nothing else moves that way are you kidding me

[battlesleep]

Who | Thane & Shepard
What | They've been being very, very discreet. Too much death just happened for that.
Where | Tribute Tower.
When | Post-Maximus' victory.
Warnings/Notes | Possible discussion of arena, making out.

He had watched the whole thing, through to the end. The swathe of destruction she and Maximus had carved, the way it ended for both of them. He wasn't angry at Maximus. 

But watching Shepard die was something he had never wanted to do, and the wait to find out whether she would return to him could perhaps best be characterized as agonizing. He paced, mostly, a caged animal in his suite, unwilling to go out and let others see how badly he was affected at first. 

It wasn't until he had himself a little more under control that he changed to the lobby of the Tribute Tower, waiting for any sign of her, on edge still even if he hid it better.

Comments

[earthborn]

Three times. Three times she'd watched him die, in a hospital bed, choking on the ground, bleeding in the sands. Three times too many, but only once in truth. She'd died twice, now.

She was still alive.

Jane Shepard was damn tired of this round-about circle, it was damned frustrating, as if death were simply being passive-aggressive about it. Part of her wanted to scream, just fucking kill me already! Let me rest! But the rest of her was escorted to the tower, and left in the lobby, flanked and followed, and they were as edgy as anything. She went docile as a lamb, lost in thought until she looked up and saw—

"Thane,"

Almost surprised, strangely hopeful. He must've seen it all; no, she'd known he was safe. He sent the note— she hoped he had sent it. There he was, alive. Waiting for her.

And Shepard couldn't stop the smile, felt transfixed by the sight of him. Behind her the excess guards filed out, like an honorguard.

"Hey," She ignored them, "You're here."

[battlesleep]

He breathed when he turned and saw her, what felt like the first time in a long time, and then he stopped breathing again for long enough to watch her coming towards him.

When she said his name he breathed again, his eyes sweeping her to ensure that the wounds that had killed her were no longer there, that she was whole again as he was. That she was actually here.

"I am here." His voice was rustier than normal, and he cleared it and looked at the people present all around him, and then a moment later he realized that he did not care in the deepest sense of not caring. They could do whatever they liked.

His hand reached up to her cheek, cradling it gently as he watched her. "They do not always return." Not after an arena death. Not always. "You look well, siha."

[earthborn]

It was a lit signal-flare, and she tried not to respond, wavered on the precipice for a minute entire. God, just the smell of him, untainted by hospital antiseptic...

They do not always return.

Screw it.

Shepard moved, leaned forward and her arms came up to hold him. Screw hiding, she wasn't any damn good at 'subtle,' and if he was going to— if they were going to do this, then it might as well be that they do it properly. She was too engrossed putting her arms around him to think farther than that, drawing him into her arms, if he would let her, into a kiss. If there was anyone else in the lobby at all, then Shepard certainly hadn't noticed— and screw them too. She spent all her life doing terrible things for the sake of other people, she was damn well going to have this one moment for herself.

[battlesleep]

There had been reasons, he knew. Reasons to keep themselves unconnected as more than people who knew each other well enough. Certainly reasons to keep people from realizing their feelings for each other.

The warmth of her arms and her skin under his hand seemed to erase all of that from his mind, leave him with nothing to think about but right now and the comfort offered by her presence and her lips against his. He pulled her closer with his other arm, pressed against her as much as he could.

Nothing else mattered for now.

[earthborn]

The sound she makes could have been meant for a dog's ears. She feels the weight of his hands between her shoulderblades and holds tighter in response; the kiss turns harder, teeth clicking. She knows that when she lets go, the world will already be littered with little fractal halos of light, and that the rush along her skin isn't entirely because of the emotion between them.

Christ, the way this man kisses...

It broke like a wave, sudden, overwhelming, and then just as suddenly over, but she didn't let go. Shepard slid the hand she'd put at the back of his neck around and put her hand over his mouth, gently. Just wait, the touch promised, Breathe. One moment.

"Listen to me," but it's a little smug, for how completely they've both forgotten discipline, for how easy it was to have them both acting like moony highschoolers, "I love you. And I am always going to come back for you."

Too tempting by half, she kissed him again and wasn't surprised by her own lack of self-control.

[battlesleep]

Before Shepard, it had been over a decade since he'd last kissed someone. The break between his being taken from the Normandy and now was not nearly as long as that, and yet somehow it seemed more acute. Perhaps the time had given him an acceptance of it that he had lost over the few days he'd shared with her.

When she pulled away he almost protested, stilling instead under her hand as his breath rasped in his throat, heavy. It wasn't a promise she could keep - he knew that much. He had no promise to offer in return except his own love, and what was that worth in the end?

"Shepard -" he began, but she kissed him again and he didn't really need to say anything after all, did he. All he really needed to do was pull her close to himself and feel her warmth and the press of her mouth.