Chapter Text
“Never considered you a music kind of person Vakarian.”
Shepard’s voice rang out through the cargo hold of the Normandy, Garrus only realizing she had been speaking to him when her knuckles knocked on the top of the vehicle. He nearly avoided cracking his plates on the underside of the Mako, forgetting momentarily that he was underneath a war vehicle.
Commander Shepard’s rounds had become somewhat of a tradition. Checking in with the crew after long or emotionally taxing missions, gathering input, making sure each member of her team was holding out alright - more than any of his Commanders in the Turian military and especially C-sec had ever bothered to do. Garrus didn’t want to admit it, but he looked forward to the days she came to visit him specifically. He slid himself out from under the Mako, adjusting his visor as he sat up, pausing the music.
“Commander, how’d you know I was listening to music?” He asked, and Shepard smiled, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Firefight on the last drop, a bullet grazed your visor and disrupted comms, got a bit of interesting feedback on my end.”
“Ah, "If that's a problem, it won't happen again Commander.” He said, his mandibles twitched nervously, he could never tell tone with humans - how did they understand anything without sub vocals?
“Garrus don't worry about it. I get it, trust me, I've had my fair share of boring sniping positions."
A plate raised on his forehead. That had not been what he was expecting. An ask to keep it outside of firefights maybe, but not a smile and agreement. Taking the towel that Ashley had lent him (which was surprisingly not pink) he wiped the oil from his hands.
"You listen to music on the field as well Shepard?"
She shrugged, leaning now against the Mako with her hip. “Once and a while, not as much anymore but did so in training, got reprimanded for it once. Which is why I came down and mentioned it."
Garrus stood as she tapped her Omni tool.
“Up for a trade? I'll send you my mixtape, you'll send me yours?"
"What's a...mixtape?"
"Nevermind, old human thing. You do It for friends, people you're close to-I'm saying you send me your firefight playlist and I send you mine" ”
Garrus chuckled “I have a feeling human and turian music are very different Commander.”
“Which is why this will be fun, considering it cross-species bonding.” She had a grin across her face, it curling into dimples on her cheeks. The scar on her eyebrow - one from Akuze she had mentioned offhandedly - stretched with her expression, and looking at the enthusiastic woman, he couldn’t say no.
“Alright, sure why not, send me your-uh- mixtape"
“You won’t regret this Vakarian.”
She tapped a few keys on her omni-tool, and his visor lit up. The message came in instantly, and Garrus opened it, quickly skimming the titles. Mostly human bands and names he hadn’t heard off. A quick search on the side revealed they were old, from before the last century. How she had found some of this he had no idea. Garrus named the playlist Shepard and saved it before sending her his.
When her omni-tool lit up, her attention left him and went to the orange light. He watched her, flick through the list, chuckling at some of the songs before saving it as he had done.
"Good thing we're landing on Virmire tomorrow, I'll get a chance to try these out."
Garrus laughed "That is if you're not pinned down like usual. I don't want to have to save your ass again. "
"Once Vakarian, that happened once."
“Then tell me, how did you manage to miss at point-blank?”
Shepard laughed, Garrus’s mandibles fluttering, it wasn’t often she did so. With a wave and a smile, she bid him a farewell, before turning her attention to Ashely at the armoury behind her. He watched her go, taking her spot leaning against the workspace as spoke with the other human. Her eyes flicked back to Garrus and she smiled, before returning to the conversation. With a shake of his head, he queued up her playlist before going back under the Mako. Might as well see if Shepard had poor taste in music or not.