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It happened in a bar.
The Normandy crew was given 24 hours for shore leave, and of course the bunch of them were capping out their respite in the loudest bar they could find on the Citadel.
Even the crew’s stalwart CO was letting her hair down, so to speak. She’d matched Williams and Vakarian, shot for shot (she didn’t even bother to go up against Wrex, though; she wasn’t that stupid). A couple hours in and the room was already spinning a bit. She had excused herself from the contest and gone to the bar, leaving Garrus and Ashley to fight it out over another round of Jaeger bombs and… whatever the turian was drinking.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted her favorite Canadian quietly drinking with Engineer Adams.
“Kaidan!” She drawled out his name in a silly sing-song voice. Sober Shepard would have slapped her forehead at how stupid it sounded. Sober Shepard knew she was toeing a thin line here, one that was getting thinner and thinner with each passing conversation she had with her lieutenant.
Drunk Shepard did not care, though. For better or for worse, neither did drunk Kaidan.
He slid up next to her at the bar, eyes soft and unfocused from the lager he’d been drinking. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Shepard,” she corrected him with a sharp poke to his cheek.
“Shepard,” he remedied, smiling widely as he did so. “What can I do for you?”
Luckily Shepard wasn’t so drunk as to blurt what she really thought (it involved the bar top and him with no clothes on), but instead she settled for, “Nothing. Just wanted to talk to you.”
“You like to do that, I’ve noticed.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not at all.” He smiled shyly. “I like our talks.”
She felt her cheeks heat from the blush, though she hoped he’d blame it on the alcohol and not on how giddy that admittance made her feel. “Me too.”
Suddenly he slid closer, eyes narrowing on Shepard’s face. She blinked in drunken confusion as he scooted up until he was mere inches from her face.
“You…” He grinned. “You have freckles.”
It was such a silly observation, and she was drunk enough to think it hilarious. She burst into a fit of giggles, pressing the inside of her elbow to her face to try and contain them.
“What? I’ve never noticed them before!” he protested, though he was laughing right along with her.
“You’re something else, Alenko.” Shepard shook her head at him in mock dismay. “You can spot a drone and remotely disable it from thirty feet away, but you didn’t realize your CO had freckles.”
“I’ve never been close enough to see them.”
He lifted a finger and gently traced over her freckles, seemingly oblivious to the intimacy of it. Rather than drawing back, Shepard leaned into his touch, giving him a lopsided smile.
“Actually,” she began as she watched his eyes follow his finger. “I don’t think you’re close enough.”
He lifted an eyebrow, not at all put off that his CO just brazenly hit on him. In a bar. In front of the whole crew. “Oh?”
“Nope.”
“Well then.”
And that’s when it happened.
The hand that had been playing connect-the-dots with her freckles moved over to cup her cheek. Shepard watched, her body tense with anticipation. He slowly leaned in and pressed his lips to hers: a shy, tentative kiss. She reciprocated, perhaps a bit too eagerly as she almost fell off her barstool in the process. She caught herself on the bar counter, snorting at her gracelessness. Kaidan pulled back, unable to contain his laughter as he helped her straighten up.
“Muffle your chuckles,” she muttered.
“For what it’s worth, that was pretty darn cute.”
“Me almost giving myself a concussion on the bar?”
He shook his head. “I meant more your… enthusiasm, which admittedly did almost end with you on the floor.”
“What can I say? I like Kaidan kisses.”
At that he had to laugh. “You’ve only had one.”
“And I liked it. Thus the enthusiasm!”
Still laughing, he cupped her cheeks in his hands, not at all caring who might be watching. “Oh, Shepard.” He bumped his forehead against hers. “What am I gonna do with you?”
She perked up at his question. “Give me another kiss?”
“…I walked right into that one. But who am I to say no?” he said before leaning in and kissing her again.