AN: Accidental drabble. This was initially part of my current fic as a memory, but then I realised I didn't want to dwell on the past. I wanted it to be them enjoying each other in the present so, SNIP SNIP, it had to go. Decided to dust it off and post it as a one shot.

Hope you like it.

~*Sunrise*~

It was the third night of their shore leave. Shepard had slept amazingly well since they'd arrived on the small, warm, unassuming ocean planet. She hadn't slept like this since before Eden Prime. Her nights were thankfully dreamless, until that night.

She woke in the early hours with a start. She blinked feverishly to try and dispel the usual flashes of destruction pain and death that seemed to be burnt into her retinas. Her Beacon nightmares always seemed to bleed across the line of sleep in to her first waking moments leaving her mildly disorientated. That in itself was disturbing enough, but this time, the nightmare included flashes of Kaidan.

He was screaming in pain, his skin burning and ripping, being torn by unseen hands. He reached out to her, his mouth oozing blood as reaper tech embedded itself in to his flesh. A spike burst through his abdomen, splattering blood across her outstretched hands and his face contorted in a silent scream. She watched helplessly as his skin greyed, and his eyes rolled over white then blazed a fierce blue. A blue that now shone through his torn skin. She awoke with the sound of his husk-like moan echoing relentlessly in her mind. A harsh pant escaped her lips and tears burnt in her eyes.

She felt the heavy weight of Kaidan's arm across her waist tighten and coil around her. She shuffled onto her back and he moaned, a soft sleepy noise of protest at her movement as he nuzzled into her shoulder. She ran her fingers gently down his perfect face as if to reassure herself that he was there, alive and safe.

An hour later and she was still awake, every time she closed her eyes all she could see was Kaidan's face contorted, sallow cheeked and unnaturally grey. It made her uneasy, and every time she moved it disturbed Kaidan who would moan softly.

She decided to give up on sleep and, so as not to subject him to her restlessness, she chose to get out of their bed altogether. Kaidan flopped onto his back with sigh and began snoring loudly, draping the arm closest to her across her stomach, his fingertips resting lightly on her hip bone. She smiled, this seemed to be becoming a habit, it was as if even in his sleep he couldn't stand not touching her. She softly held his arm up and wriggled out from underneath, pulling down a pillow to take her place under his arm, hoping he wouldn't notice the difference.

She grabbed his t-shirt from where it lay discarded on the floor, slipped it on and quietly crept out of the bedroom and made her way to the kitchen, tiptoeing nimbly in bare feet. She waited patiently for the coffee to brew, rolling her shoulders to try and relieve some of the tension resting there as a result of her dream.

Coffee in hand, she strolled out onto the porch, grabbing a throw off the couch as she passed. She sat cross legged on the soft seating facing the ocean. She draped the blanket over her as she fired up her omni-tool, wanting a distraction from the images that seemed to be burned in to the back of her eyes.

She began scrolling through the pictures she'd taken so far and smiled as she came across the one's she'd taken yesterday.

The startled look on Kaidan's face as she hurled him off the porch with her biotics, and sent him spinning into the water that morning. Retaliation for carrying her in to an icy cold shower a few hours before.

Kaidan straddling her on the bed pulling the most insanely funny faces trying to make her laugh and succeeding spectacularly.

The pair of them together, cheek to cheek, lying on the bed, Shepard's arm stretched out before her to take the picture.

"There you are." She started slightly at his husky tone behind her, unaware that he was there.

He slipped into the seat beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and capturing her mouth in a sleepy kiss.

She set her now empty coffee cup down on the deck and wrapped the blanket over him so they were snuggled underneath, swinging her legs across his lap. He brushed a stray strand of hair off her forehead and cradled her cheek as he studied her face.

"Nightmare?" he asked concerned.

She nodded closing her eyes and leaning in to his touch.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I didn't want to wake you." She replied, running her hand up his arm to meet his, holding his palm to her face.

She looked out over the rolling ocean as the first rays of the morning sun crept over the horizon, setting the gentle waves on fire and transforming the dusky lilac hue cast over them to a warm, rich glow. A breeze picked up Shepard's long brown hair and flicked it out behind her. Kaidan couldn't help but gaze at her, as she watched the sunrise unfolding before her with childlike wonder and appreciation.

The sun highlighted burning strands of fiery copper, as her hair fluttered back and forth across his forearm.

"It's beautiful." She whispered reverently.

"The most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He replied not taking his eyes off the fiercely beautiful woman in his arms.

She turned to meet his eyes, burning ardently with love and desire and it ignited her heart as the sun had ignited the ocean waves before them.

He kissed her passionately as he urged her to lay her back on the seat. The feel of his firm body pressed up against her was still so new and breathtakingly exciting. Her mind gave itself over to him completely, letting the disturbing images of her sleep fall to the ground forgotten.

She let herself drown in him, the feel of the soft smooth skin of his forearms brushing against her biceps. His lips skirting across her jaw and down her neck. The way the muscles of his back moved under her fingers. The smell of his skin as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. The soft whimper of pleasure he made as he slowly entered her. The unwavering eye contact as they brought each other to the edge and tumbled over in to ecstasy together.

They lay there sated and boneless, the early morning sun and their unspoken love for each other warming them, body and soul.

When she drifted off to sleep, Kaidan carried her gently back to bed and cuddled up behind her, peppering the soft skin of her neck with delicate kisses.

She smiled contentedly. Her slumber, blissfully drea