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Garrus waited near the car he had reserved, his heart pounding. Why he should be so nervous, he couldn't have said. After all, they were an established couple by now, weren't they? But he had never done something like this before, set up a romantic … date, he guessed the term was. At least, not with someone who mattered as much as Shepard. And this was—this was personal. He was showing her something of himself that he had never shown anyone else.
It didn't help that she was late. Not that he was surprised—they had both had full calendars today. With so many refugees on the Citadel, traffic was heavier, making it harder to get where you were going. Or so he told himself as the minutes ticked by and no Shepard appeared.
He was about to ping her omni-tool when he saw her, hurrying along as best she could but stuck behind a knot of slow-moving hanar and not wanting to be rude and push through their trailing tentacles. Would that set off an intergalactic incident? Garrus wondered.
At last Shepard came up to him, her cheeks pink from her jog across the Citadel and from embarrassment. "I'm so sorry. I meant to be here on time, but then I got caught talking in Purgatory, and then there were—" She looked around. "All these people, Garrus. I just want to end this war so they can all go home."
He did, too, but that wasn't what today was about. "And I just want to take your mind off it all, if only for an hour or two."
She smiled, although the shadows were still there in her eyes. "That sounds nice. What did you have in mind? Purgatory seemed relatively Reaper free."
"Oh, I scoped it out earlier. But then I thought—if this was my last day alive, here with you, I'd actually like to remember it."
Zia's eyes warmed with affection as she stepped closer to him. "Me, too. So what's the plan?"
"I had an idea. Let me show you."
"I'm intrigued."
He opened the car door. "And I'm driving. I'd like to get there in one piece, without spending half the day trying to drive up a mountain."
"That was one time!" she protested, but she let him help her into the car on the passenger side anyway, relaxing against the seat.
Garrus got in as well, piloting the car out of its docking port and into Citadel traffic. It took him a few moments to remember how this went, and to navigate the now much heavier traffic patterns, but at last he settled into the stream of cars.
Zia chuckled. "It's kind of nice watching someone else fight with the controls. Cortez and Joker make it look so easy."
"Hey. This is easy!"
"Of course it is. So, where are we going, anyway?"
He glanced at her, feeling deliciously naughty. "Somewhere we're not supposed to."
"Now you're talking."
"Ever have that one thing you've always wanted to do before you died, Shepard?"
She laughed, low and sexy. "I'm looking at him."
Well, that was flattering. "Still trying to make me blush, huh?"
"Until it works. So what's your one thing?"
He looked through the stream of traffic at their destination, rising shining and pristine high above the lake. "The whole time I worked at C-Sec, I'd stare up at the top of the Presidium and say to myself, 'I want to go up there.' But I never did. There were 137 regulations telling me I couldn't."
"So you got them changed?"
Garrus laughed. "I thought you knew me better than that. Fight through all that red tape? No, thank you. No, now I just don't give a damn."
"That does sound like you," Zia admitted.
He piloted the car out of traffic and up, up, up, hoping no one noticed. He had suggested to Bailey that this particular car was Commander Shepard's and no one should pay too much attention to it, but you never knew when someone from C-Sec would decide to get over-eager about collaring rule-breakers. Fortunately, despite the late hour, there was still plenty of light. Garrus didn't know if it was safety or the knowledge that the lake and the Presidium looked better in daylight, but the light was only dimmed a few degrees for night-time in this area, which was just right for his purposes.
Landing smoothly on top of the Presidium—and hoping Shepard hadn't noticed how nervous he was about the landing—Garrus opened the car door and got out. "I figured it's time we did something stupid just for the hell of it. Might be the last chance we get."
"Us? I doubt that." Shepard got out, too and came toward the edge of the roof.
"I hope you're not bothered by heights."
"Never have been before." She looked out across the lake. "Wow."
Garrus did, too. The view was spectacular. The feeling of finally getting up here despite all the times he had told himself he never would filled him with confidence. And being here with Shepard? Unbelievable. "I know."
"Everything you hoped it would be?"
"And more." But he was no longer looking at the Citadel.
"It's incredible."
"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't hoped it would inspire a certain … mood."
That caught Shepard's attention, and she took her eyes off the view, looking up at him. "What mood would that be, exactly?"
Her voice never failed to set his heart racing when it got low and throaty like it was now—but that wasn't quite the mood he had been going for. "Shepard. I … we … this has been …" He cleared his throat. "This thing between you and I is the best thing that's ever happened to me. But we've never really talked about it. I just wanted … I'm a one-woman turian, it seems. There's no one like you. There never has been, there never will be. I guess what I wanted to know is—are you ready to be a one-turian woman?"
"Garrus," she whispered, reaching up with one small hand to touch his scarred mandible. "The only thing that made leaving Earth bearable was knowing you were out there somewhere."
"I felt the same way. The worst part about the galaxy going to hell would have been never getting to see you again."
"But I'm here now. Exactly where I want to be. I never want to be anywhere else but with you." She put her other hand on the other side of his face and reached up on her tiptoes. "I love you, Garrus Vakarian."
"And I love you, Zia Shepard." It was the strangest feeling, suddenly, that he was finally who and where he had always been meant to be. As if his whole life had been leading him to this moment on the top of the Presidium with this remarkable woman. His love. But it occurred to him that this was as far ahead as he had thought. He didn't know what came next, once you had committed yourselves to one another. "The vids Joker gave me … they never got past this part. I mean, I don't know exactly what to do now."
"They all end the same way, don't they?" Zia tilted her head back, her eyes half-closing. "You grab the girl and kiss her like you mean it."
"That I can do." And he did, wrapping his arms around her waist and bending her over, kissing her with everything he had. Zia's arms stole around his neck as he held her there, suspended high above the Citadel, and kissed her like it was the only thing that mattered in the galaxy. Maybe it was. All over the galaxy, maybe other people were kissing their lovers like this. He hoped so.
At last he ended the kiss and Zia's eyes fluttered open. "Who needs vids when you have natural talent?"
"Not this guy." He nuzzled her cheek and the side of her neck.
"Garrus."
"Mm?"
"Not that I don't appreciate the mood, but … we are out in the open in the middle of the Citadel. I don't really want to see this on any news vids—or any other kind of vids, for that matter."
"Good point," he admitted reluctantly, letting her go with a final kiss.
"Should we—go elsewhere?"
"Not quite yet. First, there's something else I wanted to do." Leaving her there, he went to the car and withdrew the sniper rifle he had brought along. "I think the galaxy needs to know, once and for all—who's the better shot?" He handed it to her. "Not saying you don't know how to handle a gun, of course … just saying some of us know how to make it dance."
Zia raised the gun, checking it over carefully. "There are a few people in the galaxy who have seen me in action, you know, Garrus. They seemed pretty impressed."
"Yeah, well, I've actually seen you dance, Shepard." He coughed for effect. "No comment."
"Maybe you'll just have to teach me."
"Like I taught you how to shoot?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "All right, Vakarian. You're going down."
He readied the target he had brought along, giving her a sidelong glance. "Don't worry. I loaded it with practice slugs for when you miss." He tossed the target out into the air, high above the traffic going by.
Shepard sighted and pulled the trigger, and the target exploded.
Well, he hadn't expected to win on the first round.
"That was an easy one, just to build up your confidence."
"Right." She handed the gun back.
Garrus picked up another target and gave it to her. "Long range, I wrote the book. Nobody alive can do this, not even Commander Shepard. Give me a tough one."
"Okay." She readied the target, sighting with one arm, then threw. It was a good throw, Garrus admitted, narrowing in on the target through his visor. But not quite good enough. He squeezed the trigger, knowing it would hit even before the bullet had left the barrel.
"I said a tough one," he told her smugly.
"Fine. Step aside." She took the gun back, readying her stance while he picked up another target.
He put everything he had into the throw, and had the satisfaction of watching the target fall untouched as Shepard's shot blasted off into nowhere. Raising his arms into the air, he said triumphantly, "I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is my favorite spot on the Citadel."
Shepard cleared her throat. "It's, uh, windy up here."
"There, there." He put his arm around her shoulders. "It's okay. I know there are other things you're good at."
"You mean, like busting insubordinate crewmembers?"
He chuckled. "If that's what you want to call it."
Zia looked up at him, her eyes gleaming wickedly. "All right, Vakarian, you've had your fun. Now it's my turn."
"What did you have in mind?"
"You'll see. And this time, I'm driving."
"Well, galaxy, it was nice knowing you."
