Heat
Garrus' eyes flicked across the small screen of the data pad he was using. He'd accidentally added too many pistols to his inventory. A few taps of his thumb set his calculations right. He hadn't been asked to inventory the weapons locker of course, but it made him feel good. It was reassuring to know what was what around the Normandy. Like everything was right with the world. He was just settling in to count ammunition blocks when she entered the tiny room.
'The locker' was what the crew called the room where all hand-held firearms were kept. Garrus hadn't found it cramped or small, until two people were inside it. "Excuse me, Garrus," Shepard reached past him for something, ending up with them being pressed together, face to face.
Garrus stood very still. He wasn't wearing his armor, only his civilian clothes, so the first thing he noticed when she was pressed up against him, was that she was surprisingly warm. Turians were usually almost cool to the touch thanks to the outer layer of scale-like skin plates. He didn't find the warmth unpleasant either. Instead he focused on making himself as small as possible, not an easy task. Even for a turian he was a little on the tall side, with feet that even his own species would mock. However, without his armor, the boney ring that made up his chest and protected his neck, was not actually that large. He wondered self consciously if she noticed. She seemed very focused on what she was reaching for, still stretching herself in front of him.
"Can I help?" he asked, feeling very uneasy. Sure he'd been this close to her many times in the field. Why, just yesterday she had tackled him out of the way of a sniper's shot. It hadn't made him feel one bit as awkward as this was. If turians could sweat he'd have been leaking buckets. He realized that besides the heat she gave off he also noticed how soft she was. Usually when they interacted she was wearing armor of her own. He worried he might crush her accidentally. How easy was it to break a human? He'd have to ask Chakwas.
"I'm not a salarian you know," she said. Garrus jumped. It was as though she could read his thoughts. She must have found what she was reaching for because she pulled her arm back. However, she remained directly in front of him, crammed chest to chest in the little room. "I'm not that fragile. You're pulling as far away as you can. Relax, would you?"
"Yes Ma'am," he said tensely, not relaxing one bit. It wasn't that he was standing face to face and body to body with his commanding officer that was making him edgy, he realized. It was that he was so close to her. To Shepard. He couldn't place what he was feeling exactly.
"God, Garrus, stop with the ma'am stuff. You call me Shepard, remember? Seeing as I can't get you to use my first name."
"Right, Shepard," he said, stiffly. He got the weird sense that she was enjoying this. Being so close to him. Or maybe she just liked making him uneasy. Was this a test? "Human rules and regulations are a bit different from turian ones. On one of our ships a commander would never...stand so close to ah..." he trailed off lamely.
"We humans are a pretty different bunch," she agreed, shifting her weight to her hip, but still not disengaging for their intimate position. "I've heard the asari say we're the most varied species out there. You take a random sampling of a batarian or a quarian and you have a safe guess what they'll be like. Not humans."
"That's true," agreed Garrus, getting into the conversation a bit. He almost forgot that his eyes had been drawn to the curve of her hip as she moved. Almost. "Some are like salarians. All brainy and talkative. Others are like asari. Assertive and powerful."
"We can have biotics, we can be technical wizards, you name it, some human somewhere is good at it." she smiled. Garrus felt his knees go a bit rubbery and he wondered if he needed to get to the medbay. Then Shepard stood on tiptoe so as to look him directly in the eyes, "I always fancied myself more like a turian than anything else." The way she said the name of his race, in a low, tantalizing voice, had a direct effect on Garrus' heart. It felt like it was beating erratically and he was really thinking a visit to Chakwas was in order because he suddenly felt very strange indeed.
Then Shepard slid free of their awkward position and walked off, hips swaying attractively as she went. Wait...had he honestly just found her physically attractive? A human? Certainly he admired her mind. He'd never seen a better tactician or leader, but what was this new sensation? He'd had a few crushes in his time and this felt nothing like one. This felt like everything wrong, and everything right at the same time. Keep it together, Garrus. She's a human. You're not. She'd never be interested in you anyway. Would she?