ALL THINGS ASHLEY WILLIAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been a true lover of Ash since ME1! So if you are a like mind, please enjoy this blog. Haters please step to the left and GTFO, I say that with the most kindness. I see there no reason why there is Ash...
âSo, they just put you right to work, huh?â said Ashley.
Shepardâs turned his head slightly, making sure Miranda and Jacob were still working on the second tower, well out of earshot. âThey did. Still feels like I was jerked out of a long sleep, got a briefing and my armor slapped back on.â
âAnd ⌠thatâs all?â
Shepardâs fingers froze. For all the things he wanted to say to Ashley, the topic she was tiptoeing towards was not one he was ready to face himself. There was no time. âAsh, your sisterâs high school graduation party still feels like it happened last week. Now sheâs in university. You were anxious about your transfer, but now look at you.â
Ashley tilted her head, the beginning of a cautious smile. âYeah? What about me? Do I look different?â
âYou havenât aged a day, if thatâs what you mean.â
âOh, no,â she laughed, a brief flourish on her face. âThis doesnât fade or crack.â
Shepard fully turned from the console. There was an uneasy silence, a rigid breeze against burned tree branches, ready to snap. A flap of bird wings far off in the distance. Two years ago, two days ago, this colony probably looked very different.
Not Ash, though. Same knowing smirk. Same brown eyes, flickered with gold in the sun. Eyes that knew his worth, knew his intent, before he even said anything. If not for the upgraded armor, he would hardly be able to tell a day had passed from last he saw her.
âYou, ah, you look good,â he said. âA bit tired.â
âYeah, well, I am tired.â The gold specks beamed as she squinted. âYour scars are all gone. You had one against the left side of your face, from when you first used biotics.â
âI nearly gave myself an aneurysm. Itâs not a happy reminder, but itâs strange to be without it. To just be clean slate.â
Ashley put her hand on the side of his arm, her eyes never left it. Her fingers slowly shifted upward; she wanted to slide up slowly and touch his face, where the scar used to be, and he wanted to let her.
Thank you so much for the ask! I was trying to decide if I should go explicit with the scene, but decided not to this time. Enjoy!
22. hiding their face in the otherâs neck
Title: Comfort
Ashley wasnât sure what had woken her at first, the cabin silent except for the bubbling of the aquarium. The tankâs blue glow illuminated the sparse room, highlighting small items that gave her a glimpse into who the woman sleeping beside her had become over the last few years.
Like the model ships on display in a glass case.
Shepardâs SR1 helmet, scorched but still intact on the desk.
The chattering of the hamster she just had to have.
Her eyes drifted to the spot beside Shepardâs side of the bed where a picture frame sat nestled among energy bar wrappers and datapads. Itâs an old photo, from the early days when sheâd first joined the Normandy. Shepard stands in the middle, her arms thrown over Kaidan and Ashleyâs shoulders, laughing at something the Lieutenant had said. Shepard had kept the picture on display since the day itâd been taken. Itâs comforting, was what she said.
It only confirmed something Ash had thought for years: Shepard was a softie beneath her rough exterior.
Just another piece of the Shepard puzzle for her to figure out.
Tucking her head, Ashley pressed her face into the crook of Shepardâs neck, the skin warm against her lips. With a grin, she began to press kisses along her neck, down to the curve of her shoulders. She gently brushed a finger down the edge of her arm, feeling the goosebumps form beneath her touch.
Sometimes, when she couldnât sleep, Ashley pondered what the future mightâve been like if Shepard hadnât come to Eden Prime. If she hadnât saved Ashleyâs life. If the Reapers had stayed in dark space. At the end of those daydreams, she always came to the conclusion that it wasnât worth it, Reapers or not. Because there would be a chance that she and Shepard, she and Thea, wouldnât be here at this moment, together.
The woman beside her stirred slightly, but didn't turn over.
Ashley dragged her finger over the spot where a scar had been before Cerberus. It was once a part of the person Shepard was. Now all thatâs left is smooth tanned skin. So many things had changed since those early days, but one thing hadnât. The things that Shepardâs love does to her have been a constant, no matter what her skin looked like, no matter how her biotics felt, no matter who she worked for⌠because the woman she held in her arms, the woman who kissed her like sheâs the only person in the galaxy⌠thatâs the woman she loved.
Ashleyâs fingers trailed over Shepardâs shoulder, taking a brief detour to tangle between the ebony curls that lay against the pillow. For a moment, she could pretend that they werenât at war. She could pretend that in a few hours, they wouldnât arrive in the Sol System. That they had more time. When she moved away, Shepardâs corona suddenly flared, trapping her hand in midair.
Shepard glanced over her shoulder, striking green eyes staring through her as if she could see Ashleyâs very soul. âCaught you.â
Ashleyâs hand tingled from the energy of Shepardâs biotics. Biotics were always an unknown entity to her growing up. Sheâd never met one in person. Perhaps sheâd even been a little scared by the thought of something so powerful in a universe that didnât make sense at times.
That all changed the moment sheâd met Shepard. The maelstrom that haloed her as she moved on the battlefield had been terrifying⌠and beautiful. Sheâd never seen anything so mesmerizing. So dangerous. She hadnât realized it at the time, but Ashley mightâve fallen in love with her at that very moment.
Not that she remembered a time when she didnât love the woman in front of her.
âCan I have my hand back?â She asked, a smile spreading across her face.
The sheets rustled loudly as Shepard turned to face Ashley, grinning a smile that burned like a thousand suns. âI donât know. I like having you at my mercy, Williams.â
âI wouldnât call this âat your mercy.ââ Ashley leaned forward and captured Shepardâs lips with hers. The biotics dropped her hand suddenly, Shepard making a surprised sound low in her throat. Feeling emboldened at getting the upper hand, Ashley shifted closer, free arm now wrapped around Theaâs waist, pulling her flush against her.
Shepard moaned, her own hands tangled in Ashâs hair.
When they finally came up for air, Ashley smirked in the Commanderâs direction. âSo who is at whose mercy?â
With a mortified groan, Thea rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. âWhy are you like this?â
âLike what?â
âWhy do you make it so easy to love you?â
Ashley buried her face in a pillow to hide her laughter. Grumbling, Thea lifted her own pillow from the bed and hit her in the back with it. Before she could aim again, Ashley grabbed the pillow out of her hands and tossed it out of her reach.
âHey!â Shepard shouted in protest as the pillow landed on the floor by her desk. Ashley gripped her by the hips and pulled her down to the mattress before pressing another kiss to her lips.
Thea pulled away to gaze down into her eyes, memorizing the tender look aimed in her direction. âI love you, Ash. Nothing will keep me from you.â
Unable to stop, Ashley smiled at the finality of those words. âIf you donât, I will tear apart every Reaper until I find you. I promise you. You wonât get away that easily, Skipper.â
Thea laughed, the determination on Ashâs face giving her cause to believe every word she spoke. âI believe you.â
Feeling slightly better than before, Ashley pulled Shepard into another kiss, relishing in the way they fit so well together. She wasnât going to let go of it without a fight.
No Reaper would take Shepard from her if she had anything to say about it.
"The rest of us just sort of drifted apart. The Alliance didnât care. I donât think they liked all the non-humans in your crew. We were your team, Commander. With the Normandy destroyed and you gone, there wasnât much keeping us together.â
I wanna talk about how much she loved her father, but he was always deployed and her mom had four kids on her hands, and how as the oldest she had to grow up too fast and how it gave her a lifelong propensity to put literally everyone else first.
I wanna talk about how military siblings grow up close because of the constant relocations, and the Williams sisters were closer than most because they were from THAT Williams family.
I wanna talk about how sheâd lay down in traffic for her sisters, and how hard it is to realize you have to let them grow up and make their own mistakes, how you canât save them from everything and especially not bad rotten luck.
I wanna talk about surviving an absolute nightmare on Eden Prime, one with more than a few parallels to Akuze, and how instead of accolades sheâs quietly given a hot bunk on a ship and told to get back to work.
I wanna talk about how she hardly says a word about Eden Prime afterwards, because sheâs always been the strong one, because sheâs going to make her family proud, because she was given the bare fucking minimum of a reward for her tenacity and bravery and oh god she cannot fuck it up.
I wanna talk about her fierce belief in the Alliance, how proud she is to serve, and how she gives the best of herself in spite of what it may think about her. Â I wanna talk about how she advocates in its defense when Shepard creates a security vulnerability by bringing aliens aboard, how hard it was to speak up to a superior officer who could take everything away from her in an eye blink, and I especially want to talk about how right she was when stolen low emissions tech shows up on quarian ships.
I wanna talk about how when her father died she barely allowed herself any grief, because she had to stand strong for her mom and sisters.
I wanna talk about the Virmire where she volunteers to die and thinks nothing of it, because her whole life has been about sacrificing for the welfare of others.
I wanna talk about the Virmire where she lives, and is just baffled that anyone would choose her, where sheâs actively uncomfortable to the point of real distress over somebody else making that sacrifice, for her of all people.
I wanna talk about how when she says the Council and other species will always put their own survival first, sheâs really talking about every time someone else made it clear to her in a thousand little ways that their survival was more important than her own, and how deeply she understands what it takes to survive when everyone is against you.
I wanna talk about how she comes a little undone in ME3, because even though the galaxy is going to hell in a handbasket, sheâs finally made it to a place in her personal life where she can relax and even breathe, and sometimes this is just what healing looks like, getting a little silly and unraveling at the edges because youâre just a little lightheaded with relief all the time until it becomes a new normal.
I wanna talk about all the ways she grows vulnerability and compassion and understanding. Â I wanna talk about the profound impact of finding acceptance and love (in all its forms). Â I want to talk about the beauty of seeing someone reach their full potential and stand up and say I am worth it. Â I do deserve this. Â
You canât tell me a Hanar girlscout wouldnât be cute.
It wears a hat instead of a vest.
And a tiny baby Asari are allowed to be girl scouts from age eight to age sixty, cuz thatâs roughly the same as a human being a scout till theyâre eighteen.
Imagine a Hanar and a Elcor girlscout selling cookies together.
Hanar: This one humbly requests you purchase some cookies.
Elcor: adorably: They support a good cause.
Hanar could totally wear a sash instead of a vest too. There would be some epic badges too. Biotics based ones, ship repair, diplomatic negotiations, marksmanship I also can totally see a thresher maw one and survival for different planets
#ALL I CAN DO IS IMAGINE THE ENTIRE GALAXY BEING SHAKEN UP OVER HUMANITYâS GIRL SCOUT COOKIES WHEN THEY FIRST ARRIVE #LIKE NO ONE WOULD UNDERSTAND THE COMPLETE JOY OF A THIN MINT UNTIL A HUMAN MADE AN ALIEN TRY ONE #AND THATâS HOW IT ALL BEGAN #ENTIRE CIVILIZATIONS DEMANDED THESE COOKIES #THE GIRL SCOUTS HAD TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE A DEXTRO VERSION FOR TURIANS AND QUARIANS #IT ALL BECOMES A HUGE PHENOMENON WHERE THE WHOLE GALAXY IS JUST WAITING FOR THAT TIME OF THE YEAR WHEN THEY SELL THESE GODSEND COOKIESÂ (via nyackbud)
but just imagine the massive ceremony when the krogan population is finally stable and large enough that little Krogan girls are allowed to join the ranks. and finally krogan girls are able to socialise outside of other krogan children and women and they are both cute and intimidating so they sell insane amounts of cookiesÂ
Imagine the first troop based on the Quarian homeworld. Â Imagine the debates over whether to let a Geth become a girl scout.
Imagine Shepard surviving (because I am in denial that destroy actually kills every synthetic, I refuse, nope), and slowly recovering, and sheâs got her crew helping her but then there are GIRL SCOUTS.
Bringing her donated cookies. Â Writing her letters. Â Asking if sheâd come speak to their troops.
Imagine Shepard getting so attached to all these amazing young women that she decides to start a troop.  And the girls in her troop just ADORE HER.  Meanwhile the parents are a little torn, because on the one hand this is Commander Shepard, first human Spectre and destroyer of the reapers and the girls love her and she is so protective of them.  But on the other hand, she has a habit of taking them on âcamping tripsâ that are more or less military exercises, and Marlene came to pick up her daughter the other day at the end of storytime just in time to hear Shepard finish off with ââŚand thatâs what itâs like to suffocate in space!â
Imagine Jack running a senior scout biotic troop and taking them all to get their troop crest tattooed on them when they graduate out at adulthood.
Imagine a Salarian girl scout who 3 years later is assistant scout leader in charge of her own troop, with most of her former troopmates still there, because their lifespan is so much shorter.
Imagine a 50-year-old Asari crushing on her troop leader, whoâs half her age, and she and her friends all sigh wistfully over it like you do when you have a crush on a teacher or camp counselor that is totally off limits because theyâre too grown-up for you.
Imagine dextro-cookies getting a new variety that non-dextro have never had, and it sounds so good, and all the non-dextro girls are SUPER JEALOUS because they want to try them too!
Imagine troops designing awards to be given to graduating scouts by their younger troop mates named after the ladies of the Normandy Crew. Â One troop has the Traynor Award for excellence in computer programming or strategy. Â Another has the Taliâzorah award for excellence in engineering. Â The Lawson Award for excellence in Biotics. Â The Tâsoni Award for excellence in history or archaeology. Â The Shepard award for excellence in leadership.
Just. Â Just. Â THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL HERE AND ITâS AMAZING.
I LOVE this post. Not just the awesome and FUN Meta but because @grandenchanterfiona was my friend. They passed back in 2018 and I still miss them to this day. May their memory be a blessing. Iâm sure theyâre playing MELE in the Beyond themself!
