#even in like Lance centric fics it’s just not brought up

[f1squirrelie]

🔥

Doing F1 because I have no other personality at present, but I hate how Lance’s Judaism is glossed over in a lot of his fandom representation. It’s only mentioned if it’s a plot point or it’s just not mentioned at all. I know that fandom representation is inherently different from Lance the Actual Person, but I just wish that there would be more care shown regarding his faith, the way that people would talk about the drivers’ nationalities. I also know that Jewish communities can vary in a lot of ways, but I do wish people could acknowledge that Lance grew up at least conversational in Yiddish and actually I just want people to acknowledge his faith in a positive way or just at all

Also Christmas in July is an annoyance and I hate it

[a-vast-horizon]

👀👀👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👀

oh boy, i’m not sure i have 14, lol

i’ll give a little sampling anyway

-

(from an Agent Stern/Barclay The Adventure Zone: Amnesty fic)

It was a bad idea to mix work with your personal life. Agent Stern knew that, really. It was just that when you were traveling for work, your whole life sort of became tangled with your job to some extent. Now, obviously, there were some hard lines to be drawn. When he was suited up and on the case, questioning witnesses and examining evidence, he was on the job, no personal matters allowed.

But when he got back from doing his job to relax at the Amnesty Lodge, was it really so wrong if he found the chef cute?

-

(from a Danny Phantom and Bendy and the Ink Machine crossover)

The storage room was, as ever, a mess. You might have thought the Fentons, as scientists, would have some interest in being organized, but you’d be wrong. You probably should have considered the fact that they were *ghost-hunting* scientists, and realized they were absolute messes. As was the storage room.

The spare drill Danny has been asked to fetch was just barely visible on a high wall-mounted shelf, tucked between a raggedy old plush toy and some dusty bottles. There wasn’t any space on the crowded floor for a stepladder, not that Danny would have been able to find one in the mess, so he settled for trying to balance on his tiptoes as he reached for the shelf. And it almost worked, too. He had one hand on the shelf, inching towards the drill to pull it forwards, when a can rolled out of place beneath his foot, sending him wildly off balance. The hand Danny had on the shelf grabbed it for balance, and evidently that was more than it was cut out for, because it promptly detached from the wall, sending its contents down towards Danny.

-

(from a My Hero Academia AU tentatively titled ‘explosive temper’)

Izuku’s nose was buried in his latest hero analysis notebook, revising his notes from that morning’s fight with Mount Lady. He was therefore oblivious to the fact that the sewer grate behind him was being lifted until he heard a voice call out, “Damn nerd! Get your head out of your book and look behind you!”

So, of course, he did, and found himself a scant few meters from an enormous body of slime oozing its way out of the sewer.

-

(from an Animorphs AU tentatively titled ‘butterfly effect’)

We met up outside the entrance to the Gardens on Saturday. With a lot of cajoling at our gymnastics lessons, I’d managed to convince Melissa to come, and judging by the fact that Jake showed up, Cassie had invited him like I’d told her to.

“Hey, guys,” Jake said. “Marco’s dad is sick, so he can’t make it.”

“Aw, too bad,” I said. Had Cassie told Jake to invite Marco, too? They were her tickets, but I’d have thought she’d want to spend time with just him.

Then again, maybe Jake was the one being oblivious in this situation and invited Marco along himself. Considering his talents were more oriented towards shooting balls through hoops and playing video games than talking to people, it wasn’t out of the question.

-

(from Koda’s upcoming fic in the Super[Natural]Heroes BNHA AU)

“So if you’re not coming out here because you’re hurt, what is it? Boredom? Looking for adventure? Problems with your family?”

Koda… hadn’t thought this far ahead? What did he tell her? What would be enough to get her to stop worrying?

Apparently, in the absence of an answer, Ragdoll had made up her own mind about what was going on, because she didn’t wait for Koda to come up with something.

“Well, it’s none of my business!” she said. “But if you ever do need help, you should come find me or one of the other Pussycats!”

-

(from an Ant-Man-centric Endgame AU fic)

He pressed the button on his suit to return him to normal size, knowing it was futile. He’d pressed it probably a hundred times already since the others had stopped responding on the radio. The Quantum Realm didn’t follow the same rules of physics as the rest of the universe did, and that was why they needed the Quantum Tunnel to leave it safely. Still, he couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. He had to get back to his life, to Hope, to Cassie!

He pressed the button again, again, hearing it click uselessly over and over. Still, he kept pressing it.

And finally, it worked.

In a dizzying flash of light and motion and expansion, Scott went from the Quantum Realm to the back of the X-Con truck, pressed between the closed doors and the powered-down Quantum Tunnel. A thick layer of dust covered the van’s interior, and Scott began coughing as the helmet of his suit automatically retracted. He managed to unlatch the back doors of the van and tumbled out onto concrete. This wasn’t the parking lot where the van had last been parked, though. Scott looked around to see boxes and boxes with his name on them, chain link fence, a ceiling overhead. A storage unit? But who had moved his stuff here, and how had they done it so fast?

-

(from Attempt #218, a Good Place fic [spoilers for the end of season 1])

In theory, it was the perfect torture.

Tahani was beautiful, boastful, high society and incredibly open about it: just the kind of person to get under Eleanor’s skin, to lance her worries about not being a good enough person. Eleanor, meanwhile, was pressed to keep her past a secret and pretend to be a human rights activist who volunteered at a local animal shelter in her spare time, so Tahani would struggle to make conversation with someone that couldn’t give her a straight answer. It wasn’t quite as good as pairing Tahani with someone who couldn’t talk at all, like Jason, but it was a bit less obvious, more of a slow burn that could last a few hundred years before she caught on. And the guilt Eleanor would eventually feel over having a perfect soulmate and hating her guts was sure to be entertaining.

Of course, if everything worked the way Michael had theorized, they wouldn’t have been on attempt 218 at all.

-

(from a BNHA crossover with… well… I’ll say it when the fic is released)

“Fine,” Tenya conceded. “What are you looking for, anyway?”

“Not sure,” Ochako said. “Anything that might be worth reselling.”

“You came here without an idea what you were looking for?” Tenya asked.

“Hey, that’s why I brought you! Your family works on cars, so you know what’s in good enough shape to resell.”

Tenya didn’t say anything, but Ochako could sense the judgemental look he was giving her even without looking over her shoulder. 

“Look, we’re just… tight on cash this month. I just want to help my parents out,” Ochako said.

-

(from a Trollhunters fic where Jim is part-changeling)

“Blinky? What’s going on?” Jim asked, desperation soaking his voice. If anyone would know what had happened, it would surely be Blinky.

“It seems that the gaggletek worked as expected,” Blinky said, his tone eerily calm in a way Jim couldn’t decipher. “It forces changelings to change their shape when they touch it.”

“But I’m not a changeling,” Jim said. “At least, I don’t think so? Can you be a changeling without knowing it?”

Blinky shook his head, crossing one set of his arms while the other wrung its hands nervously.

“Changelings are aware of their true nature from the moment they set foot out of the Darklands,” Blinky said. “Which means… you have been deceiving us ever since you met us.”

-

(from a TomStarCo rewrite of the Star vs. the Forces of Evil finale)

“Well, I would still like to be friends with you, Star. I still really like you. I just… I have feelings for someone else, too, and I know you also do,” Tom said.

“What? Who are you talking about?” 

“Marco.”

“Yeah, I guessed that’s what you were thinking, dummy. I meant who do you have feelings for?”

“Well…” Tom’s voice trailed off sheepishly.

“Oh,” Star said. “Oh. You like him, too?”

“I mean, I didn’t want to. I just can’t help it!” Tom said.

“Yeah, no, I totally get it,” Star said. “Same boat here, remember?”

[feathersnow]

His Daughter.

Summary : A  Lance centric fic.  Lance meets up with his daughter from the future and wonders who her mother is, or who he had fallen in love with.  Time Travel AU.

Special thanks to @plancinginthemoonlight for beta-ing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a warm sunny evening. The seagulls were chirping and and the waves were crashing onto the sand. The yellow fire ball was sinking into the horizon and the sea reflected its orange glow. It’s golden rays painted the skies with shades of orange, pink and red.

Walking barefoot, Lance drank in the beautiful scenery. 

It was good to be home.

He thought he was alone, but he saw a girl about his age wandering aimlessly around. She had long hair tied into a ponytail and wasn’t wearing a swimsuit or beach attire, ,much to Lance’s disappointment, but was still very pretty.  

“Hey there, beautiful,” he said, flashing his dashing smile “Are you lost?”

His voice caught her attention. She looked up and her face lit up “Hi dad,”

“So what’s your-“ he stopped. Wait. What?

The red Paladin shook his head. “I-I’m sorry, you called me dad?”

The girl nodded. “You’re Lance McClain,” she tilted her head in confusion.

“Wait, how old are you?”

“What makes you think I’m your dad?” he spluttered. “You must’ve gotten the wrong guy. I’m only eighteen,”

This is the moment where his blood runs cold and shivers come up his spine and warning bells go off. Yes, he did flirt with many females, but haven’t slept with them, had he? Oh God. He clutched his head.  

He heard her shriek softly and slapped her forehead “Quiznak, I went too far back into the past,”

He looked up. “The past? Wait, are you from the future?”

“Great, the cat is out of the bag,” she mumbled to herself. “What to do? What to do?”

She looked like she was going to take off and run, but Lance quickly mad a grab for her wrist.

“Hold up, hold up,” he said. “If you say you’re from the future, how do you know I’m your dad?”

“Well..,”she said “in my time, they say I resemble a lot like the Red Paladin of Voltron. So I came to check if it’s true,”

Lance’s eyes darted up and down her whole body. She was not wrong. With the same hair, and skin colour, she does have a striking resemblance of him or close to the McClain family. The only difference was her long hair tied up in a ponytail and her eye colour.

“Plus, they do say you are a ladies guy,” she added. “You did pick me up quite fast,” 

Lance snorted,“Well, sorry I didn’t know I was trying to flirt with my daughter from the future. How old are you?”  

“Sixteen,”

“You came here to look for me?”

“Yup.”

“How did you get here?”

She held up her wrist he was holing “Time travel watch.”  

“Why were you looking for me?” he asked releasing her. “Why are you travelling back in time?”

“Just to learn about the legendary Paladins of Voltron and how they brought peace to the universe, how you were doing in your younger days, and also to know whether you are dating mom,”

Lance blinked. “Your mom?” he echoed.

“Yup! Are you dating her yet?”

“Well…,” he rubbed the back of his neck “I’m kinda dating Allura..”

The girls’ face lit up “The princess?” she gasped clasping her hands together. “I had heard amazing things about her! What is she like?”

Lance was taken by surprise as the young girl suddenly closed their distance between them.

And Lance wondered if she could be their daughter. Allura did have cocoa skin like him. But this girl didn’t have altean marks on her cheeks or the pointy ears…

Her ears caught his attention. Her pruple crystal earrings dangled from her ears and gleamed in the sun.

The earrings that looked just like Allura’s.

Suddenly, there was a yell and both of them turned around towards the voice. Lance recognized the human figure was Pidge who was walking towards them.

The futuristic girl gasped and took a step back. “I should go. No one else should know who I am or it’ll mess up the future. Well, it has already mesed up yours,”  she said. To his surprise, she flung her arms around him.  “It’s good to see you well and enjoying life. I hope you’ll be able to find me in your future. See you!”

“Wait,” he said, grabbing her arm “What is your name?”

She smiled “I can’t say that. It’ll ruin your future,”

Lance smiled. “Why are you so mean?”

“Maybe I had got that trait from my mother?” she asked, smirking.

“A hint?” he pleaded.

She rolled her eyes and leaned close to his ear “Look for the stars,” she whispered.

With that, she took off and fled to the opposite direction. Lance watched as the girls’ figure grew smaller in the distance.

“Who’s that?” Pidge asked approaching him. “Another pretty lady you’ve picked up somewhere?”

“Not ..really,” said Lance.

“Huh. Will you to see her again?”

Lance shrugs “That depends,” he turned to the green Paladin. “She-“

He stopped talking and stared at his friend.

“Lance?” Pidge asked looking at him quizically. “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”

Lance didn’t respond. His heart had surely picked up some pace and his cheeks felt warm.

Pidge had honey coloured eyes.

The same colour eyes as the girl.

[soulcatcher17]

I'm searching 3 klance fanfiction but I can't find them and I'm going crazy!

1- Post Season 7, the paladins are at the garrison and Lance starts getting more and more affectionated with Keith, but before doing anything L. ask K. "Together?". K. is oblivious as fuck and chalks it up to Lance being very affectionate as a person. At one point James Griffin tries to hit on Keith while he's eating alone in the cafeteria, offering to train together and bringing up that they had a good teamwork during the mission and makes excuses about the fact that paldins and MFEs should improve their relationship. Lance gets there and is jealous, says something about him being "Paladin Lance" for James (I think he has called him McClain). J. says something rude and K. is irritated and confused and says "I thought you wanted to improve the relationship between our team?? Lance is a paladin too" or something similar. Then Lance says "Together??" to Keith and he says "Yeah" because yes Lance is in the same room as him obviously but the whole sentence that I don't remember means that they were together romantically, so James storms out. Later they are in the gym and K. is cursing everything because Lance is in just shorts and tank top and he's dying of horniness (I remember the sentence "This was an error, just like the way that shorts hug Lance's ass is an error"). Then L. sits on Keith's lap, straddling him, and makes a move that makes K. understand that he wants to bring things next level. Keith is obviously flabbergasted and Lance, noticing this, asks "Together, right??" and ONLY THEN K. understands what the meaning behind L.'s gestures was. Then they have sex.

2- Lance is a Prince and his kingdom has just been at war with Zarkon's (I think they were allied with Altea against the Galra). For some motives Lance has to marry Keith who's the regent for the dying King Zarkon. So Lance goes on the island were this kingdom is and is surprised by how different it is from his. When the two met they're attracted to each other (especially Keith, if I remember correctly), but they butts heads a lot. In particular they have a fight where Lance threatens to not hold up his part of the deal if Keith doesn't take his role seriously. They gets closer little by little. Then Zarkon dies and, since they can't find Lotor, Keith has to become king. There's a long days of ceremonies between the Incoronation and the wedding. The maidens give Lance a tea which sends him into a heat (even if there aren't a/b/o distinctions in this fic). Other things of this fanfic I remember are that Keith is Zarkon's adopted son, Kolivan is Keith's advisor so he's on scene oftrn enough and that Keith brings Lance on a beach date. It's multi-chapter (around 5 maybe?)

3- This is the oldest one and also the one I remember worst. It was less Klance-centric. It takes place post season 3 or so. Keith's the Black Paladin, Lance's the Red Paladin and Shiro's back with the team (idk how). Lance is struggling a lot with his self-esteem because of his insecurity and Shiro starts to notice that something about him is off. At some point Shiro gets them a diplomatic mission, but they discover that is a trap when they get captured in the rooms that were offered to them for the night. Shiro first then Lance are brought in another room and tied up. They evade somehow and discover that Red and/or the paladins have came to the rescue and are letting all hell lose to save them. Then Lance puts himself in danger to give Shiro a chance to be saved after saying something that lets Shiro know how he thinks of himself as expendable/replaceble/useless/not worth enough and it obvliously shocks the older man. They get saved and when are passed a few days (if I remember correctly, I'm almost sure it wasn't right after the battle) Shiro talks to Keith about it (because he's the leader now) and together they go talk to Lance (in Red's hangar??) and Lance cries and the final sentences says something about how Lance still isn't okay, but it's a first step, but I'm not sure about it.

It would mean a lot to me if you could help me! ❤❤

[vegafiction]

Can you do a fic of verbally abused lance by like a parent when he was younger and the team was doing the memory seeing thing ( the one with the weird head things when they all say in a circle ) and that's how they found out? Please?

Count: ~2.4kPairing(s): KlanceChara(s): Lance-centric, Keith & PaladinsFandom: VoltronPrompt: Verbal AbuseWarning(s): Parental Verbal Abuse

This prompt was a little difficult to wirte for because it was a tad too close to home for my comfort. It still ended up way longer than I wanted it to be, but i hope you Anons enjoy it! I’m so close to a bingo lmao. Thank you both for the compliment and the request!!

Get your own card @badthingshappenbingo

Bonding exercises with the team weren’t unusual occurrences. Being able to form Voltron relied on their ability to connect with each other as a team and as a family, and in spite of the number of arguments that would happen because personalities would collide, the Paladins of Voltron knew each other well enough to form the giant robot with ease.

Maybe they didn’t quite need to know everything about each other, but Lance felt what had happened in the past wasn’t necessary for their future. He was a firm believer in leaving things behind—even if he often struggled to do it himself.

Today’s training session involved melding their minds. Lance couldn’t stifle his groan. (Luckily for him, he wasn’t the only one.) Mind melding was everyone’s least favorite training technique. It involved a surprisingly large amount of concentration, some of which many of the Paladins didn’t have depending on the circumstances, but it wasn’t the countless hours of meditation and sitting around that bothered Lance. It was the idea of having anyone dig around in his mind without his permission.

Not that he had many secrets to hide – he was quite open to his makeshift family – it was just… there were certain things Lance didn’t want to have to explain. They weren’t necessary.

It wasn’t important.

Coran had the team gather into a circle and promised them bags of water and delicious snacks he had prepared (Hunk approved this time) for when they successfully completed their hour of training. He distributed the neuro-helmets to every member of the circle and gave them a thumbs up.

“You all have done exceptionally well forming Voltron as of late,” he praised. “This session will be done in a jiffy! I’ll be watching from above, good luck!” He hurried out of the room.

Keith turned his attention to Shiro, brows furrowed in concern. “Are you sure you want to do this? You said you wanted to retire.”

“Retirement doesn’t mean I can’t keep up with everyone’s training,” he said with a soft smile. “Mind melding is all about building stronger bonds between each of us. I think that’s a useful thing to do, even if I won’t be piloting Black anymore.”

“Shiro is right,” Allura nodded. “Forming Voltron is not the only purpose of the mind meld. Our bonds with each other as friends is also extremely important to ensure our continued survival in this war. Besides, don’t you guys find this fun?” She smiled brightly.

Pidge groaned. “Fun for you maybe.”

Coran’s voice filtered into the room. “Alright everyone, close your eyes and clear your minds. For the next five doboshes, I want everyone to concentrate on their breathing.”

That’s easy enough. Lance thought. He closed his eyes on Coran’s orders and focused on the way he breathed. He inhaled deeply, feeling the way his diaphragm expanded then slowly blew out his breath through his nose.

The first time they’d done this, Lance couldn’t stop himself from thinking of his family. The images of their faces were engraved into his mind and the sounds of their voices would play in his ears like a record player. Now, it was easier to keep his memories of them from invading his meditative blankness. It pained him deeply that he could barely remember what they sounded like let alone recall the exact details of their facial features. He didn’t like to think about that, though.

“Now concentrate,” Coran’s voice wafted into the training room, soft and smooth. “Try to feel the presence of the others around you, but don’t connect. Only feel.”

That was easy enough.

Lance focused on the blankness. He kept his mind at ease, made sure to clamp down hard on any image that involved his family in any way and reached out into the void for the person he knew was waiting for him on the other side. He felt the warmth of Keith’s mental presence before he actually saw him. Coran had told them not to connect, but it was hard to keep himself out of Keith’s mind, especially when they were so physically close.

Keith probed back, acknowledging Lance’s presence.

“Connect with each other, but keep it surface level for now.” They heard Coran say, his voice oddly muffled.

Lance felt the others probe into his mind. He steeled himself, suddenly anxious. He felt careful, yet hesitate probes of Hunk, who prodded carefully on the memory of their first encounter in the garrison. Pidge followed soon after, her probing more curious and bold. Shiro’s presence felt uncertain, as though he doubted his reasoning for connecting with the others. (They flooded him with thoughts of kindness and assurance and played images of Shiro’s best moments through their eyes to calm him.)

Allura’s presence in his mind felt as elegant as she looked, yet uncomfortably strong and powerful. A part of him grew embarrassed as memories of her played through his mind without control. He sensed her humor before her own memories of Lance flashed before his eyes.

“Excellent! You guys are doing wonderful! Now try to probe a little deeper, but be mindful of everyone’s privacy!”

Going deep was not something Lance wanted to do. He felt various waves of hesitance wash through him from his fellow paladins. Hunk was more of an open book. He was the first to open himself to them and accepted their careful examining. Images of his family and friends played through Lance’s eyes. They were memories of Hunk’s youth, from his earliest memories to his time in the Garrison. He laid himself out bare for them all until the image of Shay popped into Lance’s eyes.

Suddenly, Hunk’s embarrassed warmth flooded through them like a wave.

He broke out of their connection.

“Hunk!” Lance heard Coran call. “You were doing so well!”

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean for them to see that.”

They each pulled out of the meld.

“I thought it was sweet,” Allura smiled warmly. “What a beautiful memory.”

“Aw, Hunk has a girlfriend,” Pidge teased.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He clarified with a sniff. “I didn’t get a chance to ask.”

“Well, maybe you should the next time we find the Balmera,” Keith suggested.

“You think she’d say yes?”

“Why wouldn’t she? She’d be crazy not to.” Lance patted his shoulder. “You’d make a great boyfriend! Maybe even better than me. Probably. Maybe. That’s still debatable.”

The Samoan chuckled. “Thanks, buddy.”

“Should we try again?” Shiro asked.

The Paladins settled back into a meditative trance. Quicker than before, they fell into the first layer of the mind meld, and with Coran’s instructions, they dived one level deeper.

Lance felt his palms begin to sweat. In the back of his mind, he visualized the locked door he kept his memories behind. A sense of familiar curiosity swept through him. He realized, belatedly, that was Pidge’s curious nature who probed into his mind and grazed her senses against the door.

Alarm shot through him. Don’t. Don’t open that.

Keith joined Pidge then Hunk. They each investigated around the door, various emotions radiated from them and into Lance. He urged them to move on, but they persisted. He flooded their minds with memories of the beach from an alien planet – it looked remarkably like the beach in Cu—Lance thought about the various alien females he’d flirted with on their journey.

Keith’s irritation came to him from the memory.

An image from the Garrison assaulted his senses. In it was a freshman Cuban boy, pimples marred his brown skin but blue eyes wide with excitement. He was all gangly with long limbs and barely any muscles – he looked excited.

Lance felt embarrassment wash through him. He could already feel the amused and teasing emotions from the others until the memory shifted. Young Lance stood with his father. He loomed over the boy, eyes dark and unkind. His arms were crossed against his chest, his lips moved though the words spoken were unintelligible in their ears.

But Lance remembered.

And just like that, sound came into the memory. His father spoke harshly, his words were not in English but the meaning was clear.

Lance ripped himself from the circle.

“What the heck you guys?!” He snapped. “Why are you probing around in my head when I just told you not to!?”Keith plucked the helmet from his head and stared into the anxious expression of his partner. “What… was that?”

Lance bristled. “That was you guys invading my privacy, that’s what that was!”

“Lance—”

“Oh no, don’t ‘Lance’ me, Keith! Did you guys completely ignore what I was sending?”

“Why was your dad yelling at you?” Pidge frowned. “And what was with that door?”

“None of your business!” he snapped. “We’re supposed to be bonding, not invading my privacy like that!” He threw the helmet to the ground in frustration then turned on his heel. “I’m gonna cool down. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Wait, Lance–!”

He marched out of the room without a look back.

Memories of his father flooded into Lance’s mind hours after the mind meld. Having seen the man clear as day through the altean machine brought forth unpleasant experiences he thought he’d long since forgotten.

The very first time Lance had developed a crush on a boy and foolishly told his parents about it played before his eyes like an unwanted film reel. He could already hear the gruff accented voice of his father berate him for his stupidity, could practically feel the disgusted rage that rolled from his body as he switched from English to Spanish and called Lance a plethora of names he never wanted to hear again.

The time Lance had failed to get into the Garrison as a fighter pilot pushed into the forefront of his mind. The sheer disappointment his father faced him with when, instead of becoming a fighter pilot, he’d been placed into the cargo pilot division, had haunted the boy’s dreams for years. But his words were the worst part of the memory:

“Me has decepcionadouna y otraves. Me avergüenza que seas mi hijo.”

Lance’s hands formed into a fist. He slammed it against the wall beside his door, hoping the action would dispel the mixture of rage and heartbreak swirling in his chest.

“Lance!”

Keith came around the corner and hurried toward him. He opened his mouth to say something but, much to Lance’s surprise, he snapped it shut. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around the lankier boy and held him tight.

“I’m sorry,” He murmured. “You were right. We invaded your privacy and that was wrong of us.” He pulled them apart, far enough to stare into the boy’s face. “You know I’m not very good with emotions and, uh, personal stuff but… Lance… you can talk to me. If you want to.” He added on hastily. “Not as your leader but as y-you know, as your partner.”

Lance heaved a heavy sigh. “Man, you really have a hard time saying ‘boyfriend’, don’t you?”

Keith blushed. “It’s not like I ever had one of those before! Talking is something we’re supposed to do right?” He grabbed Lance’s hand and stepped toward the door. It slid open with a quiet whoosh and pulled him inside. “So let’s talk!”

Keith led him to the bed and sat him down. He joined him stubbornly and stared intently into the Cuban boy’s face. Lance couldn’t help the small smile from creeping along his lips. They were still holding hands.

“I’m not going to force you to talk about it, but I’m here.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.” Lance took advantage of their close proximity and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder. “My dad is old fashioned. When I was little, I did a lot of things that disappointed him and scolding me was just… one of those ways.”

“He called you a fag, Lance.”

Lance pulled away, surprised. “How do you know that? He was speaking Spanish.”

“You’re bilingual. Your memories translated themselves.” Keith stared intently into Lance’s eyes. “That wasn’t the first time he’s called you that and I’m willing to bet he’s called you a bunch of other names too, hasn’t he?”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly tired.

“Yeah, he’s called me a lot of things, but like I said, my dad is old fashioned. He doesn’t do well with expressing emotions so calling me names was just one way of doing that. Its okay, Keith, really. You get used to it.”

He felt the older boy’s grip grow tighter on his own. Keith’s eyes were comforting despite the barely contained ranger swimming within them. Lance leaned back onto his shoulder in the hopes of appeasing him.

“What about the locked door?” Keith asked after a few minutes of silence. “Does that have something to do with your dad?”

“My family mostly.” He sighed. “I love them and I miss them more than I can bear, but I didn’t… I didn’t want to burden anyone with those kinds of feelings anymore. We all have family.”

Even when Lance’s father berated him for his stupidity, even when he was called faggot or queer or told that he would someday perish in hell because of his unnatural sexuality; his “disgusting” effeminate behavior; his failure as a fighter pilot or his borderline, unnatural obsession for “besting” his rival – Lance still loved his dad.

He was a flawed man. He was only human after all.

Keith rubbed small, soothing circles into Lance’s back. He couldn’t recall how they had ended up in this position, him on top of the Red Paladin as they laid comfortably on his bed, but Lance wasn’t complaining.

“I’m sorry.”

Lance frowned in confusion. “For what?”

“For trying to snoop. I know we haven’t been dating for long, but I… I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted to get to know you better, outside of our stupid rivalry.”

“Hey man, our rivalry is not stupid! It got your attention didn’t it?”

Keith laughed. “Oh yeah, sure it did.”

Lance nuzzled into the boy’s neck. He heard his father’s voice playback in his mind calling him disgusting for daring to cuddle with another man and the shame he would bring upon his family if they ever found out. He should have felt disappointed in himself, perhaps even a little terrified, but Lance found, much to his surprise, that he wasn’t worried. Instead, he felt hopeful—hopeful for the chance to come back to Earth as an intergalactic hero and maybe even proud of who he is.

He stared up Keith, who gazed off into the ceiling looking thoughtful.

Maybe he’ll get the chance to show off Keith to his family someday.

[velkynkarma]

End of Year Meme 2018

@bosstoaster tagged me a while ago for this here so here I am late to the party as always.  (Note: Failsafe was posted in 2018 but I counted it towards 2017 because it was written fully in that time period, so it doesn’t count this year). The Greatest Challenge ~ 49663 words (Shiro and Ryou centric, exchange fic with @bosstoaster ) A Long Night ~ 2359 words (Shiro and Ryou centric) The Red Bayard ~ 6914 words (Lance and Keith centric, for @platonicvldweek ) Color Theory ~ 7574 words (Ryou centric, for @platonicvldweek ) Innervate ~ 18503 words (Shiro and Ryou centric, for @platonicvldweek ) Break Even ~ 4312 words (Matt and Shiro centric) Window Shopping ~ 3391 words (Ryou, Lance and Hunk centric) Genesis ~ 32545 words (AU, ensemble, for @platonicvldweek ) Patience is a Virtue ~ 7349 words (Ryou and Slav centric) Paying Respects ~ 4967 words (Shiro centric, about Kuron)  Talking in Tandem ~ 11559 words (Shiro and Ryou centric) 149136 The Best Lies ~ 13814 words (Shiro and Ryou centric)  Need a Hand ~ 2923 words (Shiro centric) Target Practice ~ 3834 words (Ryou and Lance centric)  Little Crystals ~ 24515 - 19627 = 4888 additional words (Assorted prompts & characters) Familiar Faces ~ 72730 words total written with @bosstoaster (Shiro and Ryou centric....times two lol). Of that, about 38,172 is mine. This thing that still doesn’t have a title ~ 3952 words (Keith-centric, set in Parallel by Proxy universe) Total Fics: 17 (counting Little Crystals prompts as 1) Total Words: 216,719 Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown: You’ve come to the wrong writer if you’re expecting anything here Character breakdown (all counts based on -centric or focus for a character, with or without the inclusion of other chars):  10 Ryou-centric or Ryou-focus 9 Shiro-centric or Shiro-focus 3 Lance-centric or Lance-focus 2 Keith-centric or Keith focus 1 Hunk-centric or Hunk-focus 1 Slav-centric or Slav-focus 1 Matt-centric or Mat-focus Plus 1 Ensemble fic and assorted prompts & characters

Characters that had the main focus: Shockingly Ryou actually pulled ahead of even Shiro in this....but only by 1, and only because Color Theory is really just about him, and not both of them. 

Specifics:

Best/worst title? Best title:  Break Even happened on a whim but I actually like that it works on multiple levels. To break even colloquially means to come out without gains or losses (which happens in the course of the fic when Shiro and Matt come to terms with each others’ part in their capture and escape, or lack of rescue). But it can also more literally mean to have been broken, but as cleanly as possible, meaning they may be damaged but it can be fixed if handled well. Worst title:  The Greatest Challenge is kind of bland but I really struggled to find anything that would work. It ended up being too similar to its inspiration, The Most Dangerous Game, though.

Best/worst first line? Best first line: From Paying Respects, “Adjusting to being alive again is…difficult.” Because what a way to open (and also I feel a lot of people didn’t really give this part of Shiro-being-brought-back-to-life much consideration). Worst first line: From Color Theory: “Hey. Ryou. Got a second?” Because I just realized while looking for this that literally the fic prior to it I used the exact same opening line and now I’m kicking myself.

Best/worst last line? Best Last Line: Ooooh this is tough because there are a LOT of good last lines this year with some gut-punching impact. Here’s my faves: Need a Hand:  “Excellent,” Commander Holt says, shaking his hand gently but firmly, sealing the deal. “I stand by what I said last year, Cadet Shirogane. You are going to be the greatest pilot this world has ever seen.” Paying Respects: But he was free. He was home. And Shiro, at least, will respect him and remember him for what he was and what he’d wanted to be. Because he’d known. And because nobody else will. A Long Night: He never does sleep again, that night. Worst Last Line: From Color Theory again (I swear I like this fic): “And they spar.” Just a generally weak ending. The good stuff was all in the middle and I wasn’t really sure how to close it, and it shows.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? More than I anticipated, considering. 2018 was a very stressful, very bad year for me for personal reasons. Stress means no writing. I’m genuinely shocked I kicked out even half as much as I did.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? I don’t think I intended for Parallel by Proxy to get as big as it did, so I guess ‘AU’ in a way? Or just...a series? What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. I’m with @bosstoaster on this one, my favorite was our collab fic Familiar Faces. It was super fun to figure it out together as well as a great challenge. Plus it was really nice to actually fic-ify the goofy chat ideas we’d talked about for ages if our respective renditions of Ryou and Shiro actually met. Plus we’d been working on it since June 2018 so it took up a great deal of the year, a lot of work, and a lot of focus, but it had a lot of reward.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. By kudos this is technically Failsafe and Little Crystals, but both counted for last year so I don’t think they qualify here. Sooo....looks like it’s Familiar Faces lol.

However if we’re going by bookmarks, Paying Respects took the unquestionable lead. Story most underappreciated by the universe? Genesis. Hands down. Something I completely expected, since it’s a self-indulgent AU/Crossover fic regarding one of my favorite Playstation 1 era games Legend of Legaia, which virtually nobody has heard of. I wrote it to be accessible to people even if they didn’t know the source material, but people generally aren’t willing to step into a crossover like that unless they A) know the source material already or B) really trust the author.  Story that could have been better? I see a lot of edits that should be made or errors when I go back to every single one of these stories on the list, but none of them stand out as ‘I fucked up somewhere.’ Sexiest story?

Saddest story? Ahahaha there were....a lot. Probably Paying Respects since it was a response to Kuron essentially being murdered at the end of season 6 and nobody seemed to care. But A Long Night is also painfully bitter (only fixed somewhat by the fact that the reader knows by then Ryou will get better). Most fun? Familiar Faces was the most fun technically along all stages of the writing process since I was working with @bosstoaster for that. I was also in a no-motivation phase at the time we were actively writing this, but the fact that I was working on it with another person and I knew toaster was relying on me to finish my part really kept me excited about writing my parts. So I had a lot of fun just trading off and sharing pieces as we went. Without other people being involved, probably Genesis. Again, completely self-indulgent based on a favorite game. I had a lot of fun replaying the game to get details and a lot of fun playing with the universe. It practically wrote itself. I still want to go back to it. Story with single sweetest moment? This question is tricky because I do bittersweet more than actual sweet haha. I’m not really a cute/fluff writer.  If going for pure good feels/charm though, I guess the scene in Color Theory when Allura gives Ryou (actual, decent) advice on how to choose his color (and subsequently, how to identify what he considers important about himself) was pretty sweet. It’s too long to post here though.

Hardest story to write? Target Practice. Guns scare the ever loving shit out of me, I know nothing about them, and I want nothing to do with them. But I wanted to write things accurately, which meant research. Research was watching police training and instructional videos for hours to try and get the accuracy right. I can only hope I did it justice.

Easiest/most fun story to write? Paying Respects. Not ‘fun’ exactly but it just...happened. It’s the only fic I’ve ever did as a ‘reaction’ fic within 24 hours of the source material posting, I never get things planned and worked out that fast. Kuron’s death hurt me and he needed justice ASAP, and a lot of friends out there needed some closure for him.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? Not really. If I had to give an answer I guess I’d say Familiar Faces helped me learn @bosstoaster ‘s Ryou a little better, but he’s not a canon character.

Most overdue story? Parasite Knight sequel Also a fic I’m working on right now that I’d been working on since season...4? This one actually is guaranteed to make it though.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Yes, with Familiar Faces. Working with another writer is tough but rewarding! I also stepped outside my area of expertise by tackling Parallel by Proxy to keep an ongoing series maintained. 

What are your fic writing goals for next year? I have a lot of scattered ideas I’d like to hit. I definitely want to explore some little-used characters or side characters in actual plots. I also have a couple AU’s or more ambitious ideas that I’d like to try and buckle down to tackle, in part thanks to encouragement by @bosstoaster and @butteredonions

Whew! Okay. That was long. I won’t tag anyone but feel free to do this if you like :)

[butteredonions]

End-Of-Year Fic Meme

IT’S BAAAAACK!

I’m tagging anyone and everyone who would like to have fun with this. @bosstoaster, @velkynkarma, @ashinan, @mumblefox, @flusteredkeith, @atimelordswife, @oldmythos, @queenvallkyrie, @maychorian, @andriseup, and anyone else who wants to play!

[2017 onion edition]

Stats:

List of Fics Posted: They’re all Voltron :’) All gen unless otherwise indicated.

On Tumblr: Onion 2017 Masterpost: 10,800 words voltron thinktank masterpost: my portion of which equals ~5200

On AO3: The Size Of Our Actions, ch. 6-12 (smol!Shiro, de!aged fic, gen. 40,081 words added this year) The Cavalry (Paladins, adventure/mission fic. Conclusion of a 4-part series with @bosstoaster, @mumblefox, and @ashinan as part of the Season Two countdown. (9,644 words) First Steps (Lance-centric, Star Wars!AU) (9696 words) Foundation (Keith-centric, Star Wars!AU, prequel to First Steps) (8982 words) Intrinsic (Star Wars!AU featuring Padawan Shiro) (1219 words) Disturbance (Star Wars!AU, sequel to First Steps) (18915 words) like threads, weaving (Uliro, collection of 5 prompt fills) (5338 words) brace (Uliro​) (2532 words) collision (Uliro, role reversal AU of sorts) (10455 words) cutthroat (Lance-centric, Hunger Games!AU) (1363 words) colors don't fade (Keith-centric, remix for @andriseup) (2625 words) parallel (daemon!AU, primarily Keith and Pidge) (5656 words) if tomorrow never comes (time!travel AU, onion’s first Sheith) (4195 words) indulgence (Uliro featuring blankets and h/c) (1859 words) enough to endure this (Uliro soulmate AU) (4916 words) relentless (Hunger Games!AU, prequel of sorts. Shiro-centric, tagged as pre-Sheith) (3217 words)

Total number: 16, plus tumblr Total word count: 144,156 * ( tumblr: 15,995 | AO3: 128,161) *not counting another 100k+ of drafts that have yet to see the light of day :’)

Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown: 5 Uliro, 2 Sheith. The rest are gen. Character breakdown:  1 full ensemble piece; 1 smol!Shiro with complete ensemble (no single narrator, everyone gets a turn); 1 young!Shiro; 3 Lance-centric, featuring others; 3 Keith-centric (one with help from Pidge); 3 Ulaz POV. The rest are all Shiro :)

Characters that had the main focus: Exactly the same as last year: Shiro is the clear winner here. I have no regrets.

Answers to more questions beneath the cut!

Specifics:

Best/worst title? Best title: I am that rare breed of creature who loves titles :’) this year it’s a tie between collision and if tomorrow never comes. Both give me chills for different reasons. Worst title: I’m not really fond of cutthroat or relentless, but they’re accurate.

Best/worst first line?

The second-best and sometimes most evil part of a story. Best: if tomorrow never comes      Of all the reasons why Shiro had missed their date, ‘time travel’ is the last thing Keith expects to hear.     :’)

Worst: colors don’t fade     Finding out about Shiro hurts. Yeah, definitely, but also the understatement of the year. Something more riveting and gripping would’ve been a stronger opening for Keith here.

Best/worst last line? The best and also most evil part, too. Best: cutthroat      “My name’s Pidge,” Pidge snaps. The setting sun gleams in her glasses, her brown eyes vicious and hard. “District Three. Who are you?” One of the best plot twists and cliffhangers I pulled off all year.

Worst: colors don’t fade      “That’s Shiro’s number,” Commander Holt says, to the room, to his daughter, to Keith. His face is pale and equally full. Keith can barely breathe. “117-9875 is Shiro’s number. If his file’s here - if he’s in penal lockdown like my son is - then the Arena didn’t kill him after all.” Honestly it’s a good ending, I just don’t like it because I had more story to tell and ran out of time. This one’s entirely on me. There’s more here than I could get to and that irks me.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Bit less. I’d planned on finishing two major WIPs this summer, but grad school and The Move™ took over so much more of life than I expected.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? I wasn’t expecting to foray into ships. I also wasn’t expecting to realize how deeply I love blankets and fluff omg What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. collision :) I love the premise and I’m stupidly proud of the pacing.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. I still have to count smol!Shiro, because it’s still in progress and it still isn’t done. Catch me next year on the wrap-up, too, hopefully with a finished thing~

Story most underappreciated by the universe? daemon!AU got a little less attention than I expected, but in hindsight it was a pretty busy time for folks and the pieces were quite short.

Story that could have been better? I really wish I could’ve spent more time on colors don’t fade. There was at least one more scene I wanted to write, but I ran out of time and energy for it pre-season four, and brooke had already patiently waited long enough. I wanted to do better for her. I also am not super happy with how The Cavalry turned out, but considering I wrote it when I had bronchitis, I guess it’s not bad.

Sexiest story? I started writing ships this year, so I guess.....that? it’s really mild ship as far as ship goes, though, hardly even noticeable most of the time. I don’t read hardcore ship so I don’t know how to write it beyond pining and snuggles, and I’m comfortable with that. Saddest story? enough to endure this. Most fun? collision practically wrote itself, which was awesome. Actually, so did First Steps - I grin wildly when I reread it. I miss writing fun scenes like the first half of that story. Story with single sweetest moment? The entirety of Smol Chapter Nine is so sweet and fluffy it gives me cavities. Also I giggled like a smol child myself writing it, so.

I also am just so partial to this moment in relentless:

Winning means killing three others. No; forty-seven. The odds aren’t good. “Keith,” Shiro manages. “I brought you something,” Keith says, pulling away to dig in his pocket. “Here.” A thin beam of sunlight breaks through the window, glinting weakly off the small copper object in Keith’s hand. “Keith,” Shiro says again, his breath caught in his throat. He cups his hands beneath Keith’s; the little rusted key dangles on the string between Keith’s fingers, between their hands. “I can’t take that from you, that’s - that goes to your father’s - ” “The shack’s a dump and we both know it,” Keith says, before Shiro can. His eyes shimmer, but his chin is set firm. “I need you to take it.” “I can’t,” Shiro breathes. He can’t take his eyes off Keith. “Keith, that’s all you have.” “No, you’re all I have,” Keith corrects, and pushes the key into Shiro’s right hand.

Hardest story to write? Probably The Cavalry, just because of circumstances. I gleefully volunteered to wrap-up the series, and had fun tying all the pieces together, but the timing just wasn’t good. I had to wait until all three other pieces were complete, as well as my grad school applications, and then I got bronchitis and was traveling that same weekend....just couldn’t dedicate myself to it properly or clear my head as much as it deserved.

Easiest/most fun story to write? collision wrote itself, I swear.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? Yes. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with writing Ulaz, and how much fun he’s been to explore and develop based off a mere ten minutes of content. I also wasn’t expecting to enjoy writing Lance as much as I did. I put off using his POV for a story until there wasn’t a choice, but he’s actually quite a fun narrator. He’s so stream-of-consciousness that he’s surprisingly easy and relatable to get into.

Most overdue story? parallel was at least a year in coming. I sat on those snippets for entirely too long.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? This year I posted my first sheith fic, and nobody died :) Which sounds irrational to someone outside the fandom, sure, but I’m glad and relieved. This year I took risks in taking prompts and learning how to answer them. That’s largely been nothing but fun, though I’ve had to learn how to say no to a few things and not feel guilty for them. It’s also been a great lesson in learning when good enough is fine and not waiting until things are perfect. Also, a fantastic way to keep writing and/or get back into it. All the prompts you’ve sent in have been motivating and fun to think about, even if I haven’t gotten to / or won’t quite get to them as I’d hoped. <3 I also learned it’s way easier to start ideas than finish them; fun, yes, but something I’m hoping to improve upon next year.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

1) Figure out a writing schedule that works with grad school, if that’s even possible. 2) Finish things, including: - The Size Of Our Actions - collision - maybe the epic star wars fic I’ve now been sitting on for a year and a half - and at least one of the AUs (Hunger Games, Star Wars, etc. or....?) 3) Boss has told me I should stop being scared of writing sick!fic

:) happy new year and 2018!

[ilovelocust]

As much as I love the idea of the prince of flowers and the chapters, especially the scene with lances mom bevause I feel like that's so realistic if the disease was actually real. I don't know how I geel that Lance is guiltiing Keith into the relationship. Like I know it's to set up for the relationship not being healthy, but I kinda wonder what it have been like if Lance kinda let fate decide like all the movies he watches (Though this scenario works too). And then Hunk or his mom spills it+

To keith. Like that scenerio, and then having it go from there with Keith not knowing how to confront Lance about it, and Lance being oblivious to the fact that Keith knows, and then they have a confrontation about it. Kinda like how the story is now, except some parts in reverse leading to the museum date, and Lance spilling his feelings. I guess I’m actually fine with the lance thing, if only certain things kinda built up to Lance having no choice but to tell Keith or something.

There are quite a few fics with the set up you are thinking of. In fact this one was inspired by one such fic.

Honestly though, it wouldn’t feel very in character to have Lance keep it under wraps eternally. Lance isn’t like Keith, who bottles things up and either never talks about it (his issues with thinking he was half-galra) or only talks about it when confronted (pulling away from the team and becoming part of the BoM). 

When Lance has a problem he talks about it. We find out about all Lance’s issues because he talks about them to someone. He felt homesick, he brought it up to somebody. He feels he doesn’t have a thing on the team, he talks to the first alien he runs into about it. He worries about his position in Red when Shiro comes back, he beelines to Keith’s room to talk to him. The Blue Lion won’t open up, he confesses his fears to Allura. Lance doesn’t bottle, Lance shares and deals with his issues by talking them over with other people. Even if he’s only using those other people as sounding boards for his own thoughts.

Having Lance not talk might be good for a Lance centric fic where sympathy needs to be drummed up for a very unsympathetic action (essentially threatening to commit suicide unless Keith loves him back), but it’s not very true to how he’d respond to the issue if he found himself in this position.

Sorry if my answer is a little long and argumentative. I’ve just thought on this issue a lot before I actually decided to write this fic.

[ladyvialana]

Fic: Coming Home

First part of the Realignment series

Voltron: Legendary Defender fic. Keith-centric

Summary: After the battle, Keith needs to decompress. So do the other paladins.

Notes: post season 4, 4x06 coda, team bonding, friendship, fluff, hugs, (so many hugs), pre-relationship Keith/Lance (practically non-existent)

Also on Ao3

No one said a word as they made their way to the control room. Kolivan had arrived to debrief with a few members of the Blade to help with Lotor. The rest of his available troops were sent to assist with the few pockets of Galra resistance on now-freed planets. Coran was helping patch up some of the injured rebels who rendezvoused with the castle early with Keith after the attack on Haggar’s cruiser. Matt was unhurt and joined them in the control room.

The Voltron Alliance had succeeded. A third of the Galra Empire had fallen to their combined attack. The scattered rebellions and pockets of guerrilla resistance had united for a common cause and celebrations abounded in several systems.

The paladins of Voltron and their close allies, however, stood around the viewscreen in the control room in silence and stared at the image of one of their most elusive foes as he slept quite peacefully despite his captivity. Lotor was set up in unused quarters with two Marmora guards stationed outside at all times. It hardly seemed fair, considering their own state of exhaustion. They were confident enough to declare an overall victory, but battle still raged on some planets. They were still needed to assist with the few Galra left that were too powerful and stubbourn to be worn down by the rebels and the Blade alone.

Shiro surveyed the map, Coran on call from the med bay to help, and sent them on their assignments. It was unlikely that Voltron was needed, but the Lions would do a great deal on their own—not just in terms of firepower but for morale too.

Shiro gave in to Hunk’s pleading and sent him and Allura to where the Balmerans were helping take down a Galra fortress with a stockpile of weapons and food. Pidge and Lance were assigned to help the Taujeerian main force with a few tricky holdouts. Most of the other battles were wrapping up, but Shiro was staying on the castle to keep in contact with all the forces in case something went sideways. Kolivan offered to help while Coran was occupied and Matt was shuffled by his sister into Pidge’s chair to help run comms and keep track of external movement by using their improved Galra finder.

Keith hung back, watching everyone move determinedly to their next mission. A sharp ache pulled at his stomach seeing Lance disappear behind the door leading to Red’s hangar. He hadn’t forgotten what it was like on the castle, not really, but he didn’t realise how much he’d miss it once he was here and no longer an active part of the team.

Rather than sinking into the heartache, he focused on the still-open viewscreen displaying Lotor’s room and watched the Galra prince sleep.

“Keith.” The call drew his attention back to the control room. Shiro turned around to look at him from the Black Paladin seat. “You should go get checked out by Coran.”

Keith opened his mouth to protest, but Shiro had already turned back to the maps in front of him. Kolivan, standing next to Shiro, nodded at him, making Shiro’s request an order.

Matt caught his gaze as he turned to leave, offering a sympathetic smile. Keith couldn’t manage to return it, despite the gratitude he felt from the small gesture.

It was strangely easier to breathe once he was out in the familiar corridors of the castle. Even though he still felt that same aching homesickness, it was easier to bear without anyone from his team around staring at him. He took to long route to the med bay, enjoying refamiliarising himself with the castle. He debated stopping by his room to get a change of clothes, but it would make more sense to change after Coran had seen him.

The med bay was far more crowded than Keith had ever seen it. Most of the pods were occupied and a few of the uninjured rebels were by the beds helping Coran deal with minor burns and lacerations. However, as soon as Coran spotted Keith hovering awkwardly by the doorway, he rushed over to pull him into a hug almost as tight and encompassing as one of Hunk’s.

“I’m so very glad you’re safe my boy.”

Keith froze in Coran’s grip. The older Altean was quite free with expressing his emotions, but he rarely used such overt touch to do so—he was more prone to a hand on the arm or a brief squeeze around the shoulders (Pidge got a regular pat on the head as she passed and Lance a slap on the back). Keith was just getting used to the affection so freely offered by his team and, having been deprived of it while with the Blade of Marmora, it was startling to be surrounded by such warmth again. Startling, but very welcome.

Before Coran could pull back and brush off his over-emotional state, Keith closed his eyes and leaned into the embrace.

Coran’s hand slid up his back to hold his neck firmly and Keith let himself be guided into the crook of Coran’s neck. His breath hitched and he started trembling as Coran gently stroked his hair.

“Oh my boy. You’re safe now.”

Keith let himself believe the whispered words. He hid from the injured rebels in the med bay by curling further into Coran, his fingers grasping the back of Coran’s uniform. He let himself feel—all of it: the fear, the pain, the panic, the dread, the loneliness—and released all of his emotions, sobbing on Coran’s shoulder until there was nothing left but the safety and warmth Coran promised.

Keith found himself in his old room once Coran let him go after assuring himself that Keith wasn't injured. He sank into his bed, body already losing the remaining tension as he lay on the familiar mattress and breathed in the stale scent of home .

He closed his eyes and just breathed.

Though he'd probably laid there for several vargas, it felt like Keith had barely closed his eyes before he was startled into full wakefulness by a knock on the door. His luxite blade was already in his hand, a recent habit he knew would be difficult to break.

The knocking persisted.

“Keith?” Hunk’s voice carried through the closed door. “I know you're in there. Coran said he gave you a clean bill of health. I just really needed to see for myself. Keith?”

Keith groaned as he sat up and slung his legs over the side of the bed. The battles that day had been intense and he wasn't used to flying a Galra fighter. The seats and controls were just different enough to be awkward for longer flights. His muscles were all twisted up in painful knots. Maybe he shouldn't have been so hasty to turn down Coran's offer of a salve.

“Keith, you know I have no compunction about rewiring your lock and breaking in. So, if you’re having some alone time playing with your——”

Keith opened the door to see Hunk, still in uniform, hunched over the outside door control with his tools already deep in the wiring.

Hunk’s eyes widened when Keith opened the door and he took a moment to visually assess if Coran was right to let Keith go. Then his gaze caught on the knife still in Keith’s grasp and he smirked.

“I see I was interrupting. But you can polish your blade later. Tuck that thing away and get ready. I am in need of serious reassurance.”

Keith barely had time to register the innuendo, much less sheathe his knife, before Hunk grabbed him—pulled him right off the ground!—for one of the best hugs of his life. He didn’t freeze this time, far more used to Hunk’s random shows of affection. He wrapped his arms around Hunk and squeezed back, smiling at the delighted laugh it provoked.

They had to have been standing there almost five dobashes (maybe more, Keith really didn’t care, he’d missed this) before they were interrupted.

“No fair! I called first dibs on hugs!”

Hunk snorted, setting Keith back down and stepping back so Pidge could tackle Keith.

Keith yelped and stumbled back, but instinctively wrapped his arms around Pidge’s shoulders as he crashed against the wall. Hunk snickered at them and pulled out his phone to get a photo. Keith just rolled his eyes and smiled down at Pidge.

Maybe he was just imagining it, but he didn’t think he had to look down as far as he used to. “Did you hit a growth spurt while I was away?”

“Jerk.” Pidge pulled back to slug him on the arm before snuggling back into his chest. Yeah, she was definitely taller. Not by much, but enough that he could feel the tips of her unruly locks tickling his chin without hunching down to meet her embrace. Her grip was firmer too. She was shaking, but her hands were like iron nails pinning him in place.

When she pulled back, Keith was able to take in both of their appearances properly. He'd barely had a chance to greet them on the bridge earlier before they'd been sent away to wrap things up. He frowned, as he looked them over, reaching out to brush his fingers over a smear of black soot on Pidge’s shoulder.

“I knew it was a rough mission, but how close was it really?”

“You mean before or after we found out the planet was a bomb?”

The three standing in Keith’s doorway turned to see Lance sauntering towards them, water packs in hand. He tossed one to each of them and practically inhaled his own.

He looked exhausted—they all did. Bruising under the eyes, greasy helmet hair, chapped lips that the water Lance brought barely helped. It was nothing too dissimilar to the way they looked and felt after other big missions, but suddenly all Keith could think about was how close he came to losing everyone he cared about.

Before Keith even realised what he was doing, he moved to where Lance stood, empty water pack crumpled in his hand, and leaned his forehead against Lance's shoulder. His arms slipped around Lance's waist and he tried not to fall apart again like with Coran.

Lance froze at the first touch and he could hear Hunk choking on water he swallowed the wrong way. He also heard the faint click from Pidge’s camera but really couldn't care about future blackmail when he was only now starting to breathe properly after what felt like years underwater.

“Aw, look, he really did miss us.” Hunk had regained enough breath to tease them with a hoarse voice.

Keith scowled against Lance's shoulder. The other paladin still hadn't moved. He started to pull away. If there was no reason for him to——

“Wait!” Lance's arms flew up and wrapped around Keith’s back, pulling them even closer together—chest to chest—as Keith tried to break the embrace. “Nonononono. Let me savour this rare and unique event for as long as I can without getting stabbed.”

Keith snorted at the teasing but closed his eyes and let Lance hold him.

He hadn’t lost them. His family was still here. And Keith did not want to let them go again.

In the end, Lance broke the embrace with a comment about Keith’s rank suit—not that Lance could really talk. The entire hallway smelled like stale sweat and smoke and ozone. Hunk suggested they all take a shower and loosen up before reconvening in the lounge. Pidge had managed to get a few weird vids from the Altean library they could watch and make fun of together and Matt had offered a few of his own collection to her for when they had some downtime. Hunk talked about making a few quick snacks while Pidge set up, teasing that Lance would barely be finished with his skincare routine before they were ready to settle in for a night’s entertainment. Keith just watched the interplay, as he’d often done before, with a faint smile on his face and a sense of peacefulness settling into his bones.

He really had missed this.

Normally, Keith’s routine showers didn’t take longer than a few dobashes. He cleaned himself thoroughly but perfunctorily, knowing that there were more important things to worry about than comfort. But this time he lingered, soaking in the spray of warm water, breathing in the humid air and letting the pressure of the water jets ease some of the ache from his muscles. He stretched out in the cubicle, watching droplets trail down his arms and cut through the grime of constant battle. He washed his hair, running his fingers through the locks and actually properly conditioned it with the stuff that Lance shoved at him months ago—insisting that the sight of Keith’s split ends offended him to his very core. He watched the water fall off his body and swirl down the drain and imagined that all the worry and pain and despair this last battle brought up washed away with it.

When he stepped out of the shower—skin tingling and refreshed, hair silky and light—he felt more clear-headed and human than he had in far too long.

His clothes were stiff with disuse, but the smell and texture were far more comforting than he expected. He even pulled on his gloves and jacket, just to complete the feeling of normality.

Hunk and Pidge were already in the lounge when he got there. Both were in their pyjamas. Keith had never worn his. They would probably feel almost as alien as wearing his Marmora suit to this sleepover. Pidge was at the projector control panel, hooking up her custom gear. She waved as she glanced up before focusing back on her work. Hunk smiled at him as he set down a tray of green chip-like savoury snacks and—were those milkshakes?!

Keith reached over to eagerly grab one but Hunk batted his hand away.

“Wait until we’re all here.”

Keith pouted but acquiesced, satisfying himself with stealing a chip. Hunk raised an eyebrow but let it go.

The door opened and Lance strode in, decked out in his robe and facemask, dragging a huge fluffy blanket with smaller blankets and pillows stacked on it behind him.

“Aw yeah!” Hunk skipped to the door to help him out. “Now this is a proper sleepover.”

He grabbed a few of the pillows and threw them at the floor in front of the lounges. Lance fussed over the placement of a few, frowning with a finger by his chin—not touching, he had better discipline than that with his routine—as he surveyed the look of the pile.

Keith just watched them argue over the spread of the blanket and thickness of various pillows. The whole scenario was ridiculous but he was just so happy to be there, watching his teammates try to instigate a pillow fight, that he didn’t even think about making a snarky comment.

Pidge came up beside him, leaning into his side and snickering as Hunk managed to land a hit on Lance’s backside as he was leaning over to steal the blanket back.

“Make sure you don’t hit the shakes!” She called out, halting the battle.

“Dude!” Lance dropped the pillows he was holding and zeroed in on the tray of goodies. “Hunk, buddy, you spoil us.”

“I try.” Hunk grinned and let his own pillows fall back to the floor. “So, did you manage to catch Allura?”

Lance’s smile dropped a little. “She said she’d try to come by but I think she’s still trying to process a few things about Nacxela. She was going to go see Coran after getting cleaned up.”

Hunk and Pidge nodded while Keith just stared, bewildered.

“That makes sense,” Hunk said. “And Shiro? Matt?”

Lance shook his head. “Matt might come by later but Shiro turned me down. He and Kolivan are talking with some of the rebel captains about what to do next. I asked him if he needed any help but …” Lance sighed. “Well, you know. Apparently things are cooling off? We’re supposed to be on standby, but even Kolivan was telling his troops to get some rest, so, I’m taking that as implicit confirmation that any Galra left on our side of the border are running scared and not a threat at all.”

“Nice.” Hunk sat down on the lounge and picked up the tray behind him. “In that case, let’s get this party started!”

Pidge whooped and jumped onto the lounge next to Hunk, scooping up her milkshake. Lance leaned over to grab two of them but before anyone could protest, he walked over to Keith and offered one to him.

“They’re pretty good.”

Keith took the proffered drink. “If Hunk made them, that’s a given.”

“Aw, shucks Keith.” Hunk held a hand to his heart. “That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to anyone. Just so you know though, I’m kinda taken.”

Pidge and Lance laughed as Keith blushed and sputtered. He thought about trying to protest but decided to keep what dignity he had left and just sat down next to Pidge and started drinking his milkshake.

He had trouble stopping with just a sip. It was absolutely amazing.

“Oh my god.” Keith practically moaned as he pulled off the straw. “I wanna make myself sick just drinking gallons of this.”

Hunk was actually blushing at the compliment. “I take it back: that is the nicest thing you’ve said to anyone ever. Who are you and what have you done with our moody swordsman?”

“Shut up,” Keith said around the straw in his mouth. He leaned over Pidge to shove at Hunk’s shoulder.

“Nevermind, there he is.” They all laughed at the familiar teasing.

Lance sat down next to Keith, making him feel warm and cosy instead of caged in and anxious like such close proximity with others normally did. But this was his team—his family—of course things were going to be different with them.

He settled back against the couch, reveling in the brief brushes of Lance and Pidge against his arms, and enjoyed the moment.

Keith woke to the sensation of fingers running through his hair. His nose twitched as he dragged himself back into full consciousness. He was safe, which was why he didn’t immediately go for his dagger, but he didn’t fully register why until he breathed in deeper and caught the faintly metallic floral scent of Lance’s mask. It was such a strange scent but it was so instinctively tied to Lance and castle night cycles in Keith's mind that he barely even thought about how flowers shouldn't remind him of blood and battle.

He tilted his head back, reluctantly pulling away from his spot curled up against Lance, and opened his eyes.

Allura knelt on the floor in front of the couch, dressed in her nightgown with her hair loose, reaching forward to brush his fringe away from his face.

“Come to join the party?” Keith’s words slurred, his tongue still half asleep like the rest of him.

Allura pulled her hand back and raised her eyebrow. “You've been spending too much time with Lance.”

Keith glanced at the sleeping paladin beside him and couldn't help his fond smile. “Maybe.”

Allura shared her own smile. “I just wanted to see how you were.”

Keith tried to sit up straighter and pay proper attention to the conversation, but Lance was attached to his side with a tight grip and Pidge’s legs were slung over his lap holding him in place. Her head was pillowed on Hunk’s stomach and she'd latched onto his arm like a teddy bear. Moving might wake all of them, so Keith gave up and shrugged at Allura's amused expression.

“I'm pretty sure I'm good.”

“So it would seem.”

Keith’s smile faded as he woke further and took in Allura properly. She might have seemed her usual impeccable self on the surface, but there was tension in her brow and her smile was too tight even if it was genuine. He recalled something Lance said about Allura and Naxcella.

“Are you alright?”

Allura blinked, startled by the question. “Of course.” Keith just stared at her and she sighed. “I will be.”

Keith nodded, accepting it for now. “Well, if you ever need to …  talk, or …” He fumbled to a halt, still not completely comfortable with acting as a pillar of support but better at offering and trying than he used to be.

Seeing his effort, Allura's smile softened. “Thank you Keith. I will certainly keep it in mind. But then, perhaps it will not be needed if Lance surprises me again with another insightful speech.”

Keith couldn’t help the short laugh escaping as he saw the bemusement on her face as she turned to look at Lance. “Yeah. He's actually pretty good at that.”

Lance, unaware of the scrutiny of his teammates, continued sleep��a small patch of drying drool gathering on his chin. Allura reached out to brush his hair like she had Keith and Lance smiled at the touch, relaxing further into Keith.

“It is good to have you back Keith,” Allura said as she stood up. Her smile felt like a blessing.

“Thanks Allura.”

Keith turned his head to watch her cross to the door and saw Matt and Shiro waiting beyond the threshold. Matt winked at Keith when he noticed him watching then turned to offer Allura his arm, bowing exaggeratedly and making her laugh. She didn’t take his arm but they did walk away together down the hall towards the sleeping quarters.

Shiro lingered by the open door.

Keith carefully lifted Pidge’s feet from his lap and slid forward—doing his best not to jostle Lance too much. Pidge was dead to the world as he set her legs back on the couch behind him, but Lance stirred when Keith pulled away from his side and let cool air fill the space between them. Keith leaned over to rest his hand against Lance’s hair much like Allura had and he settled, though he was still frowning in his sleep. His fingers flexed as though trying to clutch at something in his dreams.

Keith took a moment to look at his teammates, so peaceful in their rest despite some strange sleeping poses (Hunk was definitely going to have a crick in his neck when he woke) before walking over to Shiro.

He let the door close behind him, facing Shiro in the hallway so they wouldn’t disturb the others.

For a brief ridiculous moment, Keith was terrified that Shiro was about to say that he shouldn’t be there—that there was no place for him on the castle—the team—any more.

That fear was completely blown away when Shiro clasped his shoulder in a familiar comforting gesture and smiled down at Keith with relief and happiness.

“Matt told me everything,” Shiro said. Keith almost tensed up again but Shiro continued. “I am so proud of you. And so glad you’re alive.”

Keith felt tears gather in the corner of his eyes. He barely managed to croak out Shiro’s name before being pulled into Shiro’s heavy and warm embrace. He breathed deeply, letting the tears slide down his face, and allowed himself to bask in Shiro’s love.

Shiro’s hands trembled where they clutched at him. It was only just starting to dawn on Keith how awful it must have felt for Shiro to hear how close he came to losing Keith. They both had the rest of the team now, but before they’d only really had each other. It wasn’t just Keith who would lose someone if they were separated again; Shiro would be devastated too.

Keith tightened his hold on Shiro.

They were both exhausted by the days' battles but they stayed locked together until both of their faces were dry again.

Keith rubbed at his aching eyes as he stumbled back into the darkened lounge. Pidge and Hunk hadn’t moved, except for Pidge curling further around Hunk’s arm. Lance, however, had slid down to sprawl on his side on the bend of the couch, blanket tangling around his legs still planted on the floor where he’d been sitting upright. Keith shook his head and moved to rearrange Lance into a more comfortable position without waking him.

He was unsuccessful.

Lance’s hand reached out to grab his before he could try to move Lance. His eyes were still closed but Keith knew he was awake enough to register his surroundings.

“Y’okay?”

Keith stared at Lance’s brown hand wrapped around his pale wrist—a grip that should have felt like a chain holding him down but instead felt like an anchor keeping him from falling. He moved to sit back down next to Lance, shoving Lance up despite the quiet grumbling, and untangled the blanket to spread over both of their laps. He smirked as Lance retaliated for the disturbance by nuzzling his forehead into Keith’s shoulder with more force than needed to get comfortable.

“Yeah.” He breathed in, long and deep. “I think I am now.”

[plume8now]

Until You Learn to Love Yourself

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Ship:Can be seen as Klance (//Klangst)

Summary:  There was a crushing weight on his chest. On his heart. It kept pushing more and more everyday. It kept hurting him deep inside, and the day after was always worse than the previous one. No one noticed it. His little, tiny human anxiety wasn't important.

Warning: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Self-Esteem Issues, Langst, Lance-centric, Angst, Mental Instability, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Worth Issues, Insecure Lance, Homesickness, Just the seventh wheel thing, everything you want to cry for, save lance 2k17, Season 2 and 3 spoilers, angst & feels, keith cares, everyone cares, but Keith's the one here

A/N:  I've been dying in angst with S02 for Lance, and S03 didn't help. So here we go. Don't blame me for what you read because you have your own will and decided to click on this fic. Ah, and this is my first Voltron fanfiction! Inspired by this fanart I drew two days ago. As usual, thanking my beta @blueflamebird for correcting my dumb mistakes! Enjoy~ :D

Read it on AO3

“Maybe I'm just a goofball after all.”

“I'm just the fifth wheel. Seventh if you count Allura and Coran.”

“What am I even doing here?”

“I've been doing some maths...”

Lance looked at the ceiling, lying on his bed. He didn't turn on the lights. He didn't feel like having... luminosity all around him. Blinding clarity. Darkness was much better. Somehow, he felt at home in it.

There was a crushing weight on his chest. On his heart. It kept pushing more and more everyday. It kept hurting him deep inside, and the day after was always worse than the previous one.

No one noticed it.

And he was good with that. He was okay with that, because there was an entire galaxy to take care of. There were entire planets needing Voltron to free and save them, to lead to independence and to the end of the Galra Empire.

His little, tiny human anxiety wasn't important.

He wasn't “The One” for Blue, Shiro was back and Keith was perfect for Red. The first bond with the Lions was always... nothing could change that. And yet. Yet, he lost it.

And he really thought he could, maybe, just maybe, pilot Black? Voltron's head? The Lion? No. Of course not. That seat had to go to the bravest. The good leaders. Like Shiro. Shiro was a natural. And Keith- no wonder why Keith could do it.

Keith was excellent in everything he did. That was well known.

And he-? Lance wondered, how did he happen to get his lion in the first place?

He had felt so proud back then. Blue made him so happy. So alive. Almost valuable.

He was just borrowing Red. For now. He couldn't take Blue away from Allura, she, more than anyone else, deserved the Lion. And even if he wanted to, Blue had chosen her now. There was nothing he could do now. Allura was a fast learner, and way better than him.

Lance twitched a smile.

I'm just the fifth wheel after all.

Dang.

He'd tried.

He swears.

He'd tried.

He'd tried so hard.

Why wasn't it enough?

He missed his family so much.

He... he-

His fist grabbed his shirt where his heart was and he squeezed it, squeezed it so hard, as if it would break his feelings, his emotions, his thoughts.

He wanted to go back to Earth, oh, so bad.

He wanted his teenager life back. He wanted his carelessness back. He wanted his pranks with Hunk back. He wanted his fake hatred for Keith back. He wanted to joke around without getting exasperated looks and sighs. He wanted to flirt carelessly, without getting cold store and eyes roll.

He just wanted to be a teenager again.

His other hand hid his eyes, as if he was ashamed of his tears. Which was actually the case.

Lance Mcclain, you are so pathetic.

“Leave the maths to Pidge.”

Leave everything to everyone. Don't interfere. What could he do anyway? Pidge and Hunk were excellent engineers, Keith's the best pilot anyone's ever seen in their generation, no need to talk about Shiro, Allura or Coran.

He couldn't even cook like Hunk. What a burden.

“Lance? Can I-”

Lance jumped, suddenly brought back to present. His heart was pounding as if he had been caught doing something insane, idiotic or bad. He stared at the door, now opened, and the slight light coming into his bedroom, destroying his safe place, his dark comfort and thoughts. He, somehow, felt betrayed by this interruption.

Keith's voice broke silence again.

“Are you... are you crying?”

I'm not.

He entered the room.

I'm not.

Made one step.

I'm not.

Another.

Lance cleared his throat, trying to tell him.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

“I'm-”

Useless. His words died in his throat as soon as he tried.

He didn't think. He turned to the wall, showing his back to Keith. To his friend. To the Black, and Red Paladin.

Leave me alone.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. Keith didn't move, didn't turn on the light, didn't touch Lance, didn't talk. All that could be heard was their breath.

Leave. Please, just leave.

Keith sat on his bed. A hand, not so sure of what it was doing, touched his shoulder, and that was it. He could have left, ignoring what he'd seen. Ignoring his face drowned in the tears, because that was the best to do. Because everything was so much easier if no one noticed. If no one tried.

“You matter, Lance.”

The former Blue Paladin gasped. Tears came back, stronger than before. How could he say such a thing? How could he just come in here, do as he pleases, and throw words like these at his face?

At this moment, Lance hated him. He hated Keith for finding him in such a weak position, defenseless, dropping his happy mask and leaving himself drown into his insecurities. That was not supposed to change.

Next day, he was supposed to come back, and smile, and do silly jokes again to push away those feelings devouring his heart, just for the day, and getting back to them at night, as usual.

And nothing, no one was supposed to change it.

“You're an amazing sharp shooter.”

Lance's body shuddered. It hurt. It hurt so much.

Keith's moves naturally adapted to Lance's reactions, as if they'd already done that. As if they were both used to it.

“One of the best.”

Warm. He felt so warm in his arms. Something was tingling inside.

“I could have been hurt, or dead without you.”

No way. Not you.

“You got our back. You got my back.”

Sven got shot because of me.

“Don't step aside.”

I'm worthless.

“We need you.”

You're lying.

He sobbed. Keith's hold tightened and he felt better. Some of his pain, at least, a bit of it, seemed to leave with the tears.

“More than you think.”

He relaxed a bit, entirely giving up on his emotions, crying in arms, in the warmth of his body. The other Paladin's arm was already wet.

“We need you.”

Lance's hold on Keith tightened too, and Keith's heart felt like falling into pieces.

“I need you.”

As usual if you liked it please like, or even better, comment, or even better share, or even better do all three! :D Thanks for reading~

[thelastdaughterofkrypton]

The Beginning of a Hero’s Journey

Here’s my entry for the @voltron-ss for @ttsommam. When I saw the Historical AU the history minor in me got very excited lol. I recently took a class on ancient Greece, so I thought a little Persian Wars AU would be cool. Obviously it is not 100% historically accurate to fit in Voltron stuff. Hope you enjoy! Happy Holidays!

Only platonic ships in this fic. It is Pidge-centric (I mostly refer to her at Katie in the story), but the characters are a part of it.

Summary:

Katie decides to find what really happened to her father and brother in the Battle of Thermoylae. Her journey leads her to joining the Athenian navy and to new friends. 

Katie stared at her reflection in the water. Would she really be able to pull off this crazy plan? Looking at her brother’s old knife in her hand, she knew she had to try. It had only been almost a month since Matt disappeared with her father. They were not even supposed to be there in Thermoylae. There were only supposed to be Spartan soldiers lead by King Leondias and his second in command, Shiro. All Spartans died that day, unfortunately that included her Athenian family. Why were they even there? Even though he was a Spartan, Katie had heard a lot about Shiro and respected how good he was at leading. It was hard to believe that they would allow two Athenian soldiers to die with them. 

The more she thought about it the more determined she became. Katie now took the knife and put it up to the back of her neck and closed her eyes. In one swift motion she cut off most of her hair. She opened her eyes and once again looked into the water. Katie’s eyes widened as she saw Matt stare back at her. She never realized that she and Matt looked so much alike. Tears well up in her eyes, seeing her brother in herself saddened her. Pushing her tears away, she picked up her father’s old bronze armor. Even before the wars with Persia started, her father, Sam, was a hoplite soldier for Athens. This was the armor that he had worn in the Battle of Marathon. The dents and scratches in the metal told the story of the brave Athenian soldiers. After Spartan soldiers could not come, they still managed not only to hold their ground, but also win by a landslide. She struggled to lift the large, round shield. Unfortunately, Athenian women were not trained to fight. What little she knew from listening to her father and brother would have to do.

Both Matt and Katie’s grew up wanting to fight for Athens. Their father told stories of honor and glory. Now Katie was disguising herself as a man in order to find out where Matt was. She got up and started walking towards the acropolis. Despite the weight of the armor, she managed to stand tall as she walked to some official looking people. “Name?” one of the men asked in a bored voice.

Katie thought for a minute, “Pidge.” She answered finally. It was the name her brother always called her. Ever since they were younger and she was able to climb higher in a tall tree than him. He told her that she was like a bird. At first, Katie resented the name, but she came to love it. She even missed that nickname after Matt left.

The man wrote down the name, without checking anything and sent her to the docks. She could not read the document she was given, so she listened to him. Seeing the big triremes in the dock finally made her realize that she had been signed up for the navy and not the hoplites. It was too late to go back and she was ushered onto a ship.

On the trireme, she sat nervously by a big oar. She didn’t even notice when two men sat near her. “You nervous too?” Katie looked up to see a large man with a gentle look on his face. “Don’t worry. We’re all nervous here. Name’s Hunk.”

“Pidge.” Katie introduced herself. Something about this guy felt welcoming. He gave off an aura of home.

“Making friends already, Hunk?” the other guy asked, then he turned to Katie, “I’m Lance by the way.” Katie smiled at him. She was glad that she ended up on a trireme with people like Lance and Hunk. The three of them started talking while others got on. Lance and Hunk started arguing about something Katie did not understand when she looked to the end of the trireme. There was a sad-looking guy sitting all by himself. The other people were talking with those sitting around them.

Hunk and Lance had stopped talking and noticed where Katie was looking. “There’s a seat still open near us.” Hunk pointed out, clearly not comfortable with the guy being all alone.

“I’ve got this.” Lance said as he got up. Katie and Hunk watched as Lance walked over to the guy and talked with him. At first the guy looked annoyed at Lance, but annoyance soon turned to shock. He was not expecting anyone to invite him into their friend group. Soon Lance was walking back with the guy. “Hey guys this is Keith.” Lance introduced him and Keith waved at them with a small smile. He sat down in the open seat near them.

“I’m Pidge.” Kaite introduced herself to him. Hunk then introduced himself and before they knew it they started off.

Being a rower on a trireme actually proved to be relaxing. Just move the oar in time to the beat. She began to let her mind drift to her family. She was hoping to have a chance to visit Thermoylae to see if there was any evidence of anything left behind. Something wet hitting her nose brought her out of her thoughts. She looked up and the clouds had become an angry, dark grey. Katie frowned.

“This isn’t going to be fun.” Hunk seemed to be reading her mind. She looked around at her new friends. They all looked concerned, but everyone kept on rowing. The rain began falling harder and harder. Soon it became clear that they were in a major storm. As the rain and wind picked up the waves got rougher. Katie had to put all of her strength into moving the oar in time. The rain pounded against her face so she could not open her eyes. The sounds of the screams of men were hidden under the sounds of the storm. They hit a particularly large wave and Katie thought she heard someone yell, “Hold on!” before everything went black.

 Katie slowly opened her eyes to bright sunlight. She seemed to be laying on a beach. Looking around some more she saw Hunk sitting near her looking out into the ocean. “Hunk?” she asked.

“Pidge!” Hunk exclaimed, “You’re finally awake. Keith and Lance will be so happy when they come back!” Katie’s memory slowly came back to her. The trireme got into a bit of trouble in the storm, she wondered if anyone else survived.

“We don’t know if anyone else survived. It’s only the four of us.” Katie really wondered if Hunk was a mind reader. At least she had an answer. She tried to sit up, but Hunk kept her down. “Wait for Keith and Lance to come back with food and water. You’ve been out for some time.

They did not have to wait long. Keith and Lance returned with Lance yelling out, “You guys will never guess what we found!”

“Hopefully food and water like you left to get.” Katie said turning her head to look at them. It was not just Keith and Lance walking towards them. There was an oddly familiar man with a scar across his nose and some of his hair was white.

“Hi.” The man said, “The name’s Shiro.”

“Shiro?” Katie asked. “As in the Shiro from Sparta who died in Thermoylae?” The others looked at her in confusion as to why she knew that.

“Yes actually,” Shiro replied, “but I obviously didn’t die. I was taken prisoner along with two Athenians that were with us. I just recently managed to escape the Persians.”

“Where are they?” Katie asked, to which Shiro gave her a confused look. Katie clarified, “The two Athenians.”

Shiro sadly shook his head, “We were taken to different prisons. I have no idea where Matt or Sam are.” Katie’s heart dropped. She thought she was so close to finding them. At least she knew they were alive.

“We’ve got a bigger problem.” Keith said. “We have no idea where we are and no way of getting off this island.”

“I can help with the first problem.” Shiro said, “We’re in Ionia.”

“That’s good, we should be able to find people somewhere.” Hunk said. They all agreed to start their search after they ate something. Hunk, Lance, and Keith spent a lot of the meal asking Shiro questions about the battle and his time in captivity. Katie stayed quiet, thinking about her brother and father.

“You look a lot like him.” Shiro said, pulling Katie out of her thoughts.

“What?” she asked.

“Matt.” Shiro responded. “You look like one of the Athenians who was capture with me. His name was Matt.”

After thinking for a short time Katie answered him. “Matt is my older brother.” Her three friends gave their condolences while Shiro gave her a knowing look. Katie then realized that he knew. Matt would have never talked about his younger brother, Pidge, because that person did not exist. He would have talked about his younger sister, Katie.

After they finished eating, they got up and started to walk in a random direction hoping to find civilization. As they walked, Katie stayed in the back and noticed that Shiro fell behind to walk next to her.

“I won’t tell them if you don’t want me to Katie.” Shiro said.

Katie smiled, “I know. Matt wrote home often. He really looked up to you.” Shiro smiled back and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Stop right there!” a voice yelled out. A man with red hair and a weird mustache held a sword pointed them. “Are you Persians?” he asked them.

Shiro stepped forward and took charge. “I’m from Sparta and these four are Athenians. We have escaped the Persians. We mean you no harm.” The man looked them over trying to judge if Shiro was telling the truth. He seemed to decide to trust them and told them to follow him.

“My name is Coran.” He told them as he led them to a shack. I work for the royal family of Ionia. Because of the Persians I am hiding the princess here. They went inside to find a beautiful girl with dark skin and white hair.

“Allura.” She introduced herself. “You must be the heroes that the prophecy spoke of.”

“Prophecy?” Lance asked.

Allura explained, “Before the wars with Persia, my father went on a trip to Delphi. The oracle there told him that five warriors would save the world from Persian rule. Their trireme is to be the ship my father built for them, Voltron. They are to be called the paladins of Voltron.”

“Us?” Hunk asked, nervous. “Save the word? Fight the most powerful empire in the world.” They all looked at each other. If they learned anything from the stories that they were told, it’s that the Oracles are never wrong. There was nothing they could do, but train and fight.

Katie was happy with this development. This meant that they would be in close proximity to the Persian Empire and her family. She could easily keep up her look for them even with this prophecy. The prophecy even made it easier. The friends she was with made everything even better. This would surely be an adventure that would be told for centuries, just like that of Achilles and Hercales. She smiled, “Well then, we better get to work.”

THE END

[pinkipie100]

Gone Is the Light of Your Palm

...

I’m not sure I should even post this.

I’ll not lie. This is an EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE READ.

It was so draining, physically, emotionally, just to write it. It’s... honestly? It’s the single most depressing thing I’ve ever written to date. I always love to write angst, but... I didn’t even fully enjoy writing this.

It started out as an image in my head, an interesting concept, innocent enough angst, just like every other fic. But then... it got dark. It got EXTREMELY DARK. And I’m not usually disturbed by my own writing, but this...

I think it’s because I wrote a little too close to my own heart. I may have self-projected too much, made too many parallels to my real life, and written it based off of fresh wounds...

Just to be perfectly clear, I’m referring to the suicidal topic of this fic. Now, I’ve never actually lost family or a friend to suicide, but in light of Chester Bennington’s recent suicide... yeah, that’s really the first time suicide’s ever directly taken something from my life. And... I think this fic is honestly just me venting about it, projecting on parallel characters from Voltron.

I’m extremely conflicted about posting this fic, and I fear I may receive some serious flame for it. I don’t really blame people. I already know there are many people who are distraught about the way Shiro was treated this season, believe me, my best friend @lenarart wept right next to me after watching 3.5, and I know how much he means to various fans.

Sometimes, writers can’t control their visions. This is the first time it’s gotten so out of hand for me, that writing it actually made me feel physically sick. I just... don’t know how I lost control so completely...

This isn’t my first fanfic. Maybe it’s the first one I’ve posted online, but I’ve written fanfic for Avatar, Korra, and my own original writing. Angst is my specialty. I would not consider this your average angst AT ALL. If this leaves a bad taste in your mouth afterwords, don’t hesitate to unfollow me. I’ve only got, like, ten of ‘em, anyway. Follower count doesn’t matter that much to me.

Just... be safe. Read at your own risk. This contains disturbing imagery, possible reminiscent of that of panic attacks, I’m not sure. And again, there is pretty clearly implied suicide.

This is not a fluffy Klance fic. This is not hurt/comfort Shallura. This is not background Hunay.

This is something so deeply real and personal for me, I’ve truly left myself horrified at my own work.

I don’t expect you to enjoy.

Words: 2046

Category: Gen, Pidge-centric.

Contains: Major Character Death, Suicide Mention, Possibly Panic-Inducing Imagery

Takes place about 5 years in the future.

insp.

Pidge stepped down from the pod, along with several other Olkari. She let them pass by her, unwilling to look up, almost unwilling to be here at all. She already wanted to go back to Olkarion, just hide in the city, surround herself with her silent garden plants. She’d rather be surrounded by silence than the loud, loud faces.

Begrudgingly, Pidge looked up. The first face she saw was Hunk’s. He was facing her head-on. His countenance was loud. So, so loud… louder than she’d ever seen it. The Guardian of the Forest sensed a pungent sting in her heart at the sight of solid, begging tears in the bigger paladin’s eyes. Hunk refused to let them go, though, the strong anchor that he was.

Pidge’s lips wobbled. The small paladin went forth to hug Hunk unabashedly. She could still barely wrap her arms around him, but she wasn’t about to let physical reality stop her from trying to crush around Hunk’s waist, encircle him totally, until she squeezed all his sorrow out, along with banishing her own. Hunk’s arms reciprocated accordingly, reaching down to Pidge’s back. Pidge felt something thick and wet plop on top of her head, and she dared not to mention it to her friend whom she was trying so desperately to crush.

When the two finally parted, Hunk’s hands remained on top of Pidge’s shoulders. Hunk then turned and let one arm rest across her shoulders as he led her up to the rest of the funeral party.

God, why is everyone’s faces so loud?

Coran’s expression mumbled. It mumbled of not understanding, of a thirst for answers. So say we all. He looked so tired. The older Altean’s eyes were half-lidded, and his mouth hung open in a zombielike fashion. When he blinked, he did it too slowly. The man was half-alive. Everything about him was just… reduced to half of what it used to be. Except for his spontaneous cheerfulness; that was just gone. Pidge wanted nothing more than to go to him, to hug the pain away like she’d attempted to do with Hunk. But she worried that if she did, she might just snap the old man in two. Coran’s physical body was the only part of him still whole; Pidge couldn’t take that away.

Hunk escorted Pidge up to her brother. Pidge could understand every word his face was saying. The grey words lining every crease on his face, and the agonizing sympathy his face screamed at his sister. Don’t say that. She wanted to throw back all that sympathy in his face. She was the one who should be screaming comfort at him from her eyebrows, tightly knitted together. She should be boring her slightly cold amber eyes into his to give him the life to carry on. Pidge could almost laugh when she realized her and Matt’s expressions toward each other were complete mirror images, each trying to lift the other back into survival from this valley.

Hunk and Matt, too, traded solemn, supportive expressions, then Hunk gave Pidge’s shoulder as strong a squeeze as he could [it held a weakness uncharacteristic of Hunk] before grimly sauntering over to someone else in the crowd of mourners.

Pidge and Matt wandered over to the front of the congregation, meeting Lance and Keith. Quickly, even more quickly, Pidge’s blood was draining from her veins, leaving them cold. The noise was so much… Seeing those two together was deafening. Lance gave Pidge a smile. The Green Paladin could throw up. She barely registered Matt wrapping an arm around her shoulders as Hunk just had, but it must have prevented her from passing out on the spot. Pidge took a deep breath and gave Lance a weak smile back. After a moment of this, they both glanced sideways at Keith. He was like a marble tombstone. His eyes were wide open, shaking, and his pupils were pinpricks. Pidge could detect nothing but static. Loud static. Piercing static. She felt like her ears were going to bleed. But seeing Keith brought about a new kind of pain in Pidge: the pain of helplessness. Because there was nothing she could do to put a stop to the static. Lance eventually looked back at Pidge, then came forth and gave her a light hug. Pidge hugged back; somehow, though Lance’s hugs were made of water, they never failed to help her breathe. She was pulled back from the edge of insanity.

When they pulled back, they noticed her stepping up onto the podium to speak. She had left the twins with Hunk, whom had come over to take them from her arms. Thank god they were too young for this noise.

Allura took center stage on the podium. Coran stood on the ground, facing the audience, ever the protective sentinel for her, even though everyone here felt death infecting their very beings.

Pidge took in a deep breath of life through her nose, then let it go.

Then Allura spoke.

“Hello, everyone.”

Pidge’s eardrums were broken. That couldn’t have been Allura. That was not the Allura who used to shatter her ears with hope every word she said. That wasn’t her Queen Allura.

This was the voice of a broken old woman. Her voice sounded like sandpaper rubbed on ashy gravel. She stood as tall as she could on the podium, and normally, a pregnant belly would not have hindered her one bit, but her shoulders carried new life on top of a fresh, sinking death. A death so terrible and oppressive that the whole universe could feel it. This was the voice of no queen. This was the silent sound of someone gargling a dead heart in their throat.

The silence from Allura spoke of heroic deeds. Selfless actions. Persevering and inspiring in the face of insurmountable odds. Defying, no, spitting in the face of the impossible. Spending a year in hell, and coming back to still see hope and good in the broken universe that everyone else thought of as not worth saving. Losing so many essential pieces and having them warped and replaced with something demonic, but still using that vile instrument for something pure. A guiding light to so many, a light that never gave up shining on anyone, no matter how much the void tried to stamp it all out. Just take that hand, that glorious light, and you were already halfway to heaven. The first king of New Altea, the Savior of the Universe, the last Champion…

“Takashi Shirogane, the Black Paladin.”

Pidge heard a flicker as Keith woke up. His eyes could focus now. The static diminished. The Red Paladin could finally see. And it was breaking him apart like glass cracking in the fire.

Meanwhile, Pidge was going numb.

“None of us wanted to be here for a very…”

~ ~

“…very long time. We certainly never expected to be here under these circumstances. But I…”

~

“…understand more than many that he was in so much pain. It…”

~

Allura kept taking huge gulps of air between words, very unlike her when giving a speech. And they were so loud.

“…pains me to realize… ~ …that I will have to raise our… ~ …children alone. And I’m far from the only person who… ~ ~ ~”

Coran looked at Allura worriedly.

“…lost him,” Allura finally managed. Keith blinked, tender tears slipping down his cheeks for the first time. “But just because this life became too much for him, it does not… ~ …mean that we must only think of him as a tragedy.”

Matt’s eyes were slowly drowning with tears, and every paladin’s face turned up directly at the Queen.

“Far from it!” Allura managed to inflect a tiny bit more optimistically. “Everyone’s life is a ride of ups and downs. We can overcome every valley, and fly upon every high! Coping with any trauma, any grief…” Pidge’s ears twitched. She was starting to hear the real Allura again. “…is not impossible. All our hearts are heavy here and now, but… we are not done fighting. We either count on our friends,” the paladins saw that pink glint in Allura’s eyes, “our families,” Coran almost looked like he was smiling, “strangers, even,” the Olkari, Shay and the Balmerans, Slav, and the other members of the crowd lifted slightly, “even the stardust can keep us company.” Allura’s voice wobbled a bit on that last word. “The future is ahead- the future Takashi gave us. We will make the most of it, and make him proud from wherever he is watching.”

Pidge witnessed the casket carriers lower Shiro down, his body made beautiful and broken one last time, exposing all his perfect flaws and damn beautiful tarnishes, yes, even the burn that he ended his life with, and she almost thinks she can hear a melody in this noise.

Lance, Keith, Matt, Pidge, Coran, Allura, Hunk. They stood in a straight line facing Shiro’s grave. Their shoulders were all perfectly squared off. Like seven sentries greeting visitors to the grave.

Breathe.

No one speaks.

Breathe.

Grey clouds and the empty, flat, wind-blown grassland expand around them to reemphasize how alone they are.

Just breathe, Katie.

The sound synthesizer starts playing behind her.

Go. Be great.

The melody from before picks up.

“Should have stayed… were the signs I ignored.

Can I help you not to hurt anymore?”

Lance let his lips go slack, closing his eyes. Keith sniffled, breathing strained.

“We saw brilliance when the world was asleep.”

Allura, now holding her twins, let her warriorlike facade down for now. Instead, she looked like an ocean.

“There are things that we can have, but can’t keep.”

Coran’s breathing had to be cold, meticulously calculated, mechanical. Controlled.

“If they say,”

Katie’s voice wavers at these lines, but she won’t let up.

“Who cares if one more light goes out

In a sky of a million stars?

It flickers, flickers.

Who cares when someone’s time runs out

If a moment is all we are?”

Her diaphragm stings like acidic ice. She’s unfazed.

“We’re quicker, quicker.

Who cares if one more light goes out?

Well, I do.”

Katie knew these next lines were going to hurt. She just had to stay alive. Just survive.

You can do this. For Shiro.

“The reminder...”

That already felt like a javelin through the stomach.

“…pulled the floor, from your feet.”

It was unclear whether Hunk’s arm had spread the trembling to Allura’s shoulders, or if it was the other way around.

Katie braced her voice for the next lines.

“In the kitchen… one more chair than you need.”

Keith sobbed. He cracked and shattered and splintered and combusted and quaked and convulsed and he wept. Right into the crook of Lance’s neck, as a crying Matt hung his head and clasped Keith’s closest shoulder.

“Oooh...”

Katie’s stance had been stock still throughout the entire song so far. Feet spread, unshakable, shoulders tensed and squared, hands tight but open at her sides. This was where that would all change.

“And you’re angry… and you should be…

It’s not fair…”

Hands became claws.

“Just ’cause you can’t see it…”

Voice cold iron.

“…doesn’t mean it…”

Melody a warsong.

“Isn’t there, if they say,

Who cares if one more light goes out,

In a sky of a million stars?

It flickers, flickers.

Who cares when someone’s time runs out,

If a moment is all we are?!

We’re quicker, quicker-

Who cares if one more light goes out,

Well, I do.”

Finally, the instrumental break. Katie needed to surface after drowning. She breathed, albeit shallowly. She could sense the mutual pain around her. Her fists clenched so tight, she could have broken someone’s neck. Katie realized she had doubled over, hinged at the hips, knees slightly bent, and she tore her vocal chords asunder when she preached,

“I DO!!!”

A sob of an inhale, and,

“If they say,”

The last lines sounded like shit as she wept them out.

“Who cares if one more light goes out,

In a sky of a million stars…

It flickers. Flickers…

Who cares when someone’s… time runs out.

If a moment is all we are?!

We’re quicker, quicker!

Who care if one more light goes out...”

~

“Well, I do…”

“…I do.” Gentle, like a proud breath on the wing.

[maychorian]

hey! i was wondering if you have any voltron angsty lance-centric fic recommendations? aside from your own amazing ones ofc

Mmkay, so I’m what I’m doing here is going through my fic rec tag and just copy-pasting stories where Lance suffers. Some are angst, some are hurt/comfort, some are epic stories where the angst and hurt/comfort might be more of a side dish than a main course. The word count on most of the WIPs is no longer accurate, and some are complete, but I am too lazy to edit. This is taking long enough as it is. But yeah, you asked for it, you’re getting it. Langst recs, maychorian style. Warning: This is long. If you press the read more, be prepared to scroll.

Trembling Lips by nonna Words:  14,001 (WIP, but only one chapter to go)Author’s Summary: Lance is an emotional person who cries easily (and does the trembly-lip thing a lot) but tries to stay strong in front of the team.ORFive times Lance stopped himself from crying in front of his teammates, and the one time he couldn’t hold it back.My Comments: The BEST gen Lance-angst I have found yet. It is so good. The fourth chapter almost made me cry and I think I read it five times. I just…kept going back. I am DYING for the last chapter, omg, join me in waiting for it. Lance’s characterization is great, and Shiro is trying so hard, and everyone’s making mistakes but they don’t mean to. It’s absolutely marvelous and you should read it.

Collateral baggage by Zan_scrawlingWords:  718 Author’s Summary:  Lance can’t sleep; Coran is up and able to listen. My Comments: TOO SHORT but very sweet little character study. I’m such a sucker for Coran being serious and comforting for all these tiny, tiny smol children who have ended up in his castle, for real. I read this fic early on in my fandom experience with Voltron, too, so it, uh, might have influenced me.

I’m not the Lance You think I am by KairaKara101Words:  36,200 (WIP)Author’s Summary:  Lance isn’t human. Not that the team would know, he likes to keep that little fact a secret because he’s not sure if they’d treat him the same. That they’d be as welcoming as his family is. How in the world did he go from fighting in space to living on Earth acting like a class clown to fighting in space again?My Comments: I haven’t finished reading even what’s available yet but I’m reccing it anyway because it’s FANTASTIC. Lance as an alien crash-landing on Earth and immediately being adopted by an enormous, loving Hispanic family is absolute joy, and I’m just getting into the chapters where he joins Garrison and meets Hunk and the others. It’s just…really fun, and Lance is adorable and SO sweet with his new family and siblings. I love it, great stuff, I wish it was 200k words and I am honestly glad that it’s a WIP because I want more and I want to watch it grow up healthy and strong.

Burning by Tiger1Words:  11,457 (WIP)Author’s Summary:  The aftermath of their escape from Zarkon led to serious consequences for each member of the team, but at least they were all still alive - still together. Lance, however….well, let’s just say Lance didn’t get by totally unscathed. My Comments: As soon as the notification for my subscription on this lands in my email, I drop everything to read it. It’s a little more simple of a story, maybe, but it has everything I like. I would also like this one to be much, much longer, and also finished so I can read it at once.

Hunk and Lance’s Excellent Adventures by kiaella_vWords:  4,883 (WIP)Author’s Summary: Hunk and Lance being buddies.Chapter 5: Breathe.Or; Hunk and Lance Best Friendy Fluff..now feature Angst.My Comments: The CUTEST Hunk and Lance on AO3, golly, I love them so much. The first three chapters were just pure fluffy sunshine, then the author brought in the pain, and I am breathless for more. (Apparently going to be Klance eventually, but the focus is Hunk and Lance friendship.)

my head is dizzy now by asexualreyWords:  3,871Author’s Summary:  Allura had better get there soon. He doesn’t want to be responsible for Lance dying just because he’s completely useless. My Comments: Lance gets suddenly sick on a planet and Keith has to take care of him and Keith is AWKWARD and he is SCARED and it’s really NICE. Klance but can be read as gen.

My Youth Is Yours by MilkTeaMikuWords:  29,840 Author’s Summary: An unforseen blast in the middle of a battle de-ages Lance into a child for a week. Keith does not understand babies.My Comments: I am a HUGE sucker for deaged fics, and oh look, it’s Lance! What an adorable wee child! But also there is angst and heartache and pain and the Galra, and Keith is confused, but also drawn, and everyone is sweet and helpful, and Hunk and Shiro will be amazing parents someday if they live past this war, I swear. But yeah, well-written, super cute, baby Lance. Klance endgame, but mostly it’s about how cute tiny Lance is.

Tight Spaces by Emerald_AshesWords: 2,716 Author’s Summary: Set after “Crystal Venom”, the castle is slowly being brought back into working order after the corruption in the ship’s systems. Coran has a training exercise planned to serve as a test that is supposed to be simple, and easy. But with Lance things are never easy, although this time it’s really not his fault. My Comments: Mmm, yeah, Lance having a panic attack. This is really well-written and heart-wrenching, and everyone is very supportive in the end. I may have read this more than once. Or twice.

Waiting Room by GemmaRoseWords:  3,033 Author’s Summary:  When a fight ends badly, Hunk is hurt and needs more medical attention than a cryo-pod can provide. Luckily for the paladins, they’re close to home. My Comments: Really lovely future fic in which the paladins have been fighting together for over a year. Told from Lance’s POV as he fights to get Hunk medical attention, then has to wait for news with the others. The author does a great job of making everyone feel a little older, and a little harder, and a whole lot closer. I want a lot more. This could go 20k+, easy.

Just Static by Jessadilla (wobblyarms)Words: 73,144 (WIP, one chapter to go)Author’s Summary: –Static—–iro, Hunk, Kei—, nybody? I’m—–static—-I’m sorry guys. This is all my—-static–cc—–I found my coordinates. They’re—stttcc–guys. I hear something—–scccc–end transmission- Alone on a hostile planet, transmissions aren’t getting through. How did it come to this?My Comments: Another really good Lance-focused hurt/comfort fic. Everyone is well-written and characterized, though Keith and Lance get most of the screentime. Starts with the self-doubt and ends with Lance stranded on a planet with a very cool and interesting new enemy to deal with while everyone fights to save him. Epic H/C, and Klance.

Seeing Red by SagitarrowWords: 4,360 Author’s Summary: There’s a constant throbbing in his spine, like someone royally pissed at him is taking a hammer to it. It radiates through his whole body, every inch is pulsating and Lance can’t even remember what it was like to be pain free. Or: Lance falls down a hole. The rest of the team freaks out.My Comments: What it says on the box! Lance is hurt and the others rescue him. The descriptions are really sharp and visceral, and Lance’s self-doubt rears its ugly head again, but for the most part it’s a fairly simple hurt/comfort fic. And I LOVE that. Klance if you squint.

Counterclock by riverbanksWords: 3,273 Author’s Summary: Post Crystal Venom -Later, there’s a shift, and Hunk notices long before Lance is aware of himself. My Comments: Can be read as Hance or gen. So as you may have noticed, I’m a huge sucker for Lance with PTSD. This is a really lovely exploration of it based on canon, with a tremendously loving and wise Hunk. And the lions, too! Both Blue and Yellow are very important in this fic. Beautiful and touching.

ghost of a king by ashinan Words: 16,878 (WIP, but only one chapter to go)Author’s Summary: During a routine recon mission turned ambush, Lance and Blue must take drastic measures to ensure their survival. The aftermath leaves Lance lost and dreaming, and the team helpless to the possibility that, without a guide, he won’t make it back. My Comments: Klance, but everyone is equally important. This is one of the most gorgeous fics I’ve ever read, bar none, let alone in this fandom. The space battle in the first chapter is absolutely thrilling, as well as visceral and terrifying. The descriptions of the abstract space Lance falls into are stunningly beautiful, and the team’s desperate struggle to get him back is heart-wrenching. And Blue! Blue is AMAZING in this fic! She and Lance have conversations and go back and forth on who is in control at any one moment, a complete partnership much more developed than anything we saw in the show. It’s beautiful and I love it to death. Can’t wait for the conclusion.

Aid by HaurvatatWords: 8,362 (WIP)Author’s Summary: Frankly, the only person on Team Voltron with their shit relatively together is Hunk. Lance tries so hard, but… he can’t help but feel there’s a reason he never gets too far with that one, and maybe not 100% of it is Keith’s fault. All it takes is one battle, one accident, one mistake, and one secret to make it all rise to the surface. My Comments: Really, really good and interesting take on Lance in this one, different than I’ve seen anywhere else, but still perfectly in-character. It feels entirely realistic, and all of the characters are themselves, including sometimes being jerks to each other. But my favorite aspect of this fic is the relationship between Lance and his lion. The blue lion is so SASSY in this story. And she and Lance are incredibly close and good friends. I love it and can’t wait to see where it goes.

weak link by asexualreyWords: 6,249 Author’s Summary: The one thing he always wants when he doesn’t feel well is his mom, and she’s…god knows how far away she is. She probably thinks he’s dead. In this moment, he almost wishes he was.My Comments: I am so BLESSED to be in a fandom that loves writing hurt/comfort featuring my favorite character, like for real. Yeah, Lance is horribly, horribly sick, and he wants his mom, and he tries to hide his weakness from the others. It does not go well. This one made me feel a lot. I’ve read it several times. Klance.

He Sleeps in the Sky of Ice by jadencrossWords:  16,043 (WIP, 8/16)Author’s Summary: It’s been three months since the plan to rescue Allura, and Team Voltron has finally found each other again. Well, almost. A certain blue paladin didn’t meet up with who he was supposed to. And now, the whole team has to figure out why. He wouldn’t just abandon them. Would he?My Comments: This is a great action/adventure type fic where the whole team is searching for a missing Lance. The peril is really intriguing, and the world-building is cool and interesting. The emotions are also very sharp and well-characterized. I’m very excited for every single update. I really want to know what happened, and I want them to find Lance, and I want him to be safe and okay.

 Necessary by always_a_slut_for_hcWords: 22,026 Author’s Summary: Keith screws up, Lance is captured, and the blue light of Voltron is dimmed. Who are you really, Lance? And what do you need?My Comments: Yep, it’s another fic where Lance is tortured, rescued, and recovers. I like these fics, what can I say. This is well-written and complete, so if you’re a sicko like me, check it out. Klance, but everyone is important.

Long Distance by Emerald_AshesWords: 1,565 Author’s Summary: Some nights you just wanted to call home, and know that everything was going to be okay. My Comments: Pidge and Lance! And Hunk as mom friend! But yeah, poor Pidge and Lance are both homesick and tired and they just want their families. I’m glad they have each other, though. The ending made me achy and happy.

Prison Bonds by GriffinRoseWords: 18,295 Author’s Summary: Keith and Lance are captured and stuck in a cell together, but it’s not the Galra. They almost wish it was. These Cordalians feed off of emotions, and their favorite emotion is sadness. Worse, they’ve found a way to make their victims relive their worst memories to make that pain fresh again, and Keith has a lot of terrible memories he’d rather not relive. My Comments: SO GOOD. SO MUCH PLATONIC CUDDLING. Lance and Keith are both suffering horribly, and all they can do is comfort each other and wait for rescue. I’m so happy that it’s gen, too. And it’s finished! Run, don’t walk. It’s so great.

your claws in me by burlesquecomposerWords: 41,766 (WIP)Author’s Summary: “Oh trust me. When I’m done with you, I won’t be able to stop laughing,” Lance says lowly, and his lips curl farther, and there’s something wild in his stare, and it hits Keith suddenly. This isn’t Lance.Lance falls under the control of Zarkon’s Druids, and although his friends manage to get him back, nothing is quite the same. Maybe the Galra succeeded after all. Maybe the Galra merely wanted to tear Team Voltron apart from the inside.My Comments: Tagged as Klance, but so far it reads platonic. Really, really amazing story with Lance fighting brainwashing and everyone struggling to save him, trust him, return him to normal. Everyone has an important role, though there’s an emphasis on Keith. I really liked this one. It’s tense and heartbreaking at times, but it also has moments of great beauty.

Fake It by WashiPuppyWords: 8,994 Author’s Summary: Without the presence of other people to drown them out, the thoughts inside his head were getting too loud. Loud enough to drive him from his room in a desperate attempt to escape his own stupid head for long enough to sleep. It was too loud in there, and too honest. He needed to be around people, otherwise he was just left with…Just himself, and the agitated, twitching feeling of his own skin. A tale in which Lance and the Blue Lion have a one-sided conversation, Hunk is a Lance Whisperer, Pidge notices lots of things, Keith gets the wrong end of the stick, and Shiro gets a new nickname.My Comments: It is a known fact of Voltron fanfic that an insecure Lance requires a wise, comforting Hunk. This should be chiseled in stone somewhere. It practically already is. But yeah, I love this. Some snark and humor in there, too, and the characters feel like themselves.

Space Is Cold by borrowedphrasesWords: 1,152 Author’s Summary: Lance is a pain in the butt, but Hunk loves him and worries about him anyway. My Comments: Hance. Cute, sweet, adorable, loving Hance. My sweet summer boys. Just the way I like them.

Simple by APendingThought for MilkTeaMikuWords: 1,363 Author’s Summary: Keith has babysitting duty for baby!Lance tonight. Six hours into the mission, he calls for backup. My Comments: Hey, look, more deaged!Lance! Wow, I’m predictable. I’ve previously recced the fic this one is based on, and this addition is very sweet and lovely.

Welcome Home by RenaRooWords: 1,253 Author’s Summary: Lance figures they’re lucky that homesickness isn’t contagious. My Comments: LANCE AND PIDGE! I’m so glad to find more fics with these two being kind to each other. The characterization is great, with Lance trying to shrug things off with humor at first, then showing his real emotions to someone he trusts. I want so much more with these two.

Bundle in Blankets by KnightNuraStarWords: 23,173 (WIP)Author’s Summary: The wormhole did more damage to Blue and Lance than anyone could imagine.Lance is vulnerable and Blue makes a deal.Lance faces different challenges ahead. “What the fuck.” “PIDGE LITTLE EARS!” “I AIN’T LITTLE JACKASS!” “LANCE!”“HE STARTED!” “I DON’T CARE WHO STARTED IT! I’M ENDING IT!”My Comments: This one, ah, it’s a little bit of a guilty pleasure for me, but gah, I do enjoy it. Lance is deaged and stuck on a hostile planet, and there’s only one way that Blue can make sure he survives: Make a deal with Sendak. I know, right? But the author makes it work. Things get worse, and worse, especially when the rest of the crew finally finds them, and it’s super dramatic, but the emotions really work for me. Give it a shot if you like deaged!Lance and hurt/comfort and sympathetic Galra.

Coming Undone by Emerald_AshesWords: 2,409 (WIP) Author’s Summary: A mission quickly transforms into an ambush. Outnumbered, and without the immediate assistance of their Lions, the paladins retreat. However, Lance is captured. And when he is eventually rescued, the circumstances of his capture raise more questions than answers. Things only continue to get worse as Lance now has to deal with the aftermath of being prisoner to the Galra, and they try to figure out why the trap was staged in the first place. My Comments: HEY LOOK, one of my favorite Voltron gen writers is doing a multi-chap fic! I’m SUPER excited. Go subscribe!

Nightmares by TrashnessWords: 14,864 Author’s Summary: Lance’s nightmares are getting out of control. It’s effecting his and the team’s performance, but he’s at a loss for how to fix this. Apparently sleeping next to a warm body helps.My Comments: Klance, but it’s so FLUFFY and full of such nice hurt/comfort that I have to rec it. I just really like Lance being cuddled when he’s sad and scared, okay. I really like it.

Vulnerable by nerdyketones Words:  7,850 Author’s Summary: Each paladin gets their own chapter describing a time when they were vulnerable, and when their teammates and team supported them and helped them through their hardship.Pidge-IllnessKeith-AnxietyHunk-GuiltLance- LonelinessShiro- Pressure/PTSDMy Comments: THESE ARE ALL SO GOOD. All of the children deserve comfort, and they get it. Allura helps too!

Damsel in Distress by birdzillaWords: 6,269 Author’s Summary: Somehow Lance always finds himself in trouble. Fortunately, his friends are always there to get him out of it. My Comments: This is so CUTE. The space crew has figured out that Lance has terrible luck and walks headfirst into danger too much due to his friendly and trusting nature, and they take steps to protect him. It’s very subtly and gently done, until the end, when it isn’t anymore. So good. Give me all the Lance Protection Squad fics, please.

Let The Water Lead Us Home by LynnLarshWords: 12,972 Author’s Summary: He’d just wanted a glimpse. It was stupid and childish and selfish, but he’d just wanted one more look out on the ocean, one more peek in the window of his family home, just in case they never made it back to Earth. Just in case he never got another chance.But this wasn’t the Holo-Deck from Star Trek. And this broken simulator tube wasn’t going to be able to do any of that for him, now was it? A.K.A - Lance finds himself stuck in a simulation and Keith is determined to get him out.My Comments: Hey, look, it’s two of my biases in a well-written Klance fic. Please protect Lance and let him see his family again someday, please.

He’ll Be Fine by babitty for everyone who loves some good angstWords: 7,471 Author’s Summary: In which Hunk gets hurt, and Lance has no one to steady him. “Lance’s face burned, and he could hardly see through the blood and sweat dripping into his eyes. His arms burned from supporting Hunk and carrying his bayard. His legs burned from running and his lungs were fire in his chest, pure adrenaline coursing through his entire body. It was the only thing keeping him upright.”My Comments: As always, I am down for an exploration of Hunk and Lance and their relationship, mmm yes, and this is a good one. Poor Lance is so frantic about Hunk getting hurt, and he really needs his team to reassure him that everything will be okay, even though it’s hard to believe. Warm and fuzzy to the max, with bonus big brother Shiro just being as sweet as can be with a distraught Lance.

All That Matters by CamsthiSkyWords: 637 Author’s Summary: Keith talks Lance down from a panic attack. My Comments: Short but sweet! I would read Keith (or Hunk, or Shiro, or anyone) talking Lance down from a panic attack all day long.

I’m Trying to Reach You by WashiPuppyWords: 22,109 Author’s Summary: The mind is a tenacious thing. Once it grabs hold of a thought, a memory, or a problem, it can be hard to convince it to let go.Pidge has her drive to find her family, though right now she has these communication codes that could help her do that. Shiro has his past, though right now he has his a lion asking him for help and teammates who won’t tell him what’s going on in their heads. Lance has his doubts. And Keith… Well, he’s convinced that Hunk is some kind of Sex God who has slept with both Shiro and Lance. Now, how to prove that? Meanwhile, Hunk is just doing his best to look out for everyone. It’s like herding cats.My Comments: This is a sequel to a fic I recced in the past, and you should probably read the whole series for context if you haven’t yet, but this is SO good that I had to tell you about this one specifically. Lance has convinced himself that he’s replaceable, unnecessary, and Keith has gotten a misunderstanding from things seen out of context, but mostly this is about how much Blue loves her paladin and will do anything to prove that to him. The ending made me cry.

The (Not So) Still Of The Night by Sandyclaws68Words: 3,532 Author’s Summary: A few nights in such close quarters taught all of them a lot of things about their team mates.My Comments: Technical problems with their living quarters force the paladins to all sleep together in a little tiny room, and bonding ensues. They all irritate each other, they all help each other, they all comfort and cuddle and learn about each other. It’s beautiful in every way.

Rough Landings by SilfrvargWords: 2,079 Author’s Summary: In which Lance is having a bad day, and Keith is there to help however he can. My Comments: Aw, Lance. Sometimes everything just kind of falls apart at once and overwhelms you, even when you’re a Hero of the Universe. I loved Keith just doing absolutely everything he could to help Lance get through it.

It’s Only Allergies! Swear! by carefulrenWords: 2,621 Author’s Summary: Lance starts his week off with an innocent case of the sniffles that he believes to be allergies. Despite growing worse as the week progresses, he wants to believe that it’s still allergies. It’s not.My Comments: It’s a Lance sickfic. Of course I like it. I’m not even embarrassed anymore. Well, maybe a little bit. But I’m still reccing this.

Open Water by NeyieaWords: 1,398 Author’s Summary: Lance misses the smell of salt and the crunch of sand and the untameable waves. My Comments: I love Lance and Coran interaction almost as much as I love Lance and Hunk interaction, and this fic gave me BOTH. It’s short but incredibly gorgeous, heartachey and sweet and satisfying. It hits the spot.

Beautiful Minds by PotatoBenderWords: 16,247 (WIP)Author’s Summary: Lance used to be proud of his mental abilities. A pilot. A Paladin. Someone experienced with delving and controlling his mind. But after being captured, and enduring just a single encounter with Haggar, his castle was reduced to rubble. Rescuing Lance was the easy part - healing him is much, much harder.My Comments: This is my favorite kind of torture-and-rescue fic, where you kind of gloss over the actual torture and get straight to the rescue and healing and recovery. That’s what I like. I really like this. I’ll be reading each update as soon as it shows up in my email.

Empty Shell Inside Of Me by infiniterhapsody, vagrantBreathWords: 7,180 (WIP)Author’s Summary: After a mission, Lance is acting strange. Spacing out, taking a while to respond to everyone. After a mission, Lance is locked away deep within Galra territory, at the hands of a Galra commander only wanting two things: information and his terror. Wait, what?My Comments: This one is especially heartrending because you get two Lances for the price of one, and they are BOTH scared and hurting and in need of help and gah, I’m so on edge about this story. The chapters are short but they’re updating quickly, which is good. I need them.

All The Stars In The Universe by jamwritesWords: 7,045 Author’s Summary: After being rescued from capture by the Galra Empire, Lance isn’t the same. He’s silent. Reserved. Broken. But Keith won’t accept this; every night, he comes to talk to Lance. Every night, he attempts to fix what is broken, and tonight may be his last chance. My Comments: Mm, yeah, hurt/comfort, this is the good stuff. THE GOOD STUFF. I was really touched by Keith’s tenacity and Lance’s courage, after all he’d been through, to still reach out the only way he could. Klance.

A Million Stars Apart by SerenePhenixWords: 8,217 (WIP 2/?)Summary: Lance usually could deal with a lot of things: being whisked away by a sentient alien ship together with friends, his hero and a rival, becoming part of an intergalatic war he had never known was even taking place, getting separated and reuniting with the closest thing he had to family in space…Yeah, it was not nice but he could take it.—–After surviving another incident with a malfunctioning wormhole, Lance finds himself in a position that might push him to his very limits. There are a lot of things he is unsure of but he knows with certainty that he does not wish to fail Allura or Coran in their quest to save the home they’ve lost. My Comments: This is such a fascinating concept. After a wormhole malfunction, Lance finds himself having dreams of an apparent alternate universe where he’s Allura’s sick younger brother. (BTW, yes, I am a big fan of AUs where Allura is Lance’s mom or big sister. Love ‘em.) Trouble is, he’s not getting any rest during these dreams, so he’s getting exhausted in his regular life. Seeing as I have written over 100k about exhausted Lance getting pushed to his breaking point and beyond, you can imagine how I feel about this fic. I am a fan.

Ablaze by waywardflowerWords: 5,297 Summary: He can’t burden them like this. He’ll be good, he’ll be fine by himself and he just has to show them that and they’ll leave him. Lance wants their attention, craves it, needs it to survive with his stupid omega body, but he can’t stand the thought of needing it. … Lance goes into heat.My Comments: Platonic omegaverse fic! Whoda thunk. Insecure Lance gets taken for a ride by his body, and it takes concentrated effort from everyone else to keep him safe. Some of the speeches at the end felt deeply personal and heartfelt. This fic made me ache, but I liked it.

This House Unfinished by boyghostsWords: 30,776 Author’s Summary: “Concept,” Lance said, his voice heavy and gutted with the ache of it; he caught Keith’s gaze and smiled wide, for show. “The war’s over. We’re back home. All the things we love in one place.” Lance keeps losing the things he’s built. Then there’s Keith.My Comments: Klance. This is a gorgeous fic. The writing is so descriptive and emotional, and I just adore Pidge and Hunk and everyone doing what they can to help Lance with his homesickness. The relationship with Keith feels natural, too, but the author did manage to kind of rip my heart out near the end, so. I’m gonna need some more, okay?

Feeling Blue by SkarmoreeWords: 8,940 Author’s Summary: Lance was the class clown back in school. His crooked grin full of gaps often brought a smile to his friend’s faces. Seeing everyone else smile made him happy. Lance was the shameless flirt in the Garrison. It made the girls laugh at his failed attempts, and the boys chuckle at his ridiculousness.He didn’t mind being turned down, because everyone ended up happy.Lance was the blue paladin. It was his duty as a member of Voltron to keep the universe happy. But sometimes, just sometimes -Lance couldn’t bring himself to smileMy Comments: Another fanfic trope I’m weak to: that one guy who always supports everyone else eventually not being able to do it anymore, having a breakdown, an injury, whatever, and everyone else rallies around to offer support in return. This fic does it well.

Trial by Ordeal by To Be or Not to- Oh forget it (Mikki)Words: 89,187 Author’s Summary: They’re supposed to be two sides of the same coin, or something like that. The truth is a bit more complicated. (Character study of Keith and Lance)My Comments: This is long, but absolutely worth the effort. Warning for depictions of abuse in both parts, but it’s treated realistically and respectfully. There were parts in Keith’s chapter that I had to stop reading for a while and do something else, and pretty much everything in Lance’s chapter made me ache for him and the family he left behind. But it’s really, really good. Amazingly well-written and deep and lifelike, and it all makes so much sense, for both of these characters. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long, long time.

Home by kencatWords: 1,138 Author’s Summary: Lance just misses home. My Comments: BEAUTIFUL Hunk and Lance interaction. I love them both so much.

Winter High, Winter Low by carefulrenWord Count: 3,362 Author’s Summary: Lance and Keith both live in the same shitty apartment complex. With a massive blizzard roaring outside and no power, Keith has to take care of an incredibly sick Lance. My Comments: Klance. Modern AU sickfic, and it hits the spot.

Long Distance by JennypenWord Count: 1,004 Author’s Summary: Someone gets the Christmas present they need. My Comments: Gah, I just love it when the others help Lance with his homesickness.

Just Ask for Help by genericfanaticWord Count: 1,787 Author’s Summary: Lance is having a problem with what should be an easy task. Shiro talks him down from his frustration My Comments: It’s sweet and simple and comforting, and kind, wise Shiro is the best.

Hold me close. by sevansaWord Count: 3,705 Author’s Summary: Lance’s heat is approaching… he has never felt so alone before. My Comments: Turns out I have a weird affinity for platonic omegaverse fics. Who woulda thought. I always hated the concept, but when it’s done like this, I don’t know. The idea of team-as-family is just ramped up to a hundred, and with some of the pack suffering biological needs that require special attention… I dunno. I like it. This is quite an id fic for me. It feeds something. I read it twice.

Restless by BanjiWord Count: 1,899 Author’s Summary: [X-posted on FF.net] Lance tries to find comfort in one of his friend after another night of bad dreams and worries. Keith is probably not the best choice. My Comments: It is fluffy and I approve. Keith tries, even when he’s out of his depth.

Road Trip to End Times by VelkynKarmaWord Count: 1,604 (the next chapter has the langst)Author’s Summary: The outbreak is at its peak, and the country is in ruins. But there’s still hope: Safe Haven, the colony on the West Coast. Reach it, and you’ll find safety and a chance to rebuild a new life in this zombie-controlled world. If you reach it, that is. But Shiro doesn’t intend to give up on trying. Not when he’s got four teenagers desperate to find their families again under his protection.My Comments: The author has been posting ficlets from this sort of tongue-in-cheek AU on tumblr, and they are all AWESOME. I will happily read them again on AO3. My favorite was the one where Shiro saves Lance from bandits, but that one isn’t on AO3 yet. But here’s Lance in his typical role as Best Morale Officer Ever, even in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.

The Empty Spaces Between the Stars by sliveredWord Count: 5,329 Author’s Summary: Talking was a far cry better than grunting, even if Keith’s voice did sound like… Feces, was it? Strange those human phrases that Lance had been trying to explain to him and Allura. But it didn’t sound good, was the point.*Five times Coran takes care of the Paladins.My Comments: This is super sweet and good and Coran is the best and I would like him to take care of me, too.

strength of the small by nowweareunstoppableWords: 12,736 Author’s Summary: A false distress signal lands the paladins in a tough situation. It falls to Pidge to earn their freedom, and it doesn’t come without a dangerous cost. My Comments: This fic is AMAZING. Pidge is an absolute badass, smart and strong and extremely well-characterized. The frantic run afterward to get her to help was intense and wrenching, too. And Lance was especially wonderful. You can feel his desperation, how deeply he loves Pidge and needs her to be okay, because she’s his little sister now and he CANNOT lose his family. Ahhh, I loved this one to bits. Highly recommended.

boredom is cruel and unusual punishment by babittyWords: 3,183 Author’s Summary: 3000 words of Lance getting the shit beat out of him, because i needed to get some angst out of my system. it’s not very graphic but injuries are listed and batons are used. My Comments: This is an old-fashioned whump fic, where the point is very much Lance (and Keith to a lesser extent) getting beat up. But there’s a lot of courage and tenacity on display here, and they do very much feel like themselves. An enjoyable fic, if you’re in the mood for hurt with not a lot of comfort.

all alone, all together by seulesWords: 1,516 Author’s Summary: This is bigger than anything he ever imagined. Lance knows the world’s balls deep shitty, so it’s not much of a stretch for the universe to take a crap and coat itself in it, only in a much larger scale. But it’s different when you’re told that the universe as you know it is about to be completely taken over by a tyrannical, fascist madman (surprise, surprise) and Obi-Lance Kenobi, you’re 1/5 of the universe’s only hope! My Comments: Aww, Lance and Allura bonding! I’m astounded that mine is the only comment on this fic. Please read it and encourage the writer.

Piece of Goo by genericfanaticWords: 1,207 Author’s Summary: Lance is sad and eats terrible food. My Comments: This is an excellent portrayal of depression and UGH I just want to give Lance a hug.

Infection by 5557Words: 73,271 Author’s Summary: While exploring an alien planet, Lance is nearly killed by a mysterious monster. Now he’s convinced that he is infected with an alien sickness. Why doesn’t anyone believe him? It must be Keith’s fault. This is a horror-comedy (but like, also a romance?), and I drew pictures.My Comments: Here, have some epic Klance hurt/comfort. It’s really well done. 

the currents you create by theoddoodisnudeWords: 18,501 Author’s Summary: Some days, he woke up even more tired than he’d been when he’d gone to sleep, and willing his body to go through the motions was just—tough. Like wading through thigh-high water or running on soft sand that gave under the soles of his feet. My Comments: Here’s my obligatory Klance hurt/comfort for the week. I think there’s always one. Anyway, this one is very good. Very realistic depiction of depression, and I liked how supportive everyone was, and how hard Lance tried to deal with everything even when he just wanted to give up. Also some wonderful Hunk and Lance and team bonding in there.

But a Scratch by manunulatWords: 1,052 Author’s Summary: This is a brief vignette set after s2ep2. Some things can’t be fixed by healing pods. My Comments: Would you like some Hunk and Lance being funny, loving bros, with just a touch of angst? I always like it. I like this one, too.

[elkian]

wassup got a fic out of my docs and out of my system #feelsgoodman

Rating: G

Words: 1,752

Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender

Characters: All Paladins, Princess Allura, Coran (Paladin-centric)

It’s when Hunk takes a light (but, judging from Lance’s face, not light enough), joking swipe at Lance that they notice.

Pidge realizes just how much they’ve curled on top of Keith, practically sitting in his lap. Keith, who - doesn’t hate, but definitely dislikes touching people, being touched, is slowly and unconsciously carding one hand through their hair. Shiro is hanging over the couch from the back, mock-refereeing Hunk and Lance’s impromptu slapfight, his human arm slung casually across Pidge and Keith’s necks. Lance and Hunk have been practically entwined in each other for the last twenty minutes - and they’re both cuddly, but usually not that cuddly.

The best, oddest thing is that it doesn’t really snap off… the paladins drift to their rooms for lights out, almost glowing in the unusual contact, and though they’re mostly back to normal the next ‘day’, if Lance’s arms slides against Keith’s during breakfast, or Hunk’s back presses reassuringly against Pidge’s during practice, it’s nothing to mention.

---

The next time it happens, they start to realize why. After a long mind-melding session (attempt), the paladins wander into the dining room. Rather than slump at the table and wait for Coran and Hunk to feed them, they decide to follow the yellow paladin into the ‘kitchen’ area.

Keith and Shiro find themselves at a pair of cutting boards, following Hunk’s ecstatic yet clear instructions on how to cut the various alien… vegetables? Pidge has the stove-like thing going and is stirring what appears to be some kind of pasta, while Lance is surprisingly deftly folding spices and herbs into a bowl of cheese-vegetable. Hunk all but dances through the food preparation area, dipping a tasting spoon into this and that and glowingly complimenting everyone’s work. It’s the first time most of the paladins have seen him in action like this, and they realize that to him, food is a kind of engineering - both a science and an art.

And when they settle together at the table (chairs a little closer than usual, as they lean over each other and fight for fritters and pasta, laughing and settling back, their shoulders knocking together), the food tastes sharper and better than ever, complex alien flavors filling their palates and lending an extra helping of cheer and energy to the previously burnt-out crew.

---

“What does this do?”

“How does this work?”

“How much can we alter the gravity in the castle? What about each room?”

“How old are the Lions? Could we make more? What happens if a pilot passes out or something, can someone else sub in?”

Coran looked fit to pull his mustache out.

Pidge glances at the Altean and their mouth curls in a smirk, but they just keep tapping away at their newest project. Allura doesn't even bother with that much restraint, laughing for what feels like the first time in weeks.

The redhead swatted Lance away from poking at a button that  probably wouldn’t eject them all into space. “Alright, that’s it! You are ALL GROUNDED until you can be yerselves properly again! I can’t believe this!” He whipped around and pointed at Pidge, whose smug face instantly fell. “And you! I get that there’s a power rush and all involved but could you try not to dominate yer teammate’s minds?”

Pidge’s expression isn’t quite as blank as they like, but blank enough to make Coran lose steam and (alongside a still-amused Allura) actually explain what’s been happening to them for weeks. They’d all guessed, of course, but it was good to hear someone actually lay it all out.

Shiro clapped a hand on the Altean’s shoulder as he finished. “Well, we’re handling it pretty well so far, Coran. And I don’t think it’s such a bad thing if we paladins - all of us - know a little bit more about what we’re doing, don’t you?”

Coran’s budding confident smile soured as Lance almost immediately appeared in front of him, pointed at his chin, and asked, “Wait, do you shave? How do you shave? Can I borrow your razor?”

---

And then they were Keith.

This far in, the melding started to have more dramatic, or at least easily discernible effects - it was easier to stay oneself, but more nuance was also received.

Hunk felt like his skin was tighter than ever. Itchy, on the verge of doing something. His nervous tics and constant movement increased - it wasn’t enough to rummage through everyone’s things, he was pacing, he wanted to go for a mile run even though they’d just finished training.

Pidge’s tech work becomes even faster, if slightly sloppy. They breach new and barely imaginable ideas, half-crafted code being discarded in favor of transcribing the newest thought. They feel on fire, more intuition than person.

Lance is… Lance is good, in a way no one expected. Something about Keith’s razor instincts and surety just clicks with his hunches and bravado. Of course, it also makes him even more insufferable than ever - though he’s quieter than they’ve ever seen him, what few words do leave him are far more accurate than anyone is comfortable with. He’s making a particularly unflattering observation about Coran when Shiro finally physically picks him up and forces him to go to his bedroom, with a stern but amused “Behave”.

---

Lance’s interconnectivity, Hunk’s interest in and love for all aspects of food, Pidge’s burning curiosity, and Keith’s deeply ingrained intuition all have perks and mostly-proportionate downsides, and Shiro is no different.

Is this truly the first time he’s come through, or the first they’ve noticed? It’s hard to tell, but several of Team Voltron would put their money on the former - while he’s often stern and disciplinary, Shiro does his best not to burden his team, even when it would help him.

It’s difficult to translate years (and desperate, deeply-engraved, half-forgotten months) of experience across a temporary mental connection, particularly in just residue. They do eventually notice, however; Lance thinks a little before he opens his mouth. Hunk remembers Pidge’s discomfort and considers putting the diary back (he doesn’t. But it’s a start). Pidge finds themself a little more aware of the emotions of the people around them, as does Keith, and both find themselves a little more in control of their anger that day.

-

Shiro wakes that night, choking on a scream; same as usual. But he’s barely sat up, intent on getting out of bed and exercising the phantoms away, when the door whooshes open.

Much as he might want to deny it, he lets Lance curl into his body, head butting into his ribs and fingers circling his 'real' elbow and snores already shaking the bed. He lets Hunk and Keith shove a second mattress through the doorway and flop onto the floor, Pidge already slumped with their back against the side of the bunk and snoring (little fingers oh-so-fragile laced with his monstrous ones, and he wants to object but he feels like a person for the first time in months). Hunk’s halfway through a story, an amused (and still fully-clothed) Keith humoring him with a faint smile, when sleep brings him down, and while the red paladin is the last of the four to fall into slumber, he also looks more relaxed than Shiro has ever seen him.

And somehow, that’s what really helps him smile, half-lidded eyes brimming with tears even with Lance sawing logs against his chest and curled like a constrictor around him, that’s what helps him finally sleep, for what feels like the first time in years.

---------

For the rest of his life, Shiro will remember the feeling of Pidge’s pulse under his fingertips as he woke; the quiet and, for lack of a better word, universal breathing pattern that had filled his humble quarters slowing the existential dread that waking brought.

Their dramatic days lessened, but was it because they’d improved or because they were resembling each other more? And was that because of the link, or just because they’d spent so much time together, especially as comrades-in-arms? It wasn’t as if they didn’t find themselves sometimes aping Allura or Coran’s unique alien accents, or unusual turns of phrase - just the other day, Lance had caught himself (okay, Keith caught him and then Hunk and Pidge wouldn’t let him live it down, whatever) using body language from both Alteans, the particular wrist flick Coran might use to indicate something, the foot-tapping Allura did when thinking of something long past.

So, anyways, it might not be anything.

But then again.

When the newest aliens threw them a welcome/thanks/leave-as-soon-as-you’re-done-please feast, and Keith accidentally shoved a chunk of hairy, deeply texturally unpleasant root vegetable in his mouth, it was Pidge, who wasn’t even looking his way, who quietly handed him a napkin and distracted their hosts while he spat it out.

When a piece of the kitchen fell on and trapped Hunk and Lance, weeks after their last mind meld, it was Shiro who stopped in the middle of his workout six levels away and found them, Keith and Pidge appearing almost as soon as he’d gotten the story out of the boys.

When Pidge kicked a piece of unresponsive alien hardware and accidentally broke their toe, Hunk had them in his arms and halfway to the infirmary before they could even get over the shock to yell.

Shiro had a bad dream and Lance started crying in the middle of a joke, and the four collected outside his door before he’d even woken up. Keith sprained his knee in training and Lance noticed before he did; Lance tried to eat something that Hunk had meant to throw out and Pidge stopped him, even though they couldn’t explain why; Lance tried to tell a new joke and Keith ruined it by shouting the punchline a sentence early and laughing hysterically; Shiro got a craving for marshmallows and walked into the kitchen to find Hunk putting the finishing touches on ‘alien s’mores’ or, as Lance liked to call them, Space S’Mores (with pronounced capitalization).

Sometimes it worried them. Allura and Corran seemed to find it normal, but was it? Was it normal for paladins… or for Alteans? Was it making them other than human?

But as time went on, they began to realize that only some of it was the mind meld, the Lions. And a lot of it… was them.

Years after the war, after Zarkon’s defeat, even when far from each other, they would always be a team.

They’d always be family.

[spearcast]

Are you writing any fanfics as of right now? I enjoy your writing very much and am interested if there's anything new coming!

aaaaaaaa thank you so much!!! i’ve worked on quite a few things since the last thing i posted, but i’ve become ever insecure about my writing so i haven’t posted anything. as of right now i have like... five wips of stuff, ranging from self-shipping nonsense to oc stuff. here, i’m brave enough today to give a snippet from each!!

“if i were a scot, you’d be akin to janet”

essentially a sweeney/renata (my american gods oc previously named rhiannon) fic based upon the ballad of tam lin (a scottish fairytale) and it’s. sorta sappy and cute. my fav lines from it are as follows:

“Sweeney felt his lips quirk up involuntarily at Renata’s comment. It made his face prickle with heat. 

‘Would you look at that?’ Wednesday grumbled mockingly, “The madman’s brain is in his dick.’

‘I dunno, Wednesday, maybe his heart’s in his dick this time,' Shadow adds.”

“atlas can’t last forever”

a semi-angsty miles fic that’s (spoiler alert) made well in the end with she and ria having a healthy conversation and exchanging sweet kisses and cuddles

“And when she woke, her hands still seemed stained red, her skin still burning. Ria didn’t shift from where she was, but Miles could feel her heart beating. It was unnerving in the same way a car accident is. You can’t shake it- the weight of it all on your back.”

“kiss of eos/ as the dawn rises”

a roz-centric fic detailing the relationships she has between her two single-most possible-to-romance bffs- lenore baccre and jhoren starbringer. the first blooms into something more while the latter becomes just a very hardened friend-bond that’s almost impossible to be broken.

“Lenore’s eyes followed the sun cresting over the Coruscant skyline, Roz could see that even in the transmission’s separation. She’d never seen anything more beautiful.

‘I thought this sunrise was breathtaking,’ the senator practically whispers, ‘but that was before I met you.’ Roz's heart almost stopped in her chest. Lenore glanced over at the transmission feed, then threw her head back and laughed. ‘Was that too much?’

No, Roz thought, watching Lenore laugh as her hair bounced in the slight breeze. It was just enough.”

“the hatchet in her hands”

part of my ongoing loveletter to shelby saint, one of my more beloved ocs! after they flee the desert wastes and make it to the sandy pine forest they come across a hatchet. there’s fun mythos and worldbuilding in here that i really adore. it’s... actually sorta good so far.

“And when the Goddess drew her shoulders back, the desert weeped with heat, and the seas wailed with boiling. The hatchet came down, the land split in two, and the God with the Red Hands threw gold into the sky as stars to sit beside the Goddess in the Sun. 

‘Praise the gods,’ Bhavika sighs, watching Saint chop wood. ‘I’d kiss you if you weren’t offended, my darling Saint.’

The girl raises a brow; the Goddess laughed and brought cooling rain to all the lands and to the land of the Red Hands specifically. The thought didn’t offend Saint in any way shape or form, but her hands were busy, so she couldn’t sign it to say it.”

“a scavenger’s bite”

a rhea rumley fic! revolving around she and her mentors running into team voltron and having to deal with not only the coolness of meeting them, but of a close encounter w/ lotor and his squad who are after both team voltron AND the scavenging crew. nothing special, kinda very self indulgent, stupid self insert is stupid.

“Rhea stands between Lance and Lotor, an Altean sword gleaming in her hands; it’s hard to tell who exactly is more startled, but as soon as she swings the blade she catches the prince in a back and forth duel. She looks to be easily defeated- until she snatches her staff from her back and hits Lotor in the center, knocking him off balance, and giving her a moment to kick his stomach. He stumbles back- and Mhyrii unleashes a barrage of laser blasts from her heavy artillery, scattering the half-Galra generals and their prince. 

It’s a small victory, but one needed for the paladins to return to their feet, and to prepare for a hard fight.”

[ladyvialana]

Fic: Look Back

Part of the Hope series.

Voltron Legendary Defender fic. Keith-centric, pre-relationship Keith/Lance

Summary: Shiro is gone and everything is falling apart. The last thing Keith needs is a late night conversation with Lance.

Notes: episode coda for 2x13, post s2, light angst, pre-relationship

Also on Ao3

---

Keith didn’t know how long he'd spent on the floor of the hanger staring up at the silent and still Black Lion. His ass was numb and his fingers painfully stiff even in the insulated suit.

The Black Paladin helmet sat on the cold metal in front of his crossed legs, as useless as the recently retrieved bayard still locked in Black’s cockpit.

Keith wasn’t wearing Shiro’s uniform. That had vanished along with him. It was a replica manufactured by one of the castle's machines. It felt uncomfortable, like it didn’t fit right. Nevermind that the armour would automatically resize to the body shape of the person wearing it.

Black was Shiro’s colour.

The Black Lion silently agreed. Its barrier hadn’t retracted since they had discovered Shiro’s disappearance. No amount of pleading or bargaining had swayed the Lion. It stood eerily still in the middle of the hanger, a dark omen for Shiro’s fate.

Yet Keith couldn’t let it go. He’d promised Shiro that he’d pilot the Black Lion and lead Voltron if something ever happened. Shiro was counting on him to step up. He couldn’t let Shiro down.

(The tiny part of him that is relieved by the rejection drowns in the guilt of failing Shiro.)

“Hey.”

Keith glanced over his shoulder at the greeting.

Lance stood near the hangar entrance, hands in his pockets and a sombre expression on his face. It made him look tired and caused Keith’s stomach to twist uncomfortably.

Keith nodded and turned back to his contemplation of the Black Lion. It wasn’t an invitation but it wasn’t a rejection either. Lance hesitated by the door before striding forward and sitting down on the floor next to Keith.

Keith waited for him to speak, to explain why he was there, but minutes passed and Lance just stared up at Black with that same exhausted expression.

Keith knew everyone else was hurting—that Shiro’s disappearance didn’t just affect him—but knowing something and actually seeing the effects were two different things. It wasn’t just Lance’s serious expression that aged him; the dark smudges under his eyes and the pale cast to his normally darker skin were signs that he wasn’t sleeping or taking proper care of himself. And if Lance, with his diligent skincare routine and dedication to self care, was looking this worn down then it was safe to say everyone else in the castle was even worse off.

He didn’t even want to contemplate his own appearance. Keith couldn’t recall the last time he ate or slept properly. (Shiro would be disappointed.)

Still, seeing Lance this upset was unsettling. He should probably say something.

“How has your ass not frozen off yet?”

Nevermind. Lance could deal with his feelings by himself.

Lance poked Keith’s arm, apparently expecting an actual reply to his idiotic statement.

Keith sighed and looked over. “What do you want Lance?”

Lance shrugged. “Just making sure you’re not dead. I had a wager going on. Well, no one wanted to take me up on it but that’s only because they didn’t like the odds I gave them.” He tried for a teasing smirk, but his smile was too wide and his eyes too red. When Keith didn’t even blink at the remark he dropped the smile and sighed. “Everyone’s worried.”

Keith turned away, looking toward the ground, suddenly ashamed of how focused he’d been on getting through to the Black Lion. “Yeah.”

“I mean … I get it. We’re all not okay and we miss Shiro and this whole situation is fucked. But you and Shiro, you guys were close and you’ve gotta be hurting, so——”

“Lance,” Keith cut him off. “Why are you here?”

Lance’s mouth closed with an audible snap and he flinched back from Keith.

Keith’s eyes widened as he realised how that sounded. “I just mean, since when do you care about me?”

“I care!” Hurt saturated Lance’s voice and Keith winced.

Lance pulled his knees to his chest, a strangely vulnerable gesture that Keith had never seen from him before. But then again, none of them were exactly themselves right now.

“I just thought that someone should be here. If you wanted.”

Keith stared, eyes wide. No one had ever offered that before. Aside from Shiro. But Shiro wasn’t here and that was precisely the problem. Shiro wasn’t here, Lance was about to cry, the rest of the team was in shambles, the Black Lion wouldn’t respond, and Keith …  

“I don’t want to be alone.”

It’s a whisper so quiet it shouldn’t have been heard. But the hanger was so silent and still that even the slightest breath carried to anyone in the hollow room. Lance heard his confession.

He looked over, tears lingering in the corners of his eyes. “Okay.”

Keith nodded.

They turned back to stare at the Black Lion towering above.

 ***

 “Shiro wanted me to lead the team.”

Keith surprised them both by speaking first after almost an hour of silence. Lance looked over at him but didn’t say anything, letting Keith talk. It was a relief. Keith didn’t realise how much he needed to talk about this mess until Lance just let him.

“Back when we were separated by the wormhole and Shiro was … hurt. He made me promise. I actually managed to pilot the Black Lion. But I’m pretty sure it was the fact that Shiro was in danger that made him move more than anything I did.”

Keith looked away from Black and down at the helmet still sitting in front of them. “I just … I don’t know what to do.”

“No kidding.”

Keith’s head jerked up and he stared at Lance in betrayal. He thought this was different to their other interactions. He thought Lance was actually being decent for once.

“I mean, that’s not really fair to you. Did he even train you? When we split up for missions, he never said, by the way, if something happens follow Keith. You have like, zero experience. Did he run this by Allura?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you even want to lead Voltron?”

Keith sucked in a breath. Lance stared at him, honestly wanting to know the answer.

“I … I don’t know. Maybe. Yes. I think so.”

Lance looked unconvinced. “Ignore what Shiro wanted. What do you want?”

“Lance.”

“Just think about it seriously, okay?”

Keith exhaled and nodded. He looked back at the helmet and closed his eyes. What did he want? Really want?

He could feel Red in the back of his mind, warm and trusting. Whatever decision he made he knew she’d be on his side. It helped, knowing he had unconditional support.

He thought about Shiro, then tried to think about everyone but Shiro.

He thought about his strengths, his weaknesses, what he brought to the team, what the team did for him, how he felt about being a paladin. He thought about the Lions and Voltron. The ship, Earth, all the planets they’d saved, all the planets that still needed saving.

He thought about how he could make a difference.

“I want this.”

Keith opened his eyes and looked at Lance. Lance was smiling at him, soft and pleased. His breath caught.

“Good. I’ll help.”

“Why?” The question was a breathless plea. Why was Lance here? Why was he helping Keith? Why did he care? Why did Keith want him at his side?

Lance shrugged. “Someone’s gotta get you caught up on all those tactical classes you missed after you dropped out. Besides, Allura and Coran have their hands full and we can’t keep relying on the Blade for everything.”

“That’s not …” Keith looked at Lance, at the way he was avoiding Keith’s gaze, how his shoulders hunched in and he clutched at the folds of his jacket. Keith shook his head and sighed, letting him keep his secrets for now.

“Okay. Thank you.” Lance looked up and Keith managed a smile for him. “Really. Thanks for making sure I wasn’t dead.”

Lance grinned. “Good thing no one did take that wager. I’d have been out a hundred bucks.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I take it back.”

“Nope. No can do. You’re stuck with me now.”

“Great.” Keith said it sarcastically, but there was a warmth in his chest that had been missing for too long.

He was glad he wasn’t alone anymore.