#Alistair is a pure aspect in the pure-cool-smile triad

[ramblinganthropologist]

Fictober 2021 1-  “I need you”

Fanfiction or Original Fiction: Fanfiction

Fandom: Mass Effect (with mention to Nijigasaki High School Idol Club)

Summary: FTL is boring. Garrus doesn’t know what to do with himself until he gets a strange message out of the blue. What’s he going to find in that storage room, and who knew humanity’s first Spectre was such a fucking hipster when it came to music?

---

It was in his quiet moments that Garrus had to wonder how the hell he had wound up on a human ship in the first place.

Right then, he was having one of those quiet moments to reflect on as he stood around trying to plan his next move. They had just left a planet behind with plans to return to the Citadel in order to report on their findings. That left plenty of FTL time to get jobs that got pushed to the side during busier moments done. Problem was… he had finished all his.

Who knew being efficient could be such a downside? Damn his ability to get things done.

With nothing better to do, he had found himself once again down in the cargo hold, watching as people went about their business. Off to the side, some techs were trying to fix the Mako after it had been put through its paces. Just looking at its scratched, dented hull made his stomach queasy, especially when it revved to life to test the engine.

He was never getting in that fucking thing again if he had any say in the matter. Of course, he didn’t, but it was the thought that counted.

“Yeah…good luck with that.” He turned away, half content to count the boxes. To say he was bored out of his mind was putting it mildly. There was just nothing for him to do right then except people watch and try his best to stay out of the way. Given he was the only turian on a mostly human ship, that was probably something useful. Maybe he could use it as training?

…

Nah. Even he couldn’t float that one.

“Better go find something to do I guess.” He moved off from his box, heading towards the elevator. Garrus only got a few steps, though. Much to his surprise, his wrist began to beep with the sound of a new message.

“Huh, that’s weird.” He flipped his wrist over, the screen soon glowing before him. It was from a human address, that much was for sure. There was only one line of text, but the sight of it made his mandibles twitch.

I need you.

“What the…” Garrus realized it was coming from the Normandy, and nearby too if the trace he had on his omnitool was anything to go by. Well, he didn’t have anything better to do, so off he went to track the source.

It took him down a hallway, then another. It would be a miracle if he found his way back after, but he wasn’t worried about that. The strange message spurred him on as he took a left, and then a right. Then he was alone, standing in front of a door labeled storage.

Well… that was weird.

“Uh… is someone in there?” His voice carried down the empty hallway. “I got your message…”

The skittering sounds on the other side of the door stopped, then it was followed by muffled swearing as something dropped and scattered all over the place. A few seconds later, and the door lock turned from red to green, and the soft clicking let him know he was free to go through.

Well, might as well.

“I’m coming in…” The door slid open, and he stepped through. However, he didn’t really get too far as he glanced around. On the bright side, he was pretty sure nobody was dying anytime soon. On the other hand… what the fuck?

“Oh, hey there. Glad you got my message, didn’t think it would send down here.”

“You know, when you said, ‘I need you’ this wasn’t really what I was expecting…”

Garrus’ eye twitched as he glanced into the room. To put it bluntly, it was a mess. There were boxes everywhere, and some of them had spilled their contents onto the floor. In the midst of this chaos stood was the possible cause, holding a now emptied box and looking rather sheepish as he glanced at the floor around him.

For a small man, humanity’s first Spectre really knew how to make a mess.

Shepard chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I bit off more than I could chew.”

He put his box on a nearby shelf, sighing as soon as it was down. “These were a lot heavier than I thought they would be. Do you think you could give me a hand getting this put away? I was hoping to have it done before we exit FTL.”

A thousand thoughts ran through Garrus’ mind as he watched the Spectre continue to clean. Firstly, and most importantly of all – why was this his job? Last he had checked, Shepard was the CO on the Normandy.  If he had wanted the mess cleaned up, he could’ve ordered one of the crew members to do it without much pushback. That was kind of the perk of being a CO, or so he had been told.

Maybe humans preferred all hands-on deck…

“Uh, sure…” He stooped to pick up a box, the contents rattling as he slotted it on the shelf. Then another box met the same fate. Now they had a little more room to move. “Why are you doing this by yourself anyway?”

Shepard’s cheeks were turning pink as he lifted a box. “I ran out of other stuff to do the last time we went into FTL drive.”

…

Well, shit. He could appreciate that.

The Spectre kept talking as he moved. “I knew it was a mess down here, so I figured I could clean it up while we headed back to the Citadel. Bo was supposed to do this with me, but she’s still in the medbay.”

Bo… Garrus couldn’t put a face to that name as he kept moving. Was there someone named that on the Normandy? Hell, he didn’t know… human names were weird. Whoever they were, he wasn’t too fond of them right now as he continued his menial labor.

“Oh, she’s the big human with pink hair. You know, the other Commander Shepard here?”

… Apparently, humans were psychic. Good to know.

Much to his surprise, Shepard startled chuckling at his startled expression. It wasn’t a bad sound, just odd. Humans always sounded odd to him, and that was with the translator working overtime. Whatever they actually sounded like, he didn’t know and honestly didn’t want to find out. He could live without that mystery being solved, thank you very much.

He didn’t hate humans; he just didn’t really care.

“How did you…”

The human kept chuckling as he reached for another box. “I remembered we never gave you our names when you started working with us. Doubt you’d hear it anyway among the crew, I don’t even know if they know them. Joker does, but hell if he ever uses them.”

That Garrus could understand. Turians were also on a last name basis in the chain of command. He honestly couldn’t remember what the names of his last CO’s might have been, and he didn’t really need to either. It was strange, but oddly comforting to know humans were on the same page.

Then again, as far as he knew it was just because they hadn’t asked. He doubted that, though. They were curious bastards.

“Ah. Well, she was pretty banged up from the last mission, no surprises there.” He put another box down. “Though she seems the type to sneak out of the medbay when she gets bored.”

That earned him a snort of laughter from Shepard as he continued to work. “You can say that again.”

“Fine. She seems- “

Shepard held up his hand, chuckling a little. “Sorry, that’s a human expression. You don’t have to actually say it again.”

Humans and their damn expressions. You think he would’ve learned by now to never take them at face value…

Still, Garrus kept on his work. With the two of them, the work went faster. Before long, a good chunk of the floor had been cleared. There were still plenty to be moved, but at least they could get by without bumping into each other. His carapace was still vibrating from having slammed into the human a few times, so he was glad for that.

“Alright, just a few more.” Shepard sounded cheery as he grabbed for a box on a nearby table. It must have been heavy, because he grunted and pulled back hard. Maybe a little too hard – the turian got to watch as he started to lean back. “Oh sh- “

It was instinct that led Garrus forward. Instead of the floor, the human hit the front of his armor with a hearty thunk. At least the box didn’t hit the floor – his talons were soon on it, steadying it. Just like he thought, it had been heavy – too heavy for the human. Even he felt a bit of the strain as they stood there in the middle of the floor.

“Fuck.” Shepard’s expletive hissed between his teeth as he and Garrus did their best to get the box where it needed to go. “Damn thing was heavier than it looked.”

The turian resisted an eyeroll as he slid it into place. “How about you sweep the floor and leave the box lifting to me? The only shelf space left is above your head anyway.”

That was probably a mistake. He hadn’t been around many humans, but he knew the smaller ones often had issues if their lack of height was brought up. Being on the Normandy long enough had shown him its CO was smaller than most of the crew by significant amounts. Maybe that was why he braced for the fallout.

Instead, Shepard nodded. “Yeah… that’s probably for the best. Thanks for the save, Garrus.”

He glanced around, and his pink cheeks started to turn red. “Uh… I can’t get the broom if you’re keeping me pinned against the shelf. Mind backing up a little?”

Huh?

Garrus blinked as he realized the position he was in. Shepard was right – he had the smaller man up against the shelf without any room to get out. They were practically touching they were so close, and he could actually smell the human thanks to the lack of distance. Surprisingly, he was rather sweet – kind of like a baked good.

Did humans make that smell naturally? If they did, he was kind of jealous.

“Oh… right, sorry.” He backed up, allowing Shepard to slide out. The human was soon grabbing for a broom and beginning his task. This left him to do the same, and then were soon absorbed in their individual chores.

Thanks to this, they fell into a rather easy silence that Garrus hadn’t found since coming onto the Normandy. While he didn’t exactly enjoy this kind of grunt labor, there was a weird sort of calm to it as he continued to shift boxes around. In the end, it was all work with his talons and none with his brain.

With everything they had been going through, he needed the break.

“This boulevard that leads to tomorrow has flowers blooming along it…”

A soft voice drew him out of his weird state of meditation. He turned around, still holding a box, to investigate the source. Much to his surprise, he saw that Shepard was still sweeping up. Not only that, but he had also started to sing as he cleaned.

“I’ll take the courage that you gave me and hold it close…” He was still sweeping, his voice barely above a whisper. It was surprisingly high, especially compared to his speaking voice. “We made this promise with smiles… And I’ll make it bloom…”

He broke off into humming at that point as he moved the broom across the floor. Garrus’ translator was going overtime as it translated. Songs were much harder than speech, so it took a few moments of feedback for the translation to spit out. However, it was doing so against his visor soon enough, a turian voice in his ear.

That… well, it wasn’t a song he would have expected from a space marine. Frankly, it sounded more appropriate for a teenage girl.

“And I promise to you… I want to tell you so many thank yous~” Shepard held the last note, pointing his broom at the last moment. Then he swirled around, obviously following some unknown dance routine. Unfortunately for him, that made him face Garrus.

Well… shit.

The color drained from the human’s face as he stopped singing abruptly. His cheeks turned pink as he put his broom back down on the floor and started to sweep faster. Something about his posture made the turian feel… well… kind of guilty.

Why, he had no idea. It wasn’t like he had done anything…

Still, Garrus frowned at the tension that filled the room. His mandibles twitched as he tried to think of an excuse or something to break the ice. However, he couldn’t find anything to say. They didn’t exactly cover catching a fellow soldier singing a strange little song during cleaning in basic for obvious reasons. He was kind of on his own.

He hated that.

“Sorry… I forgot I wasn’t alone.” Shepard’s voice was back to where it usually was as he kept his eyes on the floor. “It would be great if you didn’t tell anyone about that, thanks.”

Garrus allowed a nod as he picked up the last box to put it away. “Uh, no problem. I don’t think I’ve heard that song before. Is it from Earth?”

“I’d be surprised if you had, it’s old as hell and from a really niche genre.” Shepard chuckled rather sheepishly as he reached for the dustpan once he had finished with the floor. “God, that must make me sound like such a hipster.”

It did, but Garrus wasn’t going to say it. After all, the guy was kind of his CO at the moment. Kind of went against the code, you know?

“Could you… send it to me maybe? I’m kind of curious now.”

Now he was the one being stared at. Shepard had stopped sweeping, and his wide eyes were trained. Garrus felt his mandibles twitch as he looked around the room, wondering if he had said something wrong. Was he not supposed to ask? Did humans have some weird taboo about asking for music from people?

Spirits, knowing him he had walked straight into some diplomatic snafu. Oh well, he’d had a good life…

“You really want to listen to it?”

There was no denying it – Shepard sounded excited. Garrus in his relief almost missed the fact the other man’s posture had completely changed. No more was he turned in on himself in embarrassment. Now he was wide open, eager – his eyes were practically sparkling.

Talk about a change.

“Uh… sure. You have my address, so send it over.”

Shepard was already typing on his omnitool, grinning. “I’ll send a few over. If you like them, I have plenty more. They were a little different from the other groups in their company, but I really enjoy listening to them. A few even made it to my battle playlists. What can I say, nothing like chase or dive to get you going.”

Well… at least he wasn’t the only one to make battle playlists. That was good to know. At least they had something in common.

Garrus nodded at this, seeing the email already in his inbox. “Thanks, I’ll let you know what I think once I listen.”

He glanced around the room – from the looks of things, they were done. “Do you need any more help, or should I get going?”

“Oh, you can head off. I just need to finish sweeping.” He was smiling now. “Thanks for your help, Garrus. You’re a real lifesaver.”

Something about that made his stomach shift. Garrus at least managed a nod as he left, the door sliding shut behind him. He should have started moving, but something made him stay by the door, quiet.

He was probably wasting his time… but…

“The future we envisioned… let’s make it a reality someday…”

Yep. He was singing again.

Maybe that was why Garrus stayed by the door for just a bit longer to listen. Sure, there were better singers – and ones who could do it without blushing like idiots – but something about the Spectre’s voice was soothing. He had a nice voice, even if most of the time he used it to get the crew out of trouble.

He could get used to listening to it…

“Shit, I’m getting ahead of myself.” He shook his head, but yet Garrus didn’t move. After all, he wanted to hear the end of the song. Maybe later, he could compare the two. Until he had to, however, he was content to stay by that door.

Maybe he’d get an encore out of it. If all their FTL went like this… maybe the Normandy wasn’t so bad after all. He could get used to this.