Shiro had never been much of a birthday person. Being a leap year baby made his birthday easy to remember, but he’d been in military school from an early age and completely focused on getting into space, so a lot of a teenager’s normal socializing had fallen by the wayside. He’d gone racing with Keith most years he remembered to do anything at all, but one year his ex-boyfriend Adam had thrown him a real party. It had been sweet but also awkwardly populated by people Shiro considered more coworkers than friends.
Once Shiro left Earth, well. Birthdays were the least of his concerns. He’d shown up in Vallo right before his last one and hadn’t realized it had passed until a few weeks later. So when Atreus asked him to lunch, he hadn’t even put two and two together right away. Now that they’d eaten and the waiter had – quietly – dropped off a piece of coconut cake, Shiro was embarrassed but pleased.
“I completely forgot I told you when my birthday was.” He laughed and picked up a fork, gesturing towards the kitchen. “I’m guessing you didn’t tell them or a bunch of strangers would be out singing and making everyone really uncomfortable.” He took a bite and then held a hand over his mouth as he mumbled with his mouth full. “Please eat some of this or it’s just going to be weird.”
Atreus was already reaching for a fork for the cake when he was invited to join in, which was probably a good thing, as he would’ve without being asked. With an apologetic grin across the table, he dug in for a bite. He was clearly proud of his accomplishment, and getting cake out of it, so Atreus couldn’t feel too bad about the little flush of embarrassment that bloomed across Shiro’s face.
He had worked it out ahead of time - a normal weekly lunch, they did them frequently - at a favorite place, with the request given to their waiter when Atreus had gotten up to go to the restroom right after ordering their food. “I knew you wouldn’t want to make a big thing of it, but we don’t do birthdays at home and I’ve gotten really addicted to cake, okay?”
That and celebrating with his friends had become a favorite pastime in the last year. If a party wasn’t on the table, at least cake and lunch were.
“No, I…” Shiro swallowed his bite and huffed a laugh. “It’s great. Who doesn’t like cake? Besides my dietician when I was fifteen and crossing my fingers I’d get to see thirty.” The words were a little dark, but he said them with the casual ease of someone who’d survived that part of his life and lived free of that burden now. He took another bite and pointed his fork at Atreus.
“You know if this is really a thing for you, we can just add get cake to our weekly lunches. We might just also need to add run five extra miles for Shiro’s sa--” His words cut off as a familiar and otherworldly buzz thrilled up his spine out of nowhere.
His fork clattered to the table. “Shit, sorry, I…”
He couldn’t help it; he looked up and down the street from their streetside cafe seating. It couldn’t be that. He didn’t have a bond anymore. But he also couldn’t help stop hope from rising in his throat even as he half rose in his chair.
“It’s not as special when we get cake every week,” Atreus had started to protest, even if it wasn’t really a protest. More of a half-hearted objection that he had no intention of following through with, because he was going to get cake on a regular basis--
Well, not if Shiro was distracted anyway. Atreus reached down for his bow the second his friend started to stand up, fork still in his other hand, but he only had a second before he was almost falling on his ass before a large black blur came flying through the sky. “Oh Odin’s nutsack--” The black blur landed on the street, just narrowly avoiding cars, but pointed directly at Shiro, and Atreus scrambled to his own feet now.
Everything around them rattled with the weight of a giant robot landing in the street. Dogs barked. People cried out in alarm. How Black avoided crushing anything was a miracle. Shiro stood fully now, his mouth hanging open. The pull of the bond to a Lion rang loud and clear in his chest, like the best melody he’d ever heard and never expected to hear again.
“Oh my God,” he whispered. He felt Black reach out, not in words but in impressions. “I can...I can feel him. I don’t understand.” His wide-eyed gaze dropped back to Atreus, then shot back up to Black again, like if he looked away too long, this would turn out to be a hallucination. He couldn’t actually strike out that possibility here anyway. He looked down the street. Face after face was upturned or talking in surprise to each other. If it was a magic mirage, it was strong enough that people could see it all the way down the road.
“I shouldn’t be able to feel him, Atreus.” Black seemed to react to that stunned admission and the robot slowly started to reach a large paw towards them.
Atreus had met Blue - had spent time with Blue, and a great deal of time with Allura, so this wasn’t completely out of left field for him. He’d heard the stories of Black, from both Shiro and Keith, and with realization blossomed a big grin.
Quickly, Atreus went into action, he tucked his bow over his back and put money down on the table, before quickly taking one last bite of cake and surveying the area for anyone injured. Thankfully, surprise seemed to be the worst of it, with exclamations of alarm coming from a few sides, but no cries of pain or destruction. He saw the paw as it was coming, and put his trust into Shiro and Black at that moment, letting himself be swept up with the very brief hope that he wasn’t about to be launched across Vallo. Even if that might be fun.
“Happy Birthday?” He got off to Shiro as they were being lifted, and then he barked out a relieved laugh. “I mean, I didn’t do this, but maybe Vallo is giving one back to you? Thanks for showing up my cake, Vallo.”
Shiro was a little stunned stupid, but he managed to finally snap into action as Atreus did. He looked around for any sounds of distress as he climbed into Black’s paw. Mostly people just seemed to be gaping up at them, resetting car alarms, and gingerly stepping around shattered glass. Shiro let himself focus instead on the pulse of energy from the metal beneath him. He stayed crouched in Black’s paw so he could press his hands to it.
“Happy Birthday is right. Sorry about leaving your cake behind, though,” he laughed. His eyes were bright. He closed them to tune in further to the connection. “He’s going to walk south to get to a nearly empty parking lot he can see. We should be able to get inside there.” He opened his eyes to grin up at Atreus. “Shit. I can’t believe I get to fly a Lion again.”
Atreus reached over to clasp a hand on Shiro’s shoulder, and squeezed. Partly for the comfort of it, and also partly to keep his balance as they were moving. It wasn’t the first time he had been on an object as large as this one and needing to keep his feet steady, but he still took a second to appreciate the view from up here.
Hearing Shiro laugh was worth it - after Keith and Allura leaving, the castle ending up empty-- all of it, he knew it took a toll on his friend. “I’m glad, really really glad.” Just what he needed. Atreus straightened slightly and peeked out over Vallo again. “Are you sure he doesn’t want to drop me off in the parking lot? I can let you two have some alone time?”
Shiro covered Atreus’s hand on his shoulder as Black rocked forward, one heavy step after another. He’d seen Atreus fight, so he wasn’t under any illusion that falling from even this height would be much of a problem for a shapeshifter. But he’d risk being overprotective to keep his friend from having to rescue himself anyway.
“What? No!” Shiro let go only because Black was coming to a halt and starting to lower them already. Thankfully they hadn’t needed to go far; there were car alarms going off for two blocks. “I mean, we’ll have plenty of time for that. I’ll probably sleep in the pilot’s chair for a few days, if I’m being honest.” He climbed out of the paw as the Lion sat down and the light posts around the edges of the parking lot shook. “I want you to see inside. It would mean a lot to me,” he admitted.
Atreus didn’t even mask the fact that his face lit up at the idea of getting inside. He hadn’t done that with Blue, and certainly hadn’t taken a ride. New adventures and things? Oh-- That made a little shiver go down his spine, and his grin bloomed even larger as he climbed down and followed Shiro.
He didn’t want to double check if Shiro was sure, so he just nodded.“That sounds amazing, I can squeeze in. So, yeah--” It felt like Black had been waiting for that agreement, as the moment after, a hatch opened up, for them to climb in. “I’m singing you the Happy Birthday song from in there, just so you know.”
“Don’t worry, it’s pretty spacious in there,” Shiro promised. He was practically racing to get inside. “I mean, not the size of an apartment or anything but big enough that we’ve had several people standing around behind the pilot’s chair before. Singing might make me want to kick you out, though.” As the darkness of the interior settled around him, he could feel the bond even stronger. It was an effort not to let the swell of emotion spill out of him the whole way up to the cockpit.
Seeing the chair and the console and touching them with his own hands put a crack in the dam, all the same. His eyes were immediately damp. He breathed out a joyful sound and sat down, spinning the chair back and forth. “I don’t have my bayard,” he admitted, pressing his hand over the slot where the bayard usually rested. “But I have a feeling Black will give me a break on that one, just this once.” The robot lion seemed to power up stronger around them in confirmation, vibrating with energy.
Atreus was laughing as he followed Shiro inside, the threat of singing still on his lips, but it died away quickly as he got to look around. It was bigger than he expected - but that also made an odd amount of sense given how large Black was on the outside.
But all this technology and advancement was thrilling. He had his own smile on his face as he looked around while Shiro got reacquainted. He knew a lot about this world from Shiro, and getting to experience it firsthand was exhilarating.
He was observant enough to notice his friend’s emotions, too, and where Atreus ended up was right behind Shiro’s chair, so he could lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s just back at your apartment, right? Does it help connect you two?” He was back to looking around, not able to keep his eyes on Shiro. “This is just-- incredible.”
“It’s hard to explain. It’s kind of like a key but only for the fully-realized version of each Lion. A paladin can use the bayard as a personal weapon, but they only get access to its function as a key when their bond is at its strongest possible point.” Shiro pressed his hand to the bayard console and then shifted it back over to main controls. The last time he’d used the bayard as a key, he’d died and Black had saved his consciousness by sending it to the spirit plane. It made this moment a little complex, but it didn’t stop him from feeling very, very lucky.
“You should uh, probably hang on tight,” he said, flashing a grin up over his shoulder at Atreus. “It’ll level out once we’re in the air but take off is a little rocky this close to all these buildings.” If this were a jet, he’d be flipping switches right now. But this was Black. All he had to do was put his hands in place and the cockpit vibrated as they lifted a few feet above the parking lot. A few more windows shattered nearby and Shiro winced. “It’s a good thing I don’t really spend my money much.”
Atreus laughed again, and planted his feet firmly. It was a good thing, too, because the only thing in arm’s reach for him to grab was Shiro’s chair. He put a steady hand there, so he wasn’t grabbing at Shiro. “We should install a handle or something back here,” Atreus joked, but it was clear that he was having the time of his life as they took off. He’d been in Sara’s ship briefly, but this just--
It connected right to him, and he couldn’t have stopped the grin even if he wanted to. “If I have to host another fundraiser, I’ll do it,” he was going for reassurance, knowing that things could be fixed, but this was still the opportunity of a lifetime for Shiro. Or maybe two, with a death already behind him. “It’s probably a good thing the castle’s still here, right? We’d have a hard time fitting Black at the apartments. Maybe Vallo knew. Planned.”
Feeling the whoosh of take off in his gut was a long-loved sensation for Shiro, but it was even more special in Black’s pilot chair. Hearing Atreus’s laugh only added to it. Shiro resisted the urge to push Black to his limits immediately. It wouldn’t be safe. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun.
“Maybe Vallo did. It’s definitely lucky. He’d lived in worse places than an apartment parking lot but I’m sure I’d be up to my ears in complaint forms.” Laughing, he pushed Black higher, a little faster. His smile grew too big for his face. “Whoo! I’ve missed you, buddy. Let’s show Atreus what you’ve got.”