Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that his homecoming isn’t exactly sweet for some people. He’d never expected it from someone he’d loved more than life itself. Someone who held his hands and told him that this disease wasn’t going to change how he felt. S o m e god forsaken part of him had begged Adam to leave. While the chips were down and counted. So they didn’t have to count down together. But he hadn’t. The stubborn bastard stayed and it had meant more than anything anyone could have ever told him.
Then he didn’t and it wasn’t just h i s fault. On some level Shiro recognized that he’d begun his dissent a little too early and started sawing off the limbs of the tree he was sitting on. No more solid foundation for him, no more Adam. Single handedly, he’d cut out his own heart.
It’s why he isn’t as surprised as he ought to be when Adam’s gaze meets his and there’s nothing but what Shiro presumes is animosity towards him as the contact breaks and he melds with the greeting crowd. He’s not surprised, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Feels like the cavity of his chest is being torn open yet again and just for the hell of it someone’s tossed in broken glass.
The treatment doesn’t change from debriefing to debriefing, casual glances out of the side of his eye, full on staring when Adam’s attention is far from him. He can feel Iverson’s sympathetic glower over his shoulder and there’s a sickening little voice whispering that he shouldn’t have come back. He shouldn’t have. The rest of the team were needed. Takashi Shirogane was just… d e a d w e i g h t and no one but Keith would feel a damn thing if he were gone.
Everyone could function without him. Adam had.
That doesn’t stop him from trying, at least in the endeavor to mend things far enough they can collaborate with the MFE’s, test their teamwork alongside Voltron’s. It wouldn’t be his call to make, but if he can build the bridge and watch them meet in the middle, that’d be just fine with him. Adam’s gotten incredibly good at hide and seek lately and it takes him an embarrassingly long time to corner him (despite the achievement having nothing to do with his own efforts and more like dumb luck) but when those eyes finally meet his and snap back down to the steaming drink cradled between his hands, Shiro’s expression is nothing but polite professionalism.
Until he approaches the table and the uncertainty of what Adam’s first words are going to be. What that tone is going to do to him. Suck it up buttercup, you’ve got a job to do. He toys with the heated porcelain of his own black coffee, breathing in the aroma of dark beans in a double strength brew and he’s thriving on it. Subdued by the clearing of his own throat as he works up the courage to say something. Anything.
“What you’ve done with Team Ares is amazing…”
Prior to this moment, he’d been certain nothing could be worse than Shiro deciding to HATE him -- for any reason at all. The leaving, the lack of faith, the disappearing act and hiding and running -- but no, he’s wrong. THIS is worse. Shiro’s face when he looks up again is a mask of business, speaking to an OFFICER, or a SUBORDINATE, like they don’t know each other.
Adam could have handled anger, or tears, he thinks. He’d been prepared for something as hellish and tumultuous as his own heart feels. Apathy, indifference -- he wasn’t ready for those.
His throat goes dry and it takes too long to figure out a decent answer, and he knows it must sound horrifyingly calculated and distant. That it must sound put together and fake.
“ ...I haven’t done that much, in truth. They’re amazing cadets. “ Which IS more or less true, but he’d never say it in front of them. No need to go and inflate any egos. Not that the team isn’t well aware what an amazing job they do -- what potential they have. Adam may not be the most nurturing commander -- but he tries to let them know.
The next bit though, feels more natural, although incredibly halting and cautious. “ I should be saying that to you. About what you’ve done with Voltron. “ ( This is awkward, isn’t it? If it isn’t, then he’s most certainly overthinking it. The desire to BOLT is so prevalent. The minute he can find an excuse, he will. He’s thankful for the cover over his prosthetic. He doesn’t want Shiro to know. If he could hide the rest of the damage, he would -- but those scars are harder to hide. )
Nothing about it is hostile. But it is terrified. Perhaps Shiro can still read him well enough to tell he’s SCARED -- or perhaps he’s changed so thoroughly that he’s UNREADABLE now. Adam is good at hiding, feelings and heart are never on his sleeve, but it shows in the nervous fidgeting of his fingers around his mug and the way he barely meets Shiro’s eyes -- shoulders hunched in and small, a physical display of how UNCOMFORTABLE he is written in his body language.