The penultimate chapter approaches, wut? I let the disappointment of S8 digest long enough (and got over a really busy work period/sickness) to concoct a pleasant enough alternate reality. SPOILERS AHEAD still obviously
Also, rant ahead: The main problems with S8’s writing are power creep, insufficient time/effort expended in planning, and a misplaced desire to subvert expectations. They wanted to do something bigger than S6’s multi-verse threatening finale, but did they miss the part where S6’s biggest emotional moment was really the Shiro/Keith fight? Lotor’s breakdown and the sacrifice of the Castle of Lions were also important but they are not the parts I think of first when I think of S6. So in S8, they… did what they did in S8, and while technically it’s bigger, it’s got much less of an emotional punch because the whole time I’m just exasperated with the plot drunkenly careening from one ridiculous situation to the next, and how bad the pacing is. Day 47 was one of the best ‘comedy filler’ episodes in the whole show, but it can’t save the rest of it, where hardly anyone got development time, and those that did had hardly any payoff. And the final farewell felt so… flat. Just… “it’s over now, everyone accept it”. Because they had no time left in the episodes or the plotwriting sessions. The art is still great, the action is pretty good, the actors did their best, but none of it works emotionally for me past E2 and especially not how they arrived at and resolved the ending.
So. My sketchy rewrite is not big enough to threaten the entire multiverse. It’s not unpredictable. And I find it satisfying that way. : )
Forest date music: All Mine by ONE OK ROCK
Part 13: Once More Unto the Fray
The Atlas was due to launch from Earth the next day; Shiro had mandated a final day of leave for everyone going on the hunt for Honerva, and then spent it himself with Elslince in the gorgeous highlands of Colorado, not too far from Galaxy Garrison and not too close either. She was grateful, even though it had been her own recommendation. There were so many things that needed his attention, especially at this late date, and he could easily have cited those as more important. He almost did, she could tell. But he of all people needed a day to rest now, and he seemed more obliging towards her than usual since her pregnancy revelation, so it hadn’t been nearly as hard as she’d expected to persuade him that ‘in her medical and personal, completely 100% biased opinion’, they needed to go on a walk in the woods.
She loved Earth’s woods and mountains. They were like Teler’s, but they smelled different, the patterns were different, and certainly the fauna were very different. The ‘squirrels’, in particular, were enchanting and she wasted a lot of time observing a family of them scampering over their heads. She’d seen them before on other outings, but she wasn’t tired of them yet!
Shiro had other observations. “That’s tempting,” he said, gesturing to a long straightaway on the trail before them.
“How so?” she asked, smiling up at him, enjoying the lack of stress tension in his face.
“I just wanna run to the other end as fast as I can.”
“That’s such a Human thing,” she said, laughing. “Go on, then. But wait for me when you get there!”
“Of course I’ll- no, I’m not waiting, I’ll come back to you. I’d suggest you run, too, but-”
“Shiro,” she said rather archly, “I’m not going to show even a little bit for another few phoebs. I’m perfectly capable of also running, but firstly I can’t keep up with your super-soldier strength and stamina, and secondly I don’t feel the same way as you. I want to walk and breathe slow!”
“Okay, okay!” He held up his hands in mock-surrender. “Just be sure to watch me then, okay?”
Now that she could very happily assent to, and in fact she would have done it anyway. He was glorious in motion, muscles contracting and releasing in smooth rhythm under a snug white t-shirt and dark grey pants. She swooned privately over his broad, firm shoulders, admiring the perfect trapezoidal figure he cut – “like a Dorito”, according to Lance, which had warranted explanation and then sampling – and the perfect control he had over his body.
Now he was turning back at the end of the straightaway, and she could admire him from the front, the forelock of his white hair bouncing, a look of slight concentration on his handsome scarred face. Her own eyes got larger as she realized he was coming straight at her, but before she could be too reflexively concerned that he might somehow collide with her, he put both hands on her waist and lifted her high in the air, swinging her around like a child. They were both laughing as he came to a stop, letting her settle against his chest with his arms about her waist. The sun was shining down behind her, and reflexively her hair billowed, soaking it up, swirling in lazy, happy whorls. He gazed up at her, and the laughter faded into adoration; he seemed frozen by her and she blushed at the intensity.
“You’re the most beautiful person in the universe,” he said breathlessly.
She blushed harder. “Th-thanks. I don’t think that can be true, b-but thanks.”
“I haven’t heard you stutter in a while.” He was grinning again. “You’re the most adorable person in the universe, too.”
“N-no, that’s Pidge. A-are you going to put me down at all?”
“Nah. You can see better from up here.”
While that was true, she was going to get antsy if she didn’t walk eventually. But before she could say anything about it, Shiro leaned in and kissed her, and she completely forgot what she was going to say, letting her hair envelop him as it pleased. He turned and leaned her into a tree, and she shuddered at the pleasant pressure of full-body contact, tightening her arms around his shoulders and wrapping her legs around him.
His grey round-pupiled eyes were strange when he pulled away to breathe – somehow aroused and sad at the same time. “I don’t actually want to go back to war. I mean, I want to end it, and make the galaxy safe, especially for our children, and I want to face my duty and I’d never leave it up to someone else, but… this moment… I don’t want it to end. And it’s… it hurts, a bit, to feel this carefree, this happy, this much in love, to actually have a future to live for, something I haven’t felt since…” He stopped, but she could taste the name unspoken, and it didn’t hurt her, only saddened her. “And to know that we might never have another time like this again…” He broke off again, trying to turn away. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling, and I-I’ve ruined the moment…”
She wasn’t letting him run away to self-inflict more misery that easily. “Shiro, breathe.” She wrapped arms and legs and hair around him, turning him back to face her. “Look at me. I’m here for you. You haven’t ruined anything.”
“El…”
She kissed him, and when she felt he might be sufficiently distracted, continued. “I think it must be only natural for you to feel as you say. I don’t really have any advice, I’m not a psychologist. But you’re not going to upset me today. What would you like?”
“I-I’m not really sure,” he said, still struggling with conflicting feelings that tensed his body like a wire. It was mildly uncomfortable to be caught in that anxious embrace. “What would you like?”
She smiled. “I want to kiss you.” It wouldn’t solve anything. It might not even help him relax if he couldn’t take his mind off the uncertain darkness that surely lay in their future just for a few minutes. She would have to be very… ‘persuasive’. For his own good.
She was.
They sat by a small lake, watching the water lap very gently at the shore. Her head was against his shoulder, hair twining slowly around his warm fuzzy flesh arm. “How far we’ve come,” she said. “What would Jassa think, I wonder.” Her sister had dated a boy for a short time, but they’d broken up long before Jassa enlisted. She’d never had the chance Elslince had now.
“I think she’d be proud of you,” Shiro said, his voice resonating into her head and body.
“Oh, yes, but she’d also tease me.”
“About what?”
“About everything, of course.” She giggled. “Tease me about marrying a pink man.”
She felt him looking down at her in perplexity. “Humans are shades of brown, El.”
She snorted. “When you’ve been surrounded all your life by skin tones in shades of green, your brown is very pink. Comes from having all that iron in your blood, gross.”
“I guess light skin is actually more translucent…” He lifted his hair-twined hand and inspected the skin on the back of it.
“Mmhmm. Now, Hunk and Kinkade are actually brown, although it’s still a reddish brown, not a greenish brown.”
“Why would it be a greenish brown?” Shiro asked, egging her on.
“Because that’s what I’m used to, silly?” She gave him a gentle shove with her shoulder, he pushed back, she pushed back again, and he gave and fell over with her sprawled on top of him. She pushed herself up to look down at him, and he gazed up at her adoringly.
“You’re an angel.”
“I thought angels were white.”
“Angels wear white. In popular media. They can totally be green. And wear pink. You’re beautiful, if I didn’t mention that already.”
“You’re magnificent.”
“Aww, thanks. We should start getting back or we’ll be late for dinner with Keith and Curtis,” he said, making no move to get up.
“You’re right,” she said, and sat up.
Shiro caught her around the waist. “Nah, stay here with me.”
“You just said,” she objected, wriggling; he was grinning like a loon and she was giggling trying to get free.
It took another ten minutes to get him up and moving in the direction of their shuttle, but once they reached it, he said “Watch this!” and slammed the throttle forward.
“You don’t have to show off for me,” she cried from the depths of the co-pilot’s seat, clutching her harness.
“It’s fun, though!” So she let him have it, although a few minutes later the Black Lion cruised by about twice as fast and Shiro pretended he was responsible again, mock-grumbling about how he wasn’t trying to race anything.
She was the first one to reach the ejection pod clamped in Black’s jaws, apprehension thrumming through her. It couldn’t be true, what they said, it was impossible that Haggar – Honerva – whoever – had opened the Quintessence field and gotten Lotor back out. But she didn’t disbelieve them either. Why they had asked for her, though… she was afraid to find out, but it was already clear just from seeing the dark grey and blue pod.
Shiro was right behind her, and the Paladins were hurrying over from their lions. “Report, Keith.” His voice was calm and steady and professional on the surface, but underneath she could feel his fear. He’d held on to the last possible moment waiting for Voltron to return from the depths of the white hole, and she could practically hear his heart still thudding.
“Why did you do that, Keith!?” Allura was demanding furiously. “We barely got out of there in time! You almost sacrificed everything – for Lotor!”
“Yeah, I did,” Keith said, unrepentently. “Whatever Honerva wants him for, if she went to all the trouble of breaking the universe – again – she can’t have him.”
“Pretty slick, though,” Lance said. “I don’t think I could have pulled that off. The explosion almost got through the portal after us.” Keith shrugged.
“Is he even in there?” Pidge asked, bouncing on her toes to get a better look. “Is he alive?”
Hunk had already begun fiddling with the seal on the pod, and now it opened.
Everyone gasped.
“He certainly looks dead,” Keith said. “Lance, poke him.”
“No way! He gives me the creeps.”
“I’m far better trained to poke him, anyway,” Elslince said, and brought out her scanner. Lotor’s body was sprawled haphazardly across his cockpit, his hair matted and tattered and everywhere, covering his face. His mouth was hanging open and his lips looked desiccated, but a visual inspection of more wasn’t yet possible. His armour was clinging to his body, but it looked… melted, somehow.
She felt the blood drain from her face as her scanner made its preliminary report. “H-h-he has a pulse!” She could feel panic explode inside her; what to do to save him? “Brain activity is minimal… Let’s get him to the med-bay, immediately!” What to do, what to do, what to do!? She checked his eyes; the pupils were dilated so far there was nothing left of the pale blue to see in the yellow sclera. She let the lids slide shut quickly to prevent optic damage. No response, not even a tick in the shallow, shallow breathing.
“Oh my god,” Hunk exclaimed. “How is that even possible?”
“Quintessence field must have kept him from dying,” Lance said grimly. “It’s like, pure lifeforce or whatever, right?”
“But he probably hasn’t eaten or drunk anything since he went in, which would be… deca-phoebs ago now,” Hunk said in horror.
“Can you save him?” Shiro asked her.
She took a deep breath and put her determined face on. “I’m going to quiznacking well try.”
Allura turned and walked away quickly.
“I realize this may have turned up the heat against us,” Keith said to Shiro quietly. “Honerva’s going to be twice as pissed as before. She’ll stop at nothing to get him back, clearly, and she’s already sacrificed multiple planets in the effort. But just letting her have him…”
“I think you did the right thing,” Shiro said. “I’ll stand by your decision.” He looked at the body. “I don’t think this is going to change our gameplan right away. We’ll have to see what happens.”
She looked down at the miserable half-invisible face as the medics secured the body to the stretcher. His hair had matted into a sheet; it would have to be cut off. She’d heard him caught out in his lies and schemes, she’d heard him succumb to madness and try to murder her friends… but she’d sworn an oath to help any and all in need of her skills. Whether she still had hope for his mind and soul, she couldn’t say, but she would do everything in her power to give him the chance to live free or die honourably.
“’Scuse us, Doctor Elslince?” She looked up to see Kinkade and Rizavi leaning into her office, Kinkade a little awkward, Rizavi manic as usual. Wolfy started up under her desk, alarmed at their sudden appearance, but subsided when he saw who it was. “We’re interviewing various personnel about their jobs here, trying to provide a look at day-to-day life on the Atlas, and-”
“And we want YOU to tell us all about what it’s like being a non-human doctor on a human ship!” Rizavi exclaimed, brandishing the camera wildly. “You’ve been with Voltron through it all – their first steps, the Resistance, the Battle for Earth! What’s it like working on aliens?”
“Hmm…” Elslince thought, hair curling in thought. Rizavi zoomed in, fascinated. “It’s really exciting!” she said, chirpily. “Shiro was my very first patient ever, and goodness it was difficult! He was so handsome it was hard to concentrate!” Rizavi looked a little disturbed by her forthrightness, but Kinkade was chuckling softly.
“Okay, but humans in general?” Rizavi prompted. Elslince got the feeling she was looking for something… specific. Maybe to do with something Lance and Hunk had told her once about old human fears about aliens probing butts or something. She was a doctor, come on.
“Humans are weird,” was what she did say. “Maybe it’s just because I never met a sapient mammal until I was grown up, but like, you have iron-based blood, and you don’t photosynthesize, and your hair doesn’t move.” Rizavi pulled at her hair with a perturbed look. “Oh! But you’re easy to work on – even without having any redundancies, you’re really resilient! That’s probably the main reason Shiro recovered when I first patched him up. And all the other times I patched him up. He really does his best to get hurt, I think sometimes.”
“Probably so he can come see his wife more often,” Rizavi said, smirking.
“It’s because he’s a hero -” An alarm sounded from her desk – something had changed with her most important patient, the one who’d been in a coma for two weeks. “Excuse me! Gotta run!”
“Wait! Is that- the-” Rizavi didn’t even manage to get a whole sentence out before she’d hopped, skipped, and skidded to Lotor’s private recovery room. The pilots followed her, of course, but this room did not have an observation window. Once she shut the door, her patient would have some privacy. Not that she didn’t want to hang out with them, but she could tell them what was going on later.
As she entered the room, thoughts of the pilots left her mind entirely. Lotor’s eyes were open, but he’d hardly moved yet, still too weak, perhaps. He certainly hadn’t made any effort to yank out any of the various tubes taking care of him, so that was good. As she hurried in, his gaze turned languidly in her direction, but there was something oddly blank about it.
“Hello again, Your Highness,” she said softly, an anxious trembling suddenly seizing her. What would seeing her again inspire in him? Anger, despair? “Are you well enough to talk?” She consulted the computer to give herself more time. Except for the starvation that had withered his body away, his functions were returning to normal parameters. They had been for some time, but it was reassuring to check.
“H-h… h…” he tried. His voice was dried and raspy, disused for literal deca-pheobs.
“It’s all right if you can’t,” she said, reaching out to lightly pat his shoulder. Behind her, her medic assistant came in. Rizavi was still hovering with the camera in the hallway. “Rizavi, not now. Jordan, I think these need to be adjusted, please. Your Highness, please rest. Recover your strength for now. We won’t discuss anything until you are well again.”
He took a deep breath and tried again. “Hhh… hhh… who are you…?”
She froze, staring at him. “I’m Elslince, remember…? The… the doctor with Voltron…”
“V-Voltron…?” He was attempting to sit up now, and doing rather an excellent job of it, too. He was recovering faster than she’d predicted, perhaps aided by residual quintessence absorption. At the very least, he appeared less tired than he had when she first entered, and he certainly didn’t seem inclined to return to sleep. His strength appeared to be growing by the minute. “I… remember… nothing. W-where am I? W-who am I?” Fear was growing on his face, and he reached for the tubes in his nose supplying food and air.
She wrapped both her hands around his large calloused one gently, stopping him. He was shaking, and maybe she was a little too. “Please, don’t get upset. I’m here to help you.” She couldn’t speak for anyone else, particularly Allura or Romelle, but if he truly was amnesiac, she wanted to be very gentle with him. “Your questions may take some time to answer, but let’s start with where we are. You are on the human flagship Atlas, in the medical bay. All these tubes are to help you get better. You seem to be recovering faster than expected, so I can remove some of them. Would you like that?”
“Yes,” he said, staring at her, all lost and desperate looking. While he was still tall and lean and imposing, he was… less overwhelming with his hair cut short and dressed in loose human patient clothing. And with that piteous look on his face.
“This may feel a bit strange, but it will be over quickly, so try not to move too much,” she said, and took out the nasal feeds, and then, after consulting with Jordan about the intravenous feeds in his arm, all of those as well. He really was recovering spectacularly quickly now that he’d woken up. “You will still need to rest for a while, and eat and drink well, to fully recover. I’d like to keep you in the medical bay for observation for a while, if that’s all right. I promise I will not hold you here against your will after that.” She couldn’t speak for anyone else, but she could give him that, at least.
“Thank you,” he said. Then: “You called me ‘Your Highness’. Who am I?”
Still sharp as a blade, even with no memories. “You are…” She pondered how much to tell him. “Well, your name is Lotor.”
“Lotor… That feels right. But the title?”
Persistent as ever, too. “Everything has changed since we last saw you, but you were once the Prince of the Galra Empire.”
He digested that for a while, while she quietly asked Jordan to go inform Shiro that Lotor was awake. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me more than that?”
“I… It’s a confusing and painful story for everyone involved. I’d like you to recover more before worrying about the past.”
“All right then.” He looked at her, then suddenly smiled. He was clearly forcing it, deliberately trying not to worry about the things he couldn’t remember, and yet somehow it was more relaxed than any smile she’d seen on him… before. “Then who are you, Elslince?”
“I’m a Teleran doctor,” she said promptly, smiling. “I was raised by my grandparents on my home planet, and a few deca-phoebs ago, a human pilot named Shiro fell out of the sky onto our village, and I was given the honour of patching him up as part of my final medical exam. He came back for me a few phoebs later, rescuing me from… er… kidnappers, and I went with him to the stars where with his friends and the mystical robot Voltron, we fought against tyranny and for the freedom of the universe. Just recently we saved his homeworld from an invasion, and now we go to hunt down the last and greatest threat to peace in the universe aboard the IGF Atlas, of which he’s become the captain. And, er, I married him.”
“How terribly romantic,” he said, smiling even more broadly. “I love it.”
She smiled and blushed, and that was when the door opened and a whole bunch of people stormed in. The Paladins, Shiro, Acxa.
Allura had pushed to the front of the Voltron crew, and Lotor barely had time to look alarmed before she snarled at him: “And what do you have to say for yourself now!?”
Lotor cringed away from her anger, but Elslince stomped up to Allura, incensed, protective of her patient. “He’s amnesiac, would you like to try again!?”
“He’s what?” Lance exclaimed.
“How much?” Shiro asked.
“Everything,” Elslince said. “He didn’t remember his own name before I told him. And I only informed you lot that he was awake because I wanted you to be in the know, not so you could parade down here and stress him out before he’s fully recovered! Get out!”
Lance touched Allura’s hand. “She’s right, let’s come back later.”
Allura glared daggers at Lotor. “No. If he needs his memories back, he can have them!” She lunged past Elslince, setting both hands on either side of Lotor’s head, ignoring his terrified expression, and did something.
Lotor screamed. And kept screaming.
“Allura!” Everyone cried out at once, and Lance and Shiro and Acxa stepped forward, perhaps to pull her back, but they hesitated, unwilling to interfere in magic that only Allura understood. Her hands were glowing, and Lotor’s eyes were glowing in resonance with them. She stepped back as the glow faded, but Lotor continued howling in anguish, tumbling from the cot to the floor, clutching at his head.
“What have you done!?” Elslince shouted at Allura. “I told you to leave him alone!” She clenched her fists. The fact that Allura had disregarded her in the place where she held authority infuriated her, and if she hadn’t remembered that it was unprofessional, she probably would have punched her, even if Allura could destroy her in hand-to-hand combat.
“He deserves to remember,” Allura snarled. “Every bit of pain he’s caused, every lie and betrayal, every death upon his head, he should know all of it! He’s a monster like-!”
A low, despairing chuckle cut her off. “Like my father. I know, I know. I don’t even deserve to live.” The chuckle turned abruptly to sobs, and Lotor buried his face in his hands as tears poured from his eyes, weeping like he would never stop. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I know it’s not enough… I never wanted to hurt anyone, but I could not see any choice… I always tried…”
Allura inhaled, but Elslince snarled at her, and the princess paused, shocked at such a strong response. Elslince knelt before Lotor, reaching out to him, but he cringed away from her, pushing her back from him before she could get close enough to do anything – a hug, a blanket, anything to help him cope with… everything.
“Shiro, help,” she murmured, and Shiro moved sharply to defend her. “No! Not that.”
“What do you need?” he asked in a low voice.
Acxa appeared by her side. “Let me. …Lotor.”
“I’m sorry,” Lotor sobbed.
Acxa said nothing, only reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. Lotor didn’t push her away, and this gave Elslince the opportunity to touch his other shoulder. Shiro crouched behind her, reaching out as well.
Lance stepped forward, turned to Allura with a pleading expression. “What was the point of saving him, if we’re just gonna punish him again? I know he’s betrayed all of us, and we were all hurt really bad, and we all tried to kill each other, but can’t we try just one more time? He’s not his father.”
Allura’s shoulders were shaking and her face was set. “Really? You would forgive him so easily?”
Lance hedged uncomfortably. “Well, not forgive, not right away at least, but look at him. I don’t think he’s just remorseful because he got caught. He’s… He really feels it, Allura. I want to give him a chance.”
“I can’t,” Allura spat. “I’ll let you give him a try, but I refuse to interact with that – that monster.”
Lance looked at the floor. “Okay.”
“I’ll let him have a chance, too,” Hunk said. “But if he puts one foot out of line…”
“I won’t hesitate,” Keith finished.
Elslince stood. “If you’ve quite finished traumatizing my patient, I’m going to ask you to leave again.” Allura turned on her heel and stalked out, and Hunk and Keith followed her.
Elslince turned back to Lotor. “You can relax here. Nothing will happen to you here. I promise. You can stay here as long as you want.”
“I’ll get you filled in on everything that’s happened since… since you left,” Acxa said. “If ever you meant a word you said about working for the peace of the galaxy, you’ll need to know so you can join us.”
“You going to be all right?” Shiro asked Elslince.
Elslince nodded. “Yes. You can go where you’re needed. I’ll call if it’s important.” He squeezed her hand and left.
Just why she felt so protective, she wasn’t sure. Was it truly just the plight of the man before her, broken beyond anything she’d seen before? Or was it her maternal instinct strengthening as the sprout grew inside her womb?
Probably both.
“What’s going on over here?” Shiro asked, ignoring Burr’s constant stream of toxic sarcasm.
“That’s the arm wrestling contest,” Burr said dourly. “It ain’t for people like you.”
“Why’s that?” Shiro asked, looking down at his mechanical arm. The other was wrapped securely around Elslince. “Because of my arm?”
Burr laughed. “Nah. Arm wrestling is for the young and strong. You’re old like me. Those kids would break you in half, mechanical arm or not.”
As Burr was speaking, Elslince could feel Shiro’s ire building, and she was not surprised when he removed his arm from around her and thumped his fist into the palm of his prosthetic. “Is it too late to sign up?”
“I’m sure we could work something out,” Burr said.
Shiro looked down at Elslince. “Sorry, El. I’ll be right back.”
He hadn’t been looking at Burr, so he might have missed the sneaky grin on the Drazanian’s face, but she hadn’t. “Kick all their butts, Silver Boy.”
Shiro dominated the early rounds with ease, as he got closer to the top, the announcer started paying him more attention – and Shiro began hamming it up more, showing off with his prosthetic between rounds, even though it was getting tougher. The rest of the crew showed up for the final match, surrounding Elslince with cheerful chatter and showing off their loot. “Is this where you’ve been the whole time?” “Look at Coran’s trophy, isn’t it awesome?” “You really missed out!”
“No, she didn’t,” Keith said, whose grouch level was still 30% higher than everyone else’s.
“No, I’m good!” she said sweetly. “What could be better than seeing Shiro goof off a little?”
“I mean, I’ve been here for the last hour, and it’s pretty good,” said Curtis of the bridge crew, backing her up.
The announcer introduced Shiro, and the crowd booed him – good-naturedly, mostly, but she still cheered as loud as she could to drown them out, and the Atlas crew helped her. He looked good in his confident aura, the cheeky smirk, the saucy glare.
And then the announcer introduced the former Warden of Beta Traz, and they froze in horror. The Warden stomped up to the table, and for a moment everything was tense. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there was a lot of male snarling, that much she could see.
And then suddenly, the Warden looked away and began to mumble something, and she saw Shiro’s expression soften in surprise and sympathy.
Abruptly, they began, straining against each other, both using mechanical arms, grunting as they heaved. The team was screaming bloodthirsty things around her, the crowd was yelling at the top of their lungs, and Shiro let out a roar and suddenly slammed the Warden’s arm to the table. She cheered wildly, putting both hands in the air, letting her hair poof around her joyfully. Curtis was clapping beside her, eyes filled with admiration. “The captain is amazing.” She could hardly hear him over the noise, over the Paladins surging forward to lift their leader high.
“He really is,” she gushed. “I knew he’d win. He never gives up!”
“You’re very lucky,” Curtis said with a dreamy sigh. “Strong, brave, daring, disciplined, and handsome as a movie star. I mean, he’s lucky to have you too, but I’m gay.”
She gave him a brilliant grin. “I am extremely lucky. And I don’t mind anyone having a crush on my husband, I feel the same way of course! Just don’t let me catch you trying to seduce him.”
“Ma’am! I would never. While on duty.” She laughed at the teasing and went to join the Paladins swarming Shiro, who was still flexing triumphantly, now with a gold belt around his upper arm. The Galaxy Garrison uniform was not made for such poses and it looked very odd. It reminded her that he was still quite a young, rather silly man when he wasn’t being a warrior. And she adored him for it.