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“He came by unknown ways, and stood
At evening in the fading wood,
Which when the glowing hills were gone
Would as in a dream murmur on,”
-Isolation; Robert Crawford
Shiro was lonely.
He was a grown man; he could admit that. He could also choose to ignore that fact as well. And he did — in fact, Shiro ignored how lonely he was so hard… that he forgot that the rest of the world existed outside of his little grove.
Ah, his grove. The place he was unable to leave because he was fool enough to challenge a warlock to a drinking competition the day the man’s wife left him. (It had been his last year of college and he had been ‘letting loose’ like suggested by friends and family. Just goes to show that friendly advice isn’t always that friendly. See if Shiro ever follows Iverson’s advice again.)
After the fifth winter — where he’d been stuck up in a 130-pace by an 87 pace patch of empty wood in the middle of nowhere — with no human interaction, Shiro gave up on counting. Five years was a long time with no human contact, and it quickly killed his hope of freedom.
“Find a love that will never die,
Find a love that never cries,
Find a love that will never fade,
Only then can you walk away.”
Shiro had thought nothing of the man’s tearful poem when it had been sobbed out over two empty bottles of Tito’s. Then he had woken up the next morning in between the roots of a tree he’d never seen before, in the middle of a wood he didn’t remember walking too, with nothing but the clothes on his back. It had been easy to wave it away as just another night where he’d gone too hard.
Then he had walked into an invisible wall trying to find a trail leading away from the weird little space he was in.
Then he had continued to run into said wall until he’d accepted he couldn’t go through the wall.
Then he had tried (and failed) to dig under the wall.
Then he had tried to fly between the trees like the sugar gliders Allura would send him videos of only to hit the wall mid-flight.
And then? Then, Shiro proceeded to sit back down in between the roots of the very large tree and cried until he had no more tears. It’s a difficult thing to accept such an immense change in your life; especially when suddenly it feels like there is no life. But as life does, it went on. Time passed and Shiro learned to live in his little grove.
Now there was a cute patch of berries and flowers he’d scavenged from the fringes of the grove sitting to his right. (Not that Shiro required anything to eat. He’d realized that he’d basically become a tree nymph after two weeks of no food or water.) It was surrounded by a small stick fence to protect it from the occasional deer or rabbit.
In the branches of his tree, he had woven himself a small hammock to sleep in. (Shiro was very proud of it. It had taken him three years to figure out that he could make rope from bark and grass.) From his position laying in it, he had the perfect view of the night sky. And every night — when he wasn’t sleeping the months away — Shiro would pick a single star and give them a story.
Again, it wasn’t much, but it was enough.
Today though, was harder than normal. He had run out of things to do. He’d already taught himself how to jump rope, how to lasso, how to braid, and many, many other things. Shiro was actually kind of bored. And when one gets bored, one tends to start thinking. And when one starts to think, one begins to remember things from the past.
Shiro had just come to the startling realization that he could no longer remember his own face, when a young man came barreling into the grove — only to trip over Shiro’s very carefully crafted fence and land face first in his patch of flowers. A flock of birds scattered from where they had been resting in his tree, and Shiro was shaken from his frozen state.
“Ar-are you alright?” Shiro scrambled up, hurrying over to help the poor man to his feet.
Another person! There was another person right in front of him! This is great! He’ll finally know if Abba has had a comeback or not!
“There’s a bear chasing me! I don’t know what I did! I was just going camping with my friends, and-and we had just caught our first fish—” The young man kept babbling away, his hands grasping tight to Shiro’s wrists as his eyes darted frantically about the trees. Shiro was almost surprised by how tall the man was. Even hunched over, trying to hide from the perceived threat, he was the same height as Shiro. His tan skin shone in the light of the fading sun, popping out the blueness of his eyes.
Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t seen another human in what felt like centuries. Or maybe it was the fact that the man was shaking. Or maybe Shiro was simply just crazy.
But he slowly drew the man into a hug, running a hand across his shoulders in a gesture of comfort as he cooed softly.
“It’s alright. The bears avoid this grove. I surrounded it in poisonous plants for protection.”
Shiro had not surrounded the grove with poisonous plants. From what he could figure out, nothing that would cause him harm or injury would be able to make it into his grove. But he couldn’t actually tell him that — Shiro didn’t want the man to think he was crazy.
“Come on, sit down. Breathe. You’re okay.” Shiro guided the man down to the ground, amazed that he hadn’t yet been smacked away. The man clung to him, still mumbling about his friends and whether or not they were safe.
“You can leave to find them after you’ve calmed down. You’ll be useless otherwise,” Shiro hummed as he ran his fingers through some soft brown hair. “Come on, breathe.”
Slowly, the man began to take deep breaths. Those blue eyes began to flutter close, and the tense form loosened enough to lean into Shiro. The mumbling faded away, replaced by quiet snores.
“...Holy shit,” Shiro whispered screamed, leaning his head back against the trunk of his tree as the man slumped down to fully rest against his shoulder.
The world didn’t feel so small anymore. Suddenly, it was big enough for two, and Shiro — well, Shiro was afraid he would have to give that up in the morning whenever the man woke up. Shiro was afraid that this was nothing but a dream. God above, he prayed this wasn’t a dream.
He was so terrified of the man being a dream, that he stayed awake all night, stroking the man’s nightmares away with a brush of fingers through brown hair.
In the morning, when the sun had peeked back over the horizon and started to shine through the leaves, the man awoke. Shiro held his breath as the man began to shift, making soft grunts as he wiggled on the ground.
“Iss cold. Hmmph, Huuunnnkkk -- ugh!”
Long legs stretched out and the cracking of a spine echoed through the clearing. Shiro could tell the moment the man realized that he wasn’t back at his campsite with his friends. Those legs stiffened, and then the man was rolling away.
“Who the Hell are you!?” Leaves and dirt went flying as the man’s sneakers dug into the ground. Blue eyes darted around before landing back on Shiro’s face. “Where the fuck am I?!”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Shiro commented, slowly raising his hands up and staying where he was on the ground. “You’re in my grove. You ran in last night screaming about a bear, had a panic attack and then passed out. I’ve been keeping watch. You’re safe.”
Those blue eyes blinked, and then dark brown eyebrows furrowed as they narrowed.
“That still doesn’t tell me who you are. For all I know you drugged and kidnapped me.”
Shiro frowned. “Why in the world would I do that? I’m Shiro by the way. I live here.”
“I-I don’t know man, people do weird things all the time. And, wait- you live here?”
Shiro chuckled, familiar with the immediate sense of disbelief — he had gone through something similar himself after all. Leaning back against the tree, he let his eyes fall shut, knowing the other man was probably going to be leaving soon.
"Yeah, I live here. It's home. Quiet. Simple."
"It must be really lonely."
Shiro's eyes opened and he found himself staring into sad pools of blue.
"It is, but I make due. There's nothing else for me but this grove," Shiro waved a hand around, letting it fall into his lap with a soft thud. "Don't make drunken dares kid. Free life advice right there."
"So, you're … trapped here? Like, as in Rapunzel stuck in her tower? Or like, Aurora in the cottage until her birthday?" Blue eyes sat back onto his heels, his hands lowering to fidget with the edge of his dark green jacket.
"Almost. The only difference is that they got a happily ever after and to leave their cave. I'm stuck here."
"Well, then I guess I'll just have to keep you company until my friends show up. My name is Lance, and I'm sorry I screamed at you after waking up," Lance grinned sheepishly, ducking his head slightly as he outstretched a hand. "What's your name handsome?"
Shiro felt himself blush as he shook Lance's hand. It had been a very long time since a pretty boy had hit on him. And, welp… Lance was a very pretty boy. His eyes caught Shiro's attention like a cat caught a laser red dot. And the way Lance moved! It looked as if every movement was thought out, like some sort of dance.
"Takashi Shirogane, but I go by Shiro."
"Hmm, Shiro. Okay Shiro, how do you entertain yourself in a place like this?" Lance shifted so that he was resting his chin on his knees, head tilted so he could maintain eye contact. "I can imagine it gets pretty boring here."
"You're… not wrong," Shiro chuckled, stretching out his leg. "I mostly garden my little patch of flowers over there and then I take care of this tree."
A strange look crossed Lance's face, almost as if his expression had shuttered. Shiro paused in his speaking, worried that he had somehow offended Lance. (Listen, Shiro got a little dumb around pretty boys okay?)
"That's- That's all you have to do?" Lance shook his head. "Nope. We are going to figure out a way for you to have non stop entertainment. We just can't have handsome men getting bored out here like that."
'I'm in love,' Shiro finds himself thinking quietly. There was no other way to explain the fluttering in his chest or the warmth in his stomach. It wasn't too crazy to believe, after all, he was already crazy.
They talked for hours, Lance filling him in on the new science discoveries and latest songs. At one point, Shiro was given a knife, and Lance showed him how to whittle. Shiro never wanted it to end. Things felt as if they were normal again. It felt like a normal camping trip instead of the curse or was.
"Lance!"
"Bitch boy!"
"Pidge! Stop calling him that! You know he hates it."
"No. I say it with the affection and love I can muster. He knows and enjoys this."
Lance lit up with joy, hoping up from where he'd been slumping against Shiro, talking about how amazing and soft sharks were.
"Huuunnnkkk! Pidgeon!"
Shiro felt his heart drop. He had known this was going to happen. Eventually, Lance would have to leave and Shiro… Shiro would be all alone again. Lance was hopping up and down, hollering and shouting, waving his arms.
"Shiro! Shiro, it's my friends! We can leave now!" Lance turned and grinned over his shoulder at Shiro.
Shiro struggled to smile, and when Lance stopped waving his arms, he knew he hadn't faked his smile good enough. With a sigh, Shiro pushed himself to his feet.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Lance McClain." He stuck a hand out.
"Shiro, what are you talking about? My friends are here. We can leave. You don't have to stay in this grove anymore."
"No, Lance. I told you- I'm stuck here. I can't leave."
Lance shook his head. "You're lying. You have to be!"
Shiro sighed, letting his hand drop as Lance turned to look back at the shouting coming through the trees.
"You can leave. And I'm going to prove it to you."
A hand grabbed his wrist, yanking hard, and suddenly Shiro was stumbling forward towards the edge of the grove. Lance was pulling him forward, almost at a run. And the closer the trees at the edge of his grove hot, the faster his heart beat.
"Lance. Lance, I wont be able to get through."
Lance sped up and Shiro had to run to keep his wrist from being dislocated. The invisible wall was now five feet away.
Four.
Three.
Two.
Oh, God.
Shiro collided with the wall, his head going dizzy. Lance was still pulling him forward, pushing against whatever force was dragging them back. With every inch forward, Shiro got dizzier and dizzier. His vision started to fade.
"Shiro."
The sky flashed a bright purple, and then everything went black.
| Every Story has an End |
"Shiro."
He didn't want to wake up. If he woke up, he was going to be back in the grove.
"Babe, what are you talking about? There's no grove here."
His hammock felt weird, almost soft. Shiro couldn't remember the last time he slept in something soft.
"Shiro we sleep in this bed every night. Stop dreaming, Love. Allura is going to be waking up soon and I want my cuddles first."
Shiro was jolted harshly in the side and he grunted, cracking an eye open. Bright blue eyes stared back, crinkled with amusement.
"Good morning, husband mine. Strange dreams?"
And it all came flooding back to him.
Shiro had never gotten cursed. Shiro had decided to drink a bottle of Tito's to celebrate finally being able to fully adopt their daughter and had a Disney movie marathon where he'd fallen asleep watching Beauty and the Beast.
"Good morning, pretty boy." Shiro reached out, dragging his giggling husband on top of him, pressing a kiss to his lips.
"You haven't called me that since college," Lance hummed, snuggling down into Shiro’s side. "Was your dream that bad?"
Shiro huffed, turning his head to burrowing his nose into Lance's messy hair. "Let's just say I lived through a very bad remake of the Beauty and the Beast remixed with Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel."
Lance's laughter filled the air, and Shiro couldn't stop the smile growing on his face. A moment later, their bedroom door slammed open and a very excitable five-year-old hopped up onto the bed. Her blonde hair was in a sloppy braid, and her clothes were definitely mismatched.
"Daddy, Papa, you said we could go to the pumpkin patch!" Allura stood up on the bed and pressed her little fists to her hips. "Let's go!"
Shiro exchanged an amused glance with Lance. With a roar, Shiro reached up to grab their little girl, pulling her in between them. Shrieks and giggles filled the air as the tickled her.
"Alright, alright, we'll get up. Come on, let's go pick out some new pants." Lance shuffled off the bed, turning to drag a cackling Allura to the edge of the covers by her foot.
"No! I want the pink ones!" Allura pouted, hopping off the bed and hurrying after Lance like a little duckling.
Shiro sighed to himself. His life was perfect. (And he was never drinking tequila again, holy shit.)
Like a well oiled machine, everyone was dressed and out the door in 20 minutes. Allura was content with her dark jeans and pink tutu, and she chattered away about how she wanted to decorate her pumpkin as they made their way down the road to Kogane Farms.
"Sweetie, as much as I'm sure you would love to carve your pumpkin, you have to wait. When you're 8 you can carve, until then, we're gonna be painting your pumpkin," Shiro absent-mindedly replied, his gaze drifting over to the tree he and Lance had gotten married under four years ago.
"If you behave today, I'll let you help me carve mine when Papa isn't looking," Lance whispered, eyes dancing as he winked up at Shiro.
It was easy to lean over and press a kiss to his husband's cheek, grinning at Lance's startled flush.
"What was that for?"
"Because I love you," Shiro kissed him again, laughing.
"Ew, why are you kissing?" Allura scrunched her nose up, yanking at their hands so they'd both look down.
"Because Daddy makes me very happy," Shiro explained, reaching down to pick her up and set her on his hip as they made it to the pumpkin patch. He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Just like you make Papa very happy."
"Oh, okay," Allura leaned in and rubbed her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss. " you make me happy too, Papa."
"Come on you two, the pumpkins aren't gonna pick themselves! And I do believe I see your uncle Keith over by his tractor." Lance came up from behind Shiro, wrapping his arms about Shiro's waist. His chin came to rest on Shiro's shoulder and Allura squealed. Pressing an Eskimo kiss against Lance's nose, she wiggled in Shiro's arms until he set her down. Then she took off towards an unsuspecting Keith.
As soon as she made it over to his brother, Shiro whipped around and pulled his husband into a dip, kissing him fiercely. Lance's hands tangled in his hair and when he pulled back they were both breathless.
"Wow, baby. That must have been some dream last night," Lance laughed, tugging Shiro into another kiss.
"I dreamt that I was attached to the tree we were married under and I couldn't leave," Shiro whispered, pressing his forehead against Lance's and staring into those blue eyes he loved to watch so much. "You came tearing in and swept me off my feet. I fell in love with you all over again, my Love."
Lance's eyes softened.
"That sounds like some story, did it have a happy ending?"
"The best ending," Shiro grinned, standing them both back up. "I woke up to your beautiful face."
"Sap."
"For you? Every single day."
"I think we ought to live Happily Ever After"
-Howl's Moving Castle