~Jane~
She didn't wake when Garrus got up this morning, untangling himself and heading into the bathroom to shower, but she did feel his light press against her forehead and the vibration in her belly from the subvocal he started using yesterday.
She didn't know what the subharmonic meant and she actually couldn't hear it herself, but when she was close enough to him, she could feel the vibrations as a tickling in her abdomen. She couldn't quite keep herself from smiling at the feeling every time.
Sitting at his new table with a coffee that slowly goes cold, she thinks about her new found feelings towards him and she couldn't believe how she had rushed him last night and kissed him.
Hell, she didn't even know if he knew what that was or if he even liked it. She certainly did, which was surprising in and of itself, but if she was rushing into something, she wanted to know that he would stand up to her and tell her otherwise when it came down to it.
Never in her whole life had she met someone who she could spend all day talking to about anything from the nonexistent weather outside to past memories and the pain reliving them brought, and still be able to look at them and feel like she wanted more. Usually, it was one or the other, but never both.
The few times as a kid she had felt like she wanted to be close to a friend on a more intimate level, she had fucked up the friendship because of her flippant views of sexual relationships and their want for something more. She looked at sex as a way for release and she always thought that the idea of fuck-buddies was a perfect set up, but apparently when she had listened and shared the darkest memories and desires with someone, that made you beyond just 'a good lay' material.
Did everything that happened yesterday mean she wanted 'her cake and to eat it too' when concerning Garrus? She didn't think so because she didn't find herself lusting after him like she had with others before. She knew that there was something there that was pushing against the insides of her ribs whenever she was around him, but she had no idea what that even was.
For once, she would let things fall into place on their own and merely go along for the ride. If it felt like this was becoming too much like her past experiences, then she would call it off despite her hope not to have to. She didn't want to ruin this friendship she had with Garrus for some quick satisfaction that from her experiences never lasted past the afterglow.
Mind made up, Jane decides to discard the now cold coffee and head into the bedroom to change out of her dirty work out clothes and take a shower.
She was disappointed that she didn't have the means to work out properly like she would at Earth, but the place she found nearby that had a track to run was nice enough and no too busy early in the mornings. On the mornings she didn't have the worst of her nightmares, she would go out and run after Garrus had left for work or at times of the day when she was bored and without something to do. Today, she had forgone her cup of coffee with her quick breakfast and instead saved it for after the run, seeing as how getting her blood pumping would be a much better wake up call.
As the cool water runs down her body and helps to ease off the sticky feeling from her sweat, she hums a mindless tune to herself. With his shift being on par with the detective he was shadowing, Garrus would be home early enough to eat an actual dinner and not some late night meal that he's too hungry for to even care what it contained. He wasn't picky about his food and never complained about missing out on a good meal, but Jane knew enough of military rations to know that even if he kept quiet, he would like some good food over slop.
They could set some vid on the screen and she could look into something to be delivered, she could even run to the store and pick up some food to eat during the movie. She remembers that at one time when they watched a movie he ate these strange little fruit balls that crunched when he ate them. He seemed to enjoy them, so she would definitely pick some up if she went out for popcorn for herself.
Impressed with her ideas for a fun evening together, Jane steps out of the shower and towels herself off. Other than planning for when Garrus gets home and getting whatever she needs for the night, Jane has no idea what to do with her day.
As she finishes pulling on the last of her clothes, she figures that she'll probably just sit around the apartment and draw or play the guitar. She could always use a lazy day of doing nothing, after all.
Heading out the grocery store she come across a restaurant for fusion styled cuisine. Interested, she walks in to find at least one member of every species either standing at the counter to order or at a table eating.
Looking around at the foods on people's plates, she finds that some items look familiar but with a twist. On a platter of a table of an Asari mother and her little girl is a dish that looks a lot like a dessert type cake that she recognizes from Macendonyia's.
The dessert, she remembers, is made using different fruits and ingredients from Palaven. She had been given a slice, but it wasn't something that translated because to Jane, it was bitter and almost tasteless, but the older Turian woman had claimed that it is a very sweet delicacy. Maybe Asari tastes are different than a human's but the cake also looked quite differently than she remembers, so Jane shrugs it off and continues her observation of the store.
At the table of a group of Asari, Salarians, and even a Volus there lies two large platters in the center of what is clearly a pizza. She can't believe it, a clearly human food, with some obvious additions to match their tastes, is in pieces and nearly all of them have at least one slice or another. The Volus seems obviously unimpressed because he can't eat any of it and, to make up for it, is trying to talk over others about some work project or another.
Shaking her head in astonished wonder she moves up to the counter so she can ask one of the workers about what she's seeing, but she stops short at what has to be the most remarkable thing she's seen all day.
Sitting at a semi-large table is a collection of Turians, three adults and four children, all sharing nothing else but a pizza. She knows that there is nothing like a pizza in the Turian menu of food items, she asked Garrus once, and she knows that it's theirs because she sees one of the children take a big bite.
Even the adults seem to be enjoying themselves if their nods to each other after a bite or two are anything to go by. Of course they'd like it, she thinks to herself, who wouldn't like pizza?
She declares silently that she has found the meal that she and Garrus will be having tonight while they watch their movie.
Making her way to the table, she makes eye contact with the only adult male and nods her head in respectful greeting. "Excuse me," she politely inquires, which draws the attention of the two females. Closer look shows that three of the children belong to the black male and female and the other two must belong to the other, a dark golden female. "I can't help but notice what you're eating. I was just wondering, does it taste good?"
The male narrows his eyes in silent scrutiny and Jane quickly wonders if she just walked into another difficult conversation with another stereotypical Turian As if there weren't enough already.
She must have passed because a moment later he relaxes a bit, but maintains that stiff stance that synonymous with his kind. "Though a bit strange, it does have a good taste. Although I don't think you'd enjoy it much."
She shakes her head with a small smile, "actually, sir, it would be for a friend. I've explained the food that this is based off of, but he never has had a chance to try it." She chuckles a bit, "I didn't even know a restaurant like this existed."
The golden female speaks up, her high double tones jovial. "Oh, you should have your friend try the, what were they, Turian-styled bread and cheese sticks. I never knew humans were so creative with their food."
Jane smiles with a shrug and bids farewell with a head nod, thanking them for their time. As she moves past their table, the dark male stands and stops her, leaning slightly closer and lowering his voice to keep his table from hearing him. "You know and use Turian expressions well, I'm impressed. You've shown my children that not all humans are rude and unable to learn."
Taking that as the compliment he means it to be she returns his farewell nod with her own and approaches the line for ordering. When she makes it to the front counter, she finds that they do, in fact deliver to Garrus' apartment, so she orders their specialty pizza for herself and whatever the Turian table had, along with some cheesy bread sticks.
She makes a quick run to the grocery store to pick up some more beer for herself and him, as well as the crunchy fruit for him and popcorn for herself should they decided they are still hungry after their pizzas. After that, she has a quick lunch at some fast food equivalent place that exists all over the Citadel.
When she returns home, she sees that she only has a few more hours until Garrus gets out so she figures she might as well stick around the apartment and entertain herself. Going into the bedroom, she pulls the guitar from the corner by the desk and sits down on the bed to play.
Lately, she's been practices to help the calluses on her fingers build back up. Sure, using a gun and physical training had kept her fingers nice and tough, but it just wasn't quite like the feeling of guitar string roughed fingers.
She first starts with the little song she taught herself to help loosen up her stiff fingers. Spending time replaying it over and over until her fingers feel like liquid and slide over the positions on the neck and to pluck at the strings.
Time passes without notice as she plays any and every song that her mind pulls out of her memory. Letting the words flow from her lips while the strokes of her finger make the black guitar's own voice echoes through the empty apartment.
It isn't until she hears Garrus unlocking the front door that she realizes that she's spent the whole day on his bed serenading herself. She stops and gets up with a smile to greet him. "Hey, Garrus, I hope ready to relax all night." She exits the bedroom to see him walking towards her with a raised brow plate.
"That so?" he smirks. "Something I should know?"
She snorts, "Don't be a perv." Damn, what an ass. An entertaining ass, but one all the same. "I thought we could stay in and watch a vid. We can even watch one of your boring Turian war vids." She moves over so he can head into the bedroom to get his armor off. "Plus, I ordered something to be delivered soon." He steps into the bathroom and she yells into the crack of the door before it closes. "It's something new and experimental!"
She doesn't stay in the room long enough to hear or see his reaction as she heads to the living room to wait for the delivery that is scheduled to arrive soon.
He ends up picking some action movie that actually turns out to be less like a documentary and more like an actual made up movie, but her enjoyment comes more from their running commentary over the, clearly, faked fighting and battle scenes.
They find that the table she bought has a hidden secret in its legs when they are trying to decide how to eat and watch the movie at the same time. Its legs unscrew on its legs so that it can be lowered. With the legs shortened, they are able to place it between the screen and couch and be reach their food with just a bit of a lean.
Her pizza is delicious and reminds her of ones back at home, missing a few toppings she remembers but just as delicious as she hoped. His pizza, which tastes good but unusual from her testing bite, gets an eye blink and a backwards head jerk in confusion from him.
She laughs at his response and helps to show him how to eat it by grabbing a slice, folding it, and taking a bite. She never would have imagined the method to eating pizza would be so strange for someone not of her species, and it definitely looked like the Turian families at the restaurant knew the hang of it, but she couldn't hold in the guffaw at his attempt.
He seems to give up halfway through his meal, throwing his hands up in exasperated defeat before he just grabs pieces between his talons and starts to eat that way. It wasn't until he threw a piece of one of the topping at her, it landing right in the middle of her cheek that her laughter came to an abrupt halt. He laughs and she glares at him, but he just leans over, picks it off, and eats it with a quick hum.
She blinks in astonishment at him as he turns back to his food. She continues to just stare at him, her mouth silently, as he finishes off his beer and gives up all pretense of eating to lean back against the cushion.
He smiles to her and places his arm over the back of the couch in a silent question and invitation. She finds herself moving without a second thought and in no time at all, she is pressed against his side, his arm behind her shoulders and her head nestled against his shoulder, their neighboring hand interlocking smoothly.
They watch the rest of the movie together as if their proximity means nothing, and she is at a loss of words for how at ease she is with this seemingly uncharted territory they're in. She can nothing but mindlessly agree to his meaningless words as she loses herself in her silent contemplation and self-discovery.
She likes the warmth that radiates from his body, hotter than any human she's ever been with, almost feverish, but she's always run cold all her life and the feeling is exhilarating, similar to the heat of her biotics but without that tingling in her limbs. She can feel that same churning in her belly from his subharmonics that feels like a soft, deep-seeded caress, strange and new but not at all unpleasant.
His body isn't hard where her head rest against his shoulder. She can feel the edge of plate under the fabric, but the angle isn't sharp and the plates feel like they are much like those on his hands, smooth with a slight bit of give under pressure.
He must be able to feel her attention slipping because he turns his head and nuzzles against the top of her head with a slight tilt to his head and a bit of a flare to his mandible, making it so that the flat surface of his mandible rubs against her scalp.
She hums at the slight scratch of the edge of plates and tries to nuzzle back, but it's awkward to do with the top of her head, so when he pulls back she looks up to him. His crystal blue eyes have a softest to them when he smiles down at her and she finds herself smiling back with the same tenderness.
A sudden thought overcomes her sense and she can't care to stop herself from shifting to be able to put her knees under her for height. Once done, she leans close to him, her hands ghosting over his face, giving him a chance to pull away. Instead, he leans towards her and places his free hand around her upper arm to pull her closer.
Before she can frame his face, he presses his forehead plate against her forehead and purrs while looking straight into her eyes. He puts slight pressure and she recognizes the pressure as what she felt from this morning. A Turian kiss. She smiles and returns the pressure, hoping that he can read her thoughts and approval of his actions this morning and now. He rubs against her and she moves her head in the opposite direction to expand the surface of contact, his purr gets louder and he pulls away a second later.
She can't believe the amount of pleasure a simple pressing of foreheads gave her, and she would never admit that this is the first time she's ever felt it when considering a person she cares for, but it's absolutely true. "Is that a Turian kiss?" she asks.
Not only is this the first time doing anything like this with a Turian and someone who is so much more different than she is, but it's the first time that a simple sign of affection has meant more than starting a night of feeding a body's needs. The thought of sharing this with new experience the one person in the universe that she looks up to and trusts is just as amazing.
Trying to help ease her own nerves, she smirks and jokes. "That's pretty tame, Garrus. Don't tell me Turians are a bunch of prudes." It helps to calm some of rushing thoughts and jitters.
He had moved to face her during their kiss and now sits with one leg pulled up and folded to lay in between them, he holds her hands in both of his. He smirks, "I think the idea of the military openly advising soldiers to ease tension together contradicts the whole prude thought." He runs one hand up her arm and back down. "We do have more than one type of kiss. In fact, I think there is one that you mind find similar to one humans have."
She swallows, did it get suddenly hotter in here? "And which one might that be?" She tries to return a smirk, but her voice sounds odd and airy in her ears. Damn, when did I turn into a teenager from the vids?
He hums once, "you need to show me the other kiss you did first. We can't escalate things until you let me learn all the basics first."
As if commanded, she moves closer to him, leaning up on her knees to get more level with his face and stops short in his blue eyes, biting her lip. He purrs, pulling her closer with one hand on her upper arm and the other rises to hold the side of her neck and cheek. He rubs his forehead lightly against hers in a silent sign of comfort, and changes the tilt of his head so that his lip plates press against her lips. She gasps as he puts pressure against her and his plates flex into the closest approximation of a pucker.
She presses back, and her hands rise to rub and press against his chest, on either side of a raised ridge running down the center. He purrs and she feels the vibrations in her hands and against the sensitive flesh of her lips. She hums deeply in response and it spurs him on to nipping lightly against her lips, she gasps at the sensation and he pulls at her bottom lip before releasing it and returning to press against her.
Seeing as how he seems to be so confident in their situation, and it's making her look bad, damnit , she presses against him and tries to repeat his same action to his own plates.
Instead of nipping, she creates small sensations of suction by slowing opening her puckered lips that are pressed against his plates. It creates that same wet pop as it would with another set of lips and by his stuttered growl it feels just as good. When he tries to nip at her she, tilts her head a bit and grabs one of the points of his upper mouth plate and sucks lightly on it. He growls again, with his primary voice joining in with a small moan, and the reaction makes her release him and moan in response.
His head moves from the side of her head to tangle in her hair, one of her own moving to lay against the smooth leather of his neck, and presses against her, tilting his head to the side slightly. She can feel one quick nip before he presses his plates against her and opens his mouth slightly. His actions and deep look into her eyes seem to be a silent request to follow his lead and he hasn't led her astray the whole time she's known him so she willing assents.
Directly after their silent agreement she feels the tip of his warm tongue run along her lips. Its touch is like electricity, and she moans at the contact. Her noises seems to have the same effect on him as his do her as her mirrors her vocally and pressed his tongue against her mouth in silent question.
She responds by pulling the tip of his tongue between her lips and applying the same suction that she used on his plates and their matching moans are simultaneous. She releases his tongue, but holds it between her lips in acquiesce and he takes the opportunity gladly.
He runs his tongue past her lips, traces her teeth quickly, and caresses her own. She had known his tongue was long and slender from all the time she's lived with him, but she wasn't prepared for the sensation of its rough texture or ability to curl and wrap itself with her own wide and flat one. His taste was indescribable, sweet and musky, like a combination of taste from the smells of sun soaked leather and berries but not quite, a taste uniquely him, much like his smell.
She can't seem to stop the little moans she finds escaping her from their connection, but he can't seem to control his own so she doesn't bother with it. When he has his tongue in her mouth she closes her lips around it and repeats the suction he seems fond of and gets a combination of reactions, from the stuttering growl, a moan, a deep purr, and an intensifying of the subharmonic she can't hear, but feels deep down.
She releases the pressure at the feeling of his tongue wrapping around her own and pulling. Following his motions, she pushed her tongue out of her own mouth and starts to explore his own.
She starts with running against the edges and inner back of his lip plates, feeling the smooth warmth of something so monumentally different, but not altogether bad. At his flick on tongue against tongue, she smiles slightly at his impatience, but decides that she too doesn't want keep wasting her time and moves on to better things.
She knows that he doesn't have a row of teeth along the front of his mouth because their side canines do all of the shredding and tearing of food, so she slides her tongue carelessly deeper into his mouth.
The roof of his mouth has rough ridges, to help with griping food she distantly remembers, but doesn't hurt any more than rubbing against the roof of a human's mouth. He seems to understand her need to explore as he had, because his own tongue wraps around hers and assists her in running against his pointed teeth without harm.
For some reason, the feel of his teeth and the knowledge that he wouldn't hurt her in any way, and even puts his own tongue in the way, makes her finally aware of the way the rest of her body is reacting to his contact with a rush of heat from her head to between legs. The idea of contained danger doesn't usually give her this reaction, but she'll file that away into the 'deal with later' folder.
She tangles her tongue with his, or tries as much as she can with her stubby appendage, before pulling back and planting a soft kiss on his lip plates. With the hand at the back of her head he pulls her enough to rub against her forehead.
The two are both panting and she knows that her cheeks are flushed with blood. She is definitely going to need a cold shower and if what she knows of human reactions are anything close to Turian, the look on his face say he may need the same.
"That was…" she stammers.
"Yeah, it was," he agrees. The two smile the biggest shit eating grins at eat other and can't help but chuckle at the looks of their states.
"I've never had that reaction from a kiss before, and we didn't even grope or take clothes off." She admits. She doesn't know what has hit her concerning Garrus, but she's perfectly fine with not finding out if it keeps feeling this great.
"I haven't either," he nods in agreement. Neither one of them has lost their cheerful high. "And I don't even think it has to do with us being different species. I mean, that was a great twist and all," he looks to her, "but I think it has more to do with who we're kissing."
She smiles and opens her mouth to respond, but at that moment his Omni-Tool chimes. He looks to it and as he reads the smile fades. He sighs and looks to Jane apologetically, "The officer I'm shadowing has just been given a case. I have to go." He places his palm to the side of her neck and she mirrors it, palming his right mandible, rubbing her check against the softer hide of his thumb where it lays against her skin. He purrs and does the same to her hand.
"It's fine, Garrus. You're on your way to being a detective and then this will be commonplace." They release each other and stand, he moving to the bedroom to grab his armor and she to the shower to try and cool off and calm down. She stops one foot in the door and calls to him, "Oh, and Garrus?" He stops on his way out and look over to her. "I think I like the visor." She points to the left of her own face with a smirk, "It's a nice touch. Gives you a very techno savvy badass look." He flicks out one mandible and shakes his head before heading out.
She uses the cold shower to cool off and think over their shared kiss. Make-out session is more accurate, but it sounds a bit childish and swapping spit feels too crude. She has never had a silent conversation between someone in the middle of something so intimate, but it felt good.
Hell, it felt more than good, it felt natural.
Definitely a step out of her comfort zone but if he was willing to try and be there to take the lead to get her over her initial struggles, she was damn well going to give him the same in return.