Kolivan walked down the ramp of the ship, behind him trailed a dozen or so subordinates carrying supplies to the very crowded Castleship hosting an entire city-worth of citizens. He made a very shallow sigh as he emerged into the blue lightings, because while he was not opposed to the lighting and Altean engineering, but the Castleship reminded him of the last time he was there for another conference which did not start or end as well as intended. He could never forget the image of a Plaxian shoving an entire chair down their throat and then proceeding to spill the contents of their stomach all over the rest of the table.
Coran and Hunk were at the foot of the ramp to greet him, cheerful as ever with an underlying amount of stress beneath their eyes that spoke volumes of how absolutely dead they felt inside. Kolivan pretended to not notice.
"Oh thank god, you're here! I'm about to just demand a reschedule of the party if you hadn't arrived any earlier." Hunk cried in relief as he draped himself over the cargos slowly being unloaded and began to peer over the various edibles that had been brought.
"Party?" The image of chairs reappeared in Kolivan's head, and he shuddered ( mentally) .
"Yeah, like a cocktail party - for the Taroussenes. Allura wants a small celebratory dinner to lift some of their mood after such a close call. That's why we had you get fresh food."
"Where is the Princess?"
"She's resting right now. I finally managed to send her to sleep after a pheob-straight of nagging, so you can't go and ruin my efforts." Coran said wearily, but as if he already knew what Kolivan had been looking for, he pointed to the hangar doors. "Keith's somewhere in the Castleship's greenhouse with Pidge if you would like to see him instead. They should be testing some new agricultural tech that the Olkari recently sent us."
What Kolivan expected as he walked out of the hangar and towards the greenhouse was perhaps the vision of Pidge and Keith hovering over plants, which is why it was even more confusing when he passed through the lounge, he found a deeply disturbed Pidge. And disturbed, in his view, looked like a young girl putting on eye drops every minute or so, and staring intensely into the datapad as she watched "A Beginner's Guide to Coding Python ." He could only guess why Pidge wants to either code a reptilian creature, or speak to a reptilian creature through code.
Kolivan reached the greenhouse and found Keith hovering over a large patch of dirt, inspecting the leaves of a plant just sprouting from the earth. Keith rubbed his fingers over the tiny leaves delicately, though his eyes still stared into the distance, irises paler than their original deep violet that his mother had.
He looked better than when Kolivan last saw him, like an air of calmness had surrounded him. Kolivan made a few steps further into the greenhouse, his greetings on his tongue when he heard doors opening from the storage area. Out walked Shiro, holding a bucket and a garden spray to hand to Keith. And Kolivan stopped.
Keith grinned as Shiro approached - an expression so kind and genuine and rare that Kolivan wondered if he had ever managed to glimpse at it before - on Shiro's face was something similar. Kolivan suddenly felt like he was intruding on something that he wasn't privy to, and showed himself out before they could notice. As he left, he wondered if Shiro knew how temporary their brief moment of bliss was.
"Please remind me again why I'm helping you with the menu?" Lance shoved his head into his arms and groaned. Hunk refrained himself from following suit and collapsing onto the countertop. They have been fixing the menu for three days straight now, and were finalising it for the last time after the cargos finally came in earlier that day.
"Because we can't trust Coran." Because the only thing palettable that Coran had ever come up with at any banquet or dinners was the Castleship's ten thousand years old nunville that all the diplomats to have ever dined at the Castleship had praised profusely. And Hunk wasn't about to let another drunken chair eating contest happen.
"Right." Lance drawled and lifted his head in a sudden motion, looking extremely dead inside. "That's it. I need a break. Let's go to the lounge, I want a nap and you can continue brainstorming."
Lance was on his feet before Hunk could even respond, and then he was being dragged out of his chair and down the hallway. Lance continued to throw ideas at him, mostly hinting at some tropical inspired dishes after he found out that there was a space equivalent of pineapples.
Soon enough, they reached the lounge and the door swept open at their presence. Hunk made steps to follow Lance to the sunken couches but then saw two heads peeking over the top of the red cushions. He could vaguely hear a hushed conversation between Keith and Shiro, who were sitting closely as if huddling over state secrets.
And then Keith suddenly belted out a giant laugh that made Hunk jump, whilst Shiro simply smiled and continued whatever narrative he was on before. He seemed a bit embarrassed, even, but then grinned triumphantly when Keith let out another laugh that had him hugging his stomach and wiping his tears.
Lance still stood in front of Hunk, looking over to the pair before turning back to Hunk and pointing a thumb to the door, "You know what? I changed my mind, let's go back to the kitchen and keep working."
Hunk blinked as Lance walked back towards him and started to herd him out the door. "But… we just got here?"
"Nah, I have an idea and I need you to test it for me, like right now."
The door closed behind them as Hunk grumbled, "Lance you're acting really weird today."
"And you need to pay attention to more than your machine babies," Lance clapped him on the back.
"What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you later." Lance shook his head with a smile and dragged him down the hallway once more.
Shiro has met his share of awful people during his time, but as awful as the Galra were, this one idiotic ally that they had - whose species's name even Allura was having issues with pronouncing, which meant that none of them should just not try to butcher the pronunciation lest they wanted to start another war - was possibly even worse than Slav, and that's saying something to Shiro.
After the last general meeting with all their allies (in which Keith was present but merely for show because he likes to intimidate people in Shiro's stead), Shiro belly flopped straight onto Keith's bed whilst Keith sat on the floor next to it. He was on a roll that day - he went on about how their allies were being greedy, how they were playing diplomacy that worked to only benefit them and how they didn't listen to a single thing that Allura and Kolivan were trying to at least suggest.
Keith nodded and stared at him, nodding and smiling and agreeing to everything he said, including when he proclaimed to be able to lick his elbow, and Keith nodded, saying "Yup, I agree completely."
Shiro finally turned his head up from where it was pressed into the pillow and looked over, realising Keith's his drone floated in front of him, assumingly relaying information to Keith's earpiece that he was wearing on one ear.
Brat, Shiro thought with a smile as he reached out and playfully flicked the back of Keith's head. His finger hit Keith's skull and Keith yelped in annoyance, turning to him, "Oww, what was that for?"
His gaze turned straight towards Shiro, and it was like something struck him as those violet eyes reached his own. Shiro couldn't even believe how he never noticed how alien that shade was, and how much of space Keith reminded him of with the galaxies in his eyes.
There's something so extremely wild about those eyes, and that's apparently a very Galra trait, as Shiro has been told. Wild things aren't meant to be tamed, and Keith was not one to stand behind other's shadows. And perhaps once upon a time, Keith had hid behind Shiro's shadows when Shiro had allowed him that shade. But Shiro had known for a long time that Keith was never going to be satisfied with that forever.
Keith stood best where he wanted to, and that wasn't in Shiro's shadow, but out there in his own wilderness as he should be in order to keep that brilliance in himself.
Keith snapped his fingers in front of Shiro, questioning if Shiro had anything to say. Shiro finally snapped from his daze and stutterred, "Oh sorry, it's nothing."
"Pretty painful flick on the head for nothing," Keith deadpanned and Shiro grinned innocently, reaching a hand out to rub over where he had hit him.
"When's your next mission?" Shiro asked.
Keith looked cautiously at him, questioning his intentions, and Shiro doesn't blame him when his instinct still tells him to hold on and never let him go.
"I don't really know. All I know is that we need to get one of our inside man out, who apparently had been working at that Empire base for almost twenty decaphoebs. But the mission is pretty hush hush so far."
Shiro didn't have anything else to say. So he simply nodded and spent a little longer memorising those eyes still on him. He already knew he was going to miss it.
"Wanna go to the ballroom and help with decor?" Shiro suggested, and Keith only tilted his head in slight confusion, but happily obliged.
They do say that if you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, then it's yours, if it doesn't then it just wasn't meant to be.
Shiro hoped they were meant to be.
"What? No way! THEM? TOGETHER?" Coran aggressively whispered as Pidge and Allura hissed at his volume.
"Could you just at least pretend that you don't know anything and treat them as usual?" Allura asked. "They haven't told us because of their own reasons so we shouldn't address it at least until they bring it up."
"I know, I know." Coran sighed. "It's just… Keith is going back to the Blades after this, when Shiro and us are going to be here. I'm already a bit worried thinking about it."
"It was his choice to leave since the beginning, and it is still his choice now as well."
"I know, but Voltron has helped him so much. We'll always be there for him, and I just don't want him to encounter another crisis, only to not have anyone to rely on again. Why would he leave again?" Coran's shoulder slumped as he looked over to Keith at the far corner, pulling on the rolls of ribbon that were to be hung on the upper balconies on the perimeter of the room.
Coran has served three generations of Altean royalty, and he had seen the start and fall of Voltron in his lifetime. He had been there with the very first Paladins and Allura knew well that he had an attachment to the current ones as well. Keith was perhaps the one that Coran worried about the most after Allura, and she knew he was the only one who understood Keith the most when Shiro had gone missing the first time. The burden that he had to take since the beginning as the Red Paladin - second in command - and then only to be thrusted into Black without warning.
"Why do you think Keith leaves every time?" Allura asked, knowing that Coran knew the answer.
Coran only gave her a defeated look and nodded in understanding. They both knew the answer. Keith only leaves when he knows that he's better needed elsewhere, and that he has done his duties to Voltron. But unlike the last time, he was holding his head high, he wasn't mournful or melancholic; there was an excitement in his gestures, in his words, and he was thrilled, ready for the next adventure.
Coran shrugged and grabbed the hanging lights from Pidge's hand and continued with his job.
The night of the celebratory ball was magnificent. The decoration concepts were Coran whose aesthetic was the only one able to decorate an ancient Altean castle. Tables lined the edge of the ballroom and drapes of fabric and ribbons hung from balconies above in brilliant whilte. The ceiling was a hologram of Tarrousene constellations and space that were reminiscence of the night sky as viewed from the city that they have just liberated. Floating trays of hors d'oeuvres and other drinks (with only a limited amount of nunville as begged by Hunk) circled near the tables and around the dance floor. Music resounded from speakers centred above the centre of the room, playing soft ambient sounds over the chatter of people, but loud enough for the attendees that were dancing.
The Paladins seemed to all have their own agendas tonight. Pidge stood with Hunk at one of the tables, discussing something that seemed to be a particular interest to her as she animatedly spoke. There were a few Olkari with her, along with other alien species. Lance, however, was already making his second round around all the guests and was trying his best to wait for a moment to pull Allura aside for a dance, but Allura was busy speaking to various attendees sent by the Coalition Rebels. Coran, however, was already on the dancefloor with his best Altean ballroom dance moves, though Keith could only appreciate from afar without trying to participate.
Keith stood at another table, nursing the very last bits of a drink that was not disguised alcohol, nor was it nunville. Not that Keith hasn't had his fair share of nights wasted on alcohol, but Keith would gag at the smell of vodka despite knowing full well he would still chug it. And Keith would rather not get wasted in front of all these people tonight, lest someone decide to remind them of the chair eating contest of the last party.
(Kolivan shivered from afar, and he turned his head from side to side, wondering why).
Shiro was taking his sweet time to get their next glass of drinks and finally came back with a guilty smile, "Sorry, got caught by a few people that didn't get the hint."
"I don't mind. You have your duties as Black Paladin." Keith reached out to take his glass from Shiro's hand and clinked the glasses against each other. "Cheers."
Keith took a gulp of the drink, tasting what reminded him of really bland carbonated lemon water. He turned to Shiro, "Why didn't you go for the nunville?"
Shiro gave him a dead glance, and it took everything for Keith to keep a straight face.
"There comes a point in time when even the memory of something makes me die a little inside, Keith. And that includes tequila, Matt's spaghetti bolognese, and nunville."
"Isn't Matt Italian?"
"Descent, and clearly Pidge got all the Italian blood whilst he got…" Shiro struggled to find words. "... something akin to monstrosity."
Keith almost spat out the drink in his mouth as he bursted into a laugh. He wasn't sure whether he should be sorry or embarrassed on Matt's behalf. His gaze turned to the dance floor, there he finally noticed Lance finally dragging a very patient Allura with him. The paladins have seemed to finally finished their rounds of diplomacy and are finally heading to have some fun. Shiro noticed his gaze and pointed a finger, "You wanna dance?"
"I… I don't…"
"Come on. It's gonna be your last party here for at least sometime. Dance with me." Shiro practically beamed when Keith took his hand and allowed himself to be pulled away from the table.
And they danced. They jumped, they swung and moved and laughed as they circled each other on the floor, swapping partners with the other paladins who were doing all sorts of improvised dancing. Keith twisted himself under Lance's arms, and turned to find Pidge and Hunk doing a full-blown shuffling sequence.
They continued until the music turned slow and the guests slowly moved towards the tables to wind down from the intensity of the dancing before. Keith quickly found himself swaying lightly on his feet before Shiro, arms wrapped around his neck and warm against Shiro's skin.
"I should have done this a lot sooner." Shiro said. "The dancing, that is."
"When would we ever have had time for this?"
Shiro looked to the ceiling, searching for a memory. "Remember the annual graduation at the garrison and the after party every year that will always end up with someone throwing up on the dance floor?"
Keith snorted. "Oh my God."
"Those parties are always unsupervised by adults, so the entire graduating class, and also a lot of the classes below them would also attend and get super wasted. Ever been?"
"I've never been. Haven't graduated, remember?
"Serious?" Shiro stared at him in disbelief.
"What? I mean… I just haven't"
"Well, I'm just surprised because everyone at the Garrison would probably have gone to those at least twice - once as a graduate and once during their previous years."
"Really? How many times have you gone?" Keith swore that Shiro's face was turning red, and not because of the alcohol.
"Three." Shiro admitted. "Twice as a student, and once after I became an instructor at the Garrison."
"Wait, you went as an instructor?"
"It's not my fault okay! One of my colleagues got curious about this party because they were a transfer from NASA, and then Johnson got really really excited to crash the party - you know how he is."
"Uh huh." Keith smirked. "Whatever you say, Shiro."
"I swear I didn't come up with the idea!"
"Really? And you didn't just go to check out the-"
"Let me stop you right there before you even think about it. Johnson was trying to set me up with Adam that time."
Keith gave Shiro an unimpressed glance. "And you're suggesting I go to witness… what now?"
"Well…" Shiro licked his lips. "If you had been there, I'd probably only have eyes on you the entire night."
"Sus. I'd be underage at the time."
Shiro's face burnt positively red. "Not in that way!"
Keith burst into giggles and his heart warmed as Shiro pulled him close enough to be hugging and rested his chin on his head. They continued to sway, uncaring of the rest of the world because Keith could care less about anything but this moment with the hands on him and Shiro's face in the slight darkness of the ballroom.
Above them, the sky was suddenly streaked with shooting stars as a meteor shower. They turned towards the light, and Keith was if a bit regretful he couldn't see the way the sky lit up like he could still recall in his memory. He could only see the vague traces of quintessence that the assumed shooting stars left behind in their trail.
Keith held onto Shiro's neck, grounding himself. Because perhaps he had lost a lot of things when he lost his sight, but he had also gained so much from it, and the person in front of him was proud to have witnessed it. And Keith was proud to have witnessed it. "Make a wish," Keith told him.
Shiro closed his eyes, and Keith took that chance to rise to his tiptoe and place a soft peck on Shiro's nose. He beamed when Shiro's eyes opened in shock. Though perhaps what was more surprising was in that moment when he shut off his senses just to savour the image, he thought he could see the colour of Shiro's grey eyes, and the white tuffs of his hair.
Keith blinked slightly, refocusing his vision, then turning to the holographic sky and almost gasped when he realised that he could see some sort of brilliance emanating from multiple spots in the sky. Keith could see their light and the slight halo around them even when he shut off his feedback loop. He looked down towards Shiro, whose pale skin contrasted greatly with his dark clothes, like the hair on his forehead rebelling against his buzz cut.
And Shiro was so much more beautiful in the light
"What did you wish for?" Keith asked him.
"Isn't it bad luck to tell your wish before it comes true?"
"I think that only applies for birthday wishes." Keith chuckled.
Shiro hummed, bringing a hand to tenderly hold Keith cheek, brushing his thumb down the bridge of Keith's nose and around the corner of his jaws. "You. I wished for your happiness, and for us."
Shiro turned to the sky quickly, searching for some constellation that neither of them knew. But that didn't matter; he was searching for a witness. He then turned back to Keith. "Let's make a promise."
"To do what?"
"A promise that… we will dance like this again, even if it's just us in the middle of nowhere. Just someday, after you return from your mission with the Blades. Best to have a short term goal for now, right?"
"Sure. Let's dance like this again one day. After your arm is fixed, after I return from my mission, let's dance again." Keith nodded, and tilted his face up so close to Shiro's that he could feel the warm breaths on his close, so close that if Keith leaned a little more, they would be kissing.
And he might just do that.
"Seal it with a kiss." Keith whispered before leaning in, placing his lips against Shiro's.
It was soft, the simple touch of skin against skin, lips against lips, before Shiro's hand moved to the back of Keith's head and they grew closer, their breaths pushing into each other as Keith's hand cradled Shiro's jaw. Fingers dug into Keith's hair and it was like a passionate dance not unlike the one they've just had.
Keith melted into the touch, taking, giving, drowning, living in the pull of Shiro's mouth on his. When they parted, breathing heavily, Keith raked his eyes over Shiro's face, over the strong bridge of his brows and nose, the sharpness of the jaws in his hand and the shape of his lips, slightly parted as Shiro caught his breath.
And Keith knew then that no light in the world could be as bright as the one that shone before him, and that he had finally been able to see the stars again.
A/N (2023): Yk those insane author's notes about surviving literally life changing events since the last chapter like getting married or having kids? Yeah, I didn't have that. But i had this tho:
A/N (2020): You've made it to the end! I made to the end! I can't believe I've finally finished with this project!
Within the time since i posted the last chapter, I have: gone abroad, studied for 3 weeks, came back to my home country, and now my school has shut down for a week and i'm sitting in a quarantine area in my country. I know a lot of countries are basically on lockdown rn and everyone everywhere is afraid of Covid-19 and things look bleak, but do keep going and stay positive! I've had like three mental breakdowns so far and it wasn't nice to be crying on campus on the first day, and then two weeks later when you realise you have to go home because the outbreak got bad.
I stared writing this in April last year with just a vague outline, and somehow it grew into this monstrosity. I'm kinda glad I finished it. I've learnt a lot about writing an dialogue after this, and I hope I can develop my writing further with my later projects.
Thank you so much for sticking with me throughout this entire time, and thank you to all those that commented and favourited this work.
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Twitter: imbabyplzbekind