She had been in love with him for years. God, she was such fool. As she glanced at him from under her lashes, she took in the way he was casually leaning back against the bar; his elbows resting on the bar made his shoulders look broader than normal, accentuating his lean and toned physique even more than usual. He was animatedly chatting to Tali, his arms waving about as he no doubt explained in over dramatic sub harmonics, just how a great a shot he was with his sniper rifle and a pang of jealousy slithered down her spine as Tali placed a hand on his arm, subtly caressing downwards towards his hand. Whether he was aware of Tali's flirting or not, didn't matter one way other to her. She glanced away, feeling her stomach muscles clench with a stab of pain. When did this infatuation with him start? Was it when they first started working together at C-Sec, fresh young rookies, straight out of the military, filled with dreams about how they would right all wrongs and rise through the ranks of C-sec?
She shook her head to clear her thoughts away, this wasn't getting her anywhere. Another drink was what she needed. As she all but slammed her glass down on the table she was sitting at, she stood up and had to brace herself for a second as the room spun viciously. Huh, maybe she'd had more to drink than she first thought. Well, if she was already on her way into a hangover from hell and a day of feeling sorry for herself, who the hell was gravity to tell her to stop. She stood up straight, intending to walk over to the bar to where HE and Tali were talking and act like nothing was wrong, like the two of them being so close to each other didn't make her fight an urge to put a very large crack in Tali's helmet. Or a small puncture in her suit.
She shrugged subconsciously, whatever would cause the most pain, slowly. Immediately she felt a twinge of guilt settle in her stomach, Tali had been a good friend to her over the last year, it was her own fault that she was a coward and hadn't mentioned her feelings to him or she reached the bar and signalled to the bartender for another drink, she stood next to him, thankful the pounding music of Flux's would drown out her erratic heartbeat, a consequence of her close proximity to him. As he acknowledged her presence with a nod of his head, his brilliant blue eyes, met her own for a second, did a quick sweep up and down her body, most likely to check how drunk she was and then promptly turned back to carry on his conversation with Tali.
His abrupt movement caused the air around them to swirl and intensify the scents that clung to him. Shepard breathed deeply and bit her lip, feeling suddenly angry at the near blatant dismissal from him and yet fighting the temptation to bury her nose in his neck at the same time, briefly overwhelming her. Nudging her way closer she decided that interrupting this conversation was at least something she was capable of doing.
''Hey, guys. What's going on?''
Tali tilted her head to side, none too pleased to suddenly have her attention from him being stolen and Shepard had to wonder if Tali knew that Shepard loved him and was going ahead with her flirting regardless.
''Not much Shepard, we were just talking about the latest mods that have come out for his gun and how, even if you do have the biggest sniper rifle, it doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use it. Maybe I should teach him a thing or two?''
Shepard stiffened, hands clenching as her eyebrows twitched from concentrating on keeping her face from betraying just how severely pissed off she was. Tali knew. She knew and was intent on being the one to walk away with him tonight.
''Oh, ha ha. I'll have you know, that I know how my rifle works and I learned at a very young age how to work it and use it on my own. I prefer it that way actually.'' he drawled, his subvocals thrumming with amusement.
Anyway, Tali, I promised Shepard here that we would finally have that drinking competition, since she lost'' – he smirked, mandibles splaying wide - ''spectacularly to our shooting contest we had last week.''
He stepped away from the bar, and with one arm, looped it over Shepard's shoulders in a manner which clearly stated to the world THIS is my best friend. Shepard held her breath as his face came suddenly closer to hers, smelling the faint scent of brandy and spices on his breath, playing across her cheek.
''Ready to get your ass handed to you Shepard?'' he mockingly purred into her ear. She shivered. Finishing her drink in one gulp she turned to fully face him.
Shepard snorted and said ''Bring it on tough guy.''
Giving Tali a smirk, Shepard was fully aware that she had just spoiled whatever plan Tali had going. Tali stood there having taken all their banter between the two of them without interrupting, finally came to her senses and all but whined
''Wait, you're leaving? I thought you were going to stay for a while and have a few drinks with me?'' Her arms crossing over her chest as she looked up at him in what would have been a cute imploring way, if the mask she was wearing wasn't obstructing her face.
''No, sorry Tali. A promise is a promise and besides, you know where I work so just drop in some time and we'll go find a place to have lunch.'' he said as he started turning toward the exit with Shepard still curled under his arm.
Shepard couldn't resist slightly turning her head back and lifting an eyebrow as if to say 'Well that didn't turn out quite how you expected it to did it?'. Even if there were no romantic or sexual feelings involved he had still ultimately chosen her in the end. She smiled as she was ushered passed the other drinkers and gamblers, narrowly avoiding an elbow to the face as one of the over enthusiastic dancers got too close to her. She looked up as she heard growling and a deep vibration rolling through her arm where it was tucked close to his chest. He glared at the dancer as he all but bowled people over in his frenzy to get them both out of the club in one piece.
''Your place or mine?'' he asked, as they stood in line for a skycar.
Shepard barked out a laugh and said 'You do realise that is one of the cheesiest pick-up lines that men use on woman right?''
She continued to laugh as he let his arm fall off her shoulder and stared at her in shock. He cleared his throat bringing his hand to the back of his head as his mandibles pulled tight to his face and looked down at the ground and Shepard once again was struck dumb, as she realised this was one of the things he did that made her fall in love with him.
''Well if I was into soft and squishy, then yeah, you could take it that way but uh, you know I'm only attracted to, uh, females of my species… and … '' as he stuttered she decided to cut him some slack because she knew, she knew godammit, that he was not attracted to other species and it was entirely her bad attempt at flirting that made him this uncomfortable.
''Relax, I'm just teasing you. No worries tough guy. Could we head to yours? You still have some of my wine left over from last time and that sucker needs polishing off before it goes bad. And that would be a damn shame.''
His mandibles flared out again in a smile as he visibly relaxed once more and reverted back to his usual confident stance. As they walked towards the skycar he climbed in first and turned his body towards her and held out his hand in offer of helping her get in. Shepard rolled her eyes at him, thinking it was cute that he sometimes treated her like a damn damsel in distress when he had seen first-hand how she was perfectly capable of kicking ass while on duty and yet now, climbing into a skycar he thought she needed to be treated like a fragile doll. As she took his hand she lamented the fact that he had his gloves on. Sharp talons or not, after all these years, she was aching to feel what his bare hand felt like in her own. The emotion that came as that hand clamped around her own always took her by surprise, the secret thrill of that one moment that she held his hand and that split-second where she pretended that he was suddenly hers. Shepard settled into her seat with as much grace as she could manage in her half-drunk state and once again found her gaze being drawn back to his face.
''So… you and Tali, uh, seem to be quite close these days. Should I be worried about my status as best friend?'' she nervously joked, wanting to hear the answer yet dreading it as well.
''Never, Shepard. You know you're my partner in crime…No, wait, we work in law enforcement, so, uh, in law.'' He chuckled. ''Tali is a good friend and she comes by the office quite often these days so, yeah, I mean, I guess were close but she'll never take your place.''
As Shepard stared out the window she tried to think of a response that wouldn't immediately give away what she felt for him. In the end she opted to remain silent. The skycar quickly reached its destination and they boarded the elevator to take them to his apartment. The silence was palpable. Shepard was starting to get uncomfortable but luckily the ding of the elevator sounded and they strode to his door. As he put his combination in, she thought that maybe coming to his place wasn't such a good idea. He let her step in first as the door opened and she was immediately lulled into a false sense of security as the smells, dark and rich spices from the kava he drank, the strange plants from Palaven and the slight hint of glue from the model cruisers that he built in his spare time, all enveloped her. She loved his place. The turian style furniture with its sweeping backs and strange cushions to support their backs and necks, down to the carpets which ensured that if a turian walked around with no shoes, that no talons would get stuck in the threads. The overly large window that took up most of the lounge wall overlooked one of the Citadel's arms and the lights of the presidium cast the room into lovely shades of blue, pink and white swirls.
She loved it here. Safe, warm and comforting. Strange how that was exactly how she felt whenever she was around him. He took of his jacket and she followed suit handing it to him to be hung up. Making herself comfortable on one of the chairs, slipping off her shoes and tucking them underneath her she waited patiently as she heard him rattle around the kitchen looking for her glass and bottle of wine. He sauntered back into the lounge with a wide grin on his face.
''Well, Shepard, this is supposed to be a drinking competition, however we did catch that bastard Saleon, so how about we drink to celebrate instead, a job well done?''. As he poured her wine for her she accepted it from his outstretched hand and resisted the urge to brush her fingers against a swig of the liquid, she felt the warmth spread down to her stomach and the previous feelings of jealousy and worry eased.
Clearing her throat she said ''You know you don't have to keep your gloves on around me? Not like I'm going to run away after seeing the big, bad turians bare hands.'' He quirked a brow plate and shrugged.
''Alright Shepard, but don't say I didn't warn you when one of my talons accidentally slice into that pink skin of yours.'' As he took off his gloves, Shepard watched with such fascination that when he caught her looking she blushed bright red.
He laughed, subvocals making her tremble as the bass hit all the right spots on her body, leaving behind a tingling sensation when he eventually stopped.
''I did warn you Shepard.'' he said, still smiling and putting a hand behind his head as he sat down next to her with his feet on the table in front of them.
She looked down at his hands and saw the silvery plates, intercepted here and there by dark patches underneath, she imagined it would smooth but tough, almost like the finest leather and without conscious thought she picked up one of his hands and brought it close to her face. He stilled, looking at her with confusion until she started mumbling under her breath.
''Oh, you weren't kidding about the sharp claws were you? I still don't see how they could be scary, or well, at least not to me.'' she turned his hand upside down and put her own on top his intending to compare the size of their hands and when she lightly rubbed between the three fingers to get them to part he growled softly.
Quickly letting go of his hand Shepard stuttered ''God, I'm so sorry; I didn't even think to ask. I didn't do something majorly taboo did I?''
She looked over at him, worry making her eyes crinkle in the corners and she prayed to whatever was out there that she didn't just mess this up for good.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and said ''No, it's not that, it's just that our skin between our plates is quite sensitive …naturally because with our plates covering most of our skin underneath … '' he was rambling again and Shepard laughed nervously.
''Well anyway, I just growled because it felt… different.'' he said, avoiding her eyes and taking a large sip of his beer.
Stupid, stupid hope flared into Shepard and she tried in vain not to let her mind travel to the place where she could interpret his feeling 'different' into 'that felt good'. She decided that she wouldn't touch him again, as she didn't want to push him and inevitably be rejected in some way. As the silence once again stretched on, they sipped their drinks and she huffed
''Thought we were supposed to be getting drunk? Put some music on will you or a movie full of explosions so that we can laugh at the crappy CGI.''
He lifted his arm to fiddle around on his omnitool and selected a movie, the screen in the lounge lighting up as he dimmed the windows and lights to create the desired effects of a theatre and the sound rose as they settled in. While Shepard had no intention of touching him again, she couldn't help the fact that he was Turian, larger and taller than her and therefore when he made himself more comfortable on the couch, their arms were touching and she could feel the heat through his shirt as it slowly seeped into her own arm. Halfway through the movie, she realised that she was indeed, quite drunk, the room spinning and her eye lids drooped heavily as she fought the urge to yawn. Half a bottle of wine and two beers and she had lost count of how many he had drank; she dared to look at him again.
Maybe she should tell him now. Just get on with it and say it. End this unrequited love that made her feel like a schoolgirl all the time. End the stabbing pain when she saw him with another woman. Just end it.
A loud moan suddenly filled the room and Shepard's attention snapped back to the screen where a turian and a quarian were all over each other, petting and panting. The dramatic and hoarse moans from both the lead actors made the blood rush faster under Shepard's skin and she swallowed her throat suddenly dry. She felt a prickle on her left cheek, like she was being watched and as she turned her head and body around she found him watching her, a look that she had never before seen in his eyes, a burning stare, his eyes narrowed and he chuffed out his breath.
She couldn't look away from him, the sounds of the movie escalating into a fever pitch and as she opened her mouth slightly and proceeded to take and release a small breath, she suddenly felt his three fingered hands wrap around her waist and lift her, like a feather, until she was sitting on top of him. Her knees rested on either side of his and as she stared at him, his fingers clenched around her waist, making her gasp. As she leant forward to bring her face closer to his, her hair fell forward and framed her face, she felt one of his hands leave her waist and come up to her hair. Entwining her hair between his fingers, he purred and tucked it gently behind her ear. Shepard's face was so close to him now, an inch between their noses and their breaths huffing softly over each other's.
She took her hands and placed them on top of his shoulders, slowly running them down his chest, his growling and purring intensified and as she slowly, slowly put her lips on his mouth, they both closed their eyes and sighed. Shepard loved the taste of him, a dark chocolate taste, and her tongue left her mouth to lick softly at his plates around his lips. He gave a jolt when he felt her tongue. He moved his hand to hold her head as he opened his mouth and she snuck her tongue carefully into his mouth avoiding his teeth and when he touched his tongue to hers, both of them moaned more wantonly than the actors in the movie. Breathing heavily as they kissed, she drew his tongue into her mouth and lightly sucked on it, nipping on the end when she let it go.
''Spirits, Shepard.'' he said as she snaked her hand to the back of his head underneath his fringe, rubbing the soft unplated skin there in circles.
He tilted his head back and Shepard took the opportunity to trail wet kisses down his neck, softly biting her way around his neck while she massaged and scratched under his fringe. His growling was a constant vibration in her body as she sat on top of him and she squirmed as she felt it travel between her legs.
''What do you want Shepard?'' he slurred. Whether from arousal or alcohol she couldn't tell, but as she stared down into his eyes, breathing hard and aching for him. She knew exactly what she wanted.
''You. I want you Garrus.''
