We will get to criminal cases and shooting bad guys and crazy sentient machines at some point, I'm sure, but first - more romance and smut. So much romance, so much smut - they just don't stop.

()()()

The incessant beeping of his alarm clock woke Garrus from his sleep at the time that he usually had to get up to work. He rolled over and called up the menu with a wave to set it to "vacation time". Rolling back, he almost rolled on top of the human woman next to him, who had somehow managed to sprawl out and take up most of the bed. How a small human could take up so much space was a mystery. He shoved and pushed until she rolled over again and he settled back behind her, her butt pressing against his groin.

When she had settled again, she sighed happily and wiggled a little. That movement was enough for the lower parts of his anatomy to wake up, ready and at attention. He groaned, this was getting ridiculous. It was like he was a teenager again, horny and insatiable.

After the breathtaking sex on the floor somewhere between the bathroom and the bedroom last night, they had managed to finally get into the bed, only to have sex again. Slow and tender, Shepard - no, Jane - riding him, kissing, scratching, her fingers between them and her face almost like she was in pain the moment before she came, sighing his name. And then his face on her neck, breathing her in, feeling the blood pump directly under her skin, her soft skin with her muscles flexing under his fingers and she held his face, her hands on his mandibles when he came, seeing her smile as the blissful feeling washed over him.

They had fallen asleep afterwards and he could still smell his dried seed on her skin; and the sheets needed changing too.

He nuzzled her hair, inhaling her scent. She turned around, smiling at him. "Hey you," she said with a smile.

"Hey, Jane," he mumbled. He wanted to practise saying her name.

She turned all the way around and wrapped herself around him with now practised ease. Their blankets were still stuck between them and he pulled at them to feel her skin again. Finally he had her unwrapped, relishing the feel of her softness against him. She put her leg over him, pressing her soft core against him. He bucked his hips against her and he was just about to try and enter her soft - oh so soft - center when she suddenly flinched and turned away.

"Ouch, oh," she bit her lip and sat up to look at the insides of her thighs. Garrus looked down on them too and was shocked to see the skin on her thighs scratched and irritated. The whole area looked uneven and was shining in an angry red. Now that he really looked, he noticed red irritation and many scratches on her waist and her shoulders, some of them even bleeding. With a horrified shriek he jumped out of the bed and ran to the closet where he kept the supplies for his armor.

He grabbed a pack of medigel and returned to Shepard. She had already gotten a little tube out of her vest and put some white substance on the inflammation on her thighs. Garrus stared at her, feeling helpless.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He whispered and his subharmonics sang wildy. "I'm sorry Shepard, I didn't... I didn't know..." He turned around, humming in shame and started to leave the room.

"Stay where you are, Garrus Vakarian." Her voice was all command and he realized in this instant why people followed her orders. The turian military training ingrained in him almost made him snap to attention.

Her voice turned softer. "It's not so bad, human skin is just very sensitive. I've had irritations before." She took his hand and pulled him back to her on the bed. "Look, I've put hand-lotion on it and it's already starting to get better."

He looked down on her thighs but he couldn't really see a difference, it was still red and welted. Garrus felt bile rise up in his gizzard and he swallowed it down hard. "I can't do this to you again, I can't... "

"What? You're not going to have sex with me again?" She looked him straight in the eyes. "Garrus, look, I'm not allergic or anything, this irritation is just from friction. And we can reduce friction, we could use oil or something like that. I'm not injured, I just got some scratches. How about you put some medigel on those scratches?"

He nodded, still humming his shame. He had never thought that this could be the reason why he would lose her. Not his family exiling him, not the disapproval from other humans or turians, or just learning that they really didn't have anything in common, but the simple incompatibility of their alien bodies. He had been so stupid.

Her soft touch on his mandibles shook him out of his depressing thoughts. Her voice was deep and warm and she was humming. He recognized it, she was humming love, as best as she could with her human voice. She pulled his head towards hers and pressed her forehead against his. His voices left him and he didn't dare to move.

She stopped humming and whispered. "Don't run away from me, I just found you again, C-Sec-Blue."

He froze. The rush of his own blood was loud, like a storm in his ears. Memories, pictures, sighs in the darkness, the soft smell of arousal, her arousal, her voice, it all stumbled in his mind at the speed of light. Could it be?

The silence stretched long, and then even longer. Finally he asked: "Alliance-Red?"

She smiled and it was so bright that he felt like he had to close his eyes. "Yes, my armored turian, it's me!"

"But your hair - it's not red." Garrus said and even to him it sounded incredibly dumb.

Shepard threw her head back and laughed. "You do know that humans can dye their hair different colors? At least I hope so, human criminals would have a field day if they knew that they only had to dye their hair to be safe from recognition by C-Sec."

Garrus snorted. "We rely more on DNA-traces and voice matching to catch criminals. But, yes I know that the color can change, I don't know why I haven't thought about it."

She grabbed him roughly by his arms and looked at him with desperate eyes. "I had been looking for you, when I came back to the Citadel. I wanted to find you again but I had nothing to identify you. All I knew was blue armor and a blue visor and a long, crested fringe. Well guess what, all of C-Sec wears blue, and a visor is not uncommon either. I thought it could be you when Nihlus introduced us but I wasn't sure, I could hardly walk up to you and smell your throat. But you saw me in the light, why didn't you say something?"

He stretched his throat in embarrassment, "Back then, I had no experience with humans, you all sort of looked the same to me. I tried to remember your face but it was just gone. All I knew was your bright red hair. I looked for hair like that everywhere for a long time."

"Why did you stop?"

"Because I started looking for black with a blue streak," he said, taking her hands and stroking her wrist where he felt her pulse beat under her skin. "I have never forgotten that night, have never forgotten you. You were my first..."

"First alien?" She asked with a laugh.

"Yes, first alien but also first... the first time that it wasn't just about release. It felt like more..." He didn't know how to put it into words, how he had been looking for her like for a piece that he needed to build himself.

"We didn't even know each other, we didn't really talk. I had no idea who you were, I had never been this close to a turian before." She said with a quiet voice. "It was ridiculous, but I just couldn't get you out of my head. I read up on turians, what I could find on the Alliance networks. It was mostly about your military, structure, strategies. That knowledge really helped me when I met Nihlus, I knew how to make a turian salute. Impressed the hell out of the turians."

"I sort of did the same, I learned about humans, how they acted, what their faces mean." Garrus said. "I got really into that and learned about expressions and micro-expressions. I'm considered an expert on humans at C-Sec because I can spot when humans lie."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Now that is a useful ability to have I must say. But how could you have missed that humans can change their appearance as well, like with hair color?"

"I don't know." He shook his head, he couldn't understand it himself. "Somehow you and your red hair were inseparably in my mind."

She folded up her legs in a way that made him cringe, but apparently this position was comfortable for her. She laid her head all the way back and was shaking out her short hair. Her nakedness was obviously not bothering her, she saw no need to cover herself up.

Shepard had a far away look on her face when she spoke. "I had it blonde, almost white for a while. And it was longer than it is now. Back in the beginning of the N program it was bright red, as red as possible. But the higher ups convinced me that I was standing out like a beacon on fire on the battlefield, so I changed it. I dyed it black but it looked so boring, so I put in the blue streak to make it look a bit more... me."

Garrus put his hand in her hair, letting it slip through his fingers. It was about half as long as his fingers, not quite long enough to wrap it around them. "You had it longer?"

She leaned into his touch. "Yes, it was quite long. But when you dye it it gets damaged after a while and it's not soft and shiny but scruffy. I could twist it in a tail and it would stay that way all day. If I keep it at this length it still looks and feels nice, and I can still dye it the way I want it. And I prefer not having an easy to grab handle on my head, I can never understand how women who get in combat situations on a regular basis can keep their hair long."

He tried to grab her hair and remembered that he had learned in combat lessons that humans felt pain when you pulled their hair. He pulled carefully and noticed how she followed his movement. It was like he could control her that way and he let go hurriedly. He didn't want to hurt her more than he had already done today.

Garrus noticed the scratches on her skin again, red marks everywhere, with dried blood on them. He opened the medigel pack and applied the gel to the scratches. Her skin changed almost instantly, the scratches didn't look quite as angry anymore. Her shoulders and her waist had the most scratches and Garrus realized that they came from his talons. He kept them short and blunt, as it was custom for turians who worked with aliens, but he had neglected his care of them recently.

He sighed, "I'm sorry I scratched you, Jane. My talons are usually blunted but I had forgotten to blunt them again in the last week."

She kissed his mandible and he felt her smile. "I didn't even notice it when it happened, you had me distracted so well." She pressed herself against him, her arms around his cowl and she kissed the side of his face. He raised his head, giving her free access to his throat without even thinking about it and he hummed happily when she kissed the skin there. He began stroking her, feeling the softness of her skin.

She was so soft, too soft.

He took hold of her by her shoulders and made her look at him. "How can you want this? My skin, my plates hurt you. I'm scratching you, I might even draw blood one day just because my teeth are so sharp. How can you possibly like that?"

She looked at him and he tried to decipher the emotions on her face. Was it fear, did she fear him? But there was strength in her gaze, a will and a mind that were not easily scared. Her voice was strong when she spoke. "Listen, I know this is not a fairytale romance. You are not going to change into a dashing blonde prince by a kiss from me. This is an interspecies romance and nobody said those are easy. But we will find a way because what we have, what we are - it's just too good. I'm not giving up if you don't."

Garrus felt like he was overflowing with emotions, too numerous to name them. He took an urgent breath and tried to find the words to tell her how he could never give her up. I love you, Jane, I will never stop loving you.

"I... I'm not giving up." He pressed his forehead against hers and felt a small amount of his marking scent releasing. Maybe it was too early for that but he didn't care. "I missed you so much. I was so afraid when I heard about Elysium. I'm not giving up."

"I'm glad. I missed you too." Shepard said with a smile. "I actually felt kind of silly, we hardly knew each other apart from, well... sex." She grinned at him. "But I missed you like... I don't know, like I've been with you forever." Her face was deep red now and he recognized the embarrassment.

He stroked her face, still pressing against her forehead. "Don't be embarrassed, I feel the same way."

"Good." She whispered. Then she looked down on her thighs. "Now to the problem at hand. I'm afraid we have to take a little break to let my skin heal." She felt over the irritated area with her fingertips.

Garrus flinched when he looked down on the area. "How long will that hurt?"

She smiled at him. "Oh, it doesn't really hurt, it's just overly sensitive now. The lotion has already helped and if we put some medigel on it it will probably be fine in a few hours."

"And the scratches? There is blood..."

"It's just scratches, nothing bad." She was stroking his mandibles. "You worry too much. I know you turians think we squishy humans are weak but we are tougher than you think. Granted, we bruise easily but we don't let it bother us all that much."

Garrus leaned into her touch with a hum of worry vibrating through him. "Back in basic we had some Shanxi veterans talk to us about humans. One of them told us that he saw humans fall down, injured, losing half of their blood and still get up again to fight. We didn't believe him of course."

"Yeah we can endure a lot if we have to. Some scratches are not going to stop me. Have you seen the big new one on my back?" She turned around and he noticed for the first time a line of dark red scratches, taped with skin grafts going from her right shoulder diagonally to her left hip. "I took a shot to the shoulder, the crappy shields managed to protect me but the punch knocked me back two meters. I fell against a steel beam and the armor cracked and cut into the skin. Hurt like hell. That piece of shit armor didn't even have medigel dispensers so I ran around with it for two days, it got infected of course."

Garrus stared at her back. Soft, pale skin, but there were many marks on her. Scratches, scars, it was a testament to the fact that the soft skinned humans were much tougher than they looked. He had seen that before with humans he had brought in at C-Sec, fresh from a barfight, bleeding all over the floor but still up and ready to fight.

He squeezed some medigel out from the pack and put it on the scratches on her back. "Put some on the skin grafts as well please." She said. He carefully applied the substance on the edges of the grafts and he noticed that they had already started to connect to the skin. They would soon be completely healed. After he had treated her back he put medigel on the scratches on her shoulders. She held out her hand and he squeezed some medigel on it. She took care of the scratches on her waist. They worked silently together.

After he was done with her back and shoulders he turned her around again and carefully spread medigel over the red irritation on her thighs. He couldn't help himself, he let out a low rumble as he stroked her. With her legs folded up like that he could directly see her glistening folds. She was wet and he growled arousal when her scent hit his nose.

He cleaned his fingers on the sheets and then saw the little tube with lotion she had used. Putting some of the lotion on his fingers he went back to the apex of her thighs. He stroked around her labia, opening her soft lips and circled around her clitoris. Her breath hitched and she held on firmly to his cowl.

"Garrus," she whispered, "you don't have to..." Her eyes were wide, staring at him.

"But I want to..." he growled.

"Okay, then don't stop..." She said with a sigh and fell backwards on the bed.

He moved up between her legs, keeping his hand between them. He used the bud of his thumb to circle around her clitoris. He thought about using another finger to enter her but he was wary of his talons. He had scratched her up once already.

He listened for her sighs and whimpers like it was the most wonderful music. She raised her head and smiled at him. "Garrus? Can you, maybe use your tongue?"

Garrus stopped moving for a second. "Have you seen my mouth? Hard plates, sharp teeth, does that sound like something you want down there?"

She giggled and fell back, her arms and legs spread wide. "Try it with your tongue if you like. I trust you, Garrus."

He felt a warmth roll over him. Trust. Trust was huge. She trusted him.

He moved close to her folds and sniffed. She smelled pleasantly and he dipped the tip of his tongue against her labia lips. It wasn't bad, so he took another long lick from the back all the way to the front, crossing her clitoris. She let out a moan that was downright scandalous. He licked her again and again, enjoying her taste and her moans.

"Spirits, Jane, you taste so good. I had no idea." He growled. His tongue lashed around her labia and over her nub and he licked up every bit of her. He saw her hands grabbing and tightening in the sheets. Her breath came in gasps, whimpering sounds telling him that she was close. He intensified his effort, licking up her juice and swirling around her clitoris. Suddenly her spine tensed and she arched away from the bed with a hoarse cry. He felt her orgasm, tiny drops of some fluid dripped from her and he licked them up, loving her sweet and salty taste.

With a sigh she relaxed and her fingers freed themselves from the sheets. She raised herself up on her elbows and smiled at him. He moved up to her smile like it drew him to her. He had to kiss that smile. Finally lying next to her he pressed his mouth against hers loving the feeling of her soft lips against his mouthplates. They kissed, her tongue stroking his plates, her fingers playing on his mandibles and when he opened his eyes again she was looking directly at him.

"You are perfect, do you know that?" She whispered, her voice still velvety deep. He rumbled his pleasure at hearing that, thinking of something to say.

"I've only heard handsome before but I'll add it to the list." He muttered.

She giggled and knocked his shoulder. "Cocksure little turian." With another giggle she looked down towards his groin, grinning. "Speaking of which, what do we have here?" She said and ghosted a fingertip over his erect penis pressing against her side. He groaned at the touch, he was so turned on, he could hardly think straight.

Her fingers closed around his shaft with familiar firmness and she whispered in his ear, "How about if we take a shower and take care of that in the best way that we know."

"Oh Spirits, yes please!" He groaned and almost threw her out of the bed, trying to get up as fast as possible. She laughed, deep and warm and ran after him, placing her arms around his waist and shoved him into the shower. She pressed herself against his back again, like she had done this morning. When the warm water trickled down on them she touched him with her wonderful hands, her lips and her tongue caressing the skin between his backplates and she moved her hands down, stroking, circling, and he lost himself in the sensations until the flood of pleasure overcame him.

"So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Shepard asked, stepping out of the bedroom and looking over to the kitchen area. Garrus was preparing himself some cava while he waited for the coffee and breakfast to arrive that he had ordered for Shepard.

He looked over to her. His human girlfriend was wearing one of his white, sleeveless sleep tunics. The opening on top was too wide for her so she let it slip over one of her shoulders, making a very enticing display of her lovely collarbone that she probably wasn't aware of. When she stood, the tunic went all the way to the floor, looking indeed like a dress on her. She had taken a blue scarf from his closet and had tied it around her waist, accentuating it.

With a bit more decoration it would have looked like a dress a turian woman would wear for her bonding. He had to hold on to the kitchen counter for a second as his knees wanted to give out under him. "You look so beautiful." Like a beautiful bondmate.

She spun around once, swirling the dress and laughing. "You better not get used to this because I almost never wear dresses." She flashed him her smile again and in combination with the dress it made his head spin. "But I can wear this when I'm with you, if you like." She winked at him.

She carelessly jumped on the couch with her knees, completely unaware of the turians near heart attack he almost had. Placing her arms on the back of the couch and resting her chin on top of her hands she looked at him seriously. "Can I stay here with you for my vacation? You don't have to hang around with me all the time, so don't worry, but if I could stay, I would pick up some clothes and my toothbrush from storage. I'm not going to bother you if you don't want it, you don't have to entertain me, you need your space and I respect that..."

He walked over to her in two long strides and bent his knee to get down on her level. "Hush, woman." He pressed his forehead against hers. "You would make me very happy if you stayed here."

She sighed in relief. Her hands went to the back of his neck, stroking the soft skin under his fringe. "I'm so glad, I like being with you." They stayed like that for a long time, her stroking his neck, him stroking her hair. When they broke apart, they were both breathing faster.

"About your plates and the friction they cause," she said, "do you have anything you could put on them to make them softer?" Her fingers were lightly touching the plates on his shoulder and his arm.

He tried to recall the contents of his medicine cupboard. "I have a salve for cracked plates but it smells kind of nasty."

She shook her head at that. "No, we don't want that. Wait," she opened her omni-tool and initiated a search. With a triumphant smile she showed him a shop-page she had found. "Look, there is a whole asari cosmetic line for asari with turian or krogan bondmates. I knew it! Asari skin may be not quite as tender as human skin but still - they have dealt with this problem before." She pointed to some ointments on the translucent screen, "See? There is one for you, 'To soften the plates of your mate,' and there is one for me, 'To reduce friction on your sensitive skin'. I'll order it right away, it'll be here in a few hours."

She threw her arms around his neck. "I told you we would find a solution." Her smile lit up the room and he kissed her with everything he could give until he ran out of air.

"I will never doubt you again, Jane." He whispered as he pressed his mandible against her cheek.

"You better not!" She exclaimed, and there was seriousness hidden under the playful jab.

Garrus looked around his apartment and started a list of things he needed to buy today, now that he knew that Shepard would stay with him. He needed levo-food, levo-beer and other beverages. Did she need special soap? He definitely needed to buy a pillow for her, she had slept under the pillowroll last night.

Shepard had left after a set of clothes for her had been delivered. She had ordered civilian clothes because she wanted to wear something other than her uniform today. She had told him that she had to have another check-up at the hospital and then had to meet Captain Anderson for an informal talk. Anderson was more like a father for her, besides her aunt that had raised her. He had always looked out for her and her career, and had probably been just as worried about her as Garrus had been.

Later she was to meet friends, the 'Badass-Girls Circle' she called them. They wanted to meet after lunch and Shepard had promised to send him a message where they were so that he could join her later.

For now he had to write that report he had promised to Frank and then do some shopping. His omni-tool showed him a message from Frank and he agreed to meet him at the markets on the Presidium.

Garrus stared at his friend in disbelief. "You're leaving C-Sec?" They had sat down for a quick snack at a little cafe on the Presidium and his friend had just broken the news to him. "Why? What are you going to do instead?" He asked, a bit louder than he had intended.

Frank leaned back in his chair and fixed on him with his eyes. "Garrus, when shit hits the fan, you have to make a decision. And that decision is your own and yours alone to make. Sarah's death..." His eyes showed the pain he felt when he mentioned her name, "It made me question everything. I'm a fucking C-Sec officer and I couldn't even protect her! What are we doing here, birdy?" He leaned forward and pointed his finger at Garrus. "You and I, we are trying to do good, but we are not getting anywhere. Criminals walk away, grinning at us, while secret organisations rise to power and nobody knows about it."

They got some annoyed looks from other patrons and Frank lowered his voice. "I'm tired of cleaning up the mess, I'm tired of seeing the aftermath of some assholes decision to let a black-ops operation go rogue in the Alliance and nobody seems to be bothered by it. You know I did some digging about Cerberus. You remember that story how a whole platoon almost got killed by Thresher Maws on Akuze? Cerberus appears in so many reports about Akuze it's not even funny anymore."

Garrus felt his frustration and knew what Frank was talking about, but was leaving C-Sec the right solution? "So you're joining the Alliance again? Or going into politics? The politics will drive you crazy either way, you know it!" Garrus couldn't quite imagine his old partner, hotheaded and foulmouthed, as a politician but he had to admit the man sitting before him wasn't really his old partner anymore. Frank Johnson had matured and he was a man with a mission now. Garrus admired that, that he had found his purpose and decided to act on it.

"No, I'm going to be a journalist." Frank said with determination. "We need real news, not that stuff that Westerlund is calling news with the xenophobic bullshit they spread. I know this one guy, he has a small news site but with great potential to tell real stories. A human woman, Emily Wong, is working for him, she has a real knack for investigative journalism. I'm going to join her and we will do some honest reporting. Getting down to the meat of the shit."

Every turian was raised to find his consilium, his purpose, and follow it. Garrus wasn't sure if he had found his consilium yet but Frank seemed to have found his. This was something worthy of supporting his friend in.

"You know what?" Garrus said, putting his hand on Johnson's shoulder, "You are going to do the right thing, I know it and I'm not going to talk you out of it. You are my best friend and a good man, and you should do what you have to do. I know you will make this galaxy a better place."

For a second old Johnson beamed back at him with a boyish grin and then he put his hand on Garrus's shoulder as well and looked at him seriously. "Thank you my friend, that means a lot. I will aim for that and I know you will do the same. You will make a difference in this galaxy too, I know it."

They both held the pressure on each others shoulder a bit longer, and then they nodded, dropping their hands. Garrus felt slightly dizzy, so many things in his life were changing.

Frank leaned forward and then asked in a low, conspiratorial voice, "So, this Lieu... - no - Commander Shepard. What is she like?" He grinned at him and Garrus knew he was not easily getting out of this interrogation.

Garrus and Frank had parted and promised to contact each other later. Frank wanted to meet Shepard and Garrus looked forward to spend some more time with his friends. He sent a message to Nihlus to see if he was around too.

He returned home to receive and store all the deliveries of the things he had bought. His kitchen was overflowing with food packages that could easily be heated. A crate full of human alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages was taking up space on his small countertop. He had to move it into the living room area and he realized for the first time that his apartment was not really made for two people. Especially two people of different species.

As he put the new pillow on one side of his bed his omni-tool chimed with a call. He looked carefully who it was. He knew that his sister had tried to contact him once but she had ended the call when he had taken it. He wasn't sure what that meant, either she didn't want to talk to him or his father was somehow preventing her from contacting him. Both scenarios were possible.

This time it was a call from Shepard and he felt a silly dash of happiness in his gizzard at that. Is it always going to be like this?

Shepard's face appeared on the screen, smiling at him. "Hey, Garrus!" He spread his mandibles in a wide grin that she hopefully interpreted as what it was: The stupid grin of a turian hopelessly in love.

"Hey, Shepard."

"The girls and me are in a bar." She waved her arm around so that he got a shaky view of the inside of some bar. The camera panned over many glasses on the table and Garrus was sure that Shepard had drunk the contents of a few of them. "We sufficiently talked about you and your fabulousness and now the girls want to meet you. I'm sending you the coordinates. Don't worry, I already told them that they can only watch, they can't have you."

She suddenly moved her arm close to her mouth and by the darkness that the camera showed for a second he assumed that she had tried to send him a kiss. She giggled slightly and whispered at him. "They can't have you, only I can." Another giggle came from her before she moved the arm away from her face again. "I don't know if Nihlus is around, but maybe Frank could come as well? Not that they can compete with your fabulousness but they can take second place." She grinned sheepishly at him.

Garrus grinned back, he liked slightly drunk Shepard. "I'll take care of it, I'll be right there." He closed the call, smiling happily at himself. After sending messages to Frank and Nihlus he made his way to the coordinates that Shepard had sent him.

A short ride later he arrived at a bar on one of the wards, just off the Presidium. The room was dark but his eyes adjusted quickly. In the back of the room, in a booth partially obscured from the rest of the room, four human women were sitting on a bench around a circular table. They were laughing and drew the attention of almost everyone in the bar. Garrus noticed with a practised sweep across the room that most of the people were human, but he saw two salarians, a turian and a group of asari as well.

He made his way over to the booth and when Shepard saw him, she scrambled out of the bench. Two of the women had to get up to let her out, one had slightly darker skin than Shepard and long brown hair, the other had even darker skin and her curly black hair was cut very short. Shepard bounced over to him and pulled him over to the table by his arm.

She smiled her big smile and held his arm with both hands. "Ladies? That's him. Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec officer and soon to be ANIS investigator if people listen to me."

Three human smiles turned to him, eyes traveling up and down, unashamedly checking him out. At almost the same moment they all turned back to Shepard and gave a short nod of approval to her. Garrus felt like he had passed an important test just now.

The large, dark skinned woman with the short hair stepped over to him and grabbed his hand in a rough handshake. "Hello Garrus, very nice to meet you." She pointed with her head towards Shepard who was remarkably quiet. "This one has been raving about you for the last hour, it's good to finally put a face to the subject of her infatuation."

The other women were giggling and the third one, what humans called of oriental descent, whose hair was half black and half pink, purred. "And such a nice face he has..." The dark woman took a step back, "And those shoulders, gawd, to die for!" The woman with the long hair circled around him, looking him over, "Have you seen this waist?" She made an appreciative sound. Garrus stretched his throat. This must be how asari strippers feel all the time.

Garrus looked down towards Shepard with slight shock, had she told her friends about them? Shepard's face was deep red and she smiled at him apologetic.

"I'm Mary by the way," the woman said with her deep voice, "and you don't have to worry, we know everything." She made a sweeping motion with her arm that encompassed all of them. "No secrets and no xenophobes in Shepard's Circle."

Finally Shepard herself spoke up. "It's not Shepard's Circle, it's the Badass-Girls Circle!" Her hands squeezed his arm.

Mary shook her head and the third woman laughed. "Look at little Miss Humble here. Like it or not, this is the Shepard Circle." They all grinned at Jane and she threw her arms up in defeat.

Shepard went to get a chair for him that would be easier for him to sit on with his spurs. Mary stepped closer to Garrus and whispered, "You watch over her because she's important. She's gonna rule the world one day, mark my words." Her eyes pinned his in seriousness. Garrus nodded towards her. Shepard was going to change the galaxy one day, of that he had no doubt.

His human girlfriend returned with a turian style chair and after he had sat down he suddenly found his lap full of her. She gave him a sloppy kiss on his mandible and then looked forward, pressing her cheek against the wet splotch.

"Come on, Hyun Su, take a picture." The asian looking woman held up her omni-tool and made a recording of them. Shepard turned her face back to him and when he had turned to her as well, she gave him a real kiss. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Mary was using her large frame to shield them from onlookers. With a relieved subharmonic rumble he let himself fall into the kiss.

They kissed till the women were making funny noises and told them to get a room. Shepard's skin was flushed red and with a sigh she let go of him and sat down on the bench next to his chair. Garrus had to take a few deep breaths to calm his gizzard down.

Hyun Su was fiddling with her omni-tool and Garrus held up his omni-tool towards her. "Could I have that recording as well?" She smiled at him, "Of course, sweetie." She transferred the files, she had made a video and turned some frames into still-pictures. There was a picture of their faces pressed against each other, grinning at the camera. Garrus thought he looked rather stupid. Another picture showed them kissing but there was one from the moment before that he liked best.

It showed them looking at each other, a smile on their faces and a look of promises in their gaze. He felt Shepard's hand on his and she said quietly "That's my favourite."

Garrus looked at her. "Yes, it's mine too." He said and got lost in her brilliant smile again.

()()()

I think I finally outsmutted myself now, so I could actually squeeze some plot in there.

It's impossible with these two, I need to tie them up or something, they go at each other like horny teenagers.

You probably learned more about dyeing hair than you ever wanted to know in this chapter. That's not even going to be the worst of weird human things Garrus will learn about.

With Garrus tongue and mouth, I have this feeling that I read lines like that somewhere so if I'm stealing from one of the many stories I read on this site I sincerely apologize. I will give credit if I find the story where the sentences came from.

Thanks to Credete for editing and suffering through all the smut.