There has to be an After for Us ~ (shadam / klance)

Chapter 7 - Won't let you slip away...

"Pidge! Hunk!" cried Allura as she watched them lunge towards the gray figures and suddenly disappear. Keith and Lance were gone too. When did that happen? She'd specifically been told by the Goddess to keep her flock together. How had Allura failed so quickly? Allura was about to dive after Hunk when she heard Shiro cry out.

"Ahh!" Allura spun back to Shiro to see him down on his knees. Worse than that, he was flickering, his whole being threatening to disintegrate into nothingness.

"Shiro!" cried, Allura, dropping to her knees beside him. On the ground below him, leading down from his chest she saw the four broken strings that, until moments ago, had been tethered to the other Paladins. Now the string around her wrist was the only one left that led to his heart. He needed all five of them to carry him as a passenger to the astral plane and four of them had broken the connection.

Shiro gave out another cry of pain and Allura wrapped her arms around him. "It's okay, Shiro. Stay with me."

"I can't," gasped Shiro. She could feel his body in her arms jolting in and out of existence. "I wasn't meant to come here."

"Yes, you are," Allura said firmly. "Don't doubt that. It'll make you disappear."

"If I go like this... Do I go back to my body or does my quintessence disperse into this realm?"

Allura couldn't answer. She was willing to lie if it helped, but she didn't know which answer would encourage Shiro to keep fighting.

Shiro shook his head. "I had a good run," said Shiro. His body wasn't jolting in and out of existence anymore. Now it looked like he was flaking away, like he was giving up voluntarily.

"Shiro, no!" said Allura, trying to make it sound like an order, but she was beginning to tear up.

"It was an honour fighting by your side, Princess," said Shiro, which sounded like he was saying goodbye. "You changed my life."

"And you mine," said Allura, the tears now flowing, but then something snapped inside her. Her fingers gripped his side, tightly. "Don't you dare give up now! You've cheated death more times than I can count."

"Can't cheat death forever," said Shiro.

"Now, you listen to me, Shirogane," said Allura, her birthy-given authority entering her voice. "You survived a degenerative muscle disease, Zarkon's gladiator ring, being cloned a thousand times, literally dying, and having your conscious stored in the black lion. And if that weren't enough you, flatlined when your clone body tried to reject your consciousness then flatlined a second time when your body tried to reject your new robotic arm and yet here you are!"

"I think... I was meant to die."

"You were meant to live, Shiro! No one knows this better than me. I had your consciousness inside me when I pulled it from the Black Lion. I gave you the crystal from my own diadem to stabilize the power supply to your new arm. I have literally and figuratively invested myself in you not dying! Do not take my gifts in vain." Allura pulled Shiro up properly so she could look him in the eye when she said this next part. "You are my friend Shiro and more than that you are my equal. When I was piloting the castleship, you lead Voltron. When I was helping pilot Voltron, you were running the castleship. And when the castleship was lost, you became the captain of the Atlas and you used the Altean powers I gave you to turn the Atlas into a Voltron-like mecca. Every task I give you, every goal I set for you, you exceed it."

"Even when I was a clone."

"Especially when you were a clone."

Shiro laughed.

"No, I didn't mean that. I don't know why I said it."

"It was funny," said Shiro, he'd stopped flaking, but he wasn't whole.

"You and I have more to accomplish. Including raising four hapless Paladins. If you go now, I'll be losing part of myself. I love you as my partner, Shiro."

"Princess," said Shiro. "I didn't know you felt this way."

"Stay," begged Allura. "Keep fighting beside me. We haven't vanquished all evil from the universe yet. You still have that purpose." Allura felt the change before she saw it. Shiro became whole in her arms again while the pieces that had been lost faded back into place.

"Thank the goddess," said Allura, hugging Shiro.

"Thank you for saying all that," said Shiro, returning the hug. "I needed to hear it."

Allura got to her feet and helped Shiro up. "Just to be clear though," said Shiro, suddenly embarrassed. "You didn't mean you love me romantically, right?"

Allura blushed. "No, Shiro. There are many forms of love and honestly... I have feelings for someone else. I hope that doesn't disappoint you."

"No, no, I mean. I thought you'd figured out I was gay based on what we're heading to the astral plane for."

"Sorry, you're what?" asked Allura.

"Gay," repeated Shiro.

"I don't know that word. I don't think we have an Altean equivalent. What does it mean?"

"I am a man who loves other men."

"Oh," said Allura, but she looked confused. "You have a specific word for that?"