Archive of Our Own

It’s one thing when everyone tells you that you should take a break, and another when the former Blue Paladin personally organizes a vacation for you and all your friends; so you decide that maybe it’s time you finally, finally take the fucking break you desperately need from work.

Coalition work never stops, but there’s also only so much to do since the end of war, so Iverson doesn’t even blink twice when Admiral Shirogane gives a written letter to request time off work. Although the request for vacation pushes through quickly, the planning, executed by his friends, goes on for weeks. They quarrel all day and night about where to go, what to eat, which hotel to get and so on. Shiro stays out of it all. The only reason he agreed to this madness called friendcation was because Keith somewhere along got pulled into the mix, too. And if Keith is able to take a break from work and relax, maybe it’s not the worst idea for Shiro to do that, too.

“Wonderful apartment, from which we can see the beach. Free drinks 24 hours a day, 5 o’clock tea and cake, swimming pool, cable TV, movie nights, parties, but a guaranteed quiet and smooth slumber. I think we found our winner.”

Nobody thinks that Lance needs to shout the advertisement out loud, but it’s Lance, so nobody tries to stop him.

“Yeah, so…” Hunk’s eyes tentatively move toward Shiro, then Keith, “Sounds good, right?”

Keith absentmindedly nods, and Shiro smiles. “Yeah, sounds good,” he answers. He does notice the mischievous grin Lance and Pidge exchange but thinks nothing of it.

“Good. So, we—” Hunk starts but hesitates for a second, “Lance and I will share a room, Allura and Pidge want to room together, and we thought you two could take another room, right?”

“What?” Shiro says at the same time as Keith says, “Alright.”

Everyone looks at Shiro. “I mean, alright. Yeah, of course it’s alright.” He earns a confused stare from Keith and a knowing grin from Pidge. Exhausted, he asks, “When will we head off?”

“This Friday!” Allura exclaims and high fives Pidge, a gesture from Earth she picked up on rather quickly.

“I can’t wait to eat my own weight in watermelon!” Pidge shouts and raises a fist to the sky.

“That’s gonna give you the shits,” Keith says, brows furrowed. Pidge just cackles and shrugs as if she’s not too concerned about a possible gastrointestinal disgruntlement.

In hindsight, that should have been an omen.

Friday comes and everyone is down with the shits.

“I don’t feel good going without you guys,” Shiro tells them where they all bunk in Lance and Hunk’s room at the Garrison.

“You have to go. We paid a fortune and won’t get any refunds,” Allura explains. Her face looks rosy and the opposite of sick. She does move and growl funnily, though.

“It wouldn’t be as much fun without you guys.” Keith softly interjects and folds his arms in front of his chest.

“That’s rich, coming from Keith,” Lance accuses, sounding suspiciously healthy, and then proceeds to wretch into a bucket, as if he forgot for one second that he was sick.

“I think you two better get out here,” Pidge urges them. There is sweat running down over her forehead. Her face is completely white and her eyes red. Shiro isn’t sure he has seen those symptoms on someone who has the flu yet.

“How come Allura got sic—,” Keith wants to ask but gets interrupted by Hunk shouting.

“Oh no, boys, diarrhea incoming.” Everyone in the room groans loudly.

“…Alright, hope you all get better soon,” Keith says quickly and drags Shiro out of the room and shuts the door behind them.

The flight is short and sweet. Shiro and Keith clink their paper cups with tomato juice and lean back for around two hours.

“Can’t believe this is my…what, first vacation since I’ve started working at the Garrison.”

“What?” Keith asks him, “Not even before Kerberos?”

“In hindsight it feels like I sold my soul to the devil.”

“They did agree to your vacation request quickly. What’s up with that?”

Shiro takes a sip of tomato juice and regrets this life choice. “Lack of new students to teach. Lack of work in the Intergalactic Coalition for now. Maybe Iverson is tired of seeing my face…”

Keith nods slowly. “Sounds reasonable.”

“Hey,” Shiro mouths softly. Keith sends him a teasing grin.

“I’m joking. I don’t know how he could ever get tired of seeing your face.”

Shiro pushes himself further into his seat, unable to hide how smitten he is by that. Now that he thinks about it, during and after the war they barely had time to talk, really talk, about things except war and coalition work. Now they can talk about everything, even silly things. It’s something Shiro didn’t know he had missed and decides to improve on from now on. He’s sad that their friends couldn’t accompany them, and although he feels something was off when they went to visit them, he’s weirdly relieved to spend some time alone with Keith.

“Cheers to friendcation.” Shiro raises his paper cup toward Keith. Keith has a relaxed and private smile on his face when he raises his paper cup, too.

“Again?” he asks with a daring smile.

“I don’t see another way of getting rid of the tomato juice,” he explains. Keith nods and lets loose a small laugh that makes Shiro’s heart stutter. They clink their tomato juices again.

The arrival is easy; they just have to follow a flock of tourists towards the busses, drive for half an hour or so, then walk toward the tall steps of the apartment complex. Lance gave them all the receipts and information; Shiro just hands them over at the check-in.

“Mr. Shirogane,” the concierge addresses him. He wears a turquoise shirt and the whitest smile they’ve ever seen outside of a toothpaste commercial.

Shiro nods.

“I assume you, sir, are the husband?” he directs at Keith with a smile.

“Uh…” Keith’s face is red, and Shiro steps in to save them a quick embarrassment. “No, no, he’s my colleague and friend,” he explains and winks at Keith.

“Best friend,” Keith says, proudly lifting his head to look at Shiro, face still a dark shade of red. Shiro smiles back, endeared.

The concierge smiles, too. “Sorry, Sirs. I – maybe there was a mix-up.”

Shiro has seen this kind of movie a thousand times. The hair raises on the back of his neck as he dully listens to what the concierge says next. “You might have booked a double bed by accident. I will look for another room shortly, but we may not have anything left for a day or two…maybe an extra bed...?” He taps away on the computer.

Shiro wants to apologize for whatever mistake he hadn’t caused since he didn’t book it personally, but there’s no use crying over spilled milk, so…

“You know what, it’s okay,” Keith hurries to say. “We’re good friends. I don’t think we mind the shared bed, right?” He looks to Shiro, who hesitates.

“Uh-huh,” the concierge says, still tapping away on the computer.

“Really,” Keith restates, “we won’t leave anything but 5-star ratings. Must have been a mistake made by our friends, who made the reservations.”

The concierge, probably unsuccessful in finding them another option, breaks his gaze away from the screen and hands over the keys.

“As you wish, sir.” He hands them to Keith. “Hope you have a pleasant stay. Please inform our information desk if there’s an extra bed needed.”

Keith hands the second key card to Shiro and grins. “Nothing in the way of having two weeks off where we lie at the pool and do nothing,” he declares with a gleeful face that makes Shiro’s heart throb.

“Yeah,” he says softly, nodding away while they take the walk through a wide complex of apartments toward their room.

“What are they doing in the hotel gift shop?” Lance asks as he appears next to Pidge and puts a sunhat on her head, then proceeds to looks her over for good measure.

“I was listening earlier,” Hunk says, “and I have to say, I don’t like spying on my friends like a creep. I mean, what if they saw me?”

“Spill it, Hunk,” Pidge says and rips the hat off her head in disdain over the trashy color and the ugly hotel logo destroying an otherwise nice hat.

“I think Keith forgot his luggage.”

“What?” Allura asks, but the expression she makes as she tries on sunglasses takes away from the impression that she really cares about what’s going on.

“No luggage?!” Lance is close to shrieking, which is why they consider themselves lucky that the usually empty hotel shop is stuffed with customers today. Shiro and Keith are occupied enough to not notice them.

“Calm your tits, Lance,” Pidge tells him calmly. “Things like that happen. Don’t you think it’s cute how Shiro’s helping him pick out clothes?”

“They are standing in the Hawaiian shirt section!”

“So let them be,” Hunk adds and chooses a glittering necklace. “How do I look?” He turns toward Pidge, who nods approvingly.

“Dope,” she says and takes a colorful batik shirt from one of the stands.

“I must say, this shop has some acquired tastes,” Allura tells them as she decides on a pair of sunglasses. “Wow, Pidge! I like this style. The color of the leaf would bring out the color of your eyes!” She tells Pidge with a look at the shirt, heavily unaware of the meaning behind it. She moves over to get one in her size, too. “What does ‘fourhundred-twenty blaze it’ mean?”

The planning of the trip took forever, but especially since somewhere midway through, Hunk commented on how he noticed Shiro’s stretched out longing gazes and Keith’s shy smiles he earned in return, and what they, as their friends could do about that. From then on, the planning went from ‘what trip is the best for us as their friends’ to ‘what trip would be good for us and for our two best friends who really need to get their heads out of their asses and finally confess.’ And this is where they landed.

Keith comes out of the changing room, dressed from head to toe in a Hawaiian shirt, beige shorts, tube socks, and sandals (because he took his thick Paladin boots to a tropical reservation, of course).

“Oh no,” Hunk whispers as they look from afar at the scene that plays out in front of them. Keith looks like a tourist, like the worst possible kind – the Hawaiian shirt with its dazzling bright green color makes it easy to spot him from a mile away.

“I don’t know about you,” Lance whispers back, his voice gradually rising, “but looking at this for two whole weeks would positively kill any sexual thoughts I would have for Keith for, I don’t know, forever.” Pidge snorts into her fist.

“We’re going to get changed, too,” she informs them, mind anywhere other than on the target. She grabs the marijuana shirts and disappears with Allura into the direction of another set of changing rooms.

Keith looks like he’s not convinced by his outfit, but Shiro reassures him. Maybe because the options aren’t that broad in the shop, or maybe because he just doesn’t care what Keith wears and thinks he’s a big snack, no matter the clothes.

“Really, I think it looks good,” he says loudly enough for at least three people, who also saw Keith’s outfit, to snicker into their hands.

(Art by benicemurphy)

Hunk and Lance exchange a look.

“Didn’t know Shiro went for the 40-year old German tourist look,” Hunk says.

The Paladins quickly leave the shop before Shiro’s attention can land anywhere other than on Keith (which probably won’t happen anytime soon) to enjoy the sun and the pool on their own a little and plan multiple scenarios in which they could get their friends to confess.

“I mean it’s obvious, right?” Lance asks the others. “We’re not fools for thinking they have the hots for each other, right?”

“Once, I was in the same room after a meeting. I don’t think it was on purpose, but Keith didn’t even react to my questions and stood up to move over to Shiro. I think it’s a clear case of tunnel vision,” Pidge shares and licks an ice-cream cone.

Hunk chimes in, too. “Romelle told me once that as an outsider, she thought they were together already. I mean, we could be wrong, but, yeah, I think sometimes, those two big piles of fluff are just meant for each other, and—”

“They just don’t get it themselves,” Pidge concludes and sighs. “Yeah, I overheard Veronica asking Acxa about Keith, and she just told her straight out that he ‘harbors deep and natural feelings born in the darkest ends of the decrepit universe, which are strangely invisible to the human eye’ for the Admiral.”

They all look at Allura expectantly, who’s been quiet and only slurping on some Pineapple juice while laying on one of the deck chairs. She’s wearing her bikini bottom with the ‘420 Blaze it’ batik shirt on, pouting.

“I mean,” she starts, because they keep waiting for her to say something, “shouldn’t we let our friends figure this out…naturally?”

“Allura,” Pidge says, “have you seen them? Have you really looked? It feels like it’ll take at least another quadrilliant before they break their own reservations and ask each other out.”

“I know,” she admits. “I did hold Shiro’s mind within me for a few seconds, after all. His secrets are safe with me.” She looks to the side. “But I can’t deny that there are…many hints that there are some…unresolved feelings.” She chooses her words carefully. “I do fear if we push them too hard, their, or rather Shiro’s, feeble heart won’t be able to take it.”

The paladins go quiet. Hunk coughs, then laughs.

“I feel like I should quote this in our friendcation scrapbook. I already started taking pictures, look here.” He shows Pidge, who looks at the colorful book full of glee. The moment is over when Shiro and Keith move into sight.

“Shit, they’re coming our way, move, move!” Lance shout-whispers and rolls behind his desk chair. Pidge and Hunk follow suit, crawling on the floor. Allura merely pulls the sun hat with a broad brim over her face. It’s like she doesn’t even try.

Shiro guides Keith to the deck chair right in front of the Paladins.

“Why in the world are they wearing the same clothes?” Lance mouths.

They are, indeed. Shiro seemingly adapted to Keith’s wardrobe, wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and white pants paired with socks and sandals.

“If they decide to get fanny packs, I will lose it,” Lance whispers and gets an elbow from Pidge.

“Don’t ruin our cover,” she says.

Pidge’s concerns are unfounded, since neither Shiro nor Keith can hear them. On the contrary, they are chatting away, idly.

“It’s pretty crowded here at noon,” Keith remarks and leans back. He points at a handful Arusians on the waterslide. “They look like they’re having fun. Let’s try it out later.”

Shiro nods, and the look he gives him couldn’t be more genuine in love.

“Thanks for doing this,” Keith laughs and awkwardly gestures at their clothes. “Thanks for making me feel less silly.” Shiro just shrugs, as if it’s not a big thing, then looks around.

“Are you thirsty?” he suddenly asks. Keith raises an eyebrow. “I could get us drinks,” Shiro continues and nods toward the bar. “What do you want?”

“Hmm,” he ponders, “just choose something you think I’d like,” Keith answers then, grin smug.

“I’ll be back soon.”

As Shiro walks away, Keith gazes after him. Shiro sits at the bar and orders, then looks back to him and waves. Lance thinks he looks horrible in his gift shop getup, but Keith visibly licks his lips and checks him out. It’s not even subtle.

No one’s expecting a guy appearing out of nowhere and talking to Keith.

“Hey, you’re looking lonely,” he starts with a very creative pickup line and sits next to Keith. “Need some company?”

The Paladins hold their breaths, equally devastated and curious to see how Keith will handle an unexpected flirty situation like this. (Also, what are the guy’s intentions with someone who’s dressed like Keith is?) They don’t take into account that it’s Keith, their friend Keith, who they’ve known now for a while now, which means they know he’s not trying to be hostile when he speaks to strangers (and sometimes friends alike) but does sound a whole lot like he is.

“Uh,” Keith starts, equipped with zero social skills. “Whatever?”

Hunk bites down on his knuckles hard to stop himself from laughing. Pidge snorts loudly but muffles it in a cough.

“Uh. Alright,” the guy says, taken aback; but he hasn’t given up yet. He introduces himself, yadda yadda, and at some point, even takes Keith’s hand in his. He earns himself a confused glare, but that’s it. Keith freezes in that position, unable to process what’s happening. He doesn’t have to, because suddenly Shiro’s there, one of the drinks half-spilled over his hand. Shiro, their Shiro, is usually a big ball of fluff – probably one of the nicest guys on earth. But right now, he looks intimidating, and he’s tall – taller than the guy who’s chatting up Keith.

“Care to introduce yourself?” Shiro asks. He makes it sound like he doesn’t actually want to know the guy. Shiro, who’s otherwise ready to smile at his deepest enemies, has his mouth in a creepy upward curve. “No?” he asks when the guy doesn’t answer, probably frozen in shock. Keith looks like he’s in awe, observing the scene playing out before his eyes. He looks thrilled, even, by Shiro’s weird entry.

“I’m Shiro,” Shiro introduces, “and I’m happy to see that Keith has made a good friend.”

“Actually, Shiro,” Keith interjects, “he’s not my friend. He just came and sat here and said some weird shit.”

The guy mutters an excuse and disappears quicker than a lightning strike. Keith looks after him, then smiles back at Shiro. “What did you get me?”

“Strawberry daiquiri.” He hands him the drink and doesn’t comment on why it’s only half-full.

“Damn, Admiral,” Keith practically purrs. “Are you trying to get me drunk on daiquiris?” They miss Shiro’s answer, but not the way his face reddens.

“That’s it,” Lance says and starts crawling away, motioning to the others to follow suit. “We’re getting out of here.”

They have a crisis meeting on the other side of the pool, out of sight of their two friends.

“Let’s get into the pool while we talk,” Pidge offers.

“Smart,” Lance says. “That way other people can’t eavesdrop on what we’re saying.”

Pidge opens her mouth to correct him, but Hunk puts an arm on her shoulder. Let it go, he mouths.

Allura moves into the water like the graceful queen she is, watched by several men and women around the pool. They can be glad that Lance’s death glare scares most of them away.

“Do you see, friends, what I mean?” she sighs and plays with the water. “I do think our dear Shiro and Keith won’t be in need of our help. They seem to get along just fine; it seems a lot like they are, I mean, flirting?”

Pidge grins and nods, and so does Hunk.

“Yeah, we could just enjoy the time that we’re here and leave them alone for a bit.”

It’s quickly decided, to Lance’s disdain.

Their first day ends quickly. They go eat dinner, and everyone aside from Hunk overeats and stuffs themselves.

“I don’t know, it’s just not that good,” he explains as they are on their way back. Lance doesn’t tell them that he booked their room next to Shiro and Keith’s – they hear it as soon as they are inside.

“What the fuck, Lance?” Pidge mutters and throws a pillow after him. “Don’t you think we’re invading their privacy enough already?”

Lance shrugs it off. “This way, following them will be easier.” Pidge raises her hands and looks at him. He crumbles. “Yeah, might have not been the best idea. I mean they do share a bed, but come on. It’s Keith and Shiro, guys. You know nothing will happen.”

He’s right. Throughout the night they hear the occasional squeaking of the bed or the rustling of the bedding, but nothing more. Just two guys lying in a bed, five feet apart, having trouble sleeping.

 (art by benicemurphy)

The following days are uneventful. They wake from the dip in the mattress and the shower at 6am, which means that Shiro and Keith both decided to go hit the gym (which they do every day, even though it’s their vacation). That means the paladins usually lose track of them until they spot them somewhere around noon at lunch. One time, there’s a free pizza hour and Shiro shouts across the whole room to inform Keith about it, while simultaneously moving his broad figure through a mass of people to stack a ton of pizza on one plate. His Altean arm gets them extra, so they don’t have to move from their seats while eating.

So far, it seems like all they have done is work out in the morning, eat half of the day, lay by the pool, and have gawky, flirty conversations all day long, oblivious to what the other feels.

“I feel like we’re not progressing,” Lance declares on the third day. “All they do is eat.”

“I know what you mean—”

“Thank you, Hunk! At least one person here supports me!”

“They do flirt – and I mean, they flirt a lot, and maybe they are just slow at…things, but they’ve known each other for so long, what if… what if they don’t know how they should go beyond being friends? What if Keith just doesn’t know how to seduce someone?”

“I hate to say this,” Pidge nods, “but you’re right. We should do something.” She’s wearing her marijuana shirt for the third day straight, and it amazes Hunk that she doesn’t smell by now. Allura does the same, but as an Altean, does she even sweat? Or smell?

(art by Cruelisblue)

“Maybe …they could buy each other something sparkly?” Allura suggests.

They spend the rest of the day brainstorming how they’d achieve that without them both discovering that they are here, too.

Pidge looks like she’s ready to eliminate a biohazard when she steps out of the changing room at the poolside. From top to bottom she’s wrapped in clothing, wearing a surgical mask and sunglasses. Her hair, too, is covered with a big hat. She looks nothing like herself, except for the cursed shirt.

“Yeah, I think that works,” Lance nods thoughtfully, gaze on her.

“Now some flowers.” Hunk gives her a big bouquet of roses to top off the look. “Voilà.”

“Well, you’re good to go. Chop chop!” Allura says and pushes her in the right direction. She might not have been on board in the beginning, but she increasingly participates in stupid plans and imbecilic disguises.

On unsteady feet, Pidge slowly stumps toward a person lying on one of the deck chairs. The clothes she wears to disguise herself are heavy on her, so the groan that’s supposed to attract Keith’s attention comes naturally.

Keith looks up to her, then to the water where Shiro is currently swimming.

“What?” he asks, voice rough and impolite.

“Uhm,” Pidge stammers in her normal voice, then makes an effort to lower it. “Do you, uh, want to buy a rose?”

“No,” Keith says with a look at the flowers, “but thanks.” He sinks down into his deck chair and closes his eyes. Pidge stands there, unsure of what to do.

“They are 50% off,” she rumbles in the deepest growl she can manage. “Today only.”

“I didn’t bring any money to the pool,” Keith says, knowing that he won’t get rid of her any time soon. Pidge shuffles from one foot onto another. She did drink a big cup of fruit juice just before she got changed. She needs to go, and soon.

One look back at the others, and Pidge knows she can’t disappoint them. She also knows that Keith is especially stubborn, so there’s only one way.

“For you, they’re free. Here.” She doesn’t bother doing the deep voice, smacks the bouquet into his face, and flees back to the others, who watch from a safe space. After a toilet break, she’s back with them, observing Keith.

“What did he do so far?” she asks.

“Put them in a cup of water.”

“That’s…reasonable.”

They see Shiro come out of the water and return back to their place. They see Keith look at him, then to the bouquet, back and forth. Shiro seems to ask him something, and Keith doesn’t answer, just raises the bouquet towards Shiro.

The paladins give each other high-fives.

“Mission accomplished,” Pidge grins and jumps while clapping her hands against the others’ palms.

 “Complete success!” Allura agrees and wipes sweat from her face. Hunk takes a mental note.

Shiro looks as red as the roses, although on second thought, it could also be sunburn.

But the look he gives Keith screams ‘love’ in four big red letters.

It’s what makes the paladins accomplished for the day, and they decide to give themselves the next few days off.

Then they see them, one day, on the beach at sunset, heavily discussing something – Keith looks like he’s about to cry, then stomps off. Shiro is left there and rubs his eyes. They have no idea what just happened, and they are too afraid to assume anything. It suddenly all seems futile, as if they are just meant to keep missing each other, instead of finally growing together.

Then they see them hug through the glass of the gym, and everyone untenses. They go to a massage downtown and plan their next step, relieved to have seen their friends making up. “You just can’t leave them to it. They will mess it up, with their foolish hearts.” Nobody says anything about the tears in Lance’s eyes, but Hunk gives him a big hug and tells him it’ll be alright.

There are a few little tricks – stealing sunshades, so they have to put sunscreen on each other (which Shiro is enthusiastic about, goofy red face and everything); secretly turning the heat on in the gym and the restaurant, so Shiro starts to walk around Hawaiian-shirtless, much to Keith’s contentment; slipping a free coupon for a dinner out of town (paid for out of Hunk’s private life savings). In between actual gestures Keith and Shiro do for each other (massaging that backpain out of Shiro, braiding Keith’s hair), it begins to pile up. Them getting together should soon be inevitable.

Then the Paladins learn about the karaoke night on Wednesday. They dismiss Pidge’s first idea of ‘just signing them up for a bunch of love songs’ and instead go around and suggest to others to sing a love song at the event. The plan is to create ‘just the right atmosphere’ for them to ‘finally get it.’ Unexpectedly, when they ask around to see if anyone could sing a love song that night, many hotel guests agree to it, no questions asked. Some of them do ask if Pidge sells weed. “You’ve got to get rid of the shirt,” Hunk tells her afterwards.

They talk to the unilu bartender that Shiro usually walks up to and get something to drink for him and Keith, and after a fair share of haggling between him and Allura, they trade Hunk’s clipped toenail and a marijuana shirt for a whole three days of the bartender dropping the name of the karaoke event plus any further information Shiro might ask for to him, plus a subtle-but-not-so-subtle sentence about how romantic it is.

On said night, they are sitting in the audience when Allura spots Keith. “There they are!” she whispers excitedly. Nothing can go wrong, now.

A round of low-fiving goes around between the Paladins. “Now we can lean back. This will definitely do the trick,” Pidge whispers and leans into Hunk, hoping for the singers to be good enough to create the romantic atmosphere they’re hoping for.

It’s unexpected, but there it is – it feels like the masterpiece of the evening, and everything without the Paladin’s work: A spotlight appears on the stage and the moderator appears. The first few breaths into his microphone have the unpleasant effect of a loud screech sounding throughout the hall, but at least the audience stopped talking.

“For the next song, we will ask for ‘Takashi Shirogane’ to join us on the stage. He prepared a song for a person who is really dear to him,” the moderator shouts into the mic.

Shiro looks like he’s frozen to his seat next to Keith. “Is this a prank?” Keith asks him, frowning, but Shiro shakes his head. He takes a deep breath, too, then pushes himself out of his chair. The reassuring smile he throws at Keith is borderline creepy as he slowly stumbles up on the stage.

“Uh, Takashi. Wanna tell us a bit about that special someone?” Takashi, in fact, does not look like he wants to. His gaze flickers to Keith. “Uhm. I want to tell him thanks. For everything he’s done for me. He’s a wonderful person.” His voice ends in an embarrassed murmur but gets played over by the intro of the music anyways. The Paladins hold their breath. Keith’s eyes sparkle as he watches Shiro. Hunk feels like he’s passing out because of the second-hand embarrassment for his friend; he’s both touched and embarrassed by the gesture. Then Shiro begins, and they recognize the song.

Every night in my dreams

I see you

I feel you

“No,” Pidge mouths, and a tear forms in her eye. “He’s singing Celine?”

Far across the distance
And spaces between us

With the loud music blaring over the audience’s murmurs, Shiro gains confidence. He’s a decent singer, but it gets a little weird for everyone when he closes his eyes, singing his heart out to the cursed refrain of “My Heart Will Go On.” Keith is unfazed at first glance but raises his hand to put it on his chest mid-performance.

When Shiro breathes the last words into the microphone, he looks deeply moved himself. It feels like nobody in the room is breathing, just watching as Shiro’s gaze falls onto the person that the song was meant for. Keith looks starstruck, unable to move, even when Shiro comes down from the stage. There’s polite clapping in the background.

“Wow,” Keith says when Shiro halts before him. “Shiro.”

The white-haired guy scratches the back of his head, slightly embarrassed, but with a thrill in his eyes that one only could get from karaoke-ing an old-school movie hit like the one from Titanic.

“It was… You were so good,” he breathes, unable to say anything else.

“Keith, thanks,” Shiro giggles and takes his hand. It’s this sole gesture that makes Lance rethink all his life choices concerning flirting until now.

“Let’s go to the beach?” Shiro asks him with stars in his eyes. If it wasn’t obvious that all the love of the universe that Shiro can harbor is meant for Keith, and for him only, it is now.

Keith is a dry cake with melting caramel inside. “Yeah,” he says, softly. “Let’s go.”

And then there’s that. They are gone.

The Paladins sit with the audience who witnessed the whole scene together with them, similarly exhausted like watching the Titanic crash into the iceberg in the first movie screening must have been.

“I hope nobody wants to take a nightly walk at the beach.” Hunk breaks the silence, and everyone groans. They continue to sit through two hours of romantic karaoke and finally decide to call it an evening and go back to their hotel room to watch TV and talk about nothing and everything together.

“Do you think they’re finally going to confess?” Pidge asks Hunk, who nods.

“I think it is now more than clear,” Allura explains. “With this touching song, the message must have been delivered!”

Somewhere along the lines of discussing what they are going to do tomorrow, they fall asleep, only to get awoken by a loud door slam.

There’s some giggling and some shushing, then the sound of a dip in the mattress and music coming from Bluetooth speakers. Then another dip in the mattress and a hushed “Come here.”

Bed creaking, muffled speaking. The first beats of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ playing quietly on the speakers… They don’t hear everything, but it’s clear that –

Lance groans. “This can’t be happening.”

They are out of bed and slipping into their shoes as soon as the squeaking of the bed becomes rhythmic and the groans too loud to ignore.

“I mean, the beach at night is…”

“…not that bad,” Pidge finishes. They’re laying in the sand, watching the stars. The sound of the waves lulls them onto the dangerous edge of sleep.

“I feel like I can hear the stars twinkling,” Hunk says. “It’s wonderful.”

“I’m glad we’re all here,” Lance nods.

“I wish Keith and Shiro could be here, too,” Allura says and sighs while the others agree. “When they’re done with everything else,” she adds.

They have three days left until the end of the vacation. They decide to show up at lunch out of nowhere, where Shiro and Keith are both stuffing their faces. Hunk respects their choices and doesn’t slap the half-burnt quiche out of their hands.

“Surprise!” Lance yells and takes a seat at their table. Keith stares at him and groans, Shiro just looks startled.

“What are you doing here?” Keith asks. Although his voice is rough, he still gets up to grab chairs for Allura and Pidge.

“Well. We missed you?” Allura proposes and smiles.

“Are you better?” Shiro asks.

“What do you m—”

Before Lance ruins it, Pidge elbows him. “We’re much better, thanks for asking. So, heard there’s a party at the pool today?” She grabs a slice of pizza from Shiro’s plate.

They don’t make a secret out of it – they hold hands and give each other little pecks, although they do return to quieter activity at night as soon as they learn that their friends booked the room next door. And the paladins do their own part and buy earplugs.

And just like they should, from then on they spend the evenings at the beach, looking at the stars and talk about flying – talk about everything and nothing at all.