#but then i saw them saying that sheith is fine actually in a way that was literally just describing jayce and viktor in arcane and was like

[tieflinglich]

arcane is so fun i forgot that the tendency for fandom at large to be an absolute pile of shit

[valkylander]

Alright, so, in 2016, TERFs were actively inserting their rhetoric into fandom spaces to convince a new generation of teenage girls to agree with them despite the fact that everyone on tumblr understood "TERFs are bad" even if they didn't understand what all TERFs believe or why it's bad. One of the talking points that got really big was the idea that DDLG and related kinks normalized and enabled incest a pedophilia. 2016 was also the year after Hannibal finished, the year after The Force Awakens came out, the year Voltron: Legendary Defender started, and the year Donald Trump was elected.

(more under the cut)

A bunch of would-be progressive kids felt powerless and wanted some way to take control and make a positive change in the world. A lot of these kids also hated Reylo and Hannigram because they're problematic ships that gross them out. They took the TERF talking points and ran with them, saying that shipping those two ships "normalizes abuse". This only got worse when VLD came out and the two biggest ships were Klance and Sheith. Klance had a bunch of people just here for some skinny pretty boys, and Sheith had a bunch of textual support and actual moments between the two characters, so the Klance shippers got pissed. They decided to push the line that, because Shiro is older than the rest of the cast and Keith said "you're like a brother to me" that Sheith normalized incest and pedophilia. Worse, tehy pushed the line that anyone who shipped Sheith was actively supporting incest and pedophilia and therefore was a fair target for harassment and abuse.

They called themselves "Antishaladins" and went after anyone in the Voltron fandom who shipped Shiro with one of the other paladings (except Allura, because she's a black teenage girl and so they saw her as a sexually available adult and therefore perfectly fine to ship with a canonically gay man). When antishaladins teamed up with anti-reylos and anti-hannigrams and began to apply their worldview to fandom in general, they called themselves "Antishippers" and "Antis" for short. As people got sick of this harassment, they started speaking out against it, tagging their posts with "anti anti" and then "proship". The fact that none of the ships antishippers went after are actually incestuous or pedophilic is relevant, but it wouldn't have justified their behavior if they were.

I get why you'd be skeptical of someone saying "My side just believes harassing people is bad" but that is seriously the party line here. If you ask an antishipper if they think it's okay to harass people who "like incest and pedo ships" they will say yes. If you tell an antishipper that it's not okay to harass people over ships, they will call you a proshipper for it. In practice, both antishippers and proshippers believe that being a proshipper is about being against harassment over ships.

Now, if you're asking why people would ship things that they would not condone IRL, there are several reasons. The most important thing is that it is normal and healthy to feel differently about fictional scenarios than you would about that scenario happening IRL. It's normal and healthy to enjoy watching Iron Man but also to feel shocked and appalled when a real person goes on a vigilante killing spree. It's normal to think it's cute and romantic when Jessica and Roger Rabbit kiss but to be disgusted and upset when someone sexually assaults a real rabbit. It's healthy to think it's okay for Mamoru to date Usagi but to think an actual college student dating an actual middle schooler is a predator.

Given the fact that fictional children resemble actual children and fictional siblings resemble actual siblings to about the same degree as Bugs Bunny resembles an actual rabbit, it is not surprising that people will ship a pair of characters who have an age gap or who are siblings if they would ship those same characters if that weren't the case. The characters are shippable and there's no reason that should stop them, even if it would make the relationship immoral if it were happening IRL.

There is also a distinct appeal to ships that comes from their problematic aspects. Forbidden love is a very potent romantic trope, it allows for a lot of tension and a lot of strong emotion in the form of guilt, fear, angst, and a love so strong it override's a person's moral compunctions. To love someone so much that you want to be with them, even though you know it's wrong, even though you know it could destroy you both, is a powerful narrative. It is often more powerful when the reason the pair cannot be together is something you, the reader, agree with. If they can't be together because their parents hate each other, or because they live in a homophobic society, a reader may roll their eyes when the characters treat those reasons as legitimate and not just barriers. But if that's your sister, if that's your student, if that's a child, then there is no eye-rolling.

(Interestingly, this can make it a useful metaphor for those lesser taboos like homophobia or family feuds. If you're a gay girl dealing with some amount of internalized homophobia even though your brain knows homophobia is stupid, it can be useful to sublimate your internalized feelings into a relationship you would consider actually morally wrong in order to explore and process those feelings.)

Also, breaking taboos is hot. So yes, that's a factor in the smut.

ok im doing a bit of a study

proshippers, what is that, what is a proshipper

are you guys writing incestuous/pedophilic scenarios for the sake of disgust, sexual gratification, shared catharsis, like whats the goal

and dont give me that "we just dobt harass people!!!" shit because both you guys and antis explain yourselves in the most "normal" sounding ways to sound good its what every human being does they WANT that moral superiority, i get it

if someone can explain what a proshipper is to me properly id be grateful

no judgement unironically from either side ty ty

[avidbeader]

CW: Voltron S8 talk, VLD S8 talk, Shiro’s marriage, ship wars

I’ve been seeing an influx of new VLD fans in the last several months – guess people have more time to watch shows – and it’s brought in a new wave of Sheith fans. And that’s lovely – having more people to create and cheer is a good thing. I know I’ve pointed a lot of people at “Sheith the Movie” so they can have just the Sheith (all 3.5 hours of their scenes with some context) if they want.

However, even if the new fans have been aware of how toxic the klanti shippers were (Klance fans who resorted to slander, harassment, and threats to both other fans and the show’s cast and crew in an attempt to force the studio to make their ship canon), I’m seeing some conflict crop up because some new fans aren’t aware of just how ugly things got in 2018, that most of the people who embraced Shiro and the random groom as a ship were the same people who had spent the previous two years attacking Sheith fans.

In June, we had Season 6. Keith and Lance interaction was at an all-time low. Keith said “I love you” to Shiro in what he thought was a dying confession. Yes, it was preceded by “You’re my brother (in arms)”, but interviews with showrunners like story editor Josh Hamilton made it clear that Keith was trying his best to encapsulate just how important Shiro was to him (without saying that they almost certainly had to include the “brother” line to give DW executives plausible deniability).

In July, we had the SDCC showing of Season 7’s first episode and the confirmation that Shiro is an LGBT character. Klance fans jumped all over the character of Shiro’s ex-boyfriend Adam, because in their minds he would be the key to invalidating Sheith. The media properly observed that Shiro and Adam had broken up over very profound issues and drew the conclusion that if Shiro were to get an on-screen romance in the remainder of the series, Keith was the obvious choice.

In August, we had Season 7. Instead of the heartfelt Shiro/Adam reunion klantis were salivating for, we saw Adam get killed in the Galra invasion. And the klantis rose up, hurling so many unjustified accusations of “fridging” or “bury your gays” over a minor character with a total of maybe three minutes of screen time, that JDS actually had to put his name to an unnecessary apology from the studio.

We also had Keith and Shiro’s backstory, showing just how close of friends they became after Shiro helped Keith join the Garrison, AND Keith saving Shiro yet again. While Lance and Allura continued to grow closer. Because it was clear that the producers had never once considered making Keith and Lance a thing, klanti fans went ballistic with their slander, accusing Sheith of being pedophilic and incestuous when neither accusation has any canon basis at all.

And in December, we got Season 8. Season 8 with a mostly new set of writers who didn’t do their research. Season 8 that tried to cram in too much excess content while finishing up a major plotline. Season 8 that finally showed that the producers had never fully thought through or sought input for handling Shiro, a character they’d originally planned to kill off, decided to make their LGBT rep when told to keep him, and then failed to pick up the strong story arcs he had in the first seasons. And because studio execs gave JDS and LM a single day to change their epilogue cards from minor characters to the main team, we got the very bad decision to marry Shiro off to a random character.

(And the character was random. Stills were leaked that showed Shiro kissing a character that had been seen once in the very first episode, but was too obviously a reference to a character in another series. It clearly didn’t matter to JDS/LM or the people above them who Shiro married as long as it wasn’t another main character. Because we’ve barely passed the point where we can have more than one character of a certain race in the main cast, much less multiple LGBT characters.)

Like they did with Adam, klantis jumped all over “Curtis” as their savior, because to them this should have killed Sheith fandom. And a great many Sheith fans did leave, angry and hurt, not because their ship wasn’t canon (very few Sheith fans expected more than an open ending) but because the concept of Shiro marrying some random character with absolutely no buildup undercut the notion of Shiro as a strong example of LGBT rep. Because those endcards erased every single character’s growth through the series, not just Shiro’s.

Media saw the ploy for what it was, a clumsy attempt to try and reach for a historic milestone when today’s audiences aren’t looking for milestones anymore. Today’s audiences want to be included in the entire narrative. No one talks about Shiro’s wedding as a good example of rep. In mainstream pop media, no one talks about Shiro at all, in contrast to the celebrations post-SDCC. When articles are written about progress in children’s media, Shiro is never included on the list. It’s only this past June, 2020, that DreamWorks shoved Shiro into the background of a collage of LGBT characters from their cartoons, WITHOUT his desultory groom.

LGBT fans, especially gay men, saw the ploy for what it was. Just as the media collectively set Shiro’s wedding aside when talking about positive LGBT rep, gay men spoke out against it. Too bad they didn’t get any kind of apology from DW and the best JDS/LM could say on their one appearance on an “Afterbuzz” was “But we tried! Something was better than nothing!”

And the majority of Sheith fans who remained in the fandom collectively jettisoned Season 8 and began producing even more content. There have been schisms and fallouts, mainly over whether/how carefully to tag for content that includes Adam or “Curtis”, but the fandom as a whole has continued to produce fic, art, vids, and merch. There’s a reason people outside the fandom groan “Sheith in 2020?” There’s a reason antis continue to push their lies about the ship. We haven’t let go of what we love, we continue to create, and we continue to attract new fans.

But most of us do not want to engage in any way with “Curtis” content unless a fix-it is involved (and sometimes not even then – for many of us, Season 8 does not exist). We don’t care about a character who had zero interaction with Shiro before the endcard, whose name isn’t even spoken once in the show’s dialogue – the only reasons we know it are the IMDB credits and one reference in the close-captions identifying who is speaking (and there’s stronger evidence to show that “Curtis” is a last name, not a first name).

If other people find enough of an attachment to this character to ship him, fine. You do you. But most Sheith fans expect those who support Shiro’s wedding to be klantis and therefore look to avoid conflict by minimizing contact. We do not forget. We do not forgive. We just want to be left alone to enjoy our ship in peace.

[thechaoscryptid]

Writer’s Tag Game, Bouncy’s Edition

Many thanks to @tipsyraconteur for tagging me ❤❤ I know I said this was going to be my strictly Naruto blog but there’s definitely some of my other fandoms that are going to worm their way in heh.

Rules: brag to your heart’s content, you’re awesome, and then tag 5-10 people to do the same.

I’m tagging (if you’d like to play, no obligation): @magnustesla, @scarecrowinthewoods, @dunloth, @caped-ace, @alexianite, @benicemurphy, and @ocean-in-my-rebel-soul (you Voltron peeps, it’s Ary 😉)

1) What’s a paragraph you’ve written that you’re really proud of?

From Order and Obedience (KakaIru): 

“Think Konoha’s dog is going to be an easy fuck, ranger?” Kakashi asked, eyeing every possible exit. Just in case. “That my allegiance is so easily swayed?”

“I think if you were still wearing your boots you’d be trembling in them,” Iruka said without missing a beat. “Your desire to serve the light may not make sense to me, but even I can see that the way your skin drinks in the moon would be pleasing to any god. I’m not demanding darkness, only obedience.”

2) Pick a favorite scene from your longest fic!

The scene in Wake the White Wolf (KakaIru) where Sera and Kakashi part ways. I still get chills at the lines “You are no longer my problem. I am no longer your whore.” There’s plenty of fantastic scenes from that fic, but that still remains one of my favorites. That whole arc, really, from when she finds out the news to when it’s finally 100% over. 

3) Give us a snippet of your most recent WIP:

Voltron! This is a part of one of my stories for the Sheith Big Bang coming up:

A galaxy will never be enough to contain my love for you. 

Mechanically, Keith’s hands go through the motions of powering up Black as Krolia’s voice comes through the comm link. It’s another diplomacy mission--another he’d rather skip in favor of liberating some far off colony from oppressors or just staying in bed, unmoving. The lion doesn’t speak to him the way she used to, and neither does anything else. The universe, for all its glory, has become simple.

Dull.

Grey, even with color sprays from passing planets and nebulas.

He chews on the side of his lip as he lets his head tip to the side, checking to make sure things are in order. His mother’s still rattling off information about the mission and he just wants to tell her to be quiet, he’ll figure it out on his own later. He wants to hear the ghost of Shiro’s voice whispering it loves him again.

Keith…

Ghosts are never enough, but Shiro’s I’ll love you until forever ends echoing in his head assuages the pre-mission blues. “Not that it’s ever anything else these days,” he says under his breath. Krolia asks what he said, and he blames it on a squeaky chair. “Gotta get in here and tune up the cockpit when I’m back. Project for Shiro and I.”

“Well, just as long as it doesn’t interfere with things now. You ready to give ‘em hell?”

Keith pastes a smile on his face, though he knows she’s not on the video link. “Would you expect anything different?”

4) If all of your published fics sparred, who would win and why?

Ohh, tough one...based off of stats, Wake the White Wolf, no question. Off of personal preference? Probably Crescendo (SakuOro) right now. 

5) What’s a fic/author you’ve taken inspiration from and in which one of your works did you incorporate that inspiration?

I won’t lie, Tipsy, a lot of my recent style choices came from Scar Tissue 😅 I found I really enjoy storytelling in present tense, with longer flowing lines punctuated by short lil ones for emphasis. It’s appeared in...most of my recent stuff? I switched within the last year or so.

(putting the rest under a cut because there’s some longer answers)

6) Which fanfiction character do you enjoy writing the most? In which one of your fics do you think you wrote them best?

This is another tough one xD I think I actually have to go with a three part answer here, though really, I enjoy writing so many more.

Kakashi Hatake: Shatter Me (KakaIru), best fic

Dazai Osamu: Marionette (Dazushi), best fic

Keith Kogane: since I can’t tell which one of my bang fics yet, I’ll go with my favorite published, which is Unsteady (Sheith). Truly, it’s going to be the fic from the above snippet hehe

7) Smut or fluff? Give us a sneak peek of your favorite fluffy/smutty scene you’ve written.

Mmm, smut. I’ve really got to be in the right mood for fluff, and my not-so-guilty pleasure reading is angsty smut.

My favorite fluffy/smutty scene...I think it’s probably from Reciprocity (KakaSaku)!

He wishes he still had the Sharingan to capture these moments. Sakura’s still got her thin undershirt on, but the delicate hollows of her collarbones call to him as she reaches over to light their lantern. There will be no fire tonight save for the one burning low and heavy in his stomach, as if he’s swallowed molten rock.

“Do I need to do the rest?” she says, dragging her hands up her legs as she stands. “Should I strip for you, Kakashi?”

He stands along with her and tugs off his mask first, then his shirt. Sakura gasps as the angry red of fresh scars is revealed, fingers twitching toward him before he shakes his head. “Let me,” he murmurs.

Inch by inch, the pale curve of her stomach is revealed. Shadows flicker and dance over it along with the flames, and when Kakashi pulls Sakura’s shirt the entire way off he thinks not even the prettiest sunset could compare. There’s several scars--no shinobi makes it out without them--and no shortage of muscle packed into her small frame, but somehow she makes a battleborn body beautiful.

Sakura makes life beautiful.

Her breath hitches when he tells her this, something shifting in her at the tender touch of his lips against her forehead. “You’re sure you don’t want me to just jump you right now?” she says breathlessly.

“No jumping,” he says. “Only falling.”

8) What’s a scene in one of your fics you wish you would receive fanart for?

Uh, literally any one 😅 My top choice, though, I think would be of my favorite OT3 in Desperately:

“I’ll be a lot cuter when the day comes.” Sakura shoved the bandana up and crunched her nose as she looked back with Ibiki. “You might have to leave me at the altar to catch everyone fainting at the sight of me.”

Ibiki’s laugh rumbled through the living room as he gathered her back to his chest. “We’re never leaving you there, baby, you know we couldn’t,” he said. “Or maybe we could take turns catching them. How d’you think your clothes will hold up, Rai?”

“They’ll be fine. I volunteer for catching duty as long as it’s you two falling for me at the end,” he said, spreading his arms over the back of the couch as he watched them sway. “And of course, falling into bed with me later.” Ibiki cocked an eyebrow as Sakura giggled into his scarred chest. “What, you think I”m joking?”

“Never considered it,” Ibiki said. He pulled away from Sakura to trail his hand up her arm, urging her to spin. His uniform lifted from her creamy skin and Raidou sucked in a breath as the purple lace on the bottom of her underwear was revealed. She knew he couldn’t resist those, and Ibiki certainly didn’t mind them either.

“Come here,” he said. Ibiki let her go and gave her a gentle push toward Raidou’s outstretched arms before flopping next to them as the song began to repeat. “I saw those. You can’t hide them from me.” Her hair tickled his face as he kissed over her cheek down to her ear. “Wearing my husband’s shirt and my wife-to-be’s favorite underwear, how scandalous, Sakura,” he purred.

“I’m sure your wife-to-be will be so very displeased I stole them,” she said, pulling back with a mock pout before turning to beg a kiss from Ibiki. “I hear she picked them specifically for tonight because she wanted to get laid.”

9) Would you ever consider turning one of your fics into a podfic? If no, why not?

Not on my own? I have hearing problems, so it’s just really never occurred to me. If anyone else wanted to, though, I wouldn’t say no!

10) The best (or your favourite) 5 reviews you’ve ever gotten! Don’t forget to tell us which one of your fics received them!

There’s so many 😭😭 My commenters are all fucking awesome, but I’ll trawl my saved comments for some highlights!

P5eud0Nym on Wake the White Wolf (KakaIru omegaverse): So, I just wanted to say you’ve been doing a fantastic job. I appreciate that this isn’t, and hasn’t at any point been, a dumb tropey kink fic. That you’ve taken the time to put so much heart into all of this. The fact that you’re exploring the politics, the social issues, and writing all of the characters as being more than just their A/B/O designations, so good. The multifaceted way you write is just really and truly refreshing. It’s obvious how much work and thought you put into this. You’re tackling a lot of really important stuff, from consent to civil rights, and it’s some grade A USDA certified Good Shit. Thanks for the fic and keep up the good work <3

Lilmeliz on Monster (ShigaDabi): AAAAAAA GUARANTEED I CAN BLOW YOUR MIND mwa. Please excuse the lame dua lipa reference I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I couldn’t-- Delicious. Finally some fucking good food. I want to congratulate you. This is such a beautiful, touching, heartwarming masterpiece. I even cried a little. I usually read shiggy with his dark past and his (soul) scars and all that jazz, and venturing into the thought of him having a mere fiber of good will in himself, in his actual self, is risky and prone to be ooc. But here it sounds right. It feels personal, private and even possible, my boi :( Dabi is an angel, I’m dying. I like the reminder “they lie, they kill...” Yes he’s an angel but he’s still evil. I don’t know what else to add but really, this is stunning! IM GONNA TATTOO THISSS amazing work 

Prism0467 on Forbidden (KakaIru): You have written their mutual dependency with such nurturing attention to detail I feel as if I know them. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt...embraced by a work of fanfiction before now...this may well be a first. Your enthusiasm for this pairing comes through loud and clear, I’ll tell you that :)

PearlBear on Crescendo (SakuOro): Wow. Just wow. This is brilliant, heart-wrenching, creative and extremely, extremely well-written. You have such a way with words, I was actually crying. And you adapt their lives as shinobi so seamlessly to situations that happen in real life (how many partners give up on possibilities for their significant one and get nothing in return?). This story managed to move me deeply and all the while, they all were in-character (it hurt when Tsunade looked at Orochimaru in the same way they all do, also loved how Tobirama and Madara are his parents). The omegaverse wasn’t heavy at all, instead it’s well integrated enough that I, who don’t particularly like it, barely noticed and completely accepted it. It’s just the way things are. You manage to convey so, so much in a few words. I’m amazed. So, thank you for sharing this! I am very, very excited for what’s next, whether Orochimaru experiments to save himself, whether Sakumo commits suicide (or worse, dies on this mission), whether... So many possibilities. Your story is outstanding. Thank you for writing this gem!

(insert special shoutout to Tipsy’s review of Testing the Waters...)

and no comment appreciation section would be complete without at least one from @magnustesla! 

This one from Of Scale and Steel (Sheith naga AU): Ary, sometimes I am left speechless and I don’t quite know how to articulate my thoughts after reading one of your fics. Like, everything is just so...so brilliant that it’s like my brain fucks off when I try to get my thoughts down onto a page. Turning well known and beloved characters into something else entirely isn’t easy and often they miss the mark leaving the reader not really connecting with it. But you, you are brilliant and clever in all that you write because damn, I love Naga Keith. It feels like it IS part of canon. And your oc? Super adorable and she just belongs. I really loved her interactions with Shiro and the chewing on his finger had me rollling because it reminded me of when J would test everything by chomping it. Not relevant but it sparked a good laugh from me, especially because it is totally something kids do. I’m so fucking proud of you and I’m excited to see you get your mojo back with this fandom. Love you ❤

[cushfuddled]

hey! can I ask why you ship sheith, even though there's a lot of evidence that shiro is a father figure to keith? there was, for one example, a scene where shiro picks keith up fron the garrison's version of a principal's office, and if that's not fatherlike, that's defintitely older-brother like. I'm not one of those evil antis hellbent on ruining the fun for other people! I just wanted to get an honest, civil opinion if possible! I enjoy your warriorsgraphics blog a lot. I hope you reply.

YOOO of course dude! No worries at all.

I ship Sheith because, while I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU that their relationship was originally a platonic one between student and teacher, brother and older brother, or even father and son, it evolved over time into something romantic.

That prospect can be uncomfortable for some people, and that’s fine! I understand. Personally, I’m not bothered by the fact that they had a familial relationship at first. I like to think Keith developed a crush on Shiro first, but didn’t understand his own feelings for a long time, with Shiro coming to a sudden realization much later on like, “Holy shit, since when did he grow up? And how long have I felt like this towards him?! WTF OH NO!”

There’s definitely a lot of familial coding between them. For one thing, Keith and Pidge’s arcs are paralleled: 

These shots are from the same episode; we’re meant to connect them. We’re supposed to think, “Oh, both Pidge and Keith are searching for their respective brothers!” And of course Keith has blatantly said, “You’re like a brother to me” on two separate occasions. 

The problem for me is that…I have two older step-siblings. 

I’m closer to one than the other. She entered my life when she was 11 and I was 5. That’s a six year age gap. I LOVE MIRANDA. As a kid, I copied everything she did. She was an artist, so I became an artist. My sense of humor comes from her. She was (and still is) a huge inspiration and a mentor to me.

And, let’s say…if I were falling to my death, with my hand grabbing her wrist…

To borrow from a post I can’t seem to find right now…I would not picture her in soft sunset lighting, leaning back against a bike and wearing a leather jacket. I just…wouldn’t.

In bracing for death, I probably wouldn’t make sure she was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes—? Dunno I guess…I haven’t died before. 

[More under the cut]

We also…don’t……look at each other like….this….

And if I saw her for the first time after she’d been gone for a while and came back older and buff, I wouldn’t react like I was having a gay awakening. 

OH NO HE’S HAWWWWWT

“Look, Keith—”

“—Everyone, calm down”

There was also that whole episode where Keith was directly compared to Adam, with Keith choosing to support Shiro when Adam chose to move on. 

And there’s….this…..amazing cross dissolve…

In essence, what I see on screen between Shiro and Keith does not relate to my understanding of what it’s like to have an older sibling. It’s all a matter of interpretation. There are multiple ways to view their relationship. 

“You’re like a brother to me.”

Option one: He’s like a brother to him. End of story. No mas. 

Option two: Keith doesn’t realize the true nature of his feelings, or he doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. 

Plenty of romantic relationships begin with a familial relationship. It’s pretty common in fiction between straight couples, actually. Gonna’ borrow heavily from dent-de-leon’s post:

So….yeah! That’s why. 

To repeat: I def think their relationship was once familial, but things evolved over time. For a while Shiro was kinda’ coded as Keith’s dad (he literally wore his clothes), but he’s since ditched that outfit and that role. With their two years in space (and his additional time on the whale) Keith is now 22. He’s the leader of Voltron. Shiro still gives him advice, but I don’t think of their different ranks as a problem. These two know how to talk to each other and support each other equally. 

[Keith coming to check up on Shiro after Ulaz’ death]

[It’s insinuated that Keith is the only one allowed into Shiro’s room while he recovers]

[vcepsis]

hi hello i am also loving your shiro whump so much, god bless. can i request I + 5 for the drabble prompts, with sheith or miro?

I am so sorry this took so long oof but thank you so much for the request!! Taken from this drabble request meme (fever + in public)

Have 2k of my first ever vld AU (college AU whatup) and my first ever Miro woooo (thought I’d do something different for ya) massive shout out to @feverflushed​ as always for reading it over and listening to me whine

—–

Matt had to fight the impulse to sprint down the hall, pulling out his phone again to check the time. Damn, he was coming up on being thirty minutes late. While being a TA meant he didn’t have a set clock in time, but he always tried to be in the office when Professor Shirogane got in. Matt always liked to be around to help with anything he could: grading papers, sitting in on exams, even writing test questions from time to time. Professor Shirogane—Shiro, he insisted Matt call him—trusted him with a lot, and Matt tried to keep a somewhat timely schedule in return. It was the least he could do, after all.

He finally stopped at the door of Shiro’s office, trying not to look like he ran all the way here from his car. Even after six months of being Shiro’s TA, Matt couldn’t stop the butterflies from dancing in his stomach every time he showed up. Not only was Shiro the most attractive professor on staff—the most beautiful person on campus at any given time, if Matt’s being honest—he was wickedly smart, and kind, and wonderful, and—

Get it together, Holt. Sometimes he felt like a kid crushing on his teacher, instead of a twenty-four year old man with an adult job and half a Master’s degree.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked softly on Shiro’s door.

No answer.

Huh. That was weird. Shiro had class in forty five minutes….he was always in his office at least an hour before.

Matt turned the doorknob, and, finding it unlocked, gently pushed the door open. Shiro always insisted on a casual relationship, even going so far as to give Matt a key to the office if he wanted to work when Shiro wasn’t around. Even so, it felt almost intrusive to enter the room uninvited. “Shiro? You in here?”

It didn’t take Matt long to find Shiro, who was sitting at his desk as usual, but it did take a few moments to register the scene before him.

Shiro’s head was pillowed on his arms in front of his laptop, his glasses pushed up to rest on top of his head. Sound asleep.

Matt gaped, unable to help it. It was rare to see Shiro ever slow down by even a fraction, let alone sleep.

Closing the door as quietly as he could, Matt tiptoed up to Shiro’s desk. The laptop’s screen was dark, and Matt wondered just how long Shiro had been asleep. His breathing was deep, but slightly uneven, and he was snoring softly.

It was the cutest goddamn thing Matt had ever seen.

His face was smushed against his arm, the glasses resting precariously on his white bangs. Matt couldn’t help but smile at the sight. It was nice to see Shiro get some actual rest, for a change.

The smile faded when he noticed the red flush across Shiro’s cheeks and the slightly congested sound of his breathing. There was also a box of tissues on his desk that had most certainly not been there yesterday. Was he getting sick? It was that time of year (then again, in a school this size, it always seemed to be that time of year) and Shiro wasn’t exactly great at remembering to sleep enough. Matt bit his lip, unsure of what to do.

But then, Shiro’s breathing suddenly stuttered, and he lifted his head, blinking tiredly at Matt. His glasses slipped down his forehead to land somewhat crookedly on his nose. Combined with the ruffled hair and the sleepy expression, Matt couldn’t help the way his heart clenched in his chest. Too cute!!

At the same time, though, the flush on his face was darker than Matt had originally thought, and there were dark smudges under his eyes. Matt was beginning to grow concerned.

Clearing his throat slightly, he put on his best not-creepy smile. “Hey man. You feeling alright?”

This seemed to snap Shiro awake, and he sat up so fast it looked like it made him dizzy. “Shit,” he mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes with his palms and straightening his glasses. “What time is it?”

“Don’t worry, you still have…” Matt pulled out his phone. “Thirty-eight minutes until your next class starts.”

Shiro nodded, yawning into the back of his hand, only to have it turn into coughing on the exhale.

“But….” Matt hesitated, feeling like he was overstepping. “Maybe you should cancel?”

Shiro smiled sheepishly, sniffling a bit. “I look that bad, huh?”

God, no, Matt thought silently. A little rumpled, sure, but still the hottest fucking thing within a fifty mile radius. “Nah, just…tired.”

Shiro hummed in agreement, leaning forward on his elbows and rubbing his temples. “Yeah. Think I’m coming down with that bug that’s been going around.” He eyed Matt warily, looking a little apprehensive. “You might not want to work here today. Wouldn’t want you to get sick, too.”

Matt waved his hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry about me, dude. It’s not like anyone can avoid getting sick here, anyway.” As if he’d leave Shiro alone when he looked so miserable. Plus, Matt’s heart jumped at the prospect of taking care of Shiro, even if it was just doing little things like making sure he had enough tissues, or that he didn’t die in his office.

“Still—” Suddenly, Shiro’s breathing hitched dangerously, cutting him off. He swiped a few tissues out of the box with a desperate urgency, swiveling in his chair away from Matt to sneeze harshly a few times into the folds.

Matt resisted the urge to rub Shiro’s back as he blew his nose in the aftermath (because that would be the exact opposite of professional), but he couldn’t help make a comment. “You sure you’re ok? You sound kind of….terrible.”

“I’ll be fine, Matt.” The words sounded a bit dulled, the congestion evident in his voice. He sniffled again and tossed the tissue in the trash. “It’s just a cold, anyway.”

“Sure,” Matt said, not convinced in the slightest. “But isn’t the best part of being a professor being able to cancel class whenever you want?”

Shiro shot him an exasperated look. “Most people would say it’s the joy of teaching,” he said flatly.

“Ok…sounds fake, but ok.” Matt deposited himself in one of the plush chairs opposite Shiro’s desk, rummaging through his bag to find his notebook. They lapsed into silence then, save for Shiro’s occasional sniffle.

Matt tried to concentrate on his work, but it was difficult to ignore Shiro’s deteriorating condition. The cough he was trying to keep contained was sounding worse and worse as time went on, from dry and quiet to crackling and harsh. It sounded downright painful. Matt knew Shiro thought it was “just a cold”, but he also knew Shiro had the tendency to work himself into the ground and turn a simple illness into something worse. And sure, Shiro was an adult, but Matt couldn’t help but worry.

Soon enough, though, Shiro was packing his bag to head to his class. Matt sighed internally, knowing Shiro would work through literally anything. So he did the only logical thing.

“What are you doing?” Shiro asked as Matt shoved his notebook back into his bag.

“Coming with you to class,” Matt said, as if that was what he always did and there was absolutely no reason to be suspicious about it.

But Shiro was, of course, not buying it. “Ok, but….why?”

Matt shrugged, trying to make it all seem natural. “Because you’re teaching a class that’s relevant to my Master’s? You know…the one you’re helping me with?”

“It’s an intro level class,” Shiro said slowly, rubbing his pink nose with the back of his wrist. “You probably know this stuff better than I do, at this point.”

Matt scoffed. As if that was possible. Shiro was probably one of the smartest people he knew. He did have a point, though; Matt did know this stuff inside and out. Mostly he wanted to make sure Shiro didn’t traumatize his students by passing out halfway through the lecture.

Shiro sighed as Matt zipped up his bag. “Alright,” he said, slightly exasperated. “It’s not like I can stop you anyway.”

Matt beamed as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “Nope!”

—-

To his immense credit, Shiro did not, in fact, pass out during the lecture.

By the end, though, he looked pretty damn close.

Matt sat in a chair off to the side, where the podium with Shiro’s laptop sat. He got some odd looks from a few students—normally they only saw Matt during midterms or exams—but he ignored them, focusing his energy on monitoring Shiro.

Shiro had started off strong, only a hint of congestion in his voice giving away his condition. But as the class went on, his voice got worse, his energy seemed to wane, and he had to stop a few times to sneeze into the crook of his elbow. The ugly fluorescent lights of the lecture hall did nothing to hide the dark flush across his cheeks and nose. At some point, Matt realized had completely tuned out what Shiro was actually saying, keeping a close eye on the time, waiting anxiously for the class to be over.

After what felt like an eternity, Shiro finally dismissed the class, and Matt jumped up from his seat. Shiro made his way to the podium and started packing up his bag, taking longer than usual, his movements sluggish. Matt wanted to help, but didn’t want to cross the boundary of their professional relationship.

Well…he did. Very, very badly. But now wasn’t the time for that.

“Hey.” Matt leaned against the podium, looking up at Shiro’s flushed face. “I really think you should go home.”

Shiro checked his watch—of course he wore a watch, what an old fashioned fool, and Matt’s chest grew warm with affection. “I have my fourth year class in an hour—”

“So?” Matt straightened and put his hands on his hips, the picture of defiance. “There are like, ten people in that class. They’ll survive. Plus, you’re sick. They’ll understand.”

“But—”

“No!” Matt exclaimed, frustration welling up inside him. God, why was Shiro so bad at taking care of himself? “You’re sick and you’re miserable and you definitely have a fever. You need to take care of yourself too, you know!”

Shiro at least had the decency to look admonished. “It’s not that bad…”

“Not that—” Matt choked on the words. And in a move of absolute rage-fuelled insanity, he shoved his hand under Shiro’s bangs, with his palm on Shiro’s forehead.

Shiro’s eyes went wide, and Matt suddenly realized what he’d done. But before the mortification could eat him alive, the heat searing into his palm demanded his attention.

“Holy shit dude, you’re burning up.” He dropped his hand as quickly as possible, as if that could salvage the situation. His hand tingled in the aftermath, and Matt wasn’t sure it was just because of the heat. “Let’s get back to your office so you can email those students because you are cancelling your next class.”

Shiro’s shoulders slumped under the weight of Matt’s words, and finally, he nodded. It was a testament to how terrible he was feeling that he relented so quickly. He turned away from Matt as another coughing fit took over, the sound wet and harsh as he buried his face in his elbow. Matt’s heart hurt from the sound.

“This hit you like a truck, huh?” Matt felt his frustration evaporate, only to be replaced with concern as Shiro used one hand to steady himself on the podium. As Shiro stopped to catch his breath, Matt circled around the podium, grabbing Shiro’s laptop and his various papers and stuffing them in his bag. It wasn’t the neatest thing ever, but it would do for now. With his own bag on one shoulder and slinging Shiro’s bag on the other, he reached out a hand to tentatively touch Shiro’s back.

“You ok?” Matt asked softly, feeling a little guilty about his previous outburst. But Shiro didn’t seem upset, until he looked over and saw Matt with his bag.

“Matt, no, I can take my bag…”

“I got it, Shiro,” Matt said. I got you ran through his head, but he managed to quell the thought before he did something stupid, like use it to confess his undying love. “Now let’s get you home, alright?”

Shiro ran a hand over his face, letting out a congested sounding breath. “What would I do without you?”

Matt grinned. “Probably be dead in your office.”

The smile Shiro sent him in return was a little tired, a little exasperated, but it was bright and beautiful and it melted Matt’s heart.

Ah, shit, Matt thought as his own smile grew wider. I love him.

[perfectlyrose]

there’s something wretched about this

Shiro tries to discover the sequence of events leading up to Keith's departure from the Garrison and ends up opening a much larger can of emotional worms than he anticipated.

Sheith, pre-relationship, angst || 2.5k, all ages

AO3

The need to know is an itch under Shiro’s skin. He’s trying to accept that his memory has gaping holes in it now and he feels like he’s doing surprisingly well at that. The information he needs now isn’t something he’s forgotten though; it’s something he never knew to start with.

He’s pieced together scraps of information but the picture is still less than clear.

What he knows is this:

Sometime between the Kerberos launch and Shiro crash landing back on Earth, Keith left the Garrison.

Lance has called him a dropout more than once. Keith mentioned getting booted.

The shack he had awoken in looked lived in, was littered with the traces of Keith’s existence.

Keith is closed off in ways that Shiro doesn’t recognize.

Shiro needs to know what happened in the year and some-odd months he was in space. He tries to ask Keith, wanting to hear it straight from him. Keith’s face goes stone-still and he awkwardly shifts the conversation to something else.

Shiro’s heart does a funny twist as he considers the possibility that Keith doesn’t trust him enough to share anymore.

He wants to say that he’s shocked about Keith parting ways with the Garrison but it would be a lie. Keith had always been about two moves away from getting expelled or storming out at any given moment. Keith was there to fly and his willingness to bend to the strict discipline of the military bureaucracy was miniscule on good days. He did exactly what it took to get in the sims, in the air, and no more.

But Shiro needs to know what happened.

Keith won’t talk to him about it, so he seeks out Lance.

He finds the Blue Paladin wandering the hallways, clearly undecided on how to spend their few free hours. “Lance! Just who I was looking for,” he says, putting on a cheerful front.

“Oh, hey, Shiro,” Lance replies. “What’s up?”

“Was hoping you could help me with something. Got a minute to talk?”

“Nothing but time,” Lance answers with an expansive hand gesture.

“Just wanted to ask a few questions,” Shiro explains as he leads them to the lounge. It’s empty and he takes a seat on one of the couches. Lance sits opposite him.

“Whaddya need to know? I am always up to date with the latest gossip, even with the limited sources on this old ship.” A smirk spreads across his face as he leans back, resting his hands behind his head and an ankle on his knee. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“I was hoping you could tell me some of what happened at the Garrison after…” he pulls in a breath, “after I left.”

Lance’s eyebrows go up. He scrutinizes Shiro. “You want to know what led up to Keith living in a shack in the desert.”

Shiro shrugs and doesn’t deny it. “Might be a bit curious.”

“Well, as the guy who took his spot when he finally flamed out, I can provide a pretty accurate account,” he boasts.

Shiro gestures for him to go ahead.

“Right after the Kerberos mission left, Keith was like… weirdly quiet. I mean, he was always kind of quiet except when he was getting in trouble, but it was different. He kept his head down, you know? Stayed out of trouble for once.”

Shiro wonders if that was because he was no longer there to help smooth things over, wonders if Keith was trying a little harder to toe the line so he’d still be there when Shiro returned.

That isn’t fair to his friend, though. He always joked with Keith about him being a troublemaker but it wasn’t true, not really. Keith never made the trouble or even sought it out, it just seemed to dog his footsteps. His sharp edges caught against the rigid fabric of the Garrison and tore through it instead of dulling down.

If Keith had been trying to fall in line though, what had caused his flight to the desert?

“Once news of mission failure hit, shit kinda hit the fan,” Lance continues, waving a hand. “Mullet disappeared for like two whole days. Even missed a sim flight which was super weird for him. Heard he got into a shouting match with Iverson when he showed back up. Rumor had it that he was screaming about how it couldn’t have been pilot error and that the Garrison was covering something up.” Lance sits up straight. “Hey, he was actually right!”

Shiro’s focus narrows onto two words. “Pilot error?” he croaks out, voice unsteady.

Lance takes one look at Shiro’s face and blanches, pulling back. Shiro doesn’t want to know what expression he’s wearing to cause that reaction.

“Um yeah,” he stutters out. “The Garrison announced pilot error as the reason for mission failure.”

Shiro feels helpless anger licking at his bones. After years of being their poster child, the Garrison dismissed him with the two cruelest words they could pick. Pilot error. Like he hadn’t worked harder than anyone else to be able to graduate early, to be selected as the pilot for the Kerberos mission. Like he hadn’t fought tooth and nail to keep his spot, like he hadn’t given up everything to fly the mission and fly it absolutely perfectly.

They erased his entire body of work, his every professional achievement, with two words.

“Makes sense, I guess,” he says aloud. And it does. The most common reasons for mission failure lie with the pilot, but not with Shiro, not this time. His fists clench and he wonders if they publicly blamed his illness too.

He doesn’t ask.

“Yeah, so, that was pretty much the only thing everyone was talking about,” Lance hurries to continue. “And you could just kinda see Keith starting to lose it, you know? Pretty sure there was a betting pool as to when he would finally snap. Could see it coming from a mile away.”

“What happened?” Shiro is impressed that his voice is even. The anger is still simmering in his veins, but dread is starting to build in his chest, heavy and unwelcome.

Lance shrugs. “He snapped. There’s at least a dozen different stories about what happened. The one where he punched out Iverson and took off on a hoverbike is the most popular. It was something like two weeks after mission failure, I think. All anyone knew for sure was that Keith literally disappeared within the span of an hour. People saw him in the mess and then his dorm was clear of personal effects like… forty-five minutes later. No one saw him again until the three of us ran into him while rescuing you.”

Cold snakes down Shiro’s spine. He isn’t surprised that Keith left the Garrison, but he never expected to learn that he is the reason behind the departure.

“Was he expelled or did he run?” He has to know. That’s what got him into the mess of too much and not enough information in the first place.

Lance swallows hard. “Pretty sure he was expelled but no one could ever actually confirm it.” He fidgets for a moment and then forges ahead. “Hey, Shiro? Why are you asking me about this instead of Keith? He actually knows what happened since he, you know, lived it.”

“He refused to talk about it,” Shiro admits.

“Okay,” Lance drawls. “Do me a favor and don’t tell him that I’m the one who spilled the beans, yeah? I would prefer to keep all of my teeth intact.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “He wouldn’t punch you out, Lance.”

Lance scoffs as he gets to his feet. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think.”

He leaves the room, unaware that he just sent Shiro reeling.

He’s been so focused on how he himself has changed that he’s failed to really consider how much his friend must have changed too.

Shiro’s skin prickles with guilt.

He takes a deep breath and tries to sort through everything he’s learned in the past few minutes.

The revelation of pilot error is something he needs to set aside for later, he decides. Keith needs to be his focus. Lance at least gave him enough information to start with regarding Keith’s departure from the Garrison, even if it is full of holes and guesses.

Shiro drags a hand over his face. He really needs to talk to Keith. Putting it off even longer isn’t going to help matters, he thinks. He’s already let Keith avoid the conversation several times. They need to talk about it so they can move forward. Keith needs to talk about it, Shiro thinks, instead of bottling it all up like is his wont.

He stands and heads towards the training deck, knowing that Keith is likely there. Now is as good a time as any to have this conversation.

Shiro watches from the doorway as Keith fights the gladiator on a level higher than he’s seen anyone else try thus far. He moves with single-minded ferocity and sharp-edged grace. Keith in a fight is something Shiro’s never been able to look away from.

He never saw Keith training with blades of any sort back at the Garrison but his bayard seems like a natural extension of his arm. It’s mesmerizing.

Keith’s bayard slices into the side of the gladiator and it powers down, signalling victory for the Red Paladin.

“End training sequence,” Keith says, voice quiet in the large room. His bayard flashes, returning to its base form.

“Impressive,” Shiro says.

Keith whips around. His hair is plastered to his forehead and he looks about ready to drop. “Oh. Hey, Shiro.”

“Have a minute? I’ve been meaning to talk to you about some stuff.”

His face closes off, hiding all the emotion Shiro used to be able to read so easily. “Can it wait? I need to hit the showers.”

“I don’t know when we’ll have another free minute,” Shiro says. “Please?”

Keith sighs. “Fine.”

He walks over to where the water pouches are kept. Shiro follows.

“So, what’s this stuff you want to talk about?” Keith asks after draining half the pouch.

Now or never, Shiro thinks before opening his mouth. He vaguely regrets this conversation already and it’s barely started. “What happened after the Kerberos launch, Keith?”

Keith stiffens. “If you want the Garrison gossip, go talk to Lance or Hunk or someone. You know I didn’t keep up with that shit.”

“I want to know what happened with you,” Shiro presses. “How did you end up out in the desert on your own?”

“Drove a hoverbike there,” Keith shoots back.

Shiro frowns. “That’s not what I meant. You can’t keep bottling this all up. It’s not healthy.”

“That’s rich coming from you” he says with a snort. “You’re practically  the poster child for repressing emotions. Guess it’s a lesson you didn’t mean to teach me.”

Direct hit. “Keith,” he reaches out and rests a hand on his shoulder, “I worry, okay? You seem on edge and talking about all this might help.”

Keith’s face twists and he ducks out from under Shiro’s touch. “You think talking will help?”

Shiro never wants to hear the humorless laugh that follow the words fall from Keith’s lips again.

He nods, hesitant. “I think it will, and I was hoping you still trust me enough to know that I will listen. So, talk to me.”

He knows issuing Keith a challenge used to be the best way to goad him into doing something. It’s almost a relief that the tactic still holds.

“What the fuck do you want to hear, Shiro?” Keith almost snarls. The words sound ripped out of his chest. “That after you left I had to learn how to be alone again and that it hurt worse than before because I actually knew the alternative? That I read every single tiny report and log that you and the Holts sent back to command? Or how about all the ways I self-destructed after they announced mission failure? Do you want a fucking list?” Keith is breathing hard, fire in his eyes.

Shiro has been shocked into stillness by Keith’s ferocity, by the pain dripping from every word.

“What good does any of this do you?” Keith’s voice cracks. “It’s in the past. Just… just leave it there.”

Shiro swallows hard. “I’m not sure that I can. I’m not sure that either of us can.”

“Well, I’m going to try,” Keith says. The strength underlying the words is brittle and cracking. “I thought you were dead, Shiro. You were dead and all anyone could talk about was pilot error and how the Garrison made a mistake sending you up there.” He looks down at his feet. “People didn’t seem to care that you specifically, as a person, were gone and I couldn’t… I couldn’t...”

They erased his entire body of work, his every professional achievement, with two words.

Pilot error.

The same two words completely shattered Keith’s entire world.

“Keith…”

“Just leave it alone, Shiro. Please.” He’s shaking, little fine tremors wracking him. He looks like he’s barely holding it together.

Guilt swamps him, leaving Shiro cold and with a heavy ball of regret in his stomach. “Okay,” he whispers, nodding. “Okay.”

Keith presses his lips into a thin line like he’s holding back more words. He takes a deep breath, fists clenching. Shiro can only watch as he pushes all his roiling emotions back behind his walls, pulls them back under his skin.

“I’m just going to… I’m going to go get that shower.” He doesn’t wait for Shiro to answer, just turns and walks away.

Shiro sits down and buries his face in his hands, trying to parse through all the information again now that Keith has sent him spinning off kilter once more. He’s always had a knack for that.

What Shiro now knows is this:

Keith left the Garrison within two weeks of the announcement of the failure of the Kerberos mission.

Keith was likely expelled but the exact reason why is still unknown to him.

The general reason Keith left the Garrison and retreated to the desert was Shiro’s presumed death.

Keith lived in that desert shack, alone, for an entire year.

Keith is closed off in ways that Shiro doesn’t recognize, ways that were carved out by grief and loneliness.

He draws in a deep breath. The biggest thing he’s realized is that Keith has been altered by the past year almost as much as Shiro has. He is going to have to work to rebuild the friendship they once shared, to earn the right to see behind Keith’s walls again.

It is work he is more than willing to do. He never wants to be the cause of Keith’s pain like this again, never again wants to see the other man almost shaking apart at the seams due to lingering grief. He doesn’t think his heart could take it, not when it feels cracked open after this single conversation.

He’ll make sure that Keith knows that he never wants to make him hurt like this again. They might be fighting a war, but it’s one they’re fighting together and Shiro has no plans to disappear again.

Now he just needs to convince Keith of this. They can start healing together and maybe one day Shiro will get the rest of the answers he craves. They have plenty of time to get there, he thinks. 

Plenty of time.

[blackfen]

Now Kiss!

first of many fix it fics that shall be used to soothe me sheith shipping heart <3

-

He was going to fucking drown himself in a scalding hot shower. That was the only way he could think of that might relieve just an iota of the absolute misery he was wallowing in. After that, he’d either die in an incredibly embarrassing position or actually grow the fuck up and force himself to, at least, project the façade that he was delighted for Shiro. He did want to be genuinely happy for him, so much so that he spent an ungodly amount of time ever since the announcement had been made, trying to convince himself that he was happy, how could he not be happy? His best and closest friend was getting to the love of his life and sure, it wasn’t him but that didn’t change the fact that Shiro was obviously happy so he should be happy too!

Thing is, repeatedly telling himself that didn’t change a fucking goddamn thing. Happy was the opposite end of the fucking ‘this is what Keith is feeling’ spectrum. It was so far away from where he currently stood that he couldn’t see a hint of it. As aforementioned, where he stood on that metaphorical spectrum was right smack middle in the ‘literally right on the verge of openly, violently weeping at any moment’ area. Pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes, Keith sighed heavily. How could he not be happy? Well, the answer to that was pretty darn simple. Shiro was getting married tomorrow. To a good man, a man that Keith liked and got along well with, a man who made Shiro happy but point of the matter was, that man was not him.

It was his own goddamn fault, that he knew. He didn’t place any blame or anger on Shiro or Curtis. It was all his fault because he was an idiot coward who just kept his mouth tightly sewn shut for years. He was an ignoramus who thought it’d be fine, he was fine with just being friends, with just being by his side and that it was okay, as long as he was happy…it was all okay.

It was not fucking okay.

When Shiro started dating Curtis a couple years ago, Keith spent months agonizing over whether or not he should tell Shiro how he really felt. Obviously, he eventually decided against it. Why, he still had no idea. No…that was a lie, that was a big ass lie that he was telling himself right then. He knew why, he had a very clear picture of why he’d just watched from a distance, presenting this front of being someone completely and utterly unaffected by the fact that someone he loved for years was dating someone else. Because he was a goddamn coward. Absolutely terrified of actually vocalizing something he had hidden for years. Not to mention, it felt a little…wrong to bring those feelings to light when Shiro was involved with someone else.

So, he kept silence, and his distance. It was just easier that way. Wandered off into the massive universe with the Blades, moved up in the ranks, spent years helping everyone he could, growing, learning, and just generally experiencing the big wide open. Only to come back a few years later when an announcement was sent his way: he was invited to Shiro and Curtis’s marriage.

He had come so fucking close to saying that he couldn’t make it. That he was too far out and wouldn’t make it in time. He hadn’t, somehow he’d managed to restrain himself but he had come so close that he was still burning with a bit of shame. Now that he was actually here, having gone through the rehearsal dinner and an agonizing amount of time around the lovebirds, just how happy the two of them were unintentionally rubbed in his face, he kind of did wish he had thought up some kind of excuse to get out of this. It wasn’t good for his health. Mostly because if he kept feeling this guilty and ashamed, he might end up with a stomach ulcer.

Sighing heavily once more, Keith rolled over onto his side. He needed to grow up. Shiro was happy! He was getting married to someone he loved! This was good! Just because he didn’t take advantage of one of the many opportunities that had been given to him didn’t mean that he got to be an asshole. Well…secretly an asshole. Not like he’d ever let Shiro know just how much this was negatively affecting him. He might be selfish, but he wasn’t that selfish. No, he would just privately wallow, forcing big smiles and joyous laughs, convincing everyone…except for Pidge…and Hunk...that he was absolutely okay with all this.

Before that, though, a scalding hot shower was in his immediate future. So immediate that it was going to get started now. Rolling off the bed, groaning a little when his feet hit the floor, Keith started towards the bathroom, only to come to a startled halt when someone knocked on his door.

“Keith?” Shiro’s familiar voice called from the other side, “Are you awake?”

His first instinct was to call back in the negative, he was still very much awake and probably would not be sleeping at all tonight but just as the words were on the tip of his tongue, he hesitated. Was this a good idea? Was this actually a good idea now? He wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind right now so talking with Shiro, who probably wanted to discuss all the good times they had together and how happy he was that Keith was there to watch him get married, might not be the best idea. Conflicted, nervously shifting his weight around, Keith went through a brief, fierce internal discussion as he tried to figure out just what the fuck he wanted to do. Ultimately, the side that wanted silence, pretending to be asleep won out.

Guilt immediately pricked his heart but…he just couldn’t do it. Not now. He didn’t want to say anything that might ruin Shiro’s big day. Better to just swallow everything down, let it fester in his stomach until it developed into something nasty and let future Keith deal with those residual feelings. Shoulders slumping, Keith sighed for what felt like the tenth millionth time that night, and turned away, starting towards the bathroom once more. He’d hang around for a few minutes, maybe just sit on the floor and stare blankly into space for a while.

“Keith, please.”

The tone…the softness…the desperation in Shiro’s voice made him freeze. His breath got caught in his throat, creating a massive blob of oxygen that pressed against the linings. Slowly turning back around, Keith stared blankly at the door for a moment, distantly wondering if he was so stressed out by the whole thing that he was imagining things then his feet were moving, carrying across the room with no conscious effort from him. Reaching out, uncertainty and doubt squealing in the back of his mind, begging him to reconsider, to not do this to himself, that whatever Shiro wanted to talk about was not worth the mental strain that it was going to put on him, Keith gripped the doorknob, paused for just a moment then slowly, cautiously pulled open the door.

There stood Shiro, dressed only in a pair of sweatpants and a loose fitting tee. Immediately shifting over into ‘I am friend with no romantic feelings for you, dude’ mode, Keith offered a confused smile and managed to get out just, “Hey, Shiro, what’s-“ before a strong hand grabbed his shoulder, pushing him back into the room as Shiro surged forward. After that, everything moved remarkably fast. Sputtering in confusion, eyes stretched wide in surprise, Keith found himself being pushed down onto the bed, Shiro’s big hands cupping his face then with a short, sharp inhale, a warm, firm pair of lips pressed against his in a desperate, hungry kiss.

Too stunned to do much of anything other than just lie there, staring at the blurry mass that was Shiro’s face, Keith thought for just a moment that he had died. That he had actually taken that scalding hot shower, and just drowned in the bathtub since he couldn’t really think of any other explanation as to why in the fuck Shiro was suddenly kissing him. Then, a hot tongue pushed between his lips, spreading the taste of Shiro’s mouth into his – minty, someone had just brushed his teeth, and Keith jerked back to reality. It felt a little stupid to be realizing it right now, when there was a tongue actually in his mouth, but Shiro, who was set to get married tomorrow, was kissing him! Letting out a muffled yelp, he slammed his hands against Shiro’s beefy chest, shoving him backwards.

“What’re you doing?!” He yelled, more out of sheer shock than anger.

Panting hard, his broad shoulders heavily rising and falling, Shiro noticeably swallowed, producing an audible click. Leaning back, he brushed a hand through his short hair, eyes fluttering closed, and said softly, “Sorry, just-when I saw you, I was so overwhelmed that I lost control of myself for a moment.”

“What’re you talking about, Shiro?” Keith asked, mouth hanging open in a stupid gawk.

Opening his eyes to focus a calm, unflinching gaze on him, Shiro sucked in a deep breath, then began to slowly speak, “I agreed to go out with Curtis because I thought that I had no chance with you. I thought that your love was just for a brother, for a friend and I…” Shiro chuckled, a low raspy sound that came from somewhere deep in his throat, “I think I just wanted to get over you. I told myself that it’d never happen, that I should stop hoping for it and move on. So, when Curtis asked, I thought ‘this is it. This is your chance to move on’ so I agreed.”

“For a long while, it worked. Curtis is an incredible man. One who…who I wasn’t already in love with someone else, I would have genuinely fallen for. And…I think you not being there helped as well. It was easier to forget about how much I loved you when you weren’t by my side. I thought that I was over it. That I’d managed to shelve those feelings, and moved on. Then, he popped the question. I saw no reason to say no. The invitations were sent out, you said you were coming and I thought-“ Shiro paused, thick brows knitting together over a conflicted gaze, “I thought when we met back up for the first time in years, I’d be alright.”

“I wasn’t.” Shiro stated quietly, his voice so heavy that Keith was shocked it didn’t break the bed when those words came tumbling out, “Everything…everything I felt for you came back the moment I laid eyes on you. One instant, I was confident in my decision to get married to Curtis then in the very next, I wanted nothing more to,” Shiro chuckled again, “to do what I just did. I wanted nothing more than to just tell you everything.”

“Shiro-“ Keith whispered, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. Dead…he was actually dead, wasn’t he? This was all some fever dream while the Grim Reaper was slowly sucking his soul out of his dying body.

“I thought,” Shiro continued, cutting off whatever else he was going to say – not that he was sure there was any more, “that nothing had changed. You still saw me as your brother, your friend so I just swallowed everything down. Told myself that I had Curtis, that I was going to get married, so everything was okay but…nothing…nothing was okay. You being here shook me up more than I ever thought possible.”

“I’m sorry?” Keith mumbled, his head whirling.

Shiro slowly shook his head, “No, it’s not something you need to apologize for. It isn’t your fault.”

A heavy, tense silence fell over them. Keith stared at Shiro, his heart thundering so fast that he could feel the reverberations of each beat echoing through his body. Swallowing hard, his throat suddenly very dry, still able to feel Shiro’s lips on him and almost a little ashamed at how much he wanted Shiro to kiss him again, Keith hesitated for a moment then asked, “Why are you here then?”

“Hunk.” Was all Shiro said.

“Ah.” Was all Keith said.

Again, they fell into silence, one where neither one could tell what the other was thinking. Not that Keith was actually thinking anything. His thoughts were just a constant, steadily growing in volume repeat of what Shiro had just said. Same, same, same, same! A voice screeched with deranged gleefulness in the back of his head. Inexplicably, he was starting to feel a migraine coming on. Shifting gingerly, terrified to move around too much since there was a possibility that this was all just a hallucination and if he made physical contact, he might disappear in a poof of smoke, Keith said, “Hunk told you everything.”

“Yeah.” Shiro said softly, nodding stiffly, “Everything.”

“What about Curtis?” Keith asked hesitantly, not sure that he wanted to hear the answer.

“I’m here because of Curtis. I think…” Shiro sighed, “I think he’s always known. After Hunk confronted me with how you felt and told me that I was making a mistake, I was prepared to discard how I really felt. I was prepared to remain true to Curtis but when I got back to our room, he was already there. He told me that he overheard what Hunk said. He told me to go, that this…that,” Shiro’s gaze flickered up to settle an intense, raw stare on him, one that made him jump back slightly, “you are my happiness.”

All the breath whooshed out of his lungs in a long, raspy breath. Blinking rapidly, a weird ringing filling up his ears, Keith coughed, awkwardly cleared his throat and said in a strained voice, “Cool.”

The moment the word was out, scalding heat poured into his cheeks. Waving his head frantically, he tried to apologize, to explain that this was a whole lot more than just ‘cool’ but before he could say anything, Shiro burst out laughing. Pushing forward, he wrapped Keith up in a warm embrace, squeezing him close to a beefy chest. Keith hung limp in the circle of his arms for a moment before returning the embrace, anchoring himself to Keith’s bigger, broader body. Burying his face into Keith’s shoulder, he whispered, “I love you, Keith. I have for a really long time. I’m sorry it took me this long to tell you.”

“Y-you don’t need to apologize. I…I love you too, Shiro. I was just too scared to tell you.” Keith mumbled, pressing his burning cheek to Shiro’s broad shoulder.

“Hey, Keith, do you want to marry me?” Shiro whispered huskily into his ear, lightly kissing the patch of skin contacting his neck to his shoulder.

God, his face was going to turn into a fucking sun at this point. A immense emotion that was a mixture of relief, disbelief, jubilation and just a mishmash of other stuff that he didn’t have a name for but seemed good swelled up in his chest, pressing so hard against his heart and lungs that it was hard to breathe. Squeezing Shiro tightly, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes, a sob lingering at the back of his throat, waiting for the perfect moment to burst forth, Keith shakily nodded, pushing his fingers through Shiro’s soft hair, and whispered, “Yeah, I do.”

[legendaryroar]

When Hard Choices Become Easy Choices

Sheith Angst Week Day 5: Sacrifice/Almost ( @sheithangstweek)

Pairing: Keith/Shiro Rating: Mature Words: 930 Summary: When it comes down to it, one life lost is worth two lives saved, and Keith's not letting Lance or Pidge make that move. Warnings: Captured by the enemy, self-sacrifice, promise of torture, sad/open ending

(AO3 Link)

Pain shoots up Keith’s thighs as his knees are slammed into the deck. Claws dig into the side of his neck, but he forces himself not to wince. An unfamiliar face sneers down at him, and he glares right back. This mission could not have gone more wrong, but at least it’s him. At least Pidge and Lance got away in the Green Lion.

At least Keith didn’t bring the Black Lion on this mission.

With his helmet still on, he can hear them. The Galra haven’t blocked his comm link yet. He wishes they would. It’s like hearing that moment on repeat. They didn’t have enough time to extract all the information. They were going to get caught, alarms were blaring, the Galra were closing in.

He remembers the moment he saw it Lance’s eyes. The determination to shift from sniper to distraction. To stop picking off far away enemies and move closer. Buy Pidge more time.

But anyone making that move would get caught. It was an inevitability, and that’s not Lance’s role.

In making that move himself, Keith only wishes he’d though to turn off the comms. They were screaming at him as he ran off, and they’re still screaming at him now. So loud it hurts his ears through the comms, like his capture hasn’t sunk in yet. Like he can actually turn back around and find an airlock to shoot himself out of for pickup.

The Galra sneering down at him is saying something, but Keith tunes it out the moment he starts hearing Pidge and Lance calm down and say they’ll come back for him.

“Do not come for me,” he snaps, harsh and venomous. “That is an order.”

The Galra tilts his head and smirks. They still don’t block his comm link. They don’t even remove his helmet. There’s a burst of chatter in Keith’s ear and he blocks it out. Just like he blocks out the sharp prick of those nails tightening at his throat.

The Galra leader is saying something about heading back to central command. Keith can feel the ship change speeds beneath his knees. The comms still work, but that won’t last much longer. He doesn’t understand why they didn’t turn them off until there’s a sudden sharp pain in his side, in the vulnerable spot between plates of armour.

Not expecting it, not seeing anyone near him move, he cries out before he can stop himself. There’s silence on the comms, and then increased chatter, and he gets it.

“Do not come for me,” he hisses again.

The Galra all loom over him, sickening grins twisting their features. The chatter on the comms starts to crackle and fade

“Do not come for me,” he says again, forcing down a cry of pain as claws tear into his other side. As the hand holding the back of his neck tightens and those claws prick his neck even sharper. He’s not giving them what they want.

“Keith? Keith, listen to me, you have to fight, you have to hold on, we’ll come for you.”

It’s Shiro, and Keith closes his eyes. Listens to the sound of his voice. Loses himself in it. He only just found him again They didn’t get enough time. It’s like all the forces in the universe conspire to keep them apart. To keep them from being together. Like their love just isn’t enough.

“I love you, Keith. Just hold on until we can get to you. You can survive this, just remember that we’re coming for you,” Shiro says, voice fading and crackling.

“No, don’t come for me,” Keith gasps. He didn’t do this just for them to all get caught in the end.

“They will come for you,” one of the Galra says. “But soon there won’t be anything left for them to save.”

Keith’s heart sinks as the comms last a few moments longer, all Shiro’s calm voice telling him it will be okay, before cutting out. They heard that, Shiro heard that. A deliberate attempt to get them to rush in without a plan. He can only hope they won’t be so stupid.

The smart move is to let him go.

Claws dig into his sides again, but he fixes the leader with a glare and doesn’t cry out again. Not yet. His heart starts to race but he tells himself everything is fine. There’s no sense panicking yet. Everything will turn to hell soon enough. He won’t break before they break his body.

He focuses on the good things. They didn’t get the Black Lion. Shiro is back and Keith has faith he will pilot the Black Lion again. They can still form Voltron without him. Pidge got the intel they needed, and she and Lance got out safely. That’s all that matters.

That’s what he’ll focus on.

Whatever they do to him will be worth it. Without his distraction, Pidge and Lance wouldn’t have made it out.

A druid appears from nowhere, and nausea bubbles in Keith’s stomach at the sick laughs of the Galra around him. He knows enough from what Shiro has told him in the darkness of their room to know what’s going to be done to him

It’s worth it, he tells himself. It has to be. One life for two. Lance and Pidge are safe. Shiro will move on, he’s stronger than Keith ever was that way. He won’t break down and ruin the team like Keith did. He’ll take over the Black Lion sooner. They’ll all move on.

It will all be worth it.

[softlysheith]

never known this kind of love

Summary: Shiro likes using flower metaphors. Keith likes indulging him.

(A gift for @shirothebeefygyro for the Sheith Flower Exchange over at @sheithbouquet! Sheith, word count: 2433, ao3 link)

“Shiro?”

“Yes, Keith?” Shiro asks, even though Keith is sure he knows exactly what he is about to say.

“You really woke me up in the middle of the night, snuck us out of the Garrison, and spent an hour driving to the desert… for a flower shrub.”

“And a picnic,” Shiro adds with a grin, giving him some containers from his bag. Keith opens one of them while Shiro’s busy putting a blanket down, and he’s relieved to find simple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. God knows the amount of times he’s had to sacrifice his stomach for Shiro’s less than stellar cooking skills.

“The one time you decide to break the rules without me or Matt to convince you, and it’s so we can eat sandwiches in the desert at 4 AM. Shiro, what are you up to?” He asks, because really. This is a little ridiculous, even by his standards. But Shiro’s smile changes, from giddy and excited to… nervous, almost scared, and Keith quickly adds in, “I mean, not that I don’t appreciate it.  It’s just a strange idea for a date, you know?”

Shiro laughs, but it’s not as loose as Keith would like it to be. “I gotta admit, I didn’t really plan this out as well as I wanted to. I just need to tell you something, and this is where I need to say it.”

“Okay? Go on, then.”

“Not right now. I, um-” there’s pink spreading across Shiro’s cheeks, visible from the moonlight and the stars, and Keith suppresses the urge to kiss him. “I had this whole plan where I tell you about it while the sun is rising, and I might have brought you here a little earlier than I wanted to, so. I can’t tell you yet.”

This dork. He can’t help the quiet laugh he lets out. “Fine, fine,” he relents. “Later, then. What are your plans until later comes?”

“Eat my gourmet sandwiches and stargaze?”

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” he says, and Shiro grins and pulls him down so they can lie down on the blanket together.

He doesn’t know how much time passes while they talk and look at the scattering of stars above them, but eventually Shiro takes a glance at his watch, widens his eyes, and stands up, pulling Keith up with him. He brings Keith to the little shrub, only a couple feet away from where they settled. They sit in front of it, staring right at one of the white flowers.

Shiro takes in a deep breath as if psyching himself up, and lets it out, before he begins speaking. “To be honest, I was planning on giving you some flowers before I left for Kerberos. A flower that has some kind of meaning to it, so I can really express how much you mean to me without having to tell you. Especially because I know you’re not good with words. I spent a lot of time looking for a flower that can really tell you how important you are to me, but none of them felt really… right. Until I found this.”

When Keith takes a good look at it, it’s honestly not that spectacular. It’s very pretty in a simple, understated way, which is why Keith likes it. No flashy colors, no unique shapes, it just is. And he can start to understand why Shiro chose it. “It’s called the kadupul flower,” Shiro begins to explain. “It’s the most expensive flower in the world, and one of the rarest. It’s deemed priceless because it only blooms at night and withers by dawn.” He nudges Keith’s shoulder lightly. “Which is why it reminds me of you.”

Which… okay, he’s lost. “I… die in the mornings? You’re the one who isn’t the morning person between us.”

“What – no, no,” Shiro laughs, and he’s not entirely sure if he’s laughing at him, but he loves the sight so he’ll let it slide this once. “It reminds me of you because… well, you’re priceless. Rare. One of a kind. You’re really special to me, Keith.” A glimpse of the sun is starting to appear in the horizon, and the light it’s giving is highlighting the red in Shiro’s cheeks. “I’d like to think whatever’s between us is special too.”

“O-Oh.”  He says, because he doesn’t know what else to say. He believes that they have something special too – especially after everything Shiro has done for him, but hearing Shiro say it out loud makes his heart stutter and be filled with something sweet, something he can’t identify.

“You’re so important to me,” Shiro continues, taking hold of Keith’s hand. “I just want to tell you all this before I leave for the mission. The one thing we don’t have in common with the flower is that… whatever this is, it’s not going anywhere. If you’re willing to wait for me.”

Is he willing to wait for him?

For Shiro, who has sworn he will never give up on him, and kept true to his word? Who has turned his life around, who’s given him the most happiness he’s ever felt?

“I’ll wait forever for you,” he says, quietly but with everything he has. “You’re important to me too, Shiro. I can’t – I don’t think I can imagine the rest of my life without you in it.”

Shiro sighs in relief. “Good, because I’m not going anywhere.” He squeezes his hands, and Keith feels it in his heart.

The sun is rising steadily now, and when Keith looks back at the shrub, the kadupul flowers are already wilting, its petals drooping to the ground. It almost hurts to look at.

“We won’t be like that,” Shiro says confidently. “I’m with you forever, Keith. I promise.”

And, well, Shiro has never broken a promise to him before. And by the way he’s staring at Keith, he doesn’t plan on it.

“I believe you.”

The sun has risen completely, and while the view is gorgeous, the way Shiro smiles at him outclasses it by far.

The second time he sees the kadupul, he wishes he could run it over with his bike.

Shiro was wrong. They were more similar to the flower than they thought. He should’ve known it wouldn’t last forever. Just looking at the plant makes him nauseous, makes him furious, because how could this universe take away the one good thing in Keith’s life?

He doesn’t run it over. It feels stupid, but something tells him Shiro wouldn’t be very happy if he did. Instead he sits beside the shrub, watches the flowers wilt when the sun starts to rise, and wishes he could stop crying.

“You’re free to wander as you wish, Paladins.” Allura said. “Coran and I will negotiate what supplies the Metsirians are willing to give us. They’ve given us a place to stay for the night too, so we won’t be leaving until tomorrow.”

“What about you, Princess?” Lance asks, hovering by her side as the rest of them look around the vibrant, life-filled planet. “You deserve to relax, too, y’know!”

“I’ll catch up with you all as soon as I am able,” Allura reassures him with a smile. 

“I’ll have some of my guards guide you around, dear Paladins,” the empress (Keith has already forgotten her name, and he’s a little too afraid to ask again) says, and three of the guards surrounding her approach them. “I do hope you’ll enjoy your stay – I don’t mean to brag, but you will rarely find a planet as beautiful as Metsiri.”

“Where do you want to go?” He asks Shiro quietly. Pidge and Hunk are quickly led by a guard to look at some technological artifacts, while Lance and Romelle decide to wait for Allura and Coran to finish their meeting before heading out themselves. “Heard there’s a marketplace around here, and I think I have some GAC leftover. Think there’s a food festival too.”

“I honestly just wanna be somewhere peaceful,” Shiro admits with a laugh. “We’ve all been through a lot. I’d really like to be able to just… exist and not have to worry about anything.” The smile is starting to slip away from his face. “Which is kind of unrealistic these days, I know.”

Keith can’t blame his wishes, though. His heart hurts at the thought of everything Shiro has been through, from being captured to actually dying, and all he wants is for him to be able to rest for as long as he needs.

“If I may,” a tiny voice interrupts, and they look down at the guard assigned to them. “The royal garden is a very popular sightseeing destination. The flowers there have therapeutic effects, guaranteed to ease your worries away during your stay. I’d be happy to take you there if you wish.”

It seems exactly what Shiro needs, especially considering his love for flowers. “Sounds cool,” Keith says. “Shiro?”

“It’s a date,” Shiro announces, taking Keith’s hand. “Lead the way, sir.”

The garden is, indeed, one of the prettiest places Keith has ever seen. The leaves of the trees and hedges are golden, and the water in the pods seem to sparkle. The flowers range from tall stemmed with large petals to tiny clusters in bushes. The longer they stay, the more relaxed Shiro seems to become.

The planet’s sun is starting to set when they reach the center of the large garden. There a giant fountain stands proud, stone benches surrounding it. Shiro gratefully collapses on the seat, worn out from walking all afternoon, and he drags Keith down to sit beside him.

“You okay?” Keith asks, unable to disguise the concern in his voice. Shiro’s recovery since returning has been steady, but he also has a track record of pushing himself past his limits, and Keith is careful not to let him do it again.

“Yeah,” Shiro says, voice bright. “It’s a good kind of tired. If that makes sense.” He looks at Keith, smiling fondly. “Not a bad space date, if I do say so myself.” “Better than eating your gourmet sandwiches?”

“Of course not,” Shiro says, feigning seriousness, and Keith snorts.

They fall silent at the sight of the planet’s sun setting, coloring the sky a deep orange, and this exact moment has Keith feeling strangely nostalgic.

“Keith,” Shiro calls, and Keith rips his gaze away from the sun to look at him. The smile is gone, replaced with a small but nonetheless heartbreaking frown. “I’m sorry I left you.”

“It’s not your fault,” Keith reassures him. “You were just doing your mission. And I got you back in the end, didn’t I?”

“I don’t mean just that,” Shiro says, voice quiet. He won’t meet Keith’s eyes. “I saw how much pain you went through when I died. You don’t know how many times I wish I could come back just so you know you were never alone.”

“That wasn’t your fault either,” Keith says, but just the memory of the months he had to endure without Shiro hurts him deep. “And you still came back. You always come back.”

“Only because I know you’ll find me. And I swear, if it’s in my power I’ll never leave your side again.”

“I promise I’ll never stop looking for you.” He leans on Shiro’s shoulder, squeezing his hand. “You never gave up on me, and I swear I’ll never give up on you either.”

He believes every word Shiro said, and he knows Shiro believes him too. Shiro rests his head on top of Keith’s, and Keith can’t help but think that this is it. That for the rest of his life, it will always be Shiro.

Suddenly there’s a flash of light from beneath them, and when they both look, there are glowing white flowers suddenly sprouting up and blooming around their feet. And he’s never seen any of the other flowers in this garden, but these seem… familiar.

The guard, who had been dutifully watching over them from afar, gasps. “Amazing… no one has ever made ibigiata bloom in decaphoebs!”

Shiro’s eyebrows scrunch up in confusion as he asks, “Oh? Is it rare?”

“Oh, absolutely, sir! It’s one of the rarest in our planet! The ibigiata only blooms in the presence of true love!”

Keith freezes.

And suddenly, he remembers why the alien flower looks so familiar.

Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t run over that kadupul bush after all.

“It never dies once it has bloomed,” the guard continues, enthusiastic. “We’ve long revered these flowers as a sign of love that triumphs over all. Oh, I can’t wait to tell the empress, she’s always wanted to see these up close-“

“Pardon me,” Shiro interrupts, “Is it alright if we take some of the flowers? As a souvenir from the planet?”

“Of course, of course! It is, after all, tangible proof of your love for one another. Just leave a few for the empress, please!” The guard looks at Shiro, then Keith, then back again before bowing. “I will leave you two alone for now. I can tell you wish to speak to one another privately. Simply calling my name will summon me if you wish to return.”

The guard disappears in a white flash. Keith chuckles.  “Uh, we never really got his name, did we?”

Shiro laughs, loud and unrestrained, and Keith feels lighter than ever. “Well, hopefully Allura won’t leave us here tomorrow.” He holds out his hand. “Can you help me up?”

Keith stands up from the bench to help him up, and Shiro leads them both to sit on the ground, the ibigiata flowers blooming between them.

Shiro carefully picks one and holds it out to him. There are still crinkles in his eyes from his bout of laughter and now, the shy smile on his face. “I’d pick out a whole bouquet for you, but that’s a little hard with just one arm.”

Keith laughs despite himself, taking the flower from him. It really is beautiful, and a splitting copy of the kadupul back home. The only difference is the stem and the golden glow it radiates. He reaches out to tuck the flower behind Shiro’s ear.

“You look good,” Keith tells him, and feels his heart soften when Shiro’s cheeks turn bright red. The glow of the ibigiata makes Shiro’s gray eyes shine brighter, and matching white of the flower and his hair makes him look sweeter. Angelic. Keith loves him.

“It never dies once it’s bloomed, huh?” Shiro asks with a laugh. “I always knew we would last forever.”

[lasersheith]

y’all: cute fics about Sheith, sad fics about Shiro, intense heartwarming mother-son bonding time with Keith and Krolia

me: Matt would be so mad that someone else finally got Shiro to play D&D

[this is crack played straight, Shiro&Matt, Matt&Pidge, and background Sheith]

Matt hadn’t bothered to turn the light off when the sun came up. He hadn’t bothered to put the milk away, either. His phone, his datapad, and three radios were on the table in front of his bowl. He’d meant to go to bed but he couldn’t tear himself away. Please… please just ring. He silently begged the phone that hadn’t gone off all night.

Pidge was strong and smart and incredible and Shiro would never let anything happen to her. She was fine. He knew she was fine. She had gone toe to toe with him and had on him ass in less than a minute even after he survived the arena, the escape, all the rebel training, all the battles since. She was fine. So why hasn’t she called.

He shoveled another spoonful of wheat-esque and glucose-like circles into his mouth. He would have given anything for a real bowl of Lucky Charms. He couldn’t even read the name on the nearly empty box in front of him and he probably wouldn’t get the cultural reference anyway. It was the fifth planet he’d been stationed on in as many weeks as the rebels fought their way across the Galra occupied zones against anyone who refused to yield to Lotor. Matt was exhausted and just wanted to hear his sister’s voice.

The phone rang and he almost threw his spoon at it. He didn’t bother wiping the milk off of his chest or lap as he scrambled for it. “Pidge! You’re ok! Thank god! What took you so long?” The video feed popped up and he had to hold back a sob.

“I was so right!” She said with a smug grin. “Lotor was a snake. We got him, though.” Her smile was brighter than the rising sun in the background.

He blinked as her words hit him. “Wait, you guys killed Lotor?” He asked, brows furrowing. It had a lot of implications for his current operation.

“Uh, kind of? We trapped him in a quintessence field between universes.” She explained with a shrug.

That didn’t sound particularly good. “In a what?” He asked with wide eyes. The glare from the sun behind her made it hard to see. “Wait why are you outside?”

She shrugged and turned, putting the sun to her side instead of her back so they could see each other better. “We had to blow up the castle.”

Matt set the phone down on the table and took a deep breath. “Are you all ok? Did…” He swallowed hard. She was smiling so he couldn’t imagine they’d lost anyone. He had to be sure. “Did everyone make it?” His voice dropped low.

Pidge turned the phone and scanned the area, showing him the little pockets of people in their makeshift camp. “Yup! Everyone’s just fine. Well mostly. Shiro lost his Galra arm, but he’s not a clone anymore so that’s ok.” She smiled into the screen and Matt frowned.

“He’s not a what.” It wasn’t really a question, but it was. A clone? How?

Pidge laughed. “Yeah, a lot happened. I’m sending you coordinates.” She typed a bit into the phone and Matt saw her message pop up on the screen under her video feed. “We gotta get back to Earth, dad has the plans to build a new Castle of Lions.”

Matt sighed. “Ok, I’ll tell Olia I need to leave right away. Hopefully they can spare a ship.” Going home sounded like equal parts heaven and hell. He wasn’t sure what his mom was going to say. Or what he was going to say for that matter. A lot had changed.

“Ok, cool. It’s gonna take a long time to get there without the teleduv so get here as soon as you can.” She motioned at Lance to go away as he made silly faces in the background.

Matt cringed. “Guess I should bring a book or something.” He said with a forced laughed.

Pidge’s eyes lit up again. “Forget books!” She shouted excitedly. “Coran has a super cool version of D&D that we played a couple days ago, you’re gonna love it!”

Matt slammed the phone down. “Turn off the vid feed, I need pants.” He grumbled.

“Why were you not wearing pants?” He couldn’t see her face anymore, but he knew from the tone of her voice that she was making a disgusted face.

He wiped the milk off of his chest and leg and pulled on his clothes. “I was eating cereal.” He grumbled.

Pidge cleared her throat. “Ok, sure.” She answered, not entirely convinced.

“I’ll be there as soon as possible, I gotta go find Olia right now.” His voice was gruffer than he meant it to be.

The video feed popped back up. “Ok, be careful. We’re not going anywhere until you get here.” She promised, smiling wide.

..

Matt touched down next to the black lion and stalked out of it, greeting his sister with a big hug while he tried to tamp down the coiling in his gut. “I’m proud of you, kitkat, you did good.” He said with a smile.

She rolled her eyes at the nickname. “I think I did well but thank you.” She answered sarcastically with a smile of her own.

“Where’s Shiro?” Matt asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

Pidge pointed at the small fire they had going. He thanked her and made his way over to it, ignoring the rest of the group at large. There were new faces he’d have to meet and a lot they’d have to bring him up to speed on, but there was something more important he needed to do first.

Shiro was snuggled into Keith’s side as they sat by the fire, talking quietly. Matt noticed his hair first and then his arm. It didn’t change anything. He stomped over, interrupting their quiet conversation by kicking Shiro’s leg lightly. “What the hell, Shiro?” He put his hands on his hips and quietly seethed.

Keith looked between them, confused. He stood up to help as Shiro struggled to his feet. “Hey, Matt.” Shiro’s voice was soft and his smile was beautiful. It didn’t make things any better.

“8 years, Shiro!” He squeezed his hands into fists and tried not to let himself cry. “I tried, for 8 years, to get you to play D&D, and you played without me.” His voice cracked and his eyes welled.

Shiro laughed so hard he started coughing. “I’m sorry, that’s what we’re focusing on?” He asked, gesturing first to his hair, then his arm, then Keith. “Are you actually mad that my evil clone played space dungeons and dragons without you?” Keith stood staring between them, dumbstruck.

“I really, really am.” Tears started spilling down his cheeks.

Shiro knew that wasn’t it. There was too much going on, so much had happened in such a short amount of time. He stepped forward and pulled Matt close, letting him rest his head on Shiro’s chest. “I’m sorry, we’ll play on the way home.” He promised as Matt’s shoulders shook.

Matt wrapped his arms around Shiro’s waist and buried his eyes in the soft material of his shirt. “Good, we better.” His voice cracked again. Shiro held him and let him cry for a few minutes before he finally stepped back, scrubbing an embarrassed hand across his eyes to wipe away the tears. “Which one of you finally confessed, by the way?”

Shiro and Keith both blushed and looked between each other. “Keith, technically.” Shiro answered. “Kind of.”

Matt frowned. “What do you mean?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well he didn’t know I was a clone yet. But I remember the whole thing.” Shiro explained. “I told him I felt the same way as soon as I woke up back in my body.”

Matt nodded thoughtfully. There was a lot to unpack there, but he wasn’t going to try just then. “So I think Pidge owes me $100.” He said instead.

Shiro and Keith both laughed and pulled him into a hug.

[captainharunanase]

I wish I was like you guys!

Sheithers, I love the tinhat theories and the ringgate conspiracy and I'm all for the possibility of JoshK coming back to the studio to maybe record extra scenes for Shiro since the delay of s8.

But

And this is a realistic BUT for me

Until I hear StevenY come back to the studio to record for Keith too--I can't in good conscious think that the reason why the extra animation and extra audio is entirely for Sheith.

Like they say: it takes two to tangle.

And so far, we only heard JoshK coming back which he has something to do with Shiro based on the new sketches we saw so it makes sense.

But until I hear news of StevenY going back to add more audio for Keith, I honestly can only spazz with yall about a possible "Sheith Ending" in fanon--'cause I can't get my hopes up for it in canon when we only heard news of one VA coming back so far.

Sorry if I bursted any bubbles but I can't, for my own sake, participate in any "sheith is gonna be canon cuz of this delay" ideas as Fact when it isn't yet--I hope.

And I am so desperately hoping.

Please don't think this is me picking at ya'lls ideas 'cause I honestly want it to be true so badly but I couldn't agree fully with the few posts I've seen saying "yes this is definitely the real reason why Josh and the animation team is back! For Sheith!" When we aren't 100% certain.

I guess this is me being the stupid voice in the back of my head giving me doubts and I'm so so sorry if I sound negative and seem like yall are "wrong" 'cause you're not! But I'm honestly not sure if we're right with it either.

Ugh I'm so contradicting imma stop rambling I'm so sorry please ignore me I'm just afraid and I need to do better at handling it.

Super long story short: Bleach messed me up real good and ever since then I can not trust any of my own ships or even characters to get the proper ending or canon they deserve so just ignore me please this is me being insecure on my ships with myself and I'm sorry for the unnecessarily long ramble.

I thought I was over that past fandom but here I am still being weak and stupid and dreading that despite all the canon evidence to support Sheith romantically and the fact I'm the one who chose to interpret and analyze the ship in that way too--I might still see them not get together which would be fine but my biggest fear is seeing them get with two other people with no chemistry or even worse get a horrifying unsatisfying ending of their arcs despite everything they went through together.

The fact even though I think Sheith is romantic and I hope I'm not wrong for seeing their canon that way that somehow and in some way s8 will prove I'm still fucking wrong and I shouldn't have gotten my stupid hopes up because haha s8 ended with Shiro with someone else and how dumb was I to assume Keith was into Shiro!

And that fucking terrifies me.

That I once again analyzed a ship through their canon moments as romantic--not like klantis do with KL blindly but took the time to break it down and actually see that, like with Allurance, Sheith has potential for something stronger than platonic--but the writers did a "syke bitch you wrong" and show that my interpretation was deadass wrong and I'm the one to blame for hoping.

I'm sorry I'm sorry this is stupid and I make no sense please ignore me. I just had this sudden grip of terror about Sheith and I don't want it to be like Bleach. I hate Bleach it fucked me up and I can't forgive it but here I am letting it scare me with Sheith because I know I know the writers would never do that. They wouldn't trick people about Allurance and they wouldn't string people around with Sheith...

But I didn't think Bleach's writer would either...

Imma fucking stop I'm sorry please just forget this imma delete I promise. I'm sorry I'm sorry.

[avidbeader]

Voltron Jaith/Sheith fic: Unexpected (M)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

AO3

And this is the last chapter! Thanks to everyone who’s liked/reblogged/commented on this little side venture.

----------------------------

Keith is in a place he never imagined he’d return to.

He’s walking down the Garrison halls, following Commander Holt and Shiro as they bring each other up to speed. Pidge and her mom are behind him, with the rest of their group and those soldiers that helped them trailing behind. At least Lance’s sister managed to divide him from their swarm of a family, explaining the need for a debrief.

Hunk’s family is still out there, missing. Keith makes a mental note to check in on him soon.

Keith figures Adam is somewhere in the Garrison, biding his time until he can talk to Shiro. His hands tighten reflexively into fists, remembering how hurt Shiro had been over their breakup. They’d been together a long time, ever since they were cadets and flight partners…

Flight partners. Adam was a pilot as well as a teacher. One of the best ones in the Garrison at the time.

Suddenly Keith is sure that Adam is not in the Garrison anymore.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Keith feels eyes on him as the debriefing begins.

He’s already uncomfortable, wearing a Garrison uniform for the first time in many years. He never liked the stiff edges of the high collar or the combination of orange and beige. The uniform makes him feel like a kid again and it’s an effort at first to speak up, to remember he is the leader of Voltron.

He glances around at one point and realizes who’s staring at him. James—or Officer Griffin as he’s known now—is looking at him from his place on the other side of the room. Keith frowns at him, not sure why he’s getting the death-glare, but focuses back on the conversation when Hunk starts arguing about trying to rescue his family.

James snaps, “Hey, do paladins not understand the chain of command? Your CO said it was too dangerous.”

Keith is ready to smack him down and Shiro has stiffened beside him, but Sam cuts James off and redirects the conversation. Then Allura stands up as she offers a possibility; Keith has to remember that trick the next time he needs to make a point to this room full of people who are increasingly aware that their authority can’t help them in this situation.

It’s so different from working with Voltron, where the chain of command is fluid at best and everyone is used to voicing their thoughts or acting when they see a need. The Blades had been a bit more organized, with a specific operative in charge of a given mission, but everyone knew circumstances could change in an instant and was prepared to act on their own if need be.

Keith wonders what James would do mid-battle if the command center was taken down and he suddenly had no commanding officer. Or what his squadron would do if he were shot down.

And then he remembers the boy who apologized to him and reached out. He resolves to do what he can to make sure James never has to face either of those situations.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

They win.

Keith’s still not sure how they managed it. The team’s last desperate efforts to move the unknown robeast far enough into space to save Earth succeeded, but sent the lions spiraling back down to the planet at terminal velocity. Keith had been the first to be pulled from his lion, but the last to recover; by the time the doctors brought him out of a medically- induced coma, his mother and Kolivan had arrived in answer to Shiro’s summons.

His recovery takes a while, between the skull fracture, other broken bones, and internal injuries. Shiro visits every day, even if only for a few minutes, and the other paladins come as their own injuries permit. Kolivan stays long enough to establish a few Blades at the new headquarters of the coalition and Krolia makes it clear she’s staying for the duration.

Matt brings Pidge to visit. She rides in a hoverchair because her broken ankle is still healing, and the three of them are having fun trading stories about the others. Keith is still laughing over Lance’s “Tailor” moment in the sims when James comes to the door and hovers.

Pidge notices and elbows Matt. “We gotta get back before the nurses come looking for me. They’re supposed to scan my ankle and see what’s up with it this afternoon.”

Keith waves them goodbye, then beckons a little impatiently as James hesitates. “Come on, then.”

James looks back at the door. “Who was that guy?” His voice betrays more than a bit of interest.

“You didn’t recognize him? That’s Matt Holt, Pidge’s brother.”

James does a classic double-take back at the door, his mouth hanging open. “Wait, him? That shrimpy nerd?”

Keith smirks a little and responds in his driest tone. “Amazing what being kidnapped by aliens, thrown into a gladiator ring, rescued by rebels, and training with them to help overthrow an evil empire will do.”

James’ eyes narrow. After all the time they’ve known each other, he still has to pause in order to detect Keith’s sarcasm level. He looks Keith up and down.

“Funny, could say similar things about you. How did you get so beefed up compared to McLain?”

Keith shrugs. “I wound up going through a quantum abyss where time was slowed down. Gained two extra years on everyone else.” Seeing James’ eyebrows go up, Keith decides to muddy the waters even more. “And then there’s the fact that apparently three years went by in a few minutes when we managed to prevent all alternate realities from collapsing and destroying the entire universe.”

“Wait, what? Alternate realities? That’s actually a thing?”

Keith nods and James draws closer to sit at the foot of the bed.

“Like when someone makes a decision one way and that’s our reality, but when they make the opposite choice there’s a split and things happen differently? Infinite possibilities?”

Keith shrugs. “I don’t know exactly. We discovered one alternate reality where Allura’s people ended up being the bad guys. She had died ten thousand years before instead of being placed in cryosleep, and those Alteans enforced the peace by implanting mind-control devices in everyone who was against them.”

James shudders at that thought. “Okay, yeah, not a good place to visit.”

“It wasn’t. And it was weird; there was a version of Shiro there—he was a member of a resistance group—and it was the strangest thing. His hair was different, and his voice, but it was still him. Our Shiro had been missing for a while at that point, which made it even harder.”

James tilts his head and looks at Keith assessingly. His lips tighten, as if he’s made some kind of unpleasant discovery. “So, have you and Shiro made it official yet?”

Keith frowns and looks away, trying to ignore the spike in his heartbeat at those words. “What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t. Oh my god. You carry a torch for a dead man, follow him into space when it turns out he’s not so dead, even gain two years on him, and, from what I heard, took out a Galra commander up close and personal with your sword to protect him? And you haven’t told him how you feel? What’s it gonna take?”

Keith stares down at his hands, willing himself not to clutch the sheets or cover his reddening face. “It’s not like that.”

“It is totally like that! I mean,” James glances at the open door and lowers his voice. “The last time you and I had sex, you were pretending I was him the whole time.”

Is it possible to spontaneously combust from embarrassment and guilt? Keith almost wishes it were. He shakes his head, sure he’ll stutter if he tries to speak.

“You were. You said his name after. I heard you.”

That startles Keith’s voice out of him. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to. God, James, I’m sorry.”

James reaches out with one hand, running it up and down Keith’s leg. “Apology accepted.”

Keith almost can’t breathe, the absolution is so unexpected. “But I hurt you!”

“Yeah, you did. But there’s no expiration date on an apology conversation.”

Keith smiles a little, hearing that old phrase, but James keeps going before he can say anything.

“And I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you faster. I wanted to go home and really think about what to say. Had it all planned out, with the best approach to get you to deal with your grief and everything. And then you apparently wrecked a sim and got thrown out before I could get back?” James’ voice lilts up in curiosity.

Now Keith clutches the sheets, remembering.

“I went to get some practice in and found a new program in the menu.” Keith swallows hard, remembering the grief and rage that had poured out of him at the time. “It was a rescue objective...with a target of Kerberos.”

James’ hand tightens on Keith’s leg. “Holy shit,” he breathes. “You saw that with no warning?”

Keith nods. “Smashed the menu display with my bare hand before I realized it.”

James lets go of Keith’s leg and holds his hand out. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner.”

Keith accepts the apology by completing the handshake and goes back to twisting up the sheets. “Thanks. But I think it mostly worked out for the best anyway. If I’d still been in the Garrison when Shiro escaped, I doubt we’d have been able to find the Blue Lion before that first Galra ship arrived.”

James is about to reply when there’s a burst of bright light and the bed is filled with seventy-five kilos of cosmic wolf. He squirms up to lick Keith’s face, and Keith happily goes for the ears while James is whacked with a wagging tail.

“Shiro’s on the way, then?” Keith asks and the wolf gives that chirpy sort of growl that means assent rather than aggression.

James stands, holding his hands out to keep the wolf’s tail off him. “I better go.”

“You don’t have to,” Keith protests.

“Yeah, I do. You have something to tell Shiro. I’ll drop in again day after tomorrow. We’re in training all day tomorrow with the squadron for the new wave of MFEs.”

Keith smiles at James as the wolf settles on his legs. “Good luck with that.”

“Should be fine. No signs of anyone being a fancypants pilot in this bunch.”

“Hey, I can outfly anyone in this building...or what’s left of it.”

James’ expression turns fond. “Maybe once you’re healed up we can take a couple of the MFEs for a spin. See if you can find any room for improvement.”

“Only if you come for a ride in the Black Lion.”

“Deal.” James reaches out to shake on it and Keith tugs so he can slap James on the back with his free hand. James returns the embrace, ruffling Keith’s hair.

“Am I interrupting?” Shiro is standing in the door, looking a little curious.

“No sir, just saying goodbye for now.” James straightens and salutes.

“At ease, Griffin. I’ll see you at training tomorrow.”

James departs, but gives Keith a significant look as he does so. Keith gets the message: if he doesn’t talk to Shiro now, James is going to have ample opportunity to drop hints or otherwise make Keith’s life miserable.

Shiro comes to sit on the bed, patting the wolf with his prosthesis. “How are you feeling today?”

“Pretty good.” Keith reaches out and takes Shiro’s other hand. With one deep breath for courage, he begins. “I need to talk to you about something.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Two evenings later, James turns up at Keith’s door, bearing a plate of caramel brownies and praising Hunk for helping him sub some of the ingredients that are still scarce during a post-war recovery.

They’re still warm from the oven.

----------------------------------------------

[bushybeardedbear]

So Season 7 of Voltron Legendary Defender... Oh Boy...

I had so much spoiled before watching it. Thanks email alerts. So after seeing so much spoiled already, I started lurking in Tumblr again. By the time I’d actually got round to watching the season I felt like I’d already watched most of it and was primed with all the various thoughts and opinions people were sharing online. In the days beforehand I was up and down like a yoyo on a rollercoaster. Hopeful one day, thinking it’s not even worth watching the next. Hovering my finger over “delete” on both this blog and my fics at points... Even contemplating that right now if I’m honest. Maybe I should have been Bushy Bearded Drama-Llama?

In any case, having finally sat down with rock bottom, possibly even sub zero expectations and watched, here are my thoughts now season seven is over... Well... In short, I think it suffers a lot from being so rushed. And before you say it, no, going in with low expectations wasn’t a self fulfilling prophecy. Psychologically speaking the opposite is true. If we go into something with low expectations, we tend to have a better opinion overall than we would have if we went in with sky high expectations. And whilst it may seem like I hated it so far...? Well, no. I didn’t hate it. There were some parts that didn’t gel with me, but to say I hated it would be an insult to everyone involved. But that doesn’t make it free from criticism. If you care what this bear’s about to growl about, strap in, it’s not a short one. Not kidding. This is long. But I guess I needed to get my feelings down and hopefully have someone patient enough to read it and see that I’m not completely insane. And, thought I shouldn’t have to say this... None of this comes from a place of hate. No, I don’t think regardless of how you feel about this season that hatred to the creators is ever acceptable. If you feel you must, then voice your grievances calmly, rationally, but the second you resort to hate you have already lost. Though what I would suggest is to just accept this season as it is and move on.  Moving on is partly why I’m compelled to write this post. Maybe if you are going to read this monster, bring some caramel to counteract the salt...

The Season Itself

So within the first episode, I’m already full of mixed emotions. Yes, the Plance moment was great. Yes, the dynamic between Hunk and Romelle was cool. Coran was great, supportive Crolia, the none too subtle dig at Prometheus as Lance and Pidge ran from the grass... (Don’t think we didn’t spot that you writer rascals! Run at an angle!) I remain in Sheith Limbo trying to reconcile they met when Keith was literally a child and relationships can grow and develop with a worried dash of will people misinterpret this as grooming if they got together...? But a lot of it was by the by. Honey I Shrunk The Paladins was a great fun start to the series interspersed with great emotional character building for Shiro and Keith. It fleshed them both out in ways I wish we’d seen sooner and as others have pointed out drastically reframes a lot of the protective over Shiro moments in the context of his degenerative disease. And yet, it doesn’t make Shiro a victim, nor Keith a white knight, it keeps them both flawed yet strong heroes. Tiny cute paladins, Lance’s cargo pilot reference. As always the design of the planets is gorgeous. Lance sharpshooting. The attention to detail with little things like in scale surface tension! I can’t overstate how much time, effort and thought has gone into this! The narrative parallels of the speeder bikes. Honestly, there is SO much to unpack in just one episode that could easily be overlooked as silly and/or filler. But it’s so much. Keith’s growth is such fun to watch, confirmation of certain fan theories is great yet so sad at the same time...

It allowed Romelle to actually have a character that wasn’t just “Lotor Plot Delivery Service” and her interactions with Hunk were pretty adorable. “Are all ancient Alteans like this?” Was a great subtle piece of world building as well. And yeah, pretty sure I saw @hailqiqi mention this already, but Hunk and Romelle are so the audience surrogates. The one and only thing that bugged me, given the fact that so much of Voltron has had to be rushed or cut for time... Did we really need the flashbacks in this episode shown twice back in the quantum abyss episode...? Couldn’t that time in the QA been used for something else...? But that’s a very minor gripe. Overall, I massively enjoyed this episode but I’m still nervous given the priming from the fandom going forward... But that last hug? Saving Shiro with his voice / quintessence maybe?

The Road home starts off well, though the idea that still nobody knows or comments on Katie’s name being such did disappoint me a little... The space road trip starting up was so cute, even if Lance’s logic of passengers is lost on me...aside from maybe cutting Pidge some slack. Let me Headcanon that little touch of unconscious favouritism, yeah? Though his taking charge in the battle here, being the right hand man, was really nice to see here. From the audience perspective, he may be stating the obvious, but in canon, that’s what we call battlefield awareness. Imagine season 1 Lance doing this? Nah. Buthe’s had no growth, so people say... “It’s super dangerous, it’s perfect!” Wonderful! And Keith’s leadership! Great stuff. (Almost) Everyone getting a chance to shine in the cave combat was also awesome. Full on frenetic energy, a little flourish of comedy from time to time, great characterisation, calm before the storm leading to a sudden yet satisfying cliffhanger? Full on Voltron to a T.

"I will help you look for that passage.” Is a cute Plance moment that others are overlooking I feel. Coran’s memoirs are something I would personally read the hell out of. I don’t know about the rest of you. But seeing the entire saga retold through Coran’s eyes...? I’d love to see it. I’m also kinda happy to know how “Acxa” is pronounced! The slow reveal of the time skip up until the reveal at the end is nice, though honestly not as mysterious as the show seemed to think it was. Maybe it was just that I got spoiled? Evil power couple were great as well and it was nice to see the ice pop mystery solved. A return of Altean shapeshifting was nice to see. “Sweet on that one with the flippity hair” and “your favourite paladin” “never wanted to kill him” “true love”? Seems a little out of left field. Unexpected? Maybe not, just rushed? Axca and Keith seemed a little sudden. To me felt like they just needed to pair a spare and keep Kieth and Allura apart. Which, I get into later. Keith being able to transport his bayard seems...fine...? Why are people complaining about this? Paladins summon their bayarads all the time. He just did it from a few extra feet...?  I do wish Coran had a chance to play to his strengths though. Aside from his courage. He has brains and feels like he needs to use them more or be written in scenarios where he can use them. The three year time skip, when revealed, seems like it was just a convenient way to avoid the immediate aftermath of Lotor losing the throne. It works in that regard I suppose. But by the end of this episode I wasn’t really sold on it.

Nice new haircut though Axca. Really sells the redeemed rebel former baddie archetype. And thank goodness for your exposition. Tell don’t show, am I right? One of the ways we can see the show was rushed I feel. Though again, maybe just being picky...

The Game Show Episode. I was expecting this later in the season honestly. It was good for comic relief I guess, so it served it’s purpose. Seeing the first family of the Galra along for some comedy was great if only for Neil Kaplan having such fun. But it felt like it was missing something. I can’t quite put my finger on what. It was nice to get insight into how the Paladins feel about each other but again, it felt like a way to get those ideas and characterisations out into the open without having to, y’know, show them in natural narrative progression. It’s probably the weakest of the comedy episodes so far and it felt a little like it was all just happening until it eventually stopped. It didn’t feel like the little hints of “tv flickering” implying something artificial were necessary. In fact, as soon as I saw the concept I thought “so, all powerful being captures them for reasons?” and that’s pretty much what we got. It was...ok. Just ok. And y’know what...? After seven seasons, maybe we do need to drop the “Lance is the dumb one” joke? I mean, yes, he’s not as smart as the rest of the team. No doubt. But if he’d been given a chance to shine on his own terms, with his own abilities, if they’d subverted the goofball archetype rather than doubling down on it I think this would have made for a more interesting episode. Just because it’s comedy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be compelling. The Voltron Show for instance literally dealt with Coran pushing himself so hard to help the Paladins that he was willing to resort to what was essentially a mind altering drug and forcing himself to kick the habit. Where was the actual plot in this episode? Funny moments need a framework and this kinda lacked a framework in my opinion.

Really episode 5? A Kobayashi Maru scenario...? Indeed, running a simulation when the lions are running on fumes...? Ok, you do you I guess... Little self referential humour from Coran was nice, but a little on the nose. And honestly, I think these episodes are starting to feel like, I dunno, filler material? Like, nothing is really being furthered in terms of the massive plots they still need to deal with. Did the journey back to Earth really need to take so many episodes, or could these have been more efficiently used to deal with countless plot threads that remain unresolved...? It’s a strange thing to be feeling at this stage, but maybe there’s more to come...?  And...it felt like another clip show filling out the backstory of the three years of Voltron being missing... Maybe it’s just me, but if you have written yourself into a scenario where the only way out is repeated massive exposition dumps... Maybe you need to rethink your story just a touch...? The fact it was also told from an unreliable narrator also means it wasn’t just exposition...it was literally pointless exposition that was likely mostly a combination of lies and half truths. And I’m sorry but, were people really clamouring for a rematch between Keith and “That One Nameless Druid...?” Really? You won’t hear me denying it was cool fight scene, yes indeed, but the set up wasn’t exactly great in my opinion.  As for how Keith managed to win? Ok, sure, I guess summoning the Bayard from a few feet was a build up to something else, something even more special that may or may not get resolved this season. I’m writing these as I go. Or will it be one more plot point that will need to be resolved in the next season with limited time and episodes to do so? Keith and Krolia’s goodbye was sad. I do hope for a reunion, but honestly don’t expect it. I imagine she’ll die off screen for shock value. Sadly, I already know the fate of Altean colony and why Haggar has forsaken her druids, so, no real hook for me there. 

So the halfish way point. Lost in space, desperately trying to force plance out of every interaction... And ultimately, just getting bored. I mean, yes, I get that they need to reconnect with each other... But there are countless ways it could have been resolved other than this. It didn’t really feel like there was need for this particular journey into the darkest cave. It also feels a little forced that after saving countless realities by working together, they now all get forced apart...? Hunk saving the day, saving the team, great. Really wonderful stuff. He’s been overlooked for so long. But the idea that they needed to become friends again...? To reconnect...again...? I don’t know that it felt necessary. If after all these years, literal years together there isn’t already a profound connection...? I just can’t really buy that. And again, it felt like a filler episode. And Hunk Priming the audience for the concept of passing the torch? Yeah, that didn’t go unseen.  Maybe it’s just me, but after six episodes where it was already established that they can travel at crazy speeds to be told “yeah no, it’s not that the lions were drained, it’s just these people who’ve literally saved the universe together aren’t quite best friends enough...”? That just feels silly.  And yes, I know “silly” is relative when we’re talking about a powerful group of robot magical cat things that are powered by love and freindship. BUT what I feel was silly was the idea that their friendship was strained at all. It felt as though the season wanted there to be this divide between them but...the comedy episode just a little while ago established they’re all willing to sacrifice themselves for each other.... 

That’s just....fundamentally contradictory. Are you guys barely even connected as friends or are you willing to die for each other? You can’t be both... It makes the whole “struggle” of getting back to Earth feel false because it’s predicated on the assumption that they’re a fractured team this episode yet there’s been literally no sign of that until now... Still, as always, the visuals were cool. The Space Angler Fish is a great concept. The music was great. The voice acting was on point. Everything was so SO good except...the writing... The writing in this particular episode in the context of everything preceding it just felt... Bad. Rushed. Forced. Contradictory. Drama for the sake of drama. Artificial... What’s going on guys...?

So a multiparter? Let’s see. Ok. Seeing how awesome Sam Holt is, fine. Seeing him reunite with Colleen. Also fine and dandy and cool. And it tugged at the heart strings... But do we really need him to literally tell us everything we already know in a power point presentation...? The audience doesn’t need to be caught up on the events.We don’t need a massive chunk of the episode’s run time devoted to playing catch up. We have the time for this, but apparently - according to the spoilers - we don’t have time to establish that Allura is getting over Lotor and Falling for Lance...? Not even a throw away line, or a glance, or a suggestion of that fact that needs establishing after her season six reaction to the mice... But we do have time for the events of the show to be repeated to us...? What!? I am literally bewildered at this choice. Flabbergasted. Gobsmacked.

The worst thing about this so far, is that under all the EXPOSITION there’s a great story that wants too be told. I think we’re only seeing fragments of that story. Sam and Coleen struggling to find their children again and fighting against political nonsense. But real talk... This was all stuff that could have done just fine implied. The Paladins arrive on Earth, they see the new ships piloted by their inevitable replacements in the new series they seem to want to make, Lance asks, “What are those?” Sam responds, “A fusion of Galra, Altean and Olkari tech. The culmination of months of Earth’s greatest minds working together. It was a struggle, but we got them made in the end...” BOOM. Done. Efficient use of what is obviously painfully limited time. Did we NEED the power point, the montages, the backdoor pilot for the new team...? Did we - good as they were - even need the Holt Family suffering...? Couldn’t Coleen’s transmission to everyone on Earth have been enough to get the point across that they’re awesome...? In my opinion, we didn’t need this. Not like this at least. It could have been done so much more efficiently, so much less padding. But we did get to see snippets of the messages back home. That was nice. But it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the first episode felt really... Unnecessary. But that’s just how I feel after part one... So, the first half of the second episode? Superb. Can’t fault it, good heroic stuff, Sam stepping up. A realistic invasion of Earth, ie, we lose that’s rare to see in most media. Can’t fault it. Then the second half kicks in. The four archetypes we’ve been barely introduced to, go on a mission that narratively speaking is utterly unnecessary. I know that the Atlas gets built thanks to spoilers. But even if I didn’t, what function does this part serve? We may not be able to build a thing. Later on, that thing will be built. Do we need to into the minutiae of how the supplies were gathered...? Well, I suppose we do. But not because of how it serves the overall plot of Voltron Legendary Defender, but how it sells these new kids to us for the new series they obviously assume they’re making. But if it wasn’t for that? 

Then it defaults to more exposition... More information that could have been relayed to the audience in much more engaging ways.

This could have been, rather than a messy and kinda redundant two part episode with occasional brilliance, it could have been trimmed down to a truly brilliant single part. I’m not invested in these new characters. Let me get there or not when I see them in their own show. And if they’re literally just there as homage to the sequel series from the 80′s...then they don’t need this much focus. The actual paladins and their interpersonal dynamics do. Rift creatures do. Lotor’s fate does. Why are we wasting the limited time that remains on this unless it’s a back door pilot? Why should the current series suffer just to promote the next one...? It’s just exhausting and disappointing. By the end I was agreeing with Keith. What are we waiting for...? The continuation of the series we came here for. What kept us waiting was either an advert for the next series or a massive misstep in pacing.

And now, finally back to the real story and after two episodes establishing that Earth is screwed over, Earth can barely contact other parts of itself, Earth is on the brink of collapse, Earth is holding on by a thread... In the first scene we have Earth, somehow, triangulating a jamming signal into the outer edges of the solar system and remaining undetected as they do so...? Even assuming they are “just” sending commands to satellites and installations elsewhere in the solar system, The Galra would detect that command signal. And given how much we’ve had it stated, overstated, hammered home that Earth is in such bad shape...that feels like a real ass pull. 

I am being nitpicky, yes, but this is the second time this has happened on such a large and frankly contradictory scale. So I’m calling it out again. First The Paladins are willing to die for each other, or at least be trapped for eternity, then they are barely friends. Then, Earth can barely contact it’s own countries, but sending an undetectable command signal to at least three satellites in the solar system is fine...? Why not just have Voltron get the signal sooner!? Why not have Pidge send a jamming signal...?

And in terms of introductions to the new team? What we got after the drone attack? Perfect. It didn’t need to be an entire episode of establishing them because it isn’t their story. But the Paladins meeting their families? The reconciliation with Iverson? Shiro grieving for Adam. Where was all this before now? Why hasn’t our focus been where it belongs. On the Paladins? Now, I don’t really want to get into the whole debate about unfair representation of LGBT characters. I can see both sides of the argument as being valid. Shiro remains a strong canonically gay character even if the man he once loved is gone. Adam, though dead, is not immune to tragedy just for being gay. What we did see though was a man openly crying for his lost love. There’s plenty to be critical of the series for. But personally, I don’t feel the treatment of Adam and Shiro is “queerbaiting” so much as it is a couple unfairly separated by the horrors of war. A canonically and unambiguously gay couple. That’s representation. Just it may not be precisely what everyone wanted. But don’t let me stop you writing out impassioned critiques, don’t let me stop you airing and venting your grievances. I’m doing that right now, aren’t I? Just please please please don’t send any more hatred at the creators...

Now, this whole section of the Altean enhanced tech...? Why is this being reiterated again? This could stand on it’s own as an introduction to the concept of Earth meets Alien tech. Why are we being shown the same things twice, first in the two parter in depth and again now...? Why do this when there is so much else that needs addressing in ever dwindling episodes...? Though aside from that, Hunk and Keith connecting is great. Hunk finally having a dedicated arc to save his family also great. Hunk being the outsider to the Garrison Trio dynamic and spending time with Keith again? Also great, wonderful even. So where was all this previously...? But even this, even this has to be if not overshadowed then frankly hijacked by the new characters they want to sell to us. It’s getting tiresome. I don’t want Hunk’s moments overshadowed, his spotlight taken... But damn, if he doesn’t still stand proud regardless. This is the Voltron I’ve been missing for most of the season.

I was going to post the image of him crying, but couldn’t do it... So here, Happier Hunk.

Don’t know how I feel about Hover Hand. I get they’re setting it up for the final conflict with Sendak, so that Shiro will be his literal and visual antithesis...but...hover hand looks kinda goofy. And being the counterpoint to your nemesis doesn’t need to be so literal all the time. And again, the new characters forcing their way into the story with a half baked excuse to sell you them. I think from now on I’m just going to comment when Team Replacements don’t force themselves in...Even the fact one of them was Veronica felt a little frustrating, because Lance’s family dynamic with her is overshadowed in my opinion by her being part of the new forced team of replacements. Allura giving up her crystal tiara for Shiro was a nice moment. 

Okay, now imagine the whole infiltration section without Team Replacements. Just the Paladins, doing their thing. Let’s assume their resident tech genius has a way to stop the sentry drones sending out distress calls. 

What did they contribute other than a few quips? Are we really expected to believe our paladins, the protagonists of the story need these people...? No. It was just written that way to force the new guys in. What we need to wonder is why and the answer is most likely... Back Door Pilot. Over multiple episodes. That undermined the series I was already watching. And finally, despite it being the supposed new canon ship in town, we see our first indication that Lance and Allura might be interested. Or do we? No, we just see Lance checking her out and being teased. Then immediately afterwards we see Pidge implementing Lance style silliness and even a Lance style distraction with her own spin on it. But no, let’s focus on the blushing and the eyeballing. I’m not salty. I’m dead sea levels of salty. But I’ll put that aside for now... And roll my eyes at the Wilhelm scream... Ok, so I was all ready to be excited about the plan, but then the super forced Allurance twin blush happened. Was it...was it really supposed to hit home when there was no build up to it this season...? Or was checking her out through the sniper sights enough to replace any hint of them coming closer or Allura setting aside Lotor...? Sure, she’s bound to do it in time, but all I’d want is something to suggest as much on screen. Just a throw away line or two... Is that so much? Cut a scene or two with the Replacements and give us more Paladins.

As the paladins all fly to their thematically and elementally appropriate battlegrounds, I want to agree with some posts I’ve seen arguing that Pidge doesn’t just look concerned, or in the zone as the other paladins do. For at least one shot she looks sad. Troubled. Maybe I’m reaching. Probably reaching. Almost certainly reaching given the almost immediate Allura calling to Lance moment... The sequence of connecting with the lions though? And Lance protecting Veronica? Pretty much resigned to die before being saved by red...? Yeah, heavy and cool stuff.

But Admiral Asshole somehow getting in touch with Sendak? Betraying the entire planet? No. Just no. She can be a thorn in their side and an antagonist without being so utterly stupid. At this point she’s gone from concerned alternative view but essentially a good person trying to save the planet in her own way, to being pantomime levels of stupid. What a daft choice. What a needless choice. You know what would have worked better...? Sendak baiting the Paladins. It would play into his military genius archetype. He didn’t need intel from Admiral Asshole if the entire purpose of the planet killers was just bait for the paladins... We didn’t need admiral asshole to make a faustian pact with the people responsible for planetary genocide. Some of the choices this season just bewilder me. 

Well, at least no combining sequence before the Big Zapper Cannons hit. That’s something. I guess they can occasionally cut unnecessary scenes for time. 

The Paladins are asleep and it’s time for the replacement team to take centre stage again. Even with their own repeated launch sequence animation. Guess they can waste time after all. Admiral Asshole...

...yeah. Who would have thought that the mass murdering alien wasn’t to be trusted...? Except anyone written with an ounce of sense. I won’t deny, I completely and utterly lost interest during the Team Replacements moments. If you like them? Great. They were kinda written to be made valid off the back of the existing series so, I guess it worked for some, just not for me. I might even have been more keen on them myself ha they been secondary characters. But this season, they have so far felt like the focus. Yet also, they felt so undeveloped that they were like filler. They took up far too much focus that should have been on the Paladins. The characters I’ve been watching for six previous seasons. The characters I’m invested in. Even the launch of the Atlas - is it supposed to be a reference to The Gotengo in ship mode? - being powered by the Castle Crystal felt like a passing of the torch moment. There’s still a season left guys, can we wait until after this series ends maybe...?

Can we do The Paladins justice in their own series and make them the focus in their own series? Can we do the replacement team justice by making them the focus of their own series...? No? We’re going to try to do both at once and ultimately make both the worse off for it? Great, ok. Seems like a plan... SIGH

Soul-riding the lions? Now that’s a cool extension of the lore. That’s a cool new addition. That’s building more upon and actually watching Voltron again. Have I mentioned that it sometimes feels like I’m not watching Voltron any longer this season? Because, yeah, that. But during the parts where I was watching Voltron, it was great. Shame I couldn’t care more about Admiral Asshole’s sacrifice. They went beyond the pale with her outright betraying Earth. Noble sacrifice for an act of stupidity was just...meh. Didn’t feel like she’d be any additional motivation for the Paladins that earth already was. 

But damn does Shiro look good as the captain of a starship. Kudos where it’s due. The artists did a damn good job.

So, the final episodes... Great set up for a final confrontation. Yet within the first half of the first episode. Oh no. Voltron has been pinned. Oh no. The Atlas can’t do stuff. What will we do? Oh gosh I hope the new team of plucky do-gooders can save the day. Whatever would we do without them? I hope we can buy their toys soon. Stop it. Why won’t they just stop it...? Stop making them such a major focus. This isn’t their show...or yeah, maybe it is now. Maybe the Paladins are the side characters now? Sometimes it feels that way. They spent a lot of time out of commission, damaged, pinned or otherwise unable to act except in montages.

“Lance, I’m coming to help!” Yes, because Allura is just there to support and look shyly away from lion glances. Sigh. Can we have Allura who didn’t need to be defined by a love interest back please?

Then again, Shiro had some time to shine which was really appreciated. The Sendak/Shiro fight was...ok? I mean, it had a lot to live up to after the Kuron / Keith fight. And it just fell short in my opinion. And much as Keith saving Shiro is kinda the default... Given how they were building Shiro up to be the anti-Sendak, it felt like the final blow was robbed from Shiro just a little.

Then of course, we get The New Robeast. More powerful than anything they’ve dealt with before and utterly unannounced. Ok. Well at least they didn’t just go to sleep for a bit and let the new guys do everything. But they still found a way to force them in even now. Wouldn’t have shocked me at this point though if the new group had just beaten the robeast. The twin swords are cool, but sadly a Plance moment it wasn’t. Maybe it would have been in old Voltron. Formed by a stronger bond between the two. But not so much now. Just a thing that happens. Like Pidge’s new gun thing. Thing that happens. No build to it really, just happens. No lesson, no moment of clarity, no greater connection, just, happens. How does the Atlas have back up generators that can make it functional when it’s already been established the only thing that can power it is the castle crystal? It was a pretty big plot point. Until it was just forgotten about. The Atlas mech formed by Altean magic was pretty cool. Shiro has a lot of moments with Allura leading to it as well. More than she had with Lance even. I’ll come back to that. Fake out Pala-deaths was cheap. And if they only reason they put the focus on the new guys was for that fake out...? Screw that. What a waste.

Seeing Hunk and Shay reunited was nice but too brief. Nice to be wrong about Krolia, but I’m not expecting she’ll last the next season. Shock factor you see. Watching Earth change and develop in flash forwards and montage now makes me wonder why that couldn’t have happened earlier. And my answer is, probably to sell the new team. And that sucks. I’m not really looking forward to another season of the Paladins taking the back seat. I do kind of expect it though. In fact, I expect it will only get worse.

And of course, now in a mere 13 episodes we have to wrap up Lotor, Haggar, the rift creatures, any and all ships, don’t forget set up the new team, because I think there were a few subtle hints there’s a new team they want us to care about. How about that new team guys? New team! And do all that without it feeling like a giant rushed mess. Heh. Won’t hold my breath.

Overall? Season Seven as others have said for many reasons, is Voltron Legendary Disappointment. Now to be fair, the art, the music, the animation, the voice acting - even given some guff lines, kudos to Josh Keaton for making “Their very home” not sound stupid... All of that was great. All of those staff members involved? A plus, amazing. But the writing...? Oh my good gravy the writing is all over the damn place. Yes, I just write silly fanfics and they’re professionals so what do I know? Their paycheck invalidates my opinion, right? But to be frank some of the mistakes and I do mean mistakes are elementary continuity gaffs. Redundancy. Repetition. Over reliance on exposition. I mean, if this is considered professional then standards have dropped...  That’s not to say there weren’t moments of great writing. Moments where it felt like I was actually watching Voltron again rather than an advert for the new guys. But for the most part...? It was odd choice after odd choice. Daft move after daft move. Mess after mess. Forced and contrived plot point after forced and contrived plot point and if I was judging the series solely on the writing... I’d ask why nobody proofread the first draft.

But to literally everyone else involved in the show from the voice actors to the background artists to the intern fetching coffee...? You all did an amazing job with the mess you were given.

The Obligatory Over Long Shipping Bit

It’s not all about the ships, but... To some extent, it kinda is a little. Maybe even a very BIG little... At it’s most basic, a story, any narrative, has three parts.

The Beginning: The Status Quo, the ordinary world.

The Middle: A Challenge To The Status Quo, conflict, introduction of the special world.

The End: A New Status Quo, conflict resolved, special and ordinary world merge or become aligned to create a new standard.

And ships? Well, they’re an aspect of both the conflict in the middle and the New Status Quo at the end. Ships matter. The connection we feel to two or more characters and the connections they gain with each other? They matter. They are the story. So when I bang on about ships beneath, keep that in mind. Keep in mind that watching characters grow and grow closer is an integral part of narrative, romantic, platonic, whatever. Watching dynamics develop and shift between characters matters. That includes ships. And, I’m not calling the show bad because ships. The show itself is flawed, but overall still good. still very good in fact. All I want to do here is share my disappointment and frankly my confusion at the way that all the ships seem to be playing out right now.

But to start... Allurance. 

Let me say, emphatically state, that if you enjoy this ship I have no beef with you. I am not against you enjoying it. I am not trying to tell you you’re wrong. If you and I having different opinions on this is enough for you to unfollow me, then fair enough, goodbye and have fun elsewhere, no hard feelings. However, my opinion remains as it has done from the start. Whilst this could have been a solid canonical ship if things had been written differently, as it stands... I can’t support it and feel it’s the worst outcome for these two characters.

Now, I’ve seen the argument that “maybe it all happens off screen” and that I addressed in a post here. The long and the short of it, I want to see characters develop on screen rather than off screen. That is literally what I watch for. The On Screen Developments. Not off screen assumptions. On screen this season, Allura had more bonding moments with Shiro than with her supposed new love interest. Does that make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me. Then there’s the argument that Lance’s feelings have grown and matured and changed. But honestly, on some level, if Allurance becomes canon, it feels like they haven’t. Let’s go through it on a very basic level.

Allura and Lance meet, he hits on her. - Lance wants to be with her. They work together. He continues to hit on her. - Lance wants to be with her. They keep working together. He hits on her and is jealous and possessive of anyone who even comes near her.  - Lance wants to be with her. Lance tones it down a little. Starts to be supportive. You’re the heart of Voltron etc. - Lance wants to be with her. Enter Lotor. Lance remains jealous and possessive, but plays it off to Allura as a joke. “You need a third wheel?” But to everyone else, including the mice, he makes it very very clear this makes him unhappy. - Lance wants to be with her. He makes that speech to the mice about wanting to be a better person, how he’s unworthy etc. etc. etc. - Lance wants to be with her. Allura finds out about this, seems less than pleased. - Lance wants to be with her. Allura breaks up with Lotor after finding out the man who changed her life is a genocidal space vampire. - Lance wants to be with her. Lance does the supportive hug scene. - Lance wants to be with her. Some stuff off screen presumably and Allura is suddenly over it. - Lance wants to be with her. Dual blushing scene, soft gazes lion scene etc. - Lance wants to be with her and suddenly Allura wants the same thing.

Now, to me at least, I never felt like Lance’s feelings for Allura changed. What changed were his tactics in pursuing that desire. The ultimate ulterior motive of wanting to be with her at no point altered. To me, that severely undermines his and Allura’s growth together. It re-frames the supportive friend hug in season six into the only possible on screen moment that she fell for him and to me that makes Allura seem weak willed, flighty and frankly weak as a character to be rushed into needing a new man so soon after Lotor. It makes Allura into the opposite of what she has been all along. It reframes Lance as being a creep who’s not being entirely honest and is just hanging on to get some Altean Action. It’s unwittingly supportive of the concept in toxic masculinity of No Doesn’t Mean No and I think that’s a dangerous message to be sending these days. We should know better. No means No, it does not and should not mean pursue them like an object you want to possess. In reality, that attitude being normalised can lead to obvious and dangerous extremes. In a story, the pursued partner loses their dramatic agency and is reduced to a prize or else wants to be possessed and is thus framed as less capable. I think the idea of Lance and Allura shifting their dynamic to “genuine romance” between  seasons and off screen is cheap. Overall, I feel it devalues both of them rather than enriching them as a ship and an end to two character arcs should. Maybe, like resurrecting Shiro / Kuron early being down to executive meddling, the same is true here? Maybe the plan was for Lance to break the mould of the stereotypical nice guy waiting in the wings? Maybe Lotor being bad was also executive meddling? Or maybe that’s just the scapegoat for the roads we missed out on? The potential lost...

Now, the weird thing is, I’ve seen the argument made that you wouldn’t say that about allurance if allura was a guy. Well...yeah I would. Because if nothing changed except Allura’s sex and/or gender but the events were otherwise identical then it would have exactly the same narrative issues. It would still be undermining both character’s growth and arcs. Chasing someone who isn’t interested is still toxic behaviour regardless of who does it to whom. But if you want to assume that I’m just saying this “because Allura’s a woman” then I guess I can’t stop you, but I hope you take my honest statement that it’s not the case as far as I’m concerned.  On the other side of this argument of well if x was y you wouldn’t z, well, that’s just you creating and answering a hypothetical question. Let’s say someone shipped, I dunno Keith and Cosmo. And the defence was “well you wouldn’t call it bestiality if cosmo was human.” And yeah, I suppose if something was changed so drastically there wouldn’t be a problem. But Cosmo is a wolf in Canon. And Allura is a woman in Canon. Maybe nobody would be saying Allurance has problematic elements if Allura was male or maybe the would. I feel that I certainly would see the issue regardless. But that argument is purely hypothetical and anyone who makes it has no way of proving it or supporting it.

There is however another issue in Canon that nobody seems willing to address. Alteans live for centuries. Centuries versus decades of lifespan. That kind of relationship will have the functionally immortal one watching the person they love ROT before their eyes. It will have them mourning their true love for CENTURIES or else callously moving on. It will, if they have or adopt kids, leave the functionally immortal one, watching their own descendants die. The functionally immortal partner will see their love reflected in their descendants eyes and faces. Forced to relive their loss generation after generation. I don’t want to contemplate that end for characters I care about. But that’s what would happen between Lance and Allura. I don’t want to think of Allura watching generations of hers and Lance’s kids and great grand kids dying like flies and thinking of her reliving that loss every hundred years or so as their next batch of descendants die in front of her. Maybe you see it as romantic? I see it as horrifying. And if the issue of Human vs. Altean ages is never dealt with on screen, I’ll assume the creators either didn’t think about it or assumed the audience wouldn’t care. Well I’m sorry, but you made characters that we love, they are part of a lore that we paid attention to. We do care and it does matter.

What I will admit is that maybe, just maybe the way I’m interpreting things isn’t what the creators intended. As much as I am a proponent of Death of the Author, I won’t disregard authorial intent. To those of you who don’t know, Death of the Author essentially states that; all media is a collaborative experience between audience and creators. That no one interpretation of a text is more valid than another. That interpretations can shift and change based on the time and context through which the text is viewed. That interpretations the author never intended are valid. Now, a lot of people seem to have this idea that “Death of The Author” means audience interpretation matters more than that of the author and completely overlook the idea of shared meaning and no one true interpretation. I’m coming at this from the point of view not that the audience owns the text but that we all, audience and author, equally share it and it’s infinite valid interpretations.

So that said, the authorial intent may well be that Lance and Allura’s relationship isn’t and was never meant to be a creepy guy being persistent. That it wasn’t meant to suggest that despite being rebuffed, he should carry on chasing. Maybe it wasn’t meant to seem like he was dishonest, swooping in after a break up to pick up the pieces. Maybe we’re supposed to ignore the ulterior motive to get into her pants that never changed from season one episode one? It may well be their intent was to show a relationship developing healthily and organically but they were rushed and it ended up feeling incomplete? But, that less positive interpretation is just not how it comes across to me and many others. Intent or not, we can only interpret what we see. We don’t hate the idea of these two characters being happy, we just feel like the way it’s portrayed so far doesn’t seem strong enough or doesn’t make it explicit enough that there has been sufficient growth and change on screen to really make us buy it. You may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. The authors may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. I disagree with those opinions and that too is perfectly valid. I don’t hate any of you for feeling the way you do or for reading the text the way you do. Everyone interprets media differently. Please do me the same courtesy and don’t hate me for my interpretation. We can both make valid points yet still disagree. There is not one true and absolute interpretation.

I suppose that leads me here. At this point, given the way that almost every ship possible has been hinted, teased, alluded to or given time onscreen... I wouldn’t be shocked if there aren’t any canonical ships by the end. Just hints. Forever hints. Because if nothing else, the Allurance shippers don’t deserve to be baited and switched. Even if I disagree with the way it’s been portrayed, even if I feel it was rushed and needed time on screen to develop, those shippers deserve a decent payoff if the show is going to tease it so damn hard and so damn obviously. The Sheith shippers have had plenty of hints as well. Kallura looks on the cards half the time. Hunay, Hunelle, Hidge/Punk all got hints at the possibility this season. Keith and Acxa, I was thinking they’d pull that as soon as Keith found her in the weblum. Plance, I may or may not have strong feelings about. Who can say? 

But given that the series so far has given so many contradictory hints, even assuming the caveat of multiple interpretations, how could anyone be happy by the end? I mean, if Plance happens and I still believe it makes the most sense for Lance and Pidge’s journeys and character arcs... Well what about the Allura / Lance dual blush moment...? The Allurance fans will ask that and rightly so. Why even include that if it isn’t going to go anywhere...? Chekov’s Gun. I can’t even deny myself that if the plan really was for Lance to move on, this would have been the season to explore that to make it feel organic. If Lance ends up moving on in the next season, then that will suddenly feel forced as well. The amount of ship baiting going on is a little frustrating. I can’t see how it could end in a satisfying way for every baited ship. So, maybe they’re just going to have nobody end up with anybody canonically? At this stage, part of me would rather have that than have my OTP confirmed in canon. Because if what has happened so far is anything to go by... I’m just going to be disappointed at it feeling rushed and artificial. Unearned and pulled out of left field at the last second. With all the build up to Allurance, whether I think it hit the mark or not, it feel like it would be cheap and rushed to have him suddenly move on in the next and last season. Plance might end up feeling not organically developed, just, info dumped into existence for time constraints. I’ve been seeing hints between Lance and Pidge since episode one. Waiting for them to change their dynamic for all that time and seeing hint after subtle hint, seeing how perfectly their two stories align. They literally and narratively complete one another. And yet, if it comes down to it that one line or one half baked scene or even one future still image in a montage at the end of the series, is the confirmation of them hooking up...? Then even I won’t feel like my ship was worth coming true in canon. I’d rather have it never come true than have it come true as badly, as forced, as potentially interpreted as toxic, as contrary to the narrative and as ultimately unsatisfying as Allurance seems to be right now. I have no issue with Allurance being the end game. I would just have wanted to see it done justice and right now... It just isn’t. Don’t agree? Ok, well...

Compare and contrast... One person in this series, Allura creates - using Alchemy - a means to be whole again. A weapon capable of overcoming a nemesis in visual dramatic parallel. Having learned Alchemy through tainted means from her Evil Ex, she’s now able to put it to physical tangible use for a new person. Not only that but she sacrifices her crown, her symbol of office, one of her last remnants of her dead home world in order to make that creation whole. She has shown this person nothing but respect and kindness otherwise.  Another person she barely interacted with aside from telling him to shut up then in the space of one episode they’re all blushy because reasons.

I’m being a little facetious, but let’s be honest.... What this shows is that Allura literally has a more meaningful and narratively significant set of interactions with SHIRO than she does with Lance this Season.  Shiro’s arm represents her turning the bad experience with Lotor to good. Her giving up her symbol of Altean Royalty shows she’s willing to sacrifice anything for him. And through that bond, she grants him the power to turn the Atlas into a giant robot. Where she created the Sincline out of a dishonest partnership, the Altas-Mecha is formed by honest...well, it looks like LOVE to me. Now I’m not saying I ship them. But if you showed me this season out of context with any of the rest of Voltron, I would be shipping Shiro with Allura even though he’s Gay. Because frankly, in the story told on screen this season that actually makes way more sense than shipping her with Lance. Even out of context, even assuming no Lotor, no previous issues, Lance and Allura being hinted just seems...out of nowhere this season.

Maybe I should just wait for the sequel series where everyone ends up with total randoms off screen that nobody is happy with? Maybe the ships that make the most sense and have been hinted at the most will be forgotten or end up with off screen unhappy marriages as some vague and irksome attempt at being “mature”. Yes, I’m still salty about Toph/Sokka as well as Kataang, what of it? Sometimes you just want the characters you have grown to love and adore to have a happy ending together. Is that too much to ask...?

So, season 8 predictions...?

After a heartwarming episode that teases Coranecker, Lotor will finally get his redemption arc. And by arc I mean, episode. There will be an entire episode devoted to info dumping how he wasn’t really a space vampire the whole time and Romelle got the wrong end of the stick. This episode will tease Lotura again as well as hinting at Hungar, Huntor, Hunlia and Huray, the Polyship of Hunk Coran and Shay. Haggar, having now established herself as the dark queen of the Quantum Abyss will send wave after wave of Altean-Robeasts at Voltron, before the series finally ends in, you guessed it, another big battle with another new big robot. There will be a “we won” montage, Sendak will somehow be resurrected or a void creature will emerge from Daibazol to set up the Big Bad for the sequel series. Maybe both. Nobody will end up with anyone and the next series and/or movie will be hinted at. We might end up with a cliffhanger to tease the sequel series. And we’ll all go away a little disappointed and a little happy all at once. Oh and Black Paladin Kaltenecker of course.

Salty semi-joking aside, at this point given how rushed the series has obviously become, I really would not be shocked if Lotor DID get a redemption plot that was dealt with in a single episode. Or a single sentence. Just like the way he was turned into a Genocidal Space Vampire in a single episode, I’m sure they can turn him into the Space Pope in a single episode. Maybe blame it all on a rift creature? Or maybe save that plot thread for the next series, given that in 13 episodes there’s no way they can cover everything they want to AND cover it as well as they want to. Or just never mention them again. It’s not like they were set up to be majorly important or anything. 

Also, if the whole of Voltron Legendary Defender is now going to be a backdoor pilot for Voltron The Garrison Guys or whatever, that seems disappointing more than exciting. Voltron Legendary Defender should be it’s own show first and a sequel should organically follow based on success or failure. If there was always a plan to have more seasons as a sequel series then...

USE THOSE EXTRA SEASONS TO GIVE THIS STORY THE ROOM IT NEEDED!!!

Make VLD the best it can be before assuming we need a sequel series at all. We wouldn’t have half the problems we have now of story lines feeling rushed if, get this the story lines had more episodes to not be rushed! We could have had more Past-Paladins. Keith’s backstory could have been explored as a full episode or two not spoon fed to us by time flashbacks. Allurance could feel less forced and artificial. Lotor’s betrayal could have been given more than a single episode info-dump. We could have actually explored Allura’s feelings and hr process of getting over one of the most important relationships in her life turning to shit. Give this story the time and space it needs to breathe and grow. Let THIS story be told in a well paced way rather than being forced to rush to hit the deadlines for the sequel series. If VLD ends up being less well received owing to bad or rushed writing, we may just end up with zero interest in the sequel series anyway. It’s self defeating!

Don’t have entire episodes devoted to characters who show up, info dump and then are mute for the rest of the season. Don’t have entire plot threads be rushed and resolved in time less than they deserve! And if you can’t do that...

THEN TRIM THE FAT!!!

We can probably all point to a bit that felt “rushed” or “forced” or “out of left field” and that all comes down to a single fact. So far, there has been far too much story to tell in far too few episodes. So certain plot threads end up suffering as a result. Not being fully realised. Not being given anything more than flashbacks and montages rather than full episodes examining in greater emotional depth and deeper narrative exploration.

I would rather see a simple story well told than a complex story rushed for time. What we seem to get in seasons 6+ of Voltron are attempts to tell the entire story they wanted but being forced to cut it short for time. Sadly, what would have been better than telling the full story badly would be telling as much of it as you can save well and discarding the rest. Maybe that’s already happened? Wouldn’t shock me.

Lotor deserved better. Allurance if it becomes canon, deserved to have been built upon to make it seem more deserved, less creepy nice guy. Allura deserved to have on screen time to adapt, grieve and move on from Lotor. Matt could have had time to develop his relationship on screen. Plance if it becomes canon deserves time to shine, because for many fans out there if it does becomes canon in season 8 then for them it will seem rushed, sudden, forced. Or worse, Pidge will always seem like Lance’s backup girl... As Said before, even me as a hardcore Plance Shipper feels like it can’t possibly be given the time it deserves to feel earned when we have just one season left to tie it all together....  So again, maybe all they can do at this stage is shrug and only ever give hints as to whom ends up with whom in this massive cast...? And then just spew out the sequel series. Because we gotta sell those new toys.

I cared and invested in the VLD characters. I wanted their story to be their story and not just a vehicle to sell the next series that, to be honest, I’m probably not going to be remotely interested in.

The Salt Floweth To An End

There is SO much potential in VLD that was squandered by things being rushed, compacted, cut and yet also being massively bloated despite this. Then there’s the obvious executive meddling that can’t have helped for a second... It just ends up making everything messy and unfocused. This season was a mess. Entertaining, yes, compelling, yes and damn good overall but with so many moments that just hit shy of the mark the creators obviously were aiming for. Almost all of it down to the writing. Because the animators, musicians, actors and all the other cast and crew did an amazing job. But the writing was...just a totally confused mess.

Overall, it ends up being Great rather than Exceptional which breaks my heart. Because the first 5 seasons? Exceptional. Every aspect. Especially the writing. But from Six onward? Everything seems to just crack and fray around the edges, the polish wears thin and the whole thing feels just slightly less like everyone involved gave 100%. Maybe a solid 90%, and some still went above and beyond... But things, in my opinion, shifted. Sometimes in service of “surprises” and sometimes just because they needed to rush. Whatever the case, it feels like somewhere along the line the writers stopped caring as much. If at all. Will I watch season 8? Sure. But I’ll always know it could have been so much more if they’d been given more time and more room to let the story flourish. At this point I doubt it’s possible given the already obvious lack of focus in the writing, that we’ll see every plot thread tied up to satisfaction. I’m not even going to kid myself that they’ll do it all well because that’s just not going to happen. I’ll be shocked if they manage it at all. Frankly I’ll be shocked if the last season doesn’t focus more on the new team again... I am not looking forward. It feels like a chore now. Will I watch the sequel series if there is one. No. Probably not.  I wanted Voltron Legendary Defender to be given all the time it needed to be exceptional. I didn’t want to watch an advert for the next series and the next group of characters and toys. Especially if we’ll just end up seeing them all wasted, rushed and never allowed to live up to their potential as well. I was invested in VLD and it sucks that my investment is used as a marketing ploy for a potential new show before being discarded. Ah well. There’s always fanfics I guess... Though even that tastes a little bitter now... Like I'm just another part of the Voltron Hype Machine and not even getting paid to do it... Sucks and it taints what I plan to do and what I already have done... I do want to continue supporting the show and the ship I love along with all the fans out there in The Garden, but right now... I’m left feeling so conflicted. In two minds about how much I enjoy this show and yet despite that, how often and how glaring some of the errors, missteps and plain crazy choices they seem to be making along the way... It’s hard to feel 100% positive, but I did make this post and I stand by it. If the Voltron writers won’t give us the reality that makes the most sense? We make it ourselves. I did make these three posts and I stand by all of them as well. Even now as it seems like the writer’s minds are falling apart like chunks of wet cake, I still maintain that Plance makes the most sense in the story for those two characters I loved. Will it still make sense at the end of the series? Honestly, yeah. I’m sure it will still make more sense than whatever the writers eventually decide to churn out. Here’s hoping Season 8 is...something...

[okaybutvoltron]

Omg 1500 congratulations!! I saw u crying over ATLA and just.. relatable. Well let's see how about 📑 (sheith, first meeting, can be as cute and cheesy as you want) Thank u for tagging me you're so sweet💕

Thank you!! And atla is killing me slowly. I’m so mad at past me for not watching it sooner! Thank you for the request! I absolutely loved doing it. I actually had this idea in my head for a while so this was a good chance to finally get it out. Basically think this scene but with Sheith. So this is an AU but I hope you still like it! Meet-Cute’s are my favourite.

I’m having a Follower Appreciation for 1500! Thank you all

Keith’s eyes slid shut and he tipped his head back, letting the morning sun wash over his face and warm him. The spring was finally starting to heat the earth but there was still a chill in the air at this time of the morning. He gently pet the dog whose head was resting on his knee as he sat on the park bench, humming absently in agreement to whatever was being said on the other end of his phone.

“You’re not even paying attention to me, are you Keith?” He heard Lance almost yell through the phone, snapping him back to reality.

For a moment Keith thought about lying but just rolled his eyes and replied “No, not really.”

“Seriously, dude, I’m hurt.” He could practically see the dramatic pose Lance was no doubt striking, regardless of how many strangers may be around him at the moment.

“If it was something important, I promise I’ll apologize. But if it was stupid I’ll zone out again, so really this is on you,” Keith said, watching as the dog lifted his head and started looking intently around the park.

“It’s about the dog, Keith! You know it’s about the dog!”

Keith sighed into the phone, “Hence why I was ignoring you.”

“I just can’t believe you adopted him. Have you really thought this through?”

“Of course I have! He’s fine!” Keith defended himself and his new pet. He watched as the dog stood up and start pacing, so Keith let his leash loosen a bit to give him more freedom. The dog walked back and forth a few times before focusing on something in the distance. Probably the squirrel he wanted to chase earlier.

“Keith. He’s huge. He’s fast. And he’s barely trained. Seriously when I was walking him last night he ran off so fast it was like he teleported. If that girl hadn’t caught him he would have been long gone and–”

“Yeah, but she did catch him and you got her number, so really it worked out pretty well for you.”

“Well, of course I ask for her number, she was gorgeous! But that’s beside the point. Keith, you’ve never had a dog before I just don’t know if he’s the best first pet. He doesn’t even play fetch!”

“That’s not his fault, Lance, no one taught him! And we were working on it this morning.”

“Oh, are you at the park?” Lance asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Yeah. I figured a nice walk before I went to work for the day would be good for him.”

“Nice work, Kogane, taking the dog to the park to pick people up already. You’re learning from me well.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I’m not going to pick anyone up. You get one number one time and you think you’re a pick up artist, Lance.” He frowned as the dog looked back up at him.

“Well I basically am, seriously you should have seen her–”

“I get it Lance, she’s beautiful, flowing white locks, I heard it all,” Keith grasped the handle a little harder as the dog started barking and jumping a bit at the end of the leash, probably still trying to go after the squirrel. Keith looked behind him to try and see if he could find what he was barking at, but all he saw was a guy a few benches away watching the dog from behind a book. Keith waved a sheepish apology at him and the man went back to reading.

“Did he poop yet?”

Keith turned back around and loosened his hold on the leash as the dog calmed again and laid down on the ground, watching Keith from the corner of his eye. “What kind of a question is that?”

“I don’t know, dog owners know that kind of thing. You gotta make sure he’s healthy. Did you pick it up in a little doggie bag? Did you have to carry it around? I mean, it’s one thing to have to pick up dog poop, but it’s a whole ‘nother level when you actually have to walk around with it in your hand, y’know?”

Keith groaned, “Yes, Lance, I walked around with a bag of dog shit in my hand. Yes, it was weird. No, I’m not getting rid of the dog.”

“Ugh, fine. Be stubborn. But you at least have to name him soon. You can’t just keep calling–” but Lance was cut short as the phone was ripped from Keith’s hand.

“Hey! Give that back!” He hollered as the dog leaned down on his front paws, phone in his mouth and tail wagging high in the air. The dog faked one way and then took off in the direction of the squirrel, the surprise ripping the leash out of Keith’s hand.

“Hey, dog! Come back!” Keith yelled scrambling to his feet, taking off and hoping no one was watching. Hearing about this from Lance was going to be bad enough, he thought with a groan as he chased after the rogue dog.

The dog jumped around a bit, frolicking, tossing the phone up into the air and catching it, turning to Keith and sticking his butt back up in the air as if to play. “Alright, very funny,” Keith said as he slowed down and walked calmly up to the dog, internally wanting to die as he saw the man on the bench watching him from above his book again.

Keith crouched down to the ground and stretched his hand out, “Come on then, give it back.”

But the dog bounded away again with a bark, his leash trailing mockingly behind him, all the way to the man on the other bench. He finally dropped the phone on the ground beside the bench and sat down, barking a few more times.

“Oh, of course,” Keith said with a groan as he stood back up and walked over to the bench. He tried to keep his cheeks from burning up as he walked over to his dog and the stranger, looking down at the ground and picking up the leash as soon as he was close enough. “Sorry about him,” Keith said still staring at the ground and picking up his phone, refusing to look at the stranger.

“That’s alright,” he replied, “I was just heading out anyway. The bench is all yours.”

Before Keith could even fully look up the other man was already walking away. With a death grip on the leash he turned to look at the dog who had his most innocent face on and was glancing back and forth between Keith and the man walking away. “Lance may actually be right this time,” Keith said, shaking his head, “maybe you do need more training.” But before the words were totally out of his mouth the dog took off again, barrelling down the pathway after the other man.

With a death grip on the leash this time Keith refused to let go and was dragged along after the large and powerful dog. “No no no! Stop!” He yelled as they neared that same man along the path yet again. Right when the man heard them coming and turned around to look, the dog ran passed him and looped back around dragging keith right into the other man and wrapping them up in the leash.

The dog pulled tight and Keith was pressed right up against the man. He put his hands against the man’s – unexpectedly strong – chest and started babbling “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into him, I swear–”

At the same time as the man started laughing sheepishly, one hand going up to scratch at the back of his head, “No, it’s fine, really! Don’t worry about it!”

But before they could get their balance back, the dog gave another quick tug on the leash and they both went silent, eyes going wide in a brief panic as they locked gazes and started to fall over, right into the pond.

“Oh my God!” Keith yelled as they hit water, the other man following it up almost instantly with a loud “Holy shit!”

It may be spring but the water hasn’t warmed up yet and they’re both instantly soaked. Luckily the dog finally let up on pulling on the leash and it fell loose, letting the two men scramble to their feet, Keith still sputtering apologies.

As they get their feet under themselves and look at each other Keith finds his long black hair has fallen over his eyes, absolutely soaked, and he looks through it to see the other man’s stark white bangs have been plastered down over one of his eyes as well.

They lock eyes again, Keith falling silent. The spell is quickly broken when the dog barks and the two men turn to him just as he gives that whole bodied shake dogs do, and they both throw their arms up in a weak defence against the second spray of ice cold water.

They both drop their hands to their sides in defeat and look at each other again through their drooping hair, and they both start laughing. Keith can’t help but smile at the full bodied laugh the other man lets out, his head falling back as if he hasn’t laughed that hard in his life.

They both stop laughing eventually, still slowly sinking deeper into the muck, but neither seeming to care anymore. They smile at each other and the stranger thrusts his hand out between them “I’m Shiro,” he says.

Keith shakes his head and smiles, his hand reaching out to shake Shiro’s “I’m Keith.”

“Well, despite the circumstances it’s nice to meet you, Keith,” Shiro says as he pushes his white bangs out of his face. They stick up in a ridiculous cowlick and Keith can’t look away.

Shiro crouches down in front of the dog and pats his head, “And who’s this excited guy?” he asks as the dog lets his tongue loll out like he’s never done anything wrong in his life, ever.

Keith crouches down beside him, his thigh lightly brushing against Shiro’s. “He actually doesn’t have a name yet.”

“Well,” Shiro says, turning to let out grin at Keith, “I guess we’ll have to work on that.”

And Keith fights off a blush as they finally help each other climb out of the frigid water. Not that he’d ever admit it, but it does look like Lance was right about the dog for once.

[vcepsis]

'Rest as long as you need' with Sheith, maybe? ❤

Thank you so much for the request!! (and for reading it over, you the real mvp)

From this caretaker ask meme. About 1.4k. Enjoy!

Shiro’s hands shook in his lap. He stared down at them with a sort of detached interest, watching as they trembled. The metal arm was making soft, barely audible sounds as the fingers spasmed beyond his control. Slowly, he clenched and unclenched his fists, hoping it would stop the shaking.

It didn’t.

Shiro was coming up on hour seventy of being awake, and he had transcended tired and exhausted into a brand new state of being, where everything felt blurry but also too sharp for his eyes. He’d been awake for so long that the idea of sleep almost felt abnormal—he wasn’t sure he could even sleep if he tried at this point.

He knew he pulled multiple all-nighters in the past. In the Garrison for sure, when he had midterms or exams  with too much material to go over and not enough time to do it. But he doubted he’d ever pushed himself for this long. Maybe a few times with the Galra—

No, better not dwell on that right now. He didn’t want to think about any of the times he may have been too scared to sleep, too busy replaying the battles in his head, too busy thinking about the way the blade had sunken into alien flesh—

“Shiro!”

The sound of his name snapped his head up on instinct to see five pairs of concerned eyes looking at him. They also looked tired, though less so. They had all recently returned from a battle that had lasted nearly twenty hours, and while they all wanted to go to bed, Coran had insisted they come to the kitchen to eat something first. The others didn’t know that he’d been awake for more than two days before that, or how the nightmares were eating at him so badly he’d decided to skip sleeping altogether. And they didn’t need to know. It would only make them worry, and there was no point in anyone else losing sleep over Shiro’s issues.

The looks they were giving him made him realize they’d been calling to him more than once. Shiro blinked, the signals in his brain firing far too slowly. “Yeah?” he finally answered.

Keith frowned at him, but it was Allura who spoke up. “Are you alright, Shiro?” she asked, concern laced in her voice.

“I’m fine,” he lied easily. Too easily, like it was second nature. Maybe it should have disturbed him, but his emotions weren’t quite right, fizzling out before they could take root. “Sorry, just tired. What were you saying?”

At least that wasn’t a lie.

“We were wondering if you didn’t like dinner.” Hunk this time, gesturing to Shiro’s nearly full plate.

“Hm? Oh.” Shiro frowned down at his plate. It was just food goo, but normally he ate it quickly and without complaint. He realized that he had completely forgotten about eating it. Lifting his head again, he saw the others were already finished. Nausea twisted in his stomach. “Just…not that hungry.”

Hunk gawked at him. “Not hungry? We haven’t eaten in nearly a day.”

Shiro stared at him, the image sliding in and out of focus.The world shimmered at the edges of his vision. Belatedly, he realized Hunk was waiting for a response. He couldn’t muster up the energy to think of an excuse, so he just shrugged.

Keith sat back, the movement drawing Shiro’s rapidly dwindling attention. Something changed in Keith’s expression, concern mixing with exasperation. “Shiro,” he said carefully, “when was the last time you slept?”

Silence descended upon the group as Shiro tried in vain to come up with a believable answer. He stared back down at his still shaking hands. “Couple days?” he replied, rounding down for their benefit.

Lance choked on his water pouch, slamming it back down on the table. “A couple days?!”he cried, eyes wide. “Are you insane? How are you even still awake right now?”

Hunk looked shocked. “A couple days…and then we went out and fought for like, twenty two hours?”

“No wonder you look so much worse than the rest of us,” Pidge chimed in.

Shiro flinched from their admonishments, unable to help it. Keith sighed loudly, scraping his chair back. “I got this, guys. Sorry, but can you handle clean up?”

Hunk nodded vigorously. “Please, get him to bed. He looks like he’s gonna keel over.”

Shiro felt the blood rush to his cheeks. It was embarrassing, to be fussed over like a child. Like he couldn’t take care ofhimself. Wasn’t he supposed to be their leader? Wasn’t he supposed to be watching out for them? Having the roles reversed felt…weird. Wrong. Failure drummed in his head, shame rushed through his veins.

Keith was looming over him now, staring down. Shiro looked away, his frayed nerves combined with his teammates’ comments making all of his negative emotions spark back to life. He didn’t want Keith to see him like this.

A hand landed on his shoulder. Shiro looked up, expecting to see anger, or worse, annoyance. But the look on Keith’s face was all tender concern. “Hey,” he said softly. “Let’s get you to your room?”

Shiro’s shoulders sagged in relief when Keith didn’t immediately order him to sleep. Despite feeling like shit, he didn’t want to sleep. He could practically feel the nightmares in his brain, waiting to drag up those awful half memories. They always turned into something worse, with colours that were too vivid and details that were too gruesome to be real (the possibility that they were real was too much for Shiro to handle). After not sleeping for so long, he was sure the dreams would attack him with a vengeance.

He still wanted to refuse, but Keith was looking at him with patience and expectation. Shiro couldn’t say no now. But when he stood, the weird shimmering on the edge of his vision increased tenfold, and standing suddenly became impossible. A hand hit his chest, and an arm wrapped around his waist, the warm presence of it keeping him upright as the dizziness threatened to overwhelm him. “I got you,” came Keith’s soft voice.

Slowly, Keith managed to take him out of the kitchen—with affectionate calls of “Sleep well, Shiro!” at their backs—and to Shiro’s room. Keith hit the button for the door, which slid open under his touch, and guided Shiro to sit on his bed. Shiro was suddenly grateful that they had all changed out of their armor before going to the kitchen. Lance had suggested they all dress in their pajamas, “Since we’re all gonna go to bed afterwards. It’ll be like a slumber party!”

Keith sat down next to him, their arms not quite touching. “So what’s up?” he asked. “Why haven’t you been sleeping?”

Shiro sighed heavily, running his natural hand over his face and through his hair. “The usual,” he replied.

Keith frowned, not convinced. “I’ve never seen you push it for this long.”

Shiro shrugged. “It’s just been…worse. For some reason.”

Keith looked over at him, taking in Shiro’s ragged appearance, the deep bags under his eyes. Then, kicking off his shoes, Keith crawled to the head of the bed. Shiro watched, wanting to ask what he was doing, but the question got lost somewhere between his brain and his mouth.

Keith kicked the blankets down the bed, propping Shiro’s pillow up behind him as he leaned back against the wall. When he was satisfied, he looked back over at Shiro, arms open. “Well, come on, then.”

Oh. Shiro slipped out of his own shoes, climbing over to where Keith was sitting. He pulled Shiro down so his head was in Keith’s lap. Reaching around, he grabbed the edge of the blanket, tugging it over them.

“Keith…” Shiro managed to find the last dregs of energy to argue. “You need…to sleep too.”

“Mhm, and I will.” Keith started carding his fingers through Shiro’s bangs, his touch soft and gentle. “It’s pretty comfortable here, actually. But this will help the nightmares, right?”

Shiro hummed in response. Keith’s hand in his hair sent a slow wave of warmth through him. Knowing someone was here, someone real, made the darkness in his head recede.

“Rest as long as you need, Shiro,” Keith said softly. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

And so when sleep came, Shiro let it take him.