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“Damn it all!” Shepard shouted as she paced in her room, slamming a fist into the wall in frustration. Liara stood awkwardly by the door, unsure of what to do to help the furious human. Shepard paced a few more times before sighing angrily and going to a wall where she slid down to the floor with a look of the defeated.
“Shepard?” Liara finally called out when she didn’t think she would be snapped at.
Shepard’s head snapped up to look at Liara, before she blushed and jumping up, “Liara! How long have you been there?”
“The whole time,” she answered truthfully. Shepard blushed and gestured for her to enter, but when Liara only blushed in response, she realized there was nowhere to sit other then the bed. She looked around to see if she could find somewhere for her to sit, but there weren’t any chairs or anything really she could sit on, so instead Shepard just gestured hopelessly at the bed.
Liara again blushed, but went ahead and did sitting at the very edge of the bed, looking similar to a rabbit, ready to spring away at any second. Shepard leaned against the wall, attempting to relax a little bit, trying to keep from frightening Liara as much as she could help it. “Sorry you had to see that,” Shepard offered a couple of seconds of tense silence.
“It’s fine. It was interesting to see you in a state other than flirting or absolute calm,” Liara said, only to blush after she realized what she had just said, only for Shepard to laugh a little bit at the comment, making Liara’s cheeks become a lovely shade of violet.
“You’ve really only seen me like that before?” Shepard finally asked, still chuckling slightly.
Liara nodded, seeming a bit more confident in herself now, “That’s right, even combat the sort of calm air you have around you as you give orders or are being shot at, its a bit unnerving at times.”
“And the flirting?”
“Once you told me you had feelings for me as well, I reflected on earlier conversations we had, and realized it was possible that you had been flirting with me during that time.”
Shepard laughed a little bit, making Liara blush again, but then she asked, “Are you angry with the council?”
Shepard sighed and tilted her head back, ignoring the sound of her skull lightly hitting the wall behind her. “Yeah,” she finally admitted after a moment. “I’ve been waiting for things to change. The council has wasted so much time, and still they won’t change.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been telling them about the threat that the Reapers and Saren both pose and they still only raise questions, ones that I’ve answered multiple times, only for them to kill the answers I give them every time. I don’t know what else to do. Write it down? Scream it aloud? Don’t let it go? There’s to many deafened ears. ‘Saren’s the only real threat. There’s no such things as Reapers.’ So dead and wrong. If only the deaf would hear.”
“Did meeting with them go that badly? I know the Normandy’s grounded, but I thought maybe that was a choice of yours, trying to give the crew a bit of a break before the big fight.” Liara said.
Shepard just shook her head in response. “If I had wanted to give the crew shore leave, I would have done so. The Normandy being grounded, its just, its so infuriating. They aren’t willing to even listen to me any more. I do all of this, and they refuse to believe me? I…I don’t know what to do.”
Liara gently grabbed Shepard’s hand, looking seriously at her, “This isn’t your fault Shepard. They are so set into their belief that there isn’t any sort of threat, that no matter how much you state the obvious, they leave you alone. They have only lived in a world where they are at the top of the summit for so long, that they can’t imagine anything capable of throwing them from it. They aren’t listening not because they can’t, but because they don’t want to.”
Shepard smiled, and Liara frowned slightly at her before she said, “This is the first time you initiated contact.”
Liara looked down to finally see that she was holding Shepard’s hand. Suddenly her face flushed and she released the captive hand with a slight squeak. She quickly tried to explain herself while apologizing profusely, before Shepard only giggle at her and pulled her in for a hug.
“You’re fine Liara. Thanks for listening.”
Liara wanted nothing more than to turn her head and press their lips together, she wanted to so badly, like Shepard was a black hole and she was trapped in her radius, being dragged closer and closer, but it wasn’t dark or depressing, it was exhilarating and left her breathless. If Liara were to be honest with herself, it scared her a little, but Shepard…Shepard made it all make sense some how… but instead she took what she had already been given, squeezing Shepard tighter in response and whispered, any time Shepard. Anytime.”