The Renegade Adored

"We're done working, so we can't stay here anymore," Hayden explained as they walked out of the corporate district. "Now we get to do some real work."
"And what, exactly, are we doing?" Garrus asked. The character of the city was subtly changing as they walked farther away from the port. It got dirtier, there were fewer aliens – not that there had ever been that many. Humans stopped looking away nervously when they noticed Garrus walking with Hayden, and started staring aggressively. "And when can I pull out my guns?"
Hayden grinned. "Don't worry, you'll know when."
Garrus glanced at her again, admiring her new outfit. She was no longer wearing her spotless corporate outfit, nor was she wearing her armor. She was wearing loose black jeans covered with gleaming silver buckles and red leather straps, and a loose red denim work shirt, hanging open over a plain white t-shirt. Her hands were almost completely hidden by her sleeves, and covered with fingerless red leather gloves that seemed to be mostly zippers and buckles. She jingled as she walked, but the heavy black boots that she wore made no noise on the street. Garrus suspected that she could make herself very quiet when she needed to. But mostly, he loved the way she moved in her gang clothes.
They walked a few more blocks, and the Humans around them got less and less polite. From confused glances to barely concealed sneers, until finally a Human, sitting on the broken stairs of a dilapidated house, called out to them. "I thought the Reds didn't like aliens."
Hayden looked at Garrus, pretending to be surprised. "Holy shit, you're an alien! I think that's something you could have mentioned when we started fucking." She didn't stop walking, and Garrus followed her lead.
Garrus blinked, not sure how to respond. "I did not understand half of what you just said, but it sounded really sexy."
Hayden laughed. "I'll explain later." She moved her bag to her other hand, so that she could open it at any time, and Garrus did the same. They turned a corner, and Garrus understood what she had meant earlier.
One side of the street was bad, but still clearly under the control of some authority. And literally, right across the street, was the Fringe. Two men in the same color scheme as what Hayden was wearing were beating a woman in white and blue while another man in blue was running away.
Garrus shook his head as Hayden walked past without even looking. "Is this why you made me change my armor?"
"You look better in black anyway." She pulled out her pistol and shotgun, set the holster comfortably on her hip, and the shotgun underneath her work shirt. "It's hot today," she observed, as a body sailed out of a storefront and landed in the street next to her.
A woman, probably the owner of the store, stood on the stoop reloading her gun. "Is he dead?" she asked Hayden.
Hayden casually kicked the body in the side. "He ain't screaming."
"Good enough." The woman turned and went back into her store.
"Palaven is nothing like this, by the way. Not even the bad parts." Garrus checked the sight on his sniper rifle. "The only thing that makes this better than Omega is that no one has tried to shoot me yet."
A little girl was sitting on a twisted fence in front of a brownstone building that someone obviously tried to keep clean. "Is that a sniper rifle you're looking at, Fangs?"
Hayden stopped and looked at the girl. "Yeah, he is."
"Fangs?" Garrus grinned to himself.
"What else would you call him?" asked the girl. "Anyway, I'm gonna go laugh at my brother. He says that women don't like snipers. Shows what he knows, the dumbass." She stood up and walked, balancing on the metal fence, heading to the alley behind the house.
Hayden laughed quietly to herself and kept walking.
"Did that little girl just imply that you are only dating me because I'm good with a sniper rifle?"
"Aw, don't think that, honey. You're also pretty good at calibrations."
"There is something wrong with your species, Shepard."
"Sparks."
"Right." Garrus sighed and finished fixing the sight, and checked the clip on his assault rifle. "You don't have armor on."
Hayden grinned. "Not exactly, no. Most people here aren't packing the firepower you are, though."
"And there's no hospital here."
"Nope, hospital is in the corporate district."
"So if you get shot, you might die."
Hayden laughed. "Don't let me get shot, then."
"Yeah," Garrus checked his pistol, and then confirmed that all of his weapons were in working order. "That's what I was planning."
"Down here," Hayden led him to the entrance to a tunnel.
"What's this?" Garrus sniffed. It smelled like sewage and waste.
"It's the subway. Public transportation."
"Oh, is that why there are no cars here?"
"Pretty much." They carefully walked down the stairs to the station. "The cars are carefully monitored, and as far as the gangs are concerned, the subway and the buses are off limits. Not sure if that applies to aliens, though. We'll have to take our chances." Hayden paid and they entered through the gate, carefully lifting their bags over the clunky turnstiles. She led him to the end of the platform, and they waited for a few minutes until a train appeared. "The subway system stretches all the way beneath the city."
Garrus looked curiously at the map, examined the lines showing the different routes. "They're color-coded."
Hayden smiled. "Makes it easier for people to get directions. Or decide where not to go."
Garrus stretched out over two seats, and put his feet up on the seat opposite as they were alone in the car. Hayden snuggled up to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. "I love what you're wearing, by the way."
"Better than the dancing girl outfit?"
"I think I just like the noise," he confessed. "That, and your hips look amazing in those pants."
Hayden smiled at him. "Not a fetish, huh?"
Garrus chuckled. "Well, it wasn't!" He pulled her close, drawing in her scent. "You never told me where we were going."
She sighed, and kissed his neck. "I'll explain later."
"I give up," he grinned, and settled her comfortably in his arms. The train stopped a few times, but usually one glance was enough to convince people to go somewhere else and they had the car to themselves.
Hayden lay contentedly in his arms, kissing his neck and cheek once or twice, but otherwise she lay quietly until their stop was announced. She reluctantly stood, and shouldered her bag again. "Well, here we are, out where the buses don't run. Let's go."
Garrus looked at her curiously. Her face was set, a cold mask. "Should I be in front of you?" he asked.
"No, you should be watching my back."
"Right." He made sure his weapons were ready, and they walked out of the station tunnel, back to a section of the city as dingy and miserable as the area they had just left.