Mass Effect Writ in Water

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me.

A/N: A fill for a prompt requesting Shepard using a shower as a ritual to wash away her worries.

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**Writ in Water**

Liara tracked Shepard's movement as they disembarked the Hammerhead. To anyone else, Shepard looked completely normal. Her gait through the Shuttle Bay exuded her normal confidence and control. Only practiced blue eyes could detect the coiled tension straining Shepard's entire frame. Liara silently boarded the elevator next to the brooding human.

The asari was unsure how exactly to react to Shepard's mood. It was not necessarily terse. The woman was simply silent, only responding to direct queries on specific topics. It made Liara nervous; but, it was no longer in her nature to revert to shyness and uncertainty. The archeologist had changed much in the two and a half years Shepard had been gone from her life. In the intervening years after the destruction of the original Normandy, Liara had only herself to rely on.

Shepard's crew had disintegrated without the Commander gluing them together, and the young maiden had made her first tentative steps into the galaxy thriving with life and so many people. At first, the asari had been awkward around the throngs of people clamoring for the information that she was peddling. But, time and her apparent skill (along with her usual dogged determination and uncanny brilliance) had forged confidence into her demeanor and infused fearlessness into her psyche. While simultaneously, suffering and betrayal had stamped out her innocence and opened her eyes to the ways of the world.

Now at the helm of the galaxy's information base as the Shadow Broker, Liara felt the remnants of her childhood paradigms shift. Sliding her eyes to take in the silent woman beside her, the asari hoped that it was not too off putting of a change to drive the human away. Her heart stuttered at the thought. She despaired to think that Shepard would not want her as she was now; a person who was so different than the one she had met on the mission to stop Saren.

She sighed silently knowing their last mission had been a close call and it had shown Shepard more than a little of her new self. Discretion and secrecy were of the utmost importance for the particular operation, so it had only been Liara and Shepard. The duo had infiltrated the heavily fortified base to retrieve the last of a cache of data that several Shadow Broker agents had lost their lives to obtain. With the continued failure of her agents, Liara had called Shepard to assist her with the retrievals. All of which had been dangerous, but none so much as the one they were still bloody from.

Getting their hands on the data itself had been easy, the hard part had been escaping the facility. A facility which neither the soldier nor the intel broker had known was operated by Cerberus until Liara downloaded the data. Once alerted to the removal of the data, the entire population of the small, secret station came at them. Even the scientists, who had no military training, stood in their way. The mission had swiftly devolved into a bloodbath. And, the Cerberus soldiers protecting the place were relentless. If Liara did not know better, she would have thought they were indoctrinated.

Following Shepard quietly into their quarters, Liara recalled the fierce team they both made. She no longer held a gun tentatively as if afraid of it. The asari was now one with her weapon. And, she had finally evolved her biotics to their full potential. Liara knew she was dangerous if she choose to be. And her job description now required that she be dangerous, so she was. She no longer flinched at the pop of a shot blasting through tissue and bone. Her stomach no longer turned at the sight of blood and death. She took calculated risks in battle and fought as if she had nothing to lose. It was freeing in a way, to be so single-minded.

But sometimes the risks could cost so much. If not for Shepard, the asari would be another corpse at the Cerberus facility. With the Hammerhead in sight, the duo had been cornered by a platoon of soldiers. Seeing their escape within reach, Liara pulled out of cover and dispersed a flurry of shots into the enemy. Quickly dropping a singularity into the middle of a group of soldier, she vaulted over some downed crates and put a bullet between the eyes of a soldier running up her left flank. Hearing Shepard cover their right flank, she turned to warp the nearest soldier in the singularity to cause a biotic explosion.

Time dilated to a crawl as she heard the high powered blast of a sniper bullet leaving its weapon. Blue eyes snapped to a partially hidden sniper slightly above their position. She absently felt the desperate tug of a strong arm pulling her down. Liara watched in fascinated awe as the warp modded bullet tore through her barrier and shield, and she heard as it zinged past her head its heat razing the side of her face. Shepard released her and immediately unloaded a concussive shot at the sniper that blasted him from his position exposing him for a lethal shot from the Commander's rifle. Liara moved in tandem, not sparing a moment to think about what may have been her death. She warped the singularity sending the remaining soldiers flying. A series of shots rang out before silence descended.

"What the hell were you doing?" Shepard breathed harshly, jaw twitching from the pressure she was exerting to add nothing else. Her eyes burning as she stared at the asari standing in the middle of a bloody circle of dead bodies.

"Getting us out of here," Liara said holstering her weapon and lithely walking to the Hammerhead.

"That was reckless, Liara," the soldier's voice sounded tight, as if forced to sound civil, "You could've gotten yourself killed."

The asari's forehead wrinkled in confusion, "But, I didn't. You were here."

"What if I hadn't been?" Liara could hear the exasperation seeping through Shepard's tone.

Turning to the Commander, the asari leveled a curious gaze at the human, "This is hardly the worst situation I've had to extract myself from, Shepard." Blue eyes searched the face in front of her, "Had you not been here, I would have chosen a different approach. As I have countless times before." Liara wondered at the Commander's sudden stillness, the shift in her demeanor. It felt as if the woman physically closed herself off as she nodded brusquely and boarded the vehicle.

The silence that had followed them through the flight to the Normandy and up the elevator stretched on as Shepard roughly shed her bloody armor. The armor was quickly followed by the Commander's clothes. Liara watched the violent motions with growing concern. The Commander was obviously upset about something.

Liara's mind whirled with what could possibly be bothering the human as she slowly divested herself of her equally bloody armor. Her eyes followed Shepard's hands as the woman unhooked and discarded her bra. Blue eyes stalled at the sight of the unbound breasts. Unconsciously licking her lips, Liara's eyes devoured the naked flesh presented to her. Dilated eyes slid down a sculpted abdomen to follow the descent of Shepard's panties. Raking her eyes back up from the human's toes, Liara paid particular attention to the Commander's long, lean legs and the neatly groomed triangle of hair at the meeting of her thighs.

The asari continued undressing as the human walked heavily to the bathroom and opened the faucet to allow steaming water to slide down her body. Liara watched transfixed as rivulets of water sliced down curves and skin she knew to be soft and supple. Swallowing roughly as desire spread through her, Liara peeled the last of the clothing off her body.

The asari paused in her approach to join the human. Liara could see the tension pulling Shepard's frame taut. While not unusual, the strain seemed more evident today. Perching her naked hip against the edge of the Commander's personal consule, Liara silently watched. This had become a routine of sorts between them since the asari had first caught the Commander slipping off to jump in the shower instead of directly heading for a debriefing after a mission. The Commander had left the door open that first time in invitation, so Liara had slipped in and joined her. The shower had run much longer than what was prudent on a ship with limited resources. That, however, had not stopped them from repeating the act over and over. They would always return from a mission, take off their armor, strip their clothes, and shower. Shepard never denied her; never closed the door.

Liara was not so certain she would not be turned away this time, but the open door was a good sign. Something was off, however. She watched the soldier press her palms against one of the walls as if supporting herself, head bowed as water fell over and around her. Her desire abated as the asari felt the almost physical manifestation of pain coming off the human.

Shepard tilted her head up to the shower head, letting the water beat away the weariness and the tension. Liara stepped forward, needing to ease the soldier's pain even though she was not entirely sure how to go about it. Realization struck the asari quite suddenly. The washing was an ablution. It was a more than a ritual to take off the grime and blood of the battlefield. It was an ablution for cleansing absolution. Shepard was washing off the demons that haunted her with the physical remnants of battle that washed down the drain into oblivion.

Shepard turned her head slowly to face the asari, as if it weighed too much to move. Her red rimmed eyes stopped Liara at the threshold.

The asari's heart clenched painfully at the evidence of the soldier's obvious pain. She did not hesitate to step into the pounding water with the human and wrap strong arms around her. The archeologist felt the ragged intake of breath as the soldier's chest expanded under her arms and the telltale sighs as she wept quietly, the water hiding the evidence of her tears. Liara's heart broke a little at the stuttered words Shepard spoke through hitching breaths, "I understand now how you felt when I died."

Blue arms pulled the human closer, and held on tighter. "What can I do?"

Turning in the embrace and hanging onto the asari desperately, Shepard buried her face in a blue neck, "Don't die, Liara." The archeologist felt the press of the Commander's mind against her own as hands incited and flamed the desire that had been simmering beneath the surface since Shepard had begun undressing. "Don't die," the choked sob that accompanied the words pulled at Liara's heartstrings.

Taking the soldier's face between her hands Liara kissed the woman softly. Pulling back, the asari moved the wet hair clinging to the human's face, "War is coming, Shepard." Sad eyes regarded her. "Neither one of us can promise that," Liara's expelled gently, her heart aching at the truth of the statement. "But," she kissed the soldier again, harder, deeper, "we have this moment. We're alive and together right now. Let's not squander the time we've been given."

Liara's mouth sought Shepard's to reassure of the Commander of her continued existence. And hands explored with the passion borne of desperation and need. Shepard pressed Liara to the nearest wall, and Liara wrapped her legs around the soldier's muscled waist. Without pause or hesitancy, Shepard plunged two fingers into Liara reveling in the pain of the asari's nails digging into her back and the pleasure of their breasts rubbing together with every thrust of fingers that Liara's inadvertent tug caused.

Breathing raggedly, Liara said between staggered breaths, "Embrace Eternity." Binding, melding, joining and rushing them headlong to the pinnacle of release.

And as they stood, entwined physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, they allowed the water to wash away the grime, the blood, the tension, the sadness, the desperation, and the fear. For the moment, they allowed the physical ablution to absolve the weariness upon their souls.


End file.

Mass Effect