Jane's day starts off with breakfast - if it could be called that - in bed, which is, initially, very confusing until she realizes what today is. Not that she had forgotten, she never could, but she has to admit she's far from aware right after opening her eyes in the early morning. Especially when it's to a platter of something slightly green and lumpy in the hands of the very man she bound herself to so many years ago today.
Her love for him hadn't waned in the time spent together, fighting and surviving side by side, but asking her to eat what looked suspiciously like hardened snot became a stretch.
"Hey," she says with a lopsided smile, glancing at the plate in his hands as she scoots over to give him room to sit beside her on the bed. "Mmm… Looks delicious."
Garrus snorts as the plate passes between them before leaning over and kissing her cheek. "No it doesn't" He chuckles and pokes the fluff of greenish yellow with the tip of his sharp talon. "Pretty sure it's not supposed to be that color… or smell like that."
"What is it?" She leans over and nuzzles his mandible.
"Eggs"
She pauses mid-lean to put the plate on the side table and looks at him in surprise. "Eggs? Really?" Clearing her throat, she glances at it. "No offense, but I'm not eating green eggs. Even if there's a children's book about it, I'm pretty sure your cooking will kill me."
Her mate laughs, his scar-roughened voice rumbling deep enough to leave a light fluttering in her chest, and she can't help but smile and let her chuckles join in. Years together, and just the sound of his laughter puts a stupid grin on her face, but she doesn't want it any other way. Not when it sometimes still feels like it's the two of them against the galaxy. When considering their positions as rogue Spectres and - probably, most definitely - galactic criminals now, that 'feeling' gains a bit more clout, but picking apart the truth to the situation just seems redundant and unnecessarily boring when faced with her smiling, purring husband.
"So, breakfast is a bust," he says, chuckling as he takes her hand and looks out of the large windows of their bedroom towards the rolling waves, "but I'm sure I can make it up to you somehow."
She smirks when he presses his mouth to her neck and gives her a rumbling growl, like the revving of an old-world engine. A shiver rolls down her spine and she hunches her shoulders against the chill, chuckling. With a playful shove, she pushes him away before she jumps him right here and now. Last thing she wants is the twins rushing in and jumping on some valuable bits. She'd much rather not spend their anniversary in Dr Elihu Solas' medbay.
Mmm… antiseptics and bruised dicks. Romantic.
"Enough, horn dog," she says, nudging Garrus away again when he growls and smirks at her as his hands tug on the sheets. "The kids could walk in any minute now. Do you want to guard your junk against that kind of onslaught?"
He grabs her hand by the wrist, massive hand engulfing her own, when she tries to yank the sheets back in preparation for two little monsters to rampage their way in. Chuckling at her scolding glare to remind the bastard they have nosy bastards for kids, Garrus kisses her palm. "Don't worry. They're not here."
"Wonderful. We lost the kids," she deadpans, huffing in mock exasperation. "Let me put on my clothes and grab the tracker."
He purrs and flicks his mandibles in a cheerful grin. "No. Not quite." He releases her wrist and takes her hand in his to fold their fingers together instead. "Sidonis and Aelia are watching them. Apparently Miranda is doing something for Arcanus and Ellie is running an op."
Jane frowns, considering that perhaps Lantar being such a late choice is because Garrus still doesn't trust the man. While understandable, it's unfortunate. "Garrus. He'll take care of them as if they're his own. You can't-" She stops when he raises his hand, shaking his head.
"Don't worry about that. I trust him. I just didn't want to ask because they have their hands full with Aeson." He shrugs, purring as he smiles. "But they insisted. I think it'll do them all good to spend time together."
Jane nods, thinking of how hard it must now be with Aeson getting ready to go into school and knowing that there are plenty of turian families familiar with the historical meaning behind Lantar's missing half of his mandibles. If she knows the families with kids - which she does - then Aeson is in for a long life of judgement for his father's actions.
No matter what, there are always assholes with nothing better to do than find something to bitch about or someone to punish for stupid shit.
"Good." She pulls herself out of her thoughts about the ungrateful fucks here on Virmire - and after everything we do to make these people feel like they belong outside of the very galaxy that screwed so many of us over. "And Aeson likes playing with Damocles. Sort of looks up to him."
Garrus nods, huffing a laugh. "And with all the girls surrounding him, I'm sure Damocles feels the same way."
"Hey, now. There aren't that many girls around."
"Really?" He lifts a brow plate before humming as if in thought. "Cassia, Gelta, Alexia, you -"
Shaking her head, she makes a protesting sound. "No. I don't count. I'm his mother."
Her mate chuckles and shrugs. "Even without counting you, he's outnumbered." Giving him that, she nods. "Us males need to up our numbers against all you women."
She snorts in mock offense and lets go of the unnecessary sheets covering her, no longer caring if she's buck ass naked now that the twins are out of the house. Smirking at his quick change in mood evident in the way his eyes darken, she crawls into his lap and kisses him passionately. It takes only a moment before his mouth relaxes and his warm, rough tongue slides out to curl around her own. She can't move her own in the ways he can, but she makes up for it when she closes her lips around his tongue and sucking.
His moan is all the encouragement she needs as she cups his face, tilts her head, and shoves her tongue into his own mouth. His breaths are hot, moist, and she can taste the wonderful taste of his natural flavor, like a sweet, yet also hot, spice. She moans as her tongue slides against the points of his teeth in reaction to his hands tangling in her hair, but they've kissed so many times that it's long since she ever nicked herself on his teeth. Swallowing his deep growl, Jane pulls back and smirks.
"Uh oh. That look is never good." However, he grins back and grips her hips. "Going to show me the benefits of being outnumbered?"
She chuckles and tilts her head with a coy smile. "Oh, I think we're evenly numbered." Her expression turns seductive, eyes half lidded. "But I'm definitely going to show you the benefits your be missing if we weren't."
He growls, returning her smirk with a heated gaze, and she wastes no time in pushing him down onto his back. Gripping his waist, she adds pressure with her fingers digging into hide that snaps a snarling gasp from his mouth. She doesn't stop there, though, and slides her hands down to the hem of the loose fitting pants he wears around the twins right out of bed. With a tug, she encourage him to lift his hips and shimmies the fabrics over and down the jut of his hips. Tossing them away once she's freed his spurs and feet, Jane runs her hands up his scarred thighs before leaning down to begin her torture.
Garrus must know her goal because he lays his head against the pillows and shifts his thighs beneath her palms, relaxing to let his plates shift - and they do, with just the slightest touch of her tongue against their seam. He exhales a heavy sigh as she licks at him, her eyes fluttering and stomach clenching at the feel of growing heat and pressure with each lap of her tongue. Soon, too soon for her to get her fill of the act of teasing him out, he erects beneath her with a low groan under his breath.
Wet, twitching, and ridges expanding with the flow of blood, his length begs to be tasted, surrounded, and pleasured, but she wants him too badly to wait. As great as it is to slide her tongue over him, wrap her lips around his length, and swallow every last inch, there's a part of her that still worries about the twins finding their way back home. If Damocles and Cassia make it back before Jane and Garrus can get to it, she just knows she's going to set her underwear aflame from friction just trying to relieve the ache between her legs. That's not taking the way she drips down her thighs with just the thought of him spreading her open, pushing against her walls, and making her fit him in a way nature never intended.
He seems to have to come to the same impatient decision as he sits up and cups the back of her head, guiding her to her hands and crawling over him. She smirks at his dark eyes, sure her own are the very same color of desire, as she straddles him and feels his length slide against the curve of her ass as she leans forward to shove their mouths together. Moaning around his tongue when she feels his hands slide up her thighs to grip her, she pushes her rear into his palms to give him control over pulling her into position over him. She pulls her lips from him when she feels his heat just before her folds and cups his face, making him look into her eyes.
As one, they move, he thrusting up and guiding her hips as she pushes down onto him. His moan is low and deep while hers is more of a high gasp, his massive length pressing into her and expanding her walls the deeper and wider his cock goes. She throws her head back with a groan as he hits resistance and lifts up to his tip, her channel feeling empty without the deepest connection they can achieve. Garrus growls impatiently, lifting his hips into her downward grind and their gradual thrust and withdrawal soon loosens her to the point of his bottoming out when she can finally sit flush against his groin.
Feeling him seated deep within her, Jane moans and tests her muscles with a conscious clench, but can barely move more than a quiver. Still, the movement draws a groan from her mate's mouth as his eyes seem to roll back in his head and his grip on her hips tightens, a curse falling from his lips in a language she's just barely begun to learn to understand. She'd chuckle at his inability to speak coherently enough for their translators, but her own mind short circuits when he retaliates with a hard grind up against her that gets his rounder base rubbing against her g-spot.
"Fuck," she snaps, bucking against him, and her body moves on its own accord as she starts to ride him with slow rises and hard lowers back over him.
Her husband snarls at her and cups the back of her head, yanking her down into a bruising kiss. Shoving his tongue between her lips, he uses his other hand to hold her still, hovering over him. She knows exactly what's coming and whines in anticipation just before he shifts to get a better stance on the bed. One second she's chillingly empty and, the next, he's pounding up into her with feral grunts and vocals echoing into her mouth.
Jane moans as she grips him under his fringe and rubs in that sensitive spot hard enough to make him throw his head back into her hands. The move throws them off balance and she catches herself with a hand while continuing the firm pressure against his nerves, but he still bucks like an animal beneath her, but she won't just stand by and let him get all the fun. Shifting to plant her knees more squarely on the bed, Jane forces a hand down onto his chest as she starts giving him a fucking worthy of their anniversary.
She should have known that, the moment she started bouncing on and over him, he would never sit still willingly - and he definitely can overpower her in sheer, unassisted strength. He doesn't throw her off, though, and, instead, grips her hips, times his thrusts, and yanks her on the downward thrust as he impales her in turn. That draws cries from her throat and she grips the headboard to use for shoving herself back against him.
Skin slick with sweat and connection getting more obscene and louder with each drive of their combined hips, she stares down at her growling, panting mate with her chest heavy in just as equally weighted gasps. Seeing him, a mess of struggling breaths and primal sounds, eyes black with desire, Jane groans and grips the headboard hard enough to whiten her knuckles - and she swears she hears the wood creak. She's so close and, as if he can feel her very pulse quickening the closer to the edge she draws, Garrus drops a shaking hand to just above their connection to circle the flat of his metal thumb around her swollen clit. The chill of metal contrasted with the heat radiating off their bodies combined with the sweet, wet friction and sensation of their sounds filling the room draws on her orgasm like a punch to the stomach.
Throwing her head back, her mouth falls open in a gasping scream as she grows taut as a drawn bow. She doesn't feel him continuing, her walls already trembling around his massive length in their release, but she does hear the obscene sound of him thrusting through the added moisture from her completion. The thought of soon feeling him joining her - joining with her - makes her moan weakly as she drops her head to look down on him chasing his own orgasm. Unable to move much past a few twitches of her hips thanks to his continued assault on her clit and inside of her, Jane can feel the exact moment he jerks within her, hardens, and starts to swell as an intense heat fills her.
Her whine joins with his low, drawn out, and rumbling moan and she nearly collapses on him, panting and sated. "Fuck… fuck…"
He chuckles at her incoherent cursing, chest beneath her cheek heaving. "I just did, but give me a bit and we can go again." Snorting weakly, Jane gives him a feigned look of irritation, but he merely shrugs and cups her flushed cheek in his massive palm, thumb ghosting over her lips. "You're beautiful like this."
Her lips twitch in a tired smile. "What? Sweaty and smelling like sex?"
"Yes." Before she can swat at him, he purrs and pulls her head up, leaning down to kiss her. "But I meant being relaxed, free."
"Am I only like this after sex?" She lifts a brow and he shakes his head.
"No," he stops before smirking and saying, "But when you add the look of just having your universe rocked by the best turian-"
Releasing a loud scoff, she leans up onto her elbows to give him a teasing grin. "That's what it is, then? Well, in that case, I should say you, too, look absolutely gorgeous because you just had the best fuck of your life."
"Please. I don't get gorgeous. I get more handsomely rugged."
Chuckling, she presses her forehead to his. She smiles when she hears his purr and feels his plated forehead press back before he shifts to press his mouth to her lips. "I love you," she whispers against his plates and feels the slight tickle of his mandibles shifting into a smile of his own.
"And I love you. Always."
Jane smiles softly, resolving to just spend the rest of the day in bed, only leaving for toilet breaks and to scour the house for food. Instead, she hears the telltale sound of the front door opening thanks to the soft chime of the house VI's alert of guests. Her brows draw down in confusion as she leans up into the closest thing to a sit they can achieve in this position and she looks at Garrus.
"Who the hell is that?" He merely gives her a shrug and mirroring look of confusion before the question is answered with a very unfortunate - and horrifically, fucking timed - sound of two voices powerful enough to send panic through the pair of well trained, war-hardened warriors. "Holy shit," she whispers in order to catch another squeak of distant children talking, "Is that-"
"The twins!" Garrus' voice comes out as a dual toned hiss as he sits up, headbutting her hard enough to compete with a krogan. She swears under her breath, vision blurring at the blaze of pain in her forehead, and he whispers apologies, but the sound of feet running over the living room floor snaps them out of their pain and remorse.
And into the moment of 'oh, fuck'.
Jane yanks the sheets up over her back and around herself, leaving Garrus to the wolves in terms of covering himself up. He doesn't need to cover all that much of himself, she justifies, just where they're currently stuck together. She, however, has all manner of jiggly bits hanging out that's sure to give the kids plenty of nightmares of squishy, pink monster moms.
Garrus gives her an exasperated look and adjusts the blankets enough to cover himself to his waist. The kids have seen him without shirts plenty of times so, unless they manage to crash into some valuable bits or become too curious of little shits, she and Garrus should be able to get through this visit in relatively one piece. Sidonis, however? Well, she's battling with herself about ripping off the rest of his mandibles.
One day… One day of peace. Is that too much to ask?
Both tense, ready for the pounce just as two blurs of color come shooting into the room, over the distance to their bed, and dive bombing the bed with screams of 'mommy, mommy!' and 'daddy, daddy!'. True to their nature of being littler terrors, each child manages to get a foot or hand into a tender spot on their parents. Garrus grunts loud and doubles over as best he can against her, hand moving between them to press on his stomach - too close to the unmentionables for Jane's taste seeing as how she's currently stuck right on top of them. She, too, isn't unscathed as a shoe is jammed into her left breast with the force of an elcor, definitely bound to leave a bruise.
"Jesus. Christ!" Jane throws a hand up, still holding her cover fast with the death grip of her other hand, and Garrus grabs the more active member of the assault on them, their son. Even she isn't surprised at that fact. That boy is bound to just bulldoze the house down once he gets big enough to reach higher that her waist.
Cassia, ever observant, is the first one to slow down and look her parents over, brow plates pulled down in deep thinking. Jane almost feels self-conscious of being completely naked save for a sheet before her very inquisitive - and too smart for her own damn good - daughter. It doesn't help when Cassia then asks, "Why are you and daddy sitting on each other?"
"Uh…"
"Mommy and I are kissing," her husband supplies quickly, looking at her just in time to see her unimpressed look. She's sure he'd be shrugging if not for it being too obvious that they're lying.
"But-"
"Hey, Jane, Garrus." Lantar's voice closes in as he pokes his head in the door, stilling for just a moment as the situation his him right in the face. "Oh, hey," he says with a hint of mock innocence in his voice. "Is this a bad time?"
"Where's my gun-"
"It kinda is," Jane interrupts, cutting off Garrus' thinking. "Why are you even back?"
Sidonis squirms in place, rubbing his neck as his shortened mandibles flick a few times. "Uh…" She catches how he grabs his three year old's hand before Aeson can run in and join his best friend and his sister in their mission to make this as awkward as possible. "They told me they forgot food for Xero."
She sighs and gives him a scathing look. "Really? ...Really." A headache builds just behind her eyes at this whole fucked up direction to the day and rubs her forehead. "He's a varren. He'd eat shoes and rocks if you let him."
"Yeah… I see that now." Still, she can see a bit of amusement in his eyes.
Bastard.
Looking down to his son, Sidonis flicks his mandibles and takes a quick breath, chest puffing up. "Well, I guess I should be going. It was nice to see you. Hope everything goes okay." His words are a rush as he tries to usher his son away from the very curious site of the very close couple completely lacking in any decency to want to separate while their children are around. "Ping me later!"
"Only if I don't strangle you first!" Groaning at the sound of the front door closing and cursing the overly friendly synthetic voice of the VI, Jane finally looks to her two little pests.
Cassia looks too damn aware of the situation, to the point that Damocles is starting to get suspicious, and Garrus seems to be deep in his own thoughts as his nose shifts and mandibles slowly spread and close. She lifts a brow in question when she catches his eyes and he clears his throat. "It smells," he simply states and both of the twins nod in agreement.
Smells…?
Jane scrunches her nose, not smelling anything. That is, until it hits her, not as strongly as it must be for the damn turians in the room, but strong enough to know exactly what it is.
"God dammit." Exhaling heavily, she hangs her head in frustration. "Of course."
Of course it'd smell like sex. Why wouldn't it, Jane? You two did just make the messiest scene not moments before.
She could even still feel it against her thighs, knowing it'll only be more - much more - once Garrus' knot relaxes. Cursing once more under her breath, she runs a hand through her sweat dampened hair and looks to her mate, a question of 'what now?' in her expression. He hums and looks over their children.
"How about you two head to the living room because it smells so much and mommy and I will clean it up." Flicking his mandibles, he looks to her for agreement and she nods.
"You can even turn on some cartoons," she adds, and their eyes, thankfully, light up.
They run out, but not without one of them stepping and slipping off of her covered thigh. She flinches at the rough sole of their boot scraping just so over the small section of skin on her leg just above her prosthetic. Once they're out of the room, and hopefully out of earshot, she turns to her mate with a glare. "You let them smell that this whole time? Why didn't you say something?"
Garrus chuckles and lifts a brow plate. "What would I say? 'Kids, step out of the room because this is a scent you shouldn't be smelling until your plates separate'?"
"Okay, one? I don't even know what that means, so you'll have to give me a turian biology lesson later. And, two? Shut up with your logic." Pouting, but not willing to admit it, Jane looks around the room for anything to hopefully try and pry them apart faster. "Okay, so we're kinda on a time limit before the kids get more curious than entertained by the vidscreen. So how long is it going to take you to deflate?"
He wrinkles his nose. "I don't 'deflate'."
Snorting, she smiles at his offense. "Fine, fine. How long until we can pop the cork?"
"Not better," he deadpans before reaching under the blankets to grip her hips. "Keep us covered. It's going to be a mess."
"Well, yeah." Chuckling, she watches him move under the sheets to try and pry them apart faster than usual without causing either of them pain. "Human vaginas aren't vacuums."
"Damn." He grunts at a movement, his talons flexing against her skin in a twitch of discomfort when he pulls the wrong way. "And here…" Another squirm and she feels a bit of the pressure between them wane. "I thought…" His hands tighten enough on her hips to gently ease her up. "All the messes were just because you were defective."
Laughing as they finally separate with the sound of a wet suction giving way, Jane leans on his shoulders to swing a leg back over his hips to sit at his side. "Well, I can't say that I'm not defective, but I can assure you that you're not missing anything there in that department."
"Good," he responds with a low purr, presses his forehead to hers before nudging her away. "Go get clean and I'll grab you some clothes."
She nods and gets up out of bed, dragging the sheets along with her since the bedroom door is still wide open. Yawning, she clicks on the light and takes a look at herself in the mirror.
She isn't sure whether the bedraggled look of her face and hair is because she just woke up or the sex, but she's damn sure she looks like hell warmed over. The sight is pretty amusing, though, and it relieves some of the nerves of the battle they're going to be walking right into when they leave the bedroom. A fight with a Reaper is nothing compared to explaining sex to two six year olds without scarring them for life.
Stepping into the shower for a quick rinse off to both clean her off and give her that final, rejuvenating slap out of any aroused or sleepy mood, Jane lazily uses her fingers to pull apart some of the worst of her tangles before getting out and drying off. She'll worry about brushing her teeth and all that extra primping later when she's not walking into another suicide mission in their very living room. Once done and dry enough not to leave puddles in her wake, she sneaks out of the bathroom and by the - thankfully - now closed door to get the clothes Garrus laid out for her.
Throwing on her panties and a loose bra, Jane almost puts her shirt on backwards if not for his snort to alert her. She gives him a sideways glare at taking amusement in her nerves - cursing that ever present calm he seems to be having - and jerks up her sleeping pants. Taking one last, long breath, she looks to him.
"I can't figure out why you're so damn calm."
"I'm not," he admits before smiling and taking her hand. "But I know it'll be okay. Sure, they'll be confused, but even I was as a kid when I was told."
"When did you learn about it?"
He tilts his head and hums in thought. "I think it was around their age, actually. Sol was older before my parents told her, but I think I remember being a bit young." Huffing a laugh, he drops his eyes to her and grins in a way that relaxes some of the tension in her shoulders. "I had actually stayed up late one night with a cousin and snuck in a viewing of some vid."
She chuckles, walking beside him as they head to the door. "Did they get pissed?"
"Actually, they were more upset that they had to tell me so soon. Sex is natural for turians to talk about, remember?"
She lifts a brow. "Really? Does that mean you're going to take the lead in this conversation?"
If she wasn't so anxious about this conversation herself, she'd have laughed at his reaction of stuttering in his steps and going wide-eyed. "I… uh…" He looks at her, and she can swear she sees a plea in his eyes. "I'd rather we do it together."
"Garrus," she says, her tone both meant to soothe and make it very clear of the problem she sees here. "I'm not turian. I don't have anywhere close to the sex organs they have beyond the fact that I have a vagina and I'm pretty sure Cassia does too."
"She will when her plates part." He holds up a hand and she holds in her question of just what the hell that even means. "But what I mean is that I still want your help. They're both our children, and the basics are the same."
"Pretty sure I told you that human penises are meant for waste excretion. Turians' aren't."
He wrinkles his nose again. "And that's still gross." Shaking his head, he opens the door and pulls her with him. "Just skip that part."
"Aye, aye, Captain."
A soft rumble is her only answer as they walk in and sit on the free couch. Jane fusses with the tie at the waist of her pants, not sure how to start this conversation. How does one really go about telling their children they were caught having interspecies sex? She's pretty sure the just of things isn't going to go over real well with two six year olds.
Garrus clears his throat to get the twin's attention, and it takes a moment before they can pull their eyes from whatever strange cartoon about a pyjak they're watching. When those two little pairs of crystal blue eyes look to her and her mate, Jane almost turns tail and retreats, but she's nothing if not the 'Great Commander Shepard, defeater of Reapers'. That title feels pretty useless about now.
"So, I guess we owe you two an explanation," she starts, deciding to bite the bullet. They nod and she looks to Garrus, who seems lost in contemplation like a coward. "Well… It's kind of a long one, so you'll have to bear with us."
"Why were you and daddy cuddling naked?" Damocles gets straight to the point, not pulling punches.
"Well…"
"We were having sex," Garrus states, not an ounce of anxiety in his tone.
"What's sex?"
He purrs and smiles at their daughter. "It's a physical act between two people. A very intimate, private one."
"Yeah," Jane tries, not having her own 'talk' to draw from. It almost seems easier to have been thrown in without guidance, like learning to swim by just being dropped into the water - probably shouldn't associate your turian children with swimming, Jane. "It doesn't even have to be between a man and woman. It can be woman and woman, man and man, alien and alien." They simply blink at her and she looks to Garrus.
Not going to jump in here?
"How do you 'have sex'?" Cassia asks, trilling in curiosity as she crosses her legs. "Do you have to be naked?"
Her husband chuckles. "That certainly makes things easier." Taking Jane's hand in what she's sure to be a comforting and supportive gesture, he rumbles and nods. "I don't about all the species, so I'll stick to yours."
"But we're frea-"
With a sharp and short growl, Garrus stops Damocles. He has always hated it when the twins took the teasing and vile insults to heart, wearing it with the thought that they truly are as everyone says. Both parents try their best to quell any and all of those thoughts, but she knows the twins always carry that burden of being different around their necks.
"You aren't freaks. Are you turians? No. But you're something I think is greater, you are both human and turian. You take both species' strengths." He flicks a mandible at the dip of their son's head in perceived admonishment, and Jane hears Garrus' tone soften. "Damocles, I'm not mad at you."
Cassia nuzzles her brother, scooting closer and hugging onto his arm. Jane smiles and reaches forward to take her son's hand. "We know it's hard and we get mad at those pricks and assholes, not at you and Cassia for feeling like they're right. Even though they aren't, it's hard to stay strong." Damocles looks to her, seemingly in awe at her words - her understanding - and she smiles. "Do you want us to wait for this conversation?"
Cassia perks up, eyes wide and mouth dropping, and Damocles clearly agrees with her shock at the possibility as he shakes his head rapidly. Jane isn't sure whether she's happy that they got over that hurtle to continue or the fact that they have to continue. She can't let them see her mild disappointment over the - now - inevitable.
She lets go of his hand in order to sit back into a more comfortable position, grabbing her husband's hand like a life raft. She's not cut out for this. She sees that now.
Garrus is first to break the tenuous silence, starting back where they left off. "You have a turian body, you are physically turian. When you mature," he says, humming as his mandibles flare in Jane's vision. She can tell he's trying to find the words to explain, the specifics of turian puberty apparently not something he's really all that privy to. "The plates between your legs will get a small separation that'll split completely as you mature."
"Become an adult," Jane illustrates, clearing her throat in nerves when that draws three sets of eyes to her so she can continue. "Uh. It'll be little changes, but you'll go from a kid to a big turian, Damocles like your dad and Cassia like your aunt, Sol. You'll be tall and big like them." She huffs a laugh, hoping there'll be truth in her next statement. "Not short like your mom."
Damocles grins at that, the prospect of being the seven foot giant his dad is obviously getting his attention. Cassia, on her end, smiles with a giggle at Jane's expense, but she'll take the hit if it eases some of the tension in the air. Garrus, for his part, gives her a smile that feels like a warm blanket wrapping around her, encouraging her.
He picks up for her when it starts to become more difficult for her to predict the changes in turian puberty from human - hell, at her age, she isn't sure she can even remember her own few years of it. "Once you mature, your groin plates - that plates right here," he points to his own crotch and continues, "with be able to separate and show your genitalia."
At the wide-eyed look of complete confusion, the two lost in the new words, Jane bites her cheek to keep from smiling at her mate being so clinical about this. Leave it to turians to make sex so damn boring. "Genitals means your privates, the parts of your bodies that should be hidden except when having sex. And they're what you use for sex."
"How?"
Garrus rumbles at their quizative daughter. "Males have a penis and females a vagina." He holds up a finger when Damocles opens his mouth. "A penis is like a…" Pausing, he leans back and drums his free talons on his thigh. "This would be easier to just show them with vids."
"I'm not showing the twins porn at six years old." Her mate opens his mouth to speak, but she gives him one firm shake of her head. "Not doing it. Maybe later when they get closer to puberty, but not now."
"It'll only be a couple of years-"
"I didn't need to know that."
"Then I don't really know how to explain it-"
"Just…" At a loss for any real example, her hands fidget, and she fights not to just poke a finger through a circle made with her opposite hand. "A dick is like… A stick…"
"A stick?" Garrus lifts a brow plate. "What?"
"Don't judge my example!" She scowls at him, sure the two of them are making their twins only more confused. "What would you say?"
He hums and looks to the children. "Why don't I just show them?" Opening his tool, he glances Jane's way in question and she sighs, flipping a hand in the air. "You sure?"
"Sure, why not?"
"There are plenty of answers to that," he responds as he leans over to show the twins his Tool.
From her position, she can't really see the pictures, but she can't really hold back the urge to see. Instead of look like a child peeking over his shoulder, Jane simply pulls up her own Omni-Tool to look up turian vaginas because - well - she already knows what a dick looks like.
Distantly hearing Garrus talking about sex, she narrows her extranet searches to exclude turians actually in the act. Last thing she wants is to have everything distorted with Fornax-style sex acts - which can give the worst possible example of what a turian cunt can do - and keeps it to either clinical diagrams or 'tasteful' centerfolds. All while trying not to imagine her young daughter in any of these images because the reality of having her daughter grow into a woman with her own sexual appetites and needs is not something she wants to have on her mind right about now. Sure, she won't expect her daughter to join a convent - if turians even have them - but she doesn't want to have a mental image to associate with a child still only six. The less she imagines about her daughter having sex, the better.
Surprisingly, the clinical pictures aren't too clinical and off putting. They're even pretty interesting with how they show the basic structure to be the same. There's two ovaries, tubes, and uterus, though shaped a bit differently than how she once saw in a pamphlet about humans. Humans sort of looked like an inverted triangle with horns, but a turian uterus looked more stretched out, the tubes longer and ovaries higher up in the abdomen.
Okay, not too bad. Time for the main showing.
Scrolling to more focused pictures of the vagina itself, Jane learns that hers and Garrus' species aren't all that different in terms of lady bits. There are differences, but so many similarities that she doesn't feel quite like drowning during this conversation.
Past groin plates situated just like a male's, though spread slightly wider, a female turian lacks labia. It makes sense, considering that the plates need to close completely - and extra flaps of skin would just get in the way, and hurt like hell if caught in between. Instead, they have a slit set in a slight swell of flesh that looks very similar to the sheath Garrus has. Only difference seems to be what lies inside.
Apparently, a male turian's testicles - three? Why didn't I know this? - are really up in their stomach. If she didn't know better, she'd think the three glands were a deformed uterus and ovaries with the location of them. When not erect, the penis slides in and rests in the cavity between sheath and testicles, the cavity apparently swelling and inverting when aroused. A bit confusing to imagine just looking at the medical pictures, but she knew the final product well enough to trust whatever magic was going on inside her mate whenever they got down and dirty.
As for a female turian, the uterus leads into a very familiar vagina, though slightly longer than a human's. She supposes a turian woman can't quite expand and loosen up as well as a human because there's no place to go, but she can guess there's a bit of give enough to adjust to more than one man. Given how small her babies were when they were born - and that she was told they were pretty big for turians - that expansion doesn't need to be much, but it all makes her think just how it feels for the partner if Garrus swears that her own vagina is the tightest he's ever had even when she's relaxed enough to fit all of him. Females don't seem to have a clit like Janer has in the pictures, but maybe it's internal. Would make sense when thinking about the fact that males have everything inside.
"Ewww!" Cassia's disgusted trill and loud exclamation draws Jane's attention away from her own Tool.
"I don't want that!" Damocles points to Garrus' tool, eyes wide. "Gross!"
Jane chuckles under her breath at their father's heavy sigh, his shoulders dropping in defeat. He looks to her, obviously hearing the sound, and huffs in exasperation, his eyes saying 'are you going to help me or not?'. Shifting in her seat, she pats the couch for him to come back. "Alright. I know what's going on now, so let's get back to it."
"Momma?"
"Yes, Damocles?"
"I don't want a penis."
She can't help it. She snorts and laughs a short breath. "Well, I hate to tell you, but you're stuck with one when you hit puberty." His face falls and Jane notices Cassia frowning at a spot on the floor with an intensity that could melt Makos, but Garrus takes the reigns on explaining the benefits of a cock to their son.
"Oh, you'll think very differently when you reach that point," he says, chuckling that low, rumbling bass. "Don't worry, I was shocked by it too, but you get used to it." Jane catches the sideways smirk he throws at her.
"Maybe a little too used to it," she mumbles under her breath and grins at her husband's mock indignant huff.
"What about me?" Cassia asks, her eyes wide and mandibles down in concern. She looks between Jane and Garrus, her trills breaking Jane's heart as they sing her worry - of being left out, because Jane knows her daughter well. "What do I get?"
Jane smiles and shifts to get down on the floor before their couch, her back to it so she can let them look over her shoulder. "See this?" She points to the image she was previously looking over. "This is what you have. It's called a vagina. It's inside where Damocles' is outside."
Her daughter stares at the image for a very long time, quiet and still save for the slight flaring and closing of her mandibles. It's a long time before she speaks, her voice low and mandibles humming. "Do you have one?"
Jane's mouth falls open in surprise. How the hell could she not have thought about this kind of question? Of course Cassia - and now Damocles - would be curious what is the same and what's different between herself and them. However, what was the safest route to take across those waters? She glances to her husband and sees his reassuring nod, his mandible flicking into a light smile.
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's different - sure - because you're turian and I'm human, but it's basically the same." Stopping to take a breath, the words just rushing out of her in hopes that this doesn't turn into another horrible talk about them not really being turian either.
"Is it blue like ours?" Damocles points to the image of the very blue, very alien genitals on her Omni-Tool screen.
"Uh… No." Seeing how his brows crinkle in that expression he always gets when confused and trying to decipher some grand mystery, Jane explains, "You know how my blood is red and yours blue?" Both children nod. "Well, that makes me pink and you both blue." She gently takes Damocles' hand in hers and compares their palms. "See? Your skin is bluish brown and mine is pinkish white."
"Oh. Okay," he agrees, pulling his hand back to examine himself.
Cassia taps her shoulder and she looks up. "Will other stuff change?"
"When you hit puberty?" Cassia nods. "Well, yeah. I don't know how much - you'd have to ask your dad that," Jane says, chuckling and motioning him with a tilt of her head.
Garrus rumbles and chuckles when she's sure all eyes zero in on him. "Well, I guess we might as well cover that too now." He motions his fringe. "Damocles' crests will grow out completely, straighten out instead of remain curled down like it is now. And, Cassia, you'll have some of your own facial plates grow out. You know how the back jut of your mandibles are already longer than your brother's?" When he gets a nod in answer, he smiles and says, "Those will get longer as well as these." He points to the plates that form a turian version of a cheek. "Then, your spurs grow out. Both of you will have your waists thin - Damocles more than Cassia - and you'll," he motions their son as he speaks, "get broader in the chest."
"What about me?" Cassia cups her chest, looking down to Jane, and understanding hits like a train.
"Oh!" Jane huffs a nervous laugh. "No, honey. You won't get boobs."
Cassia pouts for a moment, but easily shifts her expression as - Jane can swear - some kind of realization surfaces. Her mouth opens as she stares at Jane before her mandibles click once and she hums softly. "Will I get to have hair?"
The sheer amount of want in Jane's daughter's tone hurts, tears down that wall of confidence over this seeming to go really well - if a bit jarring as obvious by the near constant quiet from the usually rowdy pair. Fighting not to frown, she swallows a few times. It's Garrus that breaks the silence once more, his voice saddened and vocals echoing with a low keen.
"No, princess. I'm sorry, but turians can't have hair."
"But I'm not really a turian!" Cassia grins, the hope in her voice and plainly written all over her face like a stab into Jane's heart. "I'm part human too!"
Jane has to fight not to dip her head in shame of not being able to give their daughter what she no dearly wants, logic be damned. Garrus, she sees, turns his head away for just a moment as his mandibles pull in against his jaw. Reaching up, she takes her daughter's hand, ready to break the worst news Cassia could possibly have at this age, but the young girl is just too damn smart, too aware of the world. Jane feels the little body deflate in the seat of the couch as Cassia keens softly, head drooping in acceptance.
"I'm sorry, Cassia," Jane whispers. "But I'll get you the most beautiful hair if you want. You can wear it whenever you want."
Cassia is silent for a long time before she shakes her head. "I don't want to wear other hair." Eyes moving under her brow plates, she seems to come to a decision. Looking up to first Jane, then Garrus, she asks, "Can I still dress like a princess?"
Jane smiles softly and nods, a slight sigh of relief escaping her lips. This she can give her daughter. If Cassia wants to dress like the fucking queen of the universe, then Jane will happily buy every fluffy, pretentious-looking dress her daughter can find.