#Give me the water cycle Lance baby

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Saw someone talk about how Tim Stoker is Lance McClain coded and this further proves my agenda that Lance deserved a revenge obsessed arc

[didanawisgi]

Boom and Bust: Why North American Freemasonry Continues To Decline

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Justin

“I feel the need to preface this article with a disclaimer and assure my readers that it is not my intention to offend anyone with the contents of this post. That being said, while I am extremely hesitant to even write this article I don’t feel apologetic about presenting the facts as I see them.

The fact is that this isn’t an article that I want to write, it’s an article that I feel that I have to.

I’ve recently had a few conversations with some brothers about the direction that our fraternity seems to be heading which really got me thinking. Granted, talks about this subject are not uncommon in our fraternity and any brother who has been a member for any length of time in North America has overheard or participated in one.

Rest assured, it is not my intention to dive into the data concerning our membership statistics and make predictions about what’s around the corner for Freemasonry. Bro. Lance Kennedy has already covered the numbers extensively with his article “Freemasonry Is Dying” and at this point, there is no need to restate what has already been brought to light. My analysis of this article can be found here if anyone is interested in where I believe the fraternity is heading.

What I do want to lay out in this article is why I believe those numbers are still in decline. In other words, we know the what, now let’s figure out the why.

Unfortunately, that why may make some people upset.

I now invite your attention to the chart below. Using the data provided by the Masonic Service Association of North America we can plot out a graph that gives us a general idea of what the membership trends in our fraternity have looked like in North America as a whole since 1924.

As you can see, membership topped out in 1959 and been in a steady decline ever since.

Before we move forward, let’s look at what we do know: The Silent Generation joined our fraternity in massive numbers around the middle of the last century which caused the membership swell reflected in the center of the graph.

Once the Baby Boomers came of age (the oldest Boomers would have only been around 13 years old in 1959) they joined the fraternity but not in the same numbers as the preceding generation.

At this point, you may wonder why we were still in decline when the Boomers were joining and the reason for this would be because our membership numbers were attempting to stabilize and return to equilibrium. Another way of thinking about it would be to consider the huge rise in numbers as an aberration which could only be temporary and would eventually return to normal.

Despite what is often said otherwise, the data doesn’t present any evidence that Boomers joined in excessive numbers.

We also know that Generation X generally had no interest in joining Freemasonry, or any of their father’s organizations for that matter. If they had then I may not have written this article as it’d be reasonable to predict that we’d be looking at a different graph where the decline levels back out and stabilizes somewhere between 3 and 2.5 million members.

What’s strange is that both the Millenials and generation Z (or whatever they end up being called) are interested in Freemasonry but, much to the frustration of lodges and Grand Lodges across North America, we can’t seem to retain them. The decline should be slowing down but new members are leaving Freemasonry as fast as lodges can get them in.

The question now, is why?

Generational Succession

Most readers are likely familiar with the idea of succession, whereby something is inherited, such as a title or a property. In the context of Freemasonry, generational succession occurs when stewardship of the organization is inherited from one generation by the other which is succeeding it.

The process of generational succession is typically very gradual, as younger members join and older members move on to that Celestial Lodge above. In time, the succeeding generation will inherit the mantle of full stewardship of the fraternity and the cycle begins over once again.

As each generation slowly becomes the majority stakeholder of each lodge and Grand Lodge, the fraternity itself will begin to reflect the societal values of that generation. This is why Freemasonry has changed so much in the ~300 years that the fraternity has been in existence. If a modern brother was placed in a lodge meeting 300 years ago then what was transpiring would be unlike any Masonic experiences he has had in the past. However, if we were to take a brother from 275 years ago and place him in that same situation then he would be much more familiar although he’d surely notice some differences as well.

So, in short, generational succession is important because it allows Freemasonry to gradually adapt according to generational expectations from the fraternity. Typically, the differences in expectations between one generation and its successor are small enough that, while certain things are sure to change, the differences aren’t so vast as to create contention among the brothers.

So…what happens if this succession skips an entire generation?

This is what happened when Generation X chose not to join the fraternity and the effects are threefold. It is my belief that identifying these will give us insight into why our membership is still in freefall.

The Three Results

1. The Boomers have held the stewardship of our fraternity for almost 40 years and they shaped the fraternity to reflect their values and expectations during this time. During this entire time, they have been the majority stakeholders of our lodges and Grand Lodges and, as such, they have had more control over policies and a longer period of time to implement changes than any generation that has preceded it.

In short, most programs and policies that lodges and Grand Lodges currently have in place, be they good or bad, were implemented or changed by Boomers.

My video “Seven Ways To Retain Millennial Masons” talks about what I believe young men are expecting out of Freemasonry, most of which is in very sharp contrast to what older brethren are assuming we want. This ‘disconnect’ is due to the gap in generational succession.

2.  As stated previously, the majority of our membership consisted of Boomers for several decades. Many of them have been involved for the fraternity longer than most young Masons, including myself, have been alive and in many lodges they were the brethren who kept the doors open when nobody was joining, there was nobody new to take an office, and the lodge didn’t have enough money to keep the lights on.

We owe them a great deal of gratitude for this.

On the other hand, when something has been under your care for a great length of time it can be difficult to hand over to someone else, which is what we are seeing 99% of the time when a new young and enthusiastic Mason wants to get involved with his lodge and start contributing.

When a man feels as though his input doesn’t matter then he eventually finds someplace that it does. This isn’t uniquely Millenial either, every man wants to be heard and feel as though he is contributing something.

3. The gap in generational succession means that there is a greater difference in expectations out of the fraternity than one would see if there had been no gap at all. Small changes are generally more easily accepted however young men seem to want very different experiences out their Masonic journies than the Boomers.

These expectations, when coupled with the other two issues listed above, are rarely met.

I believe this is why we lose young men almost as fast as we can initiate them.

Conclusion

I want to repeat and clarify that this article isn’t intended to criticize, belittle, or slander any of my fellow Masons. To those of you who have read this yet still feel upset with me then know that I wish you the best but I will not apologize for sharing the facts as I see them.

I don’t believe that the Baby Boomers have done anything wrong, they’ve simply done what every generation with stewardship of the fraternity has done before them, they’ve just had more time and influence to do so.

We’ve come to the answer to our last why: Young men are leaving the fraternity because it generally isn’t providing what they joined hoping to find.

There’s a hole in our bucket and it’s losing water faster than we can fill it up.”

Source: https://masonicimprovement.com/2019/03/11/boom-and-bust/

[metalotaku-da]

MerMay Shance

Prompts stolen from @justshance. all pieces are up for grabs if anyone wants to take them further or rework them. @shancemermay

warnings: shiro is not the best in this one. nor keith. shiro has kidnapped lance and is holding him against his will. but he doesn’t physically hurt him.

21. Royal Blue

The royal guard was assembled at the balcony around their king. The army below gathering into formation ready to face the threat gathering on beach just within the castles sights.

“What’s going on?” lance asked from his wheely chair. As he liked to call it. Unable to see over the railing or crowding soldiers. He was mostly ignored. The only reason he knew he was heard was shiro brought his arm protectively around the mers shoulders. Keith standing at his brother side a spy glass to his eye. “Hey i want to see!”

“Lance now is not the time…”

“It’s never the time for anything but what you want." Lance whined. "You said you wouldn't…"

"God just shut your fish up and help him stand or I will." Keith said with a roll of his eyes.

"I wish I had passed out before I finished healing you. So you'd be all rashy and scratch and make your scars ugly instead of all mysterious!" The mer shouted back at the prince. Keith just rolled his eyes and went back to his spyglass.

"Lance will you be able to stand on your own?" The king asked the mer. Though shiro had agreed to give his pearl a bit more freedom in the palace he was still just as possessive as he had been when he first laid eyes on the mer. Maybe more so with his distaste of clothing unless forced. But he did not like others having to touch his treasure.

"I can lean on the rail." Lance sassed back. He tried to lift himself up the chair kept moving on him. Shiro set the small break to keep it steady before offering his arm to the mer. Lance got both his bare feet on the ground before he lifted himself up onto Shaky legs. The short simple cut dress covering just below his knees as he stood. The material still damp to keep the mer from drying out. His steps were slow and wobbly but he did make it to the rail to hold himself up right. The mer needing more time to find his balance with each step. Once he felt secure he looked out over the rail with the humans. "I miss the ocean." Lance said sadly as he looked out on the horizon to the sea. The king was very careful to not let Lance go anywhere where near it even when he as allowed to travel with the king into town.

"I know. And once I trust you not to swim off we maybe able to visit. Till then I will continue to bring the ocean to you." The king said as he braced the mer from behind. Placing a kiss to his soft brown locks.

Lance just responded with a raspberry. He learned in early attempts of escaping that it was a pointless endeavor when one couldn't quite walk like a human. His slow pace, and the quick fatigue that sent him crashing to the ground usually ended such attempts. The one time he got even a decent distance, he had dried out faster than he had expected. Prince Keith saving him from a very painful shedding experience. That time was when the king had made an effort to let him get about more to fight off boredom. It had allowed Lance to open up more and not just cower in the king's tub or the large pool that he had built for him.

A bright shine of royal blue similar to his own scales caught the mer's eye on the horizon, just to the left of where the humans we're looking. There was smoke there at the port. Several ships listing in the harbor if not outright sinking. But this was closer to the beach of the bay. "Hey can I have the glass tube thingy?" He ignored the king's chuckles against his back.

The prince and antok turned to look at the mer. Both with looks of displeasure. "It's called a spyglass." The prince corrected.

"It's called a spyglass." The mer mocked. "And you'd be called a dry scale where I'm from." He made a grabby hand at the prince who snarled at him. "Let me borrow it. You can have it back."

"Give it to him Keith. He can't hurt it." The king instructed. His brother handing it over to the mer. "Backwards." The king said with a chuckle at his pearl.

"I knew that." He pouted flipping it around.

"He could drop it." The prince hissed. "And you indulge him to much."

"I indulge him to my content. He did give me a great many gifts. I prefer to keep him docile and happy. Easier to get what I want. And his beauty is even grander when he is pleased." The king said to his brother. A smirk on His face as he took in his half brother's annoyance. His head snapped to the mer though as he heard him gasp and start to sink to the ground muttering oh no to himself.

"Lance what's wrong?" The king asked following his mer down a bit but not sitting on the floor as his pearl was now doing. Arms wrapped around his legs. Keith snatching up his spy glass to look in the area Lance had been.

"Oh no, I hope hunk is ok. Goddess I hope she didn't do anything bad to hunk. It wasn't his fault. It's never hunk's fault. It's always my ideas." The mer mumbled looking out between the slats. "She's gonna kill me when she finds me. I'm never going to see the sun again."

"Lance hey what's wrong? What did you see?" At that question the king was forced to stand S the sound of bell rang out over the land to be heard even at the castle. He looked out towards the water to see a large wave crash into the pier. Sinking part of the docks to the left of the first damaged ships. The king snatched the spy glass from his brother to get his own look. A woman adorned in the same blue as his pearls scales and pink with long white hair was barely made out. Around her men in their own bright colored armor perhaps seemed to be rising out of the sea. The water moving with them as they came inland. As if they brought the tide with their steps. The woman in blue and pink leading them.

"My mom " Lance's answer came up from the ground. "I've never been here before. So she had to have found hunk to find me. And she's probably livid. I've never been gone this long. Like the most was a moon cycle. She's going to feed me to the sharks."

"Your mom?" Keith asked incredulously. "She is leading an army. How was she able to do that for a mer? Fishermen bring in dead mers all the time. They aren't met with raised armies."

"Cause I'm the baby of the family Keith. Can't help it that my whole family actually likes me." The mer pouted. Shiro stopped Keith with a single look from attacking the mer for that comment. But shiro also had gotten to know Lance's tells a bit more since their first meeting.

"Lance." The king scolded watching the mer pout.

"Ok and she's the queen. So like throwing me into the trenches and burying me in a landslide is totally in the realm of possibilities of punishment for breaking the rules and hanging out with humans. And now she's gonna be proven right. And it's going to be bad. Really bad. So please hide me mullet man."

"The queen?" Kolivan, thace, and antok all said at the same time.

Shiro stairs down on his prized pearl with wide eyes. For a moment before he spoke. "You're the prince of the mers?" He asked.

Lance pouted and shrunk up into his legs. "Don't call me that. I'm a prince" he finger quoted not looking at anyone. "But I don't want to be. Besides I'm the youngest. I'm not needed to be a prince. Two brothers and two sisters to take care of that job. I'm good as just lancey Lance. Healer estrodanear."

"My apologies Lance." The king said to the mer looking to his best man thace. "Send for ulaz. I wish for him to bring a letter to the mers from me. Lance what is your mother's name and title so it's addressed properly."

"Queen allura of altea." Lance answered. He took shiro's offered hands and allowed the king to get him back on his feet. The king assisting him to his chair.

"Yes queen allura of altea."shiro repeated. "Invite her to the palace for an introduction and meeting between our courts. Maybe she'd be open to fostering relations between our nation's. Specially be sure to inform her, her son is alive and well cared for."

"I don't see that going smoothly when you kidnapped her son." Keith said disbelievingly.

"Well just have to see then won't we?" Shiro said with a sardonic grin. He started to wheel Lance back into the castle. "Send the soldiers into the city to clear people from their path. But do not engage in skirmishes if it can be avoided."

“You are going to hide me first right?” lance asked turning in the seat trying to get a better view of the humans. He both hated and loved the chair. The chair meant he could get around the palace on his own without being exhausted, but it also left him below the humans talking, and at their whims when they moved him. He wasn’t able to face any of them easily to talk or see their faces. He hardly walked on land with hunk. But when he did hunk always walked with him at his pace with plenty of patience. These humans were always in hurry.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?” keith said slowing down his brother and getting in front of lance to speak to him and see his face. “You’re serious? You’d rather stay here with us than go back with your mom?” he glanced up to meet shiro’s eyes. Raising a brow. Well that might be some kind of leverage.

“No, i don’t want to stay here. But i don’t want to go with mom. I will never get back to surface again. Like forever. I want to go back to hunks. You guys are just like mildly less suffocating and controlling than my mom is going to be since you proved she was ‘right’” he air quoted. “About how humans really are. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Shiro kept a straight face as his brothers eyebrow began to twitch and the side of his mouth lifted into a snarl. “Seriously. You’d pick a shanty town over all this? Shiro gives you everything you ask for practically. And you’re telling me all those escape attempts was just to go back to the same human village you were collected from?”

Lance crossed his arms over his chest and snubbed the prince. “I’m not some shiny rock to be collected. And hunk is way better at cooking than anyone here.” he pouted. “And hunk and his family didn’t ever make me go anywhere or keep me trapped. I could come and go as i pleased. And i did. And all i wanted was more stories. And his family tells way better stories than your boring and mean teacher lady. Mrs. sanda. Should be mrs. sandy bottom.”

Iverson cleared his throat at that from behind the king. Who needed to intervene before keith ruptured a blood vessel.

“Lance we’ve been over this. You are safer here at the castle. Anyone could have taken you from the garrets had anyone else learned of your secrete. Including many who would be far more cruel in just taking your gifts.” he rubbed a hand down lance’s shoulder and arm. Bring the mers attention to him. He was squirming in his chair a bit.

“Yeah but you are the one who took me.” lance pouted. He was fidgeting more.

“I couldn’t just leave a shining pearl like you in the sand and flotsam.” the king said again. “Are you getting dry?”

“No.” the mer pouted. “I want my tail. And i don’t want this.” lance started pulling on the dress he was wearing as the procession continued into the palace. Keith grabbing his hands before he hiked it up to high.

“You want to hide in the bottom of your tank.” keith huffed. “Keep your clothes on till you’re in your room.”

“You can’t prove it.” lance countered. A servant came forward with a pitcher of salt water. Standing back. Shiro and keith stepped back to allow the servant without further prompting to pour it over the mer to soak in his clothing. His fidgeting reducing quickly with it.

“Keith just take our ‘royal’” shiro put emphasis on the word. Ignoring the hmph directed at him. “Guest to his room. And see to it he has ample guards posted in and out of his room.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll babysit the troublemaker.” keith took the handles on the chair and began pushing lance ahead of him. A few of the guards following.

“You are the one who took me. Not the other way around. So who’s really the trouble maker here?” shiro smiled to himself as the two exited down a hall. He continued on with his escort to make plans to deal with the mer army at his door. He had no plans to let his pearl slip back into the waves.

[crownedbyluke]

Long Road Ahead (Chapter Six)

Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?

Word Count: 4,500 (she snapped)

{Chapter One} {Chapter Two} {Chapter Three} {Chapter Four} {Chapter Five}

The feeling of my phone buzzing woke me up. The caller ID caused a shiver to run through me. Lance Finley. I quickly got out of bed and ran down the stairs, opening the back door to sit on the porch.

“Hello,” I said cautiously.

“Hello sweet daughter,” he said happily.

“What can I help you with today father?” I asked, his tone alone making me nervous.

It was too happy, almost fake. I felt the slight discomfort and fear bubbling underneath my skin.

“Well, for starters, you can tell me why you’re in South Carolina,” he said, the anger coming through this time.

My pulse quickened, the fear taking over the discomfort in my veins.

“I’m with some friends. They wanted to see some sights,” I explained, purposely keeping the whole truth from him.

“And what sights would that be?” he continued.

“The skywheel, the state parks, the beach. The usual tourist stuff,” I said, again trying to remain vague.

“I presume that you’re all staying at the house I have there?” he asked, the anger rising in his voice.

“No. They found their own house to stay in,” I said, keeping the annoyance out of my voice.

“And how long do you plan on dragging my name around in South Carolina?” he asked, his real point coming out.

“Today’s our last day here,” I said, keeping my tone even.

“Good. Then you’ll be home in Los Angeles?” he persisted.

It felt like I was a teenager on curfew instead of an adult on the other side of the country where he couldn’t parent me.

“Well, we’re going to Cape Cod for a few weeks so, no,” I said, waiting for the yelling that would come.

“Ah, so you’re spending money instead of working? What else would I expect from my reckless daughter? Don’t drag my name down with your pathetic partying,” he said, hanging up before I could respond.

The tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as his words sunk in. I was supposed to be used to this by now. The cycle of being brought up just to be torn down again. It never ceased to break the walls that I had built up. My phone sat next to me, my hands covering my eyes as the tears spilled over. It hurt no matter how hard I fought for it not to, it always seemed to knock the wind out of me.

“Essie?” I heard Ashton from the doorway.

I tried to pull myself together before looking up, but Ashton’s arms were around me before I had to. I cried into his shoulder, finding comfort in the way he held me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, hand rubbing my back gently.

I shook my head into his shoulder, unable to speak just yet. I held onto him tightly, needing me to ground me to the person I’ve become and not the little girl that wanted to be everything her daddy wanted.

“Shh, it’s okay. I got you. I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered, a few of his fingers playing with the ends of my hair.

It was as if I was falling apart and Ashton was the only thing keeping me together.

“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” he reassured, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

I clutched him, holding on like I would break if he let go. We sat there for at least ten minutes and when the tears stopped finally, I pulled away. Ashton wiped away some of the stray tears, brushing my cheek lightly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, taking my hand in his.

“My dad called me this morning. He knows that we’re here, said I was dragging his name around with me. H-h-he said that I was still his reckless daughter and I shouldn’t drag his name around with my pathetic partying,” I said, flicking away a few tears that had fallen during my explanation.

“Did he say how he knew?” he asked, squeezing my hand.

“No. I don’t know how he could have known,” I said, picking up my phone.

I typed in my name, thinking that it was a possibility that someone had seen me. There was a picture of me on some gossip website. It was from the trip to the mall. I was walking with Ashton, a giant carefree smile on my face.

“And the headline reads, Lance Finley’s daughter caught on vacation with mystery man,” I read, showing Ashton the article.

He laughed and gestured for me to continue.

“Estelle Finley was seen yesterday with an unknown man out in South Carolina. Lance Finley’s daughter carried multiple luxury shopping bags and flaunted her happiness with this man. Is love in the air for this brand new couple?” I read, rolling my eyes.

“Estelle, how do these people know your name?’ Ashton asked, adjusting how he was sitting so he wasn’t uncomfortable.

“My dad is the CEO of a production company that makes movies and TV shows. Once my parents had me and the press got wind of my education that was beginning, paparazzi started keeping tabs. Once I was of age, they started taking pictures and publishing articles. All eyes on what the great Lance Finley’s daughter would do. How would she act in the world her father so kindly gave her?” I explained, unable to hide my frustration.

“And?” he asked, head tilted to the side.

“And I went to Berkeley for teaching, partied the smallest bit with people I thought I could trust. Some people took pictures, sold them to the press. Once word got to them, it got to my dad. I was told that if I didn’t focus on my studies, he’d pull me from school and send me off somewhere that I wouldn’t cause trouble. I kept my head down, never went out, got my degree and then my master’s. I thought now that I had my own career and hadn’t been seen in a while, they’d leave me alone. I was apparently wrong,” I said, my eyes remaining focused on the water as I spoke.

I felt ashton squeeze my hand, making me look over at him,

“You aren’t just your name. Estelle, you are more than your father’s expectations and the gossip people have said about you. You’re whoever you want to be and I love the person you are. I know how much it hurts to see lies written about you and I know that you have to be stronger than what they say. You’re my best friend and there is nothing that you can do to change that. Screw what your dad says. He doesn’t matter. We all love you okay? Those people don’t know you, we do. Their thoughts and opinions about who you are and what you do don’t matter. Don’t let them bring you down when the person you are is absolutely spectacular,” he said with that thousand watt smile.

I returned it, feeling a bit of relief from his words. I needed to hear his words and as they sunk in, I knew he was right.

“Thank you Ash,” I said quietly, going back to look at the ocean.

“So, when we met and you wouldn’t go out with us the first year of our friendship?” he started, trailing off.

I attempted to stifle a laugh at the memory.

“I was fresh out of grad school when I met you and Luke. I was out with my best friend from college, Aida. We were celebrating my degree when you came over and offered to buy us drinks. You were hitting on her while Luke was apologizing for your behavior. I thought that we wouldn’t see you two after that night, but Luke asked for my number. Aida was far too hungover to join us for coffee which ended up being a good thing because you didn’t remember her in the morning,” I said, laughing again.

“Luke was dating his last girlfriend and I was just having fun. When we met up for coffee, I could tell that the three of us were going to be best friends. Luke and I walked you to your car and now here we are,” he said, gesturing towards the beach and sunrise.

“Here we are and there’s still so much we don’t know about each other after three years,” I said, tying my hair up.

“With a lifetime ahead of us to figure it out,” he said, stretching his arms out so they were on the back of the swing.

“With a lifetime ahead of us to figure it out,” I repeated with a nod of my head.

                                                       ➢➢➢

“And she returns from her beach stroll,” Calum called, his skin already showing signs of the sun’s effects.

“And he’s still annoying in the mornings!” Luke yelled back, making me laugh.

“My knight in shining armor,” I teased, kissing his cheek as I walked by.

I caught his smile brighten from the small action. I headed up the stairs to change. I pulled on a white tank and shorts.

“So, are you dressing up for someone?” Crystal asked after I pulled on a baby blue cardigan.

“Nope. I was coming to find you though,” I said, bending down to put my sandals on.

“Oh really?” she asked, smiling at me.

“Yeah. Do you still wanna come with me to get that piercing?” I asked, looping a necklace around my neck and grabbing my purse.

“Oh yes I do. Let me grab my purse and put on shoes,” she said, quickly running down the stairs.

I followed after her a moment later, laughing at her rushed nature. It was a new sight to see instead of Crystal’s usual composed temperament.

“Let’s go!” she said happily.

We went down the stairs together, smiling and laughing like we had been friends our whole lives.

“Es and I will be back in an hour! Don’t be stupid while we’re gone!” she called before closing the door behind us.

I caught the keys as she tossed them to me, jingling them in the air.

“Let’s be bad,” I joked, jumping into the driver’s seat.

I drove through the streets, the radio playing whatever hits were currently popular. I parked a bit away from the tattoo and piercing shop.

“You sure you wanna do it?” Crystal asked, taking my hand before we could go in.

“Yes. Absolutely positive,” I confirmed, giving her a smile.

We walked in, seeing a cheery receptionist with very little tattoos and piercings.

“How can I help you?” she asked, a giant smile on her face.

“Is there an opening to get an inner lobe piercing?” I asked, glancing around at the designs on the wall.

“Oh yeah! Let’s see here. E.J. is free until three. She specializes in piercings. Would you like me to bring her up?” she asked.

“I would love that,” I said, twirling the ring around my pointer finger.

“Give me one minute,” she said before walking off.

I waited a few minutes before a woman that looked somewhat my age with tattoos littering her arms walked over to me.

“Hey there. Ready to add some hardware?” she asked, her voice more husky than I imagined.

“Yes. I’m Estelle,” I said while we walked back to her chair.

“E.J. Do you have the earring you’d like to have in?” she asked, pulling out various needles.

“Yeah. Here,” I said, digging the small arrow earring out of my purse.

“It’s very nice. Mean anything to ya?” she asked while prepping everything.

“There’s always something good waiting for you to find,” I said quietly.

She smiled at me before loading the needle and bringing it to my ear. There was a slight pinch and then she was stepping away again.

“Take a look,” she said, holding up a mirror for me.

The gold arrow fit perfectly among the other earrings I had in. It felt almost like adding a piece of armor to my body.

“It looks great. Thank you so much,” I said, shaking her hand.

I paid for it, making sure to leave a nice tip for E.J. before Crystal and I started walking through the streets. We had no plans for the day besides relaxing on the beach so, we were free to wander about.

“Wanna head back?” she asked after a minute.

We were stopped in front of a photo printing shop. There was a golden frame in the window that caught my eye as well as the photobooth advertisement. The frame looked big enough to fit the collage I had been planning for Ashton’s birthday present in it.

“One sec. Can we go in?” I asked, giving her the puppy dog eyes.

“You don’t need to use those on me. Let’s go,” she agreed, gently pushing me towards the door.

“Good mornin’ ladies. How can I help y’all out today?” asked the man at the front desk.

“How much is that frame and what are your printing costs?” I asked, putting on a big smile for him.

“The frame is two hundred and printing cost varies in size. Fifty cents for every four-by-six, seventy-five for every five-by-seven, and they go up from there,” he said, his slight southern accent coming out.

“Do you do mobile print?” I asked, trying to think of the best way to execute my idea the way I had been picturing it in my head.

I had been planning this for months, but hadn’t been able to find a frame that screamed Ashton or a place that would print all the pictures I wanted without costing a fortune.

“No ma’am. We do take flash drives and SD cards though,” he said with a shrug.

I sighed, feeling a little defeated. Ashton’s birthday was in four days and I still hadn’t brought his birthday present to life.

“Thank you,” I said, taking Crystal’s arm and walking out the door.

“What was the master plan there?” she asked while we walked towards the car.

“I was gonna make the collage I’ve been planning for Ash’s birthday, but all of my pictures are on my phone or my computer,” I said, giving her the keys.

“Did you bring that hard drive you had?” she continued, starting up the car.

“No. Although, I should have. I’m filling up my storage with all the pictures I’ve been taking,” I replied, twirling my fingers in my lap.

“Well then, let’s go to the store. You can get a hard drive to free up your storage and I can get some makeup remover since I ran out this morning,” she said, handing me her phone so I could find the closest one.

“Sounds like the best plan,” I said, smiling over at her.

If this worked in my favor, Ashton would be getting the best birthday present ever from me.

                                                      ➢➢➢

Luke wrapped me up in a hug when we got back, claiming to have missed me in my absence.

“You’re a dork. Where’s Ash?” I asked, looking behind him.

I needed to make sure that Ashton didn’t see what I had and also needed the butterflies from Luke to stop distracting me.

“Kitchen. Why?” Luke asked, confused and a little hurt.

“I have something for his birthday and I need to hide it. Keep watch?” I asked, giving him a small smile.

He nodded and lead me to the stairs, watching every so often to make sure Ashton didn’t see me. I ran up the stairs, quickly going into our shared room and tucking away the hard drive. I stood up to see Luke in the doorway.

“You’re that paranoid that he’ll figure out what you’re doing?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Yes! You know Ashton and how he hates surprises,” I said, pulling out one of the swimsuits I packed.

I caught Luke’s eyes drift to the item in my hands. We had already seen each other in swimsuits, but it was definitely different this time. After nearly kissing twice and admitting our feelings to each other, I understood how seeing me in a swimsuit would make his eyes widen a little. Hell, I wanted to get a look at him in a swimsuit too.

“Yeah he really does love figuring out surprises,” he said, trailing off.

His mind was elsewhere while his eyes scanned over my body, a slight gleam in them as he did.

“I’m gonna change. Are you gonna come down to the beach with me?” I asked, feeling somewhat nervous as he looked at me.

“Yeah sure,” he said quietly.

I watched him close the door and felt the butterflies take over my stomach. The effect he had on me was insane. I changed into my swimsuit, pulling on my cardigan over top. I came down, grabbing my sunglasses before heading out the back door. The boys were playing a round of beach volleyball together when I saw them. Luke’s laugh rang in my ears as I walked down the porch steps. The sand between my toes was warm and the breeze that made my hair fly behind me eased the heat, a perfect balance happening between the two. I put my cardigan down by Ashton’s stuff, knowing he’d be okay with it.

“Incoming!” Michael yelled.

I turned around, seeing their volleyball flying at my face. I barely had enough time to get my hands up so it wouldn’t break my nose.

“Essie! Throw it back!” Ashton called, the ball now at my feet.

I rolled my eyes, not surprised that they didn’t notice how they almost hit me in the face before tossing them the ball. The sound of someone whistling at me caused me to turn around.

“Excuse me?” I asked, hands falling to my hips.

“How’d it feel to fall from heaven?” the guy asked, winking at me.

“Perfectly fine,” I deadpanned, not wanting to deal with him or his objectification.

“You’re a real hottie you know,” he continued, making me roll my eyes.

“Thank you, but I’m on vacation and I’m not interested,” I said, starting to turn around to head over to the boys.

The guy grabbed my wrist, the grip too tight.

“I’m not done talking here hottie,” he growled, pulling on me to make sure I didn’t go anywhere.

“And I’m not interested so let go!” I said, purposely raising my voice so one of the boys would hear me.

“Excuse me, she said to let go,” Ashton’s voice came over me.

I felt the immediate ease run through my body with his presence next to me. The guy was still holding onto my wrist and I was starting to worry that he was going to leave a mark.

“Hey man, you can wait your turn,” the douchebag said.

“If you don’t get your hands off my best friend, I’ll call the cops,” Ashton threatened, broadening his shoulders and standing up perfectly straight.

The guy let go immediately, practically running away from us. My heartbeat slowed a bit, feeling like I was dizzy for a moment after he left.

“Thank you Ash,” I said quietly, still a tad bit afraid that he would come back.

“No problem. Are you okay?” he asked, putting a protective arm around me.

“Yeah. I’m just gonna go back to the house,” I said, pulling my cardigan over my shoulders.

“Estelle, you can’t let that ass ruin your day,” he said, concern evident in his eyes.

“I’m not. I just don’t feel comfortable right now,” I explained, wrapping my arms around myself.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, reaching out to rub my arm.

“No, stay and have fun. I’ll be fine,” I said, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

I went back to the house, pulling on my clothes from earlier. The bay window felt comfortable, safe as I picked up my ratty copy of The Great Gatsby. I knew it was stupid to feel ashamed of my body, but no matter how much I tried to think about that encounter in a different way, I couldn’t. If I hadn’t been so stupid, it wouldn’t have happened.

“I can see the wheels turning in your head. What’s going on up there little dove?” Luke asked, bringing me out of my head.

“Nothing. Why aren’t you on the beach?” I asked, noticing the zip up hoodie he pulled on.

“Because you’re not on the beach with me. Why are you in here?” he asked, sitting next to me and pulling my legs into his lap.

I smiled, remembering how we had sat like this last night.

“Just didn’t feel like it anymore,” I lied, not wanting to talk about the guy on the beach.

“You know that your eyes veer left when you lie?” he asked, a lightness to his tone that I hadn’t expected.

“Fine. That guy on the beach just made me feel uneasy and I just didn’t want him staring at me anymore,” I admitted, clutching my book a little tighter.

“That guy comes anywhere near you and I’ll punch him in the face myself,” he said, genuine anger in his eyes.

“Lu, it’s fine. I can just hang in here,” I argued, reaching out and taking his hand in mine.

The touch was electric and sent shivers through my body.

“No. You’re on vacation. You have a right to enjoy it in the sun and on the beach,” he defended, squeezing my hand.

“Lu-”

“Please come back out with me,” he said, biting his lip.

I stared at him, seeing the love in his eyes for the first time. It was a bit of a surprise to see, but after last night, hearing him say those three little words, I was more than happy to notice it.

“Okay.”

                                                        ➢➢➢

I squealed as Luke spun me around in the water, splashing the other boys in the process. He took extra care to not get my piercing wet. The sun was starting to set, but there was something about being in the water with my best friends that made me never want to leave.

“It’s getting colder. We should head in,” Calum said, starting to head towards the house.

“He’s right,” Luke said, still holding me in his arms.

“Boo,” I whined, but not letting go of him.

“Come on now little dove. This means we can eat and relax the rest of the night,” he said, giving me a smile.

“Ugh fine,” I said, tilting my head back in defeat.

“If you two don’t stop flirting, I’m going to drown myself in the ocean,” Calum said, making me laugh.

Luke set me down, allowing me to run over to Calum. He effortlessly picked me up for a piggyback ride.

“Cheer up Cal. I’ll get you laid in New York,” I teased, his laugh ringing out.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he laughed, putting me on my feet in front of the back porch steps.

“I’ll be the best wing woman you’ve ever had,” I said, wrapping an arm around him the best way I could.

“Oh really Elle?” he asked, tossing me a towel.

“Just you wait and see,” I said, winking at him.

“Alright, alright. Cozy up and let’s have some s’mores,” Ashton said, grabbing a towel.

“Aye aye Captain,” I teased, nudging him a little.

He rolled his eyes before nudging me back.

“Grab your guitar too Luke,” he said before Luke could walk inside.

“Why of course my good Sir,” Luke said, bowing in front of Ashton.

I laughed and followed after him into the house.

“Essie, want a hoodie?” Ashton asked while we climbed the stairs together.

“No. I’ll just put leggings on or something,” I said with a shrug.

“Or are you hoping that Luke will give you one?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Ashton,” I warned, taking out a pair of pajama shorts and a navy blue long sleeve.

“What? You both admitted your feelings I don’t get why you aren’t together,” he said, tugging on a hoodie.

“We haven’t talked about that yet,” I said, walking past him to the bathroom.

“And why not?” he asked through the door.

“Because a certain someone interrupted us,” I said flatly.

I opened the door, pulling my hair into a bun.

“I didn’t know that you two were finally talking about your feelings,” he defended, holding his hands up.

“Yeah well, the next time it looks like two people are about to kiss, don’t interrupt,” I said, pulling on a pair of socks.

“Note taken,” he said with a laugh.

When we went back down, everyone was already outside again. I heard the sound of Luke’s guitar and everyone’s laughter. This vacation was already a dream, but seeing all of my friends around a fire with music being played made it even more surreal. It was almost like something out of storybook.

“There they are,” Crystal said, making all of them look at me and Ashton.

I smiled before sitting next to Luke, resting my head on his shoulder.

“Luke, can you play us that song you wrote last night?” Michael asked, his own guitar in hand.

I lifted my head to look at Luke, surprised that he hadn’t told me.

“Yeah, play it for us,” I agreed, smiling softly at him.

I saw him blush before nodding. He adjusted so his fingers were over the frets better. He started playing a riff that Michael copied over time.

“Find me at quarter to three, cigarette in hand,” he sang, a little unsure of his words.

I listened intently, taking in the words as he sang them.

“Darling all of my wrongs, they lead me right to you, wrapped in your arms, I swear I’d die for your love, your love, I’m a better, better man,” he sang, eyes meeting mine with the final words of the song.

It all connected in that moment. He had written the song about me. The words rang through my mind again, analyzing them over again. The love I felt for him became heightened, wishing we were alone so I could tell him.

“It’s great Luke,” Michael said, snapping me out of my Luke trance.

“Thanks,” he said, turning away from me.

There was a bright blush across his cheeks. Without thinking, I kissed his cheek quickly, not caring if everyone saw or if there were pictures taken of the moment. The blush deepened causing me to smile. Luke chuckled, trying to shake off the dumb look of happiness on his face. He started playing the opening of “Gone, Gone, Gone” by Phillip Phillips. I hummed along quietly while he sang, loving the moment we were in. Before long, I joined him, our voices melting into a beautiful harmony. We had never sang together until now, but as our voices hit my ears, I wondered why we hadn’t.

“I love you long after you’re gone, gone, gone,” we sang, our eyes meeting once again.

I felt the mutual love between us blossoming in front of our eyes. It took everything to not kiss him again, but I knew that I didn’t have to. Luke knew, as did I, and it was all I needed in that moment. No words were needed because I was already his and he was already mine.

OH SHIT I HAVE TAKEN IT THERE! ARE THEY GONNA KISS SOON? Who knows? Well I do, but you can’t have that knowledge yet. Also, I know Better Man wasn’t written about Estelle but I thought it would be a good origin for it that held meaning. 

tag loves. @24kcalum @thruheavenandhighwater @bbycal @notoriouslyhood @slimthicccal @tommossoccer @cashton-queen @a-little-international @thebookamongmen @jetblackyoungblood @kiss-the-kat @no-guilt-in-living

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

Allura struggles with Changes

For @braincoins

See this Post

This has about as much planning and research as your average Michael Bay film, but hey, I put my heart in it. And Shallura makes everything better.

It was horrible! The agony Allura of Altea felt in this moment dwarfed any difficult choice she had made as a queen, as a princess, as a paladin! The terror incalculable. And now, her whole family was at stake!

“Mommy! Alfie’s stinky!”

Allura’s daughter, Junera, pressed her nostrils closed with both her fingers, her eyes wide and buggy with overplayed annoyance. A quick glance in the rearview mirror revealed baby Alfor sniffling and Allura prayed that he wouldn’t start crying again.

“I know, Junnie,” Allura said, “and I’m--trying to fix it. Please be--”

Allura fought down a gag and rolled down the car window.

“Please be patient.”

Allura had never been good with children. She had dreaded motherhood almost her whole pregnancy. But then, when she held Junera in her arms for the first time, tears welling up in her eyes, the man she loved with her, the family she had found by her side, it was like a switch had been flipped. She wanted to protect this child, this thing she had created through love and genetics.

They gave her an Altean name, Junera, “Juniberry child”, for the flowers she loved so much, that each paladin grew in the gardens and pots in their home.

And Allura wanted to make sure she grew up as beautiful as the delicate sweet blooms she was named for.

She grilled Lance relentlessly for tips and baby books, made at least three  lopsided one-armed sweaters under Hunk’s tutelage before giving into buying cute clothes that said things like “I’m the princess you better run” on them, and made sure Coran was never as far as a phone call away (the kids loved Coran to bits, a sentiment he returned).

And every time she looked at Junnie in her the five years of life, she saw new reasons to love her. Every time her daughter read a new sentence or learned a new word, visited Shiro’s family, when they told her a bedtime story about Voltron, Allura found her heart growing just a little bit more.

Those were Shiro’s eyes, eyes that lit up when she was so happy, that could hold so much feeling at one time, eyes she could stare into forever.

And that face, that was her nan-nan’s face. The face she remembered from her childhood.

But her daughter’s hair, so much like her own, but streaked with ashy grey and black, was a mixture unique to her and so very lovely, Allura always thought.

She was brave too. Never afraid to speak her mind, never shy around people, never afraid to try new things.

She was a princess of Altea, through and through.

Even when she was too stubborn for her own good or arguing, Allura loved her and cared for her more than she could put into words.

And then, Alfor came into the world. Named for her beloved father, Alfor saw the whole world as one big adventure, a play date full of new people to meet and new things to see. He was sunny and friendly and full of love.

So full of love, in fact, that even Junnie was taken with him after a week or two of jealous pouting was under her belt.

He was a little prince. Her little prince.

But boy, could he make a big stink.

It had started easy enough. Her workload had been light today, the weather fair, so working at home with the kids seemed like a splendid idea. It had been a peaceful morning, with a peaceful lunch. Alfor and Junera had eaten agreeably and promised to stay in the nursury until she was finished. If they needed anything ,she had the baby monitor on and, Yes Junnie, you’re a big girl, I know, but if you need help, I’m in the next room over. She’d finished the first set of forms when she’d first scented it. A wet, hot smell that burned her nostrils and tickled her gag reflex. Then she’d heard the crying over the baby monitor.

Allura had dashed out of her office into the nursury where Junera was standing in front of Alfor’s crib, where the crying was coming from.

“Mama,” Junera said, turning to look at her, “Alfie’s stinky.”

Shiro and Coran were normally the ones to handle changing diapers. Allura had so far been lucky, always away on diplomatic matters or when Shiro had been in the other room when diaper changing had been needed.

But now, Shiro was on a mission with the other paladins, providing relief to a system stifled with drought and famine. And Coran was in Washington DC, helping to diffuse a rather sticky situation involving a migrant couple and an Altean baby. Which left just her. She and Shiro had not bothered with nannies or servants. They didn’t need them when they had at least five other people over at their house every other week (Keith still slept on their couch more than once). But now she was regretting it.

The concept was simple enough. Getting the baby’s diaper off and putting on a fresh one. But then she’d went to the bathroom cupboard and found no diapers, just an empty plastic bag labeled “Pampers”.

She couldn’t damage this diaper, then. Not until she could find more.

She’d cycled through every person she knew. No-one but Keith was planet side and he’d made it firmly known that he did not know how to change a diaper. So that was out.

And if she called the guards, they would undoubtedly turn a routine trip to the supermarket into an international spectacle of security (protection was fine, but stifling thy name was guard).

So, with much grumbling, crying, consoling, and carefully scooping disgusting bits of...red out of Alfor’s diaper with an ice cream scoop, Allura loaded her family into the car and set out on what could be her most important mission to date.

If Alfor was going to get changed, Allura thought as her daughter made an exaggerated gagging noise, then she’d have to do it herself.

Allura pulled into a familiar driveway.

But she couldn’t do it alone.

“You want me to change your child’s diaper?”

Allura nodded. She sat in an armchair in the Holt family home, across from Doctor Samuel Holt, while Alfor sat in a play pen on the other side of the room with his sister.

“Yes, Doctor Holt.”

Sam sighed and sat down the datapad he had been using.

“Your majesty...”

“Allura, please. We’ve known each other long enough.”

Sam nodded.

“Allura then. I don’t really know how to help you in this regard.”

Allura’s face fell.

“But you’re a doctor. For Aliens!”

Sam shook his head.

“I’m a xenobiologist not a--well, I am a doctor, but I think you’re looking for a babysitter.”

“Please just teach me how to change a diaper! I can’t reach anyone else! I took out the worst of it, but he still needs to be cleaned. You don’t have to do anything!”

Sam looked like a deer that had just been introduced to a gas tanker.

“I don’t know how to change a diaper!”

A sharp shot of anxiety went through Allura’s chest like an icicle.

“What!?”

“That was always my wife’s department.”

Suddenly, Alfor began screaming again.

“Mama!” Junera’s trilled, “Alfie’s stinky!”

Allura took a deep calming breath. Considering the smell that pervaded the room and made the man across from her make a face like a goldfish out of water, it was quite a feat. She would not scream. Queens do not scream. Princesses, maybe, Queens never.

“Could you maybe...call her?”

Holding his nose, Sam shook his head.

“She’s on Atlas duty with the Katie and Matt.”

“Quiznak.”

“Goggles?”

“Check.”

“Gloves.”

“Check.”

“Alright then,” Allura said, straitening her oven mitts, “let’s change Alfie.”

Alfor gurgled beneath them on the changing table. Slowly, Allura reached down to the safety pin that held Alfor’s diaper in place. It took her two tries before she finally removed her gloves and undid the pin. Slowly, she pulled back the flaps. The scent that hit her was nothing short of a chemical weapon.

“Excuse me!”

Allura made a beeline straight for the little Alteans’ room.

It was about two hours before baby Alfor was changed, cleaned and returned home.

“Allura, I’m home.”

Shiro walked through his front door to find the house unusually quiet. Odd. Usually someone was there to meet him. His daughter, his wife, his son. Had they gone out to eat.

“Allura?” called out again.

Junera ran into the living room up to him. She put her fingers to her lips.

“Shhhhh,” she said, “mama’s sleeping.”

“Oh.”

Shiro knelt in front of his daughter.

“Did mama finish all her work?”

Junera nodded.

“Yes.”

“Was it hard work?”

“Mama changed Alfie’s diaper.”

“Really?”

Junera nodded.

“She’s sleeping now.” said Junera.

“Then why are you still up?” Shiro stage whispered, leaning in.

“I’m not tired,” Junera said.

Shiro smiled and faked a wide yawn. Junera yawned back. He smiled and scooped his daughter up into his arms. How is it you could fall in love with a family all over again after only a day away from them?

“Come on,” he said, kissing his daughter on the cheek, “let’s go see how mommy and Alfie are doing.”

It turns out, Alteans are unable to digest peaches, even the ones processed for babies. Now, Allura’s children aren’t allowed to eat peaches in any regard and all five paladins of Voltron know the ten most popular videos about how to change a diaper on YouTube.

[moonlight-dragon]

Allurance - Roommates AU (Home is where you are) CHAPTER 3

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

The raindrops were impacting against the glass when Lance woke up. He yawned, stretching beneath the sheets before taking off his headphones. His feet landed on his slippers, leading his half-asleep body through the apartment. It was dark outside, but not a sunless dark. It was the dark that you saw underwater, surrounded by the ocean and looking up to an endless liquid sky.

The rain always made the apartment look like it had been built under the sea, or that it had suddenly became an underwater ship, travelling among the currents.  Had he been at Cuba and he would already be running to scream under the falling drops… but here, well, neighbours didn’t exactly appreciate a boy laughing to the bottom of his lungs on a Sunday morning. Any day or moment in fact.

Everything always felt silent when it rained, as if the storm had absorbed every single sound except the one of its own drops, creating a world whose time seemed to pass in a completely different way. Like being in another dimension as long as the water worked its magic.

Lance smiled, resting a hand over the cold glass of the windows. No matter where you were, the rain was rain and it wasn’t hard to imagine he was in Cuba, waiting for the storm to pass accompanied by the scent of his mum’s coffee. Rain had that power, of taking him home, but the silent it always created reminded him the simple illusion it was… It never mattered how much the water poured outside, the “rain silence” had never been able to beat the noises he called home.

He breathed heavily, wanting the clouds to be the only ones creating water. He headed to the kitchen, with the idea of making coffee in his mind, a “café con leche” to bring the confident Lance back.  

*

Allura rolled onto the other side of the bed, trying to keep her eyes shut, in hopes to stop waking up more. She wasn’t a morning person… she raised with the Moon and the Stars, not the Sun. She was ready burry herself under the blankets and ignore the obligations imposed to her by humanity’s cycles when something caught her attention. Something that simply was impossible to ignore. 

Reluctantly she blinked, standing up as a sweet coffee scent found its way into the room. She wrapped her body in her robe, feeling the cold wood in her bare feet as her drowsiness resisted to leave her.

Someone was singing. 

And it could be because she had just woken up, but it was beautiful. She stood in front of the door, telling herself that she would listen to it just a little before opening the door leaving the room. If it was a dream, let her enjoy it for a few more seconds. 

-

“Well, get up, up on the dancefloor, move, it's a Saturday night

I fell in love with the sparkle in the moonlight

Reflected in your beautiful eyes

I guess that is destiny doing it right”

-

She slowly opened the door, following that youthful charming voice singing a song that somehow had become her favourite. Her arms stretched above her head, followed by a yawn as her feet carried her into that Mediterranean rhythm. Probably Shay had left the radio on…

-

And dance like they do in the Mediterranean

Spin you around me again and again, and

You're like something that God has sent me

I want you, baby, solamente (…)”

-

Then the song ended abruptly as her body hit someone, and when the person turned, she couldn’t help but to scream, grabbing his ear as she reduced him to the ground. 

“Who are you?!” she demanded to know, acting out of instinct. “What are you doing in my house?”

“Ahhhhh, ah! Allura, it’s me! Lance!”

“Lance... Lance!” reality hit her, making her remember she didn’t live with Shay anymore, that the person she was reducing was her new roommate and that it was “his” house. 

“Omg I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Si…?” he cried, massaging the ear that he almost sure he had lost. Allura was unsure of what to do, reaching her hands to him but retracting before they could touch him. That was it, he was going to kick her out. Her eyes adventured to look at him, finding Lance’s ones pinned on her. And with the sight of his face, well, she couldn’t help to start laughing.

“Sorry, I, it’s just…” her hands covered her mouth, trying to protect the little composure she had left “You cannot blame me for being scared.”

“Oh, no, you’re not the one getting an apologise here ‘Lura” he answered, standing in front of her as she tried to avoid his gaze, failing miserably. 

*

He was singing, leaving the coffee being made in the kitchen as he headed for the bathroom, a shower in mind and then his knees hit the ground and a pain jolted throughout his body. A robbery crossed his mind, but then he caught gaze of moonlight curls and Allura’s voice was so unique for it to be mistaken. 

Wow. She was strong -he could feel the power she was performing against his limbs- and she knew how to use her force. Man, he had always had a thing for women who could kick his ass… but not that literally. Ouch, that was hurting, that was hurting!

Now she was laughing, and Lance couldn’t help to think she was gorgeous. Her hair down like a mass of clouds, her blue robe and her pink nightgown. She was like a princess, a badass warrior princess. What was there not to love?

“So, what’s wrong with my looks?” he inquired, hands on his hips.

“Well, the face mask and the towel on your hair for starters” she answered, hands crossed behind her back.

“Ouch, that hurt!” his hands found a way to his heart, mimicking a shot on the beating organ. “But all necessary for Lover Boy Lance to look the way he does. Small prize for handsomeness.”

“Right, handsomeness.” 

“I’m not accepting that look from a person with such pores.” he joked, getting a nervous laugh from Allura. Her hands went up to touch her face and a little worry flashed in her eyes… oh, he had taken him seriously. Fuck! “Good thing I know how to solve that.”

“You… do?”

“Indeed princess, your knight in cosmetic armour is here.”

Allura giggled. “You didn’t… hahahaha, Lance!”

She punched his arm lightly. That was good. He had noticed how unsure she had been about touching him after reducing him to the ground. If it had been other place, other time, other circumstances maybe he would have gathered the courage to say that had been hot -minus the actual pain part. But no, roommate boundaries. Things could get awkward. Because he would be meaning it, truly meaning it. And joking with real things was not okay.

*

“Okay almost done. Look up, look up.”

Allura had her eyes slightly shut, feeling funny as Lance’s fingers traced her skin leaving a citric scent behind. The mask he was applying to her face was cold and sticky, a mixture of lemon juice and honey that according to her “cosmetic knight” would give her a gorgeous glow. Tough she wouldn’t mind if it didn’t. Just be doing that was more than enough.  

She had always loved those kind of things, DIY facial products, chatting, that kind of girl stuff. Back in England she had spent countless afternoons doing that, first with her mum and then with Romelle. She had assumed that sharing a living space with a girl in America would be the same, but it turned out reality didn’t meet her expectations. Most of the times it had been because she’d never felt close enough to the other girls to bring it up, and when she started living with Shay, tough she was the sweetest person in the world, she was aware the girl didn’t exactly enjoy it. Not that she hated it, no, more like she didn’t mind. And so, doing “girl stuff” always felt forced and, where was the fun in that?

And now there she was, letting a boy apply a mascara mixture he had in the fridge all over her face because he had dared to say she had awful pores! 

“Okay, lista!” a proud look was written all over his face as he stood up to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. 

“And now what?” she asked, hoping somehow, he would notice the hope she was pouring in every word. “Please let’s do something else” “Painting our nails or braiding each other’s hair…” well, her hair, his didn’t have enough length for that. “Anything Lance, please”

“Well, I’ve some nail polish Veronica left when she was here and…”

“Yes!” Allura didn’t let him finish. She jumped from her chair, cornering Lance against the kitchen counter. If she hadn’t been so excited she would have noticed the blush that blossomed in the boy’s cheeks, but her agitated mind and the perfect act he managed to put up after a few seconds made her soon forget about it.

*

Lance stepped into Allura’s bathroom, searching for the nail polisher as Allura herself rested her back against the door’s frame. The raindrops against the window’s glass made it look like an underwater city, where they were mermaids exploring that abandoned human place in search for hidden treasures. 

He laughed to himself, sitting at the border of the bathtub and patting the space next to him, following Allura’s figure as she sat down, trying to remain calm but failing at hiding how excited she was.  

“I take this is not your first time doing this.” he looked up, finding Allura’s blue eyes looking at him. They were deep like the ocean, a night ocean reflecting the infiniteness of the universe, as if the stars had melted into the water. Maybe if he took enough oxygen he would be able to submerge into them without drowning… maybe it was part of her mermaid charm to make people paint her nails. He shocked his head. He was sure she didn’t know the power her eyes had. How many would have drowned in those eyes?

“You right princess. 2 older sisters and a niece trained me well” he picked up her other hand, seeing how the one he had held travelled all the way to her chin. She was encouraging him to elaborate that statement. And as his knight, how could he refuse?

“There’s my brother Luis, then Veronica, Marco and Rachael and me. Luis is 7 years older than I am, Veronica is 5, Marco is 2 and Rachel is 0 hahahaha, twin joke, twin joke, sorry… Anyway, as I was the youngest my sisters always liked to play with me and I was cool with it. I liked being with them and do “cosas de niñas” -girly stuff-. Not to brag, but I’m super good at it. Braiding, painting nails, face masks… the pupil surpassed his masters.” he put the hand that was holding the brush under his chin, smirking proudly. 

“I can corroborate that.” Allura smiled, placing both hands in front of her to see. The polish was of a soft pink colour, and somehow, he had managed to paint small white stars with a touch of glitter. And how she loved sparkly things!

“Okay, my turn!” he reached for a light blue polish, offering it to Allura. She looked up to him, shocked at first but rapidly picking the polish as he offered her his hands. 

“I apologise in advance, I’ll probably won’t do it as good as you.”

“Va, va, va, nonsense. You will do great ‘Lura.” she smiled with her whole body, insecurity fading as she started painting, biting her lip in a way Lance assumed meant she was fully concentrating on the task. The first strokes were clumsy, but as she kept going they became more secure, in the way you start remembering when it has been long since the last time you did it. 

“Okay, done!” Lance stared at his hands, giving her a thumbs up. She clapped, closing the nail polish and collecting the other three ones to put them in the cupboard he had taken them out from. 

“I’ll be back in a second” he said, rushing outside the bathroom as Allura nodded, watching him pass her without much time to think of an answer.

* 

Allura sat on the bathtub’s edge, starting at her sparkly nails. Lance had lied to her. It was impossible for a person to forget four nail polishers at someone’s house. They were his, she was sure of that! That blue colour was matched his usual colour palette too well for it being a coincidence. 

She smiled, hugging her legs as she rested her check on the top of them. He would never know how much letting her paint his nails had meant to her, how that face mask now dry had reminded her of home, how him being there made everything unexpectantly hurt less. 

“Is this why you convinced me to move here Shay?”

“Hey Allura, look here.” Lance’s voice stared her, making her turn to hear a click. There he was, smiling at her with his phone, focusing on its screen as if it contained a really important thing. 

“As expected, you’re a natural.”

“Did you just take a photo of me?”

“How else are we going to remember the day we became friends?” the sincerity of his voice took her off guard, making a soft feeling spread in her chest. She stood up, standing next to Lance to take a glance to her photo. She liked it. 

“Okay now’s my turn!” she took the phone off his hands, opening the camera and searching for the front camera option. She smiled, finding cute how Lance’s face had surprise written all over it. 

Tough in the next photos his Lover-Boy-Persona took over and his smirks became the signature in almost all the ones they made. In others she had the chance to see a more genuine smile, and she decided she liked those ones the best. And in others they simply made weird faces, even adding the mice to the pictures. As Lance said, “as expected from their owner’s pets, they’re naturals”.

She laughed at the memory of that, now lying on her bed. Tomorrow was Monday and she needed to sleep enough for the idea of waking up being at least somehow appealing. She hated morning lectures. 

She was about to go to sleep when her phone lighted up, showing she had an incoming message from Shay.

Shay: Looks like someone had fun today :)

[photo attached] This one is my favourite

Allura stared at the screen, a picture of her and Lance smiling back at her.

Allura: How did you get that?!

Shay: Well, perks of living with your roommate’s best friend and that Lance likes to share…

not like others.

Allura: It’s not like that.

It happens that I don’t have the photos.

Not my fault.

Shay: Guiltless as always.

Allura: Because I am not guilty.

Shay: um, um… So, I can assume you had fun, right?

Just like 30 minutes ago Hunk’s phone started to go crazy and when he checked. Boom!

50 photos Allura

50 PHOTOS

Something to declare?

Allura: We simply spent a nice Sunday together.

Common thing between roommates.

Shay: Allura, I consider myself quite an expert in the roommate’s subject and I can tell you

NO

What you did was not common!

Allura you spent your second day with him doing face masks and painting nails!

With a stranger

Allura: Not a stranger. You knew him!

And you told me so much about Lance it almost felt as if I had known him since forever.

And he’s just like you told me… so you could say I “knew” him.

See? Not a stranger

Shay: Your logic never ceases to astonish me.

Hahahaha

But I had never seen that smile on your face for a long time…

You look happy ‘Lura, genuinely happy, not the “fake- happy” it hurt watching.

And Lance helped, right?

Allura stared at the ceiling, eyes focused on the lights that shined over her head. She knew that. She knew she wouldn’t have smiled that way if Lance hadn’t been there… The person that no longer was a stranger or a simple roommate. He was her friend.

And Allura didn’t remember making a friend so fast or feeling so comfortable around someone or simply feeling it was okay to be herself. And it felt nice. It really did. But she was not going to admit it, not yet.

Allura: I have no obligation of answering to that

Goodnight Shay

See you in class

She started at the screen, scrolling up to see the picture again. It was a nice photo. Lance had put a tower over her hair, saying that it was the last touch for them to match completely -the robes, the long pyjamas and the nail polisher supposedly to be the other things. She was smiling, and so was Lance, showing all his teeth.

“We look quite good, right?” she asked the mice, watching them made themselves comfortable over her pillows. They squeaked, kinda nodding with their heads in which Allura assumed was a yes. “Yeah, I think that too.”

N O T E S

banner credit: scientists confirm cuddling with ur gf to be the best feeling in the universe by @cherryandsisters

Chapter 3 is finally done. Yay!

I had to put extra work on the dialogues and the messages, as the first drafts were kinda messy and not in character at all. Writing and poloshing... hahaha. Not sure if the format I choose for the messages is the right one, hope it’s at least clear who’s talking.

Also first dialogue for Shay. I hope I have made her character justice. In the show there are not many interactions between Allura and Shay, but for the ones we had, we could see they got along nicely. It kinda made sense to make her Allura’s friend in the AU because of that and because otherwise the whole roommate thing would have not started in the first place. So thank you Shay for moving with Hunk and making this Allurance AU possible. 

visual references:

Allura’s nails: ☆ *✧

Allura’s and Lance’s outfits are the pyjamas they wear in cannon (couldn’t find visual references... picture it on your mind. IMAGINATION☆ *✧)

chapter’s playlist:

Owl City - The Saltwater Room 

Gabrielle Aplin - Home 

Ed Sheeran - Barcelona  (the song Lance was signing. No reason in particular, it’s just I like the song)

I think reading the chapter with Saltwater Room or Home gives it even more meaning. Things are always better with soundtrack!

Sometimes I doubt when writing this story, I’m afraid it doesn’t make sense or that there would be plot holes as I keep writing... I know I will have to accept it is a possibility, but still... well, it’s harrrrrd. I want this story to be a good one, to be enjoyable, to be worth the time spent on reading it.

Hope you guys enjoy this fic and I’d love to ear your opinions about it. Any questions, ideas, headcannons or suggestions are always welcome!

[cheesethesecond]

How about a fic in which Keith really wants Hunk to send him cookies but is an idiot about asking for them?

“… and so, in light of the new intel gained by our scouting team, it is our suggestion that the timetable for this mission be pushed back. Galra troop movement has been unpredictable as of late, and based on the current coordinates of…”

Hunk felt his eyelids drooping. He shook his head, trying to jar himself into alertness, and propped his chin on his hands. It wasn’t that he disliked sitting in on briefings with the Blade of Marmora; they always had useful information, and Hunk knew Team Voltron’s pursuit of Zarkon would be dead in the water without the help of the Blade.

But Kolivan was boring.

The guy had, like, one setting, and that setting was “serious business,” and Hunk had learnd to tune out most “serious business” voices back at the Garrison. And no, “serious business” voices didn’t mean all people who said things in a serious way–he listened to Shiro, after all. But Kolivan made it sound like everything he said was of grave importance, even when he was just reading off a list of coordinates, and Hunk couldn’t make himself focus. There were so many things he’d rather be doing, like helping Pidge bypass the security protocols on the newest piece of Galra tech they’d swiped in their latest raid, or perfecting the space goo cheesecake he’d almost gotten to taste like key lime pie before it burst into flames, or–

“Psst. Hunk.”

Hunk startled. “Huh? What?”

“Shh!”

“I wasn’t doing anything!” He glared over his shoulder at Lance, who was leaning up against Hunk’s chair, frowning.

“You were drooling!” Lance whispered. “And muttering to yourself. Allura keeps looking back here like she wants to strangle you, man, at least try and pay attention.”

“I am paying attention!”

“You were not! You were thinking about that stupid space cheesecake again.”

“Hey, my space cheesecake is not stupid–”

“Guys,” Pidge hissed from over the arm of her own chair. “Quiet.”

“Alright, sorry.” Hunk dropped his chin in his hand again and sighed. On screen, Kolivan was still droning on and, to his left, Keith stood straight and somber, unruffled by the lack of attention his fellow–erm, former–teammates were showing the Blade leader. Hunk smiled at Keith and raised his hand in a little wave, then winced and drew it back to his chest, remembering Kolivan could still see them. But then, either Hunk was imagining things, or the tiniest hint of a smile twitched at the corner of Keith’s mouth.

Hunk missed Keith. They all did. It was another reason Hunk had trouble focusing during Blade briefings: usually, after Kolivan was done strategizing with Shiro and the Alteans, he’d let Keith have the channel for a few ticks so the paladins could say hi. Keith barely ever got a word in edgewise during these conversations, buried under a wash of their own eager chatter, but Hunk could tell he didn’t mind, was content to listen to the voices competing to tell him this or that bit of news. He was always patient, and always hesitant to switch off the channel when they were done.

Keith missed them, too. That much was clear to Hunk. He just didn’t know what to do about it.

“If that’s all the business we have today,” Allura said to Kolivan on screen, “I think a few of the paladins are…somewhat impatient to speak with their former teammate.”

Hunk grimaced. He definitely wasn’t imagining the irritated look Allura shot at him.

“Very well,” Kolivan said, stepping out a frame, so that Keith could move front and center.

“Hey, guys,” Keith said with a small smile.

“Keith! Hi!”

“Hey, man! How have you–”

“Keith! Listen! I have to tell you about—”

Keith’s eyes widened, mouth opening and closing, not sure who to respond to first.

Shiro laughed. “Alright, okay, hold on. One at a time.” He stepped forward with his arms crossed over his chest. “Hey, Keith. How are you doing?”

“Hey, no fair!” Lance whined. “How come you get to go first?”

“Because he’s Shiro,” Pidge said. “Duh.”

“I’m doing okay,” Keith said, ignoring the argument in favor of Shiro’s attention. “I’m being sent on more missions now.”

“That’s good. That means they trust you.”

“Longer ones, too. So if you guys don’t hear from me for a while, don’t send a search party.” He shrugged, playing it off as a joke, but Hunk didn’t miss the flicker of unease in his eyes. He looked…lonely.

“As long as you’re being careful,” Shiro said.

“I am,” Keith said. “As careful as I can be, under the circumstances.”

Hunk’s heart clenched. He needed to cheer up Keith, and he needed to do it now.

He had an idea. He knew one thing that was proven to cheer everyone up.

“I’ll be right back!” he yelled, and dashed out of the room. When he returned, he was carrying a ridiculously large platter of space cookies.

“Did you just make these?” Lance asked, immediately grabbing a handful of cookies and shoving one of them into his mouth.

“No, of course not,” Hunk said, passing the platter around. “I was saving them for after dinner, but I wanted to show Keith. Look!” He held up one of the cookies for Keith to see. “No powering a teleduv with these babies!”

Keith laughed, but it was strained, and the longing in his eyes only grew worse. “That’s awesome, Hunk. Tell me about them?”

Hunk frowned. Telling Keith about the cookies was only going to make him want one, and he was supposed to be making Keith happier, not feel more isolated. He shook his head. “Nuh uh, no way, a chef never reveals his secrets. You’re just going to have to come get one.”

“Oh.” Keith glanced down and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I don’t think that’s possible right now.”

“I mean, not right this minute. But soon, right?”

“Kolivan is set to visit the castle in a few quintents, but I’ll be on a mission.” Keith’s shoulders slumped, and Hunk almost felt like crying. “I’m sorry, you guys. I just…I want to visit, but I…I can’t right now. I know you don’t understand, but–”

“We do understand, Keith,” Shiro spoke up, smiling gently at the screen. “You do what you need to do. We just miss you, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “I miss you too.”

After another few moments, Kolivan called for Keith, so they said their goodbyes and switched off the screen. “Well, quiznak,” Hunk muttered. “That was awful.”

“What are you talking about?” Lance said through a mouthful of cookie. “These are delicious.”

“I’m not talking about the cookies, Lance, I’m talking about Keith. Didn’t you see him? He’s miserable!”

“He did seem a little off,” Pidge said. “I know how badly he wanted to join the Blade, but they’re really not going easy on him, are they?”

“Guys,” Shiro called from the doorway. “You coming to the training deck?”

“We’ll be there in a minute, Shiro!” Hunk called back, and waited until Shiro was out the door before bringing Lance and Pidge closer. “Okay, huddle up, gang. We have to get that boy some cookies, stat. Operation Emergency Cookie Delivery is a go.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “And how, exactly, are we going to get cookies into the Blade of Marmora’s heavily fortified headquarters?”

“You heard Keith, Kolivan will be visiting the castle soon. We can just…”

“What, walk up to the totally humorless purple alien and say, ‘Hey, can you please give these cookies to our friend?’ He’s not gonna do it, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want a lecture on how there’s no time for shenanigans from that dude. I’ve gotten enough of those from Allura.” Lance shifted. “And Shiro, lately,” he said, quieter.

“Wait a minute,” Pidge said, her eyes lighting up. “We don’t have to give them to Kolivan. We just have to make sure they get back with Kolivan.”

“Huh?”

“We can sneak them onto his ship!”

Hunk beamed. “Oh, yes, we can sneak around like secret agents, and wear disguises, and have walkie talkies, and–”

“Hold on,” Lance said. “We could get in big trouble for this.”

“Since when have you cared about getting into trouble?”

“I don’t! But honestly, we’re going to do all this just to get cookies to Keith?”

“Unless you have something better to do,” Pidge said. “You could go train with Shiro. I’m sure you can find something else for him to yell at you about.”

Lance scowled, and Hunk knew Pidge had gotten under his skin. “Fine. I’m in.”

“Alright!” Hunk clapped Lance on the back. “So what’s the plan?”

*

The Plan, unfortunately, did not include walkie talkies or disguises, which Hunk thought was a huge bummer. It did, however, include a working map of the castle Pidge devised to show everyone’s location at any given moment. Hunk hurried down an empty hallway with the package full of cookies under his arm and watched the little yellow blip on the screen mirror his location. “Are you sure everyone’s where this thing says they are?”

“Positive,” Pidge replied over the comm in his ear. “Allura and Coran–pink and white on your screen–are on the maintenance level, and Shiro and Kolivan–black and purple–are in the Black Lion’s hangar. You’re home free.”

“I thought I’d have a much cooler job than this,” Lance chimes in from his post in the security room. “Like maybe ‘the bodyguard’ or ‘the muscle’. Watching empty rooms is boring.”

“You’re not supposed to be watching the empty rooms, Lance, you’re supposed to be watching the ones with people in them.”

“Well, those are boring, too! All anyone is doing is talking.”

“Shut up, you guys, I’m trying to focus,” Hunk said, following the map the last few steps to the hangar where Kolivan’s ship was supposedly parked. “Okay. I’m here. Now how do I get in?”

“Okay, so the hangar is locked to everyone but those with the access code, which only Allura and Coran and the owner of the ship have for security reasons,” Pidge said. “However, I was able to devise an algorithm to cycle through all the possible combinations with regards to frequency of use and–”

“If I have to listen to you tech-babble, I’m turning my comm off,” Lance said.

“Ugh, fine. Hold the device on your wrist up to the access pad. It’ll display the code, and if it’s correct, you should just be able to walk in.”

“Here goes nothing.” Hunk did as he was told, and the hangar door slid opened with a hiss. “Nice, Pidge! I’m in.”

“Great! Do you see Kolivan’s ship?”

“Yep, I’m there.” Hunk ran his hand over the side of the ship. “Now if I could just figure out how to get the door–” Suddenly, the blips on the map in Hunk’s hand started moving, and moving fast. “Hey, Lance, what do you see in those cameras, buddy?”

“Hold on a second, I’m–” Lance inhaled sharply. “Uh oh.”

“What do you mean, ‘uh oh’?”

“I don’t, uh, see anyone. They’re all gone.”

“Oh, sweet quiznak,” Hunk said, the blips on the map starting to descend on his yellow dot.  

“Abort, abort, drop the cookies and get out of there!” Pidge yelled.

“Uh, okay, I’ll just, uh…” Hunk spun around in place, panicking. “How did this happen, how do they even know I’m in here?”

“You must’ve tripped some kind of alarm, a motion sensor or something Kolivan programmed into the ship.”

“Boy, those Galra think of everything, don’t they,” Hunk muttered.

“Hunk!”

“Okay, okay, but I can’t just leave these here. They’ll never get to Keith!”

“Forget about Keith!” Lance said. “Unless you want to deal with an angry Galra, you better get out of there!”

“Okay, fine, I’m–”

“Yellow Paladin!”

Hunk froze at the menacing growl, and turned slowly towards the door, swallowing hard as he faced the aforementioned angry Galra.

“What are you doing with my ship?” Kolivan snarled.

“Nothing!” Hunk squeaked. “Nothing, I promise, I was only trying to–”

“What is that package in your hand?”

“Oh god. Okay, I know what this looks like. This looks like a bomb, doesn’t it? Oh god it looks like a bomb. I should’ve just put them in a paper bag, nobody ever put a bomb in a paper bag–”

“A bomb?” Kolivan stepped closer and yanked Hunk forward by the arm, claws digging into Hunk’s shoulder. “Are you trying to sabotage my ship?”

“No, no, no! I said it’s not a bomb! Oh quiznak this is bad. I’m gonna be sick. I’m gonna throw up.”

“Hunk!” Allura sprinted into the hangar, Shiro trailing close behind, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Oh god,” Hunk said, “I’m so sorry.”

“Everyone just calm down,” Shiro said, moving between Hunk and Kolivan and placing a firm hand on Kolivan’s chest, forcing him to let go of Hunk and take a step back, for which Hunk was eternally grateful. “I’m sure there’s an explanation for all of this. Hunk?”

“Um. Yes. There is a…a perfectly good explanation.” Hunk took the package and unwrapped it, revealing the box of cookies inside. “See?”

Kolivan looked into the package and frowned. “Are these some sort of miniature tracking devices?”

“Tracking de…what? No! No, they’re cookies.”

“Cookies?”

“Cookies?” Shiro asked

“I’m afraid I don’t…understand,” Allura said.

All three of them looked to Hunk, who bowed his head and sighed.

“Okay, so, I made cookies, right?” he said. “And Keith, he saw them the other day, and he looked so sad! So I wanted to, you know, give him some cookies. So he would be…less sad.”

Shiro cocked his head. “So you were going to sneak them onto Kolivan’s ship?”

“In my defense, we were really, really bored, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Allura raised an eyebrow. “We?”

“Oh yeah, Pidge and Lance were totally in on this.”

“Hunk!” Pidge yelled in his ear, at the same time Lance gasped, “Hey!”

“Yep, totally in on it, 100% not just my idea, whatever trouble I’m in they should be in, too.”

“Sellout,” Pidge muttered.

“You’re toast, big man,” Lance fumed.

Kolivan was still staring down at the plate of cookies, his brow furrowed. “So this is a gift of food for your former Red Paladin?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Hunk said.

Kolivan nodded and took the package from Hunk’s hands. “Then I will deliver it to him.”

“Really?” Hunk grinned.

“It is a practical gift. He is little, and hungers often. He needs nourishment.”

“Oh, I’m definitely saving that one,” Lance snickered.

“I’m not sure if you heard that clearly,” Hunk said into the comm. “All I had to do was ask him to take the cookies to Keith, which I remember someone saying–”

“What? I can’t hear you!” Lance said. “The comm’s going dead! Hunk? Hunk? Are you still there?”

“Coward,” Pidge said as the line went quiet.

*

Later the next night, Hunk was lying on his back in his bunk, drifting off to sleep, when his communication devise buzzed. He groaned and rolled over, smacking around for it and squinting at the screen in the dark.

Control room. –K

Hunk shuffled out of bed, into his lion slippers and down the hallway to the main control room, where a light was blinking on his personal bridge display. He sat down and pushed the button with a yawn, and Keith’s face appeared on his screen. He looked tired, worn down, wearing just a thin t-shirt instead of his Blade armor, but he was all in one piece. Hunk supposed that was all they could ask for, at this point. “Hey, buddy,” he said with a sleepy smile.

“Hey,” Keith said, glancing over his shoulder. “I can’t talk long.”

“Did you get the cookies?”

Keith’s cheeks tinted red, and he scowled. “Yes, Hunk, I got the cookies.”

“Sweet.”

“Did you just…walk up to Kolivan and hand him these?” Keith sounded a little awestruck, and more than a little embarrassed.

“Well, no, not exactly,” Hunk said. “First we tried to sneak them onto his ship, but then we got caught, and I think he thought it was a bomb, so everyone freaked out for a minute…”

“Hunk!”

“But they turned out okay?”

Keith nodded, then reached for something off screen. When he sat back up, he had a cookie in his hand. “Last one.”

Hunk blinked. “You ate them all already?”

Keith’s face went even redder. “Yeah, well, it was a long mission. I was hungry.”

“Just like Kolivan said,” Hunk said under his breath.

“What?”

“What?”

“Nevermind, I…” Keith rubbed at his eyes, and Hunk could tell he was fading fast. “I just wanted to share the last one. With you. I know that sounds corny or whatever but I just…wanted to.”

All of the sudden, Hunk felt his eyes start filling with tears. “Yeah, Keith,” he said, his voice going thin as he sniffled. “I get it.”

“Don’t you dare!” Keith said, and his laugh was a little wet, like he was about to cry, too. “If you start, then I’ll start.”

“Alright, alright, I’m cool,” Hunk said, wiping a hand over his eyes. “I’m just glad you liked them.”

“They don’t taste like glass at all,” Keith said, deadly serious, and Hunk threw his head back with laughter. “What?”

“Nothing, man. I just miss you.”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “I miss you, too.”

But the lost, lonely look in his eyes was a little dimmer, and Hunk felt the vice around his chest loosen an inch or two. Sometimes it felt like there wasn’t much he could do to make his teammates’ hearts lighter, but when he could, he was so glad to do it. Even if it was something so little, like this. He was starting to realize even the little things were enough.

Keith ate his last cookie, and they said their goodnights, and on the way back to his bunk, Hunk decided he might give the space goo cheesecake recipe just one last try.

[omggiogiothings]

22 and 5 pleaseeeeee

22.)“Your cycle is Fucked up because of all those suppressants you took.” -Lance

&

5.) “You're feverish, so stop being stubborn and go lay in thenest.” -Shiro

Shklance / Alpha Shiro & Lance, Omega Keith

Here you go bby. More under the cut CAUSE I CANT WRITE DRABBLES APPARENTLY.

--

The issue with suppressants was that they only looked atimmediate effects and not the long term ones. Keith had gone on themwhen he decided heats were The Worst and he'd rather avoid it then worry if thebirth control worked. Dating Shiro and Lance had certainly been an experienceand Keith never had an issue until it came to sharing his heats with them.

With their first pregnancy scare Keith decided no fucking way, and hopped onto thepills for immediate effects.

It had been pretty decent until the doctor pulled him aside andgently explained he needed to give his body a rest. There wasn't anything wrongwith suppressants, he explained, but we recommend having you go through a fewheats if you're looking to have children in the future.

Keith, despite not wanting a child now, wanted to eventuallystart a family with Lance and Shiro. So he had agreed, getting onto the programas the doctor explained the repercussions and possible side effects. The firstfew cycles would be hell if he was unlucky, otherwise it would continue asnormal.

He didn't outright tell the others what would happen. He justmentioned he'd be off suppressants and gave them a fair warning date about whenit would happen.

He was fine up until his cycle should have happened. Everyonewaited for the week with bated breath only for absolutely nothing to happen.Keith was worried, wondering if he had made a mistake but his doctor reassuredhim sometimes his body needed time to kick back into gear.

When it did happen, it had lasted for a day. He was curled up inhis nest, waiting out for when he felt ready to invite Lance and Shiro in whenthe feeling just vanished.

It happened a few more times over the course of the month thatLance, not one to beat around the bush said, “Your cycle is Fucked up becauseof all the suppressants you took.”

It led to an argument with Keith lashing out. He was annoyed andtired at his body. There was a worry that maybe he had messed up their chancesat ever starting a family together. But his head also hurt and his body ached.He was coming down with something and didn't know if it was because of his heator something else.

Shiro came home to a tense household with Keith deciding enoughwas enough and resisted every single impulse he had if it wasn't going to throwhis body back into a heat. He knew the others were just as anxious. He wassmelling like preheat for weeks now.

“Hey.” Shiro called out gently as Keith twitched from the pileof books he was cleaning out from the shelf. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” He snapped, shoulders tense. He realized he was lashingout again and rubbed at his forehead with a sigh. “Sorry. I fought with Lance.”

Shiro sighed, shifting from his spot behind the couch. Keithrecognized it was Shiro trying to decide who needed comfort more so he decidedfor him. “I’m fine. Lance is upstairs.”

In his nest, hereminded himself, making him slam a book down onto a pile a little moreforcefully. Shiro came over and knelt down beside him to give him a kiss beforefreezing and reaching out to gently touch at Keith’s face.

“Babe, you're burning up.”

“I'm fine.” He said, testy. “Just my body not being able todecide if it wants me to get Fucked or not.”

His hormones were out of whack and he knew Shiro didnt deservehis attitude but at the moment he was too tired and frustrated with himself tocare. Shiro was a saint, rolling his eyes and kissing him again before gettingup to check on Lance.

Keith stayed on the floor for awhile, sorting books out inalphabetical order and ignoring how stuffy his head felt. Sleepy, hot, and justexhausted he got to his feet to head upstairs before remembering Shiro andLance were up there. He remembered the way he treated the both of them andgroaned before stumbling onto the couch for a nap. He'd finish sorting out thebooks in the morning before going to apologize to Lance.

Satisfied, he turned in for a nap.

When he woke up, he was shivering and felt like shit. The doctorhad mentioned getting sick but he couldn't tell with so many symptoms clashingwith him during a heat. It was dark and he was still on the couch. He couldn'ttell how long he'd been asleep but he assumed Shiro and Lance hadn't venturedback downstairs since they got home.

His annoyance came back with just a smidgen of hurt. They werein his nest without him. The Omega in him whined at the discomfort of it,making him curl into himself. Once he was able to ignore that instinct he gotto his feet and headed to the kitchen for a drink of water.

While pulling down a glass from the cupboard, he trembled andthe glass slipped, hitting the counter before shattering on the ground. Thesound was piercing, making him since and curl into himself.

He breathed heavily, not moving and aware of how cold he wasdespite the way he was sweating.

“Keith?” Shiro asked, sounding half asleep.

“Mmsorry. Dropped a glass.” He moved back, planning to clean itup but stumbled over his feet. Shiro reached out and caught him.

“Whas goin on?” Lance asked from somewhere behind him.

“Keith, you're burning up.” Shiro brushed back his hair, evenKeith shivered.

“I'm cold.” He whispered.

“You're sick.” Lance mumbled, reaching forward to feel againstKeith’s forehead and letting out a slow whistle. “That's a fever for sure.”

“I'm fine.” He snapped back, but lost his energy as Shiro helpedhim stand.

“You're not.” Lance bit back. “So come back to the nest with usand sweat it out."

The sound of his nest felt good but it also came with ickyfeelings he couldn't place. “No.”

“Oh my god, why?” Lance groaned, rubbing at his eyes. “Why do wehave a boyfriend who doesn't understand the concept of self care?”

“Shut up.” Keith whined, feeling his chest tight and not knowingwhy he just didn't feel good.

Shiro, finally having enough picked up Keith effortlessly.“You're feverish. So stop being stubborn and go lay in the nest, Keith.”

“Contradicting when you're carrying him there.” Lance pointedout helpfully.

Keith fought a little at the jostling before he found himselfthrown onto the small nest he had prepared in there. He could feel the warmthfrom where the other two had been laying with him and curled up instantly.

In the morning, when he was more coherent and eating the soupLance had made (with strict instructions from Hunk) he apologized.

“No.” Lance said gently. “I’m sorry. I was a little insensitiveover your suppressants and I'm sorry. That wasn't right of me to call you outon it when you probably already knew all about it.”

“But I'm sorry.” He tried, peeking at the both of them. “Forbeing a dick these past few months. I don't wanna just blame my hormones beingout of whack. I'm being stupid about it too.”

Lance sighed, reaching over to brush his hair back. “If itmatters, you probably got the greatest character development arc.”

He snorted, shoving him away weakly. Everything felt settledunder them but he knew he still had to admit something. They always pushed forcommunication and it wasn't fair that he always held back on them.

“The doctor asked me to get off suppressants.” He admitted,getting their attention quickly. “He asked me if I wanted kids in the future.That if I did, I needed to take breaks so my body doesn't just reject it if westart trying.” He gave out a little shrug, playing with the blanket. “I justassumed it'd be easy to jump back into my cycles but I was on them for toolong. I'm just, I was scared I guess? Cause I know how much you guys want afamily and I thought I ruined that chance for us.”

“Keith.” Shiro started, sharing a look with Lance. “We want afamily but there are other ways to get it. We would never want you to dosomething you weren't comfortable with, even if we wanted it.”

“I want to.” He blurted, blushing. “I want to give you guys afamily. I'm okay with it. If I wasn't, I would have stayed on thesuppressants.”

He peeked at them, seeing the fond look on Shiro’s face beforehe leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Lets talk about this when you'rebetter. Well go with you to your next appointment and see if there's anythingwe can do to make this easy for you.”

Lance nodded, taking his hand before flopping into Keith’s lap.“Yup. I'm sure there has to be birth control we can take to make sure you canhave a heat without consequences. You don't have to take this all on your own.”He missed the back of Keith’s hand gently.

Keith sighed, wondering how he got so lucky to get the bestpartners in the world.

And then Lance gave that smile that meant he was going to saysomething stupid, “So… you wanna make babies with me?”

Keithshoved him as Shiro let out a bark of laughter.

[raywritesthings]

If They Knew Sweet Little You 1/7

My Writing Fandom: Doctor Who Characters: Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott, Sylvia Noble, Tenth Doctor Pairing: Doctor/Donna Summary: Donna's dull, regular life is turned upside-down thanks to an incident from the past she can no longer remember. AO3 link  

Two months. It had been just over two months since Donna had woken up on her bed in her clothes to learn the world had gone mad talking about planets in the sky. Well, of course they were in the sky. Where else were they supposed to be? On land?

It had only taken a few days for people to settle down and things to go back to normal. But Donna found she couldn’t settle as easily.

She wasn’t working and didn’t think she had been for a while, so there was nothing to do during the day. Her friends texted her, but it took until Veena mentioned she’d told them all she was busy lately for her to realize they hadn’t been inviting her out, so she had nothing to do at night. That probably explained why her bank account still looked decent despite her having no job.

Yet every time Donna sat down at her laptop to check her email or the temp agency, she found her attention wandering, and she never actually got around to it. The same with when she would try to muster up to energy to call up her friends and schedule something. She didn’t know what it was, but neither of those things seemed to hold the same appeal they once did.

Everything just felt off somehow. She couldn’t put a finger on it or even try to explain it, but it left her feeling not very good. And then sort of queasy. And then that queasiness had her hauling herself out of bed one morning to stick her head in the toilet and empty her stomach.

God, what had she eaten last night? Donna drank a lot of water and nibbled on some crackers, then went on a long walk around the neighborhood to avoid her mum’s dinner. She didn’t want a repeat of that morning, that was for sure.

But it happened again the next morning anyway. Donna crawled back under the covers and pulled them up over her head, trying to ignore the stale taste in her mouth or the slight pain in her throat.

Figured. She could sit in offices year round perfectly healthy while people sneezed and hacked up who knew what germs all around her, but as soon as she took a bit of time for herself that’s when it all caught up. Her mum would probably be on her about her loafing in no time. She’d have to start searching for a new position in earnest now.

That was, once she’d gotten over this flu or whatever it was.

—-

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“I assure you this is no joke, Donna. The test was conclusive. You’re pregnant.”

Donna Noble gaped at old Doctor Simmons. Her family had been seeing him for ages, and a part of her wondered if it was high time he thought about retirement because he was obviously completely senile.

“I’m what?”

“Pregnant. I’d say about two months along.”

Donna had half a mind to ask if he’d been put up to this. “Can I get a second opinion?”

“You can, but they’ll tell you the same thing I just did.”

“Then I’ll get a third or a fourth or however many it takes! Doctor Simmons, you don’t understand,” she said. “Me being pregnant, that’s — well it’s just not possible.”

Doctor Simmons shook his head with a knowing smile. “Now, you don’t need to put up any pretense, Donna. I’m not here to judge the choices my patients make, only to help them be as healthy as possible while making them.”

“No, but I didn’t make this choice.”

“Well, accidents happen,” he remarked with a shrug. “If you’re worried about how the father will take it, I’d be perfectly happy to meet with you both. I’ll even help you with your mother, if you like.”

“No,” said Donna again, more forcefully this time. “You don’t understand. There is no father. I haven’t had sex in — well, long enough to not be pregnant now! I don’t even remember having an ‘accident’!”

The smile slipped from his face. “You don’t?”

Donna shook her head. “No.”

There was a lot Donna didn’t really remember, truthfully, of which she might have explained to Doctor Simmons if he hadn’t blindsided her with this. Like what she’d done for her birthday this year or why Lance had left her and why she’d gone off to Egypt straight after.

She got headaches now, too, just sometimes. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to them; she might be watching bees buzz around the flowers in the garden or children at play in the park or pass a man on the street with really nice brown eyes — and then it hit, and she’d be useless all the rest of the day.

Donna couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a temp position, either, but rather than nag her about that her mother had found her emptying her stomach into the toilet three mornings ago and suggested she go see the doctor. Well, her specific words had been, “Go and see Simmons. It’s been ages since your last appointment.” Her mum avoided the word doctor like the plague lately, come to think of it.

So she’d gone and done her best to answer all the questions. Yes, she’d been eating properly. No, she didn’t really exercise much — imagine her shock when the nurse had told her she’d dropped half a stone! Yes, she was getting enough sleep. No, she couldn’t recall when her last cycle had started or ended.

Donna had wondered if that was it; her body clock had timed out early, and she’d missed her chance. That’d be just her luck. But here it turned out to be a different story entirely, and one that could only be fantasy!

Doctor Simmons was watching her now and seemed to be considering very carefully what to say next. “If you truly have no recollection of the intercourse that could have led to conception, it might be wise to run some additional tests. For your health.”

“Oh, my God.” Donna pressed both hands to her temples. “This can’t be happening.” What had she done, had a drunken shag in the bathroom of some pub? She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d chatted a stranger up much less slept with one. “What am I gonna do?”

“Alright, let’s not panic. I’m going to send you home with some antenatal vitamins to start taking. You come back in at the end of the week. We’ll run those tests and see what we find, if anything.” He reached out and patted her knee. “Motherhood is an exciting journey, Donna — for some more so than others.”

Motherhood. She was going to be a mum. She really was. And she had no idea how she’d managed it.

Neither did Veena or Susie Mair or even Nerys when she phoned them each in turn. Not that she told them what it was about of course.

“Veena, when’s the last time we’ve been out for drinks? About two months ago?”

“Nah, it’s been way longer,” said her friend on the other end of the line. “You were out sight-seeing or something a couple months back, weren’t you? We’ll have to go out now, you can tell me all about it.”

“Er, yeah, maybe some other time.” Donna got off the phone without making any commitments. Wasn’t like she could go out for drinks any time soon anyway!

No one she talked to could confirm any type of funny business, not even when she went round to all the usual spots. Mostly they just kept saying it was good to see her again.

Oh God, had she gone off somewhere else and been drugged and knocked up?

With nothing to tell Doctor Simmons, she nevertheless needed to make sure it wasn’t just a baby she’d been stuck with.

“Mum, I need the car. Going in to see the doctor — Doctor Simmons, I mean,” she felt the strangest need to clarify.

“What are you going back for so soon?” Her mother asked from the kitchen. “There’s not something wrong, is there?”

“No,” Donna lied. “Just a follow-up.”

As she sat in traffic, she wondered not for the first time what she was going to do. There was only so long she could keep this from her family. Donna cringed just picturing the disappointment on her mother’s face and the ‘I warned you’ speech that was sure to follow. Gramps would be worried, she supposed, but he’d at least be kind about it. At the moment, Donna didn’t have the energy to try and imagine how anyone else would take it. As if she wasn’t already the biggest failure in Chiswick.

A week after the tests, Donna went back in again. “I have some good news,” Doctor Simmons told her. “You’re clean. You haven’t contracted anything.”

“Yeah, except a baby,” Donna remarked.

He didn’t laugh. “Yes, well, Donna...I think it is best that we discuss your options going forward. Being that this pregnancy appears to be the result of a non-consensual sexual encounter —”

“I’m keeping it,” said Donna before he could finish. “I don’t care how it happened — I mean, I care but I- I’ve always wanted to be a mum. And this is probably the best shot I’ve got.”

It wasn’t the worst way it could have happened. At least she hadn’t resorted to a turkey baster like Nerys. Was she upset her child wasn’t going to have a father? Yes. Did she worry how that would affect it growing up? Absolutely. But if she just had a chance to give her baby all the love and support she’d missed out on in life, wouldn’t it be enough? Wouldn’t it make all this worth it?

Doctor Simmons was favoring her with a pitying look, but all he said was, “If that is your choice, then you have my full support.”

“Yeah, speaking of, if you see my mum or Gramps around, would you mind not mentioning this? I haven’t figured out how to tell them yet.”

“Of course. If you need any assistance in that regard, please let me know.”

She left Doctor Simmons’ office with a referral to an OBGYN and a problem to consider: how was she going to break the news to her family?

Briefly, Donna entertained the idea of taking up a new temp job across town, renting out a cheap flat, and avoiding her mother for the rest of her natural life. But that wouldn’t stop her hearing it from someone else. And how would she make it on her own as a single mum with work and a baby? She needed her family, if they’d still have her once they found out.

So it was time to fess up. She couldn’t go on making up excuses for appointments and hiding the antenatal vitamins under her pillow.

If she was lucky, her grandad would be the only one home when she got back, and she could run it by him first. Gauge a reaction.

This would be so much easier if she just knew who’d gotten her this way. It wasn’t likely they’d end up a family together if they’d seemingly only had that one forgotten encounter, but at least she’d have options in case her mum kicked her out of the house tonight!

—

Wilfred Mott was worried about his granddaughter. But he’d been that way ever since she came home. Was brought home.

He knew it had been the only way to save her life, and for that he’d always be thankful. But Wilf couldn’t help wishing there was something else the Doctor could do for their girl so she’d have her memories back. That wonderful alien was so clever.

Only now he was gone for Donna’s safety, and that was the worst bit. No man had ever treated Donna as well as the Doctor had. She’d practically been glowing the last few times they’d come round the house together, and Wilf didn’t think he could recall her being happier, not even in the run-up to that wedding with that Lance fellow or whichever his name was. He missed watching the two of them run about stopping alien invasions, making each other laugh.

He thought Donna missed the Doctor, too, in her own way. She came up on the hill with him infrequently, staring up at the stars she’d lost and looking so sad. Sometimes she just sat at a window, mind far away with her arms wrapped around her middle as if in a hug.

She’d been practically listless the last couple months. The occasional headache here or there, but they’d gotten a handle for the most part on what triggered them. When Sylvia had found her being sick in the bathroom, however, she’d badgered Donna into a checkup.

“What if she caught some disease out there, dad?” His daughter had fretted.

“Oh, Sylvia, I’m sure it’s alright.” After all, it had been over two months; surely there would have been a sign before now?

Donna had come home from the appointment just as quiet and withdrawn as before but saying that nothing was wrong. Then she went back for a second appointment, and a third.

“She’ll tell us when she’s ready,” he said to an increasingly panicked Sylvia, though he couldn’t help hoping Donna would feel ready soon.

That afternoon, he was doing some of the washing up before dinner to make room in the kitchen for Sylvia. The front door opened and shut, and when no one called out he thought he could guess which of his girls had gotten back first. “Donna? That you, sweetheart?”

“Yeah.” A couple moments later she was shuffling into the room and dropping into a chair at the table. “Where’s mum?”

“Still out. Won’t be back for another hour at least.” Wilf turned off the faucet and reached for a towel to dry his hands. When he turned around, Donna had hers folded on her lap and was biting her lip. “Something the matter?”

She looked up at him. “Gramps, there’s something I’ve got to tell you. And you’re gonna have some questions, but I honestly don’t know the answers to them, so I’m sorry.” She looked away again. “God, you’re gonna be so ashamed of me.”

“Ashamed of you?” He echoed. “Never.” She cracked just the slightest smile at that. He crossed the room and took a seat as well. “I’m sure it can’t be all bad. What is it?”

Donna hesitated. “Well, I — I’m pregnant.”

Wilf nearly fell out of his chair. “Pregnant?”

She shushed him despite them being the only two home. “Yes. Getting closer to three months now.”

“Oh. Oh dear.” He looked her up and down. She wasn’t showing yet, but he supposed she wouldn’t be. Of all the things he’d been worried about! “But- but when? How?”

“That’s the thing. I really don’t know. And it’s not because I can’t decide whose it is.” She shrugged with a tired, “There’s just no one.”

Wilfred didn’t know what to say. “You’re sure?”

Donna groaned and put her head in her hands. “Please, Gramps, this is already embarrassing enough without going over the details of my sexual history with you.”

He supposed she had a point. “What’re you gonna tell your mother?”

“I dunno. I could let her carry on thinking I was just getting fatter for a while, couldn’t I?”

“Oh, Donna.”

Donna looked up, a real fear in her eyes. “She’s gonna kill me for this, Gramps. We both know it.”

“She wouldn’t.” He wished his protest sounded more sincere.

Dinner that night started off an uncomfortable affair. On one side was Sylvia, forcing herself to keep from asking Donna about the latest doctor’s appointment; on the other was Donna, so very reluctant to break the news.

After fifteen minutes of stilted conversation ranging from the topics of the weather to what Suzette had bought at the shops that day, enough was enough. “Sylvia, love, Donna’s got something she wants to say.” He gave his granddaughter an encouraging smile and watched her draw in a deep breath.

“Mum, the reason I’ve been going in for all these appointments — well, I’m not sick, if that’s what you were worried about.” She paused, and Wilf reached across the table to take her hand. He felt Donna squeeze it tightly once before saying, “I’m pregnant.”

Sylvia’s fork dropped onto her plate with a clatter. “Pregnant? Since when? How?”

“Going on three months, and I don’t know. Look, I only found out myself the beginning of this month.”

“Who’s the father?”

“I don’t know,” Donna repeated.

“Well, how can you not know —”

“Because I don’t remember it happening!” Donna stood with such force her chair was knocked over. “I haven’t been seeing anyone. None of the girls have had anything to tell me, either, so I guess you can call me the bloody Virgin Mary because this baby didn’t get here any other way!”

“You, a virgin? That’s the day I’ll believe in miracles,” Sylvia scoffed.

“Oh, Sylvia, don’t,” Wilf began.

“No, it’s fine,” said Donna. “I knew you being weirdly nice to me lately was just a fluke.” She glared at her mother. “Go ahead, tell me you told me so. Tell me this is all my fault. I know it is, but it’ll make you feel better, won’t it?”

Sylvia looked between them both, eyes wide and face incredibly pale. “Donna, it’s not — you’re important to me, and I just don’t want to see —”

“Yeah, well, if you don’t want to see it, I’ll just pack and be off in the morning.”

Wilfred watched her storm upstairs in dismay, then turned back to Sylvia.

“Well, am I supposed to pretend to be pleased?” His daughter defended before he could even speak. “She’s got no job, no prospects.”

“I know all that. But, love, you can’t blame her for it. She can’t remember.” He stressed the last two words, hoping it conveyed their significance.

Sylvia looked at him sharply. “You think it happened while she was off — out there?”

He shrugged. “It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. Look, she’s been going spare trying to figure it out herself, and she never will. Don’t you think we ought to do all we can to help her instead of making it worse?”

Abruptly, his daughter burst into tears.

Wilf stood and hurried around the table to place his arms around her. “Here now, what’s this?”

“You said she went to other planets and — and met creatures. I mean what if it’s alien, dad?”

“It might not be alien. Could just be someone she met in the future, or the past,” he reasoned.

“Oh, wonderful,” his daughter said. “Good luck for her getting child support, then!”

“She’s got support. She’s got us.”

“She’s got you, you mean.” Sylvia shrugged him off and kept her gaze on the table. “He was right. I don’t say it often enough. Now she doesn’t believe me. My own daughter.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “How did I let that happen?”

Wilfred hung his head. It really wasn’t just her fault. He’d said this or that, tried to intervene, but he could’ve done more; Lord knew Geoffrey had tried, but he just hadn’t had the same authority as his wife. He supposed this day had always been coming, when the damage Sylvia had done finally came home to roost. There was little he could say to deny it was there.

So he placed his hand back on her shoulder. “You just didn’t know how not to be hard on her, that’s all. You knew exactly how you wanted her to grow up, and when she didn’t follow that plan you felt like you’d failed. But you haven’t, Sylvia, you haven’t,” he continued when she choked on a sob. “Why, Donna’s the most important woman in the universe. That’s the daughter you raised. And if she’s gonna be a mum, well, she’s gonna need her own mum now more than ever.”

His daughter had calmed mostly, cries subsiding to sniffles.

“Now, I’ll go and check on her, and you get yourself cleaned up. I’ll put the kettle on for you.” Despite his belief in the best of both his girls, he didn’t think a second conversation between them in one night would go so well with emotions running so high.

Wilf passed through the kitchen to turn on the kettle, then padded up the stairs and down the hall to Donna’s door, which was slightly ajar. Inside, he could hear her crying. He knocked lightly. “Donna?”

The crying cut off with a gasp. A moment later, she called out in a thick voice, “Come in!”

He pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked into the darkened room. She was sitting on the bed, a suitcase half-packed beside her. On her lap was —

“A hat box, I know. Don’t know why I thought I was gonna need one of those.” Her attempt at a smile wavered badly, and she raised a hand to wipe at teary eyes. Wilf stepped forward with his handkerchief held out.

She took it with a soft, “Thanks.”

“That’s alright. Donna, you know your mother doesn’t want you to leave. She just, well, she worries about you, in her own way.”

“I could do with her worrying less, then.” She set the hat box aside with a heavy sigh, then made room for him next to her on the bed. “I’m not going, really. Haven’t anywhere to go.”

Yes, she did, Wilf wanted to say. To the stars. But she couldn’t, and for more reasons than the baby.

“Have you started thinking about names?” He asked instead.

“I’ve only had just about a month,” Donna reminded him. Nevertheless, she humored him. “Let’s see. Wilfred for a boy.”

He chuckled. “Oh no, I know it’s old fashioned.”

“Middle name, then. And for a girl...I don’t know.” Her face took on that faraway look again. “Maybe Jenny. I feel like Jenny would be a good name for a daughter.”

“Jenny Noble,” he said, and he was glad to see Donna come back to herself. She smiled at him, her hand resting over her stomach.

“It’s in the running.”

“You don’t know how proud I am of you,” he told her. Donna scoffed, but he carried right on. “It’s the hardest thing, being a parent, and here you are taking it on on your own.”

“Yeah, I’ve been doing a real bang-up job of it, too.”

“Well, you’ll only get better with time,” he insisted.

Eyes red but dry, she passed him back his handkerchief, which he tucked away.

“Should we get you unpacked?”

“Oh, I’ll just leave it for the morning,” she said. “Exhausted myself earlier with all that.”

“I’ll let you get to bed, then.” He stood and made his way to the door.

“Gramps?” Donna’s call had him pausing, and he turned back around. “Thanks.”

He raised a hand to dismiss it. “No thanks necessary.”

She smiled. “Love you.”

“Love you.” Wilf stepped out into the hall and closed the door. He went back down to the kitchen to find Sylvia must have taken her tea up to bed with her. For the better, really; it was getting late, and he still had one more thing to do. One more person to take care of, since Donna couldn’t anymore.

Wilf pulled on his coat and hiked up the hill. He got out his telescope and set it up, then settled in his chair. Plenty of stars, and even some planets, but no blue box. The same as usual. Wilf wondered if they would ever see it again.

“I hope you’re alright out there. We’re all fine, even if Donna’s been through a bit of a shock. Suppose you wouldn’t know anything about that, though, or you would’ve said.”

It didn’t seem to be affecting her so far as the memories and all that went. She was still safe from burning up, which was the best they could ask for. He wished as ever, of course, that she could simply have her memories back and be fine. It would at least give her less cause for shame over this whole pregnancy.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. In a way, the child was something from those wonderful travels she’d had that she could keep, even if she didn’t realize it.

Wilfred kept up his watch for a while longer, then at last put his things away. He straightened up and snapped off a salute to the stars.

“Goodnight, Doctor. Maybe the next one, eh?”

[the-kittens-of-vol-tron]

hi! if u don't mind writing some more abused lance, can u write smth about shiro and keith getting into an argument and they turn around to see lance shaking and flinching at everything? u don't have to do it if u don't want to and sorry if its too specific

I can write something small 

Mentions of Physical and Emotional Abuse

— 

Being one of the youngest in the family Lance was usually blamed for a lot of things. Yet most people just assumed that since Lance was the youngest he was treated like a ‘baby’ and spolided for days on end but that never really happened to Lance. Lance couldn’t remember a day where he wasn’t yelled at by his mom or shoved out of the way from his dad. It was a constant cycle and Lance never knew when the next hit would be or what the next thing he would be yelled at for. 

Lance lived most of his childhood in fear, either fighting back tears in front of his parents or sitting underneath his blankets at night, letting the tears fall as he listened to his parents argue with each other. 

Lance never felt safe around his family and would find himself tensing up at anyone who raised their voices at him, even friends. Lance could remember one night at the Garrison where he and Hunk had a small argument with each other and when Hunk left the room for some space Lance broke down crying. He couldn’t deal with yelling or people being mad at him. It made him remember his parents and how they treated him. 

-

“Shiro you’re not listening to me!” Keith threw his hands in the air in complete frustration. 

“Keith, you’re over reacting.” Shiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes at the raven haired boy. 

They had been arguing about training sequences for almost ten minutes and no one knew how to stop them. Pidge and Hunk started mumbling to themselves, their backs to everyone, while Lance sat on the floor, attempting to stop his body from shaking. 

Lance, breath. They aren’t even yelling at you, Lance flinched as Keith raised his voice slightly. They aren’t mad at you, you did nothing wrong...right? His legs started to shake and soon his breathing became labored. This is not okay. Lance covered his ears with shaky hands, praying to muffle the sounds, but the yelling seemed to get louder every second. Stop this, stop this, stop this! Lance couldn’t stop the shaking that consumed his body or fight the flinches that overtook him with every word that Shiro and Keith threw at each other. 

“I get it, you’re the leader but may-Lance?! Are you okay??” Keith uncrossed his arms and ran towards the shaking boy, resulting in everyone turning towards him. 

Shiro joined Keith next to Lance, and gently placed his hand on the boy’s back, pulling back immediately at his flinch. “Lance? What’s going on?” His voice was quiet, he wanted to make Lance comfortable. 

“I’m so-sorry if I d-did some-something wrong. Pl-please don’t ye-yell.” Lance pushed his hands tighter around his ears and Keith reached forward slightly to pull them back. 

“I’m sorry Lance, we’ll stop yelling.” He slide Lance’s hands off his ears and wiped his face, that had became streaked with tears. 

Everyone was silent of a few ticks, giving Lance the space he needed to calm himself down and stop shaking. Once Lance was calmed down enough, Hunk gave him a bottle of water and Shiro rubbed his back. “Do you not like yelling?” 

Lance shook his head, “my parents would yell all the time when I was younger. I was usually the one that they were yelling at but when they yelled at each other it stressed me out. I always felt like I did something wrong, I thought I moved past this,” he gestured to the shake that was still in his arms, “ but I guess I didn’t.” 

Hunk wrapped his best friend in a hug and soon everyone joined in, Keith and Shiro mumbling apologies and Lance feeling the shaky feeling leaving his body and being replaced by the support from his friends.

---

I’m not happy with this at all, but oh well

I’m sorry this took so long

I hope you like it!

Thank you 

[comic-book-reider]

Shance Fluff week Day 1 blue / black

“What. the. Quiznack.

They weren’t even on a mission. Hunk was cooking, Pidge Coran and Allura were all asleep after fixing some major problems with the Particle barrier, maybe now it can take more than 3 hits before going down and putting the last two alteans in existence in danger, Haggar gave up her identity as Altean when she betrayed them for the Galra. Keith and Lance were training by running a combative maze back-to-back. Lance was confused by the cargo ship that passed the window.

That confusion only lasted until  keith passed out, Lance could smell the gas and held his breath. Two masked figures walked into the room, Hunk  over the taller ones shoulders and  pidge hung limp on the small figure’s frame.    

Lance got a shot off in the small stranger whom had put Pidge in danger, before he also fell from lack of oxygen . The small one fell revealing the face of Haggar, bleeding out.

“ My son! Help your mother! Do not forsake me, Lotor!” Haggar cried, reaching with her free hand, holding Pidge over her wound.  The tall galra hybrid dropped Hunk and kicked Haggar.

“ Witch! Your mother privilege died the day you left me on Karanax , now you can die here, today. Things might have been different if you were Galra…”  Lotor  grabbed lance and keith, leaving the rest to the sentries.

When everyone woke, they were chained to the floor in Galra main command. Lotor stood before Allura, pulling some kind of liquid into a syringe. Lance saw an opportunity and took it. He grabbed a sentry gun and shot the chains from his friends, all the while tackling  Lotor to the ground.

Lotor snarled at Lance when he realized that the syringe was empty and stuck in his neck. “This was not meant for YOU!”

“Get to the lions! Tell blue I’ll get to her after I wipe the floor with this guy!”, Lance yelled, more to Keith than anyone else. Keith led the team to the hangar where Shiro and Matt had apparently been coordinating an attack through the lions. An attack that Lance had been leading apparently, having the strongest out of all the lion bonds, having reached out with Blue and Black to find Shiro.

Shiro, Matt and Keith all snuck back to the main bridge where a horrible sight unfolded before them, Lance vomiting multiple times, and blood spewing from his mouth. Lotor kicked him again and again while he fought for breath, until he stilled and quieted.

“ It’s funny, the virus I was going to inject into the Altean, only affects Alteans; right now, your response to it, confirms my suspicions. You… Are… Part… Altean… it’s your human side that makes you so weak that it’s only killing you that much faster… It would have infected Allura, then Coran, from there it would evolve and start hunting your fellow paladins before it began killing. Now, you will introduce it to both species, well done my little half-bred carrier… Wait, don’t die yet… you’re missing something,” Lotor chastised Lance as he picked him up by the face” I know what it isss!” Lotor sang in a childish way that made keith and shiro’s stomachs churn. He dug his clawed thumbs into Lance’s cheeks, blood slowly dripping to the floor.

The sight of Lotor laughing as he carved into the blue beauty’s face sealed the deal. Matt was half-way down the bridge before Shiro noticed that he had gone, “ TUCK AND ROLL, BITCH!” Matt screamed as he used his staff to throw Lotor into the lower deck, smirking when he heard him go splat against the metal hull of his ship.

Shiro ran to Lance as he once did cycles ago when he was almost blown to bits. Lance used what little energy he had to drag himself away from shiro, inch by bloody inch.

“ Stay… Awa- … ay, Shii- Hirro. Let… me… di-hiii… here. “ Lance wheezed, pushing Shiro away, to the best of his highly impaired ability. Well push isn’t the right word, more like gingerly touched Shiro’s helmet, before his arm fell to Shiro’s side. Lance’s breathing grew even more faint and laboured.

Keith watched helplessly paralyzed as Blue ripped into the bridge and pitifully roared at her motionless cub before she told Shiro to get out of the way. Blue did something almost unthinkable… she froze Lance… she then lay with her maw open so Matt could drag the Frozen body into a real cryostasis pod somewhere inside of her mechanical body.

Shiro yelled for Keith to get to Red. The two ran to their Lions, both trying to get the image of a practically dead Cuban out of their heads… it was twice as hard for Shiro, he saw every detail: the blood beginning to dry and turn brown crusting his jaw, which hung horrifically slack yet firm, his half lidded glassy red eyes that filled with tears; he didn’t want to go, he wasn’t ready, he still had, no has, he��s going to survive this, he still has too much to learn and see and do… his eyes have seen some of the worst that the universe had to offer, but he still looked for the best in people. God… he’s too young, they’re all too young… none of them have tried alcohol or even their first cigarette… has he even kissed anyone outside of family? They’re all just so young, 19 is too quiznacking  young to carry the weight of the universe on your shoulders if you ask Shiro. “ Let me die here”  he was delirious from the blood loss, he didn’t actually want to die…. But Shiro knew the feeling from his time in the ring, the beg of the weaker defeated opponents, they had been through the wringer so many times that they begged for death…. He spent many sleepless nights questioning the morality of it; was it too cruel to try and save them? Or did killing them make him a monster?

He didn’t want to think about his sins as Lance lay dying. God, why couldn’t it be him? There were plans in place in the likely event that he died. Black was reluctant to let Keith pilot her when Shiro was gone, would Blue ever let anyone in again if anything worse happened to Lance. Lance, his sharpshooter, his friend, his confident, his partner in crime when it came to sleepless nights roaming the halls…

Lance was rushed into a healing pod for the time being, to keep him in cryostasis and to heal as much as it could.

They put Lance next to Haggar; who was apparently Coran’s wife, eons ago, in cryostasis. When her wounds were sufficiently healed Pidge threw her into the airlock for interrogation.

“ Antidote. Now.” Pidge hissed at the Altean witch. Haggar never said a word, she just struggled against her restraints.

“ Start talking or start bleeding, Isasdejo… your druids broke easily, just a couple of shocks from my Bayard and they hummed like baby klanmeurls . They told us everything that they know, but you kept the antidote from them… Coran is so disappointed in you”  Pidge said softly, caressing Haggar’s face, after back handing her cheek. Haggar looked severely distressed and Pidge smiled even as her lips trembled. “ If you don’t start talking soon, I’ll have to switch to some of the less savory methods…. Let’s stick to water techniques, it is Lance, CORAN’S FAVORITE PALADIN, who’s dying of your virus… let’s see, there’s …. The classic waterboarding… even more classic, Chinese drip torture… a tide chamber would work wonderfully. Any thoughts or suggestions sweetheart? “

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Get this crazy girl away from me though, Coran! CORAN! COOORRRRRAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!” Haggar screamed and shrieked.  Keith high fived Pidge on his way into the room.

“So about that antidote, what do we need to save Lance? “ Keith said in a low gravelly growl.

Haggar hung her head as she explained the potion to Keith who began to write everything down on his hand with a small blade, he wasn’t actually trying to hurt himself,he just didn’t think anything through and he kinda figured that if he carved into himself in front of Haggar she would be less likely to lie to him, “ pure quintessence, liquid scaultrite, the blood of loved ones, tears of those who hate you… and a kiss. You can’t just swig the potion either; he has to have one spoon full at a time, he must swallow every drop of the last before he can have the next dose… he has to drink the whole thing. Someone has to stay with him and keep his temperature up as he’s taking it, he can’t stop until the bottle is finished”

It took a while to collect the ingredients but in about a week it all came together, minus the blood and kiss. There was a thirty minute debate about whether or not they were close enough to give the blood and Haggar was no help, the bickering continued until Lance fell out of the healing chamber screaming and writhing in agony as his ears stretched to about twice their original size and black marks spread from the deep scars on his cheeks. Shiro dug his cybernetic arm under Lance and stuck out his flesh arm, “Coran, we don’t have time to get blood from his family, we’ll have to do,” Shiro hissed after kissing Lance’s temple,” he’s burning up, hunk, go fill the largest bowl you can find with cold water and ice, pidge, there are cloths we can use as compresses in my room, go get those, Keith, Matt, make sure Haggar doesn’t use the chaos to escape, Allura, infuse the potion with quintessence”

Lance began thrashing around like a fish out of water and screamed in Spanish, loud enough for the whole ship to hear, “ LO SIENTO MADRE, NO PUEDO TOCAR LAS ESTRELLAS PARA TI, ESTOY CAYENDO. AYÚDAME MADRE!”

Everyone’s blood made it into the potion and a spoonful was given to Lance, the results were not what they expected by any means…. His fever dropped drastically, but he started gagging, and his hair was starting to turn white at the roots. Shiro couldn’t help but cry as he helplessly shoved spoonful after spoonful of the concoction into Lance.

The 19 year old was a coughing shivering mess, once again trying to squirm away from the 26 year old.

“ C'mon buddy, just a few more spoonfuls, okay? You can do this, please don’t make me.explain to both your mom and Blue why you aren’t coming back…. Tell you what, if you can get better, we’ll go back home to Earth, we’ll see family, have a fiesta, how does that sound?”  Shiro cooed and pleaded with Lance.  Lance opened his mouth a couple more times before he mumbled out a faint,”Salve María llena de gracia, el Señor es contigo, bendita eres entre las mujeres y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre Jesús. Santa madre de Dios ora por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de la muerte amén” After finishing the prayer he managed to find the strength to open his eyes” Por qué … ¿por qué es tan brillante? Está haciendo que me duela la cabeza. Alguien por favor, apague el sol” Hunk  shifted so he blocked most of the light hitting Lance’s face. “ Muchas Gracias, amigo… waiiittt” Lance moaned bleary swiveling his head unsure of his surroundings now that he had finished the bottle of straight up nastiness” Estoy con los vaqueros del espacio” Hunk snickered at the nickname, Kalteneker was somewhere around the castle, they would have to take a picture with her now, dressed up like cowboys, on top of their Paladin Armour.

“You going to be okay, Lance?  Let’s go ahead and put you to bed, we can go home when you wake up…” As Shiro rose from the floor with Lance in his arms Pidge took polaroid after Polaroid.

When Shiro was about to leave Lance all rolled up in blankets like a burrito, Lance reached out and dragged him into his bed with him

“Stay… please… I’m afraid of not waking up again.”  Shiro nodded and cradled his head. Both he and Lance has been strong enough for the whole team for too long.  

When Lance woke up Shiro was snuggled into his chest, listening to his heart beat  with his flesh hand resting on his collar bone,  double checking Lances pulse. Lance kissed the metal arm he was clinging to for dear life. “ Thank you, I thought for a while that the safety I feel around you was the dream, and I was going to wake up alone at any moment”

Matt shoved his head through the door,” yo, lovers! I mean, losers! Wait, no I don't… nevermind… listen, we have to try to explain​ what happened to the Garrison before we can ​go anywhere..”

Before they entered Earth’s atmosphere, Keith tried to take a moment with Lance, “ Hey, if you ever need to talk about, well lineage, I guess..  I’m here for you… if you need to talk”  Lance started to almost panic. “ Keith I get what you are trying to do, I really do. But we come from different backgrounds, you knew for a while that your mom, who you hardly knew, was Galra. Your dad explicitly said that your mom was ‘ simply out of this world’ where else could you take that, especially after finding out that you’re Galra?! I knew every aspect of my family, not one of them has done or said anything remotely Altean… for all I know I could be adopted… all I know for sure now is that my life so far has been a lie. I don’t even know if any of my siblings are my real siblings, or my parents”  Lance fell to his knees and sobbed unconsolably for 20 minutes. He stopped when they landed in the Garrison launch pad.

Once the awkward, “ yes, we fly giant space lions and ended an intergalactic war that’s been going on for the past 10,000 years without you having a clue.” Speech was concluded, there was a brief momentary address to the president, lead by  Lance.” Mr President, we have seen the worst there is in space, I nearly died about three times in the span of a week, and so, I have lost all sense of censorship or formalities and I’ve come to say this to you, right here, right now…. fuck you, you egotistical dickwad” the president hung up the video call, remembering that the whole conversation was televised. Lance dabbed. “ I’ve been wanting to say that ever since he got elected, no sexist racist pig is going to live and not get an earful from me!” , Lance somehow managed to say between giggles and high fiving Pidge.

Eventually ​they made their way to Lance’s home in the pampas, Lance sitting in the backseat, teaching coran and allura the lyrics to don’t cry for me Argentina, grabbing a desert Rose on the way.

“ I’M HOME!” Lance called out. Hunk dragged everyone about six steps back as a swarm of young kids enveloped him. Hunk did a headcount  and  paled, “ shit! They shipped in the extended family! Everybody back!”  then Lance was bombarded with aunts and uncles and sisters and brothers and cousins. The assembly completely blocked the door until his mother walked through the parting crowd.” Mi precioso hijo, qué te han hecho … nunca debiste haber ido a ese maldito lugar, oré por ti todos los días … ¿sentías mis oraciones?”   Hunk fawned over the stocky woman’s words from a distance, Lance teared up when she placed her hands on his face, fingers in his mostly white hair with brown tips, and thumbs over his  scars. “ Sí Mamá, sentí tus oraciones, me salvaron la vida mientras estaba tocando una estrella para ti mamá. Y mira, por todos mis problemas, la estrella me tocó de nuevo. Ja, ja, tengo amigos ahora mama. Conoces a Hunk y Pidge, conoce a Shiro, Keith, Matt, Sam, Cora-”  Lance’s mom interupts his introductions by throwing her arms around Allura and Coran. The real shocker came when she began to shift form.

She had much darker skin, long flowing blue hair, and was incredibly tall.

“ Mum, you were here on Earth this whole time? I thought you died on Altea,  decaphebes ago… wait, you came here to earth and joined a new family, did you ever think about us?”, Allura asked hurt by her eyes which betrayed her, spilling tears she never meant anyone else to see.

“ Oh, darling… I thought about you every day, I had to start this family to keep myself and  Akatanine alive here on Earth, we lived with her human mate and child for a while, until the government came around looking for us. We had to leave them, she was crushed. Then, I met Antonio and he really helped me get over the loss of Altea, and Akatanine’s family and sanity. I never once stopped thinking about you, your father was a fool, prompting fighting between Zarkhan and Dossantos. It cost us all so many dear friends… “ a face appeared in the attic window, the Asian-hispanic woman looked like she had just been woken from a cat nap by all the commotion.  Lance tapped his mother on the shoulder and took Allura by the arm to face her,

“ ¡Espera … quieres decirme que he coqueteado con mi hermanastra! ¿Quién es este Akatanine? Es que Rosita Flora Pequeña? La loca borracha que vive en el ático? ¡Quién salta por la ventana, Dios mío!”  Lance screamed as Rosita jumped out of the window and stuck the superhero landing, turning purple and furry as she ran to embrace Keith. “ You know what, now all the drinking and the crying and the babbling at small purple things makes sense”, Pidge mumbled as Akatanine nuzzled her face into Keith’s  hair. Poor Keith was stunned, the half Galra teen couldn’t move a muscle.

“ Mother used ‘cuddle’. It was effective.”, Shiro snickered.

Lance walked into ​the house with his family and almost screamed again seeing all the prayer candles lit in the living room/ common bedroom. Each candle had either Jesus, Guardian Angels, or the Virgin Mother; as well as Lance’s name and picture taped to them. Shiro smiled when he looked at some of the low, lit candles. The ones his mother had lit all had different baby pictures.

Lance only now got a good look at whom he had thought his mother was. Her long light blue hair reached her back, her skin was about three shades darker than normal, and her arms legs and cheeks were more defined and adorned by dark blue marks, much like his were adorned by black and white marks.” Let’s see, hunk is clearly Yellow’s new Paladin, Green must have chosen  Miss Pidge over there, cuddly over there looks like a red Paladin, tall, strong and posterboy must be the leader here… and my lance doesn’t belong to any of them but Blue… How accurate am I, spot on, right? I was the Blue Paladin first, so I know our ladies fairly well!”, Lance and Allura’s mom elbowed Shiro in the ribs lightly.

“Actually we kinda switched up after Shiro disappeared, I was the Black Paladin for a time and lance piloted Red for me and Allura took Blue on the rare occasion we needed her to form Voltron.”, Keith spoke up from the swarm of Lance’s sisters and occasional brother who were all cuddling him,” It was kind of scary, his bayard went from a gun to a huge battle axe, we had no idea how calculated his every move was until he abandoned that to be the impulsive instinctual Paladin Red needs.” Mama looked like she was about to cry,” That was a mistake, Allura should have taken Red, Blue Takes the most empathetic and strategic Paladin… That’s what kept Lance in America while all of us were deported.. He was a strategic genius.”

“Well he was really brash when we got here, too! He even told off the president on live television. See,” Pidge sat in front of Mama and opened the video

“    Mr President, we have seen the worst there is in space, I nearly died about three times in the span of a week, and so, I have lost all sense of censorship or formalities and I’ve come to say this to you, right here, right now…. fuck you, you egotistical dickwad” the president hung up the video call, remembering that the whole conversation was televised. Lance dabbed.     ‘ mmmm whatchasaaaayy’ played behind Lance’s smile as someone dropped the deal with it shades on his smirking face”  Mama’s hand rose and was promptly filled with a flip-flop from one of Lance’s brothers. “ Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggh, la chancla !!!!!!!!!” Lance yelled as he ran to the far side of the house, the rest of the family, including the Paladins almost died laughing.

Marina; Lance’s older sister, who had perpetually red hair, due to being full Altean, as it was later revealed, felt it was necessary to embarrass her brother further and took a large cardboard box full of junk by the couch, his full length Kerberos Mission™ poster strategically placed so that Shiro’s face encircled with red lipstick was visible to the pilots on the couch.

“Hey, guys, I’m burning Trash,  anything you want to get rid of?”

Lance lunged for the poster, knocking it into Shiro’s hands.” Not that, Space Baby.” Lance deadpanned. Shiro unfurled the long glossy paper, careful to not smudge the lipstick that formed a heart around his face.

“ I forgot that the Garrison made these! Oh God, this is adorable… is it okay if i keep this?”, Shiro asked in between chuckles,” So… lance, ummm, there’s a feminism march going on tomorrow at the capitol building, I was going to… ask… You to uhhh… maybe… iffff yoouu wantedtoo maybe? Hopefully? “, Shiro covered his eyes, he was struggling with one of the easiest things in the world” GOOUTWITHMETOIT,LIKEONADATE! dear god that was a disaster.” there are no words in the room. Shiro, fearless leader, just got so flustered he almost screwed up asking out lance… oh yeah and he just asked out lance! “Sure, why not?” lance chirped nonchalantly, trying to hide the circles his head was running in.

Oh, my God. the whole thing was a glorious disaster. Shiro had  painted white streaks everywhere Lance had black and white streaks.  Lance had his mother and his sister hoisted onto his shoulders, Shiro supported Pidge and Allura as they stood in the palms of his hands, the show off. Everyone in the rally aside from the Paladins and family wore blue shirts, sweaters, binders , and sports bras with the caption “ Fuck you, you egotistical dickwad”  inscribed in black curly letters. Lance wore a black “I’m with the gay space ranger “  crop top showing off every dash of sharp contrast on his skin. Shiro wore a blue, get this, mesh tank… remember the 90’s? Now you do. With “ I kissed a hero”  hand embroidered onto it; Keith suspected Galra arm use.  Pidge wore a “ Kick Ass, Go to Space, Piss People Off Because I’m Aro/Ace” sweatshirt, it’s freezing out here, dammit, Lance. Keith rode piggyback on Hunk, not cuz he’s gay or anything though, no, no ,no, it’s just… his legs are too short, there it’s been said… he wears an unironic “ I want to believe “ shirt. Hunk is wearing a cute red Magic School Bus tank top, that came right out of his closet. Sophia wore a Carrie Fisher tee shirt and Marina wore a “  Don’t Make me overthrow the feudal system that you call government” dress.  Allura wore a dress that Lance had knitted for her all in one night and looked like she could snap a man in half and they would thank her. Coran wore a denim jacket with “space uncle” and a moustache on it’s back. “

“And that is how the most favorable outcome of this situation plays out”, Slav says as he closes the hologram projection of the best possible reality. “ I cuss out the president…”  Lance said with a worrying amount of glee.  “ Dude, you almost die, like three times in the best scenario… that doesn’t phase you?” Keith probes, quite concerned. “ Nah, I almost die every time I walk out of my bedroom… that stopped phasing me after I got blown up… I’ve accepted the fact that not even death wants me… but that asshole deported my family before the Kerberos mission… I’d love to cuss him out! I actually have been plotting with Shiro and Matt so things might work out in our favor if we stick to the script… C'mon buddy, let’s go train so I can be a badass.” Keith wouldn’t tell anyone just how terrified he was… of seeing Shiro in the blue mesh tank again.

[twilighteve-writes]

Of Seas, of Streams, of Falling Rain, of Naval Hurricane

Summary: “I should tell the others,” he whispered to himself, like he did every morning since he got the ability, despite knowing that this day-cycle would probably end the way other day-cycles did. Namely, with him not saying anything about this. The timing was just never right. Lance gets water/ice powers. He wants to tell the others, but either he has the worst timing in the universe ever, or Fate just likes to fuck with him. To be completely honest, he's leaning to the latter.

Inspired by this post by @lovelylangst.

My first Voltron fic, I hope I did okay. This got far longer than I first intended, so reading it from AO3 or FF.net may be easier for the eyes. If you choose to read this in tumblr, it’s under the cut.

He held his hand out, staring at the astral glow that shone gently like dancing fireflies. Without having to look at the mirror, he knew that his eyes shone the same glow – which he found out when he tested this out in front of a mirror, to be completely honest – blue, soft, otherworldly and yet not.

A tug from deep within him, and water appeared, flowing upwards and snaking along his arm in a stream. It was odd, how he could control this so easily by now, but considering he’d been practicing pretty much nonstop for about two months he probably shouldn’t be too surprised. Like always, he idly wondered where the water came from, as it seemed a bit of a stretch to assume it appeared out of nowhere. As usual, he pushed the thought aside to marvel at the ability.

With a sigh, Lance let go of the control he held over the stream, and it dropped for a fraction of a tick before vanishing without trace.

“I should tell the others,” he whispered to himself, like he did every morning since he got the ability, despite knowing that this day-cycle would probably end the way other day-cycles did. Namely, with him not saying anything about this.

The timing was just never right.

The Paladins had been trying hard, so hard, but things had been difficult. Everything was hard. Shiro had been missing for some time and there was no sign of him ever returning, no matter how hard the rest of the team had been trying.

But the universe didn’t wait for certain individuals. Chaos reigned still, as ten thousand years of oppression and destruction laughed in their faces for their feeble attempt to fix it all.

There was no way those ten thousand years could be undone in so little time.

Two weeks into Shiro’s disappearance, the team received a distress signal from a planet not too far away from where they were. Naturally, they rushed to help. It was a small planet, inhabited by humanoid aliens that looked solid yet liquid at the same time.

(Lance was trying to hard not to call them slime people. It was accurate, yes, but it made him feel as though they were low-tier monsters in a fantasy game. They were not low-tier monster in a fantasy game.)

They were lucky, to be completely honest. The Galra fleet that attacked the planet was a small one, and they would be able to defeat it without having to form Voltron. However, a few ships had managed to land on the planet, so Lance quickly announced that he was landing, too, to prevent disaster. Keith barely got to give him the go-ahead before he shot away.

The planet, as it turned out, was an… interesting one. It was equal parts land and water, the two elements working in tandem and creating water canals both on and under ground that Lance immediately used as his personal highway, making use of Blue’s increased power and agility in water to spring attacks at the Galra soldiers and drones, easily laying waste on the enemies without damaging the city.

But then the decidedly small fleet whipped out a decidedly humongous laser cannon and aimed it to the shiny, sparkly earth-and-ice castle at the epicenter of the city. With no time to counter the shot the cannon sent, Lance was forced to take the brunt of the attack using Blue’s body. Fortunately, it worked, and the damage on the city was decidedly minimal, and Blue managed to fire a shot into the cannon’s muzzle and damaged it instantly. Unfortunately, the attack put Blue out of commission, so Lance had to go out and fought the Galra soldiers on his own, without Blue’s comforting support buzzing at the back of his head and empowering his moves.

The battle passed in a blur of cries, screams, whizzing shots, laser blasts finding home on the Galra’s temples, foreheads, chests, necks,… And suddenly he was keenly aware that there was no longer any Galra around, that his whole body was shaking with exhaustion and adrenaline crash, that the natives of the planet were approaching him carefully, showing placating gestures and coaxing him to lower his bayard.

“It’s alright,” one of them said, their voice an interesting mix between popping bubbles and soft whispers. “All the Galra are gone. It’s alright.”

Lance wasn’t ashamed to say that he fell flat on his face as relief flooded through his veins.

The rest of the team then landed on the planet, and the aliens brought them to the castle, where Allura both berated and commended Lance on his actions in the whole operations. “To immediately notice how the Galra had gone to the planet on a moment’s notice and immediately take action to counter it is something I’d feel very proud in,” she had said, tone pleased yet exasperated at the same time. “However, Lance, please do remember to take your own safety into account as well.”

Lance had nodded and hummed along, though most of the lecture went over his head. The exhaustion was hard to plow through. The aliens – the Neranese – provided them with food, water, and helped heal their relatively minor injuries. It was only hours later, after a period of rest, that Lance felt enough like himself again to actually pay attention to the Neranese and began flirting. He didn’t see any features that really distinguished the male and female Neranese, so he went screw it and just flirted with absolutely everyone.

Including the prince. Oops?

But then said prince pulled him aside, wishing to speak with him privately. So… score?

The whole thing had a serious and heavy vibes permeating the atmosphere though, so Lance wasn’t entirely sure if this was truly a good thing or not.

“I want to thank you personally,” said the prince once they were alone. “You risked your Lion and your life to protect my people. It means a lot to us.” His voice was the same bubble-popping-and-whispers that the Neranese sounded like, but his was a little smoother, less of bubbles popping and more of ocean foam subsiding, like the soft caress of the softest baby bird’s feather.

Lance laughed softly and shook his head. “It’s nothing, Your Highness. I’d hate to see you and the rest of the planet hurt. Besides, it isn’t just me. All of my friends fought the battle too.”

The prince hummed. “Nevertheless, it was you who personally fought down here, abandoning the safety your Lion provides to protect us, and made your last stand to defend the castle. Let me present you a gift in the name of my people, Paladin.”

“I, ah. It’s very generous of you, but really…” Lance squirmed, not wholly sure how to refuse.

“Please, Paladin. I insist.” The prince gave what must have been a form of Neranese smile, and Lance crumbled. How could a race that was pretty much a human-shaped semi-translucent blob look so adorable?

The prince extended his hands and gestured for Lance’s, so he put his hands in the prince’s, silently marveling at how Neranese body felt like cool water yet solid enough to hold and left no wet trail behind.

“We would give the same gifts to the other Paladins, but only your quintessence is compatible to ours,” the prince began as soft bluish glow began to envelope their hands. “We have heard of the stories of old, of Voltron the warrior that defended the universe, and the five lions and formed it. We have heard how each lion holds the quintessence of certain elements and how their paladins’ mirrored theirs. We have heard of the Blue Lion, the Guardian of Water, and know that us Neranese share an affinity with the Blue Lion and its paladin, even long before we’ve seen them.”

Lance stared at the prince quizzically, noticing that his eyes were a shade of blue-green that reminded him of the Earth’s ocean, gleaming and sparkling brilliantly under the shine of the summer sun. “Um…”

The prince continued as though Lance never said anything. “With time, a paladin’s bond with their Lion strengthens, and along with that the paladin would be able to reach deep into their quintessence and used the elements they are closest with as they wish. You, Blue Paladin… you are of water and ice, and you are very close to being able to use them. However, it would be difficult. I wish to give you a push – a boost, if you will – so you will be able to wield your powers safely and efficiently, and so you could be granted access of it a bit more quickly.”

“Wait, hold on, time out!” Lance winced back, though he didn’t pull his hands away. “What do you mean, safely and efficiently? Granted access? I don’t understand, like, seventy percent of what you’re telling me.”

“You will be able to hold elemental powers, but for someone who does not know how to control it or is not familiar with it, it could be dangerous,” the prince explained. “You will be able to wield it, but without knowledge over water and ice it could endanger you and the people around you. I am merely giving you the instinctual information my people has over water and ice so the danger would be minimalized.” He gave that smile again. “It is a safety measure, if you will.”

Lance wanted to ask more, but a sudden sharpness in the glow on their hands stopped him, as the words died and was replaced by a surprised gasp. The flow of light climbed up in abstract patterns, swirling and waving in a manner that reminded Lance of ocean waves, of river streams in meadows, of falling rain in hills, of whirlpools in a naval hurricane. The glow wrapped around him in a cocoon, filling his mind with the secrets of the sea and infusing his skin with the knowledge of how to wield it. Around him, it felt as though the flow had turned into the true Earthen ocean, swirling around him in a current that both made him feel safe and wary, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the view. He wanted to imprint the luminescent illusory sea into his mind, as he knew its beauty wasn’t eternal, and it could be gone in a blink. It was ethereal, yes. Yet it was also ephemeral.

As quickly as it appeared, the light receded into itself, clinging to Lance’s skin and seemingly sunk into him before vanishing completely. As it did, waves of exhaustion suddenly crashed into him, and Lance swayed a little before catching himself, blinking rapidly and shaking his head. “Whoa.”

“I should have warned you of that. The transferal could result in extreme fatigue on the receiver’s end,” the prince said apologetically, staring at him in concern. When he spoke again, his voice held more pop, laced with worry. “Do you feel alright, Paladin?”

“I think I’m okay,” Lance answered with a nod and immediately contradicted himself when he stumbled, feeling as though everything was suddenly upside-down. “Okay, I take that back.”

“Perhaps it is best if you rest,” the prince advised, gently leading him back to the room that had somehow transformed into the Paladins’ and the Alteans’ communal bedroom, as they dropped before they could be escorted into their private quarters.

“Probably, yeah,” Lance’s words were already slurring, and part of him was already halfway to the dreamland. If he had been more awake, he’d feel embarrassed that the prince of a planet he’d just helped save was pretty much carrying him to bed, but he was more interested in actually being asleep to care.

The next morning, he was the last to wake, and Allura was already speaking with the king and queen of the planet to work on possible alliance. The prince didn’t talk to Lance again, too preoccupied by his own duties to spend time with the Paladins. At times, Lance would feel a tug deep within him, or a tingle on his fingertips. Nothing happened.

What the Neranese prince had given him slipped his mind.

When Lance realized that he really could control water and ice, his first reaction was to smile wide, wide, because maybe with this he could be more helpful in combat, maybe he wouldn’t have to rely on long-ranged weapon so much, maybe he could actually do well in hand-to-hand combat.

The second reaction was, more or less, Holy Quiznak I need to tell the others but how.

He wanted to tell the others, very much so. Something like this could help so much in their battles, it could change the way they create plans since the advantages and disadvantages of the power could be game changing.

But should he really? Everyone was so focused on other things, and he wouldn’t want to break their focus. There was so much they were doing. Liberating planets, making diplomatic connections, maintaining the connections, generally protecting the universe. Being on alert to look for Shiro and the Holts, jumping to action with each new hints and clues of their whereabouts were and coming back deflated when they couldn’t find them yet. Him telling something like this could very easily break that focus, creating ripples in the calm routine and they’d have to seek a new pattern that fit his new variable into account.

It could take too long. It could put someone in danger.

He couldn’t take that risk.

He should, though. The risk could be worth the results. He knew how powerful water and ice could be when used properly. It could potentially save so many, but only after he could use it properly.

With that in mind, Lance started to train. It was hard to control, at first. He tended to let loose too much energy that a snowflake ended up being a huge icicle, or too little that a flood ended up a measly trickle. But Lance was patient. He trained, again and again, over and over, until he could manipulate his quintessence as easily as he could breathe, until he could summon a tiny little drop of water or the angriest of blizzards as easily as he could smirk. A part of him knew immediately that without the Neranese prince’s gift he wouldn’t be able to do all this so easily, so quickly, and he mentally sent his thanks to the Neranese.

Then, and only then, did he feel comfortable enough to try telling the others.

His chance came in a strategic meeting as they planned their moves to free another colonized planet. It was yet another planet rich with water quintessence, its surface littered with marshes, puddles, and seas. The Galra had built a sort of base above the water level and had the natives of the planet work for them, mining minerals deep under the mud. The inhabitants’ eel-like slick bodies could easily dig deep to mine the minerals, which was apparently one of the most important materials to build ion cannons.

“We need to sneak in, go to the control room, and make sure all the drones are incapacitated before we could proceed to the next phase,” Allura had said. “This Galra base is a little outdated, given that the drones are still controlled from the control room, unlike the newer drones that work on autopilot. If we could put the drones out of the equation, we’d save so much trouble and energy freeing this planet.”

Lance’s eyes swept through the holographic maps that showed them the planet’s surface. He could sense his eyes lighting up when he realized how much water was on the surface and how he could use it to his advantage. “Princess, if I may?” he cut in excitedly. “What about we just draw all drones out to the open instead, near the mud plains? It’s closer to where we’d be landing, and it looks like it provides enough cover for us all to dart around. I mean, it’ll save us the trouble of sneaking into the control room, considering the amount of security cameras it has, and there’s only one officer in charge, so we could probably wipe them all out easily.”

Allura sighed tiredly. “We have considered this, Lance. While it is a nice plan, it is not sound. There are too many Galra drones in the area, and you four fighting them all by yourselves would tire you out before the actual fight.”

“No, no, the thing is I can probably wipe them all out by myself,” Lance bounced on his heels excitedly. “So if the drones are out of commission – “

“Wait, hold on,” Allura cut him off. “Are you saying that you would fight the Galra in the planet? All by yourself?” It was easy to catch the disbelief in Allura’s voice.

Lance drew back a little. “Um, I know it sounds really far-fetched, but seriously, I can deal with all of them at once. Probably. Do you remember the Neranese? Well, the prince gave me – “

Allura held up a hand. “Lance, this is an important mission, and while I appreciate your bravery and confidence I cannot rely on probabilities to run it. And please, do try to be more serious. I understand that you like to play the hero and have your moment of glory, but at your current abilities facing off so many drones at once would be suicide.”

Lance winced, but he wasn’t willing to let this go just yet. “But Princess, really. I can face them all! I can now control – “

“Lance,” Allura huffed in annoyance, and Lance stopped talking at once. “I don’t want to lose another Paladin. We need a solid plan for this mission to be successful. Have I made myself clear?”

With a frown, Lance stepped back and nodded. It was easy to see that his input wasn’t wanted. “Crystal, Princess,” he said, even though he still wanted to argue with the plan.

“Good,” Allura nodded and casted her gaze on the holographic maps once again. “Now, perhaps it would be best if Keith and Pidge could check the perimeter for us…”

Okay, so Allura didn’t listen to him. That was fine, it was his own fault that he said something like that in the middle of important strategic meeting anyway. He’d be skeptical too if someone suddenly said they could wipe out a fleet of Galra drones. He should have picked a better time for it.

So he turned to his main man, Hunk. Hunk was an amazing listener. He could count on Hunk to hear him out and maybe help him relay the information to the rest of the team.

“Hunk, can I talk to you for just a second?” Lance had asked the Yellow Paladin a few days after the last mission with the eel-like aliens.

“Huh?” Hunk looked up from the batch of cookies that he was pulling out of the oven and met his eyes. “Yeah, sure, buddy. What’s up?” he asked as he continued his motions to get the cookies out and started to cool them, looking like he was just half-listening. He’d been baking more of them lately – probably a coping mechanism from the stress they were all under.

It was a good thing that he did, though. These days, it was one of the only things that actually brought the rest of the team together, other than training, combat, and after training or after combat wind down, unlike the times when they all just hung out together in the lounge with Shiro.

“Well, you remember the strategic meeting a few days ago, right? When I said I could probably wipe out all the Galra drones?” Lance began nervously, fidgeting a little.

“Yeah?”

“Well, the thing is… the reason I said that was because I can kinda sorta control water and ice, and – “

His words were cut off when Pidge stumbled into the kitchen, glasses askew and a wild look in her eyes. No doubt she’d been messing around with more Altean tech, as was her usual activity which doubled in intensity since Shiro’s disappearance. “I smell peanut butter cookies!” she declared, casting her gaze around, looking like a hungry animal. “Dibs!”

“Pidge, you can’t eat them just yet,” Hunk huffed, the importance of Lance’s words swept over by the enthusiasm Pidge showed. “They’re still too hot.”

“Who’s just called dibs on Hunk’s cookies?” Keith’s voice suddenly rang out as he dashed into the kitchen, all sweaty and messy, probably stopping his training because heard Pidge running about and wanted to know what was happening. “No one can call dibs on Hunk’s cookies. First comes first served!”

Lance had long since realized that with all this commotion about cookies, he wouldn’t be able to tell Hunk anything, so instead he decided to join the fray about the food. “Well, Mullet, if we go by that logic then I have the rights to eat Hunk’s cookies, like, right now!” He reached for the cookies and was immediately slapped with Hunk’s spatula, while the Red and Green Paladins rushed forward with shrieks of protest, practically fighting for the cookies. Not surprising, given Hunk’s cookies were to die for.

It was only later, after the whole cookie fiasco was over and everything had been eaten that Lance remembered he didn’t get to tell Hunk anything. He glanced over at his friend, but seeing that Hunk was tiredly tidying up the kitchen, Lance decided it wasn’t the time to push his problems on his friend and opted to help him clean up so Hunk could rest soon. He could always tell him another time.

He never got to tell him, though.

The third time he tried to tell the team was when they were all lounging together after a gruesome practice session, resting. Keith had looked particularly worse off, with black circling his eyes, indicating his lack of sleep and mounting stress.

“Dude, you need to rest more,” Hunk told Keith in distressed voice. “Your body can’t hold it any longer. How much sleep do you get a day?”

“Enough,” Keith replied, a little too quickly. At Hunk’s glare, he sighed and admitted, “Not enough.”

“You can’t just go on without rest, Keith!” Hunk protested, the same distress in his voice. “Just… rest, will you?”

“I can’t just go and rest when we still haven’t gotten Shiro back yet,” Keith shook his head, even though his voice went quieter with each word as exhaustion bled into his tone.

“We can’t have you falling over from fatigue either, Keith,” Pidge returned.

“I’m just trying to be better, okay?” Keith sighed. “Besides, Allura and I were talking a while ago, and she mentioned something about our bonds to our Lions not being strong enough to unlock the ability to manipulate the elemental quintessence we should be able to control.”

Other times, Lance would have zeroed in on the Allura and I were talking part, but the elemental quintessence part piqued his interest. “Controlling quintessence?”

“Yeah, basically she said that if our bond with our Lions is strong enough we’ll be able to use the elements they’re associated with without having to be piloting them,” Keith explained. “That could be useful. I really want to grill people’s faces off. It’s faster than hacking them with a sword.”

“Yeah, that kind of ability sure would come in handy,” Lance grinned. “Let’s see how fast you’ll be able to use yours, Keithy Boy.”

Keith snorted. “I’m sure I’ll master it before you do, Lance,” he said almost playfully, a teasing edge in his voice, and a little… underestimating? Which was kind of insulting, to be completely honest, but it was an improvement from his previous fatigue-laden speech.

But he didn’t let it get to him, because he knew he had the edge in this. The giddy excitement from victory filled Lance’s lungs, and his grin grew wider. “Ha, joke’s on you! I can do it really well already!“

“Yeah, right,” Keith scoffed good-naturedly, and Lance knew he didn’t mean to offend him because Keith literally didn’t know, but it stung.

“No, seriously. I can – “

Maybe Lance just wasn’t destined to tell the team. The first time, Allura cut him off because he was stupid enough to try to drop the info in the middle of a strategic meeting. The second time, it was it because of cookies. He was hoping for a third time’s a charm kind of thing going on, but when was Lance ever that lucky? No, instead of being able to let the words out, he was cut off by the alarm suddenly blaring violently, indicating that a battle was up ahead. That fight was easily won, and when the other Paladins chose to go to their rooms to rest, Lance went to the training room to vent.

Training to vent. Ugh, Lance felt like Keith, and they were supposed to be, like, opposite of each other.

Nevertheless, Lance was frustrated that he was interrupted every time he wanted to say something that could be important to his friends, and he wanted to vent. So he did.

After he set so that twenty drones would attack him at once, Lance put a stance and readied himself. Quickly, one by one, the white Altean battle drones dropped and made their way towards him. He took a deep breath and concentrated, feeling that now-familiar tug deep within him. Soft blue glow immediately enveloped his hands, and he slashed at the air. Ice immediately formed, trapping several drones in its freezing clutch.

More came, and Lance stomped powerfully. More ice formed, starting from the point where his foot connected to the floor and quickly grew in size and sharpness to pierce the oncoming drones. He knew more were coming, and he snarled wordlessly, extending his hands and lifting it up like a puppeteer. Water appeared out of nowhere, filling the room in a swirling current much like a whirlpool with Lance standing perfectly dry in the middle of all of it. Mentally, he pushed, and all the drones hit the wall with enough force for him to hear them crack despite the dampening quality of water. Now convinced that he had defeated them all, Lance let his hands drop to his sides. The water sloshed, almost touching and drowning him before vanishing to thin air.

He stood there alone, surrounded by piles of dripping wet drones, staring at the water thinly layering the floor. He sighed, still feeling restless and wondering if he should have another go at this when a voice reached his ears.

“…Lance?”

Lance suck in a sharp breath, going rigid in record time. After a moment, he licked his lips and turned around, forcing a stiff smile on his face. “…Hi, Coran.”

The Altean gazed around the room, mouth hanging open in surprise. “You… can manipulate the elemental quintessence already?”

Lance winced. “Um. Yes?”

Coran’s eyes found his. “Do the others know about this?”

Lance felt his shoulders sag and shook his head. “Not yet.”

Coran frowned. “Lance, my boy… you need to tell them.”

“I’m going to!” Lance assured him instantly. “I’ve been wanting to. But things always come up, and the others are always focused on so many more important things. I don’t want to bother them.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t bother them, Lance,” Coran assured. “In fact, what do you humans say? No time like the present? Let’s tell them now!”

“Wait, Coran, don’t!” Lance immediately latched to Coran’s arm to keep him from dashing off. “They’re all resting! Don’t disturb them!” He let go of Coran and stepped back a little. “I’ll tell them myself. In the morning, probably. Maybe. I dunno.” Seeds of doubt suddenly sprung within him, and he was suddenly unsure of his decision. “I mean, I still don’t want to make them all unfocused because of this announcement… and, you know, the whole unlocking new powers the closer you are to your Lion thing. I don’t want to make the others feel like their bond is weak.”

“But Lance, to be close enough to your Lion to be able to do this is could motivate the others to get to your level,” Coran argued. “A little bit of competition could be what we need for this team to be better. You should know that. You declare Keith as your rival all the time!”

Lance laughed. “This isn’t all me, Coran. I’m not… I didn’t unlock this ability myself. It’s more like it was given to me.”

Confusion and curiosity immediately shone in Coran’s eyes. “What do you mean?”

Lance blinked, considered, and ended up spilling everything to Coran even though he initially didn’t want to. He was easily his second most trusted person in the ship, the first being Hunk, so he wasn’t surprised to hear his words flowing easily, starting with the Neranese prince giving his the knowledge over water and ice thing, to how he trained as well as he could to the point that he could use water and ice as easily as summoning his bayard, to his frustration that the universe seemed to be against him telling the team.

Coran listened intently, nodding and humming in response but never once disrupting Lance’s flow. At one point, he had moved to envelope Lance’s hands in his, and the younger man nearly cried. When was the last time he even got comforted? When was the last time touches were a way to relay a message, something along the lines of I care for you and I want to help you however I can? Sure, he shared casual bumps and claps and nudges with the other Paladins, but never like this, and never as much as he hoped he could get. Ever since Shiro was gone, it all decreased to the point that Lance longed for it.

“Lance…” Coran began softly after Lance had finished talking, squeezing the Paladin’s hands gently, “From what I understand, the ability is solely yours. It’s not something the Neranese gave to you. The only thing they gave you was knowledge over water, and that helped, but this control? This ability to use the elements as you please? It’s your own.”

Lance gave a noncommittal noise, not agreeing yet not disagreeing, either.

Coran sighed. “Should I tell them in your place? It’s best to tell them as quickly as possible, my boy. Maybe this could help.”

Lance shook his head. “I appreciate it, Coran, but I have to tell them myself,” he explained. “I hope tomorrow I’ll be able to do it, but seriously, I need to tell them myself.”

“I wouldn’t mind helping a little,” Coran offered. “I can herd them into the lounge and keep them from running away.”

A small laugh escaped Lance’s lips before he could stop it. “Coran, they’re not sheep.”

Confusion made its way into Coran’s eyes. “Sheep?” he repeated.

“A kind of farm animal humans keep around,” Lance explained vaguely. “Thanks a lot for the offer, Coran, but I’d rather tell them without having to lock them up in a room so they’d stay around and listen to me. I’m sure things will work out, one way or another.”

Coran offered another smile, gave another squeeze, and finally left after he made sure Lance would rest. Apparently, he had checked on him after realizing he hadn’t returned to his quarters to sleep like the rest of the team and was in the training room instead of his more usual spots, like the observation deck.

Lance had grinned as he watched the Altean go. Ah, Coran, the kind, understanding, generally pretty much awesome guy, rivaled only by his ridiculously pure bro Hunk. What did he do to deserve people like them in his life?

Lance had seriously considered telling the team the next morning, he really did. But again, fate seemed to choose that specific time to fuck with his life decisions, for just as he opened his mouth to announce what he could do, Pidge barged into the dining room.

“Pidge? What’s wrong?” Hunk asked in confusion.

Pidge was panting, apparently having ran from wherever she had been bunkering in – she’d been harder and harder to find lately. She repositioned her askew glasses and took a deep breath, announcing urgently, “I know where Shiro is.”

Chaos reigned immediately.

The Galra ship was large, larger than most ships they’d have to fight or infiltrate before. It wasn’t particularly strange, since this ship was one of the prison ships, combined with the Druids’ kind-of-laboratory-but-not-really.

And Shiro was there, no doubt being experimented on by creepy Druids. In fact, Lance wouldn’t be surprised if Haggar herself was the one spearheading the experiment, given how she had declared the Champion as hers. Her little experiment, her best creation, her Champion. Which only emphasized the creepiness of the whole thing, and totally drove home how completely batshit insane and also incredibly, absolutely terrifying she could be. The nope nope factor she exuded from every orifice of her body was enough to drive a whole city running around like headless chickens, in Lance’s opinion.

Before going into the prison, the team had discussed their plan of action and decided that the best way to find out where Shiro was kept was to bang a drone upside the head, drag it into some corner, and had Pidge hack into it to retrieve info. If that plan was a no-go, their plan B was to sneak into the control room, also to retrieve info. With intel successfully gathered, they’d have easier time busting Shiro out, as well as the other prisoners. If that was impossible to do, their plan was to, essentially, let all hell break loose. And by hell, Lance meant prisoners. But that plan was unfavorable because the idea of letting all hell break loose was to have absolute chaos everywhere, and if they couldn’t find Shiro anywhere then chaos wouldn’t have helped them.

But apparently fate didn’t want to just fuck with Lance but all of the Voltron team, because that was exactly what happened. The best part was that they didn’t even have Shiro yet when all hell broke loose.

“What the hell happened?” Keith’s voice crackled through the comm, filled to the brim with confusion and maybe a touch of annoyance.

“Nooo idea,” Hunk sounded helpless, and Lance could feel his trepidation from the Paladin bond shared by the team. “What do we do? The Galra is beginning to shoot things. I don’t want to be shot!”

“From the security footage, it looks like someone decided they’re through being a prisoner and kind of just attacked while being transported to the experimentation wing,” Pidge’s voice sounded calm, but Lance could detect a hint of nervousness and admiration underneath it. “You go, four-armed muscle man of an alien dude.”

“Keith, what do we do?” Hunk asked again, and this time the pushing urgency in his voice spiked higher.

“Uhhh.” As usual, Keith’s initial answer was as eloquent as a fish gasping on land. “Try to direct as many of them as possible to an escape pod and have them go to the Castle? Is that alright, Allura?”

“That is absolutely fine,” Allura answered.

“What about Shiro?” Lance interjected. “Shouldn’t we try to find him?”

“I’ve been trying to hack into the database for a while, so I should find out where – got it!” Pidge yelled in triumph. “I know where he is. I’ll send the data to you guys.”

Immediately, the ship’s blueprint data showed itself in the protective glass of Lance’s helmet. He scanned the blueprint and sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m close to where he is. I should be able to get him.”

“I’m close to him too,” Keith announced. “I’ll go with Lance to make sure we can all get back safely… and just in case Shiro can’t really move around. Pidge and Hunk, try to get the prisoners to the pods.”

“On it,” Pidge answered at the same time as Hunk shouted, “Gotcha.”

“Looks like we’re doing this together, then, Mullet Man,” Lance remarked as he flitted through the throng of prisoners to where Shiro was, absently noting Keith’s position. “How’s the traffic on your end?”

“If you mean the prisoners, it’s kind of bad,” Keith answered. “Lots of people running about aimlessly. Hey, you guys! I’m the Red Paladin of Voltron! I need you to go to the pods and head to the white spaceship you’ll see outside. Go, now!”

Oh yeah, Lance was supposed to tell the prisoners too. He cleared his throat to grab the attention of several prisoners around him and bellowed, “Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Blue Paladin of Voltron speaking. If it’s not too much trouble for you, I need you all to go to the pods and head to the white space castle-ship thing outside. We can help you out.”

“How do we know if we could trust you?” a pink-skinned alien with three eyes and no nose asked warily.

Lance gasped dramatically. “Why, excuse you. Is the cool white and blue armor and the cool looking rifle-bayard not proof enough to you?” At the alien’s glare, he shrugged. “Eh, alright, I know I don’t have much of a proof aside from my words. But I assume people would want to get away from the Druids’ experiments, and I can assure you that we in the castle can help you guys.”

The alien’s gaze on him lingered for a moment before they called out to the rest, “Escape pod, people. Now.”

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Lance grinned cheerily before continuing his trek to Shiro’s cell.

Or. Not a cell. More like the Druid’s experimentation wing, to be completely honest. When Lance walked past the door leading to it, he had to freeze in his steps for a moment, staring at the sight in front of him with awe and dread mixing into one.

The hall was lit with the purplish light that seemed to be a constant theme with all the Galra ships. Tubes about the same size as the healing pods, reaching to the ceiling, lined the walls like pillars in a castle. Each of the tubes was filled to the brim with clear liquid, and some of them had specimens in them – humanoid aliens, weird little things that could probably count as space insects, pieces of gems, reddish in color. Lance gulped as he glanced at them and walked past, unsure if he could rescue the people in the tubes, or even if he should.

The hall as well as the map he was following led him to another room, circular in shape, where another tube stood in the middle. It was bigger than the other tubes lining the wall of the room, and within it was a familiar face. Shiro.

Lance’s breath caught. For a moment, he found himself unable to speak before he found his voice again and announced over the comm, “I found Shiro.”

“I’m on my way. I’ll get there in just a bit,” Keith’s voice carried over from the comm.

“Roger that. He’s inside some kind of weird giant test tube. I’ll look for a way to get him out.”

When the comm link fell silent, Lance pursed his lips and stared at Shiro. The Black Paladin curled into himself like a fetus in the test tube, looking almost like he was peacefully asleep if not for the cables and wires that poked into his skin in various places. The cables and wires extended into the floor and the ceiling, going to who knew where. A frown made its way into Lance’s face as he wondered if those would be hard to get rid of later.

In front of the test tube was a big table full of buttons, switches, and other things Lance wasn’t sure what to call. The table reminded Lance of some kind of sound system control table, or that table in the old Disney movie – Inside Out? Lance didn’t even know. At the very center of the table was a handprint reading machine, not unlike the ones needed to open the doors in the Galra ships, and Lance knew his best chance to get Shiro to safety was to wait until Keith came and had him open the tube for them.

It didn’t take long until Keith came barging into the room, bayard gripped at the ready, staring at Shiro with horror in his eyes. Lance, who had long since deactivated his bayard, immediately waved Keith over. “I saw this fingerprint machine thingy here, so I figured the tube could open up if you put your hand on it.”

Keith shook himself out of his shock and came over to Lance. “I… yeah. Yeah, sorry. Where is it again?”

“There,” Lance pointed at the screen with clawed Galra hand on it.

Keith immediately went over and put his hand on the pad. The hopes that the tube would open up for them was lost when nothing happened.

Keith pursed his lips. “We need Pidge,” he declared, and Lance nodded.

“Hey, Pidge? You there?” Lance asked over the comm link, hoping that the little tech gremlin was available to help them.

“Yeah, what is it?” Pidge’s voice came over immediately.

“We found Shiro, but he’s put in this weird testing tube machine thing, and we can’t do anything to open it up. Can you do it from your end?” Keith’s voice was thick with anxious need to get Shiro. He seemed seconds away from taking his sword to hack up the tube until it broke, but he reined himself back. They didn’t know what was in the tube, what was the liquid that held Shiro afloat. They didn’t know what it would do to them, and what it would do to Shiro.

“I need you to plug into the machine so I can work my magic, and then we’ll see what I can do.”

“Right,” Keith nodded and started looking for a way in. Lance joined immediately, finding a way to plug in, as Pidge put it, the way she did when they infiltrated that hidden Galra base right before Allura was taken.

“Alright, I’m going to need some time on this because it turns out to be a pretty complex system,” Pidge announced, “but I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“That’s all I ask, Pidge,” Keith nodded.

A few ticks passed, and Lance started tapping his foot on the floor to help with the jittery nervousness. As the constant tap-tap-tap became increasingly louder, Keith threw him annoyed look and hissed, “Would you stop that and be silent?”

“I can’t help it, I’m too tense!” Lance hissed back.

“Try not to make too much noise, someone might hear – “

As if on cue, the door to the far left of them whizzed open. They both turned, bayard at the ready and high on alert, and both froze for a moment when they realized who was standing at the door.

It was Haggar. It was the head witch herself.

“This day keeps getting better and better,” Lance muttered to himself.

“Shut up, don’t jinx us all,” Keith hissed once more.

“I see you are here to take my Champion,” Haggar spoke aloud, and the two Paladins tensed up again. “You should know by now that I will not let anyone take what is mine.”

Lance scrunched up his nose. Haggar was like, five percent Altean, five percent magic, ten percent evil, and eighty percent NOPE, and it was moments like this that drove that fact home. Saying Shiro was hers? Just nope.

“Shiro isn’t yours,” Keith denied heatedly at once, and Lance nodded approvingly by his side. Yes, yes, Keith, tell her. You go, man.

“I gave him everything that made him strong. He is as good as mine.” And there was that nope again.

“He’s still going to be strong even without you,” Lance declared. “He’s already strong even without that Galra arm. Stop saying he’s yours, because he’s not. Shiro belongs to no one but himself.”

Haggar gave a bark of laughter that made Lance jolt despite himself. “He is marked. That arm is proof that he belongs to the Galra empire. Nothing you can do to take him will change that fact.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll just have to see about that.”

“I’ve got it!” Pidge’s voice rang in the comm link, and Lance had never felt so much relief at hearing her voice. On cue, the mysterious liquid in the tube Shiro was in started to drain down, and then he was dangling by all the cables that stuck into his skin. Then they, too, one by one in quick succession detached, and all of a sudden Shiro was a crumpled heap at the floor of the tube. With a hiss, the tube opened, and both Keith and Lance were immediately at Shiro’s sides, pulling him out of the offending machinery. They both frowned at the blood that oozed from each and every spot the cables had poked Shiro’s body. Looked like he had to spend more time in the healing pod after this.

“So you would take my Champion after all?” Haggar’s voice rang quietly in the room, and Lance could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand. There was something in Haggar’s voice that hand changed, shifted somehow.

“He wasn’t yours to begin with,” Keith challenged the witch immediately.

“He is mine!” Purple lighting gathered in Haggar’s fingers and struck everywhere as she threw her arms up before slashing them down. The other tubes started cracking and breaking with loud shattering noise, and the liquid inside flooded the room immediately. The aliens inside pulled at the cables before standing upright, eyes glowing ominous Galra yellow, growl hammering in their throats.

“Get me my Champion back,” Haggar hissed, and each and every alien in the room growled in obedience.

Lance looked around to assess the situation. The aliens were at least eight feet tall each, all muscular and all bent to Haggar’s will. He glanced at Keith, and they seemed to have reached the same conclusion. Both shared a quick nod, turned, and dashed away from the room as fast as they could.

The controlled aliens quickly roared and chased. Panic and instinct immediately took over, and both Lance and Keith dashed faster, dragging Shiro as fast as they could away from there. As they ran through the corridor lined by more test tubes, they burst much like the other tubes in the circular room as soon as the Paladins passed them, leaving a mess of flooding clear liquid and pieces of crystalline glass as well as crawling and fidgeting creatures that immediately tried to grab the three of them. Nope, just nope.

Not only that, Lance was acutely aware of how Shiro remained unresponsive even through the general chaos, and he was sure Keith was as well. It added more to the urgency of their situation, and Lance didn’t like that.

“Guys!” a familiar voice called from ahead, and a smile bloomed in Lance’s face.

“Hunk, Pidge!” he called back. “You little pieces of Earthling miracles!”

Hunk took out his bayard and shot, barely even aiming at the aliens chasing Lance, Keith, and Shiro and managing to take out a large number of them. He quickly turned to Shiro, froze for a moment, and clenched his jaws. “Let me carry him,” he offered, deactivating his bayard. “I’m stronger than you, and we both need frontline fighters here.”

Keith let Hunk take Shiro into his gentle hands and activated his own bayard. “Our first priority now would be getting back. Let’s get back to our Lions.”

“It’s this way,” Pidge pointed to a direction.

“I’ll lead and slash away oncoming enemies, so direct me, Pidge,” Keith ordered. “Lance, guard our backs?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Lance asked back, already sending shots after shots to disable the aliens that tried to get to them still, having already set his bayard’s power level to hover somewhere above stun but definitely below kill.

“Uhhh, guys, I think we should do something before we move,” Hunk spoke up, suddenly sounding nervous, “cause I don’t think Shiro’s breathing.”

There was a pause for a split second before the four moved together, Hunk laying Shiro down on the floor and Pidge kneeling by them to offer assistance if needed and Lance and Keith providing cover for them by shooting and slashing at oncoming attacks. Lance stole glances at Hunk and Pidge trying to bring Shiro back, with Hunk pumping Shiro’s chest desperately and Pidge trying to breathe life back into his lungs. So far, the two-person CPR didn’t seem to help much.

Except it did. After a while, Shiro began frowning and coughing, hacking up the same clear liquid to the floor. But then he flopped back, gasping and rasping, eyes fluttering in a daze and looking half dead already. He kept losing blood, and his complexion looked more and more like white tissue paper than actual human skin.

Well, Shiro wasn’t the only one in a bad shape. Both Lance and Keith were starting to feel overwhelmed by all the oncoming aliens. Under Haggar’s control, they moved more like programmed robots that it was easy for the Paladins to disable them, but in their sheer numbers it was too exhausting to plow through everything.

“I will not let you take my Champion.”

Lance groaned aloud and Keith cursed.

“See, you were totally jinxing us back then,” Keith grumbled to Lance.

“Well I apologize profusely, Your Majesty the Mullet Man, but I don’t think this is the time to discuss that,” Lance retorted quickly.

Haggar walked to them, eyes glinting under the shadow of her hood, and Lance was reminded of the horror-thriller movies his younger sister seemed to love so much. He shuddered and aimed, setting his bayard to kill and shot. Haggar easily deflected the shot and narrowed her eyes.

“Give me back my Champion,” she demanded. The aliens in the room stopped attacking, backing away.

“He’s not yours!” Pidge snapped back without missing a beat. “Try to take him yourself!”

Haggar narrowed her eyes even further, and struck the air with more speed than it should be possible. Purple lighting shot up from her fingertips and struck Pidge, who screamed in both pain and surprise as the force pushed her to the side and slammed her to the wall. She coughed and tried to stand, but she was trembling, and even though Lance could see her fire was far from being snuffed he could also see that Haggar’s attack did more damage than they’d like.

“He is going to be the most powerful weapon the Galra Empire has ever seen,” Haggar hissed. “I will not have you steal away what is our property.”

Anger surged through Lance’s veins. How many times had Haggar said that Shiro was a property? A thing to be owned instead of a sentient being, a person, with wants and needs and desires of his own? His gaze flicked to Pidge for a moment, seeing her struggling to stand while clenching her bayard tightly that Lance was sure her fingers had turned white under the gloves. Haggar hurt her, and there was no doubt that she would hurt the rest of them, just like she already did Shiro.

Unforgivable.

“You told me to take him myself, and so I will,” Haggar glared at Pidge, purple electricity crackling to life on her fingertips. “I shall take back what is rightfully mine!”

That did it.

As Haggar lifted her hands, both cloaked in power and ready to strike, the aliens around them roared in unison and rushed forward. Lance opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and screamed.

The now-familiar blue glow enveloped him in an instant. Water materialized into being from out of nowhere, rising in height and rushing into an angry whirlpool, splashing and raining on every Paladin who remained safe in the centerpiece of the flood, safe around the eye of the storm that was Lance. The Blue Paladin was still glowing the same color as his title as he controlled the water to push and bang the aliens to the wall. He retracted the water around them and they fell, already unconscious, to the floor. The water vanished, just like usual.

Lance turned his attention to Haggar, who he still held captive inside a separate portion of swirling water. He glared at her before walking over, reaching out, tapping the surface of the water with his index finger. Ice immediately formed as the water froze, and Lance could see Haggar’s eyes widening within the prison. When it looked like she was trying to do something with her magic to break herself free, Lance willed the ice to spread faster. Not even five ticks later, Haggar was already completely encased in ice, like some sort of caveman preserved in a frozen display. Lance stepped back from her.

“Shiro!”

Lance whipped around and immediately saw his companions crowding Shiro, who was by now lying in his own pool of blood. Coldness that had nothing to do with the ice or his new powers spread through Lance like stubborn winter frost, and he rushed to them.

“What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?” Hunk blabbed in panic. “We need a healing pod now, but there isn’t any around, what do we do?”

“He won’t be able to survive to the ship,” Pidge’s voice was cracked, broken, despairing already.

“Shiro!” was all Keith could say, through the tears that was already streaming down his face. “Shiro! Shiro!”

Lance stared, unmoving, suddenly finding himself unable to breathe. They had tried so hard to get Shiro back, and they still lost him anyway? He stared at Shiro, lying still – too still – on the floor, with blood still oozing from his wounds and breathing too weak that Lance might just be imagining it. Pidge was right, he wouldn’t survive all the way to the ship. Was there really nothing they could do? Was it all just for nothing?

My Paladin…

He jolted in surprise. Blue?

Yes, she answered, and Lance found himself momentarily stunned. He had known that he could communicate with Blue, but never this clear from this far away.

Blue, what can I do? Lance asked hopelessly, deciding to focus on the apparent strengthening of their bond later. Shiro’s… is he gone?

I would not know, came Blue’s answer, but it is true that his light is nothing more but a flicker by now. However, my Paladin… you can change that.

I can? Lance asked, stunned. How?

Water does more than attack, Blue answered. Water heals. Water washes away wounds and closes them. Water embraces and nurtures and nurses. Water strengthens. Heal him, my Paladin. You will know what to do.

Are you saying I’m a healer? Like Katara in The Last Airbender?

I know not of the human entertainment, my Paladin, but yes, essentially.

Lance looked at his hands for a moment and clenched them in determination. As Blue’s voice retreated back to the dark corners of his mind, he let the power of his quintessence bubble up once more, summoning water into his hands. “Step back,” he told his teammates, and they looked up at him in surprise before complying.

Lance took a deep breath. He put his hands on Shiro’s chest while exhaling slowly. The water he had summoned immediately spread and blanketed Shiro’s entire body, leaving only his face dry. It immediately changed color, crystal clear stained with blood red.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Lance closed his eyes and pressed lightly at Shiro’s chest, not wholly sure what to do and letting the power surge up and do its work. The water immediately glowed ethereal blue.

He could hear Keith, Pidge, and Hunk gasp in surprise. He ignored them, instead wondering what to do, when he suddenly felt as though the water was a part of him, like extra limbs he didn’t know he had. He immediately felt through the water, probing Shiro’s wounds, feeling the blood sloshing into the glowing water.

Inhale, exhale. Blue was right. He knew what to do.

He took another deep breath and concentrated, willing the wounds to close. Slowly, the water coaxed Shiro’s body to heal, feeding the energy it needed to survive in a slow but constant stream. Lance could feel Shiro’s wounds closing, slowly, could feel his heart thumping with anxious and desperate will to live, could feel his breath deepening as his lungs struggled to take more air. Shiro’s body worked to heal and live, each organ working in tandem with one another in an orchestra to bring Shiro back to life.

“You’re healing him.” Distantly, Lance could hear Keith speak, but his attention was absorbed in Shiro too much to realize those words were directed at him. Right then, there was only himself, Shiro, and the ocean and the streams and dripping dew for Lance.

And then, a gasp, prompting Lance to open his eyes and stare at Shiro expectantly. Shiro’s eyes fluttered open and he blinked a few times, staring dazedly into Lance’s eyes before he gazed around in the same daze, seemingly unable to understand what was going on and where he was. Then his eyes fluttered closed again and his head lolled to the side, losing consciousness once more.

But that was fine. This was a good kind of unconscious. It was a healing sleep instead of a desperate battle for life. When he realized that, Lance sighed in relief, letting his hold over the water lessen at last. The water immediately sloshed away from Shiro, washing the pool of blood underneath him that somehow was intact, before vanishing into thin air once more. The buzz of energy from fighting and healing hadn’t left Lance’s fingertips, however… maybe because this was the first time he had used his quintessence in such manner?

“Lance… what…?”

Lance turned, suddenly aware that Keith, Pidge, and Hunk were still there, still staring at him in something he couldn’t quite identify. He gulped, wondering how to explain everything, when the small but unmistakable sound of ice slowly chipping and breaking reached his ears.

He turned to check. The ice that encased Haggar was starting to break, slowly but surely, cracks as fine as silk threads slowly spiderwebbing out from the innermost part of the ice. Alarm rose in Lance’s stomach and adrenaline pumped into his bloodstream once more as he jumped to his feet. “No time to explain. Haggar’s breaking out; we need to go now.”

Moving out was far easier than sneaking in, considering that the soldiers and drones they had to avoid when infiltrating were not functional anymore. They still found some stray prisoners that thankfully were not under Haggar’s control and immediately had them follow the Paladins so they could escape the ship. After directing the prisoners to the pods, the Paladins rushed to the Green Lion, which they boarded to infiltrate the ship.

The tension inside the lion was thick. Keith, for the most part, paid more attention to Shiro, but both Pidge and Hunk kept stealing glances at Lance. Lance, however, was too focused on trying to keep Haggar imprisoned from afar, but maintaining the ice from such distance while Haggar was fighting back wasn’t easy. Soon, he could feel the ice prison crumbling away.

“Haggar just broke out,” he announced. “Might be best to get back quickly.”

“On it,” Pidge responded almost automatically. Soon, Green was safely docked in the hangar and the Paladins stumbled out of the lion’s mouth, Hunk and Keith supporting Shiro while Pidge hovered between them and Lance, seemingly unable to decide where exactly she wanted to stand. They were quickly greeted by Coran and Allura, who both rushed to them.

“Paladins! What happened back there?” Allura demanded instantly.

“Get Shiro in the healing pod, please,” Lance muttered instead as he felt his strength ebbing away. Strangely, the energy from controlling water rose instead, buzzing in his ears and filling him up.

“Lance?” Allura called, suddenly sounding wary and a little nervous. “What’s going on with you?”

“Go take care of Shiro first, he still needs the healing pod,” Lance panted desperately. He opened his mouth to say more, but his quitessence spiked suddenly, painfully, and he muffled a groan as it dropped as soon as it came. The contrast surprised him, and his knees buckled in shock. Before he fell flat on the floor, though, Pidge rushed in and caught him, grunting in effort to keep him upright as Hunk and Keith both called out in alarm and Coran and Allura ran to his side.

“Lance, your quintessence level is critical!” Allura nearly screamed in distress. “How does this happen? I couldn’t make sense of anything all of you said while fighting Haggar. Did you master the elemental quintessence already?”

Lance wanted to answer, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it coherently, not like this. He moaned instead and called, “Coran?”

“What is it, Lance?” Coran responded immediately, taking his weight over from Pidge.

“You can tell them if you want to,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. His vision was swimming already, and darkness had begun to ebb from the edges of his vision. Was it supposed to do that?

“Tell us what?” Pidge demanded. “What exactly was that? How was Lance waterbending? What just happened?!”

Lance would have laughed, but he was just too tired to do anything. His eyes fluttered close.

He didn’t hear his teammates crying out for him in distress. Didn’t hear or feel the castle being rocked when the Galran ship began shooting them as Haggar finally regained control. Didn’t feel it when Allura lifted his chin for a moment to check before dashing to the control room to open a wormhole to ensure their safe escape. He was already gone.

When Lance finally came to, it was as he came out of a healing pod and straight into the waiting arms of Shiro’s. He blinked blearily and looked up to meet Shiro’s eyes, confused, before memory caught up with him and a smile bloomed in his face.

“We got you back!” he exclaimed, gesturing to Shiro as the older man chuckled and released him.

Shiro chuckled. “Yeah, I heard it was all thanks to you. So thank you.”

Lance shrugged despite their awkward position. “Eh, it was as much me as it was everyone else. Besides, you’d do the same too.”

“Like hell? You basically saved all our lives!”

Lance blinked and looked around, finally realizing that the others were there too. “Good to see you too, Pidge,” he gave her his patented finger guns. “And also Hunk and Keith and Coran and,” he wiggled a brow, “the princess. Pretty as ever, I see.”

Allura rolled her eyes with a shake of her head, but there was something akin of suppressed smile playing at her lips. “At least we know you’re feeling better now,” she sighed.

Hunk pried him off Shiro and put a blanket around his shoulders before pulling him into a hug. “Right now I don’t even care about the flirting or the jokes. I’m just so so glad you’re back. I’m gonna make you a lot of burritos as soon as we get the ingredients, just you wait.”

“That’s great, buddy, I can’t wait,” Lance grinned as he nuzzled into the embrace. Hunk’s hugs were the best.

“You’ll have to settle for food goo for now though,” Keith said with a shrug.

“But before that!” Pidge shot to him, jumping up and basically dangling on Hunk’s shoulder to meet Lance’s eyes. “What was that on that ship? How did you do all those things? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I, uh,” Lance drew back a little. “Coran didn’t tell you guys?” He glanced at Coran questioningly as Pidge slid off Hunk’s shoulder.

“I decided to let you tell them yourself,” Coran explained. “I did tell about how I found out, but other than that, nothing.”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” Keith interjected, “since when were you able to deal with twenty level ten drones all by yourself? I mean, that new power is handy for that, but holy shit, Lance.”

“Wait, those were level ten?” Lance repeated in disbelief.

“You didn’t even realize?!”

“No!”

“Paladins!” Allura’s voice rang above theirs, and they fell silent immediately. When she was satisfied with it, she gave a nod and focused on Lance. “Lance. I’d like to know why you didn’t tell anyone before. This is big news! Elemental quitessence mastering is a proof that you’re maturing as a paladin and that your bond with your Lion is even stronger than before.”

Lance’s face fell. “But… I did try to tell you.”

Allura seemed entirely taken aback. “What?”

“I tried to tell you,” Lance repeated. “I admit my timing was bad, but I did try. During that strategy meeting.” There was a beat of silence. “I should have picked a better time, though. And I should’ve tried to tell you again. I’m sorry.”

Allura frowned, still confused. She opened her mouth to speak and stopped herself suddenly, eyes widening. “Oh. Oh. Quiznak, you were trying to… oh.”

A bitter smile made its way to Lance’s face before he could control himself. “Yeah, that summed it up pretty nicely.” There was a beat of tense silence, and Lance popped it immediately. “I mean, that’s partly on me, since we were all tense for a mission that could potentially require Voltron, and Shiro was still gone, and who am I to just up and yell that I can deal with an entire region of Galra drones? Of course you didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me either.”

“Lance – “ Allura interjected.

Lance didn’t let her. “I know I sounded unreasonable, Princess, and I said it all just out of nowhere. Like you said, you couldn’t let probabilities control the mission. You needed certainty. And I didn’t sound certain back then, so that’s just to be expected that you didn’t believe me.”

“Alright, I see your point,” Keith chimed, “but what about the rest of us?”

“I tried to tell you too,” Lance shrunk deeper into Hunk’s hug. “I think you didn’t realize I was serious.”

Keith frowned, then his face went slack. “Ah.”

“I kind of get it,” Lance mumbled into Hunk’s shirt. “I’m not particularly strong. I’m, like, average in everything. I joke around a lot. I flirt with anything that breathes. So, I kind of see why you didn’t think I was serious. Besides, the alarm sounded right while I was talking, so it just got… brushed off.”

“Wait, how many times in total have you tried to tell us?” Hunk asked seriously.

“Uh, three?” Lance answered reluctantly. “The other time everyone got distracted by your cookies, and I kind of just dropped it too because Hunk, my man, your cookies are awesome.”

The look Hunk gave him clued Lance that it wasn’t okay, none of it was okay. He licked his lips and sighed. “It’s not your fault, guys, not really. My timing sucked.”

“No,” Keith shook his head. “We were wrong not to listen too.”

“Yes, we shouldn’t have treated you like that,” Allura added. “I’m sorry, Lance. We’re sorry. I hope you could forgive us.”

Lance blinked. “Of course I forgive you guys,” he answered without hesitation. “You weren’t exactly wrong, either.”

Allura stared, a stunned look in her eyes, before she broke into a smile. “How could you be so immature at times and suddenly speak like that? You forgive so easily, Lance.”

Lance grinned. “I dunno. It’s part of my charm, I guess.”

“Oh, hey, Lance! Can you do that waterbending thing again?” Pidge spoke up as she jumped to dangle on Hunk’s shoulder again, eyes sparkling. “I want to see how you do it!”

“Yeah, that was a wonder to look at!” Hunk agreed immediately. He shifted so he could support both Lance and Pidge better. “It was all glowey and beautiful.”

“And if we can get how you do it, maybe we can try to do our own brand of bending too,” Pidge added.

“Pidge, buddy, there’s no fancy studying here,” Lance shook his head in mock disappointment. “I can do this because I’m tight with my best girl. You just need to deepen your bond with the Green Lion!”

“Shut up and do it, Lance.”

Lance laughed and complied. The familiar blue light wrapped around his fingers as he felt that tug deep within him. Water appeared immediately, flowing in the air like a long Chinese dragon dancing through the clouds, before shooting up and split into a rain that immediately froze over and fell as soft powdery snow. He glanced around and smiled proudly when he saw the rest of the team staring at the indoor snow in awe. There was a hint of smugness he felt at Keith’s speechless, wonderstruck face.

“Oh, wow,” Shiro breathed. “I was told that it was beautiful, but… wow.” He turned to look directly at Lance. “How exactly did you get this power again? I think Coran mentioned something about you feeling like it was given to you?”

Lance returned his gaze and grinned, feeling warm and accepted for the first time in a long while. It finally felt like things were going to be okay, that everything would go back to normal.

The others stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to talk and tell his tale. His grin widened. He opened his mouth and began to speak.