#does this fall under shidge?? or no

[strugglingtoast]

Just One Touch Pt. 1

Inspired by Siamés’ song. Please listen. I think they are great.

*this takes place in season 6 where Lotor travels to that other Altean place. Can’t remember exactly, but yeah... Other than that, nothing is canon. Like all my work

@grbgcn2 here you go bby. <3

@olkarianprincess- a reward for your amazing disappearance acts.

“Another failure, your highness,” Gruflar, an assisting druid, reported.

A fist slammed down as the the Galran leader let out a frustrated sigh. It has been months without any success and Lotor was starting to get impatient. Ever since he had found his mother’s notes and memorized them to the teeth, Lotor was sure to have claimed a successful  experiment by now.

The Alteans he had gathered as “willingly” volunteers, they have all failed. Either their bodies rejected the dark quintessence and poisoned them or if they did accept it, they were quickly killed by his prized champion, Kuro, a druid of high caliber. Lotor’s goal was to create a robeast that was able to withstand the precise attacks from his prized druid that could slay dozens with just one swipe of his arm. Once succeeded, it would be then unleashed to fight against Voltron. Some say that it would have been more effective to have a clone army of the champion he so held possessively. An obstacle to that was that he had no clue as to where that base would be located. His prized druid had terrible memory. That, and replicating him had proven to be an utter failure. Much like his robeast.

When the discovery of other Alteans came about in this alternate universe, Lotor had made it a quest to start experimenting on them and transform them into robeast, monstrosities that could bring great devastation to civilizations. The thing is he needs to make one that is stable and can hold against the fatal blows Kuro delivers. Not to mention one that needs to heed his every command. These monstrosities have no mind of their own. They could not tell what was left or right without the guidance of Lotor himself, or whichever commanding officer was in control.

That is why Lotor had slammed his fist on the table for what felt like twentieth time that day. It had been seven months and he felt no closer to success than when he first started. Peering back at his mother’s notes, it just wasn’t understood how she was able to get success. He did everything right. Followed everything to the teeth and did repetitions just in case. They all ended the same. The Altean either rejected and poisoned itself from the dark quintessence or Kuro would strike down the frail robeast with ease.

“I do not understand,” exclaimed the prince, “But I followed everything! I even increased or decreased the amount of this toxic quintessence and still the outcome is the same.” Lotor drew out a disappointed sigh. Trying to hold in his anger, he quickly composed himself and called out to Kuro.

The prized druid came to where he was called and kneeled before prince. “If I may speak, your highness, it is rather a bore that there is no challenge for me. Every one of these have been so eas-”

Lotor slammed his fist, effectively interrupting the both druids before him. Kuro always had a habit of speaking in such a manner against any one in power. Taking in a deep breath, Lotor composed himself and turned to the kneeling druid who had a smirk on his face. Lotor knew that Kuro succeeded in bristling up his anger. It was what he loved to do.

“I know! I am not as dense as you think I am, you vile creature.”

Feigning hurt, Kuro looked up at the prince, “And here I thought I was your most prized champion.” Yellow eyes inspected his nails as the smirk returned once more. Taunting Lotor was the one thing that gave Kuro a rise in motivation.

He was taken away from his thoughts when Lotor slammed his fist against the glass. Rising up, Kuro walked next to the Lotor, observing the carnage he caused being cleaned up and disposed. It was situations like these where Kuro expressed no humanity. He mainly had cold exteriors that only gave way when he taunted the prince.

“I-if it pleases my lord, I can dump this creature in the pod of quintessence to shut him up,” spoke Gruflar, the assisting druid who had a vile smile that dripped in a venomous tone.

Getting into a menacing stance, Kuro was about to strike a blow when Lotor just sighed.

“No need. This brute doesn’t need the quintessence to make him any more stupid.”

The smile dissipated into one of disappointment as Kuro sent a sickeningly sweet smile, followed by a commentary of “kiss ass”.

Pacing back and forth, Lotor began to think out loud, ”It has been seven months and I am no closer to success than where I was on the first month. What am I doing wrong? Every failure leads me closer to wasting the resources in this dimension. I have already adjusted the quintessence. Would I need to drastically change the formula? But how would I go on about doing that without wasting time in rewriting the entire-”

Before the thought was finished, a sentry entered with such urgency, it caused him to be slammed by the energy of the druid and a distasteful glare from Kuro. Sensing the urgency in the air, Lotor nodded to Gruflar to let him go and Kuro to standby.

“What is the urgency that has brought you here?” questioned the prince. If it wasn’t for the glare the prince was giving off, the sentry would have believed that Lotor would not have been angry at the sudden intrusion.

Quickly catching his breath, the sentry saluted his leader and spoke, “My Lord! We believed we have found the perfect Altean to ease your troubles.”

[borntobelime]

Shidge Galra/Altean AU

This is another AU I talked with @nicht-vobla but honestly i have something else also in mind to give her as a tribute from our chats .... This one is for  @besh-drawing-stuff  HAPPY BIRTHDAY (so its kinda like a late birthday gift ) (because the idea i had kinda reminded me of your rose Goddess Au (you’ll see why )  I Call It  : Warrior’s Lullaby 

During the destruction of Altea a couple of Altean Alchemists launch a Cryopod into space inside the Cryopod is there baby girl Katie for many many years the pod traveled through the universe until it entered the atmosphere of planet Olkarion the pod crushed into the forest close to the great tree the olkari found the pod and soon discovered what was inside the olkari named Reiner took in the baby under her care and raised her as her own.

Inside the pod she found information that confirmed that the baby was an altean  there was a small video projector on a recorded message  it was too damaged to project the images and the full video  but some of the audio  was not as damaged she made out the important parts of it ….My name is Samuel  my wife Coleen…and……...……………. whoever finds this pod please look after our child Katelyn protect her from what we can not…………….. the galra are taking over we don’t have much time  ………..  .she could only make out those parts she knew very well from history of the destruction of Altea and the race itself fearing for the child’s and her planets safety she gave her a new name …..Your name is Katelyn this your Altean name  it will only be known between us  (reiner would never have kept her in the dark) ….from now on you are one of us dear on  i will give you a second name an olkari name …. Pidge …..Pidge grew up with the Olkari even though she knew only knew very few about where she came from her only clues was her old name stories about a planet  she never seen she wasn’t always feeling alone her powers grew stronger as she grew older been an Altean growing up in the forest her magic adapted differently not only she learned the Olkari  magic  her connection in nature grew so it was able to use nature magic she could make plants grow and move and heal Reiner was very proud of her daughter’s gifts she always tried to find anything she could based on altean alchemy to help her in to learning but  unfortunately there resources were very low to all this lost knowledge , Pidge didn’t had any trouble fitting in but always been aware of she is not olkari   she would use he chameleon like abilities to try and fit in even wear her hood  as to also wear her at first with other kids  but Reiner told her to be herself but if she felt more secure that way she will not stop her from doing so and so she was her passion in tech and knowledge her love for nature 

Commander Takashi Shirogane also known as Commander Shiro or Champion  from the Galra Empire proud of his race he was born raised in in a environment of constant violence

conquered planets in the name of the emperor Zarkon defeated all his enemies or more like executing them wherever in the arena or on a war  learned to live with the words Victory or Death a true Galran warrior

He was sent off on a scout mission quite a boring one for his taste  to planet Olkarion to gather data on the quintencesse there the quintencensse signals were indeed very unique so he hopes he gets the opportunity to invade the planet when he returns with good resorts  but  there was a glitch on the system of his ship and he lost control of it and crushed on olkarion during the night …the crush was hard his wounds were too deep  he was  impaled by parts of  the ship .the last thing he remembers is a figure tearing a hole on his ship’s  ceiling from the outside ……….

He wakes up in a small room his vision a bit blurry and he hurts everywhere and he feels like his is burning with fever the only thing he can tell is  the  figure is trying to treat hi  …and a warm light over his injuries …...a few days he is recovered enough not to sleep out of consciousness and then he meets her or more like grabs her shawl and removes it revealing a beautiful creature …and the last thing he sees is a vine grabbing him and hitting him hard against the wall . Later waking up tied up on a bed and the woman’s glowing  hand on his head after a lot of negotiations of he will not try anything funny she untied him and as his recovery progresses enough for him to stand he gets to know his savior  ..Pidge offers him to show him around the forest …..she understands what his motives are knowing been a galra and what he wants from her planet so she tries to show him the importance of every existence (yes think of it like the avatar(2009 film)  or pocahontas )  …… she gets him a cloak  so he can stay low and for the next days  she shows him around the city how a civilization can grow without wars she shows him the forest and even go on a boat ride and last but not least the great tree (that is a weeping willow like  ) that glows in the night ………..they look at the night sky for once shiro feels something he never felt or knew if he could feel …..Peace is that what it is ?………... she is like i wish i could go around the universe and travel on different places…...for one moment he thinks maybe he could  do that show her the universe but no he is still  royal to the empire and yet why does he feel so confused about it …and so he asks her why you are not an olkari so why do you love this place ….its my home , just because i am not a olkari doesn’t mean this is not my home ...home can be anywhere you want to ..they stay here in silent …they fall asleep under the stars …shiro wakes up finding pidge a few feet away seeing listening to a small audio the recorded message from her lost family she says i know they are not here anymore i never met the never seen them   but what  i know is  they really cared about me and that is all that matters Mama told me this tree is a symbol of everything is connected i come here to think often and sometimes its like i  feel there presence .....she  wanted me to have this to know no matter what i will they watch over me ..do you have someone like that ………….no ...i was raised by the military as long as i remember  ...do you ever wonder about it ? no the galra don’t wonder about things like that she says i asked you not the galra ...then the answer is the same no i don’t or had someone to make me even wonder if i am watched over ….she takes of her necklace  …….now you do she smiles ….......pidge with her abilities tries to rebuild his ship totally nerding out on it and his arm because how different galra technology is ..but  when she finished  shiro offers her to come with him to save her and not her planet she refuses to do so ..he says i  don’t know when they will come if they come but the least i can do is to find a way to open negotiations i can try that when he takes off  a galra armada are starting invading by Sendak they get a message Shiro ordering to  stop the invasion claiming he found on this planet very valuable resources that could be lost during the attack   ….Sendak says denied saying  he has  orders from the hire ups  who ? …. Haggar comes out  she  came to research the data she gathered from shiro’s  last update  they we couldn’t get in contact with so she arranged commander’s sendak’s armada  to invade …..Shiro blames himself  over the fact it was his fault after all  he speed up the invasion .....before he makes a decision to turn back or join sendak he gets a message of the emperor himself to report his absence he has no choice but to follow the order ….meanwhile as the galra attack and destroy the city and the forest …..Pidge tries to fight protect her home but the galra win and so everyone is under their  rule . she tried to make a one last stand but she loses due to the witch Haggar’s powers been far great ...Haggar see her potential and takes her as her prisoner planing to turn her into a druid just like her .

Shiro comes back to the galra everyone welcoming him back after the sudden disappearance it feels like he never left and yet he feels different he feels she changed him …..he soon gets news about olkarion before sendak suggests to drain the planet shiro stops him saying the olkari are more useful alive…fearing for what happened to pidge …...3 months later after trying to research every possible way Pidge could survive maybe she evacuated or maybe she is with the rebels of the olkari...or maybe she is ...dead ? no he can’t think of that ….. he visits Haggar receive a report for a  mission  but Haggar is not there yet he hears a sound coming out he would usually ignore that that but he got curious so he enters the door and so he finally sees her on Haggar’s lab strapped and starting to change … her marks growing her hair turning a bit white and a blue tone starting to slowly spread on her body …...she begs shiro to help her shiro can’t move from the shock haggar comes in and sees shiro …..Beautiful isn’t she …She will make a fine druid to serve the empire…….I tried to see  her memories ….but  she is still strong i can’t read her yet  very well  but it will not matter she will not need them here is the report commander  you may go…..she turns and shiro is about to leave but hears a faint…. Please help me ..Shi..ro….haggar turns did you hear something ? no ma’m ...i must have been imagining things….she turns only to face shiro’s attack it knocks her out  shiro tears the straps off and picks pidge bridal style the alarms start he fights his way through the sentries into a ship for escape   her condition getting worse  but they reach the planet Olkarion and he takes her to the great tree there she  starts to transform back into her old self …..you saved me ….i am never letting you go again …and they kiss ..they know they can’t stay for long on the planet  but they have enough time for pidge to reunite with Reiner

On the day of there departure Reiner asks Shiro to look after her Shiro simply says Always….You have my word .

And so the couple travels around the universe seeing new worlds together and they join the rebellion and the blades in hope of saving Olkarion and  for a better future  

[valkylander]

1. Maybe don’t say “No one says that” about things I’ve seen people say multiple times.

2. Literally everything can be used to groom minors. Porn between adults is used to groom minors. Candy and toys are used to groom minors. The anti-shipper movement has been used to groom minors. You don’t ban something because it can be used to do harm, you ban it because it can be shown to either do harm by nature of its existence, or to facilitate great harm that could not happen without it.

3. Buddy, you tagged your original post with “Voltron”. And I know you were talking specifically about Shidge, but you can’t just pretend Sheith wasn’t Bad Ship Numero Uno for the people you chose to throw your lot in with.

4. I’m sorry, but romanticized depictions of incest, minor/adult relationships, and abuse fall under “ideas, relationships, and scenarios that would be taboo, dangerous, or even harmful in real life, but which can be explored in fiction without hurting someone.”  It’s a problem when this romanticization saturates a culture to the point that we have people in great numbers who believe they are okay in real life. However, not only is that not the fault of fanartists, it’s also not the responsibility of fanartists to never produce such works. Fandom does not have the reach necessary to change peoples’ opinions about incest, abuse, or CSA en masse, and a fan artist’s responsibilities end at tagging their works appropriately so they’re only consumed by those seeking that sort of content.

Your personal disgust is not proof of immorality. Maybe learn what critical thinking actually is before accusing others of lacking it.

[l-o-v-e4mokona]

Betting On You (part 2/?) - cosplay au;

Pairings: Shidge (Shiro and Pidge); side Allurance (Allura and Lance)

Word count (part 2): 1066

Pidge is so done with her friends.

“I don’t know, Lance... Why go through all that trouble? Why can’t we decide on something normal, like doing the dishes for a week, or make –”

“HA, HA, HA, HA!” Hunk’s reasoning was interrupted by loud cackles from Pidge, who rolled on the floor, spilling beer on the carpet.

“Hey come on, care to share it with the class?”

“And how about we don’t ruin our second good deck?” said Hunk, picking up the cards from the floor and wiping them with a napkin, while in his head, war memories of what happened to their first good deck passed by.

“Sorry, ha, ha, ha! I’m just picturing you guys dressed up in the costumes I chose, oh man, it’s going to be HILARIOUS!”

“See, Hunk, Pidge’s already in! Though, if you ask me, it’s a little too soon to be celebrating.”

“Argh… We’ll see if you’re going to be as excited when we lose, and end up being forced to dress up as Sasuke Uchiha going through puberty or something.”

Lance, already shuffling the cards and wearing a mysterious smile, said: “Don’t worry my dear friend; it’s only over when it’s over.”

...

“THAT WAS MESSED UP, YOU CHEATERS! I WANT A REMATCH!” yelled Pidge at the two boys, who were laughing at her misery.

Lance, always the evil planner, was fully aware that the two of them didn’t stand a chance against Pidge; at least, not on their own. That’s why, during the game, he focused on helping Hunk, who quickly caught on to the plan and joined Lance in his attacks directed at Pidge, making the girl succumb under the two-against-one disadvantage.

“I’m so sorry Pidgeon, but we agreed that a single match would decide our destiny, and yours is a rather interesting one, I guarantee.” said Lance, already retreating to his own room in order to prepare his nightly face mask. That is, if it wasn’t for the hand in his shirt collar pulling him back.

“It’s all good and well, Lance, but I want that kitchen to be back to the way it was prior to your little experiment.”

“Aw…”

“I hate you guys.”

...

The days following the infamous UNO match, Pidge was getting impatient and a little annoyed with the incessant whispered conversations between Lance and Hunk, who on top of that had the audacity to look at her and giggle, just to tick her off. The both idiots had clearly forgotten the fact that she lived with them and had access to their rooms at night.

Nonetheless, the boys search for the best character to be interpreted by Pidge came to an end after three days, when the two of them came home after classes. Pidge only had a couple of classes in the morning, so she was calmly working on her laptop, lying on the couch. The peacefulness lasted until Lance arrived and launched himself onto the sofa, hugging the girl’s legs and demanding attention. Pidge and Hunk often liked to compare Lance with a needy Labrador. Lance often liked to point out Pidge’s resemblance to an evil Chihuahua.

“What is it, I’m busy.” asked Pidge, when Lance started to poke her knees. “Had a productive day today? You know you have to submit that project until next week, right?”

“Nah, I’ve already left it to the hands of fate. I’m screwed, but no good will come if I lose my sleep over it.” Pidge is not even kidding when she thinks that she really would like to reach Lance’s level of detachment to worldly concerns. “But during Chemistry class Hunk and I made a lot of progress regarding your cosplay. As in, we’ve already decided.”

“Oh…”

Hunk, who was getting out of the bathroom as Lance searched for a pic of the character to show to Pidge, looked excited. “Oh, ho, this is going to be so good!”

“Your enthusiasm is so reassuring…”

“Fear not, Katie! I will have you know that our decision did not only take into consideration the ‘how many laughs can we get out of this at the expense of our dear friend’. We also made sure to select a character that’s compatible with your personality, so you won’t have to rely so much on your acting, and we also chose an anime relatively well known in order to influence people by popularity. As you can see, we have our eyes on the prize.” Lance finished with a wink. Unnecessary to say, the boy’s words didn’t reassure her in the slightest.

At last, he turned the cellphone’s screen towards Pidge. She didn’t like at all what she saw, as was expected.

“Oh hell no, guys! I can’t believe you want me to play a Space Paladins’ character, I HATE that anime! And Meklavar, the dwarf? Are you kidding me? Ugh!” Pidge’s complains were useless against her friends enthusiasm. They were laughing their heads off.

Drying a single tear threatening to fall from the corner of his eye, Hunk asked: “I never understood, by the way, why you hate that cartoon so much. I know you’ve never watched more than two episodes. I don’t think there’s a lot of content for so much criticism.”

“It’s enough content! The anime is totally illogical, and the lack of coherency isn’t counterbalanced by an interesting plot. The story is a mess, the soundtrack is just sad, and the main paladin gets on my nerves for some reason. And how exactly does an ax expert dwarf fits in adventures in space, anyway?!”

“Okay, clearly your dislike to the anime doesn’t have a concrete reason, and I suppose it has more to do with your bias against the person who made you watch those two episodes, said person being that guy from Taekwondo practice, who said that Fullmetal Alchemist is garbage compared to Space Paladins. And also because he scored higher than you in astrophysics, since Iverson always favours him.” said Lance, to a scandalized looking Pidge.

“What?!! I don’t… I mean, I have never... HOW do you...!”

“Alright, okay, this case is solved and closed! THAT PRIZE IS OURS, LET’S GO TEAM!”

Lance raised his hands for a high five, and even though she was not too happy at that moment, Pidge is a civilized person, so she slapped her palm against Lance’s and Hunk’s.

“Well, if I’m doing this,” thought Pidge “I’m going for the win.”

Hey, @turnourterrorintogold​! So, um, I hope you like this awkward thing lol And sorry for being so slow! haha

Part 1

[amoretheiwa]

10 Kisses Prompts-Shidge

I reblogged a prompt/ask thing for 10 different types of kisses the other day and took screenshots on my phone. For myself (and now all of you) I wrote a drabble of each for Shiro/Pidge. This is an unpolished future AU of mine where Katie Holt was 15 years old when her father and brother left on the Kerberos mission, and on her 16th birthday they saw the news that the ship had gone down (it’s not addressed in the drabbles but is here for your info). Fast forward a little more than 6ish years from then, and Shiro (28) and Katie (22) have finally acted on their feelings for each other. 

Drabbles 1-5 are set a while after 6-10, but I’m going to post them in separate installments, so it’ll make sense. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

           1-Post Break Up Kiss

             Pidge glanced away from Shiro, knowing that the other paladins and Alteans were being unusually polite by not commenting on the awkwardness of the meeting and the little banter during the battle. Nobody but her and Shiro seemed to think their breakup was a good idea, but Katie was going to stand by the decision no matter how much it hurt her. Shiro had gotten hurt too many times for her, and had gone through too much for her family. When they had started dating nothing much had changed but suddenly his very thought processes were revolving around protecting the Green Lion, endangering that Black Lion more than necessary.

           One fight lead them to the conclusion that maybe they should wait till it was all over and they were back on Earth, or maybe they just weren’t going to work out at all, so why would it matter if they ended it then.

Back in the present, Pidge waited for Shiro to finish speaking—a debrief on their latest mission that had been one of the quietest and most tense despite their five years fighting as a group—before turning and walking off. The others typically knew better than to follow her but it was maybe 10 minutes later before she heard footsteps coming down the hallway towards her lab. It was a pair of people, and she sighed, knowing it was Shiro and Allura from the sound of their footsteps alone. She made sure she was at a point in her work where she could pause for a few minutes and turned around, waiting for them to enter.

           They didn’t immediately, and Pidge could hear hushed but urgent voices. She could only wonder what was being said, and was about to start working on her latest project again when Shiro entered. There was a tinge of color in his cheeks, as there tended to be when he got especially worked up. Katie didn’t stand up, just waited for him to come to her.

           He sighed, running his human hand through his hair and looking anywhere but her.

           “What do you want?” She snapped, not wanting to wait on his quieter-tendencies.

His eyes jumped to look at her and narrowed.

“We need to talk,” he said without preamble.

Katie leaned further back in her chair and shrugged.

“Okay, let’s talk.”

Shiro kept walking until he was just the right distance away that she didn’t have to look too far up at him and he wasn’t towering over her.

“I still think breaking up was a good idea but the whole purpose of doing so was so that it didn’t cause problems within the team. We need to fight like we did before we ever started dating, Katie, and I—”

“Don’t.”

He stopped, confusion tinted with anger appearing on his face.

“What?”

“Don’t call me that. Don’t call me Katie,” she said, just louder than a whisper.

“What?” He asked again, but this time the meaning behind the question was different, harsher. Shiro had called her Katie in private since the beginning, and especially when they were dating. It was a symbol of intimacy and the way her heart still skipped a beat when he said it had Pidge on edge.

“You heard me,” she said, glancing up at him.

“I did but I’d like to know why.”

Pidge sighed and looked up at him, keeping her eyes on his this time.

“You don’t get to call me that anymore.”

His eyes widened and a flicker of hurt flashed across his face before something she didn’t recognized appeared.

“Does that mean you will stop calling me Takashi?”

Katie swallowed, a lump in her throat, and nodded. He stepped closer and she tensed.

“Say it, one last time.” He murmured.

Katie knew her eyes were wide and she spun her chair around, hands flying for tools and bits and parts and suddenly one metal and one flesh hand were holding hers. She looked away from where he stood next to her, refusing to look at him.

“Katie,” he said quietly. There was so much emotion in that one word—that one name—that she couldn’t help but look at him. He was as handsome as ever, no new scars on his face in their five years of fighting, only the worn look of someone who was ready to go home, to make a home. She took a deep breath and licked her lips.

“Shiro,” she mumbled, afraid to continue meeting his eyes but unwilling to look away.

“No,” he said, and she was confused. “My first name.”

Katie’s eyes widened and she swallowed again.

“Shiro, why…why are you making me do this?”

A smile flitted over his lips.

“Just humor me,” he sounded more normal in that moment than he had in any conversation with her over the past few weeks.

“Takashi,” she said. Her chest was constricting and his eyes fluttered close as his name hung in the air.

“Takashi,” she said again, inching closer to him. His eyes snapped open.

“Katie,” was all he said before he was pulling her face towards his and kissing her. Katie squeaked, not sure what to do before mentally shrugging and reciprocating the kiss with close eyes. It had been so long since they had even touched each other, even in passing, and her skin was burning wherever it touched him. It was bittersweet and Katie felt in that moment that she didn’t want him to leave her, she didn’t want him to be so distant. Something about the kiss made her think that he felt the same way, that this was an apology of sorts.

When they finally pulled back Shiro didn’t let her go too far. He opened his eyes and stared into hers for a few more seconds before brushing another kiss against her lips.

“Katie,” he sighed, and she felt her heart jump.

“What are we doing?” She said, trying to keep her voice level. He pulled back even farther and searched her face.

“Can we try again?” He simply asked. It took less than a second before she was nodding, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

She didn’t care that they had an audience as Allura shouted “Finally!” somewhere behind them.

2-Early Morning Kiss

 Sleeping in was a luxury the paladins rarely experienced, but after having being in the clear the day before for the first time since their most recent and fairly intense battle, the castle was left in sleep mode for an extra two hours. It wasn’t often that Katie slept in Shiro’s room, partially because they were still tip-toeing around each other and partially because if they did share a bed it was more often than not hers. His sheets and pillow smelled like him, even when he wasn’t in the bed, but Katie didn’t really care. Shiro was a cuddler if there ever was one, and she never had to worry about getting cold in the night with how hot his body rain naturally. At times, though, his Galra arm was a cool relief on her waist or under her back—when he was awake it was as warm as the rest of him if he concentrated on it hard enough.

This time, Pidge had even gone to bed at the same time as Shiro, without much protest beyond a tired yawn of a word, and she wasn’t sure she was fully awake yet. There was no sunlight in space, after all, so no sunrise to wake her. Without the alarms, or Shiro waking up first, there was no way Katie was getting up any time soon.

She snuggled further into his chest, sighing at the warmth. He mumbled something and shifted and a pair of hot, dry lips brushed her cheek right next to her mouth. She smiled and felt herself fall back asleep. All was well.

3-Hesitant Kiss

 Somehow, Shiro had convinced the other paladins and Allura and Coran to give him and Pidge some privacy so that they could have a “real date”. They didn’t do many before their break up, but Shiro insisted and Katie decided that being pampered and having all of Shiro’s attention wasn’t so bad.

That meant, unfortunately, that the others were not-so-subtly finding ways to interrupt and giggle before running off in a tither every few minutes as if in rotation. Shiro had grown increasingly more frustrated and Katie couldn’t help but share his emotions. It wasn’t that big of a deal to the others, was it?

They had finally moved out to the Lion’s hangar bay, and were sitting against one of the falls, watching their “sleeping” beasts. Katie leaned against his shoulder, and he glanced down at her.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked quietly.

“You. Matt. The others. Dad. Mom.” She answered, a beat or more between each word. Shiro sighed and shifted, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her more less onto his lap. He rested his chin on top of her head lightly and Katie hummed.

“Thank you, for tonight,” she murmured a little while later. Shiro pulled back and twisted her, staring at her eyes. He started to lean in, his head moving jerkily. Katie held her breath but didn’t move away.

His lips brushed against hers, their eyes still trained on each other, and they smiled.

4-In the Moment Kiss

 “We can’t just leave them like this!”

“Pidge, we have to. The Lions are still needed out there! They won’t even be coming out of the pods for almost 18 hours.”

Pidge fumed as she stared up at Shiro, her boyfriend of seven months now (they had dated for a little under 6 months the first time). Allura was still at the helm of the Castle, and the other paladins were outside fighting off the Galra fighters left after their most recent battle. A battle in which they had rescued Samuel and Matthew Holt. The Green and Black Lions had brought the two other humans on board with the expectation of that they would both come back out soon, form Voltron, and get rid of the straggling Galra quickly. The Green paladin had other plans it would seem.

Shiro stopped thinking for a moment and focused on breathing. Rescuing his old crew, his friends, his second family, had caused an unbelievable rush of emotions he couldn’t control—emotions he didn’t necessarily want to control. He turned away to look at the healing pods that held the two human and put a hand over his face.

“Fine,” he said, turning back to Pidge.

She opened her mouth to shout at him but stopped herself short.

“What?”

“Fine. Katie, stay here. Watch over them. We’ll be fine without you this time.”

Tears began to fill Katie’s eyes and her face broke.

“Thank you,” she said softly. He moved forward and pressed a heated kiss to her lips, cupping her face gently in his hands.

“Be safe, Takashi,” she breathed out. He nodded and turned, running back to where his lion waited for him.

5-Can’t Let Go Yet Kiss

 It had been quite the shock when Katie announced she was pregnant—only Allura, Hunk, and Samuel Holt knew before the announcement. After all, it wasn’t until after Prince Lotor and Zarkon had been officially defeated, and Shiro quickly realized that meant that she had been pregnant before the battle, and possibly knew even before their final fight.

The mix of emotions were each running strongly through his system and he had tried to stop her from getting in her Lion again. Green had seemed to recognize that her paladin was different, and the Lion’s movements were significantly gentler. Matt may or may not have punched Shiro (more than once) for getting his sister pregnant in space but beyond that everyone was happy for the two.

Fast forward four months, and Katie’s baby bump was starting to show even through the baggy clothing she still wore. A rogue Galra infestation on a Balmera, and Voltron was needed. However, there was no way anyone was letting the now-very pregnant Pidge on her Lion if there was a chance of danger.

The young woman hadn’t put up much fight, as her morning sickness had stopped just the week before, but she was not happy that her fiancé had to leave her. She pressed yet another kiss against his jaw, pulling at him.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” Shiro said quietly, kissing her cheek and eyelids. “We’ve done this hundreds of times, Katie, you know that.”

She huffed, turning and pulling her face to lay the against his chest, his arms wrapped around her. There seemed to have been an agreement made between Matt and the Green Lion that when Voltron itself was desperately needed he could fly it for small amounts of time, but no more. This was not shaping up to be one of those times, and through the comms Pidge could hear the rest of their team calling for Shiro—not because they needed him but because of claims that the job would be done before the Missus let him go.

“I know,” she whispered, looking back up at him. She pressed another lingering kiss on the corner of his mouth, and Shiro returned the favor before slipping out of her grip. Pidge watched him go, one of her hands moving to rest on her small bump of its own accord.

[borntobelime]

Shidge Galra/Altean AU

This one and soon another one will be small tribute to @nicht-vobla for her work on my request and off course helping me by making an awesome Galra Shiro. So heads up for more Plots (can’t write fic but i can give plots just like how @olkarianprincess  does because she is one of the people who motivate me ) 

Version One Shidge Galra/Altean I call it The Blade and The Green Paladin

Lance Hunk and Keith find the Blue Lion and they end up to planet Arus there  they enter the Castle Of Lions and so when they wake up Princess  Allura  Coran the Royal Advisor and Katelyn the youngest child of the Royal Alchemists Sammuel and Colleen  that were saved by King Alfor and so there journey starts .Hunk and Lance start calling Katelyn Katie (first was to annoy her but then she started to like it because even back at the Altea Katie had trouble making friends besides Allura  because of her nerdyness AHEM ...I mean passion in technology and all knowledge ) besides one of the things she missed most from altea was her family and Hunk and Lance reminded her of her older brother he used to call her Pidge and they would play around tech or games and etc Lance and Hunk really took their roles as big brothers (because how could they not )

....They soon encounter Sendak , Robobeasts , Haggar and Haggar’s right hand Ivar and almost got caught by Zarkon

There paths come across to the Blades of Mamora (Thace gave Keith Ulaz’s location and Ulaz sent them to the Mamora Base) They Meet Kolivan and Shiro his best student (and adoptive son  ) Allura and Keith try to build an alliance and Kolivan suggests to let Shiro join there team they are against it first (well Allura and Katie are) But Keith makes the final decision as to its important for the alliance (also maybe Shiro could help him learn more about his now awaken blade  even though he and Kolivan gave him a hard time on the trial ).....There is still some tension around the castle when Shiro is around but Shiro understands the situation so he is the first to break the ice he offers Keith and the others to help the improve there combat skills and train them on teamwork Allura accepts because as much as she hates to admit Shiro was fighting the Galra more that  they did so he takes up  role in the team as the trainer and battle tactician he teaches Keith how to use his blade and helps Lance and Hunk to improve there hand to hand combat even Coran likes him (mostly because when he tells about his adventures Shiro can’t avoid him )

So the last person he hasn’t bonded with is Katie , she hasn’t made any effort to communicate she is always in her lab or she leaves the room when he comes or doesn’t even look his way or she skips training claiming she will do so later or doesn’t need to because she has other skills to help her in situations . She actually made it very clear she hates the Garla she  still has the very memory of the galra attacking her family’s lab  facility on a planet close to Altea  destroying it all her parents work how Sam  and Colleen stayed behind to help Matt and her escape and how matt sacrificed himself to get on ship to Altea the last thing she remembers is the a blade going through Matt’s chest and the galra laughing .

So Shiro asked Hunk and Lance what he could do to make her at least handle be in the same room . They both give him the same answer give it time she will come around shiro had to leave for a quick mission while they were taking a break in planet Olkari  but he comes back with his prosthetic not functioning well ...actually he hasn’t maintained it since he left the blade there was always a technician there to look after it work on upgrades , so he does he goes over to the olkari’s technician department and finds her and when he explained the reason been here that is where the ice broke he should have known how much she loved all kinds of tech and thus  she started opening up he managed to open a conversation about  how he got it even though it was a personal subject he knew if he shared it she might open up a bit  for a moment she was silent and thought it didn’t work but she soon started showing  sympathy  while fixing it …..shiro then knew he can finally be at better terms with her …. And so they started growing closer they trained the fought the laughed  together ….During a mission the team goes inside a galra ship while Shiro and Coran stayed in the Castle ………...they come back Katie gets captured by the galra  Keith is badly wounded in a pod Shiro decides to take the rescue mission is his own hands and out of instinct he went straight to the Black Lion and flew of to find her ……….He managed to locate her prison and find her in time before the galra started to torture her with experiments to make her talk ……..he manage to free her but during there escape they are stopped by Ivar Haggar’s right hand they both try to fight him Shiro gets hit  and Ivar prepares to blast them Katie stands infront of  shiro and takes they hit she absorbs it without even understanding how she did and she releases it at once knocking Ivar ….when  ivar stands up his hood and mask fall off Katie looks in horror who he is under that mask is her brother Matt who she thought he died but he was here a corrupted version of him long hair a blue skin and his marks and eyes  like haggar She is about to talk to him but the facility starts  to break down they have to evacuate shiro picks her up and runs of while she see Matt teleporting  away …..they go into the black lion setting course to the castle he holds her close while she starts crying feeling so confused and he promises they will bring him back to her together ...That day something changed between them

[brettanomycroft]

Onward to the Edge [VLD, Shidge Spacetime AU, 1/?]

Just your annual reminder that I’m terrible and write more than mega fluff and club aus

Time, Coran explains over dinner one evening, is little more than a matter of perception. To try and measure it by the passage of light and dark is unreliable at best.

Four years after the end of the war, Shiro finally decides to return to Earth. It is neither what, nor when, he is expecting.

Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender Paring: Pidge x Shiro Words: 4986 Tags: Spacetime au, slow burn, sorta, angst, time, wibbly wobbly, references to depression, post-canon, 7-9 years post-canon, Shidge, uh.

Read on AO3

It happens with less fanfare than he expected.

The Paladins of Voltron defeat Zarkon.

It’s not as though Shiro anticipated an intergalactic parade, or some sort of medal ceremony. He didn't become a pilot or a soldier for the glory; he became a paladin to help people.

Still, as the tense negotiations for peace come to a close, the treaties signed and prisoners released, Shiro can't help but feel like the whole thing was rather… Anticlimactic.

Sure, victory came with more than its fair share of joy, and he's happy for it. Never has he seen Pidge smile as brightly as she does when her brother and father stride down the ramp of a recovered Galra ship and into the hangar of the Castle of Lions. Matt and Samuel together catch her in an embrace when her knees buckle, and not even Keith can keep tears from escaping as he watches the reunion. Not long after, Lance stands up at the dinner table, wraps Keith’s hand in his, and announces in a loud but shaking voice that they are in love, and have been hiding their relationship for over a year. Keith rises, slow and unexpectedly shy, and leans his body against Lance's. All of the others in the Castle had known for months, or course - how could they not, as obvious as those two were? - but each one of them knew that war was never the ideal time to question the nature of a relationship. Keith and Lance had their reasons for keeping things as secret as they could.

Shiro is happy for them, as he is happy for the Holts, and happy for Hunk when he tells the rest of Team Voltron that, now that the war was over, he was going to be working with Shay and her people to coordinate with those living on other Balmera. There’s talk of a United Balmera, and the prospect of being the first new coalition recognized under the Galactic Alliance.

Things roll out with a strange normalcy after that, with a kind of ease that belies the fact that they just won a war. Their return to Earth is met only with the excitement of those who had thought them dead the past six years; no one planetside was even aware of the vicious battle waged and won by five of their own species. If anything, the trip is taxing for Shiro who, lacking anyone to come home to, relegates himself to the headache of dealing with The Garrison. Three days into paperwork and bureaucracy, Shiro gives up, informs Iverson that he's just going to have to file to become a member of the Alliance if he wants access to more information (“Alliance? What Alliance?”) and retreats with Kuro to the dark side of the Moon. He remains until Allura summons him back to the Castle to meet with the other paladins, newly returned.

They eat one final meal together in the hall of the Castle of Lions.

Hunk and the Yellow Lion head off to the Balmera as envoys of the Alliance. With Allura’s blessing and a shiny set of badges christening them as official Diplomats, Keith and Lance set off to make contact with some of the outermost edges of the galaxy. In private, Shiro questions the rationale between sending the two most impulsive paladins to set up an embassy on a planet too far-flung for Shiro or the Castle to reach on enough time to avert a political disaster. Allura just smiles and asserts the responsibility will be good for them.

Pidge leaves for Earth the next day. Hers is the first announcement since the end of the entire conflict that he registers with shock. The latter half of her teen years had been spent in space, surrounded by information and technologies far more advanced than anything that had ever been conceived of on Earth. It had been a given in his mind that she would continuing travelling with him and Allura, adding mastery of each new planet’s tech to her repertoire. As insatiable for knowledge as she is, he’d expected her to stay.

Instead, Shiro stands motionless by the side of the Green Lion and watches as Pidge wraps Allura in a clinging hug. The women hold tight to each other for a long time, voices mixing in a hiccuping symphony of laughter and tears. Coran worms his way in between them and sweeps Pidge up in his arms, spinning her around a few times before setting her down on unsteady feet. While they discuss setting up a long-range transmission between Earth and the Castle, he beams down at her and runs a hand over her hair as if she were still a child.

Pidge gives Coran and Allura one final hug, then turns to Shiro. As she approaches him, the Green Lion kneels down and drops her jaw, readying herself to take Pidge back to Earth.

Stopping in front of him, Pidge crosses, then uncrosses her arms. The skin around her eyes is puffy from crying, and her smile watery.

“Ready to go?” he hears himself say. She nods.

And then she throws her arms around his neck and buries her face into his neck.

When Shiro was a child, maybe six or seven, his mother had taken him to Okinawa on holiday. He remembers nothing from the trip but for their day at the beach. Further out than he should have been, he’d been alone when a wave rose and broke above his head, alone when the water clawed him down below its surface. For a moment, time had seemed to stop. The world around him was no more than a muted roar, blue and weightless. Not until his lungs began to ache did he start to struggle, flailing against the water’s pull. When his head finally broke the water’s surface, his senses were unprepared for the painful clarity of what waited above: the sun, too bright in his eyes, the crash of waves, deafening, the sting of salt like crushed glass down his throat.

It is like that now. Shiro resurfaces from a depth he hadn’t known. He takes a gasping breath. Pidge’s low sob pounds harder than his heart against his ear drums, and the hangar lights are blinding. He blinks against them, feels dampness there. He’s not sure which way is up as Pidge pulls away long enough to say, “Come visit, okay? Mom, Dad, and Matt all want to see you.”

“Be safe, Katie,” he says. The sound wobbles on its way up.

“I’m always safe,” she protests.

Her pout is unconvincing, and she lets loose a fractured chuckle a beat later. It’s too much. He tugs her to his chest, giving himself a moment of respite from the torrent of emotions that whips across her face and floods their shared paladin bond.

“If you were safe, I’d never have to tell you that,” he murmurs. “Please try to keep Earth and yourself intact while we’re away.”

Pidge looks up at him. Through the tears that gloss over brown eyes, there’s a hardness there, the resolute determination of a soldier. Shiro knows it in her unwavering gaze, in the premature lines that have settled along her brow, in the square clench of her jaw.

“As long as you promise to take care of yourself while I’m away,” she says.

“I will.”

She frowns. “I mean it.”

Her order is stern and commands compliance; his “Yes ma’am” is automatic. Shiro wonders when she’d picked up that tone from him, marvels at how three short words could make him feel like a cadet again.

“That’s more like it,” Pidge says, softening into a smile. “I’ll miss you,Takashi. Don’t be a stranger.”

Before he can respond, she raises up on her toes and presses her lips to his cheek.

Pidge pulls away without another word.

Watching the taut line of her body disappear as the ramp to the Green Lion begins to retract is like feeling the water slowly close over him once more.

...

The messages are frequent at first, as Castle, Earth, and paladins have yet to put millions of lightyears between them. Pidge is accepted to graduate school; Shay and Hunk have begun strengthening psychic and political ties between the various wandering Balmera; Lance and Keith haven’t been blown up yet.

Maybe a month into their travels, Hunk and Shay begin picking up rumors about a Balmera allegedly being harvested by a group of Galra Sentries that, by some glitch or defect, had started an autonomous mining operation and were unaware of the fall of the Empire. Their investigation takes them further than the reach of the Castle’s transmission system; it takes ten, then sixteen, then thirty-one quintants for them to receive messages from the two. And then Shiro and Allura get the message that Hunk and Shay are safe, the sentries wiped out and the Balmerans back in control, and that they are staying to aid in the recovery and eventual joining of the Alliance. Shiro and Allura replay the message three times on the bridge, and even as he watches the worry crease in the corners of Allura’s eyes, he sees the brightening of Hunk’s smile.

Lance and Keith report back in with more regularity - part of their official function - but like with Hunk and Shay, eventually they too succumb to the limitations of their technology. The Castle is in near-constant transit: Kolivan and a handful of the other Senior Members of the Alliance had convinced Allura that a tour of each of the Alliance systems would be beneficial for upholding the image of fair unity that the founders of the coalition had promised even before the end of the war. The millions of lightyears between them are ever-increasing, and Keith and Lance’s check-ins become less official and more hearsay as rumor of their shenanigans - and rising popularity - travels faster than the formal diplomatic missives.

And Pidge, well. Earth’s technology and communications infrastructure was always the weakest link in the chain, and despite her best efforts, the communications dwindle. Video messages take weeks, and then become voice messages, and then become nothing at all. They’re two full systems from Earth when they receive their last one. A faint “Happy Earth Birthday, Shiro!” rises meagerly over vicious static. The rest comes in pieces “Of course… not as much time… seven now, right?... ruined Coran’s recipe… doctor… hopefully without fire… approximate limit of these… miss you all anyway…” and then loses its battle to the white noise.

If it happens once, it happens a thousand times. Long after Allura has collapsed in bed, Shiro sits on the bridge and replays his favorite messages. He listens to Pidge and Lance and Hunk and Keith on repeat, until they sound like a conversation, until he falls asleep. …

Each system, each planet, has something new for him. His mouth learns to shape itself into greetings of peace in forty-two different languages. His tongue fumbles over coarse warnings of violence in three.The exhilaration that coursed up his spine and leapt from his throat the first time he saw the ice planet Jum’s incandescent purple sunrise is one he’ll taste for the rest of his life. He’d brought Kuro down from the upper atmosphere and broke cloud cover just as the ultraviolet sun erupted over the horizon. High peaks of translucent ice catch and bend the light.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it guys?” he breathes.

Only Kuro is there to respond, her purr soft and reassuring against the radio silence.

…

The Alliance is not an Empire. It’s not a Kingdom, or a Territory - it’s not even a Democracy, and it’s barely a Government. The Alliance is an Alliance.

When Allura first explained it to Shiro and the other paladins, she’d tried to liken it to Voltron.

“It’s like multiple units, all coexisting and coming together to work for one common good, while still maintaining their independence, their freedom to live they way that’s best for them,” she’d said. “Just like the five of you and Voltron!”

“Except we actually trust one another,” Keith pointed out.

“And have been cooperating for years,” Pidge added.

“Also, not to like, totally undermine your whole premise,” Hunk started, at which point Allura slumped forward and gave him a flat-eyed death glare, “but I’m pretty sure whatever weird magical paladin bond we’ve got going on kinda negates the entirely free and independent thing.”

All of the other paladins had nodded in agreement. Lance, with more sense than all of them in the moment, wished Allura luck with her big, dysfunctional Voltron.

To the surprise of all beyond the Castle walls, Allura succeeded. Persistence, sleepless nights, negotiations, and the occasional coercive appearance of Voltron culminated in The Galactic Alliance: over 4,000 planets and 9 prospective coalitions across 239 systems, gathered in the hopes of resetting balance to a universe shaken into submission by Zarkon thousands of years ago. 4,000 planets, little unity, and even less trust. Allura aged more in the first six months than over the half-decathebe that Shiro had known her.

She hasn’t slowed down since. While the tour wasn’t her idea, she’d plunged into the venture headfirst, and by the third year of their travels, they’ve covered over 180 of the total systems. Most of the time, they’re met with ambivalent hospitality. On occasion, there’s outright hostility. Millennia of brutal occupation is not always conducive to allowing a castle cum warship to land on one’s planet.

Even when Allura is permitted to land, most delegates prefer to meet them at The Castle of Lions, claiming a desire to experience the technological wonder firsthand. It’s not often that Shiro and Allura can so much as step foot outside of the Castle without being bustled back in by the delegates’ security. Shiro doesn’t blame them for being so guarded, but after long stints of such treatment, he starts to miss getting to see the sky.

As such, to be planetside is a rare pleasure. He indulges in it now.

There’s technically a gala going on inside, but ever since dinner ended, Shiro has spent most of his time leaning against the external wall of a wide rampart, staring out over the landscape. The planet is lush and lovely, a stark contrast to the hideous edifice that he, Allura, and Coran are being hosted in. It had been a Galran construction, the longtime home of the commanding officer assigned to rule the planet. Kolivan, who had arranged to meet them by teludav, had insisted that the steel and stone monstrosity was nothing like traditional Galran architecture.

Shiro can’t find much room to care, though: the crisp dusk air fills his lungs with a pleasant sting, and from where he stands, looking up at faint stars in a deep lavender sky, he can almost convince himself that he is back on Earth.

“Tired of the formalities?”

Kolivan’s voice no longer sends a zip of alarm up his spine - they have been allies far too long for that. Instead, Shiro turns and offers a limp smile. The expression on Kolivan’s face mirrors his: a little taut, a little tired, a little long gone with the intricacies of diplomacy. His eyes glow faint gold in the growing dark. They were soldiers, predators, out of place.

“If you’ve been to one fancy dinner party, you’ve been to them all,” Shiro says with a slight shrug. “Being present and socializing at events like this was only ever my job because the other paladins couldn’t be guaranteed not to start an interplanatary riot. Now that I’m basically on patrol duty things are much more relaxed.”

Kolivan chuckles and joins him against the rampart wall. “You mean Pidge and Keith weren’t star socialites?”

“If by star socialites, you mean challenging each other to see who could keep down the most nunvil during state dinners or offending planetary figureheads by purposefully speaking in Pig Latin the entire time then yes, they absolutely are.”

If Kolivan catches Shiro’s present tense, he doesn’t comment on it. After his laughter fades, they stand in silence, wrapped in their own thoughts and aware of the other. It’s been long enough now for Shiro to know that Kolivan was not one to initiate without intention. His straightforward nature was a trait Shiro both appreciated and respected in the being tasked to share with Allura the joint leadership of the Alliance. Shiro knows he won’t wait long for Kolivan to reach his point.

“It’s been well over nine drozaks since we first met, Shiro,” Kolivan finally says. “I don’t know the Terran equivalent, but in all that time, you’ve gone back home just once. Don’t you miss Earth?”

The question is one he’s asked himself before, on those rare nights when he does sleep, only to wake up in a cold sweat. He dreams of Earth in muted colors: he dreams of the swell of a wave curling overhead, dreams of ume in full bloom, of hot coals in the setting sun and cool dirt beneath bare feet. It’s a question he’s never allowed himself to answer.

“Don’t you miss Galra?” Shiro returns. “How often have you been back since you left with the Blade all those decathebes ago?”

Kolivan chuckle-hums. There’s enough light streaming out from the adjacent banquet hall for Shiro to see his nose wrinkle.

“Zarkon destroyed much of Galra well before my mother’s ancestors were born. There was not much to miss from the beginning. Why do you think so many resettlement applications have come through the Alliance since his fall?”

He gazes up at the stars and continues. “Space and the Blade of Marmora are more my home than any lump of rock. But Earth was spared Zarkon’s wrath. Why not return?”

“Did Allura put you up to this?” Shiro asks instead.

Kolivan raises an eyebrow, but Shiro doesn’t backtrack on his evasion.

“She did,” Kolivan says.

“Is she worried about me?” Shiro know the answer, but doesn’t know why he needs to hear it out loud.

“She is. Allura mentioned to me earlier that she was uncertain how much of an impact being separated from the other paladins has had on you. As she explained it, the five of you had some sort of psychic, emotional bond?”

“We do.”

Shiro shifts from foot to foot. All logic tells him that Kolivan means well, that Shiro is perfectly safe out on the open air rampart. But his stomach twists and his muscles clench, baser instinct warning him that he’s about to be cornered: flee to the Castle, get to safety.

“The Galra aren’t known for their emotional perception, but I would imagine you must be feeling like you’ve lost your pack, your tribe. It’s a weighty loss.” Kolivan’s voice grows distant, as if he’d lost track of his words while counting his own dead. Shiro might feel more sympathetic if he weren’t so on edge.

“Is Allura concerned about my performance? My ability to pilot the Black Lion, or protect The Alliance?”

At that, Kolivan snorts. “Hardly. I’ve heard her reports, and seen your flying with my own eyes. If anything, you’ve become more precise as a pilot and more exacting as a soldier these past four drozaks. She calls you The Alliance’s greatest asset.” Kolivan’s features soften. “But that doesn’t mean she’s not worried. I believe she brought it up to me because my crew and I are planning on teludaving to a system much nearer to Earth once this meeting has concluded. We wanted to offer you transit.”

The information passes over him in small ripples. He could go back to Earth. See Pidge, visit the Holts. Coran would call it the vacation he’s been long overdue in taking.

Shiro sees two possibilities:

One. He returns to Earth. The Holts welcome him into their home with open arms. The Garrison, perhaps, offers him a position. He watches the sun rise over Earth’s horizon and decides never to return to space again. The others are left to fill his absence, to maintain The Alliance and everything they fought for, without him.

Two. He returns to Earth. The Holts welcome him into their home with open arms. The Garrison, perhaps, offers him a position. He watches the sun dip below Earth’s horizon and the emptiness sweeps over him like the dark of night. He decides to return to space immediately, filled with the knowledge that the home he fought to return to for so long is no home to him at all.

“I can’t thank you enough for the offer, Kolivan,” Shiro says with a smile, “but I think I’m still probably more useful up here than anywhere on Earth.”

…

Time, Coran explains over dinner one evening, is little more than a matter of perception. To try and measure it by the passage of light and dark is unreliable at best. Consider the planet Urukul and its four hundred quintants of relentless sunshine. Consider quintants, how they stretch slower than Earth-days. Consider “dinnertime” and “evening” in the black dead of space, where the Castle’s carefully calibrated computer system dims and brightens light in a facsimile of passing time.

Of course, Coran, Allura, and Shiro have just returned from a diplomatic meeting on the moon of Myjorn, where Coran had found a particularly expensive and potent bottle of nunvil. He’s three glasses in to Shiro and Allura’s one, and by now they’re used to his uncanny brand of inebriated philosophy.

Even after all of this time, Shiro hasn’t quite figured out the Terran to Altean equivalents, and asking Coran now is likely to lead them down a rabbit hole that neither Allura nor Shiro have the patience for after the day’s negotiations, but he does know that it has been 1,137 quintants since last visiting Earth. Maybe something like three years, or forty months. Maybe more, maybe less. Maybe unimportant, if what Coran has to say about time holds any bearing. For time to be no more than a trick of the brain holds strange merit, since the longer that time has passed since the end of the war, the more that is has seemed to slow. Sometimes Shiro feels as though he’s wading through it.

Coran pours Shiro a second glass of nunvil without asking. He barely feels its burn on the way down. ...

It's not the first time in his life that Shiro's woken up alone. Over the last two years or so it's become the rule rather than the exception. Changes in the universe move too fast for regular sleep schedules.

It’s not the first time that Shiro has woken up alone in the Castle either, but the void feels more like a vacuum tonight than usual. Although he knows it’s pointless, he spreads his mind across the Castle, letting it slip through sealed doors and drift from room to empty room. There’s no brush of living consciousness to trail its warmth along his, no elastic thrum of a paladin bond snapping to life. In the motionless dark of the Castle, Shiro allows himself a confession: he has not felt the ache he expected when the other paladins left, because he does not feel as though some part of him has been separated from his whole. Instead, he is no more than a fraction of himself, a piece ripped away from a complete unit. He is four raw edges stinging for totality.

He sits up and swings his legs over the edge of the bed, letting his sheet slither to the floor.

Allura and Coran were staying on-planet, escorted by a handful of the Blade of Marmora, whose insistence that Shiro stay behind had ceased to raise his ire ages ago. For as many planets and peoples had suffered under Zarkon, there were just as many that had flourished, or at least found a peaceful sort of normalcy in their situation. Such planetary governments were hesitant to meet with the heads of the new Alliance, and outright refused to host the Black Paladin of Voltron and his weapon.

Even the mice had gone with Allura.

Shiro stands, stretching out the sleep pains. His joints pop, his back twinges. He is getting old, perhaps, a concept he’d never had a chance to reconcile with when he was in the middle of fighting for his life. The lights in his room rise to a dim glow now that he’s up and moving. His reflection catches in the mirror, revealing the touches of silver that start at his temples and stretch up to meet the shock of hair that trauma had blanched years ago.

None of them were immune to the passage of time, of course. The video transmissions they still got were evidence enough of that: laugh lines were beginning to show at the corners of Lance’s eyes and mouth; Hunk had grown a moustache. Coran had taken to coloring his hair, though he’d deny it endlessly if questioned. The pink markings perched above Allura’s cheeks had taken on a bluish hue, a sign of middling Altean adulthood.

Shiro slips out of his room and pads barefoot down the hallway. Lights perk on ahead of him, unnecessary as they are. He could cross this whole ship with his eyes closed, or plunged in the blackest dark.

No destination calls to him, so he wanders. The energy that spurs him on isn’t anxious, isn’t the need to work himself past exhaustion on the training deck, isn’t the nervous force that kept him up for years, monitoring system maps for incoming Galra fleets. It’s more like the resigned sensation of starvation, the knowledge that the body will succumb before finding nourishment, but the brain persists, driving on. It’s more like the slow struggle against the ocean’s ancient gravity.

How long Shiro walks, he can’t be sure, but he’s eventually stopped by Kuro’s metallic chirp. Her wordless question echoes through the otherwise unoccupied hangar and laps gently against his mind.

Years ago, she’d asked him about Earth. All she knew of the planet was from Blue’s time there, back when it was a young, tumultuous shard in a cold sea. He had shared with her images of the desert as it took on the orange blush of dawn. He had shared the warmth of his mother’s hand as she led him down the sidewalk, the rich softness of her voice, calling after him as he toddled through his first snowfall. He gave her the sight of Earth, blue and green below, as he stared down after breaking the atmosphere during his first spaceflight.

It’s these images she sends back to him now, each picture accompanied by that same question.

Home?

He tries to remind her: he’s needed here. His mother is no longer. The sun will rise over the desert with or without him.

Kuro persists, though, projecting Earth as she knows it: Pidge, running her toes through the grass in the clearing near the Holt’s home where they’d decided to land the lions; the rush of sand and cliffs as they raced over the desert; the blue-green pearl of a planet nestled in the blanket of space.

Home?

A painful jolt smacks up his spine. His hands hit the cold floor. His knees will sting tomorrow, but he’s too distracted by the small globules of water that bead on the floor below him.

...

“Are you sure?”

“We hardly ever use the teludav anymore, Shiro. We’ll have more than enough power to get you to Earth, even from here.”

His heart pounds so loudly in his ears that he almost doesn’t hear Allura’s assurances through the speaker in his helmet. This is a terrible idea, and although Allura must be doing her best to conceal her disappointment, he’s sure she’s taken his weakness and tacked it into her impression of him, like a footnote leering at the bottom of the page. Maybe he’ll decide to come back and she won’t want him, won’t need a broken Black Paladin who-

“And before you start tearing yourself apart,” Allura breaks in, “know that I think you’re making the right decision, Shiro.”

There’s a soft click; Allura cuts Coran and anyone else listening out of the communication channel.

“If there’s any flaw of yours, it’s your transparency,” she continues. “You can try and tell me that you’re not beating yourself up over leaving, but I know better.”

Shiro doesn’t respond. He knows he doesn’t have to.

“But there’s something you’ve been missing. Maybe it’s the others. Maybe it’s something else. Go there and find it, Shiro. And when you’re ready, come back.”

He nods, even though he knows she can’t see it. The cracks had come out in her voice, the slightest sob, and he knows that when he speaks he'll sound the same.

“Thank you,” he manages.

“It’s less than a fraction of what I, what we all owe you. Take care.”

Allura flips the comm channel back open, and when she does, her voice is clear and strong. “Hangar doors are clear, ready when you are. Initiating teludav in ten… nine…”

Kuro charges out of the hangar; her controls move under his hands, but the motion is automatic.

They dive into the wormhole. The fabric of space rips and ripples around them, white, blinding. Shiro feels the breath clench in his chest. His ears ring, and were he not harnessed to his seat he thinks he might be flung from the cockpit. The wave of dizziness that hits him might be vertigo, if he had any sense of which way was down. He feels like he’s swimming against the very air, uncertain if each stroke is taking him closer to the surface or further into the depths.

A red-black haze skirts the edges of his vision, and then everything stops.

The familiar canvas of space surrounds him once more.

Ahead, a gloss of blue-green disrupts the dark.