"Listen," said Garrus, "I want to hear about it, but I'd like to get some air. The air in Cipritine is still mostly smoke; I've been wearing my helmet nonstop. Are you up for a walk?"
Shepard grinned. "Absolutely."
She hadn't spent much time out of the house, and she followed along willingly as Garrus led them away from the grounds and up a slope. She was fascinated by the strangeness of the environment around her. She could hear the sounds of the wildlife, which had been becoming more familiar as she heard them through her windows. She still mostly couldn't see the creatures that made the noises, though small things skittered across the path in front of her, too quickly to get a good look at them. The skree and buzz faded around them, resuming behind them as they passed. None of the plant life looked familiar, either, everything with colors and shapes different than what she was used to. There were things with broad, silvery leaves, encroaching on the path, and other things with long slender tubes that swayed in the breeze. The sky was darkening and quite a few plants were unfurling blossoms with strong, sweet scents.
They topped a rise and Garrus paused, turning to the left. Shepard followed and caught her breath. It had been a long time since she'd seen a planetary sunset. Trebia was low on the horizon, the sky around it streaked with red and orange and violet. Garrus's arm slid around her and she leaned into him, watching as the color faded and the sky grew dark. "That was… spectacular."
"Yeah," Garrus breathed. After a second, he added, "It's partly because of all the dust in the atmosphere, but the sunsets have always been beautiful from up here."
Shepard leaned against him harder and wound her arm around his back. It couldn't be any easier for him to see how the Reapers had devastated his world than it was for her to think about Earth. The region the old estate was in was sparsely populated enough that it hadn't been hit as hard (which was why they could be outside without masks filtering the air at all), but that could only be so much comfort. "Anything else you want to show me?"
"Definitely, if you're up for it."
"I've been doing my physical therapy like a good little Spectre," she said.
He smirked at her. "Glad to hear it."
They walked along the top of a ridge for a time, the landscape spreading out vast and shadowy on either side of them. Strange tree-like things arched alongside the path, their bark glinting silvery in the moonlight. Eventually they came to a clearing, white stones forming a semicircle. Garrus settled down on the ground, and Shepard willingly followed. The ground still felt warm from the sunlight, and was carpeted with something springy like moss or grass that made it pretty comfortable. She leaned back on her elbows and looked up at the night sky. One moon was high in the sky already, the other just coming up over the horizon. "Which one is Menae?" she asked.
"That one," he said, pointing to the lower. "If we had a telescope, we might be able to make out some of the installations."
"That's all right," she said, remembering the sheer relief she'd felt at finding him alive and well in the middle of a war zone. She found his hand with hers and squeezed.
After a little while, he said, "So, what did Livia do to annoy you?"
She sighed. "It was… she asked why I wanted to join the family, and I answered that. And then she asked why I wanted to be with you."
"Ah." They were both silent for a moment. Garrus cleared his throat, and said, "And you told her you were blown away by my wit and charm? Or that you had a thing for scars?"
"Well, it sure wasn't the mood music," she joked. He started laughing, and she joined him, but something inside her felt squirmy at the direction the conversation had taken.
"Hey," she said, when his laughter died down. She stared up at the higher moon. Nanus, that was its name. "You know I really love you, right?"
"I believe you've mentioned that once or twice," he said, still chuckling.
"I'm serious." Shepard sat up and twisted around so she was facing him. "I gave her this giant speech about how you were my best friend and the only person I could imagine having as my partner. Oh, and I think there was something about perfect trust in there, too. But you're the one who really deserves to hear it, not her. I really…" She swallowed, trying to keep her voice steady. "I don't know what I would have done if I'd come out of that coma and you were gone for good. It was bad enough having the Normandy missing." It had been bad enough watching him get hit by that rocket, before she'd understood how she really felt about him.
He was looking up at her, but with his face in shadow so that she couldn't see his eyes properly. He sat up, though, and pulled her into a firm embrace. "Jane," he said, his voice low in her ear, "I love you, too. More than anything."
She wasn't quite done yet, and got out: "I hated not knowing if I'd ever see you again. The idea of having to put the galaxy back together without you—"
"I'm here," he said, nuzzling into the side of her neck.
She hugged him back, arms tight around his solid frame, pressing her lips to the side of his throat, the underside of his jaw, his mandible. It wasn't long before their hands were wandering. Hers found their way under his shirt, fingers finding the gaps between his plates. His traced the soft skin of her back, the curve of her waist and hip, and the swell of her backside. She could hear his breath coming faster as she moved, and shifted her weight to lean over him properly, slinging one leg over his. He pulled her against him with a little growl that vibrated its way right through her, tight enough that she could feel the slide of his pelvic plates even through their clothing. Her breath caught. Her clothing felt suddenly too tight, too warm, too stifling. She scrambled to get her shirt and bra off, and Garrus was already working at her pants. She rose up to let him tug them down to her knees and stifled a moan when he took the opportunity to touch her.
Oh, he knew her body well by now, knew exactly how to touch her until she was sweaty and trembling, and it took a major effort not to just collapse bonelessly on top of him.
He relieved her of that effort, though, by rolling them over so her back was against the soft ground for another round, as she helped pull his clothes off. They reached climax together, Garrus burying his face against her shoulder and shuddering in her arms.
Shepard basked in the afterglow, unwilling to move. The air was warm, even at night, and heavy with the scent of green and blooming things she didn't have any names for. "That," she declared, "was also spectacular."
Garrus laughed and rolled off her, propping himself up on an elbow. His face broke into a smile as he looked at her. "You've got florastella in your hair."
"What?" She put up a hand and, sure enough, brushed out a handful of little white blossoms with delicate pointed petals.
"They bloom at night," he said. "Here, let me—" He combed his fingers through her hair, shaking out more and more.
"There's no end to them," she said, gathering a handful of them to her nose and inhaling. Ah, they were the ones responsible for that spicy-sweet scent she'd been noticing. Garrus was still working at her hair. She looked up through her lashes at him. "This is just an excuse for you to pet my hair, isn't it?" He'd admitted to a fascination with her hair back that first night. She enjoyed indulging his desire to touch her hair, but she also enjoyed teasing him about it.
"Not at all," he protested. "I'm just trying to get them all out."
"Uh-huh." She grinned up at him and shook her head vigorously, sending a shower of the little flowers everywhere. Garrus laughed again; Shepard tugged him back down to the ground so she could curl up against his warmth and look up at the two moons. He slid an arm around her, gathering her closer.
"You know," she said after a while, "we've hardly ever spent any time together without the fate of millions hanging over our heads."
"Hm. That's true. Or billions, or trillions."
"I kind of like it."
His arm tightened around her. "Good."
"I mean, I would hate it if it turned out that we didn't have anything to talk to each other about if there wasn't an imminent crisis."
"That would be unfortunate," he agreed dryly. "I think we can manage to find things to do together."
"Mm. Yeah." She cuddled closer. She'd never really thought of herself as a cuddler. Maybe she had just needed the right person to cuddle with.
"Has anyone besides Livia been difficult for you?" There was a note of anxiety in his voice.
"Um... some of the uncles keep going on about the geth, or the krogan, or other policy issues. It's tiresome, but not that bad. Solana's been great, and I like your younger cousins. And Aspera."
"Aspera's here?" he said, sounding surprised.
"Yes. I woke her up, having a nightmare, and we talked for a while." She was silent for a moment. "I'm getting kind of tired of sleeping alone."
"Well... I could come join you."
"That won't make Livia mad?"
"It's not like she checks on me every night. She's probably never going to approve of either of us very much, anyway."
"Does that—should I be worried about this family vote thing?"
"No. It's mostly the older relatives who are here now, remember. Dad and his brother will come later, and others of his and our generation are still in service and aren't here yet, either."
"Okay." Shepard tried to push her anxieties away. She had no control over it, really, so she shouldn't worry about it. But she really hated not having control over things. She decided to distract herself with another issue. "Garrus?"
"Yes?"
"What do you want to do, after this?"
He sighed a little. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that. Victus offered me a job. More than one, even."
"Oh, really?"
"He said if I still wanted to be a Spectre, that could be arranged. There were... a lot of Spectre casualties, in the war."
"There were a lot of every kind of casualties," Shepard said. She still felt the sorrow, but not as sharply, here and now.
"Yeah. Or... he said he could use an... attache, I guess. Or advisor, or assistant. Someone with a background in security and political connections."
Shepard laughed. "I never saw you as a politician."
He chuckled back. "I know what you mean. But with the task force, I learned a few things. And I've got one friend on the quarian Admiralty Board, and another who's king of the Krogan. And, well, Dad's the current Primarch. Don't know if I could take it forever, but it would be varied work, and mostly on the Citadel. But it depends a lot on what you want."
Shepard swallowed down a lump in her throat. "Garrus... it's been really good to see you come into your own. My career doesn't have to come first all the time. You should prioritize what you want."
He turned his head and nudged it against hers. "What I want is for us to be together. But you've never said... do you even want to be back in action? If anyone's earned a cushy retirement, it's you."
She surprised herself by saying, "I don't know. I'm not sure what I want."
They were both silent for a while. Then Garrus said, "Well. We don't have to decide right now."
"No." She pressed her lips against his chest. "I'll think about it."
Author's Note: ... this may be one of the sappier scenes I've ever written. A somewhat more explicit version of this chapter may be found on my AO3 account (username: servantofclio, story name: A Family Occasion).
