Kaidan saw the way Liara looked at them. It wasn’t fair. He’d known the Commander just as long — longer, even! And yet they were closer. How long after the two year disappearance had they reconnected? How much time had they spent together, while he was off in the Alliance? He shouldn’t have rejected them. But there was no chance he’d join when they were with Cerberus.

He sat still, watching them talk. It was even that she was ‘flirting’ or anything. He didn’t care about that. It was the fact alone that they were close. That they sat together, and ate together, and talked so easily, without the tension Kaidan now shared with them. It drove him mad. Why couldn’t their relationship be as close as that? As it was, so long ago?

…Because he ruined it.