#once again I do not think I have any voltron mutuals aside from my most beloved but I'm putting the feeler out anyway

[asteria-argo]

hypothetically if I wrote a 20k chapter of a much larger rewrite of Voltron that caters specifically to me and what I wanted to see from it while it was still airing, would anyone but me and my single Voltron mutual read it?

[rigb0ner]

Okay, you guys asked for it! I hope you enjoy reading! :)

***

In order for Lance and Shiro to make it out alive from the Blade of Marmora trials, they have only two choices:

1. to fuck

or

2. to fight

However, Lance doesn't want to fight, and Shiro doesn't want to fuck.

***

a.k.a. an AU where Lance accompanies Shiro to the Blade of Marmora instead of Keith, and there is no "Knowledge or death" but a choice to "Fuck or fight".

***

Shiro's behavior has been rather... aggressive, especially towards Lance in the last few days. Neither of the two could conclude the reason why though. However, Lance had a few ideas. He knew he was annoying at times. The groans he often earned from his teammates where more than enough proof, but he was harmless. Lance was the Blue Paladin, the heart of Voltron. He was a huge asset to the team, not because he had the ability to easily lift their spirits with his silliness and contagious smile, but because he cared. He valued his teammates' concerns over his own. Yes, he was arrogant, but he was also, and mostly, considerate.

But, for some reason, he wasn't able to lift everyone's spirits. He liked to think that he had a specific bond with each of his teammates, even Keith. Aside from all the daily bickering over very ridiculous topics, there was mutual fondness and respect between them both. However, it was Shiro who gave him the darkest of glares and the most disgusted of sighs. It hurt, to think that someone whom he deeply admired since he first enlisted in the Garrison, would treat him so condescendingly. He was his hero, and it killed Lance to be scorned so often by him, for reasons unknown. But Lance wasn't an idiot. He knew when to stop himself from escalating situations from bad to worse.

And now, with no one else to be by Shiro's side, due to having their own tasks that were specifically correlated with their lions, Lance would stand by his leader. And he would be there for him, no matter how difficult the situation, to help him, and maybe, to prove himself to Shiro that he wasn't careless, and that he actually gave a shit. But he could tell by the look on Shiro's face that he was not at all excited to have him as his only choice. The Blue Paladin did well to resist the urge to scoff and cross his arms in irritation, and stood tall, prepared to begin for their mission.

***

Lance and Shiro had learned that the Blade of Marmora were a secretive rebel group fighting against the Galra Empire, and the only way they could form an alliance was to attempt several trials to become members to fight along side each other when it was time for battle. The two Paladins would endure intense battles in each of the several rooms, together. They would be stripped from their Paladin uniforms, and any bayard would be confiscated.

Lance knew bringing their personal weapons was forbidden, but he thought he'd bring his bayard just in case. However, like Shiro, he was given a new suit, as well as a new weapon. Lance's hand now tightened around the tang of his blade—an item that felt so foreign in his hand—feeling his palms sweating as his legs trembled. This was definitely not his usual weapon of choice. It didn't feel right. But the Blue Paladin watched Shiro in awe, standing in place as his leader suddenly let out a battle cry, then clashed his blade with their opponent's. He moved swiftly, dodged quickly, and stabbed mercilessly, leading them to the next chamber. Lance couldn't feel more useless. To his amazement, however, Shiro clearly knew what he was doing, taking down each opponent with the intention to succeed, with or without Lance. The Blue Paladin felt pathetic to say the least.

But as they continued to press onward from each room prior to the next, Lance had noticed that their opponents grew more numerous. Shiro, now bruised and bloody, slowly losing his strength and breath, was struggling to fight, as their opponents came at them in full force. Lance had to do something. He needed to help. But what could he, an inexperienced fighter, do to help his leader? It was obvious that he couldn't just stand there and watch. So, with a firm grip around his weapon, Lance breathed in shakily, suddenly bracing himself, then ran fast, and lunged forward—although clumsily—at their opponent with his blade, hearing Shiro immediately shout his name. Lance ignored him, or perhaps, he didn't hear. However, his weapon clashed with his opponent's, steel scraping against each other as their blades collided.

Despite Shiro's strength receding, he continued to slice and kick with all the might he had left, watching Lance from his peripheral vision as his opponent's limp body fell to the floor. His heart was racing with adrenaline as he heaved a heavy breath. But then the sound of a painful hiss caught Shiro's attention as his face turned completely towards Lance's direction. The sight of blood oozing from his partner's shoulder made him run fast, stabbing the opponents’ abdomens without hesitation. When he withdrew his blade he stared at Lance with the slightest bit of concern before scowling. "Why did you interfere?" he questioned breathlessly, although raising his voice. 

Lance held his painful shoulder upright, not appreciating Shiro's tone and glare whatsoever. He inhaled a sharp breath and pumped up his chest defiantly, brows narrowing in irritation. "Stop treating me like I'm your bitch," he hissed, slightly surprising himself from the sudden outburst. "What kind of question is that? Did you just expect me to stand there and watch you get hurt? Whether you want me here or not, I want to help you! Why is that such a problem? You can't die on us!"

"Watch your tone," Shiro retorted, scowling at Lance's disobedience. "I can take care of myself!" he added. Lance scoffed, "Yeah. Of course you can." He dared to give Shiro the most annoyed look before breaking eye contact, walking towards the next chamber as the doors slid open.

So stubborn, they thought.

***

This next chamber they entered, Lance noticed, was smaller, unlike the previous ones. There was another thing his eyes caught sight of; a bed, in the middle of the empty room. It was the strangest thing he’d seen since they entered the Blade’s headquarters. The uneasiness in his stomach only grew when the sudden flash of a hologram appeared in front of them, revealing the face of Kolivan, the leader of the Blade of Marmora. He then spoke, "You have made it to the final trial, upon which you have succeeded on the previous challenges. But, for this last trial, however, you have two choices to make."

"What are they?" Lance questioned anxiously, not quite understanding the small curve forming on Kolivan's lips as he spoke. 

"You two must choose to fight, or to bond," Kolivan explained. 

"Wait," said the Blue Paladin, "what do you mean 'to bond'?"

Shiro's expression looked just as perplexed, and then there was a slight pause, before Kolivan elaborated. "You must join together to breed. If not, you must fight each other. There is no other option."

Lance gawked at Shiro in horror, beyond bewildered.

No.

No way.

No freaking way is this happening!

I don't want to fight, but I...

"Make a choice," Kolivan said, before the hologram subsequently disappeared. Lance couldn't help but quiver in fear, feeling unbelievably gawky as he stood subconsciously close next to Shiro, hearing the doors close from behind them. How ridiculous he'd felt.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

What do we do?

"Lance," Shiro spoke suddenly in a deep tone, earning the Blue Paladin's attention, who’d hesitated before responding nervously.

"Yeah, Shiro?"

Oh my god! Does he actually want to do this with me? 

"Are you ready?"

Holy shit!

"U-um... actually, I... I've never done this before," Lance admitted bashfully, watching Shiro narrow his brows in response.

"What do you mean? Of course you have. Did you forget about all the battles we've been through? Or, perhaps, our training?" Shiro questioned.

The Blue Paladin's eyes widened, realizing they were clearly not on the same page. "Wait. Shiro... do you actually want to fight me?" he asked in an obviously frightened tone.

Shiro laughed. "Well, I'm certainly not going to fuck you."

Lance couldn't ignore the unsettling feeling in his chest as his leader said those anxiety-inducing words. "But, I... I don't want to fight!" he exclaimed, watching Shiro draw out his blade. 

"What are you suggesting?" his leader questioned in a warning tone, watching him squirm in place. The Blue Paladin was clearly contemplating on what to say, but he couldn't form any words. 

Don't say it, you idiot!

He doesn't want to hear it! 

Shiro cocked a brow, feeling impatient as his weapon was now pointing directly towards the Blue Paladin. "Well?"

"Please, Shiro," Lance begged, arms surrendering over his chest as the tip of the blade brushed against his palm. "Don't. I don't want to fight."

Backing away slowly from his leader, his hand tightening around the tang of his own blade, completely unwilling to use it against Shiro. He couldn't. Not when he was aware of his leader's capability to take him down so easily. He could certainly try, though, but he thought it was pointless. Shiro scoffed, but oddly wore a small smirk on his face. His unusual behavior was all too concerning for the Blue Paladin. "Come on, Lance," he began. "Let's put your training to the test."

But Lance looked troubled, pedaling back once again as Shiro slowly stepped forward. "I'm not going to fight you, Shiro," he stated. "I won't!"

The smirk on his leader's face suddenly faltered, staring at the boy's frightened but immune expression, which was pleading him to reconsider. Lance clearly wasn't going to quit, and it only pissed Shiro off. But Lance stayed still, watching the older Paladin come closer, slowly lowering his outstretched hand in front of him. However, the young Paladin couldn't exactly pinpoint the intention behind his leader's fervent stare. Whatever it was, though, Lance couldn't help but feel excited, and cautious, as Shiro walked into his personal space, hand tightening around the weapon next to his thigh. Then, Lance felt a hand cup his chin — Shiro's dark gray eyes never leaving his blue ones. "You're not a cadet anymore, Lance. You're a Paladin of Voltron, a defender of the universe. And as such, it is your job to protect the innocent," his leader explained, leaning in close to the boy's face. "Isn't that right? Don't you want to protect the ones you love?"

Lance simply nodded, feeling desperate and confused, although entranced by Shiro's thumb caressing his lips, which trembled slightly from the contact. "For someone with so much potential, your carelessness overwhelms it all. I just can't seem to get any peace and quiet with you around." The Black Paladin sighed subsequently, but in an eerily relieved kind of way that Lance didn't understand.

"You don't mean that," the younger Paladin retorted, voice shaking. "I know that I can be irritating at times, but Shiro, I'm more than that! You know that it's..."

"That's enough already!" Shiro interrupted, suddenly shoving Lance away, causing him to trip on his feet and fall on his back.

***

WIP #2: Sharpshooter

Lance experiences his very first blowjob with the Captain of the IGF-Atlas—Takashi Shirogane—also known as his longtime hero and crush ever since he enlisted in the Galaxy Garrison.

***

“Good morning, Cadet.”

Lance furrowed his brows in confusion, turning his head to see—Commander Iverson, and, oh, some things just never change.

“Good morning, Sir,” he cleared his throat, “but, with all due respect, it’s Lieutenant, now.”

Commander Iverson chuckled. “Indeed. How you’ve grown.”

Lance nodded. “Yes. I’d say so.”

A sudden tension filled the air.

”Sir?”

“I... um, I believe I owe you an apology.”

Lance pretended not to understand. After all, he’d hoped this moment would come. He knew that he’d prove himself eventually.

“What for, Sir?”

”For not seeing your greatness within.”

Now, that—that wasn’t what Lance was expecting to hear. Those exact words... he’d heard them before, but not like this. It was strange, to say the least. But nevertheless, it flattered him. And yet, he didn’t care. Commander Iverson never cared, and Lance was sure those words were meaningless.

But... it’s all in the past, now. Lance knew that he couldn’t please everybody. Although, having other people’s respect, especially from those who doubted him, was, admittedly, very satisfying. That was all he ever wanted—besides flying.

Lance broke the silence. “It’s fine, Sir. I know that my behavior in the past wasn’t the best, but, as you can see, I am pretty great now.“

Commander Iverson cleared his throat. “You are. Thank you for your service, Lance.”

The Lieutenant offered a smiled in response. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”

Despite your lack of faith.

“Anyway, what are my duties for today, Commander?”

”Oh, well, perhaps you can start by checking inventory.”

”Okay.”

“Actually, before you do that, Lieutenant McClain...”

“Yes?”

“Captain Shirogane wants to see you.”

***

He was stalling himself...

Lance wasn’t really sure why, but all he knew was that he was actually nervous to see his Captain. In fact, he was taking all the precious time in the world, with the intent of distracting himself by whatever means necessary.

And, truth be told, he felt absolutely ridiculous.

The Lieutenant hadn’t realized how tight his grip around the clipboard was. He was clutching it for dear life, but why?

Lance wandered around the building, uncertain of where he was going, passing by instructors and other commanding officers—until, he reached an empty corridor. It was slightly dim, and quiet. Good. He needed a moment to himself.

The Lieutenant sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. His mind was suddenly flooding with dreadful thoughts:

Why am I hiding? We’ve been dating for a few weeks now! But...

“God,” he muttered under his breath, resting his head back against the wall, “I’m so pathetic.”

And that’s when he realized, it had been a while since they’ve communicated, which was understandable, considering the fact that they’ve both been very busy with their own individual assignments. Lance missed him, of course. Lance rarely got to see the Captain during the day.

They didn’t always get to see each other everyday, but sometimes they were given the chance to share a few minutes of conversation with each other—mostly during lunch, and meetings, however.

But now, Shiro had asked to see Lance personally. And, despite what people may think of him, Lance wasn’t such a fool as certain people claimed. He’d noticed the expression on Shiro’s face the last few times they’ve interacted, and it sent shivers down his spine. Although, his Captain was very clever at covering it up with that polite and handsome smile. It was the look of lust. That was definitely the look Shiro giving him. Lance knew it because he’d been staring at him the same way.

Granted, again, they’ve only been dating for a few weeks, and their busy schedules gave them less time to communicate and spend time together, even when they were both free. But make no mistake, there was clearly tension between the two of them whenever they were in the same room, and Lance liked it, but he also feared it because of how powerful Shiro’s presence was whenever he entered the room. Everybody would stand immediately in respect, whether Shiro expected it or not. And Lance wasn’t surprised, but he didn’t know what to think. He loved his Captain’s intimating side, but at the same time, he feared it.

***

And... that’s all I’ve got, if it weren’t for my damn writer’s block!!! :’(

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading the progress of these fics because I honestly enjoyed writing them. I would have loved to finish them but I just can’t anymore... it sucks, I know, but that’s how it is! I love you all <333

[miss-rosie]

-The Klance Post-

-Disclaimer: this post is in no way intending to hate on any other ships, especially Allurance. It is simply me talking about my opinions on who will be the endgame couple. Everyone is free to ship whatever they want, I am not in any way saying that my ship is the only good one.-

So, this is it I guess. In a few hours, the final season of Voltron will drop and finally we will find out whether Klance will become canon or not. It’s been a crazy ride with this show, but honestly I couldn’t be more grateful. I have so many happy memories from this show and I’ve learned from and related so much to the characters, as well as met my best friend and so many wonderful people through the fandom. As you may know, Klance is kind of my life and I am very optimistic that they will become canon in the next few hours. However, even if they don’t, this ship has made me smile, and laugh, and cry, and I will never stop loving it regardless. 

I’ve been working on this post for almost 2 months now, and finally, a few hours before the last season drops, I’m finally posting it. This is basically just all the evidence I’ve compiled that makes me believe so strongly that Klance will be the canon endgame. I basically restored my own faith in Klance while writing this. So if you’re looking for some hope in these last moments, just keep reading... 

________________________________________________________________

Ok guys, to start off, I want to talk about this live stream done by Jeremy Shada. (the voice of Lance)

In the live stream, a fan asks Jeremy if he can elaborate on Lance’s endgame. Obviously, he can’t tell them the answer, or say too much at all, because that would spoil the ending of the show, but what he does say gives some solid evidence for why the endgame will be Klance. Allow me to break it down for you. 

The main thing I want to focus on is when he says that some people will think "oh this thing came out of nowhere!"

I think it's safe to say that most of the people who watch this show, but aren't really in the online fandom, would naturally assume that Allurance is the endgame. If you think about it, Lance has been flirting with Allura since the first episode, and they had that scene in season 7 where they blushed at each other which obviously would be seen as very romantically coded to anyone with eyes. Therefore, to most casual viewers, there wouldn’t really even be a question as to who the endgame couple will be, as Lance has only ever actually admitted out loud to liking Allura. So my point here is that Allurance isn’t really the a ship that would seem “out of nowhere” to most of the viewers. Even people who don’t ship Allurance, including myself, can see that so far the only explicitly proven romantic scenes have been with them. However, Jeremy clearly states that the romance endgame in the show will seem to come out of nowhere to some people. Well, of the only two endgames that seem to really be options at this point, Klance or Allurance, which one do you think would probably seem to come as a surprise to most casual viewers? The one where the boy has been pining after the girl since the first episode, and has spoken many times throughout the show about his crush on her. Or the rivals who couldn’t even speak to each other for the first season or two without getting into an argument? Yeah, that’s what I thought. 

I think we can all agree that most casual viewers would think Klance totally came out of nowhere, not Allurance. Since these people had never even considered the two of them could ever develop a strong loving relationship, they will likely have not realized that over the course of the show, Lance and Keith have in fact had the most developed relationship of all the characters. They go from rivals, to colleagues, to friends, to something so much more. They have gone through so much together and have grown and matured so much both individually, and in their relationship, that if those viewers had payed attention to the two of them and how the way they interact and view each other throughout the show continued to change and develop, they really wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them end up in a relationship. 

Another thing important thing Jeremy says in the live stream that is that "the creators put little things throughout the series in ways to kind of make it as a whole make sense.” 

By saying this, Jeremy continues to support the point I was making earlier, that if one were to simply pay attention to how the creators have developed Lance and Keith’s relationship in small ways from the very beginning, the endgame would easily make sense as a whole.  

There is so much foreshadowing, so many parallels, so many unnecessarily soft looks towards each other, to possibly ignore that Keith and Lance are written as a pair. Just as Hunk and Pidge are portrayed as the tech genius pals and Shiro and Allura as the strong selfless leaders, Lance and Keith are constantly portrayed as a set, although the exact definition of their relationship continues to change. If you were to watch the show over again and count every time Lance and Keith are standing right beside each other, that alone would be enough to prove that the two are clearly set up to have some sort of significant relationship, whatever that relationship may be. 

I could go on, but there just isn’t enough room in this post to have a picture of every time these two are together, and I think you get the point. 

Now enough about the livestream. There’s a lot more evidence still to get into. 

In a panel for the show, Josh Keaton (voice of Shiro) encouraged fans asking about the endgame relationship to be patient (true to character as always) as the endgame is set up as a slow-burn. 

Although Lance has flirted with Allura since episode one, Allurance is in no way a slow-burn relationship. A relationship requires effort from both sides. Their relationship has in no way developed at all until the end of season 6, when Allura finally begins to acknowledge Lance’s presence, although only viewing him as a friend, as she was in love with Lotor at the time. So, while Lance has been putting in the effort from the beginning, Allura has never once shown anything but annoyance or at best indifference towards his advances until after she is betrayed by Lotor in the second to last season. Then she suddenly develops a crush on him in the span of half a season. 

On the other hand, Klance is the perfect example of what a slow-burn relationship looks like. These two boys start out with a lot of tension, caused by Lance’s one-sided rivalry with Keith (one that he created out of jealousy that Keith was always “better than him” instead of actual hatred towards him). It takes them time, but slowly they begin to argue less and work together better as they spend more and more time together. After Shiro disappears and Keith is forced to take his place as the leader, Lance finally matures about their relationship and lets go of the “rivalry” he created with Keith as he steps up to become his right-hand man. It’s after the pressure to maintain this image of hating Keith is finally gone, and Lance allows himself to become openly friends with Keith, that the two quickly become very close. Lance becomes Keith’s support as he struggles to lead the team and deal with the loss of Shiro. Throughout the show, their relationship turns from barely-able-to-say-a-word-to-each-other-without-causing-an-argument to a solid relationship built off of mutual trust and genuine care for the other.

Of the two options, it is clear which one fits Josh’s description better. Klance is a slowburn, Allurance is not. Those are just the facts. 

Now I would like to get into more detail about some of the many parallels the creators put into the show that prove Klance will be the endgame couple. 

First off, there’s the scene where Krolia and Texas found the blue lion together which very similarly resembles the scene when Keith and Lance found her. 

Although the entire team was there when they found Blue, Keith and Lance are the only two that step up in front of her, just like Krolia and Texas did. (Yes, we are calling Keith’s dad Texas in this post, fight me)

There’s also the scene where Keith’s angry expression while Lance was injured perfectly mirrored Krolia’s when Texas was injured. 

In both cases, Keith and Krolia’s love interest was severely injured and they can do nothing but wait while they recover. They both stare to the side and brood with their arms crossed, as their way of dealing with the genuine concern they’re feeling.

^^

(he’s not wrong)

Then there’s the parallel where the creators lowkey made the scene when Texas meets Krolia almost identical to the scene where Keith meets Lance.

In both scenes, there is an explosion in which Krolia and Keith make their entrances, followed by their love interests Texas and Lance discovering them. 

Assuming that this parallel was not just some crazy accidental coincidence, what could possibly be the reason to mirror Lance and Keith’s meeting with Texas and Krolia’s if Lance and Keith were not eventually going to end up in a relationship just like the other couple? Solid math, I know. 

Then we have the parallel when Keith finds out that Krolia left earth so that he would be safe, just like Keith left the team so that Lance could keep his spot in the red lion. 

While Keith doesn’t explicitly say his reason for leaving the team, it’s clear that Lance questioning his place on the team is what made him decide to step aside. Both him and Krolia make a selfless decision to leave the one they love, in order to protect them. 

Then we have my personal favorite... this perfectly identical parallel between Keith/Lance and Allura/Lotor.

Both scenes start off with Lance and Allura having a special moment together, only to be interrupted by their respective love interests and then proceed to direct all their attention to that person. Allura’s face when Lotor calls her is exactly the same as Lance’s when Keith calls.  

Basically, throughout the show, there are many parallels comparing Lance and Keith to characters like Krolia/Texas and Allura/Lotor, both of whom are in (or previously were in) confirmed romantic relationships. 

In an interview, when asked about the significance of parallels in the show, (specifically the one where Texas/Krolia and Keith/Lance find the blue lion in similar ways) Jeremy Shada confirmed that those parallels are very much intentional. 

Here are some clips from his answer to the question. (The answer was very long so I only included the parts that have to do with the parallels and their importance. However none of these clips are taken out of context or edited to seem to mean different then the original answer. These are Jeremy’s exact words.) You can find the entire unedited answer here: 

“Anytime you can have parallels I think, as a viewer, um, there’s just that kind of… uh, unspoken kind of symbolism behind the scenes when it, when you know, there’s a parallel with an earlier scene too and it kind of has that emotional resonance and weight to it. ”

“And so I think those are always intentional. I don’t think, usually I don’t think those are coincidental because especially, if you’re writing something and you write it and you have seasons that are airing when they’re you know, farther through the show, um, you’re kind of going back and going, ‘oh yeah! we did that!’ ”

“And so I don’t think those are usually unintentional, I think those are usually pretty, um, pretty intentional when the team puts those in there.”

Basically, the creators continuously parallel Keith and Lance’s interactions with those of other couples, proving that in the future, the pair will likely become a couple too. 

Still not convinced? Don’t worry, I’m not nearly done yet.

In order to further continue, we first need to talk a little about Keith’s character arc. 

Each of the main character’s in Voltron have an individual arc. Keith’s is all about allowing himself to open up to people and get rid of his fear of loving people and being loved. 

Growing up, Keith was a kid who’s mom left him as a baby, and who’s dad died when he was fairly young. His tragic past had a serious effect on how he handles relationships when he’s older. Keith starts out in the beginning of the show as the “loner”. He is afraid of growing close to people and allowing them to see him vulnerable for fear that they’ll end up leaving, just like his mom did. So to avoid getting even more hurt, he keeps himself closed up, hidden behind so many walls, so that people won’t get close to him. He keeps his feelings locked inside instead of opening up and risking being rejected. 

Now, over the course of the show, Keith has grown and matured so much, and has really overcome this constant need to appear indifferent to people who care about him. An instrumental part of his arc is when he finally finds his mom, and spends those two years on the space whale with her. All that time, seeing each other’s memories, finally understanding why she left him, growing closer together, forming a bond. It’s in those two years that Keith finally realizes that it’s ok to let people love him and to love them back. 

Keith’s arc is about him finding 4 different kinds of love.

The first kind of love, is brotherly love. 

Shiro is the only person who Keith is visibly close to before going to space. He took Keith in when he was a just a problem child to everyone else, jumping from one foster home to the next, and never stopped encouraging him to make something of himself. Despite Shiro never once giving up on him his entire childhood, Keith still hesitates to express how much he cares about him because of his built in fear of rejection. 

In the episode in season 2, where Shiro and Keith meet with the Blade of Marmora for the first time, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him. Here, he already loves Shiro, but he’s hesitant to show too much of his emotions for fear that, even after everything Shiro has done to prove that he truly cares about Keith, he might still not feel the same way. 

Compare that scene, to the one where Keith finally says “I love you” for the first time. This is after he’s come to peace with his mom, and with himself, and learned how to let people into his life. The hesitation is gone. Shiro is no longer like a brother to him. He is his brother. 

In this scene we really see how much Keith has grown in the show, as he finally lets himself be vulnerable and say how he feels now that he’s dealt with the trauma caused by his mother leaving. 

Which brings us to the next kind of love Keith will find in the show, motherly love. 

After his entire life of questioning who his mother was and why she left him, Keith finally understands that she did it to protect him and can begin to heal from all the hurt it caused him. In their two years together in the quantum abyss, Keith develops a strong bond with his mom and comes out much more confident because he knows now that she loves him, and he’s finally allowing himself to love her back. 

The third kind of love Keith will find, is the love of a friend. 

Since the beginning of the show, Keith always closed himself off from the rest of the paladins. He would usually stand in the corner when they were having fun together and stay to himself. He never felt like he could fit in and he was always afraid of getting to close to them, again, because he had this huge fear of being rejected. In season 7, when the paladins are lost in space without their lions, they all start to talk very honestly about their feelings and can’t seem to hold back anything they’re thinking, even if it’s hurtful. (almost like they’re drunk, in a way) When Hunk tries to keep him from leaving, Keith snaps and once again falls back into his habit of distancing himself from the people who care about him. When he’s not in a right state of mind, Keith’s insecurity about whether or not the paladins are his friends comes out. 

However, later in the season, when Hunk is struggling with not knowing where his family is, Keith is the one to step up to comfort him, something he never would have had the confidence to do before, because he has learned that Hunk and the rest of the paladins really do care for him as their friend, not just their fellow soldier or leader. 

Finally, Keith realizes that it’s better to let people in, and he is finally able to be a real friend to Hunk and experience the love of friendship. 

Now the final kind of love Keith will experience is the only one that hasn’t had it’s conclusion yet. That is romantic love. Obviously, the only person this could happen with is Lance as Keith has never shown any interest in anyone else. Everything that’s happened to Keith up until this point in his personal journey has been building up to this. Finally allowing himself to be in love with Lance will be the final piece of Keith’s character arc. 

The creators have confirmed that when the same facial expression is used more than once for a certain character, it's because they were intentionally making a connection between the scenes and the emotions that character is feeling. When Keith is talking to someone he deeply cares about, he makes a certain face. He makes it with each of the three people I talked about in regard to his character arc, and also one other time. That time is when he is talking to Lance.

Keith’s talking to Shiro (his brother): 

Keith talking to Krolia (his mother):

Keith talking to Hunk (his friend):

Then there’s Keith talking to Lance (his love interest): 

Still need more proof? Say no more, I got you. 

There is one episode in season 7 that is just packed full of Klance content: The Feud. This also so happens to be an episode which the creators say has a ton of foreshadowing. Everything in this episode just screams KICK. 

Seriously, we can’t even get past the title of the game show without some serious evidence. 

Let’s take a look at the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick. 

Obviously, it’s not written in English, but that is the least important detail. What is worthy of noting is that this logo is an exact copy of the logo for the 1970′s show, The Dating Game, a game show in which couples had to choose their date based off questions they were asked. Take a look. 

Identical right? Although the letters for Garfle Warfle Snick are not written in Engish, the symbols appear to be written in the same font. Then, we also have the way the words fit together, which is perfectly identical. Not to mention, the little flower shapes which were basically copy/pasted from The Dating Game’s logo. 

Now it is important to realize that in animation, every detail is intentional, as it has to be drawn into the scene by the animators. These two logos are so similar, that there is no possible way the creators didn’t purposely make the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick so similar to the logo of The Dating Game. Therefore, there must have been a deliberate reason for the similarity. 

So, remember how I said in The Dating Game couples would have to choose someone to be their date? Yeah, well if we look back to The Feud, who were the only two of the paladins to choose each other to get to leave Garfle Warfle Snick? That’s right. Keith and Lance. 

Now it honestly was a bit of a surprise when Lance chose Keith to leave out of all the paladins. Given his past with making advances towards Allura in order to gain her affection, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Lance to prove to just how serious he was about liking her by giving her his vote. But he didn’t choose Allura. He chose Keith. What does that tell you about how important Keith is to Lance?

Really though, there’s honestly no need to even speculate about Lance’s intentions when he made his choice. His soft, love-sick, face says it all. 

That fucking eyebrow crinkle. That is the face of a man in love. 

Also.. Lance calls Keith “the future”. Despite being just downright romantic as fuck, this is also a nod to this scene from way back in season 2. 

Look at that. Lance started out the show looking for his future Mrs. Blue Lion in any single cute girl he could find in space. Now, 5 seasons later, he finally realizes that Keith has been his future the entire time. 

It’s called, character development. 

And this is not even the first time we’ve seen Lance with that same exact love-sick look while talking about Keith. He makes the same face when gushing about how cool Keith is to Laika.  

Now, while Lance’s reason for choosing Keith has us all in our feels, Keith’s response when he was asked by Bob why he chose Lance was not so romantic, and has a lot of people upset, calling Keith an asshole for being so rude to Lance.

Ok, so I know Keith’s response sounded very rude, but if you think about it for a second, his logic really doesn’t make any sense. Keith knows how important team Voltron is to the universe. If only one of them can get out to continue the mission, Keith knows the weight that decision holds. I find it hard to believe that he would really waste his vote for the sole purpose of getting rid of someone annoying so he could spend the rest of eternity in peace.

Keith spent two years on the space whale in the Quantum Abyss seeing probably hundreds of visions of the past and future. It’s possible that in one of those visions Keith saw Allura and Lance during one of their bonding moments and assumed that she finally started to reciprocate his feelings and that they were together. Seeing Lance choose someone else probably hurt him a lot and because Keith’s instinct when he’s hurt by someone is to retract into himself instead of talking to them about it to keep himself from being hurt anymore, he pushes Lance away. This would explain why, after all the time that Keith had been gone from the team, despite him and Lance having become friends before he left, he totally blew Lance off when he got back. He’s doing what he’s always done. He’s “pushing people away before they reject him”. Instead of allowing himself to keep having the feelings he has for Lance, he completely closes himself up to try and keep his heart from getting broken. He tries to push Lance away and act like he doesn’t care.

What he says about not wanting to spend an eternity with Lance is completely fake. Keith is just pretending he doesn’t have feelings for him because that would leave him vulnerable to be rejected.

Remember, Keith doesn’t get emotional when he’s hurting, his first instinct is to get angry and immediately put up all his walls. Take a look at his body language. He has his arms tightly crossed and he looks very angry. It reminds me a lot of when he went to talk to Hunk.

He’s trying to help Hunk but he’s afraid of opening up too much and possibly getting rejected.  

Keith uses this body language when he is holding himself back from showing his emotions. He doesn’t actually hate Lance, he’s just trying to act like he doesn’t care as much as he does.

He can’t even bring himself to make eye contact with Lance, probably because he knows his facade would crumble the second he did. His anger is directed more towards Bob for putting him in this situation in the first place.

In the end, we can’t take what Keith said to mean that he doesn’t love Lance anymore. He’s just trying to cope with the fact that Lance and Allura are supposedly together in the only way he knows how.

*Also side note, can we all take a moment to appreciate Pidge’s face when this is all going down. Poor thing is so goddamn confused.

Has nothing to do with Klance, but I just love this precious child so much...

Anyway, back to the point... Amazingly, there is still more Klance evidence The Feud has to offer.

When Bob tells Lance that his team is starting to lose faith in him, his excuse for why he is failing at the game is that he’s “just not real good with names”.

While that is an understandable excuse, it brings up a question from way back in season 1. Lets go back to the scene where Keith breaks in to save Shiro in the first episode. Remember how Lance was the first one to immediately recognize Keith, without even being able to see his face?

He instantly knows who he is just by looking at his hair. For someone who’s “not good with names”, that’s pretty unusual I would say. As we know that Lance is not the type to remember the names of people who do not hold some sort of significance to him, Keith must have been pretty important to Lance, seeing as he was able to identify Keith from only his mullet, at such a distance.

(Not saying that young garrison Lance would spend entire classes staring at Keith’s hair from behind, attempting to convince himself that his gay crush was in fact just very intense feelings of hate, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.)

Also, notice how Pidge seems to have no idea who Keith is.

However, as soon as Lance says the name, Hunk immediately reacts, probably because in his time at the Garrison, he’s been on the receiving end of many angry rants about the guy’s “stupid mullet” from a very jealous and flustered Lance.

With this information, I think it’s reasonable to to believe that Lance’s obsession with Keith (whether or not he understood his feelings at the time) began way back before the show even started when the two were still at the garrison together.

Now... another thing I want to mention is the famous “You are deserving of respect” picture drawn by producer, Lauren Montgomery. 

Now yes, this poster could really not mean anything and could have just been a sweet message where the paladins were chosen at random to hold up their signs. However, notice how both Hunk and Keith, and Pidge and Allura have had small arcs dedicated to the topic of the signs they are holding. 

In season 1, Allura talks to Pidge about her gender, and how she was pretending to be a boy. 

In season 2, Hunk talks to Keith about him being galra. 

Both those two pairs had the words on their signs translate into real plots in the show. 

Seeing that signs for "gender" and "race" turned out to have a direct connection to the canon storyline, with the people holding them, it's only logical that Shiro and Lance will have their own miniature arc based of the "lgbt" sign. We already know that Shiro is gay, as well as being Lance’s “hero. Therefore, it's very possible that lance will go to him for advice on his feelings for Keith, and Shiro will help him as he has experienced the same thing. 

Another thing I want to touch on is the “relationship” between Keith and Acxa. For those who are concerned about Acxa becoming a romantic interest for Keith, allow me to ease your mind. 

While it is white possible that the reason Zethrid and Ezor continuously tease Acxa about liking Keith is that Acxa may actually have feelings for Keith, is is also very likely that Zethrid and Ezor were simply messing with her to throw her off and distract her from the battle. However, regardless of Acxa’s feelings for Keith, I can assure you, Keith does not have feelings for her. 

Keith is very gay. This boy has never shown any romantic interest in any women in the entire show. 

Just look at his reaction to just the idea of being in a relationship with a woman. 

The poor guy just wants to fight like normal people without having to be shipped with the girl he’s trying to save out of common decency. 

Then there’s the scene where Keith catches Allura sneaking into the pod, and she falls into his arms. Allura immediately gets flustered and blushes uncomfortably. However, Keith doesn’t even flinch and seems totally indifferent to the fact that he’s carrying the princess in his arms. 

*Quick reminder that the last time he carried someone in his arms (Lance) he made it a very big deal. 

But to the point, Keith’s reaction to catching the princess in his arms is not the reaction a guy who likes girls would have. 

Not to mention the time he low-key checked out the hot alien dude who’s crashed ship they were fixing. 

Have I made my point? This boy is not straight. 

If that’s not enough evidence, Bex Taylor-Claus (voice of Pidge) themself confirmed in a livestream that Keith and Acxa are not going to be a couple, refering to them as “kindred spirits”. 

So fear not, Keith is still very gay and is most certainly not in love with Acxa. 

This scene is most likely just Acxa either wanting to thank Keith for saving her life (like a decent person, or alien I guess) or possibly she is related to him or Krolia in some way, and that will be touched on in season 8. Either way it has been confirmed that Kacxa will not be a thing, so there’s no need to stress about it.

Now, there’s one more thing I want to talk about before wrapping this up, and that is the infamous “stay safe out there” scene that basically confirmed Allurance...right?

Lmao you really underestimated me if you thought I wouldn’t find a way to bring Klance into the most Allurance themed scene in the entire show. 

Notice Lance's reaction when Veronica mentions the princess liking him. He doesn't get excited or cocky about it like he normally would have at hearing that kind of news. In fact, he actually denies that Allura even has feelings for him, saying that she just cares about everyone. That really doesn't seem like the reaction Lance would have to finding out Allura likes him earlier in the show. Last time someone told lance Allura liked him back, he had a very different reaction.

If we already know that Lance is never shy when it comes to the princess, why is his reaction to different in season 7? He constantly acted like the princess liked him even when she clearly didn't. Why would he act like she doesn’t when she clearly does if there wasn't something inside him that changed? Maybe he's not so certain about his feelings for Allura anymore huh? 

This is just reminding you not to lose hope just because of this one scene. One scene against an entire show of built up evidence, is not the end of the world, or in this case, the end of Klance.

My prediction is that in season 8, Allura will be very open about liking Lance, and he will try to go with it at first, but as we started to see in that scene, there will be something off for him and he will realize that he has moved on and loves Keith.

Now, it’s about 3 hours until the final season drops, and I have to post this now or never. Just remember, Klance has a serious chance guys, but even if it doesn’t become canon, everyone be kind and remember that it’s ok to not have everything go just how we wanted it to go. There’s no need to hate on Allurance if it becomes canon. Klance will always live on in our art, our writing, the friendships we’ve made because of them, and in our hearts. (I know, cheesy as fuck, but Voltron is almost over and I’m emotional) 

It’s been an honor flying with you all. And one last time...

KICK 

[as-many-times-as-it-takes]

Not looking for reassurance about canonical Sheith, I just need to vent. I heard you were offering hugs, would it be okay to ask for one, please? I let myself get too damn invested in canonical Sheith and I'm such a freaking mess right now & not in the good way. I really am way beyond old enough to know better, and I'm gay to boot. Again, I should know better! I love Sheith so much & always will, whatever happens in canon. Thank you for letting me vent, you're truly a kind person.

Hey there @mereneith !

You absolutely can have a hug from the craziness of this season. And I know you aren’t specifically looking for reassurance or anything, but I did want to add something to your comments.

There is no such thing as way beyond old enough to know better.

This is a long (very optimistic though!) personal discussion. Feel free to skip it if you just want hugs. Otherwise, read on.

Once upon a time I thought that as I grew older I would be expected to outgrow things and to set aside “childish interests and hopes” blah blah and I would magically transform into an adult and live an adult life.

Well fuck that.

I am a trans gay man, pushing just past his thirties and you know what? Voltron has changed my life. 

You see, we fall in love with characters because we find aspects in them that are important to us. It may be because we see ourselves in them, or find them very relatable. Or perhaps they represent something we’d like to see in our friends or lovers. Aspects that remind us fondly of our friends and family, or perhaps even aspects that remind us of our flaws. But this attachment isn’t childish or silly. It’s actually very healthy and important. As most people know, it’s often very difficult to learn a tough lesson on your own. But if you were to watch a person go through a similar issue who you feel strongly about, you will find that tangential learning can actually teach you a whole lot much faster.

Children are growing up today seeing their hero Shiro as a really awesome, strong man who also happens to be gay, deals with bad stress/PTSD, and has been disabled. How many of them will grow to not only accept these things, but grow and learn from them? So why should this be any different with adults?

I openly admit that I associate very strongly with Keith. I’ve been the outcast, I’ve struggled fitting in and lashing out. I’ve been left behind and felt abandoned again and again to the point that it was easier to push people away ahead of time than it would be to ever try to open up. All the knowledge in the world on fencing, dog sledding, falconry (rehab), archery, swordplay, target shooting, etc etc and all my talents at it still didn’t fix the fact that I was socially inept and hated the world around me. But then I also know the value then, of finding a Shiro in your life. Someone who took that time to push past your thorns and offer you unconditional support and affection. It’s why Sheith resonated with me instantly and why they became so important to me.

So watching the show was instantly a pleasure. I didn’t think it’d ever be a thing to begin with, but I was still content to dream. And when I found a very loving fandom behind it, I actually felt a lot of peace seeing other people who also felt like this. There are a great many people in the world right now who ship Sheith because it is an expression of mutual love, compassion, support, admiration, and dedication. Everyone has their own unique love and perspective on why Shiro and Keith are important to them, but we also share a common passion.

When I first started this blog in Season 3, I had been many years away from my previous blogging experience. Depression, life, and all sorts of stuff had gotten in the way and I’d sort of drifted away from something that had been a great passion of mine. So I thought I’d be brave and start up a blog here.

And it grew, and I made a few friends and had a good time until depression and life got me down again and I disappeared for about a year or so until Season 6. When I returned, I thought for sure I would never keep up with the main blogs or all the truly awesome artists out there. But you know what? I had changed, and I had grown and the fandom welcomed me back with open arms.

Sheith inspired me to draw again. My “You Found Me” piece was not only one of the first digital pieces I’d done in over 6 months, it was also a big leap in what sorts of things I could draw. And I’ve kept pumping out art slowly but surely and each time I do, I’ve learned just a little bit more and been all that much more proud. I started writing again too! Who cares if it’s fanfiction? Why would that make it any less valid or satisfying? I also was a braver man and I started reaching out to people that I saw in the fandom who I wanted to get to know.

And I have completely changed my life. I have made some of the most wonderful friends now. I am still getting to know many of them, but I already am just so happy to have more people to talk to, celebrate with and get to know. I’m part of multiple discord servers, multiple art projects and I have seen an amazing amount of support for my writing! I’ve had my writing translated into other languages, I’ve been called someone’s hero, I see asks and prompts in my inbox of people who want to talk to me and hear my opinion.

Sheith isn’t just important to me, it’s changed my life. The characters have spoke to me on a personal level and I still learn from, yes, a cartoon show. It’s made me think more critically and become more introspective. It’s allowed me to express myself better and find common ground with more people. And with the amount of amazing support from the staff and Voltron in general, Shiro and Keith’s relationship and their characters in general have validated a lot of my life, my orientation, I could go on and on.

I haven’t really said it aloud all at once, but these are all true. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about these things or we’ve been told it’s “childish” or “foolish.” I laugh and weep over Sheith because I am also invested and I want it to come true and I’m not ashamed of it. I am a total gay disaster and have spent days greeting my BFF with “OMG SHIRO IS GAY HOLY SHIT!!!” for days on end after the announcement. I have fussed and wept because I worried it might not happen. Yeah, I feel silly sometimes too. I regard myself as a very logical individual in a very logical profession. But I am also a creature of passion, instinct, and emotion. I want to be the voice for others who are too nervous to speak, who are still not ready yet, or just need to hear it from someone else. I want to be the one to help tell people it’s okay to fall in love with characters and feel strongly about them and learn from them.

I will always love Sheith no matter what. It’s changed my life and made me a better person. And I will endlessly be thankful to the entire Voltron crew for everything they’ve done for us.

But I also have faith and I want to hand out hugs and tell people to keep their chins up.

Remember, 

Patience Yields Focus

Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t feel bad about being invested or taking joy in something. Instead, celebrate it and embrace it. Turn it into a positive force that enriches the people around you. I think Shiro put it best:

Go, be great.

[seliipi]

Lmao I was gonna make another overly optimistic Keith-centric bingo for s8 but I can’t think of enough things to fill it that weren’t answered by the beauty of s6. Obviously I want a happy ending for Keith and Shiro, especially if they’re able to make it an open-ended sheith ending, but that’s shipper me who fell in love with devotion and support talking.

ANYWAY, S8 THEORIES/PREDICTIONS + HOPES AND DREAMS

-Honerva’s motivations, the Alteans, and Allura. It was love of a tragic kind that jump-started this whole war. Is she trying to rewrite the past so Voltron was never a thing and her husband and son would still be alive? Had the comet never struck Daibazaal, she wouldn’t have met and fallen in love with Zarkon. But it’s also the overexposure to quintessence and her desire for knowledge that led the rift creatures to invade and necessitating Voltron being built. In the trailers it doesn’t seem like she regrets what she’s done. Rather, it seems she’s still going down the same path now that she has nothing left to lose. She’s more aware of herself now as Honerva rather than Haggar, and is essentially the empress of all Alteans and Galrans, but is she still under the influence of the Rift? “You cannot stop what is coming.” What is she planning? Is she actually trying to save the universe in her own dark way by sacrificing many to stop a larger threat? I can’t see her just trying to end the universe for the heck of it. Since the Alteans see her as their empress, how will that impact Allura as the princess of Altea? They are her people, but they only know Honerva. Why trust some unknown princess who killed their ~savior~ Lotor? If Honerva dies will the Alteans look to Allura to lead them? Would Allura even want to lead them now that she has essentially ‘set aside her crown’ to save a friend? I guess they could always make a New Altea country on Earth somehow. Will there be any redemption for Honerva? Maybe by reuniting with Zarkon in the afterlife? Or is she as irredeemable as Lotor? (Maybe they’ll both be redeemed in their own way.) Honestly I have no idea how they’re gonna stop Honerva even though I know they will somehow. -Self-sacrificing natures, Keith, and Allura. Lol I have no doubt that if Keith dies they’ll be able to save him somehow thanks to protagonist armor, but I still fear for the boy. I’m worried Honerva might target him for getting in the way of her plans (saving Shiro, revealing Lotor’s secrets, stalling Naxzela) either by eliminating him outright or kidnapping him to make use of any latent abilities with quintessence he has. KEITH UNKNOWINGLY INITIATES THIRD IMPACT WHILE UNDER ONE OF HONERVA’S SPELLS As for Allura, honestly I can see her ascending to a higher existence as the Lion Goddess much as that would hurt. I’d like to see her and Lance create a new future together. [The Lion Goddess] was a mere legend to the Arusians, but there may be a grain of truth to that... The Lions created themselves after all, and not even Alfor knew what they were capable of.  In the trailer, Allura mentioned saving all of existence. She healed an entire Balmera nearly at the cost of her life, she was able to transfer a soul, and essentially built the Sincline with Lotor’s input. Allura is amazing, kind and a powerful alchemist in her own right. Maybe there’s a universal decline in quintessence that is destabilizing time and space? Zarkon’s empire did suck up a huge ton of quintessence over the years to use for their war. That’d make sense.  I’m guessing the remaining Balmeras will create a massive crystal the size of the Daibazaal comet and Allura will use that crystal to close all rifts in every reality so that something something stability will occur at the cost of her life? She’ll become one with the White Lion and ascend as the Lion Goddess to watch over the universe. Lance will be forever protected by a goddess a la Madoka. Maybe if the Alteans/Honerva come to their senses, they’ll help ease the pressure off of her so Allura will survive the process........ Idk. I’m just hoping for a bookend Allurance scene where Allura falls out of a pod and into Lance’s arms, her first word being Lance’s name. That’d be some cute shit. -Honerva and the past. Oh man I am so excited to see more of Honerva’s memories!!!!!!!!!!! It’d be cool if the younger Sendak was like Zarkon’s light-hearted loyal retainer before he became the Emperor. Maybe they grew apart once Zarkon started doing hero activities with the original paladins and after Zarkon’s zombiefication he sought him out to save him before getting corrupted by quintessence himself /fanfic I wanna see Lotor growing up! More Dayak would be cute. I wonder if we’ll see any more emotions from Honerva while she remembers... Will she send out Lost Cat flyers to find Kova lmao. Plus, more original Paladins! If they come back to help the new Paladins in spirit...? Oh man.......that’d be so cool. Zarkon shows up in Black, purified, asking Keith to save his wife... Alfor in Red, meeting Lance, his future son-in-law, and helping him rescue his daughter while she’s saving the universe with her magic? Allura seeing the two most important men in her life when she thought she’d never see them again? Fuck yeah. Mmm other three original paladins showing up won’t have as much emotional investment but still. -Lotor’s generals. Are Ezor and Zethrid dead? Likely. Their pirate crew was pretty funny though.  I’d like to think they survived and are on the down-low somewhere. I wonder when they and Acxa split up and why. I doubt we’ll learn how they all met, but I really want to know how Lotor befriended them all. Give me that backstory!!! Like, before he went all ‘destroy all Galra’ it really felt like he was fond of them........ Then of course Narti happened thanks mom . Acxa was his most loyal supporter and I want to find out more about their relationship. Was it similar to the way Shiro befriended Keith? He accepted her for who she was? Maybe. I don’t believe they’re going for a relationship between Keith and Acxa as s7 led people to think. Ngl, the graveyard scene did make me go ??? though. I low-key think they’d make very cute babies, but my heart ships sheith too much. Those two are similar in their mannerisms, loyalty, and sense of honor. A couple seasons back I even thought she was this reality’s version of Keith and Keith was someone from an alternate reality brought into this one but lmao nope. I think I’m right in saying that Lotor is what Keith could’ve become had he not met Shiro. Those two are foils. Half-Galran, isolated, a rough childhood, difficulty trusting others, strong leaders in their own right. Acxa likely admired Lotor and believed in his ideals. She wanted to see the future Lotor envisioned come to life, likely because Lotor and the Generals only had each other. But, somewhere along the way, Lotor stopped being who she thought he was. It’s now Keith who embodies her ideals for a peaceful future. Perhaps she initially wants to fight by his side as like, a bodyguard or something. I can see them having a mutual understanding of each other. Maybe she’ll try to convince him to become an emperor candidate at the next Kral Zera but Keith declines. .........ACTUALLY MAYBE HE ACCEPTS, BUT WHILE FIGHTING AT THE KRAL ZERA IT’S HONERVA WHO LIGHTS THE FIRE AND BECOMES EMPRESS INSTEAD-- Maybe. I see her as like...someone similar to Keith. Both loyal to one man until circumstances changed and they had to reevaluate themselves and what’s important to them. Keith remained steadfastly loyal to Shiro, healed his emotional wounds thanks to the two years with his mom, and emerged as a strong and effective leader. Acxa I feel, has been inspired by Keith but still needs to find her feet. She’d be a great Blade operative and may even quickly rise in the ranks. I could also see her working in the field as an intelligence agent. Whatever the case, she’s cool and I hope she finds her place in the universe. If the posters are anything to go by, I hope she finds a new friend in Veronica. -Quintessence-sensitive Keith. Yo. I am so invested in this theory. I’ll make more guesses in a later post though. -Shiro and Keith. Alright, I’m gonna tinhat. Dreamworks would never allow a straight-up kiss between two men, but an implied one would be amazing. Krolia knows, as does Allura. Hell, even Kolivan knows how close they are (‘quit fucking ruining the mission for your boyfriend Keith’ ‘Excuse me I have done no such thing’). The two of them wearing rings in the background somewhere? I would die happy. Zaggar’s parallels with Sheith... “A love that started the war and the love that ends it” would be...amazing. There’s so many things I’d like to see.......   -the two of them fighting back to back   -another hug, another shoulder touch   -Keith thrown into the past to meet a younger hospitalized Shiro and encouraging him to follow his dreams   -Shiro rushing out of the Atlas to cradle Keith’s still body   -Shiro bringing Keith back to life with his tears (lmao)   -an ending where they race in the desert at sunset like old times   -Keith and Shiro move into the shack together   -the two of them holding hands.....   -Shiro bringing Keith’s left hand to his lips and kissing him where a wedding ring would go and whispering “I love you too”    God, just. Open-ended Sheith. Lemme dream.

[flavourlessfiction]

Nothing Like Last Time

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Pairing: Shance

Characters: Lance, Shiro

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16073471

Prompt Fill: Pride

Summary: Following the Kral Zera Lance attempts to find out just what Shiro's problem with him is.

He might have acted like Allura’s words were more uplifting than he had made out. The encouragement that he was more like Alfor than he knew and that he was an important member of the team. He knew he was an important member of the team, it didn’t always feel that way but he’d figured it out, what wasn’t important was his voice.

Shiro had made that clear.

He’d seen that Shiro had a short fuse at times, Slav brought that out of him several times. What he hadn’t thought was he’d be a victim of the anger that came from that short fuse.

Dealing with Lotor hadn’t been his call but every one of them had a right to an opinion, this was a team, not a dictatorship and if there was a team coach it wasn’t Shiro, it was Allura or Coran. They all had their doubts about helping, Pidge was the only one that had a real motivation to agree to the trade. Shiro on the other hand, a victim of Zarkon’s cruelty was willing to give their leverage over for Sam Holt.

Once again it had worked in their favour, barely. Then there was the Kral Zera, why had Shiro been so determined? Why had he snapped at him for siding with Allura, everyone else seemed to but they just hadn’t been yelled at about it.

If Shiro had a problem with him then he couldn’t help but be on edge about his place, that if Keith came back he wouldn’t just be thrown out like he didn’t matter. He was not just a seventh wheel.

This wouldn’t be like last time.

He’d still hopefully get the last word in but Shiro would know how he felt. Shiro would know that he wasn’t going to take this lying down. Lance was determined to openly seek him out, demand a few answers that wouldn’t fix this unmistakeable tension between them but would at least find some sort of common ground, a mutual understand of where the both of them stood.

So he planted himself in Shiro’s room early in the evening, leaving no chance of a mistaken run in and being scared out of saying his piece. The question was when would Shiro decide it was the right time to sleep? He was always the first of them up, as far as Lance had noticed but that didn’t mean he would be the first to retire. It could be hours before Shiro decided to sleep and he’d still be waiting there, ready to make a point.

The room was as bare as Keith’s, lacked any personality, although his wasn’t much better aside from the gaming set up. It was the greatest contrast to Pidge’s bedroom by far, the mess in her room was reflective of the fact that she hadn’t been in a military environment for as long of any of them. This was so bare and sitting in it almost made him uneasy, as though he was in the wrong room, even though he knew quite well that this was Shiro’s room.

Just being sat there was so nerve wracking, he could get kicked out immediately or even get yelled at again, perhaps even worse. People generally minimised their explosions around other people. In private with no one to seem who knew what would happen.

Was making Shiro admit he was wrong worth the risk? Surely it had to be.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. It was a slow rhythm, nothing that sounded like a song, just a distraction from his thoughts. Keep himself as relaxed as possible, but still serious. There was no time for nerves right now.

The door slid open and shut within seconds, Lance practically standing at attention when Shiro laid eyes on him. He felt so insecure, even though he’d gone in with such a strong mindset. “How did you get in here?” It wasn’t cold or accusatory, there was an almost amused curiosity to it even though he was sure Shiro would quickly turn against him.

“I just walked in, I didn’t realise you’d attempted to keep people out of here.” It was a truthful response, but not the best one. “I wanted to talk.”

“You always have something to say don’t you?” It was still gentle, teasing, even though Lance was making an attempt to brace himself for a fight. He didn’t want it to turn into one but he wasn’t going to pretend that it wasn’t going to go that way.

Lance shifts his feet, letting himself lean against the wall, when they first became members of Voltron he never would have had the courage to act so casual, nor would he have ever confronted Shiro once let alone for a second time. “The discussion about the Kral Zera… the first one when you yelled at me-”

“I apologised for that.” The way he said apologised was the snap, Lance hearing it without even having to take a look at Shiro, he’d hit a sore spot. He wasn’t entirely sure why but it was definitely something that they needed to talk through.

“That didn’t make it okay, I looked up to you for years and just when I thought my opinions were as valuable as every other person you targeted me for having the same view as everyone else.” He wanted to say so much more than just that.

He met Shiro’s hard stare, feeling as his own expression softened, made him look weaker for just a moment.  The last thing he wanted was to look weak in Shiro’s eyes. The weaker he was perceived to be the more likely Shiro would be able to just brush off his feelings like none of this actually mattered. “I’m not apologising for doing what needed to be done. Everything went our way.”

“Because you got lucky, what if Haggar had prepared som-” He fell silent when Shiro put a hand up, he had probably heard these words from Allura already, she certainly hadn’t been happy at Shiro’s decision to ignore her. “What am I doing that’s so wrong? Because everyone else agreed but you only got pissed off with me.”

“You’re the one that’s supposed to stand by me!” Shiro snapped, Lance pressing his lips into a line, he wasn’t going to act like this was okay, that Shiro’s short temper was something he was going to ignore and move on from.

“I’m not Keith, I’m not going to dive in to protect you without question.” He said softly, looking to the ground, wasn’t Keith a sore spot for all of them? He’d been the leader that had simply up and left the team, forcing Shiro back into a role he didn’t want and leaving Lance questioning his role once again. “I’m also one of the few people that’s never attempted to leave this team or disappeared for months at a time, even though I’d willingly step down if it was in the best interests of everyone. Are you so proud because the right hand you don’t even want or like doesn’t side with you that you need to make an example of me? I’m not going to stand by you just because I should.”

“Are you done?”

That stung, Lance tempted to just push past Shiro and leave, wait until another thing came up, because it seemed like there was always going to be something to come up. “What did I do to you?”

Shiro seemed to only get more annoyed with him every time he opened his mouth, shifting between the snapping when he said too much and the quiet anger, the harsh words that made him want to give up entirely. “You’re just like him, injecting an opinion when all I want is some sort of support. Do you have any idea what it’s like for the person you’re supposed to trust the most turn against you?” Shiro took small steps towards him, he wasn’t  in striking range yet, although he can’t imagine what he could say that could get Shiro to that point.

“I didn’t turn against you.”

“Get out.”

Lance blinked, standing stiff, not knowing if he should listen or not. He came to the quick conclusion to stick to his gut and choose the latter. “I’m not your enemy.” He finds his voice to be too quiet, like a timid child rather than someone that is supposed to be sticking up for themselves. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a spine or because he was scared, Lance just didn’t know how he was supposed to react when Shiro was nothing but hostile with him when he was trying to be more mature.

“I said get out.”

He stepped closer, definitely in striking distance now. “No.”

“You think not walking out makes you anything less like Adam? You still stabbed me in the back when I needed you of all people to be the one backing me up.”

Adam… There was plenty of talk that they’d been together before the Kerberos mission but he’d never heard any sort of confirmation. “Why, I’m the worst member on this team, you clearly think that?”

“You called yourself the seventh wheel, not me.”

“You didn’t disagree.”

“Was that what you wanted, another boost to your ego?”

“Don’t make this a stupid pride thing.”

“You’re the one that made it about pride!” Lance visibly flinched as the other yelled, trapped against the wall with no real way to run now, if Shiro tried a third time to get him out he would scurry to the door with his tail between his legs at this point.

“Because you claim I’m disrespectful and a backstabber, if you hate me so much then try and force Keith to come back and push me out. You never used to be like this, I thought you considered us to be friends before you disappeared.” He’s amazed he can still sound composed when a part of him just wants to cry.

Shiro must see that because there’s a hesitation, he doesn’t quickly fire back like he has been, perhaps Lance had finally struck the right nerve. “I don’t hate you. I just saw a moment in my past that hit the wrong nerve and unleashed it and you bringing it up again made it worse.” The tone used isn’t the most comforting but it isn’t a cold or robotic response so Lance is relieved the other isn’t being entirely fake with him.

Why did it feel like flipping a switch, Lance could have sworn he was going to get whiplash with all these different personalities Shiro seemed to be giving off. “Then tell me that. I don’t want to be a doormat or punching bag just because I remind you of Adam.” He wanted to ask why, but it wasn’t the right time, it was just going to make this more uncomfortable and possibly start another argument.

“I’m not asking for blind trust, just some back up.” If that would make things easier for them all then Lance would swallow the bitter pill that was Shiro’s unpredictable behaviour of late and do just that.

He nodded slowly, a hand resting itself on Shiro’s shoulder. He wasn’t about to push boundaries and force the other into a hug but a reassuring touch could go a long way. “I still don’t understand but I think this is a better place than we were earlier.” He uttered, shifting under the weight of Shiro’s hands that had taken his hips.

Not pulling him any closer but not pushing him away either. As though Shiro was trying to figure out if he should cross a line or not. “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve to have me putting pain that should be long gone in you. It’s not right.”

“Thank you...” Before Lance has the chance to say anything else he’s pulled into a hug, his own arms quickly flying around Shiro’s neck, keeping himself from just awkwardly standing there waiting for it to end.

He didn’t want it to end. For Shiro to pull away and then politely indicate that he wanted him to leave. So he held onto him tight, Shiro’s own grip seeming to tighten at that, Lance listening to the soft breathing that came from the other man, perhaps he should have been more aware that Shiro was hurting, chosen a better way to handle this. None of them had done the best of jobs looking out for their leader of late.

The arms around him shift slowly, pulling him in closer. Perhaps Shiro didn’t want to let go either. Perhaps they needed each other’s support more than the other knew. Certainly more than Lance knew, he’d never considered the possibility that Shiro could be vulnerable and even now he was doing a good job of trying to hide just how vulnerable he felt.

Even though their bodies are close, Lance felt Shiro tilt his head back, moving his own head back slightly. Their eyes met briefly, vulnerability scared him when it was him, on Shiro it was absolutely terrifying.

Maybe that was why he leaned in, letting their noses bump together, just for a moment, stopping the moment he heard Shiro take a shaky breath. “I’m okay, don’t look so scared of me.” Lance had no idea what his expression looked like but his moment of concern obviously translated poorly.

Walking in there was no way it had crossed his mind that he’d be in such a position, to be so tempted to kiss him, make some sort of a move. Right now he wanted to, given he was the one that had hesitated Lance suspected Shiro would have let it run it’s natural course. “Am I allowed to…” He trailed off, not sure how he was even supposed to ask for permission.

It seemed he didn’t need to, Shiro kissing him, their lips barely overlapping at first, Lance more nervous than he’d ever been. Although this wasn’t kissing Jenny Shaybon, this wasn’t even like what he’d dreamt about with Allura. It was something he didn’t think he’d wanted, Shiro was someone he’d wanted to be like for all these years not someone he wanted to be with. The possibility of it confused him.

He was quick to warm up to it, Shiro’s left hand reaching up and resting on his cheek, coaxing him into opening his mouth. Nothing felt like pressure, gentle nudging perhaps but the fact that with each kiss there was no hint of either one of them using tongue. Lance knowing he was going to have to deepen it if he wanted anything more.

This didn’t have to go anywhere, they could stop here, a moment of weakness for the both of them trying to comfort each other. He was slow at first, but the moment his tongue grazed Shiro’s, the other’s tongue met his. It suddenly felt frantic, Lance being pressed against the wall, the galra hand helping him wrap his legs around Shiro’s hips. “Is this too much?” Shiro asked as his lips moved to Lance’s neck, the younger of the two unable to pretend like the small noise he made was just him being breathless.

“Maybe… I like it but I don’t know if I want to do this.” Even though he was unable to gesture, the way their bodies were pressed together made it obvious what he was referring to. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Shiro let him down slowly, giving his a soft kiss before stepping away.

It felt awkward, Lance wishing he’d not turned down whatever the offer had been just moments before. However, it was better if he didn’t let it escalate to the point that he was uncomfortable. “Can I have some time to think?” It was an odd request but if he jumped into this and then regretted it he didn’t want Shiro to feel like he’d been stabbed in the back all over again.

“Of course, if you need to talk about it stop you can.”

It was certainly nothing like last time.

[zillabean]

In which Zilla talks about Shiro, her stupid passions, and her fears for the upcoming season(s).

Let me first preface this all by saying I am fully and openly admitting to my status as a huge, HUGE Shiro Stan, and as such I understand that while I might be trying to be as objective as possible, I do come from a standpoint of being very passionate about Shiro’s character, and admitting that bias is important. I also want to emphasis that everything that follows is my own personal opinion alone, and I do not expect others to necessarily agree or disagree, but know that this is just me talking about My Feelies and not me trying to push my opinions onto anyone else.

If you’ve followed me for long enough, you’ll know that Shiro is my absolute favorite character in VLD. So much so that he’s really my sole reason for being so obsessed with this series, so invested am I in his story, his character, and his interactions with his team. The team and ALL the characters as a whole are incredible, and while I absolutely appreciate the story and writing for each personality, Shiro is MY favorite and always the parts I look forward to the most.

That being said, I am once again dreading what’s going to happen to him in the upcoming season(s). From what Barlee said about S6 being extremely divisive (see her twitter @barleedraws), my old fear of them potentially killing off my most favorite character once again has bubbled up to the surface. Project Kuron has been taking a terribly long time to build up and pay off, and I’m honestly really quite tired and anxious to see the REAL SHIRO once again. He arguably has been missing from the series since the climax of S2, and only until that One Scene in S5 when he calls out faintly to Lance in Voltron’s astral grid do we see a glimpse of OUR Shiro since his disappearance from the cockpit of the Black Lion.

I am genuinely terrified that they’re going to kill him off, or somehow remove him from the Team. I’m terrified that they will take the Black Lion away from him. I’m terrified they’ll sideline him, and plop him into another role with less significance and meaning for his character. I’m terrified they will continue to harm him, as time and time again it’s been shown that he’s a bit of Dreamworks’ Paladin Pinata – the one character who is constantly, repeatedly, put through the wringer with no breaks whatsoever. He is the ONE Paladin we have absolutely no backstory about other than he was in the Garrison. We don’t know anything about his family, or who he was before the Garrison and his capture by the Galra, and we know nothing about his time WITH the Galra during the ‘Champion’ year. Every other Paladin at least has had some sort of mention or glimpse of family, except Shiro. He’s like a ghost. And he has not caught a break since. He went from being a tortured Galran prisoner to a lab rat experiment, to being harmed repeatedly by Haggar, to being forced into an Astral Plane fight with Zarkon, to being torn from his Lion at the end of S2, and now here we are again, with him being some sort of compromised sleeper agent/clone/android thing. He is quite literally the one character they’ve put through the wringer the most and hasn’t caught a single break.

This is devastating not just from the sheer amount of rollercoaster turmoil he’s been through, but because Shiro is just a really kind-hearted guy who wants nothing but the best for his team. He’s always been Team First, Self Last. He’s traumatized and suffering internally, he’s flawed and imperfect, but does his best to hold it together for his Space Fam because this Found Family gives him hope and meaning in a very painful life.

His bond with the Black Lion is probably my most favorite ‘relationship’ in Voltron. I would argue that nobody fought harder for their Lion than Shiro, who had to fight Zarkon for its soul in the Astral Plane and nearly died trying to earn its Trust the Right Way. He spent 2 whole seasons fighting for that Lion, for its trust, for its bond, for its connection – never through force, but through a mutual understanding of each other. Two whole seasons. Only to have all that hard work ripped away from him at the end of S2, after he won back the Black Bayard and unlocked those incredible Wings. He would have given his life for that Lion, and to see it all get taken away was devastating to me.

And now, with Project Kuron going the way it is, I won’t be surprised if the penultimate climax of it all is Keith being forced to fight Shiro and ultimately taking control of the Black Lion. While I understand that this is wonderful for Keith fans (and especially fans of the original versions of Voltron which ALL star Keith as the Black Paladin), for someone who came into VLD fresh and watched Shiro go through 2 whole seasons of pain for that Lion, the idea of the Black Lion being taken away from him and given to another is heart-breaking to me. Team Voltron, leading his team mates, earning the Trust of the Black Lion – these are all things that give his beleaguered life meaning, and to see him stripped of that is just devastating. Shiro is bonded to that Lion after all his hard work, and I sincerely feel that taking it all away from him is a massive disservice to his character and to all the fans who’ve watched him grow together with it.

Please understand that this is also not a dig at Keith. As mentioned before, Keith has historically ALWAYS been the pilot of the Black Lion, so it is very likely this is the way the story will go considering the history of the series and how Shiro had been grooming him for the role since the beginning. This is heart-breaking to me, a Shiro fan, but from a series’ history standpoint, it is a very likely possibility. I was always saddened by the whole Lion swap because despite it being a nostalgic nod to the original series, VLD is its own show now, and having spent 2 whole Seasons 1+2 emphasizing how important the Bond is between Lion and Paladin, to see that all get swept aside in favor of realigning the lions to their original pilot lineup for nostalgia’s sake was really disheartening. Lance bonded with Blue IMMEDIATELY and they were practically more friends than Paladin/Lion. He was a natural. And Keith... Keith earned Red’s trust when he showed him he would fight for him, and Red is the only Lion I recall ever seeing go after its Paladin without the Paladin’s impetus. When Keith was facing the Trials of Marmora, Red could sense him, and went for him. He rescued him from floating away forever in Space with Allura as well. Red KNOWS Keith. And Shiro and Black, well you know how I feel about their relationship. Each of these Lions chose their Paladin, and with how much emphasis was put on the whole Spiritual Bond between Lion and Paladin, seeing the Lions swap pilots so quickly at the beginning of S3 was really poor for me. It still doesn’t feel right to me, seeing everyone in swapped Lions. I don’t think it ever will.

That being said, yes, I am TERRIFIED of Shiro being stripped of the Black Lion and being demoted to a lesser role and eventually sidelined from his beloved Team. I’m terrified, once again, that they will kill him off. I’m terrified of seeing my favorite character be destroyed in one way or another, as that would likely end the show for me. I ADORE this show, but I openly admit I really am in it for Shiro and his adventures with his Team, and if he is removed or torn away, my enjoyment of this series will lessen greatly, if not completely. I know others with intense love for their favorites would understand, even if they wouldn’t admit to it.

.... I really honestly could go on and on and on, but I will cut it off here for the sake of not torturing you all with my Deep Shiro Conspiracy Theories. I really just had to get this off my chest as I’ve had it bottled up since I saw Barlee’s tweet about S6 being a wringer for fans. I’m a grown ass woman who loves a cartoon man so much that she’s been thinking of this day and night, and it’s pretty embarassing, but if there’s any place I can be myself, it’s here. So to those of you who’ve made it this far, thank you for that :)

I also want to emphasize something else. No matter what happens... whether Shiro has a wonderful fate or a terrible one... at the end of the day, I fully accept that this is NOT MY STORY. I hold no ill will towards the showrunners, the writers or any of the VLD staff whatsoever. They have a story to tell, they have jobs to do, and if this is the story they write, this is the story they write. They owe nothing to me or anyone else because it is not my story. Their vision is their own, and I’m sure fans will be divided no matter what, considering how divided they are when times are ‘good’! But at the end of the day I fully respect everyone’s hard work in creating this incredible series, even if it ends up not being for me any longer if Shiro is gone.

I also want say that, again, this is entirely my personal opinion, and it one coming from the viewpoint of a massive Shiro Stan. I don’t expect others to agree with me, and I fully appreciate that folks who prefer other characters will disagree completely. This is just me, needing to get something off my chest, as immature as it may sound. I thought I was long past the era of allowing cartoon characters to affect me this deeply, but I guess some of us just never grow up :)

Thank you for coming to my TED Whine :)

[shiroallura]

shallura analysis :: 2x09, “belly of the weblum”

As there isn’t a lot of Shallura content this analysis might end up shorter than my usual ones, however I think what is here is still worth talking about, so let’s look at where we left off: the Blade of Marmora has just become a new ally of Voltron. Shiro and the team have been talking with Kolivan and Antok for over three hours (as Lance says) to come up with a plan to take down Zarkon now that they can ally themselves with each other.

Shiro: I think we've got something here. It's dangerous and there are a lot of moving parts, but if we can coordinate everything just right, then— Kolivan: Zarkon's reign will be at an end, and the savagery that's poisoned our universe can finally be cleansed. You've done it, Shiro. Shiro: We did it together. Allura: As long as we all stick to the plan, it should work.

Allura is still more uneasy and hesitant about aligning with the Blade of Marmora, as her initial statement of them still stands—“if there are any good Galra, they have had 10,000 years to take down Zarkon”—but she goes along with it regardless. The plan they come with, after all, specifically hinges on Shiro and Allura. Shiro must stave off Zarkon from the Black Lion and use himself as bait, and Allura must be able to power the teladuv to have Zarkon’s central command be destroyed. Both parts of this plan are at great risk to themselves, and Allura, while displeased, is willing to trust in it. 

And this is likely because, as Kolivan implies, the majority of the plan was probably created by Shiro. The evidence to this is also because to an extent he undermines or self-deprecates about it—I think, and dangerous, and a lot of moving parts—and he wouldn’t do that if it was someone else’s plan, for the most part. And we all know how deeply Allura trusts Shiro, when it comes to fighting or allying themselves with members of the Galra, and she seems down trodden that Shiro keeps seemingly choosing members of the Galra over her: first Ulaz, then the Blade of Marmora and Kolivan, and then in this episode, Keith.

That’s not to say Shiro disrespects Allura’s feelings about it—he doesn’t, by any means. She has the final say over a deeply personal matter to him in 2x03, he avoids having her in an uncomfortable situation by going down to the Blade base as a diplomatic by going himself, and in this episode, she’s mature enough to set her personal feelings aside and be rational and a good leader. And after her comment, he gives this look which communicates so, so much about how well they understand and appreciate each other.

Shiro always knows how she feels, that unlike him, she’s not enthusiastic about this alliance, but resigned. He knows that this isn’t ideal for her, but she’s trusting the Blade by extension of her trust in him she’s had all season, and that she’s doing the best she can with everything. He knows what it’s like to be hurt and damaged by Zarkon (and latter, for both of them, Haggar) and the Galra. They both know what it’s like to be prisoners of the Galra, too. He understands her reluctance, even if he doesn’t feel it himself, and it’s a mark of the strength of their relationship and their mutual maturity that they don’t have another row like they did in 2x03. They just communicate, and trust, over and over and over again. He’s slightly sad, and I’m sure he wishes she didn’t fell this way because it would be easier for her, if she didn’t but he never once tells her she’s wrong to feel this way. Even in their disagreement of Ulaz, Shiro is arguing over an individual—a much easier exception to believe in then an organized group of resistance fighters. 

And we can see that Allura wishes she didn’t quite feel this way either, in the short following snippet.

Kolivan: It will work. Perhaps, then, you'll learn that not all Galra are as bad as Zarkon. Allura: I hope not.

She doesn’t want Keith—a Galra paladin of Voltron, now, who is already reserved and mostly keeps to himself and has a temper—to betray her the same way Zarkon did. She wants to be able to trust him, she can’t just bring herself to. Even as she watches him hug Shiro, it seems like she’s trying to figure him out. If Shiro trusts you, can I trust you too? Because she doesn’t know Keith well. The only time we’ve seen them talk is in 2x06 and they did nothing but argue, and she’s clearly put the pieces together he was sympathetic or suspecting he was Galra at that point, which puts their conversation in an even worse light.

And Shiro doesn’t notice she’s, but Keith—who is shown to depend on other people’s approval and validation, hence why he tries to have Allura say she has faith in the possibility of good Galra in order to feel better about himself, who is hyper aware that this reveal will have changed things with the team—is hyper sensitive and does notice, only for her to look away. (Screencap in the Bonus section below.)

And then Keith goes on his mission with Hunk, and Shiro and Allura don’t reappear for the rest of the episode. However, worth noting about how the Allura-Keith Galra arc in the second half of the season is catered to Keith and leaves her at a disadvantage of being sympathized/understood even though she’s valid AF, is this exchange between Hunk and Keith:

Keith: Okay, look, it's bad enough that Allura hates me now. Can you just lay off? Hunk: Allura doesn't hate you. You just need to give her time to accept the fact that you're Galra, the race that destroyed her entire planet and all of her people. Yeah, she might hate you a little bit. Keith: Let's just watch the video Coran uploaded and stay on task. We need to find out how to collect this stuff.

Hunk is asking questions, Keith gets annoyed and looks for a distraction, and we learn that Allura apparently hates Keith now despite having seen nothing so far that would suggest that. Yet because we find out this information first, and from both Hunk and Keith’s POV, we’re going to take it as fact (even though it isn’t true, especially from what we’ve seen demonstrated in this episode.) And we never ever get to hear Allura talk about her feelings to anyone regarding all of this, so yes, the narrative is definitively biased towards Keith in this arc and situation.

I’ll probably talk more about how Shiro and Allura fulfill parental like roles in Keith’s life later—‘Shiro’ in the mindscape leaving him, which leads into a simulation of Keith’s father, who looks a lot like Shiro himself, and Allura metaphorically abandoning him here, and we know Keith’s alien mother already abandoned him, at least in his eyes—but for now, it’s easy to see that Keith’s upset even if he, currently, doesn’t have that much of a right to be.

For now, let’s have the BONUS screencaps:

[ganymedesclock]

I know you don’t really talk about ships, but I was curious as to what you think of Allura x Shay, since it seems to be pretty popular.

I wish I was more optimistic about it, by which I mean... I think taken on its own, Allura and Shay are really cute, they’re sweet people and I think they could get along charmingly.

The part that I worry about is it feels... kind of dismissive? Like... the most popular major Voltron ships that I’ve seen are all male paladins with each other. And being fair 4/6 of the paladins are guys. The dark horse contenders rising to prominence? are male paladins with Lotor.

Conversely, I’ve seen the generals shipped with each other, and I’ve seen Allura shipped with Shay, and I’ve seen Pidge shipped with the one infodesk punk unilu girl that we didn’t even have a name for.

It stands that there’s something of a discrepancy here re: who gets shipped with major characters. And that’s what I mean by it can feel dismissive- it feels like it’s “getting Allura out of the way of” the steamy m/m paladin romance by pairing her off with Shay, who, as much as I adore Shay and would love to be proven wrong by future developments, Shay is kind of a secondary or even tertiary supporting protagonist. She’s a great character, but not too much of a major character.

One of Shay’s major connections to the larger narrative is, at this point, she’s Hunk’s love interest in that the two of them seem to be harboring a small mutual crush. In the comics in particular Hunk actively protests marrying the other two aliens on the grounds that 1. they haven’t met his parents, and 2. “There’s this rock girl...”

And I don’t really... miss that this is a thing when Hunk is a modestly popular ship target that there’s a great deal of enthusiastic “Shay and Allura are lesbians and dating each other” when I don’t know if I’ve seen much... really in-depth art of them.

There’s a couple of ships that seem to read that way- most inter-team Sincline ships that don’t involve Lotor, for example, and I mentioned Pidge with the Unnamed Infodesk Girl- in the sense that they feel like, to coin a phrase out of thin air here, Purely Aesthetic Female Ship. In that you’ll find... artsy pictures or edits of them kissing and maybe once in a blue moon a comic but far more often, total radio silence besides “I can’t ship Allura with anybody else because her heart belongs to Shay.”

I’d love to be wrong. I guess I’m just suspicious that a lot of these ships are super widespread but relatively little is written about them and if anything they often feel nested into other stories/meta as a way to say “And Allura’s not going to be here, she’s going to be off with her girlfriend, so therefore I don’t have to write about her at all.”

Like again- I could be sold on Allura / Shay, but like... actually sell me on it. Don’t just go “oh remember that time on the s2 poster where Allura and Shay were together wearing flower crowns?” show me... how does this relationship develop? What do they mean to each other? Other characters engaging and interacting with this? More speculation and fleshing out of Shay in and of herself because frankly if you date a major character it should make you a major character. If this is happening alongside canon events what does it mean for Shay staying behind on the Balmera and hearing after the blitz, and the trap at Naxzela, how close Allura and the entire coalition came to being completely destroyed?

Explore the Balmerans culturally. Maybe set up parallels with Shay emerging as a leader of her people because frankly the Balmera’s revolution started with Shay, it was her selfless actions to stand up and take that stand and it was in reaction to what happened to her that Rax and the entire rest of the Balmera reacted. But that’s also stressful, the Balmerans don’t appear to have established leader figures here, so imagine Shay going to Allura- the lifelong career princess- who can relate a little about this “I have to learn how to be a diplomat” feeling.

Have Allura and Shay bond over Allura’s developing powers! Allura mentions in s4e6 she’s never been trained and that limits her confidence, and the Balmera was the stage of her first discovering that, as guided by Shay’s own grandmother. Where’s Shay- whose entire people live and die by their connection to the Balmera and its energy- guiding Allura through that?

I mean, with any ship, it’s important to dig into it, the micro and macrocosms of how these people engage with each other, how they feel, what made them feel that way. If this is your ship, if you love it, analyze the shit out of it, take that by the horns. If you’re just sorta here because you like fluff and you think the fluff would be cute with them, make a lot of fluff, show me all the places their lives comfortably intertwine with each other.

Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody point out the idea that shipping Shay in her current role with anybody on Voltron is a terrific setup for a long-distance relationship and all the fun and foibles that entails!

So I guess it’s... I’d absolutely love to be wrong about this but it feels like a lot of major ships between female characters feel really... halfhearted, not much energy to it, while conversely Klance- I’m picking on it since it’s my ship- has eight zillion AUs everywhere under the sun from trapeze artists to vampire-and-priest to high fantasy to “literally reenact the plot of Beauty And The Beast” and people digging into scene-by-scene analyses and hypotheticals with wild abandon, and I don’t feel like that difference is purely because of popularity. 

If anything, it’s suspicious that I can think of four popular male ships off the top of my head within Voltron’s main cast and none of them seem to exhibit that Purely Aesthetic problem that all of the female ships I can think of that I’ve seen in the fandom, ever, do. Just like I think it’s suspicious that whether or not I think Lance’s crush on Allura is unlikely to be reciprocated, it, and Hunk’s crush on Shay that does seem pretty reciprocated, seem to get all-but forgotten and not treated like genuine feelings. 

Like... they don’t have to be your endgame ship, but it feels really jarring to look from canon, with Lance who really does adore Allura, all flirtation aside, and Hunk who again turned down potential suitors because he’s monogamous and more interested in Shay, and to suddenly leap to a fanwork where these people just... feel nothing about each other?

[shirosquared-old]

Habits of the Heart

Here’s my fic for the @shancesupportsquad‘s Valentine’s day exchange! My giftee was @hirocyonia!

Chapters: 1/1 Words: 6739 (6.7k) Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: None Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron) Characters: Lance (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), The others are mentioned but it’s mostly just them tbh Additional Tags: Major Character Injury, Hypothermia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, stranded fic, Flashbacks, depictions of injuries, Concussions, Mutual Pining, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Lance and Shiro make a terrifying team, Lance is very capable, Slightly beyond canon-typical violence Summary:

After Shiro takes a hard fall, Lance is there to help support him even while the Galra hunt them through dangerous conditions.

“Shiro?” a voice yelled, the volume murderous to Shiro’s head. He knew that voice, so achingly familiar. Shiro hoped with everything he had that the blood he smelled wasn’t Lance’s.

[Read it on AO3]

Shiro groaned, his senses coming back to him one by one. First, he could hear the shifting and shouts somewhere nearby. What were they looking for? Then he could smell burnt metal, a heavy scent of blood, a hint of something almost like peppermint.

He could feel, and the first thing he registered was that everything hurt, so much that Shiro could barely think. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get past the initial wave of it. Once he adjusted, he'd be fine.

Slowly, as his body adjusted—and really, he knew he shouldn’t be able to say he was used to this kind of thing, but he was—to the pain, he took stock of his own condition. Most of his armor was warped and dented, some parts singed and burnt. His visor was cracked and no longer able to seal shut, part of the material pressing uncomfortably against his head. He reached up to pull it off, but his right arm didn’t budge. Nothing even felt like it responded.

Shiro glanced over anxiously, unsure of what he would find. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the state of his prosthetic. Part of it was completely missing, destroyed from the elbow to his fingertips. Exposed wires hung out of the end, and Shiro resisted the urge to poke them. He had no idea what they did, and could just end up causing more problems for himself if he wasn't careful.

He didn’t see any large pieces of the parts that’d been broken, probably lost in all of the snow. By the time they found all of it, the snow that melted would have probably already wrecked the internals, even if he had the capability to actually do something with those pieces.

Shiro’s head pounded and his ankle throbbed, probably twisted or sprained. At the least, he should keep his weight off of it as much as possible to prevent it from getting worse.

The rest of him was covered in trivial bruises and scrapes, nothing life-threatening, though he couldn’t see his back well enough to tell. In fact, none of his injuries would end his life. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, honestly. He didn't want to die, nor did he want to live in pain. It really turned out to be a vicious cycle.

He still smelled blood, thick and heavy. Was it his? If it wasn't his, then who—

“Shiro?” a voice yelled, the volume murderous to Shiro’s head. He knew that voice, so achingly familiar. Shiro hoped with everything he had that the blood he smelled wasn’t Lance’s.

“Lance?” Shiro started to try to sit up, but a hand pressed lightly on his shoulder and pushed him back down. He had to get to Lance, he had to make sure he was okay—

“Easy,” Lance murmured. “You must’ve hit your head pretty hard to mess up your helmet like that. Are your comms busted?”

“Yeah,” Shiro muttered, looking over at Lance to try and assess his condition. It was hard to focus, to pick out the details. “Are you okay?” he asked instead. “Tell… tell me where you got hit.”

“I'm fine, Shiro,” Lance said, watching him carefully. “Are you—”

“Fine,” Shiro answered automatically.

“Let me check you over,” Lance said quietly. “You’re a mess. I came down here as quick as I could, but I had to land somewhere else so I wouldn’t draw attention to you. You scared me, you idiot.” Shiro realized he probably did look like a mess. That he was worrying Lance…

Shiro blinked. “Draw attention to me?” Had they been in a fight? Were they still?

“Yeah. How are you feeling?” Lance asked. “Where are you hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Shiro admitted. “Just… a lot.”

Lance carefully pulled off Shiro’s helmet, and Shiro relaxed with a sigh. The pressure against his skull had been making everything worse. “Man, this thing is completely busted,” Lance murmured, examining it. “I’d hate to think…”

“Of what might’ve happened if I wasn’t wearing it?” Shiro asked dryly. “I’d definitely be unconscious, maybe the head trauma would’ve—”

“Shiro,” Lance interjected, “you’re really starting to worry me. Come on, man, are you always like this?”

Shiro started to say no, he wasn’t, thank you very much—then remembered that it was a terrible lie. “... Yeah, pretty much. I usually try not to show it around you guys.”

“Yeah, well that’s bullshit,” Lance muttered. “You don’t have to hide anything from us. Whether it’s very poorly-timed jokes, or stuff about your year, or anything else… we’re here for you, you know that? We aren’t leaving.”

They weren’t leaving? Everyone left. Even Ulaz—

“I’ve planted a bomb to cover your escape.”

“I’m going to take it down from the inside!”

“Earth needs you. We all do.”

“Voltron is too valuable. The universe needs—”

“Shiro, come on, come back,” Lance said, pulling him out of his thoughts. “You alright?”

“I was just… thinking,” Shiro sighed.

“About what?” Lance pressed softly. “If you don’t want to talk, say so and I’ll stop asking, but don’t do it because you think I can’t handle it.”

Shiro grimaced. “I just… it’s a bit hard for me to wrap my head around that.”

“Around what?”

“That you’re not going to disappear.” And maybe it was a stupid idea to say that, but he was too exhausted to try and filter everything.

“Why would we do that?” Lance asked.

“I can think of a few reasons,” Shiro answered flatly. “I’m just… well aware of how easily life ends. And you’re all so young, you’ve got your whole lives ahead of you…”

“You’re only a few years older than me,” Lance reminded him. “You’re pretty young, too. You’re, what, twenty-two?”

“Something like that.” Truth be told, Shiro had no idea. It sounded about right.

“You’ve got your life ahead of you, too,” Lance insisted. “You’re not on death row, or anything like that. We’re gonna get you home.”

Shiro hummed. “Gotcha.”

Lance nodded, satisfied to let it go for now. “Good. We’ll talk later, but… later. Can you sit up? We should get your back checked out.”

Lance watched as Shiro struggled to push himself up, quickly moving in to help hold him steady. He hissed at the sight of Shiro’s back. “Dude,” he murmured. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

Shiro blinked slowly. “Doesn’t what hurt?”

Lance sucked in a breath. Take it easy, calm down. Be honest. “Your back’s all torn up. Probably where that blood came from, considering it’s all under you. Let’s get you on your feet, yeah? We should move.”

“Why?”

“We need to get those injuries wrapped up,” Lance said. They were being followed. He'd drawn them to his location when he yelled for Shiro, and now they needed to move. The Lions’ particle barriers would keep them safe for the time being, but Shiro and Lance didn't have that protection.

Shiro nodded, grimacing as Lance helped him stand. He hissed in pain, and Lance murmured a quick apology as they hobbled away from the area. Lance was careful to make sure Shiro put as little weight as possible on his ankle, but it was unfortunately impossible to avoid.

“Whassat?” Shiro murmured, looking around the bushes. “Smells like… peppermint.”

“Must be one of the plants.” Lance didn’t let Shiro sit down until they were far away from the patrolling sentries, kneeling down in front of him.

“Alright, Shiro, I'm gonna look at those cuts, okay?”

“‘Kay.” Lance carefully pulled the wrecked armor off of Shiro’s body, setting it aside. He hummed a quiet tune as he worked, mostly to keep himself calm. Some of the pieces were harder to pull off, but he hopefully managed while causing Shiro minimal pain.

Once the armor was all removed, he spoke again. “Shiro? You with me?”

“Yeah,” Shiro murmured. “‘Sup?” The walk clearly hadn't done him any good. Lance glanced up at the path, which was speckled with red and their footsteps. Well, that was a trail if he’d ever seen one. But Shiro couldn’t go any further without being treated.

“I need to pull your shirt off in order to treat this properly. Is that okay?” Shiro nodded, but Lance lightly tapped his shoulder. “I need you to keep talking. Don't go all nonverbal on me.”

Shiro blinked up at Lance. “Oh. Sorry.”

Lance shook his head. “Don't apologize. Can I take your shirt off to treat these?”

Shiro frowned, hesitating. For one horrifying moment, Lance thought he'd decline. Without getting the cuts treated, he'd eventually bleed out or die of infection. “... Yeah,” he said finally.

Lance nearly sighed in relief, carefully working the top half of the undersuit off of Shiro’s shoulders and arm until it bunched around his waist. He unclipped the Blue Lion’s med kit from his belt and set it on the floor, flipping the lid. His helmet identified the correct bottle and he removed it from the box, along with a clean rag.

“Okay, Shiro,” Lance warned, “this is gonna hurt. It's gonna burn, but we have to clean these out. They've all got dirt inside, and it'll be a bitch if they get infected.”

“... Got it.” Shiro closed his eyes, bracing himself. Lance hated to cause Shiro more pain, but it had to be done. He wouldn't let Shiro die out here.

“Three, two, one,” Lance murmured, pressing the rag to Shiro’s back shortly after. Shiro stiffened, hissing sharply, but Lance methodically scrubbed the wounds clean, being careful not to reinfect them with the dirty cloth.

He wiped away the excess blood that had traveled down to Shiro’s waist before grabbing the roll of bandages, wrapping the cuts around his torso. He had a bit of trouble figuring out the right amount of pressure, but luckily the cuts had mostly stopped bleeding by now.

Lance examined Shiro’s left arm, carefully cleaning the scrapes there. With the exception of a cut on his bicep, nothing needed to be covered, so he wrapped the one cut before moving back into Shiro’s field of vision.

“Hey, Shiro,” Lance tried to sound cheerful. “Can you look up at me?” Shit, how did he check for a concussion again? Shiro’s eyes met his, and Lance carefully looked him over. His eyes looked clear, and he had been talking clearly enough… was Shiro already experiencing the effects of blood loss? It hadn't been that long, had it?

Shiro frowned, his eyes scanning Lance‘s face. Lance wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck and pulled him into a hug, closing his eyes. It'd only been a few hours since the initial crash, but they were both exhausted. Still, Lance wasn't sure if Shiro should be sleeping while he was in this state.

Shiro wrapped his left arm around Lance’s back, his right dangling uselessly at his side. Lance took a moment to calm himself down before pulling back to look at what remained of Shiro’s Galra prosthetic.

Lance wasn't an engineer by any standards. He still only needed one look to tell that the prosthetic was beyond repairing, at least not without serious work that he wasn't capable of (even if he had the right tools, which he didn't).

He hadn’t seen any pieces large enough to salvage where he'd found Shiro, and hoped the Galra never found it in all of the snow and ice.

“S’busted,” Shiro murmured, as if it wasn't obvious.

“We’re gonna get it fixed up at the Castle,” Lance promised, “but it's getting dark. We should find a safe place to rest for the night.”

Shiro frowned, glancing around at their surroundings. Lance followed his gaze, his stomach doing a flip when he looked back at Shiro, who was shivering hard. Oh, shit. Maybe it wasn’t blood loss. Maybe Shiro was experiencing hypothermia. Maybe it was both—an extremely dangerous combination. He should've never taken the armor off. Even if the thermal regulation was shot, the extra layers were shielding him from the cold. But then he wouldn’t have been able to treat the cuts, which would’ve led to severe blood loss or infection.

“Shit,” Lance hissed. They needed to get out of the cold, like, yesterday. How could he have overlooked that? “Shiro, hey, look at me.”

“Lance?” Shiro looked dazed. Wow, Lance was really bad at remembering symptoms. Shivering was definitely one, he thought he remembered something about speech? And… something about a pulse. Weak pulse? That sounded right. He lightly pressed two fingers to Shiro’s throat, searching for his pulse. It was difficult to find at first, and definitely not as strong as it should be.

Well, it turned out paying attention during those Garrison first aid classes would pay off. The only problem was he couldn’t really lift Shiro. Shiro was too heavy, which made trying to get him somewhere with little movement near impossible.

To make things worse, Lance could hear the faint sound of something approaching. The steps thudded softly against the snow, measured and mechanical.

He gritted his teeth, ready to fight here if it came down to it. He wasn't going to let them get Shiro. He needed a way to drag Shiro out of the forest and find a cave to hide in. It would get them out of the wind, and the few inches of snow on the ground wouldn't be quite as high.

Other than the footsteps steadily approaching, the area was silent. The silence carried an air of oppression, dampening and warping the sound waves. As the sentries got closer, their steps sounded less like steps and more like a cacophony of metal, scraping and grinding. How many sentries were on their way? Was the group only sentries?

Shiro tried to get to his feet, his heart thundering in his chest, but Lance pushed him back down. “No,” Lance hissed. “You need to take it easy.”

“They're coming,” Shiro murmured. “Coming… next fight.” He almost looked resigned, though Lance could see the barely contained fear behind the exterior.

Lance’s heart shattered. “Shiro, no, I'm not letting that happen. You're safe, remember? You're a badass Paladin of Voltron.” He chuckled, the sound coming out watery. “We were so happy when we found you, you know? And we love you. I… you're family.”

Shiro frowned. “Family?”

“Family,” Lance agreed. “And the others are waiting for us to come home. So you gotta stay with me, okay?”

Shiro grimaced. “They're coming.”

“They are.” They needed a solution, some way he could move Shiro without hurting him. But they didn't have time. The sentries would cross over that hill any moment, and they'd be screwed.

They didn't have a choice. Lance squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, Shiro was still watching him.

“I'm sorry,” he told Shiro. “This is gonna really, really suck. But we really can't stay here.” He slipped an arm under Shiro’s knees and another behind his back, wincing at the pained sound Shiro made as he struggled to lift him. Shiro was heavy. It probably had to do with the hunk of metal attached to him (despite how broken it was, it was still mostly metal), but even without it he would've been hard to lift.

Lance barely managed to pick Shiro up into his arms, straining himself from the weight. The emergency pack and first aid kit hung at his waist, but the broken pieces of armor were still littered across the ground. They wouldn't do them any good. He carried Shiro through the trees, his arms protesting from the strain.

“Put… down,” Shiro murmured, his head resting on Lance’s shoulder.

“Not a chance.”

They walked a few hundred feet until the sentries’ footsteps faded, and Lance brought Shiro into the nearest cave. They went deep inside, and Lance didn't set Shiro down until they were safe. Then he nearly collapsed, his arms and legs shaking so bad that one might think he was the one suffering from hypothermia.

Fire, fire, he needed a fire. Something to help warm Shiro, or else he wouldn't survive. A quick search of the cave revealed a few pieces of something similar to wood. He carefully arranged them in a circle, fumbling for the fire starter. A quick drag sparked the flame, burning the lighter material before it spread to the heavier pieces.

The flames burned a bright green, but what mattered was the heat it gave off. Lance sighed in relief, pulling the emergency blanket out of the pack and carefully wrapping it around Shiro. Lance placed a water container over the fire, allowing the contents inside to heat up while he tried to make the cave safer.

Here, they were isolated from the wind, which made it several degrees warmer already. He rummaged through the pack, pulling out a short knife. He wasn't Keith, but the blade would be incredibly useful.

He tucked it inside his belt for now, checking on the water. The warmth radiated from the fire and from the water container.

“Alright, Shiro, think you can sit up?” Lance asked. “I'll help you.”

“Don't need,” Shiro murmured, struggling to push himself up on his own. His arm gave out and he would've fallen right down if not for Lance’s arms holding him steady.

“Take it easy,” Lance warned, supporting Shiro’s weight. He carefully pressed the water container into Shiro’s hand, making sure the heat wouldn't burn after being exposed to the cold for so long. “Take small sips, okay? If you chug it all, it won't warm you up.”

While Shiro drank the water, Lance pulled off his helmet. He pulled off the side panel like Hunk had shown him, exposing the wiring inside. The light of the fire allowed him to see the wire knocked out of place, and he was grateful that it was only one wire as he plugged it back in. He didn't know what the wires did, really, so if two of them had been out he wouldn’t know where to put them.

He slipped his helmet back on and static buzzed in his ear, to which he grinned. The signal might not be great, but now they had a signal.

“Alright, looks like we’ve got a semi-working mic.” Lance glanced over at Shiro, who seemed to be doing a bit better. He didn't look quite so dazed, but the effects were still there. “Try and get some rest, okay? You need it. The others are gonna be here before you know it.” Before Lance could stop himself, he leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Shiro’s forehead. “Rest easy. I’ll keep you safe.”

Shiro fell asleep fairly quickly, which was worrying in itself. Lance tucked the blanket a bit tighter around Shiro, trying to keep the cold out. The green fire still burned brightly, lighting the cave with a flickering emerald light. They needed to find a way back to their lions, and fast.

Lance didn't know when he fell asleep, but when he woke up something shifted next to him. He jumped to his feet, bayard flashing to his hand, and before he was fully aware he had the barrel trained on the source of the movement.

Shiro stared back at him, his eyes wide in a moment of clarity. “Lance?”

The blue rifle vanished as Lance kneeled down in front of Shiro, grimacing. He could’ve seriously injured Shiro if he hadn’t hesitated before firing… “Hey. How are you feeling?”

“I… still hazy.” Shiro closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall of the cave. Emerald light flickered across his face, making the whole situation look like something out of a horror movie. The cave entrance remained dark, which was good, though the early light of day had begun to slowly creep in. Lance couldn’t hear the sentries anymore, which was a huge relief compared to the panic of the previous night. His muscles still ached from the strain of carrying Shiro, and his injuries hadn’t exactly healed, but none of it was anything worse than superficial.

“Alright, you think you can focus on me for a little bit?” Lance asked. “We’ve gotta change your bandages while we’ve got time.” Shiro blinked slowly but nodded, his dull eyes on Lance.

Lance carefully shifted Shiro, reluctantly pulling off the blanket and setting it aside. Lance grimaced at the sight of the dirty bandages, unraveling them and tossing the bundle aside. He hissed out a curse when he noticed that some of the dirt had made it through the bandages and around the cuts. “Shiro, I’m really sorry about this, but we’ve gotta clean these again.”

Shiro nodded, and Lance wiped down his back with the disinfectant just like they’d done the previous night. It was difficult, knowing he was causing Shiro pain, but it had to be done or else things would just get worse. “Alright, the good news is that these mostly stopped bleeding, so that takes care of that issue… just gotta wrap these up again.”

One good thing was that the bandages stayed secure around Shiro’s torso but didn’t inhibit his movements or breathing any, which was a definite plus over Earth bandages. Lance remembered one time his brother had tried to use bandages around his chest and ended up going to the emergency room to have them cut off because he could barely breathe.

“And done,” Lance said, wrapping the blanket around Shiro’s shoulders again. Once it was back in place, Lance picked up another piece of the not-wood and tossed it into the fire to keep it burning.

His helmet buzzed and crackled in his ear, and Lance furrowed his brows as it shifted in pitch and volume. It hadn’t done that before. Were the others on their way?

“—iro! It… idge! La—!”

Lance started, trying to listen to the sounds filtering through the static. “Pidge! Pidge, is that you?”

“—kay— Galra— near—ation…”

“Pidge, I'm not getting anything clear. Where are you?”

“—way— soon. St— afe!”

“Pidge, what's going on?”

Static.

Lance swore, pulling his helmet off and making sure the side panel was still secure. He then put it back on, turning down the volume of the static in his ears.

He sighed. “Hang in there, Shiro. They're on their way, yeah? And then we’ll get you all treated and healed. Just keep your eyes on me.”

“Got it,” Shiro murmured.

“Alright, let's see… you think you can stand on your own? We should find a new place, we’re gonna get found here soon enough.”

Something exploded at the entrance of the cave. Lance ducked over Shiro as the rocks shifted and fell, effectively blocking their way out and cutting off their source of outside light. Thankfully, nothing landed on top of them, but Lance still felt the spike of ice cold fear in his chest at the thought of what could've happened.

“What was that?” Shiro murmured, looking over at the new rock barricade.

“I'm not sure,” Lance admitted in a low voice. “I don't know if that was done to keep us in or out. Stay quiet.”

Mechanical footsteps clicked overhead, growing in number and volume. Underneath Lance, Shiro shuddered, his breathing picking up. Lance grimaced, wrapping his arms around Shiro’s neck gently. “It’s gonna be okay,” he murmured. “We’ll be okay. I'm not gonna let them get you.”

Shiro nodded, though he still looked dazed. Thankfully, he wasn't shivering quite as hard, and a quick check showed a stronger pulse, but he wasn't out of the danger yet. “Is there a… another way?”

“Another way out? I'm not sure. There might not be.” Lance got to his feet and tossed another piece of the not-wood into the fire, leaving them with one piece left. “This fire’s gonna run out of wood soon.”

Shiro blinked, confused. “The Galra are… basically at our door and… you're focused on fire?”

“You’ve still got symptoms of hypothermia. Besides, it's gonna take them a few minutes to bust through that. A lot of rocks fell, guess they didn't think that through.

“I mean, seriously, who does that? What a horrible plan, that's not how you do an ambush. You know, the whole ‘surprise’ thing is important. It's crazy, though I guess whoever’s outside isn't all that smart. Matches most of Zarkon’s commanders, you know?” Lance kept up a steady stream of quiet chatter as the Galra broke through the rock wall, mostly to remind Shiro he wasn't alone.

“And most of his actually smart ones are now dead in space or otherwise, courtesy of a Voltron butt-kicking!” Shiro chuckled at that, some of the tension unwinding from his shoulders, so Lance kept going. “You’d think Zarkon could find better-looking ones, too, but I mean the only one who's even been remotely attractive was Lotor, and that's—ugh.” He made a face, causing Shiro to snort.

Lance took Shiro’s hand, winding their fingers together. He squeezed lightly, smiling when Shiro hesitantly squeezed back. “Pidge and Keith and Hunk are all gonna swoop in like badasses at the last second, ‘cause that's just how they are, and it’s gonna be super awesome. And then we can get back to the Castle and Allura’ll create a wormhole and then we’ll be away from here.”

The rock wall finally fell apart, scattering throughout the cave as one knocked over the makeshift fire pit. Lance got to his feet, the knife from the emergency kit gripped tightly in his hand. He wasn't a melee fighter by any standards, but he wasn't going to let them get Shiro without a fight. He charged forward with a shout, his shield forming on his left wrist as he struck with his right.

Dozens of sentries waited outside, if the loud mechanical whirring was anything to go by, but thanks to the cave-in they couldn't all rush in at once. Lance took the small advantage for what it was, working as quickly as possible to dispatch the sentries before more could flood in. Their numbers seemed almost endless, two more replacing every one he destroyed. Sparking wires and dead sentries scattered the floor in a rough pile, almost creating a blockade of their own.

But Lance could only hold out for so long, as much as he wished he could do more. His swings became slower, his shield couldn't block quite as much, and he backed himself into a corner as the sentries began to get the upper hand. He swung the knife wildly, exhaustion making his limbs heavy. But Lance was still between Shiro and the Galra. He wasn't going to let them get Shiro, not as long as he was still able to destroy the robots in front of him.

A few minutes later, one of them got in a lucky shot on his side. Lance shouted in pain, coughing and wheezing, and the newly-arrived commander easily knocked him to the ground. The knife clattered to the ground and the translucent shield vanished as Lance pressed a hand to the mark there. It was just a burn, thankfully, but it still hurt like hell and made it difficult to get up.

"Lance!"

Shiro scooped the knife off of the ground, looking shaky on his feet and unbalanced with only one working arm. But he charged forward anyway, meeting the commander head on. Lance gritted his teeth and materialized his bayard, firing at the sentries still in the cave as Shiro fought. Shiro grunted above him, likely receiving as many hits as he was giving, but Lance had his job and he needed to do it. This was the best way he could help Shiro right now—Shiro stood no chance with all of these sentries around.

The metal scraps on the ground made it hard to maneuver, hard to fight. Shiro hit the ground harshly and cried out, barely keeping his grip on the knife but having trouble getting to his feet with one arm.

The last sentry fell, the cave falling into silence. The commander approached Shiro, his expression murderous, and Lance trained his bayard on the Galra.

Inhale. He took a deep breath, following the commander's movements as he leaned down.

Exhale. His finger found the trigger, gently resting on it.

Fire. Lance pulled the trigger.

The commander fell—thankfully not on top of Shiro—and clashed horribly with one of the sentries. Lance couldn't find it in him to feel apologetic.

Shiro blinked, turning his head to look over. "Lance—"

Lance gave him a thumbs up, his bayard disappearing as he forced himself to his feet. "I told you, didn't I? I wasn't gonna let them get you."

The smile he got in return was small but genuine. Shiro released the knife and Lance pulled Shiro to his feet, taking some of his weight. The embers of emerald flame flickered weakly before extinguishing, leaving the cave in near perfect darkness.

That was how the team found them, hobbling out of the cave with Shiro’s left arm draped over Lance’s shoulders.

Everything after that passed as a blur. They were taken back to the Castle while the others grabbed Blue and Black, and both Lance and Shiro were put into healing pods to treat their wounds.

It felt like only a moment later that Lance awoke and stumbled out of his pod, only to be pulled into a tight hug courtesy of Hunk. Lance’s teammates were like a big party, loud but welcoming, and yet he found himself looking over at Shiro’s pod through it all. Shiro already looked much better, sleeping peacefully behind the pod’s translucent front panel.

Lance spent most of his time in the pod room, keeping Shiro company while he rested. Sometimes he talked to the air, sometimes he paced, sometimes he just sat there as if he could see Shiro get better with each passing tick. Shiro was supposed to be getting out of the pod today, a thought confirmed as the others began to trickle into the med bay. Lance stood as they gathered around, and shortly after the last person—Allura, having been finding a safe location for the Castle to hide—arrived, the pod slid open.

Shiro fell forward, and Lance reached out to catch him. Keith also reached out, and together they helped Shiro to his feet. Then the hugs started, and the shouting, but Lance was content to stay out of it. It was great to see Shiro feeling better, it really was, but now that everyone was really safe he couldn’t stop thinking about everything he’d done on Krishna Five.

He’d caused Shiro so much pain, allowing the bandages to get dirty and forcing him to fight for his life while injured and sick. He’d promised, and yet Shiro had had to fight anyway. Lance could've done more, maybe he could've found them a cave with more than one exit. How had he not even considered that?

Later, he promised himself, he’d talk to Shiro. They could work things out without the rest of the team hovering over their shoulders, listening to their every word.

Missions became more frequent, leaving the paladins with little alone time. A week after they were rescued from Krishna Five, Lance still hadn’t found the chance to talk to Shiro.

He ended up avoiding Shiro during group sessions, not wanting to start the conversation in front of everyone. It was hard avoiding him sometimes—Lance didn’t realize just how much time they spent together until he tried to avoid someone—but he managed where he could. At the very least, he could make sure he wouldn’t be caught alone with Shiro.

He wanted to talk to Shiro, he really did, but the thought of the others overhearing the conversation and knowing what Lance had done made his heart skip a beat and his palms slick with sweat. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to breathe, and when he opened them again he froze.

Lance expected to be alone, not to see Shiro looking at him with something almost regret. Lance almost understood for a moment, though the sting is still there.

“... Lance,” Shiro murmured, “can we talk?”

“We’re talking right now,” Lance answered.

“About what happened on Krishna Five. I understand if you don't want to tell the others, but please at least talk to me.” Shiro’s eyes were sad and the corners of his mouth turned downwards. “I don't want to see you hurt like this.”

Lance stared. Shiro, the king of saying ‘everything’s just fine’ while everything crumbles, wanted to tell him to talk? What a hypocrite.

“I just… wanted to say thank you,” Shiro continued anyway, smiling softly. “You really came through back there. If you hadn’t been there, I’d be dead or a Galra prisoner.”

“That's why I went after you,” Lance said. “I saw you go down and all your systems were offline, so I went after you, but I took a hit on the way down and ended up also crashing. I… I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you. I mean, your arm is still broken.”

Shiro shook his head. “Lance, you saved my life. You're not an engineer, you're a pilot. Same as me. We’ll just leave it to Pidge, Hunk, and Coran. They know what they're doing. But my point is, I’d take a busted prosthetic over being dead or captured. You can't fix everything by yourself. That's what you've got us for.”

Lance scowled. There Shiro went, doing it again. “You’re such a hypocrite!” he snapped. Shiro’s eyes widened, but Lance barreled on before he could interrupt. “You give us all these talks saying how we need to open up and talk about what's bothering us, but none of us have seen you ever do it.

“It's because you're scared, isn't it? Scared that we’ll disappear just like you said so you keep your distance to avoid getting hurt. But you're still getting hurt because you bury everything down inside you and soon you're going to explode. It's ridiculous that you think we’re just going to up and leave at any moment, or be scared of you if you tell us things.

“It’s bullshit.” Lance stepped forward, closing the distance between them and putting a finger on Shiro’s chest. Shiro looked astonished, his eyes wide and lips slightly parted. “I'm not scared of you. You're our teammate, our awesome leader, and sure you've done some dark shit but haven't we all at this point? Nobody’s gonna suddenly change their opinion of you because you, say, made someone die slowly or tore them apart in the arena. It wasn't your choice.”

“It was—”

Lance kept going. “It wasn't your choice, because if you didn't fight you would've been killed. We trust you and we love you so, so much but it feels like you're on the other side of a wall sometimes. And God, I just want to get to know you. Not Shiro the Leader, not Shiro the Black Paladin or Shiro the Pilot of the Kerberos Mission. I want to know who Shiro is. When's your birthday, what's your favorite color, what's something stupid you did as a kid. That kinda stuff. If you say we’re your team, then trust us to be able to listen to you. You do on the field, so why not now? You're important, too. Remember that.”

Shiro stared for a moment before answering. “I was born on February 29th. My favorite color is blue. When I was younger, I climbed up a tree and would spend hours up there pretending it was a treehouse or a rocket to take me to another world.” A smile tugged at his lips, making him look adorable. “I was a weird kid.”

“Dude, everyone does that. But I appreciate that you're trying to open up. You can trust us. We’re all way too stubborn to let you go, anyway.” Lance grinned before it fell with a sigh. “Just think about it, okay?”

Shiro smiled gently. “I will. Thank you, Lance. Now, about Krishna Five…”

Lance shook his head. “Not now. Later. For now, think about what we just talked about.”

Shiro snorted. “More like you talked and I listened.”

“See, there's the spirit!”

Shiro laughed. “Alright, alright. Not now. Besides, the others are probably wondering where we went by now.”

“Yeah, probably.” Lance stretched. “Sorry for kinda… exploding at you. It's just… you were dying and all you cared about is if I was okay. I can't… we can't listen to you fading like that.”

Shiro nodded. “I got it. I'm not going to be upset with you for saying what you want to say. I'll try to talk to you guys more.”

Lance smiled. “That's all I'm asking. Thank you, Shiro.” He carefully wrapped his arms around Shiro, minding the sling that held his prosthetic, and held him close. Shiro stiffened for a moment before relaxing, leaning into the contact, and Lance didn't pull away for a while.

On their way back to the others, Lance cautiously slipped his hand into Shiro’s and gently squeezed it. Shiro returned the squeeze, both of them looking pointedly ahead and not at each other.

Shiro let go before they entered the lounge, to Lance’s slight disappointment, but they joined the conversation easily. While they talked, Lance wondered what thoughts were running through Shiro’s head right now. What did he think about all of this?

The others were talking about something with Shiro’s arm, so Lance tuned out the technical talk. He vaguely heard something about it needing to be rebuilt, and felt Shiro stiffen next to him, but he poked Shiro’s side and stuck his tongue out when Shiro looked over. Lance laughed and Shiro chuckled, his eyes fond.

“You guys are so gross,” Pidge complained. “Can you make heart eyes another time?”

They both looked at her, confused, before locking eyes again and smiling. Keith chucked a pillow at Shiro’s head and it knocked him forward into Lance’s arms. Lance grinned and wrapped his arms around Shiro, holding him close.

“Alright,” Shiro laughed after a moment. “Can I get up?”

Lance hummed in consideration. “Hmm. Nope. Not yet.” His hand idly reached up to card through Shiro’s hair, and despite his complaint Shiro made no attempt to move. His head rested on Lance’s leg, his eyes gently shut. He wasn’t asleep though, so Lance kept lightly massaging Shiro’s scalp until his breathing evened out.

Over the next few days, Shiro had the broken prosthetic surgically removed and got fitted for a new one. Lance volunteered to stick by Shiro’s side, helping him out whenever necessary, and slowly Shiro opened his heart for Lance. Lance opened his own heart, and together they became intertwined.

On days when Shiro’s dark thoughts threatened to drag them down, Lance stayed with him and helped Shiro work through it. Unfortunately, Lance couldn’t make Shiro forget or erase that trauma from his mind. Shiro wasn’t going to magically get better and be able to live without his demons in his shadows.

But Lance did what he could to make Shiro’s days brighter and better, and it made the bad days easier to get through. It sucked that they had needed to be stranded on a planet together in order to bond, but Lance wouldn’t change a thing.

Shiro was beautiful. Lance wanted to make sure Shiro knew it.

So, one day, while they were alone and idly chatting, Lance told Shiro everything. Shiro had been surprised, but quietly confessed he felt the same way. It wasn’t necessarily like the movies. They didn’t confess and then everything became magical and amazing. They didn’t even kiss on that day, just sat a little closer.

Lance was perfectly okay with that. They discussed boundaries and what they were comfortable with, and when Shiro had said he’d prefer to take it slow Lance was happy to oblige.

The day they finally kissed was a few weeks later, and it made everything worth it.

A few years later, after the war ended and the universe no longer needed Voltron, the two lovers exchanged their vows on the altar. Shiro had rested his forehead against Lance and whispered a few words meant only for Lance, and Lance leaned up to kiss him. He didn’t need to say how he felt out loud, transferring it into the passion and love in his actions and his eyes.

Neither of them would change it for the world.

That day, they became truly intertwined.

[kirsctein]

here are several things i’ve been tagged to do and never did but now it’s time cos this year is soon over 🌸✨

and i’m tagging: 

@llucinas, @actually-funny, @magicaldere, @pinkcupofcherrytea, @hajiiwa, @xingkari, @sodoreme, @monamarie, @13011942, @tachibana--chan​, @elziebanana

to do one, some, or all of these, or none if you don’t want to (tagging some of the ones who tagged me in these too if you want to do some of the other ones) ^^

all the tag memes under the cut ~

tagged by @pinkcupofcherrytea tysm ✨

RULES: answer the 20 questions and tag 20 amazing followers you’d like to get to know better.

Name: anni Nickname/s: moth, twin Zodiac sign: aries Height: 167 cm Orientation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Nationality: finnish Favourite fruit: kiwi Favourite Season: summer Favourite Book/s: mmmm the raven cycle and six of crows perhaps Favourite Flower: forget-me-not :’) Favourite Scent: vanilla, the smell after the rain, christmas spices Favourite Colour: blue, pastels, warm and earthy greens and yellows Favourite Animal: cats, owls, bunnies Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa: tea, or hot cocoa aahhh Average Sleep Hours: hmmmm 9-ish Cat or Dog Person: cat person but doggos are good Favourite Fictional Character: well lance right now but i have a ton of favs Number of Blankets you sleep with: one Dream Trip: there is simply so many places i’d love to visit ;;; Blog Created: nov 2011 Number of Followers: 1,2k Random Fact: more like a story than a fact but i once lost my shoe in bmth moshpit and it was JANUARY so it was below zero and snow so my friend had to help me jump with one foot back to our hotel, later my mom contacted the venue and my poor shoe was found while cleaning and mailed back to me LOL

tagged by @llucinas thanks ✨

Rules: if you can, list the Top Ten songs you are listening to lately, and tag ten mutuals to do the same!

artist vs poet - christmas with you the maine - ho ho hopefully rajaton - tonttu aqours - my 舞☆ tonight blessthefall - déjà vu radwimps - zenzenzense jfkjka can’t come up w any more right now cos all i’ve been listening lately is xmas music💦💦

tagged by @llucinas tysm ✨ 

rules: write your 10 favourite female characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people 

only ten damn bnha - uraraka ochako / asui tsuyu (can’t choose!!) love live sunshine - watanabe you fma - riza hawkeye haikyuu - yachi hitoka psycho pass - tsunemori akane kagepro - kido tsubomi  voltron - allura gsnk - sakura chiyo overwatch - d.va snk - sasha

tagged by @hajiiwa thanks  ✨

1ST RULE: Tag people you want to get to know better

2ND RULE: Fill in the categories

APPEARANCE: i’m 167 cm so if you see me with my family your first impression would be that i’m short, but if you catch me with my friends, you might think i’m actually on the taller side. i have short light brown hair and wear glasses. my normal attire is cardigans or hoodies, usually grey or black in colour aside these few light pink ones, and black skinny jeans 

PERSONALITY: i’m pretty shy so i won’t talk much unless i’m comfortable with the people i’m with (then i might not be able to shut up lmao). i get excited easily :D also sometimes get angry and frustrated easily but usually i’ll be over it in 15 minutes no matter how bad it was. also cry easily lol. so i’m p emotional i guess 

ABILITY: i’m not very good at anything lol

HOBBIES: i play mobile games, read (mostly just fanfiction these days), watch series and movies (alone or in company), chat with friends, and sometimes draw and take photos

EXPERIENCES: uni sure has been one. wow. also i’ve visited 9 countries, edinburgh being the best city i’ve been to - i spent 3 weeks there attending language and scottish culture classes at the uni ^^ otherwise my life has been quite void of “experiences” lol, but i do cherish things even a little special and different from monotonous everyday life

MY LIFE: is kinda stuck because i haven’t been able to finish my thesis. i need to get a job. and move out again. but i’m doing alright and there are things happening in the near future that i’m looking forward to ^^ but i wish i would find some direction, some dream to pursue, or even just land a job for financial security.

RELATIONSHIPS: most of my friendships are doing alright ^^ sadly with couple i feel like we are drifting apart and there is little to do. with family, i feel like everything’s alright. i’m kinda distant with many relatives i wish i was closer with though. and romantic relationships? lmao.

RANDOM STUFF: i have no idea what to write here :/ watch haikyuu 

thanks for even clicking the readmore <3

[2towels]

“That’s...a lot.” [V;LD]

A Voltron: Legendary Defender fic, Klance.

Theme: Feelings, down with the rivalry, confessions

Pairings Klance (Keith/Lance)

Rating: Rated E for Everyone, swear warning

Words Total: 2285

Tags: confessions, kisses, dealing with feelings and the rivalry, Pidge thinks everything is hilarious, truth or dare, mutual pining, insecure Lance

Summary:

"Truth." "Who's your best friend on the ship?" Pidge asked, and Lance groaned off to the side, flopping backwards in his dramatics towards the boring question and only stopping to allow Pidge to tack on, "Shiro not included. He's the obvious answer." "Uh, Lance probably." And the world seemed to still.

Of course, in all of Lance's years in space, the most surprising thing he's ever heard is Keith saying they're best friends.

Alternate Title: Lance can’t believe??? Anything Keith is saying.

Read on AO3

  They were twelve questions in, and Lance had painstakingly sat through only receiving two of them. Pidge and Hunk were smart enough not to pick him, and Keith had learned quickly that he'd take any dare from him. As it so happened, the idea of truth or dare was a very good and entertaining one, and was a decent way to pass the time when they were too wired to sleep, but no good questions were being asked, and Lance was dying. He was on his way out of this level of existence, writing in boredom, and Pidge made a insufferable show of lavishly thinking of a question for as long as she could. She called on Keith, who didn't even blink, seemingly growing bored himself, before replying.

 "Truth."

         "Who's your best friend on the ship?" Pidge asked, and Lance groaned off to the side, flopping backwards in his dramatics towards the question and only stopping to allow Pidge to tack on, "Shiro not included. He's the obvious answer."

         "Uh, Lance probably." And the world seemed to still.

         In all his time during the rough two years sailing through space in the defense of the known universe, Lance had never been so quickly stunned and silenced. Not when Allura flipped off Prince Lotor (she only even vaguely knew what the gesture meant, too!), not when the Black Lion had opened for Lance for the first time, not even when he'd seen Keith sob late into the night of Shiro's disappearance after Zarkon's defeat. Yet here he was, in a ring of truth or dare far too late at night considering they had training first thing in the morning and a planet to tour and visit immediately following. Here he was, completely silent, as Keith claimed he was his best friend aside from their fearless leader and fatherly figure.

         Pidge and Hunk were not as particularly quieted, positively roaring with laughter at Lance's mortified face. When Keith noticed what they were laughing at, he spared a glance to his supposed best friend and winced, and Lance almost felt bad to not be able to calm his own features.

         "What!?" He finally managed to squeak out, sitting up a little frantically and scooting a bit backwards, "We're rivals!"

         Keith seemed to be completely confused, his eyebrows furrowing together deeply and nose scrunching a little as he watched Lance. "What, still?"

         The Blue Paladin choked, standing and feeling his face heat up. "I-YES! What do you mean still?" They were definitely something, that was for sure, but he wasn't going to let himself get flustered with that thought process now of all times.

         Pidge rolled backwards, practically shrieking while Hunk had the decency to have calmed himself down to small snorts and snickers. "Lance-" Hunk tried to begin, "Lance, you're not. You guys are, like, practically ma--"

          "DON'T-" Lance roared, his face bright red and knowing exactly what Hunk was going to say, having heard the expression from his own best friend so many times before.

         The Red Paladin was much more composed, watching the trio calmly and sighing quietly through his nose as he landed on Lance again. "I don't...really see what the problem here is."

         "He's embarrassed!" The youngest of them wheezed in explanation, slapping Hunk's arm as they tried to sit up again. "Oh my god, Lance!"

         "That we're friends?" The innocent hurt in Keith's voice had an edge to it, like most of him tended to, and Lance knew to backtrack even in his flustered state.

         "NO! I--Not that!" He seethed, meeting Keith's glare and crossed arms as his walls started to close quickly, "I have to go! I'm going! Bye!" And Lance's long legs were already rushing out of the room in lengthy strides, practically running by the time he'd rounded out of the lounge room they'd been occupying. He moved until the new peal of Pidge's laughter had faded in his ears and the skin on his face felt much cooler, carrying himself to his own room and not even bothering with his stuffy bed as he flopped onto the floor and let out a loud and long groan to himself.

         When did they become friends?

         Well, years ago, he imagined.

         Hearing the telltale signs of Keith returning to the room adjacent to Lance's own and the shuffling sound of something being knocked over, Lance groaned again, as loud as he could, and tried to smother himself in his own bedding while he pulled it onto the floor with him. It took a full two minutes, almost to the exact second had Lance been counting (and he definitely, absolutely was not), before Keith came through his door. They had learned each other passcodes at least over a year ago, only Pidge being able to evade them all instinctively picking each other's up as they grew more comfortable with one another, but times like these made Lance regret a lot of things. He wasn't even saying anything, just standing a foot past the threshold while the door closed behind him and huffing quietly.

         Lance groaned again.

         "What are you whining about?" Keith snapped, taking the bait as he always did, and Lance buried his face further in his sheets, feeling hot again. "Get off of the floor."

         "Why did any of this happen?" Lance tried, though his voice was completely muffled.

         The standing boy scoffed, taking two steps closer, and Lance could feel the annoyance in the air. "You're not going to do the 'why us why me' routine right now. I know you're not actually complaining about being a paladin." It was a fair dismissal, but Lance felt attacked at the notion that Keith wouldn't listen to another late-night "Why were we chosen for this?" monologue. He'd listened to countless others, even partaking in his own versions every once in a while, especially around the time of him discovering his heritage. Tonight shouldn't have been any different.

         Except that it was. Because they were friends.

         At the end of this train of thought, Lance couldn't decide which part he was having a problem with; the official friends announcement or the fact that they were in the first place. Feeling Keith's glare in the silence, he figured he'd better decide on one or the other, anyway.

         "Why did any of this happen?" Lance repeated, rolling on the floor to give Keith room to sit as he always did next to him when he was having a mini-meltdown. He moved the sheets from his face finally to voice his question better, "Why did we have to be friends?"

         Every part of him expected Keith to snap out some annoyed reply, or snark his indifference, but only silence came, and that was ten times more concerning towards their relationship. When Lance lifted his head, Keith was looking back towards the door tiredly.

         "We're all best friends, Lance. That's most of the reason we can form Voltron so effortlessly, even when we're pissed at each other." Keith sighed, flexing his fingers in his lap.

         "But why am I your best best friend?" It was so childish and unnecessary of a question, considering how both of them should have been well asleep by then, but Lance couldn't resist the almost whisper of a question from leaving him.

         Keith only shrugged slowly, punctuating the motion with another sigh. "I guess you're not. Forget it." His face looked redder, and the lankier boy almost groaned aloud again at how pissed his companion must be at this whole thing to be turning different shades.

         Companion wasn't right. Best friend wasn't right.

         "I mean," Lance cleared his throat, still a little quiet as he sat up and balled up different sections of the sheets to distract himself, "I didn't think you...I don't want to turn this into another self-pity montage because I know you hate that," Keith's squint suddenly turning towards him confirmed his sentence, and he continued, "But I'm, like, nothing to you outside of Voltron."

         "We have already talked about this." Keith articulated, and Lance could see him clearly trying to not grow as frustrated as he was. His glare was vicious, but Lance knew it was at his demons much more than it was at himself. "It doesn't matter if I didn't recognize you before Voltron. You're important to me beyond the right leg now."

         Lance swallowed and sighed at the same time, pausing at the strange sensation as soon as he was done. "I wanted to be important to you, though. Then I hated you because I wasn't. Now we're best friends?" He hadn't meant the last segment of his recapping to come out as a question, nor had he really meant to say what he said at all, but it was there, lingering in the open now, and Keith looked absolutely confused.

         "You hated me for my scores."

         "I hated you for your looks."

         "You know I don't like girls?" Now Keith sounded like he was questioning, frustration melting away to make room for the entirety of his cluelessness.

         "I--" And Lance wasn't sure how to continue, grasping at air with one hand while his other fisted the sheets sporadically. "I had a crush on you." And now they were best friends. And now he was ruining it.

         "Oh." Keith said immediately, seizing up and staring with wide eyes as soon as the realization hit him completely. He looked pretty terrifying, eyebrows furrowed and mouth partly open, like someone had struck him and was about to receive the entirety of his raged retaliation. Instead, he took a full minute and a half (if you counted, like Lance wasn't) before schooling his features into a poorly masked scowl. "Had?"

         The Blue Paladin's heart felt like it was going to somersault out of his chest, heat slapping onto his face faster than he could take a breath. He shoved the sheets off of him, feeling stuffy again, and cleared his throat instead of answering while he looked away.

         "Lance." Keith beckoned, voice coming out a little strangled as he stared at the averted gaze.

         "Keith." He returned, eyes downcast and feeling sharp with embarrassed tears. He was nailing this don't-deal-with-your-space-feelings thing. Two solid years he had built up a decent relationship with his begrudging school crush. Two full years it took before he finally said the one thing that could simultaneously ruin the highest defense of the universe and any chances he had at being as casually close to Keith as he could be.

         Keith's half gloved hand was on his knee, forcing his eyes away from the floor to watch the contact. "Why would you think I would reject you?" They both knew the answer, and Keith's voice was far from soft, though there was no malice.

         Lance swallowed again. "Why wouldn't you? You don't--You never seemed like you..." His sharp eyes felt wetter than ever, and he moved his hands to cover his face in case some stray tears did dare to tread out. "And you didn't even know me." He continued as if he had finished a sentence in the first place, "Why would I assume you would reciprocate?"

         Small but calloused hands wound around Lance's wrists, pulling his hands down as Keith ducked a little to catch his gaze. "I have never seen you look at any male alien in the same way you look at every other kind." His tone was defensive, though his eyes were tender while they stared at one another, "Hunk said you were bisexual but-"

         "I was only looking at one guy." Lance couldn't resist the opportunity to cut him off, lips quirking despite his wet eyes as Keith's face spread crimson.

         "This is so stupid." Keith muttered finally, leaning forward with obvious intent towards Lance's face. He paused only a fraction of an inch from the other's lips as Lance pulled away a little.

         "You don't have to."

         And Keith growled, "I know." before kissing him hard.

         It was messy and decidedly inexperienced of a kiss, but it left both of them breathless, a little pathetically considering it had only been twenty-four seconds. In the breathy silence, Keith spoke first.

         "I'm in love with you."

         Despite being the one to have half-confessed first, Lance was practically rigid with shock, mirroring Keith's earlier pose as his eyes widened and mouth fell slack. "That's...a lot." He uttered against every will of his own.

         Keith glared. "You just told me you've had a crush on me since the Garrison." He hissed, dropping Lance's wrists and crossing his arms. His face was still red and flushed, and his foot twitched as if he was ready to bolt. He probably was.

         When his glare flicked to the door again evasively, Lance finally whispered, "I love you, too." As their eyes met again, he spoke louder. "Oh my god, we're in love."

         The angrier of the two allowed his eyebrows to raise fractionally, softening as he watched Lance calm. "We're totally in love with each other." Lance reiterated, sitting straighter, "Holy shit?"

         "Holy shit." Keith allowed him.

         "This is the best day of my space life." He said seriously, leaning forward to grab Keith's shoulders and tug him closer until their noses touched again.

         "Not your whole life?" Gloved hands skirted Lance's sides as they invaded one another's breathing once more.

         "It's tied with the day I was born. Can't trump my existence, sorry." Then they kissed again, just as messy as their first but much softer. Another followed, and another before Lance stopped to laugh, them both dissolving into giggles as they got closer. "I love you. You're my best friend, too. Holy shit, this is awesome."

[aelysalthea]

Picture Perfect People

Summary: Voltron. A place to seek companionship. Support. The consolation of like-minded people. That was what it was built for. It was what those who signed up for a membership sought. For the so-named paladins of Voltron, it is just that.

Sometimes, the people we need aren't so easily found. Sometimes we need to find them for ourselves and even then we don't realise they're found until everything just... clicks. For a patchwork of sorry people, the friendship of faceless figures was exactly what they needed.

Rating: T

Tags: AU - Modern Setting, Angst, Mutual Support, Overcoming Trials, Wholesomeness, Online Friendships, Bantering

Author’s Note: Hi everyone! I hope you like the new fic I’ve started posting (a little while ago). I’d like to think it’s just a little bit different but I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Anyway, if you’d like to check it out, you can take a look here. Posting takes place at least once a week. Thank you for your time!

Chapter 1: People

 01/09 – 07.01 am

 PrincessOfAltea: Would anyone like to talk?

 PrincessOfAltea: If I talked, would someone listen?

 PrincessOfAltea: I don't mind what we talk about. It can be anything you'd like.

 PrincessOfAltea: I just want to talk.

 PrincessOfAltea: To someone.

 PrincessOfAltea: Please.

 PrincessOfAltea: I don't like being alone.

 1/09 – 03.59pm

 PrincessOfAltea: Anyone?

There was no sound beyond the door when he pressed his ear to the wood. He knew there were those who had risen from their beds, but… at that moment, in the hallway there was no one.

Releasing a silent breath, Keith stepped back from the door. Plucking his red and white jacket from the floor, he shrugged the familiar weight onto his shoulders; it was an almost comforting weight despite the relative warmth of the morning. He slipped silently through the door.

No one was in sight, either. With slow steps, Keith crept down the hallway, easing with silent tread down the stairs. It was always better to creep, to not be noticed. If he flew beneath the radar, then there was less chance of a confrontation. Less chance to be poked and prodded. To be seen.

It was never a good idea to be seen. Not by anybody. Not of Keith could help it.

Unfortunately, the room afforded to him was at the far end of the house. The furthest end, as far from the front door as could be. He didn't begrudge it, because any room was good enough. And it was nice. Small, contained. It had a bed, a nightstand, a wardrobe with a sliding door. Even a desk of sorts, though the chair that sat at it was too high to properly tuck in.

Keith liked that it was isolated. He had grown to prefer being alone.

Tiptoeing down to the bottom of the steps, Keith crept on silent feet towards the front door. If he glanced over his shoulder, he would be able to see into kitchen. He would see the dining table where Olly sat, munching through a heaped bowl of Cap'n Crunch as he did for every breakfast. He would see Clyde sitting across from him, tearing the crust off his toast as though he was a child with pickiness issues. He'd maybe even see Sara where she bustled around the kitchen getting the two boys' lunches. Keith's too, maybe, but he wouldn't take it. He would never take it.

Slipping into his boots, Keith considered before sparing a moment to crouch and tie his laces. He could hear the sound of conversation echoing from the kitchen and into the hallway but he didn't listen to their words. He didn't want to listen. They would be talking about school, about Clyde's part-time job and Olly's sports training that afternoon. It was Monday so it would be football, but it changed every day. Keith didn't want to be a part of that. It wasn't so much that he disliked talking but just that he simply… wouldn't.

It had been the wrong choice. A bad decision. He shouldn't have paused, shouldn't have crouched to properly tie his boots. Keith should have known it was a bad idea, but he'd grown complacent over the past weeks with little incident. Avoid and evade, act only when necessary. That was the lore he lived by. Why had he chosen to disregard it?

But Peter, Sara's husband, appeared at the head of the stairs, and though his head was bowed over a tablet, the wrinkles on his brow more pronounced in a frown and eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses, he noticed Keith almost immediately. Peter was a kind man, and as it was he met Keith's frozen gaze with an attempt at a warm smile and a nod of greeting. Nothing in his countenance would suggest that Keith hadn't seen him in person in days, let alone talked to him.

"Good morning, Keith. How are you today?"

At the sounds of his words, there was a pause of the conversation in the kitchen. Silenced briefly ensued, and then there was a slight clatter as Sara's voice sounded in exclamation, "Keith? Keith, are you there? Are you awake? Would – would you like some breakfast?"

Keith reflexively glanced towards the kitchen, his eyes the only thing he could move. He saw Sara skirt the table in a bustle of haste to plant herself in the kitchen doorway and adopt an overly-bright smile of greeting, just like her husband. But more than that, over her shoulder Keith saw Clyde. He saw Olly. He saw the older boy pause in picking apart his toast and brow lower in a frown, saw Olly similarly pause with spoon half-raised to his mouth, glance towards Clyde and immediately adopt an identical frown.

Then Keith was gone. With barely a murmur of excuse to Sara's openly hopeful expression, a glance towards Peter, he abandoned the rest of his laces and was out the door. The slam of heavy wood, the click of a lock snapping shut behind him, was resounding and oddly freeing.

Avoid and evade. Confront only when necessary. That was the only way it could be. It was the only way that was safe. Keep his lips closed and interact only when he… needed to?

 Red has joined the chatroom.

"Open! I'm open, you – Oh, look at that. We can't rely on your common sense at all, Spaniel."

The so name Spaniel – Sam by birth, but Lance thought he quite resembled a dog, especially when he pouted like that – turned towards him and planted his hands on his hips. "Like you could do any better, Lance."

Lance grinned as he and his makeshift team jogged backwards to the halfway line, Martin dribbling the ball between his feet. "I reckon I could. They don't call me 'The Tailor' for nothing. It's in deference to my weaving abilities."

"I think you're a crock of shit," Martin said from his side, though he and most of the rest of Lance's teammates were laughing good-naturedly. "I've never heard anyone call you that."

"Yeah, well, that's just because no one says it out loud," Lance replied, turning his grin upon him. Then he clapped his hands together and bellowed a resounding, "Alright, let's play some ball already! While we're still young!"

Laughter and enthusiasm met his words as their backyard soccer game flew into action once more. They weren't quite two full teams, but it was enough for a good, solid game with two actual goalies this time. Far better than last week with their minimal numbers. They'd had less then, and odd numbers at that.

Martin kicked off with a firm boot of his foot, sending the ball soaring towards Lance. Lance caught it with his own foot, turned in a defensive circle to defend it from his opponent's attack, and, with a flick out of the way, was dribbling at a run up the field. A pass to Andy, to Spaniel, back to Andy again, and Andy sent it to Lance.

Lance wasn't called the Tailor for no reason, even if it was really only himself who used that nickname. He wove around his opponents. He dodged aside from an attack with a spring of dextrous footwork. He shot and he scored.

Lance's team cried in an enthusiastic outburst of triumph as though they'd just won nationals. Their opponents, good-natured as they were, didn't begrudge them their glory. They never did. It was all in good grace that they played, all for the fun of it. They played because none could play any other way. Just like Lance, they'd missed their chance to be something greater, something bigger.

The opposing team had just scored another goal to the mixed cries of congratulations and light-hearted moans of regret from Lance's team when he saw his little sister arrive. Immediately, Lance felt his smile die on his face and he slowed in step returning towards the halfway line.

Spaniel, at his side and far from persistently indignant for the use of his nickname, slowed alongside him. He noticed Lance's expression almost immediately and raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

Lance only shook his head, turned and jogged towards the side of the field. The soccer field itself was barely even half-sized, and ringed by trees alongside a children's playground. It was hardly ideal, but they would use what they could get. Sometimes, however, Lance wished that it wasn't barely a five minute walk from his home. Just a little distance would be nice.

Mika was bouncing on her toes where she stood, waiting for his arrival with dutiful respect alongside rather than upon the field. Lance loved his little sister, even as incessantly flooded with energy as she was, and she reminded him of himself in a lot of ways. That day, however, he couldn't have wanted to see her less.

Even so, Lance still adopted a smile as he drew alongside her. "Hey, Mika. What's up?"

Mika knew he knew, even though he asked. Lance could see it in the tentative smile she adopted that was a sure sight smaller than that she usually wore. She shifted from foot to foot. "Papá says he needs you at the shop if you could."

Lance found himself shifting on his own feet, struggling against the urge to groan. "Now?" He asked, almost pleadingly.

Mika ducked her head. "Yeah, now."

Lance spared a moment to close his eyes. The good humour he always felt when playing soccer was rapidly dwindling and he could feel the ball growing further and further away from him by the second. Loosing a slow exhalation, he nodded. "Alright. Yeah, alright. Give me twenty minutes. I've just got to duck home to get changed."

Mika nodded. "Okay. I'll tell Papá." Then she turned on her heel and all but fled from him, disappearing homeward at a bounding sprint.

Lance allowed himself a moment longer to close his eyes and regret. Then, to the sound of Andy's calling query, he adopted a bright smile and turned towards his teammates and opponents. "I'm really sorry, guys, but I've got to run."

A communal moan sounded, grumbles from both teams, though Lance knew that none begrudged him. "You heading to your dad's shop?" Spaniel called from where he stood, foot propped atop the soccer ball.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, sorry. I'll see you next week."

Calls of "See you" and "You'd better!" followed Lance as he turned away from the field. He didn't begrudge having to help his dad out. Not really. But sometimes… sometimes he did hope for something different. Sometimes he needed an outlet.

Still, he'd do what he had to. He always did.

 Sharpshooter18 has joined the chatroom.

The sound of the door clicking open had Pidge squeaking and leaping from her seat. She felt the same flood of irrational guilt well within her as she did when passing a policeman in the streets; she'd done nothing wrong, but reprimand seemed a surety on the horizon.

Slipping from her room and firmly closing the door behind her – her room was hers and she didn't like anyone coming inside – she hastened to the door and peered out into the hallway of her apartment.

At the far end of the hall, her mom was shrugging out of her jacket, hanging it up with practiced precision on the hook waiting alongside the door. Pidge's mom was always perfectly dressed, always appeared neatly groomed even at the very end of the day; hair in a tidy bun, clothes perfectly pressed as though they'd just been steamed, heels clicking in precise steps. Pidge didn't think she could ever be like her mom. Not in a million years.

Did she want to be? Pidge didn't know. She was still trying to figure that part out.

Swallowing her discomfort, Pidge leaned a little further out the door. She cleared her voice slightly before speaking. "Hi, Mom. You're home early."

Her mom glanced towards her, pausing as she stepped out of her heels and onto stockinged feet. She offered Pidge a small, distracted smile. "Hello, Katie. Did you have a nice day at school?" And then, before Pidge could even reply. "Have you done your homework? I hope you've done your homework before you've started playing games."

Always the reprimand, Pidge thought to herself. Why yes, Mom, if I hadn't done my homework and instead whiled the afternoon playing RPGs, I would most certainly admit it to you. Instead of speaking her thoughts, Pidge simply nodded once more. "Yes, I'm finished."

"Good girl," her mom said before, without another word, she disappeared through the doorway halfway along the hall into the kitchen and living room.

Pidge found herself releasing a sigh of relief. What had she expected? Her mom hadn't truly snapped at her in frustration in… it must have been weeks now. Months? Pidge couldn't remember. She should have confidence in her mom, she really should. Besides, when she got angry, it was always within reason. It wasn't like she would –

"Katie!"

The call echoed from the living room and Pidge flinched. Swallowing tightly once more, she leaned further out of her door. "Yes, Mom?"

"Have you had someone over today?"

Why yes, Mom, I would certainly invite someone over – and a stranger at that – because I know just how much you love people coming into your spotless house. Because you know how riddled with friends my schooling experience is. Of course I'd have every single one of them over. "No, Mom. Why?"

"Whose shoes are these, then? They're not yours."

Pidge felt herself grow cold. Shoes… when had she…? Had she left them…? Struggling to keep her voice steady, Pidge replied with as much nonchalance as she could manage. "Oh, you mean in the lounge? Yes, they're mine."

"They're… yours?"

Please don't question it, please. Really, is it that weird? It's not that weird, is it? "I bought them the other day. I wanted to try something different."

There was a long pause in which Pidge thought her heart stopped and she hardly dared breathe. Was it so bad? Was it so terrible if her mom found out? Pidge didn't need to be logical and a government proclaimed 'exceptional student' to know that it wasn't. That it should be allowed. So why didn't it feel allowed?

"This is unusual for you," her mom finally said. The soft thumps of footsteps bespoke her approach through the living room and Pidge fought to school her expression before she appeared in the hallway once more. When she did, Pidge resolutely met her gaze rather than drawing it to the shoes hooked over her fingers. "But so long as it wasn't a wasted purchase. Make sure you keep your shoes beside the door in future, please."

And just like that, the potential for a storm passed. Pidge's mom dropped the shoes beside the door and, without another glance towards Pidge, disappeared once more.

Pidge sagged at the bannister, closing her eyes as she rested her head against the railing. She shouldn't be so worried. No, she shouldn't be so scared. And yet she was. Against all logic – because she didn't know how her mom would respond – she was starkly terrified. If her brother Matt were here, he would help. He would be able to reassure her.

But he wasn't. And riddled with a mixture of guilt, relief and self-loathing, Pidge all but crawled back into her bedroom. Her room was her sanctuary. Her place. She didn't have to hide anything there. She could be herself, with just her computers for company.

 DiffWitch has entered the chatroom.

It was early evening by the time they got home, but that hardly mattered. Hunk was as bright and wide-awake as if he'd just gotten up barely hours before. Which, he would admit, he sort of had. Semi-nocturnal work hours did that to a person.

"I'll set up a better ramp," Hunk said as he and his mom trundled up the footpath along the main road. He turned her chair at their gate to sidle through the fence that skirted their squat little house. "It shouldn't be too hard seeing as there's only two steps, but it'll be better then having to shake you so much when we're on the move. I'm sorry the other one broke; I probably didn't reinforce it well enough. I'll make it better next time."

His mom didn't reply. She didn't turn to look at Hunk over her shoulder as he spoke, as he pushed her wheelchair towards the shallow steps before their front door. But Hunk didn't mind. He didn't need her acknowledgement.

"I bet I could rustle together a whole bunch of ramps, actually," he said, weaving around a piece of… something that he didn't want to think about that lay in the middle of their path. There was always junk thrown into their front lawn; Hunk's dad wasn't a popular person. Or he hadn't been. Despite his complete absence of nearly two years, Hunk was still forced to scrub graffiti from their front windows every so often, to say nothing of the rubbish that was lobbed onto their front lawn every other day.

Hunk ignored that, kept his tone bright as they wheeled the rest of the way up the footpath to the front door. "Larry from down at the shop said he'd be happy to give me some scrap metal and timber if I need it." Hunk turned his mother's chair around as he stopped at the steps before tugging her up after him with a grunt. "You know I," he paused at another grunt, "I think he likes you. He's always had a soft spot for our family but I'm pretty sure it's mostly you."

Still no reply, but Hunk still wasn't expecting one. His mom hadn't spoken a word in nearly a year. Not since the first incident.

The house was empty when Hunk opened the door, propping it wide enough for him to wheel his mom inside. A small house, just large enough for the two of them and his Gran when she came around almost every day, it was a blessing that it was only one level so that Hunk didn't have to struggle with more stairs.

Wheeling his mom into the kitchen, he kicked one of the chairs out from the dining table aside to make room to tuck her in. He paused to read the note in his gran's slanted script, made out the words 'I'll be back by six', before disregarding it and turning towards his mom. "Can I get you something to eat, maybe? I know you had something at the hospital but everyone knows hospital food can barely even be classified as real food." Hunk skirted the table, glancing in his mom's direction before turning away from her blank gaze once more. "Here, I'll bake you up some shortbread. I know you always like my shortbread. You said it was proof that I was an angel when I was little, do you remember? Maybe not, but I do."

Without further ado, Hunk set about throwing together a simple batch of biscuits, chattering to himself and his mom as he did. The familiar sounds of a wooden spoon scraping in the bowl, of trays clanking noisily, of the oven humming to life, were soothing to Hunk. He'd always been a kitchen boy in the brightest sense of the term. He enjoyed cooking. It was no wonder that he found himself there for most of the day when he was home. Larry, his local mechanic, had on numerous occasions asked him to apprentice down at the shop – he said Hunk had a gift for engineering that he shouldn't squander, even if he wasn't going to college – but in a lot of ways Hunk thought working in a kitchen suited him better.

Besides, this way his hours corresponded with those his mom would need him more. It wasn't fair to rely too heavily on his Gran, willing as she claimed to be.

The rich, heady scent of butter flooded the house with warmth, and as Hunk cleaned the kitchen with therapeutically familiar motions, he found himself smiling. Nothing quite lightened the mood like a batch of homemade biscuits. He was still smiling when he took himself to the dining table and dropped into the chair opposite his mom.

"I only made a small batch – only about a dozen – because we'll probably have to hide them all before Gran gets here," Hunk explained, wiping his hands on a tea towel before folding it before him on the table. He dropped his elbows alongside it, resting his chin on a fist and meeting his mom's gaze. "I think she's only having us on, though. I don't think she really disapproves sweet things."

Hunk grinned, fond reminiscence of his Gran turning teasing. His mom didn't reply.

"I asked Pops one time when I was little why she didn't like baking so much when she was such a good cook, and he said it wasn't that she didn't like it but that she liked it too much. He said she liked it so much that when she was younger she was as plump as a well-fed chook and had to stop or else she'd pop." He laughed and spared a glance down for his own belly. "I guess she passed that on to me, at least."

His mom still didn't reply. She didn't smile but simply stared at Hunk blankly, barely even blinking. Hunk swallowed his rising melancholy, that which always arose when he was left with himself for too long, and reaffirmed his smile.

"Did Gran do any baking with you, Mom? I wonder if she stopped before she had you or if it was after."

No reply.

"If I asked Gran to bake with me, do you think she would? She pretends to be a bit so hard, but I know she's as soft as cookie dough. Do you think I could trick her into it? I think it's a great way to bond and all that, working in the kitchen with someone and sharing what you've made.

Still nothing. Nothing but the increasingly strong scent of baking shortbread growing in the air. Hunk stared at his mom to the gradual falling of his smile. Sometimes it was just too hard to maintain.

Sighing, he dropped his chin, gaze falling down to the pockmarked table. There was the mark he'd made when he'd put the oven-hot tray upon it surface when he was six. Over there, the groove made by a wayward knife – and a butterknife at that – when he'd tried to cut through a rock cake that was truly as hard as a rock at ten years old. Scarred and bruised, the table bespoke the centre of Hunk's house and home better than any other piece of furniture did. It held memories, their dining table did.

"Wish you could bake with me again, Mom. I miss our Sunday morning bake-offs."

Hunk was speaking more to himself that to his mom now. On an innate level, he knew that she wouldn't reply. On a level that he didn't and wouldn't acknowledge, he understood that she never would. One stroke was bad luck. Two was horrendous. Three… it was a miracle that his mom was even still alive. No one really expected her to do more than blink for herself ever again.

"I miss that, Mom," Hunk murmured to himself, because he wasn't sure if she'd even hear it. A miracle it might be that his mom was still even here, but sometimes…

Sometimes it did feel incredibly lonely.

 Butterfingers has entered the chatroom.

The last thing Shiro recalled was an explosion. A fierce, sharp, booming echo that vibrated to his core, and the smacking impact of a force striking his shoulder, tearing his assault rifle from his hand.

Then nothing. He couldn't remember any pain, no bouts of hysteria in half-consciousness, no struggling to cling to awareness when every inch of his body was fighting to stay awake. There was just nothingness.

That scared Shiro more than anything.

Blinking into wakefulness, Shiro squinted around himself. Brightness. He got a sense of brightness, of light, and the smell of something vaguely sterile. Then the blurriness of his vision faded and the room made itself more clearly apparent.

Not a room. Not quite. A tent, he saw, though an expansive one. A familiar tent, for everyone knew what a field hospital looked like even if they hadn't had to utilise the services of one before. The longer Shiro squinted the less bright it became until, with a final blink to vanquish most of the foggy blurriness, he peered around himself.

Rows of beds lined each side of him. A white, curving ceiling sagged slightly like the tent it was. Fluorescent lights lined the very centre of that ceiling. Turning his head, Shiro could make out the vague shapes of figures in scrubs pulled over their uniforms. Another series of fierce blinking and Shiro realised his head wasn't quite as clear as he'd hoped he'd made it. Grogginess slowed his thoughts, cluttering his mind as if with cotton wool. He had the sense of it stoppering somehow, of numbness, of discomfort thinly veiled behind that softness, but he couldn't make it out.

 What… happened?

Maybe he made some noise. Maybe he moved a little more noticeably than before. Shiro wasn't sure, but something must have drawn the attention of the field medics at the far end of the tent because the conversation paused for a moment before one figure detached themselves from the group and hastened to his side. Shiro was afforded a sense of blue, of efficient motions, of a pale face, above said face was leaning over him slightly with a small smile upon her lips. She was a little older than him, it would seem, though Shiro wasn't sure how he knew. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe he was wrong entirely.

"Hello, Shirogane," she said, her voice low and deliberately soothing. "How are you feeling today?"

Shiro blinked slowly before, with a herculean effort and a frown to accompany it, he struggled to push himself upright. The medic reached for him and a gentle touch to his shoulder was all that was needed to erase his feeble efforts. "Don't try and move. You might do yourself further injury. Not to mention that you're heavy medicated at the moment and would be more likely to fall off your bed than to climb."

Injured? It was the only part that made any sense in Shiro's mind. What… what injury? Shiro couldn't remember getting injured. He couldn't recall being carted to the field hospital, but… there had been the explosion.

What had happened? He couldn't remember.

He must have spoken his thoughts because, though he couldn't recall asking, the medic spoke in reply. "You checked in at oh-six-hundred hours two mornings ago in a critical state," she said quietly, softly yet with the edge of formality to her words. "We've had to keep you under until we managed to get you stable."

"What happened to me?" Shiro actually heard himself ask the question this time, blinking up at the medic hazily. His tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth. "What's wrong? What –?" He paused as the thought registered within him with a detached kind of panic. "What about the rest of my – my platoon? Is – my captain, was he -?"

Shiro didn't know what made him think they were in danger because he couldn't remember what had happened. In many ways that was the most distressing part. Why couldn't he remember?

But the medic was touching his shoulder once more, her fingers squeezing gently. "They're fine. No severe casualties other than to yourself, and those that have acquired injuries have already been seen to." She gestured up the length of the tent and Shiro followed her finger to several occupied beds, the soldiers within propped up on their pillows. He couldn't make out who they were, but he was relieved that they seemed alright nonetheless.

"That's… that's good," he said, sinking back onto the thin pillow. "That's alright, then."

The medic offered him another small smile before continuing. "You arrived in a critical condition, Shirogane. We've stabilised you but, given your circumstances, you'll need to transfer to back to base. We'll have our specialists take a further look at you there, but… I'm sorry. There wasn't much we could do."

Her regretful tone was ominous and Shiro stared up at her with growing foreboding. "What… are you talking about? What's wrong?"

The medic gestured towards him, towards his right shoulder that was even then, in spite of his attempts to sit up, still tucked beneath the thin white sheet. "I'm sorry. We couldn't do anything to save it."

In a fumbling scramble, Shiro flipped the sheet down from his shoulder and dropped his gaze. He stared. And stared. And only after it gradually began to make sense did he close his eyes and squeeze them to try to rid himself of the sight he'd seen.

"I'm truly sorry, Shirogane," the medic murmured, all smile absented from her voice. "You have responded bravely and remarkably, but we'll be transferring you as soon as is possible. You should take this time to rest and recuperate. To regroup. There's nothing else that you could have…"

Shiro tuned out the medic's words. He didn't want to hear them. He couldn't let himself hear them anymore. The army was his life, had always been his dream, but now… with his arm like that…

What possible use did he have now? What function could he possibly serve to the army he'd so fought to be a part of?

The thought was horribly depressing and Shiro didn't speak another word before he was transferred out.

 08/09 – 09.12pm

 BlackLion007 has entered the chatroom.

 BlackLion007: Hello, Princess.

 BlackLion007: I'd be more than willing to listen to you.

 BlackLion007: Although forgive me if I interrupt. I have a tendency to engage in two-way conversations.

 PrincessOfAltea: Oh, but of course! What kind of a conversation wouldn't involve the participation of two people?

 PrincessOfAltea: Hello, Sir Knight, it's a pleasure to meet you.

 BlackLion007: Knight? That seems a little too honourable for me, I'm afraid.

 PrincessOfAltea: Not in the least. You spoke to me when I asked and that was what I needed most. But would you prefer something else?

 BlackLion007: Something else?

 PrincessOfAltea: Warrior? Champion? Paladin, perhaps? I always liked that one.

 BlackLion007: That's quite a range of possibilities you've given me there. Tell me, Princess, are you perhaps a walking thesaurus?

 PrincessOfAltea: Well, I'm not sure about that, but I do try.

 PrincessOfAltea: Do you have a preference?

 BlackLion007: Do we need a name?

 PrincessOfAltea: But of course we do. How else will we refer to ourselves?

 BlackLion007: Well in that case, I wouldn't presume to steal the honour of our naming from you, Princess. You are, after all, the instigator.

 PrincessOfAltea: The instigator? Hm… I'll have to consider that.

 PrincessOfAltea: But I suppose I'll take this as an opportunity. You will be my paladin. Yes, I think that has a nice ring to it.

 BlackLion007: I live to serve, Princess. Your word is my command.

 PrincessOfAltea: I don't really have a command. I just want to talk. And listen. Is that alright?

 BlackLion007: Of course.

 BlackLion007: I think for me that sounds just about perfect.

 BlackLion007: Forgive me if I sound dramatic, but I think that's exactly what I need right now.