A/N: God, I'm so nervous to write for another fandom than Dragon Age, but it's just stuck too much in my head, especially after gaming through ME3. This FF is cathartic attempt to get over my frustration with the crappy ending and to explore the character of my F!Shepard ...and Kaidan more than the game(s) allowed me to do. So it will be very Shenko-centric, spanning all three games, in a short(ish) snapshot style and random order, but not at all (purely) rainbows and fluffy bunnies. Love and life is never easy, after all, especially when one is destined to save the galaxy from itself.

Disclaimer: Mass Effect trilogy belongs to Bioware. If it wouldn't, it had a better ending, because a lobotomized pigeon could have written a better ending while crapping randomly on the keyboard. Just saying.

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The Dress

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Kaidan entered Shepard's cabin without knocking, with the casual ease of someone being always welcomed.

"Shepard, I have some data –" He froze mid-sentence, seeing the woman who could easily reduce a full squad of grown, battle-hardened marines to a wimpy mess, staring at her open closet. She was about to change into more comfortable clothing and apparently not in the slightest perturbed by his intruding. Her nearly bare back was turned to him, only hued in the straps of her black bra and the blue light of the notorious empty fish tank. It gave her skin an even paler, almost translucent tone and for a moment, Kaidan allowed himself to let his mind and eyes wander.

The benefits of happiness, indeed.

"Kaidan, has there much changed within the Alliance during the years when I was not...there?" She deliberately avoided to use the term 'dead', which was a silent but mutual agreement between the two after having sorted everything out. Not that it wasn't a topic he hadn't dealt with, quite the opposite. He coped for two numbing years with the horrible fact of her...absence and therefore simply didn't want a reminder of it. Not when she was there, alive, breathing, loving him.

Without being aware of it, he stepped closer to her, a bit confused about the origin of her question. "Why?"

She still didn't move one inch from her task of staring the unfortunate closet down. "Because apparently the Alliance thought it necessary for me to possess a hooker outfit." As if to prove this point, she turned, a black, leathery...something propped up and held over her chest.

Kaidan blinked and stared, mind momentarily blank. Only seconds later, he couldn't stop the snort escaping his throat, which quickly changed into a full-fleshed laughter.

Shepard still stood motionless in front of him, if a bit bewildered and with her eyebrows raised. "Honestly, when should I wear this? To seduce the Reaper into leaving again or the fucking pighead of a Salarian into cooperation after I cured the Genophage?"

"I don't know, it might be worth a try, Lis." That earned him a swat on his arm and he feigned to be injured, if only for her benefit. "But are you...err...sure it is really yours?"

"Look," She pointed with a pout toward the upper side of the nothing of a dress." It even has a tiny N7 there. Seriously, Kaidan, that wasn't standard military equipment back in the Normandy SR1."

"You are right." He grinned. "I think I'd have noticed that." Another swat, but it was worth the pain and her sulking. Alone the thought of Commander Shepard – no – his Shepard strutting about in that kind of dress, uniting the galaxy... Well, he wasn't the kind of guy who had a taste for cheap, so it was more amusing than arousing.

Shepard rolled her eyes with a sigh. "The things I find when searching for my tanktop, I swear. That was buried in a corner of my closet. Ugh, I wish it had stayed there."

One corner of his mouth quirked up. "Hmm, the blue one? I might know where that is, though."

"Oh, so you are holding my clothes captive?" The sulking forgotten, her tone dropped into a low, playful note that never failed to make him shiver. "This is a serious breach of protocol, Major."

"Not when it is you forgetting it in my room, Commander. And especially not when it is left in my bed."

Oh how he loved their teasing.

Within the times of hunting Saren and having to heed the regs, they had perfected the game of suggestive words and look-but-don't-touch. Now both of them didn't give a damn about such tiny things such regs in the scope of greater events such as the war, but the teasing was still as exciting as ever.

"Hmm, true. I give you that, Alenko." There it was, the little mischievous curl of her lips he always found so kissable. But he remained in his place, only inches away from her body, unwilling to give in yet. It was her who eventually closed the gap and her warmth encompassed his senses in an instant. "So for whatever shall I use this dress now, I wonder? Is this a new shore leave thing I missed? Something you would like to see me in, perhaps?"

"No." His hands wandered over her bare sides, reveling in the feel of the soft skin. "Aside the fact that I find it more arousing to see you biotically smash hostiles in the field..." He stopped, too distracted by the tilt of her head and the soft sigh as he nipped her neck. "...I like it best when you wear nothing at all." With a growl, Kaidan heaved her up to carry her over to the bed, the offending dress long forgotten.