Static
Fandom: Mass Effect
Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/Garrus Vakarian
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Warning[s]: M/M, MAJOR spoilers for Mass Effect
Notes: A random pairing that started out as a dare, and evolved. These sentences come from the Professional Silence story on FFN.
#01 - Motion:
There is no friction in space, so it has to be the brief rocking of a course correction that knocks his leg into Garrus' during a brief minute of downtime; at least, that's what he tells himself.
#02 - Cool:
They've called him “hot-headed”, “hot-blooded”, and a dozen other names describing the intensity with which he conducts himself, but where Kaidan is concerned, everything is done in slow, measured steps, for fear of that same intensity hurting them both somehow.
#03 - Young:
It's the first thing he ever noticed about Garrus; the turian's voice is oddly young in comparison to all the others he's had the misfortune of running into, and maybe that was partly why he ended up doing what he did that night.
#04 - Last:
He knows he's lucky, and reminds himself of it whenever he can, but he hates the last words Kaidan ever said, just because they were the last.
#05 - Wrong:
The bomb was never supposed to blow while they still had men on the ground.
#06 - Gentle:
The talons remind him of a predator, the sharp teeth don't help; still, he's the one who has to be careful, and watch himself, one wrong push from Garrus wouldn't break his neck.
#07 - One:
All of the crew matter-each of them have their role and their duties-and it would strain the entire ship's spirit if one of them were gone; one in particular, from his selfish point of view.
#08 - Thousand:
They've lost count of the number of geth fallen under their boots, and he can't bring himself to care, as each one brings him closer to the one responsible for Virmire.
#09 - King:
“All right,” Wrex snorts, clutching one of the little red pieces in huge fingers with laughable caution and care. “But if I win, you tell me all about Vakarian I want to hear-dirt on a turian's always entertaining.”
#10 - Learn:
His usual disclaimer of not being one for alien cultures is slowly becoming less and less truthful as time goes by.
#11 - Blur:
It feels like forever since they began chasing Saren, a long, blurred series of dead leads, deserted planets, with the only things changing are the mounting frustration, and the growing comfort of having a certain someone by your side.
#12 - Wait:
Every time they go out, it gets harder and harder to wait until they come back, because he can't get over the fear that one of them, finally, one day, won't follow.
#13 - Change:
Given the life they lead, the changes in their intimate interactions are necessary, after all, someone has to keep them on their toes during downtime, and even if it's something as simple as who makes the first move, neither one is complaining.
#14 - Command:
It's subtle, nonchalant pressure, but the feel of his narrow, bony hip against his side is enough to make him lose what loose command he has of the English language, and stammer his way through the report home.
#15 - Hold:
The first victory was enough to send them all for a celebration, however brief it was, back on the Citadel, where, in one of the more crowded bars, having ingested too much liquor for one night, he found himself pressed firmly against the wall by someone Garrus can only vaguely recognize, someone human, someone exceedingly admirable, who he can't deny he's gotten along with so much better than the others, and, he thinks that tight, forceful hold feels only right; a moment later, it turns into something more, despite the denial in the morning after.
#16 - Need:
It's only a migraine, and the meds take care of it well enough, but without a tall, alien presence hovering in the corner of the med bay, they might as well be placebos; he wonders when that addiction developed.
#17 - Vision:
A blue corona flares to life, an unconscious defense against accidental cuts from scales and talons, but all he cares is that it obscures the form on the bed beneath him.
#18 - Attention:
Kaidan was never one to get jealous, except that he felt entitled to a little bitterness when the goddamn tank received more careful attention than he did some days.
#19 - Soul:
Chief Williams' mutterings about souls has him concerned, until Kaidan assures him “it's a religious thing”, and not some vital part of human anatomy.
#20 - Picture:
Resupply stops gave them more than enough time to themselves for Kaidan to waste a couple credits trying to figure out how best to sneak an annoyed turian into an old-style photo booth.
#21 - Fool:
They think he doesn't notice, but when you're sitting up in the pilot's seat with nothing better to do, eavesdropping on your comrades' laughable attempts at covert flirting becomes the best entertainment on a slow day.
#22 - Mad:
He's never seen Garrus this angry-this impassioned-before; something the salarian's done seems worse than all of Saren's atrocities in his turian's eyes, and for the first time, Kaidan begins to wonder if he really knows what's going on in that alien skull.
#23 - Child:
It never ceases to amaze him, how much talking about his father will inevitably bring him back to the days of growing up hearing about success after success, and comparing them to his own failures-even when the one he's telling has so much more at stake than parental disapproval.
#24 - Now:
In a minute, the call will go out, in an hour, they'll be planetside, and after that, who knows how many hours' worth of fighting, chaos and carnage, but just for a second, just for now, there are no Reapers, no rogue Spectre, just the two of them, and an empty engineering bay.
#25 - Shadow:
His footsteps have acquired a strange echo moving throughout the Normandy halls, but they fade before he can turn around and remind his companion that it's only a cracked rib, and he doesn't need to be treated with such caution.
#26 - Goodbye:
It wasn't really a “goodbye” so much as it was a stubborn denial of this even happening at all; there's nothing he can do to change, or make up for his last mistake.
#27 - Hide:
Each one wishes, just for a moment, they didn't have to be elsewhere in another hour-they wish they could stay where they are, and pretend the galaxy doesn't exist, doesn't need them-but they realize how impossibly selfish they're being, and never tell anyone, not even each other.
#28 - Fortune:
He would like to be well-off, someday, if only to focus on more important matters; privately, he'd also like to give both Kaidan and himself a permanent home on the Citadel, if they survive the coming war.
#29 - Safe:
He keeps working on the Mako, grimly, blindly-the tank, after all, is something they were able to save from the Virmire run.
#30 - Ghost:
Every time the elevator comes trundling down the shaft, Garrus expects to see a familiar smile, and easy stride, and when it turns out to be only Shepard, or one of the others, he quietly goes back to work, pretending not to see.
#31 - Book:
He's sure this relationship definitely was never what his father had in mind for him during all those "do it right" by the book speeches; surprisingly, he can't bring himself to care as much as he thought he would.
#32 - Eye:
Light and dark eyes provide almost as much contrast as the rest of them, and in a fleeting moment of sappy introspection, Kaidan decides it's fitting, but denies it a moment later when the action starts.
#33 - Never:
“Never Have I Ever” takes on whole new variations on the word “odd” when playing it with alien crewmates-neither of the two wanted to hear that about Wrex.
#34 - Sing:
Sometimes Kiadan wonders if, with that voice of his, Garrus could theoretically harmonize with himself, but he's never gotten the turian drunk enough to find out yet.
#35 - Sudden:
There was never any indication of it, no warnings, no chance for Garrus to become accustomed to the idea of all of this coming to a sudden, abrupt and explosive end; no chance to ready the frayed bits of himself to take the hurt.
#36 - Stop:
Wrex pushes the rifle barrel down before Garrus has a chance to unload another shot into Saren's broken skull, saying something about enough revenge being enough.
#37 - Time:
Something they've never had, never expected to, and never would-after all, they were soldiers.
#38 - Wash:
By unspoken agreement, neither has followed the other into the cramped closet serving as the Normandy's bathing facilities; not that they didn't want to try, there just simply wasn't enough privacy for anything more than a covert, knowing, glance when no one else was looking.
#39 - Torn:
As the fighting drags on, it takes more and more to patch together the aching parts of his brain, especially after biotic assault after assault, but someone is always on hand to fix what tears he can, however he can.
#40 - History:
Given the First Contact War, Kaidan's surprised no one's made a comparison between them and the ancient Romeo and Juliet; not that he's complaining, since he can't bring himself to picture Garrus in a dress, reciting poetry.
#41 - Power:
Biotics will always make him nervous; he'll never blame Kaidan, even when one sharp push can send even a geth armature flying through space and he wonders if that could be himself someday.
#42 - Bother:
“You're blocking my light,” he informs the turian with no real irritation, shifting to shoulder his taller frame out of the way, purposefully ignoring him-he came up here to annoy Kaidan first.
#43 - God:
Saren floats above them, some kind of self-important deity, completely confident and calm, completely unconcerned he's killed the man most important to Garrus, and completely unaware his fellow turian intends to kill that god-like Spectre today, or die trying.
#44 - Wall:
Until Virmire, Garrus had never fully understood the phrase “hit the wall”; he can't help but think he was far happier being confused.
#45 - Naked:
He thinks Kaidan looks more bare without his armor on than he does without any clothing at all.
#46 - Drive:
As much as Garrus cares about him, Kaidan's off-key humming makes the drive from drop point to their mission goal seem so much longer than it really is.
#47 - Harm:
The rifle's grip is slick with blood, and Garrus can't see for the smoke in and sparks in the air, but he knows that if he stops now, the man on the ground beside him has no hope of making it out alive, and he will never allow that to happen.
#48 - Precious:
Any quiet moment, no matter how short or trivial, is something to be savored, because, at any second, the calm could be broken, whether by intruding, and angry, gunnery chief, or call to arms.
#49 - Hunger:
They can't share the same meal, but that has never stopped either Garrus or Kaidan from eying what the other has, and wondering just what it tastes like, and if it would really be so bad if they stole a bit.
#50 - Believe:
Struggling through the Ilos jungle, Garrus has to constantly remind himself that they are going to complete their objective, stop Saren, and save the day-Kaidan wouldn't have settled for anything else, and nothing in him will allow him to fail the lieutenant's memory.
Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/Garrus Vakarian
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Warning[s]: M/M, MAJOR spoilers for Mass Effect
Notes: A random pairing that started out as a dare, and evolved. These sentences come from the Professional Silence story on FFN.
#01 - Motion:
There is no friction in space, so it has to be the brief rocking of a course correction that knocks his leg into Garrus' during a brief minute of downtime; at least, that's what he tells himself.
#02 - Cool:
They've called him “hot-headed”, “hot-blooded”, and a dozen other names describing the intensity with which he conducts himself, but where Kaidan is concerned, everything is done in slow, measured steps, for fear of that same intensity hurting them both somehow.
#03 - Young:
It's the first thing he ever noticed about Garrus; the turian's voice is oddly young in comparison to all the others he's had the misfortune of running into, and maybe that was partly why he ended up doing what he did that night.
#04 - Last:
He knows he's lucky, and reminds himself of it whenever he can, but he hates the last words Kaidan ever said, just because they were the last.
#05 - Wrong:
The bomb was never supposed to blow while they still had men on the ground.
#06 - Gentle:
The talons remind him of a predator, the sharp teeth don't help; still, he's the one who has to be careful, and watch himself, one wrong push from Garrus wouldn't break his neck.
#07 - One:
All of the crew matter-each of them have their role and their duties-and it would strain the entire ship's spirit if one of them were gone; one in particular, from his selfish point of view.
#08 - Thousand:
They've lost count of the number of geth fallen under their boots, and he can't bring himself to care, as each one brings him closer to the one responsible for Virmire.
#09 - King:
“All right,” Wrex snorts, clutching one of the little red pieces in huge fingers with laughable caution and care. “But if I win, you tell me all about Vakarian I want to hear-dirt on a turian's always entertaining.”
#10 - Learn:
His usual disclaimer of not being one for alien cultures is slowly becoming less and less truthful as time goes by.
#11 - Blur:
It feels like forever since they began chasing Saren, a long, blurred series of dead leads, deserted planets, with the only things changing are the mounting frustration, and the growing comfort of having a certain someone by your side.
#12 - Wait:
Every time they go out, it gets harder and harder to wait until they come back, because he can't get over the fear that one of them, finally, one day, won't follow.
#13 - Change:
Given the life they lead, the changes in their intimate interactions are necessary, after all, someone has to keep them on their toes during downtime, and even if it's something as simple as who makes the first move, neither one is complaining.
#14 - Command:
It's subtle, nonchalant pressure, but the feel of his narrow, bony hip against his side is enough to make him lose what loose command he has of the English language, and stammer his way through the report home.
#15 - Hold:
The first victory was enough to send them all for a celebration, however brief it was, back on the Citadel, where, in one of the more crowded bars, having ingested too much liquor for one night, he found himself pressed firmly against the wall by someone Garrus can only vaguely recognize, someone human, someone exceedingly admirable, who he can't deny he's gotten along with so much better than the others, and, he thinks that tight, forceful hold feels only right; a moment later, it turns into something more, despite the denial in the morning after.
#16 - Need:
It's only a migraine, and the meds take care of it well enough, but without a tall, alien presence hovering in the corner of the med bay, they might as well be placebos; he wonders when that addiction developed.
#17 - Vision:
A blue corona flares to life, an unconscious defense against accidental cuts from scales and talons, but all he cares is that it obscures the form on the bed beneath him.
#18 - Attention:
Kaidan was never one to get jealous, except that he felt entitled to a little bitterness when the goddamn tank received more careful attention than he did some days.
#19 - Soul:
Chief Williams' mutterings about souls has him concerned, until Kaidan assures him “it's a religious thing”, and not some vital part of human anatomy.
#20 - Picture:
Resupply stops gave them more than enough time to themselves for Kaidan to waste a couple credits trying to figure out how best to sneak an annoyed turian into an old-style photo booth.
#21 - Fool:
They think he doesn't notice, but when you're sitting up in the pilot's seat with nothing better to do, eavesdropping on your comrades' laughable attempts at covert flirting becomes the best entertainment on a slow day.
#22 - Mad:
He's never seen Garrus this angry-this impassioned-before; something the salarian's done seems worse than all of Saren's atrocities in his turian's eyes, and for the first time, Kaidan begins to wonder if he really knows what's going on in that alien skull.
#23 - Child:
It never ceases to amaze him, how much talking about his father will inevitably bring him back to the days of growing up hearing about success after success, and comparing them to his own failures-even when the one he's telling has so much more at stake than parental disapproval.
#24 - Now:
In a minute, the call will go out, in an hour, they'll be planetside, and after that, who knows how many hours' worth of fighting, chaos and carnage, but just for a second, just for now, there are no Reapers, no rogue Spectre, just the two of them, and an empty engineering bay.
#25 - Shadow:
His footsteps have acquired a strange echo moving throughout the Normandy halls, but they fade before he can turn around and remind his companion that it's only a cracked rib, and he doesn't need to be treated with such caution.
#26 - Goodbye:
It wasn't really a “goodbye” so much as it was a stubborn denial of this even happening at all; there's nothing he can do to change, or make up for his last mistake.
#27 - Hide:
Each one wishes, just for a moment, they didn't have to be elsewhere in another hour-they wish they could stay where they are, and pretend the galaxy doesn't exist, doesn't need them-but they realize how impossibly selfish they're being, and never tell anyone, not even each other.
#28 - Fortune:
He would like to be well-off, someday, if only to focus on more important matters; privately, he'd also like to give both Kaidan and himself a permanent home on the Citadel, if they survive the coming war.
#29 - Safe:
He keeps working on the Mako, grimly, blindly-the tank, after all, is something they were able to save from the Virmire run.
#30 - Ghost:
Every time the elevator comes trundling down the shaft, Garrus expects to see a familiar smile, and easy stride, and when it turns out to be only Shepard, or one of the others, he quietly goes back to work, pretending not to see.
#31 - Book:
He's sure this relationship definitely was never what his father had in mind for him during all those "do it right" by the book speeches; surprisingly, he can't bring himself to care as much as he thought he would.
#32 - Eye:
Light and dark eyes provide almost as much contrast as the rest of them, and in a fleeting moment of sappy introspection, Kaidan decides it's fitting, but denies it a moment later when the action starts.
#33 - Never:
“Never Have I Ever” takes on whole new variations on the word “odd” when playing it with alien crewmates-neither of the two wanted to hear that about Wrex.
#34 - Sing:
Sometimes Kiadan wonders if, with that voice of his, Garrus could theoretically harmonize with himself, but he's never gotten the turian drunk enough to find out yet.
#35 - Sudden:
There was never any indication of it, no warnings, no chance for Garrus to become accustomed to the idea of all of this coming to a sudden, abrupt and explosive end; no chance to ready the frayed bits of himself to take the hurt.
#36 - Stop:
Wrex pushes the rifle barrel down before Garrus has a chance to unload another shot into Saren's broken skull, saying something about enough revenge being enough.
#37 - Time:
Something they've never had, never expected to, and never would-after all, they were soldiers.
#38 - Wash:
By unspoken agreement, neither has followed the other into the cramped closet serving as the Normandy's bathing facilities; not that they didn't want to try, there just simply wasn't enough privacy for anything more than a covert, knowing, glance when no one else was looking.
#39 - Torn:
As the fighting drags on, it takes more and more to patch together the aching parts of his brain, especially after biotic assault after assault, but someone is always on hand to fix what tears he can, however he can.
#40 - History:
Given the First Contact War, Kaidan's surprised no one's made a comparison between them and the ancient Romeo and Juliet; not that he's complaining, since he can't bring himself to picture Garrus in a dress, reciting poetry.
#41 - Power:
Biotics will always make him nervous; he'll never blame Kaidan, even when one sharp push can send even a geth armature flying through space and he wonders if that could be himself someday.
#42 - Bother:
“You're blocking my light,” he informs the turian with no real irritation, shifting to shoulder his taller frame out of the way, purposefully ignoring him-he came up here to annoy Kaidan first.
#43 - God:
Saren floats above them, some kind of self-important deity, completely confident and calm, completely unconcerned he's killed the man most important to Garrus, and completely unaware his fellow turian intends to kill that god-like Spectre today, or die trying.
#44 - Wall:
Until Virmire, Garrus had never fully understood the phrase “hit the wall”; he can't help but think he was far happier being confused.
#45 - Naked:
He thinks Kaidan looks more bare without his armor on than he does without any clothing at all.
#46 - Drive:
As much as Garrus cares about him, Kaidan's off-key humming makes the drive from drop point to their mission goal seem so much longer than it really is.
#47 - Harm:
The rifle's grip is slick with blood, and Garrus can't see for the smoke in and sparks in the air, but he knows that if he stops now, the man on the ground beside him has no hope of making it out alive, and he will never allow that to happen.
#48 - Precious:
Any quiet moment, no matter how short or trivial, is something to be savored, because, at any second, the calm could be broken, whether by intruding, and angry, gunnery chief, or call to arms.
#49 - Hunger:
They can't share the same meal, but that has never stopped either Garrus or Kaidan from eying what the other has, and wondering just what it tastes like, and if it would really be so bad if they stole a bit.
#50 - Believe:
Struggling through the Ilos jungle, Garrus has to constantly remind himself that they are going to complete their objective, stop Saren, and save the day-Kaidan wouldn't have settled for anything else, and nothing in him will allow him to fail the lieutenant's memory.