Hello!

This one is a day late, sorry. It got pretty long and I decided to get some rest before looking over it again and publishing it. But I also had time for the prompt for day 14 so double the shallura!

Day 13: hurt/comfort. Shiro had a very dark nightmare. It's a Shirangst oneshot.

Enjoy!

When the mice came to wake up Allura that night, she practically leaped out of her bed and ran towards the black Paladin's room. She was afraid this might happen: the little information she had about his time as a Galra prisoner was enough to get her on high alert. He had been behaving incredibly well put together and calm and Allura worried about the day when his trauma would manifest itself.

Allura entered the room and Shiro was still in his bed, the sheets ripped and burned in some parts because he activated his Glara arm in his sleep. He was struggling, sharp quick breaths leaving his lips, sweat pearling down his body. "Get ready to call Coran if things get out of hand," she warned the mice. Carefully, Allura got around the bed and placed her hands on his temples, avoiding the Galra hand while doing it. She closed her eyes and focused her energy on her fingers.

When the princess opened her eyes, she quickly realized that she was engulfed in darkness. Being in Shiro's mind, specially without his consent, was a huge breach of privacy. Despite how worried she was about his eventual reaction, she was more worried about getting him out of his nightmare. She marched on. "Shiro?" She called out. Suddenly, she heard it. His voice. "Get out of my head!" He yelled out.

Allura got closer to the source of Shiro's voice and saw him fighting against…

Everyone.

Not just Zarkon and Haggar and the Galra. But the Paladins, Coran… her. They were not only physically fighting him but yelling cruel word, words that cut like knife.

She had to be careful, dragging Shiro out of this situation would make him worse if things went wrong. Allura remembered her health lessons with her mother and covered her body with blue quintessence. The light automatically caught Shiro's attention. The evil Paladins were screaming louder around him but all he could see was Allura's figure covered in a soothing blue light.

Then, just as he was getting closer, the dark shadows fused to create a single Allura. But something was different. Her eyes were yellow, filled with darkness.

"Why would I ever want to be with you?" The evil voice asked him. "I am royalty, I am strong, I am powerful! What could you ever give to me, puny human? You are broken, you are weak, Zarkon has a stronger bond with your lion than you and you call yourself a Paladin!" Shiro was shaking, the voice sounded just like Allura but were spiting venom into his heart.

Allura looked at him, she couldn't intervene directly, her mother's teaching was clear on that. She had to let the individual fight the darkness within them head on. All she could do was show support. She focused on creating waves of energy with her quintessence, making her look like she was the starting point of small blue waves. Shiro realized that his true goal was behind the illusion.

He turned on his Galra arm, sliced through the evil Allura and ran straight towards the blue light.

They both opened their eyes, gasping for air, back in reality. Shiro's arm automatically stopped glowing, he was disoriented at first but then, his eyes locked on the princess'. "What… what happened?" He asked confused. "You had a nightmare," she tried.

"Princess, please," Shiro insisted. She knew what was coming, he was going to get mad at her for intruding his mind, he was going to ask her to leave, he was maybe even going to stop talking to her when their paths crossed on their sleepless nights. But…

She had to tell him.

"The mice got worried when they saw you moving in your bed so they came to get me. By the time I got here, your Galra arm was glowing and you were fighting and… I had to get inside your nightmare to pull you out." She waited for what she assumed was the inevitable. Instead, she received a question.

"Wait, you can do that? So the blue light… it was you?" She nodded. His head was now in her lap. He twisted his head to get a better view and saw the destruction his Galra arm caused. Covering his face with his hands to think, he finally took them off his face and said, "I'm sorry I scared you. I really didn't want you to have to worry like this, when I offered to take care of the mice tonight… OH QUIZNACK WHERE ARE THE MICE?" He sprung in a seated position and looked around only to find them at the feet of his bed, looking at him with worried eyes. "Awwwn guys, I'm so so sorry," he whispered to them while slowly extending his human arm towards them. "I really did not want to scare you like that. I had a very bad nightmare." Sensing the safety in the gesture, they one by one gave tiny kisses on his fingers. Shiro grabbed them all to put them between him and Allura.

"Shiro, are you alright?" Allura asked. He scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out what to answer to the princess. Looking down at the mice, he talked in a low voice.

"I've had a lot going on in my head, especially since I've become the black Paladin. I think… I think I've started to doubt myself. My nightmares… they're getting worse…"

Allura grabbed his hand. "Our dreams often are manifestations of our deepest thoughts." His jaw was tightly closed. The nightmares, the trauma, the pressure…

He snapped.

"I… I'm so afraid of what the Galra did to me, that one day I'll wake up and the thing they did to me, that I don't know of, that they'll use it to hurt you all, for all I know me being the black Paladin is putting the whole universe in danger. I don't understand why Black would even bond with me, I know it was just a nightmare, but at the same time, I've seen what's hiding out there in the universe, there are stronger, braver, wiser creatures out there and… and…" He was in tears, his both hands clutching onto Allura's hand. He emptied himself and somewhere between hysterical laughing and yelling in anger, she crawled onto his lap, wrapping her arms around him. His neck resting in the crook of her neck, he cried until he could cry no more.

She waited until his breathing came back to normal. "Shiro, in your dream…I saw the team be evil… " he bit his tongue, preventing a new flow of tears from falling. "I know," he choked out… "I know but…"

"But it was just a dream, it was doubts and insecurities feeding on your dark thoughts. We all care about you, not just as a team, but as a family. You understand?" he nodded.

Allura held Shiro tighter.

"Allura?" he whispered. "Yes Shiro?"

"Could you stay tonight?" He asked.

Soon, Allura and Shiro were wrapped up in new blankets. His head on her chest and arms wrapped around each other, he listened to the steady heartbeat of the Altean princess. "Allura?" he whispered. "Mhmm?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They fell asleep, the mice on a pillow next to then with their own blanket nest. Allura will worry about replacing the burned mattress tomorrow but tonight, she held onto Shiro, hoping that after all he had been through her love for him would be enough to let him sleep through the night.

And it was.

Let me know what you think! :)