Written for an old prompt I ran cross on the kink meme. Garrus flirts with another woman and Sheperd is not impressed. She waits until they are alone to deal with it though.

I keep running across the idea what turians use their vocal range for the same purpose humans use facial expressions, so I was wondering if he would even pick up on her being upset... and I always have an issue with Garrus not wanting to 'disturb' the crew.

Are you Mine?

Humans were complicated. Definitely more complicated than turians. Even the asari matriarchs, the galaxy's undisputed champions of head games couldn't hold a candle to a human. It didn't help that they didn't even know they were playing games half the time and reacted badly when you pointed it out.

Garrus stared at the door to his, and his wife's cabin, at the closed door of the cabin and felt Archangel's dark wings flutter against the back of his mind. Part of him, the good turian part of him, demanded he knock, apologise and try to sort this out. The not-so-good part of him wanted to just walk in and tell her to get over it. Archangel though marching in, throwing her onto the bed and removing whatever doubts she had about him forcibly was the best plan. The first plan, to a human, would indicate he knew he had done something wrong, which he didn't. And the last plan… as much fun as it could be to let that darkness loose in the bedroom, if it wasn't met by her own darkness… well experience had through them they either went down that path together or neither walked it.

It had been three hours… He compromised and knocked before barging in…

And woke…

His arms were handcuffed to the turian style pillow rail above the bed. The pillows were positioned to support him in the closest a turian could come to lying down comfortably which was still sitting half way up. He had been stripped of his armour but not the undersuit. So… he was still covered from neck to ankles… but chained to the bed and Shepard had knocked him out to get him there and now wasn't here... Oddly, she had removed his socks and gloves. Yeah, not playing head games at all.

The bathroom door opened with a hiss, Shepard stepped out and looked down the stairs at him. Her face was expressionless, eyes hooded and lips pressed together. She had drawn the clan marks onto her face; deep blue streaks across her cheeks, stopping before they crossed her nose to show she wasn't clanborn, but bonded. Two more along her jaw line. She rarely wore the markings, mostly because they took time to put on and after she explained how humans got tattoos off… well he wasn't going to let her get them tattooed when his father was still trying to get him disowned, not to mention the political repercussions of the First Human Spectre marrying a turian. He would prefer she didn't wear them at all. It took him another moment to realise she was fully dressed, her omni-tool glowing around her arm. He opened his mouth, but she raised a hand to stop him and pressed a couple of buttons.

A low, predatory growl filled the room, flanged, both layers deep, but one almost… cracking. Garrus had made the masculine version of that sound himself earlier that day, when they had ran into Alenko. It was the possessive sound a turian female made that meant "my mate/back off now". Shepard began to speak "We've never had the 'is this your first time conversation'. Turians, from my research don't care about their partners experience as long as they have some, I know about a couple of your flings and we both admitted we'd never done it with an alien before 'us' ever came up." She moved down the steps. Garrus couldn't take his eyes off her, or his ears of the sounds coming from her direction. She sat on the arm of the couch and began to pull her boots off.

The growl changed, becoming higher pitched at one end and beginning to twang more at the other, a distressed sound, emotionally vulnerable, a sound only made to a mate, or by a young child to a parent, also a sound out of the human range of hearing. Garrus gulped, this was serious. Shepard started talking again as her second boot hit the floor, "I'm guessing that your old partner is just one of those humans who flirt with everything that moves. I mean look at Kelly, but you played to it. And after getting all uppity with me that time at Afterlife when we weren't even together. Not to mention you're behaviour with Alenko." Her words were short, clipped and emotionless, completely at odds with the sounds she had playing around her.

She pulled her socks off and a small, sad dual toned chirp stopped the growling as she dropped them into her boots. "I assumed, maybe naively, that because we were taking the turian route through the commander/subordinate issue, we would be taking it in our private lives as well. We would be equals outside of rank and responsibilities." She looked at him, "A bit more research has shown me that some turians pursue human style relationships so they can dominate their more powerful partner." The chirp sounded again. "I don't want that kind of relationship." She stood up and moved to the foot of the bed, her eyes raking over him. Then she pulled her T shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor, followed by her bra.

Garrus shifted, not sure if anything he said would make it better or worse and tried not to stare at her chest. "You don't want me wearing your clan markings. You definitely don't want me getting them tattooed. You refused to tell your family you were bonded, married, mated, whatever, I don't think there's even a word for a human and a turian getting married by a quarian Admiral at the Migrant Fleet, until Sol found out by accident and gossiped. You were pissed when I told a human gang member, who no one will believe. You have outright refused to let me tell the Alliance despite that fact that the only thing keeping the Hierarchy quiet is the unspoken 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy the council has on us."

A high keening cry had started up in the background… the sound was… heartbroken. "For all the logical reasons you have put forth, I'm beginning to feel like your guilty little secret."

"Shep…"

"No."

He quieted.

"I don't need your protection Garrus, not from the choices I make about my life. I choose you. I'm beginning to doubt you choose me. I'm beginning to think the real reason you pushed for a ceremony outside Citadel space was to give yourself a way out since it wouldn't be valid once you got home. Your behaviour today was just one more example. You'll flirt with another human, in my presence, but not with me, not with the person you're meant to be with."

Garrus was distracted by the keening, by her words, by her chest. He didn't notice her opening her trousers and shimming out of them until she stepped up onto the bed and dropped down onto his stomach. The feel of her was so familiar, but the keening…

She leaned over him until she could kiss his mouth, his mandibles and finally leaning up she rested her forehead against his. Shifting her weight, she rested her curled hands in his, letting him hold them before she pulled away. The keening stopped, but she got up and moved off him before his hormones could change direction from 'protect/comfort' to 'arousal'. Ignoring him completed, she pulled on the workout clothes he hadn't even noticed on the chair beside the bed. He still didn't know what to say.

When she was dressed again, she turned to look at him, blue lines standing out clearly against her pale skin. She turned, dropped one more kiss onto his mouth and pressed something into his hand. "I hope you understand how I feel".

One more warbled, confused, sad and hurt chirp came from her omni-tool. She stood up and left the room.

Garrus pressed the release button on the remote and lowered his suddenly free arms, "Spirits…" Had he really hurt her enough to make those sounds?