Work Text:
The sun was bright, but not unpleasantly so. It simply added a gentle warmth to the cool air of a late February day in the desert. Shiro sat at a picnic table in the backyard of his friend Matt’s house. A breeze blew, ruffling his hair and making the streamers that hung from the tree in front of him twirl and float in a colorful dance. It was nice to just sit, away from the pilots and cadets who wanted him to tell stories of his recent mission, Garrison staff who wanted to record data for training modules, and the media with their flashing cameras that wanted pictures for their papers and websites. It seemed as though everyone wanted something from him, but today Shiro didn’t have to meet any of those demands.
A screen door slammed, and Shiro looked behind him. Matt was there, carrying out a huge sheet cake, frosted in white icing. Pidge followed with plates and silverware.
“Happy Birthday!” they said in unison.
Shiro smiled at the two of them. “You guys really didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
“Are you kidding? Of course we have to celebrate. It’s not every day the famous pilot of the successful Kerberos mission has a birthday.”
Pidge set the stack of plates down on the table. “Technically, he’s not having one today either. His birthday is the 29th of February and this isn’t a leap year.”
“All right. Let’s not harp on that.”
Pidge grinned. “Sorry, Shiro. All Leap Year babies must suffer being teased about their birthdays.”
The screen door banged open again. Keith and Lance tumbled out of the house, arguing over who would get to light the candles on the cake.
“I bought the candles!” Lance shouted as he waved a pack of birthday candles in Keith’s face.
“Well, I have the lighter!” Keith flicked the red Bic in his hand. A flame shot out, and Lance jumped back with a yelp. “Your work here is done. Now it’s my turn.”
Hunk came out of the house next, carrying a tub of ice cream and rolling his eyes at the two in front of him. “Guys. Calm down. You’re ruining the vibe of this most auspicious occasion. Shiro is turning six today.”
Keith and Lance stopped arguing and they both turned their teasing on him.
Lance dropped onto the bench seat across the table from Shiro. “That must suck not having a real birthday.”
“Yeah,” Keith said as he sat on Shiro’s right. “That’s worse than people who are born near Christmas. They get the shaft having their birthdays combined with a holiday. Yours just doesn’t exist.”
Shiro took the good-natured teasing in stride. “At least I’m not a pirate bound to serve until my twenty-first birthday.”
Keith blinked at him.
Shiro ran a hand through his hair. “Pirates of Penzance? The opera?”
Keith shrugged.
Shiro smiled at his boyfriend’s cluelessness. He reached out and grasped Keith’s hand, lacing their fingers together. Their palms met, the leather that covered Keith’s hand warm against Shiro’s skin. “We’ll watch it together sometime.”
Pidge interrupted them. “It’s time to sing!” she said excitedly. “Keith, where’s that lighter?”
Keith released Shiro’s hand so he could lean forward and light all the candles that Lance had set into the frosting. He settled back onto the bench once twenty-one little flames danced and flickered above the white cake.
Shiro looked it over. Hunk had made it of course, and the others had clearly all had a hand in decorating it. The border was outlined in black icing, with gold rosettes in the corners, mimicking the trim on his uniform. Happy 6th Birthday! was scrawled in green icing across the top of the cake. A plastic toy space shuttle was stuck right in the middle. And a male figurine, wearing a jacket that looked like it’d been drawn on with a silver marker, was in the corner, with ACE shakily written in red icing beneath it. The middle bar of the E curved down and met the line below it, like the icing had dripped. The cake was a mess. And Shiro loved it.
As Shiro smiled at the cake, the entire group sang. Hunk had a surprisingly smooth baritone. Lance rapped the birthday song and somehow managed to stay on beat with everyone else. Matt’s voice was high and sweet, while Pidge happily screeched in a key that didn’t match any of the others. Keith’s voice was low, hiding behind the rest of the singers. His face warm with a happy blush, Shiro thanked them all once they were finished singing.
“Make a wish,” Matt said in an odd tone.
Shiro looked at his friend and crew member. “I don’t think I need to. I have everything I want.” He leaned forward, sucked in a breath, and blew out all the candles in one go. Shiro grinned and sat back as everyone clapped.
“Cut the first piece!” Hunk said, gesturing to the cake knife that Pidge had set in front of Shiro earlier.
Shiro picked up the silver knife and reached towards the cake. The sun glinting on the metal of the knife made him pause. “My hand…” For a second, it seemed as though his hand had also reflected the sun’s rays. But that wasn’t something skin could do. Shiro stared at his hand, but there was nothing wrong with it. Just a normal hand. Large, with tan skin, and short, clean fingernails. Shiro shrugged and cut the cake, putting the first piece on a plate Pidge handed him. Then he passed the knife over to Hunk so his friend could serve the rest of the group. Lance went around and dropped heaping scoops of ice cream on everyone’s plates.
As messy as it looked, the cake was delicious, moist and just the right amount of sweet. They all praised Hunk for his skill and he preened under the attention. Conversation flowed as they ate. Shiro joined in, laughing along with their jokes and retelling of the antics they got up to at the Garrison. After he ate his last bite of cake, Shiro pushed his plate forward so he could lean his folded arms on the table and relax even further.
“Shiro.”
The hair on the back of Shiro’s neck rose as Keith softly called his name. His heart thumped, but Shiro didn’t acknowledge his boyfriend.
“Shiro.” This time Keith was a little more insistent.
Shiro didn’t want to turn. He knew if he did, things would change. This wonderful day of sunshine and laughter would become something different. Something darker. But it was Keith, and he would never ignore him. Shiro turned.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“It’s time to go.”
Shiro smiled, but the edges of it had a hard time staying up. “We can’t stay a little longer?”
Keith’s face, always so solemn, looked even sadder. “No, we have to go.”
Shiro looked around the table. Everyone was staring at him, looking both sad and expectant. “Thanks, guys. This was great.”
A chorus of Happy Birthday, Shiro went around the table. It was quieter, less jubilant than his earlier birthday wishes. Shiro straightened his spine. But he reached out and swiped a finger through the remains of the cake, bringing the icing to his mouth for one last taste. Once he sucked all the sugar off, Shiro looked at his finger. It was different. The fingernail was gone, a dull gray gleam spreading down the digit to the back of his hand. Keith’s hand landed on his shoulder, distracting him from staring at his changing limb.
“C’mon, Shiro.”
Keith lay in bed, propped up on one elbow. His boyfriend lay across from him, curled up on his side. Keith shook Shiro’s shoulder. “C’mon, Shiro. Wake up.” Shiro mumbled, eyelashes fluttering as he slowly came awake. Keith ran his fingers through the shock of white hair that fell across Shiro’s forehead. He remembered when it was black. Before missions and lions and Galra captivity. Shiro’s eyes finally opened, and he gave Keith a sleepy smile. With his face still soft from sleep, he looked like that Shiro from before.
“I was dreaming we were back on Earth, having birthday cake. You and Lance fought over who got to light the candles.” He slipped an arm around Keith’s waist, cool metal fingers lightly stroking the bare skin of his back. “And my arm … it was normal.”
The simplicity of what Shiro wanted: birthday cake and a body that was undamaged from fighting, torture, and experiments, made Keith’s heart squeeze in his chest. He couldn’t give Shiro what he desired. All he could do was give him a little more time in his dream world before he had to face the ugly realities of this one. Keith leaned down to whisper into Shiro’s ear. “You know what? I think you can sleep a little longer.”
Shiro smiled again. He snuggled in closer, pressing his face to Keith’s chest. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
This time Shiro didn’t respond. He just sighed, his eyes drifting closed once more, body gradually easing back into the laxness of sleep.
Keith pressed a gentle kiss to the soft hair of his lover’s temple. “Happy Birthday, Shiro.”