A/N- This fic runs inspiration for the Archangel days heavily off The Naked Pen's "Mass Effect: Interregnum" (which is so much better than this fic really you should just go read that instead... ), but that'll weigh more heavily in later chapters.

This is the cleaned up version of the fic, both in matters of text and conten-t for the unedited version with the sex included you'll have to go to lady-halibuts-convos on tumblr and hit the 'my fics' tag, it'll be numbered in order on there and posted contemporary with this.

Bioware, despite the dumb things you tend to do, I want to thank you for creating such beautiful characters that inspired me to write again. Now on with the show.

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"Fuck, I can only help you if you let me, you know that?"

"And if I'm past helping?" The reply was a snarl, and it just pissed him off more.

This wasn't the place to be having this argument and he knew it- they were hunkered down in a bolthole in some ass-end of the station and the Pack was swarming through the streets looking for them, looking for him. Garrus had gone and done something stupid and was going to bleed to death no matter how much fucking medigel he used if they didn't get real help because all they had was three packs and he was torn to hell from the Spirits-damned vorcha on top of the number Garm had done on him, and... and Sidonis was at the end of his rope. So yes, they were having this argument now.

"I'm not leaving you to die here just because you're pissed off and trying to be noble! What the fuck about dying for no reason is noble? Why won't you just let me help you?"

Those blue eyes stared straight through him and it sent a shiver down the younger turian's spine- not the time, not the fucking time- and that usually rich voice was stiff when it came out. "If you try to bring me out of here they'll smell the blood and kill us both, Lantar. It's better to just get out while you can."

"So you expect me to leave you here? You know me better than that Garrus, damn it!"

The stiffness eased out as his boss sighed, sinking heavily into the wall. Fuck, he was bleeding so damn much... He was crouched next to him quickly, tearing a curtain off its moorings and trying to roughly bind the worst wounds on his side.

"Fucking hell, you didn't even have your armor! You're suppose to be smarter than I am, and you just took off after him on your own, shit, how could you be so- " the rest of the words choked in his throat and ground together in a frustrated sound. He couldn't say it now, he'd been meaning to admit it to the man how much he meant to him but this was not the fucking time... so instead the desperate thing in his brain went into overdrive as he did the best first-aid he could.

We should leave this hellhole and never look back, you could come with me, we could... fuck, I don't know what happened but you lost something important and you need someone to... I could be that for you if you would only...

Shut up brain. Now. Not. The damn. Time. He gritted his mandibles and finished tying off the worst of the bleeding, green eyes snapping up sharply to meet Garrus' slightly out of focus ones. "Here's the fucking plan. You take my pistol and stay the fuck alive right here. There's a salarian doctor who lives not far off, I'll drag his ass out here at gunpoint if I need to so help me and you'll shut up and get your life saved whether you like it or not. Got it? We need you Garrus."

He needed him too, and his hands lingered shakily on his boss' roughly patched wounds longer than was appropriate. He just prayed that he'd still be alive to be annoyed at him in the morning.

"... Alright Lantar, alright. Get him, I'm not going anywhere."

Sidonis let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and handed the smaller gun over. Even wounded as he was Garrus' grip was still firm as steel.

He looked back at the man as he was half out the window. "If you die on me after I went to all of this trouble to find your ass, I swear I'll fucking kill you." I love you, you idiot.

"I'm harder to kill than I look. Just get him back here soon, I'm getting dizzy."

Lantar slipped out the window and barricaded it again, disappearing into the Omega night. The doc was going to be in for a rude awakening.

"Fighting mercenaries alone on Omega, foolish. Most unfortunate."

Garrus hissed sharply as the doctor stitched up another wound on his back and tried to cover the sound with a laugh. "I'm not completely alone, I've got one other asshole with me."

Doctor Solus' attention flitted up briefly to the asshole in question and he made a dismissive sound. "Hardly trained, even younger than you. Playing a dangerous game here. Omega bad place for games, better for death wishes."

The other turian (Mental Note- Twenty-two if he was a day, should not have even been out of military yet) snapped at him. "You know I can hear you fuckers just fine from over here. But please keep insulting me, it's not like I'm the one keeping an eye out for the wall of six hundred Spirits-damned vorcha that's still looking for him or anything."

"Lantar-"

He snorted, eyes never leaving the scope of his Mantis. "He's not stupid Boss, he knows who we are. If he was with the mercs he would have killed us already- the guy stinks of STG. So just sit back and get your hide sewn back together and let me focus on keeping us alive in here." (Crude, but fairly intelligent. Markings perhaps from colony outside Hierarchy. Invictus? Would explain great deal.)

Garrus sighed, rubbed his talons over his fading tattoos and let the tension that had jumped into his shoulders drop. Locking them just made everything hurt more anyway. Lantar was right, but he'd be damned if he was going to confirm the salarian's suspicions. He just wasn't going to keep his mouth shut completely either, he had to at least try to defend himself. "I don't have a death wish."

"Facts certainly speak to the contrary."

His mandibles pulled into his face, tone tightening along with them. "How is trying to do something good a death wish?"

"Good, on Omega. Can be little else."

"So fuck does that make your little mission of mercy here Doc?" Sidonis called back over his shoulder from his perch.

"My point exactly."

Well that was an unexpectedly blunt admission- Garrus glanced back to blink at Mordin who continued talking without missing a beat in his work. "My time grown short, salarian lifespan. Should be dead already. Things I have done... need to make reparations. Fix, heal, not destroy."

The room was quiet for a while after that, just his occasional hiss of pain when the doctor had to shove one of his plates back into alignment, and his friend's muttered cursing that was as natural as breathing for him. Nothing had shown itself yet in the streets below as a target that might have found the bolthole Garrus had dragged himself into when he realized he was too badly off to make it back to the main base. He never would have called out his men to come get him with so much risk- Lantar's finding him and dragging Dr. Solus out here in the middle of the Omega night was probably the only reason he was still alive. Kid always seemed to find him, and he wasn't sure of he was grateful for it or not. On one hand there was so much more work to do, but on the other...

"I... I lost someone." Garrus realized too late that he was talking and grimaced at himself, staring somewhere into the floor and the patterns of his own blood that had seeped out on it. He was half dead and delirious, that was the only explanation. "Someone important."

Doctor Solus nodded as he disinfected one of the worse gashes on his arm before starting to sew the skin back together. "Love, explains it. Very dangerous thing. Salarians thankfully immune." (Both turians tense immediately at comment, interesting. Dynamics here may be more complicated than originally thought. Will have to make note.)

"It wasn't- it wasn't like that." Garrus snapped back. It had been exactly like that, but that wasn't something he would admit to anyone. Hell, it had taken him months to admit it to himself even after he had dropped everything that had been his life on the Citadel for.. well, this. She haunted his dreams with should have said and should have done well enough without anyone else knowing his business.

"Of course." (Pushing pointless. Patient unwilling to talk further but surprisingly unaware of how subordinate eases at denial- fascinating. Likelihood of patient being Archangel makes observing further improbable. Unfortunate. Have not been able to study interpersonal relationships since leaving STG, fondness for the field as hobby only exceeded by musical theatre. Best set it aside and get back to work. Krogan had done quite the number on him but vorcha wounds acquired while running far more serious. Possibility of going septic if not cleaned high. Good he was here, nothing he couldn't handle with ease.)

"There" he said as he finished the last stitch, cutting the fiber and putting his things back in his bag. "Will not look pretty when healed, but scarring part of life. Few days rest and good as new. Assuming you can't be convinced to come by clinic for checkup?"

"Absolutely not." Garrus answered firmly with a grimace, feeling the network of slashes and bruises all across his body even through the familiar medicated fog. Spirits, he felt like he'd been running for a week straight.

When he tried to stand and take a step his head swam and he would have topped over if Lantar hadn't grabbed him, subvocals betraying the anxiety under the kid's words. "Boss, just... stay down for right now. I've got Ripper and Butler coming, we'll get you out of here. You've done fucking enough on your own today."

"You're just calling Butler because you know he'll yell at me." He chuckled weakly, forcing out humor even as his friend had to lower him against the wall to sit because if he tried on his own he'd have just fallen on his face. Lantar didn't answer, just went back to peering out the window through his scope. Garrus was pretty sure he'd shaken them and they were in the clear by now if it had been this long with no vorcha. Heh, even half dead- still had it. Content in the thought, his eyes half closed as the comfortable anaesthetic haze started going into real effect when his attention was drawn back to someone moving in the room. Doctor Solus was standing by a back exit with his bag at his side but had stopped to look back at them. The salarian paused for a few moments before clearing his throat, talking a touch quieter than before.

"Do try to stay alive. Archangel means great deal to people, more than you think."

Garrus didn't answer, just smiled faintly as Mordin let himself out and carefully re-barricaded the exit. A few minutes later his omnitool woke him up with a start when it crackled to life and a familiar human voice was shouting at him. Looked like the cavalry was finally here.

Things settled down after that back at Headquarters in Kima. Butler took a while to stop reading their Boss the riot act, and Erash made a few wry comments about his choice of dancing partners, but Garrus waived it off and he'd recovered well. The doctor was as good as his reputation, thank the Spirits. Sidonis didn't think he could take more complication in his life right now.

Not that it ever stayed that way. Of course it was entirely his own fault this time.

It was one of those evenings where everyone was out and even Melanis and Sensat had gone somewhere, leaving just the two turians. Lantar both longed for and dreaded these nights... He settled his forehead against the wall of the shower as the warm water ran down him to rinse the leavings of yet another private session in his bunk with his fantasies. Normally getting off calmed his racing thoughts, but ever since the incident with Garm it had been harder and harder to keep quiet. He could have lost him that day.

The man behind the Archangel mask was getting reckless. Charging off alone, unarmored and barely armed after a freak of a krogan battlemaster wasn't like him- Garrus was patient, ruthlessly intelligent, not some half-cocked idiot like himself. Something was eating at him, something he wouldn't talk about. The guy needed to release some tension.

A pleasant shudder ran down Lantar's spine at that. He may have only spent a year in the turian military before going AWOL but he remembered intimately how his fellow soldiers dealt with stress in combat situations. Many unbonded turians were willing to swing both ways when it came to flings, and Garrus had never so much as eyed up the female dancers whenever they were in bars so his odds were good. When you took into account that Lantar preferred to be on the receiving end of sex his odds got even better- normally straight single men were usually willing to sleep with another guy on a lark as long as they were the one doing the fucking. Granted he wanted so much more than a casual fling, so much more, but that would... that would have to wait. Coming on too heavy was a bad idea, better to ease it in If it never came up, well, he could live with just casual sex and dreams if it meant he'd...

Fuck, he was really going to do this now wasn't he? He was, he was doing this tonight. Sidonis shut the shower off, dressed in a decent pair of civies, took a few deep breaths and slipped down the silent hall, praying that he's be back with company before long.

Garrus was in his quarters of course, seated at his terminal digging through the intel they had dug up from that last raid two days ago. Sensat and Butler specialized in this kind of thing but Garrus was never content to be idle, always preferring a hands-on approach...

"Lantar, what is it?"

Shit, how long had be been standing in the doorway staring at him like this? Garrus was looking at him oddly with those striking blue eyes and they made him forget how to talk through three more swallows, fidgeting his hands. Say something, Spirits, say something!

"I... needed to talk to you." Smooth Lantar, real smooth.

"Alright, I'm almost done with this Take a seat." and he gestured to the room. Of course with the desk chair taken up there's nowhere he can sit besides the bed...

"I'll stand."

The other man's browridges pulled together, mandibles hiked up slightly in concern as Sidonis continued to fidget until Garrus stood up to walk over to him. "Is something wrong?"

Shit he was so close, he could smell the other man's sweat and the tinge of his favorite Armax gun oil, could feel the faint warmth of his skin just at arm's length. He swallowed again, fighting down the urge and he was about to start speaking when Garrus stepped into that circle of space that every turian understands as their own, breaching polite conversation. It brought him close enough to touch and Lantar's self control crumbled.

One quick movement was all it took and he was clutching his hands around his Boss' waist with his forehead pressed into his- Garrus stiffened at this sudden and utterly unearned display of intimacy but Lantar barely noticed his head was swimming so bad in the sensation and anyway it was too late to turn back now. One way or the other, everything was changing right now.

"You need to take a break Garrus, and I don't think you've gotten laid since I met you. This shit is just going to keep building up unless you blow off some steam. Fuck me."

"...I'm not gay, Lantar."

"You don't have to be, you need something like this and it's not like we know a lot of female turians you can trust right?" He tried to grin but he could only imagine how pathetic it must have looked, but Garrus hadn't moved away yet so he must have a chance right? "But you can trust me."

"Spirits Lantar, you're not my type." Garrus said as he pulled his head away from the boldest of his overtures, browplates pulling together in an awkward look. Sidonis kept talking in a flood.

"It's not that different from fucking women, we barely look or feel any different on our stomachs- I don't need to be on top, I just... shit, just fuck me. Please." His heart was pounding wildly in his chest and he knew he had no right to touch the man like he was- the skin under the deep blue fabric was tense in his grip, Garrus was clearly uncomfortable with his advances. But he just couldn't help it as he saw his chances slipping away.

Sidonis' subvocals started to crack. "I've learned some things in my time in the colonies, I'm a damn good sub and I'm open to... a lot of things. I can... I can make you forget whoever walked out on you, just... Garrus, please..." He couldn't help it, fingers kneading his sides through his shirt, face ducking into his throat to taste him-

He was shoved away so hard his talons ripped the other man's shirt and he almost lost his feet- whatever indulgence his Boss had given him before was gone and he was trembling with barely contained rage. "She died. She didn't leave me, she DIED."

...Shit. Shit, he'd guessed wrong, shitfuckshit-

"When I said you're not my type I was trying to be polite but I meant it, I expected you to respect... don't push me on this." Garrus wiped at his neck with a sleeve to get the wetness off, grimacing in disgust. "If you were anyone else doing that I would have broken your arm and thrown you out by now but you've stood by me in this hellhole longer than anyone- you're my friend Lantar, I don't have feelingsfor you, and I haven't wanted anyone like that since-"

Unbidden, and with a wave of dread, Sidonis remembered the photograph of the human woman he's spotted in his Boss' small room. At the time it made complete sense, she'd been his Commander and it was a normal turian reaction to commemorate the dead as a Spirit of inspiration. But Garrus' words brought a certain clarity he hadn't had before- the image hadn't been ornate enough for a shrine, it just felt like a... like a keepsake.

Not his type. Fuck. He'd gone and done the worst fucking thing possible hadn't he, just on pure luck?

"-Just do me a favor and never bring any of this up again." Garrus finished, trying and failing to control the anger in his subvocals.

Sidonis forced himself to laugh, holding his hands up in an apologetic gesture that had the side effect of broadcasting I swear I'm not going to grope you while you're in mourning again, seriously."Man I'm sorry about that, that was stupid. It's cool, I'll forget the whole thing, never bother you again. Promise. It'll be like we never had this conversation. Scuse me, I gotta... I gotta go fix my gun, I think I broke it on that last raid. Seeya." and he ducked out of the room like it was on fire.

Part of Garrus noticed he didn't curse. Lantar always cursed, and if he suddenly stopped like that something was off... but he was too stressed out to register it. Damn, he was going to need to get a new tunic...