niki_chidon: (ME_Blue)
Niki ([personal profile] niki_chidon) wrote2012-11-20 01:14 am

Fic: Far Beneath in the Abysmal Sea (Mass Effect, Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard)

(Sorry for flooding the f-list but I finished a bingo! For the first time in years! So I wanna get it posted!)

Title: Far Beneath in the Abysmal Sea
Fandom: Mass Effect
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I wish.
Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard
Summary: At least the Leviathan gave Shepard new nightmares.
[livejournal.com profile] hc_bingo prompt: Tentacles
Notes: Title from Tennyson's The Kraken.
Sequel to Let Your Mercy Spill, R&R Stands for Revelations and Reactions and My Love is Like to Ice (and I to Fire)


He is back there – in the cold and dark, his head filled with the endless blackness, and the tentacled creature is going through his mind as if it is as empty as the sea.

But the sea isn't empty, it is filled with creatures you cannot even imagine in your worst nightmares, creatures older than you can ever understand, and their sheer presence is more than a mere human mind can stand.


Shepard woke up with a jerk, drenched in sweat, and his sudden movement woke up Kaidan, who was wrapped around him like another blanket. Even though his body was warm, all Shepard could feel was the cold darkness underwater.

“You okay?” Kaidan muttered, still holding him, and Shepard turned into the hug, hiding his face against the other man's neck.

He could vaguely remember sleeping like this with his mother before her death, hiding from a nightmare, or just snuggling in for warmth in the unheated ruins they often slept in. It felt almost as safe, too, and the darkness receded, at least for a moment.

“Nightmare,” he admitted.

“The same one?”

“No... almost made me miss the Forest of the Dead and the damn Burning Kid.”

“Leviathan?” Maybe it wasn't such a stretch, really.

“It was... inside my head. That's how we... spoke. I felt the same cold, dark feeling the others were describing. It was... It was horrible, like feeling their slimy tentacles taking my head apart. They wanted to keep me down there,” he admitted quietly, and Kaidan pulled him even closer against him.

“Let me guess,” he said with a lightness that sounded just a little forced. “You talked them out of it, Avatar of Charm.”

“I reminded them that the Reapers knew where they were so they couldn't hope to hide anymore. But it was so close, Kaidan... I was helpless. I was just a tool. They were so immensely powerful. And they are out there. With their artefacts they can take control of anyone, no matter how far, and... I know we share an enemy now, but what about after?”

“Let's just... worry about the Reapers first. That's enough stress for anyone, surely.”

“I wish I could forget the cold,” Shepard said, and shuddered, but not remembering the physical cold that had threatened his health.

“What do you need?” Kaidan asked, and he loved the man so desperately for being there, for being who he is, for saving him time and time again...

“Just hold me,” he replied, and turned his head for a kiss.

“Shepard... your nose is bleeding.”

That got him up and out of the bed. He ran to the head to check his face in the mirror.

He hadn't even felt it. But did that mean it had been real? He really had been back in the mental place the Leviathan locked their controlled slaves in? But how was that possible without an artefact? They didn't have one on board, did they?

He realised he was starting to get paranoid, and forced himself to clean the blood off his face with short, economic movements, fighting the shudder.

When he turned, Kaidan was standing by the door, just looking at him.

“It's just a nosebleed,” he said quietly, and stepped closer to pull Shepard into another warm hug.

“Yeah... just a nosebleed.”

But he could hear the echo of Matriarch Benezia's last words in his mind. “His teeth are in my ear...” Their shadowy tentacles were in his mind, curled around his thoughts, always waiting...

He'd burn the bastards out! He turned his head, and kissed Kaidan roughly, mouth open and desperate, and the other man was there, meeting him kiss for kiss, willing as ever to give him whatever he needed.

“Apply naked Kaidan...” he muttered against his lips, and Kaidan laughed.

“Hey, if it works, why change it?”

“I need you,” Shepard admitted, as if his body wasn't screaming it loudly enough.

“I'm here,” Kaidan said, simply.

“Well, I'd much rather you were in the bed,” he said, forcing a grin.

“As you wish,” Kaidan replied with a grin of his own, but didn't let go of him.

He slid his hands down Shepard's back to his ass, and pushed until he took the hint and, laughing, wrapped his legs around his waist so Kaidan could carry him to bed. Yeah, okay, it was a bit of a turn on to be with someone strong enough to carry him around like a princess without breaking sweat.

He laughed all the way to the bed, love and joy filling the cold places in his mind, and when Kaidan moved to drop him, he pulled the other man down with him, on top of him, and let him kiss the smile off his face and the cold away from his bones.