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"Your old scars are gone."
Charlie took in a deep breath as Kaidan’s fingers moved under the blankets, continuing their path over her bare skin. She shimmied closer to him, content when his other hand pulled her closer to his warmth.
"Well, as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve got a few new ones."
"They’re not the same," he murmured into her neck, his breath tickling her.
"New skin, remember?" Charlie countered, peeking an eye open as she turned her head back towards him.
Kaidan hesitated, no doubt thinking about all she told him regarding the Lazarus Project. "I know, I just… never really got a chance to get to know them."
Turning in his arms, Charlie faced him, her eyebrow raised. "Get to know them?"
A smirk grew on his lips just before he dipped his head down, his lips finding her neck. "You know," he started, slowly kissing up her neck until he gently tugged at her earlobe with his teeth. "Get to know them intimately."
A shiver ran down Charlie’s spine at his words and the feeling of his breath on her ear. "Ah," she replied, almost breathless, and Kaidan chuckled. He pulled back to look at her, and his eyes caught a glimpse of something behind her ear—the only thing there was her small tattoo of a solid star.
"Wait," he began, brows furrowing, "If you got new skin… you got your tattoos redone, then?"
"Yup."
"Don’t you have synthetic fibers in your skin? With medi-gel in them?" he asked, and Charlie grinned up at him—he had listened to and remembered every single detail of what she told him about her reconstruction.
"Yes, I do, and let me tell you, they made it a major pain in the ass to get them redone," she explained, her grin turning into a frown at the memory. "Regular tattoo needles didn’t do the trick, so I went with the laser tattoos. That shit was expensive, but I figured if Cerberus was willing to spend four billion credits on bringing me back, they could spare a few more to finish the job."
Raising his eyebrow, Kaidan suppressed a grin. "You used Cerberus’ funds to get your tattoos redone?"
"Fuck yes."
He laughed, unable to hold back his smile. His laughter was infectious, pulling her into a giggling fit as well. When they calmed, Kaidan let out a deep breath.
"I’m glad you got them back. I always liked them."
"You never mentioned that… before," she answered, meeting his gaze. She could see that he knew she meant before she died, before they first slept together… before she made things unnecessarily complicated between them.
Just as Charlie could read Kaidan, he could read her, and he recognized her thoughts turning towards those dark, painful things they’d since moved past once they came back into each other’s lives. Placing his fingers under her chin, Kaidan tilted her head up and looked deep into her eyes, the corner of his lips quirking up.
"I guess I was always afraid to say something," he started, lips growing into a full on smirk. "You can be very scary when you want to be."
"Ha ha," Charlie drawled, rolling her eyes.
"You’re not denying it."
"I can’t help it if I scare people. I like it, anyway. Keeps annoying fuckers away," she finished. She flashed a devious grin at him. "Didn’t keep you away, though. You might not have said anything about my tattoos, but don’t think I didn’t notice you staring at them any chance you got."
Huffing, Kaidan blushed the slightest bit. "Hey, some are very hard to miss," he retorted, running his hand over the cherry blossom tattoo covering her entire left arm.
"And the ones that aren’t?" she asked, not even bothering to reign in her grin.
"Well, those were harder to discover," Kaidan began, fingers dancing to the other side of her body to the N7 tattoo on her ribcage. Charlie turned to expose it more, and he lightly traced over it, sending tingles down her spine at the gentle touch. "Between all the changing in and out of our armor for missions, I eventually saw them all, but… I never really got a chance to get to know them, either."
Charlie snorted. "Well, my tattoos are here, unlike my old scars." Lowering her voice, she shot him a seductive look. "Are you going to do something about that?"
Almost immediately, Kaidan pushed the blankets off of them and flipped her onto her back. He sat back on his feet as his eyes trailed over her naked body. Her heart beat faster as she took in his own naked body, warmth spreading through her when she met his gaze. His normally brown eyes had grown darker, and he was giving her a hungry look, one she’d come to like very very much in the time that they’d been together.
"Charlie," Kaidan started, his voice a low rumble that had her swallowing hard. Without breaking eye contact, Kaidan lifted her foot and brought her calf to his lips, pressing a tender kiss to the constellation tattoo on the back of her calf. Charlie’s breath hitched when his lips met the ink on her skin, and she bit her lip. "Why the big dipper?" he asked, lips pressing a kiss on each point of the constellation.
"It always points to Polaris," she breathed. "You can use it to find your way. I don’t know how to explain it… I just needed some guidance during Alliance training."
"Guidance?" Kaidan’s lips moved up her leg, and she curled her fingers in his hair, her breathing becoming unsteady.
"I had issues with authority."
Kaidan chuckled, his breath tickling the inside of her thigh as he lifted his head up and quirked up an eyebrow. "Had?"
Glaring at him, Charlie tightened her grip on his hair. "Shut up."
He smirked at her, giving her a mock salute. "Yes, ma’am!"
Charlie growled in frustration, her head falling back onto her pillow. "Kaidan, if you don’t shut up and—"
Her words trailed off into a moan as his lips found his earlier destination. Kaidan took his time building her pleasure and "getting to know" each and every one of her many tattoos.
When they were spent, they lay back under the blankets in the bed. Charlie was completely content to lay in Kaidan’s arms, her back to his chest and his body curled around hers, and dreaded the moment her alarm would go off and ruin it.
Kaidan’s gentle touch on the inside of her right wrist drew her attention back to the moment at hand, and she frowned when she saw his thumb roving over the bare, empty skin there.
"Why didn’t you get this one replaced? The quote always suited you," Kaidan murmured into her ear.
Stars can’t shine without darkness, she thought to herself, sighing.
"You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to," he added when she didn’t answer, punctuating his words with a kiss to her neck.
Charlie stared at the empty patch of skin on her wrist for a long time before she finally spoke, her words quiet.
"I couldn’t do it," she began, and Kaidan didn’t answer, holding her closer instead. "Tucker used to say it to me. He was there with me when I got the tattoo done—the chickenshit was scared shitless of a needle that was poking me not him." Smiling at the memory, she swallowed hard before finishing. "It just didn’t seem right getting it done again without him. Not when I’d just woken up to Cerberus and I’d been… alone."
Kaidan rubbed his thumb over the inside of her wrist again. "Maybe when this war is over… maybe then you can get it redone." He paused, thoughtful. "I could come with you… if you wanted me to?"
Turning in his arms, Charlie tucked her face in under his, snaking her arms around him to hold him as close as he could get, and he returned the gesture. "Yeah," she breathed. "That sounds… nice."
They remained quiet for a moment, and then a smile grew on Charlie’s face. "Maybe you can even get a tattoo."
A chuckle rumbled in his chest. "Me? I don’t know about that."
"Why not?" she said, looking up at him. You could get the spectre symbol on your shoulder… or on your chest… or whatever you wanted wherever you wanted it."
Kaidan was still laughing. "Maybe."
"You’re not afraid of the pain are you? It’s really not bad at all."
"Says the woman who survived dying."
"Good point." With a content sigh, Charlie settled her head back in the crook of Kaidan’s neck. "But still, I’ll convince you by the time this war is over."
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "We’ll see about that."
"Challenge accepted, Major."