Written for a prompt by bronzeagelove on tumblr.

A kiss

4. …where it hurts.

5. …where it doesn't hurt.

Garrus waits. He is much calmer, now that he knows she's on the path of healing. The weeks before, when they had dug her out of the rubble, more dead than alive, he hadn't been able to sleep for more than an hour at a time. For a time it looked like only the machines kept her alive but then she slowly improved. Now, a few days ago, they removed the breathing tube and she breathed on her own again.

Garrus finally relaxes.

The nurse pats his shoulder with an encouraging smile whenever she comes in to look at Shepard. She keeps telling him that things are looking better every time. He nods and trills his thanks, even though she doesn't need to tell him that. He knows. He knows she will wake. He just has to wait.

He has become part of the monitoring system in this ruin of a hospital. The base functions of his omni-tool are still working and he records Shepard's vital signs with it. With the nurse explaining to him what the readouts mean, he has gotten pretty good at reading Shepard's progress.

So now, seeing her vitals becoming more active, he waits for her eyes to open.

He's become good at waiting.

When her eyelids begin to flutter and her hand starts to twitch, he rushes to her side, taking her frail hand in his. Her strength is gone but he knows that she can gain it back. She just has to open her eyes.

"Garrus?" A whisper, barely audible.

"Yes, I'm here." His subharmonics hum and trill in uncontrolled joy.

Her eyelids flutter and her hand in his presses down for just a moment.

"Are we alive?"

"Yes, we made it, both of us. You had us worried for a bit though."

"Sorry about that," she says with her lips pulling at the skin grafts and bandages for a grin and it's so familiar that Garrus' heart aches. He sings his relief with his second voice in an instinctual song of love and joy.

Her eyes open and she squints against the light of the sun peeking through a gap in the tarp that serves as a roof for her room. "Is that the sun? Earth's sun?"

"Yes, a bit hazy but still working."

"The war?"

"Over, the Reapers are gone."

She tries to turn her head but winces in pain. Garrus hurries to get up and lean over her so that she can see him. "Hey," he says, stroking the back of his fingers over an unmarred section of her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Achy, all over."

"Sorry, they lowered the painkillers to help you wake up."

"I'm not really all that well, am I?"

He trills a sigh. "No, Sunshine, you still have a lot of healing to do. But you're here, with me."

"I promised, didn't I?" Under the bandages and cuts in her face, she manages to put up a smirk.

"Yes, you did."

"You know what's a terrible scandal?" she says and a mischievous grin wrinkles the bandage on the right side of her face.

"What?"

"I kept my promise and made it back and I haven't even been kissed yet."

"Scandalous, indeed," he says, leaning down to brush his mouthplates against her lips.

"Ouch. Not there."

He carefully nuzzles against her ear. She must feel the vibrations of his happy hum that he just can't stop.

"Also ouch," she protests but smiles. If it makes her smile, he will do anything.

"Well, where doesn't it hurt?"

"My left eyelid, I think."

He slowly lowers his face to her, giving her eyelid a soft lick with the tip of his tongue.

"Hmm, yes. Also on my forehead, a bit to the left."

"Here?" he asks, brushing lightly over a soft area of skin that miraculously has no bruises.

"Yes." She smiles at him, as much as her bandages allow. "Your forehead, lower it down to my lips."

"But I thought your lips hurt?"

"Doesn't matter, my Angel." She knows what it means to kiss him there. Only bonded turians kiss their partners there.

"My… love," he mutters, humming what he can not quite say.

Her lips are rough and dry on his plates but he can feel it like an instant connection to her. His subharmonics sing as he shivers under this most intimate touch.

"I love you," she says, breathing over his skin.

"I love you too."

She smiles as her eyes close. "I think I need more sleep."

"Yes." He sits back down, keeping her hand enclosed in his.

"Do I get another kiss when I wake up?"

"Definitely."

"Something to look forward to then. Don't go away."

"Never," he says as he watches her vital signs. She falls asleep but her breath goes steady and her heart keeps an even rhythm.

"Never will I leave you, my bonded mate."

She may not know it yet but that's what she is to him. And as soon as she can leave the hospital, they will have the ceremony, showing it to the whole world and she will be the most beautiful bride anybody has ever seen. He just has to wait for her to heal.

Garrus waits. He's gotten good at waiting.