we’re just lookin’ out for you,” Ghost said. “You’re a smart girl, most’f the time. You know it was thick-‘eaded.”

“I know. I know! I don’t need to be reminded.”

“Then cheer up, aye? Could curdle milk with a scowl like tha’.”

“Look, I’m tired, and I’m not sober or drunk enough to be in a good mood right now. I just want to go to bed and have a little melt-down.”

“Aw, Scout—”

“I’m not in the mood, Soap. This has all been mortifying. I think I’ve earned myself a small fit in the privacy of my own room.”

“Bit dramatic,” Ghost said.

“You saw my tits today! I think I’m being under dramatic.”

“Oh ‘ardly.”

“What, has everyone seen yer tits but me?” Soap asked, affronted, turning in his seat to look at Scout. Behind him, Ghost reached over to keep the wheel steady while Soap was distracted. “Pop ‘em out real quick fer me.”

“No. Can you concentrate on the road?”

“How can ye expect me tae concentrate on drivin’ when everyone’s seen ye half naked but me?”

“Soap!”

“It’s no’ fair!”

“Soap, you’re a grown man, stop acting like you can’t just look up tits on your phone whenever you want to. You do not need to see mine.”

“Sides,” Ghost added unhelpfully. “Gaz go to do a lot more than just look. Seems if we’re evening the score…”

“You’re an asshole,” Rory grumbled.

Soap at least returned his attention to driving, settlin back in his seat the correct way. "Tha’s true. It wouldnae be fair tae just look. Scout should let us touch too. Maybe a wee bit of kissin’, Ah ken Gaz doesnae waste time ��fore he gets his tongue involved.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“Aye, s’pose not. Guess yer auld da would have us kilt for it anyhow.” He waggled his eyebrows at Rory through the rear-view mirror. “Might be worth it. Nearly died from doin’ much worse than a long-legged lass in the lane behind a bar.”

“Nice to know I’m not even worth a car’s backseat to you,” Rory commented wryly.

“Didnae mean it like tha’. Yer in the backseat now, do ye really think ye’d have room to manuever if I was back there too? Laneway’s more fun. Sometimes ye get doggers. Pull a wee crowd, since ye like attention so much.”

“Is that what you’re after, Scout? An audience?” Ghost asked, his voice a teasing rumble.

“I hope I get struck by lightning.”

“Tha’s no’ a no, is it, big man?”

“Sounds like a yes that she dun’t want to admit.”

“I changed my mind. I want both of you to be struck by lightning.”

“She’s awful crotchit when she doesnae get pumped.”

“We’ve just gotta ‘ope that she’s charged her vibrator, or she’ll be out of sorts all weekend.”

Luckily, Rory only had to endure a few more minutes of their teasing before they reached the farmhouse, and she was able to climb out of the car. She flipped them off when she reached the front door, and reached into her shoe for her house key.

She kicked off her heels at the door, breathing a sigh of relief. “Hey dad,” she called out. “I’m home.”

"Back early, pumpkin?" John called back from the living room, looking up from his book when she halted in the doorway. "Where's Gaz?"

"Still at the bar. Ghost said he didn't like the way I was flirting with the team and drove me home."

John chuckled, marking the page in the book and setting it to the side. "Good."

“I disagree, but I suppose he’s your man, first and foremost. He’s going to do what he thinks you want most of the time.” She walked into the kitchen to get some water. “You want a cuppa?” she asked, filling the kettle.

“I do, thanks.” John followed her into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, looking at her over the rim of his reading glasses. “The lads are just trying to keep you safe for my sake.”

“I know. They’re just so annoying about it. I thought the others were nice though. Nitro is maybe the coolest person on the planet.”

“She’s a hard worker too. Enlisted as a junior felon, and pulled herself up the ranks by being one of the best. Lot like Soap. She’s a little more even keeled, at least on the surface, though.”

Rory nodded, pulling mugs out of the drying rack. “Lucky was nice too.”

“He was the one flirting, I imagine.”

“A little,” Rory said. “I didn’t think it was a big deal, but apparently I don’t know anything much about men.” She rolled her eyes. “As if I’m a kid that needs looking after. I had a boyfriend for years without any intervention from you all.”

"And look where that got you,” John said teasingly. “Livin’ with your old man and unemployed.”

“To be fair, I have a long history of under-employment. I don’t think we can blame Brandon for that part.” Rory threw tea bags into each mug and poured in hot water. “And he’s not the only loser I’ve dated, he’s just the worst, because he was more interested in my connections than in me.”

John grimaced. “I s’pose your mother bein’ a cabinet minister might be attractive to a toady little social climber.”

“Exactly. I could drop half of my last name and it wouldn’t be so obvious, but I don’t really want to have to do that.” Rory sighed, stirring sugar into one of the mugs. “Dating sucks. I think the only thing that sucks more is being single.”

John laughed at that. “Can’t say I disagree.”

“I know you don’t disagree. Someone that’s comfortable being single doesn’t get married four times. Or fuck my friends.”

“In my defense, she came onto me.”

“Yeah. Jessica is a slut with daddy issues. You’re like catnip to girls like that.” She set his mug on the counter near him and rifled through the pantry. “Got any biscuits?”

“You tell me. Pretty sure you did the groceries last.”

“Damn. I bought ice cream as my treat for the week. Gaz ate it last night. You hungry? I’ll just eat ramen if not, but—”

“I could eat. Was thinkin’ about makin’ popcorn, but I lost track of time.”

“Popcorn is good. But I really want bread. Which I know we are also out of because Gaz ate three sandwiches for lunch. I’m gonna have to readjust the grocery list if he always eats like that.” She pulled flour out of the pantry and a mixing bowl out of one of the other cupboards.

“It’s usually just the first days back from an op. You eat MREs for a month straight and you forget how good real food tastes.” He watched her measure milk and butter into a saucepan. “What are you makin’?”

“Khachapuri. You’ll like it. It’ll take a bit, but we have quick rise yeast, so we should have it before Gaz stumbles his way in. If he doesn’t find someone to go home with, anyway.” Rory swallowed the bitter taste of jealousy, reminding herself that there was no good that could come of being jealous. Kissing Gaz had been a collossal mistake, one not to be repeated a third time. She knew better than to let herself get turned around by a pair of pretty brown eyes.

Ghost was right. She had to be careful. Gaz might have an iron grip on himself in the field, in the line of duty, but he dropped it at the door, all too eager to jump at any suggestion that she might want him— He was just looking for a rebound anyway. He couldn’t hurt her, but she still didn’t need the hassle of getting remotely involved with a man who was still in love with his ex.

“You’re still not helpin’ him with Billie?” he asked.

“No. Definitely not. I think she’s better off without him.”

“He’s a good man—”

“I’m not saying he’s not.” Rory had to wonder if John would maintain that opinion if he knew that Gaz had tried to fuck her in the backseat of his car less than an hour ago. “I’m saying they’re not good for each other. Billie’s too nice, and all she wants is a partner that’s gonna be around. Gaz isn’t ready to be that guy.”

John sipped his tea. “You’ve got his number already, do you?”

“He’s… A lot like you.” Rory tried not to think about the implications of that. She’d always prided herself on being level dispite both her parents being too busy for her a lot of the time. Maybe she did have daddy issues. “You spent all that time chasing the idea of mum, trying to recreate a relationship that had never really existed. Gaz should focus on himself, find someone new once he’s actually ready to settle down. And keep it casual until he is ready. Not every woman that falls into your bed is going to be the one.”

“I did learn that one,” John protested.

“It took you a really long time.”

“Well, we can’t all be so wise so young,” he ruffled her hair. “Gonna read a bit more. I know you said not to talk to you about it, but it’s good. I’m glad you finally shared it with me.”

Rory laughed lightly to cover her embarrassment. “It’s just silly stuff, really, but I’m glad you like it.”

“It’s not silly, Scout. It’s good. You’re a good writer.”

Rory waved him off, ducking her head down to focus on what she was doing, turning on some music, bouncing slightly to the beat to rid herself of some of the excess energy still bubbling under her skin.

She was just folding the dough around the cheese mixture when the sound of the door unlocking signaled Gaz's return. Rory strained to listen to his low conversation with John, but couldn't catch anything. She was just finished shaping the boat-shaped breads and set them on top of the warming oven to finish their final proof,when arms grabbed her around the middle and pulled her into a solid chest.

"Hey, beautiful," Gaz mumbled against her neck. "Couldn't stop thinkin' about you."

Rory stiffened, resisting the compulsion to sink into him. "Gaz, don't you dare."

"You want it too," he groused, palming her ass through her thin cotton pajama shorts.

"We absolutely cannot talk about this right now."

"Don't want to talk. Want to make you come until your legs give out." His teeth tugged at her ear playfully. "Let me treat you right. I wanna be so good to you."

"You're drunk. Go sit down and behave yourself or I won't let you have any khachapuri."

"Cruel," he sighed, but he retreated to a seat on the other side of the counter and dropped his chin into his palm, watching her with half-lidded eyes. “Why are you makin’ bread in the middle of the night?”

“Because I felt like it. And I knew that you’d be coming home less than sober, although I didn’t expect this drunk either. I certainly hope you didn’t drive.”

“Nah, Soap drove me. Came back after they dropped you off. Ghost wanted to scold me some more.” He grinned lazily. “You worried about me, doll?”

“No.”

He hummed disbelievingly. “You’re not foolin’ me, Rory. I know you like me. We both want to finish what we started.”

“Go take a cold shower,” Rory ordered. “You are not being sensible. My dad is not even twenty feet away.”

He got to his feet and took a step toward her. “Alright, alright. I’ll go. Gimme a quick kiss—”

“No! Get out of here!” Rory swatted away his outstretched hands impatiently.

He retreated, but stopped in the doorway and turned back to her. “I’ll be thinkin’ of you.”

“You’re disgusting. Get out of here right now.”

He left, laughing, but Rory was left with a pit of dread in her stomach. This promised to be nothing but trouble, and she needed to find a way to nip the whole thing in the bud as quickly as possible, before John found out and killed Gaz.

Although… That would solve her problem neatly.

Something to consider, if things got out of hand. Rory slid the tray of cheese-stuffed bread into the oven, mulling it over. The problem was that she couldn’t be entirely sure that John really would disapprove. He liked Gaz. He trusted him. If he was going to trust anyone with Rory’s well-being, it might very well be one of his men.

She’d have to be very careful, or she’d have a whole lot of trouble on her hands.

Image Credits: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - Banners by @/cafekitsune

[ageless-aislynn]

Mass Effect 2 update of randomness!

Look, it's Shiala from ME1! But...

Yeah, I went ahead and asked that, despite hearing, "OMG, Shep, you can't just ask people why they're green!" in my head, lol!

But this was Shiala previously

so I felt like that was a fair question, lol. (It was because of her exposure to the Thorian from ME1. Her clones at that time were also green, so I thought that was an interesting and believable change.)

Speaking of green...

*incoherent flailing* Let me just say that I now completely understand why people romance Thane, despite knowing it's going to end in tragedy. Seriously, I keep feeling like Shep is two seconds away from telling Mr. Krios that his body is ready, lol!

(Can't romance him as male!Shep, though, so no worries, we're still staying true to Tali! 😜)

Though that resolve actually came back to bite me when Shep and I were trying to hype Miranda up that she was more than her genetic modifications and looks and biotics and then the game gave me ONLY TWO DIALOGUE OPTIONS: tell her how much we appreciate her body or tell her to stop whining.

Garrus: "C'mon, Shepard, you can't just lead her on!"

Jack: "Wait, I'm running upstairs right now because I want to watch you tell the Cerberus cheerleader to stop whining!"

I told her we appreciated her body, then when she flirted back, I told her I wasn't interested. I felt small, friends. Very small. 🥺

Yep, about that small, as a matter of fact! (I love the "spam" emails we start getting like that, lol! What a realistic touch! 😂)

Anyway, I'm choosing to believe that at some point, Miranda and Jack have this very intense enemies-to-friends-to-lovers thing that happens, so... *waves hands in Jackanda and tries not to feel like such a jerk*

Lastly! Oh yeah, Samara is 🔥🔥🔥 but I was able to spot the dialogue option that would've presumably led to Shep trying to get a romance going. I remember that it's difficult to have enough Paragon points for her to actually agree to that and even if she does, it's still a pretty non-eventful romance (maybe a kiss or even just an interrupted one? Can't remember the exact details). But still! I also remember hearing somewhere that Zaeed develops a crush on her and so I keep pairing them on missions just for RP reasons that amuse me. 😂

I mean, if there was ever somebody that the Justicar would obliterate for not being "just," it would be Zaeed and yet I can see him thinking that's a very attractive trait, lol!

I love that they're alllllmost standing side-by-side in the squad line-up, what can I say? Also, yay, almost got the entire squad! Everybody's loyal except for Tali and I just got her loyalty mission.

OH and I got the conversation from Mordin about how he understands that humans often find him attractive but he's really not interested in Shep that way. But if he was going to try a human, he would try us, lol! That was the funniest thing that I'd totally forgotten could occur and I had to stop to just laugh for a bit over that, lol!

I also got him to sing, yay! I wish that the game would've given me the option to applaud or something other than just standing there, awkwardly staring!

And that's all for now, friends! Hope you had a great weekend and this next week is awesome for you! 🤗🤗🤗

[sanguinemoonglitch]

Even Hell Dogs Love Christmas (WIP)

NB: This is actually getting to be long, so I'm splitting up this part into two.

Part 9.1: In which TIM talks Shep into a walk (Part 8) (Part 1)

Shepard looked at him, skepticism writ clear on her features. “Here?” she looked around at the balcony.

He didn’t even try to hide his amusement. “There’s a garden on the rooftop,” he explained.

Shepard blinked. Her eyes shifted to Kasumi who… appeared to be grinning at her mischievously. She looked back at The Illusive Man. “Um,” she said. She paused. “Okay, sure. Why not. It’s to be better than staying here.” She snapped her mouth shut once her brain caught up to what she had said and blushed a little.

He ignored her verbal misstep, a.k.a. her rudeness and gestured for her to follow. As she did so and they began to walk away, she heard Grunt trying and failing at whispering to Kasumi, “What just happened?”

They didn’t stick around to hear Kasumi’s explanation, though honestly she was a lot better at being quiet than Grunt was and they probably wouldn’t have heard her reply anyway.

Knots started forming in Shepard’s stomach as they walked in silence to the elevator. She didn’t really think her interpersonal skills were up for this.

At the garden, he offered her his arm but she laughed and asked what year he thought this was. He shrugged in response but the small smile he unexpectedly wore told Shepard he was amused rather than offended by her reaction.

At first they walked in silence. Shepard was a ball of tension and he… well, she didn’t know what he was feeling. Or thinking. After a bit, she spotted an opening at the railing, perfectly designed to allow people to stop and admire the view.

He continued to follow in silence and stood slightly back as she braced herself against the railing and stared out at the city. After a moment she let out a long breath, and he could see that she was also letting go of some of her tension. He took a step forwards, towards her.

Shepard looked up at him and he stopped. She turned and leaned against the railing so she could face him properly. “So tell me why,” she said.

“Why what, Shepard?” he asked as he took another step towards her.

She shrugged. “You can almost take your pick,” she began. “Why do you keep seeking me out? Why the accommodations for my non-human crew? Why are we here now, together? And while we’re at it, why not toss in why you don’t have a real name?”

He took another step towards her and eased himself into standing next to her at the railing, but while she looked into the garden, he looked outwards, over the city.

“Shepard, you should know that advocating for humanity, wanting what’s best for humanity doesn’t require despising aliens. Surely you’ve learned that from your own crew?”

“I’ve heard a lot of things from a lot of people. I haven’t heard yet how Cerberus is any different from Terra Firma.”

He looked skeptically at her. Or maybe that was annoyance. “Have you paid any attention to the dossiers we gave you? That I gave you? How many humans on that list?”

She scoffed. “It’s a suicide mission. Why not take advantage to kill a few aliens while accomplishing your goal?”

His eyes flashed angrily. “Do you really think I spent enough to raise a small army on bringing you back just to let you die on me? Do you think I’m a fool who can’t manage his resources?”

She paused and looked away. When she didn’t reply, he continued, “You, Shepard, are the only one who can take that ship through that relay and come home again. I have no doubts.”

“Oh,” she said at last.

“Indeed,” he said, the mockery in his tone was harsh, and she felt the inherent chastisement.

Silence fell between them as they both fought to regain their equanimity.

Shepard’s voice was small and more vulnerability came through than she wanted when she asked, “You really believe we’ll make it back?”

He glanced at her before looking away again. “Of course I do.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed that was true,” she admitted.

“It took two years and four billion credits to bring you back to life, Shepard,” he said wryly.

“That’s insane,” she said.

He looked directly at her. “Are you really complaining?” Now he was amused again.

She shook her head. “Doesn’t make it any less insane,” she replied.

“Maybe,” he said, “but it worked. Shall we continue?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course,” Shepard said somewhat sheepishly.

They walked onwards and he could feel Shepard relaxing as they walked. “You really don’t well in these settings do you?” he asked.

She chuckled. “That obvious?”

He looked at her in disbelief. “Shepard. You were hiding.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a chuckle. “Yeah, you’re right. I really, really don’t.”

He shook his head. "A woman as good at leading people on impossible missions? You're not giving yourself enough credit."

She laughed lightly. "That's almost exactly what Miranda said earlier," she told him.

He didn't reply, but she glanced over and saw him smiling. He saw the confusion in her eyes but ignored it in favor of walking on.

[lilith0fthevalley]

Short Film Feature: The Thing Featuring Jack Krauser

Content Warning: This story contains dark and mature themes, including isolation, psychological horror, body horror, mild medical themes (immunocompromised character), and implied parasitic/alien possession. There are references to death, unsettling imagery, and tension-heavy scenes involving paranoia and transformation. 

And as always…Reader discretion is advised.

Word Count: 1491

Event Masterlist

The distress signal had become a constant blare to the point that Krauser had tuned it out unconsciously. As he stalked through the halls of the Cerberus Research Facility, located way out in the frozen, desolate Antarctic, his ever present scowl deepened. 

This assignment wasn’t supposed to turn out this way… And he swore to himself that if when he got back, he would wring the neck of whoever signed him up for this job.

It was supposed to be a simple security job. Protect the delicate little Poindexter's while they fuck with something they had no business fucking with. Hell, he didn’t even like the cold!! 

As he rounded the corner of the hallway and came to a fork, he just barely registered the taped off corridor. Copious strips of black and beige duct tape barely holding onto the frame. A weak attempt at keeping something in… Or out…

Krauser glares at the hallway as if it had personally offended him… And in a way, perhaps it had… After all, the reason why this job, the job that was supposed to be a simple security job, had gone to shit emerged from that very passageway…

With a grunt he shakes his head and turns away. The stench of drying blood, gasoline and decay is disconcerting; Even for him. 

Pushing off and to the furthest most right hall, he tilts his head in thought and lets out a long sigh through his nose. ‘How many of us are left anymore? 4? No, wait… 3. Or is it 4?’ The sergeant major lets out a frustrated sound and shakes his head. ‘Focus! Ok let’s think… At the beginning there was me, Dr. Blair, Dr. Copper, Palmer, Mac and Nauls… Then they added… Shit what was his name… The red headed prick, the annoying blonde, and Bennings… Old bastard could drink me under the table.’ He smirks at the recalled memory but quickly puts it aside to continue his count. ‘And lastly… Came trouble… The annoyingly delicate Dr. L/N and her lapdog assistant, Claude…’ He rolled his eyes, much like he did when she had first arrived and was scolded by Dr. Blair for doing so. ‘Make sure she feels welcome! She is an integral piece of this research team!’ Dr. Blair had squawked at him. She was a lithe little thing with cropped brown hair and bright green eyes that show a hint of age in the corners of them. A real mothering figure to the younger researchers and a great person to sit in silence with when the insomnia got to be too much for him. God, did he miss her company and her scoldings… 

He paused for a moment and let his eyes fall shut...

~~~

“Uh… Are you listening, Jack?” The head doctor of the facility, Dr. Blair questions with a tilt of her head. Krauser gave her a lazy gaze but nodded. “I’m listenin’ Doc.” He drawls and raises a blond eyebrow at her much smaller form. She nods. “Ok good. I want you to understand how crucial it is that we have Dr. L/N here. She’s a pillar of the field!” The brunette gushes and zips around the lab, rambling to herself. “So make sure she has everything she needs, and if she asks for assistance with anything and I’m not there to give it to her, just… Use my codes to grant her access! You know those, don’t you? Oh, if you don’t they are under my keyboard on a purple sticky. Ah! And, just in case! God forbid, of course, anything happens to her assigned personnel, you would be next up to act as her security. Got it?” The doctor rambled so quickly Krauser lost most of the meaning of those words. “Wait. Doc, are you tellin’ me I have to play babysitter? For a grown woman?!” He asks incredulously. Blair pauses and lets out a huff as she glares at Krauser. 

“It’s not babysitting, Jack… Dr. L/N has connections. Powerful ones. It can get this research to the covers of journals, she can pull strings and influence people. But she has to be around to do so.” Jack snorts and crosses his muscled arms over his broad chest. “So why doesn’t she?” “Because she wants to see the work first before she backs it. Which means she’s coming here. Which also means that we have to be so incredibly careful-”

“Yeah yeah, so you all don’t embarrass yourselves. I know.” Krauser rolls his eyes. It’s Dr. Blair’s turn to cross her arms as she spins around to face him once more. “Not just that, Jack… Dr. L/N is known to be incredibly… Susceptible to illness. That’s why she has an assistant coming with her. His name is Claude. Play nice with him.” She explains with an air of finality in her voice, poking a perfectly polished fingernail into Krauser’s chest before striding past him and back to the labs.

~~~

His grumbles continued soft and unintelligible as he continued through the halls in search of the task he had been so graciously given assigned… The last task Dr. Blair had set him with when things went to hell in a handbasket; Protect Dr. L/N. 

Continuing to mutter his grievances, Krauser enters the little breakroom of the lab to see the light already on and a feminine figure standing at the counter humming a soft tune as she prepares a mug of tea. 

Jack’s lip curls at the sight of her. The so-called fragile little doctor who needed an assistant to remind her of her timed medications, who had to be draped in layers upon layers upon layers of winter coats and sweaters in order to prevent catching a fever, who had to turn in for the night earlier than the rest of the scientists… The same woman stood back to him in a simple striped long sleeved shirt, pulled up to her elbows, leggings and shearling boots. 

He scrutinized her.

And before he could speak, she broke the silence.

“If you have something to say…” Her tone is just barely different from the voice he first heard when she initially arrived at the Cerberus Research Facility... It was stronger... Not the same shy, watery little tone she had introduced herself with. He inhales sharply before speaking. 

"...You're not wearing a coat." It comes out a bit sharper than he intended, instead of like an observation, it sounded like an accusation. 

She froze, posture going rigid before speaking with a disarming smile over the rim of her mug. 

"...Hm. It must be warmer in the kitchen today then." Instead of agreeing with her, Krauser crosses his arms and narrows his piercing blue gaze. “I don’t quite think that’s it…” He gruffs out, the gears in his head turning. The theories and hypotheses coming together–Dr. Blair would be so proud. 

It was all beginning to weave together into a picture. A big, macabre, concerning picture… The strange creatures showing up after Dr. L/N’s arrival, her ability to survive in spite of her delicate nature and the most damning one… The recent changes she had been making; Discarding of her prescriptions, wearing less layers, staying up past the usual time she would be seen retreating to her quarters. Hell, even her complexion was becoming less gaunt and more healthy. She almost seemed like a different, thriving version of herself. But, those changes don’t just happen… Especially not to someone who’s been known to be immunocompromised for her entire career… No, something else has to be at play here…

Y/N pauses and slowly lowers the ceramic mug from her lips.

“...My my, Sergeant Major…” She muses low and playfully.

“It looks like there is some brain accompanying your brawn…” Her grin widens just a fraction, and something cold and inhuman flickers in her narrowed gaze.

“You should’ve started asking questions sooner, Jack~.”

The lights overhead flicker. A second later, a low chittering sound echoes from the vents behind him—followed by the hiss of something wet sliding across metal.

Something behind him clicks before a mechanical hiss can be heard

Krauser turns his head, muscles coiled. The break room door had closed… and locked.

“I would hate to be interrupted,” she purrs. “We have so much to discuss....”

He takes a step backward.

She doesn’t move to close the distance. Instead, her smile only deepens.

“Did you really think you were protecting me, Jack?” She taunts and leans back against the counter top, still giving him that sharp, predatory smile. 

"You're not Dr. L/N…" Krauser surmised.

The woman chuckles, the sound alien in her throat. 

“Oh, Jack… Ever so clever… More than those doctors gave you credit for…”

She tilts her head slowly. “You’re right. I’m not.” She says as she leans off the cabinet to pace. The action akin to a prowling beast.

“But, she was so kind… To 

Let 

Me 

In.”

Fin.

Event Masterlist

Taglist: @shymoob

[darkcat8]

i kind of now want Maleficent in descendants to turn into more of an anti-hero like Hades. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I just imagine that after the events of the, the rise of red. Mal and Ben were celebrating their child's birthday. all of sudden, Zeus comes in kidnapping the baby and maleficent. after hades got trapped on the aisle, He became crazy and paranoid that hades would try to get revenge on Zeus because he was the one who put him there. Little did Zeus know hades had no idea that it was Zeus. when he found out hades had a kid, he didn't worry because she was trapped in the aisle, but when he heard that Mal had a child, he decided to kidnap the child. After Zeus kidnaped the kid. Everyone was trying to figure out why Zeus would kidnap the royal baby. hades were not shocked, saying that Zeus had always been self-righteous and was way worse than maleficent before she turned into a lizard, but no one believed it. After being told by Poseidon that Zeus took the child and maleficent to Olympus, everyone decides to go there to rescue them.

Back on Olympus, Zeus turned maleficent back to normal and gave a makeover a dark purple dress, and her crown was removed to show her horns, and her long hair and iron handcuff that made her weak. Zeus tries to strike a deal with maleficent which she rejects because when she was a lizard, she had grown accustomed to having good relationship with her daughter and after Mal wedding Maleficent and hades started to get along and unknowingly rekindle their thought to be lost flame between them, she didn't want to lose that. Apparently, being a lizard did her some good mellowing her into a bad guy like hades. Zeus wasn't taking no for an answer, so he decided to flirt with maleficent to change her mind, but she was very uncomfortable. Then He locked her in the Dungeon. Maleficent demanded to know what Zeus was going with to do her grandchild. Zeus explains that he will raise the child as his own to make sure that it doesn't end like hades. Zeus starts to talk smack about hades and accidentally lets it slip that he was responsible for hades ending up getting trapped on the aisle. maleficent glared at Zeus, her eyes glowing green before she winced in pain. Maleficent could feel the effects of iron chuffs spreading to the rest of her body on as Zeus began to leave, saying his offer still stands if maleficent changes her mind. When Mal and hades made it to Olympus, they were immediately captured by guards and taken to Zeus. hades and Mal demanded to know where Zeus is to keep the child and maleficent. Zeus offers to show them he took them down to the Dungeon as Evie, Jay, and Ben searched for the child. Zeus throws Mal and hades in prison sell right across from the sell that maleficent was in who looked incredibly weak. mal and hades angrily ask what he did. Zeus explained that he tried to make a deal with her that if she helps get rid of mal and hades in exchange, he will give her control of underworld and she rejected him, and the effects will Spead when she tries to use her powers. hades glared at Zeus, saying that what he is doing is low even for him. Zeus starts insult hades, saying things were better when he was on the aisle, then Zeus says he put hades on the aisle then goes on to insult maleficent about being fairly with out wings full aware that they were stolen from her but mal was not aware of that before Zeus being informed of three intruders. after Zeus left, Hercules came in and unlocked the cells because Zeus took meg away from him. Hades told Mal to take him and find the others as he stood with maleficent. hades broke off the hand chuffs and patched up Maleficent's wounds, followed by the two of them having a moment ending with them kissing meanwhile mal and Hercules have some cousin bounding before finding the others with the child and being chased by calydonian boar until they were saved by cerberus who somehow recognized mal as the daughter of his master. Then alone came Zeus along with his guards. as a fight broke out when Zeus tried to attack mal, only to be attacked by maleficent in dragon form after she turned back. She told Zeus not to touch her daughter. when Mal and maleficent have a brief mother daughter moment, mal asking her mother why she never told about her wings being taken away, which maleficent answer that it because the one took them was someone she once trusted and then she apologies for being so hard on her all of her life. At some point, Zeus has hades cornered that is until maleficent attack him knocking him down At the end , hades told Zeus not to be mad anymore about Zeus sending him to the aisle. If Zeus tries to mess with hade or his family again, he will have to deal with him after that hades and maleficent kind of start flirting before mal if they are getting back together where they both just say it's complicated. I can see it ending with everyone on the aisle while maleficent and hades alone having a moment talking about relationship and deciding to give their relationship another shot. Little do they know Mal is hiding watching them.

this is just maleficent and hades after realizing they are in love with each other again.

Hades after, poseidon accidentally reveals that Zeus was responsible for him ending up on the aisle, not knowing hades had no idea.

Hades out of secret habit seeing Poseidon trying to talk Mal after finding out that she is hades's daughter.

Hades when Zeus insult maleficent for being a fairy without wings full aware that they were stolen from her.

Hades after realizing how Zeus is act was exactly how he was acting while on locked up on the aisle

[scentedstrangercreation]

An Indecent Proposal CH 2 (Shakarian Fic)

An Indecent Proposal (2954 words) by ScentedStrangerCreation Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian Characters: Female Shepard (Mass Effect) Summary: Fake engagement trope babyyyyyyyyy. Set during ME 2, Shepard and Garrus exploit a loophole. It's just a technicality. They're just friends, of course. This started as a fluffy one-shot and now we're going for a part fluff, part angst full story. Some canon divergence, more possibly to come.   “Actually, we can do this later,” Shepard gestured with the pad. “Want a drink?” He waved her off, “I should probably get back to—” “If you say calibrations, I’ll vent the battery.” “Well, I won’t say it then.” “Come on, don’t make me beg.” She turned around and started walking as if he’d already agreed, “have a drink with me.” “It’s actually been more threatening than begging.” “Oh, good. Then you’ll take it seriously.”

Chapter 2

Shepard hadn’t spoken to Garrus in 26 hours. They’d gone longer without communicating before. Hell, they’d only known each other for four years, and she’d been dead half the time. That’s all to say: 26 hours was a drop in the bucket. So why did she feel so anxious? 

Could it be that you bullied him into marrying you in some half-brained plot to not lose your best friend? 

Maybe. 

“Credit for your thoughts?”

Shepard looked up from the data pad she wasn’t reading, caught under Liara’s watchful gaze.

The asari had been the only person not surprised by Shepard’s return. Why should she be? Liara had, after all, been the one to hand Shepard’s body over to Cerberus. Shepard wasn’t sure if she should be furious or hurt. She was a little of both. But she was also happy to see her friend again, so she had planted herself in Liara’s office for the afternoon. If the asari minded, she didn’t say anything. Liara wasn’t saying much at all.

“I asked Garrus to marry me.” Shepard set the data pad on her thigh, watching Liara expectantly.

Bet that wasn’t in your reports.

A flustered and undignified sound escaped Liara’s mouth before she collected herself. 

“Oh,” Liara quickly pushed herself away from the desk and sat up straight, “of course—that’s—congratulations,” she smiled at Shepard, small but warm.

It was the first time Shepard had seen Liara caught off guard since getting here. It felt familiar.

“Great hustle, but it’s not like that.” Shepard chuckled, leaning back into the chair. “We’re just taking advantage of a loophole. He gets the Turian Hierarchy off his back, I keep my sniper.”

“I see.” Liara’s voice was neutral. 

“Trust me, the insanity of the situation isn’t lost on me.” Shepard suddenly regretted bringing it up. She sat up again, “I…I don’t know…panicked.” 

“You panic-asked Garrus Vakarian to marry you?” Liara looked down her nose at Shepard, “That’s an interesting fight-or-flight response.”

Liara was no longer flustered. She was calculating. Now, Shepard really regretted bringing it up.

She bit at the tip of her thumbnail and released a short, disbelieving laugh. What had she been thinking?

“You know,” Liara said, “they say marriage in your 30s is statistically more likely to last,” she shrugged, “For humans, at least.”

“Who knew you’d become such an optimist in your old age?” 

“You know, I’ve always thought that you two—,”

“Liara.” 

“What? You’ve always been close.” 

“Yes, we’re friends.” Shepard emphasized the word, “you know, like we used to be.” She gestured between them.

“Shepard.”

“You sold my body to Cerberus.” Shepard finally said what they’d both been dancing around.

“Gave,” Liara corrected.

 Shepard stared at her blankly.

“No money was exchanged,” she said, “I just think it’s an important distinction.” Her voice trailed off at the end. 

Shepard rolled her eyes. “Okay, you donated my body to a terrorist organization. Not necessarily better, to clarify,” she added. “Then you fucked off halfway across the galaxy. I had to drag my freshly glued ass to Ilium to find you. And you’re just here, what, trading secrets?” 

“Shepard, that’s not fair.” Liara looked around like she’d find the answer anywhere but Shepard’s gaze.

“It wasn’t…” Liara finally looked at her, “A lot of us were lost without you.” 

Shepard looked away this time.

“Some of us tried to change things, others tried to find…purpose when change felt impossible.” 

Liara hesitated, “I’m good at what I do. I’m…doing something here…and Cerberus,” she trailed off before clearing her throat, “I know it was a risk. I don’t regret it, but I understand why you’re angry.” 

“Liara, I’m not—,” she stopped herself. 

They had made a promise to each other years ago: No lies. Back when they were both aliens, just a human and the asari who couldn’t understand each other. Shepard was mad. She may not remember being dead, but she remembers dying. Alone and cold. The same way she woke up again.

They watched each other quietly. The flickering glow of the screen reflected on the glass behind the asari, an endless stream of data Shepard couldn’t possibly comprehend. A quiet anxiety simmered in Liara’s gaze, buried in a shallow grave of poise.

"I’m a lot of things,” Shepard finally said, “grateful is one of them.” 

Liara’s eyes softened. 

Silence overtook them again. It was more peaceful than before, the type of silence Shepard didn’t feel the need to fill.

Liara pushed her chair back and stood, “Let's…we should celebrate.”

A feeling Liara, apparently, didn’t share. 

The asari was ill at ease. There was something else going on. Liara would tell her if she asked, but that’s the other side of the coin. When you promise not to lie, you also learn when not to ask. 

“It’s not every day your friends get engaged,” Liara said, gathering the data pads on her desk. 

“Again, we’re not really engaged.” 

“Shepard, you may have just woken up, but it’s been a bit longer for some of us.” Liara grabbed her coat and looked over her shoulder. “Come over for a drink. We should ping Garrus too.”

[super-amogio-64]

Did anyone else find the ending to the Disney+ Percy Jackson series really unsatisfying?

The show wasn’t bad overall, though some of the acting felt a bit stiff and I didn’t like some of the changes. They removed a lot of the Cerberus stuff where he is neglected by Hades and just wants to play with someone. Percy and Annabeth were a lot quicker on the uptake about a lot of things, which was fine but removed a bit of the suspense from things like the Lotus Casino (I’m still disappointed they didn’t all get sucked into it like in the book - also, removing the taxi driver calling them Your Highness made me a little sad, though Percy learning how to drive the taxi himself made up for it) and Procrustes (they knew he was Procrustes from the start, and as such never got tricked into trying one of his beds). Other changes I didn’t mind so much (like the scene with Echidna) though I found it really odd how the had the whole thing around Medusa where it was like “don’t judge a book by its cover, not everything that looks like a monster is one” only to then turn around and go “actually yeah she is a monster”. It felt like it undercut the message a bit. Anyway, the main two issues I had were:

1.) Removing the scene where Percy makes the gods swear to claim their children by a certain age. It REALLY felt like a lot of the show was building up to that scene (Sally making Grover swear to protect Percy, emphasizing the importance of a sworn oath; the MULTIPLE conversations about how unfair it was that the gods treated their children this way; and the fact that it was solidly established that the gods have to obey certain rules) only to have Percy turn around and tell Luke, “hey, the gods are trying their best, okay?” Percy standing up to the gods had a lot more weight in the book, because he made his anger with the way they treated their kids clear to them, whereas in the show he did stand up to Zeus but then actively defends the gods’ actions in his subsequent confrontation with Luke.

2.) Perhaps my biggest issue in the show: Gabe Ugliano. When Percy entered his apartment, and Eddie said “I’m going out, you’re coming in. I should be apologizing to you,” I was fully bracing myself for a scene depicting how abusive Gabe could get. Instead, we got a Gabe Ugliano who is moderately annoying at worst. He’s an asshole to his wife and stepson, but SEVERELY toned down from the book. He’s mostly just kind of a jerk, who Percy and Sally have no trouble standing up to as he doesn’t really do anything but get annoyed when Percy stands up to him and quickly backs down when Sally stands up to him. They even removed the bit towards the end where it is revealed that he had been physically abusive towards Sally, leaving just about everything that makes the character so hate-able out of the show. He’s just… dislikable. That’s it. I couldn’t really bring myself to hate him because he’s just a dumbass. Now, from what I understand, the reason he was toned down was because Rick Riordan himself said that when they first tried to adapt the scene (in a more faithful way) it was uncomfortable to watch, which is fair: I don’t really like watching depictions of abuse (I had to walk out of Love Lies Bleeding, it’s a great movie but it was a bit too much) especially against children. Plus, I understand that this was meant to be a more kid-friendly show. But removing Gabe’s abuse means removing Sally coming into her own by killing him. Instead, Gabe’s death doesn’t feel as deserved, and it happens accidentally. Plus, even though they established that bad smells can mask a demigod’s scent from monsters, they didn’t include the reveal that Sally stayed with Gabe because his scent hid Percy. Again, I understand why they may not have wanted to keep the “woman sticks with her abuser” narrative for a kid-friendly show. But at that point, why even have him in the show? All of his narrative significance has been stripped away, leaving us with a character who adds nothing to the story. He’s just kinda there. They even made him unemployed, meaning the bit where Percy says on live TV that Gabe is giving away free appliances is gone too. TLDR: he isn’t as evil, so it doesn’t really feel like he gets deserved comeuppance when he dies at the end, and on top of that his plot significance is removed, leaving him as sort of a vestigial tail of a character that no longer has any purpose in the story but is still visibly there taking up screen time.

Idk, I liked a lot about the show, but a lot of aspects felt rushed. I wouldn’t mind waiting longer for season 2 if it meant it would be a more complete adaptation of the book it’s based on.

[calshepard]

specters walk among us.

Kaidan and Shepard briefly cross roads at the Citadel. After Me2 but before Arrival. (I'm still finding their voices & their dynamic, but I hope you enjoy it)

Kaidan was used to seeing Calliope everywhere the first months after her death. Grief was a terrible liar, and he'd been left searching for traces of her among strangers. The same hair color on a woman passing him at the Alliance HQ. A similar-looking scar on his Gunnery Chief the first time he stepped on a spaceship again. Mistaking her voice at the club after two glasses of whiskey.

But the woman leaning on the Presidium's railing was unmistakenly her. Or whatever version of her Cerberus had brought back. She'd put on more muscle since their dreadful meeting on Horizon, but she looked just as tired. If not more. Her cheeks were fuller and void of the unnatural glow that had made his stomach turn.

But her hair was still a tone redder than it used to be, and her left bicep wasn't marked with the beautiful tattoo he traced on sleepless nights.

He approached her slowly and the item in his pocket weighed significantly more.

She didn't react to his presence but kept staring ahead at the view. "Did you get my message?" she asked.

Which one? Kaidan wanted to ask. But he gambled on what she wanted to hear. And then, replied about the other message.

"Anderson has it," he said, furrowing his brows. "Why did you forward the data to the Alliance?"

To me? Remained unsaid.

"Because Cerberus couldn't erase everything," she sighed.

It would take time to decrypt them, but it left a lot unsaid about her loyalties.

"Cal," he choked out. The name ripped out from somewhere deep within him. It was the first time he said her name out loud in two years.

She still wouldn't look at him, only shook her head. "Cal is gone," she whispered, and his heart constricted again. "You were right. I'm a ghost now."

He wanted to argue, just in case she was his Cal. But his doubts would make any assurances a lie, and she deserved more than that.

"All they wanted was Commander Shepard," she continued bitterly and turned her gaze to meet his.

Oh, Cal, what have you done?

The scar she'd gained on Akuze was on her face again, but fresh and more jagged than he remembered. Had she… The thought was too much to bear, and his hand twitched against the railing. The urge came to reach out to her and forget everything that happened in the past two years.

But he wouldn't be himself if he did.

"What did you see out there?" Kaidan deflected, meaning the Omega 4 relay.

It'd been a shock to return to his temporary apartment and find her dog tags on the coffee table and a message that said, 'I wanted you to have them, just in case.'

Shepard didn't answer at first, but her gaze became haunted. "We're not ready. I don't know if we ever will be."

It sent a chill down his spine, even if he'd long made peace with the possibility of dying while fighting this war.

But just like a switch had been flipped, Shepard pushed against the railing with a blank expression.

"My mother is expecting me," she explained.

"Yeah," he shook his head and also pushed himself away from the railing. "Anderson is waiting for me, too."

Shepard nodded in acknowledgment and turned away from him.

"Wait," he called out, crossing the short distance and phishing her tags from his pocket.

"They're yours."

"Keep them," she refused.

"But-"

"I have some things I need to take care of, and then I'm turning myself in."

Kaidan blinked, confused. "For what?"

It was her turn to look confused. "For working with Cerberus. I'm no longer with them, Kaidan."

Guilt rose up like bile. Of course, she would. She'd been with the Alliance her entire life. That was why the betrayal felt so deep.

And now that he'd seen a glimpse of her again, he was going to lose her.

Why hadn't she started with that? Had she not read his apology after Horizon? They could've…

"Take care, Commander," she bid her goodbye and got lost between the crowds of the Presidium.

"It's Majo-"

She hadn't heard, and it didn't matter.

A few weeks later, he could barely make out the headlines from the pressure behind his eyes.

COMMANDER SHEPARD TURNS HERSELF IN FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ALPHA RELAY.

Damn it, Cal. What trouble have you gotten yourself in again?

[sunthyme]

Sorry for this being a day late, I last second decided I hated how the og designs turned out so I redid them lmaooo. Whoops! Tyty sm for the support though, I love y'all! 🩷🩷🩷

💐Ignihyde💐

I cleared the tail end of Book 4 and all of Book 5 two days ago so fair warning, I'm still not completely aware of all the ins and outs of Ortho and Idia. And I might have to redo some of my Pomefiore headcanons with Book 5 in mind, namely Rook??? Whose apparently from Sunset Savanna??? Anyways, onto the designs...

🎮Idia Shroud🎮

(he/it) Unlabelled Gender - Achillic Asexual

Ah, the most relatable character in Twisted Wonderland...

- I don't think I really changed a whole lot about him physically, tbh. Gave him slightly bluer skin and dark makeup. I figured he's kinda one of the closest characters to like alt fashion and stuff so I slapped some piercings on him.

- You can't see them with his GIANT MESS OF HAIR but I gave him some piercings. I'll just grab a pic of them rq.

No bald Idia today guys.

- He's autistic. Is that even up for debate at this point? Either way, I feel like he'd actually hate having hair against his neck and typically put it into a ponytail or something. That shit would be hella warm otherwise, fire or no.

- He plays dating sims religiously but god forbid someone ACTUALLY flirts with him. In the unlikely scenario that he actually realises they're hitting on it, he just freaks out and runs, physically if possible. I think he's unintentionally shut people down hard because he cannot fathom why anyone would like it.

- He has to fight his demons whenever he see any of the people with cat ears which me too me too. Ignihyde actually has a bit of a stray cats issue, namely because Idia sets out food and water for them and refuses to let anyone take them away. They never get into the workshops or anywhere dangerous and Idia has named all of them.

- He has unique names not only for the stray cats of Ignihyde but also for all of the ones in his games, in specific his Minecraft cats.

- It's actually in the process of making a robotic cat as a sort of emotional support animal since a live cat isn't allowed in classes due to allergies (which Grim is exempt from due to him not technically being a cat and not producing allergens, fun fact).

- Oh! And I headcanon him as Greek and Japanese. Forgot that oops. Nationality-wise he'd be Australian though.

I was struggling to think of things that were just canon facts of his character already, which, to be fair, some of this could be but moving onto...

🦾Ortho Shroud🦾

(they/it/he) Nonbinary???

I actually adore how they came out omg. I have no really experience with robot/cyborg character design so I gave myself some liberties.

- First and for most, I made a lot of its robot features more obvious with panelling that would make it easy for Idia to access any brain or vocal mechanics. You cannot convince me that Idia, known for liking video games and anime, would pass up an opportunity to make Ortho look cool asf. Or maybe Book 6 can but for now, panels.

- I don't know if it's ever brought up in detail Ortho's like material components and stuff but I think they're made with the anti-magic stuff Charon's ferrymen have, further enhanced and durable. His freckles help with sensing particularly smell and temperature.

- His eyes took a bit of inspiration from Genoa, I just though a black sclera would look super cool tbh.

- It's hair is a bit crazier and I wanted to lowkey emulate Medusa vibes with it and the soulless eyes lol.

Not much else right now but I know damn well Book 6 will make me cry... Time for the ocs!

🪻Fuji Izanami🪻

Third Year - (she/he) Bigender - Bisexual

- So, a bit of a disclaimer, I've never actually seen Hercules because I was a Greek mythology nerd and was offended by the inaccuracies lol so keep that in mind with the ocs for this dorm. Fuji is my Cerberus character!

- He's the vice-housewarden of Ignihyde and tends to help out with Ortho's upgrades by moving the heavier parts that Idia can't lift.

- Since I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Cerberus means 'spots', I wanted her to have a ton of freckles as an omage.

- She's fully Japanese and has been a childhood friend of the Shrouds, with both families going way back. He was kind of Idia's emotional support before Ortho was allowed as well as a bit of a bodyguard. She and Ortho were the reason Idia didn't have to attend with a mass guard force.

- Quiet and seems quite menacing at first but is a huge softie and loves to be around other people. She and Jack are workout buddies and bond over common music tastes in the J-Pop and K-Pop genres.

- When she's talking to Idia or Ortho, it tends to be in Japanese (neglecting that the game is set to Japanese, imagine the default is like a common tongue or something lol).

- He specialises in heavier mech tech, developing protective wear and other durable things to work with. She hopes to intern with Charon eventually and work to study the containment of blot.

Now for another set of triplets, these ones all in Ignihyde...

🕰️Ye-Jin Ryu🕰️

Second Year - (she/her) - Sapphic

So these next three characters are representative of the Fates, they're Korean.

- Ye-Jin is my 'past' character. I styled her hair is an older-fashioned wavy cut and gave her some classy pearl earrings to give that 🌸vintage aesthetic🌸.

- Her primary skill set and interest is in re-purposing older things and upgrading them i.e. keeping the older aesthetic but making the mechanisms modern and remove the fear that it'll break down from overuse and whatnot.

- As such, she's a sucker for antiques and older fashion trends, mostly consisting of long skirts and formal wear. That being said, she still wears properly protective gear w an working on one of her projects.

- A hobby of hers is photography and she loves both actually taking photos as well as experimenting with different kinds of old cameras. She's a part of a photography club and also has a photo wall in her room.

- Never one to slack, she enjoys journalling and writing letters in her pass time as well. A hopeless romantic, she and Chanda share a class and Ye-Jin writes little posty notes for her.

Now for the present..

🛰️Ji-Ho Ryu🛰️

Second Year - (she/they) - Heteroromantic Bisexual

- Ji-Ho is the present and reflects a more modern Korean makeup style and haircut. I think she'd have reading glasses but only wear them when necessary.

- She has an interest in modern technology and pushing its limits. Adding more storage to a computer than typically offered, making a car even more gas efficient, that kind of stuff.

- They like a combination of things but are actually a part of the Spelldrive Club. She wanted to try something new and expand their bases. It gave her some insight for a recent interest in prosthetics she's developed.

For the final Fate,

👾Dae Ryu👾

Second Year - (she/they/it) Agender - Pansexual

- Dae is the future! I gave her more sci-fi-y makeup and a bit more flare in its hairstyle. Some piercings and ta dah!

- They specialise in bio-tech. Looking at nature to modify scientific approaches and being more environmentally friendly. Sustainability is a top priority for Dae.

- She wants to eventually make basic resources easily accessible to all and is doing its best to work out a solution. They're connecting the dots lol.

- Dae is a part of the hiking club and loves being around nature as much if not more than being in her lab. They often go hiking with Chunying on weekends.

For the last Ignihyde student and the final Benoit...

💀Cooper Benoit💀

First Year - (they/he) Nonbinary - Queer

- Cooper is twisted from Barrel and is the last of the Benoit family to be introduced. They are a very booksmart person and a math nerd.

- He's also disabled and typically uses a wheelchair. As such, they have been working on trying to improve the school's general accessibility as even with magic, NRC's campus can be difficult to navigate in a wheelchair.

- Similarly to Idia, Cooper is a total cat person and he and Idia take care of the strays together. Cooper's slowly memorising the names lmao.

That's all for Ignihyde! Diasomnia will be out tomorrow, promise! Tyty 🩷🩷🩷

[envihellbender]

Role reversal Ada and Leon in RE2 perhaps… somehow…

Fandom: Resident Evil

Characters: Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong

Summary: Roleswap AU. Ada Wong is a nineteen year old using the chaos of Raccoon City to get to the truth of what happened at the orphanage in which she grew up. Leon Kennedy just wants to find the virus and leave.

—

Ada never likes dogs. She remembered the fierce, growling guard dogs from outside the orphanage. She remembered them barking and throwing themselves against the fence. The director kept them hungry and tormented them to ensure they’d attack if necessary. He said it was to keep the orphans safe, mostly it kept them terrified. That was all she could think about as the mangled, frothing at the mouth Cerberus jumped on top of her and shoved her to the cold, hard floor. She struggled as she tried to stab its neck repeatedly only to get no where. She screwed her eyes shut and thought that this fucking thing would rip her throat out, what a stupid way to die, she thought. Suddenly, there was a bang, a gunshot - silenced but loud enough to make her ears ring. The deranged Cerberus was thrown from her, becoming lifeless and still. She swallowed and got to her feet, dusting herself off. When she looked up at her saviour, a tall, blond guy in a pilot’s jacket and a back turtleneck she relaxed a little. He didn’t look like a threat. For now.

“I could have handled it,” Ada mumbled. Her eyes darted around the room looking for an escape in case this stranger turned out to be part of the RPD. “You don’t look like a cop.”

“Guess Raccoon City makes them different.” He pulled a badge out of his pocket and flashed it in front of her face. It declared him as Leon Scott Kennedy, FBI agent. She raised her eyebrows and repressed a smirk, she knew that badge. Too well. The fact Leon had a thick Midwest accent made her think he was more local than he implied. “Not a good spot to be snooping around, kid.”

“I’m not snooping,” Ada snapped, even though she was in fact, snooping. She folded her arms, her red hoodie cold and damp from the cold ground, as well as the viscera dripping from the Cerberi. Leon looked her up and down and rolled his eyes.

“Take my advice, get out of here and don’t look back.”

“Yeah? And how do I do that, huh? You have any bright ideas?” She swallowed and huffed, she needed to learn to control her temper.

“However you managed to get in here.”

“I didn’t-”

“Kid, we both know you’re not a cop,” Leon interrupted impatiently. “You broke in, break out.” He turned to leave, but stopped when Ada spoke again.

“Do you know anything about the orphanage?” She spluttered, she didn’t want a potential lead to get away from her. Leon stopped and turned his head around to stare at Ada for a moment, she couldn’t figure out what intent was in his look

“Why do you wanna know about that place?”

“Why are you pretending to be FBI?”

“What makes you think I’m pretending?”

“Fake IDs have fingerprints, when you know the forger it’s easy to spot them.” Plus, she was the one who performed the dead drop. She never thought she’d run into the guy who used it.

“Yeah, knowing you’re a criminal isn’t exactly helping your case.”

“Aren’t you the one using a fake FBI badge?”

“Point taken.”

“Just… Help me get some info on the orphanage and I’ll get the hell out of here.”

“For a fellow orphan, I guess I can help you out,” Leon grudgingly omitted. Ada’s eyes widened as she realised precisely what he meant, it seemed they had more in common than she thought. “William Birkin. Works for Umbrella. Brian Irons. Chief of Police.” Leon threw something towards Ada, she caught it instinctively and looked down to see a heart shaped key.

“What’s this?”

“A key.”

“Yeah I-”

“It’ll help.” Leon and Ada stared at each for a moment, as if they were both trying to figure the other one out. Eventually he exhaled and ran his fingers through his blond hair, Ada noticed the slight grease at the ends. He turned away and started walking across the garage.

“Hey!” Ada shouted after him, but he didn’t reply. She simply yelled out in frustration and shoved the key into her jeans pocket. At least she had a lead now.