Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron!

A/N: I'm still reeling from Season 3. I have like three other fics in this series that need updates, but yeah, have some father-daughter bonding.

With Stars in Your Eyes

"Is this it?"

"We're almost there." Shiro looked over his shoulder at the five-year-old trailing behind him. "Want me to carry you?"

"Nope, I wanna walk," she said, shaking her head at him, which made her hood fall back. It was an early autumn evening on Wyfel, and Allura had insisted that they both wear jackets. Emi reached up and readjusted her hood, making sure the lion ears were poking up.

Lance had bought her that jacket for her birthday, and she absolutely adored it, especially because it was purple. Sometimes she wore it around the castle and pretended to be a lion. Which, actually, had once ended in a major time out when she morphed claws and accidentally scratched up Keith when she pounced on him.

"Let me know if you get tired," he said.

"'Kay."

Overhead, twilight was setting in, the sky turning dark grey and green as it deepened into black. The castle had been orbiting Wyfel for about a week now, and Shiro had been promising to take Emi out stargazing since they arrived. The two of them went out and looked at the stars at least once whenever they were near a planet, it was a tradition that he had started back when she was just a baby. In his backpack, he had everything they would need for an evening outside, including snacks that Hunk had made for them.

A small hand slipped into his right one, and he gently squeezed Emi's fingers. Sometimes it was hard to believe that five years had gone by so quickly, but his tiny little baby had grown into a bright-eyed, clever kid. Time was going by way too fast.

"Emi, you have to stop growing," he said, "You're getting too big."

She giggled. "I'm still little, Daddy."

"Really? You seem gigantic to me," he teased.

"If I'm big now, can I fly Black?" she asked, skipping forward to step onto a decent sized rock. "I'd be really good."

"You'd be the best black paladin in the history of Voltron, but how about we wait a few more years?" He grinned at her. "At least until you're simply enormous instead of just gigantic."

Emi jumped down from the rock. "Daaaad…"

He raised his arm and she automatically wrapped both hands around his palm so that she was lifted into the air. Kicking her legs back and forth, Emi laughed as she swung. "Once you're too big for me to do this, then we'll talk about you piloting Black if she lets you."

"You promise?" she said, dangling from his hand.

He lowered her back to the ground. "How about we just say it's a very strong possibility?"

"Does that mean no?"

"It means I maybe promise."

Emi jumped at him and grabbed the tail of his shirt, giving it a light tug. "That means no!"

"Not really…"

They continued their argument as Shiro led Emi up the hill, ducking around the massive cauliflower-shaped bushes and going through the holes formed by the tangled roots of the towering inisin trees. Wyfel was home to the Ethusi, who were a tall, broad people with four arms and four legs, almost like the centaurs of Earth legends. Everything on Wyfel seemed designed to dwarf humans, so much so that even Shiro and Hunk felt on the small side.

One of the trees had fallen onto the path, probably knocked over by a storm that had gone through the area a couple days ago. The trunk on its side was about two feet taller than Shiro, which meant it looked like a wall to Emi.

"No one mentioned this," Shiro said as they walked up to the trunk. Of course, to the Ethusi this wouldn't have seemed like a big obstacle. They could just jump over it.

"What're we gonna do?" Emi asked, putting her hands on the fallen tree before Shiro could stop her. The blue bark left indigo marks on her fingers and then her pants legs as she tried to brush it off. She held her hands up to Shiro, her blue eyes wide. "It won't come off."

"Well, Mouse, I told you not to touch the trees before we left," he said, smiling a little. While it wasn't poisonous, the dust was incredibly good at staying on whatever it touched. It was how these trees pollinated, according to the Ethusi. Dropping to one knee, he brushed at her pants, trying to get the bark dust off, but of course he didn't have any luck. His hands came away slightly indigo as well. When it looked like she was about to pout, he chucked her gently under the chin. "Don't look so blue, we'll just wash off when we go home."

Emi blinked and then gave him a side eye that was rather excellent for a five-year-old. "I have to be blue, it won't come off."

"I know, I'm teasing you," he said. When she was older she would really get his bad jokes, and that would be an awesome day. "And you're about to get a lot bluer, by the way."

"Why?"

"Because we're going up and over. Time to get in touch with your inner squirrel, kiddo." He picked up and set her on his shoulders, turning toward the tree trunk. "Up you go." Shiro tapped on the soles of her boots, indicating that she need to climb up onto the trunk.

Emi wrapped her arms around his head, covering his eyes. "No, we'll get really super blue!"

Shiro laughed and plucked at her arms. "It'll wash off, don't be so fussy."

"But it's my favorite jacket…"

Gently, Shiro pulled one of her arms away, breaking her bear-hug around his head. "You can take it off and I'll put it in the backpack."

"It'll get dirty when I put it back on."

"You can wear my jacket." He didn't care if it got messy or not.

Emi considered the offer, leaning against the back of his neck, one arm still around the top of his head. "You'll get cold."

"Then I'll just hug you like a teddy bear. How's that?" Reaching up, he tickled her side, getting a giggle out of her. "No more arguments? Got anything else to say?"

"Nooo," she said, a smile in her voice.

After pulling off her jacket and handing it to him, she nimbly crawled up to stand on Shiro's shoulders and then climbed onto the tree trunk. Carefully, he gave her a boost, spotting her the entire time. Emi had great balance for a five-year-old, but she was still a little kid. Falling was a possibility. The dust from the bark quickly got all over her, and she was covered with blue by the time she perched on the top of the tree.

"Don't move," Shiro said. He waited until he got an obedient nod from her before climbing up the trunk himself, finding grooves in bark. Pulling himself onto the top, he stopped beside Emi for a moment. When he turned to look at her, her hands darted out and patted his face.

He blinked, realizing he had two Emi-sized handprints on his cheeks as his daughter grinned up at him.

"Now you're blue, too."

"So that's how it is?" Shiro grabbed her as she started to scoot backwards. "Oh, no, kiddo, you're not getting away that easy." He pulled her to his side, holding her close as he dashed his hand across the bark and streaked her face with more blue dust.

Emi shrieked and flailed, laughing as she lazily tried to get away. Now that her precious jacket was safe, she didn't seem as worried about getting dirty.

When they finally got down on the other side of the trunk, Shiro and Emi were both dotted and striped with blue. Shiro fluffed Emi's hair as he carried her with one arm, creating a poofy cloud of dust. "Your mom is going to be so happy with us."

"Lance will like it," she said, clapping her hands together and adding to the cloud. She ruffled his bangs, and he had to blink and turn his head to the side as more dust drifted around.

"Is my hair blue?"

"The white part? Yep."

"Yours, too."

"Really?" Emi looked up at her hair, almost going cross-eyed in the process. Was it possible to overestimate your own kid's cuteness? Because Emi was definitely the most adorable kid in the entire universe, and Shiro would definitely argue with anyone who tried to say otherwise. Just like he would do the same if anyone attempted to say Allura wasn't honestly the most exceptional person that ever lived.

It was getting dark, so Shiro set Emi down and fished flashlights out of the backpack, one for both of them. The stars were already coming out, twinkling into sight overhead.

Emi caught his hand and charged forward, the beam from her flashlight bouncing around the path. "Let's go, hurry!"

"The stars aren't going anywhere, sweetheart," he said, but he let her tug him along as if she knew where they were heading. Occasionally he would have to gently pull her back toward the path, but she was doing a good job of leading them the right way.

Once they reached the top of the hill, the forest fell away and both of them froze, staring up with identical awestruck expressions. Above them, a galaxy of stars stretched across the cloudless sky in pristine beauty.

No matter how old he got or how many trials he went through, nothing could take away Shiro's fascination with the stars. People could hurt him, try to destroy him or crush his spirit, but he would never lose that amazement when it came to a night sky.

"It's so pretty," Emi breathed.

He looked down at the child by his side and saw that same curiosity and passion in his daughter's eyes. Even though she had lived most of her life among the stars, she still stared at them with wonder. She twirled and held out her arms, as if she could gather the stars to her.

Shiro sat down on the hillside and pulled off his jacket, waiting for her to come back to him. After a few minutes of running around, she raced over and sat down in his lap. He wrapped his jacket around her before looking up, watching the stars as they danced across the sky.

"I love them," Emi said, snuggling into his jacket, "Don't you?"

"Yeah," he said, kissing the top of her head as she settled back against his chest. "But not as much as I love you."

"I love you more than stars, too, Daddy."

"Thanks, Emi." Shiro smiled before pointing up to the sky, starting their favorite game. "All right, find me a constellation." This whole week they had been studying the constellations of Wyfel in preparation for tonight. Learning the local constellations was part of their tradition, and whenever they came to a planet that hadn't bothered to come up with patterns, they made up their own.

After a few minutes, Emi tilted her head to the side and lifted a finger, tracing stars like she was playing connect-the-dots. "The Evertree," she said, "Those five right there."

"Named after…?"

"The trees in the middle of Ethusi towns," she said, "Right?"

"Perfect."

"Your turn."

It was a pretty fantastic way to spend an evening. He hoped that one day, when Emi was older and off on adventures of her own, his daughter would look up at the night sky and remember that she had his love no matter how far away they were from each other. But for now, while she was little, he would hold her tight and watch together as the stars spun through the darkness.