Engineering was quiet, with nothing but the monotonous thrum of the drive core to insert itself between their thoughts. Garrus pulled uncomfortably on the collar of his tunic. He hated these civvies. He hadn't bought a new set since Shepard plucked him out of that cesspool, and it showed. Scorch marks dotted his pants, but his tunic was worse: what had once been cobalt as rich as his blood was now closer to the icy shade of his eyes. He'd washed it so many times it was pilling all over and itched like hell. Such a sorry excuse for a turian he was in those clothes, but Tali had insisted, said she wanted to see what he might wear if he took her out on a proper date. He couldn't take her anywhere in these duds, but she had seen him in worse shape, she'd reminded him with a jab to the abdomen as she recounted with devious glee the time her trusty shotgun had saved his ass from certain annihilation back on Ilos. He was sure he'd never live it down, but to hear the tale spun by that exotic, lilting voice was worth all the cracks she hammered into his ego.

Still, despite his haggard appearance, she made no attempt to leave. She practically melted into his arms when he ran his hand over the bubbled swell of her hip, relishing those soft curves he had spent many a night running his mouth across in his most lurid dreams. Tali was lost in a dream of her own as she drug her fingers up and down the thighs wrapped around her, relishing the wiry strength of his muscles. Seeing that blue helmet pop out of cover to snipe a destroyer had sent her heart fluttering into her throat back on Haestrom. How could it have been just a few weeks since they reunited? It all happened so fast, but there they were, and she was happy. Finally.

"I'm ready, Garrus," she whispered, her small hands wrapping around his wrists to yank him to his feet.

Ready? Spirits. He'd lost count of the fantasies, each of them unique and somehow more salacious than the last. Sometimes he'd take her from behind, an arm wrapped under her taut belly to hold her against his chest as she pressed her bare fingers into her delicate opening. Other times he'd be on top of her, her legs wrapped around his cowl, delicious pressure on his shoulders as he thrust deep into her womb. But the best ones – the ones he'd always remember – were slow, languid, and torturous. For both of them.

She straddled him, fully clothed from the waist up, all smooth pale curves below. He gripped her there at the flare of her hips, talons digging into both flesh and fabric, pulling her flushed, damp core toward him. She'd shiver, unused to the conditioned air against her bare skin, so he pursed his mouthplates together and blew a slow tangle of warm breath down her slit, eliciting such a gutteral moan it filled the whole battery. He'd tease her that way for ages, holding her just out of reach of his mouth as he puffed quiet promises into her throbbing flesh. She'd buck her hips involuntarily, murmuring beautiful alien words that glossed past his translator like slippery stars. She begged him to fuck her in such depraved ways it would make a vorcha blush, babbling glitchy obscenities as she milked his cock with both hands to keep her mind from the release he was denying her. Deliberately, slow as gunsam^, he ran his tongue flat up her cunt, lapping up her ambrosial tang, teasing the pliant ring at her opening with little wet flicks before plunging in and curling over her inner buds. The shock of pleasure jolted her sensitive nerves into such a frenzy that she clenched her thighs against his mandibles even tighter than her walls gripped his tongue. Spirits, and she moaned his name so deeply it reverberated in her throat, feral and ravenous and...

He'd wake up in a cold sweat from those dreams, cock aching at attention as if he could taste her arousal. Fuck, he wanted this. Her. But the dangers… if he lacerated her suit, didn't decontaminate properly… they couldn't. Not yet.

"Are you sure? We don't have to—"

"I'm sure, Garrus. The stims are fine, and I really enjoy taking…" she coughed, for emphasis, a gloved hand drifting to rub the crease between his pelvic plates, "…care… of you." She reached up to stroke his fringe with the other, gently tugging on the ends the way she always did when she required his rapt – if not a bit aroused – attention. "But there's only so much we can do when I'm in my suit. I need to feel you, not just the electronic illusion of you. Skin on skin. Skin on… plates. Well, you know."

Blue heat coiled tight in his groin at the thought. He pulled her into him and rested his cheek against the smooth silk of her veil. "You're still sick, Tali. When the fever subsides, I'll make your legs quiver like you were still a young thing on her Pilgrimage, but you can't be out of your suit yet." He shifted so his forehead could rest against her faceplate. " But I'll make it worth the wait, I promise. The next time I'm planet-side, I'll make sure my firefight chatter is especially, uh, exhilarating."

Tali stiffened. How did he know? There's no way he could trace the program she used. Not with his tech skills.

Garrus chuckled and grabbed her ass, kneading it with his blunt talons as he held her against his chest. "I know you hacked my earpiece, Tali. The feedback is different, more white noise." Her breaths grew shallower with his every word until she was practically panting, her fingers digging into the dip of his hips as he massaged her. "Well, I know someone hacked it. I don't think Legion has a fetish for organics, and Kasumi's already more or less betrothed herself to Jacob, so that leaves—" He glanced at his readout to check her vitals and let out a quiet growl. Heart rate elevated, eyes dilated, basal body temperature ten percent above average. Well. Clever girl. "—you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she whispered, leaning into him – challenging him - allowing her breasts to graze his tunic, "and I resent the implication." She doubted he could feel her nipples through the suit, but keelah, it sent sparks all the way through to her fingertips. Still, she swore she could hear faint subharmonics – was he cooing? - in rhythmic tandem with her own heavy breathing.

He continued, keeping any modicum of composure he could muster: "I applaud the ingenuity, though; it took me a few days to figure out it was you and not just a comm. glitch. I had intended to keep it a secret and drive you crazy for awhile. You know, a little friendly payback, just between friends."

His last words poured out like honey, teasing and sweet and suffocating. "I thought since you're always flirting with me while I'm calibrating the cannons, I should return the favor. Maybe find out which of my favorite in-battle catchphrases makes you as wet as you are right now." If he hadn't been cooing before, he was now, and his hand was rubbing delicious valleys into the crotch of her suit.

Tali nearly refuted his last point, or at least she would have if she could form a cogent argument between her gasps, but she knew that damn visor could read her biometrics, all of them, and that just made her wetter. Still, this sexual volleying was getting him worked up too, though he wasted far too much energy to hide it. He could read her, sure, but she knew him better. "I already know you talk a good game, Garrus, but I'm more interested in seeing if you can – how does Shepard say it? – walk the walk, if you catch my drift."

A hand caught his scarred mandible, gently of course, but there was intent in the caress, and Garrus felt it all the way down in his bones. He didn't know what it meant, but spirits, he felt it, and it was testing the tensile strength of his pants.

"You'll, uh, have to be more specific."

"Will I?" She kept her left hand on his cheek, but the right had other plans once her gaze caught the bulge in his trousers. "You seem to understand my intention well enough, but if I have to be blunt…" Her free hand disappeared into his pants and gripped his thick base with an expert squeeze, earning her a gloriously frustrated growl in return as Garrus shimmied out of them. She continued the maddening strokes, sinking to her knees to get a better view.

"Then I will be blunt. If we were in a clean room right now, I would take you into my mouth so deep you'd hit the back of my throat. I bet it would make your eyes roll back in your head. And then I'd swirl my tongue around the tip, just… like… this…" she whispered as she mimicked the motions with her fingers.

Ragged breaths tore through his throat so fast he could hardly squeeze out the room to speak. "Stop, Tali." Squeeze. "Not here." Pump. His veins were on fire.

"Tell me what you want." Two quick strokes. A third. "And please, be specific."

"I… I want…"

"What, Garrus?"

"I want to see you."

"Ah-ah," she chided. "Specifics."

She pumped in earnest now as he cradled the back of her head. He tried imagining what her fringe – hair – looked like: if it was dark like Miranda's or red like Kelly's or another color completely; how it fell across her shoulders without the veil to restrain it. He could feel it through the fabric, smooth like thousands of tiny cables.

He made a series of unintelligible grunts, but nothing resembling speech. Tali was pleased. Yes, quite pleased indeed.

"Do you need some help?"

He nodded, curling his toes into the dimples on the floor as if it'd be enough to keep him upright.

"Poor Garrus, no smart little quip for me now? If I had known this was all it took to shut you up, I'd have done it back when you were whining about the cold on Noveria."

Restrained talons clamped onto her shoulders. His fringe prickled like static. He was so close. "Sh…"

"You want me to be quiet now?" Her motions had slowed considerably by now, her hands gripping him with gentler pressure than before. She memorized every ridge, every navy birthmark as she massaged him. "Wouldn't you rather I tell you how much I want you to stretch me out until I scream? Or that I fantasize about the way your cum tastes when I run my nerve stim? That I want you to break us into your old C-Sec office and bend me over the desk and smack my ass, fuck me like… like…"

But the filthy, silly words stuck to the roof of her mouth like tar as a tickle bubbled up into her throat. It had all sounded so much sexier in her head. Even the cheesiest dialogue in the worst vids could excite her well enough, but keelah, it was something else entirely when it came out of her own mouth. She wanted to do these things, not talk about them! Really, smack my ass? It was a preposterous and hilarious pastiche, a greatest hits collection of bad porn tropes, and Tali was the star of them all.

Well, that did it. Before she could finish her suggestive reverie, Tali'Zorah vas Neema erupted and collapsed in a fit of uncontrollable laughter on the floor of the Normandy's engine room. Her landing would have been most painful had she been standing, but as it was she crumpled onto the deck with a quiet, clumsy thud as her howls pealed off the walls. Above her, Garrus Vakarian stood dumbstruck, partially nude and inconveniently hard.

"Oh, keelah! I'm sorry, Garrus, I—" She struggled to catch her breath as her laughs broke into wheezes and hot tears ran into her mouth. "I sound so stupid! How do those vid girls keep a straight face when they talk like that?"

Garrus let out a hearty laugh of his own at the ridiculous scene, but he'd be a fool he claimed seeing her writhing at his feet didn't send sharp pangs to places they didn't belong. He pulled her to her feet and helped brush dust off her suit. He chose not to bother with his pants. He rather enjoyed the circulated air on his bare plates.

"That was… unexpected," he murmured into her earpiece once her giggles – and his erection – subsided. "And now you've got me thinking about what exactly it is you want. A daft turian like me needs specifics, remember? I liked the direction you were headed in. It's a shame you couldn't tell me."

"But I can show you. Come here."

Tali nuzzled his chest for a moment, then grabbed his hand to lead him over to her console. Dozens of datapads lay scattered across her controls; it was a wonder she could get anything done through the clutter, but she always managed. She ducked beneath her bench to grab something she must have adhered to the underside of the console: a tiny orange omnichip that couldn't have been larger than the tip of his talon.

"I can never remember the passcode for this damn thing…" She studied the chip for a moment, then punched a flurry of numbers into her omnitool and swore under her breath when it responded with an angry beep. "What the… right, transposed the zero and the eight." More hurried taps. "There, that should do it."

"I hate to break it to you, Tali, but if this is about getting busy the engine room, I think Shepard and Lawson beat us to it. I don't think the briefing room's been claimed yet, though." He was smirking, that bosh'tet, leaning back on his heels like a tor'zhan. That cocky, rugged, unabashedly charming bosh'tet.

Garrus would have continued his playful barrage indefinitely if Tali's omnitool hadn't pinged on at just that moment with an image that made his mandibles go slack and shifted his plates wide open. It's a good thing he'd decided against the pants.

The still was grainy, probably a few decades old, but it clearly showed a nude quarian female – Spirits, that waist! – supine on an antique Hanshan table, legs spread so wide Garrus thought they might rip clean off if she stretched them for too long. Between her pale, beautifully sculpted legs was a male turian, also naked, a bit darker than Garrus, resting on his stomach, servicing her.

A giddy smile formed behind the fog in Tali's helmet as she took Garrus' hand in her own and played the vid. She spoke quietly, almost reverently, as sporadic yellow flashes lit the softened angles of his civvies. Well, the top half of his civvies.

"This is what I meant by 'walk the walk,' Garrus. Before I killed the mood with my graceful acrobatics, I mean. I'm fairly certain that you could get me off with that voice of yours alone, but I've been… curious… about what else you can do with your mouth. Your tongue," she corrected, quickly, with a silent thanks to the ancestors that he couldn't see how flushed her cheeks were. "If you want to, I mean. Now that my feminine mystique is ruined for you, I hope you'll still consider it." Her voice broke like it always did when she babbled that way, but she could always blame it on helmet acoustics.

A slender talon reached up to pause the vid so he could regard her as she deserved. "First of all, Tali, you seem to forget that I'm pretty smitten with you. I know I'm dense, even by turian standards, but it's going to take a lot more than that to drive me away, now that I know exactly what you're capable of," he said with a wink. He just couldn't help himself, that smarmy bastard. Even with his dick on parade he could still make her blush.

"And more importantly," he continued, lowering his voice to a rumble, "have you worked some sort of quarian magic to hack the cameras in the battery too? You have no idea how much I've wanted to, uh, pleasure you that way. Damn, that sounded creepy, " he said, clearly uncomfortable, as if his words might rearrange themselves if he had spoken them any less carefully.

The two were quiet for little more than a beat, but a great deal passed between them during the silence. Eventually, Tali sighed and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him into her so she could take him in. It was impossible to describe, the way he smelled just then, how he always smelled. Like an idea, some fabled nostalgia that had been passed down to her since she was enveloped in the bubble. But she knew these secondhand stories; they were all she knew – axioms that had been warped by someone else, colored by a history that wasn't hers. This was different. Garrus was… different. Unfiltered. She wondered if he could possibly understand the connotations that were tied to that word. The vulnerability, the trust it implied. Yet the uncertainty imbued her with a clear sense of purpose, a conviction that this wasn't an opportunity to be wasted. He was precious to her, and she would show him.

Garrus wished they could spend more time like this, alone and together. It was a luxury so rarely afforded and even more easily squandered, and he wondered if he had made a mistake in teasing her so mercilessly. She possessed a vulnerable wisdom unparalleled by anyone he had ever met, and she. She was laid-back and incisively witty, but the part of her he loved best – Spirits, he loved her, didn't he? – was her uncanny ability to always be Tali. No one but Tali could talk him off better than an asari dancer and then double over as a result of her own efforts.

Since Haestrom he had tried to convince himself that he simply respected her grit, enjoyed her horrible jokes – but sometime between stories in the cargo hold of the SR-1 and the moment the initial twang of her voice sent his heart plummeting into his boots back on that rock, she had charmed him.

The greatest loves of history have all been formed in this liminal space, in silence. The bond of kindred spirits is simply too tremendous for spoken words to grasp.

It was Tali who broke their intimate silence. "We are a pair, aren't we? I've… been wanting to show this to you for awhile. It took me a few months to find one with a turian; most quarian pornography is species-specific, you know, and there's nothing on the extranet, can you believe that? And I know where to look. I had to ask Liara for help. Keelah, that was embarrassing…"

"Hang on, Tali. Months?" It had only been three weeks since they reunited, though they had wasted little time kindling their fledgling romance. Still, the implication thrilled him: she had been thinking of him too.

"You heard me," she drawled before flicking her translator off: "Garrus Va'karian." She had never spoken his surname that way before, using a full glottal stop after the first syllable: a perfect, smooth Cipritine accent, not marred with a rough rolling "r" or too nasal in the final syllable. Spirits, now he was the one thinking about tongues. If she could master his language, there's no telling what she could—

Before his eyes could glaze over, Tali continued, rubbing little circles into his leathery palms. "We can do this, Garrus. Dr. Chakwas has been monitoring my herbal supplements and my new immuno-boosters will allow for a small amount of contamination, provided it can be compartmentalized. So I can't take off my suit entirely, not even my helmet, not the first time anyway, and we'll have to be careful, really careful. And I'll need your help with disinfection. But this… this we can do. And I want you to. I have for a long time."

"Months, apparently." That smirk again. Damn it.

"Shut up, bosh'tet."

^: gunsam, am - a sweet resin extracted from the bark of the Gothos ash fir tree; it is often used as a sweetener in turian desserts, specifically in the Cipritine region of Palaven; similar in taste and structure to human molasses.

*: tor'zhan, -ai - an old Khelish term that has no analogous translation in either Galactic Common or English, but refers to an old order of agricultural workers , typically male, who raised birds and large water fowl on the plantations of Rannoch. Considered to be rugged and self-assured, tor'zhai were nomadic, mysterious, and considered the archetypal quarian male until the geth uprising.