"Hey, Shepard! Great party," Wrex cheered over the roaring music. He held up his ryncol in a toast. "Pretty tame by krogan standards but a good time to relax and unwind."
"Thanks, Wrex," she replied as their glasses clinked together. They each took turns taking long pulls from them before she continued. "I think everybody needed this, you know?"
"Yeah. I mean, just look at them flailing around like that." He shook his head as Kaidan aimed a round of finger guns at him. "That's some desperate dancing if I've ever seen it."
"Are you saying krogan dancing is any more dignified than that?"
"I'm too old to make a fool of myself at parties, Shepard. Junior, on the other hand - where is he, anyway?"
They turned in place, glancing at both levels in view. No sign of the silver armor and thick, orange hide.
"Huh. He was just complaining about how hungry he was. Maybe he found a bite to eat and snuck off so he wouldn't have to share."
Shepard turned to stare at her old friend and shook her head in disbelief.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's take a look around," she advised, stepping towards the nearest set of stairs.
"Come on, Shepard. Let the boy be. He'll come out when he's ready. Hell, you can't miss him with a head that big."
"Quit whining and go the other way. I'll meet you in the middle," she called over her shoulder.
After a few minutes of searching and walking in on a few of her squadmates in varyingly precarious senarios, she met Wrex outside of one if the guest bathrooms. She heard the shower running inside and decided it would best to leave whoever it was to finish before checking to see if they'd seen the young krogan.
"Well? Any luck?" Wrex asked.
"No, you?"
He shook his massive head at her and turning back the way he'd came. "That's it. I'm grabbing a refill and then I'll start checking surveillance footage and call the hospital. He'd better be-"
"Are you a wizard?"
"Pst! Hey! Wrex!" Shepard waved him over back to the bathroom door. She could see steam starting to spill out from under the crack in the door.
"What?" he demanded.
"Listen."
Both of them placed an ear to the door, listening intently until-
"Who's a space cowboy? Me!"
Grunt.
"What the..."
Shepard slowly swung the door open so as not to alert him; she didn't need a panicked krogan in a confined space. Stepping inside, she saw him crumbled on the shower floor, water pouring over his massive listless frame.
"Now I've seen everything," she muttered.
She was rewarded with another quip. "Damn your lettuce!"
"Well, he's plastered. Poor boy hasn't developed a tolerance for the drink yet. Guess I shouldn't have been feeding them to him all night."
"Wrex!" Shepard scolded.
"What? He keeps bragging about being a 'pure krogan,'" he exclaimed with air quotes. "Guess I thought he'd be up to the task."
"Next time, don't get the toddler drunk, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah... You know what, though? This is nice. Our little family that we've fought for."
"You mean Grunt?"
"Yeah, sure. You're his battle master, the first person he laid eyes on after being released from that tank. And I took him in, gave him the rite, made him an honorary member of Clan Urdnot. We both adopted him, took him under our wing. Look how well he's doing for it!"
She glanced down at his soaking wet form, questioning Wrex's vision. "Uh-huh."
"I'm serious! We did good," he gushed proudly, beaming down as Grunt began to mutter again.
"Gimme more..."
"What?"
"Gimme more, gimme more..."
"What's he saying?" Wrex asked, eyeballing Shepard who shrugged in response.
"Fishdog Food Shack!"
"See? Told you he was hungry," Wrex nodded knowingly.
"Then get him a snack and put him to bed, Dad." Shepard nudged one if his massive arms and stalked off.
"Dammit! C'mon, Junior," she heard him heave.
"I am the law!"