...I've been stuck. Enjoy.
Chapter 93: Honeymoon
Our hearts are never truly full
Each beat is but a push and pull
Each push a call for one in sync
Each pull a reach for that lost beat
Another waits in harmony
To fill the empty in between
Entwined this way, we come alive
Without it, hollowness survives
What happens then, I cannot know
My heart found its mate long ago
It wasn't necessarily tradition for the groom to carry the bride over the threshold, but Terra still insisted Garrus do it because she thought it would be fun. She was right.
Terra laughed even as he set her back down on her feet. Then she reached up to make sure the wreath in her hair was still in place. "Oh, Vi would be devastated if her hard work got messed up. Does it still look intact?"
Garrus simply looked her over. "…you're beautiful."
Terra smiled softly, reaching down to smooth out the skirt of her dress. "As long as you think so."
"Always, but especially now." He smirked as he reached over to take her hands gently in his talons. "I hate to have to take it off."
She laughed again. "We can save it. And we'll always have the photos from the ceremony."
"Yeah, but it's not the same. …I want to paint it, but I don't think I could ever do you justice."
She shook her head, kissing him to show her gratitude. "I married the right turian."
He wrapped his arms around her to keep her close. "I'm still learning." He kissed her back. "But I definitely married the right human, too."
She couldn't help but smile again when he said things like that. Much as he downplayed his own romantic prowess, he knew exactly what he was doing when it came to her. One of the many reasons she loved him so much. Before she knew she was moving, she was wrapped up in him again, deep in an embrace 17 years in the making. She was content and complete in this moment with him, everything exactly how she would have wanted. He seemed to agree, given how he returned her every affection and finally turned to slide his tongue over her cheek—
He flinched back. "On second thought, I can't get you out of it fast enough."
She tried not to laugh as she turned to head upstairs. "I kind of regret that we already did this. Tonight should be special."
"Well," he shrugged as he followed her, "if it can't be the first time, we can at least make it feel like the first time."
She nodded. "That's a mission I can get behind."
Before they started doing anything that might damage them, Terra removed her wreath and dress and stored them safely in the closet. Garrus was considerate enough to wait until she was done before taking hold of her and starting to kiss every bare inch of her flesh. She immediately followed suit, pulling him onto the bed in doing so, and set to undoing the clasps on his own clothes. He barely took notice, too caught up in her.
He was certainly sticking to the plan. He let every sensation linger. Every stroke of his talons through her hair and down her back was tantalizingly slow, setting her shivering. Every breath hummed with unspoken declarations of love and adoration and belonging. Every kiss he laid on her was enticing and only broken to be followed by an equally lengthy and amorous kiss close by (though this might have been partly because he was lapping up the sugar her sister had mistakenly poured all over her).
She challenged herself to do the same for him. She slid her fingers gently across his plates, laid an endless series of kisses over his scars, whispered—wait. She had an idea. When he paused for breath, she took him by the arm and disabled his translator. Before he could ask what she was doing, she did the same for herself and, with a smirk and a quick kiss on his mandible, whispered a turian "I love you" in his ear. He kissed her passionately before reciprocating in English.
As the embrace grew stronger, the words grew to her giving small poetic verses and him giving compliments that ranged from teasing to enraptured. Eventually, though, it grew so strong that the words stopped all together. The rest blurred into a stream of electric, ecstatic love.
Even Terra couldn't describe it in any appropriate way. But it certainly felt like the first time.
They were still wrapped up in each other when they fell asleep, holding tight to the moment even as it faded away. …neither could remember the last time they'd had such pleasant dreams.
Though the dreams failed to compare to when they woke up again and each found their mate still waiting there, smiling at the sight of them.
"What a night," Terra breathed.
"Yeah," Garrus agreed, "I hung out a lot of places last night. Your upper body, your lower body…pretty much all the parts in between."
She smirked, nuzzling against him. "Turians certainly don't lack for a sense of direction."
"And you don't lack for places to get lost." With a sly grin, he kissed her again.
"Sweet talker." She sighed, tossing aside the covers. "Stay put. I'll be right back."
"Oh." Garrus sat up. "You…you're not showering, are you?"
Terra gave him a confused look. "No. Why?"
He smirked, his talon gently sifting her hair away from her ear so he could run his tongue on the soft flesh behind it. "I think I missed some sugar. We might have to start all over."
She laughed, nudging him. "Remind me to tease Solana that her 'brilliant' prank worked so well."
"Maybe we should start keeping packs of it under the bed."
She seemed to consider the idea before simply standing up and heading for the bathroom.
For a few moments, Garrus was content to lie there, still breathing in her scent and her warmth from the sheets she'd been resting in. In fact, he might have been tempted to stay there until she came back, but he figured, as her husband, he should do something for her. He considered heading down to make her breakfast before he remembered how she claimed he couldn't operate a kitchen to save his life. He finally came up with an idea, though. Sifting through Terra's art supplies and her stereo, he set one of the recordings of Violet's piano prowess playing as he made use of a trick Kasumi had taught him recently, folding together sheets of paper into a flower. It was only as he was dipping into her paints to color the edges of the paper petals that he realized how long she had been in the bathroom and that she still wasn't out.
Carefully setting down the flower so the paint could dry, he approached the bathroom door and tentatively knocked. "Terra? Are you alright?" No response. That, in itself, was worrying. "Do you need me to come in? I can—" He stopped midsentence when the door opened.
Terra stood there…blue paint across her face in the shape of the Vakarian markings.
Garrus knew what it was like to be at a loss for words, but this was the first time he was truly speechless. As in frozen in place, not quite capable of thinking of anything to say.
Terra smirked. "That bad?"
He shook it off. "I—no! No, it's…" …it was something he hadn't realized he'd been dreaming about himself. They had never talked about it or even considered it, but the fact remained that it was turian tradition to accept the markings of the family you join into (although, since the markings were permanent on actual turians, they usually weren't changed by marriage). It was like seeing her the way she was on the inside for the first time. Like she'd managed to show on the outside who she belonged to within. "Terra, I…"
She nodded. "It's probably going to wash off, but I just wanted to mark the occasion, see what it would've looked like." She shrugged, fingering her necklace. "This will cover it anyway."
He smiled, pushing her hair back from her face to display his family's markings proudly. "I think it looks better on you than any turian."
She withheld a small laugh. "Good. You're stuck with me now."
"And that I wouldn't have any other way."
She took his hand to signify her agreement. Just as she was again reveling in the thought that they wholly and unequivocally belonged to each other now, her eyes drifted over to where he'd set down his "art project." She smirked. "Is that for me?"
He smirked back. "Yeah." He reached over to gently pick it up and hold it out.
She took it with a smile. Even she would admit that he was not as much a master as she was in terms of artistry, but she would also say this was possibly his best work. As pretty as any real flower she'd ever seen. She wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but then she found the perfect place. Quickly tying her hair into its signature style, she slipped the paper flower into it.
Garrus beamed at the sight of it. She really was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. At least a very close second to her appearance at the wedding yesterday. At least to his eyes. Almost without thinking, he grabbed his visor and snapped a picture.
Terra gave him a look. "Seriously?"
"This is a sight I want to treasure."
"I always just draw those later."
"Yeah, well, you can't see it like I can…and I could never do it justice." He said so as his talons drifted gently over the markings on her face and into her hair. Lovely. Unbreakable. His.
"So," she said, taking his hands, "we have the whole day completely to ourselves, 100% guaranteed no interruptions or intrusions. What should we do?"
He smirked, laying his head on hers. "Whatever we want."
The 16 hours before the day was left to sleep once more were not wasted. After breakfast, the rest of the morning was whiled away with the two snuggled together on the couch in front of the simulated fireplace, kissing and nuzzling at every available opportunity. The afternoon was spent in much the same way until Terra suggested they try to repeat their feat in the hospital, her drawing blind while he guided her hand; needless to say, it would've gone a lot smoother if she didn't blind herself this time by burying her face in his scars and eventually kissing them until his hand was shaking and he had to drop everything to return her affections. By nightfall, he'd leveraged their seclusion to get her to dance with him again, combining Violet's instruction with recreating the simple swaying they'd done on Valentine's Day to produce a moment unmatchable. All in all, they both would've called the day perfect but too short.
Before they went to bed, Terra regrettably showered and proved herself right, the blue paint on her cheeks washing away. Still, she had her necklace for that, and two rings that said all the same. She was happy with that.
"So," Garrus asked as she sat on the bed beside him, "how long does the honeymoon usually last?"
She shrugged. "Depends. Average is around a week."
"Well. Maybe we should have some fun with it while we can. You take me somewhere tomorrow, then I'll do the same the next day."
"That does sound fun. Any suggestions?"
He smirked. "Surprise me."
"Alright, as long as you do, too."
"For now, maybe we should get back to the usual honeymoon routine."
She scoffed. "We're gonna wear each other out before we even go anywhere."
"So just once?"
She thought it over. "…once."
Day two came quickly, but it no longer felt like time was an issue. Though perhaps that was because they knew how best to make the moments last while they could. They certainly made the morning and afternoon last, much as they had yesterday. As the afternoon was waning, though, Terra told him she had to go make preparations for their "outing" and that he should occupy himself until she called. Garrus figured the best way to do that was to find the nearest florist and get her something. The paper flower he'd made for her was now resting on her nightstand, so it seemed appropriate to repeat the gesture with a real rose. Then he remembered he'd done that on Valentine's Day and decided to do one better, bundling three roses with a small assortment of demael flowers. When she called him to meet at a nearby transport terminal, he rushed over.
She almost laughed when he handed her the flowers. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"
He smirked. "Even if I did, you make it easy to forget how."
"Sweet talker." She nodded to the skycar behind her, kicking the door open.
"Where are we going?" he asked as they climbed in.
She answered with a sly smile. "Somewhere we're not supposed to."
He smiled back. "Now you're talking."
Given the familiarity of the exchange, he shouldn't have been surprised when she pulled them up to the top of the Presidium, the very place he'd proposed. Still, there was something different about seeing it at sunset (or what amounted to such for the Presidium, which never turned off the artificial sunlight), especially since she had clearly been spending the last hour setting up a candlelight dinner to rival their Valentine's date. He was about to question the point of the candles when she pulled out an umbrella and propped it up to darken the area they'd be sitting in. He struggled not to laugh at this, especially when he noticed that she had even painted "Spectre access – Do not disturb" on it in case C-Sec came by to bother them.
She noticed his amusement at this detail. "I considered saying 'Spectre on honeymoon,' but I figured that didn't have the same effect."
He shrugged. "If they knew which Spectre, I'm sure it would be even more convincing."
She smirked, sitting down under the umbrella and patting the seat next to hers.
He smirked back, coming over to sit beside her. It was a simple outing, but worth every moment they could spare.
Those moments passed in near silence, only spared from the true silence Terra so despised with the sounds of passing traffic and the water below them. They did actually eat on this "picnic," though this was also hiding a slow drift into each other's arms. By the time the food was gone, Garrus was once again holding her close to kiss the side of her face.
She sighed, letting him as she reached a hand up to stroke his scars. "Lay back. I've got something else."
He complied, though he did so without letting go of her.
She stayed happily leaning into the embrace and then turned on her omni-tool. By the time she had finished fiddling with the controls, a star map was projected up into the hood of the umbrella giving them their simulated darkness.
Garrus smiled appreciatively. "I see you remember my old trick."
"Wait until you see what I can with it now." She pressed a few buttons, zooming in and adjusting for parallax to give them the stars of the Citadel that they couldn't see from the Presidium.
His first thought was Leave it to Terra to find a way to stargaze here. Because the skies were practically her favorite thing in the galaxy, the horizons of all the worlds they visited certainly her favorite thing to capture. His second thought? "…can you make them Palaven's?"
She beamed, giving him exactly what he requested. There was something about the familiar sky, the sky they had come together beneath, that made it a comforting sight. She sighed serenely as she took it all in, remembering how it had once inspired her, remembering all the nights she'd spent with her turian under it. Then she realized how easily she had shifted their view and came up with an idea of her own. "Why don't we make up for lost time?"
Garrus looked at her in confusion. "What lost time?"
"There's been a lot of worlds we were only on long enough for a mission. I think we should get the chance to stargaze them."
He made no objection, sitting back and watching as she gave them about two minutes each to admire the constellations of Horizon, Ilos, Rannoch, and a dozen others. If he was being honest, he took as much enjoyment (if not even more) out of watching her appreciating the view as he did out of doing so himself.
…and it gave him an idea for what he could plan for their outing tomorrow.
Eventually, they ran out of stars to gaze, so Terra switched to the view from Menae and spent the next hour simply curled up against her husband. Garrus smiled and returned the embrace, all the nights he'd spent alone under this view slowly being eclipsed by this new moment.
When they went back to the apartment to spend the night wrapped up in each other again, they did so with the stars of Palaven projected all through the room. Terra's definition of the perfect night.
It could have carried over to her idea of a perfect morning, but when she woke up, Garrus wasn't there. She wasn't sure whether to be confused or concerned until she saw the note on his pillow.
Meet me at the docks.
Confused, then. Still, she went along with it, doing her best to prepare for whatever his plan might be and then heading down to the docks to meet him. When she didn't immediately see him waiting for her, she started to shift back from confusion to outright worry.
Until familiar talons wrapped around her waist from behind. "I see you got my note."
She smirked, placing her hands over his and leaning her head back against his shoulder. "Taking me somewhere?"
Garrus smirked back. "So I am." He led her onto a shuttle, settling into another amorous embrace as they waited through a jump to get to his chosen destination. When they finally arrived, he even added some fanfare to the moment by insisting she close her eyes while he led her out of the shuttle and away from the landing site.
"You been watching a bunch of romance vids lately or something?" Terra teased as she followed him blindly.
He shook his head. "Maybe you've just rubbed off on me." Using the fact that her eyes were closed to ignore the fact that she was clearly rolling them, he brought her into position. "There. Look now."
Terra opened her eyes. They lit up at the sight that met them. A violet blue sky overlooked a forested valley. Before her flowed a fluorescent river, lined with bioluminescent flowers between which flitted dozens of brightly colored insects. Mountains rose in the distance, cradling a horizon of distant stars and a not so distant planet (they were clearly on a moon in orbit around it). The entire scene was a picturesque gradient of blues dotted with lights. It was… "…beautiful." She turned to Garrus in amazement. "How did you find this place?"
"Did some digging," he shrugged, "It got stumbled upon while the Citadel was being moved back to Widow and repaired. It doesn't even have a name yet."
"Well…I think you finally outdid me. No way I can top this." The more she thought about it, the more she thought this even topped her visit with Solana to the Karahven Falls. Her fingers were itching to start capturing the sight while she could, but she felt like she couldn't possibly do it justice. She snapped a picture instead, intending to eventually paint it, and sat down at the riverside, inspecting the glowing petals of the first flower she saw.
Garrus knelt down beside her. "The survey teams did a bunch of scans. Everything was safe. At least for levos."
"Lucky me." Taking that to heart, she gingerly reached out to touch the flower. She was disappointed when it stopped glowing and folded in on itself, though it was only for a moment before a moth-like creature flew over to rest on the silken petals.
"Apparently, this moon is on the dark side of the planet for most of its orbit. The flora evolved to compensate so the fauna will still pollinate them."
Terra smirked. One thing she admired about Garrus was how he was also so eager to learn about how life adapted, as much as she was always eager to capture it. In a way, it was what brought him to grow so close to her in the first place, just one more way they were a perfect balance for each other. "So did we come all this way just to enjoy the view or did you have something in mind?"
He shrugged. "Both." Like she had done with him yesterday, he drew her to lie down with him. "Just take it in."
So she lied there next to him, her hand tight in his, and listened. She watched the sky glistening with stars, an aurora of reflected sunlight sifting through the atmosphere and rings of the nearby planet, and took in the sounds of insects chirping and water flowing and winds rustling the flowers and trees. After a moment, she closed her eyes and focused on the noises and the scents drifting on the air. She couldn't remember the last time she had been able to simply fade into her surroundings like this…the last time she felt peaceful.
It was a wonder she didn't care when that peace was interrupted. Likely because it was interrupted in the best possible way. Garrus was subtle about it, easing her into it. First, his talons glided up her arm and down to her waist, enticingly slowly. Then he shifted positions to bring her closer to him. Gradually, he leaned even further into the embrace, kissing the side of her face as his hand slid under her top to press against the bare skin beneath it.
Her breathing shuddered as all her senses soaked this in. "We're actually doing this?"
He smirked, laying his head on hers. "Why not? We've got the whole moon to ourselves."
She laughed. "We should've just spent the whole week here, then." So she wrapped her arms around him and fell into him completely.
There was no sense of time here, the distant sun never even glimpsing this valley. Hours passed without a trace as the two stayed there by the river, wrapped up in each other or simply lying there curled up together. The prospect of spending the rest of the week here was truly tempting, but they settled on one night. Then they woke up at the riverside, still tight in each other's arms, and decided to see as much as they could while they were still there. The moon was fairly small, so exploring didn't take long. They would've been able to finish sooner had they not been distracted by each other a few times along the way. As it was, one night became two. And then three. By the time they called back the shuttle to return to the Citadel, they had practically claimed this moon as their own.
Still, they had claimed each other first. That was more than enough.
