Work Text:
The most important moments in our lives do not present themselves as such. Shepard knows this day on the Citadel will be important for her, but she doesn’t know the real reason yet. She thinks it’s because she is accusing Saren of treason, maybe she even thinks it’s because she will become a spectre. She doesn’t know the most important part of this day is the Turian C-Sec officer she meets.
At this point she has no idea who Garrus Vakarian is or what he will mean to her. She will get her first taste of it a few months later.
-
Shepard is dying. She is fighting against it but she already knows there is no way she’ll survive. No matter how much she claws at her suit, no matter how hard she kicks out, she is suffocating.
She sees his face, Garrus face, as everything goes black. In her last second she finds herself wondering why.
-
The feeling returns when she sees him on Omega. Garrus smiles at her and Shepard smiles back, her face still hurting from the new tiny scars stretching across it like a web. She’s aware that it’s more than friendship she is feeling but she pushes it down.
They have both been through some horrific shit lately and Shepard is not gonna add her feeling for Garrus into the mix unless…
-
He reciprocates. Shepard tries the waters by flirting with Garrus and he reciprocates. She has to do her best not to loose her cool about it.
She actually gets as far as setting up a friends with benefits arrangement with him and to say she is delighted would be an understatement. Garrus just gets her. She can trust him like no one else. Shepard doesn’t want to call it love. Not yet.
-
And then they get separated again. Shepard spends her six months of house arrest in constant fear for her friend’s lives. When she finally gets out and learns that Palaven is under attack the lowgrade fear becomes outright anxiety.
She sees Garrus on Menae and all of Shepard’s feeling come rushing back once more. She is so relived to see him, so damn happy, it takes all her self control and diplomatic skill to not just kiss him right there.
They start making up on the six months of separation as soon as they are back on the Normandy and Shepard feels like something has changed. Somehow being apart has made them more in tune, has solidified how well they fit together. Like they aren’t really whole without the other.
Garrus moves into her cabin and they start dating in the more traditional sense. Although, they already know each other so well and are so comfortable with each other, it doesn’t feel like the beginning of a relationship and more like everything, finally being in the right place.
-
He says it first. Garrus looks at Shepard one evening, her head resting on his chest, his talons running through her hair and he tells her. “Shep?”
She looks up at him. “What?”
“Whatever happens, I love you.”
Shepard sits up, placing a hand on the scarred side of his face and kisses him. Slowly and deliberately. “I love you too.”
-
She regains consciousness slowly. Piece by piece.
First she knows she’s in a hospital. Then she knows Garrus is with her. Then the memories come back. London. The Illusive Man. Anderson. The Crucible.
Recovery is slow and painful but Shepard manages it, with Garrus by her side all the way. It leaves her more exhausted than she’s ever been, frequently just falling asleep in the middle of the day when her body decides it’s had enough.
She does get to have a lot of long talks with Garrus though. “I didn’t see it coming, you know.”
He looks up from what he is reading on his padd, training his gaze on her. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t expect to fall in love with you”, Shepard tilts her head in a gesture similar to his, looking him up and down. “Out of everything in the last five years, the one thing I didn’t see coming was you. I died when I was thrown out into space and somehow you were the only thing on my mind.”
Garrus takes her hand, looking down at her fingers intertwined with his talons. “I didn’t see you coming either. Not until you were standing in front of me on Omega and it all felt right again.
Shepard smiles, leaning in to kiss him despite every muscle in her body protesting against the movement. She might not have known how important he would be when she first met him, but now Garrus is the most important thing in the universe to her. And if she had to go through all of it again to keep him, she would do it in a heartbeat.