Trinity

Commander Shepard bridged her hands over her brow, looking down into her plate. In the span of a week, things had been turned upside down. As though the destruction of the Collector base weren't enough, going into it she had all but alienated the two people she cared about most.

Who was she kidding. She loved them. Not something sappy or romantic, just the honest truth. Loved them both, and wanted them both.

And so she did the only honourable thing, and did without either, because she couldn't stand the thought of utterly breaking either heart. They would do almost anything for her. Her two snipers.

One was her best friend, never hesitated to follow her into hell and worse. He was scarred. He'd given up to watch her six and cover her back, but never feared telling her if she was wrong - he trusted her enough to be honest. They got drunk together, they hunted pyjacks for kicks, sparred till they were red (or blue) in the teeth, they insulted each other, one smart-assed comment for the other. And he could make her laugh like no one else.

The other was a different piece of her soul. Understanding without words, he
could see through the layers she'd built over the years to protect herself in the seat of command. He made her feel exposed and vulnerable, undeniably female - no one had ever made her feel that way. Intelligent and well-read, they could exchange debates on any philosophical discourse. He cherished and revered her, and chose to spend his dying months following her to the ends. He exposed his weaknesses and fears, waking from his battle sleep at her call.

Shepard groaned, running her fingers back through her hair before she reached for the drink and downed it. It burnt and sat lucid in her stomach, her cheeks flushing as she caught her breath and put the empty glass down.

But the flush was as much from her thoughts as the liquor. Because both of them - both aliens - they fluttered her stomach and made her loins tingle to wetness.

And she couldn't have them - couldn't have one without losing the other, so in some twisted logic-knot, she kept from having anything.

It was late, and most of the crew were on the Citadel, granted unrestricted leave while they repaired the ship. It's the only reason Shepard was able to sit alone in the mess and drink her heartache away.

Her life was about sacrifice. She shouldn't have thought she could fit in somewhere. She had to rise above the common desires and do the impossible.

"Siha?"

Shepard lifted her head at the rich voice that spoke from the dark, and immediately saw Thane approach the table. She swallowed the flip in her stomach.

"Evening, Thane. I - you shouldn't call me that anymore." Shepard whispered, getting up to refill her glass.

Thane looked at her untouched plate before his eyes followed her, just in time to see her throw back a full glass of cerulean asari liquor. Closing her eyes, Shepard huffed a breath out her nose as it stung its way down.

Somehow it didn't touch the ache like she hoped it would.

"I am sorry - I hadn't realized it caused you distress."

Shepard forced a smile as the glass hit the counter, and she tempered the waver in her voice, "You haven't - I mean it doesn't." Shepard closed her eyes, letting her pent breath seep out her nose.


She closes her eyes and draws the sari over her shoulder, turning her face away. There is pain and desire, a swirled mix of colour that is accented by her sap green lips. I hurt her when I go, when I kill, when I am never here - even if it keeps the roof over our heads, the dryness in the air, and the cradle for our babe.
"You haven't," she whispers.
But I have. And I hate it too.

"Sih - " Thane paused, the name for her on his lips now as it was then, "Jane. My life is pledged to you."

The muscles around Shepard's eyes twitched, and she stepped around the island in the kitchen, only to hear familiar steps coming from the battery.

"Shep - Jane. I was coming to see you." Garrus kept his voice hushed, and he reached for her as he said, "I can't stop thinking about - Oh."

His hand froze as he saw Thane, the white light under the kitchen cabinets casting shadows up over his defined features.

"I see."

Shepard reached a hand back to the counter to steady herself, the buzz hitting harder. She shook her head, "No. You don't."

"Why didn't you just tell me -"

"I have to go." Shepard tugged away and hurried to the elevator. She stumbled into the car, head swimming from emotion and drink.

Garrus swung his gaze to Thane, blue eyes meeting the dark orbs. He'd planned on telling her - the dreams, the grief, the joy - that he would give his life to keep her safe. He would give - do anything - to stay by her side.

But she had tried to let him go. To keep their friendship because there was someone else.

Then why did Thane look as lost as he felt?

"I won't interfere," Garrus finally said, and it drew Thane's attention.

"There is nothing to interfere in," Thane's lips pressed into a line, and his eyes dropped, "I will stay by her till the end none the less."

"Oh come on, Thane. She turned me down, even though I could -" Garrus cut himself off.

Smell it. He could smell her arousal, her hurt, the attraction. Why hadn't he ever realized it was there around Krios too, the change in her chemistry. Why had she even suggested it just to turn him away?

"She... is not pursuing a relationship with you?"

Garrus looked at the drell and crossed his arms before replying, "No. I had thought - wait, why am I talking to you? You're the reason, the only thing that makes sense."

"We are not a couple."

"Then why is she upset?"

Thane looked through the mess towards the elevator, "She was... drinking. Alone. Her meal is untouched." Thane's hands dropped to his sides, "She had said she cared for me more than just a friend. And then pushed me away."

Garrus mandibles wavered as he said, "She did the same to me."

The two men stood there in the dark, the sound of the ship humming around them.

"Perhaps we must accept that neither of us are who she wants." Thane's voice was an emotionless whisper.

The idea of her love had woke him from a decade of sleep. His mind sung and his senses tingled when her hand was in his grasp, when he could smell the sweat on her skin. He had wanted so much, even as a dying man. He would push his limits - he had - and there was no doubt that he would go to any lengths for her wishes.

"She never takes anything for herself. I just -" Garrus' arms relaxed, his hands onto his hips. "It seemed so sure. I know she's human, but damn it."

"It feels right." Thane added.

"Yeah." Garrus clenched his teeth down, torn between frustration and relief at Thane's understanding. "I'd do anything for her - of anyone, she deserves some kind of happiness."

Thane watched him with an odd sort of clarity. For all their ego, he and Garrus had only the most rudimentary of interactions. They both isolated themselves with their calculating precision, girding emotions and leaving a shell. He regarded the training he had undergone, his ability to read other species surfacing.

He loved her. They both loved her.

Thane closed his eyes, chin falling down, "She knows."

"What?"

"She knows how we feel - that we both feel the same for her."

Garrus took a step back, regarding the drell. A professional killer for the hanar. He was harder to read than anyone he'd ever met - but he respected the talent Thane obviously possessed.

"She was drinking."

Garrus sighed and said, "I know. Which is fine, but she should have..."

"You'd do anything for her?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Garrus smirked, "Got two of her suicide missions under my belt." He looked back towards the elevator. "Would you?"

"To my dying breath."

Garrus crossed his arms and there was quiet a minute or two before he quietly said, "Then we don't make her choose." His voice dropped an octave, "I know you were married, and it may sound crazy, but..."

"Our lives are finite."

Garrus looked at him, nodding oddly.

"She deserves happiness."

The turian motioned, "But so do we. And..." Garrus took a deep breath, "If you and I can come to terms with it, I can deal with sharing her."

"As can I."

Shaking his head, Garrus shook Thane's hand, adding, "Right. So." He looked down at their hands and let go. "So do we contact Fornax next? I'm sure it'd be a lucrative deal."

Thane chuckled, his hands back behind him, "This may be the easy part."

"Should we just go up to her?" Garrus swayed slightly, looking back as he murmured, "Or do we have a drink first."

"She is already inebriated - if we keep our own heads clear, she may be more accepting of our words."

Garrus nodded, motioning as he said, "Nerves of steel, Thane. No wonder she likes you."

-- -- -- -- --

Shepard stood with her forehead against the shower wall, letting the water run over her head and back. Her dark brown hair slicked to her cheek, and the sound of rushing water filled her ears, soothing - but also letting her zone out into the feeling of her body.

Her hands plied down between her legs, knowing fingers sunk deep while the other hand swirled over the nub atop her nether lips. Mouth open, she staggered her breathing, and rivulets of water dripped off her lips. Her thighs quivered, and her hips rocked with the steady movement of her hands.

Tilting her head into the water, Shepard gasped, a shiver through her deepening breath. She was having trouble standing - it was always hard to get herself off standing. It was harder when she was drunk.

But damn, she wasn't a quitter.

"Commander, Mr. Vakarian and Mr. Krios are requesting entrance to your quarters."

Gulping a mouthful of water, Shepard pulled her face from the stream and sputtered, "What? Now?"

Planting her hands on the wall, she tried to catch her breath. Something had happened when she left. She'd left them both there, and now they wanted her to make some decision on their ultimatum.

Her head throbbed with the drink, almost matching the insistent pulse in her loins.

"Not now, EDI. Please..." Shepard sighed, and ran a hand over her pubis, feeling the swollen lips once more as she closed her eyes.

"Mr. Vakarian is attempting to hack the lock on your door. I will not be able to prevent entry -"

"Okay, okay!" Shepard cursed to herself and the water turned off as she stepped out and grabbed a towel.

With no time to make herself decent, Shepard marched out of the small bathroom, wrapping the towel around her curves. She wanted to be ready to hit them.

As the door opened, Garrus stood up, and both he and Thane stared at Shepard.

"What's so damned important that you're breaking into my room for?"

Garrus gaped at Shepard, her hair tousled and wet about her flushed cheeks, eyes dilated. The carpet at her feet was darkening as water slicked down her sculpted calves. Thane seemed equally pulsed by her appearance, but he was the first to find his voice.

"We wished to speak with you."

Closing her eyes, Shepard crossed her arms, hugging the towel to curves. The motion pressed her breasts together, accenting the glistening wet cleavage.

"Then come in and close the door." Shepard turned and was down the stairs before they could move.

"She's naked," Garrus hissed to Thane, still in the doorway.

"Good of you to notice," Thane looked at him, face impassive to the sarcasm, before he followed Shepard.

Shepard was sitting on the bed, and she motioned to the sofa, but neither man sat.

Thane adjusted his jacket before he spoke, "This may seem a rather odd turn to find us both here in your private quarters..."

"Shepard, we want you to be happy," Garrus interjected, closing his eyes and shaking his head, "Why couldn't she be wearing clothing? Had to be harder."

"I was in the shower," Shepard murmured, crossing one leg over the other. Having them both here was sending her mind off on tangents, her sex still throbbing and pulse uneven.

Thane tugged his hands apart, forcing them to his sides even as he felt himself stir, "We have come to an agreement - that..." He faltered, and it caught Shepard's attention, "That we both want to be your partner."

Shepard closed her eyes, crestfallen as she said, "I know, I know, and I can't bare to hurt either of you." She waved a hand, getting up, "So we just.."

"That's not what he means, Jane." Garrus found his voice, "We want to be in your life. You don't have to choose."

"I'm sorry - did... did my translator get that right?" Shepard froze, her eyes somewhere between them. The pulse between her thighs reasserted itself.

"I mean, unless I've been reading you all wrong - and you rejected both of us because there's someone else?"

"If that is the case, I am sorry to have sprung this on you."

They both took a step closer as Shepard shifted her shoulders and said, "No - no. There hasn't been anyone else. I... are you both drunk or something? Or is this my own drunken little dream..."

That scent was in the air, and Garrus took a deep breath as he kept his eyes on her, "No - not drunk." He nodded to Thane, adding, "Good call."

Shepard could scarce believe their words, and she relaxed her arms, keeping one across her chest to hold the towel. The fact that she'd just been in the shower, her thoughts sunk into their arms in a dozen different if-only's.

"This isn't fair to either of you."

"Why - because we each get to be with the person we want?" Garrus asked.

Shepard's lips parted, but her thoughts were sluggish. She could think of no reply. Her mind was too firmly in her body, and in the slow steps two very deadly men were taking towards her.

Men who wanted to compromise so they could have her. So they could both have her.

Thane reached for her hand, and she looked at the union of their mismatched hands as he said, "Or because you get to be with the people you want?"

Her other hand was in Garrus', and Shepard's head swivelled to look there too. Her tongue felt swollen, and a wave of dizziness went through her.

Why wouldn't that pulse between her thighs go away? Her fingers tightened in their hands, even as she felt the tucked edge of the towel slipping slightly.

"Are you guys just fucking with me?"

Garrus laughed once and shook his head, and once again Shepard swivelled between them to see the ghost of a grin on Thane's lips too.

"So just up here to try and get me naked, I see how it is." Shepard drew her hands back, some of her sense returning as a light inside her just said to go with it. She waggled a finger, clasping her towel to her with the other hand. "Try to get something out of me when I've been drinking that you couldn't get otherwise."

"You've got me - I haven't been able to think right since the door opened." Garrus tugged at the cowl of his armour, and it drew a grin from Shepard.

She glanced down over Thane's body and said to him, "He's got you at a disadvantage, how much do those pants conceal?"

Thane chuckled darkly, covertly tugging at the side of her towel and drawing a surprised sound from Shepard as she gripped it tighter.

"Hey, hey..." She stepped back, only to catch her legs against the bed. Coughing, Shepard ran her free hand through her hair. "Right."

Garrus gut clenched as Shepard leant forward and snagged Thane's lips in a sudden kiss, her eyes closing as the drell wound a hand up her side. Her free hand dragged over his chest, fingers strumming down the armour.

Coming up for air, Shepard looked up to Garrus, "I've wanted to see what's beneath this since before Saren went down, you know? Thane - Thane gives me eye candy, but you just tease...."

"What?" Garrus nervously laughed. "I'm the tease?"

That drink would have come in handy right about now.

Shepard touched down along Garrus' damaged mandible, her smile lopsided as she looked at him. "Did I read this wrong then? I don't get you both at the same time?"

"Actually, we figured we'd toss a coin."

Shepard laughed, and Thane shook his head as each nestled close to the woman they adored. "Not shooting practise? Or a spar maybe?"

"Best to conserve our energy," Thane quipped, and his hands impulsively yanking the towel, and it dropped free some.

Shepard squeaked and scrambled to keep it as more skin showed, and she twisted into Garrus - who promptly caught her arms. There was a rumble in his chest as the towel fell open and exposed her, left pinned between his chest and her back. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Do you know how good you smell, Jane?"

"I -" Shepard made a sound as the turian locked her arms behind her, feeling her skin flush as the tip of his mandible traced down her neck.

"He's right." Thane murmured, pulling the towel completely away and running a hand up her abdomen. The muscles tensed, and Garrus could feel her press back into him.

"You're right, I am overdressed." He groaned, shaking his head before he nipped into her neck and elicited a surprised sound.

"My dreams usually aren't this good," Shepard whispered as Garrus released her arms, and she swayed in against Thane, who enveloped her with firm arms, kissing her once more.

Shepard's pulse fluttered in her belly, racing quicker than it had when she'd been knuckle-deep in the shower. Their tongues laced together, and she softly moaned, nipples pert and hard from the air and their advances.

The buckles clacked on Garrus' armour as he pulled pieces off, his predatory gaze stayed upon the woman and drell there nearby, lips enmeshed.

Better than any porn he'd ever seen. Still - was this bright?

The strained hard-on in his suit said yes.

"You're still good with this, Thane?"

His hand running back through Shepard's wet hair, Thane brought his tongue and lips down over the curvature of her neck and huskily replied, "Yes."

Shepard closed her eyes, breathing in deeply as her body responded, cloying wetness thickening in her sex, better than any water left from the shower. Released she stepped back to feel the sudden heat of Garrus hands on her back, talons light over her skin before wrapping around her stomach.

"So just showering?" Garrus purred by her ear.

Motes of light and colour whorling at the edge of her vision, Shepard lost a bit more of the resistance in her as she breathed, "No."

Thane was stripping off his leathers, revealing the rich green scales and stripped muscles that complimented his body. He watched almost casually as Garrus traced his three-fingered hands over Shepard's curves, her hips moving.

Garrus closed his eyes as the soft curves of Shepard's ass pressed against his loins, cock already rock solid and pinned between them. He squeezed her breasts, pinning her back against him, feeling the soft flesh give in his hands.

Nothing like he would have expected. They moulded more easily than asari. How similar were they? The way Shepard's breath hitched when he pinched the nipples confirmed it.

Garrus' voice rumbled in a whisper, "What were you doing in the shower?"

Another set of hands touched over her body, and she could feel Garrus' breath on the back of her neck, even as Thane took her mouth again. The moan of her words was lost in it as their tongues entangled, and she broke away to kiss down into his neck, the red ridges velvety beneath her tongue.

The press of foreign skin, scales and pliable plating rubbed Shepard's front and back, her head lolling back into Garrus as she ground her ass into his waist. He answered with a groan of his own, his vertically ridged chest pressing along either side of her spine. She looked at Thane, pupils dilated wide, and she could see the mischief in his subtle expression.

But the world wasn't steady. Every edge shifted from sharp definition to bleeding like watercolours on paper towel, feathered edges soaking until they seemed to firm again. The world was singing to her body, beckoning it out, warming to it, and even the air seemed to grope and ply her skin.

The Professor was right.

So now she was drunk and high, and inescapably aroused.

Shepard's hand dropped to wrap around the erection nudging her thigh, the sound in Thane's throat undeniable. She sucked a breath through her teeth, body tensing as Garrus locked his jaw on her neck, biting in roughly. It only made her back arch, pressing her hips against him more, tightening her hand around Thane's crimson-ridged cock.

God was she really here?

Thane's teeth found a place just above Garrus' hand, nipping into her breast and tugging another throaty sigh from her, hips and hand grinding again. One of each of their hands fell along her thighs, pebbled scales and hot talon teasing her skin, testing over the wet lips.

Toes tensing against the carpet, Shepard rocked her body again, grinding Garrus' engorged shaft between the cheeks of her ass and stroking hard up Thane. Her thighs quivered, and opening her eyes, she saw stars, but they dissolved into the bubble-whirled colours that skirted to the edges of her vision.

Knees weakening, their strong hands stopped her, and Shepard almost laughed, blood rushing to her skin as their mouths released.

"Touching myself."

"Where?" Garrus rasped, and caught one of her thighs, talons digging into the tender inner flesh to hold her against him, grinding against her ass. His mandible caught in her hair, and tilting his head, the dark whip of his tongue snaked against her ear.

Thane caught the moan with another kiss, before his hand tilted her head back against Garrus' cowl, and he sucked down her neck.

"In the shower?" Shepard kept her eyes closed, trying to suppress the grin at her cheeky reply.

Garrus' talons bit into the skin more, and Shepard sucked a breath in. Feeling Thane's fingers dally in her nethers again she gasped, "Please -"

The conjoined fingers teased a bit deeper, moving in response to Shepard's tightened grip about his own shaft.

"Oh yes, just - that - ungh." Shepard's mouth fell open as she huffed a breath, feeling Thane's fingers plug the slick, wanting passage. Her body wiggled back into Garrus, whose own breathing grew more audible as her buttocks clenched and tugged at his arousal.

Shepard reached back, touching over the sharply narrowed waist behind her, fingers stroking in the grooves between plates, touching the heated skin. Silken leather beside the hardened exoskeleton, but all of it burning against her, almost fevered. The touch urged Garrus' hips against her, and she was pinned between them as Thane's own grunt urged a thrust into her hand.

Hot against his own cool scales, Thane let his eyes drink Shepard's body in, memorizing every detail, every sound and timbre of breath as he moved his fingers, a subtle wiggle that brought with it a tightening around them - a tightening that matched the growing tugs on his shaft. His dark eyes saw the subtle shift of flush on her skin, and the scent of her had grown.

Trapped between two predators.

Then Garrus turned, sinking back onto the end of the bed, and he pulled Shepard with her. She scarce had time to open her eyes before he'd dropped her down on his cock, Thane's wet fingers dragging up her stomach. The drell was pulled with her, urged by her unrelenting strokes, and her hand tightened as Garrus near bottomed out in her.

Shepard cried out in surprise, her body tensing as Garrus' hands clutched her breasts and pulled her back against him.

"That alright?" Garrus murmured as he wiggled his hips, settling himself deeper in Shepard, his words all but a pant.

"Yes," was all she could croak back, and she opened her eyes to see Thane looking down over her, resting his damp hand on her shoulder.

Such lust and adoration.

Shepard leaned into Thane as Garrus subtly moved his hips, grinding himself deeper into the tight warmth of her sex.

It was like nothing else, no turian or asari - why had he never tried being with a human before? The walls of her sex contracted, tightening around him, and his hips bucked in response, making her groan.

Steadying a hand on Thane's abdomen, Shepard's head fell forward to rest just above it, stroking his cock still, her lips hovering close by as Garrus slowly fucked her. Thane gathered Shepard's damp hair in his hands, pulling it away from her features, and as though a cue, sunk her lips down over the reddened ridges of his cock.

Thane's eyes snapped closed as his hips urged deeper in, thighs tensing in time with the grip his fingers had in her hair. It was a worship, her lips there, suckling, tonguing, a deft tip tracing each of the smooth ridged, sensations indelibly etched in eidetic memory.

Shepard moaned as Garrus' thrusts became sharper, piercing up into her with a mild pain that only added to the scream of her pulse. Hand and mouth working together, she slid over Thane's cock, lips and hand tightening and stroking out, tongue swirling over the tip to tease as her head moved with the thrusts in her cunt.

Garrus left marks down her breasts and sides as his hands scraped to her hips, a rumble in his chest as he breathed deep, her scent and his own, the drell's, all musky ripe and spiked with their arousal. He surged and talons bit her skin as he held her onto his thrusts, breath ragged against her back.

The pain elicited a muffled groan from Shepard, the vibrations lost in against Thane's cock, her breaths gasped in around it as she pleasured him. Underneath Garrus' talons, pinpricks of blood welled where the skin broke. Thane's fingers were still entangled in her hair, and he pushed back, looking over her features. The motion drew her eyes open, half-lucid and widely dilated, framed by his hips and by the earthy-blue hues of the naked turian she sat on.

Her tongue found the spot again, a depression that ran up the underside of his cock where the ridges met, and Thane shuddered, his eyes almost closing. Looking at her again, Shepard's smile was obscured, but she did it again, breathing roughly against him.

"Siha..." Thane hissed, tensing his legs as she toyed with his shaft, his own pulse leaping and straining his breathing.

Shepard's mouth fell off him, and her hand stroked double time as she panted for breath, a wheeze in it that was punctuated by Garrus' quickened thrusts. She closed her eyes, free hand crept up Thane's side, gripping him as she kissed the tip of his cock, tongue coming out to play with it as she stroked to her lips.

The ragged clip of Garrus' pleasure caught her ears, and Shepard's breathing broke into an uneven set of gasps, forced over the edge. Her hand and body tensed, mouth fallen open as she came, milking about the turian's cock as her hand did the same, body singing with the shifting, swimming world around her. She felt Thane's hand tighten in her hair at the back of her head, and she enveloped him again.

Thane thrust his hips into her mouth as her tongue teased him, gasping hard as it pushed him over, and his warm cum gushed into her mouth. Shepard's hand slipped over his hip, gripping his muscles as she swallowed, muffled moans against him as she kept her mouth deep down his shaft.

Eyes glinting, Garrus slipped his right hand up Shepard's body to pull her away from Thane, the glisten of her spit left on his shaft. Talons possessively over her breasts, he bit into her neck, and she gasped, feeling the sharp pang as his teeth broke her skin. Pinning her against his chest, Garrus moved her body with his, thrusting quickly as his senses blurred into his climax. Lips met with Thane's sudden kiss, Shepard panted a breath through her nose, her pulse in her throat.

Closing her eyes, a slick of warmth trickled down Shepard's neck, and she only realized Thane had moved when she felt the cool glot of medi-gel over her neck. Garrus had released his vice-grip on her, fallen back on the bed as she still sat on his cock.

"Sorry," he panted, hands running around her waist and up her back as he blinked lengthily. He wiped the blood off his mouth, smearing it down one of the plates on his chest.

Licking her lips, Shepard croaked, "No sorry's," and she smiled, and touched his hand, trying to catch her breath. "Just don't go into shock?"

Garrus' eyes met her and she turned as Thane sat beside them on the bed. Shepard took his hand, rising on her knees to slip off the turian's cock, and he groaned at the air against it.

"Ahh fuck," he whispered, breathing deep again as he looked at Shepard facing Thane to straddle him. She wavered and softly laughed, pressing a hand into the bed beside his head.

"Thane, your skin is something else." Shepard dipped and traced her tongue up the ridges of his neck, plucking over them with the tip before she exhaled and kissed the folds like she might a mouth.

The quiet rumble of laughter cut away as Thane sucked in a sharp breath. "I am glad -ng- you enjoy it?"

Shepard was already grinding her hips against his half-hardened erection, when she rolled aside to scarce fit between them on the bed, laughing herself.

"Whoo, I -" Shepard's laughter dimmed down as she put a hand to her brow, closing her eyes. Her skin felt over sensitized, and lying on her side she could feel the seep of fluids on her cunt, the alien cum burning in a way that tingled her already refuelled arousal. "I need to lie down a minute."

Dragging himself higher up the bed, Garrus brushed the dark waves of hair from her face and nuzzled his forehead with hers. Thane breathed deep, rolling on his side as well to face her, tucking his penis up so he could nestle to Shepard's back. The woman deeply sighed, her eyes half lidded as she looked at Garrus, touching down his mandible before reaching back to connect with Thane.

"Take all the time you need." Thane murmured, his hand over her hip as he kissed the base of her neck.

"We aren't going anywhere." Garrus closed his eyes as their noses nuzzled together, his breathing coming down.

Exhaling through her nose, Shepard closed her eyes from the shifting, colourful dance of light and shape that eroded and manipulated reality. The arm she lay on drew up, and Garrus wound his talons with her fingers, as with the other she slipped to twine her hand with Thane's on her hip.

Could there be any better place to be?