Cub Club: Of Waffles and Sharks

7:04 AM

Caffeine is the only cure. Shiro stumbles across kitchen tile and relies on pure instinct to find his way to the coffee maker. He wakes enough to smile, because the scent wasn't merely a dream. There's a fresh pot, made just for him. Through bleary eyes he gets out his Dad Is Rad mug and fills it to the brim.

When Allura floats in, he's downed his first cup and is well on his way to finishing seconds. Her cloud of hair is still damp from a shower, and the scent of coconut shampoo practically radiates from her aura, all packaged in pink and light washed jeans. Her dark slender arms find their way around her hubby's waist. "How many?"

Shiro swallows the last swig from his mug. "That makes two."

"Mmm. Safe for cuddles then." She relaxes, pooling into him and savors the chisel of his muscular frame and softness of his baggy tee against her cheek. "Never safe before you've finished your first."

"Are you calling me cranky?" He wraps an arm around her to let her know not only is she welcome, he's not sure he wants her to ever leave. She smiles up at him, knowing in her eyes. "The kids still down?"

The sparkle, the sun in her fades a bit, revealing tiredness as she nods. "Try and keep them quiet when they wake up? Pidge was positively nocturnal last night."

"Anything for my princess." Shiro spares a kiss to the curve of her temple before he pours another cup of caffeination. "It's the least I can do for the woman who makes me coffee."

7:55 AM

Shiro ducks his head to avoid the space mobile of colorful suns and planets, and squints down at the little lumps still curled in their bed. The ears of red, blue, and yellow lion onesies peak above their covers. He finds it highly suspect that they've yet to rouse, and concludes they must have stayed up past their bedtime last night. As delicious as a hushed Saturday morning at home would be, they won't be tired at bedtime if they sleep til noontime, and Papa lion knows from experience getting them to sleep when they're not tired is as painful as spending a day without coffee (not that he's ever suffered through the latter, he just knows deep in his soul).

He sinks down on the edge of the bed, and lays a gentle hand on tiny shoulders curled under a red onesie. "Hey, bud. Time for all my little cubs to wake up." Keith snuggles into his touch, and his little arms curl tighter around his stuffed hippo. "Mama's going to make waffles for breakfast. If you don't get up, I'll just have to eat all of them myself."

This perks up yellow cub's ears. "Really, Papa?"

"Yup."

Hunk rolls over and makes his way out of the sheets, rather ungracefully crawling over Lance in the process.

A squeak comes out from under the hood of the blue onesie. "I'm being crrruuushed!"

Keith growls in response to the scream in his ears, and wiggles his way away from Lance into Shiro's arms. "Mmmph."

Lance sits up, sandy hair mussed and eyes glinting with a look as dark as his dad's coffee. "Why didn't you wake me up first? Then I wouldn't have gotten crushed, and Hunk wouldn't have gotten to the waffles before me."

"Don't worry, they're not made yet. There'll be plenty." Shiro pats the kid in his lap, who seems to have fallen right back into a deep slumber. "Hey, Keith, wake up. The sun's out."

"The sun is always out in space," he mumbles into Shiro's shirt.

"We're not in space, Keith."

Lance inches closer, cautious of a grumpy, sleep deprived Keith. "Hey. If you get up we can play ships before breakfast."

A single, violet eye flutters open. "Okay."

8:16 AM

Keith hugs his plastic space ship to his chest, eyes wide, and dark hair a nest under the hood of his onesie. "You always shoot my ships down."

Lance has an equally tight grip on his own shuttle, because he knows his playmate tends to grab things when he gets angry. Grab them and throw them. "That's how I win."

Keith's sugary lips pooch. "Why can't we ever be on the same team? Then we can both win."

"Because rivals aren't never on the same team, dummy." At this, Lance goes back to his ships, arranging them in a formation in the shag of the navy carpet in their bedroom. It's easy to pretend the glitter his mom spilt on "accident" were stars in the blue. He seems to believe the matter of who is on who's team and why is all settled.

Keith doesn't see it that way. "Why are we rivals?"

"Hunk's my best friend, so I need you to be my best something, Keef."

Upon inspection, Keith decides he does want to be Lance's best something. And being rivals isn't so bad. Not when it means they get to play together.

It's while Keith reaches this revelation that Lance pauses from zooming his ship through the air, and sticks a hand into his mouth. Blue eyes saucers, he retrieves a freshly fallen out tooth. "Keef, look! I lost my first tooth!"

8:31

Allura is proud of all her children. They'll each touch the stars someday, she swears. This particular occasion, she's proud to have a young baking prodigy at her side. Despite the mess, eggshells, flour, and half licked spoons of waffle batter that accumulates around them. Hunk stirs the mix with both hands on the spatula, round face full of determination. He'll be distracted in a moment, but for now it's adorable and lasts just long enough for her to slip out her phone to snap a picture.

It's then she becomes aware of the sound of running water. She takes out a pair of waffles from the iron and hefts Hunk off the counter, leaving the spatula behind. "Just a moment, dear." He trails behind her, curious why she's rushing so fast to the bathroom.

Water slides under the door and pools on the hardwood. The doorknob turns easily, and she flings it open to watch as Lance balances himself on the sink, turning the tap on, in addition to the overflowing tub. Her mouth drops, and her socks soak up the water running past her ankles.

"Lance!"

"Mama!"

She snaps out of her shock and lunges for the bathtub to turn it off and tug open the drain. "What on Earth are you doing?"

Lance drops off the sink counter with a splash and lowers the hood of his sopping onesie. "My tooth came out, Mama!" He offers it out to her, a huge grin on his freckled face, as if this good news alone could make her forget the disaster surrounding them. "Look, I cleaned off all the blood before I showed it to you so you wouldn't be grossed out like Keef was."

Allura takes him by the other hand and leads him out of the bathroom into the hall, where Hunk has been watching silently. "Why did you need to overflow the bath to clean your tooth!?"

"Oh." His eyes inspect the mess he made, as if proud. "The blood made me think of sharks, and I wanted a pet shark, and I thought the blood would make the shark come. But if it came it wouldn't have water to live in, so I turned the bathroom into a sqaurium for it to live in." His smile falters. "Are you mad, Mama? I forgot to ask if it's alright with you and Papa if I have a pet shark." Lance tugs lightly at her hand. "I promise not to let it eat Keef."

Allura inhales deeply before answering. "Baby, look–"

"ALLURA." Shiro's voice trails from the kitchen, and she runs through the hall in her wet socks, afraid she's left the waffles burning. "ALLURA, KEITH GOT INTO THE KNIFE DRAWER AGAIN HELP."

9:46

"OW." Keith slams his fork against the table. "Papa, Lance pulled my hair again."

"Because it's too long." Lance shoves another mouthful of waffles and syrup into his mouth.

"It is not! And now my hair is sticky."

Shiro sighs, then turns away from the dishes in the sink to give them a level look. "Boys, cut it out."

"Can I cut Keef's hair?"

"No."

"NO," Shiro says, much less calm than Keith. "There's nothing wrong with his hair."

Lance just rolls his eyes, and wipes his sticky hands on his fresh tee. When he changed into dry clothes he'd insisted on wearing Hunk's shirt with a shark on it. Shiro knows the incident with the tub will hardly be the last they'll hear of his wish for an aquatic pet with fifteen rows of teeth.

"I'm going to go see if Mama needs help, OK?" Shiro lays down his dishrag. "No more syrup, and no more pulling hair while I'm gone."

"Yes, Papa," they echo.

Shiro leaves the boys to their waffles and heads down the hall. His socks slip a little on the freshly mopped surface. A slosh bounces against the white walls of the bathroom when his wife sets a fresh bucket on the tile. He pauses in the doorway and leans against the trim to watch as she wrings out the mop. "How's it going?"

"I've get the floor mostly dry." She blows at a snowy strand that falls from the bun piled on her head into her eyes. "Just thought I'd mop while it's out. Kids fed?"

"All except Pidge. Haven't heard a peep out of her all morning."

She maneuvers the mop around the toilet then against the cabinet under the sink. "I should check on her."

Smelling the lingering scent of citrus from the cleaner on her, he draws closer. "Nope. I'll do it." He comes near enough to plant a kiss on top of her head. "Don't worry about Pidge. You were up with her last night, I can handle her breakfast."

The mopping slows, and Allura follows him as he pulls back, stretching on the balls of her feet to reach up and meet his lips. "Mmm. You're my hero." She doesn't stop until she has him pinned against the closet door. Several sweet and breathless kisses follow.

Shiro nuzzles into her neck to tickle her with butterfly kisses. "I should go take care of Pidge."

"Did you talk to Keith about the knife?"

"Sharp objects in general, actually. Should we be concerned?"

She threads fingers through his hair and sighs. "He'll grow out of it. I hope."

"Just like Lance will grow out of wanting a shark for a pet?"

"I think we'll just have to accept that one." Allura giggles. "We still love him, yeah?"

Shiro slides away from her grasp and offers a smile back. "We'll have to."

She dips her mop back into the bucket and shakes her head. "Being a mom is tough."

"Good thing I married a woman who can kick parenting's butt."

"Hm." She bats her dark eyelashes. "Too bad I married a flatterer."

"Hey!"

9:52

A single waffle sits in the middle of the table. It's safe to say three hungry boys are eyeing it. Hunk glances at his emptied polka dotted plate, still honeyed with the remains of syrup, then looks back at the last waffle. "You can have it, Lance." Because while Hunk loves waffles, he knows Lance loves them even more. Because that's what best friends do.

Keith crosses his arms without a word, knowing he's had more than Lance, technically but that won't keep him from sulking about it.

"Thanks, Hunk." Lance leans forward, most of his body stretched over the tabletop to reach his prize. He sits back down, and fiddles with the butter knife to lather it up. He slows as the syrup drizzles over the top, and his eyes wander over to Keith. "Hey, Keef?"

"You can't cut my hair." He looks stubbornly to the side and forcefully tugs his red hood over his head, as if to protect his locks. "Papa said there's nothing wrong with it."

"I know."

"Then what?"

"Wanna split it with me? You can have half."

". . . Really?" Keith peeks out of his onesie. "You want to share?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's something best rivals do."

9:55

Shiro briefly wishes for armor, before deciding ear plugs would be more valuable. Pidge didn't respond so well to being woken up. He now holds a nine month old at arms length to avoid the scratching and hissing. With the green ears, someone could mistake her for a feisty, mutated cat.

"Pidge," Shiro tries.

"AaaaAAAAAHHHH."

He winces. There's no way Allura hasn't heard. She has enough on her plate without having to cover for him. He pulls Pidge closer, to cradle her against his chest. This seems to calm her a bit, as she stops swinging her arms around. "Hey, there." Shiro sways a bit, and this pulls her hazel eyes up to his face. "Baby mine," he sings softly. "Don't you cry."

Pidge blinks, and her open mouth slowly draws closed.

"Rest your head close to my heart." He draws his arms around her and gives her a gentle smile as he settles on the bed. "Never to part, baby of mine."

The bedroom door creaks open, and soft yellow ears and big brown eyes poke in. Hunk trails closer, lion tail dragging across the floor, and stops at his Papa's side. For a moment he just listens to the singing standing at the edge with his elbows propped against the comforter. Eventually he crawls up, and the bundle of yellow curls into Shiro's side.

It isn't long before two more come drifting in, more hesitant to join the group or receive this form of affection. This quickly melts, and smiles grow on their faces, and light beams from their round eyes.

Now Shiro has all four of his cubs cuddling against him, and it warms him inside. "But you're so precious to me, sweet as can be, babies of mine."

11:11

Mopping the the floors turns to vacuuming the various carpets (she forgot about the glitter spilt in the boy's room until now) and all the plush furniture in the living space, and finishing up dishes from breakfast, and scrubbing off the sink and counter, and over an hour passes before she becomes aware of the silence that's settled over the apartment. In fact, she hasn't seen the boys since they finished their waffles.

Curious, and putting a lot of effort into not worrying that they've gotten up to something that will put the bathtub incident to shame, she does a check of each room to make sure everything is in order. It's when she peeks into her and Shiro's bedroom that she discovers what everyone's gotten up to. While she's been cleaning house, it seems everyone else has been napping.

She can't find it in her to be anything but awed by the sweetness of the scene. They've made a nest of their queen size bed, lion hoodies and shark tee all snuggled up against their Papa lion. Allura crosses the room to lower into the bed herself, and presses lazy kisses to each of their foreheads.

As she reaches her husband, his eyes flutter open, sleep hazed. "Hey."

"Hi, there," she whispers back.

"Come here often?"

"Shh." She drifts into the mattress, and tangles her arms around Hunk to reach Shiro's waist. "Don't wake them."

His head cranes up to take in his surroundings, and he rests a hand on Pidge's sleeping form on top of him. "Oh. So that's why there's a weight on my chest." He gives her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"That's alright. It is a Saturday morning."

"I was supposed to help you, and you wanted me to check the garbage disposal today. . ." He quiets when he realizes her eyes have drifted shut, and her breathing is slowly evening. "Princess?"

"Sleeping beauty."

"So particular."

"Pink and blue."

"I love you."

"If you love me let me sleep."

"As you wish."

Their hands find each other, and their fingers thread together as a wave of sleep washes over them. In their last moments of consciousness, they both know there isn't anywhere else in the universe they'd rather be.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Let me know if you'd be interested in more fluff with this lil pride of lions. I could be persuaded to write more.

Heads up for some other Voltron content coming out. Feel free to follow me so you know when they hit the shelves. Have a lovely day, sugars!