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

Chapter 26 - Takashi

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"Are you seeing this?" asked Allura. Above their heads a lightning storm was crackling, purple and pink bolts dancing together in a threatening waltz.

"Abandon hope..." warned that disembodied voice.

"I am. Just hold on. Don't listen to that voice."

"Abandon hope..."

"Let's take our hope with us," said Shiro. He wanted to and he tried, but as Shiro ascended to that lightning field above, he felt something slipping from him, like sand he he'd tried to carry come, just running through his fingers. He was doing this to see Adam, but why would Adam want to see him? Adam had vowed not to see him when he returned. He likely hated Shiro.

"Abandon..."

Shiro felt gripped with despair. He shouldn't have come here. He wanted to go home, but what was his home if Adam weren't there? In all the time that had passed since Kerberos the constant was picturing Adam back on Earth. Adam was home. Adam was gone. Home no longer existed.

But then he felt warmth coming from Allura, spreading out, filling him with light and he thought back to his school days...

For Shiro's first year at the Galaxy Garrison he'd had two goals: to be the top of the class and to make it look effortless. There was a contradiction in there and it was wearing Shiro down. He'd had one particularly bad day. It had started with him arguing with a teacher over a grade on an essay. Next he'd fallen while running drills and landed funny on his wrist. His wrist had still been bothering him that afternoon when he'd crashed in the simulator for the first time ever. To make matters worse he'd gotten into an argument with his assigned flight partner, Adam. To be fair they fought all the time. Shiro wasn't good at working with a team. Mostly because he felt like they held him back. Adam was only an okay pilot and since they were graded as a group, okay wasn't going to cut it. Anyway, this fight was different. It wasn't their usual bickering, it was a screaming match that got them both suspended for the rest of the school day.

Shiro had snuck out of the building and climbed up to the Garrison roof to try to calm down. Afternoon turned into evening and he still hadn't managed to make himself feel any better. He'd been trying to pep talk himself. Promised that starting tomorrow he'd really buckle down. He'd ace every test and essay. He'd go for runs in the morning to get his endurance up for drills. He'd also ask Iverson for a new flight partner assignment. Yet none of these things made Shiro feel any better.

That's when he'd heard someone approaching. The slow footsteps on the gravel Shiro recognized it as Adam's without needing to turn around. How did he know Adam's footsteps just from the sound? Maybe because Adam had that natural grace about him, every step perfectly lined up in front of the last, like he was taking his time on a Milan runway. Adam had that perfect body control. He was so comfortable in his own skin. He never fell during drills...

Thinking about Adam soured Shiro's mood further. The footsteps stopped. Shiro waited for Adam to speak. He was either there to apologize or to continue the fight. Frankly, Shiro hoped for the latter. There were no Garrison Instructors to pull them apart this time. Shiro might even get a chance to throw a punch. Maybe that would finally ease of this anxious energy he'd been feeling all day.

"You don't have to try so hard," came Adam's voice, "to be great." The tone wasn't apologetic or angry like Shiro had been expecting. It was just neutral. "You could just be yourself... Takashi."

Shiro inhaled sharply at the sound of his given name. He turned to look at Adam, but Adam was already strolling away, hands casually tucked in his pockets, one foot carefully falling in front of the next. Shiro wanted to say something to him. Maybe protest? Ask Adam where he got the nerve to say his name like that?