Never Is our Always

A Tease

"She has slept for a day now. Surely she has to be awake," Lance was once again growing impatient as everyone, except Scarlett, was gathered in the ballroom.

"Well, we are almost finished here, so I don't see why we couldn't go check on her," Allura spoke while adjusting some of the garlands along the balcony railings.

Today was Scarlett's birthday. She had never before celebrated her birthday, let alone been aware of what date she was born, but with Pidge's technology and brain, she was able to figure out when Scarlett's birthday was. But this was nothing Scarlett knew of just yet.

"I will go!" Lance shot up from his slouchy position on the steps of the staircase. "But I want to!" Pidge interjected, "I wanted to be the first one to say happy birthday!"

"What?! No way! I thought it would be a surprise till she walked in here! She would be like 'OH WOW' and 'THIS IS GREAT' and then 'HUNK, YOU ARE THE BEST.'" Hunk made his best interpretation of Scarlett.

"None of you are going," Shiro cut in. "I'm going. Besides, she sounds nothing like that, Hunk." He smirked at the yellow paladin and headed towards his chamber. "Try not to eat her face! She will need it later!" Pidge called out after him in a joking manner. Shiro chuckled and shook his head as the rest of the paladins burst out in laughter.

He had never been in her room, so it came as no surprise when he hesitated and contemplated if this was ideal. But he knocked lightly on the door nonetheless and stepped inside as the doors slid open.

Upon entering her room, he saw her still asleep in her bed. The cover had messily been kicked to the foot of the bed, leaving Scarlett bare, with only her oversized t-shirt covering her body. She laid on her stomach, her arms hugging the pillow on which her head rested, face turned towards the wall. One leg was slightly raised to the side, and the other stretched out, leaving her shirt slightly rolled up to reveal a glimpse of her bum.

Being a light sleeper, she awoke not long after Shiro had entered. Shiro noticed and quickly looked away, blushing, realizing where his eyes had been traveling. Scarlett turned her head around, smiling upon seeing Shiro in her room. "Morning," she mumbled.

He scratched the back of his neck and smiled shyly at the girl, "Hey."

She sat up, crossed her leg, and stretched her arms before letting them fall to her lap. She furrowed her eyebrows in thought. What was he doing here? In her room?

Shiro quickly caught on, "Oh, um, I came to check on you. To make sure you wouldn't sleep through yet another day," he joked. "I have been sleeping a lot recently, haven't I?" She scrunched up her nose. She has been away longer than she liked. But her body needed rest, so she gave it just that. "Well, I'm awake now, so what're the plans for today?" She questioned with a lighter tone.

"Why don't you go take a shower, get dressed, and come down when you are ready and see for yourself?" He offered. But he must have said something wrong, he thought, as her happy feature quickly turned into one of shock.

"Are you telling me I smell and look bad?" She asked offended, placing a hand over her chest. She was of course only joking but seeing his reaction was worth it. "Yes- I mean no. No, of course not! I didn't mean-" Scarlett chuckled and quickly stood up, cupping his face in her hands, and standing on her toes to make the height different less. "Hey, I'm only joking with you," She looked into his eyes and smiled. His face softened and he chuckled, shaking his head. "But I will have a shower, don't worry. I probably don't look too good after everything." She landed on her feet again and started towards her drawers to get some new clothes out. She stopped upon seeing a package with a note saying Wear me.

She turns around, holding the package up with confusion written all over her face, "Did you place this here?"

"No? I have never seen it before." And that was the truth. Though he was well aware of who did and why it was there. She hummed in response, guess she doesn't have to pick out something to wear after all.

"Oh, and one more thing before you leave," Shiro trailed as he got closer to Scarlett. "Happy birthday." He took ahold of her hands. "Happy birthday? I don't know when my birthday is nor do you." She was indeed confused.

"I know." He smiled at her reaction. "But Pidge was able to figure it out through analysis and DNA scans," he explained. "Pidge. Of course." She chuckled, "So I'm a year closer to death today then?" His smile dropped and let out a sigh. "Scarlett... Birthdays are supposed to celebrate life. Not death. It means you have survived yet another year and still have many more to come. Not the other way around."

She reached up a hand to Shiro's cheek, "You're right. I'm sorry." He leaned into her touch. How he had missed her. "I- I thought I had lost you..." He whispered closing his eyes to steady his emotions. Scarlett froze. She knew she had risked her life, but she hadn't realized how just the idea of her gone, broke him. "I'm sorry," She repeated, but this time for scaring him.

He opened his eyes and cupped her face, "Please promise you won't risk your life again." She bit her lip, looking down. "I can't make a promise I might not be able to keep." Shiro's eyes sadden. "But I will try," She added with a small smile. He caressed his thumb over her cheek and smiled softly, "Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"I have something for you."

"What? No. You don't have to gi-"

"Just shut up and close your eyes, will you?" With that, she obliged and closed her eyes. Shiro let go of her face and took a hold of her right hand instead. "It's your birthday, and this is my gift for you," He explained as he took out a bracelet and tied it around her wrist. It was a bead bracelet made of white and black beads. "There."

Scarlett opened her eyes and looked down. "Shiro... It's beautiful," She gasped.

"The beads are morse code," he explained. "Morse code? What's morse code?" She tilted her head in confusion. He chuckled, of course, she didn't know what morse code is, she is not from earth. "Morse code is a way we communicate back on earth. It's made of dots and dashes. It's used so that other countries would not understand us during times of war."

"So what does this say?" She asked as she turned the bracelet around. "Never."

"Never?" She furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Never. You don't believe in always, so I thought never could become ours always. Instead of promising that I will always be here-" She smiled, "Because you can't promise something that you can't hold." He smiled back, taking her hands in his, "Yes. Instead, I promise to never leave, to never let you down, to never make you feel worthless or less loved. I promise to never let you feel alone, ever again."

Scarlett shut her eyes tightly, not wanting her tears to fall. "I don't deserve you..." She whispered. "And here I was thinking what I ever did to deserve you," He breathed chuckling. He leaned in for a kiss but as their lips brushed against each other, she pulled away with a smirk playing on her lips. "I should get ready. Don't want to miss my birthday," And with that, she walked backwards towards the door, watching his stunned expression, before sliding out of the room and towards the showers.

Shiro left her room soon after, speechless. He was blushing hard and scratched his neck upon entering the ballroom. "Oh~ Look who is back," Pidge teased. "If it isn't for our loverboy~" Lance joined. They both broke down laughing. "What did she do to make you blush that hard?" Hunk chimed in as he walked in from the kitchen, finally finished with Scarlett's birthday cake. Shiro chuckled awkwardly, "Nothing-" "Oh right. Like you want us to believe nothing happened? And yet here you are redder than a tomato?" Lance cut him off. "Wha- no. Guys, I'm serious. Nothing happened. She's just... a tease," He sighed smiling before taking a seat beside Hunk at the table, waiting for Scarlett to come down.