@cognosci ;; ♥
It was over. It was finally over. The war had been won. Although it had been long enough for the Reaper’s to now be fading from memory ( as much as could be achieved, anyway ) and work was already heavily underway to rebuild what had been lost, Garrus could scarcely believe that they were truly done with the threat of the Reapers. The harsh memories still haunted him, lingering in the dark recesses of him, torturing him with the ghosts of the dead and the many things that hadn’t turned out right. With the threat eliminated many of the crew had, if they hadn’t already done so, gone their separate ways in order to conserve their efforts for what mattered now; rebuilding. Garrus had done the same and returned to his burning home world to help reclaim what was lost and, in many instances, start afresh. For all his work and bravery the turian finally received the deserved recognition, and with his new position came new responsibilities, and at times he was driven to thoughts, and even wishes, that things could be simpler— he and his squad, out in the field, taking down the enemy. Now it was paperwork and meetings, overseeing this and planning that, and he was spending more and more time on the Citadel, as broken and incomplete as it had now become despite ongoing repairs, than he cared to admit to. And today was nothing different. His routine had become a boring cacophony of status reports, meetings with elected individuals and signing off projects that all urgently needed his attention. The harsh whirlwind of politics and maintenance was dizzying, yet Garrus held his ground; he treated it as though it were a battlefield, one where he couldn’t lose his head to doubts or fears, he simply needed to act with the best intentions for his people, and others. Standing amidst the flurry of activity, he had paused to answer a concern regarded some construction work, his talons skimming over a datapad to observe the plans, assessing them, before finally accepting them. It was in that moment that, as a trained soldier does, he picked out a voice from the crowd. The soft, angelic tones almost froze him, his blue irises widening as a series of memories echoed in his mind. With a small word to the agent he had been coordinating with he quickly looked about him, scanning the pulsing sea of bodies for her. As he scoured the open floor he swore that he had caught a glimpse of her— those never-ending cerulean oceans that glittered when they looked at him and the soft curve of her smooth face, but in an instant she had vanished, lost amidst the others that held little to no interest to him. Then, just as he was about to give up in his search, he heard another voice call her name, and a place, and in an instant his feet were carrying him up a set of steps, two or three at a time, until he stood in a corridor with a series of doors in it. There were name plaques at each side but he didn’t see hers there, yet with perseverance he was able to decipher from behind which door he could hear the faintest of sounds behind; the sweet serenade of a woman he had longed to see again, yet who had eluded him for this long. In a manner not befitting a respected member of the Palaven higher ups, Garrus unceremoniously charged through the doors, the shifting of the metal happening just in time to stop him from colliding with it. Looking about him almost frantically, mouth agape, Garrus then stood, petrified in his place, at the very sight of her. A statuesque beauty that exceeded both his dreams and his memories, he could scarcely believe that she was there before him; he could barely breathe, he was so overwhelmed. He attempted to speak but at first the words constricted in his throat, causing him to splutter slightly, subvocals humming at the pressure, before he ultimately was able to have her name stumble free from his lips, his tone breaking with the intensity of the emotion that overcame him at seeing her in front of him, a vision both angelic and fierce.
“Li— Liara.”
