WHERE: Vallo Forest WHEN: September 22nd, 2022 WHAT: On their morning run, the Koganes come across a surprise from their world. WARNINGS: N/A STATUS: Complete
Getting Keith up and out for an early morning run wasn't especially difficult these days, but Shiro still enjoyed teasing him along the way. He offered an immediate bribe of kisses and one on the horizon of a long shower together at the end of the run. He shoved a protein bar in Keith's hand and filled a little cross-shoulder sling with dried fruit, almond butter packs, and their water bottles. He wanted a long run today. The weather was just a little bit cooler this morning - a sneak preview to fall - and he wanted to take advantage of it.
"Come on, babe. Just one more mile and we can turn back," he called over his shoulder to Keith. His husband was either lagging behind because of fatigue or because he enjoyed the view. Shiro flashed a grin back at him and then picked up his pace through the trees. The path wasn't as well-worn here and roots threatened to trip him. It was why his eyes were on the ground when the flash of metal ahead caught the corner of his eye.
Shiro froze in place when he laid eyes on the Galra fighter parked in a small glade ahead. He didn't notice the damage immediately. He just recognized a fighting ship, capable of great speed and damage, and no way of knowing who the pilot was.
"Keith," he gasped. "Look."
It wasn’t that Keith hated running. On the contrary, he enjoyed exercise generally, especially since they were no longer constantly saving the world. But he had better things to do in the morning with his husband. Like sleep. Cuddle. Maybe a little kissing.
So married life was making him soft. Sue him.
But this morning he had been a little grumpier than normal and had needed the extra incentives. He was coming off a 24 hour shift and had only gotten back home the day before, so the kisses had been extra necessary. At least the view on the run was great. He had been giving Shiro a very thorough look over when he saw his husband pause and get low, as something caught his eye.
Immediately, Keith went for his mother’s blade, pulling it out and crouching down behind Shiro. He put his free hand on Shiro’s shoulder for balance, fight mode activated and all previous traces of tiredness gone. “I don’t see any sentries,” he murmured, keeping his voice low as he scanned the glade for any of the Galra’s soldiers. He didn’t take much stock of the ship yet, other than scanning for any movement from it. “I’m going to go take a closer look, cover me?” He only waited for Shiro’s nod, before he melted into the underbrush to get as close as he could get to the ship without being seen.
Shiro appreciated how quick on his feet Keith was. Because old trauma had a way of leaving Shiro locked in place for a few beats too long. He blew out a breath and snapped into paladin mode as Keith asked him to cover for him, though. There was nothing that pulled him back to himself faster than that.
Still, his heart was pounding in his chest as he crouched up to a closer viewpoint, drawing his bayard from his slingback. He didn't shape it into a sword yet because the glow would be hard to hide.
"I've got you. Be careful," he whispered. He kept his sharp gaze on the cockpit and made a quick series of hand gestures as Keith moved away to let him know there was no apparent movement inside and no enemies on this side of the fighter.
Keith was barely visible as he popped up briefly to make sure that Shiro could see him, before he made a gesture to indicate he was going around into the blindspot to check out the rest of the perimeter around the ship. It was a tense couple of minutes that he was gone, but he eventually emerged from the other side of the ship, blade lowered but not yet put away.
"I don't think anyone's with it," he said, as he straightened into a proper walking position as he approached Shiro. There was a troubled expression on his face. "I think I recognize this ship though." He scratched at his nose, as he fell into position next to the taller man while they both gazed at the Galran fighter. "It's the fighter I was flying during the Naxzela attack." He gestured at the damaged weapons system on one side. "I remember that happening."
Shiro waited, tense as a bowstring, for Keith to reappear. Their bond through the Black Lion didn't kick back any warning signals, but it was still not his favorite way to pass the time. He breathed a little easier as Keith approached, even if the look on his face was worrying.
"Naxzela?" Shiro remembered Voltron being trapped planetside and how they barely escaped thanks to Allura. And he remembered hearing later that Keith had flown his borrowed Galra fighter at the enemy's shield in suicidal attempt to breach the Galran defenses. Lotor had destroyed the weapon before Keith made contact, thankfully, but Shiro didn't particularly care for feeling thankful to Lotor. He frowned at the ship's damage.
"Matt told me what you tried to do." He moved closer to Keith and nudged him with an elbow. "And for once, I was glad you were a little too slow to accomplish your mission." Shiro squeezed the back of Keith's neck as he passed by to hop up onto the wing and peer down into the cockpit. "It's clear. Looks like maybe it's out of juice, too."
It wasn’t that Keith was suicidal, but when it had become a choice of doing nothing and losing everyone and dying to save everyone, Keith had made the choice anyone would have made in their mission to save the universe. “I just made the call any one of us would have.” As much as he, too, hated the feeling of being thankful to Lotor, he was glad he had been saved at the last minute and had been able to pull out of his last stand run. It wasn’t something he dwelled on though, this mission having been one of many countless incidents where he or someone he loved nearly died.
He followed Shiro over to the ship as the other man jumped up smoothly to examine the inside. He went around to where he knew the hatch to enter was and pressed his palm against the scanner that verified he was Galra. The door swooshed open. “Probably on auxiliary power,” Keith called over, as he cautiously entered. “Looks like it’s enough to maintain the important systems, but I doubt it’s getting off the ground, especially with that damage.” He went over to the pilot’s seat, after clearing the inside, and sat heavily.
It felt weird, being in that seat again after so long. Keith heard Shiro coming before he felt the hand on his shoulder. “This is weird. You think Vallo’s warning us about something?” He asked, half turning to peer up at his husband.
Shiro made a noncommittal noise. He knew he was too self-sacrificing to give Keith any grief for being the same. But the thought still left his heart constricted as he focused on the ship.
Keith’s heritage didn’t often get a chance to show, so it sometimes snuck up on Shiro. It made sense that the ship opened if it was one Keith had flown before. And now he was an approved user of one stranded Galra fighter. Possibly the only approved user, if this thing was a gift from Vallo and there wasn’t a pilot hiding in the woods somewhere. Shiro watched the trees as he hopped down to follow Keith inside.
“I don’t know. I’d like to say it doesn’t work that rationally, but it could just be an accidental warning. We’ll report it to Defense and keep an eye out either way.” Shiro squeezed Keith’s shoulder and leaned over him to examine the console. He knew his tension was from old trauma so he tried to loosen up his shoulders and smirk down at Keith. “How’s it fly? Maybe we can get it back up in the air.”
There were no guarantees in Vallo, so Keith remained cautious, though he did incrementally relax as he forced himself to stop thinking of the worst case scenarios here. This could definitely be Vallo’s version of a misguided attempt at a gift for him, but whatever it was, it would be no use worrying about it until something else happened.
“It flies like a dream,” Keith admitted, running his hands over the console with Galran script indicating what certain switches, levers, and buttons did. He knew enough to get the gist and the rest he had winged it, the first time he had flown one of these vessels. “It’d probably be a good idea to have this operational. Never know when the next monster attack is coming, right?” He let out a harsh breath, huffing as he rubbed at his eyes. “I wish Vallo had given us some surprise money instead, if I’m going to be honest.”
"Me too," Shiro admitted. There wasn't another chair in the cockpit so he perched on the console, crossing his arms over his chest. "This ship stirs up old memories on Kerberos for some reason. I know we've seen plenty of these since, but having it here, in a place that looks more like Earth…" He blew out a breath and mustered up a smile.
"It's not crippling, just uncomfortable. But if we get it up and running, I'm sure flying it would bury that feeling for good." He hadn't flown a really fast aircraft in years. Sara's shuttle wasn't meant for speed and Black was too enormous for it this close to the surface. He frowned though, more curious than worried as he looked back from the console to Keith. "You were just hoping for money to work on the cabin more, right? Not something more serious?"
Keith leaned forward, so he could put his hand on Shiro’s knee. Squeezing, he said, “I’m fully okay with blowing this thing up if it would make you feel better, if you’re looking for another option.” Cathartic chaos, it was something that Keith was a fan of. And Shiro’s comfort far surpassed any tiny desire Keith had of flying this thing again. He might have loved being in the air, but he loved Shiro a hell of a lot more.
Shaking his head, he snorted. “I promise I don’t need the extra cash to feed my growing boba obsession. I wanted to get started on adding more rooms to the cabin asap, that’s all.” The little influx of cash from the other week that he and Lance got from their bounty hunting adventure had been enough to cover how over budget Keith had gone on the kitchen reno, but the desire to expand and make this cabin kid friendly was strong. “I mean…there’s a chance we’re going to meet Kipp sooner rather than later and I just want to be ready.”
"That would be a terrible waste of a good ship. It's not like it's the ship's fault I have trauma," Shiro smiled. He leaned over to kiss Keith's cheek. "But the fact that you offered proves that I married really well." Chuckling, he sat back up and reached out to run his hand over the console, flipping this and that. Now that he'd said the words and heard Keith's support, the discomfort had already lessened. He could breathe easier.
Or maybe that was the mention of Kipp, lighting up his insides.
"You're right. There is a chance and we should be ready. We could get this thing running and if we need the money quick, we could sell it?" He thought it would be better to keep it, for both Keith and for having a fast aircraft around. But he also thought that having a solid nest egg was very smart too. "But we don't have to rush on any decisions. And we should definitely fly it first. A few times," he grinned crookedly.
“We’re not selling it if you’re okay with keeping it. It’s a weapon too, you know? We’re more than capable of going to a bank and getting a loan, but I don’t want this to fall into the wrong hands. Can you imagine if someone like the Vorerra got their hands on this thing?” They were plenty terrible on their own, but giving anyone they didn’t personally know Galra tech felt like asking for trouble. Keith shot Shiro a crooked grin, as he played with the controls. “Anyway, I see you. You’re just as excited to have something that’s fast in the air.”
He leaned back and hooked a foot around the back of Shiro’s nearest leg, tugging him to him. “Too bad we can’t enter it in the race, we’d win easily.”
"Hm, good point," Shiro frowned. It was possible he was a little too used to their fights coming from other worlds. They'd had a number of local complications too and it wasn't a good idea to let his trusting nature leave them vulnerable. "I was mostly thinking their space program could use the boost," he admitted with a sheepish smile.
It took very little encouragement for Shiro to get closer to Keith and he enjoyed the visual of his husband leaning back into a pilot's chair. He looked powerful and handsome, at home amongst the Galra equipment around them. Shiro braced his knees on either side of Keith's chair and slid into place on his lap. He leaned in for a kiss.
"We'll make our own race once we get it up and running," he said against Keith's lips, sounding like he was offering something far more risque than a competition.
Keith couldn't blame his husband for forgetting that not everyone liked the Outlanders, in favor of pushing for more development in space exploration here. He didn't have quite the same desire as Shiro to get back into space because space had always been an opportunity for him to find a purpose and people to call his own. And had found both of those things in space, back home.
But here? His goals, his people? They were right here in Vallo, with the great big shining star of his life now in his lap.
He flushed red in a way that had nothing to do with their morning run and everything to do with what he was reading between the lines of Shiro's words. Running his hands up the other man's thighs, he cocked an eyebrow and said, "I'm holding you to that." Keith hooked his hands around the back of Shiro's thighs so he could secure his grip on him as he stood and lifted him with him. He was smaller than Shiro, but he had a strength to him both from his Galra heritage and firefighting, that he didn't show off often.
Sitting Shiro down on the smoother side of the console, Keith leaned forward to kiss him up the neck, tasting salt. "But kind of want to do something else right now."