WHERE:Vallo Forest WHEN:September 10th, 2021 (Backdated) WHAT:Shiro and Keith have a picnic inside Black, work on figuring out how to be co-pilots, and progress their relationship. WARNINGS:N/A STATUS:Complete
When Keith had initially suggested that they go out in Black, he had intended the trip to be something of a bonding experience with a picnic on the side. Shiro had said that he had wanted to get an outing or two in before the weather got cold. But because Vallo was Vallo, of course the day that they picked to go out was the day that a sudden cold front hit them and ruined all of Keith's plans to woo his boyfriend.
He smiled sheepishly at Shiro, rubbing the back of his neck from where he was standing against the control panel. Through the viewport, they could both see the rain hitting Black from outside, harsh and cold, which was a difference from the soft warm rain of the summertime.
"Sorry about this," Keith said, sounding very sorry indeed. "I had checked the weather beforehand and there had been nothing in the reports saying that we would be getting this kind of rain."
Shiro wasn't especially bothered by bad weather. He'd thought they'd have more time to enjoy the outdoors, but to be fair, they had been warned a storm was on the way eventually. The bigger concern in that regard was whether or not the storm would get aggressively bad and strand them here. The odds that psychics were catching wind of a storm that just rolled in for a few surprise hours and then rolled back out again seemed slim. He leaned over the console, staring out the window with Keith.
"It's okay. If the psychics couldn't tell us exactly when this was going to hit, we can't expect the weather reports to nail it, right?" He flashed a sideways smile at Keith and then turned to sit against the controls. His posture was relaxed, despite the vague stress of unforeseen circumstances. That was because he was Keith, he assumed. Whatever was headed their way, they could face together. Black even thought so. Although…
"If we're stuck here a while...I hope you brought food. Because I definitely only have like two protein bars and a few bottles of water hidden in that cubby over there," he gestured at a compartment on the wall.
Keith remembered seeing the warning on the network, but hadn't honestly paid it much mind. No one else had been panicking much like the last time a psychic had gotten a warning, so he had let it sit in the back of his mind, to be dealt with later. Unfortunately for Keith, later seemed to be while he was trying to romance his boyfriend. But at least they hadn't been caught unaware outside of Black and that they were still warm and dry.
Pushing away from where he was sitting, he opened the compartment that Shiro had indicated, only to pull out not the protein bars and water bottles Shiro thought were in there, but a whole picnic basket. Keith Kogane never did things half assed, if he was serious about it. "You could say I brought a little something…" The grin on his face was pretty self satisfied. "How long it might last us, I guess that's up to us."
He put the basket down on a flat surface and opened it up, pulling out a tupperware tray full of cut up cheese, fruit, and meat, then a bottle of red wine and glasses. "I'm not letting some rain stop us, so how about we just have our picnic here?" It didn't matter to him that they weren't enjoying the outdoors like he had originally planned. Not as long as he was with Shiro.
Shiro’s expression brightened in the storm-dim light of the cockpit. “You know I love when you’re all prepared like this.” He paused and huffed a laugh. “Is that embarrassing? Probably.” Punching a few buttons above his head changed the lighting to a soft, warm glow. It would power down a lot of unnecessary systems while they were here too, so as not to waste Black’s energy. Shiro doubted it would get cold enough to need controlled heat – not when they could warm each other all on their own.
He knelt down on the blanket, gaze lingering on Keith’s movements. Some moments between them lately felt like a dream and this one was one of them. Rather than voice anything quite that sappy, he reached for the wine and dug out a bottle opener to pop the cork. “I hope Black doesn’t mind us potentially leaving crumbs in here." His chin dipped shyly as he filled the first glass. “I feel like this whole double paladin thing will get us some leeway for a while though.”
“It’s a part of your charm,” Keith teased, looking fondly over at Shiro where he was setting the mood lighting, while he pulled out the rest of the food. “Wait until you hear about how Roz helped me get organized for school by colour coding things.” Tapas style food followed, but he left it up on the counter area for now, instead taking the offered wine glass Shiro held out to him and joining the other Paladin on the blanket.
The smiles came a lot easier these days, the burden of having to save the universe gone and finally having some good things in his life. He loved his friends and allies before, but since coming to Vallo, he had found something else. Something more than he had ever expected to find and so it was easier to be happier now. And because of the uncertainty that came with Vallo, he forced himself to enjoy every moment he had now, instead of worrying about what might happen later. Living any other way would just make him go crazy.
He shifted so he was pretty much leaning up against Shiro’s side as they talked and enjoyed the food. “I still don’t know what Black’s trying to do here, but I’m not complaining. It’s nice to feel connected again. I was starting to feel a little untethered without this.” Shiro probably had already picked up on that, with the way Keith had been trying to overwhelm himself with being useful, but this connection with Black and Shiro grounded him in a way that reassured him that he wasn’t just taking up space anymore.
"Color coding? I would like to see that." Shiro probably should've been embarrassed by the pleased tone of his own voice but it was just them here. There was little about him Keith didn't already know and his level of organized dorkiness was certainly not one of them. He leaned over to kiss Keith's shoulder, absentmindedly affectionate just from the comfort of his nearness.
"I know you were having a hard time. That feeling of being unmoored is...well, I get it." He smiled, somberly, and took a drink of his own wine if only to give himself a moment to think. "I can't think of a better way to give your connection back than for us to share it. If I'd thought it was even possible, I'd have offered it the second you got here." His gaze drifted to the solo pilot's chair. "It's a little tricky though, isn't it?" he smirked. "We're going to have to flip a coin sometimes."
“I wish I could be surprised by how hot you get for organization, but I’m not,” Keith laughed, absentmindedly taking a sip of his wine, enjoying this moment. It was rare for them to have down time, even in Vallo, with how packed their schedules could get. But at least it was a normal sort of packed, these days. “I mean, I share a closet with you, I know all your deep, dark desires.” A joke, for the most part. Despite them both knowing each other to the core, there was still a lot left to learn about each other and Keith was excited to learn it all.
“You know, I thought we’d hit at least a year before we started thinking about custody arrangements for Black.” But Keith was pleased that this new development with Black was so readily accepted by Shiro. It would make conning him into letting him fly the Lion whenever he wanted a lot easier. “Coin flips work for me though.”
Face upturned so that he was looking up at Shiro from his stupidly comfortable position against him, he puckered his lips in exaggeration, asking for a kiss without having to say anything.
Shiro snorted a little laugh and leaned in to deliver the requested kiss. He lingered there, too, addicted to the fact that they did this now. If all of Vallo was some weird dream, it was so good sometimes that Shiro couldn't imagine what the nefarious trick was. Maybe it would take this away, now that he had it. But for every second it was his, he was grateful.
"I like you talking about us hitting a year," he said warmly as he pulled away. "Here's to many anniversaries and fighting over the pilot's chair." He grinned and lifted his glass to clink it against Keith's. Black apparently saw that as perfect timing to startle the shit out of him, because the floor next to the pilot's chair opened up and a second chair rose up from below. Shiro couldn't help but bark out a surprised laugh.
"Wow," he snickered. "You really have a flair for the dramatic, big guy."
If it hadn’t been for the flood of absolute happy hormones coursing through him at the idea of having more anniversaries with Shiro and sharing Black, Keith would have had his mother’s dagger out in seconds. But the gentle nudges he occasionally got from Black helped ease his hand and, while he did startle, it wasn’t in the worst way.
He outright laughed at the sight of the second chair. Was it the acceptance that they could have a lot of happy years together if they let it happen? Keith wasn’t sure, but he knew he was fully invested and that Shiro was too. That hadn’t been a mystery for either of them, but maybe their outlook on Vallo changing had something to do with this new development. “Well, guess that’s one way to do it.”
Turning eyes full of love and cheerfulness at Shiro, Keith added, “Guess you’re stuck with me. Black practically married us just now.”
Shiro choked on air, something somewhere between a laugh and a sputtering cough bursting from him. His face felt warm, but it was the swoop of emotion in his stomach that really left him smiling like an idiot.
"You can't just say things like that," he mumbled, still grinning. Of course, Keith could and would, because Keith had never let expectations stop him from following his gut. It was one of the things Shiro loved most about him. After all, he too had flouted expectations and fought to get into space even with a terminal illness. "Not that I'm complaining exactly."
He didn't sound like he was complaining even a little. He pressed a kiss to the corner of Keith's mouth and then pushed to his feet to claim the new chair. The seats were off-center right now, but he had a feeling Black would fix that when they weren't taking up most of the cockpit.
"What do you think?" he looked over his shoulder at Keith. "Sharing a Lion is one thing. Co-piloting at the same time will be even trickier."
People would say that Lance was the one that lacked a filter in their group, but Keith was sneaky about how little he gave anything he said any considerable thought before he said any of it. Head full of air, honestly. It’s why he was so bad at parsing his emotions and they came out so violently or suddenly sometimes. But he had no regrets about what he said. Because the second the words had passed his lips, he knew that they were true. Shiro was going to have a hard time getting rid of him now.
However, he knew better than to double down on this at the moment. It was still fairly early in their actual relationship, not counting the years that they had spent getting to this. Keith wasn’t trying to scare Shiro off yet with his unique sort of intensity.
Staying a few seconds longer on the blanket to down his wine like a heathen, before getting up, he approached the new chair. He touched the back of it, trailing a hand over the top behind Shiro’s head as he examined it to see if there were any differences that he could see. “Could just let me pilot him and you can sit back and relax?” Keith teased, not meaning the words. Despite how much he missed having a connection to the Lions, he had never really been eager to be leader or in charge. He had done it because it had to be done. “I don’t think I’m worried about it though. We work well together. I think it’ll translate.”
Shiro tipped back in his chair and looked up at Keith with a warm stare. "I could but I'd be obligated to backseat drive and you'd probably break up with me pretty fast," he smirked. He was tempted to pull Keith into his lap, but this seemed like something that needed to be discussed in a co-pilot way and not a boyfriends way. So he reached out with one foot and turned the spare chair towards them instead, gesturing towards it.
"I'm not worried either, for the record. I know even if it's harder than we think it might be, we'll get there. We always do." Reaching out, he smoothed a hand over the console and tried to get a feel for Black in the psychic sense. Black seemed unbothered by all of this, and calm in a way he hadn't been before the link had been established. Shiro tried to "reach" the same way for Keith. "Can you feel me right now? What my intentions are?"
He intended to close a shield over one of Black's eyes, more as a test than a need to block out the dark rain outside.
Recognizing that Shiro had switched gears from boyfriend to Paladin of Voltron, Keith easily went as directed, sitting down on the other chair. It felt comforting, just like it had when they first had established this three way connection between them. He let that warmth of the connection wash over him, accepting Black and Shiro into his very being, and closed his eyes to bask in it for a moment longer, before they got down to business.
Opening his eyes when Shiro asked his question, he breathed, “It’s...like I’m right there with you.” He could see Shiro in his mind’s eye, just as easily as he was seeing him in person. Black’s spirit surrounded them both. “You…” he reached out for Shiro in his mind, which took a few long moments, though physically he reached out for the console to press a button. The shield came over the viewports that acted as Black’s eyes, closing them to the rain outside. “That. You wanted to do that.” It wasn’t as quick as he would like and in battle, that could easily cost them lives, but for a first test?
It wasn’t so bad. “We’ll get faster at that,” Keith promised, as he frowned at the console, before looking over to Shiro. His frown smoothed out, as he gave him a little smile. “I know we will.”
Shiro watched Keith with a thoughtful frown between his expressive eyebrows. It wasn’t that he couldn’t feel Keith – he could – but it felt more rounded at the edges, more shapeless than he would prefer. Of course, Black gave them something wonderful and unique and he was already wishing he could sculpt to exactly his specifications. Ridiculous and ungrateful. His expression cleared and he sent a mental apology to the sentient spaceship around them.
“That was good. I think you might have a slightly sharper connection than I do. I’m probably overthinking it,” he admitted with a sheepish twitch of a smile. His attention turned back to the console and sat back in his chair, trying to relax into it. “Sometimes I wonder if you would have found me in the spirit plane faster if I’d just been able to get out of my own head.” He was aware he was a bit of a control freak. He liked to think he balanced it with excessive patience and compassion, but sometimes, he just felt like someone who needed to unclench. He reached over between the chairs, palm up for Keith’s hand, and smirked. “Your instincts have always been special though. It’s probably about time I let you do more of the leading in this dance.”
Keith was a lot more stubborn than most people. It had only been months ago that he had been bonded to Black to defeat Sendak and his army, in a way that he hadn’t been before. It was also why he was able to bring Shiro back to the land of the living because he simply refused to give up.
But it was still a little too much credit than he deserved, to have his instincts be called special. Reaching over to put his hand in Shiro’s, he shook his head and squeezed his hand. “You look at the bigger picture and see all the details we miss. Sometimes we need you to overthink things.” Smiling a little ruefully, he added, “Though if you ever need help turning off your brain, I can help with that. But I’m happy to follow you, Shiro. Followed you all the way to the other side of the universe and then here, didn’t I?” The amount of trust he put into Shiro was a little ridiculous, but he would blindly follow that man through hell if he had to. And he had, a couple of times.
Shiro pulled Keith’s hand up to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. He was intimately familiar with Keith’s redirection techniques anytime anyone said anything nice about him. But he let it slide. The words warmed him all the same. As satisfied as he was with his position as second-in-command, he liked feeling useful in bigger ways. He liked Keith, in particular, thinking highly of him.
“I could use help turning off my brain right now. I want to sharpen this link. I…I mean I always feel close to you but this is something else, right? Something that’s just ours?” His eyes brushed over Keith’s face softly. “I don’t mean that in a territorial way, just. I don’t know.” He felt a little exposed. Needy. He frowned and let go of Keith’s hand to ruffle the hair at the back of his own head. “I like having something that’s just ours.”
Keith understood what Shiro was talking about almost immediately, without having to hear him say it. It was the same feeling he got when he was feeling especially isolated, when something wasn’t working out and he just wanted to find Shiro and have him soothe over whatever was irritating him. The problem was when Keith was feeling like that, he never actually did go seek the other man out. He felt like it was asking for too much, being too needy. It still hadn’t quite clicked for him that now that they were in a relationship, that he could ask for that. He was a hypocrite too because he never felt right being in that position, but seeing Shiro like that, having him ask for something? Keith immediately wanted to give him anything he wanted or needed.
“I get it,” he admitted, his frown pronounced when Shiro let go of his hand. “We’ve all been a team so long and when Lance arrived, I know I kind of…clung a little hard to the idea of us being a team still.” He would never admit it at the moment, but having Lance arrive had been a bit of a relief. He had been so off-kilter with Shiro because of the feelings he had been having over him, that having Lance around to be Lance had helped normalize things and even helped figure out what he wanted out of his relationship with Shiro. “But you’re right. We need to have something that’s just ours. And I’m glad it’s this and that it’s something we can work on together. I don’t have to share you with anyone else when it comes to this.”
Here, he got up and gestured to Black and the surrounding cockpit. But then he approached Shiro and promptly made himself a home on his lap. “This is ours and we’re Black’s Paladins. If it’s not perfect yet, I know it will be soon because I know us. So...” Keith trailed off as he wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck and bit his lip. He considered for a second if it was his place, but then gave himself the push to use the name he had been wanting to for awhile now. They were dating, they were bonded. If he didn’t use Shiro’s proper name, who would? “So how about that distraction, Takashi?”
Shiro breathed in sharply as Keith sat in his lap, a loose smile spreading across his face. He hoped he never took this for granted - Keith open and warm in his arms and the faint echo of that feeling in Shiro's core thanks to Black. He had to press his face into Keith's shoulder for a moment to catch his breath.
"Thank you for that. We'll always be a team, all of us. And I get it, why you needed that normalcy. I think I did too. But it's nice just being yours sometimes too. To get better at that too." Shiro had never been especially attached to his first name. Military school from a young age could do that to a kid. But hearing it now, with Keith so close and the bond on his mind, felt like hearing a song he used to love and hadn't heard in years.
"That...that was a good start to the distraction already, you know." He smiled boldly and curled his arms around Keith, pressing a biting kiss to his throat. His nails dug in a little at Keith's spine. "But please...tell me what you have in mind."