Oct 2, 2018
I saw this for another fandom, but imagine:
Shiro in that scene in Deadpool 2, and Adam pulls him across the veil, and he’s unscarred and has his arm back and his hair is black again.
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from South Korea
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from Russia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
seen from Sweden
seen from Spain
seen from South Korea
seen from Philippines
seen from Germany
seen from United States
I saw this for another fandom, but imagine:
Shiro in that scene in Deadpool 2, and Adam pulls him across the veil, and he’s unscarred and has his arm back and his hair is black again.
Please Stop Dying
Read on Ao3
Rating General Audiences Archive Warning Major Character Death Category: M/M Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Relationship: Adam/Shiro (Voltron) Characters: Adam (Voltron) Shiro (Voltron) Iverson (Voltron) Sam Holt Additional Tags: Fix It Fic
In which Iverson decides to lead the defense instead of Adam.
Fix it Fic where Adam lives but I still kill someone. Sorry Iverson.
I really do like season 7 I hope this isn't something thats like, contributing to the negativity around it, I just....I wanted to think of a better way for it to go so I can properly enjoy the season.
EDIT: I've gone back to fix some mistakes. This is why you read things over before you publish them. Oops.
“Iverson, you will follow protocol!”
“No!” Holt said, “You’ll just get them all killed! The jets aren’t prepared--”
“The CADETS aren’t prepared!” Sanda yelled back, “Iverson, you will follow my orders this minute!”
Iverson looked between the both of them weighing his options. He made no secret he agreed with Holt. He was in charge of the jet fighters, trained each and every one of them. He never sent them into any missions lightly, and never if he weren’t at least somewhat confident of success. That’s why he didn’t want to send Shirogane in the first place, not out of some stubbornness, but to keep him safe. He blamed himself when the Kerberos mission presumably failed.
On the other hand, Sanda was his commanding officer. He was a soldier, no ifs ands or buts, and didn’t take orders from his commanding officer lightly either. Disobeying was not only mutiny, it was stupid. Sanda could strip him of rank and order the flyers to go herself, and what would he have accomplished but making it just so he didn’t have to pull the trigger.
“I’ll send them out,” He said, through gritted teeth, “But I lead the squadron.”
“What? That’s absurd!”
“Iverson, no, you can’t!”
Well, it looked like Sanda and Holt agreed on SOMETHING at least. “They’re my pilots. I’m not going to ask them to do something I’m not willing to do myself.”
“I need you here!” Sanda said, “You are under MY command, I need you at base to organize the attack!”
“Walsh!” Iverson called back. Adam Walsh stepped up, the usual jet pilot leader. “It’s about time you got a promotion, don’t you think?”
“Sir?” Walsh asked, screwing his eyebrows up, confused.
Iverson stripped the bars off his own uniform and handed them over to Adam. “Congratulations, son. You’ll be organizing the attack under Sanda. You’ll probably do a better job than I could anyway.”
Walsh gaped first at him, then Holt and Sanda behind him. “Sir, I can’t possibly--”
“You can, and you will,” He said, “It’s an order, Walsh. Understood?”
Walsh swallowed, gripping the bars tight. “Yes sir.”
Iverson nodded, and headed out to the jets. Holt grabbed his shoulder before he could make it out the door. “Iverson,” he said, voice getting lost, “This is suicide.”
Iverson almost chuckled. He recalled saying something similar to Sam about the Kerberos mission. “When you see Shirogane again, let him know I’m sorry about the kidnapping thing. Hopefully he understands.”
“Of course I understand,” Shiro said, looking at the wall of fallen soldiers, “He was following orders, like any soldier would.”
“He died a hero,” Adam said, leaning against the wall of the honored, “You know, even though he was in charge of covering up what happened, no one fought harder to try and rescue you. He even came up with simulations to take cadets out there, see if there was any way we could get you back.”
Shiro took a breath. “Well, if I’d have listened to him, none of this would have happened in the first place.” He looked over to Adam, trying to meet his eyes. “If I had listened to you.”
Adam shifted, his strict military posture failing as he looked at his feet. “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have like, saved the universe or whatever. That seems pretty important.”
Shiro shrugged. “It wouldn’t have come to Earth though.”
“Yes it would, and you know it,” Adam said, “If you hadn’t gotten the blue lion out of here when you did, the Galra would have taken it, and then this would just be another planet under their control, with no Voltron to free it. Stop trying to turn this into some guilt trip,” He sighed. “Besides, you didn’t die, and you came back. So. It all worked out.”
Shiro tried not to choke at the words ‘you didn’t die.’ He wasn’t sure how to break that particular escapade to Adam, and decided, maybe it was just best not to. “I came back,” He agreed with that part at least, “And, despite my memory being essentially a bag of swiss cheese, if memory serves, you said if I come back, you wouldn’t be here.”
Adam bit his tongue, turning away, “block.”
“What?”
“BLOCK of swiss cheese,” Adam said, “That’s the stuff with the holes in them. You wouldn’t get a ‘bag’ of swiss cheese.”
“I would if it’s sliced!” Shiro countered with a smirk, successfully making Adam’s mouth twitch up and eyes roll. “But you’re avoiding my point.”
“And what was your point?” Adam asked, mask of seriousness back on as he rolled his head back Shiro’s way.
“The point is,” Shiro said, daring to take a step closer, “You’re here.”
Adam swallowed, the apple of his throat bobbing. “You know, I said I MIGHT not be here,” he corrected Shiro’s memory, “And just because I’m here physically doesn’t mean…”
“Adam,” Shiro said, tilting his head to the side, “Look, it’s been a long time, for both of us. We’ve both gone through a lot, so I’m not expecting anything, but--I just want to say, I miss you.”
Adam closed his eyes, like Shiro had actually hit him with his words. He took several stuttered breaths, echoing in the empty hall. “I--” he started to say, but he swallowed the words. He was trying to phrase things, Shiro could tell. Ever a diplomat, he never wanted to say the wrong thing. “I can’t. Not now.” He shook his head, looking at his feet again, not willing to see the affect his words would have, “The planet’s being occupied by aliens, I’ve ordered most of the people on this wall to their death,” he nodded at the wall behind him, “And I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified for this and--”
“It’s ok,” Shiro said, “Really, I get it. It’s not a good time.”
“We just--” Adam continued on, holding back tears well enough he’d probably trick anyone who didn’t know him as well as Shiro, “We would need to talk, and it’d be a thing, and figuring things out right now….I just can’t.”
“I know,” Shiro said, “Believe me, I...I know stress,” He weaved a hand through his white hair, earning another snort. “If we all, you know, survive this,” Shiro said, motioning to the Garrison and world around them, “You think, maybe we could talk? Just talk. No promises, no--no declarations, just talk?”
Adam bit the inside of his lip the way Shiro had often told him not to do, for fear of drawing blood. He had apparently gotten back in the bad habit. “Just talk. IF we don’t die.”
Shiro smirked, “Well, now that I have something to look forward to, I’ll make sure to stay alive.”
Adam’s lips twitched up again. Before Shiro could think of something else to say, Adam had wrapped him up in a hug. Shiro blinked unsure what was happening as Adam squeezed tighter. “I’m glad you’re back.”
Shiro relaxed, hugging him back. “Me too.”
“We have to take this ship down!” Shiro shouted over the Atlas’ bridge crew.
“We can’t from out here,” Coran said, in his hilariously mis-sized cadet uniform. It wasn’t really designed for grown adults, “We would need to get inside the ship to destroy it’s energy crystal!”
Shiro looked at the various schematics, analyzing the best plan. “I’ll do it,” He said to himself, then nodded and said it more confidently to the crew, “I’ll do it. I know Galra ships, I’ll go on board and sabotage them from the inside.”
“Captain!” Veronica said, adapting to Shiro’s new title a little too comfortably for Shiro’s taste, “That ship’s CRAWLING with Galra and Sentries! If you don’t make it--” Her eyes traveled for just the briefest moments over to Adam who was staring up at him, face going through an alarming array of emotions.
Shiro tore his gaze back to Veronica. “Then I’ll just have to make it.” He nodded to all of them, “Good luck to you all. Coran, you have the ship.”
“Roger that,” Coran said, saluting him.
Shiro turned around to head out, but paused at the voice behind him, “I’m going too!” Adam said, jumping out of his chair. “To make sure you make it back.”
Shiro opened his mouth to argue, but Adam frowned, daring him to say ‘you should stay behind.’ He sighed, motioning for Adam to follow. Adam ran behind, and in seconds, it was like they were in sync with one another once again.
Adam whistled low, “So this is what the inside of these things looks like,” He said as they snuck through the Galra hallways.
“Now, follow me closely,” Shiro whispered back, “The sentries have a very specific pattern to their movements. We have to move fast.”
Adam nodded. They stood at the door, listening for the sentries to pass. Shiro counted in his head. “Now,” he said, and he led himself through the doorway, Adam hot on his heels. They froze at the next hiding spot, adrenaline pumping through their veins. “Now,” Shiro repeated, going along.
At the next hall, Shiro course corrected, avoiding a galra soldier who was coming their way, grabbing Adam’s hand to pull him into a weapons closet.
It was so cliche, it was every stupid movie all happening at once as they waited, practically nose to nose, listening for when the guards were past. Shiro tried to back away, giving Adam as much room as possible, but Adam didn’t get the memo, lining up against him, head tilted perfectly upward to look at Shiro. They still had their helmets on, creating a barrier, but it didn’t stop their eyes meeting.
“They’re gone,” Adam whispered.
Shiro nodded, breaking his trance, and taking Adam’s hand in his own once again, “Come on.”
“Whoa,” Adam said, when they finally arrived, hands still intertwined though neither mentioned it, “THAT’S a Balmera crystal?”
“Improperly mined, yes,” Shiro said, “Coran, we’ve reached the crystal how do I destroy it?”
“Well, this is going to sound a bit odd,” Coran said, “But I’m going to have to uplinkto your brain and then divert the energy through your nerve system down to your arm.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Adam asked back.
“Only a little!” Coran said, like it was some sort of comfort, “Really the only risk is somehow overloading his memory and disconnecting his limited hold of his consciousness to his body.”
“His WHAT to his WHAT?”
“Adam, it’s fine,” Shiro said, “It’s not like it’s the first time.”
“It’s not WHAT?”
“Coran!” Shiro said, putting his hand on the crystal, “Download the uplink.” Adam was frowning in that way of he really wanted to yell but knew it wasn’t the right time. “You, uh, might want to step back.”
Shiro’s arm started glowing as Adam retreated, a solid beam of energy shooting out and lighting the giant purple crystal.
The beam grew hot, the sound coming from it raising in ominous pitch. Shiro felt his socket burning, but held on, flinching back, but not letting go.
Finally, the first crack formed. He pushed forward, and the crack expanded, growing like a wildfire until it shattered, blowing him back.
“Shiro!” Adam said, rushing forward. He turned Shiro’s head to the side, his helmet having been forced off of him. “Shiro, come on, say something! Shiro!”
He slapped at Shiro’s face trying to wake him, over and over, until finally Shiro flinched, his eyes peeking open “You know,” he murmured, “This is why you failed basic triage.”
Adam sighed, bending over Shiro on the ground as though he was about to fall asleep on top of him. “You have got to stop dying.”
“So they keep telling me,” Shiro said, trying to push himself up.
Adam quickly helped, grabbing him beneath the arm to support him. “Geez, did you gain weight in space?”
“It’s muscle build!” Shiro shot out, defensively, “and, you know, the robot arm.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Adam said, lugging him out of the room and up to their escape hatch.
The wind from being outside of an actual spaceship blew through Shiro’s hair, nearly knocking Adam off his feet. Shiro was thankfully taking more and more of his weight on his own, climbing up to the surface.
“I should have known it was you,” an all-too familiar voice said, getting both their attention. Adam had only seen him in videos, and Shiro hadn't seen him in ages, but there was no mistaking Sendak when he was right before them.
Shiro snarled, “Adam, you need to get to the Atlas.”
“It’s too far,” Adam said, “I’ll help you.”
“No, trust me,” Shiro said, “Trust me, I know a trick I learned from Allura,”
“What trick?” Adam asked as Shiro grabbed his uniform with his robot hand, “Shiro, what are you doing?! Shiro!”
Shiro launched Adam in the direction of the Atlas, mostly depending on Adam’s ability to keep himself steady with his rockets. Sendak reached out to intercept him in the air, but Shiro charged at him, getting the focus turned back on himself.
He was testing his own strength against Sendak’s giant arm when a communication flickered in his ear, “IF YOU DIE OUT THERE I’LL KILL YOU, TAKASHI SHIROGANE!”
He sighed to himself, “Some things never change,” and he went back to his fight.
Shiro smiled over the audience of friends and allies, terrestrian and alien alike. They cheered for his message of hope, and he smiled and nodded to them all, stepping down as the somber music of the Garrison played in honor of the fallen.
“Nice speech,” Adam said, intercepting him outside the hall, “Short, sweet, but hopeful. All you need, really.”
Shiro smirked. He’d been wondering where Adam had hidden off to, but wasn’t going to criticize him for that now. “Glad you liked it.”
Adam smiled, no longer trying to hide it from Shiro, but not saying anything either, like he was waiting for something. “So,” Shiro said, “I know there’s still a lot of work, but the world isn’t under occupation anymore.”
“I had noticed that,” Adam said, smile not fading from his face.
“So,” Shiro continued, “I was just wondering, is it too soon to talk ye--”
He was cut off as Adam stepped very, very far into his personal space, wrapping his hands around Shiro’s neck and stopping his speech in it’s tracks. “We could talk,” Adam said, “If that’s what you really want. Or…”
“Or?” Shiro asked.
Adam shrugged, “Or…..we could not talk.”
“We’re going to have to talk,” Shiro said, his own hands wrapping around him, “I mean, there are still a lot of complications...the paladins are injured, there are Galrans still fighting across the galaxy, and aliens are coming every day as Earth becomes a base for the rebellion, and we….we’re caught in the middle of all of it.”
Adam sighed, leaning his head against Shiro’s. “I know,” he said, “I know, and we’re going to have to deal with all of it, and more. Not to mention you still haven’t gotten out of telling me exactly what happened with your….clone? Did Keith say?”
“Damn that kid…” Shiro said, turning his head away, as though he were about to march down to the hospital and chew out his protegé right then and there.
Adam turned his head back to face him, holding his chin in his hand, “But this is one of what I find to be very rare moments in life where we don’t have to worry about that. Not yet. And we’re probably not going to get too many more of them.”
“That is VERY true,” Shiro said, raising his eyebrows.
“So, can’t we use it, just to exist for a little while?” Adam asked, “Not as soldiers or paladins or rebels or whatever else, but just to be Adam and Takashi? Just one more time?”
Now, how could Shiro help but smile at that. “Ok,” he said, a small whisper to the universe. “Ok,” he repeated, more confident, making the choice.
Adam leaned up and captured his lips with his own, the both of them holding steady, only rocking very slightly back and forth as they got to know each other, both settling into the memory they held dear, and learning the new person they had each become.
Keith in belle’s dress from Of Daughters, Boyfriends, and Hot Cocoa Chapter 4. Well, its mentioned anyway. I don’t really draw...but I just traced this as best as I can. I...I didn’t have a marker close enough to his skin color so. i tried.
Adam/Shiro Inception
Part of my Voltron “Bed Time Stories” Oneshot Collection
Read on Ao3
Shiro is back at the Garrison, and reunites with an old "friend"
VOLTRON SEASON 7 SPOILERS
Adam Lives because I Say So
Shiro didn’t think he’d be in a Garrison bed ever again. He’d just started to get used to sleeping in the Lions. Sort of.
Okay, he still didn’t really sleep much. Turns out even being put into a clone body didn’t really affect his brain or consciousness or WHATEVER to allow him to sleep. The other paladins had all gotten used to the idea that Shiro just went to bed late and woke up early. Hopefully they didn’t suspect Shiro had nights where he just didn’t sleep at all.
He was trying to get to sleep tonight. He had read somewhere that just laying back and resting your eyes could sometimes give you the benefits of sleep even if you couldn’t actually sleep. And he needed it,
Out of habit more than anything, he lay back and started to think of calming things. He was in a room full of puppies. The puppy nebula, with puppies of all shapes and sizes, hopping over him and snuggling up to him, keeping him warm and comfortable with their cute puppy antics as they hopped around the nebula.
The nebula made him think of space, and space made him think of the lions, and the lions made him think if there was anyway of trying to flank Sendak’s ships in space where they could limit civilian casualties and quiznak, he was back to thinking of war strategies again.
Annoyed, Shiro turned on his side, wedging himself against the wall. Okay, starting again. One puppy. Two puppies. Three puppies--
A hesitant knock came at his door, so soft Shiro thought he imagined it, or perhaps it was a knock on a neighbor door he just overheard, just loud enough to disturb his rhythm.
The knock sounded louder, and, ok, that was definitely his door. Hoping some emergency didn’t just happen, he picked himself up with a yawn, and went to answer the door.
He was surprised to see Adam on the other side, and in fact blinked repeatedly to make sure he wasn’t imagining it. “Hey,” he said confused.
Adam swallowed, meeting Shiro’s eyes for only a brief moment, before going down to his feet. “Sorry,” he said, “Stupid, I shouldn’t have come.”
He turned to walk away, but Shiro grabbed him, awkwardly as he only had the one arm available to do it. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Adam sighed “I just--” He bit his tongue, “It was stupid. I had a dream where I had only dreamt you coming back. What kind of inception shit is that, right?” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyway, just wanted to like, confirm you were here or whatever.”
“I’m here,” Shiro said. “Most of me, anyway,” he indicated his arm.
Adam smirked, “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “It’s almost a shame. You’re funeral was really nice.”
“Was it now?” Shiro asked.
“Some reps from the Japanese Garrison base came out and everything to say a few words,” Adam nodded, “Really touching, honestly.”
“Well,” Shiro said, “Sorry to take the fun out of funeral.”
Adam snorted again, hanging his head, but Shiro saw just a trace of tears in his eyes. “Well, anyway,” he said, forcing the tears back in with sheer willpower, “I better be going. You’re here, obviously. And we both need sleep.”
“Wait,” Shiro said, “Do you...do you want to come in?” he said, grabbing at straws for some excuse to keep him there. “You know, just in case you have another inception dream. Don’t want you to have to come down here three times a night.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “How magnanimous of you.”
“I rather thought so,” Shiro nodded, agreeing. “So...are you coming in?”
Shiro took a half step back, opening it up to Adam.
Adam sighed, staring into the empty room. In slow motion, he stepped forward, heading in, with Shiro following him.
“Took just one night for them to sleep in the same room,” Keith said the following morning to the paladins at breakfast, “Everybody pay up.”
The other four groaned in resignation, going through their wallets to find change. “They couldn’t have waited ONE damn night of lonely misery?” Lance muttered to himself. His first allowance since he’d gotten to space and he was already having to hand it over.
Another Goddamn Post About Queerbaiting and Voltron. (spoilers, obviously)
It’s safe to say no one is ‘happy’ about Adam’s death. But I have seen a couple posts (and really it is a few, this isn’t addressed at one person) that it was ‘unfortunate’ but we still have representation, because Shiro is still mlm.
Now, I understand that some people want to focus on the positives in this season right now, and I get it, fandom is supposed to be fun. but I wanted to talk for a moment of the levels of how offended I am with this. This was not ‘problematic’ this was offensive.
Step 1: This was ANNOUNCED at comic con. Now, I don’t know how much of it was emphasized vs. how much the fandom just kinda exploded, but they knew the fandom and they knew how much of a deal this would be. This was something to get people’s attention and people talking. And by people I SPECIFICALLY mean people like you and me if you’re reading a tumblr post. Near adult and adult fans, you know, the people who usually care what’s announced at a convention.
You know who doesn’t usually care about things announced at conventions? Parents and children. Children, aka, the target audience. Which brings us to
Step 2: It is not canon. No, really. I know it was confirmed by creators but look at the episodes. If you didn’t know that Shiro and Adam were supposed to be lovers, would you have known from these episodes? They don’t really bring it up, they don’t say ‘are you breaking up with me’ they don’t call each other ‘boyfriends’ or whatever. Not once is it mentioned in the SHOW that Shiro is in any way mlm.
This makes it safe for the conservative parents who would have complained about this if they’d actually done anything specific to ignore the idea that Shiro could be gay. This does not allow the children, possibly gay children, to KNOW that the character in question is gay, just by watching the show. All this does is provide a ‘wink wink nudge nudge YOU know what we REALLY mean’ to us fans old enough to understand.
You know what that is? That’s subtext. The LGBT community does not need ‘help’ finding subtext in media, we’ve been doing it for ages, and they KNOW we’ve been doing it for Voltron because they’ve addressed ships before, multiple times. The combination of making it an advertising stunt (and thats what it was) and then failing to deliver undeniable representation is TEXTbook queerbaiting. Its something we’ve seen countless times, and I encourage you to watch THIS video from council of geeks on the matter in terms of Star Wars and other medias.
Which brings us to Step 3 Bury Your Gays. To call this a trope feels like underplaying it. There’s no way I believe the creators of the show didn’t know about this. If they wanted to find an emotional way to get us to care about the pilots dying, there are other directions they could have gone in.
But it goes worse than that. We don’t see Adam outside the one scene with him and Shiro, and his death scene. We know nothing about him. He was entirely created and used as a PROP to say “Yeah Shiro’s gay he had a boyfriend, look,” at Comic Con, and then IMMEDIATELY dispose of him. Characters have died on the show before, but it’s not exactly common, really. this isn’t a CW show, death is used sparingly. So I find it entirely offensive that they killed a character without expanding on him at all, and only using him to give us SUBTEXT about a main character (who ALSO died, mind you. I was more ready to forgive that before, but now.....)
Other points I’d be remiss not to point out: The Psycho lesbians is another ‘unfortunate’ trope, that is, once again, Subtext, but is played out by Zethrid and Ezor. I am highly disappointed in this. I don’t even have anything else to say it was just poorly thought out.
Also, Het ships. No other ships are ‘confirmed’ but multiple are ‘teased’ which is more than subtext, there is text. Lance has stated his crush on Allura multiple times, text. Allura blushing talking to Lance: Text. I even like the ship in general, but the fact we don’t see Allura’s side of the thing since she JUST GOT HER HEART BROKEN butI digress. Um, Ezor teasing the idea Acxa and Keith like each other despite never speaking? Text, even if they don’t do anything with it. Hunk and Shay have had Text in previous seasons pointing towards their attraction to each other, and they get reunited this season. Text.
Up until this season, with the exception of Hunk/Shay attraction and Lance’s crush on everyone, especially Allura, shipping characters hasn’t really been a big part of this show. Fandom yes, but fandom’s different. Also, just for comparison here, that means we have 3 het ships heavily hinted towards, all characters involved happy as of the end of the season, 1 subtext psycho lesbians pair, who’s possibly dead though I doubt it, and 1 gay pair that was meant to be the representation advertised that was never confirmed in-show and resulted in one of the character’s death.
Do I think the creators are raging homophobes that hate gay people? No, of course not. I think they just don’t care. They don’t care about the community outside of what they can do to market it. Thats what stings so badly about this, they USED this to advertise, to sing their own praises of how progressive they were....and then backed out.
Of course I NEVER advocate hate of any kind, not at the creators, not at voice actors, and ESPECIALLY not at the fandom who is just trying to make sense of all this. As I’ve said before, outside of what I just wrote, I like a lot of season 7. But this is important to me, this NEEDS to be addressed, and I absolutely demand to see some kind of explanation, apology, SOMETHING out of the show’s creators.
So there’s the trope in Voltron modern fics that the lions are a litter of kittens that was found
Can we add to that the mother cats name is Atlas?
Shiro/Allura Warm Milk
Part of my Voltron “Bed Time Stories” One Shot Series
Read on Ao3
cw: PTSD Nightmare, some violent imagery, Anxiety
It wasn’t a memory, nothing as concrete as that.
It was flashes, feelings….a taste of blood in his mouth, a tight pull of dirt and sweat on his skin, a shake in his bones, fear in his heart.
The images were a swirl of his past and present. He saw Voltron, aliens, his mother, Keith in his garrison uniform but piloting the black lion, dead alien, Kerberos, Haggar, blood blood blood, Matt and Sam, his school as a child, being strapped down by Iverson, Iverson working with Ulaz, a dead alien with Shiro’s hands covered in dark navy blue alien blood--
“Shiro?”
Shiro gasped and sat up blinking. The images kept flashing before his eyes as he closed and opened his eyes, vision slowly becoming clearer. He was in a room, a safe room, he felt before he recognized where he was. The realization only hit when he met a familiar pair of eyes in the dark. “A..” he swallowed, his throat dry, “Allura?”
“Shhh,” she said, reaching forward to wipe tears he hadn’t realized had fallen down his cheeks. “Breath….breath slow.”
He did as asked, although it was shaky. There was a light in the room, and he realized it was his own metal arm, glowing, “Oh, Quiznack,” he muttered, powering it down, “I’m...I’m so sorry Allura.”
“It’s ok,” Allura said, running her hand through his hair.
“I could have,” tears were welling up again, “I could have hurt you, I---”
“Shhh,” Allura pulled him into her arms, resting his head against her chest. “I’m ok. You’re ok. You weren’t going to hurt me.”
“But I could--”
“Hey,” She kissed his head and sat back, looking into his face. “You didn’t, though. And besides, I’m a bit tougher than that.”
That pulled a single chuckle out of him, but he was still stressed. “I’m sorry,” he said, “You must have been sleeping, and I--”
“It’s ok,” Allura whispered, “You don’t need to worry about me right now. Just focus on yourself, just for a minute.”
Shiro nodded, though his worry didn’t dissipate. “I’m trying,” Shiro said, “I’m just...I’m not strong enough...I can’t...I try and push it away but….I’m not…”
“You are the strongest person I know,” Allura said, “Mentally and emotionally, anyway, I could toss you like a sack of kalleno nuts.” he chuckled again, “But no one should...no one CAN do everything themselves. I know I can’t. That’s why I have Coran and the paladins and you. And you have me. You have us.” He nodded, knowing that….logically. It was a little harder to process it emotionally. “Here, can you...can you wait just a moment? I’ll be right back.”
Shiro didn’t really want to let her go, but found himself nodding. She kissed his head, unwrapping herself from him and walking out the door.
Allura’s room was large, and quiet. Too large. Too quiet. Shiro felt drowned in the empty space, backing up to hit the headboard. A man as large as he was, it was not often he felt like a small child. Especially not after all he’d gone through. But sitting here….all he wanted to do was curl up like a toddler and block out the rest of the universe, even from his own mind.
Allura returned soon, holding a glass of steaming white liquid. “Here,” she said, coming over to sit by him again, a comforting presence, “Lance told me warm milk can occasionally help humans sleep. Would you...I mean, does it…”
“Sometimes,” Shiro said, “I would probably prefer chamomile tea, but this is nice.” he took the warm mug, letting it warm up his hands.
She scooted closer. “What’s a chamomile?”
He chuckled again. “Don’t worry about it.”
She didn’t, instead rubbing little circles into his back and humming comforting words until his universe was calm once again.
VLD SPOILERS
Okay but Acxa can join the blade now, right? Like. She’s there. She’s right there. They’re short on members. Come on.
Also her longer hair has me questioning my orientation, not gonna lie.