"That I do," Shepard acknowledges, listening to him acknowledge the bitter truth and square up. She might've been having one of her least favorite vacations during that half-year, but she has to believe that, if no one else, Garrus had been doing his best to get the job done, in whatever capacity, "But hey, at least we've got each other."

Competence was hot, regardless of the source. In Garrus, who more than once she'd seen broken with impotent rage, and seen claw it back, it was more than merely attractive. It was... grounding. The difference between a night of ill-advised pre-battle passion and the kind of thing they had, that went on and on, until it felt like home. When he leans into her, she presses right back in mutual support.

"Those dogs got better night vision than either of us," she replies, letting go of Reaper Talk, at least for the time being. There would always be plenty of time for the end of the world later, "Why? Scared of the dark, Vakarian?"