Lucky Silver Sun
Lucky Charm

The cap on her excitement didn't remain long.

Shiro's arms crossed his chest in a relaxed manner as Pidge's excitement erupted. Nonsensical words sputtered from her mouth before she shot over to that part of the display, bringing up the location that the message was sent from. If there was something there to hug onto, she would have latched on in her excitement, and yet the console part of the ship was to the side of the hologram.

"It wasn't sent that long ago." Pidge's amber eyes widened. "Can we go get him?" Suddenly, the green paladin tugged on his sleeve, her mouth twisting into a pout as she begged him. "Please!"

Shiro's eyes blinked, wondering what kind of decision he should make, only to realize the occurrence of another piece of luck so he didn't have to personally think of all the ins and outs of the requested mission from the youngest paladin. "Last time I checked, Keith's leading Voltron right now."

Pidge's amber eyes blinked, her inquisitive mind thinking about what he said, one part of her mouth twisting slightly. Allura's eyes widened, her arms folded across her chest, before the green paladin took off, her entire being a ball of uncontrolled energy. "Shiro, that was mean."

"What?" The black paladin turned to look at her, thinking nothing of what he just said.

"You just pushed that off on Keith, when you could have easily said yes to her."

"So?" Shiro wasn't about to let Allura's comment dampen his good mood.

"You're the leader. I mean, the understanding was that Keith would be the leader until you got back."

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Why aren't you in a hurry?"

"Because I have confidence in Keith's abilities." Shiro let his mind work over why Allura might possibly have a problem with his decision.

"Lance is right." Allura took a deep breath, one hand reaching up so her fingers could twist her long locks of white hair, her mouth forming into a pout. "You do play favorites with him."

The black paladin's mind remained numb, his mind still not registering the current reality. Her words felt like a fog, and yet everything still seemed like it was going so well. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Having Keith take over as leader was one thing when you were MIA, but it's another now that you're back."

"So, you're saying he wasn't a good leader?" The lucky feeling which had replaced the dark feelings started to dislodge from his psyche. "Another person who doesn't stop to see his potential."

"I didn't say that!" Allura's posture and tone indicated some kind of frustration, yet Shiro couldn't place the reason why.

"Then let me see for myself, that what I know to be true is. It's not as if anybody else in his life's ever given him a chance." The black paladin's thoughts twisted about in his mind, realizing suddenly that the conversation had become personal, possibly a bit more than he, or Keith for that matter, would really want.

Allura's crystal blue eyes blinked a couple of times, his comment registering in her head. Her dark fingers reached up to touch her lips lightly. "So, let me get this straight. You would like me to give Keith the chance others haven't by letting you take a step back."

"Yes." Shiro's eyes blinked once, wondering if the lucky feeling he felt was still going on. He wasn't sure though how Allura would act, as her temper could be just as fiery as the red paladins at the time. "And anyways, it's going to take the time to transition me back into the position of leader."

"You have a point, but…"

The voice of the red paladin interrupted her, loud and obviously upset. "Shiro!"

The black paladin felt a smile spread across his face, knowing exactly why Keith had come charging back onto the bridge. The green paladin was likely close behind. Allura stared at him, her eyes widening in horror. Shiro turned, looking at the younger teen as the red paladin's shoulders tensed up. "Something the matter Keith?"

"You know there's something the matter!" The red paladin pointed back at the green paladin, who had indeed followed Keith onto the bridge, and was now picking her nose. "You just told Pidge I'm still the leader."

"You guys just found me, and I don't know what's happened while I was gone." Shiro continued to beam at Keith, still feeling rather good about the whole situation.

Two dark-blue eyes looked into his own as if attempting to figure him out, before spluttering out a rather indignant response. "You're actually enjoying this!"

"Unfortunately, I've got to agree with you." Allura's tone of voice indicated she wasn't pleased, but in reality, he didn't care, the good feeling washing over him. "That said Keith, he had a point about having to transition back into the position of leader, what with how long he's been gone."

Shiro watched as Keith began to calm, Allura's words soothing the red paladin's mood. His jaw clenched, moving left and right, contemplating the situation. He finally sighed, folding his arms across his chest. "You're not going to let me get out of this, are you?"

"Nope." The black paladin's mouth continued to twist into a smile, pleased at the younger teen's reaction.

"You're evil."

"I know."

"Favorites…" Allura coughed into her hand, so only Shiro could hear, but he ignored it, the lucky feeling making him feel somewhat undefeatable, a nice change to the majorly defeated feeling rampaging through his mind prior to defeating Zarkon. Thankfully, his luck continued, and neither Keith or Pidge heard.

"So…" Keith turned to look at Pidge, looking at the smaller paladin as if she were a bug that he couldn't swat away.

"Are we going after my brother or not?" Pidge had in the meantime switched to picking wax out of her ear.

Shiro smiled, watching Keith carefully contemplating the situation. He felt lucky not to be thinking about the situation, thinking that there was something important beyond the need to bring Pidge's brother back home. The red paladin finally spoke in a slow manner. "Going after Matt's kind of a no-brainer."

"Good, because…"

"Wait. You can't go." Keith, of course, stepped on the symbolic land mine that Shiro felt his luck managed to help him avoid, though he didn't know quite yet why the red paladin made the call he did.

"What do you mean?"

"I know Matt. The last thing I want to deal with his him finding out his baby sister is a paladin of Voltron, putting her life in danger, at least until we get him back to the Castle of Lions."

Shiro pushed his lips together, realizing that Keith had managed to bring up something which would extend his current streak of luck, as he didn't want to think of how Matt would actually react. The black paladin stopped, glancing over at the red paladin, remembering Keith referring to him as being like a brother. "Maybe Matt's reaction wouldn't be that bad. Nah. Matt is Matt."

"Shiro!" Pidge turned to him to protest.

The black paladin shrugged his shoulders, lifting up his hand's palm up as he did. "Sorry, but he has a point. I think."

"You can stay with me!" Allura piped up. "We can do a ton of girl things!"

"Lovely."

Shiro felt the corners of his mouth twist at the look of utter defeat on Pidge's face, knowing full well that the green paladin wasn't looking forward to girl things. The thought of everything being normal, though, even though that might not last long helped the lucky feeling to continue.