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In Public	By : CyberII Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 8906 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Do not own Mass Effect or characters, writing for fun, but not profit.

Chapter List
- 1-Pt.1
- 2-Pt.2
- 3-Pt.3
- 4-Pt.4
- 2
- 3
- 4
He bumped into Tali near the bar counter. It was hard to tell with quarians, but he sensed her looking fixedly at him while he ordered another glass of dextro booze. She pretended to be more interested in contains of her tumbler she’s been drinking through a straw, when he looked at her finally, browplate raised slightly.

“I don’t get it, Garrus. I suggested… well, half of the ship did, you will beat the arrogant shit out of her eventually. But not that…”

Garrus leaned onto the counter, sipping his drink nonchalantly.
“Ah, it all started with a fight. Always works with women… at least for me.”

Tali uttered a muffled sound which could be interpreted as a snort of contempt. She probably was about to come up with an incisive remark, but a mechanical voice made her cringe involuntarily.
“Vakarian-Officer?”

The quarian cursed under her helmet and headed to the farthest end of the bar. She seemed to never get used to the geth platform hanging around with them, even though they displayed no open hostility towards each other after that conflict Shepard had to resolve. Said geth followed her with a turn of its head and slightly raised panels.

“Vakarian-Officer, we have formed an inquiry which we reached a decision to address to you…”

That was something new; he hardly could remember Legion asking him something personally. Garrus never had any real problems with geth once it proved itself to be a valuable team member, he just didn’t expect it to talk to him.
“Why me?”

“Our analysis of Shepard-Commander’s stage of intoxication stated the probability of a reasonable answer is low. Your rank allows us to contact you in case of his inability. Your operational system is more stable at the moment, and you are involved in the similar type of organic behavior.”

Legion sounded logical as always. Of course, even synthetic was able to figure out someone that drunk won’t make sense.

“Fine. What is it, Legion?”

The geth bowed its head uncertainly.
“Our inquiry is: what purpose does the mating response between diverse chiralities serve?”

Garrus almost choked on his drink. Of all people, a synthetic asking such kind of question caught him off-guard.
“I’m sorry?”

“Both you and Shepard-Commander have available organic female units of your chirality aboard; both of you became engaged in a mating ritual with ones of different DNA structure. We leave open the possibility of it to be an unstudied regularity of organic behavior.”

Ah, he got it, two couples, and both inter-species, surely it looked like some kind of incomprehensible habitude for artificial logic. As if he could figure it out himself, what happened between him and Miranda.
“No. Legion, it’s not… There are many reasons two people get along, and sometimes…” he rubbed his browplate, trying to find the words to explain it to an AI, “Sometimes the biological diversity doesn’t matter.”

“Then what does?”

“Circumstances. Personalities. Loneliness maybe,” Garrus wasn’t so sure what to answer to a curious machine. “You may ask Mordin, he might explain it better, in terms you understand.”

The geth narrowed the shutter of the headlight, turned it to the side, panels fluttering.
“Circumstances. Troublesome and stressful conditions. The conception of loneliness is unclear, there is a variety of organic units serving on the vessel. Personalities…”

It shifted from foot to foot stiffly, jerked its shoulders, nodding.
“We need to analyze the new data. We appreciate you provided it, Vakarian-Officer.”

The geth platform was about to leave, when Garrus realized he’s got a question too.
“Legion, may I ask you something? You don’t drink, don’t need to pick up someone or ogle the strippers… you can dance actually, but it’s not your priority. Why are you here, in the club?”

“Shepard-Commander didn’t specify if he suggested just the organic part of the crew to come,” Legion replied bluntly. It waited a second, then cocked its head and blinked the light surreptitiously.
“We are gathering data on organic behavior. We wish to understand.”

The geth strolled off, heading to the dancefloor. Garrus sighed and tried to imagine what he got into because of dumb hormones. Casual one-nighters had their advantage in discretion. Now he would be less embarrassed if he was naked in public. He didn’t want to upset Miranda showing the signs of his discomfort though. Friendly and relaxing glass of alcohol certainly could help him hide it.

“Hey, missed me?” Miranda took an empty seat next to him, her hand landing on his.

“I did,” he turned to her, dipping his face into her hair, “Hoped for our ‘counselor’ to not blabber you to horrible death.”

“Poor girl,” the woman smirked, “Whatever skills impressed the Illusive Man so much he assigned her to our mission, it had nothing to do with psychology…”

“My point exactly,” Garrus downed his drink and wrapped his arms around her, “She was supposed to help us deal with our issues, and can’t handle a little abduction.”

“Hey, now you sound mean!” her small palm slapped his chestplate. “She didn’t do anything to you, or was there something I hadn’t been reported about?”

“I’m, ah, not very fond of anyone pretending to know what’s on my mind and what’s better for me,” the turian winced. “Have had enough of my father…”

“Oh, I hear you so well,” she chuckled bitterly, throwing her arms around his neck. “I propose an agreement – no matter where we will get… together, no ‘meet-the-parents’ arrangements ever.”

“I’d drink to that,” he grinned, baring his teeth.

Miranda raised a new glass of cocktail, he followed. One thing confused him though – she mentioned meeting with parents, were the courtship customs similar between their species to suggest she had something… long-term on her mind?

He cleared his throat uncertainly.
“Hm. By the way – does it mean your plans go that far?”

She threw her eyes up on him, lowered them to her glass with an awkward smile.
“Well, I… don’t… Consider it a joke, okay?”

“Sure,” Garrus didn’t know, if he felt a slight relief or disappointment. He took another swig of his drink to hide it.

“Hey,” the woman slid her fingers along his arm, rubbing the spots not covered with armor plates, “Don’t be upset, I just don’t even know what will happen tomorrow…”

“I’m not,” he touched her nose with his, “I understand.”

She lifted her face, bringing her lips closer for a kiss, and he didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it. That thing, he knew he was getting better in it at least. He knew she enjoyed it by her closed eyes and short curvy hair on her eyelids fluttering. It was weird, funny and adorable. Carefully he removed one of his gloves and brushed the pointy tips with his fingerpad.

Her eyes flew open, she almost jerked back, looking warily at his talon in dangerous proximity of her eyeball.

Spirits, could they ever get used to the alien-ness of each other?

Garrus lowered his hand, reaching for his gauntlet, but her small hand stopped him. She squeezed his three armored fingers with her five and soft ones as in apology for her surprised glimpse of fear. He let her hold his hand, in fact, it was a nice feeling.

“And what’s wrong with your father?” Miranda cocked her head to the shoulder. “You briefly heard about mine, you were there when I’ve dealt with Niket… but I’ve never heard your story.”

“Ah, there’s not much of a story,” he sighed, “Shepard knows, I used to grumble about him aboard of SR1… Now I moved along with my own problems, just… haven’t had any contacts with him a good while.”

He looked into her questioning eyes and rubbed his browplate.
“He was a C-Sec legend, retired now. One of the very by-the-book kind. He was the reason I joined C-Sec too and… didn’t become a Spectre instead.”

“So you finally started to do things your way after it?” she asked. He nodded.
“Yeah. And screwed everything up…”

“Stop it, Garrus!” Miranda frowned. “How many times you need to be told it wasn’t your fault, and what you did there on Omega was worthwhile…”

“Sorry,” he sighed again, leaning on the counter, “Besides, I’m not the only one with never ending ‘favorite topic’ here…”

“Touché,” she grinned. “What about the rest of your family?”

“Sister. Mom… she’s very ill,” Garrus made a helpless gesture. “My family isn’t poor, but the treatment is quite expensive. And the fact that I’m not even able to help them…”

He rubbed the back of his neck, recalling his last chat with Solana just before the Omega-4 Relay. He really hated the necessity to return to Palaven after it – that meant he’d have to look her in the eyes.
“I think both my Dad and Sis are convinced that I’m just hiding from responsibility, not showing up even for video chats…”

“Is it because of…?” she didn’t finish her question, just touched his scarred mandible gingerly.

“Well… It would be damn hard to explain,” he traced the rough marks left on his right cheekplate. “And they won’t approve of the story behind it for certain.”

She reached up and covered his cheek with her palm.
“Honestly, aside from jokes – do you feel self-conscious about these scars?”

He jerked his shoulders uncertainly.
“It reminds me of things… I’d better forget but can’t. So I think it doesn’t matter.”

“Garrus, would you mind if I ask… Are you… attractive for a turian?” Miranda’s eyes shimmered with booze-induced shameless interest. She brought his bare hand to her mouth and slowly licked the tip of his forefinger. His eyes widened, it reminded him of the things… he knew she could do with her mouth.

“Why are you asking?”
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- 4
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