Chapter Text
“I’m not crazy about this, sir.”
Shiro sighed, sweeping his hand through the tuft of bangs that hung over his forehead. “I know you’re not, Lieutenant.”
Allura huffed and spoke her rebuttal into tightening one of the velcro straps on the bulletproof vest she was fitting over his torso. Chatter and static fuzzed in and out on the walkie attached at her shoulder, breaking then restringing the terse silence between them. It wasn’t hard to miss the worry lines around her mouth, the graying of his hair in his bangs. The streets were quiet then grew louder with protests and cries and he was their mayor, he was elected to fight for them and do right by them.
And sometimes - to him - that meant leaving his desk and the gilded ceilings of City Hall.
“I think you forget I used to wear the same uniform.”
“On the contrary.” Allura’s eyes snapped up to his, bright and biting - commanding in a way that reminded him to strand up straight. “My memory’s just fine, Your Honor.”
The long scar on his nose itched under her scrutiny, the severed nerves in his right shoulder twinged. She had just been enrolled in the academy when he and his partner, Senior Officer Holt, had…a bust go south. He doesn’t remember much from the severity of his injuries, only blurred glimpses of Keith and the doctors and brief introductions of the officers stationed outside of his room.
He chuckled quietly and defiantly rolled his eyes at her. “Then I’m sure you also remember me asking you not to call me that.”
“Hm, maybe so, Mayor Shirogane.” Allura’s hands reached for his tie, but she caught herself half way there, pulling her hands up short before bringing them behind her back and falling into a practiced stance. Her eyes flicked back up to his before settling back on his tie. Shiro got the message and adjusted it, smoothing out what parts of his shirt he could. He glanced back up to Allura, raising his eyebrows in question. She gave him a cool once over before nodding curtly.
Everything was in place.
Even if she looked like she wanted to suit him up in two more vests and full riot gear.
The first time he had met her, he’d almost flatlined again, one of the few things he did remember was the quickness of her appearing at his bedside and the force she slammed on the emergency call button, then nothing again as alarms went off and voices raised.
The next thing he could solidly grasp onto, whether or not he had technically came to anytime before was up for debate, was her still standing at the foot of his bed, looking for all intents and purposes like she was ready to fight a hurricane and win. A younger med student had helped him resettle and double checked his vitals as she subtly fixed her uniform, tucking a stray lock of hair back behind her ear.
The med student had glanced between Shiro and Allura in short order before he leaned down to Shiro conspiratorially. “Between you and me, I’d go into cardiac arrest if that absolute vision was outside my room too.”
It was completely unprofessional, but he laughed. The sound startled everyone in the room, including him, and it was nails-on-a-chalkboard awful, but it had some of the tension hanging over them dispersing as the officer tried to bite back a smile. She tried for unamused and reproachful, but missed the mark by a hair.
“Thank you, Mr. McClain, that will be all.”
With a flourish of his stethoscope back around his neck the young man threw them a lazy salute. “Anything for the city’s finest, ‘Lura.”
The sound of a throat clearing brought Shiro back to his office.
Allura ticked her head to the side, studying a painting on the wall. “Off the record, sir, but would it be unprofessional to slip the mayor a gun?”
Shiro smiled, resting his hand on her shoulder and gently squeezing for only a heart beat before he willed it to fall back to his side. “Off the record, he doesn’t think so. On the record, he won’t take one because he trusts the officers escorting him with his life, completely.”
“Then might I suggest a raise for his police force for the amount of trouble he attracts?” Allura’s voice was teasing, but her eyes had softened and the tension between them morphed into the words they couldn’t - wouldn’t - say out loud.
He was more afraid of those words pressing harder on his tongue each day, so close to tumbling out, than making this stand to protect his city.
They filed out into the hall, voices of other council members and officers overlapping in the high ceilings of the building, but hers cut over all of them without her actively raising her voice. “Remember, from here on out, this is on my orders. That earpiece you’re fitted with isn’t just interesting to look at. If I tell you to fall back, you’ll do so. I don’t plan on losing a single citizen tonight.”
Adrenaline crashed through his veins as the lights of cameras washed over them, rapid fire questions going ignored as they squared their shoulders and pushed out the double doors.
“Affirmative, Lieutenant.”