#pairing: adam/shiro

[autisticlancemcclain]

The first bout of whispering, Shiro can ignore. He’s a teacher by trade, after all. Astronaut, sure. Paladin, even. But he always expected to be a teacher, trained for it, and he knows when you put a group of teenagers in a room and expect them to start learning by lecture, there’s going to be some whispering. He’d be concerned if there wasn’t, frankly.

But as it keeps happening, again and again, to the point where it’s almost constant, Shiro begins to lose his patience.

“Lance, Hunk,” he says, catching himself long before then. He tries to smile, gentle but firm. “Everything okay?”

The two boys clam up immediately. Lance even begins to lean slightly away from Hunk, although Shiro’s not sure he notices.

Shiro frowns, puzzled at the reaction. That’s — uncommon. He’s seen embarrassed, seen sheepish, seen unbothered, even seen downright rude, but Lance looks almost… afraid. And Hunk looks at him with a lot more anxiety than the situation calls for, but Shiro is beginning to notice that that’s just Hunk.

The both mutter some semblance of apology, and Shiro moves on quickly, unwilling to dwell on the incident too long.

For the rest of the briefing, he keeps an eye on them. He’s still focused, of course, as their break-in and recon on a nearby Empire warship is not only hugely dangerous, but will also be hugely beneficial, but he lets his notes do a lot of the talking for him. He flits his eyes to the pair every so often, and while Hunk meets his eyes on occasion, smiling slightly, Lance keeps his head down, hunched over his tablet.

Shiro notices that the tablet is powered off. He doesn’t write a single note.

His shoulders are hunched up to his ears.

———

“Alright, kiddo, good job.”

Keith grins, stepping backwards and bowing to finish the fight. Shiro bows back, matching his smile.

“You did great.”

“I know,” Keith says cheekily. “You’re getting easier and easier to beat. Probably because you’re elderly.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “Am I.”

His annoying little brother hums, completely unconcerned. He steps off to the side and starts swinging around his training stick, very clearly showing off. “Mhm. It was super easy to fight you. I just went whoosh, smack, bam! —” he punctuates every sound with a swing and slash of the stick — “and every hit just landed. Honestly, I think a punching bag would have been more of a challenge. Adam is a way better spar partner than you. I wish I was shot into space with him.”

Shiro’s eye twitches. It’s a clear goad, he knows it is. Keith isn’t even trying to hide it. He’s a twerp with too much energy and too much experience pressing all of Shiro’s buttons — a favourite button of his, of course, being the bit of…healthy competition Shiro has always had with his boyfriend.

(He’s well aware of the irony. He hears Adam pointing and laughing in his head every time he endures Keith’s complaining about Lance pulling his mullet, so to speak. In fact keeping his mouth shut about the parallels is the only thing keeping him from throwing Keith down the laundry chute. He’s waiting for a moment when the reveal can be well and truly devastating.)

Shiro manages, with herculean strength, to step away from his turd of a brother, putting his training stick away.

“I am leaving,” he says loudly, pointedly turning away. “I said I’d train one hour with you and not a second more.”

He feels Keith’s pout more than sees it. “Coward.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shiro snorts, waving his hand dismissively. He hears swishing sounds, and the clicks of buttons — Keith is starting up his own training. Again. “Don’t be late for dinner or I’ll send Lance after you.”

“Can’t promise I won’t maim him,” Keith mutters. “Sometimes I just want to wring his neck.”

Shiro is very familiar with that feeling. Or at least the raving about it. He used to feel great pleasure in driving Adam to that point, just because he was hot when he was mad. But Shiro values his limbs — or at least what’s left of them — where they are, so he keeps the comments to himself as he makes his way out of the training room, meandering back to his own quarters.

He takes his time showering and redressing, knowing he’s got some time before dinner. He thinks Hunk even managed to wrestle Coran out of the kitchen, which means no food goo. It also means that he’s banned from even breathing near the kitchen until the food is fully cooked and completed — which is a bullshit ban and one based in false accusations — but he’s sure he can help set the table, or something. Stir a pot. He’s good at that.

He towels off his hair, not bothering to style it, and takes his time walking over to the kitchens. The castle floors are cold under his bare feet, he finds himself wishing he had the lion slippers Lance made him. They’re very warm. He never wears them because he’s terrified of ruining them, but it’s so icy in here that he might start having to, or else he’ll freeze.

As he approaches the kitchen, he hears voices. He freezes, quieting his steps and pausing behind the wall to listen. Hopefully no one else walks by, or that will be humiliating.

“— all you have to do is ask, Lance, just casually, it’s not even —”

“— it is even, Hunk, it’s the worst and I’m not doing it, why would I inconvenience —”

“— it isn’t! Not even a little! It’s the smallest tiniest thing!”

“Hunk —”

Hunk throws his hands up in exasperation, spoon going flying and splattering some kind of blue sauce all over the cabinets. Neither of them even blinks at it.

“I am tired of watching you struggle, Leandro! Heaven forbid you ask for help!”

Shiro frowns. That’s not good. That sounds serious.

“I asked for help,” Lance huffs, arms crossed over his chest. “I asked you, didn’t I?”

“I don’t count and you know it,” Hunk says sharply, mirroring him. “I already knew.”

Lance looks away, clenching his jaw. His fingers are tangled in his jacket’s sleeve, tense.

“You don’t have to help anymore if it’s too hard,” he mumbles. “I can handle it myself.”

Hunk softens. “It’s not that, Lance.” He wipes his hands in his apron and pulls Lance to his chest. Lance goes, although he doesn’t move his arms, burying his face in Hunk’s shoulder. “You know it’s not that. If that’s all we have then I’ll keep doing it, damn the consequences.” He pulls back slightly, nudging Lance back so he can look him in the face. “You can just do better, dude. All you gotta do is tell Shiro about your —”

A hand claps over Hunk’s mouth, cutting him off, and Lance squeaks, “Hey, Shiro, hello, hi!”

Shiro startles. He scrambles upright before Hunk turns all the way, so at least he’s only seen crouching by the door like a weirdo by one person.

He clears his throat. “Uh, hi.”

“You’re banned from the kitchen,” Hunk says, muffled. How he looks so mighty and dignified with Lance’s hands still very much pressed to his face is well and truly beyond him. Shiro is frankly awed.

“I just came to help set the table,” he assures, hands held up in surrender. “Promise I’ll stay away from the actual food.”

Hunk narrows his eyes, but must decide he could use the help, because he nods, stepping backwards so Lance’s hands fall back down.

“Alright,” he sighs. “I’m making stew. You can set out utensils if you must but know I’ll judge you heavily for it. Lance, come help me finish up.”

Lance scrambles after him, avoiding Shiro’s gaze like he’s sure he’s going to get yelled at. Shiro watches him go, perplexed.

———

The next few days are, for the most part, manageable. Their mission goes well, Keith is surprisingly mellow — Shiro suspects the little nerd has discovered a library of some kind — and distress calls are minimal. All in all, Shiro should be taking the time as the blessing it is and catching up on some much needed R&R.

Instead, he’s worrying about the Blue Paladin.

Shiro can’t say he knows him well. They’ve hardly been in space a couple of months, after all, and while Shiro must have taught him a couple times — he was in the piloting program so it’s almost impossible that they didn’t cross paths — the Garrison is huge, and Shiro largely teachers younger students. Shiro can’t recall teaching a Lance, anyway.

But he can tell something’s off.

Besides the fact that Hunk keeps looking at Lance with concern, the Cuban seems…withdrawn, almost. He still works hard in training and smokes them in any kind of long distance, but there doesn’t seem to be any joy in it. Even his arguments with Keith seem halfhearted, which Keith will never admit leave him agitated as much as it has Shiro’s eyebrows raising. Shiro is sure, basically, that something is the matter, and surer still that he has to be the one to fix it.

How exactly he should go about it…well, that’s the part he’s struggling with. He knows Lance is kind of star-eyed around him, even though they’re on the same playing field, so Shiro’s not sure just regular talking to him about it is going to do something. And he seemed pretty resistant when Hunk pressed, in the conversation Shiro overheard. He’s just not sure what to do.

Luckily, the situation starts to resolve itself.

“Hey, Shiro, can I talk to you?” Lance mumbles into his breakfast, as everyone else is distracted by Pidge and Keith’s loud argument about cryptids (Shiro has heard it too many times at this point. He’s tuned it out).

Shiro blinks. “Sure,” he says, trying to keep the shock out of his voice. “Now?”

“Uh, after we eat, maybe.”

Shiro tries very hard not to seem over enthusiastic. He sucks at that, so it doesn’t work, and it seems to make Lance more stressed, which only stresses Shiro out more. By the time everyone has finished up and people are starting to file out to various tasks, the tension between them is so thick Shiro feels as if he might suffocate.

Suddenly, as if he propelled himself, Lance springs to his feet, snatching his bowl and Shiro’s and powerwalking towards the kitchen sink. Shiro, startled, follows him.

“You okay?” Shiro asks softly, noticing the whiteness of Lance’s knuckles, clenched around a sponge, and the robotic way he scrubs it across a dirty spoon.

Lance says nothing. He keeps his eyes trained resolutely on the soapy water, spine ramrod straight, nerves bleeding from him in waves.

Hesitantly, Shiro rolls up his sleeves, standing beside him and beginning to dry what he rinses. As Shiro gets close he gets tenser, shoulders hiked up to his ears, but as the minutes drag on, empty kitchen echoing the sound of swishing water and clanking cutlery, he begins to calm down. Shiro watches his face relax, easing its worries twist, and terror fade from his brown eyes.

He hands Shiro the last clean dish to dry, then pulls the plug on the sink, darting over to grab a hand towel and starting to dry.

“Can you write mission plans in pink?”

The words rush out of him, like he’d been holding them between his teeth for God knows how long and they’d finally spilled out. He looks almost nauseous after he says them.

Shiro blinks. That was…not what he’d expected.

“…Why?”

“It’s perfectly okay if you can’t,” Lance continues, as if Shiro had not spoken. “I mean, whatever. I’ll figure it out. I’ve gone without this long, after all, and it’s totally doable. Of course there’s the migraines and the agony but that’s all light work. It’s war, after all. Ha.” He chuckles nervously.

He’s shrunk in on himself, looking almost small. Shiro stares at him with a dropped jaw and wide eyes. Lance doesn’t even notice, eyes focused intensely on the hand towel, breathing worryingly erratic.

“I just swore to Hunk that I’d ask, you know. He said it wouldn’t hurt. And of course it wouldn’t but I don’t need it. It’s just. You know.”

Shiro cannot stress enough how much he doesn’t know. He hasn’t felt this lost in a while.

“Pink makes the letters stick to the page. And I know that sounds stupid as shit and that’s because it is stupid as shit, unfortunately. Dyslexia is the dumbest thing in the world, actually. And who named it that? You know how hard that word is to spell? It’s hard. They should have called it — I dunno, I just mean, it’s whatever. It’s fine. I’ve handled it this long. Uh.” He looks up, finally, and maybe he doesn’t know how to make sense of Shiro’s expression, because he winces, shame overtaking his face. He sets down the towel and gestures vaguely behind him, stepping towards the door. “I’m just gonna — go. Sorry. See you later. Sorry.”

He all but flees out of the room. Shiro barely manages to snag the back of his hoodie, holding him in place.

“Lance. Chill a second. Give me time to respond.”

Lance looks deploringly at the door, then back at Shiro. He looks like he’s accepting his death. Shiro can’t help but feel the teensiest bit offended.

“I’m not going to bite you,” he says, aghast. “Jesus, kid. You’re going to give me a complex.”

To Shiro’s great relief, the remark makes Lance grin. Some of the tension eases from his face.

“You sound like my mother.”

“From what I’ve heard, that’s a compliment,” Shiro says lightly. He pulls out two chairs, orienting them so they’re facing each other. He deliberately takes the one farthest from the door, so Lance doesn’t feel trapped. He gestures to the other one. “Sit.”

Lance does.

“Now. From the beginning and with a little less fear, hopefully. Tell me what’s up, kiddo.”

Lance looks down at his hands, where he’s picking at a scar on his wrist.

“Um. So. I have dyslexia. I can’t read too well.”

Lance cringes as he says it. Shiro wonders who he has to kill for putting the idea that this is something to be ashamed about in his head.

“Cool,” Shiro says, as encouragingly as he can manage. “The main character of my favourite book series as a kid had dyslexia. I was jealous of everyone who had it. I used to pray for it.”

The revelation startles a laugh out of Lance, like Shiro hoped it would. The tension melts right off of him.

“You prayed?”

“Every night,” Shiro affirms, grinning. “I even crossed my eyes and pretended when it didn’t work. My mother didn’t believe me for a second.”

“You’re a dweeb,” Lance says, sounding kind of awed. Like he’s shocked that Shiro, too, is a nerd loser on this castle full of other nerd losers. “Dyslexia sucks.”

Letting his face settle into something more serious, Shiro nods. “I imagine it does.” He reaches over and squeezes Lance’s hand, subtly stopping him from picking at the skin. Keith has the same bad habit. “Writing in pink helps?”

Lance shrugs. “Sorta. Dunno why. But things are less squiggly when they’re written in pink or red. Not perfect, but it’s something. I can hardly read at all when they’re in black; it’s like my eyes are spinning out of my head trying to focus on ‘em. Gives me migraines like you would not imagine.”

“And thus Hunk whispering the plans to you so you don’t have to read them,” Shiro surmises, the whispering during briefings suddenly making sense. Guilt twinges in his belly.

“Yeah. Sorry about that, by the way. Didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Of course not,” Shiro says gently. “I get it now. Sorry for not understanding.” He frowns, remembering something. “I should’ve asked beforehand. Or suspected something, or known better, really. I had a kid a few years back in one of my astronomy courses. Li-something. I marked all his stuff in red for the same reasons.”

Lance makes a very particular face. Warning bells go off in Shiro’s head.

“I appreciated that very much,” Lance says politely.

It takes a moment for it to click.

Shiro considers banging his head against the table.

“Please tell me no,” he begs, ears reddening.

“It was a great honour to be renamed by the Takashi Shirogane,” Lance insists.

“I had you in my class for three years!” Shiro says, aghast. “I — I called you Li all the time! In front of people!”

“I didn’t want to correct you! That’s — embarrassing!”

Shiro cradles his head in his hands. Dear God. He knows he’s not great with names, but — Jesus. To rename a kid. Blatantly. Other teachers must have thought he was some cruel jackass.

“I think there was a Li McKinney ahead of me in roll call,” Lance offers, patting Shiro’s back delicately. “So. Pretty easy to mess up.”

“Did you write your name as Li on tests? And assignments?”

“After the first couple times, yeah. Hunk laughed at me. At a certain point I’d just dug myself too deep, I think.”

Shiro sighs, dragging his hand down his face. It’s still quite hot. He looks up at Lance, who’s mouth is twitching.

“You were short as shit back then,” he observes, trying to picture the kid in his class. “Like, shorter than Pidge.”

Lance scowls. “I was — saving up on growth spurts. Yeah. So. Purge that from your memory.” He smirks. “Like my name.”

Shiro groans. “I’m never hearing the end of that, am I.”

Lance smiles. “Probably not. I didn’t know you were uncool. It’s interesting. I’m seeing you in a whole new light.”

Shiro rolls his eyes, but reaches over to mess with Lance’s hair, like he would Keith. Unlike Keith, Lance freaks out way harder, screeching something about hard work and artistic expression.

He smiles. “Glad you came to talk to me, kid.”

Lance sticks out his tongue, but he looks pleased, too. “Yeah, yeah.”

[cockybusiness]

The first 3 pages + cover of my red thread/soulmate AU comic, "Unbreakable"

An AU where Adam lives (because I like him) and soulmates are a thing. This comic is from his POV.

Warning for all the pairings included: starts prekerb with platonic friendsheith with adam/shiro bits, but then does the timeskip to S7 with endgame sheith AND adam/crewmember.

Patrons of the first tier have access to my sfw PDF files, but if you only want this comic you can get it from

Itchio

Gumroad

[vld-aftermath-zine]

Why are Shaladin ships not allowed? Keith, Hunk, and Lance are/become adults in the canon show. Keith is 19, Hunk is 18, and Lance turns 18 somewhere halfway through the show. Plus, there are very few people who actually genuinely ship Shiro and what'shisname Curtis.

While the paladins are all legal adults by the end of the series, it would be incredibly weird for Shiro to get together with any of them the second they became legal adults. Shiro met them all while they were minors (Keith most likely being around 15ish upon meeting Shiro pre canon, Pidge being 15 and Lance and Hunk being 17 at the start of the series, and while Allura has no confirmed age it seems to be implied that she’s a teenager) and setting him up with any of them once they become legal reinforces gross behaviours. 

As for the Curtis comment, there are other adult characters Shiro can be paired with if you don’t enjoy shurtis (people have specifically showed interest in Shiro being paired with Matt and Adam). Although, even if there weren’t any adults he could be paired with, Shiro doesn’t need to be shipped with anybody within the zine. Especially not characters who were barely old enough to graduate highschool. 

From this point on I would like to request everyone to refrain from asking about Shaladin ships as the topic makes me extremely uncomfortable. Thank you.

[kukos-satellite]

what are your top five ships from Voltron

Romantic pairings:

Klance (Keith and Lance) obviously

Adashi (Adam and Shiro)

Platonic pairing:

Kallura (Keith and Allura)

Hance (Hunk and Lance)

Shidge (Shiro and Pidge)

extra platonic: Sheith (Shiro and Keith)

[mangocallum]

VOLTRON SHIPS I LIKE :D

I wanna start doing headcannon and ship prompt asks, so if you ship any of the ships here, feel free to ask me :D

FYI: I WILL NOT WRITE ABOUT

- Any Shaladin Pairings

- Adult × Minor pairings

- NSFW

- Incest pairings

Ships I like :D !!

(I'm a multishipper soo..)

- Klance (MYY OTPPP !!) (also cmon it's obvious who we're shipping)

- Griffkade (James/Ryan)

- Jaith (James/Keith)

- Veraxca(Veronica/Axca)

- Nadina (Nadia/Ina)

(Also, in general, I like any MFE pilot pairings, so)

- Allurance (Allura/Lance) (I've read a lot of fics that flesh out their relationship, so leave me , plz 😔)

- Lotura (Lotor/Allura)

- Romellura (Romelle/Allura)

- Shadam (Shiro/Adam)

- Shurtis (Shiro/Curtis)

- Shunk (Hunk/Shay)

I'm sure there's more, but I'll add them when I think of them,

THE ASK BOX IS OPENN !!!

[rubymoon-snape]

Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron Legendary Defender.

Author Note: This is Krolivan.

"Mistletoe"

Irritation wasn't what Keith expected to feel about the direction the universe was going in, especially since the Galra Empire was defeated and the United Galra Federation had joined the rest of the Universe under the Voltron Coalition. In truth, he was only irritated that his mom and Kolivan were kept so busy that they barely had time to spend with each other. As a newly bonded pair, it was imperative that they weren't separated for long periods of time, especially since Krolia was expecting, which was something Keith was excited about. He was going to be a big brother!

He did notice the little signs of affection they were able to exchange. As they passed in the corridors, there were brushes of their claws. As they waited for meetings to start, Krolia would lean over and briefly nuzzle Kolivan with a soft purr. After the meeting before they left, Krolia would wrap her arms around Kolivan and lay her head on Kolivan's chest, listening to his heartbeat. Kolivan would constantly check on Krolia and their unborn kit. Krolia allowed his hovering as she knew Galra pregnancies were difficult, especially in the first few months.

Keith knew what he had to do, and the holiday season on Earth would provide the perfect way to get Krolia and Kolivan to spend time together. He didn't have much time, so he quickly wrote down a guest list so he didn't miss anyone. He set about sending invites to Shiro, Adam, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran, Romelle, Veronica, Thace, Ulaz, Antok, Regris, Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, Matt, and of course, Krolia and Kolivan. He sent Veronica the invites for the MFE pilots as well. In no time, he started receiving positive responses. Everyone was coming!

Keith set about setting up a few decorations, making sure that a few sprigs of mistletoe were hung in various doorways. He knew that his mother would know what mistletoe was about. He just hoped everything worked out according to his plan.

%%% Later That Night

Krolia noticed that Keith was keeping an eye on her, and she wasn't sure it wasn't just because she was expecting. She knew Keith was even more protective over her than even Kolivan was! It was probably why he got them personally.

Speaking of Kolivan, he was by her side since they arrived, and she wouldn't have it any other way. He escorted her around, constantly having one arm wrapped around her waist with his hand on the side of her baby bump. She did notice the mistletoe hanging in a majority of the doorways and gently guided Kolivan over to one.

She turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He, in turn, wrapped his other arm around her, tugging her a bit closer. She titled her head up, clearly wanting a kiss, and Kolivan obliged, capturing her lips in a kiss that showed the depth of his love for her (and their unborn kit).

Fin

@yourlocalkiller

[wickedwitchofthesouth]

Keith can play the electric guitar, and shiro can play the drums, and Adam was an exceptional vocalist. Before everything went to shit shiro and Keith used to joke about how they would form a family band if the whole space thing didn't work out.

When shiro left, Adam encouraged Keith to keep playing as a hobby. When shiro went missing, Keiths passion for it staggered, but he continued playing because he wanted to show shiro how much better he'd gotten when he would come back- because shiro was going to come back. He had too

When Adam passed away, Keith gave up entirely. Maybe it was out of spite. Maybe he didn't see any point in practising anymore. Maybe the memory of better days was just too painful to revisit. Keith couldn't give you a reason. He'd really given up on all his hobbies and interests. Anything that wasn't directly needed to help him find shiro wasn't worth the effort.

He knew shiro would hate that. But shiro was the one who left. So did he really have any say in how Keith chose to ruin his nights finding him? Keith didn't think he did.

But its years later now and theyve all found their way back to earth, ready for one last mission before the end of the line comes into sight. Keith walks into his room for the first time in years to find shiro already sitting on his bed.

Hands cradling the dust covered guitar. The strings were britle from years of sitting in a corner and its once pristine glossy red finish had been replaced by the dulling of sun damage.

If the instrument could speak, it would curse him to the ends of the earth for abandoning it the same way he was abandoned - and Keith would let it.

Still, shiro smiles at him, handing over the guitar to his brother. "You still play?" He asks as if he doesn't already know the answer.

Keith feels like he's a kid again. He doesn't want to disappoint but he doesn't want to lie either. "Not really"

Shiro gets up to uncover all the old equipment from under the sheets. Keith can see the dust partials flying in the sunbeam that's shining through the blinds. He watches shrio plug everything in, the lights on the tuner take a while to flicker on but they get their eventually.

Keith remembered how he'd kept shiros drumsticks even though Adam had thrown out his drum set one night in a fit or rage. He'd cried all night after that, Keith remembered trying to comfort him to no avail. Little hands trying to wipe away the endless pools of tears that streamed down Adams face. He doesn't like thinking about it.

He walks over to his bedside drawer. It takes a bit of strength to wriggle the old thing open, but when he does, he's pleased to see they're still there. Shiros favourite pair of purple drumsticks. Adams favourite colour. Keith remembered, and he knows shiro can't forget.

"Aha!" Shrio cheers, and Keith is pulled back into the present. When he turns around, he finds shiro standing over the equipment. Overly satisfied with himself for still remembering how to set it up. "Still got it," he says, brushing his shoulder. Keith can't help but chuckle.

Keith holds up the drumsticks and he loves the way shiros face lights up ."Oh my god! you kept them?!" He cheers.

"Theyre all I could manage to hide from adam" Keith replies as shiro takes them out of his hand. He did not mean for it to sound as miserable as it came out.

Shrio smiles ever so softly as he turns them over in his hands. "It's okay," he says. Keith knows exactly what he's thinking about. it's an odd feeling to be able to know someone this well.

Shiro takes in a sharp breath before looking back up at keith. That excited spark finds its way back into his eyes as he pushes the guitar into Keith's chest. "Your turn." he smirks, patting him on the shoulder. "Show me what you've got"

Keith stands there for a moment like a deer in headlights. It's been years since he's even held the guitar in his hands. He's not sure if he's "got" anything left.

"Shiro I don't-"

"Oh come on!! I'm sure you've still got it just give it a try"

It's an even worse feeling being known this well. Keith doesn't know what to do with it.

He carefully slings the strap over his head. He's sure the dust will leave a mark on his jacket.

"Okay, but don't laugh if I suck." he points his pick at shiro, who holds up a finger to his lips in response, but Keith can already see the laugh creeping up on his face

Keith readjusts the guitar to try and get a better grip. Something doesn't feel right. He fiddles around with it a little longer. He holds up the pick and strums a few chords, but they don't sound right. He tries to tune them, strums the chords again, readjust the strap again-

"You need to try Keith," shiro finally says. "You won't know if you can play if you don't even try"

Keith looks back at his brother. It's been nearly a decade since he last heard shiro say that. He prays to any higher power that will listen to not let his eyes give away how those words make him feel now. He doesn't think anyone is listening.

Keith takes in the deepest breath before holding the guitar again. He tries to smile. "Okay, any requests?"

Shrio taps his chin in thought, "How about Bowie?" He recommends "life on Mars? Or maybe rebel rebel? You used to love those songs"

"I might remember rebel rebel," he says mostly to himself. He strums a few chords trying to remember the riff of the songs. It takes a few attempts, but he gets it eventually.

Keith hums the lyrics he doesn't remember and the ones he does he attempts to sing

Rebel rebel, you've torn your dress

Rebel rebel, your face is a mess

Shiro joins in the chours. Well- he certainly makes an attempt

Rebel rebel, how could they know?

Hot tramp! I love you so!

Somewhere between the awful singing and questionable guitar playing, keith finds himself lost in the music. His head rocks back and forth, and he's sure his hair is a mess but he feels like he's floating. He feels like he's 14 again. He feels like they're back in shiros garage on a hot summer day and the sound of drumsticks beating on his desk turns into drums actually being played, and Adams is about to walk through the door any moment now and grab the mic.

When the song finally ends, keith finds himself laughing in excitement. When he opens his eyes again, the drums have turned back into a desk, and the mic is nowhere to be found, but Keith is still smiling. He's got it.

He's still got it

"See" Shrio cheers, pulling Keith out of his head the for second time that afternoon "I told you"

"That was awesome," Keith says, pushing his hair out of his face as he pulls the guitar off. He wants to hug it and tell it he's sorry for leaving. Shiro will think he's lost his mind, but it's totally worth it.

When he looks back at shiro, he's giving him the fondest smile. Keith suddenly feels a knot forming his stomach, he's only seen shiro make that face twice his whole life. Once when Keith got his fighter pilot rank at the garrison and second when he was selected for the kerberos mission.

He opens his mouth as if to say something but closes it again and suddenly slings his arm around Keith's neck, pulling him down to ruffle his hair even further. Keith tries to protest, but every word just comes out as a laugh. "Look at you," shrio says amidst their play fight. "When did you get this cool, huh?"

Keith finally manages to pull away, stumbling a little before finding his balance again. "I've always been this cool," he retorts, trying to card his fingers through his hair. "You just refused to notice it before"

"Nope no I'm pretty sure this is a recent development" shiro mocks,

Keith rolls his eyes but the smile his still apparent on his lips "whatever" he says, crossing his arms over his chest

He's thrown slightly off balance again when shiro throws his arm around his shoulders. But this time, he only gently pulls him into a side hug as they walk out of the room. "Well, at least we still know one thing for sure"

"And whats that" Keith asks walking in tow

Shiro shrugs, one hand around his brother the other in his pocket "if this space thing doesn't work out, we've still got the band" he winks

Keith shakes his head laughing "and are we taking audtions for a new vocalist?"

"No need to, I've already got someone in mind" shiro replies "have you heard lance sing?"

"Lance can sing???"

"Oh that boy was built for a stage"

[linipik]

"Shiro is determined to know if the new human research base is a risk for his fellow merfolk with the help of a marine biologist and research intern Adam."

rating: T

pairing: Adam/Shiro

This fic is part of the Once Upon the Seashore PDF (get it for free on my Ko-fi)

[bluegirl-14]

Listen, I don't care how long ago the final season of Voltron was aired, I don't care if anyone is still in the Voltron fandom. I will ALWAYS be pressed over how they did these characters SO dirty.

First off, the final episode of the series was such a damn copout. Ending the series with Allura dying to 'save the multiverse' and having the paladins forgive Honerva? After everything she had done in the 8 seasons leading up to this? After she tore apart the same multiverse she destroyed because the one timeline she found where Lotor knew she was a fucking liar? Make it make so much sense Dreamworks.

And then the 10 years later shit. Shiro had a wedding. Okay, yeah, he got out of the Garrison and settled down. He should, after all he had been through. I bet dying and being stuck in Black for months would lead to some introspective work. But killing Adam so there was no gay relationships, and then to pair him with a character who had like, what? Two lines in the full series, and we saw Shiro interact with once, as a Captain and crew setting? No build up, no hints during the full season?

Don't get me wrong. If the writers wanted to give Shiro the chance to shed everything from his past life, then by all means, they had the right to. But the way they did it was not only poorly written, but it also left those who had been hoping to FINALY see Shiro interact with his partner, that had been teased at outside of the show.

Hunk is another one I had a big problem with. As a plus size person, who felt like she was just that 'fat best friend' during the airing of the final season, I related to Hunk. I loved how he was more than the foodie. He's an engineer, he's smart. He matches Pidge in intellect. He's kind, he's brave despite his anxiety. He had nausea a lot. He's fleshed out, he's more than fat and food jokes.

And they took that all away, to make him Gordan Ramsey of space. They took 8 seasons of character arcs to make him that. A fucking fat person likes food joke. Once again, I wouldn't have had a problem if that wouldn't have been it. Make it a soup kitchen for those displaced during the Empires rule. Make him donate food to needy planets. Hell, have him travel with Keith, giving food to the planets they go to for help. Just, something that acknowledges Hunks generous nature, his kindness. Not Food Wars.

Speaking of Keith, I found that while I expected his ending to be similar to what it was, I didn't have any real emotion about it. He was a displaced child, who was, from what we can assume about what little we really know about his childhood, outside of him meeting Shiro and how his parents met. He always felt like he didn't belong, with the Paladins, and struggled being leader because he didn't feel like he lived up to Shiro's expectation or his legacy after he died.

So Keith teaming up with Lotor's generals to basically continue what Voltron did makes sense, I guess. But, I would have loved to see something else. If anyone deserves to settle down, aside from Shiro, I think it would be Keith. I can see him as the type of person to give a child, either adopted or biological, the childhood he wished he had.

Pidge's end is as to be expected. She's working with her parents and her brother, working for the Garrison. Out of all the characters, I honestly think Pidge had the least amount of true character arks. She had the moment in season 1 or 2 when she wanted to ditch Voltron to find her brother, and Keith called her out. And when she bonded with Green in season one on Olkyn. But once she found Matt and Sam, Pidge had stayed consistent in her behavior and beliefs till the end of the show. She, like Hunk, was a stereotype. She was the nerdy, smart friend, the guy in the chair.

I would have loved to see her do something with botany, like her mother. Something that ties her back to Green. Because even though the Lion is gone, the bond and the respect she gained would have still been there. So for her to just immediately go back to that tech guy was a disservice.

Lance's and Lotor's endings are by far the ones I hated the most. With Lance, there was NO reason that Lance had to become a fucking farmer. After everything that happened to him during the season, for him to immediately quit was ill planned and just a bad move. If they wanted to write Allura out at the end of the series, then sure. Lance steps back to grieve, starts replanting the flowers on New Altea in honor of her.

But Lance has so much more potential than. Make him a pilot, make him a teacher. Hell, pull a Keith and have him volunteer around the planets. Anything that would show off his pride in himself, and to she Allura that he would live his life for her, because she died saving it. Yeah, he can keep a cabin close or in the field, so he always has a memory of her, but he needs something else.

The final season with Lotor was just dumb. The writing had set him up as this exiled prince, who never wanted to be like his father, who watched him blow up a planet that Lotor had spent YEARS on, because his son pissed him off. Lotor killed his father, was conspiring against Haggar, wanted to study Altean alchemy with Allura. He was finally going to learn about his mother's people from those who actually knew her.

And then they make him just like Zarkon.

I. Hate. That they made that planet of Alteans, and Lotor was harvesting them for quintessence. I get they were setting it up for Haggar to use them as pilot in the final season. But there were SO many other ways to do that with a similar affect.

Especially considering the fact that those people had been in hiding since Altea exploded, and Lotor was a fucking baby then. Like...have Haggar keep them hidden instead? It would have made more fucking sense. She still felt a sliver of a connection, despite not knowing why because she lost her memory.

Lotor grew up wishing he could know more about his other side, and having no one to ask about it, because no information remained after the race died. So to satisfy his curiosity, he started studying other cultures, other planets so he could compare. Maybe he'll find something similar to Altea, and can guess from that.

And then, wow, there are Alteans left. And they have Voltron, isn't that so great? But wait, my father want's the Black Lion, and his witch is acting shady. That's odd, I wonder what that's about?

Holy crap, she's been hiding more Alteans for the past 10,000 years, and they have no idea what's been happening outside of their planet. And even more holy crap, she's been harvesting them so they don't get to powerful, and so she can sap up their power for herself. Why didn't anyone know about this?

Then continue on, with Lotor eventually teaming up with the Alteans and liberating them, but obviously they don't all go, because they don't trust him (Galra, duh.) And the ship that is carrying them all is attacked, and the ship explodes, or something. The Alteans get angry and Haggar, now starting to remember and realizes who she is, uses this to her advantage, and now boom, we have the pilots in season 8.

And this way, if you want to keep Keith and Krolia finding the Alteans, you have it. If you want Romelle, you have it. If you want more Alteans living with the Paladins, or at least have Allura and Coran meet them, you have. And of course, Lotor doesn't die. And for his ending, have him and Keith work together. Have him travel the stars, studying the different planets. Have him become a scholar, a archivist, a librarying. Anything! The possibilities are endless.

Now, on to Allura. To be completely honest, and you can burn me for this, I never really loved Allura. It wasn't really anything specific I didn't like, I just didn't grow any strong attachments to her as a character. I felt bad for her, sure. But nothing much outside of that.

But I do believe that she deserved a better ending. Even if she does still die in the end, she shouldn't have had to bounce from guy to guy to hide grief, because that shit was still there. She should have been allowed to continue her relationship with Lotor, because that was cute damn it.

It wasn't fair for her to have been in a relationship for what, a month before she died? It sure as shit wasn't fair to Lance, who had spent the whole series chasing after her, to get her, and see her die directly after. Not cool.

And if the whole reason they did it was to stop Klance, or what the fuck ever people believe they did it, pull a Curtis, give Keith someone else. He meets someone after Allura dies, he settles down, or continues with his red cross in space shtick. Or have him stay single, because some people just don't want a relationship. It doesn't matter because people would have written them together in fanfic anyway.

And last, but certainly not least, Coran.

Coran, the gorgeous man, was done so dirty, it's not even funny. To start from the top, he was the only main cast who didn't get to say goodbye to Allura at the end, and is the sole Altean left who remembers Altea. What the fuck.

Even if they are making New Altea, it's not the same. He lost his child, the only other person who understood the grief of loosing a whole PLANET. Family, friends, homes, graves, photos, memories. Gone. History destroyed, never to truly be brought back. Anything that Coran forgets is gone. Well and truly gone, because the Castleship would have possibly had records still, but that was destroyed when Lotor died.

He doesn't have her crown anymore, because the crystal is in Shiro's prosthetic, he doesn't have the ship, he doesn't have the Lions. All he has are the Paladins, and the mice. And a handful of Alteans who never were on Altea, and probably don't know all the customs he does, because of the 10,000 years difference. That's a pretty shitty ending.

So, long story long, my ending.

Adam doesn't die. He is in the piolet accident, but survives by a miracle. He's in the med bay for the entirety of the final two season, and wakes up during the final stretch of season 8. The whole time, before they leave for space, Shiro has flashbacks to times spent with Adam, and we see Shiro have regrets for going into space. He talks to Keith about retiring after everything is over.

Either Lotor and Allura, or they end things in space and Lance and Allura go on their date (I personally would rute for Lotor and Allura, the are so cute) and get their heartfelt scene, foreshadowing the end of the series.

Hunk reunites with his family, and he watches the people of the camps struggle to get back on their feet, and Hunk help them out however he can. We get a scene of him watching a local soup kitchen that had been swamped with people, and Hunk rolls up his sleeves, make a remark bout cooking with less/weirder items, and knock the people in the soup kitchen off their feet with is food. A shot of him watching everyone eat, and Hunk feels pride, in watching the affects of his food. It's different than feeding his friends, and even different than the parades and the dinners planets through Voltron.

Pidge, who is still grounded for sneaking off to space, spends time in the greenhouse with her mom, watching her work. It reminds her of Reiner, and makes her miss Okyry. She mentions Green and nature to her mom, and her mom jokes back about her finally starting to get into nature. They bond over plants, and Pidge grows a little bit fonder to grass and dirt.

Them space time, series progresses, OMG Haggar is sending mechas after us, and Alteans are the piolets. OMG x2, the piolets are dying , what is happening. Allura, what are you doing with that symbiot, that literally just killed that piolet?

Then, the end.

The multiverse is falling apart, Haggar is going to destroy everything. What do we do?

Lotor, in a desperate final act, confronts Haggar as his mother, finally acknowledging that yes, the woman who he had despised his whole life is he mother. He finally speaks to her as his mother... and denounces her.

Honerva is heartbroken. She curses him, swears that if he will not be her son, then there will be no world period. In retaliation, just like he had his father, Lotor lunges forward, and kills Honerva. As she dies, he cradles her in his arms, and listens as she mumbles about her beautiful son, before finally passing on.

But the events do not end there, because time and space is unraveling apart. They can't fix it, only Allura has an idea, and she's crying. She tells them, and despite everyone's protests, they know what must be done. She says her goodbyes, parting with a kiss to Lotor/Lance, strong hugs to the other Paladins and then...

She turns to Coran, who despite his quietness, has been sobbing the whole time. He pulls her into a hug, face pressed into her curly white hair, breathing in the flower she adored so much, and says their finally goodbyes.

The universe is saved, and everyone grieves a tragic loss. They start traveling back to earth, the Paladins and Coran and Lotor keeping to themselves for the most part, Lance/Lotor barely making it from their room most days, when they come across an alert. A planet that had not been in the charted maps they had, and certainly not in the area they had traveled mear days ago.

Upon closer looking, it looks almost exactly like...Altea.

With the last of her quintessence, Allura had somehow made a new Altea for Coran and the other Alteans to live. Coran breaks down upon seeing a field of flowers that smell like his princess, and imminently starts planning for a tribute for her, right on the top of the hill facing out towards the flowers.

Time skip follows, and Adam waeks up, Shiro asleep at his bedside. Adam, with such slow, shaky movements, wakes up Shiro, and the two finally meet again after years of being apart. Shiro imminently proposes on the spot, not baring to loose the man he loves again.

Keith starts traveling the plants, heling out where he can. The remaining Marmora's help him, tending to villages or injured people, when Hunk asks if he can come too. He wants to help, and he's smart, and strong. And Keith mentions that the best thing these people need is a warm meal, and there's no one who knows that better tank Hunk. So they travel, heling the planets, meeting more people, bonding (Because yeah! Hunk and Keith are the best!)

Pidge is on Altea, helping Lance and Coran with setting up the Alteans. Her electronic skills are unmatched, and she takes this time to pick a couple samples for her mom. Lance catches her, and offers to take her around the fields, and they do. It's peaceful, the sun setting and breeze. The best sunset she'd seen since before Voltron, in her opinion.

Lotor slowly opens back up to the others, grief pushing him away from everyone. Coran is the first he goes to, asking the older man about Allura, and Altea, anything to keep is mind off his loss. Coran indulges him, going on about the old Castel (which still blows up some how, just cant think of it now) and Lotor listens like his life depends on it. After everything is set up on new Altea, Coran askes him to become and advisor, which Lotor accepts.

Then we go to the final scene, which is a couple years in the future. Lance is teaching fighter piolet classes at the Garrison, Shiro is happily married, Keith and Hunk are still red crossing it up in space, Pidge is a Botanists and Cyber Scientist (or whatever the hell she is) and freelances across the universe, and Coran and Lotor are co-advisors for new Altea with Romelle as one in training, which Lotor writing a full, in depth history of the Galran war and Altean history. Nothing will be lost again.

They are at dinner, under Allura's statue, it's growing dark. They finish, they have drinks, and go to bed. Lance wakes up first, in a symbolism for the first episode, him finding his lion first. The others follow, and soon, they are under Allura's statue once again. The lions are all active, which they haven't been since they saved the multiverse. The group watches the Lions stand, and roar, before a shimmering blue figure fades into existence. Allura. She doesn't see them, because she's only there for the Lions, or so the others think. As the Lions start flying into the sky, she turns around, waiving slowly to the Paladins and others, a smile on her face, before fading.

A camera shot of the group on the ground, like the series, zooming out as they all watch the Lions leave, for the final time feeling the connection of Voltron, before the Lions fly through the galaxy, into a new one, in the shape of a woman curled into a ball.

End of series.

Okay, its 6:30 now, I'm going to bed

[sherale-writes]

For Keith, life was so frustrating.

He had been living alone after Shiro moved out a year ago to go live with Adam. It was quiet and simple. He even got himself a dog, which, still to Shiro's exasperations, went "unnamed". Except Keith did name his new companion, settling on naming him 'dog'.

Plain and simple.

But he stood in his now shared bathroom, tiredly staring at the amount of products on not just the shelf that had been empty before, but the brand new shelf that had been installed above it.

Face cream, oils, cleanser, exfoliation items, masks, moisturizers, sun screen, lotions, and more. So much more that it all made Keith's head spin with questions on how one person could need so much, let alone how a guy could need so many beauty products.

His eyes drifted over to the shower and its pulled curtain, seeing the products that lined inside of it on the newly installed shower wall caddy, including a hanging loofa, and he couldn't tell what else.

Keith sighed.

Shiro had come to him, saying an old acquaintance of theirs needed a place to stay and quick. They would need a place at least until the end of the school term where they would be trying to look for a new roommate or living situation. Only a few months, Shiro had said, face hopeful Keith would agree.

When he asked why they couldn't just find a new roommate now, Shiro made a smile that seemed to be apologizing to Keith for something Keith knew Shiro didn't cause, a whole situation out of his control but still weirdly felt responsible for. And later Keith understood why Shiro smiled like that, in that quiet beg of forgiveness.

For the person who was needing a roommate desperately was someone Keith had tried forgetting about time and again.

And like a rash, somehow that person always came back.

That's how Lance landed back up in his life; how an old classmate from his youth was now rooming with him in college.

Lance was originally rooming with Hunk. But when Hunk and his girlfriend Shae went fully official, the pair had been debating on moving her in or the two moving out to a new place. Keith didn't know the full story, but Shiro told him that Hunk and Shae eventually decided to move out. Which then left Lance a few months trying to find a roommate himself to help support the rent or someone else to move into with. With no luck, it seemed, until Lance ran into Shiro on campus and told him his woes.

Shiro, always the good samaritan, and knowing Keith was roommateless, thought pairing them together would be a good plan… And Shiro believed it would be a good chance for Keith, to keep someone around and keep Keith from isolating himself from the world and activities as he usually would.

Shiro thought it was a good plan.

Lance was just happy to not be homeless or drowning in debt.

Keith was unhappy to lose his peace and quiet.

He looked at himself in the mirror, his inner voice scoffing at his 'despair' for his lost peace.

As much as Keith would never vocalize it, maybe, for a short moment, he could admit quietly to himself that having Lance living with him was nice... and maybe... for a short second, he... liked having the brunet's presence around.

Of course he wouldn't say that, or admit it aloud.

Lance didn't seem to like him any better than when they were kids. Their animosity just... seemed to grow a bit, their bickering almost daily now.

So there was no reason to lean into any emotions for the other.

"Come on mullet!" Lance knocked on the bathroom door, startling Keith from his thoughts. "How much longer are you going to be?"

Keith sighed.

So much for peace and quiet.

[discordiansamba]

spitballing some more ideas for the oops! all Galra AU:

Lance still has a very large family. They're all connected to the Blade of Marmora, although only his older siblings are actually involved in undercover work. His parents are both non-combatants.

Veronica gets Krolia's canon undercover position under Warlord Ranveig.

Shiro has been on Earth for around five years in total before the failure of the Kerberos mission. Sam and Matt are still on the crew, but Adam is the pilot. If he were able, Shiro would tear the Galra Empire apart himself to look for Adam, but he is more or less stuck on Earth.

Hunk's gotten caught sneaking extra food to the Balmerans before and has gotten his meals revoked as punishment. Each time, Shay sneaks him some cave bug jerky even though he tells her she doesn't have to.

Visiting Olkarion has been Pidge's dream ever since she was little. She's thrilled when she finally gets the chance to go, and so angry that it's because it's been taken over by the Empire.

Galra Pidge has cat ears, but specifically ones that are bigger than her head. This is because the idea is endlessly entertaining to me.

Somehow being Galra just makes Hunk even more shaped like a friend. He's more like a big, fuzzy teddy bear than anything else.

Lance is definitely more of a lizard-type Galra.

Shiro is more of a purple humanoid, like Krolia than anything else. It does help concealing his true appearance with illusion tech a little easier than it would be otherwise.

Shiro also discovers that he has a passion for teaching. Who knew?

Krolia forged a pair of blades at the start of the war, one that she took with her and would eventually be passed down through the Blade leadership. The other she left with Keith.

Keith's father died in the war before the destruction of Altea.

Allura learned to fight alongside Keith. They're sparring buddies.

They all just sort of stumble upon the Blade of Marmora's main base after they get the blue lion, because Allura was following the thread of quintessence that linked it to its paladin. She doesn't expect to find an entire group of Galra rebels. Neither Pidge nor Shiro has ever heard of them.

Kolivan's definitely not prepared for the Castle of Lions to show up at their doorstep, but is goaded into tentatively negotiating with them by Ulaz, despite the presence of a former imperial officer onboard.

[comfortlesshurt]

On it, yes, indeed (on it, watch me bleed)

TWs: canon-typical unhappy ending, vague injuries

Pseud: occasionalvoltronfiction

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Character: Keith

Timeline: After Kuron is able to pilot Black, soon before Keith joins the BOM

Summary:

Tucked underneath a large bit of debris, Keith is only moderately well-hidden from the sentries patrolling the area. The goal had been to take advantage of the upset of the rest of Voltron attacking and grab the information needed in the confusion. It should’ve gone off without a hitch. OR A take on Keith's final Voltron mission before his time as a Blade.

Challenge: Seven Songs of Suffering

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

----------

Adrenaline pumps through Keith’s veins, and it is not helping the situation.

Tucked underneath a large bit of debris, he’s only moderately well-hidden from the sentries patrolling the area. The goal had been to take advantage of the upset of the rest of Voltron attacking and grab the information needed in the confusion. It should’ve gone off without a hitch. The major tactical benefit of having Shiro back in action is that the Galra don’t seem to have realized that Voltron now has six active members, so when all five lions are accounted for and the castleship is the only Voltron-allied ship in the entire solar system, they don’t expect a sixth force acting against them. They get cocky only to go down that much harder.

Technically, this planet is allied with the Coalition. Well, sort of. It’s conditional on Voltron freeing their planet from Galra control, which is conditional on Keith getting this information to help them target every last base on this planet without putting the civilians at any more risk than necessary. The leader they’d met with had been adamant about that. Apparently, centuries of Galra occupation had already gone a long way toward reducing the population, and they couldn’t afford to lose even more.

Anyway, the important thing is that they likely will have some assistance from the planet once they realize the Galra are actively falling, and then it will be easy to finish what’s left… if they can get that far fast enough.

It should have gone well. It was the choppy landing that did Keith in. The cloaking could only do so much with the bad intel—hopefully just outdated, but they’ve been through enough false potential ally situations that Keith wouldn’t be surprised to learn this is yet another of those traps based on intentional fake information—they were apparently working with. The supposedly deserted area of the planet he’d been pushed to target for landing wasn’t so deserted today. It could’ve been worse, but the damage is done. He’d taken heavy fire that managed to take out his ride out of here and injured him on the way down too.

Something in him tells him not to check his injuries too closely just yet, though it’s a stupid instinct. It’s not so bad that he wasn’t able to walk away from the crash. What’s he going to do when he sees? Go into some kind of shock and shut down completely? Doubtful. He’s made it this far, but he has further to go before the mission’s over, so as long as he’s not leaving a blood trail to lead the sentries and live troops right to him, it doesn’t matter yet.

It’s definitely bad enough that unnecessary risks are off the table until he can get himself into a cryopod, though, and that’s throwing him off. His gut tells him to tackle the sentries passing by in singles and pairs as usual, recognizing that those are rookie numbers for him on a normal day.

That, and the adrenaline may be wearing off if the growing twinge from his calf is anything to go by. Welp. Must be time to get moving then.

Contrary to Lance’s popular belief, Keith can control himself when he needs to. It eats at him to do it like acid bubbling just beneath his skin, but it’s not impossible. So, he resists his urges, lets the troops pass by unhindered, biding his time until he can make a break for the destination blinking on the GPS on his HUD. That being said, he’s way too close to his crashed shuttle for comfort, and it’s only a matter of time before some of them think to start canvassing the area rather than assuming he managed to immediately run off into the distance.

After glancing to both sides, he slips out from under the debris, and the way he involuntarily jerks back when he first puts weight on his leg confirms the adrenaline from the crash is on its way out. It’s more the shock of first putting his weight on it that gets him, though. He can keep going. He’s made it this far, and there’s no extraction until someone can swing through with a lion anyway. No use in being a sitting duck until that point if he can still complete the mission, iffy leg or not.

It’s not easier to forget about it once he’s in motion, even with the distraction of more attentively scrutinizing his GPS for the path to the base the intel had indicated had the location data they’d need. The good news is that it’s not the main base established on this planet, so it shouldn’t be too heavily fortified in comparison.

Every step continues to serve as a reminder of his wound, but soon enough the base comes into view, and he ducks behind a group of trees to get a better visual before approaching.

Normally, Pidge would be able to work her magic and give him a good bit of information to go off as far as the sentry headcount and the heavily surveilled areas to avoid, but what bits of the situation have been making it through the comms tell him she’s in no position to take any focus off her lion. Hunk can stand in sometimes when Pidge is indisposed, but he’s in the exact same situation. All the paladins are. With Coran needing to focus on helping them, Keith can’t ask him to divert any attention, especially not when he doesn’t even have the expertise to figure it out quickly like Pidge.

Considering it’s him that’s holding them back, it doesn’t feel right to demand more of their attention anyway. The sooner he gets this data, the sooner they can form Voltron and know where to target without needlessly taking out civilians.

So he’s going in blind, which shouldn’t be a big deal. There’ve been plenty of times the team has split into groups, leaving Keith without Pidge’s help, and he’s gotten through every one of those.

He edges his way closer to the denser tree line of a forest that seems to extend well beyond the base along one side, trying to loop around the building and come at it from another angle, one that will at least let him avoid the main entrance. No way that one’s not under heavy surveillance; he doesn’t need Pidge to point that out.

He flips his comms over to the passive mode, wary of the possibility of needing to communicate something in a hurry later and not having his hands free to start the mic in the moment. It’s something Shiro gets on him for annoyingly often, but Keith’s gotten better about it. He’s still not on board with leaving the mic on at all times—there’s no damn reason they all need to hear him panting and grunting as he navigates rough terrain at top speed while he’s nowhere near potential combatants—but it’s second nature to switch it on once he hits the more active parts of missions.

There’s some comfort in knowing they’ll hear if something happens to him once he’s deep into a Galra base or when he’s about to get into something else dicey. They may not like him all that much, but they’d never leave him for dead. They’ve proven that much many times over, even times where it’d made more sense to leave him behind.

“I’m looking for a way in now,” he advises quietly once the mic is on. “Shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“You’re just getting there now?” Pidge asks.

“More Galra than I expected on the way. Got held up.”

“Well, can you speed it up, mullet? We need to form Voltron and take everything out before we’re all exhausted from taking this fleet on.”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” he shoots back.

“Easy to say when you’re not the one getting shot at! Go faster!”

“Alright, settle down,” Shiro orders. “But Keith—the faster you can get those locations, the better. We’re dealing with more Galra than we expected up here too.”

“On it,” Keith mutters, barely getting to appreciate the lack of a jab on Lance’s end over the now definitely increasing pain jabbing at his leg.

It takes a couple minutes, but he spots what looks like a side entrance and sets a path toward it.

A shot rings out.

“Fuck,” he hisses involuntarily when a corresponding pain blooms in his abdomen.

He freezes while he takes in a shaky breath and groans as the sting grows during the exhale.

“What!?” Shiro’s voice crackles through the comms.

Shit. His mic was still on passive mode, wasn’t it?

Not that that should be his biggest concern, he realizes with a start accompanied by the sound of another blaster shot. This one only succeeds in taking out a chunk of tree to his left, but the ongoing threat is enough to send him careening away in search of cover further from the base.

It only sinks in that he’s down for the count when he can’t run in a straight line for the life of him. There’s no way he’s taking on any guards or managing any high-stakes sneaking like this.

“I got shot,” he finally mutters in the mic when he gains some distance.

A branch snaps, too near for comfort, and he shuts his mouth and looks down at his feet as he picks his way forward, avoiding anything that could make a sound and reveal his own location to his pursuer.

He tunes out the voices overlapping through the comms to focus on making his escape undetected, slowly reaching up to dim the volume to near silence once he’s settled into a position with a slightly better vantage point to spot anyone approaching from the direction he’s fleeing. Wrapping his arm around his stomach doesn’t relieve the pain at all, but there’s a comfort in it, even if he has to contort oddly to also keep his bayard at the ready. It doesn’t stop him from trembling in the wake of the pain.

Minutes pass by with no indication of anyone continuing to follow before he risks taking some of his focus off his surroundings and notches up the comms volume just enough to properly make out everyone.

“—ith, respond!”

“Sorry, here,” he hastily whispers. “Had one on my tail, but I think I lost him.”

“Alright, what’s the plan? Can you complete the mission or do you need an extraction?”

“Uhh… extraction,” he murmurs. “I’m sorry, Shiro. I can’t do it.”

“We’ll figure something else out. Hang tight while we take out the fleet so we can send someone your way.”

Keith nods, catching himself after a second and realizing he’s not in a lion with a video feed anymore.

“Okay,” he whispers then, letting himself lean back so the tree bears more of his weight before the strain of standing upright can weaken him any further.

When he looks down, he finds blood trickling down the front of his leg armor and starting to puddle on the ground. He jerks his head around to look back the way he came, but the bleeding must not have been too fast because there are no signs of it outside of where he stands now. Small mercies.

He lasts about a minute more before the wooziness kicks in regardless of the tree’s flawless support, and he has to let himself slide down to the ground when blackness starts to overtake his vision. He reaches up to pause his own mic feed before allowing himself one misery-filled groan.

Nausea creeps its way in, and it’s a focused effort to keep reminding himself it’s in his head. It’s just the… the pain, or the blood loss, or the shock. Something. He’ll be fine. He just has to make it long enough for someone to find him. Then his body can do whatever the fuck it wants. Not now.

The blackness that had receded when he first sat down starts tunneling his vision once again, and he has a frenzied moment to realize his body’s not going to hold off until he’s rescued before he’s out completely.

----------

The timeless blip to falling out of a cryopod is always confusing, and jumping from passing out alone deep in enemy territory to falling out of the pod even more so.

“Keith!” Pidge’s voice yells out as he falls and arms wrap around him before he can try to bring his own limbs under control and stop from braining himself on the floor.

“Man, never do that to me again!” Hunk exclaims from much closer, and when he can convince his eyelids to slide open, it’s to the sight of Hunk keeping him upright against his chest. “I thought you were dead when I got there.”

“Sorry,” Keith tries, still struggling to catch up with his own memories.

“You worried us,” Shiro chastises from further back.

“You must be starving,” Hunk adds. “What do you want me to make for you?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m just… I’m gonna go sleep off the cryopod,” he says.

It sounds like a weak excuse to his own ears, but no one stops him from leaving.

Shiro’s barely a minute behind him and lets himself into Keith’s quarters without knocking. Leaving the door open, he jumps straight into a lecture from the doorway.

“Keith, none of that was okay. Not telling us you were hurt before that shot? Not letting us know you were going to need an extraction as soon as you crashed the cruiser? How are we supposed to make plans when we’re missing information? When you don’t communicate with us, you put the whole team at risk, not just yourself.”

“I was—”

“Look, I don’t know where this is coming from, but we can’t afford for you to backslide like this. I get you’ve got trauma—we all do—but the rest of us have worked to overcome our bad coping mechanisms. There’s no room for you to be so reckless and to refuse to communicate your needs on top of that.”

“I didn’t—!”

“No, Keith, I don’t want to hear more excuses about this. I’ve been more than understanding, hoping you’d be able to work on it yourself, and you’ve just taken advantage of that up to this point. It needs to stop. Period.”

“Yes, sir,” he deadpans, sinking into a false apathy that fills him with cool familiarity even after years away from it.

“Take the rest of the day off and do whatever it takes to get it out of your system. I expect better communication on the next mission. I’ll be handling the team for today.”

He doesn’t spare Keith another glance before he walks out, shutting the door behind him and leaving Keith in silence. He sinks down onto the bed.

Maybe it’s time to rethink Kolivan’s offer to go full-time.

[thespacenico]

brother, let me be your shelter

pairings: keith & shiro, adam/shiro words: 11.5k chapters: 1/1

Adam hums quietly. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”  Shiro knows Adam well enough to know that he’s not implying otherwise, but asking genuinely. At first he doesn’t quite know what to say, but the more that he thinks about it, the more his initial panic actually starts to subside. He spent a lot of time getting to know Keith before making the decision to bring him home. In all those months, not once did he ever give Shiro any reason to believe what all the social workers seemed to say about him—still not even once in all these months since taking him in. Anyone who put in more than minimal effort to understand him would realize that Keith’s “acting out” almost always meant he just needed a little help.  When he takes a deep breath and puts everything else aside—when he thinks about the Keith that he knows, rather than the Keith that everyone else has told him about—the answer is easy. “Yeah,” he says firmly. “I do.”

read now on ao3

[kogane1023]

YO ME WHEN I POST A FANFICTION ON AO3 THAT PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY READ??

come check it out :)

So You Wanna Be Famous? (3050 words, in progress) by BlackIronRaven Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences (Might change to Mature later? Depends on how realism I feel like getting with the actual Band Stuff) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Adam & Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Allura/Romelle (Voltron), Allura/Veronica (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Allura & Coran (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron) Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Adam (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Shay (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Lotor (Voltron), Lotor's Generals (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Romelle (Voltron), Veronica (Voltron) Additional Tags: klance, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, The full gang is here and they're all gay your honor, Gay Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Bisexual Allura (Voltron), Trans Shay (Voltron), Modern Era, Disabled Shiro, Disabled Character, Autistic Keith (Voltron), emo band eraaaaaa, foster kid Keith Series: Part 1 of The Paths of Stars Summary: "I think we should start a band," Shiro said. Keith shot him a glance. "No thanks." Nobody has an easy life. For Keith, it's been one screwball after another. After getting kicked out of Air Force training for improper behavior, he returns to his old foster brother Shiro in Detroit, Michigan. Frustrated with the state of the world, the pair starts writing. At first, it's just words, a way for them to work through their anger at the world around them - but neither of them could have predicted what their little passion project would lead to.

[happyleakira]

Hey! I just read your fic “and all I can taste is this moment” and omg what do I even say because it was absolutely perfect like I can’t even begin to describe it. Adam is literally how I thought of him in my mind so thank you so much for writing it. I watched vld a couple of years ago but only got into Adam like recently as initially I was too obsessed with Lance to notice anyone else but I have come to really adore Adam although he has like 2 scenes in the show but it’s just something about him that made me really like him and it pissed me off so much that the only time we see him interact with Shiro is when they’re literally breaking up and so I had to read some fics where they get a happy ending because they deserve it and I found your fic and I am so glad that I did. My favourite scene probably has to be when Adam’s grandpa passed away and to make him feel better Shiro takes him on a ride on the speeder and they’re about to have their first kiss and they get oh so rudely interrupted like that was hilarious (my apologies to Adam and Shiro because I know they certainly didn’t find it half as funny as I did). My heart was broken for second when they crashed, I thought I hadn’t read the tags properly and I was worried if it was going to be a major character death moment but THANKFULLY neither of them died and they get to be happy and oh yeah loveddd the proposal scene so muchhhh I mean it was so wholesome and Adam agreeing even before Shiro had asked the question was so in character. So I just had to thank you for writing this beautiful story and sharing it and really sorry for the rant 😅

I am not kidding when I saw that getting this comment singlehandedly revived my joy in the voltron fandom and in this pairing. It makes me SO happy to know that someone is still enjoying this fic, because it really is one of my absolute favorites I've ever written. <3

and all I can taste is this moment

[greenflamedwriter]

Voltron Season 8 Fix-it-Fic

Voltron Season 7/8 re-write of of how I wanted Voltron to add + The Ship that I knew would never happen but I took creative liberties. Summary: When Keith joins Voltron and they go back to Earth to defend against the Galra, the castle still remained as well as Voltron- But the garrison confiscates the Lions and only THEIR best and brightest can pilot the lions. Lance/Shiro. Lance leaves Voltron to be a teacher. Adam and Shiro get that fight we were promised.

He was gone.

The others were talking amongst themselves, with Allura supporting shiro- Keith and Hunk discussing where they should go to next and talking rations while Pidge and coral were charting a course to earth that wouldn’t take much time, coasting to earth would be dangerous especially with no healing pods to fall back on.

And Lance was trying everything he could to not break down.

It was surprisingly easy, he knew his body and his mind. He figured once he was alone and they settled on a plan he could cry over the fact that Shiro.

His shiro was gone.

Keith may have matured with his two years absence, but Lance was here from day one and knew that right now they were wasting time.

“Allura can get us there, there’s no need to chart a course.”

That had everyone’s attention, of course Pidge’s face scrunched up about to respond.

“We didn’t have Allura open up a wormhole to Arus  when we all got in the blue lion from earth. We jumped from keeboras to arus with a wormhole. The lion created it once, it could probably do it again, Allura went to oriande and knows more about the lions and is the blue paladin.” 

Allura looked unsure “I don’t know if I can…”

“Allura you made wormholes all the time, and you just saved Shiro, you can do anything you set your mind too. I know you can do it princess.” Lance winked and Allura flushed ducking her head.

“You can bond with blue and while she figures that out, we’ll all go and gather rations, someone should stay here with Shiro- Keith would you?”

Keith nodded “Yeah, but why not Coran?”

“Coran knows this planet better than us, he can tell us what the look out for in case we’re in trouble. We’ll go in pairs, even tho it’s a safe planet we have to be on guard.” 

The others nodded packing up their things.

Keith moved over “I uh, thanks. You Uh, you’re really good at this.”

The blue paladin gave him a scathing look.

“Unlike some people I didn’t have two years to mature then come back when you felt like it. Some of us had to stay and fight and deal with it ourselves.”

Keith’s mouth fell open as Lance glared his way “Are you done running away now?” Keith clenched his fists “Lance, I had to leave it was better-“

“What almost getting yourself killed?” Lance pushed back “Because I saw that. I heard from kolivan how you would recklessly throw your life away and for what? You could’ve died in space and we wouldn’t even know about it. So don’t come back here as if you magically fixed everything and all’s forgiven.” Lance turned around almost following after the others until he heard Keith mumble behind him.

“I wasn’t running away.” 

Lance turned back “Might want to elaborate on that buddy?” 

“We’re not friends and we can’t pick and choose where we stay. we’re soldiers it made sense for me to go with the blade rather than you being dead weight.”

It showed how how little Lance cared that he barely felt any emotion.

“Oh so you did me a favour when I could’ve went back to earth to help Sam and Matt.” Lance crossed his arms.

“If you were here, Keith. Maybe you would’ve realised that Shiro was a clone.” Keith took a physical step back.

“Whatever you say to make yourself feel better that you didn’t figure it out yourself.”

“Puh-lease. You think your insulting me but Pidge and Hunk never realised either. No if your taking over as the black paladin now you need to step up. Fighting is easy,” Lance gestured “What happens when the fighting stops? Or you think your not needed? Going to run away again?”

Keith looked away and Lance scowled grabbing his chest plate and slamming his head against Keith’s making him look at him.

“If your going to be here then fucking act like a leader!” Lance shoved him away and turned back towards the group.

The others remained silent, Lance partnered up with Hunk and they split up to get provisions.

“Lance, that was really harsh.”

“I’m not going to beat around the bush, Hunk. Keith is the black paladin, and everything that’s happened was blind luck, finding his mom, Romelle? And getting some fucking cosmic insight that Shiro wasn’t shiro?” Lance growled then decided to hack a tree and Hunk only watched sadly.

“He left us, Hunk!” Lance swung down harshly “So no!  he doesn’t get to waltz back in here and act like everything is fine.” Hunk sighed “Lance…this is Keith we’re talking about, he’s not really great with people and you yelling at him is only going to push him away.” 

Lance sighed shutting his eyes “Hunk. We sent him off with a hug and farewell to be nice. It couldn’t have been a worse send off “Oh yeah we don’t need you just go to the galra. You heard kolivan, Keith almost killed himself for us and I just I thought-“ Lance hacked another tree making Hunk flinch.

“Look once we get back to earth, he’s going to do the same thing. Leave us for the garrison with Kroila because he found his real family now and we mean Jack shit.”

Lance turned to Hunk “What Keith did isn’t okay, Hunk. But you and the others won’t say anything because your all too scared to rock the boat. But these things need to be said, or nothings going to get better.”

Hunk only watched as Lance kept hacking at the trees, they should’ve been looking for food but…he’ll give Lance a minute to cool down.

Although Hunk resented being called a coward, was there anything wrong with not wanting to make things worse? 

Not everyone can speak their mind…

Allura sat in the cockpit of the blue lion, her hands shaking.

She couldn’t do this.

She almost lost everything- in just one moment. She could’ve lost Voltron and Coran, her home.

And yet-

She grit her teeth wrapping her arms around herself.

And yet her mind couldn’t help but play over Lotor words. 

Was he sincere?

No!

She clenched her eyes shut, her lip trembling he was a liar! He lied to her and yet she missed him a small part wondered if maybe they were wrong- maybe if Lotor explained himself.

She shook her head.

Scrubbing away her tears.

No. The others counted on her, they needed this wormhole. The blue lion can make one.

And…they wouldn’t understand, Allura exhaled a shaky breath.

She glanced out the window watching the others sort out her supplies.

Her eyes trailed over Lance, he was always a constant.

But none of them would understand what it was like…to lose someone, someone who you were vulnerable with, someone who could’ve been…more.

Allura grasped the controls taking one last look before shutting her eyes tight.

“Please.”

She thought of them all, her new family, Pidge, actually interested in Altean  culture and took to it exceptionally, and Hunk creating delicious foods and even gave her biscuits when she was low. Keith always saying the right thing, who she can trust to be honest with her, they were birds of a feather after all. Coran her advisor but more than that. A father, the caretaker of the team to keep them sane even though he’s hurting himself.

And Lance, he said Allura was the blue paladin because she was the heart of the team, but that’s not true.

Lance was there for the team and could be serious whenever they needed him. He believed in all of them and made them better.

He was the true heart and Allura wanted him to be right, that he placed his trust in the right person.

She can do this. 

Above their heads high in the sky, flickered a dark orb until a wormhole sputtered to life above them.

Pidge gaped “Holy crow!”

“Way to go Allura!”

Allura slumped back exhausted “If you guys can get ready I suggest we do it now, I don’t know how long it’ll hold.”

Lance beamed “You heard her, grab everything and get into your lions! Romelle, honey you and Coran go with Allura, I’m sure you have a lot to discuss.”

“Kroila, Shiro Keith you all go together.”

“Pidge you take the storage and Hunk, the provisions since you’ll be cooking anyway.”

Although Lance put food in all of their lions just in case.

Lance sighed “And I’ll take Kaltenecker, hopefully it won’t be a long ride.”

The others nodded and began to make way.

Lance made it to his lion settling into his chair as the hatch closed.

This was it, he was going home.

He raised his hand clasping it around the chain around his neck.

He knew it was impossible to be in war without losing something, but he didn’t think it’s be such a huge loss.

“Lance? Come on man, it’s closing!”

“Coming!”

He leapt into the air after the others making it into the wormhole just in time.

They opened up at Kerberos.

Maybe Allura jumped here because Shiro spoke about the moon a lot around them leading up to his excitement of the mission but avoiding the galra attack, he was aware it happened but wanted to focus on the positives.

Still, it shouldn’t take long to get to earth- oh shit.

“Uh- Guys what are we going to say so the united force’s and the rest of earth so they don’t nuke us on arrival?”

“…”

He heard Shiro sigh over the video feed “Leave it to me.”

Shiro directed at Pidge “Pidge can you radio in to Sam Holt?”

“Uh, yeah.” 

And just like that Shiro and Pidge were able to get on call with Sam to clear the runway so to speak.

“So how long will you guys be?” Sam asked, and Shiro responded “A few minutes.”

Sam chocked on his drink “A few minutes- for gods sake Shiro,” he stood up from his chair “Some forewarning will be nice.”

“We can orbit around Mars for a bit if that suits you-“

“Don’t be a wise ass, hold on. We already prepared for you to land we just have to speed up the process.”

“Thanks Sam.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we have some…issues.”

“With what?”

“The…senate, don’t feel comfortable with a ton of dropouts and aliens piloting a weapon.”

“They didn’t.”

“Yeah, it’s the typical they want it in government hands. Shiro, they’re going to try to take Voltron from you. They already have pilots lined up, the best and brightest.”

“Don’t they realise we’re in an intergalactic war that’s ranged on for thousands of years?”

“Yes and you’ll love this, some senators want to bark out peace with the Galra.”

“They want to give up before they’re even here!?”

Lance flinched eyes wide in surprise, guess ‘Shiro’ losing his temper wasn’t a new development with the clone. Then he shook his head, he couldn’t keep comparing them, they weren’t alike at all.

“That’s what I’ve been saying! Shiro you have to help me here if we don’t do something this could end up like the pandemic of 2020!”

“Dad for the last time, you and your generation keep saying that but I bet it wasn’t even that bad!”

Sams answering silence was enough “On second thought. Orbit Mars for a few Thebes.”

“Dad!?”

“You know I’m kidding and…done, now we’re ready for ya kiddo.”

He clicked off and the others deterred to Shiro, even he seemed surprised that they still saw him as a leader.

“Alright team, let’s go home.”

“And give them a show while we’re at it!” Lance grinned thrusting downwards as the lions began to make their descent.

When they landed at the garrison with the familiar uniforms glaring up at them, Lance breathed in.

“Ah gone sweet home.” 

So many unimpressed faces, how did Lance survive without them.

The lions opened up and the others excited, Pidge instantly sighted her family and sprinted towards them, Shiro along with Kroila and Keith were more subdued as they began to make their way towards Iverson.

Lance stayed beside Hunk and Romelle, their family won’t be here, Lance had no way of knowing if the garrison their dissapearence a secret or not.

Lance and Hunk holt at the sudden commotion as Iverson begins barking at Shiro, but surprisingly Shiro yells back getting in his face, and then some garrison punk decides to intervene.

“Show some respect to your commanding officer, Captain Shiro.” Lance instantly recognises him.

James…something. He forgot his last name. Oh whatever, Lance had to get in there.

Lance strutted up saluting.

“Commander Iverson.” The man nodded back “Cadet McLain.”

Oh god dammit he didn’t graduate but come on! He was in space, he could see James smirking and instantly smoothed down his metaphorical feathers.

“Commander, we have just landed from being in space for god knows how long so I apologise if our captain is being teachy,” He could feel Shiro glaring at him “What seems to be the problem.”

“I simply requested we confiscate the…lions, as the Garrison has the right to take inventory of them. The blue lion was originally on this planet near this location and that means we have jurisdiction of it. And if what Captain Shirogane says is true then the current pilots must disband and let real professionals take over.”

You could almost hear a penny drop, and Lance knew both Keith and Shiro- and Pidge by the look of it were about to have another shouting match.

“Which candidates did you have in mind?” Lance asked and Iverson nodded at James and his team behind him.

“James Griffen“

Griffen! That was his name!

“Ina Leifsdottir, Nadia Rizavi and Ryan Kinkade.”

Honestly they looked impressive.

“Of course, sure they can have Voltron no problem.”

“Lance!?”

Lance was gazing at Iverson and knew he was surprised, Lance was childish and wanted to keep his toys and never let anyone have them. But that was a long time ago.

“Well, good Cadet, we’ll get everyone prepared and to load the lions into-“

“Ah, hold on, before we do any of that, sir.” Lance spoke nodding towards the lions.

“They have to try to pilot them first.”

“…excuse me?”

Shiro catching on, smirked, “Of course. The lions are sentient and won’t let anyone pilot them. If your team can access the lion and pilot it then we’ll say nothing more.” 

It was hilarious to say the least seeing all the pilots bounce if the lions as the barrier appeared to block them from even trying.

It stopped being funny when Red barrier didn’t come up.

The cock-put opened up. And The eyes glowed yellow, the red lion had accepted her pilot.

Lance and the others as well as most of the faculty watching had matching stunned faces. 

James exits the walk down path with a cocky look, and Lance could only sigh.

“Well,” James started “Not so smug now are ya?”

“Now hang on just a minute!” Pidge started about to intervene Shiro grabbed their shoulder.

Lance glanced at the others, to James then to saw Iverson murmuring something to another Lecturer.

Lance looked up at red recalling when he first piloted Blue how it felt as if her eyes were watching him. But in this moment he couldn’t feel anything from Red at all.

He never realised how much of a spare part he’s been.

Others always told him he would amount to nothing more than a cargo pilot time to face the music.

Lance beamed taking a step forward with his hand outstretched his eyes serious.

“Congratulations.”

Pidge still yelling paused as well as many others.

James for once looked unsure “Uh…”

“You shake, dude.”

James took his hand and both shook once. With that out the way Lance easily moved over wrapping his arm around his shoulder.

“Okay, so you realised that the lion is nothing like earth ships, so your going to have to adjust to that and everything’s in altean, but just remember that the lion is connected to you mentally-“

“Uh-“

“And if you pilot her as you would pilot any other craft she’ll accommodate you, so relax and don’t get too hung up on it being an alien ship and you should be fine.”

“Uh okay.” Lance slapped his back good naturally “Good, take care of my team Griffen.”

He could feel the others eyes burning holes into his back.

 Lance realised that he was only here because Keith had to step down, as a fighter pilot leaving the garrison, the Red Paladin in Voltron and leaving Voltron so Lance could stay.

Lance was sick of having things handed to him and they didn’t have time for that, the galra were coming. And the couldn’t afford to hold people back just because of Lance’s ego?

No he was so over that.

“If you have questions, my team will teach you the ropes. You’ll have to refer to Keith as he’s the black paladin.”

“Why I’m higher rank than drop out over there.”

Lance crossed his arms.

“In Voltron that Dropout pilots the black lion.”

“And that’s important because?” Lance sighed “Voltron combines into a huge mecha robot and the black lion is in charge of cohesively  moving said parts, yes he outranks you.”

“Lance you can’t be serious-“

“James is clearly green he has no idea what he’s doing!”

“I’m not green I’m red.”

Lance bit his lip, James was just like Keith,

“The lions pick the pilots, I can’t help that and look-“ just to prove his point he reached out and the barrier appeared and Lance’s palm met resistance.

“She won’t let me in. It’s settled, come on guys you act as if we never lion hopped before.”

They didn’t look happy, Hunk even spoke up “Well yeah but it’s different now.”

Lance sighed “Guys it’s fine, Iverson and Shiro are talking about it now- it’s cool.”

“No it’s different because- you piloted blue! You were there from the start- it’s just wrong!” Lance hesitated at Hunks outburst.

“Hunk it’s okay, you and Pidge are still piloting the same lions nothing has changed that much.”

Hunk looked down and Lance had no idea what to say, “Listen I need to talk to Iverson- be two ticks.”

He glanced over and saw his window.

“Commander Iverson?”

Iverson was almost about to leave but turned his lip pulled in his familiar sneer.

“Yes, cadet.”

Good god does Lance need to graduate.

“Sir, did Captain Shiro let you know if the situation.”

“Yes, in great detail.”

Lance nodded “Since my position in Voltron has now terminated it doesn’t change the fact that I’m the only one with hands on experience who has squires so much free time. I have background experience, and so much intel and can act as a liaison between Voltron and the Garrison.”

“Captain Shirogane will act as liaison.”

“Oh so he has time to show you guys around the Altean castle, weblums, balmara’s, space swaps, and quintessence?”

“Cadet mcclain if you can stop wasting my time with made up-“

“It’s not, we need weblums for sculatrite to create wormholes.” Allura spoke up “And Balmarian crystals to power the Castle,” Pidge added.

Shiro even intervened “I can talk about the Galra and get us combat ready, but there’s so much you guys need to know-“

“And we’re already behind.” 

Iverson stared at Lance “Fine. I expect a module to teach the cadets on everything they need to know, the faculty lecturers will oversee it and approve it if it meets our standards.”

“Sure, I’ll even give you guys the tour of the castle the more your informed the easier it’ll be.”

Iverson moved towards his colleges to go over the plans and Shiro moved up beside Lance talking low so the others won’t hear.

“Are you sure Lance? Voltron is stronger with you here. training James might make it harder to fight the galra.”

Lance gave him an easy smile not looking him in the eye “Shiro this works out, we need a pilot from the garrison to be here. By military standards a former pilot, some dropouts have no weight or loyalty, they want to make sure Voltron is on their side first.”

“Of course we are!” Shiro hissed “We want to protect earth-“

“But not become dictators like Zarkon. Think of this as the accords from civil war, look it’ll work out once they see what you can do.”

And the fact that the country will assume Voltron was some terrorist weapon so yeah they needed to show they had control of Voltron.

“What we can do?” Shiro looked perturbed “Lance, you’re a part of this team too.” Lance finally looked him in the eye and for the first time, relaxed.

Maybe, Shiro didn’t remember him…but maybe he might or he could probably try again to recreate what he and Shiro once had?

This easy commadry was what sparked them in the first place.

“I know, which is why it’s better to be on the sidelines. The garrison know nothing about the Galra, Altean tech and the things they need to make them stronger. Earth wasn’t ready to leave their solar system and now they have to deal with a thousand year intergalactic war on their front door step? They won’t understand a word that Coran is saying and Allura is stuck with Voltron since she’s a new member. She and James can learn together- this works out! I can help things speed along!”

Pidge finally heard that still fuming that she was exchanging one brash idiot for another worse brash idiot “What about Shiro? He can do that stuff,” she bit out.

Lance shook his head, even tho Shiro was nodding along with her.

“Shiro is a senior officer, and would be working with Iverson and the other instructors and even head of state- he’ll have his hands full trying to make sure the freakin army won’t us Voltron as some sort of weapon against other country’s! we can’t afford infighting with other continents when freakin actual aliens might come out of nowhere and kill us. Two pair of hands are better, guys…trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Are you really okay with this?” Lance glanced up surprised at the pure venom in Keith’s voice and realised as their eyes locked he was thinking of that conversation in Keith’s room.

“That’s six pilots one too many, I know we need a red paladin and we should have our best soldiers out there.”

“You’re just running away! Classic Keith.”

Lance smiled, who’s the hypocrite now. It did seem like he was running away.

But unlike him, Keith was actually needed.

“Of course. No use beating around the bush, I wasn’t meant to be a fighter pilot. I should accept my loses while I can.”

-return to earth. Adam and shiro get back together and Lance is gutted.

-Lance becomes a lecturer describing in depth materials and what they do. Students ignore him so he asks Pidge/hunk to back up what he’s saying and they soon realise that Lance is t dumb.

-Adam drags Lance to talk to Shiro.

“Lance McClain, right?”

Lance paused gathering his notes and glanced up, standing in the door way with his arms crossed and a permanent scowl on his face was non other than Adam Montgomery.

Lance honestly had no clue why Adam was here and why he was glaring at him as if Lance insulted his mother.

“Uh, yeah. What can I do for you?”

Adam smiled, and somehow that was worse.

“I was wondering if you had lunch yet?”

“I’m, no?”

“Great, I wanted to talk about one of your lecturers about the healing pods?”

Oh that was a surprise, Lance almost told Adam to just read his PowerPoint.

But Lieutenant Adam might be busy and would probably prefer direct cliff notes first.

“Uh sure.” 

On their way towards the food court, Adam casually placed his arm around Lance’s and begun his discussion.

“I most of my students won’t stop talking about your wormhole thesis.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“So I read it myself, it’s really detailed most assume that Katie holt was the co-writer, or mostly wrote 80% of it.”

“Uh you could say that, I mean she explained it to me.”

“Pidge didn’t input anything on that paper. I confirmed it myself, your academic grades are off the charts you were always second in class but what you had theory failed in practical.” 

Lance had no idea what Adam wanted from him, until they rounded the corner and began to walk towards a lunch table.

With Shiro occupying it.

Adam must of know Lance was about to run, his hand digging into his shoulder.

Almost like a marshal shoving a delinquiet towards a squad car.

“I know your smarter than what people give you credit for.”

He pushed Lance in his seat and even shoved a tray of food towards him.

“Your favourite.” Adam smiled and sat down beside shiro.

Lance could only stare at his tray still steaming hot.

Shiro looked awkward and Adam was watching him like a hawk.

“Why are you avoiding Shiro, Lance?” Lance almost chocked on his food. Adam wasn’t above beating around the bush.

“Which yeah I get why Shiro wasn’t close to me or tried, we have nothing in common and any of us could’ve died at any point. And shiro did so it hurt less those months after when he was gone, Keith had the worse of it.” Lance began to eat avoiding Shiro’s glare.

Adam stared at Shiro “You died?”

Lance glanced up from eating “Oh is this not common knowledge?”

Shiro glare was fixated on him “It was not.”

Lance leaned back “Oh I’m sorry I wasn’t aware that you were keeping secrets from your fiancé.”

Adam narrowed his eyes “Your lying, the others told me you and Shiro were close. Shiro…remembers things of you two being friends.”

Lance mouth fell open he glanced at Shiro “I- since when- what about?” 

Panic, no don’t panic everything’s fine.

“Just you being there, when I needed someone to talk to- we played dnd.”

Lance eyes watered, he couldn’t he couldn’t  remember.

“Lance, I can’t help but feel as if there’s something your not telling me.”

Lance swallowed.

There were tons of things he never told Shiro.

He narrowed his eyes, mentally pulling himself back.

“Nothing happened, you were just killing time as the others were busy.” 

“Bullshit.” Adam infuriated and Lance glanced his way, he had to say, he respected Adam and seemed to want the best for Shiro.

But he was being such a pain in the neck about it.

“I’m sorry but both of you here started this interrogation with me first, I’m not going to sit here and play nice when I could’ve had lunch with Hunk or kinkade.”

“Your being awfully defensive for someone who didn’t do anything wrong.” Adam crossed his arms looking as if he gained the upper hand. Lance clenched his fists.

“Yeah? Well if I’m lying to Shiro, we’re both withholding information. But at least I don’t gain anything from it.” Lance looked Adam up and down.

Adams stared, his hands clenching.

“Gained? What do you mean?”

Lance continued to stare at Adam his eyes narrowed.

“Where’s your engagement ring, Adam?” He asked innocently.

Adams face slackened with shock then darkened, his eyes narrowing into slits. Lance stood up “I’ll let you guys sort this out amongst yourselfs.”

“Also, Adam. You tell Shiro why you don’t have his engagement ring then I’ll talk about why I’m avoiding both of you.”

“Adam and Shiro are having a lovers spat.”

“Crow Lance, what did you say to them?”

“Yeah adams cool.”

“He’s a liar.”

“What.”

“He’s lying to Shiro, they broke up two weeks before Kerberos.”

“And how would you know.”

“Because he told me.” 

The others didn’t look believing so he directed the next question at Keith “Seriously Keith why would he only take you to see the ship to Kerberos, Katie you were there two. You would think Adam would’ve accompanied you.”

Both looked silent recalling that time, all staff had a break, there was no reason for Adam to not be present.

“Why would he tell you?”

“We we’re alone in space what else could we have talked about, Katie and Hunk were busy with their navigations map and colour coding it and Allura and Lotor were two busy making out. We both paired of and talked since there was nothing left to do.”

It was one month, one month later and once lance’s duties were over and he no longer had anything else to do. They were ready for any galra attack.

Lance stay at his desk staring at the photo there, it had been one month since his shiro died.

He exhaled a shaky breath, he never forgot in every moment when he was with his friends he would think.

“Shiros died.” 

In his classroom he would begin the lesson until a blunt thought “Shiro is gone.”

For months small words would repeat disrupting any moment he had.

And now, now it all came crashing down.

He took the photo, the only one of Shiro with his arm around LanceMs shoulder.

He removed the picture and placed the frame straight down.

He couldn’t do this.

He stood up marching towards the door, he thought he could wait until the war ended but from past experiences he might never get the chance, there was a lull now so he might as well take this opportunity.

“Where’s Lance?”

Iverson glanced towards Shiro “Oh, he’s gone out for a bit.”

“But what if the Galra attacked?”

“That boy has been working non stop, and he’s not out of bounds from the garrison. He’s just taking a breathing before anything happens. By god does he need it.”

Shiro pressed his lips together “Is he going to be alone?”

“I think so? He’s going by Green river, he’s not that far out.”

“I’ll go out, I don’t think we should separate at this point in time.”

“Take care.”

And that’s how Shiro found him, he exited the garrison rover and tread carefully towards Lance, he saw he was sitting on a log illuminated by the fire he was in front off.

Shiro peered over his shoulder and his mouth fell open to see the photo in Lance’s hands.

It was the two of them, and they looked…close.

Lance was lost in thought and didn’t appear to notice Shiro was there.

Shiro cleared his throat and Lance jumped turning instantly eyes flashed in panic.

And shiro soon realised this was a mistake. Lance’s eyes were red rimmed and his face tear strained.

“Shiro- I what are you doing here?” Lance quickly looked away scrubbing his face. Shiro walked over tentatively and sat on Lance’s left.

“I heard you went out, none of us should be left alone right now.”

He stared at Lance then the photo, he had no clue if he should bring it up. But he was deadly curious.

“Lance…you told Adam you were both lying to me. But that you had a good reason, the others wouldn’t fill me in on what the clone was doing, there’s…gaps in the story and things I remember that doesn’t make sense.”

Lance was slowly hunching in on his shoulders.

“Lance I don’t know what’s going on…and I can’t help but feel like I’ve hurt you- did- did the clone do something?”

No! No god no he didn’t…

…Lance talk to me here, I want to help.

Lance clenches the photo and exhales.

He raised his hand and removes the chain around his neck. The chain he’s always fiddling with.

And there dangling from the chain, was the ring of Mordor.

Or Shiro hoped it was or rather wished it to be since it was none other than Adams engagement ring.

Shiros throat ran dry “Why- why do you have that.”

“You and Adam separated two weeks before the Kerberos mission.”

Lance began his tone devoid of emotion his eyes staring at the fire.

“You kept it in the arena. The one thing giving you hope, it pushed you to work out, memorise the patterns of guards planning your escape you kept it with you until that last fight with Zarkon. Your body disappeared and this remained in the cockpit, you see we needed a new paladin and we all went in to see if she woupd respond. On my way out, I saw the ring on the floor.

I planned on giving it to Keith at the right time when he…when he wasn’t as hurt about you being gone. But then you came back- but it wasn’t you and I thought it was.

 I gave him the ring and he said “Keep it, you seem to be the only constant here,” since y’know Keith left, Pidge went to find her brother, Hunk was cooking all sorts into his food. You thought I’d keep it safe.”

He passed it over and Shiro took it, his hand clasping around the chain still warm from Lance’s neck.

“And that’s it.”

“Your lying.”

Lance looked shocked as Shiro looked up “You wouldn’t be here, and keep this from me from so long of that was it.”

Lance opened his mouth and shut it’s looked away fiddling with his hands, unable to fidget with anything back. Shiro almost gave Lance back the chain out of pity.

“He promised me it.”

“What?”

“The clone. He said- as soon as we get to earth I’m going to put that ring on your finger.”

The silence stretched on, only disrupted by the occasional snap from the fire and embers spitting from the flames.

Shiro took a long breath then exhaled.

“All this time- you didn’t say anything?”

“How could I? You did Amy remember, I was going to wait to see if you figured it out on your own but- then you saw Adam. And you forgot about the break-up and you- god Shiro you were so happy. After everything you’ve been through almost dying facing the Galra. How could I ruin that?”

“But what about you- were you never going to say anything? Stay silent while Adam and you lied behind my back.”

Lance sighed “I gave him a two week notice Shiro- we had Voltron and the atlas, none of us had time to deal with distractions.”

“But you would’ve been fine?” Shiro almost growled out beyond pissed at Adam, Lance but himself- for letting it drag out this long, for not confronting Lance that very first day.

“Shiro how can you even say for certain that what the clone was feeling was even you? What if it was a trick by the galra to get closer to the team? In what circumstance would you and I even…-“

Lance choked off covering his face, Shiro flinched alarmed as Lance began to sob, his shoulders shaking.

“How can I mourn you- when I see your face every day- and you just, you see right through me. I’m just Lance just someone who works with you from Voltron.”

Shiro reached out placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Lance, the others would’ve understood if you talked to them.”

Lance shook his head “Don’t you think I tried, they think the clone and you are separate that the clone was evil, and wasn’t a person.” Lance glanced down at the bag beside him.

“He doesn’t even have a grave.” 

Lance leaned back wiping his face his throat dry “That’s why I brought this stuff, to burn. I wanted to bury something to have some sort of closure.”

Shiro hated to think that Lance was going through this alone, that no one knew.

“I do have some memories of that time, but not- it’s as if those ones that you and he had together is gone, or I can’t access them.”

“Maybe it’s because you're both too different. It’s not something you would’ve done.”

Lance talks about the objects Kuro got him, souvenirs from other planets a flute that sounds awful etc. 

Lance turned the corner already dreading this, it was a flight test, if he failed to pass it then he wouldn’t qualify as a fighter pilot and work as an instructor.

Okay- breathe.

Lance gazed up at the flight craft. He crashed tons at the simulators. What if he crashes another time?

He could even hear Iverson talk to the others “Bear witness that no matter how bad you think you are you will never be as terrible as the demonstration we are about to see today.”

All of Lance’s nerves evaporated replaced with rage.

Okay-he can do this.

Lance stepped in the craft listening to the instructors asking the standard questions.

“Okay rescue mission for the Kerberos crew?” Lance glanced at Iverson “To be fair didnt I already do that by piloting the blue lion I came back with my team with Sam, Matt and Shiro respectfully.” 

He couldn’t help the tease.

He turned on the thrusters and heard the thrum of the craft.

It was so…clunky. He had no idea how advanced Altean ships were till now.

It was like playing on a PlayStation 5 and then going back to a PlayStation 2 with the old games.

Lance called of his flight pattern hitting the buttons and then…zones out.

It wasn’t until after when he landed the ship, as he stepped out the simulator and saw all the stunned faces. Lance smirked.

He was a fighter pilot afterall.

__________________________________________________________

What I wanted from Voltron; -Bayard Upgrades/Voltron upgrades.

Zarkon in season one showed what it could be and how advanced (and how pathetically weak Voltron was) in comparison the only reason they won is blind luck and Zarkon being blind-sided by the black lion.

-Lotor being the moriarty to Keiths Sherlock's talent BUT since he's not blind-sided is able to pinpoint Voltrons weakness. Without Shiro Keith is a good pilot but not a good thinker, Lance is able to help.

-An Altean flashback, showing Allura tinkering with machines along with Alfor and Corans father who helped build the lions. And so it would make sense that she could create more things after going to the Oriande planet but learning more about Altea, flowers, food, cuisine, and seeing the absolute scale of it lost?

-Lotor's wishy washy villain/morally grey arc. So the planet with all the alteans he used as batteries? Wasn't a thing. The Alteans were dying, and Lotor was trying to cure them by getting close to Allura a pure altean and using her body to cure his people. Then he fell in love didn't have the heart to ask her and decided another way to help his people oriande was the ticket he needed but after he failed he clung tighter to Allura as she was the only way to save them.

-Have the rift that was open leaking out monsters the one in season seven who was invisible- the dragon hypnotising the mermaids- the black ghibli beast that the OG paladins took down-and keith mentioning how something was consuming planets was unnatural. Hagger wanted to control the beasts herself the very things that possesed her- the mermaid queen being controlled by something would've been the perfect foreshadowing that HAGGER was possesed by the anti-quintescenece that made her/Zarkon evil.

-The Druids SHOULD'VE been Alteans who had betrayed their own kind to stand with the Galrans, Romelle should've been a druid who betrayed Haggar and joined Zarkon but she and Kuron [Shiro's clone] would've worked together.

-Keith should've had a bonding moment with his mother. Not have a magical comment downloading her memories in his head convient-like.

-Keith should have been there on the castle- OR someone should've had a moment when they realised Kuron WASN'T Shiro. Just something he said that would make them realise it was defiently not him. And Keith should have figured it out for himself not have the SAME comet download that information in his brain...like just tell him everything else hell- The BIFUR Shiro hated should have exposed Shiro!

Just a "Hi, Slav had a good day, want to ride in the Black Lion with me?"

"...He's being nice to me- that's an imposter!"

"Yeah Shiro couldn't STAND SLAV he goes out of his way to avoid him!"

-Have it where Voltron since it came from the rift would have to be sacrificed and since Allura's life-force is tied to the lions has a little jumpscare when she gets hurt. The same medicine they used to save the alteans research by Lotor and Allura is what saves her in the end.

-Why are the Alteans sick? They are sensitive to cosmic energies the rift is polluting and affecting the Alteans as well as their own planet being cut off. Yes the are a good source for batteries BUT it would be interesting if Galrans were used as well hence why a failure of that kind turns them into robo-beasts.

-Have Lance be an instructor, with Voltron gone [a statue in it's place] theirs no need for the Paladins, Keith continues with the Blade of Mamoura, while Hunk and Pidge and Allura experiment and get Humans up to speed for intergalactic etc-

-Lotor sacrifices himself, he pilots Voltron alone into the rift, truthfully he wasn't supposed to be alive, Hagger manipulated quintescenece for his birth but both his parents lost sight of that as the years went by [Which hold up, Allura was like we've been asleep for THOUSANDS of years how is Lotor even alive? was he conveieved only twenty years ago? What happened to Zarkon/Hagger in those twenty years the frick?]

-Have Shiro/Kurons memories meld together and Shiro is kinda losing his mind not knowing what is/isn't real. Hence the flashbacks of Adam on earth.

-Adam and Shiro don't get together, it would've been a refreshing take that not all relationships work out. Adam is upset because well Shiro went out there and got abducted by aliens. He told him so. Adam doesn't die he just focuses on his MFE pilots, while Shiro deals with his.

-Since Hunk/Pidge/Allura are busy, and Keith and Shiro work with Iverson, he joins the MFE pilots along with Kinkade and then introduces THEM to all the alien jargon they have to learn like Bulmaras, crystals, how Altean crafts work, what it was like fighting the galra. It'd be better if Lance went back on his simulations/training and improved leaps and bounds- only for Iverson to say if the worst Pilot in the world can defeat the Galra this will be easy!

-Ever since Keith left Voltron it went downhill. The guy was supposed to be the main character and yet he was just on the sidelines other than action scenes and the blind luck parts, nothing was planned or done on purpose. It's like he wasn't even there.

-How can Pidge have more development/plot when they are only one character of Voltron, meanwhile Shiro, Lance, Allura, Hunk and sometimes even KEITH's plotlines were just ignored or rushed it felt like PIDGE LEGENDARY DEFENDER more than Voltron.

-To this day i STILL don't get what bonding with Lions mean. At this point in time with the lion swap/a clone of Shiro anyone can pilot it if they think hard enough.

-The fact that more multi-verse arcs didn't happen is a crime. We get ONE Sven and pff nothing else.

-The Bulmera Episode with Hunk and the Mermaid Episode with Lance was the only times both characters had moments to shine but never had that ever again which sucked as that was the reason I kept watching.

-Re-watching Voltron and realising it wasn't a found family, but a group of work collegues who were just dying to clock out at the end of the shift and go home and never speak to each other ever again -_-

_____________________________________________________________

...It's 2024 and I'm still salty.