23 for the OTP asks!
OTP Asks
23. Write a ~300 scene between them with no dialogue, only body language.
Sorry this took me so damn long. Prompts with only dialogue or no dialogue at all are such great exercises.
~
The box with his father’s Bronze Star in it comes on a dreary Tuesday morning with the rain drilling down in sheets. Kaidan gives a wary salute to the uniformed courier who drops it off, then opens the slender package in the dry refuge of the kitchen.
The certificate has a crease in the corner from where the package took a beating, but it doesn’t mar the Alliance seal at the top and the block script proclaiming his father’s bravery.
Colonel Marc Alenko, for exceptionally meritorious achievement and heroic actions under hostile fire while actively engaging reaper forces in combat. Colonel Alenko displayed selfless service….
He stops reading and sets the certificate aside. It’s a full minute before he picks up the snap case, and his hands shake so badly it takes him three tries to get a good enough grip pry it open.
The blue ribbon is soft, the metal hard as he traces it with a finger. Crisp, bright, never to be worn by the person who earned it.
Kaidan puts the open box back on the table before he drops it and spins on his heel.
His father’s coat, the one Kaidan had borrowed in Vancouver and worn down to English Bay, is still in the foyer closet, weathered from years of use but musty from being closed up for so long. He shrugs into it before making his way out the front door and settling in on the porch swing, which creaks as it sways under his weight.
The rain raps against the overhang, coming down hard enough the barn is barely visible at the bottom of the hill. He tucks deeper into the jacket, breath forming a puff of steam when he exhales.
By the time the screen door opens he’s lost track of time, but his fingers are stiff with cold, his nose runs, and the rain still falls in an unbroken curtain as Shepard settles in beside him on the swing. The blanket he tucks around them both offers a layer of warmth to accompany the soft current of his biotic field.
A flash of bronze metal and Alliance blue ribbon show in Shepard’s hand as he tugs the collar of Kaidan’s coat, deftly pinning the medal in place. He presses a gentle kiss to Kaidan’s forehead before folding him into his arms and flooding him with warmth. Kaidan exhales and lays his head against Shepard’s chest, shifting until he settles over the beat of his heart. Sure. Steady. Constant.
Shepard rests his chin on the crown of Kaidan’s head, idly running a hand up and down his arm, the whisper of static from his biotic field humming under his skin in harmony with the rain. Kaidan clings to him, body warm, real, and solid against him.
Out in the distance, a small but stubborn gleam of light finds a break in the clouds, but it will be a while before the storm finally passes.
For now, Shepard holds him close, and together they watch it rain from the steady sway of the swing.
