(are you seeing the pattern here because I am--)
โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ
Life post-war wasn't exactly what Keith thought it would be. He and the other paladins had traded in their armor for uniforms, the chaos of a 10,000 year long intergalactic space war for a fragile sort of peace that sometimes felt like it could shatter at any moment.
Like, for example, when a very little Keith can't find his favorite pacifier before bedtime.
That was another thing. If someone had told Keith when he was eighteen and getting blasted into space in a smisentiant robotic blue lion (thanks, Lance) that at twenty-five, he would be searching high and low for his red pacifier with the pretty sparkly star on the button, he would have laughed at them at best or decked them at worst, depending on the day. But the soft comfort he found after years of fighting was the rest his body and heart needed more than he liked to admit.
Keith, who had settled deeply into his headspace and was hovering somewhere in the 1-2 year old range, crawled around on his hands and knees on the living room rug of the apartment he and Shiro shared. His diaper crinkled as he crawled around, the no-pants-only-hoodie day making it much more noticable than when he wore bottoms while padded, but it was easy to ignore when he was on an important mission: find his paci, and find it now.
Keith just didn't get it! His paci was right on the coffee table when he was having his night-night bottle! Daddy had gently eased it out of Keithโs mouth as he laid him down over his lap for his favorite bedtime treat, setting it down carefully before he started to feed Keith. But when Keith had gone to collect it, fully intent on sucking on his soother as he cuddled with Red, the red stuffed lion Lancey had made especially for him, he couldn't find it anywhere. It wasn't where Daddy had left it, or on the floor around the table. It wasn't in the drawer on the table that housed the discarded mail that Daddy refused to go through and the crayons Keith used every three hours when he was feeling on the bigger side. Crawling around didn't produce the soother, either. It was just gone!
Keith sat down on his padded bottom with a little huff. If it wasn't there, even though Keith was sure it should have been, maybe it was with his toys in the toybox by the entertainment center? Maybe Daddy was being silly when he was picking up earlier and moved it without realizing.
With a curious hum, Keith resumed his crawl, heading straight towards his toys. The felt box sat inconspicuous right next to the black entertainment center that the TV was propped above on the wall, the soft gray material blending in perfectly with the rest of the cozy, yet modern, decor. To random visitors, it looked like something to house extra throw blankets and pillows; to Keith and the rest of his paladin family, it contained the more interactive parts of the little world he and Shiro had created together.
Keith had been hesitant to play with toys at first. It wasn't something he was used to doing. He was sure he had toys to play with as a kid out in the desert with his dad, but after entering the foster system, there was only so many things he could get his hands on before a younger child snatched it away to play with or an older child broke it recklessly and shrugged like it had been no big deal. He wasn't sure he even knew how to play, but Shiro had had a wonderful solution: baby toys that were more sensory and education based rather than imagination based.
Keith knew that he knew that the star in his shape sorting toy went in the star slot, and that the red ring went on top of the peg on his ring stacker when the other colors were already on the base, but that never stopped him from trying to find just the right angle to get the star through the square slot or seeing how many rings he could stack on top of the red one if he put that one on the peg first. That star should absolutely fit through the square at the right angle, and so far he was able to stack three rings on top of the red one before it tumbled over. One day that star would go through the square, just wait and see, Pidge.
Once Keith reached the toybox, he carefully opened up the lid and peered inside. He reached a determined hand into the contained pile of toys, noisily moving them around in his search. But there was nothing. No red paci.
Letting out a small whimper, Keith sat back on his bottom again, his thumb finding its way to his mouth as a lackluster substitute. He tried to think of where else his paci could be, but the fuzzy feeling that edged at his mind when he slipped into his headspace was becoming more prominent, and he drew a blank in his mind.
His paci was nowhere to be found. It was gone, possibly never to be seen again, which made his heart ache, because he loved that paci, the sparkly star on the front had such a happy face on it, and now the star was going to be lonely--
A tear slipped from Keithโs eye, one tear turning to two, then three, then before he knew it, he was letting out loud, wailing sobs, his fists going to his eyes to try to keep the tears at bay, but it was no use. His paci was gone forever!
"Hey, hey, what's wrong, Little Star?"
Keith looked up through his tears, finding Shiro bending in front of him with a concerned look on his face as his eyes roamed over Keith to try to assess what was wrong with his little one. Keith hadn't even heard the older man come back into the living room from the kitchen, but he was more than glad that he had.
"D-Daddy!" Keith wailed, lifting his arms up in the universal sign for "hold me." "Daddy! P-paci gone! Bye-byed!"
Never needing to be asked twice, Shiro carefully lifted Keith up and set him on his front, the little one wrapping his legs around him and his arms around his shoulders. As Keith hid his face in the crook of Shiroโs neck to cry, Shiro cooed and started to rub the upset baby's back.
"Oh, honey, it's okay," He gently soothed. Keith felt the second his Daddy started to move, and he peeked his head out to find they were heading into the kitchen. Curious, Keith lifted his head some more, wondering why Daddy was taking him to the kitchen, when he noticed it.
Sitting on the breakfast bar, water dripping onto a paper towel, was Keith's pacifier. Keith let out a tiny gasp through the last of his tears, reaching out to try to grab it and making Daddy chuckle in the process. But Daddy was a very good Daddy and readjusted his hold, not letting Keith fall.
"I took your paci to the kitchen to wash it after your bottle, baby. It's been a few days since it was washed, so I sanitized it so you wouldn't be putting any icky germs in your mouth when you use it."
Shiro took the pacifier from the counter and offered it to Keith, and Keith didn't waste a single second in opening his mouth and letting his Daddy push the rubber teat past his lips.
The result was instantaneous. As Keith began to suck on the soother, the tension in his jaw loosened and his shoulders began to leave their position near his ears. The fuzzy feeling was fuzzier than ever, and he breathed a huff of relief through his nose, resting his head on Daddyโs shoulder. That was much better! He and the smiley star were reunited. But his eyes were getting a bit droopy. Looking for a lost paci was a lot of work for such a tiny boy!
Daddy gently kissed Keith's forehead as he made his way to the back of the apartment to the younger man's room, keeping Keith safe and secure in his hold. He was whispering something, but Keith was so sleepy that he wasn't entirely sure what Daddy was saying anymore as he was layed down in bed and Red was placed in his arms. But as Daddy tucked him in and give him a big kiss goodnight, looking at him like he was the most precious thing in the whole wide universe, Keith did know this:
Life post-war didn't exactly look like how he thought it would, but that was okay. He was right where he was supposed to be.
โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ ๐ โค๏ธ
Keith my buddy, you better know how lucky you are because when SOME OF US loose our paci's we have to find them ourselves, and SOMETIMES, you don't find it FOR WEEKS because your kitty cat knocked it off the nightstand but you didn't know that so you thought it was gone FOREVER--
I thought I'd change it up a bit to attempt to do a bit of Keith POV! Totally not inspired by recent events. I have no idea what you're talking about.
I have a plan for an upcoming day for @mitsukkii 's Agepril prompts, but ummm it might be. A bit angsty. But it has a happy ending! It's for day 26 so we have a while yet but I just thought of it today and I was immediately like, "Oh, I HAVE to write that!" So there's that ๐๐
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2087
annaxmalina
