Chapter Text
The ache in his chest when he first sees her is something hard to wield, but Shiro knows how to suppress those feelings. He is strong, and he has always done so. But still, when he peeks in on Allura falling asleep at the central command station, it soothes the unraveled mess of feelings climbing their way out of his ribs. The lights glimmer across her hair, painting streaks of color in the bone-white of her curls, and Shiro touches his soft hand to her shoulder.
“Have you slept?” She mumbles through a slack mouth, eyes blinking sleepily to focus onto him. Shiro crouches down beside her, studies the lines of her face instead of offering an answer. Jealousy stabs at his stomach, low and unrelenting, because she can always afford to be so selfless despite everything else. His thoughts distract him from Allura’s creeping closeness, until her arms are slung around his shoulders, and her nose brushes against his neck.
“S’time for bed, Shiro.” And though it has been several nights like this, Shiro’s cheeks still flood with warmth. He doesn’t remember the first time, just the feeling of shame that swept over him when he’d woken Allura with his anguished cries, and how she’d held him in her arms until he fell asleep. They’d been sleeping together—a label that burns the tips of Shiro’s ears when he thinks about the implications—until he’d lost her, and he couldn’t sleep without her. Although it seems that she needs him to put her to bed, and is always the one to crawl into his room in the middle of the night without asking, he suspects Allura knows he needs this more than she does.
He holds her close for a split second, allows himself to continue to be selfish, before he resolves himself to carry her to bed.