First, sorry for not being here for what seems like FOREVER.
You know how it is, school, work, family and friends tend to take up a lot of time.

Second, would anyone be willing to help proof read my story?
It would mean a lot to be honest. I want to get something out that I won't look back at and go "damn..."

Although that doesn't count for the chapter below, so I'm going to apologize for that.

Sorry again guys. Enjoy.

...

He's a good friend, so what if I find his voice attractive, it's not like I'm attracted to Turians or Garrus in general. You can find your friends attractive. Plus, I'm a woman. I have needs. And it's been so long, but that's not the point... Besides, he has sharp teeth, a fringe instead of hair, mandibles that move. I looked him over. He was back to watching the movie, specifically another action-packed scene of Hanar who was trying to portray Shepard. He's really tall, and… and… and muscled. Broad shoulders and these gorgeous blue eyes. He has some really, really bad jokes yet they still make me laugh, and his voice… Mother fucker.

Garrus shifted his body and his arm that rested behind me dropped just enough so his talons were barley resting on my shoulder. While I was still a bit conflicted as to my new found appreciation for my friend I didn't feel the need to move and continued my multitasking between thinking and watching the movie. I was comfortable around Garrus that much I knew. In the little time I had known him he was a good friend I knew I could rely on. It didn't help that he had all these… features that I found eye-catching.

While it was not uncommon for different species to get together, most of the time, at least from what I had learned, usually an Asari was involved. Humans and Turians were still touchy after the whole First-Contact-Incident situation and- What is he doing? Garrus' hand and talons had been unmoving for the few minutes it'd been since they touched my shoulder but now he was moving them slowly and very lightly over my shoulder, ghosting them so often. It felt good, although it did tickle some.

"Something wrong Aurora?" he purred, slowly moving his gaze to look down at me, very briefly glanced at his hand on my shoulder that had now started tracing some unknown patterns.

I still had some rum in the glass I was holding, "Not at all." I answered before finishing the rest of my alcohol.

"Good." He replied shifting his body again. This time his body moved closer to my own and his hand fell further down my arm, continuing to trace small patterns with his claws.

It was very light but I could feel a rumble resonating through his body more than I heard. Different from the time he had done something similar on the Normandy but nice all the same. While I could read the minuet facial changes that Turians let through, subharmonics were more learning as I had come to realize, along with the standard noises they made, but from what I knew of Turians and of Garrus himself, he was very pleased.. I had stopped trying to figure out what exactly was happening at the moment and finally decided that I could always blame it on the alcohol. To hell with it I thought. If this had been a human male I would have done something about it by now, not continue to try and think this thru. This time I was the one who moved: I pulled away from Garrus, his hand and body going stiff, his rumbling quickly silenced; mandibles flaring out quickly with a click in mild nervousness. Scooting us much closer together, I slipped my legs underneath me and tucked myself into Garrus' side. His vocals trilled surprise at first as he stared down at me. I think I had a mischievous smile, couldn't tell at the moment but my guess was that he wasn't expecting me react at all. I grabbed his arm to guide it around me, having it rest on my hip. I knew that if he were human, it would have been better to place it on my waist but Garrus was Turian, and Turians had a thing with waists. I shifted a bit more, trying to make myself more comfortable. He was a bit more ridged than I had anticipated. Garrus had been still the entire… 12 seconds it had taken me to move and finally he did something besides stare at me in obvious shock; he settled himself comfortably and gripped my hip in a final response. A character from Blasto started yelling at the 'Savior of the Citadel', then BOOM. More action. We stayed like this for some time, watching the movie and stealing a few glances at each other as the liquid courage slowly drained to just comfortable soberness. I shifted once again, the arm that had been resting between our bodies now rested partially on his leg. So I still had some of that courage left in me. Garrus resumed the light tracing of his claws, only on my hip this time.

"Blasto, you have saved us." A Salarian cried out as he dropped to his knees in thanks. The Hanar pulled an Asari maiden over as the movie was coming to a close. Garrus chortled muttering an 'if only' at the end, shaking his head. Ping.

I stared at my omni-tool in disbelief before opening it. It was a message from-

"She-hic-pard said he's free." I said aloud, not very happy with my random hiccup. Garrus laughed again with a snort before I sat up and slapped his thigh. His laughter quickly died down to snigger as he pulled me back to his side.

"You would get, arrested for being intoxi- drunk in public."

"You're just as dunk as I am." I accused.

"But I'm not the one who might be going out." He sighed. "Can't believe I'm, saying this," he grumbled trailing his claws up and down my side for a second, sending a shiver down my spine before he let go, "but invite Shepard over. He's been wanting to, speak with you."

I smiled. "Could you call Shepard? I'll clean up." Garrus deemed this fine as he nodded. I pulled myself away from Garrus off the couch and grabbed what I could before heading into the kitchen. I placed what couldn't be thrown away into the sink and the rest in the trash and went back form the rest. Throwing away the bags we had left in the kitchen I looked back to Garrus and grinned despite the fact that 1) I was still somewhat confused as to what was going on with us and 2) I had a nice buzz (and going down) happening and 3) I had guests coming over and nothing to get out for them. Garrus was talking to Shepard over through the terminal by my door, holding on to the edges to steady himself. Ha, maybe he was more drunk than I was.

"Shepard! Shepard. You need to come over. Right now."

"What do you mean 'where am I'? I'm with Aurora."

"Aurora is drunk to go out."

"Shepard this has nothing to do with me.."

"Aurora! Shepard doesn't want to be a… What'd you call it?" Shepard's muddled voice answered. "Oh- a third wheel. You humans come up with the craziest explanations. Why didn't you just say the old algorithm that has been re-modulated and become obsolete?" I believe he honestly thought that made more sense. "Maybe you could bring someone?" Huh, more people, well I didn't see the harm in that. Garrus had turned to face me as he asked the question and I nodded my head in agreement. Actually having more people over would be fun, although I would have rather stayed the comfortable seating arrangement I was in before. Maybe Garrus and I could watch another movie soon.

"Shepard. I need my wingman here." I looked back at Garrus who was looking directly at me now; his voice had dropped. He winked this time and went back to arguing with Shepard.

Son of a bitch- I guess I'm a cliché, laughing and eyes were a downfall of mine. And apparently so is the Turian voice when it drops. And he knows.

"See you here Shepard." Garrus hit the end button on the terminal before turning to face me. "Aurora! Shepard's bringing more drinks and people."

"Sounds like a party" I replied as I turned to open a couple of cabinets, retrieving some clean glasses, some napkins and other things that would make it look like I had some idea that I was having people over. I finished up by grabbing the dishes I had left in the sink and placing them in the dishwasher. Another invention that had seen to still be usable in the future. Garrus was fixing the couch cushions as I scurried of upstairs to change. While I was comfortable wearing my pajamas in front of Garrus I would not be wearing them when people were going to be over enjoying themselves. I quickly put on a pair of jean shorts, a black tank top and a very light cream colored cardigan. The makeup I was wearing earlier would have to do as I slipped on some black flats and hurried myself downstairs. Letting my hair down from its ponytail was the last step to my change and I was done.

doorbell. I was nervous. I hadn't been around people in a setting like this in what seemed like forever. You're trained to survive in extreme conditions with nothing but the clothes on your back, you can do this! I strode over, patting down my outfit before unlocking and opening the door. There stood a largely muscled human- the gun guy from the Normandy. Vega, first names James; wearing his Alliance style fatigues and holding a couple of bottles of liquid.

"James?" I asked

"Shepard gave me the address saying to grab some drinks, something about Garrus needing backup."

"Vega! Good to see you!" Garrus waltzed over from whatever it was he was doing in the kitchen. "Shepard messaged you?" James nodded then peered around me. "I was just down the street when he sent the invite. Woah. This place is yours?"

I nodded stepping aside to let him in. "Kitchen's over there" I pointed to the right. James lifted one of the bottles above his head as he walked in the direction, clear like water.

"Hope you like tequila niña."

"Tequila makes my clothes fall off." I responded, rolling my eyes as he called me a 'little girl'. I was older than the guy for Christ sake. But either way, this earned me a boisterous laugh from James and a thrumming sound from Garrus as he looked over me. I shrugged my shoulders with a smile going to close to the door.

"Miss O'Reilly, please wait."

Just a few feet from my door Normandy's pilot, Joker, was shuffling his way over and next to him was a graceful, silvered body that walked like she was on clouds; holding a bag I might add. Statuesque and curved. The couple smiled as they reached me and my door.

"Holy fuck."

"Miss O'Reilly, I do not understand how such an earthly word could be deemed sacred." I knew that voice. I know that voice. The possibility of what I was seeing seemed highly unlikely. Tall, lean with certain curves, boobs…

I blatantly, and without any regard to how stupid I looked, pointed to the gorgeous robotic being. I could blame it on the alcohol that was leaving my system (they would never know)…"EDI?"

Joker stood next to her, slightly bent over but smiling like a mad man. "I know right?"

Garrus shook hands with Joker as they both past the threshold into my place, "Vega's in the kitchen." I stared at EDI, still in shock.

"She's- you're hot!" I exclaimed.

"Thank you Miss O'Reilly. But I still do not understand why you wou-" Joker cut her off by dragging her into the kitchen saying he would 'explain later'. Edi had a body, woah. Garrus followed behind them as EDI presented him with the bag. The door closed and locked. I shook my head before making my way over, and leaned against the counter. Vega had found the shot glasses I'd brought out and was filling 3 of them with the clear liquid and one with a purple liquid; he handed the purple shot to Garrus, who made his way to stand somewhat behind me, 2 of the clear shots to EDI and myself, keeping one for him.

"I now understand the meaning of what you said. You were very shocked." EDI stated as she passed the shot glass to Joker. That was a slight understatement.

"Hasta el fondo" James said before he downed it.

The 3 of us raised our glasses in response. I felt Garrus lean forward. "EDI doesn't understand how earth shattering that act can be."

Oh my… I downed my drink in one go.

…

The next people to arrive were Shepard and Liara. Tali it seemed had to stay and deal with Ambassadors as she was the highest ranking Quarian on the Citadel. Mordin was still on the Normandy with Eve, she had another fever. And I guess that Cortez had a few more repairs to make on the shuttle, apparently someone made a very dangerous crash while on Mars. Currently we were all in the kitchen, taking more shots of alcohol, specifically tequila and whatever that pretty purple drink Garrus was having. Currently Garrus and Shepard were telling me about some of the more entertaining missions they'd been together on.

"So this man starts jumping out of his pants, literally!- and all these hamsters are scurrying down this man's legs as he's trying to get back to his ship through security."

"Shepard and I are right behind him watching this happen, wondering what the hell is happening as he now starts denying that he knew anything about them."

"Turns out he was trying to smuggle them off the space station when in reality you could walk out with one."

"He would have been fine actually if he hadn't have taken them from the back of a pet store."

I laughed, "So let me get this straight, a man tried smuggling hamsters via pants." The both nodded their heads.

"We could tell her about the time you had to go undercover at that Underground bar."

"You will do no such thing Shepard." Garrus growled. I quirked one of my eyebrows in interest; Garrus undercover at a bar, if it was anything like the hamster story it had to be good. Shepard lifted his hands up to chest level, one still gripping the beer bottle, as he chuckled.

"Alright, alright, alright," Shepard said. He took a swig of his drink while relaxing his other arm as it was before. He smiled at me and started walking backwards. "You're secret life as a part time dancer will be safe with me."

"Shepard!" Garrus growled. Shepard had moved away quite quickly, hiding in the safety of people by the couches. Joker was sitting in the arm chair, James on the edge of the couch, seeing who would finish their drink first. Shepard had walked over and joined in, seeming to forget that Garrus was waiting for his chance for sweet revenge against his friend. Edi and Liara were talking near the kitchen, the Asari clutching a shimmery looking beverage in her hand.

"So what kind of outfit did you wear?" I asked while trying to keep a straight face. I'd seen some of the outfits that dancers wore nowadays, and imagining a Turian wearing one was very comical. Especially Garrus; he was quite formidable on his own, still lithe but more mass to him than others; especially with his armor. Garrus rounded on me, still growling. I chuckled before linking my arm with his and pulling him towards the others. "Relax Garrus, not asking you to dance for me just yet."

Garrus groaned in reply when we arrived to the others. The party had started at a relatively good time; it had been a few hours already. We had mainly gone thru all the drinks but the tequila, Shepard had taken one look at the writing on the bottle and declared it a no go. Tequila could be a nasty piece of work for some people. Luckily the crew had a relatively late return time, 1030 CT. The 7 of us continued drinking and talking well into the night; time seemed to move slowly which must have seemed like a god send to the Normandy crew; they were able to relax and enjoy themselves as much as they could at that moment. I stared quietly at them, watching for a second. I didn't have tons of moments like this from 200 some odd years ago. Sure, I can remember the family parties; the first beer I had with my dad, glass of wine with my mom; the very few college parties I had attended and the very rare celebrations when I was in the Cryo Program. My eyes landed on Garrus, with his arm slung over Shepard's shoulder, they were laughing hard at Vega who was picking himself off of the floor. Just because I didn't have many moments like this doesn't mean I can't make them memories now. James Vega had righted himself and plopped onto the couch.

"Ms. O'Reilly." Edi stepped up to me; I stared at her for a second before answering. "I think I will take Mr. Monroe back to the Normandy. He will need time to get ready to pilot tomorrow."

I nodded my head and smiled, "Can't have Joker flying with a hangover could we?"

"No we could not." Edi made her way to Joker, helping him out of the armchair, saying they're goodbyes.

"What time is it?"

"zero-thirty-eight." Shepard mumbled. "Damn, I really don't want to call a Skycab."

"You can bunk here Shepard. You too James." I announced. James chuckled before spreading himself out on the couch muttering 'way ahead of you'. I waltzed over to a closet and pulled out a pillow and blanket for James, tossing it at him. He grunted in response before making himself comfortable and closing his eyes. At least he was easy.

"Thanks Aurora" Shepard ruffled my hair, swaying for a second before looking at Liara. She nodded her head in an unspoken answer before all of us made our way upstairs. Garrus and Shepard were leaning against each other quite heavily, one keeping the other supported as we made it inside my room. I picked up the pajamas I had haphazardly thrown on the floor earlier, planning on changing into them for the night. Garrus dumped Shepard onto the bed while I made sure that I got Liara anything she needed; luckily she was easy and opted to steal Shepard's shirt in lieu of wearing her clothes for the night. I changed in the bathroom quickly and walked out to see Shepard clinging to Garrus, trying to get him in a headlock.

"You don't get out of that soon Garrus, your bed is as good as mine." I teased, making my way out of my room to his.

"Shepard let go." I heard an 'oof' before Garrus came scrambling out of the room, shutting the door behind him. By the time he was in his room I was grabbing one of the pillows. Garrus huffed before going into the bathroom, coming out a moment later wearing just some pants. I had grabbed one of the pillows I had deemed 'not-needed-by-Garrus' and an extra blanket from the closet.

"Try not to step on me." I said, tossing the pillow onto the floor. The carpet in the room was still new and soft so it wouldn't be bad at all.

"Thought you said you were taking my bed?" he asked, staring down at me.

I rolled my eyes with a smile, "Yeah right. If memory serves, you sleep on a cot. A bed must be nice, and I'm not taking that away tonight."

Garrus eyed me as I made myself comfortable on the floor; he was making a noise but at the moment I didn't care what it was. Well I didn't, until he scoped me off the floor and tossed me onto his bed, the pillow landing on me right after. That I was not expecting.

"Jesus Christ Garrus, what the hell?" He crawled to the empty space next to me, not taking his eyes off me. He looked like a predator stalking his prey, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. There was nothing malicious or extremely scary about the way he looked or the way he looked at me but it still sent a chill through my spine. It was… I couldn't even think of the word. He stared at me for a moment before one of his mandibles lifted; Turian equivalent of a smirk. He stretched his body out, getting under the covers before resting his head on his special Turian pillow, "Good night Aurora."

I stared at him in disbelief before smacking his chest with the pillow. I laid myself out, getting under the covers as well before turning my back to him. My brain had finally caught up to me; what the hell was that? He- and I… Fucker. My brain flashed to earlier in the night, to the movie Garrus and I had been watching; how we had ended up in the position of me wrapped up against his side. I huffed quietly before closing my eyes, trying to fall asleep, trying to ignore the fact of what Garrus did and that he and I were sharing a bed. I sounded like a little girl; I was an adult for crying out loud, I could handle sharing a room with a Turian who- he's laughing?

I felt Garrus move, his laughter quieting down. "Something the matter Aurora?" His voice had dropped in pitch when my name all but rolled off his tongue in a delicious sounding way. I lifted myself up to turn and face him, unceremoniously plopping my body back down. I looked up to see him resting on his forearm, placing him well over me.

"Garrus, what are you doing?" He shifted down and away from me slightly, blinking.

"Huh?" He looked confused. "I, uh…" I didn't say anything, just continued to look at him. Flirting was all good and well, and honestly I wasn't expecting things to progress much farther, not that I didn't want them to? I wasn't sure, this was all so confusing. I may have been drunk during the movie but I was aware out what I was doing; although I could have said it was all in good fun since he started it. But this was a bit more than getting drunk on the couch and cuddly, I wanted to know where this all stood.

"I'm uh, not sure what I'm doing exactly." Garrus finally admitted. "I've never really considered a cross-species liaison to be honest or if I'm really interested in one." I stared back at him quietly. "Crap, that came out wrong. Not that I'm not interested in you, but I just…" Garrus was stumbling for words. Well he was back to his partially awkward self that'd I noticed on occasion.

I sat up, lifting myself up to rest on my arm. Garrus went quiet. "Are you flirting just for kicks?" I asked. He looked at me and shook his head. "Entertaining curiosity?" He lightly shook his head again… "Embarrassed to be seen with a human?" His eyes widened.

"No! I-" his voice raised in volume, close to yelling.

"Then relax Garrus." I laid back down in the bed, "Just figure out what you want. Soon would be preferable." I yawned, feeling extremely tired. It hadn't been that long since we had said goodnight to everyone, but the thought that I would wake up in a few hours when everyone left made me even more tired. Garrus stayed still and I could feel him looking at me as I closed my eyes snuggling into my pillow.

I was slowly drifting off when Garrus finally moved. Turian body heat was much higher than a human's, and I could definitely feel it as he moved to barely touching me.

"You." Was the last thing I hear before I fell asleep.