Jane wakes up with a start, finding Garrus hovering over her where she was sprawled on their couch, now flat on her back without his support, feet still dangling over the armrest. He wears an amused expression, head tilted to the side in a birdlike fashion.
"Do you always sleep with your mouth open?" He teases with a low chuckle.
Shepard sits up and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand to make sure she hadn't drooled in her sleep and shoots him a glare but laughs when she can't keep a straight face, "No… shut up." She swings her legs down off the couch and stands, folding the blanket she'd been covered with. As she unties the braid that had nearly undone itself as she slept she runs her fingers through her hair in an attempt to tame her disheveled appearance, noticing Garrus staring curiously.
"It's weird, isn't it? Hair." She smiles warmly at him, not wanting him to feel self-conscious for looking, mostly because she looks at him quite a lot while he's not paying attention. "You can touch it… if you want." She offers, turning her back to him and letting her hair fall down over her shoulders and back to give him access.
Garrus hesitates, but tentatively reaches out and gently grasps a lock of hair, rubbing it between his thumb and first digit before letting it fall between his fingers and withdrawing his hand completely. "Strange." He says inquisitively, "What's it for?"
"Well… different things. On our heads it's to keep our body heat from escaping too quickly in cold climates, on the rest of the body… mostly for holding scent to attract a mate."
"Huh… I thought humans didn't have a strong sense of smell." He responds with a quizzical expression.
"We don't… it's more subconscious, but it still affects us, alters our perceptions a little I guess." She shrugs, not really able to explain how pheromones worked with what little she knew about it.
"Hmm… humans…" He says, looking at her as if she was some sort of strange bug before giving her a smile. "Anyway… a couple friends invited me to the Arena today, would you want to come?"
Jane's eyes go wide and she grins, a distinctively Jane expression that Garrus is beginning to be able to predict. "Yeah… That's what I thought." He laughs and grins back at her, he can't help that her smiles are contagious.
"I gotta shower. Meet you there?" She calls out behind her as she rushes out the door and down to her apartment to shower and change.
Garrus is waiting outside the Armax Arsenal Arena chatting with two of his friends when Shepard gets there, and for the first time since she's met Garrus she's feeling a little out of place. She isn't sure if she'll fit in with his turian friends; she knows she should have expected them to be turian, it's not as if they make a point to befriend every human that passes by, but she feels a little like the odd man out. She decides to trust the fact that Garrus is one of the nicest guys she's met, human or not, and she'd bet a decent amount that he didn't hang around with a bunch of assholes. He looks up as she approaches and smiles, "Finally! You made it."
She rolls her eyes and returns his smile, "Yeah… well, I'm a girl. Takes a little longer to get ready." Garrus gives her a 'how should I know?' kind of shrug as Shepard looks to the other two and gives an awkward little wave, "Hey… I'm Jane."
They each respond kindly, giving their names as Kitaro and Sirion before the four of them head into the arena. After picking out armor and suiting up they chose weapons, Garrus went straight for a sleek looking scout rifle while Jane chose a lightweight assault rifle and the other two preferred SMGs. The four of them make their way into the battle area of the lower arena as the holographic environment forms and they duck behind cover before the first wave begins. It's clear to her that the three of them have been doing this together for some time as they quickly set up in various positions, sending signals to each other with hand signs and nods, shouting encouragement to each other as they took down the enemies one by one as Shepard skimmed along the outside of the area picking off the stragglers hiding behind cover.
After the first wave Garrus called her over and they huddled together like she'd seen in old vids of football games back on earth, discussing strategy and who should cover which side.
"Jane, you take point, I've got your six. Kitaro cover the left flank and Sirion get the right." She nods and takes her place front center as the others run to their places and the next wave of the simulation begins. Geth troops flood the arena floor and as Jane advances towards them Garrus stays at her back, taking down enemies that make it past Kitaro and Sirion with single shots of his rifle as she fires in bursts, her shoddy aim requiring at least 6 shots from her mock Vindicator before each enemy falls.
They nearly make it through the next round without incident until Jane, while covering the right flank, clipped her side diving into cover while dodging a flashbang grenade and went down hard. Garrus calls after her and runs across the arena to where she landed behind a crate while Sirion and Kitaro lay down covering fire and start a slow backwards walk falling back towards her position to form sort a sort of shield while Garrus checks on her condition.
By the time Garrus reaches her she's already scrambling to her feet, trying to catch her breath after the hard fall knocked the wind out of her. "It's okay Garrus, I'm fine…" She coughs and brushes herself off, but he takes no notice as he's all hands, skimming over her armor checking her for damage that could cause injury, he kneels down and inspects a small red stain forming at her knee and looks up at her with a worried expression. "I just skinned it, no biggie." She shrugs it off but he looks upset for some reason and she doesn't quite understand it.
"I'm sorry, I should have stayed with you. It's your first time." He laments, clearly feeling guilty over her very minor injury.
"Garrus… really, I'm perfectly okay." She gives him the most reassuring smile she can through her helmet. "But… that was so fun! And impressive, you guys really got this down. Glad I'm on your side." Her laugh visibly calms him and he pats her on the shoulder, relief washing over his features as his mandibles relax.
"Not so bad yourself, especially for a first timer." He smiles and she's surprised how his big wolfish grin is starting to become something that warms her heart instead of making her think twice about getting anywhere near him. "I uh… think that's about enough for you today. Let's go watch a vid or something."
"Sounds good, I'm probably gonna feel this tomorrow." She laughs ruefully as they leave the Arena and head back towards their apartments, already feeling the pull of her undersuit against the drying blood of her skinned knee.