#can someone check my head for me i think keith possessed me

[hiuythn]

sorry to ask, but i saw u shared hc for the sick anon, im going thru a rough patch and ur fic rly cheered me up. Can i get some hcs as well?

this is how keith asks lance to marry him:

so we all know how from the beginning, from the moment things got resolved at the end of tnahp, that keith’s been upfront about never leaving lance. everyone knows he’s going to put a ring on that. he’s said it to lance’s face. “what else am i gonna do with you?”

it’s not until six years later that he actually does anything though. mostly bc of the war and the aftermath.

the team are in a meeting with the coalition, boring stuff, routine stuff, and the mind link is closed, bc sometimes keith and lance need breaks. he’s lucky that it was, though, because what happens next in his mind would’ve been enough to make lance fall out of his seat and ruin the meeting and coran would’ve killed them both lmao

lance is paying attention even though he looks just as bored as keith. diligent, as always. he’s even got a holoscreen projected, taking lazy notes. there are faint little sketches of the coalition members and the team. one is of shiro, snoring, comical Zs above his head. keith bites down on his cheek.

lance is twirling the pen in his left hand.

keith looks at that and thinks, loud and clear, there should be a ring on his finger.

he sits back.

huh.

it should be a surprise, he decides after a quiet minute. lance deserves that. it should be at the right moment, the right words, the right place. it should be soft and genuine and such a sweet shock that it takes lance seconds to reply. it should make his blue eyes fill with tears, it should make him curl into a ball before keith, who’ll still be kneeling, ring box open and laughing at him because wow, that’s nice reaction, lance. it should be a proposal so perfect that it makes lance kind of mad, makes him shove keith, makes him pout that frustrated-loving-happy pout.

(bros, as a gay, this is kind of really fucking gay)

keith spends the rest of the meeting laying out proposal plans. lance gets exasperated when he finds out keith remembers nothing of the meeting. “dude, you--tell me again, who’s the leader of voltron, here?” “it’s allura.” “....okay, but who flies bl--”

and some people might ask, what’s the point, if you’re already levertan-married? if you’ve mind-linked and basically achieved the pinnacle of ‘joining hands in holy matrimony’?

keith’s answer would probably be something like ‘fuck off, i love him that’s why’

(ngl that’s hella romantic. no? just me?)

the long answer is that he knows lance is a romantic. that he really likes gestures of affection, that his face gets all rosy and he always tries to bite back his smiles, and he gets so pleased and flustered and also adorably angry every time keith does anything for him. keith’s in love with that. he goes absolutely dumb over making lance happy, he’s fucking obsessed with it. every neuron in keith’s stupid head is devoted to lance like 24/7.

(it’s a given that lance is the same, if not worse. how tf do they get anything done?)

plus, levertan-married doesn’t really mean the same as human-married.

so keith--somehow--manages to pull off thinking up proposal plans without closing the link, without lance knowing--maybe bc his thoughts are purposefully fragmented like ‘white chocolate? milk?’ or ‘speakers? mic?’ or ‘beach sand feels sandy’ and yes it sounds absolutely dumb but it’s clever because after a while lance tunes it out. though, at the beginning, it really fucking worried him because it sounded like keith was having a stroke LMAO

over the next couple months, keith steadily puts his plan together: get the ring, figure out what to say, speak to allura about detouring to earth for some r&r, speak to shiro about not fucking things up for keith because i know you’ll do that somehow shiro no are you serious of course you would you’re evil do you even remember that time i said no to inviting people for my fourteenth birthday and you did it anyway even though i was looking forward to just playing video games for the whole day??? i had to deal with james griffin in my goddamn house you ass--

the day keith asks, everything--surprisingly--goes really well? like suspiciously so. like keith’s really glad but he’s itching to reach for his knife by the end of it, bc he was prepared for shiro to have done sth by now. 

but nah, keith and lance have a lovely day hanging out, doing activities keith planned and things lance spontaneously suggests. the weather is a perfect breezy, sunny day. when the sun sets they wordlessly head for the beach. lance chases keith though the surf. they throw clumps of wet sand at each other. keith hoists lance in his arms, listening to him yell as keith spins them around. lance picks him up and tosses him into the shallows, that fucking jerk. lance gets keith to forgive him. lance gives keith his shirt, goes half-naked for keith’s shivering form. ‘i’m going to get a cold,’ lance says. ‘and i’m not?’ keith snorts. they walk down the beach and lance tells him stories, pointing to this rock or that spot and saying oh i broke my arm there or dude i saved a baby turtle from a seagull that day and keith soaks it all up like he’s the sand and lance is the ocean waves, coming back to him every time.

lance hops onto a rock, demonstrating to keith how he used to pretend he was a sea prince looking for mermaids. the winds play with his hair, the setting sun brushing golden against his bare chest and the grin on his lips. like this, he’s a foot or two taller than keith.

keith gets down on one knee.

it’s lance’s fault that the ring box is damp, but he’s lucky this thing is olkari-made, because when keith opens it up, the ring shines just as bright as lance. almost as bright. it tries its best but keith really only has eyes for his soulmate.

keith says:

every day, i want to choose you. every day, i want to get to choose you. every day, growing up like i did, was spent learning what i needed to live, what food or drink or mantra was needed to make it another day alone. my body forced to me to focus on its needs, on the bare essentials. if i went a month without a caring touch, it didn’t matter, because it hadn’t killed me yet.

before i fell for you, i don’t think i knew what it meant to want. i never had a chance to think about it, a second to indulge. if i wanted a home, a family, it was a weakness, a distraction, and i couldn’t let myself admit it. so i never learned to want.

the only other thing that comes closest to what i feel for you is probably flying. it’s that addiction to diving through the clouds, it’s free-falling, it’s soaring with my heart in my throat. and even then, even now that i know you, it doesn’t quite compare. it’s a poor substitute.

in this world we exist in, where some force out there knows exactly what we need, who we need, it’s kind of a miracle that i still got to choose you. i’m glad i got the moments where it hurt to think of you, because i wanted you so bad i couldn’t stand not having you. i’m glad i got to slowly realize that you were everything to me, on my own time. it was my own conclusion, my own resolution to love you because you were you, and not because you were someone i was supposed to love. the universe kind of tricked us, but i think she meant well.

and now i know, that even in a world where soulmates didn’t exist....i know i’d still want you.

i want to want you, every day. i want to wake up wanting you, every day, fall asleep wanting you every night. i want to leave for missions wanting you, want to stay behind watching you go, wanting you to return faster than you can. i want you to want me, too. i want a ring on our fingers, reminding me that you do, that you feel the same and you always will.

i want to marry you, lance mcclain.

will you marry me?

[pandawriterstuff]

Pinehallow Summary & Character List

This is my main WIP, if I'm complaining about characters doing whatever they want, this is them.

Pinehallow Summary-Monty, an eleven year old boy who has spent most of his life traveling from place to place with his in-demand lawyer mother, Irene, is sent to live at his uncle's horse ranch because she thinks he needs roots. Used to nearly everyone but his mother not being around long enough to get to know, Monty is more than a bit uncertain about this. But in scrambling to find his place in a town different to anything he's ever known, he finds friends, both human and animal, makes discoveries, and even manages to foil a plot against Pinehallow Ranch itself.

Character List

Monty (Montgomery) Cade Waller- Main character, 11, white. Monty is curious, bright, and more than a little awkward. He has a tendency to state the obvious, which can be endearing or annoying depending on your perspective. Big vocabulary and grown-up way of speaking because he’s spent more time around grown-ups than other kids. He’s quietly stubborn, particularly when it comes to being told he’s wrong when he knows he’s right. Insecure about socializing and friendships because of constant moving and traveling. Can’t hold a grudge for the life of him, even when he likely should. He likes bugs, birds and turtles, would rather read nonfiction than a story. Fills lonely afternoons with sketching, nature sketching on the ranch.

Irene Waller- Monty’s mother, 36, white. Irene is a powerful corporate lawyer, either full of energy or exhausted, never in between. She loves using words to sway minds and deciphering documents to find exactly what the opposition doesn’t want her to find. Sometimes Irene wishes she was using her skills in more meaningful ways, but also really likes the money, the traveling, and the competition. Has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of show tunes from musicals. She has a hard time letting people get close. Would stab someone for her baby, but knows it’s better to teach him to stab for himself. Only partially joking. Dolly Parton is her hero, and as much as she loves her music, it’s Dolly the business woman and Dolly the philanthropist that she strives to emulate.

Keith Waller- Monty’s uncle, 34, white. Horse Rancher. Keith loves working hard and getting dirty, and if he’s not exhausted at the end of the day he’ll be looking for something else to push him there. Otherwise he gets antsy. Loves animals and absolutely will not tolerate anyone mistreating any of the animals on his ranch-ordinarily he’s very careful of his size and strength, in that situation, all bets are off. Times that by about ten for any of the ‘barn rats’ that help around the ranch for riding lessons/time. Loves romantic comedies and telanovas and doesn’t care who knows it. Keith doesn’t read a lot, it never came easy to him, but if he’s taking a long trip he’ll always check an audio book or two out of the library instead of just relying on the radio.

Juniper - Keith’s goddaughter, 15, white. She has a calm, confident personality with a smile for most everyone she meets. If she doesn’t have a smile for you and it isn’t because her head is in the clouds over a girl, you’ve probably earned her scorn and will be ignored as much as possible. Juniper raises rabbits and it’s taught her patience, and a lot about unfairness when a kit doesn’t make it. She helps out with riding lessons at the ranch in exchange for riding time of her own, and has become a fixture, spending more time there than she does at home, and when she can get away with it, school. Loves sunflowers and her sunflower comforter is probably her most prized possession.

Nell - Caretaker/cook for the ranch house(would cooking lunch for the workers still be a thing on a modern ranch?). 38, white(?). Not about to put up with nonsense. Will make you cookies if she doesn’t have to put up with nonsense. Please. At one point she wanted to be a chef and has a year of culinary school under her belt, but quickly decided the super fast paced and competitive environment wasn’t for her. Anything that was making her hate one of her favorite things that fast could not be good for a person. She intends to live a long, long life and that kind of stress can just walk right out of the door. Loves to go on long walks, often into the hills (BLM land) behind the ranch. (maybe she was taught/took a class on foraging, and teaches Monty to find wild onions and stuff? But this would mean *I* have to learn about foraging in Idaho.) This leads to a contented, if often silent, companionship between her and Monty, who desperately wants to explore/record/sketch everything about the natural world of his new home, particularly the parts that are off limits to him without an adult along.

Ray- Family Friend/Co-Owner of R & M General (designed to feel vintage, but shiny. Bit of a tourist stop now, they decided to lean into it.), 50, Black. He uses his background in chemistry to make amazing looking candies and chocolates, using that to deal with a time he used it in less pleasant ways when he was in the military. He never expected anybody outside of his small town, or maybe the folks at the county fair to make so much fuss over them. This might embarrass him, if he weren’t so delighted. A cheerful man with a dreamer’s heart, a magazine once referred to him as a small town Willy Wonka. He dotes on his wife, often making and gifting her small surprises. An amputee in honor of my Grandpa (missing left leg at the knee, possibly missing one arm as well, but I’m not sure how that would affect candy making.). Has certain parts of his past he just doesn’t talk about.

Mavis- Co-Owner of ____ with Ray, 48, Black. Fierce and kind in equal measures, Mavis believes in protecting what’s hers, and as far as she’s concerned the entire town of (oh my god, it needs a name) is included in that. Mavis is very selective about the battles she fights, but when she chooses one she throws herself in whole-heartedly. On several committees around town, she’d be on more, but then she wouldn’t have enough time to really get into the work of the ones she loves. She knits in her limited free time, often while listening to the news, but sometimes opera. Has started knitting stuffies in the shapes of the more unusual candies Ray makes, it’s silly, but fun, and tourists and the local kids love it. Still head over heels for Ray, even though his often dreaming about things for ages instead of just doing them is also still baffling to her.

Leanna - Juniper’s sort-of girlfriend, 15, Vietnamese. Quiet, a little cynical, but very empathetic. She avoids the news because it’s that or be mad and want to cry all the time-until she hears about something she can’t not research, and goes on a 24 hour google search and learns far more than is probably good for her about a species going extinct due to logging in prohibited areas, or genocide being covered up by claims of violent uprisings. She loves manga and comics. Leanna sometimes tries for a cottagecore* type aesthetic, but mostly thinks it's too much work. She’s starting to worry about what she’s going to do with her future, and people telling her that she’s only 15 and doesn’t have to worry about it yet is NOT HELPING.

*even though cottagecore isn’t a thing in the early-mid 2000s this is maybe/vaguely set in. Shh, let me have this. Anne of Green Gablesesque maybe?

Winnie - Leanna’s mom, 45, Vietnamese. Widow? A little ditzy, but a lot loving. Everyone in town is convinced she’s the stoner type of hippy, but no one minds as she’s someone who truly wants to know how you’re doing when she asks and strangely almost always has very spot on advice. She’s rarely on time anywhere, but that’s because she’ll have stopped to talk, and often to help, whoever she’s run into. Leanna and her bicker over this when she’s late picking her up. Always wears bright colors. Loves Agatha Christie books. Calls everyone, even people 50 years older than her, hon.

Logan - Juniper’s stepdad, 40, white. Kind of a jerk, but most of the jerky things he says are actually jokes that fall flat or have simply gotten old. Tries really hard, like *really* hard, but has a tendency to get annoyed if people don’t appreciate his efforts right away-more in his personal life than professional, possibly because of his profession. A contractor, hard worker, loyal, has worked for the same company since he was twenty even though they don’t often treat him right. Sometimes tries to buy people’s affections. Wants to have better communication with Juniper, but it’s gotten really hard the last few years and he’s never quite sure why.

Candice - Juniper’s Mom, 39, white, works at a nursery that sells seedlings and baby fruit trees, has a cheerful, calm personality, but a lot softer and more lowkey than Juniper’s version. Very house proud, but has a ‘maximalist’ approach to decorating-everything is in its place, but there are places for lots of things. Loves spending time outdoors, but would rather spend it tending her garden than hiking or riding, preferably with a cup of tea by her side. On the weekends, a fruity beer or wine instead. Wants to go on one of those train rides where you get to drink wine, eat canapes and try to solve a mystery, thinks Winnie might be a good candidate for someone to go with her.

Ura - a ‘barn rat’, 12 and a half, white(maybe a Czech immigrant? 2nd generation?) . A cheerful, rough and tumble boy who is always climbing things, and often being told to stop when he gets too high for other people's comfort. Ura is fearless when it comes to physical feats, but has a fear of ‘slimy’ things like worms and frogs. He has a thick layer of pudge and a big appetite, but is athletic and strong enough that anyone bullying him over it would be doing it at their own peril. Not that he’s the type to start fights, or even finish them most of the time. Doesn’t feel he quite fits in with his family, who are all more serious, reserved people. Redwood is his favorite of the horses, and Keith has all but given up on telling him that sitting on the floor of Red’s stall to talk to the horse isn’t exactly safe.

Elliot - Ray and Mavis’s son, Black, 19 and a college student-maybe/probably at U of I. Lives on campus, but comes home at least a couple weekends a month. Has an older car that he and Ray fixed up together, that is his pride and joy. Quiet, with an irreverent sense of humor that he unleashes somewhat at random. Interested in robotics, engines and mechanics and generally has some project he’s working on, a piece of which may or may not be in his pocket. Often has oil, grease, or ink on his hands, either from working on or designing a new project. A bit of an overachiever, he can spread himself thin trying to live up to all his responsibilities at once. He’s best friends with Randy, a friendship his parents want to disapprove of, because the few times Elliot’s gotten into trouble not only was Randy there, but 99% of the time whatever it was is Randy’s idea, but never quite manage too.

Randy - Handyman at the ranch, mixed race Hispanic and white, 21. Technically head handyman, because the old head retired six months ago, and is a little young/inexperienced for the job, but he’s not the type to back away from a challenge and has risen to the occasion beautifully. Loves rock and metal music, and spends a lot of his free weekends at concerts, the ones crammed into little venues and bars where people are practically on top of each other and the beat is so loud and solid it throbs through you, connecting you to everyone even before you hit the mosh pit, are his preference. He’s been working at the ranch since he was 16, and feels like he has a claim on it, not afraid to speak up if he thinks a decision Keith is making isn’t right or that he isn’t taking something important into consideration. Can be a bit wild when he’s not being the responsible one, definitely doesn’t always think before he acts.

Alma - Local artist/worker at R & M’s, Hispanic, 25. Alma is a painter and poet, a confident young woman who’s figured out that half of surviving as an artist is being your own agent/a salesperson as well, and in addition to several shelves at the R & M that hold postcard prints of many of her pieces, both the coffee shop and cafe have some of her larger paintings displayed, and she always has a booth at the Saturday market, though the majority of her sales come from her website. Alma is cheerful, and likes to tease, and growing up the middle child of four brothers, is very able to hold her own in verbal sparring. She’s close with her family, still living with her parents, and while at first her father was dismayed at her choice of career, he now hands out her business card to basically everyone he talks to.

Miriam - Nell’s Mom, white, 71, a little deaf, speaks loudly, partially because of the deafness, partially because she spent too long letting other people push her around and when she hit about 50 decided she was going to be the one talking over people now. She’s earned it. Age has made her more delicate than she likes, bruising and scraping easily, but she’s determined to do most things for herself. Those that are beyond her she has no problem loudly ordering someone else to take care of. Volunteers a lot, often fosters kittens for the local animal shelter. Used to chain smoke, quit when Nell was a teenager because she kept leaving pictures of diseased lungs everywhere. Still uses the candy ones as a substitute.

Places

Unnamed Town- Somewhere in Latah County, Idaho, where there is not already a town in the way. Around 200 years old and has grown and shrunk and grown again, and currently has a population of about 12,000. Having grown out from a traditional mainstreet, _______ no longer has the western style boardwalk seen in old pictures, but it does have a large cluster of local businesses and ‘hot spots’ still along that old main street, a coffee shop, a diner, a combination bookshop and independent library, a hardware store, a bar, a few places I haven’t thought of yet, and of course R & M General. There is a historical barn half a mile or so away from mainstreet that has been converted into a theater/meeting hall/dance hall, and a community center was added onto it in the early 90’s. During the summer there is a farmer’s market on the property every Saturday. The elementary school and junior high are all on one property, several miles out of town, because the majority of families live on farms, ranches or small rural properties rather than in one of the neighborhood clusters in the town itself. The junior high is 7th, 8th and 9th graders, in a newer two story building, and the elementary school is divided into lower and upper elementary with the bracket shaped building basically being cut in half, K-3 on one side and 4-6 on the other. The high school is outside of town on the other side by several miles, and actually serves kids from another town(s) as well. There is also a trailer park with about forty units, not exactly sure where it is yet, but Miriam(Nell’s Mom) lives there. There is also an animal shelter, a vet’s office, a cemetery, and a couple churches, and I’m sure more things to come.

R & M General (working title?)- Ray and Mavis’s store, a general store with a candy focused twist. A vintage Pepsi sign, neon still bright, and a charming green glass juke-box filled with hits from the 1940’s onward grace the front porch of the R & M, along with a long bench that locals are encouraged to use for a spell or to listen to a couple songs, provided they can behave themselves (teenagers arguing over who their favorite member of the rat pack is might be amusing, considering they were already ‘mom and dad’, or at least older brother and sister, music by the time Mavis and Ray were teenagers, but when they get loud it also gets annoying.). The store itself still has the original wooden counter up front and built-in shelves along the walls, but all refinished and polished to a high shine. A mixture of display types going down the middle of the store, barrels and baskets filled with skeins of colorful yarn and cloth or Mavis’s knitted stuffies(and during winter sometimes socks and mittens), other sewing and craft supplies, display racks with local arts, postcards and carvings, sometimes wind up toys made by Elliot, and of course many, many displays of candies and chocolates. They also have a lot of dry goods, and some of the simpler candy types have little instruction booklets and the ingredients it takes to try out making them yourself stocked in the same display, drink coolers, and sometimes have local produce available. Basically, they have a bit of everything, except for building equipment/home repair supplies, and that’s because of the hardware store across the street.

Pinehallow Ranch-A sprawling 100 acre ranch in Latah County, Idaho where the Waller family has been doing something or other with horses for four generations now. Originally it was a horse breeding ranch, but Keith and Irene’s grandfather felt the money was in training horses, and offered boarding as well, and Keith has continued to build that up, offering lessons for a variety of styles, ages, and skill levels. Butting up against BLM land that allows additional grazing and trail riding, the ranch has four pastures, a large corral, a medium sized indoor arena and two horse barns, one for boarded horses and one for the ranch's own stock, and an equipment barn, an old bunkhouse that is mostly used to store feed-though Randy has slept there when in between places, mostly unbeknownst to Keith-and some smaller equipment sheds, placed where they’re needed. The main house is an L-shaped ranch house with a porch that goes around the entire long front of the house with a large herb/kitchen and rock garden arranged around that. There are treed pockets scattered here and there, left alone as the rest of the ranch was developed, but the creek Monty and Juniper sometimes hang out at is on BLM land, as is most of the forested area around the ranch.

Pinehallow Taglist @sleepysera @enchanted-lightning-aes @odysseywritings @thegreatobsesso @writing-is-a-martial-art and @hiitsolivia If anyone else wants to be added just interact with the post :) (My more advanced tumblr knowledge has led me to believe this is better than asking people to reblog/comment to be added, but if I'm wrong just let me know.)

[justheretobreakthings]

Keith’s Scaly Secret

Written for @gentronlegendaryfriendships

Day Two: Wings AU | Adopting a Pet Together

Word Count: 2,933 Characters: Keith & Shiro Read on AO3 My house, my rules, my ko-fi

Story Summary:

Due to an upcoming dorm inspection at the Galaxy Garrison, Shiro learns that Keith has been hiding some unexpected contraband.

There was a lot about his time as a young cadet at the Galaxy Garrison that Shiro often found himself nostalgic for, but dorm life wasn’t one of them. There were times nowadays when he spent the afternoon studying with Keith and the library was too crowded, so it was usually easier to just hang out in his dorm than go all the way to Shiro’s apartment, but those times were also good reminders of Shiro’s distaste for the academy’s dorms. They were dim and cramped, the mattress on the bed was thin and the desk chairs were stiff and had terrible back support. And, although of course Shiro would never mention it out loud to him, over the last few weeks Keith’s dorm had started to take on a faint smell that Shiro couldn’t quite identify, but that didn’t seem to be from dirty laundry or old food the way most other smelly dorms were.

All in all, not Shiro’s preferred place to spend a Saturday afternoon, but with the amount of stress that upcoming linear algebra test was giving Keith, it was something he was more than willing to endure for the sake of helping his protégé get some studying done. It still was a bit of a relief, though, when they finally finished covering all the practice problems they could get and deemed the study session complete, and Keith announced that he was ready for dinner.

“Sounds good to me,” Shiro said, moving to stand from where he had been seated cross-legged on Keith’s bed and then stretching out his back. “You wanna go to the cafeteria, or would you be up for going out to eat tonight?”

“Either,” Keith said with a shrug. He shook out his hand, no doubt cramped from all the writing he’d been doing in the past couple of hours, and stood too as he closed his books. “I could go out.”

“Great,” Shiro said. He glanced at his watch before continuing, “We should probably be heading out soon anyway. Less awkward to not be in the dorm when they do the inspection, so it's definitely a good night to go out to eat. You know what, I’ve been craving onion rings, wanna go to that place across from - ” He paused as he noticed that Keith had frozen in place, eyes going wide. “Keith? What’s up?”

“What - what do you mean, the inspection?” Keith stammered.

Shiro frowned, taking a moment to realize what he meant, then he sucked in a breath through his teeth and stopped just short of slapping himself in the forehead. “Crap. Forgot we’re not supposed to say anything to you ahead of time. It’s nothing to worry about, they just go through and check each dorm to make sure there’s nothing dangerous, no contraband, and nothing’s been broken. They’re not going to get onto little things like laundry or bed not being made, so you’ll be fine.”

Keith, however, did not look reassured. “They can’t do that! That’s an invasion of privacy! It’s - they can’t - why didn’t they warn us?!”

Shiro’s frown deepened. “They said in the registration paperwork that living in the academy includes dorm checks. And it’s in the student handbook.”

Keith bit at his lip, eyes darting around the room as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I, um, I don’t - I don’t think I can go out to eat tonight.”

“Keith…” Shiro said slowly. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

At the best of times, Keith was an awful liar, and this time his ‘nothing’ answer was even less believable than usual. Immediately Shiro’s thoughts started casting about, trying to take a guess as to what Keith could possibly be hiding. He had that knife of his, but he’d entrusted Shiro to keep it in his apartment for him. Had he stolen it back? It wasn’t as if Keith hadn’t stolen before. After all, the very day they had met…

Shiro quickly shook that thought out of his head. Keith had grown a lot in the time Shiro had known him, he hadn’t lashed out that way in ages, and it wasn’t fair for Shiro to assume Keith had reverted to old habits like that. Still, he needed an answer. “Keith,” he said, trying his best to make his voice stern without sounding angry or threatening. “I’m not going to judge you for whatever you’ve got here. I promise. But you have to abide by the academy rules while you’re here the Garrison, and the staff is going to enforce those rules. I can’t do anything about that, but I can help you with whatever you need right now. Okay? So what’s going on, Keith?”

For several seconds more Keith chewed silently at his lip. Then, after a deep breath, he walked to his bed and lifted up the blanket that hung over the side of the mattress and down to the floor.

Shiro’s eyes widened.

The area under the bed was hollow, meant for students to use as storage space. Most cadets would fill the space with folded stacks of clothes, crates of books, extra bedding, and the like. When Shiro had helped Keith move into his dorm, he’d had very few personal possessions to speak of. Shiro was pretty sure that space beneath the bed had been left empty.

It wasn’t empty anymore.

Instead, a large, clear, rectangular tank stood below the bed, a little landscape inside, dirt and rocks and shrubs and water. A lamp, currently turned off, stood aimed into the tank past the chickenwire mesh that covered the top, its cord plugged into the outlet in the wall near the pillow.

And dozing on a rock in the middle of the tank... was a lizard. No more than half a foot long, speckled with scales in shades of brown up to the tail, where the brown stopped and turned to black and white stripes. The lizard turned to face Shiro when the blanket was lifted, fixing him with tiny beady eyes and darting out its tongue.

It took Shiro a while to find his voice. “Keith,” he finally said. “Why do you have a lizard?”

“I’m sorry!” Keith cried, and when Shiro looked back up at him, he was surprised to see the agitation on his face, and the tremor in his hands as he wrung them together. “I found her in the student garage and I took her outside and set her loose but then when I went back there again later she was back and I didn’t want to just leave her there because she might have gotten run over or one of the other students might have found her and hurt her so I took her back to my dorm and she seemed to like it here so - ”

“Hey, hey,” Shiro said, lifting his hands and making a calming gesture toward Keith. “You need to breathe, okay? I’m not mad at you, I’m not. I just - I’m - I’m a little shocked. I didn’t expect that.”

“Please don’t turn me in,” Keith said. He moved his hands to start wringing them in the fabric of his shirt. “I was just trying to help her, I wasn’t doing anything bad, I swear.”

“Her?” Shiro repeated.

Keith nodded. “Um, the, uh - for zebra-tailed lizards, the males have these black markings on the side and blue ones on their stomach. The females don’t.”

“Ah,” Shiro said. “You really did your homework for this thing, didn’t you?”

Keith nodded again, and Shiro got down on his knees to get a closer look at the tank. The lizard stuck her tongue out at him again as his face neared her, and she darted off the rock to hide among some grass instead. “Where did you get all this?”

“Just brought the dirt and plants and stuff in from outside. And I’ve been catching bugs for food.”

“What about the tank and the lamp?”

Keith didn’t answer, and Shiro squinted closely at the lamp. “Hang on, are these from the student bio lab?”

“They weren’t using them!” Keith snapped. “The tank was empty when I found it and the lamp wasn’t even working right, I had to fix it myself! It’s not like anyone even noticed the stuff was gone!”

“Did you get permission to take the tank and the lamp, Keith?”

“I - ” He hesitated, and Shiro turned back toward him to see his arms crossed again, eyes fixed firmly on the floor. “If I’d asked someone, they would have said no.”

“Well…” Shiro sighed. “Well, yeah, they definitely would have. You know you’re not allowed to keep a pet in your dorm.”

“But I - ” Keith’s chin trembled. “I was doing good, I swear. I did all the research and I’ve been feeding her well and - and I wasn’t gonna do anything to her. I wasn’t gonna hurt her or use her for a prank or anything, I swear. I promise, I was being good. I was being responsible. I promise. I just - I just wanted to help her.”

Shiro frowned as he straightened up, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith? Hey, look at me.” It took a moment, but Keith complied, turning dewy eyes up toward Shiro. “This has nothing to do with that. Okay? I don’t think that you were going to hurt her, and I’m sure you’re a very responsible pet owner. I know you meant well, Keith, I know you did. But there are other reasons it’s not allowed. The lizard could escape the tank and get lost in the Garrison, or make a mess. Or that lamp could have overheated when you had it on and burned your bed. And you’re supposed to be focusing on your classes and your flying, not on taking care of an animal. There’s also the small matter of you taking things out of the lab without permission…”

Keith chewed at his lip silently for a long moment before he spoke. “Am I gonna get kicked out?” he asked, voice cracking on the words.

Shiro shushed him lightly, squeezing his shoulder. “Don’t worry about that. Tell you what, I can get this taken care of, okay? We can save going out to eat for tomorrow, and tonight I’ll sort out the whole, uh, lizard situation. It’s gonna be fine. But we have to get the lizard out of your dorm, and we have to get the tank and the lamp back to the lab where it belongs. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah,” Keith said quietly. “I guess.”

“Okay.” He gave Keith’s shoulder one more pat before moving to slide the tank out from under the bed. He unplugged the lamp and laid it on top, then hauled the tank into his arms and got to his feet with a grunt. “You got any extra blanket or anything in here? Something we can cover this up with?”

Keith went to his closet, pulled out an oversized towel, and helped drape it over the tank, blocking its contents from view. “Thanks,” Keith said. “I’m, um - I’m sorry. About all of this.”

“I know, it’s okay,” Shiro said, giving him a soft smile. “I’m not mad, Keith. You’re not in trouble. But no more stealing from the labs, okay? And no more secret pets. Can you promise me that?”

“Yeah,” Keith mumbled. “Promise.”

“Good. Take it easy, Keith. I’ll see you tomorrow for that dinner, okay?”

Keith nodded, and Shiro gave him one last smile before opening the door and stepping into the hall and out of sight.

True to his word, Shiro was right on time the following day to pick Keith up for their promised meal. Keith was quiet as he climbed into the passenger seat of Shiro’s car, forlorn as he stared out the window at the buildings they passed.

“Everything go okay for you last night?” Shiro asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Mm-hm,” Keith said.

“You pass your dorm inspection?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. You know, I still need to give that towel of yours back to you, don’t I?” Keith replied with a non-committal grunt. “Tell you what, we can swing by my apartment before we eat and I can grab it for you.”

Keith raised a brow at him. “Or you could wait until next time you’re at the dorms.”

“Eh, I’d rather do it now. Don’t want to risk forgetting it. It’s fine, it’s on the way, it’ll only take a couple of minutes.”

“... Okay,” Keith said. He frowned at Shiro for a moment longer, but when Shiro didn’t say anything else or take his eyes off the road, he slowly turned back to gazing out the window.

A few minutes later they were parked in the lot outside of Shiro’s building, and Shiro turned the car off, unbuckled, and stepped out. He didn’t close the door behind him, though, and instead peeked back into the car. “You coming?” he asked.

“You’re just getting the towel, right?” said Keith. “Why do I need to come up?”

“Well, don’t want you overheating in the car. Come on. For my peace of mind.”

Keith sighed, but he unbuckled and climbed out of the car too with no further argument, and Shiro smiled as he led them up the stairs to the apartment he and Adam shared. He unlocked the door and pulled it open, stepping in first and then standing aside so Keith could see. Halfway past the threshold, Keith froze.

“Shiro?” he said. “Is that…?”

“Yep,” Shiro said, his grin broadening as Keith stepped slowly into the apartment. The faded loveseat that used to be up against the far wall had been moved further out into the den, and in its place stood a solid black table topped by a glass terrarium, fifty gallons at least if not bigger. It had the works: a substrate heater along the bottom frame, UVB lamp at the top, ventilated windows, a full biome inside bursting with cacti and succulents and various colors of dirt and rock surrounding a crystal-clear oasis in the center.

And resting atop a decorative cow skull, poking her head up from between the fronds of a ponytail palm that was giving her shade, was a very familiar zebra-tailed lizard.

“How did you - why did you - ?” Keith stammered.

“Well, see, Adam and I have been thinking about getting a pet for a while,” Shiro said, strolling toward the terrarium as Keith trailed behind in awe. “Initially, I actually had wanted to adopt a cat, but Adam’s allergic. And he grew up with mynah birds so we thought maybe we could get one of those, but it turns out this building doesn’t allow birds since they tend to cause noise problems. A lizard, though - they don’t make any noise, they don’t have any fur to set off allergies. It just made sense.”

“When did you get all this stuff?”

“Bought it last night, finished setting it all up this morning. Then I moved the lizard into the new tank, cleaned out the one you’d been using, and dropped that off back at the bio lab before I picked you up. She likes it, I think. She seemed to be really getting into exploring.”

Keith peered down into the terrarium with wide eyes. “So - so she’s officially yours now? Yours and Adam’s?”

“And yours,” Shiro said. When Keith turned curious eyes on him, he shrugged. “Well, you were the one who started taking care of her first, right? So I’m definitely going to need your help with her, especially when I’m not around. Besides, I think she missed you.”

“Can I?” Keith asked, gesturing to the latch on the screen top.

“Go ahead,” Shiro said.

Keith opened up the latch and set his hand down into the dirt next to the cow skull decoration. The lizard took a moment to gaze at it before scampering onto his palm, and Keith grinned as he pulled his arm out and she began skittering along his arm.

“By the way,” Shiro added as he watched, “Now that we’re official pet owners, you should really come up with a name for her. Got any suggestions?”

“Lizard,” Keith answered without hesitation.

“Are… are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Keith looked away from the lizard long enough to give Shiro an exasperated glance, as if this was something obvious that Shiro had no business being confused by. “Because she’s a lizard.”

“I, uh, I guess I can’t argue with that. Okay, Lizard it is.”

For a few moments more he contented himself simply watching as Keith let Lizard clamber around him, crawling up and down his arm and at one point slipping into his shirt collar and then reemerging in the cuff of his sleeve. Finally, though, his stomach gave a little rumble of impatience, and Shiro tapped Keith’s shoulder for his attention. “We’ve still got that dinner ahead of us,” he said. “You cool with taking a break for now, coming back later?”

“All right,” Keith said. He guided Lizard back into his hand and placed her back in the terrarium, letting his hand hover inside the tank for a few seconds as though reluctant to part with her before latching it shut again and turning around.

Shiro grinned and thumped him on the back. “No worries, kiddo. She’ll be right here waiting for us when we get back.”

“I know,” Keith said with a nod. He paused a moment, then with a hastily muttered, “Thanks,” he gave Shiro a quick one-armed hug before darting out to lead the way back down to the car. Shiro followed him with a smile.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid 115

115

115

   Lance fully accepted he was going to be in trouble with Keith. He was too cold to care, regretting not just taking a nap in the main cabin where it was heated by the fireplace. He’d found the quilt, embarrassed by how dirty they’d got it, and had decided to scrub it clean, then his stomach had rebelled, leaving him feeling lousy. Now he was using up all the hot water huddled on the floor of the shower, his by an intense feeling of loneliness that made him feel stupid, and sure Keith would be slightly annoyed there was no hot water if he wanted to shower. He’d felt nauseous at Matt’s scent, now he supposed he was reaping the rewards of his stupidity. Why did it have to be so far from the shower to the bed? He’d had enough blood to have the energy to move. Keith had made the shake almost more blood than shake... but he felt wiped out. Almost as if he hadn’t fed at all. God... This sucked... he was so fucking tired.

     *

Entering the cabin, Keith didn’t need to look for Lance. Hearing the shower, he headed into the bathroom area. The person who’d designed the cabin obviously had no shame. Any sane person would have hidden the toilet instead of the bath and half the shower. Curled into a small ball, Lance had ditched his clothes, Keith sighing fondly at the sight in front of him, unable to blame Lance for seeking out warmth, though he was annoyed to find his boyfriend had hand washed the quilt they’d messed up. He was supposed to check if there was a laundry in the main cabin, but had decided it could wait for later.

�� Sticking his hand in the water to reach the taps, it wasn’t warm. He’d expected warm water. What was the point of being in the shower if it wasn’t warm?

“Babe?”

Lance didn’t answer him, his stomach dropping as he crouched down to shake Lance’s shoulder

“Babe, it’s Keith. Can you hear me?”

Lance felt like ice. Gathering his naked boyfriend up, Keith rushed him through the to bed, laying him down before jogging back to grab a towel. All sorts of panicked thoughts in his head. What if Lance had slipped? What if he’d fainted? What if something had happened to the baby? He needed to get him dry and get him warm.

  Towelling Lance off, Lance mumbled at him, and Keith nearly kissed him for it. Mumbling out he was sleeping, changed how Keith saw the situation. The shower must have been warm when Lance climbed in. His boyfriend so tired he’d fallen asleep mid-shower... not that he knew for sure, but Lance was skilled at sleeping in the bath

“Matt, I don’t know if you can hear me but I need you to send Shiro down to our cabin. Lance is really, really cold”

Speaking louder than normal, he really hoped his voice carried enough to be heard over the game the others were playing.

  Towelling Lance over twice, his boyfriend begged to be allowed to sleep, sounding agitated over being cared for. Keith had only gotten as far as putting underwear on his boyfriend when Shiro practically burst into the cabin, making Keith flinch away. The moment Shiro was in the space, the space felt invaded. He felt like Shiro was angry father bursting in to yell at him for making a mess, or to bust him for something someone else in the house blamed him for. Childhood trauma never really faded. Sensing he’d upset him, Shiro raised his hands to show he had nothing in them, taking careful steps towards Lance

“What’s happening?”

“He fell asleep in the shower and the water went cold. His body temperature’s dropped. I need help getting him dressed and up to the main cabin to warm him back up”

“Okay. You hold him and I’ll help dress him”

  Lance didn’t like Shiro touching him. His boyfriend baring his fangs as he roused enough to open those pretty blue eyes of his for a few moments before falling back to sleep. Keith wondered if his protruding teeth mean he was hungry. Pricking his thumb on Lance’s left fang, he slid the digit into Lance’s mouth, Lance sucking lightly

“Keith...”

The way his brother said his name was a warning

“I know. It’s to kick start his body enough for it to realise it’s warmer than it was”

“Does that work?”

No clue. Lance sucking his thumb made it kind of hard to keep the blood flowing to the brain he actually needed

“Can’t hurt to try. I’ll explain it to him later. My main priority is getting him warm again. He’s got his pyjamas in there somewhere. We’ll put them under his main clothes...”

“We should probably grab a blanket too. He did say he wanted to be a “Lance burrito””

“He can be as much of a burrito as he likes once he’s dressed. Shit. I think his boots are in the bathroom”

“I’ll grab them”

   Keith had plenty of experiences being on Lance’s end of things and a few with Shiro in Lance’s position when the loss of Adam was still raw. He loved his brother, but Shiro hadn’t been pregnant with his baby. He’d felt sick to his stomach that he hadn’t been able to do more for Shiro on the nights alcohol shouldered all Shiro’s pain. The best he could do was clean his brother up, get him changed, then into bed. Now he was facing all those feeling again with Lance being so tired. He knew he shouldn’t force his blood on Lance, but Coran said Lance got more from fresh blood. He just hadn’t expected Lance’s tongue to rub against his finger or his boyfriend to whole heartedly suck at his bleeding thumb. Lance was definitely not going to be happy with him. He’d overthink things, then apologise to everyone, simply for falling asleep in the shower. Keith had done that before. Coming back from missions bone tired then showering before he’d had coffee. He was still panicked but unbelievably relieved that it hadn’t been a slip that resulted in Lance on the bathroom floor. Getting Lance into his pants showed no signs associated with slipping.

   With Lance wrapped up like the burrito he longed to be, Keith shooed Shiro off, carrying his boyfriend himself. Lance was snoring now, adorable as hell as he did. His teeth had shrunk back, no longer poking out. Carrying Lance into the cabin, Pidge and Hunk both hit worried mode at the sight of him, Matt and Rieva had moved from in front of the fire, so he could settle down his vampire burrito

“Is he okay? What happened? I thought he was going for nap”

Ahhh Hunk. The constant worrier of the group

“He fell asleep in the shower. He’s fine, fast asleep and the cabin’s like ridiculously cold. So I thought it better he nap in here”

“What kind of idiot falls asleep in the shower?”

Hunk shot Pidge down

“Don’t you start. The amount of times you have and Lance has put you to bed...”

Pidge snappy as she replied

“Shut up. I was drunk”

“Still counts. Why’s he all bundled up if he was in the shower?”

Settling down with Lance propped up against him, Keith kept his arms around him, almost possessively

“He was asleep long enough for the hot water to run out”

“Damn. That’s some bad luck. Luckily he had you to take care of him”

Keith rolled his eyes at Pidge’s teasing tone

“You just wish you’d bundled yourself up”

“Maybe. He does look all cozy like that”

“He’s a Lance burrito”

“And you’re more whipped than Matt. What are we going to do if Lance is napping here? We can’t wake him up”

“I think he’s pretty dead to the world down there”

Keith groaned at Shiro. He saw what he did there

“You’re not funny... but you’re right. I don’t think he’s going to wake up anytime soon”

“Soooo... wanna play the game with us?”

Keith was content to hold Lance, but Lance would scold him for wasting time he could have been using to bond with the others

“I’m not great at games”

He didn’t mind them, he just didn’t have the same degree of interest as Matt and Pidge did. Pidge shrugged it off

“We know, that’s why you’ll be on Hunk’s team. You can be losers together”

    *

The Lance burrito didn’t stir until it was nearly dinner time. Keith sending Pidge for a pillow so his boyfriend would be comfortable sleeping on the floor. His boyfriend made a cute burrito, rolling back and forth when one side would get too warm. Pidge and Shay were going to give him a moustache with permanent marker. Shiro volunteering to do the eyebrows. Keith didn’t find it that funny seeing it wasn’t Lance’s fault he was out of energy. Besides, they weren’t being creative enough.

  Having bummed out of the game on account of his terrible drawing skills, he’d contented himself with his camera again. Lance wasn’t as bad as he thought he was, though he did manage to chop off heads and get his thumb in a couple of shots. He’d got a lot of Keith, and a lot of Kosmo. The pampered pooch sleeping next to Lance on his back... his dog just a little bit special, because there was no way sleeping on his back all the time could be actually comfortable.

  Lance woke in time to bolt for the kitchen, throwing up in the sink. The smell of chicken soup in the air didn’t seem to agree with the vampire. Hunk nearly dropping his wooden spoon over suddenly having Lance hacking up in the sink. Thankfully Shay had decided that watching Lance take a nap was a good idea, leaving them to it, as the others kind of did their own thing. Lance was a talker. Sometimes Keith forgot that there was a thing called “comfortable silence”, and they weren’t all being quiet because he’d done something wrong. Hunk was rubbing Lance’s back, as Keith headed into the kitchen

“He okay, man?”

Keith laughed it off, hoping he was being convincing

“You know vampire and human food. He loves it, until it decides to come back up. He’s got a snack stash in the cabin”

“Man... he hid it so well. I always thought it was a him thing, like he had too pee or something”

  Heaving himself dry, Lance let himself sink back into Keith’s arms as Keith turned the tap on to destroy the evidence

“Why do I taste blood?”

“Because you had it for breakfast and lunch?”

“Oh... ugh. I feel like I napped for hours”

“You did. Fell asleep in the shower”

Lance hummed, Keith noticing the way his boyfriend was still gripping the sink and hoping he was going to throw up again seeing it kind of looked like Hunk’s chicken soup

“Oh... I remember now... the hot water felt too good and it felt like too much effort to move”

“Idiot. I found you on the shower floor. The water went cold”

“That explains so much. I’m nice and warm now”

  Matt interrupted, walking into the kitchen to inspect the large pot of soup

“Talking about nice and warm, Rieva and I are going to take a run before dinner. Have we got time?”

Hunk nodded

“Yep. Give it half an hour and it’ll be ready. Though I’m not sure you should be running around in the slush left behind from the snow”

Matt hugged Hunk

“Not that kind of run, bro. If it’s only half an hour, we’ll save it for tonight”

Hunk redden as he realised

“Oh...”

“All good, man. You’re still getting there. Lance on the other hand has no excuse. If you can’t regulate your temperature, don’t go falling asleep in the shower”

Lance huffed at his friend

“It’s not my fault. It was so nice and warm... seriously, the weather wasn’t suppose to be this cold”

“It looks like it’ll warm up tomorrow. Drink some blood and perk up”

“I’m getting there... I’m allowed to be sleepy”

“Actually, Keith fed you, so you really should have more energy”

  Keith shot Matt a glare

“What makes you say that?”

“Smelt it on you. Plus, you’ve got a scratch on your thumb”

Pulling out his hold, Lance frowned at him, finally putting space between him and the sink

“Babe... No. We talked about this”

“Relax, your teeth were sticking out”

Lance’s right hand came up to cover his mouth self consciously, his left arm wrapping around his waist in a self hug

“Stupid fucking teeth”

“Babe, it’s fine. No one saw, other than Shiro”

“That’s beside the point. These stupid things have a mind of their own”

Now he was in trouble with his boyfriend. Matt could kindly fuck off, though he had a better idea of how to get his revenge. Leaning in, the hunter whispered in his boyfriend’s ear

“Actually, it was pretty hot having you suck on me like that”

  Lance choked on air. Matt scrunching his brow

“Really, man? Was it worth it?”

“Yep. It shut your big mouth up, didn’t it?”

“I don’t want to hear about your kinks”

Hunk simply looked lost, sighing to himself as he went back to his soup

“Babe...”

“It’s fine. You should really have something to eat. You haven’t eaten much, and it’s not good for you”

“Shay...”

“Shay’s taking a nap, man. Keith’s right. Have some blood, take a load off. We’ve got dinner covered”

  Lance raised an eyebrow over how blasé Hunk was being

“See, our chef agrees. Do you want blood or shake? It’s probably better if you have a shake”

“Can we not discuss this? Like... like this”

Lance waved his hand, not okay with things. Keith didn’t see that much of an issue. Hunk knew and accepted it. Maybe he’d been feeling too much love to think about how Lance would react

“Dude, it’s fine. Why don’t you have some wine and relax?”

“See. Hunk’s totally okay with it”

“It’s still weird. Fine, I’ll have some blood. But not in a shake. That soup looks really good”

  Keith’s mind went to how Lance had sucked his thumb. If they had half an hour...

“You know, I don’t mind...”

Lance cut him off, a tinge of pink in his cheeks

“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence”

“Okay! That’s enough. Save it for tonight. Lance go drink some blood already. Keith... I’m disappointed in you man”

Keith shrugged Matt’s loud tone off

“If you don’t like it, then don’t listen”

“Oh, I would if I could. Fuck having super hearing”

“Consider it payback for all the times we had to listen to you”

Matt groaned at him

“You’re killing me, man. What happened to the Keith that didn’t used to talk all that much?”

“He started dating Lance. That’s enough guys. Lance, you really should eat”

Now Shiro was joining in... Too much concern and the secret would be blown. Lance casting them a glance that told them all to shut up

“You all suck. Let me eat in peace... weirdos. The lot of you are weirdos. Remind me; Why do I put up with this again?”

“Because you love us?”

“Touché. If anyone wants me, me and my wine bottle will be near the fire”

  Lance grabbed a bottle of blood from the fridge, stalking away with it. Hunk calling out as he left

“Don’t eat too much. You need space for dessert. Shiro helped me make Keith’s cake, and I made macaroons seeing you’ve been talking with Keith about them so much”

Keith let his head drop. Hunk was simply too pure for this world. Shiro chuckling a tad too hard, leaving Hunk looking confused

“Oh, he’s got his mind on macaroons alright and how many he can fit in his stomach”

Had they been closer, Keith would have definitely tried to punch him in the balls

“That’s fine. I made a whole batch up. There’s something like 24 in the container”

That only served to make Shiro laugh more. His brother was going to a special place in hell, and if he kept this up, Keith was going to put him there himself.

[whatarubberchicken]

The Bodyguard’s Tale -Chapter 2

<<Previous - Ao3 or ff.net - Next>>

....

Chapter 2

Keith could tell that Lance had been intending to give him the silent treatment for the next few days. The problem? Keith was always around him now, and Prince Lanceon had the patience of a small child.

“Keithyr, I’m bored,” he whined, five minutes after he’d picked up a book to read.

“You could always clean your room,” Keith suggested, sharpening his knife. He’d already patiently refused to become the prince’s cleaning servant, despite Lance’s whining. He knew his duties. He’d done a perimeter check and acquainted himself with most of the prince’s associates and possessions (and why ANYONE would need that many face creams was beyond him….), so he considered himself pretty much caught up as far as bodyguard duty went. For now.

“And my name is Keith, not Keithyr.”

“Really?” Lance sat up, looking interested. “But… you were introduced—”

“By Lotor,” Keith pointed out. “Who we both agree is a jerk.”

Lance snorted in agreement and flopped back down on his bed. “I don’t know what Allura sees in him….”

“The same thing everyone else sees,” Keith sighed, putting away his knife. If he sharpened it anymore, he’d start to weaken the blade. “His charm and charisma.”

“So… your real name is Keith?”

“It’s what my mother named me,” Keith explained. “According to Galra custom, mothers are the ones who ultimately decide the name of their child, even with slaves. My father didn’t like it and tried to name me Yorak instead—hey, stop laughing—but his courtiers and advisers protested, because that was apparently the name of some famous general, and I didn’t deserve it since I was just a half-breed—seriously, stop it, it’s not that funny—so they stuck on another syllable to the name my mom picked to make it sound more dignified. Are you done laughing yet?”

“Sure, Yorak,” Lance chortled, still clutching his stomach. “Oh man, and here I thought you were just trying to be cool like me and shorten your name!”

Keith scoffed. Lance wasn’t exactly his description of ‘cool.’

“What about you? Did they just try to tack on some more letters to make you sound noble too?”

“Nah, Lanceon means ‘everlasting light’ or something in the old language,” Lance said, running his fingers through his hair. It looked relaxing when he did that…. “My mom picked it too.”

Keith snorted, but didn’t laugh. At least Lance knew the meaning of his name. He’d never even set foot on Earth, much less studied any of the languages. All he knew was that his mother had been a human.

“You know what, we need to get outta here! Get the blood flowing!” Lance said, jumping up and stretching.

“Where do you want to go?” Keith asked, also standing and mentally preparing list in his head. He’d have to contact the head of household, the castle guards, probably someone from the space port—

“Have you ever ridden a narwhal?”

“Have I ever WHAT?” Keith asked, flabbergasted.

Lance grinned.

…….

A narwhal, it turned out, was a giant fish with a sword on its nose. Lance tried to explain how it wasn’t a fish, it was a mammal, that wasn’t a sword, it was a tooth, blah blah blah, but honestly, Keith tuned him out the moment he laid eyes on the huge beasts. His mind swam as he tried to figure out why anyone would want to ride one of these—and then Lance was in the water and Keith had his hands full, trying to keep his charge from being impaled or drowned, and yelling out instructions and orders that Lance gleefully ignored.

The result? Two sopping wet princes, panting and exhausted several hours later.

They had actually managed to ride a narwhal for a grand total of less than a minute. Roping them, that Keith could do, but then these suckers dove. As an Altean, Lance could change his body to include gills, but Keith didn’t have that option. He’d almost drowned before Lance realized what had happened and cut them both loose.

“You’re insane!” Keith gasped, coughing up more water and so, so happy to be back on solid ground. “You’re certifiably insane!”

Lance laughed. “Oh, relax, mullet head! If you’d drowned, I could just resuscitate you!” He made kissy motions in Keith’s direction.

“If you ever put your mouth on mine, I will gut you,” Keith growled, ignoring the rising heat in his cheeks.

Lance just laughed again.

“Man, I can’t believe we actually got one!” he said, looking out across the ocean. “This calls for a celebratory drink!”

………

Lance’s idea of a celebratory drink was, of course, to go to the local tavern, get completely smashed, and try to pick up women with increasingly bad lines.

“Hey baby, if I were a fish, I’d be hooked on you!”

Keith facepalmed and sternly reminded himself that someone needed to remain sober, so no, he couldn’t order another drink. He groaned in despair. Lance plopped down in the seat next to him, a handprint still red against his cheek.

“Aren’t you supposed to protect me from all harm?” the prince complained, pointing at it.

“Mmm, I was sure you had her, your grace,” Keith said mockingly.

“Wha—Keith, I can’t hit a woman! It goes against my honor as a prince!”

“Then what was I supposed to do?” Keith asked dryly.

Lance stared at him blankly for a moment. “I don—ugh, I keep forgetting you’re a prince too!” he groaned. “Keithy-boy, why don’t you act like a prince?”

“Because I wasn’t raised like one,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. His current position should be evidence enough of that!

“I bet it’s cause you think you’re better than me,” Lance said, his words starting to slur more and more. Time to cut him off, Keith thought, surreptitiously removing Lance’s cup from the table. Aww, he was cute when he pouted! “I bet you think you’re such a better prince than me, you could get any girl here you want!”

I don’t want any of these girls, Keith thought to himself, raising an eyebrow at his charge. But still, this might work in my favor.

“How about a bet then?” he said out loud, giving Lance a cocky smirk. “If I can get one of these girls to give me her number, you have to go home for the night.”

Lance was too drunk to realize he was being played and readily agreed. It took Keith less than a minute to quietly explain to the party of girls that if they gave him some slips of paper with a fake comm ID on it, he could get rid of the annoying drunk guy at the bar. They agreed gladly, but a few gave him a wink and suggested that the numbers might be real if he actually wanted to give them a call.

He would never understand women.

Of course not, a snide little voice in the back of his head muttered, you’re much too busy looking at the pretty prince you’re supposed to be protecting….

Keith firmly decided to lock that particular voice deep, deep into his subconscious where it would never see the light of day.

[rosieclark]

Don’t leave me

This is something I’ve been working on in spurts. In summery, it’s every plangsty idea that has ever popped into my mind all bundled together with a little bow on top. Also available on Ao3 for your enjoyment. 

Big thanks to Mads (@madileto) for beta reading!

“Promise me something?”

Lance nuzzled the top of her head the familiar scent of her lavender shampoo filling his lungs. “Anything.”

Pidge burrowed further into his arms. “You’ll never leave me right?”

Lance pulled back so he could look into her eyes. “Pidge, you don’t need to worry about that. I’ll never leave you.”

She smiled and brought her lips up to meet his. “I know. Just checking.”

He kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her again. Embracing her warmth, he sighed contently. He was happy.

Lance was having a bad day. It had started out okay, but had quickly gone down hill. He got his butt kicked in training by Keith, spilled food goo all over his new pants and couldn’t for the life of him get his bayard to work.

To top it all off, he had a huge fight with Katie. He closed his eyes, mentally cursing at the memory.

“I’m sorry if I’m being distant, but I’m so close to finding them Lance! I can feel it!”

Lance rubbed his forehead. “Like you were ‘so close’ last month? No offence Katie, but every time you say that, you end up no closer to the truth.”

“Lance, their my family. I can’t abandon them.”

“And I’m your boyfriend!” Lance shouted. “Doesn't that count for anything?”

Pidge stopped typing. She looked at Lance, her eyes wide and sorrowful.

“Of course it does. You mean everything to me. I see a future with you when we return to earth.

Lance kept his expression neutral. Even though her words warmed his heart, he was still ticked off about being ignored for weeks at a time.

“At least I’ll have a family to return to when we get back.”

Almost immediately after he said it, Lance regretted his words. Hurt flashed across Pidge’s face within seconds. He saw her eyes dim a little, and could sense her walls building up. She was shutting him out.

He reached out to her only for her to flinch away.

“Katie, please.”

She turned to face away from him, her shoulders trembling. “At least I know my place on the team and in my family. I’m the brains, the tech savvy. I’m also the paladin of the green lion, and only daughter to Colleen and Sam Holt. I know they love me, because there’s only one of me. You on the other hand,” she snorted. “You have no place. Not on the team, not in your large family. You’ll never know if your mom loves you, or loves the older brother she sees in you.”

Lance felt like a knife had stabbed him in the heart. He staggered back, his body shaking at her words. She knew his weaknesses and had lashed out, hitting her target with deadly precision. He looked up to see her big amber eyes staring up at him, a mix of regret and horror shining in them.

“Lance, I didn’t mea-”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant. What’s done is done.” He knew his tone was cold, but he couldn’t help it. Without saying another word, he whirled around and marched out the door.

Lance groaned, cursing his own stupidity. If he hadn’t left, they would have talked out their problems and probably could have been snuggling by now. Instead he had run away like a coward.

Settling in Blue, Lance opened the hanger door and flew out. He needed some time to think.

“Lance, come in.”

“Lance, do you copy?”

“Buddy, where are you?”

“Lance, this is Shiro. Come back now, that’s an order.”

Opening his eyes, Lance listened to the constant stream of his teams worried voices over the coms.

“Guys, I’m here, relax.” He soothed. “What's the big deal anyways?”

There was silence on all other lines before Keith spoke up.

“You better get back here as soon as possible, or so help me, I will kill you myself.”

Lance frowned at Keith's harsh words. “Jeez, hold your horses. I’m on my way.” He turned off his com and patted Blues dashboard. “Let’s go home girl.”

As he exited his lion, Lance was met with a very, very angry Keith.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” He seethed through clenched teeth. He grabbed Lance’s collar and shook him.

“What was I thinking? What are you thinking?” Lance pulled away, suddenly angry at the attack. “I just needed some time to think! You have no right to talk to me about needing alone time.”

“At least I tell the team were I am. You just decide to get up, and take four days in space?”

Four days. It had felt like a few hours. Quiznack. His confidence dissipated. “I lost track of time?” He offered with a sheepish smile.

“You lost track of time? For four days, we have been trying to coax Pidge out of her room. For four days, I’ve had to listen to her sob endlessly. She hasn’t eaten, she hasn’t drank anything, I don’t think she’s showered or used the bathroom! You have been MIA for four quiznacking days and all you can say is you “lost track of time?”” Keith shook his head. “Unbelievable.”

Lance felt the regret weigh heavy in his stomach. He ran out of the room, ignoring the shouts of protest from his team. He needed to see her.

Standing outside her door, his heart sank even further as he listened to Katie cry. He never wanted to hear her in pain, much less be the cause of it.

With the wave of his hand the door opened, revealing a dark room. A small figure lay curled up in the corner. Her shoulders trembled.

“Hey.” Lance waved even though she couldn’t see him. “I’m sorry for everything I said.”

Pidge whirled around, her eyes wide. “You’re back.”

Lance grinned. “Happy to see me?”

She frowned and turned away.

He sighed. “Look Pidge, I know I said some pretty harsh things to you that I’m not proud of.” He took a step towards her. ”I will always support your ambitions to find your family no matter what. I love you. Please forgive me?”

Lance didn’t know what he was expecting. He wanted Katie to run into his arms and forgive him, but he didn’t think that was a reasonable outcome. What he didn’t expect was for her to stand up and look at him, fury seeping off every pore in her body. He actually took a step back.

“You think this is about what you said?” Her voice was dangerously low. “I forgave you for what you said a long time ago. No Lance, this is about something much bigger.”

“I don’t know what yo-”

“I thought you left me!” Pidge screamed.

The silence that followed was deafening. Lance froze, and stared at her, small and trembling. His heart clenched. He hadn’t meant to hurt her.

“I thought you left me.” She repeated, quieter now. “Sooner or later, you’re going to find someone prettier, or smarter, or funnier than me, and leave. Just like my dad. Just like Matt. Just like Rover.”

“Pidge, ple-” He reached out a hand, but she was already moving out the door.

“No Lance. I need to be alone right now.”

“Quizanck, why am I so weak?”

Pidge stood outside Lance’s door a mere three hours after their second fight. Yes, she was still mad, but they needed to talk out their feelings. Just before she was about to enter, her com lit up.

“Hello?”

“Paladin of green, this is Zarkons witch. I have a proposition to make.”

Pidge’s blood ran cold. Haggar.

“I want nothing to do with you.” She moved to turn the signal off.

“Even if it concerns the safety of your brother and father?”

Her hand paused. Haggar had Matt and her dad. She couldn’t let them get hurt.

“What do you want?”

“I want the lions.”

“That’s impossible. I can’t do that.”

“Need I remind you Katie, that I hold both your brother and your father in my possession. The only thing keeping them alive is your obedience.”

Pidge’s heart sank. She had no leverage in this situation.

“Anything else. Please don’t hurt them?”

There was a pause and then a chuckle. “I wish to destroy Voltron from the inside out. I believe you have gotten quite close with the current red paladin, am I correct?”

Lance

Pidge felt the dread creeping up her spine. She tried to answer but no words came out.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes. I need you to destroy him. Break off your relationship. Make him hate you.”

The communicator shook in Pidge’s hand. Break up with Lance or have her brother and father killed. She sank to her knees as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I can’t.” She managed to choke out.

“You better.” Haggar's voice was everything cruel in the world. “Lest you never want to see your brother again.”

The line went dead, leaving Pidge to her thoughts. Lance would understand. He had to. She could fix this, all she needed was time.

Lance looked up as Pidge entered his room. He immediately smiled and opened his arms for a hug.

“Hey Pidge, what’s up?”

His grin drooped a little when she walked past him, ignoring his welcoming arms, and stared out the window.

“Still mad at me?”

“Lance, I’m done.”

He put his arms down and let out a nervous chuckle. “Don’t even joke about that Pidgey. I know I broke the promise, but I swear it will never happen again. Please.”

“It’s not a joke. I don’t want to be with you anymore.” She turned to face him, her eyes cold and emotionless.

Lance took a step back, clutching at his chest.

“Why? Was it what I said? Because I’m sorry!” He wished his voice sounded stronger, but it trembled.

Pidge sighed as if he was boring her. “It’s not either of those things. I need to be with someone who understands me on an intellectual level.”

That stung more than he wanted to admit. He always knew Pidge was smart, brilliant even. He never thought she thought of him as dumb.

“So what, you’re just going to leave me? Leave us?”

“Yes.”

The answer was simple yet devastating. Lance felt his sadness turn to rage.

“Then leave.” He spat. “I don’t want to be in the same room as you for longer than necessary.”

Pidge gave him a curt nod, and walked to the door. Instead of leaving, she turned.

“I’m leaving on a solo mission to find my family. I won’t be around for a while.” Then she left, the door closing behind her with a soft hiss.  

As soon as she was gone, he fell to his knees, sobbing. He was never good enough for her. He would never be good enough for her. But that didn’t mean he had to stop fighting.

Not for her, for himself. She had left him broken, but he would come back stronger.

Lance swore to himself that he wouldn’t give Pidge the satisfaction of seeing him weak. He would be strong.

Being alone for six weeks in space was not her ideal vacation, but it was better then nothing. Getting Shiro to agree to let her go on this mission solo had been a doozy. He had wanted to take Keith, but she had refused. She needed to do this alone.

Saying goodbye to the team was hard, but they knew she would be back. Eventually. She had estimated the journey to the cruiser and back would take roughly a month. Unfortunately, she had run into some setbacks. This lead to two months in space, with her just being about to see the Galra cruiser.

The one thing her extended time in solitude had granted her was the ability to think. Think about her family, earth, and Haggar. Think about exactly what she was going to do to the witch when she found her. Haggar had made a mistake. Pidge now knew the location of her brother and father. She would play puppet to her wicked schemes no longer.

Thinking was great, until she thought about the one thing she didn’t want to. Lance. Their last conversation had been unagreeable, and it was a jerk move on her part to leave right after. All she needed to do was find her family and explain everything to Lance. Then hopefully he would at least forgive her. Maybe even give her a second chance.

Getting into the cruiser would be easy. Getting out would be hard. Haggar must have her family in the lower prison cells. All Pidge had to do was dock outside the ship, sneak through one of the disposal chutes, and hack the systems for a distraction. Piece of cake.

“Quiznack.” Pidge swore as she opened the last cell in the prison to reveal a scared Arusian. They had to be here. She had searched every damn cell in this ship, so where were they?

“Looking for someone?” Haggar's voice sent shivers down her spine. Pidge turned to face her.

“Where are they?” She stared at the witch, her hands trembling slightly.

“Where are they?” She repeated again. “You said they were here. You said you had them!”

Haggar chuckled, low and cold. “My dear Katie, I lied.”

The last word hit her like a punch to the gut. Haggar never had her family. She had manipulated Pidge to do her bidding without having any leverage.

“No.” It was barely more than a whisper. “No, it’s not possible.”

“But it is you foolish girl.” The witch sneered, her eyes glowing yellow under her hood.

A dam of rage burst inside of Pidge. “You bitch!” She screamed, shooting her bayard at Haggar. “You fucking bitch!”

Haggar easily avoided her attacks, shooting a blast of electricity at the green paladin. Pidge dodged it, and continued to ruthlessly attack her.

Haggar shot at her again, this time hitting her target. Pidge let out a whimper as she crashed against the back wall. Pain flashed through her arm and she gritted her teeth. Slowly, she got up and fired her bayard again. Haggar let out an amused laugh.

“You’re a persistent one aren’t you?”

Pidge didn’t respond, sweat beginning to form on her brow. Her arm felt as though it was on fire and every sense of her was telling her to stop, but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

“Unfortunately, I have places to be and people who require my attention.” She opened her hand and shot lightning, catching Pidge as she tried to retreat.

The green paladin screamed and writhed in pain. When she finally felt like she couldn’t take it anymore, Haggar stopped. She bent over the Pidge and whispered into her ear.

“Make no mistake girl, I’m not as cruel as you think. I’m simply playing a game to stay alive. I know what it’s like to lose your family, so I suggest you leave before any guards find you.”

Pidge’s mouth was too dry to speak. As she watched Haggar disappear, Pidge tried to stand up. Every bone in her body resisted, but she pushed through.

How she had made it to her lion was still a mystery. What she did know was pain, exhaustion and disappointment. With trembling hands, she set course for the castle, before the darkness consumed her.

“All paladins to the bridge please. I repeat, all paladins to the bridge.”

Lance cursed Shiro's timing as he got off Allura.

“Sorry babe, we’re going to have to wait.” He said with a wink.

She giggled. “For you Lance, I’d wait another ten thousand years.”

“Sap.” He pecked her on the cheek before grabbing her hand and heading to the bridge.

“What is it Shiro?” Hunk asked, apron still on. “I was in the middle of trying out a new souffle recipe.”

“Pidge is back. Our scanners picked up the green lion outside the castle.”

Lance joined the others, running to the docking hanger. As the green lion landed, Lance was feeling nervous. His last encounter with Pidge had been less than pleasant, so seeing her again held mixed feelings. How would she react to him and Allura? Would they still be friends?

Those feelings quickly turned to dread as no Pidge appeared.

“Somethings wrong.”

Shiro had read all their minds. Quickly, they made their way to the lion. Keith climbed in through its mouth. There was a moment of tense silence before he yelled.

“Coran, ready a pod! Everyone, clear the way.”

Lance felt his heart drop. A couple seconds later, Keith emerged holding a bleeding, burned and bruised Pidge.

Hunk barfed. Shiro swore. Allura started to cry and Lance held her comfortingly. His own eyes started to water as Keith passed them.

Her armour was nothing but shreds. Blood oozed from a gash on her head, and her right arm hung limply beside her, the shoulder obviously dislocated. Lance shivered as he saw the burns. He knew them well. They all did.

Haggar was going to pay.

He gritted his teeth and stepped away from Allura. Fists clenched, as he stormed to his lion.

“Lance, where are you going?!” Shiro’s voice boomed from the other side of the hanger.

“I’m going to make that witch pay!” He shouted back, breaking into a sprint. He made it about four steps before strong arms yanked him back. Lance fought against Hunk with all his strength but to no avail.

“No you’re not.” Shiro was in front of him. “I know you’re worried about Pidge. We all are. But now is not the time for revenge. Now is the time to stay by her side, supporting and helping her.”

He put his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We will make Haggar pay, I promise. Just not today.”

Keith returned, pale and shaken. “She didn’t respond well to the pod. Coran thinks it’s because of the large quantities of dark Altean magic she was exposed to. We have her stabilized, but it’s going to be a long road to recovery.”

Shiro nodded. “Can we see her?”

“I was actually going to ask Allura to clean her up a bit before.” Keith blushed a bit, looking at Lance's’ girlfriend. “You know, wash her and change her clothes?”

“Of course.” The princess rushed out the doors, her hair flowing behind her.

The paladins had created a system. They took one hour shifts watching their green counterpart. It was Hunks turn, and the others were gathered around the dinner table. None of them had any appetite. They sat in silence.

“It’s been three weeks!” Lance exclaimed, punching the table. “It’s time to act!”

“Guys!” Hunk burst into the room causing all the paladins to stand up.

“What happened?” Shiro asked, brow creased.

“Is she okay?” Keith questioned.

Lance looked like he was about to run to the medical bay. “Is Katie-”

Hunk shook his head and grinned. “She’s awake!”

Pidge opened her eyes as her door slid open to reveal Shrio, Coran, Allura, Keith and Hunk. She smiled at them warmly.

“Hey guys.”

Shiro gently hugged her, trying not to touch any of her wounds. “We really missed you Pidge.”

“Wasn’t the same castle without you.”

There were murmurs of agreement throughout the group. Pidge felt her heart warm slightly. She was finally home. Allura waved shyly.

“It’s so nice not to be the only girl on the team Pidge! And I’m sure Lance will be far mo-”

“Lance?” Pidge frowned, looking for a pair of familiar eyes in the room. She found none.

The room went silent as the others shifted uncomfortably looking for the blue paladin. She closed her eyes again. He wasn’t coming. Not that she expected him to, but it would have been nice to see him again. She needed to tell him about Haggar.

Coran cleared his throat. “So nice to see you awake number five. I think we’ll let you get some rest now.” As they herded out of her room, Hunk stayed behind.

“Can I stay? I really missed my best bud.”

Pidge let out a throaty laugh. “I’d like that.”

“Lance and Allura?” Pidge snorted. “Jeez Hunk, I thought I was the one who hit my head!”

Hunk’s face stayed neutral. “It’s not a joke Pidge.”

It’s not a joke. Her exact words to Lance when she broke things off. Her heart sank.

She cleared her throat. “Well, I guess I’m happy for him. He’s moved on.” I haven’t.

They were silent for a moment before Hunk stood up, patting her shoulder.

“You should get some rest. I’ll be back later with dinner.”

“Thanks.” She winced as she lay back down.

“Anything.”

The door hissed shut, and Pidge let the tears flow. She had left him, and in turn he had left her.

Karma sucked.

Pidge laughed. “So let me get this straight. Lance asked you out in Altean?”

“Yes! I’m pretty sure he said ‘will you elephant the baby’, but I got the message.”

The girls giggled in unison. Pidge took Alluras hand.

“I’m really happy for you, you know that?”

Allura squeezed back. “I know. Thank you Pidge.”

She smiled, thinking about Lance. He hadn’t visited her at all. Maybe it was for the best. He probably hated her. Her heart tightened at the thought.

“He doesn’t hate you, you know that right?” Allura’s concerned eyes were staring at her. Pidge smiled back.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I was pretty ruthless.”

Allura shook her head. “Pidge, you are still his best friend. You’re still so important to him.”

“Important huh? Not important enough to visit I guess. It’s been four weeks Allura, I get the message loud and clear.” She scoffed.

Pidge turned her eyes downward, picking at some invisible lint on the sheets. She felt Allura stand up.

“Try to sleep Pidge.”

She smiled back. “I’ll try. Thanks for everything.”

The princess looked at her one last time before turning off the lights and heading to Lance’s room. That boy had some explaining to do.

“Lance?”

He looked up, his fingers pausing their trail through Alluras hair. “Mhm?”

“You told me you went to see her.”

Lance sighed. He knew Allura meant well, but he was going to scream if someone else told him to go see Pidge. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair.

“I know.”

“So you lied to me?”

“I just need some more time.”

“More time? It’s been four weeks Lance. She’s so small Lance.” Allura looked at him, her voice softer. “So while you’re ‘taking your time’, Pidge is stuck in pain wondering if you hate her. You haven’t visited her once Lance. She’s been through so much. I don’t think she can lose another friend.”

Guilt filled Lance’s gut. He rolled out of bed and pulled on a shirt.

“Where are you going?”

“To see a friend.”

“You know she’s probably sleeping right?”

Lance shrugged. “Pidge never sleeps.”

The door slid open revealing a very messy room. Lance smiled to himself. The day Pidge cleaned her room would be the day pigs fly.

“That was fast Keith.” Her voice was coming from the bed. “Ready for some Killbot Phantom?”

Lance felt his blood boil. “May I ask why you’re playing our game with the mullet emo?”

Pidge looked at him and rolled on her side, closing her eyes. “Go away. I’m sleeping.”

“Pidge, don’t do this.” He pleaded with her.

The lump on the bed remained silent. He made his way over to her, careful not to step on anything. As he got closer, he could see she was shaking. No, crying.

Silent sobs racked her small frame. Lance felt the guilt that had been building up in his chest boil over.

“I’m so sorry. I meant to visit, I was just being stupid. I want, no I need you as a friend. I want to play video games with you and steal cows from space malls. Don’t leave me.” Not again, he added silently in his head.

Pidge opened her eyes. “Don’t apologize Lance. You have nothing to be sorry for. I treated you like a jerk, and I’m paying the price.”

“No, I’ve been the jerk. Please don’t think you’re anything less than my best friend.” And only my friend, he thought to himself bitterly.

She looked up at him and wiped her tears away. “Friends?”

He cracked a smile. “Friends.” Lance conformed. “Are you up for some Killboy Phantom?”

“Is that even a question?” She cocked an eyebrow.

He was already grabbing the controllers.

Lance looked up as Allura entered his room. He smiled, opening his arms for a hug. “Hey babe, I was just headed out to see Pidge. Is everything all right?”

She stayed by the door, looking down at her feet. He felt his heart sink.

“No.”

“No what?” He knew the answer. He just wanted to hear her say it.

She finally looked at him, eyes filled with unshed tears. “Lance, I can’t do this anymore.”

No.

Not again.

“Please Allura, give me another chance.” He was practically begging on his knees. “I promise I can be better!”

The princess wiped her eyes and smiled. “Lance, this isn’t about anything you did.”

“Then why.”

“Because this was a fling. That’s it. We both knew it wouldn’t last, so-” her voice broke. “So I think it’s best we end it sooner rather than later.”

“Allura, I already lost Pidge. I can’t lose you too.”

“And I can’t stand by and watch you fall in love with another woman. You’ve been visiting her non-stop for three weeks Lance. I’ve hardly seen you around.” She wrapped her arms around him, and he savored her warmth. In his heart he knew they were never meant to be, but it stung anyways.

“But I moved on.” He sighed. “I thought I moved on!”

“I think,” she whispered in his ear. “I think that’s the problem. You never really did. She’s still with you no matter how hard you try to get rid of her. And I think you’re with her too.”

She pulled back, holding him at arm's length, offering him a watery smile. “I know love when I see it Lance. I saw it when my mother and father would look at each other. I see it in Hunk’s eyes when he looks at Shay. And I see it in your eyes whenever you see her. Not me, her.”

Lance let out a teary laugh. “I’ve fallen pretty hard haven’t I.”

“Go get her. If you don’t someone else will, and you’ll live the rest of your life wishing you had seized the moment.”

With a pat on the shoulder Allura walked away. Lance sank to his knees. She had been right about one thing. His feelings for Pidge had never left. The only problem with confessing his undying love was that she definitely didn’t feel the same way. She had made that clear when she walked away. He wasn’t about to be the dog crawling back to his master. If Allura was right, she would have to come to him.

Sitting back down he decided he would have some alone time. He needed to think.

Pidge looked at the clock. Lance had made a routine of visiting her every evening for video games and cookies. She sighed as she tapped her foot. He was late.

It hurt being with him as a friend. She wanted nothing more then to wrap herself in his arms and relish in his body heat. Unfortunately that was a “girl friend only” perk.

What was taking him so long? Sighing, she sat on the bed, waiting.

He never came.

“If you keep frowning, you’re going to get wrinkles.”

Lance ran his hands over his face as he watched Pidge and Liam talk. As much as he wanted to join the conversation, he knew they were blabbing about some advanced alien space tech that he wouldn’t be able to follow. Instead, he turned to Hunk.

“I’m not frowning. I’m perfectly happy.” He tried to grin, but it came out as a grimace. Hunk sighed, patting him on the shoulder.

“There there my little lover boy.” He smiled. “Liam will be gone soon.”

Sure. Liam and his little group of rebel allies had docked on the castle a few days ago to restock and refuel. Coincidentally, they also brought some incripeted Galra code that was taken from a prison they recently raided. Pidge was decoding it now to see if it contained any information about her family.

Lance wouldn’t have minded the extra company if it wasn’t for one, little detail. Liam had taken quite the fancy to Pidge. His Pidge. Now a days, the rebel fighter was hardly seen without her. He was always carrying her around when she got too tired to walk, and making sure her injuries were well tended. They spent long hours together pouring over Galra code and talking about Olkarion. Lance didn’t like the way he looked at his Pidge. When he had confronted her about his worries, she had shrugged him off. Apparently Liam was a “nice guy” with “strong morals.”

To make matters worse, Pidge had been ignoring him. Sure, after the break up with Allura Lance skipped a few of their gaming sessions, but he still valued her company. He hadn’t meant to push her away, it just happened. And now he was paying for it.

“I don’t care Hunk!” He called over his shoulder before leaving.

If he had looked back, he would have seen Pidge’s look of longing. Longing for someone just out of reach.

Liam the lame finally left two days later. A week after that, Pidge had burst in with the coordinates to another Galra prison. She asked Shiro if they could go as a team and liberate the prisoners. After much debate about whether or not Pidge was battle ready, Shiro reluctantly agreed. Thus, Lance found himself standing in the oddest prison he had ever seen.

“So I get the whole “cement walls and no windows” thing, but where are the people?” His voice boomed off the bare walls.

The only thing inside the room was a large computer. It had instantly claimed Pidge’s attention, the small paladin tossing her helmet to the side and plugging her wrist port in.

Now that he was thinking about it, there had been almost no Galra to fight. No one had stood their way as they marched into the unlocked prison. A prison they received the coordinates for from a sketchy group of rebels who had docked on their ship. No rebel group before had ever done that. Come to think of it, no rebel group had ever found them.

Realization hit Lance like a punch to the gut.

Oh quiznack. Oh fucking quizanck.

It was a trap. Everything had been set up.

“Get out!” Lance yelled at his team. “Its a set up!”

Hunk, Allura, Shiro and Keith ran out the doors without hesitation, Lance following behind. He looked around for a familiar green helmet.

“Where is Pidge?”

Team voltron searched for their missing green paladin outside the chamber.

“She's still inside.” Hunk breathed, the realization hitting them all like a ton of bricks.

“Quiznack!” Lance swore, running back through the metal doors. Shiro called after him but he paid no attention.

Pidge was where he left her, downloading info from the Galra computer. Her helmet lay forgotten beside her.

“Pidge, we have to go.” Lance tried to pull her up, but she shook her head.

“Lance, this is the one shot I have at finding my family left. I’m not leaving until I get everything.”

“This is not up for debate. We are leaving now. I promise we will find your dad and Matt, but there are other ways.”

“I’ve tried all the other ways. They don’t work.” Her eyes dropped to the floor. “Just go back to the hanger, and I’ll join you in a tic.”

The reassuring smile she put on her face almost made Lance listen to her. He shook his head and grabbed her shoulders.

“I’m not leaving you again.”

Pidge looked up at him, her honey eyes huge. Her chin trembled slightly.

“Lance, I-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by an alarm, and the metal doors slamming shut. A faint hiss followed, making Pidge and Lance exchange worried glances.

Gas.

Pidge put her helmet on, and Lance was about to do the same when he realized he had left it in the hanger. Quiznack.

“Lance, where’s your helmet?” Pidge’s voice was laced with worry.

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and chuckled. “Funny story, I might have left it with the rest of the team?”

They both knew it would be impossible to get to it. It would be impossible for them to escape with the resources they had with them. The walls and doors were too thick, and the only possible means of escape was a small air vent on the ceiling. Pidge swore, and moved to take her helmet off. Lance stopped her, holding her wrists.

“Don’t.” He was dead serious. “I need to know you’ll be okay.”

After a moment, Pidge dropped her hands reluctantly. Lance began coughing. She looked at him with concern, but he waved her off.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

She glared. “You are not fine. You are dying.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it will ya?” He tried to joke.

“Lance, you can’t die on me.” Her voice quavered slightly. “You can’t die because I still love you.”

His heart stopped. She loved him? That was impossible.

“You made it very clear that you wanted nothing to do with me when you broke up with me.” He stated, not allowing himself to dare to hope.

“I was being blackmailed by Haggar. She wanted to destroy the team from the inside out. If I didn’t tell her, she would kill Matt and dad. And when I called her bluff, and broke off the communication, I was too late. You and Allura were already happy.”

Lance’s vision was going blurry, either from tears or lack of oxygen. “Pidge, I had no idea.”

“I know.” Her smile was sad. “I hope you’ll be able to forgive me someday.”

He looked her firmly in the eyes. “Pidge, none of that was your fault. I already forgive you.”

Her shoulders shook with sobs, and she shook her head.

“Not for that. For this.”

Lance opened his mouth to ask, but he was cut off by a sudden pain in the back of the head. He sank to his knees. Pidge stood over him. He watched as she took her helmet off and knelt before him. He tried to protest as she kissed his forehead and placed her helmet on his head, but his mind was too fuzzy.

Then, the darkness engulfed him.

The soft beep of a monitor lulled him back into consciousness. Groaning, he pushed himself into a sitting position.

He was in a white room, arm attached to a monitor and lying on a thin cot. He was in a hospital room.

“Lance!” Hunk engulfed him in a hug. “You’re awake!”

“Hey buddy.” Lance smiled.

Shiro, Keith and Allura were grinning at him around the room. Lance looked at his leader.

“What happened?”

“After the door shut, we thought we’d lost you. But then the Mariots showed up. Their advanced tech opened the door, and allowed us to reach you. They brought us back to their base, and have been caring for you ever sense.”

Lance frowned. “Where’s Pidge? Is she okay? Last I remember is-”

He looked up, dread settling in his gut. Around him, his teammates gave him sympathetic glances. Keith cleared his throat.

“Lance, by the time we got in it was too late. The poison had already reached her heart. Without a helmet, she didn’t stand a chance.” He looked down. “I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry

Lance felt his world tilt. She had sacrificed herself to save him. It was all his fault. They had promised to never leave each other, but here he was, alone.

“No.” He shook his head. “She’s still alive.”

All he got was small head shakes. Lance began to shake. Hot tears fell down his cheeks, and he felt the comforting arms of his fellow paladins surround him. As always, they would get through this loss as a team. A unit. Together.

Bright light blinded her as she opened her eyes. As she tried to sit up, people wearing surgical masks pushed her down, clamping her wrists and ankles to the cold metal of the table. She tried to scream, but her throat was too dry.

“Welcome back Paladin of Green.” The masked figure closest to her snapped on some gloves. “We had quite the adventure retracting the poison from your heart.”

Pidge began to struggle as they came closer, scalpel in hand. “Lance! Help! Please!” She managed to croak. A hand covered her mouth.

“Be aware that no one knows you are still alive. No one is coming for you. So I’d recommend you do exactly as I say. We wouldn’t want something... tragic to happen to… let’s say the blue paladin now would we?”

Her eyes went wide, but she immediately stopped struggling.

“Good girl.”

Cold gloved fingers touched her forehead and she winced as the scalpel dug into her skin.

“Let’s see if the brain of the famed green paladin is worth talking about. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.”

Cold fear cut into Pidge like a knife, but she stayed still. To her credit, she lasted twenty tics before she started screaming.

At least Lance would be safe.

[rueitae]

To Sail, To Break, To Earn - Chapter Two

Remember when I said these subsequent chapters would be short? This chapter is 4500 words.

And now, the Plance interaction begins. @sp4c3-0ddity tag you’re it.

Prologue

Chapter One

~~~~~

A mermaid. They actually had a mermaid with precious little time to spare. The condition to break the curse could be met. Haggar wouldn’t be happy to give up her potential puppets so easily, so perhaps they’d have to fight her once more, but they would at least be free of the curse.

Lance should be happy.

He feels miserable instead, nearly sick to his stomach.

It’s been hours and her face still haunts him. He recognizes her eyes, a clear echo of his younger self, although her fear and heartache were far more justified than his had ever been. Unthinkable what-ifs worm into his mind, of his parents refusing to submit to the hostage demands. Would the crew have killed him at a time when they hadn’t known him as well?

Lance dismisses the traitorous thoughts. The Blade of Marmora pirates are not - and never were - cold-blooded killers; he’s seen that firsthand throughout the years.

But no matter their moral code, having a mermaid in the brig put them all on a figurative sandbar.

“There is no discussion,” Kolivan says to the circle of assembled crew. “Waiting until the last moment is too cruel. The heart must be taken now.”

Frenzied debate breaks out among the veteran members. While most agree it must be done, having the mermaid physically aboard gives many second thoughts, Lance included.

He sighs and goes about his appointed task of checking the mermaid’s possessions, something to help keep busy while the crew debates. He shifts around for a more stable seat on the rigging that he and Keith watch from.

“It’s not fair,” Lance says. He sifts through the bag’s contents with one hand, feeling mostly smooth rocks and the ridges of seashells.

“Most things in life aren’t,” Keith replies evenly.

“There has to be something else we can do,” Lance stresses, turning to his friend. “Haggar said we had to earn the heart of a mermaid. Cutting out her heart and taking it doesn’t sound like earning to me.”

Keith shrugs. “She did surrender of her own free will. I’d call that earning.”

Lance deflates in exasperation and peers into the satchel. “We were kidnapping her dad.”

“It kind of counts?” Keith says. “Look, I don’t really want her dead either, Lance, but if we don’t break this curse not only do we have a fate worse than death, but Zarkon gets an immortal crew that follows his commands to the letter. None of us want that for ourselves or for the world. If there was another way we’d all jump on it.”

Lance’s fingertips brush a couple strange objects. He pulls out a handheld pipe and a pair of spectacles minus their lenses and wonders use would a mermaid have for these.

Lance leans back and throws his hands up, landing in a cluster of rope. “This sucks. I thought a pirate’s life was supposed to be carefree and simple. We’re supposed to be raiding ships, wooing the ladies, and just generally having a good time.”

“Maybe some of us, not you,” Keith ribs with a smirk on his face. “You’re the least pirate out of all of us.”

A sting pierces his heart, but he continues smiling despite it. He knows Keith doesn’t mean to hurt him, not like this, but by the Ancients Lance thought he was past this.

“What?” he jokes back. “You’ve see my charms firsthand. The ladies we rescue love me.”

A grey, long-haired cat poofs into existence on top of Lance’s currently horizontal stomach. He isn’t surprised by Kosmo’s appearance but gasps and shoots back to a sitting position when the teleporting cat uses his belly as a launching pad. He takes the mermaid’s frames and poofs away.

“Can you please control your cat?” he tells Keith in annoyance and points at the bag in his lap. “I’m going to have to give this back eventually.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Kosmo has more charm than you,” he jabs with a teasing glint, but quickly frowns when his eyes flicker to the deck of the ship. “If you want to give the bag back to her, you’d better do something now. Otherwise you may not get a chance.”

Kolivan has broken off from the group with Krolia and Antok, making their way down towards the brig. Before Lance can even think about what he’s doing, he climbs down and rushes to stand in their way.

“There’s got to be another way,” he pleads.

“This isn’t up for debate, Lance,” Krolia says. She steps forward. “Move aside.”

Lance blocks her path “Doesn’t this feel wrong to you? We haven’t earned anything. We’re going to kill her for nothing.”

“And you have an alternative?” Kolivan asks. “Lance, you cannot put yourself in her position. It isn’t the same.”

Lance knows it’s a rhetorical question, but he can’t not say anything. “I’m cursed just the same as everyone else,” he blurts. “Haggar looked into my head for this part, so I should have some say in this,”--he crosses his arms defiantly--“and I say we keep looking for another way.”

There, that ought to show them.

“If you want a say in this then you must be prepared to cut her heart out yourself,” Kolivan responds. “Is that something you are willing to do?”

Lance gapes like a fish, unprepared for the ultimatum. He’s killed before, but never an unarmed civilian - let alone a mermaid! The phrase ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ becomes uncomfortably real.

Phrase. Haggar never said they needed to literally take a mermaid’s heart. She’d used the word ‘earn’.

“I won’t have to,” Lance says. He beams at the revelation. “Maybe all she has to do is say ‘I love you’ and that’ll be it. I - I’ll pull out all the stops, Candlelit dinners, flowers somehow, the best compliments!”

Krolia raises an eyebrow and side-eyes Kolivan, awaiting his reaction. Antok says nothing, but his aura judges Lance’s plan.

“We’ve discussed the curse being metaphorical before,” Kolivan states. “It is unlikely such a superficial act will work. Are you willing to put both of your hearts on the line to gain a true bond? If you fail, she will end up suffering tenfold before death, and you will live with it.”

“It's worth trying,” Lance says quickly. “I know if I were given a choice, I’d try anything.”

He bites his lip; he hadn’t meant for that to be so direct.

Kolivan is silent for a long moment, hopefully considering Lance’s words.

“This is our last chance,” he says evenly. “You have until the day before the century mark. If the curse has not broken, then you will cut out her heart.”

Lance barely registers the last part. He salutes, grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you, Captain!” The mermaid will be safe for the time being. “I’ll start right away!”

“Do not tell her about the curse,” Kolivan says, pulling him up short. “It may be best to let her live in ignorance for a while longer. Do you understand?”

He frowns under Kolivan’s intense stare. “What am I supposed to say when she asks?”

“You’re a pirate, Lance,” Krolia offers with a sigh. “You don’t have to say anything.”

But he isn’t. Not really. His situation makes no difference to the mermaid though, so pirate he’ll be.

“All right,” Lance concedes. “I won’t tell her about the curse.”

Kolivan nods in approval. “Have Keith help you with the mermaid’s needs. That will be your principal duty from now on. I’ll take someone off weapons maintenance to help with food preparation.”

Lance’s mouth twitches into a grin. He’ll get to flirt on duty and order Keith around? Today is shaping up to be a good day.

~~~~~

The enthusiasm fades as he descends the stairs to the brig, where they keep the mermaid mostly out of principle. She can’t survive long out of the water-filled barrel, so putting her behind bars seems unnecessary.

As much as Lance wants to help her, he has no idea where to start. What does he even say?

It’s been so long since his own kidnapping. He tries to remember who said what to him, or how long he wanted to be alone, but he only has fleeting memories of Krolia placing a sword in his hands and late-night chats with Keith while trying to fall asleep.

He remembers being busy, but the mermaid won’t have the luxury of distraction.

Maybe that’s what he can give her.

Lance opens the barred door, the irons thick and flat. It creaks, unused and unoiled in decades (he’ll fix it later), and he winces. She had to know he was here now. “Hey,” he says, raising his voice just above normal. “You still in there?”

He wants to slap himself for his stupid question. “O-obviously you’re still there. What I mean, is everything okay?” he wonders as he draws closer. Water trickles over the side of the barrel, displaced by the creature - person - inside. “Comfortable? I know it’s not the most spacious place. Maybe I can get you something to make it a bit better?”

No answer.

He takes a deep breath in and out, upper body rolling in sync. Adjusting the one good strap of the mermaids backpack around his shoulder, he steps forward and cautiously peers into the water.

It’s darker here in the hold, so it’s hard to make out the figure at the bottom at first.

His nose finds her first. Despite being part fish, why did mermaids have to smell like them too? The stories never prepared him for this.

When his eyes adjust, he can see that hers are closed. Her tail, twice as long as the rest of her body, twitches like Kosmo’s does when he’s in the midst of a dream.

She didn’t hear a word he said.

Lance releases the breath he was holding. At least her nap spares him embarrassment.

He probably should leave her be; that’s what he thinks he would want but… she’s mesmerizing. Lance still remembers the twelve-year-old inside of him fascinated with mermaids and wanting so badly to meet one, how amazing it is that a humanoid could live underwater naturally. A memory from another lifetime resurfaces, of him pretending to be a mermaid on the beach with his siblings, of him ducking in and out of the water to scare his sisters and his father joking that perhaps he was born to be a fish after all.

And now because of the curse, he’s confined to the water he loves so much.

She won’t notice if he stays for just a bit longer. He wants to commit what she looks like to memory. He can try making nice with her another time.

Seaweed drapes her torso, concealing everything it needs to . Growing up on a ship with a mixed crew, there’s little he’s a stranger to, but he’s relieved merfolk have similar modesty standards to humans. He doesn’t want to be caught gawking for more than one reason.

Long auburn hair and a pale upper half is where any physical commonality ends. Dark green scales - nearly black submerged in water - dot her arms and back and thicken at her wrists. Lance follows the ribbing along the top of her tail, which curls around the edges of the barrel with the fins tickling her face. His heart thumps in regret when her thinly webbed fingers clutch above the fins, as if seeking comfort from something familiar.

He knows with certainty that’s what she’s doing.

Only the threat of the curse on him and the crew keeps him from just letting her free right this minute.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers. He dares to grip the edge of the barrel and dip his fingers in the water. “I hope you can forgive us one day.”

The mermaid's eyes flash open. A surprised gasp barely escapes him before angry red eyes find him.

She launches herself up.

Lance steps back, heart pounding. He isn’t fast enough, and sharp needle-like teeth sink into his forearm.

He screams from the pain, falling to the floor and sliding away, clutching his arm to stop the bleeding.

“Hey, that hurt!” he exclaims indignantly once he realizes he’s not going to die from the wound. He’s had worse, and being immortal has some perks.

He meets her guarded hazel eyes, the hint of fear unmistakable. Her scaled fingers grip the edge of the barrel, but her mouth is still underwater.

“Good!” she snaps, but her voice cracks despite her indignation. “It’s supposed it!”

A beam of sunlight from a barred vent in the ceiling hits her thickly scaled cheeks, making her face look unworldly thin and scales shine yellowish-green. It’s gorgeous, the way she can seem so dark and mysterious underwater and bright and youthful above.

She must be stunning in the sunshine…

(He admonishes himself for hating the overcast skies from when they took her aboard.)

Her thinly webbed earlobes twitch, their rectangular shape odd but the action obviously annoyed.

His jaw snaps shut when he realizes he’s gaping.

“It’s bad enough you’re keeping me here, but are you all planning on watching me while I sleep? It’s creepy. Can’t you just leave me alone?” She sinks lower into the water and he can no longer see her flat, scaly nose.

The dark blue puffs around her eyes aren’t scaled, but they don’t seem to fit with the rest of her face. Did mermaids cry water underwater?

Oh. Of course she’s been upset.

“No!” he retorts. “I just came to see if I can get you anything. It gets lonely down here.”

She hisses, “I don’t need company from any human!” She ducks down with a splash, hiding from view.

The blood drains from his face as his brain scrambles for context. He lifts his bloodied hand from his wound and sees that he’ll need to see Doctor Ulaz for disinfectant. He knows stories of legendary beings from both land and sea, one of his favorite pastimes. What if…

“I’m not going to turn into a mermaid, am I?” he frets. But it would be preferable to the curse he already lived under, and he wouldn’t need pants anymore. Less laundry!

She doesn’t respond.

Lance considers leaving, frustrated with his lack of success, but he remembers why he’s there. Her life is on the line. He has to at least make an effort to be friends.

And the child inside wants to know more about her.

He stands and clears his throat, confidence rising in the simple action. “We got off on the wrong foot, or tail for you I guess. I’m sorry for staring at you. I won’t do it again. My name’s Lance.”

He waits for her to reply with her name. After an uncomfortably long silence, he continues, “Look, I know you have no reason to trust any of us, but two months is a long time to not talk to anyone.”

Her eyes break the surface once more, this time looking uncertain and vulnerable. “How long is two months?” she asks.

“About sixty days,” he says patiently. “A sunrise and sunset make a day.”

“Oh, sixty quintants.” She gulps, diverting her eyes. “What happens to me after that?”

Lance isn’t sure how to answer without revealing her role in lifting the curse. She deserves to know, he knows she does, but he doesn’t want to risk losing a tentative thread of friendship this early when it could save her life.

But he pauses too long, and she thankfully continues into a nervous ramble.

“Am I going to one of those… menageries? A—a lot of the sea creatures have relatives who end up in one. I’ve heard they aren’t too bad, once you get used to land walkers watching you all the time. As long as there’s room to swim and the water has good circulation.”

Her hands shake. Lance isn’t sure what comes over him, but compassion for both her true predicament and guessed one outweighs the fear of being bitten again.

“I won’t have to forage anymore,” she adds. “And there will be plenty of others to talk to. Maybe we’ll know the same folk.” She perks up. “Maybe they’ll know my family! I’ll never see them again but maybe the seals can take mes — “

On a chance, Lance takes her hands in his. They are cool and smooth to the touch, and he can’t help running a thumb over the scales. She stops trembling but does not pull away.

“I still want to see the human world. Maybe whoever is in charge will have some interesting things for me to see.”

“Is that why you carry this bag of junk?”

Her eyes widen when he shows that he has it with him, and she rises to her chest out of the water, ripping her hand away. “That’s mine! Give it back!”

Lance holds the satchel up and away from her. This is his chance to find out her interests fast. “You’re really interested in this stuff?”

“Not anymore thanks to you!” she yells, swiping for it and missing.

His heart freezes in horror as she leans over for it with her sharp claws fully extended, her abdomen a fulcrum and the barrel on the verge of tipping over.

Lance drops the bag and steadies the barrel, preventing more water from spilling to the floor.

But the mermaid strains for the bag and flops out, her tail slapping him squarely in the face.

“Ow!” he whines, clutching his sore nose. He intends to say more but reconsiders when she clutches the bag to her chest as if it was a lifeline.

Half the water is spilled thanks to the incident. Lance needs to fill it again, but more importantly he needs to get her back in.

“We’re not all bad, you know,” he says weakly. He senses he repeats words someone once told him, and it makes him ill delivering the message himself and meaning it.

“Then why did you kidnap me? Why did you take my things?” she demands without loosening her grip on the bag. “We did nothing to earn this.”

Lance winces at her choice of words, guilt eating him from the inside. “I had to make sure there was nothing dangerous to us in there,” he says, dodging the first question. “I was going to give it back to you.”

Her eyes grow wide in surprise and possible embarrassment. “You went through my treasures?!”

“I wouldn’t call them treasures,” Lance admits. “That pipe is useless underwater, and it’s just rocks and seashells. You can find those anywhere. Your necklace looks like a real gem though. That might be worth something.”

The mermaid encases the green stone centerpiece with one hand - Lance is positive it’s an emerald - and glares. “What kind of humans are you?”

“This is a pirate ship and most of us aren’t even human,” Lance says. “I’m the only one, actually. Everyone else is Galra. Well, except Keith, but he’s only half-Galra so he looks human. You… can’t tell the difference?”

Her mouth flaps open. “I thought humans were just that biologically diverse.”

Oh Ancients, they’ve captured a scientist.

She sighs in resignation. “I wish I could make note of all this. Are humans and Galra the only — “ She wheezes, choking on the air.

Time was up for her drying gills.

Lance scoops her up, muscles conditioned after decades at sea. He dips her head first into the water, making sure her gills are functioning and at rest before letting her tail slide in.

“Are you okay?” he asks, leaning over to look into the barrel.

The mermaid curls up on the bottom like when he first arrived, but her eyes are closed in relief rather than sleep.

“I’m fine,” she says. “I hate this water. It’s so stale.”

Despite her complaint (or rather because of it), her gills open wide to take in water for several seconds, before she sits upright, the waterline only up to her shoulders.

“You said I had a pipe. What’s a pipe?”

“The pipe?! You almost died and you’re worried about your knickknacks?” he says, incredulous. “I need to get you more water. I’ll change it every couple of hours from now on.” He straightens to leave to do just that.

“Wait,” she says, grabbing his arm. He turns to see her desperate look. “Don’t leave. The human things were gifts from my family. I’ve wanted to know what they really are since forever. I can deal with a little stale water until then.”

Lance sees the break he’s been looking for and somehow stumbled upon. He melts at her touch, relaxing even though he shouldn’t with her obvious discomfort.

He hopes her request doesn’t end up being her last one.

“It’s the five tubes of metal tied together,” he says.

The mermaid digs through her bag with vigor. She finds the correct object, but her face scrunches in confusion. “It’s not here!” she says, voice rising with increasing panic. “Matt’s wires are missing!” She glares at him. “What did you do with them?”

“I didn’t take anything!” he defends. “I put everything back in the bag except — “

Except for the glasses that Kosmo snatched, he realizes with dread. Probably the wires she’s talking about.

Lance is used to Keith’s cat, so he isn’t surprised when he teleports in at the exact moment he’s needed with the frames in his mouth, walking delicately along the rim of the barrel.

Lance is used to cursed cats.

The mermaid is not. She shrieks, dropping the bag and stiffening, backing up as far as she can.

“Go bother Keith,” Lance grumbles as he takes the frames and shoos the cat off with a wave. Kosmo jumps down without a sound and poofs off to his next haunt.

“What was that?” she squeaks.

“Keith’s magical cat,” Lance says, rolling his eyes. “Kosmo catches all the rats that stow away. He’s harmless and been here longer than me. He just takes a bit to get used to. We had all kinds of fun with him when we were kids. It was almost like having a dog.”

The mermaid stares blankly at him. “What’s a cat?”

Lance isn’t often caught speeches, but how does one explain a cat? “One of those?”

“Obviously,” she says, rolling her eyes. “What is its species name? It’s a land animal so perhaps — “

“I’ll tell you if you tell me your name,” Lance interrupts. “I mean, I won’t force you, but I really don’t want to keep calling you ‘mermaid’ the whole time.” To increase the incentive, he holds the frames out to her.

She takes it, as if it was a precious glass figurine. “Thank you,” she murmurs, and ducks back underwater.

When she emerges again, she’s wearing the frames.

Behind her head.

“You can call me Pidge,” she finally says.

Lance grins, heart filling with joy. This crazy plan might actually work. No one will have to die. He just has to get her to say those words.

“Well, Pidge,” he says, enjoying how easily her name rolls off the tongue, “your first human lesson is how to properly wear glasses.” He leans over and plucks them off her head, before gently resting them in front of her eyes.

Not having a nose causes complications and they fall down her face. She scowls. “What’s the point in that?”

Lance laughs. “Humans use them to see better. Normally they have glass in them, so we call them glasses. Doctor Ulaz has a working pair. I guess it doesn’t work for mermaids.”

Pidge stares down cross-eyed before placing the glasses back the way she had them, more like a hat. “I like it better this way. What’s a cat? And what’s a dog? And the differences between Galra and human - and what do my pipes do?” she asks, holding up the device. “I want to know everything.”

“Okay okay, one thing at a time!” Lance stresses. “Mammals. That’s the term you’re looking for. That’s what humans and Galra are too.”

“Fascinating,” Pidge breathes in wonder. “I knew there had to be more of them on land like seals. Maybe I’ll get to see some more when I”--her smile falters for just a blink of an eye,--“get to the menagerie.”

Lance refuses to go down that road of conversation right now.

“Yeah, sure. Those pipes are pretty cool though. You can play a song with them.”

Pidge lights up. “I knew it was a musical instrument! I knew it and no one believed me!” She thrusts it into his face, and he has to lean back to avoid getting hit. “Can you play it? I want to know what it sounds like. I want to know how it works!”

Lance examines it once it’s in his hands. He hasn’t played one of these since Antok’s was lost to the sea in an incident that was absolutely not his fault. He smirks. It was easy enough then, it should be no problem now. Plus, it’s another opportunity to impress Pidge.

“I should be able to play a few notes,” he brags.

Pidge doesn’t seem to mind the obvious posturing; she rests her elbows and chin on the rim of the barrel, eagerly awaiting his performance.

So he plays, blowing softly into each tube. The melody is terrible and he can’t remember a single song, but it seems to be pitched well even after years underwater.

Pidge is enraptured. A smile remains on her face and her ears wiggle with delight.

It’s incredibly cute and endearing.

He finishes and she claps excitedly for him. “That was amazing! It’s so different from dolphin and whale calls!”

His heart flutters from the praise. He didn’t grow up in the absence of it, but he could never see past the underlying obligation behind the words. Pidge doesn’t know his story, and now that they seem to be getting along, there was no need to tell her.

He’s about to thank her when the cellar door slams open.

“Lance!” Keith yells, nearly out of breath. “We found the Vrepit Sa. It’s alone. We’ll be on her in an hour!”

The pride of Zarkon’s fleet, alone. Ripe for picking off and causing a crippling blow to the pirate king himself.

They’ll never get another chance to weaken Zarkon with only two months before the curse expires. They have to do whatever they can to take him down before they’re unable to resist his commands.

“I’ll be right there!” he calls back.

Keith acknowledges him with a nod and runs off to prepare his own post, Kosmo at his heels.

“What’s going on?” Pidge asks. She looks around wildly, pausing to watch a few crewmembers run across the vent above her. “What are you doing?”

Lance smirks, energy building and escaping through twitching fingers. “What pirates do best: raid ships.

[a-corndog-named-schibbs]

Fangs, Fur, and Phantoms - Chapter 8

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Gonna be busy over the weekend, so you guys get this chapter a little early!  Lance brings a present to the festival, Pidge isn’t feeling like herself, and Hunk is a badass in an unexpected way.

Enjoy!

The All Hallow’s Eve festival was finally here and, as usual, Pidge was helping her family set up their booth.

After taping the large banner Matt had made reading “Baked Goods from Mochas & Magic” to the front of their table, Pidge and Hunk set out trays of the treats themselves.  They arranged maple donuts, pecan tarts, and every type of pumpkin-flavored dessert imaginable into aesthetically-pleasing shapes.  Pidge double-checked that all the spells on the treats were properly applied. There were the classics: charms to ensure a good harvest and wards against evil, but also ones that Pidge herself had designed to fit the Halloween spirit: good-luck spells to ensure pranks went smoothly, minor glamours to give any costume extra pizazz, and protection spells against unwanted jumpscares.

As she finished arranging everything, Pidge looked around at the other booths set up along the avenue, selling everything from street food to homemade Halloween knick-knacks to fall-themed accessories.  Pedestrians were already wandering from booth to booth, eager to see what the vendors had to offer.

The All Hallow’s Eve festival was honestly one of Pidge’s favorite events of the year.  The vast majority of New Altea’s population was supernatural and Halloween was one of the few days of the year when they didn’t hold anything back.  And the festival itself was a great draw for supernaturals from out of town.

Coran had set up the St. Groggery’s booth just across the street from their own.  Once they were done with their set-up, Pidge and Hunk wandered over to talk to him.  He was handing out the church’s newsletter, as well as some small, strange cards that Pidge didn’t recognize.

“What are these?” Hunk asked, picking one up to study it.  An image of St. Peter looked back at him.

“Well, All Saint’s Day is tomorrow,” Coran explained, “and one of the nuns thought it would be funny to make trading cards of different saints.”

“Like Pokemon?” Pidge snorted with laughter, “That’s awesome!  ‘The Virgin Mary used Immaculate Conception!  It’s super effective!’”

“Yes, that was the idea.  I don’t suppose I could convince you to give me a free maple donut if I give you a limited edition St. George?”

Before long, Lance and Keith showed up as well, along with Keith’s family, most of whom immediately scattered throughout the street, following various delicious scents.  Lance was carrying his umbrella to keep the worst of the sun off, as well as a briefcase for some strange reason.

“What’s in there?” Pidge asked, pointing at it,  “Money?  You know, our pumpkin muffins aren’t that expensive.”

“Just a gift for someone I’m meeting here.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow but didn’t push the issue further.

Meanwhile, Keith and Romelle had successfully bugged their mother into buying donuts for them.  They chowed down while Krolia chatted with Pidge’s mom about the teddy bears her cousin Antok was selling from his booth.

“He makes them himself and sews little costumes for them.  You should check them out, they’re pretty cute.”

“We should get one for the café,” Pidge said to her mom, “We could put him next to the tip jar with a little sign that says ‘Tip if you think I’m cute!’”

Pidge’s mom chuckled, “That does sound like a cute idea.  You know what, I think I will get one.  Where did you say Antok’s booth is?”  She stepped out from behind the table so Krolia could show her the way.  Romelle tagged along behind them, eager to see more of the festival.

“So,” said Lance, after the two moms had wandered out of earshot, “any news about our…” he held up his hands to resemble antlers, “…horny friend?”

“Listen, if I never see that grendel thing again for as long as I live, it will be too soon,” said Pidge, “Also, please for the love of everything holy, never call it that.”

“Lance?” said Keith, between bites of donut, “That man across the street is looking at you.”

All four of them turned to see who Keith was indicating.  A tall, platinum-blond man stood across the street in front of the hardware store, staring intently in their direction.

Pidge shivered.  Hunk put an arm around her shoulder.  She noticed Lance angling himself so that he was blocking Keith from the man’s line of sight.

The man began walking toward them, giving Coran’s booth a wide berth as he crossed the street.

“Well, Lance,” the man said as he approached them, his voice silky-smooth, “It certainly is good to see you here.  I hope you did that favor I asked.”

Lance’s expression was cold, “Can we please discuss this somewhere private?”

“No, I think I’d rather discuss it somewhere public.” the man said lazily, “We wouldn’t want your little friends here to think you’re hiding something.”

“Lance, what is he talking about?” said Hunk.

Lance didn’t answer him.  Instead, he handed his umbrella to Keith, lifted up his briefcase, and opened it.

Inside were various articles of clothing, a suit jacket, a dress shirt, a woman’s blazer, a pencil skirt, all covered in bloodstains.  Pidge’s stomach turned.

“I did what you asked, now leave me alone.”

“Not so fast,” said the man, lifting up the dress shirt, “I just want to make sure.  Young man, your name’s Keith, isn’t it?  Can you tell me whose shirt this is?”

Keith sniffed the air, “That’s Shiro’s shirt, but how…?”  He suddenly grew pale.

“And is this Shiro’s blood on the shirt?”

Keith turned toward Lance.  “Lance, you didn’t.  There’s got to be some mistake.  Lance, tell me you didn’t—“

“I can’t tell you that,” Lance cut him off.

“Well, Lance, I must say, I’m impressed.” said the man, “I didn’t think you had the spine to pull it off.  I’m surprised to say I was wrong.”

“Oh, I’m full of surprises,” said Lance.  He reached into the briefcase, under the clothes, pulling out a small plastic water pistol and spraying the man in the face.

At first, Pidge thought it was simply a poorly-timed prank.  But then the man’s face began to break out in boils, filling the air with the smell of burning flesh.  He wailed in pain and many of the pedestrians stared, backing away from him.

“What the hell?” Pidge heard Hunk whisper faintly.

“I think you might be on the right track,” she whispered back.

“You horrible little bloodsucker!” the man snarled, trying to wipe the water out of his eyes with his sleeve, “I’ll kill you for that!”

“Not if we can help it.”

Pidge looked up.  There, standing across the street next to Coran’s booth were Shiro and Allura, holding…

“Are those Super Soakers?” asked Keith.

“It’s over, Lotor,” Allura called from across the street, “You’re under arrest.”

“And we’re making sure it sticks this time,” Shiro added.

The man, Lotor apparently, growled, “It’s not over by a long shot.”  Having gotten the water out of his eyes, he scanned the crowd.

His gaze landed on Pidge.

“You’ll do,” he said.

Then suddenly, where the man had stood moments before, there was a cloud of smoke.  The smoke rushed past Lance and over the table, straight at Pidge.  It surrounded her, filling her nose and mouth.  Her vision went black.

Oh, yes, said a voice in her head that wasn’t her own, You’ll do quite nicely.

***

One moment, Hunk had his arm around Pidge.  The next, she yanked herself out of his grasp and leaped over the table, knocking trays of pastries to the ground.

“Pidge, what—?”

Pidge turned toward him and he froze.  Her eyes were solid black.

“Well, this ought to do nicely,” she said, but it wasn’t her voice coming out of her mouth.  Lotor’s voice was layered over hers, creating an unsettling echo.  “A little short for my tastes, but certainly a spry young thing.”

Keith, who was standing closest to Pidge, took a step forward, “Pidge?  What is this?”

Pidge reached for him and wrapped a hand around his throat.

Keith dropped the umbrella he was holding and gasped.  He gripped Pidge’s wrist, trying to loosen her grip, but she only squeezed tighter, lifting him off the ground with inhuman strength.  His feet dangled as he tried to kick at her, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.

“I told you, Lance,” she said in Lotor’s voice, “If you failed me, I would kill everyone you care about.  Starting with this shaggy-headed little lapdog of yours.”

“No, don’t!” said Lance.  He turned toward Agent Shirogane, “Shiro, spray her with the holy water!”

But Shiro was shaking his head, “I can’t, it’ll hurt her too!”

Lance turned toward Hunk, “Hunk, do something!”

“Do what?  There’s nothing I can—!”  But there was something he could do.  He hated doing it, of course, it was one of his least favorite powers.

Still.  Pidge needed his help.

Normally, it took a fair bit of concentration for Hunk to maintain his physical appearance.  Now, he let it go, becoming only a vague shape of a human.  He passed through the table, as easy as passing through fog, and came up behind Pidge.  She snapped her head in his direction as he approached.

“What do you think you’re—?”

Hunk took the opportunity.  He floated toward her, then through her, into her, pushing his way into her consciousness and possessing her.

It was a little crowded in here for his tastes.  Lotor took up the most room, his presence forming an inky black cloud that nearly pushed Hunk out again.  For one frightening moment, he couldn’t find Pidge at all.  Eventually, though, he did locate her, a small but bright entity pressed up against the edge of her own mind, trying to shove Lotor’s massive presence out of the way to give her more room.

“Hey,” he said reaching for her.

“Hunk?” she said, reaching back for him.  He caught her and pulled her towards him.

“Are you okay?” he said.

“I’m alright…I think.  This guy keeps pushing me to the back.  I can’t even tell what’s going on out there.”

“I know,” said Hunk, “I think we’ve got to push him back out from in here.”

“How do we do that?”

“It’s your brain.  You’ve got to reject him, force him out.  Here, I’ll help you.”

It wasn’t an easy task.  Lotor hadn’t been here long but he was already rooting his way into the nooks and crannies of Pidge’s brain, determined to anchor himself.  Hunk yanked his grip loose wherever he could, while Pidge tried to shove him out, expanding to fill the spaces where he had lost purchase.

At first, it seemed like Lotor’s grip on her mind was too strong.  But then Pidge gave a final shove and suddenly Lotor was ejected from her mind.

“You did it!” said Hunk wrapping himself around her in a hug.

“We did it,” said Pidge.  She returned the hug before pulling away slightly.  “God, this feels so weird.  It’s better because I know it’s you, but…if you don’t mind, would you please exit my brain?”

“Right, of course.  I’ll leave you to your thoughts.” said Hunk, before stepping out of Pidge’s mind and back into the physical world.

“—him before he gets his strength back!” Allure’s voice was the first to reach his ears, as she shouted orders, “Coran, how fast can you bless this garden hose?”

Hunk was hit full in the face with the chaos of the scene.  Vendors and pedestrians were crowded around the group in a circle, clamoring to see what all the noise was about.  Hunk spotted Colleen among them, clutching a small teddy bear in a pumpkin costume with one hand and frantically pointing at her daughter with the other, saying something to Krolia that Hunk couldn’t quite hear.  Pidge was doubled over, trying to catch her breath after being possessed by two different people.  Keith was on the ground, gasping and coughing while Lance hovered over him protectively.  Allura was standing by the entrance to the hardware store, holding the nozzle of a garden hose while Shiro frantically tried to screw the other end into a spout on the side of the building and Coran repeatedly made the sign of the cross over it.  And Lotor was on the pavement, back in his human form and shakily getting to his feet.

“You…” he growled, turning in Hunk’s direction, “You’ll pay for this!”  He swung his fist at him.

Lotor’s hand passed harmlessly through Hunk, throwing him off balance.

Hunk grabbed a tray from the table and brought it down on Lotor’s head.

Lotor reeled several steps backward, before being knocked forwards again by a stream of holy water as Allura sprayed him with the hose.  He shrieked in pain and fell to the ground again, shriveling up on himself and sending up billows of foul-smelling smoke.

“That’ll hold him but not for long,” said Allura, dropping the hose, “Coran, please tell me you’ve got some way to contain him.”

“I can but I’ll need a vessel to put him in.  A doll or something…”

Pidge stood up straight, “I know what we can use.”  She turned toward her mother, “Mom!  Mom, throw me the bear!”

Colleen tossed the pumpkin-clad teddy bear to Pidge, who tossed it to Coran, who caught it and began chanting in Latin.

At once, the smoke billowing off of Lotor began to flow into the bear as Lotor’s form dissolved before them.

“No! No!” Lotor shouted before the last of his form disappeared into the toy.

“You cannot do this!” the bear shouted in Lotor’s silky-smooth voice, which had lost much of its intimidation coming out of a plush toy the size of a rabbit.

“Quiet, you,” said Coran, giving the toy a shake.

Colleen, meanwhile, had muscled her way out of the crowd and was pulling Pidge into a hug, while Krolia and Romelle knelt down next to Keith.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?  Are you hurt?” said Colleen, stroking Pidge’s hair.

“I’m okay, Mom, really.”

“And you,” said Colleen, letting go of Pidge and giving Hunk a hug, “I can’t thank you enough.”

“I-It’s not a problem, Mrs. Holt, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”  Hunk turned toward Allura, “So what happens now?”

“Now we all calm down and see about locking him up properly this time,” said Allura, nodding toward the teddy bear that was now Lotor, “As long as there’s no more excitement, I think we’ll be just—“

She was interrupted by a loud roar.

The entire crowd turned as one in the direction of the noise.  In the distance, its horned head rising above even the rooftops, loomed an enormous beast.

The grendel had arrived.

[ladyemberswrites]

             “I’m Not a Heartbreaker, Am Just Getting My Heart Broken”

                                             “You Don’t Know Me.”

You give your hand to me, and then you say goodbye, I watch you walk away beside the lucky guy  -Ray Charles

Oh, look at you. Your gonna leave a trail of broken hearts one day.

 Lance beamed at his auntie. A sort of pride swells in his chest, and he smiles a crooked grin, showing teeth and all.

 A future ladies’ man, that boy is. His grandmother chimes in.

 Lance closes his eyes, and boy do they burn. Ugh. Why didn’t anyone warn you that being out in the far reaches of space could cause dry eyes. He rubs them with the heel of his palm, even though he shouldn’t and of course the burning increases. Like someone had dumped citrus juice right into his eyes. He plops his chin upon the edge of the table, his blue tunic slipping down one shoulder.

 He hasn’t thought about his family in a while. He wondered why that memory had come back to him suddenly. Probably, because lack of sleep? Or perhaps boredom? Or Perhaps he just misses them?

 “Hey, Lance?” Hunk calls.

 “Hmm, yeah.”

 “Are you going to share the cereal or what, man?” Huh? Oh, he had forgotten about the box of frosted flakes cradled in the crook of his arm.

 “Here.” he stifles a yawn, as he slides the box across the table.

 “By the way, your cereal is getting soggy.” Shiro chimes in, across from him. Oh. Yeah, cereal. He was supposed to be eating breakfast. Funny, he didn’t have much of appetite, seeing that he was practically starving, as he bound his way down the corridors and halls with an odd craving for Frosted Flakes.

 “I honestly, fail to see the point in this meal.” oh, yeah. His frown deepens, that’s why he didn’t have an appetite, as he glared at prince charming over his bowl; he was sitting next to Shiro, peering down at a box of of what he assumed was Raisin Bran. Who likes Raisin Bran in the first place?  Weird freaks like Lotor did.

 “Huh?” Hunk stopped, mid pour of the milk.  

 “Why you would pour this liquid substance over it, only for it to become unappetizing.”

 “I always wondered the same thing myself, when I was living on earth?” Krolia pipped in. Lance eyed the Galra woman, who sat three seats away from him, followed by Keith, and then Kolivan, who looked seriously out of place at the small table, picking at his bowl, of what appeared to also be Raisin Bran. Lance made a face.

 “You’re supposed to eat the cereal before it gets soggy.”

 “Then why not eat it dry?” Lotor flipped the box around, his eyes squinted as he tried to make out the foreign language on the back.

 “You can,” Hunk shrugged “but most people like it with milk.”

 “Is that, so?” Lotor trails off.

 “Humans are quite the odd creatures.”  

 “You mated one, Krolia.” Kolivan states, before finally taking a bite of the strange human concoction. Whether he liked it or not was anyone’s guess.

 “Hmm, I know.” Krolia lazily plop bits and pieces of dry cheerios into her mouth. Well, at least someone here has tastes, Lance thought to himself. Keith eyes his mother wearily, as he finishes off his frosted flakes.

 “What’s with the face, ~Loverboy~.” His attention snapped to the half-galra woman that was flanking his right at the table, he grimaces.

 “Nothing’s wrong with my face! My face is fine. Maybe you should check your face?” he pauses to glowered at her, grinding his teeth as he did, but she only offered him an ear-splitting smile in return “Can’t you sit anywhere else, but here.” he grumbled.

 Ezor stuck out her tongue “Nnnnopppe.”

 An odd, clipping sound caught his ear. Ah, he forgot about Narti, she was flanked at his left. Why did he feel like he was somehow being threatened, or cornered?

 “Narti wants to know why you’re in such a sour mood. Your usually so, annoyingly…. chipper.”

 “Well, you can tell~ Narti~, to mind her own business.”

 Narti lets out a chirping noise…...

 “Uh, huh…... What did she say?”

 Ezor flashed a strip of razor sharp teeth “Wouldn’t you like to now.” she snickers. Narti chirps again.

 Someone’s pulling his leg here, he groans.

 “......Morning, everyone!” and just when his morning was about to nose drive in complete suckery, Allura had finally risen and shined. Lance feels his heart flutter, tapping against his ribcage, as his gaze greets Allura’s disheveled form, her right palm pressed to her lips, and her robe slipping off her shoulders. She was like the living embodiment of light and stars itself. And like a moth to the flame, he could only bask in her glow.

 “Morning, Allura!” Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Keith mumbled, their voices still strained from sleep.

 “Morning, Princess.” Coran, and the rest replied in unison.

 “Lance are you alright? You look as if you fought more of a war, then had a good night’s rest.”

 “Ah, huh, ah you know me, Allura, not the morning person.” he replies, offhandedly. She offers him a kind smile. And once more his heart soars until-she turns to lean over and plant a kiss on Lotor’s cheek and makes a seat for herself in his lap. And like Icarus his heart plummets to the oceans depths.

 “Morning, Love.” she murmurs in his ear.

 “Oh!” he lifts an elegant brow “and what do I owe this pleasure.” he leans into her embrace, while she brushes his stupid, perfectly, silky hair away from his brow.

 “No reason.” she kisses the top of his hair, as he brings his free hand up to grasp her wrist, and kiss her palm.

 Lance quickly looks away to leer at his soggy bowl of frosted flakes all bloated, and gross. He presses a fist to his cheek, as he stirs his spoon through the mess of goop.

 “Oohhh, someone’s jellllyyy.” Ezor whispers through pressed lips, and Narti clips in agreement. Lance chose to ignore them.

 “Y’know it’s rude to put your elbows on the table, Lance.”

 “We're in space, Shiro, Earth rules don’t apply here.” he mutters, though his gaze is averted he could practically feel Shiro’s eyes roll.

 “Oh, we’re having that sugary stuff, today!” Allura clasps her hands together in glee.

 “I like the captain of planet crunch one!”

 “Captain of...Oh, you mean Captain Crunch! Coming right up, Princess!” Hunk winked.

 “It is quite delicious though, I’d do prefer it, if didn’t hurt my mouth after a while.” She frowns slightly. Lance can’t help, but find it endearingly cute…. his lips falter.

 It’s soon after, that, that Lance finds himself dissociating from the adamant conversations happening around him, he had longed given up tiring to eat anything, or talking to anybody. No matter what he did his gaze kept coming back to Allura. Watching her face light up, as she took a rather ravenous bite of her favorite cereal. Gosh, she was gorgeous. And lovely, and awesome and kind. However, his sense of bliss was soon washed away once more, as he remembered she was sitting on Lotor’s lap. With Lotor’s hand wrapped, tightly and possessively around her waist. With Lotor’s large fingers drumming against her clothed thigh, as he engaged in some boring-political debate with Kolivan, that he’ll never, nor wants to understand. Allura seems more interested in listening than she is in engaging, though she asks question here and there. Then again, it’s probably because the politics is more galra focused then anything……

 Lance huffs through his nose. It goes virtually unnoticed, or everyone just ignored his pity-party made for one. Why can’t they just sit like normal? And not flaunt their relationship in everybody’s face, Lance muses bitterly. He watches, as Allura, now finished with breakfast, slips her arms around Lotor’s neck, nuzzling her face into the crook of his throat, and shoulder. He hears her sigh, despite all the loud chatter. Her eyes flutter close, and content. She seems, so happy, so happy without him in the picture-Lance drops his spoon. It clinks against the porcelain, as he feels his heart drop, unceremoniously into the pit of his stomach.

 He pulls his chair out with a creek.

 “Whelp, I’m all finished!” he loudly announces, his arms stretched lazily, and pulled them behind his head. He does his best to leave the room with his dignity intact. And, so far, so good. No one questions him, as he strides out the door, and once it closes, the chatter commences once more.

 His arms drop to his sides, and it feels like his heart is literally breaking into pieces. Bit by bit. It suddenly feels harder to breath. His hands squeeze into fists, as he releases a shudder of breath, and swallows hard.

 Why him? Why does it have to be him, of all people?

 Why couldn’t it be me… He seethes. Why not me?

 He bites his cheek hard enough, he thinks he might have drawn blood.

So, what do you guys think? Comments, Reviews!? I had fun writing this one!  

[banditywrites]

A Moment

NEW LITTLE FICLET

My early birthday gift to myself.I just wanted to write something that I would enjoy without worrying too much if people would like it or not. Though I still hope some might enjoy. I may post it on ao3. I may expand on it and turn it into a proper sequel before doing so. We’ll see what happens. 

This is a direct follow up to The Drifter 

Words: 2,141

Warnings: Panic attacks, anxiety, self-harm, It’s me so someone is going to puke, vomit. Please excuse mistakes, it’s very late here. 

Summary: Lance is struggling after the events that happened on the Klaycera’s planet, but he has a team to support him.

A Moment

The problem with the link Shiro felt when they formed Voltron was that he would have fleeting glimpses into his teammate’s emotions. When they were fighting, usually everyone was concentrating on the task at hand, but there were little moments when Shiro would feel something that was most definitely not coming from his own mind.

As time went on, Shiro got better at discerning what those small jolts of emotion meant and who they stemmed from.

A wave of tiredness caused him to wince. Pidge hadn’t been sleeping again.

A nervous anxiety sharply spiked, Hunk was worrying about the fight.

A flash of anger, quick and vibrant. Keith.

And then there was Lance.

Shiro could only describe the feeling as being heartbroken.

It was like a vast, empty current that ran just underneath the surface of everything Lance did or said. Whenever they formed Voltron, it was there, itching at the back of his mind. The others felt it too, but he didn’t know if they had placed the source of the feeling yet.

After everything with the Klaycera and Klade, Lance was beginning to smile more. He laughed, he joked and he joined in with group activities enthusiastically.

But that feeling was still there.

Every single fight that they formed Voltron, Shiro could feel that sense of loss that crept around the edges of his thoughts.

This couldn’t be healthy. Lance was trying so hard, but try as he might, he couldn’t force things to go back to the way they were before.

Lance still had nightmares about dying, about being buried in the ground. On particularly dark nights he still woke up with Klade’s voice echoing in his mind. And on those nights, he wandered the halls until Shiro found him. Shiro would sit with him and try to get him to sleep or to talk about it, but Lance never wanted to talk much anymore.

Sooner or later, he would have to find an opportunity to sit down and really check in with Lance again.

The opportunity came about much more quickly than Shiro had planned for.

They had been winning the fight against the latest robeast. And then Hunk’s canon fire went wide and cut a gash into the planet below.

 Shiro had the sensation of being punched in the gut and then Voltron split a part so fast that it left his head spinning.

Judging by the groaning on the coms, everyone else was feeling a similar sensation.

Everyone started talking at once. Well, almost everyone.

“Lance?” Shiro spoke evenly into his comlink. He waited for the video feed of Lance to pop up on his screen, but nothing happened. Shiro checked to make sure he was on a private channel.

“Lance, can you hear me?”

There was no response. Okay, it didn’t necessarily mean that Lance couldn’t hear him.

“Lance, talk to me. What’s going on?” Shiro could guess what had happened. “There aren’t any civilians down there, buddy. Everyone’s moved to the other side of the planet. It’s okay.”

There was nothing in response.

Shiro had to switch gears; they were still in a battle. He rattled off commands, relieved to see that Keith had kept up the fight and Hunk and Pidge had immediately moved to support him. They were almost done, they just needed to finish it off.

But Blue was hovering there in space. She hadn’t shut down. She just floated there, looking poised for anything, but not moving.  Shiro tried not to think of her as a sitting duck.

“Coran,” Shiro moved into an offensive position. “Is there anything wrong with his communication system?”

“No, it’s functional. It’s been shut down though.”

“Can you get it back up?”

“Ah… No. No, that seems to be up to the Blue Lion. She’s being very protective.”

“Alright. Hunk, fall back. Blue isn’t able to fight.” Lance isn’t able to fight, hung unspoken in the air.

“Yeah, got it. No problem. I’ve got it covered,” Hunk responded, fighting to keep his voice even.

The rest of the fight went by in something of a blur. The second the robeast came too close, Blue dodged and went flying straight back to the castle. Shiro suspected it wasn’t Lance controlling her. Blue had most likely decided to move them both to safety.

Shiro fought to end the fight quickly, worry niggling at his mind the entire time.

When they were done, they all flew back to the castle without hesitation. Shiro responded to Coran’s report that Lance hadn’t come out of the Blue Lion. Allura and Coran had been periodically trying to communicate with him, but they were still being shut out.

As soon as Black touched down, Shiro ran from the hangar and sprinted to Blue’s. It took too long. Shiro’s own anxiety was spiking through the roof, feeling desperate to check on Lance, to make sure he was okay.

Of course he wasn’t.

Shiro had felt it when that blast had hit the planet’s surface. There was horror and an uncontrollable fear.

Soon he was standing before Blue, out of breath and begging the lion to let him in. Just let him check. He wanted to help. He would do his best to help. Please.

The ramp came down and Shiro ran inside.

As soon as he was in the cockpit he smelled the scent of vomit and heard the stifled crying.

“Lance, Lance, Lance,” Shiro muttered coming around the chair to find the boy there, hunched over in his seat, fingers digging hard into his face, trying to stop the sobbing.

Lance’s helmet had been discarded, thrown off in a panic, in a bid to escape imagined suffocation.

Shiro knelt in front of him, ignoring the puddle of sick that was on the floor.

“Hey, hey,” Shiro’s hands hovered somewhere near Lance’s shoulders. He wasn’t sure if Lance would be okay with his proximity; if he would be okay with being touched.

Lance didn’t look like he would be okay with anything right now.

“Do you know where you are?” Shiro asked. Lance didn’t respond, he had his eyes screwed shut and he pressed harder into his mouth, digging his fingertips into his cheeks, smothering his sobs.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Shiro said gently. He gave the slightest tap on one of Lance’s wrists. “You’re hyperventilating. You need to try to breathe.”

Lance’s eyes snapped open, but he stared away at nothing and didn’t remove his hands.

“Lance? You know who you are, right?” Shiro whispered. Because Klade had left an imprint there and Lance sometimes got lost in his nightmares.

Lance gave the slightest of nods, unable to form actual words.

Shiro’s com buzzed to life with the voices of the rest of their team.

“Shiro? Are you in there?”

“Is Lance alright?”

“How bad is it? Is it really bad?”

The last question had been from Hunk. He sounded like he was fighting hard to stay calm.

“I’m with him right now, just give us some time.”

Shiro carefully removed his own helmet, moving slowly so he wouldn’t startle Lance.

“Hey, Lance.” Shiro set one hand carefully on one of Lance’s wrists and he slowly pushed the boy’s fingers away from his face. When Lance didn’t react negatively, Shiro gently grabbed the other wrist too, moving his hands away so that he couldn’t hurt himself anymore.

“Take slow, deep breaths.”

Lance shuddered through several shaky breaths, but then he choked and coughed.

“S-sorry,” Lance stuttered, the word getting caught somewhere in his throat.

“It’s alright.” Shiro wiped spit and bile from Lance’s chin. “Do you know where you are?”

“Blue,” Lance forced out and there was the barest hint of calm returning to his voice. Blue was probably doing her very best to help to make Lance feel safe again.

“Good, yeah. You’re with Blue. Just keep breathing, alright? In through your nose and out your mouth.”

They stayed like that for several minutes, just trying to breathe together. Shiro kept a light hold on Lance’s hands, stopping him from hurting himself.

Shiro had talked Lance through several attacks, so had Hunk, but this was the worst one Shiro had seen. Lance hadn’t been this upset since he was being actively possessed by Klade.

It was terrifying. For both of them.

But Shiro couldn’t be scared. He had to stay calm and take care of his team.

Lance’s breathing was still hitching with sobs when he stuttered out another apology.

“M-messed it up,” he forced out.

“It’s alright. Nobody got hurt. Everyone’s fine.”

Lance was feeling guilty over breaking apart Voltron and ruining the fight. Yes, it had been dangerous, but nobody blamed Lance.

“It’s not your fault.”

Lance lowered his head, resting his forehead against Shiro’s shoulder. He took a deep gasping breath.

“P-pieces,” Lance shuddered out quietly.

“Yeah,” Shiro cleared his throat. “We pick up all the pieces.” Shiro rested his hand against Lance’s neck and he let out a sigh. “It’s going to be okay. Just breathe.”

Shiro took deep breaths and he watched carefully as Lance slowly began to match him.

They stayed that way for a long time, until Lance’s breathing finally evened out and Shiro’s legs had fallen asleep.

Lance sniffled loudly and shook his head slightly.

“Shiro, you’re kneeling in my puke.”

“It doesn’t matter. How are you feeling?”

Lance sat back, casting his eyes away. He cleared his throat.

“’m tired.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Is it?” Lance had screwed his eyes shut again and he was tapping away at his knee, a course of anxiety running through him.

“Yes, it is.” Shiro stood up, stretching his legs. “Can you walk?”

Lance put his hands to his head and Shiro worried he would hurt himself again, but then he let his arms fall away, looking completely wrung out.

“Yeah,” Lance said in a voice barely above a whisper. Shiro reached out a hand and helped pull Lance to his feet. Despite saying he could walk, Lance leaned heavily on Shiro the entire time. When they stepped out of the lion, the rest of the team huddled around, but Shiro motioned for them to keep their distance.

Everything passed by in a haze after that. Lance found himself in his pajamas and tucked into bed like a little kid before he had even realized what had happened.

Time was weird like that lately. It moved forward in uneven leaps and there were large chunks of time that Lance just… lost.

He was so tired.

When he woke up, he found a warm mass beside him. Pidge had curled into his side. He moved his hands away from where they were tucked near his chin and he realized that Hunk’s hand was entangled in both of his own. He had been clutching onto it like it was a stuffed toy. Lance let go, feeling embarrassed, but Hunk didn’t move. His friend had fallen asleep in the chair beside his bed, leaning over at an awkward angle, in danger of tipping over at any minute.

“They were worried about you.”

Lance jumped slightly. Shiro was sitting on his floor leaning against the bed.

“We all were,” Shiro smiled gently. Lance leaned a bit forward, realizing that Keith was curled up on his floor, looking like a gigantic cat.

“That looks uncomfortable,” Lance said. Keith didn’t even have a blanket or anything.

“He’s had it worse,” Shiro commented. Lance wondered briefly if Shiro meant to say that. It felt deeply personal. Lance sometimes got little glimpses into Keith’s past and a lot of it seemed pretty damn frightening. But Keith was always careful not to reveal too much and Lance didn’t feel right asking.

“Sorry to make you all worry.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Shiro reached back and patted Lance’s foot. “How are you feeling?”

“Empty,” Lance answered simply.

Shiro hummed in thought.

”You look tired,” Lance remarked. “I don’t want you to force yourself to stay up for my sake.“

Shiro wanted to laugh bitterly. Sleep would evade him for many hours still. He knew that if he did sleep, the nightmares would come, sharp and poignant. No. He wouldn’t sleep for a long time.

"I’m going to keep watch a little longer,” Shiro finally said.

“Alright,” Lance muttered. A moment later and Lance felt his eyes drifting shut. He sighed, feeling the pain of the ache around his heart.

He didn’t think it would ever really leave.

He thought he might’ve made a distressed sound in his throat because Pidge shifted in her sleep and he felt Hunk’s hand slip back into his own.

“It’s going to be alright,” Shiro assured him.

Lance felt warmth settle alongside the pain in his chest. Like a piece of a puzzle being set into its rightful place.

Surrounded by his friends, Lance slipped into a deep sleep.

The end.

[henqiguai]

klance fic rec

enjoy!

❤ = favorite

❤ ❤ ❤ = god-tier

COMPLETED

All In by cheshireree (7k, T)

As far as Lance's teenage heart was concerned, apparently everything started and ended with him cradled in Keith's arms. Or something equally as embarrassing that Lance didn't really want to think about.

or, 5 times Keith carries Lance and 1 time Lance carries Keith.

all we have to do by aknightley (19k, T)

Keith gets hurt during a mission, and Lance is not sure how to handle that.

Lance wakes up on the floor outside of the medical bay, jerking wildly, body a mess of aches and twinges.

As If by surveycorpsjean (6k, M)

The five times Lance was his impulse control, and the one time he wasn't.

Ascension by Gigapoodle (11k, Not Rated)

Four times where Lance feels insecure, and one time where Keith has had enough.

Bright Ideas by ceiland (19k, G)

After a mission meant to be routine goes awry, Keith and the Red Lion crash-land on an ice planet in the rim of an obscure solar system. Except—Lance, in the course of risking his life to save Keith's, winds up stranded on the surface with him. Comms down and Lions out of order, together, they've got to avoid extraterrestrial weather conditions, Galra patrols, and the tension that happens when you're on a time limit to confess your feelings. 

Cut to the Feeling by usernicole (15k, T)

“Let’s do it again,” Keith says breathlessly. “Here and on every planet we come across. Let’s get married on every planet we can.” “Are you joking?” Lance asks, incredulous. “You really want to get married to me on every planet we land on?” “Yes,” Keith says, voice high pitched and shaky with residual adrenaline. “Yes. Every planet. If it feels like this every time, let’s get married ten, twenty, a hundred times.”

“Let’s break records. I want the universe to see us and be jealous.”

Or: Five times Keith and Lance get married, and one time they don't.

Rest of the fics under the cut!

electromagnetic by seabear (25k, T)

Lance spends a lot of time wondering about his place in the universe. And his place with Keith. Oh, also there’s a heist and some fake dating.

Entangled by Purpleneutrino (101k, M)

When Keith found himself mentally linked to Lance of all people, he never thought that it would end in anything but irritation and misery on both sides. He certainly never imagined that it would be a useful asset in team Voltron's fight against the Galra Empire. Now if he can just keep his feelings in check, they might actually have a chance at defeating Zarkon.

Needless to say, when he'd wished for a 'bonding moment' with Lance, this wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind.

(Eventual romance and mature content for later chapters).

excelsior by warmth (4k, Not Rated)  ❤

“Onward and upward,” Lance says. “to greater glory.”

A Fish and a Bird by Methoxyethane (13k, T)

Lance has a boyfriend. Lance does not realize he has a boyfriend. Keith, understandably, does not react well.

got got got it bad by kairiolette (10k, T)

"He leans in to hook his arm around Keith’s shoulders in full. It’s right in Keith ear, when he speaks. “I have a crush on someone new, like, every week.”

“No—it's not someone.” Keith brings his head up, and it feels as heavy on his neck as if it were his center of gravity, and he meets Lance’s eyes with his own. Keith doesn’t mean to communicate something through their silence, he just kind of gets caught up in staring at Lance’s face, which tends to happen lately. Sharp features, cheekbones and chin. Impossible eyes and a loud mouth as expressive as his eyebrows. But Lance seems to come to some understanding on his own. He sits back in a rare, rare moment of speechlessness, that mouth of his slightly pursed and twitching in its search for words in what can only be, though Keith doesn’t know much about body language, immense confusion on the brink of realization."

Or: Keith acknowledges his feelings for Lance and promptly goes through the five stages of grief.

Homesick at Space Camp by Kobot (74k, T)

Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates.

i want your heaven and your oceans too by mothpoem (11k, T)  ❤

“Not—not that you’d be my rebound! I mean, you’d be helping me take my mind off of this guy, but to be a rebound, I’d have to have dated him first, I think, and he doesn’t even know I like him, so. You wouldn’t be a rebound. At worst, we become badass partners-in-crime with a grudging respect for each other, at best, we’re soulmates for life and this is fate trying to help us find happiness. So. Um.” Lance swallows and looks up at the Blade of Marmora soldier through his lashes. “What say you?”

They look down at their hands for a moment, fingers twisting together in deep thought. Then they’re pulling their gloves off, revealing pale, half-bruised knuckles of the human variation, and their mask is dissolving, giving way to big blue-purple eyes and an achingly familiar jet-black cowlick. “Who,” says Keith Kogane, in that low-pitched rumble that makes Lance’s stomach roil in the good way—holy fuck—“is this guy you’re trying to get over?”

I’d Tap That by VulpesVulpes713 (37k, T)

Keith has never really been good with words. He says what he means, and more often than not, what he doesn't mean, leading to several uncomfortable situations. One of said occasions happens on a planet during a mission, where Keith's attempt at complimenting the blue paladin is entirely misinterpreted, but Keith isn't able to properly apologize before the mission goes south, resulting in Lance being subjected to the 'gifts' the locals possess. So now Keith is at an impasse, with his communication skills severely lacking in the comforting department, and his growing feelings towards Lance making everything so much more difficult than it needs to be. If only there were a way to talk to the blue paladin without using words...

.. ..-. / --- -. .-.. -.-- / .... . / .... .- -.. / -.- -. --- .-- -. / .-.. .- -. -.-. . / -.- -. . .-- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / ... --- --- -. . .-. .-.-.-

i’ll be waiting right here by queenfrog (20k, G)

Keith sighs and runs a hand through his already tousled hair. “I mean, we’ll just take the rings off and that’ll be it. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” Lance squawks, sounding slightly hysterical now. “No big deal?” He stands up quickly and waves his ring finger in front of Keith’s face. “Keith, we said vows. I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of a big deal.”

Keith and Lance get married. Accidentally.

if we all die young then we won’t get hurt by nikkiRA (8k, G)

“We need him,” Keith says, as much to Matt as to Lance.

“And we need you, too, idiot! Keith, fucking listen to me, you are going to shut up and stop wasting your strength by talking useless nonsense and wait for me and Hunk to get there, all right, because I am not going to let you die, it is not happening, you do not get to kiss me and then die!”

Silence. He hears Pidge say, tentatively, “Excuse me?”

Ignorance is Bliss by YouAreInAComaWakeUp (172k, T)

As it turns out, learning that your house is haunted makes the ghosts a lot more aggressive. Who knew?

Ah, well. At least one of them is hot. And he's the less-evil one, too, so that's always a plus.

in stasis by ilgaksu (26k, T)

The story starts like this: with a story where you think you know the end, until it turns out you don’t, until it turns out you didn’t have a clue.

In which for three months of Lance McClain's life, he lives as an AI, waiting for his prosthetics to come online. It goes about as well as expected.

it’s all in my head by aknightley (7k, T)

"Uh," Pidge said, "Lance? Buddy? What's the deal?"

"That's Lance?" Hunk shouted, somehow still ramming ships away from the castle; Keith felt like bubbles were bursting in his head, effervescent pops of giddy fear mixed with conviction. Lance, he thought, Lance feels like this."Thank God, I thought I was going crazy for a second."

Keith Kogane and the Hufflepuff Enigma by arifail (30k, T)

The highlights of Keith's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Featuring Quidditch, dick jokes, denial, and an inordinate amount of Lance Sanchez-McClain.

(Hunk and Pidge are there too.)

A Kiss is a Kiss (But it’s never like this) by GibbousLunation (25k, T)  ❤❤❤

“How does this keep happening to us, every time.” Lance grumbled.

“You’d think they’d stop sending us on away missions,” he agreed. Honestly, between the poisonous plants of their last planet, and Lance’s tendency to always end up on the business end of every blaster or pointy ended stick, Allura was just being inefficient at this point.

Or, five times Keith kissed Lance but the situation was less than ideal, and one time Lance finally kissed him back.

ladies and gentlemen we are rocking in space by mayerwien (2k, T)

LANCE do u like the taste of spam, van kieu because thats what ull get 1 glorious terabyte of def-not-garrison-approved viewing matl every hour on d hour

KEITH And now you’re blackmailing me. Wonderful. Look, I’ll tell you, alright? Not because your threat scares me, but because I’d like to cut this conversation as short as humanly possible.

LANCE glad ur being so cooperative ;) ;)

--

Lance gets a new flight simulation partner. Lance makes a bunch of mixtapes. Lance falls in love?

Galaxy Garrison + texting au. For the Klance Zine!

let me melt under the heat of your sun by akaeijis, esbis (24k, T)  ❤❤❤

He begins to seek Keith out in a crowd without meaning to. Eyes occasionally following him like they were magnetized, looking for the familiar waves that barely brush the high uniform collars. He looks for dark hair and dark eyes, crossed arms and a silent frown, stark against the sea of enthusiastic, starry-eyed cadets.

He feels drawn to him.

(Or, Lance falls in love with Keith during the time they spent together at the Garrison.)

((note: this is my favorite fic in this fandom it’s so beautifully written oh my gdo))

A Light in the Dark by usernicole (19k, T)  ❤❤❤

Far away from his friends at the castle, Keith's only way of communicating with them is a battered old phone. This is maybe going to be harder than he thought.

A long-distance, friends-to-lovers fic, set during season four.

Love and Other Questions by squirenonny (113k, T)

One week after news of the Kerberos disaster broke, Pidge receives a new Mark--proof that Matt is still alive. She breaks into the Garrison to find him, only to find herself caught up in the fight for the fate of the universe.

Keith keeps his arms covered so he doesn't have to watch Shiro's scars compounding on his skin--but doing so means cutting off contact with his romantic soulmate, who greets him each morning with a new (and terrible) pickup line.

Shiro and Matt thought they were the luckiest people alive when they found out they were going to Kerberos together. But Shiro hasn't seen Matt's untidy scrawl on his arm in almost a year, and he has no idea if his soulmate is even still alive.

[Canonverse Soulmate AU with romantic and platonic soulmates (and some gray areas in between)]

the meaning of donuts by Katranga (14k, T)

The next few days were filled with Lance informing everyone, multiple times, of their “new” friendship. “We’re friends now, did you hear? Keith and I are friends.” Over and over, big smile, loud voice. Looking between Keith and whoever he was telling like he expected a round of applause. Or confetti. Or a parade. What he usually got was somebody making a crack about bonding moments, which prompted a tight, put-upon sigh on Keith’s end. And Lance would look at him fondly, and Keith would have to bite his cheek to distract himself from how much he wanted Lance to lean over and kiss him. --

Keith realizes he may, potentially, possibly have some feelings for a certain blue paladin and he is Not Thrilled about it.

A Memory Like a Snapshot by MemeKonVLD (10k, T)

Pidge is still close —closer than is entirely comfortable if he has to be honest— giving him an evaluating glance. Lance doesn’t really know where to look, other than up her nose— but that grows old pretty fast. So he looks at himself in the reflection of her glasses. And squints.

He touches his own face for the first time since waking up— and feels the roughness of his chin.

“I have stubble,” he says, and the words are as alarmed as they can be even though they still sound slightly slurred, slightly off.

Pidge blinks a couple of times at him, and finally retracts into a more comfortable distance.

“Well, yeah,” she says. “You are like, what? 22? 23 in a couple of months?”

“I’m feeling— I’m feeling a little queasy,” he says then, with bright spots of color dancing in front of his eyes as he thinks 22.

Suddenly, a bucket gets shoved against his face. He takes hold of it with clammy fingers and he leans on his side so he can... use it. Thoroughly.

“I’m having Garrison flashbacks,” he hears Pidge say.

(Or: Lance is stung by an alien bug, loses his memories temporarily and makes assumptions about his and Keith's relationship. Also, Pidge cheats at Uno.)

My Youth is Yours by MilkTeaMiku (29k, G)

An unforseen blast in the middle of a battle de-ages Lance into a child for a week.

Keith does not understand babies.

No Greater Gift by usernicole (20k, T)  ❤

Keith gets a cat, learns the True Meaning of Family, and falls in love. In that order.

Of Escorts and Espionage by hisboywriter (95k, Not Rated)  ❤

Lance preened. Escort? That sounded kind of sexy and badass. “Why, of course, Princess,” he said, standing up to offer his hand at Allura. “I would escort you to the most Galra-infested reaches of the galaxy if you asked.”

Allura’s arm rose but the hand she placed in Lance’s palm was not hers.

It was Keith’s. ~

AKA I just really wanted klance blossoming through an adventure

open your arms to me by aknightley (17k, T)  ❤

Lance quickly finds Keith’s communication signal and hits call.

A few seconds later, he realizes what he’s just done, panics, and immediately slams the 'end call' button.

“Shit!” he hisses through his teeth, throwing the tablet on the bed and recoiling away from it like it’s a poisonous snake rather than innocent alien technology. Its screen goes blank again, wiped clean the way he wishes his impulsive action could be. “What am I doing?”

Premonition by CamelotQueen (22k, T)

It starts with a strange message from Lance, then goes downhill from there.

Keith finds himself trapped between two realities: one where Lance is alive, and one where he is not.

Purple Sky by AmbitiousSkyChild (72k, Not Rated)

Fondly, Keith shook his head. “So,” Keith started, laughter dying down as he leaned over Lance. “Cuba together?”

And Lance beamed – outright beamed – up at him as he pulled him down against his chest. “You bet your sweet ass, Cuba together.”

Keith, rash as he could often be, understood that his responsibility as a paladin of Voltron was to the universe. So, he understood that despite what they felt, he and Lance couldn't be anything other than paladins, at least until the war was over.

After nine years of rivalry, turned pining, turned something just shy of lovers, the war is over. The paladins are headed to Earth, Lance isn't wasting any time, and Keith, as much as he loves a challenge, just tries to keep up.

Run into the Bright Lights by peanutbutterapple (36k, T)

Keith was pretty sure his heart was going to explode out of his chest and if he didn’t do something about it, things were going to get bloodier than they already were.

Keith accidentally tells Lance his feelings on April Fool's Day, and Lance really knows how to take a joke.

‘Shiro and Keith’s Kickass Fighting Techniques’ by Lance MClain by skystiel (11k, T)

'And, really, it’s a pretty brilliant idea. Until Shiro’s Kickass Fighting Techniques quickly becomes Shiro and Keith’s Kickass Fighting Techniques.

That’s when things start going downhill.

Because soon enough, the bulleted list consists of more than just fighting techniques.'

or: Lance starts with one role model and ends up with two, a myriad of confusing emotions, and a notebook filled with condemning evidence which Hunk must never see

so what are you waiting for by saltylances (6k, T)

Lance swallows. He tries to refocus his attention on the slight prickling of his wound instead of the proximity of Keith’s face.

“Y’know. The suit. It doesn’t look like you ever get out of it. What do you wear to bed when you’re at the base, anyway? Some purple Marmorian jammies with little blades printed on them?”

Keith pulls a face. “What does my outfit when I go to bed there have to do with anything?”

“Holy quiznak!” Lance barks out a laugh. “You totally go to sleep in the suit, don’t you?”

“What? No – I – Lance, shut up!”

so why don’t we fall by aknightley (8k, E)

Five times Lance used a pet name for Keith, and one time Keith used one for Lance.

Keith has no basis for having a relationship with someone, so he's trying to follow Lance's lead.

something slow, something good by hiuythn (9k, T)

They fall together in increments, like the shifting of glaciers, of mountains strong and true. They fall in together, and it's inevitable.

--- Keith lands half on him and half on Red, laughing unrestrainedly. There’s fruit stains all over his mouth and chin and more on his hands and shirt, and Lance can feel the stickiness catch on his hair where Keith’s buried his fingers into.

the stars are bound to change by angstinspace (50k, T)  ❤

Both paladins turned to their new, small alien companion. She lifted her head to look at each of them in turn, her eyes round. Keith laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“How about you, Zola?” he said. “Are you ready to go?”

She didn’t answer right away. Then she hesitantly asked, “Where are we going?”

As he made eye contact with Lance over her head, Keith could have sworn he felt something electric in the air: a simultaneous resurgence of determination.

“We’re going to take you home.”

Keith and Lance rescue a little alien girl from a hostage situation and bring her home ... and learn a few things about themselves and each other along the way.

Sweet Quiznak by CheckeredCloth (6k, T)

"You're really into him," Hunk mutters, and wow, Lance's face is on fire. Hunk is killing him.

"Look, read into how you like, Freud, just make sure that if I die Keith knows I totally would've mowed his ass like grass. That way, I can laugh hysterically at his emotionally-constipated expression from the afterlife."

Or: Lance is badly injured and has a few skeletons in his closet. Or maybe just the one.

time out of mind by aknightley (27k, T)

Keith and Lance wake up married. In the future.

He lays there a moment, processing the faint throbbing in his head, a strange bitter taste like lemons in his mouth. When he opens his eyes, the room spins wildly into a kaleidoscope of colors, so he closes them again, breathing in and out until he feels less like he might throw up. He suddenly registers a warm weight over his waist, and lifts his head to see a brown arm thrown over him. It looks startlingly familiar, but different, bigger than he remembers, more toned.

Keith turns all the way around and comes face to face with Lance sleepily blinking his own eyes open.

Today, anew by MemeKonVLD (5k, M)

“Lance.”

Lance’s eyebrows furrow in concern for a second before his whole face goes gentle and open.

“Hey buddy, everything okay?”

Keith nods. Then shakes his head, then opens his mouth to let out a noisy sob before he’s hugging the air out of Lance, grip vise tight.

Lance hugs him back. That’s one of the great things about him— he doesn’t— he doesn’t need explanations for things like this. He doesn’t make Keith jump through hoops, the way other people might— he’s just— he just knows what Keith needs in times like this. No façades, no posturing.

(Or: the one where Keith is trapped in a time loop. A time loop from hell.)

you anchor me back down by aknightley (5k, T)

Five missing moments, and a moment that hasn't happened yet.

"Okay," Lance says doubtfully, "Just wanted to check. This has been..." He pauses, looking deeply at Keith for a moment. Keith stares back, trying to fit this boy into his memory, trying to figure out why the curve of his mouth is so familiar, why his voice leaves something itching at the back of Keith's throat. "A really weird day," Lance finishes finally, and looks away from Keith at the moon.

WIP

Antidote by salineshots (53k (8/?), E)

Based very loosely off of @eyugho's lovebug AU, which I love more than anything?? Thanks to them for starting this wonderful AU!

Keith's bitten by a lovebug, but this one doesn't make him all cuddly. Instead, every moment he spends away from Lance is physically painful for him, and every moment he spends touching him is really, really nice. That's frustrating enough already without Keith having to hide his massive crush.

Lance just wants to help, but he knows that Keith doesn't like to be touched. Also hiding a massive crush, because these two are horrible at communication.

I Was Born a Lion by spectralPHOBIA (15/?, G)

After Keith discovers he is part Galra and Red lion rejects him, there's only one way he can make himself useful: to join Galra and try to wreck them from the inside, while figuring out a relationship with a guy who turns out to be his biological father.

A comic about one stubborn man’s self-discovery, the challenges of spying, everyone in team Voltron being BAMF, and the universe that needs saving, as usual.

((note: this is a (brilliant and beautiful) comic! it’s tagged as klance, but as of now, it’s keith-centric))

in your shoes by lydiamartin (42k (10/?), T)

Hollywood did not prepare him for waking up in the body of a complete stranger.

Keith tried not to stare at this person’s junk in the full-body mirror. He did not know them, and no matter what Pidge might say, just because he’s Texan it doesn’t mean he was raised in a fucking barn like a savage. He would not act like a savage.

(Or, the one where Keith and Lance live in different cities but swap bodies – and angry love notes – multiple times a week.)

Live. Die. Repeat. by greenteafiend (42k (5/?), M)

On the day of the arrival Keith is forced to watch as a mysterious monster slaughters first Shiro, and then his classmates from the Garrison, one by one. It kills him too, but not before he manages to wound it grievously.

And then he wakes up back in bed that morning, alive and unharmed.

aka Keith is stuck in a time-loop and every time he dies, the day resets.

Moonset Deep by MilkTeaMiku (72k (29/?), T)

All his life he’d been told to make sure he was never seen – it was what all the children were taught from the moment they were born. Never let a human see you, never fall in love with a human, and most importantly, never kiss one.

For Lance, humans were a mystery. He'd lived beneath the surface of the ocean with his shoal his entire life, and had intended to remain there. He knew the danger humans posed to his kind, and what would happen if he came close to one. That's why, when he found one drowning, his first instinct was to save him.

He'd never been good at following the rules anyway.

red skies by angstinspace (18k (2/?), T)

Lance clambered up the sliding pile of garbage––scraps of metal and glass that cut into his palms and crunched underneath his boots.

A strange, inescapable feeling pulsed in his chest. Maybe he was imagining it, but he could have sworn his talisman was burning hot against his skin beneath his shirt, tugging him forward with a magnetic force.

Lance doesn't know where he comes from––only that he was found in a forest on a distant planet when he was an infant, with no sign of his origin except a blue talisman around his neck. Nowadays he's content to travel the universe with his best friend Hunk, scavenging and selling goods. But that all changes when a girl named Pidge hitches a ride with them, and in the same day the trio finds a crashed ship carrying nothing but a boy with no memory of who he is ... and a red talisman that matches Lance's.

The Shattering of Altea by YouAreInAComaWakeUp (100k (22/?), T)

Altea is a world of dragons, magic, and, until recently, war.

It's also entirely fictional.

When Lance put on his VR headset, he fully expected everything he experienced from that point on to be false.

But his feelings for the kill-stealing jerk in red armor couldn't be more real.

[heavymetalhexcode]

Paladin Character Analysis

Here I am once again where I should be doing something productive yet thinking about Voltron. I am hyped for season 5! The thing on my mind today is an analysis of the Voltron crew’s personalities, largely viewed through the ways I can relate to them (or not). Each character is very archetypal, but I think the show does a reasonable job of throwing in a bit more complexity, allowing a lot of very different people to see different qualities that they admire or possess. That's how people decide they like fictional characters, after all. I've ordered this list roughly in order of how much I identify with or think I understand each person.

More after the cut. Much more.

Lance

Water. This is my element. It ebbs and flows, displaying equal gentleness and strength as befits the situation, and Lance has proven he is a versatile member of the team. The scene where he told Coran he misses rain really stuck with me – rain on the roof is possibly the most relaxing sound I can think of.

He's fun and lighthearted, often cracking jokes and trying to make the others smile. I find humor is often the best way for me to deal with stress or grief. Immediately upon coming out of the cryo pod, he makes a joke about Allura asking him on a date – and yes, I do believe that was a joke -- which shifts the tone of the conversation away from grievous injury. In the space mall, he jumps to help Pidge find the money for the game console so they could have something fun to do in the Castle. The blue lion is probably the most welcoming and friendly of the bunch, something that I strive to be despite being kind of terrible at dealing with people, and I'm sure that my first flight in a lion would have looked a lot like his. Despite putting up a front of confidence and cheer, he's insecure about his role on the team. It's only after he receives explicit recognition from his idol Shiro that he begins to feel confident in his skills. Even then he still has doubts, so much so that he offers to step aside for Allura.

Overcompensating. Absolutely. He likes girls, sure, but he's also way too overt about it. It's possible that he really is just that flirty, but I think he's overplaying it to draw attention away from something else, either intentionally or not. It could be that he's still figuring out or uncomfortable with his sexuality (there's just enough Klance chemistry that I would believe it if the show went that way), but it might just be that he's being loud, boisterous, and obnoxious to draw attention away from the fact that he's not always a carefree party boy. It's hard to say right now, but I bet we'll be getting some clues down the line. Personally I like the idea of a bi character on Voltron, and Lance fits the mold for someone still in the closet.

Lance's self-care routine is an awesome inversion of typical gender roles.  I think he and Hunk (cooking) are the only ones we've seen with noteworthy feminine-coded interests, and you know who's not about that "girly" life? Pidge! Allura is more typically effeminate than Pidge, which is fine, but I love that not being the only kind of femininity we see on the crew. It can be hard for a guy to accept having feminine interests, and Lance being comfortable doing so shows that either a) he really cares about making a good impression and strives to be well groomed or b) he don't give a shit what you think and will pamper himself if he wants. Possibly both.

Pidge

Nature! Technology! It seems conflicted! I'm a computer scientist who loves to unplug for a few days and go hiking or whatever. These two seemingly opposite interests in a person can absolutely blend, and it was great to see her realize that on Olkarion.

Machines > people. One of the primary reasons I decided to become a programmer, and I'm pretty sure the same is at least partly true for Pidge. She was a misfit at school because she was driven to learn (and possibly some other stuff), made fun of for her intelligence, and appears to have withdrawn from people to work on computers. I didn't have to deal with a lot of that, and I'm very thankful for the environment I had in my schools growing up. She needed the team to help draw her out of her shell, and now her friends are a surrogate family. Apparently, a lot of people like to characterize her as ace because she's a nerd, and while I agree with the ace bit, I argue it's actually the other way around.  Computers don't ostracize you because they don't understand you. Computers won't mock you or tell you that you just "haven't found the right person yet." I know some ace folks who have told me what it's like to grow up with that crap, and I'm not surprised Pidge gave up on people. I also headcanon her as trans, which is yet another possible source of social issues. That bathroom moment at the mall? Very telling.

The way she reacts to alien technology may look over the top, but let me tell you, an elegantly written algorithm is one of the most beautiful things in the universe. AI is exciting! The materials are exciting! There's so much shiny technology to explore out there!

Shiro

He is in his 30s. I will fight you. I know it's only supposed to be an age gap of a few years, but his appearance, behavior, and voice all make me believe he is older than canon. 

Good lord, this man needs a therapist! Shiro is so busy supporting the rest of the team and helping them through the zillion difficult situations this war has gotten them into that he hasn't taken time to deal with his own demons. He needs that. He's put things behind him, sure, and we're not seeing his PTSD so much anymore, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. He managed to shove it all away in a corner and stop looking at it. It'll be interesting to see what Sendak's return does to his mental health. Poor Space Dad.

Shiro is my favorite paladin. Hands down. I'm very drawn to dad figures, and he's attractive to boot. He's confident, a quick thinker, and does a remarkable job keeping emotions in check and leading with logic without being perfect. We get to see that even he has his limits with Slav and Sendak. He supports his team, knows their strengths, and doesn't force anyone to do things they don't want to. We've seen gallows humor from him as well as bad sound effects, and when he thinks he might die, he names his replacement to be sure that the team won't feel lost when he's gone. I'm also pretty sure he and I handle emotional stress in similar ways: poorly.

On the subject of stress as relates to shipping, I have thoughts. Shiro is hurting hard, and he needs someone he feels close enough to that he can confide his pain in them. I've been in a similar situation (to a lesser degree), pushing things away and bottling emotions up until it did very bad things for me. It took the kind of trust I could only form with my SO to start learning how to lean on someone else, and even now, years later and in a much better place, I can only think of three people I consider confidants. (Yes, I am absolutely projecting here, but) I wouldn't be surprised if Shiro has similar difficulties opening up. There isn't anyone he feels comfortable talking to yet, and he might need a stronger bond than the one between friends and teammates before he can. Unfortunately for our black paladin, I have a hard time picturing him with anyone currently available. The age/maturity gap that I can't get over immediately rules out the younger paladins. Besides, they're his kids. If Shiro is going to get into a relationship, he needs someone who can give him the kind of support he extends to everyone else, not someone who looks up to him like a father figure. Next choice? Allura, but they're both too focused on the war. They've got bigger things to worry about than dating, and neither will probably even think about such things until after they've won. Maybe a someday option, but not now. Coran? Just... no. Despite needing a deeper relationship in a bad way, I think Shiro is too private, focused, and traumatized right now to even think about it.

Can I just say I love watching him fight? It's beautiful. He's very fast, fluid, and in the other guy's face. Always very well animated, too.

Hunk

I love Hunk. Dude's awesome. He reminds me a lot of my sister: obsessed with food, just wants to be comfy, a little high strung when things don't go according to plan. No wonder he and Lance are bros. Not a lot of character depth for him yet, which makes me sad. Seems like Hunk is mostly played for laughs, so I appreciate that he was suspicious of Rolo and Nyma instead of any of the others. Of course, Hunk is also pretty stable as a person, so he's not in need of as much growth as the rest of the paladins. He's a solid grounding presence (ha ha) for them.

Keith

Keith is... difficult. I have a hard time getting into his head. He's a rebel; I'm not really. His anger is hot; I think mine is cold. He needs to figure out his family to know who he is; I couldn't do that until I got away from mine. He obviously cares about his teammates, and they're probably the closest thing to a functional family he's ever had. I wish we had gotten to see him struggle and grow more in a leadership role. While he is too reckless to be a good leader, the consequences of those disastrous first missions should have helped him do better. Instead there was an irritating time skip and OH YEAH KEITH'S TOTES IN THE BLADE. I wish that time had been handled better.

That said, he's doing well in the Blade. I like him there. There's more room for personal responsibility and the snap decision making that he likes to do. It's letting him stay in his comfort zone instead of pushing him to improve like leading Voltron would have, so pros and cons, but that was not a role that suited him. He'll find opportunities that are better for him. Even after real Shiro comes back and they beat the stuffing out of Kuron, I think staying with Marmora would be better for Keith.

Allura

I WISH SHE HAD MORE DEVELOPMENT. This gal kicks ass. I love her. She's not your standard princess in some ways, but she's also been their magic plot device more than once. Alteans are chameleons? Let's see that referenced again, please! The Balmera thing? Sweet, but I wish we knew more about that too. Is that a royal thing only? Could Coran do a ceremony? Probably not to save the whole creature, but I don't see why he wouldn't be able to do it on a smaller scale. Haggar/Honerva does magic stuff, too, which either tells us magic isn't just a royal thing or it's a result of messing with quintessence. Hard to say.

The mice? Much Disney princess. Such wow. Useful little buggers, though.

She really is the heart of Voltron, and she's the commander of the war effort as well. Devoted as hell. She killed her dad a second time for the war. She got (partly) over her Galra grudge for the war. She's been a diplomat, a support pilot, and a paladin for the war. Allura is cool.

Coran

He's the goofy uncle whose prime function is watching out for Allura. Flair for the dramatic. Not really much to say here. Nice 'stache.

[justheretobreakthings]

Can I request some Kidge friendship for the hc card? Either Pidge for "trapped" where she's pinned under a collapsed structure, Keith notices she's not checking in and comes to find her. Or Keith for "excluded", after Shiro disappears the others have been (not deliberately, just oblivious) leaving him out because none of them know him as well as Shiro did, and Pidge is the one to finally notice how exhausted and lonely he is? Either (or both) of those ideas would be awesome to see written 😊

These are both excellent and I’ve got my creative juices flowing for both of them! I’ve got the first prompt finished now, so I’ll go ahead and post the “Trapped” fill here, and get another post up for the other prompt later once I’ve got it written. Hope you enjoy!

PinnedCentral Characters: Pidge, KeithGenres: Friendship, WhumpWord Count: 2,938Written for the “Trapped” space for the @voltronbingo Hurt/Comfort cardRead on AO3

“Pidge? Pidge, do you read?”

The voice was quiet, distant, as it rang tinny and sharpthrough the helmet’s speakers, and even in the relative silence around her itwas difficult to hear. Pidge wondered why that was. She hadn’t adjusted thevolume setting, had she? At least, she couldn’t remember having done so.

Although, if she had done it in the last few minutes… shewas having trouble remembering those as well. She had to take a moment toconcentrate, pull at her memory. They had been on a mission, that was it. AGalra outpost on a planet Voltron was working to liberate. And they’d split upto go after different targets.

Pidge had been breaking into a supply reserve, sheremembered, when… yes, she’d been spotted. Then been able to hack into theoutpost’s internal network and get the sentry bots off their backs, but thatdidn’t take care of the sentient guards. Luckily even after the guard hastilydemanded backup before attacking, she still hadn’t had to fight off manyguards. The others at the outpost must have been preoccupied, what with Lanceand Hunk raiding the central hangar, Keith going after the armory, and Shirosabotaging the comms hub. The team splitting up had really spread the outpostthin.

Of course, it still hadn’t been an easy fight, especially onher own, and with the guards’ oversized weaponry and the supply reserve beingas structurally unsound as it had been…

Ah. That probably explained where she was now.

With a colossal effort she pried her eyes open and squintedat the world around her. She could see the starry sky peeking in throughremains of the walls and ceiling in the corner of the reserve at the edge ofher vision, the steel ceiling beams that had been holding the structure inplace now blasted apart and wrenched at angles, while railings and a steelstairway that had previously graced the wall now lay crashed to the floor.

She didn’t see or hear any movement, nothing from any of theguards she’d been fighting before. They must have been taken down as well whentheir weaponry had brought this section of the building crashing down aroundthem. Fucking idiots.

Deciding that she should probably get up and rejoin thefight, Pidge started to pull her elbow in to hoist herself up and get back tostanding, only to immediately find herself stymied by two factors. One was thewave of dizziness that crashed over her when she tried to lift herself up. Shehadn’t noticed the throbbing in her skull before now, but suddenly it was thereand powerful and trying very hard to be the only thing on her mind.

The second was the fact that she realized she couldn’t, physically,lift herself up. As she tried to pull her right arm underneath her to leverherself, she discovered there was no space for it. Something was pinning herdown to the floor, and she was stuck on her side, her right arm awkwardlysplayed out beside her, the rest of her pressed to the ground by whatever itwas on top of her. One of her legs seemed to have a little wiggle room, but theother she couldn’t quiet feel, and a sharp pulse of pain came shooting all theway up to her hip when she tried moving it.

She sighed and shut her eyes as she waited for the ache toabate. Great. Just fan-fucking-tastic. She was stuck here – she couldn’t getwhatever was on top of her to budge in the slightest – and it looked probablethat her leg was broken. The least she could say on the bright side was thatshe hadn’t been crushed completely; she probably would have been if she hadn’tbeen wearing her armor. She would have shuddered at the thought if she had beenable to move.

Speaking of her armor, she still wasn’t sure what was goingon with her helmet. The voices from her speakers were still barely audible asshe heard them talking over each other. “Hunk, cover me, I’m gonna – ”“Pidge?” “They’re firing from your eight o’clock, watch it – ” “Pidge, do youcopy?”

“Yeah,” Pidge grunted. “I copy. I think I’m – ”

“Pidge, come in.”

She was pretty sure the voice was Keith’s. Leave it to himnot to listen, she thought as she let out a frustrated breath through her nose.“I said, I copy. But I think I’m down for the count so – ”

“Shiro, Pidge isn’t responding.”

“I know, I know, we’ll have to – ”

“Lance, on your right!”

What the –

With a tight frown, Pidge opened her eyes again, and noticedfor the first time that, although her vision was blurred on the edges, it wasotherwise completely unobstructed. No readouts, no crosshairs, no helmetinterior on the border of her sights.

She tilted her head back, fighting off the dizziness themovement brought, to see her helmet sitting a couple of feet away from her onthe ground. Oh. Well, that explained why the voices from the speakers were soquiet. And why the mic wasn’t picking up her voice.

And why her head felt like someone like someone had droppeda car on it.

Pidge groaned and let her head lay flat again, since it wasswimming too much for her to do anything else for longer than she absolutelyhad to. The voices from the helmet kept up, but she was losing focus, and ithad been a strain to hear them in the first place. So she let the sound of aback-and-forth between Shiro and Keith become a buzz in the background as shefelt herself drifting off.

That is, she drifted until a new noise made its way into themix. Her eyes shot open at the muffled, rhythmic thumps. They were echoing inthe remains of the building, so it was hard to tell where they were comingfrom, or how close they were. But she could at least identify what they were: footsteps.

She held her breath, mentally cursing her luck. She hadtaken care of the other guards at the reserve, and with the building wrecked asit was, she had figured her job was over for the time being. The other paladinsshould have been keeping the rest of the outpost too busy to want to comesnooping around in the wreckage. But apparently someone else was on their way,and Pidge was certainly in no shape to fight.

She could only hope that whoever had arrived didn’t noticeher presence, but that hope was dashed when she realized that the other paladins’voices were still coming out through her helmet. They were quiet, yes, but ifsomeone was searching thoroughly for intruders, they might still be able tonotice the sound. And Pidge recalled it being mentioned before that Galra havekeener senses than humans, including their hearing ability, so that was anotherpoint against her.

Desperately she stretched her arm out as far as it couldreach. If she could just get to her helmet so she could turn off the volume ofthe comm… but she discovered to her dismay that the helmet was just out ofreach of her fingertips. And the footsteps were getting louder.

Her heartbeat fluttered as the steps approached, and shebrought her arm back in to reach for her bayard. The weapon was pressed to theground by her hip where it was holstered, but when she hovered her hand nearbyand concentrated hard, the bayard found its way into her hand of its ownaccord.

Just in time, too, as the moment she felt the weight of thebayard in her hand, a shadow fell over her. Pidge blinked upward to see thelooming figure of a Galra soldier, in one of the outpost’s guard uniforms, agun held two-handed across his chest. The moment his yellow eyes locked ontohers, the Galra grinned.

“Thought I’d find some– ” he began, but was interrupted whenhe took a hunk of metal to the face as Pidge’s bayard shot out at him. Normallyshe tried to aim for limbs, but with where the guard was standing and wherePidge was pinned, it was awfully difficult to aim for anything besides theface. Fortunately, this seemed to work out, since she could hear somethingshatter and the guard let out a howl of pain.

She retracted the bayard, then shot it out again. The Galraducked away this time, but that gave the bayard the opportunity to boomerangback wrap around his arm. Pidge gritted her teeth and pulled at the bayard evenas she let a bolt of electricity out, sizzling as it traveled up the bayard’swire and into the guard. He cried out as he seized up with the force of theelectricity, crashing to the ground.

The shock died out, and the wire started to unravel for herto retract the bayard once more, but she was surprised when it was suddenlyhalted. The guard panting on the ground had grabbed hold of the wire, and wastugging it back with all his might. Pidge growled and sent another shockwavethrough, but, despite the obvious pain that washed over the guard’s face, heheld fast and yanked again. One tug, two – on the third tug he put all theweight he possessed behind it, and to her horror Pidge found the grip of herbayard ripped out of her grasp.

The guard clambered slowly to his feet, and Pidge could feelher pulse racing. She was unarmed now, she was pinned, and the guard wasreaching down to pick up the firearm that had fallen to the ground momentsbefore.

God, she was fucked.

The guard heaved out panting breaths as he took up hisweapon, turning back to Pidge with fury written all over his face. He liftedthe gun, and Pidge’s eyes flew shut as she anticipated the inevitable blast.

The inevitable blast that didn’t come.

Instead, the guard yelled out again amidst a sudden crash,and Pidge chanced a peek. Where the guard had been standing there was now aflurry of red and white, and as she watched, Keith brought his sword down onthe guard over and over, fast as she had ever seen him do it.

Keith didn’t slow until the guard was completely down forthe count. Pidge was pretty sure the guard wasn’t dead, just unconscious. Shewould have been perfectly cool with either.

Keith panted as he got his bearings, sheathing his bayardand turning to Pidge, meeting her gaze where she lay pinned on the ground. “You– you weren’t answering on the comms,” he said simply through his huffingbreaths.

“Yeah,” Pidge replied. “Yeah, I wasn’t. Did, uh, did Shirosend you to check on me, or…?”

Keith shook his head. “No, I just – I was, um, I thought youwere – you – you weren’t answering… on the comms…”

Pidge stared up at him. “Wait, you – you were worried?”

“Well, um – ”

“What about the armory? Did you finish up there?”

Keith shrugged. “I wasn’t sure there’d be time.”

“Oh.” There was silence between the two of them, save forKeith’s breaths that were gradually returning to their normal volume and pace.Keith had been worried. Worried enough to have abandoned his part of themission to check up on her. That didn’t quite seem like Keith. Hunk, he wouldbe the type to fret over a teammate that much. Shiro was protective over all ofthe paladins. Lance was caring and, as a bonus, really loved being a hero.Keith, though, the one who would shoot off on missions on his own, lone wolfKeith?

Although, the more she thought about it… Keith separatingfrom the group was never to leave the others, any one of them, behind or indanger. When he went Leeroy Jenkinsing into a fight, the danger was all on him.Pidge had always put it down to stubborn single-mindedness, and she was prettycertain the others saw it the same way. But she had never considered the factthat when he did this, he was leaving his teammates safer than himself.

Maybe him leaving his part of the mission to check on hershouldn’t be so surprising after all.

“Hey, Keith?” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For taking down that guy. And for, you know –worrying.”

“Oh. Um, right. You’re welcome.”

Keith stance stiffened and he didn’t meet her gaze, andPidge started to roll her eyes, only to abandon the effort when doing sobrought that goddamn dizziness back. “Hey,” she said. “Could you, uh – would youmind helping out with one more thing?”

“What?”

Pidge lifted her arm to gesture toward the collapsedstructure on top of her. “Could you see if you can move this? I’m kinda stuck.”

“Oh. Sure.” Keith hurried over and looked at the rubble. “It’s– it’s mainly one beam that’s got you stuck,” he said after a once-over. “I’ll,uh, I’ll see if I can…”

He left Pidge’s line of sight as he positioned himself totry and move the beam out of the way. For a moment nothing seemed to happen,then, there was the very slightest movement in the beam. Pidge wouldn’t have noticedit at all if it hadn’t budged her leg, jostling it ever so slightly, but justenough that it sent pain pulsing up and down the limb. Her breath caught andshe let out a groan of pain.

Immediately Keith was back at her side, staring down at herwith wide, concerned eyes. “Sorry!” he said. “Did that – did that hurt?”

“No, Keith,” Pidge grunted. “That was obviously a moan ofpleasure.” Keith’s eyes widened further and his face started to redden. “Oh mygod, Keith, that was a joke,” Pidge said hastily. “Yes, it fucking hurt, Ithink my leg’s busted.”

“Oh.”

“But keep going.”

“But – ”

“Yeah, it’s gonna hurt, but I gotta get unstuck, right? Sogo ahead, keep lifting. I’ll power through.”

Keith bit his lip and glanced toward Pidge’s leg, then ranhis eyes along the length of the beam. Pidge could practically see gears in hishead turning, although to what end she didn’t know. “I – I think I can get itoff quick. It’ll hurt but – ”

“Hey, if it gets me off the ground, I’m game. Go ahead andrip off the band-aid.”

“Okay,” Keith said with a nod. He ducked away and pried thegun from the incapacitated guard’s hands, then turned back toward Pidge.

“Uh, Keith?” she said cautiously. “I don’t think you cankill the beam.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” Keith said, lifting the gun,turning and angling it upward.

“Keith, what are you – ?”

Her ears rang as the gun blasted, and another crashresounded. Pidge’s vision went white as agony suddenly surged through her leg,but it started to fade as quickly as it had begun in the first place. Shepanted as she focused her eyes again, and noticed a lightness over her bodythat hadn’t been there before. The beam, as she could see once her visionreturned, was about a foot above her now, no longer pinning her to the ground.

She felt hands under her arms, dragging her away from thewreckage. She grunted in pain at the movement to her leg, and Keith mutteredapologies into her ear as he brought her away.

“You’re, uh, you’re probably not up for walking, huh?” heasked.

“Not really.”

“All right.” He let out a breath and squatted down next toher. “Guess we’re piggy-backing it then?”

Pidge blinked up at him. “Wait, you sure? You’re okay withthat?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“… No reason,” Pidge replied. “Yeah, let’s piggy-back.”

She hooked her arms over Keith’s shoulders and let him get herinto position before he slowly stood, bringing his hands up to grip her arms.Pidge had to bite her lip at first as her leg knocked against Keith, but Keithseemed to have noticed, and stepped carefully as possible to keep the leg frombumping around.

“So,” she said as they started walking. “What did you do toget that beam out of the way?”

“Well, um,” Keith started slowly. “Well, the beam was long,and some of that walkway and staircase stuff was still up, pretty much rightabove you, and, uh, it looked heavy, and – and you see that crate there underthe beam that’s up at an angle? It looked like a, uh… what do you call themiddle part of a teeter-totter?”

“The fulcrum?”

“Yeah, that. So, um, so I thought, if I blasted some of thatrailway down and it landed over on the other end of the beam, then maybe itcould – ”

“Keith,” Pidge interrupted. “Did you just save me… using physics?”

“Um, I guess?” Keith said. “I mean, I know some stuff. Andit’s not like I can’t hear it when you and Hunk talk physics.”

“Sure, but, do you actually, like, listen?”

“Yeah? Why?”

Pidge squeezed her arms tighter around Keith. “Nothing, noreason. And, um, thanks again. For your help.”

“It’s no problem.”

“I mean, you didn’t get to finished up at the armory, didyou?”

“Nah, but, well – ” Pidge could hear the shrug in his voiceeven if he didn’t actually lift his shoulder, what with Pidge currentlydangling from them. “This was more important.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it really was.”

[ridleytheknight]

But I Will Fly (Part 2 of He Clipped My Wings;)

Part Two of He Clipped My Wings! Requested by @angielmao-blog !!! Thank you all for being so patient! I love you all my little starlings! Now here’s my warnings.

Depictions of Torture and beatings

Phantom Limb and Phantom Pain

Insecure Feelings

Suicidal Thoughts

Self Deprecation

Please enjoy the finale of He Clipped My Wings!!!

---

           Lance didn’t know where he was, it almost felt like he was floating. Like when he’d sneak into the ocean of his home and despite his mother’s warnings, let his head slip beneath the surface. It was just irresistible. The way the ocean would flutter on its surface, rippling the streams of light that braved the waves and light up its depths. The colorful fish that would swim past him. Unafraid of the foreign visited. The color of the water was the color of his wings. He felt at home in the ocean.

           He wondered if the ocean still wanted him. He wasn’t himself anymore.

           He was nobody.

           “What the fuck do you mean they did this to him?!” Murmurs beside the yelling, the voices sounded familiar. Not extremely familiar, but, it felt like he had known them at least for a small while. Though, it wasn’t the low emotionless grumbles of his crewmates. They could never sound. So, upset. Especially over him.

           “How could anyone do this to someone! How didn’t we know? We just fucking saw him a month ago before this! I’m going to fucking kill the son of a bitch who fucking dared to touch his wings. Lotor? Lotor. Good. He’s as good as dead. Shiro. You’re helping me.” A slightly louder murmur.

           “No, I don’t care. Shiro is helping me. Shiro. Shiro. Get your bayard.” A weird rumbling sound. “Blue, I call him. No. I don’t care. You can hold him down then I call killing him!” Lance didn’t know why, but he almost felt like laughing. Which was a weird feeling. The weirder feeling was of his body. Nothing was hurting. Not even his back. A part of him wondered if it was a dream. Getting them removed.

           Until he felt the muscle in his back flex. Revealing a dull ache, but not a single ruffle of feathers. No protruding bones from his wings anymore. They were fully gone. Probably why it wasn’t hurting as bad, but it hurt Lance a little deeper when he realized they had to remove even the last remnants of his wings besides his pieces of jewelry. Until there was this feeling in the back of his mind. A purring reassurance that soothed the slight stab of pain Lance felt. He didn’t know what it was. It felt like the warmest wing hug in the world though. Making him feel soft, fuzzy, and safe.

           Lance didn’t realize how much he craved that feeling until he had it.

           There was a clicking sound, and the odd releasing of air and he wasn’t floating anymore, his legs stumbled on the floor and was surprised as he fell to his knees and was immediately grabbed. Though, by something less than human.

           It was obvious to state that the lion on his lap and wrapping its legs around his shoulders and purring almost as loud as the ships he used to fly. Was a little bit of a shock as Lance froze. Just sitting there and letting the predator nuzzle and lick his skin as if he were its cub. Lance settled down after the initial surprise however, his arms settling around the lion in a pseudo hug. Its purring was like that sound in the back of his mind. Lance didn’t think the feline was going to attack him.

           There were footsteps stepping closer, making the lioness pull back a little and growl lowly, until Lance gently ran his hand through the fur of her shoulder blades. Looking up and smiling at Shiro who was checking him over in concern with a sheepish smile.

           “Sorry, we didn’t really know how to reign her in.” Lance gave a smile, gently scratching her shoulder blades making her purr and settle docilly at his side. Rolling over and exposing her stomach for Lance to rub and lather her in attention making Lance chuckle.

           “It’s okay, I have a German Shepherd named Sophia at home. She’s my pretty lady, but very clingy and rambunctious. I don’t mind. Besides, this one is being a sweetie, aren’t you?” The lioness purred loudly at the praise, making Shiro pause and Keith snort from behind Shiro, gaining Lance’s attention. A similar lion was at Keith’s side, only this lion was red. It was pretty, but something kept pulling him to the blue one.

           There was a small chuff that sounded almost haughty as Lance tried to go through in his head what was so different that made him feel so safe around one animal compared to the other. Another feeling blossomed in the back of his mind. A possessive feeling and the feeling you get when you finally got home after a long time of longing to go home. The rushing relief and happiness. The message was clear, the blue lion had been looking for him, for some reason that was beyond Lance. But Blue had been searching for him. He was Blue’s.

           Shiro gave Lance another smile, “Would you like me to show you around?” Lance gave a weak smile and nodded. Pulling away from the lion and not being surprised as Blue as he had dubbed her sprang up to immediately press to his still slightly shaky legs. Shiro and Keith flanked his other side and the red lion pattered up to the blue lion with pure black lion. Blue stuck to his side like glue however.

           Keith gently nudged Lance’s hip with an arm that was snaked around Shiro’s waist, Lance looked up and he swore his jaw dropped. The room was so big and bright. Light greys and whites, it looked so, lively. Compared to the dim and dark greys, blacks, and purples of his old ship that Lance had learned was a bitch to clean. There were two people messing with mechanical parts on a table in the middle of the room. One looked up, the larger male with dark skin and a bright smile. He waved. Shiro spoke this time.

           “That’s Hunk who’s waving, and the gremlin beside him is Pidge, those two are the yellow and green paladins.” Shiro gave a wave and a smile before leading Lance and Keith out the door into some of the other rooms. Seeing the training rooms and library, and so many other rooms that Lance’s head was spinning as they ended back in the medical bay. Lance wasn’t completely sure how, but by the end of the tour he was sandwiched between Shiro and Keith, their wings wavering over him in worry as he swayed. Blue was making concerned noises behind him and whining, pressing feelings into his mind. Telling him to go rest and not to strain himself. He smiled at her, reassuring him that it wasn’t bad. He was just getting used to the place and was a little disorientated. Which was true. He’d never seen a place so bright in a long time. It was nice, but also a little overwhelming though Lance wouldn’t admit just how much the quiet med bay with the low lighted evening setting was a relief. Relaxing and sitting on the medical cot with Keith and Shiro as they explained their group, what they did, and how Lance himself was a paladin.

           That was probably the most overwhelming part of the whole day. It was great news! Though, Lance still had some crawling thoughts in his mind. Sneers and laughs of his ex-crew members echoing in his head. The feeling of feathers brushing the back of his neck however, warm, real, and reassuring pressed those thoughts back into the dark pits of his mind. Unreachable. Lance decided to just enjoy the calm with Blue and the two men beside him. Not worry about what being a paladin entitled. Just chatting quietly and letting himself be leaned against Keith’s chest, his legs maneuvered on Shiro’s lap as they chatted. Lance’s head drooping little by little until he was embraced by the dark grip of sleep.

---

           The next days, ran similarly, very calm. The only different being that Lance was interacting with the whole group. Having breakfast and chatting with them all. Cleaning the pods and chatting with Coran as the others trained together. Playing and bonding with Blue. Doing bonding exercises with the team. Until Coran freed him to do training after a few days of observation.

           That’s when Lance was less fine. Not in the physical sense. Well. A little. He wasn’t as in shape as he once was since being a janitor didn’t really require much strain, nor did it do good for his nutritional value. Then there was the fact of him being… wingless. That was rather useless for any flying exercises they could do. So far Lance had combatted that by being the sharpshooter and sniper of the group. Staying on the ground and shooting the drones down from underneath them. Covering them from a distance.

           It made Lance a little nervous to shoot anything extremely close to them, afraid he’d shoot them. But his father’s words of trusting his instincts always made him shoot, and every time, the shots would ring true and he would have covered his team. Hah. His team. That was a good feeling.

           Though, it didn’t completely combat the uselessness and hopeless dark thoughts that crawled up to grab him. Or the nightmares that clawed at him mind when he’d close his eyes, the crawling of his skin. The burning pain in phantom wings that weren’t there. But god if the pain was as if they were being ripped from him all over again. Waking him only after the agonizing sensation was over and he felt the emptiness fill him up again. Sometimes Lance felt as if he wings were there. A tingling numbness as if they had simply fallen asleep and were still there.

           That feeling always scared the shit out of Lance because he knew it wasn’t true. Coran assured him that that was normal for someone who was suffering from the loss of a limb or limbs. Didn’t mean it still scared Lance when he felt the tingling sensation, or a sudden cold, like his wings were chilled and wanted to be pulled against his back.

           He never said anything though, he’d grown to love Blue and the team as if they were his own family back on earth, and he’d do anything for them. He needed to be strong to support them, smile and brighten their spirits. He couldn’t worry them about him being a little insecure.

           Not to mention, Lance couldn’t help the small feeling in the back of his mind that offered the advice that if he spoke how he was feeling out loud that the team would see it too. The uselessness of someone without wings on their team. And they’d boot him off at the next planet and tell him to figure out his own way home. Cause they were too nice to toss him out the airlock like Lance almost wondered if he deserved.

           No, there wasn’t any time for thoughts like that, this was his life, and he had to deal with that now. He was happy with his team. He loved Blue. He just hated himself while he loved them. Some more than others…

           Lance was not oblivious, he saw where his gaze would wonder. He saw the strong muscles of Shiro’s back. The beautiful wings and sharp jaw. The large grin and powerful presence that demanded respect. He also saw Keith, who was beautiful in a mysterious and quiet way. Whose power lied in wait. In aggressive bursts of anger. Silently flying, and going in for the kill when no one expected it. Striking violet eyes and a smirk that was going to give Lance a heart attack. And he also saw Shiro and Keith. Happy. Perfect. No space between them. No need for a useless third wheel. Even the little gestures, touches, and smiles that they shared with him and brought a little hope to his fantasies were squashed quickly. He didn’t deserve it. Didn’t want it. They deserved better than him.

           That didn’t mean Lance didn’t love them, and wouldn’t still love them. He’d just express his love in a platonic way. He wouldn’t ruin what they had together. It was too beautiful. Lance had no desire to ruin it. But whoever said you could never love anyone if you hated yourself is wrong. So wrong. Because Lance loved them so much that he almost forgot what hating himself felt like.

           Until, there was a planet with a mission that was so unlike any other planet.

           It looked like his home.

           The breeze was salty as they landed on the sand of the ground. Dust kicking up and almost getting in their eyes. But Lance didn’t mind. His eyes were else were, on the horizon with a blindingly shining sea. Blue and light dancing in the waves of the ocean on the planet.

           It looked like Vernado beach.

           Memories of the water surfaced in his mind. His mother scolding his siblings to be careful with their wings. Water could soak them and drown them if they weren’t careful. The ocean was kind, but merciless when given the chance. Which is why Lance had learned how to swim while most avoided the ocean like the plague. Lance didn’t mind though, that meant the ocean and its beautiful depths full of fish and life were his little secret. Though swimming with wings was rather difficult.

           One good thing about losing his wings, swimming would most definitely be easier.

           That was rather bittersweet.

           However in came in handy as the mission went so so wrong. So fast too. One minute it had been him and Keith surveying the land and looking for the distress signal. The next minute, Lance was on his knees, hand bound behind his back with Galran soldiers watching his every mood as Keith dealt with the commander, kicking up an angry storm. Lance had the passing thought that maybe Keith was trying to take the attention off of Lance, he was the weakest link after all. There were so many cruel things you could do to a wingless.

           An even crueler thing you could do to a winged however.

           Luckily, fate was smiling down on them. None of the officers seemed to even have an inkling of that thought process like his commander once had. Instead Lance became frantic for a different reason. Seeing as Keith grew up in a desert and knew practically nothing of the water, and was currently dangling over the edge of an ocean’s outlet.  

           Not threatening, going, to drop him. The commander sneered.

           “Let’s see how useful you paladins are. Can you and your stupid righteousness save your friend from drowning? We’ll see.” And Keith was dropped, letting out a small cry until his head was swallowed up by the water and he was out of sight. Lance felt his captors let go of him and it was like he was on autopilot as he darted to the water’s edge and threw himself in.

           They expected him to drown. But Lance would not die to the ocean that he loved. The ocean would not kill him. The currents gushed around Lance, like the familiar gusts of air that Lance had loved so much. His eyes were open and wide in the dark water. Flashes of colorful fish and bubbles were all around him, but Lance didn’t stop to appreciate them as he kicked his legs, reaching down to a familiar figure with pale skin and dark hair. Wrapping an arm underneath his shoulders and holding him tight as Lance changed direction. The current helping push him upwards until he broke the surface with a gasp. Hauling Keith onto the ground. Unconscious, but luckily breathing. And breathing just fine. He hadn’t been under the water for too long.

           Lance was happy, but the general, was not.

           The first thing that happened as Lance kneeled on the ground to catch his breath was a fist, swatting against his face and smashing his body onto the rocky ground of the shore. Lance wheezed as a boot crashed into his ribs. Words of abuse flowing like a river from the angered Galran generals lips. Each one marking another hit, another beating.

           Lance simply smiled. The general had no idea just how used to this he was. He was not afraid of a beating. He was simply happy. Happy that Keith was alive. Getting the shit beaten out of him by angry hands was nothing compared to the sheer joy of that. It wasn’t like it hadn’t happened thousands of times before. Lance was flipped to his back, a rough, bruising and rib break boot, staking a ground onto his chest. Causing a wheeze to leave Lance. The general growled.

           “Are you ready for the really punishment to begin peasant?” Lance coughed, blood flaking out of his mouth as his head spun and he looked the general in the eye, a half mouthed and cheeky smirk lighting up his face.

           “Give me your worse -puta-.” The Galra gave a cruel smile as he reached back and pulled a baton, similar to a cattle prodder on earth, out of his pocket. Electricity crackled on its metal surface as the Galran flipped and switch and held it in his tight grip. Grinning madly as he jabbed in forward without warning. Thrusting into harshly into the soft side of Lance’s body, Lance felt it immediately. The rushing of the current, the burning and tingling pain. Like his whole body was being burned alive as it convulsed, Lance becoming mute for the first few seconds in shock as he choked and spasmed. Until he screamed. Loud. The first sound of pain he probably made since he broke the surface of the ocean.

           Suddenly the pain stopped, and Lance heard a loud enraged battle cry and a scream of pain. Not his own. His eyes blurrily taking in the sight of a pair of wings. Large black and white wings flared out and puffed up in anger and shielding him. Lance gave a blissful sigh, Shiro, he was strong, he would keep Lance safe. And Lance tumbled off into a dark abyss of unconsciousness. Not hearing the yelling telling him to stay awake.

---

           It was like the tides of the ocean, Lance was coming in and out of consciousness, not coherent. But a little bit of understanding. Not comprehending. But knowing enough that he was safe.

           “Shiro! Help me get him up! Lance! Lance! Stay with me! Come on! Shiro!”

           Lance was out with the tide again before he could be lifted in large strong arms.

---

           “We can’t put him in the pod.”

           “What the hell do you mean we can’t help him?!”

           “Keith, calm down please.” A soft hand through his hair.

           “The injuries aren’t internal; the pod won’t heal them. He needs rest and liquids. Someone needs to keep an eye on him as well, make sure the painkillers don’t wear off.”

           “But what abou-“ And Lance was off again.

---

           It seemed like it took forever, but eventually Lance was able to bring himself back to reality completely. The tides dropping him on the shore of reality as he was able to weakly peel his eyes open. Registering first the way his jaw was throbbing and the pulsing of his heart beat in his ribs. However breath hurt and there was a burning and tingling numbness in his limbs. The effects of being electrocuted that Lance knew well. Where had he been?

           Oh, the beach, saving Keith, Shiro protecting him. Shiro! Keith! Lance looked up blearily in worry, before seeing Shiro on his one side, cradling Lance’s left side securely. Another looked showed Keith resting at his side, wings splayed out above and beneath Lance, swaddling Lance in warmth as Keith himself was curled on Lance’s arm. Head resting gently on his shoulder. Lance sighed in relief, flinching as the breath caused a stab of pain. That caused Keith to also stir, violet eyes blinking with a dazed look until they processed the ocean colored eyes staring at him. Immediately Keith was up. Throwing all abandon or reason out the window as he grabbed Lance’s jaw and immediately his lips were all over the tan boys face. Kissing the bruisies on his face gently, his eyes lids that had slipped closed, the corners of his mouth, every inch of skin that Keith could reach got a kiss between each of Keith’s words.

           “Thank god, thank you, but how fucking dare you! I was so fucking worried. Why the fuck did you have to be the hero?! I don’t know what I would fucking do if you got hurt you fucking asshole! How dare you, how dare you, how dare you! God. I’m just so happy you’re alright.” Lance stayed quiet and pliant during the entire rant. He understood the need to vent. Keith was probably stressed and tense, but he flushed red as Keith started kissing him. And in front of his boyfriend. Lance’s mind short circuited.

           “W-w-what are you? Why? But. Shiro? Keith? What are you doing? K-Keith!” Lance looked desperately as Shiro, turning his face towards the man that Keith should be kissing as Keith paid no mind and only kissed the expanse of skin that Lance had unknowingly exposed. Causing Lance to shudder. The shudder turning to ice water in his veins as he met Shiro’s eyes, seeing him awake and watching the scene with a calm smile as Lance immediately started stuttering and blushing, giving apologies and trying to gently push Keith off (Keith was not having it and was going to kiss Lance whether he fucking liked it out not, and based on the blush, stutters, and whole-body shivers he was pulling out of the man. Lance was liking it a whole lot more than he’d admit to. And with how weakly and hesitant Lance’s tries at pushing Keith off were. Both Shiro and Keith could easily see Lance was struggling between arguing and just letting Keith lavish him in attention.)

           Lance still struggled, until Shiro scooted closer, bundling Lance up tighter to his chest and nuzzling his hair, sucking kisses into the crown of his head and making Lance short circuit in confusion and pleasure. Making Lance dazed enough to kiss back Lance as Keith forcefully pressed his lips against Lance to coax him into kissing Keith back. Before Lance pulled away. Face red up to his ears and down to his collar bones as he was disorientated by his confusion and slight happiness. Staying put and no longer struggling in their hold due to pain, exhaustion, and lack of will power to want to pull away. Shiro hummed into his hair.

           “I’m sorry about Keith’s blunt and straight forwardness. He has a bit of a hard time controlling himself around our crush. Especially when he’s worried he has a hard time reigning his instincts in.” Lance took the explanation and relaxed. Until the blush came back full force.

           Crush? Shiro gave a small smile to his confused and desperate expression, pressing a soothing kiss to Lance’s temple and making his body relax and go slack against him and Keith the human octopus as Keith’s limbs practically wrapped around Lance.

           “Me and Keith are open, and if you are okay with it. We want you.” Lance gapped, mouth moving silently as he failed to process his words.

           “B-but, you guys are perfect! W-why? W-when?” Keith’s lips on junction of Lance’s shoulder and neck made Lance turn basically into the blue screen on a computer. Mind shutting down at Keith’s soft and chapped lips against his sweet spot. Causing shudders to run down his spine and make Lance feel like he was soaring.

           “Lance, baby, just relax. I know you want us too. Please? Let us love you? Don’t strain yourself or your pretty little head. We love you and we want you. Do you want us too?” Lance relaxed, his lips twitching in a frown, a smile, and a reply all at once. Until he finally managed to softly nod. Reveling in the large grins from both the males beside him and the gentle way both of them were layering him in kisses. Pressing butterfly touches to all the bruises and lacerations on his body cautiously. Lance gave a smile and closed his eyes as he completely allowed himself to be held by them.

           Maybe. He was worth something.

           Maybe, just maybe.

           He was worthy of this.

[starrbomb]

Hey if you're still accepting prompts, can I ask for a fic where polydins are a thing and they go to a planet where everyone on there wants lance and it ends up with the rest of the paladins and allura just get so possesive (please include a scene where keith litterly hisses like a cat at someone).Congrats on all the followers!!!!

I’ll be accepting prompts for the rest of the week, so don’t hesitate to send more prompts my way if you think of any later on. :) thank you for the prompt btw!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“now, everyone remember. we are here to gain a new planet in our alliance. which means we have t be on our best behavior throughout our stay. that means no flirting with diplomats or challenging their guards.” Allura gives a pointed look towards both the red and blue paladins, one of which just so happen to be avoiding eye contact. Lance on  the other hand acts distraught over the accusation “Allura! you know i only flirt with my boyfriends and girlfriends now. i would never break their trust like that.” the over dramatic from their boyfriend helps ease the tension in everyone, and a few of them can’t help but chuckle at Lance’s theatrics. “ alright, alright. just make sure that you all treat the species with respect, please.“ everyone nods their heads in agreement , a much lighter atmosphere hanging around them, ready to add another planet to their alliance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

once the castle touched down on the planet, the team waits by the grand entrance, standing behind Allura as she thanks the king and queen for allowing them to stay on their planet, and wishing for an alliance between them. the team each have their helmets on to keep up appearances as professionals, but secretly they’re all whispering into their headsets about how different yet similar these aliens look like humans. they have somewhat of the same build as most humans, although the four arms are a definite difference between them. but also, their skin coloring is very widely ranged. some of them look as pale as Shiro and Pidge, and they even spot some with much darker coloring like Hunk. and then there were some that just really different; some were light blues or a pale greens and some pinks and reds.  it was really mind boggling to see both skin colors that they’re so used to and then see another being with green skin.

“and now may i introduce the Paladins of Voltron!” Allura snaps all of them back to the present, introducing them to the crowd of on lookers. Shiro takes his helmet off, and down the line, everyone takes their helmets off. Lance is the last to take his helmet off, and its as though the mood changed slightly once his face was visible to everyone. it was pretty weird, but the team tries not to let it get to them. they have to stay professional while their here. besides, its probably nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

it was definitely not nothing. every chance they got, diplomats would either shove either eager children or even themselves into Lance’s face and they would not so subtly flirt with him to no end. not that Lance exactly turned them away, trying to be civil and not insult any of them. it seems that Lance’s skin color is something entirely new to this race, and thinking back, none of the others really saw anyone with Lance’s skin tone. and that made him highly sought after by any of the diplomats or their daughters or sons. even the king and queen daughter had made a pass at Lance more than once.

the team tried to not be possessive about their boyfriend, not wanting to botch this alliance, but one by one, they each reached their breaking point. not that Lance really mind, it was nice to know that his boyfriends and girlfriends can get so jealous and possessive. and to be honest, it was getting to be too much even for him. so he wasn’t complaining  whenever one of his loved ones would pull him away from an overzealous diplomat trying to ‘woo’ him.

the first of he team to reach their boiling point was Pidge, who sat down between lance and a very handsy duke (he literally had at least half of his hands on Lance since he introduced himself to him) when the duke tried to get Lance to sit right next to him. and anytime the duke tried to flirt with him or reach a hand out to him, Pidge would intercept him by obviously taking Lance’s hand in her own or talking over him when he tried. of course she would always ‘apologize’ each time, mostly because Allura would give her a bit of a scowl for being ‘rude’ to their hosts, but no one called her out on it, all very thankful of their girlfriend’s actions.

the second to lose their cool was Keith, which wasn’t all that surprising. it was after the feast, and everyone was dancing in some sort of dome ballroom. one of the daughters that has been hovering around Lance had dragged him into dancing with them. and that in itself wasn’t all that upsetting. it was that Keith had overheard one of the other girls talk about how this specific song and dance was a sign of declaration of love in their culture (not that lance knew, he just kind of mimicked what he saw other doing). that is what set Keith off; he stormed over to them and pulled them apart. the girl was not happy about this and tried to reach back for Lance. Keith latched onto her hand and whipped around and actually hissed at her. she immediately backed off, and Keith pulled Lance away from the dance floor. he looped their arms together, making sure that Lance didn’t dance with anyone besides the team.  of course Allura ad to apologize to the girl about Keith’s behavior to her and try and smooth over any ruffled feathers. but Shiro wasn’t complaining, he even slipped in a high five to Keith.

the next one was Hunk. it was the next day and everyone had hoped that their hosts would catch the hint that Lance wasn’t really single. unfortunately, it seems that none of them did. it was early in the morning, and while everyone was groggy with sleep, some duchess was able to steal a seat next to Lance, who was probably the only morning person of the entire team. no one really paid mind to it at first, since she wasn’t overly blatant about her interest in the blue paladin. that is, until the morning meal was served. that’s when the duchess constantly tried to feed Lance from her own plate, always proclaiming how delicious their food was. Lance always politely declined, but the duchess was persistent, and no matter if it was already on Lance’s plate, she would try and feed him. that’s when Hunk probably did the most outrageous thing possible. he leaned over lance and ate off of the duchesses fork, much to everyone’s surprise. Hunk looked her dead in the eye and simply told her that the food is delicious and sits back down on the other side of Lance going back to eating from his own plate silently. what no else saw was that lance patted Hunk’s leg under the table in as a silent thank you.

 Shiro and Allura were the last ones to finally break after the last two days of having to watch Lance being flirted with constantly. it wasn’t that surprising that they had the most self control, but to be honest, if the others hadn’t intervened when the did either of them would have done the exact same thing. but it was when they had secured  the alliance with the planet and were packing up all the food and resources that the queen had gifted them, and Lance was pulled aside and was talking with the Princess of the planet, she seemed to have taken a liking to Lance, which after how everyone else on this planet have been trying, it was almost normal. that is until Allura saw the princess trying to back Lance into a corner. still trying to be polite, Allura called over to Lance to help them carry the boxes back to the castle. lance tried to slip out of the corner, apologizing halfheartedly about the team needing him.

that’s when she blocked off Lance’s escape and planted her lips on his.

in front of the entire team.

and it seems that the princess wasn’t going back down so easily.

and that didn’t sit well with any of them at all. but it was Allura and Shiro who took action. Shiro pulled them apart and let Allura deal with her. he spun around and checked over Lance, making sure that he was okay and that she didn’t try anything else they didn’t see. meanwhile Allura was putting the princess in her place, telling her off for not only forcing herself on one of the paladins of voltron, but also breaking their trust with her by doing such a thing. the princess seemed to realize how much she screwed up and begged that they don’t break the alliance with their planet. Allura looks back to Shiro and Lance, her eyes silently asking if Lance was alright. it looks like he was a bit shaken, but was alright. Allura merely said that the alliance wasn’t in jeopardy but it would be best if she learned the meaning of consent before they ask for Voltron’s help. with that Shiro gathered Lance in his arms and walked off with Allura following close behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

it wasn’t until the castle had left the solar system and everyone had crowded themselves into Allura’s bed that Shiro finally loosened his hold on Lance, letting everyone else cuddle close on the large bed.

“you okay Lance?”

“yeah, it just kinda freaked me out when she did that.”

“you sure she didn’t do anything else? because if she did I’ll-”

“I’m sure Mullet. she didn’t even get a chance to turn it into anything more before Shiro and Allura came over.”

it was silent for awhile, everyone letting the calm soothe their frayed nerves. since it was so quite, everyone could easily hear Lance whisper  “thanks you. all of you.”

‘for what?” pidge asked, trying to stifle a yawn.

“for helping me with all of…that. you guys are the best. even when your jealous and over pretective.” that last comment got Lance an elbow lightly jabbed in his side, only making him laugh at the little effort put into it.

“you don’t need to thank us for helping you out. you’re our boyfriend. as if we’re going to let someone make passes at you without getting mad.”

lance chuckles again at the blatant trust and love and faith that his team. his boyfriends and girlfriends put in him. he got pretty lucky getting the best relationship ever. he would never give it up so easily. and he’s glad to know his team wouldn’t either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tada! there you go! i hope you like this! thank you so much for the prompt again, i had a lot of fun writing this!

[lordzuuko]

As it's Mother's Day in a few countries, would the voltron family celebrate it? Would they remember their original families or use it as a celebration with Keith and shiro?

nerdydisney said: Can you do a family au where the kids are giving Keith Mother’s Day presents? Please.

[The Voltron Family] It was a Sunday morning which meant—Mother’s Day. Keith was woken up when he felt someone—no, a lot of someone—were kissing him all over the face. He opened his eyes slowly and saw 4 pairs of eyes looking down at him, grinning like dorks. 

Shiro and the three kids: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!Keith: *confused* What? But I’m not a mommy though?Shiro and the three kids: *laughs* Hunk: *hugs Keith and rests on his chest* S’okay, Daddy Keith. Even if you aren’t really a “mommy” you do feel like one.Shiro, Lance and Pidge: *nods* That’s true. Keith: Awww, you guys. *sniffles*  I’m the Mom Dad.Shiro: *laughs even harder* Oh my god. YES. 

They prepared Keith breakfast and he was very much touched since he would usually prepare it every morning. It felt nice to have a day off from breakfast duty. They called the mothers in Japan via Skype.

Shiro, Keith and the kids: *waves* Happy Mother’s Day!Keith’s Mom: Oh my goodness. *laughs* Thank you, my loves. What are you planning for today?Shiro: *takes over the screen and leans in* *whispers* I’m having a surprise for your son later.Keith: *rolls eyes* I’m right here. Oh my god. 

Shiro, Keith and the kids: *waves* Happy Mother’s Day!Shiro’s Mom: ABOUT TIME!! *wags finger* What time is it already there? It’s almost noon! And this is just when you remember me?Three kids: *laughing* Granmama! It’s only 8am here!Shiro: *face palms* Mom, please. Time zones remember?Shiro’s Mom: I did not raise a son to talk back to me. *turns to Keith* Hello, to you, my pumpkin. Better knock some sense into that husband of yours.Keith: *laughs* I will, Mom. And Happy Mother’s Day again.

Shiro insisted they all wear their formal tuxedos when they visit the graves of their children’s parents. Usually, the kids would get emotional when they visit, however this time around, they just held onto their daddies’ hands tighter while silently saying a prayer and a soft “Happy Mothers Day, Ma. I miss you.“

After their visit to the cemeteries, Shiro drove them to a fancy restaurant that had a dress code. 

Keith: *smirks* You sneaky. No wonder you were so adamant I wear my damn tuxedo. *laughs*Shiro: *shrugs* What can I say? I love my men in tuxedos. *lifts Keith’s chin and plants a kiss on the lips*Keith: I better be the only man in tuxedo that you love.Shiro: *smirks* Possessive, aren’t you?

They entered the fancy lobby. Everything was either black and gold and honestly, it felt like the royals should be dining in there.

Receptionist: Do you have a reservation, Sir?Shiro: *holding Keith’s hand* Table for 5 under Takashi Shirogane.Receptionist: *checks* *smiles* Right this way. If you’ll follow me.Lance: *tugs Shiro’s hand* *whispers* Daddy Shiro. Is the queen in here?Shiro: *chuckles* No, buddy. She isn’t here.Pidge: *looks around* *hums* Sounds fake but okay.Hunk: What are we eating here anyway?Shiro: It’s a buffet, Hunk. Basically everything you want that is being served. Keith: I’ve only heard of this place. Basically rich people resto with overpriced food. *looks at Shiro* You’re going all out, huh?Shiro: It’s not everyday I splurge for my family. *smiles*

They got to their table and started going around to get food they wanted. Keith was helping Hunk balance out his plates because there were just so many he wanted to taste! Keith just smiled at his son and told him he could just go back again if he wanted more. There were some people who cooed at Pidge who was wearing a tux and she was pretty smug about it because she knew she looked good. Lance and Hunk were the same. There weren’t many kids in the place so they stood out a little bit. 

As soon as everyone was back in the table they started eating. After a while, Hunk called everyone’s attention in the whole restaurant by clinking his glass. Keith stopped eating, looking a bit worried as everyone looked at their table.

Keith: *whispers* Hunk, baby. Sit down!Hunk: *smiles* *shakes head* *looks at Shiro to get a go signal* I’d like to make a toast to my Daddy Keith. For being so loving and always ready to give us the hugs and kisses we need.Pidge: *joins Hunk* Who had always been there for us even if we were being naughty little kids. And for teaching us the beautiful Japanese language patiently.Lance: *joins the two* For being so understanding and gentle with us. You may not be physically a mother, but you’ve shown us that you don’t need to be one to love us like one. Keith: *clasps his hand over his mouth* *teary eyed* Shiro: *stands up to join the kids* And to my husband, Keith.Keith: Oh my god. *flushes* Shiro: I could never ask for a better partner in crime in raising our little kids. You’re the most wonderful person I’ve ever met and until this very day, I still get emotional when you said “yes” to me. *looks around the resto* And by “yes” I meant him texting back to me that I could come over to his dorm so we could nap all afternoon back in college after finals week. Everyone in the resto: *laughs*Keith: *covers his face while laughing* You are such a dork. Oh god.Shiro: *smiles fondly at Keith* You’re the love of my life and I know I’m getting cheesier by the second but I do mean it, Keith. I don’t think I could ever love anyone more than you and our little family. *takes Keith’s hands that’s covering his face* *smiles at his husband*Keith: *flustered* I hate you so much.Shiro: I love you, too, sweetheart. *leans in and gives Keith a kiss on the lips*Everyone at the resto: *claps* GO GET IT!Three kids: *laughs* *hugs Keith*