Thank you everyone for all of the favourites, follows & reviews that have been flowing steadily into my inbox. I really appreciate all of the support!
Thanks always to Tara, my fabulous editor and soul mate, the Dude for all of the love, and to Mill Street, for the best beer in the world. (I've promoted you. Send free beer- Tankhouse or Lemon Tea will do)
Part one is called Sleep All Day.
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Lina tapped her foot to the beat of the music while she read from her textbook. Her notes were piled precariously on the back of the worn out, comfortable couch that she was curled up on, back leaning against a pillow, her legs covered by a light blanket. She held a pen between her teeth, occasionally taking it out to wipe off the spit forming on it and circle something important in her notes.
Her finals were coming up. She was almost finished her training and was trying to jam as much knowledge into her head as she could before final testing began.
She looked over at the far end of the couch. Garrus sat there much in the same position, focusing on a datapad, using a stylus to scratch beneath his fringe. His notes, scribbled on sheets of paper, sticky notes, napkins, the backs of cigarette cartons- basically any blank piece of paper available at the time, were piled carefully at his feet where he could occasionally refer back to them before scribbling the information into the datapad.
Lina smiled and stuck her pen in between the pages of her textbook, marking her spot, and snapped it shut. She grabbed a chipped mug from where it sat on the floor and took a sip of the lukewarm chai tea before shutting her eyes.
It had been 8 months since she helped steal a bottle of Jim Beam from a bar and spent the evening getting drunk with an alien stranger. Since then she'd... well, she hadn't done a lot, other than slack off on her studies, which she was paying for now. The last few weeks of training sneaked up on her- while she spent the week wishing for the weekend, every weekend brought her closer to the end of the year.
Shit, she thought. Now I'm a week away from being off of this rock. Just when I was starting to enjoy it.
She looked back at the turian on the far end of the couch. He had the end of the pen in his mouth, biting it lightly while he concentrated on his datapad. She watched him in silence for a moment before speaking.
"Do you want to go out tonight?" she asked.
"Sure, where?" he responded, not looking up from the orange pad.
"Somewhere new?" she suggested.
Garrus let out a snort and asked with a smirk, "where's new?"
Lina thought. It was true- they had drank their way across the Wards. They were welcomed with open arms to some places- told never to return to others. Lina had grown accustomed to the small one-bedroom apartment with the broken climate control, and the bars surrounding it. Most nights it was more comfortable to go out, only returning to the apartment after they were buzzed enough not to notice the difference in temperature. Usually it was too hot- that's when they passed out on top of the sheets with the fans on and the windows open. Sometimes it was too cold- that's when it was handy to be sleeping next to someone who gave off so much heat.
She shivered a little and pulled the blanket further up. Tonight it was too cold in there, and she was less than cozy under the thin blanket in her sweatshirt and shorts. The windows were wide open but it didn't do much to help with the temperature inside the apartment.
"I wish I'd brought pants," she commented, tucking the blanket around her legs more.
Garrus looked up then, "you cold?"
"Freezing!"
"Well then get over here!" he set his stack of notes on the floor and pulled Lina to his side of the couch by her arm. She nestled herself next to him, letting him put his arm around her shoulders, and pulled the blanket over, tucking it around her legs once again. She was a lot warmer now, sitting next to him. She pressed herself against his side a bit more, her own personal space heater.
She closed her eyes and rested her head on his arm as he absentmindedly began to play with her hair. She let her mind wander while his talons tangled themselves in her curly locks.
It bothered her at first, the touching. How he would throw his arm around her shoulders, pull her closer, grab her waist to get her attention. She never liked to be touched, ever since she was a kid. She had her parents to thank for that distrust. She still had scars from the few times they touched her.
She brought this up with him, confiding in him some small bits of her dark childhood. She showed him the marks that were left behind as a reminder- the circular burns on her left forearm where it was pressed against the stove element. The small pieces of scar tissue on her side and back where she was forced through a glass door. Garrus was quiet for a long time after that. He'd seen the ones on her arm, but never asked out of respect for her privacy. He thought a while about how to explain himself.
"It's a turian thing, really," he had finally said. "When we're standing close to a person, or touching them, it's a sign that we trust them, or like them. If we stand apart from them, or move away from their touch, it's an insult."
Lina considered this for a moment.
They had been sitting on the grass in one of the many parks in the Wards. The breeze, warm, artificially manufactured to be so, blew back her hair a bit. She breathed in the recycled air.
"It's alright if you want me to stop," he continued. "I understand."
Lina pushed her hair back into it's place.
"Don't think that I don't like you, I do, it's just that I'm kind of fucked in the head about people," she responded, looking up into his bright blue eyes. "Give me time, I'm just slow to acclimatize myself."
Garrus nodded, smiling, and had to stop himself from pulling her over to him. Lina could tell that he was keeping himself from his instincts and she scooted over and allowed herself to lean against him, only slightly. He rested his hand on the grass behind her and resisted the temptation to give her cheek a small lick- another turian thing. He was happy enough just to be in her presence.
Lina opened her eyes. She was back on the couch, the same artificial breeze coming in through the open window. The monochromatic clock, shown always on the vid screen on the wall across from the couch, said just after 1500hrs. Garrus had stopped playing with her hair and was writing vigorously with the mangled pen.
She looked about the room, it was littered with her books and a few of his personal affects- photos, trinkets to mess with, computer parts, weapons taken apart for cleaning. The apartment itself was tiny- one small bedroom with a slightly bigger main room, a little kitchen and littler bathroom. The climate control was almost always broken and you could unlock the door with a good hard kick, but Garrus wouldn't consider moving. He liked it there- it was cheap, close to his work, and he couldn't be bothered to try to get the furniture out once he somehow managed to get it in there.
After they'd met and decided it was worth pursuing a friendship, Lina had started to spend her weekends out of the dorms. Usually she would spent Friday nights getting her studying done, downing coffee to stay awake for after midnight when Garrus was done work. She's pop by C-Sec, they'd hit up a bar before last call and stumble on back to his place where he would pass out on the couch, giving her the bed as a courtesy. She usually only slept over if they had been drinking. At first.
Now, almost a year after landing at the Citadel, Lina couldn't remember the last time she had spent the weekend in her dorm. She started crawling out to the couch at night, shivering with the cold or too hungover to handle breathing. She'd shuffle herself in next to him, letting his warmth overwhelm her, better than any blanket. He'd rub her back and lightly scratch her scalp, better than any painkiller. His pleasant smell would lull her back to sleep. Eventually they shared his bed.
She and her room mate got a lot much better now that Andrea had the freedom to bang whoever she wanted without waking up the grumpy redhead. They still had tiffs, occasionally. Despite the strides Lina was making with Garrus in terms of friendship and trust, she still had barriers with others- including her classmates. The list still existed, but was put into effect much less often. She was still an unattainable bitch in their books. Lina made sure of it.
She opened her eyes again. The room was significantly darker now- the vid screen was on, tuned to the news, and the clock in the corner of it showed 1612hrs. She thought of what day it was- Saturday.
Damn, she thought. Weekend is half over already?
Sitting next to her, leaning his head against her own, fingers once again tangled in her hair, Garrus watched the day's news. The papers and datapad he was concentrated on so intently before were stacked neatly on the end table next to him. He looked down when he felt her move and smiled.
"Good nap?" he asked.
Lina nodded and stretched herself out, straightening her legs down the length of the couch. Her stomach suddenly rumbled.
"Is there any food?" she asked, rubbing her belly.
"I'll go see," Garrus smiled and lightly touched his forehead to hers- something Lina now recognized as a sign of affection. She shifted herself so he could get up and took advantage of the now empty space, laying her head on the armrest and stretching her legs out as far as she could. She grabbed the remote control for the vid screen and changed the channel, putting on cartoons.
She heard shuffling about in the kitchen and Garrus walked back out after a few minutes with a bowl and two forks. He sat down on the floor by her head and passed her a fork. Lina peeked in the bowl and saw a salad with vegetables she mostly recognized and a few she did not. She speared a tomato and munched on it happily.
"When is your first final?" he asked, bringing up a forkful of salad.
"Monday morning," Lina responded with a full mouth. She chewed and swallowed quickly. "Then one Monday night, one Tuesday and nothing again until Friday. My whole damn week is taken up with studying."
"So what's after that?" he asked, holding up the bowl for her so she could grab some more. "After you graduate and everything?"
"I'll find out this week which ship I'm assigned to, and then, yeah, I start working," Lina replied, eyes glued to the cartoons on the screen. She broke away briefly to see where she was stabbing her fork, and caught sight of the look on the turian's face.
Over the past months, Lina had grown familiar with Garrus' expressions, despite how different they were to human's. A slight flicker of his mandibles could give away his mood. Right now, his cheeks pulled tight, a slight clicking sound in his throat, his face expressed worry.
"What?"she asked, pulling her fork out of the bowl. She flicked off the dextro-based veggies and munched on some lettuce and avocado.
"Well," he said, pushing the salad around with his own fork. "I'm just wondering..."
"Where you'll fit?" she asked with a patronizing smirk.
Damn, he thought, she's getting too good.
He put down the salad bowl and tapped his pointer fingers together, nodding a bit.
"I'll likely be stationed on the Citadel," she said, plucking another tomato out of the bowl. "So I'll be back and forth every couple of weeks."
She saw his mandibles slack a bit- less worry.
"Reeeeally?"
Lina nodded.
"I don't know for sure yet, but Anderson was hinting that Captain Merrill from the SSV Irving was desperate to hire me as a weapons officer," she said, eyes wandering back to the cartoons on the vid screen. "The Irving makes rounds between the Citadel and colonies in the Terminus systems every few weeks, bringing supplies and scouting for merc activity."
She looked back down at her turian friend who had turned and was leaning his arm on the couch, eyes down, playing with a loose piece of thread.
"Sooooo," he mumbled, talon slicing the string from the cushion. He looked back up, meeting her eyes suddenly, "room for Garrus?"
She smiled, "Always room for Garrus."
He smiled and turned back to fork the salad yet again.
"So where are you going to stay?"he asked gingerly.
"Well, the Alliance has barracks I can stay in, but I might get my own place. It'd be nice to have a place to call home," she replied, setting her fork down and getting comfortable on the couch yet again.
"You don't consider this place home?"
"Well, yeah, but it's your home."
Garrus paused, playing with the food for a moment, giving away his anxiety. Lina, smirking, could already tell where this was going.
"It could be your home," he said quickly, not looking up.
Lina sat up, a large grin growing on her face. She loved when he got all nervous.
"What was that?" she asked, perfectly aware of what he just said.
"I mean," he relented. "You're here all the time already, most of your stuff's here, you've got a key..."
"You mean I know how to let myself in..."
"Key or kick, whatever, you know how to unlock the door."
"Garrus are you asking me to move in with you?" Lina asked, swinging her legs off the cushion and crouching on the floor next to her friend.
Garrus didn't look over, opting instead to scrape some dirt off of the laminate.
"I mean, there's no point in paying for an apartment that you'll spend a couple weeks a year in..."
"Garrus," she grabbed his fringe, pulling it back to lift his head. "Ask me, straight up!"
"Ow!" he knocked her hand off of his head and scowled as he turned towards her. Despite the angry look he attempted to pull, Lina could still see his mandibles quivering.
She rolled her eyes. He could be such a choad sometimes.
"Repeat after me. Will-"
The turian hesitated and let out a sigh, "Will..."
"You-"
"You..."
"Moooooooooooooooove..." she playfully walked her fingers up his arm.
"Move in here Lina Shepard?" he knocked her hand off his arm.
Her smile grew wider.
"Same sleeping arrangements?"
"Works for me."
"No random girls in the bed while I'm gone?"
Garrus chuckled, "No random boys in the bed while I'm here?"
Lina sat back, putting on a sultry look, a combination of numbers two and five on the list, "No guarantees of that..." she waggled her eyebrows.
"Alright, Andrea," he teased.
Her jaw dropped.
That's right, she thought. That shit doesn't work on him.
"Ouch!" she moaned. "Right for the jugular!"
"I hit 'em where they hurt," he winked.
Lina sat back, smile returning to her face.
"Well, alright," she said. She pulled herself off of the floor and padded barefoot to the kitchen, shivering as her feet made contact with the cold tile. "Shall we celebrate this newfound union with beer?"
"Yes!"he called, and before she could ask, "Ale!"
Lina pulled two bottles from the fridge, one Palaven-Style Ale, made there on the Citadel, and an India Pale Ale, an export, that cost four times more in the Wards than it did on Earth. Lina usually saved it for a special occasion, and hesitated only momentarily before popping off the cap and taking a swig.
What occasion is more special than this? She thought.
She brought both bottles into the living room, passing the strange-smelling turian brew to Garrus. They clinked their bottles together and Lina took a swig, letting herself fall back onto the couch. He sat on the ground still, eyes fixated on the vid screen. She watched him for a moment, then she leaned in, planting a kiss on his cheek.
He looked over, surprised.
"You're good to me," she said.
"I try," he replied.
She slid off the couch, crawling next to him and wedging herself under his arm for warmth. She stretched, wiped the sleep from her eyes, and held onto him. He held onto her, too.
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Andrea was spread out on the floor when Lina got back to the barracks. Her hair was frazzled and her notes were all over the place, pens and textbooks scattered around in seemingly random piles. She had managed to steal a coffee maker from the cafeteria and had it plugged in, brewing another pot as she drained the mug that was taped to her left hand. She swung around as Lina walked in. Her face was pale and her eyes were dark and baggy, her movements darted. She lifted her mugged hand to the redhead in greeting before turning back to the sheets.
"That has to be difficult," Lina said, pointing at the ridiculous amount of black tape wrapped around her hand.
"Thought it was a good idea at first, turns out I was wrong," Andrea replied quickly, not lifting her head from the notebooks. "Now I can't get it off."
Lina dropped her canvas pack on the floor next to her bed and walked over to the brunette, planting herself on the floor next to her. She attempted to tear the tape off but the girl growled and pulled her hand away, claiming "it's fine!" and growling "get away! You're messing up my notes!"
Lina sat on her room mate's bed and watched the chaos ensue. Andrea scribbled viciously on her textbooks, a very determined if twitchy look about her face.
"Soo... I take it you're ready for tomorrow?" Lina asked innocently.
"Not even, totally forgot," Andrea replied, waving her hands about animatedly, splashing lukewarm coffee everywhere. "Was with a cute guy, forget his name, but he was nice."
"You haven't studied at all?" Lina cocked an eyebrow.
"Well, I kicked him out last night and took the coffee maker and started studying then. Been going about 26 hours now," she replied.
Lina shook her head, "Okay, I'm taking this off of you."
She squatted down and pulled the tape off of Andrea's hand, ignoring the growls coming from the girl's throat. She dumped out the rest of the coffee and unplugged the brewer before pulling the brunette off of the floor and pushing her onto her bed.
"Get some sleep, take the exam in the morning, I'll study with you for the next one afterwards," she said, pulling the girl's jeans off and tossing them on the floor. "This isn't healthy. You need sleep more than you need to study."
Andrea fought back a bit, but eventually succumbed to the warmth of her bed. Just before she fell asleep completely, her eyes snapped back open and she sat up straight, pointing at the redhead as she was collecting the notes from the floor.
"What are you wearing?" she demanded, not dropping her finger.
"Um," Lina looked down at herself, confused. "Shorts and a t-shirt?"
"No, to graduation!"
"Oh!" The redhead straightened. "I don't know, my uniform?"
"After! After! Formal dinner!" Andrea snapped her fingers with each word.
"God, I don't know!" Lina admitted. "It's formal? Like, dress formal?"
Andrea nodded vigorously.
Lina sat on the edge of the bed and thought. All she owned other than her uniform and armour were some torn up jeans and t-shirts, nothing that could be considered remotely formal. She turned back to the brunette, who was still pointing accusingly, and shrugged.
"I don't own a dress," she insisted. "I guess I'll have to-"
"Take you shopping, Tuesday, afterwards," Andrea snuggled back down into her bed, but gave Lina one last look before shutting her eyes completely. "Be warned, I am a very aggressive shopper!"
Lina looked forwards as the brunette started to snore loudly.
"Jesus Christ, what have I gotten myself into?"
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"Jesus Christ, what have I gotten myself into?" Lina asked herself as she watched Andrea tear through the racks of clothing. Standing beside her, even the asari shopkeeper looked impressed as Andrea pulled out articles and shoved them into Lina's outstretched arms with breakneck speed and precision.
Her head lifted suddenly, eyes wide with wild determination, she whispered the word "maroon" and headed towards another rack.
"What the fuck is maroon?" Lina asked.
"It's a reddish-purple colour, it'll look good with your eyes," Andrea replied, pulling a shirt off of the rack and holding it up to the redhead, checking the colour against her face. She plopped the shirt onto the pile, "This is great."
Lina rolled her eyes, "I would never wear any of this stuff, you know."
"You don't need to ever wear it, you need to wear it once, for like, three hours," Andrea replied, digging through the pile in the redhead's arms. "Then you can throw it in the back of the closet and never look at it again, I promise."
"Yeah, thanks for the permission," Lina rolled her eyes and sighed. In her back pocket, she could feel her comm vibrating, indicating a new message. She passed the pile to the brunette and pulled it out, flipping it open as she did. "Hold that stuff up and I'll tell you what to get rid of. Prepare to get rid of a lot."
Lina read the message quickly, punching a reply into it.
"This?" Andrea held up a slinky black dress, waggling her eyebrows. The neck line was cut so low Lina could only imagine her tits popping out of it the moment she moved.
"I don't do dresses," Lina glared at the thing. "Especially ones that leave nothing to the imagination."
Andrea glared, passing the castoff to the poor asari shopgirl. She pulled out another dress, this one green. At least Lina assumed it was a dress. Although it had a higher neckline, held up against Andrea, she could see that it ended way to far up on her thighs. Lina's comm vibrated again, and she drew a finger across her neck before she checked the message. She chuckled and punched in a reply.
Andrea held up a third dress, equally as horrible as the other two, and asked, "who's making you blush so badly?"
Lina scoffed, "I'm not blushing."
Andrea, lifted an eyebrow, not convinced.
"And who else do I talk to other than you?"
"Gaaaaarrrrrrus?" she slinked her way over and put her head on Lina's shoulder, trying to read the message.
"Yes, and I told you, I don't do dresses," Lina plucked the garment out of Andrea's hands without even looking at it and gave it to the asari. "Sorry about all of this."
"It's fine," the asari replied, eyeing the mess Andrea had made with an exasperated sigh. "But, if you don't mine my asking, if you won't do a dress... would you wear a skirt?"
Lina stopped to consider this, much to the chagrin of Andrea. Hesitantly, she nodded.
"But it depends," she said. "It can't be a little tiny club skirt like the one that you are currently holding up Andrea for the love of god put that down."
Andrea scowled, putting down the miniskirt she had pulled off of the rack. The asari walked away, coming back moments later with a small selection.
Lina, with the help of the other two, eventually settled on a black pencil skirt and the maroon blouse Andrea had been so intent on getting earlier. Lina changed into them, happy enough with the outfit as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Andrea, almost giddy, buttoned the half sleeves on Lina's shirt.
"This colour is great on you," she said, fixing the collar at the back. "Really makes your eyes pop. Now, for shoes, would you prefer to wear flats or do you think you could try some small heels to make your room mate happy?"
Lina turned slowly back to her room mate, a smirk on her face.
"This may come as a surprise, Andrea," she put her hands on her hips, suddenly feeling saucy. "But I can rock it in heels."
Andrea squealed and clapped her hands before pulling the elastic out of Lina's hair. Lina gave an annoyed look.
"Now we have to do something with this mess," Andrea fluffed it out and looked in the mirror. "Curls are nice and all but definitely don't go with this look."
"Drea, my hair is just fine the way it-" Lina stopped herself as she caught sight of it in the mirror. She frowned. "Fine, whatever, it looks like shit. Do what you want."
Andrea squealed and pulled some down with her fingers, getting an idea of how it would look straight.
"I'm totally taking my flat iron to this mother," she clucked her tongue and played around with it a bit. "Why on earth do you shave the sides?"
"Because it makes a rockin' mohawk," Lina gave the devil horns and stuck out her tongue, giving herself a tough look in the mirror. On the table, her comm vibrated. She reached down to snatch it.
"With the curls?"
"No, my hair was never this curly until I moved to the Citadel. It was just kind of... wavy before. The recycled air dries it out like mad," Lina flipped her comm open and smiled at the message, ignoring Andrea's insistence that "conditioner will fix that..."
"What's Gaaaaaarrus got to say?" Andrea leaned on Lina's shoulders again.
"He's trying to find coattails," Lina rolled her eyes. "He's so fucking dorky sometimes."
"Coattails?" Andrea giggled. "For what?"
"For the grad reception," Lina replied, typing a response in.
"Why is he coming to the grad reception?" Andrea asked, confused. "Isn't your family going to be there?"
Lina froze.
Fuck, she thought. How to I get myself out of this?
She closed the comm and walked back into the change room, closing the door behind her. Not that it offered much privacy, the tall brunette could see over the stall door anyway.
"Lina?" she asked as she peeked over the top of the door. "Why aren't your parents coming?"
Lina sucked in her breath as she pulled her tattered jeans back on.
"I don't talk to my parents, okay?" she said, threading her arms through the armholes in her t-shirt. "Don't ask, I'm not going to talk about it. I haven't seen them in a long time and I don't plan on seeing them now."
Andrea gave her a sad look over the stall door as Lina gathered her shoes.
"Well, okay," she said, picking up Lina's backpack where it sat on the floor. The redhead pulled open the door and sat on one of the chairs in the store, stuffing her feet into her red hi-tops.
She looked up, beside her Andrea was giving a hangdog expression, sad, a little dejected, but still curious. Lina moaned and rubbed her palms into her eyes. She held up her left forearm, pointing out the circular burns.
"You see this?" she asked, staring the brunette straight in the eyes.
Andrea nodded.
"My mother gave me this," she said. "My father did worse things. I don't have any other siblings that I know of. So no, my family is not going to be there."
Andrea nodded, "I see."
The silence was deafening as Lina walked up to the counter to purchase her items. It hung in the air, awkward, choking her until they walked out of the store. Andrea put a hand on her shoulder before she could walk away wordlessly.
"Do you want to go get a drink?" she asked.
Lina stopped to think of a reason not to. She should really study. She had to wash her hair. She'd rather jump off a bridge. Her comm vibrated again, and she flicked it open without looking, expecting a response from Garrus.
"I don't know, I've got to..." she looked down absentmindedly, quickly reading the message before slamming it shut and looking back up at the brunette. "Yes, please. Let's go get very drunk, very, very, quickly."
Andrea shook her head, shocked. Lina turned to stalk off to the nearest bar.
"What?" Andrea asked, pulling the redhead's arm to stop her. "What happened? Is everything okay?"
Lina turned and opened her comm again, praying that she had misread the message. She hadn't.
"It's Anderson," she said, referring to the Commander, and overseer of the N7 Citadel campus.
"Well?" Andrea asked, concerned.
"I have to give a fucking speech."
\-\
Part 2 will be soon!
By the way, whenever I think of Lina and Garrus watching cartoons, I imagine them watching Beavis and Butthead.
