#keiths room bring decked out to his own personal wants and needs makes the idea that he spends most of his time in his room more plausable

[miraculousbumbble]

Voltron but the Castle automatically connects to its visitors minds. But like room wise.

First night in the castle, none of the paladins noticed anything spectacular about their rooms. They were exhausted and had no reason to go looking around. But gradually, they noticed changes. Lance and Keith were probably the most drastic of said changes.

On the paladin's second day aboard the castle of lions, Lance woke up... feeling like everything was a dream. And for a moment, he almost thought the past year had been a dream. His bed felt soft and plush, his entire body was quite literally melting into the mattress, and the blanket he was using (which he swore was paper thin last night) was now heavy and soft and resembled the quilt his abuela had given him only three years prior.

His walls were the same walls he fell asleep surrounded by the night before except, one of them was no longer a wall but it wasn't a window either. It was a video of the Varadero beach from back home. The waves, God he could hear them, almost smell them. (Think the hotel Katniss was staying in from the first hunger games. It's literally that window but it's a wall.) When he sat up from the bed and his feet hit the floor it was weird how it was no longer the cold metal it had been last night, but was now the same wooden flooring that was used on his own bedroom from back home. And for a small moment, lance wanted to cry. Because he knew this wasn't real, his rug wasn't here and that wasn't a window to the beach (even if it was the beach was a 37 minute drive from his house.) His bed wasn't an uncomfortable twin XL bunk bed and even though there was a desk and closet, none of his things were in either of them. It was a fucked up illusion and lance almost wanted to be mad.

Keith on the other hand, it took his room time and effort to change around him. It was as if the longer it took for him to connect with Red and the other paladins, the longer his room took to understand what he wanted and needed. The Galra genes were easy, the Castle detected it when he first walked in and got scanned. Changing the shape of his bed and the general atmosphere of the room was easy, it was genetics. But when it came to wants, the castle had to learn alongside everyone else what Keith wanted.

The first really major thing was the blankets and pillows that seemingly came out of nowhere. Sometimes pillows would even change overnight if the castle felt that his sleep patterns were irregular. The next thing that changed was the flooring that resembled Shiro's apartment. It was weird, a miniscule thing Keith didn't think would ever bring up emotions, but that stupid flooring from Adam and Shiro's apartment nearly brought Keith to his knees. But Keith's favorite addition to the room? The ceiling. Somehow the castle was able to detect day night cycles of Texas and perfectly replicate it. During the day he could see clouds and sometimes if it rained the floor would create these fake puddles, a hologram almost, and at night he could see the constellations. (The other Paladins secretly loved Keith's room. His bed was large and nest-like, taking up the majority of the room, and you could move the ceiling around to look and point out the different constellations)

[delaneytveit]

Hold me Close, and Let It be

Annnnnndddddd she’s back. Uni is up and running again and I had to take care of some personal stuff, but here is a new little ficlet for ya’ll to enjoy. Hope you like angst with a little bit of comfort. 

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Today was definitely not a good day. Lance woke up to the blaring alarm of his phone, a piercing screech that on any other day would have earned no more than a disgruntled groan before a quick press of a button. Today however, it received a string of curses as the Blue paladin rolled over and away from the device, stuffing his head under the pillow to muffle to sound to no avail.

With another few choice words, he reluctantly withdrew himself. Sitting up with little grace and all the annoyance he could probably use to fuel the ship for decapheobes. Lance was pissed.

After spending all day the day before training and failing and training more, chores upon chores in the infirmary, his own solo missions, and meetings with the team he was once again forced to find each and every paladin and put them to bed at a reasonable hour. God forbid they be able to pull themselves away from whatever they were doing to do so themselves. Okay, forced wasn’t the right word. No one was holding him at gun point, threatening his family. But his team was hurting. They weren’t taking care of themselves. And he would be damned if he let his second family spiral when he could so easily stop it.

So he spent each night hunting down each paladin, getting them to eat, drink, rest. Usually taking hours before he was finally able to do the same for himself. Of course that meant that while the rest of his team got to bed at a reasonable hour, he was far from it.

He stumbled lazily to his ensuite bathroom, quick to wash his face and brush his teeth before returning to his room to dress in his paladin armor.

Allura had announced the night before that they would be attending a diplomatic celebration on a planet Lance had no hope of ever being able to pronounce. On any other day, Lance would have jumped at the idea of such a mission. Celebrations meant parties, and if anyone liked to party, it was Lance. But over this past pheobe or so, he’s lost any and all emotional capacity to do more than train.

Coran had told him to come to him when this feeling started. Knowing what the missions were asking of Lance, and how heavy they would weigh on the Paladin’s mind. As grateful as Lance was for the Altean’s words, he couldn’t shake the thought that it would just be better if he didn’t. The less people traumatized was better, and these missions were confidential for a reason.

So, there he was, drained, exhausted, and irritable. Dreading the day before it had begun as he entered the bridge.

To his surprise, he wasn’t the last one. In fact, he was the first of the paladins to reach the bridge. Though he probably shouldn’t have been as surprised, he had been getting pretty good with his time management if he did say so himself. The room was only occupied by Coran and Allura. They quickly shared good mornings, Allura in her excitement already briefing Lance on the celebration. A day-long party followed by a dinner with all of the planet’s officials. Easy enough. Lance just had to act like he wanted to be there, and not like he wanted to crawl inside a hole and hibernate for the next decade.

The room was quickly filled with the noise of the other paladins, bright and lively as they entered. They didn’t seem to notice Lance as they bickered, Shiro stepping in a few times to keep it out of hand.

“Where is Lance, is he late again?” Pidge joked, earning a scoff from Keith before both of their eyes landed on the Blue Paladin already standing at the console with the Alteans, their conversation seemingly interrupted by the outburst. After the briefing, it was little over a varga before the castle landed on the planet and the Paladins were greeted by its inhabitants. Music and excited shouts filled the air as the group marched from the castle to the large civic center that was to house the celebration.

To Lance’s joy, Hunk stood with him the whole time. His friend finding exciting food for both of them to try as they mingled with some of the natives. As exhausted as Lance felt, his smile never faltered, and in all honesty it could have been much worse. He just wished that whatever alien was practically hanging off of his arm could let off a bit.

It was smooth going throughout the party, all the way up until the dinner. Nothing could have ever prepared him for this dinner.

Well, could anyone really prepare to be seated across from the most beautiful alien he had ever seen. Her skin a dusty pink that seemed to aglow in the candle light, her long flowing hair dark as night and hung in long curls where it wasn’t plaited in the most intricate braids. But her eyes, her diamond like eyes could have put the most precious stone to shame. The way he could see almost every colour in them shook him to his core.

She was beautiful, strikingly so.

He almost hadn’t realized he had been staring until he felt the elbow of his best friend hit his ribcage. But he couldn’t bring himself to look away.

The girl sitting in front of him looked up with such sad eyes, it made him want to cry just looking at her.

“You carry much pain with you, Blue Paladin.” her voice was soft, but the sentiment in it struck an arrow in his chest. It seemed her words had silenced the entire table as eyes turned towards the two.

“Though you crave to return home the most, you know that you will not. Not in your lifetime...and yet you remain.” she took a shuddering breath, reminding Lance that he hadn’t breathed since she sat in front of him. “I will not ask you why. For your silence is all the answer I need, but I must ask. You are scared are you not?”

“That’s enough Nalena.”

But all she did was hold a singular slim finger to her father, an action that silenced him yet again.

“Yet you brave the fight, the war that you are convinced you will not survive.” She moved her hand to cover his, offering him the slightest squeeze of comfort.

“You fight because though you may not return, you will do all you can to make sure that they,” she dropped his gaze finally to pass her eyes upon his team before those kind diamond eyes returned to his once more, “they may. You lay awake at night, haunted by the prophecies of your demise, yet you continue. You rise every day, answer every call, knowing that it could be your last.”

He could feel the pain in her voice be mirrored in his heart, and knew the tear that fell from his eye matched that on her cheek.

“Alejandro, you have committed many sins in your effort to protect your team. Though they will never truly know what you have done, what plagues your mind every waking moment, know that they could not have a more devoted nor more loving paladin. Your heart will never be hardened, your efforts never in vain. You carry the curse of the Blue Paladin, and take it in stride. Your loyalty knows no bounds. Know this Alejandro Serrano-McClain, if they do not let you into your heaven it is not your fault. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but it is their loss for not honoring the hero you have become.”

+

Blue eyes stared, unlooking into the vast expanse of the stars hidden behind the glass. His mind still reeling relentlessly vargas after his encounter with the princess Nalena. Her words played in a continuous loop in his mind. Keeping him awake.

So here he stood, arms crossed, dressed in only a pair or dark sweatpants and his lion slippers  shielding his feet from the ice of the cold castle floor. He was so wrapped up in his own mind, he hadn’t heard the doors whoosh open, nor the light footsteps that followed to where he stood.

“Lance?”

Startled he turned around, eyes wide when they settled on the violet ones belonging to the red paladin.

“Keith...what are- are you okay?”

They both stood in silence, Keith dressed in his pajamas seemed colder than Lance did, shuddering a little in the dark of the observation deck.

“Shouldn't I be asking you that?”

Lance shifted on his feet, not really sure where this was going, but dreading it nonetheless. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”

“Are you? I mean, after what happened today, I wouldn’t be. And I-” Lance watched as Keith fidgeted with the sleeve of his shirt, his eyes refusing to meet the blue paladin’s in front of him. “I don’t know. What she said. It seems like you haven’t been okay for a while.”

Lance wasn’t sure why he was so surprised, after all the whole team had been there to witness the incident. They weren’t blind. Of course they’d be concerned. He’d be worried out of his mind if the same thing happened to Pidge, or Shiro, even Allura. But he had to admit it was a little weird having Keith, his self proclaimed rival- not rival, genuinely worry about him.

His first instinct was to deflect. Hell, this wasn’t something that a few kind words could fix, and the last person he’d want comfort from would be the boy that only bickered with him. But that wasn’t right. Keith was standing in front of him because he wanted to help, because at the end of the day they were a team, friends. And he genuinely did care.

Lance sighed before holding out his hand, gesturing for the other boy to come and join him in front of the glass, only turning back to the stars when Keith finally stood next to him.

“You’re right.” he said, breaking the long drawn out silence, his eyes never leaving the stars he had grown so accustomed to. The stars that he knew he would live and die fighting in. “I don’t think I’ve been okay for a long time.”

He could feel the smaller boy’s eyes on him, studying him and if the conversation hadn’t weighted so heavily on him, he probably would have blushed.

“I used to look up at the stars, and dream about flying through them. I wanted to be the best pilot out there, traveling farther than anyone ever had. Even when we were brought into this war, I couldn’t help but dream of doing great things. It's all I've ever wanted to do... fly.”

“All I ever wanted to do was fly.” He repeated softly, as he looked down at his feet, shaking his head at his own ignorance. No, not ignorance, naivety. All those years ago he was a naive 17 year old who would have given an arm and a leg to travel the stars.

“Now I’m here, fighting a war my family has no idea even exists. And all I want to do is go home. I want to hug my mom, argue with my siblings, play with my niece and nephew.”

“You will, Lance. We’ll go back to Earth, and you can do all that, and more-”

“Will I?” he interrupted. There was no harshness, no anger. Just a reserved sadness that Keith would have done anything to never hear from his friend’s lips again. This wasn’t Lance, Lance was supposed to be loud and happy and...not hurting like this. Lance deserved to be happy.

“It doesn’t scare me any more, the thought of not going home. At first I used to be terrified, of getting hurt, dying, leaving my family to wonder what happened to me. As bad as it sounds... I don’t feel that way anymore.”

“Lance…”

“I used to spend hours imagining how I would die, getting gunned down by a Galra soldier, or saving one of you, or… I spent so much time imagining it, that I couldn’t even imagine going home if I wanted to.”

Keith had turned completely now, facing the taller boy, tears in his eyes as his friend struggled to talk. How could he have not known about this? How could any of them not have known? They were supposed to be a team, and when one of your team is hurting, you help. They didn’t seem like a team at that moment, neglecting their Blue Paladin. The one person who was holding this team together was completely falling apart and none of them could see it.

It made him want to wrap Lance up in the biggest hug he had ever known, and Keith was far from a hugger. But seeing the boy stand before him, speak about how accepting he was of fucking dying? That was not okay. None of this was okay. They had grown up fighting a war, and if there was any indication that it had taken its toll on the teens, Lance was it.

“She was right.” Lance said finally. Breaking Keith out of his stupor.

“Right about what?”

“I’ve done horrible things for this goddamn war. I’ve killed people Keith, not droids, or senteries. Living, breathing Galra. Not just Galra, but anyone who would cross the coalition. I-” his voice cracked as he placed his head in his hands, stifling a sob that threatened to escape him. “I don’t want to be remembered for that. I never wanted to be a hero, but here I am pretending to be one, knowing all the things I’ve done.”

Any self control that Keith had once had evaded him in that moment, as he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Lance. Pulling him close, as if he was afraid to lose him if he didn’t.

The action only made Lance cry harder, no longer hiding it as he clung to the Red Paladin. Keith guided them to the floor, and there they remained until Lance had cried himself out, Keith releasing a few tears himself.

It was some time before either of them spoke again. Neither one really wanting to break from the safety of the silence, but knowing that more had to be said. In the end, Keith waited until Lance pulled away before speaking.

“Lance, war brings out the worst in all of us. We’ve all done things that we’re not proud of, but we can’t let it define us. What we do is to help the universe. Voltron exists to help the universe.”

Lance scoffed at that, the disbelief held in his voice only pushing Keith more.

“I’m so sorry that you’ve been forced to do those things. But I’ve also seen you do some amazing things as well. I’ve seen you carry children out of a collapsing building, I’ve seen you push Pidge out of the way of a shot, I’ve seen you talk Shiro down from his nightmare induced panic attacks. Hell, you literally drag me out of the training deck every night to make sure I actually sleep. Lance, you care for this family.”

Before Lance could get a word in, Keith cupped his cheeks in both hands, angling him so that their eyes met.

“I know me listing all of the good things will never outweigh the heaviness of the guilt you carry. All I ask is that you acknowledge that you are more than that, because you are. You are Lance McClain, the Blue Paladin of Voltron. A hero, a fighter, a friend. The scar on your back is a testament to how true that is.”

He let the words sink in, let Lance just have time to feel them. Because he meant every word.

And he’d be damned if he let Lance go on believing that he wasn’t worthy of being here. He defined what it meant to be a paladin, and though he may not be their leader, he still managed to instill it in each and every one of them.

“Lance, I-”

“Thank you. I think I’m gonna go to bed.” Lance pulled back before moving to stand up, popping the cricks out of his shoulders.

“...Just think about what I said, please.”

Lance turned then, a small smirk replacing the broken expression that plagued him just the minute before.

“Yeah, I will. Thank you, Keith, really.”

[justheretobreakthings]

Remember Me - Chapter 21

(First Chapter) (Previous Chapter)

Word Count: 4,366 (Total Word Count: 84,026) Read on AO3

Story Summary:

It was strange enough for the paladins of Voltron to have found another human this far from home, locked in a Galra prison. But it was stranger still when this human insisted that he knew them, and even that he was the former red paladin of Voltron.

That couldn’t possibly be true, could it? After all, if this Keith was actually a part of the Voltron team, then why does nobody remember him?

It was difficult to get a proper read on Keith over the next couple of days. Not to say that it wasn’t always difficult to get a read on Keith - how many of their problems could be solved if the guy just came with goddamn operator’s manual, Lance couldn’t even fathom - but more specifically, it was hard to tell how Keith was feeling toward Lance.

He wasn’t openly glaring at Lance any more, the way he had been during their last coalition meeting, but he wasn’t really looking Lance’s way at all, either. Not greeting him when he entered the room, not speaking with him, not smiling when Lance cracked a joke during a meal. Nothing.

And for the life of him, Lance couldn’t remember if this was a change or was a return to the norm. Was Keith giving him the cold shoulder, or was he just being the same grumpy, closed-off person he always was, and Lance was just now feeling more aware of it?

Part of him wanted to broach the subject, to walk straight up to Keith while he was on the training deck or in his room and ask whether the whole deal had blown over, or whether Keith was still mad.

The other part of him was sure that Keith was still mad, and that bringing it up would only fan the flames.

Still, whether the tension between them was real or just in his imagination, it was still leaving Lance feeling awkward whenever he was around Keith, unsure of his own footing. Which was not a feeling he relished. Fortunately, even now Keith wasn’t much more social than he had been when they’d first brought him into the castle, so the awkwardness only really had to be endured during meals and training. So far, at least.

He let the subject stew for his mind for a while before finally bringing it up with anyone, and he chose to spring it on Pidge and Hunk. The three of them had been hanging out in Hunk’s room, chattering about nothing important with toolkits open as they worked on a project. That is, Pidge and Hunk were working. Lance was dangling off of Hunk’s bed, feet against the wall and head on the floor, watching the proceedings upside-down; a while back they had instituted a policy that Lance was only allowed to assist with engineering projects up until the point that he broke something, after which he was relegated to watching from a time-out spot for the rest of the project. Today, it had taken him only four minutes.

They were doing… something, with one of the cleaning bots. Pidge had told him when they’d first started what they were changing, but it had seemed very complex and had mostly gone over Lance’s head. In any case, judging by the fact that some of the ‘upgrade parts’ Pidge had brought along looked suspiciously similar to pieces of the Altean blaster rifles he’d once helped Coran clean, he was pretty certain that the cleaning bot was going to be much more dangerous once they were done with it than it was when they had started.

The conversation had drifted toward reminiscence about their Garrison days, and somehow landed on talking about past school projects, so Lance had quickly been growing bored of that topic - he had suffered enough while doing school projects; it was just cruel to make him talk about them so long after the fact. It was high time for a subject change.

“Have you guys noticed anything weird about Keith?” he asked as he sat back up onto Hunk’s bed. He closed his eyes for a few seconds as the blood rushed out of his head now that he was right-side-up again.

Pidge glanced at Hunk before shrugging. “Well, yes, Lance, but that’s kind of old news by now, isn’t it?

Lance shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean - I meant, like, just over the past couple of days. Like, since that dinner on Thotirn?”

“Uh, he was hungover the day after,” Hunk said. “Does that count as weird?”

“What? No,” Lance huffed. “What about, like, his behavior in training and meals and - and with the way he’s acting?”

“Here’s an idea,” Pidge said. “How about instead of being weird and cryptic, you just tell us what you think he’s doing that’s so weird, and we’ll agree or disagree.���

Lance huffed out a frustrated sigh. “I’m talking about – about how he’s, like, avoiding me and not talking to me and – and seeming like he’s, um, in sort of a rotten mood…”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just how Keith is all the time,” Hunk said. He picked up a screwdriver and turned his attention back to the cleaning bot.

“No, that’s not – ugh!” Lance flopped dramatically backward onto Hunk’s bed, his foot narrowly avoiding kicking Pidge’s head as it swung out. “I’m trying to figure out if Keith’s mad at me! Have either of you noticed anything different about him the past couple days? Has he said anything about me to you guys? Or, maybe one of you’s seen him glaring at me when I’m not looking? Something like that?”

There was a pause before Pidge sighed. “Lance, what did you do?”

“Nothing!” Lance insisted as he straightened up again.

“Why would Keith be mad at you for nothing?” Hunk asked.

“Well, I mean, not nothing nothing, just – see, back during that dinner party on Thotirn, Keith had nearly drunk his weight in alcohol, right? So I take him back to the castle and get him to bed so he doesn’t cause a scene or drown in his own puke or anything. And when we get back to his room, he starts having this, like, emotional breakdown. Just getting really riled up and crying, and I needed him to calm down, you know? To just settle down and go to sleep.”

“So you… knocked him out?” Hunk said as Lance paused for breath.

“What? No! I just told this little white lie to calm him down before he went to sleep. Thing is, by the time he’s sobered up next morning, he of course realizes that it’s a lie, and he’s real pissed about it. He chewed me out after training the other day and he hasn’t said a word to me since. So I’m just trying to figure out if this has all blown over, or if he’s still mad at me. Keith kinda seems like he’d be the grudge-holding type, you know?”

Pidge let out a thoughtful hum as she crossed her arms. “What lie did you tell?”

“I kind of, um - ” Lance scratched at the back of his head. “I kind of maybe sorta told him that when he woke up his team would be back?”

The other two stared at him for a long moment before Hunk softly said, “Dude.”

Lance held up his hands. “Okay, look, before you guys get all judgey - ”

“Too late,” said Pidge.

“ - I honestly didn’t think he would remember what I said. You two both saw how hungover he was yesterday morning; that should give you a bit of an idea of how wasted he was the night before. It’s a fucking miracle he remembered. And also, you know what, it was very obviously done to calm him down and make him feel better, right? Like, once he sobered up and all, he should’ve realized that.”

“Maybe,” Hunk said. “But that’s still, like, a really sore point for Keith. Not really the sort of thing you should be poking at.”

“Yeah, fine, in retrospect, yeah, I probably should have come up with something else, but it was a high-pressure situation and late at night and I don’t think we can dismiss the fact that I’d had a couple of drinks too and - and it’s way easier to sit here and figure out other options after the fact. Hindsight is twenty-four/seven, and all that.”

Pidge raised a brow. “It’s ‘hindsight is twenty-twenty’.”

“There aren’t twenty days in a week, Pidge, that makes no sense.”

“... Remind me how you passed the Garrison entrance exams, again?”

“Not important, Pidge,” Lance said with a scowl. “Look, I made a mistake, all right? I know it. And I apologized! I told him I was sorry, but he was being a stubborn ass as usual and decided that him feeling disappointed for a few minutes in the morning was the worst tragedy in the world, and of course he shouldn’t have been drinking that much in the first place – ”

“Is this how you worded your apology when you gave it to him?” Pidge asked. “Because if so, I have a theory about why he might be mad at you.”

“No, no, I’m just – ” He sighed again. “I’m just frustrated. Everything’s all tense now – as if things weren’t stressful enough already – and I just wanna, like, put the whole stupid incident behind us, you know? I’m making an effort here.”

“Have you tried talking to Shiro about it?” Hunk asked.

Lance turned to him, head tilted in question. “Hm? What’s Shiro got to do with this?”

“Nothing directly,” Hunk answered. “But he’s the leader of Voltron, right? If there’s a problem between team members, he can mediate. He’s done it plenty of times before.”

“I guess…” Lance said slowly.

Pidge nodded. “Right, ask Shiro. Seems kinda the obvious solution now I think about it.” She furrowed her brow as Lance said nothing in reply. “Lance? Don’t tell me there’s something up between you and Shiro too.”

Lance shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s… if Shiro’s gonna be doing conflict resolution or whatever, shouldn’t he be, like, unbiased? As a rule?”

“What about it?” Hunk asked.

Lance folded his arms. “What, you don’t think Shiro’s just gonna agree with whatever Keith says?”

There was a beat of silence as Pidge and Hunk cast confused glances at each other. “Since when does Shiro do that?” Pidge asked.

“Pretty much since Keith showed up, right?” Lance said with a shrug. “He was siding with Keith against Allura from day one, he’s been letting Keith get away with stunts in our battles that he would never let the rest of us do without getting a ten-hour lecture afterward, he basically believes anything Keith says and lets him do whatever he wants – ”

“Lance, that’s not true,” Hunk said. “Keith follows the same rules the rest of us do.”

“All right, yeah, maybe so, but he’s the only one with Shiro’s arm around his shoulder the whole time he does it. Come on, I can’t be the only person here who’s noticed it, can I? Go ahead, have either of you spent half as much time training with Shiro as Keith has? Or has Shiro talked to you nearly as much as he talks to Keith? You can’t honestly tell me you don’t see it!”

“Well, it’s – that’s not – ” Hunk started, but to Lance’s satisfaction, he was clearly wavering.

“You see it, right? It’s blatant – ”

“Lance,” Pidge said.

Lance ignored her. “Blatant favoritism, is what it is. It’s like he’s – like he’s more concerned about Keith. Like he needs Keith more.” His arms tightened over his chest. “What’s he need Keith for so badly, huh? He’s already got his team. He’s got me.”

A longer beat of silence rang in the room this time before anyone moved or made a sound, and it was only broken when Pidge unfolded her legs and stood, joining Lance on the bed. The mattress sank slightly as she took a seat, bringing her sock feet and letting out a long breath. “Back when the Kerberos mission crew was first selected,” she said, “Back when Matt and Dad first started training for it, I was kinda pissed.”

Lance blinked at her. He turned to Hunk, looking for an explanation, but Hunk appeared just as bemused as him. “Um… okay?” he said, turning back to Pidge.

“I guess there had been sort of a closeness there between Matt and Dad for a while already, on account of Dad working at the Garrison and Matt being a cadet there, then a junior officer right under Dad’s command. But once they were selected for Kerberos, they started having more and more time together. They were training and studying and running mission simulations and going to meetings. We could barely find the chance to do so much as have a meal together as a whole family. It was kinda like the family had been split in half, you know? The half that was going to Kerberos, and the half that was staying behind. And it kinda sucked. Matt was there at Dad’s side all the time, and I was starting to feel like an afterthought.”

She sighed and brought her knees up to rest her chin on them. “Came to a head this one night. See, back at home, first Saturday of the month was always Family Game Night. We’d set aside the whole evening for whatever game we could all play together for hours on end, and we’d been doing this since I was too young to even understand how board games worked. So this one night, Dad calls us up at like four o’clock to tell us that some important presentation got moved up at the very last minute and he and Matt wouldn’t be able to make it to game night, and I sorta lost it. Yelled at him over phone for a couple minutes straight, didn’t answer it when Matt tried to call me after.

“So, naturally, when they get home from their big important presentation thing, Dad sits us all down to have a ‘family discussion’.” She made air quotes around the words with her fingers. “And basically we just… talked it out, I guess. Like, got it all into the open. And on some level, you know, I’m feeling like a bratty little kid because, yeah, I know that he needs to be doing all this stuff for Kerberos, and I know that he’s not intentionally prioritizing Matt over me, it was – it was the circumstances. Still didn’t mean I felt good about it, though.

“So I tell him that, and in the end, I guess it did sort of need to be said. I don’t think Dad was really realizing how much the Kerberos prep was taking over his schedule and his life, and I mean, it was going to be a long mission away from us, Mom and I needed some time with him and Matt while we still could. I suppose in all that goes into working toward a space mission, some stuff winds up pushed aside even if it shouldn’t be. Not his fault. He’s only human, you know? And he was focusing on things he needed to focus on. Sometimes people need a reminder that there’s other stuff going on around them. Once he had that, we worked things out. Got actual bonding time scheduled with me, finally, so it did the trick.”

She lifted her chin and stretched out her legs. “We all know how badly what happened with Shiro affected him. I mean, we’ve all been around for flashbacks and stuff, right? So getting someone on the ship who’s apparently been dealing with something so similar, and getting to talk about the stuff and help someone out with all that shit is probably good for him. Shiro needs that. And Keith? Well, we’ve all seen that he’s all kinds of fucked up, so having someone like Shiro around to try and help sort out the fucked-up-ness? Yeah, I’m betting he needs that.

“That’s all it is, I think. They’re just focused on what they need right now, and other things are gonna end up falling by the wayside. That’s just what happens, you know? There’s only so much a person can focus on at once. And if it gets to be a problem, that’s when you sit down, have a family discussion, and get that shit out into the open. Tell me, Lance: have you mentioned this to Shiro?”

“I - ” Lance gritted his teeth as he hesitated.

“Well, there you go,” said Pidge. “If there’s a problem between you and Shiro, you’re not gonna get anything solved by complaining to us about it. Go to Shiro. Use your words.”

“I shouldn’t have to talk to Shiro about it, you know?” Lance said. “He’s the team leader, the Black Paladin. He’s – he’s supposed to know what’s going on, and know what to do, and – ”

“And walk on water and cure the blind and ride his magical unicorn over a rainbow and into the sunset?” Pidge finished, a smirk hovering at the edge of her mouth.

Lance grimaced. “I didn’t say all that.”

“Lance, I’ll have you know that this is the same Shiro who once narrowly avoided getting expelled as a cadet because Matt dared him to go streaking on a campus tour day. He’s a great guy, and a great leader, but it’s always dangerous to put someone on a pedestal. Talk to Shiro.”

“…Okay,” Lance sighed. “Okay, I’ll have a talk with Shiro. But I’m still not thrilled about the idea of having a big conflict mediation with Keith.”

“If you don’t wanna have a counseling session, maybe some sort of grand gesture would do the trick for Keith,” Hunk suggested as Pidge slid back onto the floor. “I’ve had success in the past with baking apology cakes, writing ‘I’m sorry’ in icing on the top. It’s hard to be mad at someone who gives you cake.”

“Hey, there’s an idea,” Lance said, face brightening. “Could you make a cake for me to give to Keith?”

“It’s your apology, man. You’ve gotta bake the cake.”

“Mmm, I dunno if I wanna bake…”

“Then maybe get him a greeting card,” Pidge said. “Hallmark sells ‘I’m Sorry I Messed With Your Sense Of Reality’ cards, right?”

“Very funny,” Lance grunted.

“A balloon bouquet?” Hunk said. “Flowers? What flowers are good for apologies?”

“This isn’t helping at all,” Lance groaned. “What the hell would Keith even want with flowers or balloons?”

“Well, what does Keith want?” Hunk asked.

Lance furrowed his brow as he thought it over, and the right answer came to him soon after. He let out another long groan and dropped his face into his hands.

Keith had better fucking forgive him after this.

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

Lance left Hunk’s room once Pidge had declared their project finished, and before she and Hunk had a chance to test out the cleaning bot’s new upgrades. He still wasn’t entirely sure what those upgrades were or how they were going to test them, but if by tomorrow the Castle was still in one piece, that would likely be the sign that the project was a success.

He went to the living quarters, coming first to Keith’s door and knocking. He didn’t identify himself – Keith was less likely to ignore the knocking if he didn’t know who was on the other side of the door – but he still got no response from inside. He pressed his ear to the door just to be certain, and when he heard nothing, decided to move on to Shiro’s room instead.

His fist was raised and poised to knock when a voice sounded from behind him. “Oughtn’t disturb him right now, Lance.”

He jumped an inch in the air and whipped around to see Allura strolling around the corner, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “My apologies,” she said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“You didn’t,” Lance said.

“Oh?” Allura quirked her brow. “You jumped.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I was startled. I’m just… battle-ready.” He stretched his arms and leaned languidly up against the doorframe. “Sharpshooter reflexes, you know? Gotta always be on my toes.”

“Ah. I should have guessed. In any case, if you plan on visiting with Shiro, you ought to save it for later. He only just went down for a nap a few vargas ago. I believe he had one of his restless sleep cycles this past night, needs to catch up a bit.”

“Oh. He was with you?”

Allura nodded. “And Coran. We’ve been sorting and studying coalition reports and correspondence for the better part of today. I certainly don’t blame him for being tired, it can be frighteningly dull work.”

“I see.” He knew what she meant. Coran had roped Lance into helping out with coalition correspondence before, and even without the additional tediousness of him having to run every line through translator programs, the supply and logistics reports were so boring to take notes on that it made even his dullest math classes back at the Garrison feel like a non-stop party in comparison.

“Did you need him for anything urgent?” Allura asked.

“Nah,” Lance said, shaking his head. “Mostly just looking to chat. I’ll save it for tomorrow.”

“If you have time to,” Allura said. “I’ll let the rest of the team know at dinner and we’ll brief you all this evening, but tomorrow we’ll be assisting the Blade a bit. There’s a supply depot on one of Mapukil’s satellites that they believe may be involved in one of the transfer routes they’ve been trying to track for that odd strain of quintessence the Blade’s had its eye on, but they’re having difficulty travelling into that sector undetected. We’re going to try to wormhole through and investigate the depot on their behalf.”

“Sounds like fun,” Lance said. “We planning on attacking or – ?”

“Not if we can avoid it.”

“Less fun. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be good. We’ll be in and out in no time. By the by, you seen Keith anywhere? Wanted to chat with him too.”

“I passed him returning to his room from the training deck a little while ago.”

“Already checked, he’s not there.”

“Most likely in the kitchen, then. You paladins do tend to get peckish after exercising, don’t you?”

“True,” said Lance. “I’ll check there. See you ‘round.”

Allura waved him off as he turned and set off toward the kitchen. Sure enough, he walked through the entrance to find Keith sitting on the counter, feet dangling, a bowl in his hands filled with some berry-like fruit that only Coran could pronounce and popping them into his mouth.

Keith looked up as Lance entered, then immediately dropped his gaze back to his fruit, and Lance wasn’t sure if he was imagining the scowl that had just appeared on his face, or if it was just due to the angle. He sighed internally. Well, best get this over with. “Hey, Keith,” he said.

Keith’s only reply was a wordless grunt, and Lance tried his best not to be offended by that. Instead, he strolled across the kitchen and hoisted himself up onto the counter as well. Not right next to him – Lance was pretty sure anyone besides Shiro trying to sit that close to him uninvited would wind up with a black eye – but on the opposite side of the sink. Keith seemed to stiffen, but he didn’t make to leave or tell Lance to go away. He counted that as a win.

“So, uh…” Lance began cautiously. “Whatcha eating?”

Keith tilted the bowl toward Lance so he could see the fruits better, then popped another into his mouth, chewing audibly.

“Cool, cool. Do you, uh, do you mind if I have one? Haven’t eaten anything since – ”

“What do you want, Lance?” Keith asked, his tone flat and eyes still on the bowl.

Lance quickly turned a frustrated huff into a little cough. He was here to make nice with Keith, not get into another spat with him. “Well, I actually, uh, needed to talk to you about – about something.” He paused, and when Keith didn’t ask him to elaborate, he went ahead. “See, I guess some of the Lions have been feeling a little, um, lonesome as of late, on account of us all being busy with our missions and training and meetings and all that. And I’ve been doing better about that with Red lately, trying to visit her more often, but I think she’s kinda bored, you know? Like, needs a bit of variety?”

“Okay…” Keith said slowly. “So what’s that got to do with me?”

“I was thinking about, like, how you had asked about, um, visiting with Red sometime? And I know I had been kind of, uh, not sure about whether Red would be cool with that, but, um… I dunno. I think, you know, long as I stick around and oversee the visits, she might be okay with having someone else pop in a few times and chat with her. She’s more of an extrovert than she pretends to be, I think. So, there you go, if you wanna visit Red…”

Finally Keith had lifted his gaze to Lance’s face, and Lance couldn’t read his expression. Keith blinked at him for a moment before saying, “Are you serious?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m serious. Why wouldn’t I be?” Lance started swinging, bumping his heels against the counter, keeping his posture as casual as possible. “So, you wanna do that or not? We could hang out in the hangar after dinner or tomorrow morning or something, your pick. I mean, if you want to.”

“…Yeah,” Keith said. “Yeah, I’d, uh – I’d like that.”

“Okay. Okay, cool. So, um.” He cleared his throat and slid off of the counter. “So, whenever you’re up for it, just find me and we’ll head down. Whenever.”

“Yeah,” Keith said again with a nod. “Um… thanks.”

Lance nodded back. “Right, no pr– uh, you’re welcome.”

He rocked uncertainly on his heels for another few seconds before the awkward silence got to be just too much, and he made his hasty goodbyes and headed out of the kitchen, leaving Keith to his fruit. He let out a relieved breath once he was back in the hall. He did it. Apology made, apology accepted.

Perhaps things were looking up.

[calligraphist-artemisia]

Across Time and Space (Chapter 9)

Summary: Sequel to I’ll Take Her Place.  Slav is showing off a piece of experimental equipment, when it malfunctions and blasts Katie and Keithir to another universe. At the same time, it drags Pidge and Keith over into theirs, effectively swapping places. With their fate resting in the hands of Slav, will they be able to get back home? Or are they stuck to live the rest of their lives in the wrong universe?

Also posted on AO3 and fanfiction.net under the username “kishirokitsune”.

I’m going to switch up my update schedule to every other weekend for a little while, so the next update should be sometime along the 21-23.

(Also, are line breaks no longer a thing on tumblr??? Guess I’m doing this the old way.)

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Chapter 9

OLKARION – CASTLE OF LIONS

Krolia hadn't known what to expect when Keith mentioned a castle, but the building settled in with the Olkarion cityscape still took her by surprise. It was unlike anything she'd seen before, with sleek high spires and lit with light blue. It looked out-of-place, like someone had picked it up from someplace else and deposited it within the city.

She glanced at her son, who looked tense as he carefully guided them towards the castle. Below them, the Olkari stopped to point and stare in fear, but they must have been warned about the Galra craft beforehand, because no one tried to strike them down from the sky.

They flew down to the castle and easily glided into the hangar, parking off to one side. A small group of people were waiting for them when they disembarked, and Krolia was relieved to see Kolivan among them.

Keith walked towards them, but rather than go report to their leader, he headed straight for a young human woman with brown hair. He pulled her into his arms and Krolia watched as his shoulders relaxed, his tension draining away.

“Welcome back, Krolia.”

Her gaze snapped to Kolivan and she inclined her head. She tried her best to pay attention to him, but something kept drawing her back to her son.

There was something... off. She couldn't say for sure what it was, but she could feel it.

“I am glad you came,” Kolivan said. “I worried that not even Keithir would be enough.”

“It almost wasn't. Kolivan, why am I here?” she asked.

“We have a situation here which requires my attention, and I have had difficulties managing both that and my duties as leader. I should have called you in months ago, but felt your position under Ranveig too important. Now, however, things have changed,” Kolivan told her.

Krolia frowned. “What of Antok? Surely he'd be a better...”

Kolivan glanced away.

Oh.

Krolia's stomach churned at the revelation. “Kolivan, I'm sorry. Of course I'll help you, in whatever way you need, but what's so important that you feel you need to divide your attention?”

“Currently, this castle is playing host to two visitors from another reality. We have been working to return them and bring back the two who were sent to their reality. It is a complicated matter, but one of great importance to our cause. Of the missing pair, one is a paladin of Voltron, and the other is a member of the Blade of Marmora.”

Krolia looked around, wondering who it was that came from another world. Her eyes fell on Keith once more.

Keith, who kept casting her guilty looks and then immediately averting his gaze.

Keith, who she was starting to realize looked older than he should.

Keith, who had point-blank refused to travel through the Quantum Abyss, no matter how important it was to her mission.

Krolia swallowed. “You called him 'Keithir'.”

“That is how he introduced himself after the swap happened,” Kolivan said.

He wasn't her Keith.

There was a sting of mild betrayal there. Why hadn't he told her the truth from the start. (Because she never would have believed him.) Didn't he trust her? (He was afraid of how she would react.) Why hadn't he corrected her when she called him “Keith”? (She would have had so many questions from such a simple correction.)

Keithir glanced her way again and she straightened her spine, making a split-second decision on what to do. He watched her approach with no small amount of trepidation, and flinched when she reached for him.

Krolia abruptly pulled him into a hug, giving him no room to pull away. He stiffened up until he realized what was happening and then wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back tightly.

What universe he came from didn't matter, he was still her son.

Keithir pulled away after a few long ticks and turned slightly to his left, gesturing his friend forward. “Mom, this is my wife, Katie.”

There was so much to take in – other realities, a wife, the purple color starting to bloom across his cheeks – but Krolia let it all slide over her. She'd stop and ask questions later, but right then she was going to enjoy getting to know her family.

“So is your face supposed to do th- OW!”

Krolia listened, bemused, as the two younger humans began to quietly bicker, while everyone else sighed and did their best to ignore them. It was easy, as Keithir shifted form completely, the purple spreading across his face in the form of short fur. He grimaced as his ears elongated and transitioned to the top of his head, sprouting longer fur than on the rest of his body.

When his transformation was finished, there was only one thing Krolia could think of to say: “You look like your grandfather.”

“Really?” he asked, sounding surprisingly pleased.

There was something else she was missing. Something she didn't really want to think about, but her mind drifted in that direction against her will. He knew nothing about their family history and there were only a few reasons for that to happen.

Even in another reality, she had missed out on being with her son. She would never be able to change that, but she could start trying to make up for it. Whatever he wanted to know, she would tell him, and in the process get to know him and his tiny wife. (And then later, she would get the chance to do it all over again, once they got Keith back.)

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

ALTEA – CASTLE OF LIONS

There was a Galra who Pidge didn't recognize waiting in the hall when she went to leave. She froze in the doorway, taking in the Blade uniform and the lack of mask. He seemed friendly enough, despite his lack of smile, but that didn't stop Pidge's brain from jumping to wild conclusions as to why he was there.

She thought Kolivan was the only one of the Blade who knew they were there. How had he found them? Was he supposed to know? And if he was, why hadn't Kolivan told them? Just who was he?

“Umm...”

“Apologies, I didn't mean to startle you,” he said. “I was hoping... Is Keithir – sorry, is Keith here?”

“Pidge, what's going on?”

She jumped, startled by Keith's voice as he exited the bathroom. He walked over to join her with a frown on his face and stared up at the Galra with confusion.

“You're... Thace?” Keith said, struggling to recall his name.

Pidge could dimly recognize the name. She was pretty sure that was the name of one of Kolivan's spies on Zarkon's command ship; the one who they lost communication with, resulting in Keith volunteering to infiltrate to infect the ship with a virus.

“I am,” Thace confirmed. “I was hoping you'd join me on the training deck this morning. Of course, you're more than welcome to join us, Pidge.”

It was tempting. She didn't want to be out of shape by the time they got back to their reality, and it would be nice to fight alongside Keith again, but the call of her stomach was louder. “I might join you later,” she told him.

Keith was already pulling his Blade uniform out of one of the drawers, preparing to put it on.

They'd decided the anonymity of the uniforms was perfect for the times they needed to travel beyond the paladin wing of the Castle, but Kolivan recommended they only do so in the company of Shiro, Allura, or a trusted member of the Blade, like himself or Regris. (Pidge supposed Thace counted too.) She'd have to find someone to take her once she was done in the kitchen.

Pidge left them there, heading off on her own when she saw how comfortable Keith was with going along with Thace. She wasn't sure if it was the familiar name or if Kolivan had specifically mentioned him as someone trustworthy, but she knew he would be okay. Aside from Shiro, who was basically Superman, Keith was the strongest person she knew. If he ran into any trouble, he'd be able to get himself out of it.

The kitchen looked empty when she arrived, but the smell of peanut butter lingered in the air and the plate of perfect cookies sitting on the counter told her she'd just missed Hunk. At least, she assumed it was Hunk. For all she knew, Lance had taken up baking as a way to impress his husband. (She didn't think she'd ever get over the fact that they were married. It was weird, but natural at the same time. Or at least it wasn't impossible to see how they'd be good together.)

Pidge figured it wouldn't hurt if she had one or two cookies. She went to reach for one, but a tiny, purple hand beat her to it, feeling around on the counter before landing on the plate and then carefully withdrawing back down the other side.

She had a pretty good idea who the cookie thief was.

“Yorak?”

A tick passed, and the hand reappeared with the cookie and placed it back on the plate. Pidge stifled her laughter.

“You know, I don't think Hunk would mind if we share one,” she suggested, picking up the same cookie and splitting it evenly.

Yorak peeked around the corner, his big ears twitching in curiosity. He brightened when she held it out to him and happily walked over to accept it. “Thank you!”

Pidge kept an eye on him as she began to nibble on her half, pleased by the taste of peanut butter on her tongue. He reminded her a lot of Matt: polite, but not without a streak of mischief. She doubted he was supposed to be unsupervised in the kitchen and could only guess that he'd once again sneaked away from whoever was watching him.

As before, she had no idea what to do. At least Yorak wasn't crying and seemed content to quietly munch on his treat, but that would only last so long.

Pidge chided herself for such thoughts. If she could handle facing down the likes of Sendak and his underlings, she could handle a simple conversation with a child. She just needed to calm down and think of a simple subject and go from there.

“Peanut butter cookies are my favorite,” she remarked.

Yorak paused to properly chew and swallow. “Mom likes them too. They're good, but chocolate chip are better, especially the way nana makes them.”

Pidge found herself starting to relax. “It's hard to beat a classic.”

Yorak looked pleased with the acknowledgment, but said nothing else, choosing to watch her with his head tilted to the side instead.

Any other time, Pidge would have appreciated the quiet. Social interaction wasn't her strong suit and it usually worked for the better for her if she let someone else take the lead. (Which was what was so nice about being friends with Hunk and Lance, who could do so as naturally as breathing.) With Yorak, it felt awkward. Like he was waiting for her to take charge.

Time for a new topic.

“Yorak?”

Pidge visibly deflated in relief. She was saved!

Yorak quickly stuffed the rest of his cookie into his mouth as an Altean woman with graying hair and dark robes swept into the room, an exasperated but fond expression on her face. She paused at the sight of Pidge before walking over and scooping Yorak up into her arms.

He squealed in delight and buried his face into the crook of her neck.

“You've had your grandfather very worried about you,” she gently scolded. “I know it isn't fun being cooped up all day, but you must be patient with us for a little while longer. And you will apologize for running off.”

“Yes, grandmother.”

Pidge looked at the woman with renewed interest. If she was Yorak's grandmother, then that made her Keithir's mother. The thought threw Pidge off momentarily before she came to the logical conclusion that she was his step-mother. Perhaps she was the reason for Keithir's status as “Prince” though she wasn't sure how, since Allura and her parents were the ruling family of Altea.

There was a massive chunk to the puzzle of that reality that Pidge hadn't been given, and it was going to drive her crazy if she couldn't find out what was being hidden from them. Would it really hurt to tell them more about the lives of their other selves, especially for Keith? What if there was some clue to getting them home that was hidden in the secrets being kept?

Pidge had plenty of time to do some digging and find out, considering her role in repairing the machine so far was reduced to daily updates from Allura and brief discussions of theories to pass on to Slav and his team. With Yorak's grandmother, she had her first opportunity to find out a few things.

She finished off her cookie and cleared her throat to get the woman's attention. “Uh, hi?”

The Altean turned to face her with a soft smile. “Hello, Pidge. Thank you for watching after him. I hope he wasn't much trouble for you.”

“Oh no, he's great,” Pidge quickly assured her. “I only got her a few minutes ago.” She paused, feeling a rush of uncertainty. The woman probably wanted to get Yorak back to where he was supposed to be. She should let her go.

“Sorry, but who are you?” Pidge blurted out, unable to stay quiet in the end.

The woman didn't look at all offended. “I am Honerva.”

It took Pidge a few seconds to recall where she'd heard the name before. It was only once, when Allura and Coran explained the origins of the Lions and the events leading to the destruction of Altea and Daibazaal.

Honerva was the wife of Zarkon.

Pidge backed up as a very real fear began to build in her gut. She fought to remind herself that they were at peace with the Galra and the there was no reason for Zarkon or anyone associated with him to attack her and Keith.

They were safe.

“Pidge, I am sorry. I should not have... Allura mentioned you have great reason to worry and urged myself and my husband to keep our distance,” Honerva said, keeping her voice gentle and low. “I should have listened, but I will admit that my curiosity got the better of me.”

Pidge swallowed her fear. “You and Zarkon, you're Yorak's grandparents? But Keith's dad – I mean, I've met Keithir's dad, so how...?”

Honerva adjusted her hold on Yorak. “It is a bit of a long story, but I have time if you'd like to hear it.”

“I wanna hear,” Yorak said.

Whether it was the sincerity in Honerva's voice or Yorak's eagerness to hear the story, Pidge sat down to listen to what Honerva had to say. Maybe none of it would matter in the long run, but the more she knew, the better prepared she'd be for any more “surprises” thrown her way.

“Nearly thirty deca-phoebs ago, the Blade of Marmora was investigating a rebel unit who desired to gather the Lions and use them to build an army capable of taking down the combined forces of Daibazaal and Altea...”

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

Pidge's talk with Honerva left her with a great amount to think about. She'd thought it was strange how many similarities their two realities shared, so to finally hear some differences put her at ease, and it also made her think that maybe it was because of those similarities that they were able to pas between them. Those parallels formed a bridge; fixed points that were the same, or very nearly the same, and any differences were there to balance things out. The key to going home had to be there somewhere.

She'd mentioned as much to Honerva, who promised to look into it more, but it was something Slav had brought up a number of times and thus far they hadn't had much luck with it.

Pidge had so many more questions and theories and ideas as she settled cross-legged on her bed to wait for Keith's return.

Like, how were they able to pass through without any protective equipment? Was it because of Slav's machine or was it residual protection from the Lions? Would they still be protected when it was time to go back? What would happen if someone who wasn't alive in the other reality got sent through? Would it even be possible? And if it was possible, would they be able to get them back?

She was sure she'd have the answers if Allura would let her in on the meetings, but the last time she asked, the princess recited security issues that Pidge was finally starting to understand the reasoning behind.

She'd assumed it was to keep people from panicking over two missing paladins, but it was more than that.

Keithir was the crown prince of Daibazaal, and as his wife, Katie was the princess.

Pidge closed her eyes and fell back on the bed with a soft “oof”. Her thoughts bounced around as she took a moment to relax and breathe.

She may not be allowed to sit in on meetings, but that didn't mean she was without options of her own. Slav and his team could handle the machine and any equations and algorithms needed, and she would work on building a bridge.

The Lions were the strongest similarity – the strongest connection they had between the two realities. They hadn't had any luck in getting Green and Red to respond, but maybe they were going at it the wrong way.

She had one more idea to try, and they'd need Shiro's help to do it.

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

OLKARION – CASTLE OF LIONS

Keithir found himself in the Black Lion's hangar early the next morning, staring up at the massive Lion while waiting for Shiro to arrive. He wasn't sure what to expect from her. There was every chance that they'd get the same response as they did from Red and Green – silence.

“Work with me, girl,” he murmured as they doors slid open behind him and Shiro walked in, clad in his armor. Keithir raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry. It's a habit,” Shiro explained with an amused grin. “Ready to try this?”

“Absolutely,” Keithir replied.

As Shiro walked up, the Black Lion lowered her head and opened her mouth, letting them both inside. Shiro let Keithir sit down in the pilot's seat, choosing to stand behind him with a hand on his shoulder. Neither of them spoke as they closed their eyes and cleared their minds, both opening themselves up to the Black Lion.

Keithir's breathing evened out after a few doboshes and a strange, floating sensation washed over him.

And then he felt it.

A pinprick of surprise that wasn't his own. It fueled his determination and he chased after it, following it deeper and deeper into the dark haze until he stumbled through a curtain into an empty plane lit by a colorful nebula.

He glanced at his hands, taking note of the faint glow around them, and nearly fell to his knees in relief. “We did it! Shiro, we did it!” Keithir turned, expecting to see the other man standing with him in the Astral Plane, but there was no one else. “Shiro?” he called out, looking around in confusion.

In the distance, the air distorted and Keithir braced himself for trouble.

A shadowy figured formed and the air smoothed back out as it moved forward. The closer it got, the more Keithir could make out distinct features, until he could say with absolute certainty that it was Shiro standing in front of him.

Except something was wrong.

Shiro stared at him, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Keith, is that you?”

[ruvatia]

MaintenLance I

Pairing: Lance x Reader Word count: 2,5k Context: The paladins find a third pod in Lance’s quarters, and you’re sleeping in it. You had worked before with the king of Altea on building the Lions. (lowkey doesn’t really work anymore because this was all written during season 2-3 but that’s ok)

----- *。ヾ(｡>ｖ<｡)ﾉﾞ*。-----

Whenever he wasn't training or lazing around, Lance liked to walk around the castle. Sure, by now he should have memorized the whole structure by now, but since the corrupted castle's attempt to kill him at least twice (or was it just twice, he wasn't sure) Lance hadn't gone around the castle that much. He'd spent more time in his room, alone with his thoughts. Usually thoughts about earth. About home. This afternoon was no different. It was hard to tell since they were in space and all, but it was an afternoon.

Right?

He checked his phone that never left his room. Yup, 2:12 PM. Definitely the afternoon.

Lance got up from his bed and stretched his arms upwards, chucking his phone on his bed. Time for some exploring, it's been a while since he'd done that. He stepped out of his room, and looked to the hall down to his right. There were a few more rooms before a wall. The lights were always on in the hallways, which reminded the paladin of cruise ships a little bit. He remembered a cruise that he went on once. Their parents had finally saved enough to bring him and his immediate family, and he got to have a room to himself.

Okay, maybe it was shared with someone else but his parents' room was down the hall from theirs, so it was like they weren't there most of the time. For a young kid with a rebellious gleam in his eyes, it was heaven.

At night, there was only the peekhole, or 'door viewer' as his cousin corrected him many times, on their door that let light into their room. Other than that, it was always pitch black. Lance remembered how on the first night he was a little scared, but then grew accustomed to the darkness quickly. It was a little different here, where the doors shut out any light at all from the hallway.

"Urgh, no. You came out of your room to distract yourself. Stop thinking about home." he thought, as he shook his head.

Right. Comparing the ship with earth would only make him miss it more. He walked over to the end of the hall, and stopped before the door. This was Blue's hangar. Most lions had rooms beside their hangars, and so the paladins settled in the rooms closest to their lions. It was sometimes a little bothersome to have to walk all the way to the ship's control center when something happened, but it was in the center at least, and not at at end of Lance's opposite side. That was Keith. On his right was Pidge, and on his left was Hunk. Shiro's room was closer to the center hangar, since that was where Black was. Pretty much everything was in the middle, now that he thought about it. The dinning hall, the control center, the big room they received those little aliens and the main training deck was there too. As well as Allura and Coran's rooms.

Since that was where he was most of the time, if not in his room or his wings' training deck, Lance decided that he would explore his own wing a little bit. Starting with the room next to him.

He opened the door and found nothing interesting, same thing with the other one next to it. And the other one too, and the one after that too.

After 4 rooms, it got boring. He even bothered to look in the drawers! There wasn't anything that seemed interesting. Actually, there was nothing at all. All the rooms had a little bit of dust in them, which was nice because Lance was expecting much more, with the castle being ten thousand years old. But the entire castle was clean. As if no one lived in these rooms. Why were they build then?

In the last room before the end of the hall, he found something. Clothes were in the closet, books were on the table and nightstand, and in the drawer were papers that he found himself reading the moment he discovered them. To his surprise, they were all blueprints about his lion. Everything was in Altean so he didn't understand jack but they seemed to describe where certain parts went on his lion. So many schematics were of very complicated screws that he'd only seen the top of on Blue's joints were scattered between walls of Altean. These were probably what helped him become Voltron's leg.

He took just the papers and rushed to Pidge's lab, her lion's hangar. He quickly opened the door and found that she wasn't there. Could it be that she was training?

Lance hurried along to the center wing and noticed that everyone was going up the stairs.

"Guys, guys! I have something to show you!" he shouted, getting his team's attention.

"Lance! There you are!" Pidge said, coming down to join him halfway. "You weren't in your room when I came to get you for dinner. Where have you been?"

"It's already time for dinner?" he asked, tilting his head. How long had he been looking at these notes?

"What's that in your hand?" Keith asked, looking over Pidge's head.

"Right! These!" he brought the papers up high, in Pidge's face. "I need you to translate these! I found them in a room next to mine, and I think they're blueprints for Blue's parts!"

"Blueprints?" Shiro said, coming down a few steps.

"Yeah, blueprints! And they're written in Altean, so I can't read them. I figured that you probably have a translating software or something like that, just like how you can translate Golra gibberish into English, kind of."

Pidge frowned as she skimmed over the notes. “Hey, my software is able to give very clean translations, thank you."

----- *。ヾ(｡>ｖ<｡)ﾉﾞ*。-----

"Lance, about those notes you found yesterday..." Pidge said, tapping away on her laptop.

"Yeah?"

"Some of the papers you gave us weren't notes. They were letters."

"Letters? What kind?" Keith asked, leaning onto his knees.

Pidge turned her computer on the table in the middle to both the guys, letting them read it. The first lines were scratched out on the original picture but the software was able to tell what was written anyways. It read:

"My dear, Darling, Dearest, I need to talk to you. You probably know what this is about already but I still want to tell you. It can't wait any longer, I want to do something about the distance that's settling between us because you've noticed the motive behind my actions. Please, I know you're going to be frozen along with the princess if the need shows itself so I want to make it clear and sort things out. Please, just a little bit of your time would be enough for me. I could tell you everything with a letter, but you know me. I like talking but more than writing. Yours, Yuira."

On other page, there were notes from Yuira to another engineer. The same person they wrote the letter to.

"Dear , I've heard that these screws were very hard to craft, since the metal needed was so hard. I guess that the best weapon in the universe needs to best materials to fit it."

The rest were little notes like that along the drawings, with little faces that the boys thought to be Yuira. Looks like this person, whoever they were, really liked Blue's assigned engineer, who was the most talented of the five, according to his praise of them. After reading through everything silently, Lance just stared at Pidge.

"That means that there's another Altean that was frozen with the princess?"

"Guess so. But he or she definitely wasn't frozen with her and Coran. There are still a few places none of us have checked out, so we should explore them to see if we could fall on their pod." the girl said, readjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Is it possible that a pod can fit in one of the rooms though? They're a little smaller than they look, really." Keith commented, getting up.

"Only one way to find out." Lance said, closing Pidge's computer. "Time for some hide-and-seek, amirite?"

A big sigh came from Keith. "Sure, buddy."

----- *。ヾ(｡>ｖ<｡)ﾉﾞ*。----- 

All had agreed to look in their respective wings, and since Pidge had to wait after Lance and Keith, the others already had a head start on their search.

"When you're finished, come back to the lounge!"

Lance ran over to his wing, wondering what kind of person this engineer would be. Was it a girl? If so, was she pretty? Another girl on this testosterone-filled ship would be a great addition.

The blue paladin opened the first door and found nothing at first glance, but didn't waste anytime starting to dig in the closet. Who knew, maybe there was a secret switch or something? He touched almost every inch of the closet's inside walls, then did the same for the room. He was determined to do the same for every room.

And he gave up on that idea quite quickly.

The rooms left to his were empty, and all that wall-touching seemed ineffective. He tried running his hand along the hallway, mumbling "come out, come out, secret switch" as he made his way to the rooms he'd checked out this morning. He checked Yuira's room first. That's where he found the notes and blueprints, maybe he'll find her there too. Who knows. Unfortunately, he didn't.

Lance dragged his feet back to the lounge. He was the last to arrive.

"Any luck?" Keith asked as he sat down beside him.

"Nope. Nothing. Nada."

"Well then, looks like their pod isn't in the wings where the rooms are, so let's check the rest of the castle." Allura said, hasty to find another Altean.

Coran and her were overjoyed at the idea of finding another person from their kingdom. Their positive vibe kinda rubbed off on everyone and managed to sweep Lance's gloomy clouds away. Team Voltron got up and started to look around the center area of the castle, leaving to stone unturned. Or was it no deck unturned in this case?

Regardless, they found nothing.

They all decided to eat dinner and continue their search later, but even after that, nothing. Coran, Pidge and Hunk wondered if there was a special button somewhere and inspected most of the control panels around the ship, but nothing was sticking out. There wasn't even a clue that there could be a special combination to opening a secret door or something, like Lance thought. Coran and Allura's pride was hit the most, as they knew the ship inside out. Where could this Altean be?

At the end of the day, they all decided to sleep on it for today. This person had been sleeping for a little over than ten thousand years. What's one more day to them?

Lance let his fingers intertwine behind his head, laying down on his bed. He felt something poke against him, and pulled out the phone he chucked on his sheets this morning. He sighed as he unlocked it, pushing himself up to sit. He put his headphones on and pressed the "randomize" button, putting the volume up a few bars.

--- NOW PLAYING: LONE DIGGER BY CARAVAN PALACE --- 

Oh, this song was one of the songs that never failed to get him up on his feet. Phone is one hand, Lance let his feet work the frustration off. His arms joined in at some point, then his spine and neck.

When the last chorus hit, he accidentally chucked his phone in the air.

"OH SHI--"

He tried to grab it with his hand, and thanks to his long reach he got it, but just like many times when he and his team form Voltron, Lance tripped and landed face first on the side of his bed. To his surprise, the bed was pushed back and revealed a pod beneath it. It happened so fast that he hit his face a second time on the pod's glass wall.

His eyeball suffered a little bit of damage, compared to the rest of his handsome face but he got to see the engineer that Yuira wrote to so... Passionately.

He pushed himself up with both hands, his eyes falling on a pair of lips he wouldn't mind making out with any day. Preferably on a Monday afternoon. He inspected the rest of the sleeping person's--uh, alien-- features and recognized long eyelashes, fair skin and nice-looking hair and body that could only belong to a woman. A big smile settled itself on his face before he shouted:

"She's a girl!"

He rushed out of his room and to Pidge's lab. It was the closest to him, in his opinion.

"Pidge! Buddy! I found it!" he almost screamed as the door opened.

"What? What did you find?"

"The engineer we've been looking for! And she's a girl! We gotta tell the others!"

"O-okay! Give me a minute!"

The brunette was almost brutally pulled up on her feet by Lance, barely having the time to set her laptop aside. They ran towards the ship's control room, where Pidge took out the intercom speaker and told everyone to gather in Lance's room.

Hunk was at Lance's door first and Keith last. Pidge and Lance had run into Shiro, Coran and Allura on their way back from the control room. They all entered the room at the same time (sort of) and examined the pod that was in the ground, right where Lance's bed should've been.

"Nice job, Lance." Shiro praised, a hand on his shoulder.

Lance puffed his chest out a little bit, a smile making him seem like a child illuminating his face. Being praised by Shiro wasn't that rare, but it felt nice because he always meant it.

"How did you manage to push the bed?" Pidge asked, wondering if it could be pulled back.

"I.. kinda hit my face against it."

"How did you--? You know what, I don't even want to know."

"Guess that explains the small bruise beside your lip then." Keith said, pointing at it.

"Urgh, no way! I actually got a bruise from that?"

"Still, she really is pretty." Pidge said, looking at her through the glass.

While he was talking, the pod was opened by Allura. Everyone rushed over to see the girl awaken over her head or shoulder.

She rose just like someone that was getting out of bed, her eyelids seeming heavy and her movements quite sloggy. She looked around, her gaze traveling from face to face, stopping on Allura, that was in the middle of them.

"What time is it?" was the first thing she asked.

----- *。ヾ(｡>ｖ<｡)ﾉﾞ*。-----

[aion-rsa]

Stewart Copeland on How The Police Found Synchronicity Under the Volcano

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Gracie Otto’s documentary Under the Volcano tells the story of a rock star paradise which became a modern Atlantis. Air Studios Montserrat, the recording studio built by The Beatles’ producer George Martin in 1979, captured the truest sounds of the biggest musical acts of the 1980s before it succumbed to the island’s natural disasters. Custom-built in the shadow of the active Soufrière Hills volcano, AIR generated its own heat. Songs recorded at the studio burned up the charts, and reinvigorated burnt out artists.

Paul McCartney retreated to the remote musical getaway shortly after receiving the devastating news about the murder of John Lennon. Paul recorded Tug of War, one of his best post-Beatle works there, as well as Pipes of Peace. He flew in Stevie Wonder, who jammed at a local club until the early hours, for harmonic collaboration. The Rolling Stones reunited to record Steel Wheels, bringing Keith Richards together with Mick Jagger for the first time since their respective solo recordings. The Police took a different direction.

Formed in London in 1977, The Police rode the punk wave to international fame and the pressures of delivering on their musical promise. With Sting on lead vocals and bass guitar, Andy Summers on guitar, and Stewart Copeland on drums, this was not a three-chord, minimalist-mode trio. Merging rock changes, reggae-downbeats, and jazz-chord augmentations, they needed space to expand their reach.

To record Ghost in the Machine, they also wanted to be out of reach of record company suits. They went to Montserrat for the isolation, not only from the pop world, but for each individual track recorded. The studio afforded amazing separation. The band didn’t even have to be in the same room while recording at the same time. Stewart wound up playing drums in a dining room.

The Police was Copeland’s band, Sting was just in it. Much like the era’s tabloids would’ve had us believe it was Sting’s world and we just lived here. Stewart founded the band, wrote its manifesto, and is still deranging its sonic possibilities. He spoke with Den of Geek about the documentary Under the Volcano, and how The Police lost and found Synchronicity at George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat,

Den of Geek: I was just talking to a drummer friend who left a band we were in to play in a Police cover band. He wanted me to ask about how you approach the drums.

Stewart Copeland: Usually from behind, which sounds really weird, actually. Let me rephrase that.

Did George Martin ever actually say anything about Andy dancing on the soundboard?

Not that I ever heard. In fact, I did a concert with him many years later and it didn’t come up. In fact, I did a television interview with him, a documentary about music that he was making and it didn’t come up. By the way, no damage was done. Those things are built to withstand heavy metal bands. And Andy’s only little. He had very sure footing. Didn’t break anything. And by the way, I’ve seen that console, that exact same console. I’ve seen it at the A&M #1 studio in Los Angeles. I’ve seen it in several other studios that claim that “that is the Neve [Electronics, which made the mixing console] upon which Andy danced.”

I also watched Jools Holland’s short film on the Police at Montserrat film from ’81. I wanted to know about “underwater golfing” and all the other non-musical pastimes that were available.

Sting and Andy probably went underwater golfing a lot, but they never invited me, damn it.

Was Montserrat really the ultimate in rockstar privilege?

Yes, you could say that. Absolutely. There were a lot of rock and roll diversions that are available in Cleveland that are not available on the island. But as far as the paradisiacal environment, absolutely; and being waited on hand and foot. Great food, great situation. I think in the documentary, they mentioned how some bands kind of just hit the swimming pool deck chairs and never woke up and were half asleep. We weren’t because we tormented each other so fiercely that we were fully awake.

I know that you sent Andy Summers to ask George Martin about producing, but did he ever pop in while you were in the studio?

No. He popped over once or twice for dinner, studiously avoiding any moments that we might be working so that he wouldn’t be roped in.

I guess maybe he learned a thing or two in producing all the music that he produced. And one of the things he learned is to not get between rabid dogs who are trying to tear each other’s throats out.

Would Synchronicity have sounded any different if you weren’t at odds with each other at the time?

It’s hard to say. If we had arrived at our decision points or the forks in the road, should we do this or should we do that? You know, saxophone solo or guitar solo? Punk version or reggae version? Other stuff, you know. If we had approached these debates more congenially, would we have arrived at a different result? Probably not. And I guess we’re all happy at the end of the day. The experience of making those records was very rigorous, but at the end of the day, we all appreciate the result.

You worked with George Martin on the ’99 Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Beatles show. What was he like to work with?

Excellent. It mainly was working with his son [Giles Martin], his consiglieri, who’s also interviewed in the documentary. But working with him, he’s just a profoundly musical man. Music is what he knows, does, and he makes it very clear what’s needed, what everybody should do.

It was a strange thing. He rehearsed for three days for that show and the first day the word went out and I was the only person who showed up, me and my bass player buddy, Armand [Sabal-Lecco]. So, we learned the material. By the third day, everybody had showed up. Every guitarist in town, everybody, but I was already planted on the drums so everyone else can piss off.

But on guitar, all these session guys had every- who doesn’t know exactly the patch and the fingering of every single Beatles lick? And it was kind of interesting to hear everybody completely nail it in their different kinds of ways. And also on the drums, I was never that big a Beatles fan, but when I sort of made my own tape of the proposed songs. He sent a set list and I started playing [Sings opening of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”].

I mean, I knew it. My hands knew it. My body knew the song without my brain ever thinking about how the song goes. You just know when the chorus is coming. Yep, this is the chorus. [Sings]. But you know, it’s musical muscle memory, and don’t even get me started on the connection between memory and music.

I recently did a piece on the Concert for Bangladesh and I watched Ringo and Jim Keltner double up and play in unison. I watched the video of you and Ginger Baker playing off each other. Have you ever played in unison with another drummer and who would you like to do that with?

It’s a very strange exercise. Non-drummers seem to think it’s a good idea, and I won’t mention any names, I don’t get it. Guitarists hate to have another guitarist plugged in, God damn it, you know.

Drummers love other percussion. Bongos, shakers, tambourines, you name it, bring it on. Let’s have everybody smacking something. But two drum sets? That don’t make it sound fatter. They don’t really complement each other. My preference would be a drummer, but not in a drum set, doing something else. Like the contrast that fulfills a different function. I don’t really get the two-drummer thing.

Do you still consciously count when you’re drumming?

Yes. When learning something, I count it out, figure out what it is, but then once I’ve learned it, I don’t count it anymore. I just know it. But yes, sometimes when things are tricky and you actually need to hit a certain hit because that’s what everything else is doing. Yes. It helps to count it out. “Ah, that’s where it is. It’s the end of three,” you know? And then once you’ve got that, you don’t need to refer to the numbers anymore. That’s just to find it.

I subscribe to you on YouTube, and just this morning got an email blast about Police Deranged for Orchestra.

That is going to be a blast. That is going to be the most fun show ever. I’ve got Armand Sabal-Lecco on bass, Rusty Anderson on guitar. His day job is playing with Paul McCartney as it happens. He’s been doing that for 20 years or so. Armand from Cameroon, the Prince of Cameroon is a monster.

Moving up the hierarchy, the three singers, they’ve got three soul sisters on the mic singing the songs, but behind us is the mighty San Diego Symphony in San Diego. And when we get to Cleveland, it’s a mighty Cleveland Orchestra.

And then we’re playing in Atlanta, Buffalo, Nashville, L.A., and it’s really, it’s pretty exciting. I spent a lot of time creating the orchestral arrangements or derangements and some of the songs are quite faithful with the form, but others, I deranged.

There are two things. Why orchestra? I’m the drummer in a rock band? What am I doing in the orchestra? That’s a long story. With 20 years as the film composer, I had a forced education in orchestration. But why deranged is because back in the day I had a Super 8 camera, a film camera, and I shot all the stuff, the whole rise, and then put it in shoe boxes and forgot about it until they invented computers and hard drives and Final Cut Pro.

And I had a moment, I was busy making little movies of my children and I thought, “Wait a minute. I’ve got boxes and boxes of really cool stuff of the rollercoaster ride, the rocket ship of The Police.”

So, I dug it all out, 52 hours, and made a movie. And it was kind of the home movie from hell. But somebody persuaded me to send it to the Sundance and the Sundance was, “Whoa, bring it on over.” And they invited me to participate in the festival. Oh, darn. I had to finish it and make it.

It ends up I sold it to Showtime and it became a feature film for which I needed music, preferably Police music. However, what I learned in film in my 20 years before the masters, the hired gun, is that music must serve the picture. And if the picture takes a left, so must the music.

However, those original Police recordings didn’t take a left. They carried right on because they had some other agenda, mainly being a song. So, I had to cut the stuff up and I had to go back into the masters. But once the scalpel was out, this is fun. I got all the masters of those recordings, as well as live recordings. I found long lost guitar solos, other lyrics.

And I found that Sting’s songwriting was quite modular, so I could take the lyrics of this song, put them on the riff of that song. And I went a little batshit crazy on the whole enterprise and kind of overdid it. And when my colleagues heard, “What is Stewart doing? He’s over there taking our master tapes and cutting entirely new music?”

“Calm down guys. It’s just for the movie.” And so, they calmed down and I think they actually kind of appreciated the result at the end of the day, as long as I’m not trying to make a record and rewrite Police history. But now I am rewriting Police history. By taking those derangements, those weird arrangements where I found all these different melodies and guitar lines and put them in the orchestra, that’s what we’re doing.

About half the material is the original song, and I did make the orchestra do very cool stuff with it. But the other half are these different versions of songs, different melodies and so on. With the three women singing, I get to get all of the Sting harmonies that he did in the studio, as well as the improvisations he did on stage, and the same with Andy.

This exercise has really reminded me, in fact, even more than reminded me: it’s really woken me up to the genius of both of those two guys, the stuff they came up with. I was busy banging shit. I hardly even noticed what Andy was doing, but now I’m deep into what Andy was doing with a much higher degree of appreciation.

As you’re developing all of this for orchestration and ripping it apart, and also with the benefit of knowing how each of you developed post-Police, where do you think the band might’ve gone musically as a continuing unit?

Just the other day, pursuant to flogging the Police Deranged orchestra shows, and I’m sort of looking for images to use for posters, I came across the orchestral performance that I did in Germany, where I’m actually on the podium conducting. We did do “The Equalizer” theme and I’m conducting with a drumstick. The orchestra are all totally, you can see in the picture, they’re all leaning forward. They’re really into it, it’s a really intense thing. And I’m up there waving my stick and it’s this big ass orchestra.

I sent it to Sting a couple of days ago. And I said, “This is how we should have run The Police.” And he wrote back and he said, “So I’m second fiddle?” To which I responded, “Stingo, you will always be first fiddle.”

Also, knowing all this stuff from the inside out with the notation and all that, how do you think The Police would go forward now as a creative unit moving into new territory?

Not so much because we know what we’re doing. And my humble estimation is we got two more albums out of Sting than we deserved. So, he actually was the reason I was overcome by homicidal rage and I felt the urgent necessity of throttling him was because he would come over and say, “Hey, do this or that with the drums.” “Fuck off.” You know?

What made it so urgent was that he wasn’t wrong. He sort of does actually know how to arrange a song and arrange the band and his ideas are pretty good. That doesn’t mean I listened because I was a young prick myself and I had my own ideas, which would prevail. But he’s really good at that stuff.

We, today, if we tried to recreate that, are too independently minded and we have continued to grow in the 30 years since our last collaboration and in a different direction. And at this point in our lives, music has a different function for us. For me, it’s this. The reason I make music is for these reasons, and this is what I like to achieve with music. And for others, they have a completely different agenda of what music is for and what it’s supposed to do and how it’s supposed to be made.

It requires more patience. I’m actually more patient. I would say that for me, there is not one musical truth, because I got beat up. For 20 years, I was told exactly what emotion is required. And I had to learn to create exactly that for my boss, the director who is actually the artist. I’m just a craftsman.

So, I learned to be very malleable but also didn’t really understand how to work different emotions very specifically. Other members of the band who have never suffered under the lash of cruel employment are unrestrained, and have a strange idea that there is only one musical truth and no experience in life has ever shaken that core belief. Which means that when I’ve got to deal with that mindset, it’s unrewarding.

And by the way, I say this with love and admiration in my heart, this is not a gripe, believe me. I’m just explaining why we enjoy each other’s company over dinner and really have a deep abiding admiration and love. But just we get into the studio together and we’re not copacetic.

Going on stage, by the way, playing those songs. That’s a different thing. That’s really exciting because of the emotional charge that it has on an 80,000 people stadium, well, that’s exciting. For the audience, that’s exciting. Never mind my ideas about what music is for. Who cares? Look at that audience going like that. That’s why I’m here on the planet.

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Under The Volcano is available On Demand and Digital now.

The post Stewart Copeland on How The Police Found Synchronicity Under the Volcano appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3sqLUKL

[thisiswhereifall]

Day 4: Pets

Need I say more? I managed to write today, as well. Holy quiznacking crows, I'm on a roll these days.

I really enjoyed writing this, even more than the previous ones, to be honest. I thought it was a cute prompt(open-ended, too, because hey. Everyone loves an open-ended story.) and it was just an idea I came up with

Enjoy!

--------------- o ------------------

Pidge had always liked tiny things.

No, that didn't mean she didn't like Kaltenecker or the idea of bringing her to the ship. She absolutely adored the cow and her affectionate moo's. Not to mention, the milkshakes are entirely helpful to keep Pidge's brain healthy and functioning. It was a good thing that Allura allowed them to keep her, too.

But that doesn't stop Pidge from liking tiny things.

Part of it involves the smallest screws and machine parts that she considers to be very cute. She would smile and inwardly squeal whenever she tinkers into alien machines and sees the tiniest parts that comprise such a deadly weapon. Pidge also loved seeing the Galra drones despite the fact that they were there to kill her, and she loved Rover so much. He was a robot, loyal, and tiny.

Pidge definitely liked tiny things.

Green knows it, but never did Pidge make her lion feel as if she didn't love her. Green was beautiful and majestic, the only lion with a shield on her backside and Pidge would melt when Green purrs lovingly at her. Large, powerful, and intimidating, but Pidge loved her, anyway. Green is beautiful in more ways than one, and Pidge could never be more proud.

Pidge remembers that she still liked tiny things, when a flash of blue crosses her line of vision and she blinks.

She followed the alien creature floating around her bedroom, its glowing markings blinking in excitement as it circled the cluttered area with wide curious eyes and a permanent pout. The creature was small and quiet; slow-moving and peaceful, and Pidge just couldn't resist taking it with her before she left the trash planet she was thrown in from the corrupted wormhole.

Allura and Coran never noticed the tiny thing enter the Green Lion.

And it wasn't like Pidge actually brought it with her. The thing followed her into her Lion, rather, it followed the suspicious trash that Pidge secretly brought into her Lion. If Green didn't send her the message, Pidge wouldn't even know that the little creature was there with her. And she remembered that day very well.

That day, she yelped into the comms, even more startled that it was a blue space caterpillar rather than a green one.

“Pidge, are you alright?” Allura immediately asked, much to Pidge's horror as she grabbed the creature and hid both of her hands out of the camera's sight as it flashed on. She gulped, biting her tongue to prevent herself from rambling and she was a terrible liar.

“O-Oh, nothing! I just, um, accidentally hit my toe at the, uh, corner.” Her eyes looked around to see if there were any corners inside Green. There were none. “I mean, I just hit my toe somewhere, I didn't actually mean a specific corner or literally, a corner. There are lots of stuff here that you could hit your toe at, and not to mention, Green is probably made of some hard space material that a human body could--"

“Pidge, aren't you wearing your armor?” Allura interrupted, and Pidge knew that she just messed herself up big-time.

Pidge sighed, opening her mouth again to say something else despite the futile attempts of trying to stop the furry thing in her hands from moving “Okay, okay, you got me. I was…” She gripped the creature a little tighter, as much as she didn't want to hurt it any further. “… So excited that my satellite worked that I yelped in shock when Green responded to my feelings.” Okay, that was definitely way more believable.

Green rumbled in protest and Pidge ignored her.

Silence took over the comms before Allura finally replied. “Oh. Okay. Now let's go get the others.” Soon, the mic and camera shut off and Pidge let out a long sigh of relief. She then placed her hands in front of her and stared long at the blue alien. She didn't sign up for adoption papers at all. “Okay, little guy. What are you doing here? We're miles away from your home planet now.” She softly whispered, afraid that anyone would hear her.

The last thing Pidge wanted was for anyone to see a blue space caterpillar with her.

She watched the creature float around, then behind her as if it was trying to answer. Pidge turned her head to follow it with her gaze, her face heating up when it landed on the suspicious trash she had brought with her aboard Green. Her hand flew to her face. Now she's got two things to hide from her team.

One, the cute new pet, and two, Trash Lance. And they were both blue.

That day, Pidge knew she was doomed for life if anyone ever enters her bedroom and sees them in the farthest and most hidden corner of her room. The first few days weren't easy at all.

The first thing Pidge did was to make a mess out of her own sleeping space, one that would turn off anyone's curiosity about what abominations she hid in her room. Hunk hated it when things weren't organized – he was an engineer, after all. Allura and Coran aren't interested in invading other people's privacy. Shiro would occasionally knock from time to time to check on her, but he wouldn't bother turning the lights on, entering the room, or looking around, so it was safe. Which left Keith and Lance.

Keith had zero fucks to give when it comes to anything urgent. Sure, he wouldn't just enter someone else's space without permission, but once the guy thinks that what he's there for is more important than anything else including privacy, he would barge in without a word and not care no matter how many times you yell at him for entering. He would, most likely, yell back.

And it just so happened that the day Pidge brought home her secret, it just had to be Keith who was the first to enter her room unannounced.

“Pidge, training deck now. Shiro has something to-- what's that?” Keith turned his attention to a certain trash at the corner of the room, but before he could process what exactly it was, Pidge flung herself in front of his eyes, throwing a blanket behind her.

“Nothing, really! Just a new robot prototype I've been working on.” She had gotten better at lying, silently wishing that Keith didn't have enough time to even recognize who the piece of trash lump was.

It was a good thing that Keith gave zero fucks about anything else, because he didn't question her any further. Or maybe he already knows and just chooses not to say anything about it. After all, Keith figured that she was a girl before she even said anything at all. He once again, reminded her of the urgent meeting in the training room, before finally leaving.

Pidge should get to work soon.

Making a mess was easy enough, since she had enough machines and hoarded lots of clutter to scatter on the floor, making sure that stepping would prove to be hard enough for anyone to enter. Lance was, surprisingly, a neat and finicky person so he would be easy to ward off with just a few garbage here and there.

And the plan worked. Not long after, Keith barely steps inside the room for fear that he might break something on the floor. Hunk refuses to even open the door. Shiro didn't have to enter to check on her, as usual, and Lance…

“Woah, what the quiznack, Pidge? It's like the aftermath of a tornado!”

Frankly-speaking, Lance didn't care about the trash. He would complain, but he didn't really care. He'd still walk into the room and drag her out whenever he felt like it. The first time, Pidge had to grab her pet and hide it with her pillows while she shoved Trash Lance under her bed. Lance had been at the doorway the moment she panicked so he didn't really notice, since he was busy complaining.

Pidge had to resort to Plan B.

She installed a security system outside her door so it would detect Lance from a few meters away. Using Galra drone parts, same with Rover, she successfully created an invisible scanner and now she could prepare in advance whenever Lance was about to invade her space.

But Lance wasn't the only problem in this scenario. His counterparts were also hard to deal with.

Caterpillar Lance was just as curious as he was.

The little creature would fly around and check out every single clutter all over Pidge's room. It would often do so every time her scanners would alert her that Lance was going to arrive any moment, much to her dismay. She would desperately try to jump and catch it, always barely making it in time before Lance appears on the doorway, completely oblivious about the way she catches her breath when he does.

What was more annoying was the fact that the creature gets hungry.

It was logical. All living things get hungry and this was no robot. This was an actual living thing and she couldn't just let it starve in her room. Finding out its diet was a challenge. Sneaking its food into her room, even more so.

“Uh, Pidge. What exactly are you going to do with that? I mean, hey, you're supposed to eat it since it's, well, food. But… I thought you said you hated veggies?” One night, Hunk caught her piling up her plate with food goo and a bunch of unrecognizable space vegetables from the fridge. He must have been up for a midnight snack, and she was not pleased.

“Uh, I was going to try some since I was… hungry.” Lying to Hunk was one of the toughest things to do, seeing as how observant the fellow was. From the looks of his face, Pidge was sure he wasn't buying it.

He tilted his head in suspicion, eyeing Pidge. “No, no, no. I swear I left some desserts in the fridge and knowing you, you wouldn't choose veggies over sweets anytime.” Pidge definitely hated the fact that literally everyone in the ship knew that she loved sweets like any girl would. She shouldn't have disclosed that much info about herself.

“Fine. I was going to do a few biology tests in my room since I have always wondered if the materials that comprised Earth plants are the same as the ones in space. Green's hidden power got my gears up and running.” If there were any higher beings in space, she surely needed them any moment now. She also felt bad about always using Green as an excuse, but what choice does she have?

Science was enough to convince Hunk that she wasn't going to feed a living creature in her room, as he let her go after a few discussions about galactic theories.

Her heart felt a bit warm and happy when her little companion loved the veggies and that her efforts weren't all in vain.

Days passed by and Pidge proceeded as normal. Shoving Trash Lance under her bed whenever her scanners alerted her, hiding her friend with her pillows, spending her days and nights in Green's hangar so no one would come looking for her in her room, sneaking out food from the fridge, and all in all, just doing missions with her teammates. Everything was going by smoothly and she finally found her brother after all this time.

She introduced him to her room, suddenly remembering that Trash Lance and Caterpillar Lance weren't hidden. Thankfully, Matt didn't notice anything. The tour around the castle ended peacefully and preparations for the next battle were being discussed thoroughly.

Pidge retreated to her room after a long day, bothered by the fact that Lotor just technically saved them all. It was a suspicious act for her, but she didn't have the energy to think about that now. She held the plate of veggies closer, feeling guilty for not leaving out food for Caterpillar Lance the whole time.

As she stepped closer to her door, her heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened when she saw that it was wide open. Her ears started ringing as she sprinted towards her room in horror, not caring if the veggies were falling from the plate by how fast she was running.

Turning on the lights, her eyes quickly looked around. Trash Lance was still there at the corner. Her room was still a mess. Everything was normal, she thought. Her breath hitched when she realized that something was terribly wrong.

Caterpillar Lance was missing.

Panicking, Pidge dropped the plate hastily on her bed, throwing off all pillows from her bed and mentally cursing herself for leaving the door unlocked before leaving for battle. She even searched every drawer and under the bed, but she couldn't find him. Her friend was tiny and small and that would mean she would have to search for every possible nook and cranny in the castle if it decided to wander off.

“You've got to be kidding me!” She ran outside her room once again, panting and swearing from time to time in between her short breaths. She first searched the lounge. No sign of it. She made a mental note never to run into Keith or Shiro at this time because having to come up with an excuse today didn't sound very appealing to her.

She searched the training room, Green's hangar, and literally the whole castle. A hand fell to her chest as she heaved in large amounts of air. Looking up, she opened the door to the last room she hasn't looked into yet.

Kaltenecker's area.

As she stepped in and almost got blinded by how sunny the surroundings were, her eyes could hardly make out the figure from afar.

It wasn't Kaltenecker. Her heart seemed to have started beating faster and she was sure it was no longer adrenaline.

Before she could say anything, Lance turned around and spotted her. A goofy grin was plastered on his face and on his shoulders was the very thing that Pidge was trying to keep away from Lance. “Pidge! Look, this little guy followed me all the way to my room so I thought it would be nice for Kaltenecker to meet him.” He gestured to Caterpillar Lance, which was perched on his shoulder and staring at him.

Pidge froze. Caterpillar Lance knows him and intentionally followed him.

The thought was funny enough that Pidge's shoulders started shaking. “Pidge?” Lance spoke once more, before her silent chuckling turned into full-blown laughter. She tried to talk, but failed miserably. She looked up at Lance again, his confused expression transforming into a wide smile. “Well, I'm glad you're happy, Pidge. Kaltenecker liked him, as well.”

Her cheeks flushed at his words. He obviously had no idea that it was her who brought the caterpillar into the ship. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” She smiled back at him.

“Come to think of it, wasn't this what Allura and Coran were talking about? The little caterpillar-like beings that helped you build that satellite? If you brought one home, why did you choose blue?”

Quiznack.

[bosstoaster]

Aknxja I saw your xmas thing and I want you to know, the first thing that came to mind was one of those "we went on vacation in the mountains for Christmas, but everything goes wrong and now it's Wilderness Survival Time in the middle of winter on a mountainside" movies. because what says Christmas and family bonding like fighting a bear and other Fun and Wacky Near Death Experiences 😂 ~sleepyhunk

Not quite what you were asking for, but I liked the idea so I ran with it.

"There," Shiro declared, pulling off his gloves and hat.  He spent several minutes stomping in place, getting the last of the snow off his boots.  "That should hold us for a little while."

Hunk looked up from he'd been fiddling with their radio.  It worked, but just barely, so he'd taken it apart to reattach the wires.  It was taking way more tape than he'd normally be comfortable with, because it wasn't like they had proper equipment, but at least it wouldn't completely break if someone set it down too hard.  "We have wood?"

Shaking snow free of his hair, Keith nodded.  "Yeah.  There was a ton under the tarps out back, and more supplies in that little basement.  Wouldn't be enough to get someone through the whole winter, but we'll be good for a week or so.  Longer with the food we have.  And if we need to hunt, if it comes to that."

Lance perked from where was still parked in front of the iron stove.  "I told you bringing the bow and arrow was a good idea!  I told everyone!"

"You still have to be able to hit something, first," Pidge offered.  She didn't even look up from where she was carefully taking note of every can and bit of food in the kitchen.  Next to her was a write up of about how many calories each of them would need per day that Hunk had helped her with.

It was, perhaps, going a little far.  But, well, Hunk had needed something to do.

Because they were snowed it.  Badly.  For at least a few days, according to the ranger they'd managed to contact.  A week at worst, but Hunk wasn't inclined to trust that.  They couldn't be sure the snow would end when they thought, and that they could get all the equipment to clear the road up in time, and-

Shivering, Hunk pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulders.

This was not how he wanted to spend his vacation.  Honestly, he'd been with Lance.  Go to a hotel in some nice tourist area.  Preferably somewhere warm.  But they'd been overruled: Allura wanted adventure, Pidge wanted cold, Keith wanted natural, and Shiro had wanted anything-but-touristy.  Four against two had been a sound loss.

It was kind of killing Hunk not to say 'I told you so'.

But he'd told them so.

(read more below)

"Either way, we're definitely stuck in here for the next while," Shiro said.  He carefully hung up his jacket and stacked his boots next to the door.  "Have you found anything interesting inside?"

Hunk pointed to the small stack of items next to the couch.  "A few things.  Flashlights, batteries, matches, knives.  Tool kit."  He pointed to the one next to him, which was one of the old, giant cases with the literal red case.  It was modestly stocked with a few essentials, but nothing as in depth as Hunk or Pidge's personal kits.  Still, better to have an extra hammer than not.  

Stepping back into the room, Allura held up several sticks she'd dragged inside, neatly carved so all the smaller branches were tone.  On the end, she'd tied string and hooks.  "If we think we're going to need more food, we're best starting sooner rather than later, yes?"

"I guess," Keith replied.  "But if we're not in danger, I'm not sure sitting around outside in the cold is a great idea, either.  No sense anyone getting hurt when we're only going to be here a few days."

"We think," Hunk muttered, unable to help himself.

Immediately, visibly, Shiro drew himself up into Leader Mode.  "Of course we will.  Hell, we have compasses and boots.  If we're really in that bad a position, we know exactly where town is.  We could get down the mountain in a day.  Two if we took it slowly.  We still have all our sleeping backs and tests."

Lance's mouth feel open, and he pulled his blanket up higher.  "No.  Uh-oh.  I will die in this cabin before I take my chances out there.  It's cold!"

"It's not that bad," Pidge shot back.

Making a face, Lance burrowed in further.  "You were broken as a child by the Canadian winter.  You don't know any better."

"You're just a wimp."

Shiro sighed.  "Both of you, please.  I know the situation isn't good, but we don't need to argue."

Nodding, Allura planted her impromptu fishing rod against the floor.  "Agreed.  right now we are still in a fine position.  It might not be the most enjoyable way we've spent an evening, but we're capable adults, many of whom have survival training."

"Exactly."  Shiro inclined his head to her.  "We'll make it through perfectly comfortably if we just keep our heads.  How about we spend tonight enjoying our vacation?"

Holding up one of the cans, Pidge shrugged.  "I still suggest we ration just in case, but we're honestly pretty good on snacks.  Between Lance, Hunk and me, we brought enough snacks to get us through a week.  Not the most healthy week, but all of us have survived worse."

"Don't remind me," Hunk sighed.  But he slowly relaxed, at least a little soothed by how confident everyone seemed.  It was an awful situation, but everyone else seemed to think they were fine.

Keith stepped over to the pile and dug through, then picked up a deck of cards.  "We could play a game.  I'm not sure if we want to stay up and run the lanterns too long."

Shaking her head, Allura pointed to another stack on the counter.  "No, we have plenty of batteries.  The cabin had several that Lance tested, and they all seem to have at least some power, and we brought our own.  Light won't be a problem.  Poker would be a fine way to spend some time."  She grinned at them, shark-like.

"Can I at least change before we bring the cabin down around us?" Shiro asked flatly.  "You'd think we'd learn or something."  Shaking his head, he started for his room.

Keith eyed Allura, then pulled out a chair at the table.  "I'm in for poker, sure."

"I call dealer," Lance said, hoping up and trailing his blanket behind him like a bridal train.  "I refuse to be part of this, but I'll happily watch you all suffer."

Pidge smirked.  "Wise man.  Knows when he'll lose."

Bristling, Lance took a deep breath and visibly resisted rising to the obvious bait.

"Yeah, I'm going to change too."  They'd been hiking through the woods in these clothes.  Without running water and heat, washing was going to be complicated, so Hunk would rather be in something comfortable.  His pajamas would do.

With that, Hunk followed Shiro to the main bedroom, only to find him pulling out one of the flashlights.  Pausing, he glanced at the window.  "It's not that dark yet."

Glancing up, Shiro flapped a hand.  "I think my keys fell behind the bed.  I know we're not going anywhere anytime soon, but I'd rather not be looking for them when we do need them."

That was wise, so Hunk nodded his understanding and left Shiro to it.  Instead he turned his back to dig his pajamas out from his suitcase.  While he was here, he might as well unpack, too...

Hunk was halfway through getting off his shirt when Shiro screamed.

Starting a good foot in the area, Hunk whirled around.  "What?  What's wrong?"

Before Shiro could do more than look over, something darted out from under the bed and streaked away.  It came toward Hunk, who let out a yelp of his own.  Then it made a sharp turn and ducked under the dresser instead.

There was thumping outside, and the door swung open.  Keith frowned at them both, his knife already in his hand.  "What happened?"

Shiro looked up at Keith, eyes huge and unusually ruffled.  "There was a mouse!"

Keith stared back, then dropped his arm.  "That's it?"

"It was a mouse!  Under my bed!"

Rolling his eyes, Keith sheathed his knife back on his belt.  "Yeah, it's warm in here and cold out there.  I'm sure stuff's going to try and get in.  I thought you'd died, Shiro."

Shiro's jaw set.  "It could have bit me."

"You'd live."  Keith shook his head, somewhere between fond and exacerbated.  "You're such a city boy.  Just an hour ago you were talking about befriending the wolves, but one little mouse turns you into a human in a Tom and Jerry cartoon."

Watching the byplay with growing amusement, Hunk pointed to the dresser.  "It went under there.  We should probably do something about it before it gets into the food or something."

Sticking her head in, Allura started to move toward the mouse's hiding hole.  "Aww, we can't put the poor thing back outside.  It'll freeze to death."

"It's a mouse, it'll be fine," Keith shot back.  "This isn't a pet, Allura.  It doesn't have shots."

"I know how to handle mice."

"It still can't stay here!"  Keith groaned and turned.  "I'll get something to catch it with.  Then it goes outside."

From the stubborn set of Allura's jaw, they'd be seeing about that.

As she got closer, there was another blur of gray-brown motion, and this time Shiro jumped up and darted out of the way. He moved so fast he nearly teleported, ending up on Hunk's other side.

Allura blinked after it, frowning. "This may be more difficult than I expected."

"How about we leave you and Keith to it," Hunk offered.  He patted Shiro on the shoulder, pausing when he realized he was shaking slightly.  "Shiro and I will finish changing in peace."

With that, Hunk ushered Shiro out, snatching up his carefully folded clothes before they left.  The other bedroom was empty, primarily taken up by Allura and Lance's combined suitcases.

Scrubbing over his face, Shiro took a deep breath then offered Hunk a smile.  "Sorry, that wasn't exactly dignified, was it?"

"I can't say I would have reacted better.  Something wild coming toward your face couldn't have been comforting."  Hunk patted Shiro in the middle of his back.  "You okay?"

Shiro sighed.  "Yes, I'm fine."  At Hunk's bland look, he shrugged.  "I am!  It's just... stressful.  I want to make sure everything is set as it can be.  I know we'll be fine.  There's not really a group I'd rather be trapped in the wilderness with.  I just feel bad our vacation turned out like this.  And I don't do so well with wild animals, yes."  His smile went sheepish.  "If it isn't supposed to be in an apartment, I've never dealt with it."

Lips curling up, Hunk eyed Shiro.  "You really are a city boy."

All he got was a shrug in return.

Hunk pulled Shiro in for a one-armed hug.  "You're doing a great job of keeping everyone organized and calm.  I feel better when you talk us through and remind us we'll be alright.  So you keep me calm about that, and I'll help keep the mean mice away from you.  How's that?"

Barking out a laugh, Shiro nodded and rested his head on Hunk's shoulder.  "Good plan."

"My plans are always good."  Hunk smiled down at him.  

"They are."  Shiro pulled himself back after a few moments, smoothing his bangs back down. "We should save the cuddling for when the sun goes down and it gets colder."

Hunk snorted.  "Cuddles aren't a limited resource, you know."

Flashing him another smile, Shiro nodded.  "True.  But we have poker to win.  There's no way I can let Keith win after teasing me about the mouse."

"He's making sure Allura doesn't raise an army of mice," Hunk pointed out.  "I think he gets a pass for a little teasing."

"If Allura makes a loyal mouse army, they can pull our van through the show like a demented husky sled."

Hunk blinked, then burst into laughter at the idea.  "You're right.  Keith is dooming our best plan."

Now outright grinning, Shiro nodded.  "We have to take all his pocket money in revenge."

It was silly, but that was the best antidote for anxiety.  Standing, Hunk grabbed his clothes.  "Then let's get started."

Maybe this would be a fun vacation after all.

(The beach still would have been better.)

[labgrownsteaks]

Chapter 13

The second they stepped into the Cottonwood grove everything changed. The sinlight penetrated the leaves like a laser in search of a target. The leaves fluttered like sunlight on a creek at dawn. The sound of the road vanished, and the air felt thicker, and full of life. Nature had a way of calming everyone down. Nobody's brain could compute that just a few minutes ago they had been in front of Lure's Bait and Tackle. We were all in a completely different world, with a completely different set of rules. Erin hopped over a tree which had fallen into the pathway and looked back. We had never really planned to do anything, we just knew that if we were in the forest it was probably better than being in civilization. I remembered one winter Erin and I had eaten some mushrooms with the plan of going cross country skiing. But the weather just got too bad, and the wind was too intense, so we packed up and drove back home. We somehow ended up in Menards buying honey roasted peanuts. The power tools, and the intercom, and all of this civilization stuff seemed toxic. It was the opposite of how we approached psychedelics. Everything manmade felt a bit shallow and fake, whereas nature never ceased to amaze. We had formed a long single file line, and were all quiet as we ventured further into the woods. And this was fine, the best type of friend is one that you can be quiet with. Where those "uncomfortable silences" never felt uncomfortable.

A squirrel hopped from one tree to another, it's tail spinkling fairy dust down below. Erin looked back at me, smiling, and I nodded in acknowledgement. Guy was still in the back, he had wandered off to pee, and hadn't fully recooped from his breakdown by the vacuum cleaner. I walked up to Erin, and we both stared up at the tree branches, squinting our eyes. The squirrel had perched themself at the tip of the branch, and was looking down at us as if we were some kind of invaders. Erin broke the silence.

"It's ok little one, we're just passing through, I know this is your home. We' won't break anything I promise!"

The squirrel barked back. My attention turned to the river, which could be made out through the trees. I wandered off in that direction.

"Where you headed?!" Erin asked quizzically.

Let's go check out the water. " I responded.

Guy followed along, silent, and in his own world. The bank of the river was more like a cliff, with trees on one side. There was no bank per se, just a steep 15 foot drop off. I plopped down on a tree, and Erin and Guy sat down next to me. We all just watched the sun dancing on the ripples. As the light broke up into millions of little bits. It was more like liquid mercury, colors dripped and glided into one another. I exhaled deeply. Just then, a huge pontoon blaring Toby Keith came into view. There were a couple of beer bellied 40 year olds with their shirts off manning the deck, while the wives drank sangria. Their kids were towards the back of the giant floating living room, and both of them were wearing VR headsets. I wouldn't doubt if they were playing a fishing game.

"You think they're happy?" Erin said

"They look happy don't they?" I responded.

" I don't know. You ever see those videos of people who go to Africa, and they bring something for all the people in the village, and all the kids are jumping around, and just being kids. I think that's what happiness looks like. Pure unbridled joy. And the kids... They're just soooo kid like. Doesn't matter where in the world you area. Kids understand humor. They understand laughing with their whole body until they collapse onto the floor. I think that's why everyone likes kids so much. We get to see the world again through their eyes. They remind us just how much the culture has shaped us to see it how we see it."

"I think there's some truth to that. But those kids also have a lot of difficulties don't they? They have to worry about getting malaria, and they can't just get a football delivered to their front door." "Abshir seemed happy too" Erin replied.

"Sure. He did seem like a good person" I said

"I think we need to live without something to be happy. It's too easy to take everything for granted. Now people aren't even happy with reality. They can't even look at a beetle walking on a tree stump. You see a kid look at that, and you can see the wonder in their eyes. How closely they look at the antennas feeling around, and their rainbow colored shells"

The forest began to feel like it was breathing to me, and I was feeling a bit of anxiety beginning to creep in. I focused on Erin's words to help ground myself. Toby Keith was still echoing in the distance. She continued to speak, but I could no longer make out any words, I had focused on a gnarled piece of wood near the bank below us. Focusing on it, and felt like a thousand intricate knots that wrapped around each other like a bucket full of snakes. I looked back at Erin, and she was still talking. But I had absolutely no way of actually making out what she was talking about. I laughed at something she said, and then laughed about laughing at something. What was I laughing at? I thought to myself. I have no idea!

I looked past Erin, and expected to see Guy sitting next to her. But he was gone! "Erin!" I said. "Where's Guy?!" Erin began to look around as well, and called out "Guy?!" There was no trace of him. "GUY!" I shouted, standing up, while the whole world spun around me. We had entered another world completely. One which had a tinge of dread and uncertainty. We began searching around the grove with our eyes, trying to find a trace of him, but there was nothing but trees, and water. "Should we split up?!" I said somewhat frantic. "Of course not!" Erin responded. We continued to call out. But got nothing back. We walked the banks further into the forest, calling out his name every few seconds, but heard nothing in response.

Then we saw the river had formed a sandbar, and there was a person in the middle of it. "GUY!" I shouted, the figure didn't look back, it looked as if it was working on something. Plopped down on the bank of the sandbar. "That's gotta be him" Erin stated. We slid down the cliff, holding onto tree roots as descended, and took off our shoes. We would have to walk through some knee high water to get to the sandbar in the middle of the river. We continued to shout his name. "That's him!" Erin stated. "What is he working on?". We waded through the water, which was ice cold at this time of the year, and it felt hot to the touch. It wasn't cold. It was hot. In fact. What was the difference between the two? The silt squished between our toes, and it felt like we were in the desert walking. A wide open plain of water in front of us. Our friend in the distance, at some oasis working on something. What was he working on? He was bent over for sure, and he wasn't looking back. A couple jet skis whizzed by in the distance like hornets cutting through the air. "GUY!" Erin shouted again. Nothing. "What a goober" Erin stated as we came up to the banks of the sandbar, Guy was still a good 50 yards off. For a split second. I had a moment of terror. I thought about the giant beaver creature we had seen previously. I thought to myself "Why are we trusting Siri?" "How do we know she's even trying to help us!". As we got closer, we began to slow down a bit, both of us filling with trepidation about what we were going to discover. "Guy?!" Erin said in a normal voice "What's up buddy?" she continued.

As we got closer we could see that Guy was sitting in the water, and was playing with something in the water. A large form, that simply looked too big to be a fish, at least from this river. With a few more steps it came into focus, and Guy was gently caressing the belly of a large prehistoric fish. A Sturgeon which had seen better days.

"There was a hook stuck in his mouth. I got it out" Guy said. "He was washed up on the shore. Didn't want to be in the water."

I crouched down and inspected Guy's find. The gills were still "breathing" like fish do, but the fish was largely unresponsive. A barbed hook lie near him. At this moment, Erin remembered the minnows. She took her backpack off immediately and got the sandwich bag out, which was jam packed full of the silvery little guys that looked like a million pieces of molten steel against the sun which was beeming down on this unusual warm late fall day. Erin took the rubber band off the bag and released the minnows into the water. The Sturgeon's eye opened up and looked straight at all of us. A dinosaur from another age which somehow made it through the great extinction event. It was still here, and Guy was helping it live. The minnows scattered into the river, and a couple of them hung out near the banks, basking in the sun. Erin and I both petted the Sturgeon. "Come on buddy" Erin said as the banks of the river undulated and sloshed up onto our shins. Another pontoon came stupidly zooming by, it was being driven by someone in their late teens. The pontoon's wake kicked up the river, and caused the sturgeon to sway back and forth. The sturgeon's eye was open, and black, and looking at all of us, and we were looking back. It had to know we were trying to help it. In a second, as if it had been hit with a shot of adrenaline, it flopped around vigorously, and water sprayed onto all of us. It's tail slapped against the water, and the bank for a moment, and then it was gone. Disappeared into the dark river which flowed so quickly through this town.

"I think he's gonna be ok" Guy said in a calm, yet reassuring tone.

"Yeah, he'll be alight" I responded.

"Come on buddy" Erin said, putting her around Guy's big waist. Lets head back to the grove.

"OK" he responded. And we all made the trek back through the water, and up the embankment, and back into the safety of the shade and trees.

[starryeyed-char]

Sleepless

You know the drill by now. It’s Whump Week Day 5- Insomnia/Mental Illness.

Have some klance late night training bonding after a rough mission.

Keith found himself returning to the training deck. He didn't know why he started doing it, but now he couldn't stop. Any time his emotions got to be too much, he buried them by fighting the training bots, sometimes for hours on end.

This practice quickly became a habit for any difficult situation, any time he simply couldn't calm down without exhausting himself physically. So, it was really no surprise that after a terrible mission like that he would do this.

What was surprising, however, was that someone else was already using the room.

Keith's eyes widened as he took in the sight of Lance crouching to shoot at least six different bots from across the room.

It felt strangely private, watching Lance expertly take down the training droids, nothing but focus in his eyes. The blue paladin hadn't even noticed Keith walk through the door, and he felt guilty just standing there and watching. Not that it would be polite to interrupt, either. Really, Keith should've just left.

But he couldn't tear his gaze away. There was something about watching Lance in his element like that... Keith couldn't put his finger on it.

As Lance carried on flawlessly, lasers hitting their marks in quick succession, Keith found himself questioning everything he thought he knew about the Cuban boy.

Keith was somewhat angry he hadn't realized it before; with how much Lance's aim had improved over time. It was no wonder he did some extra training. In fact, they did very little distance training as a team at all, which meant Lance would've learned all this entirely on his own time.

And yet Lance was always portrayed as the team goofball, making jokes and slacking off.  The Lance he saw when the others were around seemed to transform into an entirely different person when by himself.

It made Keith wonder just how often this happened, how much of Lance they were missing. After all, Keith liked to train early in the mornings. But it was the dead of night, or whatever the Altean time equivalent, and Lance was just as bright and awake as ever.

Lance straightened, brushing a bead of sweat from his brow as the last of the training bots fizzled out. His eyes then caught of Keith, and his serious demeanor was shattered as he jumped about a foot in the air. “Keith! How... how long have you been standing there!?”

He ignored the question. “Lance. What do you think you're doing?” Keith crossed his arms.

Lance cast him a sheepish smile, attempting to shove his deactivated bayard behind his back. “What does it look like I'm doing?”

“It looks like you're training by yourself after hours, when we're all supposed to be sleeping,” Keith replied, unimpressed. “That was a really rough mission. We all need to get some rest.”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, still smiling. “Well, I train after dinner sometimes, you know.”

“Lance, it's nearly four in the morning.”

The look of surprise on his face was short of convincing. “Really? Gee, I guess I better get to sleep then, must've lost track of time—”

“Lance,” Keith repeated, stopping him in his tracks as he started to leave the room. “Tell me the truth.”

Lance's shoulders sagged. “I do train here by myself a lot, but... I don't know. After the way the mission went, I couldn't sleep.”

Keith's anger dissipated, if only slightly. “I know how you feel, but if you don't rest up, then—”

“No, you don't understand,” Lance insisted, and Keith was taken aback to see tears in his eyes. “It was my fault.”

Keith's own eyes softened. “Lance, that's not true—”

“Of course it is! Hunk took that shot for me, Keith! And now he's in a pod!” Lance let out a shaky breath. “Fuck, I mean, injuries are common. They're part of the job, I get that. But it's Hunk. The rest of us are a bunch of reckless idiots, but not him. He's supposed to be the rational one, always careful, playing it safe. He's always been dependable like that, and I should know— we've been friends since we were kids, but... he got hurt. And I just keep... seeing it, over and over again.”

“Lance—”

“And I know... I know I should be resting, but I can't sleep, not when every time I close my eyes I see my best friend bleeding out in my arms! And maybe this time, we wouldn't be able to save him!” Lance was full on crying now. “So I came here, instead. Because maybe if I can get better, I can stop something like this from happening ever again. Maybe I can actually protect you guys, instead of being a burden.”

Burden?

“Lance,” Keith started, carefully. He'd never been good with words. Whenever he tried to comfort someone, he usually just made it worse. But Keith wasn't about to just stand there and let him cry, not if he could help it. “Lance, look at me. You can't blame yourself, alright? It wasn't your fault. The shot could've killed you, and Hunk knew that, so he made the choice. He's smart. He probably wouldn't have done it if he didn't think you'd both be okay.”

“Of course he's smart, the guy's a genius! But you don't know Hunk like I do. We've been best friends for years, like I said. He's smart, no doubt about that, but he's selfless first,” Lance told him. “Always puts others before himself. He's saved my life countless times, and if he died doing that... if he was gone because of some stupid mistake I made... I don't know how I'd live with myself.”

Keith wanted to point out that Lance was selfless, too, but he couldn't bring himself to. How did he not realize that he also put the needs of others first?

Maybe that's why the two of them get along so well, Keith thought.

“Lance, we're a team. We're supposed to have each other's backs, right?” Keith tried for a smile, hoping Lance would return it. “Do you have any idea how many times you've saved my life? I know it's scary to think about, but any time one of us goes down, the rest of us are going to be there to pick them back up. We're the defenders of the universe, aren't we? That means we've gotta look out for everyone, and that includes each other.”

Lance stared at him for an moment, then rubbed the tears away from his eyes with a short laugh. “When did you get so good with words?”

Keith shrugged. “Probably just something else I learned from you.”

Lance's eyes widened.

“Hunk's going to be fine. I'm not going to promise that we're all always going to be okay, because I don't know what'll happen. But I can promise you that if and when we go down, it's not going to be without a fight. And dammit if we don't come back swinging harder than we were before, every time,” Keith offered Lance a hand. “And we're all fine for right now, so how about we just hold onto that for a bit? Deal?” He expected Lance to shake his hand, maybe even high-five him. When Lance didn't move, Keith worried he'd said or done something wrong.

But then Lance grabbed his hand, yanked him forward, and wrapped his arms around Keith in a near-suffocating hug. Keith couldn't help it; he tensed up at first, but relaxed pretty quickly.

“Thank you,” Lance whispered into his shoulder, and Keith figured maybe he wasn't so bad at this whole leader thing after all. Not if he could make Lance feel better, even just this once.

But then Lance was looking at him, brows furrowed in confusion. “Wait, if you came down here just to tell me to get some rest, then why are you in full paladin armor? Why do you have your bayard?”

Oh, shit.

Keith stammered over his words for a moment, and Lance smirked.

“I knew it! You were coming down here to train, too! You're trying to act like a responsible leader when you're just as bad as I am!” Lance laughed, but at the annoyed look on Keith's face, his smile turned soft. “You couldn't sleep either, huh? Maybe we should both try and get some rest.”

Keith wasn't sure what made him do it. A smart leader would suggest they both go to sleep immediately, get an early start on training the next day. Shiro would've definitely gone for that option. But then again, Keith wasn't him. He couldn't lead the same way Shiro did.

And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

“Unless you want me to stay here and spar with you?” Keith asked. It wasn't originally meant to be a question.

Lance seemed at a loss for words. Keith could admit it was the slightest bit entertaining, seeing him be the flustered one for once. “I'm... I'm sorry, what?”

Keith didn't feel the grin until it was too late to stop it. “It's no secret that you're terrible at close combat. And training with a real person is always more helpful than those predictable bots. I used to spar with Shiro a lot...” he trailed off, eyes meeting Lance's again. “Unless you're scared? It's fine if you don't want to—”

“Oh no, I want to,” Lance interrupted. “But then you've got to agree that I give you some shooting lessons some other time, because your aim is horrendous. Deal?” He extended a hand, just as Keith had only minutes before.

Keith repressed an eye roll as he shook Lance's hand. “Deal.”

[justheretobreakthings]

In the Spirit of the Season - Chapter 2 of 4

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Word Count: 1,960 (Total Word Count: 3,706) Read on AO3

I now present, part 2 of my @voltronsecretsanta2k18 fic for @narts-art! Hope you enjoy it!

"So," Coran said as he examined the completed gingerbread houses. "This is what houses look like on Earth?"

Lance pulled a shingle off the roof of his gingerbread house to pop into his mouth before answering, "Well, I mean, most of them tend to be a little less, you know, covered in candy and icing."

"Unless you're living in the woods trying to lure children into your home to kill and eat them," Pidge commented.

Coran furrowed his brow, turning to her in concern. "Does that... happen often, on Earth?"

"Yes."

"She's lying, Coran," Hunk said hastily before glaring at Pidge. "Stop scaring Coran like that!"

"Well, I think they're simply adorable," Allura said, smiling at her own sloppily assembled gingerbread house. She tapped on the wafer chimney. "And you humans have a part of your house specifically dedicated to being set on fire? So quaint! If ever we get to visit Earth, one of you simply must let me watch you burn your house!"

"Allura," Lance said, looking her steadily in the eye, "I would burn my entire neighborhood to the ground if you wanted me to."

"I see Lance has settled on a phrase to put on his Valentines this year," Pidge said.

"Valentines?" Allura asked.

"One holiday at a time, people," Hunk said. He reached out to the table and started picking up the tubes of icing. "Is everyone finished with their houses? We can start cleaning up."

The other murmured in confirmation and started rising from the table, gathering up their own extra candy decorations and utensils. “What are we gonna do with all this leftover gingerbread?” Pidge asked, gesturing toward the slabs of gingerbread walls and roof that were laid out in front of the sixth seat at the table, the one that had remained empty throughout the afternoon. “Wait and see if Keith wants to make his later, or…?”

Lance scoffed. “If he wanted to build a gingerbread house, he would have come and joined the rest of us. And if Keith doesn’t want to have fun, fine, whatever. But that doesn’t mean the gingerbread should go to waste.”

“You did say you told him we were building them today, right?” Hunk asked Pidge as Lance grabbed a slab of gingerbread from Keith’s spot and started nibbling eagerly on it.

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, course I told him. Don’t know why he didn’t come.”

“’Cause he’s Keith,” Lance said through a mouthful of gingerbread. “Short of physically wrestling him down, carrying him into the room, and hog-tying him to keep from running off, I don’t think there’s any possible way to get him to actually spend time with the rest of us. The mighty lone wolf doesn’t take holidays.”

“Still,” Hunk said, picking up some gingerbread for himself. “If there was anything he’d be likely to join us for, I thought it would have been this. Shiro said Keith always had a major sweet tooth.”

“His loss,” Lance said with a shrug. “More importantly, for our next holiday activity, I’m thinking: Christmas caroling. We spend a day planet-hopping and singing Christmas songs at various intergalactic embassies.”

“Interesting idea,” Coran said slowly. “Although there’s a distinct possibility that some planets could interpret such a greeting as an act of war.”

“That’s a risk we’re just going to have to take. For the sake of Christmas spirit.”

Pidge cleared her throat. “If you two are going to get into a debate about this, could you do it somewhere else while the rest of us actually clean?”

The two of them obliged, bickering softly about the perceived aggressiveness of Christmas caroling as they left the kitchen, and the others resumed their cleaning.

Pidge didn’t see Keith until later that day, when she was laying out the place settings for dinner – it was her turn to set the table according to the chore calendar Hunk had created, much to her and Lance’s chagrin – and he came wandering in, the dark patches of sweat at his collar and under the sleeves of his tee shirt indicating that he’d just finished up yet another long session on the training deck.

He nodded to Pidge in greeting as he crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator, and Pidge clicked her tongue in irritation. Keith paused, hand halfway to the fridge’s handle, and turned to her, brow raised.

“Nice of you to finally show up,” Pidge said.

“Come again?” Keith said.

“The gingerbread house party today? Hunk was really looking forward to having that as a fun group bonding time.”

“… And?”

Pidge stared at him. “And? What do you mean ‘and’? And you weren’t there!”

“I know that,” Keith said, looking, if anything, more confused. “What’s the problem?”

“That is the problem!”

Keith just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, so Pidge continued. “How come you didn’t come to the gingerbread house party, hm?”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you a couple of days ago that we were going to be making gingerbread houses, and you never came. You just stayed in here and did your stupid training - the same thing you’re always doing, non-stop, and frankly you’re going to just implode from exhaustion at some point if you keep this up.” She crossed her arms. “So, what is it? Why didn’t you come to the gingerbread house thing?”

Keith looked back up at her, frowning in silence for a moment before he answered, “I… wasn’t invited.”

“What are you talking about? I invited you!”

“No, you - you told me about it, but you didn’t - ”

“Well, yeah,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes. “That was me inviting you. Why did you think I made a point to tell you about it if it wasn’t an invitation?”

“I just thought - ” He cut himself off, his face starting to redden. He turned away, opening the fridge, removing a bottle, and slamming the door shut. “Forget it.”

“No, seriously, what the hell did you think I was telling you for?”

Keith huffed out a breath. “Well, you said - you said the kitchen was reserved for the afternoon for the gingerbread house thing so I - I thought - I thought you meant, like, stay away from the kitchen, it’s taken.”

The glared that Pidge had been wearing softened into a puzzled frown. “Why would you think that? I did say it was a group thing, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but, I mean, the group is - you guys are the group, I didn’t - I didn’t think…”

“Keith,” Pidge said slowly, “Did you… think we wouldn’t have wanted you there?”

For a long moment, Keith was silent, his finger fidgeting on the cap of the bottle he had pulled from the fridge. Then, without a word, he set the bottle down onto the counter and turned away, striding out of the kitchen.

Pidge swore under her breath, dropping what remained of the cutlery she was laying out onto the middle of the table with a clatter before hurrying off after Keith. “Hey!” she called to him as she half-jogged to catch up to him. “Hey, assface, you can’t just leave in the middle of a conversation like that!”

“I forgot to shower,” Keith snapped at her, not breaking her stride.

“And, what, the castle will implode if you don’t shower right now?”

“Pidge – ”

“Seriously, what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing’s going on with me, I just need to shower.”

“The hell you do,” Pidge growled. They turned the corner to the hallway with the paladins’ communal bathroom, and Pidge sprinted forward to stand in the doorway, feet planted and her hands on either side.

Keith leveled a glare at her when he caught up. “Move,” he said.

“No.”

“Pidge.”

“I’m not moving until you tell me what the hell is the matter with you,” Pidge said. She leaned from side to side to block Keith off as he tried to slip past her. “Look, I know you’re in a mood and all because of the whole Shiro thing, and I get it, I do, if there’s anyone on this ship who would get it it’s me, but for the love of crap man, why don’t you at least make an effort?”

“What the hell are you on about?!”

“I’m ‘on about’ the fact that you’ve got plenty of people in this castle to come to, and we’ve tried to have group bonding times and all, but you just keep going off to be miserable all by yourself! And now you up and tell me that you’re avoiding us because we don’t want you around? Where the hell did you get that idea?”

Keith’s hands curled into fists at his side, his face going a deep shade of red. “Because you don’t want me around!” he snapped.

There was silence for a moment as Keith breathed in and out through clenched teeth, Pidge blinking uncertainly at him, as if not sure whether she’d heard him correctly. “What – Keith, of course we want you around!”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, we – ”

“No, Pidge, trust me, you don’t.” Keith sighed. “Look, it’s not – I don’t take it personally, really. I don’t. It’s a compatibility thing. People are fine with having me around when I’m with Shiro, because I guess sometimes we’ve wound up being sort of a package deal, but – but when it’s just me? Come on. I – I know I’m not exactly fun to be around, and I know I’m basically a lost cause when it comes to games and jokes and all, and you don’t have to – I mean, I don’t – it’s the holidays, the last thing you guys need is me bringing you down.”

“Keith, you – you wouldn’t be bringing us down.”

Keith shook his head. “You don’t have to do that, Pidge. It’s not like this is news to me, okay? I get it. Christmas comes every year, I’ve been through a bunch of them. I’ve had foster families try to fake it, try and have ‘Santa’ bring me some generic ‘toy for boy in this age range’ toy so they can pretend I’m part of it, but God, it was so much easier on everyone with those families who were just honest, who would just tell me, stay out of the way so the everybody else can actually enjoy themselves. At least then we knew where everyone stood.

“So you guys just go ahead and do your gingerbread houses and your gift exchanges and all, and I’ll just… I’ll stay out of the way. Okay? I’ve got a lot of training to do anyway. So, it works out better for everyone, you know?”

In Pidge’s stunned state after that declaration, Keith managed to shove his way past her. He draped the towel from his shoulders over the curtain rod and turned on the water so it could start heating up before turning away. Just has he was reaching for the hem of his shirt to start undressing, though, the water shut off. He turned around to see Pidge, her arm stretched out past the curtain and into the stall, staring at him with round eyes.

“Your – your foster families seriously said that to you?” she asked softly.

“… Some of them,” Keith answered. “I’m taking my shower, now, Pidge. Could you – ?”

“No,” Pidge said. “No, they were – they were wrong, Keith.”

“Pidge, could you just – ”

“I mean it. They were – you don’t need to stay out of the way, Keith. And we do want you here. I want you here.”

Keith said nothing, so Pidge sighed and grabbed him by the forearm. “Come on,” she said, turning around to start tugging him away from the bathroom. “There’s something I want to show you.”

[crispinos]

pairing: keith/lance rating: T word count: 1.7k summary: lance is a fortune-teller. keith really needs to study.

this @voltron-ss gift is for @trash4bechloe. i had actually planned a proper fic incorporating more of the tropes you gave me, but i am an awful, awful procrastinator and ended up writing something short but hopefully sweet because i wanted you to receive something on time. stay tuned for your real gift in the future, but i hope you enjoy this in the meantime!

There is a bounce house in the middle of the green. It’s red, yellow, blue, and inflatable, straight out of the fair that used to come to town every year and draw suburban upper-middle class kids like moths to a flame with their SUV-driving soccer moms in tow. In fact, now that Keith tears his eyes away from the primary-color beast dominating his view, it appears that the whole quad has been decked out like the fair just came to this school; there’s a line for fried dough that wraps around what has to be at least half the perimeter.

Well, Keith doesn’t know what’s going on and he doesn’t particularly care to find out, so he just puts his head down and tries to push through the crowd. For all that it’s a sunny Sunday afternoon, he has the test of his life coming up tomorrow, and he needs to shut himself into the top floor of the library for at least the next twelve hours if he wants to stand a chance at passing.

It’s slow going. No one gives a fuck about Keith’s issues and no one has any clue how badly screwed he is for this test, which is totally understandable but still infuriating when he tries to cut through the line for cotton candy, accidentally elbows a girl in the nose, and receives a death glare for his efforts.

“Sorry,” he says, or tries to say, “I’m just trying to get through—need to study for a big test—” but another group of people closes around the girl before he can finish explaining himself, and everything is just so loud that his voice is drowned out by the noise, leaving him mouthing at the air like an idiot. Which, granted, he supposes he must be, if he’s trying to cram all the review he should’ve been doing for the past two weeks into the last sixteen or so hours before the exam.

Farther away from the food, the crowd thins out slightly. The other end of the quad is blessedly calm compared to the clusterfuck that Keith’s just managed to survive. Scattered around the perimeter are game booths offering raffle tickets for prizes—apple-bobbing here, a ring toss there—and Keith is just about to make his escape when a heavy hand lands on his arm. It catches him off guard, and he flinches away.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” says the boy on the other end of the hand, hastily letting his arm fall back down to his side. Puffing himself up, he clears his throat and continues, in a reluctant attempt at a theatrically deep voice, “Um. How would you like to have your fortune told by the one, the only… Lance the Clairvoyant?”

Keith blinks. “Uh, no thanks.”

The boy—Hunk, his name tag reads—deflates. “I told you it wouldn’t work,” he calls over his shoulder, and Keith follows his gaze to the purple tent behind him. Its curtains are drawn too close for him to make out anything inside, but propped up against it is a sign that proclaims in Sharpied letters, LANCE THE CLAIRVOYANT: HE SEES ALL… HE KNOWS ALL.

“That’s ‘cause you don’t do a convincing voice,” someone yells back from inside the tent. The voice is vaguely familiar, but Keith can’t place his finger on where he knows it from. “Just do what you gotta do to get them in here.”

Hunk turns back to Keith with big, pleading eyes. “Please let him tell your fortune,” he says.

“I have a test,” Keith begins weakly. Hunk’s eyes are so, so round.

“We’ve only had three clients,” he says.

“Big test,” Keith tries.

“We’ve been out here for five hours,” Hunk says. “He was really excited about doing this booth.”

“Twenty percent of my grade,” Keith elaborates, a little desperately.

“Three minutes,” Hunk promises. “Just tell him to make it quick. Three minutes is all it takes.”

“Three minutes, and three minutes only,” Keith says. “Wait, what?”

Hunk’s face lights up like a goddamn Christmas tree, and Keith is suddenly inside the tent.

“Have a seat,” someone says. It’s the same voice from before, only now it’s gone all spooky, like they’re trying their hardest to sound mysterious. As Keith’s eyes adjust to the dimness, he sees the outline of a folding chair a few paces away from where he’s standing, and he complies.

The boy behind the table is wearing a hooded cloak, but there’s a crystal ball on the table, the only source of light inside the tent. It scatters eerie shadows across his face, but it’s glowing brightly enough for Keith to discern his features. It’s also glowing brightly enough for Keith to catch the way Lance the Clairvoyant’s eyes widen ever so slightly when their gazes meet.

“What would you like to know, O Curious One?” Lance asks, expression falling neutral. “My crystal ball will show me all.”

“The answers to Iverson’s test would be nice,” Keith says. “Aerodynamics?”

“No, I mean about yourself,” Lance says in his normal voice, before realizing his slip-up. “My crystal ball will only show me what lies in the futures of my clients.”

“Okay,” says Keith. “How will I do on my test tomorrow?”

Lance closes his eyes and waves his hands over the ball, brow furrowed in concentration. Keith briefly considers leaving while he can get away with it. Then he feels like a jackass and decides not to do that.

“I see,” Lance says dramatically, “a… fall. A fail?” Keith’s heart plummets into his stomach, and he swears he feels his digestive juices splash. “No, not a fail. Just a fall. A fall… from grace.”

“What does that mean?”

“The top of the class,” Lance says. More vague hand-waving. “Someone will take your place. Someone… a rival. Your biggest rival.”

“What?”

“Does no one come to mind?”

“No,” Keith says. “I don’t have any ‘rivals.’” He really doesn’t have any idea what Lance is talking about. He minds his own business, works hard in class, gets good grades. He doesn’t go out of his way to step on other people’s toes. There’s no room for competition because he barely knows who his classmates are.

“Ah-ah,” Lance tuts. “Arrogance is never a good trait to have.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Your hubris will be your downfall,” Lance proclaims. His eyes are still closed, what the fuck, that’s not how crystal balls are supposed to work. There is definitely the ghost of a smug smile playing on his lips.

“You’re full of shit,” Keith decides.

“I assure you that I am not.”

“No person in their right mind would actually believe a prediction from a college kid who just got dressed up in a hood for some fair. You’re bullshitting.”

Lance ignores him. “You may be more gratified to hear that love is coming your way,” he says, moving his hands around some more. “Sometime within the next week. Perhaps… perhaps even tomorrow.”

Keith scoffs. “Now you’re just messing with me.”

“All will become clear in time.” Lance opens his eyes. “Is there anything else you would like me to reveal?”

“No,” Keith says. Belatedly, he adds, “But thanks, I guess.”

Hunk smiles at him on the way out. Keith can’t bring himself to smile back in good conscience.

-

The test is shit. It’s a steaming pile of horseshit, and Keith handles it as such as he passes it in, dropping it on top of the pile with the biggest shudder that his soulless husk of a sleep-deprived body can muster.

When he turns to go back to his seat, it’s to collide nearly head-on with the person behind him.

Not just a person. A boy.

Not just a boy. Lance the Clairvoyant.

What the fuck, Keith tries to say with his eyes.

Fuck you too, Lance says back. Or, well, he wiggles his eyebrows and kind of smirks a bit, and Keith has no idea how to interpret it but figures that fuck you too is a safe bet.

He’d done a pretty good job of pushing the fortune-telling incident to the back of his mind yesterday in order to effectively cram, but it’s all coming back now. The fall from grace, the love coming his way, whatever the fuck those things are supposed to mean. Keith frowns on the way back to his seat but resolves to forget about it again by the time he’s on his way out of the lecture hall.

He’s maybe five steps away from the door when someone taps him on the shoulder.

“Hi,” says Lance. “Keith, right?” He looks slightly nervous, shifting his weight from foot to foot, and only Keith’s curiosity keeps him from walking away. That, and the fact that Lance’s face is actually not half-bad without the fake psychic outfit and weird psychic voice.

Keith crosses his arms. “Is this the part where you tell me you totally predicted that I would fail?”

“I didn’t necessarily say you’d fail,” Lance says indignantly. “I bet you did better than everyone else, just like you always do. And this was actually supposed to be about the other part of your fortune.”

“Ah. The part where you told me that love was coming my way.”

“Yeah. Do you want to get dinner sometime?”

“Excuse me?”

Lance may possibly be blushing. “I said, do you want to get dinner sometime? Maybe? If you don’t completely hate my guts?”

“I don’t hate you,” Keith says, bewildered. “I’m just confused. You insulted me yesterday and now you want dinner.”

“I didn’t insult you,” Lance insists. “I’m a legitimate clairvoyant. I only tell the truth about people’s futures.”

“You were planning to ask me out all along,” Keith realizes.

Lance is definitely blushing. “Look, is it a yes or a no? ’Cause if Mr. Prodigy thinks he’s above me, I won’t waste my time—”

“Sure.”

Now it’s Lance’s turn to be taken aback. “Excuse me?”

Keith does his best to hide his amusement, but it sneaks through his smile anyway. “I said, sure.”

“Holy shit,” Lance says. He looks genuinely flabbergasted, and it’s cute. “Really?”

Keith shrugs. “Yeah. But only because you saw it in my future.”

“I guess it was inevitable,” Lance concedes.

“You free tonight? We can celebrate the fact that we survived another Iverson test.”

Lance’s grin is slow and blinding. “Oh, you bet I am.”

[babibluphas]

I'm writing this now so I don't forget to post it lolo also this is extremely unedited take this however you want!!! It could be romantic Latte or platonic//bromance Latte!!!

So everyone's talking about how Shiro coming back and bringing Matt with him will make Lance feel like he's going to get replaced as the blue paladin and/or how Lance feels like Matt would be a better blue paladin

What if Matt actually brings Lance's confidence down a tad bit when he first arrives, but quickly picks Lance up again after they actually start talking// get to know each other?

Also in my head Matt is like the leader of the rebellion group// is in second command (like a deputy of some sort)

When he first arrives with Shiro, Pidge is the first one to just run up to them and squeeze the living shit out of Matt, and they just have this long ass bro hug (even though Matt is basically getting suffocated). After, Matt meets everyone else on the team (except Lance) and gets along with literally everyone (Slav included).

Both Matt and Keith constantly look after Shiro, and literally baby him 24/7. Matt even teaches// practices hand to hand combat with Keith. They also are sometimes lone wolves and follow their instincts most times during a mission (but Matt knows how to back down// knows when to listen to his team most times) Also they both have fuzzy hair

Apparently Matt was once an engineer of some kind back at the Garrison, and loves eating anything Hunk gives him. Matt joins Hunk and Pidge's group, helping them out with mechanics and stuff, (since he was most likely a higher rank then both of them at the Garrison), sometimes even correcting Pidge when they're doing a separate project of some sort.

Allura talks to Matt about plans of sorts, and loves his ideas// adjustments to some of her original plans for a mission, and Matt started studying Altean with the help of Coran when he tries pronouncing the words and when he has problems understanding the rules of the language

The only person he hasn't really talked to// met yet is Lance. The main reason why is because Lance doesn't want to ruin his relationship with Matt the same way he thinks he messed up with Allura when they got to know each other.

Everyone just adores Matt and constantly puts the spotlight on him. He's even better then Keith with most things, which is astonishing to Lance, but it hurts more knowing that he has spent his whole Garrison year trying to beat Keith at basically everything, and impress both Keith and Shiro but never gets a praise out of anything.

He has a hard time thinking what his special talent// what he contributes to the team. In his mind, his only talent right now is being extremely annoying.

Lance doesn't hate himself. He has his insecurities sure, but he doesn't hate himself. He just hasn't found what he's good at yet. It used to be taking care of his family and comforting them when they had a bad day, but that doesn't seem to end the case anymore. Sure he was there for everyone else when Shiro went missing (I'll probably write another post about it later)

Also, Hunk doesn't upright ignore//forget about him. He still talks to Lance and he kind of knows about Lance's attention needs, but with all the missions and projects with Pidge, it's hard being one person. They're still friends, but they just aren't as close as they used to be.

Lance is the kind of person that doesn't tell anyone anything unless you confront him about it because he thinks he's just being a burden to everyone. He knows that he has to stop bottling his feelings, but it's hard when the people you consider to be your family is busy dealing with they're own problems .

He would talk to Coran, but he's trying to be there for Allura whenever she needs him, since they're still mourning over Altea

There's Shiro, but they aren't exactly 'close'. At all. Shiro is still trying to recover from his one year as a Galran prisoner. It's harder for him to move on since one of his arms was removed and replaced with a metal one after being experimented on.

Pidge is still looking for her father, and Keith is still adjusting to the fact that he has Galra blood inside of him, and is also looking for his family.

Slav isn't exactly helpful with emotional stuff, and Kolivan is a rebellion leader leading a large group of followers

Lance can't just break down in his room. People would hear him, and he'd probably get scolded for not telling anyone about all his problems and his attention needs .

That's where Matt comes in. So let's say that Lance is hanging out at the front of the ship one night when everyone else is sleeping, just watching the stars and thinking about his family, maybe even messing with the star map

Matt couldn't exactly sleep that night because he was wondering where his dad was, or/ and how his mother was coping with the loss of her family. He gets out of bed and makes his way to the training deck (something he picked up from Keith), only to be stopped when he sees the glow of the star map in the front of the ship. Thinking its Pidge for the hundredth time that week, he walks in ready to scold the fuck out of her.

When he sees Lance just sitting on the floor of the ship, a blanket over his shoulders, and still wearing his usual outfit instead of his pajamas, Matt gets a little worried. He actually scares the fuck out of Lance when he asks him what he was doing, and Lance starts cursing in Spanish, since he was born in Cuba. Matt apologizes for startling him, then asks if Lance is alright.

Lance just gives him a shrug, before zooming back into one of the planets in the star map. Curious, as to what the paladin was looking at, Matt takes a peak over Lance's shoulder. It's Earth that Lance is looking at. The sudden realization that Lance is homesick is enough for Matt to sit down besides the paladin and put an arm around his back in support.

Matt let's Lance vent on and on about his family and how fucking much he misses them and how much he just wants to tell them that he's okay and that he's coming back as soon as he can, and how much he's kept his feelings in because he never had a chance to talk to anyone about it. Matt just listens to him, not even interrupting him once throughout the whole thing, and rubs his back often when Lance looks like he's about to cry.

When Lance is done, Matt admits that he's homesick as well, but only because his mother has basically been abandoned by her family, and once in a while he feels guilty for not trying to get back home and instead is joined a rebellion group, but he knows he's doing it for his mom's sake, and for the Earth and all the other planets are safe.

And they just talk, except it's extremely awkward because this is the first time they've actually TALKED to each other since Matt arrived, and in the Earth calendar Pidge has, it's been months.

But they do talk (finally), and most of the things they talk about is either about Pidge being a dork or how they miss their families, maybe even some weird/goofy stuff, like how Slav actually does calculations stuff or how many planets there actually was using some mathematical bullshit methods, and by messing around with the star map.

Then Lance accidentally brings up how awesome Matt is and how he should be the Blue paladin and not him because to his team Lance is just an annoying try hard// joker

So Matt quickly throws that thought out the fucking window, and tells Lance how much the team cares about him and how much Pidge has said about him and how brotherly// awesome he is and how he's an amazing sharp shooter, while Matt is just some dude that used to be a coward most of the time

So they just talk about how amazing the other is and they keep talking throughout the night (until they fall asleep on one another)

This is extremely lame lol I'm sorry

[mad-madam-m]

prompt for Sheith... you can make this fluffy or angsty, anything you like! :D you know how Lotor is like always thinking ahead of them? My prompt is a scene where Lotor sees right through Shiro & Keith and thinks they're together. (of course Matt and Pidge already talked about their oblivious friends... but that's a prompt for another day I guess)

(Me: How in the hell am I going to get Lotor to where he sees Keith and Shiro?Season 4: *happens*Me: WELP.)

“You were going to do what?”

Keith took a deep breath and met Shiro’s furious gaze. “We needed to get through the cruiser’s shield, and none of us had the firepower to do it. We had to do something before Naxzela exploded!”

Shiro took a step forward. “And your solution was to ram it? With your own ship?”

Keith spared a glance across the room to glare at Matt, who winced and mouthed Sorry. It didn’t matter. Keith was going to kill him. He could make it look like an accident. 

“I didn’t have a lot of other options,” he said through gritted teeth. “We had to get through somehow. Otherwise we’d have lost the entire system!”

Otherwise, I’d have lost you, he thought, but couldn’t bring himself to say. Voltron was fast, but there was no way it was fast enough to get away from an explosion of that size. Keith would have lost everyone he cared about in the blink of an eye.

He’d have lost Shiro. Again, and for good.

“What if it hadn’t worked?” Shiro shouted. “You would have thrown your life away, and for nothing!”

Keith flung his arm out. “What did you want me to do? Nothing? Because those were my choices! Sit there and watch while Haggar blows up a planet and destroys every hope we have of defeating the Galra, or try to stop it!”

“There had to have been another way that didn’t involve you dying!”  Shiro shouted.

“There was,” a new voice drawled. “Or have you boys forgotten the reason you’re even having your lover’s spat is because I flew in at the last minute to save the day?” 

Keith whirled around, the blood draining from his face. Lotor was still sitting in Pidge’s chair where they’d tied him up, smirking at both of them.

Keith had completely forgotten he was there.

Shiro drew back and frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

Lotor chuckled. “Surely your boyfriend didn’t try to take credit for me blowing a hole in that cruiser.”

“Boyfriend?!” Keith exclaimed, and head Shiro echo the word in the same tone of disbelief.

“Oh.” Lotor raised one white eyebrow. “Are you not?”

Keith’s heart hammered in his throat. He’d thought he was doing a good job of hiding his feelings, but if Lotor could tell…

“No, we aren’t,” Shiro said firmly.

“Hm. My mistake, then,” Lotor said. “A shame, though. You do make a very entertaining pair.”

Keith couldn’t take this for one minute longer. He spun on his heel and stalked off the bridge. “I’m heading to the training deck. Tell Pidge to call me when we start the debriefing.”

He heard Shiro call his name, but he couldn’t bring himself to look back.

***

Either the gladiators weren’t as hard as he remembered, or Keith had gotten a lot stronger fighting with the Blades, because he tore through the first four training levels in less than five minutes. It gave him something to focus on, gave him a way to work out his anger and frustrations, but right now even fighting wasn’t enough to wipe away the way Shiro had sounded when he’d said no.

No, we aren’t.

It was true. They weren’t.

But the finality in his voice…

Keith rammed his sword through the next robot to come at him. It fell to the ground, sparking.

His eyes stung, and he swiped at them angrily. “End program.”

The door to the training room whooshed open, and Shiro walked in.

Keith turned his back so that Shiro couldn’t see that he’d been crying. “I told you to have Pidge call me.”

“Keith,” Shiro said softly. “You would have been killed if Lotor hadn’t shown up. We’d have lost you.” There was a beat, and then, “I’d have lost you.”

Keith’s heart twisted, and he shoved his knife back in its sheath. “Voltron couldn’t have escaped that explosion. If I hadn’t done something, we’d have lost everything!”

“Keith–”

Keith spun around and cut him off. “I had to do something!”

“Dying shouldn’t have been it!” Shiro shouted. “How could you think that? There had to have been another way. There had to have been…” He closed his eyes and trailed off, turning away. “You have to know how much you mean to me.”

“Do I?” Keith asked, and he couldn’t keep the tremor out of his voice.

Shiro looked back at him then, so broken and vulnerable that it was gutting.

Oh, Keith thought distantly. He’d always assumed his feelings were one-sided, had always assumed there was no way Shiro could care as much about him as he did about Shiro.

Apparently that assumption had been wrong.

He took two steps forward, uncertain, trying to gauge how he’d be received. Shiro grabbed his hand and hauled him into a hug, hard, and stifled a sob in his ear. Keith hugged him back, pressing his face into Shiro’s chest and trying not to break down.

“I can’t lose you,” Shiro whispered. “I need you, Keith, I need to know you’re okay, even if I can’t be with you, I need–”

“I need you, too,” Keith said, his throat tight. “I thought you were mad at me for leaving, I thought you didn’t need me anymore–”

Shiro’s arms tightened around him. “God, Keith, no. I thought that was what you wanted. I thought you were mad at me, and I didn’t want to force you to stay. I was trying to be supportive. Did you not want to go?”

“I did,” Keith admitted. “The work is important, and I hate parades. But…I wanted you to want me to stay.” 

“I did.” Shiro pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “I do. It kills me when you’re not here.”

Keith closed his eyes. “It kills me not to be with you.”

Shiro sighed. It sounded a little wet. “I should’ve said something ages ago, but it never seemed the right time. But when Matt told me what you’d done, I just…I had no idea how close I’d come to losing you and it scared me to death.”

Hot tears pricked at the corners of Keith’s eyes. “I couldn’t think of anything else. I had to do something.”

“I know, but God, Keith…you’re irreplaceable.”

Keith laughed hollowly. “Voltron replaced me pretty easily.”

Shiro pulled back and cupped his face, his grey eyes burning with a determination Keith had only rarely seen. “You. Are irreplaceable. To me.”

Keith could only stare back at him. He’d had no idea. Sure, Shiro was irreplaceable to him, Shiro was the one who never gave up on him, who believed in him, who never walked away from him. He’d never thought he might have been the same thing to Shiro.

“Keith–” Shiro started.

The comms crackled on. “Shiro, Keith,” Pidge said. “We need you for debriefing.”

Keith gritted his teeth so he wouldn’t yell at her.

Shiro actually groaned, soft enough that only Keith could hear. “We’ll be right there, Pidge.”

Keith wrapped his hands around Shiro’s wrists. “Talk later?” he asked.

Shiro’s face softened into a small smile, and he nodded. “Later. Come on, let’s go debrief.”

Keith took Shiro’s hands from his face and threaded their fingers together, and let Shiro pull him from the room.

(Note: This fic assumes that the current Shiro is real!Shiro, only having some significant issues because because the Galra fucked with his brain. I’m about 55/45 on whether current!Shiro is a clone or it’s really him, just with some kind of mind fuckery. Leaning slightly toward the clone theory just because of the name of the operation and the personality changes, but honestly I think they’ve got it built out that this could go either way.)

[quickwrites]

Papa Kitty: The Birthday Party

It wasn’t that his fathers and uncles never celebrated Keith’s existence. They made sure that he knew he was loved and they were glad that he was a welcomed member of their family every deca-phoeb to mark the day he had been taken in. It was more that what humans called a “Birthday Party” was not in line with the Galra celebrations when a kit entered their lives. Keith was alarmed when Lance fell out of his chair when Keith asked what it was that Hunk had made and why it was on fire.

He was quickly educated on the importance of a “Birthday Cake” and all the needed actives of what each paladin deemed a good birthday party. Keith didn’t understand a lot of it since each had different ideas but the main points he gathered was that every party was suppose to have a cake or some preferred sweet food, presents, friends and family, some sort of finger food and a meal, and games or activities that varied greatly between the four. The fact that Keith hadn’t had such a celebration seemed to personally offend the other teens and while Shiro was more understanding, he too seemed off put by the knowledge. Coran and Thace had ended up discussing the differences between the celebration for Galra now verses ten thousand years ago and Lance finally put out the fire on top of the cake by blowing it out but Keith was just glad that the party ended shortly after they had eaten the sweet bread-like food.

By that point he had been around the other teens for two phoebs (four phoebs with Shiro) and it was still upsetting when his gaps in Human culture was pointed out. Thace and Shiro both told him that they did not mean for the harsh reactions and that it was just because they weren’t use to people not knowing about such things but it still hurt. He was getting better at hiding the hurt until he was alone in his room. Antok would still see through his smile and would stop by to talk to him and he was sure that his Papa knew a fake smile but neither would directly bring it up, allowing him to either keep it to himself or come to them to talk about it on his own.

Pheobs passed since Lance’s birthday and Keith almost forgot about the whole thing. In that time, he had noticed the other paladins meeting without him like they use to and them asking weird questions like showing him a picture of a toy or knick knack they found from the Space Mall and asking what he thought of them. There was also a lot of conversations that would suddenly stop when he walked into a room, not just between the humans but with the other Blades and Alteans as well. It was all very strange and off putting to the hybrid and he found that as he noticed more conversations halting or hasty retreats with bad excuses the less he wanted to be around people, including his own family. 

So when Antok, who by this point was one of the worse offenders of bad excuses when he asked what people were talking about and leaving, asked Keith to meet him in the Blade’s Lounge, Keith had instead gone to the training deck and took out his energy on battle droids instead. 

Antok had tried to call him again, so did Thace and Shiro when he didn’t respond, followed by Pidge, Hunk, Coran and weirdly Allura. He almost picked up for Allura wondering if maybe there was some sort of Voltron emergency then changed his mind. If it was about Voltron they would have sounded an alert through the castle not called him on his personal com. Whatever they wanted he didn’t care and if it was that important then they could come find him.

“You are a real jerk you know that, mullet head,” Lance shouted as he stormed into the training room.

Keith just barely avoided the swipe at his head before pausing the training program and looking around at Lance in shock. “What-” he started. The arm around his neck cut him off as Lance put him into a headlock against his side and started dragging him out of the training deck. 

“All this effort and you ignore all our calls and almost ruin everything,” Lance ranted as he walked, not seeming to notice Keith struggling to get himself free. Keith was always surprised by how strong Lance was and how with no formal training before becoming a paladin the other teen managed to keep Keith in a hold so well.

“Lance,” Keith snapped, pushing at the arm holding his head. “Let go!”

“Not happening,” Lance snapped back. “I’m dragging your butt to the Lounge and you’re going to be happy I did!”

“Lance, I’m warning you!”

A casual walk from the training deck Keith had chosen that day to the Blade’s Lounge took about ten dobosh. There was one that was two dobosh away but Keith had picked the further one for that exact reason. The teenage boys took twenty dobosh to reach the door instead, their paced slowed by Keith managing to break free from Lance and Lance finding new ways to drag him along. By the time they were in front of the door, Lance had locked Keith’s arms above his head with a firm grip on his neck and Keith in protest of the whole thing rag dolled himself so Lance was forced to drag him along instead.

“Okay,” Lance said, breathing a bit harder than normal. “We’re here. Now stand up like a normal person and walk inside or I’m going to throw you in there!”

Keith pouted as Lance let him go and he hit the floor on his butt, folding his arms. “Why should I?” he countered. “You’ve all been avoiding me and lying about everything. Why should I do a single thing you want when no one wants me around?”

Lance stared down at Keith as Keith looked up at him, both upside down from the other person’s perspective. The anger melted from Lance’s face, his eyes going wide then pinching closed as he muttered rapidly to himself in Spanish in the same tone Keith would some times speak Galran in when he was swearing. “Keith,” the Cuban said, sitting suddenly on the floor next to him. “I’m sorry. We never meant to make you feel that way.”

Keith looked away, his arms still folded over his chest and refusing to speak. 

“You remember my birthday party a few mon- phoebs ago,” Lance asked, pausing long enough to see Keith give a stiff nod. “Well after you left I asked Papa Thace when your birthday was. He told me he wasn’t sure when exactly you were born because of how you came to him and the others but he did give me the date of when you joined his family, the date that you guys usually celebrate together in that Galra way you do.” He paused, looking at the side of Keith’s face. “That’s today you know.”

“Yeah...” Keith said softly, looking towards the ground at his side. “I figured with everything going on...”

“You thought we forgot,” Lance said, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “That we were so busy doing whatever we were doing without you plus the whole war thing that your day was left forgotten.”

Keith swallowed thickly, stubbornly rubbing a hand under one eye when his vision started to blur.

“I’m so sorry, Keith,” Lance said again, squeezing Keith’s shoulder. “That was never suppose to happen. Everyone is inside the Lounge waiting for you. The Blades all felt really bad for keeping everything a secret from you but we thought you’d like your first human birthday party to be a surprise.”

“My what,” Keith said, his voice thick as he looked at Lance. 

“Your birthday party, knucklehead,” Lance said, giving him a half smile. “A surprise birthday party. It wasn’t easy and it took a lot of planning but we wanted you to have the full experience. We had to get the Blades to help us to make sure it wasn’t just things we liked but that you’d like too and then we had to swear them to secrecy which they didn’t like at all, particularly Antok. We even got Coran and Allura in on it so we could find things around the castle to use...” The hand on his shoulder moved to the other shoulder and Lance pulled Keith into a sideways hug, tapping his forehead against the side of Keith’s face. “I’m sorry we had you feel unwanted,” he whispered. “I can’t say sorry enough and the others would say the same thing. Nothing will ever excuse that. We all love you, Keith. You’re important to all of us and not just because of the big red cat in the hanger.”

Keith turned his head to press his forehead against Lance’s, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry I was being a jerk,” he muttered, feeling terrible for making Lance drag him down there and ignoring everyone’s calls.

“It’s fine,” Lance said, chuckling softly. “Everyone gets a one jerk pass on their birthday. Now,” he said pushing Keith with his forehead then leaning back. “Are you ready to play party games, open presents and eat cake and ice cream until you throw up?”

“Is throwing up a requirement,” Keith asked, smiling as he and Lance grabbed the other’s hand and pulled themselves up at the same time.

“I suppooooooose it’s optional,” Lance said huffing. “But I bet once you taste Hunk’s cake you won’t stop until you at least want to throw up!”

“We’ll see about that,” Keith said, wiping his face and looking at the door. Lance stepped behind him and gave him a little push.

When the door opened Keith was greeted with a loud cheer from everyone inside as they jumped to their feet. Pidge and Hunk had been standing on either side of the door and threw bits of colorful paper into the air so it would fall on Keith’s head. Shiro and Caron had little horns that they blew loudly. Allura and half the Blades were wearing cone shaped hats. Thace hugged him, purring loudly once he was in the door. Lance retrieved another cone hat that was far more decorative than the others and put it on Keith’s head. The room was covered in streamers and balloons on the ground and in the air. The words “Happy Birthday Keith” were written on a banner in Allura’s fancy handwriting. Two tables had been brought into the room, one covered in different foods including some of Keith’s favorites and the other with colorful packages wrapped in paper.

The other teens had attached themselves to Keith’s side for the party, explaining different games with animated excitement to the room and saying which they liked the best. After a while Hunk left with one of the Blades and returned with a large cake, decorated with a red lion and a hippo made out of icing on the top. Hunk lit the candles and everyone sang the Earth version of a birthday song. Coran and Allura also sang an Altean version that the others tried to follow along with and the Blades finished it all off with the more throaty song of welcome to their kit. Lance made sure Keith didn’t blow out the candles until he made a secret wish that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone then after everyone ate a slice of the cake, handed Keith his first present.

Suddenly all the pictures made sense to Keith as he found all the ones he had shown interest in inside the colorful wrappings. Then there was more cake and they set up a video game that Pidge had gotten Keith for people to battle each other in. Slowly the Blades left, citing other duties that couldn’t be put off but wishing Keith a good day, as well as Coran until it was just the Paladins, Allura and the mice, taking turns playing the different video games together and eating what remained of the food.

Eventually even that wined down from its fiery competitions to halfhearted trash talking until Shiro insisted they start cleaning up before it go too late and they all headed in their own directions to bed. Keith grabbed Lance’s hand to keep him from getting too far ahead as the others yawned and wished each other a good night and telling Keith happy birthday one last time.

“What’s up, buddy,” Lance asked once they were alone, Keith managing to get them to miss the elevator with Shiro, Pidge and Hunk.

“I just wanted to say thanks,” Keith said, squeezing Lance’s hand. “For all of this. For everything.”

“It’s no big deal,” Lance said, smiling at Keith. He gave a little gasp as Keith’s arms wrapped around him suddenly, their chests pressing together and Keith’s face burying into Lance’s neck. 

“It is a big deal,” Keith said, his lips moving against Lance’s skin. “It’s a huge deal. You didn’t have to do all of this and you did and... thank you...”

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s back, holding him tightly. “Everyone deserves an awesome birthday, man,” he said, putting his head into the crook between Keith’s neck and shoulder. “Even mullet headed moody pants.”

Keith just laughed softly. 

------

Characters belong to Voltron Legendary Defenders

So as I mentioned in a previous post today’s my birthday! What I didn’t mention is that yesterday was also my best friend @ryysmenkib‘s birthday! We both turned 25 and had an awesome time but she suggested that with our birthdays happening I write a birthday story here. At first I thought of writing one for Lance and one for Keith separately but had people over last night to celebrate (thanks to my fiance for planning an awesome little party!) and decided to kind of combine the stories in a way but focus on Keith since it’s his birthday month this year.

With the very militaristic and caste system culture of the Galra I can’t really see them having birthday celebrations like we would think of them but I can totally see them having small very personal celebrations welcoming members of their family in. Since Thace and Ulaz adopted Keith they would celebrate that day instead of worrying about what day his was actually born. I think Alteans would have birthday parties like what humans throw but in slightly different ways because of their advances in technology and use of alchemy. I’d absolutely love to see either culture be touched on in the series because it would be very cool to see plus they all need to celebrate something that isn’t a war effort! Let these people have some cake and party games!

[fenfyre]

Commission for @inarelashionshipwithmyself

Lance had been cranky the last few weeks. On it’s own that wasn’t too unusual, Lance got cranky about the weirdest things. About running out of the good face masks and having to use different ones that Allura gave him. About the mice not being in the mood to play with him when he wanted. About getting too little sleep. About getting too much sleep. About an alien he’d never seen before and never would again rejecting his embarrassing advances. But usually his mood brightened again as quickly as it had soured and this lasting slump was starting to worry them. Keith wasn’t the first who’d noticed it, he hardly ever was when it came to these things. But after Hunk had addressed Lance’s recent attitude and he’d started to pay attention, the signs couldn’t be ignored anymore. Usually Lance chattered endlessly during their meals and meetings, now he hardly ever said a word, leaving the group as soon as he could where he’d despised being alone for long periods before. He seemed tense during training sessions, focused but way too stubborn to really make anything out of it, the slightest mistake throwing him off for the whole day. Keith had caught him more than once on the training deck, using it late into the night, expression hardened and determined. Whenever Hunk or Shiro or, lately, even Allura tried to talk to him he’d put on a cheery mask and pretend everything was fine before retreating to the shooting range to utterly destroy every target the ship gave him. Keith didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to reach Lance if not even their most empathetic team members could. He hadn’t felt this helpless since he heard the reports about the Kerberos mission failing. Until the afternoon he was paired up with Lance for hand to hand combat training. “That’s – okay, that’s enough”, Lance spat, squirming helplessly where Keith had him pinned, one hand tapping a fluttery rhythm against the floor. “I yield! Fuck, I yield!” Keith furrowed his brows, not used to the other boy giving in this easily, but he still stepped back, offering Lance a hand to help him get up. Lance scoffed and slapped the hand away, pushing himself upright. Frown deepening Keith watched him. “You okay?”, he asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. They’d been sparring for a while already. Where Lance had been almost tenacious in the beginning the fire in his eyes had subsided with every failed try to overpower Keith, every time it was him tapping the mat instead. Now he leveled Keith with an icy glare but instead of getting back into stance he turned away. “Leave me alone”, he mumbled before he left the training deck. Shiro perked up from where he was pinning Hunk against the floor, the yellow paladin about to twist free from the hold and counter it when he also noticed Lance’s retreat. Allura stepped forward, hands on her hips as she called after him: “Lance! Lance, we’re not done, where do you think you’re...” “It’s okay!”, Hunk called, having used the distraction to free himself and scramble to his feet. “It’s okay, I’ll go get him!” “No”, Keith said, body moving before he could even think about it. “I’ll go, I’ll talk to him...” He could feel their eyes on him, skeptical and unsure. Could hear the breath Hunk took, the careful “Um, Keith buddy...” But he just shook his head, going for the doors. “I got this.” As expected he found Lance in his room, already changed halfway out of his armor, the leg pieces still clinging to his body. “I told you to leave me alone”, Lance mumbled, no emotion to be heard in his voice, but Keith still stepped further into the room, arms crossed and face determined. “Yeah”, he answered, taking a look at the helmet and armor pieces Lance had put on the table for now. “But I wanna know what your deal is. You’ve been … weird.” Lance huffed a dry laugh and shook his head. “I’ve been…? No. Nothing. No deal, everything’s just … peachy.” “Bullshit.” Keith shook his head. “You can tell Hunk and Shiro that. Because they want to … respect your privacy or whatever. But something’s wrong. I wanna know what.” Lance groaned, throwing another armor piece onto the table. “What, so you can feel even better about yourself? Just go away!” Keith huffed and leaned a hip against the desk, trying to catch Lance’s gaze but the blue paladin already turned away from him again. “Listen”, he began, not quite sure where this would lead but just going with it for now. “Just because you can’t beat me at hand to hand doesn’t mean...” “Hand to hand? What can I beat you at then?”, Lance spat, whirling around to finally meet Keith’s gaze and there it was again, that fire he’d seen at the beginning of the training session. “You’re the amazing pilot, the martial arts expert, the brave one everybody loves and wants to be like! What else is there, what else … what else can I contribute?” Keith frowned. “You … you want to be like me?” “Oh piss off!”, Lance cursed, turning away again with an exasperated huff. Slowly but surely Keith began to suspect he really wasn’t the right one for this job, that he was only making worse. Maybe he should retreat and send one of the others instead, to settle what he’d done wrong. “I’m … I’m not good at this”, he began, already setting up to excuse himself when he had an idea. “At uh … talking to people. When they’re upset.” “Oh really...” Lance’s voice was dripping with sarcasm but Keith pressed on. “Or just in general. I just can’t seem to … connect with others. I’m not good at that. You are.” Even though Lance’s back was turned to him Keith could see how he froze, head tilted a little. Listening. He took his chance and went on. “Remember when we were on that desert planet and neither Pidge nor me could convince the aliens to let us evacuate them? But then you came in and only needed two minutes with their leader to make them trust us?” Lance shook his head. “You were still wearing your helmets, that was rude to them.” “Yeah but we didn’t know! We never would have figured that out if you hadn’t!” Keith took a careful step forward, around Lance, to look at him again. Some of the tension had seeped out of the other boy’s shoulders and his expression wasn’t quite as hardened as before. “Yeah”, Lance mumbled. “You guys would’ve been lost without me.” “We would have been!”, Keith insisted, still not sure what he was doing, only that it seemed to work at least a little. “And … and that’s not the only thing! You’re … you’re a great shot. An incredible shot! There’s a reason your bayard is a rifle and mine is for close combat. You’re our long range guy, yeah? You don’t have to beat me at hand to hand when you can beat me in a shooting competition any day. And your bond with your lion…” That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Lance rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yours is better. The things Red does for you, it’s crazy...” “Oh god!”, Keith groaned, throwing his arms out. “Stop comparing yourself to me! You’re your own person! And you bring your own skills to the team! We all need you and if you can’t see how much Blue adores you, you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought!” There was a pause, Lance squinting at him as if deciding to trust him or not. Keith stubbornly held the gaze. “You mean that, don’t you?”, Lance asked after a while, expression shifting from suspicious to thoughtful. He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, biting down on it. “In case you haven’t noticed”, Keith said, posture relaxing again. “I’m also a really bad liar.” Lance huffed another dry laugh at that but the creases around his eyes vanished as he relaxed. “You really are”, he smiled tentatively and Keith couldn’t even bring himself to be mad at him. Not when he just coaxed a smile out of Lance. The first one in weeks. Then Lance reached out to take his hand, squeezing it tightly, and Keith was way too surprised to react. The grip around his fingers was strong and warm, oddly pleasant. “Come with me”, Lance said, tugging him towards the door without a care in the world for his half dismantled armor. “What … where...” “Shooting range”, Lance answered, completely nonchalant with a little shrug. “Wanna beat your ass at something right now.” Keith snorted but let himself be dragged away. If that’s all it took to make Lance smile again he’d lose a hundred shooting competitions against him. [This fanfic was a commission! Check out how to commission me or consider buying me a Coffee if you liked this story!]