A little bit of smutty fluff and a look into Shepard's mind.

()()()

Garrus and Shepard took the transit train down along Tayseri Ward, standing side by side, watching the high rising buildings go by. They passed a beautiful, sprawling building and Shepard asked him about it. He loved how her eyes filled with childlike curiosity. He explained that it was the Dilinaga Concert Hall, one of the greatest concert halls in the galaxy, known for it's excellent acoustics.

"What kind of music do they play there?" She asked.

"I'm not exactly the expert here, I'm more knowledgeable when it comes to the sound of gunfire." He answered. "But I know that they have asari and human ballet there, and old serious music from turians. Again, not really my thing."

"Yeah, not mine either." She said with a laugh. "There goes the romance."

"What?"

She brushed her hand over his and smiled at him. "Don't worry, it's just a thing from old Earth movies, the man takes the girl to the opera and she is moved to tears by it and they hold hands... it's all very romantic." She shook her head. "It's not really my thing, I would probably fall asleep during the performance."

The train shook slightly and she leaned against him for a second.

"But you can take me to the gun range anytime and play me a song with your rifle." She whispered. Her alluring voice made his plates move under his codpiece. He had to clamp his mandibles tight to his face and urgently held on to his subharmonics. A turian standing at the door was already looking at them suspiciously.

Thankfully their stop came up and they walked the rest of the way to his apartment building. A conversation about gun mods was bubbling between them, neither of them really paying attention. They looked at each other and it didn't matter what they were talking about.

As soon as they had entered the elevator, their conversation stopped and they only stared at each other with hungry eyes. They were alone and Garrus let his subharmonics growl and sing freely. She answered with touch, her fingertips brushing featherlike over his mandibles, his throat, his fringe, anything she could touch that wasn't covered by his armor.

When they finally arrived on his floor, Garrus felt like he was about to burst from desire. She walked in front of him towards his door, her hips swinging enticingly. He fumbled with the entry code, his higher brain function had evidently shut off. Shepard was giggling quietly and moved her fingertips under his fringe, making him groan even more.

Finally the door opened and the pieces of his armor began falling to the floor before the door had closed again. Her vest followed, one shoe got kicked across the room, the other left on the floor with her pants, looking like a snake with a big head. Her fingers moved efficiently over the seals and clasps of his armor until only his underarmor remained, his erection straining angrily against it.

She palmed his penis through the fabric and at the same time let her panties fly from her toes. His hand found her wet folds and he touched her carefully. Her moan made the underarmor unbearable to keep wearing, as fast as he could he shrugged out of it and returned to his woman. She had thrown off her shirt and her bra and finally - finally - naked skin pressed against hot plates and they both sighed like two addicts getting their drug.

They were still standing in the middle of the room, halfway between the sitting area and the kitchen. Strong arms wrapped around each other, her face in his cowl, his mandibles in her hair. Her hands moving up and down his back and he tried to snake his hand back to the apex of her legs. He licked her neck and carefully nibbled the skin on her collarbone. Her breath came in gasps and she pulled him back towards the kitchen counter to lean against it.

When she had settled with her back against the counter, he moved back and licked down from her shoulder to her breast, circling the little nub in the middle. Her moan drove him crazy. Suddenly she pulled his face back up and kissed him, hard. With one foot she touched his legspur, making him shudder and she asked, "Does it hurt if I put my weight on there?"

"What? No, quite the opposite actually... aah." He finished the sentence with a shockingly loud yell of passion as she climbed up on him like on a tree, gripping his spurs with her toes. With a grin she growled, "Fuck foreplay," and lowered herself down on his very hard penis. Her moan was as loud as his.

"Yes!" She cried out. "In me! So good!" She firmly held on to his cowl to gain some leverage and rolled her hips. Garrus almost came from that move alone. She kept on moving and lowered herself up and down, bending her knees and standing on his spurs. The pressure there made waves of pleasure run through him. She moved faster, harder, and she smelled so good and she moaned and he couldn't hold back anymore. His nose pressed against her cheek as his orgasm ripped through him with force. Faintly he noticed that he scented her again.

He had to hold on to the counter to not lose his balance. She was still moving, one hand between them, furiously rubbing herself and after a minute she came herself. She yelled out incoherently and held onto his cowl for dear life. She was still moving, rutting against him, giving him wonderful aftershocks with those muscles inside of her. With a sigh she came again and then slammed herself against him and bit into his cowl, holding him with her teeth.

Deep, hidden emotions of days long past welled up in him and he almost bit her himself. Just the softness of her skin held him back.

Her teeth released his cowl, leaving little dents in the cartilage but she had not broken the skin. She settled her ass on top of the counter and Garrus pressed his forehead against hers. They stayed like that for a long time until their breathing had gone back to normal.

Shepard was the first to speak. "That was like torture, being right next to you all day, not allowed to touch you. Whenever I looked at you, I just wanted to feel you inside of me. I could hardly concentrate."

Garrus pulled his head back to stare at her in disbelief. "I thought that only happened to me."

"Are you kidding me?" She laughed. "I wanted to jump you all day."

He slowly let himself slip out of her and she grabbed a cleaning rag to catch their juices flowing out of her. He made a mental note to do some serious cleaning to this counter soon. But not now, now he just wanted to hold her.

He picked her up from the counter and carried her over to the couch, her legs over his hips. Before he could sit her down, she threw a towel on it to sit on.

"Still dripping, you know?" She said with a laugh. He grabbed a blanket to cover her and wondered if he should get a second one. She always felt cold to him but he knew that humans had a lower normal body temperature than turians.

"Are you warm enough?"

"Hell, yeah! Your place is always so warm, I could walk around naked and never feel cold. Palaven must be an oven if you are used to these temperatures."

"Turians don't like it cold, we keep our houses warm and we actually do walk around naked a lot of times." He said, sitting down next to her.

"Hmm, how distracting that would be..." She murmured into his ear, placing soft kisses on the side of his fringe. A shiver went through him.

He pulled her closer to him, spreading the thin blanket over them. "You want to watch that vid now?"

"About the protheans? Sure. But I'll probably fall asleep."

Garrus smiled, he liked the thought of her sleeping on his shoulder. "That's okay, we can watch it again some other time. Just rest."

She sighed happily and cuddled up against his side. "I love that you watch over me." She murmured and Garrus's heart made a jump.

I love that you let me.

She grabbed a pillow and put it on his cowl to settle the side of her face against it. He laid his head carefully against hers. With a wave of his hand he turned on the big screen and started the vid. He had his windows programmed to follow the day-night-cycle of the Presidium and not the cycle of Palaven. The windows glass panes were already tinted dark, simulating a night time that the wards never had.

The speaker on the screen had said no more than five words when already Shepard had fallen asleep.

When Garrus woke up again, the window panes were already removing the tint, indicating that they had slept on the couch for the whole night. At some point he had moved his legs up and was now lying sideways with his head on the armrest. Shepard was lying on top of him on her stomach, wrapped in the blanket like a cocoon, the pillow with her head on it stuck in his cowl. He had no idea how she had even gotten into this position.

He carefully moved her to the side and let her slide off behind him. She snarled in her sleep and he chuckled. As soon as she had the couch to herself, she spread out and took it up completely. Garrus was still amazed by that ability.

He got up and went into the kitchen area. As he set the cava and the coffee machine to work he remembered his mental promise from last night and sprayed some cleaning solution on the counter to wipe it clean. Even after wiping all horizontal and vertical surfaces, his sensitive nose still told him of the sex of the last night. He issued a command to the ventilation system to clean the air.

Before the system started working, Shepard raised her head and looked over the back of the couch towards him. "I smell coffee." She said with a hoarse voice. Shepard was clearly not a morning person.

The ventilation system kicked in and took most of the smell out of the room. Garrus looked over to Shepard. She had wrinkles on her face where folds from the couch or blanket had pressed in. He thought it was amazing how her soft skin could change like this and then return to it's original state.

She got up and stretched, clearly not bothered by her nakedness. Raking her fingers through her hair, she traipsed over to him and took the cup of coffee he held out to her. Garrus stepped over to her and nuzzled her hair. She leaned her weight against him and kept drinking her coffee. They stood silently like that for a long time. Garrus considered this to be a perfect morning.

When Shepard had finished her coffee she looked much more lively. She stretched up and placed a kiss on his mandible, before making her way into the bathroom.

"I'm taking a shower. Then we could have breakfast and afterwards make our report to Keggs about what we have learned of Saren so far. What do you think?" She asked.

He nodded his head. "Sounds like a plan."

She disappeared behind the door and Garrus walked over to the window to look outside while he drank the rest of his cava. Outside the Citadel arm stretched out before him, lights twinkling. His apartment was on the 32nd floor, far above the atmospheric layer of the wards. Up here the building was sealed against the outside, the protective layer of gas over the atmosphere and the mass effect fields holding it in place almost thirty floors below him. If he squinted, he could see the faint blue ripples in the gas, caused by the mass effect fields adjusting. It looked like the patterns on Shepard's hair when they had been standing by the lake.

His thoughts went to her. He would have to tell her soon how serious his feelings were. Already he had scented her and he had not even told her. Turians may not be known for their romantic abilities but if he couldn't trust his own instincts, what could he trust? Garrus had no reference for his feelings, no chart to scale them against but he knew deep in his gizzard that there would never be anyone else. It may not be the turian way and there may not even be a turian word for this, especially not when it involved a human. But there is no other name for a binary system of two stars, revolving around each other in the grip of their own gravity, than love.

Garrus was shaken from his thoughts by hearing Jane call out for him. He stumbled to the bathroom where he was greeted by his human girlfriend's face full of soapy bubbles and white foam on her hair. He touched her hair and her cheek curiously, surprised how different it felt. She smiled at him and asked with an alluring tone in her voice, "Care to join me, my angel?"

Are you hesitating, stupid turian?

Eagerly he stepped inside the shower, closing the translucent door behind him. She turned the water back on, it was a bit colder than he usually liked it but he wouldn't complain. Not when he could use the soft sponge he had bought for her and wipe away all the soapy bubbles and suds, caressing her skin. Not when she leaned her back against him, her head resting on his cowl. Not when the sponge fell to the ground, his hands busy with her mounds and her labia. Stroking, circling he brought her to climax, catching her as her legs gave out under her. Turning around she climbed him again and lowered herself onto him like she had done before. But this time there was no urgency, no desperate roughness. This time she was sliding softly, slowly. Only when his own release rolled up to him did their movements become more frantic, desperate, and his roar got even louder when she bit into his cowl upon their climax, her vagina contracting around him.

He set her down again and she leaned against him, her face against the side of his cowl and her hands stroking the plates on his chest. She talked quietly over the rushing of water around them. "I love how soft your plates become, absorbing the water."

"And I think it's fascinating that your soft skin is water repellent." He said, stroking softly over her shoulder. Her collarbone stood out and he turned and lowered himself down to nibble at that beautiful curve. Her hands held his waist, strong and firm like he loved it. It gave him a warm shudder to think how well she already knew his body and what he liked.

The shower gave a warning beep about the excessive use of water and they stopped it with a sigh. He let her step out before vibrating his skin to let the water fly away. She turned around with surprise on her face. "What are you doing?"

"Shaking off the water."

"You can do that?" She asked curiously. He did another tremor and she giggled. "Like a dog coming out of the pool."

Garrus snorted at that. "Our plates absorb water and by vibrating we can get rid of most of it. The rest has to dry off with a sonic fan or a towel. What do you do?"

"We use a towel to soak up the water. I could dry in a sonic fan as well but you have to give me something now because I'm making a puddle on the floor here." She pointed to the floor and there was indeed a growing puddle of water. She wiggled her toes and they made little splashes in the water. Garrus thought that was adorable, the many toes looked like they had a life of their own.

He snapped himself out of his fascination with Jane's toes and threw a towel on the floor for her to step on and took another one to dry her with. He had come to love her skin and now he wanted to touch it all the time.

"You've ruined me, do you know that?" He whispered at her.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I ruined you? What did I do?"

"I'm a turian, I'm supposed to prefer rough plates and hard angled hips. But you are soft and round all over and I..." he nibbled her weirdly soft earlobe, "can't get enough of you."

And I love you.

"And I should prefer unplated skin and flat voices but I can't." She whispered against the skin of his neck. "You have ruined me just as much." She pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

Their tongues connected and it made his plates shift again and he scolded himself inside. He felt like an insatiable teenager and he didn't want her to think that he just desired her for her body. And they didn't have that much time anyway. He broke the kiss and nuzzled her hair while she placed kisses on his mandibles.

"We should probably get going, we need to see if we can find out more about Saren before Nihlus arrives." He mumbled into her hair.

"Yes, you're right."

Neither of them moved.

He felt her take a breath as if she wanted to say something but she stayed silent. He pulled back to look into her face. There was a serious look on her face, and her mouth opened again with words that didn't come out. He tipped his tongue against her upper lip and she took a gasping breath.

He put his hand on her cheek. "What is it?"

She took another breath and the words came tumbling out of her, "You and me... it feels so right... you make me so happy!" She placed a kiss on his mouth and ran out of the room. Garrus felt a rush of pure joy flow through him and he had to laugh at the same time. They were both clearly equally incapable of putting their feelings into words.

Stepping out of the bathroom he searched for her and heard her cursing in the bedroom. With a chuckle he stepped up to her, stopping her from kicking the box with her clothes because it wouldn't open.
"Let me help you." He said quietly and the annoyed frown on her face made way for a little smile. Together they managed to release the wedged lid and Shepard picked out fresh jeans and a shirt to go under her vest. When she got up he wrapped his arms around her and murmured into her ear, "You make me happy too", his voice underlined with deep rumbles of affection.

She leaned back against him and her breath came in a happy sigh. Garrus's subharmonics sang to her, affection, desire, love. Eventually she freed herself from his embrace, placing a kiss on his mandible and made an apologetic trill.
"We have to get going, angel." She said.

He nodded. "I know, give me a minute to get dressed." He turned to his cleaning closet but realized that his armor had not made it into the thing last night. His armor was spread out in pieces all over the floor of the living room and the kitchen area. "Futuo! I didn't disinfect my armor last night. I have to do a quick cycle now, otherwise I'll smell all day."

"Alright, I'm getting us breakfast, but you have to write down what you want. I don't want to bring you children treats or something like that." Shepard said as she put on her shoes.

"Hey, there are perks to having a girlfriend, I'm getting breakfast brought home." He said with a chuckle, sending a few orders to her omni-tool. He began picking up the pieces of his armor from the floor. A slap on his ass made him shriek and Shepard jumped away with a giggle.

"Yes, there are perks, boyfriend, many perks." She called out with a laugh and he took note of the emphasis on the word boyfriend. She smiled beautifully at him and left him standing with a warm feeling spreading inside of him.

At the ANIS-office they had just managed to give their report to Jentarius Keggs before he had to run off with the team. Before he left, he ordered them to speak to the director and that was where they sat now, waiting to be called into her office. The secretary had entered the directors office and they sat alone in the hall. Sitting next to each other, their hands touched and secretly they were stroking each others hand.

Garrus almost regretted when they got called in, ending their little moment. As hard as it was to hide their feelings in public, he loved the little secret touches they had.

The director was a tiny human woman with a slim, hard face. Garrus immediately sensed that she was not to be underestimated. The woman stood up and held out her hand towards him.
"Garrus Vakarian, I'm Jana Schaefer, Director of ANIS." Garrus took her hand, trying to make his handshake firm but not too much. Her hand was smaller than Shepard's, and while still strong, it was clear that the director had spent the last years more behind a desk than on the battlefield. After shaking his hand, Shepard and her exchanged a silent handshake as well.

The director sat back down and indicated to them to sit down. Garrus took note that one chair was of human design and the other of turian design. He was sure that that was not a coincidence, everything at ANIS was practically screaming of interspecies collaboration. The humans truly wanted this to work, accommodating all species in every way possible.

The director looked at them expectantly. "What can you tell me about Saren Arterius?"

Shepard took the lead and laid out their knowledge. "Saren was on board of the Katanga for a short time, we know that from a krogan merc named Wrex, who had signed up but left without pay because he had suspicions. According to Wrex, Saren had hired the mercs to raid ships and he came on board when they went down to an archaeological dig site. He was looking for prothean stuff, we don't know why. He left that place in ruins. Same thing happened on a volus freighter that they raided on his call, he was looking for prothean things but didn't find any. We will meet with Spectre Nihlus later on, Saren was his mentor and he may be able to tell us more."

Garrus nodded to show that he agreed with this summary. The director leaned back and thought the information over.
"I find it deeply disturbing that a Council Spectre is raiding freighters and archeological dig sites. We have to inform the Council of this but we need more evidence than what a krogan merc is telling us."

"Wrex would never lie to me." Shepard said angrily.

The director raised her hands to calm her down. "I'm sure, but it will still not be enough to convince the council. You have to find out more, find another witness. If we want to convince the Council that their favorite Spectre has gone rogue, we need rock-solid evidence."

Garrus nodded again. "Agreed, so far we only have hearsay. But without access to the Council's database we can't find out where he has been and what his connections are."

The director showed a dangerous smile. "I might be able to help with that." She turned to Shepard. "The asari councillor, Tevos, will grant both of you access to the Spectre database for one hour. You can't copy any data, only read." Shepard opened her mouth to ask a question but the director stopped her. "Of course, she asks you to do her a favor for that."

"Of course." Shepard grumbled through clenched teeth.

"She wants you to speak to the asari Consort Sha'ira. She has a delicate problem that needs a careful solution." The director said and sent a message to their omni-tools.

Shepard looked more annoyed by the minute. "Not sure if I'm the right person for this job." She grumbled something unintelligible. Garrus was a bit surprised by her annoyance, he would have to ask her about that when they were alone.

The director showed a slight grin on her face. "I'm sure you can manage. I trust Mr. Vakarian here to remind you of your diplomatic talent once in a while."

Shepard's snorted once and then gave a curt nod. Garrus nodded as well and they both left the office after receiving the necessary contact data. They both left the building and Shepard sighed loudly.

"Now I have to kiss up to this asari..."

"What exactly is your problem? You're acting like this is a punishment."

"Yeah, I know, I'm being irrational." She sighed and raked a hand through her hair. "I admit it, I'm wary of the asari. Something about them rubs me the wrong way. I know, everybody loves them and I'm supposed to be all for interspecies understanding, but the asari..."

"Really?" Garrus asked with disbelief, "You are best friends with krogan, have a turian boyfriend, but you get xenophobic with asari? Everybody loves the asari."

"I know and I'm not talking about individuals, I mean Jinala was really sweet and I have met other, perfectly nice asari. But politically I just don't trust them. You know, I have a friend who does social studies and he told me how you have to watch a society for many generations to see if changes take and what developments are dominant. And now look at the asari. They founded the council along with the salarians. One of the longest living species with one of the shortest living. It's like they're watching an experiment unfold. While the salarians rush through generations, the asari keep on living and watching. The only other species living as long as them are the krogan and they are sure as hell not letting them get anywhere close to the Council. Did the asari even change the councilor once, since founding the Council?"

"I'm not sure, how old is Councillor Tevos?" Garrus wondered.

"I don't know either. It feels like they just watch, you know? Watch and judge. They grant a few embassies here and there but they only let the turians on the Council after you guys practically singlehandedly cleaned up the fuckshit with the krogan, which they had caused themselves."

They walked in a brisk pace towards the Presidium. Shepard looked at her feet and kept her voice low enough so that only Garrus could hear her.
"If the asari gave up the council, what would happen? For the asari this is still a first generation experiment, they could say it failed and move on."

They crossed the Presidium and made their way over to one of the bridges that crossed the lake. Shepard kept on talking. "And what do we know about the asari, how does their society work?"

They slowed down and Garrus pulled her to a bench on the bridge to sit down. He had the feeling that Shepard needed to get these thoughts out of her head.

"Did you know that when you visit Thessia, they assign a guide to you who takes you around and tells you where you can look and where you can't?"

"That's not unusual, to have a guide to show you the sights." Garrus interrupted but he knew that was not what she meant.

Shepard rolled her eyes at him. "I don't mean a tour guide, this guide is there to watch where you're going. You are not free to go where you want on Thessia. They say there is no poverty on Thessia but if there was, nobody would ever see it. What about economics? They have a monopoly on biotic technology and they export eezo. So where are the factory workers, the miners, the refinery workers? Do miners live in the same luxury as the temple asari? What about asari who are not as smart as others? What if they don't believe in the same goddess? They display this front of total peace and unity but I don't believe the world works that way."

Garrus's mandibles fluttered in a grin, it amused him that she had put so much thought into this. "I honestly don't know and never wondered about that."

"Why are you grinning about it like that?" She asked, grinning herself.

"This, this questioning, wondering, it is just so very human. It's the most wonderful, most interesting and most annoying characteristic of your species." Garrus said with a laugh and for a second he put his arms around her shoulder and pulled her towards him. Just for a second. On the other side of the bridge a turian clamped his mandibles to his face and made a disgusted hum.

He let her go and grinned at her. "Are you done now?"

She shook her head and wrinkled her nose at him. "No, I'm not done." She sighed. "You know, I can never talk about these thoughts because I don't want to come across as some sort of xenophobe. I don't dislike asari as people, but there are so many mysteries around them, they make me suspicious. Like what is it with their tendency to work as dancers and prostitutes? Not that I'm condemning that but surely there are more things a smart asari could do."

"Yes, I have been wondering about that myself." Garrus murmured. He even once had asked Dalinia about it but she had evaded the answer.

Shepard moved a bit closer to him and talked even quieter. "Ok, far fetched conspiracy theory here. A long time ago on Earth there was a spy called Mata Hari who worked as an erotic dancer and seduced important people and got them to tell her secrets. What if asari worked like that? Not all of them of course. But think about all the secrets an asari could get from a willing participant through one of their Embrace Eternity things. They could read it directly from your mind and you wouldn't even know it."

Garrus wanted to object but the words got stuck. Shepard wasn't the first who had asked this question, in fact when the turians met the asari back in the day, there were deep running suspicions for a long time against the mind melt. But somehow, after a while, nobody questioned it anymore.
"They have an oath against unwanted mind probing. It sounds... I want to say unlikely but maybe it isn't..." Garrus had to admit that her reasoning sounded quite convincing.

Shepard nodded. "Yes, I think it's weird that nobody wonders about that. Like the Consort, she is a professional... companion to important people and they say that she has great political influence. How? How can she be influential if she isn't using the secrets, that those important people let her see, to her advantage?" She shook her head and looked at him. "So now you know my dirty secret, Commander Shepard is an asariphobe. I'm very sorry."

"So far you haven't shot any asari or yelled at one, I reserve my judgement for later." Garrus grinned at her. He really couldn't see her as a xenophobe, asking questions was not wrong.

"Yeah, thanks for the confidence. I'll try to control my urges." She grumbled sarcastically.

"Have you ever been with an asari? Sexually I mean?" Garrus asked, his subharmonics humming.

Shepard nodded. "Yes, once. It was very nice, sure, but this whole mind connection thing makes me uneasy. Afterwards she looked at me like she was scared of me. I don't like it if people probe around in my mind's secrets. It's not a pretty place, I'm sure."

He nudged her in the side with his elbow, "Hey, why would you say that? I'm sure your mind is chaotic and crazy but still very pretty."

"Charmer." She said with a laugh.

They both got up and walked towards the place where the Consort resided. As they got closer, Shepard's back became straighter and her face hardened, with her chin stretched forward. It was fascinating to see how she slipped into the persona of the hardened Commander.

They were led to the Consort Sha'ira by her assistant after waiting for a short time. The assistant kept on stressing what a great honor it was to see the Consort without any waiting time and how glad Shepard should be to even meet her. Garrus could see that Shepard became more uncomfortable by the minute.

The Consort herself was breathtakingly beautiful and had a soft manner that made her appear unassuming and friendly. Garrus could see why powerful men and women would like her. She had a way of taking herself back and letting the other person feel safe and comfortable.

It didn't work on Shepard at all. She kept her distance and her face showed no emotion.

The melodic voice of Sha'ira floated through the dim lit room. "One of my clients, a turian retired general named Septimus Oraka, has been seeing me for years and he wanted our relationship to become more than it can ever be. In his anger he is now spreading lies about me, revealing confidential information about Xeltan, an elcor diplomat. To Xeltan it looks like this information came from me and it damages my reputation greatly." The Consort had a pained look on her face. She took a step towards Shepard and took her hand. "I ask you to be discreet and caring. Septimus suffers and I don't want him to suffer more but you have to convince him that his behaviour is wrong. He needs to admit to Xeltan that he had discovered this information himself, that it did not come from me. Will you do this for me, Commander Shepard?"

"Yes, I had already promised to Councillor Tevos that I would help you." Shepard said with a nod. She stood very still but she didn't pull her hand away. Somehow she appeared more calm and relaxed. "Do you know where I can find Oraka?"

The Consort's warm voice embraced them even more. "He seems to spend most of his time in Chora's Den, drinking a lot. I am very glad that you will help me, Shepard. Please come back and see me when you have spoken to Septimus." She released her hand and took a step backwards. They said goodbye and walked out. Outside they stopped and Shepard looked at her hands with wonder.

"Wow, did you feel that?" She asked.

Garrus felt the last tingles of Sha'ira's presence fall away. "Yes, her voice did something. I felt safe, content."

"She is good. She made me all warm and calm inside. I can see why she is so revered." She sighed. "Well, let's see if we can find Oraka. Take me to the bar, Garrus. Pretty sure you still know where that bar is, right?"

Warm memories from a long time ago floated up in his mind. "Oh yes, I do, Alliance-Red. Yes I do."

()()()

Yay, Sex! You thought I would deprive you but you were wrong! And then I went into sweet-romance-cuteness overload, I hope nobody got a toothache from that.
And Shepard isn't quite the guardian of interspecies understanding? Who would have thought?

About Garrus's apartment above the atmosphere; according to the Codex:

-The Wards are open-topped, with skyscrapers rising from the superstructure. Towers are sealed against vacuum, as the breathable atmosphere envelope is only maintained to a height of about seven meters. The atmosphere is contained by the centrifugal force of rotation and a "membrane" of dense, colorless sulphur hexafluoride gas, held in place by carefully managed mass effect fields.-

Seven meters, for all you non-metrics, would be at about three stories high, a bit under.

I think this is so cool.

Also in the Codex it says that only the Presidium has a day-night cycle, the wards stay bright around the clock.
I imagine that people can program the window panes in their apartments to get dark, following a certain cycle. It would be done with something like LCD's, like they are used in auto darkening welding helmets. You could even program them to make patterns, looking like a silhouette cut-out. So you would program it to follow the cycle of your home planet or you could follow the Presidium's cycle like Garrus does. I imagine Garrus had it on Palaven's cycle for a while but the Presidium's cycle was just easier for him and his work shifts. And it was also a way to disengage himself from his family on Palaven.

I'm thinking way too much about this.

Thanks to Credete for editing once again!