A/N: Written for a prompt from masseffectkink meme over at LiveJournal:
Krogan mating has become very business-like with the whole genophage problem and all - and I've been wondering how, exactly, Krogans romance potential mates. And they DO romance...sometimes with poetry apparently, like the adorable Krogan trying to win over the Asari. My idea is that, despite their reputation for being berserker, battle crazy aliens, the Krogans are actually very tender and sweet with their mates. Anon would like to see either Wrex or Grunt being all unexpectedly lovey and meltingly sweet with FemShep when they're alone at some point. Can either be the first time they've expressed an interest or during an established relationship. Fluff and (not required but welcome!) sex follows! 3
Me likeys my krogan, so this prompt was a go xD
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just this fan fiction is completely my own fault.
As Deep As a Thresher Maw Nest
or Five Times Grunt Gave Shepard a Gift of Courting and The Time She Returned Them With Ones Of Her Own
One (Gift of Stating the Intent)
It certainly raised more than just Amaziga Shepard's eyebrow when Grunt marched to her with a bouquet of flowers, pushed them into her hands and nearly ran away. With his Rite of Passage taken care of, such erratic behaviour wasn't something what would be expected from the tank-born, so the only think Amaziga managed to do at first was to just gape after the krogan.
-o.O.o-
In Grunt's eyes, however, it was Shepard, who laid the beginnings to this, with her fierce protectiveness towards him. She would step between him and the Krogan Captain; she would keep herself situated between him and that yipping pyjack Gatatog Uvenk. She even went as far as to headbutt him in his defence. And Grunt felt something warm appearing in his gut; something that later his new clan leader had to explain to him, since the imprints were very vague in this area.
How to court a woman worthy of one's respect. Step one – state your intent of courting through your actions. Only one will be worthy of her attention, and that will be him and no one else.
Two (Gift of a Thought)
The second time something similar happened, they had been celebrating the successful rescue of Miranda's sister at Eternity bar, when some stranger hit on Shepard, and the next thing he did was flying out of the luckily opened door.
Aethyta certainly wasn't amused by that, but given her half-krogan parentage, she was tolerant towards such displays of behaviour, since no one really got hurt, just… tossed around. And she winked at Shepard, her eyes amused and knowing; as if she knew something Shepard didn't.
Which was exactly what was happening, but Shepard didn't quite get the opportunity to ask her about anything, since Grunt nearly dragged her from the bar, and before she could start demanding what the hell he thought he was doing, they were standing by the railings on the balcony nearby, overlooking the night Illium.
"Wanted you to see this," Grunt's voice grumbled at her side. "We nearly never get to see the sights, and I thought this was worthy of your attention."
She gave him a small smile, before her eyes returned to the scenery. "Thank you, Grunt," she said quietly, leaning at the railings. "It's truly a beautiful sight."
They spent some time there, just watching the sights. And even if Shepard didn't really see it, all Grunt had his eyes for had been the woman by his side.
Three (Gift of a Secret)
Everyone knew Grunt the Krogan Berserker, but nearly no one (apart from probably only Shepard, EDI and Joker, who had the tendency of knowing way too much for his own state of well-being) knew Grunt the Scholar.
It was Shepard, who would sit with Grunt, as the krogan struggled with reading of Terran classics and answer his question, deeply grateful for her own literature classes and good memory, as otherwise she would be unable to answer about half of his questions.
Of course, then there had been the classics of Asari literature, and Grunt even found some Krogan books as well, and here both of them would be learning something new. It was refreshing to be learning something new – not only about the world around, but about the people in it as well.
Even if she were the only one learning anything of the kind, permission to teach her being given by both Shaman and the Clan Leader of Clan Urdnot.
Four (Gift of Nourishment)
Grunt took great care of being the one who made everything he ever gave to Amaziga Shepard – only the Gift of Nourishment had been given into care of someone else, who wouldn't poison the Commander.
Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner seemed the best choice for this, and even if he looked at the krogan bit suspiciously in the beginning, once he realized something about the whole situation, he changed his tune. Grunt wasn't entirely sure what the Void did Gardner actually realize, but he smacked himself in the face quite loudly, before he exclaimed something about blind idiots and started hashing out the best meal ever served on the Normandy.
He and Amaziga shared the meal in her cabin, talking and laughing long into the evening, before Amaziga yawned and Grunt rose to his feet to allow her to go to sleep.
After all, proper nourishment is not only enough food.
Good riddance that Grunt chose one of the shore leaves for making this step, he thought as he drove the lift down to the engineering level. He would have probably never lived it down.
He wasn't ashamed of his yearning for Amaziga Shepard. He would just prefer to keep it secret, until he knew whether she accepted his suit or not.
That still didn't mean he didn't try to perfect the skill of cooking. He put the results of his learning to one last test right before they went through the Omega Four relay. Amaziga seemed pleased, and that gave him hope for the future, to see her so relaxed and happy in his presence.
Five (Gift of Sacrifice)
The last gift he thought he would be giving to Amaziga Shepard came long months after the previous one.
They were on Utukku; beyond the Rachni Relay, investigating why the krogan scouts stopped reporting in, when it happened. The reports of the Rachni sightings were real. The beasts krogan defeated so long ago were back, and they were changed.
And Amaziga Shepard had been there, investigating the whole thing together with the Aralakh Company; her eyes shining in happiness when she caught the sight of him, just as he was sure his eyes were twinkling (that was the word Shepard liked to use) at the sight of her.
They decided to sacrifice the Aralakh company for the Rachni support, and while he was guiding her and her squad (Garrus and that Asari from Illium, Liara, if he remembered correctly) through the tunnels back to the surface, they found their way blocked by several stray Rachni; not many, but still more than they could defeat before more arrived.
He told her to go, and watched her carefully calm expression crumble before she reached her hand to touch his face, her eyes suspiciously bright, before he once again urged her to follow after the rest and she finally listened to him.
It was that look that made him fight harder than ever before; those bright eyes that would always pull him inside their depths, leaving him happy to drown, the same eyes that spilt many a happy tear when she spied him stumbling out of the tunnels, covered in blood both his and his enemies', conscious only until she dragged him to the shuttle and cradled his head in her lap.
Claiming
When Grunt came to he was in a sterile room at some hospital. Huerta Memorial, it said on small plaque on the wall. The door opened, a young looking woman coming in with a datapad in her hands.
"I see you are awake, Urdnot Grunt. Your girlfriend will be notified as soon as we make sure there will be no lasting damages."
And there she was – looking tired and as if someone dragged her through ten different kinds of crap, but she was there, and when she noticed him awake, she ran to him, wrapping her arms around him, absolutely uncaring about the people who could see them.
Thinking
He was allowed to leave the hospital, as long as he returned there for regular check-ups. Since Urdnot Wrex ordered him to listen to everything Shepard told him, and she in turn ordered him to listen to the doctors, he was stuck there.
When the Normandy returned from their mission on Rannoch, Shepard sent him an invitation to the apartment she was given by Admiral Anderson. Big place, that apartment – very nice, but Grunt almost felt like walking around with a bulls eye on his back, whenever he went around the big windows the apartment sported.
But then she darkened the whole place, and changed the windows into bullet-proof opaque glass, and set the computer to start emitting the data she uploaded sooner.
Then the air was suddenly filled with the most amazing display of starry skies Grunt had ever seen. He felt Amaziga's hand finding his, her head leaning on his shoulder as they stood side by side under the illusion of starlit skies.
Secret
It seemed like suddenly, Grunt would spend most of his off-duty time with Amaziga in her apartment on the Silversun Strip on the Citadel, the two of them talking, laughing, or cuddling together.
Amaziga sometimes teased him that she certainly wouldn't have him pegged as such a cuddler – not that she was complaining, of course. She liked to cuddle, and he liked cuddling with her. It was during one of the quiet evenings that Amaziga started to quietly tell him the truth about her dancing.
"I won championship of classical dancing several times over – under pseuds, of course, but believe me, I can dance, and more than just a little enough."
"Then why not to tell the others, when they mock you?" he asked, drawing back a little to see her face.
Amaziga had been quiet for so long he thought she would never answer his question, when she spoke again. "After the Skyllian Blitz, they… they called me a perfect soldier, perfect embodiment of what humanity has to offer. It started as a joke, first, but slowly, everyone stared to view me just like that. Like I'm perfect. Looking like idiot incapable of dancing gives me a fault – makes me human."
Sacrifice
They finally got to Earth, the last battlefield of the whole Reaper war.
The battlefield that would decide the fate of the galaxy as the races of these days knew it.
Shepard looked around - this was the last place where they would get any respite before the final push towards the beam that connected London with the closed-up Citadel above the earth. Soldiers assembled here so far looked grim, yet determined - Shepard thought that seeing their planet looking like it did now would do that to a person.
She was born in the space, and spent most of her life among the stars - but seeing the blue gem of the Local cluster covered in flame spots was just too much.
Speaking to her squadmates allowed her to clear her head a bit - James here, Kaidan there… The communication officer connected her to the rest of her friends - she traded shit with Jack, shared a moment with Steve Cortez, joked with Jacob. There were words with everyone, but she saved Grunt for the last.
Seeing the beam closing in on her, she could see Grunt, telling her to survive, for there was only one mating request he would care about accepting.
When Anderson asked her how she viewed her future, later, when they finally got rid of The Illusive Man (and wasn't that just creepy, to see the man with Reaper upgrades, his already weird artificial eyes being even weirder like that, pointing a gun at them, before he turned it on himself) and used the console to signal the Citadel to open, all she could do was to laugh and tell him how she was going to accept a krogan mating request and headbutt her way to krogan history now that the Reapers were to finally kick the bucket, once and for all.
Standing before the red beam, signalling the Crucible to destroy the Reapers, she aimed her gun at it.
"I'm sorry, Grunt," she whispered, pressing the trigger.
Again.
And again.
The beam exploded, the explosion throwing Shepard into the air.
Final Proposal
With Grunt by her side, Amaziga stood before the leaders of clan Urdnot and all the united Krogan clans under Tuchanka's sun, and listened to Wrex' and Bakara's voices create a complex melody - the bonding vows of krogan couples that chose to mate for life, following the old traditions preserved by the female shamans during the Age of Genophage.
Now came the Age of Restoration, and what better way to start it than with bonding ceremony between the one who embodied the hope of Krogan people with the one who made sure the Krogan have a future to look forward to?
The song ended, and it was Grunt's turn to speak.
"I, Urdnot Grunt, have courted you, Amaziga Shepard, in five steps of our courting ritual. My regard for you is as deep as thresher maw's nest, and in my eyes, you have no equal - as a battlemaster, and as a mate. I would pledge myself to you, if you choose to honour me by accepting my suit. What is your answer?"
Amaziga took a look at where her family and Normandy crew was standing. When she told her mother that she is being courted by a Krogan of all possible people, she thought her daughter is pulling her leg before she groaned and said this was karma's way of telling her like mother like daughter. Her crew took it much better - well, unless people lost their bets of who is the guy who has the Commander giggle like a little girl. And now they stood by her, the girls helping her to pick a dress (as strange as that sounded when related to a krogan wedding of all possible things), while the guys rehearsed their version of shovel talk.
Looking into Grunt's eyes, she responded.
"I, Amaziga Shepard, have been courted by you, Urdnot Grunt, and returned every step of your courting ritual with my own. I accept your suit, Urdnot Grunt, and before all the witnesses I pledge myself to you, as you pledge yourself to me."
Neither Amaziga, nor Grunt, paid much attention to the closing speeches of Wrex and Bakara - something about Shepards of Clan Urdnot and many children and blah blah blah. They only had eyes for each other, touching their foreheads in the gesture that signified acceptance and bonding.
Of course, then Grunt just tossed Amaziga over his shoulder and ran to the shuttle that was to take them to the planet they chose for their honeymoon, whistles and good-natured ribbing following after them, before Shepard threw her wedding bouquet and managed to hit Garrus right in the face, causing his mandibles to widen in embarrassment, as Tali elbowed him in the ribs.
But those would be tales for different times. Tale of Shepard's and Grunt's courtship ended with the bonding ceremony, and their lives becoming their own - at least for a time. There would be more fights to fight, more morons to headbutt and people to help, of course - but now they would face it side by side, one never being too far from the other.