[The Voltron Family] Keith felt someone kiss him on the lips, nearly missed it, but the effort was there. He smiled to himself, not bothering to wake up as he pulled the little boy closer to him. He hummed and felt the little one giggle. Another pair of lips kissed him, and then another and then another. It was a welcoming feeling he grew to love over the years, however, he wasn’t going to budge. It was too early.

Damian: *squirms from Keith’s grip* Daddy Keith, wake up! I already gave you your morning kisses!

Damian, Hunk’s second, decided to sleep beside Keith last night along with Lyle and Kyle, Lance’s twins, (who which Keith guessed were the other two pair of lips). The whole family—that meant Hunk’s, Pidge’s and Lance’s too—were going to spend the holidays in Norway. The three families all arrived last night to prepare for their flight today, so the whole house was occupied with little gremlins running around everywhere again. 

Lyle: Daddy Keith isn’t gonna wake up, Damian. *giggles* Daddy Shiro, when are we opening our presents?Kyle: Did you get me a rocket ship, Daddy Shiro? *jumps up and down the bed*Shiro: *chuckles* You’ll know when we get to Norway. Damian: Daddy Shiro… *reaches out a hand* Help. Me. *dramatic choking*Hunk: *peeks inside* Anyone hungry? Breakfast is ready.Lyle and Kyle: Uncle Hunk!! *jumps out of the bed* Damian: *looks at Hunk* Papa. Help me. *looks pointedly at Keith* Hunk: *chuckles* Sorry, buddy. You’re on your own. Daddy Keith is a cuddle monster, you know that.Kyle: *smiles at what he just heard* *cuddles Damian a bit tighter* My baby.

When they finally reached their hotel, Shiro and Keith were processing their reservation. Meanwhile…

Oh, didn’t you hear? Women didn’t start having periods until 1880.

Obviously, I’m kidding, but yeah, it was so taboo, at least in the Victorian Era, that it went virtually unacknowledged in (Western, English) society. Napkins and “belts” were not readily available, and women had to use a) cloths called “guards” tied between the legs to pretty much just sop up as much as possible and which they had to change pretty frequently, or b) wore “red petticoats,” which were thicker petticoats, often red in color to disguise the, uh....bloodstains. And tampons were sometimes used for medical reasons to stop “abnormal” bleeding...they’d fill little bags with sawdust, ashes, or tanbark (mulch) and just shove em up there. Toxic shock syndrome, what’s that?? It’s a whole lotta yikes. Source

So, in answer to your question, yes we are approaching the societal treatment of heats like periods, since they are similar in that they’re both mammalian reproductive cycles which interfere to differing but still significant extents with daily female/omega life, and yet there weren’t really any great solutions posed to make them easier, and we still have things like the tampon tax and that bullshit. “Luxury items” my ass -_-

Anyway. Clearly, as someone who has periods, I’m pretty passionate about this. Heats and heat supplies in Death to the Angel/this Victorian AU are quite taboo. In this AU, heats are not only considered very vulgar to discuss in polite society, bc I mean...“legs” was considered a bad word back then, they’re absolutely not going to be talking about uteruses. Suppressants do not exist yet, and those that do are herbal in nature and could be potentially dangerous, like many abortifacient herbs. 

Omegas are then forced to a) wait out their heats in solitude if they’re unmated and feel deep shame for pleasuring themselves bc masturbation also VERY BAD in this era :| or b) just let their alpha mate do what they’re supposed to do and get their omega pregnant bc omegas can only get pregnant in heat so pretty much, omegas are led to believe that any heat in which they don’t get knocked up by an alpha, as is their God-given Purpose In Life (SOUND FAMILIAR LOL), is a heat wasted. And that’s always the omega’s fault. Not society’s, obviously......

Keith is, unsurprisingly, not down with this. Neither are the Holts. No solutions were presented to them by their society, so they’re forced to solve it themselves as best they can given their class/dynamic/resources. Thankfully they have some good friends who are more open about all this than most folks in this AU, including Shiro...for now. Shiro will learn >:D

[The Voltron Pre-Family] Meeting the Parents Part 2 (Part 1)

The two of them stood outside the front porch of the Kogane’s. Keith insisted his Dad not to pick them up from Narita International Airport, that they’d find their way home just fine.

In reality, Keith just needed time to calm down. The flight was long and he didn’t get much rest as he would’ve liked. Shiro though, he seemed fine. Of course, it was Keith who was probably going to be disowned, not Shiro.

With their suitcases on their sides, Keith looked around outside their house. It looked the same since he left a few months ago. Nothing changed. His family liked the way things usually were, and right now… he wasn’t sure how his parents would handle this change.

“You ready?” Shiro asked.

“No,” Keith blurted out as he squeezed Shiro’s hand a little harder than he intended. His heart felt like it would rip out of his chest. 

He couldn’t do it.

[The Voltron Pre-Family] Keith closed the front door of his dorm only to turn around to see Shiro smiling at him. He jumped in surprise, a hand on his chest to calm his racing heart.

“You little shit. Stop doing that,” Keith started. “You gave me a cardiac arrest.”

“My bad, my bad,” Shiro chuckled as he went in to pull Keith into a warm embrace. “Good morning, red bean.” He planted a soft kiss on the other boy’s cheek. And another one, and then another one.

“Good morning to you too,” Keith laughed as he gently pushed Shiro away. 

They haven’t really gotten into making the whole kissing on the lips thing a habit yet. They just got together a few months and Shiro agreed to take things slow and Keith was fine with cheek kisses. He couldn’t handle kissing on the lips often, it made his chest hurt and tummy do weird flips which apparently wasn’t that bad of a thing according to Shiro who was smirking since it was normal (fricking ridiculous if Keith was just being honest), but he’d rather not die early.

They started walking towards the campus with interlaced hands.

“So, anything interesting for today?” Shiro asked.

“It’s kind of… my birthday,” Keith smiled, whispering quietly as he squeezed Shiro’s hand.

Shiro stopped in his tracks and stared at Keith. “You’re kidding.”

Keith smirked. “Knock it off. You’ve been going on about it for a month now.”

“I’m just joking,” Shiro resumed his walking. “If only you check your phone, I actually texted you at 12 midnight because I know you didn’t want to be disturbed. You were pretty exhausted yesterday from your dance practice. So I figured, I didn’t wanna face your wrath.”

This time it was Keith’s turn to stop. “What? I… I didn’t know.” He quickly fished out his phone from his bag and true to his word, there it was.

Takashi Shirogane [12:00AM]Guess who’s turning older today? YOU ARE!! 🤗Happy Anniversary of your birth, you 23-year-old grandpa. 👴🙄Love you so much to the Pluto and back and back and back again! 👽👽

Keith laughed as he read the message. He looked at his boyfriend and leaned in to smoosh their cheeks together. “Thank you.” 

“Now don’t think that’s all you’re getting from me though,” Shiro said. “Last year I got you a bookmark from Kyoto when we were friends.”

“You did,” Keith nodded, smiling so wide. 

“This year, a bookmark from Hokkaido,” Shiro wiggled his eyebrows.

Keith laughed again, “I’d love that. Never had one from Hokkaido.”

Shiro frowned. “I was joking. That’s not my gift, Keith.”

“Well, even if it isn’t, I think it’s a lovely gift,” he hummed, sounding pleased.

“Now you’re gonna make me call my Mom to get you a bookmark from Hokkaido since she’s there with my Dad on vacation.” Shiro groaned. 

“You don’t have to, Takashi.” 

“Too late. I’m telling her. I’m putting it on my reminders for later.” Shiro took out his phone and started typing. He looked up at Keith and said, “But I do have plans today to celebrate. So I hope you’re not too busy,” Shiro paused to roll his eyes dramatically. “…attending to your millions of admirers with their millions of gifts signed with love.”

“I’ll check my schedule for you, sunshine. See if I can squeeze you in there for a minute or two,” Keith winked.

Shiro did a victory fist bump in the air. “Yes. A meet and greet with Keith Kogane.” 

“You dork,” Keith laughed. 

You know, this is interesting because I saw a lot of the opposite; that it was mostly other girls who were shaming Twilight. Yes, guys did too, but I think that was at least partly incited by other teenage girls (myself included) loudly declaring that we wanted nothing to do with those “stupid” vampire books. 

Because we live in a society that pits girls and women against each other. And also a society that is ashamed of/mocks/generally puts down teenage girls, and the content they consume.