bakerstreet | ( picture prompt meme )

[open to cross-canon/medium as well as canon.]

[It was a long range patrol with a new squad of fighters who'd just joined them against the remnants of the Galra Empire. Time consuming and a little bit of tricky flying but nothing out of the ordinary. Shiro has no reason to suspect anything is off during it or on his way back. All he's really thinking about as Black finally makes the wormhole jump back to the Castle is how good a hot shower and a few hours of sleep in a prone position is going to feel.

He knows something is up the second he comes through though, when Coran's usually jovial greeting - isn't. It's a bad feeling but there's no panic or clench of fear. The Castle is still there, he knows for a fact all the lions are already in their bays because Black tells him so. Something's wrong but he doesn't really realize how wrong it is until he's stepping out of Black's bay and Pidge is there with Lance at her side and the look on both of their faces stops him in his tracks. He feels the ice in his veins before Pidge even lifts up her laptop and simply says:

'It's Hana.'

He feels the hum of the ship as it moves to clear the asteroid field it was in and they make him sit down for the video on Pidge's laptop even though he doesn't want to.

He's glad they did.

Because he can feel his bones go loose as he watches the feed, no longer live, recorded days, maybe even a week ago, at the rate they get streams from Earth at this distance. But it's Hana's feed, one of her fights, against some huge machine he's never seen in anything but intel reports before and it soon becomes clear that she's one of the only ones left. He can feel the tension tightening through his chest and the fact that Pidge and Lance are both hovering doesn't help reassure him there's a good end to this.

Hana goes offline, comes back on, goes offline, comes back on, goes offline, comes back on. Each time she disappears his heart backs up in his chest until she's back and he finds his hand over his mouth, as if that somehow helps control his breathing. Each time she comes back on, her voice is more strained, rougher at the edges, showing signs of exhaustion and pain and the next time, her breathing doesn't steady out once she's back in her mech. He sees blood on her gloves when they take the controls again - and robots don't bleed. The upbeat pattern in her talk doesn't hide what's underneath, not to him and eventually even that upbeat talk starts to stutter out as her concentration and focus take up more and more of her effort. There's no doubt its a fight to the finish and there's not going to be any coming back for one of them. He feels the dip in sound and then the slight pressure as the castle goes into a wormhole and it sinks right into the pit of his stomach. Because he knows where they're going and he knows how this feed ends on that alone.

He's still not ready when she goes off-line for the last time. He sits with his hand over his mouth, fingers digging into the skin of his jaw, waiting. The comments from her viewers scroll by, worrying, waiting, asking for updates. And Shiro waits with them. And he waits. And he waits. Until the fed finally cuts off and the MEKA symbol comes up on the screen before it finally goes black.

It takes him a very long time to tear his eyes away from that black screen and look up at his teammates, trying to swallow around his tight throat. Lance's face is uncharacteristically tight and hollow and Pidge's eyes are lined behind her glasses.]

How long?

[He manages to get it out, sounding choked and - three days. The fed came in three days ago but he was on patrol and -

and he was on patrol. He couldn't have left, not something that vital. Three days their time. And that was when they received the feed. He moves to check but Pidge is already pulling up the time stamp. Five days before that. It's been over a week. Over a week since Hana Song's transmission on the battle field went dead and never picked up again. He looks up but both of his teammates shake their head. That's all they've got. No word or news. Not this far out. It's lucky they got the feed they did.

Coran's voice comes over the comm, as if he's been waiting, announces their ETA. And Shiro sits in the lounge and tries to remember how to breathe.

He doesn't remember the details of the rest. Just that Pidge was already hacking before they even came out of the wormhole and Lance was on the line to Lucio somehow, Shiro wasn't even aware they knew each other. Allura comes in and suddenly his team is a whirlwind around him, making plans and connections and taking over probably far more than they should for diplomatic purposes and Allura's throwing around her title to bureaucrats, half of who look like they've been woken up in the middle of the night and there's a very harassed looking, very tired, surprisingly helpful nurse somewhere in there and - Shiro's mother? And he feels so numb, so - fucking pointless. She's alive. Hana Song is alive. But its a just barely, even with Mercy's medical tech and Shiro's on his feet and on the move and its all his team can do, that finally Keith has to do, to keep him in place long enough for them to load a cryopod into a ship. It's Keith that pilots it down, with Coran and Shiro squeezed into what little empty space there is because the lions are too big to land in the crowded corner of the city the hospital is located at.

And, finally, at least Shiro has something he can do as he helps Coran guide the tube through the hallways to a sectioned off area of the hospital but Keith has to take over when Shiro's grandmother comes out of a room because Shiro has to let go and lean down into the tiny woman, pressing his head into her thin shoulder and just try to breathe without breaking down. He doesn't - and she doesn't say anything, just stroking the back of his head with her small hand until he's ready and then she takes him in.

His heart looks so small and fragile lying there in the hospital bed, hooked up to a dozen different tubes and wires and feeds. Someone's tried. Her hair is combed and braided in twin braids and the blanket over her is pink and covered in attentive rabbits. There are more rabbits in the room, white ones that hang from bells on the window with little prayer slips and blessings catching the sunlight, stuffed rabbit dolls and balloons and pink flowers and letters, so many letters and pictures and print outs of emails all over the walls. And Hana Song, in the middle of it all and Shiro can't even get to her because the tube and Coran and the nurses take up so much room and she's so, so small and he can't breathe. His mother is there. His father too. Its apparent his family camped out and kept vigil in the room because his grandmother and mother's touch is everywhere and there's a stack of his father's latest reading books next to the chair next to the bed. Shiro's aware of his team in the hallway outside, he's aware of voices from her own team that he recognizes by sound now but he can't hear what they're saying because his ears aren't letting anything make sense.

She's so... so small...]

Shiro -

[It's Coran and he's moved aside and she's not attached to anything anymore. He's suddenly aware of Mercy hovering at his shoulder, trying to see around him without intruding and he steps forward and leans down to gather Hana in his arms. She weighs - absolutely nothing and he's never felt her so limp, not even in her sleep after she's been exhausted. His exhale shakes when he lowers his head and presses his nose to her hair. She smells like hospital and he presses his lips to her forehead. His voice is low and throaty as he murmurs:]

I'm here now, sweetheart. I've got you. I'll be here when you wake up.

[She tucks so tiny into his chest when he gathers her close and he tries so hard not to hold her too hard, not to crush her to him the way he wants to. Her night dress has bunnies on it and the toenails on her bare feet are painted pink and pale blue, stark against her white skin. Gentle, careful, he lowers her into the tube and its the hardest thing he's ever done, forcing himself to let go. Because - it feels an awful lot like a coffin, no matter what his mind tells him otherwise. His mother's hand on his shoulder gets him to finish releasing her and he steps back so that Coran can immediately step forward and start hooking her in. He watches until the lid closes and the air hisses from the seal and then the rest is a blur. It ends when they're back on the ship and someone, Hunk he thinks, brings in a sleeping bag for him and sets it up next to her cryopod and Pidge settles in nearby but not too close with the comforting sound of her fingers tapping on keeps and little else. Shiro settles in. He's still the Black Paladin. He still has duties that need him. But those are now as abbreviated as possible and he's never away from her side for long. He promised he'd be there when she wakes up.

He's not going to break that.]

[ "Don't worry, guys. I've got this. I'm too young to die!"

Those had been the very last words that D.Va managed to say on her stream before the transmission cut off.

They had known this battle was coming for some time now. In all of those months since she returned from space and MEKA had told her they were detecting unusual seismic activity along the ocean floor and that it likely meant that the colossal omnic was going to emerge from the seas once more to try and destroy everything Hana has fought to protect. In all of those months, almost another year since Shiro left to fulfill his own duties to the galaxy at large. In all of those months Hana had trained, she had tested every new iteration of MEKA that the scientists and engineers came up with to improve their chances of winning. She continued taking part in relief missions both in her home country and around the world in Overwatch and she kept on fighting against Talon and other insurgent organizations bent on exacerbating tensions between humans and peaceful omnics and it gave her leverage to try and call on allies to help protect her country. She'd done her duties and everything she could to win, just like she'd promised, and make sure they would win when the big fight would come along.

And when it did come along--

Hana had fought the colossal omnic many times before. None of those times had ever left such a distinct feeling of dread in her stomach, in her heart, at the start of the battle like this one had. Because the colossal always came back harder to beat than before-- but this time it looked nearly impossible. One look at it as it seemed to part the ocean beneath it as it rose from the depths told her that this was-- in all honesty, and for a lack of a better way to describe it than with her gamer logic-- the colossal omnic's final form.

Although Hana and MEKA weren't alone anymore, not this time-- they had allies from forces around the world and they had Overwatch and in her heart she knew she had Shiro, too, even from far away-- war would always claim its victims. And it did. Even with the additional firepower provided, even including the towering Svyatogors from Russia, it would be a battle of attrition. And the longer it went, the more damage would be done both to the omnic and to the defending forces.

But not once did Hana think they were going to lose. There was no way they were going to. She-- all of them had worked so hard to make sure they wouldn't, and--

She was scared of what would happen if she did lose.

I'm too young to die.

The colossal had pushed the frontlines back all the way past the ports of Busan, but it was clear from the damage it was starting to take that their attacks were working. They were going to win. Its defenses were wearing thin to the point that its offense was suffering. The cost of getting to this point, she knew, was almost unbearable, but they had to win.

Even if, as the battle kept on, she started to think she might be part of that cost.

The end of the battle felt like a blur. Hana didn't realize at the time that it was even ending. All she knew was that, self-destruct sequence after sequence, there were no more MEKA units to drop. She was down to her last one but she knew this was going to be enough. Just one last push from all of them... And then it was explosions, so many of them all at once, and gusts of wind and debris and ocean water and fire swirling all around them, tremors shaking the nearly-destroyed city as the colossal omnic that had taken Hana's father's life first and then her mother's finally, finally fell. For the last time. It no longer retreated back into the depths like it had before. It collapsed on the ports of Busan and shook the city and even in its defeat it caused much destruction but-- they won.

It had been Mercy who found her in the wreckage of a collapsed building when it was all over. She barely remembered the glow of the woman's wings nearly searing her eyes-- well, eye, because one was sealed shut from dried blood caked over the lids-- because it was otherwise pitch black in the night and the moonlight was shrouded by dark storm clouds and rain. Always with the goddamn lightning and thunder and rain. And then she could hear 76's voice-- then Lucio, and Tracer because of course-- they were the fastest ones, always. It was hard to tell if her one eye stung because rain was falling on her or because she was crying but she was happy to hear their voices, even Shiro's, and she called his name even when something in the back of her mind told her he wasn't there, even if she couldn't make out a word of what the others were saying before everything went black.

And black everything was for days. To Hana, it had felt like an eternity. One filled with nightmares filled with wailing children and fire and her friends dying around her and somewhere in there was Shiro's family and Shiro, god, she missed him so much-- and sometimes it felt like she was awake and she could hear grandmother's voice, smell flowers around her-- before dark filled in and pulled her into endless dreams again.

And then it was warm for the briefest of moments before it got cold, so cold.

The cold lasts forever. But slowly, slowly, she feels like she's being pushed and pulled back and forth between living and whatever lies on the other side, before the pull of life starts getting stronger. Still, it's cold.

It's another week before the cryopod starts showing the vitals on its interface that tell them that she's going to be awake soon. It's an odd feeling to start feeling alive when her body feels frozen but-- then she feels like she's falling. The glass of the pod fades away as the visible cold air spills out onto the floors of the room and Hana's body, which suddenly feels like it has weight again, begins to fall forward. ]

[He'd be pacing with impatience but - he's so tired. If he's slept in the past week, its been bare minutes of it, a half hour snatched here and there. He knows he owes it to Hana to take care of himself, that he needs to be in top condition when she comes out in case she needs him -

but the second he falls asleep he hears her calling his name from somewhere he can't reach and he's snapping awake, sure that he's missed something important, adrenaline racing to make up for it.

So by the time her pod starts its wake up cycle, he's far too tired to do anything but stand there in front of it and stare at her emotionless face through the transparent field.

Tactfully, his team leaves the room empty, even though they've done their best, all week, to keep him from being alone for too long, surprisingly welcome distractions to a mind that just wants to run in the same circle until its buried him.

His heart feels frozen in his chest as he watches the barrier dissolve and he knows what the vitals say and he's had Coran and Allura's assurances all along but - she looks so pale and so fragile and her eyes haven't even opened.

When she pitches forward, his arms are there to catch her and he simply goes down afterward, a very controlled downward drop that leaves him sitting on the floor with his long legs folded up around her and her body in his arms and his lap and against his chest so he can tuck down and around her as completely as a body his large can manage. His voice is low and it shakes]

Hana. Sweetheart. Hana -

[ It's so... cold...

All Hana can see even before her eyes open is white. She's in a white room, waiting, not sure for what but there she is, and somehow it feels like she's watching herself, like her soul isn't with her body but she turns and-- fire. Omnics and humans alike torn to pieces, splayed across what used to be her home and the colossal omnic and then Tracer screaming her name and begging Angela to do something, anything-- Lucio standing there, numb, unable to move for once, Jack's voice quiet but unsteady for the first time but is any of that even real, she doesn't know-- and then Shiro's mother is brushing her hair and there are rabbits everywhere and the smell of flowers and his father reading to her and grandmother holding her hand before the rogue omnics show up again, bastion units spraying down troops and-- did any of this actually happen, and then--

Shiro.

She hears Shiro's voice.

And suddenly she feels warmth enveloping her, cradling her, bidding her to open her eyes and it feels like waking up from a nightmare and she wants to shift, move, but her limp body won't listen to her and-- Shiro. Shiro. He's here. She knows this warmth, she would never mistake it for anything else and she knows his voice and the feeling of his arms around her and-- Shiro. It's Shiro. He's here--why is he here?

Where is she?

Her eyes flutter open, slowly, but the realization startles a gasp out of her, body going rigid, eyes widening. Where is she? This doesn't look like Busan and oh, god, Busan-- it's all but completely gone and what happened to the colossal omnic, where are Jack and Angela and Lena and Lucio and Fareeha and Ana and Jamie and Satya and everyone else, oh god--

She grabs a hold of Shiro's arm, still not entirely aware that it's Shiro's arm, and her breaths cut short, rapid, chest heaving, head moving back and forth as she looks at her surroundings and then her eyes finally fall on Shiro and she remembers. She remembers him and the warmth he always wraps her up in. That's right. Shiro, he's here. ]

Shiro--

[He holds her close through the first panic and he can imagine fairly well what her mind is trying to reorient to. He says her name, soft and firm, gentle and he says it again until her eyes focus on him. She says his name and...

and it breaks his heart. But he pulls his lips up into a weak smile at least and hums, low and throaty for her, cradling her close. His hand shifts and he strokes his thumb, the human one, slow up and down the back of her neck, soothing.

And he tells her what he'd want to hear if he was in her position.]

Everyone's all right. Everyone made it out alive. They're all safe, they're all fine now. The omnic is destroyed. Its safe. Everyone's safe. You're safe. I've got you.

Shiro...

[ His name is the only thing she knows to say at this moment. Or the only thing she wants to say at this moment. Because-- he's here. He's really here. She's in his arms and she's safe and

even weak as she still is (the pod had healed her injuries but she'd been immobile for weeks now and her muscles haven't quite remembered how to function) to hear his reassurances takes a great, great weight off of her chest and her breathing finally starts to slow. ]

We won?

You won. You all won. They've turned it into a National Holiday. [And they've had their official days of mourning too but - that's not for now. That's for later. Once she's stronger.] Parades and flowers everywhere. Your fans bought you a giant balloon from what I hear. Pidge has recordings of it.

[Reaching up he strokes her hair tenderly back from her face and then cups her cheek.] You won, sweetheart. The war's over.

[ They won. They won.

Of course they did. Hana Song doesn't lose. She's worked so hard to make sure they'd win even though they knew how hard it was going to be, knew that even in winning they would lose so much but--

They really won.

It takes a while to sink in. For years now Hana has been a soldier fighting in this war. It wasn't up to her, at first. At first they singled her out and drafted her because of her skills. It was flattering. But no video game or simulator could ever prepare her for what the reality of battle was like. There's no such thing as a huge rez or an extra life in war.

Twenty-- no, twenty-one years, now. Twenty-one years that omnic had waged war and rained destruction time and time again on her country. Claimed the lives of her father, and then her mother, and hundreds of thousands of others. Claimed a large part of Hana's teenaged years from her. Because she was training and fighting when she could have been going to school or pursuing her career in gaming or almost anything else.

And now it's over.

She's still in his arms, blinking vacantly for a few moments as the thoughts sink in. It's over. They won. She did it. Everything she's worked for amounted to something and she--

She's alive. She survived.

And Shiro's here. ]

Ah--

[ There's a surprise in her voice and

Hana Song cries.

All this time she wouldn't even when she wanted to. All of those lonely nights in storms or moments after tough missions or beign worried sick about Shiro, wondering where he was and if he was okay but now he's here and they're safe and--

the tears are finally falling, spilling over, streaming down her face, and it's almost like she doesn't even realize she's crying. ]

[He's - never seen Hana cry before. He's seen her come close and he's certainly seen her in enough situations that deserved tears but - he's never seen her cry before. And when her eyes fill and glisten and the first tear spills over, his chest gets hit with a hard jolt of panic.

And then he exhales and simply wraps himself a little more around her and cradles her and doesn't try to stop or slow down the flow of her tears.

Hana deserves the chance the cry. She deserves tears and she deserves them now more than ever. He presses his lips against her forehead and he holds her and he doesn't try to shush her or tell her not to. Because - what an ocean of tears she must have inside of her after all this time...

Let her cry. She's safe enough to cry now.]

[ Oh god, she's crying, she realizes.

When was the last time she had done that?

It's almost a foreign feeling to her, to get this emotional in a way that isn't determination or excitement but she finds that she doesn't dislike it. In fact, it feels-- nice to cry. It feels liberating. Because the fact that she's finally letting herself do so means that things really are over. They really won. She doesn't have to hold it all in anymore.

So she doesn't. She buries her face into Shiro when he pulls her in, presses her face to his chest and just

cries.

She cries for all of the friends that have sacrificed their lives when this all began. She cries for her father and her mother and she cries for all the kids that have lost their parents, too, and she cries for the parents who've lost their kids. She cries for homes lost because-- no more. There'll be no more of that. It's all over. She cries for all of the people who have helped her along the way, thankful for their support because she doesn't know if she would have made it this far without any of them. From the MEKA engineers, her superiors. Squadmates who looked up to her but at the same time knew when their fearless D.Va needed help. Jack. Angela. Lena. Lucio. Everyone at Overwatch. Her fans.

And Takashi Shirogane.

All of them helped her through this. It doesn't escape her for one second. Without them--

She would have died. And she has no idea how she got from fading away on a pile of rubble in the rain at Busan to being in Shiro's arms on-- the Castle, she assumes, but--

She's so happy to be alive. Muffled, her voice finally comes out, ]

I was so scared... I didn't want to die--

[He's taken to rocking, something slow and almost not there, cheek resting on the top of her head and while she cries something in his own chest finally, after all these weeks, finally starts to melt and turn human again.

She's alive. She's alive. She's safe. And she's with him. Everything is going to be all right.

He doesn't keep track of how long she cries and when her voice finally comes out, muffled against him, he ducks his head to press a lingering kiss to her hair, thumb rubbing gentle circles where he's come to rest against the back of her shoulder.]

I know, sweetheart. It's okay. You're allowed.

[ Weakly, her fingers curl against his chest, trying to grab hold of him, as her chest heaves and her shoulders shake with every sob and sniffle and cry. She's too young to die. And, somehow, she didn't. She's alive. She survived. And now she's here, with Shiro. ]

I was scared I wouldn't get to see you again.

[It's not easy. There's a pretty big size difference and she's burrowed pretty tightly into him, but he manages to lower his head and shift until he can nudge the side of her face with his nose.]

Hey... I'm right here. I'm right here, koibito. Right here.

[ She feels him nuzzling her face, and, god, she's so goddamn happy that she's alive for him to be able to do that. And that it's all over and they're here, together, she doesn't have to worry about him anymore when, really, it's her who almost died and-- ]

Mmm, [ she acknowledges it, hums against him, and nods before she turns her face to the side. ]

I love you, Takashi.

I love you, Hana.

[His kiss is very gentle. He's probably said 'I love you' to her more in the past few months than to the entire rest of his family in all their lives but... it just feels like something that needs to be said with her. As if saying it is some kind of talisman or charm that will keep her safe or protect both of their hearts. A second sweet kiss and he pulls back and goes back to cradling her.

But he searches until he finds one of her hands with his so that he can curl his fingers around it and bring it up to press his lips to her knuckles and leave them there. When he speaks its against them.]

It's all right now. Everything will be all right now.

[ When he kisses her it's

like this is everything she'd wanted. To be able to be in his arms and kiss him again. She survived to make sure that last time wouldn't be the last kiss for them. And when he pulls away he pulls all of the grief and and sadness with him and replaces it with happiness. Relief. Hope.

Her face is still wet with tears (and so is his shirt) but she manages a weak smile at him. ]

I owe you so many dinners now.

[He's never going to complain about his shirt. Or her face. Not when she trusts him enough to let go and be that vulnerable in front of him. Instead he leans down to press another kiss to the top of her head and his eyes meet hers.

He almost lost her.

It's not something he's going to get over quickly.

But all he does is offer a small smile and a:]

Oh... so many, sweetheart.

[ She reaches up slowly with a hand, starts wiping away some of the tears from her face. Her voice is soft, still void of any of her usual energy-- and it'll take her some time yet to gain that back-- but she asks, equal parts curious and teasing, ]

How many?

[He lets go of her hand to reach out with his own and tenderly stroke the tears away. His human hand because he wants to feel them against his skin. Now that she's not either dying or crying in his arms some of the quiet, tapped down panic in his chest is relaxing.

Some of it.

He gives her another soft smile.]

I think I'm going to just say you'll owe me until we're old and grey together.

[ She rests her hand on his as he wipes away her tears; even as warm as it feels now in his arms, close to him, she's still spent the better part of two weeks on the very verge of death and the latter half of it in a cryogenic pod. She can feel the difference in their body temperatures.

She really... really almost left this world. But she didn't. She held on and with the war over she doesn't intend on coming that close to it anytime soon. Even if she's not quite sure what's in store for her at this point. She just hopes-- that Shiro's going to be a part of that.

Luckily, he seems to have the same idea. Old and grey together. That... doesn't sound so bad. Not at all, even. She'd love that.

Realizing that, the look in her eyes after he says it is nothing short of enamored, even if her words are teasing. ]

You're gonna get sick of free dinners from me like that, you know.

[He sees the look change in her eyes and the tight lines of his face finally start to soften. old and grey apparently doesn't sound bad to her at all. Which is good. Because if he was sure before, he's set in stone now. He's not letting her slip away from him. Not ever. His hand, done with the tears, cups her cheek and he finally lets his eyes just rest on her face and take her in. She's alive, she's here, it's all right. It's all right.]

I don't think so. But you're free to substitute dinners for anything else any time you want.

[ She quirks a brow. ] You're gonna make me pay for everything, huh?

[ Finally, finally, she feels her body relaxing, slumping into his and letting the warmth spread across her skin. It'll take some time yet for the fact to register that they're here, both of them, safe and sound-- they're here.

And-- right. Here is... ]

...How did I get here? The last thing I remember was Busan... Where are we?

[He doesn't even both answer her first question. Just hums a soft sound and smiles down at her and -

she's alive, she's alive, she's alive.

His thumb strokes her cheek, feels the warmth of it and he exhales.]

We're in orbit out by Io. While I was out on patrol, Pidge caught your last feed from -

so we came. And got you. You've been in the cryopod for a week now.

( picture prompt meme )

Shiro | Voltron: LD

do your worst </3

I think you already did

i didn't need my heart anyway </3

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here's a tag from several thousand feet up in the air!

woot! you're on your way! safe travels and happy christmas eve!

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