Vanilla Twilight
Shepard lay in bed, staring up at the starts through the skylight in her cabin. Her arms were spread-eagled at her sides, as if relishing the new space they had.
Tonight, she slept in an empty bed.
She had known that it would come, the day that she wouldn't be able to share her thoughts with Thane Krios anymore. She had known that one day he would die. She had almost…accepted it.
What hurt the most was how soon that day had come.
Shepard had expected that they'd have months, maybe even a year, to share themselves with each other before the end came. But perhaps she'd underestimated the turn of events. Now she lay awake, unable to sleep without the familiar drell by her side.
Almost involuntarily, she brought her hand up to her face. The pale fingers felt alien to her. She flexed them slightly and suddenly was hit with a pang of sorrow.
The spaces between her fingers were where his fit perfectly.
Shepard resisted the urge to cry. People who went about saving the galaxy didn't cry. Instead, she grieved in silence. It was ironic, really, that the man who had been honed to kill had become her new reason for living. Many times she had considered joining him, simply ending it so they could spend forever by the sea. But the galaxy and its problems had no time for one grieving woman.
Her thoughts moved to Thane. She remembered his last words to her. "I will wait for you by the sea."
The same words had been on his letter to her. It was under her pillow now, this little token of him that would never go away. She could feel it against her head. Shepard thought of Thane, and somehow, she didn't feel so alone anymore.
By some miracle, Shepard fell asleep. Her dreams were filled of the lithe drell assassin who had stolen her heart and took it with her to the grave. When she woke, she could still feel his warm breath in her ear. She could still hear the words she'd whispered to him, words that snaked back through the past to a better time. A better time when Thane was still alive.
Oh, darling, I wish you were here.