Kaidan and Garrus walked through the maze of apple trees, waiting for Shepard to figure out where they were so they could get back to their cross-country journey. It was the only vacation the alliance and the council would approve of after the defeat of Saren, something about needing them to be prepared incase of a geth attack. Garrus didn't mind. He'd been wanting to see Earth after hearing stories from the humans on the Normandy. Kaidan's stories about this place called Canada especially made him fall in love with the planet; the man could go into really beautiful detail. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be going there.
Stopping under a tree, Kaidan motioned for him to come over. Garrus felt his heart speed up a bit and his stomach do a few somersaults, though he was in denial as to why. Ever since Kaidan saved his ass on Noveria he'd been having this feeling. He'd been telling himself it was just because the guy had thrown that rachni against the wall when it jumped out at him, but then sometimes he had a creeping feeling it was something more than that.
He ducked under the branches of the tree, standing a little further away to see what would happen next. Kaidan then proceeded to motion for him to come closer again. Garrus felt his heart skip a beat, wondering what could possibly make Kaidan want him any closer. Taking a few more steps, he began to look in between the trees just incase something was wrong or there was someone watching them or something. He didn't see anything though. Kaidan then grabbed his arm and gently pulled him practically into him. Garrus's stomach was doing backflips now. He tried to pace his breathing a bit to seem more relaxed. This was probably just some stress response.
Kaidan pointed underneath one of the apple trees right across from them where a small, four-legged animal was munching on a fallen piece of fruit. "See that," Kaidan whispered, "that's a fawn, a baby deer. It's mother is probably very close by."
Garrus leaned a little further in to get a better look, practically on top of Kaidan at this point. The baby deer looked so vulnerable. In fact, a lot of earth animals looked vulnerable but then ended up not being. Maybe it's an Earth survival trait, he figured. Humans didn't seem like much but he knew from personal experience they could kick ass, like Shepard...or Kaidan. He hadn't expected someone that small to be able to take out an asari commando. No that the lieutenant was small, just smaller than him which humans usually were. Though, Kaidan wasn't as tall as Shepard. It was kind of cute actually...nope, nope, he was going to focus on the deer now.
"You know, and I hope this doesn't come out wrong, but," Kaidan laughed nervously, "it's just so amazing that you're here seeing this. Thirty years ago, no one knew Earth and humanity were here. Now here you are...looking adorable-I mean at a deer."
Garrus blinked. Either his translator malfunctioned or Kaidan just called him adorable which usually isn't the first thing anyone used to describe him. Not since he was a baby anyway. He felt the heat rise to his face, trying to rationalize this out before he started making some bad conclusions about this. Focus on the deer, Garrus, focus on the deer. That didn't work. Kaidan had called him adorable, on accident sure, but he'd still called him adorable. It made his stomach do backflips and he still couldn't figure out why. Could he actually be having a crush on the lieutenant?
Before Garrus could even react to that thought, Kaidan grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him down, putting his lips on the front of his mouth. Oh, that was the human form of affection, wasn't it? He'd seen vids where that happened. He just kinda stood there, stunned, staring into Kaidan's eyes. Kaidan seemed just as stunned as to what he'd just done, cheeks tinging red.
Taking a deep breath, Garrus tried to sort through his thoughts. His heart was beating really fast but he also felt just right at the same time. It honestly made no sense. He guessed he answered his previous question of if he actually had a crush on Kaidan with a yes, he really did and it seems the lieutenant liked him back. Could this even work though? After this trip, he was going back to the Citadel and Kaidan was going to stay with Shepard. Did he really even care right now though?
He grabbed Kaidan's hands, "I like you too."
A look of relief and happiness washed over Kaidan's face. He proceeded to pull Garrus back down for another one of the lip-touching affection showings, only to be interrupted by a loud wolf-whistle. They looked over to see Orion Shepard standing with the rest of the group. Liara and Tali looked stunned, Wrex seemed to still be processing, and then there was Shepard just clapping. Well, at least he was being supportive. Kaidan was letting go of Garrus though, looking in the opposite direction. He was kind of cute when he was embarrassed, in Garrus's opinion.
He put his arm around Kaidan's shoulder, pulling him back in. "Did you figure out where we're going?"