Ah, To Be Young Again 3/?

The Day His Eyes Opened.

A/N: The prompt I chose as inspiration for this fic suggested an Earth Born Shepard. For me that would have been too easy and led to less smut, but a significant increase in violence. Spacer Shepard always struck me as a very 'do the right thing even when the cards screw you over' kind of person. That's often a more challenging character to write – their voice takes time to mature and flow as the character has a very deep thought process.

That may or may not have made you all think I'm nuts but here is the next installment of Ah, To Be Young Again. Enjoy!

~e~e~e~

Garrus had made Aurelia's acquaintance a little over a month ago. They'd become a dynamic duo in that time. He'd helped hone her shooting skills while Thane worked on her hand to hand. The redhead had managed to rope them both into her hair brained escape plan should the worst come to pass and they were stuck as teens.

The turian had to admit he admired the human's tenacious ability to get what she felt was right done. Aurelia took vid-coms from her mother, all the while holding her position that she'd be returned to her correct age or she'd do everything the way she had before. It took guts to do it, too. He wasn't sure he'd be able to stand up to his father, toe to toe, when Devarous decided what was best.

"Kelly no. I let you put me in this crazy get up but you are not parading me around the damn ship with it! I have dignity you know!" The desperate screech of Aurelia broke Garrus from his musings and he popped his head out of the Main Battery to see what was going on. The site made his heart stutter in his chest.

He had known Aurelia was pretty for a human, but he'd never have thought her pretty by turian standards. She'd hidden herself in fatigues and sweatshirts, let her hair curl around her face wildly and luxuriated in being "all natural" as she called it. The girl that was currently battling the Yeoman was something else. Hair half up with an ornament holding it back, a thin strapped green dress hugging at her chest, cinched in at the waist with a brown belt, her waist on display, hips flaring with the dress' fabric painted on like a second skin to her knees. It was the nakedness of her neck, and the way the dress showed off how curved she was that made the light switch flip for the young male.

She was a vision, even as her face turned steadily redder, freckles standing out in stark contrast. Her voice carried over the third deck, pleading with the Yeoman to just take her to Afterlife already and be "done with the whole damn dress thing". Garrus hoped Aurelia would wear dresses every day for the rest of her life – and he was sure that he wasn't the only one.

The older drell was in the Mess and had turned to look at the young woman when her voice carried through the level. The fact that the Yeoman had managed to get the younger girl all the way over to Gardner and was ordering her a Veggie Burger with Apples and Fries made it easier for the young officer to see his facial expression. It was...wistful. He'd heard the rumors that the Commander had been with him before her regression – it made a hot angry bubble well in his stomach. But the drell had yet to make a move to reclaim his now significantly younger mate. It was curious.

"Garrus! Save me from this wild woman's machinations! She's going to show me off to the whole damn ship like this. At least protect me from hungry stares and octopus hands." Aurelia pleaded, when she finally caught sight of him.

"What's an octopus?" He questioned, laughing at the slightly tortured expression on his friend's face.

"It's a sea creature with eight arms."

"So...since when do humans spontaneously generate three extra sets of hands?"

"It's a phrase, Vakarian! Meaning people will try to grope me in this get up. Be my body guard!" She wailed dramaticly, throwing an arm over her eyes, lifting it slightly so she could peak at him from under it.

The suede colored turian shifted to lean against the door of the battery, crossing his arms and raising one to scratch at a mandible – the picture of nonchalance. "I don't know, Shepard. What am I getting out of this, exactly? I mean what if someone messes up my pretty face to get to you?"

"Then I'll nurse you back to health myself and kick the offender's teeth in with my heel." The reply was dead serious and it startled Garrus. Looking up (starting at the mentioned heels, hell, he'd never seen a human's legs look sexy before) he found Aurelia's face to be schooled in an honest expression. From her pink lips to red nose and rosy cheeks nothing said "liar" to him.

"Fine. I'll keep the big bad octopus hands away from you."

The squeal of glee that Aurelia let out made Garrus cringe, but the arm full of her he got when she launched herself into his arms made up for it. The sweet, fleeting press of her lips on his mandible was strange but definitly something he'd like to experience again some day.

"Jeez, Reli. If this is the reaction I get by pledging to protect you from groping goons – I'll follow you to hell and back." He teased lowly, not wanting to make the girl uncomfortable.

Instead she laughed and squeezed her arms around him tighter before letting him go and gathering up her food from the Yeoman's hands. Skipping from the room she called back over her shoulder to Garrus,

"I'll see you at 2000 hours, Vakarian. Casual dress, we're going dancing."

'Well. Ancestors have mercy – I've got a semi-date with Shepard.' He mused, staring at the corner she'd disappeared around, mandibles slack in a silly grin.