#why can I not write things from shiro's perspective yeesh

[thatgirlonstage]

Can we get a prompt for Klance of Shiro coming back and like not realizing Keith and Lance are together. He sees them together all the time but just thinks they became really good friends until it becomes obvious they are more. Thanks!

Aaaand once again, I’m so sorry for the six months delay and I hope you’re still following me and that you see this and you like it.

This... went a little bit differently than I expected or intended it to? It’s perhaps a bit odd stylistically, but it was an interesting experiment

Zero

They reunited in the heat of battle, so there was no time to notice anything, really, except the laser blasts coming at them from all sides. It was almost ridiculous, how the reunion happened: one moment, Shiro was back to back with Matt, blasting their way through an impossibly thick mob of soldiers, then there was an explosion, and the next thing he knew Matt had doubled into two people, except one of them was wearing white armor edged in green. The second Matt was saying something, just audible over the sound of battle.

“Matthew Holt, I hope you are ready to be grounded for the rest of your life, because Mom isn’t going to let either of us step outside ever again.” Without turning to face him, the second Matt elbowed Shiro in the ribs. “And you,” she said. “If you don’t stop disappearing, poor Keith is going to have an aneurysm.” It was only when he twisted to shoot down a Galra soldier lunging at the double Matts that he caught sight of tears glistening in Pidge’s eyes, and the fierce smile on her face. When he turned back, he saw the others too: Hunk on the edges, with his back to the wall, mowing down as many as he could with his cannon. Lance had somehow scrambled up a straight ladder against the wall and was hanging there by his legs, taking the Galra out sniper-style. Keith, predictably, was in the thick of it, a red whirl of fury, his sword hacking apart enemies left and right. When he cut straight through three drones with one swing, Shiro heard Lance shout from above.

“Nice going, samurai!” he called, the proud grin audible in his voice. Almost without looking, he shot a Galra barreling for Keith straight through the head.

“Quick eye, sharpshooter!” Keith called back.

Then he lost sight of them in the fury of the battle. After it was done, none of the team had eyes or ears for anything but him and Matt, piling on him in a giant hug until Shiro thought they might never let go, tears streaming freely down their faces. So there really wasn’t anything that should have tipped him off, per se – he just assumed the team as a whole had grown tighter knit in his absence as they continued to work together.

One

His first real clue should have been breakfast. He and Keith had talked almost all night, Keith’s eyes drinking Shiro in as if he were afraid he might disappear again if he so much as blinked. Ultimately, the exhaustion of the battle had overpowered Keith and he slipped into sleep on the couch. Shiro covered him with a blanket and camped out on the couch opposite. His room hadn’t been touched, was sitting waiting for him, but he had long since grown used to sleeping wherever there was space, first in the gladiator prisons, and then again amongst the rebels with Matt. He knew Keith would appreciate the reassurance of being able to see him first thing when he woke up.

He still slept lightly, and slept short nights, but Keith was gone when he woke up anyway. He made his way to the kitchen, the castle halls still nostalgically familiar even after months away. Keith was sitting at the table stirring something that smelled so much like coffee Shiro had his worst rush of homesickness since boarding the flight to Kerberos. Keith’s eyes were half lidded and he still looked half asleep. Lance was bustling around the kitchen, frying something pink and brown and sweet-smelling. He had an awful case of bedhead and was wearing the blue lion slippers and bathrobe he’d dug up somehow – Shiro still had no idea where he’d found them. He was yawning frequently, but he greeted Shiro with an enthusiastic smile and announced breakfast would be served momentarily.

He attributed Lance and Keith’s amiability to more time spent as friends and, perhaps egocentrically, to his own return – neither of them would want to have a row and spoil their reunion with Shiro. It somehow didn’t occur to him to wonder why Keith would be sitting in the kitchen alone with Lance before Shiro was even awake, or why I-need-my-beauty-sleep Lance was up so early at all. It certainly didn’t occur to him that it might have something to do with the fact that Keith had never gone to bed the night before.

They both sat across from him, and next to each other. Looking back on it, they were probably holding hands under the table. Shiro’s only excuse was exhaustion and, well, the two had still been goading each other at every other opportunity when he left, if not at every single moment anymore. They were getting better, but it was a big leap from that to what had grown between them.

Two

The training, he had no real excuse for. He walked in on them practicing hand-to-hand and stood quietly in the corner, pleased and honestly astonished at how well they were working together. Keith was demonstrating to Lance how to get out of a chokehold and Lance was nodding and following instructions just as if it were Shiro. No, he corrected himself, better than he ever did when Shiro was leading the team. There was an air of calm confidence around Lance now. Oh, he still flirted mercilessly and threw barbs at Keith – which Keith took with a smile that dared him on and returned barbs of his own – and he was still easily the loudest and most enthusiastic of any of them. But he wasn’t wildly bombastic anymore. His energy didn’t splay out in uncontrolled and misdirected bursts. He’d found some kind of center, some kind of anchor that Shiro couldn’t put his finger on. Keith had grown calmer as well. Even as Lance repeatedly failed to understand the particular way Keith wanted him to shift his weight, Shiro could watch him putting his frustration aside, searching for new ways to explain or demonstrate it.

Lance shifted his weight too much, overbalanced, and sent them both tumbling to the floor, Keith landing on top of him. They both lay there groaning for a second until it turned into bubbling laughter. Shiro saw Lance whisper something in Keith’s ear, and suddenly Keith bounded to his feet, whirling.

“Shiro!” he yelped, and then cleared his throat. “Hey, Shiro, didn’t see you there.” Lance guffawed from the floor, folding his arms behind his head.

“Hey Shiro,” he called. There was an odd suggestiveness to the tone. Shiro frowned.

“I just came in to see how training was going and make sure you two weren’t actually trying to kill each other,” he said. Keith went beet red as Lance burst into another round of sniggering chuckles.

“Nope, we’re all still friends here,” he called, winking. Shiro didn’t know what to think about the wink, but he shrugged it off and went on with his day anyway.

Three

In the end, it took being bludgeoned over the head with it for him to notice. He wandered into the hall late at night, headed to the kitchen for a glass of water, and caught Keith reaching to open the door to Lance’s room.

“Keith?” he asked. “Isn’t that Lance’s room?” Keith froze like a deer in headlights. Shiro almost heard his neck creaking when he turned his head to look at him. His eyes were wide and wild with an odd sort of terror, but he was saved the necessity of answering by the door flying open to reveal Lance in his PJs.

“It is indeed,” Lance said, a wicked grin on his face. “You ready for bed, babe?” Keith mouthed soundlessly at him. Even then, Shiro thought Lance was just joking.

“What are you two actually up to?” he asked, rolling his eyes. If Lance and Keith were scheming something together, he wasn’t sure the castle would survive it. Only a truly outrageous cause could unite them. Lance and Keith glanced at each other, and Lance burst out laughing. Keith was red to his ears.

“Keith, please, we’ve got to tell him,” Lance said, struggling for breath through tears of mirth. “I’m going to choke to death laughing if he gets any more oblivious.” Keith nodded stiffly.

“Okay, yes, fine, tell him,” he muttered. Shiro frowned, glancing between them.

“Tell me what?” he asked. Lance pursed his lips, and then grabbed Keith around the waist and kissed him on the mouth.

Shiro flinched back, waiting for Keith to punch Lance so hard he would break his nose, but instead Keith melted into the kiss. With one embarrassed side-eye flicker at Shiro and a little shrug that seemed to say “What can I tell you?” his eyes slid closed. He cupped Lance’s jaw and pulled him closer, pressing his lips to the corner of Lance’s mouth. When they broke apart, Shiro’s jaw was on the floor. Lance, also flushed now, shrugged.

“Tell you that,” he said, a note of laughing embarrassment in his voice. “We were going to let you figure it out for yourself, but God, Shiro, you are majorly oblivious.”

There was no answer to that, Shiro realized, except to agree.

[Please do not send me prompts at the moment, I am working through old ones]