#colasims

[vrepit-sals]

Happy Holidays @cola-sims! I was your gift giver for the @antisvldexchange. I’m sorry your gift is late. 

I wrote you a Shlav Christmas fic with background Hunay. 

It starts with one of Lance's many questions, used to fill the awkward period between Allura's brief and arrival on a new planet. His questions are a staple on most missions and might generously be described as 'mission adjacent', or more realistically as 'completely off topic'.

"Hey Coran, we've been doing this whole 'saving the universe' thing for what, 7 months now?" Lance asks, leaning up against the armrest of his chair.

Coran gazes at him fondly for a moment before stroking his moustache in thought.

"Yes, I do believe we woke up on Arus approximately 180 quintants ago, which would be roughly equivalent to 7 of your Earth months," he says smiling at Lance as the Blue Paladin tries to remain casual.

"And seven months working around the clock, that'd be a heck of a lot of overtime am I right?"

"Lance just focus on the mission," Keith cuts Coran off before he can answer.

"Well excuse me Mullet, all I'm saying is that we know of the location of a great Space Mall and that after seven months the universe definitely owes us a day off and some spending money," Lance glares to where Keith is sitting on the chair in front of him, already wearing his armour.

Keith frowns and turns around in his chair to continue the argument, only to be interrupted by Pidge shooting to her feet and pointing an accusing finger at Lance.

"You little shit," she says, a grin pulling across her face, "seven month after we left Earth and you think we won't notice when you suddenly want to go shopping?"

Lance looks at her like he has no idea what she's talking about. In the back of 

Shiro's mind some half-finished thought has started to take shape, although he doesn't have the required knowledge to finish it.

Keith doesn't seem to understand either, but when he asks what Pidge is talking about she doesn't answer.

They sit in silence for a moment before Hunk's eyes widen.

"Seriously buddy?" Hunk says, turning to Lance, his voice sounding hurt but a grin pulling itself across his face, "What were you going to do? Not tell us so we couldn't get you anything?"

Lance shrugs his shoulders with a mischievous smile, but when Keith repeats his question Lance's smile turns soft and he leans forward on one hand.

"We left Earth in May, so it'll be the start of December now, or about three weeks or so until Christmas."

Shiro is swept over with a flood of warmth and home sickness. Has it really been that long?

"And you were just going to sneak around about this behind our backs?" Keith asks, tone bordering on actual annoyance.

Lance merely shrugs again, more sheepish this time.

"What is this 'Christmas'?" Allura asks, hands still piloting the Castle as she looks to Lance with one eyebrow raised.

Hunk leans over to explain the holiday to a delighted audience, but Shiro's brain is already gone. If the younger paladins want to have Christmas on the ship, then he'll make it his personal mission to make it the best one possible.

Starting with gifts. He should try and make sure everyone gets something that they really like. And they need some way to acquire spending money for everyone. Allura and Coran probably don't have the funds to actually pay them, but perhaps there's something he can barter for the gift money?

Then there are the decorations. Where can he get a tree from? Will the small parts fall off and clog the ventilation system? That goes double for any tinsel-esque decorations.

Not to mention the food. He'll need to somehow ask the team their favourite holiday foods without rousing their suspicion. Then he'll need to figure out how to get the ingredients and make the dishes without a recipe or any cooking skills to think of, all in an alien kitchen.

He also really should check the stock rooms and see if there's anything they could use as wrapping paper, or else they'll need to factor that into the budget as well. Would they sell wrapping paper at the Space Mall? Is the concept of wrapping gifts in one-time-use packaging a universal one?

"Shiro, stop panicking," Keith says, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"I wasn't-"

"We all know what your mission face looks like," Pidge agrees, sitting cross legged in her chair and grinning at Shiro's discomfort.

"Yeah, it doesn't have to be perfect. Let's just focus on the mission and we can chat about it afterwards," Lance pitches in as Allura and Coran continue to give Hunk's descriptions of Santa Clause their full attention.

Part of Shiro wants to point out that Lance was the one who got them off topic in the first place, but he bites his tongue and smiles to himself as he returns his attention to the task at hand.

It turns out a lot of Shiro's Christmas-related concerns solve themselves.

Lance and Pidge spend a couple of hours describing in painstaking detail all the Christmas decorations they'll need to Coran, and drag Keith along with them on mini-missions during their off hours to retrieve everything.

Pidge then starts re-purposing regular strings of lights to flash red and green, which Keith and Lance  spend their time hanging around the castle, using chairs, tables and their jetpacks to reach the tall ceilings. On occasion Shiro can hear a cry of "hard core parkour!" from somewhere far off, and he usually finds lights in some gravity-defying position the next time he walks down that corridor. He knows it'll take them who knows how long to remove the lights once the holiday is over, but they stick a smile on everyone's face when they see them and put a spring in their step.

Perhaps they can just leave them like this permanently.

Hunk pushes Shiro out of the kitchen the first time he tries to help, with nothing but a "oh no, Keith's told me all about your cooking 'prowess'". Shiro might have been offended if he hadn't known that whatever story Keith told was 100% true, and probably not even one of his worst kitchen disasters.

Instead, Hunk and Allura spend their free time experimenting with ingredients and collecting samples from all the planets they visit. Shiro can often hear them laughing as he walks past the kitchen over a failed test, or celebrating over a successful one.

The entire team have discussions over meals about where they're up to in the preparation process and what they still have left to do, and Shiro smiles at the excitement bubbling around him.

He tries to help out everyone where he can, and focuses on ensuring training and missions still happen on schedule. If doing this allows everyone else to forget about their duty to the universe and relax for a couple of weeks he's more than happy to.

About a week before Christmas they go to the Space Mall and Pidge and Lance give Shiro and Allura a quick tour of the place, before running off with a grin. It's not difficult to find gifts for his friends, something sparkly for Allura, some new gloves for Keith, a robotics kit for Pidge, designed for alien children but light years ahead of the most advanced hardware on Earth, a new video game for Lance, a moustache grooming kit for Coran and machine parts for Hunk. He knows that Lance has almost finished his game, that Keith's gloves are wearing off, that Pidge is still mourning Rover and that Hunk prefers to tinker than follow instructions.  

He waves off the free Kaltenecker with purchase from Terra 2 and wanders over to a map of the shopping centre.

He feels accomplished for the gifts that he's already bought, and he still has plenty of time before he has to meet up with the others.

He's also left the hardest gift until last.

And somewhere in the back of his mind, Shiro understands it's also the one he's the most worried about stuffing up.

Because he knows that Slav knows about the upcoming season. For one thing, he's seen him flittering around the ship, fixing the lights when they're balanced precariously and evening out the bunches of something that looks a lot like holly. For another, he left the ship with the rest of them when they arrived at the Space Mall, a list in one hand and a determined look on his face despite the crowds and the slight danger of capture.

Most obviously, Shiro told him, not wanting him to miss out on the fun that the rest of the team were having. Slav had smiled at him, telling him about the chances of Christmas being celebrated in other realities, and Shiro had sat quietly and listened, letting Slav's voice wash over him and soothe out his worried edges.

Shiro's eyes scour the map once more, hoping for some sign from the universe for where to start looking. He stands there until an alien woman taps her foot impatiently behind him and he moves aside to let her see.

He'd been so sure of what makes a good present when it came to his team mates.

When Hunk had come to him with an embarrassed grin asking about what he should get for Shay, Shiro had even been able to give what he considers good advice.

He told Hunk to think about what he would want if he were Shay, something intangible, and then give her something that would move her towards that aim. That way, the thought would always count, even if the gift wasn't quite perfect. After a brief discussion they'd decided to focus on Shay's desire to see the sky, and Hunk had run off with thanks and a plan to buy her some glow in the dark stars and battery powered lights for the caves of the Balmerra.

Perhaps it was time he took his own advice.

But then, Shiro knows what Slav wants and what he thinks Slav needs. He knows about the fear and the anxiety and the ever-present voice telling him there's something wrong. His own mind isn't entirely dissimilar. But the mind is a harsh master, and he knows from experience that there is no band aid he can slap on to make it all better.

But perhaps there is something that might help soothe Slav's mind, even if only for a moment.

Shiro grins to himself as he returns to the store map, this time knowing exactly what he's looking for.

Shiro was so sure that there would be some sort of emergency or distress beacon on the day that the team had decided to celebrate that he can scarcely believe that he's sitting here, after the presents have been unwrapped and they've had lunch and that the team's still at peace.

Pidge, Lance and Allura are sitting cross legged on the floor with the colour-coded Furbies Coran gave them all. They're trying to initiate a six way conversation between them while Hunk watches on over the book he's reading.  Keith is sitting next to Hunk, sharpening his knife with the wet stone Lance gave him, and Coran is regaling them all with a story of the original Paladin's exploits.

Shiro pulls the face mask Hunk gave him with an aside about "knowing exactly what he needed which was more sleep" over his eyes and tries to ignore the fact that Slav isn't there. He'd gone looking for him earlier this morning but come up empty, and no one had seen him all day. He knows that Slav will come and find him when he's ready though, and it's that thought which finally helps him drift off.

When he wakes the rest of the paladins are still there. Hunk and Lance have carried the video game set up into the common room and Allura is currently kicking Pidge's ass at the racing game Shiro bought the Blue Paladin. Keith looks over at him with a grin when Shiro sits up, and Hunk suggests leftovers for dinner.

Lance demands to race Shiro next, and he watches Allura finish first before accepting her controller with a light heart.

The ship is quiet at night.

Back at the Garrison Shiro would have welcomed the silence. Surrounded by heaped expectations and the bitterness of many of his peers, he longed for peace, for some respite from the constant movement.

But with only eight people inhabiting a castle it sometimes feels like he's drowning in solitude, with only thinly-spread islands of company for respite.

He used to be kept awake by noise, but now he craves it. Most nights he can't sleep without it.

So he tries to nap during the day when he can, and on bad nights, when he tosses and turns with a head full of worry, he makes himself a cup of what Allura swears sounds just like Herbal tea but tastes a bit like feet and sits in the common area with a blanket around his legs.

His insomnia often happens to coincide with Slav's, and as he spots the unopened gift under the Christmas tree, he selfishly hopes Slav will join him tonight.

He does.

Slav's footsteps are soft and slow against the hard, cold floor, but Shiro has been listening out for them, and Shiro retrieves his gift from the tree before he turns around.

"Merry Christmas Slav."

Slav curls up next to him on the couch.

"I hope you didn't mind me not attending the celebrations. The probability of-"

He trails off after a minute and looks away. Shiro leans forward and places a hand on his knee.

"It's okay. I understand."

They sit in silence for a few moments. Even the sound of Slav breathing beside him, the warmth where Slav has curled against him is enough to calm him.

"I got you something," Shiro says, pushing the package towards Slav gently and watching as he pulls off the paper to reveal soft wool.

"It's blue," Slav says, eyes searching into Shiro's.

"I remember you saying that was the safest wavelength-" Shiro starts, wondering if he did something wrong, but before he can continue Slav is already pulling on the jumper.

He trails off when he sees Slav's smile.

"My chances of injury just went down by twenty percent in this reality." Slav says. He curls around Shiro's neck when he sees him shiver from the cold of the air conditioning and presses something into his hands.

"I got you this."

Shiro takes the small present, wrapped in blue paper. It has a familiar shape and when Shiro opens it he's looking at a jar of crunchy peanut butter.

Two years ago it would have been a daily sight as he spread the condiment on toast for breakfast, but now the familiarity brings tears to his eyes.

"Where did you find this?"

Shiro hadn't seen it at the Earth shop when he was there, and he doesn't know of anywhere else that would stock it.

"The shopkeeper at Terra 2 had it in the back. He didn't know it was for eating, but he found it after I described it to him."

Shiro doesn't know what to say. It's so simple, something he'd mentioned months ago when they were talking about the little things they missed from their home world. He snakes his arms around Slav and leans against him.

"There's something else, but I wanted to ask you about it before I made it."

"What is it?"

Slav looks down at his hand and Shiro almost shrinks back on reflex. He knows Slav admired his hand when they first met, talked about two robot arms being better than one, but he can't-

"I was thinking I could make you a different prosthetic," Slav says, "I talked to Pidge and Hunk. We think we could make you something more like an advanced human prosthetic. No weapons."

Shiro stares at him for a moment in disbelief.

"Of course if you don't want that-"

"Yes," Shiro says, tears spilling down his cheeks as he draws Slav tighter, "yes please."

To be free of the constant reminder of his time in the gladiator ring, the remove any possible trace of Galran influence on his brain, he hadn't thought it possible. He's been trying to ignore this thorn in his side, he assumed he'd just have to live with it, but the knowledge that he might one day be rid of it takes the stale breath from his lungs and replaces it with clean, fresh air.

"But I thought you said the probabilities were better with it?" Shiro doesn't know why he asks it. Perhaps because if Slav is going to change his mind, he wants it to be before he gets his hopes up too high.

"There is a probability," Slav sits for a moment trying to find the words, "but you have the Black Bayard now. I'll just have to make sure we are one of the alternate realities where it doesn't matter."

Shiro just breathes. Breathes and shines.

"I guess you'll have to stay close then?" Shiro asks softly.

Slav curls tighter around his neck and grabs one of his hands.

Shiro shuts his eyes and is lulled to sleep by Slav's breathing and final words.

"That's a certainty in 100% of realities."