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The children of Narlgath were pretty similar to humans in a lot of ways. They were the same size as the kids he remembered from Earth, with two arms, two legs, and a head; there were a few notable differences, prime of which being their pale periwinkle skin, glowing vaguely translucent in the dim sun of their planet, previously blocked by a massive Galra warship that now lay at the bottom of the planet’s expansive ocean. Their glowing white eyes were unsettling. Their stretchy arms, elastic skin stretching over rubber bones, on the other hand, were just annoying.
One of those arms was currently reaching up another three feet from its owner to pull on Shiro’s white tuft. The child unextended their arm rapidly and Shiro couldn’t but bend with the pull as the kid pushed his little blue face right up to Shiro’s
“Your hair is funny!” He screeched, right in Shiro’s ear. He winced as his eardrums were shattered, clenching his teeth and turning away.
Through the ringing in his brain, Shiro heard Lance laugh. The child, upon hearing everyone’s favorite babysitter released Shiro’s hair with a horrible shrieking giggle. There is no sound like a child’s laughter, Shiro thought, nothing in the world so awful .
Lance smiled down as Shiro rubbed his scalp, confirming that his hair was, in fact, still attached to his head. He pouted as few white hairs fell away into his hand. Lance was heartily amused by this, the jerk. Lance currently served as a jungle gym for about four children, one of which being the little adorable freaking demon spawn that had messed with Shiro’s frosted tips. How dare they mess with his frosted tips. How dare Lance be so freaking good with them while Shiro was practically jumping out of his skin at every howl of joy and scraped knee; to be fair, happiness and pain sounded very similar when coming out of the lungs of these small beasts.
Lance, somehow, thought differently. He was completely in his element, here, on an alien planet and surrounded by noises of seemingly infinite frequencies. There was a natural flow to his movements, how he would ruffle the hair of one kid, pick up another, and grin at a third all in the same gesture. He could see why they all adored him. He laughed at Shiro’s discomfort.
“Not a kid person, huh?” he asked, eyes sparkling.
Shiro huffed and crossed his arms. “It’s not a challenge I am familiar with, no.”
Lance shook off one of his parasites, sorry, children , and Lance extended his hand (in a normal, non-stretchy way) to Shiro.
“You’ll get better, I promise. It just takes practice.”
Shiro finally started to breathe out his tension as Lance rubbed circles on the back of his hand, comfort radiating from the small motion. The kids must have seen the change, the gentle man hiding behind the stiff-backed leader he always tried to present. One of them pulled down on his right arm, gently this time. A light movement, only meant to get his attention, Shiro exhaled, accepted Lance’s playful wink, and knelt down in front of the child. Shiro’s smile was tight, but better. The child blinked at him.
“I’ve decided I like your hair.” they said, and nodded at their own conclusion, and ran off. Shiro sighed and looked back up at Lance. He couldn’t help but feel the warm feeling that creeped all the way to his toes, that stopped his heart and filled lungs when Lance looked at him like that. The stars were in his eyes and he didn’t even know it. Lance chuckled warmly as he ruffled the kneeling man’s hair.
“I like it too.”