A/N: This is another short fill for the lovely anons on kinkmeme. This version is heavily censored, with most of the, uh, details removed ;). You can find the uncensored version on the masseffectkink page somewhere.

The prompt: I've seen a few fics where Garrus goes all bowerbird on Shepard, and it's adorable - I'd love something like that, only a little more subtle. Maybe instead of going totally instinct-crazy/nest-building, it's more of an urge to to give her gifts, and maybe he leaves them for her to find in various places on the Normandy. Adorable things ensue!

Bonus points if other people find some of them.
Bonus bonus points if some of the gifts are jewelry, and she shows her appreciation by wearing nothing but.

I'll probably come back after finals are done and clean this up a little, but for now, enjoy =)

Good to Me

The first gift was a teddy bear.

An honest-to-god fluffy, brown, teddy bear.

It was smaller than her hand and placed on her desk like it wasn't odd at all for her to keep stuffed toys in her personal quarters. There was no note to explain its presence; it just sat there and stared up at her balefully. Okay, she thought, it's just a sweet gesture then. Unnecessary, but sweet. At the time, she thought it was just a random occurrence, so she let it pass.

The day and night cycle passed, and Garrus acted like nothing had happened. They made love, they cuddled, and fell asleep like any other night. She woke up the next morning to find he wasn't asleep beside her, which was rather odd. He wasn't a morning person; she'd be lucky if he was up by the time she was dressed and ready to start her duties. To find that he, his armour, and his rifle were already gone by the time she woke up at the end of the night cycle was unusual. A little too unusual.

The second gift was a box of chocolates. Where the hell did he even find chocolate? We haven't been on the Citadel for weeks!

She found the box at her personal terminal in the CIC. It was red and wrapped in white ribbon. Kelly had giggled furiously and cooed about how sweet Garrus was, but Shepard was having none of it. He had turned into some kind of huge sap and it was freaking her out. There was no note again, and somehow, by some completely random chance, he had picked out milk truffles. She loved milk truffles, but there was no way in hell she would ever admit that to anyone. She was sure that the only person who knew this fact in the whole universe was her mother, who didn't even know Garrus existed.

Either way, she did her best to discreetly take the box back to her quarters and hide it in a drawer. Well, not before she enjoyed a few. For a brief moment she was flattered by the gift, then pushed the thought away furiously. He's already being cheesy, no need for you to add to it. Still, she was silent about the presents that night, as was he.

The next morning, Garrus had once again left before Shepard awoke. She headed toward the shower until her eyes fell upon something on her bathroom counter.

Batarians, Reapers, even Joker's porn had nothing on this. This was probably the most frightening thing she had ever seen.

It took her a good ten minutes before she built up the courage to touch it. Just open it, she thought, it'll be fine.

But what if it was, you know, that?

She took a deep breath and picked up the small jewellery box. There was hardly any reason to believe Garrus knew about human engagement rituals, so there was no harm in opening it. Her reasoning paid off this time, but not before she could cringe at what was inside. He had given her earrings with little blue, white and black stones in it. Nothing fancy, just plain inch-high teardrops. The colours weren't lost on her; she had painted her armour the same colours as his and though he hadn't commented on it, she was sure he noticed. This was confirmation.

She considered putting them on for a moment. It was awfully sweet of him to buy her gifts, and she should, no, she wanted to show her appreciation, but the corniness of it all stopped her. Any other woman on the planet would love these cliché gifts and shower him with love for such displays of affection, but Shepard was far from your typical woman. She killed mercs and reaper spawn for a living, not office work. She sighed as she examined the little baubles, then closed the box and put it in the basket that held the few pieces of jewellery she owned. Maybe she'd wear them for a special occasion. Maybe.

That night she observed him carefully as they talked over a glass of wine. He droned on and on about technical jargon, but she didn't mind; his voice had a soothing effect on her. His eyes never looked at the teddy bear on her desk, and they never flickered to her unadorned ears. For a moment, she wondered if the gifts had actually been from him, but no, he would have said something otherwise. There was no hesitation, awkwardness, or nervousness in his voice; Garrus was being Garrus and it confused the hell out of her. They turned in for an early night as they were due to arrive at Illium the next day. He fell asleep quickly, while she studied his face for quite some time, as if the answer to his behaviour was written there.

She was surprised the next morning to see he was still asleep beside her. He was sprawled out with his face in the pillow, sheets tangled around his body. She showered, then kicked him in the leg spur to wake him up, which made him very grumpy for the next ten minutes as he stumbled into the shower. Yes, things were finally back to normal. No more gifts. The thought brought a sense of relief to her, but also, oddly, a strong twinge of disappointment.

Illium was boring, per usual. Shepard talked to Liara, picked up supplies, ran some errands, talked to some people; overall, nothing special. Which is why she found it bizarre when Garrus stopped her outside the marketplace as they were heading back to the ship.

"Shepard," he said, a hand on her arm, "I need to do a couple of things while we're here. Would you mind holding up the ship for an hour or so?" She narrowed her eyes imperceptibly.

"Yeah, sure, I'll come with you."

"No! I mean, no. It's private business. It won't be long." His mandibles twitched; she knew that he was nervous and that he was lying. She studied him for a moment, pondering whether to call him out on it.

"What's going on, Garrus?" she asked, masking the suspicion in her voice. She could see Tali shift her weight, clearly impatient to get a move on.

"Nothing, just someone I need to talk to." Her brow furrowed as she watched unreadable, stifled expressions flit across his face, then nodded.

"Fine, we'll be on the ship," she replied, and his body visibly relaxed.

"Thanks, Shepard. I'll be back soon." He didn't even wait for her to reply before he turned on his heel and left hurriedly. Tali walked back up to her, head cocked to the side in curiosity.

"Where's he going?" she asked, and Shepard shook her head.

"No clue. Let's head back, we're leaving Illium in an hour."

Garrus was gone for much longer than an hour, it turned out. Three hours and eighteen angry messages from her later, EDI's smooth voice announced that everyone was on board. Shepard bolted off the bed, where she had been reading a weapons manual, and made a beeline for the main battery. She was getting to the bottom of this mystery, once and for all.

Dr. Chakwas and other crew members gave her funny looks as she stormed past the mess hall and sleeper pods, but she gave them no heed. The door was locked from the outside when she got to Garrus' usual haunt. Good, that means he's in there. She considered banging on the door, but instead called out to EDI.

"EDI, can you open this door for me?"

"Commander, Officer Vakarian has -"

"EDI, open the door," she said in her most authoritative voice. The AI paused.

"Very well. Overriding security protocol. You are free to enter."

"Thank you, EDI."

"Logging you out, Commander."

She banged her fist against the holo on the door and the panels retreated into the wall. "Garrus, where -" She lost her train of thought as she took in the sight before her. Her jaw visibly dropped.

Garrus was standing near the gun console, dressed in civvies, looking sheepish. Behind him was the largest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen in her life. In his hands was another jewellery box, slightly larger than the last one.

"Shepard. Uh... hey." She blinked a couple of times at his voice, the cocked her head to the side. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, glancing up at her briefly before averting his eyes. He didn't look imposing and confident like he usually did. He's so anxious. So... scared. She came in here to bite his figurative head off, but seeing him like this softened her anger considerably. She stepped toward him and placed a hand on his arm, urging him to meet her eyes.

"Garrus, what's going on?" She spoke in a voice she usually reserved for the intimate moments between them in the bedroom.

"It's... hard to explain." He turned around and braced his hands against the console, bowing his head. Why is he so embarrassed? she wondered, while placing a hand on his back. She rubbed small circles into his plates.

"Try me," she said. He exhaled slowly.

"I'm sorry about the gifts, I should have known you wouldn't be... sentimental." He paused, and his words sunk in. They stung.

"You think I didn't appreciate them?" He turned his head and looked at her skeptically.

"You make it obvious when you appreciate something, Shepard." She turned away from his gaze, because he was right. She heaved a sigh.

"Tell me why you went to all this trouble," she said, reaching out to rub a petal of one of the flowers between her fingers. It was a vivid, dark pink, and although she usually didn't like the colour, she found herself appreciating it now.

"It's a turian thing. Don't worry about it." He was no longer looking at her, his gaze fixed on the giant gun in front of them with his mandibles clenched tightly to his face. She let go of the petal and turned his face with one hand to look at her.

"Please?" He studied her for a moment, then let his mandibles relax.

"It's not something... conscious, Shepard. When two turians are serious about one another, there's this need to buy each other gifts. Turns even a bad turian like me into a romantic fool." His eyes closed slowly. "I'm sorry that I put you through that."

"Hey," she said, pulling his chin up to make him look at her again. "You didn't put me through anything. I'm sorry that I didn't make myself clear."

"You're not a young girl, though. It was stupid of me to -" She interrupted his train of thought with a fierce kiss. He relaxed into it after a few tense seconds, making her put even more energy into it as she wrapped her arms around his cowl tightly. He let his hands slip onto her waist, and she pulled away.

"I'm sorry for not letting you know that I did appreciate it. There was a lot of miscommunication there and I've never really received gifts." It was her turn to look away. "I've spent my entire life on ships, I never... got to know someone well enough for anything like this. I'd always lose them before it got to this point. These," she gestured to the flowers, "are all things that happen to normal women, not me," she said with a slightly bitter laugh. His grip on her tightened and he rested his forehead against his.

"Listen, I can't say that you'll ever fit the description of normal, but I understand. I'm sorry too for not thinking about you before I laid down the blame," he nuzzled her cheek, "but would it be so bad if you let me spoil you sometimes?" She laughed softly.

"I guess not." He hummed his pleasure and held her tighter. Neither of them spoke for a time, simply enjoying each other's presence. She was the first to break the silence when her eyes fell upon the box still sitting on the console.

"Can I see what you got me?" she asked softly, and he laughed despite himself. It lightened the atmosphere considerably.

"Go ahead." She picked up the purple box gingerly, then cracked it open. It was a necklace; the delicate chain was silver, with a simple pendant of three cascading white diamonds. It was prettier than anything she had ever owned. She mentally kicked herself for considering him sappy or corny or whatever else had run through her mind the past couple of days, because he was just a sweetheart, through and through. "They're diamonds from Palaven," he said quietly, "those ones are from the area where I was born." She managed to push away the tears pricking at her eyes to smile up at him.

"It's beautiful," she said simply, then reached forward to kiss his cheek. "Will you put it on for me?" He looked at her and nodded. She pulled the chain out and handed it to him, then turned around. She felt the ghost of his talons on her neck and the comforting coolness of thin metal against her skin. His hands fumbled behind her, obviously not designed to handle something this dainty, but he managed to fix the clasp. He turned her around gently and adjusted the pendant until it lay on the centre of her collarbone. He met her eyes and she smiled back, wrapping her arms around his cowl. His mandibles relaxed into the turian equivalent of a grin. She kissed his scarred one softly.

"I'm glad you like this one," he mumbled into her hair.

"I liked them all, just didn't know how to say it silly," she replied, and was rewarded with a chuckle. She felt like the luckiest and stupidest woman in the universe right then, because she had hurt this man who wanted to make her happy, even if it was just some kind of turian ritual. How could she even fathom to make it up to him?

It took her a moment to think of an answer. Of course.

"Garrus, head on up to my cabin, I'll be there shortly," she said suddenly. He pulled out of her embrace, a little irritated that she had ruined the moment, and looked at her.

"Why?"

"Just go, you'll find out soon," she replied with a soft smile. He shrugged, a human gesture he had picked up from her.

"Alright." He pulled away and shot her one last questioning glance before disappearing out the doors. She examined the flowers he had bought her closely now; she didn't recognize any of them as Earth flowers, but the display of consisting of every colour she could imagine was beautiful all the same. She didn't think she would ever get used to gifts like these, in fact he had probably looked up on the extranet what to get her, but her appreciation for it was slowly growing. It was a good feeling. She would call Kelly to bring this up to the loft later, but right now she had to give back.

Many years ago a fellow marine had mentioned casually that blowjobs were to men as roses were to women. She planned on putting that theory to the test today.

Garrus was sitting on the edge of the bed when she came in, toying with the little teddy bear in his hands. He moved to stand up when he saw her.

"Shepard -"

"Stay there," she ordered, "I'll be just a second." He looked at her, surprised, but sat back down. She moved into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, then undressed out of her uniform quickly, making sure to remove the shirt carefully. She silently thanked herself for shaving that morning, then picked up the little box with the earrings he had given her. She threaded them through her ears, wincing slightly as the rarely-used piercings bled a little, then pulled the pins out of her hair and let it fall down to her shoulders, ruffling it for good measure. She picked up one of the antihistamine shots Mordin had given her off the shelf and injected it into her thigh. Satisfied, she walked out of the bathroom.

He looked up at her, raking his eyes over her naked body. She didn't miss the glance at her neck and ears. She walked toward him slowly, carefully, until her legs pressed up against his knees.

"Shepard, I -"

"Shhh," she interrupted, placing a finger over his mouth, then pushed him backwards with a hand. His chest fell to the bed, and he propped himself up on his elbows. She climbed up on top of him, peppering him with kisses on the way up. She licked under his jawline, then flicked her tongue against his mandible. He shuddered underneath her and moaned. She licked along the side of his face, then kissed his mouth, pushing her tongue into his. He opened invitingly, and their tongues warred for dominance while they explored every crevice of each other's mouth.

She suddenly became aware of the fact that he was still wearing clothing, and decided to do something about it. Leaning back with her legs straddling his waist, she undid the complex knots on his shirt almost viciously, which drew a chuckle from him. "In a hurry, are we?" he drawled, amusement lacing his voice.

She looked up and raised an eyebrow at him in response, then ground herself against his pelvis, which made him groan loudly and throw back his head. She smirked, fumbling with the last tie and throwing the fabric back as it came undone.

She let her legs slide downward as she began to trace the plates on his chest with her mouth and tongue, nipping and licking and sucking her way to his neck. Her hands massaged the inside of his cowl as she bit down on the soft skin of his neck. He growled in response, aching to get a hold of her but his elbows were pinned to the bed with their combined weight. She smiled coyly, then ducked down again to draw spiraling lines along his neck with her tongue. The little noises he made shot bolts of pleasure down to her core, and she could feel herself getting wetter with every passing moment.

She pulled herself downward, letting her knees slide to the floor until she was level with his waistline. She tugged on his hips to bring him forward, and he complied. Thankfully for her, the pants were much easier to undo, so she popped off the buttons and undid the overlapping flaps. She massaged his plates with one hand through the cloth, relishing the groan that passed unwillingly from his throat, then yanked them down over his knees. With that, he was completely bare to her.

He stared at her, unable to make a sound but a question in his eyes, so she ran her tongue over her lips slowly in answer. His eyes widened.

"Shepard, you can't -"

"Sure I can," she replied with a smirk, then proceeded to lean forward and lick the gap between his plates. The shudder and moan that ripped through him threatened to make her orgasm right then. She licked again, applying more pressure this time, and left a kiss at the end of her trail. This time he unsheathed.

She didn't dare blink, holding his gaze, as she peppered butterfly kisses up the underside of his newly-revealed friend. She followed back down with her tongue, tracing the natural ridges and lines until she reached the end, darting her tongue inside the crevice of his plates briefly. He hissed in a breath, breaking eye contact as he let his head hang back.

"Did y-you take your sh-shot?" he stammered. She took the head into her mouth and hummed her response. "Spirits, Shepard!" he groaned, his expression both of a man in agony and a man in pure bliss. Sure, they had done this before, but he'd always gently push her off before she could finish the job. Now, between the pleasure and being pinned from waist down, he really had no choice.

Strings of curses flew from his mouth that her omnitool didn't even attempt to translate, not that she could pay attention right now. Tears pricked her eyes before she finally pulled off, breathing heavily. He simply stared at her, his mind obviously completely blown. It made her laugh.

Her name was recited like a symphony from his mouth as he grew more and more tense underneath her. "I'm going to -" he managed to say, before he finished inside her mouth.

"Enjoy yourself?" she asked with a wide grin as she rose to her feet to get cleaned up. She was incredibly turned on right now, but he was tired and this was about him, not her, so she was okay with that. She turned to head toward the bathroom, before he snatched her wrist and pulled her violently towards him, sending her crashing into his chest. Within seconds she was lying on her back, his much larger form hovering over her.

His mandibles flickered into a grin. "I'm not done with you," he murmured into her ear, following with a long lick down her throat. She trembled involuntarily. His hands massaged her breasts, pinching the nipples softly, while he bit her neck, licking each bite afterward. Her hands clawed at his back in time with her moans. She felt him huff a laugh against her neck. Suddenly he pulled away, moving to stand up.

"Where are you going?" She was dimly aware of the whine in her voice. His mandibles flared as he searched her nightstand drawer, pulling out the allergy pills Mordin had prescribed him, swallowing two quickly. Within seconds he was on top of her again, touching her everywhere, making her squirm and ache for more.

He lifted her legs by the ankle, placing the back of her knees against his shoulders, pulling up and positioning himself over her entrance. "Look at me," he growled. Her wide eyes met his, and he thrust into her with one fluid motion. She screamed.

He didn't bother setting a slow pace, and she was grateful for it; their movements were rapid and aggressive, both of them racing for release. He was relentless and forceful, and she loved every second of it. They lost any sense of time as they lost themselves in the waves of pleasure from each thrust.

"Gaaarrus..." she moaned, her breathing growing laboured, "I'm going to..."

"Don't come until I tell you to," he grunted, and she whimpered. He pushed harder into her; it took every ounce of control in her to stop herself from letting go. White stars floated in front of her eyes, her hands twisting the sheets underneath them. She didn't know how much longer she could hold out...

"Please, Garrus..." she begged, "please..." He growled, letting his control snap, surging forward and nipping her shoulder hard. She screamed again and the stars exploded in her vision. She was only vaguely aware of his teeth biting down harder on her as his own orgasm rode through him. She pulled her legs down to wrap around his waist, letting him collapse on her, both of them utterly spent. They lay there for a few minutes, listening to the other's heavy breathing.

They rolled over onto their sides, Garrus still in her, and she nestled into his body snugly. One of his talons traced the chain around her neck, making her smile into his chest. They lay like that for a while, floating off into a mental state of bliss. Eventually, she reached up and kissed him softly, studying his face. His mandibles fluttered, even though his eyes remained closed.

"Garrus?" she murmured, and he opened his eyes. The blue pierced her.

"Mhm?"

"I'm serious about this too." He studied her for a second, then wrapped his arm around her torso and brought her closer, a grin on his face.

"Good to hear," he whispered back, burying his face into her hair. They clung to each other, and at that moment she knew that no matter what happened to them along this journey, she would never find another who was this good to her.