Human rituals

Chapter 5

The turian woke up with a headache he could barely stand. His memories from the night before were confusing and he started wondering how much did he drink. The rest of the guests were mostly exhausted on a sofa or a chair, but there were still some of them on their feet. Resisting the impulse of laying down again on the couch he woke up, he started walking towards the stairs to look over the place searching for his memories. Nothing seemed to remind him about the last hours of the party from the day before, but he didn’t want to stop trying. Feeling lost and unable to remember wasn’t something he was used to, and it definitely wasn’t something nice to feel. He could see Jack and Jacob at his right, exercising like nothing had happened the night before. He wondered how was it even possible to be that energized after a night of drinking like they did.

“Hey, Garrus. Wanna join?” Jacob offered once he entered to the room, but Jack immediately intervened with a mocking smile.

“Are you kidding? He can barely stand up. I’m not surprised anyway, he must’ve had a lot of action last night.”

“Riight” Jacob continued with a sly smile. –Probably the Commander and he had a lot of time to… Exercise.

Garrus looked at them feeling kind of lost and a lot of questions appeared on his mind. What the hell were they talking about?

“Did I… Uhh… Say something last night?” He asked trying to keep his composure, but totally failing on the process.

“Well, your face did. It was like you were having sex with Shepard every time you looked at her. It was pretty disturbing, actually.” Teased the woman, making the turian’s blood gather in his face. If his anatomy were different, he would probably be completely red. Suddenly a memory came back to his mind, and he got lost on it.

Shepard had been moving through the crowd all night, making sure everyone were confortable, had everything they needed and were having fun. He was a little concerned she wasn’t relaxing for being so attentive to everyone else’s needs, but soon he realized it was something she enjoyed. Every time she got included on a group conversation, the woman seemed more relaxed than she had ever been during that war and he was glad she was finally getting the rest she deserved.  He stared at her distractedly, so when Traynor asked something it took him some time to realize that the question had been addressed to him.

“Could you repeat that?” He asked trying to detach his gaze from the Commander to focus on the group conversation, but unfortunately now it was too late to dissimulate.

“Are you alright?” Asked the woman a little worried, but someone intervened.

“Oh don’t worry about it, Traynor. He was just too busy falling in… *Hip* Falling in love with Shepard.” Said Tali amused, getting different reactions among everyone else.

“Well… I had no idea you were interested on the Commander.” Traynor seemed kind of troubled after receiving that information.

“The Commander is a great warrior and a wonderful leader. I’m not surprised you feel attached to her.” Said this time Samara, solemnly.

“I’m surprised by the ineptitude of the primitives because of their pheromones. Especially if they are not even joined.”

That was enough to make the turian wish he was on a fight against Sovereign instead of the situation he had to deal with. Were the members of the crew always so eager to talk about someone else’s private life? He remembered to drink the content of his glass without a pause and suddenly his memories faded away once more, making it impossible to remember any further.