For @shalluraas and their anon “friend.”
He sighed, staring at the small plaque. It seemed too small to contain so much. This was all there was to signify the life and death of someone who had been a friend, a lover, and nearly a lifetime partner. And that was just to Shiro himself. How many lives had Adam touched in how many different ways? And now there was just this little name plate with a picture that couldn’t begin to sum up all Adam had been in his abruptly-shortened life.
“I am sorry for your loss.”
He jumped a little, and turned to face her. “Thank you, Allura.” He looked back to the plaque. “I’m not even sure how to… how to process it. He was… I made my choice, and we weren’t… but he died not even knowing I was alive, and it feels…”
“Like something in you is incomplete? Like you were meant to share that knowledge with him and now you never can?” She walked up to stand next to him on his right side.
He nodded. “Yeah.” He gave her a sidelong glance. “I guess asking ‘you, too’ is kind of pointless, huh? You lost so many I can’t even fathom it. Or maybe I just don’t want to.”
“I’m glad that you won’t know what it’s like to lose your entire homeworld,” she said softly. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But even the loss of one person, when they mean that much to you… he was your home, at one point, or part of it. I wish he could still be here to be with you.”
“We wouldn’t be… he wouldn’t be with me. Not that way. But I wanted a chance to… I don’t know, ‘explain’ isn’t quite right. Talk. Adam and I were long over before he died, but it’s that ‘incomplete’ feeling you mentioned.” He sighed. “He deserved better. From the Garrison, but especially from me.”
“You did what you felt you had to do at the time,” she said, her voice gentle, her tone cautious. “And he did the same. I’m sorry it worked out like that, but, if you had it to do over, would you have chosen differently?”
“I don’t know. I don’t… I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “I had to go. It was… there was something in me that said I had to go. And I guess it was foolish of me to just assume he’d be here waiting to take me back, you’re right. We both did what we had to do.”
He turned to look at her and smiled. “And it’s not all bad.”
She returned his smile and took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. This hand that she’d made for him, that she’d powered for him with the last bit of home she had left to her. “No?”
He leaned in and kissed her forehead, right where the jewel of her tiara had once sat. “Not bad at all.”
She laid her forehead against his. “Should I leave you alone?”
“No, I’m done for today.” He pulled away to look back at all he had left of Adam. “I’ll come back to visit another time. I promise. Maybe some day I can get it all out: everything I want to say and should have said. I just… can’t today.”
Allura stepped towards the name plate. “I wish I could have met you, Adam. And the best I can do is promise you that I’ll look after Takashi - as much as he’ll let me…”
He stuck his tongue out at her for that.
“… and that we’ll keep Earth safe.”
Shiro pressed two fingers to Adam’s picture with his left hand, then squeezed Allura’s hand. “Come on. I’m getting tired.”
She nodded. “Shall I hold you until you fall asleep?”
“That’d be nice, thank you.”
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
areudirty
stormborns
annaxmalina
kianamaiart
