Tanith shouted and tumbled from the bench, fists swinging out at the person that had gripped her shoulders and brushed her face. There was a grunt of surprise before a three-fingered hand closed around her wrist, the other catching her around the middle as she lunged.

"Woah, Spirits, Delano-" barked Garrus.

She blinked in surprise, shaking, looking up at him with wide eyes, her body rigid with fear and alarm. Her mouth opened and closed; she couldn't get her voice to work.

He frowned, letting go of her wrist and cupping her face. "Hey, Tanith... are you okay?"

The tone of his voice was soft, the cadence deep, the concern sincere. And he was touching her... She was letting him and she wanted him to.

She could feel the tears building, tears she'd held at bay for weeks, brought on by a torrent of emotion that pushed against the walls she'd built around her heart since Sorrow's End.

No no no no no-

"Tanith?" he whispered, brows knitting deeper.

That single word, her name, was the last straw. Something broke inside her and she burst into tears.

"Spirits-"

She didn't know how he managed to pick her up and set her in his lap, sitting on the bench and cradling her like a lost child. By the time she realized where she was and what had happened, she found her arms wound tight around his neck, his shirt soaked at his shoulder and owl, her cheek wet with tears. He was stroking her back, crooning softly, his other arm draped over her lap, holding her close to him.

Tani barely registered the hiccuping sobs echoing in her ears as her own, something she hadn't done whilst crying since she was a little girl. She couldn't stop trembling, couldn't make herself sit up. She felt drained, empty and numb, but not in a bad way. No, this was something she had truly needed for weeks now, and it amazed her how relaxed she felt at the end of it.

Finally, eventually, she calmed, cheek on Garrus's shoulder, limp in his embrace, remembering how to breathe slow and evenly. She'd dozed off again, made known to her when he shifted his grip and murmured her name.

She twitched, opening her eyes and looking up at him, unwilling to move more than that. "Yeah?" she croaked, voice rough with her tears.

He gave her the sweetest Turian smile she'd ever seen. "You're sleeping with me tonight."

She blinked at him, and his smile swiftly melted as he realized what he'd said.

"No, not like- I mean, not that I don't want to but I meant-... ah, hell-" he babbled.

His horrified expression made her smile, and then, before she knew it, she was laughing at him.

Feigning irritation, he grumbled at her as he stood, snorting at her squeak as he hefted her with ease. Still, she clung to him.

"I won't drop you," he growled at her, leaving the room and heading towards the forward battery. "Even though you deserve it for mocking me. Brat."

She managed a weak giggle. "You should have seen your face."

"Shut up or I'll let you sleep by yourself."

The mess was pretty deserted; it appeared to be the middle of first shift's sleep cycle, and while she was far from shamed about getting thrown around by Garrus, explaining the remnants of her grief wasn't anything she was interested in right now.

She couldn't help her blush or her shiver when he disrobed her in the forward battery. His touch would stray, caressing revealed skin at her clavicle, her hips, her knees, but he spared them the tempation of her nudity. In only her panties and her sleeveless undershirt, she climbed onto his cot at his insistence while he left to retrieve an extra pillow or two. While he was gone, she removed her bra and tucked it under her pile of neatly folded clothes under the cot. It was for a practical reason; underwires are damn uncomfortable to sleep in. At least, this is what she told herself. It was mostly true.

He dimmed the lights when he came back, tossing his pillow on the cot and next to her head. She was still awake but barely; weeping had apparently given her something of the release she needed. Relaxed but still wary, she watched him pull off his shirt and climb in behind her, pulling her back into his chest, the two of them laying spooned on their sides, her cheek on his outstretched arm.

His free arm pulled her close, lean muscles to softer shapes, tucking his knees behind hers.

His breath tickled her ear. "Mmm. It's like having a living, breathing body pillow," he murmured, that lovely voice of his making her quiver from ears to toes. He grunted, drawing the blanket up a little higher around her.

"Cold?" he asked.

She snorted; turians ran hotter than humans did. "No, I'm not cold," she whispered, her teeth chattering in her skull from anxiety, nerves, joy, fear... and...

She rolled her hips experimentally, rubbing the round curves of her ass into the cradle of his hips. He inhaled sharply, the arm not tucked under her reaching down to grip the exaggerated curve of her hip.

"Hey... you need to sleep, Tanith," he grumbled, shifting against her. It was too late; she smiled and repeated the undulating motion, rubbing soft curves into hard, Turian lines.

"Tell me you're not curious. I'll call you a liar."

He groaned. "Stop that. This is not where-"

She rolled over and wrapped her arms around his neck, closing her lips around the end of one trembling mandible and suckling, before grazing it with her teeth.

Garrus's eyes went wide with surprise, and no wonder; the last thing he'd expect was a deliberate, non-verbal, Turian sexual initiation manuver. His reaction was instinctive, gripping her ass and rolling to his back, Tani sprawling on top of him, Garrus growling deep and low in his chest. He swore softly, fingers combing into her long, tangled hair.

"Woman," he groaned. "Stop. Right. Now."

Her laughter surprised the both of them, lifting her head and gazing down at him. "Sorry," she mumbled with enough grace to convey her embarrassment. "It's ... mmm. It's been a while. I miss ... not being alone."

What she felt was actually more complicated than that, but she didn't want to try and sift through it all right now. "I'll be good," she sighed, laying her cheek on his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat under her cheek.

He sighed, hands stroking down the planes of her back, claws lightly skimming her exposed skin here, there, until her twitching became a constant tremble, her fingers digging in to the softer hide between the plates of his chest.

"That's not helping," she grumbled. It surprised her how quickly her terrors and tears had melted into something else, something warmer, something so potent it took her breath and fears away. Something that made her squirm.

Garrus stayed silent, gently caressing her. Moments passed like this, moments that became minutes, and then minutes that felt like hours. Finally, as if he'd made a decision, she felt him tense beneath her and hold her close, shifting until they were on their sides again except this time she was facing him. He adjusted her a little more until she was on her back.

She blinked up at him. He was still wearing his visor. She tapped it and arched an eyebrow, parting her lips to ask him why-

He stole her breath away with a soft, tentative kiss.

Kissing, as far as she knew, was confined to the more humanoid races, at least as a natural affection. Asari did it, and humans, and if what Tali had hinted at was true, Quarians also kissed as a romantic affection. Turians, at least the ones that were inclined to, taught themselves to kiss when they found themselves in relations with any of the three species that did. It wasn't something they did among themselves, although they were inclined to touch tongues with intimate partners, as well as nibble, preen, and caress with their teeth.

Lorik loved to kiss; he said it was this action alone that got him started on his human fetish. He said he'd watched Asari do it for years, but humans, with their features and varied coloring in sharp contrast to the blue, mono-gendered beauties of Thessia, had arrested his attention like nothing ever had.

Garrus was proving to be a fast learner and inventive to boot. She was surprised when he nuzzled her lips with the seam of his mouth, parting her lips to open for him, his tongue darting past to taste her. She gasped into the unique kiss, eyes going wide as she felt his hand in her hair, holding her still as he deepened his caress. Swirling his long tongue around, rubbing across her own tongue, the roof of her mouth, grazing the edge of her teeth.

She was panting by the end of it, unaware that her hands had dug into his shoulders or that his warm palm was splayed across her belly under her shirt. He shifted again so that he was more on his side, still tucked close to her by design and neccessity. He, too, was breathing harder, faster, his eyes dilated and dark with warm desire.

"Show me," he said, his voice soft and deep. "Show me how to touch you."

Tanith felt her toes curl.

Not trusting herself to speak, she wrapped her hand around his wrist and drew his touch up, under her shirt, feeling her cheeks heat as he twitched in surprise to find her already bare. She didn't say anything, however, curling his long fingers around the underside of her breast, showing him how to run his rough thumb over her nipple. He rumbled in approval as he felt it contract beneath his touch, watched her eyes flutter and her breath catch.

To her surprise, he took it a step further and pulled her shirt up the rest of the way, ducking his head down to scrape teeth across the hardening nub. Her back arched as she gasped, fingers stroking the underside of his fringe, her hips bucking of their own accord.

Yes. It had been too long.

He nibbled down her sternum, stroking her quivering skin with his teeth, before he tugged at her underwear. She was going to suggest he pull them off, but his impatience took a turn for the scandalous, simply pulling aside the material and probing with his tongue to part her labia carefully, drawing the warm, wet appendage up the seam of her sex. She saw his eyes close and felt his low, delighted groan.

To say this pleased her was a drastic understatement.

Her thighs fell open around his head and she dug in her fingers, crying out and jerking under his mouth.

"Where the hell did you learn that-" she moaned, resisting the urge to claw ecstatically at his face.

"Your boyfriend gave me some pointers," came the rumbling reply, eyes on her as he stroked a callous-rough thumbpad over her clitoris before circling around it. "I take it I'm doing alright?"

She tried to reply with words, honestly she did, but he repeated the motion of his thumb and she couldn't voice anything more articulate than a few strangled syllables. His circular strokes were slow, steady, but unwavering, consistent and maddening, making her whimper with every caress. Her head fell back as she arched again, breathing ragged, hands digging into the mattress of the cot.

He came up along her side, settling into her again, eyes on her face, watching her twist and pant, her head tossing. Sweat glistened on her skin, her brows drawn in, her expression one of pained pleasure, intense and over-whelming and shameless.

When it became too much, when she could feel the soaring ecstacy, she whimpered his name and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling her muscles begin to spasm. Sensing her need, he drew his digits down and slid his two fingers into her, deep, hard, and fucked her with them in a series of quick thrusts.

Her back bowed and her eyes snapped wide open, her jaw dropping as she cried out again and again, startled and coming and unable to stop herself from lifting her hips to meet his hand, her sex clenching down, muscles fluttering and squeezing and gripping his fingers, her hands locked around his wrist.

When she was wrung out, she flopped back, boneless and panting, sweating and shaking, onto the cot. She was vaguely aware that he was growling into her neck, his face hidden from her, teeth nipping her flesh when he carefully withdrew his touch from between her trembling thighs.

She tried to keep her eyes open, tried to get her vocal cords to work for more than just the occassional moan. Neither effort was successful.

Vaguely, she realized Garrus had been completely selfless during all this, feeling what had to be a painfully hard erection press against her thigh. She tried to rouse herself and ask him what he needed, but it was getting hard to do anything other than breathe.

The last thing she remember before the sweet, dreamless sleep claimed her was a blanket being drawn up, her body turned and cuddled in to from behind.