When the Rum Is Gone, I'll Be Here to Keep You Warm

Shepard looked up at the bright blue sky of Valia and sighed. She preferred the heat of the day under the planet's star than the freezing cold night, but she wished it was twilight. It was her third day on the planet, crashed here with only her first mate for company. They had just started scavenging the ship's wreckage after spending the first two days making sure they were okay and finding a place to sleep. Without a chance to explore the planet, they needed to find the safest place as fast as possible.

"Garrus?" Shepard called.

The turian popped up over the side of a piece of the hull of the wrecked ship. "Shepard?"

"Captain Shepard."

"We're stuck on an uncharted planet in the middle of space, Shepard. Your title doesn't matter a damn if I'm the only one to hear it." Shepard just scowled at Garrus. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Yeah." She leaned forward on the piece of the casing for one of the propellors for the ship. "Is it twilight yet?"

Garrus snorted. "Does it look like it, Shepard?"

Shepard looked over at the bright blue sky again and then back at Garrus with another scowl. "No."

"There's your answer," he said, and he disappeared behind the piece of hull again.

"Garrus," Shepard called again.

The turian reappeared over the piece of the hull. "Yes, Shepard."

"How long until twilight?" she asked.

"Are you looking to freeze your ass off or can you just not wait until we have to sleep and you get to cuddle up close to me again?" Garrus sniped. Shepard scowled loudly to hide the blush she could feel coloring her cheeks. Garrus' smirk indicated that he taken stock of Shepard's pink cheeks. This made Shepard scowl even louder. "Oh don't feel bad, Shepard, I had ladies flocking me left and right on the ship. Surely you've heard the rumors about turians?"

She hadn't, but she didn't want Garrus to think she wanted to know what these so-called "rumors" were. "Of course I have." Shepard waved a hand dismissively and sunk down behind the propellor casing.

"Shepard," Garrus called.

Shepard smirked. She enjoyed these little cat-and-mouse games they played. She stood back up and peered over the propellor casing at Garrus across the sand. "Garrus?"

"Which one's your favorite?" he asked. Shepard really wanted to walk over to him and smack that smirk off his scaled face. His mandibles flicked as he saw that thought cross her smooth face and she scowled yet again. "Quit scowling, Shepard. The raised lip is very unbecoming of you. Plus you don't have pointed teeth. Not menacing at all."

"Don't confuse scowling with growling, Garrus," Shepard shot back, disappearing behind the propellor casing again.

"I'm much smarter than I look, Shepard."

"Four brain cells instead of three?"

"Very funny, Shepard." There were a few moments of silence punctuated by the blocky sound of shuffling wood scraps and the tang of the shifting of sheets of metal. Then Garrus found something. "Hey, Shepard."

Shepard didn't rise above the propellor casing right away. She couldn't place how Garrus' voice sounded. It was partly "Hey I found something that you should come look it," partly "Hey Shepard, what the fuck is this?" and partly "This seems like another opportunity to tease Shepard." Curious, she rose above the propellor casing but didn't move from it. "Hey, Garrus."

"I found something."

Shepard's eyebrows raised. "Oh really? Anything valuable?"

"You'll quite enjoy this, Shepard. I have a hard time believing this survived the shipwreck - it's glass - so it must have been buried under the sand or something to be without a crack."

"Well what is it, Garrus?" The turian popped over the hull piece he had been searching around with another smirk on his face, flicking mandibles, and a bottle in his hand. It was glass, with an amber-colored liquid inside and a faded red label on the front. Shepard grinned. "I told you you'd enjoy it."

"I'll enjoy it more when it's in my stomach and keeping me warm tonight." Shepard licked her lips in anticipation.

"Hey hey now, Shepard, that's my job," Garrus quipped. "I just use this as help." He swished the rum bottle. Shepard scowled at his initial comment. "And what did I say about scowling?" he called over the sand as the pair returned to their salvaging.

Shepard just groaned quietly as she squatted back down over the patch of sand she was digging through with the blunted metal scrap she had picked up. The heat of Valia's star was hot on her back. It felt worse than the sun from Earth, and Shepard wondered if this kind of heat exposure could give her a sunburn. Except she'd have to call it a starburn, since she was relatively sure Valia's star was just a star and not an official sun. She smirked at herself. Then her thoughts drifted to what might happen if she in fact did get a burn. She and Garrus had found some med-kits on their climb out of the wrecked ship, surely they included some kind of burn cream. And if the burn was on her back, then Garrus would in fact have to apply it...

Shepard shook her head to clear it. She could lose her focus tonight, when she was letting the rum keep her warm and do her talking for her. But for now, she had to keep her eyes on the prize, so to speak, and keep digging, hoping that she would find something of value in the sand. There was a tingle on the back of her neck, maybe from exposure to the rays of Valia's star, and Shepard reached up to scratch at it. Except when she touched cold metal, she froze. "Turn around, slowly. I don't want to have to hurt you, human."

Shepard dropped her metal tool and did as the deep voice behind her told. She held up her hands defensively, like she was completely helpless, because that was exactly what she wanted her assailant to think. She knew that a voice that deep couldn't have belonged to another human, but she wasn't expecting to turn around and face a krogan.

He looked like a typical krogan, but Shepard hadn't seen any in quite some time. Krogan didn't work on pirate ships very much. The top of his scaled head was red, just a shade lighter than his eyes; the rest of his similarly scaled face was a sickly green color, the kind that Shepard only associated with people that were about to vomit. "I've never heard of a krogan not wanting to hurt someone," Shepard remarked.

The krogan narrowed his eyes just so that Shepard wouldn't have picked it up if she wasn't staring straight at them. "I have too much blood on my hands already. I don't need the blood of a random human added to that," he answered.

Shepard nodded in acknowledgement. "You should know I'm not alone here."

"You're not?"

"There's a turian across the sand, behind that piece of hull with the silver stripe across it. All this wreckage? It's a ship. It was my ship. I was the captain. The turian was my first mate. We're just scavenging the remnants. The turian just found a bottle of rum, actually. If you take that knife away from the base of my neck, you could have some," Shepard explained.

The moments of silence between Shepard and the krogan were the longest Shepard had ever felt, and she had been in some really sticky situations with her ship before. "I haven't seen rum on this planet in so long I thought I might be going crazy." The krogan lowered his knife from Shepard's neck. "Would you like a challenge, human?"

Shepard released the breath she had been holding as a relieved sigh. "Shepard. Name's Shepard. And it depends on what the challenge is," she answered.

The krogan smirked. "Wrex. You say your turian found a bottle of rum? I'd like to challenge to see who can drink more."

Shepard laughed. "What's funny, Shepard?" Garrus called from across the sand. Shepard almost forgot he was over there and could hear her. It didn't seem like he heard Shepard and Wrex negotiating for Shepard's life just a few moments before. "Thinking about another rum-filled evening next to me?"

"Can it, Garrus. I found us a friend," Shepard called back, rising over the propellor casing.

Garrus appeared over his piece of hull a second later. "What do you - oh." Krogans were a little hard to miss with their size. "Didn't think there was anyone else on this planet," he said, his voice obviously cautious.

"So did I," Wrex replied. "Until i found your captain here picking through her ship. Name's Wrex." The krogan's booming voice carried across the sand easily, with nothing around them to make the deep notes resonate and metal vibrate. Shepard met her first krogan in a tight alley, and the bass of his voice was so low, she could feel each syllable resonate in her chest, and even the metal beam next to them when ringing. They only noticed it when there was silence in between them. It caused them both a good deal of laughs. Shepard then realized how long it had been since she had seen this krogan-friend of hers, and wondered if he was still alive. He was a bit of the dangerous type.

"Garrus," the turian called back to him, leaning forward onto the small ridge on the hull piece. He was taking the hint from her, Shepard noticed.

Wrex simply nodded at Garrus. "Your captain has told me you found a bottle of rum in this wreckage."

Garrus disappeared behind the hull piece for three seconds and then stood back up with the partially empty bottle in his hand. "I'm surprised it survived the crash."

"That was not from your ship, turian. There's not one crack in that glass."

"Which means..." Shepard began.

"...That there must be more where I dug this up," Garrus finished.

"There's nothing interesting over here anyway," Shepard called to Garrus, and she just caught his mandibles flick in amusement before she walked out from behind her propellor casing. She felt the thud in the sand that Wrex's footsteps made a few moments later from behind her.

He was full on smirking when she approached him hunched over in the sand. "Anything involving rum has your attention, Shepard."

"That shouldn't be a surprise to you, Garrus. We're pirates."

"It's that old human stereotype, isn't it? 'Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.'"

Shepard snorted. "You do not have the right voice for that. Please never try again."

"Or what?" The plates above Garrus' eyes lifted. It always made Shepard chuckle because it reminded her that turians didn't have eyebrows.

"I'll figure out some kind of punishment for you." Shepard winked.

"Will it also include punishment for having to keep close to me every night?"

"Probably."

"Get digging, Captain. There could be more rum under here."

"And who knows what else," Wrex cut in.

"Exactly," Shepard agreed.

It turns out Wrex was right. The rum bottle that Garrus had originally found wasn't from the ship, but from a crate that was buried two feet under the sand. It made Shepard wonder who the hell hid a crate of rum two feet under the sand of an uncharted planet. This thought stayed on her mind for about three seconds before she was mesmerized by Wrex effortlessly yanking the wooden crate out of the sand and passing it up to Garrus, who then heaved it onto the sand next to him. "Careful!" Shepard squeaked.

"Relax, Shepard, it's not like you crashed here on purpose to retrieve this crate," Garrus said.

"That's what makes it so special. It's not ours."

"Spoken like a true pirate, Shepard."

The thing Shepard hated about Valia was how once the sun went down, the temperature dropped with it. She and Garrus hadn't salvaged any clothes from the ship, so they had been in the same things since the crash landing three days ago. Shepard didn't mind, it was just getting to the point where stretching away from Garrus reminded her how long she had been wearing her current outfit. And pissing in the salt water off the sand wasn't much of a help either.

Luckily, the new trio had dug up the crate of rum. After Garrus and Wrex pried it open, they found a bounty of twelve bottles inside. It added up to thirteen when you counted the partially consumed one Garrus had initially found, and once twilight had struck, Shepard had to physically restrain herself from tearing into the open bottle. She instead helped Garrus look for food both she and him could eat. She knew that turians could eat most of the same things humans do, but she was still careful with what she picked out and brought back to Garrus. With a strangely vast knowledge of foreign plants, he okayed everything that Shepard brought to him. She smiled proudly as the two walked back to their encampment where Wrex had a roaring fire going, and had taken a bottle out of the crate in preparation for the challenge.

"Are you really going to try and outdrink a krogan?" Garrus asked, lowering his voice.

"Yes, Garrus. I know you'll be there to catch me if I trip and fall into the fire. I most likely won't feel it anyway," Shepard answered.

Garrus' mandibles flicked slightly in amusement. "You can always count on me, Shepard."

Shepard's smile in response to Garrus was as genuine as she had smiled at anyone in a long time. When you spend your life on pirate ships, stealing from the innocent and making an ass out of yourself in the middle of space, it was hard to find the hilarity in everything. Garrus helped her do that, and she appreciated it more than she could ever tell him.

"Is the lovebird human ready to lose?" Wrex asked, the ghost of a smirk on his scaly face.

"If that's what's going to happen, then I'm afraid I'm very ill-prepared, krogan," Shepard returned.

"Sit that tiny ass down and we'll see what you've really got." The krogan thumped the sand next to him. Shepard instead took a seat next to Garrus behind Wrex with the fire in front of them. Originally from a hot planet, Garrus always sat too close to the fire for Shepard's comfort, but when they had first arrived on the planet and they built their fires, the turian was never annoyed with how much Shepard moved back and forth from the heat of the fire throughout the night. Wrex turned to face the pair with his ghost of a smirk chased away by the ghost of a scowl. "Have it your way, human. You take the first sip."

Shepard held up the bottle she had pulled from the crate before seating herself next to Garrus. His taloned hand came to lightly rest on her waist and if it showed on her face, Garrus didn't notice. Shepard even picked up his hand and used one of his talons to pick the cap off the bottle, and she noticed the blush that crossed his face. As well as turians can blush, that is. Shepard raised the lip of the glass to her lips and took a generous swig, one that was probably enough to knock out a small child. A small squeal came from the woman's mouth as the last of the liquor passed through her mouth. She shook her head and blinked hard. Shepard felt Garrus' taloned arm squeeze her side and she turned to look at him. She didn't see the plates above his eyes raise in question, but she saw the concern for her in his eyes. "Don't worry about me, Garrus. You've seen me put away a whole bottle by myself before." Garrus merely took a deep breath and the fire cast a shadow across his affectionate smile, mirroring a smaller version on Shepard's face.

"Shepard, it's your turn again. Learn to keep up." Shepard's name sounded rough and harsh in the deep krogan notes.

Shepard took another deep swig from the bottle, the amber-colored liquor inside already almost a third of the way gone. She felt another light squeeze from the taloned hand of Garrus. "Are you gonna do that every time I take a swig?" she asked, turning to him.

The turian's mandibles flicked as he smiled. "I didn't think you'd have a problem with it, Shepard," he answered, his voice lower than his usual speaking volume.

"I don't, I was just wondering." The sober half of her mind took over for a brief moment, lowering her voice to match his.

"Lovebirds!" The boom of Wrex's voice was one that neither Garrus nor Shepard were used to, having spent most of their adult lives on their ship, where krogan tend to be far and few between.

"I'll make you regret using that word," Shepard called to the krogan over the roar and crackle of the fire. She then raised her bottle to him and took a third deep swig.

"It still amazes me how much you can pull in one go, Shepard," Garrus remarked as she swallowed the liquor.

She smiled at him as she lowered the bottom of the bottle to rest in the sand. "After all the times you've seen me put away a whole bottle by myself before? You don't learn, Garrus." The turian's mandibles flicked again as he just chuckled.

Shepard raised the bottle to her lips for the fourth time, and when she had swallowed the liquor she took a look at the bottle. Half gone. She nodded in approval of herself, and didn't even lower the bottle back down to the sand before she took her fifth swig.

An hour had passed, and Garrus needed to find more wood for the dying fire. His taloned hand removed itself from Shepard's waist, but she didn't seem to notice, currently laughing with the krogan in her drunkenness. "I'm going to find more firewood," Garrus announced as he stood from the log that had been his seat.

"No need." Wrex pointed to a pile set off just to the left of him a few feet away. "I gathered enough for the night while you were off gathering food." He turned to Shepard. "Which we still haven't eaten."

"Food sobers you up, Wrex. That's cheating," Shepard answered, taking another swig of rum. She had just opened her second bottle a few minutes ago, while Wrex had been making a small pile of the empty glass in front of the fire. Thinking of it, Garrus straightened it to the best of his abilities on his way to fetch more firewood.

As Garrus dumped a few logs onto the fire, a shower of sparks flew up a few inches from his face. He didn't even flinch. Growing up on Palaven had its advantages. "Thank you for the firewood," he called over the newly crackling fire to Wrex, who took his fourth bottle away from his lips and looked at the turian.

"What?" Then the words registered in his muddled head. "Ah, yes, of course." The krogan raised the bottle to Garrus, but didn't take a drink. As Garrus retook his seat next to Shepard, she took her bottle down from her lips and grinned at him. He smiled back, his mandibles not only flicking, but moving with his smile. They returned to their original position after Garrus' smile subsided into a small smirk watching Shepard and making sure she didn't fall backward off the log.

Another hour passed without incident, but Wrex looked uneasy compared to Shepard. He was holding his fifth bottle, freshly opened a few moments before, and Shepard could have sworn she saw him wince as he held the bottle to his lips, but with almost two bottle of rum in her, she couldn't be sure of anything she saw. Shepard's vision was swimming in front of her. She wasn't sure how much longer she would last against the krogan, but she figured it was at least worth a shot. He wasn't looking too good either.

Once Wrex had downed half of the bottle in his hand, he planted it in the sand, some of it sloshing out with the force. "Shepard," he slurred.

"Hmm?" she asked around the lip of the bottle in her mouth. He merely looked at her as a sucking sound filled the air when she took the bottle from her lips and let it down in a controlled fall into the sand between her spread legs. "What?" she asked loudly.

Wrex sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them just before either Shepard or Garrus was about to say something, and he said to Shepard, "'M done."

The words took a few seconds to register with Shepard, but her eyes widened as they did. "Wait," she said. "Does that mean..." She trailed off, a sloppy grin spreading across her face. Wrex merely nodded, his huge green-and-red head resting in his equally large green hands. Shepard had pointed out halfway through her current bottle that he only had four fingers on each hand, where she had five, including thumbs. This greatly amused Garrus, who only had three fingers on each hand, including his thumb. The bottle, the bottom resting in the sand, then fell from Shepard's grasp as she threw her hands in the air. "I just outdrank a krogan! Holy shit!" she yelled.

Garrus laughed and placed a taloned hand on her back to keep her from falling backward off the log. "Quite a feat, Shepard."

"Yeah, yeah, I can congratulate you much better when I don't feel like the world is spinning nonstop," Wrex mumbled.

Garrus stood from the log and walked a few steps over to the grass blanket he and Shepard had made their first afternoon on the planet. He picked a red fruit off it and handed it to Wrex around the fire. "Here," he said, holding it out in front of his face. "Fruit that Shepard and I picked from the trees not far from here. It's safe to eat, I swear."

Wrex stared blearily up at Garrus for a few moments and then struggled to reach the fruit in Garrus' hand. "Thanks," he murmured, heaving a sigh in before taking a bite of the red sphere. "Actually not bad," he managed as Garrus sat back down and caught Shepard from falling backward again as she finally put her arms down.

Shepard turned to Garrus as he sat down and steadied her. "I just outdrank a krogan!" she said, trying to whisper but failing miserably.

Garrus smiled at her wide, sloppy grin. "You did. It was very impressive. I was afraid a few times that you weren't going to do it."

Shepard playfully slapped Garrus' arm. Or, at least she tried. Instead, her hand hit the open air and she fell forward onto Garrus. He caught her as she fell forward, his taloned hands trying not to grip her muscled upper arms too hard as he righted her into a sitting position again. Her face came quite close to his as his hands caught her right by his shoulder. "I think it's time for you to sleep this off," the turian scolded.

"Don't I get some sort of reward? I don't think any other human could do what I just did." Shepard had her head cocked to the side to emphasize her question.

"I have to prepare it for you," Garrus answered, still holding her upright. He glanced sideways over at Wrex; he was munching the fruit he had been handed, looking substantially less nauseous than he had just a few minutes before. "Can you keep yourself sitting while I talk to Wrex?" Garrus asked, assuming the tone one used for speaking to highly inebriated individuals and toddlers.

Shepard nodded emphatically at him. "Yeah!" she exclaimed, the sloppy grin on her face widening.

"Okay. I'll be right back." Carefully, Garrus released his grip on Shepard's shoulders, and she seemed to be stable enough to leave alone for a few moments. He knew that she wouldn't care if she fell over, but she would be falling over into the cold sand, and he didn't want her to be inhaling any of it when she would laugh. He also thought nothing of his intense feelings of protection for her as he watched for another moment to make sure she would stay upright. He then turned and walked to Wrex on the other side of the fire. "You're welcome to stay here by our fire tonight," he said to the krogan.

Wrex looked up at Garrus from his perch on the felled tree trunk he and Shepard had rolled out for Wrex to sit on at the beginning of the night. "I don't think I'll be able to move m'self from this log. I'll be okay for th' night, I promise. I'll prob'ly just roll off and sleep on the sand."

"I'm sure we can find something for you to lay on -"

Wrex waved his humongous hand dismissively, blowing a small gust of wind in Garrus' face. The turian had to keep himself from taking a step backward to keep his balance. "I sleep on m' back. I'll be fine."

"If you say so." Garrus gestured towards the still-sitting Shepard. "I have to take care of her, but I wanted to make sure you were alright as well."

"I 'preciate that, turian. You go take care of your lady."

Garrus nodded at the krogan who returned the gesture, then went back to staring at the fire for a moment before throwing the pit of the fruit he had eaten into the middle. There were a few sparks and a wet hiss as the fire cooked the pit quickly in the heart of the glowing embers. Garrus stood over a swaying Shepard. She looked up at him with the same bleary look that was on Wrex's face a little while before. "You are most certainly ready to sleep this off," Garrus remarked with a tired smirk. Shepard just returned the smirk and nodded, her eyes opening and closing with a speed that indicated the amount of time Garrus had before she completely passed out.

The turian knelt down and took Shepard's small, calloused hands in his one rough, taloned ones to pull her up off the log on which she was seated. Garrus released her one hand, but Shepard was the one squeezing his other tightly, as if she was worried that she might break some invisible tie between them if she ever let go. The thought brought another smirk to Garrus' face, and his mandibles even twitched.

They reached the blankets the pair had salvaged from the wreck of Shepard's captain's cabin on their first run-through of the wrecked ship and Garrus sat Shepard down as easily as he could, even bending at his knees to make sure she didn't crash land onto her butt. She stayed in that sitting position as he walked around the back of her and laid down on the blankets. "Shepard," he called.

"Garrus?" she asked, turning her head to look at him best she could.

"You can lay down. It's time for bed."

"What about the fire?"

"Wrex is sleeping in front of it. We're just gonna let it die out," Garrus answered.

"Okay," Shepard said simply and swung her legs out behind her, next to Garrus'. Shepard then slowly lowered her body down onto the blankets a foot or so in front of Garrus, and then she scooted backward into him. Garrus smiled affectionately at her, even if she didn't see it, and began to settle down enough to sleep. He knew that any sounds Shepard made would wake him if she was in any sort of trouble. It was only a few moments later that Shepard turned over to face Garrus.

"You said you were preparing my reward," she murmured to him, eyes half-closed.

"Oh, yes, of course," he murmured back, another small smile appearing across his face. One of his taloned hands skimmed ever-so-lightly across Shepard's soft and small face. He used one of the taloned fingers to bring her face close to his and he pressed his forked lip as lightly to her lips as he could without it being unnoticeable. He lightly stroked her face again with his taloned hand, then rested it on the dip of her waist and pulled her close to him. She scooted the rest of herself forward to be perfectly parallel with him. She nestled her head in between Garrus' head and shoulder and let out a deep breath through her nose. Garrus knew her eyes were closed. "Goodnight, Shepard," he whispered, nestling her closer to him still.

She made a small, high hum of approval. "Goodnight, Garrus," she mumbled.

"Mmph." Shepard's groan woke Garrus up only for the fact that her face was still nestled in his shoulder from the night before.

"Shepard?" Garrus made sure to speak quietly so as not to wake her if she wasn't actually waking up.

"My head."

Garrus smiled another affectionate smile. "Try not to move much right now. I'll find you some water."

"Try to turn off that star while you're at it. It's bright as hell."

The turian chuckled. Yeah, same old Shepard. "I'll see what I can do. I'll be right back." Garrus kissed the top of Shepard's head lightly before he stood up and walked out of sight.

He and Shepard had stashed as much clean water as they could find in empty rum bottles on the ship from the small spring they had found on their first trip out to find food after scavenging the ship after it crashed. They kept it in a broken crate under a towering bush with long, delicate palm-shaped fronds. The shadow casted from Valia's star made the small canopy created by the leaves virtually unnoticeable. Garrus grabbed one of the bottles and brought it back to the campsite. Shepard was sitting up and holding her head in her hands, just as Wrex was last night in front of the fire. "What did I say about not moving?" he called to her as he approached. He stole a look sideways to find Wrex still passed out by the fire. Shepard must've really done a number on him.

"I felt like I was gonna puke, so I sat up in case I did."

"Did you?"

"Did you smell it as you walked up?"

Garrus smirked. "No."

"Do you see any big splotches in the sand?"

The smirk remained. "No."

"There's your answer." Shepard gave Garrus a small smirk with squinted eyes as she fully looked up at him.

The turian closed the distance between them and sat down on the blankets next to Shepard. He handed her the rum bottle full of water. "Here. Drink."

"Is this from the water stash?" Garrus nodded and Shepard took it from him. She uncorked it and took a large swig out of it, the same way she had done with the actual rum bottles in front of the fire. She seemed much more coherent after a few swigs. "I outdrank a krogan last night, didn't I?"

Another affectionate smile spread across Garrus' face. He found those happening a lot lately, and he knew exactly why. "Yes you did."

Shepard turned to face Garrus, letting the rum bottle of water rest in the sand, but careful not to let it fall over. He face was stolid yet soft. "You kissed me last night, didn't you?"

The smile disappeared from his face and he let a few seconds of silence elapse between them before answering. "Yes, I did." The turian looked down at the sane, strangely embarrassed. "I did it because I didn't think you'd remember."

Garrus heard Shepard snort. "You should know me better than that, Garrus. Of course I was going to remember what was going to happen the entire night."

He looked back up at Shepard, his face oddly guilty, and he just shrugged. Then he found words to fill the silence with. "I wouldn't have done it if you weren't trying to flatline your liver. I didn't want to get...rejected." The turian's voice lowered with embarrassment as this realization and his small blue eyes diverted their attention to the blankets they were seated on. "Turians have some of the same fears as humans do," he added in the same low voice.

"Garrus," Shepard called. Her voice was soft and smooth, affectionate. It sounded like she was scolding him for his way of thinking. He turned his eyes back up to her and saw her face was much softer than he imagined it would be listening to her speak in that tone. Her hand reached out and caressed his face. He leaned into her touch, and she kept her hand there, moving her thumb back and forth softly across his sharp jawline as she inched forward along the blankets toward him to provide an easier reach. "You didn't need a reason." The smile appearing on her face was one of quiet affection and reassurance Garrus had no need to be embarrassed or guilty or any of it.

Garrus reached his taloned hand up to meet Shepard's on his cheek. He took it away from his face and just held it in his lap. Shepard reached across and took his other hand and held them together across from the other in his lap as well. "No reason at all?" he asked, the plates above his eyes raising.

"None." Shepard shook her head, the smile still on her face.

"Not even now?"

"I don't think you even have a reason not to kiss me right now."

Garrus laughed as the two leaned to each other and Shepard reached Garrus before he could reach Shepard. Her soft, small lips were pressed against his forked one and Garrus wished he knew what else to do. She pulled back just enough to have a small space between their faces again and she began laughing. Her nose was scrunched up, but she was smiling. "What?" Garrus asked, confused.

"I just..." A few more laughs escaped her lips. "I had never kissed a turian before. And it's very different from humans." The laughs continued to bubble out from behind her teeth.

They were infectious, and soon Garrus was laughing with her. When their laughter subsided, Garrus said, "Well I hope you can get used to it."

"Oh, definitely," Shepard answered with a confident nod. She inched even closer to him on the blankets and wrapped her ams around his neck, placing a light kiss on the turian's cheek before resting her head on his shoulder. Garrus wrapped his arms around her waist in return and she gave the same high hum of approval as she had when she laid to rest against Garrus the previous night. They just sat there for a good while, in silence, both content just holding the other. "Are we ever getting off this planet?" Shepard whispered.

Garrus squeezed her tightly against his stained ship clothes for a few moments before pulling her head rom his shoulder and holding her face in front of his with his taloned hands. "I promise you, whatever happens, I will get us off this planet."

Shepard smiled and kissed him again. She rested her forehead against his when she pulled away. "I've always wanted a nice, strong alien man." Garrus wasn't sure if she was being serious or sarcastic. He decided not to ask. "You're the best I could've asked for," she murmured, and Garrus squeezed her tightly again. She squealed in surprise and then began to laugh again for a few moments. Garrus saw her bright green eyes smiling at him to accompany the grin on her face. He returned her grin with a genuine smile.

"You can count on me to always be by your side."

"Good. Why don't you start by helping me up so we can go check on Wrex?"

"I still hear him snoring, he's fine. Besides, I want to stay here like this a little while longer."

Shepard gave another hum of approval and she nestled her head into his shoulder. "Why don't we go back to sleep? I know I certainly could."

"Have a bit more water first," Garrus answered, disentangling himself from her.

Shepard reached over and took the rum bottle of water out of the sand. She took three deep swigs and then placed the cork back on the bottle and ran to stash it by the nearest bush. "The krogan can find it. He'll probably need it."

Garrus' mandibles flicked in amusement and approval. "Good enough. Now come back here."

"I give the orders around here, turian."

Garrus smirked. "I didn't think this was an order you'd refuse."

"Oh, of course not," Shepard returned with a grin. "Never." Garrus had laid down on the blankets again, waiting for Shepard to down more water, and she laid down across from him. He reached out his taloned hands to bring her closer to him, and giggles escaped Shepard's lips as she turned over and his talons tickled her sides. She kissed him again before nestling her head into his shoulder and emitting another high hum of approval.

Garrus settled himself against Shepard, and though he wasn't tired, he just laid there with her, quietly letting strands of her blond hair fall though his talons. He heard groaning in the distance; Wrex had finally woken up, but since he couldn't find water in his immediate facility, he thumped back onto the sand to sleep again. The thump was felt through the sane underneath Garrus' and Shepard's blankets, and Shepard fidgeted, but calmed down quickly under the calm, warm touch of Garrus' armored arms and taloned hands. Garrus simply watched the beautiful human next to him sleeping as the waves crashing on the shore of the planet slowly and quietly lulled him back into a calm and easy sleep.