#votronweeks

[lynfantasy]

This is YOUR fault!! -- fanfic

For Lotor Week 2017 @voltronweeks Day 2: Broken (sorry this is a day late) AO3 link

Summary: Lotor was honestly minding his own business, just walking around campus at Voltron University, when a random girl ran into him. It really wasn't his fault her laptop broke, but, well, it's easier to just agree when a feisty redhead girl starts yelling at you.

Genfic, no shipping, Lotor & Pidge (platonic)

Human AU, College/University AU, fluff

Rated for general audiences

Warning: cursing, yelling

I’m sure that this prompt was meant to be deep and/or angsty, but have a broken laptop instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To be fair, it really wasn’t actually Lotor’s fault, but, well, when a feisty redhead girl screams in your face that it is, there’s really no way to fight that. It’s far easier to just… go along with it. Case in point: Lotor was minding his own business, walking through campus at Voltron University at a brisk but unhurried pace, certainly not fast enough to pose any real risk to anyone traveling at a reasonable speed.

Unfortunately, one particular girl was flat-out running straight at him, and Lotor did not have time to do much more than slow down before she directly collided with him. Lotor took a step back to avoid falling, but he was otherwise unaffected. The girl didn’t fare quite so well; her own momentum had caused her to bounce off of him and fall on her backside, and her unzipped backpack and its contents were sprawled across the pavement. Her round glasses sat askew on her nose, and the flannel shirt tied around her waist had been shifted down to her hips as she’d slid back slightly in her fall. When she moved her arms, it was clear to see that her elbows had been scraped up pretty badly, nearly to the point of bleeding. She groaned in pain as she gently shifted her weight, trying to get up.

Lotor offered a hand to her and said, “Oh dear, are you alright? You should really be more careful, running around campus like that.”

Her expression turned sour at the implication that the incident was her fault (which, to be fair, it really was), but she accepted his hand, so Lotor gently pulled her up to her feet and helped steady her, only letting go of her hand once he was sure that she wouldn’t fall down again. “Thanks,” she muttered as she brushed herself off and set her glasses straight, “but I was being careful enough! You need to watch where you’re going too, you know!”

Lotor felt… strangely uncomfortable. At his previous university, no one would have dared to speak to him like that, but he didn’t have the same reputation here at Voltron University that he did at Galra University (for a good reason – he rather hoped, actually, that no one would make the connection between Lotor Imperator, son of President Zarkon Imperator of Galra University, and Lotor “Sincline” here at Voltron University). He froze for a moment, biting back a harsh reply and composing himself before saying, “I do apologize for my speed; however, you underestimate your own. I did see you right before you hit, but I simply did not have enough time to properly react.”

She glared at him with fury in her large, honey-colored eyes. She was probably trying to intimidate him or at least make him feel the force of her wrath, but she mostly just looked rather cute and child-like with her wide eyes behind her large glasses. Her short, reddish-brown hair was doing her no favors either as it fluffed around her round face and made her look pretty adorable. She reminded Lotor of an anime character or a particularly grumpy kitten.

She glared at him for at least five seconds before she finally broke eye contact with a huff and said, “Fine, whatever. Can you at least help me pick up my books?” Without waiting for a reply, she began gathering her stuff and shoving it back into her too-small backpack.

Lotor began to help her gather up her books, but he’d only picked up a few when he heard her cry of dismay. He looked over to see her gingerly picking up her obviously-damaged laptop. She opened the screen to reveal cracks spread across the screen from the lower right corner, emanating outwards like rays of light while twisting and branching like lightning. It would have been almost beautiful if it wasn’t such a costly loss.

“Damn it!” the girl yelled. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck…” She carefully pressed the button to turn it on, and her expression was simultaneously relieved and pained when the screen came on, illuminating the cracks but proving that the computer itself still worked aside from the broken screen. She gently closed the laptop before taking her flannel shirt tied around her waist and using it to wrap up the broken piece of tech to protect it from further damage before sliding it into her backpack. She then turned to Lotor with an absolutely enraged expression. “YOU BASTARD!! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!”

Putting his hands up in a gesture of surrender, Lotor took a couple steps back as the girl marched over to him. “Please, calm down,” he placated. “This isn’t my fault.”

“THE HELL IT ISN’T!!” she yelled, and Lotor instinctually tensed up in response. The girl sneered as she looked at him. “Some rich kid striding around campus like you own the place, not bothering to look out for people because you assume the world’s gonna bend around you—”

“I’ll pay for it!” Lotor blurted out in an attempt to make her stop with her accusations. He was certain that she didn’t even know how accurate those statements had been to the kind of person he used to be, the kind of person he was trying very, very hard not to be now that he had a second chance. “I… I can cover the expense. I’ll pay for it. Just tell me how much.”

The girl froze; she obviously hadn’t expected him to cooperate so easily. Her anger was replaced with suspicion as she looked him up and down, reevaluating. Finally, she seemed to accept his offer. “Alright,” she said, “but it’s not going to be as simple as just buying a new one. I built this.”

Lotor swallowed harshly, but he kept his tone even as he replied, “I can pay compensation for your time and buy you all of the spare parts you need. Money is not an issue.”

“Of course,” she scoffed. “Rich kid like you going to make your daddy pay for it?”

Literally biting his lip to keep himself from rising to her challenge, Lotor took a few deep breaths. “Actually,” he finally started in a measured tone, “I have been… cut off from my family’s fortune. However, I managed to steal large sums of money from my parents before that happened, and I am now using that money to invest. That is why money is not an issue. If you have some sort of distaste for stealing from the rich, I’m afraid I cannot help you.”

“Oh.” Finally, she looked at least a little apologetic. “Right, okay. Um. I have no problem with that. I’m sure it was justified.”

“How much money do you need?”

The girl fidgeted uncomfortably, absent-mindedly playing with the edge of her shirt. “I’ll have to assess the damage, search for parts both online and in-person… and this model is getting fairly old, so I might have some trouble buying new parts…”

“Perhaps you could use this as an opportunity for an upgrade?” Lotor suggested.

She eyed him with a hint of her former suspicion. “I guess I could, but I’d be starting from scratch. I’d love to do that as a side-project, and the end result would be worthwhile, but the cost—”

“—is unimportant,” Lotor insisted. “I will buy you a high-end laptop if that is what you want.”

“Why?”

Lotor hesitated, considering his words. Finally, he answered, “I have treated people in ways I am not proud of in the past. I cannot really make amends – most would not give me the chance to – but perhaps I can pay kindness forward?” He stopped, hoping that this was enough of an answer, but the girl kept looking at him with an intensely questioning gaze until he added, “Also, your words rather stung, and I was rather hoping to prove you wrong by showing how generous I can be.”

The girl gave an amused snort of laughter and finally cracked a smile. “Alright,” she relented, “I’ll let you buy me a better model. Just let me do some research first.”

“Right, of course. May I give you my number?” Lotor offered.

She gave him a deadpan look. “I’m ace. And aro.”

“Good for you. I’m gay, but that does not change the fact that you will need a way to contact me if I am to pay for your replacement computer.”

“Oh,” she said softly, cheeks coloring a little with embarrassment at her assumption. “Right, okay. Maybe an email instead? I prefer that to phone calls.”

Lotor nodded and agreed, “Of course, not a problem. Should I write it down, or…?”

“One sec.” The girl pulled out her phone and poked at the screen a few times before saying, “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Alright, it’s Sincline, that’s S-I-N-C-L-I-N-E, dot Lotor, L-O-T-O-R, at Voltron dot E-D-U.”

“Sincline.Lotor@Voltron.edu?” she read back to verify.

“Yes.”

“Perfect. And the name…?”

“Lotor Sincline.”

The girl paused for a second before laughing a little at herself. “Right, that should’ve been obvious. Okay. I’ll email you soon.”

Lotor hesitated for only a moment before asking, “What is your name, if you don’t mind?”

“Pidge Holt,” she replied without any pause. “I mean, technically my name is Katie, but everyone calls me Pidge.”

“Well met, Pidge.”

“Uh…” Pidge seemed a little uncertain about the formal greeting. “Same, dude. Lotor. Yeah.”

Lotor stifled a chuckle and ignored the pang in his chest as he thought of his old friends at Galra University. The girls would have probably liked Pidge a lot. Still, there was no reason to dwell on the past. Lotor watched as Pidge struggled to fit everything into her backpack, which looked ready to bust at the seams. “Perhaps I should buy you a new backpack, too,” he offered, only half-joking.

“Dude that would – Do you mind if I call you dude? I call everyone dude, even Allura – that would be amazing because I swear this thing is gonna fall apart any day.”

‘Allura Altea?’ Lotor wondered, but he decided to save that question for another time. “I’ll buy you one, then,” he replied. “And I do not… I really don’t mind.”

“Okay, cool.” Pidge swung the backpack up onto her shoulder. “Well, later then!”

Lotor smiled. “Yes, I… I’ll see you later.”

As Pidge walked away, Lotor couldn’t quite shake the warm, happy feeling that he’d just made a new friend.