[AUTHOR'S NOTE: OKAY, SO HERE WE ARE, CHAPTER 3. KINDA PUMPED THIS OUT IN A RUSH, HOPING TO GET ON WITH SOME MORE PLOT BUT DIDN'T FEEL RIGHT SKIPPING PAST THIS FANTASTIC REUNION. HOPE THERE AREN'T TOO MANY TYPOS AND GRAMMAR-FAILS. LET ME KNOW IF THERE ARE. I PROOF READ, BUT ALWAYS END UP MISSING SOMETHING.
BE WARNED, ABOUT 2/3 OF THIS CHAPTER IS SEX. IF THAT BOTHERS YOU, SKIP THIS WHOLE STORY. THERE WILL BE A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF SEX THROUGHOUT, AS SHEP AND GARRUS ARE BOTH HOT-BLOODED CREATURES WITH A HEALTHY SEX LIFE. THERE WILL ALSO BE PLOT IN THE MIDDLE. BUT WE'RE GETTING THERE, SLOWLY. HOPE YOU ENJOY, AND AS ALWAYS, PLEASE REVIEW.]
Shepard
Being back on the Normandy was a relief in itself, and she made a point of checking in with Joker to see how he and EDI were doing, only to find them rather absorbed in a crappy rom-com vid, holding hands. Shepard backed out slowly, not wishing to intrude. Their working relationship, while at first it had been strained, had progressed into a blossoming romance. Shepard had never seen Joker so happy, and that brought a smile to her own face, as she wandered off in the direction of her quarters. My favourite part of running my own ship, she mused, is watching people grow. Joker actually smiles, EDI is learning more about her emotions... Jack got all maternal. Miranda found out how great having a sister could be. Liara went from a shy, socially awkward scientist to being the Shadow Broker. Wrex became leader of what is now the largest of all Krogan clans. Garrus... Disillusioned and angsty C-Sec officer, then cold-hearted badass vigilante, and somewhere down the line 'loving partner and savior of the savior of the galaxy' right there. Kaidan... Kaidan just became an asshole. With everyone else around her changing so much, Shepard wondered how much she had really changed...
When she arrived at her cabin, she threw her seabag roughly in the direction of her bed, wincing at the pain as semi-healed scars pulled and stretched with the movement. Shepard stripped down and headed to the bathroom, looking forward to a hot shower and a nap.
She examined her naked form in the mirror, and tried to see the various people she had once been, what seemed like a thousand lifetimes ago. Memories that occasionally seemed to belong to someone else... The child that would run up to her loving mother Hannah when she came home, grabbing her in a rough hug around the legs, the way small children do. That child all but disappeared from Shepard a long time ago... The features were still similar but her hair had darkened with the years and the innocence behind that wide-eyed expression was long gone. The naive girl enlisting aged 18, wanting to change the galaxy. Well, that girl got a hell of a lot more than she had bargained for. Shepard smiled to herself. The Spectre candidate, heading to Eden Prime with Nihilus in search of a Prothean Beacon. The wonder Shepard had felt at being selected for candidacy, and then the shitstorm that followed with Saren and his Geth. That was the day that started it all...
She didn't regret much of her life. She just wished she hadn't lost so many people along the way. An image of Ashley popped into her mind. Losing her on Virmire tore a massive chunk out of Shepard's heart that couldn't be replaced. Sure, she might have been a sanctimonious bigot, a xenophobe, and a massive bitch on one of her good days, but Shepard honestly felt that time and exposure to new, grounded people of different upbringings, races and cultures could have changed that. Sometimes Shepard regretted saving Kaidan instead that day, and even more often after he shunned her on Horizon.
Shepard sighed and looked back at herself in the mirror. What have I become? She wondered, eyeing up the fresh scars littering her body. Most of her scars from the Cerberus rebuild had faded in the time since, but these new ones were almost as extensive as they had been. Her back was a puckered mess, a long, deep slash across her stomach looked as though she had almost been shorn in two. I have the luck of the devil himself... How the hell do I manage this shit? Shepard sighed and turned on the shower, stepping under the hot spray as the room filled with steam. She leaned against the far wall and began to defocus, letting her concerns wash down the drain with the water. Eventually the hot water from the shower mixed with tears, as she vented her frustrations in the only place she allowed this little weakness to show. Her tears built up to be huge sobs, her whole body wracked with guilt for failing the friends she couldn't save, for almost dying again and scaring the friends she had managed to keep with her.
Garrus and Shepard
She was interrupted by strong, Turian hands on her shoulders, the nakedness of Garrus up against her rear. "You didn't tell me you were back." he whispered, littering her neck with little nibbles.
She choked back a sob, trying to hide her tears. Garrus knew about her little habit, that she would sneak into the shower occasionally to cry out the worries she couldn't shift any other way, but he'd never actually seen her weep before. "You were busy calibrating. Didn't want to disturb. "
"Bullshit, woman." There was no malice in his voice, but a little force with the first word. Garrus hated being lied to, even over something as minor as this. "You're doing that thing where your face leaks again. When will you get it into your stubborn head that there is no shame in getting emotions out of your system? Fucking, fighting, crying... All totally legitimate responses to stress. " He pulled her into him, hands roaming over the alien body he found so beautiful. Found the scar across her stomach, spun her around and bent to press his lip plates against it, the closest to a human kiss he could imitate, and then pressed his forehead to it lightly. Shepard couldn't cry while he was doing that... It was both comforting, and deeply arousing. Garrus yanked her even closer, a tight embrace around her lower back, and bit softly at her waist, increasing the pressure slightly when he was sure he wasn't hurting her.
She let out a gasp of pleasure at the sensation, the heat rising between her thighs. She dropped to her knees opposite him and began softly kissing his mandibles, licking down to the tips and sucking teasingly as she stroked the back of his head, touching the sensitive spot just below the fringe. Her mouth wandered down his neck, nipping gently on the way, and found his cowl structure, before nuzzling just inside it as she straddled his slender waist.
A low, coarse growl began in Garrus's chest as Shepard's delicate, human body teased him with it's proximity. His plates began to part as his erection grew, begging for her attention. Warm water poured over the couple as they explored each other slowly and delicately, until Garrus felt as though his very skin were on fire and he might burst with the pressure if he didn't release soon. He didn't want to hurt her, with her still-healing wounds, but taking so long over the process when he hadn't been able to hold her in weeks was becoming increasingly frustrating. So when Shepard stood, flicking off the water and leaving the room without a word, Garrus was left with a sense of confusion virtually unmatched by anything he had felt before.
So when he followed her through to the main body of her cabin after drying himself slightly, and saw her standing there facing away from him, he didn't know what to do. His erection strained harder against his will as he witnessed her drying that soft, creamy skin with a fluffy towel, bathed in the blue light of her aquarium, damp hair curling gently as it dried. The dark patches of fresh scarring were unbelievably sexy, reminiscent to him of some tattoos occasional Humans adorned their bodies with. Shepard had a couple of those once, but they had been wiped during her Cerberus rebuild and the healing process that followed. He'd asked her about them at one point in the past, and she said she would like to get some more once she left military service. The only one of her previous tattoos that she missed with real conviction was her N7 badge, but the mark that represented went far deeper than her skin. N7 had been a part of her soul for many, many years now.
"Get your ass over here, Garrus." She demanded, the commanding tone blending with the rich tones of desire in her husky voice. He obliged, taking long, powerful strides over to her and lifting her in his arms and over to their bed. Garrus placed her down, nudging her knees apart with his own as he kneeled in front of her and bent his head to serve her needs. Hot, and damp and sweet, he knew from memory that her sex tasted and smelled as good as the rest of her. His spread his mouth wide and tilted his head slightly as he lapped gently at her, probing firmly with his tongue once he was sure she was as aroused as he was, alternating between delicate nips of his sharp, predatory teeth pulling at her labia, and his rough tongue caressing the sensation away, flicking lightly over her clitoris with the expert precision she loved him for.
She laid back, savouring the feeling of his alien mouth on her for a moment before she demanded mutual pleasure, tugging firmly at his fringe and guiding him up to meet her mouth. She kissed him with a slow-burning passion as she languorously teased the edges of his pelvic plates, taking great care not to touch his urgent, throbbing erection just yet. Pulling away from his mouth, and with a devilish pout on her own, she rolled onto her stomach, presenting him with her wetness and sliding back to rub against him in case her shifting of positions was too subtle. She knew it wasn't, but it never hurt to be forward with Garrus. The harsh intake of breath, followed by the ragged groan from him as he slipped into her was sweeter than anything else Shepard knew.
Oh Spirits, she is always so tight, Garrus thought, holding still as to calm the immediate desire for release that was approaching a little too fast for his liking. He ran a hand through her hair, gripping a large chunk of it as he made a fist close to her scalp, the way she'd taught him to when she told him how much she loved her big, strong Turian to take control of her in the bedroom. And then she moved forwards, pulling away, before thrusting back hard against him, her entire body began clenching and quivering as she neared her own release, deep moans and high-pitched mewls escaping her lips with every thrust. Garrus couldn't remain passive any longer, and he began to thrust back, meeting her halfway, increasing the urgency as they came together. He felt the tingle at the base of his spine as he neared his orgasm, hovering just on the edge, the way she clenched him spurring him on, then she began to shake, bucking her hips back against him, slamming them harder and harder together, her movements far less controlled than they had been. Suddenly he was gone, the world fading in and out of focus and she was all there was in his universe. He gripped her hips with one hand, holding her in place as he finished.
Finally they laid together on the bed, panting and kissing and stroking each other as the aftershocks subsided. "I love you, Shepard," he whispered. "Thanks for coming back to me."
"Any time, Vakarian. Although, I have a question for you..." She held her breath tentatively. "Will you marry me?"
He stroked her sweat-damp hair from her face and looked into her eyes, piercing blue staring into her soul.
"Of course. But wouldn't it be 'There's no Vakarian without Vakarian', then?" He chuckled, flinching away as he anticipated the incoming punch in the ribs from his little Human.