Jane Shepard lay in bed in her apartment, trying to rest. The past few days had been hectic, to say the least, with her having to fight a clone of herself. But it was all over-thank God-and now she finally had a chance to relax.

Her friends Garrus and Liara had offered to stay in the apartment with her to keep her company, and Kadian and Joker had offered to send Shepard up some drinks, but the commander just needed some time to herself.

Being the galaxy's hero was a great thing to her. It meant a lot to have her name rank higher in the heroism charts than all the other previous Shepards in her family. But at the end of the day, it was stressful.

Thankfully, Captain Anderson had lent her this apartment for the rest of her shore leave and she was extremely thankful.

The apartment was big and spacious, with many bedrooms and sitting areas and a total of three different showers. To think it was all hers.

Shepard rolled over to her side, seeing the holographic clock beside her read 6:15. Back home on earth, it would be dark at this point, but here on the Citadel, there was no real concept of night and day. The station orbited no star and every street was lit up like a Christmas tree, with bright neon lights.

Shepard lay back and relaxed, closing her eyes. Hopefully, she could get some sleep now.

As she started to drift into slumber, however, she heard a loud ping from downstairs. It was her private terminal, and the commander had a message.

Shepard hoisted herself from her bed, putting on her favourite N7 jacket and heading to the study area down the transparent steps, seeing her console beeping.

"Now, I wonder who this could be?" She mused.

As she checked the messaging tab, she found the newest item:

Shepard

Hope you are well. I've just arrived on the Citadel recently and thought you could use some company. I heard about you having a run-in with Cerberus again. If you wanna meet up, I'll be at the casino near your apartment in an hour. Look for the girl in the red dress. You'll know it's me.

Love, Miranda Lawson.

Shepard smiled.

Miranda. It had been a while since Shepard had heard from her former Cerberus colleague. When Shepard had been on Earth after the incident in the Batarian system, Miranda had left Cerberus, going undercover to avoid the Illusive Man.

During her recent battles with the Reapers, Shepard had caught up with her again, when Miranda was hunting for her father.

Her father, a brilliant scientist and philanthropist, was working for Cerberus. He had turned the colony planet of Horizon into a twisted experiment, where innocent refugees from the galactic war were being turned into monstrous creatures to serve the evil organisation.

But Shepard and Miranda had stopped all that.

Since then, Miranda had apparently been helping out with the crucible, leading a strike team against Cerberus installations near the Turian sector.

Shepard then thought for a moment, remembering how much Miranda had meant to her over the past two years. Ever since they first met, when she was assigned to her crew to defeat the collectors, they had struck a close bond, a bond that had blossomed into love.

Miranda wasn't the best at relationships, being a genetically created human raised in isolation, she didn't know much about the outside world till she joined Cerberus, but Shepard had helped her, and Miranda had become a better person for it.

Shepard smirked as she looked at a picture of the raven-haired woman on her desk. "Well, old friend," she said softly. "Looks like it's a date then."

xXx

Some hours later, Shepard had made her way to the Casino on the Silversun Strip, near her apartment. This was the first time she had been here since she and Liara had broken in here together to find an arms dealer who had been linked to a mercenary group targeting Shepard.

The place was just as busy as ever, Shepard having heard reports that her old friend Aria T'loak having taken over the place, as a sort of consolation due to her own dealings with the previous owner.

There were many guests inside, from all races of the galaxy. Asari, Human, Turian, Krogan, Elcor, it was a wild mix.

Thankfully, Shepard didn't stick too far out from the crowd, wearing a short, black dress. It was quite a comfortable ensemble, even if Shepard's friend Tali said it made her butt look a bit big.

Shepard began to search for Miranda, but she didn't have far to look. By the roulette wheels and the Quasar stations, there stood a beautiful woman around the same age as Shepard, with dark black hair and a beautiful slender red dress with long gloves on her arms.

Shepard smirked. Miranda never dressed up this well.

As she walked over to Miranda, the other woman smiled at her greeting, very happy to see her. "Shepard, glad you could make it." She then took a moment to admire Shepard's outfit. "Cute dress. Looks perfect for you."

The commander blushed slightly. "Thanks."

Miranda chuckled. "I'd ask where you got it from, but then you'd probably make a joke saying you charmed the store into a discount."

"Hey, people like it when I endorse things," Shepard argued, justifying her actions when she visited the citadel after she and Miranda met.

"It makes your ego look big," Miranda joked, smirking.

Shepard rolled her eyes. Miranda's sense of humour was getting better, clearly. "So why did you bring me here? I mean, places like this aren't really your thing, and neither is that dress."

"I thought we could try a night out together," Miranda remarked. "Something that doesn't involve gunfire or a crazed cyborg trying to kill me."

"Sounds like you've got some downtime for once," Shepard replied as Miranda placed a bet on the roulette wheel nearby.

Miranda sighed. "I do... but I'm not used to it. It's quite sad really." She looked at the roulette wheel. "I mean, you have plenty of time to catch your breath, but me, I'm always busy and then the moment comes and it's-"

"It's like you hit a brick wall," Shepard finished. "And you can't really move."

"Yes," Miranda agreed. "So I came to the conclusion we should spend time together. I mean, what's the point of saving the galaxy if we can't live it up a little bit?"

"Truer words were never spoken," Shepard replied. "Although I have to say, I'm a little surprised."

"I thought you might be," Miranda stated. "I can be... a bit of a bitch sometimes. Cold, unfeeling, like I'm focused on my work a bit too much."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Shepard told her. "Some people are just like that. It's not their fault."

"I know, but then you have people like Jack calling me a... "stick in the mud" or something along those lines."

"Sounds like you two have been talking," Shepard remarked.

"I ran into her when I was on an intel mission on Thessia." Miranda giggled. "I have to admit, I'm actually quite proud of her... and I like what she did with her hair."

"Yeah, she's grown a lot."

Miranda smiled, looking at the roulette wheel again. "I was thinking about our talk from earlier, back when you and I met up on the Citadel after you saved the Turians, about us having a normal life."

Before Miranda could speak, the roulette wheel finished spinning, but it didn't land on the number or colour she had chosen. Miranda groaned as she saw her holo-chips taken away.

"Damn, I'm not good at this," she said. "To be honest, I'm not good at anything other than a bloody idiot."

"Hey, that's not true," Shepard comforted her girlfriend, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I think you're making a real effort here, with all this and that dress."

"You really are an utter paragon," The Australian woman jested.

Shepard then rested herself on the side of the table, trying to think of a way for Miranda to relax right there and then. "Why don't we just talk?"

"Talk?"

"Yeah, like normal girls do. Not about spaceships or stuff blowing up. Just... girl stuff."

Miranda nodded. "Alright, alright, I get it. Like shoes and stuff?"

"Maybe?"

"Um..." Miranda tried to find words. "Your necklace looks nice?"

Shepard sighed, facepalming. "Okay, this is hopeless."

Miranda then laughed in agreement. "Yeah, we're not girly girls, are we? We're more like space divas."

"Diva sounds kinda cool, actually," Shepard admitted. "Being all powerful and such."

"Oh, you'd love to be powerful," Miranda teased.

Shepard blushed slightly. "Miri!"

"What, I was just saying," she replied with a smirk.

Shepard sighed. "Come on then, you dragged me out here, we might as well enjoy ourselves... at least till we run out of credits."

"Right," Miranda agreed. "We might need more wine. I can't think without a drink in me."

"Coming right up!" Shepard acknowledged. She then looked at a nearby Salarian waiter. "Waiter! Bring this space diva some more wine!"

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Oh boy... this is gonna go horribly wrong."

Shepard brought two wine glasses over to her, filled with red beverage. "Come on, babe. It's just us two girls on a date in a casino. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Coming from Commander Shepard, I'd say a lot of bad things could happen," Miranda joked.

The two girlfriends then shared a hearty laugh before Miranda made another spin on the roulette wheel, hoping to win this round.

xXx

After a few more rounds at the Casino table, Shepard and Miranda returned to Shepard's apartment, Miss Lawson having wanted to see the place.

As they entered the apartment, Miranda's eyes widened in surprise. This was certainly much larger than her quarters on the Normandy and certainly larger than Shepard's own cabin. "Wow... I wasn't expecting this."

"You aren't the first person to be surprised," Shepard told her with a giggle.

Miranda walked over to the nearby sofa, placing her glass of wine on the table. "It's certainly comfortable," She admitted. "I'm jealous."

"It's only till shore leave is over," Shepard informed her. "Although, maybe I could get a place similar to this after the war, somewhere we could live together."

"Doubt that we would," Miranda remarked. "We'd both be super busy after the war, cleaning up the whole galaxy."

"It was just a thought," Shepard acknowledged. She then smiled at the beauty in the red dress. "By the way, it's good to see you again, Miranda. I never stopped thinking about you."

"Neither did I," Miranda admitted. "When I heard about all the crap that had gone on here, I got worried. I thought you'd... gone mad."

"No, that wasn't me," Shepard comforted her. "It was a clone of me, created by Cerberus." Shepard sat forward a little bit. "Did you know anything about it?"

Miranda nodded. "It was another backup one of my other scientists suggested back when I was in the Lazarus Cell. They thought it would be the only option if we couldn't revive you, but I knew we could do it. Cerberus needed Commander Shepard to fight the Reapers, not some imitation."

"I see," Shepard said. "Did you know anything about the woman who was with the clone? She went under the name Brooks."

"I knew her," Miranda said. "She worked for me as well, working with Kai Leng on a few assignments. Helped put your dossiers together, but I knew she'd turn sour once you came back. I could sense there was doubt in her about our intentions."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Shepard wondered.

"You never really asked, and after we both left Cerberus, I didn't think it mattered." Miranda looked at her girlfriend in the eyes. "We were together and that's all I cared about."

Shepard smiled. She knew just what to do to spice up the moment. She then pressed a few buttons on her Omni-tool and the piano in the apartment began to play a soft tune that echoed through the room.

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "What's all this?"

"This, Miss Lawson," Shepard said. "Is our calling card." She held out her hand to the Australian. "Care to dance?"

Miranda laughed. "Shepard, you and I both know you're a terrible dancer. Everyone knows it."

"I've been practising lately," Shepard admitted. "So... shall we?"

Miranda sighed. "Alright, I guess it wouldn't hurt." She stood up and held Shepard's hand as she led her to the floor of the apartment.

Shepard held her hand on Miranda's rear, her arm outstretched and holding Miranda's other hand. They then began to waltz to the beat of the music.

Miranda sighed and rested her head on Shepard's shoulders, sighing. "I love you."

"That's a first," Shepard remarked. Miranda was rarely one for 'I love you's.

"Well, tonight surely is one for firsts," Miranda admitted.

Shepard and her stopped dancing for a moment to gaze into each other's eyes. In this moment, this one peaceful moment, the world seemed to stop all around them, with only their bodies and spirits being the only things still in motion.

Shepard and Miranda moved close to each other, Miranda smiling and gently pressed her lips to Shepard, wrapping her gloved arms around the commander's body, kissing her softly.

Shepard held Miranda close, kissing her back.

They may not have had the best relationship, but Shepard and Miranda at least had this time together, and as Miranda had said earlier, that was all that mattered.

xXx

Author's note: This was a fic I've been wanting to do for a little while. A nice little adaptation of Shepard and Miranda's casino date. I kept the dialogue very similar to the scene from the game and worked in the other Miranda scene into the fic as well. I figured they'd work well together :3

Hope you enjoy!