Chapter Twenty-Six:
There was quite a crowd gathered when the Castle landed on the Balmera, and there was one young Balmeran who could barely wait for the ramp to be lowered, rushing forwards as soon as they saw the pale light coming from inside the ship.
"Hunk!" Shay exclaimed upon seeing the Yellow Paladin, who grinned at her, rushing up to meet her for a hug.
"It is good to see you again!" Shay said, releasing him. "The video links are just not the same."
"They never are," Hunk said in agreement. "Come on, I've got some new friends for you to meet!"
Shay's already bright and happy disposition got even brighter and happier when Hunk introduced her to Lani.
"It is an honor to meet you, Lani of Earth. Hunk has told me much about you!" Shay said.
"Oh, I'm sure half of it is exaggerated…" Lani said, turning red somewhat.
"Getting Shay to come with us is going to require every bit of the diplomatic skills that we have combined." Shiro observed in a low voice to Tali.
"You think she'll say no?" Tali asked, studying Shay, who was now hugging Pidge.
"No, getting Shay to say yes is the easy part." Shiro said. He nodded his head slightly to where Shay's family was now approaching, the elders of the family also approaching for embraces from the Paladins. "See the guy a little taller than Shay?"
"Uh huh."
"Big brother, name's Rax. Very protective. He's going to be the one to put up a fight."
Tali scoffed.
"You cut up fighter craft with that big fancy sword of Voltron like it's paper, but you're all scared of a girl's big brother." Tali said, amusement in her voice. She smirked then playfully nudged Shiro with her hip. "Maybe you should just view this as practice."
"Practice for what?" Shiro asked, brow furrowing.
Tali's smirk grew.
"You know what," She said. "Or, more accurately, you know who."
Shiro felt his cheeks heat some as Tali sauntered off.
It went better than expected.
Of course Shay said yes and of course Rax insisted that she shouldn't go.
However, Shay was rather pleased with the compromise her parents came up with.
Shay would go with the Paladins of Voltron…
And so would a very disgruntled Rax.
They left for the Queen Mother Balmera that night. Shortly after take-off, Pidge was walking to the lab when suddenly someone grabbed them by the back of their shirt.
However, said person quickly let go with a squeak when they had a very sharp, very zappy bayard aimed at their throat.
"Sorry! Bad idea!" Lani said, holding up her hands in surrender.
"Yeah, bad idea." Pidge agreed, lowering the bayard. "What's up?"
Lani bit her lower lip, then grabbed Pidge's hand and dragged them down the hall to Tali's room, the older girl sitting on her bed reading a manual of some sort.
"I need girl talk!" Lani declared as she shoved Pidge inside. "Well, girl and gender-fluid person talk."
"Frankly, Allura's better at that than I am." Pidge said, pushing back their glasses.
"Except she, Shiro and Keith are with Rax on the training deck and she said that 'as tempting as my offer is, she could not possibly accept at this given time'." Lani said, perfectly mimicking Allura's accent.
However, there was soon a knock at the door. Lani turned and opened and there stood Allura, still dressed in her flight-suit and covered in a bit of sweat.
"I gave into my temptations." Allura said simply as she crossed the room to sit at the foot of Tali's bed, letting her hair down from her bun. She frowned slightly. "But we are missing another designated-female-at-birth, female identifying person from our discussion."
Lani hesitated and began to pace in the small space.
"I wanted to hate her. I tried to hate her…" Lani said, shaking her head slightly. "But I can't! She's too nice!"
"Are you talking about Shay?" Tali asked, arching an eyebrow.
"She's a rock and she's nicer than most baby animals, nicer than any human could ever be!" Lani said, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Yep, definitely Shay." Pidge said with a sigh, eyes going wide as all of a sudden Lani grabbed hold of their shoulders and screamed,
"AND SHE'S GORGEOUS! I CAN'T COMPETE AT ALL! NO WONDER HUNK LOVES HER AND HE'LL NEVER NOTICE ME AND I'LL HAVE TO BE THE GODMOTHER OF ALL THEIR CUTE, SMART, AND EXTREMELY GENUINELY POLITE AND SWEET ROCK-HUMAN BABIES!"
With that, Lani threw her arms around Pidge and sobbed into their shoulder.
"Uh, there there?" Pidge said, gently patting Lani on the back, looking over at Allura and Tali for help. Allura stood up and came over to put a hand on Lani's shoulder.
"From what I have observed, Hunk only has friendship with Shay, rather like you have with him." Allura said.
"Allura, that may not be entirely helpful." Tali said, her point accentuated by a keening wail from Lani.
Pidge sighed.
"Look, Lani, calling Shay Hunk's girlfriend is just a running joke between us. Nothing more than that." They said. "And, you know, you could just tell him how you feel."
"No, I can't!" Lani said with a sniff, rubbing her eyes. "Because if I like him, but he doesn't like me… Then I've totally screwed up our entire friendship and things will be awkward and never be like they were before and… And I can't lose that!"
Pidge took a deep breath and turned to look at the corner of the ceiling like there was a camera there. They took another deep breath and said to Lani,
"So, then, you're just never going to tell him? Even if there's a chance he could feel the same way?"
"Look, I'm more of an arts and humanities type of student, all the math and science goes right over my head." Lani said. "But even I know the probability of that chance is… Well, it's not good."
"I don't recommend it." Tali said sullenly from where she sat on the bed, glaring down at her toes.
"Do not recommend what?" Allura asked.
"Not telling him. Not taking that chance, however slim you think it might be." Tali said. "You tell him how you feel. If your friendship really is that strong, it will go back to how it was before. Or it won't, and that's okay too. But you don't know what's going to happen in the future. You don't want… something to happen and he'll never know. Or you'll never know. If you're too worried about what might go wrong…"
"You'll miss out on a chance to do something great." Pidge finished. Tali nodded.
"Seize the moment, carpe the quiznak out of that diem. Never, ever, miss a chance. Be cautious, but not to the point that it holds you back." Tali said. "Especially when it comes to your feelings."
"I concur." Allura said with a nod. "You do not want to wake up one day and realize you lost everything."
"This is the most depressing girl talk ever." Pidge said. "Why is this supposed to be fun again?" They glanced at Lani, still sniffling some. "But they're right."
Lani bit her lip.
"I'll tell him." She said. "But… Not now. After this mission…"
"Do what you've got to do." Tali said with a shrug.
"Who's sleeping with you tonight?"
Shiro blinked once, processing the question for a moment.
"No one, and please don't use that phrasing. It makes it sound weirder than it already is." He said.
"Yeah, okay, whatever," Tali said, pushing past Shiro to enter his room, going over to sit on his bead. "And now you have someone."
"Look, I don't need someone every night." Shiro said with a sigh, coming over to sit beside Tali.
Tali was momentarily quiet.
"I'm the one who needs the company tonight." She said. Shiro frowned and studied her.
"Did something happen?" He asked.
"Not really, but… Trying to help Lani sort out her problems and feelings and all that junk… Well, basically I'm regretting a whole lot. Of everything I didn't say when I really should have. To Matt." Tali said, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
Shiro carefully put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him in a hug.
"We're going to find him," He said reassuringly. "Has Pidge showed you all the information they have found?"
"Yeah, they have." Tali said. "But… Shiro, what if it's all for nothing? What if I'm still too late? What if…"
"Hey, hey, don't you start that." Shiro said, a bit sharper than he initially intended. "We're going to find him. Alive. And we're all going to go home. Okay?"
Tali hesitated and curled up against her friend, tears silently rolling down her cheeks.
"I hope you're right, Shiro." She said. "Because I can't do that again."
Pidge wasn't quite sure what they were doing, walking towards Shiro's room.
Maybe Allura and Tali were right; maybe if they didn't tell Shiro, they'd regret it someday.
That didn't make this any easier.
Fortunately, they knew they could easily play it off if they chickened out. Ask Shiro if he had found someone to bunk with for the night, that's right.
So that's how they ended up outside of Shiro's door, taking deep breaths and trying to muster up the courage to knock. They raised their fist and—
"Can't do what again?" Shiro's voice said from inside, confused.
"Whole-heartedly believe that I will never get the chance to tell someone I love how I feel." Tali said, also from inside. "I don't ever want to feel like that again. That weight, knowing I have to live with it until the day I die… I can't, Shiro. I won't. I… I will never, ever, let that happen again. Never, ever hesitate to tell the people I love how I feel. I've lost too much. I won't lose anymore."
"You won't." Shiro assured her. "I promise, you won't."
"You can't promise me that, Shiro. I can't and won't let you. You've got too many promises as is."
"Yes, but this is a promise I'll make sure I can keep. A promise for someone I care about very much."
Pidge sucked in a breath, face heating with shame and embarrassment.
Tali liked Shiro. Everything she had said, before, it was all about Shiro…
And Shiro… Shiro liked her.
Of course he did. Why were they even surprised?
Swallowing their pride and tears, Pidge walked away from the doorway, making their way quickly to their room to cry.
Lani rubbed her eye with a yawn before focusing on the screen in front of her again. She was trying to make sure that the new page that she had added to the blog was ready to go, no typos or coding problems. She was rather excited about this page, which would link to articles she had written and the videos of the various planets they had visited, as well as information about other planets and races in the Voltron Alliance.
She jumped slightly as she heard the door to the bridge open behind her. Sheepishly, she turned around in Hunk's chair and peeked over the back of it. She relaxed slightly as she saw Shay.
Shay's yellow eyes found her immediately.
"Oh. Forgive me, I thought everyone else was asleep…" The Balmeran said, looking a little embarrassed.
"I'm burning the midnight oil," Lani said with a shrug. "What about you?"
Shay hesitated, then took some steps forward, coming to sit on the floor beside Lani, staring out at the stars before them.
"I wanted to see the sky," She explained. "All those stars… When I was a child, we could never be on the surface. I used to look at the sky from the entrances to the mines, looking straight up. It always looked so small, the stars so few. But then, once I finally got to the surface, I realized I only ever saw a little part. That there was so much more. It was scary, but beautiful."
"I know what you mean." Lani said with a nod. "It's hard to believe there's so many of them, to get just a glimpse at how vast the galaxy, the universe, actually is. We grew up on an island, me and Hunk. It's part of this small chain of islands called Hawai'i, and we're from an island called Molokai. And we're basically on this relatively small bit of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and there aren't as many people, so there aren't as many lights. So we always had this advantage of being able to see the stars so clearly. The sky was always huge and vast to us. But now, I'm here, on a spaceship, with aliens and robot cats and stuff, and the sky is all there is. Home is far away, and the stars are all around us. It's like being swallowed by the sky."
"We are only small parts in a very large universe." Shay said. "We come from very different places within the universe, and fate still brought us together, over much distance."
"Fate is weird like that, huh?" Lani said with a small, content sigh. "It's really weird, actually. Hunk, he never wanted to leave Molokai, but took the offer the Garrison gave him. Me? I always wanted to leave. I loved the island, but… I wanted to explore. I wanted to see the world. I was a bit jealous, when he left, to go to the Garrison. Kind of angry. I wanted to go and do and see everything."
"I felt the same way about the surface." Shay said. "Everyone told me, I needed to stay down below. We were slaves, but we were safe down below, that below was where the Balmera could protect us. But then Hunk and Coran came, and told me of all that was beyond the surface, beyond where I lived my whole life… It was like a child's tale come to life."
"Science fiction come to life." Lani said with a smile. "Now look at us, Shay. We're both traveling to see different worlds. It's really awesome."
"I agree." Shay said. She was quiet for a moment, then said, "We are very lucky, are we not? To know the same person, who was able to give us the same opportunity?"
Lani looked out at the stars, smile growing.
"Yes." She whispered. "We're very, very lucky."
Fate was a weird thing.
Did she dare tempt it?