If only he had known. If only he had known what little time they had.
The galaxy has forgotten that the krogan once had a culture. That they had stories, poems and songs about home, beauty and love. Krogan poetry is just one of the things that the genophage has destroyed. Wrex is old but not even he remembers a time where the krogan were not dying from the inside. Dying as a species and dying as a culture.
Wrex turns his face towards the wind, his eyes shielded against the Tuchanka sandstorms by a helmet. He looks at the smoke from the Valley of Gartesh.
There had once been a time when the krogan had buried their dead children, crying over them and singing for them while they covered them with Tuchanka's dirt. But even a planet has a limit in how many dead children it can hold in its grounds. And the people walking on the surface don't want to think about the children under their feet.
Today, the krogan burn their dead children in the Valley of Gartesh. An old Shaman, her name given up for her role, keeps the fire alive for the few dead bodies that females with hopeless eyes bring to her. She is the only one who still sings a song for these children, a song that nobody hears.
Nobody lives around here. Nobody wants to see the thin trail of smoke rising up to the hazy sky.
Wrex doesn't turn away. This is Tuchanka, this is his planet.
He wakes up like he always does. His eyes snapping open, taking in his surroundings, searching for a threat. It's a habit, formed in hundreds of years and that he is still alive today is proof that it's a good habit to have.
Beside him, Shepard mumbles something in her sleep. She is so calm, as if nothing could possibly happen to her. It had confused him in the beginning, how she could be so careless, so relaxed. He had learned after a while that her senses were still tuned to danger, that she could wake up in the span of two seconds with her shotgun ready in her hands.
But now she still sleeps and Wrex can watch her. She is so small. He knows that she isn't small compared to other females of her species but compared to him she looks tiny, fragile. He knows that she is anything but that. His hand is big enough to cover her waist completely and her fist looks so small compared to his. But he remembers what a hard punch she delivers with it. She's hit him more than once.
He can sense that she is waking up, moving a bit more. Her scent changes as she becomes aware and she presses her firm ass against his hip. A groan is rumbling up inside of him and it makes her giggle. He is pretty sure that nobody except him has ever heard Commander Shepard giggle.
She moves against his groin, rubbing him with her ass. He feels desire spike in him, she can arouse him so easily, it's unbelieveable. He is already hard for her and she angles herself in a way that he can enter her from behind. She sighs as he sheaths himself in her, a moan comes from her as she arches her back. The way she moves drives him mad, slow, so slow. But he loves it.
Sex used to be just hard and fast, finding release with someone, no matter who. Sometimes Shepard and him do it that way too but it is different. Even when they are both crazed by lust, desire burning in them at boiling point, there is always that one little moment where they just stare at each other. It's only a second long but it feels like an explosion inside.
Wrex lets his growl grow louder, he knows that she loves to feel the vibrations. He puts his hand between her legs as she slowly undulates her hips and he softly rubs her, just waiting for the contractions that feel so wonderful around his penis when she orgasms. It's slow, soft and so very intimate. There is nothing better.
Shepard is panting now, moaning and he hears his name in that deep sigh just as she tenses up, her hands fisting into the sheets and he feels her tunnel pulse and contract as she groans loudly. He thrusts into her, once, twice and then his own orgasm rolls through him. Her name is his vow to her that he growls out.
This is what they have and even though neither of them ever mentions it, he knows that he loves her. And he's pretty sure that she loves him too.
Wrex has spent two days on the hill overlooking the Valley of Gartesh. The fire is still burning and yesterday the smoke has been thicker. He wants to turn his thoughts away from the reason behind that, but he forces himself to think about it - about another stillborn given to the flames.
In the last few hundred years there had been fewer stillborns. Most female krogan are unable to even bear children by now, so the fire of Gartesh does not burn as brightly anymore. But fewer stillborns does not mean more hope for the krogan. It just means that things are much, much worse.
Wrex turns away from the smoke and begins the long walk to the Urdnot camp. He may not have more hope than any other krogan but Shepard has taught him that stubbornness can make up for hope sometimes.
He wakes up in his usual way to find her looking at him. She is stroking his chest, tracing the grooves between the plates on his chest. It is such a soft touch, one that nobody would assume a krogan can feel but he does. And he loves it, he loves how gentle she is with him.
She knows him so well, knows what a hard person he has become over the centuries but she never just settles for that. She brings out something from deep within himself, something he had thought had been lost in fleeting centuries. He can be mellow with her, calm.
He raises himself up and licks along her jawline. She smiles wide and kisses his upper lip. He wishes he could reciprocate but kissing is not possible for him. Her face is too small. Krogan do something like kissing with each other but it is closer to biting. Wrex doesn't dare to bite her, his teeth are so sharp.
Shepard climbs on top of him, she is naked like him and her skin feels warm on his plates. She is moving over him, using her whole body to stroke him, to grind against him.
The familiar desire rises up in him again. This woman, how she arouses him, it still amazes him. He has gone so long without this, without the need. But with her, he feels like she has woken him from a deep long sleep.
She is rubbing herself against him, her wet folds sliding along his hardness. He groans, pressing his hump into the mattress. He wants to tell her that she should hurry, that he wants to fuck her, take her. He could overpower her easily but he doesn't. Because he loves this. And he loves her.
She lift herself up, her hands on his chest and she slowly slides her vagina over his penis, carefully, biting her lip as she adjusts to his size. He lies still, wondering how she does it, stretching like that. She begins to move slowly and he falls into that feeling, her around him, the delicious friction, how she moves in front of him, her eyes fluttering close, her hands pressing into his chest, the moan that stumbles out with her breath.
The need builds up again, that strain from the old krogan ways of taking the female and making her submit but he shakes it off. He would never make her submit to him. Not her.
She changes the rhythm, speeding up and now she is taking him, fucking him for all he has. He raises himself up, meeting her thrusts, growling, and she grins at him. He grabs her waist roughly, holding her as she snaps her hip to his and her eyes stay on his until the very last moment when he feels her contract, her vagina grabbing his penis like a vise and she throws her head back with a yell and pulls him over the edge with her.
Camp Urdnot is nothing more than a collection of rubble, ruins and pyjacks. Wrex stands on the edge of the camp, in the shade of a building left over from some war. It's hard to tell on Tuchanka, whether the ruins are left from the nuclear war or the Rebellions or from anything recent. The dust and sand of Tuchanka levels everything, everything looks the same no matter how old it is.
He looks over the krogan of clan Urdnot. He recognizes some of them. After he had killed his father some of them had cheered, others had mocked him. They all had thought that he would never come back. Even Wrex had been sure about that.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Shepard asks, still sweaty and glowing and so beautiful.
"I have nowhere else I have to be." Wrex grumbles.
"Nowhere?"
"I'll stay with you. For as long as you'll have me." His voice is a low rumble, almost too low for her to hear it. He looks at her, waiting for her reaction. They have never talked about this, about what will happen after the crazy mission.
She sits up and looks at him. Her eyes are serious, dark and unavoidable.
"Wrex, I would love to keep you by my side forever but we both know that that's not possible. I don't even know what the Alliance and the Council want to do with me now." Her hand lands on his upper arm and squeezes. "And you - you have to go back to Tuchanka and lead your clan!"
"I'm not going back. Why should I? That nuclear hellhole of a planet, full of angry krogan fighting each other. That is not my place."
"Yes it is. That hellhole is your planet, those are your people and they need you." Her voice, so deep and sure, it almost convinces him.
"You know nothing about the krogan, Shepard, you have no right to talk about them." He says angrily and he roughly stands up so that she falls off him. She combat-rolls over her shoulder and stands beside him with a graceful move, staring at him with a fiery look in her eyes.
"I know you, Wrex, I know you!" She yells at him and never breaks eye contact and he knows that this woman will never back down.
She steps even closer to him, daring him to shove her away. Wrex isn't stupid, she might not be able to kill him but he likes his shoulder in its socket and wants to keep it that way.
Her face suddenly turns softer and her voice is so caring that it feels like she just holds his hearts in her hands. "Wrex, you are the leader of Clan Urdnot. You even have the family armor, nobody can deny you this place. And the krogan need a leader, one who shows them a new future."
"Maybe the krogan don't want a future?"
"Everybody wants a future, but you need to show them that it is possible."
"Why me?" Wrex, grumbles and feels like a stubborn hatchling.
"Trust me, I know about circumstances pushing you places you don't even want to go to." She snorts and he knows that she never wanted to be the first human Spectre, never wanted to be the great figure that people look up to.
"They need you, they need a leader, they need to be united and be people again, not just someones fighting pyjacks. And when the Reapers come, the galaxy will turn to the krogan and ask for their help again." Shepard's eyes are so bright, showing him a future he never thought possible.
"And then we'll be the galaxy's fighting pyjacks again. Until they don't need us anymore and cook up some new virus to bring us back under control." He spits out in biting anger.
"No, cause then they will be new krogan, Urdnot krogan, strong, smart, reliable. You can change the future for the krogan, Wrex." She holds his shoulders and she looks at him with so much pride in her face. He cannot help but believe her.
Wrex enters the camp, wearing the old clan armor and walks to the pile of rubble with the throne on top. It's just a piece of rock, roughly chiseled into a shape resembling a throne. It has always looked like that, not even the sand of Tuchanka had changed it.
The remaining krogan of Clan Urdnot turn to him, watching him. He's pretty sure that most recognize him, they know who he is. He kicks some pyjacks from the throne and sits down, waiting for the clan-members to come to him. They watch him as he watches them. It's obvious that no one has claimed the throne since he had killed his father and had refused to take the throne himself.
When he sees that he has their attention, he stands up. "I am Urdnot Wrex! I'm taking my rightful place as the leader of Clan Urdnot." They all watch him, guarded but not hostile. He takes a deep breath and yells out into the dusty air, "Urdnot!"
A few answer, then some more and finally, all krogan around his hill of rubble yell out "Urdnot!" He lets a grin play on his lips. They have accepted him according to the old rules. Now he will change all of them.
He may have lost his companion, he may have lost his love. But she has awoken something in him that he will keep alive in her honour. She had always believed that the krogan could have a future. That they could be more than whatever they are today.
It was time for the krogan to have a future.
"I hope you're watching Shepard. This is for you." He says into the wind, letting his voice travel with the sand of Tuchanka.
I have made me sad. Hug a krogan today for me.
Thanks to Rama-Kay for spontaneous editing.