#study break writing jamz

[sassafrassrex]

Why study, when I could write minifics and snippets?

A wall.

Shiro and Ulaz sprinted around a corner and there, right in front of them… a wall.

Smooth, featureless, twentysome feet high, guardrail at the top of it. Separating the walk they were on – down here – from the walkway they needed to be on – up there

… And Shiro’s jetpack already out of action (something that seemed to happen entirely too often on missions. Should get that looked at).

… And (because of course) the armor’s grappling hook already jammed, due to earlier unfortunate circumstances forcing it to bear too much weight.

“Shit.” Catching his breath, Shiro chuckled at Ulaz, “So. What’s your jump height?”

“Roughly my own height. More with a running start, but not enough for this.”

Damn. “Yeah, mine’s only about chest-level.” Was a bit of a forlorn hope anyway. Galra were big. Big meant heavy, meant unfavorable strength-to-weight, meant need another plan.

Shiro darted forward to place an experimental hand against the wall. The telltale ache bloomed at the base of his skull as he lit the prosthetic up, hoping maybe… but he stepped back with a huff. No dice, someone on Team Empire must have been taking notes. Shiro anticipated he’d probably just knock himself out before he managed to melt handholds into this.

God, a fucking wall. They had – Shiro checked his mask display – twelve dovashes, to get where they needed to be. Which meant that in twelve dovashes, one tick, Shiro and Ulaz would have officially been thwarted by one of the oldest, simplest defenses in the history of all civilized society. 

“Okay,” he clapped his hands together, pointing them at Ulaz, “back against the wall.”

“What?”

“You, boost me up.” Ulaz was pretty strong, he could probably do it. “Then you,” he double-checked, “wallrun, corner, wallrun.” He illustrated, pointing to the wall beside them, to the corner, to the wall in front. “High as you can get, and I’ll reach down and grab you.”

Ulaz stared, “You think it will work?”

“… Sure. Yeah, Matt and I did it at the Garrison, when we were climbing the outside of the Mess hall. It’s fine.”

Ulaz stood, back planted against the wall, reaching out both hands.

Shiro stepped back. He had maybe three strides worth of a run-up. Cramped but good enough. He stuck his head around the corner. Still clear.

Yeah, it’ll work fine

Then one deep breath. He nodded to Ulaz, and one step – two – three – and Ulaz boosted him up hard enough he felt his spine bend.

It carried him just high enough to close both hands over the top.

Shit, no need to put me into orbit!

What was that? ‘Thank you, Shiro, for getting my boney ass up here?’

Hand over hand, he walked himself sideways until he reached one of the struts, supporting the railing. Then he hiked himself up, got his elbows over the top, and he was there.

Lying on his stomach, he wrapped his right arm around the support (brief visions of it getting ripped off his elbow made that decision), then stretched the other down as far as he could.

“Okay, go.”

Ulaz took it at a run, caught the side wall, then caught the corner, then came across, headed straight for Shiro.

It actually took two tries.

But on the second try (kicking gravity right in the face), palm met forearm and held fast. 

And then the yank.

Hero momen– oh fuck!

Shit, don’t let – 

Good thing Shiro had his other arm anchored, because godfuckingdamn, Ulaz was heavy. Odds were not favorable for pulling him up with one arm (unless he wanted to also throw his own back out) Shiro just grit his teeth and concentrated on holding on, and let Ulaz deal with hauling himself up.

Ack – climb faster – fuck, are you –

You twig – just – hang on –

Shiro owed Matt a(nother) apology.  

Ulaz hooked a heel over the edge, then finally he was up. Shiro flopped over like a dead fish, before slowly hauling himself upright. His whole arm was tingling, from aching shoulder all the way down to his buzzing fingers.

Am I lopsided? Shiro, I think I’m lopsided, is one arm longer?

Probably. Come on

Seven dovashes left now. Ulaz pulled Shiro the rest of the way to standing (by the other arm, thank God).

And they were off.

Much, much later (after they’d made it with an entire dovash and a half to spare, thankyouverymuch), safely back at the Castle, Ulaz was doing Shiro the wonderful favor of gently massaging the life back into his shoulder.

Totally uncalled for, to be honest. He hadn’t sprained anything (and if he had, this wouldn’t be right anyway). Sure, it had felt pretty shitty but Ulaz, though heavy, hadn’t actually done any damage. Shiro was fine.

But given the butterfly kisses brushing along the nape of his neck, and given Ulaz’s warm (blessedly warm) hands, fat chance of Shiro mentioning that fact.

#shiro (voltron) #ulaz #matt (voltron) #takashi shirogane #voltron #uliro #psh half a sentence of uliro i'm not sure that counts #¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #sometimes there's no higher purpose #sometimes i just want them to climb stuff #don't judge me :p #study break writing jamz #for the record jumpheight is measured by how high your feet get not how high your hands reach #on the offchance that confused anybody #rex writes #vld