#matching as blue and red for klance hell yeah

[salmoninzeeweed]

I'm aroace but if I ever get a partner I WILL force them to match as blue and red with me

Klance is canon king.

[damnlance]

klance angst prompt # 11 please?

Klangst Prompt #11

11. “What keeps you up at night?”

Summary: A lot has happened in the past few days that has Keith’s mind going haywire. And to top it off, they’re all FINALLY on their way home to Earth. Keith should be happy.. but he isn’t.

-

There are so many stars in space, it’s actually quite terrifying.

At least Keith thinks so anyway.

The way that there’s an endless epitome of these twinkly little burning balls of gas for miles and miles, everywhere they go, everywhere they are, these seemingly never ending burning balls of gas following them, surrounding them, consuming them, it’s..

Terrifying.

It’s the middle of the night and Keith’s alone, sitting in the head of the castle ship, staring out into space. He can’t sleep again and it’s the fifth night in a row. Tiredness eats away at the back of his brain but he can’t bring himself to care. Not when a million and one thoughts and worries are itching underneath his skin. Thoughts he’s too afraid to elaborate on because he knows it’ll just make things worse..

The hissing sound of the automatic sliding doors bring him out of his thoughts as slippers being slid across the floor make their way closer to him. Keith doesn’t bother turning around, content to talk with whomever could be awake and looking for him. But as soon as they make their way closer, a familiar scent hits his nostrils and he knows exactly who it is.

Ocean breeze cologne from the space mall. Lance fucking McClain. His boyfriend.

“Thought I’d find you in here.” Lance says with a hint of happiness in his voice.

Keith turns back to look at him and blushes a little from the sight. He’s wearing his pajamas; blue tank-top and silk shorts to match and even though he’s had them for a while now, Keith still gets a little flustered from all of Lance’s beautiful exposed skin. He’s got a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he comes to plop down next to Keith. The second their bodies touch, Keith curls into Lance’s side like a cat curling up by a fire. Lance welcomes him eagerly and wraps his arm around him, enveloping him in his blanket.

“Everything okay?” Keith asks, staring out at the stars.

“I should be asking you that,” Lance answers. “You’re the one who wasn’t in bed when I woke up.”

Keith nods and shrugs. “Sorry.. just overthinking again.”

“Hey,” Lance quirks up his eyebrow, “I thought that was my job?”

Keith smirks and rolls his eyes. “I’m being serious, Lance.”

Lance smiles a bit. “I know, babe. Just trying to make you smile.”

There’s a beat of silence as they both look out at the stars and space. It’s so blinding and deafening at the same time and it makes the hairs on Keith’s arms stand on end. But he can’t stop the thoughts that come to his brain. Loneliness, abandonment, isolation. It’s all in there. Keith closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath through his nose, putting his head down to stare at his red paladin slippers.

“Something on your mind..?” Lance is watching him intently, gently, not wanting to frighten him into closing off like he usually does. They’ve been dating for about a year, or whatever the space equivalency is to that. Lance confessed his feelings after a successful mission and everyone was high on happiness and how well they worked together as a team. And by ‘confessed’, he actually just kissed Keith silly in front of everyone and when Keith surprisingly and eagerly kissed back, that was all the confirmation Lance needed to know that they had the same feelings.

So to say that Lance knows Keith like he knows the back of his hand is an understatement. He knows Keith like he knows the entirety of his hand.

Keith shrugs and tucks his long, black hair behind his ear.

“I’m scared.” He says so quietly, Lance doesn’t think he hears him right.

“Scared?” Lance frowns. “Of what?”

“The stars..” Keith decides to say as he pushes himself away from Lance, and the blanket, to stand up and walk over to the large castle windows. Lance stares at the back of his head, those perfect eyebrows arched in confusion.

“The stars??” Lance chuckles nervously. “Uh, hate to break it to you, love, but we’ve been in space for god knows how long and you haven’t seemed that scared to me.. I think..?” It’s quiet as Lance waits for an elaboration. He watches as Keith bounces from foot to foot, arms crossed over his chest as he holds himself, shrinking in on himself. But he doesn’t say anything, most likely getting his thoughts together.

“Keith,” Lance’s voice is calm. “This is like, the fifth time in a row you’ve been up pacing this room like a madman. So.. what keeps you up at night? You can tell me.”

Keith stops pacing and looks at the ground. “Do.. Do you ever feel so small when you look out at all those endless stars?”

Lance thinks for a moment. “Yeah,” he nods, “All the time.”

“But..” Keith turns around now, facing his boyfriend. “Do you ever feel lonely? O-or scared? Like there’s just too much stars and space and it’s just you and no one else..?” He stops to really examine Lance’s face and is surprised to find him staring with a hint of sadness in his blue eyes. Like something Keith has said has punctured a sensitive nerve and it’s now throbbing painfully.

“Sometimes..” Lance finally admits after a beat of silence. He sits back on his hands and stretches his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. “The first time I realized that we were actually stuck on the other side of a wormhole, it was all I could think about. I mean.. I left everyone behind, thinking that we would just be back in a few days. And that’s when everyday for me became scary and lonely..”

Keith nods, listening. He twists the ends of his hair and chews on his lip before responding.

“And do you still feel that way?”

“A little,” Lance looks at him. “But now that we’re finally going home, I’m relieved.”

Keith’s shoulders tense up at the mention of home and he rubs the back of his neck. “Well.. that’s still how I feel. Even now that we’re going.. going h..” He can’t say it. That place has never even been a home to him. All that Earth has ever done is bring him sadness and loneliness, taking everyone he’s ever loved away from him.

Lance finally gets it now.

“Babe,”he stands up, dropping the blanket from around his shoulders, “Do you really feel like that?”

Keith nods.

“Even.. with me?”

That gets Keith’s attention and he looks up, feeling a lump form in his throat.

“No, Lance,” He crosses the empty distance between them and immediately grabs Lance’s hips, pulling them close. “I could never feel that way with you. You make me so happy! It’s just..”

Lance eagerly waits for his response. Patiently. Nervously.

“I don’t have a home to go back to.” It’s said so quietly that Lance could have sworn he dreamed it.

“What? Keith,” He catches Keith’s gaze by grabbing his perfect, chiseled jaw in his hand and forcing those beautiful violet eyes to look at him. “What the hell are you talking about?? Don’t you know that we’re your family?? That I’m your family?”

Keith’s bottom lip quivers. “B-but you've got your mom and d-dad and siblings all waiting for you! And Hunk has his family and Pidge has her family, everyone’s got someone waiting for them.. I wish my father was waiting for me.”

Lance can only watch as his boyfriend, the love of his life and the thief of his heart, silently cries just a few centimeters away from him. It shatters his heart.

“Baby,” He says, voice strong and a small bit wavering. Keith looks up, tears and snot running down his face. Lance’s heart breaks some more. “You are my entire life. You have my heart, my soul, my everything, and you mean so much to me that it absolutely scares me.”

Keith sniffs once, blinking more tears down his cheeks.

“A life without you in it,” Lance continues, placing his warm hands on either side of Keith’s neck, “Is the worst thing that could happen to me. Worse than getting stuck on the other side of a wormhole, trillions of miles away from home.”

“Really?” Keith’s voice breaks a little as a small smile creeps up on his face. Lance swoons leaning forward to kiss Keith’s forehead.

“Yeah, love.” He smiles. “Really.” He wipes Keith’s tear stained cheeks with his thumbs and leans in close to press their foreheads together. “And baby??”

“Hm?” Keith stares into those blue eyes he loves so much, nostrils full of the ocean breeze scent he loves so much.

“You’ll never be without me,” Lance whispers, just for Keith to hear. “When we make it home, you’ll have me. You’ll also have Shiro and Pidge, Matt and Hunk, Romelle and Allura and Coran. Even your freakishly hot galra mom!”

Keith laughs, his eyes crinkling closed into cute little crescents and the sound light and airy, going straight to Lance’s heart. Another kiss is pressed to Keith’s forehead as Lance moves to tuck his bangs away from his face and behind his ear.

“You’ll always have me, okay?”

Keith nods, leaning forehead to capture Lance’s lips in a searing kiss. Lance kisses back, every word he said to Keith showing in his kiss. They pull away and hug each other, Keith burying his face into Lance’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Lance.” He whispers. “I love you.”

And Lance smiles, a light blush coming in on his cheeks.

“I love you too, Keithy.”

-END-

(send me a klangst prompt!)

[tobiasfailsatlife]

Klance Aladdin Headcannon Pt.2

The next day Keith comes out of his lamp to find Lance struggling to put on his prince clothes

“How the heck am I supposed to wear this, Pidge? I can’t even put it on!” Lance says, not even noticing Keith behind him.

Keith snaps his fingers and watches Lance jump as his prince clothes appear on him. 

“Holy shit! Do not do that! Oh my god, you scared the shit out of me,” Lance says.

“Ready do impress the princess?” Keith asks with a sad smile.

“Hell yeah!” Lance says excitedly before looking at Keith. When he sees that Keith kind of looms sad, he gets concerned. “Are you ok?”

“Uh, yeah. Just… tired,” Keith says forcing a smile.

“I can’t wait to see the Princess. I mean she might not recognize me but… I know she’s the one for me. I met her before I knew she was a princess and we just connected, you know? I feel like it was the type of connection you only feel with a soulmate,” 

Keith smiles despite wanting to cry. He buries all his prior feelings for Lance and promises that all his interactions with Lance will now be strictly professional 

Then Keith creates a whole grand opening for Lance and decides to play Lance’s right-hand man when meeting the Sultan.

Lance makes a great impression on the sultan and actually is really good at smooth-talking and conversing with royalty. Keith can’t help but be impressed by this boy.

He notices that the Sultas advisor, Zarkon keeps doubting Lance, questioning him in every way.

Keith is surprised when a nearby guard smiles at him, full-on checking him out. *In all fairness, Keith looks HOT in his red outfit*

He ignores it though and focuses on Lance. Then he sees Princess Allura emerge.

“I’m Prince Lancelot. You must be Princess Allura, right?” Lance says. Keith watches as he gives her a soft smile and frowns, wishing Lance would look at him like that

Keith watches as Allura seems almost repulsed by Lance and storms away. He watches as Lance’s face fills with sadness before quickly pulling a smile on when talking to the sultan

Keith can’t help but walk up to Lance as soon as he sees the Sultan’s focus shift away from Lance

“Lance, are you ok?”

“I think I messed up, Keith,”

“Do you really love her?” Keith asks, looking him straight in the eye.

“What do you mean? Yes! Of course I do!” Lance says, surprised at Keith’s question 

Pushing down all feeling of sadness and rejection, Keith smiles and says “Let’s get your Princess tonight then. Ok? I’ll plan something for the two of you,” 

Lance gives Keith a soft smile and thanks him, leaving Keith with mixed feelings. Sad because Lance loves the princess, but happy that Lance will be happy. *Also Keith feels kind of jittery because of how Lance just smiled at him

Keith and Lance are given a room by the sultan and Keith decides to create a game plan with Lance 

“So I have this carpet. It’s magic and I think you’ll really like it. Actually it’s a wolf but it can shapeshifter into a carpet,” Keith says. Then he zaps up a beautiful magic carpet that are the same colors as Cosmo. “This is Cosmo. He’s kept me company for a while now,” 

Lance watches in awe as the carpet flies.

“Do you want me to teach you how to fly it? I mean it’s not that difficult but a short ride wouldn’t hurt. You’re not afraid of heights, right?” Keith asks. 

Lance eagerly learns how to fly Cosmo with Keith. Lance learns that Cosmo can teleport as well and anyone who holds on to him will teleport with him. Pidge watches the two of them leave and rolls her eyes because she was left behind (giving Pidge pronouns she/her because what pronouns she prefers weren’t clear)

Lance finds himself shrieking at Keith flies Cosmo quickly. Lance is scared of falling off and has never been this high up in his life.

“You know you can hold onto me if you want,” Keith offers softly as they fly. 

“C-cool,” Lance says, gently wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist. Keith can’t help but blush as he feels Lance hold on to him. 

After a while, Keith let’s Lance steer and smiles as Lance whoops in delight as he flies Cosmo through the sky. 

Keith involuntarily wraps his arms around Lance’s waist as he flies faster and visibly feels Lance tense up. 

“Sorry,” Keith says blushing.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” Lance says blushing as well. When Keith doesn’t move to wrap his arms around Lance’s waist, Lance slows down and slowly wraps Keith’s arms around his waist.

Keith CANT stop blushing as Lance does it because OH MY GOD WHAT IF HE LIKES HIM

“Now I won’t have to worry about you falling off,” Lance teases. To be honest, Lance really like the way it felt when Keith wrapped his arms around him.

When they get back, Keith’s hair is very messy from the wind blowing through it and is an absolute blushing mess because he didn’t let go of Lance for the rest of the time.

“Oh god, that was so fun,” Lance says with a laugh as he sits down. “Pidge, you should’ve been there!” He says looking at his monkey friend

Keith looks at Lance’s messy hair and has stop himself from reaching out and touching it to fix it.

“Are you ok, Keith? You’re all red! Oh my god your hair is so messy! You look adorable,” Lance said with a loud laugh. Keith just blushes harder because Lance called him adorable 

“Yeah I’m fine. It’s been such a long time since I took Cosmo out for a ride,” Keith said. Cosmo shapeshifted back into a wolf to be gently petted by Keith.

Lance also reaches out and pets Cosmo, coming closer to Keith.

Keith smiles at Lance and watches Lance slowly give him a happy smile. 

They stare at each other for a few seconds before Keith remembers the Princess

“Your Princess is waiting,” Keith mutters, pain somewhat obvious in his voice

“Princess? Oh! Allura!” Lance says taking a step back from Keith.

“Yeah, you should probably go,” Keith said, folding his arms and looking at Lance. “Cosmo will be good,” Keith said. Cosmo snapped back into his carpet form and let Lance climb on top of him.

“Bye Keith,” Lance said as he flew out the window.

“Bye” Keith muttered. He then zapped himself into some comfy black clothes. Keith watched Allura and Lance the entire time. He watched as Allura wrapped her arms around Lance as he flew the magic carpet past the palace walls. He watched them smile and laugh and talk. He didn’t want to see anymore

For the first time in many, many years Keith found himself crying. He couldn’t go in his lamp because Lance had it. He didn’t know why he thought he and Lance or ‘Prince Lancelot’ might have been a thing. He cried for a long time, on his lamp. Then, after a few minutes, he realized that Lance hadn’t come back. Cosmo teleported to him and let out a worried barked 

Then, Lance rubbed the lamp and Keith was teleported to inside the lamp, only to be forced out of it.

“Why are we… underwater?” Keith asked, slowly turning around to see Lance passed out in the water.

“Lance! Wake up!” Keith said shaking him violently. “I can’t help you if you don’t make a wish!” Keith cried.

“Think, Keith! Think! Ok, Lance. We’re gonna bend the rules here, ok? You rubbed the lamp which means you wanted to make a wish? So using my best judgement I’m going to assume your wish was to be out of this water and saved, right? Right? I saw a nod. I’m getting you out of here,” Keith said, zapping them both out of the water and into their room.

“Please wake up. Please let me not have been too late,” Keith muttered, laying Lance in the floor. When Lance coughed up water and started breathing Keith almost cried with relief.

He gently cradled Lance as he coughed and shivered. “You’re going to be ok,” Keith muttered, holding Lance tightly.

When Lance stopped coughing and was breathing normally he hugged Keith.

“Thanks,” Lance said, giving him a big hug.

“Don’t thank me. It cost you a wish,” Keith said. 

“I don’t care,” Lance said. 

“Do you want to change? I mean you’re all wet,” Keith said when he was 100% sure Lance was ok.

Lance changed and, with the help of Keith, told the sultan that Zarkon had tried to kill him. 

Zarkon is arrested 

After they get back to the room, Keith asks Lance if he wants to change

“Uh, yeah,” Lance said. He walked towards the wardrobe and glanced at all the colorful night time outfits. 

“Blue,” Keith blurted out as Lance reached for the green one. 

“What?” Lance said, turning his head towards Keith.

“Nevermind, sorry,” Keith said, embarrassed. He liked Lance in blue. It matched his ocean eyes.

“You want me to wear the blue one?” Lance said putting down the green one and grabbing the light blue one.

“No! I mean yes! I mean wear whatever you want,” Keith said blushing.

“I’ll wear blue,” Lance said, pausing for a moment, “but you have to wear red,” 

“Ok,” Keith said blushing. He zapped himself into a red nighttime outfit.

He stared at Lance for a second “Can I zap you into your clothes?” 

“Since when do you ask?” Lance said with a smirk.

Keith rolled his eyes and zapped Lance into his blue outfit. “Did the outfit get smaller or something?” Lance asked, realize how much it hugged him. 

Keith blushes because he hadn’t meant to make it tighter. He snapped his fingers and the fabric went back to its normal form.

“Thanks. You look nice in red,” Lance said, giving Keith a smile. Keith blushed (something he’d been doing a lot more lately)

“Um, thanks. Wait! How did you date go with Allura?” Keith asked (despite knowing exactly how it went). 

“It went ok,” Lance said.

“Just ok?” Keith asked, holding back a smile.

“Yeah, I mean getting kidnapped and thrown into the water wasn’t ideal. But Allura was… nice. I mean I think she likes me but I’m not sure if I ... never mind. Yeah, it went well. I had a good time. What are those gold things around your arms?”

“They represent my servitude as a genie. I can’t remember the last time they weren’t there.”

There’s a moment of silence and Lance studies him for a few seconds. 

“Ok, well, I’ll let you sleep. Good night,” Keith said, different thoughts entering his mind. What if he didn’t like her as much as he thought he did?

“You know, they have two beds in this room. You don’t have to go in your lamp,” Lance said.

“Yeah,” Keith said. He looked at how the beds were about two feet apart and one bigger than the other. Going against his gut, he sat down on the smaller one.

Lance was surprised but happy and faced Keith as he laid down.

After about an hour of laying down, Keith opens his eyes slightly to find Lance studying. He swears he hears him say “You're pretty,”

The next morning Keith woke up to find Lance’s eyes on him.

“Hi,” Keith said, blushing.

“Hi,” Lance said, watching the raven-haired genie rub his eyes and sit up. He looked really nice in red. 

After lunch with the Princess, Lance realized Keith’s lamp was missing.

Keith’s lamp is rubbed but he feels like something is wrong. He realizes that Zarkon had somehow acquired his lamp

“Who are you?” Keith hisses as he sees Zarkon.

“I knew you were different. I am your new, more competent master. For my first wish, I want to be sultan of Altea,,” Zarkon said. Keith couldn’t believe it. So this was the guy. The evil sadistic master he was expecting. Keith’s hands betrayed him as the magic he’d been given worked for Zarkon. 

Something in him knew innocent people would be hurt. He watched as Sultan Alfor was forced in, Allura screaming behind him. He watched as his magic forced his royal clothes on Zarkon. He watched as Allura looked at him with disgust.

“You! Why must you do this? Why must you conspire against Lancelot with you evil powers!” Allura screamed at him. Keith remained quiet and put his head down. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the lamp on the throne and Lance who was hiding. Zarkon laughed as all of the sultan’s guards turned against him. 

Then, Lance made a run for the lamp, only to be hit away by Zarkon.

“Lance,” Keith whispered as he saw the boy thrown to the ground. 

“You stupid asshole,” Lance muttered getting up.

“Genie, for my second wish, I want to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world,” Zarkon ordered. Once again, Keith felt his magic being used against him. 

“Allura, this prince is nothing but a boy,” Zarkon said putting Lance back i

“My first order will be to banish you to the coldest poles in this world,” Zarkon said to Lance. In an instant, Lance found himself and Pidge  teleported to an icy- cold pole.

Keith was freaking out at this point until he saw Cosmo. “Go!” Keith ordered and Cosmo quickly teleported away to find Lance and Pidge. 

Zarkon makes Lotor known as his son and orders Princess and Allura to marry him

Keith recognizes Lotor as the guard from earlier, the one who looked at him. Keith sees Lotor looking at him now as well

“Father, as tempting as it is to marry a Princess, I must remind you that Allura is no longer royalty. You stripped her father from the throne.” Zarkon thinks about what his son has to say before agreeing reluctantly.

“I want to marry a high source of power and from what I’ve seen, this genie seems to possess a great deal of magic” Lotor says. 

At this point, Keith is just hoping that Lance is safe. He’s fine with dealing with whatever Zarkon would do to him alone.

Lance finds Pidge in an icy biome and after Cosmo finds him, he’s teleported back to Altea. 

“Is Keith ok?” Lance whispers to Cosmo. Cosmo just whimpers, but he knows Keith doesn’t want him to help him. 

Zarkon eventually talks Lotor into marrying Allura, claiming that Keith could also be a part of his life as a prince

“I will never be your wife!” Allura yells, holding her father in her arms

Zarkon, not wanting to tolerate her rebellion tries to use his last wish. “Genie, I wish that Allura was desperately in love with Lotor”

“Um I can’t make anyone fall in love with another person,” Keith says, crossing his arms. Zarkon yells and berates Keith, ordering him to do as he says

Then, Keith sees Lance out of the corner of his eye and so does Allura. Glancing at one another and then the lamp, Keith and Allura both know they must distract Lotor and Zarkon

Then Allura smiles at Lotor, causing Zarkon to give a scarified smile. “That’s more like it, genie” he says

When they have Lotor and Zarkon’s attention, Lance runs to the lamp, only to be frozen in place by Zarkon. Allura stops smiling, her eyes filling with fear.

“Back so soon? It seems like I will need to eliminate you… permanently,” Zarkon says. Slowly, red smoke fills the air, and Zarkon shapeshifters into a large serpent

Keith can’t do anything as Lance is slowly crushed. Zarkon still has his lamp in his grips.

“I am the most powerful being in the universe” Zarkon says, laughing maniacally as he slowly squeezes Lance to death.

“No you’re not” Lance says

“What do you mean?” Zarkon hisses, loosening his grip slighlty

“T-the genie! He- he gave you your power, he can take it away. He’ll always be more powerful than you!”

Keith looks at Lance his eyes turning wide, wondering what the hell he’s doing. And then it clicks. 

“Genie!” Zarkon roars, “I wish, I was an all-powerful genie,”

Keith smiles as magic flies freely from his hands. Zarkon laughs are soon cut short as he sees golden bands forming on his arms. He finds himself dragging Lotor down with him as he’s pulled into a dark looking lamp.

Soon, the dark magic Zarkon casted disappears, leaving the palace in its original state.

Lance runs to Keith, letting Allura tend to her father

“Keith! You’re ok!” Lance said, engulfing him in a tight hug

“Yeah, been through worse. Are you ok though? It looks like you’ve been beaten up pretty badly,” Keith said.

“Pfft! This is nothing. I’m fine!” Lance says with a laugh. “Actually I might not be but I’m ok for now,” 

Keith stares at Lance for a second before saying “I was worried about you,”

For a few seconds they stop and forget reality, staring at each other for a few seconds. Then Lance hears Princess Allura’s voice and turns around.

Lance holds Keith’s lamp and stares at it for a few seconds.

“Well, ready to go get your princess, Prince Lancelot?” Keith said, giving Lance a sad smile.

“I’m not a prince,” Lance said

“I can make you one again,” Keith said, ignoring the small ache he felt in his chest.

“Fine,” Lance said. At least Keith would be able to see him dressed as a prince one last time. Perhaps he’d make this outfit blue.

“I wish…” Lance begun.

“Whenever you’re ready. Remember! Invite me to the wedding,” Keith said.

“I wish you were free, Keith” Lance said with a sigh.

“One princ- what?”  Keith said as he watched magic forming around him.

“I said I wish you were free,” Lance said, gently grabbing Keith’s hand.

Keith watched his arms in awe as the golden bands were removed. 

“Lance, no,” Keith said as the smoke around him disappeared. “Lance you can’t do this,” Keith said. “There must be a way to get your wish back,”

“I don’t want my wish back. I don’t want to be a prince,” Lance said, squeezing Keith’s hand.

“I’ll talk to Allura and the sultan. I’m sure that she loves you-“ Keith says.

“I don’t love her,” Lance says, letting out a deep breathe. 

“What?”

“You asked me if I loved her before and I don’t love Allura. I mean, I thought I did but I don’t think that that is what I want,”

“Well then what do you want?” Keith let go of Lance’s hand to cross to his arms.

“I-I don’t exactly know yet but I think you’re gonna be a part of whatever I want. I mean, I hope you feel the same way about that,” Lance let’s put a nervous laugh.

Keith just stares absolutely dumbfounded because he can’t believe what he just heard

“God, I was stupid for saying that. Just preten-“

Then Keith just kisses him because HOLY FUCK HE LIKES HIM

Anyways that’s enough 1am story ideas with my best friend and I 

Let��s hope this doesn’t floppp

[spopz]

hm. here's some kl

hey folks now that we’ve all said fuck canon and fuck s8 i decided to compile a couple of my fav klance fics for some better vibes! i’m including some classics so that i can Stress how Good they will make you feel, and some which are ones i don’t think i’ve seen recced too often but they’re def good quality! without further ado here we go :) putting most of them under the cut for the sake of length

✫ just come to me once by laallomri

Lance’s smile widens. He leans forward, and the prickling in Keith’s chest gives way to butterflies, fluttering wildly in his stomach, and oh wow has Lance always had this many freckles, has he always had eyelashes that long, has he—

Lance pokes his cheek, right over the Galra mark. Keith blinks.

“I can’t believe you and your mom have matching face tattoos now,” he says, and it’s so fucking dumb, but it’s exactly the kind of dumb thing Keith has longed to hear, and before he knows what he’s doing he’s surging forward, almost knocking Lance back against Red’s paw, and throwing his arms around him.

In which Keith lives on a space whale, goes on a road trip, and (eventually) gets a boyfriend.

[i have no doubt that this is already a classic or at least will be considered one soon enough, but it was finished recently and i can personally vouch for the softness, sweetness, and quality of this fic and the WRITER!! it’s just such a great feel-good piece and wonderfully written. 10/10 made me cry out of pure joy]

✫ speak for the stars by speaks

All Lance has ever wanted is to prove his worth. So, maybe it’s fitting that the Black Lion picked him right when Lotor betrayed them and Shiro’s clone went rogue. Right when the team was at its lowest and closest to failing.

The desire for glory that Lance grew up with—that drove him to join the Garrison and pursue fighter class, that drove him into his one-sided rivalry with Keith, that drove him after Keith in the Sonoran Desert and into Blue’s cockpit and into space and into the war in the first place—it’s a relic of the past for him now. All he wants these days is to keep his friends alive and the Coalition afloat, and he tries his best, despite the pervasive fear that he isn’t the right person for this monumental task. Despite the growing certainty that Black picked the wrong guy.

This fear will be put to the ultimate test when the mess that ensnares the team after the clone disaster turns out to be a labyrinth more winding than any of them were prepared for. Because Lance might just be the only person equipped to lead them through this maze and into the light.

[this fic. THIS FIC. if you were rightfully disappointed by the way characters were treated, especially in the later seasons, then PLEASE read this. everyone is done so much justice and the writing is top notch. had scenes and lines that just... took my breath away. also the writer has some excellent other fics too, which if you haven’t already read then you def should!]

✫ hey, mom, i met a boy by mothpoem

“Sweetheart,” says Lance, his hair longer, his shoulders broader, the slope of his nose uneven now where it didn’t used to be, “you don’t know the half of it.”

[i wish i was kidding but just reading the description alone invokes so much emotion in me?? my throat closed up just typing this ohhh my god every time i reread this— probably three times already bc i don’t want to wear it out— i absolutely lose my shit. teary smiles, the works. i will never shut up about this fic or this author. please read it]

✫ colours and planes, laser guns and champagne by skelebro

Shiro invites Hunk and Lance to his roleplaying campaign, and it's all fun and games except for how Lance is constantly on the verge of fighting the team warrior in real life.

[okay this one is 2016 era and it’s also a lot shorter but i read it and was like woah! you know. felt good. felt organic :) simple and fun and sweet]

✫ eternity (was in our lips and eyes) by thespacenico

Lance feels like he’s on the cusp of a life-changing revelation.

“I told him not to tell you.”

And this time, Keith doesn’t seem to have trouble asking the unavoidable question: “Why?”

Lance looks at Keith, and everything falls into place.

A life-changing, mind-blowing, head-splitting, earth-shattering revelation.

[okay this fic did me in it’s just really God Damn Good. also while i’m on the topic the author is writing an INSANELY cute klancemas series featuring the whole squad and if you want those soft holiday feels i’d highly recommend that too]

✫ you are the moon that breaks the night by talking_bird

"He looks up then and stares the beast right in the eyes—right in Lance’s eyes. Because in all the terror and fleeing, Keith forgot that part, that somewhere, underneath all that fur and teeth is Lance. Lance."

The simple truth is that Keith Kogane is in love with his childhood best friend, Lance McClain. It's a simple truth he plans to keep locked away until the day he dies, but that was before Lance survived a grisly animal attack. Now, a month later, Keith is resolved to confess.

But the full moon has other plans for them...

[admittedly i haven’t read this one yet but i’ve already heard good things and the tags themselves are just... Hell Yeah... i’ll probs update this w/ my personal thoughts but i’m super excited!! EDIT: IT WAS V GOOD!!!]

✫ it’s you that’s haunting me by perfchan

Keith is a loner; his interactions with others tend toward clumsy or strained, but he has a persistent enthusiasm for the paranormal. Lance is a recent college grad; caught up in his day-to-day, he wouldn’t call himself unhappy, but suddenly feels that his life lacks direction. When Lance is introduced to Keith’s ghost hunting videos, his interest is piqued and he can’t help but want to tag along. Initially opposed, Keith soon finds himself warming to the company of the living.

A little tongue-in-cheek, a little cliché, and a little bit of a slow burn. A not-too-serious ghost hunting AU.

[okay i’m so bad w/ anything paranormal but this was SO good and cute pls read]

✫ the expiation expedition by intelligentairhead, obstinaterixatrix

Lance is well aware that miscommunications can result in horrific, preferably avoidable mishaps, which is why he tries to circumvent them whenever possible.

It just figures that the state of an entire planet's fragile political climate rests on him running straight into one.

[okokokok i don’t see this one on many lists but it SHOULD be it’s got fake dating! lesbian aliens! politics! it’s really good i have to reread it soon ALSO check out both the writers!!]

[nyctolovian]

hey, not sure if you’re still taking bingo requests but if so can I get uhhh touch starved lance?? bonus if it’s klance??

Heya! Thanks a bunch for the prompt for @voltronbingo (i took like,,,, forever oops?) I hope  it’s not too late or smth idk :p

The title is taken from Heart by Sleeping at Last. It’s platonic klance because I didn’t really want to write anything romantic for some random reason (I’m hella inconsistent) but i still hope you’ll like it!

AO3 link to fic

and just let the walls cave in

Before Lance knew it, his bed was overflowing with blankets and pillows and it irritated him to find them on the floor. Still, it didn’t feel enough — something was missing.

It was bad enough that he couldn’t fall asleep — a problem Lance had never faced in his life. But it was something else entirely to lie awake at night, heart palpitating out of control, as he tossed and turned, and pulled his blankets and pillows this way and that.

The problem wasn’t that he was not tired at night. Hell! He was exhausted and sore all day, eyes dry and limbs heavy.

It’s not like he wanted to screw up all the training exercises that they’ve been having. He knew how important they were. With him, Keith and Allura new to their changed paladin roles, practice was something they needed more than ever. However, Lance’s significantly slower reflexes and inability to stay attentive was really hindering everyone.

Even in Red, he could feel Allura’s eyes glaring holes into him all the way from the blue lion. Keith’s yelling wasn’t much help either and Pidge’s pitying looks made Lance feel worse. But at least Hunk had been trying to give him some tips for falling asleep while Coran had supplied him with all the extra pillows and blankets he had requested for.

Lance sighed as he pulled the fallen blankets and pillows back onto his bed. With a sigh, he sat up. After digging through the piles of comforters, he found his bolster and hugged it tightly, burying his face into it. However, at the slightest shift, more blankets and pillows spilled onto the floor again.

His temper flared as he shot up and kicked at the blankets in frustration. Violently, he ruffled his hands through his hair. Exhaustion quickly cooled his anger though. He threw his hands back down on his mattress.

Hunk said something about how drinking milk could help him sleep at night. Lance got off the bed sluggishly. He could try that. There should be some of Kaltenecker’s milk left in the fridge. Leftovers after Hunk made some milkshake.

When Lance passed by the communal bathroom, he heard the sound of showering. He made an intelligent guess. “Keith! Did you only just finish training?”

The faucet was turned off and there was a guilty moment of silence. “Yes?”

“It’s, like — I don’t know to be honest. Time’s all weird right now. But everyone went to bed like 2 vargas ago. Even Pidge. You should be asleep!”

“What about you then?” Keith’s tone was accusatory.

Too tired to start anything with him today, Lance replied honestly, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“O-oh. Uh… Me too. Actually. So I decided to be productive. Yeah.”

“I’m heading over to the kitchen. You want anything?”

Keith pondered for a while. “Water. With ice. I’ll be out in a while.”

“Alright,” he replied before continuing his way to the kitchen. “I’ll meet you at the lounge.”

As Lance sat on the sofa of the lounge, nursing a cup of warmed milk, Keith walked in with a towel around his neck. Heavily, he plonked down beside Lance and took the cup of iced water on the table.

“I’m surprised you can still train after Allura’s millions of drills,” Lance joked. “Where do you even get your energy?”

“It’s mostly been nervous energy.” Keith downed half his drink in one go. He sagged against the sofa.

“At least you have some form of energy,” Lance mumbled bitterly. “I just can’t find any. And I can’t sleep so that helps a lot.”

Tentatively, Keith said, “For how long?”

“A month? Ugh! I’m just so exhausted,” Lance groaned.

“Why though?”

He shrugged. “I really don’t know. I’ve just been uncomfortable and uneasy all day.”

Keith slid sideways against the sofa with a pitying frown on his face. “Hey, Lance. I’m sorry I keep losing my temper and yelling at you. I knew you were trying but I still got angry.” There wasn’t anymore water in the cup so he settled on sucking on ice cubes.

Lance watched the little irregular bump against Keith’s cheek, where the ice cubes were. Cute , his brain chirped. He was too tired to correct it. “Well, but don’t apologise. You’re just doing your job as the new leader. You know, keeping us in check and stuff. Although maybe it’d be nice to have a little less yelling in general.”

Keith huffed in amusement. “I’ve been anxious and exhausted all day so everything just became anger. But I’ll try.”

“So you have been exhausted,” Lance said. “Well, here I thought you never tired out.”

“Of course I’m tired!” He pouted. “I haven’t been sleeping well ever since… our battle with Zarkon.” He shook his cup, ice tinkling against the ceramic-like material.

At some point, Keith’s head had fallen to rest on Lance’s shoulder. But both were too tired and comfortable to shift. It was the calmest Lance had ever felt in ages. In fact, he had the urge to embrace Keith and feel his warmth against his chest. Maybe that would ease the tension in his throat.

“Nightmares?” Lance asked.

Keith shook his head. “Just stressed out.” He paused. “And maybe some nightmares. I just— I hope Shiro—” A sigh escaped him. There was no need to explain himself.

Keith’s head grew heavier against Lance’s shoulder. Lance peered down and although Keith’s fringe blocked most of his face, he still caught sight of trembling lips before they were bitten down.

Stretching out his other arm, Lance gave Keith a sleepy smile, “Want to hug it out? I’m not Hunk but I’m a McClain family certified hugger. You know, my sister, Veronica, says that my arms are long so they can—”

Before he could finish, Keith had burrowed his head into Lance’s chest. Taking that as permission, Lance wrapped his arms around the other boy gently, placing a hand on the back of his head.

Lance could feel Keith’s raspy breath against his chest. To match his breathing, Lance gave him small pats on the head and his fluffy mullet bounced lightly with each one.

Bit by bit, the boy in his arms relaxed. His breathing grew deeper as he shifted to encircle his arms around Lance’s waist. “Thanks,” Lance heard him murmur into his chest.

“No problem, mullet,” Lance said. And although Lance wouldn’t admit it, he was grateful for the hug too. The itching feeling in his chest was gone now, replaced with the warmth of Keith pressed against it.

Lance realised belatedly that he had probably been touch-starved the past month. It’s been such a long time since he had someone to cuddle with. Hunk used to be his go-to for hugs but lately he was too tired after the intense training. This was the first hugging session in months and he was reluctant to let it go.

Good thing it also seemed that way for Keith, who clung to him like a koala and never budging.

So the boys stayed that way, in this moment of equilibrium. Because, right then, it felt okay to just be vulnerable for a while. It had been battle after battle after training after training and when they were allowed this little bit of quiet safety, they couldn’t bear to part with it.

With each passing second, Lance’s eyelids gained a new kilogram. He was growing sleepy.

And, judging by his soft snores, Keith had fallen asleep already. That was quick. Rolling his eyes, Lance laid his head on the top of Keith’s exhaustedly.

Breathing in the fragrance of shampooed hair and, beneath it, a soft scent that’s distinctly Keith, Lance drifted off.

In the morning, Lance woke up, bleary eyed, legs tangled with Keith, a drooling deadweight, and closed his eyes again, smiling softly. Peace, like every other day in his life, didn’t last for long, however, because the next thing he knew, the alarms were blaring.

“Jesus christ!” Keith gasped as he jerked in Lance’s arms.

Coran yelled over the speakers, “Paladins! We’re under attack! Head over to your lions!”

The black and red paladin groaned in unison. “On the one day I finally get sleep,” Keith muttered under his breath, getting up.

“Ow! Your elbow! You’re squishing me!”

“Sorry. Sorry.”

They toppled off the sofa (Lance hit his head against the table), complete messes, and scrambled to their stations.

[madness-and-brilliancee]

arco iris de colores

A Klance/Leakira drabble. On AO3.

Leandro leaves Cuba in search of adventure. It finds him in the most unexpected of ways.

When Leandro was six years old, his mother filled their tiny Cuban kitchen with indigo light that pulsed with the beat of her heart.

He had watched as the normally sunflower yellow walls brightened and dimmed in the dark blue of his mother’s soul, and her gentle fingers guided his own over her heart, where the light was brightest. “This is the color of my quintessence,” she’d explained, and he had stumbled over the pronunciation even as his eyes never left the glow of her chest. “We all have light within us, neno. It shines brightest when we know ourselves, but never leaves us.”

“Quin-a-tiss-es.” He’d tried, and she’d smiled. “What does my light look like?”

“I don’t know. Your color will come someday, when you’re older.” The light seemed to dim as she stepped away from her son. “Everyone has a color. It doesn’t always shine the same way, but it will shine when you are happiest, or most confident. When your soul is truest to itself. Mine shines from here,” she’d motioned to her heart, “but it can be different.”

“I want mine to be there too,” Leandro had declared, with the obstinance of a six year old. She only laughed.

“We’ll see, mi niño hermoso. We’ll see.”

His quintessence didn't shine from his heart, like he’s hoped. He’d grown up watching his mothers mother's dark blue and his father’s tawny gold combine into a muted, earthy green every time they embraced, but his own light shone from his fingertips, his hands, and the thin veins in his wrist. His light was a paler blue than his mother's, a bright cerulean that paired beautifully with the varying rainbow shades of his family.

“We got lucky that all our colors look nice next to each other,” his sister Elena had mumbled as all his siblings compared the glow of their souls under the star filled Havana sky. Lilac, magenta, sunset orange. The sea green emitting from her long hair had flared around his blue as he tugged on one of her curls. “Do you think your soulmate will have a color that will be ugly to blend with?”

“I hope not,” Leandro said. “But I guess I won't find out for a while.”

When he finally leaves Cuba, days after his nineteenth birthday, all of his family’s colors are muted. His own hands flicker, a mixture of fear and excitement.

“I’ll be fine, Mamí,” he presses, but doesn't move to fight off her nervous fluttering. His siblings crowd him, his father smiles.

“I know, mi hermoso. But it's my job to worry.” He takes her hand from where it has cupped his cheek and brings it to his heart. Where he had first told her he wished his quintessence would be.

“I’ll be back. I promise.”

The United States is much bigger than he’d anticipated. He’d known it was big, of course, but how big had escaped him until he gets a glimpse of his first North American city through the glass of the train window. Towering skyscrapers and neon lights, bullet train tracks that circled every building-- it’s so different from the sleepy air of his little pueblo outside Havana that he feels his heart begin to race. All he has is his knapsack and a vague idea of what he is looking for.

He gets off in the middle of the bustling metropolis and wanders for nearly half an hour. Everything moves quickly-- the hovercars, the people, the bullet trains-- and he gets swept up in the current. Half an hour later he is standing outside a dive bar, breathless.

For a moment, everything is quiet, for the first time since he had arrived. It makes him itch for sound, of any sort. He had come looking for adventure. Where would he find it?

Then there’s a roar, a shatter of breaking glass, an unfamiliar distant pinging sound he thinks he's heard in movies. He covers his eyes and stumbles back as the roar reaches a deafening crescendo and bright white headlight blind him.

“Who the hell are you?”

Leandro blinks and lowers his arms. A glistening red motorbike purrs in front of him, headlights finally angled away. Its rider sits atop the bike, clad in leather, face hidden behind a gleaming black helmet with twin points erect on each side, like cat ears. It would be cute if the rider didn't look so dangerous.

Leandro doesn't flinch away, instead straightening and staring the rider down. The rider seems to huff at his lack of response. “I asked who you were! What are you doing in this part of town? It's a death sentence right now!”

The Cuban finally finds his voice. “I was just walking, I didn't--"

There is another pinging sound, and the dirt erupts from a patch a few feet away from the motorcycle. The rider curses. “No time.” They rev the engine and the bike roars again. “I don't know you, but unless you want to die from those drones back there, get on my bike.”

“What?”

Several other pinging sound, and more patches of dirt erupt, narrowly missing Leandro. He stumbles back. Laser guns, he realizes.

“Hurry!”

It's stupid, he knows, but one glance to the side shows several glowing drones zipping towards them, flashes of lasers rushing towards them intermittently. Without thinking, he rushes forward and swings his leg over the bike. “Hold on,” the rider says, and Leandro has to throw his arms around the leather clad waist in front of them. Suddenly the world is a blur around him.

Bright lights and vague shapes dissolve into streaks as the rider takes them shooting down the road. Behind them, Leandro still hears the sound of lasers being fired. He realizes he’s clinging tightly to the rider, and he loosens his grip slightly. “What’s going on?” He shouts over the wind, sure the sound of his voice was lost to the wind, but to his surprise the rider answers, shouting to be heard.

“Trouble! Galra drones!”

“Galra?! Here?!”

“Yes! Now hold on!”

Leandro yelps as the rider takes a viciously sharp turn, the bike tilting nearly parallel to the ground and their knees almost scraping the cement road. They straighten and Leandro turns his head to see a pair of drones crash into the side of the building they narrowly missed.

“In my pack,” The rider shouts again. Leandro has to strain his ears to hear, even though the wind carries his voice back. “There are two pistols! Can you shoot?”

“Can I what?!”

Two more shots sound past them and Leandro feels one brush his ear. His heart skips a beat. “Never mind that!” The rider speeds up. “Just get the guns and shoot behind us!”

Leandro wants to protest, but at this point he doesn't know how. Instead he reaches for the strapped pack around his savior’s hips and immediately feels the sleek handle of a pistol. He’d only ever held small stun guns before but he recognizes the shape of a gun when he feels it. He pulls it out, keeping the other arm wound tightly around the rider’s waist.

“I got it!”

“Now take the safety off and shoot!”

Leandro clicks the safety off the pistol and aims blindly behind them, firing a pair of shots wildly into the air. There is no pause in the drones shots at them.

“You're going to have to get the other one and turn around! There are too many of them! I’ll make sure you don’t fall off!”

“Are you insane!?”

The rider suddenly reaches into their pack with one hand and slides another matching pistol into the hand Leandro has on their waist before gripping the handlebars and making another wild turn. “Just shut up and trust me!”

As if.

But Leandro must be more naïve than he thinks, or just plain stupid. He takes a deep breath, clicks the safety off the second pistol, then… lets go.

It feels like time slows down as he turns in his seat, knees clenching the body of the bike, and aims both guns behind them. The drones-- there are eight of them-- continue their firing. Leandro takes a deep breath.

One. Two. Three. Shot after shot. He lines up the drones in his sights, and shoots from both guns. At first they go wild, but as he gets used to the kick and the strange angle he is shooting from, they become more accurate. One drone goes down, then two.

There is a swell in his chest as he picks the machines off. The rush of air moving past him, the warmth of the rider in front of him, the weight of the guns in his hands. He finds himself grinning without knowing it. An excited whoop rips from his throat. His fingers around the barrel of the guns shine blue.

“Only one left,” he cries over his shoulder, and the rider revs the bike again.

“Can you get it?”

Leandro only scoffs in response, once again probably lost to the wind. He aims once more.

“Hold on!”

The bike suddenly swerves in another sharp turn, and Leandro feels himself sliding. He barely has time to think, fuck, before the back of his jacket is gripped tightly, swinging him up out of his fall. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the drone light up, powering up to fire, and he shoots without thinking. It explodes.

He gasps as the bike straightens and suddenly comes to a halt. The roar drops to a purr again. They're somewhere in the outskirts of the city, the surroundings silent except for his and the rider’s panting.

“Are you okay?”

“Holy shit,” Leandro gasps, and he stumbles off the bike, the hand on the back of his jacket falling away as he falls to the floor and immediately pops back up on shaky legs. He spins around to look at the rider, who seems to be staring at him. Not that he can tell through the helmet. “Did you just make a turn like that with one hand? While holding on to me?!”

“Yeah,” they say, and Lance imagines hearing a grin in their voice. “Did you just shoot eight drones off the back of a speeding motorbike, the last one in the middle of a nearly horizontal turn?”

“Holy shit!” Leandro repeats, gripping the top of his hair with a hysterical laugh. “I did!”

“That was pretty impressive.”

“You're one to talk,” Leandro comes to stand in front of the rider. “That was amazing! We’re a pretty good team, aren’t we?”

“Considering we just met fifteen minutes ago? I say we are.”

Leandro just stands there, beaming, before something occurs to him. The smile drops off his face. “Oh my God,” he says in quiet horror. “I just did all that without a helmet.”

Silence, then a burst of laughter. Before Leandro can process what is happening, the rider is reaching up and tugging the helmet off their head. Shaggy black locks in a haphazard ponytail are revealed, along with a gleaming, sharp smile and violet eyes. Leandro’s breath whooshes out of him.

“Next time,” says the most beautiful boy Leandro has ever seen, “I’ll give you the helmet.”

Leandro blinks at him before returning his smile. “Deal,” he says, scratching the back of his neck before extending a hand. They're still glowing blue, he notes, and he can tell by the way the other boy’s eyes linger on them that he has of course notices as well. “I'm Leandro, by the way.”

He expects the boy to reach out and shake his hand, but to his surprise, he reaches down and pulls off one of his gloves. A glow of red suddenly fills the air, emitting from his fingertips. Leandro’s breath catches.

Carefully, as if scared that if he moves too fast Leandro will disappear, the rider reaches out with his ungloved hand and takes Leandro’s extended one. Instead of shining next to each other, scarlet and cerulean, the points where their hands meet burst into a bright purple light. Leandro meets the other boy’s eyes over the point of their blended colors. Their joined quintessence.

“Hi, Leandro,” The boy smiles, dangerous but warm, and strangely familiar. “My name is Akira.”

[sassysweetcollegegirls]

Chapter 5 in the Klance Equestrian AU

Keith had left the money on the floor he had a crumpled five left. It was the only money he had managed to make off the sale of his favorite jewelry before he left the Galara Galaxy. Keith had planned on using the twenty to go buy jerky and cans of beans so he wouldn’t have to eat Voltron’s precious biscuits. He didn’t know when he would get the opportunity to make them again. He was trying to limit the stallion but it was hard. 

At Galra Galaxy if Keith needed supplies or food all he had to do was go see Lotor. Granted Lotor always made Keith pay with sex,blowjobs, and various other things. He’d also numb out the experience after with drugs. He’d fill a needle full of the stuff (Keith never knew what it was sometimes he changed it) and then he'd give Keith a little shot and then he’d dress him and hand him a wad of cash and drop him off in town. 

Keith would wander through each store his eyes bleary from the drugs and fill the cart with the supplies he’d memorized to make Voltron's treats and then he’d look at all the food but he’d think about how Voltron needed a new blanket or a new saddle pad. Then he would push his cart through the checkout where all the ladies in line would look at him and he would try to shrink but he couldn’t. He knew that Lotor made him look like a druggie on purpose to isolate him and make him afraid of the people around him. 

Keith thought about the way Lance looked at the twenty like he was some kind of crazy person. Keith knew he had broken something that didn’t belong to him and he knew to replace it. He’d rather not do it by getting beat. So he offered up what little pocket change he had and tried to move on.  He and Voltron had spent most of the day outside. Keith had found a creek which would allow for him to rinse out his clothes and hang them on the fence and that’s where he was headed. He wasn’t expecting to bump into the guy in the white t-shirt again. 

“Woah. You okay t-” Hunk reached out to steady Keith his warm large hand going for Keith’s shoulder. 

“Don’t touch me.” Keith snapped he instinctively flinched as far away from the physical contact as he could. 

“You can’t talk to Hunk that way. He was just trying to help your dumb ass.” Came the voice of a girl who was dressed in blue overalls beside him. Her hair was golden brown and her eyes were green to match the ribbons she had so carefully braided from the base of her skull to her sholders. 

“Pidge,be nice.” Hunk warns her

“ No one tells me what to do.” Keith says he stands taller trying not to let her know that she makes him scared that everything about her and about Hunk scares him. 

“Keith, it’s cool. Right Pidge?” Hunk sooth’s stepping between the two laying his hand on Pidge’s shoulder but giving Keith plenty of space. 

Keith wants nothing more than to tell Hunk everything is fine so he does,” Sure...” but everything is telling him to run before someone backs him into a corner and has at him with a baseball bat. 

“See no need to be on the offensive Pidge. So calm down. Keith’s chill.”  Hunk sooth’s before turning to look at him,” What you doing with all that stuff?” 

“Im going to go wash it...” Keith confesses nodding toward the creek. 

“ Your going to wash your clothes in the creek?” Pidge asks her voice going high. 

“ Yes...” 

“ You realize there is a washmachine in the barn right?” She tries reasoning.

“ Yes...” Keith knew that but he had been watching people use it all day and he was concerned someone would see his clothes and become angry so he felt it was better not to risk it. Just like when he rose at 3am and showered in the cold water of the wash stall. He had been quiet and then he went and curled up next to Voltron’s belly under one of the wool blankets. Voltron had welcomed him with nickers and licks and then he had dressed under the woolen blanket. 

Hunks eyes were wider than dinner plates and he looked at Keith’s bags and then at the creek. 

“No way I can let you do that my dude.” He said and he reached forward taking the duffle from Keith whose eyes made wide scared looks. He wasn’t sure if he needed to run or if he needed to just follow along with whatever the Larger man said. Voltron was still in the Paddock near the creek he looked comfortable and Keith looked at him grazing nervously unsure. 

It was Pidge who decided for him,” Come on EMO. Maybe Hunk will give us milk and cookies.” 

At the very mention of food Keith stomach grumbled and Hunk smiled,” come on then.” He began walking holding Keith’s duffle bag in one hand like it was nothing but a simple paperweight and Pidge followed behind him. The two of them seemed so odd next to one another. Hunk was so tall and broad Keith was sure he could easily just lift Pidge and throw her if she pissed him off. Pidge seemed like one of those people who just poked at people until they gave her what she wanted and Keith wasn’t sure he liked that. 

All three re-entered the barn and approached a red door that Keith had walked by labeled private. Hunk opened it and there was a set of stairs that led straight up into a loft of sorts. The loft was open with large carpeted spaces and white walls covered in photos and posters.

Most of the photos seemed to be of Lance, Pidge and Hunk in Various places and poses. Some photos looked like they were done at shows and Keith looked at each one noticing Shiro standing in the back in some and Adam in others. Adam was still around? For some reason that made Keith sad. Like he’d been through hell already and Adam got Shiro and the happy ending he couldn’t. Keith turned away from the Pictures trying not to think.

Hunk had his hands in Keith’s duffel bag and he was pulling out the clothes he had and separating them into piles in a small room that Keith had yet to pass,” Dude when was the last time these things actually saw a wash machine?” Hunk asked as he lifted the last set of jodhpurs Keith owned out. They were streaked with mud.

Keith wanted to lie and say a week ago. But a week ago Lotor had been pissed because his father hadn’t left him as much money as he’d wanted and he’d had Keith pinned in a corner and then he had t left Keith money for food or laundry just Voltron.

“It’s been a month...” He confesses hushed his arms going to his sweater filled with dirt.

Hunk looks at him and then the stacks of clothes,” is that true for all of your clothes?” His expression is so soft. The way he breaths is calm and he doesn’t look angry and for some reason Keith feels like it’s wrong to lie to him. Keith isn’t sure why but he feels like he’d let him down if he lied.

It reminds him of when he trusted Shiro and when Shiro would come in to take his laundry. Keith would stand scared at first thinking he was being punished and then Shiro started taking him with. Letting him put his socks in the top and press the button just so he knew he was getting them back.

“Yeah...” He confesses a hand going to his hair and moving his lip ring with his tounge nervously.

Hunk looks at him and then his clothes and he steps around Keith and calls down the hall,” PIDGE BRING ME A T-SHIRT AND A PAIR OF LANCES SWEATPANTS.”

“WHY AM I THE GOPHER?”

“BECAUSE LANCE ISNT HERE.”

There’s a small thump as a bundle of clothes chucks itself past Keith and lands at Hunks feet. Keith tries to turn and see where Pidge went but she’s already gone and Keith turns to see Hunk holding out the two articles of clothing to him,”Put these on and we’ll wash what your wearing.”

Keith looks at the clothes and then at Hunk puzzled,” why are you being so nice?” He takes the stack and follows Hunk who leads him to a small bathroom. He shuts the door leaving Keith to change. Keith changes making sure not to get any dirt on the carpet . Hunks shirt is far to big and the sweat pants have to be rolled but he manages. A few minutes later he pads back to the Laundry room where Hunk is standing looking at Keith’s white jodhpurs in a ziplock bag.

“Do you wash these?” He asks him and Keith holds out his hand. Hunk hands him the baggie and Keith opens it sniffing ,” Nope these need it bad too... Go through your bag and pull out things you don’t wash and I’ll wash the bags too.” Hunk said simply taking Keith’s dirty clothes from his arms (and the jodhpurs in the ziplock Keith sniffed) and throwing them in a pile that he threw in the wash machine on a special high setting.

“Why are you being nice?” Keith asks again his voice is small. 

“Hebrews 13:16″  Hunk said calmly a smile coming to his face and walking down the hall Keith followed Pidge joining him.

“Hunk’s a Roman Catholic. He believes in helping others before helping yourself.” Pidge said calmly as if explaining his whole being. 

“That’s not why I do everything though.” Hunk said as they went into the wide living room space that connected to a stainless steel Kitchen. Keith looked at it wanting to have some kind of understanding how the three individuals had so much space and kept it all so clean. Hunk went directly to the Kitchen and Pidge followed taking a seat at the island watching as he gathers supplies from the fridge. 

Keith hesitantly sat down to watch his eyes wide. Pidge looked at him with curiosity,” How long have you had Voltron?” 

“Two years.” Keith responds his fingers pick lightly at the hem of the t-shirt,”he’s not mine though..”

“Right he belongs to The Paladin Palace.” Pidge says reaching forward to grab a slice of fruit that Hunk had sliced 

“Gremlin.” He warned.She huffed retracting her fingers and Keith looked at Hunk. He was using a large knife to slice fruit and place them in a large bowl. He had this calm about him and it made Keith think about Voltron. How he calmed sometimes just with a touch and he though Hunk maybe this way with his kitchen and knives and cleaning and it for some strange reason set him at ease.

“I’ve had Rover for three if you count the time I spent tracking him.” Pidge pitches spinning her stool in a circle not making eye contact

“Tracking?”

“He was part of this huge Gypsy carivan and I legit followed them for a year just to buy one of their horses.” She says speeding herself up,” ended up with no money to get him home. So I ended up just riding him.”

“Until Lance and I found you.” Hunk clarifies

“Yeah and spoiled the coolest cross crountry-trek ever!!!” She stops spinning to narrow her eyes and slips one of the berries from the bowl. Hunk narrows his eyes but doesn’t stop her.

“You had saddle sores the size of my right ass cheek.” Hunk justifies

“Is there importance for why it’s the right ass cheek and not the left?” She chimes back

Keith watches confused are they married? Are they dating? Are they siblings?The way they talk to each other so openly and so honest is just so different, he’s unsure.

Hunk sets a steaming mug of tea in front of Keith,” would you like cream or sugar?” Keith has to think back to when he was with Adam and Shiro for the proper response. How does Keith take his tea?

“Cream... please.” He manages after a moment and Hunk smiles pulling a cream from the fridge and giving some to Keith who watches his tea become this warm brown color.

“Shay wasn’t as hard to find as Rover. Granted she came from a tough place, she was an easy pick. She was in a herd of seventy never been touched. I walked out three hundred bucks and said ,’that one’. Been a tight team ever since. That was 5 years ago.” Hunk said as he sprinkled some flour on the counter and then pulled a silver bowl from the fridge. He pulled the wad of what Keith assumed to be dough from the bowl and began kneeding expertly shoulders working.

There was a buzz and Hunk looked at Pidge,” Remember what I taught you?”

“Which part”

“About special loads.”

“Yes. I’m capable of that much.”

“Good then your capable of switching the loads.” He answered sweetly.

She narrowed her eyes but did so and Hunk turned to Keith his eyes honest,” Keith, I’m going to say this when Pidge isn’t here and Lance isn’t around because you seem like you’ve been through enough. You deserve some privacy.”

Keith felt panic creeping up his back and into his fingers. He remained still watching as Hunk stopped kneeding.

“I know you’ve been through shit. You probably don’t eat anything besides Voltron’s biscuits. Shower outside in the hose when it’s not cold out. Voltrons the only thing you’ve got... Whatever happened to you, whatever happened to him. Isn’t going to happen here. Now eat, it’ll make Pidge suspicious if you sit there stomach grumbling all day.” Hunk pushes the bowl of fruit to Keith and Keith looked at Hunk wondering what kind of person just took strangers into their homes and gave them fruit and washed their clothes. Hunk did.

***

It was close to dinner when Keith was released from Hunks care. He knew when Shiro did turn in and he made sure he had all his things (Freshly washed) and his backpack and his duffel bag (which Hunk made Pidge (who could sew and repair things fix and then he’d washed and packed it for Keith)). Keith was given a small brown bag with a thing called a turn-over (Pidge has shrieked when she’d seen it) and a peanut butter sandwhich and then he was allowed to leave. Keith had been careful setting each article down in front of Voltrons stall.

Outside Voltron was prancing his tail high in the air.

“Settle down.” Keith singsonged to him as he climbed over the gate and put a Halter on the stallions head.

“Does he always prance when he’s excited?” There was the clear voice of Lance. Keith held his breath as he looked behind him to the boy who was holding a beautiful Red mare who Keith vaguely recognized from one of the stalls.

“No...” Keith wasn’t sure how to respond part of him wanted to push Lance as far away as he could, another part wanted to give in like he had with Hunk.

“Why doesn’t he take treats?” Lance asked this time following a safe distance as Keith started heading towards the barn.

“What?” Keith stops confused.

“I tried giving him carrots or apples or sugar cubes...”

“He hates stuff like that... he likes baked goods and bread.” Keith says looking at Lance who has stopped the mare next to him.

Lance blinks,” That’s weird...” and then he walks the red mare toward the barn leaving Keith to wonder just how weird it really is.

[toosicktoocare]

ice ice baby

I have a million prompts in my inbox, but here I am writing this instead...

College AU, Pre-Klance

Summary: Cancelled classes = ice sliding and bruises

Word Count: 2,008

Keith would be lying if he said he isn’t slightly annoyed as he slips his boots on over thick, wool socks. He had plans to spend the surprise free day curled up under multiple blankets in bed with a textbook, but Lance had messaged him, pulling him from the comfort and warmth of his bed with a "come outside ASAP" message.

He could have ignored this easily, but he knows Lance would have persisted with multiple texts before coming to their shared dorm and dragging him outside, whether he was dressed appropriately or not. So, it's better, Keith thinks, to blow the fire out gently by meeting Lance's request as opposed to fanning the flame with resistance.

Outside, the wind is freezing, and snow is still fluttering down, as it has been all night. Keith shivers despite the added layers he packed on and fishes his phone from his pocket to call Lance, because 'outside' could literally be anywhere. Squinting, he cups one hand over his eyes for the snow is borderline blinding to his tired eyes. The other hand presses his phone against his ear, and he looks and waits, listening to the ring-back tone of some current song Keith doesn't know.

After a minute, Keith hears Lance answer with a loud "Hey!" that echoes close by. Frowning, he pulls the phone away and looks to the right to see Lance racing toward him from the resident lot.

"You've gotta come see this!" Lance shouts as he stops beside Keith and drapes a cold arm over his shoulders.

Shuddering, Keith shrugs Lance's arm away and spares a side glance to see Lance's rosy cheeks and red-rimmed nose. "How long have you been out here?"

"All morning," Lance says with a wide smile, voice borderline breathless. "Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro were here earlier, but Hunk and Shiro had to go to work, and Pidge went in because she was too cold."

Nodding, Keith crosses his arms, feeling cold himself despite only being out for a few minutes. While Lance looks cold, he isn't acting like it, leaving Keith arching his brows slightly as the two walk. Lance always boasts about how he's from 'the most tropical place in the universe,' so Keith's honestly surprised that the brunet isn't complaining about the biting wind and single-digit temperatures.

When they reach the resident lot, Lance motions with a wide wave toward the ice-slick pavement. "Look at it!"

With furrowed brows, Keith toes an edge, boot sliding instantly. "You made me come outside to show me ice?"

"No," Lance starts with a laugh. "I made you come outside to show you this!" He gets a running start before sliding across the ice, hands waving about on either side for balance as he skids all the way across the lot until he latches onto the back of Keith's truck to stop himself.

"Impressive," Keith calls out dryly as Lance bellows with laughter.

"Try it!"

Keith shakes his head and jams his fists into his pockets.

"Come on, Keith!"

"No!"

"It's fun!"

"I don't care!"

"Just come on! I did it!"

A twitch of annoyance tugs at Keith's face because Lance knows the one weak spot and is constantly stabbing at it with a long knife. Keith has a competitive streak, kind of hard not to when your step brother is a small-town legend, and Lance knows this, being somewhat competitive himself.

"Keith!" Lance continues, drawing out the name with a sharp pitch that has Keith cursing under his breath.

"This is so fucking stupid," he mutters as he slowly walks toward the ice. He toes at it again, gauging how slick it is with a swipe of his boot. His shoe slides across it quickly, easily, and he frowns, prepared to back out on the grounds that this is reckless and stupid, but Lance is shouting again, yelling his name repeatedly. His voice grates along Keith's nerves until he's backing up then running full force to the ice.

Wind whips at his face, feeling like small, frozen daggers, and pushes his beanie up and over his head. His knees wobble as he goes flying across the lot, and he's in a constant state of feeling like he may fall at any second. His heart is hammering against his chest, loud enough to echo in his ears, but whether it's racing from fear or thrill, he's not sure. He's approaching Lance rapidly, and it occurs to him at this very moment that he hasn't calculated how to stop. He squeezes his eyes shut as his truck comes closer and closer, and he throws both hands out in a poor attempt to not completely crash against the truck, but instead, cool, soft arms wrap around his middle, and the two bodies slide a little until slowing into a stop.

"Holy shit," Keith breathes out along a puff of adrenaline as he pulls away to see Lance holding his waist and smiling at him.

"Fun, right?"

"Dangerous," Keith mutters, but a smile plays on his lips as he glances across the icy parking lot.

"You rock climb for fun, Keith. I think this doesn't really compare in terms of danger."

Keith can only nod as a tug of want pulls at his heart. "Race you?"

An impossible smile pulls at Lance's lips, and the two break apart and start toward the snowy bank off to the side to quickly get back to the other end of the parking lot.

For what feels like hours, Keith and Lance race each other as they slide across the parking lot. At times, other students join in, but majority of the time is spent alone, just the two of them pushing and pulling at one another as they glide across ice to try and be the first back to Keith's truck.

It's been a while, Keith thinks, since he's had this much. His body is slightly sore from small tumbles, but the thrill of whipping across the parking lot keeps him going, that is until his latest slide across the ice.

He's ahead of Lance, for once, but his shoe hits a snag, a crack in the ice, and it sends him flying forward. He manages to turn onto his side before his body smacks hard against the cold ice, leaving him hissing sharply from a blasting spike of pain that shoots all across his side.

He can hear Lance laughing loudly, and the laughter grows louder and louder until Lance is skidding to a stop beside him.

"Holy shit!" Lance shouts in between breathless laughs. "Are you okay?"

Keith sits up, face pulling into a sharp wince as his side almost burns with pain. He nods anyway, and Lance bends over to help him to his feet.

"You're soaked," Lance says, still puffing out breaths of laughs as he steadies Keith with a hand to Keith's back. "Wanna take a break?"

"Yeah," Keith answers, and the two start slowly back to their dorm room, shivering and sniffling as they hurry to their building.

The stairs are murder on Keith's side. He grips the banister tightly and grits his teeth as he climbs them, following Lance all the way to the third floor and to their room. When they reach their room, Lance mutters that he's running to the dining hall for hot chocolate, leaving Keith alone to change.

He starts taking off layers of cold, wet clothes. His jacket comes first, then his sweater, and finally the long sleeve shirt he's got on underneath. He pulls it over his head with a muted hiss before he drops it to the floor to rummage in his closet for something dry and warm.

He's eyeing one of Lance's hoodies when he hears a sharp gasp followed by something splashing to the floor. Whipping around, he sees Lance gaping at him in the doorway, with a now empty paper cup rolling in a puddle of hot chocolate on the floor.

"What the hell, Lance? I'm not cleaning that-"

"Your side."

"Huh?" Frowning, Keith tilts his head, not liking the concern painted across Lance's face.

Lance doesn't offer a verbal reply; instead, he steps through the hot chocolate on the floor and moves until he's standing right in front of Keith. Keith can feel his cheeks burning with a blush as Lance reaches toward him, but whatever warm, shy feeling that was threatening to take hold of his heart is replaced with a burning sting that has him glancing down to Lance's fingers brushing along his side.

It's then that Keith sees it: the dark blue and black bruises already starting to color his side. "Oh," Keith says because his mind suddenly can't remember many words. "Shit."

"You're hurt," Lance mutters, crouching down to study the bruising with a deep frown. "This looks bad."

"I'll just ice it," Keith says, thankful that he can make his tone sound convincing. "I've gotten bruises before."

"Yeah, but those weren't my fault."

"It's really not a big... wait, what?" Keith snaps a gaze down to lock eyes with Lance's suddenly somber ones, and he holds the gaze as Lance slowly gets to his feet. "Your fault?"

"I made you do it."

"You didn't make me do anything." Keith's tone is a little sharper than intended, and he swallows back the flicking hint of anger. "I chose to."

"I bothered you until you did."

Shrugging, Keith turns back to the closet and snags one of Lance's hoodies. "You do that with ninety percent of things. I'm used to it."

"Yeah, but you've never gotten hurt because of me before."

Keith's never seen this level of guilt before, and honestly, that sad look doesn't match the bright color of Lance's eyes-- it makes him look younger, innocent. Keith shakes his head and starts toward his bed. "It's really not a big deal, Lance. I'll get some ice and take it easy." He slips the pale blue hoodie over his head before he bends over, very slowly, to start unlacing his boots. He swallows back the pain, but before his fingers meet cold laces, Lance is guiding him to a chair.

"Let me."

"I'm not an invalid, Lance. I can take off my own shoes."

"It's hurting you."

"It's not-"

"I can see it. Your muscles tense up. You're trying to hide it."

Keith's eyes grow a fraction wider as Lance crouches down to start unlacing his boots. Lance doesn't come off as the observant type-- he's more... easygoing, for better lack of words. At least, that's what Keith has always thought about the brunet. Perhaps he was wrong though. Maybe he's got to start peeling off the layers that make up Lance McClain.

Lance knows enough to let Keith at least change his pants on his own, though, and when Keith is secured in bed with two blankets wrapped around him, Lance starts toward the door.

"I'm going to get ice."

"Lance," Keith tries, and Lance pauses with his hand on the doorknob.

"Aren't you going to change first? You have to be freezing, Mr. 'I'm from a super tropical place.'"

"The faster I get ice, the faster you aren't in pain." Lance says, looking over his shoulder with a frown.

"You don't have to do this."

"You didn't have to slide on the ice."

Keith tilts his head at his. "No, but I guess I wanted to."

A soft smile plays at Lance's lips. "Then let me want to do this for you."

Before Keith can argue further, Lance slips out the door, leaving Keith huffing out a breath of frustration as he sinks back against the pillows propped up behind his back.

Of all things, his mind goes back to the cold outside, when he first slid across the lot and Lance caught him with those long, slender arms around his waist. His cheeks warm to a soft pink as another groan slips past his lips.

If Lance wants to do this, then, Keith guesses, he will let him.

[starryeyed-char]

The Fire Challenge

It’s Day Seven of Whump Week! Head Injury or Internal Damge but I don’t think this would count for that second one. The head injury isn’t the extent of it, but it’s kind of the thing that leads to other issues, so... enjoy!

For today’s prompt we return to everybody’s favorite established klance YouTuber AU! Yes, finally, we’re getting off the fluff train for this AU so I can throw some angst in here. In this one-shot Lance is bad at making good decisions, so thank goodness he has Keith, honestly.

“This is a horrible idea,” Keith pointed out, lowering the camera to glare at his boyfriend skeptically.

Lance simply waved him off. “Keith, if everyone listened when someone told them not to do something because it was a bad idea, where would we be? Still living in caves, that's where.”

“I bet a lot less people would be dead,” Keith grumbled. “Who even came up with this challenge, anyway?”

Lance pondered this for a moment, before shrugging. “Who knows? But the people want to see it, and what can I say? I'm a crowd pleaser.”

“Your fans actually requested that you do this? I don't know who's crazier— them, or you for actually trying it.”

“The fire challenge is completely harmless! I just douse myself in lighter fluid, light a match, then jump into Allura's pool!” He glanced at the camera. “Which... we're supposed to be coming over here to watch her pet mice, so... don't tell her, guys!”

Keith rolled his eyes. “She's going to find out, Lance. Trying to keep something a secret from Allura is like trying to keep Pidge from their computer.”

Lance repressed a grimace. "Well... Hi, if you're watching Allura. Sorry, but we don't have a pool, and Keith wouldn't let me do this in our bathroom. Shiro, please don't murder us.”

“I wasn't about to let you light a fire in our apartment. And I don't think any of them watch your live streams, Lance.”

“Okay, first of all, rude. Second of all, I know for a fact that Pidge watches all my streams. I even know their username. Third of all, hundreds of thousands of other people watch these, so shut up.”

“Nearly two million watching, actually,” Keith observed, glancing at the laptop on the chair beside him, where he could look at the fan's chat messages, and views.

“What? Two million— I mean,” Lance stood up straighter, smirking. “Of course there are two million people watching.”

Keith snorted. “It's just because of the title. People want to see you get yourself killed.”

“That's comforting,” Lance deadpanned, removing his shirt and grabbing the bottle of lighter fluid.

Keith couldn't help himself. The live chat was already full of people spamming about how hot Lance was, and he could admit that his shirtless boyfriend was nothing to sneeze at. So he whistled.

Lance glanced up from dumping lighter onto his left arm with a grin. “Keith Kogane, did you just whistle at me?”

“Maybe,” Keith shrugged, failing to keep the smile from his face. “Your fans are freaking out, by the way.”

Lance smiled directly at the camera, and winked. “Come on, guys. Just because Keith and I don't flaunt our relationship on camera at every moment doesn't mean we're not crazy in love.”

“I can get behind the crazy part,” Keith muttered, ignoring the current random smashing of keyboards that was the chat. “Are we seriously doing this? You're not at all worried that this might be, I don't know, dangerous?”

“Keith, sweetie, danger is my middle name,” Lance shot finger guns at the camera, and Keith rolled his eyes again.

“Your middle name is—”

“Keith! My middle name is a closely guarded secret! The fans don't know it. You're not allowed to ruin that for them.”

Keith glanced at the chat again. “I'm pretty sure they want to know.”

“That's too bad for them, then,” Lance grabbed the box of matches, taking one out. He hesitated, looking up at Keith. “You're still going to love me if I get burns all over my body, right?”

“I don't know, Lance. Your personality kind of blows, so I'm in it almost entirely for your appearance,” he said, in the most monotonous voice he could manage.

“Oh, please,” Lance laughed. “You know you fell for my irresistible charm.”

“What charm?” Lance clutched a hand to his heart as if wounded, and Keith smiled fondly, glad the camera wasn't facing him. All the viewers would be able to see him blushing. “In all seriousness, though, I can't joke about appearances too much. If that's all that mattered, then you wouldn't still be dating me. I've had a mullet for this long, after all.”

“But you're adorable, so I try to just ignore the poor hair choices,” Lance said with a shrug. “Besides, at this point I'm kinda fond of the mullet.”

“Then maybe I'll cut it just to throw you off.” Keith was again assaulted by the onslaught of chat messages asking them to just get on with the challenge already. “The fans want to get this show on the road, but... are you really sure this is a good idea? There are like, a thousand things that could go wrong.”

“Keith, you worry too much. I just have to light my arm up, then jump right into the pool, which is only a step away. It'll burn the lighter fluid, but not me of course.”

“Of course,” Keith echoed, shuffling worriedly from foot to foot. “Just... be careful.”

Lance nodded, then lifted the match. “Well, here goes nothing.” He struck it, and lifted it towards his body. The flames caught almost instantly, and Keith couldn't stifle the gasp. Flames caught almost immediately all over Lance's lower left arm. Keith barely had time to start panicking before Lance let out a loud whoop and launched himself into the pool. With a loud splash, the fire disappeared.

The camera focused on Lance floating below the surface of the water, and Keith let out a sigh of relief. “He actually pulled it off.”

It took a few seconds for it to register that Lance wasn't moving, and suddenly Keith's eyes were drawn to a speck of red in the blue of the pool. “Wh...?”`

Blood.

There was blood in the water. Had Lance been burned? If he had missed a spot with the lighter fluid on his arm...

Keith dropped the camera unceremoniously on the nearest chair, not bothering to stop recording. There was no time.

He launched himself over the side of the pool and lifted Lance out and onto the surrounding pavement as quickly as possible. He was soaking wet but... surprisingly no burns whatsoever. In fact, the only evidence that there'd even been a fire was that his swim trunks were slightly singed on the one side.

The blood seemed to be coming from Lance's head, which he must've hit on the edge or floor of the pool. That's when Keith realized that he wasn't conscious.

And then he realized that Lance wasn't breathing.

“No, no no no, come on, Lance, wake up,” Keith's hands shook. “Come on, come on, don't do this to me...”

Lance didn't move, and Keith let out a slow breath.

He'd left his phone inside... he looked up, directly towards the camera. “Pidge, if you are watching, call 911 and send them to Allura's house.”

Keith scooted closer to Lance's body, placing his left hand on top of his right in order to do chest compressions. He turned Lance's head to the side, pressed down repeatedly on Lance's chest, panic rising each moment that Lance remained lifeless. He was thankful at least that Shiro had signed the both of them up for these classes a while back... but he'd never thought he would have to use them. On Lance, no less.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Keith repeated like a prayer each time he pressed. He leaned down, tilting Lance's head back to perform mouth-to-mouth. But when he resumed compressions afterward, there was still, no response. “No, Lance, come on!”

Keith brought his hands down, harder than before, and then suddenly Lance jolted, arching his back off the ground and coughing water onto the pavement.

“Lance!” Keith was nearly overwhelmed with relief as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. Lance was still coughing, shuddering slightly as his breathing steadied. “It's okay. You're okay. Just... just breathe.”

They stayed there like that, holding each other while Lance's breathing gradually steadied. Keith took the opportunity to calm his own nerves as well.

Finally, Lance broke the silence. “Remind me of this the next time I want to do a stupid challenge.”

A short laugh bubbled up in Keith's throat, simultaneously dislodging the tears that had welled up in his eyes. “We both know you're going to do them anyway.”

Lance pulled back from the hug to smirk at up at him. “Well, then it's a good thing you're always around to save me, huh?”

Keith stared at him blankly for a moment before promptly shoving him off, nearly causing Lance to fall back into the pool. “Ugh! Lance you're such a sap!”

“Aw, come on! You know you love me.”

“Well, yeah, of course I do, but you could've just died! And you're already acting like things are back to normal!? What the hell is wrong with you?” Keith grabbed a pillow from the nearest reclining chair and chucked it at his boyfriend's head. Lance ducked, and it sailed straight into the pool. “Great! Now you're destroying Allura's furniture!”

“You threw it, you—!”

Before he could continue, Keith stormed across the short distance and shut Lance up with a kiss. “If you ever,” he began, once he they broke apart. “Decide to nearly get yourself killed for some stupid challenge, I am going to have Pidge hack into your account and delete your channel.”

Lance offered a sheepish grin. “Okay. Uh, sorry.” He wondered if he should say more, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of far off sirens.

“Thanks for coming through, Pidge,” Keith started towards the camera. “But I think it's about time we shut off the stream now.”

Lance blanched. “It's still going? They saw all of that?!”

“Yep,” Keith replied. “But now we're going to get you to the hospital, and I don't think they can come with us there.”

“The hospita— what are you talking about? I'm fine! I don't need to go to the hospital!”

Keith was unimpressed. “Well, you are, so deal with it. I don't think you have a concussion, but you hit your head pretty hard, which knocked you unconscious, which caused you ti nearly drown, so yes, we're going to the hospital. Not to mention that I had to give you CPR to wake you up.”

Lance let out a slow sigh. “I'll bet the fans loved that.”

“Wouldn't they be more concerned that you almost died?”

“You'd be surprised.”

Keith didn't know how to respond to that, so instead he just turned the camera off.

[bleusarcellewrites]

Dancing On The Roof

Take this away from me already, God. 

Happy late birthday, @l-x-ie​ !!!! Hope you enjoy this ‘small’ fic, and again a big thank you to @monsir-arts​ for letting me base the fic on this fanart of theirs. 

I have nothing else to say except: Thief Klance Au and that this may suck HARD but whATEVER. 

Ps. Guys, this is like 6k .....so like, here’s the Ao3 link tbh.  

Disclaimer: Voltron doesn’t belong to me and neither does the art. 

His hand hovers over the empty marble surface and Keith just wants to scream.

That motherfucker.

He picks up the small yellow post-it on the middle, where his diamond is supposed to be, and his blood boils with fury.

Keith could kill him, honest to God, he could and he would throw the biggest party ever, but he can’t. He can’t because killing Blue will mean having the entire Altea Agency on his ass and Keith can do without the extra attention on him.

Keith just wanted to settle down on a motherfucking private island with a glass of lemonade, was that too much to ask?

‘Better luck next time, Red ~ <3’ it reads, handwriting playful and loopy.

Apparently, yes, it was a lot to ask.

He crumples the post-it with one hand before tugging it into his jeans’ back pocket. No point on leaving evidence of his presence on Blue’s robbery.

Robbery that was supposed to be motherfucking his, honestly, what the fu –

‘Patience yields focus,’ Keith thinks, cutting his own train of thoughts, and then he takes a deep breath, shoulders losing their tension at each exhale he releases.

He opens his eyes and turns around, tugging his blade back to its holder before climbing the walls to exit the museum.

Shiro looks up from his tablet to find Keith ripping to pieces the last piece of newspaper in their floor. He waits until Keith has settled down, panting hard and an angry flush on his face, and then he speaks up.

“Blue?” He asks casually, and that earns him another scream from his partner.

“Shiro! Shiro! He stole my painting! The painting I have been eyeing for weeks now. I was going to steal it tonight and he fucking – ! Oh my god! I’m going to kill him.”

Shiro stares flatly at him. “Keith, he’s from the Altea’s Agency, you know, our allies?”

“He keeps stealing from me!”

The older man rolls his eyes but grins at his friend. “Then you need to be faster, buddy.”

Keith glares at him, annoyed and angry, throwing the remaining paper of his newspaper towards Shiro. “That motherfucker has been on my ass for weeks now! You know, when I accepted this job, by your constant pushing, I didn’t expect an annoying shadow following me around and stealing my missions.”

“He can’t be your shadow is he’s a step in front of you.”

Keith ignores him. “’Neck and neck’ he said, what the hell does that even mean?”

Shiro turns to him, looking confused. “Neck and neck? You have been back from the desert for two months and you already have a rival?”

“He’s not my rival!”

“The cub has a rival? So soon?” Another voice joins the conversation, both men turning around to meet another one of their co-workers, “Who is it?”

“Hi, Thace.” Shiro waves lazily.

The older man nods at him, “Shiro, hello, you still owe me that last week report.”

“Right, right.”

“So, back to the cub’s rival.”

“I don’t have a rival!” Keith snaps.

Shiro shrugs. “He’s called Blue. He’s from AA.”

Thace’s eyebrows lift up in surprise. “Ah, I have heard of him. Him and his occasional team is actually from your generation.”

“What?” Keith asks, hands finally lowering from the air and he pushes himself closer to this chair’s edge towards Thace, “What do you mean?”

“Back in the Garrison Academy, you know, where every student has to train under the program before they are selected or assigned into an Agency?”

“I know what the Garrison is!” Keith scoffs irritated.

Thace looks at him unimpressed. “Well, that guy, Blue, is from your generation and one of the top ones, if I may add.”

Keith blinks and scrunches his nose at his mentor, “Am I supposed to remember him? I didn’t even finish my program before I was tossed and shipped to the desert by Kolivan.”

“Hear, hear.” Shiro mumbles, taking a sip from his tea.

Thace shrugs with a smirk. “You got an undercover mission, a B classified mission, before you even graduated. That’s quite the achievement, kiddo.”

“That still doesn’t explain why this guy is on my shadow.”

“Technically –“

“Shiro, I swear to God –“  

The older man chuckles, ruffling Keith’s hair as if he was eighteen years old all over again, “Don’t think too hard, kiddo. I will have a talk with Allura and make sure your missions don’t intersect each other. Just focus on your own, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keith grumbles.

“Good. Now, has anyone seen the newspaper?”

“Uh…”

“Keith ate it.”

“Dude.”

“I’m on the move. Black, do I have the go?” Keith mumbles low under his breath, fingers pressed against his ear-com as he kneels on the edge of the roof, eyes scanning the security guard’s moves.

“Hold it,” Shiro whispers slowly and Keith can hear the way his partner is tapping the surface of his computer from his side of the com, the tapping clearly matching the security guy’s steps.

Ten full ticks and then, as the guard closes the entrance’s door behind him, Keith gets his go.

He jumps, feet hitting the roof’s ground harshly but painlessly. He stands up, rolling his shoulders back before cracking his neck. Keith smirks to himself, proud that he didn’t need to use the grappling hook to get across between roofs.

There’s a whistle and Keith snaps his attention to the right, face turning into a deep scowl as he meets Blue’s familiar body shape from the corner of his eye.

“Aw, hell no.” Keith mumbles, taking a deep breath before turning and meeting Blue’s eyes, staring unamused as the man winks at him as a greeting.

“Why, hello there, Red!” Blue says cheerfully, waving his arm around in the air towards the dark sky, “Lovely evening, am I right?”

Keith limits himself to stare flatly at him, flipping him off without a word before turning around, heading towards the window to get inside the building.

“Oh, oh, silent treatment? Rude. Where are you going, anyways? Oh, could it be? Could it be that you are looking for Angelica’s Heart? One of the most valuable gems on the National Museum of our country? Could it possibly be the reason you are here?”

Keith doesn’t answer and keeps walking.

“Because -”

He’s at the edge of the window, the hatch already open and Keith can feel his insides boil already. Blue better not have –

“It’s not -”

Keith pushes his face forward, eyes scanning the room below him, and there’s only one thought running through his mind –

“Going to be there.”

That motherfucker.

Blue barely had time to groan in pain before Keith’s on him. His back hits the ground hard and he coughs a few times, letting out a small ‘ow’ as Keith growls menacingly above him.

“Return what you stole, Blue,” Keith snaps, foot pressing further down against the brunet’s arm, “before I break your arm.”

The little shit laughs. He fucking laughs.

“Sorry, Red,” He chuckles, eyebrow raised in challenge and smirk sharp, “but your heart is mine now.”

This motherfucker.

“Oh yeah, that’s so clever, Blue, har har,” Keith laughs drily, hand curling into a fist as he leans further down, hovering over the brunet’s face, scowl back on place, “Now, give me back my ruby.”

“Funny how they call a ruby a ‘heart’, right?”

“Second try: give me back my ruby.”

“I didn’t see your name on it.”

“What are you? Twelve?”

“On the scale from one to ten, yes.”

Keith inhales deeply, hand twitching and aching to grab his blade but he controls himself. “One last chance: give me back my ruby or I will kill you.”

Blue purses his lips, as if thinking it over, before he clicks his mouth and sticks out is tongue in mock.

“Nah.”

He will kill him. That’s it, no more holding back, he’s 100% going to kill him –

“Red,” Shiro’s voice makes its way back to his com and Keith’s shoulders tense up at the sharp tone on his partner’s voice, “The mission is over, turn back and report back to the base.”

“But –” Keith complains, eyes falling back to Blue’s frame, scoffing in annoyance when he sees the brunet is laying almost lazily on the floor, not minding in the least that Keith is basically pinning him down.

“Now, Red.”

Keith grunts but nods nonetheless, mumbling a quick ‘understood’ before he pulls himself back and starts walking away from Blue.

“Yeah, okay, fun night, huh? See you next week, man! You know, if you actually get there in time!”

So, okay, Keith returned to the base with one knife missing, and he might had had his ear chew off by Kolivan because of it, but the surprised yelp and pained grunt of Blue as the knife hit him straight on the shoulder made it worth it.

Here’s the thing: Keith might be sleep deprived and jetlagged but he knows what shit he owns, alright?

And he knows for damn sure that he left his 19th Century wrist clock on his coffee table.

Keith frowns, eyes narrowed suspiciously before his breath hitches and looks around him wildly before yelling out in annoyance and running towards his terrace, the only entrance to his apartment besides the front door.

“You come back here, right now, with my shit, you piece of shit!” Keith shouts, waving his fist in the air and leaning forward on his terrace’s handrail, “I will find you and I will kill you, you hear me!”

There’s a snort and a soft ‘Oh my god’ above him and Keith’s quick to look up, his dark eyes meeting Blue’s lighter ones.

“I can’t believe you just threatened me with a meme,” Blue giggles, shaking his head in amusement, still hanging upside down from the apartment’s exterior pipes, “A motherfucking meme, oh my god.”

Keith stays silent, hand reaching for his blade and he groans internally when he remembers it’s on the other side of his room inside his apartment.

He limits himself to flip Blue off.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about and I don’t give a flying fuck,” Keith growls, trying to push himself higher to meet Blue’s face – tippy toes, he was basically on his tippy toes – “but I’m sick and tired of this game, get your own targets and your own shit.”

“Oh, but I do have my own target,” Blue remarks, a wide playful grin growing on his face, “and I gotta say, life just got interesting because of him since he came back.”

Him. Did he just –?

“Did you just fucking objectify me?” Keith snaps, scowling when the brunet only laughs.

“Okay, hate to hit and run, but I gotta go.” Blue shrugs, winking at Keith while finger gun pointing at him and then he’s falling.

Keith stares unimpressed as Blue’s body falls just besides him, praying and hoping that maybe he will hear a splash of that dumb head crashing against the pavement below them instead of a grappling hook shot.

There’s a laugh, the familiar sound of a grappling hook shooting and Keith limits himself to puff his cheeks in what could almost be a pout.

There’s always next time.

“Don’t you dare!” Keith shouts, pointing an accusing finger towards the frozen spy, “Blue, I see you! Don’t you fucking dare –!”

Blue turns his head slowly, blue eyes wide as if he was actually surprised Keith had caught him red handed for the first time in weeks, before a grin spreads over his face.

“What? Me? Daring to do something that might upset you, Red?” Blue coos, eyes big with fake innocence before he moved his finger closer to the crystal vase in front of him, “but I’m just admiring these pieces of art –”

Keith doesn’t hesitate.

“Nah-huh!” He snaps, grabbing the closest thing around him and throwing it towards his rival, “No! No way! Na-huh, bitch!”

“Ow, what the fuck – !” Blue shouts back in annoyance as soon as the flower vase hits his right arm before it falls and crashes on the floor loudly, “Dude, holy fuck! That one hurt!”

“Good!” Keith cheers, narrowing his eyes and throwing another piece of crystal to Blue, who barely had the time to dodge the tiny empty jewelry box aimed to his head.

“You know what!” Blue shouts, frowning irritated, “Just for that, now I’m definitely gonna steal this piece of shit! Just to spite you!”

“Your entire existence spites me!” Keith yells, grunting in frustration when Blue dodges yet another crystal.

“Oh, oh, yeah? You think you’re so smart, Red? Well, your mullet is an offence to the entire country!” Blue shouts back, grabbing his own crystal and throwing it with vigor towards Keith.

“At least I’m not a low-class spy who can’t get his own targets!”

Another crystal vase.

“You fucking say that to my motherfucking face, you dick!”

There goes a tiara.

“I fucking am? I’m shouting it!”

That glass wasn’t even important, so it’s okay.

“It’s mine!”

“No, it’s mine!”

“I got here first!”

“No, I did! I have been on the outpost for half the night now!”

“Well boo-fucking you!”

“Get off!”

“No, you get off!”

The painting in their hands cracks and both spies stare at the gaping hole in the middle of it before looking up at the ceiling.

“None of you are getting it because you just attracted the police, losers,” The small figure on top of the roof sighs, putting away her gun, “Blue, let’s go!”

“I had that, Green!” Blue huffs, rolling his eyes before grabbing the rope offered to him, his partners quickly pulling him up, “Whatever, you got lucky this time, Red!”

Keith limits himself to raise his hand and move it as if it was a mouth, sticking out his tongue in mock, “You got lucky this time, Red, bla, bla, bleh.”

“You motherfu –!”

Blue’s insult is cut off as his second partner, the one bigger than him in weight and height, picks him up like a bag of potatoes and swing him over his shoulder, an exasperated sigh on his lips.

Keith glares as Blue and Gold disappear from his sight before he shifts his gaze towards the last partner, the smallest one of the trio.

“You got three minutes, Red,” Green announces nonchalantly, pressing a few buttons on her wrist device before flashing him an amused grin, “I would have given you more but I thought you would enjoy the challenge.”

Keith blinks and realizes that the alarm in the museum is off when it had been on just a second ago. He hums, half impressed and half offended.

He grins back at her. “Psh, you gave me more than necessary, Green.”

Green laughs and waves at him as a goodbye.

“Looks like you’re in a tight spot right now, huh, Blue?”

“I would flip you off if, you know, if I could,” Blue grumbles, grunting as he tries to push himself forward before falling back down. “Dude, just...help me out? My head is hurting from being upside down.”

Keith hums, tapping his chin as if thinking about it.

“Okay,” Keith agrees nonchalantly before grinning, “but you gotta give me back the porcelain teapot, you know, the one that belonged to the fucking Queen of England.”

Blue gasps loudly. “Not Mrs. Potts!”

“That one is from France, you uncultured dipshit.”

Yeah, sure, okay, Keith helped his own rival out, but that’s just because there was a very important teapot on the table. That teapot was one of the most valuable items in the country and he will be dammed to miss this opportunity.

Sure, he could just kick Blue in the nuts, grab the teapot and call it a night. He doesn’t, though, because watching Blue fall to the ground comically after he cuts the rope holding him up is way funnier.

They dodge the police, cross the rooftops and then on the fifth neighborhood, Keith hold out his hands.

“Alright, a deal is a deal, man. Hand it over.”

Blue bites his lower lip before he pulls out his hand from his satchel, dropping small pieces of porcelain in Keith’s waiting hand.

“Yeah, so, I might had crushed it unexpectedly when I fell on the trap,” he smiles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck helplessly.

Keith clicks his tongue and smiles; wide and tight and Lance can only frown in confusion before he’s being push down the edge of the roof.

“Red! Dude! What the fu –! Oh my god!” Blue shouts, hands still in the air, looking wildly for something to hold on to before realizing it was in vain and taking out his grappling hook.

Keith watches, almost bored, as Blue swing himself to the other building’s roof. He leans against the edge of his own rooftop as Blue’s feet find the ground.

“You fucking asshole!”

Keith smirks, makes a poor imitation of Blue’s finger gun points move, wink included, before flipping him off.

“That one was for Mrs. Not Potts!”

He laughs at Blue’s indignant squeak.

Another night, another stolen diamond.

Blue’s laughs echoes around him even after the jump and Keith scowls when he feels the corner of his mouth twitch upward.

“You stop that.” He whispers quietly under his breath to himself before rolling his eyes and turning around, heading the opposite from where Blue had disappeared to.

Okay, so, there goes another gem. Keith adds it to the list of the things Blue has stolen from him, for the record, you know, for the day he actually kills him he will narrate the entire list.

Keith regrets the day he decided to work with a small hand blade and not a gunshot because if he had a gunshot he could at least shot that ass and it will be the death of all his problems.

Well, one of them, because if he needs to shoot every single one of his problems, he would have to shoot Blue’s face too.

And his toned arms.

That jaw too.

Can’t forget the legs.

Keith pauses, shakes his head in bewildered by his thoughts before he takes out his own grappling hook.

Well, goddammit, might as well shoot himself if he goes down this road of thoughts.  

The entire bathroom is fogged with steam but Keith’s sure that he should have found his towel already.

The black-haired man groans, leaving the shower stall and stepping out, feet hitting the cold bathroom’s floor.

He looks around him and arches an eyebrow when he sees no white towel on sight.

“I could have sworn…” he mumbles before rolling his eyes and cursing under his breath, heading towards the door.

Keith walks down his apartment's hall, cracking his neck softly and sighing in content as he feels his muscles relax even more. He hums to himself aimlessly as he steps into his bedroom before he stops abruptly.

He waits; one, two, three ticks before –

“Damn.”

The breathless whisper is enough for Keith to spin around, throwing one of his blades hard towards the origin of the sudden uninvited voice.

“Shit, gotta go, ok, bye, Red! Uh - I didn’t think you would actually – ! You know  – !  I um – Yeah anyways, your towel is really soft where do you get it? You know what? Never mind, I’m going now, because I see you have more knives. Look at that, not at all surprised and...and you are aiming your next one, okay, bye now!”

The second blade flies and Keith curses loudly when it only grazes Blue’s shoulder as the brunet dives towards the terrace.

“Son of a bi  – ! Did you really just steal my towel¡?”

That motherfucker.

Keith pants hard as the turns a sharp corner, bullet barely missing him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Shiro had warned him, he fucking had, saying that the sudden unregistered mission couldn’t be anything but a trap but Keith hadn’t listened.

‘You don’t have a green go for this mission, Keith,’ Shiro had said two days ago, ‘Not until we figure it out where it came from.’

It came from the Galra, Keith found out, but he really couldn't gloat about his discovery seeing as he was ambushed and attacked by said spies.

‘This is gonna cost me an ear with Shiro and Kolivan,’ Keith thinks, dodging one of the shots coming from behind him, hissing in pain when the gash on his right hip doesn’t agree with his sudden movement.

He was supposed to be on the other side of the city, stealing some diamond that came from all the way over from Russia, but no, he isn’t because Keith's a stubborn ass who wanted the unofficial mission and get himself killed by their enemies.

Whatever, Blue probably already stole it by now for sure.

He’s too entranced with his thoughts, which is something that Thace would scold him about, that he doesn’t notice the sudden body coming from his left and then his entire body crashes against the wall, yelling out in agony when his bad shoulder collides with the hard surface.

He slides down the wall slowly, biting his lip hard against his teeth as he glares at the Galra spy in front of him.

There’s a gun’s end staring right down at him and Keith can only sigh, dropping his shoulder but pushing himself as tall as he could in his lumped sitting position on the floor.

He glares up at the gun, eyes misty and wide but never wavering.

Keith hears a laugh from the Galra, as if they were amused, but he saves himself the energy to curse them. Instead, he closes his eyes and hopes that those who he considered family know that he had tried and that he had cared.

He closes his eyes and waits. For the first time in his life, he waits.

There’s a shot and that’s all Keith needs to know it’s over.

“Red, hey, are you with me? Red!” He hears someone hiss near him, familiar, almost comforting, and Keith can’t help but think ‘huh, death really is painless.’

Except it wasn’t.

“Keith!” Someone shouts and then there’s a sharp stinging pain in his left cheek, the one that isn't decorated with a gaping gash in the middle, and Keith snaps his eyes open, the end of a gun being replaced with a pair of big blue concern eyes. “Come on, man! Keith!”

That’s his name. How does Blue knows his name?

“Are you with me? Keith, answer me!” Blue tries again, this time patting his cheek as if to make him focus but Keith can only frown in confusion, eyes only shifting to the side to see the unmoving form of the Galra.

“Blue here, I got him. The East Wing has been neutralized, heading to the exit now. I will meet you outside, no, I got him, don't worry.”

Keith has no idea who he’s talking to but he doesn't care. He just keeps staring at Blue, eyelids fluttering quickly, his entire body shaking with exhaustion.

“Hey! No falling asleep on me! No way Jose! Red! Keith!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keith mumbles quietly, falling forward, fully expecting for his face to meet the floor but instead, he’s pressed against a firm warm chest.

“Okay, alright, time to go then.” He hears Blue whisper and then he’s being carried, bridal style, his mind lazily recognizes.

It’s a good thing Keith’s half conscious, because he would throw a fit if he wasn't.

There’s noise and voices around him, the sounds of tires against the pavement along the faint sound of police sirens but Keith can’t seem to concentrate. Not when strong arms hold him close to their warmth, as if he was something precious, like one of the gems they are in charge of stealing.

Someone is calling for him, asking, maybe begging him to stay awake. He feels the sharp pain of something piercing his skin and he jerks abruptly, barely being able to move with the arms around him but there’s a soft humming on his ear and its distracts him enough from the pain until he can barely notice it.

He hasn’t realized that he had closed his eyes until the smell of vanilla hit his nose and he opens one eye, slowly and weakly to stare at his own living room.

Keith blinks, confusion clear on his face and then he looks up, eyes meeting Blue’s strong jaw and steady gaze. It feels almost surreal to see Blue so serious and without a smile.

It’s not long before Blue catch his stare and then a small smile appears on his face, making Keith’s stomach to flip.

“Hunk and Shiro already patched you up enough on the way here,” Blue fills him in, quietly and low, footsteps gentle as he walks towards the bedroom and Keith vaguely notices the way he’s still on his arms, strong and secure, “You still need to go to your base’s infirmary to make sure. Pidge made sure to completely erase your presence from tonight’s event and Allura’s working on the Galra as we speak. It’s done, so you just...just rest.”

Keith hums, not really understanding Blue’s words but still nodding as if he did. He pushes himself closer to Blue’s chest, his eyebrows furrowed together as memories fill his head and mix themselves. He feels like he’s back in the Garrison’s halls, back in the classrooms, the library, and training deck. There’s a faint memory of a loud young voice filling his mind followed by laughter, teasing and then –

“Lance.”

Blue’s steps falter for a second before he continues, mumbling something unintelligible under his breath before dropping the injured spy on the bed carefully.

“You said my name,” Blue whispers, shock and surprised clear in his voice, “Keith, you – ?”

Keith hums, patting Lance on the shoulder with his good arm.

Lance smiles, small and wobbly but a smile nonetheless, “Ah, so you do remember me.”

Keith would roll his eyes, he honestly would, but he’s too comfortable and warmed that he doesn’t give a shit.

Although, he can still troll Lance.

His mouth twitches, eyes half lidded. “Heh, lousy thief.”

Lance snorts, “Yeah, sure, bring back the Academy’s nicknames, why not, Mullet.”

“Says the one...that never grew up from that one.” Keith slurs, words getting longer and quieter.

His vision is blurry but he can still see the way Lance shakes his head, and if Keith has to guess, there’s an amused smile on his face.

“Whatever you say, man,” Lance whispers and Keith feels a hand on his head, fingers passing through it tenderly, “Don’t go off schedule anymore, because this is the kind of stuff that happens when I’m not with you.”

“Lance and Keith, huh?” Keith whispers, and Lance hums.

“Neck and neck,” Lance adds just as softly, a small playful grin decorating his face, “but lately seems like surpassing you, Mr. Oh I Was Top Of The Garrison Before I Went Undercover Like A Hermit.”

Keith snorts and tries to lift his hand to flip Lance off.

He fails but he’s sure that Lance got the memo because he hears him laugh, but then the hand leaves, the warm dims and Keith’s eyes flutter open.

He sees Lance’s back walking away from him, heading towards open terrace and Keith’s voice gets caught up in his throat.

He tries. His hand shakes as he lifts it up from the mattress, reaching for Lance, reaching to pull him back; for a reason, for whatever reason, he needs to pull him back –

But his vision turns dark, black spots filling the edges, making Lance’s figure to disappear slowly and then he’s out like a light.

His hand falls back to the mattress motionless.

When Keith arrives, it’s the sight of Lance sitting on the roof that greets him; legs swinging on the air as he hums quietly under his breath.

Keith huffs and stomps his foot down annoyed when he catches the soft gleam of the emerald under Lance’s satchel.

“Took you long enough, Red.” Lance hums, not turning around to meet him and Keith resists the urge to choke him.

He does try though; raising both of his hands, still a few feet away from Lance and levels them to where Lance’s neck is before squeezing, hands only meeting air.

“Low-key hurt that you’re trying to imaginary choke me when I saved you three weeks ago.” Lance chuckles, throwing his head back to meet Keith’s glare and his grin only widens.

“I wouldn’t have to choke you if you stopped stealing most of my missions,” Keith snaps, taking a few steps before taking seat besides Lance, “I can’t believe you stole my first gig in three weeks.”

“Aw, but Red, that’s especially why I had to come!” Lance says, shrugging his shoulder, “I had to give you a warm welcome, ya’ know, which this is.”

Keith’s eyes widen as he catches Lance’s hands searching for something in his satchel. He waits and for some reason he feels excited as Lance pulls something out. Huh, maybe tonight he wouldn’t have to do any acrobatics and still go home with a gem, which is cool.

Lance takes his pale hand and drops something on it, making him to look down.

Keith swears he could kill him.

“A ring pop?” Keith deadpans, staring flatly at the candy, unwrapped candy, in his hand.

Lance grins. “It’s watermelon flavour!”

Keith clicks his tongue and smiles, wide and tight and Lance sees it coming before it even arrives.

“No, no, Red –!”

Keith throws the candy to his face, successfully colliding with his forehead and making the brunet to yelp in surprise.

“Dude! That thing costs two dollars!” Blue complains, rubbing his forehead with a pout, “Jesus, at least you didn’t throw me off the ro – Fuck!”

It’s fine, he had his grappling hook.

Keith thinks.

“Kei –!”

Maybe?

He waits, hears a loud ‘ow’ and then pops his head to the edge, smirking when he sees Lance lying face down on the fire escape stairs.

“Are you alive?” He asks nonchalantly, leaning against the edge with his knee.

Keith hums when he hears some groaning.

He’s fine.

“He wasn’t supposed to be there, you know.”

Keith looks up from his blade and meets Shiro’s eyes at the entrance of the common room.

“What?”

“Blue,” Shiro nods, pushing himself from the door’s frame and walking towards the younger man, “That night you got ambushed. He got his own mission on the other side of town but instead he headed to your assigned mission and contacted me as soon as he realized you weren’t coming.”

“He...did?” Keith frowns, lips pursing like they always do when he’s thinking too hard and Shiro takes it upon himself to save him the energy.

Shiro slaps the back of his head.

“Dude,” Keith hisses annoyed but Shiro waves him off, a wide smirk in place as he narrows his eyes suspiciously at Keith’s blush.

Keith huffs, turning away from his partner and picking his blade once again, ignoring the way Shiro point at his own cheeks and puffs them before pointing at him, as if telling him something about his face.

Sure, he feels hot but...the AC is not on, so, yeah, whatever.

“Whatever, that only means that I get to steal that gem next week –”

“Oh, no, the gem is long gone. He stole it the next night.”

“That motherfucker.”

“Hell no. You don’t get this one. You give me back what you just stole and walk away, right now! Blue! Blue, goddammit!”

Keith groans, following Lance to the edge of his terrace before climbing on the wall and ending on the roof of his building, crossing his arms over his chest as he glares at Lance.

The brunet laughs and waves the ruby gently on his hand in Keith’s face. “Oh, what? You want this back? Dude, your own fault for stealing it from me last week, again. I thought he had already established that your heart was mine.”

Keith narrows his eyes in annoyance but his heart beats wildly inside him, his breathing hitches and he knows there’s no use on denying.

Lance may not know this, but Keith’s no longer referring to the Angelica’s heart ruby.

Lance’s tone is playful, like it always is; a teasing and mocking edge on every word that leaves his mouth, making Keith scowl at himself to even feel the sharp tug he feels inside him when he hears them. Keith’s done; he’s tired of this dance on the roof.

“Why should you have it in the first place?” Keith whispers, honest confusion filling his features, not even bothering to deny what was real, his eyes searching for something in Lance’s. He takes a step forward, shoulders dropped, “Why do you even want it?”

Lance’s eyes widen in surprise and shock and Keith almost feels bad for him for dropping the sudden bomb on him but he sees it. He sees the hesitation in those blue eyes. He sees the wobbly movement from Lance’s Adams apple and he sees the way Blue bites down his lower lip, as if holding himself back.

“Lance.” Keith hisses, annoyed and frustrated.

Lance sighs, knowing that the gig was up as soon as his name left Keith’s lips. He drops his hand and jerks his head towards the edge of the building.

Keith’s follows him quietly and sits beside him; shoulders still tense and half turned, as if waiting to hear the answer and yet aching to run away from it.

‘Knowledge or death,’ Kolivan had told him once, back when he was a reckless teenager looking for answers that shouldn’t be found.

Tonight, Keith understand the meaning behind those words better than anyone, and he has accepted his choice.

“You know there’s this saying: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Lance mumbles, rubbing his shoulder aimlessly and Keith ‘s stomach turns, guilty when he realizes it’s the same spot his blade had hit him on all those months ago.

Keith frowns, raising his hand and letting it hover over Lance’s shoulder. “That time when I – ?”

“Hm?” Lance hums, confused by his question before he follows his gaze and his eyes widen, “Oh man, no, hah, believe me, there’s no grudge for that.”

“But you said…an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?”

Lance nods, no resentment in his eyes as he turns to meet Keith’s gaze once again and finishes for him. “Yeah, and a heart for a heart, Keith.”

Keith’s breath hitches and he’s barely coming to terms with the meaning of Lance’s words before two hands are cupping his cheeks and suddenly Lance’s breath is on him.

“Can I …?” He breathes out, quietly as if there was a chance to wake the entire city if he spoke any louder, “Keith, can I –?“

Keith doesn’t allow him to finish. Instead, he launches forward, quick and hurried, and presses their lips together.

Keith melts.

Warm spreads over his body and he smiles into the kiss unconsciously, feeling proud of the small noise he gets from Lance when he bites down on the tanner man’s lower lip. He pushes himself forward, chest pressed against each other and Keith lets himself go.

He loses track of the time, there’s only Lance for him. Lance’s fingers stroking his cheek, cupping it gently and keeping him close. He feels them on the back of his neck, playing with the end of his hair and gripping it tight and Keith holds back a moan.

His own hands travel their own path on Lance. They go from his hair, to his ears, earning a soft giggle against his mouth, followed by the jaw, and all the way down to his waist, pulling with close with a sharp tug that makes the brunet gasp in surprise and Keith tries to suppress the grin that threatened to break the kiss, but he does hum in appreciation.

Time pass and before neither of them are aware of, they pull away when the need of air is desperate and Keith allows himself to stay still; eyes closed, forehead pressed against Lance’s and he breathes.

“Oh no, what is this?” He hears Lance mumbles playfully, making Keith to open his eyes to stare at him confused, “Angelica’s heart I stole from you? In your hands once again? Keith, how could you steal that from me?” Lance asks in mock offense, hand pressed against his chest.

Keith blinks and frowns, opening his mouth but then Lance’s eyes fall down to Keith’s open palm, making Keith to follow his gaze, and his breath hitches when he sees the ruby in his hand.

“I am betrayed,” Lance laments, mouth twitching in amusement when Keith snorts, “Well, damn, seems like I’m gonna have to steal it back from you, huh?”

Keith’s heart flutters at the words, feeling a sudden rush of affection towards the brunet, feeling thankful that Lance’s still giving him a chance to decide on his own.

Keith huffs, because his decision has been made way before he even realized he had made one. He shrugs his shoulders and replies casually, playing along. “I mean, you can try, Lance, but…”

He turns the ruby in with his fingers, inspecting it carefully and wondering how a small gem was able to get so much meaning.

“There’s no need.” Keith mumbles before locking eyes with Lance again, offering a gentle smile, “Seems like the ruby itself found its favorite thief.”

Lance pauses before he beams and laughs. He laughs and shakes his head in disbelief before he throws himself to Keith, arms around his neck.

Keith joins him, circling his arms around the brunet’s back and nuzzling on the crook of his neck, enjoying the faint smell of caramel in Lance’s clothes.

“But the next sapphire that we encounter is mine, you hear me?”

Lance snorts against his neck. “You just like the analogy of gems being hearts and you want one of them being my heart.”

“A heart for a heart.”

“Fair enough.”

[azrayah]

Lancelot Idea (+Lotor headcanons and Klance)

This is gonna be a very long post that features a lot of my ideas that I thought of, like, ten minutes ago. I’d like to make this into a comic/fanfic but if anyone else wants to as well, go ahead! Link it to me somehow cuz I’d love to read it and die cuz I’ll love you forever ahhh

It’s about 1,700 words, hehehe...I got really carried away. sorry about any mistakes too, I wrote this as fast as possible lol. I’ll put it under a cut.

So, I’ve heard that Lotor in the original series was an evil bastard that was obsessed with Allura, right? Really evil, worse than Zarkon, right? (or something like that?)

What if in this series, he’s actually...not that evil?

Like, sure, he hates Voltron and hates Alteans and, yeah, he’s on board with the Galra taking everything over, but that’s just because that’s what Zarkon’s been feeding him since he was born. He just goes along with it because his father said so and his father is super powerful so he’s obviously right. And because his father is so busy, Lotor and Zarkon aren’t very close. Zarkon kinda lets him do his own thing because he doesn’t need his son getting in the way of his empire plans.

Because of this freedom, Lotor is gone a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. He’s never at the castle, ever. Instead, he’s exploring different worlds that the Galra have already controlled, trying to blend in and see what’s up. He’s gonna be in charge of everything one day, right? So he should learn about it all first hand.

The problem is the fact that everyone controlled by Galra knows who he is and fears him, runs away as soon as he’s spotted, and it actually annoys him. He just wants to talk, why are they so afraid of him?

So whatever, he’ll just go explore worlds without the Galra then. Luckily, he’s half something and that lets him shape-shift ever so lightly (something he discovered in his frustrations with the locals, wishing he looked different so they wouldn’t recognize him.) So instead of having signature purple Galra purple skin and white hair and claws, he has deep blue skin and light blue hair and his claws aren’t as long or sharp. Awesome!

So he’s on this planet that the Galra are making their way towards. They don’t fully control it, but they’re gonna launch another invasion attempt soon so Lotor figures this is a good place to test his disguising abilities and learn about a new planet that he’ll soon control. Apparently this planet is famous for it’s marketplace and so he starts there, figuring it’s a good place to begin his journey.

As he’s walking around, he spots the most beautiful person he’s ever seen: Lance. He resembles the bits of information he’s learned about Alteans, but he doesn’t match perfectly so he must be another race, and this intrigues Lotor greatly. So he’s not-so-subtly following Lance around the market, watching as he interacts with others who look like him before having an argument with one and storming off (Keith--surprise, surprise.)

Lotor follows him and watches as Lance settles himself away from the market under a yellow and red tree, and Lotor walks up to him and asks if he’s okay. Lance is startled, of course, not expecting an alien (a hot alien, his mind supplies unhelpfully) to have followed him, so Lance flirts with Lotor in an attempt to keep him from seeing how upset he is. He’s also low-key hoping his god awful flirting will make Lotor go away since that happens to everyone he flirts with.

Imagine Lance’s surprise when Lotor flirts back, then genuinely seems concerned about his well being. A hot alien...taking interest in him...?? WTF?

Lotor is happy that Lance isn’t scared of him and actually seems interested in someone like him, so he asks if he can come closer and if they can talk, maybe...get to know one another?

Lance is happy to finally have someone to talk to other than the Voltron Crew (he loves them, but it’s suffocating to only talk to them 24/7) so he agrees and they start talking. First it’s just small talk, Lotor asking all about Lance cuz he’s never met one of his kind before. (“What’s your name?” “Lance, you?” “Lotor. What race are you? You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.” “E-eh-er- th-thank you! I’m human, haha.”)

So that continues for a little until Lotor finally asks Lance what’s wrong. He mentions that he saw the argument with another one of the humans and was worried about him. Lance gets quiet, his smile gone, and pulls his legs up to his chest. He explains how he’s not important to his team, how they have an important mission and he feels like he’s letting them down. He doesn’t bring anything to the cause. (he doesn’t mention Voltron--saying the word puts too much stress on his shoulders.)

Lotor tells him there must be something he’s good at, no matter how small. He explains that even the smallest thing can be a large help in the long run and that in time Lance will find it and realize how amazing he is. Lance then shyly admits that he thinks he’s a good shot, and Lotor smiles and tells him that he probably is and just lacks encouragement from his team (which Lotor is starting to dislike greatly, especially this “Keith”)

Speak of the devil, here comes Keith, angry and worry clear on his face as he comes up on Lotor and Lance sitting way too close for his liking (their shoulders are touching and Lotor’s hand is resting on Lance’s, his mind screams at him, jealously burning deep.) Keith yells at Lance for running off and making all of them search for him instead of doing their mission, and Lance is slowly caving in on himself.

Lotor steps up and tries to defend Lance, something that shocks Lance and warms his heart greatly, but Keith just isn’t having it, jealously now kicking in and making him super angry and he’s about to charge Lotor. Lance realizes this and says it’s okay. He calms Keith down and tells him he’s sorry, give him a minute and he’ll be back on the ship. Keith says he’s gonna wait right there until Lance comes over.

Lance sighs and apologizes to Lotor, but Lotor just shakes his head and pulls Lance to his chest, slipping something into his hand and whispering “It’s a communicator. Press the top button and speak into it whenever you want to talk to me and press the bottom black button if you want me to come get you.” He smiles at Lance reassuringly as he makes his way back to Keith. Once his back is turned, Lotor glares at Keith so hard Keith shivers, fear flashing through him as he attempts to glare back. He has no idea about the communicator--he just sees Lance now smiling to himself.

For the next couple of weeks Lance talks to Lotor through the communicator, making sure to only do so when he’s alone and knows he will be for a good hour. Lotor is thrilled, Lance is happy, and slowly the two are starting to fall for one another. One day, however, Lance tells Lotor he won’t be able to talk for a while cuz they’re going on a life or death mission and he has to focus. Lotor cheers him on and wishes him luck, accidentally confessing that he just might be falling for Lance so he better make it out alive. Lance is on cloud nine and confesses back. The two make promises to meet once the mission is over.

The Zarkon battle happens, Voltron wins, Lotor is summoned and Lotor is pissed off beyond belief. Voltron defeated and seriously wounded his father. He’s going to kill them and make sure they suffer. And he’s going to make sure they know he’s on their trail. So he find their ship and hails them, cocky anger and promises of death evident on his face as the screen lights up with the Paladins of Voltron  glaring at him.

With Lance glaring at him.

“Lance?” Lotor asks, the anger slowly melting off his face as cold realization seeps in. Lance’s eyes widen as horror makes it’s way to his face. “...Lotor?”

The Voltron crew are stunned and are confused as to why Lotor knows Lance, who is now starting to cry. Keith wraps his arms around Lance and pulls him close, not understanding exactly what’s going on but wanting to comfort and protect Lance as Lotor continues. “Lance...you’re...all this time...you were with Voltron?”

Lance solemnly nods as he pulls away from Keith slightly, who keeps a hand on his arm. Lotor notices and glares at Keith, who glares right back. Lance wipes away his tears as he says “So you’re a prince, huh? Should’ve told me sooner, your majesty.” He winks. And Lotor smiles at him, glad to see that Lance still likes him, still wants to be his friend and possibly something more, but Lotor’s still torn because he’s a paladin of Voltron, his sworn enemy. But it’s Lance against his father.

His father wins. He always does (did, his traitorous mind says as his heart begs for him to chose Lance.) So he takes in a deep breath, locks his heart, and coldly says “Why would I? After all, you only need to know that I’m going to kill you and stop Voltron.”

Lance freezes. “W-what? But I thought--”

“It was a trick, Lance. Whatever he told you, he was lying.” Keith growls, his grip on Lance tightening.

“The Red Paladin is right. It was a trick, my dear sky.” The nickname kills them both. Lance starts crying again and Keith pulls him out of the room, whispering soothing words as he give Lotor the most death-filled glare he can. Lotor returns it as his heart begins to freeze over. He turns his attention to the others, who are glaring at him harder than they previously had been. They do love you, Lance, you just can’t see it, he thinks ruefully before going on about getting revenge for his father. The Voltron Crew promise hell in return, especially for Lance and whatever just happened between them.

Lotor welcomes the insults. They don’t hurt nearly as much as the pain his lies to Lance do. He does try to contact Lance once, a few weeks into the cat and mouse game Voltron and Lotor were playing. He had started with apologies, about how he didn’t mean it and that he’s doing it for his father, for his people. Lance is still his sky and he still wants to be his ocean.

Lance doesn’t receive the call, too busy hanging out with Keith and realizing that maybe Mullet Man wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe he could open up again. Maybe he was worth being loved. Maybe he finally found someone who loves Lance just because he’s Lance.

[bitterbeetle]

Pudding

1200 words, gen centric with a side of klance, basically just crack

It starts with green goo flying from one end of the table to the other and splattering across Lance’s face. Or rather, it starts with Lance feeding the mice from his spoon, Keith knocking his elbow and subsequently soaking the tiny Altean animal in goo, Lance retaliating by dumping his entire bowl onto Keith’s head – a more notable overreaction, he’ll admit later – and then a spoonful of goo soaring through the air as Lance tries to escape. He fails, his face is covered in goo, Pidge is snorting into her bowl and Hunk is coughing into his – and Allura is rising to her feet with an air of authority.

Or perhaps, the entire thing truly starts when she says, “Sit down and eat your dick properly!”

Pidge goes from laughing to choking in half a second. Shiro goes beet red. Lance and Keith are covered in goo but their faces are a matching purple. Hunk is the only one who is able to use words, although his eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head.

“Um, pardon?” he asks timidly.

Allura frowns at him. “I said, eat your dick. Don’t throw it.”

From his spot at her elbow, Coran nods fervently. “I spent a lot of time making it!”

It’s with great difficulty that Lance holds his tongue. Pidge has successfully not died. Shiro appears be breathing again. Everyone simply nods and returns to their meals, Keith and Lance settling with goo dripping from their hair.

They treat it as an anomaly and don’t mention it but for pursed lips and stifled giggles – until it happens again.

“Lance!” calls Coran as he passes the kitchen.

Turning on his heel, Lance pauses at the entrance to the kitchen and leans against the doorframe. “Yeah?”

Hunk is there with him, lifting baking sheets covered in dollops of something neon blue. Coran has his arms from fingers to elbow covered in whatever the mixture happens to be.

“I was wondering whether you preferred soft or firm dick?” asks Coran.

Lance smiles blankly at Coran. “Preferred what?”

“How do you like your dick?”

“My what?”

“Dick.”

“What?”

“…Dick. Are you alright?” Coran frowns and moves forward as if to test Lance’s temperature, but then remembers his arms are blue and dripping.

“I’m fine,” Lance manages to squeak out. There’s a weird sound, like a startled cat. Hunk is bouncing away from the baking sheets, grimacing as he cradles a stubbed toe.

“I see,” says Coran doubtfully, but then he’s turning around to ask Hunk if he’s okay, and Lance takes the opportunity to bail.

He visits Pidge later that day. She’s standing at the main console on the bridge, flicking through holograms with purposeful flicks of her wrist. When Lance comes to a stop at her shoulder, she acknowledges him with a grunt but doesn’t stop.

“So,” begins Lance, “I have a question.”

“Is it about the dick?” asks Pidge.

Lance inhales, slow and deep. “…Yes.”

“Allura was telling me all about how the mice enjoy dick.”

His voice cracks as Lance says, “Is that so?”

“I think there’s a glitch in the castle’s translation software,” says Pidge. She stops. Her arms drop to her sides. When she speaks again, her voice is shaking from barely concealed mirth. “She said they enjoy slurping up the soft dick.”

Lance closes his eyes. “Coran asked me if I liked my dick soft… or firm.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then suddenly they’re both laughing until tears come to their eyes and they’re gripping each other’s shoulders.

Once Pidge calms down, the tears wiped from her eyes, she spots something on the floating screens and gasps. “Found it!”

As Lance tries to contain his spluttering to his palms, Pidge flicks through a wall of coding until she finds what she’s looking for.

“Some words have switched with older versions of English,” murmurs Pidge, “It seems… pudding, or dessert, has switched with its 19th century counterpart – dick.”

“So you mean,” attempts Lance, voice hiccupping, “Dick is pudding?”

They both lapse into hysterics.

Pidge doesn’t bother fixing the bug.

Keith walks into the kitchen late at night to find Lance and Hunk making some sort of bread pudding. He glances at it briefly, takes note of the shape, and walks out.

“It’s dick pudding!” crows Lance as Keith leaves.

“This dick is gooier than usual,” says Hunk.

“I’ve tried a new recipe,” says Coran happily, “Do you like it?”

“Actually, yeah,” nods Hunk and takes another spoonful.

He notices a moment later that Lance and Pidge are boring holes into his head with their gazes. Keith and Shiro are resolutely eating their goo. It takes Hunk another moment to realize what he just said.

Lance’s smile is blinding and terrifying.

“Hey Keith.”

“What?”

“How’s your dick?”

“…”

“Hey Keith.”

“What?”

“How’s your pudding?”

“…”

Eventually, they find themselves using dick as it was meant in the 19th century. When Coran asks them how their dick is, they respond without the tickle of humour in their throats.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of pudding.

One breakfast, Pidge is rubbing the dark circles under her eyes and using her glasses as a headband. Keith and Lance enter the dining room last, Keith’s hair a disaster and Lance’s a carefully preened clue. As they sit down, Pidge fixes Lance with a glare.

“What the hell were you doing all night that was so damn loud?” she growls.

Lance smiles at her. “Eating pudding.”

Keith turns the approximate shade of a lobster. Shiro makes a strained sound under his breath. Hunk chokes. Pidge brings her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose.

Allura and Coran look perplexed.

Lance happily dishes goo into his bowl.

“I want your pudding in me right now,” gasps Lance into Keith’s neck just as Pidge passes by the alcove they’re hiding in.

“Holy fuck, would you stop?” shrieks Pidge.

Allura stands on the bridge in the evening, frowning at the coding of the software on display in front of her. Coran joins her with a blanket in hand, which he uses to drape across her shoulders.

“Is there a problem?” he asks.

Allura doesn’t know whether to nod or shake her head. “Perhaps? The paladins have been… odd as of late.”

“Ah, you mean their interesting usage of the word pudding?”

“I think so.” The princess’ eyes scour the coding, but most of it is a garbled mess. “There may be an issue with the translation system, or so I thought. Perhaps… Oh!”

Several lines of coding don’t quite match up with the rest. Allura isn’t sure how to fix it, but it does seem to differ from the default setting that had been used up until recently, around the same time that the paladins started snickering about completely mundane things. Allura resets the system to its factory default state and hopes that will clear up the odd behaviour.

“Pass the dick?” asks Keith.

Coran’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. “Pardon?”

Keith frowns. “The dick. Please.”

“Do you mean…” Coran’s gaze slides to the only bowl near him – the dessert goo. “…The pudding?”

The other paladins pause in various states of eating to watch. One by one, it seems to register. Keith catches on first. He looks like he wants to toss himself out of the airlock.

And then there’s Lance – “Could you pass me some dick, too?”

Coran nearly sucks his moustache into his mouth. “I– er– yes?” And then he slides the bowl across the table to Lance, who cheerfully spoons out globs of acidic green dessert into his dish.

what the shit is this you may be asking right about now??? well

[lykezoinks]

[ a/n: alright, this is my last entry for @klangst-week. thanks everybody for all the likes and reblogs! it keeps me writing, and it’s just nice to see people enjoying what i’m putting out! also, the works everyone’s created have just been amazing, so keep it up, y’all! ]

title: impulse control words: 3,547 prompt: secrets/betrayal rating/genre: T for language, modern au, college au, angst & hurt/comfort with a tinge of humor trigger warning(s): mental illness (implied depression and anxiety), depersonalization, mentions of injury (bruises and blood) extra notes: keith and shiro are adoptive brothers (it’s mentioned very briefly), klance is established

Yes, he works in the most hipster coffee shop within a twenty mile radius of campus. And yes, he loves it. Sure, The Underground sounds more like a sketchy bar you’d find in an alleyway that may or may not host fight clubs every other night, and yeah, it kinda smells like pencil shavings even after he mops the floors three times at opening, but at least it has character. Most people would roll their eyes at the always pretentious shop-goer in their thrift store clothing and knit hats, but Lance can’t help but find them interesting. Not that it surprises anyone.

Lance became famous around campus after only one year of being a— totally amazing, if he may say so himself— residence hall assistant. Almost anyone who lived in Levine Hall found a friend in Lance McClain. Eager to please and even more eager to befriend, it’s no secret that he falls in love with almost every social interaction he can muster up.

So he really doesn’t mind if a customer wants to discuss their latest film project, and he’s always happy to adhere to any non-dairy milk preference. Though he doesn’t have a septum ring to match his coworkers’ and he’s a bit too smiley for the spoken poetry nights they host on the stage in the back, that doesn’t stop anyone from placing a dollar in the tip jar after he compliments their tattoos or ends a pleasant conversation with a smile and a wink.

The night shift is easy enough to work. People stop entering the cafe sometime after ten, staying their welcome to study on the couches and leaving before closing. Lance’s manager insists Lance work the front while Floyd takes on the side work. So the remainder of Lance’s shift is spent leaning his elbow against the counter and letting his fingers fall one-by-one against his cheek. He tells leaving customers to enjoy the rest of their night as they leave behind a buzz of idle chatter and a ding of the door. Once the cafe clears out, all that’s left is the sounds of Floyd sweeping the floors and an acoustic song from some band that Lance thinks should have never left their basement.

“Am I free to go, bossman?” Lance asks, drumming his hands against the counter, wiggling his hips in time with the beat as his eyes dart between Floyd and the analog clock on the wall.

“You’re good to go,” Floyd nods, sliding Lance’s wallet across the countertop.

With a happy sigh, Lance punches a few buttons on the register, pulling the drawer out and placing it in the office in the back before clocking himself out and grabbing his keys from the hook. The second he does, his phone rings from its spot in his jacket pocket. Slipping it into his palm, he drags his thumb across the screen and cradles it between his ear and his shoulder. “Perfect timing! How’s it hangin’, Pidgeotto?”

“Lance! Hey, um…” The way Pidge says ‘Lance’, high pitched and cracking, tells him he’s about to get bad news. Before he can stop her, Pidge is already stringing together a plethora of subject changers that just seem ridiculous given that the two of them weren’t on a particular subject to begin with.

“Pidge,” Lance interrupts partway through some bullshit commentary having to do with the ‘crazy weather we’ve been having.’ Lance knows that no one has to explain climate change to Pidge, given its something she rants about at least twice a day. “What’s going on?”

“Yeah, okay… Um, we’re at Black Spot… And, uh— Hunk… Hunk, would you— No, grab him! Jesus… “

“What happened?” His sigh is heavy as he closes the door behind him after giving Floyd a curt wave, already headed toward his car. The Black Spot never means anything good, ever. Why his boyfriend so loves the town’s shadiest bar is beyond Lance; he doesn’t exactly find peeling paint and stained floor boards charming. And the muscled biker guys that do nothing but take up space at the bar to glower at the assorted whiskeys along the wall and ramble about their Navy days— or something like that— don’t exactly put Lance in the partying mood.

“Lotor happened.”

“Oh, God…” Lance drags a hand down his face before pinching the bridge of his nose.

He doesn’t need context. Any instance in which Lance’s current boyfriend and Lance’s ex-boyfriend are in the same room usually results in disaster. And a night in the E.R. And, lo and behold, by some cruel twist of fate, these disasters are becoming more and more frequent in recent months. Lance is half convinced that they’re destined to kill each other, like Lotor is Tybalt and Keith is a far less flamboyant Mercutio. Lance refuses to be the Benvolio in this situation. “Just stay put. I’ll be there in a sec.”

A near collision and a half-assed parallel parking job later, Lance walks himself outside the bar, feeling exceptionally underdressed as the Winter weather dusts over his arms. He has to push himself through a crowd of people waiting to be let in by the bouncer before he sees a head of familiar wild hair. In her NASA sweatshirt and minimalist alien hat, Pidge looks like she belongs at a performance art showcase rather than a night out on the town, but Lance is too exhausted to comment on his friends’ poor fashion decisions. Even if that Hawaiian shirt is so not Hunk’s color.

Instead, his focus shifts onto his leather-clad boyfriend, and rather than point out the fact he looks like a Danny Zuko knock-off with a red beanie and black baby gauges in his ears, he steps forward with his arms crossed instead.

“Hey, Lance,” Pidge sighs, sounding somewhat relieved. Hunk is a bit busy grabbing at Keith’s shoulder every time he tries to take a step toward the street. Handling a Drunk Keith is like— as Keith would say in True Texan Spirit— herding cats.

“Hey,” Lance says briskly, marching passed Pidge to strap a hand on the collar of Keith’s jacket. “Lemme see.”

Keith huffs and turns his head, looking utterly indifferent as Lance’s eyes widen.

“Shit, Keith…” He squints a little, scanning over his boyfriend’s busted lip and the fresh patch of bruises, purples, blues, and reds bleeding from underneath one eye, across the bridge of his nose, and all the way under his other eye.

“It’s not that bad,” Keith slurs, holding up a wavering hand.

“Not that—!” Lance has to close his eyes and suck in a breath through his nose, counting to ten just like Mama McClain taught him, before he can open his eyes again. But his glare doesn’t disappear.

“Sorry, man,” Hunk all but mewls beside him, rubbing at the back of his neck in a flustered fashion. “I tried to pull them off of each other as soon as I could.”

“It’s not your fault, big guy,” Lance assures, turning to his best friend with a soft smile before glaring right back at his boyfriend. “It’s yours.”

“Why is it that all of a sudden—” Keith starts, but Lance knows better than to let him divert Lance’s attention.

“There’s no way Lotor with his pretty boy hands was the only culprit. Who the hell were you picking a fight with this time?”

Keith chews at the inside of his cheek, opting to take out his pent up anger on the ground as he fixes it with a fiery glare.

Pidge steps in for him then, pushing her circle glasses further up her nose. “The usual suspects.”

“Great,” Lance grumbles, never breaking his staring contest with Keith’s profile. “So now you wanna take on Lotor and his frat buddies. All of whom are very rich… And can hire very. Good. Attorneys.”

“Lance.” Hunk sets a hand on Lance’s back, offering a sympathetic look that makes Lance’s hunched shoulders deflate. “I know you’re mad, but do you really wanna do this out here?”

It’s then that Lance realizes he’s making a scene, the crowd of people on the street gawking in their direction. And he also realizes that it’s making Keith antsy. That’s apparent in the way he starts shifting his shoulders in every which way and pales a little in the face.

“We’re the ones who let your boyfriend off his leash,” Pidge admits, saying “your boyfriend” like he’s now completely Lance’s responsibility. Saying it like she hasn’t been Keith’s best friend since the fifth grade.

Lance fishes his car keys from his back pocket, still trying to cool off from the anger burning something fierce in his chest. “You guys enjoy the rest of your night, okay? I’m gonna take Keith back to the apartment.”

“Are you sure? We can come with you,” Hunk offers, the concern never leaving his eyes for a moment.

“No, seriously, it’s fine. Besides, I thought I saw a familiar little curly girly named Shay head into that other bar a couple blocks from here.”

Hunk reddens just a little, but nods in agreement as Pidge makes some complaint about being a third wheel. In a mess of goodbyes and repeatedly reaching for Keith’s hand— his opposition to PDA is counterproductive given that he can’t walk by himself without stumbling— Lance finally gets the chance to unlock his car and slide into the driver’s seat. Keith flops down into the passenger’s seat next to him, pulling one leg up to rest his foot on the polyester as he plays absently with the laces on his high tops.

The drive home is silent, mostly because Lance can’t think of a decent lecture that won’t end in a two-way silent treatment, something that’s proven to be agonizing given they’re the only two living in a one-bedroom apartment. After Lance parks, helps Keith climb the stairs, and fumbles with the key in the lock, Keith finds a spot in their too small kitchen, sliding down the lower cabinets to sit cross-legged on the floor. Because apparently he’s a household pet.

Lance rifles through the freezer, snagging a bag of whatever’s packaged and frozen before all but chucking it onto one of Keith’s thighs. Keith seems to get the message, picking it up and hesitantly pressing it to his multi-colored face. Lance finds the place on the floor across from his boyfriend and sits back on his thighs, staring. For a long while, the only sounds in the room are the hum of the refrigerator and their neighbor’s dog yipping through the walls.

“Are we gonna talk about this?” Lance says it more rhetorically than anything.

Keith swallows hard, trying to cover up half of his face with vegetable medley. His voice is muffled by the plastic when he says, “About what?”

Lance rolls his eyes, shaking his head. He has half the mind to storm off into the bedroom and leave Keith to tend to his own wounds. But being a middle sibling of six has taught him patience if nothing else, so he counts to ten again. “About why your face looks like a Goya painting,” he deadpans.

Keith fidgets under Lance’s gaze. His knuckles would be white if they weren’t bruised too. “You know how your asshole ex is.”

“Keith, you have got to pull your head out of the Middle Ages! I’m not some damsel in distress whose honor you have to defend.” Though Lance would admit it was hot the first time… But seeing Keith beat up with dried blood caked all over his features every other weekend is starting to look less suave and James Deany and more thoughtless.

Keith drops the bag of frozen vegetables. Then his nose twitches. To the untrained eye, it would go unnoticed, but Lance has been dating him for two years and three months. And a nose twitch means that Keith’s hiding something.

“But this has nothing to do with that, does it?”

“Lance, would you just let it go—”

“Okay, fine. You want me to let this one go? Then we can talk about last week. Or the week before that. Or the week before that.”

Keith tries for a glare then, a practiced stare that looks like flames are licking at his irises, but Lance is immune from prolonged exposure.

“And I know you’re not that drunk, so let’s not act like this was impulse alone.”

When Keith shrugs off his jacket and tosses it across the room, Lance sees that the bruises aren’t just on his face. His heart jumps up to his throat as the sound of the ice machine crunches in the background.

“Would you just tell me why you’re being more of a brooding edgelord than usual? Why do you have to be so emotionally constipated?” He places either hand on Keith’s shoulders, looking him dead in the eye. “Let me be your laxative.”

“You really have a knack for making up the world’s most disgusting metaphors.”

“It’s a gift. I’m thinking of turning it into a career path.”

“Stick to astrophysics.”

“Stop changing the subject.” It’s clear that neither of them is budging, so Lance just arches a brow and asks, “Do I have to call Shiro?”

Keith slams his back further into the cabinets with a groan. The older brother card is always the trump card. “Do not tell Shiro about this, please. I’m still getting lectures about my stupid cafeteria fights in high school.”

“Then tell me what’s going on! I thought when we said we were gonna be more open with each other, it was gonna be a two-way street. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

“Nothing’s going on, Lance, okay? I hate your ex-boyfriend and his stupid frat bro sidekicks, and I shouldn’t have had that last shot of moonshine, alright?”

While it is incredibly tempting to comment on the moonshine bit, Lance holds off. Because something else catches his eye. Crossing his arms over his chest, he refuses to break eye contact, giving Keith just a few more moments to tell him the truth. The clock ticks away, and there’s nothing. “You’re biting your lip,” he says finally.

“So?”

“So, one, stop it; it’s busted and you’re gonna hurt yourself. And two, that means you’re not telling me something.”

“Would you quit psychoanalyzing me!?”

Patience be damned. Something in Lance snaps then, something that makes his teeth grind and heat bubble in his chest. His fists tremble a little before he throws his hands out to his sides and starts getting to his feet. “Fine, you know what? Fine. Forget I asked. God forbid someone try to care about you, Keith, damn.”

He steps to leave, but as soon as he does, Keith clasps a hand onto his wrist and pulls just a little. The moment Lance turns his head, eyes sharp with ice and prickling rage, he feels his heart jump. The anger slowly trickles out of his system, sending a shiver down his spine. Keith looks a little broken, shoulders squared and eyes pleading in a way that’s so unlike him it makes something in the back of Lance’s head scream.

“I’m sorry, okay? I just… You’re gonna think I’m bat-shit.”

Lance exhales low and deep, turning fully and sitting back down across from Keith. He sets a gentle hand on Keith’s knee, trying to get him to make eye contact. “Try me.”

Keith’s mental illness has been the elephant in the room, always noticed but never talked about. Because Keith refused to talk about it. It took a full year’s convincing, mostly on Shiro’s end, just to get him to start seeing help. Some days he was a mess of the emotions he never learned how to process, and Lance would try his best to be there for him. Other days were better. Other days he was just silent and spacey and tried not to cry.

“No one knows this, okay? Not even Shiro, not even my goddamn shrink, so you can’t…” He trails off, and Lance tries to squeeze his knee in support.

“Keith… Keith, look at me…” When Keith looks up, his eyes are growing misty, pink rings already apparent on the brims of his eyes. “You know you can tell me anything.”

Offering a weak nod, Keith takes a deep breath, closing his eyes as he forces himself to speak. “I just… I thought that maybe… Y’know how sometimes people… I don’t know, I thought if I was… Fuck.” He holds up his hands before Lance can say anything, blinking away whatever tears form in his eyes before he lets out a breath and continues. “I thought if I could feel, I don’t know, pain… If I could feel anything I’d stop feeling like…” Keith clamps his teeth down on his lower lip again. Whatever tears he blinks away only come back.

Lance sighs, reaching out his thumb to slip Keith’s lip from his teeth’s grasp. “Keith, you can cry—”

“No, I can’t,” Keith starts, though his voice trembles despite himself. “Because if I start I won’t stop. And I just— Fuck, I just need to say it.” Lance can practically feel the frustration radiating off of the other in waves. With a steady breath, he takes a hand in Keith’s, holding it to his chest and letting Keith know he has Lance’s full attention. Keith hisses in another breath and tries again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me… Lately, it’s just like, like nothing is fucking real, and I can talk and hear and touch things, but it’s like I’m not really there. Like I’m in some weird dream world, and I’m just watching myself or something. Or like everything’s not really there, or maybe it is, and I’m just not a part of it… I don’t know, it feels like I’m going insane.”

“Keith…” Lance doesn’t know where to go from there, watching his boyfriend struggle around his words with a pain sinking into Lance’s chest.

“Sometimes I don’t think I even sound like me… Like when I talk, it’s some kind of automated computer message, y’know? And I went home for Christmas. And I thought… I don’t know, I thought being home and in my own bed might make me feel normal again. But it didn’t. And nothing feels normal, nothing feels… Damn it, I’m going insane.” That’s when Keith’s face twists, twists into something that’s a punch to Lance’s gut. And Keith is squinting his eyes closed, sniffling loudly before a sob emits from his throat.

“You know… You don’t have to be so strong all the time…” Lance says in a whisper, tucking a strand of Keith’s hair behind his ear.

Keith looks up at him, eyes watery as he sobs again, pressing his face into Lance’s chest. Lance wraps his arms around him instinctively, feeling Keith shake, choking and whimpering against him. Lance can only hold him closer, shushing him tenderly as Keith claws at the back of Lance’s shirt, gripping onto the fabric like he’ll disappear if he doesn’t. Each broken little noise that leaves Keith is another twist in Lance’s heart, and he doesn’t dare let go.

“It’s okay, you’re okay…” Lance coos, pressing tender kisses on the top of Keith’s hair. “You’re okay, baby… You’re okay…”

Keith doesn’t stop weeping, not until his throat is raw and all he can do is let silent tears roll down his cheeks as he snivels and tries to breathe normally again.

By the time he leans back, sniffling and rubbing under his eyes with the back of his palm, there’s a wet patch on Lance’s T-shirt. Lance doesn’t mind, too busy trying to read Keith’s expression, setting a hand on the back of his neck.

“Do you feel any better?” Lance asks softly, ducking his head into Keith’s line of sight.

Keith nods his head slowly, wiping his nose with the white cotton of his T-shirt with another wet snivel. “Sorry about your shirt.”

Lance snorts, rolling his eyes just a little. “I have other shirts.”

“Yeah.” Keith’s breath shudders once more as he collects himself and blinks the wetness from his puffy eyes, tears caught on his eyelashes. “I’m just sorry I—”

“No. No… We agreed no more apologizing about this.”

“No, you said ‘Keith, stop apologizing every time you cry.’”

“Okay, smartass.” Lance rises to his feet, offering his hands and pulling Keith up along with him. With a steady breath, he places a gentle kiss on the corner of Keith’s lips, mindful to avoid the forming scab. “Thank you… For sharing that with me.”

Keith nods solemnly, probably thinking something snarky about how Lance is talking like his therapist. So Lance goes for a subject change, placing his hands at the base of Keith’s neck.

“How about you wash your face and pick out a movie, alright?”

They spend the rest of the night tangled up in each other, Lance refusing to move his arms from Keith’s waist even as Keith awkwardly holds an icepack to his face. Eventually, they drift to sleep, heart beats pumping in time while Lance tries his best to whisper words of comfort.

“I love you… And you’re here. Even if your mind’s playing tricks on you. You’re here, and you’re with me. And I love you…”

[mstowa]

vigilante!AU Lance Headcanons

So I wrote a superhero/vigilante AU for a Klance fic called Of Lions and House Cats and posted it here on AO3. At the end notes in chapter three, I mentioned that Lance and Spider-Gwen shared a couple of similarities, and 1sakichan2 had asked me to elaborate on those similarities. I just got super excited to the point where I took a break from writing and actual work just to gather my thoughts and explain why I think Gwen Stacy (of Earth-65, namely) and my Lance have some similarities.

I love Spider-Gwen and think that she’s one of the cutest and most badass people in fiction ever. Her character ended up inspiring a lot of Lance’s character in my story, and I’ll go into more below the cut because there will be spoilers for Spider-Gwen.

Warning: There may be spoilers for any readers of the Spider-Gwen, Spider-Gwen II, Spider-Verse, and Spider-Women Alpha and Omega serialisations. There won’t be any for my story if you’re reading it, so no worries!

Okay, so if you don’t know about Spider-Gwen, here’s a quick summary:

This Gwen Stacy is from one of Marvel’s many alternate universes. They have Earth-616, which is Earth Prime, the main Marvel universe where most Marvel comics take place. Earth-616 is where the original Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is from, but Spider-Gwen takes place in Earth-65. Here, instead of Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Gwen Stacy was bitten by one during that fateful field trip, becoming that universe’s Spider-Woman. While Lance does not have any superpowers in my story, most parallels are related to personality and motives.

Just like Lance, she’s extremely free-willed and spirited, and she also has more creative and artistic tendencies that contrasts with how stoic her father, Captain George Stacy of the NYPD, was. Often times in the comics, you can see her immersed in her music, singing and composing lyrics and playing drums, and we also see that with Lance in Of Lions and House Cats. Also, falling in line with the other Spider-Men and Spider-Women, she’s sarcastic and loves cracking jokes when facing off with her enemies. Lance has definitely done so as far as I’ve updated my fic. (Chapter three as I’m posting this.)

Also, Gwen is “sick with the burns and bad at the puns,” according to volume 2, issue #1. Lance is probably her opposite, tbh. (Okay, not probably. He’s really bad at the burns, but he’s good at puns even if he’s not a big fan of them. At least… that’s what I’m getting from season 2, episode 2.)

Anyway, Gwen actually started out using her powers for attention-seeking purposes, and we all know how insecure Lance is in canon. Those insecurities transferred over to my story. Lance is on the same playing field as superhumans, and in my AU, superhumans don’t just have their superpowers (i.e. telepathy for Allura, wind manipulation for Shiro, and fire manipulation for Keith). Supers are also simply physically stronger as a side-effect. They can dish out powerful attacks and take hard hits, but Lance, as a normal human, is more frail. He doesn’t have the physical strength to handle the same amount of damage. Instead, he gets through missions by strategising because he knows that he is not physically capable of withstanding a superhuman punch or taking on swarms of normal thugs. He doesn’t have the biological fortitude to last that long in a fight. On a similar note, Gwen is actually a pretty decent investigator because her dad’s a cop, and she’s done her fair share of snooping in the comics.

Eventually, Gwen uses her powers solely for crime-fighting. However, the catalyst happened to be Peter Parker’s death. He admired Spider-Woman because of her powers, and to fight back against his bullies, he became Earth-65’s Lizard (who was Dr. Curtis Connors in Earth-616). Gwen had to fight against him, and after he reverted back to normal, she was so ashamed of herself for having egged him on and provoked him like his bullies. He died because of his injuries, and Spider-Woman was blamed for his death.

This guilt follows her throughout volume 1 and volume 2; so much of her character development revolved around her guilt and whether or not she deserved to be forgiven. Lance has his own guilt and shame as well, but will Lance’s own character development be similar? Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, because of the death of someone close to them, they were driven to a life of crime-fighting as vigilantes. The difference is that, while Gwen is perceived as a murderer by the public, Lance has actually committed crimes. Gwen is actively trying to sway the public’s opinion of her, but Lance, as a hidden vigilante, has remained as inconspicuous as possible. Of course, he hasn’t done a very good job of it as of… chapter one.

From the beginning of the fic, you can tell that Lance has a rather estranged relationship with his family. The best way to describe it might be “complicated.” Now, by the end of volume 1, Gwen’s dad definitely knows her secret, and he tries to keep her out of trouble and tries to prove her innocence. However, from what I’ve noticed of their relationship, they’ve been distant ever since her mother’s death. Because of their conflicting personalities, there’s not much they have in common, but Gwen loves her family through and through and tries to protect what remains of it. You can see this sort of relationship paralleled with Lance and… pretty much everyone who doesn’t want him to die (coughs, Hunk). Even though Lance is harbouring secrets, he still cares about his family and what his family thinks of him. Hell, that’s a fourth of the plot! He didn’t even want Hunk, best friends forever, best bro for life, to be involved with his vigilante affairs either, and he’s trying his damnedest to keep his family safe by keeping them at a distance.

Now, on a lighter point, Gwen isn’t a trained fighter. She runs off instincts and learns her fighting techniques from kung-fu movies. Cindy Moon (Silk) of Earth-616 said she couldn’t even throw a proper punch! (Oh yeah, Spider-Gwen can also travel to different dimensions.) Lance learnt how to fight dirty (biting, spitting, hair pulling, etc.) from his brother through rough-housing and wrestling matches, and ever since he got into his vigilante gig, he’s been picking up more tricks from the streets… but he still sucks at hand-to-hand combat. Close quarters is not his forte, okay?

So that’s pretty much it for a “Blue Shot” inspired by Spider-Gwen. This was actually a lot longer than I expected it to be, and it really did turn into an essay... but I hope you’re satisfied knowing what was going through my head during the character outlining and development process! Of course, there were other characters I had in mind, too -- like Catwoman and maaaybe a little bit of Deadpool! If you’re curious, here’s who inspired the other main superheroes of my fic:

Keith is known as Red Lion. He’s got a fancy lion masquerade mask as well as a sick katana and dagger, both of which he inherited from his mother. He’s a generic Kamen Rider, basically the solo version of a Power Ranger who rides into action with a motorcycle -- hence, modern day samurai.

Shiro is Black Sky, a super who has manipulative powers over wind and, by extension, storms. He was inspired in part by Sky High of Tiger & Bunny (because Sky High was super into the whole justice thing and he was known as the strongest superhero in that anime). Of course, there’s also Storm of the X-Men. She’s got natural leadership abilities, and she’s hella strong.

Allura is Titania, named after Queen of the Fae in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has powers of telepathy, inspired by Jean Grey and, for shits and giggles at the time, Miss Martian. (Remember this for chapter 6; it makes like just one line even funnier… at least to me.)

[jadedahlia]

So I wrote my first fic in like literally over a decade today, haha. I apparently have to wait a few days for an AO3 account so in the meantime I’m just gonna post it here. (Edit: Now available on AO3!)

Title: Replacement

Rating: PG for some mild language.

Pairing: Klance-ish

Summary: Keith tells the Paladins that Shiro wants him to lead Voltron. Lance doesn’t take it well.

Warning, contains major spoilers for season 2.

"Shiro told me that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted me to lead Voltron."

Lance was stunned for a moment as Keith announced this to the Paladins. He didn't actually hear him say that just now, right?

"Haha, that's a good one, Keith! Everyone knows I'm the roguish, charming, and handsome leader we all deserve."

"I'm serious, Lance."

It had been three days since Shiro's mysterious disappearance. Nobody had any idea what happened to him or where he could be. The idea of anyone taking his place as leader was still something none of the Paladins wanted to think about. Least of all Lance. And he certainly didn't want Keith of all people to be the one to fill in for him.

Lance knew it made sense. After all, Keith had already been able to pilot the Black Lion in an emergency once, and Keith was closer to Shiro than anyone else on the team. Lance also knew that despite his earlier claim, he believed Keith really was better than him in every way. He was everything Lance wished he could be, without even having to work for it.

But that didn't make it any easier for Lance to accept it.

“Oh, I get it. Shiro decided to pick you over me. Again."

“Lance, what are you talking abo-”

“I mean why am I even here, right? You're the Golden Boy, everyone else is a freaking genius, and me? I'm just dead weight.”

“Lance, that's not-”

“I'll just go be useless somewhere else.”

Lance stormed out. Hunk tried to place a hand on his shoulder, but Lance pushed it away. The others looked on in concern. Keith hesitated. He wanted to go after him, to tell him that the things he was saying about himself weren't true at all, but he was certain that those words would fall on deaf ears while Lance was like this.

But, Keith being Keith, he decided to go after him anyway.

Keith found himself standing in front of the door to Lance's room. He was still a bit hesitant, but he told himself that if he was going to be the new (and hopefully temporary- he refused to consider the idea that it would be permanent) leader of Voltron, he had to make sure he could bring together everyone on the team. He certainly wasn't checking up on Lance due to any personal concern about him, nope. Purely professional. Really.

He knocked on the door.

“Go away,” said a muffled voice on the other side.

“Lance, I just want to talk. Open the door.”

“What, are you going to rub it in my face again that you're our leader now?”

“No. Please, just let me in.”

“Ugh, fine. But if you start bragging I will kick you out. Literally.”

Keith smirked at that comment. If Lance could make jokes he must be feeling a little better now at least. Keith entered Lance's room. Lance sat down on the bed. When Keith tried to sit next to him, Lance spread out, leaving no room for him, so Keith sat in the desk chair instead.

“Listen. I know things are hard right now. We all miss Shiro. But it's even more important now that we all stick together and work as a team,” said Keith.

“I told you, you guys don't need me, you're all doing just fine without me.”

“That's not true! What makes you think we've been doing all of this without you?”

“Might as well be. I mean, you could probably do everything I can and do it ten times better. Hell, if you can pilot the Black Lion, who's to say you can't take Blue too? Face it, man, I'm nothing next to you.”

Keith's face fell. It was hard for him to hear Lance, his teammate, who until now he had thought was incredibly cocky and full of himself, talk about himself this way. He wasn't sure how he had missed that Lance's seeming overconfidence was actually a front for some major insecurities. Or that he was the primary cause of them. Keith stood up and walked towards Lance, then put both his hands on his shoulders. He felt Lance tense up for a moment, but once he relaxed a bit, Keith began speaking.

“Lance, you're not 'useless' or 'dead weight' or whatever other negative ideas you've been feeding yourself. You're an important member of the team.”

“How so?”

“Well, you're our sharpshooter for one thing. And even if your jokes are kind of dumb they do help lighten the mood sometimes.”

“Um, thanks, I guess?”

“But most of all, you're the one who brought us all together in the first place. Without you, there probably wouldn't be a Team Voltron. Besides, remember that time you shot Sendak after waking up from a coma? That was pretty badass.”

“Wait, you think I'm badass?”

“Yup.”

Keith looked relieved when Lance smiled at him. He wasn't prepared and nearly lost his balance when Lance threw his arms around him though.

“Thank you. That really means a lot, coming from you,” said Lance. “You know, even though I'm kind of jealous of you for being so effortlessly awesome, I've actually always sort of looked up to you.”

“Um, thanks, I guess?”

Lance laughed as Keith echoed his remark from earlier. He stopped when he suddenly felt Keith return his hug.

“You're important to me too, Lance. And I don't just mean as a teammate.”

Lance felt his face turning red. Surely Keith didn't mean…? Before he could get any clarification though, he heard a knock at the door. Keith launched himself across the room before Lance could process what just happened.

“Hey, buddy? It's me, Hunk. Pidge, Allura, and Coran are here too. We just wanted to make sure you were doing okay?”

While Lance was feeling better after his talk with Keith, he wished his friends had slightly better timing, but appreciated their concern regardless.

“Yeah. Thanks, guys!” said Lance.

“Okay, cool. Wanna play video games later? I figured out how to set up that game console Pidge got at the space market.”

“Sounds great! Awesome job, man.”

Lance waited until he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore before looking over at Keith. He had never seen Keith look so flustered.

“Hey man I know you're the Red Paladin and all, but that doesn't mean your face needs to match.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Keith said.

“Anyway. Thank you. Really. I'm glad we had this talk.”

“Me too.”

“Also I'm gonna kick your ass at video games later.”

“You're on.”