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It’s the trip of a lifetime—the kind of journey Shiro and Keith could only have dreamed of as children, gazing up into the night sky & imagining the distant lands & societies that might lie beyond the edges of the galaxy. If only I could see it all, they had wished. They’d never guessed they would really do it one day—and each with the love of his life, no less.
Closing his eyes, basking in the dappled light filtering through the dense canopy of deep green leaves high above them, Shiro smiles.
“What are you thinking about?” Keith’s voice is pitched low and hints at laughter. He laughs so much more now; it never fails to make Shiro breathless.
“Just how lucky I feel to be here, with you.” Here is the edge of a vast northern forest on the planet Tetraria, just one of many stops on their honeymoon tour of the universe. Without Allura’s wormhole tech, this expedition would never have been possible...and without Allura, Shiro thinks, their peaceful life wouldn’t have been possible either. He makes a mental note to stop by New Altea on their way back home. He’s thanked her too many times already; she won’t listen to him anymore and shushes him whenever he tries, but perhaps the necklace from a faraway market he’s tucked away in his bags could express his sentiments just as well. It’s extremely sparkly, naturally.
Shiro opens his eyes to look at Keith. He’s twisted his dark hair into a bun to keep it off his neck, but a few tendrils have escaped, curling in every direction they please. His long legs are bare under denim shorts, and he’s foregone his usual black T-shirt for a red tank top—more appropriate for a hike on a hot day. As usual, Shiro can’t take his eyes off Keith.
Keith ducks his head, cheeks flushing. But he’s smiling too. “Shiro...”
“I mean it.” Shiro steps close and takes Keith’s left hand in his, bringing it up to kiss the golden band on Keith’s ring finger. “There’s no one else I’d rather explore the universe with. No one but you, baby.”
Keith leans against his chest. “Yeah, me too,” he whispers.
They stand like that for a couple minutes, just enjoying each other’s touch. The world is silent around them but for the familiar-yet-not songs of unidentifiable birds and the hum of unknown insects—until the spell is broken by Keith’s stomach growling. Shiro can’t help laughing. “So, lunchtime?” he suggests.
“You’re using me as an excuse,” Keith grumbles. “Admit it, you’re hungry too.”
“Absolutely starving,” Shiro agrees.
They spread out a soft blanket on a rocky overlook above a calm sea that stretches out in silver and blue ripples until it fades into the horizon. Dark, sinuous shapes slither and roil through the water below, and Keith watches with great interest. “That woman at the restaurant last night said it’s not safe to swim here. Guess that’s why.”
A face breaks the surface of the waves—reptilian, with a mouthful of glittering teeth. Shiro gasps—and it vanishes again.
“Guidebook says they’re kind of like mermaids,” Keith muses, flipping through pages on his holopad. “But only kind of.”
“Huh.” Shiro peers over the edge of the overlook again, but the water is still now—no shadowy figures beneath the gentle waves. “Well, a perfectly-safe planet would probably be kind of boring.”
When they finish eating, it’s time to make the trek back down the forest trail to the clearing where they left Black. Halfway there, Kosmo pops into sight at Keith’s side.
“Hey, boy!” Keith ruffles the fur on the wolf’s head; Kosmo pants happily. “Where you been all day?...Napping. Fair enough.” Keith rolls his eyes. “Lightyears from home, and he falls asleep...okay, okay!” Keith wards off a leaping Kosmo bent on licking his face. “He’d like to remind me that he’s seen more of the universe than I have.”
“He raises a fair point.”
Keith shoots Shiro a downtrodden look. “You’re really taking my wolf’s side?”
“When he’s right, he’s right.”
Kosmo trots over to Shiro and licks his hand with more drool than necessary, in Shiro’s opinion.
“He says thanks,” Keith translates, needlessly.
“Yes, I got that...” Shiro wipes his hand on his shorts, wrinkling his nose. “Good boy,” he tells Kosmo anyway, so as not to offend.
Back in the lion, Keith brings up a map on the viewport, filled with their notes and planned itinerary from before they set out. “We could go to Kasuvi next,” he suggests. “They do have some great places to swim. Or Ankeon—there’s a double solar eclipse due to occur tomorrow, when both moons will cross in front of the sun. Only happens once every couple thousand years.”
They look at each other silently—only for a moment.
“Eclipse,” they agree in unison.
—
They make it to Ankeon just as its first moon is biting into the edge of the sun. The spaceport in Sauria City is packed—visitors from all over the system have come to witness the event.
There’s a whole festival associated with the eclipse, too. The main road outside the spaceport is lined with booths selling commemorative souvenirs: miniature versions of the sun and moons made out of sparkling crystal that hover in the air over a metal plate, orbiting slowly; postcards and greeting cards and holocards; and something sort of like a snowglobe. The last one catches Shiro’s attention, and he lifts it up to the dimming light. It’s a clear orb that contains detailed models of the moons lined up in front of the sun, suspended in the liquid within, glitter swirling around them. As he holds it, it grows warm in his hands and begins to glow a disconcerting shade of green. Shiro hurries to replace it in its little golden stand and backs away slowly.
“I’d consider buying it, if I were you,” the merchant says. “It seems to like you!”
Shiro gets a closer look at who’s running this booth—an elderly Unilu woman—and takes another step backward, laughing nervously. “Don’t think I have enough credits for something like that.”
“I’ll give you a steep discount,” she wheedles. “It’s my pleasure to make sure these things find their way into the right hands.”
“Shiro!” Keith yells from...somewhere. “Come look at this!”
“Gotta go,” Shiro tells the woman. “Thank you anyway! Bye!”
He finds Keith standing in front of a booth selling cakes and other little pastries painted with sparkling gold and silver icing. Keith’s eyes are as round as the cakes. “I think we need dessert,” he tells Shiro.
“I think you’re right.”
They purchase a stack of cakes, then follow the crowd to a large open field where everyone is gathering to watch the eclipse. The retrograde moon is already sliding across the sun from the opposite direction, and not too long after, totality arrives. The chatter and laughter around them quiets to awed whispers as the planet is bathed in gray half-light.
“It’s an omen,” says Keith, who—as a general rule—does not believe in omens. Shiro raises his eyebrows, prompting Keith to explain. “Well, not one specific omen. It means something to everyone here...but not always the same thing.”
“What does it mean to you?”
“Hope.” Keith’s eyes shine in the midday twilight. “The sun has gone black, but only for a little while. The light always returns, no matter how dark things may seem.”
“That’s a more optimistic view than you used to have,” Shiro comments.
“It’s been proven to me over and over.” Keith reaches out and squeezes Shiro’s hand hard. “Somehow, we always make it through. No matter what, we survive.”
“There were times I wasn’t sure that would be the outcome,” Shiro admits.
“Yeah...” Keith bites his lip, and he’s quiet for so long, Shiro thinks maybe he’s done talking—but he’s not. “It’s true, we both could have died. But we didn’t give up. Not on each other. Not on ourselves. And in the end, it was worth it to keep going, because...you are my light, when the world goes dark. And we always save each other.”
Shiro finds he can’t speak; his throat is tight, so he just pulls Keith into his arms and holds him tight. A crescent of sun begins to slip into view as the moons continue on their paths. Slowly the low light gives way to a golden glow that illuminates the crowd of strangers gathered to behold this celestial conjunction, bound forever by the shared experience. They’ll meet in distant markets, neighborhoods, fortresses, and universities, and realize together that they’d both been present here at this moment.
They return to Black in silence, holding hands and lost in thought. Many of the ships in the spaceport will remain for more of the festivities, but Keith’s got somewhere to be: a set of coordinates at a precise time, but he won’t tell Shiro what’s located there. “Look at Earth’s calendar,” he says finally. “It’s a surprise.”
Shiro looks. “...Oh.” In his defense, it’s a little hard to keep track of Earth’s leap years when he’s running on a nebulous sense of time in space.
“You’re the only person I know who remembers his husbands birthday but not his own.” Keith pecks Shiro’s cheek affectionately. “Now, sit back and enoy the ride, babe.” He refuses to let slip any more details; in lieu of explanation, he puts Black in autopilot, climbs into Shiro’s lap, and thoroughly distracts him.
—
“Ah, we’re here,” Keith announces some hours later.
They’ve come to a halt in a vast expanse of absolutely nothing...and then the brilliant blue ring of an Altean wormhole explodes across the viewport, and Allura’s Castleship II sails through. “Paladins!” Her bright smile pops into sight in the window that opens on the screen. “I’ve brought a few familiar faces to visit you...well, perhaps more than a few...”
Coran pokes his head over her shoulder. “As the Terrans say, let’s get this party started!”
“Party,” Shiro repeats. He tries to glare at Keith, truly he does, but there’s a huge grin taking over his face and he’s powerless to stop it. “Did you bring me a birthday party?”
“I brought you a birthday party.” Keith kisses him, to the sound of a lot of cheering from whoever else is on the bridge with Allura.
As soon as they step into the lounge room, they’re immediately greeted by a crowd of family and friends, who lavish Shiro with hugs and congratulations. (Keith gets his fair share of hugs too, of course. Shiro wouldn’t have it any other way.) It takes a moment for all their faces to sink in, then—
“Takashi?” says a familiar voice.
“Mom! Dad!” Shiro says. “What are you guys doing here?” They’ve never shown the least interest in space travel, preferring to remain in the comforts of gravity and a predictable orbit around the sun.
“Well, your friends dropped by, and we just thought...” His mother smiles. “We didn’t want to miss this.”
“Seven’s a big number!” says his father, patting his shoulder.
Shiro groans. “Well, we all know where I get my terrible sense of humor.”
“I like your sense of humor,” Keith says, coming up from behind and bowing to Shiro’s parents. “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you, Mr. and Mrs. Shirogane.”
“I WANNA SEE UNCLE SHIRO—” a small voice shouts, echoing across the room.
Shiro spins to look for the source. “Oh my god, Ryou came too?”
“As if I could skip my little brother’s birthday? And my own?” Ryou comes over to give Shiro a hug; the tiny girl he’s holding latches onto Shiro’s neck. “Kaori, try not to strangle him too much, okay?”
“Little brother,” Shiro grumbles. “By six minutes.” But he’s grinning; they have this playful argument every year. He lifts Kaori into his arms. “Let’s go say hi to Keith, huh?”
Keith has been dragged away by Lance, Pidge, and Hunk, and is regaling the three of them with tales of the great comet they saw on Ivore, the binary-star sunset on Sarvis B, and hoverbiking in the canyons of Thaelara. “Hey, Kaori!” he says when he sees them. “How are you?”
“Puppy?” she requests, her eyes wide and her lip wobbling.
“I know,” Keith sighs. “I’m only good for my dog...Shiro, I’m kidding, don’t look at me like that. Yeah, Puppy is around somewhere! Not really sure where exactly, but he’ll show up sooner or later.”
Allura’s voice comes over the radio just then. “Shiro, Keith, would you come to the bridge, please?”
“On our way, Princess,” Shiro answers.
—
On the bridge, there’s another surprise waiting, but it’s not just for Shiro.
“Oh my god,” Keith says, hands over his mouth.
“Hey, son.” Keith’s dad enfolds him in a hug; his mother joins in too.
“We had to come celebrate our favorite son-in-law!” Krolia says. “We, ah, brought some company as well...” She gestures to the group of masked Blade of Marmora members who are waiting on the other side of the bridge.
One of them, lanky and very tall, steps forward and lowers his mask. “Shiro, it’s wonderful to see you. You look well.”
“Ulaz! How have you been?” Shiro holds out his hand, but instead of simply shaking it, Ulaz pulls him into a powerful embrace. “Whoa,” he laughs, “I didn’t know the Blades hugged now?”
“You were our greatest hope, and you became more than we ever dreamed, Shiro. Thank you for everything you have accomplished.”
Shiro tries to swallow past the lump in his throat. “I just did what had to be done...”
Ulaz releases him finally. “You are a gift to the universe, and I am so very pleased to congratulate you on the day of your birth.”
“Thank you. I... I really don’t know what to say... but will you stay for the party? Or do you have to go?”
“We have a little time before the start of our next mission. We will stay.”
—
The ballroom of the Castleship is decked out in blue, white, and silver. There’s a brass band in one corner, playing music from more planets than Shiro can name off the top of his head. Keith drags him onto the dancefloor for a waltz-like piece, which has them laughing and spinning and dipping each other. Allura steals Shiro for the next one—a fast-paced song he thinks he heard before in a nightclub on New Daibazaal. This brass band sure has variety.
“I brought you something sparkly,” he tells her, panting, after the music has stopped. “It’s in the Black Lion.”
“Shiro, you shouldn’t have! It’s your birthday, not mine.”
“So I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”
“Oh! You and Keith are spending the night?”
“If that’s all right with you, Princess.”
“Of course it’s all right. I’ll have a room arranged for you. It’s so good to have you on board the ship again, Shiro. Even if only for a little while.”
“Perhaps Keith and I could join you for one of your missions someday? We could bring the other paladins, too. Like old times.”
“That would be lovely!” she exclaims. “When you return home, feel free to get in touch whenever you’d like to come join us.”
“Hey!”
Shiro and Allura jump at Keith’s shout.
“That’s not fair!” Keith’s hands are on his hips, and he’s laughing as he admonishes Kosmo and Kaori. “We’re playing tag, you can’t just teleport her.”
Kosmo tilts his head and gives Keith a meaningful look, as if to say: Sounds like a you problem.
“Again, Puppy!” Kaori yells, grabbing onto Kosmo’s fur. In a flash they’re within arm’s reach of Keith, but as he tries to tag Kaori, they disappear...and reappear on the other side of the ballroom.
Keith shakes his head. “Okay,” he calls. “You two win this round.”
“Hide and seek!”
“Not on your life, Kaori.”
Ryou scoops Kaori up then—“It is way past your bedtime,” he tells her when she complains. “You can drive Keith crazy some more tomorrow, all right?”
“Puppy come too?” she asks. (Shiro’s pretty sure she is plotting escape from her room. It’s what he would have done at her age, after all.)
“Puppy is to stay—” Ryou fixes Kosmo with his gaze— “out of your room.”
“Whuff,” Kosmo says, agreeably.
More dancing commences; the party lasts for hours. Shiro swears he dances with everyone on board the ship—even Coran teaches him the steps to something like an Altean foxtrot. But most of all, he dances with Keith, who used to claim he couldn’t dance, yet somehow manages to move like liquid when he’s in Shiro’s arms.
Shiro’s had birthday parties since the war ended, but he doesn’t remember the last time he was surrounded by this many people from so many areas of his life. Everyone feels like family here. He’s never going to forget this night.
—
“I heard you wanted to plan a trip with Allura,” Keith says, when they finally retire to their quarters. “Feeling like reliving our adventures?”
“Yeah, just without the war and all.” Shiro flops down on the bed, legs hanging off the side. He’s so tired from all the dancing and partying, he thinks he could almost fall asleep without even undressing.
“Heh. That’s not all you liked about the old times, is it?” Keith shoots him a sneaky side-eyed little grin.
“What are you talking about?”
“You, me, a Castleship bunk...” Keith gasps, pretending to be shocked. “Surely you haven’t forgotten all our many trysts?!”
“You say trysts like it was some kind of secret. Everyone was just waiting for us to admit it.” Speaking of admitting things: Shiro’s suddenly not very sleepy anymore.
Keith sits down next to him, a hand on Shiro’s thigh. “Mmm. We were pretty obvious, weren’t we?”
Shiro grabs Keith around the waist and pulls, until Keith gives in and lets himself fall on top of Shiro. “Still obvious, because I still think you’re just as hot.”
“Oh my god,” Keith mumbles into Shiro’s chest.
“Are you blushing?—You are! Keith, you’re so cute.” Shiro rubs Keith’s back and presses a kiss to his cheek. “So how about it?”
“How about what?”
“You want another tryst?”
Keith raises his head to look Shiro in the eyes. “Are you teasing right now?” The color is high in his cheeks; his pupils are blown wide.
Shiro lifts his hips in a slow roll against Keith. “Does that feel like I’m teasing, baby?”
“Nnnh...no...”
“You can tell me what you want,” Shiro purrs. “You know that, Keith.”
“Fuck, Shiro—” Keith grinds down helplessly. “I really, really wanna fuck you right now.”
“So,” Shiro murmurs, “why don’t you get out that pretty cock of yours and do it?”
There’s a mad scramble as they rush to escape the constraints of their clothing; then, finally, they’re bared to each other. Things heat up fast after that.
“God, you feel good,” Keith moans. He’s rutting against Shiro, no trace of shyness remaining. His cock slides against Shiro’s, slick and messy. Shiro groans, wanting, but Keith doesn’t make him wait for long. He pushes Shiro’s thighs up, almost to his chest. “Keep them there,” he murmurs. “Let me see you.”
Shiro wraps his hands behind his knees and holds himself open, allowing Keith to look as long as he wants. Like this, he feels completely exposed in the best way imaginable. Keith loves to seek out Shiro’s most tender and intimate places; to give him pleasure in ways that crack him open—not like a wound, but rather a metamorphosis. Keith gives him room to grow, to expand, to discover just how much he can feel and be and do.
Keith’s gentle hands land on the backs of Shiro’s thighs, sliding down, down, slowly, so as not to startle. One warm palm cradles the heavy swell below his cock, while brazen fingertips tease his rim. “Sometimes I still can’t believe...”
Shiro, drifting in the soft cloud in which Keith’s hands have laid him, nevertheless catches the tiny shake in Keith’s voice. “Believe what?” he asks.
“That I get to have you like this.” Keith’s eyes meet his, a fathomless ocean in their depths.
Shiro could explore that inner world for decades and never know the half of what Keith holds within himself—but oh, that won’t stop him from trying. Keith lets him in now more than ever before, and every time it leaves Shiro all the more awed at the man he loves. “Trust me, I know the feeling.”
Keith leans in to kiss him then, and as he licks into Shiro’s mouth, his fingers sink inside too. Slender and deft, they find the place that sends a jolt through Shiro’s whole body. “Is that the spot?” Keith murmurs. “You feeling good?” Shiro can’t do much more than whine and squirm and nod frantically, but it’s enough. Keith fingers him slow and deep, his touch meticulous. He drags burning kisses down Shiro’s torso; then, in a move that sets Shiro’s mind alight, he sucks a kiss into Shiro’s inner thigh, leaving a red mark behind.
“Oh, fuck,” Shiro breathes. “That—oh—”
“I know, you love it, huh? Looking at it afterward. Knowing that you’re mine.” Again he presses his lips to Shiro’s skin, higher up this time. And again, on the other thigh. He scatters the marks all over delicate, sensitive skin, and all the while his fingers never stop moving.
“Please, please—”
Keith’s eyes bore into Shiro’s. “Come for me, baby. And then I’ll fuck you.” With that, he takes the head of Shiro’s cock into his devastating mouth; his fingers drive in hard and draw maddening circles right where Shiro needs it. It only takes a few more seconds. He draws back just as Shiro starts to come, watching as streaks of white splash Shiro’s belly and chest. “Just like that,” he coos. “You look so beautiful.”
Shiro stretches, luxurious and sated. He’s a mess but he’s not embarrassed—Keith is proud of him for coming all over himself; Keith thinks he’s beautiful.
For a few minutes, they cuddle close and rest, warm skin against skin a soothing, grounding sensation.
“I seem to recall you promising to fuck me,” Shiro says, when the hazy bliss has faded and the fun of provoking Keith a little is too enticing to resist.
Keith laughs, but he sounds a little breathless. “You know I always keep my promises.”
If Shiro was in a cloud before, he’s in a storm-whipped sea now, Keith’s relentless thrusts rocking him to his core. His blood thunders in his ears as he opens himself to the roll and crash of Keith’s hips against his. A second orgasm breaks over him, and he loses himself to it, his mind exploding into brilliant light. “I love you, I love you so much,” Shiro gasps.
Keith kisses him hard, and heat fills him as Keith comes inside him, shaking in Shiro’s arms. “I love you too,” Keith sighs against Shiro’s mouth.
They lie together quietly, catching their breath, tracing arcane patterns on each other’s skin.
“Where do you want to go next?” Shiro asks, when his racing heart has returned to normal rhythm.
“Could find somewhere to go swimming,” Keith murmurs. “Maybe swing past the Xanides Nebula on the way?”
“Mmm. Good idea.” Shiro trails his fingertips up and down the soft skin of Keith’s wrist, thinking of the house that awaits them on Earth—although they both know they’ll never stop traveling. “After that, I was thinking, it might be nice to go home with you? Get started on the rest of our lives?”
He can feel Keith smile against his shoulder. “I think that’d be nice too.”