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hk-magicalhumanau · 3 years ago

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HK Human AU- Standard Love triangle Drama starring Xero's parents (OC's).

Since I really like to expand on Xero and Shiro's highschool life, I ended up expanding on Xero's family. But This is purely about his parents. Think of it as a standard family drama that involves a love triangle.

Disclaimer: At this point this is not even based on the game anymore and more like a telenovela filled with OC's. This is just a reimagining and fan fiction. Many will be so out of character and warped beyond recognition for the purpose of the plot. The only cannon character here is Xero and he is not born yet.

Now for his parents:

Zorro - Xero’s father, a policeman and later captain who also has a strong sense of justice. Left when Xero was 5.

Xena - Xero’s mother and Zorro's childhood best friend. She is still in love with Zorro even though he is married to another woman but kept it to herself for Zorro's sake. Though she still clung to that dream of having a happy family with him.

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This is set years before Xero was born. Zorro, his father, was a married man and a rising police officer, but he was also having arguments with his wife over the demands of his job. As a man dedicated to his career of upholding the law, he have a very strong sense of justice and would jump into risky situations that can almost get him killed. After he managed to diffuse a difficult kidnapping case, he got hurt badly and was hospitalized for days. His wife got extremely worried after this continued to go on, she did asked that Zorro take some time off or give the cases he is working on to someone else so he won’t end up in the hospital or worse, but he argues back that he is the only one who can be trusted with it.

Zorro is known in his precinct as one of the few who will always refuse bribes. Because he is unwilling to cooperate, Zorro tends to receive death threats which he would always miraculously evade. He is also constantly at odds with some of his own colleagues who have been accepting bribes, most of these are from rich parents who want to get their drug-using kids out of prison and to have all records wiped clean.

After a very tense summer involving a very unhappy business owner, lots of bullets flying in the precinct, and a very, very determined Zorro. All of his corrupt colleagues were exposed along with their contacts.

While Zorro was hailed as an incorruptible hero, his wife only got even more worried.

Zorro and his wife’s arguments got more heated over the months until Zorro could no longer stand the intense air anymore. He would leave the house for a few hours to calm down. If he can't return by the end of the day, he would go to his childhood best friend Xena to talk.

Xena is always willing to listen to Zorro complain, rant, and generally enjoy his company again but they never sleep in the same room. This would go on for half a year.

Sooner or later, people starts to notice Zorro leaving the house of a woman that is not his wife. Some of these people are those who don't like Zorro for being a "goody two-shoes" and not cooperating with their demands. If they cannot get him to bend, they can try to sabotage his personal life.

Eventually Zorro's wife heard rumors that Zorro was seeing another woman, and she demanded a divorce from Zorro if it is true.

Zorro is even more distraught and always denies this. The fights got worse until Zorro couldn't stay in his house anymore due to the intense air and questions from his youngest son.

Zorro decided to go to the only person he can trust and that is Xena. He stayed in Xena’s house to calm down and think of a way to diffuse the situation with his wife.

One night when the two were drinking the night away while chatting like college times, Zorro drank way too much from the stress on his job and his family. This left him in an emotionally and physically vulnerable state,

Xena, who is also drunk, she lost all self-control and only saw a way to get a night together with the man of her dreams, even if said man won’t remember it the next morning.

Xena was in love with Zorro ever since he saved her from bullies when they were 12 years old and encouraged her to be stronger in life. This led to Xena’s success in her career. Without Zorro, Xena would have never had the guts to aim high despite her family's poor background. She became the main breadwinner of her family, paying for her mother’s debts and medical bills. Now she have a stable job and enough money to pay for support her and her mother.

Normally she would keep her feelings to herself since Zorro is married to someone else. Zorro is not fully aware that Xena still harbors intense feelings for him as Xena keeps saying she is okay with Zorro’s marriage, and Zorro believes what his best friend is saying.

Even though this is far from the truth, Xena even once wrote a fanfiction of her and Zorro getting married. When she was invited to Zorro's wedding, she burned her old stories to hide it.

1 month after that drunken night, Xena started to feel sick and was confirmed to be pregnant. Internally she is happy that she is fulfilling her childhood fantasy of having a kid with Zorro. But Zorro is even more distraught now that he has actually cheated on his wife.

Zorro became a police officer due to his strong sense of justice, his dislike against unfairness that was born after living with his drunk and abusive father but he did something that is very unfair to not only his family, but also to Xena and his future child.

Zorro still loves his wife deeply and mostly sees Xena as a trusted friend more similar to a brother or a cousin, rather than a lover. He decided in the end that he will try to get back with his wife. But he kept on visiting Xena and spent some nights at her house to help her during her pregnancy. Xena is not mad at seeing Zorro again, in any case she will always welcome Zorro in her house, even though it hurts her to see him leave every time.

As soon as Xero was born, Zorro and his wife got in a huge fight and the two agreed on a divorce. Since then Zorro stayed in Xena’s house.

Despite falling out with his wife. Zorro and his wife still harbor feelings for each other and after 2 years they calmed down enough that they can talk to each other again without constantly pointing fingers. They also talked things out and rekindled their relationship.

Zorro’s wife, after 2 years of not talking with her ex-husband, calmed down enough to admit that her intense reactions and demands is what drove Zorro to leave the house. Zorro’s wife is still not exactly happy Zorro has a child with a woman she trusted in the past.

She and Xena actually got along when they met since Xena is kind and a generally fun person to be with, but now this felt like a huge betrayal. Zorro’s wife may not want to see Xena for a while. So when she and Zorro got back together, she told Zorro she would only agree to re-marry him if they start over again in a new town. That would mean Zorro will have to leave Xena and Xero.

Zorro, now aware of Xena’s infatuation for him, knows that she will not be happy about this and he fears it will affect their friendship. A friendship he values very much since it helped him survive his drunk and abusive father as a child. He also cares deeply for his youngest son Xero, who was named by combining Xena and Zorro’s names.

This is Xena’s idea. And while Zorro finds it a bit creepy, he lets Xena have her way since she looks really happy when she told him that and Zorro can’t get himself to ruin her happiness.

Zorro finds Xero really cute and sees his own energy and enthusiasm within Xero. But the situation starts to remind him of his own childhood when his father slowly became an alcoholic and unintentionally abusive when his own mother left to be with a younger man. At first Zorro didn’t understand why his parents were fighting, until he heard a slap when his mother hit his father and stormed out the door. Zorro remember nights where his father cried himself to sleep while Zorro just sat outside the bedroom door listening. Over the years Zorro witnessed his father slowly bring more alcohol, getting out less, eating far more and generally becoming more depressed until he became a shadow of the once-loving father Zorro knew. Soon Zorro’s father started to be more aggressive to Zorro over little things when he is drunk, channeling his anger of his failed marriage to Zorro.

Despite that, Zorro can never truly hate his father as he remembers he can be a great father when his mother was still around. But that was years ago and it Zorro accepted that his father is too broken. Zorro never visited his father ever since he left for college. Only returning when he was invited to do his father’s eulogy when he was older.

Zorro learned that his father died in the kitchen. He slipped and fell but his overweight body due to his unhealthy lifestyle made it too difficult for him to get up, or rather he don't any will to get up until he drowned in his own saliva.

Zorro is now scared that he is repeating what his mother did and don't want his kids to experience the same thing he did as a child. Watching their parents fight until one leaves and witness the remaining parent fall to crippling despair. He heard from his friends that his ex-wife has been suffering from growing insomnia and loosing weight ever since the divorce.

That one drunken night may have been a slip-up for Zorro but Xena never regretted it. And she still has that intense desire to keep Zorro which got even more stronger when Xero was born. So she starts looking at Zorro’s text messages when he is not looking, to find that Zorro and his ex wife are now on talking terms.

In fear of Zorro leaving, she starts guilt-tripping Zorro by using Xero as an excuse for him to stay or just abandon his previous family. Saying that Xero will be denied the love of a father his whole life compared to the 2 other kids who Zorro spent more years with, and said in her words “Xero’s future is better than theirs”.

But mentioning the other kids only made Zorro snap with the way Xena called them unimportant. He harshly explained that the 2 other kids she sees lowly off, are also two innocent naïve children who just experienced the pain of seeing their parents fight, not understanding any of it and end up blaming themselves. Before leaving, Zorro overheard his 3 year old son, who was born with a physical impairment, blame himself for his parents fighting. The young one believed the fight is because he was born missing a limb unlike the other normal kids.

Xena didn’t say anything afterwards after realizing how unhappy and miserable Zorro is. She knows of the relationship between Zorro and his father and how the situation now is starting to mirror Zorro’s parents.

When Zorro broke the news that he got back together with his ex-wife and the condition that he will leave the town once they remarry. Xena is heart-broken, but she still encourages Zorro to go. She has Xero now and that will have to be enough for her.

Xena named him by combining the names of hers and Zorro, as a way to preserve her dream of having a life together with Zorro even if it’s not a reality.

Continuation but it mostly expands the other characters.---

#hk #hk au #hollow knight au #hollow knight #human au #This is mostly just OC's #except for Xero #but he's not born yet #au fic #Xero AU #Xero's dad #Xero's mom #Xero's Dad's wife #Zorro #Xena

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justheretobreakthings · 5 years ago

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Kings Over Aces - Chapter 2

(Previous Chapter) (Next Chapter)

Word Count: 3,114 (Total Word Count: 6,290) Read on AO3

Story Summary:

The Voltron Coalition has an alliance in the works with the resource-rich planet of Yuipra, and it’s the paladins’ job to keep on the king’s good side while the deal is made. That shouldn’t shouldn’t be too great a challenge; after all, they’ve courted plenty of planets before for the sake of alliances.

Unfortunately, things are made much more complicated when the king takes a special interest in Keith.

Fic content warnings for attempted rape/non-con.

“I’m telling you, he wants me,” Lance said, for what was probably the dozenth time since breakfast.

Pidge rolled her eyes, stretching her leg out along the couch to kick Lance where he was seated on the opposite cushion without moving from where she’d comfortably settled with her tablet. The paladins were spending their downtime after training this morning in the lounge, all having claimed their usual spots to relax, but Lance harping on about last night’s dinner was making it even more difficult than usual - which was saying something, as the weirdly translated Altean books Keith tried to pass time with were hard enough to focus on anyway. “He does not ‘want’ you,” she said. “You think every person we ever meet at these coalition things ‘wants’ you, and how many times has that been the case?”

“Plenty of times,” Lance answered. “I’m not gonna be able to keep track exactly.”

“It’s sort of a numbers game by this point, isn’t it?” Hunk asked, tilting his head back from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor in front of the other two to join the conversation. “You flirt with basically every single person you find attractive - ”

“ - And your standards for that aren’t exactly sky-high,” said Pidge, “So you’ve probably hit on like five hundred people since we got shot out into space. Which would make your success rate - ”

“All right, I see where this math is going,” Lance groaned. “For your information, I do not flirt with nearly that many people.”

“Good point,” Pidge said. “Just winking and making finger guns probably doesn’t count. Or at least only counts as, like, half a flirt.”

“It’s not - you know what, whatever. We’re not talking about my overall track record, just last night. And that king was totally into me. Basically talked just to me the entire night. You saw, right, Keith?” He turned to Keith, who silently cursed his inability to turn invisible. “Back me up here.”

“Um,” Keith said. “Well, you certainly talked to him a lot.”

“I was replying to him, that’s how conversations work. But he was totally flirting with me, right?”

“Uh…”

Lance huffed and crossed his arms. “Okay, that doesn’t count for anything. Keith probably wouldn’t recognize flirting if his life depended on it.” Keith let out a little harrumph of indignation. Sure, that was true, but there was no need to just announce it like that.

“Nah, I’m gonna go ahead and take his testimony as gospel,” Pidge said. “Sorry, Lance. You bombed.”

“Need me to get Kaltenecker to make you some ice cream?” Hunk asked, reaching up to pat Lance on the leg.

“I’m like two seconds away from slapping all of you.”

“The bitter sting of rejection is such an ugly look on you,” Pidge said drily. A small beep sounded from her tablet, and a moment later, she sat up. “Allura just messaged. They’re getting an incoming signal from Yuipra, we’re probably gonna solidify alliance terms. Gotta go join ‘em in the bridge.”

Lance groaned. “Why do we all have to go? Shiro and Allura are in charge of all of that.”

“I dunno, to make a good impression?” Pidge stretched as she stood from the couch. “Besides, you should be excited. Get another chance to talk to the love of your life.”

“At no point did I ever say anything about him being the ‘love of my life’,” Lance said as he and Hunk reluctantly stood too. “All I said was that he wants me. Which I still maintain is one hundred percent true.”

“If you say so. You coming, Keith?”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Keith said. He shut off his electric reader and dropped it onto the seat to come back to later before joining the others, shuffling in behind them for the short walk to the bridge.

When they arrived, joining Allura and Shiro on the deck, the holoscreen was already on and tuned to an image of King Olren, the arms of two of his ever-present guards just on the edges of the frame. The discussion was already in motion, but Olren paused mid-sentence as the door to the bridge slid open.

“Ah, the rest of your paladins have arrived, I see,” he said, smiling down at them as they took their places on the bridge. “It is a delight to see you all again.”

“You too, your majesty,” Hunk said.

Allura smiled as she looked back over her shoulder at the others. “King Olren was just telling us that he was quite impressed by our performance yesterday, as well as our engagement with his people at the banquet.”

“Quite so,” Olren said with a nod. “Your presence went over very well amongst my nobility. And, of course, I was just as enamored by Voltron as anyone in my court. Your knowledge and passion are obvious. Now, I’ve spent the morning reviewing the terms of our potential alliance with my advisors. Yuipra’s stance on interplanetary relations is perfectly in line with your current mission statement of resistance against the Galra empire and liberation of those under its control. However, I must confess slight apprehension over how the citizenry would respond to engaging in a conflict in which we are currently not directly involved. As your proposed terms are outlined right now, the use of our resources versus the coalition benefits that you would grant us in return seem rather unbalanced.”

“That’s only in the short term,” Shiro spoke up. “We may currently be thin on benefits, but that’s entirely due to past Galra occupation that we are working to wipe out. Already we’re seeing the signs of environmental improvements and economic growth from planets that have been liberated and are being helped by the Coalition now. The trade agreements and political relations we build now will yield positive growth over time, and in the long run it’ll more than offset the costs of your involvement.”

“And you have evidence to back your claims of long-term benefits?”

“I would be more than happy to send you any details about the Coalition’s fiscal plans and projections of resource growth that you need,” said Allura. “You will find that we have been nothing but meticulous.”

Olren nodded. “That would do nicely, Princess, if you would be so kind. I must admit, your confidence alone is quite the sales pitch.” Allura lifted her chin, a proud smile on her lips, and Olren grinned back. “The rapid creation and propagation of the Voltron coalition makes ever more sense. It’s certainly likely that Yuipra will have its part in it as you make history.”

“We thank you, your majesty,” Allura said.

“I am still not, however, quite ready yet to solidify an alliance with your coalition,” Olren continued, and Allura deflated. “Not due to problems with any stipulations we’ve laid out as yet, but because I like to know those with whom I ally on a more… personal level, you see. It is one thing to be able to ally with someone politically, but such bonds are far more meaningful, not to mention harder to break, when they are personalized to a nigh emotional level. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Allura paused a moment before answering, “Well - well, yes, of course. I completely understand where you are coming from.”

“Excellent. Now, I’ve gotten a bit of a chance to gain some familiarity during our banquet, but if Voltron would be so willing to indulge me, I really prefer to do so more privately. One-on-one, actually.”

“All right,” Allura said slowly. “So, erm, what, exactly, are you proposing?”

“Suppose I’ll get right down to it,” Olren said through a little breath of a laugh. “I wish to host an intimate dinner in my private dining room tomorrow evening. And I would like your red paladin to accompany me as my date.”

Lance cast the others a grin - a smirk that seemed to say, I told you so - before he stepped forward and bowed grandly. “Your majesty,” he said as he straightened up, “It would be an honor to - ”

“No, no, not him,” Olren said, waving a hand dismissively. “The red paladin.”

“I am the red - ” Lance started, before his face fell and his eyes widened. “Wait, do you mean - are you - are you talking about Keith?!” he spluttered, gesturing with his thumb toward Keith, who stood in stunned silence as all the eyes in the room spun toward him.

“Yes. Keith,” Olren said with a smile. “I do hope you will accept my invitation?”

“Uh - I - I - ” Keith stammered out.

“Is, ah, is that really necessary?” Shiro asked. “Voltron functions as a unit, you see, and there’s no need to have only one of us to dinner rather than the whole group.”

“If you function as a unit, then your red paladin’s character should reflect that of all of you,” Olren said. “You need not worry, really, over the effect on our potential alliance. I must admit, I’ve found myself quite taken with his disposition already. But you do understand why I may want to take the time to personally assure myself that we will be a good match, yes?”

“Understandable, yes,” Allura said. “I’m sure that we can arrange - ” She paused as she glanced back over her shoulder at Keith, whose knees were growing shaky and who had long since felt his face heating into a bright red.

Allura furrowed her brow and turned back toward Olren. “Could you please grant us a few doboshes to discuss our availability?” she asked. “We will be happy to resume this conversation shortly.”

“Of course,” Olren said. “I look forward to a call. And I must admit, I do expect to like what I hear. I’m not in the habit of taking ‘no’ for an answer.” He cast them all one last smile before his holoscreen went dark and then disappeared.

Allura let out a breath before turning around toward Keith. “Keith,” she said. “Are you ill?”

Keith blinked at her. “Am I… what?”

“You look ill.”

Slowly he shook his head. “No, I’m - I’m not sick.”

“Because if you have any sort of bug that the king might catch, that would certainly not reflect well, nor be ideal for you and your state of mind during a dinner. Or if something in their meal disagreed with you - ”

“It’s just, um - this is - he said.” Keith took a deep breath. “He said - he said he wanted me to be his date.”

“Yes?” Allura said. “And?”

“And, well, I, uh - I don’t - I don’t really have - ” Allura tilted her head, and Keith took a deep breath before finishing, “I don’t date.”

“Oh for the love of - ” Lance groaned. “Of course. Of course Mullet’s never been on a date before. We should’ve known.”

“Is that all?” Allura asked. “Keith, I’m sure it won’t be much of a problem. Everyone gets nervous the first time they go on a date. We could always go through some etiquette with you, some conversation starters. We’ll no doubt have to brief you on a number of courting customs anyway, seeing as nobility is rather more particular in how they go about it, but I’m certain that - ”

“No, look, that’s not it,” Keith interrupted. “It’s - it’s not that I haven’t dated. I mean, I, um, I haven’t, but it isn’t - it’s just that, I don’t date.”

“I’m… not sure I follow,” Allura said.

With a grunt of frustration, Keith brought a hand up to card his fingers through his hair as he searched for the words to explain it in a way she’d understand. “I just - I don’t do that, I - I don’t feel the things that people are supposed to feel when - when they’re on dates, like, the romance and all, they - they don’t - ”

“Hang on,” Pidge interrupted, lifting a hand and peering at him with narrowed eyes through her glasses. “Keith, are you aro?”

Keith felt his voice halt in his throat, and he crossed his arms and took a step back, ducking his head a little as he closed in on himself and avoided looking at his teammates’ faces. It wasn’t that he thought they’d react badly to it, or judge him for it - at least, he sure hoped they wouldn’t. It was just that this was personal, and he much would’ve preferred to come out when he was actually ready to, not just… like this.

But, of course, now that it was out there, it was out there. Not like there was any point in denying it. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Um, aroace, to be specific, but, uh, yeah. Yeah.”

He dared a glance up beneath his lashes. Pidge was nodding slowly in understanding, and Shiro was more or less expressionless - he’d already known, after all. The others all just appeared to be confused.

“I’m sorry, arrow?” Allura said. “Pidge, what is that?”

“Aro. Short for aromantic,” Pidge answered. “Means he doesn’t feel romantic attraction.”

“Wait, for real?” Lance said, his brow wrinkling and his eyes scanning Keith up and down as if looking for some sort of clue on his clothes to verify it.

“Yes, for real,” Keith snapped. “Why the fuck would I lie about something like that?”

Lance lifted his hands innocently. “Shit, man, I wasn’t accusing you of lying. Just, you know, processing the new information. Guess that kinda clears up some of the rumors that were going around the Garrison…”

For a moment Keith was about to demand some follow-up about these rumors, but decided to let it go for now. He’d overheard plenty of gossip about himself as a student on every other subject - whether he cheated on the sims and how he did it, how he got into the Garrison, his juvie history, his relationship to Shiro, his family. A couple rumors about his sexuality were a mere drop in the bucket. It wasn’t important now.

What was important was the matter at hand: the dinner date with King Olren. “Look, the point is, I don’t do the whole ‘dating’ thing. It’s - it’s not my thing. I wouldn’t be able to pull it off.”

Allura crossed her arms, tapping her finger pensively against her elbow. “Well, what if we trained you on it?”

Keith frowned at her. “What?”

“On dating. I’m sure we’d be able to give you sufficient instruction to handle a single dinner date. If we trained you, do you think you’d be able to manage?”

Keith took a step back. “Allura, I told you, I don’t feel - ”

“I know, I understand. I’m not asking you to be attracted to him. I know you can’t control that. But I also know that this could be a very advantageous alliance for Voltron, and a date with you seems to be the deciding factor. Would it be at all possible for you to, er… fake it?”

“Fake it?” Keith repeated incredulously.

“Yeah, yeah, that could work,” Lance said, nodding. “I mean, that’s not exactly hard to pull off, right? I’ve faked my way through dates before. You know, I meet someone online, but when I show up to the restaurant for a date it turns out they’re a total weirdo, so I smile through the dinner and make small talk and just sorta, like, humor them. Let them have a nice evening then get the fuck outta there.”

“What, you can’t just be up front about not liking them?”

“It’s called manners, Mullet.”

“Look, I’m not going to - ”

“They do kind of have a point, Keith,” Shiro interrupted.

Keith turned to him, taken aback. If anyone knew how uncomfortable Keith was over the concept of dating, it would be Shiro. Keith had only even learned about aromanticism and asexuality because Shiro had explained them to him, back in their Galaxy Garrison days, and his surrogate brother had held his hand tightly through the process of coming out for the first time. So him saying that Allura and Lance ‘had a point’ about sending him on a date… it was unexpected, to say the very least. “Shiro?” he said. “You - you think I should…”

“Keith, I’m not saying you need to, uh, take it very far,” Shiro said slowly. “I know you’ve got your boundaries, and I respect them. It’s just, well, it isn’t as though Olren is asking for your hand in marriage or anything. All he’s requested is a dinner date. I realize that it wouldn’t be a comfortable experience, but one awkward evening in exchange for all the resources Yuipra can offer… It would be a shame to have to pass it up.”

“Exactly,” said Allura, giving Shiro a grateful nod. “There’s no need to make it a bigger deal than it is. One dinner date. That’s all.”

“I mean, Olren’s certainly not my type either,” Shiro said with a shrug. “But if it was me he’d asked after, well, I wouldn’t love it, but I’d take one for the team, you know?”

Something rolled in Keith’s stomach and he swallowed down a lump in his throat. That was true. Shiro would do this without hesitation. Hell, even if it had been a woman asking, which would definitely leave Shiro uncomfortable to all get out, he would take the fall. Because that’s what he does - he makes sacrifices for his team. That’s what a leader does. And Keith was the leader now.

One date, he repeated mentally. He could handle just one date, surely. For Voltron’s sake.

“All right,” he said, his voice coming out sounding quieter and dryer than he would have liked. “All right, I’ll, uh, I’ll do it. You can let him know.”

Allura let out a breath of relief and smiled at him. “Thank you, Keith. I’ll get a missive off to him at once, and we can start training.”

“You know what I still don’t understand?” Lance said as Allura turned away toward her podium.

“What?” asked Keith.

“This guy had a dinner with our whole team,” Lance said. “He was sitting at the same table as Shiro and Allura and, well, me… and he goes for Keith. I just don’t get it.”

“Lance,” Shiro said with a frown.

“Look, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. It’s not like he didn’t have options. He actually chose to thirst after the mullet. Out of everyone there. This was a conscious decision on his part.”

“Everyone has their own tastes.”

“It’s like if he’d gone to an art museum and decided that his favorite exhibit was the bathroom door.”

“That’s enough, Lance,” Shiro scolded.

Lance shook his head. “I dunno, man. Just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Keith could only shrug in reply. It didn’t make any sense to him either.

#aroace keith #keith #vld keith #voltron fic #vld fic #my writing #fic: kings over aces

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blayzez · 6 years ago

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I love the idea of the main Voltron love triangle being Keith x Lance x Shiro

Lance has had a fanboy crush on Shiro for pretty much ever

However after seeing Keith with Shiro so much in their later Garrison years, he started thinking that those two were a Thing

(in actuality, his crush on Shiro was not that serious and his REAL crush was on Keith, but he wasn’t willing to admit that)

Thus starts the infamous rivalry

Lance constantly tries to one-up Keith in the hopes of impressing Shiro

This continues in space

As time passed, Lance's fanboy crush on Shiro became admiration as he began crushing for real on Keith

But Lance is stubborn and won't admit to that still

Meanwhile Keith is pining HARD and Shiro just wants them to kiss already

S3 rolls around and it tough on both boys

They both grieve heavily, each having their own bond with Shiro

But they’re their for each other and it’s really Lance that pulls them out of their funks and is the rock of the relationship

It’s once they get into the groove of their leader/co-leader relationship that Lance finally realizes his crush on Keith

Then s4 happens and Keith leaves for Lance’s sake (unbeknownst to Lance)

In Keith’s absence, Lance’s crush on Shiro makes a comeback

This time, it’s a legitimate crush as Shiro relies on him in emotionally straining times and Lance gets to know him a bit

Lance’s jealousy of Keith and Shiro being close makes a comeback, though for different reasons

Now it’s because he resents that he knows so little about Shiro while Keith knew so much about him and (seemingly) pissed it away to play with the Blade

Eventually, Lance and Shiro talk and Lance finds out that Shiro and Keith have never been more than brothers

Lance thinks he’s relieved because that means Shiro is single

(pssst it’s actually because it means keith is single and might return his feelings)

Fast-forward to a s8 au

Before his talk with Keith, Lance sets up a date with Allura

Then the infamous Sunset Talk happens

Lance realizes his crush on Keith stopped being a crush a long time ago

Lance LOVES Keith and he acknowledges that now

He wants to jump on the chance to make something between him work

And the way Keith looks at him and talks to him and supports him and comforts him tells Lance that Keith might feel the same way

So Lance cuts his date off with Allura and hastily invites Keith on a date instead

“Weren’t you going with Allura?”

“I... I think I’d prefer if you came with me.”

They have a great time, Keith gets along super well with Lance’s family, and finds out that Lance kept up correspondence with his family when he was at the Garrison and talked about Keith a LOT

And part of his video to his family had him talk about his teammates

He maybe sorta kinda rambled about Keith

Lance’s family was surprised that Allura was initially coming to dinner

Not because she’s a princess and they were surprised Lance managed to get her to agree

but because they thought for sure it would have been Keith

So when Keith showed up that night, they weren’t shocked

Lance and Keith go on the A//urance walk and Lance confesses to Keith, smiling softly as he does so

Keith doesn’t look surprised

He had a feeling it might be going this way when Lance broke off his date with Allura to go with him instead

But he is happy, smiling back, and reciprocates

There, they share their first kiss under the stars

#voltron #klance #lance #keith #shiro #shance #my post #also maybe the wedding at the end is actually a klance wedding not a shurtis wedding

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 5 years ago

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I’m thinking of axing this

Wary over Krolia’s presence, Lance loathed his stupid anxieties. They’d had a fight. They’d had a fight because they were both scared for Keith. It’d happened something like 10 movements ago? He wasn’t completely sure. Stomach wise, he was sure he’d had to have grown a foot since then. Whenever it’d been, it’d been long enough that he should be over it. He didn’t want Keith fighting with Krolia, nor did he want Korra having a front row view to her mother and brother bickering. She may not remember, but there were precious memories for his husband. Keith, who never believed he’d have a sibling deserved every moment bonding with her. Her presence made him long for Marco and his Mami. He loved Keith to death, so he felt a little selfish also wanting the familiar contact of his sibling and mother. Keith insisted on remaking him lunch, despite Lance giving the pasta dish his husband had made a try. With a rich tomato sauce, Curtis clearly wasn’t remembering his allergies, leading him to suspect that Curtis felt on edge with Krolia in the house. He knew they’d fought. He knew Lance understood why Krolia had acted out of fear, yet he also understood what anxiety could be like. It wasn’t fair when it popped its ugly head up. Nursing Korra in the living space, Lance hung out in the kitchen, enjoying watching Keith get flustered as he tried to make him scrambled eggs. His husband remembered not to add too much milk, Lance proud of him for that fact. He had a little a trouble when it came to letting the egg sit a moment in the pan to thicken so it didn’t turn into split granules, then realised his mistake on his own. Concentrating on Keith allowed him to keep himself in check, and self calm as he adjusted to Krolia’s presence. Sitting at the dining table, Lance ate slowly. Keith was by his side again “Is it any good? We’ve got eggs. I can try again” They had eggs because Curtis made the effort to go to town and down the shopping. Lance had tried to offer him money, but Curtis wouldn’t hear of it. Too bad for him that he knew the two greatest techsperts in the universe, allowing him to send money to Curtis. Curtis got the notice of the deposit immediately, shocked and a little annoyed with him, he’d reiterated that he was there with him because he wanted to be, not for the money. It helped Lance’s mental health to contribute. He felt more independent and human when everything wasn’t being handed to him. His survival kind of relied on Curtis, sure, Curtis could land a small pod near the cabin if it was absolutely necessary, yet he always walked the distance, ferrying things around with the help of a hover trolley “They’re good. You don’t need to remake them” “Are you sure?” He’d hit shell twice and they were on the salty side... “Yeah, babe. I’m sure” Keith beamed with pride. His husband seemed so much more relaxed these days. Lance wasn’t longing for the days of the tour, nor was he longing for his time on Daibazaal, however, he did wonder if Keith did. The exercises Curtis had him do were light, barely raising his heart rate, he worried that his husband missed the time he could have spent training alone if he didn’t feel obligated to stay by his side. He was grateful to have his husband there. More than grateful, despite his need for reassurance over his body. When Krolia has been waiting for them, he’d been so sure she’d make a comment over them having sex in the forest. Initially he hadn’t been in the mood, but his hormones were a mess, blood flooding south as he’d peed and that’d been that. Lance was sure he might had died from shame if she had made a comment, her attempts at conversation had been bad enough with anxieties telling him she was deeply disappointed by their closeness. Eating until his indigestion grew too uncomfortable, Keith kissed the top of his head as he took his plate. Rewarding him for making the attempt to eat. They both knew that was exactly what the kiss was. He may have issues with food and scents, eggs in particular stank, but his husband had gone to too much effort not to at least try his creation. That Keith was willing to learn was more than effort. He really didn’t deserve his husband. He needed to try harder for Keith. He didn’t know how try harder. Everything hurt from being pregnant. For movements now the strongest desire he’d held was for sleep. Sleeping with Keith didn’t come easy initially. His husband’s snoring would jolt him awake, or he wouldn’t be able to close his eyes out of fear of it being a hallucination. The only way he could try harder for his husband right now, was to swallow his fear as far down as he could, then stomp on it some more. He held the advantage here. He knew the cabin. This was basically his second home. Krolia would be leaving tomorrow, unless she spent the full day with Keith on his birthday which he couldn’t exactly say no to... No. Nope. No. He was an adult. His wrist didn’t actually hurt. She wasn’t holding him in that bruising grip, and there was no way that Keith would allow it. Coming back to him after rinsing the plate off, Keith took his hand, supporting Lance as he forced himself up. With the love of his husband, and Curtis not treating him like a freak, he felt more hopeful about the pregnancy, rather than going along or arguing himself out of hurting himself for their sake. As they continued to grow, he felt worse about getting high. But when it’d been his crutch for so long, and he was so desperate to be seen as normal, he really should have cut himself a break. It was just... it was just so hard to hold love for himself. Settling down on the sofa, Kosmo decided that he needed to climb up on Lance’s legs, attempting to fit into the sliver of space between his calves and the sofa back. Keith went to scold the space wolf, where Lance went to pat him. He couldn’t sleep without the heavy weight of something pressed against him. He’d slept next to Curtis a few times, not in a sexual way or anything, more in a “I need to feel someone human against me so I don’t think the world outside my bedroom and ended” kind of way. There’d also been a few times when he was so sick that Curtis kept him on schedule of medication and fluid intake. He appreciated the times that Curtis made space for him, but if he couldn’t have Keith than he preferred Kosmo. Laying himself down, Kosmo placed paws on Lance’s hip, head nestled between as he stared up at him. Why couldn’t dealing with Krolia be as simple as it was when it came to Kosmo? “How was your nap?” A simple question shouldn’t have made his chest feel so tight. Krolia was every bit the proud mother as she burped Korra over her shoulder. Her words shouldn’t feel like a tiny rain of spiked barbs landing around him and trapping him with no idea where was safe to step. They’d bonded. They’d talked. They’d spent vargas together. Under the blanket his right hand went to his left wrist, starting to scratch at the soft skin on the inside “It was good. I’m sorry I was so tired” “Keith said you had a long walk in the forest” That was for his husband’s sake. The sex part hadn’t been planned... Taking two deep breaths, Lance nodded as he replied “We did. We took a break to talk. The forest is nice” “That’s good. That you’re talking. Do you go for many walks?” Lance felt a vague sense of déjà vu. He had to have talked to Krolia earlier, yet the particulars of the conversation were starting to slip away as he tried to reclaim them. Had Krolia asked about the walk thing? Why couldn’t he remember? “Mainly in the cabin or around. A few times out in the woods. Curtis has an exercise plan he likes to try and keep us on” Krolia swapped Korra to her other shoulder, nuzzling and kissing her chubby little cheek “Staying active is important. Keeping your muscles loose will help with the birth” “I’m having a caesarean” “That’s right. Miriam mentioned that the other day. She wanted to come visit, but wasn’t sure of the terrain. She sends her love to both of you” That piece of him craving his mother felt crushed. Calls were hard. He preferred messaging, while his mother preferred calling. He couldn’t go home like this... not to Luis, Lisa and Rachel... He wanted his Mami, and his papi. Even if it was his papi pottering around the farm, he wanted to see him. Quiznak. He was getting teary. Grabbing his right arm, Keith pulled his hand away from his left wrist, then slid his hand down to hold his “Babe?” “I’m ok. I was thinking how nice it’d be to see Mami. But I know when I go to hospital she’ll be there” “Yeah, babe. We can call her tomorrow” “She’ll probably call us. Your birthday’s marked on the family calendar” “She said she’s got a present for you when she sees you next. Shiro also sends his regards. He can’t get time off at the moment, but I expect he’ll also call” Lance blinked, trying to clear his eyes. Catching him in the act, Keith wiped at his tears “He doesn’t have to call. I mean, we can’t exactly get into a whole lot of trouble here. He doesn’t need to check up on me” Kissing his temple, Keith was being way too kind to him. Krolia was Keith’s mother. They couldn’t have this distance between them, because it wasn’t fair on Keith. They already weren’t having a huge celebration, nor were they going out to dinner for Keith’s birthday. He and Curtis both had gifts for Keith, as did the twins and Kosmo. Then there was the cake and Keith’s choice in what they watched on TV. Pidge and Hunk would probably call... and that was about all the excitement that’d happen. He wanted more for his husband’s birthday, his own still stung a little each time he thought of it. They’d recovered towards the end of the night, but until then, it’d been as awful as his mind had told him it would be. He didn’t want that for Keith. Wanted his husband to have every bit the happy day he deserved. “You know, Shiro. He loves you. I’m sure Curtis keeps him up to date, but it’s not the same as talking on a video call, or in person” Curtis checked in with Shiro nightly. He messaged him during the day, then they’d talk at night. Sometimes, before Keith came to stay, Curtis would cuddle up to him and they’d both talk to Shiro. Lance knew how much Curtis missed Shiro, it was like how he’d missed Keith, only not the same because Shiro was still conscious and the only reason they couldn’t be together was him. Even on the nights Lance wanted to cry his eyes out, Curtis would bring his comms into Lance’s room, letting him simply listen to the pair of them talking until he fell asleep “I’m fine. I mean we’re fine. We have adult supervision, don’t we, babe?” Lance didn’t want to be dragged into this. “Mmm. Not sure if Curtis is an adult though. I’ve seen him eat cereal for dinner, in his pyjamas” Krolia cleared her throat, the noise causing him to flinch. He had to get a grip. Keith was watching him too closely. Almost as if he was waiting for a reason to kick his mother out. Getting out of bed had been such a bad idea “That’s understandable. Caring for people can be quite draining, even in such a tranquil setting” “Mum!” Keith sounded angry, Lance tensing beside him. This wasn’t what he wanted... “I’m saying that when caring for someone, sometimes emotions run while mood runs low. There were times when you were young that I did the same thing” “You didn’t have to say it the way you did” Lance closed his eyes. Panic was spreading through his mind like tendrils of an invasive vine “I wasn’t intending to imply anything. I simply meant sometimes we all have days like that, adult or not” Krolia wasn’t taking a stab at him. He didn’t have to be stupid over it “We talked about this” “I was attempting to make conversation...” “You’re...” “I think that’s enough from both of you” Using a tone he’d heard a hundred times from his Mami, Curtis brought the budding argument to a stop. Breathing was getting harder, his stomach rolling ominously. No. He wasn’t going to do this right here and now. He wasn’t going to make a bigger scene. It was Krolia. It was Korlia. He needed to focus on his breathing and forget the other things until he had it back under control. In through the nose, out through the mouth “That’s it, babe. That’s it. Keep breathing” “I know how to breathe!” Snapping at his husband only served to make him feel shitty. Detangling himself, he missed the contact of Keith’s anchoring form as he pushed himself up to sit properly, Kosmo evicted to sulk off “Ok. Ok... It’s ok...” “It’s not ok!” Quiznak. Why? Why was he snapping? He’d been so good. He’d told himself he could do this... he was trying... shit... he could hear himself crying now. When had he lost his rhythm? A panicked whine escaped, followed by a harsh sob. He was showing Krolia an even uglier side of him “Babe, it’s ok” “It’s not!” “Whatever it is, it’s ok” Ignoring the way he’d tried to sit up, Keith wrapped his arms around his upper chest, his husband’s chin digging in slightly as he rubbed his arm. Clutching Keith’s arm with both hands, he hid himself against Keith’s shoulder “It’s not... it’s not... I don’t want you fighting with her... she’s your mum...” “We’re not fighting, babe. We’re not... it’s ok. You’re ok. You’re ok... shhh. Shhh... we’re not fighting” “I’m sorry I left... I’m sorry... I don’t want to fight... I don’t want you to keep hating me. I just want Keith to be happy...” His mouth was running away on him. He was babbling as he continued to spiral. He wanted Keith and he wanted his Mami... but most of all, he wanted to be stronger than this “Babe, shhh... I’m happy here. We’re not fighting. Krolia doesn’t hate you. She was scared too. You know that. You told me... You know that, babe. Krolia felt bad about the fight too. She’s... not that great with apologies” Lance was certain that she hadn’t been going to. She shouldn’t have to. He was the nutcase, not her “It’s all my fault... I can’t do anything right. I don’t want to fight... I don’t want to fight, Mami” * Rocking Lance against him, his husband’s heartbreak was in the air. Krolia was teary, Korra squirming against her shoulder, while Curtis was poised on the edge of his seat. Kissing his husband’s hair was the only comfort he could offer. Lance wasn’t listening. Actually, it was more like Lance wasn’t able to listen. Keith chest felt tight, he wanted to take Lance’s distress from him, however, he didn’t have the right words. He wasn’t able to pull Lance into lap. He couldn’t bury Lance’s face against the curve of his neck, holding him until he regained control of his breathing or passed out. He also wasn’t Miriam. He wasn’t sure what Lance was referring too when he “I don’t want to fight Mami”. Making up her mind, Krolia got to her feet, passing Korra to Curtis, his mother moved around the coffee table then crouching down in front of Lance, she placed her hand on his shoulder. Baring his teeth with a low growl, his mother shot him a scowl “Lance, I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I don’t hate you. I simply don’t know how to get past the distance between us. I was, am, angered you left his side. For he wouldn’t have left yours. But I do support Keith and his decision. Please don’t cry. I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you that night” “Mum, he can’t understand you right now” “Then what do I do?” “You need to give him space. His nose is sensitive, and his anxiety is equating you with pain. He was rubbing at his wrist before” “That was movements ago” “You know PTSD doesn’t work like that. I told you he was scared... I haven’t seen him have an attack this bad in a long time” Lance wasn’t able to control his breathing, it’d be a mercy if his husband was to faint. Tilting her head slightly, his mother drew her brow “He’s saying something” Keith couldn’t tell. Lance was all sobs and pants as he tried to catch his breath around his tears “Can you make it out?” “Red? I think he’s saying “red”” “Red is stop word. When his head is too busy or he can’t figure out what it is he wants to say. Alright, babe. You’re ok. Krolia’s going to take her hand off you now. You’re not in trouble. You haven’t done anything wrong. You’re safe. You’re safe, babe...” Lance didn’t pass out, his husband fought his hardest to come back from his panic attack. Though it made it semi-awkward to hold him close, Curtis’s suggestion to let him sit up properly helped with Lance’s breathing. With a gentle smile and Korra cuddled up on his shoulder, Curtis had brought the roll of paper towels from the kitchen. Keith wiping Lance’s runny nose, as his husband trembled with exhaustion, catching Curtis’s eye, Keith tried to silently thank him, only Curtis cocked his head slightly and then decided to tell him that Lance’s attacks had pretty much been this bad before Keith had come to join them. Keith felt like quiznak to hear that. The stupid coma he’d been in had robbed Lance of his stability. Not that the tour had been all that stable, but there were times when he’d catch Lance laughing or smiling and Keith’d find himself falling in love with Lance all over again. No one ever warned you how hard being in love could be. How taxing it was when your lover suffered and you couldn’t kiss the pain away. Had Lance not been out of it from his attack, his husband would have been gushing over how natural Curtis looked with Korra on his shoulder. He was a natural, or perhaps had had practice somewhere along the line that Keith didn’t know about. It resolidified in his mind that Curtis and Shiro were truly the best choice to be the godparents of their boys. Curtis held far more patience for their antics than Shiro did... and far more patience for him than Adam. At the time Adam had been important to him simply because Shiro was his whole world. Now he evolving and seeing Adam as human being, understanding his family dynamic and able to process some of the decisions Adam had made through examination of Curtis. He’d truly been a snot-nose brat until Shiro took him, then Lance taught him the true meaning of love. There was a good hour between Lance sitting up and his husband moving. Mumbling “bathroom”, Keith supported him there and back. His husband then sitting on the very edge of the sofa, rubbing his gravid belly in an almost absentminded way. Not wanting it to be awkward, none of them had spoken much, the TV playing softly in the background as they all focused on all. With a hard sniffle, Lance cast his gaze to Krolia “Do you really not hate me?” His husband’s bottom lip trembled, Lance looking like a wreck in all the worst ways. His cheeks were flushed, but complexion otherwise drained. His eyes were so red and swollen they were barely open, he’d chewed into his lip at some point leaving a small smear blood from where Keith had wiped his nose “No, Lance. I don’t hate you” “I’m sorry... I tried to be so good for all you, but I couldn’t be what you all wanted” “We thought you were doing well, then you suddenly decided to leave” “None of you would tell me anything! Only Kolivan told me! I didn’t know about my babies. I didn’t know anything technical about Keith’s condition. Everyone told me to rest when I asked... I just wanted to know... you were all scared... but I wanted to know... I can’t cope not knowing...” “Why didn’t you tell us?” “Because it’s my fault Keith was in a coma... I begged him not to leave me... if he’d gone after Shiro sooner... it never would have happened” Krolia softened immediately, his mother looked as if she’d been doused in understanding, while Keith was biting the inside of his cheek. Lance was venting, he obviously needed it, with his input likely to silence his husband “Keith chose to protect you when the wall exploded. He made that choice. He couldn’t predict the wall would explode outwards and both of you would be sent sliding across the terrace” “But... if I hadn’t held him back... if I hadn’t been in so much pain... if I hadn’t been so scared...” “You fell. You were bleeding internally and would have lost your twins if you hadn’t been placed into a pod within the varga. You did not control Keith’s actions. He was going to find Shiro as he was the most mobile of our group. You conducted yourself well after your initial desire to shoot Krystaal” Lance shook his head, sometimes his husband had far too much fight for his heart “But I did it wrong... I made you all mad... you held my wrist so hard it bruised... I love him...” “I’m sorry. I was angry that you’d leave him. You’d been so calm, then I found you’d taken my comms and was fleeing. I didn’t think you’d betray my trust like that” His mother was an idiot if she didn’t think Lance was that resourceful. They should all fear how resourceful Lance could be “I tried to tell you but you wouldn’t listen to me. You thought I wanted Krystaal... I just wanted someone to be honest with me about Keith’s babies... I just wanted to be okay...” Lance was getting far too worked up again, Keith nuzzling into the spot just below Lance’s ear “I think that’s enough for now, babe. Mum doesn’t hate you. We don’t hate you... no one hates you, baby. Here, come on, let’s lay down” At a guess it was late afternoon, Lance had lunch roughly around 3. With how badly his attacks affected him, his husband would most likely sleep through until 8 to 9 “I don’t want... want to be... I want to talk to Mami...” Oh... oh... oh. Lance wanted his mother. “Mami” had had nothing to do with Krolia. He wanted Miriam. He wanted that maternal love. The love Keith and Korra were getting from Krolia “We can do that. We can call Mami” “We can?” “Of course. Come on, babe. Let’s get settled in our bed and we’ll call Mami together?” “Ok... I’m... sorry” “Shhh, it’s alright. It’s ok, babe. You don’t need to be sorry” Curtis followed them down the hall, calling to Krolia that he was moving her bag to his room. Making the side trip to the bathroom, keith got Lance settled in their bed, his husband half laying on him, stomach across his with his face half buried against Keith’s chest. Keith could feel their sons kicking up a storm, their constant movement a soothing contrast to Lance’s sour scent. Calling Miriam, he didn’t get through until his second call, his mother-in-law smiling brightly at the pair of them “Keith! Mijo...! Oh, is that Lance? Hola. mi mijo” “Hola, Mami” Miriam raised an eyebrow at Lance’s soft mumble “Hey, Mami. Sorry for randomly calling” “No worries, my love. How are you both? How’s things at the cabin?” “Things are good here. Krolia arrived today with Korra. Lance wanted to talk to you. He’s had a bit of a bad day. We didn’t know Krolia was coming” “Ah. Yes. I see. Krolia did mention she was going to visit you. I was hoping she and Lance would have talked...” Nuzzling into him, Lance didn’t bother telling him not to tell her “He has a big morning, we went for a walk in the woods not expecting to come home to her. His nerves were too much. He got to thinking Krolia hated him. Mum didn’t exactly make it easy for him” Miriam’s expression clouded, Miriam then sighing before brightening. Lance was so much like his mother that it was laughable “I’ll be having a word with her about that. She knows how emotional pregnancy is. How is he now? How are my twins? How are you? How’s your recovery going?” “We’re in bed, relaxing. He’s had a nap today, so aiming for a second one now. The twins are... they’re so amazing, Mami. You can see them moving, and they’ve been kicking up a storm. We’re both going good. Curtis makes us do all these stu... all these exercises for strength and balance” “And if I was to ask Curtis, what would he tell me?” “That we’ve been behaving. How’s things on the farm?” “Oh, Keith. You know what Jorge is like. Yesterday he decided he didn’t have the right lighting in the barn. He thought he could get away with bringing the petrol filter from the tractor... “ Miriam glanced back over her shoulder at something offscreen, Keith turning his attention to Lance who’s eyes had drifted closed, his lips parted slightly as he let out a soft warm breath. His husband hadn’t had a chance to speak to his mother. He really should call back when Lance was awake again “...Ah! Rachel’s home! Rachel! Come say hello to your brothers!” Rachel yelled out something, then appeared in the corner of the screen “Hi, Keith. Hi, Lance. Mami, he’s not even awake. Bye, Keith” Keith blinked as Rachel disappeared again, Miriam’s eyes focused on what would be the bottom corner of the screen for her “Oh, he is asleep...” “Yeah, I’m sorry. He seemed like he really needed to talk to you. He’s had a big day” “You know what he’s like. I’m sure he’s been stressing too. You remember how he was at Christmas, stressing over everything being perfect. Krolia had planned as a surprise, but she invited a few of your friends for your birthday. Maybe you should warn him? I’m sure he’s already made plans with Curtis, Krolia wouldn’t know if he did...” “Do you know who she’s invited?” “Coran. Hunk, Shay, Pidge. Your team” Fuck... Whatever Lance had planned would be ruined “Thanks, Mami. I really don’t think he’s up to anything too big. Personally I was hoping for something small” “Now, now. This time next year you’ll be the father of two little boys. Relax and enjoy yourself while you’re still young” “Lance is the one doing all the hard work here. You should see him, Mami. He can’t possibly be comfortable” “My poor baby boy. Do you have a due date? He is going to have a cesarean, correct?” “We don’t yet. We have some time left, but... we touched on names today. He’s... he’s so strong. Today’s the first real bad day he’s had since I arrived” “I’m relieved he has you there. Marco was worrying himself sick wanting to help him. He said all Lance wanted was to work or to spend time with him, then he shut down. Wouldn’t eat, wasn’t sleeping well... I didn’t want to upset him. I asked him to come home. He’s so stubborn...” “He wasn’t... oh. Curtis didn’t tell you? He had oral thrust apparently it was pretty bad. He’s doing better. Eating more, sleeping well, other than the bathroom trips” “I remember those too well. I’ll let you go, and I’ll talk to you both tomorrow for your birthday. Take care and stay safe, mijos. My love to both to you” Keith gave Miriam as smile as he nodded “You too. Hopefully he’ll be awake tomorrow” “Hopefully. Don’t force it if he isn’t. Say hello to Curtis too” “Will do”

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some-cookie-crumbz · 5 years ago

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Another Set of Updates

Okay, gonna try to keep this as brief as possible!

My poll regarding which Kidge-a-Palooza AU I should turn into a story proper is still available: [here]. I’m gonna leave it up for another week or so, so please give it a vote if you haven’t already!

Chapter 4 of Here (In Your Arms) is up and available: [here].

Chapter 2 of Paint me in Trust is up and available: [here].

Chapter 2(6) of Time, Space and Everything Between is up and available: [here].

Since the update for Time, Space and Everything Between is up, I wanted to clarify a few things about where it’ll be going from hence forth. That information (spoiler free) can be found below for those that are interested.

Okay, so, confession time! This fic wasn’t supposed to become what it is now. Originally, I planned for this fic to be about six/ seven chapters and go in a somewhat different direction than it has. There was going to be an entire chapter dedicated just to the Kogane and Holt families bonding. The rescue of Shiro was going to go almost the same as it did in the series canon, with Keith being kept on Earth with his father using his camouflage device and entering the Garrison in hopes of snuffing out who the Blue Paladin was. The only big changes to it that I intended to make was Keith and Pidge knowing each other prior, Keith actually being a Galra, and when they head back to the shack, they’re greeted by Papa Kogane. From there, I was planning to end the fic with them going through the wormhole and implying events played out mostly the same as canon. But, then I decided I didn’t really like that idea either, so then I thought I’d go the route of letting Keith grow up with the Holt’s. Like, Ethan moving out there and Krolia leaving Keith on Earth to have a tradional human childhood.

As you can see, I didn’t end up doing any of that. And you may be wondering why.

Because the last season of Voltron left me that disappointed but I will admit I had issues with the show even before that Spit-in-the-Face ending but we’ll get there and I was raised by parents who said “If you don’t know how you’d improve something, you shouldn’t be the one to complain about it.”

Well, fine then. I’m gonna do just that.

ALSO I WANT TO CLARIFY that I am NOT saying I could have written the show better than the show runners themselves! I’ve never been in the position(s) they were in. I do, however, have the benefit of hindsight, which allows me to look at where the show succeeded and failed respectively, and take steps that I think would offer a more cohesive, enjoyable story-telling experience as a whole. I am taking the things that I, personally, took issue with, as well as some of the bigger things I’ve seen the fandom at large take issue with. At the end of the day, though, most of these decisions will be made from my own personal desires/ whims (since, you know, ship-feels and all that jazz). I will, however, be open to criticism from any and all who read my fics, so please feel free to tell me what you think does or doesn’t work as we go along.

I’m gonna break this down into four main categories down below; Things I’m Adding, Things I’m Cutting, Things I’m Adjusting, and Cut Fic Content. All but one of these is pretty self-explanatory, I think, but I promise to explain that little oddity when we get there. I’ll also touch on what and why I chose to approach certain things the way that I did.

Things I’m Adding

Melenor and Garett

Queen Melenor is kind of an anomaly in the series, don’t you think? It was kind of implied throughout most of the series proper that she died while Allura was still pretty young, which would have made a lot more sense for both Allura’s relationship with Alfor, as well as why Alfor was so distant from Zarkon when Daibazaal began tattering at the seams. But then Season 8 happened and threw all that out the window! All of a sudden, Melenor’s death suddenly carries this great significance for Allura, to the point she has a hallucination about her. Plus, it also kinda throws a wrench into scenes from the earlier seasons. Allura specifically says “Zarkon killed my Father and my Mother!” but… If Melenor was killed by Zarkon, where was she during the fall of Altea? Why wasn’t she with her daughter and husband in the final moments? And it makes even less sense when you look at that first scene where Allura and Coran were introduced. There were eight pods there. You mean to tell me Alfor didn’t think it might be a good idea to save an extra body or two to help guide Allura as she steps into the role she will have to take once he’s gone? Or even to help with maintaining/ rebuilding the Castle of Lions?

So, I’ve decided to add Melenor as a way to give some more characterization to not only she herself as a character, but also Alfor. Plus, I decided to make use of Garett (whose name I spell differently for reasons), Coran’s son from the original series, too. I think it’d be more fun to have an extra set of hands on board to help maintain the Castle of Lions and teach the Paladins, but maybe closer to their age range. So, we’ll see how things go with adding him to the roster. :3

Backstory for the Blades

This was something that we should have gotten a little bit of exposition on, considering how inflated their importance got. Like, the Blade became instrumental to the functionality of both Voltron and the Rebels due to their intelligence gathering. I think it’d have been kind of cool to see where it all started and what events in specific triggered it into becoming.

More Focus on Team Relationships

I didn’t really feel like the big victory against Zarkon was earned at the end of Season 2. I also didn’t think the team really earned any of their bigger victories, such as against Lotor and Honerva. They never felt like a real team that meshed because they just kinda stuck the same pairs/ clicks together. This was my biggest issue throughout most of the show and I really want to explore the dynamics we never really got to see. There are a few standout relationships that definitely needed some retooling, but I’ll mention those farther down.

More Alien Worlds

Sci-fi and Fantasy are my big genres because I. Fudgin. Love seeing the designs for different technology, worlds and races. And while we did get some interesting ones with the series proper - which I’ll be mostly still including - I wish we’d gotten to see more. So, because I have no self-control, I’ll be planning to do that here!

Shiro’s Love Life

Shiro deserved better. I feel like that’s kind of something that most of the fandom can agree on. I don’t say this from a place of hate for Curtis, though, because… Well, what is there to hate? He was a literal background character who did nothing, said maybe two lines of dialogue, and that was it. Considering how much they pushed Shiro being the rep for the LGBT+ crowd, they did literally nothing with his love life. Hell, Adam was only revealed as his fiance because Bex fought tooth and nail for them to say it! If they hadn’t pushed the way they did, it would have all been subtext.

So, Shiro is going to have a romantic side plot in this fic, where we’ll focus on him and the character I’ve picked to be his partner.

Minor Side Romances

Some other little side pairings are gonna get a bit of love, here, too, since Voltron really only did the romance side of things well with, like, two couples. All the main couples are also gonna get plenty of spotlight, but I also think it would be fun to do some smaller side ships every now and then, too.

Things I’m Cutting

Villain Roulette

There was way too much jumping back and forth between who our main villain to focus on was. Bam, it’s Zarkon! No, wait, now it’s Lotor! Just kidding, here comes Zarkon again! Except that it was actually Lotor! Or so you thought; it’s actually Honerva haha great prank amiright? It was exhausting and I think it’d be a lot simpler to just… Stick with one villain who controls the smaller monster-of-the-day bad guys for an extended period of time and, once they’re for reals defeated, then move on to the next. I’ll be taking this approach for the sake of not only having a more focused story, but also my own sanity. I’ve never been good at gambling so trying the same thing as the show would probably turn out even worse for me.

Keith’s Excellent Blade Adventure with His Mommy

This is all unnecessary in this story, so we won’t be doing it at all. Keith’s sorry purple tail is staying with Team Voltron; no buts, no fuss, no coconuts.

Shiro’s Illness and Adam’s Death

Adam’s death is something I could go on about for hours specifically because it seemed unfair and kinda petty. Like, I feel they killed him specifically because they couldn’t kill Shiro, and they wanted to amp up the Tragic Backstory for our prior leader. So, instead, that’s getting the boot, as well as Shiro’s illness, since it’s also unneeded for plot convenience. Plus, it could have been nice to have a character that was willing to call Shiro out on the Atlus. Shiro always got treated like some kind of flawless entity, and I think it’d been nice to have someone call that Nice Guy Schtick out.

Allura and the Entity Plotline

This whole thing made no sense, got no proper development because of how late into the game they introduced it, and ended up being nothing more than a tool for them to kill Allura off. So, that can GTFO of my house post haste.

The Ending as a Whole

Some parts of the ending worked, but most of it just sucked. When the ending is so bad that it makes me feel obligated to stan characters I was ambivalent/ outright disliked? Yeah, gonna need to walk that back a bit.

Most of Seasons 3-6

The pacing in these seasons really was terrible. We derailed working on the team dynamic, building up the Coalition and Rebel forces, and developing the Paladins’ characters to instead focus on all that shit with Lotor. That… Was infuriating. Especially considering it was all basically a waste.

Additionally, we had Keith sidelined and his arc - which was clearly going to be center around him learning how to be a leader - completely pushed aside and then treated as if it did happened when he showed up late with Starbucks at the end of Season 6. That felt really unbelievable to me.

Time Skips

There were way too many time skips, for serious. Especially when those time skips didn’t include any kind of change in development/ character for the team. There’ll be smaller time skips, but nothing as egregious as what we got in seasons 6 and 7.

Things I’m Adjusting

Lion Swap

This’ll still be happening, but the circumstances that trigger it will be different. I may also shift around who gets to take which Lion when we get to that point. I haven’t decided just yet, but I’ll have it figured out before we reach that point. Most of this fic is already planned out and, honestly, the Lion Swap will be finalized once I figure out what I’m doing with a few of the other characters.

Shiro and Keith’s Relationship

This, right here? This was one of my biggest issues with Voltron. Keith was completely codependent on Shiro, while Shiro clearly cared about Keith’s well-being but it always felt like he’d have been just fine if something similar to what happened to him happened to Keith. It’s just… Really gross to me. It doesn’t help that I also find the whole “Dying for Your Lover” Trope – which I’ve seen a lot of people praise The Black Paladins for implying - to be incredibly disgusting and unhealthy. Also Keith’s flagrant hypocrisy never getting called out bothers me a lot since I actually like when a character behaves in a hypocritical manner, since it feels organic, but it has to be called out because hypocrisy can lead to double-standards and create harmful environments and I need to stop for now

So, Keith and Shiro are still going to be close, but they aren’t going to be that close.

Keith and Allura’s Relationship

Oh, look! Another potentially interesting aspect of the show that they kinda dropped the ball on! I really hated Allura’s heel-turn on Keith when it’s revealed that he’s Galra in S2 because a) It’s not like Keith himself knew this and was actively hiding it, and b) It felt out of character for the way Allura had been presented thus far. Her lashing out at Zarkon when she was captured made sense since he directly killed her father, her people and her planet. And I could understand being wary of the Blades – to the extent that she was in the first half – but after Keith’s heritage is revealed, she’s completely cold to him and only seems to decide he’s a good guy when he’s willing to take on a potential suicide mission! They either needed to drag the animosity out and show it effecting Allura’s ability to work with the team as a whole and also show the team sticking up for Keith because the fact that Hunk was the only one that said anything is kinda messed up like where tf was Shiro if he and Keith are oh so close? or they needed to tone Allura’s attitude towards him back a bit more, have her approach him in a manner similar to how she addressed the Blade members; acknowledging he is there and contributing, but not praising or thanking him outright.

And since Keith presents and knows he’s part Galra from the start in this fic? Well, we’ll actually get to play around with that dynamic a little more. And while I’m on the subject of our favorite Altean princess…

Allura’s Character Inconsistencies

Allura’s character jumped around a lot in some of the earlier seasons and I’d be willing to wager that this is because the writers never settled on an age for her. And I don’t mean during the big changes like her becoming a Paladin or Lotor’s betrayal, since it’d make sense she be shaken by situations that drastic. One minute, she’s this composed, confident and well-spoken young leader doing the best she can. The next, she’s a more temperamental sort who has low self-esteem/ confidence in her own abilities to even successfully contribute to a team. Now, I think I kniw what they were trying to do; they were trying to show that the more impulsive side of her is more genuine while the composed side is her trying to be the leader she is expected to be. I get it. They fixed this and improved on it later down the line, but they could have done better by maybe addressing it and using it as a chance to develop her relationship with another member or two of Team Voltron.

Season 2’s Ending

The defeat of Zarkon happened way too soon. Especially since then, because they wanted to play around with Lotor’s intentions, they had to bring him back as a cyborg-zombie fueled by quintessence. Zarkon should have only been defeated once and then we should have been allowed to move on to the next main villain. As such, I’m moving Zarkon’s defeat further down the line and will be modifying some of the consequences there in.

P Much Everything About Lotor’s Acr/ Motives

Lotor… Man, Lotor was confusing and a lot of wasted potential. They painted him as if they wanted him to be a morally grey villain, where he does terrible things for what he considers the betterment of others, but then, once it’s revealed that he was keeping secrets, he just… Goes full ham. He becomes Evil McAwful incarnate and it felt unrealistic. There were about 20 different directions they could have taken Lotor – before and after the reveal – and I just didn’t care for the approach they took. So, I’ll be doing things a little different and seeing how that goes.

What I’m Keeping from Seasons 3-6

Very, very little things are going to be kept from each of the aforementioned seasons and implemented in the fic. I’m not planning to keep too many of the big plot moments because they all bled into the issues I had with the story as it stood on its own. I will, however, take some of the small things from those three seasons and include them here. This also applies to certain elements from the other seasons as well, but we’ll get there when we get there.

Adopting Kosmo

Kosmo will be in this fic, come Hell or high water. He is the Best Boi and deserves to be here.

Cut Fic Content

Okay, so here’s the weird one in this line up! As the title implies, there’s some content that I have cut from the fic, even this early on. I actually have some of the Kogane-Holt bonding scenes still drafted up somewhere in my files. I removed them because I was worried that they’d feel too much like filler. There’s also some scenes I started to work out from when I planned to have Keith grow up with Pidge and Matt; specifically including a scene where Krolia and Ethan talk about the idea and decide to commit.

Some of these ideas won’t work in the fic as it stands now, though. I also, however, like the idea of putting it out for everyone to read. So, I’m debating on making a separate one-shot collection of things that could have happened, or just adding them as the occasional buffer between the arcs of the story. I’ll make a poll when I get closer to the point of deciding how to proceed, so keep an eye out for that. :3

That’s all for now! I hope you all enjoy the updates and I’ll hopefully be updating again sooner than this time!

#crumbles grumbles #info dump about my fics #I was planning to hold off on updating until I responded to all my current comments #But I was way too excited about having these ready to go!

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calligraphist-artemisia · 6 years ago

Text

Across Time and Space (Chapter 7)

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

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

Chapter 7

ALTEA – CASTLE OF LIONS

“We leave you all alone for one week and come back to find you've lost two paladins!”

“Welcome back, Lance,” Allura said without looking up. “Did you two have a good time in Nalquod?”

Lance crossed his arms over his chest, staring down Allura while Hunk caught up after his long sprint through the castle. Hunk looked a little winded as he came to a stop next to his husband, his brows furrowed in concern as he noted the lack of people on the bright. It was just the two of them, Allura, and Coran.

“Nalquod was great, but that's not what we're talking about right now. What's going on, Allura? You sent that message about an accident with Katie and Keithir and them being missing and something about another reality and then nothing else!” Lance barely paused for breath, and as he talked his anger drained from his voice, leaving behind frustration and fear.

Allura stepped away from the console, leaving Coran to continue without her. “I am sorry we had to call you back like that. I will admit, we've been a bit panicked and were not thinking clearly. The situation is... complicated and we're trying to keep it as quiet as we can. It wasn't something we could fully explain through a message.”

Allura took a deep breath and began to tell them everything that had transpired over the past three days, starting with the malfunction of the trans-reality extrapolator and ending with moving Pidge and Keith to one of the unused rooms so that, while they were still sharing a room, they could each have their own bed and space.

“We told Emperor Zarkon and Honerva, of course, as well as Katie's family and Travis. Everyone who has the knowledge to help is pitching in,” Allura said. “Hunk, once you've settled back in, I'll take you down where they're working. Another set of eyes will certainly be of value.”

“Anything I can do?” Lance asked.

“I could use a hand with coordinating everyone from here!” Coran piped up.

Lance looked a little discouraged.

“Pidge and Keith could use a friendly face. Someone they'll be comfortable with. I've been afraid of saying names to them, in case I mention someone who they are not on friendly terms with,” Allura said.

It was far from ideal, but Lance could admit that it sounded better than standing around on the bridge, waiting for video calls. It still rang of busywork to him. Something for him to do for the sake of having something to do, while everyone else worked on the really important stuff.

He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Shiro will join you once Koichi is down for his nap. I think he plans on taking Keith to the training deck today. We're hoping that since it was one of Keithir's favorite places, Keith will be the same.” Allura sighed, glancing back at Coran before shaking her head and walking towards Lance and Hunk. “Pidge may want to join them, but if not, just make sure she doesn't stray out of the paladin wing. The fewer people who know about this, the better?”

“Shiro's not helping Slav?” Hunk asked, not in a manner that indicated confusion, but instead amusement.

Allura laughed gently. “No, he says that it's a matter a bit beyond his expertise, though he's willing to listen whenever I talk about it.” There was a pause as she grinned at them mischievously. “And also if he has to be in Slav's presence, he's afraid he may throw something at him.”

Lance laughed, feeling better about his role in everything, and patted Hunk on the shoulder. “Have fun talking science with Slav. I think I'm going to enjoy a nice, relaxing day with Pidge.”

Hunk made a disgruntled sound. “Are you sure you don't want to trade?”

“Sorry, babe. Not a chance.”

Lance playfully leaned in and kissed Hunk on the cheek, dancing away when his husband tried to grab him and retaliate. Allura covered her mouth to hide her giggling.

“How about I go ahead and get things back to our room, so you can get to work,” Lance suggested.

Hunk blanched. “You don't have to do that. It wouldn't be fair to make you do all of the heavy lifting. I'll help you first. Like Allura said, I should get settled in first and then I can go help.”

“It's four bags and they hover. Unless you think I'm too weak to pull them along with me?”

“No, of course not, but-!”

“Great!” Lance clapped his hands together and gave Hunk a bright smile. “Have fun, babe!”

He took off before Hunk could get in another word, mentally vowing to make it up to him later. Maybe with his free time, he could plan the Best Honeymoon Ever, since theirs had been interrupted. He could even pester Pidge for ideas! Sure, she wasn't the same as Katie, but he bet she'd have some interesting thoughts on it, all the same.

Unless she wanted to go to the training deck too. Then he was absolutely taking the chance to show off his superior shooting skills and impress them with his bayard's secondary form.

After that he could plan all he wanted.

OLKARION – CASTLE OF LIONS

Keithir had tried everything he could think of to communicate with the Red Lion. Meditation didn't work. The special headsets designed to heighten mental concentration didn't work. Begging the Red Lion for any sign that she could hear him didn't work. Sleeping in the cockpit didn't work.

He was at the end of his rope. He had been so sure that the Lions had the answers, but neither Red nor Green were willing to open up to them. Keithir was starting to think they weren't able to. Maybe the Lion-Paladin bond was completely different in that reality. After all, the others all looked confused when he and Katie tried to explain it to them.

Still, Keithir couldn't give up. He refused to. There was one last thing he could try.

He took a deep breath and knocked on Shiro's door. It slid open a moment later and Shiro greeted him, his voice coated with surprise.

“Is everything alright?”

“Nothings wrong, but I had a thought and I need your help to do it.” Keithir waited a moment to give Shiro time to respond. When he nodded, Keithir continued. “I started to think, if your Keith can pilot the Black Lion, maybe that's why Red won't respond to me. She's Lance's Lion here, not mine. If I try to communicate with the Black Lion, maybe she'll listen.”

“Are you asking for permission?” Shiro asked. “Because you don't need to. If you think that's what you need to do, then go for it.”

Keithir shook his head. “I'm asking for your help. If both of us go to her and try to make the connection, maybe that will work. I would ask Lance, but I get the impression he doesn't like me all that much.”

Shiro chuckled. “He does butt heads with Keith a lot. Sometimes to the detriment of the team, but there's still trust between them. If you asked for help, he wouldn't turn you away.”

“He'd just lord it over me,” Keithir guessed. It was what his Lance would do – had done, on the rare occasion Keithir asked for his help. And of course, the reverse was true.

“Only for a few months,” Shiro joked with an easy grin. “Hopefully you'll be home before then. Keith would have to bear the brunt of it instead.”

Keithir snorted in amusement. “I'd hate to be the cause of that.”

“Do you want to do this now? I have time,” Shiro said.

Keithir shook his head. “Kolivan asked to see me, so I shouldn't keep him waiting for much longer. Would later today be alright with you?”

“Any time you're ready.”

Keithir thanked him and walked away with a lightness to his step. Even if it didn't work, at least he knew he was trying everything he could think of. Trying was better than sitting around and listening to Slav babble on about things that didn't make sense to him.

He met up with Kolivan in one of the smaller meeting chambers, where he also found Katie waiting for him. She greeted him with a smile and a kiss.

“What's going on?” Keithir asked curiously.

“There is a mission. One which I hoped to send Keith on, but you are equally as well equipped for this. I would trust no one else,” Kolivan said.

Keithir frowned and looked to Katie in confusion. “You know about this?”

“I do,” Katie confirmed. “You should listen to what he has to say before you decide.”

What was so important that Katie thought the risk was worth it? Because it was a risk. A mission in the middle of a war. There was so much that could go wrong; too much that could go wrong.

“We have a spy stationed under Warlord Ranveig, who has reported the finding of a vial of highly unusual quintessence. Unfortunately, she no longer has access to it and says that Ranveig has used it to create a dangerous weapon. With the way things are going lately, I believe her position there is no longer safe. Your mission will be to get to her and convince her to return with you.”

“Why me? There have to be other members of the Blade who could do this,” Keithir said.

“You are the only one she will listen to.” Kolivan didn't go into a deeper explanation than that and turned to the podium next to him, passing his hand over the top to bring up a holographic image of a Galra woman with short hair and markings on her face.

For a moment, Keithir stopped breathing.

She was someone he'd only ever seen in the pictures his dad kept, neat and tidy in a small photo album. There weren't many of them – Travis said that he worried what would happen if anyone else saw them, but the few he had were cherished by them both.

Keithir swallowed and reminded himself to take a breath. “Mom's alive?” He barely heard Kolivan's response. All he could focus on was how close he was to seeing her. For the first time, he could have a conversation with her; it was a chance to get to know her and learn more about his Galra lineage.

He wouldn't have another chance.

He glanced to Katie and her understanding gaze gave him the strength he needed.

“I'll do it, but first I need to know everything you have on this base and Ranveig. The fewer surprises I face, the better,” Keithir said.

Kolivan nodded in agreement and got to work detailing all of the data he had, thanks to Krolia. Katie stayed by Keithir's side, asking questions of her own in support of her husband's choice.

It wouldn't be easy by any stretch, but Kolivan was certain they could draw Ranveig's attention elsewhere, which would leave Krolia in charge and alone in the base. It would be Keithir's best shot at getting in and out without detection. The real challenge would be convincing Krolia it was best for her to leave.

“When do I leave?” Keithir asked.

“Tonight.”

Katie wished she could go along with him. If she could pilot the Green Lion, she was sure she could have tagged along using the active camouflage, just to provide backup in case of an emergency. She was sure Green could keep her and the baby safe.

She smiled and placed her hand over her belly.

While the delivery of the news had been far from what she had planned, she was glad Keithir knew. Intentionally hiding her pregnancy from him would have taken a toll on her, and probably would have made him worry about her more than if she'd told the truth.

“No secrets,” she reminded herself of their old promise.

Katie took a deep breath and went on her way, hoping to find Hunk or Lance so she would be too distracted to constantly wonder where Keithir was or if he was in trouble. Her best bet was to start with the kitchen and broaden her search from there.

Surprisingly, neither of them were there. They also weren't in what Lance dubbed the “super cool hangout space” or in their rooms. She was sure they weren't out on a mission, but just in case, she headed towards the bridge.

“...like this.”

“I don't you don't,” Allura said, sounding tired. “But so far, all of the information he has given us has proven to be correct. I don't see why this should be any different.”

Katie stopped in her tracks just before the turn to the bridge, listening to Allura and Lance talk. She frowned, quietly moving to stand against the wall and get as close as she could without being discovered.

“But why? Why tell us any of this after he tried to kill us in the past! There has to be something we're not seeing,” Lance said persistently. “We can't trust him, Allura!”

“I don't trust him, but if Lotor is willing to give us information, then it is my duty to accept that and use it to our advantage,” Allura said, her voice calm.

“Lotor!” Katie hissed under her breath, unable to stop herself. She covered her mouth with her hand, praying they hadn't heard her, but as footsteps came towards her she knew she was busted. Katie stepped away from the wall as they turned the corner and saw her.

“Can I help you with anything, Katie?” Allura asked politely.

Cursing herself for revealing her location, Katie shook her head. “I was just looking for Lance, but it's not important if you two need to talk.”

“No. We're done here.”

Lance frowned and opened his mouth to protest, but Katie beat him to it.

“You can't trust Lotor.” She faltered slightly when Allura raised an eyebrow, recognizing a warning when she saw it. But she couldn't let it go. “I don't know what he's like here, in this reality, but if he's even a fraction similar to the Lotor I know, you can't trust him. He twists the truth to his advantage and manipulates everyone, making it hard to pin the blame solely on him. He makes you think he's helping, but it's only because he has something to gain from it.”

“He's giving us information on how to defeat the Galra. How would that be of benefit to him?” Allura asked.

“It's hard to know with him. We didn't know, right up until we were caught up in his trap,” Katie said. “He hid the Red Lion from us, and when Keithir and I got in the way of his plans, he plotted to kill us and destroy the Red Lion in one go. He didn't count on Keithir being her paladin. If not for that, I don't think we would have survived.”

Allura had nothing to say in defense of Lotor after that. “I am glad you both survived. We will be cautious and continue to double check anything he tells us, but that doesn't mean I can ignore tactical information.”

Katie bowed her head in understanding.

She hated it. Knowing that Lotor was being held somewhere in the castle. So much could go wrong with that, especially if the others were as divided as Allura and Lance on how to handle it.

Katie would have to investigate for herself.

ALTEA – CASTLE OF LIONS

They were still restrained to one room.

Well, that wasn't quite true. Allura told them they could go anywhere in the paladin wing of the castle, but all that consisted of was the kitchen, their bedrooms, and the lounge. It was nice to be able to get food on their own, but other than that there was nothing for them to do. Staying in their room felt like the safer choice.

Pidge ached to have something productive to do. To get her fingers on a keyboard or any piece of tech to tinker with. All of the visits were nice, but there was only so much company either of them could handle. Lance and Shiro dropped by around noon, and while it'd been fun to see what her friend would look like in another ten years, Pidge found herself struggling to make conversation with him. She was grateful that Lance came to see her and that he didn't take offense to her lack of desire to talk, and he'd even promised to bring a game to play the next time.

Keith's dad came by again, bringing with him a giant blue wolf, and after he was gone, Pidge's family arrived. She spent most of that hour crying from seeing them all together again, which started a chain reaction for all of them.

By the time it was just her and Keith again, all Pidge could feel was relief.

She flopped down onto her own bed with a groan and decided that moving was overrated.

“I've been thinking about something.”

Pidge mumbled into her bedding.

“Are the Lions here made from the ore of one of those comets? The whatever-reality-bending one?” Keith asked.

Pidge frowned and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “The trans-reality comet? I guess they could be. We know that at least two of them existed, so why not more?”

“What if that's our key to getting home? I mean, Voltron is the whole reason we were able to cross over into another reality and get home the last time, so can't we just do that again?”

Pidge paused to think about it. “That's more of an idea than any I've had, but last time we had to know the exact point we breached through. You and I were in two separate places when we crossed over and there's also the machine to consider.”

Keith didn't looked surprised or disappointed by what she was saying. “We'd have to form Voltron too.”

That brought up a good point. Would they be recognized by the Lions? It was something worth looking into.

“Think we can convince Shiro to let us see the Lions?” she asked.

Keith grinned at her for the first time since their arrival. “I think I can manage that.”

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was more than what they had before. Pidge thought they finally had something she could work with, and it was all thanks to Keith.

#voltron #fanfiction #kidgemas #kidge #reality swap au

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picsofshiro · 7 years ago

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i wanna start shipping Shieth but i cant bring myself to because i still see them in a very familiar, Space Dad-Space Son dynamic but thyere so pretty together and i hate it??

-puts a hand on your shoulder-

It’s okay to ship sheith, but lemme be real with you, I do not nor have I ever seen the space dad/space son dynamic personally. And in my experience of parents, I’ve had a lot of shitty dads and one (1) good dad that my mother is currently in a happy relationship with and they got a 10 year age gap and are a powerful couple of people that work to fight oppression as a white man and a Mexican woman. I’m gonna be cordial with you cause you don’t need to be afraid to ship it, its a perfectly valid ship and my response is more to welcome you into it than anything else. I’ll put this under the cut cause it’s gonna get a bit long, with a few tangents that I hope address your fears and overall point.

Let’s take off this “space dad/space son” lens for a sec. Contrary to popular and 100% incorrect belief, Shiro and Keith are not related in any way, shape or form. Voltron has a overarching theme of found family. Allura lost hers to Zarkon and found hers in Team Voltron. Hunk was scared but found family in Team Voltron. Lance has been homesick but has appreciated and grown from working with Team Voltron. Even though Pidge was hunting for her brother and father, she has found both but is still willing to work with Team Voltron for the sake of the universe. Keith never would have believed in his wildest dreams of the universe being as big as it is — the opportunity to see his mom and spend 2 years with her to bond and share stories on a space whale and talk to her about how much his best friend means to him and balancing that love for him, his sense of justice, his drive and focus to get a mission done and his mother is an example of being able to love in that way. Shiro we canonically know did not adopt Keith — he vouched for him, taught him a lot of what he knows along with whatever the Garrison has ever taught him before Shiro went off to Kerberos and his “death” announced. I don’t know what will help you see this dynamic as friends to start because that’s what I see and it what convinced me to ship it because it has so much room for potential with canon interpretation to back it.

When I was young and my mom was often in and out of my life due to work, working late on court cases, hardly time to speak to us aside from making dinner and then shooing my sister and I to our bedroom to mind ourselves, I’ve always appreciated older figures in my life, whether it was fellow students or student teachers/paras. It’s what guided me to hanging out with kids myself because I wanted to be there for someone who might not have had anyone themselves so I made a lot of friends that were not exactly in my age range, teach kids and then crush on the older ones that acted like they had their shit together but as I grew older I saw them for the flawed human beings they are and I think that’s what Keith sees in Shiro.

I’d think at one point that Keith looked up to Shiro for some reason that convinced him to get into the Garrison in the first place — that “I won’t give up on you and you shouldn’t give up on yourself” is part of that. Keith has been very protective and defensive of Shiro’s honor and image and I feel like it’s because he truly feels indebted to him in some way and makes it count through his actions. If you watch Voltron without the Space dad lens not pushed by fandom (or by marketing for that matter) and watch it for what Voltron is: you’ll see that Shiro is just slightly older than his peers, has some experience but can never actually know what’s going on and is about as clueless as everyone else is aside from his own experience as a pilot, as a fighter, and as a teammate that just wants to make sure they all make it out of this alive, his own found family that occasionally he goofs off with.

Knowing Shiro’s character, he probably had a strict/strong foundations of upbringing that included setting an example for his peers and respect for authority to a certain degree until it challenges his own morals. Mistaking his leadership around younger peers and attributing it to “parenting” would not do him justice when many adults his age and around it, even older know they probably would end up killing a child. Team Voltron is a manageable group of young adults/teens that are going to become adults and (should)own up to their own behaviors and what Keith sees in Shiro isn’t like “oh he’s like my dad” because he already had that. If he was like any other kid, he loved his father and would not accept any replacement but he’s an only child and cares a lot for Shiro so his only frame of reference for what he feels for Shiro is “brotherly”, however his behavior doesn’t match up to the way Hunk and Lance interact, how Matt and Pidge who are actual siblings interact, how Pidge and Sam Holt, her actual father interact and from what we’ve seen, how Alfor and Allura interact with parent-child relationships. Shiro and Keith have something deeper that’s still being refined and fleshed out.

I agree they look good together. Personally, I was into Keith as a character, thought I was in love with him until I saw the way he interacted with Shiro, then asked myself what he sees in Shiro and then it all made sense to me at least in my experience! That I would love Shiro the same way if he were a real person. And the way that relationship, their deep friendship is redefined in the Black Paladins with many staff emphasizing what was important, the “I love you”….

You gotta understand that maybe you need to rethink this space dad/space son thing and reframe it as brothers-in-arms(friendsheith has been a great tag to convey this), not let it be misinterpreted as adopted or literal, found family when you’re alone in a world that doesn’t quite understand you, and finally, understand that relationships change and grow, and some of the absolute best romances are made from people who’ve known each other so long that they have the potential to deal with each other and their human selves to be in a relationship and not be shocked when they don’t fit together too well and can be vulnerable and honest with each other and their faults and work past them to be stronger because of the other AND together.

Sheith is okay, they look good, but to be honest, I’ve never interacted with an older figure in my life that I haven’t felt a little gay for or had someone a little younger than me not look at me and be a little gay for me as well, and sheith has also been something that a lot of mlm have related to which is why we ship it the way we do. Don’t be afraid, it’s a valid ship and if you like, start off slow with a side blog, work your way up. My personal rule though is never stop being myself and work out any gross imperfections that legitimately harm others and make apologies for when I do hurt people directly by invading their space.

#to be honest voltron marketing is a complete clusterfuck #the only people i listen to is staff and writers excitedly making art of their fave characters and ships #if staff thought sheith was father son they would have said that but yknow - gestures at them-#they only said it's been brotherly in the sense that they're brothers in arms and mean everything to each other #so it's fine #not a pic of shiro #sheith #how do i tag this #i wanna be positive so i hope this doesn't deter you from shipping it #this ship is important to me and so many other people who play with it #it's all in fun so let yourself have fun that's what its about its for fun #anon #anonymous #ask #answered

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lidoshka · 6 years ago

Text

Voltron Season 8 review!

Okay! Finally had the chance to watch season 8?

Not yet? Too bad, because the spoiler free week in this blog is officially over!

Before I start, If you would rather now hear about season 8 you can filter the tags #I will only grant you one spoiler free week #And that grace period is over #we been knew #I can't believe I was blindsided by this #so the leaks were actually a trial test?!

Also, I will try to stay positive and post good things about Voltron during the week, but if you want some salt you can catch all the vitriol about S8 on Sunday (with the tag #salty Sunday)

So onwards to my review! (And boy, I knew I should have worn a different kind of socks on the 14th!)

Overall, I’d say it was a good season…but it wasn’t the best. There were a bunch of small moments that made me really happy, and there were some cool aspects with the animation that I totally loved.

…but there were some things in the second half of the season that totally ruined it for me.

But let’s be positive and point out all the things that I liked for this season!

What I loved about this season:

• The animation was amazing! Both the 3d animation and the way the characters were drawn! Plus a bunch of interesting camera angles! If you compare season 1 art with the way everyone is drawn now you can see the improvement and it’s amazing. • Episode 4 killed me instantly. To me it was perfect. It was sad but also uplifting, and I wanted to cry as much as that Olkarion child with Ryner’s last words and yet appreciated the meaning in them. Yes, I was very sad to see Olkarion gone, but most of its people will live on. We also got to see the Weblum again, which I liked because it was an appropriate metaphor. :) • Allura and Lance had a date! That was great, they both deserve all the good moments possible • Also, the MFE girls and the Paladin girls shopping is supper funny. • We get to see a lot of people from the Voltron coalition not just Olia’s crew, and it’s wonderful to see the MFE’s, the Rebels, the ATLAS and Voltron all working together! • Cosmo is a nice puppy… and I knew he was going to continue growing! X3 • All Pidge and Colleen’s interactions. All of the Holts interactions actually! I really love how Pidge has her dad wrapped around her pinky, but Colleen is not a pushover and demands a family photo in exchange of the tokens • And I loved that Matt’s (girlfriend? Partner? They sound female, but then again they are an alien so…) are in the photo too!! • I also liked Shiro entering that tournament, we know he has a competitive streak, but we don’t get to see it very often, and this was a good opportunity! • The vlog episode was gold! Not only do we get to see more about the MFE pilots, but we also see the paladins around and a bit of the daily life in the IGF Atlas, plus, it could have just been a silly filler but instead it still managed to move the story forwards. A+ • Shiro using a gun looks really cool and it makes me wonder if his Bayard would have actually turned into some form of firearm. • Lotor is back! Not in the way I hoped but I got to see a tiny Lotor, and I also saw a younger Lotor still full of hope and desire to please his father *sighs* he really deserved so much better… • Lotor literally stole Kova. :P • Honerva’s mecha? Her fusion with Sincline? Voltron/Atlas fusion? They are all amazing designs! • I liked the last scene with the lions saying their goodbyes to the paladins. It was bittersweet because it’s the end of an era but at the same time it’s a sign of hope. It’s like now that there’s peace (or at least the possibility of peace being achieved without the need of a WMD) the lions can retire. Maybe the lions are leaving to look for their new paladins, or maybe hide away again until Voltron is needed once more. That along with the image of the vehicles inside the Garrison hangar was a good nod towards Voltron Vehicle and maybe a future Voltron Force show. Ah yeah, good things.

But now what I really didn’t like:

After careful consideration and watching the season one more time I can say I’m only upset about 4 things: 1. Allura’s sacrifice 2. Episode 5 3. Honerva’s plan and her redemption 4. And the stills of the epilogue

Funny enough the four are connected together in one single sentence: bad writing decisions.

Now, me being critical of the show doesn't mean I don't like it anymore now that I wont enjoy watching it. There are a bunch of shows that have errors and flaws by the dozen, but I still enjoy them but I need to get this out of my chest

Alluras’s sacrifie: Why? Out of all the possible directions they could have taken their story, why this? Why kill one of their female protagonists?!

“but she has made similar sacrifices in other versions” yes, and she was Caucasian and had a romantic plot with the leader of Voltron too and VLD chose to deviate from that, so I don’t see why of all the things they chose to discard from previous versions they chose to keep this.

“She now gets to spend eternity with her father and the other paladins” Do I remind you that Allura lost everything (her family, her nation, her planet, her crown) and little by little she found a new family? VLD has been selling me the idea of “found family” since season 1, why are they changing the tune now?

“Allura was already too powerful, she couldn’t remai— “ No. this isn’t marvel, there were ways to decrease her powers if that was necessary: the creature that got inside her could have damaged her body somehow and had her powers decrease; she could have sacrificed only her alchemy (like Edward Elric in fma!) and she would be a regular Altean (or a regular human if they wanted to go with the allurance ending) and spend the rest of her life rebuilding her nation. There were ways to keep her powers down and still keep Allura around.

“It’s the only way” Allura herself said before she started saying her goodbyes to the paladins… but in this season alone they showed: - A tiny balmera - A whole bunch of balmera. - Voltron+atlas fusion - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration to enter Honerva’s inner thoughts - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration <i>again</i> to power up Voltron+atlas so it could escape a collapsing reality - Voltron+atlas giant wings to save the last remaining reality So if they were already pulling out all the rabbits out of the hat don’t tell me the production team couldn’t come up with another alternative other than having “the girl who is magic sacrificing herself for the sake of the universe”

…and why are Altea and Daibazaal back?! Didn’t Reyner said “you mustn’t cling too tightly to the past” and “the old must gave way to the new”? ugh.

*rants for 20 minutes more about poor script decisions*

Episode 5:

It’s bad. And it doesn’t add anything important to the narrative except some gratuitous scenes of the paladins in their underarmor. And the reason why I disliked this episode is about the way the writers try to redeem Ezor and Zethrid.

Last season they sold me on the idea that “this is war and sometimes people die”. This season they wanted to end with an uplifting “everyone has a chance at redemption” vibe which actually just makes me upset.

Oh yeah, Adam –the guy whose only negative mark was that he dumped Shiro—died and no one really mentions him again or talks about what an impact he had on other characters, but Ezor –who was more than willing to torture Pidge back in season 7— she gets to survive and change her ways??

Honerva’s ploy and redemption arc:

Honerva had dreams about being a mother and a wife and spending her life with her family, but she studied the creature from the rift a bit too closely and her mind was poisoned without her even realizing it. In that sense, she’s a victim, and it’s good that in her final moments she got to be back to be the person she was before.

… but as Haggar she helped conquer and destroy thousands of worlds! She was participant in the neglect and abuse of a Lotor throughout his childhood.

“But that was Haagar! Honerva deserves a second chance!” you’d say, but remember that after Oriande she has recovered her memories and she’s not Haggar anymore what did she do? Did she tried to mend her ways and help what remained of the universe to honor her child’s life? Nope. She blamed the Galra, she used the Alteans, she destroyed Olkarion and she dammed the whole universe (and then any other universe) to get the ending she wanted.

Everyone in these universe is gone because of her. And in the end, she got her dream of being with her family.

Even Zarkon got a bit of a redemption scene! He got to go to the same place as the former paladins, with his wife and his son…These three are responsible of 70% of all the bad things that happened in this universe in the last 10,00 years and they get to spend eternity together.

I don’t’ know why suddenly the production staff though this ending was cool.

4. The Epilogue

I think the only ‘last scenes’ I liked where Pidge’s ending and Kolivan and Krolia’s ending. They were nice. But the others? *frowns*

In the “one year later” scenes Hunk is seen in the ATLAS along with Shiro; it’s implied that Hunk is some sort of diplomat who also likes to cook for his guests. In the last image it just looks like he gave up that to become the next masterchef.

Lance’s final still looks sad. He’s the perfect picture of a widower and I think this is terrible unfair for all the Lance stans who were hoping season 8 was Lance’s season. Yeah, lance likes his family and he always missed earth, but there were other things they could have done with him. He could be teaching the new generation of garrison pilots! His ending just makes the audience think he’s recovering from a broken earth.

Keith's image in his ending still looks odd, I think hey were trying to an upper shot or something but his waist looks too slim, and there are several things thet feel weird with the perspective.

...not to mention it says "humanitarian relief organization" ...the blades are all Galra? the fact they didn't bother to spend 5 minutes thinking why "humanitarian" was not a word applicable here tells me all I need to know about the care they placed in this epilogue.

Shiro’s scene is strange because Shiro looks exactly the way he looks when they say goodbye to the lions, but Pidge and Hunk and Keith look like they do in the “years later” design. Consistency is lacking.

Then there’s the thing of how Shiro “found his happiness” with and image of him getting married. What, he wasn’t happy while he was single? Seeing the stars up close, traveling the universe, flying on Black and then leading ATLAS, that didn’t make Shiro happy? Are we now equaling marriage with happiness, is that it?

I get that an gay marriage and a gay kiss on screen is something commendable (it would have bene better if we had seen Shiro and his new hubbie actually interacting tho), and we all love Shiro, but I can think of several images that could have been more satisfactory for his character: him at the helm of the ATLAS, fulfilling his dreams of traveling the stars in peace; Shiro finally getting a vacation; maybe even a description with an older Shiro saying “and Shiro lived many years happy and in peace because he was not sick anymore” all of these would have been more rewarding.

…And the only scene that was animated was Shiro’s wedding? Why? Can you imagine how could it’d have been if instead of the weeding we saw something like “the lions came back one more time to bring back Allura” I wouldn’t even be here ranting for 20 minutes so far on top of my pile of salt if they had done something like that!

And it’s not even as if it was one simple person who made the ending: VLD has a staff of writers, several directors, many producers monitoring, a whole team of animators and several consulting departments…and none of them stopped to think this might not be a good ending to their series?

In the end, I’m still left with some questions:

What is the lifespan of an average Galra? What would be the expected lifespan for Keith or Axca and Ezor and Zethrid?

Does having Altean markings means Lance is now Altean? Cause the show was not clear, is this just a physical memento so Lance has something to remind him of Allura every day or will he live a long life now?

What’s the cosmic wolf’s name? did he ever told Keith?! How much more is he going to grow?

more importantly: What was the name of Keith’s father?!

#I'm made out of salt #voltron legendary defender #I will only grant you one spoiler free week #and that grace period is over

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aquaburst3 · 6 years ago

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Shiro and Keith for the give me a character?

Shiro

How I feel about this character

I love him. Despite being through hell, he never came off as a brooding antihero like you expect a character like him to be. He’s a great leader and a total badass, but loving and sweet all the same. The fact that he never gives up and still fights the good fight after going through hell is inspiring to me. I find it awesome how they took a character who essentially existed for 7 eps and made him a 3d character.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Keith and Adam (before all the shit hit the fan)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Allura, Lance, Pidge, Coran, Hunk, Krolia and Acxa

My unpopular opinion about this character

Know I’m gonna piss off a lot of people by saying this, but I don’t think the “Paladin Switch” was a bad idea. Hear me out.

I mentioned in metas from ages ago that Keith’s character arc mimicked both Simon (TLGG) and Siniji (Eva) where a young hero was shoved into the leadership role against the will. In TLGG, Simon takes up the leadership mantel after Kamina dies. And in Eva, Shiniji is forced to be a mecha pilot against his will and grows into the roles as the series progresses. Having watched both of those series, if the writers played their cards right, it would’ve worked just as fine in VLD. Because of that, I think the writers intended Shiro to be a false protagonist, which a rather (uncommon) trope, but it exists. And Keith being forced to step up in Shiro’s absence would’ve allowed him to have a coming of age leadership arc, creating compelling conflict where the team is forced to bond and work together in his absence.

Don’t get me wrong. Killing Shiro off like the staff wanted to would’ve been a terrible idea and would’ve backfired. Hell, I would’ve been pissed off if the series killed of Shiro for real. But there was something else that Shiro could’ve done...

To make a long story short, Pollux was a sister planet to Arus (Altea). However, there is a catch. Since in that version, that planet freely and willing sided with the Galra. Romelle along with her two brothers, Bandor and Avok, were royalty of said planet and Allura’s cousins.

Where does Shiro come into this? Well...

During the dub version, after Sven went to the Space Hospital, Sven meets up with Romelle after Lotor tossed her down a pit. They work together to free her people on the planet.

I don’t know about you guys, but that would’ve been an awesome to see unfold in VLD! I’m still baffled as to why the series never added that plotline. I think it missed the boat on that one, because...

It tackles the idea adds a huge shade of moral grey to the series, saying that some of the modern Alteans aren’t that nice and others want to break from that.

It would challenge Alllura a lot as a character. It’d show that some Alteans survived, but are nothing like Allura ever hoped. With Allura viewing the Alteans in rose-tinted goggles, it would challenge her character a lot, shattering her heart to see the surviving Alteans turn her down and work for the Galra.

Explores the idea of people benefiting from the Galra Empire.

It would’ve expanded Romelle’s character more. (Because even I admit that VLD made her more of a plot device and didn’t do that much with her outside of exposing Lotor.)

Most importantly, it gives Shiro more character development outside of the team and gives him something equally as important to do for the story.

But, nope. Instead, we got the colony plotline, which I’m also salty about. (But I’ll save that for another post to keep myself from not going off track.)

By the same token, I never got the complaints before the stupid epilogue that DW tacked on that Shiro was “done dirty” for being commander of the Altas instead of being the Black Paladin. He’s the captain of his own mech for fucks sake! That’s pretty huge in of itself. Hell, I always took that line about Shiro loving to be a paladin to mean, “There’s nothing more fulfilling for me then exploring the universe and helping others,” and not literally. As long as Shiro is out there, helping others, exploring the stars and being a kickass leader, I’m happy.

With that said, Shiro becoming a background character and loosing his close bond with Keith during s8? That was inexcusable. S8 did him really dirty there.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish that ending where Shiro married Curtis never happened. It’s extremely OOC for Shiro, it implied that Shiro gave up his dreams and still seems like a stupid PR stunt that DW pulled for woke points (it still seems in poor taste since the relationship was never developed). If they really wanted to do something like that, they could’ve scrapped the epilogue and hinted at that he was dating Keith or Curtis right before the lions take off to find Allura. Because it’s far more reasonable to assume then Shiro falling in love with someone and marrying them in less then a year. Shiro deserved far better then to be married off to a sexy lamp at the last second.

I also wish we learnt more about his family life. Because we never seen his family in the series and I wanted to learn about them. (It makes it painfully obvious that he was slated to die during s2 in hindsight)

Keith

How I feel about this character

He’s a badass, but yet is loyal and loving. Throughout the series he becomes closer to others and comes out of his shell, which is cool to see unfold.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Shiro, Allura and Hunk

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Allura, Pidge, Acxa and Coran

My unpopular opinion about this character

See my answer in the “Shiro” section about the paladin switch.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish the Lotor/Keith rivalry was expanded upon this version and they interacted more in general. While I know the old one was based on Lotor’s lust for Allura, they could’ve found another way to it so that it’s less questionable.

Also, I wish that Keith’s development happened over the course of the series more. While I know it happened due to behind the scenes issues, him gaining confidence as a leader and becoming close with his mom while on a space whale seems rather tacked on.

#aqua answers #Anonymous

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shiroallura · 7 years ago

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Ok I know this is discourse-y but I’m gonna ask it. Doesn’t this “be safe” feel better than the one between AL? Allura’s reaction to both is so different. She returns the gesture to Shiro, but just nods her head towards Lance. Shiro and Allura share the be safe. It’s full of trust and respect. Lance’s feels different and I can’t place why? Her nod feels uncomfortable on rewatch

I think the one Allura and Shiro have works because it’s read, not listened to, for starters, so the tone can be seemingly as soft or not as soft depending on the reader. I also think it helps that we don’t see Allura’s face when she says, “You as well,” and thereby we can once again easily imagine her face softening. The exchange is also very casual, quick, and in front of the team, but while Shiro looks concerned – and again, we don’t know Allura’s expression – there isn’t a lot of attention drawn to it otherwise, which helps it seem like a casual interaction between these two, whether the team is around or not. We also know that this happened with Kuron, whom while he cares for Allura rather deeply, is still overall less affectionate or concerned than Shiro, so the contrast and knowing that this is likely what Shiro would do, if not more so, also helps it along. We’ll have to wait and see if we get an audio voiceover for this by the crew to see how it’s read, but given how Shiro’s or Kuron’s voice does typically soften when he’s talking to Allura, I would be surprised if there wasn’t some emotion underlying it.

And you know, in regards to the Lance and Allura “be safe,” I actually had to go back and rewatch because I couldn’t really remember it, but while watching, I definitely know what you were feeling, because I felt it too, and I think I know why. Lance’s feelings in s6 flip-flop around a bit, for example. In 6x01 he’s flirting with her similar to the way Lotor does and romanticizes the moment she saves him, but in 6x02, he seems to accept his broken heart, and then in 6x03 he’s still trying to make a good impression on her, but when she leaves to go spend time with Lotor, that might be when he does truly let it go, as that would line up with his behaviour in the back half of the season.

The thing is though, Allura doesn’t know how he feels.

He’s stopping to speak to her specifically before a dangerous mission that she’s going with Lotor, who is right there and can here this alongside the team, and she’s already at a point with Lotor where she has deep feelings for him and is kissing him once they return. And all she knows about Lance is what the mice said, and how much they relayed of Lance’s conversation is unknown, but still. She knows that Lance genuinely likes her. And given how she reacted then, she knows she doesn’t feel the same way. So I wouldn’t be surprised that if when this exchange happened, she was worried he was going to confess.

L: Allura?A: Yes Lance?

L: Get back safe.A: I will.

And while VLD expressions don’t always match up with what’s being said or reacted to (ie. Shiro’s rather stony face when he’s checking up on Allura in 2x12) they still match the character’s emotions (Shiro is still in battle, is unhappy she’s as weakened as she is, was possibly prepared for the answer to be that she was gone, etc.) so I’m not going to reach that far and say Allura was annoyed by Lance doing this. I’m sure she appreciated Lance’s concern because she appreciates and loves him as a friend.

But she doesn’t know if he is still holding onto feelings for her or not, and I’m sure she was relieved on some level that it wasn’t a confession, and she could focus on her mission. Because Allura would have been a little worried, but she also had her trust in Lotor and Pidge’s math to fall back on, and unlike Hunk, Coran, and Lance, ‘Shiro’/Kuron was willing to go along with the plan as well.

L: But even if they do reach the quintessence field, then what? The last time anyone got in there, it turned Zarkon evil.S: Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn’t create them. It revealed them.

It’s clear that the team isn’t concerned about Lotor. They’re watching and waiting and worrying for Allura’s sake. Sure, they don’t want anything to happen to Lotor because he’s an important ally, but none of them are friends with him, or even seem to actually like him, outside of Allura. So in this conversation, they’re expressing concern primarily over Allura, and Shiro/Kuron is willing going to go along with it because he knows one main thing: Allura has no evil instincts to be revealed; she cannot be corrupted. I think it says a lot about how highly and confidently he thinks of her as both a leader and a person, tbh.

#also my dear sweet anon: never be afraid to come to me for discourse it's what i'm here for lol #thanks for asking #brotp: i owed you one #shallura #voltron comics #parallels #6x04 #s6 #lance #allura #anti allurance #somewhat??#idk if it counts #anonymous #analysis series

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dent-de-leon · 7 years ago

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Do you have any theories on how Shiro's current storyline might play out in canon?

This is like…a very big broad question. There’s really a lot of directions you could go with this. Ultimately, here’s a breakdown of some possibilities I’ve considered:

We go ahead and Devil’s Due comics this shit. For those who don’t know, there was a comic series based off 80′s Voltron where Sven was…different. He didn’t die–like VLD Shiro. Instead, he ended up having problems connecting with his Lion–remember how Kuron was shut out by Black at first? You later find out that, the reason why Voltron denied him, was because he’d been compromised. Brainwashed by Haggar and Lotor’s fiance Merla. He turns against the team and ends up becoming an antagonist for a bit. I think it’s very possible we might see Kuron pull something like that (albeit against his will). So you have this scenario where Kuron is maybe warring with himself but he still splits from the team and actively becomes a “villain” for a bit.

It’s also possible that Kuron will be able to maintain more control though. And maybe, once he realizes he’s putting the team at risk, he’ll leave Voltron on his own and go out searching for some answers for his recent memory blanks and behavior. This leads to him investigating into Operation Kuron on his own, and having to come to terms with what that means. There’s a good chance he might resent Shiro, because this is supposed to be his life, and to know that none of this ever was…that he has no real life or past or memories of his own…that’s harsh. He might be loathe to meet Shiro at first. But he could also end up actively trying to save him, it’s really anybody’s guess.

The fact is, I can’t see Kuron not leaving the team at some point (at least temporarily). Just like how I can’t imagine Lotor staying either. Also, I really do think they want to…throw in Black Paladin Keith for a bit more before the real Shiro comes back (and maybe even lead into copilot sheith?) But yeah, we have every indication that the show runners originally wanted to use Shiro to really push for Keith’s leadership arc:

Lauren: “Obviously in the original he was the leader guy, and we just wanted to start him in a different place. He looks up to Shiro, but he’s definitely not the leader that Shiro is at all. And so he’s got a lot to learn. He’s still very impulsive, very rash, and he’s got a hot temper.” (source)

Joaquim: “We had seen Shiro as a conduit for allowing Keith to rise to the leadership role…” (source)

Lauren: “For instance, way back when we thought we were going to be able to have Shiro exit the show at the end of our Netflix Season Two, we had every intention of Keith being the leader. The team working together and growing throughout the rest of the show, struggling with their differences, but ultimately gelling as a team. We ended up not being able to do that because we needed to bring Shiro back, but the weird thing is that it created these other storylines that are interesting in their own way.

But now we have this storyline that we didn’t expect to happen with this Keith and Shiro dual leadership friction. And Keith going off and leaving, following his way to Marmora, which is something we would have explored a little bit. We definitely would have gone into the Blade of Marmora and found Keith’s family, but not necessarily in the way you see it now.” (source)

Lauren: “I think in our attempt to–because ultimately, what happened is [Shiro] was supposed to exit stage left but we ended up needing to keep him around. And so we needed to factor in something interesting about him so that he wasn’t just the perfect guy who solves everyone’s problems. This is us doing some damage control.”

Josh: “…I just like that these characters are continually evolving. So they’re changing all the time. Even Keith, now, as we discussed, he’s sort of filling this other void that he had that was giving him shortcomings as a leader. So maybe he’ll be able to fill those gaps. And that goes along for every other character as well.” (source)

You get the idea. As for “our” Shiro, I think his real self is either 1) trapped in the Astral Plane, or 2) trapped in this interim between dimensions and just sort of keeps shifting through. We know already that Shiro knew about Daibazaal’s destruction before anyone else–because Black told him. More than that, she showed him. But why? Why take Keith to the ruins of Daibazaal and show him the comet and Voltron’s formation? To what end? The whole time, Shiro kept saying, “Show me more.”

But Black never gets to finish. In all honesty, I think she was trying to tell him the whole story. To show him how Daibazaal got destroyed in the first place, and relay that the rift–as Lotor said–is still there. I think she knew the only way to permanently seal the rift. Which is why she took him to the site of Daibazaal–this is where you need to go. During the fight with Zarkon, I think she tried to send him there to really finish the job. Time to beat the final boss. But something went wrong, and the teleportation between realities was distorted. Kind of like how Haggar

The other–much simpler answer–is that Shiro was in dire danger during the fight so, like Keith suggested, the Black Lion teleported him to save his life. But again, something went wrong, and Shiro wound up trapped in the astral plane instead. But either way, I think Keith is going to have to be the one to make contact with Shiro and save him. This ties back into the overarching theme of Keith and Shiro’s intimacy and Keith’s vow to save him, “As many times as it takes.” Ultimately, I believe this will culminate in a choice at the end of the series will Keith will be forced to choose between saving Shiro and defending the universe. This also nicely echoes–1) the story of zaggar and how Zarkon had to choose between sacrificing Honerva or his planet, and 2) the end of the original 80’s Voltron, in which Ryou Shirogane/Shiro is captured by Sincline/Lotor and Akira/Keith must choose between saving him and Voltron. Take a wild guess, but yeah–Keith’s like “fuck the giant robot I’m not letting him die.”

In the end, Ryou ends up making the choice for him and sacrificing himself for the greater good. However, considering that in stories like this successors are meant to surpass their predecessors, I don’t believe Keith will fall into the same trap as Zarkon before him. As someone who’s said things like, “Maybe things aren’t so black and white,” I believe Keith will be able to find another way, some third answer that allows him to save both Shiro and the universe. After all, as I’ve talked about in many meta before, the lesson Keith needs to learn is not that he must let go of Shiro. Because, after Kerberos, Keith never really moved on. If the idea here was that he had to, then why have him endure a second grieving process–have him grapple with the agony of that loss all over–just to give Shiro back and then unceremoniously whisk him away again. If the lesson here is, you need to give up on him, you need to mourn and move on, then Shiro would not have come back. Season 3 is Keith’s chance to finally accept that grieving process, but he doesn’t. He ultimately rejects it, and this only strengthens his resolve to find Shiro–no matter what.

Consider also Keith’s background–“Shiro’s the one person who never gave up on me. I won’t give up on him.” All his life, Keith has pushed others away for fear of rejection, a fact he outright confirms in his vlog. So the fact that Shiro is his one constant, his one and only, the person he “desperately wants to see”…this isn’t about loss and moving on. If you look at how willing Keith is to sacrifice himself for others’ sakes, that much is clear. All his life, Keith’s never even considered the possibility he would be able to stay with someone, that someone would show him the unconditional love he’s found with Shiro. And he fully expects he won’t be able to keep that–“[Keith’s] constantly scared that he’s gonna do something or say something wrong and he’s gonna lose Shiro.” (source) Keith’s lesson isn’t to let Shiro go, to turn down this one positive constant in his life.

This is even more compelling when you look at the bigger picture–Keith’s feelings. Always, Keith has taken to suppressing them. He’s outright ashamed of his own emotions. We know galra experience very intense, volatile emotions, and for Keith, that’s clearly taken its toll. In fact, it seems Shiro is the only one capable of really anchoring Keith through this sensory overload. He even provides physical affirmations of comfort and gives Keith grounding methods like, “Patience yields focus.” And in Shiro’s absence, Keith becomes grievously affected by those overwhelming emotions:

Joaquim: “He latches onto Shiro at times because Shiro’s sort of the only thing that can really calm him down and keep him in check.” (source).

Joaquim: “[Keith’s] got this emotional side to him.”

Lauren: “It’s kind of exasperated by the fact that Shiro’s gone. Like he’s having a hard time dealing with it, he doesn’t really know how to feel. And I think he just goes back to that inner part of himself where it’s just—he can’t control his emotions. And that comes from the galra side.” (source).

Why was Keith booted from the garrison?

Joaquim: “You know why Iverson has a closed eye permanently? There you go. He was, you know…not really knowing how to cope with his galra side, so. He raged out a little–”

Lauren: “Yeah, and he was not coping well with the loss of Shiro. Things take an impact and maybe he got a little…a little out of hand.” (source).

“I am…sorry. I am so sorry I, I guess—I have a bit of a temper, so…I don’t know why I’m that way.” Time and again, during season 3, Keith is told he must put his own feelings aside for the sake of the mission: “But you know that he would be the first one to tell you to move on.” “But our mission is bigger than any one individual.” And later, from the BOM–“The mission is more important than the individual.” Most damning of all: “You cannot allow your feelings to cloud your judgement. You have in the past.” Always, Keith is forced to bottle up his feelings, to stamp out his emotions and put the mission first. He already knows loss and sacrifice, and these are not the lessons he needs to learn. They’ve brought him nothing but pain and suffering.

What he really needs, is to realize that he feelings and personal attachments aren’t damaging, that these things and eventual happiness are all attainable for him and he doesn’t have to choose between his heart and some abstract greater good. If he follows in Zarkon’s footsteps, then we sell the story that love is fundamentally selfish and wrong, whereas for Shiro and Keith it’s proven to be a healing balm. Ultimately, Keith will save Shiro–and in doing so, prove that one’s love can be their salvation. This in turn rings true for Shiro as well, as he’s always been so ready to martyr himself for a cause. He never expected to make it out of this alive–“They’ve found me,” “Keith, if something happens to me, I want you to lead Voltron.”

Keith is that spark that lights a fire. He’s always encouraging Shiro to keep fighting, to keep moving on. Always urging him forward, convincing him time and again he’s the true Black Paladin, never rushing his recovery and only ever wanting what’s best for him. Keith’s saved his life in more ways than one, because Keith really does believe he’ll get through this. “You’re gonna make it.” Keith gives him hope. And to kill him off when so much of his character development is integral to that? It just would just be such a loss.

And while I hope to see Shiro either return to his role as Black Paladin or copilot with Keith, there still stands the elephant in the room. The final fight, so to speak. That rift must be sealed–and I have a bad feeling someone’s going to need to stay on the other side to do it. Again, I think Shiro is the one Black was trying to convince to seal the rift. So we might see him decide to make that choice to stay behind. Again, I can’t imagine Keith ever leaving him though, and imagine it’s very possible that the two might both end up sealed away on the other side of the rift, unable to return to their own reality. But at least they still have each other.

#sheith #keith #voltron #shiro #takashi shirogane

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white--moon · 3 years ago

Note

“Yes, it’s important. I told you. I’m telling you.” He’s not happy that it sounds like he might’ve been withholding information intentionally. “He was irritated before I told him that.” The entire situation has turned into one giant clusterfuck. He leans back against the cement barrier at the building's edge.

He wrinkles his nose. “No, I didn’t. And you’re not a rival. Did you want me to lie? Isn’t belonging to you something that would sound worse if he found out some other way?” His hollow is quiet before that pronouncement. Ichigo nods. “That’s… fair. Thanks.” Because he’s not so stupid or blind that he can’t see Shiro making an active attempt to help him out. He could’ve told Ichigo to get lost. But he didn’t.

Ichigo nods. That’s easier to accept. He’s an honorary member of a lot of things. He still huffs and flips him off when Shiro tells him he’s welcome, but there’s a smile playing at the edge of his lips. He shrugs and turns his attention away again just to be an asshole. “Look, I get all my hollowness from you, so if I’m bad at it, it reflects poorly on you. I’m not sure what you want me to say.” He scoffs though, brows raising. “First off, population wise, this is the largest city in the world and Karakura is right in the middle of it. Second, why the hell would I know what you do all day? I’m not spying on you. When I do know what you’re doing, it’s mostly involuntary. Third, why are you acting like I’m the one burying the lead, when you’ve been sitting on that information? You both still have everything intact last I checked. What happened?”

He presses his lips at that description of hollows. “I’m pretty sure you’re describing yourself if I hadn’t interrupted your night.” But, “Urahara is the only person that comes to mind, and I don’t really want to involve him in a discussion of my sex life.” Because that’s exactly where they’ll end up. He snorts when Shiro tells him not to get sentimental. “I think that’s what I should say.” But then he scoffs. “I get it. You were going to let me think you were eating him for my sake. But it’s actually because you’re getting all hard over a big dinner.” He snorts. “Fuck off.” He’s not worried about the eating, because he’s not concerned he’ll actually die. It’s times like these that he's sad they didn't get along sooner. Even stuck together, he thinks they could've had some fun if they'd ever just seen eye to eye.

This has really snowballed into a much less cut and dry situation. He liked it better when it was just Ichigo involved in all the mess and he thought he was just on the sidelines, maybe offering help, maybe just listening. But actually it turns out he's in the middle of it too. He eyes Ichigo leaning against the roof's barrier.

He huffs out a sigh. "No, I don't want you to lie. S' a little funny you had to ask if we might be pack after you just told him you belong to another hollow though." He crosses his arms, the thought of food gone- well, pushed as far to the back of his mind as it ever is, anyway. He'd mostly just been giving Ichigo an easy solution when he'd said to just ask Grimmjow to join his, but now he's thinking that might be the only solution. He's not sure what it says about it and he's not willing to inspect it too closely, but he thinks it's pretty clear he wont be giving up his claim on Ichigo any time soon. He nods absently when Ichigo thanks him.

That finger comes up and if Ichigo were a step closer, he'd be tempted to bite it. Instead, he grunts an amused sound and smirks. He scoffs though. "I'm gonna push you off the roof." Not a serious threat, since Ichigo's not in his body. "I also happened to take most a' the hollowness with me, so you suckin' at it isn't any sort of reflection on me at all. You're just bad at it. Honorary, but not a real hollow." He arches a brow, listening and realizing Ichigo really is interested in this and probably not likely to drop it easily. "So defensive. Population doesn't mean anything to me." Especially when he'd mostly meant that he and Grimmjow and probably a dozen other hollows and shinigami tend to gravitate around Ichigo. It's only a matter of time before run ins occur. "And nothin' happened. We mostly don't interact. Well. I considered eating him until I figured out why he looks so familiar. You should consider a collar with a bell and a tag so no one thinks he's a stray."

Ichigo is exactly right and he sighs his disappointment. "You owe me dinner." Which, of course, implies that Ichigo knows he scared away his prey. At the mention of Urahara and Ichigo's sex life, which includes him too, his features skew in distaste. Wait. His brows arch. "Are you and Grimmjow–?" How did he miss that? He should have smelled another hollow on Ichigo from miles away, but when he comes back from patrolling, it's like he's rolled around in all manner of things.

He arches a brow and gives Ichigo a somewhat sly look about the sentimental comment until Ichigo puts the rest together, then he laughs. "I do like to eat. I'm not eating him for your sake. So actually, maybe you owe me two meals."

#ask #blacksun #tsp activity check

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 5 years ago

Text

CSUAVS... LAST PART? Guys, how do i end this?

Spending the afternoon with Coran, Lance had no idea where the vargas went. It's been around lunch time that Kre'el had passed, but by the time the others came up to the bridge, the sky outside was mostly painted in a deep purple. Hiding his holopad, Lance was still in shock from Kre'el passing. He'd cried into Coran's arms the tears he hadn't been able find when Keith was with him. Due to Kre'el's information, he had to make some hard decisions, and face some truths he didn't want to. He hadn't even realised he'd slipped into work mode until Coran had pointed it out to him while he typed up everything he could remember about what Kre'el had said. The other planet. The rest of her group. That weird alien who's name had started with "P". Coran was helping him put together what Kre'el had said because it wasn't fair to ask Keith to feel anything else but what he felt over Kre'el's death. If Keith had been there, he would have sided with him, listened to him... coddled him. This was a puzzle that Lance had spent so long on, dating back to when he was still tracking Klearo down. Together he and Coran had searched the star maps for likely planets. They'd searched the ship logs for any unusual signals going back to when the Telula first became his. The fact the ship had caused so many time anomalies was the basis for the their search as they complied a list of the most affected planets, and spaces where it was possible that another entrance such as the one to the outpost existed. Of course, all of this was a well educated guess. Lance able to rule out maybe a third of the planets on their list from having visited them to offer relief or chasing down a bounty. After spending most of his time asleep since arriving on Daibazaal it felt good to be doing something that could be actually helpful to Shiro and the Blades... even though he also knew that everything he was doing was a bandaid measure to hide the rest of his tears over Kre'el. Thoughts of all the "what ifs" were threatening to send him spiralling again. The itch beneath his skin to scratch or cut constantly niggled in the corner of his mind. It didn't matter how many times he told himself he wasn't that man anymore, the thought that he'd been right about being recorded while being tortured was almost too much. Work kept the memories from forcing their way forward... but as their work came to an end, the full force of the memories started to spread through him. The stain on his heart pumped through his bloodstream with every beat. He had a choice to make, and whatever he chose, the outcome was too heavy for him to take on alone.

Leaving Coran to decide it was time to return to the palace, his friends were ushered away as Lance remained in place. His weird "space uncle" hadn't only brought gifts for Daehra and ship, he'd also brought the names of two seperate therapists he thought Lance might be able to connect with. If ever he needed to talk to someone, or have someone talk him out of doing something incredibly stupid, it was probably about now. The anxiety gnawing at him was only growing worse. His temper flaring into something a kin to a tantrum as he threw his holopad down, and stalked from the bridge. Tearing at the collar of his shirt, he felt like he couldn't breathe. As if there was something inside of him bursting to get free. He wanted to run. Not as in fire up the Telula and take off, but run as in run until he couldn't breathe and there was nothing left in the world other than the feeling of accomplishment and fatigue. He'd been too scared to spar with everyone else in case he lost himself in his memories, plus regular scrapes and run ins with all kinds of people wanting you dead tended to keep one in shape... He hadn't had to do much of that lately. His extended recovery had left him feeling weaker...

Lance wasn't thinking of anything other than running. The nervous energy bubbling away. Jogging down the loading ramp, the moment his boot crunched on the gravel beneath his feet he was running. With no destination in mind, and no idea where he was going, he embraced the feeling.

Running himself until he couldn't breathe, Lance hunched forward his hands on his legs as he tried to suck down air. His body drenched in sweat as gave up on standing and threw himself down to lay on the middle of the road... or path. They were roughly the same size for no good reason, especially towards the outskirts of the inner city.

Staring up at the night sky, the content sigh about to form on Lance's lips evaporated as a long wet tongue dragged across his face as large paws landed on his chest

"Gargh! What the quiznak!? You're a menace!"

Yipping happily, Kosmo dumped his whole weight down on him

"What are you doing?! Where's your human!?"

"His human was still catching up"

Craning his head backwards, Keith was jogging along the path? he'd just sprinted up

"What are you doing here?"

"I saw you take off. I've been following you this whole time"

Lance fended off another attack from Kosmo, Keith coming around the side to wrestle with his wolf. Kosmo not giving up his human cushion. Wrapping his arms around the doper animal, Lance hauled him up as he sat up

"I didn't even notice you were there"

"I noticed. It didn't seem like a fleeing run, so I hung back. Everything alright?"

Not really. Kre'el was dead and now he'd stopped he was thinking about it... mostly because he didn't know how to talk to Keith about it

"Kind of. Coran and I got a fair few leads on potential planets that another opening could be near... How was your talk with Shiro?"

"Good. Ok... yeah. I went and talked to my team, then mum found me... I was coming back to see when I saw everyone leaving, except you"

"That's because I was... you know what, sit down. I can't talk to you while you're up there"

"Were in the middle of a road"

So this was a road? Not a path? Galra really needed street signs... or idiot signs

"No ones here. Besides, I'm still catching my breath. I got a bit carried away"

"You were running for the last varga. I'm not surprised"

A varga wasn't horrible. Letting himself flop back, Keith lowered himself to sit next to him, resting his hand on Lance's hair

"I feel like you've been thinking again, babe?"

"Mmm... that's because I have been"

How he'd snagged Keith would always remain a mystery to him

"I also have the feeling you're going to tell me you're taking off again"

Stupid Coran. He couldn't keep his mouth shut. Opening his mouth, he closed it again as he tried to pick his words. Sighing at him, Keith moved his hand away

"You just got here. You don't have to rush off into battle after battle... Can't you just... rest?"

Keith sounded hurt, and somewhat annoyed with him

"Did Coran tell you?"

"What? No. I haven't talked to him. You've got that look on your face like you've gone and decided something again"

That... That stung. Especially when Keith hadn't let him explain. Of course he'd decided something. That's what was what happened. First he did the "think", then he did the "do", and sometimes the "think" happened during the "do... When he'd been with Coran, he'd done the "think" extra hard due to Kre'el. Keith was stirring up his anxiety again. The choices he'd made were hard and harsh... but if he was ever going to move on, he had to leave the past in the past... and Dios, he wanted to move on with Keith.

"You're right. I'm leaving again. Kre'el said a lot of things that I've been thinking about while Coran was helping me out. I was trying not to think of her, but that didn't work as well as I told myself it was, so I talked with Coran and we made some decisions"

"So you decided with Coran you're leaving?"

Keith still sounded bitter. He couldn't blame his boyfriend for not getting it when he had no idea what Lance had decided. He just wished Keith was a bit more willing to let him explain himself

"No, I decided I was staying on Daibazaal until the end of the phoeb, then I was intending on taking my boyfriend home. Kre'el got me thinking of family... and I really wanted to see my mum... 'cause, you know, she was a mum. I want to talk to mum... I want to take you home and introduce you to everyone... I want to show you places that I used to love... and I want to meet your dad. I want to see your shack again... I'm taking Kre'el's ashes back to Earth, to bury her on our farm. She... she wanted to be with her daughter in the end, but I don't know where she was buried... so I thought I'd bury her on the farm"

"You want to stay here?"

Seriously? Had Keith not heard anything else he said?

"I want to stay with my boyfriend. I asked you to take those last few steps with me, and now that I'm at the end, I'm stepping aside. Coran helped me with it. I want to find those people, if by some chance they're still alive, but... I want to be with you more. I want to cherish my time with you, and for... for the sake of my mental health, we agreed it was time to let Shiro take on more. The Atlas and the Blades. Even if I found them, I don't have a magical pod to cure them. I want to take you home for Christmas. I want to tell my family I'm your husband. That I want my life to be with you. I'm not going to tell them everything. I don't think they need to know everything, but I have to tell them I'm with you, because out of everything, I'm not ashamed of that. So yes, I went off and made decisions aga..."

Kosmo was forcibly pushed off his lap as Keith launched himself on him. His lips pressing a firm kiss to Lance's as he rolled them so that Lance was straddling Keith's lap. Breaking the kiss, Keith sat up, holding him tightly. The half-Galra's face buried against his neck

"I thought... but... you..."

"You're not making much sense"

"You're really going to stay?"

"I thought about it before. You know, when I was stuck in that stupid hospital. About what I could do and what I couldn't... then I was thinking about what's more important to me. I couldn't make my mind up there because I couldn't shake the depression of having everyone smothering me. Chasing leads and leaving you to tolerate me, or accepting that... accepting that I'm out of my depth and that I still have a job I can do. So yeah. I want to stay. I want to help you out around here... Even if all I can do is provide intel on planets that the Blades might want to investigate... or lend an ear when you're frustrated. You're what's important to me. I know you... might have doubted that. Especially after I sent you to talk to Shiro so I could talk with Coran"

None of these decisions had been made lightly. He'd sobbed into Coran's shoulder every mixed up thought he had, until he helped him understand that he was still trying to do too much alone. Especially while battling his PTS over everything Kre'el had put into to play, and withdrawal making him its bitch. Lance didn't want to give up on Kre'el's people, but like he said, he wouldn't be able to give them the help they needed... and he had no idea what to do with any of the data that was on board the prison ship. It didn't benefit the job he wanted to do. Any names that needed chasing up, he could do that. He could do that in the course of continuing his work as a part time bounty hunter. Shiro had the advantage of being able to open wormholes, so once someone was apprehended, he'd be able to call through to him, or to Daibazaal or to Altea... He just... had to keep pushing out of the safe shell he'd built... or nothing would move forward... he wouldn't move forward.

"Shiro gave me a few points too. About talking with my team..."

Shivering in Keith's lap, Keith moved to start pulling his jacket off, the Cuban moving to accomodate him without thinking. Lance not paying enough attention to notice, already jumping onto the next train of thought. If he was taking Keith home, he was going to have to deal with all the judgmental overly religious family members... wait... What about Acxa? She was like a sister to Keith, and in some weird way, if she married Veronica, they really would be

"Do you think they'll want to come to Christmas? It'd be nice to show Acxa the farm, Veronica would probably hesitate to ask"

"I think they'd love that. Christmas isn't a thing out here, so they're probably going to be confused..."

Placing his jacket over Lance's shoulder, Lance leaned down to inhale Keith's scent. God. He loved how his boyfriend smelt. Nuzzling into the warmth, he was so fucking lucky to have Keith

"... but it's a nice idea. Are your team coming?"

Nodding, Lance hummed. He might not have thought everything through, like where everyone one sleep, and how the others would go in church, but Kre'el had reminded him how important family was... not he didn't know...

"I want them to. I didn't think I'd want to go back so soon, after telling mum I wasn't ready. I think maybe that was... me still trying to prove I don't need to be babied. I'm not ready to show people my hand, or my scars. I'll probably... show you some really embarrassing sides... and you should probably know I had... a lot of problems adjusting without Allura..."

Rubbing his hands up Lance's arms, the smile Keith gave him was filled with love

"I know you didn't have the best time with your family. But I'd like to meet them all again. I'd like to be there as your boyfriend. You're not lying to them by not telling them everything, before you get that in your head. We can take it slow. We don't need to tell them any more than what we're comfortable with. So while you're here, with me, we'll talk about it. We can call your mother, and talk to her about Christmas. That way she knows we're coming"

"Will Krolia come?"

Keith frowned at his husband, Lance's heart giving an uncomfortable flip

"Mum's not big on Christmas"

"I know, but... I might just be being selfish here, but a full family Christmas. Curtis and Shiro have probably got their own plans... but we can invite him too. I really... I really want to have a family Christmas with you. My family and your family..."

He was talking to much. Lance knew he was talking to fast but all of it was coming out like word vomit. If he went ahead and made all these plans with Keith, then there was no way he could back out.... but at the same time, he was worried he was being selfish by asking Keith to come home for Christmas. Keith probably never had a proper Christmas when he was in the foster system. He probably never experienced the let down of socks and jocks as child... or eaten way too much then thrown it all up in the shower because the water was too hot. He'd probably never gone to church and sing carols, or set off home made fireworks... All the things Keith had probably missed weren't fair. He wanted to be the one to do all of this with him. He wanted to see the way Keith's face would light up. He wanted to see his family fawn over his boyfriend, who'd probably be as confused as his team over what was happening. Yeah. He was definitely being selfish... Keith might not even want to celebrate Christmas. For him, the day more than likely held no special place in his heart...

The Cuban's smile fell as he forced himself up from Keith's lap, Kosmo threatening to knock him over as he "nudged" Lance's leg looking for attention

"I'm sorry. I was being overbearing. You don't have to come if you don't want to, or if it's too hard... My family is kind of massive, even without my team there... and it's not like my family knows I'm bi, apart from mum and V... my extended family can be stupid about things like that... I still love them, but they make me mad... I shouldn't have pushed all this at you. We haven't even sat down..."

Climbing off the ground, Keith scooped him up off his feet. Strong arms wrapped around him just below his arse

"You're talking too much"

Spinning him around, Keith lowered him down and immediately moved to cup his face, while Lance was trying to prevent Keith's jacket from slipping off

"You're a quiznakking idiot, babe. I'm terrified of meeting your family, but you are my husband. My accidental husband that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I just said we can call your mum, make sure it's ok. And... I love you. I shouldn't have been so moody before... I didn't want you to go so soon. I still don't feel like I've actually... like I've actually caught you. I feel like you're going to float away from me the moment I let go. I can't guarantee I won't mess anything up"

Biting his lip, Keith looked away

"Hey, no. Trust me, Mullet. Most of them will absolutely love you. The important ones will. Mum already counts you as her son"

"But I didn't..."

It was too dark to see if Keith was blushing, the streetlights a tad too far, yet Lance had the feeling he was

"But, what?"

"I... I didn't even ask for your hand in marriage..."

Letting out a laugh, Lance didn't expect to be laugh so hard on the day he'd lost Kre'el. Insulted, Keith pulled away, turning and starting to stalk from him. Jogging the few steps, Lance grabbed Keith's arm

"Babe, wait"

"No. You laughed at me"

"I laughed because nobody but you would do that these days. Seriously. I'm my own person, not a possession. I'm the one who gets to choose who I want to be with. A decaphoeb ago, if anyone had asked for my hand, I probably would have shot them up with tranquillisers and left them in a dumpster. But you and that mullet of yours went and tore down all my defences. Threw my life into chaos and decided that I wasn't as dirty and disgusting as I feel. You know my secrets, you know I'm a mess, but you still tell me you love me... It took me movements but I'm getting there, aren't I? I'm getting better, right? I'm starting to believe you're not going to dump me and run... so much so that I want us to work off base on different missions... I've fallen so fucking hard for you. I still have stuff... I can't tell you. And stuff I don't know how to get through... but I... with you, I want to work through it... I can't guarantee I'll never have another panic attack. I can't guarantee I won't relapse. I can't even promise you I'll stick to not hurting myself... because for so long, it's been the only thing keeping my monsters in my head... but I can promise you I want to make you feel happy every single day, even on my bad days because I love your dorky arse"

"Lance, there's only one thing I want you to promise me?"

"What's that?"

"That you'll talk to me. Don't stop talking to me"

Snorting, Lance slid his hand down to hold Keith's, his head resting against Keith's shoulder

"Babe, might I remind you I never shut up?"

"You know what I mean"

"I do. Sometimes I might need to work it out a bit before I can let you in. But I will... And you have to make me a promise too"

"What's that?"

"You have to talk to me too. I won't push your past, but when you're upset or angry, we need to use our big adult words. Even if you're as confused and messed up in the head as I am, I need you to use your words. I want to be someone you can be proud of, and someone you can really rely on"

"Babe, you've always been my stability"

Giving another laugh, Lance nudged his husband

"If you're relying on me, we're both screwed"

"At least we'll go down together"

"Keith and Lance, neck and neck"

Lance could almost hear Keith rolling his eyes at him

"When are you going to stop that?"

"Sometime around the twelfth of never. But, you know, with the brain damage I wouldn't be able to tell when the twelfth of never comes"

"You're incorrigible"

Nudging Keith again, Keith nudged him back. There was still so much they needed to talk about, but walking by Keith's side under the weird purple sky of Daibazaal, Lance felt lighter and happier now that the self imposed weight on his shoulders had eased by sharing the load. Things weren't great. His anxieties were taking issue with being out in the dark with Galra around, but he was holding his panic down because he was so quiznakking happy that Keith would be coming with him back to Earth. He wasn't a mother, and couldn't understand that maternal bond, but he knew if he wanted to one day have a family with Keith, he first needed to make amends with his own. He needed to apologise for nearly tearing them apart. For running. For all the missed calls and avoidance measures he'd taken... They'd forgive him, at least say they did. But his previous behaviour would be there lurking in the backs of their minds. He wanted to show them he wasn't spending nearly every night drunk to drown the pain of Allura leaving, and that he'd found someone to love all the good and bad sides of him. He adored Keith. The man bent over backwards and always had his back. They couldn't change the past. It's always be there, and his anxieties would never truly leave, but as long as he kept walking forward, he had a chance to work through everything.

Smiling softly, Lance rubbed his cheek against Keith's arm. Anxious to return to the Telula or Keith's room, somewhere they could be alone to form their plans

"You wouldn't have me any other way"

"No. No, I really wouldn't"

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