I've been working a lot on requests lately and observed with surprise how few I've been sent for Voltron stories. Naturally my friend M (the very same who pulled me into the Voltron fandom originally) had the immediate reaction '. . .I could fix that?' and so . . . written upon request for her.
"Shiro!"
Shiro vaguely hears his name but is a little too disoriented to quite . . . process.
"Shiro!" Processing is sped up considerably by the solid weight that suddenly lands across his back - not hard, not even enough to knock the air from his lungs, it was more 'settling' than 'pouncing', but still definitely too much to ignore. "Get up!"
"Why?" Shiro whines, flapping one hand weakly in the general direction of his own back.
He knows before he goes to the effort - which feels herculean right now - that it is pointless. Keith may be perched astride Shiro's hips, but he isn't quite close enough to be so easily reached and he won't just sit still and let Shiro swat him either.
Keith grabs his hand and leans close. "Get up and see, babe." he says, voice low but not soft, and kisses the curve of Shiro's ear. Shiro hums, lax under Keith's weight and caresses.
Keith hops up and off him, and Shiro sighs, rolling over and rubbing his left wrist across his bleary eyes. Keith is fully dressed and clear-eyed and looks like he's been awake for an hour. Or a day. Or three. Keith doesn't . . . visually change much now that his hair always looks shaggy and messy, not until he's pushed himself so hard he's ready to fall down.
Shiro yawns and closes his eyes again, only for Keith to clasp his wrist. "'Kashi, come on, babe." he says, a little softer this time, and tugs at Shiro.
He sighs, forcing his eyes open again. "What is it?" he whines.
Keith, rather than smack him with a pillow or give up in exasperation - Shiro has had a number of roommates over the years and they had mostly chosen one of those two options - puts a knee on the bed and leans down, kissing him softly. "It's worth it, but you'll have to see for yourself." Keith said, with a playful smile.
It would take a stronger man than Shiro to resist those hopeful, pretty eyes so close to his when Keith is smiling like this, so he groans and rolls the rest of the way over, pushing himself upright. Keith slides a hand over his shoulder and down his arm, like a reward. The thought should make Shiro enjoy the touch less but really he would be delighted to keep doing things to make Keith pet him for as long as Keith cared to stick around and do it.
Shiro yawns. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he takes a moment to look around blearily, vaguely aware of what he should be doing next but . . . not quite there yet.
Keith helpfully stacks his clothes beside him, and Shiro sighs and hauls himself up to drag them on. He is surprised when Keith follows his normal clothes by shaking out a thigh-length white . . . coat? He holds it out, and Shiro lets Keith help him into it, searching out the fastenings - Altean clothing is a little . . . strange, sometimes - and running his fingers over the faint purple lines that nearly glow in places on the coat.
When he turns again Keith is wearing a coat as well, instead of his familiar - and rather worn - jacket; his is soft blue-grey with red markings on it, and falls past his knees. Keith smiles and holds out a hand, and Shiro, though still entirely willing to get back into the bed and return to sleep, clasps it and smiles back as Keith pulls him out of their room and through the castle.
It's not really a surprise, given the coats, that Keith takes him outside, but the world that awaits beyond the castle doors is. . .
Shiro stops only a pace beyond the doorway, eyes wide. They had explored the planet they are currently resting - hiding - on a little on the first day, and made forays outside a few times in the couple of weeks since. It was pretty, if strange, and there were no threats to be found - not on this continent, anyway; Coran had some wistful stories about the carnivorous herds of gigantic beasts on the other side of the planet - and no sentient settlements, either.
Now, the blue and green foliage is almost completely hidden, and the world has gone white. Snow.
Snow everywhere. Falling from the sky in fluttery, thick flakes, heaped over the landscape as far as Shiro can see and piled high - it is even building up around the castle's base - and softening the world.
"Allura says that winter comes fast on this planet, and that it always snows like this, even right for the first snow." Keith says at his shoulder, wrapping his arms around Shiro's and propping his chin on Shiro's shoulder. The Altean coat is quite warm but thinner than any winter coat Shiro had worn on Earth, and he can feel Keith's pointed chin against his shoulder through it easily.
Shiro shakes his head, marvelling at the sight. He's thoroughly awake now, and . . . Keith is right, this is worth it. This is beautiful, and . . . peaceful.
Shiro heads down the walkway to the ground, and Keith releases him and follows, a little more slowly, letting him wander. They're safe here, after all, and the only thing in sight is . . . snow, in flakes and flurries and drifts that are in places much taller even than Shiro.
He laughs, catching snowflakes in his palm and running his fingers through the painfully cold ice crystals forming on top of one snow drift beneath a tree that drips some kind of nectar almost continuously from its leaves. Shiro absently licks the cold stickiness of it from his fingers and moves away again.
This isn't like snow on Earth, of course - but it is, in an amazingly strange way. The snow feels the same, fluffy and icy and light, and looks the same, save for how much of it there is and how fast it had come on, piled everywhere in swooping drifts. Shiro shakes his head, eyes roaming over the new shape of the landscape.
A tiny crunching sound alerts Shiro to footsteps nearby and he straightens, turning to look-
Shiro might actually scream as he is knocked off his feet, but he's going to blame it on the snow that is now shoved everywhere including up his shirt and soaking through his jeans if anyone asks. He squirms, laughing and panting and yelping, and Keith is laughing too, a lean weight pressing down on top of him as more snow tumbles down over them from the drift they had slid into sideways when Keith pounced on him.
"Why did you tackle me?" Shiro demands, though it doesn't sound very fierce when he's half-laughing and still breathless and can't stop grinning. And there's snow in his hair. A lot of snow - he can feel it melting and dripping back along his temples and the top of his head.
"You were thinking too much." Keith says, putting one hand down by Shiro's shoulder and shoving himself up - he doesn't go far, as almost immediately upon putting weight on it his hand suddenly sinks deeper into the snow. He pushes his other hand through his hair, which is speckled pretty thoroughly with snowflakes. It's adorable. "You look like you're enjoying yourself, now." he adds, grinning.
"I'm also cold and wet." Shiro points out, curling his metal arm around Keith's waist as more snow thumps heavily down on them. "And apparently slowly being buried alive." he observes dryly.
Keith actually giggles, all flush and sparkling eyes and bright smile under his wildly tumbled, snow-flecked hair, and Shiro thinks he would maybe actually be sort of okay with being really buried alive, if this was what he got for it. Keith is relaxed and happy and having fun and . . . Keith never looks like this any more.
"I promise I'll help warm you up." Keith says, and for a moment Shiro just smiles. Keith is weirdly hot-blooded, and the one time before . . . all this that they'd been together somewhere truly cold - though sadly without the snow - Shiro had been miserable for hours after they got back into their cabin, even while Keith had wandered around apparently comfortable in just his jeans.
Shiro had eventually yelled about it in frustration from his huddle of blankets on the floor in front of the heater, where he'd been trying to warm up ever since they'd come inside. Keith had been confused - and slightly angry, always Keith's first reaction to uncertainty - and then he'd come and crawled into Shiro's cocoon and curled around him, blessedly and bizarrely hot, and Shiro had finally begun to warm up as that heat soaked into him. And then Keith had kissed him and squirmed into his lap and between his thighs and then they'd gotten entirely too hot to be so close to the heater, right there on the floor, and-
Keith leans down, body arching against his, and Shiro suddenly gets it and blushes. Keith laughs, soft and sweet, and licks melting snow off Shiro's cheek. "I'll warm you up, you'll be fine." he says, his breath warm on Shiro's face despite the chill of the air, and nuzzles Shiro affectionately. "Aren't you enjoying the snow?" he asks, cocking his head.
Shiro feels a bit of a lump in his throat. He is. He really, truly is. It is beautiful and bright and open and . . . Keith's playful joy is making Shiro's heart feel light and playful again too, and he really couldn't care about being half-frozen, this is . . . wonderful.
"I am." Shiro says, and tugs Keith down to him, fingers curling into his hair as their lips meet. Keith doesn't resist, relaxing and all but melting against Shiro, meeting him with a warm, almost lazy kiss. "I really am. Thank you, baby." Shiro breathes against his mouth.
Keith rubs their noses together - Shiro's is so cold it's almost numb, but he thinks even Keith's is chilled - and says nothing. His eyes are quite eloquent enough, and Shiro swallows against the renewed lump in his throat as he hears words and promises Keith has offered him many times again in his mind.
Keith's smile softens, and he opens his mouth, but before he can speak there's the sound of crunching snow and some of what is piled above them, heaped in a self-supporting cave, begins to fall in small clumps. Shiro stiffens, then lunges, tumbling Keith over and stretching himself above his lover.
Keith punches his shoulder lightly as a scold as the rest of the snow collapses, burying them much more wholly, but it's mild - it doesn't even sting, which means Keith was barely trying for the form of it. Shiro can hear voices beyond the snow now, and sighs. It isn't that he minds the others, and he's glad they've come out to enjoy the snowfall as well, it's just that-
"Come here." Keith says, one hand curling behind Shiro's nape, and he turns his head and opens his mouth to say that he's already lying on Keith, he can't exactly come much closer, but Keith tugs, and he can. He settles, stretching a little more, and Keith shifts, and it is much smaller, but a bit of shoving reforms the snow cave around them. "It's just us." Keith says, nudging his nose against Shiro's and then catching his lower lip playfully between sharp teeth. He tugs, then lets go. "See?"
Shiro does, actually; the snow dampened the voices of the others again as more of it settled around them, and they are cosy in the small space - and actually probably warmer than they would be outside, where the wind is blowing and the snow is not shored into still, close walls and reflecting their body heat. "We'll have to come out sometime." he says, as much to remind himself as Keith.
Keith shrugs fluidly and slides his hands up under Shiro's coat. "Eventually." he agrees, and cosies upwards against Shiro a little more.
Shiro thinks he can deal with eventually and tips his head to kiss Keith again, the snow reflecting what pale light sinks through it with soft sparkles all around them, and blocking off any sights or sounds from the world beyond. Keith is warm and close and his mouth is soft and eager, and Shiro lets himself believe for a little while that this little piece of magic, hidden away in the snow, is his world.
Keith's fingers push through Shiro's forelock and ruffle his hair as he purrs happily, and Keith's body arches gracefully against his, and really, this is Shiro's world.
The request was for 'enjoying a first snow together', from a prompt list on my Tumblr (Kalira9). Naturally I made it as fluffy as possible.