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tooearlyforthis · 1 year

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Happy Birthday, Honey | Steve Harrington

It's Steve Harrington's Bday! Or at least according to Google it is, so here is a little bday fic about him. Also apparently, it was Joe Keery's Bday last week. So happy bday to him too.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Word Count: 2.5k

Series Synopsis: Steve just wants to spend his birthday the same way he always does - no one knowing and all to himself. His girlfriend, on the other hand, has other ideas.

Warnings: fluff, established relationship

Click here to see my masterlist

April 29th was Steve Harrington’s least favorite day. Why? Because it's his birthday.

It was a day that plagued him since he was old enough to stay home alone. His parents were never there, off on business trips that left him alone for months at a time. They never remembered his birthday when they were home anyways and that always seemed to hurt more. Like a slap in the face from the only people that cared about him.

Tommy and Carol were the only ones from his old life that knew the day he was born. And even then, they didn’t do anything special for him. It wasn’t like he asked them to, they just never cared enough about him to celebrate. Steve would always make sure to throw a party for himself on that day. Not specifically for him, but just so he wasn’t spending another day alone.

He didn’t bother to tell Y/n or Dustin, or anyone in The Party for that matter. Partly because they never asked and partly because it never came up. But as the day was rounding the corner, he knew he couldn’t spend it alone. He asked for an extra shift at work and Y/n would be coming over later that night, two things that would help him survive another year.

He wouldn’t tell Y/n, that just felt unfair. A few months ago, when it was her birthday, he made sure to make it as special as he could. A nice restaurant, gifts from all their friends - he knew if he told her this last minute she would feel awful about it. And he never wanted to make her sad.

Well, there was always next year.

The morning of he woke up to his alarm blaring like it was any other day. And he was determined to make it such. Grabbing a bagel on his way out, he headed to work. He was surprised when he was the first one to make it to work that morning. The Max, and Robin were always sticklers for time. But both of them were nowhere in sight.

Trying not to think too much of it, he unlocked the front door and headed inside. The place had become very familiar to him after so many hours of work. He could point to a section of the shop and tell you exactly what tapes were stored there, and how much it would cost to rent them.

And by just one glance around the room, he could tell that Keith closed the night before. That was a relief for him, knowing that he didn’t have to look out for half-ass jobs of putting back tapes or an incomplete inventory. He just placed his bag in the back employee room before heading out to the register.

As he emerged from the employee common space, he was relieved to see that at least one of his co-workers had arrived. He sat down at the front desk as they came in.

“Hey, Harrington,” Max announced with a smile.

After moving to the trailer park, the young redhead thought it was about time she started to chip into her household. Plus she needed the money for a new skateboard.

“Mayfield,” Steve responded as he booted up the computer.

Max leaned across the counter, trying to look at the still-loading screen. “Did that old guy return the porno yet?”

“Nope, it’s officially two weeks late.”

“Damn! He’s really been going at it hasn’t he.”

Steve tried to conceal his chuckle. “I guess so… hey go put your stuff in the back I think there are still some tapes we need to rewind.”

She gave a nod before heading away. This was good. Everything was normal and he wouldn’t be alone. Just make it through the day and-

“Steve!”

He looked up to see Robin coming through the front door, a smile on her face. That was odd, she was never usually this chipper in the mornings. She ran over to him, engulfing him in a bug hug from behind.

“How’s your morning been?” she asked, still smiling.

He responded, “Uh, fine?” Cause how else do you respond to that? It was 9 o’clock in the morning. “What’s got you so jumpy?”

“Nothing! Can’t be excited to see my dear friend Steve?”

“Oh, you can, just not when you’re almost late to work.”

She rolled her eyes, pulling away from him. “Key word: almost.”

“Why were you late anyways? The doors are usually unlocked by the time I come in.”

Robin fell silent for a moment as she took out her book and placed it on the counter. Tuesdays weren’t usually busy so she would bring something to read to pass the time.

“I uh…had something I needed to take care of.”

“Care to share with the class?”

He watched as she paused for a moment before simply saying, “No.”

“Okay then,” he responded, turning back to the computer. “Then go help, Max, with the rewinds.”

Robin groaned as she chucked her bag over her shoulder. “You know, you’ve been a little bit bossier since getting promoted to manager.”

“I’d say more disciplined.”

Rolling her eyes she gathered her bag, ready to help David in the back. Steve sighed, hunching back into his seat. Yeah, just like any other day.

🎬🎬🎬

The shift at Family Video came and went just like any day, however, Robin was being more distant and smiley. Robin liked to have a good laugh but this much was just too uncommon for her. He spotted her whispering with Max a couple of times throughout the shift. But every time he approached them on the subject they pretended like it never happened.

As their shift came to a close, he decided he would give it one last try.

“Are you sure there’s nothing going on?” he asked her, stripping off his green work vest.

She shook her head. “Nothing! Just another completely normal day at work, right?”

“Sure.”

Steve watched as the next shift came in, Max walking out from the back to join them in leaving. “Well, that was a very unproductive day,” she told them.

The three of them walked out of the store, readjusting their shirts.

“Nothing you can do when you don’t have any customers,” Robin said back. “Max you’re giving me a ride right?”

“Wait Rob, I thought I was driving you home?” Steve said surprised.

“No uh, sorry forgot to tell you Max and I were gonna hang out.” She nudged her arm. “Right?”

“Yeah! Sorry, forgot to tell you,” Max responded quickly as she open the driver’s door of her car.

“You’re letting Max drive you?” Steve asked with widen-eyes. It was almost like he was having flashbacks to the night she almost crashed his BMW.

“Hey, I have my license now!” Max shouted at him but he just dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

Rolling her eyes, Robin said, “I’ll be fine. Would you rather have me driving her?”

“That’s a good point.”

“All right then.” Robin lowered herself into the passenger seat of Max’s car. She reached for the door handle. “See you tonight!”

“Tonight?”

“Tomorrow! I meant tomorrow. But uh… yeah see ya.”

Before Steve could question her further, both she and Mac climbed shut their doors. He sighed, watching as they drove off, leaving him alone in the parking lot.

“Hey there, hot stuff.”

Steve turned to find the voice calling out to him. He smiled when he saw his girlfriend in her car behind him.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked, resting a hand on the top of her car. Y/n leaned out the window, crossing her arms. “I thought we were meeting up later.”

“Well, can you blame me? I miss my boyfriend. Come on, get in.”

“But I drove here.”

“We can grab your car later, come on!”

Not being able to resist, he walked around the other side and climbed in. He leaned over the center console, pulling her into a kiss before buckling his seat belt. “I’ll never get used to that.”

Blushing, Y/n put her car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. “You really know how to make a girl swoon huh?”

He shrugged. “I have my ways. So, why do I have the honor of seeing my girlfriend so early today?”

“I just figured instead of sitting in our separate houses for the next few hours before dinner we could see a movie. 8 Million Ways to Die came out a couple of days ago and I know how much you love those detective movies.”

“Hmm, you are right about that.” He swung an arm across the back of her seat. “Sure, the movie before dinner sounds great.”

🎬🎬🎬

“But it was noir how can it be funny?” Y/n asked, taking another bite of her food. Her plate was almost finished.

“It was a noir but it just had some funny moments in it like the warehouse confrontation? I mean it was just a little too quirky for my liking,” Steve responded, picking up his fork. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it!”

“Mmmhm, sure you did.”

“No, come on, babe I liked it,” he reassured her, reaching out a hand to touch hers. “Thank you for today, you don’t know how much it means to me.”

Y/n smiled but it faltered slightly as she pulled back her hand. “I-uh….”

Steve let his smile drop too, growing concerned by the second. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes! Everything is fine it’s just….I might have some idea of what today means to you.”

He felt his heart beat a little faster wondering what she could know. Oh no, did she know?

“I- what do you mean?” he asked.

“Honey, I know it’s your birthday.”

Steve felt his eyes widen, unable to form words on his lips. “H-how long have you known?”

“A couple of months….you just never bring it up I figured it was a sore subject.”

“Not really I just never make a big deal out of it. No one ever- I mean it never-“ He stumbled to find the right words to describe how he felt.

“Steve, you deserve to have a day where people appreciate you. Like the birthday you gave me? It was perfect, having all my friends there to celebrate with me. You deserve that, honey.”

“This day, just going to the movies and dinner with you? That’s enough for me.”

Not satisfied with that answer, Y/n shook her head. “Nope, come on, I got a surprise for you. She stood up, extending an arm to him. “Come on.”

“But the bill-“

“-has already been paid for.”

“You paid already?” he asked, reaching up to take her hand.

“Yep. That’s what happens when you’re the birthday boy. Gotta let others take care of you.”

“I don’t think I like this very much.”

“Well get used to it 'cause you deserve it.”

🎬🎬🎬

Steve was confused as they drove silently in Y/n’s car. The only sound came from the rumbling engine and the music playing very softly through the radio. The streets they passed looked familiar, almost too familiar. Wait, they were in Loch Nora.

“Are we driving to my house?” Steve asked, wondering what surprise could be waiting for him in his own home.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Y/n responded, keeping her eyes on the road, and a smile formed across her lips.

He reached forward, placing a hand on her thigh. “Come on, babe. Just tell me.”

Reaching down, she removed his hand. “Flattery won’t get you anywhere Harrington….at least not this time.”

Steve huffed as he leaned back in his seat, watching as the car turned down his street and into his driveway.

“So the surprise is at my house,” Steve nudged, getting out of the car.

Y/n walked to his side, taking his hand. “Oh my god, do you want an award or something?”

“No, but it’s nice validation.”

She smiled as they reached the front steps. He went to turn the handle but she stopped him. “Wait,” she began.

Steve turned to look at her. “Yeah?”

“Just-“ Pausing, she took a moment to re-orient him to face her, her hands dropping from the side of his arms. “I’m not gonna press you why you didn’t tell me about your birthday okay? But it is a special day, at least to me, and you deserve to be celebrated.”

Steve felt like he could melt at her words; slump into her arms and spend the day thinking about how lucky he was to have her. Instead, he leaned in, giving her a quick peck on the lips. It was a chaste kiss, but still passionate nonetheless.

As they pulled apart, Steve smiled. “What did I do to deserve you.”

“You didn’t have to do anything. I love you just the way you are.”

Stepping forward, she opened the front door. They stepped inside the dark foyer, Y/n moving quickly to turn on the lights.

As the lights shined through the room, Steve stepped back in shock. Everyone he cared about, the kids, Nancy and Jonathan, Robin, and even Hopper and Joyce stood in his living room. There was a big banner behind them, decorations, and balloons littered throughout the house.

At the sight of him, they all shouted, “Happy Birthday!!!”

Dustin had a bunch of party blowers in his mouth, making them all go off at once while Lucas threw confetti into the air. He watched as Max let go of some balloons that all floated to his ceiling. Nancy, Robin, and Jonathan were all holding a cake that sprawled a Happy Birthday message across the top.

It was everything he didn’t know he needed for his birthday.

He stumbled back in shock at the scene before him. He beamed at all of his friends who came to celebrate. After so many years of not having a birthday, of being ignored by the people closest to him, it felt like he was being heard.

He felt a tug on his sleeve as Y/n wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Happy Birthday, honey,” she said softly.

Steve grinned looking down at her. “Seriously what did I do to deserve you.”

He swooned for her as she giggled. He loved that giggle, it made his heart feel whole. Not being able to hold back, not caring that he was surrounded by all of his friends, he pulled her into a kiss.

Their lips connected into a familiar dance, filled with the warmth and comfort of everything before them. He could hear a whistling sound in the room, probably from Mike as Robin clapped and cheered for them.

As they broke the kiss, Dustin stepped forward, holding more party blowers in his hands. He yelled with excitement, “Now let’s get this party started!”

#fanfic #fluff #friends to lovers #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #joe keery #djo #steve harrington #dustin henderson #robin buckley #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington fic #birthday

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soulreapin · 3 months

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happy valentine’s day klancers here’s our favorite tragedy getting to be happy for once. xoxo soul

—

Keith wakes up to the sharp, pungent smell of roses in his nose.

That’s not always as alarming as it is right now, sometimes Lance gets flowers from the farmer’s market and sets them in delicate clear vases all over their apartment (Keith will always hate the smell of daffodils), but the farmer’s market hadn’t been in town for a number of weeks.

He sits up in bed, pushing the red flannel comforter down from where it was safely tucked up underneath his chin and looks around wildly. Their comfortable bedroom has a vase of red roses on every surface, even on the vanity tucked in the crook between the wall and the door of their ensuite bathroom.

They look fresh, vibrant and sweet in the low light.

He glances to his side and Lance’s side of the bed is noticeably empty. That should’ve been clue number one that something was up, not the smell of roses, but apparently it hadn’t been long enough since his time in the desert that waking up with his arms wrapped around himself and his knees tucked into the crook of his chin wasn’t considered abnormal yet.

A splay of his palm against the sheets tells him Lance has been up for some time. Something ugly and foreign squeezes itself around his heart, but Keith, under any circumstance, does not give himself time to figure out what it is and slides out of bed, stepping into his red lion slippers and following the apparent trail of red rose petals on their usually pristine wooden floor.

His slippers scuff on the wood as Keith trails down the short hallway into their living room, and if he thought their bedroom was bad, this is catastrophic. Floral arrangements sit large and pretty on their dining table, on their kitchen counters, on the coffee table where instead of fake fruit they set their feet in the middle.

Varying shades of red and pink and white flourish in the home Keith worked so hard to build for him and Lance, the life they hold on to with tight grips and locked elbows decorated with pretty scalloped petals and white lace keeping them all standing at attention.

On the center of their dining room table, where there are pencil marks thoroughly worn into the wood from hours doing homework for Lance to get his masters, are several fake candles set up around a red envelope, and from this distance Keith can’t tell if it’s sealed with wax or not, but he’d bet his braid that it was.

As Keith is walking over to the envelope, he panics. “What did I forget? Our anniversary isn’t until October, his birthday is in July, it’s February—oh. It’s February.”

He reaches the letter at the same time he has the realization. Today is February 14th, it’s Valentine’s Day, and Keith did not forget. There are reservations in his name tonight for their favorite mexican restaurant, the one Lance picked himself because it tasted the most like home, and he’s got a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a hand-written card tucked into the back of their closet because he knows Lance doesn’t look back there.

So he picks up the envelope with steady fingers, pops open the definite wax seal and before he can judge it, presses a kiss to the cold wax with the reminder that Lance’s careful hands had poured and pressed it into a heart shape, and slides a thin, white paper card out of the envelope.

In Lance’s scraggly, all-caps looking handwriting, he’s written, ‘good morning, keithy cat! happy valentines day. i know you freaked this morning when you saw all the flowers. mad i missed it. anyways i didn’t have to go into work like you were thinking. you’re going looking for me but because im SO GRACIOUS and an AMAZING HUSBAND ill give you your first one free, go down to nightsky florals. love, loverboy,’

Despite it all, it brings a small smile to Keith’s face. He folds the note delicately and tucks it back into the envelope, deciding to leave the battery-powered candles running.

“Damn you, Lance,” Keith mutters, but trudges back to their room and changes into simple, loose-fitting Lucky jeans and a red sweater. ‘Tis the season, and all that.

–

A small bell rings over Keith’s head as he pushes the door open to Night Sky florals. Shiro must have installed that after he went off to college, but the rest of the shop was still the same. Wooden bins of flowers sit on racks going all the way up to the ceiling, there are displays in the center with red roses and assorted bouquets on them, and greenery climbs up the sides of the racks and up the counter near the back of the room.

It’s light and homey. Keith spent a lot of time in Night Sky florals, sitting behind the counter and doing his AP Lit homework, staring daggers at To Kill a Mockingbird and scribbling down Quizlet-approved bullshit answers.

Now, Shiro is sitting on a stool behind the counter, assembling a small array of red roses, baby’s breath, and camelias. He looks up and sees Keith standing in the doorway, “Hey, kid!”

“Hi, Shiro,” Keith grumbles, smiling despite himself, skirting around the center displays to get to the counter, “How’ve you been?”

“You were at my house for dinner a week ago.” Shiro stands up and comes out from behind the counter to wrap Keith in a hug that basically breaks every rib in his body and eliminates a need for a chiropractor. “I think you know how I’ve been.”

Keith shrugs in his hold and hugs him back, “I don’t know, it might have changed in the week I haven’t seen you. Forgive me for caring about my brother.”

After a few more bone-crushing seconds, Keith is let go and allowed to expand his lungs to full capacity again. Shiro tosses over his shoulder as he turns away, “Denied. Back to the desert with you, creature.”

“You’re so odd,” Keith shakes his head and picks at a piece of stray fuzz on the sleeve of his sweater, “I was here for something. Lance sent me here. Is there something here for me?”

Shiro’s face lights up and he disappears off into the back. “He stopped by this morning! This is so cute, Keith I almost kind of hate it, I’m so glad you guys are happy together—aha! Found you, fucker.”

“I’m almost a little nervous about it,” he admits, “Like, he’s doing this for me, what if dinner and chocolates and a card isn’t enough?”

Something clatters to the ground in the back and Shiro reappears holding another red envelope with a pressed wax seal and a small, thin piece of paper. “Keith, I promise you, if you got him a pair of socks and a bag of cherry cordial Hershey’s Kisses, he’d love you forever.”

He accepts the letter and the small piece of paper, his face screwed up, ��Those are absolutely disgusting, they taste like cough syrup. The peppermint ones are so much better.”

“Cough syrup aside,” Shiro comments, shaking his head like he can’t believe Keith has a correct opinion, “You know what I meant. He’s happy just having you.”

Keith sighs, a little dejectedly, and slides his thumbnail beneath the wax circle.

It reads, ‘congrats, keefers, you made it! this is the place we met for the first time. i bet you remember it. i came in to get funeral flowers for hunks robot and you insulted me various times all while giving me the most beautiful flowers i had ever seen. i thought you were beautiful too with your shitty ponytail and your silly looking apron. you had a pansy tucked into the pocket i think. ‘

“It was a rose.” Keith says, out loud, without even meaning to.

Shiro glances up from his bouquet in progress, “Congratulations?”

“No, um,” Suddenly embarrassed, Keith scratches the back of his neck, “The day I met Lance here, I had a red rose tucked into my apron. He said it was a pansy.”

“Are you blushing?” Shiro exclaims.

“Shut up, Shiro, go back to your flowers. In the time you’ve spent insulting me three more people have either died or gotten engaged and you are holding them back from their floral arrangements,” Keith sasses, looking back down at the letter.

‘whatever it was i thought it was really cute. im glad we ran into each other that day. rip hunk but if his robot hadn’t died i wouldnt have married this beefcake so who really won here (me its me i won). anyways. the little white paper shiro should’ve handed you will give you a little clue as to where to go next. love, lancelot.’

He slides the letter back into the envelope and flips the small paper over. On it are two dragons intertwined, one small and red and the other bigger, black, and missing its right wing. Keith knows this image; this image sits squarely over his spine.

“So, where are you off to next?” Shiro asks casually.

Keith glances up at Shiro, missing his right arm, and offers a small smile. “Ocean Waves Tattoo Parlor.”

“That’s right across the street from us–oh, that’s where Lance used to work when you two met, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. I’d better be off now. I’ll see you for dinner next Wednesday?” Keith starts to move around the store, picking flowers out of bins and collecting them in his right hand.

“Same day, same time,” Shiro confirms, “Adam’s making pasta salad, I think–what are you doing?”

Keith has gathered a full bundle of red roses, pink carnations, greenery, and forget-me-nots. He drops a handful of cash onto the counter that seems like a vague approximation of what the total should be and waves goodbye, hurrying out of the shop before Shiro can throw his money back at him or realize Keith had probably underpaid.

—

After his brief stop at Night Sky Florals, Keith went to two more places. Ocean Wave Tattoo Parlor, where Lance used to work and coincidentally where he got his back piece done in Lance’s chair, the ice cream shop where they went on their first date to receive another letter from Romelle, and even at the library on the other side of town where Keith had dedicated hours of his life to helping Lance review for a final (that he passed with flying colors).

He ends up at Fortune Coffee House, their favorite spot to grab a drink or a muffin and just eat breakfast together before they go their separate ways. Keith had stopped at home first and dug the card and chocolates out from the back of the closet, since he had a feeling he’d be seeing Lance here, as this was supposedly the last location.

The door creaks closed behind Keith as he steps into the warm air of the coffee shop, a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit cordoning off the counter from the rest of the shop. Fortune Coffee House is decorated in warm shades of brown and cream, reminiscent of Keith’s college days.

“Welcome in–Keith Akira Kogane, where have you fucking been?” Pidge yells from behind the counter, pushing her glasses up her nose.

Right. Pidge Holt, Keith and Lance’s oldest shared friend, had ended up with a job at Fortune Coffee House, and Keith had been neglecting going out for a beer with her, Hunk, and Lance. Copyediting kept him busy, what can he say?

He sighs and walks up to the counter, flowers, card, and chocolate all balancing very precariously in the crook of one arm. “Hi, Pidge.”

“Don’t hi, Pidge me, you dirty fucker. I missed you!” If she could, Keith would bet every dime he had that she’d throw her pen at him. “Your hair is longer.”

Automatically, his hand shoots up to fidget with the end of his braid. She’s right, it has gotten a little longer, the tail now dangling over his heart instead of at his collar. “I guess it is. What’s new with you?”

“I got into AST.” She says nonchalantly, looking up at Keith with a devious grin.

“That’s great—holy shit, that’s great!”

AST, or Altea State Tech, was the best college in the entire area if you wanted to work on rockets one day, which Pidge did. Her grin is so bright, it blinds him a little, but he leans over the bar and wraps his free arm around her shoulders in an awkward hug.

“I know, isn’t it?” She gushes. “I start in September in the astronautical engineering program, the one Matt did, it’s going to be so, so great!”

“You’ve gotta tell me everything once you start,” Keith says when he pulls back, shifting all of his items between arms, “Has Lance stopped in today?”

“Basically used an entire giftcard stress-drinking iced green teas. He’s been here since eleven, so not very long.” Pidge snorts and picks up her mug with some silly science joke on it, taking a sip of whatever she’s concocted now. “I think he might’ve worn a hole in the floor. Same table as usual.”

“Oh, great,” an exhale rushes out of Keith’s chest, “Can I get a—”

“No, shut up. On the house.” Pidge points at an admittedly very large sign that says, Coming in with a special someone? Your first drink is on us!

“Well, I tried. Seeya, Pidgie. Have fun at AST.” Before Keith leaves, he drops a five dollar bill into the tip jar and slides between tables to get to the second, library-like room.

Fortune Coffee House had two spaces, the actual coffee bar and a second room with tables, an assortment of armchairs, and couches for studying, worship, or just to chat quietly. Keith slips through the doorframe and sees Lance sitting in his usual armchair, tucked into the alcove created by two windows. An empty plastic cup sits on the low table behind them.

Lance looks just as beautiful as the day Keith met him. His hair is longer and curlier, better taken care of, and freckles make their homes loud and proud across his face, but the Pacific ocean that sloshes around his pupils never changed, nor did the tilt of his smile or the slight scrunch of his nose when he laughed. Keith has kissed that scrunch on several occasions, to no fault of his own.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, blue,” Keith says as he approaches Lance, pressing a kiss to the top of his head, “Got these for you.”

“Keithalicous, Keith, god, you scared me!” Lance exclaims but accepts both the kiss and the gifts he’s handed, running a gentle finger over the rose petals. “Did you get here okay?”

Keith thinks back on all the running around he’s done today and can’t tamp down the laugh. “As okay as I could’ve been. I liked the little game you sent me on. It was nice to go back to St. Taffy’s. Romelle still works there, yaknow?”

“I was just there this morning, goober.” Lance reminds him gently, setting the flowers and the chocolate on the table, working on opening the card. “I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t sure.”

He remembers what’s written in the card. It was written late at night when Keith couldn’t sleep and instead spent precious minutes watching Lance’s sleeping face shift. “Right, yeah, ‘course, ah, I knew that.”

“Wow, did your code just stop working?” Lance jokes as he finally gets the sealed white envelope open (it was spit-sealed, Keith didn’t fuck with wax,) and pulls out the card.

Keith had found it months ago. It was a deep green and pictured a featureless white deer, standing small amongst towering trees. He found it pretty, and by the way Lance traced a reverent finger over the spiny branches of the trees, he did too.

The card itself wasn't a problem. It was what was written inside the card, or more rather, how much was written inside the card. Keith had used every available inch of space from the top edge of the right side to where the small inscription was on the left.

While Lance reads, Keith pulls at a loose thread in his sweater. It pools in his hand by the time Lance glances up at Keith and slowly folds the card shut. His crystal-clear eyes are glassy and wet with tears.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Shut up,” Lance cuts in, “Shut all the way up. You’re such a gifted fucking writer, oh my god. That was beautiful. I love you too, Keithers.”

His hammering chest eases up and is replaced with birdsong and unbridled joy. “I’m glad. Did you…have a favorite part?”

Lance pauses, “Hm. I think it might’ve been ‘The stars could love me and the moon could cry for me, but I’d still choose you. Every time.’ Or ‘You are my north star over the ocean guiding me home and there is nowhere I would rather tilt my chin than up to your light.’ I told you, Keith, you’re a brilliant fucking writer.”

Keith doesn’t respond, but he does reach across and link Lance’s hand up with his. Lance tightens his grip, the gold metal of his rings digging into Keith’s fingers, and pulls Keith forward into a kiss that he wasn’t entirely sure was coffee shop appropriate.

“Can you cut that shit out? People read the Bible in here.” Pidge calls from the doorway.

“Sorry, Pidgie,” Lance says sheepishly, pulling away from Keith, “Thanks for the coffee.”

His mouth tastes like Lance’s strawberry Carmex and green tea. Keith accepts the hot strawberry mocha that’s handed to him and takes a sip, but he’s watching Lance like he’s the only star in the sky.

To Keith, he might as well be. There wasn’t room for much else in Keith’s night sky, anyways.

#vld #voltron #keith kogane #vld keith #keith voltron #lance mcclain #vld lance #klance #voltron legendary disappointment #vld shiro #vld pidge #soulficlet #soulreapinfic #keith vld #voltron lance #lance vld #in honor of valentine’s day #both of the quotes from keiths card are things ive written myself so #😁

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inairbinad · 8 months

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maybe together we can get somewhere

Written for my lovely, talented, and frequent brainworm-sharing friend @stobinesque! Happy birthday, I hope you have the best day!! 🥳💙 This one is also affectionately known as stobin: codependent delivery drivers. Featuring the soulmates soulmating, some Rockie fluff, and just a dash of Steddie. rated: T | wc: 4k | cw: none [read on ao3]

Robin slaps the classified section in front of Steve as he’s making their morning coffee. It’s been another long night of tossing and turning, of holding each other through anxious dreams thanks to the latest round of shit they’ve been through. It’s exhausting, but they’re figuring it out together. Again. Because if all they can do is stay attached at the hip, share a bed, and tell each other everything’s okay as long as they have each other? Well, Robin’s more than willing to do that for Steve. And after two times around this ride already, Robin knows Steve’s more than willing to do that for her too.

So she uses the time not sleeping to scour the paper for job leads. It’s not like she’s dying to work again, but if she and Steve ever want to realize their plans of getting the hell out of Hawkins and moving to the city, they’re gonna need something. If they can’t sleep without each other, they certainly can’t be expected to work without each other.

Luckily Robin thinks she’s finally stumbled upon something that could be great for both of them.

“I think I found our next excursion through the perils of capitalism,” she grins and takes her mug from Steve, who always knows just how to make her coffee. She’s actually pretty sure they could do each other’s morning routines in their sleep, by now.

“Yippee,” Steve says with all the enthusiasm of someone on death row. He knows as well as Robin does that they need to find another job after the Family Video quite literally crumbled to dust, but neither of them is exactly eager to dive back into the hells of minimum wage labor. Not to mention that Robin’s more than a little worried that they’re cursed, and the total destruction of both of their previous workplaces might precede them.

“Come on, as long as we do it together it won’t be that bad,” Robin tries to persuade him before telling him what the actual job is.

“You said that about the last one!” Steve points out, looking so scandalized that Robin’s a little annoyed.

“Are you saying you don’t want to work together anymore?”

“No,” Steve course-corrects so quickly that Robin can’t help but laugh at him. “I whine about work about five-hundred percent more if you aren’t there with me, Robbie. You know that.”

“I’m familiar,” she chuckles, thinking back to every single time Keith scheduled Steve to work without her at the video store. And every time they’d come back to work together at Scoops after a few days apart, Steve would have countless tales of people-watching and bizarre customers to share, even before they considered each other certified soulmates.

“So what is it?” Steve asks.

“How would you like to be one of the newest faces of Surfer Boy Pizza?”

“I thought you couldn’t drive,” Keith narrows his eyes at Robin before going back to inspect her newly acquired driver’s license. She figured it was time to get one after the shit hit the fan for the second time in less than a year, so that’s exactly what she did…after a few tries, anyway.

Steve would argue that she still can’t drive, actually looks like the words are poised on the tip of his tongue before he thinks better of it.

Robin can’t exactly blame him, not after all he went through trying to teach her. She has to hold back a wince as she relives the time she popped one of his tires like a balloon just from rolling over a curb. But by some miracle—arguably her impeccable parallel parking skills, which might be the only thing she’s actually good at, go figure—Robin finally did manage to get her license.

So the way Keith is looking at it like it has to be a fake is a little bit insulting.

“It’s newly minted, I’ll admit,” Robin sighs and leans across the counter to try and level with him. How he managed to snag up a manager’s spot here so quickly baffles her, quite honestly, since they just opened. (The rumor is that the owners saw Argyle driving around in his van so frequently that they were inspired to open a franchise. Robin isn’t sure what that says about her potential new employers, but she’s trying not to think about it too hard.)

At least she knows how to talk Keith into things he doesn’t necessarily want to do by now.

“But I’m super careful and am an excellent parallel parker,” she continues. “You won’t find any scratches on your shiny new delivery vans when I’m working, or get calls from customers saying I left a dent in their bumper like the infamous kid that used to drive for that other pizza joint in town.”

“We don’t mention that place in here,” Keith grumbles, knowing full well that he is that infamous kid. It’s another reason Robin is shocked that someone hired him to work at a pizza place again, even if he isn’t driving this time around. Keith passes her license back over before glancing at Steve, who knows to stay quiet and let Robin handle things. He merely shrugs and gives Keith a look that imparts so much confidence in Robin that it makes her heart swell. “Fine, you’re both hired. Again. But—”

Robin cuts him off with a soft whoop, surprised at how excited she is to be able to make a mixtape and drive around town without a manager breathing down her neck for her entire shift. She doesn’t really care much about the handing pizzas off to people part, more so the independence. And then to come back to the store and gab with Steve about it while they wait for their next call.

It maybe doesn’t promise quite as much togetherness at work as they’re accustomed to, but Robin has a feeling they’ll find a way to work around that.

“But—” Keith says again with his supposedly stern face on and points at Robin specifically. “You’ll deliver by bike until I trust you with a van.”

Robin feels the way her shoulders slump like she’s sinking into quicksand. “It’s about to be summer, Keith—”

Steve kicks her ankle and clears his throat loudly before he sells her out like a Judas. “Deal.”

Robin stares daggers at the side of his head like the good old days when he was just the douchebag who left bagel crumbs everywhere he went. He doesn’t look at her, though, just shakes hands with Keith and seals her to her sweaty fate.

Robin doesn’t speak to Steve again until they pull up in front of her house. “I can’t believe you threw me under the proverbial bike like that, dingus.”

“Do you want to hear my plan, or do you want to go back and quit before you even get your little yellow visor?” he asks as he shuts off the Beemer.

“I’ll hear your plan,” Robin sighs, glad he seems to have one at all. “But I reserve the right to reject it out of hand. Visor be damned.”

Steve smiles and twists around in his seat to face her, like whatever he’s come up with excites him.

“Okay, so every time Keith sends you out on your bike, you ride around the corner and wait, then I’ll pick you up in the van. That way we can do all our deliveries together until Keith trusts you to drive on your own.” Steve crosses his arms and grins at her like he’s some kind of evil, work-avoidant genius.

Robin thinks he just might be.

“I guarantee we’ll still cover just as much ground if I push the speed limit, Hawkins is so small,” he continues. “Then we’ll both basically be getting paid to do one job, and Keith never has to know.”

“You’re a genius Steve, you know that?” she figures it can’t hurt to tell him. It breaks her heart a little to watch the shadow of disbelief that crosses his face to hear it.

“I don’t know about that…”

Robin claps a hand over his mouth before he can say anything self-deprecating. “Nope. Take the compliment. I only have one question.”

“Shoot, Bobbie,” Steve says. He’s probably trotting out one of Robin’s favorite nicknames to counteract the fact that his lips are moving against her palm as he talks, which he knows creeps her out. How she understands what he’s saying anyway is beyond her, but she does.

“What do we do on nights that I’m scheduled to work, but you’re not?” Robin asks as she drops her hand.

Steve shrugs and gives her such an easy smile, Robin thinks his knack for scheming is one of her favorite things about him.

“Help cover the gas, and I’ll drive you around anyway,” he says. “But you’re pretty good at convincing Keith to schedule us together already.”

Robin wonders if maybe this job will actually be kind of fun.

Robin’s pretty sure Keith catches on to their little routine after about a week of doing it. But she’s already plotted a route around Hawkins that maximizes the ground they can cover, and Steve’s had all the best places to speed memorized for years, so every customer ends up singing their praises to the point where Keith can’t really bring himself to do anything about it.

She thinks she might never have to drive a delivery van herself as long as they keep this up. That’s fine by Robin, because even if the pay is shit, it’s probably the most fun she’s ever had at work.

It beats slinging ice cream in a sailor outfit, anyway.

People actually seem happy to see Robin when she’s the one who rings the bell, delivering their dinner with a smile and a little bit of a clumsy lilt to her gait. It always gives her an extra dose of confidence when the particularly hot moms of Hawkins are thrilled to see her—whether it’s for closeted sapphic reasons or just gender solidarity, Robin can’t help but enjoy the attention and praises heaped upon her.

“Robin, you look almost as adorable in that uniform as you did in the sailor outfit. Yellow really is a good color on you,” Mrs. Wheeler says to her one night, and Robin nearly faints from it.

Eventually she starts flirting a little—not with Nancy’s mom, but maybe with some of the others who didn’t birth her friends—just subtly enough to make getting out of the car to talk to the babes on their route worth it. Steve grumbles about letting Robin talk to all the pretty girls at first, but it’s good natured and really Robin can tell that he’s proud of her for being a little charmer.

He doesn’t mind flirting with the dudes instead, anyway. Especially not when Eddie starts ordering pizza way more frequently than is strictly necessary, even for someone still recovering from his first stint in the underworld.

“Why don’t you just ask him out?” Robin asks when Steve climbs back in the van with a goofy smile on his face for the fourth time in one week. Between the kids hanging out at Max’s and Eddie calling so often, they spend more time delivering to their new, unearthquaked end of the trailer park than anywhere else.

“Why don’t you just ask Vickie out?” Steve counters, just like he always does. Robin tries to flick some of her Coke at him (that she may or may not have snagged from the work fridge behind Keith’s back), but she fumbles the execution and ends up spilling the whole can on Steve’s shirt. Then Steve’s laughing, but also glaring at her as he whines about his work shirt being sticky now.

Robin tries to stifle her own laughter with apologies, chooses not to point out that Eddie’s laughing from his door, too. She strips her own Surfer Boy tee off, leaving just the white tank top she’s wearing underneath, and hands it to Steve to change into. They share clothes like it’s their lot in life anyway. Robin’s actually kind of convinced that one might’ve been Steve’s shirt to begin with.

“Thanks,” he grumbles and changes hastily. He finally notices Eddie’s still watching once he’s trying to fix his hair in the rearview mirror.

Robin revels in the way his neck flushes, just a teeny bit. Steve waves shyly, Eddie waves back, and she wonders how long they’ll continue to be dumbasses as Steve finally pulls away.

“Where to next?” he asks, and Robin checks her list.

Her groan tells Steve everything he needs to know.

“Vickie’s it is!” He sounds entirely too cheerful about it.

The drive from Eddie’s to Vickie’s is vanishingly short, especially with Steve and Robin’s System of Fast and Efficient Pizza Delivery, patent pending.

“Gimme my shirt back,” Robin implores as Steve pulls up to Vickie’s, feeling exposed all of a sudden in just her tank top. She anxiously looks towards the front door as she waits. The porch light’s on for them, because Vickie is always one of the more courteous customers they’ve got—and one of the best tippers.

“Oh so I’m supposed to sit here shirtless because you don’t want to show off your arms to a pretty girl?” Steve asks, and Robin whips her head around to realize he’s not planning on giving her shirt back at all.

“It’s company policy not to approach a door without your uniform!” Robin shrieks, not because she cares much about company policy, but because Steve should have her back on principle. “Plus, you enjoy being shirtless, you flirt!”

“I don’t think Vickie’s going to mistake you for a missionary,” Steve says blandly, ignoring the mild-slut shaming completely. “Plus, you’ve still got your visor on.”

“Steve,” Robin tries, but he just grins at her without moving a muscle.

“You look great. Go get ‘em, Tiger.”

“Oh god. You did not just say that,” Robin sighs, delaying further just to make fun of him a little. She thinks it’s deserved.

“I did, and I meant it,” Steve raises an eyebrow at her. “Unless you want me to drop this one?”

“No,” Robin tells him with all the annoyance she can muster. She might be awkward, flailing, and hopelessly pining over Vickie already, but she’s not gonna let any of that stop her from going up to that door. “Gimme the damn pizza.”

Steve reaches to get it out of the back and hands it over to Robin with a shit-eating grin. She really regrets not giving him more hell over Eddie back there, but she takes the box and squares her shoulders before making her way up Vickie’s front stairs.

Robin rings the bell and does her best not to fidget the entire time she’s waiting. Which isn’t very long at all. Vickie opens the door with a wide smile in greeting, looking almost angelic in the way the light behind her frames her fiery hair, her eyes bright and excited just because Robin’s there.

Or maybe she’s just really hungry, a more cynical part of Robin’s brain corrects.

“Veggie pizza?” Robin asks, and Vickie nods.

“Thanks,” Vickie says, already moving to exchange pizza for money. “That was really fast.”

“Oh, well. Steve and I have a system. I kind of buried myself in maps for a night while I worked out the quickest routes around town, then we spent the next couple of days figuring out how to drive them quickly without hitting any pedestrians or breaking too many traffic laws,” Robin says without thinking. No matter how many times they talk, Robin doesn’t seem to be able to stop blurting things out around Vickie.

Vickie just laughs though, leaning a little around Robin so she can wave to Steve who is very obviously watching them from the car.

“That’s a whole lot of dedication to the job,” Vickie comments, and Robin can feel her ears turn pink.

“Sometimes I just plan stuff out when I can’t sleep, even if I never actually end up doing it,” Robin admits.

“Me too,” Vickie says with such soft knowing in her voice that Robin wants to wrap herself up in it like a blanket. For the first time she wonders if maybe Steve isn’t the only person who can calm her nerves enough to help her sleep. She doesn’t have much time to get caught up in the thought, though, because Vickie keeps talking.

“Is that your normal uniform?” she asks, and Robin hopes she’s not imagining the way Vickie’s gaze lingers over her bare shoulders, her chest, her neck. She feels exposed, still, her skin alight with any attention Vickie is willing to give, but it feels nice. So nice, actually, that Robin doesn’t remember how to respond for a moment. “Or did you just want to show off your tan?”

Vickie bites her lip and flushes ever so slightly, like maybe she hadn’t quite meant to say that part out loud. Robin can’t think of anything but how desperate she is to kiss her.

“I really don’t tan,” Robin admits. “Freckle, mostly. Sometimes burn if I’m not careful. Which I guess isn’t surprising, given the history of skin cancer in my family—” Robin hears herself and wants to die. She snaps her mouth shut before she can say anything else horrifying.

“Oh, I burn too! Even with all the sunscreen in the world, sometimes–” Vickie cuts herself off with a nervous laugh. “Well, the freckles look very good, anyway.”

“Thanks,” Robin murmurs, and she thinks maybe she’s blushing enough to look sunburnt now.

“Robin?” Vickie asks, still holding the pizza between them like she’s afraid if she moves the moment might break.

Or maybe that’s just what Robin’s scared of.

“Yeah?”

“Can you help me with something real quick, or are you super busy tonight?” Vickie asks. The hopeful way she tilts her head is so precious Robin might implode right there on the spot.

Robin doesn’t care how busy they are, there’s no way she’s not following Vickie inside. “I can help. What’s up?”

“It’s just that my VCR is jammed,” Vickie says, already leading Robin inside and talking over her shoulder. She puts the pizza down on the coffee table and nods toward the TV. Robin ambles over, not sure there’s anything she can do to fix it, but she’s willing to try.

“You worked at Family Video for a while, right?” Vickie asks. Robin nods and tries not to relive every time Vickie came in to rent something and Robin acted like a fool. “Thought maybe you’d have the magic touch with it.”

Robin doesn’t think she’s imagining the flirtatious way that Vickie says magic touch, so she pours all of her focus into the malfunctioning machine in front of her before she malfunctions and melts into a puddle on Vickie’s floor.

She feels Vickie’s eyes watching her as she works and thinks she might melt anyway.

It doesn’t take long to figure out the problem. After some fumbling, Robin manages to untangle some loose tape from inside the deck. She can’t help but think it looks haphazardly shoved in there. “Were you babysitting, or something?”

“No?” Vickie says, voice inexplicably laced with questionable guilt.

“Just seems like it got stuffed in there,” Robin says as she turns around with the tangle on display. “Like maybe a kid was playing with it.”

“Oh. Well. Weird.” Vickie’s biting her lip and looking at her feet all of a sudden. Robin can see the sheen of freshly applied gloss on Vickie’s lips. She wonders what it tastes like.

She also wonders if maybe Vickie put it on just for her.

“Vickie?” Robin’s voice is whisper quiet.

“Yeah?”

“Did you really need my help with the VCR?”

Vickie’s eyes snap to Robin’s face, worried, like she’s been caught out. But then Robin smiles at her, so gently she feels like it might break her own heart just to feel it on her face, and Vickie relaxes her shoulders.

“No,” she admits.

Robin doesn’t know where the courage comes from, what comes over her or how, but one minute she’s standing in Vickie’s living room thinking she might pass out from nerves, and the next she’s cupping Vickie’s cheek with all the casual smoothness Robin’s ever mustered in her life. Then Robin leans in to kiss her.

It’s heady, the power Robin feels just from being the one to move first. It’s like her body was made for this, for gently holding Vickie’s face and tasting the strawberry flavor of her lip gloss, feeling the soft pout of her lips slotting between Robin’s own like puzzle pieces fitting together.

But mostly Robin is soaring because Vickie is kissing her back, fiercely, like maybe this was actually what Vickie was hungry for instead of pizza in the first place.

Robin isn’t entirely sure what being a good kisser entails, at least not when you actually want the person you’re lip to lip with so badly you’re seeing stars. There’s no universe in which Robin thinks this can’t be good, though, because her whole body is tingling from the way Vickie presses up against it, the way she gently slips her hand into Robin’s hair and tilts Robin’s head just so.

Robin feels her visor come tumbling off her head, but she can hardly care when Vickie lets out a delicate moan that leaves her absolutely weak in the knees.

“Vickie,” Robin breathes out when they separate, already wanting to dive in for more. Vickie smiles against Robin’s mouth, kisses the corner of her lips again like she’s worried she missed a spot.

“Yes, Robin?” Vickie asks, suddenly sounding much more confident than she’d looked just a moment before—almost teasing.

“That was really good,” Robin says plainly.

“I agree,” Vickie hums. She pecks Robin on the lips one more time, gentle and quick about it. “And as much as I want to do it again, I think Steve’s waiting for you.”

It’s only then that Robin even hears the distinct sound of the van’s horn honking—two quick beeps to remind her that there’s still two more deliveries they need to make.

“Damn him,” Robin mutters, and Vickie just laughs. Her breath against Robin’s face is minty fresh, and Robin can’t really be expected to function when she knows Vickie planned this whole thing, can she?

“Call me later?” Vickie asks.

Robin nods, but not before kissing her again, deliveries be damned.

“Your lips are swollen,” Steve says first thing when she gets back in the car, dazed and floaty like she’s just taken the best drugs of her life. (This is something Robin actually has a point of reference for now, and she’s easily putting ‘Kisses From Vickie’ at the top of the list.)

“I kissed her,” Robin says, staring straight ahead. Steve squeals like a little girl and bounces in his seat.

“Finally!” he cheers, giving Robin’s shoulders an excited shake. “Are you comatose over there?”

“A little,” Robin admits, but she feels the smile break out on her face like an explosion of fireworks. She sucks in a deep breath and finally looks at Steve. He looks so happy for her she thinks her heart might burst all over again. “I kissed a girl.”

“Was it everything you imagined?” Steve asks, not bothering to hide the hopeless romantic that lives in his chest and pulls all of his heartstrings.

“And then some,” Robin says, hearing how dreamy she sounds and just rolling with it. Steve starts the van up again just as Vickie waves at them both from her front window. She blows Robin a kiss, and Robin thinks she’s died and gone to a heaven she’s not sure she believed in until now.

“Seems this job was worth it after all,” Steve admits.

Robin really can’t disagree.

#read 📚#stobin #rockie #robin buckley #steve harrington #vickie stranger things #robin x vickie #fanfiction #stranger things #platonic stobin #rovickie #dani's drafts

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edgyh3dgy · 6 months

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I WENT ON TUMBLR TO SEE KEITH APPRECIATION BC ITS HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY AND I SEE NOTHING ABT HIM 😖😖😞😞😢😢

anyways HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH !!! YOU MAKE MY HEART HURT. A LOT.

#Keith #keith kogane #voltron #vld #Keith vld #HAPPY BIRTHDAYY

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lidoshka · 6 months

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Rookie son

Tex has a son who is small, and skinny, and his wrists look so fragile that Tex thinks he could snap them if he’s not careful… and yet, Keith is faster than any man in the unit, he can carry two people back to safety in a single trip and lift beams larger than Tex himself.

Supremely disappointed that there wasn't a #showAU tag for #Keithtober this year, but anyway! have a Show AU!

And Happy Birthday Keith!!! Here’s an au where Tex survives and raises Keith!

･㉨･)っ♡　

Sure, there's a chance that even with his dad alive Keith would still want to join the garrison, but I also like the idea of him choosing to stay closer to the desert (and blue!)

Here are some things I was thinking about this AU:

-There is one universe where Tex died in a fire, but in THIS universe he survives the fire.

-His brush with death makes Tex aware that he needs to have a larger support for his child, so he makes some changes: he takes more desk time whenever possible, and forges deeper bonds with his fellow firemen; Keith now has half a dozen different godfathers who could take him in if Tex ever falls in the line of duty.

-With his father alive Keith has the chance to learn who (and what) his mother is, where she is and most importantly, what his father is protecting in the desert.

-Keith reasons that should anything happen to his dad, the keeping of the Blue Lion would fall on him, and it'd be difficult to do that if he's stuck in a military school; instead of going to the Garrison he decides to stay and become a fireman.

-There might have been a row at some point because of this (since Keith had said over and over how much he wanted to become a pilot before), but Keith is stubborn and got his way. Besides, if he really wanted to, there's always flight simulators.

-With Tex alive Keith never loses his alien roots. Tex knows enough galran to at least read the controls of a spaceship, and he passes this knowledge to Keith.

-Tex also gives Keith his mother's knife, not just for sentimental reasons, but also because Krolia showed him how to receive and send signals with it.

-Keith grows up in the desert, he still has poor people skills but he’s less conflicted about them; he also has a few quirks here and there that don't look entirely human (like the super strenght), but Tex assures him "your mother used to do that too" and therefore he's more confortable on his skin.

-Keith still aced the flight simulator during Shiro's visit to his school; he never steals Shiro's car but neither does he accept the offer to join the Garrison. Their friendship might develop after Shiro's continuos tries to recruit Keith.

#mis trazos #voltron legendary defender #keith kogane #texas dad #dad kogane #keithtober #canon divergence

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mayplantstarrwaters · 6 months

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really quickie Keet Emerson drawing I did to celebrate his birthday (right after studying for 2 hours) but anyways

Happy heavenly birthday to the one and only, Keith Emerson !

#keith emerson #emerson lake and palmer #sorry if these turn out kinda wonky i did this in a rush whoops #my artwork

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honeyflower-bellybower · 10 months

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Coalition!Lance AU really saves my life everyday I think

Thinking about him taking over Allura's work and being insecure that he can do it at first but slowly settling into the role. He begins just as a helping hand but quickly becomes a point of reference for everyone (all the planets leaders and every Coalition member) because he may not realize it but he knows his stuff. He is battle smart and always thinks things through because he's so scared to mess up. Always puts others first. In a matter of months everyone's in silent agreement he is the leader.

He's very busy but happy. He gets to be both a hero and Allura's legacy. He gets to bring Voltron's goal forth and liberate all the people who are still under regime. He rarely gets out in the field himself, since he's always required in meetings and ceremonies, but his experience makes every mission successful.

Small detail, but very important: Coran is at his side, and notices all the similarities between Lance and Allura. His princess lives on in him. She would be proud. Coran surely is and often gets emotional when no one is looking.

With Lance as its leader, the Coalition also secures the best form of collaboration with the Blade of Marmora, thanks to his friendship with Keith.

Keith refused becoming the official leader of the blade, but of course he kind of became anyway. He's one of the best fighters and has vast battle experience, which quickly make him the center of every action. He's strongminded and capable of keeping a disperse amount of agents together. Plus, his personal relationship with the Coalition head makes him always involved in logistics, large scale strategy and decisions.

Gradually but in relatively short time, they become two of the most important figures in the liberation front. Their lives are full, always on the move, but rewarding. They are tired but content.

The only downside is they hardly get to see their friends and family. It's not like their first disappearence during the Voltron experience (they keep in touch with everyone) but it's sorta like being very important diplomats. It's hard to be home for the holidays and birthdays when the Universe is counting on you.

They share this fatigue. They share a lot, actually, both of them being the center of attention not because they wanted to but because they were needed. Their friendship somehow grows, even though they only see each other at official meetings and Keith hardly attends any. But they resonate.

They start keeping in touch mostly because it's handy. Why sending mountains of paperwork when you can videochat your buddy and explain? But it quickly becomes their way of letting steam off. They start calling each other every night. It's always super late when they both clear all of their full schedules, but they never miss a day.

It's not like they have anything to tell each other most times. They just, talk. For the sake of it. Tell each other their days or random stuff they think about. Often they're too tired to make sense of anything. Often Lance rambles about office gossip and Keith listens, or better, he listens to his voice, and if Lance's eyes weren't so bright and beautiful his own would drift closed. Often Kosmo is in the room with Keith and he pets him and Lance says he misses Kaltenecker, and Keith laughs because a cow isn't a wolf and you don't pet a cow. Lance pouts.

They feel warm, knowing they both just want to hear each other's voice and give the other some comforr from long, exausting days.

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msmargaretmurry · 6 months

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it was about your actual eldest daughter quinn cisswap fic :D

hahahaha thank you for clarifying <3 even though it would have been a delightful message either way

i'm so pleased to hear it though! i love her so much, i am slowly but doggedly plugging away at that fic in the precious free time i have and i am looking forward to hopefully one day share her with you and the five other people who are excited to read her story. also it's been a while since i wrote a female protagonist and it's been such a fun and interesting writing process digging into how the gender of it all does or doesn't change things.

anyway! have a little snippet of exposition!! <3

Technically, Quinn met Brady before they were fifteen. The elite hockey world is small, and they played with and against each other at various youth tournaments, but fifteen is when everything really started. Women in the NHL were no longer brand new, although still treated like a novelty — as if that’s ever going to change — but having girls in the national team development program was still in the experimental stages. After all, international competition was still strictly gendered. Someone had convinced the powers that be that if the best girls in the game were legitimately shooting for the NHL now, then it was good for the Americans to at least present the illusion of equal institutional support, the same way Sweden and Finland were doing. Can’t be falling behind the Europeans.

So the program wanted Quinn. Her parents, despite her years on boys’ teams and her tenuous commitment to Michigan, whose D-I hockey team did not historically include girls, had expressed some reservations about sending her off to live in an environment that was 90% teen boys before her sixteenth birthday. They were supportive, yeah, but they kept asking about special accommodations — a phrase that Quinn at fifteen loathed, feeling that it highlighted a difference between her and the boys that she would prefer for everyone to just forget about. But Brady, obviously, was also program-bound, and at a spring tournament in Wisconsin, Quinn’s coach connected Quinn’s parents with Keith and Chantal. Their dads already knew each other from years in the league: Jim behind the bench and in front offices, Keith on the ice. Both families familiar with the other from years of running in the same circles. The Tkachuks, it turned out, had a place in Ann Arbor while their boys were in the program, and they would be happy to let Quinn have the basement apartment, if some guaranteed parental supervision from a take-no-shit NHL veteran would put everyone’s minds at ease.

Brady, tall and gangly with his sweaty curls matted to his head, had watched the adults deliberating for half a minute, then turned to Quinn, stuck his hand out, and said, “Hey, how ya doing? That was a sick goal from the point your last game. Seriously, hell of a shot. I pointed it out to my dad and he was like, well, yeah, Brady, you could do that too if you didn’t have legs like spaghetti noodles. So I guess it’s gonna be leg day every day this summer.”

Quinn, once she had processed all of this, her hand still being shaken, had said, “Uh, yeah, looks like you could really use some work in that department.” Then she winced internally, because, yeah, great first impression on the kid whose parents were brokering her path to the NHL right at that moment. But Brady just laughed.

“So you think you’re gonna come to the program?” he asked.

Quinn nodded at the council of grown-ups. “If they let me, yeah.”

“They’ll let you. You’re too good not to go,” Brady said, so breezily assured that for a moment Quinn forgot why she had doubts. “It’s great. You’ll love it. My brother is there and he loves it. He says it’s not weird at all having girls around. I mean, like, obviously, we’ve got Nicky and Rach on our team right now and they’re great so I didn’t think it would be weird anyway. But Matthew says—” he laughed again, shaking his head “—he says, ‘just remember, you can hit them, but don’t hit on them, and it’ll all be fine.’”

Despite herself, by this point, Quinn was grinning. “Sounds like a pretty good rule.”

“Yeah, he’s a knucklehead, but sometimes he pops out a gem like that,” Brady said.

“Brothers are usually knuckleheads.”

“True. Wait, hey.”

Quinn gave him a sidelong look, one eyebrow raised. He slugged her in the shoulder.

“Quinny, come here a sec,” her mom said, and that’s how Quinn wound up living in Brady Tkachuk’s basement for two years.

#ask #eldest daughter quinn hughes #hockey for ts #usually i'm so cagey about sharing from wips but it's gonna be so long until i have anything ready for posting........#counting on u all to forget all of this by the time i finish the fic 😅

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autisticlancemcclain · 2 years

Text

five times keith kogane didn’t celebrate his birthday, plus one time he did

“You’re getting big, kiddo! Double digits this year an’ everything. Next thing I know, you’ll be towerin’ over me and askin’ me when I got so small!"

Keith giggled. He knew his Pa was teasing, because Keith was still very small. In fact, he was the shortest kid in his class. (Which didn’t even make sense, because Pa was as big as a mountain!)

“I’m not that big, Pa.”

“Oh, I dunno. I don’t think I could even lift ya up anymore.”

“Yes you can! Yes you can!”

Pa pretended to think, tapping his chin and screwing up his mouth. “Well, I could try, I ‘spose…”

Keith cheered, and Pa grinned before scooping Keith right up and throwing him up over his shoulder.

“Make way for the birthday boy!” he called, even though they were the only ones in the house and it wasn’t even his birthday until next month.

“Not yet, Pa! It’s in –” Keith paused to count carefully on his fingers, Pa waiting patiently – “twenty-nine days!”

“Aw, my little boy’s almost a grown man!” Pa tossed him down on the couch, flopping down beside him with his hand over his forehead dramatically. “My little baby Keith, ten years old. Whatever shall I do?”

Keith laughed, crawling into Pa’s lap and curling up under his chin. “I’m just ten, Pa. Nothing’s gonna change, ‘cept I’ll be bigger and smarter and stronger.”

Pa hummed, bringing up a hand to brush through Keith’s shaggy hair. “That’s right, kiddo. Nothing big will change. But we can still celebrate, huh? Whatcha wanna do?”

Keith brightened, flicking excited eyes up to meet his father’s. “Can I go for a big long ride in the firetruck? With the sirens? Please?”

Pa chuckles, pressing a kiss to the top of Keith’s hair. “‘Course, kiddo. Anything you want.”

“Happy birthday,” Keith mutters to himself, glaring at the headstone in front of him. “So much for no big changes. Liar.”

He has the sudden urge to stand up and kick the cold grey stone. ‘TEXAS KOGANE,’ it reads, in big black letters, ‘LOVING FATHER AND LOCAL HERO.’ As if that makes it better; he’s dead, sure, but at least he was a hero.

A tear drips down Keith’s nose, without his permission.

He doesn’t want a hero. He wants his dad back, to take him on a ride around the town for his birthday, like he promised. He would even take just his dad, no birthday celebrations necessary. He’d give up a million birthdays to have his dad back.

Keith stares at his watch as the minutes tick down. 11:58. Really, he’s not allowed to be up this late. The lady in charge of this home is real strict about bedtime – lights out at 8:30, no exceptions for homework or reading or playing.

Or birthdays.

Keith doesn’t much care, though. He hasn’t cared about his birthday in two years. It doesn’t mean much anymore, anyway. The only thing that happens if he tells someone it’s his birthday is they look at him in surprise, then look at him with guilt, then half-ass a birthday wish or maybe some stupid little dollar-store present that Keith doesn’t even want. He only ever wants one thing, and he’ll never get it, so it doesn’t matter.

Sometimes, thought, secretly, in the very back of his mind, he thinks it would be nice to have someone plan a whole party just for him, with chocolate cake that’s mostly icing and sprinkles, and no candles – candles mean fire, and Keith doesn’t much like fire – but maybe the stupid little song, too. Maybe he would have a bunch of imaginary friends gathered around him, excited to celebrate with him, who smother him with hugs and kisses and happy birthdays and even birthday beats. Maybe there's someone who knows all the books Keith likes, and gets him those fancy hardcovers he can never afford, the ones that look real nice and feel even nicer.

But the clock ticks right past 12, and his birthday is over, and no one even remembered or cared, and Keith convinces himself that it’s better that way.

Birthdays are stupid and pointless. What does he care if no one loves him enough to celebrate? He wouldn’t celebrate even if someone did love him. It’s stupid.

“Hey, buddy,” Shiro says, shooting him a smile as Keith walks through the door.

“Hi.”

Keith moves to head to his room – he likes Shiro well enough, sure, but he’s not really in a social mood and doesn’t want to make Shiro hate him just yet – but Shiro speaks up again before he can.

“I have a couple questions about tomorrow, when you have a free minute. It doesn’t have to be now, just before you go to bed. Okay?”

Keith swallows roughly. Fuck. He was hoping they were going to ignore tomorrow, actually, but rationally Keith knew there was a fat chance of that. Shiro’s the type of guy to celebrate his plant’s birthday – and that’s a fact, they celebrated Shiro’s favourite cactus last week with homemade cupcakes that Shiro burnt so badly that Keith couldn’t actually tell what flavour they were supposed to be – so, of course, he’s going to want to celebrate Keith’s.

“Celebrating my birthday is against my religion,” Keith blurts, because he didn’t prepare a lie ahead of time, like a dumbass.

Shiro blinks. “Shit, kiddo. Have you been missing religious services, or something? Oh, God – fuck, I mean, not God – is it God? I don’t know jack shit about religion, sorry – shit, is swearing against your religion, too? Fuck. I mean, not fuck – fuck!”

Shiro’s getting so frantic that his face is turning purple, so Keith decides to put him out of his misery, even though watching him freak the hell out is admittedly kind of hilarious. (Shiro freaks out a lot, like he’s terrified he’s going to be the one to fuck Keith up. It’s very sweet, so Keith has yet to inform him that Keith’s already plenty fucked up, thanks, so he’s got nothing to worry about.)

“It’s a religion I made up,” Keith says, and figures that’s a decent enough lie as any. “It doesn’t have a name or services or anything.”

Shiro breathes a massive sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. Or, er. Not God.”

Keith cracks a grin. “Thanks, Shiro, but don’t worry. You can chill out. We’re good.”

“Okay, kiddo,” Shiro says, smiling back. “Sounds good. You heading to your room?”

“Yeah. I’ve got English homework.”

Shiro hums, tilting his head. “Do you want to do it out here? You don’t have to, and I’ll certainly be no help – I’m hopeless with lit analysis, unfortunately – but it might be nice to have company.”

Keith considers him for a moment. He – he hasn’t done homework with someone since his Pa died. No one else just wanted to sit with him, or whatever.

“I don’t make very good company.”

Shiro smiles. It’s a little sad, and Keith’s not sure how to feel about it. “I like your company plenty. If anything, I’ll be the one who makes bad company – I turn into a zombie when I have too much marking to do.”

Keith glances at the truly giant piles of student papers in front of Shiro. He thinks of his room, lonely and undecorated, ‘cause Keith is still waiting for Shiro to gently sit him down and explain that Keith’s a great kid, really, but there’s only so much Shiro can handle.

Shiro’s already lasted much longer than any other foster parent he’s had.

And, uh. Keith likes it here, a little. Sometimes, late at night, when Keith is imagining the birthday party he might have one day, he sees Shiro’s face smiling over at him.

“I guess I don’t mind doing homework with a zombie,” Keith says, and Shiro lights up.

Keith reads a lot. Whatever he can get his hands on, really. It’s for that reason that he knows, for a fact, that the man to coin the term déja vù was Émile Boirac, a French philosopher from the 19th century.

Keith hopes that motherfucking bitch is writhing in the deepest pits of hell.

Because Keith is quite happy to pin the blame on him for the horribly familiar ache he’s filling, looking at Shiro’s memorial on October 23rd, birthday plans fluttering away in the stale desert wind.

“Am I cursed?” Keith asks out loud, to whomever may be listening. “Did I do something? I’ll do anything to undo it, I promise. I’ll fucking – forget me ever even thinking about celebrating a birthday again, okay? I promise I won’t. I’ll do anything. I’ll – fucking – live in that stupid shack for the rest of my life and eat canned tuna until I die. I’ll do whatever you want. Just – please.” His face crumples, and his knees hit the hard cement floor, but he barely registers the pain. The same tear makes its traitorous path down his face, splattering on the floor. He reaches out and brushes his fingers over the carved stone: ‘TAKASHI SHIROGANE’.

There’s no other carving, this time. No star pilot, or explorer.

Loving brother.

“Please just – please just bring him back,” Keith sobs, even though he knows it’s just as fucking hopeless as it was ten years ago, and he’s alone, again, and this time there’s no one else coming.

Maybe it’s for the better. Maybe, as he shoves images of smiling faces singing happy birthday – a stupid fucking fantasy for a stupid fucking kid – into the back of his mind, where it belongs, this is for the better. The less people who care about him, the less people at risk, right? And the less people who can hurt him by breaking their promises and leaving him behind to pick up the pieces.

Birthdays are stupid. Caring about people is stupid. Keith is – Keith’s done being stupid.

Keith’s not big on eavesdropping. If he can, he minds his business.

But he figures if people are talking about him, then it’s not eavesdropping anymore. By then it’s just…gathering intel.

Yeah. That’s a great explanation for why Keith’s crouched by the common room door like a weirdo, straining to hear every last word coming from his teammates’ mouths.

“...I mean, it can’t hurt, right? It’s not like we’re doing anything obnoxious. Just the song and the cake!”

That’s Lance, unmistakably. He sounds a little annoyed, like he’s been arguing his point for a while – Keith is very familiar with that tone. He can imagine Lance’s face: mouth twisted into a petulant scowl, dark brown eyes narrowed and deadpan, arms crossed over his chest with his left hand’s ring finger tapping his bicep. He sounds snooty, too, so he’s probably even straightened up his posture and rose up to his full height.

Keith can’t quite tamp down his smile. God, he loves riling Lance up. Massive kudos to whoever’s doing it now, Keith’s jealous.

“I’m not sure, Lance.” That’s Shiro. “Keith isn’t huge on celebrating his birthday.”

Keith’s smile drops. Aw, fuck. He checks his watch, frustrated with himself, seeing clear as day that today’s the twenty-second.

Fuck. He let it sneak up on him, and now he’s going to have to shut it down like a jackass. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“You guys never celebrated his birthday?”

“Well, we didn’t at first, but he warmed up to a small thing eventually –”

“That’s settled, then!”

Keith can picture Lance throwing his hands up, surely smug about winning the argument, but likely annoyed at having to argue at all.

God, Keith needs to stop thinking about Lance so much. It’s honestly embarrassing. Here he is, having a crisis, and all his stupid gay brain can focus on is a Cuban accent and the image of a bright smile.

Humiliating.

“Hunk’ll make a cake, we’ll wish him a subtle happy birthday when we see him tomorrow. We won’t even make a big deal about it, okay?”

“Okay,” Shiro says reluctantly.

Oh, damn you, Shiro, you bleeding heart. Heaven forbid you be a surly jackass for once in your life and tell everyone to piss off.

“Good. I can’t believe we missed it last year, I feel horrible.”

“Last year, we spent Keith’s birthday in a pile of corrosive alien goo on that mission,” Pidge points out drily. “Also, he told us his birthday was November thirty-first, and every one of us fell for it.”

Keith grins, because it’s true and he did. He laughed to himself for like forty minutes when they realised, and they were so ticked and preoccupied with throwing things at him – Allura and Lance were the ones throwing things, that is – that they forgot to ask him for his birthday for real.

Someone sniffs derisively. “Makes sense for his scorpio ass,” Hunk says.

“Is scorpio the bitchy one?” he hears Allura whisper.

“Yes,” Lance whispers back, as if he’s not a fuckin’ leo.

“Okay, let’s talk about literally anything else. Don’t we have preparations to do?”

Keith scatters before everyone can file out, hearing Hunk and Lance start talking excitedly about making their way to the kitchens. He makes his way to his room, racking his brain for a way to stop this in its tracks. Hunk and Lance will have already started on the cake, so he can’t hide ingredients or anything. Honestly, his best bet will probably be to hide the cake and hope everyone gets the message. It’ll be awkward, sure, and he’ll feel bad about ruining their hard work, but it’s for the best.

After all, birthdays are stupid.

He waits until he’s sure everyone else is asleep, and then sneaks his way into the kitchen, using all the ninja training he has available. He doesn’t turn the kitchen light on, using the cover of the shadows to hide his misdeeds.

(...Misdeeds? Who says that? Keith reads way too many novels.)

He finally closes his hand around the fridge door, pulling it open as quietly as possible. There, placed carefully away from anything that could ruin it, is a – chocolate cake. With more icing than cake. And endless sprinkles. No candle in sight.

Keith swallows the lump in his throat, forcing himself to get his shit together. It’s a fucking cake. So what if his team knows exactly what he wants? So what if the stupid little fantasy he dreamed about as a stupid little lonely kid is a very real possibility?

It doesn’t matter. Keith doesn’t do birthdays. Not anymore.

“Now, if I thought you were just stealing a bite, I wouldn’t stop you. But something tells me that’s not the case.”

Lance’s voice startles him so bad he jumps up with a yelp, braining himself on the fridge door.

“Jesus motherfu –”

Lance laughs quietly, cutting Keith off mid-cuss. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Bullshit, McClain, you jackass.”

Lance shrugs, grinning. “You’ll never prove it.”

“And they’ll never find your fucking body if you do that again,” Keith snaps, but there’s no bark behind it. “Why the hell are you here? You’re supposed to be asleep!”

“So are you. Instead, you’re committing birthday sabotage. What’s up with that?”

Keith stiffens. “No I’m not. I’m just – admiring it.”

“Uh huh. Don’t insult my intelligence.”

“I’m not –” Keith sighs, deflating. “Yeah, okay, whatever. I just – I don’t want to celebrate my birthday, okay? It’s no big deal.”

Lance stares at him a moment. Not glaring, or judgemental, or – anything, really. Just stares, until Keith starts to fidget.

“What?” he snaps. “Say something.”

“I don’t think you actually want us to pretend it’s not your birthday,” Lance says.

Keith blinks. “That’s – yes, I do.”

“I mean, I think you think you do.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Lance hums, pulling out two chairs and sitting in one. He pillows his head on his arms, resting on the table. He looks at Keith expectantly.

Keith rolls his eyes and stomps over to the chair, slamming the fridge door shut behind him. The room goes completely dark, save for the faint glow of the emergency light casting shadows on Lance’s face.

“Well?”

“I think, if you really wanted us to stop the birthday planning, you would have come inside and said it, instead of crouching outside like a weirdo.”

Keith startles. “There’s no fucking way – you saw me? I was behind a wall!”

“I heard you.”

Keith slaps a palm to his head, frustrated with himself. How could he forget? “You and your fucking bat ears.”

Lance laughs, poking Keith gently on the shoulder. “Me and my bat ears,” he agrees. He doesn’t say anything more, waiting patiently for Keith to organise his thoughts. That’s the thing about Lance – you’d think, with all the talking he does, that he wouldn’t be a great listener. But he is, really.

“Every person I’ve ever celebrated my birthday with has bailed on me,” Keith says quietly. “It’s not – it’s not always their fault, sure, but it’s a pattern.”

“Two’s not a pattern,” Lance whispers.

Keith shrugs. “Feels like one.”

“I bet.”

Keith’s heart starts to feel heavy. It always does, when he remembers anything adjacent to his Pa, and more recently to the memories of losing Shiro. He lays his head on the table, mirroring Lance, to see if that will ease some of the weight.

“I don’t want you guys to make it a pattern.”

Lance hums. “Not to be a bummer, but the chances of all seven of us surviving this whole thing is pretty slim. We’re going to do our best, obviously, but – it’s grim.”

“How is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Well, if we’re going to die anyway, why can’t we also celebrate your birthday? I don’t think acknowledging the fact that you were born and we’re happy about it is going to make us any more or less likely to die.”

“This is a really shitty pep talk.”

Lance laughs. “Yeah, it’s not my best.”

“Not even close.”

Lance grins at him, a flash of bright white in the dark. “Is it working anyway, though?”

“A little.”

“Yeah? Where’re you at?”

Keith hums, taking a second to formulate his thoughts into a Real Human Sentence, instead of the jumble of emotions it is currently. “Objectively, I know celebrating my birthday isn’t going to get anyone killed. But my birthday feels kinda shitty, usually. I don’t want to make more shitty memories with you guys than I have to.”

“I dunno. I think any memory I make with you is a pretty good one, so long as you’re in it.”

“...McClain, that is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard come out of your goddamn mouth.”

“Heh. You like it when I’m cheesy.”

Keith realises he has a choice to make.

He and Lance have been doing this – flirting, thing, for months. It’s – stupid. They argue and drive each other insane and tease and play and both of them know damn well they only do it to get a reaction out of the other, because it’s fun, and because they have this thing between them. They’ve never gone past flirting, though.

Keith kinda wishes they would. And birthdays – they’re for wishes, right?

“I like you.”

“Yeah, Kogane? You should do something about it.”

Keith has never been able to back down from a challenge. Especially not from Lance.

He reaches forward blindly – emergency lights or no, he can’t really see anything other than the vague silhouette of Lance’s face – brushing his fingers over Lance’s cheek, his eyebrow, his nose.

His lips.

Once he knows where he’s aiming, he leans over, pausing just millimetres away from Lance’s face.

“I think I wouldn’t mind. Celebrating my birthday with you guys. I think… I think I could trust you. To handle it.”

“I’ll take care of you,” Lance whispers, and closes the gap between them.

++1

“Happy birthday, baby.”

Keith opens his eyes to see his boyfriend of three years on the pillow next to him, shooting him a tired grin. Keith grins back.

“Thanks.”

Lance leans forward and pecks him quickly – close-mouthed, so there’s no morning breath.

“I am going to go get in the shower,” he says as he pulls away. “If you would like your first round of birthday sex, I would suggest you come join me.”

“If I ever say no to that, check me for a fever,” Keith jokes, and Lance laughs.

After they’re more than ready for the day, they head down to the kitchens, where the rest of the team meets them with more excitement than usual.

“Happy birthday, Keith!” they all say together.

“Thanks, guys.”

He slides into his seat, Lance sitting down next to him, not pulling away for a second.

“Here’s your icing with a side of cake,” Hunk teases, sliding him a plate.

Keith smiles, thanking him and diving in before Lance can steal it all, like the little shit he is.

“Any plans?” he asks, because that’s normal for him, now. Normal for him to wake up beside the man he loves, normal for him to meet his team and family, normal for him to spend the day with them.

Normal, even, for him to celebrate his birthday once a year.

“We were thinking we’d stop by Earth, pay your dad a visit,” Shiro says softly. “Then spend the day goofing around at that old arcade I used to take you to. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” Keith says, and he’s delighted to find he means it.

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japhan2024 · 8 months

Note

Ian throws Anthony a surprise birthday party

Such a timely prompt :D

I decided to combine this fic with this promt:

The Best Day Ever

November thirtieth, 1987

June seventeenth, 1984

September sixteenth, 1987

Ian never had to think about these dates. He just knew, from around a month before they were due, to buy a gift and send a card. Of course he would also just call his sister and he'd see Anthony every week anyway. It had been like that for years and years. But the last few of them had been painful.

September sixteenth, 2017. Ian had sent a card and a text. No reply.

September sixteenth, 2018. Ian had sent nothing.

September sixteenth, 2019. Ian had sent a text. Just a 'thanx' in return.

September sixteenth, 2020. Ian had sent a birthday meme. 'lol thanks'.

September sixteenth, 2021. Ian sent nothing.

And September sixteenth, 2022. Nothing.

But now it was August 16th 2023 and Ian was determined to make Anthony's upcoming birthday count for seven. He was pacing up and down his Los Angeles appartement, suddenly stopped and shouted: "that's it!" into the dullness of the evening.

"What's up with Ian the last few days?" Shayne asked Keith at the Smosh headquarters.

They'd barely seen Ian, which had been common but not lately, now Anthony was there too. They peaked into Ian's office.

"He's still on the phone?"

Shayne stroked an imaginary goatee. "He's up to something…!"

Then the invitations started to arrive at people's doorsteps. They were impeccably hand written in gold letters that made you feel guilty of even considering not going. "The Declaration of Anthony Day" was written proudly at the top of each invitation. People would ask each other if they'd gotten one in hushed tones, and soon it was apparent that everyone at Smosh - the cast, the crew, the supporting staff - they were all invited. This was going to be some hell of a party.

And then the day arrived. A dull Saturday morning, Anthony had invited Ian, Mykie and a couple of his close friends for a vegan brunch at his home. Nothing fancy. Turning thirty-seven wasn't a particularly remarkable feat and Anthony didn't want to remind everyone of how hot he was while being the oldest person at Smosh.

The brunch was nice and uneventful, and Anthony was ready to spent the rest of the day quietly but all of a sudden the doorbell rang.

"Did we order pizza?" Mykie asked.

"I don't think so?" Anthony said, confused.

He opened the door and his jaw might as well have hit the floor. Shane Told from Silverstein was at his doorstep, dressed in all black but casual garments, and said matter-of-factly: "Happy birthday Anthony! Are ya comin'?"

"Wh.. whaaaat?" Anthony laughed and looked around, and immediately found the culprit. Ian stood there cheesing like a fool.

"Are you behind this, bestie?" Anthony asked. Ian winked.

Everyone followed Shane down the stairs and then they saw it: a sparkling monstrosity of a party bus. It was already packed with people!

"Oh my god, Jenna? Justine? Ryan! Natalie?!"

It was like the bus was filled with the year 2005. Anthony loved it. All these OG youtubers he'd not seen for ages. All of them greeted him with hugs and kisses and giggles and there was wine and champagne, and Anthony's party entered the bus as well and they drove off into downtown LA. When they arrived, Anthony saw they were at Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine, one of the best vegan restaurants in the city.

The owner of the restaurant greeted the party at the door and said "In honor of Anthony Day I have prepared you the most delicious foods! Please come inside."

"Anthony Day?" Anthony wondered aloud, and Ian laughed.

The evening was simply wonderful and Anthony saw so many people he almost got dizzy. But the night wasn't over: Ian's phone rang and he said "Hey Anthony, it's for you!"

Anthony picked up the phone, and he saw his mom in her home, together with Ian's mom who was apparently visiting.

"Hello dear," they said in near unison. Anthony was on the verge of tears.

"Hi moms."

They exchanged some sweet words and congratulations and when they hung up, Anthony dived in to hug Ian.

"This means so much to me, Ian."

Ian smiled mischievously.

"What are you planning now?" Anthony said mock-accusingly.

"Well, Anthony, you've just eaten the best meal of your life, but not everything can be five stars on your birthday. I've made you something that you must eat, or I will be offended! But I can't promise you that it's any good, or edible at all…"

The chef appeared again and rolled up a cake with thirty-seven candles on it.

"You made the cake?!" Anthony asked Ian, with a quiver in his voice.

"I sure did buddy. You know the last six years I haven't gotten you a proper gift or anything. I want to make good on that."

"Oh Ian!" Anthony hugged him again.

"Alright, alright," Ian patted Anthony on the back but he smiled widely while he did it.

To be honest, the cake did taste mediocre, but Anthony didn't mind at all. It was all the more proof that Ian had actually made it himself. He ate a whole chunk of it, and it wouldn't have mattered, all the other things. Just this cake alone, and Ian, those were the best gifts he could have ever gotten. Anthony was blissfully happy. When he went to sleep that night, he croaked to Mykie:

"I love Ian so much, he's the best friend in the entire world."

"I know you do honey," Mykie replied sweetly. "I'm so glad you're finally back together. You've been so much happier, and that in turn makes me happier."

Anthony hugged her under the blankets.

"You're such a hugger, I love it."

"Come here, daddy wants his cuddles," Anthony joked. But he was so tired that he fell asleep almost immediately after that.

#Anthony Day #Anthony's Day #ianthony

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violethowler · 1 year

Text

An Updated Guide to the Timeline of VLD

Last Edit: 07/23/2023

After reviewing my timeline notes in more detail, I decided I wasn’t happy with editing my original VLD timeline guide, but I didn’t want to just delete the earlier meta outright. So I decided to start over and make a brand new meta that reflected my current research notes without me having to constantly go back and edit the old one every time I realized I had missed something.

And boy am I glad I did because in the process I noticed details that I completely overlooked when I made the last timeline guide that trying to edit the original post would’ve led to redoing the whole thing anyway.

So now I present to you my most complete and up-to-date notes on the timeline of Voltron Legendary Defender as of April 2023. Under the cut because this is going to get long.

Part I: The Time Period of the Show

While the show never gives exact dates on when major events in the series take place, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth by examining context clues and supplemental material. From there, we can use that to determine a rough idea of the show’s timeline.

Pidge’s flashbacks in S1E05 Tears of the Balmera and the fact that Iverson doesn’t mention her, Lance, and Hunk’s bickering being a pattern when he berates their failure in the simulator during S1E01 The Rise of Voltron indicate that the day of Shiro’s return to Earth was the trio’s first time in the simulator together, and that this was fairly early in the school year.

From a Watsonian perspective, it’s not out of the question that a future Earth might follow a different school calendar. But from a Doylist perspective, since the show never says otherwise, we can take it as a given that since VLD is an American cartoon, the Garrison follows the same academic schedule as American schools. Which start the school year in late summer/early fall and end in late spring/early summer.

At the start of Lance, Pidge, and Hunk’s simulation run in S1E01 The Rise of Voltron, Lance calls out “Galaxy Garrison flight log 5-11-14.”

And Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 Reunion confirms that these numbers represent a date:

Pidge confirms that the 0010.05.25 represents a birth date, since looking at it is how she determines that Matt’s birthday is wrong. Because this is obviously a tombstone, we can logically conclude that 0014.04.28 represents a death date.

Lance’s 5-11-14 flight log number in S1E01 is most likely a reference to the fact that the show started production between April and June of 2014.[1][2]

And when Keith shows the other paladins his notes that he’s compiled on his search for the Blue Lion, a page-a-day calendar can be seen on the back wall showing that the paladins left Earth on the second of whichever month it was.

Meanwhile in S1E02 Some Assembly Required, Hunk refers to Shiro’s rescue from quarantine as Monday night. This would put the paladins’ departure from Earth on Tuesday afternoon, as Iverson confirms in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 that the Paladins left Earth the day after rescuing Shiro.

So, if we look at the months in 2014 near the start of the American school year where the 2nd day of the month was a Tuesday, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth.

And the only option that meets all of those criteria is September 2nd, 2014.

Obviously the show doesn’t take place in 2014 because the technology the characters use in their daily lives on Earth is significantly more advanced than what we have in real life even in the 2020s. Not to mention Veronica name dropping World War III in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 as a historical event.

However, it’s also obviously can’t be too far into the future, because other than having more advanced technology, much of what we see of Earth civilization looks fundamentally similar to our present day in terms of things like clothing and architecture, just with some futuristic flourishes here and there:

The fact that the years on Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 both begin with 00 as the first two digits raises the possibility that Earth decided to create a new calendar that started 14 years before the paladins left Earth.

However, it’s more likely that the production staff simply wished to leave it ambiguous how many centuries into the future the show takes place, as from a Doylist perspective there is no purpose to having Earth be on a different calendar system unless it’s relevant to the story.

Not to mention that it doesn’t make sense from a Watsonian perspective, since a change as widespread as the mass-adoption of a new calendar system would have to be in response to a major event that deeply changed society on such a widespread level that the society decided to define it’s calendar by how many years have passed since that event.

And the known event in the history of VLD’s Earth that might have this level of significance is World War III, which the showrunners have said in interviews resulted in “everyone on the planet realizing war sucks. We’re one Earth.”[3]

However, none of the characters act like it’s a recent event that happened within their lifetimes. The one time it’s mentioned in S7E08 The Last Stand: Part 2, Veronica speaks of the conflict as if it was a long time ago. Long enough that she has to preemptively clarify that the underground tunnels used to reach the Garrison’s supply depot are still structurally sound.

On top of the logistics not working out for World War III to have been the cause of a dramatic change in Earth’s calendars, Matt being Pidge’s older brother means that he would’ve been born before the hypothetical calendar change would’ve been adopted.

Yet S4E02 only shows Pidge’s attention being drawn to the year on Matt’s birth date being wrong when her tear slides over to the 10, when the lack of anything before it would’ve stood out first if he was born before the calendar reset to Year 0.

So we can safely take it as a given that the extra zeroes in the years on Matt’s tombstone are there to maintain a sense of ambiguity over what century VLD takes place in.

Which fits with how showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos described how the writers kept the history of VLD’s Earth “nice and nebulous” rather than going into detail on the logistics of World War III.

However since we know that the dates we do have used the 2014 calendar as a basis, and that the Paladins left Earth on Tuesday, September 2nd, all we have to do is find a year ending in 14 where September 2nd is on a Tuesday that’s far enough into the future that there’s enough time for all the advancements of VLD’s earth, but not so far ahead that it’s completely unrecognizable to the 21st century audience.

Which works out well because the next year ending in 14 with September 2nd on a Tuesday is 2414.

Part II: Known Character Birth Years

If we treat it as a given that Season 1 of VLD starts in the year 2414, then we can use that to narrow down the exact birth years of the human Paladins, as well as Allura, Lotor, Matt Holt, and Kova.

Kova is the oldest character whose birth year is known to us, as Haggar states he is 28 deca-phoebs old shortly before the destruction of Daibazaal and Altea.

Allura and Coran were in cryo-sleep for 10,000 Earth years, and Coran’s pedantic comment in S1E01 about the castle being 10,600 years old and built by his grandfather indicates that this number is exact.

This would put the destruction of Altea and Daibazaal in 7586 B.C.E., as Coran’s narration in S3E07 The Legend Begins indicates that the other planets in their solar system were conquered quickly after Zarkon and Haggar woke up from their Rift baths, meaning that both the Altean and Galran homeworlds were destroyed within a very short window of time.

Since Kova was 28 when Daibazaal was destroyed, he would’ve been born in 7614 B.C.E.

Meanwhile, S8E02 Shadows showed that Haggar only became coherent again after she gave birth, and flashbacks in S8E10 Knights of Light: Part 2 depict her participating in the conquest of the system. Which indicates that Lotor was born in between the destruction of both his parents’ home worlds.

In an interview recorded at WonderCon 2017, Lauren Montgomery and Joaqim Dos Santos talked about how despite initially having more knowledge and experience than the other paladins she was “just as young as anyone else”, and that she was handling overcoming her prejudice against the Galra “like any teenager would.” [4]

This indicates that Allura is still a teenager herself in the first 2 seasons.

Something which is supported by the fact that Allura was born less than 28 years before the fall of Altea yet looks to be around Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s age. Which indicates that while Alteans can live for hundreds of years as evidenced by Coran helping his grandfather build the Castle of Lions 600 years before the war against Zarkon, they age at roughly the same rate as normal humans until they reach adulthood.

Since she’s visibly older than Pidge, the showrunners’ remarks about her acting like “any teenager” put her age before being put into cryo-sleep somewhere between 17 and 18, the ages listed for Lance, Hunk, and Keith in the Paladin’s Handbook.

And we can presume that the ages listed in the Handbook are mostly accurate given that Colleen Holt confirms in S8E01 Launch Date that Pidge was 15 when the paladins left Earth, which is the same age that the Paladin’s Handbook gave for Pidge as of the end of Season 2.

So, if Allura is the same age as Keith, Lance, and Hunk, then she would’ve been born between 7603 and 7604 B.C.E.

As for the human characters, the cast and crew of Voltron have consistently said that Shiro was the oldest of the paladins, and that his age was somewhere in his early twenties. The only time a specific number was given was in the context of providing a maximum limit to his age range. Saying that while he was at least 20, he wasn’t older than 25.

However, the fact that his official birthday is February 29th means that it’s impossible for him to actually be 25 as the Voltron Paladins’ Handbook claimed.

Because leap years only happen once every 4 years, in years that are divisible by 4 into a whole number (The only exceptions are years that are by 100 but not 400).

It’s not possible for Shiro to be 25 in Season 1 because that would require the year of the Kerberos mission to be a leap year, since Shiro’s 24th birthday would mark the 6th time that February 29th occurred on the calendar since his birth.

The year before 2414 would be 2413, which cannot be divided by 4 into a whole number (trying gets you 603.25). However the year before Kerberis, 2412, is divisible by 4 into a whole number (603), meaning that 2414 is in between two leap years.

With all of this in mind, the only way for Shiro to be older than 20 but younger than 25 in 2414, is if he turned 20 in 2412, as his 20th birthday would mark the 5th time since he was born that February 29th occurred on the calendar. This puts the year of his birth in 2392, making him 22 years old when he returns to Earth in Season 1.

Meanwhile, Pidge being 15 when the Paladins left Earth in 2414 would mean that she was born in 2399.

Meanwhile, the Coalition Handbook, which is written from the perspective of 1 deca-phoeb after the Paladins left Earth, talks about Krolia’s arrival on Earth being “about 19 Earth years ago,” indicating that Keith’s parents met in 2396.

The Handbook’s indication of a 1-year timespan from Season 1 to Season 5 is confirmed by Sam’s debrief during the flashback portions of S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 1. Commander Iverson mentions that Sam’s return to Earth in S5E05 Bloodlines happened a month before the meeting and says that the Keberos mission was two years ago.

Krolia’s arrival being about 19 years ago appears to reinforce the Paladin’s Handbook listing Keith as being 18 by the end of Season 2. Pidge’s age means that S2E13 Blackout can’t happen any later than April 2, 2415, meaning that Keith – whose birthday is October 23rd according to the show’s official social media accounts – turns 18 at some point during the first 2 seasons of the show. This puts his birth year in 2396 and indicates that his parents had to have met sometime that January, as we’ve seen little evidence to suggest that Galra pregnancies are any longer than human ones.

So, if Pidge and Keith’s ages in the Paladins’ handbook are accurate, then we can assume Hunk and Lance’s ages are too.

Lance’s birthday is listed by the show’s official social media accounts as July 28, so the timeframe of Seasons 1-2 means he would’ve already been 17 by the time the Paladins left Earth. This means that he would have been born in 2397.

Hunk is a little tricky since his birthday is January 13th, as neither the show nor the handbooks give any details to definitively confirm whether he turned 17 during the first 2 seasons, or if he was already 17 when they left Earth.

However, some context clues regarding the nature of the Garrison’s Cadet Program and the glimpses of his backstory that we got in S7E01 A Little Adventure can help make some educated assumptions.

In her goodbye to Matt at the Kerberos launchpad in S4E02, Pidge says “I can’t believe I have to go through middle school without you.”

Since Pidge makes no mention of attempting to enroll at the Garrison while Matt and her father are in space, this logically indicates that Pidge is entering 8th grade and that the Galaxy Garrison cadet program is for students at the high school level (Grades 9-12).

The fact that the MFE pilots had graduated by the time Sam returns in 2415 supports this, as their presence as background cameos in S1E01 and in the flashbacks of Keith and Shiro’s past from S7E01 indicate that they, Lance, Keith, and Hunk all enrolled in the cadet program the same year. This means that when the Paladins left Earth, Lance and Hunk were starting their senior year of high school

Keith and Lance being 17 and 18 during Season 1 is consistent with that, as 17 and 18 are the typical ages at which most American teenagers graduate from high school [5].

In the United States, many schools in grades K-12 use students’ birthdays to determine grade placement, with students who are born before a certain cutoff date (usually around the beginning of the school year) being placed in a higher grade level than students born after the cutoff [6].

For example, Lance and Keith are shown to both be in the same class at the Garrison in S7E01 even though Keith being born a year earlier means he’d theoretically be in the grade above Lance. But Lance’s birthday is in July, and Keith’s is in October.

So, if Lance’s July birthday is before the cutoff for enrollment for their grade level, then logically the same is true for Hunk’s January birthday, meaning that Hunk is already 17 during Season 1, putting his birth in the same year as Lance’s.

And knowing how the Garrison’s Cadet Program functions as an equivalent to high school means that we can figure out how old Matt is.

In the Shiro’s Story Ready-to-Read book, Shiro describes how he and Matt were selected for the Kerberos mission after they finished school:

Since Keith is still wearing his cadet uniform when he confronts Shiro about his disease, this means that Sam and Sanda’s argument about Shiro being on the mission had to have happened during a period when classes were in session, as the flashback of their hoverbike racing in S7E01 and the lack of comments from Hunk about being caught out of uniform in S1E01 indicate that students are permitted to wear casual attire outside of school hours.

This means that Shiro and Matt had to have graduated the year before the Kerberos Mission, and then spent the following year training and preparing.

From this, we can conclude that Matt’s senior year at the Garrison corresponded to Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s freshmen year, putting Matt in the cadet program’s graduating class of 2412.

This would mean that Matt started classes at the Garrison in the fall of 2408.

And when Pidge says that his birthday is wrong in S4E02, she only does so after the camera draws viewers’ attention to the year. Which indicates that the month and date are correct, putting Matt’s birthday on May 25th. Based on what we’ve established about cutoff dates for grade placement, this would mean that Matt was 14 years old when he started classes at the Garrison, putting his birth year in 2394.

Part III: The Main Narrative

Knowing that Season 1 begins in September 2414 allows us to use the date of the Paladins’ departure from Earth as a baseline from which to determine a timeline of the show’s main storyline.

As previously established, the meta references and context clues within the first season place the paladins’ departure from Earth in S1E01 on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2414.

Since this is “1 year later” from Shiro’s capture on Kerberos, this puts the crew’s abduction in September 2413.

Since the Paladins’ Handbook reflects events up to the end of Season 2 and refers to Shiro’s capture as being “about a year ago,” we can safely assume that entirety of Seasons 1 – 2 take place before the end of 2414 in order for the character ages in the guidebook to be accurate by the end of S2E13 Blackout.

And for the first several episodes of Season 1, we’re given enough information to pinpoint exact dates for when much of the first season takes place.

Arus’ environment is shown to be nearly indistinguishable from Earths’ so we can assume that days on Arus last for about the same amount of time as days on Earth.

Coran states indicates in S1E01 that the search for the lions took about 2 hours, immediately after which the paladins had their first battle with Sendak.

The beginning of S1E02 Some Assembly Required is confirmed to take place the following morning, as Allura refers to the battle against Sendak in S10E1 as “yesterday”. Coran then tells Pidge that the prisoners they rescued need to remain in the cryo pods to heal “until tomorrow,” putting the events of S1E03 Return of the Gladiator on Thursday, September 4th.

S1E04 Fall of the Castle of Lions takes place entirely at night, with the Arusian’s re-enactment of Voltron’s battle with the Myzax robeast and Coran’s comment about letting the Arusians see the inside of the castle indicating from context that this is still on Thursday the 4th. This puts the daytime events of S1E05 on Friday, September 5th.

S1E06 Taking Flight takes place on the 6th, as Allura states at the end of S1E05 that Lance should be fully healed from his injuries after a day in the cryo pods.

Shay’s Belmera was close enough that Hunk and Coran could fly there from Arus in a small shuttle pod, have dinner with Shay’s family, fix their shuttle pod, wander around in the tunnel looking for the crystal, get captured, get rescued by Shay, and then get back to Arus all in less than a day.

So even if they spent several hours talking to Rolo and Nyma in S1E06, they still would’ve reached the Balmera in S1E07 Return to Balmera the same day.

Since S1E08 Rebirth ends with Hunk showing Shay her first sunrise after the Balmera is liberated, this brings the paladins to Sunday, September 7th.

The first volume of the tie in comics is stated to take place right after this, as the paladins are leaving the Balmera in Issue #1. The bulk of the action happens over the course of the following day, as Issue #1 states that the Paladins’ battle against the guardian monster took place the day after they left Allura at the Castle, and the sky on Krell shifts from morning to afternoon colors over the course of the Paladins’ time there, along with the fact that the sky outside the Fripping Bolgogian is in sunset colors in both Issue #1 and Issue #5.

So the first 8 episodes of Season 1 and the first volume of the comics all take place from September 1st to September 8th.

From here, the timeframes indicated become murkier, as while many events seem to take place very close together, the fact that the guidebooks put Keith as 18 by the end of Season 2 means that S2E12 Best Laid Plans cannot take place any earlier than October 23rd, 2414.

There are a few instances where we can estimate the time between certain episodes, however, we don’t have enough concrete information to confirm an exact time frame by Earth’s calendar for anything after the first volume of the comics.

However, the fact that the Voltron Coalition Handbook refers to the Lion Shuffle as “many quintants ago”, even if that’s an understatement, indicates that since the second handbook is written from the perspective of Fall 2415, we can assume that Season 3 took place in 2415 as well.

Meanwhile, context clues in S3E01 Changing of the Guard and the 2 subsequent episodes indicate that only a short time passes between the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3.

S3E01 shows that the Paladins have been splitting off to pursue their own objectives during the timeskip between Seasons 2 and 3, with Hunk and Lance liberating planets with the Blade of Marmora while Pidge looks for clues to her brother’s whereabouts while Keith searches for Shiro. Acxa’s reports in S3E02 Red Paladin on where they’ve been spotted by the empire only indicate a handful of sightings, suggesting that it hasn’t been that long since the end of Season 2. This is supported by the fact that Lance and Hunk brought the leaders of the planets they had liberated since S2E13 to the Castle to talk about joining the Coalition, and only 5 planetary leaders were present for the meeting.

Furthermore, as S3E05 The Journey depicted with Shiro, a human can survive up to 7 days without food or water. So in addition to Keith’s grief over Shiro’s disappearance still being fresh, the fact that he’s still looking for Shiro among the wreckage from S2E13 suggests that the start of S3E01 is within that 7-day window.

On top of that, Throk indicates to his friend when they’re sitting in the arena that he’s been trying to speak to Zarkon for several days without success.

But on the other hand, enough time needs to pass that planets like Puig will have heard of Voltron’s defeat of Zarkon before the paladins arrive

All of these details indicate that the time between the end of S2E13 and the beginning of S3E01 wasn’t more than 2 or 3 weeks.

So if the end of Season 2 was still in 2414 and the first 3 episodes of Season 3 were in 2415, that means that the final battle of Season 2 took place in December 2414, and the opening arc of Season 3 took place in January 2415.

Meanwhile, S3E05 shows that Shiro travelled in a stolen Galra fighter for 7 days after Thayserix before Keith found him at the end of the episode. Even if there’s some time dilation involved, the fact that the Paladins are surprised Lotor was able to construct the first Sincline ship so quickly in S3E06 Tailing a Comet indicates that it hasn’t been that long since Lotor stole it in S3E04 Hole in the Sky, meaning that all of Season 3 took place in January.

S7E07 indicates that Sam’s debriefing happened a year after the Paladins left in Season 1, putting the meeting scene in September 2415. This would be consistent with Iverson’s introduction of the MFE pilots indicating that they’ve graduated from the Cadet Program.

The next time-skip jumps to 1 year after Sam’s debriefing, indicating that Matt contacted Earth in September 2416.

Matt tells his parents that Voltron hasn’t been seen in 6 months, putting the last 4 episodes of Season 6 in March of 2416.

He also mentions that the Coalition and Blade of Marmora memories are being hunted, and that their army had been “all but wiped out”, indicating that the Druids’ counterattack had clearly been going on for some time before Matt contacted his parents. However in S8E02, Macidus tells Haggar that “it has been phoebs since Emperor Lotor disappeared,” and that “the Blade of Marmora still challenges,” indicating that the purge of the Coalition and BoM had not yet begun as of two months after Voltron’s battle with Lotor, putting the beginning of the attacks on the Blade and Coalition somewhere between May and August of 2416.

Meanwhile, because of the 3-year time jump, this means that the Paladins began their voyage back to Earth in March 2419.

Near the beginning of S7E06, Shiro indicates that it’s only been a few weeks since he woke up in the clone body at the end of S6E07, and when Lance asks how long they’ve been out there, Romelle says “going on four movements” before he then asks how much longer it’ll take to reach Earth.

Coran’s comment in S1E02 about his Paladin lunch helping the team form Voltron “six times a movement” is said in the same manner that we’d say “seven days a week” in real life, suggesting that one movement is 6 quintants.

Which means that by the beginning of S7E06, the Paladins have spent more than 18 days flying back to Earth, but less than 24.

Meanwhile, the Paladins mention in S7E03 The Way Forward that, from their perspective, their battle with Lotor was “a few weeks” ago, indicating that at least two movements had passed since the end of S6E07 Defender of All Universes by the time they encounter Ezor and Zethrid’s pirate crew at the end of S7E02 The Road Home. However, it’s ambiguous whether all of those movements were spent on travelling or if it took the Paladins a few days to finish the preparations for their voyage before leaving the Dalterion belt.

And Pidge’s insistence in S7E06 that they still have one and a half Earth years of travel time left gives me the impression that we’re still in the same calendar month.

From all of this, we can conclude that the entire first half of Season 7 up until the Paladins fly out of that energy burst and reach Earth takes place within the month of March 2419.

Depending on how long the Paladins spent repairing the lions and preparing for the voyage between the end of S7E01 and the beginning of S7E02, this means that their landing on the Dalterion Belt and Shiro being merged with his clone had to have occurred somewhere between March 1st and March 8th, which would also apply to the timing of the Paladins’ battle with Lotor in S6E07.

With Sam’s debriefing being a month after he landed, and him being released from quarantine after about a week, he would’ve had to have landed and been released in August 2415 in order for September 2416 to still be “just over a year” after he started working to upgrade Earth’s defensive capabilities.

With the debriefing scene being “four years ago” from the beginning of S7E07, this would put the Paladins’ return to Earth in August 2419.

The liberation of Earth appears to only take a couple of days at most, and according to Shiro in S8E01 Launch Date, rebuilding took “several months” before the Paladins were ready to return to space.

This puts the beginning of Season 8 in early 2420, and a line from Rizavi in S8E01 helps to narrow things down.

When Pidge sees the Killbot Phantasm game, Rizavi mentions that it came out just before Sendak invaded, and that because of that there hadn’t been enough time for any players to reach the final level. She then tells the shopkeeper that she waited 3 years to get to the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Macidus tells the Paladins in S7E05 The Ruins that he has been marooned on the planet they found him at for “the last two decaphoebs,” and that the Druids’ purge against the Blade of Marmora was them “carrying out her final orders.”

Since the Paladins would have encountered him in March 2419, this would put the fall of the Blade of Marmora and Kolivan’s capture in March 2417, 7-10 months after the beginning of the counterattack against the Coalition that Matt spoke of in S7E07.

S8E02 Shadows confirms that Sendak invaded Earth on Honerva’s orders in the hopes of drawing out Voltron. Given, the potential narrative symmetry, it’s likely that Sendak’s invasion of Earth took place around the same time.

Which would be consistent with how the MFE pilots are referred to by Admiral Sanda as cadets in S7E07 when they had already graduated from the cadet program the previous year because they, like Shiro appear to be in a post-graduate program to continue their education after high school:

At WonderCon 2016, showrunner Lauren Montgomery referred to Shiro as a “slightly older student.”

Meanwhile in S7E01 he appears to be assisting Iverson and other Garrison instructors with classes, but is not treated by other characters as if he’s a full-time teacher himself.

During the briefing scene in S7E7, Commander Iverson gives Shiro’s rank as Lieutenant, reflecting the tradition of fictional military organizations in science fiction to utilize the ranking systems of real world militaries, particularly with naval ranks such as Commander and Admiral which are exclusively used for naval officers.

During his visit to Keith’s school and his time overseeing simulator drills with Keith’s class, Shiro’s uniform only has two stripes on the shoulders of his uniform, and he’s never addressed by any specific rank.

However in the scene where Sanda and Sam Holt are arguing about Shiro’s inclusion on the Kerberos mission, his uniform now has three stripes on the shoulder, which he has been consistently shown to have in Pidge’s flashback to the crew’s disappearance being announced in S1E05, which show photos of Shiro, Sam, and Matt that would’ve been taken specifically for the mission’s publicity. And when Sam is debriefed in S7E07, Iverson identifies Shiro as a Lieutenant.

In our world, it takes an average of 4 years after enlisting in the navy for a person to be promoted to lieutenant. However, if someone enlists before or while in college, promotion to Lieutenant can be achieved with the completion of a Master’s Degree.

Depending on the field, a Masters’ degree would require an additional four years after completing a Bachelor’s degree. However, some universities that specialize in specific subjects (like mine did) offer a Master’s program that only takes an additional 1-2 years after receiving a Bachelor’s degree to complete.

Since the Garrison’s cadet program is teaching what 21st century viewers would consider advanced college-level science to high school students, it’s plausible that the Garrison has an advanced program for graduates of the cadet program to continue taking classes. Which makes sense because the Garrison’s cadet program is clearly an example of a vocational school, which focuses education at the secondary (high-school) and/or post-secondary (college) level on teaching students the skills and knowledge required for a specific career path, as opposed to a more general education.

It explains why tie-in books indicate that Shiro and Matt graduated from the Garrison at the same time. While Matt was completing his regular education in the cadet program, Shiro was finishing up his advanced education track.

Because Shiro makes multiple comments that imply an in-depth knowledge of physics and astronomy: From knowing enough constellations to recognize in S1E01 that the Blue Lion’s wormhole has left them in unfamiliar space, to being able to calculate the approximate speed of the black lion’s fall at the start of S2E01 Across the Universe in his head despite the pain of a glowing magic wound in his side and the general exhaustion of the battle they’d just come out of.

It even explains why S7E01 has Shiro was helping with classes and Adam mentioning having a class to teach, because many high schools and colleges offer work-study programs to where students can work part-time jobs at the school in exchange for financial assistance, as well as to get hands on work experience in a particular field so that they can transition from school to working more easily. Which also explains why Sam and Adam both mention Shiro having gone on multiple space flights and missions by the time he’s selected for the Kerberos mission even though the timeline indicates he’d only be 20 by the time he was chosen for Kerberos.

And since my analysis of Garrison lore indicates that the grey/green uniform that Shiro wears when visiting Keith’s school is reserved for those whose work in administrative roles and other capacities in the day-to-day running of the Garrison, this would indicate that he graduated from the cadet program at least a year or two before, and received the new uniform as part of the work-study program when classes started up the following school year.

So, the MFE pilots continuing their education after completing the cadet program would explain why Sanda would still refer to them as cadets even if they’ve already graduated from the cadet program: because even if they’re not in the cadet program anymore, they’re still students.

The pattern we’ve established regarding the human characters’ birthdates and grade levels means that Shiro would’ve graduated from the regular cadet program in 2410 (meaning he would’ve enrolled in 2406) and finished his advanced studies in 2412, making the Garrisons’ post-graduation education options a 2-year program.

This means that the amount of time that Sendak’s invasion of Earth had to have been before May of 2417. So, a March 2417 invasion around the same time the Druids and the Blades wiped each other out fits within that window.

And if that is the case, then Rizavi’s “three years” comment would put S8E01 in March 2420.

From the perspective of the crew of the Atlas, the first half of the season takes place over the course of about 48 Earth days. S8E08 Clear Day appears to take place within a couple days after the end of S8E07 Day Forty-Seven, as Hunk introduced the Altean robeast Pilots to Allura and Coran near the end of the day, and the following episode opens with Tavo agreeing to speak with Allura due to Hunk’s efforts at reaching out to the Alteans with food.

However, the leader of planet Drazan indicates that thanks to time dilation, the Atlas’ internal clocks are about 24 days behind the rest of the universe by the beginning of S8E08, as Coran notes that according to their calendars, Clear Day shouldn’t be for another four movements.

Depending on when in March the Atlas left Earth, this put the Clear Day celebration somewhere between May 12th and June 10th, 2420.

Based on how quickly events move following the events of S8E08, this would put the final confrontation with Honerva somewhere between the middle of May and the middle of June, which would put the epilogue in May or June of 2421.

Given that the fact the timeframe of the show was determined based on a meta gag about the show’s production, my instinct leans towards the second half of Season 8 all taking place in May, as it would mean that the entire main plot of the show – which was contracted for 78 episodes (the hour-long pilot being 3 episodes stitched together) – took place over approximately 7 years and 8 months.

Part IV: Backstory Dates & Other Timeline Trivia

Now that we’ve hammered out the timeline for the main events of the story, we can start filling in dates for elements of the characters’ backstories and other areas of the timeline not covered by the previous sections.

The First Kral Zera:

In S5E04 Kral Zera, the Archivist states in 2415 that the Kral Zera has been burning for “over thirteen millennia,” putting the first Kral Zera and the official founding of the Galra Empire as a political entity sometime before 10,585 BCE. Since he said thirteen, rather than fourteen, we can logically assume that it couldn’t be any earlier than 13,999 years before 2415, which would be 11,584 BCE.

The Daibazaal Rift:

Kova appears to be fully grown when Zarkon first meets him in Honerva’s lab in S3E07 after the discovery of the Rift on Daibazaal. Using Earth cat development as a basis for comparison, this would indicate that Kova is at least 1 year old by this point, meaning the earliest that the Trans-reality comet could have crashed was 7613 B.C.E.

However, it cannot have happened any later than 2 years before Allura’s birth. When Honerva shows Alfor that their Quintessence experiment is running after he thanks her for the gift celebrating Allura’s birth, he notes that the experiment has been running for a full year by that point. But despite the experiment being positioned right next to her workstation, it was nowhere to be seen when she and Zarkon were having their first meeting before the timeskip.

Meanwhile, before the episode transitioned from Honerva and Zarkon’s first meeting to Alfor showing his daughter off to Zarkon, Coran’s narration refers to Alfor visiting often “as the years passed,” indicating that more than one year passes between the discovery of the rift and Allura’s birth.

This means that since the experiment would’ve begun in 6704 or 7605 B.C.E., the Rift cannot have been opened any later than 7605 or 7606 B.C.E.

The Difference Between 1 Year & 1 Deca-Phoeb:

When Shiro and Allura are detected during their infiltration of a Galra cruiser in S1E10 Collection and Extraction, the computer identifies Shiro as "Fugitive prisoner 117-9875."

The format of his prisoner ID number indicates the year on the empire's calendar that Shiro was captured, meaning that the Galran calendar lists Earth year 2414 as imperial year 9876.

Initially, I thought this meant that the references to Altea being destroyed "10,000 years ago" were a generalization and that it wasn't exactly 10,000 years.

However, Coran's insistence on correcting Hunk that the Castle of Lions is 10,600 years old in S1E01 indicates that it was indeed exactly 10,000 years between Altea's destruction and the return of the Blue Lion.

Which left me with a bit of a conundrum of how to reconcile the two timescales. Then I remembered that S1E06 established that Earth and intergalactic time measurements weren't exactly 1:1, with Pidge and Coran's comparison showing that ticks were slightly bigger than seconds.

So I decided to do the math and see if how 9876 decaphoebs would compare to 10,000 years. And dividing both numbers by 9876 gives me 1 Deca-Phoeb = 0.9876 Years.

Meaning that Shiro's prisoner ID and the references to Altea's destruction being 10,000 years ago are both correct.

Shiro and Keith’s First Meeting:

Since the Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program is shown to be for high school students, and that Keith, Lance, and Hunk were meant to graduate in 2415, we can deduce that Shiro and Keith first met in the spring of 2411. Most high school enrollment is done in the spring, so it makes the most sense for the Garrison to send Shiro to local schools to convince students who will be freshmen at the start of the next school year to enroll, as opposed to trying to persuade kids to transfer in the middle of the year.

Based on the fact that Lance was in 9th grade as a 14-year-old, the Garrison likely starts classes in August, which is consistent with the fact that Keith’s map of his search for the Blue Lion places the Garrison near the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

Where, according to my own research and the experience of friends who live there, the school year typically begins in late July or early August and ends in May.

This would mean that Shiro just only a month or two past his 19th birthday when he and Keith first met, while Keith was around 14 and a half.

Pidge’s Grade Level:

Though we don’t know exactly when it happened, the fact that Pidge is still in 8th Grade when she turns 15 means that somewhere along the line she had to repeat a grade during middle or elementary school.

Details and Aftermath of the Kerberos Mission:

In S4E02, Matt mentions planning to use their family code to keep in touch with Pidge during his mission, so the fact that Pidge never mentions receiving any message with the code letting her know that they landed safely indicates that Matt, Sam, and Shiro were abducted shortly after arriving on Kerberos.

The news broadcast announcing their disappearance is dated five months after the launch, and earlier in the flashback, Sam mentions that he and Matt “will be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months.”

Since their abduction happened in September 2413, this puts the mission’s launch in July of 2413. From a logistics standpoint, a summer launch makes sense for the Garrison so that they won’t have to worry about disrupting classes, or cadets sneaking around to watch the launch and getting hurt.

This would mean that the crew’s disappearance was announced in December 2413.

Pidge’s confrontation with Iverson during S1E05 indicates that she was not aware of the involvement of aliens prior to her enrolling at the Garrison, as she only mentions that the Garrison’s probes show no sign of a crash on Kerberos and doesn’t bring up the transmission from the Galra warship to Zarkon’s central command that S7E07 reveals the Garrison had managed to record.

The Paladin Handbook states that a rescue mission to Kerberos recovered the remaining equipment, so the fact that Pidge doesn’t mention finding reports from the rescue team on Iverson’s computer in S1E05 indicates that the rescue mission hadn’t left yet when the disappearance was made public.

Since S7E07 shows video footage of Shiro, Matt, and Sam on Kerberos getting cut off as the Galra cruiser approaches, the probes were presumably destroyed by the cruiser as it arrived on Kerberos, and the Garrison sent new probes to try and reestablish contact before making the crew’s disappearance public.

A further piece of evidence for the Garrison beginning classes in August is that Pidge’s comments in S1E01 indicate that she’s been listening to Galra radio chatter for several nights now and can recognize that the level of activity on the night of Shiro’s return to Earth is higher than normal. A month would give her a decent amount of data to work with to identify patterns of activity.

The VR Game and The Zel:

In the opening of that one VR game Voltron: VR Chronicles, Zarkon and Haggar discuss a technologically advanced species known as the Zel, whose population was decimated by the empire a millennia ago, but whose homeworld remains hidden from the empire.

The game features Shiro still piloting the black lion, and Haggar indicates in the first cutscene that they’re still able to track the Castle of Lions through Zarkon’s bond with the Black Lion, which puts the game before the events of S2E04 Greening the Cube. However, the paladins don’t give any indication that they’re aware that Zarkon can track them like that, meaning that it has to take place before Allura gets captured in S1E10 Collection and Extraction.

Given the timeline established for the first 2/3 of Season 1, the only places the events of the VR game could fit is between volume 1 of the comics and the beginning of S1E09 Crystal Venom, or during the travel montage in S1E10. However, the lack of any mention of getting back to their journey to the coordinates of the hidden Quintessence refinery in S1E10 means it has to take place between S1E08 and S1E09, particularly since Lance notes the game’s robeast boss fight - a recolor of the same one that attacked the Balmera - is giving him deja vu.

In the VR game, Hunk also indicates that travelling via wormhole is still a relatively new experience for him, so it’s most likelt that this game still takes place sometime in September 2414 after the events of the comic.

All of which means that the empire’s battle with the Zel that Zarkon and Haggar talk about would have occurred somewhere in the year 1414.

Timeframe of Seasons 4 – 5:

S4E01 Code of Honor opens with Keith indicating that Lotor hasn’t been seen in months. Since their last encounter with Lotor’s forces was in early January 2415, and Keith says months – as in plural – the earliest the beginning of the episode could take place is some time in March 2415. However, based on the timeframe of Season 8’s Clear Day, it can’t be any later than the end of April.

S4E04 The Voltron Show! establishes that the planet Drazan has a 721-day year and only 1 of those days ever gets clear skies, with Team Voltron missing that year’s Clear day due to Coran’s miscalculations.

However, in S8E08, Drazan is celebrating another Clear Day and explicitly states that this is the first one after the one that Voltron missed in Season 4. Which means that a day on planet Drazan is longer than an Earth day or standard quintant.

We’ve already narrowed down that Season 8’s clear day took place somewhere between May 12th and May 24th 2420, so if we assume that the paladins missing the previous Clear Day happened within the same window of time in 2415, this would put the beginning of S4E04 sometime in May 2415.

(Which, incidentally, means that a year on Drazon would be equivalent to about 5 years on Earth, while a day on Drazan is approximately 60 hours or 2.5 Earth days).

Meanwhile, Coran indicates in S4E04 that Keith’s departure from the team has not spread very far yet, indicating that the episode begins a short time after the end of S4E01 since Keith no longer piloting the Black Lion is not common knowledge yet. This means that Keith leaving the team would have also taken place in May 2415.

S4E01 shows a montage of time passing while Keith works with the Blades, indicating that a notable amount of time passed between the beginning and the end of the episode. Furthermore, Allura’s comment about how Keith keeps saying he’s sorry for not being there, but his actions say otherwise indicate a consistent pattern of Keith being too busy on Blade Missions to perform his duties as the Black Paladin. This indicates that Keith was flaking on them for at least a couple weeks before the crisis where Shiro had to reconnect with the Black Lion.

Meanwhile, the fact that Coran states that Keith’s departure from the team at the start of the season is not common knowledge yet in S4E04 indicates that S4E04 actually takes place before S4E02. This is reinforced by the fact that Lotor’s urgency to access the Quintessence field in S4E05 Begin the Blitz indicates that very little time has passed since the end of S4E03 Black Site, which contrasts how S4E04 clearly took place over the course of several days, if not multiple weeks.

The timeframe for Sam’s return to Earth that I identified in the previous section puts all of Season 5 in August 2415, as events are indicated to happen fairly quickly:

S5E03 Postmortem clearly starts the morning after Zarkon is killed, and Lotor states that the Kral Zera will be held sometime in the next two days.

The hostage exchange in S5E02 Blood Duel likely only took a couple days at most of back-and-forth communication to negotiate the terms and details after the end of S5E01 The Prisoner.

S5E04 shows that Sam was making the final preparations to leave for Earth when Shiro and Lotor went to the Kral Zera, meaning that both Sam’s departure and the Paladins’ arrival at Central Command would’ve taken place a day or two later.

Pidge, Lance, and Hunk are shown spending most of a day goofing around on Central Command with their reprogrammed Sentry while Lotor and Allura are looking through Haggar’s lair.

After Allura finds the compass stone, they appear to head to Oriande if not that day then the following day, and when the castle loses power thanks to the White Lion, we’re told that the Castle only has another quintant of air left.

Assuming they spent a night recovering from oxygen deprivation like Shiro did in Season 3, then they would’ve returned to central command the following day. Right when they got back, Lotor had to receive a briefing on the state of the empire. A few hours later, he did his speech, following which Voltron went to help protect the Omega Shield

While it’s unclear exactly how many days passed between the end of S5E04 and Keith’s half of S5E05, Hunk indicates in S80E3 The Prisoner’s Dilemma that Keith and Krolia had already started their trip through the Quantum Abyss by the time the Paladins came to the aid of the Omega Shield.

So we can confirm that the entirety of Season 5 takes place in August 2415.

From there, we can narrow down a rough idea of when the rest of Season 4 takes place.

While it’s not stated exactly how much time passes between S4E06 A New Defender and S5E01, it’s implied to not be that long. In S5E01, Nyma thanks Pidge and Matt for helping with repairs on the Coalition’s fleet, saying the ships were “pretty banged up after the invasion.” This implicitly indicates that the attack on Naxzela and the rest of the Galra forces in that section of the universe was recent enough that repairs to the rebel ships that survived the battle were only just now being finished.

However, enough time needs to have passed that Lotor has been able to give them several locations for Galra bases to attack that were low-risk before he runs out of easy targets to give them.

So, it’s likely only been a couple of weeks at most since the end of Season 4. Since S4E02 and S4E03 happen only a day or two together, and S4E05 is implied to take place just a day or so after that, this puts the remainder of Season 4 sometime in late July, since Sam would’ve had to land on Earth in mid August in order for both his debriefing and Matt contacting Earth “just over a year” after said debriefing to be in September.

Which means that the third volume of the comics most likely also takes place in July, since the first issue of this arc depicts the Paladins attempting to drive a Galra fleet out of the Coalition’s new territory without letting them fly in the direction of the planets that were already liberated in S4E06 A New Defender, and the central conflict of the arc revolved around the paladins attempting to test if the information Lotor was providing them with was accurate.

Meanwhile, the scenes of Haggar gazing into Zarkon’s mind and remembering her past in S3E07 are implied to take place concurrently with S4E02.

S3E07 ends with Haggar waking Zarkon up, yet we don’t see him up and around until S4E02, which takes place several months after the end of Season 3.

Now, which sounds more logical?

Haggar wakes Zarkon up in October 2414 and he spends the next eight months or so sitting on his ass doing nothing while his empire keeps crumbling under rebel uprising?

Or Lotor’s lack of involvement in the empire for months as seen in S4E01 Code of Honor making Haggar desperate enough to tap into Zarkon’s mind, at which point he immediately gets out of his bed and takes the throne back from Lotor in S4E03 Black Site?

The latter would certainly be a logical sequence of events. And it would better explain why she’s suddenly looking at her old appearance as Honerva at the beginning of S4E03 if her recollection of her past was just yesterday than if she remembered months ago and is only now deciding to look at her old face.

Warlord Lahn Raiding Ranveig’s Base:

The Paladins visiting Drazan’s Clear Day festival appears to take place only a day or two after the end of S8E07. In that episode, the Altean robeast pilot the Atlas picks up is noted to be the 6th one they’ve brought aboard since leaving Oriande. Assuming they picked up one robeast pilot per day, this means that at least 6 days passed for the Atlas since the end of S8E06 Gensis.

Given that time dilation has only come up in the series when characters are travelling without using wormholes, we can probably assume that more than 6 days passed for the rest of the universe.

Since S8E08 appears to take place on Day 48 and is 24 quintants behind Planet Drazan thanks to time dilation, my best estimate would be that at least 12 days pass between the battle in Oriande and Clear Day.

Depending on when in May the Atlas visited Drazan for Clear Day, this would put the attack on Oriande somewhere between the end of April and the beginning of May.

S8E06 is indicated to take place only a day or so after the events of S8E05 The Grudge, which itself takes place only a short time after S8E04 Battle Scars, as the episode opens with the Paladins informing the Atlas of Olkarion’s fate.

Meanwhile S8E04 indicates it’s been only a few days for them since they left the Atlas at the end of S8E03, as Pidge notes that they’ve checked 11 star systems for signs of Robeasts in the last 3 days. Assuming that further time dilation occurred during S8E04 and S8E05, this would put the Atlas’ invasion of Warlord Lahn’s base on planet Ryker some time in April 2420.

When Lahn receives the transmission from the lost ship Klytax V-3, he mentions that he sent it and 14 other cruisers to scout Warlord Ranveig’s base from S5E05 for weapons six phoebs ago, which would be in October 2419.

Section V: The Complete Timeline

When you add everything together, the timeline of the VLD universe looks like this:

10,585-11,584 B.C.E.: The Galra Empire is formally established on the planet Feyiv with the coronation of Emperor Brodar in the first Kral Zera.

8186 B.C.E.: Coran’s grandfather builds the Castle of Lions. Coran accompanies him to a Balmera during the construction.

7614 B.C.E.: Kova is born

7606-7613 B.C.E.: A Trans-Reality Comet crash lands on the planet Daibazaal and a rift between realities is discovered at the crash site.

7604-7605 B.C.E.: 1 year before Allura’s birth, Honerva and Alfor initiate their first Quintessence experiment.

7603-7604 B.C.E.: Princess Allura is born, and Voltron makes its debut defending Daibazaal from the Rift Creatures.

7586 B.C.E.: Daibazzal and Altea are destroyed. Lotor is born

1414: The Galra Empire battles a technologically advanced species known as the Zel and decimates their population, but are unable to locate the Zelthronian homeworld.

2392, February 29: Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane is born

2394, May 25: Matt Holt is born

2396, January: Krolia crash lands on Earth

2396, October 23: Keith is born

2397, January 13: Hunk is born

2397, July 28: Lance is born

2398, April 03: Katie “Pidge” Holt is born

2406, August: Shiro begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2408, August: Matt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2410, May: Shiro graduates from Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program

2410, August: Shiro continues his education at the Garrison

2411, March-May: Shiro visits Keith’s middle school as a recruiter for the Garrison sometime in the spring

2411, August: Keith, Lance, Hunk, James Griffin, Nadia Rizavi, Ryan Kinkade, and Ina Leifsdottir begin taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison

2412, May: Matt and Shiro graduate from their respective programs at the Galaxy Garrison.

2412, August: Shiro and Matt are selected to be part of the Garrison’s mission to Kerberos.

2413, July: The Garrison’s mission to Kerberos launches

2413, September: Sam Holt, Matt, and Shiro reach Kerberos and are captured by the Galra Empire.

2413, December: Galaxy Garrison publicly announces the disappearance of the Kerberos mission.

2414, April 28: Rebel forces battle the Galra Empire on the planet Marchanda, resulting in 127,098 rebel casualties while the planet is reduced to a barren wasteland. Matt uses this battle to fake his death and go into hiding in a hidden rebel listening post.

2414, May 11: A rescue mission from Galaxy Garrison arrives on Kerberos to retrieve the equipment left behind after the original mission’s disappearance.

2414, August: Katie Holt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison under the name of Pidge Gunderson in order to find information about what happened to her father and brother.

2414, September 01: Shiro lands on Earth and is rescued from quarantine by Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

2414, September 02: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge find the Blue Lion and leave Earth.

2414, September 03: The Paladins train to figure out how to form Voltron outside of combat.

2414, September 04: The Paladins meet the Arusian natives and defeat the Myzax Robeast. Sendak attacks the Castle of Lions that night.

2414, September 05: Pidge and the paladins retake the Castle of Lions from Sendak while Hunk and Coran retrieve a new Balmeran crystal.

2414, September 06: The Castle of Lions takes off from Arus and liberates Shay’s Balmera later that day following an encounter with Rollo and Nyma en route.

2414, September 07: Hunk takes Shay to watch her first sunrise. After leaving the Balmera, Coran takes the Paladins to the Karthulian system for a training exercise.

2414, September 08: The Paladins travel to the planet Krell to retrieve a Yalexian Pearl to trade for Coran’s safety.

2414, September 09-30: Sometime in September, Team Voltron investigates a Zelthronian distress signal.

2414, December: The Paladins coordinate with the Blade of Marmora to attack Central Command, grievously wounding Zarkon in the process. Shiro disappears and Lotor is summoned from exile to lead the empire while his father recovers.

2415, January:

Keith becomes the new pilot of the Black Lion and leads the team in their first battles against Lotor on Puig and Thayersix.

The Paladins find an Altean exploration ship caught in a rift between realities and recover the trans-reality comet stored in its cargo hold after visiting the Altean Empire reality.

Shiro makes his way back to the team after awakening aboard a Galran research vessel.

In the process of searching for the trans-reality comet, the Paladins come upon Lotor’s generals attacking a Galran outpost in the Ulippa system to steal a fragment of their Teludav.

Coran tells the Paladins the story of Voltron's origins and Zarkon's descent into tyranny.

2415, March-April: Keith and Kolivan discover a new strain of Quintessence being shipped across the Galra empire through a network of secret supply routes.

2415, May:

Keith leaves the team in order to focus on his work with the Blade of Marmora.

Voltron misses performing their air show at the planet Drazan’s Clear Day celebration, leading Coran to ingest a brain worm to help him do a better job coming up with ideas for their propaganda shows.

2415, July:

Pidge finally tracks down Matt and brings him back to the Castle of Lions.

Haggar uses her magic to reawaken Zarkon, in the process regaining some of her memories of her life as Honerva.

Zarkon learns that Lotor is building ships from a trans-reality comet and declares his son a fugutive.

Voltron launches an attack on Naxzella and other key planets to seize control of 1/3 of the Galra Empire’s territory in a single strike.

The Paladins finish liberating planet Pintos Sentos.

Voltron dismantles the Galra shipbuilding facility known as SPRAWL using intel provided by Lotor.

2415, August:

Voltron rescues Sam, and Zarkon is killed by Lotor in the process.

Lotor becomes the new emperor of the Galra in the thirty-fourth Kral Zera.

Sam returns to Earth and is placed under quarantine at Galaxy Garrison’s main base in Arizona.

Keith extracts Krolia from Ranveig’s base and they enter the Quantum Abyss in search of the origins of the new mystery Quintessence.

Lotor, and Allura enter Oriande, where Allura passes the trials of the White Lion and gains further knowledge of Altean Alchemy.

Team Voltron assist Commander Bogh and Lieutenant Lahn when their planet is attacked by Sendak’s Fire of Purification.

Sam is released from quarantine and reunited with his wife Colleen.

2415, September: Sam is debriefed by Galaxy Garrison’s Joint Chiefs regarding his experiences in space.

2416, March 01-08: After spending at least 2 years in the Quantum Abyss, Keith and Krolia return to the Castle of Lions with Romelle. The Paladins battle Lotor and are forced to sacrifice the Castle of Lions to seal off the Quintessence Field and save their entire reality.

2416, May-August: The Druids and other factions of the Galra Empire begin a campaign of retaliation against the Blade of Marmora and the Voltron Coalition.

2416, September: Matt contacts his parents on Earth to inform them of Voltron’s disappearance and warn them of the rebellion’s losses.

2417, March:

The Blade of Marmora make their last stand against the Druids. Both factions suffer heavy casualties, and Kolivan is taken captive by Macidus.

Sendak invades Earth.

2419, March:

Allura merges Shiro with his clone and the Paladins gather Fonatonium to help recharge their lions.

The Paladins set off for Earth and are captured by Zethrid and Ezor’s pirate crew while investigating an abandoned Blade of Marmora outpost.

The Paladins encounter Macidus and rescue Kolivan. Krolia leaves with Kolivan to search for other surviving Blades.

The Paladins attempt to recharge their lions.

2419, August: The Paladins reach Earth and quickly liberate the planet from Sendak’s occupation.

2419, October: Warlord Lahn sends Klytax V-3 and 14 other cruisers to salvage weapons from one of Warlord Ranveig’s bases.

2420, March:

The Paladins enjoy their last day on Earth before returning to space.

The IGF Atlas launches from Earth to liberate planets that remain under Galra rule.

2420, April: The Atlas attacks Warlord Lahn’s base on the planet Ryker.

2420, May 12-31:

Voltron and the crew of the Atlas attend planet Drazan’s Clear Day festival.

The Paladins confront Honerva at the source of all realities.

2421, May: The lions fly away to parts unknown.

Note: This timeline will be updated whenever I uncover further information.

Sources:

[1] Creating Voltron: Legendary Defender; June 10, 2016. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/creating-voltron-legendary-defender/

[2] Tweet by Joaquim Dos Santos; October 12, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200723131054/https://twitter.com/JDS_247/status/1050905860728213506

[3] The Ending of 'Voltron' Season 7, Explained by the Showrunners; Eric Francisco; August 10, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/47977-voltron-legendary-defender-season-7-netflix-ending-explained-by-showrunners-interview

[4] Joaquim Dos Santos & Lauren Montgomery Talk Voltron at Wondercon '17; When Nerds Attack; April 2, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZW1V2dYHgs

[5] High School in the United States - wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_school_in_the_United_States

[6] K-12 Education in the United States - Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-12_education_in_the_United_States

#voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #vld timeline #vld meta #long post #voltron timeline

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