Dartus Raidat and Lantar Sidonis left C-Sec academy once the problem with Lantar seducing his colleagues was solved in his office in presence of captain Bailey. Dartus and Lantar agreed on going to Dark Star to chat a little, now that they were closer to each other after hooking up during their shift. Dark Star was a sanctuary, better than Purgatory which was bigger and louder. In Dark Star, Lantar knew the bartender and usually most of his colleagues visited the bar because it was pretty close to C-Sec. Lantar and Dartus sat next to each other, getting to know each other better.

"I've seen you only few times in C-Sec, Dartus. I mean, I knew about your existence but didn't have much opportunities to talk to you." Lantar said, Dartus took sip out of his liquor, "Same here, kid." Dartus answered shortly, "What made you to come over and have fun with pervert like me?" Lantar asked, "I needed to blow off some steam, I didn't have many opportunities since I lost my wife back in the First contact war so it was good to relieve tension." Dartus explained and Lantar was surprised by his answer, "You had wife? From the way you pinned me it didn't look like you were straight." Lantar snickered, "Cuz I'm not. I'm oriented on both sexes," Dartus said, looking at Lantar, "Don't forget there aren't many turian women around so I'm hunting the best material I can get." He explained and Lantar smiled in naughty way, "Are you implying I'm the best material you got in C-Sec?" he asked, "Well, you're good, kid but you should be careful or you'll fall hard to the ground." Dartus warned him, his expression in the face showed clear sternness so Lantar had problem to find reaction to this sudden warning, "Why… why do you say that?" Lantar asked, looking away, "I was just like you, Lantar. Young, impatient, wanted to get everything in the easiest way. I found turian girl back on Palaven, we had two kids when I was 16." Dartus said and Lantar opened his mandibles wide in surprise, "Yeah, I know, way too soon for turian to be dad. I was already under training program of turian hierarchy and then three years later in 2157 those humans came through Relay 314 and attacked our fleet." Dartus said, some noticeable anger built inside his throat as he punched the table. Lantar gave him few seconds to breathe, "And you had to go in the First contact war, right?" Lantar asked and Dartus nodded, "I was 19. Me and my wife, we both had to fight in our fleet against humans. I survived, she didn't…" Dartus explained, taking another sip, "Man, that must have been shitty… what about your kids? How did they take her death?" Lantar asked, Dartus shook his head, "I didn't return to them. I didn't have the heart to go back and tell them their mother died as humans blew whole battle-dreadnaught apart. They were three years old and I let the authorities to put them into custody. They are both 34 now, hopefully they don't try to seek for their dad because I don't feel like facing them after so many years…" Dartus explained, "That's sad… you said you were 19 when the First contact war started. I suppose you're 50?" Lantar asked and Dartus nodded to it, "Don't give up, man. As humans say, there are plenty of fish in the pond so maybe you'll catch one sometimes." Lantar tried to comfort the older turian who chuckled, "It sounds to me like you are hitting on me, aren't you?" he asked and Lantar stuttered, "What? I didn't… I don't think I would deserve it…" Lantar said, drinking another glass, "Oh, come on! Young turian like you? What did you do that bad to think so?" Dartus asked and Lantar prepared himself to tell him.

"I let ten people die to save my ass…" Lantar said and Dartus expression was empty, "Alright, I didn't expect you to say that. What happened?" Dartus asked, "Do you know Garrus Vakarian?" Lantar asked him back, "Who doesn't? He's hero of the galaxy! He was by Shepard's side when shit was happening!" Dartus said and Lantar started explanation, "I was 19 when I came to Omega station in Terminus. I was hoping for better life so place like Omega seemed as a good starting point. I spent most of my time in bottom part of Afterlife club. If you ever heard something about Omega, you know it's place crawling with gangs like Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse. I was once beaten up by some krogans from Blood Pack and guess who saved me?" Lantar asked, "Garrus Vakarian saved you?" Dartus asked, impressed by his story, "Yeah. It was the first time I met Garrus. Didn't know much about him, but he offered me to help him with wiping injustice from Omega's districts. We assembled people with the same idea, humans, turians, asari, salarians, even batarian helped us. There were twelve of us, me, Garrus and ten other men. I didn't know how dangerous that work could be. Perhaps I just wanted to show up myself. Garrus was our boss, soon he was called Archangel by other people on Omega. We were successful in helping people but then… I fucked up." Lantar said, taking another sip of strong liquor, "What happened?" Dartus asked him, still interested, "I… I got captured by Blue Suns. They tortured me, maimed me, soon I succumbed to them and told them everything about us. I was thinking they would let me go after that but no, there was something else. They knew how dangerous Garrus was so they wanted me to give him false lead on Blood Pack and track him to some place while they would kill the whole group of us. I got spared, they let me go and with some credits I had, I took the first shuttle to take me off Omega. I never returned back and I did that for a reason. For what I've done… I didn't have the courage to come to Garrus and tell him it was my fault. I ran here, to the Citadel but I still had everything in my head. It was making me crazy and Garrus wished to kill me." Lantar narrated, shaking while only thinking about it, "Well, he didn't kill you. It must have been for a reason." Dartus said, "Yes. Jane Shepard was there and we both managed to change Garrus' mind. I promised him to make it up to him so I signed up for being C-Sec officer and I'm trying to help others." Lantar said and Dartus smiled, "From your story it sounds like Garrus Vakarian is somebody special. Isn't it?" Dartus said and Lantar looked around if nobody listened, then leaned forward to him, "I always had a soft spot for him but never had the courage to ask him for anything because I saw he had feelings for Jane so… he's not into dudes." Lantar said and Dartus poked him a little, "Hey, just remember what you told me about those fish in pond. You don't need Garrus." Dartus winked at Lantar who smiled at him.

Lantar and even Dartus felt as they had enough fun so they left Dark Star and parted their ways. Lantar was feeling that he could use warm shower in his apartment on the Citadel, then maybe watching some movies or funny clips on extranet to entertain himself. Sometimes he was wishing to travel on some planet to leave the Citadel. There were many things he hated about the Citadel. The artificial light shining non-stop wasn't good for sleeping, then the fact that it was closed space and more like political center than center of entertainment. Except for that, he missed weather. It was the same boring weather on the Citadel. No rain and constant temperature. He was outside normal planet for so long he forgot how it felt to stand in rain or in snow. Lantar was sparing some credits so he could get ship to some planet, he didn't care what planet. Actually, he wanted some planet that would provide everything he missed. Palaven, maybe? Home world of turians seemed to be nice option, but thought that after unifying of most of the races into the Council space, he wished to visit Earth. Some turians were travelling there as well so Earth would be nice to live. When Lantar entered his apartment, he immediately took off his uniform, feeling free. Undressing was still painful, sitting on the bed was even worse. Once in the shower, he made sure the water was hot so it could open pores everywhere. While showering, Lantar had to think back to Dark Star and when he talked about Garrus and how Dartus guessed that he had soft spot towards him. Lantar stopped the water, "Garrus isn't gay but still… maybe it's worth trying to ask him? Jane is dead… Garrus must feel lonely." He thought and walked out of his shower, drying himself. He went into his room with towel around his belt, covering intimate parts. He sat down on the bed, still thinking whether he should write Garrus or not, "I don't wanna open old wounds. Maybe he's already forgotten about it? Why don't I try to write him anyway? He can just block me in the worst case!" he thought and decided to write Garrus a message. The turian put on some underwear and slid under his blanket, taking laptop on his lap and switching it on. He opened his FTL message service (e-mail) and typed in Garrus virtual address, "Hope it still works. Maybe he changed his address?" Lantar thought and started writing message:

Hey, Garrus,

I don't think you would remember me after you've let me go and didn't shoot me, heh? Anyway, it's me, Lantar Sidonis. We fought together on Omega, remember? Those were good times and I hope you didn't forget about it, because I didn't.

I'm writing this to you because I want you to know that I've taken the chance you gave me, seriously. I work on myself and my redemption. If it makes you happy, I joined C-Sec and got promoted lately. It isn't the best job you can have (and you know it) but it makes you feel that you help the others. I feel and it helps me when I fucked up so much in the past.

Before you close this message, I need to ask you something. Maybe I shouldn't mention it, but I understood you were there when you found out that Jane was dead? Perhaps you feel bad you couldn't be there for her? I know what she meant to you. Actually, it was pretty easy to see it, though. What I want to say is that if you feel lonely, think of me. I understand if you don't want to talk to me, but if you feel like talking to somebody, I'm gonna be here.

Hope to read or hear from you.
Your, hopefully, friend,
Lantar Sidonis

Lantar wrote and sent the message without hesitation. He eased his breathing once the message was sent but still it was within Garrus' mail and he was nervous about his reaction. In the meantime, he closed his windows and set them to darken so the artificial light wouldn't bother him. Lantar connected to some site with movies and browsed for some comedies. Because he was already fucked in the ass, he wasn't feeling like watching porn. He browsed for a while, still nothing interesting to watch. Then something happened. His message service received an incoming message and Sidonis froze. His heartbeat quickened, "Could that be… Garrus?" he asked himself and opened his message service while seeing the unread message exactly from Garrus. It was reply to his message and it came quite fast. Lantar was anticipating what Garrus could answer, his curiosity was big, but so was his concern. Lantar opened the message:

Mind your own damn business, Sidonis.

Was everything that was in the answer. No "Hi" or "So long". Just this short sentence. Lantar wished he could understand if Garrus read all the message, or just the part where Lantar asked him about Shepard. Maybe he read everything, but probably Sidonis wasn't careful enough and just brought him bad memories while mentioning Shepard. Perhaps Garrus had just a bad day, he was tired. Yeah, he wished to believe in that. Perhaps the topic was still too fresh for Garrus. Perhaps many things. However, he got so stressed because of the response the way that after reading his nerves relaxed and he was tired, "I think I need to sleep." He thought and closed his laptop, resting it on the table next to his bed. He just covered himself with his blanket thoroughly so he looked like larva. He was feeling so cold suddenly, as if he arrived from blizzard, trying to warm himself up. Lantar wished to fall asleep. Ignoring Garrus' answer didn't help. Even though he already accepted Garrus' hatred towards him and he was fully aware of deserving it, he couldn't help it but felt hurt, like a spear slid through his heart. Lantar wished to be loved, wished Garrus was his friend. He kept feelings towards him and the fact Garrus was heterosexual didn't change anything. The hurt turian cried, his tears were pushing through his closed eyelids, running down his faceplates and creating spatter at one place that was growing larger with time as Sidonis continuously wept. He was lucky there was nobody who could have heard him or see him, yet he wished there was somebody who could run his hand down Sidonis' back, saying "I'm here for you. Everything's going to be fine." and exactly when he tried to imagine that, he saw Garrus there, lying behind him, whispering those words inside his ear with that sexy deep voice of his. At some point, Lantar was so tired of crying that he fell asleep with no obstacle. It was better when he could get rest.

Lantar woke up next morning and continued his stereotype life as it was. He took a shower, dressed himself in uniform and headed for C-Sec. Because of the lack of time he had some breakfast from the automats in C-Sec but didn't complain about the quality since he was glad to have at least something to eat. For few other days, Lantar didn't see Dartus. He wondered where he could be, but at the same time there was work to do so he concentrated on that. Even while visiting the Dark Star, he wasn't there. Lantar was getting desperate again and needed sex. Because no other turian offered to him, Lantar hoped for somebody at the bar and was lucky. Some human male sat next to him at Dark Star, starting conversation, "Hey, C-Sec! How's it going?" the human asked, "At the bar you can call me Lantar. What's your name?" he asked the human, "The name's Glenn. Hey, saw you few times here now and you don't look like happy guy." Glenn said and Lantar left sarcastic laughter, "You're bright! Didn't get laid for few days and I'm getting sick of it." Lantar said annoyed while the human thought of suggestion, "Need to get laid you say?" Glenn said, smiling at him shiftily, gesturing him to come closer. Glenn approached his ear and whispered, "Come at my place. I got some Hallex." He said and Lantar quickly gazed at him "Hallex? Isn't that dangerous?" he said surprised, "Trust me. After taking a pill, you won't feel anything but orgasm taking three hours…" Glenn explained with cold calm manner. Lantar was feeling attracted to this idea, trying Hallex and sex at once. Also, Glenn offered himself voluntarily and Lantar could use this to get some good sex. Orgasm taking three hours? Why not? "Alright…" Lantar confirmed hesitantly and Glenn stood up from the table, "I forwarded data about my location to your omni-tool. See you there." Glenn said, leaving. Lantar wasn't much in favor of humans, but this guy was bald, young apparently and seemed to have a good figure.

He arrived at Glenn's place. The human greeted him with some beer and other liquors he had in his fridge. Soon Lantar was offered Hallex pill. First he seemed to be skeptic, but seeing Glenn taking the pill himself and drinking it down with beer convinced him that it couldn't be that bad. He swallowed the pill, drinking it down with beer as well and soon the hallucinogenic effects started changing them both. Lantar felt urge and was forced to pull down clothes of this man. Glenn helped Sidonis with his uniform as well. It didn't take them long until they were completely naked. Glenn offered Lantar his lube and prepared himself to be pinned down by the turian who was now the top one. Both of them were controlled by their instincts, and both of them were aware this was going to be long night.