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“Nice job, team!” Shiro said proudly. The dust around them settled. The paladins collectively sighed in relief as they looked at the ruins around them. The plant-like creatures had all subsided and withered away, leaving the paladins safe after such a straining battle.
“Wait, where’s Keith?” he asked.
“I dunno. Probably getting in someone else’s way,” Lance scoffed harshly. Shiro cringed slightly as he recalled what had unfolded in the battle minutes prior.
“Keith, watch it!”
“Stay out of my way, Mullet!”
“You’re in my shot, Keith!”
His first mission back and he was already having trouble keeping up with the plans and patterns of the team’s old routines. Things are not looking up for Keith… Hang in there, baby! Please, just be careful. Wait, what is he doing? NO KEITH- just a bit to the left please!
To say the very least, it was a messy fight. Pidge looked a bit worse for wear. Hunk’s armor was dented significantly. Lance had a cut along the side of his face- a cut from Keith’s blade.
Keith’s blade, where was it?
Shiro searched hastily around the ground for a few moments before finding it, haphazardly laying by a nearby shrub.
“GUYS! HELLO?? KEITH IS GONE?” Shiro nearly shouted.
The others looked at him with looks of displeasure adorned across their faces. One by one, the appeared to shrug off Keith’s disappearance, almost like it was nothing out of the ordinary. Disappearing was his thing, not Keith’s.
“Good. We don’t need him here. He’s just messing everything up. He was better off with the Blade of Marmora anyways,” Allura hissed between her teeth. Shiro took a step back in pure shock. Was she for real? Keith just got back! He hasn’t been with anyone else from Voltron in so long. There’s no way that he could possibly remember everything… Why was everyone acting like this? He opened his mouth to retort, but Hunk pushed him back.
“We should probably go wait on the ship. I’m sure he’ll show up eventually,” Hunk stated.
“Eventually?! Do you even hear yourselves? He’s not some sort of lost animal, he’s our team mate!”
“Yeah, and a bad one at that,” Pidge said bitterly. Her lion had taken a lot of damage on the way to the strange planet to begin with, so she already was in a bad mood. The fight could only have made it worse. In fact, Shiro got that vibe from everyone. He shook his head vigorously. He pulled away from everyone else
“Fine. If no one else will go with me, I’m going to find him. Alone,” he called over his shoulder as he stormed off.
Originally, he had planned to walk right into the forest, find Keith, and bring him home safely. Step 2 was proving more difficult that Shiro had anticipated, but he was resilient.
“Keith! KEITH!” he shouted hopefully. Nothing. There was no way that they would possibly be able to do anything without him. Keith was too important to leave behind. At least he hoped. Shiro’s journey continued on.
He carried Keith’s blade like it was a precious gift- almost as if he was going to present it like a dowry on his wedding day. With every step, he could feel the dagger guiding him closer and closer to Keith. Or so it seemed, until he walked into a cave wall.
The rough stone was clearly intentional- not planned, but intentional. It was too rough to have been made by any architect, but the shape of the cave itself gave off a vibe of something more, like a force of nature had whipped through the woods and carved itself deep into a mountainside. Engraved on the cave’s outermost face were the words “AGAROS AHEAD”.
Shiro took a step back to examine the cave before him. The blade seemed to leap out of his hands, saying “Look for Keith in here! He’s in here!”. He called out Keith’s name into the abyss before him. He heard something, maybe even some things , scamper away from the entrance. Shiro barely gave himself the time to have gathered his thoughts before running in. The cave was warm, surprisingly. It smelled deeply of something sweet, but sickeningly so. The strange aroma wafted throughout, he quickly discovered as he wandered around the front of the cave. He tripped over something on the ground.
A knife. Some sort of red aluminium. Shiro recognized it immediately. He had given him that knife for his birthday right before he left for Kerberos. Keith never went anywhere without it. The knife was the final nail in the coffin for him. He sprinted deeper into the massive cave.
His footsteps echoed against the stone walls. As he went further and further into the cave, though, light grew dim. The air became more aromatic. The cave seemed to be closing in on him as he moved. Looking behind him, he could no longer see the light from the outside world. It was just him and the cave.
Suddenly, there was light. Not just from one tiny crack, like he had expected, but from all above him. The cave had turned into something like an arena, an open air one at that. However the blinding light around him was shut off by vines, weaving into massive sheets that covered the area above him. Shiro clenched his eyes shut again at the change in light.
When he opened his eyes again a few seconds later, there was some sort of writing engraved into the walls of the stone. He carefully approached it to examine the strange carvings. The closer he got, the easier it became to read.
What are you here for?
Well, that was obvious- Keith.
“I’m here for him!” Shiro shouted into the cave. From somewhere in the cave, Shiro could hear some sort of distant rumbling. Vines dripped from the ceiling, forming large, primrose flowers in the center of the arena. Primrose- like those in the gardens at the Garrison that he used to walk with Keith in. The flowers charged towards Shiro rapidly, striking him on the on the side, almost drawing blood. He coughed and summoned his bayard. This was not going to be easy.
After having fought off at least 7 of the flower-things, Shiro was exhausted. He racked his brain, searching for something that would hold off the flowers. A thought emerged from the back of his mind, another answer to the question he was asked.
“I’m here for Keith.”
The plants receded, leaving Shiro to collapse on the floor. He sputtered out a few choice words and breathed heavily. Around him, he heard stone scraping from the wall. The carvings on the wall had changed. Shiro stumbled closer to the wall to read them.
Why are you here for him?
Another easy question. Why were these so easy? Shiro shouted into the arena.
“I’m here because he’s missing!”
The vines drooped again as Shiro winced in anticipation of the battle to come. The flowers formed before him. He didn’t recognize them this time though. They had deep purple petals with black centers. They looked like a collection of purple eyes, all moving towards him. Shiro dodged the first wave and slashed the heads off some of the flowers. Seeing the flowers fall to the ground reminded him of Keith in battle, slicing through the flowery carnage with his Marmora blade. He knew the answer.
“I’m here because I love him,” he whispered, just as a flower hovered above him. It dissolved, covering him in pollen. Shiro sighed in relief and slight realization. Did he love Keith?
The first time he saw him, his heart skipped a beat. The last few nights before Kerberos, that one when they got drunk and kissed, but never spoke of it again. The time on the Galra ship where he was beat mercilessly for scratching out notes to Keith so he wouldn’t forget him. The time that he was gone so long and Keith was the one who kept looking for him. Those times when Keith and him were alone together- training, eating, late at night wandering the castle.
Yeah, he loved Keith.
The writing changed again, but this time it was big enough for Shiro to read it, no matter where he was standing. It was labeled as the final question.
Does he love you?
Shiro stood with his mouth agape. There was no way to know for sure. Of course, there were the times in the pool where they swam in playful circles, like dancers on stage. There were the long nights where they sat under the stars and told each other everything. There were those times where Keith couldn’t sleep so he came into Shiro’s room to sleep. But he never could know for sure.
“I don’t know,” he cried out desperately. Shiro didn’t know if he could survive another wave of flower power. He clutched his side, where the vines had struck him. Pulling his hand away, he could see a small pool of blood. Defeatedly, he sank to the ground as white flowers spiraled down, like acrobats from the ceiling.
The flowers lumbered towards Shiro’s crumbled figure. They were much slower than the other flowers, and much more elegant too. The flowery beings crept closer. Shiro noticed some of their petals falling, as if a child was picking them off slowly. He recognized the pattern of the game he used to play as a child. It was a sickening variant of “Loves me, loves me not”. The tortured plants moved faster as they grew closer.
Shiro heard rumbling again. he quickly turned his head up towards the source, seeing a doorway start to form in the stone walls across from him. In a last ditch effort, he ran towards the frame. Shiro banged on the newly formed door. It sounded hollow. He banged on it until his hands were practically aching from pounding. His attempts were fruitless.
The droopy flowers drew near. He felt their aroma like a hot breath getting closer and closer to him. Shiro weakly held Keith’s dagger towards his attackers.
From behind him, he felt something emerge. It took the blade from his hands and slashed through the petaled creatures before him. Shiro looked up. Standing above, those familiar midnight blue eyes. Keith.
Keith dropped to his knees and knelt by Shiro’s injured side. He resourcefully sliced a bit of material from the arm of his suit and tucked it into Shiro’s paladin armor like a makeshift bandage. He helped him to his feet.
“You okay?” Keith asked. Shiro nodded in reply. He wondered if Keith had heard everything he had said. That wasn’t the issue though- that would be the flowers. More of them descended from the ceiling. Keith tugged on Shiro’s shoulder, pulling him down slightly. He whispered in his ear.
“I’ll go left, you go straight. They’ll go after me, but you can get out.”
Shiro looked at him in disbelief. “I’m not leaving without you, I came all this way just to find you. Please. Come with me. We need you. I need you.”
“No. You have to go. Now,” he insisted. The flowers were getting uncomfortably close. They were growing too, up to the ceiling, where they reattached to the vines. The vines above them were wrapped in bright white flowers, coming towards them. There would be no way for Keith to get back in one piece if he had to fight off all of the flowers.
“Please, come with me!” Shiro begged. Keith shook his head and grabbed his hands, wrapping them around his waist. He brought their faces close together with a swift move of his slender hand.
“I love you too, Takashi,” he whispered. Their lips met in a gentle, parting kiss.
Above them, the vines disappeared. The flowers that were attached to the vines turned into bright white petals and rained down around them. They kissed tenderly as sweet blossoms fell around them.
So Keith did hear what I said, Shiro thought as their lips pulled apart. Keith smiled at him with a bright, beaming grin. He responded with one of his own. They lips collided once more. Kisses couldn’t do all of the talking though, Shiro quickly realized. “Why did you leave..?”
Keith looked taken aback by the question, “I didn’t. Someone or something took me. All I remember is being pulled away from the battle. I tried to attack, but I think I was gassed by something.”
Shiro pulled him into a tight embrace. Keith returned the gesture, wrapping thin arms around Shiro’s muscular waist. He had never really had the chance to realize how beautiful Keith was. Not even just physically, though that was true as well. Keith was beautiful in every way. Outside, a lean, tall man with long, raven hair, just above his shoulders. That never changed. But his personality was truly dynamic. He was usually so cool, calm, and collected. But when he was passionate about something, Hothead Keith came out, with piercing violet eyes and a complete shift in demeanor. A mix of power and passion burned deep inside of him with a longing to do something great. Out of that dangerous mix came the most dedicated side of Keith, the one who had saved him what felt like years ago. The side of Keith that had given him a new hope to save the world- no, the universe- as they knew it.
But “sides” didn’t matter to Shiro. What mattered was Keith, no matter what his mood was. Keith was safe. Keith was in his arms. Shiro had found his lover once more.