Garrus groaned.
His armor's chest piece was much thinner than it was two weeks before.
Since he joined up with Shepard, she had been taking him along on nearly all of her missions, and he was glad he could be of some help to her. But his old C-Sec armor has been taking quite some hits, and it was beginning to show: scratches here and there, dents shallow and deep.
Mostly deep ones.
"Some more hard hits and I'll only have my clothes to walk into battle," he mumbled to himself. He shook his head in exasperation.
He decided that the next time the Normandy docked on the Citadel, he'd visit the Wards Market to buy a new, shiny armor.
The mission was a success. They deactivated the rogue VI on Luna, and Shepard was elated to find a training manual in one of the station's consoles. As usual, she paced around the room, looking for some crates or locker available to plunder.
Garrus decided it was about time he told Shepard about his armor. So he followed her and stood beside her as she examined a crate in one corner of the room.
"Shepard," Garrus called.
"Yes, Garrus? What is it?" Her hands hit the console quickly, decrypting the crate's security lock.
"I think I need a new armor."
A beep, a click, then the fist-pump gesture. She always did that after a successful hack.
"And...?" she asked, beginning to rummage through the crate's contents.
"I plan to buy one the next time Normandy docks on the Citadel," he said. Shepard stood up and faced him, a smile on her face.
"You're in luck," she said, throwing an armor case to him. "This one is a turian light armor. You should try it on once we get back to Normandy."
He examined the label on the case. The armor had nice configurations. He nodded and smiled, his mandibles spread wide.
"Thanks, Commander. Now I can save my credits for something else. Maybe to buy a new calibration tool."
She smiled back, her eyes glinting with humor.
"Come on, try it on!" Shepard was absurdly excited about the idea of him showing off his new armor. She had somehow dragged Kaidan down to the armory, and Ashley was standing beside her.
"Okay, okay. Just give me a minute to change," Garrus agreed, retreating to his usual armor-changing spot just behind some supply crates.
A minute later, he came out and felt out his new, shiny armor.
"Thanks, Shepard. It's very well-made," he said gratefully. She was covering her mouth with her hands, but he knew she was smiling from her eyes.
"You're very welcome, Garrus. It looks... good on you," she said. Then she and Ashley burst giggling, while Kaidan turned his eyes away from him politely, a held back smile plastered on his face. Garrus' mandibles twitched in confusion.
"Uh. Commander, is something wrong? Why are you giggling?" he said, suddenly self-aware of himself. He inspected his new armor again. Maybe I misplaced a piece? ... No, no way. I checked.
Shepard's giggles was turning into an all-out laughter, but she managed to say, "No, Garrus. It's perfectly fine. Really."
He was not convinced with her last statement, but he gave her a nod anyway.
They were docked in the Citadel, where Shepard needed to take care of some business with Nassana Dantius. The asari's sister was killed in one of their skirmishes with the slavers they encountered on a planet. Shepard said Nassana had contacted her before the incident to make some kind of job offer, and she suspected Nassana's sister was somehow connected with the request. She asked Garrus to come along as 'someone with experience in doing interrogations'.
"We're going, Joker," she called when they passed through the mess hall where Joker was eating with the other crew members.
"Okay, Commander," Joker said, turning his chair around to face her.
Suddenly, he laughed out loud. Everyone was looking at the flight lieutenant with baffled expressions when they spotted Garrus next to their commander... and giggles erupted.
Shepard only looked at Garrus, her amusement written all over her face. He shrugged.
"Humans around me seem to do that lately," he said, matter-of-factly.
"Yeah. No kidding!" Joker said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. Shepard waved her hands dismissively.
"That's enough, people. Back to work, back to work," she said with a grin, then pushed Garrus' back to direct him to the stairs.
"Let's go before all of them develop stomachache from too much laughter."
Garrus was running his usual diagnostics on the Mako when Shepard came down. She approached him, gave him a pat on his shoulder, pointed her thumb at the garage's exit, and he replied with a nod. The simple exchange had been meaning 'I'm bringing you in this mission with the Mako' since last week. She then walked away and spoke to Wrex.
"Okay, Wrex. I'm bringing you along for this mission. We're going to search for a data module on Eletania... and maybe hunt some pyjaks while we're at it."
Garrus could hear the amusement in the krogan battlemaster's voice.
"Pyjaks? All right, I'm in," he said.
"We're going to wear more flexible armors today. Here, I found one for you," Shepard added with a big, meaningful smile. She handed over a case of armor to Wrex.
"I'm wearing... this?"
"Yep. I'll be wearing one, too."
Wrex stared at Shepard for a moment, then he guffawed.
"Fine then," he agreed. "See you later."
Twenty minutes later, Garrus was already standing by the Mako. Wrex came along shortly after.
"What's this? We're wearing armors from the same line?" Garrus asked, mandibles spread wide in a grin.
"Yeah. It seems Shepard wants us to wear uniforms today. Dunno what she's thinking, dressing us up when the only ones seeing us like this will be pyjaks," Wrex said with a shrug.
Garrus snorted. "If she's not bringing any hidden cameras, that is."
Wrex was about to say something when Shepard came, wearing a light armor of the same line. A mischievous smile was carved into her lips.
"Let's go," she said.
Shepard was already on top of the Mako when Ashley approached them with a huge grin.
"Since when did I become the trendsetter of the ship?" she teased Shepard. The commander laughed.
"What can I say? Your choice of armors is just impeccable," she said with a smirk. Ashley just snorted and shook her head.
"You know I'm a sucker for white ceramic platings," she declared. "They're shiny." Shepard just replied with a shrug and a meaningful smile on her face.
"Oh well," Ashley said. "At least now we can have some amusing views."
Shepard gave Ashley a thumbs-up gesture, which the chief gunnery officer returned before walking into the elevator. The commander then climbed into the Mako and took the driver's seat. Garrus tapped Wrex's shoulder before the krogan climbed inside and gestured to him to come closer.
"Do you know something about why humans find us wearing these armors amusing?" he asked with a whisper. Wrex just chuckled and gave Garrus a shrug.
"Maybe. But it would be a long story. Why don't you try asking Shepard herself sometime?"
Garrus sighed.
"Yeah. Maybe sometime."
Three Years Later
"So, what's with you humans and pink?" Garrus asked. Shepard shuffled in his arms.
"Mmm. Why the sudden random question, Garrus?" she mumbled.
"I just remember that time when you gave me this pink-and-white armor to replace my old C-Sec one," he said.
Shepard pulled away, sat down on the side of the bed, and ruffled her messy hair, trying to recall that specific moment in their adventures together.
Then her eyes widened in realization.
"Ah. That."
Garrus moved to her side and put an arm around her waist.
"Yes, that. Care to explain?" he said softly.
Shepard chuckled. "But it would be so much more interesting to keep you in the dark," she teased.
Garrus gave her a faked wince.
"Aw. Really, Shepard? 'In the dark'? That's lame, even for my standards. Besides, as far as I know, you prefer to leave the lights on," he purred, nuzzling her neck. She laughed and gave the hand on her waist a squeeze.
"Fair enough," she said. "It's a human color code. It's informal, but as far as I know, all humans use it."
"Go on."
"When a baby is born, the assisting doc wraps it in soft fabric. Since all babies are cute—"
"I didn't know you have a weakness for babies."
"Now you do. Well, since they are all cute and we can't differentiate the boys from the girls from faces only, we use this color code. Boys are wrapped with blue, and girls with pink," she explained.
Garrus laughed. "That explains the giggles and averted eyes," he said, amused.
"You being completely clueless was a bonus laughing material. That, and the fact that with the color template and the helmet on, you looked exactly like a nurse," she added with a grin.
"I'm thinking it was an armor line for nurses..." He paused. Then he remembered one particular detail on the armor case's label.
"... And more now that I remember it was Sirta-made. Spirits, you totally set me up," he sighed, shaking his head. Shepard laughed loudly, barely able to contain her amusement.
"Anyway, some of the male crews ogled me for some time after that Joker incident," he added. She pulled away, shot a disbelieving look at him, and giggled.
"Goodness, you're kidding me."
"It's true. They only stopped when they saw the way I looked at you."
Shepard's face turned red.
"Stop it."
Garrus pinned her down on the bed and whispered in her ear.
"Well, you didn't think you would escape that unpunished, did you?"
Author's Ramblings:
So I replayed through ME1, and then that first two paragraphs happened. Headcanon commences, and this fic was born. Heh heh.
Thanks to ninja-v for beta and suggesting the part with Wrex and Ash! ;)