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"We should disengage," Keith's voice crackles through the comms. Shiro bristles. They were so close to winning, why disengage?
"Fuck no, we're doing this Keith" Lance bites out. Shiro can see his lion fighting in the distance.
"We're at a clear disadvantage. This may as well be a suicide mission," Keith grumbles, "Can't you just listen to me for once?"
"Yeah, yeah, you pussy" Lance snorts.
"Hey! What the fuck-" "Allright, I've altered the comms so they can't hear eachother anymore" Pidge interrupts.
Shiro takes what Keith and Lance were arguing about into consideration and frowns, "Pidge, what do you think we should do?"
"Me?" Pidge says, sounding surprised, "I'm not sure either, to be honest. There's a lot of enemies but... We have to do this, you know? There's lives on the line, and I'm willing to sacrifice mine if it means it'll save even one person."
"Pidge is right." Allura's face appears on his right through a projection. Shiro can see her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and though she's speaking to them she isn't paying attention to the screen. Curious, Shiro turns his lion to spare a glance in the direction of the castle and hisses out a swear when he sees the amount of galra ships surrounding it.
"Pidge can you-" Shiros words are cut off when a collision to his side makes him bite his tongue. He winces at the impact, turning to blast the galra ship that collided with him. "Die!" He screams.
Sighing, Shiro puts his lion on autopilot and steps out of the seat. "Hey bud.." He whispers to black, petting her from the inside. From the distance, he hears the others yelling over the comms but ignores them. "Can you activate your speakers?" The lion answers a yes in his mind, and he watches as the speakers come out of the walls. Smiling, Shiro gets into position. "Hit it."
Shiro begins dancing.
“Shiro watch out-!” Hunks yell of alarm gets cut off by an explosion. Shiro notes with alarm that the explosion came from right beside his lion, and when he stumbles to run towards the front windows he sees that a broken galran ship must have intersected the attack aimed towards Black. Shiro winces.
“Shiro, what the fuck?!” Lance shouts through the comms. Shiro regretfully sits back into the pilots seat. “Lance, focus.” He reprimands the boy.
“...I’m with Lance on this one, actually,” Keith interrupts, sounding hesitant. “I.. Shiro were you-?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it!” Shiro snaps, growling when the line goes silent. “I have PTSD, ok? You’re being insensitive.”
He hears Lance make a poor attempt at turning his snort into a cough.
“Is rick rolling the enemy a coping mechanism now?” Pidge says in a voice that sounds very done. Shiro turns red, embarrassed.
“Paladins, what on earth are these comms! Focus on saving the universe!” Allura hisses, annoyance evident in her tone. The paladins swallow their tongues and go back to the mission. Shiro can only hope that the others will forget about what happened.
–
Shiro was very wrong to assume that they would forget. The second he lands Black in the hangar and exits through his mouth, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Keith surround him like an angry mob.
“Shiro.” Keith speaks first, moving to catch up with the man when Shiro begins to speed walk out of the room. Lance sidles up beside Keith, throwing an arm over his shoulder and using the contact to lean around him to stare disapprovingly at Shiro.
Shiro figures the situation must be serious if Pidge hasn’t teased Lance about the physical contact with Keith.
“What?” Shiro aims for his voice to come out nonchalant, but it cracks horribly. Lances wince is audible, and the hall is filled with uncomfortable silence that lingers until Shiro reaches the kitchen.
Walking over to the fridge, Shiro grabs the butter from inside and throws it onto the countertop. Keith and Lance are sitting on the stools opposite him, staring silently. Shiro feels like they can see into his soul.
“Shiro, we honestly just wanna help. You’re clearly not ok.” Lance starts, glancing at Keith who gives him a reassuring nod, so Lance presses on.
“I mean, we all know about your PTSD but… Shiro, rick rolling isn’t a symptom. I googled it.”
Shiro mutters a curse under his breath. He should’ve known Lance would google it.
“Fine, okay!” Shiro exclaims, crushing the butter in his fist. Keith makes a face of disgust as half of it flops onto the floor with a thwack. “I rick rolled the galrans of my own will, are you happy now?”
Lance and Keith are silent.
Shiro falters. “Guys?”
Keith puts his face in his hands and releases a long exhale. “I just.. I thought we moved on from this stuff, you know? First, you would dab after killing a galran, then it was the whip and nae nae phase, and now you’re rickrolling galrans from your lion in the middle of a battle? You’re going to get yourself killed!”
Shiro clenches his fist harder. “You just don’t get it.”
“Explain, then.” Lance says.
Shiro huffs. “It’s just… It’s hard being so silly and goofy, you know? I need to release
it somehow! It eats me up inside if I don't. It drives me crazy.”
Both boys frown. “We should get you a therapist.”