Look, Shiro clearly needs all of the happy and snuggles; and he's such a Responsible Leader (so busy being everyone's leader, big brother, mom friend) that it's hard to get him to sit still and be appreciated. His birthday was a good occasion to make it happen.
Above reasons behind this story can be cited for me or the Paladins, really.
"Come on! It's not for me, Keith," Lance said, pressing a hand to his chest earnestly, although Pidge was pretty sure Keith would help him if he asked for himself anyway, by now at least, "it's for Space Dad!"
"I- What?" Keith asked, his eye twitching.
"I think he's more like a big brother," Pidge said with a crooked smile, "but Lance has a point. Shiro is the one who looks out for all of us. And. . . He deserves something in return, even if we just picked a random day instead of having a real holiday for it."
"I already said I'd help," Keith said, holding out a hand, "but I am not calling him- No. Just . . . no." He shuddered slightly.
Pidge grinned, shrugging it off and filling him in on their plans. Lance frowned exaggeratedly and tried for a little longer to wheedle him past his reluctance, but Keith held firm.
"You know, if we count from when we left Earth," Keith said, frowning, "I . . . think it should be February?" he said uncertainly.
Hunk confirmed it with a slightly sad smile. "If- If time was passing at the same rate it was back home, and. . . I've been keeping a chart." he said, looking just a little abashed. "Since I realised I didn't know how long it had been since we left home, our first day training in the lions."
"Shiro's birthday soon, then." Keith said, and Lance and Hunk both looked at him with wide eyes. "It's . . . the end of February what?"
"How do you know-"
"Wait it is?" Pidge asked. "No that's great! We can celebrate that with him! And he can't complain, that's a good reason. I bet we could get Coran and Allura on board, too."
"Do Alteans celebrate birthdays?" Hunk asked thoughtfully.
"Sort of." Lance supplied. "Coran told me about some sort of . . . year, rite, aging . . . thing they do. Not really birthdays though. I bet he'd be up for joining in on planning a birthday party, exploring a venerated Earth tradition and all."
"I'll bet he and Allura would love to help us with it!" Pidge agreed, nodding. "Let's go and get them on board before we plan any more - they might have some good suggestions."
Keith shrugged into his jacket and followed them down the hall away from his room.
"Happy Birthday Shiro!"
Shiro froze just inside the door, but fortunately his shock didn't look like it had been tainted with panic - it would have somewhat soured their planned party, for him, if they'd started it by triggering something unpleasant for him.
"I. . ." Shiro looked around the room, taking in all of them. "Thank you? Is. . ."
"I've been keeping track," Hunk offered diffidently, "it should be the end of February back home. Today - or, well, sometime close, it's hard, being so far away from Earth - is the twenty-eighth, we think. So. Happy birthday. We wanted to do something for you anyway, but when we found out it was your birthday soon it was perfect."
Shiro looked at Keith, and he crossed his arms, giving a slight shrug.
"The other Paladins assured us that a surprise party was traditional." Allura said, coming forwards with a smile. "I hope you find it satisfactory."
Shiro swallowed. "Oh. I. . ." He smiled. "Thank you all. I didn't expect. . ."
"They wouldn't let us do anything really exciting, though," Coran said, shaking his head in disappointment, "I mean, what could be more of a surprise than-"
"Happy surprises, Coran. Happy surprises." Lance said, shaking his head. "Only terrible people and horrible big sisters try and terrify you at your own birthday party. You don't want to make Allura into a horrible big sister, do you?"
"Speaking from personal experience?" Pidge asked curiously, and Lance coughed, jutting out his jaw.
"Of course I would never be so-"
Hunk grinned. "One of his sisters set up a-"
"Nope!" Lance yelled, flinging himself across the room at Hunk and stifling him. "It is Space Dad's birthday, so it's all about him today, no terrible stories of my terrible sisters!" His voice faltered slightly, and his jaw tightened, and then he grinned again, even bigger. "We had to do something awesome for Space Dad!" he cried, releasing Hunk and throwing his arms up in either triumph or some sort of 'obviously' gesture.
Shiro blinked, looking confused. "I- What?" he said tentatively.
"You've kind of. . . I mean," Hunk said, shrugging and slouching down a little, "you kind of are. Especially when Lance and Keith are fighting." He glanced at them and Lance shot him a betrayed look. Keith didn't react. Or maybe his eyes narrowed, it was hard to tell.
"Or when we're . . . homesick." Pidge put in. "You're not anything like really, of course, and we know, but. . . Space Dad. It was Lance's idea," of course it had been Lance, no one else could possibly have come up with it, "but . . . it fits. We are . . . different, now. A team - family."
"I've never had a Space Dad before." Hunk said with apparent seriousness. "But you're the best one ever, Shiro." He grinned. "We wanted to make sure you knew how much we appreciate you."
"And I refused to join in with that." Keith said flatly, shaking his head slightly.
Lance gave him a reproachful look. "Keith has been very resistant to joining in with the rest of the family. Disrespect! But it's okay, every family needs one terrible, awkward black sheep, after all, so I suppose we-"
"Thank you." Shiro said softly, looking relieved.
Keith propped his hip against the table beside Shiro and grinned up at him. "You're welcome." His nose wrinkled a bit. "I was not going to call you that, no matter what."
"We didn't mean anything bad by it." Pidge offered, feeling bad, seeing Shiro's reaction to Keith's refusal, and Hunk elbowed Lance into silence, nodding towards Shiro. "If you don't like it. . ."
"I- No, it's okay." Shiro said, laughing, a little pink. "I mean- We are a family, right?"
"We are!" Coran declared, smiling broadly. "And as Black Paladin you could be said to fill something of a patriarchal role for the other Paladins, after all. In some respects."
"You seemed like-" Pidge hesitated, fidgeting. "You do feel like. . ."
"You're the mom friend." Lance clarified, fidgeting with the ends of his hair. "You're the mom-iest friend I've ever had and I've known Hunk and his sisters for like more than ten years." he added seriously. "But. . . If you don't like Space Dad we don't have to- I just," he pinked, "I thought it was fun." He looked away. It wasn't just fun, but-
"I really don't mind." Shiro promised with a little laugh, looking mildly sheepish.
"Oh for," Keith rolled his eyes, pushing off the table again with his arms crossed, "he just doesn't want me to call him that - any more than I want to say it." he said, raising his eyebrows challengingly. "You've always been, er, the mom friend."
The words sounded bizarre from Keith, mostly because he spoke them like they were a foreign language.
"Why would-" Hunk broke off as Keith moved closer to Shiro with a little sway, and Shiro looked at him with widening eyes, one hand coming up hesitantly to rest on the small of his back.
"Happy Birthday, babe." Keith said with a tiny, soft smile. Shiro's own smile shone with delight - at least, in the brief moments before he tugged Keith closer and his face was hidden. He dipped his head and kissed Keith lightly, but even when the kiss ended, he didn't let go, his hands resting easily on Keith's waist, just beneath his jacket.
"Well that explains . . . that." Pidge said, mind racing through interactions with the pair of them, all the way back to the way Keith had both bristled at and ignored Lance the night they had rescued Shiro - and maybe even the way Shiro had calmed after Keith followed him out into the dawn light, alone, that morning.
Not to mention how Keith had known when Shiro's birthday was, and a number of other seemingly-not-significant details that had come to light while they were planning this.
"How did we not know this?" Lance yelped, high-pitched.
"I confess, number four, I am quite surprised myself this time." Coran said, eying Keith.
He shrugged, his hands still resting on Shiro's shoulders. "There's been a lot else going on. Maybe it didn't stand out with us getting into world-rending battles every other week." he said dryly.
"We," Shiro paused, blushing a little deeper, and Keith shook his head, murmuring something inaudible to everyone but Shiro before stepping away, "we always kept it quiet before." He eyed Keith reproachfully.
Keith rolled his eyes. "Because I'm sure Garrison Command would have been so thrilled their rising star golden boy was involved with the disciplinary issues trainee pilot." he pointed out, and rested a hand on Shiro's arm. "It would have caused problems before."
"But not here." Allura said with a bright smile. "It is not common for Paladins to be . . . romantically involved, but certainly it has happened before, and it is a happy development!" she said encouragingly, and Pidge smiled as Shiro relaxed a little. So did Keith, although the tension across his shoulders was harder to read.
Shiro smiled at her. "Thank you." he said, and then startled as Hunk produced something that looked remarkably like a chocolate cake. Pidge wasn't sure how much it would taste like one, but at least, knowing Hunk, it would probably taste good.
"You can't have birthdays without cake!" Hunk said triumphantly, and Lance cheered, moving over to Shiro's side and pulling him towards the table.
Shiro capitulated, laughing, and let himself be installed at the head of the table - Allura temporarily displaced to the chair to his left. Keith settled in the chair to Shiro's right, and Pidge took the seat beside him.
Lance picked up a server and reached for the stack of plates, only for Hunk to grab his hand and drag it away from the cake. "Hunk, what is your problem?" he asked, turning without picking up a plate.
"The birthday, erm, person cuts the cake at a birthday party!" Hunk said, pointing accusingly at Lance. "Not just anyone who wants to! That would be anarchy!"
"I don't mind-" Shiro began, but Lance's return argument drowned him out and Hunk pulled the server out of his hand entirely. "Don't fight." he said calmingly, and they at least toned down their squabble. Pidge eyed the proximity to Shiro's birthday cake and figured that was probably for the best, although they weren't as wild as when Lance and Keith . . . debated, they were awfully close.
Turning his attention to Keith, Shiro reached out one hand, metal fingers ghosting over his wrist just above his glove. "Was that the only reason?" he asked softly as Lance and Hunk continued to argue much more calmly over the proper birthday-cake-protocol.
Pidge laughed as Hunk probably inflated how shocked and horrified he was at Lance's poor birthday cake etiquette, but kept an eye on Shiro and Keith. Lance finally scooped the entire cake platter up instead and brought it towards Shiro, Hunk following him with the plates and a smug expression.
Keith shrugged slightly, twisting his hand palm-up beneath Shiro's. "Mostly. And up here . . . not so many reasons to hide, right?" he asked quietly, looking at the table. "If you want." he added, glancing back up at Shiro.
Shiro clasped his hand, meeting his gaze for a long moment, but didn't say anything before they both had to pull back to make room for the platter and the cake. Shiro laughed but agreed to cut it, as per Hunk's claim of tradition, and the rest of them gathered around as he did.
As Pidge had guessed, the cake was really good - Hunk grinned at the praise from everyone, citing his exploration of the market on the last planet they'd visited - even though it was . . . really not quite chocolate.
"Are we having cake for dinner?" Shiro asked - though not, Pidge noticed with amusement, until after he'd eaten half of his piece and was licking not-frosting off the fork. "Just cake, I mean."
"This is why you're Space Dad." Pidge observed, pointing her fork at him.
Shiro blushed, and she grinned.
"I also have other snacks!" Hunk said brightly. "You know, for the pillow fort later."
". . .the what?" Keith asked, and Pidge eyed him warily. Although-
"Pillow fort?" Pidge questioned curiously.
"Yeah! Hunk and I decided Shiro has to have a birthday pillow fort." Lance said, nodding.
"It's a tradition!" Hunk added, and Pidge frowned.
"I think you're making that up." Keith said through a bite of cake.
"Not a general tradition," Lance waved him off without offense, "it's-" he paused, his expression wavering. "In our family - families. It started with my sister Celia, when our dad was gone over Mari's birthday. We all camped out in her room for the night and told stories and played games until she fell asleep. Birthday pillow forts are totally a thing."
"Well if they are a family tradition," Allura said gently, resting a hand on Lance's arm, "I think we must comply. Don't you, Shiro?" she asked, and Shiro smiled.
"Sure." he agreed. "Sounds great, Lance."
Pidge grinned. "Yeah!" she cried excitedly. "Pillow forts are awesome!" She dug into her cake again, bouncing a bit in her seat. Shiro laughed quietly, and Pidge stuck her tongue out at Keith, who was giving her a strange look.
Keith's lips twitched and Pidge took a huge bite of cake, confident enough to do so once she was confident it was actually delicious. Hunk usually did a pretty good job, but his failures were . . . horrifying. Pidge preferred not to unwarily stuff her face with it; not until she was sure.
Allura unwisely asked about birthday traditions, and after restraining himself while Shiro quietly supplied his family's answers, Lance launched into a dissertation on it - apparently birthdays were a big thing in his family. Pidge smiled a little. Her parents had made a big deal of birthdays too, but their family was . . . much quieter than Lance's.
Matt was the best at picking out presents, and Mom would always get books - she was good at picking the right books; she ought to be, Pidge supposed - and Dad. . . But it was quiet. Family days, and the whole family would make a production of it being all about the birthday boy or girl.
Pidge startled when someone touched her upper arm - Keith? She eyed him, confused.
"You okay?" Keith asked softly, his knuckles still brushing her arm as he lowered his hand. She looked past him and saw Shiro looking at her with concern, his fingers curled over Keith's other wrist.
"I'm fine." Pidge said, forcing a smile - it wasn't too hard to bring it back up; she was happy. "I was just thinking." she promised. She . . . might talk to Shiro about her family again, but not today - after all, by her own family's rules, today was about Shiro. She grinned, relieved as Shiro's worried brow smoothed out as well.
Shiro derailed the push to run to start on the fort right after cake with a reminder about having an actual non-dessert meal first. Pidge swallowed down snickers and wondered to herself, only half-joking, how long it would be before one of them might call him dad without meaning to.
The feeling sank in even more after their light meal when Shiro, laughing, grabbed Lance and Hunk both around the shoulders and shooed them away from the table and towards the door. "Are you planning to give a lecture on the proper formation of pillow forts?" he asked.
"I could so do that!" Lance said immediately. "There could be slides - holographic space slides - and a practical exam and-"
"Or," Pidge said, leaning around Shiro's arm, "we could actually go and build a fort now. And we can see if your fort expertise holds up to your mouth." she teased.
Hunk burst out laughing, and Lance put on a horrified expression that made Pidge giggle.
Shiro draped his left arm around her shoulders as they walked, and Pidge looked up at him, but didn't squirm away. Shiro was very . . . big, and Pidge felt tiny pulled snug against him, but he was . . . he was nothing like Matt, or like her Dad, but he was a protective, familiar kind of strong. Like family.
Shiro opened the door to his quarters and Pidge bounded inside curiously. "You realise," she said as she took in the bare walls and almost painfully neat room, "we're going to have to ransack the rest of the Castle to get enough pillows for a fort."
Although Shiro's bed did have two pillows instead of one, like Pidge's own, or Hunk's. She hadn't seen inside any of the others' rooms except for Allura who, of course, slept in a huge cushiony field of a bed strewn with pillows. Pidge was torn whether she thought it looked comfortable or ridiculous.
"Oh! Of course!" Allura clapped her hands happily. "Coran?"
"Yes, Princess!" Coran grabbed hold of Lance and they strode off presumably in search of more pillows. Allura ran off possibly in the direction of her own room.
"I'll go get mine." Pidge said with a grin, slipping out the door ahead of Hunk, doing the same. When she returned, she almost skidded to a stop as a mountain of cushiony bedcoverings approached Shiro's door ahead of her. As it wedged itself in stubbornly, wriggling sideways, it revealed itself to be supported by Lance - a blanket plusher than any of the ones Pidge had found in her room's storage had fallen down and concealed even his legs.
Pidge hugged her pillow and armful of blankets and laughed as she followed him in, scooping up a pillow that had tumbled over his shoulder to the floor.
"Thanks Pidge!" Lance called, then belly flopped onto the floor on his heap of pillows and blankets even as he dropped them. "Gimme a minute." he said with a panting huff, rolling over and waving a hand. Pidge dropped her own on the floor by his legs, then pulled off her shoes and socks, tucking them aside along the wall past Shiro's bunk.
"They're blankets, they're not that hard to haul around." Keith said, sliding away from where he'd been leaning on the pillar at the foot of Shiro's bunk. Pidge jumped, bolting backwards, as Lance knocked Keith's feet out from beneath him, sending him toppling into the heap of bedding on the floor beside Lance.
Well, mostly on the bedding - he'd landed about half on the floor with a painful-sounding thump. "Lance!" Keith shouted, flipped over and up onto his knees quickly, dragging a pillow out of the way and pulling one arm back.
Lance laughed and nailed him in the face with a pillow, and Keith's face when the missile fell was priceless. Pidge laughed, bending almost double, and Lance grinned, looking quite pleased with himself.
"What was that for?" Keith demanded, grabbing hold of Lance's shirt and shaking him.
Pidge eyed her friends, then pounced on Keith's back, suspecting that he - not only of no siblings but also weirdly patchy social skills - might not 'get' pillow fights. "No non-pillow attacks in pillow fights!" she warned, even as he elbowed her - gently - in the ribs.
Keith eyed her dubiously, and Pidge laughed again, looping one arm around the front of his shoulders and pulling at him as she offered up a pillow in the other hand. She yelped, shocked, as a blanket came over them both and then-
Keith's body really didn't have any cushiony bits to it, Pidge thought as she was knocked flat under him. The pillows were quite enough cushioning, and Keith wasn't pressed down that hard on top of her, but it was definitely enough to be noticeable. Pidge squirmed, but Keith was already struggling away, freeing up a little more space for her.
Pidge crawled out from under the flailing range of limbs of Keith's limbs and found herself grabbing onto Lance. Fine. She shoved a pillow in his face and sat on him - he fought, but he was sunk deep enough in the pile of pillows not to have much leverage - while she struggled out of the blankets wrapped over her, then found herself grabbed up in a hug and recognised Hunk's arms, kicking as he tickled her.
"Ow! Hunk, watch out!" Lance yelled, slightly muffled, as Pidge's heel caught him in the ribs. "I'm under here!" He grabbed her ankle, and Pidge shrieked as he caught an even more ticklish spot.
Once she had finally gotten sort of free - Lance was still holding her ankle, but she had his wrist pinned under her other foot and he couldn't move it, and Hunk had stopped apologetically - Pidge threw off the blankets, panting and red-faced.
Keith, she saw, had been having trouble because Shiro - it had to have been him who caught them under the thrown blanket, as strange as that sounded - had been pinning him.
He was laughing though, now, as he wriggled loose, only trapped by one wrist in Shiro's human hand and his legs between Shiro's knees. Allura was standing in the doorway, eying them all with some wary confusion, a hovering basket at her side, spilling over with soft bedding in shades of white, and light blues and lilacs.
"Pillow fights are also very traditional. It's a, erm, family thing." Pidge said, smiling at the princess a little sheepishly. "Want to play?" she invited tentatively.
Allura frowned, tapping one fingertip against her lips. Pidge looked at Hunk, and he shrugged, and they both missed the moment when Allura took up a pillow - but got a glorious look at her winging a pillow at Shiro, who had just leaned back as Lance joined the fray with him and Keith, and knocking him sideways over both of the others.
Pidge giggled, and Allura smiled at her. "Would you like to give me a hand with these?" she asked, gesturing at the basket.
Pidge bounced up and trotted over to Allura, helping her unload the hovering basket - she made a note to ask Allura later if she could play with it, or if there was another one she could have; it looked more complex than the platters. But she wouldn't ask now. She even restrained herself from poking at the buttons. They dumped the pillows and blankets onto Shiro's bed and spilling onto the floor beside it as the boys devolved into something between a pillow fight and a wrestling match.
Allura leaned in close to Pidge, lowering her voice. "Is that supposed to look so. . ." she trailed off, tilting her head towards where Hunk was now sitting on Shiro's legs as Keith and Lance worked to dislodge him - or possibly fought over who got to try, it wasn't quite clear.
"Mostly." Pidge confirmed. "There were a few times my brother and I," she paused, swallowing, "well, Mom told us a few times she was almost afraid we'd kill each other. Of course, then she and Dad would join in too, so. . ."
Allura laughed and spread her hands out. "In that case. . ." She narrowed her eyes, then crouched and dove at Lance with a powerful lunge. He shrieked as Allura took him down, the pair of them tumbling into the growing heap of bedding.
Pidge shrugged and grinned at Coran as he stopped in the doorway, his arms full of more pillows, and followed after Allura, back into the fray. Though she chose to avoid the very competent princess - and Lance's flailing limbs - in favour of hopping up onto Shiro's shoulders, distracting him as he was about to smother Hunk under a pillow.
Keith laughed and tossed her a pillow before darting out of range of Shiro's grasping hands, only to trip over Allura as Lance shoved her away. Coran joined them, and it was a good thing, thought Pidge as she fought her way out of the blanket-roll Keith had trapped her in - for not seeming terribly familiar with the concept he was unfairly good at this - that Shiro's room was so neat, because at least they weren't destroying anything as the mess of pillow-battle spread wider.
At some point Coran wound up at the bottom of a dog pile, loudly proclaiming something no one could understand through the pillows Allura was pressing down over his head and shoulders the whole time, laughing.
They eventually ran out of steam, sprawling out in the mess of their cushiony battlefield. Pidge found herself, panting, to be draped mostly over Allura's legs, with her head on the small of Keith's back and Lance's forearm resting on her ankles.
Allura was leaning on Shiro's shoulder on one side, and Hunk's side on the other, one of her hands resting on Keith's shoulder - he was lying on Shiro's chest, and didn't seem terribly bothered by Lance's feet wedged beside his hip. Coran was still halfway under some of the mountain they'd used to pin him, and Lance seemed to have half-heartedly tried to help him free before giving up.
"So, that is part of the process of building a pillow fort?" Allura asked, patting Pidge's shoulder with a gentle hand when she twitched. "It seems rather counter-productive, as very little building has been accomplished."
"Nope! Just a detour!" Lance declared, punching the air without actually moving any of the rest of him. "Wow that was more tiring than it is with my whole family."
Not surprising, Pidge thought. They all trained hard for real battles - and Allura hadn't quite grasped how much to gentle her combat moves immediately. And Lance had turned it into a competition and a wrestling match with Keith, which had no doubt made it harder.
"I second that." Hunk said, and Pidge reached out a hand, patting the nearest bit of him. His side, she thought, but she couldn't quite see him from this angle, with Allura's body propped up as it was between them. "I think we need the snacks for the pillow fort now."
"Yes!" Lance agreed heartily, echoed by Coran as he finally sloughed off a few more pillows. His moustache was a little . . . ruffled. Pidge stifled giggles.
It took another few minutes for any of them to haul themselves up, but when they did, Hunk and Coran headed off back to the kitchen, arguing over the proper snacks for post-pillow-battle consumption, and Lance chivvied Pidge and Allura - she was tired, and Allura . . . had been nice enough not to shove her off - off the heap of pillows in the middle of the room. Shiro helped them both up, and Pidge revised that. One of the heaps. They really had assembled a startling number of pillows.
"I am totally stealing a few more of these for my room when we're done." Pidge declared, eying the chaos.
"It had slipped my mind," Allura said, smoothing out her dress with absent hands, "with so much going on, but now that the castle is up and running there are . . . nicer rooms you could be moved into." She smiled apologetically. "The barracks were the easiest to make ready at first, and I'm afraid after that I had quite forgotten."
"We were pretty busy there for a while." Keith said with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck and stretching.
"And of course," Allura turned to where Keith stood near Shiro, "larger quarters would allow more comfortable space for the pair of you." She smiled, gesturing to them both, and Shiro went pink. Pidge blinked, then hid a laugh.
Keith busied himself collecting some of the bedding on the floor, though he looked lost for what to do with any of it once he had his arms full. Pidge took pity on him and took some of the material away, kicking a big pillow over towards the edge of the bed.
Shiro stepped quickly out of the way, and Pidge grinned. "It's best if you use the bed as a base - although getting things to pin up with these walls and no real furniture. . ." she trailed off, frowning.
"We can use the pillows and make a lower sort of fort on the floor." Lance said knowingly. "Unless you think you can get something to stick up there." He eyed the pillars of the bed.
"I'm not sure how you would." Allura said, pursing her lips.
Pidge tapped her fingers on the wall, then rubbed at it, humming thoughtfully. "I want a rematch once I have a chance to figure something out to attach to the walls. Non-permanently, of course." she added quickly.
"I'm sure that could be arranged." Shiro said agreeably, obligingly holding up a lightweight blanket as Lance pressed it into his hands and pushed him to one side. "What am I doing?" he asked a moment later as Pidge gave in to mischievous impulse and packed a few pillows around his feet. "I am not a pillar." he told her sternly, though his smile and the warmth in his eyes belied it.
Pidge grinned at him impishly and then lay down at his feet, wriggling to get comfy on the pillows she'd stacked there. Shiro reached for her, but Lance's immediate protest stilled him and he straightened again. Hunk and Coran returned, shepherding several floating trays along with them, and Pidge sniffed the air curiously, unable to see what was on them.
"A little help?" Shiro asked plaintively even as Pidge stacked another couple of pillows against him. Keith snickered, and Pidge had thought he might be about to move her, but he only dropped another pillow on her head, which she tucked behind it and against Shiro's knees. "Keith." he said, betrayed.
Keith shrugged, pulling a blank face. Pidge did get up a few moments later, though, freeing Shiro as they made a cave-like fort against the bed - the basket was employed, wedged up against the wall at the foot of the bed, making it a little higher and allowing them to sprawl on the bed as well. After that was in place, Keith crawled out of the forming fort and produced a fighting staff from somewhere that wedged the top of the fort even higher near the head of the bed.
It turned out quite spacious - after a few false starts from inexperienced hands - and comfortable. Which was good, because with seven of them packed into it, and Pidge the only one even close to perhaps 'traditional' pillow-fort size. . .
Once they had all gotten settled, noisily, Coran retrieved the platters from outside - where they'd been safe from being knocked down - along with a bag of space juice packets. Pidge realised belatedly that she was sitting between Keith and Shiro, and murmured an apology, unfolding her legs so she could move, but Keith only nudged his arm against hers lightly and smiled.
Pidge relaxed slowly, smiling back, and wriggled down to get comfy on the pillows at her back. Allura shared a few stories of Altean birthdays - her own, with her family, and while Pidge could see the sadness in Allura's eyes and felt sorry for it, she was fascinated. Coran talked often and at length about Altea, but Allura's stories were rarer.
Even if the bulk of the day hadn't been too strenuous, it had been long - as they usually were - and after the pillow fight they were all tired and lazy. They exchanged stories for a while, but they were growing quieter, and getting more comfortable in the fort.
Pidge must have slid sideways at some point - had she actually fallen asleep? she didn't think so, but she may have zoned out a little - because she realised she was lying with her head in Shiro's lap and had no idea how she'd gotten there. It wasn't terribly uncomfortable, but her neck was a little stiff, and she thought she'd stretch out a little.
Pidge took a breath, just about to shift positions, and then froze as Keith spoke.
"You look happy, love." he said, his voice warmer and . . . so much softer than Pidge had ever heard it, even when he had been trying to keep her calm after she'd taken a bad knock to the head. He'd been friendly while they exchanged stories - not that he had offered much up himself - but that had been louder and not too far off their usual team discussions.
Shiro's fingers ruffled Pidge's hair and slid through it lightly - gently enough it felt good and didn't catch on any tangles and she couldn't help a happy hum.
"I. . . I am." he said, and Pidge grinned, biting her lip. She had felt a little concern, while they were planning this, that Shiro might not like it - he wouldn't say, she was pretty sure, because he was Space Dad and he wouldn't want to disappoint them, but. . .
But Pidge thought he maybe he wouldn't dissemble quite as much when speaking to just Keith - would have thought so before the revelation of their true relationship. It had always been obvious how close they were, from both sides.
"I really wasn't expecting anything like this, but it was fun. Even the pillow fight." Shiro said with a laugh.
"I'm glad." Keith said, his voice still low and affectionate, and then Pidge heard a soft sound it took her a moment to place. She wondered if she should let them know she was awake - and remind them they weren't alone - as she heard a couple more soft kisses, but they stopped, and Shiro yawned. "Are you going to be able to sleep?" Keith asked.
"I'll be fine. She's not that heavy." Shiro said with a low laugh, and Pidge flushed.
"I didn't mean because of Pidge." Keith said, his own voice more serious. "I mean, with all of them in here. And the . . . fort. Tent. Over us. Can you. . ." he trailed off.
"It's all right. It's . . . better, now, anyway." Shiro said, and his legs shifted under Pidge, making her squeak. "What about you?"
". . .I'll be all right." Keith said after a long pause. "But they only get to crash here for tonight, not on a regular basis." he added firmly.
Shiro laughed, loud and happy, and then quickly stifled himself, quieter. "That's fair. And I doubt think anyone would want to crash in a pillow fort regularly, darling. Even if it happens again it won't be too often."
Pidge realised the shifting had been Shiro working on lying down, as he suddenly shifted more, legs stretching out, then stopped with a lazy groan. "Do you think she's honestly comfortable there?" Keith asked, and Pidge blinked, recognising Keith's knees beside her head. He had moved as well, lying on his side beside Shiro.
"She falls asleep curled around her laptop all the time, curled up in bed is probably a step up." Shiro said sleepily. "I'm sure she's fine." He paused. "Um. I don't want to kick her."
"She's on your legs." Keith said lazily, one calf hooking over Shiro's shin to prod at him with his toes. Pidge saw, amused, that Lance - heavily asleep and Pidge thought maybe she heard him snoring quietly - was sprawled across the foot of the bed past Shiro's feet. "You never kick me when we're curled up. You won't kick her."
Pidge, yawning, decided to trust Keith's judgement on that and not move. She was comfortable here. She was almost asleep when a lightweight blanket was drawn over her, and she snuggled into it, thinking not of the way Matt used to tuck her in when they curled up in their pillow forts without their parents, but of the way Shiro would wrap an arm around her when she was upset and let her decide how close she wanted to be, but there for her no matter what.
Shiro was family now - they all were. The best family. Whether they were having pillow fights and sprawling all over each other in the exhausted aftermath, or backing each other up in real battles.
This was intended to be gen, but Lance went to rope Keith into helping and he promptly refused to call his boyfriend 'dad' even as a joke and the story ran with it right from the beginning. And Pidge had some introspective moments I wasn't expecting (including some that were cut and will be included in a properly Pidge-centric story later).