whatsacactus | (no subject)

[Keith lets the weight of Shiro's hand fall there. He doesn't try to move it or get away. Just takes in the comfort Shiro's trying to provide.

He sighs out a heavy exhale, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms.]

...I don't know how I feel right now, Shiro. I just... Know I'm not letting anything else happen to you. And you're anxious being here. So we shouldn't stay here long.

[The affirmation of Keith's devotion hits him like a sledgehammer to the chest. He says nothing for a brief moment, sucking in air. Then, quietly,]

I know.

[Keith would - has, may always - walk into hell for him. He has a hard time feeling like he deserves it, considering everything that's happened now.

The rest peels a short, self-deprecating laugh from his lungs. Leadership has taught him one thing: sometimes, if you're looking to make other people feel better about something, you have to make sacrifices.]

I'm only anxious because I've learned peace doesn't agree with me, Keith. I don't-- know if I actually think this place is dangerous, or if I just don't want to be anywhere Zarkon might have been happy.

Hm.

[He watches Shiro's face carefully, then around the kitchen they're in.]

Then let's make it somewhere we've been instead of somewhere that was his.

[Make their own mark here, however short a time they stay.]

[Shiro raises both eyebrows at that. It's-- an interesting enough suggestion, and not one that he would have ever considered. But Black was his, wasn't she? He made that happen, even though she's Keith's now.

He steps away from Keith as if he's simply going to leave, but-- on the countertop, there wrapped up in that old shirt, is the remnants of the breakfast stew he'd boiled halfway up the canyon wall.

It's cold now, gelatinous and a little bit like the goop they used to eat in the Castle.

So naturally, Shiro scoops a handful of it up and promptly - without ceremony - throws it at Keith's chest. Oh, not hard. It's not meant to do anything but create an impromptu food fight.

Not that they have much to fight with. But Keith's creative, he'll think of something.]

[Keith watches him carefully, not sure what he messed up that time. His heart rate spikes when he sees something being thrown at him and he isn't able to duck, this is bad, he's--

Covered in goop.

Keith looks down at it, not entirely sure how to feel about his undersuit covered in this and looks back at Shiro, eyes narrow.

Without looking up, he gets some on his fingers and flicks it hard at Shiro's face with one hand, the other reaching for one of the squishier fruits to throw at him.]

[He dodges-- or more specifically he tries to dodge, which results in the collapse of his right knee.

The body remembers pain. It remembers strategy. Shiro lets himself fall, uses the momentum of it to get into a combat roll and when he comes out of it he hefts himself back up with his left leg. Keith throws that fruit at him and it splatters against--

(he'd turned instinctively to use the Galra arm to shield himself, but it hits the stump of his shoulder instead. Purple fruit-goop drips from the cold metal to the floor.]

Oh, it's on.

[He catches the pulpy remains as it falls, and then lunges at Keith to mush it into his hair.]

[It's been a while since he smiled (since Shiro woke up, since they talked about the Garrison burritos, and was that really just a day ago? It feels like a lifetime ago already). But Shiro's tenacity has a little smirk tugging at his lip as he ducks down to one knee.

He can't entirely avoid Shiro, but he can grab another fruit on the way down to smash against his chest. Shirt for shirt here.]

Bring it.

[They don't have the ammunition to stretch this into a true ordeal, but it's still a while later that they're both on the floor. Shiro's laughing, and grimacing at the pain in his ribs, and laughing again as they sit back-to-back amidst the carnage and ruin of what was a mostly-pristine kitchen just a short time ago.]

Okay. Well. That helped.

[He's breathless, realizing again how sore his muscles are, from both the fight on the station and the climb up. But he feels better. Lighter. It doesn't resolve the issues, but it's easier. He can allow himself to sit here, back to back with Shiro, and not worry about the problems right this second.

His breath hitches and he reaches to hold his side with a little breathless laugh.]

Yeah? Think so?

[He can hear a beep coming closer, the door popping open when a bot comes in to scan the room and see the damage they just caused.]

It was a good idea.

[Shiro leans back against him, tipping his head so he can study the ceiling. It's painted and whorled in pale pinks and lilacs, the paint obviously chosen with loving care. The robot starts cleaning around them with what can only be described as resignation.]

Thank you.

[For this. For everything.]

...Of course.

[He tries not to think about how big and how warm Shiro is. How he's gotten taller himself, almost as tall now.]

...That was all the food though.

Well. It's a garden, isn't it? What kind of person makes a garden without growing anything edible?

[He stands up, holds out his hand for Keith to take. He fully intends to haul him up as well.]

Let's go check it out.

[He reaches for it, not thinking, not remembering until he's on his feet and close. There's the tiniest fragment of hurt in his eyes before he looks out the window at the garden.]

Well. We know which section it wouldn't be in. [The part they walked through.] I wonder if there's a map or something.

[He grabs for a towel to at least get the drippiest bits off, hands Shiro a second towel while he walks to the door exiting out to the field again.]

If I were planting a garden... I'd want to keep the edible things closer to the kitchen. [Not things he's even had the chance to think about in a long time, since he was stuck in the home waiting for lights out.] Start there.

[He hates seeing that look on Keith's face. Hates knowing he caused it. But if Keith can work past it, so can he.

(But there's still a part of him that feels so monstrously ashamed--)

So he follows Keith out into the yard, wiping goop from his face and hair.]

All right. I wonder if there are any bots specifically programmed as harvesters?

[He doesn't mind digging, or any sort of hard work at all, but he can't use a shovel like this and he knows it'll be hard to be on his knees for any length of time. They don't need to push themselves. This isn't life or death. They're both healthy and fit, they can survive up to a month without food so long as there's an adequate water supply. Not ideal, but he's not worried, exactly. Black didn't bring them here to starve them.]

[He doesn't voice it, not to Shiro because he's sure he can feel it too. But there's a calm from Black, even this far away. She knows they're safe. He isn't as worried as he would be otherwise.]

Probably. And if there are, then there'd be a storehouse.

[Now that he has an idea of what to look for, he's scanning the edge of the garden. There are some cut through paths between the growths and stalks, but he can just see something. He doesn't wait for Shiro, just goes for it directly from the kitchen door.]

[Shiro lifts a hand to call him back and then--

Stops. And doesn't. Instead, he just settles back and watches Keith with a fond little uptick to one corner of his mouth. He knows - he always knew - that he couldn't dog after him forever. That one day, Keith was going to make something of himself, do something incredible. His scope had been too narrow in those early days to think of it in the context of saving the universe, but now--

Now he just leans against the kitchen door where it leads out into the gardens, folds his arm across his chest and smiles. By the time Keith returns he tilts his head to one side.]

Find anything useful?

[When he comes back, he's breathless, face red, but there's a satisfied smile.]

You have to come see.

[Anyone else, he wouldn't bother. Anyone else, he'd just say what he found. Shiro, he wants to show.

Further in, out of view because of the stalks, there is a storeroom. The door is open, and inside are boxes and tables of harvested food from around. But Keith keeps going past that. The path winds a little further, closing in to a thick hedge and a single entrance. There are vines wrapping around a white stone archway. Once past is a pristine stone fountain, shaped as flowers and what look like a galra breed of roses with water still flowing. There's a single bench settled in front of it on the stone path.]

[Well, it doesn't seem like it's anything dangerous. Shiro just lets himself be lead along. Keith's enthusiasm is obvious and saying, I never knew you thought so highly of flowers is on the tip of his tongue.

He doesn't say it. He just trails after him, and when he sees this quiet, closed-off part of the garden he says nothing at all. Just takes it all in.

Even knowing what tainted it, that doesn't make it any less a wonder. The water is still clear, and Shiro steps past the bench to drag his hand through it. It's wonderfully chilled, and he just knows it would be all right to drink as well.]

It's beautiful.

[Once upon a time, this place must have carried meaning for two people very much in love. An ache settles in his chest, though he couldn't say why.]

[The sound of the water trickling softly is mesmerizing. It's relaxing. He's still hurting, he's still sore, but the tension eases out as he backs up to sit on the bench. He's careful not to disturb more than he has to.]

It's the only place we've seen so far that's this well kept.

[And it's true. The hedge around the area is well trimmed, freshly watered. The flowers peeking through are arranged aesthetically, just so.

But it's clear, his eyes are full of awe. Even if this place isn't meant for them, he appreciates it. He likes it.]

[Keith is looking at their surroundings. Shiro... Shiro is just watching him enjoy it. He can't really appreciate something that belonged to Zarkon the way Keith can. He's always been the more utilitarian of the two of them. Capable of stripping something down, divorcing it from its original purpose and finding something new and beautiful in it.

If Shiro had to guess, he'd say it came from being in group homes. Never being given anything new, nothing that was truly yours. He had to learn to appreciate what he had no matter where it was from. Found or stolen.

He's older, but he hasn't changed much. That same little kid that Shiro ended up looking after is still in there somewhere.

He looks away.]

There must be bots dedicated to servicing just this one area, then. Stands to reason this was an important place.

[He nods, not looking away from the fountain.]

Yeah... Probably.

Wonder what it looks like at night...

[No doubt it's beautiful in the dark too. He watches it a minute longer before getting back to his feet.]

Anyway, the-- The storeroom. Back that way, there was a lot of fresh food.

We can come back after dark.

[He makes it an event, something the two of them can do together. It's only after he says it that he realizes Keith might be happier coming alone.

Well. Too late now. Instead, Shiro just nods and heads back to the storeroom. Once he knows Keith has followed him--]

You know, I recognize a lot of this-- I think some of it's Altean, but this-- isn't this something we found on the Olkari planet? And these are Balmeran cave bugs.

[But they're definitely meant for eating, they've been dried out and placed in jars. Shiro makes a bit of a face at them - bugs really aren't his thing.]

[He nods, picking up one of the jars. He's not averse to bugs; alone in the desert for a year, you learn to eat what you can.]

I recognized some of it too. We can stock up on this and bring it back in, figure out how to use it best.

[He's already pulling things into a pile closer to the door. Once it's bigger than what he can manage in his arm, he looks around, then wheels over a small push-cart.]

Shiro-- there's a lot here. How much do you want to grab?

[He shrugs.]

Enough for a few days. We shouldn't need more than that.

[But he dumps what he'd selected onto the push-cart anyway. He doesn't want to be wasteful, but there's also no one out here using this stuff. They might as well take whatever looks interesting and either eat it or not at their discretion. Some of the Altean food they can bring to Allura-- he imagines she would love to have seeds for the edible Altean plants, or perhaps Juniberries again.]

Hunk would probably want some of this too.

[So more than a few days. Enough to at least propagate and get seeds from. He gathers a little more than they really need for just that. Before long, they've got a variety of different fruits, vegetables, and Keith insists on bringing the jarred bugs as well. Protein, he'd suggest.

He leads them back to the main house, a much better mood than he'd started with. He did something useful, and saw something beautiful. A bit of Galra heritage that hadn't been marred by war, and Zarkon's twisted desire for control of everything.]

This'll be good.