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Ah, sun, relaxation, and a space goop smothie. This was the life, Shiro thought as he rested on his lion's extended foreleg.
On a metal surface of something that didn't feel almost as though it was a part of himself, he might have been burned by Sirin's three suns, but the black lion was still cool against his skin, and thrummed with a familiar, comforting energy. His metal arm was as warm as it ever was; the Galra were terrible, but their technology was light years ahead of Earth's, and even more advanced than Altea's, since the Galra hadn't spent all those years in stasis like the last Alteans. And the green slime that the Sirinians had covered them all in was probably going to keep off the sunburn. Maybe. Pidge had said that there was a 1% chance that they wouldn't be biologically compatible with it, which meant they'd spend the next week looking like lobsters, but it would be worth it. Saving a planet from the Galra had never been so rewarding.
They'd set down on Sirin to save it and afterwards had been invited to have a little fun on the beach before taking off. Beyond his closed eyelids was sand in a deep purple color, with various holes made by friendly little furred animals, and a blue sea as far as the eye could see. Shiro had thought about swimming, but the sun was warm and the day was long, and stretching out under it on his lion was all he needed.
Muscles loose and some sand stuck in a few places, Shiro was completely relaxed. Even his lion looked relaxed, resting on its metal stomach with its forelegs spread out in front of it.
From somewhere ahead of him, he heard a scream. Shiro paid just enough attention to categorize it as Lance's voice and that it wasn't his help I'm in actual danger scream.
"If you're drowning, I'm not going to save you," Shiro called out. He tried and failed gather the energy to open his eyes.
"I'm the one drowning him!" Allura called back.
That was fine. "Carry on!"
"Hunk, save me, please, you're my only hope!"
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything."
"…"
"It was only a little water."
"I was eating a very tasty local meal," Allura growled, her words half garbled under the sound of her splashing through the water after Lance.
If Lance and Allura were in the water, and Hunk's voice was from somewhere in that direction too, and Keith was still probably standing up to his ankles and doing training stretches, then Pidge was— There was a whizzing sound above him and a pile of sand dropped onto his chest.
"Dammit, I missed," Pidge groaned.
Shiro sighed, deeply. "Pidge, go swim already."
"Ugh, you sound like my dad," Pidge said.
Shiro finally opened his eyes as he started sweeping the purple sand off of himself. It took a moment to blink black spots out of his vision before he could get most of the sand off. His lion gave a thrum of displeasure, so Shiro pushed the sand off of him, too. Some of it stayed stuck onto his skin, mixing with the sunscreen gel and sparkling in shades of purple.
Turning and looking down at her from his high position, he said, "You have five seconds before my lion blows sand onto you."
The black lion's eyes glowed ominously. Shiro patted its leg, because really, he had the best lion of all.
Pidge peered up at the black lion. "I could take you."
"Pidge, come look at what I found!" Hunk called.
"I'm leaving because of Hunk, not because I'm scared of a little sand," Pidge made sure to tell him before taking off.
Shiro was too relaxed to roll his eyes, so he only hummed and waved her off. Pidge joined Hunk, while Allura stepped out of the water, throwing a still-breathing Lance onto the beach before looking around and meeting Shiro's gaze. She smiled at him, raising an eyebrow, and it was too far a distance to yell that he'd only been making sure Lance was still alive. Also, lying was a tad too much effort at the moment. Allura looked amazing in the spiraling fabric of Altean women's swimwear, and even better when she started walking toward him. There was probably a rule somewhere that you couldn't just not watch a work of art walk over to you. Keith called him smitten, and it wasn't exactly a stretch.
"Should we hold a funeral for Lance?"
"Just his ego, and it's only temporary," Allura said, faux mournfully. "Is there room on your lion for one more?"
"Just one," Shiro said with a smile he couldn't even help keep off his face.
There wasn't much good that space travel had brought him. He'd joined the Garrison as a fresh-faced eighteen year old, graduated as a deservedly cocky twenty-two year old (he'd beaten nearly all the flying records he could and worked his ass off in the other parts of space travel that hadn't come naturally to him), and received an easy first posting on Sam Holt's expedition. One trip into space and he'd been plucked up by aliens, which he'd believed in, in theory, but the Galra had been much more than a theory. A year of captivity. The loss of his arm. Being thrown into the position of leader of the paladins without even a manual or much of a choice. But the many, many bad parts caused the good parts to shine brighter. He'd gotten friendship out of it all, both a strengthened old friendship with Keith and new ones with the others, and he'd met Allura.
Allura hefted herself up onto the lion's paw and settled in beside him. She was wet and a cold against him, but the water felt good against his sun-heated skin. And Allura would always feel perfect next to him, and kissing him, and tilting his head back, and—
"Not in front of the kids," Shiro said with a groan.
"They're not actually kids."
"They'll tease me again."
"How terrible," Allura said, smiling mischievously. "I can't imagine why they'd find it fun to tease you."
Shiro was pretty sure it was that same smile that had been on her lips when he'd kissed her for the very first time a couple months ago. And when she'd pulled him into the giant Altean swimming pool later, and when they'd tested her strength against that wall… (The first time had been a less spontaneous affair, with a varga's stay in a medical chamber to do a cross-species biological test to make sure they were sexually compatible. Not that he'd thought they needed a machine to tell him they were sexually compatible, but after a reminiscence from Allura about an ex whose sperm she'd been allergic to, Shiro had gotten on board.)
"And Coran will ask if I watched the Altean safe sex holovids he created back in his early days in government and that is a nightmare I don't want to revisit." There had been choreographed dances. "He'll probably talk to you, too."
"In that case, never mind. We'll be chaste," Allura said, running her hand along his collarbone.
Shiro was suddenly way too aware of every part of their bodies that was touching. "We could always just vanish for a little while. I'm sure the black lion won't mind if we—"
"We have a situation," Keith said, his voice breaking through the bubble of that Shiro's world always became when Allura was nearby. Shiro helped Keith pull himself up onto the lion's giant foreleg to sit down next to him.
"What is it?" Allura asked, her voice all business again. "Is it the Galra?"
"It's worse," Keith said, settling down next to Shiro. "I think Shiro has a phobia of water. He hasn't taken a swim in the ocean here even once."
Allura and Keith shared a look that Shiro really didn't like.
"I don't have a phobia of water," Shiro said, knowing he was too late to curb whatever was going through their heads, but trying all the same. "I swam in the castle's pool just last week."
"We weren't really doing much swim—"
"Spare me the details, please," Keith told them quickly.
"And me!" came Pidge's voice from the other side of the lion's foreleg.
Allura pulled Pidge up with one hand, which reminded Shiro that he and Allura hadn't had a private training session (that devolved into sex) in far too long, too caught up with the back to back Galra attacks that had been happening.
"I'm coming up too," came Hunk's voice.
"Did you all seriously leave me all alone on the beach? Not cool," came Lance's voice. "Keith, you're the closest, either you help me up or I grab onto your leg."
Keith muttered something under his breath, but dragged him onto the lion.
The lion was becoming too full by the minute, with five people now on it, so Lance shrugged and flopped down across onto them. By the time Coran arrived with more food, it had really started to resemble more of a cuddle pile than anything else. There was an elbow lodged uncomfortably against his chest, but Shiro wasn't sure how to move without sending the whole pile of people onto the sand. He was considering doing it anyway when he looked over at Allura, and then the thought slipped out of his mind completely. Allura looked so terribly content that he wouldn't move a muscle, if only the peaceful expression on her face would stay. He could never give her Altea back, but they had this.
Under the pile of paladins, Allura's hand found his.