and one more 🖊+Darragh Shepard
“Funny how people used to look to them for answers…” Kaidan mutters between two small sips of beer as they stare at the vast, star-freckled expanse outside, the Normandy’s soft hum wrapped around them like a soft blanket. “I look at them now and think this is what silence looks like…"
Darragh muffles an amused chuckle by taking a hearty swig from his own bottle.
“What’s so funny, Shepard?”
“You sip your beer like a schoolgirl on her first night out,” he replies, grinning.
“The word is ‘savour’, Shepard.”
“Nah, the word is ‘nibble your beer like a tit’,” Shepard retorts, but he serves the jibe with a smile and a wink. “I think it’s adorable.”
“The only tit I see around here is you, commander,” Alenko returns, smirking.
“You’re welcome to nibble at me any time,” Shepard says before he can checkhimself. Maybe he should have stopped at the third beer. Then he looks at Kaidan and decides that nah, maybe not.
Kaidan huffs a laugh – and there’s less discomfort in it and more warmth in his eyes than Shepard expected, though some of that distance Horizon put between them yet remains to be crossed – one beer too many at a time.
For now, Kaidan’s fine with lingering looks and lingering smiles and that’s enough of a promise to make Shepard content.
“What do you see, Shepard? When you look at them?” Kaidan asks, eyes turning back to the stars.
Darragh falls silent, then sighs. “All those colourful rocks scattered among them. And all those names synonymous with ‘home’ to whatever people first spoke them. Different ecosystems and different skies but a universal feeling, I guess.” He gulps down a slug of beer and whatever light-hearted cheer there was a heartbeat ago drowns in it. “I see ah poh’s potted vegetables, ah gung’s bookshelf and our old creaky dining table…”
Kaidan doesn’t respond for a while, then reaches for Shepard’s hand – and holds it.
There’s a familiar comfort – an echo of home – in that lingering touch.