there and back again.

––––

proof of life. [mass effect] shakarian / M / 23k / ME2 ; body horror ; debate of shepard's body autonomy ; some mutual pining ; tiny bit of slow burn

You are: Commander Shepard (in name). You are: human (mostly). You are: real (enough).

Commander Shepard storms back into the galaxy; Cerberus just keeps a closer eye on her than she thought. She finds herself a little more hyperaware of the moving pieces, the ones of her left to string back together. The ones that don’t seem to exist in the exact way she remembers, if she remembers correctly. Good thing Garrus is patient and good with puzzles.

part of the 2026 Shakarian Mini-Bang

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ode to a conversation stuck in your throat. [mass effect] shakarian / E / 9k / ME3 ; post-menae ; reunion sex ; mutual pining ; interrupted reunion so garrus makes a move

She could tell him yes. She could tell him no. He wishes she’d just say it. He could say something outright, as the stars blaze beyond her and she looks at him with such a sense of relief that it makes him dizzy.

“You know me,” he intones, glancing at his glass. “I get on someone’s nerves long enough and eventually wear them down into some semblance of respect.”

She rests her elbow on the back of the couch, chin propped up on her hand. “That so?”

Garrus tilts his head, tracking every small detail of her expression, cataloguing each of her freckles like he didn’t the last time they got up close and personal. The leather creaks as he shifts his weight, arm spread along the back of the couch until the bony point of her elbow rests in the crook of his. If he’s not mistaken, she leans too.

“I’d like to think some of my impressions have been more… favorable than others. Can’t say I’m never willing to give it another shot though. I wasn’t sure if…”

She draws in a breath, holds it, and releases it until his mouth plate twitches. “Garrus, do you think—”

after an interrupted reunion in the battery, garrus takes the initiative

––––

syzygy. [mass effect] shakarian / E / 7.4k / ME2 ; post-collector base; little bit of voyeurism; oral sex; garrus said watch this tongue; shepard caught feelings but she will absolutely not be admitting to them

A week after the Collector base, a week of trawling around space and mindless errands and revisiting posts they only passed through, Garrus comes up to her cabin like a man on a mission.

They’ve gone back and forth over the past few days, him coming to her quarters or Shepard to his, passing around fleeting touches that carry more intent and are more explorative than anything they would have exchanged months ago. Sometimes, more often than not, it’s to simply spend time together, just as they always have.

For now, whatever it is between them feels real enough.

“Did you need me for something?”

“I—ah, yeah,” he says, and she twists her cheek into the dip of his cowl to look up at him.

Shepard smooths her hands down his chest, enjoying the twitch of muscle, the minute give of plates where they meet his hide, and his gaze flicks around her face. It lingers on a damp bang curled against her forehead before meeting hers again.

His hands settle on her hips and he glances to her bed before asking a curious, “Show me?”

surviving the omega 4 relay gives them a lot of time to themselves.

----

body tender. [mass effect] shakarian / E / 4.6k / ME3 ; presidium date; getting together; confessions of feelings; a vain attempt to get it on in a skycar; sometimes home is a person

He asks if she wants to be serious, with him.

He’s been thinking of her since the last (second last, really) time they parted ways on the Citadel, his bag slung over his shoulder as they stood at the dock. She’d told him to take care of himself, just as she had the first last time, but then she’d stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. The hug had been too warm to be friendly, her body molding to his, and Garrus had dropped an arm around her waist and tucked his face into her temple. She’d kissed his cheek, and he spent a week wishing he’d kissed her back.

He’s been thinking about her since she came to see him in the battery, where she held his hand and kissed him and told him she thought about him. That she missed him.

He’s been thinking about her since he followed her up to her cabin and the view of her backlit by the aquarium was burned into his memory.

And Shepard laughs in a way that’s warm and with her eyes and is one of his favorites, and when she tilts her head says to her they already were.

the presidium date, and the moments after.

----

like real people do. [mass effect] shakarian / E / 9k / ME3 ; citadel dlc party ; established relationship ; sneaking off ; making out ; alien sex ; clothes sharing (see: shepard wearing one of garrus' shirts)

As she steps away to grab another drink she turns to find herself stepping into the circle of his arm. Garrus leans toward her, under the guise of reaching over the bar for his own glass, and Shepard lets out a breath against the side of his neck. She can feel fingers trailing along her thigh, following the hem of her dress without quite slipping beneath it. Since their date on the Presidium he’s held himself with more surety around her and where they stand.

Emboldened, she tilts to press her shoulder into him, mindful of the murmurings coming from the kitchen as the party winds down. Shepard tilts her head, brushing her lips across his mandible, and then pulls back as Traynor stumbles up to the bar with a grin over her shoulder to Liara before startling at the sudden start-stop snore that is Zaeed asleep on the couch.

His hand tugs her back into the solid curve of his keel, subvocal rumbling against her shoulder.

“So much for fifteen minutes,” she says.

“I doubt anyone’s going to notice.”