The Sparring Match.

"It's just... difficult, you know?" Ashley vented, throwing a few jabs into Miranda's out stretched hands.

"I understand, Ash." Miranda said empathetically. "It's hard for me too."

"We end up here, in this little gender-swapped Lord of the Flies scenario, I don't think about it at first. I don't need to. But the months wear on, and on and on..."

"You're telling me." Miranda said, as they practiced their footwork, moving around one another whilst still keeping their guard up. "The things I would do to have Jacob Taylor tied to a chair, just for an hour."

That draws an appreciative chuckle from the Alliance woman.

"Jacob'd hit the spot. Hell, give me Joker, or even Councillor Udina." Ashley admitted. "This drought goes on any longer, I'd probably accept a Batarian, given he had a cock."

Miranda drops her hands, and the hard light punching bags projected from her omni-tool dissipate. Ashley raises her hands, and the pair swap attack and defence.

"There are... alternatives, you know." Miranda said, launching a flurry of hits into Ashley's waiting hands. Williams was a little taken aback. Biotics couldn't normally hit so hard. Then again, she'd been on enough strike missions with her by now to know Little Miss Perfect was exactly as advertised.

"Some I've tried." Ashley admitted. "The omni-tool between my legs, glass of wine, dirty movie, I've been there, and it's not doing enough."

"I was referring to more... interpersonal options." Miranda said, offering words and strikes in equal measure.

"Settling into lesbianism?" Ashley scoffs. "More power to you if you can, but I just don't work that way."

"Tell me why not." the operative asked, her analytical mind running over issues even as she sparred.

"It's just the way I am, Miranda." Ashley insisted. "The Commander's a dyke, Liara is... whatever asari are. And they've got each other. Most women here have got someone. Except me. I'm a heterosexual woman in a homosexual world."

"There is one other option, and you'd get all the cock you could want." Miranda said, throwing a few punches Ashley's way. The lieutenant raised an eyebrow at that. "Move to Carduelis."

Miranda's joke draws a brief burst of laughter from the other woman.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Ashley wonders. "I'm gonna hit the showers. Thanks for the fight, Miranda."

"How about we go another fifteen minutes?" Miranda asked. She knew Ashley still had frustration to work out. And with her so... inflexible in other areas, this was pretty much all that she could do to help with that. "I could seriously use the exercise."

"Sure." Ashley said, going back on the offensive.

-

After building up a sweat, the communal showers felt great. The two Spectresses stood side by side, letting the hot water stream down their naked bodies, welcoming it like the first rains after a dry spell.

"God, I needed that!" Ashley said, her voice raised slightly to combat the constant patter of water droplets.

"I could tell." Miranda said knowingly, shampooing her long, dark hair. The question of Ashley's... tension had been one both she and Shepard had been pondering how to resolve. Short of renditioning some poor Carduelian serviceman, neither had any ideas for a proper fix. "You know, we should make this a regular thing, sparring partners."

"I'd like that." Ashley admitted, turning her head to face the former Cerberus operative. "I want to apologise, take back some of the things I said when we first got stranded here."

"You mean you don't think I'm just The Illusive Man's nice bit of arse?" Miranda asked playfully.

"I really said that, didn't I?" Ashley cringed, flicking her wet hair over her shoulder.

"It's alright. We didn't know each other nearly as well as we do now. Besides, it's half a compliment." the biotic said, pointing her ass at Ashley, cocking one of her hips out at a jaunty angle.

Even Ashley couldn't help but look. What she saw drew out an appreciative whistle. Michelangelo with the finest marble wouldn't be able to do justice to Miranda Lawson's ass, perfectly speckled by rivulets of shower water.

"Damn! You're lucky you were never in the Alliance Navy, Miranda." Ashley remarked. "Squeezing this into a tin can full of horny marines wouldn't have been fun. Just... damn!"

"Exercise and good genetics." Miranda said, not even bothering to mask her pride.

"Really, really good genetics." Ashley couldn't help but observe.

"You can touch it, if you want." Miranda offered. Ashley hesitated, the only sound the constant pattering of the water of the communal showers onto the tiles. Miranda inwardly chastised herself, thinking she might have overstepped her bounds with the marine.

Until Ash put her hands on Miranda. Just one at first, resting on the paler woman's right cheek. Then she followed it up with another, her hands squeezing, caressing, exploring Miranda's ass.

Miranda gasped at Ashley's mere touch, the little mewl of delight escaping her mouth unbidden. The past year had been... stifling for Miranda as well. Her whole adult life, she'd had a galaxy full of men who'd kill to sleep with her. That may have presented its own problems, but a dry spell was something the operative had never had to contend with before.

Eventually, Ashley's hands slid around Miranda's waist, and she pulled the other woman close to her, her crotch against Miranda's ass.

For a long moment, neither woman had the will to utter a single word. Their sudden moment of unprecedented intimacy was instead sound-tracked by the endless pitter-patter of the shower heads, and their breathing, just the slightest bit heavier than normal.

"I'm just so frustrated..." Ashley complained, pressing her chin into Miranda's shoulder, hugging that touch tighter. "No, let's be real, fucking horny is what I am."

"Ash, I feel the same way." Miranda admitted, craning her head back a little to make eye contact with her comrade. Their faces were close now, lips easily within distance to kiss.

"Human beings need to be touched, no exceptions." the scientist told the other woman. "It's vital for our happiness, our sanity, even."

With that, Miranda rubbed herself back against Ashley, trying to give her some of the sensual human connection she had been without for so long. Miranda knew it had to be psychosomatic, the amount of warm water running between their bodies, but she could swear she could feel Ashley's peach grow wetter to the touch.

Ashley's response was a tortured, keening moan, her face buried in Miranda's shoulder now. She was recpetive, she didn't entirely like that she was, but there was no denying the fact.

"When the type of person you like to do this with can't be found, sometimes you just have to make do." Miranda advised. To emphasise her point, the biotic slid her fingers down her body, finding Ashley's hands on her waist. She guided her hands to the marine's coaxing them open and linking their fingers, their digits joined as closely as their bodies might soon be intertwined.

"This doesn't have to mean anything." Miranda continued, playing the counsellor "It doesn't have to say anything about you."

Guiding both of their left hands, Miranda brought them to her pussy and touched herself. Nothing major, just let her hand, and indirectly, Ashley's rest on her gorgeous, plump, shaved mound.

"We don't even have to tell Shepard and Liara." Miranda reminded Ashley, who's breathing had grown lustier. "I can keep a secret."

They remained at an impasse for what felt like minutes, until Ashley, evidently not wanting to cross that line, to have touched another woman's naked pussy with her own hand, moved their interlinked hands away, instead resting them on Miranda's inner thigh.

"I can't... I can't..." Ashley said, a heaving sigh passing through her body. The "yet" went unsaid, but not unnoticed by both women.

"Ash, I can do everything." Miranda told her, repositioning until they were facing each other, Ashley with her ass against the shower wall, Miranda between her open legs, their pussies almost touching. "You just need to let me know you want it."

Taking Miranda in, Ashley tried not to let the awe with which she regarded the brunette play too much on her features. Stark naked, under the showerhead, her body gleaming with moisture and her black hair plastered wet to her head, her neck, her back, Miranda Lawson looked more like a glamourous vid star than the unflinching angel of biotic and tech-based **** she really was.

Ashley could see in her mind, exactly how things would proceed if she gave Miranda the nod. How she would lay on her back on the tiles, while Miranda brought her mouth to her cunt, gave Ashley her first orgasm in a year not to come self-inflicted, from her fingers or her omni-tool.

How they would stay in the showers, doing things to each other until they pruned, then take it to Ashley's bedroom (which was nearer), Ashley would leave without her lesbian virginity, without the right to even call herself straight.

"Come on Ash, just say it." Miranda said, twining a leg around the marine's hip, squeezing her closer. Rivulets of warm water ran down their collarbones, onto their breasts, which were pressed together. "Say you want it."

The former Cerberus operative caressed Ashley's face, puckering up and moving in for a kiss.

Their lips had to be an inch apart when Ashley worked up the will to resist it.

"I can't! I can't." Ashley said, sharply at first, then with quiet conviction again.

"Ash..." Miranda whined, actually whined, rubbing her pussy on the marine's thigh. It occurred to Miranda that she was trying to lay Ashley just as much for her own benefit.

"I'm sorry, this isn't me." Ashley protested. With a firm hand, she separated Miranda and herself, stood apart from her.

"I understand." Miranda said courteously. "Perhaps I over stepped, I merely thought..."

"I'd have to be stranded in this universe a lot longer before I did something like that. A lot longer." Ashley told herself.

She suddenly felt far more aware of her nakedness in the presence of another woman. This was part of the reason she never showered with Shepard, what with her proclivities, despite the bathroom on their prefab base being sized for a dozen women to shower together at once.

Unsure of where to look, she settled on "Not at Miranda Lawson" as she sheepishly turned off her shower head.

"I'm about done here. Gonna get moving." Ashley announced awkwardly. She wrung the water out of her long, dark brown hair and made to leave.

"Ashley!" Miranda's voice stopped her. Despite every fibre of her being telling her not to, the marine stopped and turned.

Lawson looked at her dead on, not even bothering to be weirded out or uncomfortable with that marble goddess statue body of hers.

"We don't have to make this so bloody awkward." the scientist said, her tone matter-of-fact. "We're out of our minds with this frustration, we tried something out, you weren't comfortable. That's absolutely your right."

"I'm fine with that." Miranda said, after a deep breath.

"Thanks Miranda." Ashley said, happy things hadn't been left on an awkward note despite everything. "Anyway, I should get moving. I might head outside. Shepard should be heading back from the capital soon. I'm gonna make sure the landing bay doors are working, then maybe check out the perimeter cameras.."

And with that, Ashley departed, leaving Miranda alone under her shower, feeling no less frustrated than when they started.

That woman, Miranda thought to herself as she reached for the handheld showerhead. She thought she'd had a troubled upbringing, turns out growing up conservative, religious could be just as troublesome...