Title: Old Soldiers
Fandom: Mass Effect
Rating: PG
Length: 385
Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/male Shepard
Content notes: Futurefic, Post canon, subsequent to Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, destroy ending
Author notes: This takes place in 2201, fourteen years after the Reaper War was won. At that time, Shepard had been found barely alive and faced a lengthy recovery. Here, Shepard and Kaidan remember the war and all that came after. Dialogue only.
Summary: Better with age.

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"Happy Birthday, Kaidan."

"Hey, I guess it is."

"Fifty years. That's a big deal. I brought you something."

"You didn't need to bring me anything, John. Besides yourself. Now get your ass over here and kiss me. Fifty kisses might be a start."

"Sounds like a good plan for the evening. Before we get distracted and lose count, you should open your present."

"Fifteen-year old single malt. You don't see much of that around."

"Do the math... that whisky was made before the war."

"A survivor. Like us. I like the idea of that."

"I had to do a little searching around. Called in a favor or two. You're worth it."

"Let's not wait for anytime any more important than right now to open it."

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"To old soldiers, Shepard."

"I remember the first time you called us that... in London when we were afraid it was goodbye."

"You said when it was all over you'd be waiting for me."

"And you showed up. And you're still here. That means a lot."

"I needed to hold you again. I was afraid all I'd have left would be your dog tags."

"We were old soldiers then. Old when we should have been being young, Kaidan. "

"What does that make us now?"

"Alive. We've seen a lot – horror, devastation... death..."

"Courage, strength, hope... love. Even as the world was ending, we had love."

"Yeah we did. Maybe that's why we lived. Something too important to let go."

"Someone to live for, John."

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"Fifteen years... that has another meaning too, Kaidan."

"What could it be? I can think of one thing, but it would make you kind of a romantic, John."

"Guilty as charged. Add fifteen kisses to tonight's promise. One for every year together."

"The good times and the hard times. Even after the war."

"Yeah... when we searched for a way to get past grief and guilt."

"To learn to live, Shepard. To be more than just survivors."

"Celebrating small moments. Things that were important to us..."

"Your first steps alone."

"Your first inappropriate use of biotics in bed."

"Watching the sunset over English Bay, thinking about our future."

"Finally realizing that we had a future, we had choices."

"The day you said yes."

"Kaidan, you know I'll keep saying yes to you every day. Always."

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