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Udina was dead.
He had a bullet in his heart and one between the eyes, just to make sure he stayed dead.
That was probably the only good thing that had happened since the Normandy had docked on the Citadel that morning.
Thane was dead, too.
Kepral syndrome had finally caught up to him, helped along by a sword through his abdomen; but at least Shepard was going to make sure that Kai Leng received the same amount of pain her friend had gone through. Ten folds.
Two deaths, the one of a corrupt, power-hungry despicable man, and the other of an assassin, who, ironically, had brought more good into the galaxy than the former could have ever managed in two life times.
At least she was going to forever remember the satisfaction of pulling the trigger on Udina.
Small joys.
A pity they couldn’t fill the void left by both Thane’s and Mordin’s passing.
Valery sighed as she walked aimlessly through the Presidium, taking in account all the damages that Cerberus had caused during the attempted coup. She had cried all her tears, privately, back in Huerta, with Kholiat’s hand on her shoulder as she mourned. Now she was dried up, black circles under her eyes and a tempest brewing in her head.
She really, really needed an outlet.
Or a forty-eight hour long nap.
She was helping some C-Sec agents when her Omnitool pinged, alerting her of an incoming call. A quick swipe of her forefinger accepted the transmission.
‘Shepard, where are you?’ Garrus’ voice asked from the other side of the line, and Valery couldn’t avoid but flinch at the sound of his sub-harmonics. He was worried and it showed.
‘Hey. I’m on the Presidium, helping C-Sec’ she replied simply, finding it pointless to lie to him. He would be able to tell she was lying, anyway.
So yeah, pointless.
She clearly heard him sigh before he spoke up again.
‘I will not ask you why, but please go back to the Normandy, take a shower, put some civvies on and meet me back on the docks in an hour’ he told her, and his tone left no space to objections.
That didn’t mean she wouldn’t try, though.
‘Garrus, I’m really not in the mood…’ she trailed off, momentarily shifting her attention to what she was doing rather than the call as she helped an asari agent lift up some of the debris they had come across.
The silence from the other side was telling.
‘Valery, please’ was all he said.
Shepard grimace, knowing well enough that he had just won the argument.
He never used her given name, save from the most intimate of moments, and so, when he did that outside of their private space, she knew she couldn’t refuse him.
‘Fine, I’ll see you in an hour’ she finally conceded.
And off she went back to the Normandy.
Exactly an hour later, she was standing in front of Garrus, regarding her turian lover without bothering to cover up her skepticism.
He had forgone his armour – which he seemed adept of wearing literally everywhere – and was wearing a simple blue and white outfit. Casual, relaxed.
Shepard, despite her being dressed in a similar fashion – black leggings and her oversized N7 hoodie – felt anything but.
“Is this a date, Garrus? Because if that’s the case I’m not sure I’m dressed for it…’ she drawled, eyeing the Skycar parked behind him and the – was that a basket?
The turian hummed in reply, neither confirming nor denying her assumptions.
“You’re fine, Shepard. I just thought of something we could do to relax, I promise. It’s really nothing fancy” he assured, reaching behind him to unlock the vehicle. The doors rose simultaneously, and he gestured for her to get in.
Val gave him one last sidelong glance before sliding inside and settling on the passenger’s seat.
Garrus hopped in after her, and a moment later the car was already up in the air and within the flow of non-stop traffic.
They flew silently as they quickly reached the Presidium; from above, the amount of damage it had taken was fairly obvious, as if the sporadic column of deep gray smoke wasn’t telling enough.
“So, is this your idea of relaxing?” Shepard asked as her eyes wandered below, scanning the ground as if she could see every single individual even from up there.
“I just – have you ever had that one thing you wanted to do so badly but never could?” Garrus shot back instead of giving her a proper answer.
She knew he was trying to distract her, and she gladly let him.
“I did just shoot and kill Udina…so technically, not anymore” she admitted, a weary smile pulling at her lips.
From the corner of her eyes she saw Garrus mandibles flutter in amusement.
“Is this related to the fact that you are taking us out of traffic?’ she went on, noticing the maneuver he had just done to exit the flow of cars.
“Yes. I’ve always wanted to fly up to the top of the Presidium, but there were a hundred and seventy regulations that forbid me to do it” he explained, and Val rose an eyebrow at him.
“And now there’s none?”
Garrus turned slightly towards her as the car touched down on one of the many sky bridges on top of the Presidium.
“No, now I just don’t give a damn” he replied earnestly, and both his tone and the smirk on his face elicited the first genuine chuckle from his lover.
“You are such a bad boy, Garrus” she laughed, following him as he got out of the car.
The artificial wind seemed to pull a bit harder up there but, in contrast, it swallowed all the noises coming from below. It was oddly pleasant.
“I know, I know. Now come over here and take this” he said, beckoning her towards where he had unloaded the crate – uhm, basket – that she saw contained several bottles of alcohol and a sniper.
“Uh, the rifle is unexpected” she commented briefly, shooting him a questioning look.
Garrus shrugged.
“I thought that we could have a little competition, see once and for all who’s the best shot” he trailed off, leaving the implicit ‘me, of course’ to hang in the air between them.
Valery rewarded him with a frown and a determined look in her deep green eyes.
“You know, there are a few people who’ve seen me in action. They seemed impressed” she observed, snagging the rifle out of his hands.
“Yeah, yeah. But I still loaded it with practice slugs. You know, for when you miss” Garrus pointed out, a bit overconfident and full of swag as he lifted his brow plates at her.
“I won’t, though I don’t see what’d be the problem with a few more bullet holes…we were in a fire fight throughout the whole presidium just this morning” Shepard mumbled, a hand going to unlock the secure of the rifle and load the shot.
“Such confidence, Commander. Now let’s see what you can do; you might be good, but long range? I wrote the book” Garrus taunted as he took a step backwards to put some more weight into the throw.
The bottle flew in to the air right in front of her, and Shepard lost no time in holstering the weapon to her face, taking a split second to adjust the weight and aim of the Mantis – she was a bit too used to her Black Widow – and fired.
The bottle shattered in mid air, and Valery pulled the rifle back with a smirk painted on her lips.
“That was just warm up” he informed her, taking the sniper from her hands.
“Now give me a good one” Garrus ordered.
Shepard had barely the time to see the bottle fly out of her hand, that it was shot down.
She pouted as her lover gloated.
“That wasn’t fair” she accused him, but the smug look on his face was enough to make her forget the slight on her pride.
“Now, now. I’ll give you one more shot” he said, giving the rifle back.
Shepard followed him with her eyes as he moved to take up another bottle to throw, his mandibles wide in a self-satisfied smile, his body relaxed and posture comfortable for the first time in a while.
As she considered the fact that she hadn’t seen him smile so earnestly since Menae, Valery knew what had to come next.
She loaded the next shot, turned to face forward, and waited for the target to appear in her scope; the bottle crossed the ex in the middle, she took a breath, and then fired.
The bottle kept falling as the practice slug got lost somewhere in the Presidium below.
“Uh”
Barely a handful of seconds went by before Garrus’ roaring laughter echoed all over, and Shepard looked over with a great deal of amusement as the turian opened his arms and yelled:
“I’M GARRUS VAKARIAN, AND THIS IS MY FAVOURITE SPOT ON THE CITADEL!” he shouted, turning left and right as if he were presenting his victory in front of a loving and cheering crowd.
Val chuckled with fondness and, after depositing the rifle on the ground, moved towards her lover, circling him with her arms.
“I’m Valery Shepard, and this – she began, squeezing a bit to make her point – is my favourite spot in the Galaxy” she declared in a loving whisper, looking up at him through her lashes, a fond smile tugging at her lips.
Garrus was startled out of his celebrations, his arms responding immediately to her touch, reciprocating the gesture.
Spirits, if turians were able, he was sure he would have blushed like a teenager.
Instead, he just hummed his approval at her words, letting her read his feelings through the vibrations that reverberated in his chest and through her.
Shepard giggled a bit at the sound of Garrus purring, then moved her arms behind his crest and pulled herself up to leave a kiss over his mouth plates.
“I love you”
Garrus mandibles flared happily.
“I love you too”.
Back on the Normandy, the hamster peacefully napped in his cage, blissfully unaware of everything that had transpired on the Citadel, and happy to be enjoying some silence and long awaited solitude.