The first indication the SR2's crew had of their friendship was in the mess hall during a particularly tense game of high-stakes Skyllian Five. The game had broken out during the shift change, where blue shift finished for the day and the amber shift skeleton crew had taken their places. Zaeed had proclaimed that he was bored, and Gardner, taking a seat beside Chakwas as she sipped her post-shift tea, had suggested a game of cards. Joker, who limped about the mess with an empty travel mug, hadn't wasted any time pulling a deck of plastic playing cards (featuring the beautiful, scarcely-dressed women of Fornax's Maiden of the Month) and shuffling them. Shepard smiled as Joker dealt five spots with the ease and grace of a seasoned card player.
"Easier on my bones than sports," he said with a smirk. "I got really good at card games in the service."
Shepard glanced at the empty spot next to her, the invisible player's cards building up, and turned toward the main battery. With two fingers in her mouth, she whistled and called for Garrus to join them.
"You know, I could never do that," Zaeed muttered as he cleaned out an ear with his pinky.
Shepard shrugged, "It's easy."
Close to an hour later, Zaeed was out, having lost a forty of rye, a cigar and a glass eye, followed by Gardner who had lost only a little cash, as well as some family photos (which were being guarded by Chakwas). Joker was next, having lost his hat and whatever he was carrying in his pockets at the time. Garrus, altogether pleased with himself, held the cigar between his fingers while Zaeed glared with vehement anger. Spread across the table next to the discarded cards were credit chits, cigarettes, electronic bits and pieces, a few cartons of medi-gel, a watch, Garrus' visor, Joker's SR2 hat, and the (now empty) forty of rye.
Now it was Chakwas, Garrus and Shepard all glancing at one another over their cards. Chakwas put down two kings and smiled at Garrus who paused for a moment before trading two of his cards from the pile, perusing the table, and confidently placing a king and an ace over Chakwas' cards. The doctor paused, put the rest of her hand in the discarded deck, gave a graceful shrug and leaned back, choosing to flick through the small pile of Gardner's photos instead. The two remaining players threw down their cards and rechecked their goods.
Garrus gathered the discarded cards and faced Shepard, giving her his rakish turian grin as he shuffled the deck again.
"You're playing awfully well for someone who used to suck at this game," he teased.
"It isn't that I sucked," she corrected him. "It's that we used to play for shots, not wagers, and I always got far more drunk than you."
"We used the same system when you taught me chess and I excelled at that," he chuckled.
"Just shut up and deal the cards," Shepard rolled her eyes and took a sip of rye from her worn N7 travel mug, having won it back from Joker who had won it from Shepard in a Skyllian Five game on the SR1.
As Garrus shuffled, Zaeed frowned from across the table.
"I'm watching you, boy," he pointed at the turian threateningly. "If I find out you've been cheating I'm going to leap across this table and rip that cigar right out of your ugly, torn up mouth."
"I'm just a lucky guy," Garrus shrugged.
"I swear, you've got something in your display-"
"Hey, my display's been on the table for two rounds!"
"I hope you enjoy that cigar, boy, it's a Cuban, impossible to replace," Zaeed muttered again. "Seeing as there isn't a Cuba anymore…"
Garrus ignored the merc's mutterings and dealt five cards to himself and Shepard, placing the rest of the deck face down between them. He quickly checked his hand before setting it down again, and Lina did the same, a sly smile across her face.
"What's your wager?" he asked.
"What else do I have?" she asked with a laugh. "All my cash is on the table."
"Same," Garrus shrugged, then suggested, "What about your mug?"
"Fuck no! Do you know how happy I am to have this baby back?" she grabbed her mug protectively. "Why don't you wager that damn cigar that Zaeed wants back so badly?"
"Nooope," he grinned and put the cigar between his teeth.
"Why don't we make it interesting?" Shepard bit her lip and leaned in. "Fire round. Five hands. Winner keeps the booty and loser has to complete his next shift naked."
"What do you mean his?"
"… he asks, assuming he is going to win," she grinned so wide her shiny white teeth flashed. "You forget that I have three passes still, so technically, I only need to win two hands."
Garrus let out a laugh and swore in his native language. He had forgotten about that annoying little strategy of hers. He knew that she knew that he was cornered, despite the odds being in his favour so far. He groaned and rubbed at his eyes, tired from a long shift.
"Under shorts on and you can keep the cigar," he bartered, throwing his treasured prize down on the table.
"Deal," she grabbed her cards.
/—/
One never realizes how cold the mess hall seats actually are until one sits on them half-naked. Despite this, Shepard went over her morning notes with her head held high, ignoring the stares from the crew that seemed to believe that the best place to work that morning was on the crew deck. From down the hall, she could heard Garrus let out an occasional cackle- he had kept the main battery door open ("for airflow") and occasionally glanced out to see her sitting at the table in her Cerberus issue black and yellow underwear.
Garrus, in an amazing streak of dumb luck, had won an unprecedented five hands in a row, leading Shepard's passes to be worthless, Zaeed to believe he'd been cheating all along, and producing a raucous amount of laughter from the doctor, the pilot and the cook. She glared at Gardner now, who was chuckling to himself behind the counter.
"I suppose you're enjoying this," she called to him.
"Not at all, Commander," he replied, suddenly busying himself with something as Garrus walked down the steps toward her. She glared at the hovering crew, and shouted at them to get back to their posts.
Garrus took the empty seat next to her, setting down his coffee and a datapad, his prize cigar still clutched in his free hand. Across the table, Jack and Kasumi giggled to each other over their breakfast. Shepard glanced up at them and watched as Jack made Kasumi's utensils hover in the air a half metre above the table. She was glad that Jack had latched onto the thief- Kasumi was someone that Jack respected for her skill, and in the few weeks they'd been together on the ship she had noticed a friendlier side to the biotic, no doubt brought forth by Kasumi's sweet nature.
It reminded her of herself, really. Her younger self, and the younger version of the jackass sitting next to her.
"How are you this morning, Commander?" the jackass interrupted her thoughts. "Cold in here?"
"Fuck off," Shepard replied, bringing the datapad closer to her chest to hide the fact that yes, she was cold, and her body was responding accordingly.
"Hey, Garrus," Kasumi called from across the table. "We better check the ship next time we dock. I think the high beams are out."
Jack snorted into her coffee, and Shepard turned a funny shade of crimson.
"Okay, okay, thank you, Kasumi," Lina crossed her arms across her chest.
"Sorry, Shep," Kasumi smiled behind a gloved hand. "It had to be said."
"Don't dish it out if you can't take it, boss," Jack smirked.
"She's right," Garrus twirled his cigar in his hand. "If you had won, you'd be making fun of me."
"Well, I didn't," she adjusted her bra strap nervously. "And I didn't squelch on the bet, so I don't appreciate my subordinates dogging me about it."
"Sorry, Commander," Garrus sat back in his chair and turned his attention to his datapad. "At least you have your mug back."
"I do take solace in that," Shepard gripped her mug with one hand and smiled.
"And I have my cigar," he looked at it happily.
"Why don't you smoke that already?" Jack asked. "Before Zaeed sneaks into your room and slits your throat in your sleep to get it back."
"Well, two reasons. One, the Commander doesn't approve of smoking on her ship, although Zaeed seems to be the exception to this rule," he gave Shepard a sideways glance at that. "And two, well… this."
He pointed to the closed end of the cigar, and Shepard gave him a quizzical look.
"I don't have a cutter," he explained. "And while most other species have the right, ah… oral accoutrements…"
Shepard used a finger to push his upper lip out of the way, revealing the long, pointed teeth that started where the human incisors would be.
"Turians' teeth are spaced too far apart," she explained.
"So I can't bite it off without making a mess of things," he pushed her hand away from his mouth.
"Poor boo," Kasumi teased.
"Guess you're getting murdered by Zaeed then," Jack laughed.
"Give me that," Shepard took the cigar from him and placed the tip between her teeth. "You have a lighter?"
He nodded and pulled a cigarette case out of a hidden side pocket in his armour. Tucked inside was the same lighter he'd been using for years, one that Lina had mistaken for gold when she first saw it, but upon closer inspection was a polished brass, engraved with the turian hierarchy symbol. She took the lighter from him, chewing at the end of the cigar, then pointed at the cigarettes and glared at him.
"Still?" she asked.
"Hey, I quit for five years," he threw his hands up.
"This doesn't look like quitting to me," she spat the errant paper and tobacco leaves into her empty mug, then used her finger and a bit of saliva to glue the paper back down over the exposed end.
"I started again about two years ago," he admitted. "I think you know what events triggered that."
She didn't respond, focusing on turning the cigar as she held the flame to the far end. She made a surprised sound at the mild, oaky taste and passed it back to her friend when it was fully lit. He sat back, enjoying his prize, and Lina turned to put her bare feet in his lap. Always one to share, Garrus offered the cigar to Kasumi, but the thief waved her hand and gathered her dishes.
"No thank you," she said. "As a rule, I never partake. Besides, Jack and I have a day planned in the port side lounge."
"Make sure you're able to walk if I need you," Shepard called, recalling the day that she had spent with Kasumi in the port side lounge, with the port side lounge's fully stocked bar.
"No guarantees, Shep, we're in for a day of reckless literary abandon with my private library," Kasumi winked and lead Jack toward the hall.
"Don't hurt yourselves," Garrus called after them, grasping Lina's feet with his free hand. He turned back to the commander to see her examining the old lighter. She ran her thumb over the engraving.
"This used to be so shiny," she mused.
"It used to be so new," he replied. She passed it back to him, and he once again tucked it along with his cigarette case into the side pocket of his armour.
She remembered, all those years ago, whenever he would light a cigarette and there would be that little flash of the brass, the spark from the flint, always visible no matter how hunched over he was to block the breeze. She shifted in her seat and pressed her bare feet further into his thigh. He gave her a smile and played with her toes, attacking them from above with his free hand. She took a deep breath, her comfort and self-assurance overpowering the fact that she was mostly naked in a very public part of the ship. Her mind went back to that night on the Citadel that she'd finally asked him about that ever-present lighter.
"I remember when you told me about the girl that gave it to you," she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees, a nostalgic feeling flooding her. "And about how she broke your heart, and how you thought you'd never really feel whole again afterwards."
"I've learned a lot since then," he chuckled, grabbing her hands under her legs and clasping them. "It was a bit of a foolish notion to think that I needed someone to feel whole."
"I always kind of secretly hoped," she lowered her voice to a whisper, her heart pounding at the notion of total honesty. "That I'd be the person to make you feel whole again."
He smiled and pressed his face into her scarred knees.
"Well, having you around certainly didn't hurt," he replied.
She kissed him on the brow.
"We aren't alone," he muttered against her knees.
"Gardner won't talk," she joked.
"Gardner's a bigger gossip than you think," he glanced up at her.
"Damn," she sat up and spoke louder. "You know I'm not one to squelch on a bet, but I think I'm going to put some clothes on, it's too damn cold in here."
He smiled again, mandibles brushing against her knees. "Yes, Commander."
"Don't smoke that in the main battery," she disentagled her legs from him.
"Sure thing, Commander," he sat up and stubbed the half-finished cigar out in an abandoned coffee cup.
Shepard padded across the mess hall floor, Garrus watching her as he passed the dirty coffee cup to Gardner and grabbed a clean one for himself.
"What was that about?" the cook asked, glancing between the CO and the turian.
"Ten years of complications," Garrus replied as Jacob walked in, eyes wide, looking as though he'd seen pigs fly in the confines of the crew deck corridor.
"What was that all about?" he asked, motioning toward where Shepard had passed him.
"Gardner already asked that question," Garrus replied before disappearing into the main battery.
Jacob looked to Gardner for a response, and the cook replied with a shrug and a "Don't look at me, I just work here."
\—\
Lina, being the ever vigilant master of petty revenges, would later pay Garrus back for his good luck by knocking him down a flight of slippery stairs and into a pile of garbage in the abandoned Cerberus facility on Pragia. Jack even laughed, despite herself, when Garrus stood, gave Lina a rude hand gesture, and walked into the rain to rinse himself off.
It was only then that he had the wherewithal to ask "Who's fucking glass eye was that!"