#with smooches and tulips and unsettling news about his Galra prosthetic

[braincoins]

Finding convenient places to teleport to and from was a hassle sometimes, but if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have made it to Civic Square Center on time. As it was, he was jogging up to Lance at 1:30 on the dot. “I’m here! Sorry, my appointment took longer than I was expecting!”

“No worries,” Lance said. “Did you get lunch yet?”

Shiro grinned. “Lance, I’m flattered, but I’m dating Allura.”

He barked a laugh. “You just wanted an excuse to say that out loud, didn’t you?”

“100%. Wouldn’t you?”

“Point,” Lance conceded. “But seriously, did you eat or were you at your appointment the whole time?”

“They’ll have food here,” he said. “Where’s your camera?”

“Right here!” Lance said, waving his phone.

Shiro frowned. “Does that really take good enough pictures for print?”

“On its own? Nah, not really,” he said, shaking his head. “But when I add this little baby,” he pulled out some sort of lens attachment and clipped it onto his phone, “then You Bet Your Ass it does!”

Shiro’s skepticism must have shown on his face (he certainly wasn’t doing anything to hide it).

“Seriously, just trust me. I use this all the time. I have special apps and everything.”

“I just don’t want this looking like someone’s Snapchat story.”

“It won’t, O Ye Of Little Faith.” 

Lance was pretty confident in it, so Shiro shrugged and accepted it. Not like they had time - or money - to go buy Lance an actual camera at this point. “Okay, I want to talk to some of the vendors setting up,” he said. “Maybe see if we can...”

“This is the event manager,” Lance said, holding out his phone to show him a picture. “Richard DeVos. I tried calling ahead to see if we could snag a set time to talk with him, but no one was answering at his office.”

“Nice work though,” Shiro said. “Honestly, I... probably should have been the one doing that. Guess I let my bitterness get in the way of my professionalism.”

Lance shrugged. “I am a man of many talents,” he replied casually. “And from what Ms. Fala’s said, so are you.”

Shiro blushed. “Okay, you can shut up now,” he told him without much heat in it.

Lance just snickered. “Right, this is Serious Work Time. At the flower festival.”

They wandered in, flashing press passes to get past security. There were vendors setting up carts of fresh tulips, some picked and in bouquets while others were in pots. Everyone had signs up advising you to “Sign Up Now For Fall Bulbs!” Occasional gardening vendors selling equipment and advice. Worm farmers (”That’s a thing?” Lance asked. “Do they have like... herds of worms? Do they stampede? Can you imagine a worm stampede? Like all the pasta you ever ate coming back to get you!”). Competing smells of tulips, popcorn, and cookies. 

Shiro dutifully stopped and talked with people. Each one of them praised their own secret methods - which they refused to divulge of course, except for one person who enigmatically whispered, “Eggshells!” - and pooh-poohed the efforts of some of the others. Like any group of people, there was drama and in-fighting amongst them, but nothing newsworthy. 

The show opened to the public and was surprisingly busy. People brought small children in with them. “Do they think the kids are interested in tulips?” Lance wondered.

“They think it’s a free event that has snacks and will get them out of the apartment for a few hours,” Shiro told him. 

Lance laughed. “Good point!”

The snacks were mostly popcorn and cookies shaped like tulips, though Shiro did find a cart with Dutch pastries, snagging some banket and a coffee for himself. Not much of a lunch, but better than popcorn. 

There were presentations on the history of tulips and on best growing practices, both of which Shiro and Lance had to struggle to stay awake through (Lance went back for more coffee and some krakelingen this time). And they did, finally, manage to snag some time with Mr. DeVos, who was happy the local press was taking an interest and would have gone on about the history of the Tulip Festival - “Now in its 26th glorious year!” - for hours if his assistant hadn’t reminded him of the Best in Show contest that he was a judge for.

Mrs. Colbright won Best in Show for her Prinses Irene tulips, and Shiro made sure to get an interview with her while Lance snapped photo after photo of the prizewinner. 

They were there for four hours and Shiro yawned as they came out. “Well, we survived. How’re the pictures looking?”

“See for yourself.” Lance snapped the lens off his phone and passed it over.

Shiro was properly amazed: the pictures were crisp - save for a few that were obviously deliberately soft-focused - the colors were vibrant, the lighting was perfect. People’s faces looked vivid, and there was even video of the interview with Mr. DeVos. 

“Wow, these are great!”

“I told you,” Lance said. “I even got some of the pastries and coffee, as well as the tulip cookies. So people know what they missed out on.” 

Shiro grinned as he handed the phone back. “You’re a hell of a photographer. You ever thought of doing it full-time?”

Lance shrugged. “I prefer doing my pop culture column; photography’s really just a hobby.”

“Hell, you should pick up side work for some of the P.I.’s,” Shiro told him. “If you don’t mind long-distance shots of people cheating on their spouses.”

“You mean paid voyeur, basically?” Lance laughed. “Not gonna lie, sometimes I look at my bills and consider it.”

Shiro snorted. “You heading back to the office?”

“Yeah, easier to format it on the work computer than do it at home and send it in.”

“I’ll come with. I gotta get this copy written for tomorrow.” He headed towards the subway station. “But seriously, push Allura to let you do more photojournalism.”

“Eh, I’m not sure if ‘pushing’ her is a good idea. I mean, she’s my boss, and...”

“Push her,” he insisted. “She respects people who stick up for themselves and their ideas. I mean, she might grump at you about it a bit, but...”

“Isn’t that your girlfriend you’re talking about?” he asked with a laugh.

Shiro grinned. “She was my editor for a long time. Trust me.”

“Well... I had been thinking about trying to get some Paladin and Starlight shots, if possible.”

“Those’d be huge,” Shiro agreed, trying to sound neutral. “If you could find the two of them.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. Ms. Fala was able to get that one interview, but nothing since then. ‘Course, she’s been stuck in the office most of the time. Lotor keeps asking her for stuff, and...well, he watches her like a hawk.”

Shiro’s mouth twisted. “Don’t remind me.”

“You think he’s giving you puff pieces ‘cause he’s pissed you’re dating her?”

“Possibly.” He thought that was part of it, but he couldn’t get into the other reasons with Lance. 

“Well, he gives me the creeps. Though I am dying to know what styling products he uses.”

Shiro laughed out loud as they entered the station. Okay, so the morning had been unsettling and the afternoon boring, but at least the day wasn’t a total wash: Lance was fun to hang out with and he’d gotten some quick make-out time with Allura. Just gotta get this copy written and then it’s on to the night job. 

{The Adventures of Starlight & Paladin}