Roarkshop Here: Thanks for the outpouring of support I have gotten over the past week. I know I usually reply to everyone's reviews personally, but last week beat me over the head with my own arm and then I was like "WTF That's my arm, Week! Give that back!" and it was all "HELL NAW! YOU NEED TO BE BUSY FOR LIKE SIX DAYS STRAIGHT!" and I was all "How does beating me with my arm accomplish that?" and it was all like "I don't know this is your stupid metaphor!"

What was I talking about?

Oh right. Stuff.

ANYCRAP! I will be replying to everyone's reviews from LAST week and THIS week so keep your eyes on your inboxes. (A few of you have private messages disabled, which makes me a sad panda.) I love you guys! Your positivity and support is LITERALLY the fuel to my metaphorical steam engine that keeps me pumping out the black power smoke that is SandF chapters.

Alright I haven't slept in like...three days so this is just going to get more ridiculous. So I love you all and have a wonderful week.

Spread the love this week, guys! Also check out SEMPAIKO on Deviant Art! She did a FANTASTIC Chapter Icon depicting my Shep and Garrus in this weeks chapter called "Right and Left!" Go send her some love. She worked very hard.

ENOUGH OUT OF ME! FEAST YOUR GLORIOUS EYEBALLS ON CHAPTER 36!

Lovelovelove,
Roarkshop

Garrus was getting a headache listening to Shepard and Kasumi jabber back and forth in that bizarre language. Was this Shepard's native tongue? How did humans get anything done? It just sounded like a string of consonants crashing together with the occasional overextended vowel. To date, it was the first time Garrus was relieved to hear Thane's voice.

"I hate to interrupt," he said quietly over the comm. "But you might want to go over the plan in a language I can understand."

"Sorry, Thane," Shepard said with a laugh. "We were just getting my cover in order. We're almost there. Are you in?"

"Yes. I have entered with no problems."

"Excellent. We'll be landing in five."

Once they landed, they received a bit of static at the door when the target "didn't like the look" of Kasumi and decided she was to stay outside and wait. Shepard pulled her off to the side and Kasumi confirmed that she'd be able to get in anyway, but Shepard would be on her own.

Garrus scoffed. If Kasumi was just going to cloak in anyway, why couldn't he have been the plus one? Then they wouldn't have even needed Thane to use his invitation.

The next ten minutes were rather boring as Kasumi watched Shepard wandering through the mansion. They passed by his private quarters, the vault, and a few other minor details casing the situation. Garrus' attention wavered a few times, that is until Thane's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"Alison Gun, I presume," they heard over the comm. Kasumi looked around the corner to see Thane, clad in a sharp black and red tuxedo, holding his hand out to Shepard with that entertained smirk on his lips. Shepard put her hand in his and shook it.

"Yes, and you are?" she asked.

"Thane Krios," he said, bowing over her hand and kissing the back of it. "At your service, Mrs. Gun."

"Miss Gun," she clarified.

"Oh, is that so?" Thane said, offering her his arm. "Then I suppose this is my lucky day."

Shepard laughed and linked her arm through Thane's and let herself be led onto the dance floor where Thane took her right hand in his left, and wrapped his other arm around her waist.

"Damn Krios," Shepard said softly to him. "You clean up nice."

"Thank you, Siha" he said with that same air of confidence. "It has been many years since I have had the need."

"It suits you," she said. "Though, you're wearing my favorite color so I might be biased."

He laughed as he spun her. "I'll remember that," he said before he winced under the pain of her high-heel on his toes.

"Gah, sorry," she said, looking down. "I'm not very good at this."

"Don't look at your feet," he said with a smile. "I know you're used to being in charge, but you have to let me lead you."

She smirked, looking back up at him. "You're enjoying this."

"Maybe a little."

Garrus exhaled an angry breath through his nose. Maybe he shouldn't watch this. If Shepard and Thane playing spy was only an excuse for them to flirt, he was afraid he'd end up tearing out a bulk head instead of just confirming that she was safe.

He kept reminding himself that who Shepard chose to be with didn't matter, that she was free to make her own choices, and that he would support her as long as she'd be happy.

He wondered when he would actually start believing it.

"I have cut power to vault," Kasumi interrupted.

"Good," Shepard said as they danced. "So we need to figure out a way into his quarters for something, right?"

"DNA, Taichou," Kasumi continued. "We must find a way through the men guarding his quarters to collect skin pieces."

"Ugh," Shepard said, looking up at Thane as he dipped her. "Gross."

"Agreed," Thane confirmed, bringing her up.

"So, how do we get in?"

"I could easily dispatch the guards," Thane said.

"Not the ones outside the door," she said, motioning her head in that direction. "Hock would notice if they were gone."

"Taiiiiichouuu," Kasumi sang. "I have an idea."

"Lay it on me."

Knowing it would be faster, Kasumi told Shepard about the plan in a string of that other language before Shepard quirked an entertained eyebrow.

"You know," Shepard said, tilting her head to the side and observing Thane. "He could probably make that work."

Thane spun Shepard, leading her out so their arms extended before pulling her back in slowly.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" He said.

"She thinks you can convince the guards to let us in there to have sex."

"Well," Thane said, that damned smirk creeping across his face. "I take it back then."

"You're hilarious," Shepard said with a smile, putting her hands down. "Your acting had better be as good as your dancing." She grabbed Thane by the collar and pulled him. He leaned forward and let himself be dragged off the floor, laughing as he went.

Garrus tried to ignore it. He tried.

It was just a mission. They had to get in, this was the only way to avoid blood shed and unnecessary attention. This was his own fault, probably. Shepard wouldn't hesitate to just shoot her way through if she could. Maybe he had made her too paranoid about going off plan and now she was willing to let Thane put his… sneaky green hands all over her to reach the objective.

Spirits, he said to himself, rubbing his forehead with his palm. How old am I? Fourteen?

After making a good effort to appear to be flirting over Champagne, the couple waltzed drunkenly up to the guards in front of Hock's quarters. Kasumi, and thusly Garrus, couldn't quite hear what they were saying. She slowly worked her way up the opposite wall and came up behind the guard silently. Thane was looking at the guard from over Shepard's shoulder, his hands around her waist. Shepard had her back against his chest and was looking up at the guard, tilting her head to the side and making her crimson curls sway idly.

"I think you'll understand my urgency," Thane said from over Shepard's shoulder. He slipped his hands from her hips to her stomach and Shepard put her hands over his, casting a wicked smile over her shoulder at him.

"I most certainly do," the guard said, looking Shepard up and down with no small amount of hunger. "But I'm afraid no one is allowed in. Orders are orders."

Shepard leaned toward the guard and put a finger under his chin and even from behind the people watching could see that the man tensed.

"I'm Alison Gun," she said seductively. "Have you heard of me?"

"Uh…yes, ma'am, I've been briefed."

"What about the dark, rakish Lothario behind me? I'm sure he needs no introduction."

The guard cleared his throat. "I uh…"

"Well, I'm certainly not trying to brag, but let's just say that when he wants something, it's very bad for your health to deny him."

Thane drove the point home by slowly pressing his lips to the back of Shepard's bare shoulder, keeping his cold, black eyes on the guard.

The growl that crept from Garrus' throat was completely involuntary, and completely unstoppable. Before he even realized he was doing it, he was pacing up and down the Battery like a wild varren in a cage, watching the small screen, losing himself in the anger.

"Yeah, alright fine," the guard said, typing something into his omni-tool. "I don't get paid enough to take on assassins."

"A wise choice," Thane rumbled as he led Shepard through the door. Kasumi quickly, and quietly, followed behind them. As soon as the doors closed, Thane released Shepard and they walked as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"I knew you'd be able to sell that, Krios."

"You give me too much credit, Siha. It was certainly you who sold it. I mostly just stood there. And glared."

"Oh man, if Kelly Chambers could have seen that."

Thane put his hand over his face. "I will assume you would be so kind as to keep it from her."

Shepard laughed. "Jesus you'd never sleep again."

Kasumi squealed as she came out of cloaking and put her hand on Shepard's arm. "Taichou you are so cool! I never need to do acting in the shadows. I never would have been able to stay so calm."

"It's hard to make me blush," Shepard boasted as they made their way down a level.

"Hmmm," Thane said, putting his hands behind his back. "I suppose I am simply not trying hard enough."

"Don't get your hopes up," she said looking back at him over her shoulder.

"Challenge accepted," he came back with a grin.

Garrus turned off his omni tool and put his face in his hands.

"That green son of a bitch," he growled to himself, leaning his hands on the Battery console. When he had heard about this feeling as a teenager, from his father and the old vids, he never imagined it would come with such an overwhelming feeling of possession. Had he not told some strange turian only weeks ago that Shepard was not something you claim? That she wasn't a trophy? And here he was, in a fit because some smooth, green, fraud was touching someone Garrus instinctively felt was his.

But she wasn't. She was never going to be.

Come on, Vakarian, he told himself, take a few calming breaths. Get it together. It will pass.

He needed to get this hate under control if he was going to keep his cool. He couldn't risk doing something stupid in the heat of the moment. It would ruin everything. Krios hadn't even done anything to deserve the scorn Garrus had for him. Now that he really thought about it, Krios' only crime was wanting the woman who wanted him back. Which just so happened to be the woman Garrus now realized he wanted. But how would that even work anyway? No, he would just end up hurting her somehow. Fate had already provided Shepard with enough pain for several lifetimes, the thought that he would cause her more was a very important, very daunting reality.

Honest to shit, Joker, she had said. It's the only time I've ever been afraid of him.

Damn it, he cursed to himself, rubbing the back of his neck. The words had hurt him then, and they hurt him now. He remembered standing there in the Armory and listening to her say that to Joker and wondering why it had caused such a sharp pain in his chest. He remembered slowly losing control on the SR1, he remembered pinning her down by her throat, he remembered how the scent of her blood had caused such a strong reaction in him.

If she were to ever see that side of him again…

This is ridiculous. He needed to be an adult about this. Garrus was never one to dwell on things. He had made his decision, and damn him, he was going to stick to it. In his lifetime of perpetual screw ups, Shepard's friendship was the only thing he had somehow managed to get right. He wouldn't mess that up. He owed it to himself.

He owed it to her.

Garrus had just wanted to watch the mission to ensure Shepard's safety, not spy on her battle-field flirting. If he kept watching, he would eventually drive himself mad. He pushed himself off the Battery console and strode down the hallway, taking determined steps to the elevator. Maybe if he worked out for an hour or so he'd be able to distract himself until they got back.

I will beat this, he told himself. Whatever the cost.

"Thane," Shepard said as they entered Donovan's room. "Stay out here and keep guard while we forage around."

"Gladly," Thane said with an obvious show of relief. Shepard thought for a moment that maybe she should have taken guard so she didn't have to look for gross pieces of a person.

Kasumi and Shepard proceeded to scan random things in his room to try and find pieces of DNA; wine glasses, ash trays, computers, and even the bed was completely spotless.

"What the hell," Shepard said, sinking back into a hip. "If there isn't any DNA in his bed where in the hell are we going to find it?" She exhaled an angry breath before focusing her eyes on an alarm clock next to the bed with a smile. If Donovan hated his alarm like Shepard hated hers, maybe he slammed his hand into it the way she did to shut it up. She picked up the small clock to scan it, accidentally triggering something to make it start screeching a horrible sound over and over again. She fumbled with it to try and turn it off, but the damage had already been done. Thane, who was standing with his arms behind his back in the doorway, turned around with one entertained eyebrow raised.

"Subtle," he teased.

"Eat me, Hypno-toad."

He laughed and rolled his neck out, preparing to dispatch the guards he heard coming from outside.

"Lucky!" Kasumi chimed from the other side of the room where she was scanning some ornate swords hanging on the wall. "All done."

"Fantastic," Shepard said, heading for the door just as Thane snapped the neck of the last guard. She approached him and started to untie his tie as she spoke. "So now we just need to get to the control room and get a voice print, right?"

"H-…Hai, Taichou," Kasumi said, tilting her head to watch Shepard seemingly undressing Thane.

After Shepard untied his tie, she un-tucked one side of the black shirt he had on under his suit jacket. Thane put his arms up to let her work, but was obviously confused.

"What is it, exactly, you are doing?" he said, looking down at her hands.

"Well, if we just had sex I'd like to think you wouldn't look perfectly composed afterward."

Thane laughed. "Well, then it's a shame you didn't wear lipstick."

"Yeah right, like I'd kiss you. I heard that oral contact with drell causes hallucinations."

Thane quirked an entertained brow as he unclasped the metal piece of her dress with a finger. "I can neither confirm, nor deny that."

She laughed and pushed him in the chest as she turned to walk back up the ramp. She scratched her fingers through her hair to give it a nice tousled look before turning back to Thane just in time to see Kasumi fade into her cloaking. "After we leave, you go get us into that control room and I'll go chat up Hock." She took off her high heels and hung them on her fingers.

"As you wish," he said before wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head on his shoulder and put the hand that wasn't holding her shoes on his chest as they strolled out of the room. Shepard winked at the guard as they passed him and he tipped his invisible hat to her before they continued into the main hall near a bench. They sat down together, lingering just long enough that everyone's attention finally diverted before Thane kissed the back of her hand and bowed as a means of excusing himself. Shepard haphazardly put herself back together before making her way down the wall to pretend to look at a piece of art. Kasumi, cloaked, made her way next to her.

"So, do I need to get him to say something specific," Shepard asked in a whisper.

"No," Kasumi said softly. "Just get him to talk very much. Once we have password I will make a print of his voice."

"Alright so he just needs to talk a lot. I can do that."

"Hai," Kasumi teased, elbowing the Commander in the ribs. "Taichou is very charming."

Shepard quirked a sarcastic brow and contemplated coming up with a clever quip, but decided she would rather just get the hell out of here.

She took a moment to wonder what Garrus was doing.

Probably calibrating. Or something just as imaginary and stupid.

With a few deep breaths, and a quick run through of the few charming platitudes she knew, she turned to advance on Hock. She was almost disappointed at how easy it was to get him to give a long winded speech. He was obviously very fond of hearing himself talk, and even the other patrons applauded him for his brief show of masturbation. He didn't even say anything about the fact that she supposedly just got done banging the most notorious assassin in this place. Shepard wondered for a second if she should be offended or not.

God, this guy is a tool, Shepard thought with a smile plastered onto her face before excusing herself from his rather boring company and proceeding back toward the control room where Kasumi was waiting.

"Did you get it all?" Shepard asked her.

"Hai, Taichou. Very easy!"

"Yeah. Something tells me he had that speech prepared and was just looking for an opportunity to whip it out. Didn't even make any comments about me being a slut or anything!"

"The nerve," Kasumi teased.

"I know. What a douch-nozzle."

They opened the, now unlocked, control room door to see Thane standing amongst a group of dead guards fiddling around with a computer.

"It's here," Thane said. "The password for the vault is Perugia."

"I've heard that somewhere before," Shepard said, sinking back into a hip.

"Thief who stole the Mona Lisa," Kasumi said.

"Ah, I see what he did there," Shepard said with a laugh. "Is that it? Are we done?"

"Hai."

The workout was good for Garrus' nerves. Watching Thane's hands on Shepard was certainly not good for Operation: Get Over It. If Garrus was going to forget these feelings he was having for Shepard, he was going to have to start trying to avoid seeing her and Thane together. With the drell making a push for it like he was now, it was going to just get worse and worse. Better overall for him to just try and steer clear.

The worst that could happen is that she has a squadron of tiny green babies with another man while you watch from the sidelines.

Damn it, Dad.

He ticked away at the Battery console but couldn't keep his mind from wandering to the mission. Were they okay? Did they get out already? Was Thane still flirting with her?

Garrus decided he would just check in on it, just to make sure nothing had gone horribly sideways.

He flicked the screen back on and saw Shepard from behind, coming out from some kind of corridor.

"I will make my way to the vault," Thane said over their earpieces. "After the guards have been dealt with, I will alert you."

"Roger that," Shepard said. She wandered across the room with Kasumi hot on her heels for a few minutes, pretending to be interested in a few art pieces until she seemed to actually take interest in a conversation happening off to the side.

"I heard the Blue Sun's killed Archangel," said a salarian. "Blew him up with a gunship."

"That's not what I heard," said the asari woman he was talking to. "Though I don't really care. As long as he's dead I'll be satisfied."

"Well, they still don't know for sure if he's dead. They never found his body."

"I've got feelers out for him," the woman admitted. "If he's alive, I'll find him. And I'll make sure he pays for the hell he put me through. Slowly."

Garrus didn't recognize the salarian, but the asari woman was a notorious drug smuggler on Illium and Omega was her main traffic hub as she supplied the majority of the Eclipse. He chuckled as he remembered her face on a couple occasions, screwing up her supply routes.

When Kasumi turned to look back at Shepard she was already intruding on the conversation. She had removed something from the little black handbag with her gun in it and twirled it on her finger. It looked like an ordinary dog tag chain, but had a long rectangular charm on the end of it.

"The Blue Sun's didn't kill Archangel," Shepard said, tossing the chain to the asari. "I did."

Garrus laughed, and leaned his head on his hand. It was good to see her looking out for him when she didn't know he was watching.

"You?" the woman said looking from Shepard to the trinket then back up. "I don't know what this is," she admitted. "Or who you are."

"Alison Gun," she said with a smirk.

"Ah yes," the salarian said, going to hold his chin. "You run that squad out in Terminus Space. Very effective I heard."

"I was," Shepard said, sinking into a hip. "Until Archangel fucked with one too many of my shipments through Omega. So I made sure to introduce myself to him personally."

"Is that what this is?" The asari holding the chain said. "Some kind of trinket?"

"Well it obviously doesn't work anymore, but it used to light up blue."

"Blue?" the salarian said, taking the chain from his friend. "I knew it. It's a piece of the screen off that damned visor he wore."

"Yes it is."

The people laughed and started introducing themselves to her, but Garrus had stopped listening.

Not only had she kept the screen of his old visor, she kept it with her? On a chain? Why? What could she have possibly accomplished by that? Shepard wasn't exactly the sentimental type. As far as he knew the only thing she ever held onto that meant anything to her was that book she had given him. She didn't even know where her own dog tags were. Why would she keep a piece of the screen of his broken visor on a chain? Did that mean something to humans?

He shook his head and leaned back against the wall. He was over thinking it. Again. It was probably nothing.

"All clear, Shepard," Thane said. She excused herself from the people she was talking to and headed down to the vault. Shepard waited while Kasumi manipulated the different machines to get the vault open.

"I will handle cameras," Kasumi said. "Change clothes." She waved her omni-tool across the cameras in the vault then turned back to Shepard who was staring, sadly, up at the statue of Saren. Kasumi looked up at the gold idol, then back to Shepard. "Taichou?"

"Shepard," Thane offered.

"Yes. What? What happened?"

Kasumi and Thane shared a glance before Kasumi told her to change again.

"Oh. Right," Shepard said, clearing her throat.

Garrus sighed. After all this time, she still felt bad about Saren. He knew it just by looking at her. He had never talked to her about it, not in length. But he had always suspected, especially after her descent into madness driven by the memories of him. He made a mental note to talk to her about that later.

As they entered the vault and reached the gray box they were looking for, Garrus was about to turn his omni-tool off, satisfied that the mission had been completed, when Donovan Hock caught them in the act.

"I need your gray box, Kasumi," he bellowed. "You know I'll kill you to get it."

Shepard rolled her eyes as the billionaire spewed out his 'Big-Bad-Villain' speech. She tilted her head to the side as she seemed to observe the huge stone statue to her right.

"This is a beautiful piece," she interrupted.

"Yes it is," Hock said, a superiority entering his tone. "It's utterly priceless and you'd do well not to touch it!"

"Utterly priceless, you say," Shepard looked back at her comrades, letting out a long whistle as if impressed. "My goodness. That certainly sounds valuable."

Before anyone could see her move, she shot the statue and it crumbled to the floor in tiny shards.

"You BITCH," Hock raged. "I will punch your teeth down your scrawny throat for that!"

"Bring it on you pompous prick," she spat back at his hologram.

The alarm sounded and guards started to pour out from every door.

"God damn it," Shepard said diving into cover. "Garrus is never going to let me hear the end of this."

"West exit is locked down," Thane said, taking out a few mercs.

"Joker," Shepard shouted into her omni-tool. "Get our shuttle out here, we need extraction. Rental shuttle is a no go. I repeat rental shuttle is-"

Garrus turned off his omni-tool and sprinted to the elevator. "Joker," he said as he went. "I'm taking the shuttle to go pick up Shepard."

"How did you-"

"Never mind how," Garrus snapped. "Just open the damn hatch when I tell you to."

Yeah, because your plans never stray from the path and turn into giant explosions with legs, Garrus had said to her.

Son-of-a-bitch-god-damn-fuck, she cursed internally as Kasumi lead her and Thane out of the enclosure. How big was this guy's fucking house? Jesus.

They fought out to a Cargo Bay where Shepard had intended to call for Joker and instruct him to pick them up there, but Hock's gunship interrupted her train of thought.

"How much disposable income does this cock-sucker have?" Shepard spat.

"He has Statue of Liberty's head, Taichou."

"Yeah alright," Shepard said, getting behind cover. "Good point."

Shepard instructed Kasumi to concentrate on taking out the mercs, while Thane was supposed to concentrate on the ship with his rifle. Shepard alternated depending on who needed more help, but every time they made any progress on the gunship, its shield would just regenerate, coupled with some snarky 'End-Of-A-Vid-Villain' line from Hock over the loudspeaker. What's more; he had a, seemingly endless, supply of mercs. It almost seemed stupid to keep sending mercs after them, since all it seemed to do was provide them with more thermal clips. Idiot.

"Taichou," Kasumi said, panting. "I can take out shields if we get closer."

"Roger that," she said, motioning for Thane to move up.

Once the shields dropped again, Kasumi deftly pounced up a wall of crates and launched herself onto the front of the gunship, jamming her omni-tool into the shield generator. Once Hock saw what she was doing, she gave him a rather snide version of a military salute and leaped backward, doing some kind of Olympic dive and landing gracefully on her feet.

"What the fuck?" Shepard said with an eyebrow cocked. "Why didn't you tell me you were fucking Catwoman?"

"Taichou?"

"Never mind," she said, waving a hand. "Thane! Shields are down, shoot it!"

"It will be done," he said, finding a perch on some crates. He hardly had time to settle before something interrupted. "Incoming," he shouted.

Shepard looked up from behind a crate and saw a shuttle coming toward them. No, wait, that was her shuttle. It turned towards the gunship and started firing missiles at it in rapid succession. She was suddenly very grateful for Garrus' obsession with putting big guns on everything. While she was trying to see who was piloting it, a bullet whizzed by her face and grazed her cheek, cutting a long gash in it.

"God damn it," Shepard cursed.

Thane spared a moment to glance her way to make sure she was unharmed before returning to his original purpose of taking down the gunship. The Normandy's shuttle was providing excellent cover fire and Thane was confident that he had killed Hock with a well placed bullet through the skull just before the gunship exploded in a burst of blue and orange.

"Good job," Shepard said as she stood and made her way to them. She seemed perfectly healthy aside from the bloody gash along her cheek, but Thane could tell that it wasn't serious.

"Taichou," Kasumi said, going to the Commander's side.

"I'm fine," Shepard said as she pressed her hand to the wound, then looked at her gauntleted hand to check how badly it was bleeding. "It was my own fault; I took my eyes off the target."

"It could have been much worse," Thane offered, putting his hands behind his back.

"I uh…" Shepard swallowed, looking past Thane, obviously only half paying attention. "Yeah..."

Thane turned toward the heli-pad where the shuttle had landed and saw Vakarian slowly stepping out of it. Though he was never very good at reading emotions from the faces of turians, even Thane could see that Garrus was irritated. The turian crossed his arms and leaned back on the shuttle as if to ask what they were waiting for. Thane turned back to Shepard who seemed to be more or less frozen in place.

"Siha," Thane said, attempting to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah let's get the hell out of here."

They climbed up the ladder and onto the pad one after another, Shepard bringing up the rear per usual. Thane nodded at Garrus, who ignored him, before making his way past the turian to the shuttle. He opened the side hatch to let Kasumi in, but the girl stopped in the doorway, looking back at the Commander with a girlish grin on her face.

"Garrus," Shepard said as she took the last step off the ladder. "I…how did you…"

Garrus put his hand up to motion for silence, which he got. He slowly approached the Commander and reached a hand up to take her chin in his hand and aim it up at his, forcefully turning her head to the side so he could scrutinize the wound. Thane thought it was oddly reminiscent of when Irikah would scold him when he would come home with new wounds.

Shepard's face very quickly reddened as the embarrassment filled her face.

It's hard to make me blush, she had said.

Apparently, Thane thought. It is only hard for some.

"One more inch to the right, Shepard," Garrus growled at her. "One more inch to the right and you would have been dead."

"And you being here would have prevented that how?" Shepard snarled back, anger filling her face in an attempt to cover up how she was blushing. "In fact; you showing up in the shuttle is what distracted me in the first place!"

"Well forgive me for showing up to save your sorry ass!"

Thane laughed to himself as he shared a knowing glance with Kasumi. The thief put her hands over her mouth and giggled. Thane and Kasumi loaded onto the shuttle to leave the two to their play-fighting. It was about time these two came to their senses. The way they avoided admitting to themselves what was so obvious to everyone around them, even Thane found it tiring.

"They will figure it out," Kasumi said, tinkering with the gray box they stole.

"Before they kill each other would be preferable," Thane added.