"Ocean"

The first time she'd taken off the suit, without the use of antibiotics prior, Tali'Zorah was stuck inside of an isolated room, where she would have to stay for at least a few hours under observation until she'd return to the suit and the life she was all too familiar with. It was then she'd promised herself, the first chance she got, she would go to the ocean without her suit someday.

Someday was just a few months later, with her immune system sufficiently boosted enough by the geth's assistance that she no longer needed to wear the suit while on Rannoch. Her first barefooted steps onto the sand of the beach weren't alone, of course. What kind of boyfriend would Garrus be if he wasn't here for this?

"You ready?" he asked her, clicking his mandibles in what she'd come to know as a smile and squeezing her hand in his. Keelah, did she really need to be this nervous? It was just the ocean, after all.

"Y-yes." She stammered out, and he led her to the water slowly. The first wave of ocean water that'd hit her sent a shock through her entire body—she jolted, taking a step back and letting out a tiny squeak of discomfort.

"You okay?" Garrus said, chuckling softly at his quarian lover's reaction.

"I-it's cold! Keelah, don't laugh you bosh'tet!" she scolded him, though she laughed while punching his arm gently. After a moment of shared laughter, she took a few more steps in, until she was up to her waist in the ocean. She was shivering, squeezing Garrus' hand in her own.

But ancestors, she had never felt more alive.