Mass Defect Ch2

I was woken up horribly by a shaking sensation in what I assumed was the middle of the night, sitting up I couldn't see any emergency lights or any sign that we were under attack so I tried contacting EDI. "What's going off down there?" I asked sleepily, it only feeling like I was asleep about ten minutes or so. I moved to sit on the edge of the bed and rub the sleep from my eyes, jabbing my alarm clock to check the time and to turn the lights on; my eyes instantly regretting the choice as I groaned heavily and covered up my face.

"We have docked for fuel, would you like to get up and have breakfast yet Commander?" EDI said with a tiny hint of concern in her voice that I picked up on, she faded away shortly afterwards but I knew she was still keeping an eye on me. "Breakfast?" I mumbled to myself as I dragged my sleepy body out of bed, noticing the lump next to me cocooned in a quilt, releasing the odd hum of sleep.

"Garrus? You still in there?" I asked as I gave the lump a nudge, it gave a groan before his head poked out and his visor started up on his own. He took a look around dazed and confused but sat up an un-wrapped himself, now sitting on the edge of the bed like me. "How long have I been out?" Garrus asked as he ran a finger down his back to scratch himself, EDI popped up just to answer his question and stated that we had both been asleep nearly twenty hours. We both glanced over at each other and apart from the look of tiredness; there was a real look of embarrassment in our faces.

We decided to get up; there was no real need to sleep any more than we had already. I hunted down some clothes while Garrus picked up his old ones from the floor, we both got dressed in a sleepy silence with only the occasional glance towards each other to check if we were okay. Now that the lights where on and my brain mostly up I could get a good look at Garrus while he struggled to figure out which way his shirt was up, and it was a damn good view from where I was standing.

His scales were a metallic kind of blue that had plates running down his chest and back, with his exposed and slightly grey skin showing up in most places making him look like he had natural armour but my mind kept on making it seem like his plates gave him a great set of abs. With the Turian version of boxers on I couldn't detect the slightest lump in them, his legs and arms looking as strong as they did in their armour. Garrus turned around to slip his trousers on giving me a great view of his rear end, even with his boxers on it was enough to make me bite my lip.

But I pushed most of these thoughts aside; sure I had a bit of a liking for Garrus, who wouldn't. Either way I made sure to try and ignore him no matter how right my body said it was to stare, I avoided eye contact with him while I got dressed myself. Trying to drill the thought into my brain that he was my best friend first and attractive second, taking a long sigh I tied up my boots and made my way outside, just waiting next to the lift for him.

He came out as fast as we both could and took the lift down, I ignored the shower for now knowing that I wasn't going to be dealing with anyone today; I just had to look busy so the crew didn't think I spent all my time shirking work. Garrus was still stood next to me in the lift just zipping up his shirt when our eyes met and a moment of awkwardness began, I could tell he wanted to say thanks but he knew how strange it would have sounded. But for me I felt like I had to say some kind of thanks in the same way but for the best night sleep I had since I can remember, but the correct words never came to mind. Mixed on top with the desire to say something about 'us' I decided to just keep my mouth shut.

In the end, just before the lift reached his floor I gave a slight joke of "Same time tonight?" With a small bout of nervous laughter; he gave me a smile in return and walked off, nearly slamming into a wall right in front of him from not breaking his smile with me. As the lift door closed I couldn't seem to wipe the goofy smile of my face, all my thoughts being consumed with the idea of getting to see him again even though we're never further apart than fifty metres. I took the lift down to engineering to apologize for missing the card game; hopefully they didn't think I missed it on purpose.

"And Commander Shepherd rose from the dead once again, what's up Shepherd? You and all the other officers have a party up there?" Jack caught me as soon as the lift opened, I made a silent comment to myself that she was quite up to speed with everything since she got her hands on all the data that runs through this ship, it's a shame she just uses most of it for blackmail or personal gain. She gave me a slap to the shoulder and pulled me to sit down on a crate and tell her what I had been up to; I gave a nervous grin and told her that I was just catching up on my reports.

"Bullshit!" She caught my lie in an instant and not even from her reports; it must have just been my horrible lying ability. "You look like the fucking dead and you smell terrible. So you either spent a night on the floor out of your skull or something amazing went off up there. Tell me." She didn't ask, she demanded and despite my opposition to it I know that she wouldn't drop it unless she got the truth.

"I spent the night with Garrus." I started by I soon as I did she just had to interrupt me to voice her own opinion. "Holy hell Shepherd, I never knew you were into dudes! …And Turian stuck-up types." She stated with a high pitched chuckle, I tried to tell her it wasn't like that but she just waved me off as she slinked back into her dark corner, I sincerely hoped she didn't begin spreading it around the crew but I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time unless I bribed her to keep it quiet.

Ignoring it for now I continued my trip to engineering by approaching Tali, Ken and Gabby who looked unimpressed that I missed their card game last night. "Shepherd, we couldn't reach you last night, why'd you miss game night?" Tali asked as she saw me coming, I stood between the three and told them that I had just caught something and had to sleep it off; knowing that excuse normal made Tali drop everything she was doing and get some space away from me. "You could've shown up anyway, we'd 'ave just stuck some sterile gloves on you and made you sit next to Gabby." Ken pronounced with a laugh as he turned away from his monitor but as if on cue Gabby had to cover up anything and everything Ken said.

"Don't listen to him Commander, we don't mind that much. It would have helped if you sent a message or something though." Gabby said tried to resist prying into anything, I gave her a thanks and asked if we could just do the game night tonight before we reach the Citadel; surprisingly everyone was okay with that idea and Gabby even jotted it down on her terminal. "You better not miss it this time or else you owe me a new ration pack, these two teamed up on me!" Tali accused from the other side of the room, causing Ken to snicker to himself before going back to his terminal.

I made my excuses and left, needing to only run a few more things before I had some important business to take care of; they understood but made me promise that I would show up this time. Jumping back in the lift to head up to the crew quarters I was joined by Grunt who was heading in the same direction, "What are you up to Grunt?" I asked as I jabbed a button to start the lift.

"The Salarian needs me for some kind of experiment, I told him to cram the experiment someplace else but… Now I'm going." He said, I could tell he was hiding something; Mordin wasn't exactly known for being forceful. In fact there wasn't allot he was known for apart from his experiments and the occasional bit of singing, I just had to ask further. "What's the experiment for?"

"Needs to give me something to help with… My problem. Dumb Salarians and their solutions." Grunt said as he focussed dead ahead, I left it at that; thinking it was either something to do with his anger or some kind of growth defect. Either way I knew from how Grunt talked that it was a bit personal and wasn't really worth prying any further into it, I silently hoped it didn't affect the mission; Grunt was my main choice for dealing with Husks.

I stepped off the lift at the crew quarters and headed off to see Miranda, no doubt she had something for me to do. But as I walked into her office, there was nothing there but a note on her desk which read; "Shepherd, please stop breaking these." Next to the note was a replacement tablet for the one I snapped over my knee in a bit of a blind rush, walking out with a nervous grin I headed to see if Garrus was okay now that he had some much needed rest.

The door to the main battery was unlocked so I let myself right in, finding Garrus just typing things out as normal; he heard me come in but just glanced over to me before going back to his work. It was as if he was still unsure of what to say to me after what happened earlier, "Shepherd, I think I need to thank you." He began as he switched off his console and turned around, "I've been under some stress lately and with you helping me out and everything… It wasn't in the conventional way, not like a Turian ship at all." He said with a smirk as if looking back on fond memories.

I gave his cot a pat for him to sit down next to me; he could probably tell I had something that I needed to get off my chest. "I need to tell you something, Garrus… for the longest time I've been attracted to you." I choked out, knowing it would be better if I just spat it out instead of stumbling over my words. My face turned to the brightest shade of red that I didn't even think was possible, my gaze remaining intently focussed on my shoes for the most part.

Garrus seemed to think to himself for a moment but it dawned on me that he was waiting for me to continue but I remained silent until an awkward was about to break out, thankfully Garrus spoke up before things got strange. "Is that all? Hell, I thought it would be something bad." He said with a hearty laugh, standing up to pace around a bit.

"Y-You mean you're okay with this?" I asked terrified if he said anything but yes, but he flicked off his visor and stared down at me with his piercing blue eyes, a grin slowly filling his scarred face. "Why the hell not? There's no one else in this galaxy I respect more than you, if you're willing to find a way to make this work… Yeah, definitely." He finished with a deep chuckle, flicking his visor back on.

I stood up and yet I could feel my blush getting brighter as my body acted on its own, slipping an arm around Garrus's shoulder and hugging him tightly; for the most part he stayed still but wrapped his arms just above my waist. His grip slightly loose but when I took an inch back to look him in the eyes he just had his closed and enjoyed the moment, slowly tilting his head down until out foreheads connected gently. The small hum that I could hear while he slept came back up but now it was more like a purring of a cat, I did want to make a comment of it but in typical fashion Garrus managed to beat me to the punch with a small murmur of, "Never realised you had a weakness for men with scars…"

Twenty minutes later-

After pulling myself away from Garrus and strolling into the CIC with a dopey grin I leaned myself against the map, thankfully Chambers didn't say anything about my behaviour but I'm sure it could be seen by everyone that I was in an ecstatic mood. Taking a closer look at the map I saw we were about to pass up a barren planet so I typed in a quick command to strafe by so I could fire off a few probes, the readings said this planet was pretty high in platinum. After launching off about ten probes I closed up the map screen and took a look at my tablet that I had stuffed into my back pocket, the reading came up on how much I had collected and showed that I could now afford and upgrade to one of Mordin's experiments.

Deciding to see Mordin about what he needed so much platinum for I stopped by his office to find him gazing down a microscope, mumbling something about how awful some bug was. I got his attention with a quick cough and he instantly began speaking about the upgrade that he could now afford, I gave a frown and asked why he needed so much platinum in the first place but just laughed, stating that the STG wouldn't accept credits. I was a bit concerned but allowed him to talk me through it.

"New med bay upgrade should heal up mostly anything… Nano-machines…" Mordin mumbled the last part to himself as he went about his business, preparing new beakers for his experimenting. I was tempted to ask what he was working on now but as soon as he started to pull out some strange looking machinery and dim the lights, so I gave a quick "I should go" and left just before I head some kind of drilling from behind the door.

Taking the lift back up to my cabin with my tablet in hand I flicked through my emails while I waited, "Enlarge your penis, spam, spam, Mordin… Wait, what?" I clicked the email from Mordin which said nothing but "Hope this helps." With a few attachments, one being the file name of 'Turian, an in depth', 'Turian and Human compatibility in the bedroom, unabridged version' and 'Human and Turian androgynous zones, for couples' With a blank stare I placed the tablet back in my pocket and waited until I got to my room first before I started to look at things like this in the middle of the CIC.

Stepping into my dark cabin I sat down on the edge of the bed and opened one of the files from Mordin at random, it loaded up instantly as I was greeted by the title 'In depth look, Turian edition." A bit curious I had a flick through to the index to see if there was anything that would catch my eye, there was plenty about tradition, key phrases, clan markings and general biology. Thinking it would be best to just satisfy my dark thoughts first I flipped through the virtual book until I got to the part of biology; thanking Mordin silently that this book had visual aids to help instead of giant walls of text.

Skimming through a lot of the book I had to stop on the part that just stated genitals. My morbid curiosity may have got the better of me but staring blankly at the sliced picture I couldn't make heads or tails of what it was supposed to be, skimming again I found a frontal shot but the Turian in the picture was as flat as an old action figure. Scratching my head at the picture I had to wonder if Turian's even had anything down there or if they really where big scally birds like people sometimes called them.

Thinking a bit too hard to keep reading I closed down my tablet, sure I could ask Mordin or keep reading but most of the terms and words in the book just went completely over my head; smirking to myself I wondered if Mordin had wrote it himself. Sticking on some music from my alarm clock I laid back in my bed for a moment just to think on everything that's been happening, really just taking a step back and reflecting. Glancing over to the side of me though I spotted a load of work left for me by Miranda, it looked as impenetrable as normal but I knew that if I left it again I would only get more work to notify me that I missed my work quota.

Dragging myself up I got started straight away, most of it was either a requisition for or an accident report. One stuck out that apparently Garrus had an accident rolling out of his old cot and knocked his cybernetics out of his ear. Just reading that made me laughs out loud, the picture in my head keeping a smile on my face as I powered through the rest of the work. After about an hour I was done and just decided to dump these on Miranda as soon as possible.

Five minutes later-

After dumping my work load on Miranda's desk I left feeling allot better, but my walk slowed to a stop as I headed to the lift, I just had to see Garrus. Making my way to him I saw that the door was locked, giving it a knock I head a muffled thump from behind the door before it opened. Garrus was sat on his cot with his chest plate off; it was just sat on his knee as he fiddled with something in the arm socket. Frowning at him I asked what he up to.

"Just trying to patch up this hole." He stared blankly but taking a closer look at him armour I saw the faint glow of orange coming from inside, instantly spotting him out I dug my hand inside and pulled out a tablet that belonged to him. Garrus went incredibly nervous as he begged me not to turn the screen on, thinking of how bad it could possibly be I reminded him who was in charge of this ship. Turning the tablet on it opened up to a dark purple page with a pink box that asked if I was sure I wanted to continue, I thumbed it through to see the screen light up to something none other than the Fornax.

I glanced down at Garrus occasionally as I thumbed through the history and to my surprise it was all mostly human stuff apart from one featuring a Hanar but I put that down to just curiosity. Giving a chuckle I asked Garrus what he was so nervous about but his only response was a jumble of noises, "I really don't mind Garrus but if you were curious about anything you could have just asked?" I told him as I passed him back his tablet which was swiftly stashed behind his back, I had never seen a Turian blush before but I could tell just under his eyes had turned a darker shade of blue instead of silver as well as his neck.

"I just wanted to know what I was getting myself into." He said with a tiny stutter, I gave him a small sigh as I sat down next to him on the cot, telling him that the amount of times that we survived some of the hairiest situations in the galaxy, this was going to go fine. Not too sure if he was set at ease I slowly lowered my head onto his exposed shoulder and asked what his main worry was.

There was a long sigh before he answered slowly, "I don't know Shepherd, from my work at C-sec to Sindonis. I just want something to go right… Just this once." He turned to face me, his face no longer blushing but instead looking allot more forlorn. I knew I didn't have the words to console him so I hoped that my actions would suffice as I pulled his chest plate from his grip, placing that on the floor as I slid around the back of him and gave him a long and deep hug from behind while we both stayed sat on the bed.

It didn't take long until we were both laying down with Garrus's head on my stomach to avoid some of the pain of his hard cot, but we both refused to move from that point and just enjoyed out time with each other. It wasn't until my stomach rumbled abruptly that Garrus shot up like he just heard a Geth behind him, he stared at me from across the room like I was infected with something as he tried to clear some space from me. "What's wrong?" I asked a bit cautiously as I made a move to sit up.

"Did you not here that? You're chest just made a sound like an attack chopper!" I frowned for a second before asking in return "Do Turian's not get when you're hungry?" He gave a resound no and stated that it sounded evil, I had a good laugh at that remark and told him that it was nothing to worry about and that Humans get it sometimes whenever their hungry; I did have to ask if he really had never known that before but with another no I just sighed. After Garrus had relaxed a bit more I asked him if he wanted to pick up some lunch before we get back to work. Garrus gave a nod and went about slipping his chest plate back on, keeping his eyes fixed on me just in case I did turn out to be some kind of Geth drone in disguise.

Grabbing one of the random ration packs from Garner I sat down with Garrus who was looking a bit upset with his meal, we didn't have much need for dextro food but I thought I had some stashed away just in case we have someone inspect the ship. Shrugging to myself I had a look around the mess hall but the only other people here was Grunt who was just mashing up his food with his hands and Tali who looked as if she was just filling up her suit with coffee. Frowning to myself I turned my attention to the windows of the med bay, no one was in right now but a thought quickly popped into my head. "How would you like to get rid of those scars?" I blurted out, probably making sound a little bit un-sensitive.

Garrus just raised an eyebrow at me and asked what I was talking about, I told him about the latest upgrade to the med bay; that should be able to cure mostly anything superficial or otherwise. Garrus looked interested but added that it must have cost allot. I shrugged, saying it was only platinum we were trading for it. I told him that I was going to pick it up as soon as we got to the Citadel and that Garrus had the first use of it, he glanced around a bit unsure at first before whispering in a mock tone, "I thought you liked these scars?"

"Maybe you can get some new ones?" I answered back with a smirk but it didn't last long until we were just laughing amongst ourselves. I gave Joker a buzz and asked how far away we were from arriving, forty minutes until shore leave. I left Garrus in the mess hall as I excused myself to go address the crew, gathering everyone in the CIC.

"We will be arriving at the Citadel in nearly half an hour; we have a week of shore leave before we head off for Tuchanka. There is a thousand credit limit this time, you get locked up for being drunk and disorderly we will leave you there. If you bring any contraband onto the ship I will fire it and you out of the airlock. If anyone spreads Scale itch on this ship again I will let Mordin experiment on you. And if you do not have fun you will be on latrine duty for the following week. Dismissed."

With my little speech over I made my way over to Joker, just to give the Citadel my clearance to dock… Hoping silently that the old Normandy code still worked on this ship. "Not as harsh as last time." Joke mumbled with a voice full of sarcasm, I mocked him back with a mumble but I was soon shushed as he got a transition from the port.

"I have found many places that you would enjoy on the Citadel, Shepherd." EDI spoke up as I was inputting some commands for clearance. I had to ask what she meant, it wasn't exactly my first time on this station; but she was quick to remind me that allot has changed in the past two years and that Garrus would like to accompany me. I quickly hushed her over the last part and whispered to her how she would know about any of that. "I am the ship, Shepherd. Nothing goes on without me knowing it. You also left your diary open." She stated coldly as I glared at her hologram, Joke only caught the last part and was quick to make a comment.

"The great Commander Shepherd, has a diary!?" He asked halfway through his own laughter, I grumbled to myself before leaving, hearing the chuckling from the helm all the way to the map.

The line for shore leave had already started at the airlock; right in first place was Ken and Gabby who were busy bickering amongst themselves, followed by several crewmen. I stood over at the map for the time being, just to wait until we were authorised to proceed.

Twenty minutes later-

After a long wait everyone was off the ship except for a few security personnel and Joker who stated that he would rather just have some time to himself, I stood near the airlock myself and waited to see if I could catch Garrus and see if he wanted to go get a drink or something, I know that we did just have lunch but I was sure that he wouldn't mind. Seeing him come off the lift with Tali he gave her a pat on the shoulder before he made his way over to me, "I know you wanted to go grab a drink, but Tali did ask first." He said a bit upset, I didn't mind that much but it would have been nice to get a bit of a notice before hand.

"Is there no chance you can argue?" I asked blankly but my question was answered by Tali who I had not seen sneak up on Garrus. "No, because I still have a shotgun." She said with a laugh, I was tempted to join them but in the end I just waved them off as I headed my own way; perhaps I could pick up some new fish for my tank?

Stepping into one shop I asked one of the Volus there if they sold fish at all but it turned out that the shop I had entered was a second hand ship auctioneer. A strange thought came to my mind about retirement and getting my own ship instead of settling on some station, it was a bit riskier all things considered but it was better than the hustle and bustle of some of the places out there; telling the Volus I was interested I had a quick look through his catalogue before deciding to sit through a couple of shows before I decided.

I had my eye on a dark yellow ship about the size of a frigate; it was named after a moon apparently and was found drifting through the horsehead nebula. It had a bit of a strange history but apparently had never been opened and had a wealth of AI parts inside if the scans were anything to believe. I placed my bets but the price was quickly getting out of hand, at this rate I would have to settle for something else, thinking quickly I threw my marker into the air just placed a bit for just under my limit; nearly four hundred thousand credits. The other people in the room murmured amongst themselves and without even noticing the other bids the hammer was struck, I took a glance around to see who had won it after my strange move but when the Volus from the shop came a gave me a folder of some sort I just had to celebrate.

I snatched up a bottle from the small kiosk next door and gulped down the beer, it was a sweet victory. After calming myself down a little bit I thumbed through the folder; finding a key, a bit more backstory and a location. Deciding it would be best to leave it for a bit I went off in search of my original goal which was to get fish, knowing that the ship would wait for a little bit until I got back.

Strolling confidently around Zakera ward, I knew that today was going to be a good day.

"I found Shepherd… No, he's on his own… Will do… Yes sir, making a move now."

End of Chapter Two.

A/N. Just wanted to get the romance started and get the plot going, gonna be a little slow I'm not gonna lie. On a side note, I have no idea what a Turian would look like naked or even what Shepherd looks like, I'm thinking the default one but maybe not?

Either way, thanks for reading this far into my crazy blathering. I will see you all next chapter for violence and swearing… Smut the chapter after.

P.S. If you can think of a great name for the yellow ship that Shepherd bought, you get a mention in the story! ^^

See you next chapter party people!