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A part of Shiro wishes he had gone with Keith. He wishes that he had the impulsive thing, instead of the right thing. Shiro has been doing the right thing for too long.
Regardless of separate, assigned objectives they were all expected to uphold, Shiro's mind keeps drifting back to how Keith looked yesterday — breathless and bright, his kiss-swollen lips quirking into a soft, melding smile dimpling his reddening cheeks. Melding to Shiro's own mouth, when they stole a kiss in the hanger-bay, tongues pushing slow, gentle rhythm against each other.
Keith's body was hard, rigid lines and muscle, right up against Shiro's chest, his arms circling tightly around Shiro's neck and dragging him down further. He wore the uniform that the Blades of Marmora left him, despite their absence and possibly ruin since all of this time passed. The dark indigo material went taut against the width of Keith's shoulders and his thighs and upper arms, straining against his jock and his buttocks clenching when Shiro's hand skimmed over familiar, warm roundness. It held nothing back from Shiro's imagination at the time and he can say now Shiro absolutely has no complaints.
"… Shiro?"
Allura's voice, lithe and composed, hovers in.
Right.
While Coran and everybody else ventured off to the other side of the universe, Shiro found himself with the other two Altean women on a diplomatic mission. Traveling on the Blue Lion to the specific coordinates not far from their original location, they've end up staying on a tiny asteroid civilization.
It is just beyond an actively volcanic world made of lava and ashes and never-ending exposure to species-threatening gases. Allura explains that the inhabitants of this remote and yet populated and mineral-rich asteroid were the Kulirajian — hostile, monstrously huge beings who came to the understanding that war and blood and sexual dominance would keep them thriving.
Their leader Hoxus cut ties with the Galra Empire shortly after Voltron's disappearance, and has been eager to discuss an important alliance between the Kulirajian and the Voltron Coalition granted that favors would be returned in time and protocols under the Kuliraj law were followed.
Allura and Romelle were expected to the centerpiece of public sexual ritual with the High Elders, and complete it until the very end. Every inhabitant of Kulirajian would be allowed to view it.
Shiro's stomach roils just thinking about it.
"Were you not listening to me, Shiro?"
Within the private and dimly lit chambers, Allura silently fusses with undoing her hair-pins, fluffing out her curls absently. There's a little, constant wrinkle between Allura's brows. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" Shiro asks, turning away from the nearby, hollow window-port blacked out by shields.
"It is about my duty. As one of the few Alteans left, and as a princess," Allura explains, dignified and regal with the point of her chin lifting unconsciously. "I have no quells with negotiating for allies and for their support they can give to us, especially ones who agree to it if they may copulate with the strongest bloodlines of Alteans." At the mention of this, Shiro's lips flattens severely. She doesn't even look nervous. "We need all of the help we can receive after Sendak."
"You've… done this before…?"
Allura makes a thoughtful noise. "No, I haven't, but," she continues, pulling off her boots and sending him a half-smile, "My mother and my father have. Or so Coran has told me." Shiro lowers his face into the palm of his organic hand, groaning. His fingertips rub over Shiro's eyelids until a clearly entertained Allura pries away his hand, grasping it lightly between her own dark brown fingers. "There will be no childbearing," she says with firm conviction. "Is that what you are concerned about?"
Oh god, he didn't even think about that.
Shiro licks his eyes, avoiding her eyes and then mumbling, "I don't want you to get hurt, Allura..." It's the truth. If she's never… wouldn't all of this… hurt her… …?
He glances back to her when Allura's opposite hand touches over his cheek, her thumb stroking over Shiro's jaw fondly. "You are a kind man. A brave one, Shiro." Allura's mouth widens into a more sincere smile. "Keith is very fortunate to have a partner as strong-willed and loving as you are."
It's not relief blooming through him, but Shiro knows he feels appreciative of her optimism and levelheaded, mature disposition. Even in the weirdest and gravest of situations.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to patronize me," Shiro points out, teasingly.
A low, melodious giggle.
"Why ever would I do such a thing?" Allura replies, mocking a disbelieving facial expression, untangling their hands. Before she can remove her hand from Shiro's darkly stubbled cheek, he presses his Altean-crystal powered hand over hers and held it there, narrowing his eyes sternly.
"If something happens… if you need help, I'm intervening," Shiro announces.
He doesn't expect the glint of warning in Allura's pale blue eyes.
"You must not do that," she murmurs, grim as the undercurrent of chaos. "Interrupting any ritualized service for the Kulirajian is considered to be a most punishable offense, Shiro. Everything we have set to do by then will have been for nothing. They do not take kindly to outsiders showing any great disrespect to the High Elders, and it may result in our deaths if we are not careful."
What feels like a chill spikes up his back. "Understood," Shiro murmurs back, watching as a now visibly relaxed Allura tugs back her hand and unclasps her gold-and-blue shouldercuffs to her gown.
As she strips down to a light blue shift, Shiro averts his gaze, flustered.
"Do you need me to…?"
"Could you locate where Romelle has run off to and bring her here?" Allura speaks up politely from behind him. "I need to finish putting on this ceremonial garb and dress her as well."
Shiro nods and quickly heads out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
Right.
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The volcanic glow of the nearby planet is gassy greens and blues, like nebulous glows. The window-ports remain shielded up around the fortress, or they risk the deadly emissions of radiation to seep in.
Down towards a more isolated area beneath the spiraling, iron-black set of staircase, Shiro glimpses Romelle sitting on the edge of an indoor fountain, hands in her hap, staring longingly to it. There's nothing remarkable about it — most of the fountain is shallow and an iron-black color and glittering with water, jetting the occasional spurts midair, letting them plop back into the water.
"Hey…" he whispers, carefully sitting down next to Romelle. Her face is paler than usual, stiff and blotched with deep red spots on her face. Shiro knows what crying does to Keith. "You okay?"
"I remember the marbled fountains in the colony," Romelle says, almost as if recalling a dream. "Just one. We didn't have any others." Romelle's fingers tremble. "I remember it was beneath one of the many statues of Lotor they erected. My mother would bless herself with the clear blue waters, on her forehead and lips, and force me to pray with her in the morning, for Lotor's safety and his well-being."
Shiro waits in anticipation, listening as Romelle's breathing hitches.
"I prayed for him to never return to the colony. Every time. I prayed for a loss of life," she admits. Romelle stares at him then, her violet eyes enlarging. Shiro's stomach roils again in nausea. "Was it wicked of me, Shiro… even if the horrors I believed of Lotor's deeds were the truth?"
"Do you think this is happening to you because you deserve it?"
Moisture gleams on Romelle's eyelashes. "I know what I need to do. I am not afraid, but… I've already lost everything. Except myself," she insists forlornly.
Shiro's eyebrows furrow.
"Not everything," he says, leaning in and wrapping his organic arm to Romelle, hugging her. "You have us, Romelle. You'll always have us." Allura calls him kind and Shiro hopes she's right, feeling the young woman immediately hug around Shiro's waist and quiver against him.
.
.
The last he sees of Allura and Romelle before being taken away by the guards — Allura embracing her, kissing against Romelle's mouth in a long, affectionate gesture, petting Romelle's golden hair.
.
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Ashy grey smoke fills the temple.
The bonfires smell acidic and pungent with a sour quality, like burning and rotted wood. Shiro waves a hand over his nose, peering around at the assembly of Kulirajian beings croaking and muttering.
All of them are at least two heads taller than Shiro and with flesh like toughened, white leather. Huge, drooling jaws exposing triple rows of fangs and lolling purple tongues. They stand upright like humanoids, two arms and two legs like humanoids as well, with the exception of the massive, swinging tails. All of the Kulirajian are muscular with no discernible traits for gender and are adorned in loin-clothes.
Shiro keeps himself along the fringes, witnessing in mounting dread as the High Elders step out, robed with patterned and heavy robes. Hisses echo out from the crowd, getting louder and more delirious.
A sign of respect…?
That's his best guess. Allura and Romelle join them, their hair loose and also dressed in similiar robes. Compared to the other Kulirajian, the High Elders are far bigger. They're gigantic in size next to Shiro's friends. He bites down on his upper lip, crossing his arms to his front.
More hissing surrounds him as big, clawed hands remove the patterned garb, exposing the Alteans. Shiro purposely focuses at Allura's stoic expression. She's beautiful even while vulnerably naked.
She ends up on one of the altars, lying on her back quietly as one of the High Elders faces the rest of the Kulirajian, reciting their scripture. Shiro can't understand any of it, but his chest heats when a leathery, white finger probes over Allura, testing her resistance. The same happens to Romelle who flushes pink and squirms, crying out in a low whine.
Romelle hasn't gotten on the altar yet, but she ends up being lifted physically, deposited right next to Allura and banging her head lightly to the iron-black, smoothed stone. A yelp escapes her.
A tentacle wriggles over Allura's flat, dark brown belly, gushing orange fluids onto her. Its tip curls around one of Allura's breasts, pumping lazily around it until she breathes out raggedly. The rest of the High Elder's large, neon-orange tentacles, from between its legs, clutch onto Allura's legs. Two more High Elders pay special attention to Romelle, inserting their fingers into Romelle's mouth one-by-one and her body, gladly stretching her to an impossible, pleasure-pain limit.
Eventually, Shiro thinks he's dissociating, unable to tell where he has gone and how much time has passed. Both of his hands drag over his face, until he picks up the noise of crowd-hissing.
It's finally over?
Allura and Romelle are nowhere to be seen.
He vanishes, heading for an exit. One of the guards notices and motions with a head-nod, towards another corridor leading from the temple. Shiro nods back immediately, nearly sprinting.
.
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When Shiro discovers them, Allura floats herself in a hot bathing pool, still naked. "Hoxus assures me that the Voltron Coalition has their support, for anything we may need," she says drowsily in Shiro's direction, folding her arms to the side of the pool and closing her eyes serenely.
Romelle yawns from another bathing pool interconnected with the others, ducking herself underneath the water and resurfacing. Shiro helps a bleary-eyed Romelle out, finding a robe to modestly cover her.
"I guess… that's good news," he mumbles, rubbing Romelle's tiny, pale shoulders comfortingly.
Allura's blue eyes slit open. She grins, too-euphoric for any aches or pains.
"Thank you, Shiro."
He ignores his embarrassment and discomfit for now, grateful that they're both okay. Shiro drops into a sit with Romelle, pulling her close and working a featherlight kiss to Allura's scalp.
His friends are his responsibility. Shiro will do what he has to.
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Voltron isn't mine. IT'S POSTING TIME FOR VLD TROPES FEST! Out of their list, I went with "Space Politics/Diplomatic Mission" but with a heavier subject. I love Shiro's friendship with Allura and I think it would be sweet and lovely with Romelle as well. Thanks for reading and any comments/thoughts are so so appreciated! :D