shrios for th prompt "fireplaces. ‘nuff said" please?
[[I have no idea how to feel about this because I’ve never written this pairing before. It’s an AU... slightly, where the events of Citadel happened BEFORE Thane’s death because it’s bullshit that he never got to hang out in the swaggy apartment.]]
Fire was a danger aboard any space station, even one as large as the Citadel. It belonged to those wealthy enough to pay for protection or those poor enough to not care about the punishment, the cold and starving. In all her time in the Alliance, Shepard had never experienced the warmth of one, unless explosions generated from a grenade counted. That was true, at least, until Anderson gave her the use of his apartment, opening the doors onto a luxury she could hardly imagine.
There would be a party later, something to celebrate what they had achieved. Right now, Shepard didn’t want a press of bodies closing in on her. There was so much space here. She could make it as quiet as she wanted, or turn up the music until her ears throbbed. There were avenues open to her that she had never thought would happen again, but right now she found she wanted only one thing- Thane’s company.
Their time together was limited, something they were very much aware of. As often as not, they met at the hospital; Thane could not go far without supplementary oxygen, yet he seemed more at peace with himself than Shepard had ever seen before. It was not happiness, but something deeper. Contentment. The feeling that his life may have finally found meaning, though he would never find the full redemption he sought. It was still enough.
Though the hospital was reluctant to release Thane, the words, “I’m Commander Shepard” proved to be sufficient. Before he could arrive, she soaked in the hot tub, feeling her muscles relax. It was something she might have shared with him, but she knew the drell didn’t much care for water; the root of Thane’s illness seemed to lie on the hanar’s home planet’s watery shores. Instead, she found herself hauling out of the warm water, a clean white towel surrounding her body and another one to hold up her hair. Should she put on something special for him? There was no time to think about it; the doorbell rang and rather than waste precious seconds of his time, Shepard went to go answer it.
“Thane.” It still felt good to see him, even after all this time. The air smelled like her shampoo, rather than the acrid scent of hospital disinfectant, that in turn covering up the rancid taint of illness. As she pulled Thane to her, Shepard willed her smell to cover him so that he felt at home.
“Come in. What do you think?” Were the decorations okay? Should she have tried to personalize the place a little more before he came by? It didn’t seem like her, the decorations masculine and generic, but she wasn’t sure how far Anderson’s courtesy stretched. No, it wasn’t about that. Taking Thane by the hand, she led him to the fireplace.
His inner membranes slicked over his eyes. “Fire on her skin, throwing her face into shadows-”
“Please, Thane. Stay with me. Just for tonight.” It was all she asked for.
“It is beautiful, siha.” His hands reached up to unwind the towel from her hair, the cool damp of it soon blasted away by the heat and the feel of his fingers slowly combing through it. A cough racked through his body, but Shepard said nothing. She simply let him lean on her until it had passed.
“I don’t think they have this on the upper levels.” They settled down onto the couch together, pulling it so that they felt close enough to scorch away her eyebrows.
“No. They don’t.” Thane extended an arm and Shepard curled under it, feeling every breath rise and fall. For the moment, they were completely present.
