"Are you sure you're going to be okay traveling with Joker?" Posey knew she sounded worried, but she wasn't about to try to hide it. She'd seen Garrus every day since they had returned to the Citadel, and the thought of spending even one day without him made her heart slam inside her chest. The turian just looked up at her from the chair where he sat, shaking his head.
"Posey, calm down. I'm going to be fine, okay? If the pain gets too bad, I'll just take the prosthetic off."
Shepard rolled her eyes and snorted. "If the pain gets too bad, how about you take those pain meds that Belen gave you instead of taking your leg off?" Garrus had turned his head back down towards his prosthetic, adjusting some of the settings through a control panel on the inner calf, but Shepard could tell that his mandibles were widened in a smirk.
"I'm not going to take my leg off," he chuckled, closing the control panel when he was done pressing buttons. He reached out a hand towards Shepard and she took it, pulling him up slowly to his feet. She reached for the cane that Dr. Belen had sent and handed it to Garrus, who sighed but took it from her and supported himself with it. As she looked up at him, towering above her, she smiled.
"I'd almost forgotten how tall you were," she said quietly, placing a hand to his mandible. He leaned into her touch and put his free hand on her waist tenderly.
"Of course I'm tall, compared to a tiny human like yourself."
That earned him a gentle smack on his keelbone, which made him laugh more than hurt him. "I'll have you know," Shepard huffed, "that I am a perfectly average height for a human woman. 5'4 is nothing to be ashamed of. I was taller than a lot of the girls on Mindoir, and even some of the boys." Garrus held up a hand in mock defeat, laughing again.
"All right, all right. But at least you're my tiny little human." Shepard sighed and rolled her eyes as he pulled her into an embrace with his free hand. She wrapped her arms around his torso, just above his waist, and pressed her cheek against his shoulder.
"Please be careful," she said quietly. Garrus pressed a kiss to the top of her head and thrummed out a reassurance, earning a quiet hum of her own in response. Her attempt at a hum warmed his heart even further, and he instinctively bent his neck to press his forehead to hers. He felt her face shift in a smile before her lips met his for all too brief of a moment, before she turned from his embrace to grab her old N7 duffel bag.
"Travel safe," Garrus called out as she disappeared around the door, and Shepard peeked back for a moment to wave and smile at him.
She walked to the transport depot as quickly as she could without making a fool of herself, controlling the urge to practically skip through the New Citadel. Her travel ship was already prepped and waiting for her, and all she had to do was buckle her safety harness in the small lounge area and signal the pilot over the intercom that she was ready to go. The gravity beneath her feet slowly shifted into the once-familiar weight of space-travel, and her stomach dropped excitedly as the transport zipped off towards Rannoch.
#
"You're here!" Shepard turned when she heard the undignified squeal of an excited quarian, and was met with Tali's full weight as she barreled into her with a hug. She had to laugh at Tali's enthusiasm, even as she returned the embrace. Tali grabbed her hand immediately and led her towards the shuttle she had waiting to take them to God-knows-where, and once they were seated Tali signaled the VI pilot to take off.
"I'm so glad you made it here, Shepard," Tali said excitedly, her unmasked face lit up with a glowing smile. Shepard grinned and patted the quarian's hand.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world, Tali. So where are we going?"
"Oh, we're headed to my apartment first," Tali replied, waving a hand out the window. "It should only be a few minutes."
"Where is Zaal'Koris?"
"Oh, we won't be seeing him today," Tali said quickly, pulling up her omnitool. "Quarian customs dictate that you are not to gaze upon each other for at least one full day before the bonding ritual. I believe he is with the newest Admiral, reviewing their duties and showing them around the capitol buildings." With a flick of her hand, she sent a cluster of data files to Shepard's omnitool. "Here, you might want to read up on these. Quarian customs for bonding rituals. There's nothing too complicated in there, just some basic stuff. We aren't as extravagant as you humans." There was a smile on her face as Shepard rolled her eyes.
"Human weddings are ridiculous," she said with a sigh. "Some people have these huge, drawn-out ceremonies, and I just don't get it. Why not just have a short little ceremony, slip the rings on, and get to the party?" Tali chuckled and raised a thin, elegant eyebrow.
"So you'd want a short ceremony, huh?" Shepard looked back at her quickly.
"Well... I mean, yeah, if I was ever going to get married. But I don't think -"
Tali interrupted her with a scoffing sound, throwing her hands dramatically in the air. "Shepard, you're ridiculous. What do you mean 'if' you ever get married?"
"I... I mean, I don't know if that's something that Garrus would..." Shepard realized her near-slip and hurriedly tried to backtrack. "I just don't think I'll ever find someone like him." The mood in the shuttle darkened, and Tali put a hand to Shepard's shoulder.
"Listen," she said softly, her glowing eyes meeting Shepard's own. "Garrus would've wanted you to be happy, to find someone to spend your time with. I know it's hard to move on - believe me, Shepard, I know. I still miss Kal'Reegar, as much as I love Zaal'Koris. But he is a part of your past, albeit a big part of it, and I think it might be time to look more to the future. It's been seven years, Shepard. It's okay to move on."
Shepard had to force down the smile that threatened to reveal her little turian secret. Instead, she masked the grin with a sad sigh and a dramatic gaze out the window. "You're right, Tali. The future looks pretty bright, I have to say." Tali nodded and smiled sweetly before patting Shepard's arm.
"It gets easier, I promise." As she said that, the shuttle came to a halt on solid ground, and the doors slowly opened with a hiss. Tali picked up Shepard's duffel bag from the storage compartment before she could get to it, which caused Shepard to frown and shake her head.
"I can carry my own stuff, Tali."
"Oh hush, you bosh'tet," the quarian replied with a lilt in her voice. "You're my guest, let me take care of you for once in your life."
"You have done more than enough the past few years Tali," Shepard said lightly, before shrugging and following her friend into the apartment complex.
Tali's apartment was small, but well-decorated according to quarian standards. Shepard had to grin at just how... quarian it looked, with storage units everywhere to maximize space efficiency, while still managing to look like a high-end apartment on the New Citadel. Tali set down her N7 bag in her bedroom and walked back into the living area holding a purple bin of hair and makeup products.
"I was going to practice for tomorrow," she said with a blush in her hazy purple cheeks. "Could you maybe... help me out?" Shepard nodded with a somewhat anxious smile.
"Sure, but I have to warn you I'm not great with this stuff." Tali waved off her concern, dragging a chair from the kitchen into the bathroom.
"You'll be fine," Tali said reassuringly, gesturing for Shepard to take a seat first. Shepard looked up at her, dark eyebrows raised in question. "I want to get yours done first," she said immediately, turning Shepard to face the mirror. She pulled and twisted her hair into various shapes and arrangements, never fully satisfied with any of them. After an hour of wrangling with her long crimson locks, Tali sighed and gave up, moving to Shepard's face. Her view of the mirror was blocked for the half-hour that Tali was working, using various tools and brushes that Shepard had never seen before to paint cool creams and shadows onto her face. At one point she felt small dabs of liquid at her brows, and then Tali pressesd something small and hard against the liquid, holding it until whatever it was stuck to her satisfaction. When she was finally finished, she peered carefully at Shepard, making sure that there wasn't a single smudge or stroke out of place. A firm nod notified Shepard that she apparently looked satisfactory. She stood up slowly and Tali moved out of her way so that she could look in the mirror - Shepard gasped at the first glimpse of her face.
"It's another one of our traditions," Tali said quietly as she placed both hands on Shepard's shoulder and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "You're like family to me, and since I'm not going to stuff you into a suit this is the best way to show it. I've always said, having you around has been like having a sister. Now all of Rannoch will know just how much you mean to me."
"Oh Tali, it's gorgeous," Shepard replied, taking a step closer to the mirror. Tali had evened out her skin tone with some sort of cream makeup base, which hinted at just a tint of lavender if she turned her head the right way. Dark orchid-colored lines were drawn up and around her brows, almost identical to the markings on Tali's own face, complete with small silvery beads to match the little circles that dotted some of the lines. Tali had shaded Shepard's eyes with deeper shades of plum and a metallic ivory, giving her eyes an almost, well... glowing appearance if she closed them. At this, Shepard chuckled lightly and shook her head.
"Well, I'd make for a hot quarian, don't you think?" Tali rolled her eyes and plopped down in the chair, pulling down her hood to expose her own thick, black hair that brushed just past her shoulders.
"Keelah, Shepard, it's about sisterhood, not making you look good. Although, I must admit," Tali added with a grin, "we would be a beautiful pair of sisters by quarian standards. Who knows, maybe one of the quarian men at the wedding will take a liking to your new look." Tali's eyebrows waggled suggestively, her full lips turned up in a mischievious grin, and Shepard threw her head back in a laugh.
"God, Tali, I hope not. No offense, but quarian men aren't really my cup of tea." Tali rolled her eyes and turned to face front in the chair.
"Well Keelah, Shepard, you fell for a turian, anything's possible now!" Shepard let a smirk cross her features before she picked up a hairbrush and began gently pulling through Tali's thick hair, occasionally stopping to look at quarian hair diagrams on her omnitool.
When they had finally reached a satisfactory look for both of them for the bonding ritual, both women wiped off the makeup and let their hair back down before changing into more comfortable clothes to sleep in. Tali had insisted that Shepard take the bed, but she had refused poiltely. Tali hadn't wanted to take no for an answer, but Shepard skirted around it by offering to stay up and watch Fleet and Flotilla on the vid screen. The two of them fell asleep halfway through the movie, their heads leaned against each other like two little girls at a sleepover.
#
"So Tali," Shepard said huskily as she stretched on the couch. Tali had already gotten up and begun preparing breakfast, levo pancakes and some dextro sausage-patty type of thing, and she turned from the stove top to face Shepard for a moment.
"Yes?"
"Why don't you and Zaal'Koris already live together? I thought you said your new house was almost completed." Tali shrugged and turned back to her cooking. "Is that another quarian thing?"
"No, it's just something we decided to wait on. This new home is a symbol of our new life together, I guess." Tali's voice was warm and happy, and Shepard had to grin at the love that her dearest friend had found.
"I think that's great, Tali," Shepard responded, pushing herself up off the couch and pressing careful fingers against the joints of her hips which were always sore in the mornings. She cursed herself briefly for forgetting her pain meds, but she knew that Garrus would bring extra for her just in case. The guy was always prepared, and it was just one of the endless reasons that she loved him so very much.
When they had finished eating, the two women packed up their clothes and Tali's various hair and makeup products into their duffel bags and took Tali's private transport cab to the Conclave Assembly Building, where the wedding was to take place. The sight of the new quarian architecture was both foreign and beautiful to Shepard's eyes, full of graceful angles and picturesque curves that still hinted at the efficiency of quarian designs. Tali led her into the elevator and up to another suite, where one of the building's staff had affixed a label bearing Tali's name to the door. Tali punched a few keys on the lock and it turned green, sliding open, and the two women started getting ready for the biggest day of Tali's life.