Space Dad

(rough draft)

A Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Their own fathers are hopelessly far away. Luckily, they've got a good stand-in.

o.o.o

"You can try it if you don't believe me!" Hunk assumed a strong stance - hands on hips, feet spread, shoulders back, head up. He grinned as Lance practically cackled with glee. The rest of Team Voltron was scattered around the lounge, talking together or working on their various projects.

"Hah! You're asking for it, dude!" Lance dove in, fingers wiggling.

Nothing happened.

Lance frowned and tickled harder, moving up Hunk's sides and under his armpits and across his belly, trying to get a reaction out of him. All Hunk did was smile triumphantly. "No way!" Lance gasped.

Pidge's eyes needed a break, so she'd been idly watching the boys, and she was intrigued enough to set down her laptop. "You're really not ticklish at all, Hunk?"

"Nnnnope," Hunk sing-songed.

"Oh, come on," Lance said, now looking as determined as if he was trying to break into a Galra base. "You get motion sick before the vehicle even starts moving! You cry at commercials with baby animals in them! You have to be ticklish!" He tried again, with the only result being that Hunk yawned. "NO WAY. Coran, help me!"

"Er - I would if I had any idea what you're trying to do," the Altean said, looking curious and perplexed.

Lance finally gave up with a groan, collapsing back on the couch in a dramatic sprawl. "Awww, you're no fun, Hunk."

"Score one for Yellow!" Hunk cheered, holding up his hand for Pidge to high-five him.

Disgruntled, Lance glanced around the room. His eyes lit up when they landed on Keith, who was reading a computer printout. "I bet Keith is ticklish," Lance purred, moving like a cat about to pounce.

Keith's head shot up, and he threw himself backward with such a panicked-sounding "No!" that Lance shrieked with glee even before he'd reached him.

"NO! LANCE! STOP!"

"Lance, stop," Shiro said wearily from across the room.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Wow, Keith really is ticklish," Hunk said, as he and Pidge watched in mild astonishment.

"Is that some form of torture you humans practice on your Earth?" Coran asked, puzzled but getting up to put a stop to it.

Keith, writhing on the floor as Lance cackled manically over him, didn't notice. "DAD, HELP!" he screamed desperately.

Everything stopped. Keith opened his eyes and found himself reaching toward Shiro, who looked a little surprised.

"Did you...just call Shiro Dad?" Lance said incredulously.

Keith's face immediately went hot. "No."

"You did call him Dad!" Pidge laughed.

"Awww, yeah, Shiro is like our dad," Hunk said, going over to hug Shiro. "Like, our dad in space! Our space dad."

Lance fell over laughing, and Shiro, blushing a little himself, waved his hand and mumbled something. Keith took the opportunity to jerk away from Lance and march out of the lounge in a huff.

That was not the end of it. That very same evening, as they were all eating dinner, Lance looked over at Shiro mischievously and said, "Hey, Dad, can you pass me the blue goo?"

"Sure," Shiro said absently, picking up the bowl to hand over. Then he paused when he realized what he had responded to, and Lance burst into laughter.

"This is totally gonna be a thing now," Hunk said in delight.

"What thing?" Allura asked. She hadn't been present during the tickling incident.

"Oh, well, you see," Coran said, going into Super-Long Story Mode, "earlier today, Lance was subjecting Keith to some form of alien torture unique to their planet-"

"You did what to your fellow paladin?!"

"It wasn't torture! Look, I'll do it to Hunk; stand up, dude."

"Not when I'm eating, man!"

o.o.o.o.o

It was hard to say when it went from a joke to simply being normal. Shiro good-naturedly rolled his eyes whenever Lance gave him that mischievous look and said things like, "Hey, Dad, what sort of training are we doing today?" or "No problem, Dad will take care of that!" But then it turned into things like a diffident, "Hey, Dad, can you take a look at this for me?" or a plaintive, "Daaaaaad, Keith is totally picking on me!" And that wasn't counting the way Hunk had whole-heartedly embraced Shiro as the 'space dad' of the team, and addressed him accordingly.

Then, in the middle of one battle, "Dad! Behind you!" Pidge shouted, and Shiro whirled just in time to block a strike from the enemy.

Afterward, Lance jogged down the hall from the Blue Lion's bay and called as soon as he saw Pidge, "HAH! Now you're calling him Dad, too!"

Pidge shrugged. "Might as well. At least until we find my real da-" She paused thoughtfully. "My first dad, I mean."

Keith was the last holdout. Even though he was the one who had unintentionally started the whole thing, he stubbornly insisted on calling the black paladin 'Shiro' or 'Sir'...until one day, when Shiro finished oiling his prosthetic and Keith, who had been waiting for the past few minutes, said awkwardly, "Hey...Dad...could we do a training session together this afternoon?"

"Sure thing, Keith."

Keith looked even more agitated at Shiro's easy acceptance of the name. "I'm NOT calling you that when Lance is around."

"That's fine. I don't mind either 'Shiro' or 'Dad,' whichever one you're more comfortable with."

"It's just," Keith burst out, "I hate my real father, and I thought I never needed him except now there's you and-! And...!"

Shiro gently clapped his shoulder. "I care about you, Keith. I can be whatever you need me to be, whenever you need me to be it."

"Right now, I need you to be my sparring partner," Keith said firmly. "That's it."

"Then I'll see you there in a few ticks, all right?" Keith nodded and marched away, satisfied, as Shiro smiled and cleaned up the workspace he'd been using.

o.o.o.o.o

It had been a devastating battle. Now that the terrifyingly strong rage had faded, Shiro felt a little sick about the things he had done to save his team, and even more sick about what he couldn't remember doing while he'd been in the grip of that rage.

'If that's what it took to save them, than it was worth it. No matter what I have to stoop to, no matter what I have to become to keep them safe...it was...worth it.'

Shiro couldn't sleep. He had nightmares and insomnia even at the best of times; now, traumatized by that hellish battle, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep at all that night. He had promised Coran he would try, but he'd tried and it hadn't worked, so now he was going to go do what he'd wanted to do all along: check on his children. ...His teammates. 'Who am I kidding.' His precious, wounded children.

Keith had locked his door, and had not been seen for hours. Shiro managed to get inside with the help of the mice, and felt a jolt of horrified shock when he found the bed empty, the sheets as smooth and undisturbed as if Keith had never laid down on it. Shiro was just about to burst back into the corridor again, shouting that Keith had escaped or run away or DISAPPEARED, HOW COULD HE DISAPPEAR RIGHT OFF THE SHIP, THEY HAD SEEN HIM, HAD HE TRANS-?!

He noticed the mice in time, nosing around the closet door. Shiro's heart was pounding when he went to open it, and words could not describe the relief he felt when he saw Keith curled up inside. "Keith."

The young man curled up even tighter.

"Hey." Shiro's voice was gentle as the terror drained out of him. He crouched and set a hand on Keith's back. "Hey, buddy. What are you doing holed up in here?"

"You all should have killed me," Keith said, muffled.

"The paladins of Voltron don't kill their teammates," Shiro said matter-of-factly as he started tugging Keith out of the closet.

"I'm not your teammate, I'm one of them, I'm your ENEMY, how stupid and crazy do you have to be to have your ENEMY right there in your sights and not shoot him-!"

"You're very tired, Keith," Shiro said, steering him toward the bed. "You need to sleep."

Keith burst into tears. "Aren't you hearing what I'm saying?" he sobbed as he collapsed to sit on the bed.

"Keith. Look at me."

Keith finally met his eyes, with such a despairing expression that Shiro's heart ached for him all over again.

"We don't care who your biological parents were," Shiro said, "and we don't care what you did in the past or what color your skin is. Or what color your fur is, for that matter." Keith's face crumpled, but Shiro went on calmly. "You are one of us, you are part of our family. You chose to be part of Voltron, you CHOSE to help liberate the suffering people of the universe, and that, not your genes or your past, is what makes you who you are."

Keith's voice was very small, and now very uncertain. "I...didn't..."

"Listen to your dad, okay?"

More tears, but this time Keith leaned right into him and sobbed into his shirt. Shiro patted him on the back until he was calmer, then eased him down until his head rested on the pillow. "I have to check on the others," he said softly, "but the mice will stay with you. We'll talk tomorrow, all right, Red?"

Keith responded with a small, childlike sound, and relaxed slightly when one of the mice sat on his head and two of them snuggled under his chin. The remaining mouse saluted Shiro, who saluted back and then left to reassure himself that the other children were safe.

He was a little surprised to find Lance outside his cabin. The young man was just standing there, looking lost and distressed, a blanket clutched around his shoulders.

"Lance?" There was no response. Concerned, Shiro quickened his pace and set his hands on Lance's shoulders. "Lance." He shook him a little. "Lance, are you all right?"

Lance finally blinked. Then he looked up at Shiro, and a heartbreaking look of relief and fresh anxiety came to his face. "Dad."

"Everything's okay, Lance," Shiro said soothingly. "Go on back to bed, all right?"

"Hunk's okay?" Lance asked, and then the questions started spilling frantically out of him. "Pidge is okay? I didn't dream that, right? I think I did dream something crazy with Keith, but he's okay, right?! Allura's-?!"

"Everyone is all right, Lance," Shiro said firmly, leading him inside. "I just talked to Keith. He's upset, but he's fine. We'll sort out all the other stuff tomorrow."

"I screwed up, Dad, I screwed up so bad-"

"You did great, Lance. Pidge would have died if you hadn't held your ground."

"I'm sorry, Dad, this whole thing is my fault, why am I so stupid, and even after you told me not to-!"

"It's okay."

"Blue's never gonna fly again, she'll never forgive me-!"

"Of course she'll fly again, and of course she'll forgive you."

"Daaaaad!" Lance wailed in anguish as he remembered what he had risked, what he had sacrificed, what pain and destruction he had nearly caused, what pain and destruction he had caused. Shiro wrapped him in his arms and held him tight.

Eventually, they both ended up sitting on the bed, Shiro patiently moving game pieces across a board as Lance rambled forlornly between moves, "...I mean, I guess some things make sense now, like he was always able to just waltz into Galra computers, you know, should have seen it coming, I mean he's still Keith, I hope he still likes me, except he never liked me even before, but you know that was kinda a little bit my fault too, except he was funny and it was sad when he left and then we went there and he did that except he was really helping us but I said all those horrible things to him and now I wish I could take them all back and he hates meeeeee...!"

"I think Keith hates himself more than anything right now," Shiro murmured. Then, breaking through Lance's distraught rambling, "Lance. Just apologize when you see him again."

Lance looked startlingly hopeful, like a kid. "You think that's all it will take?!"

"I think Keith needs reassurance that we all still care about him, and you want to reassure him that you're still his friend despite everything that happened. Those two things seem like they go well together, don't you think?"

Once Lance was settled, snuggled in a pile of blankets and looking as relieved as a child who had just been un-grounded, Shiro made his way to Pidge's room. He entered cautiously, hoping she wasn't sleeping in her underwear or something, and found her fully-dressed and working on her laptop.

"Pidge," he scolded mildly, turning on the light, "you shouldn't be staring at a computer screen in the dark. When was the last time you looked up?"

She turned slowly toward him. "Dad," she said bleakly.

"Just wanted to see how you're doing, kiddo."

"I'm doing lousy," she said in a flat voice.

He came and put his arms around her. She sat stiffly, but then raised her hand to rest on his arm. Gradually, she started shaking. "I'm no soldier."

"You did great, Pidge."

"I nearly got us all killed," she snarled, and jerked away from him. "I'm supposed to be sooooo smart, but then I go disobeying orders and it's not like they were stupid orders, you were trying to keep us safe, you were trying to give us a good plan, but then there I go agreeing with Lance of all people and now Hunk's almost dead-!"

"Hunk will be fine," Shiro said, a little more forcefully than necessary. He still couldn't forget the way his heart had stopped when he'd seen Hunk's blood-spattered body collapsing back into Keith's arms. "He's in a magic healing pod."

"It's not magic," she said in a detached voice that was at odds with the roiling pain in her eyes. "This isn't some fairy tale you can dupe your idiot little kids with."

Shiro nudged her shoulder. "Magic, science, pseudo-science that even the Alteans can't really explain...whatever it is, it works. And none of my kids are idiots. It's true that you made some mistakes - ALL of us did. But what's important is that you all recognized what you did wrong, and you recovered brilliantly. No one but you could have gotten us all out of there alive, you know."

"I'm the one who nearly got us all killed, so it's not like I earned any brownie points!"

Shiro put his arm around her again. "You were so brave. You kept such a cool head. You faced down the emperor himself like you were a queen and he was an insect."

"I'm not the one who got us out of there alive," she sobbed, finally breaking down. "You did, Dad! And Allura, nearly killing herself trying to get us out of range when they were so close on our heels for so long. You were there every step of the way in that fortress, doing everything you could to protect us; you turned into a friggin' berserk monster beast to save Hunk and Keith. And there I was, only thinking about myself the whole time until the very last minute when I realized just how much danger I'd dragged you all into...!"

Shiro was shuddering a little, reliving the memory again of what he had done. He wished that Pidge hadn't brought it up, but she was crying and he had to comfort her and it comforted him a little, too, to feel how trusting and innocent she was in his arms, like he was still worthy of someone's trust, like he wasn't sullied by all the fresh blood on his hands.

"I don't care who forgives me," Pidge finally whispered. "I can't forgive myself."

"We still want you. Brave and beautiful, broken and dark, flawed and human...we want all of you, Katie."

"Shut up, Dad," she sobbed in a burst of fresh tears, but she finally put her arms around his neck to return the hug, and he held her until she fell asleep. He carefully tucked her into bed, set her folded glasses on the nightstand, closed her laptop, and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before he left.

o.o.o.o.o

Allura respected Shiro as an equal, and didn't look up to him the way the humans did; Shiro never really thought of her as his child the way he semi-secretly did the others. But she was precious to him, she was part of this little family that had been brought together in space, and she had been hurt just as much as the rest of them had.

Shiro figured it was probably breaking a million rules to enter the princess's bedchamber while she slept, but he couldn't stop thinking of the blank look in her eyes when she'd collapsed at the control panel, the terrible pallor of her skin, how limp and weak she'd been after expending so very much of her energy to secure their escape...

No alarms went off when he very cautiously edged open the door; no royal bodyguard droids leaped out with weapons raised. Allura lay as still as death in her bed, and Shiro felt apprehensive and anxious all the way up until he touched her neck and detected a faint pulse. He exhaled in relief that the last of her life hadn't slipped away when no one was watching. "See, Allura?" he murmured. "You didn't fail us. You came through when we needed you most, and you survived what no Altean has ever survived before."

He didn't expect a response, but as he spoke, Allura let out a soft whimper. He leaned closer, and finally noticed in the darkness that her brow was furrowed, the hand on her pillow clenched into a fist. "No," she whimpered again.

"It's okay, Allura," he said, wondering if she was talking in her sleep.

"No...don't leave me..."

"It's just a dream."

She began to stir restlessly, her hand twitching, her voice more desperate. "Father, don't leave me...!"

Still asleep. Shiro felt uneasy about the idea of impersonating Allura's father, the king, but when she continued to call so piteously, he finally laid a hand on her brow and said, "I'm here, Allura."

"Father?"

"You did well. The paladins are safe. Rest now, Allura."

She gradually went still. "Stay with me...Father..."

"I will." He sat with her for a long time, stroking her hair, until she was finally sleeping more deeply, her body relaxed.

Shiro's heart was heavy as he made his way toward the cryo-pod room. A small part of him hoped, ridiculously, that Hunk would be healed by now, but no matter how much he scolded himself, his hope didn't die until he was standing in front of the pod, staring at Hunk's battered, unmoving body.

Shiro laid a hand on the surface of the pod. "Hunk...you did so great, buddy, I'm so proud of you..." Of course there was no response.

Shiro sat there, keeping vigil for about an hour. In the silence, he had nothing to do but think things he did not want to think, and remember things he did not want to remember.

Pidge's horrified face, backing away from him as he lurched down the corridor toward her with blood dripping from his hands...

Keith's expression of betrayal...

Lance's terror...

Hunk's sadness...

Shiro pressed his fists against his eyes, but it didn't help for long.

Blue eyes, gold eyes; screams; DIE; blazing violet light, hurts, it won't stop; their faces as they disappear into the black void; monster, I'm a monster...

At last, footsteps approached, and a hand came to rest on Shiro's shoulder. "Shiro?"

"Coran." Shiro wiped his eyes. "Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for, my boy," the Altean said in his usual chipper tone. He took a seat beside Shiro, surveying the pod in front of them. "I reckon it'll only take another half day or so, maybe just a smidge more. Then he'll be right as rain, you'll see! Well, physically, at least. But not to worry! Our Hunk is a resilient sort. He'll be making us all smile again in no time!"

"Mm."

Coran peered closely at him. "Is something wrong, Shiro? Aside from the obvious, of course."

"...Space dad," Shiro finally muttered.

"Eh?"

Shiro drew in a shaky breath, then exhaled it. "All of them look up to me. All of them depend on me. I can't...I want so much to take care of them, to keep them all safe. But...sometimes I'm not good enough, Coran. And I don't know how to tell them that without hurting them. Sometimes they look at me with such trust in their eyes, and I can't stand it because they don't know how close I am to failing them. They don't even remember how many times I have failed them. I..." Feeling disgusted with himself, he covered his eyes with one hand and barked out, "Sometimes I don't want to be the dad."

There it was. How cowardly was it to shy away from responsibility? How weak was it to want to be taken care of for a change, for someone to pat him on the head and tell him that he was forgiven and everything was going to be all right?

"Well, you don't always have to be their father figure," Coran said.

The casualness of it took Shiro by surprise. He tried to smile a little. "So we should take turns, huh?" It was a joke, and his smile grew a little more genuine as he imagined Lance or Pidge or even Keith trying to be the 'space dad' for a day. 'I bet Hunk could do it, though,' he mused idly.

"What I mean is, we're all a team, Shiro. Or a family, if you will. All teams need a leader, as do all families. But you were never meant to do everything, Shiro. Sometimes you need to let your family take care of you, too."

"...Voltron was never meant to be piloted by one person. It was designed to be made of five pilots all working together, supporting each other and playing to each person's strengths."

"Yes, exactly!"

Shiro scratched at the back of his head. "They're still so young, though. What am I supposed to do when I see them floundering, just let them get hurt without raising a hand to help them or stop them?"

"They're all young, but they are soldiers, Shiro. They've had too much experience by now to be anything else. And they're not that young, either. It's true - sometimes, as the eldest paladin and the leader, you need to lend a guiding hand. Yet at other times, it's best to let them go about their business of growing up." Coran winked. "Especially when you're tired."

"I am tired," Shiro admitted. He groaned. "I'm so tired!"

"It will pass. You just need-"

"I can't sleep, Coran," Shiro said sharply. "Sleeping is worse than anything I feel when I'm awake."

"I was going to say, you just need some time. And a nice cup of that 'coffee' stuff. And maybe a pat on the head." Coran patted Shiro on the head.

It felt nice. It felt like a gesture that said, "Everything's going to be all right." Coran's smile held no judgment. What it did express was affection, and maybe even a touch of pride.

Shiro stood up and started to move past the cryo-pod. "Maybe I will go get some coffee."

"That's the spirit! Actually, I think I'll join you."

"Coran?"

"Yes?"

Shiro smiled. "Thanks for the pep talk...'Tousan."

Coran smiled back. "Any time, son."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: "'Tousan" is Japanese for "Dad." (Short for "Otousan." VLD-Shiro is canonically Japanese, judging by his full name.) And Coran knows what it means because everyone in VLD magically understands all the languages in the universe. X'D

(I like the Galra-Keith headcanon. I don't know if I'll adopt it whole-heartedly, but I'm vaguely borrowing it for this fic because it's useful.)

I'm still firmly nestled in the How to Train Your Dragon fandom (and still working on Carried Off whenever I get a chance!), but my newest sub-phase is Voltron: Legendary Defender. I like the show so much, and it's been so long since I posted anything (AGAIN! What is with this?! I used to go no more than a couple of weeks between updates! D8), that I wanted to write something for VLD. I couldn't think of any ideas at first, but this morning my friend Medli sent me a link that included prompts. I played with this plot bunny during my shift at work, and started writing it this evening as soon as I came home. X3

I have no idea if I'll write some or all of the other prompts, or if Space Dad will be my sole token fic for VLD, but either way, I'm glad I got the chance to write this. :)