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Shiro's thirty-five the next time he leaves Earth. It's like an itch has been building in his soul, year after year, and overall he's been pretty successful at ignoring it. Curtis makes it easy. He's kind, patient; his presence calms Shiro, lulls him. But Shiro has to go back up.
He loves his husband, who is very easy to love. He loves the home they've made on Earth, the work they've been doing for the Garrison. but he misses the stars. He misses walking among them.
Thanks to the Coalition, technology is light-years ahead of the ship that brought him to Kerberos. It took a year just to get to the edge of the solar system that time. Now he packs a duffel bag and says, "I'll be back in two weeks, honey. See you soon."
He feels his soul ease as soon as they break atmo. He can breathe again, out here in the airless vacuum of space. He goes to a nearby system, helps out with a rebuilding project. The same type of work he's been doing on earth, but it's so good to see a different sky at night.
He returns home both energized and appeased, kisses Curtis, happily relays stories from the trip. Another year goes by before he feels the itch again.
He's gone a little longer this time. And it's less than six months before he goes up again.
There are genuine excuses at first - "Hunk's coming to the neighboring system, I'm gonna go meet him," or "There's a Galran ceremony I really want to make it to, wanna come?"
But Curtis, who doesn't feel the itch, says, "Nah, you go, I'll hold down the fort." And Shiro doesn't press him.
And eventually, he stops bothering to make excuses. He just says, "I gotta go. See you soon, hon." And the trips get longer and longer and the gaps between them shorter until he's in space more than he's at home and still Curtis never complains. Just says, "You go have fun, babe."
He's always there waiting when Shiro comes home. Happy to see him, happy to hear where he went, who he met up with. But as the years pass, Shiro find himself less and less inclined to share. His time in space is precious to him, and he feels that his words never do it justice.
Shiro is guilty, of course, the time he's only home for two weeks and gone for eight months, but he got caught up in some things, and one adventure led to another, and he just couldn't find the time to come home.
"Why aren't you angry with me?" he says when he returns.
Curtis shrugs. "I know you love it up there, and I love you, and I want you to do what you love."
"Come with me next time," Shiro says, almost pleading.
"Nah, you go ahead, babe." Curtis smiles. "I'll hold down the fort."
Shiro is gone for a year and a half.
The longer he stays out, the guiltier he feels about returning, but finally he does, a shadow of a beard on his face. "Honey," he says, after lying awake in the dark for hours that night, "You know I might not come back one of these times."
"I know," says Curtis, and Shiro can hear him crying, quietly, and it breaks his heart, so he takes him in his arms and says, "You shouldn't have to wait for me," and Curtis says thickly, "I don't have to, but I will."
So Shiro files for divorce.
It's hard to know how much he's hurting this man he loves, but he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life choosing between him and space. The next time he leaves Earth, he doesn't intend on returning.
He goes to Daibazaal.
Returning from work that night, Keith enters his little kitchen and finds Shiro waiting there. Keith takes in his stubble, his travel-worn clothes, his duffel bag, and runs his tongue over his teeth, which have grown sharper and longer with time. "Took you long enough."
“I had some, some things to work out," says Shiro slowly, forcing himself to meet his old friend's eyes. He's seen Keith every year, at Allura's remembrance day, but he hasn't really let himself look. At his face. At that scar.
"You here for an inspection or something? Garrison send you?"
Shiro shakes his head. "I left," he says. "I'm gonna just. Be out here, for awhile. Out there, I mean." And he gestures out the little kitchen window to the starfield above Daibazaal. "Wanna come?"
Keith sucks his teeth again, shrugging off his jacket. "Mom and Kolivan have a pretty good handle on things here. And I'd be lying if I said I haven't been waiting to hear you say that for like, fuckin', twenty years." And he smiles, not quite the way he used to, but close.
Shiro rounds the table in two long strides and catches him in a tight embrace. Keith's grown so much. His body doesn't remember the way they used to fit together at first, but as the seconds turn to minutes and neither of them pulls away, he lets it come back to him.
"Wow," says Krolia, dryly, from the doorway, and they startle apart like schoolboys. "Taking my son off to space again, are you, Captain?"
"Jesus fuck, Mom," says Keith, but he's smiling and so is Shiro, and Shiro's still smiling as he says, "Afraid so, ma'am."
"Good," she says, turning to start dinner for five. "He's been going absolutely stir crazy. Driving me and Kolivan up the fucking wall. Take him out for a spin, knock the stars out of his head for a while, would you?"