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“Quick,” Shepard hisses, drawing closer to Kaidan with a desperately fast walk. “Kiss me.”
His mouth works before his mind does, and he immediately meets her lips for the kiss, returning the her chasteness with fervour. She jolts a bit at his enthusiasm but soon matches his tempo.
They pause when they’re interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Kaidan flashes a sheepish smile when he recognises their audience… Admiral Hackett.
It’s not technically fraternisation - soldiers can participate in relationships (carnal or otherwise) with other soldiers. It was fraternisation, however, all those years ago when they first coupled before Ilos when Kaidan was Shepard’s direct subordinate. Despite leap-frogging Shepard in rank, Shepard and him have still remained vigilant about their relationship. He doesn’t know the exact reason why, but hey, he gets it. It’s nice to have something that’s just theirs. Every aspect of Shepard’s life is put under a microscope and picked apart by the galaxy.
“Is this new?” Hackett asks with silent levity, a knowing look in his eyes. Hackett knows. Kaidan knows better than to confirm anything that might shatter the admiral’s plausible deniability. Shepard knows, too.
“Yes,” Shepard says, eyes squinted from raising her cheeks ridiculously high to accommodate a large smile. She snakes an arm around Kaidan’s waist and squeezes at his hip.
Hackett’s not the only one she smiles at. A little behind the admiral is, indicated by the camera trailing behind them, a Hanar journalist. Strange - Kaidan hadn’t thought reporters were allowed at this event. A reverberating voice cuts through his thoughts.
“This one apologises,” the hanar reporter states, echoing voice nearly giving Kaidan a headache. His L2 implants occasionally cause problems with the translator in the omni-tool when it comes to Hanar communication. “This one was unaware of the existence of a current… seed bearer for Shepard.”
Shepard, who doesn’t even have the decency to be embarrassed, holds her smile even when Hackett begins to look traitorously amused at the situation. The hovering camera blinks, indicating its recording status. “I would have been honoured to participate in… the Presidium’s first ever Bachelorette,” Shephard claims in a tone that Kaidan knows means she’s lying through her teeth. “But I, unfortunately, am spoken for.”
Kaidan has to give her credit. Not only, to an outsider, does she sound at least fractionally sincere, but she’s also in a good mood. She’s proven to not be above violence when certain reporters push too far (the legality of assault is clear, but who’s going to tell the saviour of the galaxy that she’s abusing her spectre immunity?).
The hanar reporter accepts the answer and moves on and judging by the direction the hanar leaves, it seems as though Wrex is going to be the next victim of the media. That hanar had guts Kaidan has to admit.
“I thought you didn’t want our relationship public?” Kaidan half whispers to Shepard when it’s just the two of them. Shepard shrugs her shoulders casually.
“There’s not much of a risk of being court martialled for it anymore,” Shepard answers, not bothering to match Kaidan’s whispering. “An internal investigation isn’t going to bring up much…”
And she’s right. The first Normandy’s crew is… well, mostly KIA, and those who survived either weren’t close enough to Kaidan nor Shepard to realise they were in a relationship or they were too close to them to willingly implicate the regulation-breaching couple. Kaidan hadn’t been around when Shepard was in Cerberus… and he likes to think they were on a break during this time period rather than apart. They’ve settled the entire argument - Kaidan was right in not wanting to work with terrorists and Shepard was right in doing whatever it takes to stop the Collectors.
Hackett raises his eyebrows. Oh - he heard that. Kaidan sends him a sheepish smile.
“Not new, then?” Hackett looks at Kaidan in mirth - catching him out on his earlier lie. He doesn’t seem miffed, though, more amused if anything. There’s nothing Kaidan can say here to salvage the situation, he knows Shepard is a favourite of Hackett’s, for some odd reason, always his go-to officer if a situation needs rough handling. The way the admiral deliberately asked Shepard to deal with the delusional ‘Lord’ Darius all those years ago proves it.
“Nope.” Shepard is nonchalant, half participating in the conversation that has Kaidan sweating. She’s scanning the crowd for a server - likely in search for something alcoholic. There’s nothing stronger here than Batarian Shard Wine so he’s in little danger of corralling a drunk girlfriend back to their apartment on the citadel - she’s always so insistent on spending the night in the Normandy when intoxicated. “He was an irresistibly handsome lieutenant.”
Kaidan’s face burns red hot with embarrassment. Okay, she might be a little intoxicated if she’s telling this to their admiral. “Sorry,” Kaidan apologises on Shepard’s behalf to their admiral, trying to save face. If he were any less polite, he’d pull their spectre authority out and tell the alliance to ‘get fucked’ in the face of the scrutinisation of their relationship, but his (admittedly dwindling) respect for authority, and more importantly, Hackett, has him apologising instead. “Shep’s had a few too many to drink.”
“I agree with the major,” Hackett nods, giving the young commander a warm look before addressing her by her first name.
Hold on, Shepard’s first name? Maybe Kaidan’s the intoxicated one - nobody but Shepard’s mother (and on occasion, Anderson,) call her by her first name. Even Kaidan seldom does it behind closed doors.
Shepard has the audacity to pout. “Kiss me again,” she implores, tilting her head up in an inviting motion. Kaidan obliges, kissing her more chastely than their last time. The second they pull apart, she takes a swig of the drink Kaidan had been holding loosely mere seconds ago. She’d distracted him and swindled him out of a drink.
“Should we really be kissing in front of the admiral?” Kaidan quietly asks with a hushed voice. “It’s not very… professional.”
“He won’t tell.” Shepard rolls her eyes. By the time Kaidan pulls away from her and takes a moment to look around, Hackett has tactfully disappeared. “He’s my dad, my mother is also alliance. We didn’t invent fraternisation, Kaidan.”
“He’s your dad?” He echoes, non-judgemental yet still confused. He relaxes fractionally - they didn’t kiss in front of the admiral of the fifth fleet, it was just Shepard’s father. He's already met Shepard's mother - Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard - and that hadn't been any less awkward than what had just transpired in front of her father. He realises the implication of it a second later. Oh my god. His biotics flare up embarrassingly. They kissed in front of Shepard’s father. “Shepard, that’s worse!”
He takes the drink back, grabbing another two off of a passing server’s tray using his biotics.
Somehow, they both end up where it all began - Shepard’s CO suite on the Normandy.