AN- Well, we broke 1000 views! I never thought it would get this far with it being my first fanfic. Again, thank you to those of you who read this fic and ya know, comment, review, favorite, and follow!

Chapter 7

Blue of Palaven

They walked into a run down jewelry store that obviously had seen better days before the invasion. Through all the destruction the owner was able to save at least a case of jewelry he proudly had displayed and stands over, smiling as the couple walk in hand in hand. " Hi! What can I get ya? Sorry about the limited selection," he says quickly. Shepard can tell that the man is going to be unpleasantly annoying, but at least he isn't scoffing at us in a relationship.

" Hi, we're looking for engagement rings. If you have any, we would like to look at them." When she said engagement rings his smile had evaporated from his face and turned slightly hostile as if he was completely oblivious of their relationship when they walked in.

We were holding hands for god sakes, Shepard scoffs to herself as her smile turns to a hostile stare over the man's quick change in hospitality. With that he slightly shifts and slightly changes his expression. Damn right asshole, it's not as if you're getting any other customers at this time.

Garrus wasn't completely oblivious to the human's hostility but had grown used to it from the beginning of his time on the Normandy. It was always the stares and the snarky comments in the storage area when he had first gotten aboard. It even went as far as Ashley continually shouting at him over the Relay 314 incident and Shanxi. It had taken all of his will to not respond as it was his first day on the ship. He didn't want to get kicked off on the first day due to a human's anger over what his race had done over a misunderstanding. It had taken Shepard threatening to kick Ashley off the ship to calm the woman down.

After that he vowed to not leave the storage to not risk upsetting more of the crew, even if it had meant that he couldn't get to know how a Spectre had operated in the confines of their own ship. It wasn't worth the possibility of upsetting Shepard's crew, so he would only sneak up to the crew deck during the Alliance's set night cycle to not disturb the crew.

This shop owner wasn't as livid as Ashley, and that was just over his presence, not the fact that he was going to marry a Human. At least his reaction was a lot better than Ashley's. With that he turns to Shepard to attempt to at least make the situation better. " Honey, pick out what you want and I'll pay for it. I've got some messages to get to. I'll be outside." With that he leaned down and joined their foreheads together and then turns to walk out.

Shepard turned to the shop owner who had gotten his rings out of the case and was staring over her shoulder at the huge Turian as he walked out and started to read messages on his omni-tool. As Shepard glared at the man he started to stutter, " Ummm, here is all the selection I have. Don't worry about size. We can instantly get it fitted."

She looked down at the selection as she was tired of looking at the face of the owner who had rubbed her the wrong way. The selection was very small, only five rings that even closely resembled an engagement ring and all of them looked dull to her. The same stone and gold colored bands. The only difference was the cut of each of the clear diamond stones. With this realization she lets out a telling sigh to show her displeasure. With that the owner spoke up, " If you don't like any of these, you can check the rest of the rings to see if you like them. It's not like your fiancé would be able to tell the difference."

Shepard ignored the the underlying message he was sending, but thought about it. He was right that Garrus wouldn't know the difference and they were in a far from normal relationship as it is, what difference would a different ring make. With that she looked in the case and was immediately enamored by one in the case, no way he has a ring that color.

" Can I look at that one?" she asks as she points in the case to the ring she wanted, I need to make sure I'm not seeing things. He reaches in and pulls out the ring and hands it to her.

It's a gold band like the engagement rings, but it's stone was what she was more interested in. It was a shade of Vakarian blue, perfectly matching Garrus' clan markings. " Garrus come here," she says turning to the door. This makes the owner uncomfortable again as the Turian walks in.

" What do you need Laura?" She quickly spins around and holds up the ring next to his face to compare the colors.

The Turian acts really confused as she didn't respond and her eyes were darting between his face and the tiny ring she was holding. Garrus asks again " Ummm, what did you need?"

Shepard continues to squint and sticks her tongue out as she does so many times before when she is deep in thought, then she holds out the ring, stone facing him, for him to see. It's the same color as the Vakarian clan markings that he had worn since he was two. She finally replies to his question, " I think I found it."

He was amazed at her ability to surprise him. She wanted to truly take on the Vakarian name and colors, something that would have been surprising from a Human, even if they were getting married.

Not breaking their stares, he reaches in his breast pocket and reaches to places his chit on the counter to not make the man any more uncomfortable than he already was by having to take the chit directly from his hand.

" Okay, you're good," the owner interrupts the concentration of the two as he returns the chit to the counter for Garrus to pick up. " Congrats on your engagement," he says as he gives a weak smile at the couple as they gather the ring and the chit to walk out.

Garrus is the first to speak as they reach the exit and out to the street, " Well, at least no one died."

" Yea, but at least we somewhat know what to expect from some in our races," she replies as she motions Garrus to follow her, in the direction of the store they got Garrus' visor from. " Come on. I want to add something to this ring."

" And what is that?" he asks as she reaches up to his visor and takes it off, showing him the script etched onto the metal.

" No Shepard without Vakarian, in Human Common and Turian," she says with a faint smile as she replaces the visor on his head and lowers her hands to his mandibles, giving them a slight rub. "After, I need something to eat that isn't hospital food.


It took them forever to find a restaurant that offered both levo and dextro options, but they finally settled on a small Mexican restaurant that overlooked the Pacific Ocean after they had called Vega asking for recommendations and asked him to join them as they enjoyed something other than meager peanut butter sandwiches and dextro paste.

" Damn Lola, if I knew you liked Mexican this much I would've made you tacos and empanadas all the time on the Normandy," Vega says as Shepard takes a mouthful of taco and shoves it in her mouth, not caring what anyone thinks of her eating habits.

" How about you be stuck in a hospital for a few months and tell me how you would feel seeing real food for the first time. Garrus what is in yours?"

Garrus puts down his entree that he has been playing with as he has no idea what it is even though it is dextro prepared in a Mexican fashion. " I don't know Laura. This looks a little weird," he says as he holds up an empanada from his blue dextro plate. She snatches the pace from his hand and tears it apart to show him.

" It's fried bread with meat inside. You do have bread on Palaven, right?"

" Yea, we do," he says as he looks inside the bread to see the dextro meat and takes a sniff. " Is that carnis? There is no way they were able to get that." He yells as he unleashes his teeth on the small pockets of meat.

" Better than you thought bud?"

" Yea, a lot better."