#lance is more assured and keith a little hesitant | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-lightning-strikes-again · 4 years ago

Note

Hey, I saw your post about a head canon world where Lotor becomes the black Paladin, and it made me wonder how you feel about a different head canon, one that I personally don’t really have but find very interesting- the head canon of Lotor as a Blade of Marmora agent. How do you think that would change the plot of Voltron, and what do you think would happen with that? Just curious.

P.S. When’s the next chapter of Adrenaline Rush coming out? I love it so much and I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens-

Hi, anon. Thanks for the note! I’ve definitely thought about Lotor as a Blade before, and a while back last year, I posted a little drabble called The Awakening introducing that plot bunny. You can read it here as well as access links for other BOM Lotor stories!

Outside of that drabble, I do think transitioning Lotor to be a Blade pretty heavily shifts VLD. There’s probably a million interesting ways a person could write such a VLD AU, but I guess my initial thoughts would be something like this (heads up, this is a monster outline for a whole series rewrite):

After the disastrous end of the mining colony, Zarkon doesn’t just exile Lotor. He imprisons Lotor with the idea that Lotor either submit to “remedial training” or death.

When Lotor chooses death over kneeling before his father again, the Blades are convinced that Lotor is in fact truly different from Zarkon. Kolivan moves in to save him, offering him a secondary life in the shadows as an operative.

Lotor rises to the rank of Lieutenant within the BOM and helps establish a surviving Altean colony. In doing so, he discovers the legends of Oriande. He spends his time convincing the Blades that there is deeper knowledge of the universe they could use to defeat Zarkon and his witch.

The Blades share that they are aware at least Blue Lion survived the destruction of Altea, and they suspect that more Lions still exist. Kolivan orders Lotor to stand down from pursuing Oriande in favor of uncovering the location of the remaining lions.

Lotor ends up working with Krolia to better understand how she came to find the Blue Lion on Earth. He grows to see her as something of a mother figure or role model and is aware that she had to leave behind a mixed-race son of her own to ensure the war would never reach Keith.

Lotor warns that the pull to know one’s own heritage is significant, and that her half-human son will likely go to dangerous lengths to know the truth, especially if his more Galran attributes arise.

Krolia assures that her son’s father would keep the truth a secret and that Keith had no known signs of Galran blood.

Krolia missed that her son could sense things a normal human couldn’t.

All of that would be background information to be revealed in time.

VLD s1 would still pick up with Keith sensing the energy of the Blue Lion.

Lotor has by this time identified the location of the Red Lion, also following legends of a Lion Goddess upon Arus to suspect that perhaps more may exist on that planet. But Sendak has also picked up coordinates for the Red Lion.

Kolivan orders Lotor to stay hidden and send out squadrons to extract Red Lion, only for the extraction to fail and for the Red Lion to fall officially into Sendak’s hands.

At this time, Shiro crash-lands back on Earth. Sendak’s squadrons were also trailing his escape. The witch Haggar turns her eye to Earth and senses ancient power—the Blue Lion.

Kolivan is at a crossroads to determine next best steps. Lotor convinces him that it’s better to let Red Lion go temporarily than to lose even more to Sendak. Lotor argues that an elite squadron be sent to Earth to extract Blue Lion, and that he receive approval to pursue his lead for a possible lion on Arus.

Kolivan approves Lotor’s plan and realigns assets to Earth and to Lotor’s extraction team. Some Blades on Lotor’s extraction team are in fact Alteans and other survivors of other planets they have rescued over the years. Backup teams suit up for battle.

Krolia volunteers to lead the Earth squadron. She fears that her son and his people may be in danger.

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance follow Keith and Shiro to the Blue Lion. But at this time, the Galra have already discovered the Blue Lion. Krolia is desperately attempting to fend them off, but the Galra had taken out several of her squadron members, and she herself is injured.

The Galaxy Garrison recognizes that alien squadrons have landed on Earth, endangering several cities with their warfare. In fear that Earth is under invasion, they activate various militarized assets to contain the problem and capture any aliens, dead or alive.

Keith, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all panic, realizing they’re about to be caught in an alien war, the firepower of their trigger-happy superiors, and the biggest national security breach in human history.

Krolia meanwhile, desperate, tosses some weapons over to the humans and begs for their help. She tells them that keeping this Blue Lion out of the hands of Emperor Zarkon is imperative to universal safety.

Keith and Shiro move in to assist Krolia. Pidge is trying to contact Galaxy Garrison about the situation, panicking in an attempt to explain that not everyone in the fire zone is an enemy. Hunk is hesitantly like, “Is this a real thing? Am I actually seeing aliens right now? Omg, is this actually a weapon? I don’t think I’m trained for this!” And Lance meanwhile is distracted. He’s sensing Blue Lion, and it’s responding to him, because out of everyone, he’s the only with the tenacity to actually get in this thing and fly it out of harm’s way.

Shiro realizes if they don’t get Krolia and her team out, the Garrison might not be so kind to her either. Once he sees Lance is able to operate controls, he agrees best thing to do is to get Blue Lion off Earth entirely.

The instant Krolia gets a good look at Keith, she realizes that he is her son and panics when she realizes she willingly begged for this boy to get involved in the battle.

Long story short, the future paladins + Krolia and the surviving Blades operatives escape through a wormhole using Blue Lion, which takes them back to the Castle of Lions on Arus. They narrowly escape both death at the hands of Galra and capture by Galaxy Garrison.

Galaxy Garrison is blaring alarms that Earth has experienced what appears to be its first true alien invasion. It recognizes that several cadets were caught up in the crossfire. They assume those cadets and Shiro to be Missing In Action and feared dead. Earth leaders convene to discuss defense strategies, in fear that this will not be the end.

Meanwhile, Lotor has already landed on Planet Arus with his team. But he soon realizes that this isn’t just the location of the Castle of Lions—it’s also housing the Black Lion’s energy force and the long-lost Princess Allura, the “Lion Goddess” that Arusians had seen through the glass of her pod.

Lotor makes the decision to wake up the princess and her Altean advisor, Coran. In fear that he would scare them as a Galran, he keeps his face mask on. He begs the princess to fly the ship to safety, as he does not know how to use a teladuv but understands what they are.

Princess Allura is very confused for a time, demanding to know who he is and what exactly is going on.

Sendak hears from Haggar that she senses new energy on Arus.

Lotor is distracted, attempting to reach Krolia and strategize a full, double-wormhole back to BOM headquarters with the Castle and Blue Lion in tow. The fight on Earth temporarily distracted Sendak, but with Blue Lion gone, Sendak is now racing his way back to the Castle’s position. Time is very limited.

Lotor stumbles a bit at the sight of Allura, who is very beautiful.

Coran is flailing about that Alfor’s plan to hide the lions is ruined—

At this time, the paladins + Krolia and team land on Arus via wormhole.

Keith is helping his mother to rush into the Castle of Lions for cover, as she is still injured.

Princess Allura is beginning to realize that Altea had been completely destroyed, and she is very distraught that Emperor Zarkon has become an unstoppable tyrant, killing and enslaving millions.

Lotor kneels down beside her and convinces her that if she can operate the castle for just a very short time, then they can save the entire galaxy and take back a Lion from Zarkon, together.

The princess senses his goodwill and agrees, pulling herself together. She admits she knows where the other lions are, as Alfor had tied her life-force to all of the Lions.

Allura is surprised to realize that Blue Lion is just outside.

Lotor’s squadron guides the paladins and company into the heart of the Castle. Princess Allura is surprised again to discover that a human named Lance had bonded with the Blue Lion so easily. She begins to search out the bond ties of the other lions and realizes they are attempting to sort through options for new paladins.

Allura helps Keith with placing Krolia in a healing pod. She senses the energy between them is quite similar, and that they are perhaps related.

The Blue Lion and other Lions communicate to Allura that they need a fresh team that can function as one immediately. A team with new perspectives, a desire to protect, and without the painful history or conflicts of interest that resulted in Alfor’s leniency with Zarkon. They hone in on the humans, and Allura sees their auras as clearly aligned with their respective lions.

She communicates to the larger team that they are in desperate need of paladins for the other lions—and that the lions have chosen these humans who were willing to defend Blue and their home world.

Lotor hesitates, having had plans for those lions that didn’t involve humans. But he acknowledges that alchemical magic is above his understanding. He glances over at Keith, catching that his scent is similar to Krolia’s—and that his prophecy of a family reunion has come true in the strangest of ways.

Princess Allura quickly sets to revealing the location of the other lions and activating wormholes for them to retrieve them.

Meanwhile, the Castle has experienced 10,000 years of rust and degradation of lesser systems. Coran and Lotor team up to fix the particle barrier, anticipating that they may need to provide backup for the new paladins. Coran and Lotor bicker over many things, and Coran warns that he can see Lotor making cow eyes at the princess even beneath his mask. Lotor vehemently denies it.

Krolia, stubbornly moving her way out of a healing pod, pleads with Allura that Keith not be chosen to pilot Red Lion—that he might find a way to go back and be safe with his father.

Allura apologizes that she is not in control of the lions and that they choose their paladins. “If Red Lion chose your son, it is because Keith can save the universe. That it’s his destiny to be a part of this fight with us.” But Allura is unsettled too, as she’s actively trying to test systems with Coran and this mysterious, masked Blade whose name she doesn’t even know yet, except that his title is Lieutenant. Meanwhile, she’s also trying to keep the wormholes open for the paladins.

The new paladins return in time for the arrival of Sendak, who still has Red Lion in his grasp.

The newly minted Team Voltron make a stand with the lions they have available to reclaim Red Lion and activate Black Lion.

The BOM forces assist in the overtake and attempt to suppress the battle from affecting locals on the planet of Arus.

Lotor realizes that Keith is in significant trouble, as Sendak is moving in protect Red Lion himself. Lotor runs to activate his own ship as backup, knowing Sendak’s fighting weaknesses.

The battle ends up with Keith struggling to connect with Red Lion while Lotor fights off Sendak.

Sendak manages to knock Lotor’s face mask loose and startles in surprise to see Zarkon’s supposedly dead son.

Lotor uses the moment of surprise to critically injure Sendak, escaping up to the Red Lion that Keith has taken command of.

All lions and teams retreat back to the Castle of Lions, which wormholes out before Sendak’s forces can catch them.

Sendak haltingly conveys to Emperor Zarkon that his son yet lives, fighting in the armor of an unknown rebel group.

Zarkon whips into a rage that his darkest shame is still alive and fighting against him.

The witch, Haggar, promises to end Lotor’s life once and for all, and to reclaim the lions for Zarkon’s glory.

Team Voltron meanwhile celebrates their first win in a panic-relief that they were able to form Voltron.

Various Blade operatives take off their masks. Some are revealed to be Alteans, including a grown Bandor and Romelle who were rescued long ago and now fight as part of Lotor’s squadron. Princess Allura and Coran are comforted greatly to know that many Alteans yet live, and that there is a colony where juniberries grow too.

Princess Allura still wants to know who the mysterious Lieutenant is who woke her up and managed to fight off Sendak.

Bandor, a big Lotor fan, nearly breaks the truth that “Lieutenant Lotor is—” and Romelle nudges him to be quiet, interjecting that their lieutenant is a very private person and that no one knows much about him.

Meanwhile, Kolivan is incredibly unhappy that Lotor has revealed himself on an active battle field.

Lotor argues that he did it to protect Krolia’s son, who was chosen to be the paladin of Red Lion—and isn’t that the more important objective?

Kolivan reassigns Krolia immediately to ensure that her ties to Keith do not interfere with Keith’s new mission. Keith still doesn’t know Krolia is his mother.

Kolivan then grounds Lotor from engaging in an active battle again, and admits that it is best if Lotor remain with Team Voltron in his own stylized armor.

Lotor asks if this is a demotion for insubordination.

Kolivan hesitates and says it’s possibly a promotion, if he can help to keep these human children alive long enough to save the universe. If all goes well, then the Blades will back Lotor’s bid at the resulting Kral Zera after Zarkon’s defeat.

Lotor hesitates, then adds, “And my secondary mission, to search for Oriande?”

“…Approved.”

Lotor then asks if it’s in fact cruel to hide from Keith that Krolia is his mother, but Kolivan convinces him that sometimes, the consequences of knowing outweigh the consequences of ignorance.

Kolivan knows that Haggar is Lotor’s true mother, but corrupted.

He fears what Lotor might do with that information.

Lotor, meanwhile, designs new armor for himself that is separate from that of the Blades.

He appears to Princess Allura, offering to help train the new paladins in the art of war if she can assist them with the spiritual aspects of connecting with Voltron.

Princess Allura accepts, but corrects him to say that she knows quite a bit about the art of war, thank you very much.

He searches her curiously and asks to see what she can do—as it is imperative she remain battle-ready herself.

The princess very casually grabs for his own sword and holds it to his throat, in a challenge for a duel.

Lotor’s lips split wide in a smile of delight. He likes this princess and her spirit.

He discovers that the princess really can hold her own, and it’s at that point he realizes he will struggle to remain objective about her in his missions.

Allura is not entirely unaffected either, fighting to maintain a level of professionalism around him.

At some point, Lotor’s cat Kova sneaks in from Lotor’s ship to the Castle of Lions. Kova is a lazy, happy cat who likes to hold a mouse in his mouth but doesn’t actually try to eat it. Princess Allura’s mice get used to be carried around in this way. Chulatt often rides atop Kova’s head.

Kova is something of a therapy cat for the whole team. He likes lots of scritches and the way Pidge rubs his belly. He often steals Hunk’s burritos and sleeps on Allura’s comfy pillow when she is busy.

Dayak, Lotor’s old governess, hears through the grapevine of Galra High Command that Lotor is in fact still alive. Kolivan and other Blade operatives track her, debating if she could possibly be turned to their side. They believe she can be a very valuable asset for future missions.

Meanwhile, it’s been a long time since Lotor had to train children.

The Castle of Lions still ends up with everyone in a food goo fight at least twice.

Shiro is suffering significant PTSD, and the reality is that this is something Lotor fights as well from his time under his father’s command. He tries to help when he can and forms a deep bond with Shiro too.

Lotor mother-hens the paladins because he made a promise to Krolia that he would keep her child safe, but soon, they all worm their way into his heart. He feels very protective of them, and of the princess, who has not yet had the opportunity even to see the colony of her people, safely tucked away in the Quantum Abyss.

Lotor activates Romelle and Bandor for their assistance in tracking down leads on the existence of Oriande or other helpful relics worth having or keeping out of the witch’s hands. Allura argues that Oriande is just a fairy tale, and Lotor argues in return that Alfor simply had to have advanced knowledge to build Voltron as he did. He begs Allura to at least be open to the possibility that more exists about Altean heritage than she ever thought possible.

Allura pauses, then quietly confesses that she is quite sure she’ll never be the alchemist her father was. That he had a gift no one else had ever seen.

Lotor grows impassioned to say that neither of them have to be limited by what their fathers did or accomplished. That they can be so much more, something different—he can feel it. He gets a little too close in saying this. Coran jumps in, noticing that Lotor’s usual strong command of Altean etiquette slips when around Allura.

In thanks for listening, Allura leaves a little juniberry flower for Lotor.

He spins it in his fingers, face in a flush over what it could mean. But he tries to stifle his emotions, knowing that the Princess of Altea would not accept an exiled son of Zarkon in such a way.

Occasionally, Lotor feels like Black Lion is watching him. He can’t tell if it’s because he’s paranoid, or if it’s because Black Lion actually knows his true parentage. He struggles to be in the same space as it, often unsettled.

Princess Allura and Shiro both notice this.

Meanwhile, Haggar uses a significant barrage of robeasts to distract Voltron while she completes building the Komar and perfecting other means of quintessence manipulation.

Haggar convinces Zarkon that Lotor is better to them alive than dead, and that if they could simply capture him again for a short time, she could turn him into Zarkon’s most loyal soldier, and undo Voltron’s advantages from the inside out.

Zarkon hesitantly approves. He demands that Lotor still be killed immediately upon fulfilling such a role, as Lotor would no doubt attempt to dethrone him.

Meanwhile, Princess Allura often catches Lotor reading up voraciously in the library of the Castle of Lions while the paladins complete their assigned training. At first, she thinks this activity has to do with Lotor’s fixation on the legend of Oriande. But then she catches him reading a book about Altean cuisines and asking for Hunk’s help in reproducing them—and she starts to suspect that Lotor’s not entirely Galran.

Occasionally, Lotor assists in BOM side-work, whether it’s breaking from the paladins to assist on an Oriande lead or helping Kolivan to unravel Galran records and codes.

Lotor has incredibly strong opinions about modulation.

Lotor is also very good at acting as a representative while Earth flails over getting in contact with its lost cadets and aliens.

He remains in communication with Krolia often, reporting on Keith’s progress. But Keith is starting to ask questions as well, about how the dagger he found in his father’s stuff one day has the same exact symbol as that of the Blades.

Krolia helps to continue funnel lost people of mixed heritage toward the Blades. As Team Voltron grows more confident in their abilities, Lotor is called away to help train new recruits named Acxa, Zethrid, Narti, and Ezor.

Keith joins along briefly because he wants to learn more about the Blades themselves and why his father would have a Blade dagger.

Lotor discusses Keith’s application for the Blades with Shiro, who tentatively agrees that training with the Blades could be a good way to start ramping Keith up with leadership skills and advanced tactical knowledge. Lotor agrees that the boy is more capable than what his mother would allow him to be.

Shiro was trained to always have a line of command in place in case someone falls. He knows he could very well fall, and Keith as his right-hand is the most worthy in the group to take on the mantle of Black Lion in that case.

Lotor and the Blades agree to train Keith as a Blade, in preparation for a future where Shiro might not be able to fulfill his duties.

Keith sees this as a serious honor and doesn’t want to screw it up.

Meanwhile, Princess Allura discovers a journal from her father, with one of the final notes mentioning that Zarkon had declared he was to have a son soon, and that his chosen name would be Lotor—his day of birth to be on the fourth quintant of the 11th phoebe.

Allura shakily realizes that Lotor’s eyes are Zarkon’s eyes even if they are blue. She keeps her discovery to herself, in surprise that Lotor had so firmly denied his father, and out of respect that he has not willingly shared this history.

Meanwhile, Lotor keeps eyeing the Black Lion, then Shiro, wondering exactly why Shiro is so insistent about a replacement.

Shiro hesitantly admits that Black Lion has started sending him visions—that something is wrong on the astral plane, and that it will likely take everything Shiro has to burn it out.

Lotor, fearful, goes to Allura and demands to understand more about the Black Lion, admitting that he’s felt watched by it.

Allura hesitates to admit the old history that Black Lion was once piloted by Zarkon, but that it should not be affecting Shiro’s connection with the lion…unless Zarkon were still somehow connected.

Lotor recalls that Shiro was missing his bayard—that this could be significant if it were still in Zarkon’s hands.

Cue a wild crash of shenanigans involving Haggar crashing in with Komar to drain Voltron while Zarkon attacks the Black Lion to take it over, while various forces of Sendak hone in on Lotor as an asset to capture for Haggar’s experimentation.

In the insanity, Lotor is captured.

Princess Allura, fearful that her team is breaking apart, unleashes a level of alchemical power that digs deep into her connection with Voltron and far outpaces any retaliation Haggar was expecting.

The Komar powers down, and Zarkon loses his connection to Black Lion, with Shiro overpowering him.

Haggar digs deep into Lotor’s mind, attempting to plant a dark entity within him. She extracts memories of his attempts to find Oriande.

Lotor might not have magical abilities, but his cheeks begin to glow with his Altean marks as he concentrates deeply on Blade and Altean practices for preserving the mind. But Haggar is relentless, and evermore curious about his marks.

He realizes he might have to die to protect Oriande and Team Voltron, in the way some Blades have gone before to protect the whole.

His fears do not pan out, as Team Voltron and Allura rescue Lotor from imprisonment, with help from the Blades. Allura is carrying Lotor out as the paladins provide cover. Zarkon is roaring that he will ensure his son dies the worst death possible for his treason.

Lotor is genuinely shaken for the first time since the Blades recovered him from Zarkon all those years ago. His secret is out for the whole of Team Voltron. Allura tries to comfort him that it’s alright, and that they would never leave him behind.

He looks up, and Allura confirms that she knows and accepted that he’s a son of Zarkon a long time ago, and that if he ever tries to kill himself again, she’ll kill him herself. She embraces him.

He as an emotional moment because she is the first outside the Blades to accept him upon discovering his parentage.

Meanwhile, Shiro regains the black bayard in a sneaky trick beneath Zarkon’s nose, cutting off any of Zarkon’s remaining connection to Black Lion. But the team discovers in their retreat that Haggar has all the pure quintessence it’d harvested from Voltron—and that she hasn’t used it yet. Pidge also had hacked into the mainframe to discover that the Galra had located a transreallity comet.

During the breach into Zarkon’s flagship, Bandor and Romelle stole what they could of Haggar’s things, to keep power out of her hands. They grabbed a strange stone as part of their loot.

Cue another stream of shenanigans where Team Voltron attempts to keep the comet out of Galran hands unsuccessfully. But in the midst of that defeat, Allura and Lotor discover that the item found by Bandor and Romelle provides a map directly to Oriande.

Plot twist that Haggar had still managed to possess at least Kova and use his eyes to access insight into Team Voltron’s movements. She sees Oriande’s location and leaves for it immediately.

It’s Narti who senses something is deeply wrong with Kova and tries to alert the team.

They realize too late that Haggar has probably already reached Oriande.

They desperately wormhole to reach it, while keep Kova locked up, which is a painful thing for Lotor but necessary. Allura promises that she’ll help find a way to purge Kova of Haggar’s influence.

Lotor’s Altean marks light up just as Allura’s do as they reach Oriande.

Upon arriving at Oriande, the landscape has been corrupted entirely by Haggar. Its defense systems had degenerated over the years since no one had visited in over 10,000 years to bond with the larger life force keeping it intact. Because Haggar infused it with her own life force, it took on her personality and interests.

The White Lion is glitchy, sending both Lotor and Allura in circles around the island.

Allura and Lotor both see unnatural visions and experience harrowing dangers in an attempt to reach the summit with the temple.

Allura isn’t sure that she can gain anything from Oriande if it is so truly corrupt by Haggar. Lotor tells her that he trusts her ability to see through all things, and to discover something that could end the witch’s reign.

Oriande is haunted by phantom beasts.

Lotor chooses to remain behind to fight off those beasts while Allura climbs into the decayed temple and completes the mission. The glitchy white lion is watching him and struggles in some way to assist Lotor before its power wanes. Lotor mourns its loss as a valuable fighting partner, even if it glitched at odd times.

Allura discovers the art of healing and of infusing objects with power, but she also discovers that at the heart of Oriande, Haggar had left an imprint of some of her own self behind.

Allura realizes with a startle that she sees some of Honerva of Altea’s own memories mixed in with Haggar’s imprint. She realizes quickly that Honerva was Lotor’s true mother, 10,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, Krolia has appeared alongside various other squadrons of the Blades, in an attempt to help Voltron hold off increasing numbers of Galran forces from attempting to enter the white hole entrance of Oriande, which has gone dark.

Krolia sees Red Lion take a critical hit. She breaks rank to place herself directly in front of Keith, to protect him while he recalibrates.

In doing so, she reveals that she is so proud of what he’s capable of doing—but that he still needs to learn to watch his six.

Keith is surprised for a few ticks, but then moves to help protect Krolia too, saying that he has a lot of questions when this battle is over, like why she mothers over him so much.

Krolia cannot believe her son is actually this oblivious since she’s been trying to send him messages that she is his mother, but she agrees to talk.

Haggar has at this time returned to Zarkon’s flagship, infusing it with alchemy and the pure quintessence, coaxing the transreality comet to do her bidding to melt into molten ore and cover the flagship. This converts it to a massive transreality mecha, with Zarkon at the helm.

Voltron is at a disadvantage against the much larger, much stronger mecha.

Allura, in a last-ditch desperation, drops her hand to Oriande and activates its stone, begging Oriande to respond to her need for a second defender. The temples begin to adjust. She realizes that because Lotor had subconsciously infused part of himself in Oriande too, the resulting mecha is actually of his own design—Sincline.

The interface is slightly glitchy from Haggar, and Lotor affectionately calls it the White Lion, sensing that his friend is still somewhere in the stone. And even deeper, he senses the memories of all the Alteans who’d infused their lives into stone—resulting in him feeling a few uncorrupted memories from Honerva, before she became Haggar.

He isn’t quite sure what to do with that, but shoves the emotions down for now.

Allura and Lotor pilot the mecha out of Oriande. Because the stones are connected to the Life Givers and the Ones Who Came Before, it is interdimensional in a way the other mechas are not, even if it cannot take a heavy hit. Their addition levels the playing field

Zarkon accesses the quintessence field, discovering he can do so, and Voltron quickly follows behind.

Lotor and Allura follow to stabilize the rift before it can upset the space-time continuum, calling upon the Life Givers for help in holding the threads of the universe together.

Team Voltron manages to successfully beat back Zarkon within the quintessence field, with Allura and Lotor using Zarkon’s own energy against him in a moment of distraction.

The distraction happens because the rift creatures possessing him realize that they are back in their natural universe.

The rift creatures call in their buddies, who begin to cannibalize the great source of power in Zarkon’s mecha.

The paladins take the opportunity to fry Zarkon out of existence, taking a large chunk of rift creatures with him.

Meanwhile, Haggar is on a small ship trying to escape in the regular universe, slipping between Galran factions and Blade squadrons.

Team Voltron return and pick her up before she can run away.

The battle ceases without Zarkon to provide orders—Sendak orders a full retreat upon seeing Voltron return without Zarkon.

Post-battle, Allura performs something completely novel with quintessence. After being in the rift, she realizes she can see different motivations within quintessence. In doing so, she searches out Kova and purifies his mind of dark alchemy. Then she goes to the imprisoned Haggar and purifies out the rift creatures possessing her, who disappear on the material plane the instant they are outside a host body.

Honerva wakes up, fully confused and largely unaware of what she’s done or how much time has passed. She is very convinced that she should be pregnant with a son named Lotor, and that she needs quintessence to stabilize her pregnancy.

It takes Honerva quite some time to realize that it’s been 10,000 years, and a grown Blade named Lotor is in fact her true son.

Lotor is very hesitant with her but sees she was not in control as Haggar. He still can’t look at her. Honerva promises to find some way to make up for her past.

Allura gets to see the Altean colony, returning Honerva to it in hopes that maybe a larger group and some normality could help her recalibrate and reconnect somehow. Bandor oddly takes pity on her, his parents having died long ago. Lotor cautions to Romelle to keep an eye out on his mother, and Romelle promises she will do so.

Allura works with several others to heal and rebuild Oriande to its former glory, as a place of open learning for any who have a deep enough spiritual connection with reality to grasp its secrets. She realizes that most things in Oriande appear as gibberish otherwise to the unmagical.

The Blades and Team Voltron back Lotor for the Kral Zera, and Lotor becomes Emperor.

The human paladins get to go home and celebrate that everything is okay now. Their voices make the human governments stand down from actively firing on alien ships.

Lotor disbands his father’s enslaved planets from the empire, offering reparations and working with Kolivan, the Blades, and Team Voltron to provide assistance to those planets as they rebuild.

Some Galra remember Lotor mostly as a traitor to his father and a bad overseer of a mining colony. The Fires of Purification rise, in time with increasing concerns over how the Galra will sustain its reliance on quintessence without conquering and enslaving.

Princess Allura—now crowned Queen of the New Altean Colony—works on the strange, quite sentient Sincline mecha that she and Lotor had built. She removes any glitch left over from Haggar’s influence on Oriande and realizes that she has a mobile, self-protecting entity that is a direct connection to the Life Givers.

Allura makes a deal with the Life Givers through the Sincline mecha, that it will open the rift twice a movement for the leader of any planet, so that quintessence can be collected from the rift. In exchange, it would have the right to judge the heart of the leader and enact justice against any who abused such a position. And that its older sibling, Voltron, would continue to ensure that no one else abuse the power either in a way that would harm others.

The mecha agrees to the condition on the astral plane. Voltron softly chimes in, agreeing as well.

Lotor approaches as the first leader to test this new system. He tears up when he hears the voices of the Life Givers sing to him through Sincline and offer him a well of quintessence for his people. They ask that he one day return to Oriande so that they can embrace him.

The Galra grow to accept Lotor and his strange ways of doing things.

Lotor finds himself oddly in the same position that began his entire journey—leaning on Kolivan for guidance. But Kolivan is no longer his only ally in a sea of enemies. As a matter of fact, Lotor has deepened several bonds and made many friends.

Lotor goes to Allura and says they make a pretty good team, and that he’s feeling cute, how about they marry.

Allura says yes.

The paladins cry happily at their wedding, and for once in 10,000 years, the galaxy is united and at peace.

Dayak reappears in time for the wedding, and Kolivan reveals that she had been giving the Blades tips for how to operate in the background to get around Zarkon’s defenses, and that she had even been instrumental in Shiro retrieving the black bayard from Zarkon.

Dayak is emotional about seeing Lotor again after all this time.

She’s not the only one.

Kolivan’s eyes are twitching during the ceremony. He’s fond and protective of his operatives, but there is a lot of space dust in the air as he watches Lotor marry, remembering that fateful day he’d saved Lotor from imminent death.

Lotor one day tries to give his BOM dagger back to Kolivan, recognizing that he has not been in the field for a long time—and that managing a planet and helping with New Altea is quite a lot of work.

Kolivan gently presses the dagger hilt back into Lotor’s hand. “Once a Blade, always a Blade.”

Lotor tears up because Kolivan is probably the closest he has come to a true father figure.

Somewhere, Coran is still crying of space dust, and the paladins crash the scene to demand a beach party. Because once Team Voltron, always Team Voltron.

Krolia and Kolivan are watching over the group.

There are gratuitous laugh scenes with two mechas standing guard in the distance, gleaming in the sunlight.

The end!

(Ahhh yeah, so this was yet another unexpected and extensive rewrite of VLD, loll. I hope these long outlines don’t bother anyone asdljfsa. But I enjoyed the ask, thank you for the prompt! Also I’m still steadily trying to work on Adrenaline Rush in the background. For some reason, I’m just having some writer’s block with it. I hope to update it soon, though!)

74 notes · View notes

izlaria · 4 years ago

Text

Someone you like (part 5)

This is the fifth chapter of my “Someone you like” inspired fic. It’s also available on AO3 in case you prefer that platform.

This and the fourth chapter are also inspired by the “Distance” and “Talk to me” animatics by @suerakocy, so please check that out and give the artist some praise. They deserve it so much, because those pieces are beautiful.

Summary: It takes Lance years to come back to the Garrison but, when he does, his friends are there for him.

We finally get Lance pining hour!

Trigger warning: Talk of PTSD and mention of blood, but no description of violence. The story really just starts right in it.

24 and 22 years old

Lance woke up to a dark, quiet room and for a moment he couldn’t move. He could barely breathe. The air felt stuck in his throat, because as soon as he inhaled the sound of his haggard breathing would break the silence and alert whatever awaited in the shadows.

But there’s nothing there, Lance told himself.

He had dreamt of the war, again. In his nightmare, there was another explosion and Lance hadn’t been quick enough to shield whoever was with him in the room. The darkness that followed was oppressing, dense enough that he’d felt like it was water flooding his lungs.

And then the water had turned into blood.

He sat up in bed, trying to control his shaking. It had taken years and a lot of therapy, but Lance had managed not to fall into panic attacks every time such memories made their way into his dreams. Still, he was glad to have built his own house on the farm grounds. His parents deserved a good night’s rest, especially after what Lance had put them through during his time with Voltron.

He reached for his cellphone with unsteady fingers. After their last battle against the Galra, Lance had learned to leave it on during his sleep, just in case he woke up like this: with adrenaline running through his veins and the vague sensation that something was terribly wrong.

He hesitated over his contact list, before finally scrolling down and pressing call. It didn’t take long for the other person to answer.

“Is anyone hurt?” was Keith’s greeting.

“No.” Lance swallowed once, trying to erase the grit from his voice. “Nightmare.”

There was a second of silence and then the rustle of sheets. “Okay.” He heard Keith exhale harshly, but Lance knew it wasn’t in annoyance. The whole team had gone through this more times than they could count. “Okay.” Keith seemed a little calmer now. “Are you all right?”

“Not really,” Lance confessed. He leaned against the headboard and pulled his knees up. It was easier to concentrate on his breathing when he wasn’t lying down. “It was Sendak’s first attack, again.”

“You’ve been thinking about that one a lot lately.” Keith’s observation made Lance grind his teeth. It was true, but he didn’t need to say it.

“Could you call her?” Lance breathed out. His voice sounded pained and he winced, thankful that only Keith was privy to it.

“Lance, we can’t keep doing this.” His friend’s tone was weighted with his own share of hurt. “If you want to know how she is, then you need to call Pidge.”

“I do call Pidge. Just not…”

“Not when you are feeling vulnerable?” Keith sighed into the phone, sounding more tired than normal.

“You weren’t sleeping, were you?” Lance latched onto this realization. He felt stupid not to have recognized it earlier, with how quickly Keith had answered the call.

“Don’t change the subject.” The reply came harshly and it only served to confirm his suspicions.

“I’m not! We made a deal to call one another if the flashbacks started again.” He lit up the lamp on his nightstand and frowned at the pictures he kept on the opposing wall, as if it could make the real Keith feel his irritation. “Would you have talked to anyone if I hadn’t called?”

“My mom is here with me,” Keith admitted after a moment. “She and Kolivan have kept me company while Xitry is away.”

Lance let relief replace his anger. “Are both Xitry and Acxa on a mission?”

“Yeah… My leg still isn’t completely healed, so I couldn’t join them. Acxa will take another phoeb to come home, but Xitry should be back in a few days.” Keith paused and there was the sound of other muffled voices. “Mom says you should call Pidge.”

“You are a traitor and a hypocrite.” Lance scowled, despite how no one could see him.

Keith scoffed and Lance could feel the mockery in his expression even so many miles away. “I have called my partners every day they’ve been gone. Can you say the same?”

“Pidge is not my partner!” he protested, feeling heat rise up his neck.

“No, she’s just the first person you think about when waking up from a nightmare and then you call me, because if you called Hunk he would just spill it to her first chance he got.” Lance did not appreciate all the sarcasm Keith was giving him.

“I just want to be sure that she’s okay!” He frowned down at his knees, picking at a piece of lint that stuck to his pajama pants.

“Then ask her yourself!” Keith, too, was being too loud for the middle of the night. His vexation almost felt like a victory to Lance. “Pidge is smart, she can tell there’s something strange about my calls.”

“How are you a spy with this kind of acting skills?” Lance chastened.

“I’m no longer a spy, remember? I’m part of a humanitarian organization!” He heard Keith take a deep breath. “This would be much easier if you just told Pidge you’re in love with her.”

The words gave him pause. Lance didn’t yet know how to describe what he felt for Pidge. She was one of his best friends, the person who had stuck around the most after the team went their separate ways. Shiro had his own family to rebuild, and Keith and Hunk had a whole universe to help stabilize.

Pidge and Lance had found their own goals, but staying on Earth allowed them to check in on each other much more often.

“She doesn’t see me like that, Keith.” Lance hadn’t meant to sound so defeated, but it came out that way.

“Yeah, well, neither did Allura, but you wore her out.”

The reminder didn’t bring the same pain it would have a few years earlier.

Lance knew that he would always love Allura, but his feelings had settled into a more comfortable kind of affection. With the privilege of hindsight, Lance was able to see that their relationship didn’t have the same base as his friendship with the other paladins. Even if she had lived, Allura would have left to be queen, too invested in the rebuilding of Altean society.

And Lance would have stayed on Earth. That had never been in question. He had put his family through enough suffering while with Voltron.

He had seen the greatness in Allura when he was only eighteen, but that also meant he would have stepped aside if he thought their relationship was putting a strain in both of them. He didn’t regret the time they’d had together, but her continuous rejections had also taught Lance to value himself.

Keith’s voice snapped Lance out of his thoughts. “I didn’t mean to bring up Allura.”

“No, it’s fine.” Lance rubbed his eyes. “I just… I don’t want Pidge to think of Allura if I ever do ask her out.”

“I can’t promise you that.” He respected Keith’s honesty, even though it did nothing to calm his worries. “But she will never see you as a romantic prospect if you don’t make things clear to her. As far as Pidge knows, you’re still in mourning.”

Again, Keith was right. Lance had been ruminating this notion for quite some time. There were times when he still felt indebted to Allura, like he was the one responsible for maintaining her legacy, but the years had given him enough maturity to understand that was a burden Allura would wish on no one.

It was difficult to take the first steps towards a new future when he’d spent so long wallowing in the darkness of the war. In the middle of it all, Pidge had been a beacon of light, a safe port for him to rest his mind. It was no wonder that he had fallen for her.

“I’m thinking of going back to the Garrison.” He swallowed thickly, the fear of this confession rising up to knot at his throat.

The line went silent for a moment. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.” Lance chuckled. “I’ve been working with Shiro and Doctor Holt, because the quintessence Allura left in me allows me to interact with Altean technology a little better than most. And since I’ve put my pilot license to good use in my travels, Shiro said the officers are ready to reinstate me.”

“That’s amazing, Lance!” It was weird to hear Keith sound so enthusiastic.

“I think that’s why the memories are coming back again, actually.” His next exhale came out shaky and forced. “I keep thinking of the Garrison and I just – I’m afraid that I’ll get there and it will be too much.”

“The place has changed a lot since the war,” Keith assured him. “Even if something happened, though, Shiro and Pidge are there to help you through. This could be really good for you.”

Lance snickered at his directness. Keith didn’t hide his opinions, didn’t coddle him like so much of his family. “So you think it’s a good idea?”

“I think it’s the best idea you’ve ever had.” His friend’s voice was blunt, without the dramatics that Lance himself would have added to such a statement. “Which is not saying much,” Keith teased.

“Hardy har har.” But Lance felt a smile pull at his mouth. “Does that mean you will call Pidge for me?”

There was a groan from the other side of the line. “Lance, no. I’m putting my foot down.”

“What? Why?” he complained and, with his movement, one of the pillows slipped to the ground. Lance glared at it.

“Because I’m sick of watching two of my closest friends dance circles around each other.” Keith sounded increasingly exasperated. “Talk. To. Her. Pidge is a tough girl, but she has grown a lot. She won’t be mad at you for calling.”

“I know that!” Lance grumbled.

“Then do it!” Before he could disagree, Keith had already hung up the phone.

Lance stared at the screen in discontentment. The display told him it was just before 4 am in Varadero, meaning that it wasn’t even 2 am in Arizona. His talk with Keith had distracted him from the nightmare, but now that Lance was alone with his thoughts images of it had begun to flash in his mind.

Against the dimly lit wall of his bedroom, he could almost see the silhouette of Pidge’s younger self, her body contorted by the force of a blast Lance hadn’t been quick enough to protect her from.

His need to know Pidge was safe overrode his anxiety over disturbing her sleep.

The phone rang more times than it had with Keith, which was a bit nerve-wrecking, but also a relief. Lance hoped she was having a better rest than he was.

“Lance?” The breathiness of her voice made him swallow. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied, at a loss of what else to say.

“Nightmares?” From her low volume, Lance could tell that Pidge must have been at her parents’ house. He felt bad for disturbing them.

“You’re okay, right?” His words were jumbled together. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, but– You are safe, aren’t you?”

“I’m safe, Lance.” He closed his eyes, feeling the last of his distress leave him with the sound of her voice. “I’m glad you called, actually.”

He tilted his head back until it hit the headboard. “Were you dreaming of me, Pidgey-Pidge?”

“No,” she cut him off brusquely, “but I imagine you were dreaming of me.”

“Why would you think so?” He grimaced at how strangled his voice sounded.

“Because I know you have had Keith calling me for the past couple months.” Her no-nonsense attitude made Lance feel like a deer-in-headlights.

“I can’t believe he ratted me out!” Once again, Lance directed his glare at a photo of Keith on the wall. “I have some choice words for that half-alien tattletale!”

“Keep your words, he didn’t say anything.” Pidge heaved a sigh. “I just know you two. As soon as he mentioned the explosion Sendak caused, I knew he was acting on your behalf.”

Lance winced, but didn’t protest. He should have realized that Pidge couldn’t be tricked. Not only was she a certified genius, but her loyalty to her friends often translated into being more observant than one might like. She and Hunk had that in common: the uncanny ability to get involved in other people’s business.

“Keith dreams of Shiro or his father. When I do appear in his nightmares, it’s usually about not being able to grab me when we were in Honerva’s mindscape,” she went on. “That dude still harbors a displaced sense of responsibility towards us.” Her tone shifted into accusing. “Which we should not be exploiting.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to do that.” Lance slipped on the sheets until he was lying down again.

“What’s going on, Lance?” Pidge sounded concerned. “Why didn’t you just call me?”

There were many reasons, but none that he felt comfortable sharing. It had been a year since Lance had realized how much of an effect Pidge had on him, how happy he was to hear her voice, how warm his chest felt when she visited the farm. It wasn’t even a new development. He had loved her for as long as he could remember, so he couldn’t really define when it had gone from platonic to romantic.

Maybe the roots of it had always been there, hidden by the flashiness of other infatuations.

A part of him had resisted the urge to call Pidge because, despite how she probably knew him like the charted universe, he had hoped she would see strength in his recovery. Lance still wanted to be perceived as the hero who survived the war with a smile on his face and his psyche intact, no matter how far from the truth that might be.

“Shouldn’t it be easier?” he asked, so low that he hoped Pidge couldn’t hear him. “Shouldn’t I be over it?”

“Lance…” Even the way she sighed his name sent a shiver down his spine. “No. It shouldn’t be easy. We’ve talked about this.”

He had heard this from a number of therapists, as well as every other member of the team, but it was difficult to go against the ideals he’d created in his head.

“But you’re doing good,” Lance argued and his gaze fixed on the ceiling, without really seeing it.

“So are you, most of the time.” When Pidge said it like that, full of confidence, he could almost believe it. “When I feel like the memories are hurting me, I reach out. I come to see my parents, I stop by Shiro’s office.” She paused to take a breath. “I call you.”

Lance turned on his side, sticking the phone between his ear and the pillow. He badly wanted her to be there. They had slept side by side once, though he couldn’t remember the details of it. Even then, what had stuck out the most was the softness of her presence and the calm she provided.

He closed his eyes and focused on Pidge’s voice. “I really miss you.”

“I’m right here, Lance.” Like this, he could pretend she was in bed with him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I can’t believe you put a firewall to keep me out of your virtual diary, Pidge. It’s rude that you would think so low of me.”

Lance stopped short. It wasn’t the content of the conversation that surprised him, but the fact that it was Hunk’s voice, coming from the laboratories. His best friend had been on a diplomatic mission of two months and was supposed to contact Lance when he stopped on Arus to refuel his ship.

“I was clearly right, because you wouldn’t know of it unless you had tried to hack in.” And this was Pidge, sounding more incensed than he’d heard in quite some time. “I learned my lesson during our Garrison days, Hunk!”

“Shouldn’t you be buttering me up? You called me for help on this aircraft, young lady.” Lance almost snorted at this. He could already imagine the indignation on Pidge’s face.

“If I had known you’d be like this, I would have found a way to neutralize drag simply to negate your role here!” she spit back. From behind the glass walls, Lance observed the redness of her complexion and how her freckles disappeared into the color.

He expected Hunk to back down, but the man crossed his arms stubbornly and looked down his nose at Pidge. “You’re only saying that because I’m right.”

Lance knocked against a metallic frame on the door, which had been open.

“Team Punk is back at it?” He raised his hands in mock despair. “I knew I should have stayed home.”

“Lance!” Hunk rushed over to him, engulfing Lance in a hug. Over his shoulder, he saw Pidge hang back, but the anger had melted away from her expression. “Sorry I didn’t call you earlier, man. This little menace caught me on the way back from Firilar and she wanted me at the Garrison ASAP.”

“Yeah, I regret it now,” she retorted with a glare.

Hunk let Lance go in order to direct another exasperated look at Pidge.

“Hey there, Pidgeon.” Lance scratched the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. She didn’t move from her spot on the workbench and he approached almost without thinking. “Long time no see.”

As soon as he was within reach, Pidge pulsed on the balls of her feet and threw her arms around his neck. Lance’s arms were around her with no hesitance, holding her up against his chest.

“Hello,” she muttered into his shoulder. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the Cabul complex with Shiro and Curtis?”

Even as she talked, Pidge didn’t give up her grip on him. It made laughter bubble up Lance’s throat. He’d been all around the world, assisting the Garrison centers in completing Earth’s first fully functioning planetary defense system, so it had been months since he’d last seen Pidge in person.

“I flew over once the installation was done. They needed me to activate the shields with quintessence, but then Arizona called.” She slowly slid down back to her feet, putting some space between them. “Something about needing their star pilot to test a new jet.”

He watched as first confusion, then realization dawned on Pidge’s face. To the side, he could see that Hunk was also grinning.

“Are you back? Don’t you lie to me, McClain!” She pushed at his shoulders, but there was excitement in her eyes.

“I’m back. I got the go-ahead earlier today.” He felt awkward under the combined stares of his two best friends. “I do remember telling you I wasn’t ready to retire. Guess my vacation ran a bit long.”

“Oh, man, we’re back together! The last time it was just the three of us in the Garrison we were still cadets.” Hunk jumped in, waving his arms widely. “I still couldn’t go on a simulator without getting motion-sickness! Lance still thought Pidge was a guy!”

“Yeah, I’m not making that mistake again.” Lance gave Pidge a cheeky once-over, making her flush.

She had let her hair grow out again. It was tied back in a long braid, but some strands had already escaped and framed her face in a reddish halo. She looked pretty like this, but Lance thought she was always pretty.

It had taken her some time to find middle ground between the androgyny of her adolescence and the femininity of Katie Holt. Lance hadn’t always been the most tactful during this period, but Pidge had known he meant well and that he was supportive of however she felt like expressing herself. It was nice to see her feel good in her own skin.

Pidge socked him on the arm. “We’ve talked about this, loverboy. No flirting with me unless you want a new bruise.”

“But, Pidgeon,” he put a hand over his heart, “this is how I show my love.”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Hunk put a hand on their shoulders. “We don’t want to start a fight right next to the billion-dollar prototype.”

“Fine,” Lance drew out his vowels, making a show of it. “Honestly, though, you two look good.”

He wasn’t just saying this. Coming back to the Garrison allowed him to juxtapose the images of who Pidge and Hunk had been with their current selves.

Hunk hadn’t grown much taller and he had maintained the same robustness from their first meeting, but the anxiety that had followed him as a teenager now gave way to self-assuredness. He didn’t curl into himself anymore when going past other groups of students, nor did he cower in the face of Garrison officers.

They were all still young and maybe a little broken up after Voltron, but it had also taught them a lot about themselves and their worth. It was nice to see.

And then there was Pidge. With her long hair, her high-tech glasses, her unconventional wardrobe. She was nothing like what younger Lance had thought he wanted in a girl, but that didn’t stop her from occupying all of his thoughts.

“You do too!” Hunk exclaimed, clearly a little embarrassed. “I haven’t seen you this excited in years.”

“Yeah.” Lance chuckled, unable to stop himself. “It feels good to be back. We’ll see how things go with the other MFE pilots, but I’m not too worried.” He wiggled his brows at Hunk. “I’m pretty sure I can charm the pants out of them.”

“And if that fails, you can always count on Shiro and I to intimidate people,” Pidge cut in, a teasing smile on her face, but there was a deeper current of truth to her words. They had his back and Lance was grateful for it.

“I’m pretty intimidating myself.” Lance smirked. “We just need Keith and then the gang will be completed: the Garrison bad boys, who stole a prisoner and disappeared into the night!” He made a motion in the air, like a ship cutting through the sky.

“I take it back, I don’t want to be associated with you.” Pidge’s dry comment earned a laugh from Hunk and a pout from Lance.

“Oh, come on, Pidge!” He draped an arm around the girl to pull her closer, but Pidge didn’t react as he’d hoped. She leveled him with unimpressed eyes, making no move to acknowledge their proximity. Lance found himself as the one feeling flustered and hurried to mask his discomfort. “You could at least say you’re happy to have me around.”

“Of course I’m happy, Lance,” she conceded with little fanfare. “That doesn’t mean I feel like contributing to enlarging your already massive ego.”

Pidge was looking at him over the top of her glasses. Uncovered from the greenish tint of the lenses, the honey brown of her eyes appeared strangely expressive. There was an emotion in them that he had seen a lot through the years, when they were on video calls at night, by themselves, but that he hadn’t had the opportunity to see in person yet.

Lance felt his own expression soften as he stared down at Pidge.

Before he could figure out what to say, Hunk, who had been preoccupied with a series of beeps from his communicator, had turned towards them and snapped his fingers. “We have so much to show you, now that you have the clearance!” His smile was even more contagious in person than through a screen. “I don’t know how much Veronica has told you–”

“Told me?” Lance interrupted with a laugh, trying to seem as innocent as possible. “As if my sister would spill transnational secrets.”

Hunk’s mouth twisted disbelievingly. Pidge, too, shook her head.

“I know how it is to have a family in the Garrison, Lance,” she admonished, slipping out of his hold. “Everything is confidential until something slips out in the middle of Sunday lunch.”

“Well…” Lance squinted at the LED lights on the ceiling. “If something did slip out, like the existence of a certain wormhole-jumping craft that is supposed to make teludavs obsolete, then you couldn’t really blame Ronnie.”

“Especially since the only one with a high enough rank to know about that is Shiro.” Pidge groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “A lifetime in the military and he’s still the most trusting person I’ve ever met.”

“It’s not like he’s broadcasting it to the rest of the coalition,” Hunk pointed out good-naturedly. “It’s just Lance.”

Pidge didn’t look appeased. “I’ve seen Lance reveal all our identities because he wanted to impress an alien groupie.”

Lance grimaced at the memory. It had been a little after the war, when the Garrison was still arranging diplomatic meetings with the liberated planets. As a result of his words, he and the other paladins had been mobbed and Coran had to create a diversion to get them back in their ships.

“That was a long time ago,” Lance whined. “Besides, the so-called groupie was a child and you know I can’t resist children!”

Pidge fixed her glasses, her expression a mixture of aggravation and amusement. “If you ever have kids, you’re gonna spoil them rotten.”

Lance had to bite back his immediate response. His mind had come up with an image of what his and Pidge’s children might look like – brown haired and brown skinned and too smart for their own good – and the idea warmed him to the core. He had almost said that his kids would be fine, because of their mother’s genius.

His thoughts must have shown somehow because Lance caught Hunk looking at him with a smile that promised no-good.

Lance cleared his throat. “What were you two fighting about, anyway?”

“Hunk has been trying to access my daily annotations,” Pidge explained, moving to one of the nearby computer monitors.

Over her head, he and Hunk continued to share looks and mouthed words. He couldn’t really tell what his friend was trying to say, but Hunk pointed at Pidge, then at the computer, making exaggerated facial expressions that would have been comedic in any other circumstance.

At their apparent silence, Pidge’s fingers paused over the keyboard and she whipped around to look at them in suspicion.

“She means her diary,” Hunk interjected quickly, only to receive the brunt of her glare. “How am I supposed to know what’s going on over here if you won’t let me read it? I spend half my time out in space!”

“Can’t you just believe the things I tell you? Like, I don’t know,” this Pidge grumbled with a sour look on her face, “a normal person?”

Hunk snorted. “You want to talk to me about being normal?” He glanced at Lance, as if to ask if he had actually heard her correctly. “Pidge, we had to build you a dorm in the Mecatronics Advancement building, because you kept falling asleep in the lab.” Hunk turned back to Lance and pointed a thumb at Pidge. “She would be passed out with the new Rover just constantly knocking against her back.”

“So what?” She crossed her arms and jutted out her chin in defiance. “I like what I do. At least I’m not a busybody!”

Lance could feel a new fight brewing. Or maybe it was fairer to say that it was an old fight, one that every paladin had already had with Pidge.

“Katie.” His use of her given name made Pidge’s attention snap to Lance. “We’ve talked about this. Your therapist has talked about this.” He put a hand on her shoulder, then slid it down until their fingers intertwined. “I know you like feeling useful, but we’re not at war anymore. You can rest.”

“Exactly.” Hunk sighed, thankfully not making a big deal of Lance’s touches. He reached out to ruffle her hair. “We worry, girl.”

Pidge let go of Lance to bat Hunk’s hand away from her braid. The smile she gave them was tight-lipped but fond. “Then just say that, you idiot.”

“Why should I?” Hunk shrugged, sending her a sly look. “You only seem to believe it when it comes from Lance.”

He was saved from Pidge’s cold fury by his communicator going off. It sounded more like an alert than the normal message, filling the lab with high-pitched beeps that could have awoken even Pidge in her days of all-nighters working on the lions.

“Shoot!” Hunk frowned at the device. “I have a meeting on the other side of the complex!” He looked around with wide eyes.

Pidge picked up a folder that rested on her workbench and thrust it into Hunk’s chest.

“I hope you’re late,” she said in a deadpan, making both Lance and Hunk laugh.

“I’ll see you in the taxiway later, right?” Hunk asked, already half-out of the door.

Lance gave his friend a thumbs-up. “And we can go into town after the demonstration!”

When he turned to face Pidge, she was back at the computer, shaking her head at the screen with a smile still on her lips. He leaned against the table and simply stared at her as she worked, knowing full-well that part of her attention was still on him.

“What?” she caved after a few seconds. Lance batted his lashes at her. “Ugh, stop! If you want me to go into town, then I have to finish this calculation.”

“Eight years since we were cadets here and you’re still a stick-in-the-mud.” He watched her roll her eyes. “Please, you gotta come! I don’t know any of the cool spots anymore and Hunk has been off-planet!”

“As if that could stop Hunk from knowing the good restaurants,” Pidge muttered under her breath, frowning at something on the computer. She clicked one final key, before fixing her gaze on Lance. “Also, it’s actually been twelve years since we were cadets. Time might not have gone by for us, but things here certainly did change.”

“Quiznack, don’t even remind me of that!” Lance ran a hand across his face. “Rachel has finally shut up about how we’re the same age now.”

“Did she?” Pidge raised a brow at him, leaning her hip against the workbench in much the same way as Lance had. “Cause she still called me hermanita the last time I visited the farm.”

“Yeah, you ain’t getting rid of that nickname.” He chuckled. “It’s better than mami and pop-pop calling you Palomita, though.”

Machines whirred around them, a distant sort of sound that barely registered in Lance’s mind. His thoughts were stuck in the contentment displayed across Pidge’s features, like talking about their adventures on the farm filled her with as much warmth as it did him.

And maybe it did. The paladins and their families had grown closer during the years following the end of Voltron. They had all needed support in ways that only those who had also gone through the same grief could understand. His mother had talked to Colleen and Krolia multiple times, looking for advice on how to handle his PTSD, and Lance himself had reached out to Matt when he didn’t feel like speaking to his siblings or to the team.

It was odd to look back and remember how lonely he would feel back in Castle of Lions, when there were so many people now who he loved and who had gone to the ends of the universe for him.

“What are you thinking about?” Pidge tilted her head to the side, her eyes glinting with curiosity behind those glasses.

“About the team,” he answered, because it was partially true. “About how long we’ve known each other.”

Pidge nodded, but her gaze had shifted to the ground. Hesitance furrowed the line of her brow.

“Does being here–” She paused, then seemed to gather her courage. “Does being here remind you of Allura?”

The question caught him a little off guard. It was inevitable to think of Allura when looking back at their time as a team, but Lance hadn’t expected Pidge to focus on that. Keith’s words from a few months ago echoed in his mind, that Pidge couldn’t know he had finished mourning for Allura if Lance never told her.

“A little, I guess, but it’s not bad.” He made a humming noise, considering what to say. “It feels strange to realize we’ve been without her for longer than we ever knew her.”

She pushed away from the table, just a little, so that they were facing each other. “Time doesn’t have to limit how significant a person is to us.”

“I know, but no matter how important Allura was to me, I know now that she wasn’t the love of my life.” Lance let Pidge catch his gaze, willing her to recognize that he wasn’t lying. “Because my life goes on.”

“Which is why you’re here?” There was doubt in her tone, as well as something that Lance wished he could call hopefulness.

“Which is why I’m here,” he repeated with more certainty.

#plance #pidgance #lidge #flirtyrobot #cyance #katie holt #pidge gunderson #lance mcclain #vld lance #voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #vld fanfiction #vld syl verse

26 notes · View notes

thespacenico · 4 years ago

Text

day 3: celebrity

in which allura is a famous actress/singer, and keith and lance are starstruck fans 🤩

“Keith.”

Keith harrumphs as Lance nudges his shoulder, eyes still roaming across the menu of the small but charming coffee shop that they stepped into a few moments ago. Lance had been complaining all morning about how tired he was, so he’s not sure what could possibly be more important than coffee at this moment in time. “Hm.”

Lance shakes Keith’s shoulder again, a little more insistently this time. “Keith.”

“Yeah.”

“Keith.”

“What?” Keith says this through squished cheeks, because Lance has planted his hands on either side of his face and turned his head to face the glass windows that look out toward the street.

It takes a moment for him to figure out exactly what he’s supposed to be looking at. There’s not much to see outside, as it’s still relatively early on a Sunday morning and most people are either still fast asleep or lounging around at home. The sidewalks aren’t particularly crowded, but maybe that’s why Keith’s gaze is immediately drawn to the person standing on the other side of the street, looking at their phone as they wait for the traffic light to change. They’re wearing a baseball cap, but their hair is pulled through the back in a tight bun, probably in an attempt to remain inconspicuous. And yet, to someone like Keith or Lance, their identity is unmistakable.

Keith gasps audibly. “Wait. Is that—”

“Allura Altea,” Lance finishes for him, sounding very much like he’s trying not to scream. “Alive and real and in the flesh. Keith, she’s right there.”

The light turns red and Allura looks up as the second light at the crosswalk flashes, indicating that it’s safe to cross the street. Keith can’t help but gawk a little as she grows closer, pocketing her phone and tugging the strap of her bag further over her shoulder.

“We have to go out there and meet her.”

Keith makes a rather embarrassing sound like a squawk, whipping his head toward Lance. “What?”

“Dude, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!” Lance whisper-shouts, shaking both of Keith’s shoulders. “There’s no way we’re passing this up.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Keith whisper-shouts back. The customer in line ahead of them glances back with a raised eyebrow, but he ignores them. “Don’t you see how she’s dressed? She clearly doesn’t want to be bothered right now. We only just happened to recognize her.”

“You know how long I’ve waited to get her autograph!”

“Yeah, I do, which is how I know you can wait a little longer!”

“You say that like you don’t want her autograph just as badly as I do.”

“Well, duh, but I don’t wanna be a creep about it!”

“Keith,” Lance pleads, clasping his hands together. “Babe. This is Allura Altea we’re talking about. We might never get the chance to see her out in the real world like this again and—wait, where’d she go?”

The two of them look back outside, searching wildly for any sign of Allura, but the streets and sidewalks are empty. Keith’s shoulders sink with a sigh of disappointment while Lance makes a noise of distress. If they weren’t in public, Lance would probably be on his knees, wailing like the protagonist of an action movie who just found out the villain is their father. But then the bell attached to the front door of the shop rings, and the two boys freeze in unison, heads turning slowly to look behind them.

Allura Altea herself has entered the shop and is approaching the line, eyes already skimming across the menu. As in, the very same coffee shop that Lance and Keith are currently standing in. At the very back of the line. Which means that Allura will be standing directly behind them. They instantly whip back around, stiff as boards.

Lance is practically wheezing. “Oh. My. God.”

“Shut up,” Keith hisses, more to himself than to Lance. “Oh my god, be cool.”

“Keith. Be cool.”

“I just said that!”

“You did? Sorry, I’m panicking.”

“That is the complete opposite of what you should be doing.”

“You’re panicking too!”

Keith elbows Lance in the side and Lance elbows him back, both of them wincing in pain. Then, to their utter horror, someone clears their throat behind them. The two of them spin around to find Allura watching them curiously, amusement sparkling in her eyes as she smiles sweetly. “Hello.”

“Hello,” Keith manages to respond, probably a second or two later than is socially acceptable.

Her smile grows. “You recognize me, don’t you? I take it that you boys are fans.”

“What?” Lance blurts, laughing nervously. “I have no idea who you are. That’s crazy.”

Keith facepalms. Allura simply laughs, clearly charmed by the whole ordeal. “Oh, please. I could feel you staring at me from a mile away.”

Lance grimaces, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Uh. Yeah, that’s fair. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Allura hums, extending a hand. “It’s lovely to meet you…?”

Lance seems to hesitate for a moment, starstruck, then reaches out to shake her hand. “Lance,” he supplies, and Allura nods in acknowledgment before extending her hand to Keith in turn.

“Keith,” he offers, and she smiles again as they shake hands. “Sorry to bother you.”

“No bother at all,” Allura assures them, adjusting her hat slightly so that her eyes are better seen. “I was rather hoping for something interesting to happen today. Also, I believe you two are next in line. Can I pay for your drinks?”

Keith’s eyes widen. “Oh! That’s really thoughtful, but—”

“Thank you so much, but that’s really not necessary—” Lance tries, but Allura cuts both of them off at once.

“Please, I insist! It’s the least I can do. Up you go.” Allura plants a hand on their backs and pushes them toward the counter, Keith and Lance glancing at each other in utter disbelief.

Allura is nothing if not insistent, waiting for them to order their drinks before ordering her own and paying for all three. She asks for two copies of the receipt, signs them both, then offers Keith and Lance one receipt each as a memento of the occasion, as if she had heard their frantic conversation about autographs prior to her entrance to the shop. They chat casually for a few minutes while they wait on their drinks, an incredible feat considering how dumbfounded the two boys are, but satisfying nonetheless.

At the end of it all Allura bids them goodbye, lamenting the several errands that she must attend to, and offers them a cheerful wave as she exits the shop and continues on her way down the street until she’s out of view.

Keith and Lance sink into the chairs at the nearest table the moment she’s gone, wide-eyed and breathless.

“Keith.”

“Lance.”

“Keith.”

“Lance.”

“Pinch me. Did that really just happen? I swear I’m dreaming.”

“You and me both,” Keith laughs breathlessly, tipping forward to rest his forehead against the lid of his drink.

Lance lifts a hand and wiggles his fingers in front of him, staring at them in wonder. “I’m never washing this hand again.”

#KlanceAUMonth #klance #my writing

30 notes · View notes

vldkeith · 4 years ago

Text

klancemas prompt #5: sleep

a/n: another prompt from mine and kenzie's 100-page google doc of kl fanfic/thoughts, lol. i wasn't convinced that i was the one who wrote this, but kenzie assures me i am, so here u go :)

They’re just sitting in Lance’s room, staring at different things together (a pastime that was becoming more and more frequent as they grew comfortable with the silence), when the thought crosses Lance’s mind. They’d only been dating, what, a week? Regardless, he can’t help it when his body and mind are simultaneously struck with boldness.

“Do you wanna stay the night?” he asks, words a little quiet. The nervousness was still there, making him almost shy, but not enough to shut up for just a few seconds. Keith’s eyes, previously stuck to his DS, snap to attention with his head quickly following.

“Huh?” he answers, eloquent as ever. Lance smiles softly, heart weirdly surged with affection at Keith’s expression. His eyebrows are knitted in confusion, lips slightly parted, eyes struggling slightly to focus on Lance after having been glazed over from staring at Animal Crossing for two and a half hours.

“Do...you...wanna...stay...the...night?” Lance repeats, teasing grin dancing on his lips. Keith’s eyes narrow with annoyance.

“I know what you said, I just...I don’t know! I’ve never stayed over before, I don’t really know how to react to that!” he answers, exasperated. “No offense, but like...why?”

Lance’s eyes roll lazily as he flops backwards onto his bed, narrowly missing slamming his head against the wall. Oops.

“I want to cuddle you. Is that cool?” he answers bluntly, raising a daring eyebrow in Keith’s direction. Keith’s expression drops into deadpan annoyance.

“I don’t cuddle.”

“Fine. I want to lay next to you and wrap my arm around your waist and hold you close to me as we fall asleep next to each other. Better?”

“...I guess that’s fine,” Keith agrees reluctantly, voice hesitant. Lance’s grin is now beaming as they quickly hash out arrangements for brushing teeth and Lance’s 30 minute nighttime skin routine.

Exactly 40 minutes later, Lance is laying in bed, and his mind is racing. Will Keith actually be comfortable sleeping next to him? Oh god, they’re going to be touching all night. Will Lance be able to handle this level of touch thrown at him so suddenly? His heart is beating fast as he watches Keith, now dressed only in boxers and one of Lance’s too-big pajama shirts, climb into his bed.

His bed. The bed he sleeps in every night. The bed he lays in, dreams in, wakes up in the middle of the night from dreams where thoughts of Keith leave him gasping. The bed he silently touches himself in, wishing that Keith’s hand were there instead, with thoughts that plague him of pale skin, leather gloves, and a stupid black mullet.

And Keith just crawled into it.

His skin is buzzing like ice has been poured into his veins, but he forces himself to ignore the heart-pounding feeling and just act normal. Normal, he thinks, laying down next to Keith under too-hot covers. Normal, he reminds himself as he sidles close to Keith, their skin coming into explosive contact that leaves a hot blush on Lance’s cheeks. The lights are off, but the TV blares on in the background, the infomercial for a MyPillow casting a blue light over everything. Keith doesn’t even seem phased, and Lance is infuriated by it, though unsurprised. He’s probably thought this through too far, much farther than Keith likely would have, and each moment that for Keith is average is becoming excruciating.

Finally, he’s laying flush with Keith, skin burning from the contact in a not-unpleasant way. Keith smiles just so slightly in his sleepy state as Lance reaches over to turn off the TV, letting the total darkness envelop them fully. It’s silent, suddenly, and the air is heavy with some buzzing feeling that’s hard to pinpoint.

“G’night, Lance,” Keith mumbles softly, turning onto his side gently. Some of the tension in Lance’s heart is pierced and bleeds out by the softness of it.

“Night, Keith,” he manages, turning onto the same side under the covers and ever so gently resting his hand on Keith’s hip. He feels the muscles underneath his light grip tense, and finds some odd satisfaction in knowing that Keith’s calm is likely to be an act. But the facade is quickly recovered as Keith grabs Lance’s hand and pulls it around his own waist, cutting through the space between their bodies in a single motion as they crash gently into each other.

Lance pulls himself closer, nervous and excited. He feels Keith relax against him, which feels both like a victory and panic-inducing, but Lance keeps himself calm, smiling a little against Keith’s back and tightening his circling arms.

Man, Keith is warm. Lance just knows that, come morning, it’s going to be torturous to tear himself away from this position. He’ll just have to savor it as long as he can.

And maybe, if he’s lucky, this’ll be the start of more and more nights like this. He can only hope. But, judging by the easy breathing Keith has adopted and the relaxed tension of his body, Lance is pretty optimistic that this won’t be the last time. With that thought in mind, he allows himself to drift off to sleep, thinking of gloved hands and pale skin and the scent of pine.

Perfect.

a/n: check the notes of this post for a link to my ko-fi if u wanna support me/my work this december! thanks :)

#klancemas #klancemas 2020 #monthly klance #klance #klance fanfiction #renfic

30 notes · View notes

dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years ago

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 209

209

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

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

“Hunk, what’s up?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I didn’t... I didn’t realise”

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

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

“I didn’t...”

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

Allura placed her hand on his shoulder

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

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

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

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

“Hey, guys. Got room for one more?”

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

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

“I thought I left you outside?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Lance is just as bad as I am”

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

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

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

Pidge rolled her eyes at him

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

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

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

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

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

Pidge pulled her hand back, looking to her lap

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

Pidge groaned deeply

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

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

“Fuck you”

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

Pidge punched his arm to shut him up

“You suck”

Lance continued with his shit stirring mood

“Quite well, don’t I, babe?”

“I’m not getting into this, but yes”

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

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

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

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

“Keith, help. Lance is being weird”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Should I be worried?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ghost pepper sauce”

Lance shot Matt a glare

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

Matt shrugged at Keith fanned his burning mouth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Correct...”

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

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

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

“They’re what?!”

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

“What are you talking about?”

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

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

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

“You expect us to believe that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hunk quickly counted those two on his fingers

“Yep. Lance is too much of a romantic”

Matt nodded quickly

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

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

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

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

“Hunk?!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We were...”

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

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

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

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

#once bitten twice stupid #oncebittentwicestupid #ashratherose

5 notes · View notes

actress4him · 4 years ago

Text

Whumptober 2020 - Day 8

Today is our first strictly emotional whump day...only a couple of brief, non-graphic mentions of an already existing injury. Also, today’s fic is really freakin’ sad. Like, I almost made myself cry. So, sorry ahead of time.

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

Day 8 - Abandoned/Isolation

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: fantastic racism, not really suicide ideation but kinda?, abandonment, solitary confinement, disassociation, imprisonment, foster home mention, self-loathing, restraints, unflattering depiction of everyone except Keith and sorta Shiro, ambiguous ending

“I’m...part Galra.”

“I...I’m sorry, what?”

Keith ducked his head and cut his eyes to the side to avoid looking at Allura. “The knife I got from my mom. It’s...something that every Blade carries. And the only way to activate one is to...have Galra blood.”

“And you activated yours?”

His eyes darted up to Coran’s unreadable expression and back down again. “Yes.”

“Wait, but that makes no sense,” Lance exclaimed, and Keith could imagine his hands flailing as he spoke. “He’s human. He’s obviously human.”

Hunk hummed in agreement. “Yeah, if he was part Galra you’d think there’d be some sign of it. Something...purple, or something, I dunno.”

“Or a little more height,” Lance snorted.

Shiro’s hand dropped onto his uninjured shoulder, and he jumped. “Well, we don’t know for sure how much of him is actually Galra. Obviously he ended up with mostly human genes, at least when it comes to appearance.”

“Ah, but other than appearance...that actually explains so much about Mullet. Hot-headed, reckless, socially inept -”

Normally Keith would have snapped back by then, but he just drew his shoulders farther up toward his ears, arms crossed tightly across his chest as if he could keep himself from falling apart. It was Shiro who broke in for him.

“Lance, that’s enou-”

“When were you planning on telling us?”

The question took him so much by surprise that he jerked his head up, regretting it as soon as he saw Allura’s stony glare. “W-what?”

Sparks seemed to shoot from her impossibly blue eyes. “When were you planning on telling us your heritage, before this accidental reveal today? Sometime after you betrayed us, I suppose?”

Keith couldn’t seem to catch his breath. “No, n-...I didn’t know, I swear. This is...this is as much of a surprise to me as it is to all of you.” He knew the news wouldn’t be taken well, especially by Allura, though Coran, Shiro, and Pidge were next on the list. But he never expected to be accused of hiding it from them, of planning to betray Voltron. “I’m not...I would never…”

“Never what, turn on Voltron? If you’re really Galra, which I assume you wouldn’t lie about that, then it’s in your very nature.”

Shiro gave his shoulder a squeeze and spoke up. “Princess, as the person here who has known Keith the longest, I can assure you that what he says is true. He didn’t know until today.”

“And how would you know that?” she shot back. “How do you know that he hasn’t just been hiding it from you, like he has from all of us?”

“Because I know him.” Shiro waved a hand to include the others in the room. “We all know him! Right? We’ve been working alongside him all these months...he’s helped save so many people, including each of us! Regardless of whether he knew or not - which I still believe he didn’t - he’s a good person. Being part Galra doesn’t define him.” It was an echo of the words he had told Keith on the way back to the Castle. Keith still wasn’t sure that he believed them anymore than the rest of the room’s occupants.

Hunk was the first to reply, hesitantly. “I...I don’t know, man. I mean, I kinda really...don’t know him all that well? I’d like to say I do, but…”

“But Mullet never really lets anybody get to know him.” Lance sounded much less hesitant, and more and more like he was siding with Allura. “He’s always so standoffish. I thought it was just because he was a jerk, but maybe it was because he was keeping a secret. Or because he was plotting to kill us all.”

Shiro gaped at him, flabbergasted. “Lance! You don’t really think that, do you?”

But he did. They all did, to some extent or another, Keith could see it. They all thought he was some kind of monster, and...maybe he was.

Lance continued to defend his opinion, while Hunk waved his hands in front of his face and refused to give more of one. It was obvious from Shiro’s tone that he was growing not only frustrated, but desperate. Finally, he turned to the youngest member of the team, the only one who had yet to speak.

“Pidge?”

A moment passed before she lifted her head, and Keith’s heart skipped a beat when those tear-filled but furious eyes met his. She opened her mouth and sucked in an audible breath before throwing her words like daggers. “Do you know where my family is?��

His stomach plummeted to the floor. “No, Pidge, I...of course I don’t, I -” He couldn’t say anymore. It didn’t matter what he said, anyway, no one was going to listen to him. Pidge turned her eyes back to the floor, fists clenched by her sides, as the rest of the room devolved into chaos.

Shiro and Allura were shouting back and forth at each other, Hunk was trying to comfort Pidge, and Lance was shooting glares at him like he was the devil incarnate. Keith stood in the middle of it all with his hands fisted in his hair, wishing he could disappear. Wishing he could go back to that morning and never go to the base, wishing he could go back all the way to the beginning and never be born. It’d be better that way, right? A freak of nature like he was shouldn’t exist. If he’d never been born, then Voltron would have found another red paladin, one who wasn’t Galra, and they could carry on saving the universe without having to deal with this mess.

“Enough!” Allura’s voice rang out over everyone else. “Perhaps we cannot prove his true motives, but one thing is certain, he cannot be trusted. Coran, Lance, escort him downstairs to a cell. We will decide what to do with him at a later date.”

Keith went numb. Everything that happened from that moment on felt like he was watching a movie on a screen. Shiro fairly exploded, protesting Allura’s decision, but the princess pinned him to the nearest console and sneered something about him daring to usurp her authority. Cold, unfeeling hands latched onto both his arms, tugging him harshly toward the door. He walked in a daze.

The next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of a spherical, blue-tinted forcefield, with no knowledge of how he had gotten there. Down a long walkway, Coran and Lance were disappearing into an elevator. The doors slammed shut on their backs. He was completely alone.

Alone, like he had been after his dad died when he was six. Alone, like he had been in nearly every foster home that followed. Alone, like when Shiro went to Kerberos and subsequently vanished. He thought that by now he’d be used to being alone. But he wasn’t. Not anymore. Not when he had spent the last few months surrounded by people, people whom he didn’t always get along with, but whom he had finally let himself begin to call friends. Not when he had thought he was finally figuring out what it felt like to belong somewhere.

Sinking to the floor, he bit back a hysterical laugh. He should have known better. Nothing good ever lasted in his life. No one but Shiro ever really cared about him, so why had he let himself think that these people did? Maybe Lance was right. Maybe it was all because he had been Galra all along. He had always been the weird kid, the outsider, the foster that nobody wanted, the troublemaker, the rebel. Anytime something good came along, he somehow drove it away. Shiro had spent a lot of time trying to convince him that it wasn’t true, that he wasn’t responsible for other people’s choices, but Keith had never quite believed him. If it wasn’t true, then why did trouble and sorrow seem to follow him everywhere he went? Even as an adult, even in quiznaking space he couldn’t keep from messing up the good in his life.

He didn’t blame Allura for locking him up. Didn’t blame Lance for his glares, didn’t blame Pidge for her anger or Hunk and Coran for their silence. He wouldn’t trust him, either, if he was in their place. The Galra had ruined each and every one of their lives. Even if he knew that he would never, ever hurt his team...maybe he could take on some of the blame of his race. If punishing him made them feel better, then he’d take it.

Time dragged by in that tiny cell. He knew, because the lights in the cavernous room around him brightened and dimmed with the Castle’s cycles just like they did upstairs, and bowls of food goo emerged out of the ground twice per cycle. Maybe it was some kind of Altean science/magic, or maybe there was just a dispenser beneath the floor. He didn’t know, or care. He was glad to get the food, but the fact that he didn’t even get that tiny bit of interaction that someone bringing him a meal would give him hurt. It was like being in the desert shack all over again, but much worse. In the desert, he had the choice to go into town and see people if he wanted, and he had keeping himself alive and chasing after the Blue Lion to keep his mind occupied.

Here, he had nothing. His time was divided between eating, pacing the floor, doing pushups - one armed, since his shoulder still wasn’t healed - and situps, and lying on the hard bed, though he slept very little.

He wasn’t sure what hurt more - the initial rejection and mistrust, or the lack of care now. No one even bothered to come down and ask him questions, to try to find out the truth, much less actually check on him and make sure he was okay. He wondered if they even looked at the security feed ever to see if he was even still alive.

He knew what did hurt the most, though, more than both of those things combined. Shiro. Out of everyone, he thought that at least Shiro would come down at some point. The fact that he had so readily accepted Keith’s Galra heritage had baffled him, but he had been the only one trying to defend him. So where was he now? Were they preventing him from visiting somehow? Or had he changed his mind after all, and sided with the others?

In the end, it took them four quintants that felt like an eternity to decide his fate. The elevator doors opened late in the day, the sudden noise after so much silence startling. Keith swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up quickly, trying not to be too disappointed when only Allura and Coran walked out. He supposed it was too much to ask that he could see all of his friends one more time.

Stopping in front of the cell, Allura folded her arms in front of her while Coran crossed his in the back. Both were stoic, betraying no emotion on their faces. Allura, of course, was the one to speak.

“We’ve come to escort you off the ship.”

His stomach clenched, even though he hadn’t expected anything different. “Okay.”

“We have landed on a planet called Borulmyte. It is inhabited only by various primitive and non sentient species. The atmosphere is breathable and the climate livable for both humans and Galra.” The last word was said with no small measure of disgust. “There are plenty of edible plants and animals, so you should be able to survive just fine.”

Survive. That was the key word in all of this, wasn’t it? He had half expected not to survive, to be thrown out of an airlock into the cold vacuum of space. But now...surviving is all that he would be doing. Alone, again. He shouldn’t have expected anything different. Alone was apparently his destiny. Alone on a planet with no other sentient life, no one to interact with, no possible way of ever leaving.

Surviving. No more living, those days were over. He wasn’t ever very good at that, anyway. Surviving was what he did best. How long, though, would he last? How long until he decided he was tired of surviving, when there wasn’t even anything left to survive for? Out in the desert, he had had the Blue Lion calling him, and the stubborn notion that Shiro wasn’t really dead. Now...he’d only have himself.

“This was certainly no easy decision, and much time, discussion, and thought has gone into choosing the proper planet. So I hope that you will cooperate and not cause a scene. Nothing you can say or do is going to change our minds now.”

For a moment, he let himself imagine those discussions. It certainly wasn’t the first time over the past few days he had done so. Did anyone advocate for him? Had Shiro been the one to insist that they make sure the planet was livable? Had they chosen a basically uninhabited place because they wanted to keep him safe from possible Galra rule, or because they wanted to keep locals safe from him? Had anyone voted for just throwing him out the airlock?

He nodded and stood. “Okay.”

An opening was made in the force field so that Coran could enter and lock his wrists into energy cuffs. Then he was escorted up the walkway, into the elevator for a completely silent ride, and out into the familiar front hall. It almost seemed like just yesterday that he and the others had crept cautiously through those towering doors, having no clue the adventures that were waiting for them inside. Now he was being figuratively thrown out the same doors onto a planet that was just as unknown as Arus had been then.

The light was dim when they exited, whatever sun might exist there already having set. They were in an open, desert like area, but a forest of some sort was nearby. At least he had options. He knew how to make his way in an Earth desert, but for food and shelter the forest might be his best option.

“This is where we leave you.”

Coran stepped forward and removed the cuffs, and Keith absentmindedly rubbed at his wrists.

“Don’t suppose I get a communicator like our...your allies.”

Allura just stared at him with the same, unchanging expression. He ran a hand through his hair.

“Right. Listen, um...could you...give everybody a message from me? I was...hoping to get to say goodbye, but…”

Sighing heavily, Allura looked as if she was barely refraining from rolling her eyes. “I suppose that depends on what this ‘message’ is.”

“Um.” He looked down at his feet, scuffing the toes of his boot into the sand. “Tell...tell Hunk that I’ll...miss his cooking. Especially those brownies he made for me. And tell Lance that...I never hated him. He...annoyed me sometimes, but...he was a good friend, too.”

He drew in a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Tell Pidge…” He swallowed. “Tell Pidge that I hope she finds her family. I really, really do. And that she’s doing great with her bayard. I...kept meaning to tell her that, but never did.

“And Shiro…” His jaw tightened. There were so, so many things to say to Shiro. Things that he should have said long ago, things that he had said before but could never say enough. Things that he’d never get a chance to say again. He dashed errant tears away with the back of his hand. “Just...tell him I love him.”

He looked up finally, giving a wobbly half smile. Allura looked even sterner than before, though Coran’s mouth had twisted a bit to the side in an expression that Keith couldn’t read. “And thank you both, for letting me have the chance to fly Red. She’s...amazing.” One corner of his mouth lifted a little more. “Tell her I’ll miss her.”

A long, awkward moment passed before Allura cleared her throat. “Right, then. If that’s all…”

Coran seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts and pulled Keith’s knife out of his pocket. “We figured you might as well have this. It is yours, after all, and you’ll need it, I’m sure.”

Keith whispered his thanks as he gingerly took it from the man's hands.

“Alright. Well...farewell, Number Four.” Coran gave a little salute, Allura a curt nod, and they turned their backs to walk back up into the Castle.

Once they were gone, Keith stayed rooted in place, unable to make himself move. It was only when the Castle rumbled to life that he took a few unsteady steps backwards. The place that he had come to call home over the past few months lifted from the ground before shooting off into the sky. Keith tipped back his head and watched until it was no more than a speck, blending in with the stars that had begun to come out, refusing to let the tears that burned at his eyelids fall.

There was a pretty good chance that none of his messages would ever get relayed. He hoped they would, but knew that he’d never find out one way or the other. He’d never see any of those he thought were his friends again.

He was alone.

All that was left to do now was survive.

20 notes · View notes

mckinlily · 4 years ago

Text

shalluraweek day 3: moon/sun

Summary: moon/sun Shiro makes a really dumb joke. That’s it. That’s the fic. Somehow this ends in Shiro and Allura dating.

read on ao3

“Do you want to see how fast I can climb this tree?”

Allura paused, trying to figure out how such a ridiculous sentence came out of Shiro’s mouth. They were, nominally, on a mission if a very easy one—walk around a moon’s lake and collect pretty rocks to prove the locals that she and Shiro were worth negotiating with. The chiefess had even assured them the ritual was primarily for show. Still, it wasn’t like Shiro to get distracted.

And really. How fast can I climb this tree?

Shiro seemed to be waiting, though. His smile, which had started boyish and impish, was fading slowly the longer he went without an answer.

“…I really think our focus should be on the mission,” said Allura.

Shiro’s shoulders slumped for half a second then snapped into military posture. “Right. Sorry. I—nevermind.”

It was just so out of character for him. Allura frowned. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s nothing.” Shiro caught her eye and shrugged. “It was just…a joke.”

“Oh!” Allura clapped her hands and smiled at him. “I love jokes! Tell me!”

At least Shiro was smiling and shaking his head now. “It’s not really funny if I explain it.”

Which, yes, that was true. But now Allura’s curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to know.

“Shiiirro.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Have you been taking whining lessons from the paladins?”

Allura huffed. “If it works…”

Shiro looked caught between a laugh and a groan. “So what I’m hearing is you think I’m a push over.”

“Only with your team,” said Allura all smiles and innocence.

Shiro groaned and rolled his eyes. “So that’s why they never listen to me.”

That statement was actually entirely untrue. The other paladins listened to Shiro with a kind of unwavering trust that was honestly awe-inspiring. They might whine and complain, bicker and tease, but when push came to shove, they would follow Shiro without question to the end of the universe. Allura was supremely lucky that Shiro was as loyal to her as his team was to him, otherwise she would have long since faced a mutiny.

But that was too serious for the tone of the conversation, and Shiro had to know how much his team trusted him because he trusted them just as completely. Besides, there were more important things right now.

“So what was the joke?”

Shiro let out a long sigh. “It honestly wasn’t that good, Allura.”

If Shiro thought that could get her to back down, he clearly didn’t know her well enough. Allura clasped her hands in front of her, pushed her shoulders together, and leaned wayyy into Shiro’s space, opening her eyes as wide as they could go.

Shiro stumbled. “Oh. Oh. That’s dangerous.”

Allura just smiled innocently and fluttered her eyelashes.

She was rewarded a minute later when Shiro scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell you.”

“Thank you, Shiro,” said Allura sweetly.

“Anyone tell you you’re a lot of trouble?” Shiro grumbled, but his lips were twitching. “Okay, so…ugh, this is dumb.”

“I believe in you, Black Paladin,” said Allura only a little facetiously.

Judging by Shiro’s expression, he didn’t believe she was that innocent, but he continued anyway.

“Remember like…way back when. Maybe a few weeks after we first met you? We were all super new to Voltron, and we stopped on that moon where Rolo and Nyma sent that fake distress single?”

“Oh, yes. Quiznak, that was a long time ago.” Shockingly long, really. It felt almost as long ago as the last time she had seen Altea. They had all felt so young back then and, though Allura won’t admit it, so scared. The tiny band of Earthlings had been nothing like the formidable team that they had become.

“Yeah…” said Shiro, looking a combination of exasperated and nostalgic. “So you remember how Nyma conned Lance and stole his Lion?”

“Oh, Lance,” sighed Allura, shaking her head. “At least he’s learned since then.”

“Took him a few times.”

“Or several.”

Shiro shook his head. “I should stand up for my teammate, but…”

“Part of being a good leader is knowing your teammates’ weaknesses,” said Allura primly.

Shiro burst out laughing. “Yes, so. While Lance was out there, one of the things he said to try and impress her was, ‘Want to see how fast I can climb this tree?’ So...yeah. That’s the joke.”

“Oh. I see.”

“I told you it wasn’t very good.”

“No. It’s a wonderful joke.”

Shiro rolled his eyes, shoulders shaking good naturedly. “Allura, you didn’t even give it a pity laugh.”

“Ha!” said Allura, which at least had the advantage of making Shiro laugh. He had a wonderful laugh, and despite making significant progress since they’d first started Voltron, it still didn’t make an appearance nearly enough.

“So…there you go,” he said with a shrug. “Now you know the joke, so I guess we can go back to looking for pretty rocks. I kinda like the ones with blue threads…”

They lapsed into silence, making their way along the lake’s edge. Shiro might be looking at the rocks, but Allura found her mind wondering.

“Shiro. When Lance said that to Nyma—he was flirting, correct?”

“Uh, badly. But yeah.”

“And so just now…” Allura felt like they were on the edge of something, and judging by the way Shiro froze and stared at her, he could tell, too. “…were you flirting as well?”

“Um. Baldly?” said Shiro like he wasn’t sure that was the right answer. He tucked his head, and Allura could see red climbing up the column of his neck.

“Because…” Allura took a deep breath and went for the plunge. “You wouldn’t have to do anything to impress me. I already know you are an incredible fighter and capable of any number of ridiculous and frankly dangerous physical feats. I also know you are kind and brave and trustworthy and the strongest person I have ever met. Not to mention, you are incredibly attractive.”

Shiro’s face bloomed a wonderful shade of red. “That—oh. I—um—”

Allura hugged her arms around her stomach, trying to quash the painful beatings of her heart. “If—If that changes anything.”

“There isn’t really the time…” Shiro spoke almost as if debating with himself.

“We both have responsibilities,” agreed Allura immediately. “That has to take priority over anything normal—”

Shiro snorted loudly. “Since when was anything about our lives normal?”

“True,” said Allura, doing her best to squash down disappointment. She and Shiro were built for the war—for the universe, and they took pride in that. They didn’t have room for something as frivolous as dating. The universe had to come first.

“Hey.” Shiro’s hand touched her shoulder, gentle and almost hesitant. “Do you want to make this a date?”

“Huh?”

“Well…” Shiro shrugged and gestured to the scene around them. “Quiet walk, beautiful moon, beautiful lake.” He glanced at her and winked. “Beautiful princess. What do you think?”

He was asking about more than just today, Allura realized. Yes, he seemed to be saying, they were the Princess and the Black Paladin. They didn’t have time for what most couples did when they were courting. But maybe they could make it work in their own way.

Allura took Shiro’s hand off her shoulder and intertwined her fingers. “I think I’d like that.”

Shiro’s answering smile was beaming.

(In the end, they forgot to collect any moon rocks and had to send Keith and Lance to get some. “It’ll be good for them,” said Shiro. “Besides, they need practice with diplomacy.” And he snuggled Allura a bit closer.)

#shallura #shalluraweek2020 #mckinlily writes: vld fic #let these two just have fun okay?

30 notes · View notes

pftones3482 · 5 years ago

Text

Simple

For the anon who bought me the absurd amount of Ko-Fi’s. It’s not nearly the length I’d write for an actual commission, but it’s something lol.

Set mid-season 3, before they found Shiro. Under a cut for length.

It was supposed to be a simple mission.

In, out.

Pidge hacks their way into the base, Hunk takes out the weapons systems, Lance backs Keith up while he searches the data base for signs of Shiro, Coran and Allura stay on the castle ship as backup.

Simple.

Nothing was ever fucking simple.

“Down!” Keith shouted, dropping to his knees and dragging his bayard across the thighs of the enemy soldier coming at him. He stumbled, bent at the hip, and doubled onto the floor next to Keith, where he drove his sword into the soldier’s stomach.

Across the room, Pidge obliged, using Hunk as a shield while she furiously attempted to override the security system protocol that had been activated when she attempted to hack into the base in the first place. Hunk, intent on protecting her, mirrored Keith, dropping to one knee and keeping a steady grip on his bayard as he shot the soldiers and drones coming for them. Keith’s warning prevented them from getting shot through the head by an enemy sniper at Keith’s three o’clock.

Keith twisted on his knee once he was certain they were safe, the muscles in his legs protesting at the weird angle. He ignored the twinge, stabbed another soldier, eyes darting behind him for the remaining paladin.

Lance was his backup. The sniper. Behind him, his right hand, at his back every step of the way. He’d been holding his own this whole time, taking shot after shot and keeping the three of them safe.

So where the fuck was he?

“Lance!” Keith shouted.

No response, either in person or via the comms system. Keith spared one last glance at Hunk and Pidge. Pidge was still intent on her keyboard, and as Keith watched, cameras started sparking around the room. Hunk caught his eye and jutted his chin up to the upper landing. “Go!” he shouted. “We got the floor!”

Six months ago, Keith wouldn’t have thought much of that promise. Now, he trusted this group of people more than he had anyone else in the universe, and he turned his back on the soldiers and sprinted for the stairs.

He took them two at a time, sometimes three, using his jetpack to propel him faster. As he climbed, an anxious sense of terror clawed it’s way up his throat. Lance always responded. Whether witty, intense, or breathless, he always responded. To not respond just wasn’t in his character.

He rounded the last step and froze.

Lance was pressed into the wall that looked down on the room they were in. Why they couldn’t see him. His gun was gone, back to the red bayard, lifeless a few feet from his grasping fingers. Why he wasn’t shooting. There was a Galra soldier pressing a clawed hand to his throat, Lance’s lips parted in a desperate, airless gasp as the enemy soldier drove a blade deeper into the slim gap between armor pieces on his gut. His helmet was on the floor.

Why he hadn’t responded.

Keith’s vision went red and he screamed. Grabbed his knife from it’s holster on his back and whipped it full force. It spiraled and shifted into a sword mid-throw, embedding with a sickening thud into the side of the Galra’s head and sending him toppling to the ground in a heap.

The Galra’s sword was ripped from Lance’s side at the impact and Lance gasped, both hands clinging to the wound as Keith raced over to him and slid to his knees next to him, barely sparing a glance for the attacker, and only long enough of a glance to make sure he was dead. “Shit, shit, shit,” Keith hissed, letting his own trembling hands hover over Lance’s stomach.

Lance’s swallow was audible. “I’m fine,” he grunted, shifting a little. “He wanted information first, not…not to kill me. He was holding back.”

Keith’s mouth was dry. His heart was somewhere in his ears as he settled a careful hand over Lance’s. He remembered his team a second later. “We need emergency evac,” he said into the comms.

“What’s happened?” Allura demanded.

“Lance is hurt,” Keith clipped. “Pidge, Hunk-”

“Only a minute away from full upload of the servers,” Pidge informed him. Her voice echoed from where he could hear it below them. A deafening blast informed Keith that she and Hunk were still being attacked. “If I quit now, we only get about 37% of it.”

“Then quit,” Keith snapped.

“Don’t,” Lance managed. He lifted a hand, bloody, to cover Keith’s, and spoke louder so the team could hear him through Keith’s comms. “It’s only a minute. It’ll take that long for Allura and Coran to get down here anyway. Keep going. Hold off those Galra.”

“I’m trying, buddy,” Hunk grunted. His voice was breathless. “On your six, Keith, coming your way.”

Keith reached back and grabbed his blade from the fallen Galra’s head, looking at Lance. “Stay,” he ordered.

Lance snorted, pressing harder to his stomach. “Like I have a choice.”

Keith took a stance in front of his teammate and braced himself as three Galra charged up the stairs. Two had guns, one a knife. They stopped for a second, took stock of the situation, and then one of the ones with a gun took aim at Lance.

The red returned and Keith dove at them. He lost track of his movements, twisting, ducking, grabbing, stabbing, yanking. A stinging pain on his leg alerted him to being injured, but it was swept away when another gun was aimed at Lance, who now had his shield up.

It didn’t matter. Keith wasn’t going to let them anywhere near him. He stabbed one of the gunmen through the throat, watched him fall, spun again. Clashed swords, and in the struggle, summoned his bayard to push through the chest of the swordsman. He hit the floor.

The last gunman, bleeding, managed one shot. Lance, though groggy, deflected it off his shield, but Keith still tackled the soldier, brought him to the floor. He stabbed him, again and again, rage bubbling up inside him, something like a choked sob spilling from his lips at some point.

A hand settled on his shoulder, careful, tentative, and Keith whirled, freezing when he saw Lance there.

He was bent double, one arm wrapped around his torso, and when he locked eyes with Keith, his jaw went slack. There were tears in his eyes, though whether it was from pain or from watching his teammate fully murder three people, Keith didn’t know.

He faltered, falling back into his senses, and looked down at his hands.

Claws.

The blade clattered to the floor and Keith lifted his hands quickly, wrenching off his helmet. Lance sucked in a breath right as Keith felt the fur around his ears, saw the purple tint to his skin, and he whimpered against his better judgement.

“I’m-”

“Hey.”

Lance had dropped to his knees in front of Keith, and now he eased him off of the dead Galra soldier. His free hand stayed firm on Keith’s shoulder. “Look at me,” Lance whispered.

Keith’s lip quivered, but he did as he asked. Lance softened a little at his look, and his mouth quirked in a humorless chuckle. “You have cat eyes.”

Keith shot his hands up to his eyes, nearly jabbing his claws into them, and Lance winced, reaching up to grab his fingers, not even flinching at the fur. “Hey,” he said again, soft. “That’s not what I meant. It’s okay, dude.”

“It’s…it’s not, I’m…I…”

“You,” Lance said slowly, lowering Keith’s hands to his lap and then lifting his own hand again and settling it unwaveringly against his purple cheek. “Saved my life. Galra or not. Thought we were past this?”

Keith bit his lip, wrinkling his nose at the prickle of fangs. “It’s different when I look like them,” he murmured, looking down at the floor.

“You’re not them,” Lance promised, keeping his voice low. “Breathe with me, dude. In.”

Keith hadn’t realized how hard his heart was pounding until he started forcing it to slow down, but Lance’s voice eased him. As he watched, his claws retreated, his skin eased back to it’s normal shade. He felt his fangs retract, and by the time Hunk got up to them, he was normal again.

Lance, fully exhausted, looked up at Hunk with a weary smile. “Hunk, my man. Get Red for me?”

He passed out into Keith’s lap.

The pod fixed him in less than six hours.

“Just a stab wound,” Coran said, as if it was a normal thing.

Keith supposed it was, around this place.

He left Pidge and Hunk to go over their findings from the base with Coran and Allura, too anxious about Lance to even leave the pod room after he got his own knife wound (very minor) bandaged. He sat there for about four and a half hours, aimlessly twirling his knife, before the pod beeped, indicating that it was about to open. Keith stood quickly, sheathing the knife, and prepared himself.

Lance stumbled out and Keith steadied him gently. He wasn’t as bad as he had been the first time, though that was probably because of the significant decrease in time in the pod, but for a moment he still swayed. When he finally blinked clearly, he looked at Keith in confusion.

“Was I in long?”

“Only a couple hours,” Keith assured him.

“So…why did you wait for me?”

Keith faltered, let his hand drop from Lance’s shoulder. “I uh…I wanted to make sure you were okay. Apologize.”

“Apo-? What the fuck for, dude?”

Keith shifted, glancing away, rubbing his neck. “Going all feral back there, putting you in danger with the mission in the first place. Putting you all in that kind of danger, I…I’d never forgive myself if-”

“Okay first of all,” Lance interrupted, crossing his arms and looking a little peeved, “we all agreed on the mission. It was a team effort, and hopefully it gets us closer to finding Shiro. Second, you didn’t go feral, man.”

Keith flinched and crossed his arms, rubbing his hands up and down his shoulders. “I sprouted fur, Lance, I don’t know how much more feral I could get.”

“Full furry? I don’t know dude, but that wasn’t feral,” Lance chuckled. His smile was fond when Keith looked up. Lance reached out, hesitated, settled for putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “You got protective. That’s all. And I appreciate that.”

Keith bit his lip, gnawed on it. “Can we…not tell the team about it? I’m…I know everyone says they’re okay with…with me being half Galra, b-but it’s different. Seeing it, I mean.”

Lance softened and squeezed Keith’s shoulder. “Of course, man. I won’t say a word if you don’t want me to. But they won’t care. We love you regardless.”

Against his will, Keith’s cheeks burned at the affection in Lance’s voice. He looked down, swallowing, trying to remember how to speak. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” Lance said, his voice low.

He leaned in, and before Keith could process, he brushed a gentle kiss across his cheek. “Now let’s go see the results we risked our lives for, mm? Plus I’m starving, dude.”

Lance practically skipped out of the room, leaving Keith to follow with his hands pressed against the goddamn cherry that used to be his face and his heart practically jumping out of his throat. His palms were sweating.

Shit.

Why the fuck was nothing ever simple?

#klance #my writing #voltron #vld #klance whump #blood tw #injury tw #galra keith #keith is very gay and lance is super into it

82 notes · View notes

stardust-and-blades · 5 years ago

Text

Coma

klance drabble 2 from insta: Keith is in a coma from a mission gone wrong and the team is not sure he will make it

pairing: Keith/Lance fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

---------

Keith cannot fully remember what happened on the mission. All he can recall in the moments of waking up is him setting up a bomb, getting trapped in said room until Pidge hacked the system, and a flash of light as he neared an escape ship.

He isn’t sure how long he has been out. All he is sure of is when he did come to, his head was wrapped up, cradled by a soft pillow. A blanket is draped over him, scratchy but somewhat warm. There is a quiet beeping in the background, no doubt registering the easy pace of his heartbeat.

He felt like he slept a thousand years. His body is stiff from its stance, his spine aching to move into a different position. Keith tried to move his legs, but the most he can move is his feet. His shoulders even feel like he was strapped to blocks of lead.

Except when his vision merged two into one, he registers he is not alone.

Shiro is on a chair pulled up on the left side of Keith’s bed. His chin is resting against his knuckles, a forgotten book falling off his lap and his white hair in his face.

Hunk is on the opposite side, he too asleep with Pidge on his lap. Pidge’s glasses are slipping off, drool leaking onto his jeans.

And Lance. Dear Lance has Keith’s hand in a death grip, afraid if he lets go keith will too. Becoming an anchor for Keith’s titanic spirit.

He does not know where his mother and Allura are. Keith guesses she stepped away for a second, her blade jacket on a nearby chair. Maybe Allura is checking on his vitals with the doctors since he just woke up.

A little slow from the drugs, he weakly squeezes Lance’s hand.

His voice is raspy when he speaks, a desert without an oasis.

“Lance?”

It has been months since Lance has seen Keith awake. Since they talked, the two giggling underneath the sheets of their shared bed. Since they travelled to a far off planet for a date, lance trading keith that he wasn’t as fast as he used to be now that Lance had Red.

Since the mission the group went on. One that left the team scared shitless as they watched from their lions the enemy ship go up in raging flames. Lance had flown down to the wreckage as soon as it was clear, his heart a hammer in his chest as he flung Red around in a frantic search.

It did not help his fear when he saw the escape pod empty, and for a moment—a black hole of a second—he believed they were too late.

But Red hummed in his head of assurance, her thrum guiding him to floating red armor scratched and bent, but Keith breathing.

But while Keith’s body survived, they weren’t sure his head did. His helmet was extremely damaged, enclaves scattered about and the glass near to shattering. Allura said he was lucky. The doctors skeptical. But the team remained hopeful. Even as days turned to weeks. Weeks into a month, when sure enough six months had gone by since the incident.

The day prior the doctors said there was a 70% chance he would never wake up. They said it was their call to pull the plug or not, slightly intimidated by the death glare Krolia gave them.

Lance is glad they held onto their hope despite the odds, for he almost burst into tears as he met soft violet jewels, Keith looking like hell but nevertheless, alright.

“Holy shit,” he exclaims, rising from his place and immediately checking his body, warm palms cupping his cheeks and combing through his hair. “You’re awake! Oh my god, Keith you’re awake!”

“I know.” Keith rasps, amused. He leans into Lance’s touch, recalling the last time they were like this, Keith was being kissed upon his brow and promising he’d be back in barely an hour.

Keith kisses the inside of Lance’s palm, closing his eyes. Bathing in the attention. But he couldn’t keep them closed for long, for Lance quietly asks him to not go back to sleep.

“Please don’t go back to sleep,” he says, his lids burning. “Please stay a little longer. It has been...it’s been rough.”

Keith stares at him, noting the lines under his eyes. The dark circles. His chapped lips, and how his beautiful glow dimmed into a meek semblance.

Lance isn’t okay, no matter the masks he puts up.

Keith pulls him in, wrapping his arms around his thin frame. Lance nuzzles underneath Keith’s chin, listening to the sweet beat of his heart. It is music to his ears. A symphony compared to the nightmare silence he had been dealing with.

To the day they brought him in, mangled, worn, and as white as death’s bones.

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

“Keith!” Lance dove for Keith as Red opened her mouth. He activated his jetpack, pushing himself to snatch the collar of Keith’s armor.

“Hang on, love. You’re going to be okay.” Lance settled Keith’s limp body gently. He moved his hair away from his eyes, silently hoping those dark lashes would flutter open and tell him the blood sticking to his curls was “just a scratch”.

But when Lance got him to a medical cruiser, all was not sound.

“The impact caused severe trauma to his brain. It has swelled to a significant rate and, at the moment, has affected his brain stem.” The doctor stated, overlooking the medical papers as the group digested the information in the waiting area.

“You say he was in an explosion?”

“Yes. He was meant to be in an escape pod when the bomb detonated.” Pidge explained, hugging herself and avoiding eye contact. “But he was trapped. I had to get him out. I thought he...I thought...”

The doctor switched from technical to sympathy, alert of her distress. “The swelling may go down and he could wake up. There is a chance when he hit it, the helmet took most of the brunt.”

“But?” Lance asked quietly.

The doctor sighed. “But there is also a chance that his reticular activating system—the part of him that alerts and wakes him up—may be too damaged.” He paused. “The fluid is pushing up against his skull. It may even be bleeding. At this rate, there is no telling he will awaken.”

“What do you mean no telling?” Lance snapped. “You’re intergalactic doctors. Don’t you have a way of fixing this?”

“The mind is a sensitive organ. No matter the species, tampering it can be deadly.”

Lance veered to Allura. “Is there anything you can do?” Lance begged. “Anything? You healed me once. Can you heal him too?”

“I...I can try.” Allura said, hesitant. “But Lance...please be prepared in case...in case I can’t. With you, it was your body. With Keith, it’s more fragile.”

When Allura went in and came out, Lance sat down and put his head in his hands. There was nothing to do but wait.

And as time went by, Lance practically became a resident of the hospital Keith was transferred to. He was closely monitored, but every time they would finish tests, every time a doctor would come out of the room, the update remained the same.

Each time Lance would nod, walk in with a book in hand, some flowers, and sit there holding Keith’s hand. He would set up Keith’s favorite flowers in a case, aware he promised some on their next date. He would read to him, hoping if he could give anything, he could give keith an adventure only he can hear, and an escape for Lance.

Yet even as months went by, pages of the books would be spotted with tears. The group would come in every week, but not nearly as much as Lance and Krolia.

Occasionally, if Lance was really struggling, the doctors would give him family status and let him stay the night alongside Krolia. He would always be found on the same side, holding onto Keith’s hand and conked out hunched over the mattress.

Upon awakening, he’d pray to the Gods before he opened his eyes for the hand to be gone and the sleeping beauty alert and dressed, waiting to give Lance a soft smile.

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

On the morning Keith woke up, the doctors suggested pulling the plug.

Lance nearly lost his mind.

“The hell we are giving up on him!” Lance yelled, baring his teeth and shoving his body in front of the doctors as if they were the many galra soldiers they fought. “He still has a chance to pull through.”

The doctor lowered his voice, quietly talking to Lance and the nurse raised her eyebrows, used to Lance’s calm demeanor.

“We understand. But with all the monitoring we have done, he shows no signs of getting better.”

“You said his swelling went down.”

“It did. And that’s good. But with how big the blast was, it...isn’t enough. His scans have been the same for the past six months.”

“He is literally still breathing!”

The doctor bowed his head. “That may be, but while his body lives, his brain could very well be...gone. The probability of him waking up has decreased.” He looked up to krolia, who stood behind Lance, brushing her fingers through her son’s hair.

“You’re his mother, correct?”

“Yes.” She said, keeping her gaze on the sleeping boy.

“It is ultimately up to you on what you believe is best for your son. Whether to keep him here and hope, or...” he glanced at the heart monitor. “To let him go.”

“Krolia, come on. He’s your kid—the one who throws himself in front of danger to protect others. The one who got you out of the bad situation you two were in when you met. The same one who gave you a chance and fought nearly every blade member to prove himself. you know he’s a fighter. You can’t give up on him!”

Krolia said nothing.

“Krolia, please. He can do it. I feel it in my gut. Please.”

She waited a few ticks before answering. When she took in a breath and opened her mouth, he waited for the guillotine to fall or the pardon to be announced.

She was not able to spend the most time with her son. It wasn’t so long ago they reunited. For Krolia to take in she was meeting a fierce man, not the vulnerable baby boy she held in her arms. He had grown up. And she missed it all.

Missed his tiny snores as he slept in his crib while her and his father laid nearby. Missed his first walk, where he waddled to a waiting father coaxing for him to make it. Missed his first words, the earth word “papa” easily coming out of his mouth rather than the sweet sound of him calling for Krolia.

Missed his first day at school. Missed his first birthday. Missed his laughs and smiles. Missed the first time he road a vehicle, even if it was stolen from the garrison. Missed his first fight, his first friend, missed his everything.

Krolia missed so much of his life, and just when she was about to gain a taste of what she was absent from, it was ripped away from her grasp.

Many times she had let go and let the universe make the decisions for her. Allowed obstacles to form. For bridges to burn. For paths to diverge.

But this time she would not stand for it. Would not relinquish her right as a mother. To abandon her beloved boy again, not to the destiny of a paladin, and certainly not to the end card of a fallen warrior.

He was her son. He, like her, would fight tooth and nail to be alive.

The world may give up on him. But Krolia would not.

“Lance is right,” she said, standing. “Regardless of the situation, regardless of the results, my son is not dead. He lives, both mind and body. It may be a percentage, but it is not zero. You will not unplug my son. Not unless he breathes his last breath and the monitor goes straight.”

Lance almost cried from those words.

Almost.

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

“I’m not going anywhere.” Keith says, petting Lance from the top of his head down to his back. “My head hurts, but I’m here. Don’t worry.”

“Please stop being so reckless, it’s bad for my health.” Lance half jokes.

“I was only out for, what, a couple weeks?” He looks around, seemingly searching for a calendar. “How...how long have I been out?”

When Lance tells him, Keith is left speechless. A gaping fish out of water. And each detail Lance went into, the hold on keith tightens. If he wasn’t so scared of losing Keith, he could’ve crushed his ribs.

“Wait, so if I was brain dead according to the doctors, how am I awake?”

Lance shrugs. “I don’t know. One moment you’re almost gone, the next you’re waking me up. I thought I was dreaming.”

“It’s...a miracle. I don’t usually believe in...miracles.” Keith absently began toy with the bandage around him, feeling for anything that could have caused him to defy the odds.

“Maybe it was true loves kiss.”

Keith gave Lance a questioning look, to which he answered back with a mumble.

“What?” Keith doesn’t hear him. Lance is stubborn in answering, prompting Keith to poke his side. “What is it? I just woke up from a coma, no secrets.”

“It’s cheesy.”

“Name one moment Pidge didn’t say we were cheesy.”

Lance purses his lips. “Point taken.”

“So?”

Lance dramatically sighs, burying his face in Keith’s neck. “I used to kiss your forehead before I left. You know, like when we got up in the morning.”

Keith can recall those moments as clear as day, and he melts. And he can also recall, though it is covered in muddy waters and an echoing train station, a hint of someone talking as he dreamed away.

He had no concept of time. No idea he was comatose, stuck in a state between life and death.

He thought he was already awake. Believed based on the vivid sense of crisp hot wind caressing his cheeks, the sweat on his brow, and the overwhelming clutter of his father’s shack. Moments where his mother care by, his friends visited, and he road around on his motorcycle with Lance behind him.

He had no memory of the accident. Of being a paladin, for all that mattered was the days mirroring reality. When you dream, you forget you are in a dream. Convinced you are well. Normal. At peace.

But there were times when he was doing these normal things he heard a voice in the distance. His dream would become background noise. The faces of those he loved blurred and froze, a computer frozen due to an error.

He would close his eyes and listen. Take in the far away voice speaking tales of adventure and woe. Keith would wonder how such a phenomenon could happen. How the disembodied stories sounded so much like his Lance when he was right beside him.

It defied all logic. But he couldn’t help but disregard it, for who spoke to him was sad. He would be slow in his speech; a veil covering the truth with beauty to hide pain. And when the stories ended—when his dreaming began to resume and he fell once again to his injury—something soft kissed his cheek.

His forehead.

His nose.

His lips.

It wasn’t all at once. The kisses would be different, depending on the day. Some days keith went without them, not being aware of their absence until it happened again.

Afterwards there would always be a strange sensation in the back of his mind. Like he had forgotten something. Like he had a mission to complete, even if he wasn’t sure what that mission was.

He had to go home.

But...he was home.

Wasn’t he?

It wasn’t until his surroundings began to fade away did he fight.

Before he was lingering. Convinced the lie before him was reality rather than fantasy.

But then he stopped hearing his friends. Their faces became distorted, their features morphing into blobs than the stark angles and shapes ingrained in his memory. Their conversations became jumbled, a scratch in a CD that kept playing the same verse or skipping three songs all together.

His home lost pieces of its defining features. The bookshelves melted away. The pictures on his walls shattered. The ground beneath his feet no longer was solid, holes popping up from corner to corner.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t understand what was happening.

Until he heard two very distinct voices.

Two very important people.

“My son, it is time to wake up. Wake up, my boy. I want to create more memories with you.”

“Keith, please wake up. We promised to see each other again. So I can tell you I love you.”

I love you.

For that, he snapped out of his state of oblivion. His world was crumbling away. What he knew became dust. But as it did, he forced himself to fight the sensation for him to close his eyes. He clawed his way through the ruins of his dreams, refusing to be sucked in my death.

He refused to die.

Somehow—he didn’t know how—he grasped a white ledge. It glowed, beckoning for keith to approach it. To touch it.

The tips of his fingers barely grazed it when he was thrown back into his body, his consciousness gradually returning.

He was numb all over.

But at least he could touch and talk to his Lance. The real Lance.

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

Krolia had been searching all of earth—the entire galaxy—for a way to heal her son. She, a member of the Blade who faced numerous ruthless enemies and an entire space war, was breaking down from the stress.

If she could choose what battle to face, she would rather fight a thousand galra enemies than the potential loss of her child. She would rather feel the cut of a sword or spark of an energy orb than the mental waterfall of suffering from the potential of the hospital bed being empty.

She was determined. In said determination, she enlisted Allura’s help, knowing if anyone could harbor ancient knowledge, it is her.

They just had to find the right planet.

Or the right ripple in space.

“Do you really believe Oriande has the correct plant?”

Allura had her arms crossed, looking straight ahead. But while her posture was tense, her words were strong. “Positive. I don’t want to give false hope, but I know in my heart they have the answer. I’m sure of it.”

“You’ll be on your own. I can’t get in there.”

“I’ve done it once. I can do it again.”

“And if they deny you?”

“They won’t. Even if they did, I would break down their door.” She sealed on her mask, her glowing marks locked away. “Open the hatch, Krolia. I will be back soon.”

Krolia pressed the buttons, watching Allura carefully exit. Before the door closed, Allura gave her a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, Krolia. You and your son aren’t alone anymore. I promise to bring him back to you.”

Krolia liked this Altean.

It felt like a millennia before Allura returned. Krolia feared something had happened to the kind woman with pink marks, afraid she would have to deliver a morose message to her father figure.

But just as she was about to push the button to let her out and risk Oriande herself, the door flew open on its own to reveal an unscathed Allura.

An allura with a light pink flower in hand, it’s petals decorated with sunshine orbs and it’s pollen a deep magenta. It’s roots were carefully removed from its home, no sign of wear and tear. Allura’s hands and face was covered in dirt, but smiled through the grime.

“It took some looking, but I found it. There was three left.”

“You have my thanks, princess.” Krolia bowed. “I am in your debt.”

Allura, no longer considering herself a princess, settled a hand on Krolia’s shoulder.

“There is no need for that with me. I am Keith’s friend, and a diplomat. I am not your superior, Krolia.”

She was right. She wasn’t her superior. But she was someone who was helping her son come back to her. To prevent him from entering the land of the dead. Allura does not understand how deep krolia’s appreciation lies.

They arrived back at the hospital later in the day, Pidge’s new technology in tracking, speed, and performance proving to be her best work. They made their way into the room, the group completely conked out by Keith’s bedside. Allura had to sneak her way past Lance, his body taking up most room on his side and making it difficult for Allura to navigate.

Krolia watched out for the doctors, ready to fight them in case they tried stopping her and Allura from their plans.

Allura held the plant in one hand and touched the top of Keith’s head with the other, closing her eyes as she murmured in her altean tongue. Both her and the plant radiated a blue essence, it’s soft hue coursing from her to the unconscious boy. It was almost like a lullaby.

A sound someone could sleep through.

A voice so welcoming, animals and species alike would sit down and listen until their eyes grew heavy.

By the time Allura finished, the plant lost its glow. It’s color sapped dry. The remnant of it ever being alive was the single petal falling from the bulb of the flower.

When Krolia and Allura return to check on his progress, she nearly collapsed in relief to see her son’s violet eyes brimming with life.

“Hey, mom.” He croaked, his throat raspy from being unused.

She smiled. “Welcome back, son.”

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

The rest of Keith’s friends are ecstatic he is no longer in a coma, spending most of the day catching up and giving keith many hugs. By nightfall, they left for home, saying they will visit him the next day when the doctors discharge him.

“Why can’t they let you out now?” Lance asks, the last to be asked to leave. “Your vitals are normal. Can’t you come home?”

“They have to make sure I am 100% okay. They don’t want me going home and then something bad happen.” Keith explains, squeezing Lance’s hand. “Go home and rest.”

Lance looks down at their hands, basking over it no longer being limp and unresponsive.

“Maybe I can convince the nurse to let me stay. Be like, an alarm of sorts.”

“Lance, when was the last time you’ve slept in a bed? Did your skin care routine? Bathe?”

Lance upturns his nose. “Are you saying I STINK?”

Keith chuckles. “No, I’m saying you look just as bad as me.”

“Unlike you, who has been sleeping for months. It’s amazing I didn’t have to slay a dragon and fight through treacherous thorns for you.”

“And you won’t have to.” He motions with his chin. “Go. Sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Lance doesn’t move. His grasp on keith only tightens.

“Lance.”

“Do you need to pee?”

“What?”

“You haven’t gone in awhile. Or eaten. Do you need me to get you food?”

“I—no I’m fine. I ate when you did.”

“Only five bites!” Lance says.

Keith lets out a breath, leaning his head against the pillow and leveling Lance with a soft but worried look.

“I haven’t eaten real food in awhile, it’s going to take time for my system to go back to how it used to. Just like with walking. I promise, I’m okay.”

“You made a promise last time too.” Lance whispers. Yes, Keith remembers the moments before the mission. His chest compresses from it; pained he broke his word.

“What is this really about, Lance?” Keith asks. Lance turns his head away, avoiding eye contact. But Keith reaches out, brushing a thumb against the apples of his cheeks. It is warm. Kind. Not a ghost lingering for too long when Lance couldn’t sleep for a week. Lance thought he would never feel this again.

“Talk to me.”

“It’s nothing...”

“You know, when you’re sad or upset, I noticed your jaw becomes more apparent. A crease develops on your brow, and you force a smile,” Keith comments, causing Lance to bite his lip. “You’re doing that now.”

“I guess that’s why you’re in the Blade. You’re annoyingly observant.”

“It’s a gift.”

Lance gives a small smile, kissing Keith’s palm.

“If I start talking, I won’t be able to stop.”

Keith stares at him. Debating what he should do. Should say. Hating to see him suffer, wondering if all going through Lance’s mind is nightmares and illusions. Dark “what if’s” that would keep him up at night, defying Keith’s desire for him to slumber soundly.

He guesses it wouldn’t hurt for him to ask the nurses to let him stay. He is part of his family.

Keith moves over to the side, patting the space.

“Okay. Talk as much as you want. We have all the time in the world.”

Keith thought he wasn’t going to fall asleep since he had been in a coma for so long.

Him and Lance dozed off in each other’s arms.

#shania writes #klance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #krolia #allura #VLD #voltron #drabble: coma

46 notes · View notes

voltrontranscript · 4 years ago

Text

VForce E1: New School Defenders

Episode 1: New School Defenders

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: We meet Daniel, a young Voltron fan after the Voltron Force is decommissioned, as he recounts the glory of Voltron and joins the Galaxy Alliance flight school, where he meets former pilots Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. But the Voltron Force doesn’t simply toe the line drawn by Sky Marshal Wade, and with Daniel and Vince’s help, they retrieve their lion keys.

[Google Doc]

Boy: Come on, Daniel, I dare you to do it.

Girl: Double dare you!

Boy: Do it!

Daniel: When are you guys gonna learn? It’s not a dare if I wanna do it.

[Cut between Daniel and Voltron as they chase the robeast, then return to Daniel.]

Daniel: You guys missed it! The lions just formed Voltron! Someday, that’s gonna be me. I’m gonna pilot the Black Lion.

Boy: Huh. You wish.

[Transition to Daniel’s bedroom, where Daniel narrates to the audience.]

Daniel: Yeah, I do wish. Unfortunately, it looks like that’s all it’ll ever be, now. Just a wish.

[Transition to a flashback of Planet Doom.]

Daniel: Not long after the Voltron Force wrecked shop on that robeast, they defeated Lotor and his Drule army. It was epic!

Lotor: What?

[Cut to a flash forward, where the Voltron Force celebrates their victory with the city.]

Daniel: I even got to go to the galaxy victory celebration. It was the greatest day of my life! Until… It was a disaster, but no one was hurt. That’s why I couldn’t believe how quickly everyone forgot all the good Voltron had done, as if they’d been brainwashed. The Defender of the Universe was declared a hazardous threat and decommissioned without even attempting to fix it. How shady is that? My dreams, gone. Now the only thing that excites me is going fast, really fast. So, I enrolled in the Galaxy Alliance flight academy, where things have turned out to be slow. Really slow. When’s life gonna pick up some speed? Of course, if all that wasn’t about to change, I wouldn’t be here telling you this story.

[Transition to opening sequence, with an electric guitar playing under the following lyrics.]

Woo!

One, two, three four!

Voltron’s here, kicking down your door!

Five, six, get with it.

We blaze ‘em with the sword and they can’t get away.

Seven, eight.

We’re bringing down the hurt so we’re here to stay.

Nine, ten, we here to win.

Voltron’s here, let the games begin!

Oh! (Let’s Voltron!)

Form up, let’s go!

All night! Let’s go!

Alright, we gonna rock (rock!) and roll (roll!)

Now to rock (rock!) and roll (roll!)

Oh!

[Transition to Daniel in class at the flight academy.]

Professor: ...and so the Galaxy Alliance Fractal Fighter has been Earth’s primary strike and defense weapon since… which battle, cadet Daniel?

Daniel: Huh? Um, the battle at Gemini Four?

Computer: Correct.

Professor: Commander Lance. To what do we owe the honor of a visit from the youngest head flight instructor in academy history?

Lance: I realized it was nearly the end of the first term, and I have yet to greet our first-year cadets. I wanted to get a look at the faces I’ll be seeing when they get into the cockpit in their third year.

Daniel: Ugh, third year.

Lance: So, do any of you potential pilots have any questions for me? Yes, cadet?

Daniel: Sir, with all due respect, why are you here teaching instead of defending the universe? What really happened with Voltron?

Professor: Daniel! You know mention of Voltron is forbidden by Sky Marshal Wade! There are severe consequences for violating this order. Commander Lance, I’m so sorry for--

Lance: It’s alright. I’ll speak of this once and only once. Yes, I used to be the pilot of the red Voltron lion, but after the incident, that’s something I’ve put in the past. Myself, along with tech sergeants Hunk and Pidge--formerly the yellow and green lions--are now loyal soldiers in the service of the Galaxy Alliance military. And Princess Allura, the former blue lion, is ruling on her home planet of Arus.

Daniel: What about the leader of Voltron? The black lion pilot, Commander Keith?

Lance: Ex-commander Keith is a wanted fugitive, and nobody knows his whereabouts.

[Scene change to Keith wearing shades on a beach.]

Manset: So, Commander Keith, I hear you are interested in the location of Wade’s secret base.

Keith: Your hearing is good.

Manset: Why are you seeking this base? Are you looking for trouble?

Keith: I’m looking for something Wade has that doesn’t belong to him, which may lead to trouble, but that doesn’t concern you. I paid you good money for that location, so--

Manset: Yes, well, unfortunately, some people are willing to pay more for your location. Please, do not make a big scene.

Keith: The size of the scene is up to you.

[Cut back to Daniel’s classroom.]

Daniel: How could you and the rest of the team just turn your backs on Commander Keith and Voltron?

Lance: Defending the universe is our top priority, and that’s exactly what the Galaxy Alliance is doing! Voltron was just a vehicle.

Daniel: Just a vehicle?

Lance: That’s enough. You, up. You’re coming with me. You, too.

Vince: Me? W-what’d I do?

Lance: Guilt by association.

[Cut back to Keith on the beach.]

Keith: So, this is how it’s gonna be.

Manset: At least I returned your money. You can count it. It’s all there.

Keith: Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

Masked Guard 1: Ah!

Masked Guard 2: Whoa.

Manset: A sword? Really?

Keith: It’s a weapon of honor. You wouldn’t understand.

[Cut to Lance, Vince, and Daniel entering an office.]

Wade: I assure you all, this supposed rising Drule threat is nothing but rumors to stir the masses.

Coran: But, Sky Marshal Wade, our sources have intercepted increased chatter about this mysterious commander Kala, specifically mentioning Lotor.

Wade: Lotor is dead! Furthermore, Ambassador Coran, if your sources happen to be “The Den”, you’d better think twice before quoting their intelligence to me considering they’re viewed as rebels against the Galaxy Alliance. You continually test my patience, honorable gentleman from Arus. Tread lightly. Good day. Commander Lance, these must be the cadets you called me about?

Lance: Yes, sir.

Wade: Normally I don’t like to concern myself with petty academy matters, but I take my “no Voltron” policy very seriously.

Daniel: Sir, I take full responsibility. He doesn’t belong here. I hardly know him, and he--

Wade: Do not speak, cadet, and don’t play that sickening nobility card, either. It’s a liability in combat. I need an army of obedient, ruthless, fighting machines, not some saps who are going to hesitate to consult their moral compass! Of course, this won’t be a problem for you if you violate my policy again, because a second offense would mean expulsion. However, this being your first, you are receiving the automatic sentence: latrine duty for the rest of the first term, and all of the second term, as well. I hope this teaches you to scrub Voltron from your lives completely.

Lance: I’m sure this experience will give them an entirely different perspective on Voltron, sir.

Daniel: It already has.

[Scene change to the latrines.]

Daniel: Man, I am so sorry I got you into this… mess.

Vince: Hey, you just said what I was thinking. I’m more of the non-confrontational type.

Daniel: Yeah, speaking of “type”, I’ve been meaning to thank you for helping me in class. How did you do, uh, that?

Vince: A tech-gician never reveals his tricks.

Daniel: Huh, you’re an interesting guy, um… I don’t even know your--

Vince: It’s Vince. Should I pretend I don’t know your name’s Daniel to make this less awkward for you?

Daniel: Probably. Well, I definitely owe you one, Vince.

Vince: Ah, don’t worry about it. You can just save my life sometime.

Daniel: So, Vince, what do you think of this place so far?

Vince: You mean, besides the life sentence of latrine duty, and the fact that one of our heroes turned out to be a total snart?

Daniel: Yeah, and then there’s this. I came here to fly jets, and all first-years do are stupid simulators.

Vince: Actually, I like the simulators. All the fun of flying, with none of the death.

Daniel: Unlocked?

Vince: You wanna…

Daniel: Totally.

Vince: Wait, I thought you didn’t like the simulators.

Daniel: I don’t, at least not when we’re supposed to be in them. But now, we’re like Commander Keith, rebel outlaws, operating in the shadows.

[Cut to space, where a single fighter cruises across the screen.]

Keith: I can’t believe Manset was a traitor. He was thoroughly vetted by the Den. And why’d he return my money? It just doesn’t make sense… Says the guy talking to a space mouse. Huh? The coordinates to Wade’s base? “It’s all there.” This is Stalker calling the Den. The watering hole has been located. I’m going hunting. Set course for the Tarvos moon of Saturn.

[Cut to the flight simulators in the Galaxy Alliance academy.]

Daniel: See? These simulators are way too easy. I’m ready to try this stuff pulling twelve G’s.

Vince: Alright, Whiny McGee. You want me to make this interesting for you?

Daniel: Whoa! I thought you were non-confrontational!

Vince: I am, in real life. Well, would you look here? It seems the simulator wants to feel more hurt.

Daniel: Easy pickings.

Lance: What? Can’t you boys keep up?

Daniel: Commander Lance?

Lance: You just want to get expelled, don’t you? Considering this is most likely your last act as GA cadets, let’s see what you’re made of. Hope your straps are on tight.

Daniel: Why? It’s not like these simulators are going to rocket off--woah! Whoo-hoo! Yeah!

Lance: You might want to pull your emergency brake right… now.

Vince: Y-your simulator almost killed me!

Lance: Huh, and Voltron contraband to boot. Wade would throw you in a secret holding cell to rot. Lucky for you, I’m not Wade. Boys, welcome to…

Pidge: The Den.

Lance: Cadets, I’d like you to meet--

Vince: You’re Pidge!

Daniel: The Green Lion pilot! That’s Hunk, the yellow lion!

Pidge: What are you doing? You’re not even welding anything.

Hunk: Yeah, but I wanted to make a cool entrance for these little dudes.

Lance: Mission accomplished.

Daniel: Is Keith here, too?

Lance: Always with the Keith.

[Transition to Keith breaking into a building, then back to the Den.]

Pidge: Why would you draw glasses on top of my glasses?

Daniel: Um, six eyes? I don’t know, I’m not an artist.

Hunk: Well, I’d better get back to duty, but I look forward to working with you clowns in the future.

Daniel: Huh?

Vince: Huh?

Lance: We need to keep up appearances. We’ve been pretending to be the epitome of a good soldier and loyal to Sky Marshal Wade so that he never suspects our underground activities. Pidge and Hunk have built this secret network that has access to Wade’s GA resources.

Pidge: It’s been quite useful in helping Keith on his secret mission.

Daniel: What kind of secret mission?

Lance: The kind that’s a secret.

Daniel: Okay, fine, but you still haven’t explained why we’re here. What does any of this have to do with us?

Lance: Let’s just say your talents have been noticed, and we’d like to cultivate them. In fact, how would you like to take a very cultivating course right now, taught by yours truly?

Vince: Totally! What’s the course?

Lance: Toilet Scrubbing 101. Oh, you’re right, you already have a bit of experience. We’ll call it 102.

[Cut to Keith continuing to infiltrate the building.]

Keith: Great.

Guard: All clear.

[Cut back to the Den.]

Daniel: Okay, we can tell there’s something cool going on here, but if it involves cleaning more toilets…

Lance: Look, I’m going to be asking you to do a lot of things in the future that won’t seem to make sense, but there will always be a reason. The question is, after what you’ve seen, do you trust me?

Daniel: I think so, but why won’t you just give us a straight answer about anything?

Lance: Partially because you aren’t ready to know, but mostly because it’s way more fun for me this way. So I’ll ask again: do you trust me? Because if you don’t, I can have Pidge erase this from your memory.

Daniel: Okay. We’re in.

Lance: Phew! That’s a huge relief, because we do not have a memory-erasing device. That’s science fiction.

[Cut to Keith walking through a corridor.]

Keith: What are you making, Wade?

Guard 1: Hey, you. Have you seen anyone suspicious?

Keith: Probably another false alarm set off by space mice or something.

Guard 2: Yeah, but we gotta run through the motions anyway.

Keith: Decrypt security code. Come on, come on. Shh. Shoo!

[Cut back to the Den.]

Lance: School is in session. How much do you know about Sky Marshal Wade?

Vince: He’s the head of the Galaxy Alliance’s military division.

Daniel: And a snart who hates Voltron.

Pidge: True, but it’s more complicated than that. Wade’s been wanting control of the alliance military for years, always claiming that Voltron was dangerous because the power within the lions is an ancient technology that isn’t fully understood.

Lance: Though we can’t prove it, we know he sabotaged Voltron to turn the public against it.

Daniel: I knew it!

Lance: Wade used this as an excuse to convince the Galaxy Alliance that Voltron’s power isn’t to be trusted. He got them to regulate the lions back to their storage chambers on Arus.

Pidge: However, I believe that Wade actually just wanted to study their technology.

Lance: While I believe it’s time to start your first class project. Wade is a well-decorated general, but he’s particularly proud of his four-stripe pin. Pidge has made a replica of this pin, and you boys are gonna swap this out.

Daniel: Your master revenge plan is switch out his favorite pin for a fake?

Lance: Yes. Remember our earlier conversation about trust?

Daniel: Remember you don’t have a mind-erasing device?

Lance: Touche. Let’s continue anyway, shall we? Latrine duty happens to be the only hole in Wade’s security. The toilet-cleaning cadets have pretty much unfettered access. And like all disciplined army men, Wade does everything on an air-tight schedule, and I mean everything. Now, we already know you have a talent for sneaking around, so when Wade’s coat is off for his “0600”, that’s your chance to make the swap. Should be a piece of cake.

[Transition to Daniel and Vince in Wade’s bathroom.]

Daniel: Nice.

Vince: Sweet.

Vince: I think this time he’s finished. Like us. How did you… What were you thinking?

Daniel: I didn’t think at all. Guess you’re lucky I’m impulsive.

Vince: Yeah, well, consider the “saving my life” debt paid. I was hoping to hold that over your head, but--

Wade: Look at this mess, you insufferable beast! I swear, if you chase one more mouse...

[Scene change to Keith, sneaking through the vents.]

Keith: Found you.

[Scene change back to Lance, Daniel, and Vince.]

Lance: Ah, there it is. Nice job, boys. Piece of cake, right?

Vince: More like piece of meat.

Lance: Well, you did such a good job, that I’ve decided to expel you from the academy, after all. Unless you’d rather stay and finish out your two terms of latrine. You are showing great promise in that field of study. Go on and pack your bags, boys. We’re taking a road trip.

[Scene change to space.]

Vince: This is all happening so fast.

Daniel: I often find fast is the best way.

Lance: So, I think you boys have earned the right to know a bit more about Wade’s pin. More like “pins”. And more like “keys” than “pins”.

Daniel: The keys to the lions!

Allura: Welcome to Arus, and welcome to the Castle of Lions.

Daniel: Whoa. Where’s the black key?

Lance: I assure you, it’s in good wrists.

End.

#voltron force #keith #lance #daniel #allura #manset #wade #vince #pidge #hunk #coran #transcript

3 notes · View notes

butmostlyklance · 5 years ago

Text

Some of my hcs about klance arguments I guess

- their first fight(s) happens years before they are a couple, so maybe they dodged a bullet there. It allows for the establishment of boundaries only a step into the relationship, something grounding and certain in the hesitancy that is a beginning.

- for instance, Lance needs reassurance. Keith spent so much time trapping Lance in the confines of his crowded periphery, degrading him with apathy and feigned ignorance to Lance's existence. It was his weapon, but it is not to be weilded in their relationship

- and Keith needs translation. He doesn't always understand the situations forming around him, and it can allow him to come off as arrogant, cold, or, in truly unfortunate cases, plainly malicious. When Lance feels something unpleasant blooming from Keith's innocent ignorance, he must help Keith understand before, excuse the nerdy allusion, rolling initiative (with a +2 nerd point mod if you get any of this little joke)

- but if they are anything, they're imperfect. And so mistakes are made and sometimes boundaries are trampled upon.

- sometimes Lance got a little too flirtatious with a graceful, small-voiced, smooth-skinned alien girl. And maybe Keith got unsure about some things, maybe he wanted Lance to suffer that same uncertainty, and so he ignored him. he offered him no chance for dialogue on the matter, ignored Lance's offers, until one day Lance comes to him crying. He tucks his head into Keith's neck like automatic forgiveness, and Keith thinks he hears Lance say, "I can't go back in that cage." He flinches away from his own regret, effectively diving further into Lance's embrace.

- and maybe one day Lance and Keith are pulling off a solo mission to retrieve a plant that hunk assures them is the last ingredient to something that might resemble food from home. After gathering enough of the plant to fill Keith's bag, they stop by a local pub. The bartender is a smooth boy, in talk and in curves. His thighs disappear below the bar, but what his pants display, unabashed in their tightness, is well more than enough. His elbow lands near Keith and he says something that'd make Jesus take his pants off. And Keith just. He doesn't. What do you do? Or, no, what should he do? Because he's suddenly confused because- because is the man flirting? It sounded like it, but he doesn't dare assume that someone could reserve any sexuality for him, besides Lance, certified enigma. And once he's accepted that, he's just anxious, his racing heart abused by the trap of a situation he's fallen into. Lance stares at him from one end, the man stares at him from the other, so he just. He smiles a sticky-sweet smiles that serves as a veneer for all of the dry, savory feelings behind his eyes. He smiles his smile and he giggles from below eyelashes that just naturally flutter, he swears. And the man takes it as bait, leaning further in on both elbows now, and no, No, NO, this is not what he wanted. And Lance is huffing and pushing his stool to the side, all sharp edges and acidic gazes. Keith follows him out, scampering like a wounded puppy, abandoning the smooth man with the fkirtstious elbows, and the second they're out Lance is on him with his angry words. "What the fuck was that?" He shouts and he's loud, he's so loud, too loud, and Keith feels small. He shivers and then he can't not cry, but Lance is too angry to look at him right now. "Didn't know we were on a 'flirt with hot bartenders' mission. Guess we can throw out that bag of the useless plant, then, 'cause we got what we wanted." And then Lance looks up and fucking whimpers because Keith's cheeks are already streaked with little streams that he frantically wipes away. "I d-didn't like it, either," Kieth says, and then Lance is swallowing him in his scent and his arms and his jacket and a pretty escape, all wrapped up in the man that he wishes would just be more... Careful sometimes.

- so yeah, they fight sometimes, even despite their carefully established boundaries. But they bounce back from it easily (almost every time, but I guess that's for another hc set)(and I also guess i got very carried away with the last bullet because maybe I got into the story rather than the purpose it served)

Hey send me klance stuff you want me to write about and I'll write stuff like this (I mean it'll be messy and choppy like this but until I get into the swing of writing again this is what's easiest and most fun for me). I'll seriously really appreciate any requests I get because I want to write more. Also my apologies for the DnD jokes in the 3rd bullet.

#klance #laith #klance headcanons #klance fic #klance fanfiction #klangst #ryan rambles #my writing #text post

114 notes · View notes

arinaco · 5 years ago

Text

Pidge - the heroine with Schrödinger problems

Translated and edited by @Nadezhda932

I think it's worth saying a few words about Pidge, because as far as it seems no one ever spoke about the problems of her character. Actually, even her creator, Lauren Montgomery, after the release of S8 with greatly changed original script began to insist that Pidge was fine and had no flaws. Although Pidge's problems were voiced by Keith in the first episodes of the series. This is absolute indifference to everyone who is beyond her personal circle of people, everyone she doesn't like or cares. “You can’t leave everyone to the mercy of fate for the sake of personal desires!” - says Keith, who, with all his teenage issues and egoism, is a very responsible guy (that very trait which will help him grow to the Black Paladin over time). “I really can!” - Pidge answers confidently.

Pidge is a supporting character, but her problem was announced almost immediately. Why? Because she is the favorite character of the main screenwriter, Lauren Montgomery. A good screenwriter knows that a hero without flaws and problems is of no interest to anyone. You know, there is an interesting point in that Lions (with the exception of White and Black) are in many respects opposed to each other. And if the first and most obvious coupling is Red and Blue, then the coupling of Yellow and Green is in the background and remains invisible, although it was also shown quite early. The Yellow Lion is a self-confident rock, a support for others. The strongest and most massive of all. If Blue is the one who consoles and wipes away tears (healer in game terminology), then Yellow, as a powerful shield, will take all the fire upon himself (tank). Do you need to be reminded of what happens if a healer or a tank falls in a game during a raid on Boss? It’s shitty, despite the fact that they have the lowest attack in the group.

The first appearance of Yellow is marked by the fact that he stands between the Blue and the enemy as a shield.

The Green Lion is ... an extravagant scientist, shallow and fidgety. This one will not protect anyone, but will crawl anywhere and achieve her goal. She doesn't have a powerful attack, but she has a trick. In game terminology, she would be called an assassin-horn, the most insidious class (that's who exactly from the ninja clan ...). He is an even greater loner than Red - who, although selfish, is held by Black, as his right hand. The Green Lion is on her mind, her motives are not always understood by others, but she doesn't want to be understood.

It's funny that the paladins always used Green to sneak past the Galra imperceptibly

Paladins reflect their Lions. Hunk, despite his fears, immediately stood up for the inhabitants of Balmera, simply because if not him, then who? He is the person who is ready to stand up for the first comers if he sees that they need his help. It doesn’t matter: Galra, humans or some new unknown race. Hunk is a born negotiator, he knows how to understand people and is always ready to make contact. And Pidge is... his exact opposite. She was ready to abandon everyone who depend on her, for the sake of saving her father. What about establishing contact with strangers... it's not something that she can't do, she simply doesn't want to. She always says what she thinks, not caring how much it hurts others. Do you remember how she said to Allura something like: "Your father is dead, but my one is alive"? Can you imagine how painful it was for Allura to hear this?

Allura couldn't have done that. And it’s a pity, in S6 it would be very useful to her.

And this is her problem. This is a problem for many children spoiled by their parents. After all, these are the roots of Pidge's behavior. Let's recall her childhood. Katie is a special girl from a special family: brilliant scientists, not like everyone else. Because of this, she had conflicts with her classmates - but on the other hand, the family itself nurtured and cherished her, assuring that it was good to be special. “You are exceptional and that’s wonderful" - they said. Forgetting that there's nothing remarkable in the inability to communicate with peers in a normal way. And that surely the conflict was not only one-sided - sorry, but Pidge isn't made of sugar. No wonder her entire company in the Garrison consisted of Lance and Hunk - VERY flexible and patient ones in communicating with other people. Blue and Yellow paladins, remember. But the problem was ignored, it was solved by stroking the daughter on the head. The girl was cherished, the girl was spoiled. The girl is a genius, which means that everything is excusable to her. The girl abandoned her mother without hesitation and fled, for the sake of the mythical opportunity to save her father and brother. Think about it: what it was like for this unfortunate woman? The husband and son went missing, and the daughter followed them. And not for a day, not for a week. For months and years.

Pidge didn't think about it. Pige didn't want to think about it. And this is a problem that remained unresolved. You know, a person’s character is revealed when he or she doesn't need to hold the face. When he or she isn't obliged to establish good relations, when this person is the master of the situation. And the authors directly showed us how deplorable the situation is with Pidge. Do you understand what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the very scene when the issue of giving of Lotor to Zarkon was being decided.

Stop the planet, I’ll come off... quiznak, it's all the same in the entire universe.

There is something very significant in that Lotor then stood in front of the paladins without a helmet, face to face. More precisely - eye to eye. Since this is very important. Stormtroopers in Star Wars, Galra soldiers in VLD series, and even quite real death row in modern China - they all have their heads covered. At least the eyes. Because it depersonalizes a person. No personality - no empathy. You can abstract from it, you can stop considering this man alive. He's not the same person as you, which means that there's nothing wrong with his murder. That's why the scene where an inanimate robot takes off his helmet and turns into a person with eyes - windows into the soul - is always very important in any motion or animated picture. He is now a person. He is alive. You need to step over yourself to raise your hand on him, and his death is no longer something insignificant for the plot. And now a little girl of 14 y.o. screams almost with foam at her mouth, demanding that this living person - completely dependent on the decisions of the paladins - must be put to death.

I need to say, the rest of the team was slightly shocked too.

Didn’t you have a jump in your soul? No thoughts about Christian values, psychological barriers to killing a person. Well, you know, about things that should seem to matter in our culture. I understand that Pidge wanted to save her father. But I absolutely can't accept how easily she was ready to kill Lotor, who completely depended on the mercy of the paladins and didn't show any aggression towards her. Like, "if I didn’t shoot him myself, but through third parties, everything is normal"? The hands ard clean and conscience too. After all, the latter snores sweetly. Of course, you can say about the enemy, and that there's no place for compassion, but you're the paladins, not unprincipled Galra. You're the good guys. Or not so good anymore? Even from a position of profit and simple logic, the Galra prince could bring much more benefit in war than a scientist with an industrially backward (from the point of view of the universe) Earth. But what benefit, what compassion we're talking about. "Give me dad back!" and that’s it. As a result, the paladins didn't even think of giving Lotor at least some (!) chance for the rescue. They didn't come up with at least some plan. They stupidly decided to give him to Zarkon, knowing that for Lotor this was a one-way ticket, and knowing that with a high probability Zarkon would deceive them - that is, Lotor's death could be in vain. Bayard was given to Lotor by Kuron, after Haggar ordered to activate the third phase. Haggar didn't want Lotor's death. And this is a big problem, actually. Because Haggar-Honerva herself showed how dangerous a brilliant, but unprincipled scientist is. But if Honerva became so because of quintessence, then Pidge is a direct result of improper upbringing. Alas, in this series this problem wasn't solved. Because the entire story arc of Pidge in S8 was cut out. What was this arc? The realization that not the whole world revolves around you. That not only your interests matter. That you can objectively be wrong with others, and you must be able to admit your wrong. Simply put, the Pidge's arc must be connected to two figures: The first figure is a figure embodying one-sided attachment for Pidge. Love without bestowal, as it often happened with the love of parents to Pidge herself. The second figure is an absolutely alien person for Pidge who is not in the circle of loved ones. Pidge was often rude with such people, and she must realize how wrong this behavior was. Who are these figures? I think the answer to this question is not difficult: Lance and Lotor. Pidge got used to the fact that all the people who are not indifferent to her revolve around her. In particular, Lance and Hunk. But in his chase for Allura, Lance began to move more and more away from his friends. They ceased to be Garrison Trio from the first seasons, who used to do everything together.

Nothing unites people like a joint escape from the cops... at least it used to unite.

For Pidge, this was very unusual. And very hard. Especially the moment when Lance, with the help of his "retinue", invited Allura on a date. Now they're not a company of friends - Hunk, Pidge and Lance. Now Lance is with Allura, and they're somewhere on the side. Pidge feels that for an important person she is now in second place. And she really has a hard time feeling it. She's used to take care of loved ones, and she continues to take care of Lance. But she has to personally face what you feel when your care isn't appreciated and remains unnoticed. When your love is taken for granted and never comes back. She's in the place of her own mother, whom she so easily abandoned, ignoring the fact that her mother might worry about her.

Does it hurt? Yes. But it's necessary. Alas, this part of the plot was never developed. There's nothing to talk about Lotor, remembering the events that I described above. Do you remember the paladins apologizing to him? No, you don't, because it never happened. And Lotor - oh, such a bad guy - forgave them and pretended that everything was fine, just an everyday matter. Lotor is used to the fact that people around him treat him like a piece if crap. He forgave the generals, forgave the paladins. He forgives everyone, what a vile bastard he is. But since the entire arc of justification or redemption - no matter - of Lotor was cut out, the whole arc of Pidge was cut out too, the arc where she realizes her wrong. There's no awareness of wrong - there's no rethinking of oneself as a person. No growth, no development. Pidge remained convinced that everything she had done was right. And it's just awful, because the children see it. They see and find something close to themselves in Pidge. And they see the message - yes, that’s right, that’s okay. Then these children will grow up and some of them will become not a small Pidge, but a big Haggar. And it won't be funny at all.

#voltron pidge #voltron #vld #vld pidge #pidge

20 notes · View notes

somethingmorecreative1 · 5 years ago

Text

let’s be alone together [klance fic]

More than Alive: Chapter 9

VLD zombie apocalypse by @maireep and @somethingmorecreative1

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / || AO3

keith and lance band together, as the only two mildly sane people they’ve met so far and slowly create a strong bond that leaves all of their plans with loose ends as they try to survive and thrive together.

pairing: klance rating: unrated

ix. let’s be alone together

Before the world ended and the dead took it for themselves, Keith didn’t have much to look forward to anyway. The ranch was less than ideal. He had Shiro for a while, until he left. He got kicked out of school, isolated from pretty much everyone except for his alcoholic father. The only thing that Keith really had was Artax and the wide open Texan ranch, and even that eventually ran out of charm.

Honestly, it only did so much to help him get through it. For so long, he just struggled to make it through life. It was like he was waiting for something. He was always looking to the horizon, wondering what was next, what life would throw at him and if he’d make it through it or not.

He never expected the world to fucking end, but somehow, the apocalypse had given him exactly what he’d wanted, exactly what he’d been waiting for his entire life.

Lance.

It was ridiculous, how warm Keith felt when he thought about Lance. The other boy was everything that Keith had ever wanted, everything that he’d ever fantasized about when he’d ever thought of being with someone else. It was just—crazy, intense, ridiculous, perfect.

Keith didn’t have the words to describe all the things he felt for Lance.

Surreal was probably a good word to describe how Keith was feeling about waking up in the same bed as Lance every morning though.

At first, he’d been surprised that Lance wanted to share a room with him. Of course, Keith didn’t want to be anywhere without Lance, obviously, but he hadn’t thought Lance would want to be that close to him. The compound was safe enough for Lance to have his own room, his own space, but he still wanted to share with Keith?

It had to mean something, right?

For days now, he had been waking up next to Lance. Some mornings he would wake up, and Lance would still be asleep, curled into his side, head propped on his shoulders, arms clutching him in his sleep. No matter how much room Keith seemed to give him, Lance always found his way across the bed in the middle of the night and rolled right into Keith’s arms. Those mornings were his favorites. He’d wake up a few minutes early, just so he could lay awake with Lance, before he had to be up for either his guard duty or briefings with Shiro. It was nice, nicer than anything in his entire life.

Other days, he’d wake up and Lance would already be awake, either watching him or playing on his phone, like everything was perfectly normal, pre-apocalypse. Lance’s smile would be soft from sleep, blue eyes gentle but shining too. There was something about Lance in the morning that particularly wrenched Keith’s heart. He was less hesitant, more open, when it was just them in bed, all alone.

It sent shivers down his spine when he thought about it.

Today was like most of the other days. Keith woke up slowly, to the soft alarm that signaled it was time for a briefing with Shiro. These meetings happened every few days, and even though it was usually only the senior members and soldiers around the compound, for some reason Shiro always wanted Keith there and looked to him for opinions and thoughts too. It was nice—that feeling of being valued.

At the alarm, Lance shifted in his sleep. Before the compound when they were still on the road, Keith had developed a bad habit of watching Lance sleep. It was kind of creepy—he knew that—but there was something almost mesmerizing about how Lance felt safe enough to sleep when he was on watch. He’d put his headphones on and just—sleep. It was reassuring, most days.

Keith looked down at Lance, who in the middle of the night, had once again shifted over to his side of the bed. He was on his side, curled completely into Keith, head resting on Keith’s shoulder. One of his hands was resting on Keith’s chest, and the skin to skin contact was enough to make Keith a little dizzy, if he was being honest.

Lance settled back into his sleep, and Keith sighed in relief. It was early, and Lance needed all the rest he could get.

He’d been pushing himself too much, Keith thought. Coran had assured him that Lance was going to be fine, that he was making good progress, but any time that Keith saw Lance up and walking around, pushing through the pain that flittered across his face every few seconds, all Keith could think of was watching Lance get shot by the bandits, hauling his body through the streets, and the terror of thinking that he was going to die.

It was good that Lance was trying and working so hard already, but Keith really just wanted him to relax and recover. The last thing they needed was for Lance to have a lapse in his recovery and be in even more pain than now.

He stayed in bed for longer than he meant to but—he almost couldn’t make himself get up. He’d much rather stay right here with Lance instead of going to briefing but… Lotor would probably be there this morning since he had arrived back at the compound already. Shiro would need all the help he could get because of that.

Apparently, Lotor was one of the major problems around the compound. Shiro had explained a lot of this to Keith once Lance woken up. He’d just learned all of Lotor’s twisted history with Allura, the way he flaunted his pseudo-power, and his eagerness to expand the compound when it wasn’t safe. Shiro had explained it a few days ago on one of Keith’s guard shifts, and Keith had known that he’d never like the man just because of Shiro’s explanation, and once Lotor had arrived, Keith had been proven right.

And then hearing from Lance that Lotor had said something to him, or even just looked at him? It’d sent Keith into a spiraling rage that he was still itching to quell. Lance hadn’t even told him exactly what Lotor had said to him but—Keith could guess. It was probably for good reason that Lance hadn’t explained what had happened anyway. Every time he had seen Lotor since then, Keith had to restrain himself from drawing his katana and gutting him.

Plus, Lance had seemed so worried about him, when Keith had gotten so angry about it. That was another one of the reasons he hadn’t pushed Lance to tell him exactly what had happened. Every thought he’d ever had flew right out of his head when Lance reached for him and asked him to forget about it.

Just come here with me.

Even now, days later, Keith was still suppressing shivers when he thought about Lance saying that. His fucking voice was just—

Keith was so ridiculously in love with Lance. Shiro had been teasing him about it for days now, and he couldn’t even fucking argue with him. It was in every single glance toward the other boy, every time he clenched his fists to keep from reaching out to touch him, every time Lance graced him with a smile. It was everything, all the time. And somehow, it still wasn’t enough.

He sighed and dragged one of his hands up Lance’s back, savoring the touch before carefully getting out from underneath him. Lance stirred again in his sleep, but didn’t wake up, which was a testament to how tired he was. Sometimes, Lance had a hard time sleeping and staying asleep, but lately, since he’d gotten used to it at the compound, Lance was sleeping more than ever before. Keith was glad that he was getting the rest.

Once he was out of bed, he turned back to tuck the sheets back around Lance. Then—because he was really running late now, Shiro would be teasing him all fucking day for this—he hurried into his clothes, put his hair into a low ponytail and laced up his boots.

He grabbed his katana and handgun on the way out and managed to only look back at Lance once or twice before he quietly closed the door behind him.

;;

When Keith stepped out into the hallway, he ran right into Shiro, who was leaned up against the wall beside his door, waiting for him.

Keith raised an eyebrow at him. Weren’t they going to be late?

Shiro smirked, “I gave you a fifteen minute buffer because I knew you wouldn’t get out of bed.”

He blushed, stalking forward and shoving Shiro, “Fuck you. What if I’d been on time?”

“Not a chance, little brother.”

He rolled his eyes, and Shiro shoved him too, still grinning.

“C’mon,” Shiro said then, jerking his head. “Time for briefing.”

Keith walked at his shoulder, through the quiet halls of the compound. Briefings were at 0600 hours here, right as the night shift was finishing for the morning rotation to take over. Keith liked the morning shifts best because of how quiet it was when the compound was waking up.

Now, the halls were silent other than the occasional echo of footsteps. It was still dark, though the sun would be rising any minute now.

“Why do you want me to come with you to these briefings?” Keith asked. “Most of the others are from your unit or have more responsibilities than me.”

Shiro glanced at him and shrugged, “I feel like it’s good for you. You’re smart and have good ideas. You’ve been out on the road in this mess longer than any of us, so you have a lot of experience.”

Keith snorted, “Just because I can kill walkers doesn’t mean that I’d be a good leader.”

“I think you’d make a good one.”

He turned to look at Shiro. He’d been joking when he said that.

“What?”

Shiro nodded, and they turned the corner, passing two soldiers who were probably finishing up their shift and were on their way to the barracks to get some sleep. They both nodded to Shiro, then, to his horror, Keith as well.

When they were gone, Shiro tipped his head to the side and said, “See? People respect you.”

“I don’t know why. I don’t even talk to anyone.”

“Well, I expect some of it has to do with the fact that you’re my brother, but it’s more than that. Everyone saw you bring Lance in, and you even brought Pidge to us. We’d been looking for her for months now. People were saying you were a hero,” Shiro explained.

Keith felt his face get red, and he jammed his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

“Plus, you started working right away. You’ve been picking up a lot of the slack around here, you know. Since…” Shiro trailed off, glancing up and down the hallway before he stopped suddenly.

“Since Lotor has been around so much, it’s been hard to get people to cooperate and feel safe,” he started again, voice low. “People were pulling away. We even had some people leave the compound and take to the road a few weeks ago. Lotor has been putting us at risk now, and people are uneasy.”

“But I haven’t done anything to change that, Shiro,” Keith said, almost desperate. He didn’t know what for.

Shiro nodded, “You’ve been here though. You brought Lance and Pidge here, and in everyone else’s mind, you saved them. You’ve been on guard rotation pretty much nonstop while also helping with weapon stocking and perimeter checks. People have noticed.”

For some reason, it made Keith uneasy. Sure, he was glad that people seemed to like him because that meant that he and Lance could stay here and be safe, but he didn’t really like the fact that they thought of him as one of their leaders. He just—didn’t know if he could do that, if he could hold that much responsibility.

The lights in the hall flickered, almost a reminder for them for where they were and what was happening. They were in the middle of the compound, and anyone could hear them talking. Something like this could cause complete disorder and chaos to break out among the people within the compound if they weren’t careful.

Shiro nodded to him, and they continued down the hall. He said, “I think you’d made a great leader for the compound.”

Keith hesitated, “I don’t know about that.”

“Just think about it,” Shiro clapped him on the shoulder as they entered through a set of double doors.

The room where the morning briefings were held was situated in the exact center of the compound. It was large and had multiple chairs and tables. The far side of the room was filled with large crates and boxes, mostly for storing weapons. Because this room also functioned as the armory, it was off limits to the civilians at the compound unless they were being escorted by one of the higher-ups, which was usually limited to people invited to the briefings.

Everyone else was already in attendance by the time Keith and Shiro walked in. Adam, James, and Kinkade were sitting at a table, and across from them, Curtis, Matt, Ina, and Nadia were talking quietly. Coran was also sitting at the front of the room, nursing a cup of coffee.

After his first briefing, Keith asked whether or not Allura came to the meetings. To Keith, she seemed like someone who would be a leader here; she was tough, strong, and compassionate, so it surprised him to find out that she never attended the briefings. Shiro had said that it was mostly out of choice, but that he was glad she decided not to. Some of the others around the compound were hesitant about including her in leadership because of her connection to Lotor and their research.

Despite not ever being invited, Lotor always appeared at the briefings every few days. Keith was surprised to see that he wasn’t already here.

“Morning everyone,” Shiro greeted, walking to the front of the room. He took a copy of the roster from Adam that detailed the day’s schedule and set himself up at the podium in the front of the room.

“Morning,” everyone echoed, and Keith ducked into a seat beside Nadia, nodding to her and the others at the table.

“Okay, thanks for coming,” Shiro started. “Looks like everyone is here so we’ll get going. Adam, you can start with the schedule.”

Adam nodded and stood, “Night shift reported minimal activity along the fences, although there were a few corpses that built up on the west side at the fence. The report I received this morning indicated that it wasn’t loud enough to attract others, so the soldiers on guard didn’t engage or disperse them.”

“Keith and I will handle that on the perimeter check this morning,” Shiro nodded, pulling out a pen and making a note of it on his stack of papers.

“The night shift also reported some activity in the city last night. More fires and cars could be seen on the horizon. It doesn’t seem like it should be an immediate concern, but it might be worth noting.”

Keith frowned, wondering if the activity was from bandits or other survivors.

“The schedule is tight for today. We’ve got Nadia, Ina, and Kinkade on morning shift, Keith and James on midday in the towers, then we’ll put foot soldiers on for evening shift after they rotate off of weapon cleaning,” Adam finished and sat back down.

Shiro nodded again, “Thanks, Adam. Okay, Curtis, you’re up.”

Curtis stood and cleared his throat, glancing over them before he looked to Shiro to start the security brief. He said, “Security around the compound looks fine today. I’ve already relieved night shift soldiers and replaced them with the morning shift. We’ve got pairs set up at both front gates with semi-automatic rifles, one rotating between the yard and the common room with handguns, and two more sets on the front halls with body suits and semi-automatics as well.”

“And in the event of a breach?” Shiro asked.

“All units are prepared to respond to the site of the breach. Alarms will be signaled and civilians will be moved inside the compound walls, holding in the common room. Four Humvees are stocked with rations and water in preparation for removal with enough supplies to support most foot soldiers and all civilians,” Curtis explained.

“Good,” Shiro mused. “What soldiers are on the common room today?”

The names of the soldiers were unfamiliar to Keith. He didn’t know any of the foot soldiers if he was being honest even though there weren’t that many of them. In his defense, they usually preferred night and evening shifts. Only a few, the ten or twelve Curtis already described, allowed themselves to be put on day rotation. Keith figured it was because most of the soldiers didn’t like dealing with the civilians, or maybe, like him, they preferred the quiet.

The rest of the briefing went by fairly quickly. After Curtis finished with his security report, Coran discussed his research, despite there being no new developments, much like every other morning briefing. Coran seemed to have stalled on the research, but he assured everyone that he would hit a break through one day.

Kinkade and Griffin reported on weapon status and ammunition numbers, while Nadia and Ina discussed rations and other supplies. There were new supply runs going out at the end of the week that Griffin planned on leading to restock on weapons, ammo, and hopefully food.

“It might also be a good idea to begin considering hunting as an option,” Nadia ended the report. “One of us might scout a good place to do that sometime soon.”

Before anyone else could volunteer, Keith put his hand up and said, “I can do it.”

Shiro smiled and nodded, “Keith will take point on that then. You can get together with Nadia and discuss logistics once the supply runs come back at the end of the week.”

Keith nodded, and Nadia fist-bumped him when she sat back down at the table.

“Okay, if that’s all—”

Before Shiro could finish the briefing and dismiss them, the doors flew open.

Lotor.

He stalked into the briefing room, face curled into a smirk. Bandor was on his heels, along with one other woman, who Shiro said was Axca. The three of them entered the room and stood in the center of it, and Keith had a distinct feeling that this would turn out to be more than just a simple interruption.

“Starting off the briefing without us, Shiro?” Lotor asked, eyebrow raised. “That doesn’t seem very fair.”

“You know the policy as well as I do, Lotor,” Shiro said, voice flat. Keith wasn’t sure how he managed to be so disengaged with Lotor. Just looking at him made Keith want to get into a fight. “We can’t wait all day.”

“But how would I share my report with all of you if I were to miss the briefing?”

“Unclear,” Shiro replied, bored. “Feel free to take the floor if you have anything relevant.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Lotor said, approaching the podium. Though he didn’t ask Shiro to move out of the way, even Keith tensed up with how close Lotor got to Shiro.

Keith didn’t trust this bastard as far as he could throw him.

Bandor and Axca moved further into the room, claiming a seat at the table next to them. Axca was stiff, and she was studying the rest of them instead of looking at Lotor, like she was expecting one of them to attack right here in the middle of the briefing.

“You all know that I have been out of the compound recently with a fair few of my soldiers,” Lotor started, flourishing his hand. “We started as a scavenging mission with a specific focus on weapons and gasoline, however, we quickly found that there was a more valuable resource in the city we had been completely overlooking.”

Keith frowned. What could he have possibly found in the city worth more than weapons and gas?

“And what would that be?” Shiro asked, still bored. If he was ever going to lead anyone around here, Keith thought, he’d have to learn to be like Shiro was with Lotor. Abject rage wouldn’t help anyone.

“Why, the people of course,” Lotor said, smug.

The room was quiet, and Keith and the others exchanged confused looks with one another.

“What people?” Shiro demanded.

“The survivors!” Lotor explained. “The city and surrounding areas house plenty of survivors with their own resources. If we were to go out and bring them in, we could use them in all sorts of beneficial ways. Of course, Allura and I could use some of them for testing subjects for our research, and the rest that we find can be used to do manual work around the compound, including guard rotation and other duties you assign your soldiers to, Shiro.”

“That’s Captain to you, civilian,” Adam snapped.

The room stilled. Keith’s hand inched down to the gun in the holster at his hip.

Shiro held his hand up to Adam but kept his gaze on Lotor. His voice was calm when he said, “Are you suggesting that we should expand the compound? How would you expect to cope with the strain it would put on resources?”

“It wouldn’t,” Lotor shrugged. “We wouldn’t need to supply resources to them whatsoever.”

There was another long pause around the room. No one seemed to know what to say.

Keith stood, and everyone turned to look at him. He stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest and said, “That’s slavery. You know that, right?”

“A few of my sources have started using this tactic and report that it works surprisingly well,” Lotor said, turning toward him.

“And who are your sources? Bandit cannibals in the sewers?” Keith asked, rolling his eyes. “Figures that you fit in with them.”

Keith didn’t see the gun himself, but he heard the tight gasps around the room and felt the barrel pressing to the side of his head in the next second. He didn’t turn to look, but he knew that Axca must have moved from her spot at the table and pulled her gun on him. He doubted that Bandor could even move that fast at all, and she seemed more on edge when they had walked into the room earlier.

“Careful,” Lotor sneered.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Keith said it plainly, even though Shiro and the others were staring at him and the gun pressed to his head. “Your plan is wrong. Taking in survivors is the right thing to do if they make it to us, but not at the cost of their freedom.”

“And yet we took in you and your whore,” Lotor said, lip curling. “Though I will admit that he’s quite beautiful even by my standards.”

Keith’s heart stopped.

It was completely silent in the room for a long, long second.

Then, Keith moved.

He knocked Axca’s gun away and shoved her back, gun skittering across the floor. Axca aimed a punch at him, and Keith side-stepped, grabbed her wrist, and flipped her to the floor. Bandor attacked his other side, and he had been right earlier when he thought that Bandor was slow because it was too easy to kick his legs out from under him.

After he was finished with them, he stepped forward, crossing the room. He wasn’t sure if he was moving too fast for anyone to interfere or if everyone was too shocked to move because somehow, he ended up right in front of Lotor, gun pressing into Lotor’s forehead without anyone stopping him.

Lotor looked surprised for half a second when Keith aimed the gun directly at his forehead, only a few inches away from. He kept his gaze locked onto Lotor.

“If you ever even look at him,” Keith growled, “I’ll put a bullet through your skull.”

Lotor’s lips curled into a disgusting smile.

Keith pressed the gun further into his forehead, “Or I can pull the trigger now.”

A long moment passed in silence. Keith stared in silence, easing the safety off the gun.

“Stand down, Lotor,” Shiro said finally, breaking the tense moment.

Lotor breathed a bitter laugh and kept his eyes locked onto Keith’s when he said, “Yet you say nothing to your man with the gun.”

“Don’t ever go near him again,” Keith threatened. Then, he removed the gun and put it back in his holster.

Lotor took a step forward into Keith’s space. They were about the same height, and when Lotor came closer, Keith forced himself to remain still.

“Hold a gun to my head again, soldier,” Lotor whispered, eyes flashing, “and you will wish you pulled the trigger today.”

Keith smirked, “Don’t worry. I already do.”

“Stand down, Lotor,” Shiro ordered, voice hard.

With one final glare at him, Lotor moved out of Keith’s space. He nodded to Bandor and Axca, who were standing again, and the three of them moved toward the door. Lotor hesitated there, and he turned back to the room and said, “I will have more information about my plan at the next briefing, Captain.”

Shiro didn’t bother with a response, and Lotor and the others swept through the doors and out of the briefing room.

In the silence that took over the room, Shiro stepped out from behind the podium and crossed the room to stand in front of Keith. He caught him by the shoulder and shook him. His voice was more than a little frantic when he said, “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” Keith asked, defensive.

“She had a gun to your head!” Shiro snapped. “What if she’d pulled the trigger?”

Keith shrugged, “She wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.”

“How did you know?”

“I guessed.”

“You guessed?” Shiro exploded, throwing his hands up. “What the fuck, Keith!”

Keith’s anger bubbled in his chest, “Fuck, Shiro, you heard what he said about those people. He’s planning on taking survivors and forcing them to be slaves. Who knows what he’s already planned or done outside!”

“You reacted to what he said about Lance,” Shiro accused.

“So what if I did?” he growled.

Shiro sighed loudly, pressing a hand to his forehead, “Axca could have killed you!”

“That was probably one of the least dangerous things I’ve done since the damn world ended, Shiro,” Keith argued. “Besides, Lotor—I know that you can’t just kill people you don’t like or don’t agree with to maintain stability here, but there’s gonna be a day where all of us wish that I’d pulled the trigger today. I can feel it.”

“I know that, Keith,” Shiro said, shaking his head, “but you’re right. We can’t just kill people when we have problems. Even if—what he said about Lance wasn’t okay.”

“Of course not,” he said tightly. “That’s why I put a gun to his head.”

There was a pause then, and Curtis stood. He said, “Keith is right. Lotor’s plan is despicable. We can’t let him start any of it.”

“I know that Keith is right,” Shiro snapped. The tension between them was obvious. Shiro stared Curtis down, gaze sharp and unmoving from the other man.

Another pause in the room. Curtis remained standing, still staring at Shiro. Keith couldn’t read the look in his eyes.

Then, Shiro sighed and said, “Okay, we’re done here.”

“Wait,” Keith said, shifting his gaze to everyone else still at the tables. “What happened can’t leave this room. I’m serious.”

“Keith, obviously—” Shiro started.

“Lance will try to kill Axca when he finds out she had a gun on me,” Keith explained, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Best not to say anything and avoid all of the mess.”

Matt laughed suddenly, breaking the tension in the room. He stood and walked over to clap Keith on the back. He said, “Really? Lance doesn’t seem like he’d kill anyone.”

Keith smirked again, “Put a gun to my head in front of him and see what happens.”

Matt laughed again, “Sure, Keith. Shiro, we good? I need to grab Pidge and get started on inventory for today.”

“We’re good,” Shiro nodded. “I’ve got a radio, so call if you need me. Briefing same time in the morning. Be safe out there today.”

With that, everyone dispersed. Nadia offered Keith another fist-bump on her way out, and Kinkade and James both nodded to him as well. Coran patted his shoulder on his way out, a soft smile on his face, and Curtis and Adam left at the same time, awkwardly nodding to Shiro on their way to the doors.

“Curtis,” Shiro called when they reached the door. “Sorry for snapping.”

Curtis nodded, “No problem, Captain,” and slipped outside. Adam followed him stiffly.

There was a long pause then, where Keith and Shiro stood there together.

“What the hell was that?” Keith asked, finally turning his gaze back to Shiro.

“No comment,” Shiro replied. “You good?”

Keith nodded, “I’m fine. I’m gonna keep an eye on Lotor though.”

“Let me know if you see anything.”

“Yeah obviously,” Keith replied. “Should we go on the perimeter check now?”

His brother sighed again, “We need to talk about rations.”

“What do you mean?” Keith asked, confused. They’d just had a whole meeting about maintenance for the compound, and then well—Keith knew all about his ration credits. What could Shiro have to tell Keith about it now?

“Allura told me that Lance has been trading her for rations.”

Keith’s frown deepened. “What? I thought I had plenty of credits?”

Shiro nodded, “You do. I hadn’t bothered to add Lance’s name to the ration list until the day after he woke up, so that’s why I gave him my rations that morning. I guess he thought that we all traded for them instead.”

Keith’s mind was working a mile a minute. He couldn’t believe—what the hell was he even trading? And how much of it had he gone through already?

“Face wash,” Keith said aloud, answering his own question.

“What?”

He rolled his eyes, irritated, “That’s what he must have traded Allura. He likes that stuff, and that’s all that he has with him that I know of.”

“Oh, well—okay, but he can just use your credits. There’s plenty for both of you.”

“Right,” Keith said, distracted. How much of his stuff had he already traded away? Keith knew how much he liked it, and he’d never meant for Lance to have to trade any of it for fucking food.

God, had he even been eating enough? Keith had been busy over the past couple of days, picking up extra time on guard duty, one, so they would have enough ration credits, and two, because Shiro needed all the help he could get. Keith hadn’t really been paying enough attention to him and what if he’d been avoiding eating so he didn’t have to trade all the time—

“Fuck,” Keith cursed, shoving a hand through his hair. “Allura told you? Why the hell didn’t she tell him just to use my credits?”

Shiro shook his head, “I don’t know. She said that he was adamant about it, so I imagine he didn’t want to take anything when everyone else works. A few other people have been talking about it, how he trades instead of just taking. Everyone seems to really like him.”

“Well of course they fucking do.”

It comes out of Keith’s mouth before he can stop it. It’s just—so fucking obvious. Lance is the most amazing person he’s ever met. Who would have the fucking nerve not to like him?

Shiro’s expression morphed into a grin finally, “Alright. Just talk to Lance. I know he’s anxious to contribute, but he needs to recover fully before he strains himself. Make sure he’s using your ration credits from here out.”

Keith nodded, too annoyed and irritated with himself to even be capable of being embarrassed about what he’d said. Besides, it was just Shiro. He’d said plenty of stupid things about Lance both to and in front of him since they’d been reunited. That was the least of Keith’s problems.

He just honestly couldn’t believe that he hadn’t known about this before now. The last thing he ever wanted was for Lance to feel like he had to trade his own stuff—his face wash especially—for something as trivial as food when they were in such a safe place. It was Keith’s fault too. He should have been sure to explain to Lance how everything worked here, that Keith has enough credits for the both of them, that he could take care of him—

Shiro excused him from the briefing and reminded him to report back for his midday guard rotation. He left the common room feeling frustrated to hell and back, and thankfully, it was still early enough to he didn’t pass anyone else in the hallway on his way back to his and Lance’s room.

Maybe Lance would be awake by now because—he needed to sort all of this out.

The walk didn’t help calm him down. Instead, the longer he spent in the silence in his own head, thinking about Lance having to part with his things for food, he became even more enraged. He just—couldn’t fucking believe he’d been so stupid.

Finally, Keith made it to the door. He took a breath in the hallway, trying to steady himself. The last thing he wanted was to argue with Lance but—he had a feeling this wouldn’t be an easy conversation. There was probably a reason that Lance hadn’t asked him about rations before.

Fuck that though.

He twisted the handle and stepped into the room. It was still a little dark, the light from the rising sun just barely settling in through their window. Keith closed the door behind him softly, looking over to find Lance already awake, still laying in bed.

“Hey, you’re back early,” Lance said, voice still sleepy and soft. He was smiling a little, and there were soft creases on his face from their sheets.

Looking at Lance now, all sleepy and happy to see him, most of the anger in Keith’s chest evaporated.

You’re so screwed, Keith thought to himself for the billionth time.

“I, uh, need to talk to you about something.”

Lance stretched out, catlike, and Keith desperately tried not to watch the way his spine arched or the expressions he made. It was bad enough that Keith had to literally feel Lance’s glorious body pressed up against him at night, but watching him stretch? For some stupid reason, that was almost too much for Keith.

Then, Lance looked up to meet Keith’s gaze, patted the empty spot next to him, and said, “Come back to bed.”

Keith’s mouth went dry. That was definitely too much for him. Especially this early.

Instead of ripping his jacket and shirt off and literally diving into the bed with Lance like he really wanted to, he sighed and shifted on his feet. His voice was low and rough when he said, “No, Lance, really. I need to talk to you.”

Lance’s expression went from soft, sleepy, and relaxed to serious, worried, and stressed in less than a second. The sudden shift made Keith’s chest hurt, and he cursed himself. He’d have been better off with his first impulse.

But—he finally remembered his anger. He needed to tell Lance about rations before he had to trade anymore of his stuff away.

“What’s going on?” Lance asked, sitting up. His t-shirt was wrinkled, and his hair was sticking up in the back. “Is everything okay? Do we need to leave? What happened—”

“Everything’s fine.”

“Then why do you look so angry?”

Fuck. Keith hadn’t realized Lance could read him so well.

He sighed, clenching his fists before letting go, trying to relax a little bit. He was so frustrated with himself for not realizing any of this sooner.

“Why haven’t you been using my ration credits?” Keith asked the question without any preamble. He’d already made a mess of this, so what did it really matter?

Lance hesitated, expression shifting again to something more careful, hesitant, wary. His voice was slow when he said, “I didn’t know I could.”

Keith nodded, “Why do you think I’m on guard rotation? I’ve been doing shifts to get us plenty of credits.”

“I can trade for my own rations,” Lance snapped.

“And what were you planning on doing when you ran out of face wash to trade?” Keith responded, just as aggressive, anger bubbling up his chest and threatening to claw out. “Begging Shiro for some work before you’re ready and then fucking up your leg?”

“I’m not—I can take care of myself!”

“I know!”

Lance stood up, too quickly on his injured leg, because he stumbled before he righted himself. He limped the few steps across the room to stand in front of him and poked Keith’s chest, hard. His blue eyes were blazing when he said, “You obviously don’t think so!”

“Yes I do!” Keith growled.

“Then where do you get off storming in here and telling me I can’t trade for my own damn food?”

Lance swayed on his feet, the weight on his leg probably uncomfortable and sore. Unthinkingly, Keith reached up and grabbed his hips, steadying him. Keith didn’t let go, just curled his hands into Lance’s hips and held on.

“That’s what my ration credits are for! Us to use! It’s stupid to trade your stuff for food!”

“Maybe I don’t want to use your ration credits!” Lance snapped, unconsciously stepping into him. They were so close that their chests were almost brushing.

Keith honestly felt like he was burning alive. Arguing with Lance wasn’t new, but this? There was something about the tension between them that was new. It was sitting right in Keith’s stomach, burning. Lance was stubborn, passionate, and just responding to Keith at every turn and it made him want.

“Why the fuck not?” Keith gripped Lance harder, thumbs sliding down into the dips of his hip bones. He desperately tried to focus on the argument at hand but—it was getting harder and harder.

Lance fisted his hands in Keith’s shirt, “I don’t want to be a fucking burden to you any longer! I can trade for my own food! I can do it myself!”

Keith opened his mouth to snap a reply but—wait.

I don’t want to be a fucking burden to you any longer!

Did Lance really think that? Did he not understand that Keith’s entire fucking world revolved around him? That Lance himself was Keith’s entire world? That nothing else even mattered to him as long as Lance was right next to him?

Keith’s anger turned into white hot rage at the thought that Lance had been thinking he was a burden. Trading his stuff for food was one thing but admitting that he thought he was a burden?

He stepped even closer, abusing the height difference that was evident when they were this close. Lance tipped his head back, staring up at him defiantly, eyes blue flame. Keith kept one hand locked on his hips and pulled his other up to Lance’s face. He bracketed his hand on Lance’s jaw and neck, fingers spread wide, forcing Lance to hold his gaze.

Keith pitched his voice low, rough, hard, when he said, “You have never been and will never be a goddamn burden to me. You are…”

“I’m what,” Lance challenged, voice still tough, eyes blazing, like he was still planning on fighting Keith, whatever it was he had to say be damned.

“The reason I’m alive,” he growled, pulling Lance in closer, so they were pressed together down the length of their bodies. “The most important thing in the fucking universe to me. The person I rely on most, the person I care about most. Take your fucking pick of what you are to me because they’re all true.”

They were so close that Keith could feel the shocked breath that Lance took. His mouth dropped open, just a fraction, and his eyes—Keith couldn’t describe it. If he was burning before, he was melting now.

He forged ahead, words spilling from him now that he’d gotten started. He said, “I don’t want you to think you’re a burden to me because you’re not. I meant what I said. I know that you don’t want handouts from other people, and that’s fine, but when it comes from me, it’s not a handout. I just want to take care of you.

“I dragged us here, Lance. We barely fucking made it, and I thought you were going to fucking die. The only thing I ever want is for you to be safe and alive and okay, and I lost my fucking mind when Shiro told me that you’ve been trading for rations,” Keith explained, finally softening. He loosened his grip on Lance’s hip and jaw, brushing his thumb across Lance’s cheek, soft, easy.

“I don’t want you to give up anything, ever,” Keith murmured. “If I can give it to you, then I will.”

Lance’s bottom lip was trembling, and tears had welled in his eyes.

“Please,” Keith begged, begged because Lance needed to understand how important this was, how important he was. “Please, Lance. Let me—let me do this for us.”

A long, long moment passed between them. It was filled with Lance’s ragged breathing and Keith’s stuttering heartbeat. The tears finally made their way down Lance’s cheeks, and Keith carefully, gently wiped them away with the pad of his thumb.

After the tears were gone, Keith looked further down, to the scar that ran across his throat, the scar that Lance hated so much.

Even softer than before, Keith moved his hand and brushed his fingers across the deep line.

Lance was staring at him when he looked back up.

Finally, Lance smoothed his hands out from Keith’s shirt. There was a second where he looked down and stood very still, like he was trying to decide something. Then, just as quickly as the indecision came, it was gone, and Lance tossed his arms around Keith’s neck and ducked his head into Keith’s shoulder.

Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and hauled him even closer. Lance was shaking in his arms.

Sometime later, Lance murmured, “Keith?”

“Lance,” he breathed.

Lance pulled back enough to look at him. Their faces were only a few inches apart, and Keith wasn’t sure that he’d ever seen this expression from him before.

“Okay,” Lance said, voice breathless and soft, and Keith didn’t know what he meant.

“Okay what?”

“I’ll use your ration credits.”

Keith paused and then, “You will?”

Lance nodded, and Keith flattened one of his palms against the small of his back. His other slid back to Lance’s hip, and he kept his grip soft, easy.

“Yes,” he said, still in that same breathless voice that was threatening to drive Keith crazy. “But I just…”

“What?” Keith prompted in a whisper.

Something desperate filled Lance’s eyes, and he remained quiet.

“Hey, talk to me,” Keith said, rubbing his hand up Lance’s back.

Lance let out a rough breath and looked up at him, “You get it, right? I don’t want to be… someone who drags you down and needs to be taken care of all the time. I want to be your… partner, someone you can rely on. I just—feel so useless and broken like this. Don’t you get it?”

Keith waited for a breath before replying, trying to consider what Lance was saying. He guessed that he hadn’t thought of it like that. If the situation were reversed, Lance would have a hell of a lot harder time trying to keep Keith from helping out around the compound.

So yeah—he understood, but that didn’t mean that he liked it or that he sympathized very much at all. He had a time hard believing that Lance felt useless when Lance really meant so much to him in the first place. It was hard to think about.

Finally, he said, “I get it. I do, but I need you to know that you’re already those things to me. I know this is hard, but I already rely on you. When I said that you’re the reason I’m alive? I meant it. Lance, if—”

Keith had to stop. His throat closed up, thinking about it. Lance’s hands smoothed across his shoulders in the sudden pause.

He forced himself to continue when he could breathe again, “If I’d lost you, I don’t know what I would have done. I’m serious.”

Lance nodded, “I know the feeling. I just—I don’t want you to think that I can’t take care of myself.”

“I know you can,” Keith said softly. “You take care of me too.”

That earned an eye roll from Lance, and even though there was a slight blush rising to his cheeks, Lance scoffed and said, “Oh yeah? How’s that?”

“Just by existing honestly.”

Lance shoved him back, and Keith started laughing, the sound still soft, easy. Honestly, he felt more at ease here with Lance than he ever had before. He’d never felt like he’d had a home and standing here in this room with Lance, that’s exactly what he’d found.

Maybe that’s why he kept saying all of this ridiculously cringy stuff. He might as well get down on one knee with a ring. Because if Lance didn’t get what was going on by now…

“Fuck you, Keith,” Lance rolled his eyes again, crossing his arms over his chest. The action was accompanied by a deep blush, so Keith knew that he wasn’t actually angry with him, but he’d never seen Lance this embarrassed before. At least, that’s what he thought the expression was.

Keith rolled his eyes too, lightly squeezing Lance’s hip in his hand. Absently, he knew that he should probably pull away, but he literally couldn’t keep his hands off of him.

“I’m serious,” he said.

“You’re—” Lance stopped and leaned forward until his head dropped onto Keith’s shoulder. He breathed a laugh then and said, “I can’t deal with you this early.”

“Sorry,” Keith apologized because—yeah, it’d been a dick move to storm in here and start a fight with Lance before the sun was even up. Keith couldn’t say that he regretted it because, well, Keith could count on one hand the number of times he’d been able to be this close to Lance when one of them weren’t either asleep and it was just… nice not to pretend.

“I’m sorry too,” Lance said, pressing into Keith’s chest. “I should have just talked to you instead.”

Keith hummed, “Yeah, but I shouldn’t have been so angry.”

“I’d have been angry if it was you.”

“Yeah?”

“C’mon, Keith.”

He laughed again, relishing in being this close to Lance. He still couldn’t believe that he hadn’t moved away yet.

Lance groaned suddenly, shifting his weight onto his uninjured leg, leaning even more into Keith’s space and reaching up to grab Keith’s bicep to steady himself. Keith slipped one of his arms around Lance’s waist.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“My leg still just—hurts,” Lance admitted, gritting his teeth.

Keith snorted, “Yeah, you got shot.”

“Oh, shut up, Keith. Help me to the bed.”

Keith smiled and picked Lance up off the ground, carefully settling his other arm under Lance’s knees. Lance scrambled to get a hold on to Keith’s shoulders while Keith moved over to the bed.

As he was setting Lance down onto the bed, he grumbled, “I meant help not carry.”

“Go back to sleep,” Keith murmured instead. “It’s still early.”

Lance looked up at him, and one of his hands was still gripping Keith’s shoulder. His blue eyes were wide when he said, “Will you stay with me for a while?”

Keith thought about heading outside to find Shiro and get caught up on the day’s work. He thought about walking the perimeter out in the cold, huddled in his jacket until the sun rose and the temperature settled. He thought about his guard shift later today.

Then, he thought about staying right here with Lance. Maybe they could talk more, like they had done a few nights ago. That had been nice, learning more about Lance’s life before the apocalypse. Lance would probably stay close, and Keith could probably get some more sleep, curled up with Lance in their bed, before his guard shift later.

Plus, he could be with Lance.

So, he smiled and nodded, “Yeah, for a while.”

;;

Keith’s guard shift later was both a huge annoyance and a welcome reprieve.

He hadn’t expected him and Lance to have such a—well, moment. He’d been expecting them to argue, to fight about Lance using his rations, or Lance even feeling like he wanted to start working before he was probably ready to. He thought that they would talk about it and that he would be able to talk Lance into using his ration credits so he didn’t need to trade anything else for it.

He hadn’t expected anything that had actually happened.

First of all, he didn’t think that Lance would have felt like a burden to him, and now that Keith thought about it more, he felt like an idiot. Of course Lance felt like he was useless; all of the time they had spent together before this included both of them working together as a team. They traveled together, hunted together, had each other’s backs. It should have been obvious to Keith that he was feeling like that but—Keith was so utterly relieved that Lance was alive that he hadn’t been able to think about anything else.

So, he should have realized that Lance might have been feeling out of place because then he could have talked to him about it before Lance had to trade away any of his stuff.

Second, Keith knew that he was angry when he went back to their room. He had been ready to pick a fight with Lance about the ration credits, and he could have been calmer about it instead of just starting in with the argument. But, Keith hadn’t really thought about the logistics of arguing with Lance. Sure, they’d gotten into arguments before when they were on the road, but there had been something distinctly different about this one. He hadn’t known that there was that much well—tension between them. He also hadn’t known how much he liked it. Even now, hours later, a shiver snuck up Keith’s spine at the thought of Lance’s gaze on him earlier.

And finally, the last thing he’d expected was for Lance to agree and use his ration credits. It made Keith feel endlessly better, knowing that Lance wasn’t going to have to trade his stuff away. It was also probably stupid, but he kind of liked the idea that he was providing for them. He’d never tell anyone, but it made his chest fill with pride when he thought about it.

Now, Keith had taken his position on guard duty. Once Lance had fallen back to sleep earlier, curled up against Keith’s side, Keith had eased out of bed and went to find Shiro. The sun had been up by then, and Shiro was just getting ready to start the perimeter check, which Keith tagged along on. Shiro hadn’t asked him about anything, but he must have been able to tell that everything had worked out because he kept smirking over at Keith every few minutes.

He hadn’t even cared. He was still too caught up in Lance to even think about it.

The guard tower was quiet now. His midday shift had started right at lunch, and Shiro had tossed him a protein bar when he’d gone on shift to hold him over until dinner. The outside perimeter was quiet too. Few walkers stumbled along in the field outside, and Keith wondered if the swiftly approaching cold weather would have any changes to their activity. What would it be like on the road when it got cold again?

Keith hoped he wouldn’t have to find out but—he had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. If Lotor was already planning on flooding the compound with survivors he found outside and using them as slaves, then this place wouldn’t last very long at all. Lotor’s plan would destroy this place if they didn’t do something to stop him if he really tried anything.

The afternoon passed without any activity. All was quiet on the perimeter, and he didn’t even notice when Curtis was climbing up the tower to replace him on the evening shift.

“Hey, Keith,” Curtis greeted, pulling himself up into the tower.

“Hey,” he passed off the rifle and radio. “All quiet. I haven’t seen anything all day.”

Curtis nodded, “Shiro said for you to meet them for dinner.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Keith?”

He looked back up from where he had already started down the ladder, “Yeah?”

“I think you’re right about Lotor. His plan is insane, and people will die if we don’t do something to stop it,” Curtis explained.

Keith nodded, “Keep an eye on him. I’ll do the same.”

“Yeah, see you.”

He left Curtis there for his shift and went to find the others.

On his way back up to the building, Keith crossed the grass and waved to Adam, who was checking the guard roster at the front gate. Keith would probably be on morning rotation tomorrow, which was just as well because it would be cold, but hopefully quiet. Adam nodded to him as he passed and went inside the second chain-link fence.

There weren’t many people outside, but Keith guessed it was because it was getting colder. The common room would probably be packed with people, but Keith prayed that Lotor wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the mood to argue anymore; he’d just start a fight, if not do something worse.

He nodded to the soldiers on guard rotation at the doors in the common room, and just like Keith thought, it was more crowded than normal.

Thankfully, when Keith scanned the room, Lotor and his cronies weren’t there. Instead, he found Shiro and Lance sitting at a table in the corner by one of the glass windows. On his way over, he stopped and grabbed his rations, nodding as he passed a few people he recognized and to the others who seemed to know him already.

“Hey, Keith,” Shiro greeted when he walked up to the table.

Lance looked up at him and smiled. His crutches were leaning against the wall near the table, and he patted the open spot next to him.

Keith sat down.

“Hey,” Lance said, still smiling. He reached up to squeeze Keith’s bicep, letting his hand linger there for a long moment. “How was your day?”

“Good,” Keith said, glancing him over. He was still wearing the same sweat and t-shirt with sneakers. Keith thought he looked great. “It was quiet on my shift. What did you do?”

Lance pressed in a little closer to him, enough to where their thighs were brushing on the bench. He said, “I slept for a while longer and then I helped Coran with some inventory. He checked over my leg and said that it looked a lot better.”

Relief washed over him. He nodded and said, “That’s great, Lance.”

“Yeah! Shiro was telling me embarrassing stories about you when you were a kid,” Lance said, winking.

Keith rolled his eyes toward Shiro, “Yeah sure.”

Shiro laughed, “Who relieved you on guard duty?”

“Curtis.”

There was a slight pause and then, “Did he say anything?”

Lance raised his eyebrows at Shiro’s question, and Keith frowned, wondering what he was thinking. Instead of asking, he shook his head and said, “Nothing too important.”

“What does that mean?”

“Why are you asking?”

Suddenly, Lance threw his elbow into Keith’s side. Then, he said, “Leave Shiro alone.”

“Are you kidding me?” Keith laughed, staring at Lance in surprise. Why was Lance defending him? What was even going on here? “He makes fun of me every day!”

Lance rolled his eyes and shoved Keith’s shoulder, but his eyes were bright. He said, “You definitely deserve it.”

Keith scoffed, but before he could argue or bring it back up, Pidge and Allura sat down at their table next to Shiro.

Pidge and Allura filled the table with chatter, and Shiro was finally back to smiling once they were there. Pidge described the work that she and Matt had been doing all day, and Allura and Lance started a conversation too. Keith sat quietly, eating his rations and just listening. It was nice. At the beginning, when he and Lance had just gotten here, he never thought that he would get used to it. He didn’t know that he even had room for more people to care about, but somehow, in the short amount of time that he’d been here, he knew he wouldn’t be able to forget these people. Shiro, Pidge, Allura, Coran, Matt, and even most of the others that he knew, were just so important to them. And this place—Keith hadn’t believed that he would ever find anything like this ever again.

He would do whatever it took to keep it safe, even if it meant destroying Lotor with his bare hands.

“Hey,” Lance said suddenly, breaking him out of his thoughts. His voice was concerned, and Keith realized that everyone was silent. And also staring at him. Lance continued, “You okay?”

Keith nodded, “I’m fine.”

He looked unconvinced, and he gently knocked his shoulder into Keith’s and said, “Stop brooding then.”

Keith breathed a laugh because—fair was fair.

Lance smiled and went back to the conversation.

The rest of dinner was nice. Allura and Lance talked about skin care for a long while, and Shiro finally struck up a conversation with Keith about a mission he wanted to run in a few weeks. Talk of leaving the compound always interested Keith, and by the time they were finished, the sun had already set, and the rest of the common room was almost empty.

“I’m off to get some sleep,” Allura started, standing finally. “Lotor is demanding an early start in the lab tomorrow.”

Pidge groaned, “You need to tell him to fuck off.”

Lance frowned at Pidge and then looked up to Allura, “You need to be careful.”

Keith nodded in agreement.

Allura’s smile was tight, “I can handle Lotor. Goodnight.”

Silence filled the table once she was gone, and Pidge sighed again before excusing herself. She stopped to give Lance a hug, and she punched Keith’s shoulder on her way out.

“Briefing in the morning, Keith,” Shiro said, standing as well. “Adam will probably put you on morning rotation.”

“See you then,” Keith nodded.

“Goodnight, Shiro,” Lance called.

Shiro smiled, “Night, guys.”

Then, suddenly, Keith and Lance were alone in the common room.

It was quiet. The guards that were assigned to the common room throughout the day had already been sent to the barracks for the night. Outside, the evening guard rotation had a few more hours before it would be replaced by the night guard.

Keith was tired but—he wasn’t ready to go back to their room.

“Hey,” Keith started, “do you have your phone and headphones?”

Lance looked at him weirdly, frowning, “Yeah, why?”

One side of his mouth tipped up into a smile, “You wanna go for a walk outside?”

There was a pause, but Lance looked like he was fighting back a smile. He raised an eyebrow and said, “You know I can’t walk that well, don’t you?”

“Trust me,” Keith replied, standing. He held a hand out to help Lance up. “You in?”

The look Lance gave him was hard to read, but then, Lance smiled and took Keith’s hand.

;;

Outside, it was chilly and dark. The compound had a few lights mounted on the outside walls for the evening shift, but once the night shift took over a few hours before midnight, everything went dark. For now, there was enough light for Keith to see to lead them out to the gravel that led down to the fence.

Lance was on his crutches for now, and Keith tucked his hands into his pockets, strolling alongside him. They were silent as they walked outside, and when they passed the corner of the building, where Kinkade was stationed, he nodded to them.

“Kinkade,” Keith greeted, nodding too. “Everything good?”

“So far, all quiet,” Kinkade replied, then, he nodded to Lance. “Hey, Lance.”

“Hey,” Lance said.

“Kinkade?” Keith asked.

Kinkade nodded again. Keith knew he was a man of few works, which he appreciated.

“Can you watch these for me?” Keith asked again, reaching for Lance’s crutches. Lance handed them over, balancing unsteadily on the gravel, and staring at Keith.

Kinkade took them and leaned them up against the wall, “Yeah sure, Keith. Where are you going?”

“Just around the inside perimeter. We won’t be gone long,” Keith said, stepping toward Lance and turning around. When Lance didn’t move, he looked over his shoulder and said, “Climb on my back.”

“You’re crazy.”

Keith laughed, “You’re the one who said you can’t walk that well. C’mon.”

Finally, Lance sighed and put his arms around Keith’s neck and shoulders, holding on to him. Carefully, trying to avoid hurting his leg, Keith reached down and grabbed him behind his knees, hefting him up onto his back.

“You good?” Keith asked, turning his head to the side so Lance could hear him better even though he couldn’t see his face.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Lance’s voice was weird, and Keith suddenly wondered if he was blushing.

Kinkade laughed, and Keith nodded to him before walking off down the gravel toward the first fence.

The moon was rising, and even though there were a few clouds in the sky, it was fairly clear. The stars were sparkling, and without the light pollution from the city, it was bright and beautiful. The wind was blowing, just enough to ruffle Keith’s hair.

“Where are we going?” Lance breathed a few minutes later.

“Far enough where no one can hear us.”

“Oh?” Lance asked, voice hesitant, breathless.

Keith nodded and kept walking.

A few minutes later, Keith reached the fence. Instead of stopping, he turned and walked down the length of it through the grass until he was in one of the only blind spots on this section of the fence. Kinkade wouldn’t be able to see them from his position at the compound wall, and none of the guard towers had angles on this specific spot.

Shiro had told Keith about the blind spots on the fences one of the first times that they had done perimeter checks, but honestly, he’d known that there had to be places where the guards couldn’t see. This wasn’t the only one, and probably not even the best one, but it was dark, and there was no way that anyone could see them tonight.

Keith slowed and carefully set Lance down. He leaned up against the fence and stepped close to him.

Lance looked around and leaned into him, “It’s quiet out here.”

He nodded, and they fell into silence again.

“Hey,” Keith said suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

“Hey?” Lance answered, voice low.

“Can you do me a favor?”

Lance frowned, confused, “Sure.”

“Stay away from Lotor.”

Lance rolled his eyes, though he didn’t seem annoyed with Keith, which he guessed was good. Then, Lance said, “Duh. He’s an asshole. You’ve heard how he talks to Allura, right?”

“Yeah,” Keith nodded. “I just—don’t want him around you either. If I could tell Allura too, then I would but… not my place, I guess.”

“But you can tell me?”

Uh oh, Keith thought to himself. Something in Lance’s voice had shifted.

“Not implying that I can tell you what to do,” Keith said hurriedly, feeling panicked in his chest. He didn’t want to fight with Lance about this but… he wasn’t going to budge. He didn’t want Lance around Lotor period.

“Then why are you telling me what to do? That’s what this is, right?”

Keith sighed and covered his face with one hand, “I just—I can’t stand it. He’s dangerous, I know he is. He’s cruel and a psychopath and I… I don’t want him near you. You’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, and I know it. You’re smart and good with a gun, and you’ve saved my ass plenty of times on the road, so I’m not trying to imply that you’re not.

“Lotor has a plan. He talked about it in the briefing this morning and it just…” Keith trailed off, trying to figure out how to say it.

“What’s he planning?”

“He told us this morning that he wants to take in survivors and use them as slaves,” Keith finally explained. “He said that he’s already been talking to some groups who are doing it outside, and I bet he’s already started it too. Who knows what he’ll try in the future, especially after what happened today in the briefing when Shiro shut down his plan.”

Lance was quiet for a few long seconds, and Keith was honestly afraid of what he was going to say. He hadn’t meant anything by it. He knew that Lance was more than capable of keeping himself safe, but that didn’t mean that Keith wasn’t going to worry about him constantly, especially with Lotor involved.

“Okay,” Lance finally said.

Keith jerked back up to look at him, “Okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll stay away from Lotor, obviously.”

He hesitated, “You will?”

Lance rolled his eyes, and this time, his expression was something that Keith recognized, annoyed with him sure, but fond. It was clear he was fighting back a smile. He said, “Keith, believe it or not, I trust your judgement. I appreciate you reaffirming my amazing survival skills and everything, but I trust you. I know you’re not trying to boss me around. It’s fine.”

Keith let out a rough breath, almost a laugh, “Then why’d you make it sound like it wasn’t?”

Lance grinned then, “I wanted to see if you’d get nervous.”

“Asshole,” Keith laughed, nudging him with his elbow.

There was a short pause and then, “If I’m going to stay away from Lotor, then I want you to.”

Keith nodded, “Fair enough, but I have to be around him in the briefings and if Shiro assigns me to work with him on anything.”

Lance considered it then said, “Okay, but you watch your back with him. If something already went down between you two, then he’s going to be after you.”

“I didn’t say that something went down between us.”

“You didn’t have to,” Lance rolled his eyes, stepping even further into Keith so they were completely pressed up against each other. “I know you. Tell me what happened.”

Keith sighed, “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Then it’ll be easy to tell me what happened.”

“He just… was talking about his plan, and I called him on his bullshit,” Keith started. He didn’t want to lie, but he didn’t want to have to say what Lotor called Lance. “Axca pulled a gun on me, and then I pulled one on Lotor.”

Lance was quiet for a long second, but his eyes were wide, and his face was almost angry. Then, he said, “And you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I wish I’d pulled the trigger.”

“Me too, honestly. The way he treats Allura is bad enough, but if he’s really planning all of that, then I doubt this will be the end of it.”

Owls hoot in the distance, and the soft sounds made Keith relax a little more. Even if Lotor was planning something terrible for the compound, Lance was safe for now. Everyone was okay today. Keith could worry about the rest of it later.

“So, his plan was what made you pull a gun on him?” Lance asked a few seconds later.

Keith avoided his gaze, “Not really.”

“Then was it something about me?”

“How’d you know?”

Lance snorted, “You have a handful of triggers, Keith. I’m one of them.”

Keith breathed a laugh, “Yeah, you’re right.”

“What did he say?”

He hesitated, “I don’t want to say it.”

“That bad, huh?” Lance rolled his eyes.

Keith shrugged. He could feel himself shaking a little, at the thought of trying to tell Lance what had happened with Lotor in the briefing this morning. He wasn’t sure that he could even make himself say it.

“Please?” Lance asked, setting his fingers on Keith’s jaw and turning his head so their gazes met.

Fuck, Keith thought.

“He called you a whore,” Keith said softly.

Lance blinked, surprise written all over his face. Eventually, he asked, “What?”

Keith nodded, looking away again.

“Oh, wow, okay. That’s not the first time I’ve been called that, Keith,” Lance laughed a little, but it sounded, forced, strained.

Keith snapped his head up. He said, “It doesn’t fucking matter. He shouldn’t—I should have shot him.”

Lance shrugged and moved his hand to Keith’s face and cupped his cheek. His voice was soft and careful when he asked, “Why did it make you so angry if it doesn’t matter?”

“I just—no one should ever talk about you that way.”

Lance’s thumb swept across Keith’s jaw, the motion soft and slow. Then, he said, “Don’t feel like you need to defend my honor. Lotor’s a jackass.”

Keith didn’t know how to reply, especially with the attention that Lance was giving him. It was too intense. All Lance was doing was touching his jaw, but it felt like a million other things all at once. He really needed to pull it together.

Instead of answering, he nodded and reached out to set one of his hands on Lance’s side.

The night was quiet around them. There was an owl in the distance, and the soft rustle of the wind. They were far enough from the outer fence that they couldn’t hear or see any walkers and it was almost like they weren’t in the middle of the apocalypse.

“Do you have your phone?” Keith murmured.

Lance pulled his phone from his pocket and held it out to him.

“Can we listen to something?” he asked, soft.

Lance stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded. He unwound his headphones from around the phone and handed one earbud to Keith before tucking the other one into his ear.

“What do you want to hear?” Lance asked, almost shy. “Fall Out Boy?”

Keith shook his head and let his hand slide down Lance’s side to his hip. His voice was embarrassingly soft when he said, “You can pick.”

Lance blinked at him before looking down to the phone.

A few seconds later, music filtered into his ear through the headphones. It was a slow song, one that Keith didn’t recognize. The singer’s voice was low and steady, and the beat was soft. Keith knew that Lance liked pop music the most, but he hadn’t expected something this slow or soft.

But it was perfect for what Keith had been thinking.

He moved a little closer, bringing his other hand up to Lance’s hip, shifting away from the fence so they were standing face to face. Lance’s eyes were wide, and he was biting his lip, but it looked like he was fighting back a smile.

Keith pulled Lance closer. The song crooned in their ears.

“Is this why we’re out here?” Lance asked, and now, he really was smiling.

Keith shrugged, “Maybe.”

Lance’s arms slipped around his neck, and now, they were pressed together along the length of their bodies.

“I can’t exactly dance with my leg like this,” Lance murmured, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t dance either,” Keith admitted.

“Then what was your plan when you lured me out here in the dark, Mr. Kogane?”

Keith’s heart leapt in his chest, and he squeezed Lance’s hips in his hands. He said, “Like I told you, to get far enough away so no one would hear us.”

“And then what?”

He paused, “Honestly, I don’t know. I just—I like being here. I’m glad that it’s safe, and we’re not constantly running and everything but…”

Lance seemed serious now, the flirty edge they’d been toeing all but gone. He tipped his head to the side and said, “But what?”

“I miss being with you,” Keith said carefully, the song accentuating his admission. “I miss it being just us. Together.”

“You do?” Lance’s voice shook a little when he asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Keith replied.

Lance didn’t say anything for a long moment, but then, he laid his head down on Keith’s shoulder and swayed to the side along with the music.

“When my leg gets better,” Lance said, basically right into his ear, “I’m going to teach you to dance.”

Keith laughed, soft, and swayed to the music with Lance. The night around them was quiet, the breeze was steady, and Lance was warm in his arms. Keith could add this moment, tonight with Lance, to the best moments of his life. The more time that he spent with Lance, the longer the list got.

“Deal,” Keith murmured.

#rachel and maire write klance #rachel writes klance #rachel writes stuff #klance: more than alive #klance zombie apocalypse au #klance #voltron #let me know what y'all think!!!!

19 notes · View notes