nor are you a fool
who cannot see
that you’ve fallen victim
to the human design
— you are not the weak willedcan i just say how much i adore the way this goes down? (because sometimes, the way a thing goes down does matter.)
first of all, it’s the composition. they’re definitely not the only souls left in london, but privacy’s not all its cracked up to be. loneliness isn’t what they need right now. for a few seconds, it’s not about being part of something bigger than yourselves—that’s their whole lives already, what it means to be old soldiers—but about coming back down to earth. you know, literally. that’s where they are. it’s home for humanity: even if it’s not their city, it’s where they’re standing. and it’s where they’re making their last stand.
but they’re color set against the skeleton of a gray city that’s specifically gone through so much in the past—so many rebirths, always rising again from the shelled-out ashes. everything happens in cycles. shepard’s in the circle of kaidan’s arms.
and, specifically, kaidan’s taking shepard’s hand and moving it onto his hip. that says so much about their dynamic: kaidan guiding shepard through this minefield toward a touch that’s shaped by their armor, confined by their circumstances, but passing through protocol and into the personal. it’s balance. or checks and balances. or sanity checks and balances. kaidan takes shepard’s hand; kaidan moves his touch; kaidan shows him exactly what to do in the smallest of moments before nobody knows what the hell he’s going to have to do, and nobody’s going to be guiding him anywhere.
it’s lonely and needy and desperate and sad, absolutely, and it’s exactly what shepard needs. someone to say no, do this. yes, that’s right. here, right here. just like that.
it could be anywhere, honestly, because it’s home no matter where they are. kaidan pulling shepard in for the kiss. kaidan directing gravity. kaidan, the commanding officer. kaidan, shepard’s soft place to land. everything’s going to get hard after this—but it’s this dumb human moment that keeps them from going numb all over.
garrus keeps shepard grounded. liara keeps him smart. james makes him feel young again. steve’s a true friend. miranda knows him a little too well. and kaidan knows where the heart is. kaidan holds his hand.
(Source: jetstreamsams)
