AN: just a short soulmate!au i'm working on for shakarian - i anticipate it being 1-3 parts. i will probably combine mass effect 2/3 (at least that's my plan right now...)
as always, feel free to hit me up on tumblr (jhoomwrites)
Garrus remembers when he first got his tattoo. He was traveling with his sister to the Citadel to visit their father. He was watching from a window as the ship approached the Mass Relay. It was beautiful watching the jump. He was so transfixed he barely noticed the slight stinging on the back of his hand.
Later, it's his sister who will remind him to check. She's been proudly showing off the yellow triangles peppering the inside of her cowl for a few years now. She's excited to see Garrus' tattoo. He was young, maybe six, so he'd completely forgotten until then. He shows the back of his right hand to his sister.
It's two circles - one blue, one red - connected in the middle, a deep purple in the space they overlap. His sister is confused and he asks why. She explains that Turian tattoos are almost always geometric, only one color. His isn't really either, doesn't fit any pattern she knows.
So he asks what that means. She just shrugs and says she has no idea.
It turns out that his sister's right. His tattoo is pretty unusual among Turians. No one really knows what it could mean since it's so unique. His mother tells him not to worry so much about it. The significance of it won't matter once he finds his mate.
He smiles and says it doesn't bother him. It does.
Garrus ends up being self-conscious about it, especially in Turian circles, and wears gloves almost all the time to hide it.
Humans are weird about the soulmate tattoos. Each species' images manifest in different ways. The Turians are single-colored and geometric. Salarians have ones that almost look like puzzle-pieces or the grooves of a key, intricate around the edges in barely perceptible ways. Krogan ones are muted in color but bold in pattern, . The Asari tend to have ones that reflect the species they'll be bonding wtih.
Humans, though, have some of the most intricate patterns. They're bold and colorful and ephereal. They're never simple or plain like Turian ones, don't have a consistent type of pattern like Salarians. Each one is so unique that it appears almost bawdy to outsiders.
They also show them off a lot.
Even the ones in risque places that would make an Asari blush to show off. Most species aren't exactly shy about theirs, but to make a point of having them seen by absolutely everyone all the time... It borders on some sort of breach of an unspoken impropriety the galaxy has lived in for so long before humans appeared.
Which makes Commander Shepard an oddity. The military is obviously more conservative in dress, but he's spotted Alenko's golden-pink sunset peaking out from he edge of his back collar. Chakwas' supernova dances across her forearm, only visible when she rolls up her sleeves to eat. Neither Joker's nor Ashley's are visible, but neither is shy about it. (Joker's apparently is all over his abs and, despite his bravado, he's too embarrassed to show anyone. Ashley doesn't have one. She knows damn well what that means.)
Shepard's isn't visible. But she deflects any attempts to question her about it.
Garrus doesn't really care. He has a passing curiosity in it, but he's perfectly content to mind his own business. (It's not like he wants to share his, either. There might not be any other Turians on board, but they'd no doubt be clued in enough to know how strange his is.)
So Garrus goes on not really even thinking about it. Not caring about Shepard's (or anyone else's) tattoo.
Until he cares a lot.
It shouldn't have meant anything. To most of the crew, it didn't mean anything.
The ground mission had been simple enough. Absolutely nothing special. But Shepard had hit her head. Red blood, metallic smelling, flows from the wound and trails down her neck. She groans when she notices it, not from pain but annoyance, and uses her hand to keep pressure.
They're in the shuttle, still a good fifteen minutes from being able to get to the med bay. It's not serious, but Williams ignores Shepard's protests and moves her hand away to get a look. Garrus holds the med kit while they clean it up - it really isn't that bad, only bleeding so much since it's a head wound (or so the human women assure him).
Once the blood is almost gone, Williams barely pauses to acknowledge it. "Nice tat. Didn't think you were the type to get ink."
Shepard just grunts. "Military's always willing to get inked up."
And that's that. Discussion over.
Except that's not it. Because sure, it may not look like human soulmate tattoos. Not at all. Easily mistaken for the type humans are wont to get (he's seen people turn their whole body into a canvas, using their soulmate tattoo as the base for something truly breathtaking).
And if it weren't for the matching mark on Garrus' hand, it would be just as unremarkable as Ashley thinks it is.
He doesn't say anything. Of course he doesn't. He's never been open about his mark, and Shepard has never been forthcoming about hers. And it's weird. He doesn't want to admit it, but it is. He grew up hearing stories of the First Contact War. His people haven't forgotten, and he doubts hers have either. This... this just isn't possible.
While he broods about it, he thinks about how well he and Shepard mesh both in the field and during down time. It's always been an easy friendship, partnership, mentorship... whatever they are in whatever situation, everything's just clicked between them without an issue.
But Garrus still keeps quiet. He knows his own reasons for not broadcasting his own situation. Whatever Shepard's are, he doesn't want to intrude.
Alenko and Liara both pursue Shepard with surprising vigor. They must know they don't match, but he understands the draw she has. Shepard makes an uneasy joke about it to him and Tali. Asks if either of them are harboring crushes on her, too. Tali laughs and assures her that of course they aren't. Garrus doesn't say anything, silently leaving it up to both of them to decide.
(But he does notice the way Shepard had looked at him when she said it. Doesn't break eye contact with him even as she laughs with Tali.)
In the end, she starts something with Alenko.
Eventually she comments on the distance he's put between them. At first Garrus wants to deny it, but there's a certain futility to it. So he shrugs and apologizes, no offer of an explanation. She doesn't ask for one.
He makes an extra effort to make things the way it was before. It seems to work.
His blood boils after Saleon. He wants to snarl accusations at her, say things he knows they both will regret. Somehow he manages to just quietly seethe, pointedly ignoring her until his temper calms.
She ignores him too. Lets him cool down. He almost wonders if she's doing it on purpose, as though she knows the things he'll yell at her. Adds that to the list of things about her that infuriate him.
His anger diffuses as suddenly as it had appeared. He gives it up, grudgingly acknowledges that maybe she was right. They talk about it briefly, the most clipped conversation they've had to date, but then allow things to fall back into place.
Maybe the stakes and their ever impending death make it easy to ignore the fact that the universe seems to have some sort of opinion about the two of them getting together.
He's always appreciated how well they work in tandem, and as things get more difficult, he's glad Shepard's seemed to pick up on it too. She takes him on nearly every mission, and it's soothing in a primal sort of way that he's there to watch her six.
It scares him a little, actually.
They say the tattoos are just the beginning. They help match you with your soulmate. But after an actual bond develops between you, it connects you a little more. Intangible, yet there.
Garrus had never given it much thought until his hand started stinging on the Citadel. The clear and present danger that his (supposed) mate is in is a constant itch. It puts him on edge to a point where he can see Shepard considering sending him back to the ship. He's pretty sure the glare he directs at her could level a small building. She hesitates just a moment, then seems to give in.
Fine, you can stay.
If he thought his hand hurt on the Citadel, it's nothing to how it burns weeks later.