#anyway he and Shiro are The fail dads

[theholeyness]

[lmaowatermelon]

Heartlines

Klance / 3.5k / T

Contains moments of pining and Keith and Lance being gone for each other while they go on a silly mission gone wrong

Contains mild injury and torture

Updated link for @catsushinyakajima

Maybe it’d be easier to start from the beginning when explaining why Keith is missing.

Lance has no trouble recalling Pidge’s life-changing discovery: a planet similar to Earth.

“This is perfect,” Pidge elaborates, radiating excitement. “With such similar soil and atmospheric composition, we can probably count on getting more food here. We won’t have to wear air masks, either.”

Shiro sighs and nods. “The food supply is getting lower. We should give it a try. Do we have leftover money from the last planet, Hunk?”

Hunk winces but pokes around his touchscreen for a while and scrolls around. The paladins watch him with bated breath, and he eventually nods.

“Looking good Shiro,” the yellow paladin notes. “We just need to find an exchange post for the local currency. Trade for their coins.”

Pidge does a tiny fist pump and Lance looks like his life has changed forever. Which, he’d argue, it totally has, because he thinks he’ll cry if he sees space goo for the thousandth week in a row.

The supply mission goes off without a hitch — at first, anyway. Everyone splits into pairs/trios: Coran and Allura, Keith and Lance, and Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk. Shiro ignores Lance’s weak protests and orders them to enter the food market first once they have the right currency. Thanks to technology, they understand the language better through the little screens on their comms devices.

“This guy is selling two Galantis Peaches for the price of one!” Lance calls out to Keith. “Or what about space seaweed rice balls? 4 for the price of two!”

Keith almost snaps that they don’t have time for this, before realizing that buying food is why they’re here, and Lance is very much staying on task. He shakes his head to prevent a small smile from forming.

“Wait, they have onigiri here?” Keith inquires. He raises an eyebrow and strolls over with his arms crossed. “That’s just like…”

…what my dad used to make me.

Lance knows Keith well enough to fill in the blanks, though he thankfully doesn’t push the issue, and instead asks the guy at the stall for the whole batch. Keith tries to stop him with a weak raise of his hand but relents upon seeing the beaming smile on Lance’s face.

“Why don’t we share some before we keep going?”

The taste makes Keith almost tear up. It’s been ages since he had something like this because he never really had regular meals as a kid, much less any knowledge of how to prepare basic food. He goes silent and eats with almost meditative slowness, as if eating it too fast will make it disappear forever.

He doesn’t realize Lance is watching him until he gets to his very last bite.

“What?” Keith questions, mouth full of rice. “Is something wrong?”

Lance shakes his head with a shameless grin. “Nah, just happy you’re happy.”

Well, that’s not a sentence I’ll dwell on for the rest of my life, Keith’s brain thinks for him as he swallows his snack-lunch and stands up.

The duo makes their rounds around their sector of the market for a while after that, picking up anything resembling Earth food and counting coins together in the corner, determined to be smart since they want to make the best of it.

Sometime later, Keith is busy staring at nothing and standing somewhere off to the side.

“Well, hello there,” Lance drawls, his signature flirtatious tone bouncing off every nearby surface.

The sudden change in Lance’s demeanor whips Keith’s attention back to reality. He’s leaning over the table of what looks to be a fortune-telling booth, and Keith sighs, hoping to get this episode over with.

The girl at the booth giggles and covers her smile with her tentacled hand. She asks if he’d like his fortune told and Keith tries to pretend he doesn’t know Lance to get out of it. He fails when Lance calls him over by name, and Keith grits his teeth, put off by the sight of Tarot cards on the velvet tabletop.

The girl shuffles the cards and fans them out face down, gesturing to Keith, her eyes gleaming mysteriously. “Go ahead, young hero. Pick one.”

Keith squints at Lance, who playfully bumps his shoulder, giving Keith the kind of look that makes his heart sputter. He turns away and selects a card the fortune teller picks up to read.

She raises an eyebrow and then smiles with a knowing expression. “It’s the Two of Cups, upright. Did you have someone on your mind when you chose this card?”

Keith reels in confusion at that. He was thinking about Lance for about a second before he chose a card, but he didn’t think that counted, or, at least, it probably didn’t—

“That’s crazy,” Lance exhales with excitement. Keith swears he can see sparkles flying off the guy while he speaks.

“What, do you know what that means?” Keith asks. He’s trying to play along, but in the end, he’s not super into this future prediction or crystal-magic stuff.

Lance nods and stares at Keith like he’s just realized something life-changing. The red paladin scratches his head and flushes at the direct eye contact. The fortune teller, to his dismay, smiles even wider.

She gestures towards Lance with a flourish. “Go ahead and elaborate, sir.”

Lance picks the card up and shows Keith the art on it. It shows two people holding golden goblets and facing each other at a rather intimate distance, with a beautiful blue sky behind them. It gives Keith a rush of nostalgia to see that horizon, even when he feels on edge about the situation.

“Listen, Keithster,” Lance says, ever energetic. “This is one of the love cards. Depending on the reading you’re getting, anyway. It means loving yourself, and also— uh, a-anyway, it’s a good card!”

Keith wonders what Lance is about to say, but decides to end this nonsense before it goes any further. He turns back to the lady with his arms crossed. “Um, thank you for the card reading, but we need to get back to our friends.”

Keith lets out a low growl when he sees the fortune teller stand up instead. He’s trying his best to keep it together and be polite, but the more she smiles like that, the less safe he feels.

“Oh, but dear,” she says with a sultry tone, “your friend here hasn’t gotten his reading yet. Since you two are interesting I’ll let you have a more in-depth reading in my back room, plus a palm reading. All free of charge.”

Keith tries to decline, but the words barely leave his mouth before Lance agrees, his hand reaching back to drag him inside. Keith is overwhelmed by Lance’s warmth as it seeps into his skin. 

It overrides his reason until it’s far too late.

In all fairness, though, the inner room is beautiful. It’s draped with rich purple velvet curtains that cover the ceiling. Elegant lanterns illuminate the space from each corner of the room. On the ornate wooden tables, stacks of stones, cards, and astronomy gadgets are piled on each other. It looks exactly how Keith would have imagined it, but he refuses to let his guard down and stands beside the table instead of sitting with Lance.

“Go ahead, please,” Keith urges, eager to move on and get out.

Lance rolls his eyes, though it’s clear he’s still cheerful, happiness painted in bright shades across his face. The fortune teller begins to shuffle the cards, quick as lightning and slow and methodical, in a rhythm that almost lulls Keith into closing his eyes to sleep.

Entire minutes pass until Keith realizes he’s too drawn in and the flames in the lamps have gone out. The room is completely dark and Keith tries to feel around for anything to ground him. A sinking stone in the pit of his stomach fights with his usual tough nature, filling his entire body with dread.

When the lights come back on, he’s not in the marketplace anymore.

Not even close.

Keith is surrounded by a giant pink bubble that stretches far above his head. Beyond his odd prison are a bunch of formations that look like the inside of some sort of gigantic cave, with rich brown and red streaks curling around the sharp stalactites and stalagmites, and water dripping rhythmically from the ceiling.

He glances down at his feet and almost throws up when he sees that he’s also very high up off the ground. Keith is not a huge fan of having a paper-thin bubble solution between him and the cave floor.

The red paladin curses himself for not listening to his gut and letting this happen. He checks around him for signs of Lance and fails to spot anyone. After a few experimental pokes at the bubble cage’s surface, he sits uncomfortably on the floor of his pastel prison, going over his options in his head, one-by-one.

It doesn’t take much longer for Keith to register footsteps in the distance.

Then, he hears a voice: Lance.

“I don’t know where the heck you’re taking me, but you won’t get away with this!”

Oh, god.

The fortune teller from earlier no longer hides her shrill movie villain laugh. “Just to see an old friend. Look, isn’t he a lovely decoration for my back rooms?”

Lance gazes up and they make blistering eye contact. The blue paladin gasps and rushes forward, determined to reach Keith in record time. Keith flushes at the sight of Lance’s concern and is suddenly grateful for the distance between them.

Lance doesn’t make it very far, though. The tentacled fortune teller lady can, in fact, stretch like bubblegum, because she lashes out and extends her right arm until it wraps around Lance and freezes him in place.

“What the—” Lance cries, incredulous. “Let go of me!”

The fortune teller shakes her head. “Do you think I’d let my prized decoration go for free? No, we should play a game. Winner keeps the hero. Forever!”

She prances around the room with Lance dragging behind her, still trapped in her chokehold, and unable to reach his bayard or anything that could help. By the time she’s found what she’s looking for, Lance looks like he’s on the verge of passing out, and Keith isn’t far off from doing the same.

And, actually, Keith is starting to feel very, very lightheaded. He feels his chest struggle to contract for air as it warms up to an uncomfortable degree around him. The world starts to blur and double and he can’t remember if he’s called out again or not, or if he even decided on an escape plan.

Yes, he thinks drowsily. Escape, that sounds nice. Escape and a big bowl of food goo.

One more second passes before he collapses and starts to shut down.

“KEITH!” Lance shouts in concern. “Hold on, I’ll get ya!”

“Get who? You’re stuck with me, brat!” The fortune teller cackles. “Unless you want to start playing. I might as well introduce myself if we’re going this far, hmm? What if I told you I’m Erosia, planetary goddess of the future, love, and chaos?”

Lance just sighs. Normally, he’d be all for the grasp of a hot, strong lady. But the tug in his chest and the rage boiling in his stomach are hard to ignore. He won’t let this crazed goddess get anything good out of them.

Or so he thought.

“There’s only one way to get him out of there, and it doesn’t involve anything you can do with a cute little bayard. Just answer one question for me, brave warrior: how do you feel about Keith?”

Lance grits his teeth. “None of your business!”

Erosia snaps in reply and Lance turns his head to see Keith starting to gasp for air. Lance’s heart drops into his feet and he whirls on his foot, still stuck in her stupid arm.

Erosia tightens her grip. “Tell me, or. Keith. Dies.”

“Let me go, pendeja!” Lance screams.

The way Erosia looks at him makes his skin crawl. “You can at least admit how you feel. You’re not a person with a closed-off heart. Except for things like this, that is! I should warn you that Keith won’t last much longer.”

Lance’s face drops into full-blown panic. He doesn’t want Keith to get hurt or worse, but he also doesn’t want to give Aerosol (or whatever her name is) exactly what she wants. He spits on her arm and glares at her with all the animosity that he can muster.

“How about I make a trade?” Lance proposes, projecting his voice. “Our bayards in exchange for leaving both of us unharmed. And getting us out of here.”

Erosia purrs and shakes her head. “You’re so silly. I don’t care about the Galra and your galactic robot nonsense! Instead, why don’t we trade you for him? I’m sure any Paladin of Voltron would look just as good on my mantle.”

Lance crooks his head and sees Keith passed out on the floor of the bubble. He can’t even see the rise and fall of his chest anymore. The sight makes him take a shaking deep breath.

“I’ll do it.”

After way too long of a pause, Erosia starts to quake with hysterical laughs. “Just KIDDING! Watch this, Paladin!”

Lightning starts to arc around the inside of the bubble with no obvious source. Lance’s eyes widen in horror as Keith wakes up. He looks dizzy and unfocused, with utterly messed up hair and exhausted eyes.

Lance could almost tease him like always until he heard Keith’s screams from the horrific pain of a sudden electric current.

Keith’s desperately mouthing something at Lance and waving at him even through all of the torture.

It seems like he’s begging Lance to run away.

Lance starts to whimper. He tries to think of a solution but comes up dry without being able to use his hands. Then, he remembers something. 

He has teeth, doesn’t he?

The blue paladin opens his mouth wide and chomps on Erosia’s arm like it’s a fresh beef roast. She howls and shakes him out of her grip, and that’s Lance’s cue to jump her and hold her down with his body weight. He thanks the stars he learned some martial arts in his younger years and listened to his brother Marco.

“Let him go!” Lance roars, a force and volume in his voice that he’s never heard before.

Erosia is pinned, but it’s obvious that she delights in their pain. “Aww! Are you worried about him? All of a sudden?”

Lance snaps in a single second. “Shut up! Of course, I give a shit about him! He’s one of the reasons we stand a chance out there! He means a lot to me! More… more than I show him. But that’s none of your business. So, how about you stop your weird magic and let us go?!”

Erosia nods. “Good, keep going! If you want him free, open your heart, paladin!”

Lance is breathing so hard that he might pass out from his fury. Tears are in his eyes and he can barely think with Keith struggling to breathe and crying out as lightning hits him repeatedly. Erosia is laughing in his face about his feelings and about Keith getting hurt. It’s all so much that he covers her mouth and looks at her with disdain that could chill blood.

“If you’ll let him go, I’ll say it all,” Lance whispers.

Erosia’s crooked enjoyment only intensifies and she shakes underneath his grasp.

“Keith, you can’t hear me,” Lance yells, with a sliver of hope that the red paladin can hear him, and will remember every word somehow. “I was scared that I’d never catch up to you. So, I got on your nerves like it was my job. But now look at us! We’re sharing lunch, we’re laughing, we’re working together and we’re doing amazing things. Sometimes… sometimes I catch myself wishing I could keep you to myself. It sounds dumb. But I see how great you are, with a much, much tinier green monster of jealousy. I swear! You’re cool and I can’t see life without you now. I honestly want to take you out sometime when I don’t want to rip your hair out! I also think your whole look is kind of hot, so I’m a huge liar, and— ugh, I think I’m stopping here!”

Lance is very glad that Keith might not be able to hear him. But he also feels an intense pang of guilt at the possibility that he’d only have the guts to say this in this situation. Or that he’d only ever say any of it once.

He lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as he sees Erosia destroy the bubble. Keith’s body is limp and burned, but when he’s brought into Lance’s arms, he at least has the barest pulse and breath.

“Are you happy? Can we go?” Lance asks with an impatient stare.

Erosia just turns her back to them and waves with a casual chuckle. “Of course. Good luck.”

—

When Lance brings an injured Keith to the castle ship, the rest of the paladins begin to pummel him with questions, but he ignores them all and puts Keith into the healing pod himself.

Keith wakes up 4 days later to find Lance passed out on the floor of the pod room. He’s snoring with a soft mumble here and there, swatting his hand around the room at invisible, imaginary things. Keith can’t help but notice that Lance looks thinner than usual.

He flops onto the floor with as much grace as he can manage. Lance is 100% in a deep sleep because he misses the howl of pain from Keith hitting his weak body on the side of the pod.

The red paladin makes the short crawl over to his friend after taking a breath and hesitantly taps his shoulder. “Lance?”

Lance responds in seconds, though he’s still very groggy. He rubs his eyes and pauses in shock when he realizes who woke him up. To Keith's surprise, the blue paladin just lays there and bursts into tears.

“L-Lance, what’s wrong?” Keith implores, concerned.

Lance can’t stop crying. He’s shaking and holding onto Keith’s wrist like a lifeline, his spirit thin as a thread. “It wasn’t worth it. The cards weren’t worth it!”

Keith’s eyes widen as everything comes flooding back to him. The torture, the weird bubble cage, the way Lance tried to help him with everything he had…

Keith gives him a tender smile. “Thanks for saving me anyway, sharpshooter.”

Lance is surprised that Keith references the nickname. He sniffles and tightens his grip on his fellow paladin.

“Of course, man. I couldn’t let her hurt you like that. She made me do weird stuff to get you out, so I did them, but by the time you were out you were burned everywhere and I didn’t know if you were still alive—”

Keith’s eyes are suddenly intense and angry — protective. “Lance, what did she make you do?”

Lance jumps in his skin at the question. He blushes and looks anywhere but Keith’s eyes. Then, his sadness seems to hit him again like a punch to the face, because the silent tears just start to pour.

Keith is startled. He reaches forward with a hesitant hand and brushes some of Lance’s messy hair out of his face.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Keith manages, guilt washing over him.

Lance shakes his head and gives Keith a crooked, heart-wrenching smile. “She made me talk about how I feel about…. uh. Someone important. She’s some sort of goddess of love and chaos or something, she’s insane!”

Keith frowns. The blue paladin looks so thoroughly broken, and it hurts so much that Keith forgets all his injuries for a second. He’s fine now, he thinks, and it’s clear that something bad happened while he was knocked out.

“You didn’t want to say anything?” Keith asks.

Lance’s expression tells him that he hit the jackpot. “Kind of. I didn’t want to tell her, the crazy demon lady, and I only said it because she was trying to hurt you. That’s all. I wish I had said it over a cute coffee date, not a mission gone wrong!”

Keith’s brow furrows. It’s obvious that he’s curious and not following, but he doesn’t say anything else for a while. All he does, and all he ends up needing to do, is sit beside Lance while he calms down.

“I don’t know if I can help. But do you want to eat?” Keith finally asks.

Lance is about to say no when his stomach grumbles. He flushes and tries to make up an excuse while Keith laughs and helps him stand.

“Space goo pancakes?” Lance proposes.

“Sounds good,” Keith shrugs with a grin.

When they get to the kitchen, Lance speaks up without turning around.

“I plan to say what I said back there again. My way.”

Keith raises an eyebrow, but soon enough, nods warmly. “That’s good. Take your time. I’ll be here.”

Lance finally turns his head, affection evident in his eyes. He nods, too, and hands Keith his plate.

“You want any syrup?”

[black--sun]

He huffs a laugh that’s mostly breath. “I know the answer. I recall just fine, thanks.” He also recalls trying to keep up once or twice, which was a mistake. Though Shiro had a way of making his mistakes seem unimportant, fun even. Ichigo catches how that statement about a party almost sounds like an offer. What surprises him is how much he wants to take him up on it. Like they used to. He shouldn’t. He won’t. But he doesn’t say so. He needs Shiro to stick around until they find out who they’re dealing with. He doesn’t see that happening if they start getting into all the reasons they don’t do those things together anymore. He snorts instead and lets Shiro keep his hypotheticals. “Fine, but next time, I’m stealing your date.” Sharing. Whatever. 

He closes his eyes and snorts, pain flaring through his chest alongside real amusement. “I loved you for a lot of reasons, I still do, but I won’t say the knife didn’t help.” Too many reasons.

Ichigo watches his glass, seeing it filled, but he doesn’t make a move to lift it, he’s concentrating so hard on those words. Then it’s his turn to say something and he can’t finish the glass fast enough. He knows what Shiro is trying to say, because even after what happened with his dad, he couldn’t even pretend to hate Shiro. He was angry for a long time, he’s angry now. When he sees Shiro he absolutely wants to fuck him up, but not in the typical way. He never wanted revenge beyond a punch or two. And he can’t understand how he can still be so in love with him after… everything. It seems like such a betrayal. Unfilial. But he decides it’s best if he doesn’t say anything. It’s not as if there’s anything new they haven’t said already. He settles for, “I know,” because he does. 

“If you’re regretting it, you can always change your mind. We can throw it down now.” He’s not sure it won’t just lead back to sex. No. He's sure it will. If Shiro so much as touched him now, Ichigo would have him on the floor. He snorts and looks away, setting his empty glass back down again, feeling the warmth spreading out from his stomach in pleasant waves. “And you doing it anyway doesn’t mean you’ll get rid of me.” He’s going to be glued to Shiro’s side until this thing is over. “You’re stuck with me for now. You can just keep hating it.” 

Yuu chooses that moment to come back in wearing Ichigo’s robe, which he minds a lot less than Yuu treating his bedroom like a personal playground. Then he scowls. “Did you go through my closet?”

Yuu grins. “Uh huh.” He settles himself beside his wine cooler on the counter and takes a drink before nodding to the bottle. He catches the closest belt loop, which happens to be Ichigo’s. “If you need that much help just to fuck each other, you should fuck me instead. I’m all warmed up.” 

That… is very distracting. His eyes yank off his glass to land on Yuu before he huffs. Troublemaker. Which was always the appeal if he’s being honest. Ichigo narrows his eyes and tugs Yuu back off that counter and points him toward the bedroom, and then gives his ass a sharp slap, since he asked for it in so many ways tonight. Ichigo could use another couple shots, but he supposes they’re ready for this if the alternative is discussing why his relationship with the love of his life failed so damn hard. 

Yuu makes a startled sound, gaze shooting to Ichigo. But then he seems to decide he likes it and grins. Ichigo honestly has to wonder what he did in the past to make Yuu wonder if that was real, but he shakes it off. He glances back to Shiro. “Might wanna bring that bottle.”

Shiro snorts, "You talk a big game. The anticipation's gonna have me hard before we even start." Ironic, Yuu calling him out for being confident when he's also awfully damn confident.

He glances over at Ichigo, "Is that a rhetorical question or d'you want an answer?" Ichigo surely knows him well enough to figure out the answer on his own. Whatever number is pulled out of his ass, Shiro wants more. That's just how he is. If he was easily satisfied, he would have gotten bored a long time ago. Ichigo's right though. It only make sense to use their cooperation to their advantage. "Yeah, I know. I'll host at my place next time." He's only half kidding.

He catches that little freeze Ichigo does at the sight of the knife, and for a second he thinks Ichigo honestly thinks he'd get that violent with him. Shiro might punch Ichigo, might even break a few teeth or a couple of fingers. But he wouldn't take a knife to him. But then he realizes the startlement just comes from Ichigo's love affair with the knife. He rolls his eyes. "I see. You only ever loved me for my knife."

He finishes his glass, barely tasting it, and shrugs. "I guess so." He grunts, attention on the empty glass Ichigo sets down. He grabs the bottle to top them both off. "Yeah. I didn't know what my intentions were though. I wanted to hit you. Still do, kinda. I want to hate you. I want- But-" He shrugs again, thunking the bottle down to lift his refilled cup. "I can't." He says into it, before taking another drink.

Ichigo's drinking like he learned that from Shiro too. What he wouldn't give for something to get himself more fucked up than this bottle of bourbon, though. He left it all at home, though, because he doesn't trust himself and he promised he wouldn't take anything before their meeting. He tries to be amused, but his laugh comes out as a huff of air without much sound. "Is it?" Better than a fight? Sure, the sex will be good. But he'll regret all of this as soon as they're done, he's sure. But even knowing that isn't going to stop him. The last comment does make him smirk though. "Just 'cause you'll know about it doesn't mean it wont happen."

[justheretobreakthings]

Whumpmas in July: Day 9

@whumpmasinjuly

“Look at me.”

Read on AO3 My house, my rules, my ko-fi

Even through his paladin armor, the fire was far too hot. Shiro could swear he could feel the flames of the burning walls licking against his skin as he raced by them, and was certain he would be covered in blisters by the time he got back to the castle. His helmet – especially the crackling in his ear reminding him that the comm hadn’t been working since they’d entered Viuter’s atmosphere and would be no help to him now – was irritating him, making him feel trapped and claustrophobic and plastering his sweaty hair against his skull and preventing him from wiping his bangs out of his eyes. Still, it was protection, enough protection to keep him upright and moving, and even though smoke clouded his line of sight, the visor of his helmet kept it out of his eyes, and the oxygen actuator mostly kept him from breathing in the ash.

Which meant Keith’s armor was giving him that same protection. Which meant he was fine. Wherever he was.

Keith shouldn’t have been in the building in the first place. He’d been blocks away when the explosion had occurred, the paladins all having separated to confer with different members of the Viuteran council. It had made sense, getting more done in less time and everyone getting to stick to their specialties, and it had resulted in Keith being all the way in the infantry armory building at the time of the blast. Shiro, though, had been right near the explosion, in the next building over where he and Allura were meeting with a group of military strategists. As he’d been wearing armor and Allura hadn’t, it was only natural that Shiro was the one to take the initiative of running into the building and taking charge of evacuating as many Viuterans as he could.

Sure, it would have been better if the comms had been working and the paladins could all coordinate together, but that wasn’t really any more than a flickering and quickly dismissed thought in Shiro’s mind. He would focus on rescue now, find his teammates when he was done.

It took longer than he would have liked to reach the point when he could look for them, but it came eventually. Once the building was deeply engulfed in flames and there was too much risk of it collapsing in on itself for it to be safe for Shiro to go back in and keep up the rescue efforts. He handed off an unconscious Viuteran to an emergency worker and looked around to find himself in the midst of a dizzying scene. Sirens were wailing, soldiers and civilians alike were running amok, some trying to escape, some trying to help contain the spreading fire. And all of it cast in an eerie red, the thick smoke in the sky blocking out all light except for that of the fire.

Pidge was the paladin he spotted, her green armor sticking out boldly against all the red and gray, and her face flooded with relief when spotted him approaching. “Oh thank fuck!” she cried, rushing to meet him. “When Allura said you were in there I – I didn’t know if – God, kept hoping the comms would magically start working and I could make sure you were – ”

“Is Allura okay?” Shiro hated to interrupt, but now that he’d found one of his teammates, he was more than eager to find the rest, make sure everyone was okay.

“Right, right, follow me,” Pidge said, and she hurried to lead the way, winding through the chaos. “Allura’s this way, they’ve got first aid stuff going so that was the first place I looked, to see who was hurt. Lance and Coran – they left ages ago. Before this bomb, apparently a different one went off on the other side of the city. Like, one minute difference. My guess is they were planned to go off at the same time, but they weren’t coordinated quite right. Anyway, they went to get Blue and they were heading that way, so I don’t know when they’re gonna be – ”

“Shiro! Shiro, you’re okay!” A voice cut across Pidge’s rapid speech as they approached what appeared to be a makeshift triage center in the square, and Shiro turned to see Hunk clambering in their direction as fast as the armful of medical supplies he was carrying would allow. Behind him, Allura looked up from where she had been bent over an injured Viuteran, her glowing hands pressed against his leg. Relief washed over her face, and she started in their direction too the moment she had finished.

Shiro nodded in acknowledgment to Hunk. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“You sure?” Hunk asked. “You’re not hurt at all? Your armor’s looking kinda beat up, you might be hurt and not even realize it because of adrenaline! Do you feel dizzy at all? Do you need water? Do you need to sit down?”

“Hunk, I’m fine, really,” Shiro reassured him, turning his attention to Allura as she joined them. “How’s everything holding up here?”

“As well as we can hope for,” Allura said. “Everyone’s been too busy trying to get people to safety to investigate, so I don’t know where the bombs were, who may have been behind it, what the intent was – I take Keith was able to reach you? Where is he now?”

Shiro frowned. “What?”

“I thought – surely by now he would’ve – ”

“Allura,” Shiro said, voice tight. “What do you mean? Where’s Keith?”

“He was here, but he – I told him where you’d gone, and he took off, didn’t even let me finish the sentence. I thought he was going to help you with the evacuation.”

Keith had gone after him. Shiro had gone into the heart of the fire, and Keith had followed him in, and he hadn’t even realized. It hadn’t even occurred to him until Allura mentioned his name that he hadn’t yet seen Keith anywhere, but now…

Shit.

“I’m going after him,” he said, turning on his heel.

“What?” Pidge said. “Hang on, you think he’s still looking for you in there?”

“I know he is.”

“Wait, Shiro,” Allura said, “It’s certainly not safe! Surely Keith would have had the sense to get out of there by this point, we ought to – ”

“No.” Shiro shook his head. “No, he’s – I gotta get him. I’ll meet you all here when I’ve found him.”

One of them called his name again, as he took off running, but he ignored it. All his focus was on moving forward, his feet pounding the ground as he raced faster than he could ever remember having moved in his life, back toward the flames.

In any other circumstances, Shiro would agree that, yes, Keith had the sense to get out. He could be rash and stubborn and even foolish at times, but Shiro at least liked to think that Keith had been getting better about knowing when it was better to retreat than to dive headlong into danger. His failed battle with Zarkon, at least, had knocked that lesson into his head.

But he knew Keith, and more importantly, he knew Keith’s past. As little as Keith liked to open up about his life, he had at least let Shiro in on a bit about his dad. And how he’d lost him. Shiro had seen the look in Keith’s face whenever his dad had come up, the emptiness and desolation when he’d explained how that fire had taken him.

And he had seen the desperation and determination in his little brother’s eyes whenever Keith made it clear that he couldn’t go through a loss like that again. Whenever he insisted that he’d never have to take on the role of team leader because Shiro wasn’t going anywhere. He’d heard about Keith’s expulsion from the Garrison, the explosive lengths he went to in order to get Shiro out to his shack.

When it came to family – when it came to Shiro – all logic and reason was out the window.

And now Keith might very well meet his end because of it.

Making his way through the burning building required him to shut out all of his natural instincts pointing him to safety, screaming at him to get out of there before he wound up seriously hurt, or worse. He had to turn on the shade of his visor to keep the brightness of the flames from blinding him, and even then it was hard to be certain where he was going. Halls were blocked by burning debris, pieces of the building falling around him and some coming dangerously close to taking him out with them. Shiro jetpacked through a singed hole in the ceiling when the hall behind him folded in on itself, blocking his route to the main entrance, and every step on the second floor was accompanied by creaks and crackles that had him bracing himself to fall right through at any second.

Still, he kept going. Pushing through the heat and the sparks and the roar of the flames, yelling Keith’s name over the noise and through the billowing smoke. None of that was important. All that mattered was finding Keith.

He had to find Keith. Had to find him. Had to find him. Had to –

A crack sounded above him, and around the corner and along the hall, flaming shards of ceiling toppled down, and that’s when he spotted it: the distinct blue light that accompanied a shield activating from a paladin’s armor.

Keith. Ducked under his shield, fire and rubble tumbling around him, the red and white of his suit gray with ash. Alive, and moving, and okay.

He was okay.

Shiro dived into the wreck, knocking falling debris aside with his sword hand and, voice breaking in sheer release, shouting out, “Keith!”

Keith’s head shot up at the sound of his name, and although for a brief moment he stumbled from the battering against his shield, there was no mistaking the way his exhausted eyes widened the moment he spotted Shiro across the hall, as if he were seeing a ghost, only for his face to light up in stunned relief.

He may have shouted something in reply that was drowned out by the fire raging around them, or he may have sprung up from his crouch without a word. Either way, Shiro got no warning before Keith was practically flying across the hall to tackle him in a hug.

Shiro stumbled back, startled. It wasn’t as though hugging was completely out of Keith’s character – once he knew and trusted the person giving them, he practically reveled in them – but he was never the one to initiate the embrace. A means of preemptively shielding himself from being turned away, perhaps; a fear that the gesture may be misinterpreted, may be mistaken as something romantic or even sexual; maybe simply a matter of making sure he never set off any discomfort related to touch that Keith was often prone to himself. Shiro had never known for certain which was the case, but it all made Keith a distinctly non-touchy person. Even when they had first been reunited after Shiro’s disastrous return from Kerberos, Keith hadn’t hugged him with this much fervor.

It all spoke to just how terrified Keith had been, how desperately he’d been searching for Shiro. The embrace was a grounding one. He was pressing himself so firmly against Shiro, gripping his brother so tightly. As though reassuring himself that Shiro was really there. Like if he dared to let go, Shiro would vanish back into the smoke and flame.

“Hey,” Shiro said, trying to keep his voice soothing despite needing to practically shout to ensure he could be heard, arm wrapping around Keith’s trembling back. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m here.”

“I thought – ” Keith choked out through his helmet’s speaker. “Allura said – she said you – you’d gone into – into – ”

“I know. I know.”

“You went into the fire. Shiro, you went into the fire, I thought you – I was going to lose you, I had to find you, I couldn’t – I couldn’t just let – ”

“It’s all right, Keith, I promise. I’m okay.”

“You could’ve died! You almost died, you almost burned up and never said goodbye, I thought you were dead, I – ”

“Hey. Keith. Look at me.” Keith kept his face buried in Shiro’s chest, so he pulled back to hold him by the shoulders. “Look at me, okay? I’m right here, see? I’m not dying on you yet. Swear it.”

“Y-yeah. I see you.” His voice shook, and this close up, Shiro could see the redness of his face, the way his eyes seemed to be struggling to stay focused. As hot-blooded as Keith ran, even he was susceptible to fire like this. “Sorry. Sorry, I’m – I was just…”

“Scared?” Shiro finished for him, and Keith nodded weakly. “That’s okay. I get it. And hey, you found me. You found me, I’m here, and we’re okay. And now – ” A crackling sounded from above, and Shiro yanked Keith aside without a second thought, throwing up a shield as a beam collapsed right where the latter had been standing, showering the two of them in sparks. “Now we gotta get outta here, okay? We gotta run.”

“Yeah.” Keith took a trembling breath and straightened as Shiro let his shield fizzle away. “Got it, let’s go. Just – ” Shiro looked down to see Keith’s gloved hand wrapping around the gauntlet of Shiro’s armor. “No splitting up. Please.”

Shiro smiled. “Deal. We won’t let each other out of our sights. Come on.”

He activated his sword hand, and beside him, Keith did the same with his shield. Ready to race back through the flames, side by side.

[verseandrhyme]

honestly, it's kind of funny. you know, she'd come running for him the first time he'd actually come to the monastery. this time, he's coming for her. though, it is with considerably more trouble than he expects for there to be: he returns on the night of the ethereal ball, when everyone's done up all nice and pretty and shiro realizes very quickly that there are more girls with pink hair than he'd imagined in the time he'd been away. all of them in their finest and, initially, shiro's looking among them too for any signs of mitama. she'd worn a dress last year if he remembers right.

this year, he doesn't see her in the sea of silks and finery. where he does find her: in hoshidan garb! for once, he feels a little less out of place; if only because he'd charged into the room without stopping to change, wood clacking against the ground as he hurries up to her with a bundle of papers in one hand and his books, taken for his time away, in the opposite even as saizo and kagero ( likely, anyway, they were ninjas for a reason ) trails behind him in his shadow to make sure he made it in one piece.

"mimi! MIMI, I GOT IT! DAD GAVE THE OK AND EVERYTHING!"

Despite the soft murmur of voices that underlines the entire event, the familiar sound of wooden shoes against the ground echoes and grabs her attention. Fodlan shoes do not carry the same resonance, even the heeled death traps they insist that women need wear. Rhajat had not come in Hoshidan attire, however, so who might have...

"MIMI!"

Mitama freezes in surprise before turning to gawk at the ball's latest arrival. "Shiro?"

How...when...he had seemed to have had his full of Fodlan the last time she had seen him, content to go back to Hoshido and resume what was needed of him there. Or at least, she thought that had been the plan.

She wonders how long he managed to stay in his father's presence before being driven back. She does not ask.

"What are you-" She manages to catch the bundle of papers in his hand and squints at them curiously. It takes a moment to scan over the formal decree of Lord Ryoma's agreement that lines the top, but as her eyes scan the page, the realization slowly takes hold.

Approval for her as Shiro's retainer.

"Oh..." She had suggested it herself, but Shiro had been so reluctant and unsure. She had not thought... "You actually went through it formally? With proper procedure and everything?" It was the only way Lord Ryoma would give his permission, if Shiro had actually done it. Mitama had assumed if he were to agree, it would just be an unspoken and informal agreement.

She feels...huh. Nothing is really different, and yet everything does seem off pace now.

"...While I do want to take a moment to discuss this properly, I am not sure this is the right venue for it. We should speak tomorrow, when things are calmer." And when he was not interrupting her date.

All the same...Mitama looks up and smiles at him, softly. "Thank you Shiro. And I am glad to see you here again." She would not fail him, not this time.

Mitama is quiet a moment before brightening. "Oh! Have you seen the projectionist? Come, it is really a neat bit of magic, I think you will enjoy it greatly!" She does not wait for his answer before taking his hand and pulling him off in the direction of the photos.

[hemera989]

Hot Takes: Yukio Okumura

Aka, 'My Analysis Of Yukio That No One Asked For And Yet I Will Give It Anyways’ asjhdkajshfs also, tw for talk of attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression and trauma!

The main reason I felt it necessary to give My Take on Yukio was not entirely because I love him and feel like he’s a lot more immature and human than people like to think though that is a large chunk of the reason. It was rather because recent manga chapters have really gone on to shake up how I view him, and it helps to write things down.

I feel like perhaps it’s best to start chronologically in a way, because there’s no one event that really led to the reveal of Yukio as he is today- depressed, suicidal, and destructive. There is no one reason to point a finger at, or one life event to deconstruct. He’s a product of his personality, childhood, and the overall events that led to his birth. And what better way to start a childhood off, than with bullying?

Considering how traumatic bullying can be, it’s just a little bit surprising to see how much it tends to get glossed over (for both Rin and Yukio). This is where I believe Yukio’s inferiority complex may have developed, or at least started becoming prominent. He was teased and harassed as a child, and unable to defend himself besides relying on Rin to protect him. While Rin was only doing so out of genuine love and care for Yukio, this is likely where his twisted opinion of their relationship began. Rin was good and kind and strong, and defended him out of love, and Yukio was weak and a crybaby, and resented both Rin and himself for how little he was able to protect himself on his own. 

This is where we can see his mindset begin to develop; Rin = good and strong, and Yukio = weak and bad. This even extends to Shiro, which we can see somewhat in what I believe is the Kraken arc.

This also becomes what I believe is the core of Yukio’s character- he does not like himself. Because he hates himself so thoroughly, he doesn’t believe that he deserves to be liked, or even that he genuinely can be liked for who he is. We see this in his conversation with Rin during the Aomori arc, where he remarks to Rin that if Shiemi knew the ‘real’ him, she would hate him. He believes that he is an unlikable person, to both himself and others. 

In a way, this also stems from his relationship with Rin. Rin is in no way at fault for why Yukio is the way that he is, but the friction between their two personalities does deepen their own insecurities. Because Rin is reckless and headstrong, Yukio is forced to be the ‘mean guy’, the one to put his foot down, the one to say ‘no’ because he knows that Rin isn’t often capable of doing so himself. He is forced into responsibilities too intense for him to properly handle both due to Rin’s position as the inheritor of the blue flames, and due to his brother’s personality as the goofy, fun-having teen. (If you’ve ever had siblings, or, hell, even had to be the voice of reason in a situation where people are having reckless fun, you know exactly how this feels.)

When you take how his personality is, you can see exactly how his position as an exorcist has exacerbated this to an almost extreme amount. Though Shiro didn’t do so intentionally, he almost single-handedly createted one of Yukio’s most damaging mindsets- that becoming strong is the only way forward for Yukio. 

(Don’t take this as Shiro slander, I love that man and he tried his best with the complicated history he already has with childhood) Through trying to give Yukio the chance to seize strength for himself, he set off quite a few chain reactions within Yukio’s mindset. First, he associated strength as a person with physical strength. Second, he associated worth as a person with physical strength. Third, he associated Yukio’s strength and worth with Rin, by making exorcism a way to protect Rin from other demons. Foruth, in my opinion, we can see the reduction of Yukio and Shiro’s relationship from a father-son bond to a teacher- student bond. Now, Yukio begins to lose his main support system- his father. Shiro is no longer his dad, but the paladin, a strong man who offered him an unhealthy way forward in life. 

In one decision, we can see how Yukio’s self hatred found an external focus to worsen itself for him. Yukio believes that he is a weak, worthless, and unlikable person. But, now, he does have a purpose, something in life that is worth living for. He begins to develop his entire concept of himself as a person on that of becoming an exorcist, becoming strong, and protecting his brother. He hates himself, but he knows that he can do one thing- protect Rin.

We can also see where his superiority complex begins to develop. Being born human while his brother was born clearly demonic, Yukio has more worth in the eyes of the True Cross. Being the good child, and the smart child with a plan for his future, he has more worth in the eyes of society. He is better than his brother, and he knows it, but he also knows that Rin is (in his eyes) inherently good and kind, and Yukio is not. He is better, but he is also lesser than Rin.

Protecting his brother is also where I believe his relationship with Rin begins to deteriorate to a dramatic extent. Yukio wants strongly to protect him, because that’s where he believes his worth as a person is, but in a way, he resents the burden that’s been placed on him. He has to be the responsible one, the mean one, the assertive one, the negotiator, the one to clean up Rin’s messes, the one to fix everything, the one to give up his entire childhood just for exorcism to protect Rin. Yukio is a child, and one who was denied the chance to be one. He was never allowed the chance to selfishly externalize his emotions (like children should be ALLOWED to do, imo) and so never learned how to process his own emotions.

At this point in his life, he resents Rin for being ‘allowed’ to be selfish and destructive, he resents Rin and the world for having this burden of responsibility put on his shoulders, and he resents himself still for being an unlikable, weak, and worthless person, and for resenting Rin and the world. He is vastly, vastly unhappy and hateful towards himself, and is already suffering in the assortment of circumstances he finds himself in.

And then throw in a murdered dad, because why not?

Now, the burden that was placed on him and shared between himself and Shiro, is now solely on him. On top of having his father suddenly and traumatically killed, he is now responsible (in his mind) for Rin. One could argue Mephisto, but he proved... extremely quickly that he was not interested in the finer details of guardianship LMAO. Yukio now is the sole bearer of Rin’s wellbeing, and he finds very quickly that this is a role he does not (and cannot, as a child himself) succeed in.

Yukio has been thrust abruptly into the world of becoming a parent, in an extremely twisted and awful way. He is a child, in an adult field, surrounded by adults, treated as an adult, and now he essentially is the parent of Rin. This is complicated enough with Rin’s personality, but then you have to add in that Rin is the illegitimate and illegal son of Satan, and his very existence, if revealed, would lead to his certain death. As Rin reveals his powers, gets sentenced to execution, picks fights with Amaimon, uses his powers across Kyoto and in damn near every public space whenever possible, Yukio’s distress and mental state begins to worsen as he realizes that he is failing. 

We can see him begin to externalize his mounting frustrations and anger and fear, through reprimanding Rin harshly, threatening Suguro, threatening Mephisto, and also that scene where he punched the shit out of Rin for being reckless. Yukio needs his brother alive, because Rin is his only family left, and because his worth as a person is tied directly to protecting Rin. It is his only purpose in life, and he is failing at it, and he deeply resents Rin for making it difficult, and himself for failing. His downward spiral begins to become visible around these points, and we can also see the start of his worsening habit of taking his volatile emotions out on others physically.

He is progressively being backed into a corner with no way out, and like a wounded animal, he is lashing out at anyone who dares come close. Yukio’s violent and hurtful behavior towards others is not because he’s an uptight asshole who does it for fun, but because he’s a traumatized, depressed, and suicidal child who is losing the one person he has left and who gives his life worth. He has no substantial guidance from the adults around him, and for all intents and purposes, he is alone. He wants to rely on Rin, but because Rin has a tendency to process negative emotions by shoving them down and away, Yukio can’t rely on him.

This is what I think is the most heartbreaking aspect of Yukio. He is a hurt and lonely child, who is deeply mentally ill, who is losing his brother and lashing out at others because he doesn’t know what else to do. He is acutely aware that he is being cruel and unkind, and he doesn’t want to be. He wants to be good, and kind, and liked, and valued. He doesn’t want to hurt others.

This scene makes this obvious. This is what I believe is the cliff’s edge where Yukio takes the drop that leads him to where he is in the manga now. He is terribly lonely, and hateful, but in a moment where he lashes out emotionally, he managed to do something he feels is well and wholly despicable. Shiemi is the one person he cares for genuinely, healthily, and truly. She wants to help him because she cares for him, and yet he hurts her for daring to mention his largest insecurity- and he knows that.You can see it written across his expression- he’s shocked, and horrified with himself for how he lost control. His hands are shaking.

He managed to do the one thing he feared above all, and that was to let Shiemi see who he ‘truly’ was. He hurt someone who unselfishly cared for him, and this is where he begins to think that he has gone past the point of no return. He is so awful, and terrible, that he hurt someone as kind as Shiemi. He is so worthless that he is failing at the one job that gives his life meaning. He is so evil and cruel that he has shoved everyone away, and now he truly has no one left.

He is worthless, and evil, and terrible- this is how Yukio views himself. Why not kill himself, and then the world would be rid of him?

Except, now another wrench has been thrown in. Yukio finds that, with Satan possessing his eye, he has become worse that worthless and evil and terrible. Now, his life poses a threat to humanity, by allowing Satan a way into Assiah. His life isn’t just worthless now, it’s become an active threat to the world, in his mind. Now, he can rationalize that his death is necessary. He is suicidal, but he has convinced himself that it’s fine, because he needs to die anyways.

This is where I believe he is in the manga, now. He is convinced that he has to die, and says it’s because he wants to save the world from Satan, but it is extremely likely that it’s mostly because he is extremely suicidal. He is hellbent (pardon the pun) on his own death. He will stop at nothing to secure his own death, no matter what it takes. His trauma, his mental illness, his self-hatred- they’re all open and exposed, now. If he’s an evil, unlikable, and cruel person, why not commit to it? Why not make himself the most evil, the most unlikable, the most cruel, if it means someone will finally get tired enough to truly put himself out of his misery?

He’s cast aside his true kindness and gentleness, and has embraced what he believes to be his ‘true’ self. He will die, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.

That’s my take on him, what I believe his mindset is and how it developed. Yukio is not a hero. He hurt Shiemi, threatened his students, threatened his guardian, and shot Rin multiple times. Whether or not Rin heals from it is irrelevant, Yukio still made the conscious choice to harm Rin, and others. But, he has never done so because he is evil inside. He’s done so because he’s a wounded animal, lashing out, determined to secure his own death. He is a traumatized child who has hurt others. 

He deserves kindness and understanding, but also to be held accountable for his actions. He’s what I believe to be the embodiment of the ugly side of mental illness that many people are resistant to see. His character is uncomfortable to read, because he is startlingly real and three-dimensional. Like many of the characters in aoex, he cannot be classified as good or bad. He is a complex person, with good and bad aspects, like any person in real life.

godDAMN could someone give him a HUG and some THERAPY PLEASE.

[halfhappyhooligan]

a voltron au? in 2020? it’s more likely than you think

look. LOOK. i know that voltron is stupid and we hate it but lets be honest: everything up until season 3 was pretty good and had lots of potential !!

today i was rewatching voltron and a thought struck me: what if, instead of shiro being cloned, he was chipped and turned to the side of the galra?

so here it is, i did not blink since i thought of this

(warning, i have not seen voltron in a while and this is just knowledge i have stored in my moss brain and stuff i know from rewatching the first season)

au where shiro goes evil bc of what happens @ end of season one instead of the clone thing bc 1) haggar rly could not have made thousands of shiros after bumping into team voltron like what twice? its hella improbable and 2) just… weird

so instead they insert a chip in him that helps them spy and control him just like kuron (the clone) did minus the unlikely storytelling

eventually after the convo with sendak when he was in the pod trying to temp shirp, he does have thoughts about helping zarkon

(“im already infiltrated with the arm, i could just speed up the process by leaving now. save the team the trouble of investing in a leader that’s doomed to fail from the strart.”)

shiro ends up leaving team voltron in season 2 after zarkon goes crazy w the black lion n stuff

^^ this adds to Keith’s reasoning of joining the Blade of Marmora (shiro is his main stability and one of the main reasons he even stuck around with team voltron, so with shiro gone and keith questioning his place as the leader and paladin of the black lion, he decides the BoM is just.. what’s best for him) 

obviously lance isn’t happy with this (“you just told me that i’m a valuable member, now you don’t think YOU are? what logic is that?”)

ofc keith goes anyways

lance becomes paladin of the black lion

allura takes on the red lion

who has blue lion? ...idk this isn’t that thought out (maybe matt after pidge finds her family) (which will happen earlier in the plot since we can forget about the miniplot of black no longer responding to shiro)

enter lotor only this time he has a sidekick and what omg its shiro wow

shiro has that bigger version of his arm that was once offered to him

he’s stronger and scary, but his eyes aren’t the same, he has the strength of a galra but lacks the passion 

in the fight between lotor and zarkon, (and after, of course lots of self doubt and questioning) shiro comes between them and convinces lotor NOT to kill zarkon

then zarkon kills lotor

everyones like oh shit bc surely someone who’s life was just spared wouldn’t kill the person who seems to have the most power

but he did. bc he’s zarkon. and he’s fckn crazy.

shiro doesn’t go back to team voltron bc its too much too easily

instead he takes the place of lotor in the group of gals 

he convinces them all to rebel against the galra

eventually they teach him all about quintessence and all the shit lotor had planned that they can’t do anymore

(lotor wasn’t harvesting alteans in this universe bc what the heck even was that subplot that had little to no relevance to the main storyline?

instead he was trying to find a way to technologically bring back alteans (kinda like how allure’s dad was originally preserved in s1)

i know nothing about How Stuff Works and i dont remember much about quintessence n shit but the basic idea is that when tying in some of a persons artifacts with technology stuff and some quintessence then boom. a weird route from astral projection land to the team is created and ppl can come back or smth idfk

but lotor was never able to get the comet so shiro decides he and the gals will get that comet and try to bring back as many alteans as they can

^ all this while infiltrating as many galra fleets as possible + saving planets under galra empire

they personally visit every planet that lotor was in charge of and release them from galra control

they are able to bring back an altean (its romelle) and she talks abt her friend who lives on the balmera and they go to the balmera and its revealed that it was shay’s great grandmother so romelle asks where shay is and shay’s family is like with team voltron of course

so

they take her

obviously team voltron, the BoM and the Rebels r very hesitant to make contact but they decide to try it out

keith refuses to meet, instead he’s on the team that stands guard

reunions !! 

romelle and shay hit it off and hunk makes a dinner much like roselle’s past (allura and coran also hang out and they all vibe)

lance talks to shiro abt everything to do with keith and shiro is like dude do u??? like him?

and lance is like what? no ofc not—oh shit.

and keith ✨overhears ✨

pidge matt and shiro catch up n shit

meanwhile keith is like Hey Lance Uhhhhhh What The Fuck

they end up being like hey since we’re all here and we hate zarkon what if we make a plan to end the galra’s reign Right Now

so they do

and y’all.. it’s hella baller plan

except something is going wrong and in the middle of an attack zarkon is able to get the upper hand 

due to haggar’s magic and lance’s mental and emotional instability, zarkon is able to get in his head

everyone is trying to talk him down but they’re all under a lot of pressure

allura is also conflicted bc she wanted to be black lion bc she wanted to rub it in to zarkon���s face that she was stronger than he and that she could beat him at his own game

but the negativity and instability feeds into zarkon’s power and makes him and haggar stronger as they pull in voltron to finally take over the team and regain their status as the most powerful alien race

hunk realizes this and is like okay can y’all stop being negative? its clearly affecting them in a good way and it makes us an easier target

and pidge is like im literally a child pls i don’t wanna die i just got my family back it can’t end like this

shiro realizes what’s going on and he goes to save them

he uses all his energy, pulling in the positive memories (everything: first learning about space, becoming a teacher, meeting adam, meeting keith, first making team voltron, his friends and family--all of it) to push back zarkon and haggar’s powers and battle once more in the astral realm 

in defeating zarkon, shiro loses his life

afterwards keith enters the ship in a hurry and is like where the fuck is shiro where’s my brother what did you do what happened

and team voltron is like hey man.. we are so so sorry

and keith cries because the last thing he ever said to shiro was mean

lance feels like its all his fault since he was supposed to be a good leader

they talk about separately while hunk pidge and allura discuss

krolia is like keith we, ur family, are here for u

and axca is there and shes like um?? hey?? sry for trying to kill u bro

and he’s like i absolutely do not wanna talk i just lost my closest friend

they talk about it later

axca tells keith abt shiro finishing lotor’s work and abt bringing people back and well.. 

they use the methods to help keith visit shiro in the astral realm

shiro is like oh uh hey i was just having a drink w adam we r happy

and keith is like shiro u fuckhead why would u sacrifice urself

shiro sighs bc cmon keith you KNOW why “remember what i always said? we can’t focus on what went wrong..”

“we’ve got to figure out how to make it right” keith finishes

keith breaks tf down crying and screams apologizing

“i love u shiro. ur a like a big brother to me.”

and shiro is like yeah i know and ilyt but hey. everyone’s safe and happy. im safe and happy. & you deserve to be too. you don’t need me anymore.

so the galra rule is over and everyone goes to their respected planets

romelle and the other alteans as well as some galra babes hang in earth

romelle and shay r in an apartment together and have a garden

allura realizes she may not have been the strongest leader for voltron, and  couldn’t stop zarkon on her own but that physical strength doesn’t define her as a whole

her heart is strong enough to care for everyone, so thats what she does

allura starts running an inn for alteans filled with painted sceneries like altea in case anyone ever needs a reminder of home

when lance reunites with his family its a real tearjerker

rachel finally gets her jacket back and veronica is like So.. Axca 👀

the McClain’s host a huge party for everyone and it’s filled with lots of hugs and loud music and even tho lance was way too tired, he danced all night

he wouldn’t trade his family for the world—genetic and chosen

when hunk reunites with his parents they don’t let him out the house for hours, he tells them all about his new best friend shay as well as hundreds of his favorites stories from space

they are so, so proud of him

hunk spends the next days playing minecraft and animal crossing with pidge, giving their brains a rest from being on hyperdrive for 3 yrs straight

when pidge gets home she finally gets grounded by her mom, only being allowed to leave the house to see her old teammates

(same for matt and her dad)

(her mother cries so hard when they opened the door to the home)

the holt family holds movie nights filled with popcorn, cuddles, and tears

keith moves in with the holt family, and finally accepts that he has a home as well as a family

he often goes on trips with the BoM but mostly just stays on earth

after a Team Voltron sleepover in the altea inn keith and lance decide to get an apartment together and live their lives in love and in peace

everyone gets together once a year in celebration of shiro and the sacrifice he made for them

they use the ship to visit Astral Shiro and once they even met adam

everyone laughs and catches up and just... live their lives

everyone is happy

pls ignore any and all errors lmao

again, just a thought !! maybe i’ll write a fic abt it idk for sure but yeah

feel free to add anything <3

[raziroo]

Chapter 3 | I Am Not At All Wise

Pairing: There's hints, but none

Genre: Angst?

Warnings: Overly Casual Mentions of Depression and Anxiety, Mentions of Trading of Lives

Word Count: 1,926

Author's Note: This might appear a little rushed, because I got this sudden surge of inspiration and sat down to write this and this isn't even proofread. Sorry, hehe.

‘Guys, what’s wrong with you?! This my father we’re talking about, my father! Why are you so hesitant to trade him for Lotor?’

The tense energy in the room only became even more suffocating when Pidge let that question, among others, loose like cannonballs. I was glad I was sitting even a bit away from the ongoing discussion, because the questions and not up to par answers were succeeding in making me uncomfortable. After all, the topic at hand wasn’t light at all – a topic such as trading of lives is one that questions your morals, your beliefs, literally everything you, as a person, stand for. I stared at Pidge, her absolutely enraged expression making me gulp nervously`. If Pidge didn’t get her father back now, after finding out his destination, then God knows how many shots are going to get fired at whom. And although I’m not saying that Pidge is wrong, she isn’t even right.

That’s confusing.

What I meant to say was, that although Pidge’s actions and fury and incredulousness were fully justified, it didn’t mean that we could all just nod heads in tandem and send Lotor off as some sort of pig for slaughter in exchange of Pidge’s dad. It wasn’t fair.

As my eyes lost focus, I recalled Captain America’s words – we don’t trade lives.

I snapped out of my thoughts. I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t, ultimately. Heading to my room now instead of just sitting there and making myself look like an unopinionated fool wasn’t helping me anyways, and neither was Lotor’s presence a couple feet beside me.

I decided to head to my room.

After all, that was what I was best at, wasn’t it? After finally accepting that I was a time traveler and couldn’t ever see my friends or family ever again and that aliens did actually exist, and not just on Mars (wait, did aliens exist on Mars? I never asked that), all I did for a good sum of time was hide in my room. Activities except hiding in my room included roaming through the castle and running to my room as soon as I deducted any trace of intelligent life near me, being strangely intimate with the white lion – intimacy including venting about how I was probably depressed, possibly had anxiety, caressing the lioness because she’s beautiful, and nestling in her cockpit because she felt like home – and running to my room when Shiro questioned me about my connection with White.

A bit after, when I felt more reassured and had begun craving human communication, I finally emerged from my cave, only to find that some of the Paladins didn’t seem too happy with my presence. Time went on, spirits fell, only to rise once again in blazing hopes of dethroning Zarkon, and my naturally social abilities helped me blend in with the Paladins soon. A lot of the comfort I felt among the Paladins, I owed to Shiro and Hunk. Those two were literally angels, especially to me. I couldn’t count on all the fingers of the Paladins and Allura combined how may times those two, and occasionally Lance, came to offer me a hug or talk to me when I looked glum. Even Allura and Pidge talked to meif they were free. The only person I had problems interacting with was Keith. But we’d nod to each other, say our greetings, and I accepted that. I couldn’t be besties with everyone. However, mine and Keith’s communication skills only worsened and problems only increased once Shiro disappeared. Keith straight up would refuse to pilot the Black Lion, and even when he finally agreed, he was so unorganized and his decisions so rash it was costing the coalition. When Lions started becoming unstable to fight after longer, tougher battles, White was expected to fill in. After all, it was the White Lion’s purpose – to be the mind of Voltron when the Paladins couldn’t, to keep the soul, fire, water, air and flora elements in check, Allura had once said to me. Only, White needed a pilot, a Paladin. And all expectations of being White’s pilot were pinned on me, naturally, because I was the one who seemingly materialized in her cockpit out of nowhere.

I, obviously, failed to do that. Because apparently (and quite obviously, if I do say so myself) even though White warmed up the cockpit for me when I slept there and seemed to purr when I caressed her face, I wasn’t worthy enough, in her gaze, to be a Paladin. And I truly had no qualms about that. The only issue was that Keith wasn’t satisfied with that. Pidge and Lance tried to hide it, but they too, felt that I should try harder. Hunk comforted me when I accidentally let the hurt I was feeling shine through. Allura tried to convince everyone that it wasn’t my fault at all, that the Lions only accepted whom they deemed fit to Pilot them, and the reason the White Lion even was the “extra” Lion in the first place was that it was hardest than any of the other Lions to convince to be Pilot of. It was simply too calculating and cynical and choosy – and I agreed with White wholly, because stepping in as the voice of reason, as the mind of Voltron when all these worthy, noble, brave people who were specifically selected to be the defender and judge of the universe when no one else could failed to do their jobs, then you needed to be one hell of a person to be honoured with the name “White Paladin of Voltron”.

When Shiro had come back, or as he said, when Keith brought him back, the Castle seemed to light up more. I understood why he was chosen to be the soul to combine the other elements and form Voltron. I was ecstatic, perhaps happier than some of the Paladins even, but that didn’t mean I didn’t notice – or rather, didn’t choose to shrug off - his strange and simply out of character behaviour at times. I wasn’t the only one that did. It was when I voiced to White about my concerns, and she glowed – literally glowed as if in agreement did I know that shit was serious. White, as weirdly impossible as it sounds, also noticed. She knew, too, that something wasn’t right with Shiro. It was beyond me how she did, but I didn’t get to ponder on that for too long.

Why?

Because Lotor happened. He arrived as our saviour at the most unexpected moment and in the most unexpected way, and then became unpredictability, unanswered questions, and uncertainty personified for us. How many rifts and arguments he alone had caused between the Paladins was the slightest bit alarming, but justified, in my opinion. Lotor had succeeded in messing up our functioning. It didn’t matter if it was only a tad – he was the anthropomorphic form of all the flaws and hesitancies and wrongs and uncertainties in the coalition that we’d turned a blind eye to.

And now Zarkon had offered us Pidge’s dad’s freedom in exchange of Lotor, but I would be lying if I said if I wasn’t the tiniest bit worried as to just what Zarkon would do to Lotor. I know, I know, I really was no one to be straining my brain for that, since Lotor was an alien Prince who had equal chances of being good and evil, was capable of killing us all if he wished to, and had probably endured worse than his father’s wrath. But that wasn’t even the biggest issue we had. Pidge getting fired up was reasonable enough, I was aware of how emotionally driven she could become at times despite being a genius. And her brain refusing to work when her family came into play was the reason I was bothered most – even if she convinced the other Paladins to go through with the exchange, there was absolutely no surety that Zarkon would keep his part of the deal. It was legit the dumbest, most irrational thing the protagonist could do. If that happened, we’d lose both Pidge’s father, and an extremely valuable asset to the coalition.

I didn’t really realize that during my very acceptable train of self-depreciating thoughts I’d changed my route and had instinctively begun for White. I guess it was only right, as I felt more at ease there than anywhere. It was only when I reached her and stroked her, she seemed to… close in on her herself. I furrowed my brow, a small frown on my lips.

I sighed. It was probably nothing.

Relaxing my facial muscles, I closed my eyes, leaned forward, and nudged White’s snout. I jumped back with a start when instead of the usual purr or whimper, she growled at me. The crease between my brows returned with a higher intensity.

‘What is it, girl? Hmm?’ I cooed at her, not risking touching her. ‘Is something wrong? Do you not want to talk? Should I go?’

Silence was what I received in exchange.

‘My love,’ yes I called White “my love”, “girl”, have and will continue to call her “babe”, and no you cannot do jack about it. ‘You need to tell me, please,’ I continued, my voice gentle as ever, ‘how am I supposed to know what you want to say? You’ve never growled at me before. I don’t know how to interpret that gesture. Do I take it as you being upset? Angry? Sad?’ She still didn’t answer. All the life seemed to leave her.

I tilted my head. My sigh bounced off the walls.

‘The White Lion is said to be the mind of Voltron,’ a naturally assertive, deep, thunder-like voice called. I was sure I jumped at least a foot before whipping my head to where the voice resonated from. Lotor. What -?

‘Forgive me if I scared you. I thought it wise to offer some assistance; you seemed to be in need of help.’

I didn’t answer. He took it as a “yes, I need your help”. ‘The most probable reason it is not responding to your calls, is because you are contradicting what the White Lion stands for, you aren’t being wise. That is, assuming the Lion does answer you typically.’

I turned back to White, my jaw setting. My lingering suspicion turned into certainty at Lotor’s remarks.

Well. As much as I cherished my relations with White, I wasn’t going to voice my thoughts and concerns regarding the life trade. I wasn’t particularly keen on getting involved. I wasn’t the White Paladin. I wasn’t the voice of reason. I couldn’t be. This was the exact reason as to why I couldn’t be the White Paladin. I had many a thought, but didn’t always think it wise to share them with others.

Especially not when “others” included a leader that was not being himself, a princess who wanted to get rid of the Galra empire and Zarkon as soon as possible no matter the cost, and a Paladin who was going feral and becoming blind by rage at the thought of not getting her father back when she was so close.

Yes. Now definitely not.

Without sparing Lotor or White another glance, I headed to my room, for real this time. I didn’t notice both of their piercing gazes aimed at my retreating figure.

[actress4him]

Whumptober 2020 - Day 18

We’ve got a pretty good mix of physical and emotional whump going on today, though I’d say it leans more toward emotional. A little bit of Shiro, yet another original alien race (how many does that make now this month? I feel like it’s a lot), and plenty of angst to go around. This is one of my favorite Keith headcanons, so I’m glad I got the chance to explore it.

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

Day 18 - Panic Attacks/Phobias

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: fire, panic attacks, flashbacks, referenced minor character death, disassociation, scars

The first time that Red shot out a long stream of fiery lava, obliterating a nearby Galra ship, Keith had gone stiff, images of flames flashing through his mind in rapid succession until everything went blank. He spent the rest of the battle with his body piloting by rote while his consciousness hid somewhere in the back corner of the cockpit, watching.

He wasn’t just the Red Paladin, he’d come to realize later. He was the Paladin of Fire.

Because of course he was. That was just how Keith’s life worked.

When Sendak attacked the Arusian’s village, the sight of the burning houses sent pain shooting through Keith’s hands and shoulder. He had wanted to disassociate then, too, so badly. His brain screamed at him to let it retreat, to not have to watch the flickering orange tongues that brought back so many painful memories. But he was a Paladin of Voltron. There was no way he could let himself be defeated by something as stupid as fire. Lance would never let him live it down if he froze where others could see, and Princess Allura was counting on him to do his job right. He had to prove himself. They needed to know they weren’t making a mistake in trusting him.

So he had plunged forward, going closer to the flames than he probably should have, shoving everything down, down, down until it was out of reach for the moment. And immediately after that it was constant activity, trying to get back into the Castle to defeat Sendak and save the others, so he didn’t have time to remember, to think about what he had done, until it was much later and he was lying in his bed, trying to sleep. 

That’s when the nightmares came, as they so often did anyway. Having experienced the heat in real life so recently made them all the more realistic that night, though.

It was months later before he had to face his fear during waking hours again. They were in the middle of an intense air and ground battle with the Empire just outside a military base on the planet Nateya. Hunk and Pidge were in their Lions, shooting up the cruisers that hovered above, while Keith and Shiro fought hand to hand down below alongside Nateyan soldiers and Lance sniped from the top of a nearby building.

Without warning, one of the ships fired a laser cannon at the largest building on base, causing a small explosion that shook the ground. The place immediately went up in flames. Most of the Nateyans were already outside fighting, but those that weren’t soon started pouring out the front door.

For a moment Keith’s feet were glued in place, his mind stuck in the past. The image of the military building flickered in and out, juxtaposed with a much taller building with lots of dark, reflective windows.

Kogane! Don’t go back in there, it’s too late!

They’re still inside, I have to try to save them!

“I have to try to save them,” he whispered. Before his mind had caught up to what his body was doing, his feet had already carried him to the door.

Past all the people. Ignore them, they’re not who you’re looking for. Ignore the fact that you’re the only one moving in this direction. Ignore the smoke that’s starting to clog the air the further in you go. Ignore the voices crying in the back of your head.

Dad! No, Dad, come back!

The stream of aliens had thinned out. One lone male stumbled out of a back hallway that glowed orange, coughing. Keith grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Is anyone else back there?”

The Nateyan shook his head. “If they are, I doubt they survived.”

Somebody get the kid out of there!

Without another word, Keith pushed past him and into the hallway. The air was growing more and more stifling with each step. Around a corner, and suddenly he could hear the pops and crackles of the fire.

Searing pain in his hands, on his shoulder.

He began kicking open each door he passed, sticking his head inside to look for survivors before moving on. The heat was intense now, he could feel it even through his suit. The crackles had turned into a roar that grew in his ears until it was deafening.

No! No! I want my Dad! Give me my Dad!

It wasn’t until he was standing face to face with a wall of flame, struggling to breathe in a way that had nothing to do with the smoke, that he finally found someone. A young, female Nateyan, cowering in the corner of the last room before oblivion.

“Come on!” he shouted, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her up. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”

Come on, kid, you’re hurting yourself. You’ve gotta get away from there.

Back out into the hall. The fire had progressed, licking at his back as he shielded the young woman. A beam crashed to the floor just behind them, and both of them hit the floor, from fear rather than the actual impact. 

It was the last straw for Keith’s tenuous hold on his sanity. When he scrambled back to his feet and pulled her up with him, he was actually floating several feet above his own head, following from behind near the ceiling as the two bodies below ran back through the long hallways. It was much more pleasant up there, honestly. The sound of the flames and the thick smoke that made the woman cough constantly didn’t bother him in the least.

When they burst out of the building and into the cool, fresh air, he watched as Shiro ran up to him, and watched himself fail to respond. Shiro seemed concerned, shaking his shoulders gently, calling his name over and over, but he couldn’t bother himself to go back down and into the nightmare that would be waiting for him. Finally the Black Paladin took him by the arm and led him away from the last strains of the battle. Keith followed along, into a quiet alleyway, where they both sat with their backs up against the wall.

It took a while. Shiro held his hand the whole time, though he couldn’t actually feel it. The transition came with no warning, his consciousness crashing back down into his body with a force that nearly knocked him over, and immediately he couldn’t breathe. 

I want my Dad! Give me back my Dad!

A band was wrapped around his lungs. Squeezing, always squeezing, tighter and tighter until he thought his ribs would all crumble. Fumbling for his helmet, he managed to release the seal and threw it to the ground, then grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled. The pressure somehow eased some of the tension that had taken over his body, but it didn’t make pulling in air any easier.

We need an EMT over here!

Shiro was saying something in his ear. It sounded like a bumblebee droning, or like a radio playing underwater. A hand touched his arm and he jerked away, doubling over to dig his forehead into the dirt.

A deafening sound, a sound that he would never forget in all his years. The sound of a charred building collapsing in on itself.

Hands were on his face. He fought against them, but they held fast, pulling his head up so that he was eye to eye with Shiro. It took several long moments before Keith’s brain registered that he was emulating deep breathing for him to follow.

DAD!

“That’s it.” Shiro’s voice broke through the roar suddenly. “That’s great, Keith. Just keep breathing, just like that.”

Another breath. Two. They were getting easier, little by little. The pain in his chest was subsiding, though the scars on his palms and shoulder still burned beneath his armor. He suspected it would be a few days before they’d stop.

“There you go, bud. You’re gonna be okay.”

I’m sorry, kid. Your dad is gone.

[grimmjowkurosakidrake]

Hermoso

Summary: For the @soulmatebingo “Phrase in native language” 

Keith gets the word “Hermoso" tattooed on his throat. Lance, instead, gets the word “Idiot” tattooed at the back of his neck.

Length: 2347 words

Relationships: Lance (Voltron)/Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) & Shiro (Voltron)

Warnings: Implied depression, implied low self esteem issues

Also, just a quick reminder that you can commission me at @witcheswritings

Keith is thirteen on his fourth day at the Garrison when the word «Hermoso» writes itself deeply into his throat.

He doesn’t know when it happens exactly, one day he’s mark-less and then suddenly he’s seeing the bold, cursive letters, written there, glaring back at him from the mirror in the boys’ bathroom when he’s done washing his hands.

There’s no way he can hide this, it’s the first thing that comes into his mind when he sees it. Small hands tracing the words with slow, hesitant touches. 

It’s almost like his soulmate wants everyone to see these words, to know that he’s... hermoso, whatever that means. 

Keith is not so eager for the world to see these words, however.

He would have to wear high collars or scarfs for the rest of his life if he ever thought about covering this mark. But even when there’s no need for him to try and conceal it, as the school doesn’t have any rules against soulmate tattoos, he still feels the need to hide it from the everyone around him.

There’s someone out there now, his soulmate, who’s noticed him or met him for the first time and those thoughts are now tattooed into his throat.

A deep blush travels from his face to his collarbones at the idea. His soulmate is somewhere around the Garrison, and these foreign words are their first thoughts about him.

“Hermoso.” He tries to say with great difficulty, not really sure in how to roll the r in between the word. It ends up sounding awkward and he wonders if his soulmate will teach him how to say it, someday.

Will his soulmate reach out to him? 

A part of him wants them to, another part it’s almost afraid.

☰☰

Shiro smiles when he sees the mark on his throat, the older boy engulfs him in a warm hug, honestly happy for him. “My Spanish may be a little rusty.” Admits Shiro, kissing the top of Keith’s head even against the boy’s loud protests. “But I’m almost sure it means beautiful.”

The Garrison’s junior officer looks directly into his eyes as he says this.

“That can’t be” Mumbles Keith, rising the high collar of his uniform up at his chin. Beautiful is what you call flowers, butterflies, and pretty girls. It’s how his father used to talk about Keith’s mom.

“I don’t think I’m wrong.” Shiro smiles indulgently, opening the zipper of his jacket until his tattoo is clearly visible. “I think your soulmate thinks you’re beautiful and that’s fine.” He states. “That is exactly how love is supposed to be.”

“Do you have a mark?” Asks Keith, his little hands wrapping around his throat almost on instinct.

“Yes.” Answers Shiro, lifting the sleeves of his jacket, there, on his wrist the words «Cute Smile» sit comfortable like they belong. 

He does have a cute smile, it’s bright and reassuring all the same. The smile of a true leader.

Keith smiles hesitantly. “It’s true.” He admits, Shiro’s smile makes him feel right at home, safe, like there’s nothing wrong in the world even when everything clearly is.

“Then maybe you can be beautiful.” Counters the officer, tapping the top of his nose. “Your soulmate surely thinks so.”

☰☰

Lance is thirteen when he enters the academy; He’s away from his family, he’s miles away from the sea and he’s afraid that he will never make friends with anyone.

But he can feel the space at the tips of his fingers now, his dreams are closer to him now and even if he’s not the space hero protagonist he imagined he’d become as soon as he entered the academy, he knows this is a step closer to his future as pilot.

Four days into the academy, they do weapon training.

It’s a safe begginer’s practice for the most part; they start with blunt weapons as their instructor coldly tells them that there’s no way they can hurt themselves with them, that these weapons are harmless.

Lance can’t help but think that he’s lying, after all, weapons are weapons, specially under the wrong hands. 

But he stays silent.

The people at the Garrison obviously want them to get started on safe battle grounds because more than anything, they will be soldiers.

It should be easy, they give them blunt weapons of choice, ranging from brass knuckles to even one big maze that only someone like Hunk should handle at their age.

“You’ll face robots and drones alike; they wont hurt you but they will charge at you, robots are one pointers, drones...” Explains one of his teachers, pointing at the top of the high ceiling where four drones are flying high about them. “Are two pointers. Try and take them on.” He taunts them.

It’s a lot of fun, for the most part. He’s not good with any of the weapons, not even the Bō -Staff, truth is, no one is. But all of them have fun trying, building camaraderie in their failure.

Because they all fail, until Keith.

The boys destroys three big robots with the Bō -Staff just three minutes after his time starts; using its weight and material to his advantage, he’s not superhuman by any means but he’s smart.

Then, he takes the Sai swords.

Without breaking a sweat, the boy runs towards the destroyed robots to propel himself to the high ceiling of the gymnasium at the Garrison, the swords twirling between his fingers before hitting the first drone, then, he uses the momentum to fall into the second drone and hit it too, it’s ridiculous. 

The difference in between Keith and the rest of them is enormous.

Around him, all of their classmates are glaring at Keith. There’s nothing wrong if they all fail, that means they need more training.

But if one of them passes in the way Keith is passing, then it means the rest of the class is behind. They’re jealous, bitter.

But Lance can’t help but think:

Él es hermoso, la forma en que se mueve, ágil y mortal. Como una pantera acechando a su presa.

It’s the first time he thinks of the boy. But it surely won’t be the last.

Keith is larger than life, a beautiful monster, oblivious to the world around him; even Lance. 

With time, everything he does, is with Keith on his thoughts. Maybe if he gets stronger, he will be at Keith’s level, maybe they will become partners, fighting and flying shoulder to shoulder.

Reaching the stars side by side.

Keith never notices him, or so he thinks, but a week into the Garrison, Lace gets his mark. The word «Idiot» tattooed into the back of his neck, forever.

But he doesn’t notice it until Hunk points it out when they’re changing clothes after gym hours.

“Lance!” He screams exited. “You got your mark!” Probably not even thinking about what  those words say.

Hunk has always been a romantic, in love with love, never thinking about how cruel it can be.

“Really?” Asks Lance just as exited. “What does it say?”

“Oh…” Whispers Hunk, his voice audibly less chipper.

“What?” Insists Lance. “C’mon, Hunk. Don’t put me on edge, big boy.”

“Idiot.” He finally says. “It says idiot.”

“Oh…” Mimics Lance, his voice disappointed but not actually surprised.

A few days later, just at the start of summer, he sees Keith’s mark for the first time.

☰☰

When he tells his family they try to lighten the mood. “Oh, honey.” Laughs his mom through the screen when he video-chats them about it. “Pobrecita tiene que haberte visto hacer alguna tontería.”

Lance chuckles “Pobrecito, mamá.” He corrects her, “my soulmate is a boy, you know.”

At his words, his mom brightens. “Oh!” She exclaims, “You know who he is!”

“Yes.” Responds Lance with a grimace marring his face. “He’s beautiful.”

His mother is happy for him; in fact, his whole family is. But Lance can’t help but feel resentful. This is what Keith thinks of him, his first impression of Lance and he thinks he’s an idiot.

They’ve never exchanged words, never even fought. How stupid can he be if that’s the first thought a complete estranger has of him?

He doesn’t tell Keith that they’re soulmates, he won’t force the bright, beautiful future prodigy of the Garrison to stuck with a stupid cargo pilot.

Then Keith drops out of the Garrison and he doesn’t have to pretend. Without Keith there, Lance doesn’t have to pretend that he’s not in love.

☰☰

When they meet again he notices that Keith no longer hides his mark, now, instead of the high collars and tight shirts at his neck, he wears a black shirt with a deep v neck, showing off both his throat and his collarbones.

“It means beautiful.” He supplies one day, boldly tracing the words on his soulmate’s throat. They’re sitting on Lance’s bed in his room at the castle.

 Besides Shiro, Keith has only been comfortable with Lance touching him, after so many physical fights and training together maybe he no longer minds having the cuban boy near him.

Without thinking, Lace’s hand reaches out to the back of his own neck. “I thought you were beautiful, back then.” He confesses. “Beautiful and deadly, like a panther.” Clarifies the brunette, chuckling “I guess I wasn’t wrong, mister red lion.”

“What does your mark says?” Asks the red paladin, hesitant. He knows that Lance has a mark, he probably already knows the obvious, rhat Lace and him are soulmates.

“You don’t remember?” He asks, his voice small, insecure.

Keith puts his legs over Lance’s own, resting his head on his shoulder. “My dad died a year before I entered the Garrison.” He articulates as if it explained anything. “Two months later I met Shiro and he encouraged me to apply.” His is voice small, barely a whisper. “He gave me a reason to keep on going. Suddenly I had a meaning, I was good at flying and at fighting, a natural soldier, but...” He pauses. “I wasn’t happy.”

“Keith…” Tries Lance, not really knowing what to say. 

Keith is not really explaining anything but his words are having an impact on Lance anyway. No matter the words tattooed on their skin, even if they weren’t soulmates, Lance knows that he loves the other boy and he would never want him to be unhappy.

Keith interrupts him before he can even voice his thoughts. “I don’t remember when, but you got yourself caught in a rope one day. You were on the ground, just a mess of limbs and rope and I laughed.” He smiles. “I laughed so hard that I cried a little.”

“Glad to be of service.” Mutters Lance, tangling long fingers on Keith’s unruly hair.

“I thought you were an idiot, such an idiot.” Keith whispers, moving into his lap, trying to get as close to Lance as possible. “And I laughed for the first since my father died.” He pauses for a moment, looking up to Lance, trying to gauge his reaction to his words. Lance smiles down at his soulmate. “It was the first thing I thought about you but it wasn’t the last.” He rushes. “I swear.”

“Yeah?” Asks Lance with a goofy grin painted on his face as he carefully removes a rebellious lock of dark hair from Keith’s face.

“You were always around people, always happy.” Smiles Keith. “I wish your mark was different.” He confesses. “You’re funny, you’re brave, you’re tenacious.” Keith pauses for a moment, just to take Lance’s hand with his own. “You make me happy.”

“I’m suddenly fine with my mark if this s what you make of it.” Jokes Lance, even when he knows that he’s lying.

The reality it’s that he’s never going to forget the disappointment and the resentment. He has spent at least four years of his time at the Garrison thinking that his soulmate thought him nothing but an idiot and for some time, he tried to convince himself that Keith was right.

“I hope that’s not true.” Argues Keith. “I’m sorry about your mark.” He apologies. “Especially when my mark is…” He chokes, holding his throat like a lifeline. “Especially when mine is the best thing that could even happen to me.”

“It’s not fine.” Lance confesses. “I really wish it was fine, that I could feel proud of my mark like you do.”

“I’m sorry.” Apologies Keith once again, his face contorting in anguish.

“But it doesn’t mean that what I felt about you has changed. It doesn’t mean that you’re not my soulmate or that I wish you weren’t my soulmate.” He continues, holding onto Keith’s hips and drawing the other boy closer to him.

In this position they’re almost the same height, chest to chest with Keith being a head taller than him for the first time ever. Lance doesn’t mind. No with Keith’s legs straddling him like this.

“I want to make it up to you.” Whispers the red paladin over his lips like a promise.

“You don’t have to.” Answers Lance, his mouth barely touching Keith’s.

Keith doesn’t answer, instead, he closes the gap in between, his lips closing around Lance’s own lower lip with a conteted sigh.

Both boys moan together as they kiss, they’ve been waiting for this moment, building up the tension and the attraction until neither of them could take it anymore.

With a sigh, Keith wraps his arms around Lance’s neck, his fingertips caressing the words hidden at the back of his neck. “You really make me happy.” He murmurs, kissing his soulmate again, the tip of his tongue seeking entrance shyly.

Lance smirks and opens his mouth, his own tongue meeting Keith’s before closing his lips over Keith’s lips. His hands sneaking under the shorter boy’s shirt, feeling the warm skin there.

“You make me happy, too, beautiful.” He whispers, settling a warm, kiss under his soulmate’s jawbone. “Realmente me haces feliz, hermoso.”

Keith sighs, his whole body falling into Lance’s arms, content there.

Safe.

[tydye]

Voltron as Among Us: Crew Edition

I'ma tell y'all how I see voltron as a crew members! Name's and colors too :^}

1. Shiro : Black or Purple (seriously it depends on his mood)

2. Hunk : Yellow

3. Lance : Blue or Cyan (the boy can't make up his mind so these are the two he picks, Cyan is mainly the back up. Sometimes he'll be annoying and steal Red from Keith though)

4. Keith : Red (Unless lance steals it then he gets stuck with a color he doesn't want like Brown)

5. Pidge : Green mainly, but sometimes Lime

6. Allura : Pink mainly, white is back up (Mainly likes those colors, but will pick Cyan for a back up back up and Lance just lets her)

7. Coran : Orange

--------------------------------------------------

1. Shiro tends to do his tasks pretty quickly, and end up getting a lot of the tasks people can see you do. Also tends to lead a lot of the group discussions on who it is, isn't right half the time when guessing the imposter. Always takes Keith's side. If there's an argument in chat Shiro tries to be the peace maker but fails and ends up just being the dad™; Good at clearing astroids, dies with connecting wires (because he sucks it so badly). Does tasks as ghost.

2. Hunk is very nice and peaceful, never worries when someone is following him because he likes to be with someone at all times anyway. "Safety in numbers" is his motto. Is the ACTUAL peace maker in chat, but tends to believe Lance anyway bc he trusts his best friend. Always dies downloading files. Good at repairing the drill and cafeteria tasks, bad at any downloading tasks (he gets nervous and ends too soon or dies while doing it). Prefers to be ghost while doing tasks because it's peaceful.

3. Lance is pretty lazy while doing tasks, he tends to run around or follow someone (mainly keith because keith is suspicious, or allura because it's allura). Shiro and Allura have to keep calling "emergency" meetings to tell Lance to do his tasks. Is probably the first person to get killed. Always yells in chat as a ghost about who did it and to avenge him. Still barely does tasks as a ghost. Gets kicked a lot. Always blaming someone in chat (and is usually right) if not the first killed. Always catches someone using vents. Best at vending machine, clear astroids, calibrate distributer. Horrible at the memory code task.

4. Keith would do his tasks, get lost a lot so he's constantly having to open and close his map which annoys the hell out of him, but still does it anyway because the arrows never work for him. He also ends up being in the wrong place a lot and Lance jumps to conclusions and ends up getting unfairly voted out, so out of spite doesn't do his tasks as a ghost just because they voted him out when it wasn't him. Is very accusatory and defensive in chat discussions. Best at navigation tasks, worst at card tasks an pin/number tasks, also fixing weather node (and unlock manifolds but only because he taps the numbers too fast it messes up)

5. Pidge is really great at electrical, pin, admin, and memory based tasks. Sucks at the tasks you have to wait for because it isn't interactive and they go afk for too long, ends up probably dying. Camps by the security cameras once they finish tasks. Never says anything in the dang chat. Will catch murderer but doesn't call them out but ends up being voted out eventually. Doesn't have to do tasks as ghost because they already got them done before they died.

6. Allura is definitely one of those people who calls emergency meetings 24/7 for no good reason. Always following people to make sure they're doing tasks or if they're the imposter. Very big on rushing people. Makes sure others do their tasks more than she actually does her own. Incredibly bossy in chat and always exposes people for everything. If you blink at her she suspects you. Always trying to stay away from Lance though. Reports bodies a lot but mainly to start another meeting because she 99.9% already used up her emergency meeting. Best at admin and chat course tasks. Worst at any tasks that aren't those. Gets frustrated easily. Continues to do tasks as a ghost most of the time, unless she decides to rage quit.

7. Amazing at any and all tasks. Very helpful and tends to just watch the chat unfold while he calmly votes for the person everyone is saying is it. Tends to assist Allura a lot too though and has to explain her how to do some tasks (out of game). Still does tasks while a ghost. Is so invested in tasks the imposter could kill someone next to him and he wouldn't notice. Wanders around when done with tasks. End up fixing the sabotaging issues before the rest of them can get there. Always at the right place at the right time.

[delaneytveit]

Satellites Part 6

Hey guys, sorry its been a while. I’ve been updating this story on AO3 pretty regularly and realized that I should probably do that here, (whoops) 

Anyways, I’ll be uploading about 3 or 4 chapters a day so that I can get all caught up on here! So enjoy!!! (oh and also since its already out, pretty much as its in the tags on AO3, I feel that I can announce that this is in fact a dad!lance fic, just a little unconventional) 

(Part 5) (Satellites Master Post) (Part 7)

The team was falling apart.

Shiro knew this, Allura knew this, hell the mice knew this. After their failed recovery mission, they were back to square one with no idea where to even start.

At first they were able to drown themselves in work. Doing whatever they could to find their paladin, but after so long of coming up with nothing, work didn’t offer enough.

It didn’t allow them the grace it once had, it didn't sooth their minds of the grief, it didn’t give them a crutch to hold on to.

No one was okay.

It shouldn’t have surprised Shiro how much the disappearance of their blue paladin affected everyone on the ship. Lance was a light in this war, somehow able to put aside whatever he was dealing with, which the leader knew must be a lot, to help and support everyone else.

Everyone called Shiro space dad, but he was starting to think that maybe that title should have been given to the person who pushed to make this team a family. Lance made Voltron a family.

All too often was the Black Paladin finding bitter memories of the boy. The times when he knew he was being too strict about training, or pushing Lance to do better in a way that would have no other outcome but retaliation. He found himself wishing he had done everything differently. Wished he had been nicer, more understanding, more leader-like. Wished he hadn’t been so quick to shoot down his ideas or jump to the other paladins’ sides in an argument that was probably no more than harmless bickering.

He wished he had paid more attention during the mission.

Some nights he found himself wide awake, mind unable to stop replaying that mission. At first he accepted it as punishment for the neglect of the Blue Paladin, but was quick to pull himself out of that. It was selfish to believe that this was his punishment, earned and dealt to him by the universe when it was Lance who was suffering.

Was he still suffering? Or was it over? There was too much blood to believe he could still be alive. He had been gone for so long, endured so much. Was it so wrong to hope that he was? Shiro knew the horribleness from capture. The druids haunted him. If Lance was...gone...he wouldn’t have to deal with the same trauma Shiro carried. He wouldn’t wake up from the nightmares, wouldn’t have the memories.

But he was supposed to go home. Lance was supposed to go home, and Shiro had made a vow that he would bring each and every kid home.

He didn’t want to break that vow.

It might not be up to him.

Many nights, when he found his mind to be much too loud, he took walks around the ship. To anyone who asked, he’d say he was patrolling, making sure everyone was safe and asleep. He knew it was bullshit. He just couldn’t keep himself cooped up in his dark room. Lance knew that too.

It wasn’t uncommon for Shiro and Lance to cross paths. The younger on his way to or from Blue, or getting a midnight snack. It worried Shiro the first few times. Concerned that he wasn’t getting enough sleep. He had voiced such to the boy one night.

“Your performance will suffer in the long run, you need to take better care of yourself.” in hindsight it probably wasn’t the best thing to say, but in the beginning when training and fighting were still new he had meant it. They couldn’t afford to be less than on top of their shit.

He heard Lance take a heavy sigh.

“You’re right, sorry.”

Lance turned to return to his room, but stopped when he felt a hand wrap around his wrist.

“Lance, are you okay?”

Lance turned to Shiro, a little confused at the question. He stopped himself from mumbling the generic ‘I’m fine’ when he saw the genuine concern on Shiro’s face, making him reconsider.

“Not really, but um Coran is helping me so-”

“You know you can talk to me, if you need anything.”

Lance gave Shiro that trademark cocky smile, but this one was unsettling, it proved that at least a number of the ones in the past were just like this one. A mask.

“Thanks man, really. Think we should both go to bed though. You know, can’t have the Legendary Black Paladin and Resident ninja sharpshooter off their game.” He said, throwing up finger guns and he walked back to his room, effectively ending the conversation.

Shiro didn’t move from that spot for a few minutes. Replaying the conversation, Lance’s expressions over in his head. The fact that he was so easily able to admit his current state was more concerning to Shiro than if he had just deflected.

Was Lance ever okay?

Shiro wondered this as he once again found himself walking the halls. Only coming to a stop when he heard a muffled sob. He stopped walking, straining his ears to find the source of the cry. For a few seconds he heard nothing, chalking it up to either him hearing things or the mice squeaking like they do. But that soon changed when it came again, front he room he had stopped just in front of.

It took a few moments for it to register that the room in question was Lance’s.

Hesitantly, he stepped towards it, knowing that the room should be empty. It had been empty for weeks.

The doors normally locked, slid open with ease when he walked in range of the sensors.

On the bed, wrapped in the blue blankets and quilts that Lance had no doubt picked up from any one of the various planets they had visited, was the last person Shiro would have expected.

Keith.

[bluerazorbirb]

About the Two fathers theory, and why it keeps nagging me

OK, so I caught up recently with the manga, it’s why I haven’t really been able to look this theory up much.

I didn’t think of the possibility of the twins having a different parentage while reading. It’s only when I saw this one crack theory post about Mephisto, of all people, being their potential dad by shape-shifting or something, that I looked at the timeline a little more (and I haven’t saved that post, so I can’t find it, sadly).

Anyway, the way chapter 108 presents the events is disjointed, and somewhat confusing with few time indications, but this may be why some kind of twist could be very well hidden here (along with 106 and 107).

Disclaimer: In spite of presenting the elements here, I’m neutral at best about the possibility that the twins’ parentage isn’t as it appear. I don’t see it as very possible, and I don’t know if it would matter much to the story if it’s even remotely true (perhaps for Yukio’s development, idk). Nevertheless, I’m putting my thought-process here.

Something that one crack theory ‘Mephisto is the dad’ post pointed out was the timing of the pregnancy, and how it doesn’t actually appear to line up with the timeline we’ve been given. As for why that is, let’s examine the events in detail:

(Wall of text incoming, TLDR at the end)

-

We know Satan came back to Section 13 two years after vanishing in the sewer. He came in with his demon army and took the kids and workers in Section 13 hostage. Lucifer and his three Baal followers acknowledged their ‘father’s leadership and offered their assistance. Satan was fine with having the Section 13’s researchers keep making the Elixir, as long as they gave it to him. This also suited the Section 13’s team, because Satan was a precious test subject.

However, True Cross’s Eastern branch’s Asylum being invaded like that forced its leaders to admit the existence of Satan to the other branches, and theses branches sent out exorcists in reinforcement to deal with this new threat. True Cross East still kept the existence of Section 13 a secret. Mephisto also failed to negotiate the release of the Section 13’s children in exchange for supplies (given he was aware that Satan wanted to let Section 13 continue their research, this was likely part of his 'statement’ to the other branches). We don’t know how long this whole thing took, but it likely was only a few hours, since it’s a hostage situation, and exorcists can use keys to travel to True Cross East fast.

The Paladin Abel Franken announces the plan to the outsider exorcists: Satan’s vessel is decaying, he likely only has about a month to live. They will fight and try to take on the fortress during this time.

And so, for a month, they fight. Satan never shows up, but the three Baal do. Many exorcists die (final count is 114 by the time this is over). They are at a disadvantage, because they cannot find where Satan’s HQ is (since it’s in Section 13, and True Cross East is still hiding its existence, and all the nasty clone experiment biz going on in there). By the time the month ends, the exorcists are ready to cave in to Satan’s demand, and send supplies to keep the hostages alive.

It’s when Yuri decides to act. She’s been kept on the site as a consultant after Satan first demanded her presence. While asking her higher up permission to go herself and negotiate with Satan, she learns that Section 13’s leaders are happy with the situation, and have been secretly resupplying the secret lab themselves. They’re just waiting for Satan to finish decaying while using him as a subject. It also means that the outsiders exorcists are basically dying for no good reasons.

Hearing this, Yuri goes behind her superior’s back, and get into Section 13 with the key she had secretly kept from the time she worked inside. Satan guides her to him, and Yuri pleads for Satan to release everyone in Section 13 in exchange for her staying by his side until the end. Satan eventually accepts the term.

We don’t know how long Yuri and Satan stay in Section 13. The outsider exorcists were meant to send out supplies to keep the hostage alive for the next month, but we don’t see that happen. This coupled with Satan’s decay being an issue means the two likely did not stay in Section 13 that long. Perhaps a day or two, at most.

During this time, Satan announces his departure to Eminescu and the people in Section 13, who are displeased by this development. Yuri reconnects with her friend Jenny, and learns that Jenny plans to use the opportunity that the outsider exorcists are here to reveal Section 13’s horrible deeds.

Yuri also discusses her plan to run away with Satan for him to finish his days with her. But the women are overheard. Jenny is killed, Satan and Yuri are captured right as they leave True Cross East, and Yuri shows signs of being sick.

After Satan and Yuri are recaptured, the outsider exorcists are being fed a BS story about Satan’s vessel being found decaying somewhere once the demons left the fortress (the demons left because of Yuri’s negotiation, which is kept secret). The outsider exorcists begin to question if Satan was even here, or if True Cross East is hiding something.

In order to cover-up Section 13’s existence and its involvement with Satan, Mephisto tells them that Satan was invited by Yuri after he bewitched her. He also announces to them that Yuri is pregnant by four to five weeks, and has a Cradle Barrier around her, preventing her child from being killed.

This here is the first issue with the pregnancy. It is possible I’m wrong, but from what info we were given, by the time Satan was recaptured by Section 13, only roughly a month should have gone by from the moment Satan took over True Cross East. In other words: roughly four to five weeks.

If this is so, Yuri Egin became pregnant from about the time Satan resurfaced, and a month before she found Satan and they got together to do the deed.

And it’s not a discrepancy the outsider exorcists would be able to pick on, as Mephisto told them Yuri was the one responsible for inviting Satan to True Cross East’s Asylum a month back. From what they know, she could have gotten pregnant during that time.

As for Shiro, we don’t see him at that meeting, but we do see him discuss Satan’s child with both Yuri and Mephisto, so he’s aware that Yuri is pregnant… however, the paneling of Mephisto and Shiro’s discussion has a strange layout. Specifically this part which happens in the middle of a flashback he has while stealing Kurikara:

Now, why the reaction here? Why not before? By this point, as readers, we’ve already seen the decision Shiro took right after knowing about the pregnancy, so what’s the point of putting such a reaction here? Maybe there’s no significance to it, but even Mephisto’s wording, “Yuri was pregnant”, is a bit unsettling. Perhaps the Japanese version shows something else, though, so this is just speculation.

But that timeline strangeness itself is no proof that Satan isn’t the father, or that two fathers are involved. For one, Yuri does have a Cradle Barrier around her, which only manifests to protect a demon child. Furthermore, Mephisto could have lied to the outsider exorcists about how far in the pregnancy she was. I know this would be harder to pull, because Yuri is under examination, but the Section 13 personnel may be the ones doing the job. And there is one other thing which could point to Mephisto not giving the right estimation for the pregnancy.

…But that reason is also something which points to the Two Father Theory being a possibility.

-

The thing about Yuri, is that she was late in delivering her babies. She was four weeks past her due date. Roughly about a month.

There is a month’s discrepancy with the info we were given about when Yuri became pregnant, and Yuri was a month late in delivering.

This hardly seems like a coincidence to me.

Which brings me to two possible conclusions if we go with the idea that Yuri’s pregnancy should last about the same time a normal pregnancy does. The first is that Mephisto simply lied to the other exorcists about the time of the pregnancy to cover up Section 13’s involvement with Satan, making Yuri the only culprit for the month the exorcists spent fighting the three Baal and Satan’s legion.

The second possibility is in favor of the Two Father Theory: Yuri was pregnant a month before meeting with Satan, and somehow, thanks to demon-power shenanigan, got pregnant again with another child. The reason she was past her due date by a month was so that the other child’s development would catch up with the first.

In this situation, given what we’ve seen so far, the second child is most likely to be Rin, since the Cradle Barrier vanished once he came out. The Cradle Barrier disappearing is also another hint on Yukio being possibly full human by ancestry as well (although the concept of a trade off in the womb would have been interesting).

Like I said, this possibility shouldn’t particularly affect the story, although if it’s correct, then, the fact that very few people in high place ever refers to Yukio as a ‘son of Satan’ is notable. For one, none of the Baal, or Satan himself have referred to Yukio as either a ‘brother’ or a ‘son’ (Satan himself only referred to Rin as a ‘son’, he calls Mephisto by his original name, for example). Granted, it’s as likely that demons just do not recognize Yukio as a family member due to his lack of demon powers, but this is still something to consider.

That aside, it raises the question: who is Yukio’s father if not Satan? The likeliest candidate is still Shiro, for lack of anyone else. It’s where the Two Father Theory falters in my opinion, because, while there certainly are romantic tensions in between Yuri and Shiro, and there is no doubt that Yuri viewed Shiro romantically, we haven’t seen their relationship progress to a point where they would have casual unprotected sex with each other.

Arguably, that’s also where the timeline of the event can be referred to, because the last scene we have of Shiro and Yuri together before Satan returns is when Shiro picks up Shura, and Yuri ultimately refuses to take Shura in, because she’s still waiting for ‘Rinka’ to come back once his body fails. This whole encounter happened six months after Satan bust out of Section 13. In other word, it happened a year and a half before Satan returned (further confirmed by Shura when she speaks of the sole time she met with Yuri, two years before the twins’ birth).

It does mean that, as readers, we’re missing a year and half of potential interactions in between Shiro and Yuri, a year and half when Yuri could have changed her mind about waiting for Rinka and open up to other potential futures. What still makes this a huge maybe to me is that Shura only met Yuri once, so if Shiro ever spent time with Yuri, he did it on his own, without Shura’s involvement.

Well, that’s about it for the wall of text.

TLDR: According to Mephisto, Yuri was pregnant four to five weeks in when she was captured with Satan, and this makes it more likely that she was pregnant before sneaking into Section 13 and spending a few days with Satan in there. But since she gave birth a month late from her due date, Mephisto either lied about how far ahead she was, or Yuri could have gotten pregnant a month later for a second time with Satan somehow, making Rin and Yukio fraternal twins with different fathers.

(Not going into the weird ‘fraternal twins with signs of parasitic growth’ affair, because I’m not knowledgeable enough to comment.)

But, if Yuri was pregnant before she came in, she likely realized the truth about her child when they announced the news to her. And she would know who the father involved was.

Not like it would help if the child has already been labeled as the spawn of Satan thanks to the Cradle Barrier, though.

[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."

[annoyinglyjovialbird]

Voltron: Next Generation

Charging Ahead: III

Word Count: 2881

Another blast came over the comms. Tearing her eyes away from Caleb, Kova saw Yellow successfully blast the enemy mecha. With ease, Cake flew around the mecha, distracting it. The mecha, seemingly dizzy from chasing the Lion, had fallen into the river below. 

"Permission to assist Blue and leave Green?"

"Granted." Kova returned her eyes to Blue's camera feed, showing the mecha getting closer to the still Red Lion. Griffin could take care of herself. "Use thrusters."

"Not without me, you're not." With a blast of light, the Green Lion emerged from the overgrown canopy of trees. Inside, Liz was ready to go. 

"Hurry up, then!" Together, the Yellow and Green Lions flew towards Yendailian. 

It was almost too late.

Standing, Blue could only watch as the mecha stuttered towards Caleb. A boulder had Blue's tail pinned to the ground. 

Caleb wasn't responding, and neither was the Lion. 

The mecha approached the lava lake and took a clumsy step towards the pillar. The sporadic geysers erupted around the foot of the mecha, unbalancing it. It quickly regained its balance, reaching the edges of the lake and swung an oversized arm. It missed the pillar completely, hitting the space above Red's head. Kova braced herself on the railing. Her knuckles were turning white as she begged for Caleb to open his eyes and fly out of there. 

The mecha was preparing to swing again. A blast to the head threw it off balance. Green flew above the mecha, firing another blast while Yellow headbutted the rock pile holding Blue down. Together, Yellow and Blue roared, getting the mecha's attention. Yellow went for the mecha's legs. Blue flew towards Green and fired at the mecha's head. The gray mechanical beast swung an oversized limb towards the lions. It missed again. 

Closing all channels of communication, Kova connected only to Caleb. The poor boy was still slumped over in his seat. 

"Caleb," Kova stared at the still images of Caleb inside of Red. "Wake up. Please, wake up." Kova bowed her head, still gripping the banister. "Don't make me tell Cyrus what happened. Don't make me tell him." 

Inside Red, Caleb's arms reached out and flailed in the air. Through blurry sight and sweat from his forehead, Caleb found the controls. It felt heavier than it should have been. Red was fighting Caleb, refusing to spring to life like the other three. 

"Kenny, are the cannons usable from here?" Caleb could hear Kova's voice.

"Get ready to fire." The mecha from Greizian Sur was flying towards the Coeus with alarming speed. Even in the haze, Caleb could hear Kova's frantic voice. Where was he again?

In a moment of clarity, Caleb fought to stay awake as his grip on Red's controls became firmer. The screens, all tinted red, came to life before him. With thrusters now activated, Red launched itself into the air. Cooler than before, Caleb stared at the scene before him. Green and Blue were firing on a mecha the size of Blue with oversized limbs. 

"Garrett, take it down," Caleb ordered. "Griffin, Smythe, follow me." Turning Red, Caleb led the other two towards the Coeus while Cake was left to take care of the second mecha. 

The crew onboard the Coeus was firing when ready. Both Kova and Shiro were looking for weaknesses in the armor, but it seemed solid. Kenny and Shiro were manning the cannons, shooting at the mecha. Kova was staring at the screen, where Yellow seemed to play with the mecha

"Cake, push it into a volcano, and come help!" 

"I thought it was our new toy." 

"Its twin is here."

"Gotcha." Yellow pushed forward and knocked the mecha towards a tall wall of the nearest volcano. With cracks and unsuccessful attempts at standing, the mecha was covered in lava from the volcano. Yellow launched itself into the air before the lava had a chance to reach its front paws. "Heading towards you."

Red was still fighting Caleb for control, going slower than it should have. Blue and Green had engaged with the mecha, with some assistance from the Coeus. The mecha had swiped Blue away and was swinging an arm to hit Green when Yellow headbutted it. The mecha began to retract its long arms to attack Yellow. From Blue's camera, Kova could see the exposed wires. Shiro seemed to have spotted it, too. 

"Red, fire at the intersection between the arm and chest plate."

"English, Kova."

"Fire at the armpit."

"Thank you."

Ignoring the mutterings, Caleb continued his fight with Red and flew until he was only a few yards away. Yellow headbutted the mecha again, while Blue and Green were firing at its eyes and chest plate. The mecha started retracting an arm again, and the Lions cleared a path. 

With agility, Red raced up the mecha's side and fired three times, then made a sharp turn at the shoulder. Caleb had not only deactivated the mecha, but he had also blown the entire arm off. Repeating it on the other side, the team of Lions watched the arms drift away as the purple lights of the mecha flickered. 

Switching off communications to the team, Kova stared at Shiro. Shiro met her brown eyes, watching them flicker through every emotion she was feeling. The most prominent was a mix of pride and anger. 

"Tell me again why we don't need to worry about the Fire?" She had cocked her head at the last word. Even annoyed at him for downplaying this, Shiro knew Lance would be proud of how far Kova had come. With a sigh, she bowed her head. "Thank Allura it wasn't that bad." Switching on communications, Kova walked into the middle of a very important conversation. 

"We could always buy them," Cake said. 

"Oh yeah? Where?" Liz retorted. 

"The mall."

"With what money?"

"The mall? Are you talking about the space mall?" Allie was now in this conversation.

"Ugh, doesn't it have a real name?"

"No," Cake and Allie responded, much to Liz's disappointment. 

"Liz, don't worry about it," Caleb reassured his teammate. "We have to get to Arus, anyway."

"I'm surprised you aren't fighting Kova to the death right now."

"He'd lose before we started." Kova was watching the screen come to life with the four panels with the helmeted faces of the pilots. Well, new paladins.

"Wanna bet?" 

"You already pilot the Red Lion," Kova said, standing up and crossing her arms. "Why do you want the Black Lion?"

"To prove how good of a leader I am."

"You aren't the one standing here giving everyone commands."

"What were you gonna do? Get in the MFE?"

"If I had to." Kova took a breath. "What were you guys talking about earlier?"

"Oh, we're down about half of the lenses in the teleduv."

Kova's stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since she started building the satellite. "Blue and Green, fly for a while. Red and Yellow, enter the bay." 

"What if I don't want to?" Caleb challenged. 

"Then Green comes in and you pass out from dehydration." Kova watched Caleb smack his lips, trying to rehydrate them. His tongue was like a desert with no end in sight. 

Yellow and Red ended up flying towards the bay, headed into the hallway, and went their separate ways. Cake headed to the kitchen to figure out what he would make. Caleb headed to the bridge to help Kova scold Dad. Shiro had always hated it when the pair would team up against him. 

Caleb stood off to Kova's side, while she handed him a water bottle and stared at Shiro. He walked down to the floor, knowing the teens' eyes were on him the entire time. Kenny had slinked away from the bridge, closing the door behind him. 

"Remind me again how the Fire isn't a big deal?" Caleb asked when Shiro didn't turn around to meet his eyes. 

"We have to tell them something," Kova chimed in. "They won't fight against an enemy they know nothing about."

"The Fire of Purification is an ongoing and classified casefile to all cadets and low-ranking officers." Shiro turned his head. "Your teams are cadets and you will be low-rank officers. You only know about the Fire because—"

"Because I'm involved." Kova looked down, glaring at the ground. "You can give the authorization. We can tell them."

"Opening the Fire's casefile will open yours, Kova." Kova looked up again. "Do you want everyone else on board to know about your past?" Caleb stared at the two. Kova doesn't talk about her past to strangers, mostly because it became a classified case after they found someone in Kova's family was involved with the Fire. She didn't talk about it. "Not only that, opening those casefiles opens the one about the failed Coalition response."

"Stop it." Caleb heard Kova whisper. "I get it. Stop." Shiro sighed, walking towards Kova to stand underneath her platform. 

"If this progresses further," Shiro sighed, tucking his hands into his pockets. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." With a nod, Caleb and Kova left the bridge and their dad. The cheery mood in the kitchen did nothing to change Kova's expression. Caleb, on the other hand, joined right in with the discussion. Kova fixed herself a plate of Balmeran fruit and went to her room without another word. 

With the door shut behind her, she felt something off. Her knife, which she had decided was valuable enough to bring along, was thrumming on the bedside table. Out of the corner of her eye, a shadow moved against the wall. Calling the knife to her hand and dropping the plate onto the floor, Kova held the intruder against the metal door. The knife had extended into an almost full-length sword, and she had most of the blade parallel with her arm under the intruder's chin. Unfortunately, Kova recognized the intruder. 

Or at least, their association. 

"Leave. Me. Alone." Kova snarled, her irises becoming dark slits against a yellow background. The intruder had completely yellow eyes, light blue hair reaching the nape of their neck, and violet skin. Their body armor was dark gray, with the Fire insignia on their front in purple. The lightning bolts on either side of the symbol were also purple. 

"You would do nicely among our ranks." The Galra spoke, ignoring the blade to their throat. "To be among your kind. To fight alongside your brethren. To—"

"Save your speech." Kova pressed the blade against their neck tighter. "I told you before. I'm not interested." "They're looking for you," The Galra kept going. "There's a reward for you amongst the lower ranks."

"You think that's enough motivation to join?" 

"The humans of Earth underestimate your abilities. They don't appreciate you, nor will they ever—"

"Leave or I'll remind you of the last time you tried your speech." Kova's voice was low, almost a growl. Her tan skin had taken an almost gray hue, and her hair seemed to have blue highlights under the light. The Galra gulped at the threat. 

Last time, Kova hadn't been so kind. She had stabbed the last Galra attempting to speak to her about the Fire's cause. They escaped, but it was much too close for comfort. 

At blade-point, Kova led the Galra towards the closest exit. She watched as the Galra opened the door, and turned back as though to say more, but Kova had enough. She kicked the Galra in the gut, sending them flying towards the darkness of space and closed the door. The blade in her hands turned back to normal size when Cake came around the corner. 

"Cap?" He watched Kova carefully. The alarms went off when the door opened, but they went off before Cake could figure out what caused it. 

"Go back to the kitchen, Cake," Kova turned towards the hall that led towards her room. "I'm fine." 

Cake eyed Kova as she walked back to her room, staring at the knife in her hands. 

In what would feel like days later, the Coeus arrived onto the surface of Arus. Like the Balmerans, the Arusians recognized Shiro almost on the spot. They continually asked about the space goddess and the blessings her arrival had brought them. Shiro couldn't tell them anything other than thanks for letting the Coeus rest on Arus. 

I guess Allura is a space goddess now. Hm.

Kova was wandering the planet, looking over the open green meadows that seemed to cover Arus. Caleb and Liz were on resource collection and Allie and Cake were joking with the younger Arusians. 

Kova was supposed to be looking for the Black Lion, but her thoughts strayed to the Galra's speech, as well as Shiro's words. She could never seem to run away from her other half, never seem to control it. In her defense, no one had taught her how to use it. She had to learn how by herself, among other things. 

Soon enough, she was at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large body of water. Below her, haphazard piles of stone jutted out from the sea. As much as she wanted to scream, maybe the waves will be enough to relax her. 

She thought back to her memories with the McClain family when they would have their beach days. Kova never jumped into the water because she didn't know how to swim, but Lance's patient coaxing was enough to get her feet in the water. By the end of the day, they couldn't get her out of it. She had found a shell in the soft sand and stuck it in her plastic pail. When she got home, she scribbled the date on it and placed it on the highest shelf she could reach. It was still there, on the shelf in her room back home.

Her only thought as she climbed down the cliffside was maybe she could find another shell to match the one back home. Her feet met another shelf in the cliffside, only an arm's length from the waves. Laying on her stomach, Kova reached her hand down as far as it could go. Her fingertips almost touched the water when a roar echoed in her mind. Kova had turned around, her knife in hand, the blade had extended. 

Behind her was a cave opening. 

Lowering the blade, returning it to its original form, she stood up and walked towards the opening. With a deep breath, she entered the cave, already done with dark, underground spaces. 

The Black Lion, unlike the others, was splayed out in an awkward position. Like a toy a child had dropped and didn't pick up. Its wide jaw was open, with gray, lifeless eyes. Kova figured the tide had caused this, but she couldn't be sure. Maybe the waves had pushed it in? If the Lion were to stand, its head would likely destroy the already fragile ceiling of the cave. She didn't have a choice. She would have to go inside and manually pilot it out. Bracing herself, Kova climbed into the Black Lion's jaws. 

On the surface, Allie was being entertained by stories of the Arusians and their beliefs. They believed the space goddess would cure their famine. She and Cake had discovered there was a dam blocking the water supply to their fields. They had quickly gotten rid of the branches in turns so the Arusians wouldn't suspect a thing. A thunderous roar echoed over Arus, and the Arusians celebrated the discovery of the Black Lion. 

In front of the Coeus, each of the teens had flown their Lion in front of the Arusian village. In order, from left to right, was Blue, Red, a huge piece of space where the Coeus could be seen, Green, and Yellow. The Black Lion, circling over the cheering village, had landed in that space between Red and Green.

Kova exited, removing her helmet in the process. As quickly as the Arusians welcomed Shiro, they shunned Kova. Allie and Cake noticed the shift, much to Kova's annoyance. 

"She's one of them," One Arusian said.

"The King says they aren't to be trusted," Another spoke. "Now one leads Voltron?"

"Enough!" The King, the teens assumed, spoke. He approached Kova, who was stopped by spear-wielding Arusians. She should've figured. "We do not mean to anger you, oh great leader of Voltron. Please accept this apology dance!" A dancer scurried to stand before the King, but Kova had turned towards the Lion. "Great leader, where are you going?"

"I mean no disrespect," Kova had knelt to be eye-level with the three-foot-tall Arusian. "But if my presence causes fear among your people, I think it safer to communicate with our allies on my home planet than stay."

"Please, stay," The King pleaded. "Should we do a sacrificial fire?"

"Your Majesty," Kova said firmly. "I want your people to be safe and to trust me. My team will help your village on my behalf while you and I speak with the Colonel about the events over the past few decaphoebs." The King looked at Kova with a grim expression and nodded his head. With that, Kova stood and walked towards the Coeus alone. 

[chibi-pix]

VLD AU - Readings

Another addition to the mermaid AU! This time expanding and showing another character. And a bit more to the mysterious ocean waters. 

You’ll find this 1,950+ word ficlet in the “keep reading” below, along with an art. 

“So,” Allura stepped out on the dock as Lotor pulled himself up after checking over his jet ski, “what can I do to rent your assistance and jet ski?” She had a pack over her shoulder, the equipment inside meant to collect data, visual and audio, in the ocean.

“Convince Lance to properly mend my favourite jacket?” Lotor suggested. “And maybe take me out for milkshakes?”

“Sounds like a deal.” The two chuckled. While they didn’t need such deals or transactions, it was friendly banter between the two.

“So, where are we heading, Princess?”

“Ugh, I wish you’d stop with that nickname.”

Ever since middle school, Lotor called Allura by that nickname. She hated it. When in middle school, she got the roll of the princess in some school play while Lotor was a prince. It was simple. Until she got so flustered when they performed and freaked out when he tried to kiss her on the cheek. She ended up decking him in front of the audience, her parents and Lotor’s adopted father, Kolivan, included. Since then, he called her Princess.

“I think it’s a nice nickname.” Lotor chuckled. “Anyway, where to?” He brought up his waterproof datapad. Allura leaned over and zoomed in on a region.

“Right around… here. I think it’s a good place to work.” Allura stated.

“Alright, then let’s get going.” Lotor offered his hand to Allura, letting her use it to brace herself so she could step down to the jet ski. After she was sitting and got her pack strapped to the back, he got on, in front of her and got the vehicle started. “We may find the others out there, too; Lance, Keith, and Hunk went out about an hour or so ago.”

“All right.” Allura nodded.

Lotor then took off, speeding across the ocean’s surface until the AARC base was out of sight and they reached where Allura wished to work from. He activated the electronic anchor. “Okay. Need any help?”

“I will let you know if and when I need it.” Allura said, turning around and going through the bag. She brought out the equipment and handed Lotor a datapad. “Hold this.”

“Holding.”

Allura chuckled and shook her head. She then brought out a spherical object. “Okay, toss it in...” She did as she said she would before taking back the datapad. “Now, let’s get you activated and...” She nodded as it started to sink, heading down to the bottom, a few hundred feet. “Okay, we should be getting data in a few minutes.”

“So, is this curiosity, work for AARC, or you still trying to figure out what happened to Shiro’s plane?” Lotor inquired. Allura was silent.

“Ever since Shiro’s plane went down, which is curious enough as it was, we’ve been going over the wreckage that had been found. And with it being found on the shore… and how it looked… I don’t know… I think he’s right about something being down there.” Allura explained. “And I’ve been trying to find it. But...” She sighed. “Nothing so far. I’m thinking of borrowing Dad’s boat and going out to the probably area where Shiro most likely crashed… maybe I can find something there...”

“Just don’t overwork yourself with this.” Lotor reminded gently.

“Ye… wait...” Allura blinked and turned up on the audio playback. “Do you hear that?”

“It’s like… music. But it definitely not whales.” Lotor responded. “It’s kinda… scary. Like… um...”

“Music and subtle and distant screaming?”

“Pretty much.” Lotor nodded. “I mean, something has to be making that sound, right?”

“Yeah but… other than the audio, there’s nothing… the usual sea life… but… none of them make that sound.” Allura looked perplexed. “I really don’t understand this…” She sighed. “Hopefully we’ll pick up something more soon. Or maybe I’ll find something when I analyze the data further back at the base.” She then made a small sound. “Huh?”

“Allura?” Lotor inquired. He then looked to his jet ski. “Okay… that’s weird. We just lost power in ol’ Sincline.”

“Same with both my datapad and the device we tossed down.” Allura informed. “It’s all dead. Ugh...” She looked into the water. “And… it’s… not floating up. Damn. It must have gotten caught on something.”

“Hmm...” Lotor got up and jumped into the water.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to get it.” Lotor stated, swimming to the back of the jet ski and opening up its back compartment.

Allura crossed her arms. “Lotor, that’s risky. The average human can only dive about sixty feet safely. And that device is at least three hundred feet down.”

“And you and I both know I can go much further than the average person.” he reminded as he got out some goggles and put them on. He checked his breathing mask. Nope. No power. “Okay, no worries.”

“Lotor...”

“C’mon, Princess, you know I can hold my breath for fifteen minutes, not even trying.” Lotor waved it off. “If I’m not back in twenty minutes, though, use the radio; it can be powers with the hand-crank. Old fashioned, but Shiro suggested it.”

“Of course he suggested it; I swear he was born in the wrong era.” Allura shook her head as she chuckled. “Just… be careful, okay? Don’t get stuck or anything.”

“Of course.” Lotor dove down, moving quickly in the water. While most used specialized suits and the minimal yet advanced gear to get to the depths, he could on his own go fairly far, able to hold his breath very well. While on average he could go fifteen minutes, he could push himself even further, hitting past twenty minutes; Shiro probably wished he had that skill.

Lotor kept going, the decreasing light not even bothering him. Now, where is that device? He thought, looking around after he reached the bottom of that area. It could have easily caught itself on some rocks, so he had to be perceptive in finding it. He then stopped when he heard a sound, much like what he and Allura heard recorded.

What is that? He thought, looking around. He tried to make out any figures in the distance, seeing if there were silhouettes that would indicate something out there. Something’s out there… but where? He thought. He then shook his head. Nope, can’t focus on that, gotta find that device; it’ll have Allura’s recordings on it. He looked around more, smiling when he finally found it wedged between two rocks. Just as thought. He messed with it, wriggling it free. C’mon, come to me. He coaxed before finally getting it loose. Gotcha!

Lotor then closed in around the device when he felt a strong current go past him. On land, he would compare it to a powerful gust of wind. But… he couldn’t see what could cause that current. When he relaxed, he looked around. Had it just been a stray current? Well, the ocean was a strange place.

I better go get this back up to Allura. He thought, kicking off the bottom and swimming back up, unaware of something watching him.

Someone watching him.

Matt watching him.

Matt didn’t know why he helped that surface dweller. Perhaps it was because Pidge was so fond of them? Or perhaps another mer had been too close. A dangerous mer. The other mer may have been much smaller, able to even be held in Pidge’s hands, though maybe not as safely as Lance due to being a bit bigger than most surface dwellers, but the mer was definitely dangerous.

What Matt didn’t know was why that one was watching Lotor and tried to strand him and Allura out there by powering down the tech. At least he knocked the other away without being fully noticed.

Lotor swam back up to the surface, taking in a deep breath, not that he felt he was in danger of losing air. “Got it.” he told Allura, holding the object up as it drained water out of itself.

“Glad you’re okay.” Allura let out a sigh of relief before accepting the device. She put it back in the bag. “And nothing is coming back online. We may need to use the radio and call in for a pick-up.” Lotor nodded as he got himself pulled back up and took his spot again. “Huh? Or maybe not.”

“Hmm?” Lotor looked to where Allura pointed. “Oh, that’s the Guardian of the Sea.” He smiled. “Prepare for Lance to laugh before helping us.”

“Yeah, well, at least he’d help us.” Allura chuckled as she stood up. “Hey! Over here!” She waved, hoping her cousin would notice. She smiled when the boat changed direction and went toward them, slowing down to come alongside the jet ski. “Glad to see someone has power.”

“What? Did Lotor fail to get Hunk to help with the jet ski?” Lance inquired, leaning over the edge a bit.

“I did help!”

“He did help!”

“Okay, don’t get testy.” Lance put his hands up in defense. “Wait… so if Hunk did help, Sincline shouldn’t have lost power… right?”

“Pretty much, but she and every bit of tech we had on hand lost power.” Lotor responded.

“You didn’t see any cool sounding but dangerous crab things, did you?” Lance inquired.

“Lance, this isn’t a video game.” Allura let out a sigh. She then smiled when Hunk got the jet ski tethered and pulled in before helping her on board. “Thank you, Hunk.”

“Happy to help.” Hunk responded before helping Lotor.

“And the sound we picked up on didn’t even sound like those things in that game you like.” Allura added as she looked to Lance. She leaned back down to grab her pack. “Anyway, when we get back, I’ll go over the data I collected.” She then looked to her cousin. “I am glad you guys were out here, though. But what brought you out here?”

“The desire to drag Keith away from his laptop and blog.” Lance teased, smirking when his friend flipped him off.

“I like my blog and I was in a very heated discussion before you dragged me out of there.” he commented.

“You were getting pissed because someone kept denying proof of the mothman.”

“Mothman is real!”

“Who gives a damn?”

“I do!”

“Oh, right, this is why I don’t visit them at the villa.” Lotor sighed, getting Hunk to chuckle a bit.

Allura giggled. “At least they’re not boring.”

“Anyway, good thing we were heading back. So, we’ll take you along. So long as Lotor doesn’t think he can captain my ship.” Lance smirked. “Remember, matey, you’re aboard my ship and I expect to be called captain.”

“Watch your back or there’d be a mutiny.” Lotor responded, staring down at the male. The two stared at each other before they started laughing, showing that this was just a common antic between them. “But it’s really strange how we lost power...” He found a place to sit as Lance went to the helm, getting the boat moving and heading back to AARC. “Maybe it has to do with that current I felt when I went to get the device.”

“Current?” Keith inquired.

“It was like… well, I’d call it a sudden gust if I were up here; it was brief, though...” Lotor explained. “But… whatever it was...” He and Allura both missed Keith, Lance, and Hunk exchanging looks, the three friends wondering if it had something to do with a mer. It couldn’t have been Pidge, she was with them moments ago before they headed back toward AARC. Another, perhaps? While Lance had yet to tell his friends about Matt, they all were aware that logically speaking, there were others out there.

“We’ll hopefully know more after analyzing the data.” Allura assured. “Maybe there were more currents like what you felt before things shut down.”

“Perhaps.” Lotor nodded.

Logically, more than just Pidge and her brother mysteriously lurk in the depths. And not all are friendly.  Anyway! I hope you guys enjoyed this one! Until next time!