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Not so long ago, Shiro had been certain that his part in the war was over and done with.
The life he and Adam had built together (completely, exquisitely different from what Shiro once hoped for before Kerberos so long ago) owed its very existence to that belief; he had suffered far too much at the hands of the Galra to risk bringing children—his and Adam’s children, no less—into a universe where Honerva was still blowing planets up every other day, or one where Zarkon’s squad of underlings were running around enslaving entire galaxies. But then the war ended and things settled down, and before the next two years were up Shiro found himself married, with the most perfect baby girl any parent—whether human, Galra, Altean, or something else entirely—ever had the pleasure of raising.
When Sonia was born, Shiro realized that even the prospect of being away from her was unthinkable. She arrived more than a three weeks early, too thin and tiny to maintain a healthy temperature even in Adam’s arms, and when he first held her Shiro had promised himself that nothing would touch either his daughter or his husband while he was still alive to protect them. Oddly enough, he had counted on never actually having to do it; but only three and a half years later he found himself suiting up for his first mission since the intergalactic armistice, kissing Sonia and Adam goodbye on the porch of their little cottage and hoping against hope that he would come back to them whole. Of course he did come back, with nothing more than a new passel of nightmares for his collection—but later that year he had to leave them again, saying his goodbyes in Green’s hangar to Adam, and Sonia, and then to the round little dumpling of a baby fussing on Adam’s shoulder.
“I’m coming home tomorrow, Hime-chan,” he soothed, enfolding all three of them in a hug and kissing Himeko’s button nose. “You and Papa and Soniye can sleep without me for one night, right?”
At that, Himeko squeezed out another tear and whimpered into Adam’s neck, her hot little cheeks puffing out in indignation as he bounced her up and down. Shiro’s heart clenched at the sight, because a six-month-old Sonia would have known why he was leaving, but Himeko was different; her mind seemed to be following the progress of most other babies her age, and although he could comfort her older sister, he could not comfort her.
“She’ll be fine after her nap, sweetheart,” promised Adam, meeting Shiro’s lips with a smile as Himeko tried to squirm down the front of his jacket. “Good luck out there, and don’t think Keith and Katie won’t tell me if you do anything reckless.”
“I’ll have to bribe them not to, then,” he said gravely. “What do you think it’ll cost me?”
“Food!” Sonia piped up. “But Tou-chan, Uncle Keith likes Papa’s cooking best.”
“He likes my cooking too, moonbeam,” Shiro told her, stooping down to retie the laces of her boots. “Do you want me to bring anything back for you from Arus after we’re done?”
“Alcara said she would send me a yelmor,” sighed the little girl. “But I guess I couldn’t have an alien pet because of government secrets.”
“What do you know about government secrets, honey?”
“Aunty ‘Lura’s one. And Uncle Coran, ‘cause they’re aliens and Aunt Sanda says the world isn’t ready to know about them just yet.”
“Well, she isn’t wrong,” chuckled Adam, stealing one last kiss from his husband before letting go of his arm. “Be careful, love. And keep an eye on Lance.”
“Trust me, I will,” Shiro muttered, not quite managing to stifle the chill that ran up his spine at the memory of their last mission. “I’ll stick him to Keith with binding cement if he goes off ahead with Blue this time, don’t worry.”
Sonia opened her mouth to say something—probably to admonish him on his choice of rubber cement as an appropriate adhesive for human skin, which Adam and Matt had told her about from first-hand experience—but then Pidge and Hunk came through the heavy double doors behind them, already dressed in their paladin armor and heavy-eyed as if neither of them had slept.
“You look exhausted,” Adam worried, extracting a pair of packed lunches from his backpack and passing the two insulated bags to Hunk. “How long have you guys been up?”
“Since four,” moaned Pidge, slumping against Shiro’s back. “Hunk hasn’t slept at all. He’s been on the comms with Allura since the ships first showed up on the Melenor’s scanners, and when she fell asleep Coran took over.”
Hunk shook his head. “Coran hasn’t slept for the past two days. It’s getting worse out there, and none of us can take our minds off it, so there was no point in me going to bed anyway.”
“What’s wrong, Uncle Hunk?” asked Sonia in a small voice, tugging at the end of his long black plait until he crouched down in front of her. “Is the war going to start again? Will you have to go away to fight for always like Uncle Keith and Uncle Lance?”
“No, baby girl,” he told her.“Me and your daddy and Auntie Pidge will be safe at home by the day after tomorrow, so don’t worry, okay? We’ve got Voltron and the Melenor, and they’re more than enough to keep a bunch of space annexers out of control. You know that, right?”
“I guess. ” She hesitated. “You won’t get hurt, right?”
“Absolutely not,” Pidge said tenderly, stooping down beside Hunk to take the little girl in her arms. “You hang tight and help your Papa and do your lessons while we’re gone, and we’ll all be back home before you know it. Promise.”
And with that they said their goodbyes and vaulted up into Green’s cargo hold to stow their bags away, leaving Shiro and Adam still locked in a desperate embrace below. Leaving never got easier, Shiro thought hopelessly—there was no way to forget that his family’s hearts would be shattered for good if he never came back someday—but Adam’s steady breath and bearing put strength back into his limbs, and before he knew it he was climbing up into Green after Pidge and holding onto the back of her seat for dear life as the Garrison dwindled to the size of a chessboard beneath them.
“It’s going to be over soon, Shiro. This can’t last forever.”
“You’re right,” he murmured, crossing his fingers as Kerberos loomed up ahead and vanished behind them scarcely two seconds later. “It can’t.”
* * *
← earthling squad (STOP changing the name lance i mEAN IT THIS TIME)
smol bean snek (#prouddad, lance’s love)
[4:47] @adam umarzai @meMATTic it’s over, mission successful
[4:47] pidge hunk shiro leaving for the Garrison around 10am ur time
adam umarzai
[4:47] are you guys okay?
[4:47] and 10am? Is there something they have to do before they go?
the amazing lance kogane
[4:48] Technically...uh, there’s something shiro has to do
[4:49] before you panic i want you to know that he’s completely fine
[4:49] but he got a concussion, sprained his right ankle and broke his left shin during the ground extraction
[4:50] dunno what happened exactly bc he went off on his own but the Gotcean warlord didn’t go down easy
[4:50] he’s in the pod right now and it’s about 30% done so pidge and hunk are just waiting for him to get out and rehydrate and eat something before starting back
[4:51] i repeat do NOT PANIC he is fine!!!
adam umarzai
[4:52] i wasn’t panicking
[4:52] his soul is literally connected to me all i can feel from him is embarrassment
[4:53] and a headache, though that’s probably the concussion
[4:55] what about allura and coran? Are they okay?
[4:55] and the kids?
smol bean snek (#prouddad, lance’s love)
[4:58] we put them in the safe room as usual, allura’s husband was with them
[4:58] Kazha was really good about it this time
[4:59] which just makes me feel worse
[5:00] sometimes i feel like I’m not fit to be a parent
[5:00] there wasn’t time to get them back to arus, we couldn’t break orbit because we were cloaked
[5:01] and logically I knew there was no way the Melenor was ever going to be compromised, but
[5:01] ok im going to stop talking about this you need to sleep
[5:02] and lance get over here don’t think I can’t see you limping
the amazing lance kogane
[5:04] babe u need your eyes checked
smol bean snek (#prouddad, lance’s love)
[5:04] LANCE HERNANDEZ KOGANE IF YOU DON’T STOP RUNNING THIS INSTANT
[5:04] LANCE I CAN SEE YOU
[5:04] wait where did he go
meMATTic
[5:04] dang what did i miss
[5:05] and oof keith if you can’t find lance there’s a sofa in the Melenor’s library with a crawl space underneath the cushions
[5:05] goes straight to the canteen, Lance and I used it once when we were trying to run away from katie
[5:06] k im going back to sleep, night y’all
kitkatkatie
[5:07] Matthew Lawrence Holt did you seriously sleep through what was supposed to be our most dangerous mission this year
meMATTic
[5:08] no, because your nephew takes after you and doesn’t let me sleep
[5:08] he just closed his eyes after screaming for two hours straight and im barely coherent
[5:08] @adam umarzai when do they stop staying up all night i’m losing my mind
adam umarzai
[5:10] ...matt, my children are part-altean
[5:11] and alteans evolved not to make loud noises after dark or something
[5:11] idk the specifics, ask allura if you want to know more
[5:12] but the thing is, they’ve slept through the night pretty much since they were born
meMATTic
[5:13] this is injustice
adam umarzai
[5:14] go to bed, i’ll visit with some food around dinnertime
meMATTic
[5:14] !!!!
kitkatkatie
[5:15] @meMATTic save some for me or i’ll kill you
adam umarzai
[5:17] there’ll be enough for both of you calm down
[5:18] before you guys forget
[5:18] I raised Keith
[5:19] and he ate more than you two put together
smol bean snek (#prouddad, lance’s love)
[5:20] hey!
* * *
“Papa?”
“Yes, baby?”
“What are we making?” Sonia asked, standing on her tiptoes to peer over the counter while Adam washed a pair of green onions and took them to the table to cut them. “Is it onion pancakes again?”
“It’s your tou-chan’s special food, for when he’s not feeling well,” Adam told her. “And he’s tired because he got hurt on the mission today, so I’m making it to help him feel better.”
Sonia steepled her small brown fingers under her chin and nodded until her flying pigtails knocked a tomato to the ground. “Can I help?”
“It’s a one person job, sweetheart,” he said, kissing the top of her head and sending her out to the living room. “Go play with Hime-chan, if she’s not asleep yet, or go keep tou-chan company and tell him the new story you heard at school yesterday.”
“Okay!” Sonia shouted, rushing back to throw her arms around Adam’s legs before running into the bedroom. “Tou-chan, tou-chan—are you feeling better? Aunty Pidge said your head was hurt, and Uncle Hunk said you broke your leg.”
“They’re both better now, moonbeam.” Takashi’s amused voice drifted into Adam’s heart like a song, and he stood still and closed his eyes at the sound of it—because it was as warm and strong as ever, despite the injuries his husband suffered earlier in the day, and behind the tiredness Adam could hear the quiet satisfaction of a job well done. “Tou-chan just needs a good night’s rest, and then I’ll be all right.”
Adam finished mixing the takoyaki batter to the tune of Takashi’s laughter, mingling with the hiss of sizzling oil and the gurgle of Himeko’s cooing—and then, rising over them both, Sonia’s high-pitched chattering about what she had learned at school that day. The remnants of the last eighteen hours’ worry lifted from his shoulders as his listened to them all, and by the time he carried a bowl of fried octopus dumplings into Takashi’s room, it had disappeared completely; as it always did whenever Takashi left them, because Adam had long since learned that nothing could keep him from coming back.
“Is that takoyaki, sunshine?” Takashi smiled, his face brightening up like a lantern as Adam pulled out the rolling table and set out three servings of dumplings and spicy sauce. “What’s the occasion?”
“The occasion is my heart’s reason to breathe escaping a thousand-year-old warlord with nothing but a broken leg,” Adam sighed. “And because I love you so much that I’ll die if I don’t see you smile, so there.”
Takashi smiled even wider, at that, and picked up one of the dumplings with his chopsticks before plopping it into Adam’s mouth.
“I love you too, jaan-e-jaan ,” he sighed. “Oh, how I love you, too.”