#Also yeah I like to imagine that some Alteans reached the Earth while running from Lotor

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

YOUR TAGS!!! YES!!!! THIS WAS THE EXACT VIBE I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!

Thinking about swap!Allurance au but with s8 ending

[corvus--rex]

Next in this bizarre collection of abandoned, semi-abandoned, and deeply sleeping wips is one that has more direct time travel. It's more in the deeply sleeping category as I'm still picking at it. It's also another Omegaverse, so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it. Also, both Lance and Keith practice polytheistic religions that have been altered to fit an ABO setting

~*~*~*~*~

A few years after the war, the Paladins made the newly rebuilt Castle of Lions their home. Shiro and Adam retired from the Garrison and into diplomatic careers for the Coalition. Pidge’s parents were still with the organization, but she and Matt preferred to be more hands-on, maintaining the places on the castle and with the now-former rebellion. The still close-knit team were still recovering from the recent bonding ceremony for Hunk and Shay, who were also staying aboard the castle, although it was still uncertain as to whether or not human and Balmeran genetics were compatible; they were just waiting on genetic compatibility testing. Lance and Keith, however, were ahead of the game. They had gotten engaged while on the way back to Earth, announcing it to Lance’s family on their return. Not wanting to wait, and with no way of knowing what would happen in their war with Honerva, they’d held a small bonding ceremony the night before leaving Earth for the second time.

Keith had it the worst when it came to post-Hunk/Shay bonding recovery. He wasn’t going to miss Hunk and Shay’s bonding for anything, even if it meant dealing with Lance’s fussing. It had gotten bad enough during the reception that both Krolia and Lance’s mother Mariana told him to sit down and let his pregnant mate be. Keith could understand where Lance’s caution came from. While their little one was only one quarter Galra, and developing as a human child would, Keith’s half-Galra physiology had other ideas, his body and hormones changing like a shorter Galra pregnancy. It meant that he needed to be monitored more closely than he would if the pup’s development and his body’s lined up. It also meant that they didn’t have a concrete due date, and that it was entirely possible he could deliver a premature pup. But at sixteen weeks Earth time, there were still another two months until they needed to watch for their little one’s arrival. They had stayed behind on Earth an extra couple days after Hunk and Shay’s bonding ceremony for some of Lance’s extended family who wanted to see them both before the pup was born. Keith was exhausted from the three days of parties surrounding the ceremony and the event itself, but they were headed back to the castle after that and wouldn’t be back for another eight months, and by then the pup would be at least two months old.

Nadia and Sylvio were excited about their cousin, and had to be reminded that Keith was tired from everything going on. Right then, they wanted to see the inside of the Altean pod the matepair were taking back to the castle. Keith and Mariana burst out laughing when Lance appeared with his niece and nephew each tucked under an arm.

He “dropped” the giggling, squirming pups in front of his oldest brother. “I think you lost something.”

“Who, me? I haven’t lost anything,” Luis said, feigning ignorance.

Still laughing, Nadia and Sylvio began scaling their mountain of a father. Once they got to hip height, he grabbed them both the same way Lance had been carrying them and took off running while mock screaming, making his pups shriek with laughter. Lance just laughed to himself and shook his head at his brother and niblings.

“Like you can talk. You know damn well you're going to be just the same with ours,” Keith called.

“Yeah, probably,” Lance admitted, walking over.

“‘Probably’ nothing, mijo. I know you will,” Mariana said, “Just don’t forget to call when that little one arrives. We’ll be praying for a safe delivery.”

Lance’s parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles all practiced Santeria, and while Lance and his siblings had been raised in it and still believed, none of them actively practiced. His lack of participation didn’t lessen his appreciation of his mother’s intentions. He would have been worried when it came to telling Keith about his family’s practices if he didn’t already know about his Omega’s neo-paganism. Keith, likewise, had been relieved when Lance didn’t immediately declare him insane and instead explained about his own family.

“Thanks, Mami. So will we,” he said, hugging his mother.

“Doesn’t matter where you are in the universe, the Orisha will hear you,” she told him, then pulled Keith in, “And so will your gods, mijo.”

“I know. Thanks, Mami,” Keith answered.

The pod’s comms chirped, and Lance disentangled himself from his mate and his mother, disappearing into the small craft. Mariana wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist and he leaned into it, fully appreciating her maternal warmth. She was one of a very small number of people who had open permission to touch him. She understood that, especially after Lance had explained about Keith’s childhood in the foster care system and that he was largely touch-averse unless you were one of a select few who had earned his complete trust. She’d earned it through being the woman she was and treating Keith like one of her own children.

She reached over, resting a hand on his growing belly. “I pray for this pup every day. You two are going to be wonderful parents. And I know that you both will be safe up there – you and this little one.”

Keith breathed a laugh. “Altean technology makes humans look like we’re still playing with sticks and rocks. I mean, on an interstellar level, we kinda are. I’ve been thinking about that lately,” he admitted, “The ‘we’ part. I’m still half-Galra. Most of the time I feel like the only places on Earth I feel like I belong are out at my Dad’s place, and here.”

“Oh, mijo. It doesn’t at all matter that your wonderful mother isn’t human, or that you share her blood. What matters is what you do with it. And both of you used your heritage to do the right thing. And now she’s leading her – your – people to a new way of thinking. You both have done so much good. Never forget that. Or that you’re family. You’ll always belong here. And not just because you're carrying my grandpup.”

“We weren’t exactly planning on this.”

Mariana laughed. “Neither was I. For any of them. None of my five children were planned. We always wanted pups, but we decided to let it happen however it was going to happen. And we were blessed with five beautiful pups.” She nudged him gently. “Tell me, do you have any thoughts on what your pup might be? I knew for all of them, even when my mother was trying to tell me that I was wrong. Especially with Lance. She was convinced he was an Omega. And then he was born all Alpha.”

Keith nodded, understanding. “Yeah, that’s apparently not just a human thing. Mom said she knew I was an Omega before I was born. I think this one is too. I’m pretty sure it’s an Omega boy. Little brat keeps moving and won’t let us see, so we don’t know for certain yet, but I feel like it’s an Omega boy.”

“Oh, Veronica was the same. We didn’t know until she was an Alpha girl until she was born. And she’s still stubborn and independent.”

{What do you think, sweetheart? You an Omega boy?} she asked the unborn pup.

Her question was answered with a sharp kick.

“Is he always like that?” Mariana asked in surprise.

“Yes. Yes he is. I’ve been feeling him moving for almost two months, but it got more intense about three weeks ago. That, apparently, is a Galra thing.”

“What’s a Galra thing?” Lance asked, walking down the loading ramp.

“How hard the pup kicks,” Keith said.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “It really is that bad. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night before because of it.”

“Now imagine how I feel! Anyway, what was the comm call?”

“Oh, right. Just Allura asking when we were planning on going back up. I told her we were finishing getting the pod packed up and we’d be leaving within the hour. Varga. Whatever.”

Mariana hugged them both again. “Don’t forget. I want to know.”

Keith’s lips twisted in an amused smile. “As soon as we do,” he said.

Lance didn’t ask about it until they were settled in the pod’s cockpit and on their way to the wormhole point. “What are we telling my mother when we know it?”

“Huh? Oh, the pup’s primary and secondary sexes. I said that I feel like it’s an Omega boy, but that we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Keith explained.

“Yeah, he’s being a little brat about it,” Lance agreed, “We will find out eventually,” he added, poking the unborn pup only to be rewarded with another kick. “See? Brat.” He stood up, stretching hard enough to pop his spine. He let his arms drop and extended a hand to his mate. “Come on. Allura’s not opening a wormhole until we’re way out of system, and I want snuggles.”

When they first packed the pod to leave for Earth, Lance had shifted a few things around in the passenger compartment, making room for Keith to set up a nest. He was worried about their pup and was trying to just be a good Alpha for his Omega. Keith was particularly hormonal that day and broke down in tears when he saw the cleared space, his favorite nesting materials neatly sitting in the middle of it. Lance had been afraid he’d accidentally done something wrong until he found himself with his arms full of sobbing, pregnant Omega telling him how amazing he was through hiccupped tears. The nest was built and stayed there until they landed on Earth, where it was taken down and rebuilt in Lance’s old bedroom, right on top of his queen bed. Now it held their scents mixed with Lance’s family’s. Lance also knew about the sweater Krolia had given Keith for the express purpose of fitting it into his nest.

Keith let Lance lead them through to the rear of the pod and got settled into the nest. Leaning back against his Alpha, Keith reached into his shirt and pulled out the crystal he always wore. A clear quartz point, with a triple moon carved from rainbow moonstone woven into the silver wire wrapping the top of the crystal. He ran his fingers over the moonstone, feeling its carved lines and points, the smooth gem comforting. He was safe and comfortable in his Alpha’s arms, tucked into their temporary nest, but he still worried. He knew better than anyone that their pup could come earlier than anyone was comfortable with, especially him. He sighed, letting the quartz drop.

“What’s up?” Lance murmured sleepily into Keith’s neck.

“I’m just thinking again,” he said, the pad of his thumb following the back of his fingers in a small line on his belly.

Lance knew what he was thinking, read worrying, about, and wove their fingers together. “I know. But even worst case, even if he is three months early, he’ll be ok, and so will you. There is literally no one else like you in the entire universe, and all of this is new to everyone. Best we can do is take it one day at a time.” He grabbed the tablet from outside the nest, checking the autopilot. “We still have about an hour before we get to the wormhole point. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”

Keith yawned, curling up in the nest, Lance wrapping his arms around his Omega. “Nap sounds great,” he mumbled, half-asleep already.

Lance didn’t last much longer, drifting off the second Keith’s breathing evened out in sleep.

They were woken by alarms blaring throughout the pod. Keith shot up, startled and growling. Lance went for the tablet, checking the readings from the pod’s sensors. They should still have been twenty minutes out from the meeting point, but the star map showed them being in an entirely different galaxy, the familiar Milky Way nowhere in sight. He leapt from the nest, running for the cockpit. When Keith had calmed a bit and hauled himself out of his spot and to the cockpit, Lance was at the controls.

“Get yourself strapped in,” the Alpha said without looking up, “We’re headed straight for an asteroid field and there’s no time to change course.”

Lance changed the controls to manual and the front shielding changed from opaque to transparent, showing the looming ancient debris in stunning real time. Keith sat himself in the co-pilot’s seat, fastening the 4-point harness over his chest just in time for the first asteroid to go whipping past. He wanted to take the controls, but he knew that his awkward current shape made it nearly impossible for him to fly with the deftness an asteroid field required. Lance had no such problem, weaving through the asteroid field with his usual liquid grace.

When they finally broke through and into empty space, they still had no real idea of where they were. Keith brought up the galactic map. He noted several familiar planets and systems, realizing that they were on the far side of the Andromeda galaxy. As he was relaying all of that to his mate, the pod’s comm chirped with an incoming hail. It was the castle, but something was different and they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. Lance answered the hail, Allura’s face filling the screen.

“Hey, Allura. Do you have any idea what the fuck just happened? We were on our way to the rendezvous point for the wormhole and now we’re here,” Lance asked.

Allura stared at them in complete shock. “I – I don’t understand. How are you two there? You can’t be there. You’re both here on the castle.”

Lance and Keith shared a confused look. “No. We’re not,” Keith said slowly, “We just left Earth a couple hours ago and were on our way to the spot you designated for the wormhole back to the castle.”

“Earth?! What the quiznak are you talking about?! Stay there. I’m going to tow your pod into the castle and we’ll talk about whatever prank this is.” The shock was in her voice at first, before it became almost angry. She looked back at them from her projected control screen, and then looked at them both more carefully. “Lance, how in the quiznak do you have Altean marks?”

“From you?” he answered, now totally confused. Had she forgotten reviving him after he took the full damage of an energy attack meant for her? Did she not remember that he’d ended up with sky blue Altean marks as a result of the sheer amount of quintessence she poured into him?

“That’s impossible. I can’t give you our markings. And Keith, have you gained weight?” She was still confused, but turned it to the Red Paladin.

“Not in the last three days,” he said, then glanced down and back to her, “Not that way, anyway.”

They felt the pod guided into the pod bay and land softly. “Stay there, inside the pod,” Allura said, “I’ll be right there.” The screen cut out, leaving them alone again.

“What in the absolute fuck is going on?” Keith asked.

“I wish I fucking knew,” Lance answered. “Does she really think this is some kind of over-elaborate prank? She can’t. She knows us. Knows we’re mated. Knows you’re pregnant.”

“Yeah, that was weird. Asking me if I've gained weight. I mean, I know I've put on about fifteen pounds, but that’s almost completely directly related to him. I haven’t really changed anywhere else.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. But at least we’re back. We can get your nest rebuilt in our suite and take a fucking nap.”

Something told Keith to leave his nest as it was, and he told Lance as much. They also decided not to get back into it while they waited for Allura. The matepair waited in the open seating, Keith nuzzling into Lance’s scent gland. It was something they’d come to realize was a side-effect of his pregnancy. He couldn’t get enough of his Alpha’s scent and would use any and every excuse to get close and scent himself, not that Lance minded it at all. It always stroked his Alpha’s ego that their Omega was so devoted to them.

They both looked up when there was a failed attempt to open the rear door of the pod, which was followed by a polite knock. “Hang on a tick,” Lance called. He extracted himself from his snuggly koala of a mate with a soft kiss to his temple and a gentle hand on their pup.

Allura stood in the doorway, possibly even more shocked than she was on the call. He was still in the faded blue t-shirt and grey sweats he’d been wearing all day, not having been bothered to change. He was expecting an off-hand comment about not being up to his usual standard at most, but she just stood there, staring like he was a new race they’d never met before.

“Allura?” he asked.

“Lance, what the quiznak is going on here? Where’s Keith?” she asked when she found the words.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. And Keith’s right here. The kids were all over him this morning and he’s still pretty tired.”

He didn’t think it was possible for Allura to be any more confused or her eyebrows to arch higher, but she was and they did.

“What kids? Why should he be tired?”

Keith listened to the questions being fired back and forth. Something wasn’t adding up. Allura knew they’d been with Lance’s family. She’d met Nadia and Sylvio before and knew what kind of energy they had. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he was worn out after dealing with them. Keyword shouldn’t. But she was. He decided to see her for himself, or more to the point, for her to see him. He slid out from the seating area, turning the corner to where she and Lance were asking questions without answering any. He stepped up beside Lance, sliding an arm around his Alpha’s waist, his free hand resting on his pregnant belly.

Allura’s jaw dropped. He knew she could tell that he wasn’t faking, and that she somehow either didn’t know or had forgotten that he was four months pregnant, even if he looked farther along because of his body’s reaction.

“I – how?! How did this happen?! When?! What is happening?!”

“Allura,” Lance said softly, “Has anything happened in the last two or three quintants?”

“What? No. Nothing. And you two are here onboard the castle. Keith, you said you would be in the training deck for at least a few vargas, and Lance, you were helping Hunk in the kitchen. How did you two end up out there and in a pod I didn’t know had gone missing? And don’t tell me you were on Earth. That’s utterly impossible. We can’t go back without leading the Galra directly there, you both know that. And how have you been hiding not only your apparent relationship but also – Keith, you're pregnant! How do you expect to be able to fly the Red Lion in your condition?”

The feeling of something being fundamentally off continued to tickle Keith’s brain. An impossible thought hit him. “Allura, I need you to answer this question honestly. How long have we been out here with you?”

“What do you mean? It’s only been about three phoebs, but we’ve made good progress in the war effort. I really believe we’ll win. But you already knew that.”

Lance cut her off before she could voice a suspicion about them being spies. He realized as soon as Keith said it. “I think we somehow managed to go back in time. We really are who we say we are, and so are you. But you obviously don’t know anything about us as we are now. I can promise that we’re not hiding anything from you.”

“Well…I don’t know that we can really say that…” Keith said, trailing off. If the them that Allura knew had only been in space for a few months, then he and Lance were already seeing each other secretly. But then they decided that keeping it from their friends made absolutely no sense, even if it meant that Pidge lost her bet with Hunk.

“Ok, fair,” he said, then turned to Allura, “What was the last major event that happened related to the war? It’ll help us narrow down when exactly we are.”

“You two seem awfully accepting of this,” she said, a note of accusation in her voice.

“We – we’ve been through a lot,” Keith said, intentionally not elaborating. They had been through a lot – alternate reality, quantum abyss, the quintessence field, Bob, finding themselves inside Honerva’s mind – but they couldn’t tell Allura any of it.

“And if we tell you anything, we don’t know if or how it could affect anything,” Lance added.

“Hm, I suppose that’s true. The last major event? Well, we’ve only just found out about your Galra heritage, but after meeting with Kolivan and Antok, I have come to realize that your blood does not define you. You both have only just returned from separate missions. Keith, you and Hunk went to retrieve the Scaultrite from the Weblum-” Keith shuddered involuntarily at the memory “-and Lance, you, Shiro, and Pidge went to rescue Slav from Beta Traz. He’s still here on the castle with us.”

“Wait wait wait – Slav’s still here?” Lance asked. He turned to Keith. “If Slav’s still on board, then he would be able to help figure out what happened. Maybe find a way to get us back to our own time. And hopefully before…” he trailed off, giving Keith a look that the Omega understood. Before the pup comes.

Allura also understood what Lance hadn’t said. “Um, how – how far along are you, exactly?” she asked awkwardly.

“That’s a little complicated,” Keith answered. “The pup’s developing like a normal human, but because I’m half Galra, my body is changing and reacting as if I were completely Galra. Pregnancies are shorter. Six Earth months, or about four and a quarter phoebs, to a normal human ten months or just over seven phoebs.”

“So, you're saying that with how your body is reacting, your pup could be premature?”

“It’s a distinct possibility. But to actually answer your question, sixteen Earth weeks. Almost eleven and a half movements. It gives us no more than five movements to figure this out and get us back to our time.”

Allura nodded, making her decision. “All right. We’ll meet in the lounge first. Paladins and Coran only. Shiro…doesn’t exactly do well with Slav.”

Lance and Keith laughed. “That’s something we will never forget,” Lance said as they followed her out of the pod. Keith turned, locking it with their biometrics. Given the alteration to Lance’s DNA thanks to Allura’s quintessence infusion, they knew that it would stay locked. Their younger selves didn’t have a chance.

They walked in silence for a while, following Allura down lesser used corridors to the lounge entrance that was never used. “Is there anything you can tell me?” she asked, “About your time. How far into our future are you?”

“I don’t know that that’s a good idea, Princess,” Lance said, “You already know that we make it to Earth safely, and I don’t know how that might already be affecting our time. I understand that you want to know if it’s all worth it in the end, but I can’t tell you.”

Allura thought for a few seconds. “I understand. My knowing about the future could affect the present. It could change our decisions about things that will change the outcome of the war. And I take it that however the war does end, it’s the best possible outcome.”

“We think so. There’s a lot more going on than just Zarkon, but if you knew what, I don’t know – there are just too many variables.”

She paused in the doorway to the lounge. “I really do understand. There are more factors and facets to this war than I am currently aware of. Knowing about them now could upset the balance. Well,” she said, gesturing to the room, “Make yourselves comfortable. You already know where everything is.” Her smile was one of genuine affection for the Paladins in front of her.

“Thanks, Allura,” Keith said, maneuvering past her.

Once they were seated comfortably (“Comfort is a bit relative for me at the moment,” Keith told her with a laugh) she called for the Paladins and Coran, and them only, to come to the lounge.

Lance was the first to arrive, ready to drop onto the sunken sofa from the floor above, but stopped himself when he realized he was looking at something that looked like the back of his own head. He only knew what that looked like after a prank involving his siblings and every single mirror in the house. He saw Allura sitting at one end of the semicircle and slowed, turning to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Ah. We should wait for the others to arrive before we explain,” Allura said.

“Actually,” one of the unknown people said and Lance nearly choked at hearing his own voice. A little rougher and maybe older, but it was definitely his own voice. He realized the other owner of his voice was still speaking. “I think we should start now. I know we’ll have to repeat ourselves, but I know that you’re kinda nauseous right now,” a long, tan finger pointed in his direction, “And I really think this is the better solution.”

“If that’s what you –” Allura was cut off by the next arrival.

“Allura? Why are we meeting here?”

Pregnant Keith snorted at how young he sounded. His mate patted his head. “I know. We sound like babies.”

The younger Keith froze.

“Yes we’re real. No you're not hallucinating,” pregnant Keith said without moving. He knew what his younger self was thinking.

“Well, as long as we’re both here,” Lance said, “We should explain as much as we can.”

The younger Red and Blue Paladins walked around to the steps and froze again when they were suddenly face to face with themselves. Their older selves were snuggled together in the middle of the sofa horseshoe, not caring who saw them. There was too much for them to take in all at once, but they did notice Lance’s Altean marks and the undeniable fact that the older Keith was significantly pregnant.

“Yeah,” pregnant Keith agreed, “It’s a lot to unpack. We’ll tell you what we can.”

The younger Paladins sat together opposite Allura, not knowing what to say.

“As far as we can tell, we’re from your future. We don’t know how we got here. We were on our way back to the castle and decided to let the autopilot handle the flying while I had a nap and woke up to all the alarms going off about a half hour later. We realized that we weren’t where we should be and found the castle after clearing the asteroid field nearby.”

“And, I’m – or, you – I don’t even know how to phrase that,” the younger Keith stumbled through.

Older Keith just laughed. “We? Since we’re the same person, just at different ages. But yes, I’m pregnant. I'm due fairly soon, so we need to figure this out as quickly as possible.”

Both his mate and Allura noticed how he phrased himself, but said nothing, understanding why he had done it.

It was the younger Lance’s turn to stumble through a sentence. “So, you’re – and – is that –”

Older Lance snickered at his younger self. “Yes. Yes we are, and yes it is.”

“What?! But -”

“But nothing,” older Lance said, “Although that might have prevented this.”

“Yeah, sure. You try telling my heat brain that,” pregnant Keith said.

The younger Keith pointed at his older self. “That. But, how? I mean, I’ve always been so careful about taking it on time. Unless…”

Pregnant Keith shook his head. “No, that hasn’t changed. It failed. We weren’t planning on this. But it happened, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“Ok, so I just need to know one thing. Not about the future, not that.” His hand went to his chest almost unconsciously. “Just so I know. That you’re really me.”

Without moving from his spot snuggled into Lance’s side, Keith reached into his t-shirt and pulled the quartz and moonstone pendant out, letting it fall to his chest. “It was the first thing I ever bought for myself after Dad died. He taught me the basics of the Craft and I've kept it up ever since. Helps me feel connected to him even though it represents Omegas.”

Younger Keith nodded, holding his own crystal. “Yeah. It does.”

Looking from his not-so-secret boyfriend, the younger Lance turned to his own older self. “And he knows about…”

Older Lance cracked an amused smile. “Yeah, he does. But wait, haven’t you already told him about us?”

“Oh, well, yeah. I guess that didn’t really make sense, did it?”

“No, not really. But the last thing Mami said to me when we left her last was that it doesn’t matter where in the universe we are, the Orisha will hear us.”

“That – that’s –”

“What Mami said when I left for the Garrison. Yeah, she still says it.”

Pidge was next to arrive, and stopped when she saw the two older versions of her friends.

“No, you haven’t been up long enough to hallucinate yet,” pregnant Keith said through laughing.

“Come sit down, Pigeon. We’ll explain once everyone’s here,” Lance said, waving her forward.

They were all surprised that it hadn’t been Shiro to appear first, but he and Hunk were next, walking in together. If they thought that Pidge had been surprised, it was nothing compared to the double take from the Black and Yellow Paladins. Allura had yet to say anything once her Paladins began filtering in, and she still didn’t, letting the two older Paladins take the lead.

“Hi, Shiro,” pregnant Keith said. He still hadn’t moved from his mate’s side, enjoying the warmth and safety of his Alpha’s touch.

“What in the almighty fuck is going on?” Shiro asked, stunned.

“We’re just waiting for Coran, and then we’ll explain.”

Shiro and Hunk sat down, among the other Paladins. Hunk seemed to look for some kind of comfort from the familiarity of Pidge, and Shiro sat himself between his Lance and the older Keith with an expression told them that he was trying very hard to wrap his head around the idea of Keith being pregnant. Coran came running in a few minutes later.

“Oh, my apologies, Princess. The scanners went all wiffeley for a few ticks. They’re perfectly fine now.” He noticed the two new additions for the first time. “Erm, Princess…” he started, scratching his cheek with one gloved finger.

“Yes. It’s why I’ve called you all here,” Allura said, “When I was alone on the bridge briefly, scans picked up a single Altean pod. When I hailed it, well…”

“It was us,” the older Lance finished, “We seem to be from your future.”

Everyone stopped, if only briefly, before exploding into questions and demands. Questions about what happened, how they got here from their own time, how did the war end, what’s it like now, did everyone survive…

Lance put a hand up, silencing the onslaught. “We can’t answer most of those questions. Anything we tell you could possibly alter the timeline, and I can’t risk that.”

Pidge pouted, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Well, we already know you two end up together. And if you're here, then you guys obviously made it out.”

Pregnant Keith shifted, sitting up but not leaving his Lance’s personal bubble. “Yes, we did make it out. And yes, we know what it’s like now. But is it worth it to know about our future when it could change your own?”

For maybe the first time in her life, Pidge didn’t have an immediate answer. Her natural curiosity demanded to be sated. The older versions of two of her best friends were sitting in front of her with the answers to so many questions. So much of her own personal stress could be relieved just by knowing if she ever found Matt and Sam. She could know the outcome of the war. But thinking about those things, she realized that Keith was right. If she did know, it would change what she did, how she could react to things. The butterfly effect wasn’t real, or, if it was, it didn’t quite work that way, but a change to a major event could lead to a cascade of differences. And there was no way to know if those would be good changes or bad. But she didn’t get to answer the semi-rhetorical question because Slav walked in at that exact moment.

“So we’re in this reality,” he said, seeing the future Lance and Keith. He narrowed his eyes at them. “You haven’t told anyone anything, have you?”

“Nothing that wasn’t immediately obvious,” Keith answered, settling back against his mate.

“Ah. Right. I need to confirm things about you two before I can recalculate probabilities, but we should discuss this –” His owlish eyes narrowed again as he looked around the room. “- privately.”

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 30: Keep Us Warm

Sometime, the most precious thing, is time to be yourself.

Also, how does one discuss future children with their child spouse? Asking for a friend...

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Keith stirs, uncomfortable. He’s freezing. The frigid air bites at his cheeks and the thin cartilage of his ears. The tip of his nose stings, and his fur is cold when he tries to rub warmth back into his face.

What the utter fuck? It definitely wasn't this cold when they went to sleep last night. His eyes flutter open to spot Lance sleeping a few dashes away.

Keith pulls the insufficient comforter over his ears, trying in vain to warm himself.

“Lance… Lance…” He reaches over, pokes his spouse.

“Mnh.” The Altean stirs, more protesting than anything else.

“Lance, why’s it so cold in here?!”

Lance blinks awake. It is indeed freezing. He can see his own breath when he exhales. “Keith? Beloved? Did you leave the garden doors open last night?”

Keith peeks out from the blankets to check. “Fuck.”

“They’re wide open, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re the worst. Okay, stay here.” Lance throws back the blankets, rolls his eyes at Keith's subsequent outcry. “Baby.”

“You’re the baby!” Keith curls into a ball, freezing.

“What was that? Leave for breakfast and let you deal with our freezing cold bedroom?”

“You’re the best?”

“Damn quiznaking right.” Lance closes the garden doors, latches them shut. “I’ll even get a fire going.”

Keith listens as the crackle builds. After a moment, Lance crawls back into the bed, right up against him, curled around his smaller frame. “Don’t even complain. You leave the doors open, you deal with clingy Lance and his cold, cold toes.”

Keith snuggles down into the blankets, not minding a bit as their shared heat begins to build between them. “Please don’t let me do that again,” he mumbles. “I honestly hate the cold.”

“Hm. I love it. I like to be warm in it, but I do love it.”

“Disgusting.”

Lance giggles, settles in, face pressed right up against Keith's neck. He has to nose away locks of hair and the line of thick fur running down Galra prince's neck and back so he can breath, but it's a small matter.

The truth is, Lance has missed this proximity. Going from promiscuous and never without company to married to Keith has been a transition. Never mind the beating his libido has taken; that doesn't really matter in the long run. But he misses being close to people. He misses feeling the warmth of another body. And Keith is very warm. His heat sinks into Lance's bones with every breath.

Unbeknownst to him, Keith doesn't mind the proximity either. It reminds him of his den back home, curled up with his littermate or with his mother. It feels like family, like kinship, like Lance has filled a bit of that gap in his chest.

When the room is warm again, Lance reluctantly shakes Keith out of his doze. “It frosted in the night. Do you want to see?”

Keith sighs, reluctant to move, reluctant to leave.

“Might as well.”

Keith’s hatred for the cold is quickly forgotten.

Frost actually is beautiful. Everything -the ground, the singing tree, the bumblemoths clinging to the branches- is covered in frost, the water leached out, crystallizing into a fine layer of white.

Keith’s ears twitch, tail swinging back and forth, eyes alight with curiosity as he crouches at the edge of the frosted earth. He reaches out to tough the frost, but it disintegrates beneath his warm hand, the delicate formations fading before they can even meet his skin. Keith giggles, delighted, and tries it again.

Lance leans against the doors, smiling as he watches his spouse enjoy something new. He wishes there were more moments like this, where Keith can be a kit, be himself. He looks lovely, even if-

“Your hair looks like a nest.”

“Oh, fuck off. Silly prince.”

Lance just snickers, tugs on a tangled lock of dark hair. Keith tries to smack his hands away, but Lance simply catches one, presses a kiss to the back of it. “I’m glad you like the frost, beloved.”

“Hm.” Keith smiles, eyes averted. Then they light up again. “I wonder what the grotto looks like right now!”

“Wanna go see? Vetroneius is probably done with our cloaks by now and first frost is an unspoken holiday. Nobody will be working, so we have an excuse.”

“Okay!” Keith bounces up, practically dancing inside to find some clothes.

Lance grins, turning to watch him go. He lifts his eyes to the Ancients. Just for today, he prays. Just for today, let him be himself.

Keith does his best not to skip, wrapped up in thick clothes and a new cloak, the layers of fine leather and cloth trapping heat close to his skin. The frost crunches beneath his boots, clings to his clothes where they brush against the ground, against the trunks of the trees.

It's so still. He can hear Lance's heartbeat, hear his quiet laughter as Keith admires the ice crystals dangling from the tree branches.

The grotto is covered in a layer of white frost, the small creatures frozen in the ice. The pool is completely iced over, frozen over the past movement, solidified during the night. Keith’s first instinct, naturally, is to stand on the ice, which Lance indulges even though he knows it will only end with Keith slipping and falling.

Which he does. Almost immediately. Lance grins, leans over his fallen spouse. “Having fun?”

Keith laughs, laying back on the ice, braided hair trailing over the ice. “Yes, actually. I’ve seen frost before, when it gets cold at night. It’s normal. But this.” Keith raises his arms, hands gesturing to the crystalline structures glittering on the ceiling. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

Lance settles next to his spouse, lowering himself carefully onto the ice, his cloak offering a protective layer. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Altea is beautiful… Daibazaal is beautiful, too, you know. It’s violent and inhospitable and the kriinli’i turn their prey inside out and hang them from trees, but it’s… natural. Everything here feels cultivated and artificial. On Daibazaal, everything feels wild. It grows how it wants.

“This frost reminds me of that. It does what it wants, and nothing stands in its way. It’s so delicate, but so stubborn. Like home.”

Lance smiles. “I can’t wait to see it. I’ve wanted to for a long time now. Maybe we’ll go there for your season. Adam says you’ll need rest after, so we could stay for a few movements. Maybe a phoeb.”

“Really?” Keith turns his head to look at him. Lance has spoken of this before, but Keith hadn't put stock in it at the time. “You- You’d actually do that? You’d let me go home?”

“I’m not letting you go home. I want you to go home. I want you to be happy and hold onto the people you had the leave behind. I imagine you feel like a prisoner here.”

“Not- Not all the time! Not when it’s just us,” Keith mumbles. “Or our friends,” he adds hastily. He doesn’t want to make this harder.

Lance hums, staring at the ice curled over the ceiling of the grotto. He’s not sure how to respond to that. There’s a few minutes of silence, then Keith speaks again.

“I-” Keith’s throat tightens momentarily. He finds Lance’s hand, grips it tight. “I’d really, really like to go home. Just for a little while.”

“You will.” Lance squeezes back, shifts to press that hand to his lips. He can hear the heartache in Keith’s voice. “I promise, beloved. Just hang on for me, alright? A few more phoebs; that's it. We need to get through the winter, and then we’ll go.”

“Okay. I'm here. Whatever you need.” Keith means that. He means it with ever beat of his hearts.

On the walk back through the frozen forest, Lance keeps an arm around Keith’s shoulders. It does absolutely nothing to help against the cold, but Keith leans into it anyway, grateful. He just has to make it through winter. Then his final growth will start and he’ll be able to go home for a while. All he has to do is make it through the winter.

"Allura will be so excited to see you," he whispers.

"I know. I can't wait." Lance grins. "And I'll get to meet your mom. That'll be so cool. I bet she'll hate me."

"Oh, she will," Keith mumbles, smiling sheepishly. He can't help but think of his mother threatening to slaughter the overbred little whore. "But I think you'll grow on her. Y'know, like a wart or maybe a cancer."

"Wow, thanks so much, beloved. You're rotten to the core, you know that?"

"Nah, I'm just honest. She really will grow to like you, though. She likes good people."

"Aw, thanks beloved." Lance gives his spouse a squeeze. "If she's anything like you, I bet I'll like her, too."

"She's better than me," Keith whispers, allowing Lance to help his through the gap in the wall. "She's braver, and fierce, and she's so loyal."

"Loyal to what?"

"Freedom. That's what she wants. She wants more freedom for my people. They're expected to birth at least five kits in one centaphoeb, required to serve two centaphoebs in the military-"

"Wait. Five kits? In one centaphoeb? That's insane!"

"Expected. They're encouraged to try for eight. It is a lot, especially since the physical output for a season is already immense. But you need people to expand an empire, and kits don't birth themselves."

"Hm." Lance knows they need to discuss these things, and soon. But this day is for Keith. He wants it to be stress- and worry-free. Just one day.

The Galra prince hurries ahead, clearly eager to get warm again. He turns to Lance with a grin. "Are you coming or what, Altean?"

Lance chuckles, hastens his steps. Just one day. Thank the Ancients for just one day.

[rainforestgeek]

The Past Comes Back To Life

Part 3 of Why Are You My Remedy?

Part 1  Part 2

Ao3 link          Ko-fi

-

Pidge hadn't cried since that fateful day. She didn't even cry at the memorial. What was wrong with her?

Lance and Hunk had both bawled, rivaled only by Coran in terms of tears shed. The memorial was a whole affair, filmed and streamed across the universe, thousands of people in attendance wearing a strange mix of pink and black. The paladins all followed the Altean tradition of wearing pink in honor of - of the dead. Their dead friend. Only Lance had abstained, clad head to toe in black.

There were too many people.

Afterwards Pidge went home. She completely disassembled her computer and put it back together. She dumped all her spare robot parts on the floor and sat in the middle of the mess, day in and day out, tinkering and experimenting. She drew piles of rough schematics. Half of them got balled up and thrown in the trash can's general vicinity. She only left her room to shower, eat, and go to the bathroom. She didn't leave the house at all.

Sleep didn't really happen. Pidge felt herself fade in and out of consciousness at times but every time she got into bed, she stayed wide awake, all alone in the silence. One night, she put on her shoes, pushed open her bedroom window and climbed onto the roof.

Sitting up here felt strange without Matt. This was their special place growing up. But she was grateful for the solitude as she gazed up at the familiar constellations that felt so alien after years in deep space. She'd gazed upon dozens of skies with the other paladins while Allura and Coran showed them the constellations they remembered.

Her closed up for a second.

Pidge's relationship with Allura had been shaky at times. They were just such profoundly different people. Yet, they'd been the only two girls on the ship and that almost inevitably forged a bond between them. Whoever said girls were the de facto drama queens was a filthy liar: Pidge and Allura had several times retreated to the holographic observatory to get away from the boys' melodrama (which Coran had shamelessly, if not intentionally, encouraged) and just talk about space. Or sit in silence.

"I had a friend back on Altea," Allura confided softly. "Rora. She was the daughter of one of my father's courtiers. We used to run about the palace as children searching for secret passageways and pretending to be knights on a mission to rescue captured princes."

Pidge laughed a little to herself. Allura's childhood games sounded refreshingly backwards from the ones on Earth.

Her blue eyes got sad. "Once we were older, I spent all my waking hours under my parents' and Coran's tutelage. And about a dozen other teachers grooming me to become the next queen. Every now and again Rora took me to her home to lie in the juniberries in her garden. She was..."

Allura trailed off. "She was like a sister?" Pidge asked carefully.

"Rora was my sanity. A little bit of calm among the politics of my existence."

Pidge waited, trying to figure out what to say. She watched projected star systems spin slowly around them. "Matt was - is - like that for me, too. School was really lonely and I don't know how I would have gotten through it without him."

Cautious, she reached out and slipped her hand in Allura's.

"I'm grateful to have you in my life, Pidge."

For the first time she felt her eyes tingle. Pidge let herself cry silently.

"I'm sorry I was jealous. It should not have ended like that. I mean I don't think you were good for him but you were good to us. To me. Hey, remem - do you remember when you got the mice to put Hunks hair into cornrows in his sleep? You were so proud of that prank - and rightly so, you even had Keith laughing.

"Honestly, I didn't get why you wanted to be a paladin. I still don't. I know Shiro was gone and Voltron had a duty to fulfill, but. You always put duty in front of everything else. But you flew a goddamn castle! You commanded us when we needed it, you were essential for winning battles and quick escapes. Why did you give that up to become Lance's replacement and take orders from Keith?" Pidge stopped to catch her breath.

"I wish I could've helped you not be so lonely. I'm so, so sorry for avoiding you these last few - " her fists clenched. "I'm sorry for being so fucking petty while you held the weight of the universe on your shoulders."

She prayed her friend could hear her.

The window opened behind her. She heard someone clamber through. It didn't sound like Matt. Maybe her mom or dad came up to check on her? They never much approved of Pidge and her brother's habit of chilling out on the roof.

Pidge swiped at her tears and cleared her throat. Hopefully there wasn't enough light for the intruder to see her red eyes.

Lance's voice startled her. "Hey, Pidge. Your dad gave me a key."

She glanced to her left at his shoes, the same ones he'd worn every day on the Castle. They were fraying at the seams and the rubber sole beginning to peel away from the fabric at the sides.

"Why are you here?" Pidge tried and failed to not sound grumpy.

He sighed deeply, still standing next to her. He didn't sit down and she refused to look up at him. "I don't want to be alone. It's too much, just...everything."

"Hunk's better at comfort than I am."

"Hunk wants to talk about it." Pidge didn't need to ask what it was. "Shiro wants to talk about it. My whole damn family wants to talk about it, even Silvio and Nadia. I don't want to talk about it. I want to not be alone and not talk about it."

"So why don't you go find Keith?" Pidge muttered.

"Oh," Lance replied, "our oh-so-much older and wiser leader also wants to talk about it."

Yikes. "Well, I don't want to talk either."

"Fantastic. Let's sit here in companionable silence and grieve inside our own heads." Lance sat down then laid down. Pidge stayed curled up, arms around her knees. Her eyes stayed fixed on the inky horizon line. It was raw; they were two cranky, open wounds side by side trying desperately to heal. Tension lay so thick between them that she could almost taste it in the air. Pidge found it strange that Lance wanted no comfort, but...she understood. One can only hear so many I'm sorry's and other well-meant platitudes before screaming.

A moment passed - it could have been seconds or an hour or five minutes - and Pidge blinked against her stinging eyes one too many times. The darkness blurred from tears welling up so she scrunched her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry in front of Lance. The tears came anyway. They squirmed past her eyelids and slid down her cheeks. Her lungs shuddered every time she breathed.

Lance must have heard the ragged breaths, or seen her body shaking. Pidge started at his hand on her upper arm. "Pidge, come here. Lie down."

After God only knew how many lost hours of sleep, Pidge could only acquiesce. She settled next to him slightly on her side, facing away from him. The roof tiles dug into her shoulder but she was determined to have some semblance of privacy. Lance pulled her against him, sliding one arm under her neck and resting his other hand on her waist, where his thumb rubbed back and forth to soothe her; the leaking dam broke completely. Pidge sobbed.

She hated the electricity his touch arced through her.

But Lance was here with her, wasn't he? He sought out her company instead of any of his far more tactful friends or family. That had to mean something. She didn't care if he wanted her as long as he trusted her.

Unbidden, a picture of Allura popped into her head. She was winking dramatically at Pidge, teasing her about something. She could imagine - in another life - that Allura'd smirk at Pidge and prod her for information about her little cuddle session with the Blue Paladin. It was enough to make Pidge's head hurt and stomach twist into a knot.

"I miss her," she murmured. She felt him tense. "That's all I'm gonna say. But...Lance?"

"Yeah?" His voice was soft next to her ear.

"Thank you."

He squeezed her hip, where his hand rested. "Any time."

[optimist-pine]

Hair Care || Voltron Crew

Prompt: What would the team do with a reader who has no clue how to style their own hair?

Featuring: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Coran

a/n: I just want someone to play with my hair, can you tell?

- Shiro -

just gives him that much more of a reason to run his fingers through it

so soft

especially when it’s his metal hand

commits serious time to have Lance teach him how to take care of it

someone’s gotta

a couple of times a week you all gather near the couch

you sit on the floor and play video games with lose to Pidge

“(Y/n), sit still!”

there’s plenty of frustrated huffs coming from behind you

but Lance is patient, and really enjoys getting to teach Shiro something for once

he gets all flustered with the finished product because it’s “not good enough, there’s a loop sticking out here, and here...”

you reassure him that you’re going to bed soon so it’ll get all messed up anyways

but you can’t stop running your fingers across the braids

how’re you supposed to destroy such magnificent artwork?

eventually, once he gains more confidence, he’ll do it without Lance’s help

Lance all “look how fast they grow up” with tears in his eyes

he’ll even do it in the morning so that you can wear it throughout the entire day

“Can’t have it getting in the way during training”

“or during meals”

“or-”

“Shiro, you don’t have to have an excuse to play with my hair.”

*grumbles*

focusing on your hair becomes a big time de-stressor for him

bad day?

he’ll start undoing whatever braid is already in you hair, brushing it out slowly with his fingers

when he starts braiding it again you can feel him release a little bit of tension every time he adds a new strand

you don’t mind it much either

a free massage?

a piece of him to carry around with you all day?

not to mention if it weren’t for him your hair would be a hopeless case

but he does love it when you get out of the shower and it dries sort of poofy and funky all around

or when you haven’t done anything with it in the morning and it just sort of sticks. out. everywhere.

but it’s still so soft

nobody else asks to mess with your hair

they know it’s Shiro’s thing, and only Shiro’s thing

like doing so would be crossing a line of some sort

he has offered to do Keith’s hair

was rejected

- Keith -

not like he would’ve noticed

the boy’s got a mullet for golly’s sake

but he appreciates the fact that you aren’t too worried about it

not that it’s a bad thing to care about, but if you cared too much... eh

would never do it in public, but he finds comfort in twisting a strand around his finger when he’s tired, or stressed, or frustrated

so that happens a lot

you hum while he does so and it tends to put him (or both of you) to sleep

he’s tried braiding, but he’s gotta redo the same basic braid about five times to be okay with anyone else seeing it.

including you

even though Lance would never make fun of your hair, sometimes it’s implied that he considers the two of you to be compatible based on hair care alone

although he doesn’t believe he has a preference one way or another, during the few instances that Lance or Allura has done your hair, he has taken a few many extra glances

thinks wild hair during a fight is pretty gosh darn intimidatingly beautiful

he’s always stealing your hair ties

just so he can shoot them back at you later

like buddy, if you’re gonna take them, use them to contain your own flowing locks whydon’tcha

Maybe it’s because whenever the two of you go for ponytails, Shiro won’t stop being an annoying little brat and tugging on them whenever he gets the chance

- Lance -

at first he’s sort of offended on his own behalf

gets over that quickly once he realizes it’s just not your forte

it’s not like it’s unclean

you just can’t seem to keep it under control

then he realizes it’s pretty amazing that you don’t care one way or the other, and honestly don’t care what other people think either

like wow, he knows those things can be harder for girls, but darn, a confidant woman is his jammm

he sorta feels like he’s the insecure one in this relationship

until the one day your hair is just driving you crazy because yeah, you don’t really care what is looks like, but does it ALWAYS have to be getting in the way

but guess who can fix that

he doesn’t feel quite so upset now that he’s got a way he can help you

get ready for the full treatment

masks

oils

the fanciest styles you can imagine in the blink of an eye

you’re starting to rival Allura in the hair game

he’ll do your hair anywhere

 regrouping during a battle?

“Your hair’s a mess!”

“It’s been shoved up in my helmet this whole time. Of course it’s a mess.”

mumbles while whipping your hair into a braid in like 3 seconds

diplomatic meeting?

leans in close to whisper sarcastic comments while creating rows upon rows of braids

but when the two of you are alone he’ll braid slowly and purposefully and murmur songs his mother would sing while braiding his sisters’ hair

afterwards he’ll hold onto you tightly, running his hands over the braids he put there

he wants to braid his niece’s hair again when you all return to Earth, so he’s gotta practice, right?

even so, he does find it melts his heart a little when he catches you with a messy bun

he knows you’re trying your best

- Hunk -

he gets so excited to do your hair

he may not be the best but he does try his hardest

his favorite thing to do is to braid things into it

feathers

beads

flowers

whenever you’re on a new planet, he’s searching for things that’ll look just perfect framing your face

Coran would definitely help him collect a wide assortment of items

flowers are his favorite

he’s in love with weaving them into braided crowns

and they smell so good

and they leave you looking like Rapunzel in Tangled when all the little girls braid her hair

yeah, okay, so maybe he does leave you feeling a little bit like a Disney princess

beads are cool too

on planets that have markets he does his best to find you the most beautiful ones

he’s gotten you some to match each lion and it’s paladin

especially yellow (duh)

so many yellow beads

there’s some in your hair at all times

he doesn’t realize that he’s doing it though

but you don’t mind

some of his favorites are each hand painted with alien symbols

once he found out that they could be translated into English he was ecstatic

instead of wearing his heart on his sleeve, he’ll braid his thoughts and feelings right into your hair

when a battle is coming up:

strength

justice

perseverance

courage

honor

helping a planet get back on it’s feet:

hope

peace

kindness

unity

assurance

finally getting some downtime

joy

family

humor

rest

love

when he’s had a rough day, or just wants you to know how much you mean to him:

comfort

warmth

trust

calm

safe

he also likes to tie in feathers to give you that warrior goddess vibe

he doesn’t do that too often because he can’t handle it for very long

blushy blushy

- Pidge -

hair care?

the two of you are literally the embodiment of ‘I woke up like this’

bed head is now ‘all day’ head

Lance and Allura team up to try and tame the locks of the both of you, but it only ends in ridiculous faces and bubbling laughter on all of your parts

what’s the point when Shiro’s just gonna come and ruffle it all up anyways?

or Pidge is gonna somehow singe the ends of it with whatever new tech she’s working on?

*after the both of you take your helmets off*

Lance: “look! it’s Thing 1 and Thing 2!”

pretty sure he got tazed for that

you gave her pigtails once, and she tried to return the favor but...

let’s just say there’s a reason she works with machines

Matt would definitely rub balloons on your heads then run away

- Allura -

hope you like gemstones

if she was on Earth during the bedazzling era

ooh booy

she loves to tell you tales about Altea while she makes your hair sparkly

the task at hand keeps the bad emotions from reaching her as strong

and it’s good to talk to someone other than Coran about her home

she’s got all these ancient Altean hair products, and you bet your bottom dollar that she’s gonna use every. single. one. on you

your favorite is the one that makes your hair all shimmery in the light

but she really loves to give you a tussled wavy/curly look

the opposite of her smooth and gently flowing locks

when your hair is in it’s natural state, the mice love to make a little nest on top of your head

she’ll sprinkle seeds over your head so that they have a snack

you would protest, but she’s having such a great time, why bother?

- Coran -

among the whole assortment of ridiculous hidden talents the man possesses lies hairdressing

sure he can cut or style your hair, but his favorite thing to do is color it

he’s got some great vibrant, but temporary dyes

every week is a new color

you even got him to let you dye his hair once

and for some reason the dyes smell like fruits and flowers, and nothing like the chemicals used on Earth

the two of you’ll prank dye the others’ hair occasionally

that time the Paladins of Voltron all had hot pink hair?

that may or may not have been your fault

[asian-hero]

I’m a slut for flustered Shiro, hold you do a single parent shiro imagine where his daughter accidentally outs his crush on the reader ?

i love this, but i raise you teacher!reader

i hope you enjoy 

i did fem reader i’m sorry (they’ll probably be another one of the same exact story that’s posted after this that’s the male version bc i feel real bad for excluding those readers)

If there was one thing that Shiro loved more than the universe, it had to be his daughter. After coming back to Earth, he spent a lot of time by himself. Of course, he’d usually spend his days training with the MFE’s and training them into one of the best defenders of Earth. He’d also go out and talk to some children about the Galaxy Garrison and why it’s a good place to join. But after all of that, Shiro spent his nights alone, either busing himself with paperwork or training to keep his mind off of things. He always convinced himself that he didn’t have time for anything else.

His continuous volunteering at elementary schools to supply them with information about the Garrison had him questioning why he was even going there in the first place. With his position as captain, he could very well have any other officer under his rank do this task rather than him, but he refused to let anyone else go. Watching all of the kids looking at him in amazement as he told stories about his space travels made him realize that there was something missing in his life. Of course, before, with Adam, they’d planned to adopt kids after they got married, but that plan never happened. Shiro thought that he was only thinking about kids because of his partner, but he never realized that he would actually want children himself. 

So after a tedious adoption process, making sure that he wasn’t a criminal or anyone dangerous, he was finally put onto the list. That list in itself made him rather anxious, as he couldn’t wait to adopt a kid. Finally, after months and months of waiting rather impatiently, Shiro was finally allowed to adopt. Instead of adopting a baby like most folks did, he decided that he had no idea on how to take care of something so little so he decided to adopt a little girl, who was only seven.  Her name was Alice, and from that day forward, she was the most important person in his life. 

It was fair to say that everyone in the Garrison was used to Alice’s presence by the second week. Shiro refused to put Alice in daycare and would send harsh glares at anyone who questioned why a little girl was in the captain’s office. Of course, there were days when Alice would get restless and Shiro would let her go and run around with the supervision of Keith, who was less than thrilled about taking care of of kid, even if it was just for a few minutes. Most of the time she would stay inside his office, talking his ear off about anything and everything.

“—and then we went to the training room where I saw auntie Allura flip uncle Keith!”

Shiro smiled at his daughter, a fond look on his face. “Wow sweetheart, you weren’t near them, were you?”

She shook her head, a pout forming on her face. “No, uncle Keith said that I had to stay by the wall.”

Shiro huffed out a laugh, finishing off the last of his paperwork. “Well, he was probably making sure that you wouldn’t get hurt when they were sparring.”

“What’s sparring?” 

“It’s like play fighting. You don’t actually try to hurt each other, you just try to work on your skills.”

Alice made a face. “Auntie Allura seemed like she was hurting uncle,”

Shiro laughed wholeheartedly at that, fixing his desk before going to pick Alice up. “Well, don’t tell auntie Allura this, but she’s too strong for her own good.”

Shiro felt his smile growing larger at the sound of his daughter’s giggling. As they were heading back home Shiro decided to bring up a new topic: “So, are you ready to start school tomorrow?”

Alice nodded her head enthusiastically, wiggling a bit in his grip. “Yeah! I wanna make friends!”

The rest of the drive home consisted of Alice excitedly talking about going to school the next day. Takashi “Golden Boy” Shirogane was so thankful for having a kid who liked school.

———

The next day was the first time that Shiro had ever taken a day off. When he called in, telling Iverson that he wouldn’t be in, Iverson immediately began to question him. He asked whether or not Shiro was sick, if someone died, if Shiro died again and Allura resurrected him. 

After about ten minutes of assuring Iverson that, no, he wasn’t sick, and no, no one had died, he went to check up on his daughter, who was currently getting dressed for school. Knocking on the door, he called for her:

“Hey, sweetheart, you almost done? We’ll be late!”

At the sound of his voice Alice opened the door, a gigantic grin on her face. “Let’s go!”

Tugging her father’s hand, she ran towards the door, eliciting a laugh from Shiro. Once they were in the car, Alice kept telling Shiro about how excited she was to start school, and that she couldn’t wait to meet her teacher. 

Fifteen minutes later and they finally made it to the school. Getting out of the car, he moved to open the door for Alice, helping her out of it. Locking the car, he took her hand in his, allowing himself to be pulled along to the entrance.

“Do you know who your teacher is?” Shiro asked, looking around at the first grade section of the building.

“Ms. (y/l/n)!” Alice said happily. 

Shiro nodded his head, walking over towards the first grade classrooms and looking at the name tags. He finally reached a door with little birds surrounding a name tag reading “Ms. (y/l/n)’s First Grade Class”. Walking inside the class he was greeted by twenty or so little kids jumping around while the parents were huddled in a corner. He let go of Alice’s hand, kneeling down to meet her eyes.

“Go and make some friends, okay? I’ll go talk to your teacher,”

Alice nodded, skipping away to talk to some of her classmates. Standing back up, Shiro brushed his shirt off and scanned the room, looking for the teacher. When he finally found the teacher, he felt himself freeze.

Yes, Shiro may have come in contact with an Altean princess who was extremely gorgeous, and yes, he’s also met many alien men who were also exceptionally attractive, but he doesn’t think that they could compare to you. 

You were currently getting some things in order on your desk, your glasses slipping down your nose slightly. Seeing how you were flustered with the amount of kids in your room only added to your attractiveness. There was a sort of domestic aura that you omitted that made Shiro want to get to know you. Walking over to you, he cleared his throat to gain your attention.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Takashi Shirogane, Alice Shirogane’s dad.”

You looked at him for a second, momentarily dazed by how attractive he was, before shaking his hand. “(y/n) (y/l/n), it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Letting go of his hand, you pointed at him, brows furrowing slightly, “Aren’t you from the Garrison?”

Shiro nodded his head, flushing slightly. “Ah, yeah. I’m the captain of the Atlas,”

Your eyes widened in realization. Pushing back your hair you frantically tried to look “presentable”. “I’m so sorry, I’m just a little frazzled—“

“That’s alright,” Shiro laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s the first day of school, everyone’s freaking out.”

You nodded your head, a sheepish smile on your face. Taking a deep breath, you calmed yourself. “Well, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Today we allow the parents to stay in the class, to get an understanding of what we’ll be doing,” You pointed towards the corner of parents, “Parents sit over there.”

Shiro nodded his head, a smile of his face. “Alright, thank you.”

Once he left, you let out a huge sigh. Looking at the clock, you readied yourself, starting the class off.

“Good morning class!”

———

“So how was your first day?” Shiro asked, holding his daughters hand while walking out to the car.

“Amazing!” Alice squealed, “I met so many friends today! And Ms. (y/l/n) is so nice!”

Shiro nodded his head, a smile creeping onto his face at the thought of you. Buckling Alice in, he got into the drivers seat, looking at her through the rear view mirror.

“Hey Alice, can you keep a secret?”

That seemed to catch her attention, as she nodded rapidly, an excited look on her face. Shiro sighed, a content look on his face.

“I think I have a crush on Ms. (y/l/n),”

Alice gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. “What?”

Shiro put a finger to his lips, making a quiet “shh” noise. “You can’t tell anyone though,” Thinking back to your flustered state, he grinned, “But I think she’s very cute.”

Alice squealing in the backseat made Shiro’s smile grow in size. Sighing, he kept his eyes on the road and prayed that Alice wouldn’t say anything to you about it. He was debating on whether or not it was a good idea on telling his young daughter about his secret crush on the teacher.

———

It was not a good idea to tell Alice about his crush on you. The next morning Shiro woke Alice up and started their day by making her pancakes, then dressed in his uniform. After breakfast Alice was ready to go to school. Hopping into the car, Shiro quickly, but safely, drove them to the school, just like yesterday.

Once they were there, Shiro went to help Alice out of the car and walked her to your class, and that’s when Shiro regretted his life choices.

“Ms. (y/l/n)!” Alice quickly rushed over towards you, a gigantic smile on her face.

You leaned down, smiling as you greeted her. “Good morning, Alice. You seem excited.”

She nodded her head. “I need to tell you something, but you need to promise that you’ll keep it a secret!”

She held out her pinkie finger, and Shiro’s gut dropped to the floor. You laughed, entwining your pinkie with her’s. “Alright, what’s up?”

“My dad told me he has a crush on you.”

You raised an eyebrow, looking at the extremely embarrassed man behind her. “Is that so?”

She nodded her head. You smiled, patting her on the shoulder. “Why don’t you go and talk to the other students?”

Alice chirped in agreement, running off to see some of her friends. Standing back up, you crossed your arms, a smirk finding its way onto your face.

“So,” You started, “A crush, you say?”

He turned away from you, his face starting to heat up. “Yeah, you can ignore what she said.”

You tilted your head in confusion for a second, before walking over to your desk and scribbling something on a piece of paper. Tearing the piece off, you handed it to him, a smile on your face.

“Well Mr. Shirogane, I know that you’re a busy man, so I won’t keep you here. But when you want to tell me about your little ‘secret’, call me.”

With that, you walked over to the group of students, ushering them to their assigned seats. Shiro looked down at the tiny piece of paper, smiling at the numbers that stretched across it. Looking at you one last time, he walked out of the class, tucking the small paper into his uniform pocket.

He couldn’t wait until his shift was over.

[calligraphist-artemisia]

I’ll Take Her Place (Chapter 23)

Summary: AU. When Allura breaks the news that she is to wed Prince Lotor in order to continue the peaceful relationship between Altea and Daibazaal, Pidge knows that she has to do something to change that. And so, with a little help, she comes up with a new plan. A better plan.

Also posted on AO3 and fanfiction.net (under the username “kishirokitsune”)

Chapter 23

Keithir did everything he could think of to try and find Katie so they could talk; so he could finally tell her the truth about his lineage and apologize for hiding it for so long. He should have told her the truth from the start, just as Shiro, Thace, and Ulaz all repeatedly encouraged him to do.

He'd messed up everything and he doubted there was any way to fix it, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

The first day he brushed off her absence as the Castle of Lions preparing for takeoff. Everyone was busy running around, excited for the journey to Earth, so it was natural that Katie was swept up in that as well. He and the rest of the Blade of Marmora were also busy, contacting outposts along their flight path and ensuring that the right members were up-to-date on what was happening, as well as working with working with the Altean security team to determine what the weakest points of the Castle of Lions were while they were in flight.

The next day was “liftoff day”, as they set off for Earth. The Castle emptied of all personnel who didn't wish to make the journey, which should have made it easier to bump into her, but again, no Katie. He grasped at the reasoning that she was spending time with her family.

On the third day he did everything he could to try and find her, hanging around near her hangar, her rooms, and (briefly) the training floor. Keithir even went out of his way to pop by Hunk's kitchen during a time he knew they normally shared dinner.

No Katie.

He did, however, find Shiro, who asked if anything was wrong. Keithir made a half-hearted excuse and fled back to his room, not wanting to admit to the man just how badly he messed up. Shiro had trusted him to tell her the truth on his own and he failed to do that.

He knew it was (yet another) mistake, but once he got tired of moping around in his room, he took to wandering the halls as “Keith”. As he walked, he recited what he would say to Katie once he found her, repeating the words over and over again in his head.

Keith heard footsteps before he saw a figure in green spring across the hall in front of him. “Katie?” he asked, too quietly for her to hear even if she was paying attention. He ran forward to try and confirm that it was Katie who he saw and not one of the few Alteans who remained on the Castle, and by the time he rounded the corner, the figure was slowing to turn down the next hall.

His heart leaped in his chest. It was Katie!

Keith hurried along, desperate to reach her before she could once again slip away. His footsteps were light, almost silent, enabling him to reach her without her knowing he was there up until his hand closed around her wrist. “Katie!”

She flinched, jerking her hand from his grip as she spun and backed away, her expression morphing from fear to anger. “I don't want to talk to you,” she hissed.

“Katie, I'm-!”

“No,” Katie cut him off and turned her back to him. “I don't have time for this. Go back and tell the rest of the Blade that Lotor is here. I'm going ahead to check out his ship, but everyone else needs to be warned.”

Keith's blood turned to ice at the mention of Lotor's name and hearing Katie's plan made him even colder. “You can't go alone,” he said, ready to follow her no matter what. The fact that Lotor had managed to sneak on board was concerning, but someone would soon discover his presence, if the Castle's sensors hadn't already informed them.

Keeping Katie safe was more important.

“I don't have time for this!”

“Katie,” Keith said, stubbornly grabbing her hand again and holding tight. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You have every right to be mad. You have every right to demand I never speak to you again. But please, don't go onto Lotor's ship alone. It's too dangerous for anyone. If not me, then at least wait and find someone else to go with you.”

Katie looked at their joined hands and then slowly back at him, her fury rising so swiftly that he thought she'd insist on going alone regardless of his concerns. But then she closed her eyes and breathed out, trying to get her temper under control.

“Fine,” she agreed through gritted teeth. “But don't touch me.”

Keith released her hand and stepped back, obediently giving her space. “I promise I won't. Thank you, Katie.”

She didn't say another word as she led the way down the hall, taking a left at the next turn. Not once did she look back to make sure he was following her.

Keith tried not to let it hurt too much. He kept his distance, close enough to help if there was trouble, but far enough for her to be comfortable. She could hate him all she wanted, but he refused to let Lotor cause her any more harm.

“I can't believe we're really going home,” Lance said as he laid in the bed he shared with Hunk. He listened to his boyfriend putter around the room, putting things away before finally joining him for cuddles.

Lance loved lazy pajama days.

“Everyone's going to be so surprised. I can't wait to see mom and dad. And I'll finally be able to thank your sister for giving them my messages!” Hunk said.

“Ugh, yeah. I totally owe Veronica for that. Do you think I should bring her something shiny?” Lance asked.

“Nah, we can do better than that,” Hunk shifted his arm so he could pull Lance closer. “What if... What if I make a big feast for our families? Nothing brings people together better than good food, after all! I could make everyone's favorites!”

“Garlic knots?” Lance asked hopefully.

Hunk chuckled and kissed Lance's cheek. “It's at the top of my list, babe.”

Lance basked in the affection, enjoying every second hat they were able to cuddle in bed with no interruptions and no worries. In a few hours, they would be so busy that it was unlikely they would have a moment alone and he intended to take full advantage of the free time they had on the journey home.

“Can I help cook?”

“Nothing would make me happier,” Hunk replied.

A beeping sound prevented their conversation from going any further and Lance groaned in disappointment.

So much for lazy pajama day.

Hunk sighed as he tried to stretch his hand over to the bedside table without making Lance get up. “Allura wouldn't call us if it wasn't important. Hey, um, babe? Could you...?”

Grumbling under his breath, Lance left the comfort of Hunk's arms to fetch his phone and find out what was so important. He settled back once he had it in his hands, and turned it so Hunk could also see the screen.

Lotor is on board. Be on high alert.

“Quiznak,” Lance swore and hit the call button, barely able to hold back his flow of words until it connected. “Allura, what's going on? Why's Lotor on the Castle?”

“Better question, how did he get on board?” Hunk spoke up.

Allura's tired face flickered on screen and it took her a moment to answer. “I'm afraid I don't know the answer to either of your questions. We believe he docked immediately after Blaytz left in his ship, taking advantage of the open door and our lessened security. Kolivan has been informed and has stationed a guard outside of the room Lotor is using, so he shouldn't be a problem.”

“Not a problem?” Lance repeated. “Since when is he not a problem?!”

“Lance, calm down.” The screen shifted as Shiro turned the camera towards himself instead. “We don't like this either, but yelling about it won't solve any problems. Have either of you heard from Pidge? I've been trying to contact her, but she's not answering.”

Hunk and Lance exchanged worried glances.

“Well, no. Not recently. The last time I saw her was breakfast,” Hunk said slowly. “Maybe she's down in her hangar, working on Rover some more? You know how she gets when she's focused on something. I could go look, if you want.”

“We've already checked,” Shiro said.

“That's not all,” Allura said as she moved in close to Shiro so she would also be in frame. “Kolivan reports that Keithir is missing as well. Apparently he snuck out.”

“Then they must be together,” Hunk said, trying to stay optimistic. Lotor had been on board for so little time! It wasn't possible that he'd done something to them, especially when it would be so obvious that he was to blame!

Right?

“Just stay alert. We don't know why Lotor is here or what he wants. Shiro and I will keep looking for Pidge and Keithir, but having everyone search for them right now will draw unwanted attention,” Allura said.

Lance frowned. “What about her tracking beacon? I mean, unless Pidge hacked into it to cover her tracks because she doesn't want to be found. Again.”

“That's our next step,” Shiro assured him. “We'll keep you both updated. Hopefully we're worrying for nothing, but we can't be too careful.”

Hunk and Lance wished them good luck and ended the call. They tried to salvage what they could of their lazy pajama day, but it was no use when neither of them could sit still and enjoy it.

Lance was the first to roll out of bed and begin changing into clothing more appropriate for walking around the Castle. “I know Shiro said not to go looking, but maybe she's with her family.”

“It's possible,” Hunk agreed.

At least it was something to do, rather than sitting idly by and going crazy imagining horrible scenarios. Like, what if Pidge had been kidnapped? Or was shot out of one of the airlocks? What if (and Hunk felt awful just for thinking it) Lotor and Keithir had been working together the whole time?

Yeah, helping with the search, even if it meant going against Allura's instructions, sounded like the best option.

Katie swore as the cockpit came to life with an audible hum the moment they stepped inside. She rushed to the controls, forgetting that the majority of Galra ships only responded to those with Galra blood, and Lotor's ship was likely to be the same. Predictably, no matter what she tried, nothing happened.

Keith was right there with her a moment later, but although his attempts were recognized by the system, they went ignored as the ship lifted off and shot free of the still-open dock door. He frowned, trying every trick he knew to get the ship to stop, but an outside force overrode everything he did. He glanced at Katie to see if she was having any luck, in time to see her remove a chip from the emergency beacon around her wrist and plug it into the console.

“Well now,” a voice purred through the speakers, causing Keith and Katie to step back in alarm. Above them, the image of Lotor smugly smirked down at them. “I will admit, I had doubts as to whether or not you would both walk into such as obvious trap, but, well, you two do have a history of doing exactly that.”

“You won't get away with this, Lotor,” Katie spat. “We will find a way out of this.”

Lotor looked amused by her confidence. “Perhaps you would if you had any of your little friends around. I doubt they'll notice that either of you are gone until it's too late. And if you think you'll be able to hack your way out of this problem, paladin, you are mistaken. This encryption is the same as the one controlling the bomb where I was keeping your family. Your father couldn't outwit it and neither will you.”

Katie was never one to back down from a challenge in her skill set, no matter how impossible it seemed. Before she could stubbornly move closer to the console for another try, Keith reached out and grasped her shoulder, holding her in place.

“Why are you doing this? You know everyone will suspect your involvement, so what do you have to gain from this?” he demanded.

“At last I will be rid of the biggest obstacles to my plans. After this, there will be no hope of ever forming Voltron. There will be nothing in the universe that can stop me. It hardly matters that your precious paladins and Blade of Marmora will blame me for your disappearance. Their word means nothing if they don't have proof, but you were already well aware of that fact, weren't you, little brother?”

Fire raged in Keith's veins following Lotor's words.

How dare he!

“Brother?” Katie repeated in confusion. She turned to Keith, her brow furrowed.

“My, my, you mean you didn't know?” Lotor feigned surprise. “How unfortunate that you had to find out in such a way. If only your betrothed had been more honest with you.” He smirked, enjoying the opportunity to drive a wedge between them, and didn't give them any time to try and recover. “Such a pity that you don't have much time left. I would love to hear my brother's explanation for this, but I daresay you'll be spending that time to, ah... 'find a way out of this', as you said.”

Keith wanted nothing more than to ignore Lotor in favor of looking at Katie to see her reaction, and, more importantly, giving her the explanation she deserved, but the more Lotor talked, the more he gave away. If they were going to survive, he had to keep his brother talking for as long as possible.

“What do you mean, we don't have much time left? What have you done, Lotor?”

“Simply killing you would be too easy. After all of the headaches you've caused me, you deserve to suffer before you perish. My ship will travel to the nearest star, where it will go into orbit and slowly be pulled in by it's gravitational field. What will kill you first, I wonder? Will it be the failure of the onboard life support? Perhaps the radiation and heat shields will be the first to fail. I wish I could stay to see it happen, but alas, this is only one part of a much bigger plan.”

“Lotor, wait!”

The feed cut out, giving them no further opportunities to question him. It was just Keith and Katie and Lotor's ship, on a collision course with a star and no way to correct their course.

“He called you brother,” Katie said after a moment.

Keith took a deep breath. “Yes.”

There was a pause as Katie stared at him, her gaze hard and unreadable. Keith could only imagine the fury she felt at being lied to for so long, made worse by the fact that it was Lotor who revealed the truth.

“Were you planning on telling me?” she asked.

“Yes,” Keith said without hesitation. “There were so many times I wanted to tell you, but then we were interrupted. Or because... because I was too afraid. And then I messed up my last chance to tell you what I should have told you from the start: I am Prince Keithir.”

“I see.” Katie's throat felt tight as she forced herself to speak.

She wanted to scream. To break down and cry.

How had everything gone so wrong, so fast?

Katie breathed in and out, struggling to get her emotions under control. She needed to focus on the most pressing matter first: getting off of Lotor's ship. Anything else could be dealt with later.

She could feel Keith's – no, Keithir's – eyes on her as she stepped forward and unplugged her chip from the console, replacing it in her tracking bracelet. She checked the crystal underneath and, as she suspected, it was no longer glowing. Lotor must have found a way to completely cut off any outside contact.

Still, her bracelet wasn't completely useless. She passed her hand over the top of it, activating a small, holographic display. Using the data she collected while Lotor was talking, she pulled up a map of the ship, and carefully studied the layout.

Where was the best place to start?

Perhaps the engine room. If she couldn't change course from the cockpit, maybe she could stop the ship from moving at all instead. He'd likely prepared for that too, but she still needed to check. There were also the airlocks and places where escape pods were meant to be docked, though they would need the proper gear before ejecting themselves into space.

“I wonder what he's keeping in the cargo hold,” Keith mused.

Katie's gaze slid to what he was looking at, noting that it'd been put into lockdown. What reason would Lotor have for trying to shut them out of there, unless he was hiding something that would be useful? She'd have to be smart about it. It could take hours for her to hack into it with the equipment she had on hand and those were hours they likely didn't have.

Though maybe there was another way.

“How do you feel about crawling through the ventilation?” she asked.

[novarasalas]

Study It Out

A Voltron Fic! I finally did it!

Title: Study It Out

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Characters: Lance, Keith

Rating: Gen

Summary:  Lance shows Keith his broadsword.

Notes: I just wanted something light and innocent with these two. Also, in the series proper, we were only given a hint of their friendship, so I decided to fix that.

This particular story takes place not long after they begin their journey back to Earth.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Aww...you’re adorable,” the young woman said as she stepped around Lance, her multitude of skirts swishing around her as she continued on her way towards the town’s market. The award-winning smile he wore wavered, then crumpled, as his shoulders slumped in despair.

It just wasn’t his day.

The team had landed on this planet to resupply and stretch their legs the day before. The planet itself was fairly cut off and out of the way, and this particular village even more so.

Small and unassuming, the town’s main feature seemed to be it’s bustling marketplace located at the heart of it all. They’d been told that is was the annual “gathering round”-- a time when local merchants and artisans traveled from town to town for a phebe, selling their wares and making connections. In short, they’d arrived in the right place at the right time.

But times change and empires fall, and now no one on the planet accepted the stockpile of GAC they’d been building over the course of their time in space. Not that it mattered too much, because the planet was so backwater that no official dealings had ever been done with that particular currency anyway.

Hunk, Allura, and Coran were trying their best to haggle and charm their way into securing food and other necessities. Lance had made a good effort to do the same, but something had been off about his methods. Try as he might, he was far less charming and more “adorable” or “cute”.

What it actually was, though, was embarrassing.

But there was no use in worrying about that now. With the rest of the team on task, he considered his schedule now freed up. Standing up straight and squaring his shoulders, he turned on his heel, intending to head out of the village and back to the Lions.

As he spun around, though, he spotted the one thing that he definitely did not want to deal with right now.

Leaning on a wall not 10 feet away was Keith, wearing a smirk indicating that he’d just witnessed all of Lance’s most recent rejection.

“I don’t want to hear about it,” he said, bristling as Keith’s smirk turned into a grin.

“I'm not saying anything!” Great, now he was laughing.

Sighing in defeat, Lance walked over and leaned against the wall as well, mirroring Keith's pose.

“I just...this used to be easier, ya know?” he lamented with a sigh.

“What? Talking to girls?” Keith scoffed. “What happened to 'Loverboy Lance'?”

“I...hey! That was just for the show and you know it!”

“Yeah...I know. And it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.” He looked away and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like ‘so glad I wasn’t there’.

Lance glared at him for a moment before deciding to end that particular argument before it started.

The truth was, though, it was easier before.

He let his eyes settle to Keith’s arms, crossed over his chest, ever defensive, and then considered the red symbol emblazoned on Keith’s chestplate. Once upon a time, the appearance of the Voltron Paladins would have been a cause for celebration on most planets.

But here, and on others worlds, time had not done them any favors. They’d been dead and gone for years, and their sudden reappearance was now more cause for concern than anything else. They’d been run out of a few star systems already, branded as impostors.

On this planet, things were different, if only because the populace just plain didn’t care.

They’d been heroes, once. Now they were just…

Keith had caught him staring and was opening his mouth to say something about it.

“Tell me, Keith,” Lance said quickly as a distraction. “Tell me where I went wrong.”

“I don’t know a thing about that, Lance.” Keith’s smirk was back in place. He chuckled to himself. “You know that while you were busy chatting up girls, I was studying the blade.”

As he began to laugh at his own joke, time for Lance slowed to a crawl.

Keith was different now, that much was obvious. First point being that he was here, not yelling at Lance, and making jokes. The second was that he’d just given Lance something that he’d rarely given anyone: a perfect opening.

It was Lance’s turn to smirk as he pushed himself away from the wall, summoning his bayard.

“Oh yeah, well I’ll have you know that while you were studying the blade,” he began, with an air of overconfidence, “I was also studying the blade.”

With that, he allowed the bayard to take form, a brilliant flash of light fading away to reveal the Altean broadsword he’d first manifested all those months ago.

He grinned at Keith, enjoying the dumbfounded look now plastered on his face.

“I...I...how…”

“Don’t you remember? We were in the same blade class, ” Lance said as he tried, and failed, to hold back a giggle. “Hey, what was our blade homework?”

“That’s...incredible! Lance!” There was almost pure joy in Keith’s eyes as he stepped closer, which was a bit strange, if Lance was being honest. “When did this happen?”

“A while back,” he responded as he held the sword out for Keith to look at. “I never got to use it in battle, and I haven’t even really trained with it.”

Keith’s expression turned thoughtful as he reached out and gently touched the blade, running his fingers up the center. Lance blinked at him in mild confusion and the silence around them was quickly getting awkward.

“Follow me.” Keith demanded as he pulled his hand away.

“...what? Why?”

“Just...come on!”

With that, Keith turned and made his way down the street towards the edge of town, towards where their Lions were. Lance, with a puzzled look, let his bayard fade away and hurried after, both dreading what Keith might be planning, but curious to find out anyway.

They made their way through town at a quick pace, Keith leading them through back alleys and shortcuts. Lance kept his eyes on him as he did his best to keep up; he hadn’t managed to learn the layout of the town beyond the central marketplace, and if he lost track of Keith at this point, he’d be totally lost.

Still, it was a bit difficult to not get distracted in the bustle of the city life -- the same life that was going on in every other city on every other planet in the entire universe.

Down the first turn was a food stall, the owner quickly processing some sort of poor fish for the grill. Down another street was a group of women watching their young children play. As they passed, the group laughed, their voices chiming like bells, echoing off the high walls of the buildings that lined the street.

Still another turn took them past a flower shop, and even Keith had to slow down to look at this one. The shop could hardly been seen beyond the flowers, overflowing as they were from baskets and bushels and carts, all of them in every color you could imagine, and a few you couldn't. A flurry of activity surrounded the area as people hurriedly came and went from the storefront, each loading up products or taking hold of a cart to move it, most likely to the markets. As they passed by, they left a sweet and delicate scent in their wake, and Lance found himself yet again lamenting the fact that their money was no good here.

A glance at Keith told him that he was thinking something similar -- a splash of life and color in their lions would make the cold drabness of space the least bit more tolerable.

They moved on, though, and soon found themselves at the edge of town. The buildings began to thin out as they approached, allowing the warm, afternoon light from the planets twin stars to shine down onto the streets below.

Man-made structures and paved roads gave way to open countryside. In front of them was mostly flat grassland for as far as the eye could see, broken only by the nearby river that meandered it’s way through the landscape on it’s way towards town. The waters were cold and almost impossibly blue, its main sources being from the two mountain ranges the stood like rows of sentinels on either side of the valley.

The only things to mar the beauty of the place was their apparent destination. The Lions rose high above all else, their mechanical magnificence very much out of place. At the feet of the Green Lion, Shiro and Pidge were hunched over something, possibly planning their next move. Nearby, Kaltencker grazed.

Lance had be about to call out to them in greeting, when suddenly, from the general direction of Keith, was the unmistakable sound of a bayard taking sword form.

“Spar with me.”

Lance blinked at him at him dumbly for a moment before scrunching his face up in dismay.

“Really? That’s what this was about?”

“Yup.”

“Nope. Nah. I’m good.”

“...oh yeah? You're good, huh?” Keith placed a hand on his hip and regarded Lance with light amusement, a smirk on his face “I find that hard to believe. You should convince me.”

“What. I don’t…”

Want to.

But even as he thought those words, he could see the joy in Keith eyes begin to fade, the previous excitement over learning that there was another sword user on the team beginning to wane. Lance couldn’t help but think back to all the times before when Keith would ask to train together, and how almost each time, Lance would turn him down.

He’d been caught up in that stupid rivalry then. Things were different now.

And so, secure and content in the knowledge that he was about to get his ass kicked, he summoned his bayard to him.

“Alright, fine,” he whined as his sword took form, “but I’ll have you know that my ego has already been bruised enough today, so maybe take it easy on me?”

Keith grinned as he took up a battle stance.

“I absolutely will not.”

~*~*~*~*

He’d expected it, really.

Every time he’d attempted sword training with Allura as his guide, he ended up flat on his back and humiliated, so why not with Keith too?

It wasn’t so bad, though. The grass was soft and the sky was nice to look at.

He heard a chuckle from somewhere just beyond his feet.

“You ok?’

A pitiful whine was his answer.

“Uh...ok..are you hurt?”

“...I’m ok.” he raised his arm and gave a thumbs up before wincing from the movement.’ “Ow.”

He heard Keith suck in a breath through his teeth.

“Sorry about that.”

The grass rustled as Keith stepped closer. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw the flash of light as he left his bayard return to its resting place.

“You know, Lance?” Keith started, pausing to lift his arms above his head and stretch. “You’re not half bad.”

Lance lifted his head just enough to fix him with a baleful look as he moved to sit on the ground next to him.

“What? What’s that look for?” Keith asked, bewildered.

“I...oh. Oh! I just uh…” he stammered out, looking away to stare are the sky once more. “I thought the follow up to that was something like ‘You were all bad’, or something.”

“Well, to be honest, you’re not exactly good," he replied with a soft smile,”but you definitely have potential.”

With that, he flopped back onto the grass, mirroring Lance’s prone pose. He shifted a bit to get comfortable before laying back to watch the clouds, sighing in contentment.

"Well, thanks man...I think”

“Oh, you’re welcome."

They laid in companionable silence for a few moments, the sounds of the rushing winds rustling the taller grasses and the gentle bubbling from the river the only things filling their ears.

“The sky is nice here,” Lance said, giving into the urge to break the moment.

“Mmhmm”, Keith murmured. “It’s almost just like home.”

“Yeah.” Lance swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. Even though they’d been on their way back for weeks, it was still hard to believe it was actually happening. How much had changed since then? On Earth? Himself? Just thinking about it filled him with every emotion he could could feel.

He cleared his throat.

“I can’t wait to see it again.”

“Me too,” Keith agreed. “First thing I’m gonna do is ride out at night, get away from all the lights and just...look at the stars, ya know?”

“The stars?” Lance scoffed, turning to fix Keith with a look. “We’ve been in the stars, man.”

“Yeah, but-” Keith turned to look at Lance “-these aren’t our stars. When it gets dark here tonight, you won’t see Orion, or the Big Dipper, or any of them that we know.”

“That...ok. That’s true.” He turned back to the sky, letting his eyes follow the clouds as they slowly moved by overhead. “And the suns are always different out here, too. I...I can’t wait to get back to Cuba. Soak up the sun on the beach. Our sun.”

“Sounds nice.” Keith let out a small, rueful laugh. “You know what? I’ve never been to the beach. Not on Earth anyway.”

“...no way. How is that even possible?”

“I mean...Arizona’s kind of lacking in oceans, so…”

“So? That means you’re coming to Varadero with me.”

“Lance…”

“Keith. And yes, you are. So’s everyone else. I’m scheduling a vacation for us all right now.” He raised a hand, holding up fingers as he began counting off activities. ‘One: surfing. Two: beach babes. Three: pizza shack...four: beach babes. We’re gonna relax and have fun.”

“Yeah...sounds like,” Keith said with a laugh. “Maybe we’ll actually go swimming this time. I never bothered with the pool on the ship again.”

“Ugh..for real. Though I’m not looking forward to looking at your pale, scrawny legs again. Maybe you can work on your tan while were there.”

“Oh whatever!” Keith complained, rolling his eyes, before they both started laughing.

“Well, are you in?” Lance asked as they caught their breath again.

Keith took a moment, giving a thoughtful, drawn out ‘hmm’ as if it was a difficult decision to make.

“...yeah. I’m in.”

He raised his arm, hand clenched in a fist and turned toward Lane. Fist bump. Something they’d all picked up for Hunk recently.

Never one to leave a bro hanging, Lance responded in kind, knocking his fist against Keith’s; the fist on the arm that Keith had lightly injured in their sparring match.

“Ow.”

“Ha ha...sorry.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

More Notes: I'd like to think that a few minutes later, Shiro walks over and kinda just...faceplants into the ground on the other side of Keith in bro-solidarity.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

[kukuiolelo]

Da Kine: A Hawaiian!Hunk Fic

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Pairings: Background Keith/Lance

Summary:  "Uh, Hunk, buddy, did you just call Coran ‘Uncle’?”   The Paladins are far from home, really really far. As the mission goes on, Hunk begins to fall back into habits he tried to leave a thousand light years away on a small island chain in the middle of the Pacific.

AO3

 Uncle

The first time was a slip up.

The night had been going pretty smoothly, Hunk thought, all things considered. They, that is to say the team, was gathered in the communal living space in wing of the castle that was designated a “meeting area,” mostly due to its proximity to food and copious soft furniture.

The meetings original objective, to debrief on the latest Galra abomination of the week, was abandoned quickly in favor of Lance and Keith's latest tiff. The details were fuzzy, but what mattered was Lance had Keith in a headlock who was, in turn, kicking at him in the shins.

“It’s like some strange mating ritual,” Pidge observed from her position on the arm of the couch. Hunk hummed his agreement and went back to doodling schematics on the back of some scrap paper. “You know,” Pidge said, “It’s a wonder they haven't gotten over themselves and just… Is Keith turning blue to you?”

Keith was, in fact, turning slightly purple, due to Galra or lack of oxygen, it was not clear. He kicked at Lance with a renewed vigor, cursing him out, only partially in English. “I wonder what that is, the language, I mean,” Hunk said, looking up from the table.

Pidge hummed, “I think it’s Korean. Something like, 'fuck you', I think.”

"How'd you know?" Hunk asked.

"I used to listen to a lot of kpop"

“Huh,” Hunk said, “fucking weeabo.” Pidge flipped him off absentmindedly, still staring blankly at the fight.

Allura looked up at the boys, pursing her lips. She nudged Shiro in the side, and when he didn't respond, she elbowed him a bit harder, and harder, and harder until he curled away from her, holding his side, and whispered a betrayed ‘ow!’ She looked at him pointedly, before turning her eyes sharply to look at Lance, who was whispering something in what was probably some very creative Spanish.

Shiro responded to her glare with a blank look and a shrug of his shoulders. She rolled her eyes with a huff, and repeated the motion, this time punctuating each look with a punch to the shoulder. His head tilted to the side with yet another pondering look, before realization dawned and he nodded.

“Alright, you two, that’s enough,” Shiro said. He marched up to the pair, who fell apart reluctantly. “Besides Lance, your form is sloppy, you need to turn your elbow in more. Here, like this.” He then proceeded to demonstrate said technique on a very indignant Lance, much to the amusement of his former victim. Allura put her fingers to her temples, taking in a deep breath

Hunk slapped his knees with finality and stood. “Well, I’m out,” Hunk said, “I’m going to go make dinner.”

Coran popped out of his seat as well. “I’ll come help lad,” he said. “I imagine you could use and extra pair of hands.”

“Yeah, sure,” Hunk said as he gathered his papers. “Thanks Uncle.”

The chatter fell silent for a moment. Shiro glanced up from his captive, who wriggled free of his hold. Allura turned towards Coran with a quizzical expression, who only shrugged. Finally, Lance spoke, rubbing his neck, “Uh, Hunk, buddy, did you just call Coran ‘uncle’?”

Hunk started. “What? No, no,” Hunk shook his head, hands held up. “No, I called him, um… shmunkle?”

Keith cocked his head to the side, “Shmunkle?”

Hunk stuttered. “It’s a- well I- and- Oh, shut up.”

Pidge scooted forward on the couch and had taken to looking at him over interlaced fingers. She looked calculating, studying, the same way she was over a perplexing line of code, and seemed about to say something. Before she could, Lance chipped in.

“Is there something you’re not telling us bud?” Lance said, a playful gleam in his eyes, “Do we have two part aliens on the team, I mean if anyone was going to be Altean it would be you, besides me of course-” Hunk glanced over at Shiro with a pleading look. He saw Shiro nod imperceptibly before he stepped forward.

“Alright guys,” Shiro cut in, “Leave him alone.”

Hunk shot Shiro a grateful look. He cleared his throat and four pairs of eyes turned to him. “Right,” he said, “As I was saying, any votes on dinner?”

The team shouted out their input, ‘not goo’ being the dominant sentiment. Hunk flashed a thumbs up before running back to the kitchen, the door slamming behind him. He could still hear the others talking from the other side of the door.

“So Coran’s our uncle now?” There was a general murmur of confusion and assent. Hunk scoffed and rolled his eyes.

A pause, and then, “Lance is this another one of your mee-mees?”

Lance groaned. “It’s pronounced memes, Keith, we’ve been over this!”

“But it’s spelled mee-mee.”

“No- well yes technically, but it's pronounced- You know it feels like you’re just fucking with me at this point.”

“Then why is it spelled mee-mee?”

“Dude, I don’t know!”

Pidge piped in. “English is a garbage fire.” Shiro, Keith, Lance, and surprisingly Allura seemed to agree with this.

At that moment, Coran stepped into the kitchen. He grinned, twirling his moustache. “So, Uncle...”

Hunk buried his face in his hands. “Long story Coran.”

Coran chuckled. “If you say so lad”

Hunk shot him a look. “Seriously, long story.” He turned towards the refrigerating unit and considered its contents. Uncle, that was a slip. Hunk wasn’t embarrassed of his upbringing, not really. He didn’t have an accent like a lot of people did, his English at the Garrison was 100% mainlander. But, old habits die hard, he thought, and he had been on the mainland for quite a while, long enough that his team would barely comment on any slightly less than middle America peculiarities. That being said, they did tend to pry, and with how much everyone missed their families and their home, that stone was better left unturned.

He closed the fridge with an armful of ingredients and threw a purple thing at Coran. “Mince this for me, I’ll start on the starch.” He turned to the counter and started cooking, and by the time he put dinner on the table, the Uncle incident was all but forgotten.

 Loco Moco

When time zones cease to exist, one’s circadian rhythms can become slightly out of whack. It was a few hours before the castle would wake up and the lights would brighten. Hunk padded into the kitchen and fumbled along the walls for the light dimmer.  The lights turned on with a small whine.

The fridge was stocked well enough. A trip to a nearby planet, one with a downright toxic atmosphere but surprisingly edible animal products, had stocked them with a good supply of meat and what could pass as eggs. Hunk pondered the contents of the fridge. The others wouldn’t be up any time soon. Yesterday’s mission, yet another standoff with the Galra fleet, had been rough. Keith, after charging headfirst through a line of battle cruisers, was really dinged up, and Shiro, who’d been targeted again by the main destroyer class command ship, looked like shit. After that, no one would muster the effort or wakefulness to eat together any time before noon.

And that’s why Hunk was now standing, bleary eyed in front of the alien fridge at what must be around four AM, Earth time, pondering what to eat for breakfast. There was meat, lots of it, and a good few dozen of the egg-like things. It felt like an age since Hunk had made a good breakfast for himself, and only himself. In fact, the last time was back home. His mom had spent the night on the North Shore with a friend from school and Hunk was left the house to himself for the morning. He got up around seven and started on a good, heavy, traditional local meal, with meat and eggs and rice and...

Hunk started to grab ingredients out of the fridge, some minced fatty meat, three of the egg-like things, leftover grains from a few nights ago. He didn’t have exactly the right spices, and the milk always made things taste a bit like paperclips, but it would do. He began mixing the meat, eggs, and a few approximate spices. As long as it had been, it wasn’t a recipe you forget. Hell, it wasn’t a recipe you even had to remember. All you had to do was make a hamburger patty, make some gravy, and fry an egg. Hunk proceeded to do just this, frying up his components and stirring together a gravy over the still disconcertingly cyan cooktop. Just as he began to plate his food, the door slid open to reveal Lance, resplendent in his fuzzy bathrobe and facemask.

“Morning Lance,” Hunk said, returning to the task at hand. “How are you?”

Lance shuffled towards the machine that made a liquid almost like coffee. “Better than Keith, that’s for sure,” he said, “Yesterday was a fucker.” He took a sip of his coffee and moaned. “God, how are you even awake?”

Hunk shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.” He placed the fried eggs in the bowl and went to load the dishwasher. He came back to see Lance leaning over the table to stare into his bowl with a mix of curiosity and horror.

“What even is this dude?” he said, poking at the bowl with a fork. “Is that a hamburger and gravy? I can feel my pores clogging just looking at this. Hey, Pidge!”

Pidge stuck her head through the door looking like for all the world like a bespectacled owl who’s gone through a wind turbine. She stumbled through the room and dropped herself in the seat across from Lance and dropped her head on the table with a thunk. After a few seconds of tired mumbling, she reached across the table to snag Lance’s coffee and downed it in a few gulps, staunchly ignoring his affronted stuttering. Finally, she looked back up at the pair and blinked. “What?”

“Um, Pidge,” Hunk said, “have you slept?”

“Sleep is for the weak.”

“Yeah, also the dead,” Lance said.

“Same difference.” She looked into her, formally Lance’s, cup and groaned. “Get me coffee?”

Lance sighed. “Yeah, yeah.” He took Pidge’s cup.

Hunk looked at her with worry. “Pidge you really should sleep.”

Pidge waved him off. “Sleep later, coffee now.” The coffee machine hissed and bubbled and Lance came back with two cups, one for himself and one for Pidge. “Fuck, yes.” She grabbed the cup from the table and took another sip. “So yeah, you wanted something. What?”

Hunk took a minute to remember what she was referring to. Lance, however, beat him to the punch, and pointed at the bowl on the counter. “Look at that, tell me it doesn’t look like heart disease.”

Pidge leaned over the bowl. “Is that gravy and eggs?” she said. “Hunk what is this?”

Hunk rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a loco moco,” he said, “just some food from back home.”

Lance stalled, staring at the bowl, and blinked. “Crazy boogers? Loco moco. Crazy boogers. Seriously?”

Pidge, still staring into the bowl, smacked her lips tiredly and looked up at Hunk. “It looks like hangover food, dude.”

Hunk pulled the bowl away from the pair with an affronted huff. “How would you know, you’re like, what, twelve?”

Lance put his hands together in a ‘let’s talk about this’ way. “Seriously, it’s called crazy boogers. Why is a food from your home called crazy boogers?”

Hunk sighed. “I don’t know, it just is.” He sat down and took a bite. “Damn, needs shoyu.” Lance and Pidge looked at him, befuddled. Hunk corrected. “Soy sauce.”

“Oh,” Pidge said, “Just use butter and salt.” Both Hunk and Lance looked at her in horror.

Hunk pulled his dish away from her further. “Don’t you dare.”

Lance seemed to shake himself. “Seriously, crazy boogers-”

Hunk dropped his head and groaned. “Oh my god, guys,” he said, “Let me eat in peace.” He took another bite out of the hamburger. “Or I will be making these for breakfast for a week.”

Lance raised his hands in surrender. “All right, all right.” He nudged Pidge in the arm. “Hey, let’s take bets. Who will wake up first, Keith or Shiro? Dibs on Shiro.”

Hunk tapped the table. “My bet’s on Keith.”

Pidge raised her hand. “Stumbling in at the same time.”

“You are on.” Lance clapped her on the back. “So what the hell was up with those green things yesterday.”

The conversation devolved slowly as Hunk finished his loco moco. A few hours later, once all the lights had brightened and both Coran and Allura had floated through, cheery and murderous respectively, Shiro and Keith staggered into the kitchen. “Huh, looks like Pidge won.” Hunk said. Pidge had fallen dead asleep an hour before, in the middle of a sentence no less.

Lance poked at her arm, with no response. “Shame she can’t be awake to see it.”

Keith looked around the kitchen in bleary confusion. He squinted and said, “Why does it smell like a Sonic drive-in in here?”

Lance raised his eyebrows and took a sip of his long cold coffee. “I don’t know, why don’t you ask Hunk?”

Hunk dropped his head into his arms. “Shut up.”

 Ku’u Honua

Before the team had even landed on the planet of the week, it was pretty damn obvious there was going to be trouble.

As the lions touched down on one of the millions of islands that made up the land mass of the planet, a group of aliens scuttled out from the trees. They were diverse in appearance, like they were a mix of species rather than just one, and all with some kind of firearm strapped to their sides. The one at the front, a tall, broad alien with a line of triangles running down her leg, walked towards the lions shouting. “‘Ey! ‘Ey, wha’ chu doin hea? Chu wit dem fakas?”

Shiro’s voice crackled over the comms. “I’ll handle this.” He stepped out of his lion and the rest of the paladins following suit. He stepped forward, a hand raised in greeting. “Hello, we are the Paladins of Voltron. Have you seen any Galra on this island? Our intel indicates their force should be stationed here.”

The alien looked around at the paladins, brow furrowed. “Eh? Wha’ chu say?”

Shiro repeated. “We are the Paladins of Voltron, maybe you’ve heard of us?” The leader looked back at the others and shrugged. The other aliens looked around at each other awkwardly and began to shuffle their feet. The leader turned back to Shiro and shook her head.

Shiro frowned before he walked back towards the paladins, who’d gathered at the edge of the sand. Hunk spoke first. “Hey, what’s up?”

Shiro gestured back at the aliens. “I’m having some trouble understanding them,” Shiro said.

Lance snorted, “Yeah, we can tell.” He looked back at the aliens, who started to regroup on the edge of the treeline. “Maybe our translators are malfunctioning?”

“That could be it.” Shiro lifted his hand to his helmet and fiddled with some controls. “Princess, do you copy? We’re having problems communicating with the locals.”

Allura’s voice crackled through the comms, “I read you Shiro, what seems to be the problem?”

Hunk cleared his throat, “Um, guys I can try-”

Before Hunk could finish, Pidge cut in, “It’s not our translators, if it was we wouldn’t be able to understand Allura.” Pidge fiddled with her helmet’s onboard computer, scanning through lines of code, and frowned. “Nothing’s wrong with our systems either.”

Shiro nodded. “Princess, can you tell us anything about this planet?”

After a brief pause and the sound of typing, Allura said, “The Honuans, an amphibious sentient species from the planet Honua. Or at least, those were the natives. Many other species have settled here from other planets, for work, refuge, etc. They call themselves the Kanaka.” There was a pause over the line as Allura scrolled through the page. “However their languages have mixed. For some reason it never goes well through translators. We might be able to communicate with them another way, though.” She continued to type, muttering to herself under her breath

“Rodger that.” He switched off his helmet and turned back to the team. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

Hunk raised a hand, “Hey, guys?”

“Why do we even need to communicate with them?” Keith said, growing visibly impatient. “Why can’t we just look for the Galra ourselves?”

Allura’s voice broke in. “There are thousands of islands on this planet.” She said, the typing of a keyboard coming through the comms “To search all of them would take years.”

“Well what if we just fly above them,”  Lance said, “Scan for anything Galra-”

Pidge broke in, shaking her head. “Are you seeing that jungle?” she said, “We won't be able to find jack if they don't want to be seen.” As the team argued, Hunk turned to look at the Kanaka. They were chattering amongst themselves in much the same way, glancing over at the paladins apprehensively. Hunk raised a hand in greeting and a few waved back, before turning back to the group. He turned back to hear Shiro speaking in that finalizing team plan voice and made a decision.

“OK,” Shiro said, “here’s the plan. Pidge, go high and use your scanners over the oceans. Lance and Keith, you check the big islands for anything suspicious, they might make a mistake. Hunk- Hunk? Hey Hunk, what-” Shiro turned to see Hunk walking over towards the Honuans, who were crouched on the ground by the treeline. They pushed themselves up, hands hovering by their weapons. He raised his hands and took a step closer.

Hunk cleared his throat, it had been a while for him. “Ey, chu ova dea!” His voice changed, harder on the consonants and more open on the vowels. The Kanaka perked up, listening, and a few hands fell away from their weapons.

The leader took a step forward. “Wha’ chu wan’? Chu guys one a dem fakas? Chu wit dem?” The Kanaka stopped her foot, rolling her shoulders with arms held away from her sides in a pretty universal ‘come at me, bro’ posture. “Chu wit dem, yea? Like scrap? Yea, les’ go, brah, les’ go.”

Shiro shifted. “Hunk?” Hunk looked back at the team, in various stages of curiosity and wariness, a few hands floating towards bayards. Hunk shot them a look before turning back to the Kanaka.

Hunk lifted his hands in a placating gesture. “Nah, nah nah nah, nah.” Hunk laughed and shook his head again. “Nah, we got big kine beef wit dem fakas.”

The Kanaka lowered her shoulders, hands falling to her sides. “Fo’ real?” The Kanaka in the background started to relax, falling out of defensive postures and speaking to each other in quiet tones.

Hunk turned back towards their leader and smiled. “Yea, yea, brah, we coo’.”

“Ah.” She relaxed and stepped a bit closer. “Oh, yea, wha’ chu wan’?”

“Chu see da kine purple guys?” Hunk gestured, indicating the average height of a Galra. “Look like one popoki?”

The Kanaka nodded.“Yea, brah, choke.” She made an expansive gesture with her hands and continued. “Dey wen’ go ova dea, dat islan’.” She pointed towards an island maybe a mile off with a large crater at the peak. “Mean kine luna tho, he go ova mauka. Big, da faka, hoowie!”

Hunk nodded, “Tanks auntie, dea an’ dea?” he pointed, first at the island, then up into the mountains.

She nodded. She looked back at the group with a questioning look before she seemed to make a decision. “Yea brah, we try sho’?” The other Kanaka nodded

“Shoots auntie!” Hunk smiled. “Guys,” He turned back towards the group, all in various stages of surprise, confusion, and curiosity, “The main Galra force is on that island over there, but their leader went up into the mountains for some reason.” He gestured towards the Kanaka, who were pulling each other up and talking amongst themselves, checking their weapons and packs. “They can takes us to where they last saw him.” He paused and looked around nervously. “Is that cool?”

Shiro considered for a moment and nodded. “That sounds good, Hunk.” He turned to the rest of the team. “All right team, here’s the plan.”

The walk up the mountain, while it was slightly awkward and technically a march to a possibly unspeakable evil, was some of the most fun Hunk had had in awhile. The leader, named Ohelo, was friendly, despite her initial hostility. They talked story, seemingly incomprehensible to the rest of the team, who trailed behind in relative silence. Ohelo stopped at the edge of the forest and pointed up at the barren craggy mountain. “Da luna small kine up mauka,” she said.

Hunk nodded. “Raga’,” he said, “Sua you no can go?” They had discussed the Kanaka leaving the islands for the time being, just until the Galra had been cleared out.

Ohelo shook her head “No can, choke keiki and kupuna ova hea.” She shrugged. “Bummas.”

“Yea, yeah, auntie,” Hunk said, “I gotchu.”

Ohelo looked out over the clearing, all the way up to where Hunk guessed the Galra were hiding. “Ey.” She grasped Hunks shoulder and looked at him seriously. “Chu no go make, yea?”

Hunk chuckled. “Yea, auntie. No sweats.”

Ohelo shook his shoulder and smiled. “Den go, chu lolos.”

“Ey!” Hunk laughed. He turned back towards the team, checking their weapons, and cleared his throat. “Hey guys, the leader is a bit further up that way.”

“All right, you all know the plan, let’s go.”

Hunk broke off with Lance to scan the base ridge for suspicious activity. Before they left the forest, Hunk turned back towards the Kanaka. “Ey auntie!” He raised a hand to about chest and flashed a shaka, first three fingers bent down and thumb and pinky held straight. “Tanks!” The Kanaka waved back and he turned to walk up the mountain.

“Um, Hunk?” Lance was looking at him curiously. “What...”

Hunk shrugged. “I’ll explain later.”

And that was, of course, when they stumbled upon a Galra security droid all hell broke loose. Now, Hunk thought, it would really have to wait for later.

A giant purple octopus and two very angry Honuan sharks later, the paladins returned to the castle battered, tired, and hungry. The castle dispensed the usual food goo and Hunk took it with a resigned reluctance. This wasn’t real food, and God if he missed being able to pick up a spam musubi from 7-11 or a surf pac from Zippy’s. He dropped down onto the floor next to the couch and pondered his plate. Pidge sat on the arm of the couch and grunted.

Hunk dropped his head to the table. “Yeah, same.” He felt Pidge fall back onto the couch.

“Hey buddy.” Hunk looked up to see Lance leaning over the table. Hunk hummed in response before dropping his head back on the table. “Aw come on, don’t be like that, scootch over.” Hunk sat up and complied, and Lance sat down next to him. “Thanks, but you’ve still got to explain the thing.”

Hunk looked at him quizzically. “What thing?”

“You know,” Lance gestured vaguely. “The thing. The thing with the talking with the Honuans.” He spread his hands. “Duh.”

Hunk groaned. “Kanaka.”

“What?”

“They prefer to be called the Kanaka. I asked.”

Lance pointed at him. “Yeah, that’s the thing. We couldn’t understand, like, ninety percent of what you guys were saying. Come on, Pidge, tell him.” He nudged Pidge in the leg and she hummed groggily.

“What?” She said.

“Hunk talking with the Honuans-”

“Kanaka,” Hunk corrected.

“Kanaka, sorry. Hunk talking with the Kanaka, you couldn’t understand that right?”

“Nope.” Pidge said. She yawned. “You’re going to explain that? Hey guys,” She sat up to yell into the kitchen. “Hunk’s going to explain how he talked to the Kanaka.” Keith and Shiro wandered in, Shiro looking worn out, as usual, Keith looking like a drowned cat and still grumpy from the healing pod. Shiro looked around the room before he sighed and dropped into the nearest chair. Keith stalked through with a bowl of something from the kitchen and climbed onto the back of the sofa.

Keith took a bite of what might have been cereal, or maybe ground meat. Hunk winced. He pointed the spoon at Hunk and scowled. “Talk.”

Hunk sighed and raised his hands in surrender. “They were speaking pidgin.” This was met with confused looks. “Spelled P I D G I N, not like the bird. It’s a language, kind of, or maybe a dialect, from Hawai’i. It’s just how we speak sometimes with friends or whatever.”

Pidge frowned. “Why did a bunch of aliens speak pidgin?”

“I don’t know dude, they just did.” Hunk shrugged. “And you guy’s weren’t making any headway so...” He trailed off. It felt like every eye was on him. He took a bite of food goo.

Lance clapped him on the shoulder, nearly making him choke. “Well thanks for saving our asses with your weird hidden accent, God our lives are weird.”

Shiro, silent up until this point, smacked his forehead. “Pidgin,” he said, “God, it was pidgin.” Keith looked at him curiously, along with more or less everyone else in the room. He noticed the looks and explained. “I was in an exchange student program to Honolulu in high school, I should have recognized-”

Hunk waved him off. “Nah, you couldn’t have recognized it. They were talking pretty thick. What school were you at?”

Shiro thought for a moment. “Punahou, I think. We visited ‘Iolani too.”

Hunk laughed. “Yeah, no. No one there speaks pidgin, definitely not with exchange students.” He shook his head, smiling. They tried, but those kids spoke like junior professors sometimes. “You want to hear pidgin, try Aiea. Or hell, try Kaua’i, some of them talk it like it’s the 1960s.”

Keith finished chewing a mouthful of his whatever it was and set down the bowl. He squinted at Hunk. “Is that why you called Coran uncle that time?”

Hunk groaned. “I thought we were going to forget about that?”

Lance shook his head with a shit eating grin. “We are never going to let that go, I thought you knew us.”

Hunk growled and threw his hands in the air. “It’s a thing, ok! You’re like ten years older than me, you’re uncle or auntie. It’s how we talk, for God’s sake. I don’t make fun of you guys for your weird accents.”

Pidge raised her arm from the couch. “Petition to mercilessly mock Keith every time he says ‘y’all’, say aye.”

Lance raised his hand. “Seconded.”

“Hey! I don’t say it that much.”

Hunk raised his hand as well. “Yeah, honestly, you do.”

“Come on.” Keith pointed his spoon at the couch. “Honestly, if y’all-” Keith stopped, blinking like a confused fish, and started over. “I mean if it ain’t for y’alls- I mean youse- Stop laughing!” He scrunched up his nose and took another bite of stuff, hopefully food.

“See, Keith? Do you see?” Lance said. “Shiro agrees with me, right Shiro?”

The room turned towards Shiro. He looked around before sighing, resigned to his fate, dropping his face into his hand, and slowly raising the other. Keith whined. “Shiro!”

Shiro looked for all the world like a man who’d lost all hope. “Do you even hear yourself any more? I- I don’t even know where you got that accent.”

“Yeah, this is an intervention, Keith.” Pidge leaned forward on her elbows. “Time to face the music.”

Keith sputtered. “I- Just-” He picked up his bowl and growled, “Fuck y’all.” and stormed out of the room.

Hunk couldn’t help but smile as he heard Keith fume in the kitchen. Finally, Lance pulled himself up. “I’ll go cool him off.” he said. Hunk gave him an incredulous look. “What? We’ve been bonding.” Lance headed off for the kitchen, and Hunk shrugged. He picked up his bowl of food goo and left the meeting area with a few goodnights to the sound of increasingly quiet Texan cussing. As he walked back towards his room, he chuckled to himself. “That,” he whispered, “went better than I thought.”

 Manapua

Not all missions are created equal. Some are long, stressful affairs that take weeks of planning and days of fighting, some are hard and fast, a few hours of intense, white knuckled battle followed by a day of cleanup, some are tense and tedious, operations with little to no intel going in and so, so much nerve wracking waiting.

This mission, the one scheduled for tomorrow morning, was none of those. This mission was easy and simple, they knew the deal going in, there were no civilians to clear, and the objective was some uncomplicated sabotage. It would take half a day, at most, by Hunk’s estimates, and there would be plenty of time afterward for cleanup without technically needing to stop at the castle first. So, of course, they would need a lunch.

Hunk carefully lifted the last baking tray out of the oven and set it on the counter. The buns looked good, from a visual inspection, golden brown and lovely. He didn't have a stamp, even if it was traditional, but he did get something close to char siu for the filling. Hunk started to clean as the buns cooled.

Just as he put away the last of the ingredients, Hunk heard someone shuffle into the kitchen. Lance stood in the doorway, eyes squinting in the light. “Hey bud,” Lance said.

Hunk waved a hand over the manapua, checking for temperature, before he began to transfer them to a plastic container. “Hey, what’s up?”

“You, apparently. What’re you even doing?”

“Just finishing up a recipe.” Hunk moved a few more of the buns. “You should be in bed already.”

Lance yawned. “Pot and kettle, bro.”

“All right, I’m just finishing up.” Hunk transferred the last few things and put the container in the fridge. “Night Lance.”

“Yeah yeah, night.” Lance raised a hand in farewell and stumbled off to bed. Hunk placed the baking tray in the dishwasher, checked the oven one last time, and began to wipe down the counter. This, at least, would make tomorrow a bit more interesting.

The mission ended more or less as expected. No unexpected purple abominations were discovered, nor were any life altering secrets revealed. The lions settled on the cliff edge where the base used to be, and the paladins by mutual routine stepped out for a breather.

“Never again.” Pidge dropped back onto the ground with a groan. “I am never being bait for you again.”

Lance sat down next to her. “Speak for yourself. Better you than hothead over here.” He gestured towards Keith’s prone form.

Keith grunted in agreement. “Fair.”

Shiro dismounted from his lion and cleared his throat to get the team’s attention. “Status report, how is everyone?”

Lance raised his hand. “Present, no damage on Blue.”

Keith sat up. “Same here. No damage on Red either.”

“Present,” Pidge said, “Green’s sensors were damaged, but it’s nothing urgent.”

“Can you make it back to the castle?” Shiro asked.

“Yup.” Pidge nodded. “She’ll be fine.”

“Good,” Shiro said. “No damage on Black. Hunk?” Shiro turned towards the lions. “Hunk? Has anyone seen Hunk?” His shoulders tensed, his Galra hand held rigid away from his side. Keith rolled into a crouch, and his hand dropped to his bayard.

The door to the yellow lion opened. “Sorry!” Hunk said, “Present. Yellow’s fine. Hey, I brought lunch.” Hunk dismounted from the lion with an armful of paper bags. He tossed one to Shiro.

Shiro fumbled to catch the bag. “Thank you, Hunk. What is it?”

“No problem. Manapua, try it.” Hunk finished passing out the bags. “I thought you guys would be hungry, dig in.” He sat down next to Pidge and took a bite of his own. Keith took one of the buns out of the bag and took a mouthful. Lance and Pidge leaned over, looking at the half eaten manapua.

“Why is it red?” Lance said. Hunk looked up to see something like confusion on their faces.

Hunk shrugged. “It just is, ok.”

Pidge tilted her head to the side. She whispered to Lance, “Is meat supposed to be red?”

Lance whispered back “Dude, I don’t know.”

Around another mouthful of bread, Keith mumbled something that sounded like, “It’s food, just eat it.”

Hunk rolled his eyes and continued to eat. Shiro tore it open curiously and took a careful bite. “It is rather red. Is this normal?” Hunk rolled his eyes and nodded in lieu of a spoken answer.

Pidge pulled hers apart and looked at it suspiciously. After a minute of staring she looked up at Lance. “It’s like my food is bleeding.”

Hunk groaned and looked up at the sky. “Holy quiznak, guys,” he said, a little louder than usual, “You all are such haoles, eat the damn manapua!”

The translation software on their helmets clicked on and began to read aloud.

  Haole: Usage, Hawaiian Creole English or Pidgin. Hawaiian translation, stranger or foreigner. Modern usage, an individual of exclusively or predominantly European descent. Example, a haole friend of mine went to Zippy’s and ordered teri beef with mashed potatoes.

An awkward silence fell as the group scanned the people to which Hunk was referring, more specifically Takashi Shirogane, Keith Kogane, Lance McClain, and lastly, Pidge Gunderson, the only caucasian for roughly 10,000 light years. Hunk felt his face go red. “Mainlanders,” he said, “I mean mainlanders. You’re all such mainlanders.” He took another bite of a manapua, pointedly not making eye contact. “Just eat it, you lolos.”

Keith leaned over at Shiro and whispered. “Did he just call us white?”

Lance snorted. “Dude, he called me white.” He gestured at himself with a free hand. “Me. I resent that statement.” Hunk groaned and hid his face in his hand.

Pidge raised her hand. “I resemble that statement,” she said.

“Sorry,” Hunk said, his voice muffled by his hands.

Lance laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Nah, it’s fine buddy.” Hunk looked up to see Lance grinning widely. “But, oh my God, we are never letting this go.”

Pidge nodded. “That is very improbable.” She sniffed at the manapua again, less wary than before. After one last poke, she shrugged and took a bite. Her eyebrows raised as she chewed. “Hm, not bad.”

Keith gestured at her pointedly. “The haole ate it, Lance,” he said, ”Suck it up and eat the bread meat thing.” Hunk choked on a laugh and a mouthful of manapua. Keith, oblivious, continued. “It’s bread and it’s meat, what more do you want?”

Hunk swallowed and cleared his throat. “Thank you, Keith.” He turned towards Lance. “See? Keith will eat it, Pidge will eat it, just try, for God’s sake.”

Lance raised his eyebrows. “I’ve seen Keith eat a space possum,” he said, “He’s not a high bar to jump, Hunk.” Even so, Lance took a bite. His expression rapidly changed from trepidation, to surprise, to enjoyment. “Ok, I’ll admit, not as bloody as it looks.” He took another bite.

Hunk snorted. “Just be glad I didn’t make you Spam musubi.”

He heard Lance choke. “Spam what? I am not eating Spam, buddy.”

Hunk smirked. “Yeah you will, I’ll get you eventually.” He looked at the slightly appalled faces of everyone but Keith. “I’ll get you all, believe it.”

Pidge blinked, a delighted smile spreading across her face. “Was that- Hunk was that Naruto.”

Hunk froze. “What? No, I-”

“Holy fucking quiznak it was!” Pidge stood up, pointing at Hunk triumphantly. “You’re wearing a headband, oh my god you’re-” She dissolved into giggles. “You’re a fucking weeaboo!”

“Hey, you’re the one who recognized it.” Hunk pointed back at her.“Judge not, lest you yourself be judged or whatever.” Lance raised a hand, held out towards Hunk for a high five. ”You too?” Lance shrugged unapologetically.

Shiro scratched his head. “Believe it,” he said. All eyes turned towards him. “Is that a thing from the English dub?”

Hunk shook his head in disbelief. “No.”

Meanwhile, Pidge punched the air. “YES!”

“What are y’all even talking about?” All eyes snapped to Keith.

“So you’ve never...” Lance said.

“Never,” said Pidge, “Not ever.”

Keith looked at them incredulously. “I grew up in a hut in the desert in Texas.” He spread his hands. “What do y’all think?”

Pidge stared off into space with a delighted smile on her face. “Boys, we have a job to do. Naruto marathon, at the castle, in Keith’s room, right now.”

“Not so fast,” Shiro said, “We still have a mission to finish here. After cleanup, you can, but until-” Lance and Pidge were in their lions before he even finished the sentence.

Let’s just say cleanup was much, much more efficient than usual.

 Kuleana

There was a routine in the castle. What else would you expect? All but one of it’s residents had been military in one form or another, and this manifested in more than a few ways. Besides the obvious, everyday, and downright bizarre signs, many a time salt shakers had been literally thrown across the table, the most notable hangover was that of the chore schedule.

Today, it was Lance’s turn to do the dishes. Hunk knew this, and he knew Lance was present and accounted for, and he knew the state of the castle presented no current emergencies, but even still, there were the dishes, unwashed, in the sink.

“Hey, Lance?” Hunk called. “Lance!” He wasn’t in the common room, nor was he in the kitchen or his room or anywhere else Hunk looked. In the end, Hunk found him in the gym, predictably, in hindsight, as that was where Keith was.

Lance was leaning against a wall with his most flirty smile. “Hey, are you a photographer?” he said to Keith.

Keith barely paused in doing pushups.  “What.”

“Because,” Lance continued unperturbed. “Baby, I could picture you and me together.”

Keith actually stopped his circuit to look up at Lance. “Why would you think I’m a photographer?”

“No Keith I mean-” Lance floundered, then started over. “Are you from Tennessee-”

“No, I’m from Texas.”

Hunk figured it would be a good time to step in. “Lance, could I talk to you?”

Lance glanced over at him. “Hmm? Oh yeah sure.” He trotted over to Hunk. “What is is? Quick, I think I’m making progress.”

Hunk exhaled slowly. This would call for drastic measures. He placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder and steered him out into the hallway. He turned Lance toward him and sighed. “Ok buddy,” he said, being sure to make eye contact, “Now we’ve all got a job to do, we’ve all got our kuleana here. Do you know what kuleana means?”

Lance shook his head. “No I don’t, what does it mean?” he said skeptically.

“It means responsibility. It means your responsibility to those around you, the earth, and everything on it. But it also means privilege. Your kuleana is an honor, and you do your kuleana, not just to stop bad things from happening or to get attention, you do it because it’s your kuleana and that’s what’s pono.” He pulled Lance next to him, his arm wrapped around his shoulders. “The paladins’ kuleana is to protect the galaxy. It’s a huge job, but we’re doing it, because the lions and the universe are our kuleana. It is an important responsibility.” Hunk turns his head to look at Lance. “And so is yours. Your kuleana is to do the damn dishes tonight.” He cuffed him on the back of the head. “Now stop making eyes at Keith and go was up, you lolo.”

Lance scurried towards the kitchen, looking sufficiently cowed. Shiro, previously standing in the doorway of the gym, walked towards Hunk. “How the hell...” He trailed off, running a hand through his hair. “Huh. How did you-”

Hunk shrugged. “Kuleana lecture,” he said simply, “Works every time.”

“Huh.” Shiro blinked, still visibly confused, before he seemed to give in. He disappeared into the gym, and through the door Hunk could hear muffled muttering.

“How did he-”

“Still no idea.”

Hunk smiled to himself and set about his own chores. The dishes were clean within the hour.

 Fakas

Some missions were easy and some missions were hard, but some missions were downright brutal. Hunk dodged out of the way of yet another small fleet of Galra fighters, biting back the litany swears at the tip of his tongue. Few others offered the same courtesy. The comm link was flooded with profanity in more languages than Hunk could track. Lance swerved past, tailed by two long range guided missiles. “Chingate!” Lance yelled over the comms, desperately weaving in and out of nearby rock formations, “Tu madre es una puta fea- CHINGATE!” Blue made a sharp turn around a large spire and the missiles exploded against it. “HA,” Lance crowed, “Besa mi culo, puto.”

Shiro’s voice cut through the line. “All right cut the chatter. We need to form-” A heavy collision sounded over the comms. “SHIMATTA- Form Voltron NOW.” Another volley of shots whizzed past. “Formation!” Hunk veered away from the Galra fighters, just barely avoiding a collision with a ship. He ascended into open skies while Lance gave cover fire at the fleet at his back. Keith spun in the air, as he scanned for melee targets. Red turned suddenly into a steep dive, and Hunk heard Keith roar and he ripped through a Galra cruiser aimed at Lance. “Form up, form up!”

Lance shouted over the maelstrom of shots. “Where’s Pidge?” Several curses cut through the sound of gunfire. Hunk could hear her swearing over the comms, quick and multilingual, and nothing she spoke fluently.

Hunk scanned the horizon for the green lion. A battalion of Galra fighters spun like bugs near the rock formations, and in the center a green speck. “There!” Hunk yelled. “Shiro, on your four o clock.”

The black lion spun towards her. “Pidge, respond!” Shiro snapped. “Get out of there!”

The green lion swerved a hard left. “I’m trying- SCHEISSE.” A spearhead of Galra followed her screeching ascent. “Fatue! Tcho za galima, ba’Qa shit shit shit.”

“Lance, cover fire.” Shiro ordered. Lance said some choice words in Spanish and began to fire holes in the formation, covering her retreat. She swerved into her place, still muttering invectives. The Galra fleet began to reform below them. “Form Voltron!” The team did so under heavy fire, shield formed before the legs even clicked into place. Just as the giant robot man unsheathed it’s sword, a missile the size of a bus launched from the flagship, aimed not towards them, but towards the castle. The castle, where the entire refugee population of the planet was being housed.

Hunk, of course, reacted. “Ho, chu FAKA.” Hunk roared. Voltron’s sword sliced the missile in half as it hurtled towards the Galra ship. Hunk whooped as they sped downwards, winding up before the yellow foot of Voltron rammed into the bow of the Galra battleship in a punt kick that sent it spinning. Something important sounding crunched. “CHEE HOOO.” The ship careened into the ground and exploded as it’s magazine apparently caught a spark. The surrounding fleets dived towards the wreck in a desperate attempt to rescue survivors, leaving the way clear to destroy the objective. They did so thoroughly before retreating to the castle.

As they cleared the stratosphere, Pidge huffed. “Well,” she said hesitantly, “That worked.”

The comms fell silent as Hunk muttered sharply in pidgin. “Try come ova oua side, yea?” Hunk chuffed harshly. “Yea dey wan scrap, yea I give dem scrap...”

“Hunk, buddy?” Lance said, “You need to explain that better to us sometime, yeah?”

Hunk snapped out of his string of threats. “Wha’ chu say?” He blinked, then corrected himself. “Oh, oh right. Yeah, just an old habit, but chee dem fakas...” He broke off into another string of pidgin. “Hoowie, we’re retreating right? We should do that.”  

“Yeah.” Voltron climbed steadily into the sky, then broke off into the five lions.

“Y’know y’all,” Keith said, “I’ve got to agree with Hunk.” The lions touched down in the hangers, where Coran waited. “They’re fuckers.”

 ʻOhana

Across the galaxy, the Paladins were widely known. News often traveled fast between the planets, Galra censorship be damned. Each paladin was known, remembered details through every sighting and small interaction. They knew of the clever green paladin with a love for robots, the brash red and his Galra ancestry, the flirty blue with an eye for marksmanship, the stoic black with a robotic hand. But, when news travelled that Voltron was coming to help, the most widely anticipated, the most widely loved, was Hunk. If you were in trouble, they said, hope for the yellow paladin, kind and steadfast.

They said he was big and strong as a tank, wielding a massive cannon like it weighed nothing. They said he was a mechanic, able to understand engines and thrusters he had never seen before, and able to repair anything, from the largest turbine to the smallest wiring, with ease. They said he could cook, quite well in fact, and if you took him to your kitchens he would make something incredible from mere scraps. And, they said, he could communicate directly with the Honuans.

The paladins did make another trip to Honua. The islands torched by the Galra were devastated, and rehabilitation efforts were far underway. Hunk went to greet Ohelo and her hui and ask her how they could help. She had hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, and then promptly ordered the other paladins off to help on other islands. She took Hunk aside and they talked story in rapid fire pidgin. She asked if he had found a boy or a girl he liked and Hunk responded with a scandalized “Auntie!” They left soon enough. Ohelo and her hui met at the beach to bade them farewell. Ohelo herself sent Hunk off with a hug and an order to not break too many hearts. Hunk hugged her back and agreed that he would try.

Hunk slipped into using more and more pidgin, on and off Honua. Lance and Pidge caught themselves using picked up vocabulary, asking for ‘da kine’ at dinner and responding to queries for a marathon movie night with ‘shoots!’.

Hunk began to cook more local food. He fried spam and portuguese sausage for a breakfast fried rice and served up plates of loco moco at all hours. And, even though Pidge still salted her rice, an action that made Hunk physically wince, he couldn’t help but love how his friends would dig into whatever salty and greasy thing he put on the table.

The onboard refrigerator, only found on the lions after someone stuck their bayard in the wrong place, were soon stocked with pog and spam musubi. Lance and Pidge would complain, of course, speculating how much of pog really is juice and what distasteful creatures went into the spam, Hunk still had to refill the coolers every week. They’d sometimes just stop, after a mission or just before one, on some grassy hill and eat in silence, each with a musubi in one hand and a carton of pog in the other.

When you got down to it, it tasted like family. Salty, carb laden family.

[sp4c3-0ddity]

Older Pidge and Lance get engaged, but with the whole 'universally famous paladins of Voltron' thing means planning the wedding becomes An Ordeal. Chaos ensues.

WELL not so much chaos as stress but here’s 2500 words of...whatever the hell this is lol. not proofread because it’s late, but i hope you like it

“Where do you want the wedding?” Allura asked. She trailedbehind Pidge, who stalked around the Castle looking for her favorite tablet.She had been so sure she left it on her bedside table...

“Uh, Earth?” Pidge said. She was only half-focused onAllura’s questions; they came too fast, and she barely gave her a chance toanswer them before plowing on to the next one.

“Hmm, well, your species has just makefirst contact,” Allura reminded her, tapping her own tablet with a stylusthoughtfully, “so are you sure about that? Aren’t youworried the variety of guests will overwhelm your government?”

Pidge halted in her tracks, eyes widening inhorror. “Wait, what?” she said, turning her head to stare atAllura. “Overwhelm--? What?”

“Well,” Allura said, smiling at her, “how manypeople did you plan on inviting?”

“I...I don’t know!” Pidge said. Quiznak, she andLance got engaged two quintants ago, and she’d only had the time toshare the news with her brother and father so far, let alone discuss thewedding’s guest list.

(Or even if they wanted to have a wedding,something Pidge...wasn’t too sure of.)

“Really, Pidge?” Allura frowned disapprovingly at her. “Youand Lance haven’t discussed this yet?”

“It’s been two days,”Pidge pointed out, wringing the hem of her shirt. “We’ve barely seen each other in the last two days,since he and Keith are off on a mission, and I’m here, and—”

“All right, calm down,” Allura said, resting a hand on hershoulder. “Perhaps you’re right, and this isa bit hasty of me, but…” She clapped her hands together, looking for allintents and purposes like a child in a candy store. “Oh, we haven’t had aproper wedding in the Castle since before—”She cut herself off, sobering immediately, and cleared her throat. “Anyway, Iwould suggest you take some time to talk about these things, Pidge.”

“Right,” Pidge said, forcing a smile. “Of course.”

“Of course I want to have a wedding,” Lance said, handsloose on the Red Lion’s controls while he spoke to Keith. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Don’t know,” Keith said, shrugging, “but weddings involve alot of planning—”

“How would youknow?”

“—which means that you have to…think ahead,” he plowed on,as if Lance hadn’t interrupted him.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “How long did it take you to comeup with that?”

Keith pressed his lips together, and Lance could tell hefought a smile. “I actually got it from Allura,” he admitted.

“So she put you up to this.” Lance sighed, tapping his foot,but he smiled when the Castle came into view. “Honestly, Pidge and I haven’thad the chance to talk about it yet. It’s been…only two days, man.” Still, hehummed cheerfully while guiding the Red Lion into his hangar, the very thought that he was engaged – to Pidge – making him giddy all over again.

Pidge was his…fiancée. How strange. If someone told him when he and Pidge first met that theywould one day be engaged – that they would fallin love – he would’ve laughed his ass off; Pidge, the distant scrawny techyboy, his fiancée? Absurd!

(Then again, he wouldn’t have believed them about fightingat the forefront of an intergalactic war straight out of a science fantasymovie either.)

After touching down in the hangar, Lance let Keith leaveahead of him, taking a quiet moment alone in the Red Lion’s cockpit. Eventhough who piloted which Lion tended to be up for interpretation, it still feltstrange flying the Red Lion while Keith was also there.

The Red Lion rumbled in a mild scolding; unlike the BlueLion, his love was very much the ‘tough’ kind. Lance rolled his eyes and stood,stretching. And once he stepped out of the Lion, Pidge was there to greet him.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, her ear to hischest. “Missed me?” he asked her, running his gloved fingers through her hair.

“Like an itch,” she said without any bite.

“Aw, I missed you too,” he said.

Pidge loosened her hold on him but didn’t step away as shelooked at his face. “So…it seems we have a problem,” she said.

Lance frowned. “Uh...we do?”

She grimaced and said, “Yeah. We might need to plan awedding.”

“That’s it? That’s not a problem.”

“It is if it has to be…intergalactic.” Pidge rolled hereyes. “Allura insists.”

Oh no.

“I’m not against a big wedding,” Lance told Pidge. He sat onher bed, swinging his legs while he waited for her to put on her pajamas.

“I don’t think this is a bigwedding Allura has in mind,” Pidge said. She held a hair tie between herteeth while she bunched her hair up into a bun. “It sounds more…galactic.”

Lance snorted. “No.”

“Yes,” Pidge said, sighing. Once her hair was piled onto herhead, she sat beside him, leaning into him and basking in the warmth of hisbody. “She made it sound like…it would be expectedof us.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re ‘Paladins of Voltron’,” she said with theappropriate air quotes. “Which makes us publicfigures, Lance.”

“Which we’ve kind of been for a while?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.” She pulled her feet up ontothe bed, sitting with her legs crossed. “The point is that our engagement andeventual marriage will be up for public consumption – or, at least, Allurathinks it should be.”

“Hmm.” Lance seemed to consider that, tapping his chin witha finger. “I don’t think I’d mind.”

“Well, that’s because you like the attention.”

He scoffed. “You do too.”

“Only in small doses,” Pidge said. She lay back with a huff,the image of herself in a puffy white dress in front of more people – more races – than she could comprehendentering her mind. She imagined reciting sappy vows while the audience ‘oohed’and ‘aahed’, and hid her face. “Besides,” she continued, “it would be alogistical nightmare. Who’s going topay for it?”

“I’m guessing not your parents?”

Pidge snorted, removing her hands from her face so she couldlook up at him with an eyebrow raised. “You’re quiznaking right they’re not,”she said, “especially if half theuniverse will be attending.”

Lance laid down beside her, on his side, chin propped in hishand so that he hovered over her. “It wouldn’t be that bad,” he said, grinningteasingly. “Only a quarter of theuniverse, maybe a third tops.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s all, huh?”

“That’s all,” he said.

“Almost higher than I can count,” she said, staring at theceiling. “Definitely higher than you can count.”

“Exac—hey!”

Pidge giggled, chest filled with warmth despite theindignant expression Lance wore. But his face softened, and he leaned down tokiss her softly.

She held him there, burying her hands into his hair, whichwas long enough to curl around his ears. She pulled back from him a little andsaid, “You know, if we do end up witha big wedding, you’ll probably have to cut your hair.”

Lance snorted. “As long as it doesn’t look like a mullet, I’mfine with that.”

“Damn, I thought I had you.” Pidge sighed, easing her gripon his head as he looked down at her.

“You really don’t anything big, huh?”

She shook her head. “I’ve…never really thought about itbefore now,” she admitted, “but I would definitelyprefer something small.”

“Hmm.” Lance returned to her side again as he thought. “Maybegive this idea a chance though?”

Pidge rested her hand on her stomach and said, “Fine, butonly for you. And maybe for my mother.”

She only hoped she wouldn’t regret it.

Pidge regretted her concession approximately two quintantsand six vargas later, when Allura and Coran started pressing them – but mostlyPidge, because apparently the bride was expected to wedding plan in way too many cultures – about everythingfrom venue (Pidge decided Olkarion, because it was her favorite place in thewider universe), to the guest list (she and Lance mentioned a few each,including family members, but Allura and Coran took care of the rest), to thefood and decorations (Hunk took the task of catering upon himself gladly).

Ironically, the only breathing room she seemed to get –apart from ‘evenings’, blessedly quiet apart from Lance’s usual noise – was while on missions, whichgrew fewer and further between as the wedding date – set by Allura on a dayconsidered auspicious for matrimonial occasions by the long-dead Alteans. Then,she could let the Green Lion’s consciousness wash over her, soothing her like abreeze passing through a canopy of branches.

Even Matt got swept up into the frenzy, and by the timePidge stood on a stool, being fitted for a dress she would only wear once, she was ready to tear her hairout.

“Why can’t we just elope?”Pidge asked Lance one morning, when she woke up after only a few vargas ofsleep because Coran expected her to paint tea cups personally – another Altean tradition – from which the guests woulddrink.

Lance was responsible for painting the cups from which thetwo of them would drink, along with a third meant as an offering to water atree that they would plant together on Olkarion. Pidge couldn’t help beingenvious of how little he had to do –though to his credit he offered to do more.

Allura, though, often found excuses for him not to help, andPidge had the sneaking suspicion that she was using the wedding planning as areason to hang out with Pidge.

“Why can’t we?” Lance had his head pillowed on one arm whilehe examined his fingernails.

“Is that…agreement?”Pidge wondered.

He glanced at her. “Is it?”

“You’re no help,” Pidge scoffed, crossing her arms.

Lance reached over to her and rubbed her arm, roughfingertips that he long since gave up on keeping soft and moisturized scraping overher skin pleasantly. “I’m game if you are,” he said, though she detected a hintof disappointment in his voice.

Pidge sighed and decided she would tough it out, for now.

It took Pidge less time than she thought to reach herbreaking point, less than five quintants ahead of the actual wedding.

“No,” she said, crossing her arms and petulantly glaring atthe wall after Allura’s last question.

“You mean…you don’twant to spend the wedding night on Arus?” she asked again. “Even though it’swhere it all began?”

“No, I do not want to spend my wedding night on Arus,” Pidgesaid testily, “and I absolutely do not even thinkthat’s ‘where it all began’.” She stood up, ready to storm out, patiencespent. “Do you know where it all began for me? On Earth, when my father and brother were kidnapped by the Galra. Anddo you know where I would love tospend my wedding night?” She paused, half-hoping Allura would interrupt hertirade, but when she just stared at her, eyes wide, she continued, “On Earth, after I hug my mother and leavemy father somewhere safe where he can recover with his wife.”

Pidge turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, ignoringAllura’s call from behind her. She didn’t stop until she reached her bedroomand fell forward onto her bed, burying her face in her pillow.

She sulked for more time than she kept track of, bothexhausted and remorseful for losing her temper with Allura…again. When a soft knock sounded from the door, she rolled onto herback and, without bothering to ask who it was, said, “Come in.”

Lance walked in, the sight of him a balm on her nerves, andshe managed a smile. “So…” he said, leaning against the wall by the foot of thebed. “Allura said you were upset?”

“I could’ve handled it better,” Pidge said. She sat up andpulled her feet onto the bed, wrapping her arms around her legs.

“Yeah, probably,” Lance agreed. He sat beside her, armaround her waist as he pulled her closer to him. He rested his chin on her headand said, “Let’s elope.”

“You want to?” Pidge said hopefully.

“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “You’re obviously stressed out,and it won’t be worth it if you end up killing Allura. I’d rather not have mywife’s murder trial on our wedding day.”

Pidge snorted, amused despite herself. “All right,” shesaid. “When?”

“Hmm. How about we take the Red Lion – don’t give me thatlook, he’s faster than Green – on the morning of our special day?”

“Who’re you going to convince to set up a wormhole?” Pidgeasked.

Lance laced the fingers of their right hands together as hehummed thoughtfully. “I can say I want to personallypick up my family and your mother,” he said, “and you can sneak away with me.”He glanced sideways at her, the familiar hint of mischief in his eyes, the kindthat convinced you he was a clever escape artist rather than a goofball.

Though Pidge supposed there was no reason he couldn’t beboth.

A slow smile stretched across her lips. “You know what?” shesaid. “That’s actually a brilliant idea, Lance.”

“Hey, no need to sound so surprised, Pidge,” he said, rollinghis eyes. “I have my moments.”

“You do.” Pidge leaned up and kissing his cheek. “Let’s havemany more together.”

“Count on it,” Lance agreed, right before stealing a kiss.

“Where the quiznak are Pidge and Lance?” Allura wondered.She paced back and forth across the room, the dress she wore for the occasionswishing in her wake. “Lance was supposed to be back several vargas ago, andPidge should be dressed by now.”

“I’ll call Lance,” said Keith.

“I’ll call Pidge,” said Matt.

Both of the left the dressing room, taking out theirrespective communication devices. She overheard Matt speaking to his fatheroutside in a quiet voice.

A fidget in the corner caught Allura’s sight, and sheglanced towards Hunk. He’d been awfully silent the entire time, and he refusedto look directly at her, hands clasped together in his usual nervous tic.

“You’re hiding something,” she realized, approaching him.

“I might have forgotten to vet all the cooks,” Hunk saidwhile avoiding her eyes. “There could be assassins. Let me go—”

“Wait,” she interrupted, grabbing his arm.

Hunk paused, looking back at her. “Yes, Princess?”

“Oh, none of that,” she said, forcing herself to smiledisarmingly at him despite her irritation. “Do you know where Pidge and Lance are?”

To her surprise, Hunk admitted, “Yes.”

When he didn’t elaborate, she pressed, “Where?”

Hunk blinked and said, “Las Vegas.”

“Las Vegas? I…don’t know where that is.”

“It’s on Earth,” Hunk explained. “They’re probably visitingPidge’s mother and Lance’s family.”

“They invited them here!” Allura pointed out, gesturingaround the room and encompassing the Castle and Olkarion itself.

“Yes, well…” Hunk shifted his footing, but he seemed torelax as the truth came tumbling out. “Pidge was feeling overwhelmed, so theydecided to elope.”

Allura’s jaw dropped right as Matt and Keith returned.

“I know where they are,” said Matt. When Keith nodded hisagreement, Allura looked at the two of them properly, noting that neither ofthem wore disappointed expressions.

In fact, Matt seemed downright amused, and Keith resigned, as if he’d expected nothing else.

Allura pressed a hand to her face, as if she could hold inher rising frustration and the realization that the very Coalition could crumble if Pidge and Lance never showedup to their own wedding.

“Quiznak.”

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Cuddling with Pidge was wonderful.

The way her weight added to Allura's and helped them sink that much further into the bed, the warmth of her tucked against Allura's front, the steady rise and fall of her breathing and the fact that Pidge was here, safe and sound in her arms.

All in all, Allura would go as far as to say the moment was perfect... Except for...

"Pidge?"

Allura frowned and pressed her ear closer to the crook of Pidge's neck, listening worriedly.

Even considering that they were laying down and perhaps the most relaxed they'd been since the war began, the Paladin's heartbeat was just a tad too slow to be reassuring.

"Are you sure this is normal?"

A chuckle echoed back against her chest.

"Yep." Pidge confirmed, tone buzzing at the edges with amusement. "One hundred percent normal. This is just how Earthling hearts sound when we're chilling with our girlfriend."

Allura smiled despite her lingering worry.

She still thought the Earthing term for heartsworn was thoroughly inadiquet, but the tender way it always left Pidge's lips more made up for the word itself.

Also, she was fairly sure she'd heard Pidge's heart skip a beat when she said it.

Closing her eyes Allura let the odd rhythm sink into her.

"It's just so slow." She breathed, deliberately tickling the back of Pidge neck so she snorted and squirmed playfully in Allura's arms. "I don't understand how I never noticed before."

"Probably because this is the first time we've gotten this close outside of sparring or a fight." Pidge said frankly. "My heart goes about a mile a minute whenever shit starts going down, and yours speeds up so much I can barely feel it."

The hand covering Allura's own pressed down gently, fingers curling to find the pulse at underside of her wrist. Pidge let out a thoughtful hum.

"Even right now it's beating like a hummingbird's wings. I keep thinking you're about to faint or something."

"If I do it won't be due to anything medical." Allura teased.

The corner of Pidge's mouth lifted mischievously. Twining their hands together she tugged them up to her chest and ducked her head. A tick later Allura felt the delicate brush of lips ghost across the underside of her wrist- and found herself blushing as the kiss made her own heartbeat spike into a giddy thrum, warmth running through her veins and spreading up her cheeks.

Burying her burning face in Pidge's shoulder she sighed contently, savoring the feeling.

"Tell me about hummingbirds."

"Hm?"

Allura didn't have to see Pidge's face to know her look had switched instantly from mischievous to thoughtful.

"Hummingbirds, huh..." Pidge considered the question seriously.

"Well, they're small flying pollinators that feed off of the nectar of Earth flowers, though some people put out feeders for them too. They have feathers and a narrow, thin beak- I guess they look a bit like Altean daskinnirs but without the poisonous spines- and they flap their wings so fast they they can hover in place."

She paused, leaving space in case Allura wanted to comment or ask for clarification.

Trying to picture the Earth creature in her mind's eye Allura did manage to come up with several more questions. "Are they common on Earth?"

"In some places, yeah."

"What about where you lived?"

Allura knew of course that Pidge had tried to avoid the outdoors back before her bond with the Green Lion helped her appreciate plants a bit more. Still, hummingbirds sounded like the sort of creature most people would enjoy watching, if given a chance.

"We had a few at our old place. The Garrison is in the desert though, so there's nothing for them there."

The lack of wistfulness in Pidge's voice likely meant the Guardian Spirit of the Forest still considered the loss of hummingbirds a fair trade to escape the dreaded 'poison oak'.

Allura bit down on her lip. The irony of the Green Paladin would never not be amusing.

"And their defensive weapons?"

"None that I'm aware of, aside from being really fast and small."

"What color are they?"

"Oh all sorts." Pidge's shoulder shifted slightly in a restrained shrug.

"Green, blue, pink, gold, purple, it depends on the species. And lots of them have iridescent feathers, so they look especially pretty when they're flitting around in the sunlight."

Iridescent feathers? Allura imagined a garden filled with all her favorite Altean flowers, the day bright and the air filled with motes of living rainbow as small glimmering flecks darted from blossom to blossom, pausing now and then to hang in midair, tiny wings a blur.

"They sound beautiful..."

"Watching them is pretty incredible." Pidge agreed readily.

"I used to take holovids of them with Matt and try building drones that moved like them, wings and all. Then we'd test drive them by setting them loose inside the house and seeing how many Gunther could catch..."

"Of course you did." Allura quipped, muffling her laughter against Pidge shirt.

An imaginary Pidge appeared in Allura's garden, tools spread around her as fiddled with something small cupped in the palm of her hand.

On a whim she added herself to the picture.

Maybe stretched out on her back with her head in Pidge's lap, hands full of flowers as she plaited them into a matching set of bracelets and crowns. Now and then she might stop to offer a flower to one of the glittering hummingbirds as it passed by and Pidge would look up every time she did, absentmindedly adjusting her glasses and smiling as she got another close look at what she was trying to mimic.

Allura breathed in deeply. For a moment she almost thought she could taste the scent of juniberries and feel the mid-summer sunshine.

A faint pang rang through her chest.

She had just realized she was imagining more than Altean flowers- The garden itself was an exact copy of the ones that used to ring the Castle of the Lions, and the Pidge sitting in it with her was wearing the same style of clothes Allura had grown up seeing.

Her seemingly harmless little daydream had turned into a wishful picture of what could have been.

Nuzzling closer to Pidge, Allura did her best to push the thought away.

And now Allura also noticed that Pidge had gone silent as well, right after mentioning the brother who was still missing after almost a year of searching.

"Your heartbeat reminds me of a sleeping klanmuirl." She said, wanting to keep the conversation going and distract them both.

"It does?"

Twisting her head awkwardly Pidge peered over her shoulder at Allura, wide eyed and curious.

Allura smirked. She'd nearly forgotten how Pidge had first come to hear of klanmuirls, and how the experience had almost put her off using the Castle's language program to learn Altean.

"Mm. My mother had one that would follow her everywhere, even onto the bridge of her ship whenever she was commanding Altea's fleets."

A fleet that had been the first loss when Zarkon turned traitor- The ache in Allura's chest gave another warning pang- But she wanted to remember this even if it hurt, and she wanted share it with Pidge.

Pidge herself seemed to pick up on this being important. Sheets rustled and the bed shifted as Pidge turned fully around, rolling over carefully in Allura's arms so as not to break her grip.

Allura gave her a moment to finish settling before going on.

"As commander of the fleet my mother was often off world and far away, helping with some crisis or supporting an alley." She explained, hearing a touch of pride light up her voice.

"She was away so much that when she was home I would try to spend as much time with her as I could, whether that meant joining extra sparring lessons or sitting in on the meetings with her generals."

Memory of the latter made Allura smile wryly. Strange how nostalgia could paint even the most mind-numbingly dulls hours of her life in a wistful light.

"When I was little the meetings invariably proved too tedious for me and I would end up falling asleep..." She had still dozed off as got older, but learned to do so with her eyes open and seemingly alert looking.

"...And sometimes when I woke up I would be curled up with my mother's klanmuirl, who wasn't any better at staying awake during those meetings than I was, and I would barely have time to get my bearings before it's slow breathing and heartbeat lulled me back to sleep."

Reaching up Allura ran a hand through Pidge's hair, softer and more feathery than the dense, bristly fur she was recalling.

Pidge quirked an eyebrow at her, one corner of her mouth lifting up as well.

"So my heartbeat makes you feel sleepy?"

Allura nodded.

"Very." She said, and somehow managed to keep a straight face as she closed her eyes and feigned a few snores.

Pidge snickered and shoved her shoulder lightly.

"On Earth it's considered rude to call your girlfriend a snooze-fest!"

A giggle slipped from Allura's lips as opened her eyes agian.

"Well it isn't on Altea." She informed Pidge, leaning in to place a kiss on the bridge of Pidge's nose and cover the little dent her glasses always left behind. "In fact among adult Alteans, being relaxed enough around someone to fall asleep near them is a sign of deep trust and considered a great compliment."

Amber eyes rolled.

"I feel so complimented." Pidge's grin ruined the sarcasm she'd obviously been trying for.

"Also, I have a question while I try to picture this- Was your mom's klanmuirl the smallish, cute kind, or was it the giant monstrous three-eyed final boss version?"

Allura stared at her. What the quiznack was a final boss?

"It was fully grown, if that's what you mean."

"And your mom let you sleep with it." Pidge clarified. "'It' being the Altean analogue of a Earth grizzly bear."

Judging from her tone Allura guessed that most Earthing mothers would not in fact let their children sleep with a 'grizzly bear' or the Altean equivalent thereof.

"They're very docile once you bond with them." She assured Pidge.

"I even used to wrestle with mother's before I grew too big for it, and never got anything worse than a few scratches."

Shaking her head Pidge tucked herself under Allura's chin.

"Before you got too big for it." She snorted. "So you were a badass even as a kid."

"I suppose?"

Wrapping her arms more fully around Pidge, Allura stared into the empty air and frowned to herself, puzzled.

"... what kind of compliment is 'badass' meant to be?"

"It means impressive. Amazing."

The words gusted across Allura's collarbone and made it suddenly rather hard for her to focus on what Pidge was saying.

"Badass as in your mother sounds like she was a badass, bear-taming Queen Commander of Altea." She mumbled. "Badass like how you are, oh bear-wrestling, empire-overthrowing princess with a hummingbird heartbeat..."

With that Pidge drew a deep breath in let it out as a happy sigh. A moment later Allura felt her limbs going slack as she drifted off to sleep.

Smiling, Allura tilted her head and pressed her cheek to Pidge's bangs.

She could hear Pidge's heartbeat in the quiet- Strong, steady, and even slower now than before.

Listening it filled Allura with memories of safety and warmth, filled her with daydreams of glittering wings and sun soaked gardens, images of what had been and could have been and, best of all, what was happening right now as her eyelids grew so heavy she couldn't keep them open anymore, until she couldn't even think of a reason to try.

The feeling was still strange. Still a little unnerving.

But wonderful all the same.

[seeasweetsmile]

Title : In a few years Pairing : Lance x Pidge (Pidgance) Summary : Lance just came to see Pidge for advice about the girls. He did not expect the subject to take a much more serious turn.

Autor’s notes : So.... I tried. Also, sorry if there’s somes errors. English is not my first language. Hope you like this, though ! :)

When Lance had come to see Pidge in her hangar to ask her for advice on the girls, he didn’t expect to see his hopes smeared by the impassive attitude of the Green Paladin. Sitting cross-legged on her chair, a screwdriver in hand, she was focused on the small machine she was making. There were bolts, pieces of junk and other electronic components all over her desk. Well understood, despite her occupation, she remained attentive to what Lance said. He also sat next to Pidge, on the second chair available, he exposed at her his problem ; the girls from the planets he saved were happy to take pictures with him, but as soon as he wanted to share a private moment with them or he flirted, the girls would laugh and go away, not missing thank him for his help. He was however confident about his qualities and his physique, and didn’t see what was wrong. He had even tried a less direct, gentler and more serious approach but the girl had completely refused his advances.

What was he doing wrong ? Would that be the ears that would be problematic ? Allura had said that she found his ears hideous, the first time they met, so maybe all the aliens were the same ? That they also thought that human ears were ugly ?

"Do you think I should do surgery and change my ears...?” Wondered Lance, touching the end of one of her ears. "Like, more pointed like the Alteans ? Or maybe more horny ?" "I think the problem is not your ears, your ridiculous flirtation or your idiotic airs," Pidge enumerated under the protests of the Cuban. "For me, the problem is what will happen next."

"Next ?” Repeated Lance, blinking. "Yeah. Think about it. Assuming that you really find a girlfriend and that it works between you, how are you going to communicate once you get back to Earth ?" "Easy : you could make us phones, so we'll talk to you from a distance." "And after ? When will the calls not be enough ? What would you like to see ?" "We can see each other if you program a camera on the phone." "I didn’t talk about that. I meant, physically ? When would you like to touch ? Do you hug or kiss ?” She questioned, crossing Lance's gaze for a moment.

At that moment, the Cuban couldn’t help but blush instinctively under the two golden orbs of his friend. Eyes that make you feel so stupid that it was disturbing. She quickly turned her attention to her machine and Lance let out a breath that he did not know he was holding, relieved. The Green Paladin swapped her screwdriver for a small green card, which she inserted into the box. A small "click" was heard, a sign that the card was secure, and a brief, satisfied smile passed over Pidge's lips. She went back to work without another word, and Lance clenched his fists on his lap before answering to her.

"I... I'd take a space shuttle or something.” He stammered, disconcerted.

"Fine, and assuming you get it, it'll take you months -even years, to join her." "Not if you can program a boost on the ship.” He retorted quickly, his finger up. "A boost that has a chance in two to blow up your shuttle. Do you remember the incident that Keith and Allura had ?” She asked, inspecting the inside of her camera, her eyes hard shut. "I... That's right, you're right," He admitted, lowering his eyes. “But I would be willing to take the risk." "If it ever happened, you will take even less time to get to your planet. You'll be old, probably with one foot in the grave when you reach the planet." "Love has no age.” He whispered, unconvinced by his own words.

"Maybe, yes. But imagine that once on her planet, she didn’t wait for you. That she found someone else. And that she even founded a family, for example. Are you still going to ask her to leave everything to be with you ?” Questioned Pidge leaving her machine eyes to look through her glasses that fell on her nose. "What ?! I-... No, of course not ...!” He mumbled, dismayed by her assumptions. "So are you going to turn around, your heart in a thousand pieces in your hands ? Find another alien on her planet to make up for her lack ?” Chained the hacker of the group by raising her glasses on the bridge of nose. "I-I do not know, okay ?!” He said, frowning, locked in his entrenchments. "Since you are so clever, tell me what to do, Mademoiselle I-know-all !"

Raising his head, he saw Pidge inhale deeply and put her screwdriver a second time on the worktop in a "glong" sound. She finally turned her head towards Lance and looked at him seriously. They stared at each other in silence for two ticks, until the Green Paladin finally spoke.

"Stop running after the aliens and find a girl you can reach. A girl from your own planet. The aliens that you are courting certainly think that it’s better not to mix the tea towels and towels. They doesn't want to be with a partner that will be impossible for them to see regularly. It would be far too complicated and painful. So the simplest and most logical choice is to stay with one's people.” Explained Pidge, before shrugging and swiveling in front of her desk. "But well, it’s just my opinion."

She went back to work in silence to allow Lance time to think about what she had just said. The Cuban, meanwhile, stared distantly at Pidge’s hands who began to tinker with the materials on her work plan. He ends up swallowing and shamefully lowering his eyes on his lap. He had never thought about it so far. For him, all that mattered was simply spending time with pretty girls and being adored by the girl. And if he had a girlfriend, he didn’t know if the relationship would last. Probably as long as the Universe needed Voltron... But he was still too young and too focused on the present to think about the future with a big F. Especially a future with an alien.

Lance knew that Pidge was not wrong. He knew it perfectly, but ... to hear her thwarted all these solutions and to break his hopes at the same time, as if nothing was going on, he was beating his stomach. Despite the pain, he could not totally blame his friend. She was right all the way, he sighed inwardly, dropping his shoulders. The alien's girls that he was wishing didn’t want a relationship at a distance... Even his older sisters, when the conversation of love affairs fell on the carpet, had told him one day : "Avoid relationships at a distance like the plague, Lance. Especially long distances. They never stay on the road for a long time.".

Lance sighed a second time while sinking into the back of his seat, practically seated on his back, legs outstretched all their long, and rested his forearms on the armrests. It was then that his name pronounced by Pidge's voice reached his ears and made him raise his head. Intrigued by her slight contrite smile and her two golden orbs in which a guilty look was reflected, the young man raised his eyebrows as a silent question.

" I’m sorry. I went too far, didn’t I ?” She asked calmly. The Blue Paladin straightened up as if he had been screwed on springs, surprised at the excuses she had just let go. "What ? No ! I-... no... No, that's fine.” He answered, hesitating, before running a hand through his short hair. "I mean, you're the brain of the team. And if there is one person who can logically reason with this kind of little details, it's you, Pidge. That's why I came to see you. Well, basically, I just wanted some advice. Not a lecture.” He joked, shrugging his shoulders in a sad little smile. Pidge grimaced and slowly turned her little machine between her palms, as if to find something to do with her hands, before answering, her gaze dropped on her metal block.

"I tend to dissect things too much. And to go to the bottom of my reasoning without taking into account the feelings of others.” She explained before looking at him for a moment. "I should't have pushed you to the limit. " "Even if it sucks a blow, in the end, you're right. Remote relationships, especially between planets, are very unlikely to survive.” He recognized before sighing theatrically, crossing his arms behind his head. "I have only to wait to go back to Earth and find myself a cute little earthen, in this case...! " A mocking smile stretched on Pidge's lips, who couldn’t help but lightly slapping Lance's leg with her foot to get his attention.

"It’s not win. I wish you all the luck of the Universe to find someone who can support you."

Lance chuckled in a "Hey !” before cuddling his foot back into the chair of the Green Paladin, who swiveled toward him. Seeing the teasing smile and the two golden orbs laughing at Pidge toward him, the Cuban felt himself crinkling from head to foot, ignoring the beating that his heart had missed, and spoke to defend himself, pointing at her.

"We'll see when we get back to Earth."

"I caaaan’t wait ...!” The girl sarcastically retorted as she leaned close to him, a grin on her face.

"In a few months or in a few years, you'll laugh less, Pidge.” Ensure Lance in a wink.

The hacker of the group brought her arm to her belly while her hand still held her little machine, and tilted her head to the side while another malicious smile stretched her lips, sign that she had just thought of something. And the sass of the Green Paladin didn't delay.

"Heh, and if all your attempts fail with the girls, maybe you will make me feel pity enough that I may agree to go out with you ?” The young girl joked.

A laugh and a heat bubbled into Lance's chest, which could only answer a simple "Oh ?”, disconcerted again by Pidge's words, before bending over to the side of his chair, leaning against one of his armrests.

"I caaaan’t wait...!” Repeated Lance with a playful smile, not paying attention to the heat that spread to his ears at the thought of having Pidge as a girlfriend.

[twilighteve-writes]

Of Tremors, of Quake, of Rushing Landslides, of Broken Vale

Summary: Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

Hunk discovers his powers and beats a bunch of giant alien insects with the team. Also, he cusses alien badgers a storm.

Voltron fic. Can also be read on AO3 or FF.net.

If Hunk really thought about it, his ability to rouse the earth to do his biddings probably awakened a long time ago. Maybe just days after Keith’s powers to awaken, but he couldn’t pinpoint when exactly because his ability was just too abstract and too hard to track.

It wasn’t until they visited a rocky, sandy planet that he truly realized that he could use his powers. It felt like his horizon had expanded exponentially the moment his feet touched the planet’s surface, and he couldn’t help the gasp that slipped through his lips. He realized immediately that he had felt it before, but never so clearly, never so intensely.

He could feel where each of his teammates were, where the ships were, where the Lions they had brought down with them were. It felt like the earth itself spoke to his skin and sang melodies of each and everything that existed on it. Not just on, but also under, and Hunk had to grab Yellow for support when the rush made him wobble with dizziness.

“Whoa,” was the only thing he managed to gasp out, and that couldn’t nearly begin to cover how amazing the new sense was.

He felt Shiro coming to him before he saw it. “Hunk, are you okay?”

Hunk turned to face him, eyes still wide. “Shiro, I think I just unlocked my ability.”

Lance’s excited skipped steps sent a tingle of fondness up his legs. “You have?” the tall, lanky guy asked, bouncing on his heels. “What is it? What can you do?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Hunk began, “but it feels like I can tell where you guys are without even looking? Like your movements make tremors and I’d be able to pick it up straight from the ground?”

Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

“That’s so cool!” Pidge commented immediately, rushing to Hunk faster than Hunk would have expected. “Can you do other things? Can you earthbend? Can you throw around big chunks of giant rocks? Can you put someone in an earthen prison and crush them to death?”

“Pidge,” Shiro glared at the girl.

“What? That was a legit question!” Pidge protested, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Keith nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, very legit. Can you do it, Hunk?”

“Keith.”

“What? That would make a better containment method than handcuffs.”

Lance snickered. “You know, I would pay to see one of the Galra officers put in a rock tube with just their head out while we roll it down a hill.”

Hunk pointed at him. “Just for that alone I will see if I could earthbend.”

“Ooh, now?”

“Dude, I don’t think I can magically unlock it in just a minute.”

“Oh, right,” Lance blinked and straightened up. “Oh well. Anyway, where are we going again?”

Allura, who had been watching everything from the sidelines with Coran while smiling fondly at the Paladins, cleared her throat and pointed to a direction. “The distress signal came from that way. It’s a rather far walk, but it shouldn’t take us too long to get there.”

The group spent the walk in relative silence, their focus taken by the upcoming mission at once. The distress signal had come from a planet that hadn’t flared its signal in many millennia, and they couldn’t help but think about what could possibly prompt them to flare it. Moreover, there didn’t seem to be any sign of Galra in the planet’s orbit.

After a while, Allura stopped walking and gave out a confused uh.

Lance turned to her quizzically, tilting his head aside as he asked, “What’s the matter, Princess? Are we there yet?”

“How can we be there yet?” Keith argued. “There’s nothing here.”

“Well, technically there are, like, infinite rows of small hills with several streams running through the vales,” Hunk held up a finger, “but yeah, otherwise this area looks pretty empty.”

“Yes, about that,” Allura held up a device that she used to track the source of the distress signal’s location. “According to this, we should be in the area already. However…” she gestured at the hills.

“Well that’s weird, that device shouldn’t malfunction,” Pidge took it off Allura’s hands and shook it. “Hunk and I built it ourselves. Unless the inhabitants in this planet don’t live in the planet’s surface?” She stared at Hunk pointedly.

Hunk blinked and looked down on the ground. “Oh. About that.” He knelt and pressed a hand on the ground, trying to extend his senses downwards. It was far easier than he expected, and suddenly he could see tunnels extending down the earth without actually seeing anything virtually. The images filled his mind as easily as recipes do, along with impressions of thick furred feet and sharp claws. There was also something else, something bigger he couldn’t really get an image of – but he could imagine large haired feet that reminded him of insects and angry, beady eyes, followed with snapping, clicking horizontal jaws. He drew back in surprise immediately, straightening up and stumbling back dizzily, bumping into Shiro.

“Are you okay, Hunk?” the Black Paladin asked as he helped Hunk regain his footing.

“Fine, fine, don’t worry about me,” Hunk replied with an apologetic grin. “Just a bit surprised. Yeah, the inhabitants of this planet live underground. I think I have an idea of how they look like, somehow? I’m not sure.”

“Well, how do they look like?” Coran asked curiously. “We’ve never had contact with this planet before. I would be happy to know what to expect when we meet them.”

“I don’t know, isn’t being surprised kind of seem appealing too?” Lance argued.

“While that’s true, sometimes just knowing what they look like could help you guess what customs they practice,” Coran explained. “It could help us skirt away from cultural faux-pas. It helps plenty with alliance establishment!” He turned to Hunk expectantly while Lance muttered an oh, right under his breath.

“I don’t know for sure,” Hunk began, “but I guess some fur? Or a lot of it? And big feet. Also, huge claws on hands. Paws? For digging, I think.”

“Kind of like some sort of burrowing animal on Earth?” Pidge piped up.

“Yeah, that’s actually a pretty accurate description,” Hunk nodded. He looked down at the turquoise grass. “Also, I got something… big. I’m not sure what. It reminds me of a giant insect, somehow.”

“A giant insect,” Keith repeated, clear disgust in his voice. When the others stared at him for confirmation, he threw up his arms in exasperation. “I’ve had to deal with a lot of pests in my years of living alone. I’m really not into having to deal more with insects when I’m in space, okay.”

“It’s okay, Keith, I understand,” Lance patted Keith’s shoulder in sympathy. “Abuela has declared that fire ants and termites are her mortal enemy after some problem at home when she was still a teenager. She still hates them with passion even now.”

“…what problems?” Keith asked, looking like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Lance’s smile was stiff and dark. “Somehow the termites managed to bring the house to the ground, and the fire ants ate the plants, fruits, and grains from the garden.”

Keith patted Lance’s shoulder back awkwardly. Lance nodded appreciatively.

“Anyway,” Hunk spoke up and caught the others’ attention again, “I have a feeling that the giant insects are the problem here, somehow. Maybe something about their tunnels or something? And… uh.” He looked down. “Um, that’s doesn’t feel good.”

“What?” Pidge demanded instantly.

“Something makes this weirdly big tremor,” Hunk responded. “It feels ugly. And the tremor’s strong. It kind of goes boom, boom, boom rhythmically. Don’t you guys feel it?”

It felt really strong for Hunk, but apparently the others didn’t feel it, because they stared at him in confusion. And then the tremor got a lot stronger, and Shiro went rigid, looking down to the ground before his eyes ran over the horizon.

“What is this?” Allura asked, eyes wide. “It feels like groundshake…”

“Is that, like, Altean equivalent of earthquake or something?” Lance asked.

“This doesn’t really feel like earthquake though,” Pidge argued.

Shiro relaxed a little, no longer looking like a rabbit ready to bolt, but still alert. “It reminds me of the sound effect from movies like Godzilla and Jurassic Park when the giant lizards walk around.”

“Giant lizard?” Coran repeated. “Is that anything like a Schoompee?”

“We could compare them later, maybe?” Keith suggested. “Also, it doesn’t exactly feel like a walking dino. The booming is a lot faster, almost constant. I don’t really feel the silent gap between the booms.”

“So… maybe there’s a lot of it, whatever it is?” Lance suggested.

“No, this is more like…” Keith’s eyes widened. “Oh, fuck.”

Keith’s realization came at the same time as Hunk’s. The Yellow Paladin reached out and grabbed Lance and Pidge – the two closest to him – by the scruff of their armor and threw them behind his back. He ignored their indignant, surprised yells and opted to glare at the tip of a nearby hill, which had begun to shake violently, breaking the turquoise grass blanket and revealing dark, dark red soil underneath, which bubbled up and up as something burrowed upwards to break the surface. And it did; a pair of clicking horizontal jaws loudly snapped together as it met fresh air while its numerous limbs climbed up the freshly made hole. Its dark pink body glistened under the shine of the sun. It looked like a giant ant with ten feet instead of six, with an extra pair of scorpion-like claws snapping at the air. Its overly large head reminded Hunk of a termite somehow, though it was arguably a bit more proportional than a termite. And a whole lotta bigger, too, considering it was as big as a small bus.

Pidge’s long and loud ewww perfectly described how Hunk felt about the oversized not-ant.

Then the not-ant fixed its beady eyes at them and began advancing to them with a screech and a vicious click of its horizontal jaws.

Lance’s shrill shriek as he materialized his bayard to defend himself in horror perfectly described how Hunk felt about the new development.

Fortunately, they had become accustomed to covering each other’s backs that they practically could protect each other with their eyes closed. Even with the added two members that didn’t normally join in their missions, the Paladins easily maneuvered around each other to protect one another. Shiro and Keith rushed ahead to attack the oversized insect directly, effectively cutting up its numerous legs to immobilize it. Hunk used his blaster to hold it back, hitting any available surface that could keep it at bay. Lance easily shot its eyes many times, though some of his shots were somehow bounced away. After a moment, though, he managed to blind the insect in one eye, resulting in a pained and angry roar. Pidge flitted about like green lightning, lassoing the insect’s legs or jaws and sending bouts of shock to distract it from attacking Shiro and Keith. Allura helped, too, using a staff to hit away the thing’s snapping jaws whenever she could. Even Coran, the one usually staying behind to guard the castle and therefore didn’t spend much time physically fighting things on the ground, somehow produced a pair of small blasters and had begun shooting at the alien insect. His aim wasn’t as good as Lance’s, but it was better than Hunk’s.

Soon enough, the alien insect fell with a screech. It was still clicking its oversized jaws viciously, trying to get them, so Hunk made use of his superior firepower and used his blaster to sever its head. Once it popped off, the head rolled around while the jaws clicked frantically before finally stilling, dead.

“What in Coran’s mustache is that?” Lance asked shrilly. He glared at the alien insect hotly, disgusted and disturbed at the same time. “Abuela will not like that.”

A shuffling sound behind them made them turn, weapons levelled. From a freshly dug hole popped someone’s head, which looked like a cross between a mole and a badger with glistening dark silver fur. They sniffed the air with their pink nose and squinted at the insect.

“You can’t kill it like that,” they finally said.

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked quizzically.

“It’ll come back to life if you just sever the head,” they answered. “We still don’t know how to kill it for good. It’s why we sent a distress signal.”

Hunk stared at them. “Did you just say come back to life?” he squeaked.

Right on cue, the alien ant began clicking and wriggling again, making Pidge scream and jump back. Its skin began to bubble, both on the head and the body. Slowly, the head began to grow a new body, and the body a new head.

“Abuela will definitely not like that,” Lance shrieked, shooting the head that was growing a new body relentlessly. It slowed the growing, but didn’t stop it.

“Let me just – “ Keith rushed forward, taking a small igniter – which was essentially the Altean equivalent of a lighter – to create a small lick of flames. His eyes and hands glowed red and he coaxed the fire to grow bigger and hotter, eventually consuming the freak of nature that were the alien ants. Hunk and Shiro pulled back Pidge, Lance, Allura, and Coran from the flames’ radius, but not before the fire licked Allura’s open hands and caused burns that made her cry out in pain.

Lance reacted quickly, pulling Allura gently by her arms and began tending to her wounds. His eyes glowed the familiar cool blue, as did his hands. Water appeared out of nowhere and enveloped his hands, in which he cupped Allura’s wounded ones. Hunk knew she was healed only seconds after from how her face relaxed. It turned to panic almost immediately when Lance slumped into her arms.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he waved her off. “Sorry. I just used more energy than I expected. I’m still not that good at healing.”

Allura frowned, but it was Coran who put a hand on his shoulder and suggested, “Perhaps you should try not to use it so often, then. We don’t want you collapsing.”

Lance nodded. He turned to the still-burning insect. “Is the creepy crawly ant thing dead yet?”

“It should be dead,” Keith replied. “I made sure the fire’s hot enough to burn a house down to the ground in minutes. And…” he fixed his gaze to Allura. “I’m sorry. I should have been more careful about the fire.”

“It’s alright,” Allura assured, “you just need to train more. Both of you, in fact.” She levelled a steely gaze to Lance. “If you insist on using your healing abilities for every little thing like this, you better practice it until it comes as naturally as controlling water to you.”

Lance groaned. “But I couldn’t just let you walk around with burns on your pretty hands!” he protested. “Plus, it will take forever to train healing abilities. We don’t even get hurt that much.”

“Lance, thank you for healing my hands,” Allura grasped Lance’s hand, “I appreciate it very much. But I’ve told you this and I’ll tell you again; I’d rather live with wounds and scars than let you burn out from using your own life force to heal other people. Voltron needs you, the universe needs you, we need you.”

Lance sighed. “Well I won’t let people be if they’re wounded, so… I guess I’ll have to train.”

Hunk was just about to melt from hearing those words, because Lance’s inability to leave anything he could help be was just plain endearing and perhaps a tad frustrating at times, and stepped ahead to envelope his best friend in a hug when soft tremors that felt like the earth was trying to tell him something stopped him. He turned as he let the feeling wash over him, and he knew before his eyes fell on them that he’d see more of the inhabitants of the planet.

True to his hunch, he saw dozens of the inhabitants behind him. They were an interesting mix of different burrowing animals that Hunk was familiar with. They had a mole’s weirdly wriggly nose, as well as its eyes. The teeth were small and sharp, peeking out from their lips, like a shrew’s. Streaks of white along the length of their dark silver body reminded Hunk of a badger. They had six appendages, the lowest two they used to stand on. They had large claws on their upper paws and smaller ones on their lower paws. Their tail was long with stringy hair, lashing about like a cat’s would, and at the end of it was something that made Hunk think about fleshy doll-grabbing-machine claw.

“They killed it,” one of them breathed.

“How? Not even Earth could do it,” another wondered, the capital E in earth so blatant.

“They’re not of the Earth,” yet another hissed with eyes squinted suspiciously. Hunk tightened his grip at his bayard, which he hadn’t deactivated. Something about the way the aliens gazed at them made him feel uneasy.

Allura seized her opportunity and flashed them the brightest, most winning smile she could whip up. “Greetings, people of Taua,” she began, extending her hands in what appeared to be a universal gesture of hi I’m a regal person nice to meet you. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and this is the royal advisor of the Altean royal family, Coran. I am here with the Paladins of Voltron. We received your distress signal and we wish to do anything we could to help you.”

The aliens were silent, glancing at one another with their tiny eyes and shuffling on their stout feet. Then, they stared at the largest out of them, who huffed and stepped forward, tail swishing and flesh-claw grabbing at the air. “Greetings,” he replied to Allura. “I am Lapisi, acting chief of the Tauans.”

“I’m sorry, acting chief?” Allura echoed in confusion.

“The insects got our chief,” Lapisi answered gravely. “We’ve had to make do since then.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Allura offered genuinely. “We hope that we could help prevent more losses from your part.”

Lapisi stared, tail flicking and grabbing. “Perhaps,” he settled, and Hunk was taken aback by the tone he spoke in. It sounded… condescending, somewhat? Who in the world would take that kind of tone with Allura?

Allura, however, didn’t seem fazed by this. She merely smiled and nodded, saying, “We’ll try our best. Can you tell us what exactly is the problem?”

Lapisi’s whiskers twitched. “If you’re so sure you could help, I’ll let you,” he said at last. “However, please keep in mind that even we, the Children of Earth, were not able to bring these beasts to their downfall.”

Allura managed to keep her ethereal air of royalty despite looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon when she heard Lapisi’s degrading tone. Hunk was impressed. Still, Allura forced a smile and nodded patiently. “The Voltron Paladins would be able to handle it, I’m certain of it,” she assured. “Please, if you’d tell us the problem…?”

Lapisi huffed a breath that somehow made him sound like he was biting back a laugh, but his expression suggested that he was sighing, somehow. “It’s the Clickjaws,” he said.

Allura leaned forward a little. “Clickjaws?” she repeated.

“The insect you just killed, somehow,” he explained. “We have a lot of insects here, and most of them are very big, but the Clickjaws are the worst. They appeared some time ago seemingly out of nowhere, and they have a taste for us Tauans. Little cubs, especially. They dig into our tunnel network and wreak havoc. When we fortify our tunnels and borders with metal, they go up to the ground and pounce from above. Many have fallen.” His eyes narrowed a little. “We never thought of asking for help, however. I was not even aware that a distress signal was launched.”

Allura was taken aback by this. “Excuse me? I’m certain we received a signal from Taua.”

“I’m wondering about that, too,” Lapisi retorted. He looked back at the cluster of Tauans gathering behind him, waiting for someone to speak up.

“…it was me,” a small voice said, and a small Tauan walked forward. Hunk recognized them as the one that told them they couldn’t kill the insect by beheading it.

Lapisi whirled to the voice. “Taimane,” he said, his voice nearly a growl, “why would you do such a thing, you foolish girl?”

Taimane stiffened. Her nose and neck fur flared with anger. “I’m doing what we should have done from ages ago!” she yelled. Her voice held a squeaky quality that would have sounded ridiculous coming from a human but sounded totally threatening coming from her. “Our children are dying, and we have no idea how to deal with the Clickjaws! The chief died! How much longer are we going to let this problem fester before you swallow your pride and go find help otherwise?!”

“We could’ve solved this on our own,” Lapisi growled.

“No, we cannot,” Taimane growled back. “I’m not letting more of our people die.”

“Just because you’re the last chief’s daughter doesn’t mean you could control the clan.”

Taimane’s eyes widened and she bared her teeth. “Just because you’re acting chief doesn’t mean your decisions are the best,” she bit back.

Lapisi simply turned with a huff, like an adult dismissing an unruly child. It clearly irked Taimane even more considering how her fur bristled further – which was, wow. Hunk did not think anything could bristle that much.

“In any case,” Lapisi said, “perhaps having someone exterminate the Clickjaws would be good.”

“Of course,” Allura easily nodded. The distaste that Hunk felt for the alien badger was nonexistent in her expression – or maybe Allura was just that good at masking her true feelings, being a diplomat and all. “Could you tell me where the Clickjaws nest is? We will be faster in exterminating them that way.”

Lapisi shook his head. “We don’t know where they nest.”

Allura blinked while Hunk resisted the urge to scowl. “I’m sorry?” she asked.

“Clickjaws have a habit of going into other insects’ nests and eat every last one of them,” Lapisi explained, “from the queen to the smallest larvae. Nothing is left behind. Then the Clickjaws use the nests, themselves.”

“That’s disturbing,” Lance muttered softly behind Hunk. Hunk was inclined to agree.

“In there, the Clickjaws rest,” Lapisi continued. “They will sleep for several day-cycles. When they wake, sometimes they would lay eggs. Sometimes they don’t. For such ferocious predator, they don’t lay many eggs, and we are grateful for that.”

“So we need to track these Clickjaws down and kill all of them without any clue whatsoever,” Pidge piped up with a huff. “Okay, that’s not hard or anything.”

“Pidge,” Shiro sighed. Pidge glared at him before averting her gaze with a pout and fell silent.

Lapisi had ran his gaze around and met their eyes with surprisingly patronizing stare before he locked gazes with Hunk. His eyes widened before narrowing, and his tail swished around, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. Hunk shuffled uncomfortably.

“Perhaps it would be hard for you,” he said to the others, though it wasn’t clear who exactly he was addressing – probably all of them, really. “Although, it will not be hard at all for him.” He pointed at Hunk with his large claw.

Hunk took a step back. “Me? What?”

Lapisi crouched to all four – wait, no, he had six limbs – and moved to Hunk faster than Hunk would have thought he’d be able to. All of a sudden he had stood to his full height in front of him, his perky pointed ears twitching. He was just slightly shorter than Lance. His wriggly nose sniffed at Hunk before he stepped back.

“You are of the Earth,” he said, tone pleased, “are you not?”

“Am I what?” Hunk asked in confusion. Did the alien badger ask about his home planet or Yellow’s element or what?

“I can smell Earth on you,” Lapisi went on. “You are a child of the Earth, just like us Tauans. You are of the Earth, just like – “ his gaze flicked to Keith and Lance “ – how your red… friend is of fire, and the blue one of water. The smell of the Earth is strong on you; even stronger than us Tauans, Children of Earth.”

Hunk stared. “Uh, so, is this about quintessence or something?”

“I think it’s about quintessence,” Lance piped up. “It’s kinda like how things went for me with the Neranese. Except, you know. The prince singled me out and dragged me to a secluded hallway.”

“Oh, okay, cool. Glad we got that cleared up,” Hunk nodded and turned to Lapisi. “I guess so, yeah. I’m of the Earth. Why would that make it easier for me to track the Clickjaws down?”

Lapisi stared at him quizzically. “Does the Earth not speak to you? Does it not bend to your requests so long as you respect and protect it?”

Hunk returned the stare. “I’ll be honest with you; I’m pretty new to this someone of Earth thing.”

Lapisi’s gaze morphed into that of understanding. “You have yet to grow into your fullest capability,” he concluded. He stepped forward and offered a paw. “Come with me. Let us Tauans open your senses to the Earth, so you both will be able to listen to each other. If you are truly a child of the Earth, then you should be able to bend it to your will.”

Hunk glanced at Lance, who was the only one to have gone through a similar ordeal. Lance shrugged at him, seemingly nonchalant, pretty much screaming your call, dude through body language. A cursory glance to Allura, Coran, and the rest of the team produced the same message. Hunk turned back to Lapisi, thought, and nodded stiffly while taking his outstretched paw. He needed to be able to track the Clickjaws, and he wouldn’t say no to a helping hand – well, paw – to help him control his abilities, anyway. Besides, Lance got a full dose of knowledge over water, ocean, ice, and pretty much anything about water and all its shapes and forms, and he turned out pretty much okay. He should be fine.

Well, he hoped so, anyway. Who knew what kind of knowledge transferal databanks from some badger alien would do to his brain? …okay, he shouldn’t have thought that. He was second-guessing his decision to do this and he was still a hundred percent sure he needed to do this in order to make sure the Clickjaws would be gone for good.

Either way, it was too late to back away from the offer. Lapisi had already pulled him to the throng of Tauans near the hole of the burrow they lived in. The Tauans shuffled closer to him, sniffing softly as though shy, before bumping their noses to his arms, chest, and back. It was… surprisingly cute. They were like cats, what the heck. Were earthen badgers like this, too? Was this a Taua thing? Hunk was leaning to the latter, honestly, but goodness he had to stop himself from running his fingers on their fur. He wasn’t sure it was socially acceptable here.

“Everyone,” Lapisi’s voice boomed around them when the onslaught of nosebumps stopped. “This one is a child of the Earth, much like us Tauans, but his senses are yet opened to the call of the Earth. Let us open them for him.”

“Uh, can someone explain to me how exactly you will open my senses, like, right now?” Hunk pleaded nervously.

“We will show you,” a Tauan declared confidently. “We will do it for you.”

“Can someone please explain before we do anything here?” Hunk asked again, a little louder this time.

The Tauans either didn’t hear his plea (doubtful), or they didn’t care about it (much more likely but really?). They rushed forward and put their paws and their grabby flesh tail at him; his face, his arm, every available surface they could put their able appendages on. Hunk gave a muffled oof when a grabby tail squished him in the face. He so preferred the nosebumps to this.

Before he could voice his objections, light exploded beneath his eyelids. He flinched back in surprise, but the Tauans’ hold kept him in place. The light strengthened in intensity, almost painful.

And then Hunk’s whole senses just kind of… got pried open. If he thought his horizon expanded the moment he stepped foot on this planet, boy was he wrong. It was peeking through half-closed eyelids, through shyly knit lashes that refused to give out full view of things. Now, though, the difference was jarring. Each little tremor sent screaming sense of awareness into his head. He was suddenly so very aware of where his teammates were, of each little thing they did. He could feel Lance digging his heel into the ground in worry, he could feel Keith tapping his foot and Shiro holding him back. He could feel Coran, farther away, standing rigidly in place, hardly breathing. He could feel the little Tauans so very deep in the burrowed tunnels shifting in their sleep. It was surprising, breathtaking, and perhaps a tad… terrifying.

Before, the informative whispers the Earth breathed into his skin was a soft and melodic symphony of piano keys and violin strings. Now it grew in crescendo, climbing in volume so drastically and dramatically that he nearly keeled over in shock. What he had accepted as pianissimo whispers suddenly turned into fortissimo bangs of a drum of war, of cannons being fired, in no less than a breath. The difference was jarring.

The Tauans let go of him. Hunk dropped to his knees with a groan, the screams of the tremors around him too much like an unforgiving earthquake for him to function properly. He clasped his hands around his ears, trying to block out the noise around him, but it was no use. Even if he could block out sounds he couldn’t block out the tremors. The way the Earth suddenly demanded his attention gave him a headache.

He felt rather than heard someone approaching, their steps too alike to a giant’s booming stomps for him to identify the person. Another followed suit, and suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders, warm and cool and quiet. Somehow, suddenly, he instinctually knew how to block out the tremors, even if just a little. Slowly, the tremors muted its screams that demanded attention into much more manageable loud calls, asking rather than demanding for his response. He sighed in relief, the pounding headache finally easing away. It was still there, a dull presence at the back of his mind, but it was nothing compared to the sharp and unrelenting throbs it manifested in before.

He opened his eyes to see both Keith and Lance staring at him with worry in their eyes. Hunk suddenly remembered how they had combined their powers before, and how Lance’s knowledge to control his quintessence had bled over their connection and gave Keith a head start at mastering his. He wondered if the same thing had happened to him.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, his voice soft and gentle. He seemed to know that stimulation seemed like something Hunk wouldn’t appreciate much right then. Hunk was grateful for that. He nodded slowly, blinking and trying to adjust to his newly sharpened senses.

“What the quiznak did you do to him?” Keith demanded, turning sharply at the group of Tauans that had stepped back from them.

“We opened his eyes,” Lapisi answered indignantly. “As fellow children of the Earth we simply cannot let another child of Earth stay so unresponsive from Earth’s calls.”

“Do the people whose eyes you open usually react this badly?” Lance asked. His voice held a rumbling quality that reminded Hunk of a coming ocean storm. Ever since Lance had been able to control his quintessence, he’d been reminding Hunk more and more of the sea.

“We do not know if they would be so weak to the Earth’s demands,” Lapisi chittered defensively.

Lance’s hold on Hunk’s shoulder tightened. Keith took a deep breath, the air around him rising in temperature. Behind him, Hunk could feel Shiro, Pidge, Allura, and Coran shifting, could feel their protective anger seeping into the soil and into his skin. Hunk waved his hands immediately to diffuse the situation, yelling, “Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m okay! Don’t we have a mission to do?”

The team backed down quickly, though reluctantly. Shiro stepped forward to Hunk and knelt, placing a hand on Hunk’s own. “Are you sure you’re alright, Hunk?” he asked.

“Yeah, peachy!” Hunk assured. “The Earth was loud before, but it’s a little muted now. I can still hear it really clearly if I concentrate, but it doesn’t hurt me.”

“It hurt you?” Lance asked, alarmed. The storm in his voice was building.

“Not anymore, you and Keith helped,” Hunk hurriedly assured. “I’m fine. I can do this.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Lapisi. “So you opened Hunk’s senses. Aside from being able to respond to the Earth’s calls, what will it do?”

“It should enable him to coax the Earth to move to his will,” Lapisi answered. “We Tauans are able to do it to some degree, which helps us making our burrows. Him, however… his potential is much bigger. He should be able to do incredible things, such as creating landslides and earthquakes.”

“So, basically you’re an all-out Earthbender now,” Pidge noted quietly.

“However, this… boost… will not last forever,” Lapisi warned. “A few vargas, most likely. Maybe half a quintant, or a full quintant if you’re lucky. In any case, it will fade overtime and he will have to relearn the skills we have lent to him.”

“Okay,” Hunk nodded. “That’s cool. I can deal with that.”

Shiro sighed. “In any case, we’ll have to deal with the Clickjaws soon. Can you point out where the nest is, Hunk?”

“Uh,” Hunk thought, extending his senses to the Earth and coaxing it to answer. Before he could get the Earth to speak to him, however, a voice chittered loudly.

“I know where they nest.”

Heads turned, and Hunk’s gaze met the young Tauan’s. Taimane stared ahead with a steely gaze, tail lashing, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. “I know where the Clickjaws nest,” she repeated.

“Why haven’t you told anyone?” Lapisi growled at her.

“Because you would lead our people to a suicide mission,” Taimane countered. Her tail lashed forward threateningly. “I know where their nest is. I shall lead the Paladins of Voltron there.”

Lapisi gave out a low growl. “Very well,” he said at last. “Just remember that if you died out there we would have no body to bury.”

“We had no body to bury when the chief died either,” Taimane responded. “We made do. Farewell, Lapisi.” Her tail slowly reached out to Lapisi’s.

“Farewell,” Lapisi answered. He reached out with his own tail. The grabby ends brushed one another, tensed, and drew away.

“Coran, perhaps we could stay behind,” Allura spoke up. “I’m sure the Paladins could handle themselves just fine. Perhaps it is best for us to lean back and discuss about… other matters.”

Coran’s eyes lit up when he heard other matters being spoken conspiratorially. Considering them, Hunk supposed they meant an alliance was to be made. Coran nodded at Allura and smiled. “Of course, Princess. I’ll keep you company here.”

“I suppose we should head out soon, then?” Shiro asked the other Paladins. They nodded readily, their faces set in determination.

“Be careful,” Allura called out to them. They nodded in response.

“Come,” Taimane waved them over with her tail. “It’s this way.” She dropped on all four and walked away. The Paladins followed.

Hunk could feel the Earth guiding him to the Clickjaws’ nest not even a minute after they began walking away, but he kept silent and let Taimane lead the way. It was obvious just how angry she was even with them being unfamiliar with the Tauans and how they express themselves. It showed in the hardness of her gaze.

“Taimane, wasn’t it?” Shiro asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Taimane stiffened for a moment before she turned to Shiro. “Yes,” she nodded. “I’m sorry, I forgot we were not formally introduced yet. I’m Taimane of Taua.”

“Nice to meet you, Taimane,” Shiro responded. “I’m Shiro, Black Paladin. This is my team; Red Paladin Keith, Green Paladin Pidge, Blue Paladin Lance, and Yellow Paladin Hunk.”

Taimane’s gaze met Hunk’s. “It’s an honor to meet you all. Although, if I understand correctly, only the Yellow Paladin is of Earth?”

“If this is about our quintessence, yeah,” Lance responded. “We each have our own thing. Hunk’s is earth.”

“Hmm,” Taimane sent a thoughtful gaze Hunk’s way. “No wonder my people liked you. They tend to think that other elements are inferior to earth.” She turned in dismissal before anyone could question her further. “In any case, our problem is the Clickjaws. They’ve been… a pain.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about them,” Shiro said. “Can you tell us what exactly they are?”

“They’re insects,” Taimane answered. “But… different from the ones we have around here. They appeared out of nowhere several Spicollian Movements ago, and nobody could stop them. It is strange that we don’t know what they actually are, because they nest underground and Tauans are in tune with the Earth. We know of all the underground-dwelling insects, but we know nothing about this one.” Her tail lashed anxiously. “We couldn’t’ kill them. Beheading them ends with them duplicating, like you have seen for yourselves. Cutting them to pieces just makes them create smaller versions of themselves, which would grow bigger anyway. The only way to kill them that I’ve seen is to burn them to the ground, and I’ve only realized that today.” She looked down, tail curling around herself as if trying to give her a hug. “No one in Taua realized it.”

“I’m sure it was something anyone could’ve overlooked,” Shiro tried to assure, though his voice wavered uncertainly.

“No it wasn’t,” Taimane argued instantly. “Tauans are extremely proud people, set in our ways of doing. We thought it was the only way we could fight the Clickjaws. Clearly, we were wrong.”

Pidge cleared her throat. “Um, well, we’re gonna do something about it now,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about the Clickjaws anymore.”

Taimane sniffed. “Of course,” she answered, bowing her head a little. “And I thank you for that.” She turned and walked again, and the Paladins followed, this time in silence.

Soon, the grassy field they were waking on thinned out and gave way to rocky, barren land. Afar, they could see a cave, its yellowish rocks that formed the open maw of the opening glistening under the sun. in contrast, the darkness within looked cold, unwelcoming. Taimane pointed with her tail at the cave. “There. That’s where the Clickjaws nest.”

Lance stared intently at the cave. “In that cave? That opening looks a little too small for those humongous Clickjaws.”

“Clickjaws are not that big,” Taimane told him. “The one that you defeated was actually the largest I’d seen. Normally, they’re smaller than that. Not to mention that they are very flexible in their movements.”

Pidge hummed. “Is there anything we need to know about them, other than that?”

“The claws may look big, but they’re not that dangerous,” Taimane said. “They could grab, but despite the appearance it’s actually pretty brittle. If you hit it hard enough it’ll shatter easily. The jaws, though…” She licked her lips, tail twitching. “The jaws are strong. It’s capable of cutting a Tauan in two in one click. I’ve seen it before… with the late chief.”

“We’ll remember that,” Keith solemnly swore, nodding at her like saying a promise.

“Ah, one more thing,” Taimane reached and touched Hunk softly with a paw. “Please remember that we’ve given you something to help you fight. The Earth will listen to your plight and bend to your will. Use that to your advantage.”

Hunk paused and nodded seriously. He could feel it, the thrum of the Earth in his skin waiting for him to ask, to be mended and bent. “I will,” he promised.

The Paladins shared a nod with Taimane before they turned to walk into the cave. Through the Earth, Hunk could feel Taimane walking away from them and hid somewhere, probably in case the Clickjaws came out. Hunk had to agree with her – she was probably worried about leaving them, but going along or staying in open space would be dangerous.

As they stepped into the dark that blanketed the cave, Hunk shivered. While he had trouble seeing in the dark, he could feel something shifting under the surface of the earth, twisting and reaching as though stirring awake. He gritted his teeth and turned to his friends, warning them, “Be careful. I don’t like how this cave feels like.”

“Why, what does it feel like?” Lance asked curiously.

“Like there’s something slimy underneath just waiting to spring up.”

“I regret that I asked.”

“In any case, we have to move deeper,” Shiro spoke up. “Set your visors to night vision, but set it to adjust to light. If we can only kill these things with fire, we can’t let Keith’s flames blind us.”

They each reached to their helmet, setting their visors. When Hunk saw that they were done, he stepped forward and pointed. “Come on, it’s this way. The cave is deep. It will branch into tunnels, since it’s shaped similarly to an ant’s nest, but I can feel that there aren’t that many Clickjaws around and they all stay in one chamber.”

“I wonder if they have castes or something similar,” Pidge mused. “If these overgrown ants are actually like ants, we’ll probably have to track down the queen and kill it.”

“Do you think the one we killed before was a young queen trying to find a new place to nest, then?” Keith asked. “Taimane said it was the biggest she’s seen.”

“That’s possible,” Pidge nodded. “In any case, if this is like an ant colony, we’ll have to strike the queen. Which will be hard, because other ants will totally protect her.”

“Just another day in life, then,” Lance shrugged with a bitter smile. “So, anyway. What’s the game plan?”

“Get in, wreak havoc, get out?” Keith proposed.

“That seems to be the best plan, yes,” Shiro agreed. “Though, do mind to be careful. We didn’t come here to end up being buried alive.”

Keith screwed his nose. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

Shiro nodded in approval. “Well, ready your weapons. Make sure not to get separated. Hunk, lead the way.”

Hunk nodded and took the lead, making his way into the darkened tunnel and silently expressing his gratitude to whoever made the Paladin armors that the helmets’ visors were equipped with night vision. As he walked down, he felt the slimy feeling growing stronger bit by bit, and suddenly he knew that he had to follow that disgusting feeling in order to reach the Clickjaws.

Ugh. At least the feeling wasn’t deceptive.

Aside from the entirely unwelcome feeling the Clickjaws gave off, Hunk was also able to pick up more things from the Earth. The deeper they went, the better he could pick up the info the Earth was feeding him constantly. If before his newly opened sense was limited to feeling tremors, now he could feel more. He could pick up the way his friends walked, the way they tightened their hands around their bayards – or just plain tightening his fists in Shiro’s case. He could feel the way their hearts thumped loudly with anticipation of what was to come. He could feel Lance’s anxiety seeping into the solid ground and reaching his heart, even though there was no sign of it, not in his heartbeat or his sure, silent steps or in the way his voice came in breaths in their comm link when he spoke, a surefire sign that he was concentrating hard. Hunk could hear more. Hunk could feel more.

He knew instantly that if he tried earthbending in this state he would probably be able to tear a dwarf planet in two. The thought scared him.

Still, he led them through the labyrinthine tunnels, deeper and deeper underground. At one point, they found the path they took forking into two instead of the sets of threes that they’d been encountering, and Hunk took a deep breath. “This is it,” he murmured into the comm link. “We’ll take the path to the right, and then we’ll encounter the whole colony. There are twenty at least. I think they’re sleeping, but once we begin attacking I’m sure they’re going to wake up.”

“Alright then,” Shiro breathed in deeply and stared at them each in the eyes. “Be careful out there. Your own safety is priority number one. Remember that burning them may be our only chance, so Keith, I want you to be ready. Lance, since you can cancel out Keith’s flames, I want you to be ready to provide cover for the rest of us. If any of us got injured, don’t bother with healing – keep providing cover. Hunk, can you manipulate the Earth yet?”

Hunk ran his fingers over the earthen walls of the tunnel. He could feel the Earth humming pleasantly, its willingness to be shaped seeping into his fingertips through the gloves of his armor. “Yes,” he answered after a moment. “I haven’t tried it, but I think it should at least be similar to earthbending.”

Shiro hummed in thought. “Well, if the place looks like it’s ready to cave in, I want you to stabilize it,” he instructed. “Do you think you can do it?”

Hunk nodded readily. “Count it on me.”

Pidge activated her bayard, the familiar hook-taser combo lighting up softly with a soft buzz. “Come on, then,” she said with a grin, “time to grill some alien ants.”

“Yeah, we’ll serve them with a side of guacamole,” Lance grinned.

“Quiznak, Lance, stop shitposting,” Pidge narrowed her eyes at Lance, but a smile was tugging at her lips. Lance shrugged with a smile on his own as he lifted his own rifle and put it in position.

“Alright, let’s go,” Shiro said, stepping quietly into the tunnel, his Galra hand activated. There was barely any sound it made, but its glow illuminated the tunnel instantly with purplish light.

The tunnel was short, so short. Barely even five steps in. Right at the mouth of it was a Clickjaw, much smaller than the first they’d encountered. The glow from Shiro’s hand had drawn a reaction from it, and it screeched loudly, scrambling to get up and lunging for them.

The tunnels network immediately exploded into a pandemonium. The Clickjaws in the burrow woke and attacked immediately, almost blindly. Keith reacted instantly, rushing forward with his igniter in hand and lighting fire to hold the Clickjaws back, eyes and hands glowing red. Lance was just a fraction of a tick later than Keith, aiming his gun and shooting at the Clickjaws’ eyes. The CLickjaws screeched in pain and lashed out.

Hunk pressed his hand onto the wall of the tunnel, extending his senses. His eyes widened. “Shiro, Pidge, three more Clickjaws coming from your six!”

“On it,” Pidge responded, turning to see the overgrown ants rushing to them.  Her grappling hook sliced through the air and tied several of the Clickjaws’ legs together. Shiro rushed in, then, hand slicing to make cuts along the Clickjaws’ body to incapacitate it. The other Clickjaw roared and lunged for Shiro’s head, which he avoided easily.

“Pidge, retract the hook!” Hunk yelled. “Shiro, move back!” Once they complied, Hunk coaxed the Earth to mold into the shape he desired. It responded instantly, folding just like how Hunk wanted it to, and wrapped around the Clickjaws tightly, immobilizing them. He wouldn’t be able to kill them himself, not really, but at least they could focus on the larger group of the insects.

Keith had managed to burn two of the smaller Clickjaws to charcoal with Lance at his side minimizing the damage directed to their own side by making pillars of water and walls of ice to hold off the heat and licking flames, all while maneuvering his rifle one-handed to shoot at oncoming Clickjaws’ eyes. Again, Hunk coaxed the Earth to do his bidding and wrapped several Clickjaws within the clutch of dirt to immobilize them, and soon Keith had them burning up. Another snuck up on them and Lance shone like a blue starburst, and suddenly the whole Clickjaw was submerged in water, drowned in a misshapen bubble, thrashing. Soon it stopped moving, and Lance let go of his control, the glow dying away.

“So they can be drowned too,” he noted quietly. “I guess even these guys need air, too.”

“Save it for later,” Pidge warned, “look at your one o’clock!”

Lance snapped into attention at once and began shooting one-handed again. “How many do we need to defeat, Hunk?”

Hunk felt the Earth. “A lot more, but I think they’re all in that chamber.”

“Good, at least we don’t have to deal with stragglers,” Keith muttered as he lit up another Clickjaws with a flick of the igniter. Hunk stared at him, suddenly unnerved. Keith was pretty much a pro arsonist by now, and flames responded to his feelings almost too easily. He’d have to herd the Red Paladin away from the kitchen, or he’d run the risk having his food either horribly undercooked or horribly burnt. Or, you know, have his own hands burnt. Yep, totally have to keep Keith away from the kitchen. Also Shiro, because he once said his culinary expertise was limited to cup ramen.

He snapped his attention back to the scene before him when he felt more Clickjaws coming. He quickly informed the others, and soon more chaos came in to amplify the already raging chaos that had already broken. The battle was long and exhausting, considering that there were only five of them and almost two dozens of the Clickjaws, not to mention the overgrown bugs had such thick skin it was hard to actually harm them.

They managed, somehow. The onslaught of Clickjaws had finally relented when Hunk suddenly felt tremors under his feet, and from the alarmed looks his teammates wore he knew it wasn’t just him. Lance threw him a look that practically screamed what in quiznak is that at Hunk.

“Okay, guys, brace yourselves,” Hunk gulped, “I think that’s the queen.”

The ground shook hard, an earthquake big enough to send sand and rocks falling on top of them. Hunk automatically willed the tunnels to stabilize. Just as it did, the earth underneath their feet cracked open, scattering them back while three small Clickjaws ran after them. Keith immediately burned two of them while Lance drowned the other.

The queen emerged from below. It was large, much larger than the other Clickjaws. It was about as big as a truck, with longer and larger body, the bottom part of its body almost disproportionally larger than the rest of its body, much like the Earthen ant colony’s queen Hunk was familiar with. While the other Clickjaws have dark pink body, this one’s coloring was light, almost white. Its horizontal jaws were smaller than the other Clickjaws’ considering the proportions, but it was still there, and it was still much bigger than the others. Hunk gulped.

The queen screeched and charged forward, its large claws clacked loudly and its too-many legs stomped powerfully. The Paladins worked in tandem, moving and complementing one another’s moves as easily as breathing. Hunk had to hang back and concentrate on keeping the tunnels stable, however, since the queen’s erratic movements rocked the tunnels too much.

No, Hunk couldn’t keep this up, not even with the boost the Tauans had given him. The Earth couldn’t keep this up, and the tunnels longed to collapse onto its own. Hunk gritted his teeth and yelled to the others, “I can’t keep the tunnels stable for much longer. We gotta go back!”

“But the queen is still here,” Keith protested.

“We’ll find a way to make I work,” Shiro cut off before an argument could start. “If we keep annoying it, it will probably follow us anywhere.”

“Well, we can do that,” Lance grinned mischievously. A snowball appeared in his hand with a sparkle of blue, and he threw it like a baseball, screaming, “Hey, ugly!” The snowball hit the queen in the eye, and it clicked its horizontal jaws indignantly before screeching at him and reaching for him with its too-big claws.

“Okay, run, run, run!” Pidge pushed Lance forward, and soon the group were running through the tunnels. Hunk kept his concentration on keeping the tunnels stable, though he had to direct the others to get to the surface – one wrong turn was all it would take to lead them to certain deaths, after all. A few times, they’d had to annoy the queen one way or another to keep it running after them. Lance’s snowball, Keith’s fireball, and Pidge’s bursts of shock seemed to work best, though the occasional rock throw from Hunk worked as well, and also, strangely enough, Shiro’s lame insults accompanied by the glow of his arm.

Hunk’s control over the stability of the tunnels was lost as soon as they reached the mouth of the cave. They hurried outside as the tunnel network collapsed on top of the queen’s head, burying it under piles of rock and rubble.

“Is… is that it?” Keith asked softly.

“The Tauans said they couldn’t kill the Clickjaws,” Shiro reminded. “Stay on alert. This isn’t over yet.”

As if on cue, the queen emerged from the rubbles with a roar, sending dust and sand flying and raining over them. Shiro coughed loudly when he inhaled dust, but soon all five of them had adopted a fighting stance and stared at the queen head-on.

The queen, for its part, looked absolutely pissed. It clicked its jaws in agitation and irritation before it strode forward, claws extending, clearly intent on snapping Pidge in half. The girl leapt aside and tied the claw, keeping it in place. “Someone do something to immobilize this thing!” she demanded.

“On it!” both Hunk and Lance responded. Hunk quickly coaxed the Earth to bend under his will, wrapping around the queen’s limbs to keep it in place and unable to move anywhere, while Lance sent torrents of water to wrap around its joints and froze it.

“Keith, fire,” Shiro instructed. The Red Paladin nodded at it and flicked his igniter, and flames burst forth and wrapped around the queen with vengeance. The queen screeched in pain, wriggling and writhing without vain.

Though, it didn’t last for too long. The queen managed to break off the restraints Hunk and Lance had made since the fire weakened them, and it rushed to Keith in anger. Its claws sliced through the air to crush Keith, but they had become so brittle they crumbled to dust the moment they touched him. The queen wasn’t deterred, however, and instead bent to cut him in half using its jaws.

“Keith!” Lance yelled in horror, while Pidge screamed wordlessly and Shiro ran to grab Keith. Hunk knew, however, that he wouldn’t be able to save Keith in time. He was too far, and the queen was too fast, and Keith was frozen in place, too shocked and caught up in the freeze section in the fight, flight, or freeze instinct aisle. By the time he caught himself and lifted his bayard to drive off the queen, he would have been defeated.

A surge of power filed Hunk up to the brim, making him glow with bright golden-yellow light that made him look like the personification of the sun. With a cry, he let the power of the Earth run through him as a conduit, willing the Earth to save Keith. Immediately, quakes ran through the Earth, knocking everyone but Hunk off their feet, including Keith and the queen. Hunk put his hands together, intertwining his fingers, held it up above his head and brought it down swiftly and powerfully.

The ground beneath the queen crackled and fell, instantly creating a crater the queen fell into with a cry of its own. It tumbled down and laid in the center of the crater, howling painfully. Hunk kept it in place by wrapping it in dirt.

Keith had fallen to his butt, staring at the queen with wide eyes. One of his legs dangled off the crater, and he looked as white as sheet.

“Keith, you okay?” Hunk called out.

That snapped Keith out of his stupor. He scrambled away from the crater and stood, stumbling a little, but regained his footing quickly. “Y-yeah, I’m fine,” he assured. “Thanks, Hunk.”

“Oh, good,” Hunk laughed in relief, walking closer to the Red Paladin and clapping him on the shoulder. “I was worried you’d be hurt. Anyway, think we should finish off the queen? Your fire works best.”

Keith blinked a few times before nodding. “Yeah, okay,” he said at last, lifting his igniter. Fire immediately sparked, and the queen was soon burned to charcoal. Its howls of pain reverberated through the air, but Keith didn’t show any hesitation. If anything, the flames burned brighter and hotter. Soon nothing was left in the crater but blackened something that no longer could be recognized. With a satisfied nod, Hunk willed the Earth to fill in the crater, burying the charred remains with rocks and sand.

Silence fell on them, and Shiro soon broke it with a cross between a relieved laugh and a tired snort. “Good job, guys,” he praised. “Great thinking on the crater, Hunk.”

“Aw, don’t mention it,” Hunk laughed bashfully. “We all didn’t want anything to happen to Keith.”

“Speaking of which,” Lance strode to Keith and began poking him. “Are you alright? You were the one closest to the queen earlier. Does anything hurt? Do I need to heal you?”

Keith slapped Lance’s hand away gently. “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Also, if there’s anything I prefer to just use the cryopod.  Better that than you exhausting your quintessence.”

“That’s right, Lance,” Shiro agreed. “No healing unless it’s absolutely necessary. We can’t have you collapsing either.”

Lance humphed. “Fine,” he relented.

“Should we go back to the Tauans’ tunnels now?” Pidge asked aloud. “Allura and Coran are waiting.”

“We should, yes,” Shiro nodded. “Hunk, do you think you can lead us back there?”

“Sure, I can do that,” Hunk answered readily. “Only, I don’t think I need to. Taimane is coming. She’s been waiting for us this whole time.”

“Wait, really?” Lance perked up. “Where is she?”

“She’s been hiding in that shrub over there,” Hunk pointed at the pink shrubbery over his shoulder, from which Taimane crept out of and walked to them.

“Did you get all of them?” she asked, whiskers twitching nervously and tail swishing back and forth. “Are they gone? Every last one?”

“Yeah, we got all of them,” Hunk assured, feeling through the ground to check once more. He didn’t feel anything. The Clickjaws were gone.

“Thank the Earth,” Taimane sighed, tail drooping alongside her breath. Her eyes twinkled with relief and happiness. “Thank you, Paladins. Truly, thank you. We Tauans can rest easy now. I don’t know what I can do to make it up to you.”

“The Princess and Coran were hoping we can form an alliance,” Shiro revealed, “but that’s something we should discuss with the rest of your people. What about we just return for now?”

“Yes, certainly,” Taimane nodded vigorously. Her tail grabbed at the air with more vigor than before. “Let’s go back.”

The walk back to the Tauans’ settlements was mostly quiet, as each Paladin began feeling post-battle fatigue settling in. They were happy though, and relieved that the mission was relatively successful. They were sure that this good news could secure the Tauans into making an alliance with them. That meant more people to help them defeat the Galra Empire.

When they got back to the tunnel networks the Tauans lived in, they popped out of the burrow in waves, greeting them, each chittering questions of did you get them and are they dead now and are we safe. The onslaught of questions were cut off when Allura and Coran broke through the throng of Tauans to greet the Paladins, Coran openly assaulting Lance with a bear hug that the younger man returned immediately with a laugh. Coran then proceeded to hug the rest of the team while Allura demanded details on how the mission went.

“We got into the nest with no problem thanks to Taimane’s guidance,” Shiro explained, “and Hunk led us through the tunnels. It was a hard fight, but we managed to beat the Clickjaws. None of them are left now.”

“Is that true?” Lapisi’s voice rang out from the crowd, and suddenly he was in front of Hunk, who stepped back in surprise. “The Clickjaws are gone?”

“Well, yeah,” Hunk nodded, pointing at Shiro. “Shiro’s just said that.”

Lapisi’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, thank the Earth,” he breathed. “I can’t thank you enough, Yellow Paladin. Your efforts is truly much appreciated.”

Hunk waved him bashfully. “Aw, it’s nothing. It’s a team effort, really. And it’s Keith who actually killed the final boss; without his fire we wouldn’t be able to kill off the Clickjaws.”

The acting chief blinked and turned at the Red Paladin, the glee that overflowed from his person before seeping away in ticks. “…ah. I see. That’s good.” He turned back to Hunk. “In any case, thank you, Yellow Paladin. I hope there’s something I could do to make it up to you.”

“Well for starters you could thank my friends too,” Hunk answered immediately before Allura could cut in with alliance talk. “As I said before, it’s a team effort.”

“I’m sure you played the biggest part, given that you are a child of the Earth and your… friends are not.”

Hunk stared at the badger-like alien with his mouth hung open, for once completely speechless, and he knew the rest of his team as well as the Alteans were too. He and his friends had worked hard to save them, but only Hunk got the credits because he was, apparently, a child of the Earth? Just because he could understand what the dirt and sand whispered to him, he deserved to be thanked while his friends didn’t? Even though they all struggled together?

“Bullshit,” he burst out before he could stop himself.

“I – pardon?” the chief chittered in confusion.

“Bullshit!” Hunk repeated, louder this time, too angry to care about the possibility of ruining an alliance.

“Oh boy,” Lance muttered behind hs back. He sounded giddy, almost; the grin was audible in his voice.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Lapisi voiced his confusion. “Am I, and my people, not thanking you for your help?”

“Yeah, just me,” Hunk rolled his eyes. “What about my friends? Don’t they deserve thanks too?”

“Ah.” There it was again, the disdainful look. “I’m afraid we all believe that only children of the Earth are worthy of our thanks. We are people of Earth. Anything else is beneath us.” He pointedly ignored Taimane’s loud speak for yourself.

Keith bristled and took a step forward, opening his mouth and hissing the word listen, but he stopped dead in his tracks when Hunk spoke above him.

“Fuck you,” he swore loudly. Behind him, Allura and Coran gasped in horror while Pidge cackled loudly, and Hunk could feel both Keith and Shiro’s flabbergasted stare at his back.

“Oh boy,” Lance repeated. Hunk could practically see him bouncing on his heels.

He chose to ignore them in favor of staring Lapisi down. “Fuck you,” he repeated. “Fuck you, and your entire ancestral line, and all your descendants to come. Fuck you and all your close and extended family and all their relatives and their relative’s relatives. Fuck you and your wife and your husband from another life. Hell, fuck your pets and your pet’s pets. Fuck everything that has anything to do with you, your race, and your children of Earth bogus, and your superiority complex. Just plain fucking fuck you, man.”

Lapisi stared at him silently, jaw hanging open in shock. Complete silence had fallen over the Tauans as they all stared at Hunk with the same shock in their eyes.

“…what?” was all Lapisi could say when he finally found his voice.

Hunk glared hotly at him. “Do you know how hard it was to take care of a cave full of giant ants? No! because you weren’t there! My friends and I was! The reason why all of us are still alive is because we all contributed and helped each other. They deserve as much thanks as I do! Maybe even more! They’re the ones who actually killed the creepy insects, not me! And now you’re saying that they don’t deserve thanks because their affinity isn’t with earth but with other substances? Fuck you!”

Lapisi worked his mouth for a moment silently before bristling at him. “How dare – how am I to know that you’re telling the truth?”

Hunk growled in frustration, and the power of the Earth rushed through his veins once more. Earthquake shook the valley they were standing in, and the dirt at the top of the hills began crumbling down in a small landslide. Cracks appeared on the earth, breaking the valley in two. Lapisi stared at him, wide-eyed, fear shining though the black of his pupils.

“You know what I’m capable of,” Hunk growled. “You know that I would be perfectly capable of breaking a dwarf planet in two right now, with the boost you’d given me earlier. Each of my friends are as powerful as I am at the very least, and each of us is attuned to a different element.” He straightened up and cracked his knuckles, and more cracks appeared on the earth. “Perhaps you would like to see a demonstration. How fast do you think we can level your tunnels?”

“Hunk, that’s enough,” Shiro snapped, alarmed. “I think you’ve made your point clear.”

Hunk complied, backing down immediately. The quakes stopped, but he didn’t make any effort to stitch back the valley to what it looked like before. “My point stands,” he murmured, still too upset to say anything else.

Shiro shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later. Princess?”

Allura snapped out of her stupor. “Ah, um, yes.” She straightened up and turned to Lapisi. “I apologize for this behavior. You must forgive the Yellow Paladin, the battle fatigue must be catching up to him.”

Hunk felt his ire spiked at Allura’s word choice, but swallowed it down. He had probably ruined their chances of alliance, best not to make anything worse. He felt Lance approaching though the tremors the Earth sent, and felt the warmth of his gloved hand as he wrapped it around his. Hunk appreciated the gesture, but stayed mum.

“Of course,” Lapisi responded to Allura, sounding shaken, and Hunk felt satisfaction snaking its way to his stomach despite himself. “Still, it is true that his efforts is greatly appreciated. Tell me, is there anything we Tauans could do?”

Allura hummed. “I was hoping that we could form an alliance to stop the Galra Empire for good,” she began, “but honestly, I’m not sure your people would accept such proposal from us, the lowly caste, since we are not of the Earth.”

Hunk blinked and stared at Allura, slack-jawed. The rest of the Paladins mirrored his expression, though Coran appeared unperturbed. Hunk threw Lance a look, which Lance immediately returned; both looks conveying a resounding what in the world is happening here?

Lapisi, too, looked completely taken aback by this. “That… is not what I meant.”

“Oh, I must have misunderstood then,” Allura swiftly replied, though she didn’t sound sorry at all. “In any case, I don’t think an alliance would have worked well for us. However, we will still leave you a communicator device – if ever you need help from Voltron, we will come and lend you a hand.” She turned and produced a small comm device from a pocket Hunk never knew existed and called out, “Taimane?”

Taimane squeaked in surprise. “Um, yes?!”

Allura smiled gracefully at her and gave her the device, wrapping her paws around it and patting her fur gently. “I trust you to hold this device,” she said, eyes staring straight into Taimane’s. “Remember, if you need help from Voltron, call us. We will come to help you as soon as we can.”

Taimane blinked and nodded seriously. “Of course,” she replied, holding the comm device close to her chest. “I will guard this. Your deed will not be forgotten, Your Highness.”

Allura’s smile widened, and she took a step back, looking around at the rest of the Tauans. “Please remember that Voltron is here to protect you,” she announced. “We will never abandon you, so if you need us, we will be here. Thank you for your cooperation. We will take our leave now.” She turned away gracefully and motioned at the others to follow.

The Paladins quickly fell in line, walking behind Allura and Coran to show a more official look. They left in silence, as the Tauans stared at their retreating backs without words.

“Um, Allura?” Lance spoke up once they were far enough away from the Tauans. “You didn’t push for an alliance?”

“I was hoping for it,” Allura sighed, “but frankly, Hunk isn’t the only one who is tired of their… ridiculous philosophy. Coran and I tried to establish an alliance one way or another while you were gone, but all they were talking about was how there was no way a bunch of people who were not of the Earth could take down the Clickjaws.”

“Also, they didn’t seem to regard us as equals,” Coran mused. “The princess had an advantage in that she has a title, but that doesn’t really help either. In the end no one really paid attention to us because we are not of the Earth. Nevermind the fact that Allura could manipulate raw quintessence!”

Pidge huffed. “I’m so glad we didn’t end up forming an alliance after all,” she breathed. “I don’t think I’d be able to stand them.”

“Frankly I’m surprised Coran and I could hold out for so long,” Allura sighed.

“Well, at least we got something good from this whole fiasco,” Shiro shrugged. “Hunk can now use the earth quintessence.”

“Yeah, but the boost the Tauans gave me earlier is starting to wear off,” Hunk admitted. “I’ll have to relearn everything again. I remember how it felt, though, so I should be able to do it quickly.”

“We can help you,” Keith offered, glancing at Lance and earning a nod. “And I need more practice anyway, so we could tackle this issue at the same time.”

Hunk fell silent for a moment, reaching out to the Earth and letting the feelings from the Earth climb up his legs. The music the Earth sang to him was starting to fade, turning into a phantom song that he could barely hear, though he was certain it was still there. The way the power of the Earth had travelled along his body was more than a little frightening, to be completely honest. Hunk honestly wasn’t sure he could deal with the fact that he was able to destroy a dwarf planet if he really wanted to.

Now that the boost bled away from him, though, he began to feel sure that he wouldn’t be able to reach that level of power anymore. He would be able to take control over the earth, sure, but he doubted he’d be able to actually destroy dwarf planets. Even the constant whispers the Earth sent him was starting to feel so far away. Hunk found that he… actually missed it.

Well, he liked how he could feel Earth beneath his skin and on standby, ready to be used if he needed it. He wanted to have it again, to make sure he could protect his teammates all the better. For that, he had to train himself.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed at last. “Let’s train together.”

Keith and Lance both threw him grins, and the rest of the groups smiled fondly. The rest of their walk was spent in silence.

As he walked up the ramp into the Castle of Lions, the phantom song of the Earth was finally cut off, as Hunk was no longer in touch with the actual Earth. Hunk didn’t mind, though. He knew that with enough practice, he’d be able to feel the thrum of the Earth deep within his core.

He couldn’t wait.

[bosstoaster]

Kiss From A Rose

Shunk Week Day 3: Flower Meanings

(Fill 2/4)

Summary: Hunk and Shiro bond over a shared interest in an Altean novel series, which escalates into learning Altean flower language.  It turns out trading flowers is more fun that passing notes.

AKA No one ever make me make up fake flowers ever again

Thank you to @xagrok for beta’ing!

As Shiro opened the door, he nearly walked right into Hunk.  

"Woah, hey there," he called, stepping carefully out of his path.  "Everything okay?"  He glanced back the way he'd come, as though he could see the reason Hunk was rushing, then realized it wasn't because he was in a hurry - it was just that Hunk had his nose in a book.

It took a few moments to respond, and then Hunk blinked and looked up.  "Huh?  Oh, Shiro.  Hello."  Another second passed, and what happened seemed to register.  "Oh!  Did I nearly walk into you?  I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.  I was just distracted."

"I can see that," Shiro replied fondly.  "Good book?"

(Read More Below)

Hunk perked, seeming assured that Shiro wasn't upset at nearly being run over, and he held up his tablet.  "Yeah.  It's one of the ones Coran put through the translator.  It's some kind of romance novel, I think?  Unless I'm really misunderstanding.  But they're kind of like spies about it.  Did you know Alteans have a flower language too?"

"I didn't," Shiro replied, brows up.  "Makes sense, though."

Hunk nodded agreeably, eyes still locked on his novel.  "Yeah.  Juniberries actually mean renewal and growth, fun fact.  I thought that was nice."

Lips curling up, Shiro nodded.  "It is.  What's the name of the book?"

"Blooming at Sunset," Hunk replied, pulling it back up and showing Shiro the cover.  It was a dramatic shadowy meadow with a starlit night sky and two huge moons, along with some kind of ring that looked metal rather than made of ice and space rocks.  Artificial?  In the lone spot of light there was an Altean, back to the cover, their cloak billowing dramatically as they stared into the darkness.  "I know it looks silly, but..."

Shiro waved him off.  "You don't need to defend yourself.  It sounds like you're enjoying it.  I asked so I could look it up myself and see."

Eyes going wide, Hunk blushed faintly.  "Oh.  Good.  It's a good book.  But it's, uh, not for kids.  For the record."

Brows jumping up, Shiro looked over Hunk considerately.  "Are you reading porn?"

"It's not- no, not like that," Hunk replied, swallowing hard.  "I mean, okay, a little bit.  But not really.  There's a few parts that I just wouldn't want to read out loud to my moms, that's all."

Shiro finally cracked, grinning.  "Noted.  Thanks for the warning."

"No problem," Hunk replied.  "I should go check in with Coran on the Yellow Lion repairs.  I'll talk to you later."

Oh, right, Shiro had been heading to talk to Allura.  Well, he'd left early, so he still wasn't late.  "Yes.  Thank you for the recommendation."

To his delight, Hunk went pink again as he nodded and scurried off.  If he'd had a tail, it would have been firmly between his legs.

It was probably mean of Shiro to tease him.  After all, he was essentially Hunk's superior officer.  But, well, Shiro was enjoying Hunk's blush, and he had to get his kicks somewhere.

That in mind, Shiro made his way through the rec room to the other hallway, and he put aside thoughts of the book.

At least, he did until that night, when nightmares lurked, both from his memories and from his imagination.  But the blank, dark walls of his room did him no better.

Then Shiro remembered Blooming at Sunset and reached for his tablet.  Something silly and romantic was a lot better than anything his mind would cook up right now.  So he settled in for the night and began to read.

***

The novel was a light read, and Shiro was done with it well before the day started.  Likely, the only reason it had taken Hunk more than a couple of hours was due to how busy they were.  But it was amazing how much extra time one had when sleep wasn’t in the picture.

So the next morning, Hunk found a piece of paper with a passable sketch of Glagminium flower left on his plate.  Shiro wouldn’t call himself an artist by a long shot, but he could copy something, and he’d found the image of it in the Altean animal and plant glossary also included in Coran’s translated books.  

That and he’d labeled it.  That helped.

Hunk paused at it, surprised, then smiled at Shiro.  “You read it that fast?”

Shiro shrugged one shoulder.  “It was enjoyable.”

“Read what?” Pidge asked, peering over at the drawing.  She reached out to pick it up, but Hunk snagged it up before she could.  She scowled back, no doubt remembering the many times that Hunk had felt no issue in going through her things.

“A novel,” Shiro replied easily.  “It involved Altean flower language.  The Glagminium means ‘thank you’.”

Allura picked her head up and smiled.  “Oh!  Which book was it?”

“Blooming at Sunset,” Shiro told her.

She beamed, eyes sparkling.  “Oh, good choice!  I loved that series as a teenager.  It’s a bit... uh, dramatic, but it’s very enjoyable.”

Lance eyed them all suspiciously.  “Did you two just read the Atlean version of the  latest teen girl craze book?”

“It was quite popular, yes.”  Allura squinted at him.  “I don’t understand why that’s a problem.”

“Because some books get reputations based on their fan bases on Earth,” Keith replied, shrugging.  He pulled over the platter and started to serve himself.  “It’s not a big deal.”

Allura considered him, still ruffled by Lance’s tone, but she finally seemed to decide it wasn’t worth the argument.  Good.  Shiro didn’t want to have to deal with that first thing in the morning, even if he hadn’t technically just woken up.  Actually, especially in that case.  “Yes, it does mean ‘thank you’.  It can also mean the beginning of affections.”

“Oh.”  Shiro paused, surprised.  The book had only mentioned the one meaning.  Huh.  He supposed it was either supposed to be understood, or it was a hidden joke, since it was passed on early between the romantic leads.  “Well, that’s not the meaning I meant.”  He offered Hunk a smile.  “I’m very fond of you already, no beginnings necessary.”

Hunk beamed back.  “Aww!  Thank you.”  He slid the drawing into one of his pockets and started his own breakfast, practically glowing from the compliment.

Not for the first time, Shiro reminded himself to praise Hunk more.  He did so much for the team and he always got so flustered and pleased when someone mentioned it.  Shiro never wanted to take him for granted.

“I haven’t really looked into the translated novels yet,” Pidge admitted, sipping her water.  “I was trying to get better at Altean and read them in the original format.  Translations usually lose something.”

Considering some of the translations he’d read in the past, Shiro nodded.  “True.  But sometimes you just want something light to do.  Let your brain take a break.”

Snorting, Lance reached over and ruffled Pidge’s hair.  “I don’t think you’ve ever heard of that.”

“I take breaks!  I like puzzles.”  Pidge smacked his hand away, huffing, and she shoved her hair back out of her face.  “And we watch plenty of movies together.”

Shiro snorted.  “Well, today’s training will certainly be a break for your brain. It’s going to be reflexes work.”

That earned him a series of groans from everyone except for Keith, who just nodded his understanding.  Shiro smiled at their whines, utterly unbothered.  It was something nearly all of them needed to work on.

Once breakfast was finished, they all broke off to get changed.  When he got to the training room, he saw a piece of paper taped to it.  On it was a picture of a chain of Traynia blossoms, arranged in a neat row.  They were labeled with an arrow like Shiro’s drawing had been.

Each one meant ‘thank you’.  A chain of them meant ‘many thanks’ or ‘overcoming adversity’.  

Now Shiro understood why Hunk had looked like he have been lit from the inside when he got Shiro’s drawing.  It was nice.  Not quite like getting real flowers - all of these were extinct, which Shiro was trying very hard not to think about - but pretty close.

And it was just nice to know that someone was thinking about him enough to draw flowers based on their meaning.

Sliding the drawing into his bag, Shiro started to set up, a soft smile on his face.

***

The trade continued over the next few weeks, to the point that the rest of the paladins started to pick up on the messages as well.

Shiro drew Hunk a bouquet of mixed Drium Tears and Bruxnets, meaning ‘strength’ and ‘intelligence’ when he came up with a clever solution that saved their lives on a mission.

Hunk drew Shiro Chaxwims for ‘rest’ on dozens of sheets of paper and pushed them all under the bottom of his door when he’d had another bad night and looked like it in the morning.

Allura and Coran were delighted, to Shiro’s relief.  He’d been afraid that it would be hard for them to deal with seeing those reminders.  But in hindsight, they lived in a giant reminder of what they’d lost, so perhaps flower language wasn’t so hard to see.  Especially since Allura seemed excited to talk about the book, if anything.

It was also just nice to have something to bond with Hunk over.  While they were on the same team and they trusted each other with their lives, Hunk and Shiro hadn’t had much social overlap outside of the group.  Shiro had history with both Keith and Pidge, just like Hunk and Lance had, and Shiro and Lance at least had common interests and a shared occupation.  What Hunk was good at, like mechanical tinkering and cooking, were some of Shiro’s weaker areas.

So the shared interested in the flower language (more so than the novel, if Shiro was being honest, but he didn’t want to disappoint Allura) was a good bridge, and it got them talking more often.

And it also ended with Shiro offering to help more in the kitchen.

“That needs to be heated first,” Hunk told Shiro, as he started to pour the sticky brown liquid not unlike maple syrup into the sauce.

Shiro paused and frowned, turning to look at him.  “Why?  It’s about to go into the hot pan anyway.”

Hunk shot him a look that said that Shiro should just take his word for it, but he sighed.  “It changes the chemistry of it.”

“Oh.  The consistency?”  Cooking had always been essentially witchcraft to Shiro, but chemistry he knew.  Intellectually, he was aware they were related, but as far as he was concerned, food came already made, either from cafeterias or the frozen food section, so he’d never had to delve into it.

Brows up, Hunk nodded.  “Right.  And it makes dissolving easier.”

Like tea.  Okay, Shiro could understand that.  He put the syrup into the heating element (not a microwave, apparently.  Hunk and Coran agreed on that, though for different reasons, but Shiro still thought it was basically the same idea) and let it warm before adding it.

“Sorry that you have to babysit me,” Shiro told him as he stirred.  Hunk had given him very specific directions not to stop after the last time he’d burned all the liquid out of what he was cooking.  “It really defeats the purpose of offering you a hand.”

Chuckling, Hunk shrugged.  “It’s not all about that.  Well, yes, it’s nice when the food’s edible and we don’t make more of a mess than we have to.  But it’s also about the company.  Food usually is.  You can make a nice meal just for yourself, but it’s so much work just for that.  Fine as an indulgence, but...”  Hunk smiled at Shiro like the sun breaking through clouds.  “It’s better with friends.”

Shiro felt his cheeks heat and he ducked his head to hide it.

Shit.  Hunk was really cute when he said stuff like that.  

Or when he lifted the training bot bodily.

Actually, that wasn’t cute.  That was a different reaction altogether.

Oh, jeez.  Shiro did not need a crush.  He never needed one, but especially not now, when they were the universe’s last line of defence.  Shiro couldn’t afford to be distracted just because Hunk had a lovely smile and work-rough hands and muscles that could lift Shiro and make it look easy.

Damn it all.

“Shiro!”

Picking his head up, Shiro stared at Hunk, and then down at the sauce, which was really more of a puddle at the bottom of the pan at this point.

Shit.

***

Despite that, Shiro found a drawing of a Glagminium and a Rumin taped to the door of his room that night.  Thank you for your help.

Shiro took them down and stored them carefully in the drawer with the others, carefully preserved.

...Damn, okay, he’d had this crush for a while, hadn’t he?

What a bother.

***

Now that he was thinking about it, Shiro couldn’t stop noticing Hunk.  His smile when he made a pun and the rest of the group groaned in pain made Shiro’s heart pick up.  The way he casually pulled everyone, including Shiro, into big hugs made him feel warm for an hour after.  The way his nose crinkled when he concentrated on putting a machine together made Shiro want to kiss away the wrinkles.

It was all incredibly frustrating.

Shiro really needed to do something about this.  Exorcise his feelings, somehow.  Get it out of his system.  He hadn’t had feelings for anyone in years - since before graduation, before training for Kerberos, before everything that happened after - and he’d forgotten what a constant pain it was.

He’d also forgotten how exhilarating it was, but that didn’t matter.  Hunk saw Shiro as a friend, and that was wonderful.  Shiro wasn’t going to push for more than that.  

So what to do?  How to make it go away?  Shiro wished this was like a cold and he could just take his medication until the feelings died off.

He was still musing on that on their next mission, answering a weak distress signal on an otherwise quiet planet.

It turned out to be a quick stop.  The beacon sending off the signal was a barely-active hunk of rusted metal, and the rest of the settlement was in abandoned ruins.  Either they’d died out years ago, or they’d left completely and abandoned their settlement, and no one had remembered to turn off that particular machine.

“Well, at least it’s a nice planet,” Lance offered, as they trudged back through the forest to their lions.

Pidge shot him a flat look.  “For you, maybe,” she replied, voice thick.  “Whatever’s out here is getting past my allergy meds.”

Glancing around, Shiro nodded to the blooms on the bushes and branches of the trees.  “I think it might be pollen season, here.  That would explain why.”

“Great,” Pidge replied, rubbing her nose.  “Let’s get back quickly, alright?”

Keith eyed her in poorly disguised amusement.  “So much for lessons learned from the Olkari.”

That only earned him a huff.  “I appreciate plants a lot more when they’re not trying to convince my body to kill me.”

“Your body isn’t trying to kill itself,” Lance replied, rolling his eyes.  

“Feels like it.”

They stepped out into a field and trudged through the waist-high grasses and plant stalks.  “Sorry, Pidge, I’m with Lance on this one.  It’s a really nice day.”  He stretched comfortably, arms in the air and back arched, and Shiro had to look away quickly so he wouldn’t get distracted.  

Which was why he noticed a push off to the side with bright yellow petals.  “Oh!”

“What’s wrong?” Keith asked, frowning as Shiro suddenly veered off bath.

Picking a few, Shiro held them up.  “These look like Wiyses.  Don’t they?”

“They do,” Hunk confirmed, eyes wide.  “Well, the Alteans traded a lot, and that probably includes flowers and plants.  I’m not surprised something ended up managing to survive somewhere else.”

Pidge frowned.  “Or it’s just convergent evolution.  It just looks like the same flower.”

“Maybe,” Shiro agreed, shrugging.  “Regardless, it’s nice to see.”

“Bring some back to Allura,” Lance replied easily.  “She and Coran will be able to tell if they’re the real deal or not.  And it’ll probably make them happy.  They like your arts and crafts flowers, they’ll like these.”

Nodding, Shiro took a few more and hoped it was enough for a clipping or testing or whatever the Alteans had to make more flowers.  If it wasn’t, they could come back for more.  “Sorry, Pidge.”

“I’ll live,” Pidge replied, though she sighed.  “What do these mean?”

Shiro paused, trying to remember.  “Beauty,” he replied.  “And romantic affection.”  He paused and looked down at them.  “I should probably explain before I just hand these over.”

Reaching out, Lance plucked another one off.  “I’ll give them to Allura,” he offered, brows waggling, and he huffed when Shiro only gave him a flat look.  “She’s beautiful, so it works.  C’mon, I have like five lines all ready to go.”

“Please don’t let him bring any,” Keith muttered.  

“Seconded,” Pidge added.  “This is supposed to be nice, don’t ruin it with your bad pick-up lines.”

Lance placed a hand on his chest.  “They’re great!  Tell ‘em, Hunk.”

Wincing, Hunk hesitated.  “Um.  Yes?”

“Cold, dude.  As if you could do better.”

Rolling his eyes at them all, Shiro bundled the flowers carefully.  “Enough.  I’ll give them to Allura and Coran and just explain the situation and no one has to say anything else.”

That kept them quiet for about a minute.  Then Hunk spoke.  “I could definitely do better.”

Lance stuck out his tongue at him, already stepping into the Blue Lion.  “Yeah?  Prove it.”

“Sure.”  Hunk stepped over to Shiro and plucked one of the flowers out of his hands.  Then he tucked it behind his ear.  “It suits you.”

With that, he turned and followed Lance into the lion.

Shiro stared after him, eyes wide and sure his face was going pink.

“Shit, that was pretty good,” Lance allowed, glancing back at Shiro.  “I was going to quote some Shakespeare, but I guess that doesn’t make sense with Allura anyway.  Alright, fine.  You win.”

Hunk didn’t reply.  He just glanced over his shoulder back at Shiro and offered him a small, warm smile.

Oh.

“Shiro?” Keith called, waving from where he and Pidge were piling back into the Red Lion.  “C’mon, let’s head back.”

“On my way,” he replied, heading after.

Pidge frowned and looked him over.  “I should have gone back in Blue with all this pollen in here, eugh.”  But she seemed to notice his blush and paused. “What did Hunk say?”

Shiro swallowed.  “It was a pretty good line,” he admitted.

“That and you just have a massive crush on him,” Keith muttered, sitting down in the chair.

It was the fact that Allura and Coran hadn’t seen these flowers in years that kept Shiro from throwing the entire bouquet at him.

***

Later that evening, when Coran and Allura were done exclaiming over the flowers (it was the same plant, though a few thousands years of evolution along, so slightly different), Shiro decided to get even.

The manufacturing on the ship was somewhat limited by the supplies they had, but there was plenty of colored plastic (technically not actual plastic, but close enough).  Which was enough to make fake flowers.

Shiro agonized over the choices, flipping through Blooming at Sunset a few times for inspiration.  Finally he just made a list of Hunk’s qualities and cross-referenced it to the flowers.

Patience, intelligence, wisdom, loving, beautiful, caring.

It was a mish-mash without rhyme or reason, and the result looked like Shiro had jammed together a bunch of random plants without any care.  But hopefully Hunk would read into the meanings, or at least enjoy figuring it out on his own time.

Taking a deep breath, Shiro took the bundle and knocked on Hunk’s door.

Opening it, Hunk paused and smiled.  “Hey, what’s- oh, wow.”

Shiro shoved them forward and took a breath, just barely holding onto his dignity.  “I didn’t want to be outdone,” he admitted, smiling.  “I’m a little competitive.”

“No kidding,” Hunk replied, totally dry.  “The guy who was picked to go to Kerberos when he was still a student is competitive.  Who would have guessed?”  Then he looked down at the lot with a smile.  “All this is for me?”

“Yes,” Shiro replied, hands falling awkwardly to his side.  “This time you don’t get labels.  Have fun.”

Hunk smiled back.  “I will.  I have something for you too.”

Frowning, Shiro blinked at him.  “Oh.  What kind of something?”

“Great minds think alike,” was all Hunk replied.  He ducked back into his room, then came back out with a fake flower of his own.

It was a red rose.

“I wanted to be up front,” Hunk admitted, voice thinning with nerves.  “Because I think you- well, when I said that before, I was kind of hoping you might, you know... also.  So.  Here.”  He held out the rose.

Taking it gently, Shiro stared at him.  “Is this a confession?”

Hunk winced and nodded, eyes slamming shut.  “Yeah.  I promise it won’t be weird if you don’t feel the same.  But I thought from your reaction- I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be!” Shiro replied, shaking his head.  “Mine was too.  I was just making you figure it out.”

Hunk’s mouth fell open.  “Oh.  Oh!  You... Oh.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, neither quite sure what to do now.

“Oh, screw it,” Shiro muttered.  Then he leaned forward and kissed Hunk.

Hunk’s lips curled up under his, and he pulled Shiro in a step closer.  “Let’s go on a date first.”

Groaning, because no matter how lovely Hunk was, his puns still sucked, Shiro pulled away.  “You’re something, alright.”

Chuckling, Hunk pressed their foreheads together.  “A good something?”

“Yes,” Shiro replied.  He reached out and tangled their fingers together.  “Want me to stay while you figure out the flower message?”

Hunk nodded and pulled Shiro into his room.

***

The next day, there was a bouquet of the Wiyses on the table, bright and blooming.

No one commented, even when Pidge eyed it warily through breakfast.  But her anti-histamines held, so she didn’t complain.

Peering at Hunk through the yellow petals, Shiro offered him a small, warm smile, which was returned.

Later, he’d have to make a few more flowers, now that he didn’t have to obscure his feelings.

But first, training.

[avidbeader]

Voltron fic: “Scattered” Ch. 21

Okay, Tumblr peeps - you get first look.

Rated T. Genfic/no ships. S2 AU. You can begin at the beginning here or read it on FF-Net and AO3 when I get it posted there sometime this evening. FEEDBACK IS WELCOME.

So, obviously I’m not going to have this done before S3 drops. But I know what I want to do the rest of the way (maybe 3-6 chapters?) and hope to have this thing done by the end of August so I can give more attention to my HP WIP and “The Quintessential Bond”.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

Shiro sat at the window and watched as his father and Keith walked together in the garden, enjoying the morning sun. They had developed the habit back when Keith was first fostered with them, to spend a little time each day walking and talking about anything that crossed their minds. As he watched, Daichi reached over and put an arm across Keith’s shoulders. Instead of stiffening the way Shiro was used to seeing Keith do when other people invaded his personal space, Keith leaned into it. It brought a smile to Shiro’s face.

He heard footsteps behind him and Sayuri ran her fingers in his hair. “How can you still maintain this outlandish cut of yours up there in space?” She had never really liked his undercut.

“They have clippers. Plenty of aliens with hair like ours.”

She laughed a little at that, then took his hand as she sat beside him.

“Takashi, please. Tell me some of it. What is going on up there? How can they expect you to lead a war at your age? With… with children? How can they ask you to kill?”

Shiro pressed his lips together before answering, considering exactly how much to share. “It’s on a different scale than what we think of as war. A lot of what we do is take out giant weaponized robots. Or drones that are commanded by a single central computer that might or might not have a living person running it. I think you could count the number of actual beings we’ve killed on two hands.” That didn’t include the arena, of course, but that was a different conversation for another time.

Sayuri looked a little reassured, but persisted with a mother’s instincts. “And what about the first time?”

“First time?”

“When you and the Holts were taken from Kerberos. What happened to you?”

Apparently they were going to have the other conversation now as well.

She was looking down, focused on his cybernetic hand. Shiro realized that she was imagining experiments and torture, straight out of SF horror films.

Shiro reached over with his human hand and clasped hers. “It wasn’t…it wasn’t vivisection, kaa-chan. Nothing like that. The Galra are a conquering race, not scientists. They send most of their prisoners of war to work camps…or to gladiator arenas.”

Her eyes flew up to his face, zeroing in on the scar that crossed it. “Takashi?”

He swallowed hard. “I had to fight for my life, kaa-chan. Over and over. There wasn’t any way out other than to keep winning.” He ran his tongue around his teeth, trying to work some saliva into a suddenly dry mouth. “I had blocked out a lot of my memories from my imprisonment, but bits and pieces have been coming back. I remember that I tried, every time, to get the others to yield before I hurt them too much. The Galra hated that, but they never stopped me.”

“Did they…did they release them? Or kill them after for surrendering?”

Shiro looked up at her and the concern in her face deepened. He could feel how haunted his eyes must be.

“I don’t know, kaa-chan.”

She put her free hand to his face, drawing him close to press her cheek to his. Shiro managed to bite back the sobs that wanted to break free, but couldn’t stop the tears from spilling over. Sayuri stood and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.

He closed his arms around her and let himself cry it out. For the first time since Kerberos, he felt no shame over the tears. No guilt for showing weakness. Just the release of knowing he had survived, his family was still here, and he was loved.

 <> <> <> <> <>

 Lance hit on an excellent strategy of avoiding his father in the throng by hovering near his grandmother and great-aunts, all of whom insisted he was too thin and plied him with ropa vieja, tostones, and buñuelos. The younger cousins were also a good line of defense, swarming him with questions about space, aliens, and the alive-again Kerberos crew.

Late in the evening, Sara dragged him upstairs to her room and gave him her tablet so he could catch up a little on his social media sites. As he skimmed posts from friends, she leaned over and asked, “You okay?”

He glanced up at that. “Yeah, why?”

“I overheard papá telling mamá that you were going back. Did he try to talk you out of it?”

Lance nodded, the pain of the conversation returning. Blue purred in his mind.

Sara leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. They just want you to be safe.”

“Well, no one on the planet will be safe if I don’t go back.”

She put her arm around him. “You’re serious, aren’t you? It’s just you and four other kids up there fighting an evil empire?”

“And a princess and her adviser. And some space mice. And we’ve got some aliens on our side so far. The Arusians are short people with horns and the Balmerans are rock people, but they support us. And the Metreans.” Lance shivered a little, remembering long, spidery arms. “We’ll find more.”

The tablet pinged with a message: Incoming.

“What the quiznak?” Lance frowned at the message.

“What the what?” Sara laughed and he realized what he had said.

“Sorry, it’s a rude word in Altean.”

“Uh-huh. What’s the message mean?”

A voice sounded from midair. “It means I gave you a bit of warning before freaking you out.”

Sara shrieked and Lance grabbed her to keep her from falling off the bed.

“Pidge!”

She shimmered into view and grinned that gremlin grin that never failed to irritate him. “Yes?”

“What are you doing here?”

She held out a pocket-sized device. Lance recognized it as one of the latest smartphones and took it.

“Giving your family their communicator. It’ll definitely reach the Castle across the solar system and I’m pretty sure that they’ll match the castle’s range. There’s a message option in case we do find a maximum distance on them.” She woke the device and pointed to the lion icon. “They hit this and then blue for you or orange for the Castle. I added the rest of us just in case.” She handed the phone to Sara, who was staring open-mouthed. “Hi, I’m Pidge. Which sister are you?”

Lance jumped in. “This is Sara. Mina’s still downstairs. How did you get in here?”

“Cloaking device, duh.”

“But how’d you know where to come?”

“Tracking option on your cloaking device, duh.”

Lance’s expression turned offended. “You put tracking on these things?”

“So you want to get knocked unconscious while invisible and not be found? I can arrange that.”

Lance felt his face burn red and Sara had recovered enough to laugh. “I like you. How did you get to Cuba?”

“My Lion. I got all the comm devices done and figured I’d deliver them myself. How’s it going here?”

Sara squeezed his arm in support.

“Well, I’ve had the chance to talk to almost everyone who could get here, if I eat any more I’m gonna hurl, my dad tried to tell me I wasn’t going back, and my favorite band broke up.”

“That sounds—wait, what?”

Sara nodded. “They’re scared for him.”

“I get that. I mean, look what happened to my dad and brother and Shiro. Space isn’t the safest place. But if we don’t try and stop the Galra, Earth will get invaded.”

“Maybe you should tell our dad that,” Sara observed. “If he hears it from enough people, maybe he’ll realize that you all really do have to go.”

Pidge shrugged. “Is he really going to listen to a girl half his size?”

Sara snorted. “Appear out of thin air in front of him like you did us. That might impress him.”

“No,” Lance interrupted. “It’s a fifty-fifty chance whether that impresses him or pisses him off.”

Pidge leaned down, looking Lance in the face. “You need us, you call us. Okay? Otherwise we’ll see you back at the Castle. Allura said to be back by 1800 hours tomorrow your time.”

“Wait, that late? That’s over twenty-four hours here. Shiro said we had eighteen hours.”

“Let’s just say Allura didn’t remember that vargas are longer than hours.”

This time her gremlin grin didn’t bother Lance at all.

 <> <> <> <> <>

 Iolana watched as Hunk deftly arranged a plate and handed it to Mr. Araullo, the neighbor who had contributed his boat trailer to the barricade keeping the media crews at a distance. The older man pulled a paper packet out of his pocket and handed it to Hunk, who beamed at him.

More seeds. The neighborhood had jumped on the idea of seeds and starter plants with enthusiasm, taking up a collection and sending a few volunteers to town to purchase some things while others checked their homes and gardens for possibilities. Hunk added the packet to the table that was already filling up with contributions and moved back to prepare another meal for the next person.

Noni stepped up to take over—the three of them had been rotating serving duty during the afternoon’s impromptu party—and pushed Hunk with a plate of cookies toward the group of children who were waiting patiently for him to be free again.

Hunk sat down and started sharing out the cookies. Most of the kids began scarfing them down immediately, which meant only a few were fighting to get their question in first.

“Come on, you know the rule. Take turns by height, shortest one first.”

“I like that rule!”

Hunk’s head snapped up at the familiar voice. “Pidge?”

A small teenage girl appeared out of midair and looked a little abashed at the sea of open mouths around her. “Sorry, I would have tried to be more discreet about it but I thought you should have this.” She handed a camera to Hunk, who took it in bafflement.

“I tripped a guy who was trying to sneak close enough for pictures. He had a press badge on. I don’t know if he already took any. He…might have hit his head a little on a tree, but he’ll probably be fine.”

Hunk frowned and pulled up the digital display to start flipping through the photos. He growled at the first ones showing zoom views into their windows and started deleting them. Iolana and Noni traded looks and Noni slipped out to alert the neighbors currently on guard duty at the barricade and collect some help in checking on the man.

Iolana came forward and Hunk made introductions before offering, “You hungry? We’ve got plenty.”

“Sure, but just a little. I stopped by to give your mom her communicator.” She handed the converted phone to him. “Lion icon to open the program, yellow to contact you, orange to contact the castle. Other colors for the rest of us just in case.”

“Sweet!” Hunk looked up at her and Iolana nodded to indicate she had heard it all.

“That’s very kind of you.” If nothing else, these children were looking out for one another and that was some comfort to a mother’s heart.

As they passed the table that held Hunk’s future garden, he brightened. “Hey, did you fly Green down here?”

“Yeah, came in stealthed to the beach down the cliff.”

“Can we get you to take this stuff back? That way I’ll have more room in the pod for the rest.”

“Sure, what is it?” Pidge asked, looking it all over.

“Everyone’s sharing seeds and stuff so we can grow our own Earth food in the castle!”

The girl’s eyes lit up. “Hunk, you are quiznaking brilliant! Have you got a list of what you’ve collected? We can do the same with the rest of the team!”

Iolana stepped up. “I’ll have Mrs. Lim do it. She loves organizing things.”

“Thanks, Tinā.” Hunk rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait to make Coran try everything!”

Pidge laughed at that. “We should start with things like oatmeal, mashed potatoes. Stuff that’s like their food goo. And then blow their minds.”

Iolana was amused and just a little bit frightened at the maniacal glow in her eyes.

 <> <> <> <> <>

 Keith was doing his best not to simply inhale the food before him.

He had forgotten just how good Sayuri’s cooking was. In the States she had experimented with a variety of ethnic cuisines, teaching Keith to be more adventurous in his tastes.

But the simple early lunch of miso, rice, grilled fish, cucumbers and konnyaku was perfect. He savored the flavors and textures, already regretting the return to the ship and its unending supply of food goo when Hunk didn’t have the ingredients to experiment.

The idea of a grocery run before returning to the Castle occurred to him and he filed it away for after the meal.

Shiro caught his eye and gave him a rueful expression as he took another mouthful of rice, knowing exactly what Keith was thinking.

“I would like to hear more about this princess,” Sayuri commented, helping them to pace themselves with conversation.

Keith shrugged. “What do you want to know? She’s a princess. I think she’s my age or older but not as old as Shiro. She’s a pretty good diplomat but better at leading, if that makes sense.”

Shiro added, “And she can handle herself on an infiltration mission.”

Sayuri nodded and suddenly focused on Keith. She reached out with a napkin to dab at his face. “You’ve got something—”

Keith shot back from her, knocking his chair over as he jumped to his feet.

Shiro rose as well. “Keith?”

Keith balled his fists as he struggled to shove away the flashback. You’re safe, you’re safe, it’s not him, you can breathe… He tried to force more air into his lungs to prove it.

He could hear their voices, as if from a distance, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.

Shiro’s voice broke through the haze. “Keith, you’re hyperventilating! Slow down!” Hands on his shoulders steadied him, guiding him back to a chair.

He felt arms around him. Sayuri was trying to speak to him. “Keith, what is it?”

He still didn’t feel like he had enough air to breathe, much less speak. Red rumbled in his mind, It is all right, my cub. It is safe, you are safe.

Her presence steadied him and he managed slower, shuddering breaths. “Sorry,” he gasped, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands. “I’m sorry.”

As Shiro’s parents made concerned noises and Shiro knelt in front of him, Keith heard a tapping nearby. He looked up and saw Pidge in the doorway.

Shiro followed his gaze and rose. “Pidge? Is anything wrong?”

“No! At least…I was just bringing your parents their communicator.” She stepped forward, bowed uncertainly, and held out the modified smartphone to Shiro’s father. “Open the lion icon. Black is Shiro, red is Keith, orange is the castle, the other colors are the rest of us. It allows messages if we don’t answer.”

Daichi took the communicator and returned the bow. “Thank you.”

Pidge turned to Keith. “Are you okay?”

Keith hesitated, but nodded. “I will be.”

Sayuri ran her hand through his hair. “What did I do that frightened you?”

Shiro noticed Pidge’s expression shift to an “a-ha” realization. “Pidge?”

“I thought the lions told you all.”

“Told us what?”

“Darzi,” Keith interrupted. The last thing he wanted was Pidge giving the details to Shiro and his parents like he was helpless. “Darzi came close to suffocating me. I’m still a bit…jumpy…about hands near my face.”

Shiro knelt once more and moved very slowly and deliberately to lay his hands on either side of Keith’s face. Keith inhaled sharply but didn’t jerk away. Shiro spoke in a low voice. “The lions did tell us. I didn’t realize you were having flashbacks about it.”

Keith shrugged, starting to feel crowded by everyone hovering over him. “I’ll get over it.”

Shiro looked ready to argue. Daichi gently tugged him back but circled to face Keith. “Should we find someone for you to talk to, ask the princess to let you stay here a few weeks?”

“No! We have to go back now! Every day we delay in fighting Zarkon, the stronger he gets!” Keith drew in breath to continue his argument, but paused at a sudden squeal from a bouncing Pidge.

Shiro looked at her in bewilderment. “Pidge? What’s going on?”

“That’s it! That’s how we convince my mom to come with us!”

“Okaaaay… How?”

“Her other major in college was psychology! She can be our ship’s counselor!”

 <> <> <> <> <>

 Pidge walked into the family room to find her parents sitting together with a tablet as her mom caught her dad up on the news. Matt was sprawled across the loveseat, working his way through a bowl of popcorn and watching the sequel to a favorite movie that had been released while he was on his way to Kerberos.

She crossed over to Matt and shoved his legs out of the way so she could sit. He stuck his tongue at her and she buried her hand in his bowl to scoop out some popcorn.

“Hey!”

Colleen looked up. “If you’re hungry, Katie, there’s—”

“I’m not. Just wanted the salt. I’ve had food in Cuba, Samoa, and Japan and I’m full.”

“All the comm units delivered?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, everyone’s set.”

Colleen asked, “Where’s ours?”

The other three traded looks and Pidge licked her lips. Now or never…

“Well, what if I told you I had a great idea, Mom?”

Colleen’s eyes narrowed, but she put the tablet down. “I’m listening.”

“I know Dad and Matt want a few weeks here to sort of catch up on things. But I know we can use Matt as another comms specialist to support Coran and Dad would have all kinds of opportunity to study xenobiology.”

Colleen’s expression hardened just a little, hearing it said out loud that her family was ready to leave the planet again.

Pidge drew a deep breath. “You could dust off your second degree and be our Deanna Troi.”

Matt let out one startled yelp of laughter at the reference before clapping a hand over his mouth. His eyes danced in glee at the idea.

Sam’s expression brightened at the thought. “That’s got potential. I know you kids are incredibly capable—I saw it myself when you all rescued Keith from the Garrison—but you’re all still kids fighting the front lines of a war.” He turned to Colleen. “You wouldn’t be just tagging along and feeling useless. You’d be filling a role that is genuinely needed.”

Colleen looked stunned. “But…I’m not qualified. I’ve been working in chemistry all this time. I’m not licensed.”

Matt broke in with enthusiasm. “You’re trained, Mom! You just need to brush up on the latest advances! And I don’t think they’re going to require a license on the Castle-ship.”

“And we’d all be together, Mom,” Pidge added softly. “Please say you’ll think about it?”

Her mother looked at all of them, expressions full of hope that she would say yes. “I… yes, I’ll think about it.”

 <> <> <> <> <>

 As the time grew near for the paladins to return, Allura went down to the hangar for the pods and waited. Hunk was the first one to arrive, bursting with excitement and throwing dozens of questions at her about greenhouses and gardens within the castle. She finally managed to break in and suggest he consult with Coran later, just as Lance arrived.

A few minutes later, a screen appeared, showing Pidge on the command deck. “Where is everyone?”

“We’re at the pods. Shiro and Keith haven’t returned yet and we’re waiting on them. When they get here, could you meet us in the chamber that housed my father’s A.I.?”

“Sure thing, Princess. Coran said you might need my help?”

“Possibly. Did your father and brother return as well?”

“Not yet. I need to talk to you about that when we have a chance.”

Allura was about to reply but spotted the last pod entering the hangar. “They’re here!”

As Shiro and Keith exited the pod, Allura spied a pile of bags in the space behind their seats that looked to hold foodstuffs. Lance had a similar stash, and of course Hunk was already off and running with the notion of growing Earth foods here. Allura bit her lip, trying to stamp down a sudden stab of jealousy that the paladins still had access to their home planet, their families. She would never hug her father again, smell a juniberry flower, or taste a cup of hot kavisia.

Then she noticed that Shiro was hovering a little over Keith, who looked like he hadn’t slept well. And her mission took first place in her thoughts again.

“Paladins, would you follow me?”

She led the group to the A.I. chamber and through its door. Pidge was already there and looking around curiously. When Allura turned to face them, they were all wearing expressions of confusion. Shiro looked concerned. “What’s going on, Princess? I thought your father’s holoprogram was corrupted beyond repair.”

Allura straightened her posture and stamped down her grief. “Yes, it was, but the hardware itself was undamaged. It’s still functional. Coran?”

“Ready, princess!” The adviser’s voice echoed from somewhere.

And suddenly they were all in the cryo-room of the Castle, looking out from inside a pod as its shell dissolved. Allura heard Lance let out a startled squeak and suddenly remembered his experience with the rogue healing pod. Perhaps she should have shown this to just Keith after all…

As they watched, they realized they were seeing through Coran’s eyes. He spotted them and shouted, “Enemy combatants!” He charged toward Lance, the one closest to him, only to lose his balance. “Quiznak! You're lucky I have a case of the old ‘sleep chamber knees’.”

As they watched, the scene got more and more ridiculous and even Lance was both giggling and covering his rapidly-reddening face. “Oh my god, why did I do that?”

The scene ended abruptly at Allura’s horrified cry of “It can’t be!” They could see the walls of the chamber once more. Coran stepped out from a recessed area with a control panel of some sort.

Pidge tilted her head. “So, you didn’t need me after all?”

Coran shook his head. “No, it’s all working perfectly, just as we needed.”

Lance was leaning on Hunk, hiding his blushes and laughing into his friend’s shoulder. Shiro patted Lance’s back and stepped forward. “Amusing as that was, may I ask why?”

Allura drew in a breath. “I want to ask Keith to record his memory of that man’s assault and enter it as evidence for his trial.”

She had been focusing on Shiro, but her eyes snapped to Keith as he staggered back slightly. Allura’s heart jumped—she had never seen any of the paladins’ faces turn that pale! She darted toward him, even as Shiro turned and steadied him.

“Keith! I’m sorry! I thought—I was trying to help!”

He raised a hand, visibly collecting himself. Pidge moved to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“No, I’m sorry. I should have a handle on this. I just…don’t want to remember it.”

“I think that’s kind of her point, buddy,” Hunk offered. “Which would be better, going through it once here, where you know it’s safe and we’ve all got your back, or having to testify at a court-martial?”

Allura couldn’t believe it, but Keith’s face now rivaled her hair for whiteness. His indigo eyes were huge. But he showed his mettle as a paladin immediately. “Will…will they accept it? Can they accept it as evidence? They don’t have the technology to access Altean files.”

“Oh, I can help with that,” Pidge volunteered.

“Actually, my intention was to insist that the proceedings be held here, as the wronged sovereign nation.”

Shiro frowned, his doubt showing in his tone. “That might work. Usually we look for a neutral venue when it’s needed.”

“Well, if your planet wishes to be seen as equal to others in the greater universe, they’ll need to accept the Interstellar Charter of Cooperation. I’m citing one of its rules when it comes to disputes concerning attacks on a royal personage or their representatives.”

She didn’t dare look at Coran. The Paladins didn’t need to know that the charter had been drafted, but never fully ratified before Zarkon began attacking on an interplanetary scale. Neither did Earth.

Making this Darzi pay for what he did to Keith was all that mattered.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

Thanks for reading! More to come!

[asian-hero]

Prompt: I’m a slut for flustered Shiro, hold you do a single parent shiro imagine where his daughter accidentally outs his crush on the reader ?

hi i’m dumb and wrote this with a female reader in mind. i know that shiro is confirmed queer in canon and i don’t want to leave my male readers hanging, so this one has male pronouns in it! hope you enjoy!

the one below this is the female version!

If there was one thing that Shiro loved more than the universe, it had to be his daughter. After coming back to Earth, he spent a lot of time by himself. Of course, he’d usually spend his days training with the MFE’s and training them into one of the best defenders of Earth. He’d also go out and talk to some children about the Galaxy Garrison and why it’s a good place to join. But after all of that, Shiro spent his nights alone, either busing himself with paperwork or training to keep his mind off of things. He always convinced himself that he didn’t have time for anything else.

His continuous volunteering at elementary schools to supply them with information about the Garrison had him questioning why he was even going there in the first place. With his position as captain, he could very well have any other officer under his rank do this task rather than him, but he refused to let anyone else go. Watching all of the kids looking at him in amazement as he told stories about his space travels made him realize that there was something missing in his life. Of course, before, with Adam, they’d planned to adopt kids after they got married, but that plan never happened. Shiro thought that he was only thinking about kids because of his partner, but he never realized that he would actually want children himself. 

So after a tedious adoption process, making sure that he wasn’t a criminal or anyone dangerous, he was finally put onto the list. That list in itself made him rather anxious, as he couldn’t wait to adopt a kid. Finally, after months and months of waiting rather impatiently, Shiro was finally allowed to adopt. Instead of adopting a baby like most folks did, he decided that he had no idea on how to take care of something so little so he decided to adopt a little girl, who was only seven.  Her name was Alice, and from that day forward, she was the most important person in his life. 

It was fair to say that everyone in the Garrison was used to Alice’s presence by the second week. Shiro refused to put Alice in daycare and would send harsh glares at anyone who questioned why a little girl was in the captain’s office. Of course, there were days when Alice would get restless and Shiro would let her go and run around with the supervision of Keith, who was less than thrilled about taking care of of kid, even if it was just for a few minutes. Most of the time she would stay inside his office, talking his ear off about anything and everything.

“—and then we went to the training room where I saw auntie Allura flip uncle Keith!”

Shiro smiled at his daughter, a fond look on his face. “Wow sweetheart, you weren’t near them, were you?”

She shook her head, a pout forming on her face. “No, uncle Keith said that I had to stay by the wall.”

Shiro huffed out a laugh, finishing off the last of his paperwork. “Well, he was probably making sure that you wouldn’t get hurt when they were sparring.”

“What’s sparring?” 

“It’s like play fighting. You don’t actually try to hurt each other, you just try to work on your skills.”

Alice made a face. “Auntie Allura seemed like she was hurting uncle,”

Shiro laughed wholeheartedly at that, fixing his desk before going to pick Alice up. “Well, don’t tell auntie Allura this, but she’s too strong for her own good.”

Shiro felt his smile growing larger at the sound of his daughter’s giggling. As they were heading back home Shiro decided to bring up a new topic: “So, are you ready to start school tomorrow?”

Alice nodded her head enthusiastically, wiggling a bit in his grip. “Yeah! I wanna make friends!”

The rest of the drive home consisted of Alice excitedly talking about going to school the next day. Takashi “Golden Boy” Shirogane was so thankful for having a kid who liked school.

———

The next day was the first time that Shiro had ever taken a day off. When he called in, telling Iverson that he wouldn’t be in, Iverson immediately began to question him. He asked whether or not Shiro was sick, if someone died, if Shiro died again and Allura resurrected him. 

After about ten minutes of assuring Iverson that, no, he wasn’t sick, and no, no one had died, he went to check up on his daughter, who was currently getting dressed for school. Knocking on the door, he called for her:

“Hey, sweetheart, you almost done? We’ll be late!”

At the sound of his voice Alice opened the door, a gigantic grin on her face. “Let’s go!”

Tugging her father’s hand, she ran towards the door, eliciting a laugh from Shiro. Once they were in the car, Alice kept telling Shiro about how excited she was to start school, and that she couldn’t wait to meet her teacher. 

Fifteen minutes later and they finally made it to the school. Getting out of the car, he moved to open the door for Alice, helping her out of it. Locking the car, he took her hand in his, allowing himself to be pulled along to the entrance.

“Do you know who your teacher is?” Shiro asked, looking around at the first grade section of the building.

“Mr. (y/l/n)!” Alice said happily. 

Shiro nodded his head, walking over towards the first grade classrooms and looking at the name tags. He finally reached a door with little birds surrounding a name tag reading “Mr. (y/l/n)’s First Grade Class”. Walking inside the class he was greeted by twenty or so little kids jumping around while the parents were huddled in a corner. He let go of Alice’s hand, kneeling down to meet her eyes.

“Go and make some friends, okay? I’ll go talk to your teacher,”

Alice nodded, skipping away to talk to some of her classmates. Standing back up, Shiro brushed his shirt off and scanned the room, looking for the teacher. When he finally found the teacher, he felt himself freeze.

Yes, Shiro may have come in contact with an Altean princess who was extremely gorgeous, and yes, he’s also met many alien men who were also exceptionally attractive, but he doesn’t think that they could compare to you. 

You were currently getting some things in order on your desk, your glasses slipping down your nose slightly. Seeing how you were flustered with the amount of kids in your room only added to your attractiveness. There was a sort of domestic aura that you omitted that made Shiro want to get to know you. Walking over to you, he cleared his throat to gain your attention.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Takashi Shirogane, Alice Shirogane’s dad.”

You looked at him for a second, momentarily dazed by how attractive he was, before shaking his hand. “(y/n) (y/l/n), it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Letting go of his hand, you pointed at him, brows furrowing slightly, “Aren’t you from the Garrison?”

Shiro nodded his head, flushing slightly. “Ah, yeah. I’m the captain of the Atlas,”

Your eyes widened in realization. Pushing back your hair you frantically tried to look “presentable”. “I’m so sorry, I’m just a little frazzled—“

“That’s alright,” Shiro laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s the first day of school, everyone’s freaking out.”

You nodded your head, a sheepish smile on your face. Taking a deep breath, you calmed yourself. “Well, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Today we allow the parents to stay in the class, to get an understanding of what we’ll be doing,” You pointed towards the corner of parents, “Parents sit over there.”

Shiro nodded his head, a smile of his face. “Alright, thank you.”

Once he left, you let out a huge sigh. Looking at the clock, you readied yourself, starting the class off.

“Good morning class!”

———

“So how was your first day?” Shiro asked, holding his daughters hand while walking out to the car.

“Amazing!” Alice squealed, “I met so many friends today! And Mr. (y/l/n) is so nice!”

Shiro nodded his head, a smile creeping onto his face at the thought of you. Buckling Alice in, he got into the drivers seat, looking at her through the rear view mirror.

“Hey Alice, can you keep a secret?”

That seemed to catch her attention, as she nodded rapidly, an excited look on her face. Shiro sighed, a content look on his face.

“I think I have a crush on Mr. (y/l/n),”

Alice gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. “What?”

Shiro put a finger to his lips, making a quiet “shh” noise. “You can’t tell anyone though,” Thinking back to your flustered state, he grinned, “But I think he’s very handsome.”

Alice squealing in the backseat made Shiro’s smile grow in size. Sighing, he kept his eyes on the road and prayed that Alice wouldn’t say anything to you about it. He was debating on whether or not it was a good idea on telling his young daughter about his secret crush on the teacher.

———

It was not a good idea to tell Alice about his crush on you. The next morning Shiro woke Alice up and started their day by making her pancakes, then dressed in his uniform. After breakfast Alice was ready to go to school. Hopping into the car, Shiro quickly, but safely, drove them to the school, just like yesterday.

Once they were there, Shiro went to help Alice out of the car and walked her to your class, and that’s when Shiro regretted his life choices.

“Mr. (y/l/n)!” Alice quickly rushed over towards you, a gigantic smile on her face.

You leaned down, smiling as you greeted her. “Good morning, Alice. You seem excited.”

She nodded her head. “I need to tell you something, but you need to promise that you’ll keep it a secret!”

She held out her pinkie finger, and Shiro’s gut dropped to the floor. You laughed, entwining your pinkie with her’s. “Alright, what’s up?”

“My dad told me he has a crush on you.”

You raised an eyebrow, looking at the extremely embarrassed man behind her. “Is that so?”

She nodded her head. You smiled, patting her on the shoulder. “Why don’t you go and talk to the other students?”

Alice chirped in agreement, running off to see some of her friends. Standing back up, you crossed your arms, a smirk finding its way onto your face.

“So,” You started, “A crush, you say?”

He turned away from you, his face starting to heat up. “Yeah, you can ignore what she said.”

You tilted your head in confusion for a second, before walking over to your desk and scribbling something on a piece of paper. Tearing the piece off, you handed it to him, a smile on your face.

“Well Mr. Shirogane, I know that you’re a busy man, so I won’t keep you here. But when you want to tell me about your little ‘secret’, call me.”

With that, you walked over to the group of students, ushering them to their assigned seats. Shiro looked down at the tiny piece of paper, smiling at the numbers that stretched across it. Looking at you one last time, he walked out of the class, tucking the small paper into his uniform pocket.

He couldn’t wait until his shift was over.