Shiro woke up hungry. It reminded him of when he was imprisoned by the Galra - every morning as hungry as he'd been the night before. But now, he didn't have to wait to be fed, so he made his way down to the kitchen.

Right away he heard the voices of the other paladins carrying down the hall. It wasn't every day that he was the last one up, but recently he'd been sleeping better and was actually able to allow himself to sleep in a little on their off-days.

"I mean, he didn't say 'my sharpshooter,' but he said 'our' as in, everyone's - including his!"

Shiro rolled his eyes fondly, not really paying attention to what Lance had said, just the loudness of his voice.

"No offense, Lance," Pidge's voice said, "but if I have to hear about how you want Shiro to call you 'his little sharpshooter' one more time, I'm gonna throw up."

Shiro stopped walking at the mention of his name.

Lance wants me to...what?

He was almost at the kitchen entrance, so he quickly walked over to the wall next to the doorway, keeping out of sight so he could hear more of the conversation. His face felt hot and he knew he was blushing.

"W-what!? I never said...I mean, I just...that's not-! You're just jealous that he didn't say something to you! Right, Keith?"

"I'm leaving."

Shiro heard a shuffling as Keith got up from the small table in the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Shiro heard Lance say, exasperated.

"I'm gonna go eat my breakfast somewhere else so I don't have to listen to this anymore."

"Wait-!"

Keith stopped right in the doorway, looking up as if to look behind him, but instead catching an embarrassed-at-being-caught Shiro and making full eye contact with him.

"Just...don't tell Shiro, okay?"

Keith's eye widened for a moment before a faint smirk crossed his face.

"Sure thing, Lance."

He maintained eye contact as he took a bite of his cereal, and then walked away. If Shiro's face had been hot before, it was surely on fire in that moment.

"Well, I, for the record, fully support your infatuation with Shiro."

"Gee...Thanks, Hunk," Lance's voice said sheepishly.

"No problem, dude."

Shiro heard another shuffling and a small "ow!" He suspected Pidge had punched Hunk's arm.

The next few moments were filled with silence as the remaining paladins ate. Shiro figured now was as good a time as any to make his entrance. He started to move a few feet back in the hall so it wouldn't look like he had been eavesdropping, when an idea struck.

"Good morning Pidge, Hunk," Shiro stated as he walked in a few moments later. He saw that Lance was staring down at his food, obviously pretending Shiro wasn't there. His ears had the faintest tint of red. Shiro couldn't wait to make them redder.
He walked right over to the blue paladin and grabbed his face with one hand, making sure that Lance was looking right in Shiro's eyes when he said "Good morning...my little sharpshooter."

Shiro winked, let go of Lance's reddening face, and went to get himself some cereal (well, the Altean equivalent of cereal).

The atmosphere of the room had completely changed, and Shiro couldn't stop the smile from growing on his face. From the corner of his eye he could see Pidge and Hunk looking incredulously at each other. Lance, of course, hadn't moved from the position Shiro had left him in, face still looking up, chin forward. Shiro was proud of himself.

As he walked towards the breakfast table, the green and yellow paladins had apparently spoken telepathically, both getting up to leave, giving excuses about having to fix some tech with Coran.

Lance's shock had finally washed away and he started to run away as well, but Shiro caught his arm and gently pulled him back down to his seat.

"Don't," Shiro said, soft enough that if Lance hadn't let out a breath in response he would've thought he'd missed it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Shiro allowing himself to take a couple bites while he left Lance to his thoughts, his left hand still on Lance's arm.

"S-so...you heard about the whole...shar-uh...nickname...thing," Lance finally stammered out.

Shiro hummed quietly, a small smile on his face.

"Yeah, I did."

"KEITH," Lance said accusingly.

"Wh-? No, Lance," Shiro laughed, "He didn't have to."

Lance gave Shiro a puzzled look.

"Your voice isn't exactly the quietest, you know. I could hear you all the way down the hall."

Lance covered his face with his hands.

"Though," Shiro continued, "I was listening right outside the door when you said not to tell me. I'm a little surprised he didn't call me out for eavesdropping. I'd have just about died of embarrassment either way."

Lance let out a small squeak, obviously embarrassed about giving himself away and unknowingly embarrassing Shiro in the process.

"Whoops." It was more of a question than a statement.

"Hey," Shiro said, gently pulling Lance's hands away from his face. "I'm just glad I finally know how you feel. Unless this is just an epic case of 'bro, you're my hero and I totally look up to you as our leader and want you to call me your little sharpshooter, no homo.' In which case, this whole thing just got a lot more awkward."

Lance smiled for the first time since Shiro had walked in, which caused Shiro's heart to skip a beat at the sight. Man, he was in deep.

"No, no. It's definitely homo. At least half homo. Maybe even three-fourths homo. ...Being bi is super weird."

There he is, Shiro thought with a smile.

"Good. Because I think for me it's one hundred percent homo."

"Oh! Wait, like, in general? Like, did you just come out? Because if so, I totally support you. But, like, if you meant just me...well, do you mean just me? Because that's cool too. Or maybe you meant like bo-"

Lance was cut off by Shiro's human arm suddenly holding the back of his head, his lips pressed gently against the blue paladin. It was short and sweet, but it was perfect.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that," Shiro said, face an inch from Lance's.

"How long?"

"Let's just say that Keith telling me that I was your hero after you all saved me at the Garrison sent me off on a long, winding road of keeping you on my radar and eventually...falling for you."

"So that's how you knew my name when we first met. Wait a sec...this means...you totally have a thing too!"

"What?"

"If mine is 'Sharpshooter,' then yours is totally 'Hero!'"

"Uh, I don't...know what you're talking about."

Shiro could feel himself blushing for just about the millionth time that morning. Wasn't he the leader? He's not supposed to be blushing like a school girl. But hearing Lance say that did stir something in him.

"Holy crow, you're blushing! I can't believe I made my hero blush."

Lance yelped when Shiro pulled the boy from his seat and over to him, the blue paladin sitting on his lap.

"You might...want to stop that."

Shiro's blushing wouldn't stop and quite honestly he couldn't have cared less anymore.

"Anything for you, Shiro...the Hero."

Lance whispered the last part; it was only for Shiro. Even if there was no one else around to hear anyway.

Shiro kissed Lance again, soft and sweet still. Sure, they'd felt the same for each other for a long time, but he didn't want to rush either of them into...whatever this was.

"Fine. So I'll be your hero and you'll be my sharpshooter. ...Is that all? Because if you'd let me, I'd like to be your boyfriend someday as well."

It was Lance who blushed this time, as if they were taking turns. Shiro could tell Lance's thoughts were going a mile a minute. But the blue paladin remained silent for a moment, as if he was trying not to just burst out into wild ramblings like he normally would. Shiro wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but the growing smile on the younger boy's face told him the answer.

"I...Yes. Uhm, that would be...good, yes I think. That could work. I mean...well..."

Shiro looked at Lance patiently, wanting to hear everything he was thinking. Thankfully, Lance got the hint.

"We should definitely talk about it because you probably wanna go slow and it would probably be best for both of us if we did even though I totally want you to be my boyfriend like, right now but I know it's important to you that we talk about it first so I'm totally willing to talk about it before we decide anything but yes, I want to be your boyfriend and I'm so glad you want to be mine too."

Lance hugged Shiro once he finished his speech. Shiro just held the boy in his arms, never wanting to let go. He was glad they had the day off. They had a lot to talk about.