X is for Xeno [for lady_abel]

[not_as_stylishly]

They'd rescued Abel, along with the other survivors of her ship, two weeks ago. And unfortunately for them, the Normandy was simply too far along on its current mission to make a detour to any friendly base in order to drop them off, so for now, the ship was their home. A home full of soldiers supporting a misfit crew of aliens and rogues, but far more safe than the drifting wreck that had shown up on the Normandy's sensors by pure luck.

Garrus, for his part, didn't mind the company, really. Especially when it came to Abel. The turian had always harbored a certain attraction for human females, and Abel was, in his eyes, of surpassing beauty. All of the survivors had come to volunteer to help out the crew, and Abel had gravitated towards him immediately, assisting with his weapons calibrations and the like. And, if Garrus was reading things right, flirting up a storm with him.

Confirmation of his suspicions came just a few minutes after his shift ended. Garrus retired to his room and had only just removed the armor from his arms and torso, leaving his carapace bare from waist up. A chime announced a visitor at his door, and Garrus touched the control that opened it. His eyes widened.

"Abel? Is there something wrong? What can I help you with?"

Comments

[lady_abel]

What could she say? She always had a thing for Turians, and Garrus Vakarian was delightful in many ways. Especially how he knew his way around weapons. (Okay, she had a slight weakness for things that went boom too), and while the Normandy was a nice ship with interesting people, it was the weapons system that caught her attention and the turian who kept them operational.

The flirting with him had been fun too, especially since he had seemed uncertain with her. She kept it light and friendly without being too heavy handed, not wanting him to think she was only interested in him for a bedroom tumble or two, and she thought that someone was smiling on her when she discovered that her personal weapon, the only blaster she had manage to salvage from their ship after the disaster, didn't want to work.

The sight of Garrus standing at his door, bare to the waist, was a delightful bonus, and she smiled, a bit sheepish at his question as she held out her blaster.

"Salvaged this from our ship. It's my personal weapon but it's not working and I can't figure out why," she explained, looking at his half dressed state again. "If this is a bad time, I can get back to you tomorrow."

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus tilted his head in the closest turian approximation of a curious blink. He had no reason to expect that Abel wasn't telling the truth about the weapon, but at the same time, the girl could easily have waited until their next duty shift to ask for his help. Of course, he wasn't likely to complain about a late night visit from a pretty girl, so he held out his hand for the blaster and gestured for her to come in. "No, it's not a bad time at all. Please."

His quarters were sparse, but comfortable enough. A kind of rack in the corner now held the upper part of his usual armored uniform, and there were a couple of chairs, a desk, and a bed. Garrus laid the blaster on the desk.

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable while I take a look at this. I'd offer you a drink, but what I've got on hand might be a little... strong."

[lady_abel]

Duty shift was dedicated more towards the Normandy and her delightful weapons, not really to personal items, at least in Abel's mind. She handed him the blaster as she stepped past him to enter his room, glancing around at the spartan conditions. It wasn't bad, and it seemed to fit Garrus to a T.

She chuckled as she spun a chair around to straddle it and cross her arms on the back. "I might surprise you, Garrus," she remarked with a sharp grin. "May not be able to drink a krogun under the table, but I've net to meet anyone other than another krogun who could."

She watched him settle at the desk and the almost graceful way he moved. The training he had as a warrior and a sniper was evident in each movement, and she grinned softly as she watched him. She didn't get much of a chance to just observe him during the duty shifts which is why she flirted more with words than actions because they were both rather busy at that time. But times like this when they were both relaxed and had nothing better to focus on than a damaged blaster? Perfect for Garrus watching.

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus didn't have eyebrows, exactly, but if he did, they would be arching in surprise at Abel's claim to being able to hold her alien liquor. With a bemused chuckle, he gestured at the small bar across the room. "All right, then, pour a glass for each of us. But don't blame me for the headache you'll have in the morning."

He returned his attention to her blaster, movements precise and well-practiced, his mind focused on the task at hand. Focused, but perhaps not completely. Not when he was constantly flicking his eyes in Abel's direction. Garrus had appreciated her from the moment she'd come on board, and had been admiring her both personally and very much physically since then.

Wondering briefly if this might be more a social call than he thought, Garrus returned to working on her weapon.

[lady_abel]

Grinning, she dug into the bar, raising her own brow at the sight of a couple of the bottles before choosing one that was about middle of the road for alcohol content and poured them each a glass. She brought them both back to his workbench, placing one next to where he was working on her blaster before she leaned against the workbench, sipping her drink.

"What do you do for fun when you're not fixing blasters or drinking really good alcohol?" inquired Abel, watching his hands move with delicate and rather graceful movements. "And why are you on this ship instead of somewhere where there are more Turians, like C-Sec on the Citadel?"

She wasn't being snotty about it, just highly curious and wanting to get to know him better. They hadn't discussed their private lives or their pasts while they had been working together, but she was willing to fix that. And if Garrus didn't want to talk about it, then she'd let it drop.

{{OOC: Forgot to ask: Is this Mass Effect timeline? ME2? or ME3 during the war?}}

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus glanced up from his work once he heard the clink of the glass on his desk. He sipped at it, nodded in approval, then set back to prying open the blaster's casing. He gave Abel's question a few long moments' thought before meeting the girl's eyes to answer.

"Actually, I did spend some time with C-Sec. Despite the roguish, maverick nature you're familiar with, I was actually a pretty decent cop. And then there was Shepard." He chuckled quietly, tacitly assuming that anyone who spent more than fifteen minutes aboard the Normandy or just around the man who commanded that ship would need no more explanation than that.

"I figured that out here is where I needed to be." A simple, highly abridged version of things, but no less true for it. "As for hobbies?" Garrus didn't feel like mentioning his respectable collection of human-xeno pornography or his penchant for dancing alone in his quarters now and then. "Duties keep me pretty busy."

[OOC: Let's say ME3 during the war. Figured on keeping it pretty vague.]

[lady_abel]

"Did he really come back from the dead or was that just something to add to his legend?" she inquired, a soft smile on her face. After all, even she had heard a great deal about the Famous Shepard of the Normandy. Even when they had been rescued, she had been a bit skeptical that this was the actual ship and not just one of the replicas that were flying around the galaxy from people who either wanted to bank on the reputation for themselves or were huge fans and simply wanted a ship like the Normandy.

She continued to watch him, her eyes tracing the scar on his face and absently wondered what the story behind that one was. Well if it was an interesting story, he'd undoubtedly want to brag about it later. She tisked a touch at his admission that he didn't really have any hobbies.

"Everyone needs something to do to keep their spirits up," she said with a casual shrug as she drained her glass. "I confess that my hobby is reading trashy romance novels of all sorts of flavors."

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus chuckled at the question, and gave the best approximation of a shrug that his anatomy allowed. "It's a little more complicated than that, and depends on a lot of technicalities... but more or less... yes." He shook his head barely able to believe the idea himself, and he'd lived through it.

He'd bent back over his work, until Abel spoke and he glanced up. "Oh now that isn't what I'd expected to hear. Just what sorts of 'flavors' are there?"

[lady_abel]

She grinned, a soft flush on her cheeks from the alcohol she had drank. Really good stuff if a bit powerful, but she figured it was a great deal like Garrus himself.

"There's the usual human with human, but that gets so boring after the third repetition of Rescuing the Hidden Princess trope," she remarked with a wave of her hand. "Asari/human is always interesting, but Asari make my brain itch from their psi abilities and I can't honestly see any human and Krogan getting together long enough to have any sort of bedroom romp."

She watched him closely for any interest as she gave her little confession. "Now Human and Turian trashy romances take up almost my entire library of fun reading."

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus nodded along with Abel's recitation, chuckling in agreement that the idea of anything but some particularly energetic-- and probably near-violent-- rutting between a human and a Krogan was a stretch. When the lovely girl mentioned turian and Human pairings, his expression turned curious and more than a little speculative. He wasn't quite so clueless as to have missed the notes in Abel's voice that made him think her words might be a little more than a simple statement of fact.

"So what makes these stories 'trashy'? Are they the kind with the sentimental, gushing romances? Or the ones with much more emphasis on getting to the consummation part of the story?"

[lady_abel]

Placing her now empty glass down on his desk hear him, she grinned at him. "Trashy in that it's full of 'heaving bosoms' and 'throbbing manhoods' most often written for lonely women who haven't had a lover that doesn't run on a battery," she explained with a slight giggle. "But they're fun since they're essentially porn masquerading as honest romance."

She suppose that his second definition was more accurate when it came to "trashy", but her definition was just as much fun. She glanced at the empty glass and wondered if there was something about the alcohol that had loosened her inhibitions some before deciding it was just the company. Garrus hadn't asked or told her to stop flirting, so he must be fine with it. If she grew too forward, she trusted him to tell her when to knock it off.

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus shook his head and laughed. "It seems as though it would be simpler and more satisfying for the readers to just simply access the actual pornography instead of trying to confuse the situation with all the needless extra..." he waved one taloned hand, "preamble."

While the drink was tailored to his biology, a quick look at his glass let Garrus know that he'd had a few more sips than he recalled, and so it seemed his own inhibitions were dwindling, as well. When he looked back at Abel, his gaze was more, in a word, assessing. And appreciative.

"I'd almost want to read these stories, to see if they get the mechanics right."

[lady_abel]

She laughed, her own eyes appreciative as she looked at him.

"Some people need the veil of romance so they can pretend they're not reading for the porn," she remarked. "Badly written as it is."

She hummed and tilted her head, a sly smile on her lips. "I can already tell you that they're undoubtedly written by humans who have never seen a turian out of armor." Her eyes danced with humor as she leaned over to run a finger over where a human's collarbones would be. "Of course, I'm sure the mechanics are the same regardless of the species. Tab A into Slot B?"

[not_as_stylishly]

"Sometimes it amazes me how some species are still so prudish about sex and the enjoyment of it," Garrus scoffed.

His head tilted in growing fascination-- not to mention more than a little anticipation-- as Abel leaned forward, running one finger along the upper ridge of his chestplate, a gesture that the turian could almost feel.

"I think I might be missing the specific reference," Garrus replied, "but yes, that's an accurate summation of things. The evolutionary quirks that formed most of us in the galaxy with fairly similar construction do give us the opportunity to fornicate without a lot of difficulty."

[lady_abel]

"Especially considering the amount of porn that they crank out," she grinned, absently licking her lips at the feel of that hard ridge under her finger. She pulled her hand back and looked at him, honestly.

"Maybe I'm just tipsy enough, but I'm going to be blunt since I respect you and your choices," she stated before nodding over to the bed. "I'd love to throw you on your bed, eel you out of your armor, and see just how to make you scream my name. You say you're no interested, that's fine, and I'll also tone down the flirting."

Because she did enjoy flirting with him a great deal since he seemed to flirt back very nicely. He was also a very attractive turian. many humans thought they all looked the same, but Abel could always tell the difference between them.

[not_as_stylishly]

Garrus let out a short, surprisingly loud, but detectably warm laugh. "That is blunt, and I have to say I'm grateful for it. Even with as many humans as I'm around these days, I'm still not much of an expert in communicating."

He pushed back from the desk, leaving the work on Abel's blaster-- which he had been growing to think had mostly been a pretense-- undone, before circling around closer to her. "I don't know if you're going to be able to do much throwing, but you're not going to need to. You'll find me very, very enthusiastic about this little... experiment."

Reaching out his hand and extending the long, skilled fingers, he stood ready to help Abel to her feet.

[lady_abel]

She grinned as she slid her hand into his, enjoying the feel of those dexterous fingers against hers. The blaster actually did have something wrong with it, but it had been an excuse to talk with him privately instead of waiting until they were surrounded by others.

"Glad to hear that," she murmured with a grin as she rose to her feet. "And sometimes, actions speak so much louder than words in any case."

She curled one hand around the back of his neck while the other arm was carelessly draped over his shoulder. "Do turians kiss? Or is there another way you show affection?" Honestly, he didn't look like he could kiss, not as a human would, but who knew how flexible his mouth actually was.

[not_as_stylishly]

"We don't normally, no," Garrus replied. "I'd be a bit concerned about biting your lips too hard if we tried. But a bit of... I suppose 'nuzzling' is the best word... right around here--" He gestured along the sides of his neck, where his skin was much more flexible and almost soft, for mobility's sake.

"Stroking is also nice," he added, "which I believe goes both ways?" To experiment, his own hands slid along Abel's sides and over her back, before experimentally moving down to cup her rear.

[lady_abel]

"So right about here?" she inquired, leaning down to run the tip of her nose up that soft skin. It was very soft under her nose, almost like kid leather (not that she would tell him that), and she turned her head slightly to brush her cheek against the spot. She shivered as his hands slid down her back to cup her rear, and she moved closer to him, pressing her body against his.

"Stroking is very nice, but I think we're both wearing too many clothes," chuckled Abel, her breath ghosting over his neck. "And your armor, while protective, isn't very comfortable to be pressed against."

[not_as_stylishly]

When Abel obliged, Garrus made a low, almost rattling noise in his throat. It wasn't a human moan, but the indication of pleasure was just as clear. Almost feeling Abel through his armor, Garrus found himself agreeing wholeheartedly.

Reluctantly stepping back, he pulled deftly at the fastens and buckles. With quiet hisses and creaks, he opened the shell of armor that covered him to what was essentially his waist. Garrus lowered it to the deck carefully, following that soon with the pieces that he wore on his lower body, revealing him completely, mottled-gray and chitinous body plates shining slightly in the artificial light.

Garrus then turned his attention back to Abel. "I believe that makes it your turn."

[lady_abel]

Well, that had been an interesting noise, and something inside of Abel wanted to hear more of. She didn't object as he stepped back to get out of the rest of his armor, just watched him with a frank appraisal in her eyes. Many might see the turians as nothing better than humaniod insects with their body plates and strangely shaped faces, but Abel thought they were rather beautiful in their own way.

And Garrus was gorgeous!

At his words, she grinned and peeled off her clothes, getting out of the uniform-like jumper she had been given from the storage of the Normandy to reveal sensible underwear and bra. With a twist and a wiggle, both of those fell to the floor on top of the jumper, and she stood there, naked and completely hairless, as she let Garrus look his fill. "I believe it does."

[not_as_stylishly]

If Garrus' eyes were anatomically capable of widening in awe, they would have been. He shared a similar cross-species appreciation of human beauty, and as far as he was concerned, Abel was... what was the term Joker had mentioned?-- a walking wet dream. His taloned fingers longed immediately to explore the soft, smooth curves of her body and he wanted to know as soon as he could how it felt to have her pressed against his carapace.

He closed the gap between them and leaned his head in. "You are exquisite," Garrus breathed. "And I believe I just thought of something. I might not have lips, but..." The turian leaned closer again and his tongue, a long, thick, dark blue muscle, slid sensuously past his jagged teeth and moved tentatively over Abel's parted lips.

Sorry about the delay. Crazy week.

[lady_abel]

She hummed as she draped her arms over his shoulders, stepping close enough to press against him, enjoying the feel of his smooth carapace rubbing against her skin. When that tongue slid over her lips, she opened her mouth to allow it to slip in. Then she carefully closed her lips around it in a sort of mock kiss even as she twirled her tongue around his in an erotic dance. She even occasionally sucked on it as if it was another part of his anatomy.

"I could get use to both your way of showing affection as well as your kisses, Garrus," she purred, letting his tongue slip from her mouth as she ran a hand from his shoulder down his chest and to rest on his hip. "You're so smooth and feel so nice against my skin."