#Platonic Shance

[mothmanavenue]

while the black paladins is a brilliant episode of voltron and one of the better ones, frankly i felt cheated that the confrontation came with no resolution between shiro and lance, when it was lance who through the seasons was on the bad end of Kuron’s abuse and rapidly deteriorating temper.

it would’ve been, in my opinion, a more fulfilling conclusion for lance to have been the one to have the final showdown with kuron and bring shiro back home AND it would’ve been the payoff of lance slowly developing as a character in season 4 where it seemed like he was being groomed for the role of black paladin (another voltron storyline with an unsatisfactory ending how did they keep fucking up good premises-)

so here i offer you The Black Paladins, the alternate ending (wherein lotor isn’t the bad guy because seriously what kind of lessons is the abused becomes the abuser) where keith gets back too late to help shiro but in time to step up and protect his friends and team after missing them for years, while lance’s story comes full circle with him, again, rescuing shiro, not as a hero, but as a friend :)

[icypantherwrites]

New Fic: Stay with Me

Summary: Lance is bleeding out and despite how fast Shiro slogs them through the bog he knows he’ll never make it to help in time. The only chance Lance has is if Shiro can somehow stop the bleeding but he doesn’t have any bandages on hand. But… he does have a metal hand that would be more than capable of cauterizing the wounds shut…

Story snippet:

Shiro cast his eyes back down to the too pale face that was a direct contrast to the bright red blood that painted the boy’s entire stomach and chest where what Shiro could only call a dinosaur alligator monster had erupted with no warning out of the bog in front of them and clamped its entire mouth around Lance in one bite.

It was honestly a miracle he hadn’t literally been chomped in two.

The boy’s high scream was not one Shiro would ever get out of his head even as he’d surged forward and driven a violent purple wreathed prosthetic arm straight through the alligator’s head and sent both gore spattering and eyes dulling. 

Lance hadn’t quite screamed then as Shiro had ripped an arm through the alligator’s snout, completely removing the upper piece and pulling its teeth out of Lance with a new splatter of blood, but the choked inhale was almost worse.

Shiro though hadn’t had time to be gentle though as the alligator’s carcass was already starting to sink and Lance was attached to it. He’d dragged Lance off the teeth embedded in his back and the boy had convulsed in his arms and vomited up both bile and blood all down Shiro’s front.

“Sh-Shiro,” Lance had choked out as Shiro had hoisted Lance as much as he could out of the chest deep water and into his arms, his entire body trembling as pinpricked, terrified ocean eyes had sought out Shiro’s face, blood mixing with the bog water.

Shiro faintly had wondered how many more creatures that was attracting.

Read it here

[corruptedplaylist]

act iii officially started!

hi this is like almost 5 days late bc i was traveling but ch 13 of looking out for you is up for act iii🎊

i've moved my updates to every saturday so get excited for another one very soon!

highlight reel for chapter 13: shiro and lance platonic bonding, klance development, the return of group shenanigans!

[sylveon-and-velveon]

Hear me out:

Shance

But Lance likes crossdressing as a woman {Ya'll can make up his "female" name lol}. So much so that everyone thinks he's a woman the entire time because they met him when he was crossdressing nearly 90% of the time.

At some point Shiro {or if ya wanna be really fucking angsty, Kuro/Kuron} finds out Lance is actually just a dude that likes crossdressing, and promises to keep it a secret.

Platonic or romantic? Your choice!

Would Lance wear wigs when crossdressing? Yes!

Would Lance wear makeup when crossdressing?

YES!!!

Basically like a "Reverse Pidge" situation. But it's only happened because he's a crossdresser XD

[ashkazora]

shance, kurance, lancelot, plance for the ship meme please

HOOO BOY. lets go.

Shance:

No matter what I would die for Shance. Healthy, unhealthy, canon, au, they’re all so fuckin good. Shance is one of the most versatile ships, and I love it. Not much to say, except more people should discover how beautiful Shance is.

Kurance:

Look. I like it. But I’m very specific circumstances. Though I think their platonic relationship is a bit more interesting than a romantic one, their complicated relationship intrigued me. Especially because of how Kuron treated Lance, and how Lance perceives Kuron (Shiro).

Lancelot:

I say this with a lot of love, but I love lancelot in the most toxic way possible. They're really fun when they're soft and loving, but them as worsties? *chefs kiss* delicious. The drama. The toxicity. The angst. I want them to be the worst couple ever. That, or the cutest. I love their relationship being Horrifying™️ as y’all who have read wirip could probably tell.

Plance:

This is the one ship that I just have fluffy feelings over. Friends to lovers all the way. Just two dorks in love, tbh. I usually read more plance over platonic relationships but that’s because I really dislike how fanon portrays their relationship (and IMO plance writers just do it better). But this one, I’m 50/50 over a ship/friendship. No matter what, love their dynamic.

Send me any ship and I’ll put em in a ship bingo!

[verdantmeadows]

Ranking the VLD ships I know!

Warning for a "hated" tier, if you know you have a Voltron ship that upsets you to see it hated by someone, don't read this! Nothing on here is personal towards anyone and their ship tastes, this is just what I like.

I'm only on Season 2 Episode 8 and this is my first time watching Voltron! No spoilers please! Everything is romantically shipped except in the "love it nonromantically" tier.

OTP and actively ship it: Klance OTP for character: Shiro x Adam, Hunk x Shay Love: Coran x Shiro, Slav x Shiro Like: Matt x Shiro, Alfor x Coran Love it nonromantically, i.e., familially or platonically--the relationship is just important to me: Shallura (platonic), Allurance (platonic), Coran & Allura (familial), Coran & the Paladins (familial/platonic), all the Paladins with each other (familial/platonic), Sheith (familial), Shance (familial/platonic), Allura & the Paladins (familial/platonic), Hance (platonic), Shaladin (familial/platonic) Dislike: Allurance, Pidge x anyone (I headcanon him as aro)

Hate: Allura x anyone (due to her ambiguous age/I headcanon her as aroace), Shaladin, Sheith, anything I listed as familial in the "love it nonromantically" section, any ships with Keith that aren't with Lance, any ships with Lance that aren't with Keith

[fuckthisshitimin]

Lance: Shiro? I think I'm confused.

Shiro: It's okay, it'll pass, you're probably just bisexual.

[mizu-writes-kumo]

Chapter Title: But I Got You

Pairing: Shance

Rating/Warning: T, disappearances, reunions.

Chapter Summary:

“This is Captain Takashi Shirogane of the IGF Atlas.” Shiro called into the radio to return the signal’s call.  “We have heard your signal and responded.  Please respond with your name, ship, coordinates, and your issue.”

The signal stopped broadcasting.

Then a pause.

“IGF Atlas, this is...Captain Takashi Shirogane of the IGF Atlas”  Came the return answer over the radio.  The voice on the other end is exactly similar to his own.  “We are sending our coordinates through now.  But...ugh...this is weird, but I think we have one of your crew members.”

AN: I wrote some more Reality!Kidnapped!Lance AU.  Cause I like it, and I have fun thinking about it.  This is sort of the end part of the idea...but it doesn’t really have a middle.  So I hope you enjoy.

[incorrectvld-quotes]

Shiro: Thought I was meowing back to Black for the past hour.

Shiro: Turns out it was just me and Lance meowing back and forth from diffident rooms in the house.

[icymakesazine]

I’m so excited to be able to share this! <3

I commissioned @heyheroics for some cover art for “Brothers in Arms” zine and she has more than delivered my “group hug with Lance in the middle and rough them up please” prompt. Anyone who purchases a copy of this zine will get not only this beautiful artwork to cherish but you can know that a portion of the sales are also going to an artist too! Yeah for supporting other small time artists and writers!

The final image will be all in soft grayscale with their armor colors in muted tones. 

“Brothers in Arms” is a fanfiction zine chock full of platonic Hance, Klance, and Shance works by yours truly. Preorders will be opening in mid-September with zines scheduled to ship out early December. Be sure to follow @icymakesazine for all updates!

Brothers in Arms indeed, huh?

AO3 | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Bookshop

[angstalottle]

Ice In His Veins

Part 1:

Lance knew that the mission was important and that they really did need the plant Allura sent them to collect but... Lance really fucking hated the cold!

Him and Shiro had been dropped off on a tiny ice covered planet to find a glowing pink plant that was supposed to be even better at healing then the pods.

Their suits were designed to protect them from the cold and as long as they got back to the lions before night fell they would be fine.

But that didn’t stop Lance from feeling miserable as he shuffled along behind Shiro, arms wrapped around himself in a vain attempt of gaining some warmth.

“I still don’t get why we couldn’t just fly right to the flower” Lance groaned as he nearly tripped in the thick snow for what seemed like the thousandth time today.

“We’ve already been over this Lance” Shiro sighed not even offering the blue paladin a glance over his shoulder as he continued onwards. “Almost the entire planet is a frozen ocean. It’s safe enough for us to walk on but if we land the lions in the wrong place then they could end up falling through with us inside.”

Of course Lance knew that, he wasn’t stupid he just wanted to complain while he felt so miserable. He was from Cuba for Christ’s sake! He was meant for hot beaches and warm suns, not ice and snow as far as the eye could see.

“I just hate the cold” Lance grumbled earning a shrug from his leader.

“Well the sooner we find the plant the sooner we can get home.”

Lance stopped in his tracks.

Home...

He knew Shiro meant the castle but some part of him couldn’t help but think of returning to his home and family. To actually get away from this war and the terror of dying every day.

To go back to being a kid and not a soldier...

God he wanted that so much.

Lance was so caught up in his own misery that he didn’t notice just how far ahead Shiro had gotten.

Or the fact that what he thought was a snow mound next to him had now stood up.

Lance realised both these things very quickly when large clawed paw swiped at him and sent him flying right into Shiro knocking him to the ground.

For a brief moment everything was silent and the two just lay there.

Then the monster roared and Lance began to scream.

————

Shiro hated to admit it but Lance had been bugging him all day.

He just never seemed to stop complaining no matter how long they were out here. Surly he would have adjusted to the cold by now?

He felt a little bad when he began to increase the distance between the two of them so he could gain a little break from well Lance.

It wasn’t like there was any threats to be aware of, Pidge said herself that the planet was way too cold to support life for long and that nothing lived on the planets surface beyond vegetation.

He had taken those words as the gospel truth right up until he face planted into the snow.

It barely took him a second to twist his body to be sitting upright and alert.

His eyes widened at the sight in front of him.

It looked like a pile of snow had come alive, a huge mound of it moving with slick white legs and wickedly long black claws. If Shiro wasn’t looking directly at it then there was no way he would have spotted it.

The creature was looking down at one of its claws as a long grey tongue came out and licked at them.

Just as it looked at them and began to raw Shiro realised it had been licking up blood.

Something he only figured out when Lance began to scream in agony.

Shiro was torn between which needed his attention more in that moment.

The need to attack vs the need to protect fought within him before Lance finally won.

He blue paladin was curled up on his side still draped over Shiro’s legs.

His eyes where scrunched up in pain and his teeth were gritted tightly together as sweat trickled down his face.

Shiro had no idea what was causing him so much pain but was nothing short of terrified by scream along.

His eyes flicked back up to the creature that for the moment seemed content with where it was so Shiro carefully pulled Lance closed and snakes his arms underneath him.

No sooner had his hands grazed the other paladins back did the screaming start again, this time though Lance thrashed violently to roll away.

Shiro had no choice but to let allowing Lance to curl up just off to his side trembling and huddled in a small ball.

Shiro stared at him. He reached out to offer comfort when the red dripping from his own fingers caught his eyes.

A trail of red that led right to the scratch mark cutting through Lance’s back and oh god Shiro felt sick when he was sure he could see frayed pieces of tissue and muscle sticking out of the wound.

It looked almost like Lance had been hooked onto the creatures claw before momentum tore him and his back free leaving more damage then Shiro could even begin to process.

Shiro swallowed his bile and reached a shaking hand towards Lance. “C-come on buddy, I’ve got you it’s going to me o-ok” he stuttered right as the creature began to howl and more mounds of snow stood up surrounding them.

[chibibi-chan]

This wouldv’e been nice

The least you could do was give them this if you were gonna kill off their love interests :)

[icypantherwrites]

New Fanfiction: Give and Take

Warning: rated M, rape/non-con, violence

Summary: They would never allow Lance, an outsider, to be with their princess, the men had sneered. He wasn’t worthy enough. And tonight they would make sure he absolutely never would be.

But things don’t quite go according to their plans. The only solution now to save themselves is to hide the evidence of their actions and kill Lance.

But that plan doesn’t quite go accordingly either. And Shiro is going to make sure it never does.

[blueplanettrash]

mk so i had a prompt idea a few days ago, and i was wondering if you could write about lances hair after he died, like it doesn’t even have to be angsty(it can tho, i love me some good angst) but just like him realizing that it’s turning white and freaking out, and trying to hide it from the team. and maybe after they find out one of the paladins teaches him to dye his hair or helps lance accept it, i dunno. i tried writing it earlier but i wanna see someone else run with it

I hope you enjoy! 💙

“What the crow,” he mumbled peering into the mirror in his bathroom. He pulled his hair back and to the side, hoping he wasn’t actually seeing what he thought he was.

“Oh hell no,” he shook his head, backing away from the mirror and pulling his helmet back on. He grumbled as he stomped back to his pilot seat and slumped back against it. He had seen that he was gradually growing in white hair but when he woke up that morning, his entire head was lacking pigment.

He wasn’t exactly surprised about it what with all the stress, combined with Allura’s altean magic. Not to mention the fact that Shiro’s also gone silver fox after a run in with Allura’s magic. At least he can pull it off though. He just looks like a kid playing an old person in a play or something.

He was glad that it was his turn to be alone in Red this time and he could have his mini freakout alone.

“Are you back yet Lance? We’re on to naming our first dates,” Hunk suddenly said. He let out a short squeak and took in a quick panicked breath.

“Whoa, are you okay?” He asked in concern, popping up on the dash. Lance pouted but nodded. “Is there something wrong?”

“No, I’m fine. Just bored,” he muttered, looking away from the monitor.

“Tell us about your first date with Jenny!” Hunk yelled, throwing his face towards the monitor.

“Ugh, no,” Lance groaned.

“Oh come on! Keith told us about his first date!” Hunk pleaded, gesturing towards Keith’s face on his dashboard.

“What? Really? Anything interesting?” He asked, suddenly intrigued. Keith rolled his eyes and looked away while everyone else burst into laughter.

“Oh man! You know that James Griffin guy? He asked Keith out and he didn’t know it was a date!” Hunk laughed, collapsing back against his chair.

“What? How?” Lance laughed, looking over at Keith.

“How was I supposed to know he wanted an actual date!? We’re rivals, we hate each other!” He defended himself.

“Hmm, sounds like someone else I know,” Pidge teased gaining a groan from both Keith and Lance.

“Yeah, but I actually hate Griffin. He’s a piece of shit,” Keith

“Point taken,”

“Team, we’re coming up on the market planet, prepare to land,” Allura said over the coms.

They were each given a small allowance to buy whatever they wanted; Lance’s eyes immediately went to the small store that surprising looked like an Earth drugstore. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea and they went inside and split up.

He looked around quickly before he went to the hair care section and came across boxes of hair dye. After a quick look around, he grabbed a dirty brown colour, similar to his own.

“Lance?”

He shrieked and spun around, hiding the hair dye behind his back, despite the shelves of it clearly visible behind him.

“Shiro! Hey! What are you doing here?” Lance asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Uh…I just saw you here and came over?” He said confused. “Are you getting hair dye?”

“Um, yup! Just want to change it up you know,” he said quickly, eyes darting around nervously.

“Right, can I see?”

“Oh, you really don’t want to see it right now. It’s really greasy and gross an-”

“I meant the dye, is there something wrong with your hair or something?” He asked, leaning forward as if he would be able to see through the helmet.

“Uh…no?”

“You don’t sound so sure,” Shiro said sternly before turning concerned. “Maybe I can help you with it,”

“It’s really not that important,” Lance muttered, rubbing his arm self-consciously. Shiro’s brows furrowed and he laid his hand on his shoulder.

“It must be important if it’s bothering you this much,” Shiro said, a kind smile on his face. Lance bit his lip, mind swirling with indecision. It shouldn’t be affecting him so much. At least he didn’t think it should but still every time he looked at it, it sent a swirl of anxiety through his stomach.

“Okay,” he said quietly before pulling his helmet up enough so he could see the tips of his white bangs. Shiro’s eyes widened in shock and Lance hurriedly shoved his helmet back over his head.

“Your hair’s white,” Shiro said dumbly, still in shock. Lance nodded and looked down at his feet. At the increasing silence, he looked up and saw Shiro considering the boxes of dye. He snatched a random one off of the shelf and turned back to Lance.

“Dye mine too?” He asked with an easy smile. Lance blinked as he dropped the box in Lance’s hands.

He looked down at the box and furrows his brows. “You realize this is blue dye right?”

“Hmm, sounds good,” he decided, his fingers on his chin.

“What? Really?” He gaped.

“Why not? My hair’s white, I don’t need to bleach it or anything! I’ve always wanted to dye it!” He explained with excitement.

“Right,” Lance chuckled, looking at the box of plain brown dye he picked out for himself.

“Are you just going brown again?” Shiro asked, looking through the colours again.

“I don’t know now since you’re doing blue,” he said honestly.

“Why don’t you do something crazy? Try to fit into the crazy few weeks we’ve been having,” Shiro suggested. “Besides, it’ll fit into to your style,”

“My style?”

“Yeah. You’re kind of unpredictable and willing to try anything but you make it work,” Shiro stated.

“I never knew you thought that about me,” Lance said.

Shiro shrugged. “Being on the astral plane really put things in perspective for me, it’s better to tell people what you think, than never have them know what you felt. Especially if it’s a good thing,” he turned, tossing a box at him. “I think that’s your colour,”

“Really?” He asked, examining the cotton candy pink displayed on the front.

“Definitely,” Shiro nodded.

“So who’s going with who?” Keith asked as they started packing up the next morning.

“Dibs on Lance!” “Dibs on Shiro!” They both cried at the same time, throwing their hands up.

“Um…okay,” Lance and Shiro turned to each other, victory written over their faces and ran back to Red.

While they waited for their hair to set, the rest of the paladins appeared on the screen. They were both in their paladin robes, hair wrapped up in towels, and faces covered in one of Lance’s face masks. They paused and looked over at the screen, their eyes wide as if they got caught doing something wrong.

“Uh…what are you doing?” Keith asked.

Their eyes darted to each other quickly. “Spa day?” Shiro answered hesitantly with a slow shrug.

“Right. Well now we’re going to run drills,” he continued, still watching them carefully.

“Aw c’mon Keith, right now?” Lance whined, shoulders slumping.

“Yes! We have to stay sharp,” he sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.

“A little longer break isn’t going to hurt anyone Keith,” Shiro broke in. Keith looked at him with a blank stare.

“His laziness is rubbing off on you,” he deadpanned.

“Bold of you to assume I wasn’t already lazy, Keith,” Shiro huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away.

“This is a whole new level though,” Keith argued.

“Maybe I’m tired from being in the astral plane so long,” Shiro shrugged, picking at his robe. He looked up at Keith from under his lashes and saw him slowly turning red.

“That’s low,” he muttered.

“Let me rest,”

“Fine, whatever,” Keith relented disappearing from the screen. The rest of the paladins cheered before disappearing as well. They sat in silence for a few seconds, looking around the cockpit.

“Do you want to dye your eyebrows too?”

“Fuck yes,”

After a few more hours of travelling, they stopped on another planet to camp. They set up camp, eyes on Red since neither Lance or Shiro had come out yet. Finally, the two of them walked out of Red’s jaw with an unusual amount of “swagger”, with their helmets on.

“What the hell are you doing?” Keith deadpanned.

“Being cooler than you,” Shiro shot back.

“Oh, Jesus,” Keith groaned with a facepalm.

“Wanna show them?” Shiro asked with a wide grin.

“Show us what?” Allura asked curiously. Lance bit his lip but pulled his helmet off. The team gasped in surprise.

“What did you do to your hair?” Hunk asked with sparkling eyes as he reached out to pat the fluffy pink hair.

“It was growing out white so I wanted to dye it. I was gonna do brown but Shiro convinced me not to,” he said, gesturing to the black paladin. “Do you like it?”

“Wow, that actually suits you really well,” Pidge commented.

“Thanks,” Lance said gratefully.

“What about me?” Shiro asked pulling his helmet off as well.

“Holy shit, your mom is gonna fucking kill you,” Keith snickered looking at the cobalt blue hair.

“Good,” Shiro said with a grin.

[ashkazora]

shance, allurance, lancelot, plance, klance, hance for ship meme if it is ok?

DAMN ANON, you really be going out for all the big ones! (not that I'm complaining aha)

Anyways, since there's so many ships, I've put em all under the cut:

One thing that's really key w/ me is that I'm a multishipper at heart, so most things I would enjoy in certain situations! Like, with Plance/Hance, I'm mostly a platonic shipper of em but hey, when the right AU hits I'm all in!

Feel free to ask me anything else about these ships + or any other ships!

[ambivalentangst]

Everything as It Should Be

Mhmm yeah okay so there’s something I gotta say,,, , I love @voldsomt-sor with all of my big, mushy heart and it’s their birthday!!!! UwU!!!!! As a result I’ve prepared a lil post-season seven birthday gift for you using number thirty on this list and platonic shance, as requested. I hope you like it—happy birthday babe!!!!!

Shiro finds Lance in the Garrison cafeteria at approximately three thirty in the morning. This is concerning for a number of reasons, the most prevalent to Shiro at the moment being that Lance insists on getting as much sleep as possible. At times, Shiro gets frustrated with Lance—when a joke goes too far, when his flirtatious grin makes an appearance at an inopportune time, but he never really wants him to change. If it was a fluke, simply one sleepless night, Shiro would be less worried. If Lance didn’t have purple bags smudged under his eyes, if his normally radiant complexion didn’t look a little grey, it would be fine. As it is, he edges his way into the kitchen with purposeful, loud steps to announce his entrance.

Lance startles, head swiveling side to side before landing on Shiro, who pretends he can’t see the flash of light indicative of a bayard’s presence. His memories of when he wasn’t around are hazy and don’t lend him any answers when his mind races, wondering when Lance took on that kind of hypervigilance. Lance smiles, lips stretched unnaturally thin over his pearly teeth.

Shiro waves, though the action is uncertain, faltering. He’d come for some instant noodles after skipping dinner in favor of meetings with Garrison personnel, and his stomach was demanding to be filled. “Hey, Lance. What are you doing here?”

It’s just the two of them. The isolation, once so common in the sprawling grounds of the castle, bothers Shiro like a cat having its fur rubbed the wrong way.

Lance shrugs. “Couldn’t sleep. Needed to walk a little. Got tired of that, and ended up here.” Despite the clipped sentences, he’s forcing warmth into the explanation, doing his best to keep whatever is bothering him away from Shiro.

At least he doesn’t appear to be lying. Shiro makes himself think of that as a positive. He abandons his original quest, coming to sit across the table from Lance. “I get that. You doing okay?”

Lance starts in flippantly. “Nah, just couldn’t sleep like I—”

“Lance, you know that’s not what I asked.”

Lance’s mouth screws up, eyes darting back and forth in a frantic search for an escape. Shiro doesn’t like the feeling it gives him, knowing Lance doesn’t want to talk with him. When had that happened? Lance talks and talks and talks even when he shouldn’t, so why now is he stalling?

“Look, I know things aren’t the same, I’m not your black paladin anymore, but we’re still friends, aren’t we? You can trust me.”

Lance’s stare is quick to flit to Shiro, full of warning and a little bit of pain he doesn’t understand. Just as soon, it settles back on the table, a finger tracing a scuff in the metal of it. “Things just haven’t been sitting well with me, recently. It’s all been so much.”

Shiro nods. Okay, overexertion. That’s simple enough. “You know you can take a few days off, right? Go see your family, really be with them. We’re okay right now—none of us will blame you.”

Lance’s hands grip the table, stopping their fidgeting. One of the bulbs overhead is flickering a little. Shiro is way past thinking the effect it gives is ominous. Rather, the shadows it casts on Lance’s face just make him look sad.

“It’s not that kind of much.”

The words are spat at Shiro, tickets from an arcade game he hadn’t expected to do so well on. He fumbles for a moment, scooping them up from the floor. When they’re safely tucked in his pocket, he tries again. “Okay.” He thinks and decides that last time, he rushed into things. He goes slower, tries harder to understand. “Okay,” he repeats. “Then what kind of much is it?” Lance doesn’t usually talk like this, using phrases that dance around the mind and one has to consider the weight of. Shiro’s concern grows.

“I could handle it, was handling it. I mean, your—whatever it was, I guess—didn’t like me much, but I could handle that. Now, it’s just—”

A sound of frustration, hands flexing with it. “It’s not right. I know I’m where I’m supposed to be, but, I don’t think Keith really thinks so.” There’s an ashamed, almost fearful look that follows the admission like he’s waiting to be told off, to have Shiro not take his side.

Shiro and Keith have never tried to hide their closeness, and he hides a wince at how that’s coming back to bite him. “Go on,” Shiro encourages softly, wishing he was on Lance’s side of the table to comfort him physically.

“I know he’s stressed. He doesn’t like Earth much and he misses Krolia. Being the black paladin is a lot, anyway, but he—I don’t know. It’s probably stupid but it’s like—like, what? You think you’re the only one suffering? Before he left with the blades we talked,” Lance doesn’t say about what, “and I thought we were cool, but now he’s different. We’re supposed to be a team, and it’s not working like it used to. He’s not as nice, and I wish things could back to how they were.”

Lance looks up at Shiro, bracing himself to be told he’s wrong, that he’s exaggerating. Shiro can see it in the strain of his shoulders, that Lance has convinced himself it’s dumb. He mulls over what’s been said, allows it for a split second. He’s glad Keith has grown and, truthfully, he doesn’t know any of what’s been going on with him and Lance. He’s been gone. This gap in his knowledge, the lack of direction he’s left with, hurts more than he thought it would. He would like to think that Keith isn’t doing it on purpose. No matter what’s an accident and what’s not though, Lance is hurting. Shiro may not be the leader anymore, but he can’t allow that either.

He reaches forward, ignoring the painful jab of the table into his stomach to take Lance by the shoulders. “It’s not stupid, Lance. Anything that has you feeling like this needs to be addressed. How long has this been bothering you?”

Lance shrugs. Shiro doesn’t pry, just tries to sort out what to do. He’ll have to have Keith and Lance talk, definitely, and oh godwhat a mess that’ll be. He’ll have to ask the others if they’ve noticed anything strange there, but first and foremost, Lance. He’s sitting in front of him baring his vulnerabilities, expecting to be shot down. It’s a good thing Shiro’s always been good at defying expectations.

He forgoes actually getting up and going around the table between them, sliding over it to sit next to Lance in one smooth motion. Shiro can physically feel the stress leave Lance’s body as he slumps against him, head pressed into his chest.

“It’s not stupid,” he tells him again. They’ve never been all that close in the scheme of things, but that’s not going to stop Shiro from giving Lance the comfort he needs. He’s his teammate, his friend, his family.

Lance doesn’t end up saying anything more.

Maybe it’s because he’s afraid the little sniffles he’s making into Shiro’s shirt will carry through to his voice, maybe after confessing something he was so scared of he’s truly run out of words. It doesn’t really matter. The grip he holds on Shiro expresses his thanks in a way they’re both on the same page about. That, if nothing else, settles into its proper place.