It was always a fun Wednesday night when Anya spent half of it feeling like an idiot in front of Kelly Chambers.

After her decision to choose her new team over her old one, Shepard had been trying her best to make everyone on the ship feel appreciated. And, unfortunately, that tended to involve a lot of planning and thinking.

She and Chambers had stayed up half the night trying to decide on tokens/activities that each person would appreciate. Most of them were fairly simple: Zaeed, an expensive gun upgrade. Chakwas, a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy that she mentioned once. For Jack, Shepard just planned on checking on her more often, since she'd probably see monetary gifts as a bribe. She was already set to spend some of the weekend with her. As far as Kasumi went, she was just as mysterious as she acted. However, after some prying and slightly illegal search invasions, she found out Kasumi wasn't a huge fan of lactose, so ordered a whole host of replacement foods for pick-up. Jacob's gluten free flour would show up with that, so they'd be able to make him a proper cake for his birthday in a few weeks. She also ordered Mordin some more scientific supplies and a few copies of Salarian films. And Grunt? Well, she already had him covered.

The hardest would be Miranda. Bonding activities would probably just annoy her and gifts weren't that interesting to the minimalist. But with all the Illium orders, there was something she could do.

Anya hated it, but it definitely would throw the Cerberus Liaison for a loop. The kind she liked.

Walking out of the elevator, she was lucky to catch Garrus already in the kitchen area, drinking some sort of hot beverage. With her own hair still sticking up in weird places, she threw a wild, pointed finger at him. "Vakarian. I have a job for you and me later."

"Vague threats in the morning, my favorite." Anya initially planned on walking straight into Miranda's office, looking like a whole mess, but she figured she could pep her step first. Especially since she could smell the remnants of Chakwas' morning pot of coffee.

"Mmmm shhh I'm on a mission." Pouring out a mugful of dark, caffeinated gold, Shepard could kinda forget how early it was. Coffee was definitely strong enough to erase the fact that she definitely didn't get the sleep she needed, right? It had to make up for that.

Next to her, Garrus chuckled and pulled out a tangle from her hair. "Not sure your fringe is mission-ready."

Gently, she pulled the few strands he detangled from his talons. "Bad turian. No touching. There are rules." But he wasn't wrong. She hadn't bothered to look at her hair, but she knew what it looked like in the morning. It was the one of the curses of having long hair. Putting down her coffee and pulling a hairbrush from a kitchen drawer (she hid them around the ship), she brushed out her hair and went back to huffing cocoa bean extract. "We made protocol for that, remember?"

"I mean, we're the only ones awake."

Taking another huge gulp of coffee, even though the drink was probably too hot for big gulps, Anya swallowed and said,"False. Miranda is already working in her office. Which is where I was headed."

"Okay, despite the anal-retentive workaholic, we're the only ones up."

"Also Chakwas definitely made this coffee."

Garrus looked ready to tape her mouth shut forever. He rolled his eyes with so much annoyance that she couldn't stop giggling. "Fine. I apologize." He leaned against the kitchen counter and asked, "Gonna tell me anything more about this mission you've tapped me for?"

"Nope! I need to go see Miranda. Bye!"

And watching him furrow his browline with even more annoyance than before, while she skipped off, was so worth it.

Strolling into Miranda's office, Anya could barely get the wild smirk off her face. Most times, she'd rub her cheeks or give herself a slap, trying to be more serious. But honestly, the smirk was applicable to the Miranda situation anyway, so she went in, smile blazing.

When the door opened, Miranda barely even looked up. Her fingers were already tapping away at something and her blue eyes were fiercely focused in on the screen before her. "Need anything, Shepard?"

With that smirk on her face only growing, she snapped up at the ceiling. "EDI, execute plan "Barbie Tits Takes a Vacation"."

She could see Miranda's screen lock out, much to the horror of the officer typing away. Miss Lawson's head snapped up to frown at her. "What the hell?"

Resting her hands in her pockets, Anya tried not to smile too wide. She figured Miranda wouldn't appreciate her max level grinning. She told the ever-busy woman, "You're taking the day off."

Miranda's eyebrows only seemed to turn into angrier black caterpillars on her forehead. At least, that imagery made it easier to keep smirking instead of feeling the effects of her seething annoyance. Boy, was she annoying a lot of people today with her good intentions..."What?"

"Yep. EDI is officially blocking you from all professional channels and I am covering all your Illium pick ups today."

"Absolutely not-"

Anya sighed and got a little more serious. She even pulled her hands out of her sweats pockets. "Miranda, you've been working non-stop. Take a break. Read a book. If you feel like you need to work on something, talk to Jacob about your issues, or spend time with the crew to know them better, or learn a new skill." She paused to gauge Miranda's reaction, but the more she heard, the softer Miranda's pissed off crossed arms got. That was good. Taking quite a bold move, she stepped closer to Miranda and unfurled her arms herself. "Point is I appreciate everything you do so stop working for 24 hours, dammit!"

When Shepard stepped back, Miranda shook her head, but laughed. "It's a bizarre ship when your supportive screaming starts to become endearing "

"You're damn straight. Now, give me the list and I'll go be the liaison today."

Anya didn't expect it, but Miranda didn't argue with her at all. She honestly expected so much more resistance, but a weight seemed to have fallen off her shoulders. Miranda even pulled a datapad out and started showing her this long, mega-list of objectives and goals. There were at least seven requisition pick-ups and three different meetings about trading information or resources. It only took about three seconds for Anya to feel a little overwhelmed by it all.

If Kelly made her feel like an idiot, Miranda made her feel like she was a lesser species.

But she kept up the best she could and took the datapad. She had to be able to figure it out. And at the very least, she wasn't going to have to figure it out alone.

After Miranda gave her as many pointers as she could (spending a whole half hour, almost, getting schooled in her office) she sent Anya off. Then, Shep's first goal was to pick up her partner in crime for some support. She slid across the kitchen counter (she'd have to wash that later) and walked over to the main battery.

Opening the unlocked doors, Garrus was sitting there, re-calibrating his sniper rifle. Anya was a little embarrassed by how worked up the sight made her. He was just sitting there, visor up, looking so serious and focused. How could her heart not fall out of her chest?

But the second she walked in, he dropped everything he was doing and looked up at her. That only made the blush trying to reach her cheeks all the worse. She was seriously trying to kill that thing, though. It was fucking embarrassing.

Instead, she took a deep breath and leaned against the wall next to him. Crossed arms, smirk, all the other 'definitely-casual posture' works. "So about that job."

His throat hummed in response and she nearly threw herself out the room. But he didn't even react. He was clueless about his whole sexy voice thing, wasn't he? She definitely didn't need to be the one to tell him. "Was wondering when that crypticism would get cleared up."

Another deep breath, trying to cool her annoying, useless insides. "You, me, and a ton of supply pickups on Illium."

He stood up and she suddenly felt very, very small. Especially since he decided that being only about an inch or two from her was totally normal. Keeping that small distance, he leaned right next to her and stared down. That stupid smirk stood up with him, too. "Is that supposed to be a pick up line? Because if so, I'm not all that impressed."

Snorting, Anya looked down at her toes. His blue eyes were a little too intense, and she didn't need to totally get distracted. "Not about you today."

"That's boring. Not even an ill-conceived snipe-off where I get to kick your ass again? Or maybe somewhere classier to get shot up in, like some rich guy's expensive water garden?"

Anya pulled out her datapad to show him the schedule, but she did let out a laugh she couldn't stop. "Hilarious. No, we're doing logistical grunt work, tagging resources and sending them to the Normandy." She turned around to show him a few of the jobs they had to do. At first, Anya thought that was an easy, smart way to share info. But as he started peering over her shoulder, breathing on her neck, maybe that wasn't her best idea.

The second she was done scrolling, she put the datapad away and walked a few paces away from him, desperate for air.

"Okay, looks busy. But why do I have to come?"

With a shrug, Anya said, "Because I don't want to do it alone and you won't say no?"

Garrus didn't seem nearly as amused. He pushed off the wall and came closer again. She was going to have to throttle him about giving her personal space. Not because she didn't like it, but she needed to stay sane while trying to talk to him about non-"them" things. But he just got that stubborn smile going and said, "I would definitely say no."

"Don't make me pull rank on you."

"Fine. But only because you're annoying when you pull rank."

He was another step closer again, and her head was swimming in memories of his talons on her hips. "If I remember correctly, I pulled rank when I got you to dance with me."

Garrus growled and her breath hitched. Fucking christ, she needed an adult chaperone around this asshole. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice. "That is a pleasant exception. Not wandering around Illium going shopping for Palladium."

"You'll love it." She gave him her best, encouraging smile, but he didn't seem convinced. His arms stayed tersely crossed.

"You've said that before, and it normally ends up with us getting grenades thrown at our faces."

Anya remembered that time, when she took their first team out for some old human sport (tag, was it?) and some merc team showed up out of nowhere, throwing a battalion of grenades at their location. Luckily, Kaidan, Liara, and Wrex did one of the most impressive biotic repels she'd ever seen and the grenades were flung back in their faces. Maybe she was a sick person for finding that a great memory. Stifling some giggles, Aya said, "Trust me, it won't be nearly as exciting, so don't go into this thinking it will be any fun."

His frown only got deeper. "That doesn't line up with that "You"ll love it" thing."

Groaning, Anya was tired of the song and dance. She normally loved her verbal spars of snark with Garrus, but they had a lot to do and she couldn't spend all her time in her arguing with him. Especially when the damned turian kept inching closer and making her the most unfocused commander to ever live. She patted his shoulder and asked, "Just do this for me, please?"

He took her hand from his shoulder and removed it, but not before giving it a gentle squeeze. "You already know I'm going. I'm just going to complain about it along the way."

"I can accept that." Good. Finally, he stepped back, and they focused on the mission instead of each other. That would make her day easier. For Illium, she needed her best friend. She could think about his eyes too much later.

Over the next fifteen minutes, she and Garrus suited up in light gear and headed out onto Illium, giving the rest of the crew the day to themselves. Whether that meant training, relaxation, whatever, she didn't care. She just had to focus on doing this one thing for her very difficult to please Cerberus Liaison.

It only took five minutes into her first meeting on Illium to realize they were in for a worse day than she expected. After all, the Vorcha they were dealing with kept trying to haggle them and, of all damn things, she didn't know how to deal with that. The meeting took a whole 45 minutes instead of Miranda's expected 20. They were swiftly, and frighteningly, behind. And that was even before dealing with anyone that Miranda flagged as "difficult".

If she wasn't following Miranda's tight schedule, Anya probably would have spread all these errands and meetings over two days. But Miranda was an overachiever, so it was jam-packed into some sort of insane, tireless marathon. As an average-as-hell organizer, she was overwhelmed, so she appreciated Garrus' help even more now. They even split a few pick-ups to preserve their sanity.

She could call Miranda out for being out of her mind with this schedule, but she figured this was what it was like to run into a perfectionist in her element. She remembered the old, odd reports that critiqued her mission leader capabilities.

Now she understood why every once in awhile she'd meet a soldier that wanted to kill her after trying to keep up with her infiltrator antics for hours.

By the time they were finishing up their final stop, getting the new food stocks sent to the ship for Rupert, Kasumi, and Jacob, Anya was staring straight ahead like someone stuck a drill bit in her ear and went to town. She didn't even realize, until they were stopped somewhere she didn't recognize, that Garrus hadn't been leading her back to the ship.

Coughing, he gestured to the entrance they were next to. "It's a bar."

Anya blinked. Garrus had this very nervous look to him and he was fiddling with his sidearm. While she did catch onto the fact the energy between them had shifted, her drill brain wasn't catching up. "What?"

"It's been a long day. So how about that drink?"

/

/

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