December Eleventh

"Shepard, watch out!" Garrus leapt across the table to prop up the side of her gingerbread house. The weight of the extra frosting, gumdrops, and little chocolate candies had led to cracks across its walls, causing the whole thing to start crumbling.

"Quick, I need another load-bearing candy cane." She snapped her fingers, her eyes not leaving the candy construct.

"Shep, you're not supposed to overload it like that. Look at mine." His subvocals buzzed with mild irritation.

Shep studied her monstrosity, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. "You can make yours however you want. I'm eating mine, and it's going to be full of candy." She squeezed the frosting bag again, adding another layer to the candy construct that could no longer be fairly called a gingerbread house.

Garrus sighed. How did she have any teeth left? She really was just a big five-year-old sometimes. "You're not supposed to eat it right away. We're supposed to display it. Like a decoration."

"Then we'll display yours." She kept squeezing frosting on until the whole thing folded in on itself, a mess of gingerbread, candy, and pure, unadulterated sugar.

Garrus tried to figure out how to get his hands out of it without dragging it all across the table. The moment his attention left her, she darted forward and put a smudge of frosting on his nose.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, I've got too much frosting on the house, right? Might as well start frosting some other things I'll be nibbling on today."

Digging his hands out, Garrus dismayed at the sheer amount of levo-food smeared on his hands. "You'd better watch it, Shep. This already isn't bed rest, you know."

"I think I'll be fine," she said.

Garrus had to raise his hands quickly as Shep climbed over the table and slid into his lap. "Shep, I'm covered in frosting!"

"Oh, are you?" she asked, leaning forward to lick the frosting off his nose.

Heart thumping, he tried to remember himself. She's still supposed to be resting, your hands are covered in frosting, you're turian and she's tiny and squishy and you'll hurt her.

Then she kissed him, and he forgot everything, burying his hands in her hair.

Face and hair streaked with three different colors of frosting, Shep pulled back, smiling. "Now look what you've gone and done."

I tried. "Well, there's no medical reason why we can't take a shower …."