Star Child

When you crashed in the clouds, you found me

[loyaltytohim]

atlasbled​:

     That’s the plan, Keith. Make it as weird as possible. And also maybe kind of sorta scoop your limp noodly self up and carry you to the couch cause for some reason snoozing on couches just hits different than in a bed.

     Success. He’s going to nap so hard and curl around Shiro like a slinky. He’s so exhausted.

[loyaltytohim]

atlasbled​:

     Please! The level of cute is too high, the adorable capacity is overloading, the containment unit designated Shirogane Takashi is bursting at the seams! You can’t evacuate, it’s too late already! Cuddling initiated! Arms and legs engaged! Leak in ducts one and two! What a mess!

     Way to make it weird. As he definitely does not move an inch from his position. He’s got strength for days Shiro, he can fall asleep standing up almost anywhere now. Though you’ll probably have to catch him at his REM cycle. Like a cooked noodle he’ll fold.

[loyaltytohim]

atlasbled​:

     Alright alright, crowd in for a bear hug the size of a mountain. Better?

     So much better that he’s hiding in that buff chest for a good hour. Might even fall asleep here.

[loyaltytohim]

atlasbled asked:

Shiro wants to give Keith the biggest, tightest hug.

     Shiro hugs? He’ll take a hundred please. Or one eternity long one.

[loyaltytohim]

     Keith was an absolute sobbing wreck for so long after the ‘pilot error’ report. He’d stopped eating most days, wouldn’t leave his bed, couldn’t bring himself to do anything to care for himself until the initial grief wore off. 

     And then he was pissed. How could it have been ‘pilot error’? Shiro was the best. He was sick, sure, but that wouldn’t stop him. He wouldn’t put his team at risk nor would he let them be harmed.

     While Pidge was searching for answers, so was Keith. Which is when he stumbled across the signal for the blue lion and in following that, Shiro came back to him. It’s a good thing Shiro was his dad’s size too, his old man’s clothes fit him perfectly.

[skiaskai]

I’ve been thinking about this all day and I need everyone to suffer with me

[loyaltytohim]

skyguarded​:

  Had they really done all that without him?  Or had he just really not been paying attention lately?  He wanted to think the latter was more likely.  That maybe Black had been a little slow.  A little unresponsive, a little more disconnected and harder to mesh together with the others.  An incredibly selfish thought that she would hinder ending a war just for him.  Because she missed him like he missed her.  Shiro hadn’t actually meant to look out a window after catapulting a very large comatose emperor and crash landing into a very very annoyed old woman.  But there had been nothing but empty space and he’d wasted time practically flying to every possible opening, looking, hoping.  No castle. No lions.  No one responding on comms.  He’d gotten close to throwing himself out an airlock just in case there was some sort of magical fuckery interference.  Told himself it would be fine, they probably just needed to regroup or something.  Someone was looking for him this time.  Until they weren’t and it was all too clear when someone walked past him talking of a new black paladin, a new plan to succeed where Zarkon had so clearly failed.   Shiro’s sure a humorless snort isn’t very reassuring, but he has no other response.  “What, you didn’t bond with your right hand man?  Man, the lions are off their game then if they couldn’t even pit you with someone you’d trust with your life.  Though I guess, to be fair, their options were still very limited.”  Something he means to ask about.  If their choices were limited to those in proximity or if they were capable of searching the entire universe for the right person.  Getting picked out of easily ten billion beings would make him feel better.  Black just chastises him for ever doubting her. “I don’t know.  Show me?  I wasn’t…I don’t really remember-” yikes that sounded bad.  A lot of their more recent fights were a blur.  A successful blur, but he didn’t remember making any conscious decisions about what to do.  Maybe he didn’t need to anymore, that was better than saying he’d been flying and not all there to some degree.  “Show me.  You guys obviously saw your own work.”   He can recall Matt at his side.  Dual prosthesis outnumbering one.  Matt covering him, talking him through and over everything Sendak flung at him.  There was definitely some Taylor Swift in there.  But he couldn’t picture the ending.  Like a movie turned off by a parent right before it finished because he was staying up too late.  The words come out before he actually puts them together in his head and backtracks.  “I’m not sure they left me anything behind.”

     The impact is like a Zanthorian cluster the size of Zarkon’s now defunct ship hitting him straight in the chest. The damage is massive and he feels the wound gaping and growing wider with every breath.

     “Don’t say that...” He means for it to come out harsh, a how dare you say that to me, but his voice wavers and its airy. Ironic considering how much he can’t breathe right now. He abandons the physical connection letting Shiro reclaim his hands as he stands and paces. The world wavers and blurs and he wipes at wet lashes.

     How much had he failed Shiro? How late had he been? What if- nononono. No matter what, no matter how little of his Shiro he had left he’d have to cling that much harder to preserve him. Protect him from the Galra? Easy, he’s learned so much over the years. Protect him from himself? Keith...didn’t have the first clue. Those fears were not unfounded there could be thousands more Galra out there, waiting and plotting and trying to restore some of the old dynasty but- he couldn’t shove a sword through a faulty memory.

     “You...want me to show you? Fine-” Heaving a shuddering sigh, Keith gives up on wiping away the filter over his eyes and snatches Shiro’s hand hauling him to his feet and out of the Red Lion’s bay. If all it takes is a few corpses to settle a nervous tic he’d show him. Let him touch them. Affirm that yes, Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, Sendak are dead. The retrieval of the first three were difficult to say the least but Sendak...gruesome as the moment had been it was worse to see it outside of the heat of battle. What Keith had done to him.

     “Look, Shiro. Look at them all you want. They’re never going to hurt you again. What they built, I’ll tear down with my own two hands if I have to.” He has, and he will. Whatever is left over whatever indoctrination their subjects had been forced through Keith would dismantle it before Shiro’s very eyes if it meant those eyes would see a possibility for peace one day. His hand squeezes the other’s and he stares, waiting for the realization to settle in.

[loyaltytohim]

skyguarded​:

 It’s Keith, but his first instinct is still to flinch.  Duck away from the guy that broke into what was at least a government facility for him.  Multiple times if one counted all their various infiltrations in space.  Never looked at Shiro differently, even after someone with the same face nearly killed him.  He’s still really not clear on that part.  It sounded like a genuinely terrible plan to begin with and there remains a part of him that’s offended no one noticed.  Or bothered to check because he’s sure Pidge had a contingency plan for everything at this point.   Even after all this time it’s still weird that he can’t feel the prosthetic.  Didn’t request that to be an added feature because it wasn’t needed.  But sometimes looking at it touching something else and not feeling it starts to make him fuzzy.  Metal turns, feels the pressure of being held against the other but nothing else.  His gaze finally tears away from the ceiling.  It’s still just Keith.  Still in the top five people he’d known longest next to his mom, Sam and he who must not be named that Shiro never got to apologize to.   “How do you know that?”  He means it to come out stronger.  More challenging.  Instead it tapers off and he wonders if a racing heart from anxiety counts as exercise so he can check that off his list for the day.  “I mean-to be fair.  That did almost happen.  You very much almost died.  At least twice.”  Probably more at this point.  It was easily the biggest reason he’d once yelled at Black to make the others pick someone else.  Adults.  Not children who hadn’t even been in orbit yet.  Not children who were so easily harmed and killed.   His mouth twists down.  No matter how he answers, he’s screwed.  Yes, logically he has to trust Keith’s judgement.  No, he’s an asshole of a friend.  Maybe, still a bit of an asshole.  Gray eyes narrow in an attempt to form more of a glare than an expression of knowing Keith was right and being mad about it.  “You?  Yes…the team?  Yes.”  It wasn’t the time to be petty and mention how he was still upset that they’d somehow missed finding him with five lions.  “Everyone else?  No.  I find it incredibly hard to believe it’s just…that easy.  Okay fine, space…jail is a thing.  C’mon, the second most advanced race in the world couldn’t keep track of a bunch of humans.  Faking your death is very possible and there’s…I really feel like everyone’s underestimating all this considering how long it’s been going on.”

     “I just know it. We’ve taken down their main base, we’ve seized their operations, we’ve picked apart their code to uncover everything in it. And if there’s still some factions left behind vying for control, well- I’m not afraid of them. I’ve got you and Hunk and Pidge. And Lance I guess.” Keith smooths a thumb over cold metal and he grimaces at the way it feels. In stark contrast to the Shiro he knew who was warm, soft, soothing.

     “I don’t fear anything when I know you all will be right there beside me. And maybe you don’t feel the same way, and that’s fine. Before all this, before experiencing this together if I had just been told I’d have been terrified too.” He draws those hands in to his chest and hopes that the beating of his heart is strong enough to be felt.

     “I know the Galra took so much from you...but I’ll make you believe it when I say they’re not taking a damn thing more. So tell me how I can help you understand that its really over. They’re really dead.” It kills him to look in those eyes and more than restlessness and apprehension, see fear. To know that Shiro is hyper aware of every shift in the atmosphere, every passing reformed Galra. He’s wound so tight he might break and Keith is terrified of the when.

     But he can’t blame him. Keith doesn’t have the slightest clue what they did to him before he crashed back onto Earth, before he dragged him out of a lab and into a mechanical sentient robot and into a war that spanned so many more worlds than they could have ever anticipated.

[loyaltytohim]

atlasbled asked:

❛ i look at you and my heart breaks because all i see is loneliness. ❜

     The sting of it doesn’t fade the longer he waits, the more the silence drags out. It allows the mind to wander back to the days before Voltron before the Garrison gave up on him when he needed it the most. No one had bothered, had seen any potential in him. Not even when Shiro vouched for him over and over again.

     “I...” He was... “Sometimes...I still feel alone. I’m not like you...or the others. I..” He is... “Shiro- if you hadn’t insisted I try the simulator...would you have even bothered with me?” He knows the answer is no. It wasn’t his job to bring in lost children. The ones the orphanages didn’t show to prospective adopters, the ones they hid in their rooms until the tour was complete.

     “I don’t need you to answer that. I know the answer. I know you try and I appreciate it. But lets face it...you-” Keith grits his teeth, refusing to let himself finish the statement. He doesn’t want to and doesn’t need to. It’s superfluous and all it will do is hurt them both.

[loyaltytohim]

skyguarded​:

 “Well.  I’m not entirely sure what our lifetime is anymore.”  Even after Coran confirmed nothing was going downhill like before, Shiro hadn’t changed his plans for the future.  He still fully expected to die.  This time just from a different, equally inevitable and likely far more unpleasant cause.  Hearts stopping was a relatively natural way to go.  Being shot or beheaded or torn apart was not.   His fingers are moving again.  Tapping.  Yellow, green, black, red, blue.  The feeling is more akin to restlessness at his very core.  Like maybe he was finally going to split apart on a molecular level.  Maybe corruption was finally hitting him or there was some sort of unknown kill switch that just required it’s maker to die before use.  He’d checked.  Forced himself into healing pods, run scanners, had Black search the very recesses of his mind for any hint of becoming his predecessor.  “Earth won’t need us if it’s destroyed.”   They’d almost been too late as is.  He’d been staring at the same characters for so long he hadn’t even put together the name and coordinates until they’d gotten the transmission.  “I left the solar system last night.”  It had helped a little.  But not enough.  Black isn’t fast enough to get them to the farthest reaches of endless space without getting dangerously far from home should something happen.  Even at her top speed it was at best a month out.  A month for remaining enemies to gather numbers and weapons and finish what was started.

     It’s hard not to notice Shiro’s strung out. Stretched so thin the slightest noise could make that little thread holding him together snap and Keith doesn’t want to be there when it all comes tumbling down. He doesn’t want anyone to be there. He doesn’t want it to happen period. But he knows himself, and he knows Shiro. He’s not letting it happen without being able to pick up the pieces after. What was that about something being more beautiful for having been broken?

     What a load of shit.

     Shiro’s not more beautiful for having been systematically shattered and pieced together and shattered again. There’s no gold lining the cracks there’s just more trauma spilling out and neither of them can hold it all in the palm of their hands. It’s spilling over fingertips and its staining the ground.

     Keith unwinds his arms from around himself to reach out for Shiro’s hands, cradle them in his own. He doesn’t need to stop the flood of anxiety, he just needs to help him...manage it. And he finally understands what it is Shiro’s afraid of. At least...a fraction of it.

     “Look at me, Shiro. There’s not enough of them out there to make any sort of resistance. If they come for us, we have defenses. If they come for you...They’ll have to kill me first.” Sendak, Haggar, Zarkon himself. They were dead. Gone. The more radical factions had been detained, were on their way to being deprogrammed. No one would slip through the cracks again, be allowed that kind of power again.

     “Do you trust me?”

[loyaltytohim]

skyguarded​:

  Yeah, he deserves that.  It wasn’t like their initial return to Earth had been under ideal circumstances.  There had been no time for family reunions or anything other than strategy and war plotting.  Shiro pouring over all of his notes, spending all his free time flying and piling together as much corroborated information as possible.  Ship sizes, maps, magic.  When it had finally come to a grinding halt it felt like his first zero gravity flight.  When the plane plunged down and suddenly he was floating.  Unprepared.  Unable to do anything but wait to fall.  There was no way it was done just like that.  No way they’d succeeded in getting to every single planet.  Every outpost or hub.  Not with all the setbacks and problems.  Black shares his concern.  His paranoia.  That suddenly they could be ripped away from their family, their pride and safety.  His fingers haven’t stopped twitching for days.  Every muscle in his upper back feels like it’s at risk of peeling itself off the bone with the amount of tension held there.  He hadn’t meant to isolate himself.  But everyone else seemed to just be going around like everything was fine.  Which left him alone to run patrols and translations and sign the damn NDA because he needed the money.   Shiro gaze is carefully fixed on the ceiling of Red’s hangar.  “When was the last time you flew?”  It’s not how he means to start.  That’s not the kind of talking Keith is referring to.  Jaw tightens, barely loosened by Black’s purring only for him.  “You really telling me you don’t feel…trapped here?  Like a sitting duck?”  The sky was big, but the universe was bigger and Shiro had been physically moving in space for years now.  Rarely staying put regardless of where he was located.  “I don’t know.  I just-I don’t this is it.”

     Maybe this ‘coming home’ thing was too hard on Shiro. It hadn’t been easy for Keith to adjust either. He’d never felt part of anything here on Earth from the moment his father died. Come to find out...that was his last link left and it had severed pretty early on leaving him adrift at sea gazing up at the stars as if they had the answer. And they did.

     Keith peeled an eye open, subtle, secretive, afraid that if Shiro so much as felt someone looking at him he’d run off into the void of space and he’d never see him again. It wasn’t unfounded, Keith hadn’t been able to find him for so long he’d thought maybe...

     “I feel...like there’s more to do than can ever be done in our lifetime. Like I shouldn’t waste any more time sitting here on a planet that hasn’t felt like my home since my father died. But I’m here, we’re here and Earth needs our help as much as the rest of them do. Maybe more.” But they’d had four years to adapt the Altean technology and they’d done beautifully. Built defenses, warships, and so much more in the defense of their home. Maybe it was time to move on again.

     “I feel it too. The way its calling to me. Out there I knew what my purpose was. What I was supposed to do and there was so much to do. But Shiro- if you’re feeling restless...we could go for a ride.”

[loyaltytohim]

palidinus asked:

❛ people like us don’t get to decide when we’re done. ❜

     “Why not us? Why haven’t we given enough? When will we have given enough?” Keith’s fingers curl into the grip he has on Shiro’s shoulder and he feels the weight of what it all meant from the beginning weighing heavy on his smile until it’s gone.

     “Why does it have to be us that sacrifices everything? Just because some alien technology decided we’re good enough and that no one better was going to come along at the right time?” He breathes in and exhales a heartbeat apart and squeezes a little harder.

     “You deserve to be happy, Shiro. Put the war aside, you don’t need it anymore.”

[loyaltytohim]

masqe asked:

❛ i just thought you’d like some company. ❜ ( from shiro )

     “Thanks Shiro.” Words fail to express what it means that Shiro’s here with him now so he doesn’t bother. Under the bright expanse of stars that fill the castle windows like a sheet of unmoving brilliance, the dim overhead humming just loud enough to break the monotony of silence and he leans gently on the man.

     “I think I’d go mad out here if it wasn’t for the rest of them being as loud as possible.” He muses, hiding a fit of laughter behind the curve of his palm and he closes his eyes. He can hear Shiro breathing, the sound of his heart dull but strong and it’s enough for him tonight.

     “Can’t sleep?”

[loyaltytohim]

@skyguarded​​ asked:

❛ it feels like you’ve been avoiding me. ❜

     “You’re one to talk.” If it sounds like he’s a little jaded, he might be. The best years of his life had been because of Shiro. They’d gone through war and hell together and now... Shiro had become a figure drenched in shadow standing at the tips of his fingers as he reached out and no matter how much he outstretched for him... he was gone. Whatever it was, comradery, understanding, or pity it all just- faded. Too fast for Keith to be able to take hold of it, reign it back and find what had bound them so closely together.

     “I didn’t think you wanted me around so I...gave you some space.” It hurt even now to look at Shiro so he didn’t. He kept his eyes closed, mind focused on something happier that way when the hammer came it lessened the blow.

     “Are you ready to talk now?”

[nightprompts]

&. 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝, 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.

(  you  know  that  dynamic  of  the  emotionally  closed  off  one  &  the  kind  one  they  have  a  soft  spot  for?  yeah,  that’s  the  vibe.  )

said from the lone wolf.

❛ you think you know me, but the truth is, you don’t. ❜

❛ going home isn’t an option anymore. ❜

❛ i’m fine. there’s nothing for you to worry about. ❜ 

❛ do you wish i was different? ❜ 

❛ i just, i don’t want anything bad to happen to you. ❜ 

❛ you deserve better than what you’ve got. ❜

❛ i guess we both lost something we were fond of. ❜ 

❛ i’m not leaving you out here alone. ❜ 

❛ you don’t have to keep me company, i’m fine by myself. ❜ 

❛ coming here to see you is the only place i could go. ❜

❛ i’m afraid of losing you, okay? ❜ 

❛ i know you probably hate me right now, and i get it. ❜

❛ what is with your weird fascination with me? ❜ 

❛ yeah, you keep on telling yourself that bullshit. ❜ 

❛ i didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, i just have a lot on my plate. ❜ 

❛ you’re lucky you got away with only a scratch. ❜ 

❛ if i could be a different person, i promise you, i would be. ❜

❛ people like us don’t get to decide when we’re done. ❜

❛ i’ve never had anything good happen to me when i trusted others. ❜

❛ you won’t survive out there. they tear all good things apart. ❜

❛ i don’t know what’s the truth or what’s a lie anymore. ❜ 

❛ you got guts, i’ll give you that. ❜ 

❛ the more you know, the shorter your life will be. ❜ 

❛ for the first time in years, i felt something that i thought had been lost to me. ❜ 

❛ what you think you’re going through is nothing to what i have been through. ❜ 

said from the soft spot. 

❛ you’re not as bad as everyone says you are. ❜

❛ how is it that you’re never scared? ❜

❛ you think i’m weak because i’m not like you. ❜

❛ you wanted to be left alone, right? ❜ 

❛ how do you make the pain go away? ❜

❛ you shouldn’t smoke, you know. ❜

❛ destroy what is destroying you. ❜

❛ i hope you find the peace you’re searching for. ❜

❛ you know my door is always open to you. ❜

❛ i look at you and my heart breaks because all i see is loneliness. ❜

❛ you’re avoiding the subject and you know it. what are you hiding from me? ❜ 

❛ you’re not at war anymore, you can come home. ❜

❛ it feels like you’ve been avoiding me. ❜

❛ what are you so afraid of? ❜

❛ you shouldn’t be out here by yourself. ❜ 

❛ why do you care? you could have just walked away. ❜ 

❛ i know you. how else do you think i found you so easily? ❜

❛ if it was the other way around, would you have come back for me? ❜ 

❛ i just thought you’d like some company. ❜ 

❛ are you jealous? want me all to yourself, do you? ❜

❛ i knew you had a heart. ❜ 

❛ can you look at me? please? ❜

❛ i don’t think i’ve ever seen you smile. ❜

❛ if you won’t take care of yourself, then who will? ❜

❛ you have something beautiful inside of you. it’s hard for some people to tell, but it’s there. ❜

[loyaltytohim]

@palidinus​ from here

     “Capitalism is all about subjugation at its core. You can’t rule over a lower class if you don’t have something in place to keep them lower class. What do you have more of that they don’t?” Speaking of capitalism, he’s taking a break to sip at his shake like there’s no irony in it. “Pretty sure all of creation in this universe weren’t using GAC before the Galra thought they were superior.”

[loyaltytohim]

     The music for this show is absolutely amazing.