Chapter Text
“Thanks.” Hunk grinned, handing the cashier a bill and waiting for the receipt before taking the pair of ice creams. He dropped the change and printed paper in his pocket, where the rest of his under-the-mattress allowance stash now rested, and walked back across the street to where Shay was looking in a shop window. “Here.” he said, holding out one of the cones. “One scoop coconut, one scoop chocolate.”
“They’re so round.” she marvelled, taking her cone and biting into the top scoop. “And delicious!”
“Yep.” Hunk chuckled, licking his own cone, which had the scoop of coconut on top. “That’s chocolate.”
“I see now why Shiro missed it so much.” she nodded, taking another bite. Hunk switched his ice cream to his other hand, and linked his free arm around Shay’s.
“So, how are you liking Earth so far?” he asked as they started back down the street at a slow pace.
“It is very interesting.” Shay said absently. “I thought your planet only had one sentient species on it.”
“We do.” Hunk frowned. There were one or two shapeshifting diplomats, but they were supposed to be at the negotiations with Allura. If one of them was here, there was the distinct possibility that they were ditching the meeting and had tailed him here because they thought he’d take their side.
“But these clothing shops do not seem designed for humans.” Shay gestured at a mannequin in a store window, and Hunk had to stop in his tracks. He looked from the featureless white figures sporting the latest swimwear, to the handful of other people on the street, back to the mannequins, then finally to Shay.
“Oh, those” he grinned. “Those are just mannequins. They’re just there to show how the clothes are supposed to fit.”
“Oh.” Shay looked away, and Hunk leaned over to press his nose to her cheek.
“You’re adorable, you know that?” he asked, pulling back and taking another mouthful of his ice cream. Shay didn’t look at him, but he saw her mouth pull up into a small, shy smile. “Hey, once we’re done with our ice cream, whattaya say we get some?”
“Some what?” Shay cocked her head, turning it to look at him.
“Some swimsuits.” Hunk explained, gesturing at the shop window. “If we go back to the castle someone’s going to ask us to stay and help with things, and I’d rather spend my remaining two hours of shore leave here with you.”
“Do you not have swim clothes in your room in your Earth home?” Shay asked, starting to amble along again.
“Yeah, but those are at least four years old and I don’t trust elastic waistbands after three.” Hunk shrugged. “And hey, that pair would look nice on you.” he pointed at a pair of shorts on a curvy mannequin, gaudy orange things with a smiling yellow sun on one ass cheek and an equally yellow silhouette of Hawaii on the other.
“They would not!” Shay laughed, stepping sideways to knock her shoulder against his.
“No, no, they would.” Hunk grinned. “The top, too.” he gestured at the mannequin’s upper half as its rotating stand spun it around, indicating the cropped yellow halter top that said Hawaii on the bust in cursive.
“They would look better on you.” Shay grinned, taking another large bite of her ice cream. Hunk made a mental note to get his hands on powdered baking chocolate before they left Earth. And normal chocolate, too. Once he scanned something with the attachment Pidge had added to the food goo machine he could replicate the flavour, if not the texture, and chocolate food goo would be better than nothing in deep space. Baking chocolate food goo would be a good prank, too. He’d have to remember to swap the scan labels on those two sometime.
“What are you thinking about?” Shay asked, dragging Hunk back to reality.
“Nothing.” he shook his head, licking up a long drip of chocolate and coconut before it could touch his fingers. “Just a prank I can pull on the others, once we’re back in space.”
“Oh?” Shay grinned, her teeth stained with chocolate and her eyes alight with mischief. “What kind of prank?”
“A food goo one.” Hunk smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll warn you before I pull it.”
“You better.” Shay elbowed him playfully in the side. Hunk elbowed her back, and quickly took a big bite of his ice cream to balance it before it could slide off of the cone. He wouldn’t give up being a Paladin of Voltron for anything, but no other planet in the universe could match this. The warm rain puddles, the sunshine, the coconut ice cream, the ocean breeze. He definitely wouldn’t mind having a whole day off from defending the universe, if he got to spend it here.
---
“So, how does that one fit?” Hunk asked, leaning against the strip of wall between Shay’s stall door and the adjacent one.
“It is- better?” she said hesitantly.
“Can I see?” he pushed off of the wall and turned to face the door. It swung open a few seconds later, and he couldn’t help but gasp. The previous sun dresses Shay tried on had hung awkwardly on her, accentuating how inhuman her frame was. This one, however, fit like it had been made for her. The top third of the dress had been rows and rows af scrunches on the hangar, but on Shay it was more like gentle ripples, the wide green straps resting flat on her shoulders. The loose skirt hung around her knees, pale yellow hem lifting slightly in the back over the tip of her tail, and not one colour of the gradient in between looked odd against her skin.
“Wow.” he breathed.
“Does it look good?” she asked, fingers curling in the soft fabric.
“You look beautiful.” he smiled, taking one of her hands. It wouldn’t be possible to alter this dress to show her soulstone, but they could have the castle fabricators make something next to identical.
“You think so?” Shay beamed.
“Even moreso than usual.” Hunk replied, leaning in to press his cheek briefly to hers. “Do you want it?”
Shay looked down at herself, removing her hand from Hunk’s to hold the skirt out away from her body like she was examining the fabric. “It will not be practical for the ship.” she said with a small frown. The disappointment was audible in her tone, and Hunk sighed.
“Does it have to be?” he asked, sliding his hands into hers. “Things can be beautiful for the sake of being beautiful. And the next time we come across a warm planet-”
“I will be wearing what I always wear when I am representing Voltron.” Shay sighed.
“Only until negotiations are over.” Hunk said softly, rubbing circles into the backs of her hands with his thumbs. “Do you want the dress?” he asked. Shay nodded, a quick little jerk of her head, and Hunk pressed his forehead and nose to hers for a long second. “Then we’ll get it. It’s not like this cash is good anywhere else in the universe.”
Shay giggled, and Hunk pressed his cheek to hers again. “I’ll grab a different one for the cashier to scan, if you want to wear it out.”
“That would be nice.” Shay smiled. Hunk gave her hands a squeeze, and went to get a dress to scan.
The cashier stared a bit as he checked out, as did the people they passed on the sidewalk, but Hunk didn’t care. He’d had more eyes fixed on him, and far more judgmentally. Shay held her head up, but her shoulders were squared like she was about to walk into an important meeting as an Ambassador of Voltron. Hunk slipped an arm around her waist and stepped closer to her, the bag with their matching swim trunks bouncing against his knee.
“Relax.” he murmured, squeezing his hand tighter for a moment. “They’re just jealous you’ve got such a hunk for a soulmate.”
Shay giggled, the tension bleeding from her shoulders, and wrapped an arm around the small of his back. “Well, they are right to be jealous.” she smiled, turning and bumping her nose against his cheek by his ear. “Even without Balmera’s blessing, I could not have picked a better partner.”
“Me neither.” Hunk smiled. They still had nearly an hour left before Allura wanted them back on the ship. Plenty of time to get back to the beach, change in the back of the shuttle, and take a dip in the ocean before heading home. Hunk looked over at Shay, and his soulstone pulsed with warmth. She was smiling at the birds flying overhead, a smear of brown next to her mouth where the chocolate ice cream had stained her skin. Her arm rested around his waist, and her gentle laugh rang in his ear as one of the birds tried to land on a phone wire and slipped.
For the first time in a long while, Hunk was at peace.