#except them actually being on earth when Shiro crashes (oh and actually being at his launch? or some of them?)

[void-tiger]

...screw it. I’ll *maybe* write an AU that’s from the point Takashi first crash lands back to Earth.

You know, one that has him having a twin and a preKerb friendgroup made up of Ryou, Lisa, Matt, Veronica, and Ginger (in my fanon she’s Hunk’s sister)? You know...Shiro actually having family and friends that then includes the Paladins? (Oh...and people actually at his launch other than Keith and the Holts. Well, the ones who weren’t currently deployed on their own missions at that time.)

Lots of rambling and thought-dumping as to how that might look plot-wise in a broader sense under the cut (along with other fixits)

Veronica’s seen ribbing her younger brother but also trying to cheer him and his assigned team back up before carrying on with her Garrison Job.

The Trio still sneaks out and runs into Keith causing not-well-thought-out shenanigans beyond a successful diversion.

The Trio+Keith run headlong into Ryou, Lisa, Veronica, and Ginger who had the exact same idea as their younger siblings/the idiot (former) cadet. They ARE Shiro’s friends, afterall. Only, they’re the ��scientists” and stick Iverson and the REAL scientists with the sedatives instead of Shiro. (They also made more of an effort to keep an eye on Keith than Adam ever did. They’re also well-aware that Pidge is actually Katie and keep an eye on her, too, but decided not to push her about the shoddy disguise. They *might* be covering for her regarding Iverson&Co, though.)

(Also, the Shack belonged to Ryou and Shiro. But Keith’s staying there, too. Ryou’s not happy about Keith trying to bust Shiro out without him.)

After the initial confusion, the Actual Adults (barely!) TM take over and have everyone pile into their cars while they try to shake off the Garrison and eventually regroup back at the Shack. (Keith’s driving Shiro’s old bike back since he’s the one who took it out. Shiro’s placed in the back of Ryou’s car with the seats laid flat. Ryou’s back there trying to keep him restrained until they can do triage, with Lisa taking over as the driver. Everyone else is with Veronica and Ginger. Or, they all took a ScoobyDoo van from the start vs several cars.)

Shiro actually recognizes the entire Trio, but introduces himself, anyway. (He’s a pilot, not an engineer or analyst. And although Veronica and Ginger bragged about their baby brothers and Matt about his genius gremlin sister, and Ryou definitely bragged about Hunk’s progress, it just didn’t quite work out for him to meet the cadets personally, save maybe Pidge—PR, aviation instruction, and Kerberos prep kinda ate away at his time. He did keep an eye on Lance’s progress, but...any remnants of time kinda went to Adam before the breakup and mentoring Keith. (Ryou kinda just insisted on crashing in Shiro’s post-breakup issued room until the twins finally pooled their resources to buy the Shack.))

The hunt for the Blue Lion goes about the same, only the group’s larger. Blue still picks Lance, kidnaps everyone else like a box of kittens, and goes for a joyride before getting serious. (“YEP. That’s definitely your Lion, Lance,” Veronica snarks.) The same Paladins experience the Vision as before, with the others giving them strange looks when they all randomly zonked out in tandem for half a second.

They eventually end up in Arus’s solar system. (The adults are very, very glad that they didn’t ever have time for pets. (And in this version, Ginger isn’t already a mother, and the Adults are all about 23-26, give or take.) Then internally freaking out about kidnapping a bunch of kids by accident, and kicking themselves about not having any sort of letters ready for everyone’s family. That...could’ve been thought out better (and moves to the top of their priority list. Galaxies away or not, mean purple aliens kinda implies they’ll be gone for awhile. With...a bunch of kids.)

They wake up Allura, but Ryou’s the one to catch her. Veronica twists Lance’s ear before he ever opens her mouth. (“Yeah yeah I know. She’s gorgeous. But not the time.”) (RIP, Lance’s ears...they’re not safe in any reality.) Allura and Coran pull up their starcharts...and discover the same, awful news. The adults herd everybody out to give the Alteans some space to grieve in private.

Allura starts to describe the Lions, but the group interrupts her. (“Uh...we kinda saw a big giant robot in our heads?” “Yeah, and it was freaky watching them all look like zombies for half a second, so hard pass.”) The rest of it goes on as usual, only Lance gets whacked for self-postulating, and Blue actually gets a description this time.

The soon-to-be Paladins split up to look for their Lions, with Keith still at the Castle. Ryou and Ginger set to work helping Coran get the Castle operational again, while Lisa and Veronica take on the task of helping Allura sift through 10,000 years of data backlogged.

-

Obviously certain events like Sendak capturing the Castle and Crystal Venom would play out somewhat differently. For one, neither Ryou or Lisa would leave Shiro alone. And at least one of them would probably stand with Coran about the ethics about all of it, even if they reluctantly agree that it’s the best option they have.

As far as Shiro’s disappearance, they catch on a LOT sooner that Black’s damaged and actually curling protectively around Shiro. (You know. Like Toothless and Hiccup. Just sayin’.) (As well as an explanation as to why Shiro ended up stored within BlackLion during the fight to protect him, while the other Paladins were not by their own Lions.)

Jiro still shows up thinking he’s Shiro, but has the others gently inform him that no, no he’s not. (Shiro may or may not be already out of BlackLion and recovering.) Jiro consents to having extensive tests done. They find all of Haggar’s implants (and discover that Shiro actually got stuck with a few of his own that Black separated from him when they extracted him out...now that they know what they’re looking at. Oh, and the Blacktashi Bond’s still well and good, but Shiro does have more trauma to work through. At best Shiro’s unconscious the entire time he was stored as energy particle. At worst? Sensory deprivation and FullBody Amputation. Nothing about Shiro being suspended in the Void could’ve been pleasant, even though Black was well-intentioned.) Once free from her control, Jiro’s more determined than ever to take her and the Galra empire down. (As well as freeing the other clones. The others share that sentiment, but especially the Shirogane Twin, who decide to accept Jiro as their “triplet from another mother”.)

Jiro still longs to be a Paladin, though. Allura and Lisa gradually over time begin to share that same longing. Eventually they feel a sort of phantom bond that mimics the one Jiro has with Black not just with the OG Lions, but also an even stronger one they can’t quite pinpoint. They eventually learn that they’re being Called by the second meteor.

Lotor’s still a rival right about the same time. However, by the time he tricks the Paladins into going after the meteor for him, the Castle’s a better match for his ship vs him getting away. (Because, you know. The OG Paladins are still with their Lions. And although Allura went with them to explore the distress call, Coran had Jiro&Co to help him man the Castle.) They fight to a standstill, then eventually call a ceasefire. They’re better about uncovering WHY Lotor wants the meteor/quintessence. Also the surviving Alteans are members of his crew, albeit still disguised to protect them from the Empire. They evacuate the colony vs sticking around. Lotor wants the quintessence first to end balmera mining and komar stripping, but also to have a second attempt at making the colony work.

Allura and Coran are shocked to learn that they’re not the last of their race, but eventually Lotor agrees to carefully continue checking Honerva’s research with Team Voltron&Co before deciding what to do with the comet, and if Lotor’s idea for “unlimited quintessence” is even possible...which eventually leads them to Orionde. (*drops better explanation about that pocket dimension HERE*) Also, the other Paladins probably make it through with both Allura and Lotor in-tow once they stop fighting the Lion and instead evade or request permission to enter (hey, it’d be a nice callback to A Bond Cannot Be Forced), but only Allura and Lotor make it all the way to the end.

When Allura and Lotor rejoin the Paladins and the rest of their crews, Lotor agrees to abandon his attempts to reopen the Quintessence Rift on the remains of Daibazaal--at best Haggar could then seize it and do unspeakable damage. At worst, all of Reality folds in on itself and collapses. There are no shortcuts.

Team Voltron press to know why the Galra covet so much quintessence in the first place:if it’s just to power their technology, then surely it’s past time to discover other means of energy. Lotor reluctantly reveals that the Galra are essentially extinct: what started as a way to extend their lifespans gradually mutated them overtime into no longer being genetically compatible with other members of their own race. They either continue taking the quintessence, or die off. Team Voltron then questions if Lotor and his Generals have that same problem--turns out, yes and no. The Galra are somehow still able to reproduce with other races (which he, Keith, and the generals are the proof of), but there are often complications with those pregnancies. In addition, Lotor and his generals spent enough of their early lives eating quintessence-enriched foods to have developed that same addiction they’re still struggling to ween themselves off of, if it’s even possible at all. 

Jiro then casually waves as proof that the Galra have successful cloning...so why not just genetically engineer the next generation to NOT have quintessence dependencies and whatever other genetic mutations that are dooming the Galra. Lotor stares at the clone dumbfounded--he hadn’t even considered that. (Aka, sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find plausible solutions to problems.) (*cue Save the Galra subplot mixed in around Typical Campy and Main Plot Adventures*)

The meteor is also used to create three new Lions, who immediately Bond with Allura, Jiro, and Lisa.

(For continuity’s sake? Let’s just say Lotor was never declared Emperor Pro-Tem, but always remained exiled/an outlaw.)

(*campy episodes*)

Pidge and Shiro finally find Matt. However, Matt now needs a brace for the leg Shiro injured while posing as “preChampion” to be able to support him. Shiro’s extremely guilt-ridden over it, but Matt assures him that ultimately it did save his life, and instead of having him transferred to a mining penal colony, he actually got transferred as a researcher after fixing the transport. After that, he bid his time for a chance to escape...which he eventually did when his scheme serendipitously coincided with a rebel attack. Unfortunately, Sam didn’t survive, Matt learned post-escape. The stress killed him well before his transport ever took him to a penal colony.

Voltron’s allies continue to grow. However, Zarkon finally recovers right about the time the Blades discover a quintessence supply chain of a new kind of quintessence...which eventually leads to the discovery of SEVERAL cloning fascilities where BlackPaladin Grade Quintessence is being harvested from hundreds of thousands of Shirogane Clones. Takashi, Ryou, and Jiro are all understandably outraged and physically sick at the revelation. Jiro also questions if his quintessence mimicking Shiro’s is the only reason why the BlackLion saved him at all [despite knowing where/having back her Paladin.] Shiro and Ryou try to reassure Jiro that that can’t be the reason/that he has his own value/etc, but Jiro’s unable to quite believe them.

The clones are finally freed (*cue tense battle here*), and like Jiro, many of them are pissed and choose to join the Rebels’ Ranks in various fields as both payback and a genuine desire to help and explore.

(*cue MORE SciFi Camp and Diplomacy etc*)

Eventually there’s another showdown with Zarkon, Haggar, and Company, spanning either into one massive battle or several smaller ones happening at once. Zarkon’s more powerful than ever thanks to the stolen Shirogane Quintessence Haggar used to revive him (that he continued to nom on up until the clones were rescued, although he still had his stockpile to ration)...but his attempts to seize the BlackLion/bust apart Voltron that way fail spectacularly. The Bond cannot be forced, and blacktashi healed eachother. 

Zarkon then summons his anti-voltron made from finally successful robeasts with living pilots. (it’s...a work in progress. as in, how does Sendak fit in, or prolly instead Sendak’s Clone, etc etc. But ultimately some of the previous antagonists return, after they got much more backstory etc in Campy TM stuff) (*cue mech battle*)

Allura finally has her match against Haggar and wins.

(Lotor&Co have their own role, but idk what)

At last...Zarkon and Haggar are defeated, with the bulk of their forces either killed, in custody, or on the run.

-

Lotor fights his way to the top of the Kral Zera to light his flame. However, his rule and insistence on change isn’t popular with the bulk of the remaining empire after 10,000 years under Zarkon. The remnants of Zarkon’s forces also try to cause trouble. There’s also tension with Voltron and the former Rebel Coalition as the universe attempts to rebuild their societies after being subjugated for so long. 

The surviving Alteans also long for their own planet and begin to rebuild their culture now that the Galran threat is finally gone, but they’re still vulnerable.

(Earth’s solar system also may or may not have been destroyed near the end of the 10,000 year war, with the surviving humans mainly being the former Galaxy Garrison, so they’re looking for their own planet/system, too.)

(*cue MORE Save the Galra...and The Galra Have Entered The Planet Race!*)

So, you know. Basically an adaptation of Vehicle Voltron as a “post game”.

-

Aaand, yet more smatterings of SciFi Camp as they rebuild/are Really Really finally at peace, and they finally just get to explore and experience the sort of Paladinship their predecessors did before Zarkon dragged everyone into the 10,000 year war. Because exploration/campy vld stories are always fun. 

[actress4him]

Bonus Whumptober Content Part 2

Original Whumptober fic here

Bonus Content Part 1 here

Find it all on AO3 here

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Thanks for all of the support on the last chapter! I appreciate each and every one of the likes and reblogs and follows I’ve gotten.

Tagging @outtacommission again because Keith would not have been resurrected from the dead without his bribery.

Here is chapter 3 of this fic... see you next week for the conclusion!

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Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: referenced amputation, blood mention, referenced broken bones, self-esteem issues, suicide ideation, death mention, nightmares, abandonment issues

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When he woke again, he was lying back down on the pillow, staring up at the blank white ceiling. For one, blissful moment, he didn’t remember the events leading up to him passing out again. But it all came crashing down on him an instant later, taking his breath away.

My leg.

My leg, my leg.

My arm, my face, my leg.

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice was quiet, tentative. Not like him. “Are you awake?”

He wanted to roll over on his side and ignore him. Close his eyes, maybe go back to sleep, pretend that the world and this nightmare didn’t exist for a little while longer. The only reason he refrained was because he wasn’t sure if his stupid, wrecked body could actually manage it.

“What did you do to me?” It was only a whisper, and as slurred as it was, he wouldn’t have been surprised if it was impossible to understand.

Shiro’s breath hitched audibly. If Keith had been looking at his face, he was sure he wouldn’t like the anguished expression that he would see there. But at that moment, he didn’t have the capacity to care.

“Do you want me to...explain...how it...happened?”

No. Yes. He didn’t know. He needed to know why him losing a leg had been the best option, but at the same time he wasn’t sure if he could handle hearing about it. In the end, he just lifted one shoulder - the one that actually listened and responded right away - in a shrug. 

Shiro shifted in his seat, leaning forward so just the tip of his white bangs were in Keith’s periphery. “I already told you that you...died. On that planet. So when we got back to the Castle, you dying again was a distinct possibility. We...it’s like Fallenta said. We had to get you into a pod, even though your...your left arm was broken, and your knees, especially, were a mess from where the console landed on them.”

He paused, rubbing his palms together. “We didn’t know what would happen. I was scared to death that some of those breaks wouldn’t be able to be fixed after the pod. I mean, we were headed to Tellima, but…” His head dropped. “We had no choice. That hole in your stomach...you were dying.”

Keith could almost imagine it - the frantic atmosphere in the infirmary, the blood everywhere, the desperate conversations escalating into shouts as they debated on what to do. He had no doubt that he really had been dying, that they had made the choice they thought was best. He just wasn’t sure if he agreed with that choice. 

“When you came out of the pod, once the stomach wound was healed enough for you to be stable, Fallenta started working on re-breaking the bones so that they could be set correctly. It was...awful.” The shudder was obvious in his voice. “I’m glad she was able to do it, of course, but I’m also glad that you were unconscious the whole time. Your arm was relatively easy. Your left knee...it took her hours. It was in so many tiny little pieces. And your right…”

Automatically Keith flinched at the reminder of what was no longer there. Of the scarred, chopped off stump that lay just underneath the blanket, and the way his leg just...ended. He could see the void where the rest of it should have been even now, if he were to look down. He was purposely avoiding it.

Shiro heaved a huge sigh. “Unfortunately, your right knee was shattered in a way that had been blocking the circulation in your lower leg the whole time. The tissue down there was...dead.” He paused again. “Keith, I’ve...trust me, I’ve gone ‘round and ‘round in my head ever since we...trying to figure out if there was something I could have done differently. And...I don’t think there was. We did what we had to do to save your life. I’m just...I’m sorry that we couldn’t save your leg, too.”

His leg was gone. 

Would he ever be able to walk again? Could they find a prosthetic for him like Shiro had, that worked as well as the real thing? Even if they did, how long would it take him to get used to walking on it? Just walking, not even counting anything like running, jumping, fighting. 

Fighting was what he did. It was the one and only thing besides flying that he was good at. He was crap with a gun, he couldn’t sit up in a sniper’s nest like Lance. He needed to be able to move. If he couldn’t, even just for the time that it took to learn how with a new leg and an arm that only half worked...

They’d replace him. What good was a paladin who was crippled? Who couldn’t pull his weight? As soon as Red woke up and found out what happened to him she would realize that he was useless now. And the Princess, the rest of the team...they already knew it. They were probably already looking for a new Red Paladin. How long would it be until they dropped him off on Earth, or on some Coalition planet? Probably as soon as he was healed enough. They didn’t have time to keep taking care of an invalid, they had a universe to save.

They did. Not him. Not anymore.

“Should’ve left me there.”

There was dead silence for a moment.

“What?”

Keith tipped his head back further into the pillow, eyes roving over the featureless ceiling as if he’d see something new. “I tol’ you not to come. I tol’ you to leave me there. You didn’t listen.”

“And now you’re alive.”

“Yeah, but why?”

“Keith…”

His hands fisted in the blanket, jaw clenched in sudden fury. “Don’t ‘Keith’ me. Why, Shiro? Why am I alive? What is the point? You know what all this means.”

It meant he’d be alone. And he couldn’t...he couldn’t do alone. Not again. Not when he found a group of people that he actually cared about for the first time in so long. Not when he was just finally getting used to always having people around, always having someone to talk to or distract him from the thoughts that tried to consume him. Not when he barely survived it the first time. 

He’d rather be dead than alone.

Shiro sucked in a deep breath through his nose. “That life is gonna be hard for a while? That you’re gonna have to work harder than ever to get back to where you were? Yeah, Keith, I do know. I know more than anyone else.”

Oh.

Shiro must think he was so incredibly self-centered.

He was self-centered.

He should have thought about how acting like losing a leg was worse than dying would seem to the man who had lost an arm and kept going. But instead he was all caught up in how he was going to lose everything he had grown to love and rely on. Acting like the self-absorbed brat that everyone at the Garrison except Shiro had accused him of being.

“That means I also know how hard it is to accept,” Shiro was saying. “It’s going to take time to adjust. But you will, I promise, and I’ll be here to help you every step of the way.”

Yeah, right. Keith didn’t know if he was lying to make him feel better, or if he just hadn’t yet realized or accepted that Allura and the rest of the team wouldn’t want to keep him around.

“Just...please, Keith. Please don’t say that we should have let you die. You don’t know…” His voice caught. “I’ve spent these last weeks hoping, praying that you would live. Scared out of my mind every moment of every day that you wouldn’t.”

Keith finally forced himself to turn his head toward his brother and saw him brush the back of his wrist across his eyes. Just that movement was enough to make his heart drop to his stomach. Shiro didn’t cry. At least not where anyone could see him. 

Slowly, he slid his hand out across the bed, palm up. A peace offering. It took only a moment for Shiro to take it, squeezing it so hard he thought a few more bones might break.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. And he was. Not for thinking it, but for saying it. He didn’t want to cause any more pain for any of his friends. 

That’s why when it was time for him to go, he’d do it quietly. No fuss. Don’t let them see your fear or your pain - he had learned that long, long ago. He was good at it. 

Shiro gave him a shaky smile. “It’ll be alright, Keith. I promise.”

Swallowing down the words that sprang to his tongue, he gave a nod. “Okay.”

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The next morning Keith woke up to an empty room. In a way, it was a relief. They obviously didn’t see the need to watch over him and baby him twenty-four-seven anymore. But he was, for all intents and purposes, stuck. With no leg, he couldn’t just get up and leave the room whenever he wanted, head to the training room like he normally would in the morning. There’d be no training for him for a long time. 

Of course there was breakfast to think about, too, and he wasn’t sure whether to expect someone to bring it to him, or to bring him to it. Either way, he hated it. He had always hated being treated like he was helpless, and now it was even worse because he actually was helpless. 

He went ahead and made up his mind, though. No matter what their plan was, he had no desire to be carried through the Castle to the dining room where everyone would give him those looks of pity. Poor Keith. Can’t even walk by himself. It’s just too bad he can’t stay.

He was in the midst of pushing himself up off the pillows, trying to get his right side to cooperate long enough to get in an upright position he could balance in and trying to ignore the strange lightness of his leg, when the door opened and Pidge slipped in.

“Hey,” she said softly. Padding over, she perched carefully on the edge of the chair that first Hunk, then Shiro had occupied. 

Tucking his left leg up close to him - the knee creaking in protest at being used for the first time since healing - Keith cleared his throat. “Hi.” 

Silence fell, but it had never been awkward between the two. The introverted arms of Voltron. Pidge just gazed at him for a long moment, her eyes saying all the things he knew she would never actually be able to say with words. “It’s good to see you awake. I was really worried about you.” 

On the outside, she merely shoved her glasses back up into the bridge of her nose and sniffed. “You better not quiznakin’ ever do that again.”

Keith’s lips turned up at the corners for the first time since waking the day before. “Alright.” 

Besides Shiro, he thought he would miss Pidge the most of all. They got each other more than anyone else.

“So.” Straightening up, she whipped a tablet out of her hoodie pocket. “We’ve been working on a leg for you. The Tellimites have crazy good medical technology, so obviously we’re using their notes, but I’ve also been talking back and forth with the Olkari, because they’re, of course, crazy good with biological connections, and we’ve come up with a design that should communicate really well with your body and, essentially, work like the real thing.”

She launched into a detailed scientific explanation of how every inch of it worked, tapping and flicking through various diagrams that just looked like a plain prosthetic leg to him. He didn’t understand but a few words here and there, but he let her talk. This was one of her passions, and it was nice to let her be able to ramble about it for once without having to worry about being rushed. The way her face lit up was worth every second.

“So...what do you think?” Suddenly she sounded uncertain as she blinked up at him. “We definitely want your input on it. I mean, I suggested putting in a rocket booster, but Hunk pointed out that it would be difficult to control with only one. Lance wanted to add lasers that shot out anytime you stomped your foot, but that seemed pretty dangerous for like, running and stuff, so…”

It almost sounded like they expected him to still be fighting with this thing. Well, maybe he would. Eventually. After all, he wouldn’t feel right about just ignoring the existence of the war when the people he cared about were still out there fighting it, so he’d do his best to get back into shape. Maybe he could convince them to find a Coalition planet for him that had soldiers he could fight with someday.

It wouldn’t be the same as fighting with this team, his...his friends. But at least he wouldn’t be completely useless.

He met Pidge’s eyes and realized she was still waiting on an answer from him. Part of him wanted to keep his words to a minimum, not wanting her to hear his new speech impediment, but he swallowed his pride. “It, uh...whatever you guys come up with I’m sure will be great.” He actually hadn’t even been sure whether to expect them to work on it themselves, or put it off on the Tellimites or some other able species. It made sense, though, that Pidge and Hunk would want to jump on this opportunity to design something they had never gotten to do before. He forced a small smile. “But...yeah, let’s hold off on weaponizing it.”

Smirking, Pidge turned off the tablet and stuck it back in her pocket. “Alright, if you insist. Lance is gonna be super disappointed, though.”

“I’m sure.” He could hear the whining and complaining about how boring and unimaginative he was now. 

“So, I was supposed to ask you about breakfast…?”

Keith stared down at his hands. “Oh. Yeah. I don’...think I’m really ready to...try to move around yet, so…”

He was such a bad liar. But Pidge either didn’t notice or was being nice and pretending not to, merely nodding and standing. 

“Okay. I’ll tell Shiro, he’ll probably bring you a plate down here.”

“Thanks, Pidge.”

She turned back from the doorway and smiled softly at him. “No problem.”

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The nightmares came that night.

And the next. And the next.

Snippets of things he didn’t remember during the day, and wouldn’t remember again when he woke. Alarms blaring. Lights flashing. A horrifying crunching sound, then crippling pain and a bitter taste in the back of his throat.

And then...nothing. No one came. No one heard him calling. He stayed there, alone and bleeding in the dark, until the pain became too much and he slipped away.

He woke with tears streaming down his cheeks and a scream on his lips that didn’t quite make it out into the still air of the infirmary, not knowing what he was even crying about other than the nauseating loneliness that weighed him down, pinning him to the bed. 

Forcing his right hand to be the one to clumsily scrub away the tears - because it was going to work, dang it - he gritted his teeth and pushed against the weight to flop over onto his side. 

Get over it. Get over it, get used to it, stop being such a baby. You’ve always known that this wouldn’t last. It’s a miracle they’ve stuck around for as long as they have. If you try to hang onto them they’ll just end up hating you before they leave. 

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He got away with hiding in the infirmary for two days before Fallenta declared him well enough to be up and about, and Shiro and Allura showed up with the Altean version of crutches. They escorted him slowly down the halls of the Castle to the dining room, chatting amiably the whole way. Keith assumed it was meant to either distract him from his plight, or to keep themselves from staring and pitying.

“Hey, look who finally decided to join us!” Lance announced loudly as soon as he hobbled into the room. “It’s about time you were out of bed, Mullet-head.”

“What Lance means,” Hunk sighed, “is that it’s good to see you up, Keith.”

“That it is, Number Four!” Coran rushed to pull out his usual seat, and his smile was so bright Keith couldn’t even be mad about the special treatment. “You had us all worried for a while there, for sure!”

Swallowing, Keith fiddled with his spork, unsure whether he was supposed to respond. “Um...yeah. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Keith.” Shiro smiled at him softly, knowingly. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

He just barely kept another ‘sorry’ from escaping. Instead he nodded, picked up his spork with his left hand, and changed the subject. “So, uh...wha’s been going on lately?”

That was all it took for everyone to launch into tales of short missions in the Lions, repairs on Red, and alliances with Tellima. Keith barely remembered to keep eating his goo as he watched all of the animated faces and gesturing hands with a small smile on his face. It was good to be back among his teammates. They were so unlike him in so many ways, it was no wonder that he had never really fit in with them. But he cared about them anyway. They might not feel the same way about him, but he was so glad that they had become a part of his life. 

And now they wouldn’t be anymore. Scowling down into his bowl where no one would notice, he poked at the green goo. How did I let myself get so attached? Before Shiro, it had been many, many years since he had let himself care about anyone this much. He should have known better by then. Letting himself come to consider any person or place home was just setting himself up for heartbreak.

As much as he loved spending this last bit of time with them, he almost wished they would stop acting so natural, as if they weren’t getting ready to kick him out any day now. No one mentioned a search for a new paladin. No one said whether they were headed to Earth, or some other planet. 

He wasn’t going to be able to stand the suspense for many more days. They needed to just get it over with.

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Later that night, after waking from another nightmare back in his own room, Keith stared at the bare walls, so lifeless compared to the other paladin’s rooms. Maybe I was always prepared for this moment, after all. Or maybe he had just been kicked out and left behind so many times that the ability to settle in was impossible for him no matter where he went. 

Struggling to sit up, he groped for the crutches and pulled himself to his feet. He wasn’t going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and no one had expressly forbidden him from venturing out on his own - not that it would have stopped him even if they had.

It took far too long to make it down the four hallways between his room and Red’s hangar. Walking with crutches used a whole new set of muscles that he wasn’t used to accessing, and trying to force his right side to carry that much weight was exhausting. He had to stop and lean against the wall, panting for breath, several times along the way. 

But he made it, eventually. He paused once more outside the door, debating whether or not he was actually ready to see the damage done to Red, before he sucked it up and punched the scanner.

He wasn’t ready. 

The great mechanical beast was lying on her side, a position that somehow managed to make her look vulnerable despite her hulking size. Her legs were splayed awkwardly as if she had just been dropped there. She probably had.

The worst part, though, was that her face was nearly unrecognizable. What had once been her muzzle was completely smashed in, there were spiderweb cracks across one of her dull grey eyes, and the other was missing altogether. 

Actually, he took that back. The worst part was the cold and the silence. 

No purr in his head to greet him. No eyes lighting up in recognition of her Paladin. No warmth filling up his chest and spreading out to his fingers and toes. With Red, there was always some kind of heat. Now, though, a shiver shook his body.

Clenching his jaw, Keith forced himself a few steps closer, until he could reach out, balancing precariously, and lay a hand against her warped, dented nose. It was cold, too. 

Suddenly tears sprang to his eyes for the first time since his panic attack a couple of days before. “‘m sorry, Red.” He stroked his hand over the metal, feeling all of the bumps that shouldn’t have been there. “I’m sorry this happened to you. You didn’t deserve it. You...you’ve always protected me, and…”

Tipping his head back, he took in the mess of a cockpit again, and this time he saw flashes of his nightmare. Something sharp pinning him to the chair. Blood dripping onto the floor.

One tear escaped, sliding rapidly down to his chin. “I don’t even know how I survived this. But if either of us deserved to survive, it’s you. Please, Red...if you can hear me at all...please don’t give up. I know I...I can’t fly you anymore, but…”

It hit him then, the brutal truth of that statement. He’d never fly her again. He might never fly anything again. He’d known it ever since finding out what had happened to him, but now it stabbed him through the heart, how much he was going to miss this semi-sentient alien ship. 

Before he knew it, he was falling none-too-gracefully to the floor, one hand planted in front of him while the other remained on her snout, crutches clattering loudly to the side. The tears came in earnest, then. “Red...Red I lost my leg. I...I can’t fight anymore, I can’t fly…I’m useless.”

He’d told her that before. That time, though, she had reassured him that no, he was her Paladin, he was a defender of the universe, not useless. Never useless.

But now there was no one to reassure him. Even if she had been able, Red would know the truth. He wasn’t her Paladin anymore, he wasn’t a defender of the universe. He was useless.

Next

[greenflamedwriter]

Shance Prompt

To all the Fanfics I’ll never write. But I don’t want to lose them so here they are.

Filler Episode [#0002]

Ship: Shance- Shiro/Lance

Voltron Au: Return to Earth and Shiro gets back with Adam and Lance is heartbroken of Kuro. Plot oriented.

They land on earth and everything is fine, until Lance see’s Shiro and Adam reunite and feels utterly destroyed. Then to top it off they have a row with the instructors and James is high and mighty and says that they should be in charge of Voltron since they are better candidates.

So Shiro agrees and says if they’re team can pilot the lions then build up to their standards and do better than Pidge, Hunk Keith and Lance and are prepared for the Galra then sure.

All of the team gets denied, except for the Red Lion- it lets James pilot it and Lance now realises how much of a spare part he’s been.

That he would amount to nothing but a cargo pilot. 

James is cocky as hell sure- but Lance doesn’t seem too upset like last time- he knew he piloted red because Keith stepped down that he was a fighter pilot because Keith left. 

Lance was only here because Keith had to step down, just because of Lance’s ego? No he was so over that.

So Lance turns to James shakes his hand (stopping the arguments as Pidge was yelling at James and was defensive) 

Lance tells him, congratulations, he’s sure the team will teach him the ropes and that they should hurry to perfect their team dynamic. He turns to Iverson and says he has background experience on the Galra and has loads of intel to teach the cadets. They need to be ready for war as the Galra will not hold back- so Iverson agrees for Lance to be their informat to teach the class everything he knows.

Well- Iverson doesn’t Agree persay, but tells Lance he expects a module of what he will teach the kids that have to approved by the lectueres, Lance agrees and admits to giving a tour of the Altean Castle and giving his presentation inside.

Shiro is pissed off and ready to fight for Lance to stay but Lance intervenes “Shiro this works out, we need a pilot from the Garrison to be here. By Military standards a former pilot and a few dropouts have no weight or loyalty, they want to make sure Voltron is on their side first.”

“Of course we are! We want to protect earth-”

“But not become dictators like Zarkon- think of this as the accords from Civil war, look it’ll work out once they see what you can do-” And the fact that the country will assume Voltron was some terroist weapon so YEAH they needed to show they had control of Voltron.

“What we can do- Lance you’re a part of this team too!” Lance smiled though it didn’t reach his eyes.

“I know, which is why it’s better to be on the side lines, the Garrison know nothing about the Galra, Altean teach and the things they need to make them stronger, like Bulmarian crystals or Weblums that eat planets, they need to be prepared and they won’t understand a word Coran is saying and Allura is stuck with Voltron since she’s a new member. She and James can learn more together- this works out! I can help speed things along!”

“What about Shiro he can do all that stuff!” 

Pidge yelled and Lance shook his head even though Shiro nodded along with her.

“No- Shiro is the senior officer and would be working with Iverson and the other instructors and even Head of state- he’ll have his hands full trying to make sure the freakin army won’t use us as some sort of terrorist threat we can’t afford infighting with other continents when ACTUAL aliens might come out of nowhere and kill us- two pair of hands are better, guys...trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Are you really okay with this?”

Lance blinked surprised at the pure venom coming from Keith, Keith glaring right at him and his mouth slipped shut “I- of course, no use beating around the bush, I wasn’t meant to be a fighter pilot. I should accept my loses while I can.”

_____________________________

Iverson and other lectures start chewing Lance out and he snaps.

“To be perfectly candid, Sir. I’ve been to space and seen everything and have more experience with the Galra, the Alteans craft the materials needed such as Balmera and Weblum- Coran and I can teach you all there needs to know about what we are facing, I can give you my intel and what you do with it is up to you and your superiors.”

Iverson grit his teeth “Fine, Cadet. I will let the instructors know about the extra curriculum-”

“Oh these involves them too actually, how about I give you a tour of the Altean Castle- as science officors have to be in depth to replicate Altean technology since they’re much more advance and we need the extra fire power we can get- it would be easier since I can tell them whats what-”

“Fine, Mclain, do whatever you need. Sort out a trial Seminar and we’ll see if it’s appropriate for the cadets.”

Lance does everything, he helps out and ends up taking over, without warning he’s advanced from Cadet to Intruscter to [whatever the ranking system in the military is Idc] and ends up outranking Keith which is funny, he also gets better with the simulations and becomes a really good teacher, he and Iverson suddenly start getting along it’s scary- Lance avoids Shiro/Adam like the plague and just keeps busy.

Meanwhile James is not working well with the team and ends up crashing Voltron, the team have a comparison of when Lance left and knew the difference and were worried James was going to be a problem.

 Lance stays behind and becomes a teacher for the Garrison cadets and teachers them about the Weblum, Balmera and goes into detail. Students find out he died, and shit he shows his badass scar-

 and then the super dream team!

Romelle! Lance! Matt! Sam! and Shiro all work together to speed up the process to make Earth defendable, they work on the barrier and Lance only manages to get the remaining materials they can get while Shiro and Adam are working on the blueprints for the Atlas.

“Lance?”

Lance turns surprised to see Shiro looking flushed “I...We were thinking of a crew for the Altas.”

“Yeah…?”

Shiro held his gaze “I want you to be on my team, with Coran and the others.”

Lance almost dropped his data pad. “I - what?”

“Lance, you’re good- you would’ve been chosen by Voltron if-”

“But I wasn’t, it’s because I was there, when given the choice Red went to James, I’m just a spare…” Lance goes to walk away, Shiro grabbed his arm. “Are you saying I’m a spare? That I’m wasting my time on Atlas and should let someone like Iverson be in charge of it?”

“What? No! That’s not what I’m saying-”

“Lance maybe you outgrew Voltron, maybe both of us can be more than that, why can’t you see it when I say you’re a good pilot and a great sharpshooter-”

Lance eyes stung but Shiro was on a roll “I would be honoured to have you on my team, if you say no I hope it’ for the right reasons and not because you don’t think you’re good enough.” Shiro squeezed his shoulder “You are good Lance, I couldn’t ask for a finer pilot.”

Shiro left knowing that’s all he had to say, and Lance scrubbed at his face and hurried away, he had reports to deliver.

Lance gets along with Kinkade and James old team, James himself fumes that Lance was able to be flexiable to get along with both teas of Voltron and Mfe’s. Lance is also able to pilot the are fighter and breaks records. Lance is finally more comfortable in his own skin and ends up going to the shooting range with Kinkade, being so flexable makes James irritated.

Lance talks to James and is able to break through to him that being the best isn’t what matters in the grand scheme of things. So Lance talks about James trying to bond with Pidge and the others and that bonding with his fellow cadets is good for the team.

Lance ends up flying red to show James how it’s done.

Lance felt relaxed being back and could feel the content purr and smiled once he landed he walked out seeing James fuming face.

“I would kindly suggest you give me my lion back.” Lance smirked “She’s all yours.”

James took a step forward and yelped when the barrier swooshed down and he slammed into it, he fell back clutching his nose “What!?”

Lance smirked “I don’t think she’s ready to give me up as her pilot.”

Turns to see Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Hunk and Allura watching fondly.

Lance flushed “You guys were right and the lion- she was teaching me a lesson, I wanted to feel like I earned a spot at being her pilot. I wanted to work for it- but I didn’t, the Red Lion accepted me as I was it was me that felt inadequate.” 

“I guess you don’t need to be on the Atlas afterall, you’re still needed here I see.” Lance smirked “Hard to be in two places at Once...but it was thanks to you Shiro.”

Shiro flushed and ducked his head.

“Well if you change your mind, the offer still stands.”

Feel free to adopt this fic if you want I guess...

[angels17324]

The Violet Paladin (Keith x Reader) Ch. 15

Hows quarantine treating everyone? I know I don’t have to explain myself on not posting but guys I want you to know I am a health care worker I’ve been at work for almost 10 hours a day everyday for the last two weeks on both days and nights. So I love you all I know I am trying to keep writing but its hard. Guys if you don’t need to go out please don’t stay home find some new fics to binge read or shows to obsess over I don’t want to lose anyone to this virus.  Word Count:   Update Schedule: Unknown (Im gonna try and set myself a goal of updating on  Wednesdays call me out if I forget guys!!) [Masterlist] [Prev] 

When I got back on the castle I learned that Shiro would be in one of the healing pods for a while. I still hadn’t told them anything about what happened, but I’d rather tell them at the same time then one by one. We were all in the healing bay watching Shiro.

“Is he okay?” Hunk asked when we heard Shiro groaning. 

“Sometimes the healing process causes involuntary brain waves,” Allura explained. 

“It looks like he’s having a bad dream,” Hunk mumbled. 

“He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards, what dream could be worse than that?” Keith asked. We all waited for a short while longer before he started to wake up. We had all gathered closer and smiled at him when he opened his eyes. He told us about having a dream of a Galra soldier helping him and some coordinates in his arm. 

We waited for Shiro to get dressed before walking down to the green lions hanger. Lance was filling Shiro in on what had happened with him and Hunk and Mermaids? I wasn’t really sure, I was just thankful the attention wasn’t on me, I don’t even know how I’m going to tell them. 

“(Y/n)?” I heard Hunk called out. 

“Huh?” I looked to see everyone was staring at me. 

“You were kind of zoned out there,” Lance looked me. 

“Oh…” I breathed. 

“You know you’ve been acting really weird since you got back, you’re the only person who never shared what happened while we were all separated,” Pidge crossed her arms. 

I sighed, I was going to have to tell them sooner or later and I might as well just get it over with, “I don’t really even know where to start,” I stated. “A lot happened honestly,” I guess I should just ease the information in. “Well, I guess I can start with I crashed onto this planet where I was met by a girl who ended up being the planets princess,” I said I wasn’t trying to be vague but I’m still not sure how they will take it. “She ended up taking me to the queen, where I found out I was on the home of the original Violet Paladin, and at first the queen wasn’t very happy learning that I was the new paladin,”

I explained a bit of what I learned like how they had closed of all communication with the rest of the universe, and how the only reason I think they hadn’t been attacked is because in the Archives I learned that they never shared the location of their planet with anyone. Coran shared that not even Alfor or any of the other original paladins had been to the planet and that I was the first ‘outsider’ I bite my tongue to hold back from correcting him at least yet. “Okay but none of that explains why you’ve been acting weird,” Pidge said ever observant she is. 

“It might just be easier to show you then tell you.” I pulled out my phone I had snapped a photo of the picture that the Queen showed me and I showed it to the group. 

“It looks like you, but it’s not,” Pidge state. 

“Is this some creepy twin in space thing?” Lance asked. 

“No, how do I put this… it’s true it’s not me, but it’s also not a twin thing… I mean, except the actual picture in this is over 28 years old.” I explained, I could almost see the wheels turning in their heads. “It’s my mom!” I exclaimed not really being able to take it anymore. 

“How!” Pidge was the first to speak up since she was the only person here to ever meet my mom. 

“Wait what?” Lance was the next one to speak up. I explained to them as much as I knew which still wasn’t much other then the fact that she was the queen’s little sister. It felt so much better to have this off my chest. We continued to the hanger to find out what if anything was in Shiro’s arm. The whole way down Lance kept questioning me about everything, I was kind of annoyed but I just ignored him. 

While we were waiting for Pidge to find the coordinates I just kept thinking about everything that's happened. I wonder if my mother would have ever told me about this? And if that was why she was mad that I had joined the garrison.

 Eventually Pidge found the coordinates, but Allura didn’t seem too happy about trusting something from the Galra but we went ahead and used a  wormhole to get to the base. In front of us were these large crystals they were kinda cool. 

“Well this is it. No signs of life, living or otherwise.” Coran said. “I don’t want to bring the castle any closer those xanthorium chucks contain highly unstable nitrate salts even bumping one can blow us straight to Wozblay,” Okay slightly less cool. 

“Are you sure this is right?” Shiro asked. 

“These are the coordinates Number Six gave me.” Coran said.

“Hey! My decryption is solid,” Pidge defended glaring at Coran. 

“We’ve gotta be missing something,” Shiro said. We ended up waiting a few minutes before alarms began blaring. 

“There’s an intruder in the Castle!” Coran shouted. Allura found him on level five. We all suited up and went down. We each began running through the halls to find this guy. Lance was the first to find him. I began to head back towards Lance listening to Corans commentary. Next they ran by Pidge. I soon found him dragging Pidge and being followed by Lance, and I joined following them. 

Then Hunk who somewhat blasted at us. We all chased him but kinda lost him as he ran towards Keith. That was the only good part of Coran’s commentary is we knew where this guy was. By the time Hunk, Lance and I caught up with Keith was quite literally hurled at us knocking the four of us down. 

We watched as Shiro and the guy were at each other’s throats before they both backed down. And that’s when Allura slammed him into the wall. When Shiro explained that the guy was the Galra soldier he’d remembered. 

We eventually had him chained up in our common room. Ulaz was apparently a Galra soldier in this secret underground revolution called the Blade of Marmora. The coordinates we had were actually corrected its just the base was hidden in a space fold. Honestly you could feel the tension between everyone from Allura’s mistrust of Ulaz, to the rest of us kinda being on the same side as her, except Shiro. 

Everyone except Lance, Allura, and Coran took the Red Lion to the base. We learned that they had several members in the ranks of Zarkon’s army including his main ship which is why we got away last time. Pidge asked about her family, which Ulaz agreed to transfer prison data to the castle of lions. 

“What’s that weapon you carry?” Keith asked. 

“It’s a ceremonial blade that each of our members carry,” Ulaz explained. “Oh, nice,” Keith said. Alarms began blaring again. We opened a screen to see another one of those stupid robeasts, but how did it find us this time? Before we left, Ulaz gave Shiro coordinates. Allura blamed Ulaz for us being found, but this time I think I agree with Shiro I don’t think Ulaz told Zarkon we were here. 

We waited in our lions but soon the fight was on. But this thing was nearly impossible to beat, it sucked in the crystals before blasting us, or it tried to suck us in. Ulaz left after the base was revealed… maybe he’s not one of the good guys. No time for that though as the beast tried to suck in the castle. We managed to stop that, but our plan to blow it up after didn’t work. It tried to suck us in again. 

“I’m going to take this down from the inside!” We heard Ulaz call. 

“No let us handle this!” Shiro tried. 

“Voltron is too important,” was the last thing he said to us before he flew into the beasts mouth, just as we thought it didn’t work it started to fold in on itself. He opened a space pocket inside the beast.

When we returned to the castle no one seemed in too high of spirits. I decided to walk around for a bit too maybe clear my head. So much has happened in the last couple of days its been a lot to process. Honestly, how long had it been since we’d left earth? It didn’t seem like that long but there was no day in night in space, we had a schedule but it was more like we slept for a few hours and we stayed up until we were ready to pass out. 

I finally decided maybe going to bed would be the best option right now to clear my mind. I slowly walked down the hall being quiet because I’m sure everyone else is probably trying to sleep now. I was almost to my room when I noticed Keith in front of my door. 

“You need something?” I asked. 

“Oh yeah, I just wanted to talk,” He said.

“About?” I wondered what he wanted to talk about. 

“A few things actually,” He said. “Would you mind if we went in my room for a minute?” I blushed a bit at the request but nodded I did tell him we could talk if he ever needed to. We went to his room. We both sat on his bed. 

“Alright what’s up? I’m not the only one who’s been acting kind of weird lately you’ve gotten more reckless,” I said noting his behavior from the last few days? Weeks? But it was more than that almost like he was also being protective. “Remember that sword Ulaz had?” He asked.

“Yeah, you seemed pretty interested in it,” 

“Well it���s because of this,” Keith pulled out a dagger from under his pillow, it had a weird marking, kinda like Ulaz. 

“Where or how’d you get it if you don’t mind my asking?” I looked at him. “I’ve kind of always had it, I thought it was weird but now it's even weirder because the marking is similar to Ulaz,” Keith explained. “That means the Galra were on earth at some point,” 

“But Ulaz also did say that only the Blades of Marmora had them,” I said. “And I’d reason that if my mom and possibly my dad made it to earth without being detected by the garrison then who’s to say someone else couldn’t? And for all we know, maybe it was imbedded in a meteorite or something and your parents found it and thought it was cool,” 

“You might be right,” He smiled a bit. 

“What else do you want to talk about?” I asked. I could tell there was something else, we didn’t know about the Blades until today so he hasn’t been acting weird because of that. 

“Oh, well, how do I put this…” He said looking down. 

“Keith-” I was cut off, I was so shocked Keith was kissing me! 

[Next]

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@somebodytouchedmysaeran @ittie-bittie-tittie @izabellah816 @zanysouleggstudent @rickxreader1shots @chewymoustachio

[mizu-writes-kumo]

Shance au were lance is team medic( theirs no healing pods, they're all broken) lance is always taking care of shiro mental and physical injuries.

Okay, I am just going to turn the AU dial up on this a little bit, because when I saw this last night I read it a bit differently than I currently am now, and loved the idea I came up with as I fell asleep... so where we go...

Basically Lance and Hunk are closer to Shiro’s age (not by much, but they are more in the 22-23), and are sort of like Grad Students at the Garrison.  Lance is study to be a field medic, specifically for space and high areal combat areas.  It’s a really tough program to get in (harder than Fighter Pilot...which Lance so is), and its harder to do. Given the high demand, low supply, and general limited resources.  But Lance is doing it all in stride.  Hunk is a engineering TA/Grad student that rooms with Lance on the Garrison campus.

When Shiro crashes back to Earth after escaping, Lance is on the away team that is sense to help. Simply because he is qualified and they need as many hands on deck as possible.  Lance is naturally very surprised to see it is Shiro, and actually tries to stop a lot of the other medics from sedating Shiro, and he can see Shiro’s vital readings that one that might be a horrible idea, and two Shiro pretty clearly having a panic attack over something.  But he is told to basically shut up because he is just still a student.

(Hunk at the time is on Cadet Patrol/”Babysitting” and has found Keith and Pidge on the roof, and tagged along on their adventure to see what was going on)

All of them basically end up saving Shiro and finding Blue Lion, go to the Castleship, and just you know it goes.

Only Alteans just don’t have healing pods, the pods only do the cryo sleep function.  And well Coran and Allura aren’t medics in the least, but Coran knows what some stuff does.  Meaning on top of being thrust into space, caught up in a war with a crazy old empire, Lance is now learning everything he can about Altean medicine and all the stuff. As well as taking care of everyone training injuries (yeah, he gets in a lot of verbal spats with Allura about her methods), on top of teaching Coran how to take care of Humans.  Oh and yeah, he is learning how to treat Alteans too...because why not.

Every one of the Paladins knows first aid (it’s standard for all Garrison personal), which does help Lance.  But like he is still on the one that can really fix them is something goes wrong, or they get sick.  And yeah, learning a whole new system of medicine and how it works on the human body is just a lot.

Naturally its a bad few weeks after Lance took the bulk of the blast from the bomb.  The only saying grace is Alteans have like a “miracle spray” (as Lance calls it) for bad in the battlefield injuries, that heal a wound enough to unsure survival.  But yeah, Lance gives everyone a crash course in medicine...which was not always fun for everyone.

Because Lance is the medic taking care of well everyone, he is well integrated into their lives.  So he tells them to eat and sleep a lot, and he will also make sure they do it.  And he makes sure no one gets pushed too hard with all things are done.  He does also have some mental health training (not a lot, but like enough to limp along with) so he helps with that too.

Naturally, Shiro is the one to see him the most often.  Not just because he hurts himself often, or has pretty bad PTSD, but because of his disease (which is strangely cured if Lance is looking at things right).  That and Lance also wants to figure out the biological works of Shiro’s prosthetic, just like...for funnzies.  So they talk and see each other a lot, cause Lance has amazing beside manner and he’s just also really concerned all the time.

Because of this, Shiro notices Lance is the most worn out of all them.  Mostly because does everything everyone else does, and takes care of them, and learns alien space medicine and how to use it effectively.  He’s doesn’t really take care of himself, despite how much he pushes everyone else too.  No one does the same for him (sometimes Hunk makes him sit down at eat a meal, but that’s it).  And honestly, as the Leader, Shiro can see if they start taking care of Lance, the one and only medic, soon, they’ll loose the most important member on the team.

So Shiro has a serious talk with Allura and Coran (and maybe Hunk is there too) about what to do.  And they agree to schedule surprise drills, basically everyone knows a drill will happen on a given day, but no idea when said drill will happen. And Allura and Coran and some point have to state it’s a drill, as well as if it is in the morning time, Lance is except for showing up. Just so Lance has a chance to catch some sleep.  They also work out a few other things to help Lance out. Like Coran spending two vargas with Lance helping him figure out Altean medicine, as well as learning from Lance how to use to help out.  As well as checks and balances system, where all the Paladins just kind of check on each other and hold each other accountable for general self care.  Oh and Shiro gets Lance to agree to like a weekly health lesson beyond first aid, so if he’s ever unavailable they can do something.

And yeah, Shiro makes sure Lance is taken care of too.

Naturally they fall in love taking care of each other.  Though Lance already had a crush, and so did Shiro because Lance was there when he woke up in the shack, calmly helping him come to, so.....

(also Lance and Utlaz are bond over medicine and are medical bros!)

[amicuscordis]

At Least You Don’t Want To Kill Me

Read it on ao3!

Fighting the elusive Green is a pain in the ass, but at least Lance gets to crash with his awesome roommate Pidge afterwards. After a nasty battle with the Blue Paladin, Pidge faces the idea that maybe there is no one who cares if she makes it home at the end of the night.

Rated T for some violence and swearing

Tags: Alternate Universe, that one au where one's a hero and one's a 'villain' but as civilians they're oblivious roommates, Injury, Blood, but not much

Check out the amazing art for this fic by the talented Shii here!

Thanks to Oxto for betaing for me, and @planceminibang​ for letting me participate! This first part focuses on Lance’s side of the story. Pidge’s will be coming soon.

At Least You Don’t Want To Kill Me, Chapter 1

Before the car had completely stopped, Lance was stumbling out of it, teetering on cigarette butts and plastic bottles that lined the drains. Shiro reached from the backseat and out the passenger door, catching Lance’s arm before he could completely fall. “You good, Lance?”

Lance yanked his arm away from Shiro, nearly falling over again in the process, and slammed the door shut. Hunk, watching from behind the wheel, was already rolling down the window. “I’m offended, honestly,” Lance announced, gesticulating with his longs arms as he paced in a small circle. “He’s never tased me hard enough to knock me out before. Whatever happened to that good ol’ nemesis bond?”

“It means he felt threatened,” Shiro said, pulling his arm back into the car. He was not supposed to even be in the car, much less the city, but when Hunk had set out to take Lance home, Shiro had reasoned that in a vehicle in the dark, who could identify the missing Kerberos pilot? “You and Keith will get him next time.”

Or the kid would just find a new way to outthink them again. Lance shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugged. Shiro and Hunk shared a look. For a terrifying three seconds, Lance thought Hunk might be about to try to argue to come inside with him, as if Lance’s getting pissed off at an alien-aided villain was reason to mark him an invalid. That spoiled the spirit of hanging out, though, and made the usually social Lance just want to be alone.

Well, not entirely alone, but she was a special case.

Whatever concerns Hunk had, he decided to let it go. Stuck to the car, Shiro had no choice but to follow. Hunk hunched over so he could give Lance a solid look out the window. “Call me before executing any stupid ideas, okay?”

“Sure, whatever.”

Hunk kept his stare on Lance, as if to reaffirm that he meant it, then rolled up the window and pulled away from the curb. Lance waited until they turned out of the parking lot onto the main road, taking the time to kick one of the plastic bottles at his feet. It ricocheted off the curb into his shin. He flipped it off.

No lights came through the window of the second-floor apartment. He fumbled with the keys, brain not entirely computing which way to put it into the lock. Damn headache. He rubbed at his forehead as at last the lock turned, the door opened, and he could limp inside. “Pidge, I’m home!”

Not that he expected a response, considering the off lights, but it still squeezed at his chest. He had to come home licking his wounds and his roommate was not even there to make fun of him and then bandage him up.

He trudged into the bathroom, wincing at the fluorescent lights when he flipped the switch. “Stupid Green, stupid Keith. . .”

Keeping jacket and shirt intact, he shirked his shoes and jeans and beheld himself in the mirror. Right below his boxers was the bandage, a white square to cover the cut and surrounding burn left behind by Green. Shiro had not been wrong about Green feeling threatened. For weeks, Lance had been the only one sent to capture him, but with that obvious failure, and Green progressively gathering more and more information on the Kerberos mission and who knew what else with each venture into the Garrison, Allura had finally sent Keith to join him. The tag teaming had almost worked: Lance had got a nice shot in the shoulder of Green’s armor, and then Keith had got him with the hilt of his sword, right at the rib cage on his left side. So damn close, if Green hadn’t managed to tase Keith, and then tase Lance while he freaked out over Keith going down. “Stupid, stupid. . .”

He wanted to take the bandage off. Mostly to see the burn and shallow cut for himself, since Coran had patched him up still unconscious. There was also maybe a small part that wanted Pidge to help him bandage it up again when she got home. But who could guess when that would be? He was too tired to do it again himself. Tired and headachey and maybe a little sulky. He kicked his jeans into the corner of the bathroom, slapped the light switch down, and trudged out into the kitchen.

In the fridge, he dug around for some leftovers that were semi-edible. He couldn’t remember whose turn it was to buy groceries and whose it was to clean old food out of the fridge but they both had been slacking. Maybe he would ask Pidge if they should just do it all together tomorrow, because gods that sounded better than going back to the hidden Castle of Lions to hear Allura go on about how Green must be gathering intel for the Galra, because the technology Green used was far too advanced for Earth, what was the point of any of their defensive prep if the Galra already knew how to wipe out the Garrison when they would first invade, you must do better to stop him, Lance! At least now Keith would get to look as sour as Lance always felt.

Leftover alfredo it was. Except he was too damn tired to warm it—the microwave clock warned it was past two in the morning, and being knocked out didn’t count as sleep—so he took a fork and fell onto the couch to eat it cold.

“Oh, fuck, fuck, mistake—” Lance wiped his tongue on his sleeve as he tossed the alfredo onto the coffee table and took the remote instead. Who really needed food, anyway? When he turned on the TV, it was set for the next episode of Legendary Defender from where he and Pidge had left off the night before. He clicked around for something light—Garfle Warfle Snick, why not—and as it started to play, blindly reached around the couch until he found a throw blanket and pulled it up around his shoulders, the tip of it brushing his nose. It smelled just a little more like Pidge than the rest of the apartment did. He looked to the door.

By the end of the episode, she still had not come in. Another episode, still no Pidge. Which was fine. Her whereabouts at late hours were far from the only secret about her. He had quite a few questions—Where do you actually work? Who’s the Matt you looked startled you mentioned that one time? Do we have to go to our rooms tonight or can we camp on the couch together?—but they operated under a no questions policy. He didn’t ask about her private life, he didn’t have to tell about how he’s actually working with two aliens from some planet called Altea to prepare Earth’s defenses for an invasion that’s due in some eight months.

The blanket still around his shoulders, he stumbled to his room, patting at his pockets for his phone. It had been at twelve percent when he armored up to take on Green. He had not touched it once since then but he would not be surprised if it were already dead.

When he plugged it into the charger next to his bed, he found staring at him a clock reading 3:24—and several notifications from Pidge.

[1:36] Missed Call

[1:41] Can you come get me?

[1:53] Lance please respond

“Shit!” He pressed the call, set the phone to his ear, and pulled the charger’s cord to its limit as he stretched for pants and another pair of shoes. She answered on the third ring. “Shit, Pidge, are you injured?” She had always had her own scrapes when she came home at night, but again, don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t mention that you kind of adore getting to help her bandage up, but god if she was really hurt this time—

“I’m at the parking garage on Olkarion Avenue.”

Lance held the phone between his ear and shoulder to tie his sneakers. Two blocks from the apartment. She didn’t have a vehicle, always using public transportation, that Lance knew of. What the hell was she doing there? Was she mugged? Don’t ask, don’t tell. “I’m coming. My phone’s at—” He freed a hand to look at it. “—two percent. It died and I just got it to a charger, I’m so sorry. I have to leave it, be watching for me, okay?”

“Okay.”

He couldn’t hang up. Fortunately, she did, and then with only his keys he ran out the door and down the stairs. His thigh began to burn all over again, irritated at the movement, but still he sprinted all the way to Olkarion Avenue. When he slowed to look for her, the world was spinning, and he had to hold onto the ticket dispenser for the garage to keep from toppling. He would have missed her, tucked away in the shadows between the cement wall and a trashcan just beyond the exit, if she had not called his name.

When her hand dipped into the light to grab at the rim of the trashcan, he saw the muscles in her arm strain as she failed to pull herself up. In another moment, he was at her side, dipping his shoulder under hers to pull her up. But as their sides pressed into each other, she yelped and lurched away from him, slamming her right shoulder into the wall of the garage. Her shout echoed in the vast parking lot as she grabbed at the shoulder, curling back into herself on the ground.

Helpless, Lance spared a glance around the garage, to assure no one was around, then knelt in front of her. “How can I help? What’s wrong with your shoulder?”

She was back in the shadows, but he could still see, could still feel, her grimace. “I may have had to pop it back into place.”

“What—” Don’t ask, don’t tell. “—the hell. Do you need a doctor?”

“No,” she stated, too firmly. “Let’s just go home.”

Pidge still could not stand on her own, but holding her up without some pressure on one of the pained areas was near impossible. It was concentrated in two places: her right shoulder, and her left side around her ribcage. Her legs were sore but fine, so after he pulled her to her feet she could walk with just holding on to him for support, seething at any disturbance to the wounds. As they stepped into the light, Lance saw her green shirt sticking to the hurt on her side by spots of blood.

The stairs were the hardest; she was rasping curses by the time they made it to their door. Pidge was the one who shut and locked it behind them, an action Lance had forgotten in lieu of trying to get her to the bathroom. He felt his mouth going dry. Sure, it was only two blocks to walk, but she could have called an Uber or something, but she had stayed hidden from public transportation, and now she was locking the door, as if someone was following her, and—

With him spaced, she tried to walk to the bathroom alone, though winced and nearly fell. Lance caught her arm, let her hold onto him as they crossed the apartment. He seated her on the covered toilet, then pulled out the first-aid kit. His face burned as he remembered wanting her to come home and patch him up earlier, like blood and bandages were just a mode of his one-sided flirtation.

By the time he set the kit on the corner of the counter, she had pulled her shirt up to show the wound on her side. The bruise covered a large circle, from the bottom of her ribcage up to her sports bra. The cut itself was small, and not nearly so bad as the blood on her shirt had made it seem. Not deep, just a shallow scrape that ripped off some of the skin.

Lance was no expert in injuries. A few months ago, he had been even worse. But three months of being a paladin, he had learned what an impact against armor looked like. He swallowed thickly. “Okay. Okay. Does it hurt to breathe?”

“Kind of.”

Her shaky breaths that she did not let get too deep meant that it was probably more than kind of. She was gripping the toilet paper roll, distorting it in her hand like a stress ball.

Lance looked across her ribs, where he was becoming more and more confident something had smashed against a chest plate. And he hated that he might know what it was and loved that he was not allowed to ask. “Doesn’t look broken or warped. May I?”

When she nodded, he ghosted his fingers across ridged skin. She held her breath the entire time, grimacing only when his fingers trailed over the sticky cut. “Doesn’t feel broken either. Not that I’m an expert, it just, seems like a normal ribcage. Probably just bruised. I can’t wrap it, but we’ll get it cleaned up, okay?”

She squeezed the toilet paper tighter, but nodded. “Yeah, sure, fine.”

Though Pidge grimaced as the antiseptic dotted over the cut, she didn’t make a sound. Sure, she had much worse pains to focus on, but in her silent pain Lance only saw Green’s body stopped mid-motion by Lance’s shot, jerking and collapsing silently as if already blacked out from shock or pain, and Keith hadn’t even smashed their rib cage with his sword yet. As he pressed the bandage over the cut, lightly pressing the sticky part down on her bruises, his eyes went to her shoulder, to the edge of purple skin sticking out under her collar.

It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me.

Of course it wasn’t. The injury to her side could easily be explained by running into a lamppost or something, same with her shoulder. Pidge maybe had issues with authority, and dabbled in conspiracy theories, but same for everyone else their age. She was a genius, but he had absolutely no reason to believe she would want to work with the Galra or break into the Garrison.

He had no reason to believe she wouldn’t want to do those things either. It struck him with nausea that he didn’t really know his roommate at all.

He put the bandage and antiseptic back in the kit, put his hand on the top, about to close it, but waited. “O-Okay.” He winced at his own stutter. “Can I look at your shoulder too?”

She was already pulling her shirt back down. “Skin didn’t break.”

“You dislocated it, Pidge.”

“I didn’t do anything.” A near confirmation that she earned this in a fight. God he wished she hadn’t said that. “I’ll lift my arms, you pull it off.”

He said he wanted to see her shoulder, but he didn’t actually want to, and hesitated to grab the hem of the tee when she lifted her arms. Her right arm could not get as high as the left. In her pain, she gave him a tense look to hurry the fuck up. He did, taking the hem, lifting her shirt but hesitating when the first of the bruise came into sight on her collar. His stomach flipped. He pulled it the rest of the way before Pidge could complain.

No puncture, just a round splotch of purple and blue and yellow on her shoulder and collar, all emanating from the precise spot he had been aiming.

“Christ, Pidge,” he breathed. “I’ll... I’ll get you one, a shirt, get you a shirt, without blood on it.”

He had not even examined it, a fact that made Pidge squint at him. “Okay… Can you get one that buttons in the front? I don’t want to try lifting my arms again, that hurt like hell.”

“Sure.” His voice sounded distant even to him. He swallowed down bile as he drifted from the bathroom, across the hall into his own room. He dropped the shirt on the floor. Folded himself at the foot of his bed. The world was wrong, like reality had shifted over three feet and nothing he touched was right anymore and his roommate wasn’t his roommate.

Not an hour ago he had been on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, but now the adrenaline had him shaking in a nervous high that he wasn’t sure he could ever come down from. Still twisted on the floor, he stretched his gangly arm to the bedside table. He managed to curl one finger around the cord and pulled the charging phone into his hand. Open the contacts. Find Keith. His finger hovered above the symbol of the little green phone.

Time was as unreal as the apartment they shared. He could never tell how much had passed when he heard her voice. “Lance? You okay?”

He locked the phone on Keith’s contact, yanked it off the charger, and shoved it into his pocket as he stood. “Yeah, one sec.” He stopped in the door of his room, remembered his mission, and returned to his closet. He grabbed the first buttoned shirt he could find, a blue and black plaid thing that was pretending to be flannel. By the time he made it back to the bathroom, the world had stabilized, and yet all had an almost fuzzy, numb aspect to it, and Pidge seemed too far away for him to actually give her the shirt as he passed it into her hand.

Wary of her shoulder, she put her arms in the sleeve, and then with only one hand buttoned the shirt. The process would be slow just from buttons’ known stubbornness versus one unaccustomed human hand, but crawled as she kept looking up to where he occupied the doorway, her expression growing in suspicion with each glance. “You’re acting weird.”

“I’m no medic,” he said, the diversion smooth across unfeeling lips. “You’re probably going to lose an arm or something.”

“It hurt so bad at first I thought it got blown off.” She grinned, mischievous, as if her sincere statement were something hilarious. Lance didn’t laugh. “If it falls off, I can just make a prosthetic.” When even that failed to get a reaction, her lips twisted, sour at the defeat, and she kept her eyes down to finish buttoning the shirt. “Anyway, want to watch Legendary Defender?”

He offered her a hand and she took it. Once she was situated on the couch he fixed ice packs for her ribs and shoulders. Legendary Defender played. He missed all of it. Pidge took over an hour to nod off, kept awake by sharp pain whenever she began to breathe too deeply. The sky was already colored by the time he was sure she was asleep, her head tilted back into the couch cushions and mouth hung open. He whispered her name. With no response, he stood, walked into the kitchen, and propped himself on the counter. Keith’s contact was still up when he pulled out his phone.

“Hello?” The great Red Paladin’s voice was groggy and more than a little irritated. Normally, Lance expected, Keith would be up with the sun, but he was probably trying to sleep off the attack from the night before. Lance wasn’t sure if he should feel guilty or not about waking him.

“Hey, it’s… it’s about Green.”

Something crackled on the other side, sheets shifting as Keith sat up and the sleep left his voice. “You have a lead?”

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry for letting them get away.”

A pause, then Keith sighed, dispelling any heightened emotion he had in that breath to address Lance with a still voice. “It’s not your fault. The guy’s good at what he does. I’m honestly impressed you’ve been able to face him alone this far. We’ll get him next time.”

“Yeah.”

Keith hung up. Lance set the phone on the counter and watched the felon on the couch breathe as the first blue light fell across her face.

[perfectlyrose]

there’s something wretched about this

Shiro tries to discover the sequence of events leading up to Keith's departure from the Garrison and ends up opening a much larger can of emotional worms than he anticipated.

Sheith, pre-relationship, angst || 2.5k, all ages

AO3

The need to know is an itch under Shiro’s skin. He’s trying to accept that his memory has gaping holes in it now and he feels like he’s doing surprisingly well at that. The information he needs now isn’t something he’s forgotten though; it’s something he never knew to start with.

He’s pieced together scraps of information but the picture is still less than clear.

What he knows is this:

Sometime between the Kerberos launch and Shiro crash landing back on Earth, Keith left the Garrison.

Lance has called him a dropout more than once. Keith mentioned getting booted.

The shack he had awoken in looked lived in, was littered with the traces of Keith’s existence.

Keith is closed off in ways that Shiro doesn’t recognize.

Shiro needs to know what happened in the year and some-odd months he was in space. He tries to ask Keith, wanting to hear it straight from him. Keith’s face goes stone-still and he awkwardly shifts the conversation to something else.

Shiro’s heart does a funny twist as he considers the possibility that Keith doesn’t trust him enough to share anymore.

He wants to say that he’s shocked about Keith parting ways with the Garrison but it would be a lie. Keith had always been about two moves away from getting expelled or storming out at any given moment. Keith was there to fly and his willingness to bend to the strict discipline of the military bureaucracy was miniscule on good days. He did exactly what it took to get in the sims, in the air, and no more.

But Shiro needs to know what happened.

Keith won’t talk to him about it, so he seeks out Lance.

He finds the Blue Paladin wandering the hallways, clearly undecided on how to spend their few free hours. “Lance! Just who I was looking for,” he says, putting on a cheerful front.

“Oh, hey, Shiro,” Lance replies. “What’s up?”

“Was hoping you could help me with something. Got a minute to talk?”

“Nothing but time,” Lance answers with an expansive hand gesture.

“Just wanted to ask a few questions,” Shiro explains as he leads them to the lounge. It’s empty and he takes a seat on one of the couches. Lance sits opposite him.

“Whaddya need to know? I am always up to date with the latest gossip, even with the limited sources on this old ship.” A smirk spreads across his face as he leans back, resting his hands behind his head and an ankle on his knee. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“I was hoping you could tell me some of what happened at the Garrison after…” he pulls in a breath, “after I left.”

Lance’s eyebrows go up. He scrutinizes Shiro. “You want to know what led up to Keith living in a shack in the desert.”

Shiro shrugs and doesn’t deny it. “Might be a bit curious.”

“Well, as the guy who took his spot when he finally flamed out, I can provide a pretty accurate account,” he boasts.

Shiro gestures for him to go ahead.

“Right after the Kerberos mission left, Keith was like… weirdly quiet. I mean, he was always kind of quiet except when he was getting in trouble, but it was different. He kept his head down, you know? Stayed out of trouble for once.”

Shiro wonders if that was because he was no longer there to help smooth things over, wonders if Keith was trying a little harder to toe the line so he’d still be there when Shiro returned.

That isn’t fair to his friend, though. He always joked with Keith about him being a troublemaker but it wasn’t true, not really. Keith never made the trouble or even sought it out, it just seemed to dog his footsteps. His sharp edges caught against the rigid fabric of the Garrison and tore through it instead of dulling down.

If Keith had been trying to fall in line though, what had caused his flight to the desert?

“Once news of mission failure hit, shit kinda hit the fan,” Lance continues, waving a hand. “Mullet disappeared for like two whole days. Even missed a sim flight which was super weird for him. Heard he got into a shouting match with Iverson when he showed back up. Rumor had it that he was screaming about how it couldn’t have been pilot error and that the Garrison was covering something up.” Lance sits up straight. “Hey, he was actually right!”

Shiro’s focus narrows onto two words. “Pilot error?” he croaks out, voice unsteady.

Lance takes one look at Shiro’s face and blanches, pulling back. Shiro doesn’t want to know what expression he’s wearing to cause that reaction.

“Um yeah,” he stutters out. “The Garrison announced pilot error as the reason for mission failure.”

Shiro feels helpless anger licking at his bones. After years of being their poster child, the Garrison dismissed him with the two cruelest words they could pick. Pilot error. Like he hadn’t worked harder than anyone else to be able to graduate early, to be selected as the pilot for the Kerberos mission. Like he hadn’t fought tooth and nail to keep his spot, like he hadn’t given up everything to fly the mission and fly it absolutely perfectly.

They erased his entire body of work, his every professional achievement, with two words.

“Makes sense, I guess,” he says aloud. And it does. The most common reasons for mission failure lie with the pilot, but not with Shiro, not this time. His fists clench and he wonders if they publicly blamed his illness too.

He doesn’t ask.

“Yeah, so, that was pretty much the only thing everyone was talking about,” Lance hurries to continue. “And you could just kinda see Keith starting to lose it, you know? Pretty sure there was a betting pool as to when he would finally snap. Could see it coming from a mile away.”

“What happened?” Shiro is impressed that his voice is even. The anger is still simmering in his veins, but dread is starting to build in his chest, heavy and unwelcome.

Lance shrugs. “He snapped. There’s at least a dozen different stories about what happened. The one where he punched out Iverson and took off on a hoverbike is the most popular. It was something like two weeks after mission failure, I think. All anyone knew for sure was that Keith literally disappeared within the span of an hour. People saw him in the mess and then his dorm was clear of personal effects like… forty-five minutes later. No one saw him again until the three of us ran into him while rescuing you.”

Cold snakes down Shiro’s spine. He isn’t surprised that Keith left the Garrison, but he never expected to learn that he is the reason behind the departure.

“Was he expelled or did he run?” He has to know. That’s what got him into the mess of too much and not enough information in the first place.

Lance swallows hard. “Pretty sure he was expelled but no one could ever actually confirm it.” He fidgets for a moment and then forges ahead. “Hey, Shiro? Why are you asking me about this instead of Keith? He actually knows what happened since he, you know, lived it.”

“He refused to talk about it,” Shiro admits.

“Okay,” Lance drawls. “Do me a favor and don’t tell him that I’m the one who spilled the beans, yeah? I would prefer to keep all of my teeth intact.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “He wouldn’t punch you out, Lance.”

Lance scoffs as he gets to his feet. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think.”

He leaves the room, unaware that he just sent Shiro reeling.

He’s been so focused on how he himself has changed that he’s failed to really consider how much his friend must have changed too.

Shiro’s skin prickles with guilt.

He takes a deep breath and tries to sort through everything he’s learned in the past few minutes.

The revelation of pilot error is something he needs to set aside for later, he decides. Keith needs to be his focus. Lance at least gave him enough information to start with regarding Keith’s departure from the Garrison, even if it is full of holes and guesses.

Shiro drags a hand over his face. He really needs to talk to Keith. Putting it off even longer isn’t going to help matters, he thinks. He’s already let Keith avoid the conversation several times. They need to talk about it so they can move forward. Keith needs to talk about it, Shiro thinks, instead of bottling it all up like is his wont.

He stands and heads towards the training deck, knowing that Keith is likely there. Now is as good a time as any to have this conversation.

Shiro watches from the doorway as Keith fights the gladiator on a level higher than he’s seen anyone else try thus far. He moves with single-minded ferocity and sharp-edged grace. Keith in a fight is something Shiro’s never been able to look away from.

He never saw Keith training with blades of any sort back at the Garrison but his bayard seems like a natural extension of his arm. It’s mesmerizing.

Keith’s bayard slices into the side of the gladiator and it powers down, signalling victory for the Red Paladin.

“End training sequence,” Keith says, voice quiet in the large room. His bayard flashes, returning to its base form.

“Impressive,” Shiro says.

Keith whips around. His hair is plastered to his forehead and he looks about ready to drop. “Oh. Hey, Shiro.”

“Have a minute? I’ve been meaning to talk to you about some stuff.”

His face closes off, hiding all the emotion Shiro used to be able to read so easily. “Can it wait? I need to hit the showers.”

“I don’t know when we’ll have another free minute,” Shiro says. “Please?”

Keith sighs. “Fine.”

He walks over to where the water pouches are kept. Shiro follows.

“So, what’s this stuff you want to talk about?” Keith asks after draining half the pouch.

Now or never, Shiro thinks before opening his mouth. He vaguely regrets this conversation already and it’s barely started. “What happened after the Kerberos launch, Keith?”

Keith stiffens. “If you want the Garrison gossip, go talk to Lance or Hunk or someone. You know I didn’t keep up with that shit.”

“I want to know what happened with you,” Shiro presses. “How did you end up out in the desert on your own?”

“Drove a hoverbike there,” Keith shoots back.

Shiro frowns. “That’s not what I meant. You can’t keep bottling this all up. It’s not healthy.”

“That’s rich coming from you” he says with a snort. “You’re practically  the poster child for repressing emotions. Guess it’s a lesson you didn’t mean to teach me.”

Direct hit. “Keith,” he reaches out and rests a hand on his shoulder, “I worry, okay? You seem on edge and talking about all this might help.”

Keith’s face twists and he ducks out from under Shiro’s touch. “You think talking will help?”

Shiro never wants to hear the humorless laugh that follow the words fall from Keith’s lips again.

He nods, hesitant. “I think it will, and I was hoping you still trust me enough to know that I will listen. So, talk to me.”

He knows issuing Keith a challenge used to be the best way to goad him into doing something. It’s almost a relief that the tactic still holds.

“What the fuck do you want to hear, Shiro?” Keith almost snarls. The words sound ripped out of his chest. “That after you left I had to learn how to be alone again and that it hurt worse than before because I actually knew the alternative? That I read every single tiny report and log that you and the Holts sent back to command? Or how about all the ways I self-destructed after they announced mission failure? Do you want a fucking list?” Keith is breathing hard, fire in his eyes.

Shiro has been shocked into stillness by Keith’s ferocity, by the pain dripping from every word.

“What good does any of this do you?” Keith’s voice cracks. “It’s in the past. Just… just leave it there.”

Shiro swallows hard. “I’m not sure that I can. I’m not sure that either of us can.”

“Well, I’m going to try,” Keith says. The strength underlying the words is brittle and cracking. “I thought you were dead, Shiro. You were dead and all anyone could talk about was pilot error and how the Garrison made a mistake sending you up there.” He looks down at his feet. “People didn’t seem to care that you specifically, as a person, were gone and I couldn’t… I couldn’t...”

They erased his entire body of work, his every professional achievement, with two words.

Pilot error.

The same two words completely shattered Keith’s entire world.

“Keith…”

“Just leave it alone, Shiro. Please.” He’s shaking, little fine tremors wracking him. He looks like he’s barely holding it together.

Guilt swamps him, leaving Shiro cold and with a heavy ball of regret in his stomach. “Okay,” he whispers, nodding. “Okay.”

Keith presses his lips into a thin line like he’s holding back more words. He takes a deep breath, fists clenching. Shiro can only watch as he pushes all his roiling emotions back behind his walls, pulls them back under his skin.

“I’m just going to… I’m going to go get that shower.” He doesn’t wait for Shiro to answer, just turns and walks away.

Shiro sits down and buries his face in his hands, trying to parse through all the information again now that Keith has sent him spinning off kilter once more. He’s always had a knack for that.

What Shiro now knows is this:

Keith left the Garrison within two weeks of the announcement of the failure of the Kerberos mission.

Keith was likely expelled but the exact reason why is still unknown to him.

The general reason Keith left the Garrison and retreated to the desert was Shiro’s presumed death.

Keith lived in that desert shack, alone, for an entire year.

Keith is closed off in ways that Shiro doesn’t recognize, ways that were carved out by grief and loneliness.

He draws in a deep breath. The biggest thing he’s realized is that Keith has been altered by the past year almost as much as Shiro has. He is going to have to work to rebuild the friendship they once shared, to earn the right to see behind Keith’s walls again.

It is work he is more than willing to do. He never wants to be the cause of Keith’s pain like this again, never again wants to see the other man almost shaking apart at the seams due to lingering grief. He doesn’t think his heart could take it, not when it feels cracked open after this single conversation.

He’ll make sure that Keith knows that he never wants to make him hurt like this again. They might be fighting a war, but it’s one they’re fighting together and Shiro has no plans to disappear again.

Now he just needs to convince Keith of this. They can start healing together and maybe one day Shiro will get the rest of the answers he craves. They have plenty of time to get there, he thinks. 

Plenty of time.

[queeniesthoughts]

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into

Summary: Lance is going to get to the bottom of why Keith's been avoiding him.

Crossposted on Ao3

"Hey Pidge," Lance tries to get her attention. "Have you noticed how weird Keith has been lately. Every time I try to talk to him, he mumbles something, and then leaves. He'll stay out until he knows I'll fall asleep to come to the dorm and is gone by morning!" He yells, throwing his hands up and frowns at Pidge's lack of an answer. He was really worried about Keith. While they haven't always been on the best terms, he really thought their relationship was starting to evolve. Last week, Keith let him borrow a pencil in class! Keith never lets anyone touch his stuff! Something about germs or whatever.

Pidge, who was getting annoyed by Lance's constant pacing, decided to give him some advice."If you're that worried, go ask Shiro if Keith has mentioned anything that's happened lately." That was a great idea. If there was something wrong with Keith, then Shiro would definitely know. He thanked Pidge, rushing out the door like his life depended on it. Pidge rolled her eyes. It was obvious to everyone on campus what was wrong with Keith, except Lance that is.

"King of Romance, he calls himself," She snorted, writing down a few notes on her paper." Dumbass can't even control his own love life."

Lance ran down the hall like a madman. He was finally going to figure what was wrong with Keith. If Shiro didn't have the answer to his problems than he was going to do something desperate. Like kidnap Keith and make him tell Lance what was wrong with. Lance just got a manicure that he didn't want to ruin and didn't want to get beat up, so he filed that plan way back in his mind.

Although, he could only imagine the angry blush on Keith's face while yelled out profanities as Lance dragged him along. Keith sure was pretty when he blushed. Now that Lance thought about it, he really loved Keith's blush. Not only that, he loved Keith's smile, his soft black hair that he sometimes tied up into a ponytail, and made Lance want to cry about the sheer beauty that is Keith Kogane. Lance was too busy daydreaming about Keith to notice that the real Keith was turning the corner. Until both of them slammed violently into each other that is.

"Shit!" Keith gasped out. He grabbed out for a source of support but was met with air. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain that was to come.

It never came.

Warm arms wrapped around him. He found himself buried into his Savior's chest. Whoever they were, they smelled heavenly. It was an odd mixture of the ocean and laundry detergent. How can someone manage to smell like the actual ocean? There weren't oceans nearby. An unusual smell but a surprisingly pleasant one.

"Wow Keith, first all you do is avoid me, now you look like you never want to let me go." Joked Lance. He may have looked calm on the outside but the inside he was having a panic attack. Keith was in his arms, Keith had sniffed him, and seemed to like the way he smelled. Bonus points for Lance. He's not sure what do now. Should continue to hold Keith and never let go or detangle himself. He liked the former option. Keith's body fits perfectly with his own. As if the universe knew they were made for each other and made Keith's body specifically to fit Lance's body like a puzzle piece. That analogy sounded complicated but that was Lance and Keith's relationship. Complicated.

Unfortunately, Keith had decided for both of them. He pushed himself out of Lance's arms, moving as far away from Lance as possible. A look of hurt crossed Lance's face. It reminded him of the reason he had crashed into Keith in the first place. He was running to find Shiro because Keith was avoiding him.

"Are you mad at me?" He whispered.

Keith, who all this time was trying to avoid eye contact, snapped his head to look Lance. "No!" He protested. The last thing he wanted was Lance to feel like he was mad at him. He grabbed Lance's hands into his. "No," He said again, this time more softly. Lance looked at their intertwined fingers, feeling his face start to heat up. Keith cleared his throat. "It's just," He started, sounding frustrated. "When we got lost in the woods last week, at first I thought how unlucky I was that of all people, that it was you I got lost with." Lance felt his heart drop. Keith really hated him that much?

Keith dropped his hands to his lap. Lance missed the warmth."But then I got hurt, and you wouldn't leave me, not even to get help." He gave Lance pointed look. "Which was pretty stupid might I add."

"It's not like I could've anyway, we were lost." Lance pouted. He crossed his arms. "Where are you going with this?" He bet you people were staring at them, thinking they were a couple of weirdos. They were sitting in the middle of the floor. He's not sure when he even sat down!

"I don't like many people," Keith coughed. Lance laughed, now it was Keith's turn to blush. " It's especially frustrating, when this guy that you thought you knew, goes and messes up your emotions!"

"Is he talking about me?"

"From that one day, you went from a guy that I'd never be into." Here goes, Keith's heart was pounding, he was going to finally tell Lance how he felt. "To a guy that I kinda be into."

Lance is pretty sure his brain short-circuited right then and there. Maybe he had heard wrong because there's no way, Keith "I'm too cool for school" Kogane liked him. He glanced Keith. The same Keith that Lance fantasizes about every single day. The Keith who had just confessed. The Keith who was probably waiting for an answer. Lance opened up his mouth to tell the black haired boy that he very much returned his feelings.

"So, you avoided me because you couldn't handle the gay feelings for me. Keith, that's not how you get your feeling across." That's totally not what he meant to say. "That smooth, real smooth. Now, Keith was going to take back his confession." He thought. Keith was unimpressed with Lance's lack of brain-to-mouth filter. "Uh, what I meant to say was go on date with me."

Keith wasn't sure what to say. He honestly didn't think he was gonna get this far. He expected Lance to reject him gently, then for both them to spend the rest of their lives awkwardly avoiding each other. Shiro's advice didn't include anything about dates, neither did those self-help books dammit. "Yeah, okay, let's go on date." He stuttered out.

"When you asked me on a date, I didn't think you meant now. I didn't even have time to grab my jacket." Keith mumbled. He hated the winter, it was cold, he constantly slipped on the ice, and overall, he much preferred the summer. Unlike his companion, Lance didn't mind winter at all. Sure, he liked spring more because it wasn't too cold or too hot.

"Oh come on Keith, don't be such a downer. It's our first official date." Lance said taking of his own jacket. He draped it on Keith's shoulders. He was wearing a sweater underneath, so he didn't need it. Plus, he kinda felt bad, seeing as it was his fault Keith was out here with out one. Keith let out a noise of appreciation. He'd forget his jacket a thousand times if it meant he could wear Lance's. It was big on Keith and basically swallowed him whole, but to Keith it was perfect.

"Now where do you wanna go first, the skating rink or maybe that new cafe," Lance paused to think. "Castle of Lions", I think that's what it's called. I don't know why it has a such a weird name, but I'm pretty sure Allura works there and she can give us a friend discount." Lance needed to start paying attention to his surroundings, because for the second time today, Lance smashed into something. Only this time, it was not a person. No, that would be too good for Lance. This time, Lance smashed into a fountain.

He was quickly engulfed in water colder than Pidge's glares when he steals the last of Hunk's cookies. He didn't know if he was glad that water had not frozen over or not. In the end deciding that cold water was better than hard, cold, ice. What had he done to deserve such a cruel fate as this? He was a model citizen, he helped old ladies across the street and most of the time turned in all his homework.

A sound broke his train of thought. This sound caused his chest to tighten. It wasn't like anything had ever heard in his life. His eyes scanned the courtyard to find where the majestic noise was coming from. They landed on Keith. It was coming from Keith. Keith was laughing at him. Not a little chuckle, but full blown laughter.

"I'm sorry," Keith apologized, trying to get his laughter under control and failing miserably. "It's just, how do you WALK into a fountain?!" Keith couldn't help it anymore, Lance looked silly with his long limbs spread in such a tiny fountain. He was now hunching over, amusement all over his face. Lance was sure he was going to fall over.

That moment, Lance made a vow. A vow to make Keith laugh every single day as long as he lived. The world could not go on being deprived of something so wonderful. Keith moved to go help Lance out of the fountain.

"Come on, let's go back to our dorm before you die of hypothermia. We'll drink hot chocolate and watch those trashy drama TV shows you like. " Lance shivered but nodded. He would follow Keith to the end of the Earth.

As they walked back to their room, Lance couldn't stop the grin that split across his face, despite not being able to feel his toes. He's not sure how this development in their relationship is going to pan out. It's going to be a long and weird process. They would figure it out together though because they were Lance and Keith.

[theklancecollection]

Do you know any vampire Keith fics?? Preferably longer ones but short fics are good too

Hey there Anon!

Sorry, it took me so long to reply. There’s really no good explanation except... life, I guess?? I am getting back into the fandom though so here’s to hoping this blog gets more active.

Anyways, here are 39 fics I have found where Keith is a vampire. As always read at your own discretion. =)

Happy Reading!

Just Another Trashy Vampire Lovestory - official_klancetrash

Word Count: 1, 961 (and counting)

Summary: Let's be real here. You have been plagued with different adaptations of vampires your whole life. From the well known classic "Nosferatu" to the garbage you call "Twilight". So it's time to add another version to the list. Keith is your almost average teenager apart from the fact he's half vampire. When Keith turned 17 his vampire side started to take form. He began having odd cravings and gained odd powers randomly. When his adoptive mother gave him a letter from his mother left for him as a child he learns the shady truth behind his existence. After learning about his true nature he decides he needs to learn the craft of hunting or well blood hunting. When a classmate and friend of his (that he admires secretly) accidentally cuts himself in science class his thirst gets ten times worse. Can Keith hold back his cravings or will his inner demons take control? 

The vampire's house - Justtokeepreading

Word Count: 2, 704

Summary: Lance is a vampire hunter that wants to help them more than he wants to kill them.

Keith just wants to be left alone.

Long Lost Second Chance - pink_nymphia

Word Count: 71, 968 (and counting)

Summary: Lance is a vampire hunter. But one night, he meets a vampire who challenges what he knows about the monsters he hunts. Forming a relationship with Keith throws him into the gray reality that exists beneath the world’s black and white exterior. 

That's New - Silas_Writes

Word Count: 580

Summary: ANONYMOUS WHISPERED: Hallpween klance. A vampire and their (currently) mortal bf who has a biting kink 

beautiful thinking - ollyalexander

Word Count: 2, 191 (and counting)

Summary: There are worse things than being a fairy of the water, but Lance is starting to doubt it. Especially when a wounded vampire with a revolting haircut shows up on his doorstep, practically, and it becomes increasingly more difficult for Lance to lead the normal life he hates. This is especially evident when the vampire—Keith, that's his name, not Vampy—agrees to Lance's deal, and things go downhill. (Uphill, too, but it's rarer.)

— OR, everyone is supernatural. Keith wants to go home, and Lance is home but wishes he wasn't allowed to be.

What The Hell is a Vegetarian - MaddieLuvsyou

Word Count: 8, 743 (and counting)

Summary: Keith stared at the dark night sky, sucking his blood bag through the straw. He yawned and layed onto his back, glaring up at the stars.

"What a pain in the ass..." He grumbled.-Klance Vampire Au

Meet Me at Midnight - Outerspaceracecar

Word Count: 1, 206

Summary: Keith hasn't seen his boyfriend in weeks and as he stands perched in this tree, he can feel his anticipation growing. 

I'd fall for you - Lennibug

Word Count: 2, 372

Summary: Vampire! Keith and Painter! Lance teasing each other under the clouded October skies. 

Alluring ways - LimabeanTM

Word Count: 4, 835

Summary: "Ah yes, I'm Keith, did you need something?" The priest smiled and held out her hand. Fuck. If Keith touched that hand he might very well die. He awkwardly stared at it and looked back up at her. She didn't seem to be backing down, "Nothing at all, just want to introduce myself"

She knew, she had to, God did exist and was punishing Keith for existing. It wasn't like he was a baby and decided to be a vampire, he kinda was born with it. He looked to the door and the big guy and cute scrawny guy were right there, waiting. He gave his best smile and threw the cup across the room right over her head, the moment he heard it crash he bolted. He scrambled to the back door, and he heard shouting. The owner was probably some Vampire hunter for the church, Keith saw it all now. Why else was their no garlic at the bar? Or shading all along the building, and no cross above the door? How could he be so stupid?

One Killer Smile - girlskylark

Word Count: 9, 165

Summary: After getting blackout drunk at a club, Keith wakes up in Lance's bed, and realizes that Worse Case Scenarios are actually possible.

The last thing Keith ever expected to do was turn a human—that was the vampire equivalent of killing a man, but that might have been a better option in hindsight.

Daylight - Alex (mermaid_lance)

Word Count: 1, 711

Summary: After a lead on his brother's whereabouts takes him to a run down warehouse full of vampires, Keith gets transformed into a vampire himself. He drags Lance and Hunk into the chaos, and Pidge follows right along. 

Dehydration - joidessin

Word Count: 5, 704 (and counting)

Summary: Keith didn't know what he was going to do.

He hadn't exactly planned to leave Earth when he woke up that morning, but now that he had, he wasn't going back anytime soon either. Which was kind of a problem, for many reasons, but mostly because...

Keith was a vampire.

And he hadn't had a meal for a couple days already.

And no one on the ship knew about this._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

In which Keith is a vampire, everyone is clueless, and Lance just wants to know if he can fly.

We Can Try It - vlo9089

Word Count:

Summary: Lance McClain is desperate for work so he resorts to being a feeder in a sketchy hotel

BUT, it's from Keith's POV.

We Wear Red (so they don't see us bleed) - DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee

Word Count: 12, 589 (and counting)

Summary: “Why isn’t Pidge the Slayer?” 

“Yeah, if Pidge was the Slayer those vampires would have been slain.” “So slain.” “If Pidge was the Slayer we’d be getting lattes and binge-watching Mythbusters by now.” “Yeah. Vampires? Done. No problem.” “Why’s Lance the Slayer? It just seems really inefficient.” “Yeah, I can barely get my math homework in on time, this seems like a really poor choice on the part of Destiny.”

Lance didn't ask to be a teenage vampire slayer. Keith didn't ask to be a teenage vampire-with-a-soul. Shiro did ask to be a Watcher but he's seriously regretting it now.

His Pack - orphan_account

Word Count: 3, 491 (and counting)

Summary: Lance had only known Keith for a few minutes and he was already getting on the werewolf's nerves. Did this vampire always have to argue?

"You don't know what my clan is like. They would take pride in murdering you, especially with the pack you're from." Keith spat, eyes burning red with fury. Lance almost wanted to punch him.

But he didn't.

"I don't care what they're like. They killed my family.

I want revenge."

Beautiful Nightmare - artisamu

Word Count: 17, 785 (and counting)

Summary: Every night I rush to my bed 

With hopes that maybe I'll get a chance To see you when I close my eyes.

Lance and Hunk start their new lives at college. Lance meets his former rival, which causes all kinds of chaos to ensue.

Blood Kiss - plumeriafairy14

Word Count: 4, 115

Summary: Lance doesn't like the idea of his boyfriend bent over someone else's neck and he convinces his vampire Galra boyfriend that he's more than happy to help him through.

But Keith's feeding method is, well... let's just say that it's a special one only reserved for Lance.

Sangre - oreosteaks

Word Count: 4, 820 (and counting)

Summary: "You mosquito," Lance shouted, his face flushing red from anger. His hand shot up and clasped his hand over the bite marks.

Keith did a double take. "M-Mosquito? I'm a vampire, you ignor--"

"Blah, blah, blah. Shut up, you blood-sucking cockroach!"

"Oh, so I'm a cockroach now?"

(Keith is a vampire AU)

Witch Cops - TheJollyPiplup

Word Count: 8, 445 (and counting)

Summary: After an accident, 17 year old Lance McClain finds out that he is an Altean, an elite group of Witches and Wizards warriors with the goal of protecting humanity from the supernatural. With his memories of his past life erased, Lance and his new teammates are ready to fight whatever comes their way! Besides, it's not like his past life was any more interesting? Right?

Otherwise known as: the Shadowhunters AU that no one asked for

Vamp - ihaveacleverfandomurl

Word Count: 3, 560

Summary: Lance felt the vampire’s lips first, mouthing over his skin, a touch of tongue sliding over his collarbone. He shuddered at the cold, screwing his eyes shut. The sting of fangs biting into him jolted him, tensing as the pain traveled up and down his body. One hand clenched at the sheets, the other at the man’s back, blunt nails digging in. 

prisoner - orphan_account

Word Count: 997

Summary: Lance glares at him, the hate evident in his eyes. "Keith."

In response, Keith smiles, barring all his teeth, including his fangs. "Lancelot."

Vampire!Keith AU

Deserving (original) - lancemccry

Word Count: 2, 160

Summary: "Keith lunged at Lance, his hands outstretched as if to grab Lance’s shoulders. His body made contact with Lance’s, and suddenly Keith was being swung around. Something hard and metal slammed into Keith’s hip, pain exploding up his spine. Keith tumbled into the open doorway, rolling down a couple of stairs. Shocked noises sprung from Keith’s mouth as he struggled to get up. The air was damp in the cellar, and he coughed on the mold hugging the walls. Keith choked on blood in his throat, and he peered up at Lance standing in the doorway.

“Filthy rat.” Lance spat, saliva hitting Keith’s face. Lance was backlit by the house lights, and the pouring rain splashed down around him."-Keith is a vampire, and all he really wants is Lance's blood.

Delicacy - Diamondisbackbitch

Word Count: 694

Summary: Lance is a tribute, part of the remaining population of humans, regularly taken by vampires as a food source or sometimes as pets. Humans are such fun creatures, after all, susceptible to simple praise and physical pleasure.

Keith just wanted dinner, but finds himself strangely interested in his monthly tribute.

Bliss - vlo9089

Word Count: 1, 881

Summary: Keith makes huge mistakes with his awful communication skills and almost ruins his relationship.

Lance's POV though.

one more off key anthem (let your teeth sink in) - maryams

Word Count: 2, 926

Summary: Keith sucks at being a vampire and Lance is going to hell. Nothing strange here.

or, supernatural boyfriends go shopping and are confounded by The Gayness™.

Sit, Boy - mulletpaladin

Word Count: 1, 091

Summary: “Sit boy,” the vampire commanded which Lance eagerly followed, his arms hanging from the chains attached securely to the bed. “I’m going to ride you all night long.”

-

My first smut, enjoy!

The Last of a Dying Breed - caimani

Word Count: 8, 998 (and counting)

Summary: Keith is a vampire, Lance is a werewolf, and the Bonding Moment is a universal constant. Based on redvioletz's art. 

A Thousand Years - SnowFairies1030

Word Count: 922

Summary: I've loved you for a thousand years and I'll love you for a thousand more 

but we have monsters inside of us - pinklesbian

Word Count: 2, 752

Summary: how long can keith kogane keep a very big secret from his oblivious boyfriend 

On A Midnight Clear - UselessReptile

Word Count: 17, 217 (and counting)

Summary: Keith does not want to do this, he does not want to go live with wolves! But he must in order to preserve peace between the coven and the pack next door. How will he survive? 

bite me (there’s a snake in my boot) - ljghtswood

Word Count: 4, 529

Summary: “But Lance! Doesn’t Keef have to dress up too? Where’s his costume?”

“Wow you’re right!” Lance rummages through his closet. He finds the outfit he wore for halloween the year before and holds it up saying, “Is this okay?”

Keith inwardly groans. Out of all the costumes Lance probably had, lance was making him go as a vampire?! He just gives him a you’ve got to be kidding me look.

Lance shrugs his shoulders. “Hey, it’s not my fault you have the complexion of a porcelain doll.” Plus, he thought, you’d make a hot vampire. Of course he’d never admit that out loud. Keith was still oblivious to his crush, and he planned to keep it that way. It was obvious he didn’t feel the same.

Just Trust Me - lakeshark

Word Count: 10, 793 (and counting)

Summary: “Gee, why wouldn't anyone willingly volunteer to house strangers who transform into wolves but can’t control it yet?” Keith replied sarcastically. There was a long pause where he could practically hear Shiro pouting. He sighed deeply, “Ok fine.” Keith really couldn't refuse the guy a favor if he tried. He just hoped that this wouldn’t end up drastically changing his lifestyle somehow. 

knew from the first - xintong

Word Count: 36, 098 (and counting)

Summary: When Pidge mentions one day that they think their brother is dating a vampire, Lance just laughs it off. The last year of high school may be full of surprises and obstacles, from college dance auditions to senior prom, but vampires are definitely not part of it, Lance is sure of that.

Funny how the universe bites back at him to prove him wrong.

Scarves of Red - Sheksper

Word Count: 29, 981 (and counting)

Summary: Lance is an overlooked and bullied high school student who can't wait to graduate so he can start over again in a new town. Everything changes for him when he meets his new neighbour, the mysterious Keith. They slowly form a close bond, and it soon becomes apparent that there's something off about Keith. Eventually, Lance finds out Keith's macabre secret, unravelling the mystery behind the string of bloody local murders. 

like a fine wine - shipperbitch

Word Count: 3, 625

Summary: Keith is so fucking hungry. It's lucky that Lance lives just a few floors down. 

Bite Me Like That - SageOrijima

Word Count: 270

Summary: Title makes it sound so much worse than it is, this is just two dorks making out 

When wound's are the start. - theospeaks

Word Count: 6, 146 (and counting)

Summary: When Keith's new family insist on him going to public school he finds his new abilities are the least of his worries, as Lance is now all he has on his mind. The boy with the good looks, smooth skin, and sweet scent. Keith could just eat him up. 

You and I - Three-chan (Techno_Zav)

Word Count: 1, 018

Summary: ''I don't care,'' Lance said, putting his hands on his hips and his heart on the table. ''I could never live without you.''

Basically, after fooling around on a generator for awful romance fics, I came upon a short drabble that I just couldn't leave alone.After changing pronouns, adding my artistic flair, toning down the cheese just a little bit, and adding on, here we are.

bloodstream - katsmovingcastle

Word Count: 16, 469 (and counting)

Summary: “Why were you searching for me, Lance?” Keith asks then, and that takes Lance by surprise, and he settles his hands on his knees, looking somewhere behind him before meeting his own eyes again.

“I was assigned a mission to find you, and I knew you were going to be here because I’ve been watching you, for the past few weeks,” Lance says, and Keith looks at him with another soft laugh falling from his lips, seemingly out of his control.

“Did you like what you found?” He asks then, and Lance gives him a slow to grow, genuine grin.

“I very much do, Keith Kogane.”

[brunettereader]

Klance fic recs

Just a collection of some of my favorite Keith and Lance fics. I’ll probably add to this as it goes.

Bold - Favorite Fics ★ - VLD Verse but knowledge of specific details of canon plot is not required

calling me to come back by aknightley Teen and Up | 50,464 | 1/1

Keith is a witch who owns a shop where he breaks curses on both magical items and people under spells. Love spells, family curses passed down generations, cursed heirlooms lurking the attic -- he can handle them all. But one day a boy named Lance walks into his shop, and his curse is darker and more difficult to break than anything Keith has ever seen before: the curse is draining his magic, and without his magic, Lance will die.

the universe has moved for us by aknightley General | 6,850 | 1/1 | Sequel to calling me to come back

Keith carefully waits until the bell stops ringing and then makes his way to the back of the shop, into his office, where Lance is slumped over the desk with a dozen books spread out in front of him. A huge red and white cat is laying on top of the keyboard of the laptop shunted off to the side, her tail flicking back and forth. They both appear to be asleep.

it’s all in my head by aknightley ★ Teen and Up | 7,660 | 1/1

"Uh," Pidge said, "Lance? Buddy? What's the deal?"

"That's Lance?" Hunk shouted, somehow still ramming ships away from the castle; Keith felt like bubbles were bursting in his head, effervescent pops of giddy fear mixed with conviction. Lance, he thought, Lance feels like this. "Thank God, I thought I was going crazy for a second."

so why don’t we fall by aknightley ★ Explicit | 8,218 | 1/1

Five times Lance used a pet name for Keith, and one time Keith used one for Lance.

Keith has no basis for having a relationship with someone, so he's trying to follow Lance's lead.

the stars are bound to change by angstinspace ★ Teen and Up | 50,828 | 9/9

Both paladins turned to their new, small alien companion. She lifted her head to look at each of them in turn, her eyes round. Keith laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“How about you, Zola?” he said. “Are you ready to go?”

She didn’t answer right away. Then she hesitantly asked, “Where are we going?”

As he made eye contact with Lance over her head, Keith could have sworn he felt something electric in the air: a simultaneous resurgence of determination.

“We’re going to take you home.”

Keith and Lance rescue a little alien girl from a hostage situation and bring her home ... and learn a few things about themselves and each other along the way.

pepsicola by corydalis ★ Teen and Up | 10,328 | 1/1

It starts like this: Lance looking up at the scoreboard only a few days into his Garrison training and muttering to himself, “What the hell kind of a name is Keith?”

-- Or, Keith and Lance fall in love. Eventually.

phlogiston by corydalis ★ Teen and Up | 2,101 | 1/1

When Lance was eight years old, his abuelita sat him on her knee and told him; love is a leveler.

At the time, Lance had no idea what she meant. Love was still a rather far-off and foreign concept, but he was enamoured with the general idea behind it, even if it seemed a bit confusing. The phrase stuck with him, but had ultimately been pushed to the back of his mind when he couldn’t figure it out.

Now though, his back arched against the wall and Keith burning caustic kisses into his skin, he thinks he might get it.

nothing’s quite as sweet by dimpleforyourthoughts Teen and Up | 50,369 | 1/1

Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street.

For the Soul by kali_asleep Teen and Up | 4,835 | 1/1

Her eyes are glued to the glowing screen in front of her as she, with surgical precision, cuts straight to the muscle of the matter: “I'm a scientist, not a love life counselor. Tell Lance to quit being a baby and drag his congested ass to a healing pod.”

Lance is sick. Keith isn't sure how to help.

left on read ✓ by lancemclain Not Rated | 35,509 | 17/? (not completed :( )

(bi)tter: allura i love you marry me right now lesbean: you know if i wasn't so gay (bi)tter: [white girl voice] all the hot ones are gay edgelord™: why thank you lance (bi)tter: shut up, my chemical romance

(OR, once upon a time lance created a group chat and things didn't exactly go as planned)

Today, anew by MemeKonVLD ★  Mature | 5,910 | 6/6

“Lance.”

Lance’s eyebrows furrow in concern for a second before his whole face goes gentle and open.

“Hey buddy, everything okay?”

Keith nods. Then shakes his head, then opens his mouth to let out a noisy sob before he’s hugging the air out of Lance, grip vise tight.

Lance hugs him back. That’s one of the great things about him— he doesn’t— he doesn’t need explanations for things like this. He doesn’t make Keith jump through hoops, the way other people might��� he’s just— he just knows what Keith needs in times like this. No façades, no posturing.

(Or: the one where Keith is trapped in a time loop. A time loop from hell.)

How to Steal a Prince by Ms_Towa Teen and Up | 20,295 | 1/1

“Your eyes just—they just light up whenever you see Lance though!” Hunk argued. “Let’s compare how many times you’ve been in New Orleans Square back when you were working attractions and now. I’m pretty sure the numbers have definitely skyrocketed. You’re totally seeking out Lance, man.”

“I am not,” Keith tried. “They have good churros there.”

“Keith, they have good churros literally everywhere,” Hunk quipped. “You cannot walk three steps in Disneyland without seeing another churro cart.”

Or, an alternate universe where, come summer, most of Keith's pining happens at the happiest place on Earth.

The Six Gun Sound (Our Claim to Fame) by Mytay ★ Mature | 13,403 | 1/1 | Part 2 of Trouble’s Making Everything All Right (NOTE: This is my favorite part of this series, and it can be read as a standalone.)

“We’re not robbing the bank of the biggest crime lord here, Lance. Do you have a death wish?!”

“Let’s just do our damn best to not die. I am too gorgeous to expire this early, dude — I haven’t even hit my prime yet.”

Six weeks after crashing landing on this miserable world, the Red and Blue Paladins are on the verge of losing everything. This is how Lance and Keith turned it all around and earned their badass reputation as The Two McClains: Mercenaries That Get The Job Done.

Where the Lions Roam by Mytay ★ Teen and Up | 7,002 | 1/1

“ ... tell me why Blue is making the moves on Keith.”

Pidge stared at him, a touch incredulous. “You really haven’t figured it out?”

“Pidge. I am very intelligent, but I am not a genius,” Lance said patiently. “Spell it out for me.”

“Well, you just sort of answered your own question,” Pidge said, snorting. “Your Lion is making the moves on Keith — and by ‘moves’ I mean responding to your abject terror whenever Keith is in danger.”

Cuddle Puddle by nothingwrongwiththerain ★ Teen and Up | 46,782 | 6/6

Unexpectedly, Shiro’s hand landed on the top of his head. Apparently with Lance and Hunk taking up all the shoulder real estate, Shiro would settle for ruffling Keith’s hair.

Keith was fairly certain his soul was about to detach and abandon his shaking body on the couch. He was surrounded, in the complete and total sense of the word, by other people. Not once before, not in his whole life, had he dealt with a situation like this one.

Or, five times Keith found himself too close for comfort and one time he couldn't get close enough.

Though he be but smol, he is fierce! by Reader115 ★ Teen and Up | 16,827 | 1/1

It started like this. One second, he was shooting at sentries, and the next second he was on his ass on the cold metal floor of the Galra base due to an extremely rude shove from Keith.

Of course, from his new horizontal position, he got a front row seat to the shiny purple beam — that had previously been aimed for his chest — hitting Keith directly instead.

And then Keith disappeared.

Sort of.

I mean, he's not the science guy, so disappeared is probably the wrong word. Regular-sized Keith disappeared anyway. And Lance was left staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at a tiny, oh so very smol Keith unconscious on the ground beside him.

We’ll Be Counting Stars by southspinner Teen and Up | 2,958 | 1/1

Keith's just trying to navigate the collegiate mine-field of tests, social circles, and sleep-deprivation while still maintaining a fragile grip on his sanity. The last thing he needs is some snapback-clad fraternity president making him re-evaluate his entire existence, but of course, because the universe hates him, that's exactly what he gets.

As If by surveycorpsjean ★ Mature | 6,924 | 1/1

The five times Lance was his impulse control, and the one time he wasn't.

Like Devo by surveycorpsjean Explicit | 8,371 | 1/1

As rival jammers, they're rough, skating around the rink, giving bruises, bloody noses, broken ribs and snapped fingers-

But when the cops show up, Keith grabs his hand and yanks Lance into the storm drain.

And that’s how they start dating.

Nightmares by Trashness ★ Teen and Up | 14,864 | 1/1

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.

it grows stronger by tylerproposey Teen and Up | 8,979 | 1/1

College campuses are a cesspool of awkward encounters. Some more unnerving than others, as Lance comes to find. He thinks it's important to note that in all those instances, Keith is there to witness them. Actually, that's unfair. Admittedly Keith happens be useful in getting him out of those situations. Affection, as it goes, grows stronger when you're constantly being "saved" by a protective rival – but mostly friend at this point.

Or 5 times Keith helped Lance out of a situation and the 1 time Lance tried to pay back the saves.

No Greater Gift by usernicole ★ Teen and Up | 20,062 | 1/1

Keith gets a cat, learns the True Meaning of Family, and falls in love. In that order.

your favorite ghosts and planets by xShieru Teen and Up | 16,664 | 1/1

In hindsight, an asthma attack in the middle of the day wasn’t such a terrible way to give up the ghost.

Except this isn't how he imagined afterlife.

An AU about being dead.

call me, beep me General | 85,591 | 1/1

(00:31) Do you think she gave me the wrong number on purpose? (00:31) Or was it a genuine mistake? (00:32) Like maybe she writes funny and I misread it? (00:32) Some of the numbers do look a little dodgy... (00:33) Cause, you know, her threes could very easily be poorly formed eights? And maybe she writes her sevens like her ones? (00:45) What (00:46) The (00:46) Fuck??? (00:47) Oh good, you are awake!

where lance messages the wrong number and things kind of snowball from there

[messy-voltron]

I Miss You the Most, Birthday Boy

This is for Keith, who I love very much, and I wanted to do something special for the day. I hope you enjoy!

Note: this is a Keith x Fem!Reader, but I am more than happy to write any other gender if someone requests!

Words: 1,753

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: There’s some swearing, but I don’t really know if that’s a super big warning

………….

As much as you didn’t want to admit it, it hurt knowing that Keith left. It’s the pain in knowing that you’re trying so hard to convince yourself that everything’s going to be ok while standing on the middle of a forest fire.

But everything was not ok.

Keith left.

To you in the moment it felt abrupt, but looking back, it really wasn’t. Even just watching his vlog made it clear that he doesn’t want to depend on people because he’s afraid that they’ll just leave him.

The team jokes about how Keith is the emo guy who leans against the wall the try and be angsty and edgy and maybe this is just his way of being extremely edgy, but even if you haven’t known him that long, you could tell something was up.

And so you formed a plan.

A while ago you interrogated Shiro so much for Keith’s birthday that he gave it to you in hopes that that would keep you quiet and on the mission to the space mall, the human store had a clock of earths time and calendar date. Which was almost really sad to buy because it proves how much time has passed, but because you also had to exchange it for your favorite Mario pin to the store keeper.

The plan was to show Keith your super awesome present you made on his birthday and he was going to be super happy about it and that could be a sort of bonding moment for the two of you, but then he just….left. And you were afraid that that box with the gift was going to collect dust over the time you were away from him and it would just remind you that you will never have any good relationship with him.

But you’re way too stubborn to think about that. In fact, you just needed to rewrite the plan. So, after begging Princess Allura for the entire day to let you go to a nearby planet for dinner with Keith (and if Coran hadn’t helped you it would have been a disaster), you were given permission to have a fun birthday evening. The problem was: would you be able to convince Keith into spending that time with you.

In short answer, yes. Surprisingly. You sent him a message explaining that you just wanted to spend time with him the birthday part is a surprise and not even a tick later you got a solid yes and for the coordinates.

So that leads you to where you are now, sitting by yourself in an alien form of a hotel waiting for the birthday boy, in a dress that feels too tight and too loose at the same time, and checking your communication device every dobash to see if he decided to cancel. You glance at the entrance to see if he’s there, only having to look again to see if it’s really him.

Like you, he’s wearing some sort of alien clothing, but his is more similar to a dress shirt and dress pants that hug all of the right places. His hair seems brushed, for once, and he’s looking around the room; probably for you.

So to get his attention, you call out, “Keith!” His eyes snap towards yours and when a half smile reaches his face it makes you melt. God he’s just so pretty. Who knew you’d fall for someone with a freakin mullet.

But that wasn’t the point as you two walk towards each other. Before you can let out a word, his arms are suddenly around your torso in a hug and you have to stop yourself from letting out a squeak.

If this really Keith Kogan? The Keith who is not a fan of anything physical except fights?? You don’t want to think about it further as you embrace him as well.

He hastily pulls back and awkwardly coughs, “Oh, um, sorry, (Y/N). It’s just…nice to see you. You-you look nice.” Your heart skips one too many beats. Oh how you’ve missed him.

“You too!” You try and confidently say, “I hope you didn’t mind the short notice I just thought about it out of the blue and-“

Keith quickly jets in, “No no it’s fine! I’m kinda glad I get to spend some time with you.”

The silence that follows isn’t as awkward as it is confusing. You really hadn’t thought this through. And have his eyes always been that beautifully violet?

“I think we should sit down for dinner,” he says, not in a rude way, but in a way that states ‘we’re kinda just staring at each other in the middle of an entrance I think we should move.’ At least you hope so as you quickly apologize and lead him towards the dining room.

You didn’t know how to feel about this type of restaurant. The lighting in there was absolutely gorgeous with different colored crystals hanging from the ceiling, the music was almost classical but had a form of hip hop attached to it, and the menu was served to you by race. When the waiter who should up, who looked a lot like C-3PO in a tux might you add, asked for your species, he was really confused when you answered human. He buzzed, blinked a few times, and then just said, “Drinks will be out in a moment.”

Keith laughs it off, “I guess with so many different alien species about, the really have to broaden the menu.”

“I guess,” you say, “It might just have to be something to get used to.”

You mess with the utensils on the table, paying with the one that looks like a chopstick and a fork combined, when Keith speaks up.

“Why did you really bring me out here?”

You jolt in surprise, “What do you mean by that?”

He scoffs, “The nice venue? The pretty dress? The way you fidget every 5 ticks cause you’re worried about something? It’s obvious you clearly put some thought into this.”

You want to try and deny it, but it seems nothing gets past him. “Fine,” you mumble, “I was going to save this until dessert, but you foiled my plan. Here.” You reach into your pocket, and it was actual dress pockets which made you squeal when you found them, and you pull out the box and set it in front of him.

Keith looks at it confused. You roll your eyes, “It’s for you, you know. Usually when you get a present you open it. But I would like to point out that this was all me and everybody else just signed their name-“

“I thought you came out here to try and get me back on the team,” he whispers. And in that moment your heart sank.

Of course you want to have him back on the team. You can’t stop thinking about how much you miss him, how badly you would kill to have him back on the team, how much lonelier the palace seems to be without him.

But things will never go back to normal.

“I-just open it!” You stutter, not wanting to say anything you might regret. Keith almost seems sad when he opens it, but he turns blank as he looks at what’s inside. You already know what it is: it’s a note that says ‘Happy 19th Birthday Keith!’ And underneath is a photo frame with a picture in it.

The picture is kinda a funny story. It was right after a huge battle, everyone almost died at least twice, and when it was over, none of them decided to really take care of the injuries. Instead, you and the paladins all crashed on the couch, holding each other as if it was a 20 year reunion. Your favorite part was the part where you’re holding onto Keith as the two of you sleep.

What isn’t funny is how Keith isn’t saying anything. He’s not even expressing himself. Did you do something wrong? Where did you go wrong? Is there some birthday memory he wanted to forget that you reinforced? Does he even celebrate-?

“I didn’t even realize it was my birthday,” he starts off, “I haven’t done something like this since I was maybe a little kid. And-and this is really sweet and I don’t know….I don’t know how to feel right now.”

You don’t even know how to feel.

Come back

Please

Instead, you lift your hand from your lap and hold it out to him.

Instead you tell him, “The team cares about you; we all care about you. And we did this to show that a) we want to do something nice for you and b) that even though you’re with the blade there’s always going to be a place for you on our team.”

What you meant to say was, “God damn it you piece of shit get it through your dim whitted brain that I actually give a shit about you and I love you so you better not push me away or else you will break me and I don’t know if I would ever recover from that.”

Instead he grabs your hand and he smiles. Then he says, “Thank you.” As the waiter shows up with the drinks.

And you talk. And laugh. And forget about the stupid war. And it feels normal. It isn’t until you two walk through the exit and say your goodbyes does it get less nice.

“Will I see you again soon?” You ask. He only shrugs, not noticing the true meaning behind it.

“I would hope so. If you guys are ever in a close enough distance I would want to hop on over and see all of you. But especially you.”

You have to think about what he said for a moment, but it’s hard to think when it’s so cold outside your body is frozen and Keith starts to inch closer and closer to you.

And you swear you see heavens gate as he leans down to kiss your cheek and one hand gently holds on to you by your wrist. And before you can think about it he says his goodbyes again and walks off into the distance, his body lost in the sea of aliens. And it isn’t until you return to the castle, still breathless on life, do you realize you got a message from Keith that says: ‘I’ll always need you the most, (Y/N).’

[actress4him]

Whumptober 2020 - Day 31

This is it! The very last post of Whumptober, and the long-awaited sequel to Day 8! If you're brand new to this whump party and haven't read it yet, you'll want to go back and do so before diving into this monstrosity. And when I say monstrosity I mean, it's looooooong. I wanted to do it justice and give you guys the ending you deserve, which...I'm hoping I pulled off. I'm not used to posting stuff so soon after writing it, without re-reading and editing over a period of time! Anyway, it wasn't one that I could easily just say, oh and they rescued him and put him in a pod and they lived happily ever after, because there was a whole bunch of emotional stuff everyone had to deal with, too. Thus the length, and the postponing of this post so I could actually finish it. 

That said, this is actually more angst than it is whump, but hopefully there's enough whump to satisfy and hopefully it's a satisfying way to end the month. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

Day 31 (No. 29 and Alt. 7)  - Reluctant Bedrest/Found Family

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: fantastic racism, self-hatred, death mention, blood, referenced animal attack, fever, infection, hallucinations, needles, panic attacks, suicide ideation

It had been nearly a week since they abandoned Keith. Discarded him, like garbage. Dropped him off on some deserted planet like some people back on Earth used to drop off animals that they didn’t want to have to take care of. 

Shiro had always hated those people. Now he was one of them.

Except worse, because this wasn’t a puppy they had dumped on the side of the road, this was a hu-...okay, well only partly a human being, but a person, nonetheless. The person that he had seen as the little brother he never had for the past several years that he had known him. The person that he had sworn, even if only internally, to look after, always.

And sure, it wasn’t like it was his idea, but he had still let it happen. Yeah, if he had tried to fight it, Allura probably would have locked him in his room and done it without him. But he should have fought anyway. He should have let them drag him away like they had Keith that day they found out he was part Galra. Maybe they would have thrown him in a cell, too. Maybe then he’d actually be able to look at himself in the mirror now.

They wouldn’t have, though. He was human. He was trustworthy.

So trustworthy that he had turned his back on his brother, all for the sake of Voltron and the universe. 

That was the lie he had been telling himself, the one thing that had kept him from jumping in his Lion and going after Keith for days. The universe needed Voltron. Therefore, the universe needed him. He was the leader of Voltron, he couldn’t just abandon the rest of the team and disobey the Princess’ orders for the sake of one man. Being a defender of the universe meant having to make sacrifices and hard choices.

And maybe all of that was actually true, but it was only half the story. Keith needed him. As the leader of Voltron, he should be setting an example for the rest of the team to follow, and should be able to make decisions for the good of every team member without being threatened and overruled by the Princess. Being a decent person who could live with his own choices meant not going against his own promises and ideals.

He knew all of that. But both sides seemed true, and which side seemed more important changed by the second. 

To top it all off, the team had practically fallen apart since leaving Borulmyte. Not only were they down a Paladin, unable to form Voltron, but hardly anyone was speaking to each other unless forced. Allura was sulking because her father’s Lion wouldn’t accept her. Hunk, who had never seemed all that happy with the idea of kicking Keith out, seemed depressed. Pidge had pretty much locked herself in her room, he assumed furiously searching for any sign of her family. Lance was, as always, hard to get a read on, but he was noticeably quiet and stoic whenever he happened to appear. Coran had barely spoken a word the whole week.

And Shiro? He couldn’t stand to be around any of them. They were the ones who had done this to Keith. Sure, a couple had made weak arguments on his behalf at the beginning, but in the end they had all caved to Allura’s wishes and turned on him. He blamed them just as much as he blamed himself for sitting here in the comfort of the Castle while Keith...who even knew? At the very least he was alone and probably scared, even though he’d never admit that. At the worst, he could be struggling to survive, dying at that very moment, and none of them would ever know.

Whichever it was, he didn’t deserve it.

Coran had called a meeting on the bridge for something he said was urgent. It was probably another distress call, though the last one - the only mission they had attempted that week - had gone so terribly that Shiro wasn’t sure if they should even bother trying again. Running a smooth, successful mission is awfully difficult when no one wants to speak to each other, much less work in sync.

Usually he was the first one to arrive for meetings like this. Well, except for maybe Keith, but that wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on right then. This time, when he finally dragged himself to the bridge, the others were all already there, though none of them looked happy about it. Unlike in the past, when he always tried to keep up everyone’s morale by being focused and enthusiastic himself, no matter how he actually felt, now he didn’t bother. Crossing his arms, he let his face rest in exactly the scowl he was feeling.

“What is this about, Coran?”

“Yes, I would like to know as well.” Allura’s brow was furrowed, clearly not happy at being left out of the loop. 

The orange-haired adviser wrung his hands, staring down at the floor. “Well, it’s...this is difficult to say. But…” Drawing in a deep breath that puffed out his chest, he finally looked up, catching each of their gazes. “I’ve been keeping something from you. It’s about Number F-...Keith. It’s about Keith.”

Keith’s name had practically become forbidden, so of course it automatically caught everyone’s attention. Shiro unfolded his arms and stepped forward. “What about Keith?” he demanded.

Coran’s eyes darted back to the floor. “He gave us messages to pass on to each of you. Before we left Borulmyte.”

“Coran!” Allura hissed.

“No, Princess.” The response took everyone in the room by surprise, including Allura if the expression on her face was any indication. None of them had ever heard Coran speak that way to her, especially not to tell her no. He took another breath and seemed to steel himself. “You know that I have always served the royal family willingly, and that I see you like a daughter. I would follow you anywhere. However...you are still young. A great burden has been placed on your shoulders, and you have done extraordinarily well with it. But sometimes you make mistakes, and this, my dear...this has been a grave mistake.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we never should have left the boy behind. Galra or not, he has never proven himself anything but the most loyal of paladins, and yet we have punished him for a crime he did not commit.”

Shiro was torn between feeling relief that someone besides him was saying it, and anger that it hadn’t been said sooner. “Why didn’t you speak up when I was trying to convince them all of this same thing days ago?”

Coran flashed him a guilty expression. “Because I was too much of a coward. I didn’t want to speak against my Princess, even though I knew what she was doing was wrong.” Squaring his shoulders, he looked around at the other paladins again. “But regardless of what anyone else thinks or decides, I can do this. I can fulfill the boys’ last request before he was left behind.”

Something in Shiro’s gut twisted at that statement, and he could see some shuffling of feet and shifting of positions around him that pointed to the others feeling the same way. No one liked to be reminded of what they had done.

“Fine,” Allura finally spat. “Do what you must to clear your conscience.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against the console with a huff.

“First to Number Two...Hunk.” Coran gave the Yellow Paladin a gentle smile. “He wanted you to know that he would miss your cooking, especially the brownies you made for him.”

That was all it took for Hunk to start crying, though he said nothing in reply.

“Lance, he said to tell you that he never hated you, that you annoyed him sometimes but were a good friend, too.”

If Shiro hadn’t been intently watching, he might have missed the way Lance’s eyes widened before he ducked his head and scuffed his sneaker into the floor.

“Pidge, your message was that he really, really hopes you find your family. And that he kept meaning to tell you he thinks you’re doing great with your bayard.”

Her eyebrows pulled in tight at the first part, but at the second she blinked as if surprised and looked away.

“And besides his message to the Red Lion that he would miss her, and to us, thanking us for the opportunity to fly her…” He turned to stare at Allura for that, and she couldn’t hold his gaze, either… “That leaves you, Shiro.”

The other messages had already left him ripped open, so he wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to handle one meant just for him.

Coran lips pursed into a sad smile. “‘Just tell him I love him.’”

He felt as if all the walls came crashing down on him all at once. He loved him. Of course he did, he knew he did, they had always treated each other like brothers. But he had never said it. And now he had, and it was after Shiro had allowed him to be kicked out of the place they had all come to see as a home.

Spinning on his heel, he marched toward the door without a word.

“Shiro, wait, where are you going?”

If it had been any of the others, he might have just ignored them. But it was Hunk, so he at least threw the answer over his shoulder. “I’m going to get Keith.”

“Shiro -!”

“No!” This time he whirled around, sending all of his fury in a glare toward Allura. “I’m done letting you tell me how I should treat my little brother! I am going to get Keith, not the Galra, but our friend, the Red Paladin, the strongest and bravest and most loyal person I know, and no one is going to stop me! If you don’t want us back here, fine. I don’t care. Find yourself new Red and Black Paladins. But I won’t leave him down there a second longer.”

It was unclear whether Allura even knew what to say to that, but before she had the chance Hunk piped up again. “I’m coming with you! Erm, if...that’s okay.”

Shiro spared him a small smile. “Of course it is.”

No one said anything as they left the room. Hunk jogged a little to catch up to Shiro’s long, quick strides before matching his pace. 

“I was a coward, too, like Coran said. Which, you know, isn’t really anything new, just...me being a coward isn’t usually at the expense of one of my friends. I was scared, to start with. Of him being, you know. Galra. But that’s stupid, really. Galra Keith is still Keith.”

“Yeah. He is.” He just hoped he was still Keith, still whole and well and not irrevocably changed, when they got to him. “I was just as much of a coward as anyone else, or more. I let the duty I felt to Voltron and the universe get in the way of the way I actually wanted to act. I should have gone after him right away.”

Hunk hummed in understanding. “Well, at least you actually stood up for him.”

They stopped off in their rooms to change into armor, then headed for Black and Yellow’s hangars. The long way, since they didn’t want to risk going back to the bridge and running into everyone else. Shiro had debated whether or not he should take Black, or just a pod, but decided that even if Allura wouldn’t let them stay, returning Black would give everyone a good chance to see Keith again and really make sure they wouldn’t change their minds.

“Since we don’t have a wormhole, it’s gonna take us a while to get there,” he told Hunk over the comms once they were situated in their Lions and starting to take off.

“I don’t mind. Just...how are we gonna find him once we’re there? I mean, he could have traveled a ways from where we...you know, left him.”

“I can track his quintessence.” The new voice took him by surprise, but not nearly as much as spinning around to find Green and Blue hovering over the Castle. “But I’ll have to be pretty close to him first. So we’ll still have to fly around for a while to try to catch a signal, then we’ll be able to narrow it down to a smaller area.”

Shiro was too shocked by their appearance to come up with a reasonable response, so he just ended up echoing, “We?”

Lance’s solemn face popped up on a video screen in front of him, followed by another with Pidge’s. “Yeah, we,” he said, mouth set in a firm line. “We’ve been stupid, and we wanna fix it. If...if we can.”

Clenching his jaw, Shiro sighed. “That’ll be up to Keith, I suppose. What kind of shape he’s in, and...whether he’ll forgive us.”

“We don’t really deserve it,” Pidge mumbled.

“No, we don’t. But let’s go ask for it anyway.”

They talked a little as they flew. It was quiet, and a bit awkward, but it was more than they had talked all week. Lance admitted that he had been having doubts ever since they left, memories of time spent with Keith haunting his thoughts. The message had just sealed the deal.

Pidge shrugged when asked about her change of heart, and quietly conceded that she didn’t think she had ever really believed he was a bad guy. She was just hurting, and he had been the perfect target to take it out on. Her desperation to find her family had blinded her.

They were several hours into a trip that Hunk calculated would take a few days when a wormhole appeared in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere. Every Lion pulled up short, exclamations of surprise echoing across the comms. 

Shiro jerked his Lion around to find the Castle looming behind them. His immediate thought was that Coran had somehow taken over and caught up with them, but Coran couldn’t make wormholes.

“...Allura?”

Her voice over the comms was more tentative than he thought he had ever heard it. “I have not yet decided to trust him. But I...I have seen how passionate all of you are about this, and I am...willing to reconsider my original stance.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but it was more than he had expected. He’d take it. 

“Alright guys. Let’s go bring our boy home.”

The sight of the planet Borulmyte made Shiro’s stomach turn a flip. This was it. This was the place where Keith had been living for the past week. He couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for him. Allura and Pidge had done extensive research on multiple planets before deciding that this was the best one, and they had had plenty of “reassuring” things to say about it. He had always wondered, though, what they weren’t saying. Or what their research hadn’t turned up. There was no way that they could have known everything there was to know about a planet just from reading about it. “Livable conditions” didn’t mean enjoyable conditions.

“Coran and I will stay here with the Castle. Keep us updated.”

Shiro gave a nod. “Pidge, how close do you need to be to pick up Keith’s quintessence?”

“Within a few miles.”

“Alright. We’ll start at the drop off point. I’m gonna guess he would have headed east, into the forest, to find shelter.” That was the one reassurance he had about the whole situation, knowing that Keith was trained in survival skills. “We’ll head there first, and take it mile by mile.”

It took them the rest of the day. Only a fraction of that time had passed when Shiro started to run every possible horrible scenario through his mind of why they weren’t finding it, even though he knew that they probably just hadn’t hit the right spot yet. 

“There!” Pidge shouted. “I’ve got it!”

Relief flooded Shiro down to his toes. “Alright. Mark this location. We’ll have to go land in the desert and fly back in the Green Lion. She’s the only one small enough to fit in that little clearing over there. 

The little clearing, as it turned out, was around a creek that seemed to be clear and safe. His relief grew just a little more. If Keith had managed to end up this close to a water source, then maybe he was doing okay.

“Okay, Pidge. Lead the way.”

Hiking through the woods took almost another full day. A day in which the sun never actually rose. He hadn’t paid attention to start with, when they were still flying, because constant darkness outside had become the new norm, but now that they were on solid ground it was painfully obvious that they had yet to see light this entire time. And the temperature gauge on his helmet display was much lower than he wanted it to be. Livable? Yes. Comfortable without armor? No. He wanted to interrogate Allura and Pidge on whether they knew about this when they had chosen to send Keith to this planet, but it wasn’t the time. He had to focus on finding Keith, nothing else.

After hours and hours of walking by only the flashlights built into their helmets, during which time no one, not even Lance, dared to complain, there was finally a spike on Pidge’s quintessence tracker. 

“Over here!” she shouted, taking off at a sprint through the underbrush. 

The others followed, swatting branches and bushes out of their way. Any second, Shiro expected to run into Keith. Maybe sitting in whatever hideout he had found, or out hunting for food in the never-ending darkness, his eyebrows flying up in surprise when he saw them all rushing in.

Instead, when he stumbled to a halt beside Pidge, she was staring at the ground, and there was no Keith in sight. 

“Pidge? What is it?”

Lifting a shaky finger, she pointed. Even before he looked, Shiro could feel his chest tightening with anxiety. And for good reason, too. The stain that was illuminated on the dirt and leaves was dried, at least a couple of days old, but it was undeniably blood. It was also concerningly large, and with the quintessence tracker crackling louder than they had heard it so far, there was no getting around the fact that it belonged to Keith.

Hunk immediately began babbling his worries, but Shiro’s heart was pounding too loudly in his ears for him to comprehend what he was actually saying. For a long moment he just stared at the bloodstain. It wasn’t until Lance stepped in closer to speak that he was broken out of his trance.

“Shiro? Do you think he’s…”

“No.” Yes. He didn’t know. It was a lot of blood. But he wouldn’t allow himself to believe that Keith was anything but okay until he saw him with his own eyes. “Pidge, is there a trail?”

She tore her eyes away to look at the screen, pacing back and forth a bit before nodding wordlessly and taking off through the bush. If her steps were a bit quicker now, no one blamed her. They just picked up their pace, too, solemn and silent other than Lance quietly updating Allura and Coran on what they had found. 

Every once in a while, a small patch of dark red on a leaf or tree trunk would catch Shiro’s eye. He tried to take it as a good sign. If Keith had been able to pick himself up from whatever had happened and trek through the woods, then maybe he wasn’t too bad off. At the time. Two or more days later? It was impossible to say.

The walk from there only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, finally, he spotted a small cave over the top of Pidge’s head, just as the tracker grew in volume and Pidge broke into a run. 

“Keith? Keith!”

He was right on her heels, barreling through the opening, terrified of what he would find. And what he did see was almost exactly what he had feared - Keith, his skin far too pale under their flashlights, lying completely still on the ground next to the cold, charred remains of a campfire. There were rough slashes in his t-shirt, through which bloody scabs could be seen, and his right leg was almost entirely wrapped in large blue leaves tied off with what looked like dried grass. It didn’t take much guesswork to figure out that the sporadic dark stains on the leaves were blood.

“Keith.” Shiro was by his side without really knowing how he got there, sliding down onto his knees next to the unmoving figure. “No, no, no, no, Keith, come on, don’t do this to me.” He carded his hand through the messy black hair. “Keith, please.”

Pale lips parted, and a groan spilled out. Shiro nearly fell over with relief. Somewhere behind him, Lance was exclaiming his own relief in Spanish, while Hunk hovered just over his shoulder. Keith’s forehead, which he now noticed was coated in a sheen of sweat, furrowed, and he turned his head slightly to face Shiro before squinting his eyes open.

“Go ‘way,” he rasped, taking all of them by surprise. “‘re not real.”

“Yeah, yeah we are, buddy.” He stroked his hair again, then yanked off his glove so he could lay his flesh hand against his cheek, trying not to wince at the heat that met his touch. A fever. Whatever that wound was on his leg, it had probably gotten infected. No wonder he didn’t think they were real. “Doesn’t this feel real?”

Keith seemed to consider this, his brain probably having to work twice as hard as usual to process anything. Finally there was what seemed to be acceptance in those glazed eyes, but instead of seeming happy or confused or surprised or any of the emotions that they might have expected, he simply let his head roll back to the side and closed his eyes. “Come to...finish me off?”

“What? Keith, no, why would you think that?” Hunk exclaimed, dropping down right next to Shiro. “We came to take you home.”

“We’ve, uh...we were really terrible to you. It was really, really wrong,” Lance joined in.

Pidge shuffled her feet awkwardly. “Yeah. We, um. We want you to come back.”

“Even Allura is willing to reconsider, but whatever she decides, we're getting you out of here.” Shiro took one of Keith’s hands in his own and squeezed. “I never should have let her dictate how you were treated to start with.”

Silence fell for a moment. Keith cut his eyes up toward Shiro, not moving his head. “Knew you weren’t real.”

Pidge gave an exasperated grunt. “Keith -”

“Don’t worry about it right now.” Sliding his glove back on, Shiro straightened and got ready to pick Keith up bridal style. “He’s burning up with an infection. We’ll have to talk to him later, once he can actually comprehend what’s going on. For now let’s just get him back to the Castle and into a pod.”

Shiro scooped Keith up gently into his arms, causing him to cry out when his leg was jostled. “I’m sorry, bud,” he whispered. “You’re gonna be okay.” He didn’t at all like how light he felt, nor how gaunt his face looked. It had only been a week, but it didn’t seem like he had eaten much in that time.

Now that they knew where they were going, the walk back to the Green Lion went by quickly. Pidge flew them back to their own Lions, with Hunk and Lance towing Black to the Castle so that Shiro could stay in Green’s cargo hold with Keith. He didn’t want to let him go, couldn’t even keep his eyes off of him. He was too afraid that if he looked away, he would be gone, would succumb to his infection or perhaps just vanish into thin air. In the better lighting of the Lion, Keith looked all the more pale and feverish, his breaths coming shallow as he mumbled unintelligible words and occasionally whimpered with pain.

“What kind of injuries are we dealing with here, Number One?”

Shiro barely remembered arriving at the Castle and exiting the Green Lion, but there he was, standing next to Coran and a stretcher. Tenderly, he settled Keith down onto the padded surface. “Not sure. Maybe an animal attack of some kind? I haven’t been able to get a look at his wounds yet. He’s got a fever for sure, though, so they’re probably infected.”

Coran’s face turned grim. “That’s unfortunate. We won’t be able to put him into cryosleep until his temperature is back to normal.”

Gritting his teeth, Shiro found Keith’s hand and held it as they walked toward the infirmary. Poor kid just couldn’t catch a break. He didn’t deserve any of this. And now it sounded like when he was back to himself, they were going to have to go back through a whole three years’ worth of self-esteem boosting...maybe even more. He let out a long sigh. It seemed like he had just finally convinced Keith that he was worth loving, that he was important, that not everyone in his life was going to abandon him. 

Then he sat back and let everyone in his life abandon him.

Coran sucked in a loud breath through his teeth as he peeled back the crude leaf bandages. “Yes, this is most certainly infected. And I would say that your animal attack hypothesis is correct. These look mostly like tooth marks. Quite deep.”

It looked mostly like a mangled, bloody mess to Shiro. His stomach turned, not just from the smell of the infection, and he was glad that Hunk wasn’t there at the moment. “What do we need to do?”

“Well, I’ll need to clean these. You might want to hold him down for that part.”

Keith bucked and writhed under Shiro’s hands as Coran poured antiseptic over his leg, screaming in agony. Shiro was pretty sure his heart was permanently residing in his throat now. He whispered reassurances, hardly knowing what he was saying, well aware that Keith probably couldn’t hear or comprehend any of it. 

After a thorough cleaning, Coran wrapped the leg in clean bandages and pulled a thin sheet up over his waist. Shiro sank into the bedside chair, relieved beyond words that the worst part was over. They spoke very little as they went about the rest of the work that needed to be done, Coran handing Shiro the antiseptic and a clean cloth so that he could work on the claw marks across Keith’s chest, then focusing himself on preparing an IV bag of antibiotics and nutrients. Shiro gently smoothed adhesive bandages over the cuts when he was done. When he looked up, Coran was sliding the IV into place in the back of Keith’s hand.

“That should do it for now. I’m going to get a cool, wet cloth to help bring his fever down, but he should recover just fine.”

It was only then that Shiro finally allowed himself to dissolve into tears, like he had been wanting to ever since finding Keith in that cave. Burying his face in his hands, he let the tears soak his cheeks and the sobs wrack his body, uncaring for once that someone was there to see him fall apart.

A sturdy hand landed on his back, rubbing soothing circles. “There, there, lad. I know it’s been a rough few quintants, but it’ll be alright.”

“Will it?” Shiro scrubbed at his face with his flesh hand. “You should have seen him, Coran. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to trust any of us again.”

The adviser heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, either. I’m not sure if I would be able to trust us, if the roles were reversed. But perhaps, with time, we’ll be able to prove to him that we do, indeed, care for him.”

Once Shiro had cried himself out, Coran convinced him to go change out of his armor and possibly get something to eat. He was surprised to find all three of the other paladins sprawled out on the floor just outside the infirmary, remnants of snacks scattered around them and expectant looks on their faces.

“Well? Is he...okay?” Pidge asked tentatively.

Shiro sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Physically, it seems so. He’s stable for now, at least, and Coran thinks he’ll be fine. We just have to make sure his fever doesn’t get too high.”

They all nodded slowly, seeming lost in thought. He imagined they were all thinking about the “other than physically” part that he had failed to comment on.

Hunk cleared his throat. “Is he awake?”

He shook his head. “He’s been in and out, but he’s resting pretty peacefully for now.”

“We didn’t want to, you know, be in the way,” Lance supplied. “But you can let us know when it’s okay for us to see him. Or we can take turns watching out for him.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know.” Right now he couldn’t imagine leaving his side, not for longer than he was doing right now. As he started down the hall again toward his quarters, he met another unexpected presence - Allura, lurking just around the corner from where the paladins sat, looking abnormally anxious. He stopped abruptly, not sure he was ready to see her again yet.

“I heard your update,” she stated after a moment of awkward silence. When Shiro said nothing in return, she pursed her lips. “I suppose we have some more discussions ahead of us now.”

“No. We don’t.” Allura’s eyebrows flew up in surprise, but he didn’t give her time to respond. “There’s nothing to discuss. Either you accept Keith back as the Red Paladin...and treat him just as well as the other paladins, or he and I leave. Whether or not the others stay is up to them.” 

Allura’s brow furrowed, and she dropped her gaze to the floor with nothing else to say. Pushing past her, Shiro continued to his room, hurrying through changing so he could be back with Keith.

.o.0.O.0.o.

They would tell Keith later that he had been out of it for around two days before the fever broke. All he knew was that he woke up in the infirmary of the Castle with no memory of how he had gotten there, and assumed he must have been hallucinating again. He was actually a bit surprised that the wounds from that death beast hadn’t killed him yet...or maybe they had. Maybe this was some sort of purgatory or something, though the infirmary seemed like a strange choice.

It made a bit more sense when he turned his head to the right and saw Coran sitting there studying him. Seemed maybe he was going to have to face people he had failed in life before he could move on to whatever came next.

“Are you with us this time, my boy?”

Wrinkling his eyebrows at the strange question, Keith licked his dry lips with an equally dry tongue and tried to come up with something to say, but all that came out was a raspy, “What?”

Immediately Coran went into action, producing a hydration pack from somewhere nearby and holding the straw up to Keith’s lips. The cool liquid hit his throat like a slice of heaven, and he gulped greedily.

“Not too fast, now. Don’t want you making yourself sick.”

Keith nearly whined when the straw was pulled away, but he could already feel the liquid sloshing around inside of him, so it was probably for the best. Clearing his throat, he decided he could try talking again. “What am I doing here?”

“You were in pretty bad shape when the others found you. Something had torn your leg all up, and it had gotten infected. We couldn’t put you in a cryopod until your fever went down, which it seems it now has.”

His eyes darted around the cavernous white room. “So...this is real?”

The corner of Coran’s mouth tilted up. “Yes. It’s real.”

He had kinda suspected after the water. But that left one major question…“Why?”

Before Coran could respond, the door slid open, and Keith turned his head to see Shiro enter the room. The sight of his surrogate brother had him torn between happiness and a strange sense of dread, leaving him to clench the sheets in his fists and wait for some kind of reaction to come. Half of him expected it to be disgust, or anger, or maybe just an apathetic announcement of what his new punishment for existing was to be. 

Instead, Shiro’s face lit up with a happy, almost hopeful expression. “Keith?”

“Wait, is Keith awake?” another voice called from the hallway behind him. Lance’s head poked through the doorway, making Keith’s stomach clench, before he turned and yelled back down the hall. “Hey guys, Keith’s awake!”

All at once the infirmary was filled with almost all the people who hated him, all crowding around his bed and staring down at him with faces he couldn’t read. They were going to hurt him. He knew they would, why else would they have brought him back here? Obviously they had changed their minds and decided they had been too lenient. What were they going to do to him? How much pain would he be in now?

He couldn’t breathe. Suddenly it felt like that beast was sitting on top of him again, crushing his chest, and he struggled to draw in air through an open mouth while tears stung his eyes. His hands shook where they were still gripping the sheets. People were talking, but it sounded as if his ears were stuffed full of cotton and he couldn’t make out any of the words.

He almost didn’t notice when the crowd above him dispersed, but it did help his breaths start to come a little easier. Only there was still Shiro, and he still didn’t know where Shiro stood on any of this. The Black Paladin sat down next to the bed and tried to grasp his hand. Keith yanked it away.

“Don’t...don’t.”

“Okay. I won’t touch you. Do you know where you are?”

Of course he knew, that was the whole problem. “Yes.”

“Okay. You’re safe now, Keith.”

Safe. Yeah, right. There was no such thing as safe, not anymore. He had thought the Castle was safe, that these people were safe, but he had been wrong. “Why?”

Shiro looked at him in mild confusion before choosing what to say. “We made a mistake, leaving you there. We -”

Keith rolled away, tucking his hands up next to his chest, cringing at the pain that still radiated through his leg. He didn’t want to hear it explained, how they wanted to punish him further. Yet at the same time, he needed to know what was coming. 

“Keith…”

“Now?”

It had been a long time since Shiro had needed to interpret his one word sentences, but luckily it seemed he was still good at it. “Now you keep resting and getting better until we can put you in a pod for your leg.”

“Why?”

That one seemed to give him pause. “So...you’ll be well.”

Were they really going to prolong the torture like this? Make him get well before they did away with him? He curled up tighter. “Just...kill. Now.”

“Kill? Keith -”

“Please.”

The chair scraped across the floor, and Keith flinched. Footsteps came around the bed. He tensed, waiting for the blow. The air in front of his face stirred, and Shiro’s voice came from very close.

“Keith, can you look at me, please?” When he didn’t comply, Shiro put a hand on his fists and pulled them down so that they were face to face. “No one is going to kill you. No one is going to hurt you. You’re back on the Castle because we were wrong. They were wrong about you being untrustworthy, and I was wrong about my duty to Voltron being more important than my duty to you. I’m so, so sorry that I let them kick you out, and that I didn’t come after you sooner. You will always be more important to me than the rest of the universe. You’re my brother. I love you.”

Tears welled up in Keith’s eyes despite his reluctance to believe any of it. Tugging his hands out from under Shiro’s, he covered his face again, unable to respond.

Shiro let out a long, quiet sigh. “The others want to apologize, too, at some point. But for now you should try to get some more rest. You’re still recovering from the infection.”

He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t trust that he wouldn’t be messed with while he was asleep. But his body decided for him that it was ready, drifting off without his permission.

.o.0.O.0.o.

Keith hadn’t really improved by the next couple of days. He slept some, he ate some, and his color and temperature seemed to be returning to normal. But he regarded everyone who came into the room with the wary stare of a cornered wild animal, and he still wasn’t speaking more than one or two words at a time, if that. Just as Shiro had feared, he had reverted back to the year that they had met, except worse. 

He tried to spend as much time in the infirmary with him as he could, hoping that the company would eventually coax him into relaxing. The other paladins still hadn’t gotten their chance to talk to him. Everyone, including Shiro, was afraid their presence would trigger another panic attack. He had already nearly gone into one when Hunk had delivered his breakfast that morning, and had been extra jumpy around Coran, too.

Shiro was eating his own breakfast, trying not to focus too much on the fact that Keith’s was just sitting there untouched, when he heard a telltale sniffle. Keith was sitting up, propped on some pillows against the wall, but his head was turned away from Shiro, as was pretty common. Even so, he could see the shimmer of a tear as it streaked down his face. Setting aside his bowl, he rounded the bed and settled down on the edge, expecting the flinch that followed but still hating it.

“Talk to me, Keith.”

He didn’t expect a response at all, and especially not a long one. But Keith angrily dashed the tears away, forever hating himself for ever crying, and spoke in a hoarse whisper. “Why didn’t you just leave me there?”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

“I was almost dead. It would have all been over. You should have just left me there.”

Heart aching, he scooted in closer, though Keith leaned even further back away from him. “Keith, no. We don’t want you dead. We want you here, alive and well, with us. If you died, I...I thought you were dead, when I first saw you. And it was like...it was like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I don’t know if I could survive it.”

Keith’s face, passive up until then, creased with a look of emotional pain that Shiro could hardly stand. “But why should I live? I’m...I’m Galra, Shiro. I’m one of them. But not even really Galra, just some cross-breed freak of nature. I never should have existed. Maybe that’s why my mother walked out on me, she knew I was a freak and she couldn’t stand to -”

“Stop it. Keith, stop.” He grabbed his shoulder and shook it, not caring at the moment whether it startled him. “Don’t talk about yourself like that. You are not defined by who your parents or grandparents or anyone else were. You are you. You are Keith Kogane, Red Paladin of Voltron, best pilot at the Galaxy Garrison. You’re a survivor. You’re a fighter. Not because you have Galra blood, but because the universe has thrown every hard thing that it could think of at you and you’re still standing strong.”

“I’m not standing strong, don’t you see me?” Keith met his eyes finally, a tiny bit of his old spark of anger visible. “I’m pathetic. Maybe I was the Red Paladin, maybe I was a survivor and a fighter, but right now I don’t think I can be any of those things. I don’t want to fight anymore, Shiro. I’m tired of surviving. I just want…” He broke down into tears again, covering his face with his hands.

Moving over closer, Shiro wrapped his arms around his brother and pulled him in tight. “You want what?”

Keith’s shoulders shuddered beneath him. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t trust any of them. I can’t trust any of them.”

“I know.” 

For a long time, they sat together like that, Keith’s face buried in Shiro’s chest while he cried out all his tears. Shiro ran his fingers through his hair, trying desperately to come with anything he could say to comfort him. 

“Do you think you could listen to them, if they come and talk to you? Just one at a time, not everyone at once. I know they’re really anxious to speak to you, and I think it might do you some good, too.” Or at least he hoped.

It took him a minute to answer. “I don’t know.”

“Okay. Well, it doesn’t have to be now. But I’d like you to consider it.”

Keith just nodded.

.o.0.O.0.o.

He had been in bed for days. The infection was all but gone, there was no longer any danger in putting him in a pod, and doing so had been brought up a couple of times. But Shiro and Coran must have noticed how he shrank into himself every time it was mentioned, because they dropped the subject and just continued to let him stay there. 

He didn’t want to go in a pod. Being forced unconscious for who knew how many hours or days was just too vulnerable, and he already felt that way far too much, anyway. After all, he was stuck in bed in the middle of a ship full of people who hated him. He was pretty confident that Shiro would try his best to protect him, and Coran might, too. The Altean had taken the time to sit down and apologize to him for his role in the whole mess, and based on the way he had been treating him Keith was fairly sure he could be trusted. 

But that left four others, all who had weapons, one of whom had some kind of weird magic and was literally connected to the Castle. He didn’t feel safe, and he hated it. There hadn’t been many places in his life that he had been able to truly let down his guard and feel safe. A foster home or two, though later on he had become so jaded that even the good ones didn’t feel like they would last. The Garrison to some extent, at least as long as Shiro was there.

And the Castle. Yeah, there was always the chance of an attack, and there had been the couple of times that someone had snuck on board without them knowing. But in all of those situations he had known that there were people around who had his back, people that he could count on. It was the most at home he had felt since Shiro had left for Kerberos.

Now it was those very same people that he was afraid of, as stupid and weak as that made him. The thought was almost laughable. Him? Afraid of Lance, Hunk, and Pidge? But he couldn’t get the hatred he had seen in some of their eyes out of his head. Couldn’t forget the venom in their voices. Couldn’t erase all the times he had watched them, hallucinations or not, show up in that cave with insults on their lips and weapons in their hands, ready to make him pay for the crime of being part Galra.

He didn’t want to talk to them. But he knew that Shiro really wanted him to, and that meant he would have to do it sooner or later. Maybe if he went ahead and got it over with, they’d leave him alone more, and then when his leg was healed enough that he could actually walk it’d be easier to leave. He hadn’t figured out where he was going - definitely not back to Borulmyte - or how he’d get there, but leaving was the best option for everybody.

“Will you...stay? If I let them…”

Once again, Shiro knew exactly what he was talking about, despite the question being out of the blue. “Of course. I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”

Sinking back into the pillows, Keith hugged himself. “Okay.”

Shiro smiled softly. “Okay. I’ll send them a message and let them know you’re ready.”

Hunk was the first to come in. He burst into tears pretty much as soon as he walked through the door and saw Keith, and cried so much the whole time that his many, many apologies could barely be understood. It made Keith uncomfortable, if he was honest. He had never known how to deal with tears, his own or anyone else’s. But Hunk was so obviously genuine and straightforward, and he had always had a hard time believing that there was any part of such a loving person that could have held such malice. 

“I get it.” It took everything in him to force multiple words out, but he knew he had to this time. “It’s hard to...stand up. When...everyone else...disagrees. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay, it’s so not okay!” Hunk blubbered. “I don’t know if it would have done any good for me to say anything or not, but I still should have done it.”

Keith nodded. “Okay. You’re right. It wasn’t okay. But…” He took a deep breath. “I forgive you.”

The way Hunk’s face lit up was totally worth the difficulty of saying the words. “Really, man? Thank you. Like, really, thank you, you don’t know how happy that makes me. I know we’ve never been, like, the best of friends, but I’ve always really wanted to get to know you better, I mean if you’d be okay with that, it’s totally up to you, but maybe sometime when you’re feeling better we can like, hang out? Also I know you haven’t been eating much right now but I am definitely making you brownies when you feel up to eating them. Like, a ton of brownies. All the brownies I can possibly make. Hey, maybe you could help me make the brownies! Cooking is such a good way to bond, I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before! What do you think, does that sound okay? Or I mean, if you really don’t want to hang out with me at all, I totally understand that, too, I just -”

“Hunk.” Keith’s lips twitched upward slightly as the breathless Yellow Paladin finally screeched to a halt. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Hunk beamed. “Great! Okay, I’m gonna like, go, and let somebody else come in here, ‘cause, yeah. Feel better, Keith!”

When the room was empty again, Shiro leaned over and squeezed his hand. “How do you feel?”

“Good.” He was surprised to find it was actually pretty true. A small burden had been lifted from his chest.

“Good. You ready for Lance or Pidge?”

Keith’s heart started beating double time again. “Lance.” Even though he had been more active in the process of his condemnation, Pidge’s response had hurt the worst.

The boy that came into the infirmary wasn’t the Lance that Keith knew. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the floor, or his hands, or anything but Keith and Shiro, and when he spoke his voice was so soft it was barely audible. 

“I don’t know why I did it.” He picked at a loose thread on his jeans. “I just get...so emotional, so caught up in the moment sometimes...I’m really just as much of a hothead as you are.”

If his demeanor and apology hadn’t caught Keith’s attention, that statement did. Lance, admitting he was as bad as Keith at something? “Thought that was because...I’m Galra.”

Lance’s face pinched. “Yeah. I said some pretty stupid things. I mean…” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it is because you’re Galra. But still, it’s...you’re just you. And that’s okay. Maybe we don’t always get along, but I don’t really think you’re evil. I mean, I guess I kinda thought you could be. It was stupid, though. I’m an idiot, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s no real explanation, just...I’m sorry, like I said.”

Part of Keith wanted to accept that. Part of him didn’t think he could. “I...thanks. For apologizing. I think...maybe I can forgive you...soon? Maybe not yet. But, yeah. Soon.”

Lance nodded. “That’s fair. I didn’t really expect you to, like, at all, so…” He finally flicked his eyes up to meet Keith’s. “I think you and I could use to work on some things, anyway. Like, you know, not acting like we hate each other. Because I don’t. Hate you, that is. And I’m...pretty sure based on what Coran said that you don’t hate me, either.”

“No. I don’t. And yeah, that...that sounds good.”

“Okay. Good.” A brief smile flashed over his face, then he nodded again and excused himself.

“You still doing okay?”

Keith pressed his lips together. “Think so. I’m nervous, though. About Pidge.”

Shiro smiled sympathetically. “I know. Just give her a chance, ‘kay?”

Pidge shuffled into the room in a very similar fashion to Lance, eyes on the floor. She perched on the very edge of the chair that each paladin had occupied, kicking her feet back and forth since they didn’t quite touch the floor. In a low voice, she said her apology and explained that she had let her hurt over her family get the best of her, but insisted that it didn’t excuse her blaming him. 

It took a moment longer than the others for him to find his words. “I remember what it was like...missing somebody. Believing that they were still out there, but not knowing for sure. I mean, it wasn’t my actual family...unless you count my mom, which...at least I knew she chose to leave. So, she’s...probably fine.” Just didn’t want him. “But Shiro is the closest thing I’ve had to family since...since my Pops. And it’s hard. I mean, I kinda went ballistic, broke into a commanding officer’s office, punched a bunch of other officers, and got kicked out of the Garrison.”

“You what?” Shiro broke in, sitting forward, then realized his interruption and sat back, waving a hand. “Never mind. Sorry. We’ll talk later.”

Pidge snickered a little, and Keith took that as encouragement to continue. “But, yeah. I know how hard it is, and I would never, never wish that on someone else.”

Her head popped up, eyes wide and wet behind her glasses. “I know you wouldn’t. I know...I know you didn’t have anything to do with it, I never should have said something like that. You...you’re right, you understand probably more than anyone else, and I…” She trailed off, ducking her head as tears spilled down her cheeks.

Once again, there was someone crying in front of him, and he didn’t know what to do. But he was pretty sure what any of the other paladins would have offered in this situation, so… “Do you, um...need a...hug?”

The next thing he knew he had an armful of Pidge, curled up on the bed next to him and leaving tears and snot all over his shirt. He patted her back awkwardly. “You’ll find them. I know you will.”

“Why are you comforting me? I’m supposed to be in here helping you to feel better, this is not how this is supposed to work!”

Keith frowned. “Um...sorry?”

Pidge glared at him, not at all intimidating with her sopping wet face. “No, don’t apologize, that’s my job, too!” 

“Sorry!”

She punched him in the ribs. “You’re a good hugger. Why are you such a good hugger.”

Keith was just getting more confused the longer this conversation went on. “I...don’t know? It certainly isn’t from practice.”

Tilting her head back, she narrowed her eyes at him as if she could see into his mind. “Do you not like hugs?”

“No, I...do.”

“Then I’m gonna hug you. Every day. From now on.”

“Aw, can I get Keith hugs every day, too?” 

Keith startled a little bit when he realized that Hunk and Lance had returned to the room, but forced himself to relax. This was okay. They weren’t going to hurt him. They had all been very open with him, and even though it was going to take some time, he thought he could learn to trust them again.

“I...guess?”

“Yay!” Hunk settled onto the end of the bed, and Lance took the now empty chair, folding his long legs up into it. Shiro scooted forward again to be in Keith’s line of vision.

“How are you feeling now? Think maybe you can keep surviving a little longer?”

He felt Pidge tense in his arms, and Hunk’s face froze while Lance’s went carefully blank. Keith swallowed. “Yeah. I think...maybe I’m ready for that pod now. So I can finally get out of this bed and...I don’t know, kinda figure this out all over again.”

Shiro ruffled his hair fondly. “I’m glad. We’ll all be there with you for every step, okay?”

There was one more question, though. “What about Allura?”

Shiro’s face darkened slightly. “I’ve already told her she can either treat you the same as everyone else, or we’re leaving.”

“Nah, we won’t leave,” Pidge piped up. “There’s more of us than there are of her now. We’ll just stage a mutiny.”

Keith laughed awkwardly. “Somehow I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“I don’t think so, either, because I think she’ll come around,” Lance said. “But the point is, Mullet...we’re gonna support you.”

“You’re part of the Space Family now, dude!” Hunk cheered.

“Exactly,” Shiro smiled. “And Space Family has to stick together.”

The others kept chattering quietly, someone throwing in something about “ohana” in a weird voice, which triggered a whole conversation about some movie that he didn’t care about keeping up with. Closing his eyes, Keith let his body truly relax for the first time since before going to the Blade. 

And he felt safe.

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

Thanks so much to everyone who joined me this month!!! This was my first ever Tumblr writing challenge, and it was a blast. You guys are what made it so much fun, with all the comments and likes and reblogs! Thank you!

If you want more Keith whump from me sometime in the future, you  can follow me on here, on FFN, or follow the series "In which I whump Keith" on AO3...and if you haven't read Abyss yet (my first Keith whump fic!), you should check it out!

Happy Halloween and Happy Whumping!

[greenflamedwriter]

Voltron | Venom au

2020 hit me like a truck- I know people have went through things but good god do I want to write other stuff other than voltron- I kept the notes so I might do them in the future but yeah I have yet to finish a story and I hate myself for it -_- oh well.

Venom AU;

Symbiotes as aliens from Voltron [I.e Allura/Lotor Keith] Humans are hosts. So Keith and Shiro = Black Lion. Keith and Lance = Red Lion. Lance and Allura=Blue Lion Allura and Shiro = White lion.

It all started at the Galaxy Garrison. Lance’s research showed that this company was a cancer research facility and were funded by Zarkon with Honerva Hagger as his lead scientist they made many breakthroughs, as they learned they could take any cure for human viruses from the Amazon rainforest- which currently was on fire right now- what if they could find any new assets from space?

Their ship crash landed and was an overall failure and yet the Garrison continued to create another ship to send to space- if it was such a failure then why were they still spending money on a spaceship than staying here on earth trying to put that money to y’know the actual research.

Which was why Lance was here, he got a tip from a online friend of his- well he used the term friend loosely their name was gunderson and they always kept their identity hidden- but their intel was right!

Lance took another step forward his camera from his phone slowly taking in the labrotory- people were in cells and it was digusting conditions, one man was in a sauna where the heat was 40 degrees and yet he seemed fine sitting in that heat.

Lance saw another one in an ice box, others shaking and crying- these people were being tortured!

Until one of them jumped up “Help! You have to help me!”

Lance flinched almost dropping his phone- until he recognised the man

“Shiro!?”

Takashi Shirogane was a freakin war hero! He came back, missing his arm and apparently he must of pissed somebody of from the Garrison since he was living on the streets.

Lance made a column about him about how the country disrespects their heroes.

He put away his phone and moved forward urgently “I don’t- I don’t know how to-” Whatever was happening in their it was killing Shiro, Lance panicked grabbing a fire extinguisher and smashed the glass cell, the alarms blared and Shiro cried out lunging forward, Lance yelped as the larger men fell on top of him, glass cutting into his pals and then suddenly-

Shiro- he had no idea what- upchucked but there was no sick just something black and it was gone- Lance felt more heavy than he did a minute ago, he lost track of Shiro he was gone and Lance sat up and suddenly he heard footsteps.

Shit.

Lance scrambled to his feet and began to run.

Shiro was sprinting in another direction with no idea where he was going he crashed into another cell and knocked over a canister he cried out when a red mess burst from the exposed container and latched onto him- Shiro shuddered, before...with the other one he felt cold, but now he felt as if he had a fever.

He heard footsteps and panicked voices and ran, he couldn’t think just yet.

Both Lance and Shiro ran in opposite directions both dodging the armed security with no problem, Lance fell over and was suddenly lurched up as if he was lifted “The fuck-” He looked around panicked while his legs kept running, and with no thought began to climb a tree just as the cars rolled around he clung desperately to the branches.

While Shiro was able to slam into a tree feeling stunned at the sudden strength and renewed anger, they stole him from the street- promised to help him for his service and they treat him like a lab rat- as soon as a guard came in sight Shiro’s arm lunged at its own accord and slammed the guard into the ground his eyes moving with an animalistic snarl to his lips.

Shiro took care of the guards on the ground until he was able to escape the forest and into the main road, he just kept running and didn’t look back.

Lance meanwhile waited until the guards were gone before climbing down, feeling his limbs shake- what the fuck just happened?

Lance was able to get home and shakily called Gunderson “Hey, I got your tip- it was...fucking hell it was right-” He was blindly reaching for food at his apartment almost tripping over the mess on his floor, he fished out a cup filled it with tap water and drank the whole thing.

Ugh- tap was disgusting.

“Gunderson, I’m sending the footage now oh my god they’re- The Garrison is experimenting on people, they took people of the street put them in these cells and and-” And that blue thing that...that came out of Shiro-

Lance stopped feeling his body shake he was so cold, he turned on the heater and grabbed an apple from the fridge just to deal with this rare hunger in his stomach-

As soon as his teeth sunk into the apple- he immedly gagged, he spat it out feeling disgusted, was it off or something?

Grabbing his left over chinese he waited for it to heat up in the microwave- what was with these cravings? Was it stress?

Lance moved towards the mirror and wondered if he should go to a hospital-

“Lance!” A demonic face flashed in the mirror, Lance yelped falling backwards and knocking himself out.

And that was how he met Allura, A blue Symbiote that was able to take over his body and it wasn’t so bad except for when Lance caught themselves in the mirror and paused.

“Is that...us?”

Allura hesitated at Lance referring to them as a whole and felt warmth. “Yes, that is our form.”

“Why do I look like a girl?” And in case anyone was wondering if there were no difference between female symbiotes or male, it was more structured on a person's matter, if Allura had symbioses with other lifeforms their look would look feminine sometimes or Masculene the next.

Allura also learned a lot from Lance, saving a neighbor from some lowlife on the streets and Lance spoke about Anita and how sweet she was, Lance even panicked when Allura bit off someones head.

“Allura what the hell?”

“What?”

“We don’t do that-”

“Why not?”

“WE JUST DON’T!”

So Far Lance and Allura were getting along fine, Allura even admitted she felt hesitant on destroying this planet then decided to keep Lance as a pet, she realised that Chocolate was a good enough substitute and her human would remain safe.

Which is more than we can say for Shiro.

Shiro’s symbiote was an angry little red thing, it took a while for Keith (as it called itself) to calm down- and the military were hot on their heels. It took...longer for Keith and Shiro to get along, and Adam wasn’t helping.

Adam was a doctor that dragged Shiro into the hospital “Adam- Look it’s okay, I’m fine.” And he was, he felt better than ever-

“You- you’re killing him.” Adam spoke looking Shiro in the eye.

Shiro faltered, and even felt Keith begin to squirm beneath is ribcage.

“Your lungs have collapsed-”

“What?”

I can fix it! Keith yelped in his head and Shiro shut his eyes against all the yelling and the information he was giving.

“You’re killing him Keith!”

Keith controlled their body and ran away and Adam ran after then yelled when he lost them in the crowd.

Shiro began to run aimlessly through the streets freaking out.

“Am I dying- you- why would you!?” Shiro cried out, skidding to a step inside a park feeling his heartbeat rapidly.

Keith oozed out his shoulder, his face still freakish.

That was before- I told you! We came to take over and destroy the planet and I didn’t care if you died- I just needed you to get to the ship!

Shiro clenched his hands “Then- then just go then Go find somebody else because I’m done!”

He could feel Keith flinch then sigh, Shiro- I could’ve went back to the ship ages ago. I stayed to fix this.

Shiro blinked “Huh?”

He gasped feeling Keith curl up around his heart.

I don’t want to destroy this planet anymore, I want to stay here with you.

Shiro blinked “I...you better not be lying.”

OF course not- look out!

Without warning a man slammed into Shiro and the two tumbled “Whoa are you-” The Man grabbed him hiding him behind a wall slamming Shiro against the brick.

“Shit- I uh- Play along!” The man hissed, Shiro and Keith were confused. “Huh-HmmpH!” The man kissed him, crowding Shiro in, the man humped pressing back into the wall then noticed soldiers run past, catching on, he shielded himself and the other from the security.

“Ew- Get a room.” One sneered then kept running. Once they were gone the man leaned back with a sigh “I am so sorry- I panicked- they’ve been after me for days.”

Shiro blinked, that was...wow.

He could feel Keith bristle under his skin. He has a symbiote.

“What?” Shiro asked and the man glanced up, with the most gorgeous blue eyes he’s ever seen.

“I um- I may have pissed of the military-” He stopped taking a step back his eyes squinting “Wait-Shiro?”

“Do I know you?”

The man blinked “Uh I’m Lance- I rescued you from the facility.”

Shiro eyes widened “That was you!” Lance nodded “Yeah!” He then paused and glanced to the side, as if hearing something. “We gotta go, Come on.”

Lance grabbed his hand and the two ducked into an alleyway escaping the goons.

“Oh so, you were Alluras host first.”

“What?”

Lance chuckled “Is there anything else you can say other than What?”

Shiro scowled “No- I mean, who’s Allura?” Lance shrugged “My Symbiote, you passed her to me then ran off.” Shiro blanched “I’m sorry-” “No worries, I felt really out of it when Allura started messing around- speaking off, have you grown back my pancreas yet?” A small blue blog of a face peeled out of Lance’s shoulder.

“I said I was sorry.” Lance shook his head, “Lies.” He rummaged around in his pocket and brought out a...chocolate bar?

Lance cooed when Allura nibbled on a piece, after seeing Shiro’s stare hummed “Symbiotes LOVE chocolate, apparently it has the same ingredients or something as human brains and is a better substitute than people,” Lance held some out “Want some?”

Keith immedltly reached out to chop a piece (And almost Lance’s fingers) in a rush.

“Wow- your symbiote is gorgeous.” Keith's sudden irritation suddenly dimmed, Shiro felt a smug smirk at his lips.

Shut up. Keith grouched.

Lance leaned closer “I love these red stripes, oh- you’re Keith, Allura told me a lot about you?”

“Really?” Keith asked hopefully and Lance's mouth pursed into an adorable teasing smirk.

“Yeah about how much of a hot head you are.”

The red symbiote's mouth widened and Lance dodged just in time.

Shiro found himself relaxing, he wasn’t alone.

“Keith,” Allura started making the other raise it’s attention her way.

“I don’t want Zarkon to win, I found myself falling in love with this planet.” Lance looked worried his eyes flickering from Allura to Keith biting his lip.

“I feel the same.”

Why was Lance so worried.

“Oh thank god- I thought we were going to have to duke it out.” lance breathed a huge sigh of relief, placing a hand on his hips.

“So what now?”

Both Allura Keith and Lance glanced at one another, Shiro realised how they were going to pull this off once glancing at the huge shuttle across the lake.

“We’re going back to the Garrison and stopping that spacecraft.” Lance beamed glancing at Allura and Keith “With us two in symbiosis they wont know what hit em.”

[confusedsiewmai]

Ocean Petals

Writer’s note: So this is my first fanfic EVER and I’m super duper nervous so here goes nothing! (Please don’t come to my house to murder me.) I’ll probably write a part 2 but in the end, I’ll also see how this ends up. I genuinely hope you guys will enjoy this. Enough! Shall we begin?

Special thanks to:

@suitboxers (Cos’ this only started because I saw this beautiful fanart of Hanahaki!Keith)

@flaming-potato-arson (For encouraging me and giving advice that did help)

@mrscarocat​ (For being there while I whined like an anxious kid and for reading this so many times to help me improve and calm my ass down)

Summary: Keith thought he had smothered those feelings for a certain blue paladin. But they had taken roots where they shouldn’t and began smothering him instead. That was how flowers bloomed within his chest.

(Or: the Hanahaki!Klance AU where Keith suffers)

The first sign was the difficulty breathing.

While practising in the training deck, Keith’s breathing grew laboured far too quickly but he ignored the weight in his chest. He would never allow himself to be defeated by a level 5 fight simulator just because he was feeling a little unwell. However, the longer he pressed on, the tighter his chest grew. Each breath sent a sharp pain through his lungs and every strike became harder and harder to deflect. He found himself reacting too slowly, too slowly.

Keith huffed, squinting in effort. The Gladiator bot’s movements merged into a distorted blur, its sword a confusing flurry of movements. When it pulled its arm back, he brought his shield to his left, blocking it.

Under the attacks rained down in rapid succession, Keith was left wheezing loudly, exhausted and dizzy. With a grunt, he swung his bayard. The bot parried it effortlessly and sent him reeling back.

The world spun into a kaleidoscope of colours. The paladin shook his head to clear it. His sight refocused and he saw the Gladiator bot bringing its sword down on him. He barely managed to step aside in time. In the process, he tripped over his own foot and stumbled. Before he could regain his balance, the bot made a stab at him. Keith dodged again but the sword had nicked his right arm and he was hissing in pain.

He needed to keep up. He has to keep up. He cannot-

Everything went black.

Keith was jolted back to his senses when his side slammed onto the floor with a resounding bang. His vision was swimming and he couldn’t even tell up from down. The bot charged towards him. Keith opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a pathetic wheeze.

“End simulation! End simulation!” A voice pierced through the dark fog in his head. Relief washed over him upon hearing the sound of the bot deactivating. Then, he heard someone run towards him. “Holy crow! Are you okay?”

Shakily, Keith looked up and he saw patches of brown and blue. After blinking several times, he found himself gazing into a familiar pair of blue orbs, which were brimmed with worry. He avoided staring into those too-beautiful eyes and croaked an automatic response, “Yeah.”

His chest actually still felt tight. Or maybe it felt even tighter. His left shoulder was throbbing in dull pain and his mind was fuzzy and thick. Keith pressed a hand to the side of his head and groaned as he got up. A sharp pain impaled his chest and he fell back. He expected his head to slam onto the floor but Lance had caught him quickly enough.

Lance winced. “Nope. You’re not. We’re going to the sick bay.”

Grunting in extreme effort, Keith tried to sit up again and Lance supported him. Then, he was helped onto his feet. His legs were weak and wobbled like a newborn fawn’s and the world tilted this way and that, but firm yet gentle hands guided him as he swayed and pushed forward stubbornly.

An invisible yet impossibly soft pillow smothered the already suffocating boy when Lance sighed with a worried smile, his eyebrows quirking in a half-frown-half-smirk that only he could pull off. “Slow down, mullet man.”

***

Then, Keith knew he was screwed.

Blue petals sat wetly in his pale palm and he stared at them blankly before glaring at them. Hanahaki disease. The disease that leeched off unrequited love and made flowers bloom in your lungs, slowly, slowly clogging up your chest and suffocating you, leading you to your eventual, beautiful, tragic death. The world just loved finding ways to rub salt into Keith’s wounds and put him through torture. And the thing that pissed Keith off wasn’t that he’s going to die. He didn’t have anyone waiting for him back on Earth anyway. Instead, it’s the fact that just when he thought that he had, at long last, incinerated his useless feelings for Lance, shoved them into a hole, and buried them under sixty feet of dirt, they come back to haunt him in the form of flowers. Fucking flowers.

And of course they’d be blue. They could never be anything else but the colour of the sea. His ocean eyes were dark and deep, inviting you to sink into the cool embrace of their waters. Inviting even Keith. Keith, whose first experience with the sea was of nearly drowning in it. Keith, who did not know then that the sea was not his territory and was never for him to touch. Keith, who had been impulsive as usual and rushed right into the waters, not seeing past its surface, and plunging straight into the deep unknown.

But he wouldn’t allow himself to do that. Not again.

Crushing the petals in his hands, he threw them in the bin. Even as he trudged out of his room and made his way down the hallway to join the others for breakfast, the beautiful dark blue stayed like a stubborn stain in his mind. There was no way he would let others know about this because they would definitely keep him away from his paladin duties. Voltron needed its paladin and there was an entire universe for him to defend. He couldn’t let some flower disease stop him.

“Ah, Keith!” Coran said as he sauntered over, breaking Keith’s train of thoughts. “I was about to get you. It is rather unusual that you are late today.” After a second or two, his cheery smile turned to one of concern. “Is anything the matter?”

“What? No! Nothing at all!” Why was he so bad at lying? “Everything’s great,” Keith mumbled.

Coran looked at him and the boy deflated under his stare, squirming. At last, Coran shrugged. “I will not press you any further, Keith. However,” his eyes smiled, not unlike those of a concerned grandfather, “if you do need someone to talk to, you can always come to me.” He pat Keith’s shoulder and turned back around while Keith followed after. “We better hurry. Lance was incredibly determined to finish Hunk’s cooking before you arrived. Shiro may not be able to hold him off much longer.”

Keith stiffened. His chest tightened just at the mention of Lance and he didn’t quite know if it was just the flowers anymore. All he knew was that he was going to pretend that everything was fine and that he wasn’t dying from some flower-growing, unrequited-love illness. It would drag the team down and the fact that he had a crush on Lance in the first place will be the team joke for the rest of his short miserable life. And he wouldn’t be able to handle Lance’s cocky teasing. He would never let anyone know.

This stupid pining disease will have to kill him first.

***

Lance sang as he danced in joy. “Keith cannot swim! Keith cannot swim!”

From the opposite side of the lounge, Pidge yelled at him to shut up but Lance didn’t hear her over his triumph so she just groaned and put on her headphones, casting Keith a pitying glance.

In disbelief, Lance shook his head. “Why did you even go to the pool that time? You can’t even swim!”

Keith’s face was burning. In a useless attempt to hide his embarrassment, he crossed his arms and scowled. “So what if I can’t?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Lance said, flicking his head. “Except I’m a thousand times better than you because I can swim and you can’t. Just wait till we have a beach episode! I’ll be showing off my awesome moves while you hang onto your lame float.”

Keith couldn’t help but imagine floating idly in the sea with an inner tube while watching Lance in his swimming trunks, basking in the sea with a thrilled grin, his eyes bright with pure exuberance as sunlight glistens off his wet brown skin. Keith’s stomach fluttered and his lips quirked up. He caught himself and huffed loudly. “Why will there be a beach episode?”

“You know,” Lance said, his hands waving as he waggled his eyebrows. “The classic beach episode.” When Keith didn’t seem to get it, Lance sighed dramatically. “How can anyone be this uncultured! You can just bob around in the sea or whatever, I will be capturing the hearts of all my fans.” He made a finger gun and winked at an imaginary alien, clicking his tongue.

A crushing wave of bitterness crashed over Keith, overwhelming him. “You’re being an idiot. No one likes someone just because they can swim,” he said acidly, glaring, “Lance.”

Lance’s eyes widened for a second before they narrowed. “Oh, really? You’re just jealous because no one likes you and your stupid mullet.”

Keith opened his mouth to yell at him. But he couldn’t make a sound. He couldn’t breathe. His hands flew to his neck. Leaning forward, Keith’s face turned red with effort. He gagged and choked, unable to cough.

“K-Keith?!”

His chest was too tight, never relenting to allow his lungs expand. A hand grasping his neck and the other clenched in a tight fist, Keith keeled over. His body was quivering like a leaf and everything seemed to tumble. He had to breathe but no air was entering his lungs. Hunching over the floor, he lurched forward and felt hands catch him.

From the corner of his eyes, Keith saw Pidge rush over. “Keith! What’s happening?” Her voice was high-pitched and scared as she knelt beside Keith, shaking him violently.

“He’s choking!”

“On what?”

“I don’t know!” Lance shouted. Then, he was kneeling and hitting Keith’s back. “Cough it out! Cough it out!”

Desperately, he tried to gasp but the oxygen never reached his lungs. Face turning blue, he convulsed, his eyes wide with fear and alarm.

Pidge darted out of the room and screamed, “I’ll go get help!”

Lance continued to hammer Keith’s back. In his agony, Keith twisted and turned his body. Then, he managed a slight cough and tasted metal. Breathing should be easier but no matter how hard Keith tried, every breath was cut short by gagging. A violent barking cough tore through his throat.

A spasm of coughs rocked his body. At last, he could just breathe, even if just a little. But a single word Lance muttered was enough to rob the life that he was barely clinging to with his cold shaking hands. “Roses?”

Flowers had bloomed from his lips, blue petals now speckled with red, and had fallen to the floor. His stomach sank.

“Blood! Is this… Hanahaki? Keith?”

Mortified, Keith tried to push him away. But he was weak and his hands could only grasp Lance’s shoulder. He pressed his forehead against his own arm and squeezed his eyes closed. Lance massaged his palms and said, “You’re gonna be okay. Hang in there. You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”

Thin arms went under his body and he was raised slightly before being set back down clumsily when Keith began to writhe in agony. “Shoot,” Lance hissed through clenched teeth. As he whispered reassurances into his ears, he cradled Keith and rubbed his back in circles as the quivering boy gasped in short shuddering breaths.

Keith must have lost consciousness at some point because the next thing he knew, a cool metal hand against his cheek and someone slapping him awake. Like a man breaking through the surface of a stormy sea, he abruptly sucked in a large gulp of air.

“He’s breathing again!” Shiro shouted.

Pidge yelled heart-wrenchingly, “Keith!”

“Thank god!” Lance said from beside him. “You’re breathing! Hey, buddy. Breathe, okay? Take deep breaths. You’re gonna be fine.”

Although Keith tried to breathe deeply, his lungs could only take in shallow rasping breaths. Someone stroke his arm soothingly and he focused on the feeling of the warm hand against his cold clammy skin.

Breathing was a little easier now. His eyes fluttered open with effort. Tears blurred his vision (had he been crying?) and puddles of blue and red were scattered across the floor. He coughed feebly. A single blue petal floated down, tainted crimson. Then, his ribs wouldn’t move again.

Shiro’s arms wrapped around Keith and he was lifted. Air wouldn’t fill his lungs and there was no relief. The flowers and feelings clogged up his airway, and his chest tightened further.

Shiro was the first to notice this and shook him in alarm. “He’s not breathing again!”

Instantly, Pidge let out a scared whine and Lance’s panicked voice filled his head. “Quiznak!” A pair of ocean blue eyes looked into him and the lovesick boy found himself drowning in them again. Warm hands held his shivering ones and rubbed his knuckles and he gripped back. In spite of his apprehension, Lance forced himself to sound calm and assuring, “You’ll be okay. Breathe, breathe. Breathe for me—”

Finally, Keith managed to get a few breaths. “I-I can’t,” he whispered between coughs. “I can’t.” Sobs and hacks racked his drained, moribund body. His chest squeezed out a terrified whimper. “Lance…”

Darkness engulfed him once more.

[glitteringconstellations]

Beacon (2/?)

words: 3509

Chapter 2: tell me truly, men of earth

The silence in the room became almost unbearable. Keith clenched his trembling hands into fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms. How dare they attack Earth. They’d only even been interested in the planet to begin with for the Blue Lion! Why hadn’t they left it alone after that?

The thought alone made Keith furious. He didn’t trust himself to say anything he wouldn’t regret, so instead he looked to his team, gauging their reactions. Hunk had slumped down into his chair, tears glistening in his eyes. Shiro stared blankly into the stars in the void the hologram’s absence left behind, his shock belied by his white knuckles where he hadn’t relinquished his grip on the chair in front of him. Pidge’s jaw and shoulders were squared, barely suppressed fury flashing behind the lenses of her glasses. Lance looked terrible. His whole body trembled something awful, and he had wrapped his arms around himself as though it would quell the tremors.

Allura and Coran exchanged worried glances. “Paladins, I assure you, we’re going to do all we can to free Earth—” Allura started.

“It’s our fault.”

Allura blanched, turning to face Lance fully. “I beg your pardon?”

“It’s our fault,” Lance repeated in barely a whisper, guilt marring his face. “You heard what he said. They were looking for all of us. If not for that, they wouldn’t have been tinkering around with that Galra ship.” He looked from Hunk, to Pidge, to Keith, who bristled. All of us, except for me, he thought bitterly. He bit his tongue—antagonizing Lance would do no one any good right now.

“It’s our fault the Garrison basically summoned the Galra to our doorstep.”

Read on AO3

There was a long, tense moment where no one seemed to know what to say. Lance’s stature almost begged someone to challenge him. But no one would meet his eyes, the same guilt written clear as day on their faces. When it became clear no one else was going to say anything, Keith heaved a sigh.

“It’s no one’s fault but the Galra,” he bit out. Lance’s head snapped up. “What, are you going to stand there and blame Shiro for getting captured? Or Pidge’s dad and brother?” Pidge stiffened. Keith pretended he didn’t see that. Him and his big mouth. “Or Blue for bringing us all here?”

Lance looked horrified, like that hadn’t occurred to him. He opened his mouth to retort, but Keith cut him off.

“It’s no one’s fault,” Keith repeated. He held Lance’s gaze, daring him to argue. “There’s no point in playing the blame game.”

Shiro seemed to have collected himself, taking a deep breath. “Keith’s right, Lance. Besides, I hate to say it, but I think the Garrison would have looked into the shuttle I crashed, regardless of what happened after I crashed it.” He winced at the memory. Coran cleared his throat and picked up where Shiro left off.

“Precisely!” he said brightly, trying for optimism. “And, according to this Commander Kravitz, was his name? A large number of your kind have sought refuge in your Lunar Stations! That’s a good thing, yes?”

“Coran, five hundred thousand people is less than a hundredth of the human population,” Pidge choked, ever the mathematician. “There are over seven billion people on Earth.”

Coran deflated. “Oh… That does complicate things a bit, yes.”

“A bit?” Hunk said, his voice leaning toward hysterical. “A bit? Everything and everyone we hold dear are being held captive by the Galra right now because they slipped in under our noses while we’ve been out here, a trillion light years away! I think it’s safe to say it’s more than just a bit complicated!”

“That is quite enough!”

The shout startled all of them into a shocked silence. Even Keith jolted—they’d never heard quite that tone of voice coming from the Princess. After a beat of tense silence, Allura let out a frustrated sigh.

“You must believe me when I say I understand that this is devastating news,” she started. Guilt gnawed at Keith fast and sudden, and he could see by the looks on their faces the others felt it, too. Allura must be reliving the worst day of her life, right now. “But quarrelling will solve nothing. There is nothing to be done about the fact that the Galra have conquered Earth. In fact, I am sorry to say I believe it was only a matter of time before the Galra looked to use it as leverage against us.”

“But I will not let Earth suffer the same fate as Altea,” she continued firmly. “We have liberated planets from the Galra many times before. We can do it again. We are Team Voltron, after all.”

The Princess said it with such conviction, squaring her shoulders and looking each of them in the eye. Keith felt a surge of confidence he didn’t know was possible, given the situation. She was right, of course. They’d done it already before, what was stopping them from doing it again? They could do this.

“Right,” said Shiro, turning to his team. “You heard the Princess. Let’s save Earth.”

Slowly, but surely, determination set in on the faces of the Voltron team. Hunk and Lance exchanged a glance, no words passing between them but the meaningful look in their gaze spoke volumes. Nerves, and fear for their families. Determination to save them. Finally, they both nodded, and Hunk got to his feet.

Pidge looked around, settled her gaze on Keith, who met her with a level stare. Keith nodded, too, and it seemed to bolster Pidge.

“Okay,” she said, almost to herself. “Okay,” she said again, louder. “We can do this. Where do we start?”

Shiro looked to Coran, who raised his hands in deference. “You all are the experts of your galaxy. The Princess and I shall follow your lead.” Allura nodded earnestly in agreement. Shiro paused, then turned back to the Paladins.

“We should try making contact with the Orion first. The Lunar Stations are sitting ducks out there. If we can get them out of there, maybe wormhole them out to a safer quadrant, then we can focus on drawing the Galra’s attention without the risk of them getting caught in the crossfire. Unless anyone else has any other ideas?”

No one said a word.

A small, if not strained smile graced Shiro’s lips. “Good. Let’s get to work, then.”

---

“Sir, we… we’re receiving an incoming transmission!”

Henry Kravitz had never been a religious man. But as he spun around and stared, as did his crew, at the engineer who had sprung to her feet in disbelief, the Commander felt as though he could believe in a higher power. Surely, this was nothing short of a miracle.

Or a trap, the rational part of his mind reasoned. They had no way of knowing who was on the other end of the line, with his communications to and from Earth scrambled. It could be them. In all his years, never once did he think he’d have a run in with aliens, of all things, let alone hostile ones.

“Sir, your orders? Should we accept it?”

Still… They didn’t have much to lose. It was only probably a trap, against the very real threat of certain death.

“Put it on the main screen,” he ordered. “Make sure the connection is as encrypted as the Rosetta Stone.”

“Yes, sir.”

The screen flickered into life in a flash of static and white noise as the engineer’s fingers flashed over her keyboard, adjusting the connection for the transmission. Kravitz nearly tapped his foot in impatience—it never took usually more than three seconds to establish a connection from Earth. Belatedly, he realized it meant that the transmission was coming from very, very far away.

Soon enough, a figure came into focus. A young woman stood before them, dark skinned with striking blue eyes and strange markings on her face. She looked remarkably human, and Kravitz might have thought she was, were it not for the pointed tips of her ears peeking out from behind strands of pure white hair. Behind her seemed to be the cockpit of a high-tech warship, if he had to hazard a guess.

She didn’t look evil. But then again, he hadn’t actually seen the faces of the hostiles behind the guns that shot up his planet.

So he waited for her to identify herself, eyeing her suspiciously. She didn’t hesitate.

“Greetings, Commander Kravitz,” the young woman said, her voice steady and regal, but not unkind. “I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. We received your distress call and wish to offer you our aid.”

Excited murmurs broke out behind him.

“We just sent out that distress call two hours ago!”

“An alien princess?”

Kravitz held his chin high, nonplussed. “How do we know we can trust you? We have hostile aliens ravaging our planet. How do we know you’re not one of them?”

The princess looked genuinely taken aback, as though she hadn’t expected that reaction. Good—keep the aliens on their toes. She briefly glanced to someone off-screen before regaining her composure.

“I apologize, Commander, for giving you cause for concern. I assure you, we are staunch enemies of the Galra Empire, the monsters responsible for the destruction your planet is surely witnessing. My team is the Voltron Force, comprised of five human pilots. They have as much at stake in the survival of your people as you do.”

What?

The mutters of the crew turned to cries of shock, very similar to the shock Kravitz felt himself. There were human pilots out there? But humans had never ventured further than Kerberos, and the world knew how well that had ended.

“Let me speak to them,” he demanded, at length. If the princess noticed his hesitation, or if she took offense to his tone, she didn’t show it. She merely stepped aside and let a pilot dressed in black armor appeared. The man took off his helmet, and Kravitz gaped.

“Shirogane?”

Behind him, four more pilots in an array of colored armor lined up, all sans helmets. Except for the surly looking kid in the red armor, Kravitz knew these pilots to be the missing Garrison cadets. The ones the world thought had been blown to smithereens.

Well, this certainly was unexpected.

The crew of the Orion was stunned into utter silence, Kravitz included. He had never met the young man in black, but his reputation preceded him, and Takashi Shirogane looked much different than the pictures ever showed him. Most notably, the deep gauging scar that ran across the span of Shirogane’s face had not been there the last time he’d been seen on Earth.

Shirogane took his silence as permission to seek. “It’s probably a lot to take in right now, sir, but I promise you, the Princess and her advisor are on our side. They are not your enemy—the Galra are. We’re going to get you out of there.”

There it was again—the Galra. “Can someone please explain to me what exactly these Galra are,” Kravitz barked, hating how strangled his voice sounded. “And what they want? And while we’re at it, can someone please explain how you five kids ended up piloting this—this Voltron Force?”

Shirogane shook his head. “There’s no time to get into detail, sir, much as I’d like to. Long story short, the Empire has been conquering worlds for over ten thousand years, draining planets of their resources and enslaving their people. My team is leading the rebellion to stop them, and I think that’s why they’re targeting Earth, now, after us being out here for so long.”

Kravitz could feel a headache coming on. He’d say this sounded insane, but he need only look out the viewfinder on the bridge back at the Earth engulfed in flames to know that this was very real. He took another long look at the paltry team of pilots on the screen, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“And your team can extract us? How?”

The engineer shot a look of disbelief to her commander. “Sir? You’re going along with this? We can’t just leave Earth behind!”

“We don’t have a choice,” Kravitz snapped, turning away from the screen to glare at her. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re trapped here with our tail between our legs. If those things, those… those Galra find us here, we’re as good as dead. All of us, including all those people below deck we swore to protect.”

Cowed, the engineer hung her head, gripping her keyboard tightly.

Kravitz turned back to Shirogane, expectantly. The young girl in green armor cleared her throat and stepped forward.

“The tentative plan is to wormhole in to the closest location we safely can without blowing your cover. Probably somewhere in Mars’ vicinity,” she started. Gunderson, if Kravitz recalled correctly. No, that wasn’t right—she was a Holt, they’d found that out after she’d died.

Well, apparently died, anyway. He was going to need a strong drink after all this was said and done.

“—the Lions will draw their attention away while Allura and Coran hold the wormhole open to get all seven Lunar Stations out and through to safety,” Holt continued. “Worse comes to worst, we can use our particle barriers as cover. The Castle can take a pretty decent amount of fire, too, if need be. Or we could form Voltron.”

“Slow down, Pidge, you’re confusing the poor man,” the tall kid in blue chuckled. Kravitz’s head spun. Blue kid turned to face him, his expression sobering up. “With all due respect, sir, it’s easiest if you just follow the big blue circle. It’s pretty hard to screw up.”

“That’s all well and good,” said Kravitz. Assuming that all of their nonsense made sense to them, it was actually a pretty solid plan, except for one thing. “But what of the other six Lunar Stations? Is this wormhole going to be big enough for all of them, plus your fleet?”

To his surprise, Shirogane smiled reassuringly. “That won’t be an issue, Commander. Trust me.”

Not exactly generous with details, that one. Kravitz sighed. “What do you need us to do?”

“Get the other Lunar Stations briefed on the plan, and get your civilians strapped in as securely as you can,” said Shirogane. “We’ll be there in less than an hour. Once we get you out of there, we’ll fill you in on the rest as best we can.”

Kravitz nodded tightly. He waved to the engineer to cut the transmission, the five pilots vanishing from the screen.

“Get me the commander of the Auriga.”

---

It had been a long, long week.

Seleste sat on the cot next to her baby sister, singing softly and stroking the younger girl’s hair in hopes of coaxing her into a fitful sleep. Tear tracks stained Clara’s face, and Seleste knew she had a few of her own. It was only their second day on the Orion and Seleste felt she’d cried enough tears to last her a lifetime.

“A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella, mi niña tiene sueño…”

On the cot opposite her, Alvaro laid on top of his blankets, holding his wallet up so he could stare at the photo tucked in the clear pocket. She didn’t have to see the photo to know what it was, to know the fuzzy, smiling faces that stared back at him. Gabriel was perched on his knees beside Alvaro’s head, staring out the window into the stars.

They hadn’t had the chance to see them, up until now. There were no windows on the transport shuttle, which was probably for the better, Seleste thought with a shudder. The last thing she wanted to see was one of those… those alien ships up close. And then after three days of travel, they’d been herded into windowless quarantine chambers for a whole day to make sure they weren’t bringing disease into the station.

From the dark side of the moon, Seleste had to admit the skies beyond her planet were stunning, expansive beyond her wildest dreams and so eerily calm. Deceivingly so.

“Do you think Lance would have liked it out here?” Gabriel murmured, still staring. Seleste’s heart lurched, and her hand stilled in Clara’s hair. When she didn’t answer, Alvaro dropped his wallet to his side, turning his head to face his baby brother.

“I think he would have loved it, squirt. You know how he was, his head was always out in space.” He reached up and ruffled Gabriel’s hair for good measure.

Normally, Gabriel would have giggled and tried to knock his brother’s hand away. Seleste felt her lip tremble when he didn’t so much as twitch now. It was a gesture Lance always did. She swallowed the lump in her throat and kept singing, her hand resuming the gentle stroking.

“Bendito sea, bendito sea…”

Eventually, Seleste trailed off and silence fell between them again, save for the low murmur of the chatter from the other evacuees. The Orion wasn’t meant to house this many people, and the station had set up cots in just about every available inch of floor space to accommodate for the extra load. Even for Seleste, who was used to cramped quarters growing up in a house with six siblings, it bordered on claustrophobic.

When she was certain Clara had fallen deeply asleep, Seleste withdrew her hand and position herself further on the edge of the bed, facing her brothers. Alvaro had resumed staring at the photograph. Gabriel hadn’t moved. She sighed.

“I should be down there with Mamá,” she confessed quietly, picking at the hem of her dress.

Alvaro closed his eyes and grimaced, before sitting up. “Sis…”

“I’m not a child,” Seleste pressed on. “I’m 19. They shouldn’t have let me on board. I feel so terrible knowing that Mamá is down there, probably all alone, and who knows where Papá and Isa and Jules are, and…” she gripped the fabric in both hands, fighting off the burning tears. “I should be down there.”

A moment later, she felt a hand over hers, and she looked up. Alvaro looked close to tears himself, but he smiled sadly at her. “I feel the same, sis. I feel like a coward that I’m up here safe, not knowing where they are.” His eyes flickered over to Clara’s sleeping form. “But we couldn’t have let Clarita and Gabe come up here alone. And maybe you’re not a child, but I… I'm glad you’re here, sis. I couldn’t do it by myself.”

Seleste sniffled through a small smile. Trust her little brother to remain the voice of reason, even now when it felt like the end of the world. The familiarity was comforting.

“Thanks, Al.”

Alvaro grinned, though it didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Anytime, sis.”

She swiped at the tears in her eyes and cleared her throat. Gabriel must have heard all of that, but still, she had to put on a brave face for her baby brother. “Gabe, come away from the window now. Let’s try and get some rest, okay? Mamá and Papá wouldn’t want us to get sick.”

Gabriel didn’t acknowledge her. She frowned. He’d been so uncharacteristically quiet since they boarded the shuttle. She looked to Alvaro in concern, who leaned over and put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“Gabe?”

The boy finally turned over to look at them, and Seleste was on her feet in blink. He had a look of sheer terror on his face, a shaky hand raising to point out the window. Seleste and Alvaro both scrambled onto the cot behind him and peered over his shoulder. Seleste’s stomach churned in fear, and she reached for Alvaro’s hand without thinking.

No less than a full fleet of twenty alien battleships dotted the horizon, purple steel glinting in the starlight.

“I…” Gabriel stammered, petrified. “I think the bad guys found us.”

[ganymedesclock]

Mary Sue Keith anon here. What I meant by "special snowflake origin story" is his being a mysterious alien foundling with ties to empire and rebellion. The writers are giving Keith all the toys powers wise AND major story connection wise while Pidge, Hunk, and Lance get barely anything aside from like, befriending one random alien race each (Olkari, Balmera, mermaids). I'm afraid of this becoming the Specialest Boy Keith Show feat. Shiro and Allura

(2/2) Keith and Shiro and Allura absolutely are special snowflakes compared to Pidge, Hunk, and Lance, regular unpowered humans. Pidge at least has the story with her family but oops wait Shiro will be the one to find Matt.

...I’m kind of at a loss here, anon. I feel like we haven’t been watching the same show. So let’s just. Let’s crack out the highlight reel here shall we?

Pidge is an incredible prodigy who not only effortlessly integrated with alien technology, something nobody else on the team, including Keith and Shiro, were able to do and this was explicitly noted and commented on.

She also personally retook the Castle near-singlehandedly while Keith could do nothing but sit on his butt outside the barrier and Shiro was held hostage. Facing career soldiers. How did that go again? “Haxus is dead and you’re next!”

And was integral to reuniting the team after the season one finale and unsubtly saved Coran and Allura from the wormhole loop, where they were completely helpless.

And “this thing with her family” happened to involve repeatedly breaking into a literal military base, at age fourteen, without a whole arsenal of spy gadgetry, and after getting literally banned from being anywhere near said base to try and stop her from getting in, constructed an entire fake identity using stuff around her house and joined as a student, pretty clearly testing ahead of her grade level.

Oh, right, and what was she doing when we first saw her? Just eavesdropping on alien transmissions. It’s okay Galra empire it’s not your encryption, it’s just the fact that Pidge is a terrifying technological wizard and no one can keep her out of anything, ever. Seriously, show me an algorithm in show that Pidge didn’t crack while not being able to read galran or altean.

Also she jailbroke the Green Lion. Let me just reiterate that: Pidge took a piece of ancient magical technology that is probably actually a living creature in a mechanical shell and was like “I’m going to make you turn invisible.” and this was such a goshdanged non-issue we didn’t even see Pidge do it onscreen. Just took a leisurely afternoon and made a giant metal Lion able to completely disappear because she studied one piece of technology with the power to hide itself in one setting. Which has been plot relevant multiple times that the team 

Actively ran the entire show on the Beta Traz mission, she was giving Lance and Shiro the orders.

She’s also basically Voltron’s designated getaway driver even though as she pointed out in episode 1 she’s literally never had a day of pilot training in her life.

Lance was pretty clearly the second best pilot behind Keith. “Clockie,” you might say, “that’s not impressive.” Yeah except Keith seems to be pretty much Spiderman, remember the druid fight in s1e10? Keith can tell where things are relative to him without looking. He has literal superhuman reflexes. Lance competed with this person. And did great. The reason why we see him crash in the simulator is because he misjudges the time it takes for his ship to pull around, it has nothing to do with his sense of the controls. Keith called him the worst pilot at a point where Lance wasn’t doing anything, Blue was just having a nice gallop.

Speaking of which it’s made explicitly clear Blue is totally ignoring both Shiro and Keith. We haven’t even heard a whisper of the Black or Red Lions at that point, just Blue, and Blue is specifically here for Lance and only Lance, can’t give anyone else the time of day.

(and it’s not like Blue made a wormhole when none of the other Lions did. Good thing THAT’S not going to be plot relevant ever, clearly)

I’m a little intrigued by your claim that Lance “made friends with” the mermaids and that it’s just comparable to the Balmera or Olkari. Because that’s sure not how I remember that episode. I seem to remember Lance saving their entire civilization nearly alone (just him and the rebels), figuring out that their enemy wasn’t who they thought it was, making the right decision to hear Luxia out at a key moment, and having to outmaneuver Hunk, who was holding absolutely nothing back, and defeat him without injuring him. Cause... y’know... on the Balmera and Olkarion, there was a minor thing of Pidge and Hunk had the whole rest of the team right there backing them up.

It is not remotely an exaggeration to say Lance can hit a target the size of a dime while falling backwards in zero gravity when the person he’s shooting at has a thrashing hostage and if Lance shoots wrong he could easily kill said hostage and doom the entire mission and Lance said “I’ve got this” with zero hesitation, took a breath and went for it in a way that suggests Lance, the chronically insecure, is so unbelievably good at this it didn’t even occur to him to hesitate. This is the gunslinging equivalent of “could hit a perfect bullseye and then split the arrow with your next shot and then split that arrow with the shot after that.” Just “I’ve got this.” and he did. 

Earth means the most to Lance as it’s his home and pretty inevitably the conflict is going to go there.

Also, minor technicality but he saved Coran’s life and the team’s darkest, most desperate hour, the fall of the Castle, was centered around Lance being in critical condition, which doesn’t exactly make sense as a writing decision unless he’s sort of completely integral to how things operate.

Which happened because he was able to in less than five seconds tell two identical robots apart from each other because one was acting the wrong way. And then he woke up during his own rescue and hit Sendak square in center mass while so heavily injured he could barely stay conscious. 

Hunk is pretty blatantly Alfor’s successor and there’s no way in hell that isn’t going to be a plot point, just for starters.

He’s also a brilliant engineer who has brought us quality moments such as “well there’s an element that doesn’t exist on Earth and I have absolutely no possible experience with it and we’re in a desert shack with limited tools but I could totally just build a machine to find it no problem,” and “hotwiring this alien mine elevator while under fire is so trivial that I won’t even stop complaining or look at what I’m doing more than the occasional sidelong glance. And I’m done, about that quickly.”

And a world-class chef that has been shown that with a single exception where he accidentally used an inedible ingredient (and ended up saving everyone’s lives because of it) on account of not being able to read any of the packaging, everything he makes is delicious and in Space Mall he was such an instant hit that practically everyone shopping wanted to eat there. And incidentally, one of those wild cooking successes he just barged out into an alien planet and was able to successfully identify and classify what was edible. But clearly that doesn’t take any talent or effort at all right, I’m sure any rube could do the same. 

Hunk was the main man rescuing the Balmera, and it’s not like the Balmerans are longstanding allies or were integral to the plan in season 2. Or like in Ark of Taujeer, he held up that colossal thing singlehandedly several times to the point that he awakened a new ability doing it.

His weapon is a colossal artillery piece that probably weighs about as much as a good-sized dairy calf and he can and has held it one-handed with a relaxed arm.

He was the main person rescuing Allura in s1e11 and they then bailed out Shiro.

On that note: the list of things Hunk has stared down and picked a fight with includes Haggar, and a literal gigantic planet-eating monster with a death laser. The latter he volunteered to fight, utterly unprompted, and got mad at it for ignoring him.

The same episode Keith specifically stated that Hunk’s intelligence was integral to their survival. Hunk also figured out basically everything about how the Weblum worked. 

During the mermaid arc it was made pretty dang clear that a Hunk not holding back could probably destroy each of the other paladins in single combat. If Lance hadn’t had that antidote fish with him he would have been dead, and he was just lucky Hunk kept it to close combat and didn’t pull out his bayard. As it was he just bodily threw Lance around like the guy was made of tissue paper.

And just as a followup I’ll say: This show has seven protagonists. Are we really forgetting this quickly that in season 1 Keith was very much on the back burner and didn’t get a single episode centered on him except maybe s1e10 which he was actively splitting with Shiro and Allura? 

Can we maybe trust Dreamworks and Studio Mir of all people to know how to balance a dang cast?

Especially when you’re sorting Pidge with the “people who got utterly shafted” and Allura with the “people who have everything” but I’ve heard the exact same complaint talking about how Shiro, Keith, and Pidge get all the plots and Allura is someone who gets sold short.

I really can never... get complaints like this. There’s plenty to work with for all the core team, and if you want someone who really hasn’t been developed and remains pretty dang mysterious to us throughout seasons 1 and 2 both, I’d say Coran is a huge candidate in that regard considering dude’s a 600-year-old magical alien and we’ve got peanuts on his history at this point, but almost nobody even mentions him in their diatribes that Lance isn’t getting enough love.

(Which, frankly, my sympathy’s a little dry at this point considering Lance is the fandom darling and you can’t walk five steps into most fanwork without tripping on the kid. But, sure, tell me there’s not nearly enough there for him.)