“We’ll be fine!” the babysitter assured him. She was bouncing Alfor in her arms, which would have been okay except that Shiro could see the boy clearly wanted to be put down. He was fussing to get free.
	Allura was visiting the Alteans and he had a mission suddenly (thank goodness for Allura’s energy stored in the teludav’s systems!) and everyone he would have normally trusted with his son was busy (or on the mission with him). The local babysitting service had sent this teenager, despite his trying to impress upon them that this wasn’t just a baby, this was a prince and possibly the universe’s only hope to maintain teludav technology and… 
	They probably wrote it all off as a parent being proud of their kid. Which he was, of course, but he’d also been telling the truth, dammit. Fortunately, Shiro didn’t have to entirely and wholly trust this random girl.
	Allura had needed a way to practice her alchemy, and they’d been brainstorming ideas. He’d hit upon bonding Black to Alfor’s favorite stuffed lion. She’d protested that it didn’t have quintessence, he’d suggested implanting a crystal in it. She’d teased him for the idea, but after sleeping on it, she’d agreed to do it. Alfor’s lion had undergone a quick surgery while he was sound asleep, and that was that.
	Shiro hadn’t tried it yet, and this was the perfect chance. “Remember no peanut butter and that he likes…”
	“The show with the yalmor puppets, I got it. Don’t worry!” She laughed. “First time away from your kid?”
	“Basically.”
	“I’m a pro, don’t worry about it. We’re going to have a good time! Enjoy your thing.”
	“I’m going on a mission.”
	“Well, enjoy your mission then!”
	He frowned at her but he reached out to tousle Alfor’s hair. “Be good, buddy,” he whispered before pressing a kiss to his forehead. 
	Alfor squirmed and whimpered and reached out, grabbing handfuls of his Garrison uniform.
	“Sorry, buddy, you can’t come with Daddy on this one.” He unhooked Alfor’s hands carefully and pulled away. The last thing he heard before he closed the door behind him was his son starting to scream.

	It took forever to get to the base, to get into uniform, to finally be in Black’s cockpit again. They’d had their mission briefing on the way in: minor Galra warlord causing trouble in the power vacuum of the Empire. This happened a lot nowadays. This one was being especially problematic and had some heavy-duty firepower. The Lions were needed; Voltron might be a possibility. 
	But the first thing Shiro did once he was back in Black was to close his eyes. Black’s vision filled his almost instantly, but he went further, searching for that link… There. It felt like Allura; her energy felt like heat to him – warm and sunny when she was happy, fiery hot when she wasn’t. Then the little subtleties filtered in: the feel of her skin, the smell of her hair, the sound of her voice. There were two links like this in Black, but one was intertwined with another’s quintessence – her father’s, who had established that link in the first place. That link went to Allura. Shiro followed the other one.
	He felt… stuffy. Like he was crowded in by cotton. Go figure. But there was their living room, and one of Alfor’s feet. There was a blur and feel like being lifted and then he was seeing Alfor’s hand offering him a… gummy bear. He’s too little for gummy bears! Where did he even get those?! The babysitter must have brought them with.
	Alfor mashed the gummy bear forward and then let it drop, his chubby hand picking up another one and shoving it – along with his fingers – into his mouth. Don’t choke, don’t choke, chew on it, buddy, please don’t choke. 
	Alfor chewed on it and did not, in fact, choke.
	“Shiro, you ready in there?” Keith’s voice asked.
	He opened his eyes. “R-right. Yes. Let’s go.” He launched to join the others who were waiting for the wormhole to open.
	“You feeling okay?” Lance asked.
	“I’m fine. I was just… checking up on something.” I’m going to have some strong words for that babysitter when I get back. “Let’s go.” The sooner we kick ass and get back, the sooner I can breathe.
	The wormhole opened, and they flew in.
	They came out in the middle of the warlord’s fleet, so it was straight into battle. But Shiro forgot that he hadn’t severed the link, simply redirected his focus. 
	He activated his jawblades and swooped through the small fighters, taking out a line of them easily. But as he swooped into a turn, his eyes filled with a vision:
	Alfor, climbing up onto a dining room chair and, from there, trying to get up on the table. The lion toy had a clear view of it as he’d left it behind. The babysitter was nowhere in sight. 
	And Alfor teetered. And fell.
	Shiro felt a spike of panic and instinctively dove forward.
	And, amazingly, the toy moved. The stuffed lion toy ran forward and skidded to a halt just underneath Alfor. Fortunately, it was a very well-stuffed toy, and it broke his fall. He looked around and started crying though.
	“Oh, you’re okay,” the babysitter said, finally showing up. “You just fell on your butt. Here.” She picked him up and pulled the toy out for him. “Here’s your lion, he’s okay.”
	Alfor latched onto the toy for dear life.
	“Shiro, are you okay?!” Keith asked. 
	He realized he was far forward of where he had been. “Yeah, yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” He swung back into the battle now that his son was safe. “We’ve gotta deal with those ion cannons.”
	“On it,” Keith and Lance said at the same time.
	“I’m on it!” Lance insisted.
	Keith retorted, “I’ve got this, Lance.”
	“Both of you go at it,” Shiro intervened. “There’s plenty to go around. Pidge, Hunk, let’s clear out some more fighters.”
	He provided cover for Red and Blue and took out fighters. He crunched one fighter in Black’s jaws and tossed it towards another, then fired off a blast to take out some conveniently-aligned groups. He tried to look after Green and Yellow, too, but this was nothing he hadn’t done dozens of times before.
	Until home filled his vision again: Alfor had gotten into the pantry and was straining to reach the peanut butter.
	Alfor loved peanut butter. He loved the taste of it, loved the texture of it, and loved smearing it on everything in range of his hands, including his hair. Alfor + Peanut Butter was a guaranteed mess waiting to happen, and that’s why they kept it away from him.
	Frustrated at his inability to reach it, he decided to try to climb the shelves.
	“Oh no,” Shiro murmured. He urged the toy forward, wriggled in between Alfor and the pantry shelves, and began pushing.
	Alfor pushed back, reaching for the jar of peanut butter again.
	Shiro grunted and focused on pushing his son away from the pantry. It wasn’t easy – this was a toy. He concentrated. Black roared with her paladin’s strain.
	The toy lion let out a distressed squeak.
	This was not something it normally did, and the new sound made Alfor stop and stare at his toy. Then he scooped it up and shook it, trying to get it to make the noise again.
	The Black Lion slammed sideways into a Galra cruiser.
	“Shiro!”
	“I’m fine, focus up!”
	“You’re not fine,” Pidge said.
	“Time for your show, kid!” the babysitter declared and Alfor followed after her, then started babbling happily when the yalmor puppets showed up on screen. He bounced along with the theme song and settled in, clutching his stuffed lion happily.
	Shiro cleared his head and refocused on the battle. For as long as he could anyway.
	Every time there was a commercial break, Alfor was trying to get into something, and Shiro – and Black, and Alfor’s toy lion – would have to scramble to keep him out of it. There were more “roars” from the toy, which always interested Alfor, but then he’d try to get the toy to do it again, and Shiro couldn’t help thinking, This is a whole new twist on ‘shaken baby syndrome,’ as he and Black were tossed around.
	Then the show would come back on and he’d have another few blessed doboshes of control until Alfor got distracted and tried to do something else he wasn’t supposed to. 
	SOME QUIZNACKING BABYSITTER! He could hear her on the phone, laughing and chatting. Black and Shiro roared in frustration.
	The toy lion squeaked in dismay.
	Alfor giggled.
	A laser blast barely missed Shiro.
	“Shiro…?” Hunk asked.
	“I want you all to promise me that whenever you have kids, you’ll thoroughly vet your babysitters.”
	“Um… ‘kay?” Pidge replied.
	“What’s going on with your kid?” Lance wanted to know.
	“And what does that have to do with anything?” Keith pressed.
	“Nevermind, let’s just form Voltron and get this over with so I can get home already.”

	It took him two more vargas to get home. He bolted into the house.
	Alfor cooed and shrieked and tried to toddle over to him. Shiro ran over and scooped him up, cradling him close to him. “It’s okay, buddy, Daddy’s here.”
	“See?” the babysitter said. “He’s fine. Honestly, such a good baby! Really easy to look after!”
	That eye twitch – that he thought only Slav was capable of bringing out in him - was coming back.