I blame J.S. (not really, just very grateful) for introducing me to a random prompt generator and the first one it gave me spewed this out.

I thank J.H. for his behind the scenes love, support and patience with me while I've been struggling over this for longer than I want to think about.

The prompt that inspired this is below, it started off as a simple piece that turned into a beast to write and finish.

Prompt:

The story begins in a children's playground.

Someone is left at the altar.

It's a story about friendship.

Your character takes control of the situation

Points to the person who catches the cheesy movie lines I quote.

I fumbled in the wreckage… I left it in a message

I'm holding on to the pieces from my heart's debris, until it's time. (Because that's what I heard the first few times I listened to the song and it stuck with me)

Standing at the gate on the edge of the ancient playground, Matthew Holt took a few moments to watch his friend as he sat upon a swing, seemingly gazing at the clouds moving in to obscure the stars that should have begun to appear with the setting of the sun, but Matt knew better. Instead, it looked like they both were going to be soaked by the impending rain; Matt raised his eyes as the lightning flashed in the distance and began to count. 'Five miles,' he figured. Deciding there was no better time to get the conversation he wanted to have going, Matt crossed the gate, and wandered up to the aging, metal swing set; making sure his footsteps were audible and to clear his throat so as not to startle the man lost in thought. He watched as his target's head tilted to take in the noise of Matt's approach and come back from where he had allowed his mind to wander. Stopping at the swing set's post opposite to where his comrade sat suffering; Matt broke the quiet, "This swing taken?" With the shake of the head that Matt took as consent, he dropped heavily on the third swing, leaving an empty one between them and allowing the silence to settle around them.

Lightning lit up through the clouds, and again Matt kept count in his head. 'Hmm, four and a half miles, might have longer than I need to get through to him,' Matt thought optimistically. Armed with the new data, Matt decided he would not be the one to break the peace just yet; he could use the time to refine his plan of attack, and - if he was being honest with himself- he still needed time to adjust to the intended outcome once it went the way he planned. With something this important, he had no margin for error, otherwise it would not just be his friend hurting; fortunately, his time as a prisoner of the Galra had taught him a few lessons in patience, and in trying to wait out your victim. Not that Matt was intending his silent partner on the swings as a victim, unless things went inordinately pear-shaped and Matt was getting sidetracked like Katie when she was nervous. Looking up the clouds, Matt wrapped his hands around the chains and pushed back with his feet and allowing the swing to take off. Getting lost himself in the act of remembering how to swing gave him the time he needed just now. Relaxing, enjoying the feel of the wind against his face as he allowed the swing to naturally slow, Matt turned to catch the quirked brow of the other man whose presence he had initially sought out. A careless shrug was his only response before he allowed his feet to drag in the dirt and gravel base; hoping he had not caused permanent damage to his dress shoes because Matt knew there would be hell to pay if he had. He chanced a look behind him, relief flooding his system when he realized that there was no one else outside the church to see him pull that stunt. His mother would have chewed him out royally; not to mention, he did not want to think about what the Tiny Terror would have done to him had she caught him. The things he did for the women he loved.

"How are you adjusting to being back on Earth?" The question caught Matt off guard but he was glad he was not the one to break the silence this time.

Looking at his friend, he tried to adopt a carefree smile, "Aww, you know me, Shiro. Always one for change." The quirked brow had dissolved into a mask of disbelief that made Matt chuckle. The large-scale adjustments were always difficult for Matt; and outside his family, Shiro was the only other person to realize the irony of his statement. His excitement for the mission to Kerberos had frequently been usurped by the constant realizations of how things would have to change because of what he was taking part in. Leaving two-thirds of his family behind for the chance to do something amazing had never sat well with him. He had done it and would never deny that the opportunity was amazing but with the changes it had wrought, he often found himself wondering about it. He could see in the mirror how the years in captivity changed him, the acts he was forced to commit changed him. Shaking off his introspection because he had a plan he had to stick to and now really was not the time to get lost in his own head. "What about you? You still missing your space princess, her flying castle, and the mystical lion?" It was not the subtle dig he had wanted but Matt needed to be sure before moving his agenda forward. "Y'all'll be back out there before you know it."

"She was never my princess, I told you that before. We were just friends, and somehow became pseudo-parental partners for the sake of the teenagers we had to rein in." The edge to his voice gave Matt some of the confirmation he needed, and a soft, sad smile found its way to his face.

Allowing his hands to drop from the chains to between his knees, he saw another bolt of lightning and started his count once again. He had time, he could take time…

"Including being Space Father Extraordinaire to my sister? Saving her from herself as she tried to save me and Dad?" 'Is that bitterness in my voice?' he wondered. Matt thought back to the rescue four years prior, he had been prisoner for nearly six years at that point, if you did not count the time he had escaped only to be captured again within weeks, and separated from his father for three. He had been transferred from the arena to multiple work camps on more planets than he cared to remember when word had broke that the legendary Voltron had been spotted, making it way to free the camp if the rumors were to be believed.

All this time later, Matt still could not remember precisely what had happened leading up to the jailbreak but he remembered seeing Shiro- or rather the black paladin, because Matt had not learned their identities yet- and the other paladins as they rushed the camp, working to free the prisoners, watching as Shiro kept a keen eye on the one with green markings, the one smaller than the rest. The one called an avenging angel in the whispered stories around the bunkhouse, rumored to be a female, the last of an ancient race, fighting for her lost mate - because what else in the galaxy could fight that fiercely?

The one a Galra drone soldier took a cheap shot at as they had caught sight of Matt and Matt watched them crumble in pain and shock. He recalled the anguish in Shiro's voice as he yelled their name, and watching as the green paladin took out their attacker with a swift blow from their personal weapon. The last part he recalled from camp was the green lion's roar as it leapt into camp and hovered protectively over its pilot. Things blurred together, and the next thing he knew he could hear his father's voice as he was pulled out of one of the lion's landing bays calling for him and the arms that found him, pulling him close. He remembered them both being pulled along to the green lion's bay and watching as Shiro scooped the smallest paladin in his arms, the weak protests coming from their mouth about wanting to see the prisoners. A voice that was both familiar and belonged to memories far away.

The shock he had felt when the red paladin had relieved the green one of their helmet and Matt realized just who this 'Pidge' person was and his own attempts to dislodge her from Shiro's arms to attempt hold his baby sister, the intergalactic avenging angel sobbing into his filthy shirt with her arms around his neck. The rumors only being partially true, he had known growing up that Katie was ferocious but to travel across the galaxy and back, to fight an atrocious evil, just to save him…

"I never saw Ka- K- ugh, Pidge that way," the irritation in Shiro's voice answered most of the rest of his question, dragging Matt from his memories.

He could also recall the next four years as they worked to return to Earth, to defeat Zarkon, watching some truly painful, awkward interactions between his friend and baby sister; which, if he was kind, he could classify as flirting- but, baby steps… "You can call her Katie, ya know?"

Matt saw as Shiro looked away from him. "I know." The response was small, and mournful. Closing his eyes, Matt waited. "I can't." And with that admission from his friend- that final nail in the coffin of all his questions- Matt's heart broke a little more as he opened his eyes.

"You can. Of course, you can. She's been in love with you for as long as I've seen the two of you together. She's practically told you so herself, and if I can read what she said, then by God you'd've better been able to, too." Matt stood up and tried to shake the rancor he felt for his friend off. "And what better place to declare your feeling than at the wedding of an old friend?"

Shiro gave Matt a dubious look. "That old friend just got left at the altar, what would you have me do? Walk up to her, say, 'Oh, hey Katie, I'm sorry your brother just got dumped at the freakin' altar, but what do you say to going out for a slice of pizza sometime? Or how about a movie? Or just going out for a cup of coffee… for as long as we both shall live?" Matt could not help the smirk crossing his face at Shiro's sarcasm, but watching as his friend gesticulated that sentence was funny. "Besides, shouldn't I be trying to comfort you in your hour of need, man? You did just get left at the altar," Shiro repeated the fact as if using it to try to hurt Matt but Matt started to laugh instead.

"I did, and I say why not just marry her?" He was not entirely sure why he was not more upset with his partner's sudden change of heart at their rehearsal but Matt voiced the quiet thought he felt Shiro needed to hear, "Look, just because I chose poorly, doesn't mean you have. Besides, I mean, I love- LOVE," Matt added a heavy emphasis on the word to help his point, "That you recognize it's a waste of both your time and hers if marriage isn't the end game." Rocking back on his heels, Matt looked up in time to catch a familiar figure rush out from the back of the church. He raised a hand in a way to look like a stretch but saw the figure stop and wait at the top of the stairs and knew his message was clear and taken. A rumble of thunder overhead had Matt looking up to gage how much longer they had out here. "God knows, if anyone can keep you in line it's her," Matt joked.

"It's not the right time or place," Shiro's succinct reply irked Matt.

"Why not?" That was definitely irritation leaking through. "And don't say because I got left at the altar. I've already made my peace with it."

"It happened barely thirty minutes ago!" Matt waved off the practical reply.

"Better now than later! And it should've happened sooner. Dad didn't like 'em, Mom couldn't stand 'em, and I'm pretty sure Katie's opinions were stronger than either of theirs." Thinking about his sister's response to his now ex-fiancée, Matt had to wonder if she had magically absorbed some diplomacy from her years in space because before it would not have taken him nearly making it down the aisle to figure out that Katie was no fan of his chosen partner. "So, aside from time and place, any other reasons you have for not going to my sister and pulling her away from the idiots inside trying to catch her eye- that is, if they make it past your guard dogs?" Matt though of the other three who had more than once jumped between him and Katie in the last few years. Originally, he thought it was them trying to protect the peace but after a while he figured out it was them protecting her without being overt about it. It was not until Lance had jumped in Matt's face about a stupid disagreement that Matt had gotten it. They saw her as theirs- their friend, their sister, their Pidge- and Matt had upset the balance. It took some time for him to get on the same page as the other three but when he did, he was not disappointed. Matt learned the other three were in the same boat as him- wanting to see Katie and Shiro happy, even if it took Matt some time to come around to joining the team in rooting for them to get together and realizing his mistake.

"They aren't my guard dogs, they're my teammates- and so is your sister," voice brooking no argument, Shiro looked sharply at Matt.

Holding a hand up in defeat, Matt allowed silence to descend once more. Another roll of thunder had Matt wondering which would happen first: if he would get soaked and ruin his shoes anyway or his friend would see the light. Looking back to the church, he saw a few more people begin to join the first under the cover of the porch waiting on the two in the playground. Reformulating his plan, Matt decided to stop beating around the metaphorical bush.

"Do you actually believe your own bullshit or are you just that damn stubborn?"

Not even the skies interrupted the silence, the breeze had died away with his words, and Matt chanced a glance at Shiro's face. Even though he had attempted to ask with humor, Matt could see the anger rising in his friend and rushed to continue before the opportunity passed.

"There's no way you all are just teammates, you're a family- a weird conglomeration with odd ties not just because you've got the two boys dating one another but that in some ways y'all are siblings and there's no way anyone would mistake you for anything less… But there are times, for some of you, it's less like siblings and more like lovers-" Matt forced himself to stop. "I'm not going to ramble like Katie on a nervous binge. Just give me the truth and I'll let it drop. Do you have feelings for my sister? Real, true, untested feelings?"

Shiro looked away, "It's complicated," he groaned. The all-consuming sadness in his voice was killing Matt.

"It's a simple yes or no question! I'm smart, try me and we'll figure it out." He had this; he knew he could help these two before the lightning got him. His sin would be washed away tonight with the impending rain.

The frustrated sigh, followed by an, "Fine, it's impossible then," tripped Matt up and allowed his anger free.

"Define impossible," Matt growled, "Why is it impossible? What about the two of you together is in anyway impossible? You two helped save the entire universe against an evil we experienced firsthand! Please explain to me how anything involving the two of you is impossible because I just can't see it!" He thought he was prepared for whatever the answer was. Whatever denial Shiro was going to offer, Matt had four arguments to knock him off that high horse or, as the present situation called for, his swing. Shiro's soft voice forced Matt to sit heavily on the rusted seesaw facing the swing set in shock.

"We already tried and failed," the voice shattering on the last word had Matt shaking his head, "Sort of, like I said- it's complicated."

Surely, surely, that could not be right. 'I didn't hear that right, he couldn't've said… How could I've missed that?' he thought to himself, numb with bewilderment. Matt had often wondered why there was awkward flirting between his sister and friend, why they would not cross that line they had so clearly defined in the sand. He had occasion to wonder if something had happened between the two and had always dismissed it, except for that stray nagging thought that he was wrong about them would not go away, and to have his theory confirmed after all these years? So many things made sense now that Matt wondered how he had been able to ignore that niggling feeling for so long, not paying more heed to the transgression he committed. They sat in silence for a while, only the wind now picking up again accompanying the occasional roll of thunder as the quiet background music of two hearts breaking.

Finding his voice, Matt heard the rough edges and could not find it in him to care as he allowed his words to be carried away on the breeze, "I don't understand. She never said anything to me." Looking up, he felt walloped by the look Shiro gave him; it reminded him of the look his parents gave Matt when Santa's origin story was finally explained to him- broken-hearted, distressed, and a little disappointed at how things turned out.

"She didn't tell you everything that went on while you were gone. There was so much that happened before we found you, she -uh- there was a general decision to apply some selective editing to a few of the details. And I don't fault her; it was so brief and so long ago…" Watching Shiro taking a fortifying breath to continue, Matt wondered if he had finally dug a hole so deep he would never escape, a grief he had fought off for so long was beginning to swallow him, and he could not move. "It was a few months before we found you; we had somehow managed to move out of this awkward, friendzone-type thing and I had already spoken to your father about my feelings, you know, trying to get his blessing, which he gave- enthusiastically." Shiro cringed at his own word choice.

Matt concluded he was going to have to interrogate his own father now, 'How dare he keep something this good from his own son?' Pulled from his revelry, Matt listened as Shiro continued.

"And we both agreed to go slow; we didn't want to damage the friendship in place if things went wrong or got weird. I was good with all of that. Ka- Pidge, she didn't want to tell anyone, right away, which didn't sit well with me but I understood her logic behind it. Because, if we didn't know what was going to happen, did we really want the input of every other soul on board the castle voicing their opinion?"

All Matt could do was to nod silently, before adding, "That sounds like Katie for you."

"And it took forever, it seems, to get back to some semblance of normal- to the way it was before, you know? But we did, and I'm glad we did because I can't, ugh," Shiro stumbled over his words the way Matt had watched his sister stumble over her feelings for the man in front of him. Matt waited. He was committed to helping these two and he was not going to stop now. Looking at the sky, he knew it was a matter of time before it opened up, he could see the clouds roiling above where they sat, the flutter of light behind them promising it would be a hell of a storm. Matt hoped the rain would wash away the feeling of failure that had seeped into his soul. The rumble from above nearly obliterated Shiro's mild confession, "I tried, but I can't live without her in my life, even if it is just as friends…" Heaving a sigh that seemed weighted with the burden he carried, he finished, "Which is what I meant when I said it was complicated."

"I can see that now." With the chill of the wind, Matt felt his blood run cold. Returning to think back over the conversation, a stray thought struck Matt and he felt ill at the implications. "You said things were going slow- but fine, right? Absolutely fine? Until I got on the ship?"

"It had nothing to do with you," Shiro tried to reassured Matt. "I don't know what it was, but Kat- Pidge just sort of began pulling away and into herself. There was no blow up or disagreement that I can remember. No cross words, nothing I can put my finger on. I spent so much time trying to figure out what went wrong and to this day I still don't know exactly but I'm sure it wasn't about you."

Looking up in time to catch a particularly beautiful bolt of lightning arc across the sky, Matt wondered what it would take to get struck right now. 'Idle words are the devil's plaything, more so than hands,' he thought. He had caught the way Shiro tried to keep from to call his sister by her given name, instead sticking with the inane nickname she had used. He thought the first time was a fluke but the second, the second told Matt he was actively trying to avoid intimacy with his sister. 'Ugh, phrasing!' he chastised himself. At the same time, Matt took heart because Shiro had slipped up when talking about being with her and said her name. Still focusing on the sky above them, Matt knew he would have to confess his part, as much as Shiro tried to convince him otherwise, Matt knew the truth- he had played a major role in their falling apart. But he now had a couple questions he needed answered before he received a well-deserved sock to his jaw, better to get clarification on those first and then need to go to the hospital.

Fortifying himself, Matt plunged on, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. And I can't believe I'm asking this -especially because it's my sister and I really don't need to know because gross, but please tell me you two at least kissed once before calling it quits?"

The blush that began on his friend's cheeks was telling, and while Matt preferred verbal confirmation, especially if he was facing bodily harm, he knew Shiro was a gentleman and his response was sufficient as a hard 'NO.' All his other questions fell away as he collapsed back against the seesaw. "Crap, she'd going to kill me," he murmured. Maybe Shiro would be kind and take him out because facing the wrath of his little sister was not something he looked forward to.

Speaking of Katie, he could see she had made her way down the stairs and was slowly inching closer to him and Shiro, maybe forty feet from the rusted gate and would soon be close enough to hear them. The breeze carried the scent of rain on it and Matt knew he had better confess his role before his tiny, terror of a sibling was close enough to hear him. Keeping his voice as low as he could, Matt surged on, "Katie hasn't looked at another person in years, Shiro. And I know there have been more than a dozen idiots who've asked her out only to be promptly dismissed or derided for their poor choice of words and come ons. Some of the stuff she heard, even your friend Lance has more game on his worst day that these guys. It's like she's been waiting for something, someone to come along and see her for who she truly is; and that's you. So, believe me when I say she still loves you, has always loved you. And I'm sorry I interfered." Matt dragged a hand across his face and saw Katie paused at the gate as he had such a short while ago. Giving her a small, sad smile; Matt began again, "Katie doesn't fail. She doesn't quit, she gets angry, yeah, but she doesn't quit. She might have to put a project down for a little while but she always comes back to finish it and work the problem through. I don't think Katie is done with you, I think she just needed to step away and is waiting to see if you'd be," at this Matt struggled to find the right word. Twisting his face, he completed his thought, "Receptive, maybe? To giving it another shot." He watched his sister's face as she struggled to hear his words.

There was anger in Shiro's stance as he stood up and his voice reflected the feeling with his response, "I've always been willing to give it another go, and she knows that. I've loved her for years and she's never given me any hint that what you're talking about is what she wanted - what she wants." Matt nodded at Shiro and caught the stricken look on his sister's face as she had heard Shiro's declaration from her perch. She began to move to open the gate and Matt knew his time was up.

"And that part's on me." Matt grimaced. "I pulled her aside a few weeks after getting on board and getting what I thought was the hang of things. And I noticed she had this weird vibe with you and it was different from the one she had with the other guys and I figured you were playing 'fill-in-brother' and one of the others liked her, like, ya know? The way most people do. And since I'm digging my own grave, I thought it was Keith," at this, both paused their advance; and Matt could have laughed at how they both shared a similar incredulous look focused on him. "Anyway, I pulled her aside and… Gah, reminded her she was the only human girl on board, and barely that." Wincing at the look from Shiro and the horror on Katie's face, he plunged on, "That the guys, a guy in particular, might be paying attention to her for the wrong reasons and she didn't want to start something that would end when the available number of pool buddies widened." Focusing on his friend, Matt missed the way Katie's face contorted, "I'm so sorry, Shiro, I didn't know-" The slap across his cheek cut off his apology and knocked him back on to the seesaw. Looking up, he saw the ball of fury that was his sister seething but held in place by Shiro's hands on her upper arms. Somehow, Katie had gotten between the two men and been able to deliver the strike, but as he had fallen down, Matt had to figure that Shiro had stepped up behind Katie to stop her from doing more damage. His chest was to her back in an almost protective stance of her, Matt would have thought that had he not seen Shiro's hands ghost from where they were near her shoulders down to her wrists, loose enough she could gesture but strong enough to restrain the hellcat Matt had created.

"How could you? How dare you?" The way she whispered the first question, only to shout the second had Matt on his feet and waving away the crowd under the porch. Shoes slipping in the sand, Matt tried to back further up the seesaw as Katie tried to move in on him again. Matt did not think she realized Shiro was behind her, attempting to keep her from slapping him again. "Do you know the shame I felt after you told me that? I still feel? I get you were being protective but, Matt, how could you…" her voice trailed off as the fight drained out of her, shoulders slumping forward. Matt did not need her to finish the sentence, he knew she never wanted to be reminded of the conversation again and his telling of it to Shiro had been the most cursory version of it. There was more he was still embarrassed about and knew his words had traumatized her far more than he had realized at the time. When he had found out later that she had feelings for Shiro, Matt worked to try to get her to admit them and never was able to put together why she would not doing anything about until now, knowing that he had ruined things far greater than he had ever imagined. He still had so much to make up for and it would come with time, he just needed to get it started on the right path now.

Turning to look as the crowd they had drawn, Matt noticed a few brave souls were making their way to the playground. "We're fine, just a little sibling squabble!" He hollered up to the people who had started toward them at the dust up, making sure that they had turned back to the church before he returned his attention to the ones he had hurt. Katie had tears in her eyes; Matt could see her struggling to hold them back as she bit her lip. He knew she wanted to call him out and dress him down and that he deserved every word she said. He watched as she held herself as apart from Shiro as best she could, body tense and shaking with anger or grief, Matt could not tell and it saddened him that of all the things he had lost as a prisoner, the ability to fine read his sister's emotions was one of them.

Looking down at ground, Matt gathered what was left of his courage and moved to finish what he started. Standing in front of his sister, he reached out and lifted her chin so she had to look him in the eye. He could see Shiro's form tense behind Katie and lean minutely closer to her. Shaking his head, Matt gave up his pride and told the two in front of him, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I stole so many years of deserved happiness from you, that wasn't my intention but that doesn't make my actions right. Katie, you above anyone else, didn't deserve my interference after all you worked for but now, I can only hope that someday you forgive me my words and my actions because I will spend the rest of my life working for that." The thunder above rolled and nearby the ground spat back the first of the raindrops that hit.

"And Shiro," Matt leaned back to look at the man he had called a friend for so many years, and hoped he could still, "I'm sorry that I made you wonder and made you hurt without knowing why; I hope that you'll forgive me too, one day. But more than forgiveness, I hope you two can give it another shot because if there were two beings made more for one another in this universe, I haven't met them." Dropping his hand from Katie's face, Matt stood back and looked up. The gentle drops of rain began to mix with the tears he felt welling up and he laughed before allowing his gaze to find the two in front of him again. Katie was looking at him as if he had lost his mind and Shiro seemed to be following suit. He had moved so that his human hand was now across the front of her shoulders and had angled his body so that he was next to her next to her looking down with what Matt would only describe as 'deep affection' shining from his eyes. Shiro's head tilted down and Matt could see he was whispering something to Katie. He watched as his sister's eyes widened and she turned her head minutely closer to Shiro and blush growing up her face.

'I missed so much because of reasons beyond my control and more from my own damned stupidity,' he thought to himself, allowing them a moment of privacy. Enjoying the coolness of the rain slowly growing stronger, he caught a look of shyness and uncertainty crossing his sister face as she glanced away from the man next to her. Stepping forward for what he told himself would be the last time he held a hand out to Katie, motioning for her to take it and when she hesitantly put her fingers in his he pulled her into a tight hug, long enough to whisper, "This is your shot, don't waste it," and dropped a brotherly peck to her forehead. Pulling back, he spun her out in a dance move they had performed so many times as children the muscle memory took over and she would have executed it perfectly had her heel had not gotten stuck in the newly formed mud. Luckily, Shiro was still there and caught her; the look he was giving her gave Matt a shiver up his spine because, eww, that's his baby sister. Knowing he was still deserving of an ass kicking, Matt made his way to the gate trusting Shiro to keep Katie appropriately occupied and not really wanting to witness whatever was going on behind him but trusting his endgame was achieved based on the cheers coming from the porch.

He would still have hell to pay in the future, and he did not deny he earned it, but hoped his latest act of brotherly treason would merit him some reprieve. As the rain started to pick up, Matt hustled his way to the covered porch, leaping up the steps to stand next to his parents and the friends he had made and watched as Shiro and Katie finally kissed, getting a through soaking from the sky in what he would later call 'celestial tears of joy.'

Matt throws an arm around his mother's shoulders and smiling at his father said, "What can I say, sometimes a guy just wants the impossible."

A/N 2: Throwing my hat into the ring because I've read just about everything AO3 has to offer for this ship (MY SHIP) 3 times and I need more. The age difference between Katie and Shiro had never really bothered me, I don't know why. But given that this takes place some ten years in their future, hopefully that will stave off some of the negativity going around about these two.

I also felt like adding something from a single POV (which is what drove me bonkers) and chose Matt because A) the brother/sister dynamic where they don't hate each other fascinates me and B) We haven't seen in the show for a length of time and it felt like a blank slate to work with would be fun.