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"Garrus."

He was reluctant to open his eyes, so sleepy and comfortable. "Mm?"

"I'm hungry."

The rumble of Garrus's stomach made further reply unnecessary. "I doubt there's anything in the kitchen, unless you found time to restock today."

"Sorry, that didn't make my to-do list. Seems unnecessary anyway, since we can't stay long this time."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"You have a favorite restaurant?"

"I thought you did. You gave enough of them your 'this is my favorite restaurant on the Citadel' speech."

She smiled sheepishly. "They asked."

"And you can't say no." He chuckled and opened his eyes, accepting that he wasn't getting any sleep for a while, at least.

Reaching for his omni-tool, he called up a list of takeout places near the apartment building, narrowing the search by places that served both dextro and levo foods, and they fought a little about where to order from. Garrus had to kiss her into agreement with his choice, and he was so tempted to forget the food and have his fill of her temptingly soft skin and sweet mouth, but his stomach growled loudly in the midst of their play and made Shepard's case for her. She was laughing at him as he punched in their order, and he wished he could have recorded these last few moments, the greatest normalcy they'd ever shared together, to play back over and over again until this was their life every day.

Sadly, they had to get dressed in order to open the door for the delivery person, who turned out to be a hanar, boxes dangling off the ends of several of its tentacles.

"This one thanks you for your generosity," it said, appreciating the hefty tip Shepard added to the overall total, and it was gone down the hall, leaving Garrus and Shepard to spread the food out on the counter in the den and load up their plates.

"So what did you do today?" he asked her.

Zia sighed. "So many things. Council, nearly got my head shot off by that batarian from Terra Nova, remember him? I ended up talking him into joining the fight against the Reapers, with as many of his people as he could round up."

"Of course you did."

"Then Kasumi and I helped someone from C-Sec find a hanar diplomat who was working with the 'Enkindlers'—i.e., the Collectors. I ran into Javik near the embassies. He couldn't believe we really allowed other species to have opinions."

Garrus shook his head. "Poor Liara. She so wanted the Protheans to be artists and philosophers."

"Maybe he would have been, had he been born at a different time. In his time, they needed fighters, so that's what he became. He said that, said he almost wished he could be what Liara wanted him to be." She paused, looking thoughtful. "It was really moving for him to be on the Citadel, to see it for himself. It had always been a myth to him, one he hardly believed in. One of the hanar saw him there, and recognized him for what he is, and we drew a bit of a crowd. Javik was telling them all how the Reapers were going to win, and there was no hope."

"I bet that went over well."

Zia cleared her throat. "I convinced him to change the thrust of the message, to have the last voice of the Protheans speak words of power and dominance over the Reapers rather than words of defeat. That went better."

"Poor Javik. I can't imagine."

"No. I spoke to Liara, too. She's taking on so much, what with her work and the Crucible. I wish she could rest, but she's right—there really isn't time for that. Not yet."

Zia showed signs of letting the cares of war settle on her shoulders again, so Garrus hastened to ask if she had run into anyone else in the course of her day.

"Everyone! I'm glad to see them all taking advantage of the chance for some R&R." She smiled. "I talked Joker into dancing with EDI. I told him everything was a risk—but the worst risk was not taking the moments you can when you have them."

Garrus reached out and held her hand. "I couldn't agree more."

"While Joker and EDI were dancing, of course I had to keep an eye on them, so I let Jack and Cortez drag me onto the dance floor, too."

"Were there any injuries?"

She playfully brandished a small fist. "Only the busted jaw of the smart-mouthed turian."

He chuckled. "Jack seems happy with those kids she's teaching. Who would've thought?" Shepard gave him a sideways glance, and he nodded. "All right, you did. How's Cortez? Feeling better?"

"He was making eyes at all the hot guys, so I think he's looking toward the future."

"I'm glad. Cortez is a good guy. I'm sure his husband would rather see him happy."

"Speaking of people we'd rather see happy … I had lunch with Kaidan."

"Yeah?" Garrus didn't like the immediate leap of jealousy in his veins any more than she did, and he fought it down. "How's he?"

"Glad to be back on the Normandy. Looking for a place in the galaxy, thinks this is it for now. I'm glad to have him back, too."

"So am I," Garrus assured her. "He's a good man to have at your back. Hey, you run into Vega?"

"I did. Did you see what he was doing?"

"Yeah, he and Jack are going to have to fight over who has more tattoos soon."

"He wanted me to get one." Shepard cast him an impish look. "I thought about it."

"Really. Where?"

"Aren't you worried about what?"

"Not at all. I'm sure it would say 'Garrus Vakarian' in big, bold letters."

"You wish, big guy."

"Come on, let me see." He got to his feet, peeling her shirt off her shoulders. "There must be one somewhere on here."

"You think I should have one?"

"And mar this beautiful skin? Never." He bent to kiss her shoulder.

"You really like my weird human skin, huh?"

"Let me show you how much."