Note:
This section took a while longer even though it's shorter. Finals didn't help, but I always have a hard time articulating what I want Kaidan and Garrus' relationship to be. Even the dialogue with Shepard takes a lot of time to consider.
Either way, this is still more polished and several paragraphs have been added to the original work. I hope it shows, and I still would appreciate reviews. Constructive criticism is my friend.
Also! This includes some stuff from the Citadel DLC. Nothing with the main mission, just the apartment and party aspect. So don't worry about spoilers about the plot if you were worried about that.
It was nearly a month later when Shepard received orders from Hackett to dock and meet up with Anderson. The crew had been ordered into shore leave, but Garrus had to stay behind for a few hours to oversee the beginning of the expansive Normandy maintenance. Once Shepard left, though, he spent most of his time making himself sick as he went over the schedules.
She had seemed nervous the night before, kicking him out from her quarters early with a headache as the only explanation. She was no doubt expecting bad news, and her trepidations had leached onto him. Mandatory shore leave seemed like a nice way of informing them that they were about to receive their final orders.
Final orders. A final mission. Was such a thing even possible? Garrus had doubted it and pushed the thought away until recently. But he was now beginning to sullenly realize that everything has its end, even fighting alongside Shepard.
Every end has a beginning, he thought to himself, before smiling sarcastically as he signed off on the checklist of upgrades. Something good has to come out of this. Right?
He checked his datapad and found a message from Shepard, detailing an address on the Silversun Strip and a note for him to meet her there when he was done. The knot in his stomach grew slightly, but her message seemed to clear his head.
The address, as Garrus soon found out, was a tremendous, hidden away apartment that had belonged to Anderson. Shepard explained the circumstances quietly to him, her hands tying themselves in knots in an unusual bout of excitement. As he listened, the glow from the giant fireplace was earnestly inviting, and Garrus was immediately attracted to it. He walked closer, barely glancing outside at the bright cityscape.
"So…Do you like it?" Shepard's voice rang out from the open kitchen.
Garrus looked over to her as she leaned her hands on the stone countertop excitedly. She looked happy, and seeing that made him smile. "It's…huge…and beautiful. It suits you." He neared the windows, watching transports dart by.
She joined him at his side in a moment, sighing largely before crossing her arms, "That's relative. The Normandy suits me. This is a vacation house. Not a home."
He smirked, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her back to him, "We could raise children here. It's not like most Citadel apartments I've been around."
She stiffened herself before she continued, "You told me you never wanted to come back to the Citadel."
"I don't, really. But we don't really belong anywhere else, do we? I'd never force you to live on Palaven and in an envirosuit. And you hardly ever speak about Earth."
"Earth is my home planet, but it's not where I'm from," She sunk back into his arms sulkily.
"And Mindoir?"
She snorted, "Please."
"Hmm. Well, you should start thinking about it, because I think I'm going to be done with the military after this war."
"Sounds like you have some plans."
He was silent for a moment, before brushing her hair back and lowering his voice, "If we don't plan for after the war, Shepard, then why fight it?"
She paused before nuzzling herself into him, "I know. I am…" She looked out the window again, before speaking quietly, "There's a lot of stairs and levels to this place. It wouldn't be good for small children."
"That's a reasonable concern," He rocked her in his arms before she squirmed away from him with a glint of mischievousness. His eyes narrowed in suspicion as he waited for her to tell him what was up.
"Let's have a party. With all our friends."
He paused before he shook his head in a daze, "Let's have a party? Don't you mean you should have a party?"
"We're a couple. We're a package."
Her words had their way with melting him, but he still sighed, rubbing his eyes with the pads of his hands. "The first night you're given an apartment after weeks of work and you want to have a social event?"
Her face tilted downward in seriousness before she spoke low, "That hardly sounds like any young soldier on shore leave."
"…That's low, even for you, Shepard."
She grabbed his hands playfully, swinging them in her hands before pulling herself closer to him now, "The jokes on you, everyone is already invited. 1900 hours. You'll be here…right?" She glanced up at him sternly as she made her eyes wide.
His head was still shaking, but he was grinning and couldn't quite hide it as well as he wished, "I'll be here, I suppose."
"You suppose?"
"I will, Shepard. You don't think I'm flaky, do you?"
She bit her lip and smiled, putting her hands up in mock compliance, "Noo, but you have been known to miss out on poker nights in order to catch up on calibrations."
"I'll be there." He watched her as she stared away from him, still biting her lip and looking tense. It had been a long morning, and now an even longer night was before them.
Still staring, he quite suddenly realized that he was feeling the sensations he had always expected to feel one day; aspirations of child bearing and protectiveness mixed together. It was a feeling that stung with wartime, but in that moment they seemed nearly normal, and very correct.
He reached out and grabbed her by her hip, tugging her to him once more, "And anyways, I was planning on spending the day here."
She nodded without looking at him, and they both stood there for a long time before she gave him a tour of the upstairs.
It was later that night when the myriad of crew members had shown up, and although Garrus honestly wouldn't have minded staying in bed for the rest of the day, he was excited to see everyone nevertheless. The grasp at normalcy was comforting, and he refused to let his cynicism infringe on it.
Shepard was doing her best in the role of modest host. She was the life of the party, charismatic and loud as ever as everyone was enchanted by her presence. Her laughter could be heard every few minutes as she circulated through her friends in her most casual of N7 shirts and cargo pants. He doubted she had anything that wasn't plastered with that logo, other than her seldom seen formal wear.
Garrus, on the other hand, felt content to stand at the well-stocked bar (complete with dextro-friendly alcohol, no less) and bullshit with whoever came his way. Everyone seemed happy and audacious, and the alcohol had yet to turn everything into the bittersweet moroseness that was bound to happen in wartime.
He chatted with Joker mindlessly as he somehow ended up becoming everyone's mixologist. He poured Liara a Thessian Sunrise while she clapped her hands in bemusement.
"It looks look Shepard has her very own turian bartender. Did she hire you from Afterlife?"
Garrus growled in mock anger, making Joker straighten up in his chair, "Well, someone's not getting their special order."
Liara pouted her lips, reaching out for the glass anyway. He held it back to his side teasingly before his eye caught on Shepard and Kaidan standing outside the kitchen. They were talking to Grunt and Vega, seemingly acting out a previous mission of some sort. Shepard was laughing loudly, talking with her hands and explaining something Garrus couldn't quite make out from here. Kaidan then pointed to her, talking emphatically before wrapping his arm around her waist and then her legs, picking her up and shaking her as everyone laughed. They both looked at each other and smiled before he put her down in a gentlemanly fashion.
Garrus turned back to Liara, who was staring back at him expectedly. He put the drink back on the counter, saying coyly, "Alright, but any more comments out of you and we'll see about me being so nice."
She nodded, smirking, as Garrus turned to walk over to the kitchen. The group was still laughing, and Garrus surprised Shepard when he put his hand on her waist and pulled her to him, "What's so funny?"
She glanced up, looking nervous for a moment before leaning into him, "Oh, just reliving an earthquake that scared away our combatants in the Matano System."
"Hmm, I don't remember that one."
Kaidan clapped his hand on Garrus' back, "You should've been there, Garrus. I think Tali was with us for that one, though."
Garrus nodded slowly, "Sounds like fun."
There was silence, and Vega and Grunt had already left the conversation to drink more. Kaidan downed his drink, and Shepard looked up at Garrus as if she was waiting for something else.
"I'm going to get more whiskey. You guys want anything?" Kaidan began to walk towards the bar as both Shepard and Garrus shook their heads.
When he was out of earshot, Shepard drank before turning to Garrus and lifting her arm away from him, "Are you just watching and waiting for the best moment to embarrass me?"
"How was that embarrassing? I saw you carrying on. I wanted to know what the story was."
Her arms folded and she shook her head. Her annoyance made him feel guilty and irritated at himself and Kaidan simultaneously. She turned away to the couch where she could sit with Tali, and Garrus returned to his spot by the bar, mostly faking his chumminess with his boisterous friends.
His mood picked up soon though, and in a while, Shepard came back to the bar and asked him rather sweetly for more vodka. Her cheeks were reddened and she couldn't say much without laughing. Liara was at her side most of the time, and together they sounded like giggling school girls. He even warmed up to Kaidan soon and somehow ended up having a friendly discussion about the differences (and superiority) of human and turian military training.
It felt good to be friendly. To be normal. He had watched Kaidan months ago in the hospital, his thinned human lips and far away stare, and realized now that that was all he had wanted that day. He had wanted to wish him the best, to give him a hard time about hospital food and having his amp temporarily removed. To be friends, really.
He realized that at the time, he had been scared and sober and paranoid. And his reservations were clear still. But as he spoke to Kaidan now and the mutual intoxication boosted friendly conversation, it shocked Garrus that he was genuinely having a good time.
