"You know Garrus, if you're not comfortable with this, it's okay. I'm not trying to pressure you."
They've only just stopped Sovereign and Saren a few days ago. They're back on the Normandy, and she's in the main battery with him. It's a conversation they never expected to have with each other, but now that they're on the subject, it seems only natural that their relationship progress to something more.
"Shepard, you're about the only friend I've got left in this screwed up galaxy. I'm not going to pretend I've got a fetish for humans... but this isn't about that. This is about us."
She smiles at him as she walks away.
"I'll let you get back to work."
"Right. 'Cause I'm in a great place to omtimize firing algorithms right now."
It's a few nights later. She steps out of her shower and he's there waiting for her, with a white bottle in his hand.
"Hey. I brought wine. Best I could afford on a vigilante's salary."
He turns on some music and leans against the wall as seductively as he knows how.
"If you were a turian I'd be complimenting your waist or your fringe. So... your, uh, hair looks good. And your waist is... very supportive. Hopefully that's not offensive in human culture. Crap, I knew I should have watched the vids. Throw me a line, here, Shepard."
"Calm down Garrus. You're worrying too much. And talking too much."
She turns off the music, trying not to laugh at how nervous he seems. She thinks he's adorable.
"I just... I've seen so many things go wrong, Shepard. My work at C-Sec, what happened with Sidonis... I want something to go right... Just once. Just..."
She touches his right cheek and they lean together, their foreheads touching, and he strokes her arm. They know it's worth the effort to be together. It won't go wrong. It can't.
They're doing some bullshit work for the Counsil, searching for geth in the Terminus System. It's routine busines, nothing out of the ordinary, until the Collector ship appears out of nowhere and blows the hell out of the Normandy. Too soon it's in pieces, and half the crew is already dead before she can do anything about it.
He's there with her in a heartbeat.
"Get everyone onto the escape shuttles!"
"Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship. I'm not leaving either."
"I need you to get the crew onto the evac shuttles. I'll take care of Joker."
"Shepard..."
Her voice is soft.
"Garrus, we will be together again. There's no Shepard without Vakarian."
Then she hardens into commander mode.
"Go. Now!"
He nods and obliges, ushering crew members to the escape while she sprints to the cockpit. He sends shuttle after shuttle, and finally it's just him standing on the burning ship. She hasn't come back. He starts to make his way to the cockpit, but an explosion rocks the ship, tearing an insurmountable gash into his path. He stares at it and looks out past the burning ship he stands on and into the void of space. Scrap metal floats by. The body of a dead crew member. And before he can process any sort of emotion, there she is, drifting away from him, clutching at the leak in her air supply.
"Shepard!"
The yell is lost into space, and he is too as he kicks off toward her. Though she struggles with her tanks, she sees him, stretches out a hand to meet his. He grasps it, pulls himself toward her, and they're falling, floating, locked together and weightless. His omni-tool quickly fixes the leak, but she's lost so much air. Already she's gasping inside her helmet, her breath steaming the glass as she squeezes her eyes shut. He's panicked, but he thinks rapidly. His omni-tool allows him to merge her tubes to his air supply, and she gulps in the fresh oxygen at the same time as a look of horror crosses her features and she comms him.
"You stayed behind."
"I saw you out here."
"You could have saved yourself. Dammit, Garrus, you could have lived!"
She's strong. She's not crying, but she looks like she might. Her lip is trembling. He sees it and bumps helmets with her. It's the closest they can be together. Dying in each other's arms, but unable to touch. They reel through the darkness together, but he is weighted in her eyes.
"There's no Vakarian without Shepard."
She can't be angry with him when they're about to die. She won't waste her last moments with him that way.
"I love you, Garrus."
"I love you too, Shepard."
(A/N): I know. It sucks, and I hate leaving it like that. I need to play some Sarah McLaughlin and sob in the dark after that ending. Present tense because I like a challenge. Weird formatting because I said so. Review and favorite if you liked it! (Or if you hate me for killing them, but otherwise would have enjoyed it.)