#monthlyklance march 2019

[shastelly]

Face the Music - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 28

You mean it’s not March...I didn't notice...explains the 90 degree weather...anyway enjoy this cheesefest

"Keith, please tell me you didn't do it."  Hunk begged.

 "Do what?"  Keith looked up from his space oatmeal at Hunk's horrified face.  

 "You know."  Hunk accused.

 "No, I don't.  That's why I asked."  Keith frowned, puzzled.

 Pidge snorted as she walked through the door to the dining area to find the two, across the table from each other, glaring, while they ate.

 "So, what'd Keith do?"  She asked, as she flopped down.

 "You'll see."  Hunk growled ominously.

 "I didn't think he'd really try it.  I mean there is no way he can keep it up.  Right?"  Keith looked over at Pidge appealing for her help.

 "Keep what up?"  Pidge narrowed her eyes.

 "Keith," Hunk spat his name, "bet Lance that he couldn't sing Disney songs all day - like literally from when he woke up to when he goes to bed."

 "YOU WHAT?!" Pidge drew back in horror.

 Keith cringed, "So, he can do it?"

 "He could probably do it for longer if he wouldn't lose his voice."  Hunk snapped.  "He knows like every Disney song from every Disney movie ever."

 At that moment the paladin in question breezed through the doorway singing, "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Zip-a-dee-ay! My oh my, what a wonderful day!"  He sat down next to Keith and proceeded to serenade them for the next several minutes.

 "Lance, please eat something,” Hunk requested kindly as Lance was in the middle of singing something about being a cat.

 Lance shook his head.

 "Lance, you have to stop to eat.  Keith, tell him he can stop to eat!"  Hunk demanded.

 "Nope. No breaks, that was part of the bet."  Keith crossed his arms and frowned.  There was no way that Lance was winning this bet, it was too hard.

 Lance just shrugged and proceeded to a rousing rendition of “Be Our Guest”.

 "What did you bet?"  Pidge asked morbidly curious and considering getting cotton to stuff in her ears.  It wasn't that Lance was a bad singer or that she didn't like Disney, just all day was going to be too much.

 "If he loses, he takes pod cleaning duty for the next month."  Keith smiled to himself knowing he was going to get out of this chore that no one enjoyed.

 "Who gets pod cleaning duty?"  Shiro asked sharply as he walked in.

 "Uh…hi Shiro."  Keith looked a little nervous.

 "Lance and Keith have a bet."  Hunk filled him in.

 "Lance bet me he could sing Disney songs all day without stopping."  Keith nodded.  "There is no way he can do that, so I called him on it."

 Shiro blinked a couple of times and then sighed, "And if he loses, he's supposed to clean the pods, what if you lose?"

 "Won't happen."  Keith stated.

 "It will."  Hunk stated just as confident.

 "You are so going to lose," Pidge giggled.

 "Okay, but if at any point this interferes with training or we have an emergency I am calling it off, clear?"  Shiro rubbed the bridge of his nose.  He didn’t want to stop their rivalry or flirting or whatever they were calling it today, as long as it didn't put anyone in danger or interrupt their work.

 Training that morning to the soundtrack from Mulan and Hercules was almost amusing. Lance would at least sing quietly and seemed to be paying attention when Shiro gave out the instructions.  If anything, his hand to hand movements were improved, though the singing was impacting his long-range shooting and stamina, at least during the long or high notes.  Shiro let it go as minor.  He'd never seen Lance look quite so determined and Keith was starting to look nervous.  Shiro secretly thought Keith underestimated Lance too much and it would do him good to lose something easy like this to remind him that Lance usually backed up his boosts with action.

 Coran and Allura were mesmerized with the songs they had never heard before and had joined them in the training room to listen and ask questions about the stories the songs were from.  

 At lunch when Lance stood at the head of the table and started singing “Candle on the Water”, Shiro found himself taking his bowl of food goo and making excuses to leave. He couldn't help but think of Adam and well, tearing up in front of the team wasn't high on his list; he may be a big sap, but he was still their leader.  Apparently Allura had no such concerns because she had tears running down her face when Shiro got back and Lance was in the middle of “You'll be in My Heart” and Pidge was whispering the relevant story points.

 Apparently singing “It's a Small World After All” is a highly effective way of getting Keith annoyed and off guard.  Lance beat him twice in hand to hand combat signing that annoying little ditty that was never going to leave Hunk's brain and Hunk was glaring at Keith again. Pidge was strangely quiet during training until Shiro discovered and ordered her to remove the cotton from her ears. She instead began calling out requests for the most annoying Disney songs she could think of and, of course, a grinning Lance played right along.  Shiro pointed out that the team needed to learn to work through distractions, even annoying songs.  

 Lance was currently going through some of the less politically correct songs from Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan.  Then it was “Heigh-Ho” and “I Got No Strings” and “I Just Can't Wait To Be King”. Lance actually followed Shiro around to sing “Following the Leader”.  

 Keith sighed as he turned the com off in Red.  They were doing flight drills and Lance was singing “Let's Go Fly A Kite”. He was starting to get concerned that he might actually lose this bet.  It had started out as a simple conversation about movies.  Lance liked movies, lots of movies, and he liked to tell Keith about them.  Keith had not seen a lot of movies.  It wasn't his dad's thing and then it’s not like his foster families took him out to movies and then at the Garrison he didn't have money to go.  The few movies he had seen had been courtesy of Shiro or Adam and it wasn't that he didn't like them.  He just didn't get why it was important or why Lance cared so much about them.  Lance had been going over the storyline to Hercules when Keith had snapped something along the lines of, he had something better to do than listen to some kids movie.

 Lance had frowned and a genuine hurt look had crossed his face before it flickered to anger. They had fought.  It hadn't been a nice fight.  It had been one of those, use what you know to make it hurt more, kind of fights.  Lance had at some point claimed to be a movie expert and especially a Disney expert and it wasn't his fault that Keith was an uncultured pig.  Keith told him Disney was overrated and so was Lance.  Lance had cried out as if in pain and somehow, they had reached a discussion of Disney music and Lance's love of said music and then there was the bet.  

 Keith had said if Lance lost, he had to clean the pods.  He knew Lance was afraid of them.  He knew it.  He'd talked to Lance about it before.  Lance had confided his fear to him, as if it wasn't obvious every time, he came up with fifty excuses to avoid using it if he was injured.  It usually took an order from Shiro to get him into one.  

 Keith knew Lance wouldn't want to do it.  He knew it would hurt him to have to clean the pods, but he made that the bet anyway. And then Lance had to go, and one up him.  He picked something Keith never would have dreamed of and to be honest he was a little terrified it was going to happen at this point.  Keith was not used to this kind of fear and he didn't like it.  It made him uncomfortable and an uncomfortable Keith is a cranky Keith.

 It was at the evening meal when Shiro realized Lance had not stopped to eat or drink anything all day.  He practically growled at the two of them.

 "It was part of the bet." Keith offered shrinking back.

 "And I said I would call it off if I needed to."  Shiro snapped.

 Lance scribbled on a piece of paper while somehow still singing “Hakuna Matata”. "Please Shiro, I don't want him to weasel out on a technicality.  I'm almost there!"  Lance gave Shiro his best puppy dog eyes.

 "No, you need to eat and drink.  I'm not sacrificing your health for this game.  We trained for hours and you didn't even get a drink of water?!" Shiro turned on him.

 Lance shrugged.

 "Drink."  Shiro ordered.  Lance looked over to Keith who had his arms crossed.  "He drinks and it doesn't call off the bet.  He eats and it doesn't call off the bet."  

 Keith glared and muttered something about cheating.

 Lance huffed mid song and scribbled on his paper again as he switched to “Part of Your World”.  "Compromise?  How about a rhythm song I can tap out while I eat and drink?"

 "Fine." Keith huffed before Shiro could even force him to agree.

 "Better. No more bets that involve not eating or drinking, got it?"

 "Yes." Keith turned back to his food goo.

 Lance nodded. As soon as his current song finished, he began tapping out “Trashing The Camp” with his hand while he gobbled his food goo and slurped down three hydration pouches.  

 Shiro cringed half certain that all of the food was going to make a reappearance, but Lance managed to keep it down and have it mostly swallowed before the song finished and he launched into “A Whole New World”.

 While settling down on the couches after the evening meal listening to Lance sing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” Keith found himself cringing.  It was almost over.  He was man enough to admit he was going to lose at this point.  Lance's voice was a little rough by now, but not "about to lose my voice" rough.  By the time the others were getting ready to turn in and Lance was singing and dancing to “Let It Go,” Keith decided to just tell him it was over.

 "It's the end of the day.  You win."  Keith muttered, despair coloring his tone.

 Lance looked over at him eyes gleaming and nodded.  In the spirit of the bet he continued singing all the way to his room and Keith could still hear the strains of “When You Wish Upon A Star” as the door slipped closed.

 The next morning came way too soon for Keith.  He barely slept a wink.  It was time, as they say, to face the music.  He sighed and climbed out of bed.  He slipped on something comfortable and moped and pouted his way to breakfast.  Lance was sitting at the table when he got there. When he saw Keith, his eyes widened and he gave him a friendly wave, before pulling out a pair of scissors and snipping them at him.

 "After breakfast, okay?" Lance asked with an eyebrow raised.

 "Yeah, okay." Keith's shoulders drooped even further, and he went to get his food.

 "What's after breakfast?"  Hunk asked eyeing the scissors.

 "Keith has to pay up.  He lost the bet."  Lance answered.

 "We still don't know what he bet.  We know what you would have had to do, but not him." Pidge narrowed her eyes.

 "You'll just have to wait and see."  Lance offered mysteriously.

 "You know my rule.  I'll call it off if I feel like I need to."  Shiro warned.

 "I won't hurt him Shiro."  Lance looked shocked that he would even suggest such a thing.

 "Okay."  Shiro answered warily.

 After breakfast Lance ushered Keith into the common room.  There was a chair sitting in the middle of the floor.  Lance gestured for the others to sit on the couches and Keith flopped into the chair.  

 "Now. Keith agreed that if he lost the bet, he would allow me to, in front of all of you, cut his hair!"  Lance finished the sentence with a dramatic draping of some kind of cape around Keith's front.  

 Keith's face burned bright red and he wouldn't meet anyone’s’ eyes.

 "Keith, are you sure?"  Shiro sighed. Everything about the Red Paladin screamed that he wanted to run away right now.  He did not like being the center of attention and no matter how much Lance teased him about it, he actually liked his haircut.  

 "Yes. I made the bet.  I'll see it through."  Keith answered determined.  He was not going to back out now.

 "Cool."  Lance produced a spray bottle, a comb, and the scissors.  "I do actually cut my own hair and Hunk's so it's not like I haven't done this before.  I promise no mohawks."  Lance set to work.  The others watched grins slowly working their way onto their faces as Keith cringed and Lance worked, tongue stuck out the side of his mouth as he concentrated.  

 "There. Done."  Lance announced about fifteen minutes later.  

 Keith looked down at the hair scattered around him and wondered what Lance had done to him.  Would it be super short?  Would he have cut it crooked?  Would it be cut like Lance's or Hunk's?  He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

 "Hey."  Lance stepped into his line of sight like he'd been trying to get his attention. "Don't you want to see?" Lance pointed to a mirror set up on the other side of the room.

 "I…um…yeah I guess."  Keith sighed.

 Lance slipped the cape from his shoulders and proceeded to cleaning up the chunks of hair from the floor.  No one else in the room was saying anything.  Keith looked around to each of their faces, trying to get a hint, but they all seemed carefully blank.  He walked slowly to the mirror and then stood in shock at his reflection.  It was still his hair cut.  It was shorter, but definitely still his style, just more like it was before they got onto the castle and he'd let it grow for all these months without a trim.

 "But, it's still, I mean, I still have a…?"  

 Lance looked over at him in amusement, "Are you admitting to having a mullet, Mullet?"

 "What? No."  Keith snapped back, but he couldn't keep the smile off of his face. "I just thought, I mean you always complain about it, but you didn't change it.  You just trimmed it?"  

 "Of course, I trimmed it.  Why do you think I wanted to cut it?  Those split ends were awful."  Lance mocked, though his eyes were softer than his words.  "Besides, if I gave you a different style what would I call you? I mean, I'm too used to calling you Mullet, Mullet."

 "Oh, um, well thanks."  Keith gave him a soft smile in return.  

[leviathans-watching]

Klancetober 2019

October 25/26: Haunted Castle

From @monthlyklance

 “Lance,” Allura said, so Lance looked lazily at her. 

“Hmm?”

“Did you hear that?” She looked serious, so Lance shifted to a somewhat upright position, confused.

“Hear what?” He asked, listening for a moment. 

Allura sighed. “Never mind. It was probably my imagination.” She was laying upside down on her bed, hair spilling onto the floor.

Lance shrugged, adjusting his face mask and laying back down. “And then she told me ‘no way, ew, you’re ugly, and smacked me. My poor 13 year old self.” He continued, blushing a little bit. Allura winced a little, handing him the Nunvil, which he took a swig from.

“Well,” Allura smirked. “I once told a guy I fancied him and he told me he gay but had a girlfriend the next week.” Lance gave her the bottle and she tipped it back, wiping her mouth as some spilled down the side of it.

“Hah! You think that’s bad? I asked a guy out and he panicked, then told me he couldn’t go out with me because his mom said he couldn’t date. We were in the eleventh grade, and I met his mom, who had no such rule!” He cringed at the awkward memory, rolling over to bury his face in the mattress.

“Okay, okay, you win,” Allura wheezed, out of breath from laughter. “That sucks man!” They lapsed into momentary silence, bottle empty, both of them sufficiently buzzed.

“Wait.” Allura tensed, pointing up. “You hear it this time, right?” They listened, not even breathing. “There it is again!” 

Lance’s eyes widened as he head the noise. Is was a creaking sound, like someone stepped on a floorboard in a really old house, which mad eno since, because everything around them was cool metal. It was followed by a tapping noise.

“Oh, shit!” 

Uneasy, they were silent. The noises persisted for an uncomfortable amount of time before it was quiet again. 

They scrambled up, looking at each other. “There’s only one explaination-” Lance whispered.

“-and it’s a ghost.” Allura finished, looking around the room. She peeled off her face mask, and Lance did the same.

“What should we do?” She asked and Lance shrugged. 

“I’m not sure.” 

The tapping sounded again, a little louder, a little closer. Allura and Lance squeezed together, pulling a blanket over themselves. 

“Oh, Dios, we’re going to die,” Lance muttered, shooting a panicked look at Allura.

“No. We are strong. We are brave. We got this!” Allura insisted, yelping when the sounds came again. “Okay, maybe not. What do we do?” 

Lance covered his mouth, trying to think through the drunken haze. He brightened. “I know! Let’s get Keith! He’ll know what to do!”

Allura smiled. “Good idea! On the count of three run?” Lance nodded, and Allura counted, and on three they sprinted to his door, falling through it in a gasping heap. Keith awoke at the clamor, springing into a defensive stance.

“Oh, Lance, Allura. It’s just you.” He lowered the knife he had pulled from under his pillow, rubbing his eyes. “What do you want?” 

Lance grabbed Keith’s arm, pouting at him. “There’s a ghost!” 

Keith blinked, then blinked again. “A what?” 

Allura stepped forward, swaying a little bit. “A ghost. We both heard it!” 

Keith sighed. “I don’t believe it. A ghost, huh.”

Lance and Allura nodded, Lance letting go of Keith’s arm, realizing he was still holding it.

“What do you want me to do?” Keith asked, putting his hair in a ponytail. 

“You’re the brave one! You should go and protect us.” Lance ignored Allura’s not-so-subtle wink, focusing on a spot above Keith’s shoulder on the wall. 

Keith rolled his eyes. “And if I do, will you let me go back to sleep?” Allura and Lance shrugged, following him out the door. Allura had drunk more than him, and was pretty tipsy, so Lance deposited her in her bed with a smile.

“Okay, Mullet! Let’s go hunt a ghost!” Lance marched ahead, knowing behind him Keith was scoffing. 

“I thought you were scared?”

“Terrified. But now that you’re here I feel safer,” Lance shot a smile at Keith, teeth gleaming in the dark. He turned around before he noticed Keith’s dumbstruck expression and the small blush that graced his cheeks.

“Really?” Keith asked softly, and Lance nodded.

“Of course, dude!”

* * *

“And then,” Lance chattered, telling a story of his childhood. “We got in so much trouble. My Mama was furious with us!” 

“Sounds like you had a wild life,” Keith remarked dryly, checking his watch. 

“Yep! It was pretty crazy. I miss it a lot sometimes. Like don’t get me wrong, being a paladin is awesome, and saving the universe is cool too, but I just miss home, you know?” 

Keith didn’t know. “I mean, not really. I had nothing holding me to earth, both my parents were gone, Shiro was gone, I lived alone in a shack in the desert. I’m happier here, to be honest.” He felt uncomfortable, baring his soul to Lance like he was. 

“That’s fine. We’re all different. I’m glad you’re happy now, though.” Lance linked his arm through Keith’s matching pace. “Oh, no. Did you hear that?” He paused, forcing Keith to stop with him.

Keith furrowed his brows. “That?” He asked as the creaking and tapping came again. 

Lance nodded, hiding behind Keith a little. “Yep. It’s a ghost, isn’t it.”

Keith rolled his eyes, marching forward, gently yanking his arm out of Lance’s. “I bet it’s nothing. Come on, we can check just to make sure.” They walked onto the main deck, but saw nothing. 

“I told you, there’s no ghost.” Keith shrugged, turning around. 

“I don’t know,” Lance hesitation, a nervous edge to his face. 

“For the love of-! Oh my god.” Keith picked Lance up, cradling him in his arms. Lance made a surprised sound, unsure. 

“Dude,” Lance laughed anxiously. “What are you doing?” He tried to squirm out of Keith’s arms, but through his buzz could only feel his arms tightening around him.

“I want to sleep. If you’re still scared, just sleep with me. This was the quickest way, now shut up.” Keith sounded a little strained, so Lance decided to wiggle himself into a more comfortable position. 

When they got to Keith’s room, Keith put lance gently down, patting the side of the bed. “You gonna sleep in here?”

Lance blushed, climbing into bed beside him. How could he say no?

[monthlyklance]

MonthlyKlance March Prompts (2019)

Tag your work with #MonthlyKlance.

Make sure to read the guidelines first.

Spread the word and have fun!

3/1: Beginning

3/2: Flowers

3/3: Desert

3/4: Crush

3/5: Morning

3/6: Sunset

3/7: Late Night

3/8: Lions

3/9: Blush

3/10: Jackets

3/11: Memory

3/12: Heartbeat

3/13: Training

3/14: Distance

3/15: Storm

3/16: Rivalry

3/17: Cozy

3/18: Dance

3/19: Ocean

3/20: Team

3/21: Flirt

3/22: Fireworks

3/23: Hands

3/24: Summer

3/25: Trust

3/26: City

3/27: Magic

3/28: Music

3/29: Past

3/30: Future

3/31: Fate

(Click image for higher resolution.)

[ao3feed-safeklance]

Sickeningly sweet like honey

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2I70l2p

by wertdifferenz

My drabbles for the march prompts of @MonthlyKlance on tumblr.

30 sweet stories of Keith and Lance in all universes.

Words: 825, Chapters: 1/30, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron)

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, monthlyklance march prompts 2019

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2I70l2p

[ao3feed-klance]

Sickeningly sweet like honey

read it on AO3 at http://bit.ly/2I70l2p

by wertdifferenz

My drabbles for the march prompts of @MonthlyKlance on tumblr.

30 sweet stories of Keith and Lance in all universes.

Words: 825, Chapters: 1/30, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron)

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, monthlyklance march prompts 2019

read it on AO3 at http://bit.ly/2I70l2p

[ao3feed-voltronlegendarydefender]

Sickeningly sweet like honey

read it on the AO3 at Sickeningly sweet like honey

by wertdifferenz

My drabbles for the march prompts of @MonthlyKlance on tumblr.

30 sweet stories of Keith and Lance in all universes.

Words: 825, Chapters: 1/30, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron)

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, monthlyklance march prompts 2019

read it on the AO3 at Sickeningly sweet like honey

[shastelly]

Trust - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 25

Time is irrelevant - love is eternal - like my excuse from being so late :)

"No."

 "Seriously?  I’m not going to drop you."  Keith sighed exasperated with his partner in the current training exercise.

 Shiro had been telling Allura about types of bonding exercises for teams on earth and upon hearing about trust falls she had decided it would be a great team exercise. There was only one problem with that - one rather loud problem.

 "I'm not doing this."  Lance folded his arms and glared at Keith.

 "I let you catch me already.  What's the big deal?!"  Keith threw up his hands.  He'd been having this fight since they had split off.  He'd let Lance catch him like five times and still the Blue Paladin flat out refused to fall back for Keith.

 "I DON'T DO THIS."  Lance bit out the words angrily.

 "Please, Lance?" Keith asked quietly.  He didn't understand how Lance wouldn't even trust him enough to catch him in a stupid bonding exercise.

 "Keith,” Lance sighed.  "I trust you.  This is not about that.  I trust you with my quiznacking life all the time."  Lance tried again to make Keith see.  He just didn't want to have to explain why he didn't do these.  Hunk kept shooting concerned glances his way. Hunk knew.

 "Fine, whatever.  I guess we should switch partners." Keith huffed.

 No matter what Lance said, Keith was hurt by this and that was not what he wanted.  

 "So, who do you need?  Hunk? Shiro?"  Keith's voice sounded betrayed.

 "No. It doesn't matter who, I told you that."  Lance crossed his arms.  He was starting to get frustrated with Keith's insistence on taking this personally.  

"Lance! Keith!"  Shiro called over, he and Hunk had done several rounds each and Pidge and Allura looked like they were done as well.  It had been amusing to see Allura shrink as part of her shapeshifting abilities to make the exercise easier for Pidge.

 "Great," Lance muttered.

 "Hey, how come Lance hasn't gone?"  Shiro had clearly been keeping an eye on the situation and decided to intervene.  Hunk started chewing his nails and looking between Lance and Shiro.

 "I don't do these."  Lance stated in what he had hoped was a calm voice but judging from the look on Hunk's face it may have come out wrong.

 "Why not?"  Shiro frowned.

 "Please, Shiro, I just really don't."  Lance knew that one came out whiney.

 "Lance, everyone else has demonstrated their trust, why won't you?"  Allura frowned, she would not have pegged Lance for someone untrusting.  She had been far more concerned about Keith, but he had done fine.

 "So, I have to prove I trust you?!" Lance was really getting tired of this and just wished they would accept what he said.

 "Guys."  Hunk's voice tentatively tried to break in

 "Well, right now it just seems like you are proving that you don't trust us!" Keith really wasn't getting over this anytime soon.  He thought that he and Lance had gotten close.  He cared about him.  He thought Lance felt the same way.

 "Keith."  Hunk was really chewing at his fingers now.  "Lance?"

 "No, fine.  Perfect. Just let's move over to the padded area."  Lance growled as he stepped up onto the training mat.

 "I will not drop you!"  Keith nearly shrieked.

 "Yeah, that's what they all say."  Lance whispered.

 "Lance?"  Hunk moved to stand in front of him.

 "I can do this.  I guess I have something to prove."  Lance answered staring at Hunk.

 Hunk could see the fear building up in his eyes, "No you don't." Hunk whispered.

 "Yes, apparently I do."  Lance sighed quietly.  He closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest and he just stood there.

 "Lance? Any day now?"  Keith frowned waiting to catch him.

 Lance took another deep breath and Hunk could see him trembling now.  He was muttering under his breath "I can do this."

 About two dobashes later, Lance looked up at Hunk, there were tears in his eyes, "I can't do this.  Give me a push, please." His voice strained.

 "Lance, you don't have to." Hunk tried again.

 "Lance, what's going on?"  Shiro seemed to realize there was more to this than a team bonding thing.

 "Please Hunk, I just need a push." Lance begged.

 "Are you sure?" Hunk was not sure.

 Lance nodded. Hunk pushed.  Lance fell back, only about halfway down his body seemed to change its mind and tried to curl around himself.  Keith had to dive forward but managed to catch him at least mostly and his head did not hit the floor, just one shoulder.

 Lance was breathing heavily and clearly shaking at this point.

 "Lance?"  Keith was genuinely confused and worried.

 "Good catch." He managed to mutter before Hunk wrapped him in a hug. "I'm fine."

 "Okay."  Hunk said not letting go or loosing up at all.

 "I really hate that."  Lance murmured into Hunk's shoulder.  "I'm so stupid."

 "No, you aren't."  Hunk shook his head.  "Am I stupid from being afraid of ferrets?"

 Lance chuckled wetly, "No.  I totally have seen the scars on your arm."

 "Right, and this isn't stupid either."

 Lance sighed and seemed to be relaxing some.

 "I'm sorry," he managed a little louder to the team.

 "No, I'm sorry."  Shiro knelt next to them.  "I shouldn't have forced you into this situation.  It's clearly bothering you."

 "I'm sorry too."  Keith reached out and touched his shoulder.

 "It's okay.  I'm just, I know it's weird, but I'm really afraid of doing that and it doesn’t have anything to do with not trusting you.  I trust you so much.  I just, it's not like rational."

 "Why does it scare you?"  Allura asked, her face open and caring.

 "I had sort of a bad experience with it once."  Lance turned so he could look at them.

 "I'm not sure bad covers it,” Hunk frowned.

 "Yeah, really bad?" Lance shrugged.

 "What happened?"  Keith leaned into his shoulder.

 "It was like a prank, or an initiation kind of thing,” Lance shivered, "I wasn't supposed to get hurt."

 "Who hurt you?"  Keith's eyes flashed and Lance had a brief image of the Red Paladin stalking down and beating every kid that was ever mean to him.

 "I was new on the swim team at my school.  We were supposed to do trust falls and I guess I'd made too many jokes or was too loud…"

 "Or they were just a bunch of jerks."  Hunk filled in growling a little.

 "Or that.  Anyway, so they decided to trick me.  We had to close our eyes and they were trying to move me around and I got kind of disoriented and dizzy.  Apparently, they wanted me to just fall back in the pool, but I was so dizzy I fell kind of sideways and cracked my head on the side of the pool."  Lance shrugged again.

 "He means, cracked, like broke his skull, gave him a severe concussion and landed him in the hospital for nearly a month and made him miss his entire season."  Hunk corrected.

 "Oh, Lance."  Allura cried, hand flying to her mouth.

 "Yeah, so I guess it just kind of freaks me out.  It really hurt and then I fell in the pool and couldn't swim up out of the water.  It's just,” Lance shivered.  "I guess I'm just afraid."  The words dripped in his disappointment in himself.

 "Who the hell wouldn't be?"  Pidge snarked.

 "Language."  Shiro sighed.

 "Seriously, Lance, you could have just told us that."  Pidge put her hand over his.

 "It's embarrassing." Lance huffed.

 "No, it's not."  Keith frowned.  "Embarrassing is that green facemask you put on."

 "That is not embarrassing that is exfoliating and it wouldn't hurt you to try it!"  Lance snapped his eyes up from where they had taken residence staring at the floor.

 Hunk laughed, then Pidge, and it snowballed until they were all giggling and laughing about skin care and random fears and why Keith had perfect skin and it was so not fair.  

 Later as they were leaving the training deck, Lance leaned over to Keith and whispered, "I do trust you."

 Keith smiled and whispered back, "I know.  I trust you too.  I'm still kind of new to this trusting people thing.  I'll get better."

 Lance smiled back and took his hand, "You don't have to prove anything."

 "You either."  Keith squeezed his hand.

 "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."  - Ernest Hemingway

[shastelly]

Dance - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 18

Day 18 – Dance

 Lance straightened the bow tie on Keith's sort-of-tux.  

 "There."  He smiled over at the other boy who was blushing like crazy and looked so uncomfortable in the get up that it wasn't even funny.  "You look nice."  Lance offered trying to help.

 "Sure."  Keith practically collapsed in on himself in discomfort.  "I feel like an idiot.  This is not me."

 "Then pretend to be someone else."  Lance offered back with a smile.  "Someone suave and sophisticated and who looks awesome in a tux…oh hey, just pretend to be me."  Lance did a quick spin turn and finished with finger guns.  It had the desired effect as Keith choked on laughter, sputtering something about hell freezing over.

 "It's like going to prom."  Shiro declared from the other side of the room.  He looked stunning in his solid black tux and black tie.  But he was also wearing a frown.

 "What you didn't like prom?  I figured you would have been the Prom King?"  Lance puzzled.

 "I was."  Shiro blushed.  

 Hunk chuckled, "I can totally get why, you were their golden boy."

 "But then why didn't you like it?  I would have loved to have been Prom King."  Lance asked eyes full of stars.

 "Well, I…it…um…so as the guy that was supposed to be the Prom King, I was pretty much expected to take the girl that was supposed to be the Prom Queen."   Shiro managed.

 "You took a girl to prom."  Keith stared eyes wide.

 "Yeah. I did.  I thought we could go, as friends, and just have fun and get pictures and not worry about it."  Shiro ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck.  "She had, um…other expectations."

 "How? I mean didn't she know?" Pidge had wandered in and joined the conversation.  She was wearing a tux that Coran had altered for her.  The pants legs were overly wide, and the jacket cropped at the waist.  It was actually darling on her.

 "I told her.  I just guess she didn't believe me or thought she was going to turn me straight or something?"  Shiro blushed even harder when Lance practically fell over laughing. "Yeah, that didn't work out so well.  She really didn't like me after she caught me making out with someone else in the hall." Keith snorted.

 "You were the Prom King, ditched your crazy Prom Queen and hooked up with someone else?  Sounds like a great Prom!"  Lance giggled.

 "So, Keith, how was your Prom?"  Hunk asked trying to give Shiro a break from blushing.

 "I didn't go."  Keith frowned.  "I don't like dances or dancing or dressing up or that many people."  

 "Okay, antisocial Emo boy skips Prom.  Not the most shocking headline ever."  Lance teased, though he sounded almost sad.

 "So, what was your Prom like, we know you weren't the King."  Keith turned back to Lance.

 "My Prom was awesome and awesome."  Lance smiled easily.  "Me and my good buddy Hunk here went together."

 "You were his Prom date?"  Keith raised an eyebrow at Hunk.

 "Sort of."  Hunk smiled fondly at Lance.  "I didn't have a date."

 "Their loss, my gain!"  Lance chirped.

 "And Lance couldn't pick a date."  Hunk laughed elbowing his friend.  "So, he suggested we go together, and I have to admit we had a great time. Lance is a pretty good date."

 "I am a great date.  I brought flowers."  Lance corrected.

 "Yes, a great date.  He did bring a boutonniere and he made sure I had fun the entire night.  We danced - he had me dancing with all kinds of girls and he was dancing with everyone.  I'd been to that kind of thing before and just ended up being a wallflower, but not with Lance around."

 "Shiro, you may have ditched your date, but Hunk and I, we stole so many hearts that night it was a felony."  Lance joked complete with crazy eyebrow wiggles.

 Pidge snorted.

 "Sorry, Pidgie, you weren't there for Prom, were you?"  Lance turned regretful eyes to the Green Paladin.

 "She's been to Prom."  Shiro looked over suddenly amused.

 "Yes. I have been." She answered mysteriously.

 "How and why do you know?"  Lance looked confused.

 "Matt took her."  Shiro supplied.  "He told me about it."

 "Really? Why?  I mean, you're great and all, but you're his sister."  Lance looked dumbfounded, no doubt imaging taking one of his siblings.

 "His date dumped him, literally the day before Prom."  She supplied, her smile was sad but fond.  "He'd already made reservations that couldn't be cancelled, had a limo and a tux and the whole nine yards and she dropped him for a football star."  Pidge sniffed her distaste.

 "That is cold."  Hunk sighed.

 "Yeah, but Matt, he's not the type to let someone get the best of him.  So, he knocked on my door, and asked me to accompany him to the Prom.  I was going through a phase, so I happened to have something to wear."  Pidge blushed a little.

 "Wait. What kind of phase?"

 "I believe Matt called it the Disney Princess years."  Shiro supplied slyly and Pidge chucked a comb at him. He dodged it easily laughing. "The dress was lovely Pidge, you looked nice in green then too."

 Pidge smirked mollified for now, "Anyway, he was sweet, and I had a good time and that bi…"

 "Language!"

 "Not nice person,” Pidge correct with an eyeroll, "got drunk on spiked punch and spent most of the evening puking in the bushes outside."

 "You spiked the punch didn't you."  Keith stated looking over at her grin.

 "There is no proof."

 "Proof of what?" Allura asked as she breezed into the room.  The pink ball gown she wore would put Cinderella to shame.

 "Wow!"  Lance jumped up.  "You look beautiful!"  

 "Don't drool."  Pidge elbowed him.

 "Thank you, Lance."  Allura smiled at him.  "You all look wonderful as well.  Are we ready?"

 "Do I get to dance with you?"  Lance asked with a wink.

 "I'm afraid not.  As the official negotiator of the alliance we propose, I am not permitted to enjoy the dancing, I must sit at the negotiation table.  It is up to you all to mingle and dance and make friends with the people of Umbelan."

 "So, we have to dance?" Keith asked.

 And at the same time, "I'm sorry you'll miss the fun." from Lance

 "Yes, you must dance.  Thank you again Lance, but there will be other parties.  The people of Umbelan are convinced that dances are the best way to get to know anyone.  You will be observed by many and asked to dance many times.  The dances are simple, and they are aware you are not from their planet and will not be familiar with them, so do not be worried about being judged for your dancing talents."  Allura gave Keith a soft smile as he was clearly uncomfortable. "Use the dance time to talk and get to know whomever you dance with.  It is expected that you will ask them questions as well as answer questions that they have for you."

 "Great."  Keith muttered.

 "Keith, if you could at least do, two dances?"  Allura offered.  It was clear the situation was distressing for him, under his usual forceful nature was an undercurrent of uncertainty and genuine discomfort.  

 "Okay. I can do that."  When he met her eyes there was gratitude there and she smiled back at him.

 She did not miss the look of relief on Shiro's face or the way Lance's shoulders relaxed.  

 Lance's first dance was with an older Umbelan.  She said she was an ambassador for a nearby planet.  She asked him about the alliance and what planets he had visited and about earth and its culture.  No military secrets, just diplomatic questions about languages and cheeseburgers.  Lance smiled and laughed and when it was his turn, he asked about the dancing custom and manners and what was okay to ask and what wasn't.  By the time they had finished the dance, Lance bowed gratefully, he felt like they had both learned a lot.  He didn't have to look far for his next partner.  A smiling young man was waiting to step up.  

 "Hi, I'm Rex."  He bowed.

 "Lance."  Lance bowed back and moved to take his partner’s hands as the dance began.  He found the steps easy enough and was soon able to focus on his dancing partner.

 "You learn fast."  He complimented.

 "Thanks, I like dancing."  Lance smiled easily.

 "So, I'm Rex, like I said already.  My mom is a general in our military.  She's in charge of security tonight."  He offered.  "So um, you're the Blue paladin?"

 "Yes. I pilot Blue.  She is awesome, one of the legs."

 "So, the lion is a she?  Does she talk to you?"  Rex asked eyes wide.

 "Yeah, I feel like she's a she and she doesn't like talk out load, more like in my head."  Lance tapped the side of his head with his finger.

 "That must be weird."  Rex frowned.

 "Sure, but no weirder than finding out about this war and fighting Galra and 10,000-year-old evil guys."  Lance shrugged.

 "So, your planet did not have space travel?"

 "Well, yes, but very limited.  Nothing like what Blue or the Castle of Lions are capable of doing.  We didn't really even know there were other inhabited planets. So, coming out here was a really shock." Lance laughed a little.  The young man across from him was purple, as all the male Umbelans were. They were basically humanoid in shape, but about an average six inches taller and completely covered in fur. His fur was shaved short over his face and neck, but long at the top of his head which was plaited into a long braid that hung past his shoulders.  The shaving of the furs seemed to vary a lot between individuals and offered a lot of variety in hair styles.  He wore a plain black tunic that hung past his knees and was belted with a simple gold cord.  Clothing seemed to be more uniform and functional.

 "That would be a shock.  I've grown up around space and wars.  I think it might be nice to not have to focus on anything like that for once.  Mom is always so worried about what might happen and planning for the worst."  He rolled his deep blue eyes.  "I love her, but I don't think she has any idea how to relax."

 "What kind of things do you do to relax?"  Lance asked.

 "Oh well, I love painting and riding Herxbirds."  Rex smiled.

 "What's a herxbird?"  

 "Well, they are about half the size of your lion and covered in fur that is super long and soft.  They come in all colors and have big leathery wings, two on each side and four legs. Their heads are long and narrow and the have big noses and tongues.  We strap a seat onto their backs, and you can ride them.  They are trained to follow commands, but really good riders learn to communicate with them with their minds."  Rex explained excitedly.  It was clear that he was really into this.

 "I would love to see one, sounds like a giant horse with bat wings."  Lance returned the excitement level.  He was setting up a time to go flying with Rex when something caught his eye.  Keith was dancing with a very large Umbelan male.  The guy was a foot taller than Keith.  This fur was shaved short in a stripe between his eyes and down to his chin. There were several small braids hanging from his chin.  And Keith, well Keith just looked pissed.  He wasn't talking, he was barely moving and everything about his body screamed he didn't want to be there.  

 "Who's that?"  Lance asked Rex, not really an appropriate question, but his worry over rode any worry about decorum.

 "Oh, that's General Wythop."  Rex answered with a sneer.

 "Don't like him?"  Lance turned with concern.

 "No. He's a pompous ass."  Rex frowned.  "He danced the first dance with your friend, he shouldn't still have him."  

 "Oh."  Lance looked over even more concerned.

 "I would get him out of there if you could.  Wythop has a lot of power in the government.  And…" Rex seemed to shrink back into himself.

 "What? And what?"  Lance pressed something dark circling in his gut.

 "He's…um…forward?" Rex's face turned a shade of green.  Lance wasn't sure if he was blushing or nauseous.

 "Forward?  Like pushy or mouthy or forward like he's capable of hurting my friend." Lance asked turning serious.

 "I…we should get your friend away from him."  Rex looked down.  "No one's ever come forward to speak against him, but there are rumors."

 "Okay, well Allura, told Keith he only had to do two dances, so after this one, he should be out of there.  I'll keep an eye on him.  Thanks for the dance, Rex, and I do hope to see one of those Herxbirds tomorrow."

 The song ended and Rex bowed to Lance and Lance returned the gesture.  He turned to watch Wythop bow to Keith and Keith glare back at him.  The Ubelam had Keith's wrist grasped firmly in his hand and was not letting him go. Keith frowned and tugged and the Ubelam said something while frowning.  Keith looked down at the floor with another glare and the next song started. Wythop grabbing Keith's other arm and starting the dance.  Keith didn't even pretend to move.  He just stood there and didn't speak.

 Lance frowned and scanned the crowd.  He saw Pidge over by the punch bowl and rushed over to his side, apologizing to the young woman that had started to walk up to him with a grin and a wave. He practically grabbed Pidge and pulled her out onto the dance floor.

 "Lance!"  She protested trying to pull away.

 "Shush."  He whispered, getting her attention.  He watched the dancers around him and soon fell into the appropriate steps for the song. Pidge struggled but tried to match. "We have an issue."

 "What?"  Pidge narrowed her eyes and looked around.

 "See that guy with Keith?"  Lance asked quietly maneuvering so that she could see them over his shoulder.

 "Why is he even still dancing?"  Pidge asked frowning.  She knew he didn't want to be out there, and he'd filled his quota.

 "I don't think that guy let him go.  He had ahold of his arm when the last song ended."  Lance frowned.  "The guy I was dancing with explained he's a real jerk and we ought to get Keith out of there, but he's also really high up in the government.  So, we need to get Keith away without letting him know that's what we are doing and not piss him off."

 Pidge nodded agreeing with the plan so far, "So, what do you have in mind?"

 "Going to break in at the end of the next dance.  Accuse Keith of hogging the General and say that he forgot he promised to dance with you.  Then you use the next song to dance him out of here and figure out what exactly is going on."  Lance plotted.

 "Yeah, and what about you?"  Pidge narrowed her eyes.

 "I'll just dance with General Pushyface there and then when the song ends explain I have to go and that will be that."  Lance nodded.

 "Okay, but aren't we getting Keith away because the General might be dangerous? Why is the plan for you to put yourself in danger instead?"  Pidge hissed.

 "Well, I'm better with people.  I'm sure I can talk my way out and if not, Shiro and Allura are like right here, I'm pretty sure a good yell for help and they'd be right on the guy."  

 Pidge nodded slowly.  She didn't like it, but she didn't have a better plan.  "Okay, I'll do it, but if Keith says anything wonky, we are going straight to Allura and if you don't get out of that dance at the end of the song, I'm sending Shiro over."

 Lance smiled, "Okay Pidge."

 Lance moved them across the floor until when the song ended, they were right next to Keith and the General.  When the guy bowed and still held Keith's arm again, Lance went into action.

 "Oh, hey Keith!"  Lance moved to stand between them.  "You have totally been hogging this big guy's time.  That is not good manners, man."  Lance winked at the general.  "On top of that you promised Pidge a dance and she's pretty upset."

 Pidge put on one of her angry faces and crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

 Keith looked completely confused and when he got Pidge's glare, he sputtered an apology. The general's grip had loosened on Keith's arm in the confusion and Lance slipped his hand in between, pulling the general's hand into his.

 "Go on, Keith.  I've been waiting for my chance to dance with General Wythop here."  Lance waved his other hand at him over his shoulder dismissing him.  Keith frowned and glared back at the general while Pidge slipped in front of him and pulled him away.

 Lance pretended not to notice the glare the general was now directing at him.  He didn't however appreciate the near bruising grip the guy had on his hands.

 "Hey, big guy, lighten up."  Lance tried to wiggle his fingers to loosen the general's grip.

 The general narrowed his eyes and tightened the grip, stopping Lance from moving his hands at all and smiling at the wince he saw in the young man's face.  

 "Why did you interrupt my dance?"  He growled.

 "Oh, well, I'm sorry.  As I understood, it wasn't nice to keep the same partner dance after dance." Lance answered evenly.

 "It's also not nice to interrupt or to not answer questions.  Your friend was quite rude to me.  He wouldn't talk or dance."  The general growled, looking down at Lance.

 "You are in luck because I love to talk and dance."  Lance plastered the best fake smile he could.  This guy was giving him some serious creeps.  

 "Perhaps."  The general smiled then, and it was not pleasant.  "Please tell me about the Castle of Lion's defensive capabilities."

 "Oh, hey now, that's like top secret military stuff, man.  If you are a spy you need to work on subtlety." Lance blanched.

 "This is supposed to be an open discussion.  I think I find you paladins to be closed and defensive.  I'm not sure I can vote in favor of an alliance." The guy had the nerve to tighten his grip even further and Lance ground his teeth together feeling the bones in his wrist grind together unpleasantly.

 "Now don't be that way.  I'm sure there is something we can talk about.  For instance, the Castle of Lions has some great medical technology that I know Coran will be happy to discuss with your people and very efficient food production.  You must understand handing out a list of our defenses to just anyone isn't feasible. You wouldn't hand me the defensive playbook for your team either."  Lance tried to reason out of the anger he could feel building in the other guy.

 "I don't know what this playbook is that you speak about, but I assure you that I am not playing."  The general growled and Lance realized he'd been moving him slowly to the edge of the crowd.  "I want you to call your friend back.  I was not done talking with him and he owes me a proper dance.  I will not let him leave until he has satisfied my demands."  

 "That is just really not going to happen.  If you keep this up, we are going to have a situation here.  I mean, have you seen the Black Paladin.  You do not want to mess with Space Dad." Lance pulled uncomfortably at his wrists, his hands were turning purple and tingling from lack of blood flow.  

 "I don't care about your father or the Black Paladin.  I am not afraid.  Get your friend now."  The general growled.  Lance started to respond when the jerk twisted his left wrist sharply and Lance was certain he actually heard the bone snap.

 "Let me go!  That's enough."  Lance pulled away with his other wrist, his eyes flashed angrily.

 "No."  The general sneered squeezing his broken wrist so hard that Lance felt his knees go weak and struggled to stay standing.  

 "You have like two ticks and then I'm yelling, and you can explain."  Lance spat, his eyes dancing with spots.

 "Scream. No one will hear you in here." The general laughed and Lance realized they had entered a hall.  

 He looked around wondering if anyone could hear him.  After all he could be pretty loud, and the guy might be bluffing.  Talking a deep breath, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

 "LET ME GO!"  

 The general growled and letting go of his broken wrist swung a fist into Lance's stomach knocking the air out of him.  After a few ticks when no one came, the general laughed and hit Lance again.

 "See. No one heard.  Now take me to your friend."  He pulled Lance up by his good wrist and lifted him off the ground.

 Lance groaned, but he'd seen movement behind the general.  Someone had heard him.

 "No."  Lance spat and the general shook him by his arm.  The pop that sounded from his shoulder seemed really unfortunate to Lance. He saw movement again.  His breath was coming in gasps from the pain and he was having trouble keeping track, but if someone was back there to help, then he needed to give them an opening and maybe get out of the line of fire. Gritting his teeth against the pain he knew it would cause he swung himself back and kicked forward with all his might, aiming for what he hoped was a sensitive spot on the Ubelam people. Apparently, it was.  The general's face turned a shade of blue and he flung Lance away from him.  Lance collided with a wall and slid to a stop at its base, not moving.

 "Lance!"  Pidge's voice echoed as she ran for him.  The general turned to grab her and was surprised when his hand went straight through the hologram.

 "Hey, asshole."  Keith appeared from around a corner, bayard drawn.

 "There you are."  The general growled.  "We could have been friends.  Why do you insist on making this difficult?  Perhaps you just enjoy pain."  

 "You aren't interested in being friends and I'm not interested in what you are offering."  Keith spat.

 "Well come on then, if you think you can take me."  The general crouched into a defensive posture drawing a large knife.

 "Oh, I'm not going to attack you.  I'm the distraction."  Keith grinned as the Green bayard connected with the general's back sending jolts of energy convulsing through his body.  When he fell to the ground Pidge was standing behind him willing the bayard to shock him into unconsciousness.

 "Nice, Pidge."  Keith complimented as he passed the fallen general on his way to Lance.

 Pidge kicked the guy in the knee for good measure as she went to join Keith.

 Lance was groaning and moving when they got to his side.

 "Oh hey."  Lance winced. "This prom sucks, can we go home."

 Keith smiled softy and Pidge smirked.  

 "Come, on."  Keith managed to get under Lance's good shoulder and help him up.  Pidge snaked an arm around his waist.  

 "Let's let Shiro know what is going on and get you back to the castle." Pidge spoke softly eyeing his obviously broken wrist and the bruises forming.

 Lance nodded.

 "Now you know why I don't like dances."  Keith muttered.

 "Seriously, this is why you don't like dances?  This has happened before?"  Lance asked eyes wide.

 "No, I mean, sort of, she wasn't that big, but she had some seriously sharp nails and promised to ruin my reputation at school."  Keith answered blushing.

 "I."  Lance blinked mouth opening and closing.  "That sucks."  He finally managed.

 "Yeah it would, but I totally just made that up."  Keith looked over at Lance face bland.  "Seriously, I'm just a bad dancer and I don't like doing it."

 Pidge snorted and burst out laughing.  

 Lance shook his head, "Okay, you got me.  Thanks for confusing the guy with the concussion."  

 "Sorry."  Keith smiled.

 "No, you aren't."  Lance huffed. "Just for that, you owe me a dance."  

 Keith's smile softened and he met his eyes, "I owe you more than that.  Thank you."  

 "Yeah well, I'll be cashing in on this dance, don't forget."  Lance leaned further against Keith as they entered the ballroom.  He could hear Shiro yell over the crowd and Allura demanding answers.  He caught Rex's wide eyes and the young man nodded to him.  It was going to work out.  

 Keith leaned over to whisper into his ear, "I'd like dancing with you I think."

 Lance smiled feeling a blush rise in his cheeks, yeah it was all going to work out just fine.

[shastelly]

City - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance- Day 26

Day 26 – City (Part 1 of 2)

"This place gives me the creeps."

 "You've said that already, Lance."  Keith grumped.

 "Like five times already," Pidge added.

 "Well it does."  Lance whined. He felt like his skin was crawling and something was lurking around the next corner and bad things were coming and all of those other bad feeling clichés had wrapped up into a ball and splatted right into him.

 "It's an abandoned city, that stretches for miles, it gives all of us the creeps." Shiro sighed.  It was unnerving building after building after building of nothingness.  He didn't blame Lance for feeling off.

 "I'm right there with you, but please stop talking about it.  Talking about it is not making me feel better."  Hunk whispered.

 "Sorry, Hunk."  Lance felt another shiver go down his spine.  Someone or something was watching them.  They had come down to investigate a distress signal.  They'd loaded up in Green and Black and headed down.  There didn't seem to be a reason for all of the other lions and though Green was the best for doing scans, she was a little small and Black was big enough they could all comfortably ride along.  

 They found the distress signal embedded in a giant spire in the center of town, but apparently, they were a little late.  There was no one here.  It was weird, there weren't any bodies, there wasn't sign of a battle, just empty nothingness.  So now they were doing some snooping trying to figure out what had happened to the people who lived here.

 "They must have been about human sized.  See the steps and doors are all the right size for us."  Pidge commented.

 "The windows are triangles."  Keith frowned at the buildings and their oddly shaped eyes.

 "The buildings are made of something like concrete.  It's a mixture, there is some of the local stone mixed in it." Hunk commented.  "I don't see any cars, wonder if they walked everywhere or there was some kind of public transportation."

 "Or maybe they were just fast or maybe they flew."  Lance offered sharply, still uncomfortable.  "Either way they are gone.  How long are we going to stay here?"

 "Lance, if this is some new weapon of the Galra we need to understand what it was or what the tactic was or why all these people are gone."  Allura was watching from the castle.  She was saddened by the state of the planet. Empty places reminded her of what she had lost.

 "I am still not able to get any scans past the atmosphere."  Coran's voice spoke through the coms.  "At least it is not interfering with the communications."

 "I just don't see what else we are going to find here?"  Lance fidgeted.  

 "Maybe we'd find something in one of the houses?  Like a newspaper or something?  Or mabye a computer?"  Hunk offered.

 "What about like a government center or something?"  Keith tried.  "I mean the signal was just in that statue in the middle of town, but maybe there's some kind of office or something?"

 "All solid ideas lets split up and go check them out.  Pidge, you and I will start checking the residences.  Keith and Hunk search for some sort of government center or offices.  Lance…"

 "Shiro, I'd like to head up one of these tall buildings.  I can use the scope to keep an eye on things, see if there is anyone further out or just maybe avoiding us."  Lance thrummed his fingers against the sniper rifle that appeared in his hands.

 "Okay, Lance,” Shiro nodded.  He wasn't feeling quite as off as Lance, but he respected the kid’s instincts, and something was obviously bugging him.

 Lance entered the building of his choice.  It was about fifteen stories high and was one of the tallest in this part of the town.  The building was open in the center all the way up to a skylight.  There were balconies for each floor all around the edge. He shrugged and activated his jet pack, using it to jump up from balcony to balcony until he reached the top. Stairs were overrated.  He smiled to himself.  He found a door that led to a ramp that went up and out onto a flat roof. The middle was glass, but the outer edges were covered in rooftop gardens, divided into little squares, probably one for each apartment below.  Lance walked the parameter and then picked a spot where he could see both Shiro and Pidge's area and Keith and Hunk's.  Lance made himself comfortable and started scanning the area.  The feeling of his skin crawling had slacked, but he still felt he had missed something, and he was worried.

 Two varga later he was beginning to think it was all just in his head.

 "Okay, so I'm still confused.  It looks like everything was situation normal and then just poof, gone.  No notes, no warnings, no hey something bad might happen, I haven't even found a conspiracy theory."  Hunk sighed.

 "We have not found any significant clues either.  It's strange. I mean they activated that signal."  Pidge hummed, worried.  

 "To just disappear, it's wrong." Allura spoke over the com.

 "Lance, anything?"  Shiro asked, looking up to the sky where Lance was somewhere above him in the building.

 "Nope." He popped the P at the end in frustration.

 "Alright, I'm calling this.  Time to head back to the Lions."  Shiro did not like leaving behind a mystery, but there was only so much they could do.

 "So, we call it Roanoke and pack up?"  Lance quipped.

 "Roa…what?" Allura asked.

 "Ancient earth history.  It was a colony that all the people disappeared from there.  No one ever figured out what happened to them." Keith answered.

 "Keith got a reference?" Lance's smirk could be heard in his voice.

 "I know stuff."  Keith defended.

 "Keith knows stuff."  Pidge defended.  "Weird history, conspiracy theories, mothman, bigfoot…"

 "Just stop helping Pidge."  Keith huffed.

 "Shiro, I'm going to hang up here until you guys get to the lions."  Lance announced.

 "Okay, Lance."  Shiro didn't think there was any reason to worry.  

 They were nearly back to the Lions when it all went sideways.

 "Paladins! We have a Galra fleet incoming.  Three cruisers and fighters."  Coran called over the coms.  "I have the particle barrier up."

 "We can hold them until you get here, but please hurry."  Allura already sounded strained.

 "Double time, Paladins!  Lance move it."  Shiro yelled.

 Lance jumped up and ran to the stairs.  He took a flying leap from the top balcony and glided down to the ground floor with his jet pack.  He bent his knees and landed a little roughly putting his hands down to stabilize himself. He shrieked when he felt something touch his back.

 "Lance?!"  Keith and Shiro yelled for him.

 He spun around pulling his bayard up level as he did and came face to face with a small creature.  It was about three feet tall with blue feathers and a beak.  Its eyes were wide and intelligent.  Its legs were human like, but it had wings and arms.  It was wearing a soft pink shift and that's were Lance decided to shift to they and not it, because this clearly wasn't an animal.

 "Hey, there."  Lance lowered the bayard and stretched out a hand.  "Hi. I'm Lance."

 "Are you leaving?" The bird person chirped at him.

 "Yeah. We were leaving."  Lance spoke softly, the person before him seemed frightened.

 "Will you take us with you?  We are afraid."  Two big tears rolled out of their eyes.

 "Okay, who are you?"  Lance asked quietly.

 "Trill, I am the oldest of us.  We don't know why everyone left us behind.  We are afraid."  Their little body had started shaking.

 "Who left you?" Lance frowned.

 "Mommy and Daddy and everyone.  We were in our day place, where we stayed when they worked, but then something happened, and they were all gone, and we were alone.  We don't have any more food and we are hungry."

 "Lance are you okay?"  Keith demanded.

 "Yeah, but you guys head up without me.  I've found some natives.  I need to get them somewhere safe."

 "Lance, we need you in Blue, they can wait until we return."  Allura responded sharply.

 "Allura, they're kids."  Lance corrected.  He was not just leaving them here.

 "There are only three cruisers we can take them."  Keith stated confidently.

 "Alright, as soon as Shiro drops Keith and Hunk at the castle, Coran will come down to you with a pod to load up the children.  How many are there?"  Allura asked.

 "Um…Trill, how many of you are there?" Lance turned back to the child.

 "This many."  Trill held up ten fingers and four feathers, "Oh wait, I forgot me."  They added a fifth feather.

 "Fifteen Allura, and Trill said they were the oldest and they are only about three feet tall, so I don't think it will be an issue for the shuttle pod." Lance provided.

 Meanwhile with the lions…

 "Pidge, we need you to run interference while I take Keith and Hunk to their lions."  Shiro ordered.

 "On it. I have something new I've been wanting to give a good trial; this will be perfect."  Pidge rubbed her hands together with what Lance often called "evil glee".  

 "Sounds good Pidge, just be careful."  Shiro worried.  He flew toward the castle but kept his eyes on the Green Lion and her pilot.  Black knew where she was going.  

 The Green Lion cloaked and then suddenly reappeared on the other side of the ships approaching.  They turned to fire and the fighters moved to intercept, before they got there and before any shots hit, the Green Lion cloaked.  A couple of dobashes later she appeared in a completely different sector of space.

 "Pidge, either you've got some new holograms, or you've figured out how to fold space." Hunk laughed from behind Shiro, apparently, he had been watching over his shoulder.

 "You like them?" Pidge smiled.

 "Love them." Hunk answered.

 "Very nice work, Pidge."  Shiro commended.  Shiro hurried to the castle and barely stopped long enough for Hunk and Keith to exit Black before turning and heading back to help Pidge.

 "Guys, a contingent of fighters is headed toward the planet."  Pidge called out, unable to distract all of them at once.

 "I'm heading back,” Shiro called to her.  "Lance, get to cover, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull them all back."

 "On it."  Lance turned back to Trill.  "So, is there somewhere safe you can go?  Some place strong?"

 "Why?"  The little bird creature's feathers fluffed out and they shook again.

 "There might be some trouble coming and we just want to keep you safe.  I'm a Paladin of Voltron and it's my job."

 Trill cocked their head to the side and chirped, "Okay.  There is a place where we would go for storms?"

 "That sounds perfect,” Lance smiled his approval and watched was the feathers smoothed themselves out again.  "Let's get the rest of you and go there now."

 Trill nodded and grabbed Lance's hand with his little one pulling him forward to a door. Inside there were fourteen more little bird creatures ranging from about a foot tall to nearly Trill's height. They were all sorts of bright colors - yellows, greens, blues, and reds were dominant.  

 "You are all beautiful."  Lance smiled. "I'm Lance.  I'm a Paladin of Voltron and with Trill's help we are going to take you somewhere safe."  Lance spoke carefully noting a lot of fluffed feathers and shaking in the room.  Some of them with cheeping like baby chicks and he wondered just how young they were.

 "We need to go to the storm shelter."  Trill announced confidently.  Their little head nodding to several in the room.  They moved to pick up the smallest, a little red bird. "Lance, could you carry Trex and Ywella?"  Trill brushed a wing across two smaller yellow birds.  "They don't walk well yet.  Everyone else can walk."  Trill noted proudly.

 "I can do that."  Lance smiled gently at the two shaking babies and gently lifted them.  They were so light it felt like he wasn't caring anything at all, definitely lighter than a human baby that size would have been.  "Okay Trill, lead the way."

 They moved out of the building and down the street.  Trill said it was only a few moments walk ahead.  Lance didn't know how long a moment was on this planet, but hoped it wasn't too long.

 "Lance, how's it going?"

 "We are moving to the shelter."  Lance responded.

 "There are still two fighters in bound, hurry."  Shiro warned.

 "Okay."  Lance looked back over his shoulder, practically expecting to see the fighters there already, but it would take them a little longer to reach them, that was if they even knew to look for them or where just scanning the planet to see why Voltron had been down there.

 Trill chirped up ahead and Lance saw him pointing down.  As he got closer, he could see a metal hatch of some sort embedded into the concrete surface.  Lance set the little ones down and went to open the door, it was heavy and he had to strain, but he managed to get it flipped open, dropping it rather ungracefully to the ground, thankfully everyone was out of the way and it was on hinges.  He looked down into the hole and was surprised to see it set up very much like the building he had been in earlier, an open area down the middle with balconies all around.

 Trill made some sort of sound and about ten of the other bird children started flapping their wings and jumped into the hole, gliding down to land on the third floor down.  He did not see any stairs.  He hoped his jet pack could handle it.  He looked back to the five remaining.

 "These can't fly."  Trill noted. "I can carry the three smallest, but these are too big for me."  The two in question ruffled green and red feathers and made a sad little chirp sound that was almost apologetic.

 "Okay, Trill, go ahead and take the littlest one there first and I will wait up here, okay?"  Lance pulled his bayard and watched the sky as Trill made his first trip.  He didn't have too much trouble, though he had to flap hard to get back up.  Lance again worried about how young these creatures were.  

 "I need to catch my breath."  Trill announced when he reached the top.

 "Then I will take these two."  Lance gathered the two, in question, "What are your names?"  He asked.

 "Brew." Chirped the green one.  

 "Pip." He barely heard squeak from the red one.

 "Alright, Brew and Pip.  Hold on. I have to use one hand to control my jet pack and it might not be as nice a ride as flying with wings, but I'll try."  The two nodded and settled under his right arm.  He jumped into the hole and activated the pack just before the landing he wanted.  It was a little jerky and the little ones squawked in alarm.  Pip actually managed to claw him a little, but it wasn't bad. He got his feet under him and sat them down apologizing.  They cooed at him and Pip brushed a wing up against the scratches they had left that had torn into his under armor.   The other children took the two, literally under wing and he jumped out and fired the pack again heading to the top.

 "Trill, you ready?"  Trill nodded and picked up Trex before moving down into the bunker.

 Lance was watching him land when the sound of the Galra fighters approaching reached his ears.  He knelt down and pulled Ywella behind him to watch for the fighters out of his scope.  

 "Trill, sorry to rush you, but we need to hurry, can one of the older ones get Ywella?"  Lance called down.  He watched the fighters approach, they weren't firing yet and buzzed overhead before turning sharply and heading back there way.  It was unlikely that they weren't spotted being out in the open like this.

 A little green bird child appeared at the top along with another blue one.  Between the two of them they grabbed Ywella and awkwardly dove back into the bunker.  They chirped and squawked, but Lance heard Trill talking to them and offering support and they yelled up when they had landed safely.

 "Everyone back away into a safe room."  Lance yelled.  When the first fighter took a shot, he knew they'd been spotted.  He fired back, moving to the door.  He had to drop the rifle to get the door lifted, but once it was far enough over, he just let it fall, grabbing the rifle again and shooting off more rounds.  He managed to wing one of the fighters and it wobbled off course, pulling up and away, but the other barreled toward him.  He fired and moved, trying to draw the attack away from the bunker and find shelter for himself.  The fighter and its blasts followed him.  He ran to one of the surrounding buildings and dove forward around a corner as the warmth from a too close hit lit up his back.

 "Quiznak."  Lance peered around the corner and waited for the fighter to make a return, but it didn't. In fact, he didn't hear it at all anymore.

 "Lance, what's going on down there."  Keith's voice interrupted his thoughts.

 "I have the kids in a bunker.  There were two fighters, I winged one, but now they've both disappeared.  I don't know if they landed somewhere or just took off."

 "Why aren't you in the bunker?"  Keith snapped.

 "Wasn't time.  I'm going there now.  I'm not sure how good the signal is going to be from down there, so I'm sending you the coordinates."  

 "Okay, be careful, if you have Galra on foot and they saw the bunker…" Keith paused.

 "I know. They'll be coming.  I think I can set up a pretty good spot to cover the door once I'm down there.  Just don't take too long, huh?" Lance chuckled a little nervously.

 "We're doing our best."  Pidge's voice cut across the conversation.  "Keith, focus, we need Red over here."

 "On it."  

 "Be safe, Lance."  Hunk called, though the noises in the background indicated clear distraction.

 "Lance, Coran can't get through with the pod.  There are too many fighters and the pod just doesn't have the maneuverability to avoid them."  Allura apologized.

 "I get it, we're good for now."  Lance managed to get the door opened and through a sweat inducing, muscle straining feet of acrobatics and jet pack usage, pulled the door closed behind him as he entered the bunker.  He could hear the children below chirping quietly.  

 "Guys?"  Lance tried the com.  "Keith?"  No answer just static.  Lance sighed and began preparation to guard his position.

 On the other side of the town the second fighter lander next to the downed first. The Galra soldiers climbed out and waited for the undamaged droids that had been aboard to join them.  

 "Commander?"

 "Report."

 "One fighter damaged, but we spotted a Paladin and at least one Braxarian."

 "Are you sure?!"  The Commander's voice nearly echoed it was so loud.

 "Yes, they are hard to miss."

 "I need them.  Capture and bring every single one of them to me!"

 "And the Paladin?"

 "Bring him if you can, if not eliminate the threat.  He will not stop me from getting my prize.  Are you orders clear?"

 "Yes sir, vrepit Sa!"

 "Vrepit Sa!"

 To be continued in Day 27 MAGIC

[shastelly]

Late Night - March Klance Prompts  from MonthlyKlance

It was late, so very late, Lance worked his shoulders back and forth to ease the tension and headed for the kitchen.  As he suspected Hunk was busy puttering about.

 "Hunk, my man, what is the late-night kitchen serving tonight."  Lance asked sliding into a stool.

 "Oh, hey Lance," Hunk nodded to muffins he was pulling out of a pan and putting into a container. "I just made these ahead for in the morning."

 "Oh."  Lance tried not to look disappointed.

 "Hey, but there's extra, want one?"  Hunk passed one to him.

 "Well, if it's extra."  Lance snatched the muffin and took a big bite.  "Oh wow, now I will not have trouble waking up in the morning, these will be so worth it."

 Hunk smiled proudly as Lance made obscene noises while he finished the muffin.

 "Speaking of getting up, dude, you better head that way, hadn't you?  It's like 1:00 castle time."  Lance added.

 "Oh, oh wow, I didn't realize.  I guess I just got to thinking about today's mission and needed to do something to not think about it."  Hunk muttered looking a little embarrassed.

 "Nah, don't think about that anymore, think about how much we are all going to love these muffins and how you are going to have to make sure you have the ingredients around to keep making them, because they are going to be in demand!" Lance exclaimed dramatically while slipping an arm around Hunk and steering him toward his room.

 "Oh, I can add the ingredients that are new to the stock list for Coran.  He does a really good job keeping the pantry full when he knows what I want.  I'll add the recipe to my file."  Hunk yawned. "I bet I could modify the flavor as well, use it as a base recipe."  Hunk crawled into bed and Lance pulled the cover up over his friend. He could tell how tired the big man already was, because he hardly noticed when Lance yanked his shoes off and turned the light out.

 "Sleep tight."  He murmured and headed off for his next victim.

 "Piiidddggggge?"  Lance called sticking his head into Green's hanger.  The person in question looked up from her laptop, eyes bloodshot and hair sticking out every which way.

 "Go away." She snarled.

 "Pidge, you need sleep.  Come on. You just got out of the cryopod and I know how tired that makes you."

 Pidge's eyes softened a little, reminding herself that Lance had been in the pods too many times already.

 "Sleep, Pidge, you are a genius, but even geniuses work better on sleep. You'll probably go twice as fast." He grinned elbowing her.  

 "Not unless the computer gets faster."  She laughed.

 "Come on, piggy back ride?"  He offered and she jumped at his back.

 "Giddyup!"  She laughed the way she only did when she was really tired and out of it.  Almost like for a moment she forgot everything going on around her and was just a young kid playing.

 By the time Lance got her back to her room she was pretty much drooling on his back. He flopped her onto the bed and tossed the covers over her.  He tried not to think of her floating in the cryopod or the tears she cursed at when she was sitting on the table in the med bay while Coran set her broken leg.  He huffed a sigh and pressed a kiss to her forehead, the thought of something happening to her filled him with icy dread. He shivered and made his way out of her room.  She was too much like one of his sisters, just like Hunk was his brother and they were both as precious to him as his biological family.

 Speaking of family, he saw Shiro wondering the hall, headed toward the bridge.

 "Shiro?"  Lance ran up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.  The older man swung back with an elbow and yelled before falling forward onto the ground.

 "Shit."  Lance flinched at the pain in his cheek where the elbow connected and kneeled in front of Shiro.  His eyes were open, but he really didn't seem to be seeing him.  Must be sleepwalking again, or a flashback, or both somehow, what did he know he wasn't a shrink.  "Hey, Shiro.  Hey man, you're in the castle.  It's just me, Lance.  Hey, it's okay.  I think I'm not supposed to wake you up, but I don't know how else to get you back to bed. So…"  Lance reached out and touched Shiro's hand softly speaking quietly and rhythmically until Shiro's eyes seemed to focus on him.

 "Lance?"

 "Oh, hey Shiro, I think you must have been sleepwalking, ‘cause I just found you out here.  You okay?"

 "Oh, yeah, sorry, I was dreaming."  Shiro blushed.  "Sorry, thanks for waking me.  Guess I should lock the door huh?"  Shiro tried to joke, but he sounded sad and tired.

 "What were you dreaming about?"  Lance asked carefully.

 "I was looking for someone, but I couldn't find them."  Shiro answered eyes averting down and to the left, obviously not something he wanted to give details about.

 "Oh, I can see why you were wondering around then, huh?"

 "Why are you up?"  Shiro asked making note of how late it was.

 "Oh, just getting some water, going to bed now.  Want to walk with me?"

 "Sure, I'll walk you back."  Shiro stood and helped Lance up from the floor.  

 Lance smiled, he'd never get Shiro to just go back to his room, but he would never turn down walking Lance back if he asked.  Of course, Shiro's room was just one down, so it worked out great.  Lance waited at his door until Shiro slipped into his.  He then sat on his bed for a few dobashes to be sure Shiro wouldn't hear him when he went back out.

 He did this almost every night.  It wasn't the same people every night.  Pidge was pretty common and actually was usually a lot harder to get to bed.  Hunk could be found after anything stressful. Shiro was random.  Allura was rare, but he'd found her twice just walking the halls complaining she couldn't sleep.  Coran he'd only found once, after the whole haunting thing, going over code in the pods crying.  There was only one that was there almost every night, the one he still had to go get.

 He took a deep breath and stood, his own weariness weighing him down, but he'd need to shake that off to move this one, especially tonight.  Pidge had gotten hurt when she and Keith had infiltrated a computer hub on a Galra ship.  Keith would be blaming himself, though it was not his fault in any way.  It had been a trap and they'd been caught in a crossfire. Keith was contrary at the best of times, he'd be downright hateful tonight or this morning or whatever it was in the middle of late-night hell.

 He got up from the bed and made his way to the training room.  Sure enough, there was the sound of metal crashing into metal coming from the room.  He slipped in and watched for a few dobashes as Keith destroyed the training bots in front of him.  Lance had no idea what level this was, but he was almost sure Shiro would not approve of Keith doing it on his own.  He'd once made the mistake of stopping him mid simulation and Keith had not spoken to him for three days.  Lance shuddered, how he found out the silent treatment was the best way to torture Lance he had no idea, but it had sucked.

 When the last bot cleared and before the next set could drop Lance called out, "End simulation!"

 Keith whirled on him dark eyes flashing and sword still held in his grip, "I wasn't done."

 "Dude, it's 2:30 castle time, we have to be up at 6:00.  Even you need sleep, Mullet brain."  Lance snarked.  

 "I'm not tired.  Why don't you just leave me alone?!" He snarled.

 "Just go to bed Keith."  Lance sighed yawning.

 "Sounds like you're the one that needs to go to bed.  Just go and leave me alone."  Keith turned back like he was going to have another go.

 "Keith, I can always just go get Shiro."  Lance pulled out the big guns.

 "Why can't you just mind your own business?  Why can't you leave me alone?  I swear, mabye if you did a little more training yourself you wouldn't have to go get Shiro to make me leave."  Keith jabbed.

 "Look, you want to fight fine."  Lance grabbed a staff from the rack behind him and threw one to Keith. "Bring it on, Samurai."

 "Oh you think you can take me?"  Keith growled.

 "I think my little sister could take you right now, you're exhausted and completely unfocused."  Lance snapped back.

 "Like you'd know!"  Keith drove at him and brought the staff down, Lance parried, but the hit jarred his arms.

 "Does that even make sense?"  Lance swung the staff around and blocked Keith's attempt to hit his knee.

 "You are never focused, you never pay attention.  It's like you don't even care!"  Keith spat.

 "I care, just because I don't have a meltdown and smash things doesn't mean I don't care!"  Lance backed up a bit as Keith drove forward hard and his words stung.

 "Whatever!  You care about yourself!  Why are you even here?"  Keith snapped bringing the staff around and connecting with Lance's side.

 Lance hissed and wrapped an arm around his side, dropping his staff.  "Well unless you have another paladin up your sleeve, I guess you’re stuck with me."  Lance choked out the words, “Just go the fuck to bed."  

 "That's not what I…are you okay?"  Keith realized maybe he'd pushed a little too far.  He was angry at himself and he shouldn't have taken it out on Lance.  He'd meant why was Lance trying to get him to go to bed, not why was he here on the team.

 Lance laughed hollowly, "Whatever.  Just go to bed, Mullet.  I'm tired."  Lance left the training room and Keith stared after him for several ticks before heading off to his own room.

 ***

 The next morning, he was sitting at the table enjoying the new muffins Hunk had made when he realized Lance wasn't up yet and it was almost time for training.  The boy in question came tearing around the corner into the kitchen out of breath, hair a mess and marks from his pillow still on his face.

 "Shit, sorry Shiro, I slept through the alarm."  Lance announced looking somewhat embarrassed.

 "Get something quick, Lance then meet us in the training room when you've had a chance to change."  Shiro patted him on the shoulder as he went out.  "I know you were up late."  

 Keith narrowed his eyes.  Usually Shiro would be mad at someone for being late.  Pidge gave Lance a quick hug on the way past and hurried off to change. She seemed more rested than usual.

 Hunk dropped a muffin in Lance's hand, "I know you like them."

 Keith frowned.  Hunk had said they were a new recipe.  

 Lance fell into his chair at the table, Keith looked a little closer and startled.  

 "Do you have a black eye?"  Keith walked over next to him and got in his face.

 "Oh, you noticed that,” Lance gave a nervous laugh, "totally hit myself in the face with a staff yesterday.  Kind of embarrassing, if you don't mind not mentioning it.  I thought I got it covered up."  

 "Oh, okay, well I guess it's pretty hard to see."  Keith wondered how bad it looked without the makeup.  "You sure you don't need Coran to look at it."

 "Nope, fine."  Lance shoved a muffin in his mouth, "Shouldn't you be getting to training?"

 Keith narrowed his eyes and stared at Lance for a good ten ticks before he walked out the door.  He wondered if Lance had even gone to sleep after he'd left the training area.  He cringed remembering some of the stuff he'd said.  He didn't really mean it.  He was just upset about the mission gone wrong and had wanted to take it out on the bots, then Lance had gotten in the way and he'd taken it out on him instead.

 He sighed as he slipped into the training room remembering the hit, he'd given Lance to his side.  He wondered if that had left a bruise, probably.  He felt guilt worm its way around his gut.  Lance'd just been trying to help.

 "Hey Hunk?"  Keith asked.

 "Hmm?"  Hunk turned his head, he was already going through the warm up stretches Shiro usually had them doing.

 "How did you know Lance liked the muffins?  I thought they were new?"

 "Oh, he was up last night when I finished them.  I stress bake and I was a little upset about the mission." Hunk admitted.

 "Yeah, me too."  Keith nodded a suspicion forming in his mind.

 "Pidge?"  He called her over to where he and Hunk were sitting.  "Did you see Lance last night?"

 "Yep, he literally carried me to bed."  She smiled sadly.  "Matt used to do that."  Then gruffly swatted Hunk, "Get moving I want to spare."

 "Great, Keith, now she's going to pretend she's not upset by beating me up." Hunk huffed good naturedly and headed over to Pidge quite willing to take a beating to make her feel better.

 Before Lance slipped in to join the training, Keith had come up with a plan.

 ***

 Later that night, Keith snuck out from his room to the training area as usual.  He wondered why he hadn't noticed before, but almost every time he trained overly late, Lance had showed up to kick him to bed. There were a few exceptions, nights when Lance had been in a pod, nights when Shiro came and got him, nights when he only trained for about an hour and crawled into bed around 1:00.  

 And to be honest, he wasn't usually very gracious about it.  Sure, some nights Lance would say "lights out" or something and Keith would be tired enough to put his bayard down and tromp off to bed, but a lot of nights ended with complaining, arguing or fighting with Lance about him training too much or not sleeping enough.

 Keith sighed and apparently Lance was following up on the others as well.  He'd managed to wheedle out of Shiro that he'd seen Lance up at night too.  Keith knew Shiro had night terrors and had caught him sleep walking a few times himself, so it wasn't hard to imagine the circumstances where Lance might find him and the reasons Shiro really didn't want to discuss it.  It also explained why he knew Lance was tired sometimes, he'd seen him up in the middle of the night and was well aware he hadn't gotten enough sleep.

 Sure enough, around 2:00 the Blue Paladin slipped through the door to the training area.

 "Keith, Samurai hour is over, go to bed."  Lance whined.

 "Okay."  Keith smirked a little at the shocked look on Lance's face when he just agreed. "I was getting ready to quit anyway.  You're up late?"

 "Oh, I um, yeah."  Lance shrugged.  "I guess the clashing of sword on bot woke me up."

 "Can't hear that from our rooms."  Keith pointed out as he walked out of the training area.

 "Well maybe I could."  Lance blustered.

 "Nope." Keith stared at him and waited.

 "Okay, fine I was up anyway.  I was dragging a little gremlin to bed and heard you training."  Lance huffed.

 "You do that a lot?" Keith asked quietly.

 "Not too much, just sometimes, I mean she'd never sleep if she could get away with it."  Lance smiled fondly.

 "And me, you come here a lot and get me, don't you get tired?  I usually take like a nap and then get up and train, you're just staying up?"  Keith frowned.

 "What? No.  I nap."  Lance waved him off but refused to meet his eyes.

 "Okay."  Keith realized they had walked all the way back to their rooms. "Goodnight."

 "Goodnight."  Lance ducked into his door and Keith slipped into his.  

 ***

Even after a shower and dressing in his comfortable sleep pants and a t-shirt, Keith still couldn't relax.  It was like there was something off, missing, he'd missed something.  Lance had been lying about napping, but then how much was he sleeping, and why wasn't he sleeping.  Huffing in annoyance Keith barged out of his door and headed to Lance's. He paused just outside hearing muffled sounds from inside, groans and muttered words, it sounded like a nightmare. He knocked at the door, but when no one came he let himself in.  

 Lance was thrashing in his bed, yelling words he couldn't make out, his face contorted and angry or fearful looking in turn.  The worst were the tears streaming down his face from his closed eyes.

 "Lance?"  Keith rushed to the bed.  He'd learned from Shiro not to startle someone in a night terror.  He tried calling out to him again louder. "Lance!"

 Lance stilled and blinked.  His arms shook and the tears were still falling.  His eyes flashed away, and he scooted away from Keith when he saw him there.

 "Hey, sorry, you were having a nightmare."  Keith offered quietly.

 "Oh."  Lance wiped his face, like maybe Keith hadn't seen the tears.  "Huh."

 Keith reached out a hand and laid it over Lance's hand on the bed, "You okay?"

 "Yeah, totally, fine."  Lance lied really bad.

 Keith bit his lip, he was horrible at comforting people, it's just not a skill he'd really developed as a child.  He wondered what would Hunk do.

 "Um…you want a hug?"  Keith held his arms awkwardly open.

 Lance stared at him for a moment, like he was trying to decide if this was some kind of trap, but something in Keith's face must have reassured him because the next thing he knew he had his arms full of Blue Paladin.  Keith wrapped his arms down around Lance and squeezed gently. Lance was still crying against his shoulder.  Keith scooted up and onto the bed so that it was easier to hold him.

 "You want to talk about it?"  Keith asked calmly.  He'd tried to get Shiro to talk after his nightmares, but he did not want hugs and he did not want to talk.  Mabye though, maybe Lance would.

 "I just miss my family and home and I keep having these dreams that the Galra are there on Earth and they are taking my family.  Sometimes they hurt or kill them, sometimes they take them as slaves, sometimes I'm there and sometimes I get there and just find their graves." Lance sobbed.

 "Oh," Keith tightened his hug and began rubbing what he hoped were calming circles on Lance's back.  "I get it."

 "It's just, I mean, I want to be out here saving people and the universe and I feel like I'm doing good, but part of me really wants to know they are okay and that Galra ship was there and so close to Earth.  What if they go back and we're out here?  Earth wouldn't have anything to stop them or anyway to contact us."  Lance shook in Keith's arms.

 "Hey, you know Allura and Coran are monitoring movements in that area.  If the Galra even get close, we'll know, and we'll stop them before they even get there."  Keith whispered fiercely.  "We won't let them hurt Earth as long as we're here."

 Lance's tears had slowed and some of the tension had drained away. "Thanks."  He sat up then, pulling away from Keith.  "I'm sorry I went all blubbery on you."

 "You don't have to say sorry.  Lance, you've been taking care of us, of me, for weeks.  I'm the one that should be saying thanks to you."  Keith managed to catch Lance's eyes to be sure he understood he meant what he was saying.

 "Oh, I mean, it's not the big of a deal.  I was up anyway, and I just noticed you guys weren't taking care of your selves and you particularly are crap at it."  Lance elbowed Keith with a little smile.

 "Hmm…am I?  And I'm going to say you're not that hot at it either.  Already up?  How long have you been having these nightmares?"  Keith frowned.

 Lance muttered something.

 "What?"

 "Um…since we got here?"  Lance blushed and looked down.

 Keith cringed.  How had he not noticed that, that many weeks without sleeping properly, chasing after everyone else.  

 "That how you got the shiner?  Fall asleep and fall or something?"  Keith asked trying to lighten the tone.

 "Oh, no, but I don't recommend touching Shiro when he's sleep walking." Lance frowned.

 "Oh, oh shit, does he know?"  Keith asked concerned.

 "No."  Lance glared, "What am I a jerk?  It's not his fault."

 "Yeah, well, don't startle him awake if he's having a bad dream either.  Other side of the room and call his name is best."  Keith warned.

 "Duly noted."  Lance nodded.

 "Now, back to your issue.  You need to get some sleep."  

 Lance sighed, "It's not like I wasn't trying."

 "Would it, um, would it help if I stayed?"  Keith offered.  He figured he was already there and comfy and Lance hadn't exactly let go of him yet, just sat up.

 "You don't have to do that."  Lance blushed.

 "But it would help?"  Keith was pleased, what he was doing was working.

 "Yes, probably."  Lance admitted.

 "Good."  Keith snuggled down into Lance's bed and looked up to where the other boy was still sitting staring at him.  "I mean, if that's okay?"  Suddenly Keith was a little concerned he'd gone too far with the whole what would Hunk do thing.

 "No, yes, I mean, it's fine."  Lance was still staring at him a little as he eased himself into the bed and laid his head on the pillow.  "I…thank you."

 "Someone has to take care of the guy that's taking care of everyone else." Keith whispered eyes falling shut already.

 Lance smiled softly watching Keith's breathing even out as he drifted off to sleep.

[shastelly]

Hands - March Klance Prompts from Monthly Klance - Day 23

Yes I’m a month late....continued from Day 19 Ocean 

Day 23 - Hands

 Hands fluttered in front of his face, like birds, too nervous to alight, flitting from side to side.  His eyes roamed the darkened room.  It was wet, the whole room seemed wet.  He had a helmet on, but it wasn't broken.  He was certain his helmet was broken.  A droning sound in the background kept getting louder.  He tried to swat at it, but his hands didn't want to move. He could barely get them lifted off the floor.  Was this a purple room?   Was he still on a Galra ship?  Wait, why would he have been on a ship?  What was happening?  Why did his chest feel like he'd been kicked by a horse?  The droning was getting louder, like the hand birds were buzzing around like bees.  Suddenly there was a face in front of him.  He knew that face.

 "Keith? Can you hear me?"  

 Lance, that's right, this is Lance.  Keith blinked up at him.

 "Hey, you breathing okay?"  Lance looked totally freaked out.

 "Yeah."  His voice sounded strained even to him.  He coughed a little to clear his throat and felt like he'd lit his chest on fire. Tears streaked down his face he couldn't stop them.

 "Oh, Keith, come on man, slow down, breath, okay…. just here."  Lance grabbed his hand and squeezed.  "Breath in when I squeeze, out when I let go okay."  

 Lance squeezed and he breathed in, stars were dancing in front of him.  Lance released and he let his breath go.  In and out until the stars went away and the pain faded. Keith realized Lance's hand in his was shaking.

 "Lance?"

 "Keith? Hey, okay?" There were tears in Lance's eyes.  He was not wearing a helmet.

 "Yeah, thanks.  Where are we?"  Keith tried to set up and found he couldn't without Lance's help.  He got him propped up against a wall.

 "The ship hit the water.  It broke up. We are in a part that's floating like a bobber.  Sitting on the wall in a sinking space ship…"  Lance seemed to lose his train of thought and was staring around him.

 "Lance?"

 "What? Oh, sorry.  I was in contact with the team earlier, they know where we are." Lance turned to Keith and he noticed the damage on the other side of his face.

 "Your head?"  Keith frowned.

 "Huh?"

 "You're hurt."  Keith tried to reach up again and failed.

 "I am?"  Lance reached up and flinched.  "Oh, guess I banged my head."

 "Where is your helmet?" Keith frowned.

 "On your head."  Lance laughed.

 "What? Why?"  Keith tried to turn to look at the helmet, but of course from the inside, but it didn't look any different from his on this side.

 "You stopped breathing.  I…um…got you breathing again, but you were really out of it.  I thought getting you some oxygen would help and your helmet was broken."  He shrugged. "Unfortunately, the coms in your helmet aren't working, plus apparently the helmets are totally interchangeable, and I had to kind of ram that one on you and it won't come off…. sorry?"

 "Oh. Don't be sorry, you saved me." Keith huffed.  He tapped the com.  "Shiro?"

 "Keith? Where are you?  Where is Lance?"  Shiro's voice near panicked echoed back at him.

 "We're apparently in the ship still, it's floating?" Keith offered.

 "Not well." Pidge replied.  "It's sinking, slowly for now, but I don't know at want point it's going to gain enough weight to go faster."

 "Okay, then we need to get out."  Keith blinked.

 "Yeah, we are working on a way out of there for you.  Pidge has been looking through the schematics trying to find a path to the exit for you.  What about Lance, is he okay?"  

 Keith looked over at him, "He's hit his head and seems a little off, but okay. He put his helmet on me.  Apparently, it's stuck and mine's busted."

 "Okay."  Shiro sighed. "If only one of you has a helmet, we can't just send you out into the water."

 "What are they saying?"  Lance asked.

 "We can't just go scuba diving since you don't have a helmet."  Keith snarked.

 "Well duh, but tell them I am an excellent swimmer and can hold my breath for a really long time so don't rule that out, okay?"  Lance urged.

 "Okay."  Keith relayed the information.

 "How long?" Pidge snapped.

 "Lance, how long?"

 “Four minutes, maybe longer."  Lance answered easily.

 "Four minutes, while swimming?! No way!"  Keith scoffed.

 "Lance, be serious, four minutes?!"  Pidge barked at the same time.

 "Really, ask Hunk."  Lance defended.

 "He can."  Hunk replied to Pidge.

 "Okay, really four minutes."  Keith clarified looking almost impressed.

 "I will take that into consideration."  Pidge hummed.

 "Keith, you guys just need to keep moving up through the ship."  Shiro spoke strength and resolve in his voice. "Pidge will find the answer."

 Keith pushed and sit up further, his arms shook with the effort.  It wasn't until that moment that something completely terrifying came to his attention.  He hadn't moved his legs; he couldn't feel his legs.

 "How…Shiro, I don't think I can do that?"  Keith stared at his legs, his breath seemed to catch, and he felt a chill go down his spine.

 "Why not?  What's wrong?"  Hunk this time, fear in his voice.

 "I…um…I can't feel my legs."  Keith blinked back tears.  "I can barely move my arms."

 "Hey, it's okay, I got you."  Lance's hands rested on his shoulders.  "How do you think you got here?  You just hit something when you fell earlier.  The pods will fix you up as soon as we get back."  

 "Keith, Lance will help you.  We will try to find the easiest way for you guys."  Pidge answered without any doubt in her voice.

 "Keith, it's going to be okay."  Shiro reassured.

 Keith stared down at his own hands, curling them into fists, at least he could still do that.  He took in a deep breath and then looked up into Lance's blue eyes.

 "I got you, okay?"  Lance's eyes held nothing, but solid strength, gone was the fear and worry from earlier.

 "Okay."  Keith breathed.

 They rested in that room for a few dobashes before Keith had to question the plan.

 "How do we get through a door in the ceiling?"  Since the ship was sideways there wasn't an easy path.

 "Well the last room we waited and let the water lift us most of the way, but I’m hoping there will be more rooms like this one.  See the grooves in the wall, I'm pretty sure there are enough handholds to climb out."  Lance answered. "As a matter of fact, now is as good a time as any to find out." Lance hefted Keith up onto his back, so he was piggy back riding, sort of, his legs refused to grip, but he managed to lock his hands tightly to Lance's chest, helping to hold his weight. "No offense, but you are heavier than you look, at least I am taller."  

 Lance managed to get up the wall without too much trouble.  The handholds were well spaced, and he didn't seem to have that much trouble hauling Keith despite his complaint.  The real challenge was the door.  It wasn't in the middle, closer to the wall they climbed, but still not right above them.  Lance managed to reach out one arm and get a good grip, but then he had to swing over carrying him and Keith before getting other hand attached.  It had to have put a strain on his shoulder, but he just grunted and did it.  Once he had both hands, he was able to brace against the floor, Keith guessed, and pull up high enough to get his elbows over the edge.  He kind of flopped Keith over onto the floor before climbing the rest of the way through himself.  They were in a long hall, or rather a tall hall.  There was a door to the side halfway up on the left, but the hall was a thirty-foot climb, even with a break half way it would be a challenge.

 "Tell Pidge I think we found that main hall and we are going up and left unless she has another option."  Lance spoke as he caught his breath.

 Keith relayed and Pidge only grunted, so their plan stayed the same.  Lance stretched before picking Keith back up.

 "Lance, are you sure?  Should we wait for the water?"

 "No!" Pidge snarled at the same time Lance shook his head.  "Keith if the water gets too high, it will sink too fast and then we will have to figure a way to get you out from deeper or worse it will collapse under the pressure when it sinks.  No, you have to keep moving."

 "I assume Pidge filled you in based on the look on your face."  Lance sighed.  "No choices, need to keep moving."

 "You could…" Keith started.

 "Don't you dare say that I could leave you."  Lance snarled, anger lighting his eyes.  "Just shove that shit and focus on getting out."

 "Okay."  Keith blinked.  Of course, that's what he was going to say.  It made sense; Lance would have already been out of here if it wasn't for him. In fact, Keith wasn't sure if Lance would have been trapped at all if it wasn't for him.  Keith wasn't used to angry Lance and it offered a different perspective to the usually easy-going paladin.

 Lance huffed and started pulling some tubing off the wall.

 "What are you doing?"  Keith looked over curious.  It looked like some kind of vent tubing that was metal, but flexible.

 "Well, you hanging off of my neck is hard on my neck and your hands.  I thought if I could make something that could,” Lance manipulated the tube into a u-shape.  He held it against his waist and hummed.  "Okay let's try this."  He held the tube in one hand and got Keith onto his back.  Then he slipped the tube behind and around him, under Keith's posterior and around his waist.  Once he had it at the front, he twisted the end together, taking some of Keith's weight off of his arms.

 "Smart."  Keith admired.

 "You feel okay?  It help?"  Lance asked.

 "Yeah, what about you?  Easier?"

 "Yeah, actually a lot more balanced feeling.  Ready?"  Lance reached for the wall.

 "Let's go."

 They made it up through the hall, stopping for a break at the halfway point, but Keith could feel the strain in Lance's back and the way his breath huffed by the time they reached the top.  Thankfully the next room was some sort of long conference room and they were not only able to walk along the wall for a significant distance, and the table and chairs had made it easy to climb to the door, so no Tarzan swinging in this room. Two more halls and two smaller rooms later and Lance was pouring sweat and gasping for breath.

 "I need a break."  Keith declared, worry for Lance knotted inside him.

 "Oh, sure buddy, sorry."  Lance helped lower him to the floor before basically collapsing beside him. "Breaktime."  He closed his eyes and Keith was almost certain he'd passed out.  Thankfully his breathing remained strong and evident.

 "Keith?" Shiro called, "you okay?"

 "I'm fine.  Lance basically just passed out from carrying my butt around."  Keith huffed.  He still couldn't feel or move his legs and his arms felt like jelly.  Only his hands seemed to have any strength at all. "I feel so useless.  I can't even help him."

 "You know you'd do the same for him."  Shiro reminded gently and true or not it didn't make Keith feel any better.

 "Keith, I have an exit.  Two more halls straight up and then there is a long barracks to the left, at the end of it were escape pods.  Looks like the pods got used, but you can get out through the openings.  Right now, that part of the ship is only about ten feet under water.  Lance should be able to swim you both up and away from the ship.  We will be at the surface ready to get you both." Pidge burst out with her plan.

 "Lance,” Keith nudged him.  "Pidge has a plan."

 "Good, plans are good."  Lance muttered before groaning and pushing himself back up.  "We can do this."  Under his breath he barely whispered, "you can do this."  

 "You got this."  Keith encouraged as Lance picked him back up. "Two more halls and then a long room and out."

 "Easy peasy."  Lance huffed, but Keith thought he said it with a smile.

 They managed the first hall without too much trouble, but by the second Keith could feel the trembling in Lance's muscles and there were a couple of moments when he was more than a little concerned Lance was going to lose his grip.  He didn't though, he stuck it out and they made it up into the barracks.  Lance sat Keith down and bent over to vomit back down into the hall.

 "Lance?"

 "Just give me a minute.  I just," his breaths heaved in and out as he vomited again.

 "Keith, what's going on, you stopped?"  Pidge asked quietly.

 "Lance is puking." Keith answered bluntly.  He didn't know what else to say, this sucked.  His injury was pushing his friend beyond his limits and it just sucked.

 "Oh."  Pidge's voice sounded small.  "Almost there, still only fifteen feet under."  

 "Almost there, Lance."  Keith encouraged.  Lance straightened and managed to get Keith back into his makeshift seat before heading down the hall.  They were halfway down when the world went sideways, literally.  The entire ship shifted throwing them to the side of the room or the floor or ceiling or whatever direction it was.  Keith felt himself fall and start sliding away before Lance's hand grabbed his arm and gripped hard.  Keith was certain there would be bruises, but it was better than the alternative.  They bounced up and down a few times before settling again, the room now upside down from its original intended direction.  Keith hadn't even realized they had both been screaming until they stopped.

 "KEITH!" Shiro's yell cut across Hunk and Pidge's excited chatter.

 "Here, we are here."  Keith answered looking over into the huge blue eyes across from him.  Lance was prying his hand off Keith's arm and Keith tried not to wince too much.

 "The ship tipped over." Hunk whispered.

 "You think?!" Keith snapped.

 "You need to move now!  It's sinking fast!  Hurry!" Pidge yelled.

 "Lance, it's sinking you have to run!"  Keith's panicked eyes begged Lance to leave him behind.  

 Lance huffed and threw him over his shoulder not bothering with the harness.  He ran the length of the room and through the door. There were three escape pod areas.

 "How far?"  He asked looking out into the murky darkness beyond the sealed door.

 "How far, Pidge?"  Keith yelled.

 "Too far.  It's too far."  Her voice sounded hallow.  "Lance can't swim it."

 "Wait, what about the jet pack?"  Hunk called out.

 "That could work, you have to try it."  Pidge yelled back.

 "Lance, Pidge says you need to use the jet pack to get us there.  We are too deep."  Lance nodded.  He grabbed Keith and held him tightly.  Keith locked his hands behind Lance's neck and gave him a nod.

 "See you at the top."  Lance gave him a smile before taking a few deep breaths and holding one.  He opened the door, the water flooded in fast and Lance held onto the door until the force flowing in slowed and he was able to make his way out of the ship.  

 They were apparently at the top at the ship as Keith could look back and see it falling away into the darkness.  Lance activated his pack and they shot up.  It wasn't far enough.  It wasn't fast enough.  Keith could tell they were in trouble.  Maybe it was the pull of the sinking ship slowing them down, maybe Lance's pack was damaged, but whatever it was they were not getting to the surface and it was taking too long.  Lance's eyes widened and he blinked them a few times.  The first bubble escaped his lips, and he looked over to Keith.

 "No. Please no."  Keith whispered.  He tried to get his own arm to his jet pack, but it didn't want to move.  His hand clutched at Lance, willing him to use his pack too.  He grabbed a hand and squeezed.  Lance squeezed back and more bubbles escaped.  He looked over and met Keith's eyes.  He gave him a sad smile.  Keith squeezed again desparate and tried to get him to activate his pack, Lance seemed to catch on, but as he was reaching the last bubbles left his mouth, his eyes widened in panic and he shook his head in denial.  His hand worked out to the side desparately trying to swim upward, toward the surface, toward air, but one remained clinging to Keith.  Keith watched in horror as the tension in his body increased and he took that first breath of water.  His entire body convulsed, and Keith is certain he screamed.  Lance breathed again and shook and shook and shook, before going completely still.

 Keith stared at blue eyes that didn't see him.  He screamed and screamed.  He could hear other voices calling out to him, but they didn't matter.  This couldn't be real this could be happening. He pushed and pushed willing his arms to move, willing to be able to reach his pack until finally he felt his hand on the control.  His hand that actually worked.  He held one hand clinging to Lance and the other to the jet pack; he pushed, and they shot up again, faster it seemed this time, and the water was getting lighter. They were close, so close when it stopped.  Keith stared in horror at the surface only feet away as they began to sink back down. It hadn't been enough.  Lance was dead.

 A sob choked its way out of his throat.  He couldn’t save him.  What mattered if they saved the rest of the universe if Lance died.  Lance could have lived.  He had stayed and tried to save Keith and now they were both going to die anyway, and it was so stupid because he wasn't worth that.   Lance should have left him.  He wasn't anyone special.  Lance had an entire family waiting for him that loved him.  How dare he sacrifice that for Keith?  His hands clutched at Lance's unmoving body and shook.  This was all so wrong.  He closed his eyes.  He didn't want to see it anymore.  The pain from his back and his head and his chest swelled around him and he drifted into darkness.

 He was not aware as strong arms wrapped around them and pulled them to the surface. As a second strong arm and a metal arm lifted them into the jaws of the waiting Green lion he slept on.  As a best friend begged and pleaded pumping life through his brother and cried when he coughed, and water fountained out of his mouth and air flowed back into his lungs he remained deeply unconscious. His mind was not willing to fight against the pain and damage done to his body.  He did not feel nimble fingers finally pry the wrong helmet from his head and he did not know that he was placed gently into a healing pod doubts dancing around behind the moustache about whether he would walk again.

 He awoke to falling forward from cold into warm arms and a soft blanket.  

 "What?"  He blinked up into blue eyes.  "Am I dead?"

 "No, Mullet, I hope heaven is nicer."  The eyes smiled at him.

 "But you died, drowned, I saw it."  He frowned two tears leaking out.

 "Hey, I'm okay."  A hand reached out and wiped the tears away.  "I'm okay.  Hunk saved me.  My bestest bud pulled us out of the water and managed to get me going again."

 "Shiro helped."  Hunk's happy voice echoed somewhere in the room.

 "Shiro?"  Keith blinked and swiveled his head to the side to find his pseudo brother was holding up his other side.  

 He smiled down at him, "I'm here."

 "Now then Number four, lets have you over here for a quick check." Coran's normally boistrous voice seemed to be edged with anxiety.  

 "How long?" Keith managed.

 "In the pod?  Five days."  Shiro answered with a sad frown.  "We were really worried about you.  You had a skull fracture and five broken vertebrae and four broken ribs."

 Shiro and Lance helped him up onto the medical bed.  He was laid gently down and waited.  Coran hummed as he ran some sort of lighted wand over his body.  He nodded a few times and then was off to look at a screen.  Pidge snaked forward and grabbed his hand squeezing it in her smaller one.

 "You okay?"  She asked.

 "I'm…I…I think so."  He thought about it.  Nothing hurt. He was still shocked to see Lance walking and breathing.  His eyes kept drifting over to him.

 "Hey."  Lance gave him a smile and patted his arm.  It's like he could tell what he was thinking.  "I'm okay, really."

 Keith blinked and smiled.  That was really good to hear.

 Allura appeared in his line of sight and gave him a smile, "I heard you were awake. I am glad.  I have hardly managed to move these four out for meals or sleep. They practically lived outside of your pod."  She gave a fond sigh at their antics.

 Keith smiled a little more.  It felt good to know they cared so much.  He had spent most of his life without someone to miss him.  Maybe he had a family too now.

 "The scans look good, no lasting damage indicated."  Coran smiled broadly delivering his good news.  The collective sigh of relief around him had Keith wondering if he had just beat the odds.

 He found his eyes back on Lance.  The blue-eyed boy smiled at him before reaching a hand out and grabbing his.  He pulled Keith up to his feet and gave him a tight hug.  

 "I'm glad you are okay." Lance huffed in his ear.

 "I'm glad you are too."  Keith whispered back.

 Lance pulled back and looked into his eyes with a sort of surprise followed by a soft smile and a hint of a blush.  Keith reached out and found his hand again, wrapping his own in it.  Lance looked down and the smile widened.  

 "Food and sleep."  Shiro ordered, smiling he pushed the two paladins, hands still clasped, forward. "Take him to the kitchen Lance and make sure he eats."

 "Okay, Shiro."  Lance answered absently pulling Keith forward by the hand.

 Keith looked down at their hands together.  They made it.  They were alive.  Lance's hands were really soft.  He smiled again softly.  

 "Keith?"  Lance asked.

 "I'm okay."   He smiled back up at those blue eyes.  "I'm okay."

[shastelly]

Magic - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 27

Day 27 – Magic

 Part 2/2 continued from Day 26 - City

"So, Trill, tell me about yourself."  Lance sat at the edge of the balcony, bayard in gun form resting on his lap.  Trill sat in the doorway to the room the kids had moved into.  It was large enough for all of them and they had pulled all the cushions from the chairs in the room and made a large pile in the middle where they were now currently resting.  There was also a staircase in the back that led out of the room if they needed to hide more.  The two larger children that had helped with the flying earlier had gone through the rooms on the floor and returned with pouches of something that the kids slurped up, but Lance thought smelled like creamed gross.  

 Lance had told the kids to lock themselves in, but Trill wanted to sit by him.  They said they would close the door if trouble came. Lance understood that they didn't want to be alone, that maybe they were afraid of being abandoned again.

 "What should I say?"  Trill turned his head almost completely sideways, not getting Lance's question.

 "Oh, it's something people on earth say when they want to get to know each other." Lance smiled.  "That's where I'm from."

 "Oh, I'm a Blue Braxarian.  My nest mates and I were hatched here on Novertia."

 "You were hatched here, like from an egg?  Do you all have the same parents?"  Lance asked curious.

 "I don't know.  The Noverts found us and brought us here."  Trill shrugged.

 "So, your Mommy and Daddy aren't Braxarians?" Lance frowned.

 "No, they look like you, only with the soft stuff on your head on their whole body. They are Norvert."  Trill had rubbed their head against Lance's earlier and seemed very happy with his hair.

 "So, they found your eggs and brought you here to hatch?  Do you not have a home planet or something?"  Lance frowned.

 "Mommy said our people used to have a home, but that we are almost all gone. They rescued us from bad people. She said people would try to hurt us, because we are special, but that she and Daddy and their people would help protect us."  Trill sniffled a little.  "Did Mommy and Daddy get hurt because of us?  Did they change their minds and leave us?  Do you know where Kotta went?"

 "Who's Kotta?"

 "My nest mate.   She went outside to see what was wrong.  The alarms went off and we went to the safe place, but she wanted to see what was wrong. She is the biggest of us and our flock leader."  Trill answered sadly.

 "I don't know why your Mommy and Daddy aren't here, but I don't think they would leave you.  Not if they were trying to protect you.  Sounds like they loved you a lot."  Lance smiled. "Maybe wherever Kotta went, they are there too?"

 "You think?" Trill whispered.  "Kotta would disappear sometimes."

 "Disappear?"  Lance's eyebrows shot up, "How?"

 "Magic."  Trill answered with a smile.  "We all have magic.  Green Braxarians can make things grow, Yellow Braxarians can make heat, Red Braxarians can heal, and I can make a shield.  Kotta was the only Black amongst us and we know she could disappear.  She said she went somewhere else, but we didn't know where."

 "Huh? Well maybe that's what happened. We couldn't find any clues, but I know a Princess that knows a bit about magic and maybe she can help you?" Lance smiled at the little bird.

 "Do you think she would?"  Trill cooed.

 "No promises that she can fix anything, but maybe she can at least help you figure out what happened if she knows what to look for.  I know she wanted to find out."  Lance didn't want the kids hopes up too far, in his experience empty planets didn't suddenly get repopulated.

 As Lance was turning over the information in his mind, the door above them started to rattle and bang, "Trill get in the room, close and lock the door, stay quiet and don't come out no matter what.  I will open the door when it's safe, okay?"

 Trill nodded and Lance turned back to the hatch, listening as Trill closed the door and several latches were slid into place.  He placed the rifle on his shoulder and aimed at the opening ready, to take the shot when it was presented.

 ***

 "Keith!"

 "I'm okay."  Keith responded from Red, shaking his head against the jolt they had just taken. "Who are these guys?"

 "I'm with Keith, if these were regular cruisers and fighters, we'd have ended this by now."  Hunk spoke as Yellow smashed another set of fighters.

 "There seem to be a larger contingent of fighters.  Maybe they are carrying extra or it's our luck and they are a training ship for fighters?"  Pidge guessed.

 "Great, Galra Top Gun."  Hunk sighed.

 "Focus, we can do this."  Shiro encouraged.  "Hunk, Keith, focus on the closest cruiser.  Pidge, I'm going in to distract the fighters, pick them off around me. We can do this!"

 The plan works on the first cruiser and Pidge is able to pick off nearly half the fighters around Black, but Black takes heavy damage and the other two cruisers join in firing at Yellow, who takes a hard hit.

 "Pull back,” Shiro calls, scooping Yellow up with Black.  "Hunk, can you hear me?"  Shiro swallows back his fear at the lack of response from the Yellow Paladin.

 "Paladins, we need to retreat."  Allura calls.

 "No, no fucking way, we can't! Lance is still on the planet!"  Keith yells.

 "Keith, we need to get Hunk back to the castle.  We need to regroup."  Shiro tries reasoning with him.

 "No, then let me go and get him."

 "Keith, if you do that then you will lead them right down to him.  Right now, he's holed up somewhere safe, right, defensible?  It's the best we can do.  We need to regroup and come back at them."

 "Keith, look out!"  Keith had been distracted by the conversation and didn't see a fighter driving right at him. Green fired at it and it blew, but the blast knocked Red hard.  She had already been damaged from the earlier hit and it was enough for her to power down.

 "Pull back now, Pidge grab him."  Shiro yelled.  "Allura, we are coming in hot; they will be right on our tails."

 "We are ready.  We'll give you some space."  

 As the lions approached the castle weapons fired at the fighters blowing a few up and slowing the remainder, giving them time to get in the castle and wormhole away.

 ***

 "Paladin!  Lay down your weapon.  Surrender! It's hopeless."  The growling voice called down from above.

 "You're just saying that because I've blasted all of your droids.  Afraid your furry head is going to be next?" Lance lashed back.  He was sweating with effort and had taken a couple of glancing blows from the sentries’ blasters.  The one across his back burned and felt stiff.  The one on his thigh ached.  

 "The fleet just called in.  The castle has fled.  They left you.  I have reinforcements coming and you are alone."  The voice laughed.

 "Nice try.  My team wouldn’t leave me."  Lance growled back and they wouldn't leave kids either his mind supplied.

 "Really, even if the Yellow and Red Lions were out of commission.  I wonder what state their Paladins had to have been in for the other two lions to have to carry them to the castle."  The voice mocked.

 Keith and Hunk, hurt.  Lance blinked back tears and sucked in a breath.  Yes, they would pull back if they had to, but it shouldn't have gone that way there were only three cruisers.  It should have been fine.

 "You're lying.  Four lions can take out three cruisers in their sleep."  Lance snarled.

 "Three regular cruisers, maybe.  Three of our new prototype cruisers with improved weapons and double the fighter squadrons along with the most elite pilots in the Empire?  Clearly not."

 "Some elite pilot you are, I shot you down."  Lance snarked, but the fear in his heart was very real.  The team had needed Voltron.  They had gotten hurt and now he was stuck here.  One of the other Galra stuck his head over the opening to say something or try to take a shot at him.  Lance's weapon fired and the Galra tumbled down into the opening and down to the floor below, its body making a thud as it landed amongst the droid wreckage below.  "I can do this all day."  Lance assured, though it wasn't true.  He was already starting to tire.

 "I will break you."  The voice growled, apparently killing off his buddy had ticked him off.

 "You can try."  Lance offered with a laugh and fired a shot that hit the metal just in front of where he knew the voice was coming from.

 ***

 Keith felt himself falling forward and then being caught.  Voices murmured in his ears, but he couldn't quite make them out. He was carried and felt the stiff infirmary mattress under his back.   He blinked and blinked trying to focus his eyes.

 "Keith?"

 "Shiro?"  He tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness stopped him.  "What?"

 "Hey, you just got out, give yourself a minute."  Shiro put an arm behind him and helped him to sit.  "Coran says you'll be okay, but you took a really bad hit to the head and you might be dizzy or nauseous for a while.  Do you remember what happened?"

 "Lance?!"  He remembered.  They had left Lance on the planet.  He needed to get to him.  "How long?!"

 "You've been in the cryopod for two varga.  Allura has been monitoring the planet.  She moved us into a nearby meteor field."  Shiro supplied.

 "Lance?"

 "He's still on the planet.  Pidge is monitoring his armor.  We can't get a signal to him.  They have landed one of the cruisers."  

 "We need to get to him now."  Keith tried to grab Shiro's arm but missed and nearly fell off the table.

 "We will get him.  We have a plan, but you are not going anywhere right now."  Shiro's tone left no room for argument, but then that had never stopped Keith before.

 "The hell I'm not!"  Keith did fall off the bed that time.

 "I can see how well this is going." Keith could hear Pidge from somewhere in the room. "I'm ready to go."

 "Keith, I'm going.  Hunk will be out of the pod in about 30 dobashes.  Help him out and if you can walk after that then go find Allura on the bridge and maybe you can help us."  Shiro sighed.

 "Are you just going to leave me here?  Shiro?"  Keith called after them not quite focusing.  "Shiro, I want to go.  Shiro, I'm on the floor!"

 "I'm sorry, Keith, but I have to go now and at least you won't fall down there." Shiro offered sadly.

 ***

 They had rushed him.  Too many and too fast for him to get them all, the pile at the bottom of the shaft showed that he'd done an impressive job, but it hadn't been enough.  The droids slammed into him beating until he stopped moving.  Now he dangled from the grip of a Galran commander.

 "Tell me where they are!"  He shook Lance again.

 "No," He breathed.  He felt broken.  Nothing hurt really, not anymore, just a dull feeling of wrong.  His head swam and he felt like vomiting, but there was nothing left to vomit.

 "I want my prize!"  The commander slammed him against the wall.  "Cut off his hand."  

 A droid grabbed Lance's hand and stretched his right arm out to the side as far as it would go.  He screamed and tried to pull it back.  A second droid took a knife from the commander and placed it against his wrist.

 "Last chance."  The commander growled.

 "F.." Just as Lance started to speak an explosion echoed from above them.   Droids and soldiers rained down into the hole, some shot, some blown up, a couple nearly cut in half.  

 "Put him down."  Shiro stood at the opening to the shelter.  Coran was at his side a practical cannon aimed right at the Galran holding Lance.

 "Why should I?" He growled, pulling Lance close to him and between Coran's gun and his chest.

 "If you release him, we will let you and what's left of your crew go."  Shiro offered.  

 "I want the Braxarians."  The commander's eyes narrowed.  He was not leaving without them.  They were the key to his future.  With them he could have anything he wanted.  He would have Zarkon's attention, all the money he could stand, and he would take some of their magic for himself.

 "That's not the deal.  You leave, you live."  Shiro had no idea what the Braxarians were, but he knew Lance was protecting children. Shiro nodded and Hunk fired at the droids by the commander.  All but two of them fell.

 The commander growled and held Lance out over the ledge.  

 "I will have your ship destroyed."  Shiro met his eyes.  

 The commander knew it was true.  The Champion would let him go if he left now, if not he would lose everything.  He growled again and turned to meet the steely eyes looking down at him.  He smiled.

 "Victory or death!" He yelled as he dropped Lance.  

 Shiro screamed and jumped trying to use his jet packs to get to Lance in time to slow his decent.  Coran blasted the commander and the last of the droids.  It all happened too fast.  Shiro couldn't reach him.  Then he saw something blue fluttering around Lance.  Then red and green joined.  Lance's fall was slowing.  Shiro was catching up.  More feathered bodies were joining the first, until it looked like Lance was floating on feathers.  Shiro reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him close.  The little birds fluttered around crying shrilly in alarm.

 "Can you reach the top?"  Shiro asked them as he started to use the pack to get himself and Lance back to the top.

 "Not all of us."  The larger blue one answered.

 "We'll get you there then, don't worry."  Shiro tried to smile as he clutched Lance to him, he needed to get him to the castle to a pod.  He was hurt bad.  He hadn't made a sound since he'd fallen.

 "Shiro?!" Coran called.

 "I've got him, some of these kids need help getting to the top Coran, can you help them?"  Shiro answered.

 "Shiro, the cruiser is taken care of.  Green and I took it out."  Pidge echoed in his helmet.

 "You took it out!?"

 "Keith, what are you doing out here?" Shiro sighed.

 "Hunk is up, he got out quicker than you thought and Red's fast.  Besides, Pidge needed my help with the fighters.  Allura took out the cruiser in orbit as well. We are clear.  Do you have Lance?"  Keith breathed the last in hope.

 "He's hurt.  I don't know how bad yet."  Shiro answered carefully.  "Come to us."

 "On our way, Shiro."  Pidge answered.  Keith didn't respond, but Shiro had no doubt he'd beat her here.

 Shiro landed and laid Lance on the ground.  He still hadn't regained consciousness.  There were obvious hits from Galran blasters, at least three. His face was bruised and bloody, there were bruises on his neck.  He was so limp, scuffed and dirtied armor showing cracks and breaks from what was likely a wicked beating.  His breathing was shallow and rapid.  It reminded Shiro so strongly of the crystal explosion his breath hitched in his chest. He brushed a hand against Lance's cheek.

 "Lance?"  There was no response from him, but he found he was not alone.  The little blue bird was there cooing and rubbing its wing against Lance's arm.

 "Lance?"  He asked quietly.  More of the little birds arrived cuddling together and against Lance.   Their feathers puffed up and their bodies trembling. By the time Coran got them all up, they nearly surrounded Lance.

 "Let's get him to the castle."  Shiro stood and prepared to carry Lance.  "The rest of you can bring the kids."

 "Wait."  The largest blue one spoke softly.  "We can help."  The little red birds in the group started singing softly.  They warbled a sweet and sad song and as they did their feathers began to glow.  Even the very smallest of the red birds sang.  They stretched their wings over Lance's body, then the green ones and yellow ones joined them and finally the blue ones, until Lance was completely covered.

 "Shiro?"  Keith gripped his arm.  He hadn't even heard him coming.

 "They are helping."  Shiro whispered.

 "Is he?"

 "I don't know Keith."  Shiro didn't bother to keep the fear from his voice.

 "Shiro."  Keith begged reaching out to where Lance was laying under the feathers.

 The birds began chirping softly and their wings retracted from Lance.  Keith scooted in beside Shiro to reach Lance who was fluttering his eyes.

 "Lance? Can you hear me?"  Keith touched his face softly.

 "Keith?  What?" Lance blinked and tried to sit up, Shiro put an arm behind him to support him.

 "Lance, do you feel well?"  Trill chirped.  The little red birds were practically preening around him.  "My nest mates have healed you."

 "I," Lance paused considering.  "I feel fine.  It worked. Thank you."  He smiled brightly at them and the birds chirping trills made him laugh.

 "Lance?"  Keith stared at him wide eyed.

 "I'm okay.  Really. Just tired."  Lance's eyes drifted down and closed.  Keith panicked for a moment, but his hand confirmed a strong and steady pulse and Lance's breaths were deep and even.

 "Let's get him back to the castle."  Shiro smiled clasping Keith on the shoulder and pulling him close in a tight hug.  Keith nodded relieved.

 ***

 "So Black Braxarians…"

 "Control the astral plane, apparently.  The one they had got scared seeing the Galra ships in the sky and somehow managed to shift the entire city into the astral plane.  There was no warning, so no clues for us to find.  The people saw the ships, activated the alarm and then poof were floating around in the astral plane."  Keith shrugged from beside Lance's bed.

 The Blue paladin was still weak from his experience and tended to sleep a lot. Apparently the Braxarians heal through manipulating the patient’s own quintessence and it uses some of it up in the processes.  He was going to be fine; it would just take a few quintants to recharge.  

 "So anyway, moving all of those people wore the little one out so bad they couldn't get them back right away.  When Shiro and Black were able to reach them, they were just getting back on their feet so to speak.  Black was able to give them a boost and now the city is full again."

 "And Trill and the others?"  Lance asked.

 "Well the room they were in was apparently somehow shielded from magic.  Allura got really excited about that part and tried to figure out how, not sure if she had much luck.  Anyway, so the kids in the room weren’t affected and ended up stuck alone.  Trill is back with their Mommy and Daddy and very happy.  They were sad we were leaving, and they wanted you to have this."  Keith held up a blue feather.

 "One of their feathers?"

 "Said it was for good luck."  Keith laid it on Lance's table.  "I've got to go to training.  I'll check back on you later."

 "You don't have to."  

 "I know that.  I want to."  Keith smiled and waved as he went out the door.

 Lance snuggled down into his comforter and sighed, content.  Sometimes magic is real and fairy tales can come true.

[shastelly]

Jackets - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 10

And finally the block on this word clears....

 Two angsty tales of two jackets

 Keith's jacket

 "He left his jacket."  Lance sat on Keith's bed holding the red jacket.  Hunk stepped inside and let the door close behind him.

 "I found him, Pidge."  Hunk spoke into a com as he sat next to Lance.

 "Where is he?" Pidge channeled her worries into anger and Lance cringed at her voice.

 "Keith's room." Hunk answered.

 "Oh."  Pidge deflated over the com in that one word.  "I'll be there."

 "He just left it behind, Hunk."  Lance held the jacket up, like it was to blame.

 "I see that.  Do you think we should send it to him or something?  I mean, maybe we can drop it off sometime at a Blade outpost?" Hunk offered, though his doubt crept into his voice.

 "I don't understand why he left it."  Lance stared at the jacket, eyes as round as saucers like somehow under all the stitches there was an answer hidden.

 The door slid open and Pidge stepped in.  She met eyes with Hunk who shook his head sadly and she looked away.  She took a deep breath and climbed onto the bed behind Lance and wrapped her arms around him.  

 "Found you."  She whispered.

 "Wasn’t hiding and I think you mean, Hunk found me."  He huffed.

 "Could have fooled us."  Pidge leaned against him.  "We were looking for you for the last varga."

 "I'm sorry.  I was going to…I left a t-shirt in here last week and I wanted to come and get it and then I found…"  Lance just held up the jacket.  "Why'd he just leave it?"

 "He probably can't wear it with his Blade uniform, you know?"  Hunk offered.  "You should keep it safe for him, till he comes back."

 "Is he? Coming back?"  Lance looked over to Hunk.  "I mean, did he say anything to you about coming back?"

 "No."  Hunk bowed his head and broke eye contact.

 "He'll be back Lance.  He'll visit at least, right?" Pidge tried.

 "It's my fault."  Lance whispered.

 "No! No way."  Hunk argued "Why would you think that?"

 "I told him there were too many paladins.  I wanted him to see that I should step down."  Lance started

 "NO!"  Pidge snapped.  "No. Just no.  There is no way you should step down."

 "Pidge, it's…I mean…you and Hunk are geniuses, Keith and Shiro are better pilots and better fighters, and Allura is a serious bad ass not to mention how awesome her and Blue are doing.  It just made sense.  It's not like I would have run off.  I could have stayed and helped Coran with the castle or gone on missions where you needed cover, just wouldn't have been a paladin."  Lance tried to explain.

 "How does this make Keith leaving your fault?"  Pidge asked, still a little angry about Lance suggesting he step down.

 "I told him.  I was nervous and I don't think I explained right.  He said to leave the math to you Pidge."  Lance gave her a sad smile.  "And then he left.  Did he think I wanted him to leave?"  Lance asked desparate.

 "No."  Hunk denied. "Nothing you said suggested that and you guys were working together great as Red and Black paladins.  Him leaving was about him Lance, I'm sure."

 Lance nodded, looking back at the jacket.

 "He just left it behind, like it didn't matter.  I thought he cared about this thing.  I thought it was important to him and he just left it."  Lance's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "How could he just leave it? Did something change?  Did he decide he didn't like it anymore? Doesn't it fit right anymore?"

 "Lance,” Pidge rubbed his back with her hand.

 Lance's shoulders shook and the tears started to fall.  

 "We're here for you."  Hunk leaned over put his shoulder against Lance's shoulder.

 "I don't understand why he just left it."  Lance sobbed before turning and burying himself in Hunk's arms. Pidge curled around him and they let him cry until he fell asleep clutching the red jacket.

 Lance's jacket

 Keith sat in front of the cryopod still wearing Lance's jacket and wondering how this day had gone so spectacularly wrong.  Keith had been on a Blade mission in the same area as the castle and it had completed early.  Kolivan said that he wouldn't have a transport for him until the designated time, two quintents from now, and that he should see if he could stay at the castle.

 Allura and Shiro had been happy to let him stay.  Allura said that they were taking a much-needed break and wondered if he would join them.  They were going to a local festival to relax.  There weren't supposed to be any issues.

 Keith had agreed.  He'd been a little surprised to find his room still intact, but he'd changed into some casual clothes, jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt, he couldn't find his jacket, and went to the common room to meet the others.

 "Keith?"  Hunk asked from the kitchen and then Pidge echoed from the couch.  They both rushed over and gave him hugs.  Hunk's warm and all encompassing, Pidge's sharp and near rib breaking.

 "Miss me?"  He laughed. He knew he had missed them a lot. The Blade weren't much for hanging out during free time and he had been spoiled by his time in the castle.  He wasn't the loner he used to be, and the solitary time was hard.

 "Oh course, you dope."  Pidge slugged him in the arm.

 "Ow. Been working out more I see." Keith rubbed the sore spot on his arm, ever amazed at the power Pidge could put behind her fist.

 "Eh, you know how it is."  Pidge scoffed, but her smile was pleased.

 "What?"  Lance's voice echoed behind him.  

 Keith turned and smiled and waved.

 "When did you get here?"  Lance asked with his face frozen in shock.

 "Um, just a few dobashes ago.  I finished my last mission up early and Kolivan didn't want to send transport early. So, I needed a place to stay for a couple of nights.  Allura and Shiro said it was okay and invited me to go with you to this festival?" Keith shrugged.

 "Oh, so just visiting?"  Lance's face went from frozen to frown.  "Nice to see you."  Only when he said it, it didn't really sound nice at all.

 Keith returned the frown, "Yeah, you too.  Don't get emotional or anything, not like I haven't seen you for a few months."

 "Yeah, haven't seen or heard from you.  Your communicator must be broken."  Lance snarked.

 "Hey, guys, let’s get on down to the shuttle, Shiro is flying us down for the festival and we don't want Space Dad to leave without us, right?"  Hunk offered wedging himself between the two frowning boys.

 "Yeah, festival time.  Keith, Allura said they had something like a carnival with games and all kinds of junk food."  Pidge pulled his arm dragging him to the door.

 "I like junk food."  Keith muttered, still stinging from Lance's reception.

 "I know, so come on."  She grinned up at him as the left, throwing a worried look back at Lance before they turned the corner into the hall.

 "Lance, hey," Hunk started.

 "Don't. I know.  I'm being an ass.  I just." Lance blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair.  "I thought for a moment he'd actual come back, but he's not staying."

 "Not this time, not now, but maybe someday.  And do you really want to miss out on the time he is here, worrying about when he won't be again."  Hunk put an arm around Lance and steered him into the hall.

 "Oh, wise and warm Hunk, I will heed your advice."  Lance mocked chuckling as they made their way to meet their friends.

 The festival was something like a country fair.  There were baking contests, games, animals, rides, and a diverse group of people. This planet was home to a variety of species that had settled here as it was a crossroads of sorts.  There was a decent sized space port, space mall, places to stay, and warehouses that handled shipping all over the quadrant.

 Lance had seemed less angry by the time they'd gotten to the planet.  Keith did feel bad about not having talked with him, but it's not like the Blade gave him a phone or any communication time whatsoever that wasn't either and emergency or part of a mission.  This was the first time since he'd left that he'd been in the same quadrant as the castle.  Generally, if Voltron was in the area, the Blade considered it covered and didn't run a lot of ops under Allura's nose.

 They'd walked together for a while, but then Hunk and Pidge had peeled off to see some sort of technology display, something about the robotic systems in place in the warehouses.  Allura and Coran had seen a delicacy that they needed to try, which smelled like gym socks to Keith, Shiro and Lance.  The three of them were making their way to the game area.  Shiro was watching some sort of throwing game involving rings and a series of colored hooks.  Keith and Lance were standing back a bit and Keith shivered as a breeze blew across the stand.

 "Should have brought a jacket."  Lance mentioned looking over at Keith.

 "Oh, I couldn't find mine earlier and then I forgot."  Keith shrugged wondering why Lance blushed.

 "Here, I'm not cold."  Lance shrugged out of his jacket and offered it to Keith.  "This blue thing is thicker than that shirt you're wearing."

 Keith looked over and Lance was wearing essentially a sweatshirt and he was cold, "Um…Okay, thanks."  Keith slipped the green jacket on, the sleeves were too long, but it was warm, and it smelled like a mix of sunscreen and sandalwood, just like Lance's skin cream.

 Keith closed his eyes to breath in the scent and that's when he missed it.  The breeze picked up suddenly as he felt a gust push against him.  An angry shout and suddenly Lance was on top of him pushing him to the ground.  There was a sound of something crashing and falling and it then was dark.  

 He woke up in the shuttle on the way back to the castle.  He'd apparently taken a hit to the head when the stand behind them had been blown over by the sudden windstorm.  It had rolled across the pedestrian walkway.  Keith’s frantic eyes found Lance laying on the floor with his head pillowed in Hunk's lap.  Hunk was stroking his hair and whispering to him, though it didn't seen Lance was awake enough to know.

 "Lance?" Keith reached out a hand and cringed when he felt Lance's jacket still over his fingers.

 "He pushed you out of the way of the main part of the booth.  It came down across his chest.  We need to get him to a pod."  Coran answered his unspoken question.  

 They had put him in the pod and Coran said he would be out in about forty varga, give or take a varga.  It was then Keith realized he wouldn't even be there when Lance got out.  He'd be away again with the Blades.  So, he had sat on the floor of the med bay determined to stay here as long as he could.

 "Keith?"  Hunk sat next to him.  "Kolivan called.  They'll be here to pick you up in a few dobashes."

 "Okay."  Keith wiped a tear from his eye.  "I can't believe I'm leaving him here like this.  He pushed me out of the way.  He gave me his quiznaking jacket."

 "I'll let him know you stayed with him until you had to leave."  Hunk offered.

 "Would you?"  Keith turned hopeful eyes to him.  "Do you think it will help?"

 Hunk paused before answering carefully, "I think it will help, some."

 Keith's shoulders fell.  There was no way Lance wasn't going to be hurt when he woke up and Keith wasn't there. He stared down at the sleeves of Lances jacket for several ticks before slipping it off and handing it to Hunk.

 "Please, tell him I'm sorry."

 "I will. Keith, you don't have to go.  You could stay you know.  We'd figure it out."  Hunk tried grasping Keith's arm.

 "No. I have a mission.  I leave tomorrow.  We have a lead on something important.  I have to go and it's solo.  I've been prepping for the last phoeb.  Maybe, after that mission."  Keith stood and waited for Hunk to let go of his arm.

 "If you're sure."  Hunk let go with a sad look.

 "I'm not really."  Keith returned the sorrow and walked away, leaving Hunk waiting in front of Lance's cryopod feeling like he might just have made the worst mistake of his life for a second time.

[shastelly]

Flirt - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 21

Yep, still working on these.  I am stubborn and I will finish, before next March for sure...

This one is shorter and more light hearted than some of the others, enjoy but be prepared for bad pick up lines 

Day 21 Flirt

 "Do you have a map, ‘cause I've been lost in your eyes all night."  Lance batted his eyes at Allura who put a hand on his face and shoved him away.

 "Lance, really,” She couldn't help the giggle that welled up inside her at his silliness.  She had long ago learned that his cheesy pick-up lines were not to be taken seriously and to either take them as a compliment or a joke.  He meant no harm and he was usually pleased as long as he got a positive reaction from her.

 Hunk snorted with laughter and Pidge smirked.  They were very used to Lance's lines and had heard many of them at the Garrison.  Lance was a legend at the local club they frequented.  Every other Friday night they let in anyone over 16 for Karaoke night. Of course, they had to forge Pidge's ID, but then that would have been needed even if she hadn't been underage given her secret identity.  Lance would give pickup lines to anyone that stood still long enough to listen. Usually it went over well and enough people at the bar knew him to cover when it didn't.

 "Wouldn't it be rather gruesome to be in someone's eye?"  Coran asked, eyebrow raised.  Lance was nearly certain he was making a joke.

 "It's an Earth saying it means to like stare into each other's eyes and just,” Lance put a hand to his forehead dramatically and fell back into Hunk's arms, "fall in love."

 "Oh, I see."  Coran's moustache twitches, "And is the actually falling required?"

 Lance chuckled and Hunk dropped him.  

 "Sometimes I suppose it feels that way."  Lance commented glaring back at Hunk and rubbing his bum.

 Pidge snorted, "Romantic crap."

 "Ah, Pidgie McPidgeface, not all of us are as aromatic as you love."  Lance reminded.

 "Blah."  She stuck her tongue out at him, but a smile twitched at her lips.

 "So, are Lance's pick-up lines, considered romantic?"  Allura asked curious.

 "No." Hunk and Pidge answered at the same time Lance said "Yes". Lance frowned and the others laughed.

 "It depends.  Most of what Lance says are really cheesy and meant to be funny."  Hunk offered elbowing Lance.

 "Alas, tis true, but at heart I am just a poor romantic searching for the other part of my soul."  Lance sighed dramatically.

 "Now that sounds romantic!"  Allura smiled over at him.

 "Yeah, but I’m better at cheesy."  Lance grins and shots finger guns at her.

 "Okay, give us your best cheesy lines."  Coran challenges.

 Hunk and Pidge groan, but both are smiling brightly.

 "Just remember you asked for it."  Lance laughed.  "Alright, ready?  Who's first?"  

 "Me."  Allura smiled, "I hear so many, you have to come up with a new one."

 "Allura, are those space pants, because your legs are out of this world!" Lance gushed as Allura blurted out laughing.

 "Very nice.  I'll give it an 8."  Hunk judged.

 "Golf clap?" Pidge inquired.

 "Golf clap."  Hunk agreed and they both clapped slowly one hand against the palm of the other.

 "Next?" Lance challenged.

 "Coran!"  Pidge volunteered.

 "Coran, you must be from Tennessee, because you are the only Ten I see." Lance tried.

 "Coran, Tennessee is a particular place on our planet and being a ten is like being perfect or exceptionally beautiful."  Pidge explained.

 "Sorry Lance, not scoring high on one that needs explained."  Hunk shook his head sadly.

 "Fine, you're up Hunk."  Lance sauntered over to him.  "I must be a magnet, because I am attracted to your buns of steel."  

 Pidge snorted and laughed as Hunk actually managed a blush.

 "Ah Pidge, you'd better have a license, because you've been driving me crazy." Lance wrapped an arm around her and pulled her over to him.

 Shiro and Keith managed to enter the room at just that point and the looks on their faces was enough to send everyone into another fit of laughter.

 "What is going on?"  Shiro asked in a weary kind of Space Dad voice.

 "Lance has been challenged to deliver a pick up line to each of us.  I still think he owes Coran a better one." Pidge nodded to the other man. "Go on, Lance, two new victims!"

 "Shiro?"  Lance asked eyebrow raised.  Shiro shrugged giving permission.  Lance sauntered over to him and tripped part way landing in a somewhat obviously planned way in his arms.

 "Shiro, I've fallen for you so hard, I can't think straight."

 Shiro stared at him for a good ten count before dropping him and putting his hand over his face.  It was clear though that he was hiding a smile and the rest of the room, minus the Alteans started laughing.

 "Why is that one funny?"  Coran asked.

 "In human terms, straight generally means guys like girls and girls like guys, whereas some other arrangement wouldn't be straight.  So, it's a play on words because not thinking straight is a generic saying for being confused like you might be if you actually fell." Hunk offered up the explanation.

 "I see and so for a male to like another male is not straight?"  Coran still looked confused.

 "Nope."  Pidge popped. "Lance, negative points for confusing the Alteans, bonus points for making Shiro smile."

 "Alright, Keith's turn."  Hunk declared.

 Lance glanced at Keith warily.  The other boy had his arms crossed and was frowning.  Lance was nervous about this.  "Hey, guys, Keith doesn't have to play if he doesn't want to.  It's only fun if everyone is enjoying it." Lance backed away from Keith.

 "I don't mind."  Keith blurted out.

 "Oh, okay then."  Lance smiled and walked past Keith, winked and then walked past him again before coming to stand right in front of him, “Do I confuse your sexuality yet, or should I walk by again?"

 Keith looked at him, frowned a little, and then shook his head, "Nope, not confused at all."

 "I had better luck with the Alteans."  Lance sighed turning away.

 "Well Lance, you're batting over .500."  Hunk offered.  "Pretty much failed on Coran and Keith and got a maybe on Shiro, but Pidge's, mine, and Allura's were pretty good."

 "I get why I failed with Coran, and I'm working on that and the same with Shiro, but what about Keith, why did I fail there."  Lance looked over at the mullet in question, who was smirking at him.

 "Because having a guy flirt with me does not confuse my sexuality.  I'm gay."  Keith shook his head in amusement.

 Lance blinked three times, his mouth formed an "O", and then he smiled.  

 "Alright fine.  I need to redeem myself here."  Lance shook out his arms, stretched and cracked his knuckles.  "I got this."

 "Coran, are you tired?"

 "No." Coran answered mouth twitching to hide a grin. "Why?"

 "Because you have been running around in my mind all day."  Lance smiled as Coran burst into laughter.

 "Redemption."  Pidge nodded offering another golf clap.  Hunk joined her.

 "Alright."  Lance turned to Shiro who took a step back at the intense look he was getting.  Lance staggered over to Shiro and tripped up against him this time, like he was drunk.  "I'm not drunk, I'm just intoxicated by you."

 "Eh, not your best, but we'll let it go."  Hunk judged.  The rest of the room laughed.

 "Fine, fine, need to pull a good one out for Keith then."  Lance spun around a couple of times before seeming to come to a decision.  He turned and walked purposefully over to Keith.  Stopping when he was standing right in front of him, bodies touching. He leaned in and sniffed Keith from his neck up to his ear, before looking over with a smirk, "I've got a thirst baby, and you smell like my Gatorade."

 "Bravo." Pidge clapped.

 "Here, here!"  Hunk added.

 As the others were laughing and clapping, Keith blinked and looked up into Lance's eyes. Lance felt his breath catch and a weird little flutter in his stomach as he stared into those violet eyes.

 "Wow, you have really beautiful eyes." Lance breathed.

 "Game’s over, Lance."  Keith frowned as he pushed him toward the group.

 "Oh yeah, right, game."  Lance blinked and turned to the others, taking a bow for his performance.  He glanced back over at Keith, who now had a thoughtful look on his face.  Lance gave him a wink and a little smile and now he got a full Keith blush.  After all there was flirting for fun and then there was the other kind and Lance wasn't that bad at either, no matter what anyone else said.

[shastelly]

Cozy - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance - Day 17

Anyone order farmboy Lance?

Day 17 – Cozy

 Keith and Cosmo were driving down the long lane that lead back to the McClain family farm. Sure, Cosmo could have teleported them in, but sometimes Keith actually liked to drive.  He'd picked up an old motorcycle and had a special side car made for Cosmo.  He wasn't sure how much longer the space wolf was going to fit in it, so they had to use it while they could.  Pidge had already asked if she could buy it off of him when Cosmo outgrew it.

 The bike sped along the dirt road kicking up a trail of dust behind them.  Keith grinned as he stepped on the gas, it was going to be fun sliding a bit around the curves, not too much though.  The last time he'd slid at too steep of an angle for Cosmo the wolf had blinked them both out and the bike had wrecked.

 The summer sun was beating down and it must have been ninety degrees outside, but with the wind whipping around him, he didn't even feel it.  He'd taken off the helmet when they reached the lane and his hair was whipping around in the wind.  It all felt so good and relaxing.  He needed this vacation.  His work with the Blades was great and he really felt that he was doing good, but it was stressful at times and he still saw a lot of the bad out in the universe. He needed some time to recharge.

 One either side of the lane rows and rows of plants stretched out bright green.  Just past those fields, at the end of the lane was the big two-story white farm house, complete with picket fence around the front yard.  There were flowers blooming in beds and a huge garden at the side of the house. Beyond the house was an old wooden barn and two metal sheds.  A hay elevator was set up into the hayloft of the wooden barn, an empty wagon sat next to it. Behind the wooden barn stretched pasture and Kaltendecker and her cow buddies were out in the field.  It looked like there were several calves as well. Keith didn't know thing one about baby cows, but they looked cute.  Beside the pasture were the hayfields.  Keith could see two tractors out in the field.  One tractor had a large contraption behind it and as he watched it dropped a huge stack of hay out onto the ground behind it.  The other tractor had a smaller contraption and small rectangular bales of hay were spitting out of it and back to a wagon that was hooked behind it.  Two people were on the wagon picking up and stacking the bales.  Even from this distance Keith was sure one of them was Lance. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved blue t-shirt and a straw hat of some kind.  

 Keith smiled and watched them for a little while before parking the bike next to a silver van by the house.  There was a red sports car, a beat-up old truck, and a sedan parked nearby as well. As he was getting off the bike, he heard a voice from the house.

 "Keith!"  Veronica waved from the house.  "Hey, glad you could make it!"  She stepped out of the house wearing a t-shirt that said, "My girlfriend can kick your boyfriend’s ass".  

 "Axca get you that?"  He asked laughing.

 "Maybe." she grinned.  

 "Why aren't you out in the field?" Keith wondered.  She looked dusty and her hair was pulled back and sweaty.

 "Oh, Luis, Papi, Nadia and I just finished unloading a wagon.  We just needed a lemonade break and some air conditioning."  She waved toward the house.   "Lisa is inside with the new baby, or rather she's getting a nap and Mami has little Laura.  Rachel is making stacks, Slyvio is driving the baler and Lance and Marco are on the wagon. They'll be back in a bit with another load.  You might as well come in and get some lemonade."

 "Slyvio is driving?"  Keith turned and shaded his eyes to look at the tractor in question.  "He's gotten tall."

 "Yeah, and he's not doing too bad with the driving either.  I think he's only knocked Lance off the wagon twice." She laughed as Keith frowned. "Don't worry, Keith, a little fall from a hay wagon isn't going to stop Lance."

 "Yeah. I guess not."  Keith shrugged and pretended he hadn't been concerned, but Veronica had spotted the quick frown and tension.  The idea of Lance getting hurt still freaked him out, a lot.

 He went inside and was greeted warmly by the family waiting.  

 "It's nice to see you."  Lance's dad smiled.

 "Keith."  Luis nodded.

 "Keith, hold Laura for a moment, would you dear?"  

 And Keith found himself with his arms full of baby, while Lance's mom got him a glass of lemonade.  He smiled down at the sleeping little face, her skin was as dark as her father, but her hair was a little lighter, more like her mom's.  She looked so sweet that he was completely shocked when she opened her eyes and screeched at him.

 "Um…help?"  Keith looked up with slightly panicked eyes and Luis rescued him, by sweeping the baby into his arms and swinging around with her.

 "It's okay Keith.  She's a little cranky and doesn't like to be still."  Luis explained laughter dancing in his eyes.

 "Pick me up, Tio Keith, I won't scream."  Nadia tugged at his sleeve and he smiled as he lifted her up onto his shoulder and she squealed happily.

 "I thought you said you wouldn't scream?" He teased.

 "Happy screams don't count."  She explained.

 About an hour later he heard the tractor pulling into the barnyard.  He and everyone but Lance's mom, Lisa and Laura made their way outside, and Cosmo, the big traitor laid in the living room and refused to go back into the heat.  Lance was sitting on top of a wagonload of hay that was at least twelve feet from the wagon bed up in the air.  Marco had taken over the tractor and Slyvio was sitting on the big wheel-well next to him.

 "Keith!"  Lance waved from his perch.

 Keith waved back.  

 Marco stopped and Lance shimmied down the front of the bales and hopped down from the wagon.  He disappeared for a moment and the popped back up waving at Marco, who pulled the tractor and baler away leaving the wagon behind.

 "Come help me push?"  Lance asked and Keith walked over to the empty wagon.  Lance had picked up the wagon tongue and was using it to steer as he tried to push it and get it moving.

 "Where?"  Keith asked unsure what he was doing.

 "Just step up to the wagon and push till it gets rolling, then help if it slows or anything.  It's just hard to get them started, then it will roll pretty good, just don't go too fast, it's been years since I ran one of these into the barn, but I don't want to repeat."  Lance laughed.  Keith nodded and pushed.  It did take some effort to get it started, but it was easy after that.  Lance parked it next to the barn, letting the tongue down to stop it from moving.

 "Lance, your turn in the hay-mow!"  Veronica yelled.  She was already unhooking the full wagon from a four-wheeler she'd used to pull it up next to the elevator.  Nadia had scampered up to the top of the hay bales like a little monkey and sat there smiling.  Marco had climbed down from the tractor.

 "I gotta go!  I have class tonight!"  He waved to everyone and Lance groaned.

 Luis laughed as he climbed onto the tractor.  "You haven't had a turn yet, take Keith."

 "Sure, take Keith."  Lance grumbled.  "Hey Keith, did you want to get super sweaty and exhausted on your vacation?"

 Keith laughed and possibly blushed, it was hard to tell in the sun, "Tell me what to do and I can help."

 "Well first, do you like that shirt?  Cause it make get a hole or something."  Lance raised an eyebrow and pointed to a couple of holes in his own t-shirt.  "Second, never mind, I'm not letting you do this in short sleeves.  I'll get you a shirt and gloves to wear."  

 "Okay."  Keith shrugged.  "Why long sleeves?  It's hot."  He wondered.

 Lance chuckled darkly, "You think this is hot, just wait until we get up in the hay-mow, it's downright cozy.  The long sleeves are so your arms don't get too scratched up."  He pulled his sleeves up to reveal several red marks on his wrists and a few up his arm.  "They aren't armor, but they help."

 Lance returned shortly with a long-sleeved red shirt and a pair of soft leather gloves.

 "I have gloves."  Keith objected.

 "And if you want to have pieces of hay shoved under your nails until they bleed, please feel free to wear them."  Lance snarked.

 "Fine."  Keith muttered changing gloves and following Lance up the wooden stairs of the old barn. The metal roof let some light in around the edges and old light fixtures dimly lit the interior.  

 Lance flipped a switch and a rattling sound came from above them as a conveyer began spinning.  Lance climbed up a stack of bales against a wall and stuck his head out the window where the elevator came in.  He waved and then climbed back down.  

 "Okay, they're starting.  We just need to stack the bales here.  They'll drop down off the conveyor here, see where it kicks them off?"  Keith nodded there was some sort of metal thing up where Lance pointed.  "Make sure it doesn't fall on your head."  Lance smirked and then watched as the first bale dropped from the elevator onto the conveyor and then plopped with a heavy thunk onto the floor.  He grabbed it and lifted it by the strings and carried it over to the stack, slotting it neatly into place.  

 Keith watched as the next one fell.  He quickly moved to pick it up and was a little shocked by the weight.  It was well over a hundred pounds.  Still he could lift that without issue.  He moved over to the stack and place the bale.

 "Oops, sorry, need to change direction on each layer or it will just fall over." Lance corrected.  

 Keith adjusted his bale as Lance brought another over and he heard his next bale fall. He hurried over to grab it and just was out of the way as the next one fell.  He huffed as Lance laughed and managed to get this one in the right place.

 Some hundred or so bales later, Keith was panting.  It was like a furnace up there, the heat collected under the metal roof and it had to have been over a hundred and ten degrees.  His hair was soaked, sweat dripped in his eyes, his shirt was soaked, even his pants were soaked with sweat.  On top of that the dust from the dried grass stuck to him everywhere. He felt like he was coated in it. It was in a word gross.

 "This is cozy?"  Keith huffed.

 Lance grinned at him.  His face darkened from the dirt and just as sweat soaked and filthy as Keith.  He climbed down and grabbed a water jug, pushing it at Keith.

 "Drink. I'll see where we are at with the next load."  Lance laughed at Keith's groan as he made his way down the steps.

 Keith swigged the water.  He was sure it wasn't completely clean, the jug had been sitting up here after all, but the ice-cold water tasted divine in his dry throat and he drank almost all of it. Only stopping when a guilty thought that Lance might want some too passed through his brain.

 "Okay, good news and bad."  Lance shouted as he pounded up the stairs.  

 "Good first."  Keith requested.

 "Only one more load."  Lance gave him the finger guns.

 "Bad news." Keith sighed.

 "It's already here."  Lance took a quick swig from the jug as the first bale appeared and Keith groaned.

 The second load went faster, and Keith was glad to see he seemed to be getting the hang of it.  When Lance turned off the conveyor, Keith was shocked by the stillness.

 "Mom says be sure to get cleaned up before dinner!"  Veronica yelled.  "It'll probably be awhile for the shower!"  She laughed.  "There are like six people in front of you in line."

 Lance sighed and sat back on a bale, drinking some of the water.

 "Isn't that gone?"  Keith frowned, worried he'd drank too much earlier.

 "Nah, more of it melted."  Lance passed him the jug as he peeled off his shirt.  

 Keith found himself missing his mouth as Lance's defined abs appeared in front of his face, glistening with sweat.

 "In your mouth is better,” Lance chuckled.

 "Yeah, guess I'm tired."  Keith managed to get the next mouthful down as Lance used his shirt to wipe his face.

 "You okay?"  Lance questioned.

 "Sure. Fine."  Keith managed to squeak.

 Lance sat next to him so that his bare shoulder touched Keith.  He turned and smiled slowly.  The Altean marks on his face were nearly glowing in the dim barn.

 "Thanks for helping."  Lance smiled as his eyes met Keith's.

 "No problem."  Keith found he couldn't look away.  "You okay?"

 "Sure."  Lance answered easily.

 "You okay if I kiss you?"  Keith asked breathlessly.

 "I'm like gross and sweaty,” Lance frowned.

 "Sweaty yes, gross no."  Keith murmured a hand reaching to brush Lance's sweaty bangs from his face.

 "Oh."  Lance's face got even redder than it had been from the heat.

 "So, okay?" Keith asked again.

 "Um, yeah, okay."  Lance blinked as Keith pressed their lips together, his hand gently cupping Lance's chin.

 Keith leaned into the kiss, his other arm reaching around Lance and pulling him closer. Their bodies were sticky with sweat and heat and the contact almost burned.  Lance leaned into Keith and they overbalanced falling backwards onto the hay bale.  Keith rolled slightly propped up on an elbow and pressed Lance into the hay deepening the kiss.  Eventually Keith had to stop to breath.

 "So cozy?"  Keith smiled.

  "Yeah, cozy."  Lance reached up and pulled Keith back down into another kiss. 

[shastelly]

Heartbeat - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance Day 12

"So, you've never seen Dirty Dancing…ever?  Not even one of the remakes, I mean it's been done like five times now?"  Lance stared in mock or maybe real outrage, Keith was not sure.

 "No, Lance, I've never seen the movie or any of the other ones.  I didn't watch romantic crap movies."  Keith snarled.

 "AHAH! Hunk, take the bad man away." Lance cringed and waved a hand at Keith.

 "Can't you said you'd teach him to dance."  Hunk answered from the kitchen where he was busy making their afternoon meal.

 "Yes, but that was before I knew he was just so…evil."  Lance narrowed his eyes and stared at Keith.

 "Lance, please, how does it matter?"  Keith huffed exasperated.

 "Oh, Keith, I could have at least started knowing that you know where your space was and that I didn't have to call you spaghetti arms or explain how to feel the rhythm like your heartbeat."  Lance rolled his eyes.  "But no, we must start from the very beginning."

 Keith glared.

 "Fine, whatever."  Lance stood. "Come here.  First one hand here and one hand here.  And now I have spaghetti arms already.  This would be so much easier if you had seen the movie." Lance proceeded to instruct Keith in some basic steps.  Nothing too complicated.  Allura said that there was to be a ball.  Keith had freaked.  He said he couldn't dance.  And considering the throbbing in his toes, Lance was inclined to agree.  

 "Keith, I swear, if it's the last thing I do you are going to learn this basic step before the end of this practice session.  I don't care if you break all of my toes!"  Two vargas later and Lance was reconsidering if he or any other person would ever be able to teach Keith to dance.  It was just a salsa.  Just a simple salsa that anyone could learn or at least that's what he used to think.  

 "You practically dance with that quiznacking samurai sword, why are you so horrible at this?"  Lance yelled.

 "I don't know!  I told you I couldn't dance; did you think I lied?"  Keith snarled.

 "No exaggerated, maybe, but not lied."  Lance tried once more to lead Keith through the simple basic step. Keith's foot landed hard on top of his right foot.

 Lance swallowed hard, "Okay, this isn't working.  Take a break.  Go stick something with something pointy.  We'll try again after lunch."

 "Fine."  Keith spun around and left the room, shoulders hunched in defeat.

 As soon as the door swished shut, Lance leaned forward taking a long deep breath.

 "Um, Hunk?"

 Hunk looked up surprised by Lance's change in tone.  He thought he would have started ranting about Keith's lack of dance ability already.  When he looked over Lance was bent over taking slow deep breaths, his face kind of pale and sweating.

 "Lance, are you okay?"  Hunk rushed over concerned.

 "So, don't tell him, ‘cause it would probably really upset him, but I'm pretty sure he just broke my foot."  Lance whispered.

 "What?! Why are you standing?"  Hunk waved his hands around unsure what to do.

 "Because walking sounds like a bad idea and falling isn't fun either." Lance managed.  "Think you might help me down to the med bay.  I'm sure Coran can fix me right up."

 Hunk lifted Lance up over his shoulder and carried him down to the med bay.  Pidge saw them going down the hall and tagged along, poking at Lance while he hung unable to reach her.  He swore vengeance; she laughed and did it more.  Coran determined he had three broken bones in his foot and warned Lance that when they were dancing in the future either both should wear their armored boots or neither, because Keith wearing them, and Lance wear tennis shoes was a bad idea.

 Coran decided it would be best to put Lance in the pod, he said it would only take a couple of varga.  Lance complained, but in the end, there wasn't much else to do unless he wanted to try to fight bad guys with his foot in a cast.

 Hunk hurried back to finish the dinner he'd been in the middle of and had it ready to go in less than a varga.  He called the others.  Keith was the last to show, looking like he'd just gotten out of the shower.  His hair was towel dried and he had on a white t-shirt and sweats, his feet were even bare.  He looked around for Lance, having decided to apologize for earlier, because after all Lance had been trying to help him.

 "Where's Lance?"  Keith asked confused as Hunk served the food.

 "Oh, he's going to be late."  Hunk answered not meeting Keith's eyes.

 "Why?"  Allura asked from the other side of the table.

 "Um, reasons?  He was working on trying to figure out other ways to teach Keith to dance."  Hunk scrambled for an excuse.

 "Well, tell him just to come down, he can do that later, we have two days before the ball anyway."  Allura answered, "There is no need for him to miss a good meal."  She smiled at Hunk in praise of his food.

 Keith cringed because two days was way too soon.  Hunk cringed because he couldn't go get Lance.  Pidge let out a long-suffering sigh.

 "I can't go get him."  Hunk admitted.

 "Why ever not?"  Allura asked.

 "What Hunk is avoiding saying is that Lance is in the cryopod."  Pidge supplied with a frown.

 "Pidge! I promised."  Hunk cried looking at her in horror.

 "I didn't."  She snarked.

 "Why is he in a pod?  What happened?"  Allura and Keith asked at nearly the same time.

 Pidge resisted the urge to yell jinx.  "Apparently dance instruction is dangerous and he has a broken foot."

 "I broke his foot."  Keith stared with his mouth open, begging them with his eyes to deny it.

 Hunk nodded slowly, "He didn't want you to know.  He was afraid you'd get upset."

 "Upset? Upset!  I broke his damn foot!  Why wasn't he upset?  You see!"  Keith turned to Allura.  "I told you dancing was a bad idea!"  Keith got up to leave.

 "Your food?"  Hunk questioned, holding up a bowl for him to take with him.

 "I'm not hungry."  Keith turned and marched out of the room.

 "Well that went well."  Pidge muttered as Hunk glared at her.

 ***

 When Lance stepped out the cryopod, he was more than a little shocked and angry to find Keith waiting.

 "I told Hunk not to tell you."

 "He didn't, Pidge did."  Keith answered reaching out to steady the wobbling paladin.

 "Quiznak.  I'm fine. Okay, don’t go getting all broody." Lance looked knowingly into Keith's frowning face.

 "Lance, this is a bad idea, I just can't dance."  Keith said defeated.

 "That's just it, you can.  I see you do it all the time when you are doing hand to hand or practicing with that sword.  It's all like dancing."  Lance sputtered.

 "But those aren't steps, I don't have to do anything a certain way.  I just feel it."  Keith tried explaining.

 "Alright fine, I've been going about this the wrong way.  Come here."  Lance instructed.  "Give me your hand.  Now hold me up."  He grabbed one of Keith's hands and wrapped the other around his waist.  "Stop worrying about steps and what you are supposed to do.  Just follow me."

 "We don't have any music and you're still wobbling from the pod."  Keith protested.

 "Don't need music."  Lance smiled and brought their joined hands over to rest on his chest.  "Got a beat."

 Keith stared at him for a minute still confused.

 "Just close your eyes.  Okay. Feel my heartbeat?"  Keith nodded.  "Good now move when I move, pretend like I'm teaching you a new hand to hand combat move or something, just follow me."  Lance stepped and Keith stepped, again and again, around the med bay. Lance started added quicker turns and swaying and moving more.  Keith never opened his eyes and just followed along with the steps.  

 "You're doing it you know."  Lance whispered.

 Keith opened his eyes and looked into Lance's smiling face.  "I guess so."  He smiled back as they continued dancing to the rhythm of Lance's heartbeat.