WHAT. Atreus & Shiro chat after recovery time, Shiro keeps Atreus company. WHERE. The Sanctuary WHEN. Last week or so! WARNINGS. none really, just soft boys being friends. STATUS. Complete!
Atreus had never spent so much time in his own house. He was often active, and outside almost always, between running and being with the animals and spending time with friends. His house was for bed activities and the occasional meal, not lingering and spending nearly all of his time there. He’d gotten a few walks in but stretching too far and bending over were out of the question, even as the wound looked more healed every day.
It was less of an ugly thing now, the angry redness having given way to a more healthy pink of fresh skin. It was no longer bandaged, though Freya had given Atreus a foul-smelling paste that he was to apply regularly.
It was a good thing Lance already said he wasn’t going anywhere, given the odor that paste put off. Eugh.
But without being able to be as active as he would have liked, he turned to art. Or rather their bed had turned into a chaotic mess of sketches and inspiration that Atreus had dove into headfirst. Updating the monster codex had been high on his list, so the daemons he’d seen were the most obvious.
When he heard the approach of Shiro, he started tidying the space almost instinctively, halfway through stacking the art when his friend entered. “Oh-Hey sorry! Let me just-- get this all cleaned up.”
Shiro was used to being welcome in Atreus's home. He didn't spend a lot of time there because Atreus didn't spend a lot of time there, but he knew it well and comfortably let himself in and moved through the space looking for Atreus. There was a little hesitance at the door - only because the clone had left a mark here that Shiro still wasn't free from - but he shook it off as he poked his head inside Atreus's room.
Atreus's healing wound wasn't new either at this point but it felt like a fresh hit every time Shiro saw it.
"Don't clean up for my sake." He frowned, stepping into the room with his hands loose and open at his sides and his shoulders turned in. It was an unconscious way to be less intimidating at his impressively muscled six foot two. "Can I see what you're working on? Or…ah. Is that uncomfortable now? It's okay if it is."
Atreus had told himself previously that he wasn’t going to let the clone change things. That what he had with Shiro was good, and not going to be repeated again. Probably. It wasn’t Shiro’s fault, anyway. So Atreus stopped stacking papers up and instead offered the stack to his friend to leaf through. “If you want? It’s not anything-- you know, finished. Just some bestiary additions and art to go with it.”
Waiting for a reaction gave him an unnecessary amount of anxiety, for such a silly thing, so Atreus filled that void with a dumb grin and nodded to the corner of the room. “It’s nothing compared to recovery arts and crafts hour with Sabrina. We made signs.” LET’S GO SHIRO was decorated in glittery capital letters, with Atreus’ artistic flare surrounding it. Next to that poster was Lance’s, practically glowing in brightly sparkling red. “We’ve got about five to juggle between the two of us, should have put all of your names on the same sign.”
Shiro sat down on the end of the bed and took the stack of artwork. He was determined to erase the clone’s mark here, but he only knew a few of the details. He had to focus instead on just being himself – open and affectionate. It wasn’t difficult with Atreus in the slightest.
“It’s not anything, he says,” Shiro huffed, smiling as he went through the stack. “It’s just really great art that will help our database be more accurate and potentially save lives someday.” He smiled and then glanced at the signs. His expression turned bashful, despite years of being put up on posters and held in the poster boy status for both the Garrison and Voltron.
“Nice. I would’ve felt just as supported if you had stuck us all on the same sign, but still. Keith will probably steal one.” He set the stack of art back in front of Atreus with care. “Are you going to grab a spot at the finish line or try and race alongside the track in animal form or what?”
Atreus shrugged with an embarrassed smile. He appreciated the praise even if he didn’t need it, but it felt-- nice. It made the memory fade of previous taunts just a little more. “I’m not used to having to rely on other people to put together the information and dossiers, but I uh- skipped a whole lot of this havoc and chaos. Feels weird.”
He still felt a little guilty about that. For nearly three years now, Atreus had been there for nearly every single chaotic thing that had happened in Vallo since then. He probably had been due a thrashing, given how lucky he’d been through most of them. “I’ll let Keith borrow one, if he wants. I don’t know if I’m up to shapeshifting, so I’ll probably just stick with friends in one spot.” Atreus shot Shiro a charming smile. “I’m being so good, I swear.”
"I'd have preferred you were awake and in the middle of the chaos too, but saying you skipped it is crazy, Atreus. It's not like you picked a coma over fighting." Shiro made a face that was both disbelieving and full of a best friend's teasing. It didn't linger long as relief took its place. The last thing he really wanted with Atreus shifting and sticking too close to the race, but he knew he had a habit of being overbearing and he was really trying not to be.
"I'm glad you're not going to push it though. I wasn't going to fight about it, but I might have tried to sad face at you until you caved." He smiled crookedly and glanced around the room. "That said…well, I know boredom is a major factor with bedrest. Have you been outside much? Maybe we could takes some chairs outside and a table, play some cards?"
“Gods, please.” He’d been outside, sure, but going out there without supervision this week meant someone was immediately there, at his side.Sad faces were just the way to get him to do just about anything, coming from the right person.
Atreus liked it, he did. It warmed his heart that he had people willing to be there for him, and to help him, but-- the feeling of helplessness was still lingering in his pit. He’d had so long of thinking he was weak when he was young, that he wasn’t the spartan child his father had wanted, because he was sick, and that worry stuck around more than he liked to admit.
He turned his own pleading gaze onto Shiro, “I’ve been out a little, yeah, but please, yes. Cards, cloud gazing, fishing- anything. I’m going stir crazy without running and climbing and the mountains. I’ve gotten so spoiled.”
"You don't have to beg. I offered!" Shiro chuckled. "I…have firsthand knowledge of how frustrating and dull recovery can be. Although....," he mused, climbing to his feet. "The Galra made it interesting. In the worst way, but still."
Shiro gave him a look over and glanced around until he spotted a glass of water. He picked it up, and a throw blanket nearby, and then he stood close to the bed.
"Let's take these and I'll grab some logs for the firepit when we pass through the living room. In the spirit of being annoyingly fussy, do you need to lean on me or anything?" He lifted his eyebrows, waiting patiently. "Feel free to tell me to shut up."
“I’m good, I’m good.” His legs worked fine, thankfully, and Atreus swung them over the side with a little bit more oomph than he would have normally, just to prove a stubborn point that was likely unnecessary. He’d done the same thing to Lance a few times now, and felt a little bad about it each time after. But he was determined to stand up without assistance and had been making short trips around the house for a few days now. This was fine.
He snagged a deck of cards, and some of his blank papers with a pencil. Light stuff that no one would probably fuss at him over carrying and started towards the door out without waiting too long for Shiro. It also gave him the opportunity to wince a little when he turned his back and moved his chest too fast. “I’m glad I at least have you guys, when it was just me and mom, I pretty much just had to read books or she told me stories. Which was great, I loved her stories more than anything. But after a few years you kind of wonder what you’re missing out on with everything else.”
Shiro squinted a bit, clearly fighting between the battling urges to trust Atreus and to help Atreus. But he filled his hands up with things as they moved to resist the urge. By the time they got out to the fire, he had the logs, a bag of marshmallows, a small folding table, two blankets and two beers. He wasn't sure what meds Atreus was on now, but he figured one beer wouldn't hurt.
"I'm glad we have each other. I didn't uh…my grandfather raised me and he did it well, but he wasn't particularly a fanciful person. I had to get my stories from books and the internet. Lots of space stuff, as you can imagine." He smiled loosely and laid a blanket over the flattened log in front of the fire. "Sit. I know you're good," he parroted the way Atreus had said it inside, "but you look paler just getting from bed to here."
Atreus sat as ordered, though it was with a small frown playing at the edges of his mouth. He couldn’t comment on his paleness so he just took Shiro’s word for it, but it wasn’t that surprising. He’d had to regrow part of a lung or something to that effect, it still made him feel off anytime he exerted himself a little too much.
“He did a good job.” Shiro was certainly a testament to that. “Even if his grandson is stubborn and sarcastic.” It was said fondly, at least, as Atreus grinned up at Shiro and reached out to snag the beer. “Was the internet right about space? Most of the cosmos in my world are the product of strange jötunn shenanigans. It used to just be the Ginnungagap, a bottomless void of nothing but silence and darkness.”
Shiro grinned and started working on getting a fire going. This hadn't particularly been a skill of his a couple of years ago - not many fires in space - but he'd learned a lot from Atreus. It was just one of many little benefits to their friendship, which was rewarding in more ways than Shiro could actually count.
"Sometimes I feel like you make up words just to see if I'll question them," Shiro joked as the kindling caught and he was able to blow on the budding fire to coax it higher. "That kind of sounds like our space though? It's not a void though, not really. There are planets, stars, moons, black holes…" He could hear himself starting to talk like a fifth grader who'd just discovered his lifelong passion so he laughed. The fire was starting to gently crackle so Shiro moved over to sit on the log next to Atreus.
"We think it's infinite so, we really only have a small picture of what might be out there? Maybe our space also has jötunn shenanigans."
Atreus always liked when Shiro talked about space. Lance and Keith too, but from the time they’d met, Shiro had reminded Atreus of his own excitement when it came to learning things and talking about their passions.
He was also moderately proud that his forestry survival skills had been passed on, so he was able to stretch back on the log bench and watch as the fire picked up. He bumped Shiro’s shoulder lightly, not enough to do more than cause a little tug on the scar on his chest. “I don’t know if you can handle that, Shiro. Nine whole realms that are flat in the cosmos? I’d love to see the look on your face when that got discovered.”
Shiro snorted a laugh and reached over to pick a stick up off the ground just to specifically poke Atreus in the leg with it. And then collect the bag of marshmallows that were his real plan for the stick. "I can handle things that are real, butthead. If I saw them or there was scientific proof they existed in my universe!"
He meticulously stuck three large, fluffy marshmallows on the end of his stick and handed the bag over. "I just…think it would be nice if our universes were somehow secretly the same." There was some comfort in that thought. That even if they were all sent home, they could find each other again. Shiro nudged Atreus's shoulder companionably with his own and then lifted his marshmallows over the still modest flames.
"Thanks for not dying, by the way," he whispered, like it was a secret he forgot to mention. "This universe would miss you."
Atreus tried to look mock-offended by being poked with a stick, but ended up dissolving into enough laughter that his chest started to hurt. He stemmed off and held the marshmallows tight to give himself a second. “Maybe they are. For all we know, I’m a ruling trickster God in your world, lounging on a realm far, far away.”
It was a nice thought, anyway. Atreus busied himself with finding a stick and stuffing some marshmallows on it before he shoved it into the fire, right into the flames. At first he thought he might have imagined Shiro’s words and glanced over. “You’re welcome. I’m not ready to go anywhere yet, I like it here.”
He liked it here most days, anyway. But maybe not when there was a blurr of a leaping wolf running through the grounds and snatching the marshmallow stick out of his hands before leaping away. “Speki!” Atreus sighed and slumped. “Now you have to share yours.”
Shiro was almost glad for the interruption, chaotic as it was. “I don’t mind sharing.” He laughed and held up his perfectly golden marshmallow stack near Atreus’s face. He’d been carefully turning the stick to get the color just right and to not focus too much on the thought of Atreus going anywhere. As always, Shiro tended to channel his emotions into things there were carefully under his control.
“At least she didn’t take the whole bag.” He smirked and reached with his free hand to reclaim the bag. “That said, I think I should be in charge of these. You understand.”