Chapter Text
Shiro woke with a headache and an old forgotten memory of launch day.
There were three in particular Shiro could remember off-hand; Brave Lion, Legendary Voltron, and his own, Paragon Atlas.
Barring the excitement that overcame on his own launch day, there was always a low feeling of dread whenever a Jaeger was released into the public eye.
Your life was no longer your own -- it was now public domain, free to be picked apart and laid out bare and criticized or praised with as much air one could fill their lungs with. When you step into that armor and familiarize yourself with your new body and feel the knowledge of a titan, it’s so easy to forget that there is anything in the world that can still tear you down.
Brave Lion fell to a Kaiju that would later kill four more -- a warrior’s death that left their graves swimming in roses and tears. Legendary Voltron fell to poor public assent and retired in disgrace when even the pilots could not wipe clean all the errors they had made.
Shiro woke Keith with a kiss to the shoulder and they rose in silence. There was still the headache pressing to the back of his skull, and Keith had thoughts of his own to distract him -- but it wasn't unkind. It left Shiro to mull everything over.
Shiro briefly wondered how he would be remembered. How Keith would be remembered, when they died.
Would they remember him as the man he had been, or the warrior laid to rest?
As he felt his armored suit compress to his form, Shiro realized how he wanted to remember Keith -- felt his throat constrict with the realization that was so blatantly obvious. Keith was right beside him, fighting his own fears and nerves, and Shiro hadn’t even given him anything more than a kiss this morning.
Keith looked over when he felt Shiro’s hand touch his own, and finally the space between them warmed to something only the two of them would ever share. “Are you nervous?”
The smile that passed between them was something even more intimate. Gray settled on purple in a cosmic neverland. “Not with you by my side.”
A voice called out to them, and the alarms in the base screamed in warning. The Jaeger was waking.
Being escorted to the launch pad felt eerily similar to being walked down the aisle with the base’s crew standing at either side of the entryway, grinning wide with barely contained excitement. Some stood at salute, backs straight as steel, but even Iverson couldn’t help but smile a bit tearfully.
Shiro recognized Allura, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge in the crowd, and nodded to them as they passed. Hunk had tears glittering in his eyes, but they all wore fierce looks of unmistakable pride.
The motley crew of fifty seemed too minimal for the American base -- with it’s high, vaulted ceilings and two slumbering titans, the crowd gathered before them should have been filled twice over, maybe even three times. But as the two Pilots passed through, Shiro couldn’t help but be glad that it was only his family watching him choke back his own tears.
Shiro’s feet crossed the threshold one step at a time, and he tilted his face upwards to stare at his new Jaeger.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
Beauty was an understatement. The sight of the Black Lion was nothing less than awe-inspiring.
Alfor’s signature touches were unmistakable even surrounded by Keith’s careful design, but Shiro felt like an old friend staring up at Black Lion. She was smaller and more compact than Atlas had been, the sleek black paint and rows of illuminated blue and yellow lighting made her look quick, dangerous, and war-ready. A shield of red at her back was the only bulky piece of armor to her -- and even that Shiro knew could split in two and work as a battering ram.
Careful placement of the plating allowed for easier maneuvering and left little room for claws to crawl under and peel off the pieces, one by one. Even if she went against a fellow Jaeger, the odds were stacked in her favor. Versus Kaiju, she was an angel of death.
The Black Lion was truly a work of art.
That Keith trusted this to Shiro’s clumsy handling felt like too much.
“You made this.” Shiro didn’t mask the disbelief in his voice. He had seen the tiny prototype what felt like ages ago, and here they were, standing together about the pilot Earth’s strongest protector. “I…” Words were failing him, so Shiro turned to Keith with a little laugh.
Keith was sliding down on one knee.
The breath left Shiro in a whoosh. He blinked once, twice, just to be sure, and then brought a hand to his mouth in disbelief.
“Shiro.” This close, he could see the slight tremble in Keith’s hands. As if Shiro would ever say no. “Knowing you, being with you these few years has been so, so incredibly important to me. You push me to be more, to be better, and I know without you my life would be --”
“Yes!”
The blurted exclamation escaped Shiro before he could even let Keith finish his tearful proposal. He had to say it. He had to say it now .
Keith blinked once, twice, and to the dismay of the crowd, cut himself off there. He took Shiro’s offered left hand and slid the ring on, finding it a perfect fit. They embraced and shared a quick, passionate kiss to the sound of cheers, and eventually, mindful coughing.
“I can’t believe you beat me to the punch.” Shiro whispered. The weight of the ring on his finger was unusual but welcome. He wanted to return the favor, and dug his own black velvet box from his pocket. It would have been perfect if Shiro had managed to kneel, it really would have, but Keith blurted out his affirmation too fast too.
“Let me kneel, Keith!”
Keith couldn’t help his answering laugh and shook his hand at Shiro in petulant command. Shiro smiled fondly, ever in love, and hurried to do as requested, quick to bring Keith’s hand up for a kiss when he found him still trembling. There would be time for soothing assurances and kisses later -- for now, they both turned to the Black Lion with a renewed resolve.
...
The elongated gait of Black was enough to startle a laugh from Shiro -- Keith answered with a laugh of his own, and demanded they go even faster. They had entered with a Neural Handshake unlike any other, shook off the dredges of memories, and launched themselves out of the hangar. Now here they were, letting Black have a field day in the sandbar of the pier.
Shiro was vaguely aware of the crowds of people watching from the coast and the crew awaiting their return to base -- but Coran wasn’t requesting they return just yet, so he shot Keith a shit-eating grin and maneuvered Black into a lunging jump. Some part of her toe hit a gap in the sandbar and threatened to tip her over onto her knees, but --
A cold line broke through Shiro.
Without even turning to Keith, he knew he had felt it too.
They both twisted their controls up, hands to the stars, and Black roared in approval.
In the span of a breath, the shield at Black’s back split into two and dropped, lower and lower, rows of blue illuminated wings brushing under the waves of the sea. People onshore screamed with a mix of confusion and awe, watching as the ocean beneath Black ripped open under the wings’ jet thrusters. Their Jaeger feed was alive with noise too, but it may as well been radio static -- Keith and Shiro breathed as one collective unit in that moment.
She spread her wings and took them to the stars, just like that -- until they burst through the atmosphere and lay there, quiet with shock. It took a few minutes, but Shiro was the first to break the silence, saying, “I didn’t know you built wings into Black Lion .”
Keith cleared his throat. “I didn’t.”
They started to un-strap themselves at the same time -- confident that Earth’s pull would keep them in place for a bit longer -- and met halfway to twirl together in the zero-gravity.
Shiro clacked his helmet to Keith’s and they laughed at the aborted attempt -- kissing when they had the sense to take them off. “This is unbelievable.” Shiro whispered. “I never thought --” He couldn’t even find the words to finish and trailed off, trusting Keith to know.
The stars above them glittered soft and full of mystery, reflected in Keith’s eyes as he turned away and nodded. “I do.”
“This is going to change everything.”
“I know.”
“And we’ll do it together.” Shiro said. “One united front.”
A shooting comet caught Shiro’s eye and he was quick to point out it’s path to Keith, watching as it hurled fast and burned out into nothingness. He didn’t have to say aloud that the stars had always been an old love of his -- part of the benefit of Drift Compatibility was letting a few things go unsaid. But he still wanted to hear Keith’s soft, intimate voice, so he whispered, “Do you think space holds monsters, too?”
“Mm.” Keith snuggled closer and brought him thumb up to trace the nearest constellation he could find. “I think if there is anything hidden in the stars, Earth is so small and insignificant we’re not worth the bother.”
“What would make us worth the bother, then?” Why are Kaiju here?
“You know all of the Holt theories. They’re more interesting than mine.” Keith arched his eyebrow at Shiro, and they shared a quiet laugh. The Holt theories were born from good intentions, but even Shiro couldn’t believe that the Kaiju were trying to purge the Earth for new alien colonists.
“I want to hear your thoughts.” Shiro got another look from Keith, and rolled his eyes, adding, “ Out loud.”
That was enough for the moment. As Keith gathered his thoughts to share, Shiro ran his knuckles up and down the line of his back, gauntlets catching on the armor plating with a soft click, click, click .
“If there is a reason they’re here, Shiro, it’s not for us to know. I do know out of everything that has happened here, in this universe, during this timeline, only the Kaiju have brought all of Earth together to fight.” He shrugged, “Maybe they’re preparing us.”
Shiro’s hand stilled. “For what?”
Keith whispered his answer, quiet as if it was a grand secret for only the stars and Shiro. “I don’t think we’re supposed to win this battle.”
The button on their helmets blinked with a warning -- Control was trying to hail them back to base. Shiro bit back his groan and snagged his helmet just in time to murmur his assent. Just like everything, their time was cut too short. Keith pressed another kiss to Shiro’s cheek before they drifted apart to begin the drop.
The Black Lion fell back through the atmosphere like it was nothing, but the process was slow. Enough that they were offered a few more moments of privacy. Shiro meant to say something, but the slight rattle as they fell back into orbit was making his headache spike into a sharper pain.
“Shiro, there’s something, I --” Their link shot Shiro with an underlying sense of fear, and he turned to his partner with a furrow in his brow. “In our Neural Handshake, all memories you said would be there -- they were there. You were right. I saw everything.”
Shiro gave Keith a small smile in response, remembering all that Keith’s memories had revealed to him. “It was the same for me.” There would be time later that night to dissect all that he had seen -- now that he knew everything about Keith’s childhood, he couldn’t wait to connect with his family back in Korea. Meeting with Krolia suddenly seemed just a wee bit less intimidating when the image of her kind smile burned like a brand into his brain.
Keith gave a small shake of his head. No, that wasn’t all. “Did you see Atlas’ fall?”
“Keith, what’s wrong --”
“Shiro.” His name was so soft, just then, that for a moment Shiro thought everything would be fine.
Keith took another breath, shaky with this forbidden knowledge, and asked, “Who is Honerva?”