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#I assumed he would be unhappy about his team mates but I’m glad I was wrong
artxii · 2 years
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Love to see that Jazz’s reaction after seeing the egg children was the same as the fandom
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holleringhawk65 · 7 years
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Day 1: Endurance
5 times that Shiro and Ulaz went through something unpleasant and the 1 time it was really nice
(Teen rating, normal angst that comes with a Shiro fic, a little bit of racism from Allura, some mistranslation, mentions of injuries and sex)
I.
“I want him awake for this.” Haggar’s voice is clear; there will be no arguments made against her.
Still, Ulaz falters. Usually patients are given some kind of basic sedative; there’s no reason to traumatize them with the pain. Indeed, it would be rather counterproductive to give someone an upgrade only to have them unable to use it.
It only takes a few ticks for Ulaz to resume his movements. Haggar is suspicious, he knows that.
Shiro is scared. He knows what’s going on and he’s more than scared, he’s fucking terrified. Who wouldn’t be?
Ulaz wishes that his eyes conveyed that he was sorry, but he’s rather sure that his all yellow eyes only frighten him more. It probably doesn’t help that he has to turn on the saw right away.
He wants to throw up as Shiro tries to keep a straight face when his arm is cut clean off, as tears well in Shiro’s eyes when the synthetic arm is attached, and as Haggar breathes as if she’s looking at the most beautiful piece of art when the arm starts to glow.
II.
Shiro is looking around the room, so uncomfortable and at ill ease. He’s just defeated another opponent, but his nose was broken in the fight. It’s bleeding because it was cut at the top too, something that’s going to leave a nasty, identifying, scar.
Ulaz has been told just to set it and clean up the wound the best he can. He muses that it’s basically the simplest form of first aid that he can give to the Champion.
“How’s the arm?” Ulaz asks, partly out of curiosity, partly because he actually cares. Sometimes, when people get a Druid enhancement, it goes to their head and makes them go insane.
Shiro glances at him, looking confused. It makes Ulaz wonders if the words translated properly or not. “It works.”
Ulaz moves the sleeve to check it for himself. The skin looks a little inflamed, so Ulaz goes to find some antibiotics, just to be on the safe side.
When he comes back, the Champion is looking down at the floor. Ulaz wonders if he was attractive on Earth, before the mandatory undercut for prisoners who make it through their first fight, before the one tuft of hair turned white because of the Druids.
And now he’ll have this scar, smack dab in the middle of his face.
“These will make you feel better.” He extends the pills out, and he’d like for the Champion to take them, but he’s not going to force them down his throat. Not if Haggar doesn’t make him.
Shiro must be in more pain than he’s letting on, because he takes them rather quickly, grimacing as he dry swallows them.
Ulaz feels guilty as Shiro falls asleep nearly instantaneously. Maybe some rest, however artificial it is, will help the Champion’s condition.
III.
He’ll be honest; he doesn’t think he should be alive. In fact, he’s not really sure how he is. By all accounts, activating the space and time fold inside of the Robeast should have killed him.
But here he was.
And of course, Shiro is elated. He didn’t think he was ever going to see the Champion smiling and blushing like this. Shiro wanted Hunk to pull out all of the stops for a dinner celebration. He was cleaning out a room for him, conveniently located near his. Ulaz, for his part, was more than willing to help Pidge look at Galra tech, to answer Keith’s questions about the Blade of Marmora, and to help Lance understand different ways of alien courtship.
It would all be going great, if it weren’t for Allura.
Allura was suspicious of the fact that Ulaz was alive now. Nevermind that they were now allies with the Blade or anything. They had to deal with her and her being a racist. She was almost positive that he wasn’t the real Ulaz; how could it be him, when they all witnessed Ulaz sacrifice his life for them?
So, Shiro had to deal with all of the unhappiness that Allura dished out. On some level, Shiro knew that she was acting like this because she wanted to protect them all, after everything, but…
“You are jealous that someone wants to be with Shiro.” Ulaz says it calmly. It’s just the two of them, in one of the lounge areas, because the paladins are training and Coran is attempting to make a dish that will one up Hunk’s culinary prowess.
Allura lifted her head from her data pad. “Excuse me?”
He repeats his claim again, just as level headed. It really should have been more obvious. While Lance has not stopped his advances on Allura, he’s no match for her. But with Ulaz and Shiro, they practically are a perfect match. Is Ulaz potentially a little bit below Shiro’s league? Yes, but they are much more evenly matched than Allura, a princess, and Lance, who aside from being a Paladin, is far beneath her.
Allura looked Ulaz straight in the face. “Even if I were jealous, what does that have to do with you?”
Ulaz blinks. Had she really not been cognisant of what she was doing? “You have been very hostile towards Shiro whenever we are together.”
Allura straightened up. She looked just a little guilty. Maybe she hadn’t meant to be acting like she was? “I… I apologize for my behavior, Ulaz. I do not mean to cause you or Shiro any distress. You have to understand that I am just trying to protect the Paladins whenever I can. The fight against the Galra Empire is not easy, as you know all too well.”
Well, an apology was a good start.
IV.
Ulaz is the one who is injured. He could probably tell Shiro how to help him, but all of a sudden, the translators had stopped working. He growled in frustration, which sent Shiro reeling backward, afraid he had offended the Galra. There was a bloody cloth in his hand from trying to stop the bleeding, but Ulaz isn’t sure that would be enough anyway.
Ulaz is breathing through his mouth. Everything around him is spinning and he just wishes that he could Shiro’s voice, but his head got slammed to the ground and everything is ringing.
When Shiro does talk, Ulaz only understands a handful of words. He really needs to learn English, like Shiro wants to learn Galra. The Black Paladin says something about his lion, Ulaz thinks. Maybe there is medical equipment there? But he reaches out to him with a hand. He doesn’t want him to leave. He thinks that, potentially, dying alone is the worst way to go, so he wants to avoid that.
Though these shouldn't really be life threatening injuries, he thinks. He’ll just be very uncomfortable if he’s not allowed to use a healing pod back at the castle.
Still, he keeps his hand on Shiro’s thigh until Shiro picks it up and interlocks his fingers. Obviously, he doesn’t seem worried about being growled at again, especially as he lays down, pressing himself to Ulaz in an attempt to conserve body heat.
It’s a while later, maybe an hour later, that the rest of the team shows up. At first, everyone thinks that Ulaz is dead (again), but then he twitches, an arm around Shiro tightening. Even though they both must be in pain, albeit varying degrees, they created such a peaceful image that the others almost didn’t want to disturb them.
That is, until they noticed the dark stain on Ulaz’s uniform and a fresh cut on Shiro’s head.
V.
Ulaz and Shiro are practiced at dealing with each other’s panic attacks, flashbacks, and nightmares. What they’re not used to dealing with?
Parents.
The funny thing is, these parents are neither Ulaz’s nor Shiro’s, because the former’s have been dead for a long time and the latter’s are relatively safe, tucked away on Earth.
They’re Kolivan’s parents, who are kind of like the parents of everyone in the Blade of Marmora. And the way the act is kind of endearing, because Kolivan’s mother is the tough ass who’ll knock you around, and Kolivan’s father is the one who’s likely to bring cookies to you.
But, given that the courtship between Ulaz and Shiro is one of the few things of interest, aside from defeating the Galra empire, that are going on around the base, that means all of their attention is on the two.
“Have you begun to plan the ceremony?” Kolivan’s father asked them as a tray of a tea-like-substance and what passes as Galra sweets are set before them.
Ulaz’s ears twitched and his cheeks became a darker shade of purple. With the way that it translated, Shiro thought that the ceremony was like a wedding, which was an embarrassing idea in a way.
Ulaz vigorously shook his head. “There will be no ceremony for us.”
Shiro looked over at his significant other. He knew that it would be a long time until they would have time to get married, but to say it wouldn’t happen? Shiro fisted the fabric of his pants and he felt Ulaz’s eyes on him, but there was no comment made.
The visit went on as one would expect a visit with a grandparent would go, which is to say slowly. Shiro was glad when it was over because it meant they could escape to Ulaz’s rooms.
When they got into Ulaz’s bedroom, safely tucked away from everyone else, he bent down and kissed Shiro deeply, pressing him up against the wall. “I’m sorry about that,” he said, when they broke apart.
Shiro raised an eyebrow. “You know that I love it when we kiss.” It was pretty much all they did, aside from the cuddling together.
“No, no. About what he said in the beginning, about…” There was that flush again.
“Us getting married?”
Ulaz’s head tilted. “That can’t have been what it would translate to.”
“No, it translated to ‘ceremony,’ I just assumed that you were talking about, you know, getting married.” Now it was his turn for his face to flush.
Ulaz couldn’t stifle a laugh. “I’m glad it did not directly translate. What we were talking about is something less polite. It’s much more of a traditional event, nothing that I would take part in, or that Kolivan would force us to do.”
Shiro frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“When people mated for the first time, it used to be a public affair. That’s all that we were talking about and I just wanted you to know that I would never put you through that.” Shiro’s heartbeat spiked at hearing what they had been talking about. The idea of it almost made him want to throw up.
But then Ulaz brings up Shiro’s hands and kisses his knuckles. It’s his own little way of cementing something that he just said and the soothing motion of it works every time.
VI.
The Galra empire has been destroyed. It feels like they’ve all been fighting for decades, but for the Paladins it’s really only been a few years. Shiro is exhausted, most of all. He’s been through absolute hell and Ulaz just wished that he could erase it all.
At the very least, he could give Shiro an amazing, real, first time. And that’s what he was going to do.
There were scented candles, rose petals, a fresh set of sheets on the bed, calming music, and the approval of Black (not that Shiro needed to know that).
They started the night with a nice, warm, shower and then a bubble bath. Ulaz is almost constantly nuzzling Shiro, in between the two of them cleaning each other off. After they’re all dried off, which takes a great deal longer for Ulaz to do then Shiro, they went into Shiro’s bedroom. They’re doing it here because this is Shiro’s space, this is where he feels comfortable.
Ulaz leans down and kisses Shiro.
“I love you,” he whispers.
Shiro’s arms are around Ulaz’s neck and his eyes dilate and this beautiful, miraculous, human breaks out into a smile. “I love you, too.”
Ulaz leaned down and nuzzled Shiro’s neck. Yes, that first time was rather perfect, if you asked him.
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