Notes: Here we have it! The longest and the last, and the one that takes place as like 70 % various forms of messaging and required the most amount of formatting. And the one that doesn't take place entirely from Garrus's perspective and spans a reasonably long time. I like this one, all in all. Seemed like a good way to wrap this up.

"Keep in touch, Major."

The last thing Garrus said to Kaidan, though he didn't actually expect him to. To put it mildly, it came as a surprise when Garrus's omni-tool beeped at him a month later. He quickly set it to silent, glanced around to make sure no one else in the meeting had noticed or was paying much attention to him, and checked the message.

Chat initiated by: Kaidan Alenko
KA: I'm going to shoot someone. I'll need character witnesses.
GV: Shoot them non-lethally, and I'll explain to the court that you're too socially awkward to have been aware that it's taboo in polite society.
KA: I was going to say thank you, but now I'm offended.
GV: Who are you shooting and why?
KA: A doctor. One of my students turned up-we thought she was KIA, she was in a coma-and now that she's sort of awake and aware, the doc's being a condescending, dismissive dipshit.
KA: She's willing to risk brain damage to toss him out a window.
GV: Offer to do it for her. You're a Spectre, you can get away with it.
KA: Tempting. Hackett still scares me, though, so that's a last resort.
GV: Well, I'm out of suggestions.
KA: You've been very helpful.
Chat terminated by: Kaidan Alenko

Garrus had been gone for six weeks, but that didn't stop him from waking Kaidan up at 2:00 in the morning in London, when Kaidan's omni-tool chimed at him. He woke up sluggishly, glaring at the obnoxiously orange tool before he checked the message.

Chat resumed by: Garrus Vakarian
GV: My sniper rifle is gone.
GV: Someone kidnapped my baby.
KA: Did you check behind the sofa?
GV: Ha. Ha. Ha.
KA: Where did you last have it?
GV: When I got back to the apartment last night and put it in the locker.
KA: So you aren't worried that someone had to have broken into your apartment, just that they took your rifle.

The chat paused at that point, and Kaidan laid back down. He so very nearly managed to fall back to sleep, until his omni-tool chimed once more and he put some serious thought into attempting long-ranged psychic murder.

GV: Well, they didn't take anything else, so yes, the rifle is all I'm worried about.
GV: And how they got into my locker.
KA: Report it stolen, then. You're a hero of the Reaper War. I'm pretty sure someone will care that your rifle was stolen.
KA: I'm not sure how you're expecting me to help when I'm not even wearing pants.

There was another pause, just long enough to make it apparent that Garrus was not simply typing.

GV: Did I interrupt you at an inopportune time?
KA: Yes. In the middle of sleeping. It's after 2 in the morning.
GV: Oops.
Chat terminated by: Garrus Vakarian

Kaidan rolled over and went back to sleep.

Later, when a properly human hour of the morning dawned and not even ten minutes after he woke up for the day, his omni-tool once again chimed at him.

Chat resumed by: Garrus Vakarian
GV: So I might have left my rifle at the shooting range.
GV: That is a distinct possibility.
KA: I'm telling Allers.
GV: You've lived a good life and I will miss you after I shoot you.
Chat terminated by: Garrus Vakarian

It took two months after leaving Earth for Garrus to be able to take some much needed (and deserved) time off, after spending the vast majority of those two months helping to organize the rebuilding efforts on Palaven.

His apartment wasn't much in terms of luxury or space, but no one's was at that point. When it came to just sitting down for a few minutes, though, it was better than most other available options.

His omni-tool beeped at him.

Chat resumed by: Kaidan Alenko
KA: I'm on protection detail and bored out of my skull. Help.
GV: You sure that's not just your L2 acting up?
KA: If so, it's found a new, very subtle way of tormenting me. Either way, help.
GV: Actual help, or asshole help?
KA: Actual help. I'm stationed outside the conference room, so all I can hear is this droning monotone.
GV: One of the newly-helpful Reapers is in orbit around Palaven and I was telling horror stories about it to the younger recruits.
KA: That's just mean. Go on.

Chat resumed by: Garrus Vakarian
GV: Are you in the middle of anything particularly pressing right now?
KA: Not at this specific moment. Why?
GV: We've gotten to the agricultural part of the meeting. Necessary, yes. Interesting, no.
GV: I'm bored. Help.
KA: Hackett managed to strike fear into the hearts of half a dozen of my students last night. With six words.
GV: That is a story I need to hear. It's become imperative.

Chat resumed by: Garrus Vakarian
GV: I just saw the most spectacular demonstration of 'open mouth, insert foot.'
GV: It was truly something to behold.
GV: Really? Opening like that and you're not interested?
GV: Not even a little?
GV: Anyone there?
GV: Am I shouting into the void here?
KA: migraine go away plz
KA: talk later
Chat terminated by: Garrus Vakarian

Chat resumed by: Garrus Vakarian
GV: This is the third time this week. Relax and at least pretend to push yourself less, or I'm showing up to kidnap you.
Chat terminated by: Garrus Vakarian

Voice mail received from: Garrus Vakarian
"Hey, Kaidan. News said something about a Spectre being injured on Earth, and there aren't exactly many candidates. Figured I'd check in. Get back to me when you can. …Is this what you humans call 'phone tag?'"

Voice mail received from: Kaidan Alenko
"I'm alright, don't worry. I was helping to clear out one of the more salvageable buildings, which apparently wasn't as salvageable as I'd been told. The floor caved in, and I haven't learned how to glide like Samara yet. Tag, you're it."

Voice mail received from: Garrus Vakarian
"I would smack you over the head, but gravity seems to have done that for me."

Voice mail received from: Kaidan Alenko
"Be nice. I've made it eight months without an injury. My implant didn't even get rattled this time."

Kaidan yawned until his jaw cracked before he answered his chiming omni-tool.

"We've been over this whole time difference thing, right?" he wondered, words still thick with sleep. "Or did I dream that conversation?"

"Oops," Garrus replied, entirely unapologetic. "It'll only take a minute. I'm going to be in Earth's general vicinity in a week or so. Thought we could meet up, talk face to face for a change."

Kaidan yawned once again, words coming out a bit like mush as he said, "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." He scrubbed one wrist over his eyes. "What's the occasion?"

Garrus scoffed. "You didn't honestly think we'd let you move the Citadel without us, did you?"

Kaidan snorted. "Silly me. You sure you'll have time for a break?"

"Councilor Victus is lenient where our band of madmen is concerned, so I'm sure I'll manage," Garrus returned wryly. "I'll let you know when we're en route. Go back to sleep."

Ten months passed at a crawl and at breakneck pace simultaneously. The worlds continued to inch towards improvement, until in some of the less ravaged parts of the galaxy, life could almost continue like normal. Vast swaths of London remained cordoned off and Kaidan missed Vancouver, but watching the galaxy put itself back together was satisfying, and communications were stable enough again that he could get in touch with his mother with some regularity.

Still, figuring out how to move a station as large as the Citadel as far as it needed to be moved was not an easy task. Garrus and Kaidan wisely left that task to the engineers to deal with, and they fled before they could get roped into some sort of errands.

There were no bars, so to speak, but lounges and speakeasies had sprung up along the outskirts of London. Somewhere for everyone embroiled in the rebuilding to go when they needed to take a few steps away from it all. The two of them tucked themselves away in a corner of one such lounge, sitting on mismatched chairs at a slightly uneven table with a bottle of beer and a glass of turian brandy that someone had liberated from the recently arrived ships.

"…so I asked him what he was planning to do with it," Garrus explained, "and he said 'it's got to be worth something, sir. Just look at it!' And I guess I can see why, since it was a very unique looking bit of skeleton. And this kid just doesn't know what it is, and no one else wants to explain it, which meant it was up to me to explain to him that he was parading around the skeletonized remains of a Brute." He snorted. "And he dropped it like…well, like he was holding the remains of an undead eldritch baby."

Kaidan snorted out a laugh behind one hand, as if he wasn't allowed to just laugh like everyone else. He quickly covered it by taking another drink.

"…and Jack's standing on top of it, like it's as steady as the floor in here, never mind that Rodriguez and Prangley are holding it upright basically on their shoulders. And then the wind picks up and Rodriguez gets distracted when her hair blows into her face, because she's got about four kilometers of it-"

"Honestly," Garrus interjected, "you have the least convenient crests of any species."

"So," Kaidan continued loudly, before dropping back to a normal volume, "Prangley's got just about all of its weight, and of course the entire thing comes toppling down. We're all freaking out, thinking Jack, Rodriguez, and Prangley are dead or maimed, and then Jack pops out of the debris like an angry daisy, demanding to know who's cleaning the mess up, because it sure as shit isn't her."

Garrus chuckled behind his glass. "Sounds like Jack. Did you get stuck with the mess?"

"I had protection detail to get to," Kaidan replied innocently. "Human Councilors have bad track records and need to be babysat at all times."

"What even happens," Garrus wondered somewhat unsteadily, as they made their weaving way to Kaidan's shoebox of an apartment, "when you get well and truly soused? As a biotic, I mean."

"Same thing as you," Kaidan replied blandly. "I just glow blue while I'm doing it."

Garrus prodded incessantly at his shoulder. "I wanna see."

Dutifully, Kaidan glowed blue, and knocked Garrus onto his ass with pull. He then took off at a sprint down the road, leaving Garrus to scramble gracelessly back to his feet and tear after him.

Kaidan nudged Garrus's shin with his foot. "Vakarian."

Garrus snorted and his head jerked up from where it had been dipping towards his chest. "What?" he mumbled, fuzzy and unfocused.

Kaidan shook his head good-naturedly. "Nothing. Never mind."

Garrus was out cold again in an instant. Kaidan threw a blanket over him and sat down on the other end of the couch to get some work done, but fell asleep himself before he even finished reading the first paragraph.

The Citadel no longer hung in the sky over the city. Eventually, a team might even go in to open it back up, but the station no longer held quite the same allure as it had before. Garrus knew he felt no urge to return to it any time soon. By the way Kaidan looked as if a weight had been dropped from his shoulders, Garrus was fairly sure he wasn't alone in that decision.

They stood at the base of the gangplank, stalling for one last moment.

"Take care of yourself, Garrus." Kaidan held a hand out.

"You too, Kaidan." Garrus gripped his hand in return.

"Or what, you'll kidnap me?" Kaidan challenged with a wry smirk, one eyebrow raising.

"Yes," Garrus returned primly. "I haven't got many friends left in this universe, Major."

Kaidan's smile softened. "You worry too much."

Their hands dropped and Garrus began to make his way up the gangplank, calling over his shoulder, "I've found I tend to worry exactly the right amount."

Garrus's omni-tool beeped insistently, until at last he harrumphed, rolled onto his back, and answered it.

"Kaidan. I thought the late night calls were my specialty."

"I thought I should repay the favor," Kaidan replied. Though the words were nothing out of the ordinary, there was something odd about his tone.

"Something wrong?" Garrus wondered, sitting up on one elbow, as if he could actually do anything from Palaven.

"Not wrong, no. It's…" Kaidan trailed off for a moment. "I just realized it's been a year since we made it back to Earth."

"Already?" Garrus brought up the date on his omni-tool, blinking at it. "Huh. I guess time flies when you work yourself to the bone."

Kaidan laughed quietly. "I guess so." There was a pause, and he sighed. "I don't…actually know what I was expecting you to say here. I'll let you get back to sleep." Another pause, even shorter. "Here's to another year, I guess."

"Hopefully with five minutes to sit down, now and then. Good night, Kaidan."