#hope i did lance and shiro meeting justice

[amaranthkick]

Spy Games Ch 2

(ao3)

Shiro took a deep breath to calm his nerves. This was just a routine mission: talk to an intel agent and get information on the Galra. It’s just he didn’t do these types of missions often.

He sighed as he remembered why he took this mission in the first place. He was experimented on, tortured and had his arm replaced with Galran tech by the Galra. He had to stay at the Castle of Lions and had constant check ups to see any lasting damage or side effects from his imprisonment. All the concerned looks he’d get when his teammates thought he wouldn’t notice. He was starting to get a little stir crazy if he didn’t get out there in the field soon.

So he took the next available mission even if it was recon with minimal fighting to show them he’s ready for more missions, ready to do what he could to take down the Galra before any more people experienced what he went through. 

Coran said the informant would be waiting at Garrison Park, on a bench near the pond. He told him the informant might be tricky to work with. 

Shiro saw his mark, the person on the bench matched the description: a tall, lanky man, dressed in a blue shirt with a lion design, and expertly tossing a coin in the air. “Pidge, I see the informant and am going to make contact.”

“Roger that Shiro. -zzt-” There was a bit of static after her response but Shiro thought nothing of it and approached his target.

—

“Oh wow, uh, hi.” The target said, a little hesitant, eyes sizing him up.

Shiro tried to relax his posture and make himself look less threatening, it’d be a waste if he scared him away now. He asked if he could sit next to him, which the target allowed.

—

Holy crow, who was this gorgeous man? And he wanted to sit next to him?! Lance was pretty sure he was in heaven.

Lance had to thank Hunk for letting him on this little delivery. The client jipped him of a tip and instead gave him a roll of chips for the new casino that popped up but just meeting this guy made it all worth it.

Oh, he asked about anything of interest in the area. He must be new to the area, and lucky for him Lance has a love of gossip and knows everything about anything around here. Also he needs to keep an ear out in case the Feds somehow track him and Hunk for the ‘sudden black out’.

—

Shiro thought he’ll get a crick in his neck from nodding along as the informant talked about different people and places. He was certainly… knowledgeable. But he was sure to take mental note of these in case they have a connection to the galra; noise complaints from a factory, a club trying to be a cool secret club but everyone agreed it’s totally not, and there was a fire recently…

But then the informant seemed to catch what he was saying and backtracked. He coughs and his smile seems forced as he swears to Shiro that this area is safe.

The informant’s phone buzzes and he gets up suddenly. “Ah, gotta go. Oh wait, here!” Then he tossed Shiro a roll of… casino chips? “There’s a casino near here, you should be able to use those as a freebie, there’s no harm in trying, so long as you don’t spend too much on more coins, right? Nice to meet you!”

Shiro watched him leave a little dazed but somehow satisfied. He didn’t know why Coran said he was tricky to work with. He didn’t seem suspicious, actually he seemed pretty nice. He got lots of information, could some of them be red herrings? He tightened his grip on the roll of chips, might as well start with the casino. Hopefully he’ll find something on the Galra there.

—

Shiro was perched on a nearby apartment trying to look for places he could sneak in. His breath hitched and he nearly crushed his binoculars as he spotted the suits transferring some covered crates. He– He knew some of those grunts. They taunted him while he was chained down and he could only wait for the inevitable torture.

The Galra worked here or at least they have infiltrated this casino. He had to call the rest of the team for a full investigation.

—

“Great work, my boy!” Coran slapped Shiro’s back with a cheer. With Shiro’s warning, they were able to catch many Galra agents as they used the Casino to undoubtedly fund their wicked schemes. But with this they were able to deal some damage to the Galra.

“Ah, thanks.” Shiro sheepishly responded. “I was only able to find them because the intel agent you led me to.” Huh?

Shiro was called away by Keith before he could ask more. Coran twirled his mustache in thought.

Right after Shiro told them he was going to engage the intel agent, Pidge noticed there was some sort of jamming signal that cut off Shiro’s communicator for a moment. Keith immediately went to investigate and found their ‘intel agent’. Allura followed behind after he ran off recklessly. He tried to lead Keith to an ambush but thankfully Allura was there before everything went pear shaped.

They were about to tell Shiro the intel agent was a bust but somehow Shiro said he spotted some Galra grunts at a casino of all places.

Ah, hold on a tick, did they ever tell Shiro the intel agent he was supposed to meet was a fake?

Coran turned and hesitated when he saw the boy in good spirits as he was talking to Keith. No doubt happy his mission was a success and Allura wouldn’t be so hesitant to give him more field missions.

…Ah, why rain on his parade? It all worked out in the end anyway. He was certain the person Shiro met won’t come up anytime soon.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Lotor seems to have a lot in common with Chloe Bourgeois from Miraculous Ladybug since they both seem to have great potential of getting redeemed, but the writers decided to screw them over and make them all the sudden villan for no reason even though both shows main protagonists have done far more questionable things than them, heck both shows even romantasize the protagonists creepy stalking behavior

Hi, anon. Thanks for the note! I’ve never watched Miraculous Ladybug, so I’m afraid I don’t know too much about a Lotor vs. Chloe comparison? I’m sorry, though, if that show triggered some unhappy memories about VLD!

In terms of protagonists being worse than the villains, I personally struggle with that statement for Voltron? VLD is complicated because the show starts by treating war/battle as a fantasy violence video game. Like, the Galrans are mostly robots or one-dimensional soldiers who are torturing, killing and conquering. So our protagonists are already light-years ahead of that incredibly low baseline. And it’s easy to cheer Team Voltron on when you know they’re just blowing up robots or a pure-evil villain. It’s that whole fantasy violence thing without accountability. Then, the show gets increasingly more complex in terms of the politics, and the costs of war (with Ulaz’s death, for example), and the humanization of the enemy. But in this environment, our protagonists are still a bunch of ill-prepared teenagers running with scissors. Like, the original paladins of Voltron were leaders and rulers with a history of navigating wars and alliances. These paladins? They grew some over the show, yes, but they still had to go from playing a video game and screwing up flight simulators (or living a royal life in peace-time), to handling actual death and collateral damage in an active combat theater. I doubt Galaxy Garrison had training in their curriculum for how 17-year-olds should handle that. And all of the other older authority figures around Team Voltron and Lotor just totally and utterly failed them.

So I think my frustration with Team Voltron has cooled a lot over the years. From an in-show perspective, they were surrounded by supposedly competent advisors and intelligence officers who should have been able to at least question certain decisions or behaviors. But they did nothing constructive to prepare the paladins for war besides training them to kill.

And in the case of s5-s6, all of these experts and allied civilizations gave Team Voltron the green light on an official alliance with an empire they had seen brutally torture/experiment, enslave, and colonize. Actual weeks had passed between s5-s6. And yet, we never saw Kolivan warning the team that this was a really bad compromise for the Voltron Coalition to make; we never saw the paladins having to handle upset questions from their vast allies, who no doubt had recent memories of trauma at the hands of Galran military officers. But the instant Lotor is revealed to have also been a quintessence vampire in some way, like every other Galran officer with a body count they’d allied with, that’s the uncrossable line for Krolia, Coran, Kolivan watching this all go down—? Like?

When Shiro linked the Voltron Coalition to Galran military intelligence, what the heck did they think all of these soldier reports included? Military commanders happily sipping cocktails with locals on a beach? So I don’t think it quite hit the paladins yet that they weren’t working with uwu morally unproblematic people with easily forgivable pasts or a clear record of trying to make up for that past. And Team Voltron had zero guidance for how to navigate pursuing justice/reparations while also not leading to another war or worse outcome. Ultimately, even all of these concerned authority figures forgot about the show’s most plot-important victims that they were fine with dissolving the alliance over.

(RIP Patrulius in the harvesting pod, did you ever get out??).

The incompetency of elder authority figures also feeds into my frustration about Lance’s character, and how it was once again Coran in s8 who pushed him into this weird 1950s dating construct where Allura isn’t an agent over her own body. Like, Lance is still pretty young here, mimicking all the toxic masculinity he’s picked up on, and Coran’s behavior is supposed to be…better. Like, even Lance himself was uncomfortable in that scene, and that was wild to watch.)

And speaking of the ongoing failures of authority in the story, I still can’t believe that Coran didn’t cut in on Lotor in season 5, even, to warn him that exposure to the rift was known to make people lose control over their darkest thoughts. I could plausibly believe Allura didn’t think to question this because she was doe-eyed over Lotor and desperate for anything that could secure peace. But it’s not like Coran, who is supposed to be a king’s advisor, didn’t see this happen with Zarkon and Honerva. He could have questioned Lotor’s plans, and that actually would have been fascinating. Because if Coran, being a king’s advisor, had employed that kind of logical foresight, we might have seen something unsettling in Lotor that could more clearly foreshadow a fatal flaw he wasn’t working on (you know, like that classic Icarus Syndrome). But this show just didn’t question itself or self-reflect, lol.

So I don’t think anything Team Voltron did was them necessarily intending to be cruel where they wanted trillions to die in the name of justice, but their ignorance and the blatant inaction/silence or questionable guidance from anyone with higher credentials or experience resulted in some very uneasy outcomes.

But those outcomes were what this show wanted to keep the drama rolling.

I can’t speak for Chloe’s arc and the reason for why she misses the mark, but Lotor’s fall resulted in another several episodes of big robot battles and extended drama to meet a predetermined 78-episode directive. And given that the production team complained about having no breaks at all through the development of this show, I doubt they had time to weigh the cost of every decision they made to keep drama going. (I mean, we saw several other haphazard, concerning things happen since the beginning of the show; the colony twist wasn’t an isolated incident of plot over-complication and questionable handling of topics a;sdjfasf.)

I do think it’s easy to stay bitter about things and to let that poison everything, including even other shows. And I don’t think that’s a mentally healthy place for me to be—even though, clearly, I do still have frustrations with the art of story construction, lol. So I guess... canon is someone else’s story, but I do have control over how I respond and how I might try to tackle hard topics in my own works. And I’ve got to work with that.

I hope for what it’s worth that you can still find things worth enjoying in your other show, and that you can explore the characters and the stories in ways that are meaningful and feel right to you. It might help as well to look for shows and media that explicitly do have redemption arcs for a main antagonist or villain, or that handle traumatized or abused characters well.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 209

209

The problem with supernatural senses was the ability to hear everything. Lance sympathised with Keith, cringing in second hand embarrassment for how his fiancé tried to talk to Pidge. Keith’s awkwardness was a thing of legend. There were a lot of “ums” in his sentence, and he’d twice assured Pidge “that it was okay if she didn’t want to”, before he finally asked if they could talk. The pair of them heading into the house as Hunk kept his eye on them.

“Catching” Hunk staring, Lance decided to say fuck it to manners. Hunk wasn’t upsetting Pidge on purpose. Shay wasn’t upsetting Pidge on purpose. They just weren’t quite clicking and though it wasn’t his place to say it, he didn’t want Pidge to feel left out because her best friend was dating the woman of his dreams

“Hunk, what’s up?”

“Pidge just went off with Keith... I thought they were going to check on Shiro and Curtis... I’m just... uh, I’m kind of wondering why they left”

Scratching the back of his head, Hunk stumped the other “adults” at the table. Allura and Coran both nursing empty tea cups, with Krolia kicked back and holding her half empty beer near her stomach

“It’s nothing to be worried about. They’ll be fine”

“Yeah, but... Dude, don’t you think she’s been acting weird lately? She doesn’t message me as much as she used to, and she didn’t defend how useful UV light could be to hunting vampires”

Hunk took the bait. Sure, Lance had been leading him

“Keith noticed Pidge isn’t happy and he’s gone to have a chat and make sure she’s okay”

Hunk gaped at him. Lance would have chuckled at his friend’s surprise if he hadn’t squashed his ego down. He didn’t want to hurt Hunk, nor did he particularly enjoy the conversation they needed to have. Shay pressed her lips together for half a moment in thought, before breaking her silence

“I can’t remember anything that would have upset her. Are you sure she’s upset?”

“Pidge is learning how much adulting sucks. We’re all in relationships now. We don’t do the fun things we used to do together. We don’t have games night anymore. We don’t hunt. Her best friend is moving in with his girlfriend and she wants to be involved. You guys haven’t done anything technically wrong, she just misses the old times. She’d decapitate me for the hell of it if she heard me. She’s feeling a little insecure right now, but Keith’ll calm her down”

Hunk immediately teared up. Nooo. Not Hunk tears. Whenever Hunk got teary, he did too

“I didn’t... I didn’t realise”

The first tear rolled down Lance’s cheek, causing him to sigh at himself mentally. He was so weak when it came to Hunk tears

“That’s because you haven’t done anything wrong. I’d be mad if you had and my face wound be all scary. Everyone grows and changes. Keith and I can hardly deny we’re very focused on each other. It’s really easy to do when you’re in love. Maybe at the end of the night you could suggest a games night? Or you could have her look at properties with you? She’d probably be able to blackmail the realestate agent into giving you cheaper rent...”

“I didn’t...”

“Dude, I know. I’m in no position to talk either. I let her down too. I let all of you guys down. I love you, bro. I love her, too. You guys are my family. Pidge just needs a little reassurance your still best friends for life... I kind of hope they’re not inside too long, I need to pee... I can’t wait for this pregnancy to be over... I want to meet them already”

Allura placed her hand on his shoulder

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon. We all can’t wait to meet them. You and Keith shall be amazing parents”

“Yeah. It’s going to be weird not having them inside me anymore...”

Lance loved it when they moved. He loved resting his hands on his belly and feeling them moving. Already so full of life. He loved belly rubs from Keith, and the way Keith cuddled into his stomach, peppering kissed to his stretched skin as if trying to kiss their twins through it. But everything else was getting too much. The joint pain. The fatigue. The constant heavy feeling in his chest. The last week of feeling constantly ill. His stupid yoyoing ego that couldn’t understand how a pregnancy had weakened him so much. The fits of anger. His overly active sense of smell. He was tired... and tired of waiting... but he... he also wanted to wait until he went into labour naturally so he could keep feeling them inside of him. For years he’d wondered how it’d feel to be human again. To fall in love and do all the other amazing things humans did... He’d never felt more human than in the last month of his pregnancy. He wasn’t sure he could mentally cope with his ego if he and Keith did chose to wait much longer. Mums to be were amazing. Movies just didn’t do justice to all the ups and downs of pregnancy. Feeling a tingling in his skin, Lance looked down at his arm, realising he was starting to burn under the lack of cloud cover. He wanted to give Keith and Pidge privacy, but if he stayed outside much longer, he’d go up in flames... Then again, Keith did say he was “smoking hot”.

*

Lance’s living room had also been transformed. The same bunting that hung outside, hung from everywhere it could inside. Stopping by the bathroom, Lance waddled in on Keith and Pidge mid-hug. Keith probably didn’t know what to do with being hugged so fiercely, still, it was a nice moment between the pair of them

“Hey, guys. Got room for one more?”

Breaking the hug, Pidge moved to make space between her and Keith. Lance waddling over to drop himself down between the pair of them. Yeah. Keith had a point. Maybe it’d be better to deliver early rather than feel cramping when he sat wrong, or sat too fast. He’d recognised that with fatigue came pain sensitivity. Small cramps had been happening more often over the last week, and he’d been reduced to crying over them more than once.

Leaning in, Keith kissed his cheek, Lance smiling at the action because he was so grossly in love with Keith that even a small kiss still managed to make him feel a million times better

“I thought I left you outside?”

Lance moved to show Keith the start of the sunburn on his arm. He’d run it under cold water to ease the burn, but it was still warm and tender to the touch

“You did. Apparently too much sun is bad for vampires... who would have thought?”

“I did wonder if I should find you an umbrella...”

“I’m fine. Plus, I’ve got my two favourite people here, so I thought I’d come stock up on some love”

Excusing himself to the bathroom, Lance knew he’d upset Hunk yet Hunk had to figure out how to make things right with Pidge without his meddling. He probably could have been more tactful about things, and picked a better time to bring the subject up. This was supposed to be party, not a counselling session. Feeling the twins kicking up a storm, he took Pidge’s hand, placing it on his belly. His friends were good about not just touching his belly without asking first, Pidge the one who seemed to hesitate the most when it came to feeling him being bashed up internally

“I think they know that their Aunty Pidge is here”

“Either that or they’ve inherited Keith’s inability to sit still”

Keith pouted, Pidge poking her tongue at him causing the werewolf to huff

“Lance is just as bad as I am”

“Lance has changed a lot since you came into our lives. You both have. You can tell you two are dating. You’ve got that old married couple vibe where you finish each other’s sentences and sound the same”

Lance couldn’t deny it. Keith had picked up so many of the expressions he used. And Lance had definitely picked up Keith’s habit of swearing openly.

“That’s what happens when you fall in love. Actually, Keith and I have something to tell you. We’re madly grossly in love, not just in love”

Pidge rolled her eyes at him

“I already know that. One bite between you and you’ve both turned into idiots”

“You know what they say, “Once bitten, twice stupid””

“Dude, it’s “once bitten, twice shy”. But I like your one better. You bit Keith to save his life and you both turned into love struck morons with a shared brain cell between you”

Keith frowned heavily at Pidge’s joke, Lance snorting due to how true it was

“He really does feel like the other half of me. I’d be happy to share a brain cell with him any day of the week. I know you’re worried about the future, but you’re always going to be a sister to me, and an aunt to the twins. No more sad, Pidge, not when she’s a scary little ankle biting gremlin that we all love”

Pidge pulled her hand back, looking to her lap

“Hey, you know I’m proud of you, Katie. You’ve been through a heck of a lot, like the rest of us. Things might have changed and they might be scary, but you’ll always have a home here with us... provided you don’t bring your work home and destroy my house with your experiments”

Pidge groaned deeply

“You blow up a circuit board once and they never let you forget it. And, if you call me “Katie” again, I’m going to give you a dead arm to go with that dead body of yours”

“Oh no! The gremlin’s getting angry. Quick, babe. You’d better make her a coffee before her wrath descends upon us”

“Fuck you”

“I’m flattered, but I’m in a loving and committed relationship... I mean, if I were two decades younger...”

Pidge punched his arm to shut him up

“You suck”

Lance continued with his shit stirring mood

“Quite well, don’t I, babe?”

“I’m not getting into this, but yes”

“See, my skills have got Keith’s stamp of approval”

“You’re going to have my footprint stamped to your arse if you keep traumatising me like this”

Wrapping his arms around his gremlin, Lance kissed her hair. Pidge trying to shove him off

“I love it when you’re mean. I wouldn’t change a single thing about you”

“Keith, help. Lance is being weird”

Keith hefted him back so Lance was laying awkwardly in his arms looking up at his fiancé. Bopping him on the nose, Lance went cross eyed as Keith let his finger hover

“Babe, leave the bitey creature alone. She’s fine. More importantly, did you put cream on your arm?”

Lance didn’t really prescribe to the use of burn cream seeing he healed on his own. Cold water would forever be the best things for burns

“Burn cream isn’t always good for burns, aaaaand the aloe vera is in our bathroom. Which is upstairs, and totally too much effort right now”

“You can’t ignore it. Where else got burnt?”

“I don’t know. Stop picking on me. I thought we were picking on Pidge”

“We’ve done that. I’ll grab the aloe vera, and Pidge can get you some blood. We have the whole day to relax... provided no one’s gone and planned party games”

Pidge burst that bubble. That tiny bubble of maybe fitting an uncaught nap in... This fatigue thing was ridiculous

“Oh, dude. There’s totally party games. We’re going to set up penalty beer pong under lunch”

Keith scrunched his brow. From how he was positioned, Lance kind of wanted to poke his finger right up Keith’s nose. It was like his nose was staring down at him, begging to be poked

“Should I be worried?”

Lance didn’t like to brag, but beer pong was his jam. His first time through college not so much, second time, he was pretty much undefeated. With how long it took to set up, it wasn’t usually one of their party games. Poor Keith had no idea what penalty beer pong had in store for him, Lance would have to defend his fiancé’s honour

“Seeing it’ll be you and Lance facing off, you should definitely be worried. Buuuut I totally didn’t tell you that. If you two are going to keep being gross, I’m going to go back to the party”

Whelp. Keith was on his own then... It was nice knowing him

“It’s okay, Pidgeon. Go forth and abandon us. Leave us... be that way... We’ll be back out as soon as I’ve had some blood and this sunburn starts healing. Maybe I should change into something longer, I don’t want to burst into flames at my own baby shower”

Keith bopped him on the nose again, before helping Lance sit back up

“That’s probably a good idea, babe. You’re smoking hot as it is. That’d make you literally flaming hot”

Pidge was completely right. They really did share one brain cell. The idea leaving a stupidly huge grin on his face that Pidge called “creepy” before leaving the pair of them.

*

Penalty beer pong... of all the things they could have played, they’d chosen some kind of abomination that belonged in hell. After lunch, Hunk had taken Lance aside, while Matt and Pidge took Keith inside. Both of them forced to wear headphones so they couldn’t hear each others answers to the questions for their friends had prepared. Keith felt very very dumb. 20 questions on Lance should have been easy... but their friends had really wracked their brains being creative and going for the odd, mostly unknowable things that he was supposed to know about his “boyfriend”.

With the living area the only place big enough to fit all of them, the coffee table was covered with a thick piece of plywood where the cups were set up. Keith didn’t like to admit that he’d never played beer pong. He’d never had the kinds of friends that did, nor did he go to college. One of the more popular games at Blade headquarters was darts with knives instead of darts, and vampire faces for targets. You took a shot if you failed to stick the knife in the vampire when it was your throw. He’d never been invited to play with James and the rest of them... He and Shiro used to have shooting target competitions, but that was just the pair of them with the winner getting out of some mundane house chore, that Adam usually scolded them about.

Kneeling across from him, they’d both avoided the penalty cups so far. Keith thought not getting the ball in one meant not having to drink what was it in. No. Instead the penalty was played out for each question they got wrong about each other. Each cup contained some kind of condiment construction Keith really wanted to avoid. It started tame, first with chilli sauce, then soy, then vinegar... slowly progressing in quantity and combination. The last cup was a grotesque mix of what seemed to be a little of everything from Lance’s pantry. Having swapped questionnaires, Hunk and Matt were their quiz masters. They were fifteen questions in, Keith not feeling the effects of the vodka he’d had to chug when Lance got the ping pong ball in his cups. His fiancé, not able to drink, was delegated water. Keith wasn’t sure that Lance actually won anything from playing against him seeing he’d have to pee the moment the game was done.

“Lance. What is Keith’s most annoying habit?”

Throwing the ping pong ball, his fiancé landed it perfectly in the cup. That’s how it went. Question, throw, answer, shot...

“His amazingly lacking self confidence since turning into a werewolf”

His damn fiancé got that one right... like the rest of them.

“Keith. How many years, combined, did Lance spend attending University?”

How the fuck was he supposed to know that? He didn’t know how long it took to be a lawyer... he didn’t know how long it took, or if Lance had any recognition of prior training to drop the amount of time he was required to study, plus his fiancé was a smart little shit... Lance looked sympathies and smug at the same time. Yeah. His questions were far easier than Keith’s had been. Tossing the retrieved ping pong ball, it landed in one of the penalty cups

“Um... I’m going to with... um... 12 years”

Lance groaned, Keith knowing he’d gotten the answer wrong. Matt delighted in telling him

“11 years and six months. Apparently being a lawyer in the early 90’s meant less time in class... Your first penalty shot is chilli sauce. Bottoms up”

If a jalapeño’s had sex with another jalapeño, then their offspring continued in breeding, that would only explain the fire in Keith’s mouth. His eyes running as his throat burned. That wasn’t simple chilli sauce in there

“God... it burns... what the hell is that?”

“Ghost pepper sauce”

Lance shot Matt a glare

“That’s not very nice. You guys are dicks”

Matt shrugged at Keith fanned his burning mouth

“Then he shouldn’t have gotten the question wrong”

“We didn’t really talk about it. Babe, you okay? Rieva, can you get Keith some milk, please. You guys are banned from giving Keith chilli ever again”

“Chill, dude. He’ll survive. Right, it’s your turn”

Lance plucked the ball from what looked to be soy sauce, unamused Keith’s ego wanted to flip the stupid board of cups over. Their friends were slightly laughing at his reaction to the chilli and Rieva hadn’t gone to get him a glass of milk

“Okay, Lance. What’s Keith’s deepest secret that he’s hiding at he moment?”

Keith had answered “He’d always believe in mothman until his dying breath”. Lance hummed at the question

“That he doesn’t hate Lotor as much as he says... it’s either that, something to with me, or something to do with his crush on mothman”

“Correct...”

No. That wasn’t correct at all! The game was rigged

“You two didn’t bother telling us that you’re engaged! Which is a secret to do with Lance, so technically correct!”

Suddenly Keith got the feeling that beer pong was less about what they knew about each other and more about what the group suspected and wanted to confirm

“They’re what?!”

From Pidge’s yelling, she mustn’t have been in on it... So this was all Matt’s idea to get them to confess to their secret engagement?! He could strangle him for putting them both on the spot like this. Right. He could play it cool... yep. No secret here

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, dude. We found the empty ring box in your bedside drawers. Why didn’t you tell us?! Do you know how happy we are for you guys?! This is awesome... Maybe not as awesome as Rieva saying yes to me, but we’re supposed to be your friends! We need to have a party to celebrate this”

Ahhhh. Keith wanted to laugh in relief. They hadn’t been caught yet, and now it seemed like a pretty fun idea to mess with Matt for going through their things

“That’s was from Krolia. There was never any ring in that box”

“You expect us to believe that?”

Keith glanced to his mother, Krolia shrugging as the others also looked to her

“Miriam and I both thought they’d make the cutest grooms. It’s not my fault he hasn’t proposed yet”

“What makes you think I’d be the one asking? Lance could always ask me, right, babe?”

“Yep. I totally could have been the one to ask him”

Sharing a look, Matt and Hunk both chuckled. Their “Sunshine Teddy” shaking his head

“Man, we all know Lance is the romantic one. He’d spend everyday waiting for you to ask, rather than asking you. Then, he’d expect the whole fairytale night. Dinner at a fancy restaurant. A bouquet of red roses as big as him...”

Hunk counted on his fingers, Matt adding as Hunk stalled mid-thought

“Don’t forget the champagne and the hotel room”

Hunk quickly counted those two on his fingers

“Yep. Lance is too much of a romantic”

Matt nodded quickly

“He’d drop hints too... Romcoms. Jewellery brochures... Though you’d probably miss them like you missed Valentine’s Day”

The pair were ganging up on him, Keith depressed about the fact they were right. Lance would have loved all that, but his fiancé didn’t need all that. He’d proposed in a horrible hotel room...

“Keith is romantic. Sure, his idea of good date is a trip to a shooting range, or some other combat related activity, but he’s very romantic. I don’t need all the fuss, I just need him”

Hunk faked feeling faint as he grabbed Matt by the arm, Matt playing it up and acting as if he were concerned

“Hunk?!”

“I’m okay... I never thought I’d live to hear Lance say something so unLance like. Pregnancy has changed you, man. Next thing you’ll give up watching your soap operas... Dude, my heart can’t handle the changes”

Keith mentally thanked Lance for trying to stick up for him. He wasn’t the world’s greatest fiancé, yet he felt better that Lance thought he was good enough for him. His fiancé had more to say on the matter

“You two keep picking on Keith. He’s awkward and he’s a little emo, but he makes me happy. We could get engaged in a room so dingy that Jesus couldn’t save it, and I’d still be happy”

Hunk waved his arm, kind of weirdly and kind of as if he were trying to gesture “how big this was”. Keith felt his lips turn upwards as Lance pretty much told everyone they’d gotten engaged while away, yet none of their friends would put two and two together

“But as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always been a sucker for those big movie engagement scenes”

“Movies aren’t real life. Matt, that box wasn’t any of your business. What were you doing in our room?”

“Helping Shiro and Curtis build your present. We were looking for an adjustable spanner”

Lance leaned back to rest his weight on his hands, bottom lip wobbling

“You know the tools are kept in the laundry, and you know you’re not supposed to be in my room...”

“We were...”

No one messed with Lance’s room, or his bed. Lance washed and changed the sheets alone, swapping the blankets whenever the whim took over

“I don’t care. I’m sorry, but I can’t... I need air”

Keith jumped to his feet before Lance started started struggling to his. As Coran went to help the vampire, Lance slapped his hand away with a sad “sorry”. Moving to Lance’s side, Keith looped his arm around his waist

“You guys can take over playing. No listening in”

[somekindoftuber]

vld youtuber AU

youtuber AUs are really fun so here is my take (with klance):

Shiro runs a channel where he restores/repairs motorcycles. It’s really popular because he has a great on-camera presence and soothing voice, not to mention he’s very good looking. He has the facial scar and white hair and has mentioned that he’s a veteran, hence his prosthetic right arm. Keith works with him, and Shiro always introduces him in the intros of his videos, saying, “And my brother Keith is here to be my right hand.” They have a fairly large following, posting weekly videos. Keith mostly stays quiet, except to answer Shiro.

Lance runs a music channel that’s half comedy and half serious, playing guitar and ukulele. He does acoustic covers of songs that should be impossible to do acoustic versions of, and sometimes does comedy lyrics of popular songs. He also posts blooper videos where his cats interrupt him or knock over the camera. He posts one or two times a week, his videos are usually short. He also streams games on Twitch, usually playing music and making people laugh over the mic.

Shiro sometimes does Q&A videos to answer fan questions. Keith usually doesn’t participate, except in the video about their pets. Shiro introduces their two cats, and Keith’s dog Kosmo (who’s a Blue Bay Shepherd mix and is absolutely massive).

Shiro’s channel pops up on Lance’s recommendations one day, and it’s the pet video. Shiro’s cats are in the thumbnail, a giant black shorthair and a long haired red tabby, so he clicks. He instantly likes this guy, his cats are cute, and the quiet, scowling brother in the background with the giant bear-dog is fun to watch. So he subscribes. He finds out that he really likes their videos, despite knowing absolutely nothing about motorcycles. Shiro makes it easy to follow, and he even learns a thing or two.

Lance hears a song he recognizes in one of Shiro’s videos and gets an idea. He gets his guitar and does a comedy cover of the song, making it about repairing motorcycles. He’s proud of the silly lyrics, not able to keep from snickering a few times, and posts the video. He shoots the link over to Shiro, and crosses his fingers.

Two days later he gets a response. Shiro comments on the video saying that he loves it and it made him laugh. Lance is over the moon, and keeps watching Shiro’s videos and commenting on them. Shiro sometimes comments on his and it’s great. As the months go by, Shiro becomes something of a hero to Lance. He’s cool and confident and everything Lance wishes he could be.

Not to mention that his broody little brother is really, really easy on the eyes. Keith is gaining a fanbase, his wiki page full of what few scraps viewers can find about him - including a blurry screenshot of a moment when his shirt rode up to reveal an nondescript tattoo on his hip. There was a good deal of speculation as to what it was of. Not that Lance read that particular reddit thread. Or commented on it. (“I bet it’s a wolf,” he most certainly did not write. Several people agreed.) Who can blame him? Lance likes puzzles and mysteries. What’s more mysterious than a youtuber who never talks and has all of his social media on lockdown?

Lance gushes about Shiro’s channel one night to Pidge, who’s finishing undergrad. Casually as ever, she says, “Yeah, I know Shiro, he’s an old friend of Matt’s.” and Lance loses it. Demands to know more, demands that Pidge set up a meeting. Pidge rolls her eyes, and says maybe, maybe during spring break.

Lance decides to do a charity stream, like he does often. He asks some of his youtuber friends to help promote, including his best friend Hunk who runs his own casual cooking channel (Hunk never shows his face but his videos are still really fun). He tweets about it, feeling pretty good. His last stream went really well and they hit their donation goal. When Lance checks twitter the next day, he’s absolutely beside himself to see that Shiro has retweeted his stream link, saying “My buddy @LanceyLance is doing a charity stream! Check it out!” He may have bounced in his chair and flapped his hands a little when he read that.

The stream goes super well. They surpass their donation goal by hundreds, and he gets a lot of chat messages from people saying they found it via Shiro. Once it’s over, Lance composes an email to Shiro to thank him. He considers mentioning what Pidge says for several minutes before deciding to just go for it. He finishes his email with “PS - I think we have a friend in common?? My buddy Pidge - Katie Holt - says she knows you. Or are you a different Shiro?”

He sends the email before he can second guess himself.

Two days later, he gets a reply, and Shiro confirms that he knows Pidge since he went to high school with her older brother, commenting that it’s a small world. Lance plays it cool, but doubles his efforts to get Pidge to introduce him to Shiro.

“Spring break,” she repeats, then yells at Lance to let her finish her paper.

It’s almost two months until then, so Lance occupies himself with making videos, streaming, and watching Shiro’s channel. Keeping an eye on where Keith pops up in the videos, silent and intense. When late March finally arrives, Lance packs a bag and piles in the car with Pidge for the five hour drive to her hometown, which is apparently also Shiro’s hometown. Pidge’s parents welcome him, and it takes an entire day of nagging Pidge to get her to call Shiro. He’s free the next day.

They head across town to Shiro’s garage and Lance is stoked. So stoked. And as Shiro comes out to meet them, he’s struck by one thing: Shiro is far taller in person than he looks on camera. He shakes Lance’s left hand and shows him around, the bike they’re working on, the cameras, the editing software he still uses, even though it’s a little outdated.

Lance is halfway to asking Shiro if he can meet his cats when the door opens. “Shiro?” a voice calls. “They’re roping off the west side of the street for something. Do you want me to move your --”

He stops when he spots Lance, and Lance sort of feels his breath stop in his chest at the sight. Running gear, hair pulled back, skin glistening with sweat, and a sleeveless shirt with a pair of earbuds hanging out of the collar.

It’s Keith. And Lance has to remember to breathe, because like his brother, he’s taller in person, but he’s also hot. Like crazy hot, goddamn. Even drenched in sweat with his hair sticking to his face and neck and flushed from a run, he’s stupidly gorgeous. The videos absolutely do not do his eyes justice, not even a little, all sharp and intense and deep blue.

He’s just sort of standing there stuck, but thankfully Pidge rescues him with a loud clearing of her throat. Then Shiro swoops in and introduces Lance to Keith. He’s quiet, like in the videos, and slips away as soon as Lance’s attention is elsewhere.

Once Keith is gone, Shiro asks Lance if he’d like to be in a video on his channel, and holy shit. He agrees before he even knows the details, and Shiro laughs. They agree to have Lance come back in three days to film. Right when they’re leaving, Keith re-emerges, showered and changed. Lance waves goodbye to him and hopes Keith doesn’t notice the way Lance’s eyes sweep up and down his body.

Lance spends the next three nights pouring over his guitar.

When he goes over to Shiro’s to film, he’s almost bouncing with excitement. Shiro goes over what they’ll be doing before they start. Lance is downright giddy as Shiro does his intro and calls Lance a “special guest” before they get started. Lance is mostly holding parts in place or passing Shiro tools as he works on the old bike they’ve been hired to restore, but it’s still fun, even if he’s sweating within the first half hour. Keith hovers in the corner, off camera, playing with his phone and looking bored. By the time they finish, he’s covered in grease and exhausted, but happy. Shiro stops filming and they take a break, cracking open a few beers.

Before it’s time to leave, he gets the okay from Shiro and sets up his own camera, bringing out his guitar. He wasn’t sure if he’d have the guts to do this, but Shiro smiles at him, and it all feels okay. Lance turns on his camera, does an intro, and begins to play. It’s an original song, one he wrote just for the occasion over the last few sleepless nights. It’s about new friends and fresh starts and connecting with others and maybe it’s a little cheesy, but it’s heartfelt, and the acoustics of the garage somehow bring it all together. And when he finishes and shuts off his camera, the awed look on Shiro’s face is absolutely worth it. Even Keith looks a little surprised, his eyebrows disappearing into his hair.

He says goodnight to them both and goes back to the Holt family home, showers and changes, and goes to sleep feeling like it’s Christmas and his birthday and the first day of summer vacation all at once.

Pidge has to go back to school to resume classes eventually, and Lance is her transportation, so he has to go too. They stop by Shiro’s garage one last time to deliver a tupperware container of fresh baked cookies, courtesy of Mrs. Holt, and Shiro shakes his hand again. When Lance says goodbye to Keith and shakes his hand, he swears he sees the tiniest hint of a smile on his face. Something he’s never seen.

He spends the entire five hour drive back with excitement buzzing in his veins. He can’t wait to edit and post that video.

CONTINUED IN PART TWO HERE

[raiyakun]

Two Worlds 

━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━

As always my brain randomly decides to kick into overdrive when thinking of AUs so it took on a life of its own (ADKJSHDKASD), but this was very fun to think of so please have the rest of it under the cut.

(TW for those who might be prompted to check out W: [mostly minor] character deaths, violence, blood, which get more prevalent in later episodes. The music volume changes quickly at certain points too. My concept so far only covers the early half of the series, but still TW for mentions of violence, blood, and minor character deaths.)

(Also a sidenote because I’ve had comments with other AU concepts (；´∀｀) This won’t be a 1:1 AU. The basic premise stands but I make a bunch of changes especially with character roles like splitting and/or splicing roles.) 

❝Keith Kogane is the hero of the immensely popular action mystery webcomic W. Marco McClain, the series’ artist and writer, has become practically a household name as everyone has gotten addicted to the story of Keith, a young man who once rose to fame as the prodigy who became the youngest Olympic judo gold medalist at 18 under his father’s training but gets embroiled in a series of tragedies and injustices as his father is later found dead in their home and his mother discovered missing, with Keith framed and later imprisoned for the murder and abduction by the ambitious prosecutor Zarkon Daibazaal.

Keith is later proven innocent and released following a year in prison, then disappears from the public eye for years only to reemerge later as the successful co-CEO of Voltron Co., and alongside his mentor and brother figure Takashi Shirogane, co-CEO Allura Altea, and assistant Acxa Marmora, he establishes W, a TV program that aims to solve criminal cases and mysteries and give people the justice that they seek for. But Keith’s ultimate goal is to find his father’s killer and his mother’s whereabouts, a goal which he will stop at nothing to achieve.

Meanwhile, Lance McClain is a new resident in the esteemed cardiovascular and thoracic surgery department of the Garrison University Hospital under the tutelage of Professor Iverson, who doesn’t exactly have the most stellar impression of him. That is, until Iverson learns that Lance is the younger brother of Marco McClain, writer and artist of W. Lance sees this as a chance to get on Iverson’s good side and decides to visit his brother Marco, who in reality has had little contact with his family after dropping out of medical school to pursue being a comic artist, much to the disapproval of his and Lance’s parents. His sister Veronica, herself also a doctor at the same hospital, advises him against the idea, but Lance decides to push through.

At Marco’s studio, though, Lance learns through his friends Hunk and Pidge, both assistants to Marco, that his brother has been missing since the previous night, which is a problem since the deadline for W’s latest chapter was the next day. They have absolutely no idea where he could’ve gone, and in the middle of their conversation, Lance finds out about Marco’s plan to kill off his comic’s main character, much to his disbelief. Hunk brings him into Marco’s room to show the last panel he’d worked on his tablet, showing Keith lying in a pool of blood on a hotel rooftop after getting stabbed by the story’s mysterious killer.

After Hunk leaves him alone in the room to attend to a call from the editor, a bloody hand suddenly shoots out from Marco’s tablet to pull him in, and Lance finds himself on a high rooftop, with nobody but a bloody young man with a mullet at his feet. 

Lance is incredibly confused, but quickly jumps into action and helps out the man, saving him from dying from a collapsed lung by puncturing his chest with a pen, the man’s eyes opening for a split second just as Lance does so. After paramedics arrive to bring the man to the hospital (with Lance feeling quite proud he managed to save someone under pressure. Take that, Iverson!), Lance is thanked by the hospital’s manager, and Lance learns the name of who he’d just saved: Keith Kogane.

Wait. Is it a coincidence? For him to have the same name as Marco’s character? But Lance recalls the bloody hand that pulled him in and realizes how the man was lying exactly like Keith in the drawn panel was. And at the corner of his vision, Lance catches the words To be continued appearing out of thin air just before he finds himself back in Marco’s room. 

And that’s how Lance’s curious experiences with moving between reality and (what should have been) fiction begin. What’s worse is that whatever events that happen while he is in the comic world end up getting reflected in W’s story, to the point that Iverson accuses his of forcing his brother to base a new character on himself.

And Marco is little help to Lance’s predicament. He reappears like nothing happened and refuses to listen to his younger brother talking about what he experienced, instead cryptically proclaiming that he needs Keith to die in the comic, even if it goes against what the readers and his editors (and Hunk and Pidge) are hoping he would do.

Lance manages to save Keith’s life a second time after getting sucked into the W world again, and he discovers that the world follows a weird logic that revolves around its main character, and that Lance would only be able to get back to the real world whenever something shocking to Keith happens. 

As for Keith, meeting the man who saved him on the rooftop that one fateful night leads him to believe that he has the key to his existence, his purpose. But the man seems elusive and....very weird. He has a nameーLance McClainーbut it’s as if he swims in and out of existence, with no one knowing him or him disappearing without a trace. But despite his friends’ doubt, Keith is resolute that Lance McClain holds the answer to the mystery governing his life.

The question is, is that a mystery both him and Lance are prepared to unravel?❞

(end of Part One)

This was getting long so I just decided to bunch the rest of some important details into bullet points (；´∀｀) (there’s a LOT more since a ton of stuff happen in the series so there’s a bunch more to come after this. Some might be confusing if you don’t know what happens in the series but I’ll try to clear them up in later posts ksdjfhksdfj)

Romance isn’t a big point in W, but its readers popularly believe that Marco is building a love triangle with Keith and Allura, with whom Keith shares a hatred for Zarkon and some common ground due to her parents also having been murdered, and Acxa, who used to work for Zarkon but whom Keith convinces of Zarkon’s evil and hires as a personal assistant-slash-bodyguard. Lance believed this too, at first, since when they were younger Marco told him about his plans, although at present Lance isn’t sure if Marco still intends it since he’s only played with the idea in the really early chapters but has not touched upon it again. (Later, when Lance and Keith realize they’re falling for each other and the comic IRL begins to turn into a romantic comedy, Iverson rants at Lance about how the story is getting completely ruined by the “new character Lance” and that Keith should’ve gotten set up with one of the two heroines, only for Lance to yell back at him “Well how are you completely sure Keith is into girls in the first place!”)

Shiro’s role is a combination of Do-yoon’s and Hyun-seok’s from W. He was an athlete also trained by Keith’s father and a close family friend. He took Keith in after his release from prison and became the program manager of W. (No, he does not get Hyun-seok’s fate.)

Hunk and Pidge share Soo-bong’s role, although their reactions to realizing Lance can somehow get into the webcomic world are very different: Hunk is extremely anxious while Pidge gets excited and curious.

Keith’s father was murdered by stabbing, and Zarkon framed Keith as the murderer with the knife that Keith got as a gift from his mother as the murder weapon. It’s what Keith secretly keeps under his pillow (which Lance is aware of, much to Keith’s shock. But Lance only knows it thanks to having a lot of knowledge about the webcomic details from the real world).

Lance gets caught by the police in the comic a similar way that Yeon-joo in the series does, but this isn’t due to any purposeful set up by Allura or Acxa the same way the series did for So-hee. I really don’t like how the writing treated So-hee sdjkfsdkjfksf. Lance genuinely becomes friends with Allura and Acxa, and instead it’s Zarkon, thinking that he can use Lance as the key to send Keith to jail permanently, who’s the reason Lance is caught by the police. Allura and Acxa try to help him out but are prevented by Zarkon until Keith’s return.

Marco used to be very close to both Veronica and Lance when they were younger, since all three used to share a love for comics and Marco had a talent for drawing (and although they don’t remember it at first, both Lance and Veronica contributed ideas to what eventually became W). But their parents wanted them to aim for “real” jobs and pressured Marco into studying medicine. While Marco rebelled and left, becoming a small artist that anyone barely knew until W blew up, Veronica chose to bury her love for comics and pursue medicine, thus becoming a doctor. Lance is caught between the two routes they took (wanting to pursue his own dreams like Marco or persisting in the field with Veronica). Despite looking stern most of the time, Veronica is indeed worried and cares for both her brothers.

Eventually, Veronica gets roped into the mess as well, especially after Marco gets attacked and sent to the hospital and when she finds a hysterical Hunk and Pidge yelling about them and Lance getting chased by a killer only for her to find Lance passed out and so weak he needs to be hospitalized.

Eventually, both Lance and Veronica realize that they are able to influence the W world too, since the comic’s logic recognizes them as “part-creators” due to Marco having taken inspiration from them when he was originally planning the comic. I may or may not have a Veracxa agenda here KJFHKDJFHDKSJFHD. Bottom line is: instead of just Yeon-joo and her dad in the original, the three siblings can get dragged into the comic. Okay I admit there is a Veracxa agenda here.

Aaaaaannnnd more to come because W has like 3-4 arcs and both my sister and I can’t stop watching it because it’s cliffhangers everywhere KJDHKJSHKSDJFHKDF

[cloudywithachanceofwatering]

shatt - peter pan'd

prompt by - @princesss353 [ thank you so much !! it means a really stupid lot to me when people give me prompts . i hope i did you didly good justice !! :"DDDD ]

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preface - an au where shiro is peter pan and he meets wendy who is adam . matt is tinkerbell and gets jealous .

notes - i added pidge as rosetta , lance as silvermist , curtis as iridessa , keith as vidia , hunk as fawn , allura as periwinkle

i'm moving really far from the traditional because i have literally never watched peter pan in my entire miserable life . whoopsies :""""""""">

so uh i'll be saying their names as per usual because tinkermatt , katierose and shiropan sound like literal trashbags filled with even more unbiodegradable trashbags . and we don't like that kinda shite here .

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" there's this new boy that shiro's brought back . isn't that interesting ? " katie whispered as shiro flew around , with him , frolicking in the cool night sky . " shut up , i'm not blind , " matt muttered angrily , his wings flapping a bit harder and much more harshly . " chill out , it's just a newbie , it's okay , " katie patted his back as he flicked her hand away and fluttered up to try and catch up with shiro .

matt fluttered around as nimbly as his unproportionally large wings could get him to , swerving and dodging other fairies and plants before finally catching up to them . " shiro , who's this ? " he cocked a eyebrow up at the newcomer , subconciously staring him up and down . katie followed playfully , albeit cautiously , behind him .

" a little love triangle i smell , " she whispered teasingly as she flicked between shiro and matt's gaze . " lance's going to get a kick out of this , " she exaggerated , fake punching a bit before spiralling up to find him . matt tripped her as best as he could , but her wings were better suited for her and she just cackled off , spiralling upwards fast .

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shiro just nervously let go of the newcomer's hand , slowly so matt wouldn't notice . but alas , matt has always could see . he turned his head sharply and narrowed his eyes . " i didn't know you were gonna miss teatime for what ? this newcomer who you could've left for keith to figure out ? " he hissed softly , his wings flapoing more erratically . " i-it's nothing much matt , don't worry !! i-i'm just nearly done and i'll send adam back soo - i mean the newcomer !! " shiro stuttered nervously , his hand scratching the back of his neck as he averted matt's piercing gaze .

matt instantly got that

1) this was'nt just any new fairy ,

and 2) a human . :/

he narrowed his eyes even more , reading his nervous and panicked face . matt cocked his head sideways , smiling tightly like a rosebud . " you can't hide any information from me , sweetie , " he said sweetly , bitter sap dropping from his words like it was secreted from his lips . his narrowed eyes turned doelike and innocent , yet his stare gave it all away .

he faced this ' adam ' calmly . " why don't you introduce your new ... ' friend ' ... to me , " matt drawled , feeling increasingly angrier . " why are you so frustrated and pent-up ? it's his job to show me around and stuff , right ? " adam glanced at shiro hintingly , trying to get out of this hot nectar brewing .

" uhm . y-yeah . gotta do all that . a-and like , we need to get a-moving along s-so yeah , " shiro backed up a bit trying to escape .

matt just huffed and snarled a bit , showing his teeth to shiro , " you can't lie to me , eventually he's suddenly ' coming to show him around , sorry can't hang out , gotta stay with newbie os he doesn't get lost , oh no i have too much gotta miss teatime three more times , ' and you expect me to believe you ? " and just like that , matt did a sharp 180 degrees downwards and went back to his home in the pixie tree .

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knocking a few fairies and growling even more irritated , people started to avoid him the moment he reached into his sack of pixie dust . he slammes the door behind him and fell into his bed , trying to not rip up everything in from of him . he screamed into his pillow , but pretty much everyone in a five mile radius [ in human , not fairy ] could hear it .

and then katie winced as she heard it from all the way by shiro's side . " maybe go uhhhh , i dunno , apologize ? i mean , teatime is pretty big for matt after all , " lance winced , the nearly dew on the tree leaves spiking up . katie just stared right into his soul blankly , a bit shaken up . " why does he have to though ? he didn't do anything wrong ! " adam protested as nearby fairies all simultaniously created a circle around them in order not to get into it .

katie laughed painfully . " oh , you naive child . oh dear . this isn't going to go good . where's curtis , that light bringing boy ?? " she fretted a bit , fear building up a bit more and more . " uh , probably with her little glowy fireflies but i'm pretty sure he's using pixie dust to speed up at this point , " lance sighed defeatedly . " good luck shiro , have fun , we're there for backup . "

adam huffed furiously , having enough . " what's up with this ? can't you tell shiro's just being a good friend ? obviously , you wouldn't know - everyone's so pent-up ! stop being so flipping rude and irritating , especially that other browned haired fluffy freckled boy-girl hybrid thing !! i honestly can't tell if they're female or not - at this point , they might as well should be . it's so feminine , doesn't look anything like a boy to be frank with you . "

and basically everyone who had created a circle created a even larger circle and went full one mile radius in human length .

katie and lance waved nervously goodbye before they got into any trouble , because goddamnit was the whole crew going to whack his adam butt .

once keith got wind of it [ ha ] , he sent the message along to hunk and allura so they could make some peace gifts for matt to soothe his erratic soul , even more so than keith's .

quickly , everyone dispersed as far as possible from adam and shiro . even shiro flew all the way to the wintery section . " you see , you must not say such evil things like that , don't be so curt !! you're not curtis !! besides , you're going to get us all in trou - "

" well it isn't my fault he's the one brewing trouble like it's coffee ! " adam snapped back quickly , trying to pull away from shiro's iron grip . " let go of me ! what's wrong with you uptight fairy people ? " he hissed , frowning . shiro cringed , " your words you will regret very quickly . c'mon , we gotta go far before they catch us . just ... remember your surroundings okay ? no time for tour . "

after a while , shiro sighed and paused for a second , tired . " listen , this is slow-drip coffee - intense flavour . not just any kind of coffee . speak carefully , " shiro warned . and that actually made brave and naive adam a bit wary .

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back in the matt house , things were brewing badly . the coffee was intensely bitter and even more so with matt's bitter sap secretion .

hunk and allura had brought peace presents of items to fix and wonderful parts for hin to tinker with , persuading him to work on it to get his mind off as katie gave him little plants to take care of . lance soothed him , gifting im handpicked pebbles , a beautiful seashell comb , seaweed scarves and coral hairclips . curtis let his two little firefly buddies blink happily and dance around as he set up a little place for spiders to weave soft curtains for him .

" yknow , it isn't so bad . nobody thinks as horribly as adam does . i like your feminine curves , very complementing for your sharp features , " lance said gently , combing his hair as katie patted his hand . " i think that you'll quite enjoy fixing my collinder lamp that i've finally decided to give in to you , " she laughed gently , smoothing out his messy soft curls and pinning them down .

but even with all their nonstop efforts , matt still adorned the same angry frown , staring blankly past everyone .

lance poured a bit of tea for everyone , and hunk presented some little treats for them to all share on matt's anvil table . " i know you enjoy scones and macaroons and such soft delicacies , so here's a little test recipe - friendly for fairies and woodland animals ! " he beamed proudly , as the rest oooh and ahhhed in awe .

matt's gaze broke for a second the moment he heard ' scones . ' " ... are these the super soft and buttery ones ? " he cracked out , his voice ruined from the massive pillow scream . he gazed at it longingly , his frown sloely disappearing as he glanced up to hunk's face .

hunk beamed even brighter , comparable to curtis' fireflies . the fireflies lights blinked happily , their wings showing even more happiness . " listen my guy , not even i have tried it ! and i'm hunk's top of the top tester !! tale the first bite , your honour , " lance bowed , and the rest followed along . carefully , matt took a scone and bit into it .

" i have ascended . "

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keith , in that time , had rounded up shiro and adam . " listen , if it wasn't that you were my best mate , i would have beat you and your big mouthed ' friend ' up , " keith whispered dangerously . shiro gulped , resigning to his fate . " at least matt is appeased to some extent ... riiiiiiiiight ? " shiro breathed out even quieter than keith's words . " oh , how i hope , " adam replied sarcastically , every inch of wariness expelled from his system as he started rolling his eyes . to top it all off , he mocked keith as he crossed his arms sassily , giving him a ' whatchu gonna do now ? ' smirk .

keith narrowed his eyes - " you better hope so , i'm only here to be making sure shiro doesn't get hit up too much by the rest . " keith led them back to matt's home quickly , a bit to fast for shiro's liking .

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shiro gulped loudly as keith rapped on his door , adam snickering softly at the childishness of all oof its decor - flower door knocker ? gates made out of old forks and spoons ? a little succulent garden and pond ? to top it all off , a ridiculously small yet intricate table for two with gold legs and a flower centrepiece . a singular large flower . hanging bowls of plants from his patio too - how much more stupid could it get ? little flower shaped lights ? pfft !

matt had happily hopped to the door , wanting to share some of his yummy gifts and the rest waiting , clearing their throats and shifting anxiously . he didn't notice through his wonderful mood , smiling brightly as he opened the door . " hello !! who's there ?? wanna come in i have scones an - " his face fell and darkened , shiro with a tight lipped and forced smile as adam stood casually with crossed arms , snickering a bit as he saw matt .

" sorry to ruin your mood , but they deserve a little pain from the rest , " keith said too coolly , a naughty little smile peaking a bit . matt noticed it and scoffed a bit , proceeding to tug keith's hand to signal him to come in . " say the password , takashi , " matt stared with creased eyebrows , tilting his face up a bit to stare him down even harder . " u-uh ... i-it's teatime ? " he uttered nervously , second crossing and doubting himself even though he's said it thousands and thousands of times .

to his pleasant surprise , matt smiled brightly . " okay !! come in , 'cause i wanna give you a scarfie that lancey gave me and pin your little fluff with a pink coral clip and all , " he bounced up and down a bit , his wings fluttering with excitement . shiro calmed down , breathing out as he realized he wasn't breathing and pulled matt in close to hug him , feeling even better when matt hugged back .

" i shouldn't be all evilly and all , plus i still gotta do my workies and finish my teatimey and dress up my sister and the rest and visit mama , " matt bounced back to his seat , drinking tea and slurping quietly . " i'm sorry if i'm meanie , i just want shiro's huggies , that's all , " matt frowned , slurping his tea even harder .

the atmosphere immediately relaxed as shiro stepped in and stood next to matt and gave him a tiny kiss , matt's wings flutterring a bit faster the moment shiro's lips pushed against his soft , dense brown hair . matt smiled happily , a soft mhmm of approval from allura .

keith held hunk's hand and squeezed lightly , his dark emo evil heart melting a bit . oh no . a true disaster . hunk just smiled and shoved another scone into his face happily .

lance wrapped his arm around katie and melted , her laughing and wrapping her arm around his waist , tightening her grip and releasing it .

curtis put down his teacup into his saucer and scratched his fireflies under their chins , pleased that matt did not implode .

adam just looked around the room , instantly feeling pretty trash about the mean things he'd said about fairies and matt . really , they're just overprotective of one another as fairies .

apologies and some hunk tears were shed and a very pleasant teatime occured , albeit late in the afternoon .

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

epilogue - soon after , a little magical queen decided that he could stay , and he gladly did .

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

note - IS HUNK REALLY SO UNPOPULAR THAT HE DOESNT HAVE A TAG ?? :"""""///// NOT TAGGING SHIPS BECAUSE ITS VERY LITTLE AND UH

Its 0016 so thats why i didnt put the ending apology also i donT KNOW HOW SO YEAH END BYEBYE AAAAAA

Damn 30 tags aight then

Goodnight !!

[rueitae]

Bound

Read my whumptober collection on Ao3

Wild West AU!

~~~~~

The world spins as the ground smashes into Lance’s face. The impact worsens his headache and hurts like a headbutt from Ol’ Kaltenecker, but he can hardly find the strength to really register the pain. 

No sooner as he finally manages to place a palm on the prairie ground to lift himself up, he’s dragged to his knees by his assailants. The jerking motion sends fresh, sharp wave of pain through the top of his head and he has to shut his eyes to not throw up at the swirly sights in front of him. 

“What’do we do boss? Shoot him? Hang him?” Levidy squeals in delight. “Maybe… maybe we can scalp ‘im?”

Lance groans. An idiot Levidy might be but he’s under no false pretenses that he would shoot Lance without hesitation if ordered. Not that Lance is any less of an idiot, riding out to check on a cattle rustling tip alone. 

Catch up on the paperwork, Pidge, then I don’t have to do it, Lance mocks himself. I’ll bring you back a nice steak for lunch no problem!

Even in his dazed state, he hears the train whistle. His heart sinks, even if they let him live, he won’t make it to the station on time to collect the package he ordered for Pidge. 

“I think our dear sheriff deserves to go out with a bit more pomp and circumstance, Levidy,” says the leader of the gang. Too smart for his own good, Steelman always seems to be two steps ahead of the law. If he’d just let Pidge come with instead of trying to keep her out of his elaborate surprise...

“Bind him,” Steelman orders. “And make it tight,” he continues almost cheerfully, “he’s proven to be slippery when he wants.”

Lance glares, willing Steelman - blurry as he is to Lance - to drop dead where he stands. Growling, he rises from knee to foot, working for leverage.

Steelman clicks the safety off his custom revolver and points it at Lance. “Let Levidy do his job, Sheriff. We’ll let you do yours in time.”

“I will see you get justice,” Lance vows, though he slumps to his knees, wrists already burning as he tugs at the rope snug to his skin. “You won’t get away with this. Everyone knows the train is coming for this herd, and the time.” He can’t help a smug grin. “You’ll be tracked down before you can take one steer.”

But Steelman’s cruel smile just grows wider and more menacing. “That’s where you’ve provided a surprising boon for us.” The rope winds around his chest, keeping his strained arms uncomfortably close to his body. “You see, trains stop automatically if there is an accident. And you, dear Sheriff, will provide us with that accident.” 

The rope tugs in exclamation before Levidy ties it off. It doesn’t hurt, but Lance’s chest constricts at the knowledge of what is to become of him. 

Levidy hauls him roughly to his feet and Lance refuses to move, he can at least stall for time in the slim chance someone else is out here. “I’m not going to help you with your insane plan.”

Steelman clicks his tongue in disappointment. “I’d hate to blow your brains out right here, it’d be a pity to sully the wildflowers.” He gestures forward with his gun. “Move.”

Lance stumbles forward, pushed from behind. 

He hates being out of control of the situation. The only one he’d ever trust to tie him up like this is back at the office doing paperwork because he was too lazy to bring her along and do it himself when he got back. 

Levidy drags him up the grassy hill by the collar of his shirt. Lance barely keeps up, unable to tell what is up or down, his boots and pants scraping on the dirt, throat tight every time he’s pulled. 

Finally, he’s allowed to lay on the ground. But this ground isn’t hard like the soil, its distinctly iron. 

Rail iron. 

“Nice and easy, Levidy, make the good sheriff comfortable.” 

Lance tries to focus, blinking rapidly until his head settles. The railroad track goes on as far as he can see - in the distance already he can see the steam from the engine of the Continental Express. 

And he lies in its direct path, neck literally on the chopping block when the wheels come rolling through. 

He should move, and he tries, but his legs are stuck. Levidy hovers over them with rope - tying him to the track then. 

Quiznak, he’s really going to die here. 

“Pidge is going to kill you,” he spits - at the very least he has his pride. “I guarantee you that.”

Steelman walks over the tracks and kneels, pistol still in one hand. The madman cups the other under Lance chin, and pushes back punishingly. Lance chokes, his neck strained so far that he can almost see behind him. His captor holds him there, looking him over as if examining golden specks on a rock. 

“I think I will miss you, Sheriff,” he says regretfully, though Lance knows its fake. “But do not worry about your little deputy. Her brains will be put to good use once I have her, and if not, there are other ways to put her to use.”

Lance inhales sharply. “Don’t you touch her,” he seethes.

Steelman lightly pats his cheek, as if comforting a small child. “I will take good care of her,” he says cruelly, “I promise.”

“You worthless piece of s-mmmhhmmmm!” Lance yells angrily, as loud and as obnoxiously as he can even after the gag is tied at the back of his head. 

“Sweet dreams, Sheriff.” Steelman stands and tips his hat in mock respect. “I’ll toast to you later tonight as I take the train and your deputy to San Francisco.”

Then he leaves, out of sight far too quickly for Lance’s liking. 

Lance screams, squirms, twists, every type of movement he can think of to escape, but even as he loosens the rope slightly it holds fast, exhausting him and cutting into his skin. 

The train whistle is closer, he can see the line of freight cars rumbling over the hill. Lance struggles harder. 

Lance has regrets. Though he’ll die on the job - just the thought of being decapitated this way chews at his insides, not that he’ll be around to feel it much longer - he can’t help but think that he always expected to go out guns blazing like Shiro had, regardless of Pidge’s conspiracy theory that he was still alive.

He regrets not marrying Pidge years ago. Waiting until they could pass the badge on to someone else seems like foolishness when he reflects on it. She won’t even get the postmortem cash from the government - at least she knows where his life savings are kept, she can use that to pick up the search for her brother again.

She’s going to receive the package addressed to him, ring intended for her, after he’s died. Because if he’s sure of one thing, Pidge will be able to outwit Steelman.

The ground rattles and him with it. 

The shrieking sound of the train breaking fills the air. It’s stopping, Lance realizes a flicker of hope. But it’s far too late. Even if the Conductor has seen him and applied the breaks he’s still going to die. 

Lance breathes heavy and rapidly, because soon he won’t have a head to do so at all. He cries in fear because no one will see him, there is no one to hide from. 

The train whistle gets louder. Lance can smell the burnt coals and feels the crackle of electricity from the wheels against the rails. The breaking becomes nearly unbearable in his ears, more shrill than barkeeper Coran singing in the saloon. 

The sky goes dark. A wheel brushes up against his neck.

And stops. 

No more squeal of the breaks, only the cooling down of the engine. 

He isn’t dead. In a rare moment, Lance can’t find his own voice as he stares directly up at the front of the engine. If the train had failed to stop any sooner than it did…

“Lance!”

Against all odds, his deputy and the love of his life jumps out of the engine, her signature green boots pounding on the ground. 

Never in his life has he been more overjoyed to see her.

Pidge kneels before him with horrified eyes behind her empty frames, ripping off his gag.

Lance gasps. “How did… you were at the office…”

She flops on top of him, which Lance immediately decides isn’t fair as he can’t exactly hug her back. “Like I was going to stay behind and do paperwork while you investigated something that smelled like Steelman and his flunkies,” she tells him with a choked voice. 

“But.. how did you know I’d be…”

Pidge sniffs. “Because he’s a showman. There’s no way he’d pass up something like this when he sees it in the movies. Quiznak, Lance,” she sobs into the rope around his chest. “I thought I was going to lose you.” 

Lance laughs, though he feels no humor in it. “I guess I can’t die, not as long as you’re my sidekick.”

Though she still cries, Lance catches the briefest of smiles and a distinct laugh among the tears. “We’ve talked about this, I’m not your sidekick, goofball.”

No more waiting. Not after this far too close for comfort incident. “What about my wife?”

A moment of silence before Pidge raises her head, an incredulous look on her tear stained face. “I just spent the last few hours in fear for you life, you nearly died, and you’re proposing now?”

Lance smiles, pleased to get a rise out of her - the thrill of catching his normally ‘prepared for anything’ deputy off guard. “I can’t think of a better time,” he says, pouring all sincerity into his voice. 

Pidge huffs in frustration, but yet she smiles. “How can I say anything but yes if you put it like that?”

He shifts uncomfortably, the soreness of being tied up finally getting to him. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day… but can you untie me before we kiss?”

Lance knows he’s screwed when Pidge gets a defiant gleam in her eye. “You don’t need your arms and legs to kiss me.”

Well, Lance thinks as she leans down and meets his lips with her own, at least the kiss is worth it. 

[panda-noosh]

Heyooo, I haven’t gotten this idea out of my head and thought you could it the most justice - fugitive/hiding out for Lotor and reader after Zarkon announces to kill them, reader is there to convince voltron to give Lotor refuge? Thanks so much for opening requests 💖💞✨💞💖

   “You don’t have to do this.”

   He said that like it was so simple, as if you were able to just put his life on hold. He was Lotor at the end of the day - you knew full well he would never let you put your own life at risk for the sake of his, but this was different.

    You weren’t putting your life at risk. You were putting your dignity at risk.

    You clenched your teeth, resisting the urge to spin around and tell Lotor to just shut up. This was going to be difficult enough on its own without his smooth voice ringing in your ear, trying to tug you back from the plan at hand. You needed to just get this over with, and then you would be safe.

    If all went to plan.

   You raised your hand and knocked on the door. A simple gesture, but the knock echoed in your head, followed by an abrupt and eerie silence that made your head spin; they weren’t going to answer. Somehow they had seen that it was you and Lotor approaching the doors, and they were going to shut you both out and leave you for dead. Zarkon was going to find you and there would be absolutely no hope after-

    The doors shot open, and a voice boomed through.

    “Hurry up and get inside. The doors can’t be open for long.”

   Lotor grabbed your arm protectively, shooting you a cautious sideways glance. You simple grinned at him, no longer caring about the risks - nothing could be as dangerous as standing outside whilst Zarkon’s men were looking for you. 

    You grabbed Lotor’s hand in your hand and rushed into the warmth and welcoming aura of the castleship that you had heard so much about. The walls were adorned by Altean crystals - crystals you hadn’t seen in a long, long time. It made your heart hurt, the memories of your forgotten and destroyed planet. Gently, you trailed your fingers along the crystals in question, admiring the way they responded beneath your skin. They glowed, recognising the Altean in front of them.

    Lotor stepped up beside you. “Do you feel at home?”

   You were just about to reply when the doors up ahead shot open and suddenly multiple large guns were being thrust in your face. You stumbled back, Lotor grabbing a hold of you and stepping in front of you protectively. He snarled, glaring at the Paladins who were now stood in front of him with an equally as vicious stance.

    “What the hell are you two doing here?” Lance demanded.

    “Oh trust me, Paladin, this was our last resort,” Lotor growled back.

    You pushed Lotor to the side and stepped forward, bowing gracefully to the warriors in front of you. Pidge even had the decency to look surprised at the action, ever-so-slowly lowering her gun as she took in your appearance. Despite your relations with Lotor, the Paladins of Voltron had never been an enemy to you. Though they had no reason to trust Lotor, they had never given you the same grief.

    You were thankful for those bonds now, hands raised to show you were weaponless.

   “We’re not here to start a fight,” you said as gently as possible. “We’re here for help.”

   Lotor shivered at the word, clearly not accostomed to asking for help from anybody - especially not a group of people who claimed to hate him.

    Shiro raised a brow, staring at you directly in the eyes. “What kind of help? We have no weapons for you.”

   “We don’t want weapons,” you said. “We want refuge.” You gritted your teeth, remembering the speech Zarkon had given, telling his people - his followers - that if any of them saw you or Lotor, they were to kill you both on sight. 

    You recalled this very story to the Paladins, all of whom fell silent and lowered their weapons as you spoke. You could feel Lotor’s presence behind you, the way his arms rubbed against your spine as he trembled with anger and fatigue - neither of you had slept in a number of days, too busy looking for a safe haven to stop for rest. The food you had been eating hadn’t been too filling, either, meaning your stomach groaned with the need for proper nutrients even as you spoke.

    Once the story was over, the Paladins fell silent for a number of seconds, a silent discussion that consisted entirely of side-eyed glances and the odd shrug, as if pondering over whether or not to trust you.

    “We don’t need your acceptance,” Lotor suddenly growled, and you squeezed your eyes closed. “We can take our chances back out there, but-”

   “No, we can’t,” you hissed. “Zarkon wants Lotor dead.”

   “Can you blame the guy?” Hunk said.

    “Lotor isn’t the problem here,” you continued. “He thinks that what Zarkon is doing is awful - just like we all do.”

   “Get him to tell us that, and then maybe I’ll believe you,” said Keith.

    You turned, glancing at Lotor over your shoulder. You gave him no look of warning, no prompting shove, because you knew you didn’t need to. It didn’t matter how angry Lotor became, he would never claim to believe that his father was doing the right thing - not for anyone. Not whenever his fathers actions had affected him so brutally.

    He inhaled deeply, looking back at you as he said, “The only reason my father wants me dead is because I’m against his actions. I’m not helping. He thinks that means I’m some kind of rebel.”

   “So he put his own son on the chopping block?” Pidge asked.

   “Y/N and I both,” Lotor corrected, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around your waist. “He’s going for everything I love - starting from the very top.”

   You bit your lip, gently leaned into Lotor to tell him that you heard him, that you would never give up on him, no matter how many threats Zarkon put out for your life. You were going to stay by his side for as long as it took.

     The Paladins - once again - shared unsure glances before Lance stepped forward. His actions shocked you, especially when he reached forward and ran the back of his knuckles against the marks on your cheeks. You stiffened beneath his touch, had to tighten your hold on Lotor’s arm to stop him from jumping forward and sending his own knuckles into Lance’s face.

    “Altean,” he whispered. 

    “My home planet,” you confirmed, just as softly.

    Lance’s eyes met yours for only the briefest of moments before he span around to face his friends. “We have to let them in. I think they’re being genuine.”

   Hunk’s eyes widened. “I didn’t take you as the easy type.”

   “We’ve lost too many Alteans as it is,” said Lance. “Allura and Coran will be heartbroken if we don’t at least give them a chance to speak to people like them. They think they’re the last of their kind.”

     “Lotor isn’t a full-born Altean,” Pidge brought up.

   “My mother was Altean,” said Lotor. “But I understand if Y/N is better suited to whatever meeting you plan on setting up.”

    “Let them sleep first,” said Shiro. 

    It went quiet.

    It took a little while for the meaning behind his words to actually set in, but once they did, your eyes widened and your jaw had fallen agape.

    Shiro shrugged. “Don’t think too much into it.”

   “You’re letting us stay?” you exclaimed. 

    “Again,” Shiro replied, already turning to start down the hallway, “don’t think too much into it.”

   +++

   “You were incredible out there.”

   Lotor wound his arms around your waist, tugging you into his chest as you worked at the mirror, unfastening the clips that had held up your knotted hair for the past three days.

    You met his eyes in the reflection, giving him a tiny smile. “We’re safe now, aren’t we?”

   “Thanks to you.” Lotor paused. “Well, as safe as we can be. I’m sure my father will find a way to track us down eventually.”

   “At least we’ve made his job that little bit harder.”

    Lotor smiled, nuzzling his head in the crook of your neck and placing a soft kiss against the flesh. “You’ve always been one to look on the bright side, haven’t you?”

   You turned in your seat, wrapping your arms around his middle. “Only since I met you.” 

[psychicscavenger]

The Spell

@deathbystorm Hi! I was your Shance Valentines Exchange gifter! One of your prompts was for a sleeping beauty type au where they get together afterwards, but Shiro had never intended to tell Lance his feelings for him’

Hope i did the prompt justice! You can read at ao3 here or I’ll post the fic under the cut! Enjoy~

Title: The Spell

ship: Shance

tags: sleeping beauty elements, light angst, fluff, angst with a happy ending

It was supposed to have been a simple diplomatic mission.

Shiro and the rest of the paladins had been invited to a planet for a possible ally ship and hopefully persuade their ruler to join the Coalition against the Galra. The people so far, no matter how beautiful with their tough rock-like exteriors and shimmering eyes, had been very rude with even their King snorting at the idea of joining sides with Voltron. Allura had done all that she could to persuade them but their King seemed uninterested, thinking their small Geode monsters would be enough defense despite the fact they were less than a quarter size compared to Voltron itself.

So they had a brief interlude, the King announcing a quick break with some of his loyal subjects meeting and interacting with the Paladins, thankfully they were hospitable in ways the King wasn't. In fact, the King's son Prince Pyrite was more welcoming than he was. Especially towards a certain paladin who he was sharing a small private conversation with that had Lance giggling cutely every five minutes which made Shiro's blood boil.

So it wasn't exactly known that Shiro had fond feelings towards the Blue Paladin, feelings more fond than the ones he had for the rest of his teammates. He was and always had been a private person, usually going after his interests in a quiet manner however he had ultimately decided a long time ago not to pursue anything regarding his crush towards Lance. One reason being Lance was very flirtatious with him and just about anyone he meets. Shiro recalls with a bitter laugh how one time, Lance had even flirted with a Galran enemy during a mission.

"I was distracting him for you!" Lance had huffed while the rest of the others had laughed at his offended expression while Shiro had sat quietly in the corner, trying to get the image of Lance making bedroom eyes at the blushing agent out of his mind. The most disappointing part was how the flirting had actually worked to their benefit, a fact Shiro was not amused by.

So yeah, Lance probably wouldn't take it serious if Shiro were to come forward with his feelings. There was also the issue that he was essentially Lance's superior officer temporarily given his status of being Voltron's leader. Maybe it wasn't a big deal but Shiro didn't want any relationship of his to be seen as some kind of power imbalance, especially with someone he cared for deeply, so he would do the right thing and keep it to himself. No matter how infuriating it was to watch Prince Pyrite's hands wander closer and closer to Lance's backside every minute they spoke.

"Shiro!" The Black Paladin turned, hoping his glaring wasn't too noticeable as he faced Princess Allura who had a concerned expression as she glanced around, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Allura?" Shirp prompted, curious as to why the Princess was acting weirdly, for her anyway.

"Shiro, we need to leave now. Coran just informed me he had been reading through some communication logs between members of the Coalition when he stumbled upon a log that was between the Galra and our hosts. From what Coran's told me, it seems they were going to do a trade, our lions for their independence." Shiro's eyes widened at that.

"I'll inform the others, we'll make a silent escape so as not to draw too much suspicion." Shiro spoke with Allura nodding in agreement. She slipped away then, heading over to the banquet table where Hunk and Pidge were while Shiro turned back towards Lance only to see he was gone as well as the Prince.

Oh hell.

Shiro quickly made his way over to where he last saw them, noticing a nearby dark hallway that branched off from the main room everyone was in. A sinking feeling in his gut, Shiro made his way down the hallway, hand glowing up in defense as two separate voices bounced across the walls. He pulled out his communicator, sending a warning to the other paladins, telling them to get to their lions as quickly as they could as he slid along the wall, keeping his back against the sturdy bricks until the voices stopped followed by a dull thud noise that echoed throughout the hallway. Ducking his head around the corner, Shiro gasped at the sight of Lance sprawled out on the floor, one of those goblets from the party spilled over the tiles, the puddle of liquid creating a galaxy swirl on the floor, the juice shimmering prettily as Prince Pyrite stood over an unconscious Lance, laughing maniacally in triumph.

"Mighty Voltron indeed! Your precious Blue Paladin has fallen as will the rest of you!" He gestured, sounding just like a Disney villain as Shiro skid to his knees by Lance's side, checking his vitals and sighing gratefully that Lance wasn't dead but rather sleeping. Shiro glanced to the galaxy drink and back at Lance, knowing right away Lance had been given some kind of poison by the Prince which had Shiro's grip tightening protectively even more before turning towards the Prince once again.

"What did you do to him?" Shiro ordered, his hand glowing up once again as the Prince scoffed.

"Please, like we'd ever join your silly Coalition. The Galra promised us our independence and freedom if we at least gave them one of those prestigious lions of yours. Father and I decided why not also dispose of its pilot as well?" The Prince smiled, which was anything but friendly as Shiro scoffed, angry.

"And you think the Galra will honor that? What's stopping them from taking your planets resources? Even if you handed all of the lions over, they will still invade your planet and drain its resources. They don't care about allies as much as they care about making others fear them." He berated. He once again brought out his communicator, alerting the others of the situation before quickly scooping Lance up into his arms, not paying attention to the prince who hung back unwilling to fight as well as reflecting over Shiro's words.

Shiro made his way back to the lions easily with no other issues. Keith had been waiting to extract them in Red as Black and Blue had already taken off back towards the castle, the bonded link between them and their paladins telling them it was time to abscond. He settled back in the cockpit with Lance still asleep in his arms, wondering how bad the damage was and a little unsettled at how Lance seemed so at peace..almost as if he were dead. Once everyone had made it back to the castle, none of them bothering with talking about the species and what had just happened, they immediately moved to the med bay and set Lance on one of the beds, waiting impatiently as the machine started scanning him over, searching for anything amiss in tase a pod needed to be used, all while Lance hovered in the air, still in blissful sleep.

"Aha! It seems the Price had persuaded Lance to drink some of the narcocious berry wine, a powerful sleeping potion made by the berry that can put most species to sleep forever, including humans it seems." Coran explained, twirling his mustache in wonder since he hadn't heard of these things in deca-pheebs. Hunk fidgeted with his hands, eyes grazing over the lifeless body of his best friend as he spoke.

"We can wake him up though right? I mean we need Lance to form Voltron obviously, but I don't want him to sleep forever! Plus, what about when we get back to Earth, what will his family say? Oh no, Veronica will hunt us down..and kill us." Hunk fretted as Pidge patted his arm to calm him down.

"Chill Hunk, I'm sure there's some way we can break the spell. Right Coran?" The younger asked as Coran nodded.

"Indeed Number five! There is a way to break the spell, with a kiss from his one true love!" Coran announced much to the displeasure of the others who bored matching expressions of disbelief and bewilderment.

"Great! How are we going to find someone to kiss Lance?" Keith grumbled. Coran merely snapped his fingers in the air and urged them out of the med bay, Shiro giving one last glance towards the sleeping paladin before following after the others to the main room where Allura piloted the castle.

"After we started taking on allies, so many of the planets citizens sent grateful letters to each of you, I'd say most of you have your own fanbase by now, especially Lance. He's incredibly popular apparently." Coran clicked on some file and a million different pictures and letters popped up of Lance posing with different alien species they had rescued from the Galra. Shiro felt a smile tugging on his face as he gazed at the wonder and glee that adorned Lance's face in every photo.

"If we send out a request to our allies to help our situation, I'm sure one of these fans has to be his true love and break the spell." Coran noted with Allura nodding as well.

"Brilliant Coran! Hopefully we should be done within the next varga and I'm sure Lance will be most excited to meet his true love." She stated excitedly while Shiro felt a pang of despair plant itself in his gut, sure he was happy they'd wake Lance soon but at the same time it would be a bummer to watch some other person, Lance's true love kiss him. He tried not to be too bothered by the idea, as well as when what felt like another few days rolled by and there were hundreds of aliens now at the castle, waiting to plant a kiss on the Blue Paladin's cheek. They decided even if Lance was asleep, the paladin probably wouldn't be okay with strangers kissing him on the lips. Plus, the spell never specified where he should be kissed, so it was a slight loophole. As the hours went by their anticipation became grim as each alien had to turn away in sorrow as Lance did not wake up. The paladins and Alteans grew less hopeful as Lance remained asleep after each kiss to his forehead, cheek, or hand. After what felt like a week had been by, it was down to the final three aliens, only for none of their kisses to work as the Blue Paladin remained asleep, blissfully unaware of the torture he was putting his teammates through.

It went on for weeks like that, they visited many ally planets in hopes somebody could awaken Lance only to be left in disappointment when nothing happened. Shiro took to spending most of his time in the med bay, his hand ruffling through Lance's chestnut locks, wishing the other were awake, to fill the rooms with his boisterous laugh and playful personality. Shiro thought Lance resembled too much like a corpse in this state, his light breathing being the only implication he was even alive, the image a little too haunting at times giving Shiro a chill at the idea.

The weeks became a month and everyone was losing hope by the minute. They had been avoiding any confrontations with the Galra if they could help it, since they were down by one lion and Blue was not lowering her shield for anyone anytime soon, making their situation more desperate. The others had taken to retreating into their own headspaces, Hunk was excessively cooking and baking, wanting to perfect some recipe involving garlic knots so he could present them to Lance when he woke up soon.

They were avoiding the possibility of 'if' for now.

Pidge had greatly missed the older paladin's presence, choosing to spend most of their time with their gadgets in the med bay beside Lance's hovering form. Keith had taken up training almost every second of the day to work off his anger at the situation and concern for his friend as he felt helpless to aid his friend while Allura and Coran constantly kept looking for ally planets that could possibly help as well as researching for another way to break the spell. Shiro spent most of his time reflecting on his thoughts, memories, and regret. His late nights wandering the halls grew more solemn and quiet since Lance used to join him sometimes when he usually took a bathroom break in the middle of the night. Shiro chuckled to himself, recalling fondly how Lance would try to stay up with Shiro as late as he could before eventually succumbing to his own sleepiness, making Shiro the one to take him back to bed and tuck him in. Those late night talks meant everything to Shiro as he learned a lot about Lance those nights.

He learned Lance was the youngest of five children and claimed he was his parent's favorite. "The baby is always the favorite Shiro! Everybody knows that!" Lance had griped when Shiro questioned whether that was true. He learned Lance missed his home very much, talking about Varadero Beach any chance he could. He loved looking at the stars at night, had a particular brand of moisturizer he used the most, talked in his sleep, loved playing with his niece and nephew, and could sing really well. Shiro wasn't sure when he had developed stronger feelings towards the Blue Paladin, but he certainly regretted not telling Lance his true feelings, wishing as he sat by Lance's side, brushing his fingers through chestnut locks that he could tell him his true feelings.

Luckily, that chance came sooner than he thought it would.

They were all in the med bay, running more scans on Lance to make sure everything was okay (mostly to make sure he was still just in a deep sleep) when Pidge suddenly snapped their fingers in realization.

"Guys! I may have found the answer!" No sooner were the words out of their mouth, Hunk grabbed the front of their jacket, a crazed look in his eye.

"Well spit it out Pidge!"

"I'm trying to! Anyways, what if Lance's true love doesn't have to be in the romantic sense? What if platonic love or even familial love could break the spell?" They asked excited for the possibility as the others now were.

"Coran? Is this possible?" Allura asked hopeful as Coran thought over it.

"You know what Number Five? I'd say we give it the ol' mature noggin assessments enhancement attempt!" Pidge merely blinked at him before shrugging his words off. "We use the expression 'college try' but I'm assuming it means the same thing as whatever you were suggesting."

"Hmm 'college' a funny word if I've ever one," Coran stated, talking more to himself than the others who gathered around Lance's bed unsure. Keith eyed everyone, looking obviously uncomfortable with what they were about to possibly do.

"So ah..what do we do?" He asked turning away pointedly as Hunk glanced around.

"Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about kissing Lance, I know he's not dead but,"

"Oh for the love of Beyonce! Move!" Pidge shoved both of them out of the way, ready to get this over with. The younger paladin leaned down, pressing their lips to Lance's forehead, cheeks burning up in embarrassment as the others stood there waiting in anticipation. Pidge stood back up, eyes roving over Lance's face waiting hopefully only to sag in defeat as Lance remained sleeping, not even a slight twitch.

"It's okay Pidge, here let me try." Hunk scooted in front of them and eagerly leaned down to kiss the same spot where Pidge did, leaning back up with hope only to look crestfallen as Lance remained asleep even for his best friend. This made the others nervous now, if Lance and Hunk's bromance couldn't break the spell, what could?

"Keith?" Allura asked, wondering if he was still going to try only for the other man to groan unwillingly before quickly yanking Lance's hand towards himself and planting a firm but gentle kiss to his knuckles. Like Hunk and Pidge, Keith was met with a light snore from Lance that had him growling in annoyance.

"He's not going to wake up no matter what we do!" He griped as Allura decided it was time for her to take a shot with her kissing Lance's hand like Keith did only to sag in disappointment when the other still slept.

"Shiro?" Coran prompted, noting the other hadn't tried yet with Shiro nervously glancing at the others, slightly less hopeful this will work out. He shifted closer to the bed, leaning down and running his fingers through Lance's hair once again, thumb caressing the side of Lance's face before he knelt down and kissed Lance's forehead, a part of him wishing and hoping that this would work and he'd get to see those blue eyes once more.

And indeed he did.

With a slight groan, Lance's eyes fluttered open sleepily, the motion announced by Hunk who nearly pushed Shiro aside to hug his best friend with Pidge and Allura joining him as Keith and Coran stood back relieved. Shiro stood still, amazed that the kiss had worked! He gave a slight laugh of happiness and relief as he cradled Lance in his arms, pulling him close in a hug as the others enveloped themselves around them as well. Lance, who was confused by all this attention merely yawned before joking that he was being squished.

"Guys what's going on? Was I gone or something?" Lance asked once the group hug was over, mildly wondering if he had been in the cryopod again for a while again only to be met with such amused faces full of relief. The biggest surprise was Shiro who still had his arms around him and looking down at him with the softest expression he'd ever seen on the man.

"Yeah Lance, you were gone for a while and we just we really missed you." He explained somewhat with Lance nodding along, not really understanding it but knew how choked up the others were given their teary reactions right now. After a few more rounds of hugs and tears, Lance was allowed out of the med bay after a quick scan proving he was fine where the team informed him of what happened, regarding the prince poisoning him, the spell, and trying to find the right person to break said spell which caught Lance's attention immediately.

"So you guys were just kissing me until I woke up?" Lance asked, his nose scrunching up at the idea he essentially made out with so many different aliens and his hot teammates and of course he was unconscious through it all!

"Well, not quite, the spell said true loves kiss could break it so we searched for everyone you had flirted with and then Pidge got the brilliant idea that it could be true platonic love or even familial and its must've worked considering it was Shiro who brought you back to us." Allura explained much to Lance's confusion and Shiro's mortification.

"Huh..really?" Lance eyed Shiro, his cheeks darkening and the look curious which had Shiro making up a quick excuse about them needing to get the word out to the allies about Voltron being back. The team separated after that, Hunk going to present Lance his garlic knots, a batch he made that finally worked out with Pidge and Keith staying with Allura and Coran to help notify their allies. Coran was especially excited to announce it was a fellow paladin that, "Brought our Loverboy Lance back from dreamland!" Shiro noted Lance yawning once more (there were still traces of the poison still left in his body that would wear off eventually) and offered to help him to his room to rest, which Lance responded with a sleepy nod, getting up and making his way towards the exit, Shiro right on his heels.

With Shiro guiding him back to his room, Lance felt his heart fluttering wondering what he should do given his crush had essentially kissed him! Oh, of all the times he had to be asleep it was when Shiro kissed him! As the two paladins walked in, Lance groaned and flopped on his bed, ignoring Shiro's amused snort as the taller sent a curious look Lance's way.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy you finally woke up after so long." He teased but dropped it as soon as Lance turned to glare back at him.

"Hardly! Mostly I'm just embarrassed you had to find out about my super secret crush on you this way! It's like a story from my niece's fairytales book! So embarrassing! Ugh!" Lance turned around and groaned into his pillow, unaware of the flustered man still standing beside him. Shiro cleared his throat a couple times, trying to get his nerves together as he tried to figure out how sentences worked again.

"S-so you have a crush on me?" Shiro asked hesitant if he should approach this topic when Lance rolled over and sighed. He had such defeated look on his face Shiro almost wanted to drop the subject but Lance spoke before he could suggest it.

"Yeah might as well since it was you who kissed me..wait a minute!" Lance launched to his feet nearly tipping over in his sleepy glory but thankfully Shiro caught him, holding him gently against his chest as he recognized the knowing look on Lance's face.

"It was true loves kiss that woke me up! And it was you!" Lance pointed out as Shiro felt his ears burning.

"Well..I, yes. It was. Or rather required for the spell to work." Shiro suggested but Lance kept on, now pacing across the floor as he begun to think.

"But If I only woke up when you kissed me then that means you're my true love Shiro, but how? You're so cool and well known while I'm just a cargo pilot from Cuba you've never heard of so maybe its wishful thinking to ask this but, do you like me? Like-like me that is." Lance fidgeted with his thumbs, blushing at the thought which Shiro found adorable. He sighed as he crossed over to Lance, putting his hands on his shoulders and taking a deep breath, the jig was finally up, might as well, but knowing Lance liked him back made it much easier now.

"Yes, I do like-like you. Have been for a while and while I wasn't planning on telling you because I myself thought I was being delusional imagining the possibility an 'us'. Now, after not getting to see you everyday with your bright smile, your wonderful laugh, and cute snores, I realized that if I could go back in time and confess to you before the spell ever happened I would. So I'm saying it now." Shiro's arms slid down until they took Lance's stunned hands in his own, caressing the soft digits as he gazed gently into Lance's eyes as he spoke,

"I'm in love with you Lance. Not sure when it started, but I want you to know that even if you might not want to pursue this..thing between us. Just know I'll always care for you deeply in my heart." With a new burst of confidence and affection, Shiro leaned in to press a kiss against Lance's cheek, wanting to show some sign of his physical affection which brought forth a brilliant crimson blush to bloom across Lance's whole face.

"I-Shiro..I can't believe you said those things to me. I must still be dreaming, quick pinch my side for me!" Lance ordered turning in Shiro's grip a little as Shiro playfully groaned.

"Lance I'm serious, I meant every word I said." He stated gazing into Lance's eyes as he spoke. Lance's lips quirked up into a smile as he leaned forward, eyes fluttering closed before he planted a small kiss on Shiro's lips an action that left the older man breathless as he stood there stunned before Lance pulled back, smiling cheekily.

"Then I mean every word when I say I'm in love with you too." Lance breathed when they broke apart. Shiro felt as if a mass of butterflies had sprung loose in his gut, the feeling so light and airy it almost tickled. As he pulled the younger man close again, the two joining in lip-lock once more, he knew he would never doubt his feelings for Lance ever again.

[fangzeronos]

SDCC 2018 wrap up

Ok now that SDCC is over, I feel like I should do a little wrap up for the weekend. I got to sit and wait for all the trailers and news to come out since I couldn’t afford to go, so this is gonna be strictly from the “Nerd on the Couch” perspective. I’m putting a read more in case anyone wanna skip this.

 Titans: The trailer was alright. Robin’s in a bad place because of Batman so his “Fuck Batman” line is justified. Starfire and Beast Boy could still use some work, but it was only the first trailer, so we’ll have to reserve judgement until the show comes out. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

 Young Justice Outsiders: It’s actually real. I thought for the last two years we’ve all been thinking it’s not coming and that we’ve all been living in a dream about wanting it back. I was in the middle of the store when I saw the trailer and my heart stopped. Two minutes of Season 2 recap, including Wally’s ‘death’ (HE ISN’T DEAD ALRIGHT!? HE’S JUST IN THE SPEED FORCE AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE DAMMIT!!!) before we get the new footage. The new characters look amazing, Geoforce looks like he’s going to be a good character, hopefully we’ll get Terra since she’s “been missing for two years”. Still waiting to see M’gann, Kaldur, Beast Boy, and the rest of the season 2 cast, but I’m excited for this one more then Titans.

 And since both shows above are going to be on the DC Universe Online service, I can see paying $75 a year for it if we’re going to get more Young Justice. With all the shows coming out on DCUO, like Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and all of the older shows like Batman The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, the older DC movies and the comics, I can justify paying that much for a yearlong subscription.

 Supergirl: Season 4 looks like it’s going to be interesting. Agent Liberty seems like a decent antagonist, but with the way this show has done in the past, hyping a villain for the first half and then swapping it with a generic bad guy for the second, I don’t have much hope. It looks like they’re toning down the relationship drama from season 2 and 3, which is good. I’m honestly thinking they’re going to screw Lena’s character development and have her go evil Luthor judging by how season 3 ended with her “We can begin phase two” line and having the Harun-El made up that she gave to Alura. A few quick shots of Alex as Director of the DEO sporting a new haircut, nothing too revealing except for the Supergirl spacesuit at the end. I saw it and my mind went to the first Injustice 2 game trailer from 2016 with the armored look. I’m looking forward to the new season, not keen on it being on Sundays before the Charmed reboot but have to get the viewers for a remake somehow.

 Arrow: Oliver Queen in prison. That’s a hell of a concept for the season. We know something’s going to change and he’s going to be out by the fourth or fifth episode, possibly earlier. Decent shots of the other characters, Dinah wearing SCPD riot gear was a nice touch, Laurel-2 denouncing vigilantism makes for an interesting idea considering what the hell she’s done in the last seasons. Diaz is fine, not enjoying having him around again but since he didn’t get killed at the end of the last season, it’s fine. Longbow Hunters might make for interesting fodder, but we can’t be sure until the show starts. I’m sick of Felicity, but that arguments been done to death. We all know it was Roy in the Green Arrow suit in the end of the trailer. If it had been Diggle, we’d have seen his face and since we know Roy’s back, it doesn’t really give us many options to choose from. I’m glad it’s on Mondays now so I can watch it and keep up instead of being behind.

 Legends of Tomorrow: It looks great. This one has become one of my favorites on the network and I’m glad to see they’re getting more episodes. Hopefully this season doesn’t get shafted and end up getting thrown to a different night or time or cut in the middle for a different show. Bringing Constantine back for a regular spot is a good move considering what they’re going to be dealing with thanks to the fallout from killing Mallus. Dragons, demons, all sorts of magical and mythical creatures. “Couldn’t we be heroes just a little longer?” made me laugh and it’s that sort of thing that makes Legends stand out to me. It can be dark and gritty but still lighthearted and fun. It’s what Flash started to be and it’s what Arrow needs to be. I’m glad it’s going to be on Mondays along with Arrow.

 Flash: Coming off of the reveal that Mystery Girl is actually Barry and Iris’ daughter (which I’d had a feeling about anyway since she was so giddy at the wedding in the Crisis crossover), Nora seems to be a fun addition to the cast this year. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what she messed up, why she came back, and why didn’t she learn from Barry’s mistakes about screwing with the Timeline. Cicada looks to be interesting, and I hope he’s going to be the main villain for the year. I want to know more about how Caitlin was Frost before the Accelerator and Flashpoint happened, or is it a side effect of Flashpoint two years later? Guess we’ll find out in October.

 Aquaman: The trailer looked amazing. This might just be part of what the DCEU needs to get its shit together and stop being so grimdark. Wonder Woman proved DC movies can do fun and lighthearted and still hit some dark themes and notes, and this looks like it’s going to do the same thing. Jason Mamoa looks as badass as he did in Justice League, Amber Heard is beautiful as Mera. Atlantis looked amazing. I’m thoroughly excited and December can’t come quick enough to see this.

 Shazam!: One of my favorite DC heroes, man. Zachary Levi just killed it in this trailer and I was laughing the whole way through. If the movie keeps that same energy up, I’ll be damn happy. March release for this one and I’m ready to go!

 Godzilla: King of the Monsters: It’s frigging Godzilla, fighting his own list of bad guys. Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, all classics that should have been in the first one instead of the MUTO. I’ve always been a Godzilla nerd, so when I saw this trailer I was geeking the fuck out. I’m definitely excited for this one.

 Now, you’re probably wondering, “Hey, where’s Voltron in all of this?” and you’d be right that I haven’t talked about it yet. I have spent three days milling over the reveals from the Voltron panel and been trying the right ways to word things, so I don’t seem like I’m being an asshole and damning myself with what I’m going to say. Now, with that out of the way.

 The season 7 trailer looked good. We’re going back to Earth, so who knows how much time really has passed since the only indication we’ve had was the week that Kuron was in the Galra fighter before Keith and Black found him back in season 3. I’m sad to see that season 8 is going to be the last of VLD, but I can understand why, since they were only approved for so many episodes. Going back to a 13-episode season is the best thing they could have done. Keith piloting Black still kind of irks me, but with Shiro only having one arm, I guess it makes sense. I would much rather have Allura in Black, put Lance back in Blue, and give Red back to Keith, but that’s a whole other post.

 The big thing people took away from the panel was “You’ll meet Shiro’s significant other, Adam.” When I saw that on Twitter, I was…. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. You’ve had six seasons of moments between Shiro and Allura, the Hand Touch, the way she looked at him when he said “You found me” at the end of the season, how adamant they are about saving each other every time they’re in danger, Shiro’s resolve to get her back in Season 1 after she threw him into the shuttle and got taken by the Galra. And now it’s all thrown out of the airlock?

 No offense to the writers, Josh Keaton who gets mad credit for keeping this close to the chest and not revealing anything, the fans that are a fan of this plot point for the next season, but I’m not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT representation in animation/kids’ media has come a long way in a few short years. Look at Steven Universe. One of the main characters is a literal fusion of two she-pronoun using space rocks. I just feel like this is shoehorned in like a checkmark on an RPG character creation. “PTSD? Check. Missing limb? Check. Male POC? Check. What else can we check to make people happy? OH! Gay! DOUBLE CHECK!!” is what it feels like to me. To me, this feels like the writers have been shadow stalking Tumblr, AO3, FF.net, everywhere else Voltron is big and made their choice but what the popular ships were in the search results.

 Make Shiro gay, fine. Make him bi, that’d be a better option because then we can ship him with whoever we want and not get comments that say that shipping Shiro with Allura or any other female member of this show is gay erasure. By saying “Shiro’s gay”, you’re shooting all of the other Shiro ships in the face. Shieth shippers are over the moon, Shallura shippers are sitting in a corner, Klance shippers are looking between the two going “WTF”, and the rest of the internet’s like “Why is it a big deal?”

 I feel like I should stop there about this. This is already more then a page in my word doc.

 SDCC 2018 was fun to watch from a distance. CW brought some good trailers, DC killed it with 8 trailers, and Voltron is what it is. Now begins the countdown for SDCC 2019.

[maychorian]

For wump bingo, what about "needing to pause and close their eyes because they're light headed, exhausted, or have a bad headache" with Krolia and Lance?

This one went very long for some reason. Hope you like it!

Whump Bingo! Here’s the post. Here’s my progress.

Krolia knew what propaganda was. She knew how it worked. So when she’d seen a broadcast of The Voltron Show, as most of the universe did, she assumed that it was almost entirely nonsense. Once she got to know the paladins herself, she found that that was mainly true.

There were glimmers of the stage personalities here and there, certainly. The Green Paladin was very smart, and the Black Paladin was very heroic and brave, the perfect image of a leader. The Yellow Paladin was probably the farthest from the stage persona. Hunk made jokes on occasion, certainly, but Krolia wasn’t surprised to learn that he was also very smart, very kind, and very brave as well, even when he didn’t believe it of himself. The propaganda, in this case, had done a grave disservice, though Krolia understood the need for archetypes in show business. The real Hunk was much more appealing and personable than the show Hunk. It was a shame that the entire universe wouldn’t get a chance to know his true self.

The one who probably lived up the closest to his counterpart in The Voltron Show was the Blue Paladin. As Krolia got to know this crew of young people from a backwater planet, it seemed to her that Lance was always performing. Always flirting, always joking, always showing off. He got serious on occasion, too, but even in the middle of strategy sessions and intergalactic conferences, he had a tendency to make side comments to lighten the mood or take the pressure off someone who was struggling. It was a skill in itself, one that Krolia by no means despised. But she did wonder if Lance ever stopped performing.

“Is he always like this?” she asked her son, aside, the first time she was introduced to the entire crew and Lance went off on a rant admiring her beauty, then comparing her to Allura, then demanding that Matt Holt back him up, which Matt Holt did with apparent pleasure. It was almost a comedy routine, one that seemed polished and practiced. Krolia found herself charmed and annoyed in almost equal measure.

Keith just nodded wearily. “Yes, he’s always like this.”

Krolia hummed, eyebrows lowering, and he looked at her face in something like alarm. “Lance is a good guy, though, I promise. Very loyal once he considers you part of his team. Or family. We didn’t get along so well at first, but after Shiro disappeared for a while… Let’s just say he stepped up to the plate. Better than I did. He’s an asset to the team, and a very good friend.”

Krolia gave him a smile. “I don’t doubt that. I just find this showboating…a bit offputting.”

Keith huffed and folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, you’re not the only one. Hang in there. It gets better.”

And it did get better. As Krolia spent time with Lance, especially when they went on a goodwill tour of planets that had just joined the Voltron Coalition, she wondered why Lance bothered to hide behind the flirty, loverboy facade at all. His normal personality was plenty sweet and sincere enough. It was a twist of irony that he was more charming when he wasn’t trying to charm.

But there were definitely some folks who fell for Lance’s stage persona, who even loved it, came close to demanding it. In public appearances, there was always a crowd of young citizens, many female, cheering for the loverboy Lance and asking for his autograph, his smile, a moment of his time. Sometimes private meetings with politicians and planetary leaders carried the same expectations. People wanted Lance to put on a show, to win their support with his wit and his personality.

For the most part, Lance soaked up the attention. He enjoyed being fawned over, though sometimes the strain of it would show at the end of a long day. He enjoyed the feasts and the parades, the galas and the ceremonies.

And Lance truly, honestly tried to use his power for good. While he enjoyed personal accolades, he was quick to turn it away after a moment of enjoyment. “It was my team who saved you,” he would say. “All of Voltron. We all want to defend you and help your planet.” He would talk up the individual merits of all of his team members, praising them in the most effusive language imaginable.

He turned it to Krolia, too. “Hey, don’t forget our allies in the Blade of Marmora,” he would say, clapping her on the shoulder and pushing her forwad. “This is Krolia. She was with us on that last mission, and it never would have succeeded without her. We’re all part of the Coalition together.”

This did not always go over well. In fact, it rarely did. Most beings looked at Krolia and saw only the color of her fur, the truth of her heritage. They saw a Galra, not a Blade, and to far too many people in the universe, “Galra” meant tyranny and cruelty and subjugation, not a force for justice and freedom. Lance got grumbles and looks askance, sometimes outright hostility when he tried to turn the praise to Krolia and her organization.

Still, Lance did not stop doing it. He never stopped trying. He honored and respected Krolia and her comrades for what they did, not who they were. This, more than anything else, endeared him to Krolia.

Lance was a good boy. And he was young, barely more than a cub. As she got to know him, Krolia was eventually able to see when the pressure started getting to him.

His smiles would become a shade less broad, his eyes a bit less bright. He hesitated in his speech, fumbled momentarily for words. It was never a big difference, not enough that most people noticed. But Krolia was not most people. She was a Blade, and she had been spying on those who did not want to be seen for a long, long time.

At this particular event, Lance seemed to be struggling more than usual. He kept pausing to close his eyes for a moment. He narrowed his eyes against the bright lights shining in his face, sometimes even shading his face with one slender hand. After Krolia saw his shoulders trembling, she’d had enough.

She stepped closer to the podium where Lance was speaking and leaned over into the microphone. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just received an urgent message from Voltron. Paladin Lance and I will need to retire and confer. Excuse us, please?”

The politicans and citizenry who had gathered to the meet the representatives of the Voltron Coalition nodded instantly, waving their hands and telling them to take their time. Krolia put her arm around Lance’s shoulders and pulled him into a back room, though he eyed her curiously the whole time. He let her manhandle him, though he was obviously confused.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Krolia reached for the light controls and dimmed them considerably. Lance sighed in relief, his knees shaking, and leaned back against the wall. His eyes closed for only a few ticks before he opened them to look at Krolia again. “What’s this about? I didn’t hear anything coming over my helmet. Do you have a special communicator or something? I want a special communicator.” He muttered the last sentence, sounding strangely childish and petulant over being excluded.

Krolia smiled fondly and patted his shoulder. “No, nothing like that. I just noticed that you were having trouble, and the light seemed to be bothering you. Is it better in here?”

Lance blinked several times. “Yes, much better. Thank you.”

Krolia nodded and stepped back. “Then we’ll stay in here for as long as it takes for you to recover. Do you know what’s wrong? Are you sick? Overtired?”

Lance shook his head slowly. “Nah, nothing like that. It’s just a headache.”

“Do you experience this often? This is not the first time I’ve seen you squinting or closing your eyes in bright light.”

“It comes and goes. I admit it’s a little worse this time. Something about the spectrum of light on this planet might be harsh on my human eyes, I guess.” He looked worried. “I was trying really hard not to show it. I don’t want to insult our hosts. Do you think anyone else noticed?”

“I don’t think so.” Krolia stepped over and hand a careful hand over his head, and Lance closed his eyes with a soft sigh. “I just noticed because I’ve been watching you for so long, cub.”

Lance opened his eyes to look at her, a soft smile appearing on his face. “Cub? You think of me as a cub?”

Krolia shrugged and pulled back, abashed. “You’re my son’s age. You’re all cubs to me. I know you’re a warrior, but…”

Lance released a light chuckle. “It’s okay. You didn’t offend me.” He reached out for her hand again and placed it on his own forehead, sighing as the cool pads of her fingers touched his warm skin. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Krolia shuffled a step closer at the encouragement, pressing her hand more fully over his forehead. “Let me know when your headache is better. We’ll go out when you’re ready, and not a moment sooner.”

Lance hummed his appreciation, and they stood there in the dim room, shoulders pressed together, for a good long while.

[braincoins]

Title: Surviving Memory Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Summary: Shiro has the opportunity to get his lost memories restored. But is he ready for that? Ships: very light background Shallura Warnings: blood mention Author’s Notes: This one's kind of personal for me. Channeling some of myself into Shiro here. But, really, isn't that what fanfic's all about?

As usual, props out to @materassassino for her beta assistance!

(2,903 words - also on AO3)

           “I-I’m sorry, you can do… what?”

           Ryner frowned just slightly. “Our translators should still be working. Do I need to run a scan? I can have it fixed in…”

           “No, no,” Shiro rushed to reassure her. “Your translators are still working. I’m… mostly sure, anyway. No, I’m just… I don’t know what to think.”

           “How would something like that even work?” Hunk asked.

           Ryner brightened as she always did whenever she got to explain something. “Brain matrices aren’t really that different from any other organism or compound. Much more complex, of course, but foundationally very similar.”

           She went on explaining to the Paladins, but Shiro wasn’t really listening. Her earlier words echoed in his head. “We believe we can restore your lost memories.”

           It was Pidge’s voice that snapped him back out of it. “Oh, so it’s basically like defragmenting a drive!” She got a bit loud when she was this enthusiastic. The mere sight of Olkarion tended to raise her voice a few decibels on its own.

           “Yes,” Ryner agreed. She turned back to Shiro. “So we won’t be able to see your memories, if that is what is troubling you. It does not function that way. It just brings your own mind into alignment. You are the only one who will have access to these memories, I promise.”

           He nodded and cleared his throat. “Y-yes, I… I understand. Thank you, Ryner. It’s kind of you to offer. Olkari technology never ceases to amaze me.” She smiled at that, and he forced a smile in return. “I…”

           He was going to say he needed to think about it. But the thought came to him that his locked-away memories might contain valuable intel about the Empire. He squared his shoulders.

           “I’d be glad to get my memories back. Thank you. How soon can we do this?”

           “We’re still bringing it back online,” she said. “It’s one of our older tech pieces, from before the Galra showed up. It was hidden, damaged; they probably didn’t even notice it. We’ve repaired it, but I want to make sure we get the power levels right before we use it. Tomorrow at the latest.”

           “I’ll help!” Pidge offered. Hunk was right there with her. Lance and Keith were studying him carefully as the two techies of the team followed Ryner out.

           “I’m going to get some rest before then,” Shiro said, heading for the door.

           “Hey, Shiro,” Lance began.

           “I’m fine, Lance.”

           “You’re not,” Keith insisted, running up to keep pace with him.

           “Look, if even Keith can tell, then we know something’s up,” Lance declared.

           “I appreciate the concern, you two, but really. I just want to get some rest. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

           Thankfully, they left him alone after that, but before he was totally out of earshot, he thought he heard Lance say something like, “Don’t worry, I know what to do.” That was worrisome. He decided to head back to his room on the Castle, where he could lock the door, just in case.

             He lost track of time, laying on his back in his bunk, staring up at the ceiling. This shouldn’t be a big deal, he chided himself. But it was. And, if he was being honest, he knew why; he just didn’t want to admit it. Not even to himself.

           He didn’t want to have to face what he’d done in that lost year. He didn’t want to know whether he had only ever defeated bloodthirsty fighters like Myzax or if there had been innocents as well – other prisoners who didn’t even know what they were in for. What had he done to survive?

           He didn’t want to remember everything they’d done to him. Was there more than just his hand? Nothing else was as obvious, but that didn’t mean the new arm was the only change they’d made. Had he been tortured into giving up information about Earth?

           He hated the shattered quality of what memories he did have, hated how he would stumble over them seemingly at random, and how they would cut him and make him bleed. He hated not knowing things about himself, but at least when he didn’t know for sure, he could pretend it was all okay. He could console himself with, “Well, I don’t know, so I’ll just assume the best.” That was how he got through the bad times.

           Sometimes, Sendak’s voice still haunted him. Monster. He tried to shut those memories out, too, but it just insistently reminded him of ejecting a captive into space. He’d done that. With his own hand – not even the Galra replacement. If he could do that, what else was he capable of? What other sins lurked in the darkness of his own mind? He couldn’t begin to atone if he didn’t know what they were.

           But… he was a Paladin of Voltron. He was helping people, saving people, freeing people. That was enough, right? Even without knowing how much blood was on his hands, Voltron would cleanse him. The peoples of the universe would grant him absolution for all of this. At worst, he would die, and then it wouldn’t matter any longer. Not that he wanted to be dead.

           Deep down, he wanted to live in peace. He wanted that for everyone. Freedom, peace, justice. But there was a dark undercurrent of revenge in him. And if he wanted that – all of that – he needed to do this, to get the intel that might help them bring down the Galra Empire, free everyone, and destroy the evil that had stolen so much from him and warped his existence this way.

           They’d meant him to be a weapon. And maybe he was. But he wasn’t under their control any longer. He would be their downfall.

           But… he’d have to face the fears lurking inside him, the shadowy unknown that he hated so much. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he was fearing. Maybe it would be better than he dared to hope. He couldn’t – wouldn’t – know until they defragmented his brain. One way or another he’d know. He’d know what had happened. What he had done. What they had done. He’d know it all.

           The door chime startled him. Oh quiznak, it’s time. I have to do this. He got up and started walking towards the door. “Who is it?”

           “It’s Allura. Lance suggested I speak with you.”

           He stopped moving and stifled a groan. “I’m fine, Allura, really. Go back to what you were doing.”

           “He said it was urgent.”

           “It’s not, really. I’m fine.” He went back to his bunk, just to sit on the edge of it. Staring at the floor would be a nice change of pace from the ceiling.

           “Can we at least discuss this without the door in the way?”

           “I’m. Fine,” he insisted. “You have more important things to worry about than me.”

           There was a pause and then the Castle’s soft voice said, “Override acknowledged,” and the door slid open.

           He shot to his feet. “Wha-…”

           Allura had her arms folded, standing there in the doorway. “Do you really think that you can bar me from any room in my own ship?”

           He sighed. “Allura, I’m…”

           “Fine, yes, you’ve said. But Lance and Keith told me about the meeting with Ryner earlier.” She walked in and the door shut behind her. “And there is very little in the universe more important than the health and well-being of the Black Paladin of Voltron.”

           He studied her. “You’re not going to go away, are you?”

           “Not until you talk to me.”

           “Okay, fine. But I don’t know what there is to talk about.” He sat back down on his bunk.

           She walked around to sit next to him. “You aren’t at all nervous about this?”

           “Why should I be nervous? Olkari technology is amazing, and I trust Ryner not to put me in any danger.”

           “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Are you looking forward to having your memories back?”

           No. “Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve hated feeling like part of me is locked away. I’ve hated not knowing. This will fix all that.”

           “Yes, but… then you’ll know.”

           “That’s the point, isn’t it?”

           She huffed. “You’re being stubborn.”

           “You’re not one to accuse other people of stubbornness.”

           “The fact that I am well-acquainted with it means I recognize it easily in others,” she declared. She laid a hand on his shoulder. “Shiro…”

           He pulled away from her. “I’m going to do it, so there’s no point in any of this.”

           “But you aren’t entirely sanguine about it, or you wouldn’t be hiding in here.”

           “I’m not hiding! I’m just resting!”

           “Exactly!” She stood. “You work more than I do!”

           He barked a laugh. “Not even close. You’re a workaholic, Princess, and that’s a fact.”

           “Okay, almost as much as I do. That’s not the point. The point is, you don’t like to rest. You don’t like to sleep. You don’t spend time just laying around when you could be doing something! You. Are. HIDING.”

           He practically jumped to his feet to glare at her. “You want to know why I don’t sleep? I don’t sleep because I can’t! Because these things I can’t even remember terrify me so much that I wake up! If I don’t know what they are, I can’t face them, and if I can’t face them, I can’t beat them!”

           “So what are you doing now then?” she shot back at him. “Getting in one last terror-riddled nap?!”

           That deflated him a little. “No, I…”

           She settled down as well, though her tone was still strident. “You’ll have to face those fears to defeat them, you’re right. And if you do this, you’ll know what they are. And that’s what has you hiding.”

           He scowled. “Don’t talk like you know what I’m thinking.”

           “I do!” she shouted. She cleared her throat and took a moment to calm down. “I do know. It’s not exactly the same, but…” She lowered her gaze to the floor rather than look at him. “I don’t know what my father’s last moments were like. I don’t know what my planet’s last moments were like. And sometimes, that haunts me. Sometimes, when I try to sleep, I imagine what it might have been like for Altea. And I imagine it happening again and again: to Shay’s Balmera, to Olkarion, to Arus, to every planet we’ve helped and saved.” She raised her head again just enough to barely catch his eye. “I imagine it happening to Earth, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Those fears wake me shivering and sobbing, Shiro.

           “Would it be better to be certain of Altea’s fate? Maybe. Maybe not. It would make my fears for all the other worlds that much sharper, bring them into greater focus. And nothing I can do, nothing I can find out or know, will ever bring Altea back to me.”

           He jerked a little when he felt a touch on his left hand, but then eased when he realized it was Allura reaching out to him. She took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Your memories of what happened in captivity could be useful to us, I’ll admit. But there are other ways we can find those things out. If you aren’t ready to do this, then don’t. The Olkari machine isn’t going anywhere. You don’t have to do this now.”

           He shook his head. “This is the quickest way, the most efficient.”

           “Stop thinking like a paladin, just for one dobosh?” she asked gently.

           He looked down at their joined hands, took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “I…” He had to do it again before he could get the words out. “I ought to be happy about this. I really, really don’t like that I can’t remember what happened. I don’t like feeling shut away from a part of my own life. But at the same time, I know that there’s not likely to be much that’s happy in those memories.”

           He looked up to face Allura again and swallowed hard. “I’m afraid.”

           She nodded. “That’s understandable.”

           “I have to be brave, for the mission, for the intel we could get, for the sake of the entire universe. That’s my job, that’s why I’m here. That is…” His right hand balled into a fist next to him. “That’s the only thing I have that keeps the nightmares away.

           “I don’t know what I had to do to survive, Allura. I don’t think I want to know, because then I can pretend that I’m still the same man who left Earth intending to go no farther than the edge of the solar system. I can pretend I’m not a monst-…”

           He was surprised when she laid a finger against his lips, and it shut him up instantly.

           “You’re not a monster, Shiro. Are you the same man who left Earth? No. I’m not the same person I was before my father put me into that cryopod. We grow, we change. Sometimes what changes us is good, and sometimes it’s bad.”

           Her finger fell away. “I wish that what had happened to you hadn’t. It would mean you wouldn’t be here with us now, and I don’t know what would have become of any of us if you and the others hadn’t arrived on Arus. But it hurts me to know that they hurt you so badly. And I am so, so sorry for it.

           “Ultimately, this is your decision. I cannot make it for you. But if the only reason you’re going ahead with it is because you feel you must, for the mission? Then don’t. You’ll have the chance to do it later.”

           “Will I?”

           She smiled wanly. “If I have anything to say about it, yes, you will.” She reached for his right hand. The fist loosened enough for her to link hands with him. “You’re a good man, Shiro. The best man I’ve ever known, apart from my father. I am so, so glad to have you with me, and the universe is incredibly lucky to have you as the Black Paladin.”

           “I just… I don’t know,” he sighed, feeling exhausted all of a sudden.

           “What if it were Keith who had to make this decision? What would you tell him?”

           “I’d…” He sighed and admitted, “I’d tell him to make his own choice and that he didn’t have to do this if he didn’t want to.”

           She smiled, a little more genuinely this time. “See?”

           “’Course, he’d probably go ahead and do it anyway.”

           She chuckled softly. “Yes, well, that’s Keith. You’re not him. Make your own decision.” She squeezed both his hands once before letting go. “And if you ever need to talk, please come to me. Or to Keith or Lance or anyone. Please?”

           He nodded. “I will.”

           She seemed satisfied with that and started to leave.

           “Allura.”

           She turned back to him.

           “Thank you for sharing that with me. About your dreams. You… That was… incredibly personal, and you didn’t have to do that.”

           “It was my decision to do so,” she replied. “And you’re welcome.”

           “And if you ever want to talk – about anything – I’d be glad to listen.”

           “Thank you, Shiro. I might take you up on that sometime.” The door opened for her and she left.

           He stood there for a moment longer, then realized he should talk to Ryner about his decision. He felt too tired to walk over there, but he could at least call.

              “…so thank you, but not right now,” Shiro’s voice said over the comms. “I appreciate the offer though, and I might take you up on it later.”

           Ryner nodded. “Very well, Shiro. Thank you for letting us know.”

           Keith practically pounced as soon as the link closed. “See? I told you he didn’t want to do it.”

           “Yes, your observation was very astute,” Ryner agreed, “but I hope you can appreciate my desire to hear it from Shiro himself, considering that it was his memories in question.”

           “Yeah,” Pidge put in, “Imagine if Lance volunteered you for something you didn’t want to do!”

           “Or turned down something you did,” Hunk added.

           “That’s different,” Keith said.

           “How so?” Pidge pursued.

           “Because Lance is an idiot.”

           “Oy! I’m standing RIGHT HERE, Mullet!” Lance was getting screechy.

           “It’s just the truth.”

           “Hey, my plan actually worked! So who’s the idiot now?”

           “You’re a lucky idiot.”

           Pidge snickered. “Or an idiot with eyes.”

           Keith turned back to her. “What do you mean?”

           “Oh, come on,” Hunk moaned. “You’re closer to Shiro than any of us, and you can’t tell that he likes Allura?”

           “And that she likes him,” Lance replied. “I mean, if I had to lose Allura to someone else, of course it’d be Shiro.”

           “He hasn’t said anything,” Keith said defensively.

           They all groaned.

           “Paladins, can this discussion be had somewhere other than here?” Ryner interjected.

           “Right, sorry!” Hunk smiled. “Hey, let us know if there’s any other cool tech we can play, er… help with, yeah?”

           “Of course. Thank you both for your assistance.” She watched them leave and shook her head. It was oddly reassuring to know that the Defenders of the Universe were just normal people with normal lives. Well… for certain values of “normal,” anyway.

[pixieprixess]

Back to You (ShiroxOC!Lilith) SAILORMOONAU

Wondering if I should make a part two to this, but we'll see. Hope you like it!!

@panda-noosh

~

"Everyone, we must transform!" shouts Allura looking at everyone. Pidge, Axca, Veronica and Lilith look at her. "It seems the enemy is much closer than we think!"

"RIGHT!" shouts the girls nodding.

"Moon Prism Power!" Lilith calls out turning into Sailor Moon. She wears a white leotard with a blue collar that has three stripes on it, light yellow shoulder pads, and a blue skirt, along with a red bow on the chest and at the back. She also wore a pair of red knee-high boots with a white border at the triangular top and crescent moons, gold earrings consisting of a stars with a crescent moon beneath, her hair tied in a very loose braid, feather barrettes in her hair, and a choker with a golden crescent moon on it with a clip that is similar to her transformation brooch attached to it. 

After everyone transforms, the girls run towards the source of the problem.

"The black out goes on!" Axca, as Sailor Jupiter, calls out as they continue running. "It couldn't be that the energy of everyone in the city was..." she pauses, she couldn't think about it.

"This is scary," Veronica, as Sailor Mars, shivered. "It's the first time I've ever encountered the world so dark."

"Look!" calls out Pidge, as Sailor Mercury, points in the distance. "There's a light coming from the very top of Tokyo Tower!"

Gulping, Lilith looks in the distance. "Let's go there!" Allura, as Sailor Venus, spoke confidently.

Pidge gasps heavily, "No!" Pidge begs Allura. "Princess! Coran and Hunk are in the command center!" Pidge touches Allura's arm gently. "You should escape there!"

Lilith looks back with a small frown adorning her face, but it was hidden lightly. Why did she feel like that? Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she looks at Allura.

"Then it's our job to protect you!!" Lilith ordered to her. Pursing her lips, she looks forward. Her thoughts overwhelming her head.

'My heart is restless,' thought Lilith putting her hands together. 'Tuxedo Mask?! I hope he's alright.' Lilith looks to the sky gently. 'He hasn't collapsed has he? ... Shiro ... Shiro-kun!'

Shaking those thoughts out of her head quickly, the girls head out quickly and they all run towards Tokyo Tower. Lilith taking the lead while the girls followed her. When they were at the bottom, they had to think of how they were going to get up there.

"We're going to the top!" Allura told them. "Nobody let go!"

Allura conjures up a bubble to get them to the top. Lilith became absolutely nervous, but she had to protect her people. The city was counting on the Sailor Scouts. Allura guided the bubble to the top, Lilith could see a man sitting there with a smile on his face. His brown eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"So, you've come." He said, Lilith tenses a bit but she tries to brush it off.

"Sucking up human energy!" Lilith begins her speech. "That's something even a God is forbidden to do!" Lilith stands strong in front of the man. "Pretty Guardian of Love and Justice! Sailor Moon has arrived!" Lilith points at the man finishing off with; "In the name of the Moon, we'll punish you!"

Lilith summons her Moon stick and closes her eyes. "Moon Healing!" She calls out opening her eyes pointing her stick in the air. "Escalation!"

Before anything can happen, the man sent an energy at Lilith and it knocked her over.

"Sailor Moon!" the Girls shouted out.

Lilith's eyes widen as she fell. Closing her eyes as she fell, she was beginning to feel like death was coming for her. Then someone caught her bridal style. Lilith looks up seeing, Shiro, as Tuxedo Mask, there.

"Tuxedo Mask!!" Lilith gasps out and wraps her arms around his neck in a hug when they land in the middle of the tower. Thanking the heavens he was safe in her head. "It's dangerous here!" Lilith warns him slowly unwrapping her arms around his neck looking into his grey eyes. "We'll defeat the enemy!!"

Shiro stares at Lilith curiously. Lilith shakes her head finishing her sentence. "You go as far away as you can!"

Before he could respond, Shiro felt Lilith's lips on his. Her eyes were closed while his eyes widen in shock. After she broke it, she jumped away with confidence painted on her face. Lilith didn't see Shiros face after she left.

"Sailor Moon!" calls out Veronica and Pidge.

"Supreme Thunder!" Axca shouts attacking him. Her attack goes right on his shield and absorbed the attack. Everyone gasps. "IT DIDN'T WORK!" Lilith lands by Pidge watching closely. "He just sucked up the electric energy?!"

"Keep giving me your energy and I'll give it one hundred times over!" Lilith gasps, getting in front of the other Scouts. "I will blow Tokyo off the map!"

"Run! Hurry!!" Lilith commands her team looking back at them. Lilith summons her Moon Stick putting them in a barrier ready to take the hit.

"Sailor Moon!!" Allura calls out worriedly while looking at everyone else. "We have to protect Sailor Moon! Now!"

Lilith gasps when she sees Shiro in front of her taking the hit. Silence filled her ears, Lilith caught Shiro in her arms as he was knocked out. Shaking her head while tears spilled from her eyes.

"Tuxedo Mask..." whispers the young girl holding his head in her lap staring down at him. She touched his cheekbones gently trying to wake him up. "Wake up, Tuxedo Mask... Tuxedo Mask!"

He opened his eyes gently, bringing his hand to her cheek making her gasp. "Serenity?" Leaning down gently, her bangs brushed lightly against his cheeks, his hand fell down as he closed his eyes once more.

"No!"

"SAILOR MOON!"

A bright light shined around Lilith as a golden crescent moon appeared on her forehead, when the light was disappearing, Liliths appearance changed. Instead of her wearing her Sailor Fuku dress. It was beautiful dress that was a brilliant light blue, it was strapless and it flowed down to her ankles, it wasn't poofy nor was it hugging her legs, her once loosely braided hair was now in perfect ringlets surrounding her body and it touched the end of her back. Her bangs swept to the left side of her face, the golden moon still apparent on her forehead.

Her eyes were closed as she held Shiros cheeks in her hands. She opened her right hand gently seeing his pocket watch that was shaped like a star. Frowning at the object.

"His watch is broken..." Lilith whispers to herself. She ignored what everyone was saying behind her. She looks down at Shiro letting out a small smile. "I... I remember you, my beloved." Liliths eyes gathered tears and they lightly fell. "My memories are coming back, one by one. The same deepness as the blue world in which was hidden all our possibilities and hopes."

"... Endymion!"

She tilts her head gently as she keeps whispering to her beloved. Her eyes close as her mouth keeps a small smile on her face.

"Long ago, I looked at that blue planet from the Moon. And I loved it." She continues whispering quietly. "And this was my secret... watching Earths prince and heir... that matchless strength... that marvel..." she opens her eyes looking at her prince once more. "I descended to the planet time and time again... hoping to catch a glimpse of him..."

Closing her eyes, she remembered him finally spotting her, they started talking and then they began building a relationship, she remembers their first kiss, their first intimate moment. Their everything.

"But we mustn't meet like this anymore..."

"Why?"

"Denizens of the Earth and Moon are forbidden to fraternize."

"... That is god's law"

"I mustn't fall in love... but it's too late..."

Lilith remembered the pointless war, how it killed her and her beloved after sharing their last kiss. And then she looks at Shiro.

"Endymion..." she speaks to him. "Talk to me... open your eyes... Please!"

"I remember... we were reborn again, and I've finally seen you again... is this our fate? Endymion!"

"Tuxedo Mask!" Lilith calls out one more time, gently pushing against his cheek.

Shaking her head gently. "I haven't been able to tell you about myself. About how I love you...!! About how you're my one and only love!!" A tear escapes her eyes and that one single tear forms into a crystal but it blinds everyone.

Taking her hand, Lilith takes a piece of it and begins to put it in Shiro. After setting it in him, she faintly heard a voice tell Lance, to grab the Silver Crystal. But he grabbed Shiro instead.

"TUXEDO MASK!" shouts Lilith trying to reach for him. Axca and Allura keep Lilith back.

"No!" Axca shouts to her. "We can't compete with them in this state!"

"We have to retreat, Princess!" Allura adds to her.

Lilith frantically shakes her head. "No! Let me go!" Lilith begs them. "He's taking Tuxedo Mask!" After saying that, Lance disappears with - "Shiro-kun!!" After yelling that, she passes out from using so much power.

[dancingqueen707]

6/24/18

IAL #36 My VLD S6 review + My Predictions for S7

Hey hello guys welcome to another Sunday and so it’s been a week since s6 of voltron dropped and literally the fandom is dead. If you are from my writing blog my author name is Tidus S. Queen but on my personal account I am Kat. I am going to be telling my opinions about this season and how good and amazing it was

Disclaimer: these are just are my options please respect them if you don't care just dont read the post and have a nice day. I am also giving 0 hate to ships this is just my views/take on the latest season.

Because I am way to obsessed for this show I rewatched S3 to S5 before the season dropped so I knew everything for this season.

My thoughts on Lotor:

S5 cliffhanger was Lotor and Allura going to the Altean world called Oriande to learn more about altean alchemy. Then we learned about lort how he is literally a space indiana jones and zarkon was a prick as a father to him and you feel bad for him. I’m gonna state right now I NEVER TRUSTED NO MATTER HOW HOT HE IS. The first time we meet the prince lotor is in S3 when he literally was teasing the paladins and to see if they can become voltron, but they can't because we lost shiro in the astral plane and he died in the s2 finale. So yeah thanks dreamworks for hurting me in the feels.

One more thing I wanted to point out Dos Santos one of the co-executive producer said that lotor was gonna be like a “justice league villain” in an article and as someone who loves superhero and villains I knew lotor was going in to help voltron with a bigger ulterior motive and once he got it the quintessence he literally played himself because he actually had real feelings for allura but we then learn this season that he killed f the alteans hw saved to get more enriched quintessence. Do i Feel he is not dead? Nope we saw no body therefore there is a total possibility we are going to see lotor in future seasons . Do we think he get a redemption arc like zuko? Maybe there are a lot of possibilities

My thoughts on Allura and Lance :

Another character I want to talk about is Allura guys I felt for A llura for this season so much because she literally got played by lotor all allura wants to do is see her people and altea again. We know that Allura loves her people and her dad and she lost her planet to the galra since the very beginning of this show. The question I have been seeing non-stop is that do you think Allura is using Lance as a rebound ? NO NO NO Allura will never do that to Lance ,and Lance respects her too much to be a douche to her he cares about her he is protective friend ( i don’t blame him} . lance did get friendzone this season yes but he is not gonna be a douche to Allura because he got friendzone. Lance has manners and respect Allura. I love their platonic friendship in my views. If you ship them romantically I respect you

A lot of people are hating on dreamworks for pushing Lance over this season. Hello hi people who are thinking that that is how the vld staff and created story tell the characters arcs in this show. Do I want lance to be happy? hell yess. But Lance can’t just get random happiness as a writer and creator of any story you have to make characters suffer in order to make them grow in a story. I know personally think they are setting up Lance's arc for that reason .In my eyes lance and allura friendship are going to get stronger as the seasons progress.

My thoughts on Keith: FINALLY FINALLY WE GET THE ORIGIN STORY OF KEITH’S PARENTS AND HIM AHH IM SO HAPPY THANK THANK YOU DREAMWORKS. Also keith has matured so much found his mom and probably bonded with we the two years that him and his mom were on space dolphins. I think that Keith need the 2 year gap with his mom. He probably learned stuff for her and he now understands his origin. Keith becoming the black paladin he is now the leader that shiro wanted him to be reference in s2 when they were going to the BOM headquarters. Keith also got a pokemon wolf when everyone else was playing dnd space version. Keith go shiro back and his mom and he has definitely grown since season 1. His fighting scene with shiro was so heartbreaking to watch but he knew how to handle the clone and respect kuro. Shiro is Keith father figure form what we saw in the flashbacks with keith dad wearing Shiro’s outfit from season 1 -2 and their bond is so deep I love them so much. I do believe that Shiro did save Keith and I love their brotherly love I really do. You ship them relatively good for you I am not hating on the ship this is just my opinion on their bond.

My thoughts on Romelle: I love this pretty altean conspiracy theorist who literally busted lotor. I love romelle I hope we see her in future seasons.

Thought on Hunk,Pidge, and Coran : they did amazing the whole season hunk defeated galra with galran policitiscs. Pidge our wonderful pidge saved the universe.. Coran has muscles he looked amazing and did great this season.

My opinions on the 7 eps:

Ep1: Omega Shield

We meet lotors nanny. (she reminds me of space yazma from the emperor's new groove lol”

Hunk learning galra politics are schooling the galrans to stop fighting (im so proud our diplomatic boy )

Ep2 : Razor Edge (more like keith and his mom bonduing ep and I’m all for that”

I love krolia, i love we get keith’s origin about his mom and dad how they met, how she got there

Texas kogane saving keith name from being yorak (lol)

BABY KEITH

They she protected keith from the blast (ahh my heart the feels)

How keith and shiro met (finally i have been waiting since s1)

How keith acted in the garrison (poor boy he fought someone )

Keith gets a pokemon who loves and it is very valid to be (also what's it’s name yorak or keith dad’s name?)

Ep 3:Monsters and Mania

The chilliest ep for the paladins

The dnd ep is my fav. I love dnd i got all their jokes about dnd

Kuro being a literal nerd yass

Lance is an adorable dork and i love him

Pidge growing to defeat coran

Allura looking like a queen being amazing with a bow and arrow

Hunk rocks every look i love how his va tyler labine made him talk man oh and punk friendship is just beautiful

Ep 4:The colony

Romelle losing her brother over quintessence

Her not believing in lotor

The ep allura threw lotor and he deserved and it was right after they kissed

Romelle being a literal badass

Ep 5: The Black Paladins

Keith and Kuro fight was so beautiful and emotional

Keith being the black paladin and has matured so well

I loved this episode too it was amazing the animation everything the soundtrack is beautiful too

Ep: 6: All Good Things

The ep that allura dragged lotor when they were fighting between the dark voltron vs good voltron

I called that lotor was gonna make a bad voltron

Allura summing the blazing sword

Coran needs to wear more muscle tees and show of his muscles more

Ep 7: Defender of all universes

The actual ship that matters the castle of lions has to be destroyed to close off the quintessence field

And the montage yeah that gave me all the feels

SPACE DAD IS BACK

Looking amazing with white hair he is now a silver fox and he gets to rest FINALLY

Allura doing her own version of avatar state to put shiro essence into the clone body

The ending and the parallels . ALL THE PARALLELS THIS SEASON

I CAN’T WAIT FOR SEASON 7 WE GOING BACK TO EARTH

My favorite episode was ep 3 because I love dnd and everyone got to just chill and play game.

My thoughts on season 7

Road Trip season i heard it's going to be from the co executive said in a recent articles

I want keith to play dnd so badly I want him to hang out more with the paladins and be super goofy

Shiro actually seeing matt again

I want to see hunk’s and lance’s galaxy garrison stories

Lance arc might happen

What’s keith pokemon wolf name?

And his dad name?

Hagger is gonna be the new villian along with sendak

I have no idea what else is gonna happen next season but i’m already hyped for it

If you have read through this whole review thank you for reading it sorry it is full of rambles but this is just what I think of this season. I loved it. I hope you are having a nice day, night or ,afternoon and what are your thoughts on this season? Did it make it or break it for you? What do you think is gonna happen in s7 or future seasons? Please like or reblog and follow my main or my writing blog I post these IAL every sunday at 9EST. And again thank you for reading my review.

[pinche-vida]

Stars in Your Eyes, Death at Your Throat [part 6]

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Three movements pass after Pidge discovered Lotor's ship's signature in the castle. Since then, they have worked in tandem with the Blade of Marmora to retrieve information wherever they could, however they could.

Every time they had a lead, they felt so close. The team would get their hopes up, could see Lance being back in their arms.

Then something would happen.

A trap, false information, outdated information; A sudden battle against squadrons of Galra fighters that stood between them and Lotor’s ship, fighting tooth and nail, only to have them watch as the ship jumped to another portion of the Galaxy.

The Blade of Marmora informs the team that there is an insane amount of chatter coming from their network about an important captive. They say that an announcement is scheduled in 2 quintets on one of the planets closest to the Central Command Ship.

“How sure are we that this isn’t another trap or bad intel?” Hunk asks wearily.

“The information has been pulled in from at least 40 various sources in our network - if it is malformed information, it means that the Blade itself has been compromised.” Kolivan assures the team, “We will be planting several agents across the region where the chatter was heaviest on the planet. If possible, their orders are to extract the Red Paladin, assuming he is the captive.”

Without hesitation, Keith steps up to volunteer for the mission.

“Wait, Keith, we shou-” Allura immediately begins to express her concerns, except Shiro places a hand on her shoulder.

Keith subtly sinks into his body, fighting off the impulsive piece of his mind that’s eager to pick another fight with them for trying to stop him. He turns to Shiro and allows him to speak before saying anything.

Shiro is facing Allura, but projects his voice loud enough for the room and the device comms to listen. “I agree, it’s extremely risky to place one of us on a planet so close to Central, but the access that Keith would have as a front line support would be critical.” He then gives Keith a once-over. “Be careful out there. I trust the Blade can accommodate this arrangement, Kolivan?”

The leader of the Blade examines Keith closely. They both recall the hasty note Keith left behind when he first learns of Lance’s abduction. The conversation they last had before Keith left the Blade. It wouldn’t be shocking for Kolivan to insist that Keith’s feelings on the mission would be dangerous.

He really hopes Kolivan will say ‘yes’ anyway.

A few more ticks pass, then, “We will send a shuttle out in 10 vargas. If you wish to join the squad in Xeoun, you will need to familiarize yourself with the data gathered so far.” Kolivan thumps his chest with his right arm twice before ending the transmission.

-

Keith doesn’t have much to pack or prepare for embarking on the mission, so in wandering around the Castle, he finds himself in Lance's room once more. With a deep inhale, if he concentrates, he can still smell Lance’s scent and it brings him a degree of comfort.

The doors open, and he’s surprised to see Allura standing at the threshold - she walks in with a proud stance, but strained expression.

It’s no secret that Allura has never been easy on Lance. Something about his demeanor was both foreign and familiar at the same time, which constantly puzzled the princess and always left her on guard around him. His easy going and flirtatious behavior always came across as not taking this job seriously, even though she knew when push came to shove, Lance was a great support system for the team.

In more ways than one.

Allura grips the hem of her skirt and she meets Keith's eyes. What she wants to say is how much she misses Lance. How much she worries about him, and how worried she is about Keith going on this mission. She can't bring herself to say any of that, but she does say, “Bring him back home, Keith.”

She hopes everything she couldn't say comes across.

Keith wordlessly nods.

It does.

He heads into the mission shuttle with the other agents and they begin their journey towards the planet. In the shuttle, they go over the papers in each others hands and discuss the geographical layout. Most of their espionage is provided through doctored documents and paperwork, but things like regional dialects and typical behaviors of locals versus visitors and tourists are important in order to avoid drawing too much attention.

They arrive at the outskirts of the city rumored for the announcement and the other members of BoM strip from their clothing to civilian wear. In missions such as this one, Keith wears looser clothing, gloves, and a thin facial mask to hide his skin. They break out and Keith walks through the vendor square. He keeps an ear out for any gossip that seems like it might be about the announcement today, but it's not difficult to do as it's anything anyone is talking about.

“What do you think it could be?”

“I heard it's a new habitable planet announcement, Zarkon knows it's been getting a little crowded lately.”

“My food merchant heard Lord Zarkon’s fleet rescued a Lion from that witch, Allura.”

“I heard the Prince recovered a priceless artifact from Daibazaal and is receiving a medal for his valor!”

Keith eventually discovers that the announcement is going to be broadcast through any available Galran channel on the network. He relays an encrypted message to Pidge so that she can tune the castle to the broadcast.

A group of Galran children run past him, giggling and shouting, “Hurry, hurry! The plaza is gonna fill up if we're slow!” Keith quickly realizes that's where the announcement will be and rushes after them.

In the plaza, there is a large platform with a stand on the far right. There is a crowd of hundreds swarmed into the open space. Keith's small body allows him to squirm forward until hand lock on to both sides of his forearms. He exhales and is already inching his blade out from the folds of his sleeve. He flicks his eyes to his left and right.

It's two of the Blade agents he came with. Their full Galra heritage has them easily tower over Keith. They signal that they will go no closer, and as a result, neither will he. While Keith would prefer being front and center, they are 25 yards from the stage and have a clear, close view of it.

A silence spreads as the cameras fly and buzz around, signaling a start to the broadcast. The camera's focus to the podium.

Pidge is able to secure a communication link into the broadcast just as the sound of feet slowly making their way to the stage is the only thing that can be heard.

Until Haggar reveals herself to the crowd, which immediately bursts into whispers. “The High Priestess? Making an appearance? What for? Is it about Zarkon? Voltron? New technology?” She raises her hand, effectively hushing the audience.

Allura stands behind pidge's chair and grips it fiercely. “Haggar,” she hisses.

“It has been 10,000 deca-phebes since the cowardly King Alfor of Altea attempted to murder our Lord Zarkon. It's been 10,000 deca-phebes since he ordered the destruction of our homeworld of Daibazaal, and it's been 10,000 deca-phebes since Lord Zarkon established the Galra Empire in order to ensure no planet would fall to Altean madness or madness of any kind. It's been 10,000 deca-phebes, far too long for anyone living to remember the betrayal felt from Altea breaking the peace with Daibazaal. But even today, the feeling of homelessness rings through every Galran as does the yearn for a homeworld that will never exist again. As great as our leader is, his greatest regret is not being able to save his people's planet.”

The entire audience is enthralled with Haggar’s skilled weaving of words.

“But! Today is indeed a glorious day. Under the orders of Zarkon, our brave Prince Lotor was able to bring a war criminal from hiding on their knees and face justice! I present to you, our proud and faithful denizens… The Prince of Altea.”

A loud crack emanated the control room in the Castle. Pidge yelped and fell to the floor. The entire team turned and saw that Allura, with wide eyes still glued to the screen, had shattered the back of the chair with her hands. Her lips trembled and sweat began to form on her face.

“No, no, that's not possible. He was a child, he's dead, he died, it can't be.”

Shiro’s face scrunched up in confusion. He tries to ask Coran for insight, but the older Altean is in just as bad a state - One hand was fiercely holding onto the control podium for balance while the other was clenched over his chest.

“What happened to Lance?” Hunk shouted, bring both Shiro and Pidge’s attention back to the screen. Five sentries had come onto the stage and dragged a prisoner up with them. That was definitely Lance's face but, his cheeks, his ears.

“No way…” Pidge whispered in a horrified awe. “Genetic mutation? What else do the Galra have up their sleeves?”

“The-they don't. They couldn’t know.” Coran corrects, eyes still glued to the screen. “No one does. Alfor had something similar to it in the works to advance our diplomatic outreach in the war efforts, but the technology was held under close wraps and destroyed with Altea. There’s no way Haggar could have retrieved that technology.”

Pidge's gears were working in overtime, “but- so, Lance… is Altean? That’s crazy, he’s from Earth! And 'Prince’? Did Altea have more than one kingdom?” She treats the silence as a 'no’. She glances at Allura, who appears to be on the brink of tears. “Then that means…”

“No way,” Hunk breathed out.

“It makes sense when you think about it, though.” Pidge furrows her eyebrows and bites her lip. “He was the first of us to bond with a Lion, he’s the only person outside of Allura that was able to perform a wormhole jump, the next Lion he bonds with was Red, who was initially Alfor’s.”

The crowd gives a thunderous applause, cheering and rooting at the Prince brought to his knees before them.

Keith is watching rooted to his spot, eyes wide with disbelief. Prince of Altea? That was Lance up there. Sharp ears, blue scales, and two-toned eyes be damned. Lance was alive, and right there. On stage. So close, he swears he can smell the same scent that lingered his room. The sharp sensation of being punched in the gut ripples in his stomach when he sees how Lance was so scared and out of it. He shouldn’t be there, he should be in the Castle with everyone else, joking around and making milkshakes with Hunk.

He snarls when one the sentries cuff Lance in his temple, cause Lance to yelp and blood to start dripping down the side of his face. The hit causes a ripple reaction and Lance’s brown hair shift to a silver hue almost identical to Allura’s. The crowd is riled by the spilled blood. They cheer again, and Keith is close to seeing red. Instinctively, he tries to surge forward but feels the agents hold him back with a vice grip. He snaps his head to them, getting ready to claw his way out but their piercing gaze focuses on him, then darts up to the roofs surrounding the square. He squints to follow the line of sight and sees a few agents leaping across building rooftops.

Another growl involuntarily leaves his throat. “They need to hurry.”

They nod as if they understand.

They don't.

They couldn’t possibly understand.

[animejunki5]

Kallura week

Here is pt 4 to my story. Hope you enjoy!

 Red string of fate - by Lee Whitley

     First thing Keith noticed when he woke up was he actually felt refreshed. His body did anyways. The young man wasn't sure about his mind though. When the pod opened, his vision was a bit clouded and he stumbled. He would have fell if his former wingman hadn't caught him. "I got you, man." Much like how the princess had landed in Lance's arms is exactly where Keith now found himself. "Thanks", the blade said awkwardly as he stood up and tried to steady his legs. "No problem. I figured you might need some help when you got out. I know you weren't in as long I was but you still have to get your sea legs back." The dark haired man nodded in agreement. When he looked up at Lance, he smiled. He really did appreciate the fact someone was here to meet him. "How long have you been down here?" The younger man nonchalantly mentioned he had come down 20 mins ago. "Here. I figured you guys might be thristy." The lanky teen knealt down to pass one of the water pouches to his friend. When he turned to face him, he realized his attention was elsewhere. 

     Even though the lights were dim in the chamber, the princess gave off an ethereal glow. The closest thing the red paladin could compare it to was moonlight. Even that didn't do her justice. She was definitely more like a brilliant star, a center jewel of a majestic galaxy with her paladins serving as her planets. From the moment they first met her, they were drawn to her. She was the one they gravitated to for leadership, for strength, for propose. At least, this was true for Keith. The only other person with authority he would follow was Shiro. But with her, it was different. He would never dare to call them equals but it felt natural to work with her. There was a familiarity or bond they had that was unspoken. They didn't question it, they just accepted it and each other. They became closer because of it. Lance didn't blame him for admiring Allura. She was everything good and pure in new corner of the universe they now existed in. He put his hand on red paladin right shoulder and handed him the water. "You know, I'm really glad you came back even if only for a short stay. She worries about you." At that, Keith snapped out of his dreamlike state and turned to look at his companion. "Look, I know you're not exactly the best at expressing your feelings. You two need to talk about this "thing" between you two." The older teen had an incredulous look in his face. "Stop looking at me with that I - don't - know - what - you're - talking - about - look. Trust me, it's there." Lance voice was soft and supportive to let his words sink in. "You always have each other's back. The way you fit together, it's like you were meant to. Just be there for her and let her know you care. Be patient, man. It'll be okay." His words were so reassuring, it settled his nerves and he relaxed. Keith smiled and thanked the blue paladin for his advice. "Thanks for being my wingman and my friend." He smiled warmly at the red paladin and replied, "anytime. I promise this time I won't forget our bonding moment." He couldn't resist the slight dig. All he got was a whatever from his older friend. "Okay, I'm going to bed. It looks like she'll be ready to come out in a few mins. See you later." Then Keith was left alone. 

     He was alone with his thoughts until Allura emerged. Wait, Coran said he was putting me in for a couple of hours. He must have changed it so I would get out right before the princess did. No wonder my body feels better than I though it would. He'd have to thank the ginger haired man the first chance he got. Just then, there was a small beep signaling the pod was about to open in minute. Keith picked up the other water pouch and put in the left side of the body suit he was wearing. He stood in front of the pod when it opened to catch the woman he cared so much about. Allura still weak from recovering, barely moved forward. He maneuvered her so he could pick her up and carried her light frame in his arms. As he carried the princess to her room, she opened her eyes enough to see who was holding her. They were strong, gentle and mindful to avoid her injury. The pink paladin smiled and felt her checks flush when she realized it was Keith. Why did he make her feel like this? In the time before the war and her 10,000 year slumber, there was no one she thought of like this. No one she cared for like this. Allura felt safe. Even with everything going on, she knew he would be there for her. She could tell by the dim lights throughout the castle, the night simulation was still in operation. He opened the door and carefully walked in. Coran had prepped her room and left on a night lamp on so he could navigate her room. Keith sat her down where the sheets were turned down. He knelt in front of her to make sure the princess was okay. She placed her hands on either side of his face forcing him to focus on her. Allura's hair had come undone and she was looked "so beautiful..." Her eyes wide and her heart was racing. Did I say that it loud? he frantically thought. Oh my life, what do I say to... He never got to finish that thought. The princess had kissed him. It was so soft and tender; it was amazing. They held each other quietly. Both trying to take in what just happened between them. Their arms still wrapped around one another and touching their foreheads together. "You stayed. You kept your promise." He smiled and was overcome his emotion. He put his head down head on her thigh and held her a little tighter She stroked his hair which she discovered to be impossibly soft. Keith could have stayed like this with her, forever. The princess began to rub his back. All the tension and soreness disappeared at her touch. She was content to be able to provide him some much needed comfort. He felt her lean over him, her glorious silver lock spilling over his face. The red paladin slowly got up to say good night. He took her face in his hands to take in the sight of her lovely face before leaving. He sighed deeply and she wiped the tears from his face. Stay was all she said, just that one word. It looked like he was about to protest but she explained. "Please, just to sleep...." The paladin relented and agreed.   She got in first and he skooted in right after her. He took out the pouch of water he had forgot to give her. She chuckled and thanked him for it. She drank some to quench her thirst and put what was left on her night stand. Keith laid on his back and Allura snuggled on his left side draping her arm over his midsection. He put his arms around her and it was the first night in a very long time either had slept so peaceful.