Chapter Text
Chapter 1
They all just stared at the screen in front of them with horrified faces. A couple of them crying. One or two frozen completely still in shock. Someone had screamed. None of them could believe what they had just witnessed.
After everything finished nobody moved a mussel. Slowly Allura sank to the ground. She silently moved her hand to her mouth as tears slowly fell from her eyes. Her movement seemed to trigger the others as everyone started to move. Coran simply looked down at the panel in front of him, trying his hardest to hold it together for the others. Beside his best effort a couple silent tears escaped. Hunks face scrunched up as if he had been punched in the gut. He let out a sob as he practically collapsed into the chair behind him. Shiro seemed to be frozen in place staring at the screen. He looked like he was reliving every horrible thing he had ever gone though. Slowly he pried his gaze away and looked at the wall beside the screen. Pidge started to frantically hit keys on her screen, while she glanced at the others. She didn’t make a sound, there were only the tears that raced down her cheeks like waterfalls.
Keith was the last one to move. Taking a look at the others he turned around and sprinted towards the door. “Where are you going?” Shiro strained out.
Keith turned back toward the others scowling. He angrily spat out, “I refuse to accept this! I’m taking red out there!” the look on Shiros face said he was about to argue, so Keith quickly continued. “He’s still out there I know it! I need to go get him!” Keith's voice cracked towards the end.
Shiro looked like he was trying his best to keep it together. Slowly he started towards Keith. Before he could get very close Hunk shakily stood up still sobbing. Hunk looked directly into Keith eyes for a few seconds then slowly shook his head. Just like that Keith broke. If anyone else was the one telling him he wouldn’t believe it, but it was Hunk. Like Allura he sank to the floor. He gripped fists full of his jacket as he cried.
How had this happened? How had they let this happen? How did he let this happen? The day had started out so normal. How did it end this way? How had it gone so bad so quickly?
Midday
Control room
“Lance what the fuck?!?!” Pidge yelled as they aggressively mashed the buttons down.
“Pidge, language.” Shiro scolded from behind the two on the floor.
Pidge snorted as a reply. A while ago Hunk the lord and savior as Lance had put it, had built something they could plug into the castle to let them play the game Pidge and Lance worked so hard for. Immediately the two were falling over each other to get it set up. That’s where we are now. Pidge and Lance had gotten really into the game as Hunk quietly watched. Soon Shiro and Keith joined. Shiro to supervise, and secretly wait for a chance to play. Keith well, he didn’t want to miss Lance possibly loose after he had bragged so profusely about his “amazing skills”. Watching them now though, Keith had to admit Lance was quite good.
Pidge shoved Lance's arm hoping to throw him off. They successfully pushed him hard enough to make him fall out of his sitting position. His trip to the floor was anything but graceful. The second he realized he was falling he let out a loud squawk and tried to catch himself. Since he was already seated on the floor and refused to let go of the controller it didn’t go well. “Ah! Pidge!” Lance whined. Pidge's smirk of triumph didn’t last long as they realized he was still in the lead. When Lance looked back at the game he smirked, “Ha! You think simply pushing me will make me loose. My siblings did much worse, and I still beat them.” He boosted.
The three behind them found the scene quite amusing. Soon the screen displayed Lance had indeed won with Pidge close behind. “No fair! Shiro!” they turned to said man. “Lance cheated!”
Hunk busted out laughing along with Lance. “Don’t be such a sore loser. Besides if anyone cheated it was you! But I do guess it was unfair, I was the undefeated champion back home.” He wiggled his eyebrows while standing up.
“I’m calling bullshit! I demand a rematch!” They yelled as they stomped closer to Lance. They gave a pointed look in Shiro's direction as a warning. They weren't in the mood to be told to watch their language again.
As they got closer he put his hands up in surrender and took a few steps back. “I would love to, but I can’t. I need to leave soon or Allura will kill me. When I get back I’ll do as many matches as you want, but it’s gonna be the same.”
This caught Keith attention. Things have been a little more than awkward between the two because of the previous night. He hopped that would clear up when they talked. Before he could say anything Pidge did. “Oh really? Or maybe I’ll wipe the floor with you but I guess we'll have to wait 'til later.” They said as menacingly as they could.
Lance shrugged and he picked up his jacket then put it on. “Guess so. Mind telling Allura and Coran I’m headed out?” he questioned to no one in particular.
the night before
The team had stopped at the Balmera when they reserved a distress beacon. The team immediately went to help. When they came in guns ablaze. Ready for another long fight, there wasn’t any Galra. After landing and talking to the Balmeran’s they learned a large Galra ship had flown over there planet. The people got scared and immediately contacted Voltron.
After talking to them they concluded that the ship had been a Galra ship full of prisoners. Thinking there was a possibility their family was aboard Pidge had insisted they go after it. The team quickly agreed and after Hunk said a quick goodbye to Shay they went after it.
“According to the Balmeran’s they saw the ship almost a varga ago. It had been heading this way.” Allura paused briefly to point to a path on the star map. “Prison ships usually move relatively slow, so we should be able to catch up without much difficulty.”
Shiro went and stood next to Allura before addressing everyone. “You heard the princess, paladins let's get to our lions so we’re ready. We should be approaching soon. You all know the drill.”
Keith, Hunk, and Lance were distracting the small amount of fighters, while Shiro went with Pidge in the green lion. Pidge and Shiro had gotten all the prisoners into castle. While Shiro helped Coran put some into healing pods Pidge had joined the others. Soon everyone was safely on Castle and leaving the defeated Galra behind.
Keith had been waiting for a opportunity to talk to Lance for a while. With almost everyone occupied with the new guests he thought now would be perfect. When Shiro was gone they had gotten pretty close. Keith had realized in this time that his feeling for Lance went beyond just friendship. At first he had decided to stay quiet about his feelings. He was just happy Lance considered him a friend now. It was much better then the “rival” thing. He believed he could settle for just friends. As they got even closer in Shiro's absences his feelings just kept escalating. When they finally got Shiro back, Keith feeling had come to the point of almost unbearable. He had always been bad with feelings. He had no idea how to deal with this type of feeling that kept getting more intense. He finally went to Shiro for advice who said to just tell Lance. He couldn’t do that. He was sure Lance wasn’t interested and they had just become friends. He didn’t want to mess that up, but after many talks with Shiro and a ridiculous amount of probing he made up his mind. He was going to tell Lance how he felt. Even if Lance didn’t feel the same he had to tell him. They were close enough now Keith hoped after they could at least still be friends.
Finding Lance didn’t take long. Keith had learned Lance spent a lot of time with Blue and in the observation room. After finding him, Keith slowly approached having second thoughts. “I need to talk to you.” He stated as he sat down next to Lance.
Lance turned towards him lifting a eyebrow. “What? Finally going to confess your undying love to me?” Lance joked while putting a hand over his heart and making finger guns at Keith. The only response he got was Keith turning back the way he came quickly. “Hey! Sorry, I’ll be serious. What do you want to talk about?” he scratched the back of his neck.
After a long silence Keith just blurted it out. He figured that would be the easiest way, to just get it over with. Straight to the point was his way. Why beat around the bush. After that he went on saying he knew Lance didn’t like him like that. He continued saying he just thought Lance had a right to know and needed to get it off his chest. He ended saying he hoped they could stay friends.
After a short pause that felt much to long to Keith, Lance spoke, “I don’t think we can just be friends anymore.” Just like that Keith regretted everything he had said. He was a pretty confident person but it took a lot for him to tell lance. And lance had just crushed his confidence. He quickly opened him mouth to ask Lance to forget he said anything. Before he could get anything out Lance snapped his head up with wide eyes and quickly said, “Shit sorry! That sounded bad! I mean it sounded cool in my head and then I said it and it didn’t come out how I thought! Of course, you didn’t know how I feel so it sounded bad. Uh, what I mentioned to say is uh, I feel the same!”
As usual, Keith let Lance ramble and watched him wave his arms in the air. Watching how when he was done he had a sheepish smile. After Lance’s words finally sank in Keith felt his heart slowly speed up. Lance actually felt the same! Keith couldn’t help the small smile that came across his face. One that brought a smile to Lance’s face as well.
Trying to find the right words Keith let a long silence stretch between them. Which was broken by Lance. “Hey, Keith my man… uh, please say something?” he asked hesitantly.
“Um, so you like me?” Keith wanted to smack himself. The nod from Lance made him feel a little better.
“And you like me?” Lance hesitantly asked. Keith answered with a quick nod. A short pause. “So…what does that make us?” Another sort pause. “What do you want that to make us?” He rephrased.
After a small stretch of silence Keith started talking hesitantly, “Well, I like you, and you like me, so…maybe we co-"
“What are you two still doing up? I thought everyone went to bed. We’re going to be busy tomorrow helping all those people back home. You two better get to sleep” Allura interrupted, coming into the room and towards the two. From there she insisted they head to bed right away and even dragged them to their rooms.
The next morning at breakfast was awkward between them. They had both shared the feelings between them but had gotten interrupted before they could actually talk. When everyone started to file out Lance waked up to Keith. “Hey, can we talk? About last night?”
“Yeah.” Was Keith simple answer. Suddenly Shiro was walking up to the two of them. Keith forgot he promised to help Shiro today. Looking at Lance, Shiro quickly apologized but said he needed Keith's help right away. Keith looked between Lance and Shiro for a second before Lance winked and walked past the two. Putting his hand on Keith shoulder as he passed he leaned in and quickly told Keith to meet him before bed outside the training deck.
Now they both just had to wait several hours. By then most of the others would be asleep. That way they could talk without interruptions. They could finally talk things out.
Midday
Control room
There was a short silence, as Lance started to leave. Keith took the opportunity to ask Lance, “Where are you going?” He was genuinely curious.
Shrugging, Lance started towards the door, while giving Hunks outstretched hand a high five while talking, “Eh, it’s my turn to go to the space mall.” Turning back toward the others he continued. “If you need me let me know. Otherwise I’ll see you guys in a bit.” With that he gave a sloppy salute and was off.
After their first trip to the space mall Shiro and Allura decided only one or two people could go at a time. Everyone also decided that Hunk and Keith could not go by themselves. A choice that didn’t make Keith very happy. Although Hunk didn’t seem to mind. Also for the time being Shiro couldn’t go. They had gotten him back a while ago, and he was acting as their secret weapon. With their constant fighting, every few weeks someone had to go get parts and other things that the Castle needed. Whoever was going always had to have a way to communicate with Castle.
“I’m going to go tell Allura and Coran Lance left. Hey Shiro do you know if there still in the cryopod room?” Hunk asked after declining Pidge's challenge to play the game.
“Yeah. I think there still waiting for the Galra prisoners we saved to get out.” Shiro kept glancing at the abandoned controllers, but stayed where he was.
Keith huffed. “Maybe they’ll acutely know who it is we're even fighting.”
After Zarkons defeat someone had taken over his empire. The team assumed it had been Haggar but quickly learned that was false. They may not know who it was but whoever it was made there life’s hell. For a while they were down one paladin and facing a unknown enemy. A enemy that always seemed to knew where to hit. They had gotten Shiro back witch helped a great deal as now they could form Voltron. They also had another lion fighting, and a secret weapon the enemy didn’t know about.
“Hold up I wanted to ask them about my family, but Lance distracted me.” Pidge mumbled the last part as they scrambled to join Hunk who was making his way out.
That left Keith alone with Shiro. After watching the two leave he turned to see Shiro holding a controller out to him. Lifting a eyebrow in question he took it saying, “Only one round.”
Many rounds later
Space
“nce-Lance! Come in Lance!?” Shiro’s panicked shout came over the com as Lance was headed back to the castle.
Immediately Lance was replying. “I’m here, what’s wrong?” As he was talking he sat up straight and sped up the pod he was in. The last time they made contact was when Lance had informed them he was headed back to castle. If they were contacting him now something had to have gone wrong.
“How far are you? We need you back right away!” Allura was now shouting over the coms. Lance was currently two thirds of the way there. Which he told them, then asked what was happening. Allura quickly explained. “We don’t know what happened! I don’t know how they found us! Suddenly a entire Galra fleet wormholed right in front of us and trapped us in a tractor beam. We can’t deploy the lions or put up the partial barrier! We’re completely defenseless!”
As she was talking Lance could feel himself slowly get more and more panicked. He had to force himself to stay calm. “I have my suit and Bayard. I can sneak onto the ship and turn off the beam. How long do I have?”
A few silent seconds, which terrified Lance, Allura was back on sounding even more panicked. “I don’t think they’re trying to capture us! They just started to built up the ion canon on a near by ship! They're trying to destroy us! Lance we need you here right away! We have about a Varga at most!”
One Varga. That wasn’t very much time. Lance could feel his heart beating in his throat. He can’t let his team die. He can’t let them down. He would do anything for them. He can’t loose the people who were like a second family to him. He quickly told them he was about five minutes away.
“When you get here Pidge will have a map ready to go. They can guide you to the control room, but you’ll be on your own to avoid the Galra.” Shiro explained. Everyone was on edge. Nobody liked being completely helpless like this. They couldn’t do anything except watch the ion cannon charge. The weapon that would end their lives. Lance was their last hope.