Title: aces high
Fandom: Mass Effect
Relationship: Garrus/Thane/Female Shepard
Rating: G
Length: 284 words
Content notes: None apply
Summary: All work and no play something something. What Garrus, Thane, and Shepard do in their off hours.

i. king of clubs

Garrus Vakarian lines up his shot. He is his own bipod, locking his supporting arm in perfect stillness. His eye is drying out, but he resists the urge to blink. He inhales, slowly. One, two, three, four. Through the blue cast of his visor he aligns the circle in the centre with the scope, and fixes the crosshair on his target. He begins to exhale and squeezes the trigger. The bottle explodes in a shower of glass and the rest of his breath comes out in a laugh.

ii. jack of spades

Thane Krios kicks a weighted bag and spins through to continue the movement with a fist. He closes his eyes, allowing his body to move without conscious direction. He feels tangibly his soul travelling through his extended limbs, emotion and memory expressed in the stretch and motion. It is something beautiful simply for its own sake, neither violent nor exhibitory. The satisfying muscle ache is his and his alone.

iii. queen of hearts

Commander Shepard’s fingers are growing red and tender from shuffling the cards. Garrus and Thane both protest that playing cards made for human hands can’t effectively be shuffled by either of them. She can see Garrus’s point, at least. But she isn’t the sort to force the issue. She knows which battles to choose. She deals the cards into three piles and tidies them into neat stacks. Thane flips the top card on his stack over and places it in the centre of the table, and Garrus does the same. Shepard flips over the ace of diamonds, gasps, and slaps the centre pile, closely followed by Thane, then Garrus. Their hands linger, and she smiles.