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3 Times Shiro Helps Matt and 1 Time Matt Returns the Favor

Happy Voltron Positivity Day! Thank you so much @stargazershiro for organizing this!! I’m always here for positivity and I have so enjoyed seeing all the amazing work on my dash! this really pushed me to do something new, which was amazing!

I wrote his Shatt fic for @helloimren and I hope they like it!! also i’m so sorry i’m posting this so late in the day!

Summary

It didn’t start out as a thing. Or maybe it was always a thing and neither of them noticed. The point is they weren’t keeping track. This was always just a natural element of their relationship. You could say they were there for each other. Sometimes it seemed like one of them needed to be there more than the other. But that was neither here nor there. This story starts on a day when the bells start going off and a pattern makes itself known.

aka a 3+1 story ranging from pre Kerberos Galaxy Garrison life to the boys finding each other as Rebel and Paladin and the many instances where they help each other out in different circumstances

Rating: T

Relationship: Shatt

Words: 8008

Status: One Shot/Complete

Read on Ao3

It didn’t start out as a thing. Or maybe it was always a thing and neither of them noticed. The point is they weren’t keeping track. This was always just a natural element of their relationship. You could say they were there for each other. Sometimes it seemed like one of them needed to be there more than the other. But that was neither here nor there. This story starts on a day when the bells start going off and a pattern makes itself known.

***

1

Matt wanted to think he had this project in the bag. From the day it was assigned he was excited about the different possibilities and in the first few days he set straight to working on his outline, and making plans to go to the library and research his hypothesis and was absolutely, under no circumstances going to procrastinate to the last second. With 2 ½ weeks to make, write, and polish off his project, Matt was positive he would have this done with time to spare.

The way Matt sees it, the problem with creating an outline and making plans to go to the library for research is that it’s all good and dandy during the first few days of an assignment. It makes you feel like you were productive and you accomplished something already and you think, “I’ve got loads of time left, and look at me getting stuff done. I’m even being responsible with time management and planning ahead. No need to sweat it.”

Wrong.

Sweat it.

Sweat it big time.

Because otherwise you do what Matt did. You make all these plans to go to the library to study and research, but you never actually go. And then before you know it two weeks have flown by and it’s the day before your project is due and you end up like Matt. Crammed into small Galaxy Garrison dorm room after scaring away your roommate with hissing noises and a computer that probably shouldn’t have been making those sounds but you were too busy searching under your bed for that reference book you were sure you checked out and had hidden somewhere around here, to pay it much mind.

Alone and stressed out and totally blameless with absolutely no idea how he ended up here (these are total lies and he knows it, deep down, but he’s not ready to admit fault to himself just yet) Matt is about one page away from giving up on the project all together and taking the F. It won’t be the only one he’s ever gotten. Maybe the only one for lack of effort. But it matters a lot more to him now than it ever has. His dad told him they’re looking at cadets from his class for a new mission and he knows one bad grade could cost him - especially one from just not turning in a major project that he had two weeks to complete.

Matt is weighing the pros and cons, considering asking for an extension, though he knows he has no grounds and that would probably root against him on the record for this new mission bidding too, when his door slams open and on the other side of it walking through the threshold in all his distracting beauty is Shiro.

“Hey Shiro, nice to see you too? Ever knock? Since when do you have a key to my dorm anyway? What are you even doing here? Didn’t I tell you I was working on this hell project? I could have sworn I complained about it at least three times this week?” Matt was already feeling a bit frantic about his lack of progress on this project. He and Shiro were great study partners when they teamed up on assignments but Shiro was most definitely not in this class, very few pilots elected to take the more advanced sciences. On the occasions when he and Matt tried to study separate things in the same room, they often got distracted by other topics far too easily and learned quickly they just had too much else to do together to waste time studying.

Matt also found more and more recently that he would get sucked in by Shiro’s lips as he spoke or the way his eyes lit up when he thought about the day's simulations. Or even Shiro's fingers and how they wrapped around a pencil or twisted as they folded paper into small airplanes or stars. It was just too easy for Matt to get distracted by Shiro. And Matt really needed to not be distracted right now.

“Hey. I did knock. Twice. I texted you to tell you I was on my way over too but you never answered me. When you didn’t answer the door I just figured it was open. It was open.” Shiro started his story with his signature “worried big brother” look Matt catches him giving the younger cadets all the time but by the end of it it had morphed into a small smirk even Shiro’s perfect manners couldn’t hide. “How is the project going? I kind of figured by now you'd either be at master genius breakthrough levels or total meltdown ready to call it quits levels?”

“The second one”

“Ahh. Alright then. All nighter. You. Me. First one to fall asleep buys dinner!”

“Shiro.. you can’t be serious. We’ll never get this done. Look at this place?”

“Then we better get organized! Let's get all the books collected over here, and your model materials, over there? And maybe save everything and restart your laptop.. I think that might be steam coming out of the top?”

“Crap!”

“And while we do that why don’t you start from the top of your outline.”

Matt quickly started fanning the near-flames of his computer while Shiro started to organize the chaos of his project inside the tiny dorm room. Matt watched him run around putting books in piles and the styrofoam in a bin by the edge of the bed with some colored paper, markers and glitter. Shiro moved around Matt’s room with such ease. It was small and regulation but it was also Matt’s space and Shiro had absolutely zero problem walking right in and making himself at home in it. Matt realized he was staring and starting to veer off into thoughts he was better off avoiding (for as long as possible) and went back to focusing on his computer. Letting the silence settle over the two of them comfortably.

He risked one more glance up at Shiro a moment later, when Shiro was finishing collecting the last of the books from where they were thrown haphazardly around the room. Matt waited for him to settle on the floor beside him before speaking.

“Hey, Shiro?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks. For helping me.”

“Of course Matt. I’ll always be here for you, every time!”

***

2.

3:52: Hey

3:52: Class just let out and i’m on my way over. Did you still want to go over your plans for field week?

3:59: please tell me you’re home because I just rounded the corner and this could be really awkward

4:00: Matt your roommate hasn’t liked me since you put that virus on his computer and told him I was using it

4:00: He’s not here

4:00: You’re alive

4:00: mostly

4:01:... what happened

4:02: I tried to change the duvet and got stuck inside

Shiro put his phone away. Having received confirmation that Matt was both in the dorm and alone he grabbed his backpack and straightened from where he’d perched himself outside his friends room. It probably looked a little odd, someone of Shiro’s status lurking outside the dorms like this. But this had become a common occurrence by now and Bell Hall was used to spotting Shiro near Matt. Shiro liked to think the familiarity and calm that washed over the hallway, replacing the various looks he received; strange, fearful, inquisitive, verging on respectful, were limited to the dorm hallway as a result of his and Matt's abundance of time together but the truth was most of the Garrison was privy to gossip about the two of them in one way or another.

“Matt?”

“Shiro?” the sound was muffled, but the reluctance wasn’t hard to miss. Sweeping the room with a smirk Shiro caught sight of a lump on the second bed in the small regulation room. Covered in a twisted, oversized, white as snow, duvet that was probably four times the size the standard regulation was his study partner and best friend. Shiro didn’t even try to help the smile that crept onto his face.

“Hey there.”

“Shut up”

“I haven’t said anything yet”

“Stop smiling”

“What makes you think i’m cruel enough to smile at my best friend’s misfortune?”

“I can hear the smile in your voice you ass.”

“You should really be nicer to me. I am the one who’s going to get you out of this mess.” Shiro’s smirk was getting bigger and bigger as this conversation went on. Matt’s voice was still muffled through the covers but he was getting louder and more confident.

Shiro really didn’t know how it was possible but the more time he spent around Matt the further into his orbit he was drawn.

“Don’t bother with a rescue mission. It’s too risky. Just send in rations and entertainment and promise to take care of my laptop. And Katie. She’ll need a good support system if i’m going to be lost to the walls of this pillow fortress for good. But mostly my laptop.”

Shiro laughed at his friends overdramatics. Matt was always.. theatrical. Despite the slimmer boy’s pull towards all thing clinical and scientific, he had a way with presentation and people that never failed to amaze Shiro. When Matt talked about things he loved or cared about it, when he got excited or invested in something, Shiro would lose focus on everything else in the room. Matt found a way to capture Shiro’s attention to the fullest extent on a more and more frequent basis and he was at a complete loss at how it happened. Matt was just, captivating, and dramatic, and talked with his whole body in a way that made Shiro sometimes flush to the tips of his ears- not the kind of reaction Shiro relishes in, thank you.

“I think I’ll risk the rescue. Can’t lose my best friend to unforgiving tundra of the oversized duvet wastelands now can I?” If Shiro’s chest felt an extra little beat when he said the words ‘best friend’ these days, well, he really hoped his voice stayed casual enough it wasn’t noticeable. Matt didn’t seem to care as he just shuffled around under the giant duvet and Shiro took that as a sign to move on.

“No Shiro, I won’t risk your life too!”

“If we go down, we go down together! It’s a risk i’m willing to take for you!”

“Aww, you’d live out the rest of your life in a duvet bubble for me Shiro?”

“Well when you put it like that..” Shiro made like he was going to leave when he felt a blanket covered hand flail and reach out towards him.

“No! Wait! Kidding, i’m kidding! Rescue me Takashi!”

“Alright, alright would you stop squirming? I can’t get this untangled with you so restless. How did you even get it this tangled anyways? I can’t even find the other corner to let you out?” Shiro was half leaning over Matt’s body at this point, Matt’s knees digging into Shiro’s ribs while Shiro searched the bed and ran his hands along the edge for the missing tangled corners to the duvet. He could feel the heat from Matt’s body coming through the blanket and knew he was just lucky that Matt was still trapped under those covers or he would be treated to a fully flustered Shiro. Shiro wanted to blame the flush on the exhaustless search for the edge of the blanket, but he knew deep down that it had nothing to do with that and all to do with the warm, beautiful, funny, best friend lying underneath him.

“Check the corners of the bed. I tucked some of them in under the bed to hold the duvet down when I started but I wasn’t able to get them loose from here.”

‘Now he tells me’ Shiro thinks. After he spent all his time practically fondling his friend, his hands inching their way under his body to look for stray blanket to see if Matt rolled over it by mistake in all his wiggling. “Alright.” Leaning over Matt even further Shrio reaches to the edge of the bed and tucks his hands between the wall and the mattress and comes away with a handful of big, white, fluffy duvet. From there it's just a matter of untangling Matt like a burrito, which Shiro does none too gently but at least makes sure he lands on his bed with his head squarely on a pillow.

“Oof.” Matt squeaks out at his body makes contact with the bed. “Thanks. It was getting kind of hot in there. But i’m gonna miss my little cocoon. And the locals were pretty friendly. We should go back and visit sometime.”

He says it so calmly. Like a joke. Which it probably was. But that doesn’t stop the images from flooded Shiro’s mind and it’s too late to stop them. The two of them, snuggled under that giant duvet of oversized cuddly death. Warm and safe. Safe and warm. Together. Hidden from responsibilities and training and homework and expectations. Just the two of them smiling and laughing, because Matt always makes him laugh and Shiro has never figured out how he does it so easily. It’s no sooner than all of these thoughts are registering than Shiro is realizing he may just be in a little more over his head for his best friend, his study partner, for Matt, than he ever stopped to think about. But that’s probably okay because it’s Matt. And these feelings aren’t bad. He knows the difference between small crushes, basic attraction, and real feelings. This is becoming something he doesn’t even have a name for and Shiro is finding he doesn’t even mind.

“Yeah. Maybe we should!” Shiro finally said with a small grin, taking a seat next to Matt on the bed. He pulled his backpack along with him now, knowing eventually the two would get to whatever it was he had originally come here for, the topic hazy somewhere in the back of his mind; not completely forgotten but certainly not to be taking the focus of his memory anytime soon with Matt looking at him with those wide eyes, like he just told him their dreams were coming true tomorrow and they were headed to space. What had Shiro done to deserve this?

Suddenly Matt’s smile grew wide to match his eyes. “Really now? Alright then! But the terrain in there is tricky - don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Just promise me you’ll be ready to save us if we get trapped?”

“Every time.” Shiro smiled down at his friend, whose smile had gone from blinding and mischievous to serene with Shiro’s words.

“Good.” Matt perked back up “Because I think the Blanket Gods will bend more easily to your will than mine.”

“That’s because I offered you up as a virgin sacrifice”

“Hey!”

***

3

To be really honest, once the giant purple koala-cat aliens showed up and honest to God abducted them from Kerberos, Matt had all but checked out from everything. It was only the feel of Shiro’s hands on his face once that seem to check him back to the present. They seem to have been thrown into a cramped dirty cell along with about 13 other aliens. Matt had lost his mind when they separated them from his dad and he was only now registering the pain from the but the butt of the gun they hit him with to shut him up, the scrape of his knees through his suit on the cold floor, the dried blood on Shiro’s forehead where their faces are just so close.

“Matt? Try to breath with me Matt. It’s going to be okay” Matt probably should have realized that he was having a small panic, that would make sense. But Shiro was whispering and he was so close the words vibrated against his pale face making him flush in the dark room.

“Sh-Shiro” Matt licked his lips and tried to look away from Shiro’s gaze. To look anywhere but his lips or his eyes that even now seemed so inviting. So warm. Like home, like safety, but his gaze just kept darting from one to the other. Eyes, lips, eyes, lips. Matt felt his breathing getting more ragged and uneven and Shiro’s eyes grew wide and he must have noticed too. Matt knew his flush was obvious under Shiro’s hands. He hoped Shiro was too busy watching his breathing and not paying close attention to the breakdown he was having on top of his already massive meltdown since they boarded the ship. The crush he harbored for his friend was no news to Matt but it was something kept pushed to the far recesses of his mind for analysis at a later time (a time Matt kind of hoped would never come because dealing with it meant facing emotions and Matt was far better with facts and figures. Real things he could calculate or even theorize. His hopeless feelings for Shiro were better left in the dark corners of his mind).

But huddled in a corner on an enemy ship, scared, alone, and on the edge of breaking, Matt was finding those feelings bubbling quickly to the surface at the most inappropriate time.

“Matt, I, we should-” Shiro started to pull his hands away from Matt’s face and he felt something inside him break. If he lost Shiro’s closeness he might actually lose what was left of his small grip on his sanity. Matt didn’t claim to have a lot of things, his brain, his family, and his best friend. All of which he was on the the precipice of losing right this second.

“Just kiss me?” He meant it to sound commanding, like he knew exactly what he was saying. He didn’t need or want Shiro asking him if he was sure, questioning where they were or what he was thinking. He just wanted to feel Shiro’s lips on his once before the worst happened. Much to Matt’s chargen, it came out more like a plea; barely above a whisper, his voice scratchy from crying and and just a bit too high.

The 2.87 seconds it took Shiro to process and act on Matt’s command/request felt like an absolute eternity. But he’d stopped pulling away. He’d stopped pulling away and then chapped lips were on Matt’s and a warm tingling sensation was rushing down Matt’s spine and the warm, safe feeling Matt gets when he looks in Shiro’s eyes was multiplied by ten. This was better, this was so much better.

Shiro’s hands moved from Matt’s cheeks and into his hair and Matt brought his to hold around his waist and dragged his body as close as he could get until he was practically sitting in Shiro’s lap. (Not that he had started much farther away considering the cramped cell but now it was for much nicer reasons and the warmth and the hand in Matt’s hair made Matt’s stomach do flips)

The kiss breaks when the two are flushed a nice pink and Matt’s lips are sore and tingly in the best way. It’s the kind of pain he wants to hold onto for as long as he can. Something to help ground this moment in his memory forever.

“So long” he hears shiro whisper, almost with more care than before. Their voices, quiet to preserve what perceived privacy they have in this mass cell, have taken on a new fondness meant only to be share by the two of them.

“Saying goodbye to me already?”

Shiro had them backed up into a corner, the closest to the door on the left. His left arm held around Matt’s waist while his hand continued its ministrations in his hair and his knee braced against Matt’s back. Matt took to this new position and wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck, touching his forehead to his.. Lover? (Way too soon.) Best friend? (Think you just established it’s a bit more than that.) His Shiro. (Good enough.)

“Matt” Shiro groaned likely at what was Matt’s ability to pun even at a time like this. Captured by aliens - aliens- just coming down from a panic attack and the most amazing makeout session in the history of makeout sessions.

“I’m just saying, if you’re going to leave me Takashi, you better do it properly. I never expected you’d be the Wham-Bham Thank You Man kind of guy Kiss ‘em and Leave ‘em type but I mea-”

“Matthew.”

“Takashi.”

There was a moment of silence between them as they just stared back into each other's eyes, almost challenging. For half a second Matt thought it would end in another kiss. But then Shiro softened.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well that’s good.” Matt slid down shiro’s lap a little and laid his head on his neck. The room was dark and crying and panicking and emotions were exhausting. Shiro’s warmth was comforting. Shiro was comforting. The room was still smelly and Matt still wanted his dad. He wanted to be back on their ship and to be collecting the ice crystals of Kerberos like they were supposed to be. He’d even rather be still dancing around his feelings for his best friend if it meant they were all home and safe.

“I mean it Matt. I’m here, with you. I don’t, I don’t want you to think that this was just because we got captured, or because things aren’t looking so great. We are going to get out of this. We will be okay and we will do it together. I’ll get you out of this. I promise Matt.” Shiro’s voice never rose above a gentle whisper. A soothing hum in Matt’s ear as Shiro’s right hand traced patterns down Matt’s spine. Matt tried so hard not to tear up again. “I promise Matt, I’ll save you. Every time. I’ll get you home. I’ll keep you safe.”

Matt wasn’t sure what to say anymore. If he should say anything. It didn’t really feel like their odds of surviving this nightmare, let alone escaping it were really that great. Not impossible, but not in the favor. But this was Shiro. If Shiro needed to believe they could do it, maybe he could let him believe. Maybe believing, hoping, is better than assuming the worst. Matt let the silence ring out another second before he answered.

“I know Shiro. You’ve already saved me from myself today, and given the best security blanket I could have asked for.” Matt snuggled tighter into Shiro with his words but didn’t lift his head off his chest. “I have total confidence you’ll find a way out. I have total confidence in you.”

***

+1

Shiro’s been a Paladin of Voltron for some time now. In that time he’s seen his fair share of things, been plenty of places. Before that he was a prisoner of Zarkon and the galra. The Champion. A title he earned protecting someone he cared about more than most people know. It’s not a time he remembers much of, and most of his memories of his time with the galra he does not look back on fondly.

Shiro thought being a Paladin of Voltron was a tiring job, a burden, a heap of responsibility piled on too much pain and PTSD and there were so many days he wished he could just go back to Earth before it all started.

After everything Shiro and his friends went through to defeat Zarkon, Shiro feels lost now. He stayed because it was the right thing to do. The only thing he could do. to protect the people he cared about back home, to have any hope of freeing the ones he left behind. Shiro only stayed because he knew it was his only chance, despite the constant feeling of being kicked in the stomach.

But after the last battle with Zarkon, after being ejected from the Black Lion and sent to a desolate planet on the other side of the galaxy via the astral plane with no way to contact his team and no way to know if they’re safe, with no one to protect but himself, left alone with his thoughts, Shiro had a harder time regrouping than he thought he should have.

Lucky for Shiro, that desolate little planet wasn’t desolate and abandoned for very long. While Shiro worked on his basic survival skills, smoke signals, scavenging, for eating, and hunting around the new terrain, a small B-Class rebel ship landed not far from Shiro’s original landing site. This planet was full of islands sprouting blue and purple fauna surrounded by vast glistening orange oceans. It was an abandoned, remote little barely-a-planet-planet, unconquered by Zarkon, and a perfect rebel training ground.

Of course. It took Shiro and the rebels about three days of accidentally crossing paths before they actually caught wind of one another, thanks to similar training. After all, rule number seven of Galaxy Garrison unidentified terrain landing code states that you should never make camp in the same place for more than one night to avoid hostile animals or locals that may be tracking you.

It was the hair standing up on the back of Shiro’s neck that alerted him to the presence of another living being nearby. Then the sound of footfalls too big to be one of the small creatures he’d seen running through the blue patches of forest in this area. His “camp” isn’t that far from here. But Shiro’s been careful. And he’s checked this island again and again. Though it’s relatively big, he’s pretty sure he would have noticed a settlement.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He tried first before slowly turning around to face the stranger, hoping that sound of his voice and the fact that he was unarmed would appease them. (Technically Shiro was never unarmed as long as he had his Galra prosthetic but this stranger didn’t need to know that)

“Who are you? Why have you come here? How did you find us?” The alien was a light blue four eyes splashed across his face and he had six arms, four of which were holding weapons aimed at Shiro.

“My name is Shiro. I’m a Paladin of Voltron. I was stranded here during a fight against Zarkon and I’ve lost communication with my crew. I’ve been stranded here for, well at a week I think.. I’ve lost track of time I guess. It’s been at least 5 sunsets though.”

“Five sunsets?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know how to keep track at first because I kept moving my camp, but then I decided to use these leaves up here where I come to collect berries see? I lay one out every day when the sun sets. You can see the difference in color as they grow older with time. These rocks keep them in place. Nota bullet journal but it'll do.” Shiro tried for calm, appeasing. The kind of charming, win ‘em over smile that the bigwigs at the garrison used to eat right up and got him elected as pilot for the Kerberos mission at such a young age. Reassuring that he wasn’t a threat.

Whatever Shiro said or did it seemed to have the right effect on the alien because he softened just a tad and lowered his weapons, stopping to put all but one of them away into the pockets of his space suit and coat.

“We’ve been here for three sunsets” he said without making further eye contact with Shiro.

“We? There are more of you? How did you get here? And uh, where exactly is here? I kind of got sent here and i’m not entirely sure where that is or why but I need to get back to my crew as soon as possible. Or at least make contact with them. Do you have a ship with you?”

“Paladin of Voltron. I have heard of you. Big giant robot cats. Yes?”

“Yeah, something like that”

“And you say you fight Zarkon”

“We were in a fight with him when I got stranded here, a pretty serious one. We were winning, I think. He was seriously damaged anyways. I’m sorry, you didn’t actually tell me who you were did you? You said you weren’t alone here? Are you refuges?”

“In a way. Come with me. I’ll show you.”

The blue alien took Shiro back down a path and out of the darkest blue section of the forest and out towards the light purple trees and teal flowers that Shiro had made camp in his first night. It was secretly his favorite spot on the island so far because the it reminded him most of the Black Lion.

Hidden amongst the fauna now though was a small fleet of banged up ships, reminiscent of Rolo and Nyma’s vessel. Outside and all around were small fires, hanging clothes, and in the corner was a large area filled with various computers and technology that looked like a small version of Pidge lab. It filled Shiro with a twinge of homesickness and he was all the more glad to see working technology and ships with communicators. Hopefully he would be able to contact the Castle of Lions from one of these.

“Welcome to the Rebellion, Paladin of Voltron.”

Maybe he should hold that thought.

“Rebellion? Against Zarkon?”

“That is correct. You did not truly think you were the only ones resisting his reign?” The blue alien spoke with his head held higher and his voice projected in an attempt to draw the other rebels to hear, apparently this was a conversation to be had with everyone.

“Well. No, honestly we hoped to find some form of organized resistance out there. But nobody seemed to know anything about one. The closest we’d come was the Blade of Mamora, fighting within the Galra ranks, but none of the refuges or pirates were able to lead us to any, reliable allies.”

“Unlike the galra, and unlike voltron, we work with those who have been harmed by the galra the most. We come to the aid of those who need it, when the need it, and we do our best to make sure that everyone is trained and ready for that time. We are the voice of those Zarkon has wronged.”

“I think it’s great what you’re doing, I think the more people who stand up to Zarkon’s forces the better. And the better trained you are the better prepared. I’d have to talk to the Princess but I think Voltron would love to form a formal alliance with you.

“Ahh yes your Princess of planet Altea. I suppose we should arrange a meeting between us all to settle things further. There is quite a bit I want to discuss. Those that told us of Voltron’s return should be entering the atmosphere shortly then I think we should be able to reach your Princess. Their ship has the largest frequency booster.”

“Oh, okay. I’ve been here nearly a week, I can wait a few more days. Is there, anything I can do to help in the meantime?”

“How are your combat skills?”

“I hear they’re pretty good.”

“Our training ring is set up over there and some of our newer recruits are still learning the ropes. Ashbet injured both tentacles training with the other instructor and our protocols call for two. You seem a good fit.”

The blue alien, rebel leader, whose name Shiro belatedly realized he never actually got, then walked away leaving Shiro to wander over to the foreboding training ring where 3 rebels were waiting.

“Hi. I’m Shiro. Your instructor was injured in training a little, so he’s going to take it easy today and I’m gonna try to fill in instead? What are your names?”

“I’m Erock, This is Raelle, and Temrance.” They were young. Geeze they were young. Maybe 13?

“Nice to meet you guys. Your, uh, the person who assigned me here said there was another instructor. Do you know where they are?”

“Probably in the lab” Raelle said

“He’s always losing track of when it’s time to start and someone has to go get him.” Temrance agreed

“Oh really. I had a friend like that. He’d be tinkering away on something and forget about his homework, or that it was time for class, or training, or that we had plans to see a movie. And then he’d jump out of his skin when i’d walk in the door asking where he thought the time went.” Shiro recalled all the times he had to go bug Matt about time management or missed plans, pretending to be upset when really he was all too happy to hear about whatever had piqued Matt’s interest that moment so intensely that he just couldn’t look away.

“The lab is, the big green and purple glowing area over there?” Shiro asked gesturing to the tech area he noticed before that reminded him all too much of something Pidge would cocoon herself in.

Three answering ‘yup’s’ was all the confirmation Shiro needed before he told the kids to stay there and headed over to drag their real teacher to class.

The glow of the lab seemed to be created by a conglomeration of stolen galra technology as well as pieced together alien technology from different species and makes, as best as Shiro could tell. It made for a slightly eerie effect as Shiro approached. Since there wasn’t exactly a door, just a slightly wider space between giant motherboard looking devices, shiro hovered before stepping into the maze of glowing, buzzing technology.

“Hello?”

No answer. But this workshop wrapped around the ship and to the back, twisting in circles, with small little clusters of different half finished projects set up scattered around. Shiro thought someone very smart obviously spent a lot of time here. Pidge would love to get her hands on this place. Maybe once the he establishes communication with the castle, he can talk to the guy about working with Pidge on something.

Shiro abandons his path for a moment where he was making his way around the back of the ship. It’s gotten harder and harder to hear anything that was going on out front and he thinks that it’s no wonder the guy loses so much time back here.

Shiro reaches down to one of the piles of abandoned projects and picks something up. It looks kind of like something Hunk and Pidge had played around with back at the castle on their earlier weeks. Something about messing with polarity of molecules and the rotational pull of something or other. Shiro’s attention was kind of split between what they were saying, Lance and Keith arguing over… Shiro doesn’t actually remember what it was at that moment actually. It was one of those early days before they’d all really learned to work as a team and Lance was still intent on pulling Keith’s pigtails left and right.

Shiro does remember how the device looked finished though. All lit up and floating in mid air with gentle vibrations that pulsed through it. But this one seem lifeless. Abandoned and missing more than a few wires. Shiro isn’t sure if it’s mechanic simply grew bored,, didn’t know how to finish, or just didn’t have the parts. Or maybe they didn’t have the need for it any longer. Come to think of it, Shiro isn’t actually sure what the need for the device is. He can’t remember a time anyone on team Voltron has ever used it.

Shiro was just about to put the device back. He was putting it back and getting up to continue his search. At least. That was his intention. But he was a little lost in thought because before he could move there was a staff casing him and something cold and hard at his back.

“So you’re this legendary Paladin I hear so much about. I think Nyma exaggerated. You’re not that tall.” The rebel spoke. Shiro assumed this was the teacher he was sent to find, the mechanic engineer who built of this and then taught kids how to fight so fiercely he injured the other instructor. Warning bells started to flash in Shiro’s mind telling him he needed to be careful, that angering this guy wasn’t his best idea. But he already seemed to have a not great first impression of Shiro, and how could he not if that space pirate. Nyma had been filling their heads with stories of Voltron - and wasn’t that a whole other headache to consider when he got out of this particular predicament, Nyla and Rolo in the resistance?

“It helps if I stand up.” Shiro tried for smooth, unassuming but following this guy's tone. Hoping he could bring the conversation into something more peaceful. If he could just, turn around, get a good look at the guy, eye contact could be crucial in negotiations like these. But the pain in his back just dug in deeper.

“I might have considered that if I hadn’t caught our new guest, someone nobody told me about by the way, sneaking around my lab trying to steal my stuff. Those projects are top secret and I don’t need you poking around my breakthrough pile when i’m so close.”

Breakthrough pile. So he hadn’t figured out how it worked yet. Maybe Shiro could work with that.

“Look, I think we have a giant misunderstanding. Just, can I just explain? Please?”

The guy was silent for a minute but he pulled away from Shiro and dropped all contact. The pressure against his back and the staff caging him against the makeshift glowing walls were gone, but as soon as Shiro went to turn around there was a sharp bark.

“Don’t make any sudden moves! I’ve heard tales of the Black Paladin, I know your battle trained. No funny business. Just, explain.”

“Your leader, I didn’t get his name, I asked him what I could do to help until another ship comes in and I can contact my crew. He said you needed another hand in the training arena, and the kids said that you sometime lose track of time in here.” Shiro started to trail off, hoping the rebel would start to put the pieces together himself.

“If you came to get me, why were you snooping through my stuff?” He challenged. He wasn’t going to make this easy on Shiro.

“I noticed this device.” Shiro pointed to the uncompleted cube. “My crew built one just like it. Your lab actually reminded me a lot of someone on my team, and I was just thinking how much she’d probably love to talk to you if we’re able to forge an alliance. Pidge is always looking for other people who speak tech as fluently as she does.”

“Hmm.” The rebel made a noise of consideration that made Shiro had to wonder if it was just for show. “Alright. I’ll trust you. I mean, if you were able to turn Rolo and Nyma straight-laced how bad could you be?” The rebel put his hand on Shiro’s elbow to help him up, his flesh and blood one, and lifted Shiro to his feet.

“Probably time for proper introductions. I’m the crews engineer and I train the newbies. I get to play with all the alien tech too because I can usually find some use for it. My name’s Ma-Shiro!” He was dusting Shiro off and turning him around as he spoke but most of the words went right over Shiro’s head once he laid eyes on the man.

The first thing Shiro noticed was his eyes. He could see them plain and simple. There were no glasses obstructing his view. Just a straight view of those big, beautiful chestnut eyes staring back at him. Then the hair. It was longer. Weighed down. And hanging all around him. Was he taller? He looked taller. He was wearing a special sort of space suit not unlike many of the rebels, designed to blend in with the colors of the planet, but his once slim and lanky body that was more adept to a lab than the harsh realities of space was trimmed with lean muscle peaking through his suit.

All in all, Shiro couldn’t tell if he had hit his head while foresting and hallucinated the rebel camp and was now picturing his greatest wish, a healthy, thriving Matt Holt. Free of galra clutches and an arms length away. That surely was the only explanation for the ghost he’s seeing.

Neither of them knew what to say. Matt was giving Shiro his own once over, small traces of suspicion still lingered, but mostly wonder, curiosity, and unconcealed longing was left. Shiro didn’t even know how this was possible. He himself only escaped galra clutches with help from the inside.

Shiro realized he hadn’t actually said anything. He’d just been taking it all in. He supposed that if this was a dream he was going to take full advantage of it before it turned into a nightmare.

“Ma-Matt?” Suddenly Shiro’s throat was completely parched. He was having trouble swelling, getting the words out.

“Shiro!” Matt launched himself at Shiro. No trace of suspicion left. All of the rebel warrior from moments before gone the second Shiro was wrapped in his arms again. Shiro had never felt so relieved to feel the embrace of another human. He had never needed human contact so desperately. Even after the galra escape, when he found Keith and the others. He had wanted to hug his pseudo-brother, reassure him he was okay. But the feeling of touch, of contact meant to comfort and not hurt was foreign now. It would take time for Shiro to to accept more than a pat on the shoulder.

But this hug, it revitalized him. He felt immediately like it was zapping all of the pain and fear and uncertainty out of his very bones in just a few seconds and he was reluctant to ever let go again. When Matt started to pull away Shiro squeezed just a little tighter, which had the added bonus of making Matt laugh; a sound Shiro missed more than he’s ever missed mac n cheese while sitting in front of Coran’s goopiest serving of Food Goo Nutrient Supplement.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Matt pulled Shiro down by the neck just a smidge to whisper into his ear. A small echo ringing in the back of his mind of another time. A dark ship, a broken promise of safety, hushed declarations of feelings in a cramped cell. I’m not going anywhere. Shiro promised not to leave Matt. He promised to save him and he failed. He couldn’t help him. He hurt him The last time he’d seen Matt, he’d attacked him!

“Matt, I’m so, so s-”

“Takashi Shirogane if the next word out of your mouth is sorry i’m going to have no choice but to take you out to that training ring and kick your butt right here and now in front of everyone!”

“Matt- I thought I’d lost you.” Shiro swallows the words but he has nothing else left to say. He has to make sure Matt understands he hasn’t taken his what’s happened lightly. He may not have remembered it all so clearly at first, but being separated from his crew, his second family, it’s been tearing him apart.

He thinks maybe Matt understands some of what he’s trying to convey. Because Matt just pulls him in tighter for another quick hug.

“It’s a lot harder to get rid of me than that. I wasn’t about to let some measly galra keep me from my hot... defender of the innocent.”

“Speaking of which, how did you… get here?”

“A long story. Short version. The rebels invaded the work camp and freed the prisoners. They relocated most of them to a colony somewhere and others like me signed up to fight.”

“How is that.. possible? How are you, possible? I thought i’d never see you again. It took a fleet of 10,000 year old rebels within Zarkon’s ranks to break me, a single prisoner, out, and Voltron is the universe’s greatest super weapon and we have a hard enough time going up against Zarkon’s forces. How is it physically possible that you’re here, and safe, and fighting, and, and-” Shiro’s eyes were raking up and down Matt’s body now. Taking in his altered appearance. Taking in the fact that he was here. Physically with him and not a phantom or a trick like so many times before.

“And hot?”

“Huh”

“I see you checking me out. Don’t worry Shiro, it’s okay if you like this new bod a little better. I am kind of jacked now huh?” Matt gave him a blinding smile. Here, hidden away amongst Matt’s glowing tech maze, the two of them had complete privacy, they world narrowed that smile and that carefree attitude that seemed just so at home on his face even in the middle of this war.

“You were always gorgeous. But i’ll admit the look suits you. You could get any guy you wanted.”

“But I want you. I chose you.” Matt said with all the honesty in the world in those four little words. Shiro answered him with a soft smile.

“Would you choose ice cream over me?”

“Nope. I’d rather have you.”

“What about the laws of physics?”

“I’d never choose the laws of physics over you!”

“Hmmm.. what about Katie.. I know you’d choose Katie over me.”

“Well that’s just not fair. Because you’re here and she’s all the way back home. Stuck on earth. Alone with mom. And Gunder. Probably devastated with no idea i’m even alive. I think I have to give this one to Katie. Just out of respect and sibling decency.”

“Makes sense. Except.. there’s a flaw in your logic.”

“What! What flaw?”

“Well would you still choose Katie over me if I told you that Katie might not actually be on Earth but instead was on the Castle of Lions and is actually the Green Paladin?”

“Are you telling me you’ve been letting my sister fight in a space war against Zarkon for months?”

“Let is a.. strong word. She signed up for the garrison under a false name, joined voltron as a boy, I didn’t even realize who she was until we were aboard the ship we got captured in looking for the Red Lion and she split to go find you and Sam.”

Matt was looking a little green himself all through this story. “Alright. It’s time to do something. No more sitting around. This reunion has been nice but it’s time to get you back to your castle. And get my sister back.”

“I thought we had to wait for Nyma and Rolo? Something about their ship having special boosters?”

“Their ship does have the best frequency boosters on the fleet. But i’m the one who built them. Look around. If there’s anything that can get in touch with your 10,000 year old ship, it’s in here. We’re getting you home, and then i’m going to kiss the hell out of you!”

Shiro didn’t think he could smile any bigger if he tried. He had Matt back. He found him. Or actually, Matt found him. Matt was getting him home safely, back to his family, their family. And everything was going to be okay, as long as they found each other in the end.

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