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They are sitting against the wall, and the unearthly blue lights that line the halls illuminates her face strangely. Her eyes are electric. If someone found them like this, what would they say? Her eyes are lightning arcing across earthen skies.
She's crying.
Shiro smiles, to some extent. Puts his human hand to her cheek.
"You don't have to lie to make me feel better, Allura."
"But-"
"Who else would pilot the Black Lion?"
"We would- I would find somebody!" She is talking like she's desperate, like she's trying to convince him. Dashes his hand away roughly. "You don't have to do this!" Her voice catches, and she covers her face with her hands. "I can't force you to do this."
"Shhh." Awkwardly, he puts his arm around her. The pair of them are folded into a space not nearly big enough.
"We're forcing you to fight a war that wasn't yours to fight in the first place!" She goes on, and he doesn't know what to say. "And now that... With everything you've been through... It's cruel, Shiro! It's... inhumane! We're no worse than the Galra."
"Hey," Shiro's voice is hoarse. "That's not true."
"How is it any different?" She replies miserably.
"This time I'm saving the universe, Allura, not just my own skin. I kinda have to."
"But you don't want to." She says bitterly, twisting away from him. "You never asked for this." She looks at him over her shoulder, eyes bright with righteous anger. "I can see it on your face every time you think you're not being watched. You're homesick, Shiro. You want to go home, and you're scared, and you're tired, and you wish someone else would just do this for you, and that you could go back to normal and forget any of it had ever happened."
As she speaks, he can feel it happening. His throats is closing up- it's worse than he would've guessed; it burns harshly. It's something like vertigo, his head spinning, his stomach churning. It isn't until he tastes the hot saltiness of tears on his lips that he realises he's crying too.
He places his hand over his mouth, closes his eyes, tries with every fibre of his being to harden, to solidify, to remain still, but eventually he has to breathe, and a shaky sob escapes him.
"I'm- sorry-" He chokes out, and her arms are around him immediately, one hand fisted in his hair.
"I'm sorry, too." She whispers. "It shouldn't be you. I'd let it all go in a heartbeat, for you, if you asked for it..."
Shiro thinks that maybe he can feel the distant murmur of the Castle's engine, as the galaxy whirls by.