~Jane~
When Jane finally awoke, she found herself in an empty, but warm, bed and a blurry look to her Omni-Tool giving her a time of 1100. Damn, I've never slept this late before, feels a bit strange… she groggily thinks as she pulls herself up into a slouched sit.
She stretches her arms, inwardly musing at the fact that it feels like she's missed the entire day already, and lets out a restful yawn. Wonder where Garrus is off to, she scratches her head lightly, her nose catching a smell on the air that widens her eyes in surprise.
Is that pancakes? And bacon?! Jane jumps up faster than she thought possible, her foot tangling a bit in the blankets and nearly toppling her before she catches herself, kicking the blankets with frustration at holding her back.
If the door were on hinges she would be slinging it open hard enough to pull it from the hinges, but instead they open with an anticlimactic swish, Jane through them the moment she had enough space.
Garrus is in the kitchen, setting a plate of something on the table. "Oh, you're awake, I was just about to-"
She cuts him off by throwing her arms around his neck and trailing quick, sloppy kisses anywhere she can reach. He tenses at first but quickly recovers, his arms going around her torso to steady her with a soft chuckle. "Good morning beautiful. I'm happy to see you finally decided to join the land of the living."
She draws back with a mock scowl but can't help smiling. A quick glance to the table shows that he did, indeed, get her a big stack of pancakes and pile of crispy bacon. "I should scold you for being such a smart ass, but you got bacon and pancakes so I'll let it slide." He purrs, leaning down and she gladly meets him halfway, caressing his forehead with hers. "Thank you, Garrus."
His mandible flicks in a dismissive gesture but relaxes into a smile. He pulls away, but stops when his eyes make a subtle shift downward and laughs, which makes her raise a brow in question. "You going to get dressed or do you want me to serve you in the nude?"
Jane's eyes widen and she quickly looks at herself and gasps. She was so excited about the thought of pancakes and bacon that she didn't even grab clothes and stands in the middle of the room butt ass naked.
She quickly throws her hands to her breasts with a squeak, which she will never admit to or so help her. She doesn't really know what she's trying to hide because he's seen everything before and blames it on the sudden realization and not her attempt at feigning modesty.
He laughs at her and motions to the table. "Go ahead and sit, I'll go get you something to wear." He starts to leave her to go to the bedroom but stops and calls over his shoulder, "Though I wouldn't complain."
She grumbles softly, but loud enough to get a laugh from him, and moves her attention to her –very late- breakfast. First she takes a sip of the hot coffee, her suspicion from its color and smell proven true when she finds that it's just the way she likes, chocolaty and smooth to hide the actual bitterness of the brewed beans. She raises a brow at his skill at matching it exactly to what she likes, but figures he's probably seen her do it enough to catch on.
She hears his footsteps approach, the single thump of toes because of the build of his legs, and looks over as he hands over a large shirt that she typically wears to bed. She gives a silent thanks and slips it on as he moves to grab a cup of something and join her at the table.
"You aren't eating?" She glances over as she pulls her plate towards her for closer inspection.
"I already ate." She looks to him and he shrugs. "I got hungry and you weren't showing any signs of getting up. You looked so peaceful that I left you to sleep." His mandible flicks to a smile. "You deserve it after waking up with me most mornings." He silently toasts to her with his steaming cup in silent acknowledgement and thank you.
She smiles in response and looks down to her plate. Staked up and taking up almost the entire surface are chocolate chip pancakes and she snorts a soft laugh at the memory of the first time he got her these.
She never had a taste for them before, but ever since the first time she has found herself finding an opportunity to get chocolate in her pancakes. She even remembers the look she got when she had ordered them made at mess as a celebration for her ICT completion. It's safe to say that they've become her favorite flavor, if only because of the person she automatically thinks of with each bite.
Without further hesitation, she grabs a slice of bacon and hungrily devours it, its greasy saltiness hitting her tongue with a shark crunch. "Mmmm," she mumbles through her bite, "Have I ever told you that I love you?"
He chuckles. "Because I got you breakfast? No, I don't think so, but I love you too." He takes a sip of his warm drink. "Now eat up, I still have that surprise for you."
She looks to him mid chew of a forkful of pancake and syrup, quickly swallowing so she can talk. "This isn't it?" Her only response is a knowing smile and she can't stop the smile of excitement at his playful mood.
V.v.V.v.V
The best description of his attitude would be secretively distant as he quickly hurries her to the shower after she completes her meal, not falling for her attempt to get him to join her. She doesn't push, sensing the small internal tension he's working hard at hiding, but as she gets dressed that tension builds a bit more.
"Garrus, are you okay?" She softly asks as she ties her boot laces.
He must not have expected her question because he looks to her with confusion before quickly dropping down to her level and taking her cheek in his palm with a soft thrum. "I'm sorry…I'm okay, just…excited about your surprise. Everything's fine."
She presses her head into his palm, not wanting to push him in case it is as he says and ruin his plans. He releases her as she moves back to tying up her other boot. "Be sure to bring a jacket, though," he says softly, offering his hand once she's done.
She silently nods, both a confirmation and thanks for helping her up, and grabs a jacket from the section of closet he cleared out for her things. Pulling her jacket up over her shoulders and zipping it loosely, she follows him out of the apartment.
When they exit the apartment complex and start to make their way to the transit hub, Jane finally can't take it anymore and tries to get some information on his supposed 'surprise.' "So, what'd you have in mind for today?"
Garrus pulls up a command on the terminal and glances over. "You seem to be becoming an expert at everything the Citadel has to offer, the shops, the entertainment, the restaurants, so I wanted to come up with something…different to do."
She snorts. "I'm sure there are plenty of things I haven't done and even more thatwe haven't done." He raises a brow plate. "I think there's a showing of Hanar poetry reading, or- oh, an Elcor ballet!"
He jerks his head and huffs out a quick, dismissive laugh as a cab lands. "Thanks, but no thanks. You can go to those on your own, I'd rather not have nightmares of Elcor dancing and galloping across a stage to classical music."
She shrugs with a smile and a 'suit yourself' before she follows him into the cab. He opens the door of her side and closes it behind her once she gets situated. She smiles to herself at his chivalry as he moves to his own side and climbs in.
The shuttle lifts and he inputs the proper command to give him total control of the shuttle's direction, which piques her interest. "So..." She raises a bit in her seat to look out the window, trying to telling from the passing scenery what he may be up to. "Where we going?"
He hums but doesn't look over. "Somewhere we're not supposed to."
Her mouth pulls into a mischievous smile. "Not supposed to go, huh? You sure know how to get a girl's attention…" She smirks but knows he probably doesn't see it with his eyes ahead. "Color me intrigued."
"I believe you humans have a thing called a 'bucket list?' A list of things you want to do or accomplish before you die?" He quickly glances over and she nods, directly him to continue. "Have you ever had a chance to cross something off yours?"
She relaxes in her seat and lays her hands in her lap loosely with a sly smile. "Let's see…I've convinced a Turian to let me draw them without any clothes on and fully unplated – and I've gotten that same Turian to sleep with me."
He looks to her with a stern expression that she knows lack any real conviction due to lack of growling subvocals. "You do know Turians can't blush, right?"
She shrugs dismissively. "Can't blame a girl for trying." He huffs and flicks a mandible. "So what's on your bucket list?" She knows he's going somewhere with this but can't quite see where.
"As a kid my mom would often bring my sister and I here to visit my dad, showing me the sights, taking me to see all over the Citadel, and by the time I got into C-Sec, I was already used to seeing everything, but there still remains one thing…" His hands lightly tap a command into the console. "Even now, in C-Sec, I look up to the top of the Presidium and I say to myself: 'I want to go up there.'"
"I'm sensing a 'but' in there," Jane offers.
He quickly looks over with a smirk. "But there are currently one hundred and thirty-seven regulations saying I can't, all of which my father made extra sure I knew about because I think he had suspicions of my thoughts from when I was still growing into my plates." He pauses and the cab shifts upward. "Now, though, I don't really give a damn."
Her quick laugh is unexpected but he flicks a mandible in a warm smile, the shuttle around them flattening back out. It lands with a solid thump and the doors open, both of them stepping out as he continues. "I figured that if I'm going to do something stupid, I might as well let you get to experience it too. You doesn't like the risk of getting caught?"
Jane steps out of the shuttle just as Garrus makes it to her side and she looks out at the view. Stretching below and off into the horizon in a curved arch is the entire Presidium grounds, brightly lit and shining in a sliver gleam. The lake is like a solid band of dark blue surrounded by the vivid green of gardens, rising with the curve of the Citadel to give the illusion of it rising before them.
Though the sky above is an artificial representation of a nice day and it almost gives Jane the idea of sitting under a real sky on a sunny day with its white puffs of clouds and bright blue background. She doesn't even register the passing skycars as anything more than a string of white noise, an ambiance of bustling people around their tiny little space of calm.
She takes Garrus' hand and he grips her back firmly with a soft purr. "It's incredible." She's too stunned to say more and figures he doesn't mind if his light nod in her peripheral is anything to go by.
He squeezes her hand to draw her attention and she looks to him, her eyes connecting with his clear blue. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it would inspire a certain…mood."
She smirks as he turns to her and she follow suit. "Oh? Mood? And what kind of mood is that?"
He hums, obviously liking her coy attitude. He moves closer, his vocals changing from teasingly flirting to a more serious rumble of care and love. He takes her other hand and she can feel the subharmonic through their connection flowing to her belly, she's really grown to like that feeling. "You're the best friend I've ever had, Jane…and even more, you're the first person I've ever found myself trusting in completely, with both intimate matters and not. I don't know how to use words to properly tell you everything I feel but I'm definitely willing to show you." He brings their clasped hands higher, almost level with her chest, and softly strokes his thumb along her skin. "Are you ready to be a one-Turian kind of woman?"
Jane searches his eyes, a bit confused at his sudden change in demeanor and not really understanding what he's trying to get at. They talked about personal matters and feelings before, but he's never been this anxious that she can practically feel the tension radiating off his plates. She also thinks she's made it pretty obvious what she thinks of him, but she'll gladly say it as many times as he needs.
"Hell Garrus," she says with a warm smile. "I never thought I'd meet someone I've felt so close to. That I would have found an unbelievable connection with someone that feels like it's from make-believe." She tightens her grip, hoping that her inability to properly put words to feelings – something they share, apparently - hasn't kept him from seeing the truth.
She pulls their hands to her lips and places a soft kiss on the smooth plate of his ungloved hand. "There's nothing I'd like more than to be a 'one-Turian kind of woman' if you're going to be my one-human kind of man." Her smiles broadens as his soft thrum and light nuzzle, their eyes still locked. "I love you, Garrus Vakarian."
"Well, then." His voice is strange thick with some harmonic she doesn't recognize but it sounds and feels warm as it vibrated against her body. "I guess I need to do this right." With that vague statement he pulls away, not enough to break the intimate air between them but enough to drop her hands as he drops down to one knee before her.
Jane's eye widen and her mouth drops at the sudden rush of he isn't's and you're shitting me's that start to run through her head like a stampede. He reaches into one of the pockets of his navy and steel blue casuals and pulls out a very small, but very recognizable, box.
"Jane Shepard, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife and bondmate?" He speaks to her in that same thick harmonic laced voice, his eyes never leaving her shocked ones, as he opens the lid to the tiny black box. Jane's eyes immediately fall on the item nestled in the safety of black cloth and she can't stop the shocked gasp that escapes her lips.
An asymmetrically oblong stone, at least a centimeter long and half a centimeter at its widest point, that's color changes from a deep cobalt at the edges that quickly fades into a lovely icy, almost white, hue in the center. A silver band wraps around the top and bottom, looping back to form the ring for a finger.
Her voice abandons her and she stands there, dumbstruck and mouth working like a suffocating fish, but the look in Garrus' eyes quickly snap her to reality. She will not stand for the uneasy expression in his eyes and the tension in his shoulder that looks like he's waiting for rejection, so with stern determination she kicks herself internally and forces her weak voice to speak.
"Yes, Garrus. A million times yes." She can't even recognize the pitchy voice as her own, but the sudden relief in his eyes is worth it. "You stupid, crazy bastard." She drops to pull him up. "Of course yes."
He hums, at loss for words and happily accepts her fierce kiss, his mandibles flicking against her cheeks. He grunts in surprise when her tongue darts out, seeking his own, but he quickly recovers and lets her show him her complete agreement and giddy excitement without complication things with words.
After a moment of tangling tongues he pulls away and clears his throat anxiously. "Right… uh, I need to put this on you, right?" He looks up to her eyes and she can see the silent plea for direction and his desire to do this right. She holds out her left hand, her ring figure lifted higher than the rest, and silently nods with a wide smile.
She recognizes the flick of grateful mandible as he takes the ring out of the box and takes her hand in his. "The jeweler said this is the most common size… If it doesn't fit we can always get it resized so it's more comfortable…"
She smiles and lets him ramble, thinking he's adorable when he's nervous. When his hand moves and slides the ring up her finger he purrs at the fact that it slides up perfectly and without catching on her knuckles.
He looks up to her in a silent go-ahead and she pulls her hand up. Seeing the smooth, blue stone against her skin. The thought that this little piece of jewelry came from the one person in the entire galaxy that she cares for more than anything, herself included, makes her heart jump and her belly jittery.
Her face is going to be sore tomorrow with how much she's smiling, but she couldn't give a damn as she drops her hand to rush into Garrus' arms. He easily wraps around her torso as her arms go over his shoulders and around his neck, his content and happy rumbling echoing in her thoughts through their pressed chests.
"It's a stone that's found on Palaven." He softly speaks as he nuzzles into her hair affectionately. "It's a special stone that bondmates use to show their love. It'll change into a darker blue when it's under a natural sun."
They pull apart. "So you're telling me that in space I'll have the color of your eyes but when I go planetside I'll see the color of your colony markings?" He jerks his head at that, pausing a second to consider but soon mirroring her smile.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He tilts his head. "I never thought of it like that."
She smirks at him and tilts her head playfully. "Then I guess it's good you have me around to point out things your observation skills miss."
He laughs and she joins him cheerfully. "Come on," he takes her hand and starts to lead her back to the cab. "Someone has bound to have seen us and let C-Sec know…I'd rather not spend my first moments engaged being lectured about not following the rules."
She chuckles, silently mirroring his reluctance to have to explain this to complete strangers, and gets into the shuttle quickly once he opens the hatch. Once he's in and his door is sealed they are off and heading home, more than ready to celebrate the new phase of their relationship.
~SquigglySquid says: I know some of the dialogue is either word-for-word or basically the same as what was in ME3, but I enjoyed that scene and it seemed to be something nice to use for when he pops the question. Hopefully it wasn't like reading a script directly from the game.