#keith apparently doesn’t know how to lie down either | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bqstqnbruin · 4 years

Text

Secret Love Song

Hello, hello. Same message as last time! Donate, sign petitions, go to protests, if you want resources I will be happy to find them for you! Support BLM movements, black people should not have to fight for their right to live!

This was inspired by Secret Love Song Part II by Little Mix

I also still have two requests, so if you sent one of them in, please please please don’t think I forgot about you! I just suck!

__________________________

13 years old

Your mom insisted on having a party. Your neighbors were your best friends, and this year was ten years that they had moved in next door from Arizona. Keith was best friends with your dad, Chantal with your mom, and their three children were your best friends. Brady was closest to you in age, you were older by a little bit less than a year, which meant that you were still close enough in age that you were in the same classes until his parents decided he was going to go to Chaminade. Matthew was the annoying older brother who normally just included you in whatever teasing he released on Brady. Taryn was the younger sister who just hung around until her friends came along. Typically, it was just you and Brady.

The two of you were sitting by the pool, people going in and out of the house while Matthew was in the pool with some of the other kids from the neighborhood.

“So, if you were to date anyone here, who would it be?” Brady asked you.

“They have to be like, present at my house right now?”

“Yes.”

You look out to the pool, seeing no one that you would ever, in a million years, ever date.

“Do I have to?” you whine, not wanting to say anyone.

“Yes. Here, I’ll go first. I would date Maddison.”

“You really just asked me that question so you could admit that you like her, didn’t you?” He looks out at the pool to the girl he just mentioned, his entire face and his ears turning red, and not from the sun. You could read that boy like a book: every time she was mentioned, he lit up like a Christmas tree as his mom would say.

He doesn’t answer, “So, who would you date?”

“I guess, Matthew?” you say, throwing out a name. You’ve always had a small crush on him, but you could never tell that to Brady. But truth be told, you weren’t interested in any of those boys but him, so it was probably the only time you could be honest.

“What about me?” Matthew interrupts as Brady starts to say something, getting out of the pool and getting you wet.

“If I were held against my will only allowed out if I dated someone at this party, I would date you,” you exaggerate.

“Hm. Back at ya,” he winks, walking inside.

You feel heat rush to your face, just like Brady when Maddison was mentioned. You look at Brady, his eyes wide and mouth open. “Ok, no. Nope. Not letting that happen. Number one rule of friendship: you can’t date your best friends’ siblings.”

“It can’t be the number one rule if it only applies to one person. That can be, like, the eighth rule of friendship.”

“Fine. But no dating my brother. That’s gross.” He shudders at the thought of you two together. Nope. Gross.

“Just remember, you brought it up.”

16 years old

“Y/N, there’s a spot right here!” Matthew calls, patting the floor next to him. Everyone was sitting in a circle, playing spin the bottle. There wasn’t much to do in your neighborhood once it got dark; all the parents wanted you inside, so you, along with other kids in the area would just hang out in someone’s basement playing some stupid party game or watching a movie. Tonight wasn’t movie night.

“Alright, so whoever spins has to kiss whoever it lands on, and if you aren’t ok with kissing any given person in this group, then get out of the circle,” Maddison starts.

“How long is the kiss?” Brady asks, getting nervous. He wanted it to land on her; that crush of his only got worse as time went on.

“Uh, at least three seconds,” she says. Her house, her rules.

You look across at Brady. With his brother sitting in the circle, he definitely didn’t want to kiss him, but Matthew is never one to turn down a game like this. Brady was sitting in the circle hoping to have his first kiss with Maddison. You, honestly, wanted to kiss Matthew. But Brady couldn’t know you wanted it.

Maddison spins the bottle first. You can tell Brady is holding his breath, not breaking eye contact with the bottle as he prays that it lands on him, or at the very least, not on Matthew. Matthews elbow jabs your side, not hard enough to make you yelp, but hard enough that you jump a little and turn to him. “How much do you want to bet he freaks out if he has to kiss Mads.” The smile on his face is almost devilish like he wants Brady to freeze when it came to kissing his crush.

You can’t help but smile back, something about him looking you that way, you have to reciprocate. “Stop being mean, you know how much he likes her,” you whisper so he’s the only one that hears.

“The only thing that would make this better is if-” he starts, his eyes flicking down to your lips before Maddison’s spin stops on Brady.

You both burst out laughing as Maddison crawls over to Brady. His eyes are wide with panic, his entire face turning red even though you and Matthew both know how much he wants it. She grabs his face, kissing him. It takes him a second before he starts to kiss her back, only to be interrupted by Matthew yelling, “Atta boy, Brady!” You smack him in the chest, Brady pulling away, his face still bright red from the kiss.

“Wow,” was all Maddison could say as she went back to her original seat.

The rest of the game, you have your phone out, not paying attention to your surroundings, but talking to Brady about how his dream finally came true. Your best friend just kissed the girl he’s had a crush on for at least three years. There was no way you could be any less than ecstatic for him.

“Y/N!” you hear, snapping your attention away from your phone, “It’s your turn!” Maddison says.

You lean out and spin it. You want it to land on Matthew. But what would Brady say? You can feel your heart race as the bottle spins, slowing down to stop right in front of the person next to you. Of course. Brady groans at the thought of his brother and best friend making in out in front of him, everyone else cheering just out of the energy of the game.

You turn to him as Brady leaves, him not wanting to see what’s about to happen. You really don’t want him to, either. Before you can even think about leaning in, Matthew has his hands cupped around your face, kissing you so passionately you can’t even think. You feel your self about to fall back with him on top before everyone starts to cheer again, causing you to pull away in shock. All you can do is repeat after Maddison: Wow.

18 years old

“We can never tell Brady about this,” Matthew says, closing your bedroom door behind him.

“I’m aware of that. But, how do you expect me to keep something like this from him! He’s my best friend!” you say, trying not to yell knowing that there was a party going on downstairs for your high school graduation. That night after spin the bottle had lead to many nights of him sneaking out and coming over, you two going on dates without telling Brady, him calling you in the middle of dates and asking you to hang out for you to just lie to him about what you were doing. Matthew was your boyfriend, but your best friend couldn’t know.

“Hey, could you keep quiet? What do you think it’s like for me? He’s getting suspicious considering every time you’re brought up I apparently ‘change my mood,’” he uses air quotes, imitating his dad’s voice. “Brady isn’t an idiot, he knows I’m seeing someone and know you’re seeing someone. It’s only a matter of time before he puts two and two together.”

“What do you mean, you change your mood?” you tease, getting closer to him, resting your hands on his shoulders.

He pulls you closer by your waist, planting a kiss on the top of your head as the smell of his cologne wraps around you. “Apparently, I ‘light up like a Christmas tree’ whenever your name mentioned,” he says, imitating his mom this time.

“I kinda want to hear you do Taryn next,” you say, getting on your toes to kiss him.

He dodges it, his lips pursed in a smile, “That’s not a turn on, ya know.”

You both start laughing as you hear music start playing outside. He kisses you, holding you around the waist, saying back and forth to the rhythm coming from your yard. You stay like that for a couple of minutes, Brady wondering where you went, your mom looking for you so you could start cutting the cake.

“I wish we could have danced like this at my prom,” you say quietly. Your head is resting on Matthew’s chest, your eyes closed as you hear his heart beating.

He rubs your back, kissing the top of you head before resting his chin on it. “I know. But Maddison invited Brady as her date. It would have been so hard for me to keep my hands off you looking as gorgeous as you did.”

You look up at him, nervous to say it for the first time. You want to, because you do. You’re the only know who knows..

“Y/N!” you hear your mom calling from outside. “Come out here!”

You open your window, calling down to her that you’ll be down in a minute, Matthew’s hand already on the doorknob ready to leave.

“I love you,” you blurt out, not really sure why you chose now to say something like that to him.

He walks over to you, kissing you with the same passion as the first time you kissed that night in Maddison’s basement, his hands finding the small of your back, yours running through his hair. He pulls away when your mom calls your name again, a smile on his face, his eyes bright. “I love you, too.”

22 years old

Brady was surprised when you wanted to go to school in Calgary. One, your sights had been set on UCLA for as long as he could remember. Two, why would you choose a school in Canada that was close to his brother and not him? Three, Something was off when Matthew had suggested that you live with him to your parents so that they could save money on room and board; he was covering the rent already, and nothing changed cost-wise for you to live there. All they had to do was send money for food and he would be fine with you living there.

He had been suspicious that something was going on between you two, but you would never break your rule about dating him. Would you?

In Calgary, you were free to be a couple, so long as no one took a picture of you two being lovely and shit and posted it or tagged you in the photos. It was a new world from the one you had been in back home. You could say I love you in front of other people, you could walk down the street holding hands, he could drive you to your place and kiss you in the front seat before getting out and going upstairs for more. It was amazing.

For Thanksgiving, Brady was flying from Ottawa to Calgary to spend it with you two; their parents and sister were off doing something for field hockey, so it was the perfect excuse for Brady to see what you had been up to. It was also your birthday; the first one you would be spending with your best friend since he went off for that development team program.

“Happy birthday!” Brady yells in your face, tackling you in a hug once you open the door he had been incessantly knocking on for thirty seconds. He shoves a gift into your chest, beaming at the fact that he picked out the gift for you himself. “Open it now!”

You laugh, leading him into the living room of yours and Matthew’s place, Matthew sitting on the couch as the food finishes up in the oven. “Look what Brady got me,” you wave the gift in front of him. He hadn’t given you anything yet, but you knew he would. He always did, just a little later, and not out in the openness of his living room.

He rolls his eyes and smiles, trying not to pull you into him with you sitting that close, but with Brady there, he couldn’t. “Your birthday is technically tomorrow, you’ll get your gift later.”

You shake your head, looking up at Brady beaming. “Are you sure you want me to open this now?”

“Yes, please!” He’s practically bouncing up and down in his seat out of excitement. You unwrap the job that was clearly done himself to find a silver bracelet. The charm was the Senators logo, with Brady’s number on the back. “You’re my best friend, and now you can’t get rid of me. Plus, I got a bracelet since you always wear your grandmother’s necklace.”

You can’t help but smile. You get up and give him a hug, holding him tight. “I love it so much,” you say, slipping it on your wrist, “And, um, my grandmother’s necklace actually broke a while back. It’s costume jewelry, so it’s not like I could get it fixed anyway.”

Brady looks at Matthew who can’t seem to make eye contact with him, but is fixated on you instead. He’s looking at you the same way Brady looked at Maddison when they were dating. Something was definitely up.

The oven beeps, signaling it was time for dinner. You spend the entire dinner, the three of you, laughing, talking, at one point throwing pieces of bread at each other over some argument Brady and Matthew have been having since the dawn of time.

“So, Brads, are you taking the couch tonight?” you ask him as you clean up and put away the left over dinner.

“What, we’re not going to share your bed like we always do?”

You whip around, nearly dropped the spoonful of potatoes on the floor. You and Matthew had been sleeping together in the same bed every night since you started school. None of your family had come to visit and stayed the night to catch you, but tonight might be the first time. You hadn’t slept in ‘your bed’ ever, it was the guest room. “Um, sure!” you say, obviously panicked, “I just need to clean up a little bit, would you mind putting this stuff away?”

You practically throw the container at him, running to get Matthew. “Brady wants to share my room tonight but that’s going to be kind of hard considering all my stuff is in our room,” you whisper, pulling him down the hall.

“Well, fuck, what are we doing to do?”

“Move stuff from this room to that room?” you suggest, pulling stuff from the closet to at least throw on the floor. He doesn’t say anything, he just starts grabbing stuff from the drawers to put into the drawers there.

Matthew pushes the door to his room almost with you two inside, you still panicking over Brady wanting to share the bed with you. It’s not because it’s Brady, it’s because of Matthew. “How am I going to sleep without you tonight?” he asks, pulling close.

“I don’t know. We have to tell Brady,” you whisper.

“Not tonight. Not yet.”

“Babe, it’s been five and a half years. Five and a half years is a long time to be lying to my best friend and your brother.”

“I know. I know. We will before he leaves?” you don’t say anything as he kisses your forehead. “How about I give you that birthday gift now, huh?”

He goes to his nightstand, pulling out a box about the same size as Brady’s clearly wrapped by someone who wasn’t him. He sits down on the bed with you, not taking his eyes off you or letting his smile fade as you untie the ribbon. You pick up the gold chain, tears falling down your cheeks as you hold up the necklace, “My grandmother’s necklace?”

“I took the broken one to a jeweler and had him remake it; real gold, real pearls. That way if this one breaks, you can have it fixed properly,” he says, taking it from you to put it on you.

You can’t believe he would do something so thoughtful. You had no clue that he could even think of doing something like this. “I’m so in love with you. You really are the love of my life,” you say to him through the tears you aren’t holding back. “I love you, too,” he says, pulling you in for a kiss.

“You what?” you hear, snapping away from each other to see Brady standing in the doorway of Matthew’s room.

“Brady,” you get up and go to him, your tears turning from that of happiness of that of fear.

“How long?” is all he can say, not able to look at you or his brother.

“Since that night at Madison’s.”

“When we were 15 and 16?” He looks at you, hurt that you went this long without telling him. Hurt that you went that long breaking one of the most important rules of your friendship. Hurt that you were happy and that you thought you had to keep it from him.

You nod, Matthew standing up behind you, “Brady, we were going to tell you this weekend. Don’t be mad at Y/N.”

“Whatever. Forget it.” He storms off into the bedroom, shutting the door, the click of the lock following as you crumble into Matthew’s arms, sobbing.

The next morning, he was gone, on his way back to Ottawa without even saying goodbye.

23 years old

Christmas was the first time you were going to be home since celebrating your college graduation, only for you to move right back to Calgary. You had gotten a job in the area, working right after graduation. You hadn’t talked to Brady since the Thanksgiving before, him still mad at you for not telling him about you and Matthew. He had been talking to Matthew because they’re brothers and they had to.

“He’ll come around, I promise,” Matthew tells you on the phone. You look out across your backyard. Your families finally knew that you two were together, but still insisted on having you stay in your respective childhood homes. From your window, you could see into Brady’s room. He would always have his curtains open during the day so that you could see each other. Since getting home, he hasn’t opened them once. “Stop looking into my brother’s room, you freak,” he says, still on the phone. You know he’s just saying that to make you laugh. You look over to his room, him standing there, waving at you like a child seeing a character at Disney World on a parade float.

“Are you guys coming over for dinner later?” you ask him, trying to shake the fact that Brady still hates you off your mind.

“Of course! We would never miss Christmas Eve at your house!” You stay on the phone with him for a little while longer until his mom calls him to go downstairs.

“Alright, see you in a bit. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he says, hanging up and closing his curtains.

You still had an hour before the Tkachuks and the rest of your family were coming over. You go downstairs to help your mom with the finishing touches as always, hearing her and your dad laughing and talking as the Christmas music plays in the background like every year. You get to the kitchen, “Hey, what can I help with?”

At the counter, Brady is standing there with a bowl in one hand, a spoon in the other, mixing who knows what. Your parents look at each other, “Brady will explain it,” your mom says, pulling your dad into the other room.

“Hi,” you let out, not really sure what to say.

“I’m sorry,” he starts, putting the bowl and spoon down and grabbing you in for a hug, “I shouldn’t have gotten mad like that.”

“No, you had the right to. I was lying to you for so long. You’re my best friend, Brads. I didn’t know what to do when I fell in love with the one person you told me not to.”

“It’s not like I can control your feelings. And I certainly can’t control my brothers.” You both laugh, still hugging.

“Are we back to talking now?”

“Of course.”

“And we can be best friends again?”

He leans away, smiling, tears on his cheeks, something you had never seen before, “We always have been and always will. You can’t get rid of me that easily.

“I told you it would work out,” you hear, causing you to jump. Matthew walks up to the two of you, pulling you in for one big hug.

“Well?” Brady asks, pulling away, “Are you gonna ask?”

“Right now?” Matthew asks, “I thought we wanted to do it later!”

“No. Now. Right now.” Brady goes for Matthew’s pocket’s him swatting his younger brother away.

“Jesus, no, get off of me!”

“What are you two talking about?” you ask, Brady with a stupid smile on his face and Matthew looking more nervous than ever.

“This,” Matthew says, holding out a ring.

“Are you-?” you start.

“Will you marry him?” Brady asks, jumping up and down.

“Dude!” Matthew smacks him with his other hand as you start crying, “That was my line!”

Between their bickering, you manage to let out, “Yes!”

“Yes?”

“She said yes!” Brady yells, your parents and the Tkachuks coming into the room and hugging you three as Matthew slips the ring on your finger.

“Now you’re really stuck with me,” Brady jokes, lifting you up in a hug,

“Dude! Just shut up and let me have my moment with her!” Matthew says, prying you away from him.

“You’re going to be fighting over me for the rest of your life,” you laugh, hugging both of them.

#matthew tkachuk #brady tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagines #brady tkachuk imagines #calgary flames #calgary flames imagines #ottawa senators #ottawa senators imagines #flames #flames imagines #senators #senators imagines #hockey #hockey imagines #nhl #nhl imagines

347 notes · View notes

hartigays · 4 years

Note

11 from the list plz Ps I love ur work

11. “I thought you didn’t want me.”

it’s been a slow day at family video - slow enough to make steve’s head practically throb from boredom.

he’s been tossing a superball at the ground over and over for the past hour, letting it rebound into his hand, not a customer in sight. robin is somewhere in the back, under the guise of needing to go through the returns, though it’s more likely that she’s taking a nap.

when the bell above the door jingles, steve doesn’t even look up at first. there’s not really any point - if the customer needs help finding something, they’ll ask. it isn’t until he hears a soft, flirtatious giggle that he looks up, his stomach dropping at the scene unfolding before him.

because it’s not just any annoying couple - it’s billy hargrove and some girl from high school that steve can’t for the life of him remember the name of, browsing through movies with sickeningly cute smiles on their faces.

steve’s billy. the one he’s been holding and kissing and fucking and loving for the last six months. the one he thought loved him back, because billy said so and steve was apparently dumb enough to believe him. so, like, what the fuck?

billy leans in close, whispering something in the girl’s ear that makes her giggle and blush again, and steve’s insides feel like they’re on fire. neither of them even notice that steve is there, watching them with an expression that can only be described as livid.

it isn’t until steve clears his throat that either of them look up. steve can see all the color drain from billy’s face at once. and yeah, steve gets it. he wasn’t even supposed to be working today, but keith had to be a little bitch about his sinus infection, so here steve is. covering for him and bearing witness to the worst possible situation he could’ve ever been presented with.

it’s pretty obvious that billy knew steve wasn’t supposed to be working today, based on the expression on his face. and, man, ain’t life a bitch?

steve can’t find it in himself to feel bad for billy. not when the fucker has seemingly been running around behind his back this whole time, lying about his feelings for steve. lying about the life he supposedly wants with him. so steve sets his jaw, plastering on a faux smile.

“welcome to family video,” steve says through gritted teeth, “let us know if you need help finding anything.”

the girl just nods eagerly, thanking him and continuing down the aisle, browsing the titles on the shelves before her.

billy doesn’t move at first, frozen in place, staring at steve with wide eyes. like a deer caught in the headlights, or a kid with its hand caught in the cookie jar. steve just stares right back, before ultimately deciding he doesn’t want to give billy the time of day.

not right now. not after this.

steve turns on his heel, making his way into the back. he has to curl his hands into fists to keep them from shaking, trying not to let angry tears spill over.

“hey, you okay?” robin asks when he walks into the room in the back, where they keep all their unshelved returns and new arrivals.

“no,” steve says honestly, leaning against the doorframe and rubbing his temples. “billy just came in. with a girl.”

“like, a girl girl?” robin asks. “not like, a cousin-girl? or like, a girl who maybe likes other girls-girl?”

“if that’s how he acts with his cousins or other lesbians, i’m a little concerned.”

robin gives him a sympathetic look. “well, maybe there’s an explanation. you should probably talk to him before deciding to launch yourself off the deep end.”

“what is there to talk about?” steve groans, burying his face in his hands. “he came here to pick out a video. with another girl. who he was flirting with. she was giggling, robin. like i’m gonna fuck you later giggling.”

“maybe they’re friends and she’s just a flirty type of person,” robin suggests. “you and plenty of girls have flirted with each other, but it didn’t always mean you guys wanted to go out or fuck each other, right?”

steve doesn’t get the chance to answer, because someone from the front rings the bell at the front counter. given that there are only two customers in the whole store, who came together, there’s only one guess as to who it might be.

he gives robin a pleading look. “can you take care of it? please?”

“of course,” robin says easily. she pats his arm before walking out of the room, disappearing out onto the main floor.

steve slides down the wall he’s leaning against, sinking onto the ground with a pitiful groan. like, steve can’t totally blame billy for running around behind his back. because girls? billy can take them out in public, can flirt with them and hold their hands and kiss them without anyone batting an eye.

he can’t do those things with steve. they’ve had to sneak around the entire time they’ve been dating, only robin and heather knowing the full extent of their relationship. steve thinks joyce and hopper might suspect, maybe even max, though they haven’t asked. but the bottom line is, steve and billy have had to hide.

billy doesn’t have to hide if he’s with a girl. steve thinks that’s maybe what hurts the most, knowing that he genuinely can’t blame billy for wanting to be with someone who doesn’t have to be his dirty little secret.

it’s just - steve loves him. he really does. and billy was the one who was worried in the first place that steve would want someone else after a while, not wanting to have to hide and lie and keep secrets, running around with the only gay guy in town. steve never would’ve thought that billy would be the one to get fed up and move on, leaving their relationship and everything they’ve shared together in a cloud of dust.

“the camaro wasn’t outside,” is the first thing robin says when she returns to the back room.

steve looks up at her, his brows furrowing in confusion. “maybe he left?”

“no, billy was still here. but the camaro wasn’t outside. doesn’t he usually drive when you guys hang out?” robin asks.

“uh, yeah. maybe he’s having car trouble and she drove?” steve suggests, his nose wrinkling.

because okay, yeah, billy would rather pull out his own teeth than ever let anyone else drive if given the option. so it’s a little weird. but it doesn’t mean that there’s not still something funky going on with billy and this girl, whoever she is.

robin shrugs. “dunno. just thought that was weird. just another reason for you to talk to him, instead of wallowing.”

steve doesn’t know how to answer that, so he doesn’t. he doesn’t have an answer for her when he locks up later that evening, or when he pulls up to his house, or when he flops onto the couch to pout into his takeout.

because steve doesn’t know if he wants to know what’s going on. what if he’s right? what if billy really is running off with someone else? with some nameless girl? or what if it’s something worse?

realistically, steve doesn’t know what could possibly be worse than billy abandoning him for someone else. but it’s the fact that there could be something. something that could break his heart even more than billy finding someone else to love.

there’s a knock on his front door and it pulls steve from his thoughts, putting a momentary pause on his stewing. there’s only one person that could be knocking on his door at this hour, and steve isn’t sure he’s ready to face him yet. but then there’s another knock, this one more insistent, and steve grunts as he shoves himself off the couch. he tosses his cold takeout onto the coffee table, forgotten.

“can we talk?” billy asks, the moment steve swings open the door.

steve just stares at him for a long moment, trying to get a read on his expression. billy just looks jittery and nervous, chewing on his lip and wringing his hands. steve can’t get anything more from him than that. so he steps aside, letting billy brush past him into the house.

“she doesn’t mean anything,” billy blurts, just after steve shuts the door. “sherry, i mean. she’s just- i can explain.”

“do i even want to know?” steve asks, folding his arms across his chest. he tries not to look too broken-hearted, not wanting to give billy the satisfaction.

“neil, he... i was trying to come see you today,” billy starts, shoving a hand through his hair. “heather was at the pool and she said you took keith’s shift. neil asked where i was going, and i... i fuckin’ told him the truth. i didn’t think he’d get suspicious over me going to pick up a few movies.”

an uneasy feeling starts to blossom in steve’s gut, not liking where this is going. “what’d he say?”

“that i didn’t- i don’t need to be looking like some faggot going to see the video store boy every other day,” billy says, sighing. “i had to lie. tell him i was getting a video for me and a girl. for a date. and he- he told me to call her. to bring her over for lunch and prove it.”

“why not just call heather though? i’m sure she would’ve been more than happy to help out,” steve says, his brows coming together in confusion.

billy moves to sink down onto the stairs, looking pointedly at his feet. “she had a church thing with her family or some shit. sherry was just- we were okay friends before we graduated. i figured she wouldn’t ask too many questions if i suddenly asked her out.

“steve, i swear to god,” billy continues, pressing his eyes with the heels of his palms, “i was just gonna do the fuckin’ lunch and be done with it. but he insisted on a movie. took us to get it and sat on the fuckin’ couch. watched it with us, too. at one point i thought he was gonna make us strip and walk us through how to fuck.”

steve makes a face. because, okay, he wouldn’t put any of that past neil. the guy is a fucking tool, and a creep. if steve has his way, neil would be rotting in jail cell by now.

but it’s not his life. he can’t make those decisions for billy.

steve sinks down onto the stairs next to billy, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. “i thought... i thought maybe you didn’t want me anymore. didn’t want to be with me.”

“steve,” billy starts, then pauses. he doesn’t look at steve, but he takes one of his hands, squeezing it tightly. “i want to spend the rest of my life with you. i want out of here, away from him, with you. i just- i don’t know how to do that yet.”

putting an arm around billy, steve pulls him tightly against him, letting billy bury his face into his shoulder.

“we’ll figure it out,” steve promises, resting his chin on top of billy’s head. “together. ‘m sorry i thought you were- y’know. running off with someone else.”

billy just sits up a little, before pulling steve in for a gentle kiss. it’s nothing heated or frenzied, just a soft press of lips that has steve tingling all the way down to his toes.

“just promise me we never have to watch teen wolf again,” billy says when they break apart, his lips quirking up into a small smile.

steve can’t help but laugh, standing and pulling billy up from the stairs, tugging him towards the living room. ready to put on his rocky box set and help his boyfriend forget about this hell day, just for a little while.

“you got it, sweetheart.”

#yeet #here u go nonnie hope u enjoy 💜💜💜#harringrove #my fics #ask #anon

97 notes · View notes

dammitadolfnomorecake · 3 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 117

117

Lance was slowly dying inside, thanks to his dramatic flare for extremes. How he was sweating up a storm he didn’t know. He’d shed his jacket, now tied around Keith waist, as Kosmo tugged him onwards. It was hot. He’d gone from one extreme to another and questioned if he really was a tropical vampire. It was unusual for him to get this warm, his stomach gurgling as he followed his friends through the woods to where Matt and Rieva had been the previous night. He didn’t doubt their directional skills, able to pick up where Matt had marked trees along the way. The trees Kosmo seemed to really want to pee on matching Matt’s scent.

Ahead of him, Keith had his camera out, stopping whenever anything took his fancy. Pidge had been a total poser, roping Curtis and Hunk into helping her onto fallen trees for the perfect shot. It really was only him who was slowing the group down, thankfully able to blame it on Kosmo, mentally promising extra belly rubs and treats for him later. Nature was nice. Garrison had a couple of wooded areas but nothing like this... the only problem was the humidity. He was not a “humid vampire”. Rieva checking on him from time to time, making him paranoid that she knew. It didn’t help that he kept moving his hand to stomach without thinking. Feeling Kosmo tug on his lead a little too hard, Lance lurched with him, world spinning as smacked into the closest tree. “Not far” in werewolf speak seemed very fucking far as he rubbed his shoulder.

Having seen what happened, Matt laughed at him

“Dude, you’re asleep on your feet”

“Fuck off, Kosmo has to pee every two minutes”

“Let me take him”

Nooooo. He’d lose his excuse for lagging

“I’ve got him. I’m not letting you corrupt my fur son”

“Don’t come crying to me when you...”

Matt’s words becoming a predication as he tripped over his own feet, glasses going flying as Kosmo jumped on him, yipping as he did

“... trip. Damn... Keith, your boyfriend’s klutz is in overdrive”

Jogging back to him, Keith pulled Kosmo back

“Give us a moment, we’ll...”

Being viciously attacked by a tree, followed by tripping, Lance sighed as he flopped sideways, sprawling out against the cool ground

“Babe!”

“Here, give him some water. It’s pretty hot in here”

Shay offered her water bottle, Keith pulling out his own to offer Lance

“Guys, we’re going to take a break here. You guys go ahead”

“If he’s not feeling well, shouldn’t we turn back”

Fucking... fuck. Just... fuck. Someone shoot him. Shoot him and bury him here

“I’m fine. Just hot. Gimme a moment I’ll be good to go”

“You haven’t been well since we got here...”

“I’m fine, Shay. My body likes to either torture me with freezing my arse off or making me like I’ve landed on the surface of the sun”

“Are you sure? You look very pale”

“I’m fine. Sorry, Guys. Chocolate and hiking doesn’t seem to suit me. I don’t think I’m made for the wild outdoors”

Lance sent a mental apology to Hunk over Shay being so considerate, Hunk clearing his throat

“I can stay with you... if you want?”

“Nah, man. Shay’s totally loving this wild and manly adventurer look on you. We’ll catch up in a few”

None of his friends were sure about leaving. Pidge and Hunk thinking of him too humanly. Shiro awkwardly holding Curtis’s hand, the lie probably weighing heavily on him. Matt and Rieva were sympathetic, but knew he always threw up when he ate. Begging Matt with his eyes, Matt sighed at him

“If you two losers aren’t there in the next five minutes, I’m coming back to kick your arses”

“Sounds good. Seriously guys, don’t hike and snack”

Leaving them behind, Keith took him by the arm and pulled him away from the middle of the track. Sitting him down at the base of a tree, Lance was grateful Kosmo and Matt hadn’t peed against it

“You look hot. Do you have a fever?”

“Nah. Too much human food and heat. You could have gone with them”

“I’m not leaving you behind. I didn’t think you felt so sick”

“I don’t really. A bit dizzy but I’m okay”

Keith unclipped the handle part of Kosmo’s lead, extending it as far it went then clipping into place around his ankle so Kosmo wouldn’t wander off

“Water?”

“Please”

Sure. It’d come up. But he needed something to cool him back down.

Drinking carefully from Keith’s water bottle, he passed it back. The others were fussing over him. Shay especially

“Babe... do you think we should tell Shay?”

Keith hummed

“I don’t know. She’ll probably freak”

“She’s already worried. I hate it...”

“I know. The others will look after her”

“Hunk and Pidge are worried too. I’m not usually like this camping”

“You’re worrying too much. Hunk asked me if this was normal when I was doing the dishes. I told him it’s because you have no self control when he’s cooking”

“That’s true... He’s such an amazing cook. I really want him to open his own place up. I don’t think I’d stop eating if he did”

“I think we’d all be fat if we lived off his cooking. He’s better than most chefs at the places in Rome”

“I’m not surprised... Babe, I’m okay. I was hot before, but I’m cooling down”

“You flopped on the ground”

“Because it’s nice and cool. Woodlands and forests have their own micro-climates... I don’t think I do humidity well”

“Better than snow?”

“Everything’s better than snow. You didn’t have to wait back with me”

“I told you it’s fine, and it is. How do your feet feel?”

Lance tapped his heels together three times, finding himself still trapped in the toe eating boots

“Not too bad. Not as bad as my stomach, I’m like hungry again”

“Did you want to eat?”

“I didn’t bring... oh. No. No. I’ll be okay”

“Babe, that’s not what I’m asking”

“I know what you’re asking. The smell was super strong in the cabin, it’s like stuck in my nose or something”

“If you want...”

“We talked about this”

Keith sighed heavily. Yeah. He didn’t like Lance saying no

“I know, but you’ve been slowing down and you walked into a tree”

“I didn’t walk, I was pulled into by Kosmo. Matt scented the area last night and he’s trying to scent over it all”

“I still think if you’re hungry...”

“I’ll be fine. Just the change in weather or something. To think I was wrapped up and baking in front of the fire yesterday and here we are today”

“It is pretty extreme. I know it’s late to ask, but do you know where the others are?”

Lance suppressed rolling his eyes at Keith

“Yeah. I can hear them and I can smell them. They haven’t reached this mythical pond yet”

“I thought it was going to be closer to camp”

“Apparently werewolves like to overestimate things”

Keith snorted, getting the joke that at one time would gone right over his head

“Matt’s not going to like that”

“Then he shouldn’t have lied about the length”

Waiting, Lance shook his head when he heard a clear “Fuck you!” from Matt

“He didn’t like the joke”

“He heard?”

Seriously. How could a hunter...? How were the Blades still around?

“Babe, werewolf. And it’s not like we’re being quiet. I don’t need to feed, I’ve cooled down now and Kosmo seems to be trying to pull your leg off. Let’s go meet the others”

“You’ll tell me if you feel weaker or faint, won’t you?”

“Yes, mum. You’re fussing too much”

“Or am I fussing just enough?”

God. He loved this man. Keith was a special kind of idiot that owner his heart and soul.

The pond found by Matt and Rieva was nice and all, but Keith wasn’t sure it was that nice. At least not work the trek to the middle of fucking nowhere just to see a pond that didn’t have all that much appeal. The underground lake had been awesome. The pond a solid “eh”. Duckweed clung around edges, the reeds kind of making it nice to photograph. Pidge wasn’t thrilled their walking had ended with a pond that didn’t look safe to swim in. Finding a stray branch, she poked at the duckweed at the side of the pond

“Reckon it’s safe?”

Matt chuckled at his sister

“It was last night”

“Yeah, before you go to it. Man, you could have said it was basically a swamp”

Standing up, Pidge threw her branch into the water

“You’re just not seeing it’s potential”

“And I’m telling mum”

Matt gaped at Pidge. Keith sucking his lips in, trying not to laugh at the look on Matt’s face. With one gape he looked thoroughly betrayed

“That’s enough. We’re here now, we might as well make the most of it”

Shiro tried to restore calm with his “Dad” voice. Hunk nervously looking around them

“We’re not going to be killed here, are we? I feel like we could be killed here”

“Guys, you’re over reacting. It’s a nice spot”

Matt was trying too hard to make the sale no one buying

“Maybe if you’re a dog... Kosmo! Ack...”

Keith hadn’t noticed he was standing in mud, Kosmo had. Shaking himself off, mud went flying, Kosmo’s tongue lolling as he looked up at them proudly. Pidge wiping flecks off mud from her face with an unimpressed grimace

“He’s a menace...”

Great now Matt looked like he wanted to wolf out and join Kosmo in the mud

“He’s just being a dog. You wouldn’t understand”

“No, I’ll leave that to you and him. Right, if you need me, I’ll be on my tablet”

Hunk set up the snacks he’d brought at what he deemed a safe distance from the pond. Matt showing he didn’t care by wading out into the cold water, trying to coax Kosmo in for swim. Even Kosmo was smarter than to follow that idiot. Sitting next to Lance, his boyfriend had his head resting against Keith’s shoulder

“Hey babe, can you show me that thing on your phone again?”

He didn’t think Lance would ask in front of everyone. Pulling his phone out, he unlocked it then handed it over, Lance taking the device carefully, before starting to tap on the screen. It only took him a few moments to type his message out

“The pond sucks, but you’re beautiful”

Keith tried to ignore how happy the silly message made him, typing at the end of the Lance’s message with one finger that made things infinitely harder

“Can I be handsome?”

Lance nodding as he typed back

“Don’t forget rugged and grizzly”

Keith ducked his head, embarrassed over the praise, Lance adding

“I really love you”

Which only made his heart do that stupid thing it did. After 6 months, he thought the butterflies and weird heart beats would stop, yet Lance always seemed to make it happen far too often. Taking his phone back, he added to the message

“I love you too babe. Sorry about the pond”

Lance shook his head, it seemed the conversation had ended naturally. A moment or two passing before Lance took his phone back

“I’m sleepy. Matt was right about this being a good nap place... apart from the smell”

Yeah. It stunk to him and he was human. Damn dogs and their attraction to smell dead things

“Wanna talk a walk?”

Lance moved his head up to smile at him

“Okay... but not too far”

“Nah. I want to get some photos”

And spend some alone time with Lance again.

Picking a path around the pond, it was larger than reeds and duckweed made it seem. Lance holding his hand as they walked, Keith found he didn’t actually know what to say. Walking like this was nice. Maybe it was okay for things to be quiet? It didn’t feel uncomfortable until he realised they’d walked quite a way from the others. Pidge could still be heard yelling, some laughter in the otherwise still air... Then Lance went and sighed. He wished he knew what his boyfriend was thinking. And why he’d snapped at Shiro. Shiro seemed okay, and Lance would apologise again, even though he probably didn’t need to

“Babe?”

“I’m okay...”

“You sighed”

Lance sighed at him again, Keith rolling his eyes before pulling Lance in for a hug, Lance protesting lightly

“I’m fine”

“You still sighed”

“You weren’t saying anything...”

Keith couldn’t help but chuckle

“I was thinking the same thing... it’s nice not being surrounded by noise”

“Speak for yourself”

Keith kissed Lance’s forehead as he slid his hands down to his boyfriend’s arse. Lance squeaking as he groped him lightly

“What was that for?!”

“Because I could. Want to take a break?”

“Actually, yeah... You haven’t been taking any photos”

“That’s because I was too busy holding your hand. Want to try to taking a photo with me?”

“Haven’t you got enough of me?”

Keith chuckled again. He’d meant of the lake, and he knew he was biased and all, but he couldn’t have enough photos of Lance

“Nope. Here, I want to show you something”

Sliding around Lance, so he was now standing behind him, Keith popped the cap off the camera lens and flicked the knob to on. The camera chiming as it booted up

“Okay. Now, we’re going to take a photo”

“I know how to take a photo”

“Mmmm... but you said you weren’t sure about it and I want to share this with you”

In Rome he’d been shit scared everyone would find out and laugh at him over his hobby. Sometimes it was hard to have his camera out in front of their friends, but with Lance it was easier. His boyfriend never judged, even before they were dating

“It’s just duckweed”

Keith moved the camera to the right

“See how the light filters through the trees, and almost cuts the photo in half on the diagonal? If we zoom in, what do you see?”

On the screen he showed Lance the different. The way the one section caught the light, almost shimmering in the specs of water between the weedy growth

“That’s cool”

“Yeah... hold on”

Clicking the capture button, the image appeared on the screen for a few seconds before returning to viewfinder. Zooming out slowly, Lance perked up

“I like that one”

Keith bit down his snort. Lance must have assumed he’d already capture the image. His boyfriend reading his body language

“Not like that. It’s half and half properly now”

Keith clicked capture again, he personally would have moved the camera a little to the left to get the light balance two thirds instead of the half

“It is. But if we move it like this, tell me which looks better”

Adjusting his view, Lance hummed at him

“I get it... and it’d be a totally different picture again if you changed the angle”

“Yep...”

Letting his head loll back on Keith’s shoulder, Lance smiled at him

“I don’t think I’ll ever be a star photographer, but it suits you”

“I could teach you properly”

“You offered before. Honestly, I really like watching you. The way your eyes light up when you’ve got a shot you like”

“Am I really that transparent?”

“A little. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with eyes as honest as yours”

“Then you really do need glasses”

They would have forgotten Lance’s glasses earlier if Kosmo hadn’t pawed at them when they were getting ready to meet up with the other

“And you need to accept the compliment”

“You’re the one who compliments me too much”

“Then you shouldn’t be so kind to me”

Keith groaned. What was he supposed to do with that?

“Shut up”

Lance laughed at him. Keith dropping his left hand to rub his boyfriend’s stomach, Lance immediately letting out a soft moan that was far too cute

“Stoooooop”

“Why?”

“Because we’re got company that can hear me moaning and all you’re doing is messing with me”

“I’m not messing with you. Does it feel okay?”

“Honestly human food came up so hard in the cabin that I don’t want to eat”

“You kept the water down”

“I went and dealt with that while Hunk was finding the perfect picnic spot”

“You should have...”

“Babe. You know things came out one way or the other... Kind of comes with the whole being dead thing. I love that you care, but you’ve also got to remember I’ve been dealing with this for years and I’m used to dealing with it alone”

“Doesn’t mean you have to now”

“Fine, the next time I have to shit my guts out...”

Keith wrinkled his nose

“Okay. Okay. I’m overthinking. As long as you’re okay”

It was then that Lance’s stomach let out a loud gurgle. His boyfriend closing his eyes as he groaned

“I’m sick of it. It’s been doing that nonstop”

“Are you hungry?”

“A little...”

“You should eat”

“I didn’t pack anything. I thought “short walk” would be like a “human short walk””

“You need to eat. It’s not good...”

“I’ll be fine”

“Babe...”

“Keith, I’ll be fine”

Lance needed to be eating more. More of everything if you asked Keith. He didn’t like Lance having to throw up, but he and their baby needed the calories

“Then take...”

“No”

“You... look. You can feed off my fingers again. Just enough to make the hunger go away”

“Why do you keep offering?”

How did Lance not know? Other than the jealousy, which he was trying to work through, he didn’t have a problem. Lance wasn’t going to turn him from a feed. So why couldn’t his boyfriend see it was because of how he felt about him

“Because I love you. If we were in opposite positions, you’d be forcing it on me”

“I’m not that forceful”

“Right. And I’m not secretly half alien here hiding from the master race”

Lance laughed, face scrunched up as he did

“You know, you’d make a good half alien. I’d still love you just as much”

“You’re such a damn sap”

“And you’re twice as bad. Can we sit for a bit? I don’t feel like going back just yet”

“We’re not walking around the entire pond?”

Lance shrugged, opening his eyes

“I was following you”

Keith played along

“But I was following you”

His boyfriend shrugged again

“I guess we’re lost forever then”

“I think I’m okay with that”

Lance’s knees gave out on the way back to the others. Disguising it as tripping, he wasn’t sure why they’d suddenly given out. Not until he saw his hands. His nails long, dug into the ground. He could feel his fangs against his lip, edges pressing down against the toughened skin. Raising his head to look at Keith, Keith swore softly, his boyfriend pushing him aside as he drew out his hand gun. Lance not even getting the chance to be shocked as Keith shot him.

Shooting up from where he’d fallen asleep against Hunk, he realised everyone was staring at him. Right. They were in the main cabin now. He, Hunk, and Pidge had been sitting on the sofa. The three of them with their feet on the coffee table as they compared blisters and Curtis tended to their feet

“Ugh, bud? You okay there?”

Dropping back down beside Hunk, Hunk wrapped his arms around him. Keith was in the bathroom washing Kosmo with Shiro, so he couldn’t have been asleep for very long

“Yeah. Ugh ... I think I fell asleep”

“You did... I’ve been wondering how to wake you up so I could start dinner”

“How long was I out?”

“Half an hour. Keith’s still trying to get Kosmo clean...”

Lance could feel the dirt beneath his nails. His body wouldn’t stop shaking at the thought of Keith putting a bullet in his brain... Whining the name of his best friend softly, he needed the comfort Hunk provided

“Hunk...”

“Why don’t you help me with dinner? It’s been a while since we cooked together”

Lance kind of felt disappointed. He wanted to cuddle with his best friend, but Hunk liked to be moving when he had a lot to think about

“Okay... What’s for dinner?”

“Pasta, made fresh”

“Alright...”

Lance washed his hands, the scent of blood from the morning had finally started to disappear. As Hunk grabbed the eggs out the fridge, he watched his friend. Pidge was watching from them from the sofa... probably worrying. He made everyone worry and it was so damn draining

“Right. Can you grab the flour out?”

“Ah... sure”

Lance should have picked up on the signs Hunk was trying to distract him. Grabbing the flour out the pantry, Hunk smiled softly as he moved to the kitchen bench, Lance joining him

“Bud, I know somethings up. You can tell me”

“It’s...”

He wanted to. He wanted to so badly... That nightmare had shaken him. He didn’t think he was strong enough to keep his secret

“I... Hunk...”

As he sniffled Hunk pulled him into a hug

“Whatever happens, Bud, you can rely on me”

“I know... I know... it’s just not... I... I don’t want you to hate me”

“I won’t... Do you need a bit to think it out?”

“Yeah... I had a nightmare Keith shot me in the head and... I’ve been lying again... and I hate it...”

“It’s alright. I mean, I know you’ve got a few secrets... you’d have to. Here, pour out the flour for me... and I’ll get the pasta machine out”

Lance poured the flour on the bench, sniffling as he did. He didn’t know where everyone one was, but he did know he couldn’t mentally keep his secret any longer. He’d wanted to wait. To be more confident and sure of the pregnancy. Flattening out the flour, Hunk bumped into him gently

“It’s just flour, Bud. No need for the tears”

Fuck... He needed his best friend. Having a boyfriend was a different kind of friendship...

“I... I’m...”

“Lance, it’s okay, Bud. You don’t have to rush right away”

“It’s not that... you can’t tell”

“Now you’re making me worried”

“Just... hang on”

Keith put the idea in his head, Lance spelling out his secret in the flour. Those simple letters with so much more meaning

“Don’t tell anyone yet...”

He spelt it out, waiting for Hunk to catch on, his bestie humming when he did, Lance brushing the flour back into place

“... Matt and Rieva hear everything”

Hunk nodded quickly, before drawing a smiley face in the flour

“I’m pregnant”

This two words had Hunk sweeping him into the tightest hug of his life as Lance messed the flour up to hide the evidence

“I... I wondered... are you...?”

Lance nodded as his nerves went weird. Hunk hugging him hadn’t been... well it’d been a dream

“Oh, man... it makes sense now... but... nope, I’ll ask later...”

“Thank you... I’m so sorry”

“Shhh... Keith, uh, he kind of put the idea in my head and I guess maybe he wanted me to work it out”

“Keith is very attached to “macaroon”... just don’t use the word too much”

Hunk immediately let him go, hands going to Lance’s shoulders as he hung his head

“I thought you just wanted macaroons...”

“It’s okay, Hunk. But now Pidge is watching, she’s about ready to demand to know what’s going on”

“Oh, right. Be cool... be cool... do you need anything? Should you be resting?”

Great. Someone else to over worry about him...

“I’m okay. It’s not that different just more puking. Anyway, we should start dinner”

“Yeah, man. I’m making garlic knots. This is a special occasion”

“You’re not grossed out”

“I’m shocked, not quite sure how it works, or if I really want to ask, but as long as...”

Lance threw his arms around Hunk. Nearly sobbing in relief of the weight lifted off his shoulders, and, kind of more importantly, that his best bro wasn’t about to reject him.

“Okay, you two are acting weird. What’s going on here? And why am I not part of it?”

Lance peered at Pidge over his best friends shoulder

“Hunk promised to teach me the secret ingredient in his mama’s spaghetti bolognese!”

Pidge’s eyes went wide

“That’s a top secret family recipe!”

“That’s why I’m excited... I’ve been after it for years!”

He already had the recipe, but there was something different about how Hunk’s mother made it taste. Being taught to be useful he’d offered to help Hunk’s mother, memorising things by watching her. She kind of loved him, not that he was bragging

“Sorry, guys. I can teach Lance the recipe but we’ll have to talk about it when we get home. I don’t have everything here”

Lance pulled away, wiping at his eyes. The conversation may have gone differently if Keith hadn’t already planted that thought in Hunk’s brain

“Dude... I’m totally betrayed here. It’s a good thing the pastas going to be delicious”

“I wouldn’t say that...”

“Hunk, you are a kitchen god descended before us mostly human beings. Even Keith agrees. We’d all be fat with how good your cooking is, buddy”

Hunk shuffled nervously under the praise

“I don’t know. You and Miriam know so many great recipes too”

“Which I’ll totally teach you. Let’s get the pasta started”

“Sure thing, man”

Watching the exchange, Pidge grumbled

“Boys are so freaking weird. I’m going to go hang with Shay, at least she’s interesting”

“Let her nap. She’s making the most of getting some sleep in before she goes back to work”

Lance realised he hadn’t thought to ask about Shay... Pidge made a show of climbing off the sofa, walking away from them with his feet turned slightly out to avoid pulling weight on the blisters on her big toes. Lance waited until she was gone before whispering

“Hunk, I want to ask you something and I want you to be honest. Do you think I should I tell her the truth? Like about me? I don’t want you having to lie to her, it sucked so damn hard having to lie to you, and I don’t want to rob you of your happiness with her”

“I don’t know, man... I don’t want to freak her out... I don’t want her freaking out at me for hiding it...”

“I know. I know and I’m sorry... I hated lying to you, but once you know about the scary things you can’t take it all back”

Realising they were born whispering at the same time, the moves away from each other. Lance moving to start welling the flour, Hunk going on the search for his pasta rolling machine

“Let me think about it? I’m still... processing... I mean... you and Keith are dudes... you’re... a guy... and I’m not saying this right, man. I’m like super happy for you... but I still have like a hundred questions of how this even happens”

They didn’t have time for the hundred questions. Lance still a hundred questions over how it’s happened and how he was going to get Hunk alone to fill him in on everything so far

“I’m a different type of vampire from drinking Keith’s blood. That still sounds really gross and wrong... I’m really gross when you think about it. I only did it to save his life and my body started changing thanks to it. I really love Keith, but I don’t... the thought of feeding from someone warm and living, makes me feel gross”

“I kind of don’t think about it. I mean, I do, but I mean like you’re our best friend. Me and Pidge are starting to get it”

“You shouldn’t have to though...”

“It’s weird, but when you think about it, blood is used in a lot of different dishes around the world. Mongolian tribes have this dish made of horse blood and milk, and then there’s things like blood sausages... I mean, no one gets hurt right? To get the blood?”

“It’s donated. People get compensated... Coran makes sure they’re not mistreated or anything like that... It’s... um... easier to eat when you don’t know where it’s from”

“Like it’s easier to eat devilled ham spread when you don’t know they use pig eyeballs and eye lashes in it”

Lance shook his head, he didn’t want to feel so reassured that it was okay to be drinking human blood in front of his human friends

“You’re being too calm”

“Lance, have you ever wanted to feed off of me, or off of Pidge”

Lance took instant offence

“No! Ew... no. I love you guys, how could you even think that’s okay!”

“You just answered how we’re okay with this. You wouldn’t. Not unless there was absolutely no other option. You’ve got another option, but if you didn’t, neither of us want to see you suffer. We’re friends and friends work things out together”

Oh.

Deserting his role with the flour, Lance wrapped his arms around Hunk again

“I’m sorry I lost it... I shouldn’t have snapped...”

Hunk chuckled, always up for a hug

“It’s fine, man. Sometimes you get caught up in your head too much”

“I’ve never had... you know... human friends who knew about me. You guys... I love you guys so much. I’d never feed on you... I can’t...”

“I don’t know, Shay calls me her “tasty snack”...”

“Yeah. No. She can snack on you. I’m sorry, I’m being all weird”

“You’ve been weirder than normal for weeks now, but you’ve always been a little weird”

“I’ve been weird for 7 weeks... Keith’s accident started it all”

Hunk swatted at his arm

“Dude. Too much information”

“We we’re going to wait until the next time I saw Coran...”

“It’s okay. I’m not about to tell... but you need to be taking better care of yourself”

“I’m trying. God. At this rate dinner’s never going to be done”

“Are you saying my hugs aren’t worth it?”

“They’re totally worth it... you’re like, the coolest dude ever”

“It’s my gift and my curse”

They both laughed. Out of everyone, he was so fucking relieved that Hunk knew. He just hoped Pidge would take the news as well as him.

#ashratherose #oncebittentwicestupid #once bitten twice stupid

9 notes · View notes

loveafterthefact · 4 years

Text

Love After the Fact Chapter 61: In the Company of Blades

In which Keith has friends, Lance gets to show off, and Shiro wants Adam to step on him

First Previous Next

“Anyway, that’s where we are right now. One thing at a time, and I will come up with a meal plan, just in case,” Thace says. They’re rushing through hallways to get to the training yards.

“Thanks.” Keith twists his hair into a large knot on the back of his head, keeping it in place with a pin. “And thanks for the pin.”

“No problem. I just hope you don’t get impaled through your skull.”

“Hasn’t happened yet. Miraculously. We are very late.” Which means probing questions from one Altean, and a probing stare from another. One, Keith can’t say no to -because he’s soft- and the other, Keith is too scared to lie to.

“Fortunately, it’s easy to blame your health. So long as we can keep Lance’s mouth shut.”

“Right...” Keith is about to explain, but Thace's exasperated groan tells him he doesn't have to.

The training grounds are divided into a series of yards, with walls erected for privacy and so no one takes up too much space. Some are large, some small, some flat, some full of obstacles and ground cover, climbing walls, chasms, even stands of trees. There are even places to practice elk-riding, a means of preserving the ancient history of the mounted warriors of old. The Marmora have more respect for tradition than one might think.

When Thace and Keith arrive, they’re beholden to quite the spectacle. Adam, wielding a polearm, squaring off with one of Kolivan’s two kits, Antok. Regris, his other kit, is standing next to his father. Both are grown, but were raised by the Blades, and remain quite close to their sire.

Regris apparently got the good end of the stick, because Antok is getting his ass kicked by the smaller Altean. Adam’s polearm is indeed double-ended, this one equipped with glaives, which he’s currently using to repel Antok. The Altean is also wearing gauntlets with small blades attached, good for slashing throats if an enemy gets too close. Keith imagines that they also discourage grappling.

It’s strange, but Keith has never once in his life thought of Adam as a warrior. He’s always the behind-the-scenes man, and battle tends to be so upfront and personal. Seems Keith was wrong, because Adam is good. He’s fast, too, keeping up with Antok’s limbs, which includes an incredibly mobile tail.

Shiro seems to be enjoying the view, watching the fierce-eyed Altean swing his polearm like it’s a toothpick. A very long, dangerous toothpick. “That’s literally the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Gross.” Keith shoves his brother away.

“I want him to impale me,” the larger Galra sighs.

“You’re a pervert.”

“I concur with Keith,” Thace murmurs.

“Yeah? Well neither of you gets an opinion because you were both late.”

“Health thing,” Keith murmurs. “Where’s Lance?”

“Three yards down, showing off his marksmanship skills. Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing at all,” Keith murmurs. “I just had a few questions.”

“Ah.” Shiro shifts awkwardly. They’re still a bit uncomfortable, despite putting their disagreement behind them, and being otherwise normal with each other. “Listen.”

The fact that Shiro bothers to turn away from Adam’s totally-not-an-exhibition is a contributing factor as to why Keith actually does choose to listen to his brother’s opinion.

“I’m here for you. No matter what. Know that.”

Keith smiles. That sounds like his brother. “ I know. Thanks. I’ll let you know if I need you. Or Lance will let you know because I refuse to ask you for help.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Adam finally manages to disarm Antok, spinning his polearm and holding it behind his back.

“Well, Remind me never to push Adam over the edge. I’m gonna go see what Lance is up to.”

“You do that,” Shiro murmurs. “I’m gonna go find a deserted hallway and bring your attendant with me.”

“Have fun. Pervert.”

“I will, thanks.”

Rolling his eyes, Keith trots over to the other field, curious to see what Lance has got up to. Thace hurries right behind him, scanning the facility. “Where the fuck is my mate?”

“Who cares about your mate? Where’s- mine…”

As it turns out, Keith’s mate is firing arrows from the back of a galloping elk. And every shot is perfect. He’s also shirtless, which is really great, but kind of gross because he’s doing that weird ‘sweating’ thing that Alteans do, where they get all wet and slippery. Why can’t they just pant to cool off like a normal species?

But whatever. It’s still incredibly impressive. Especially since the targets, little floating spheres, are both moving and firing at him. And it’s nice to see Lance in his element. He’s got a borrowed bow in one hand, a couple arrows between the fingers of the other, another between his grinning teeth.

“Good to know your chosen mate isn’t entirely useless,” a gruff voice murmurs from behind. Kolivan’s followed them from the other field. “Wasn’t sure about him when Shirogane came back with a report on his swordsmanship. He’s actually an incredible shot.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.”

The only thing better is the way Lance’s face brightens when they make eye contact. He removes the arrow from his mouth. “Hey, beloved! See something you like?”

“Hm. Not sure. You should go around again so I can decide.” Keith’s smirk morphs into a grin. “I take it you're enjoying yourself?”

“I am kicking ass! This is so much fun! Can’t believe I’ve never tried this before! Also, this is Bruna, and I love her.”

Keith smiles as Lance hangs his bow from the elk’s saddle, stroking the doe’s soft, red fur. “You know she’s carnivorous, right?”

“All close friends have their points of contention, and admittedly her terrifying teeth are… one of those things, but she’s also loyal, and fast, and very sweet.”

Keith eyes the elk skeptically, gaze lingering on her four sharpened antlers crowning her head and the filed horns protruding from her face. “This sharp, vicious creature is your friend?”

“Bruna will be loved and adored by yours truly all the days of her life.”

“Okay. Good luck convincing your father to let you bring her home.”

“Oh, I don’t have to convince either of my parents of anything. I just have to convince you.”

Keith stares down the hopeful look in his ridiculous elk-loving husband’s face. He’s thoroughly unmoved by those large, pleading, blue-and-pink eyes. Completely unswayed… Except… “If you’re getting one, I should get one too. It will give us an excuse to spend time together without being buried in tablets.”

“See, this is why I love you.”

“I love you too. Now shoot some more arrows so I can watch.”

“Okay, should I put my shirt back on, or-”

“No, it’s fine.” A sly smile. “You can keep it off if you like.”

Lance quirks an eyebrow before lifting his bow again -Does he have to show off that he can ride with no hands?- and preparing to continue his practice.

“When you’re done flirting,” Kolivan mutters. “Your mother is waiting to kick your ass.”

“Yeah, okay.” Keith looks around. “Where did Thace go?”

“I dunno. Probably to stick his tongue in Ulaz’ mouth.” Kolivan sighs, leading him to yet another training room. “I’d been counting on you to be the only one of these idiots to keep it in their pants.”

“What about your sons?”

“Pfft. Found mates while you were gone. They’re always… visiting.”

“Gross… Well, I promise never to visit you.”

The Galra chuckle. Kolivan never really has a lot to say, but what he does have to say is either incredibly serious or mildly amusing. He’s an acquired taste. One that Keith has acquired in order to survive. Kolivan’s also his mother’s closest companion, so he insists on their getting along, despite what one might call ‘creative differences’ when it comes to leadership roles.

Essentially, Kolivan’s an unapologetic, amazingly blunt asshole and Keith tries his best to be more… constructive.

“It’s about time you showed up.”

“Hey, Mom. Sorry. I stopped by the med ward.”

“Okay.” She goes easily, drawing her sword. “But don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

That’s what Keith loves about his mother: the understanding. For only having known each other for two years, they share so much: a loss, a condition, a passion for the personal freedoms that their rulers restrict until they can barely breathe.

But Keith and his mother find a way. They dig their roots into unwelcoming ground. They learn to thrive. They draw breath.

And swords. Krolia has Keith panting in minutes, forcing him to the brink of his skills. He really is out of shape, but he’s missed this. He’s missed this challenge, this push, this direct, up-front, physical confrontation where no one is screaming, or complaining, and there’s no stack of work staring at him from behind another stack of work. Just him, trying his damndest to beat the crap out of someone who can actually match with him.

And, surprisingly, he’s doing well. His stamina and strength have taken a hit, but he’s picked up forms and techniques on Altea that give him an edge.

The Galra know how an Altean fights, but Keith knows how they think, why they make the choices they do. Their aim isn’t disarming or killing an enemy. A Galra's aim is to defeat the enemy, to beat them into submission until the ground beneath thier boots is painted red. An Altean’s aim is to make it past the enemy toward a larger goal, and do it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Krolia isn’t his enemy. She’s just in the way. So, dodging a slash of Krolia’s sword, Keith slips past his mother, elbowing her in the kidney as he darts past. Krolia doesn’t flinch, even as she turns to stare at her son, but nobody can fully brush off a hit to the kidney, and she lowers her sword, panting her way through the pain since she has the option.

“What was that?” she asks.

“I applied a different philosophy. In a mission, you wouldn’t be my target, and I saw no reason to waste my time dispatching you.” Keith shrugs. “Why bother?”

“Because I could have gathered information on you-”

“You didn’t. In this scenario, you, an unnamed, random assailant, are not worth killing, and I have a different mission.”

“And what might that mission be?”

“I…” Keith pauses. “I hadn’t thought that far. I just wanted to show off.”

“Clearly.” Krolia looks her son up and down, amused. “I don’t understand, but you seem to think you’ve achieved something, so-”

“HA!!!”

“AHhhhhh!!!”

“-So what the fuck was that?” Krolia growls, adjusting her grip on her sword.

“I’m not sure, but that was Lance and Adam, so something’s probably being destroyed.” Keith sighs, heading back to Lance’s field. “Welcome to my life.”

Lance is indeed messing around with Adam, wielding a broadsword with an adequate amount of skill -a miracle, honestly, and one courtesy of Keith- while Adam comes at him with his polearm.

From behind the fighting idiots, Shiro grins at him, notching his head at Lance. Keith presses his lips together to hide his smile, ducking his head. He knows he’s doing a good job, but to have someone else say it means a lot.

“I thought you said he didn’t have any skills,” Krolia murmurs, watching the Alteans go back and forth.

“That’s what I thought.” Keith lifts his gaze back to his chosen mate, the glint in his eyes as he experiments with the sword in his hand, figuring out how to make it more effective against Adam’s chosen weapon. “But I was wrong. He just needed some more one-on-one coaching. He’s typically quite capable on his own, but always better when he’s working with others. He’s a people person.”

“That is one of the many, many reasons I don’t understand why you love that little creature,” Krolia murmurs.

“He’s a good buffer. He does all the talking, and I just stand there and look pretty.”

That’s not entirely true, less so as time goes on, but for some reason, Keith doesn’t want to share all that much about his life on Altea. It almost feels too personal, like he’s not ready to share his experiences with anyone yet.

“Hm, I’d think looking pretty would be his job,” Thace teases, clinging to Ulaz’ waist. Ulaz himself only nods, a more quiet kind of friendly than his mate, but friendly all the same. His fondness for Keith is indicated by a softened eyebrow, rather than a smile.

“No, but he does it exceptionally well.”

The corner of Ulaz’ mouth quirks. “Perhaps you can both come over to our place tomorrow and look pretty around our table. The kits want to see you, Mashan in particular. Besides, the hunting party returns tomorrow. A little lizard told me that they slew a pack of vakalt. Herdsmen are coming up, too. We can celebrate together, maybe put a few of them up at our den for the night. Get in a few good stories. Also, be forewarned, Lotor wants to speak to Lance outside the castle, so he may 'spontaneously decide to visit'.”

Keith nods. He watches Lance and Adam spar, glancing to his littermate across the yard. So far, his companions have been more than agreeable concerning the Galra way of life. Lance, at least, will enjoy the experience, and Adam will enjoy a chance to crawl all over Shiro. Maybe he’ll even be able to drag Pidge out of their closet. It’ll be nice.

“Sure. We’ll come.” Keith smiles. “Thanks for the invite.”

“Nonsense!” Thace claps him on the shoulder. “You’ll always be one of us, Keith, and you’re always welcome in our home. You, and that Altean of yours.”

“Thanks, guys. I really appreciate that.”

He does. He’s glad that he still has a place here, even if it’s no longer his only home.

#LoveAftertheFact #LAtF #klance #galtean au #altean lance #galra keith #adashi #altean adam #galra shiro #voltron legendary defender #vld

10 notes · View notes

thathopelessromantic · 4 years

Text

Crossing Lines

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Mature (implied sexual content + mild language) Pairing: Lance/Keith Note: The comeback no one expected with a series I thought was finished in 2018 and a fic I started in 2019 finally finished lol

There’s a nagging worry in the back of his head that this is not normal friends-with-benefits behavior, but it is easily drowned out by Lance’s sleepy smile when he shifts again to face Keith. He hides another wide yawn in his shoulder.

“Those kids wore you out, clearly.” Keith observes, trying to fight back his own yawn.

Lance smiles fondly. “It was fun to see them, to go back and be with everyone for a while. But I’m really glad you were here when I got home.”

AO3: (X) Part 1 of the series: (X)

Keith looks away from his computer as his phone buzzes against his leg. Pidge sits across the room at her desk, muttering to herself as she readjusts the device’s calibration – again. Their project was supposed to be at least 80 percent theoretical, but Keith knew the moment he was paired with Pidge that option was thrown out the window.

He flips his phone over just as it vibrates again. There’s a text from Shiro, asking him for the third time about a shirt Shiro insists Keith stole and Keith insists Shiro just lost, and a snapchat from Lance. Dismissing the text notification, he opens snapchat.

Most of the picture is just of a bright blue sky above him, but Lance’s face peeks out from the bottom, at an extremely unflattering angle. The selfie is taken at chest level while Lance looks down at the camera. His hair is pushed under a backwards baseball cap with frayed stitching along the edge and there is, what appears to be, a sparkly butterfly sticker on his cheek. Above his head it reads:

don’t blow up my apartment while im gone, mullet. i live there.

Shaking his head, he taps away the message. Pidge still appears absorbed in her tinkering and doesn’t notice as he takes a blurry picture of her.

we’re not that irresponsible

It only takes a few seconds for Lance to reply, no longer bothering with pictures and just texting back.

HA! but seriously, hunk’s been sending me worried messages all weekend

…Hunk had seemed particularly anxious the last time Keith emerged from Pidge’s room for a drink.

hm…like an hour ago pidge thought she had gotten the laser to work for real and did seem a little maniacal…

Lance replies with a supremely unimpressed expression, made, of course, all the more effective by the butterfly sticker. Keith snorts, but also half-heartedly wonders how easily he could get away with saving a screenshot of the selfie. He just saved one last night, of Lance cuddling with his parent’s dog ruined only slightly by the caption insinuating the dog had better breath than Keith, but he brushed it off with a lie about trying to lock his phone and taking the screenshot accidentally. He’s not sure if Lance believed him then, but he definitely wouldn’t believe it two times in a row.

Pidge loudly clears her throat across the room. Startled, Keith dismisses the message, and nearly drops his phone in the process. When he looks up, Pidge is looking at him over the rim of her glasses, with one brow raised.

“…Yes?”

“How’s that report coming, Keith?”

He glances back at his computer, at the three and a half pages he had finished of their ten-page report. “Fine.”

“Hm.” Pidge looks away, jotting down some other measurements on a pad besides her. “And how’s your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my-” Keith starts before he gives up with a heavy sigh. It’s a waste of breath with her. “Lance thinks we’re going to blow up the apartment. Well I guess actually Hunk does, and he turned to Lance for help.”

Pidge rolls her eyes, muttering something under her breath about worry-warts and ridiculous roommates. Keith smiles at the, somehow, simultaneously exasperated but fond tone she uses and turns back to his computer, tucking his phone under his leg again. But it takes a while to focus on anything other than blue eyes and familiar, silly banter.

It’s nearly three and a half hours later, though it hardly feels like it, when Hunk knocks at the door, tempting them out of the room and their work-stupors with the promise of pizza, the heady aroma already spilling out from the kitchen. They settle in the living room, Pidge and Hunk on the couch with Keith on the floor in front of them, legs stretched out under the coffee table. Pidge is still complaining around mouthfuls of burning cheese that they were almost done, if Hunk had just waited a little while longer, but Hunk turns on the sci-fi series they’ve been watching together and within ten minutes into the episode her complaints have turned into an analysis of how the character’s spacesuits work.

Keith relaxes against the couch as their familiar chatter falls around him. He’s a little lost in what is happening in the show, they’re further than he’s been able to get on his own, but it’s nice to share it with them anyways, especially with the way Hunk laughs triumphantly when he guesses the ridiculous plot twist twenty minutes early and Pidge keeps comparing the characters to people they know with frightening accuracy.

It only takes them an episode and a half to completely demolish the pizza, but when the third one starts up in the queue, no one bothers to reach for the remote. Full of good food and only half-paying attention to the show, Keith can feel himself being lulled to sleep right there on the living room floor. He fights against the urge as much as he can, but the last thing he remembers is the upbeat opening starting for the next episode, and then suddenly the episode is ending as he jerks awake, knocking his knee on the underside of the table, hard.

After his unfortunate waking, he extracts himself from under the table, gathering up dirty plates, despite Hunk’s protest, and taking them into the kitchen – the moving helps wake him up, even if his knee still hurts like a bitch. The stove clock reads 7:03. He slips through the living room as another episode is starting and goes to their bathroom.

As he’s washing his hands, his phone buzzes with another text. He opens the text as he exits the room. It’s a picture from Adam, Shiro’s fiancé, of Shiro sitting on the floor of what Keith is pretty sure is their laundry room, head buried in his hands. There’s a very dusty pile of something next to him.

The text says: we found his shirt.

Keith leaves the text conversation, trying not to laugh. Considering all the trouble Shiro gave him, Keith feels like he should be at least mildly annoyed by this instead of amused.

He turns the doorknob to the room in front of him and swings it open before he even realizes what he’s doing. He freezes, looking in at Lance’s dark, empty room. Distracted, he had apparently been moving through the apartment on autopilot – straight to Lance’s room. Feeling like he’s breaking some kind of unspoken rule, he takes a few steps in. Lance’s bed is still a mess of blankets and pillows, and there’s piles of books and discarded shoes covering his floor. He’s only been gone a few days, but his absence feels so prominent, especially like this, Keith can’t help but feel like something is wrong.

He’s texting Lance before he can think better of it.

when are you coming back again?

Lance’s response is almost instantaneous.

why? missing me that much already, mullet?

Yes, Keith’s head or heart, or maybe both, shout.

no just wondering how much longer we get to enjoy this peace and quiet he says instead.

whatever, asshole …….tomorrow night

Keith silently but firmly tells himself to stop being so damn happy about this news as he slips his phone back into his pocket. He takes one last look at Lance’s room before stepping back out into the hall and pulling the door closed behind him.

He just barely manages to fight the telling smile off his face before he gets back to the living room.

Keith crashes at their apartment for the night, on the couch. Hunk and Pidge both try to convince him that he could take Lance’s bed and Lance wouldn’t care, but Keith is fairly certain he wouldn’t get much sleep if he was in Lance’s room – even if he would be alone – and insists the couch is fine. He wakes up once around 5 or 6 in the morning as Hunk is getting ready for his opening shift at a local diner but otherwise sleeps well until about 10:30. He wanders into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee before going to roust Pidge. He doesn’t mind mornings much, but he learned very soon into their friendship that Pidge is very firmly a “night owl,” and has no interest in trying to deny her nature. She’s lying upside down on her bed when he gets to her room, and somehow managed to kick all of her blankets off of the bed, except one, which looks dangerously close to suffocating her.

He stands in the doorway for a moment, just staring at her. “How do you even manage this?”

“Mmphf.” Sleeping Pidge replies, very firmly.

“Right.” Keith pauses. “I’ll come back when the coffee’s done, actually.”

With a little extra time, Keith hops in the shower. As soon as he opens the bottle of shampoo, he recognizes the familiar, fresh scent as Lance’s soap. He’s a little surprised Lance left his favorite soap behind, even if he was just going to his family home for a few days. He also isn’t sure what to do, looking around the shower space for other soap. There’s plenty, and surely none of them would care either way if he used a little soap but…

Is he totally over thinking this? Absolutely.

Does that realization help him make a decision about which soap to use? Absolutely not.

What feels like ages, but is hopefully only a few minutes, passes before he finally convinces himself to stop being ridiculous and just use the damn shampoo. He just grabbed Lance’s first, it was a coincidence and if Pidge noticed later…well, she would just have to accept that.

…Right.

He washes up quickly after wasting who knows how long second-guessing his soap choices and leaves the bathroom to the smell of coffee slowly starting to fill the apartment.

He has to break the nonexistent, unspoken rule his brain has built up in his mind a second time, and trespasses across Lance’s room to find some spare clothes he’s left behind for overnight stays. He pulls on some clean boxers and his jeans from yesterday, but after he’s pulled the worn Altea University shirt over his head, he realizes its Lance shirt, not his. There’s a small hole starting in the bottom hem and the white letters are fading and cracked from excessive wear. It was folded in his drawers, so Keith is like…ninety percent certain it’s clean, but it still smells like Lance’s cologne. Or maybe it’s his lotion or laundry soap or bodywash, but between whatever lingering scent Lance has left on his clothes and the smell of his shampoo still obvious in Keith’s damp hair, he suddenly feels overwhelmed.

He hates how much he hates that Lance is gone.

It’s just a couple of days. Why is he such a disaster? They’re friends. When was the last time he missed Hunk or Pidge this much when they were gone? Even with their friends with benefits arrangement, what made Lance that special to him?

Actually, that was a can of worms he wasn’t really prepared to open just yet.

Keith makes a hasty retreat – a calm, completely normal walk out of one room to another if anyone asks – back to the kitchen for coffee. He pours a generous amount for both Pidge and himself, before he returns to Pidge’s room to finally wake her. He’s not exactly eager to spend another full day working on this project, but he wants to get it done, and he officially really needs the distraction.

It takes another hour, even with the promise of coffee, to pull Pidge out of bed, and she insists on showering “to feel like a real person” before they can get back to work on their project.

Keith has gotten as far as turning his laptop back on and opening their report, rereading the last few paragraphs to remember where he left off, when Pidge returns to her room in some leggings and a baggy t-shirt Keith is pretty sure belongs to either Lance or Matt.

“How about food first?” she suggests.

It’s not exactly the distraction he was looking for, but he shuts his laptop anyways, pushing it off his lap before she even finishes her sentence.

Sal’s is a small 24-hour diner just outside of Altea's central campus that makes it a popular place for both students and professors. Sunday morning, it is practically bursting at the seams, but it’s got good food for reasonable prices and Hunk, Lance, and Pidge had become regulars even before Hunk got a job in the kitchen. Within a few months of becoming friends, Keith had been invited along enough times that the waitstaff began to recognize him too.

Their wait for a table is reasonable, all things considered, and then Keith and Pidge have only been at the table for maybe three minutes before their waitress, Flora, drops drinks off at the table with a promise to be back for their orders in just a minute. Her long, red pony tail swings wildly behind her as she flits around the small space.

They hadn’t ordered anything, but Flora had been there for a long time and was used to their group stopping in, especially on weekend mornings when Hunk was working. But sitting on the table in front of them is two coffee mugs, and a tall glass of apple juice.

Keith and Pidge both stare at it for a moment, before looking to each other. Keith has a feeling the juice is making him feel a whole lot more…things than it is Pidge.

“I guess she just assumed?” Pidge finally says after a moment and goes back to the menu, as if she hadn’t memorized it within the first three months of their visits.

Keith pulls out his phone and takes a picture of the juice, sending it to Lance with a text:

from flora

Lance’s response comes in a few minutes later, interspersed with at least a dozen crying emojis.

i cant believe u traitors went to sal’s w/o me. tell flora i love her and one of u better drink that. we don’t let apple juice go to waste in this house

i am not telling her that. but i will drink the juice for u

Flora comes back to the table before Lance’s next reply comes in. “Just your usual’s today?”

Pidge hums and haws over the decision a few times, like she does every time they come, before agreeing to her usual order. Though she asks for fresh fruit as well today, just to mix it up.

He can feel his phone buzz against his leg almost the entire time Pidge is ordering. And again a few more times as he confirms that he would like his usual order as well. “But, Lance isn’t with us today so…nothing for him.” Keith adds awkwardly at the end.

Flora blinks at him a few times, surprised, before she snaps her fingers as if suddenly remembering something. “Right. I remember Hunk mentioning one of his roommates was out of town for a few days. Sorry guys, I’m just so used to your trio, or just you and him,” she says to Keith, thankfully not seeing the way Pidge wiggles her eyebrows and makes kissy-faces at him for the aside. “I’ll take that juice back for you.”

“Oh no, that’s fine.” Keith says, moving the glass closer to him. “It’s already poured, we’ll drink it.”

Flora arches a brow, but doesn’t argue with him. She promises their food will be out shortly and leaves the table.

“I can’t believe Lance didn’t request you deliver any messages to her for him, or insist we eat his chocolate chip pancakes in his honor too.” Pidge says once she’s gone.

Keith pulls out his phone, flipping it around to show Pidge the twelve messages he got while they were ordering. “Oh, I’m sure he did somewhere in there.”

It’s hard to get back to work on a full stomach, but they power through it. Their shared determination to not have to worry about the project after today deters the usual urge to distract each other. Still, progress is slow, and they’re still working when Hunk comes home from work and peeks in to check on them. They pass on lunch when Hunk asks after his shower, and give non-committal answers to his questions about dinner plans.

Keith is entirely unaware of time and date and hell maybe even location by the time he drags himself through the conclusion but he is bordering on ecstatic when he finally saves the document for the last time and looks up from the computer only for Pidge to look up from her own work and meet his eye a few seconds later.

“Done?”

He nods, and she gives an excited “whoop!” stumbling off her desk chair to throw herself on the bed besides him. “So I just need to add in my input and double-check the details match up, right?”

He nods again, and she immediately scrolls to the top of the document to start reading. “Oh!” she jumps up again, grabbing her laptop from the desk and the notebook she was working in besides it. “Do you want to double check the equations and make sure the experiment outline matches the order you have everything in the paper?”

He is relatively confident in Pidge’s work, but he agrees, nonetheless, and the two settle against each other in the twin bed to finish their work.

Keith isn’t sure when he dozes off, he doesn’t even really remember falling asleep, but when he wakes up, it’s dark in Pidge’s room. Both of their computers are on her desk and he’s alone in her bed. He sits up, half-heartedly feeling around the blankets for his phone to check the time.

“C’mon Mullet, you really had to move right then?”

Keith about jumps out of his skin at the unexpected voice, though he’d vehemently deny it if asked. Lance is sitting backwards in Pidge’s desk chair, pushed close to the door. He lowers his phone, smirking at Keith’s startled expression.

“I guess the deer-in-the-headlights look is fun too, but I was really going to enjoy lording the drooling-all-over-Pidge’s-sheets picture over you.” Lance teases.

Keith’s heart brain is doing some kind of stupid, fluttery thing over the boy across the room that he is pointedly ignoring.

“Shut up.” Keith mutters, even as he hastily wipes at his mouth. There’s nothing there. Asshole. He pushes himself off the bed. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Lance presses a hand to his chest in fake offense. “Really? You sleep through my grand return and when you finally bother to wake up, that’s how you greet me?”

Keith crosses the room, folding his arms over his chest and summoning the most unimpressed expression he can muster. “You know what I meant.”

Lance doesn’t seem deterred by the new height difference between them, or Keith’s attitude, crossing his arms over the back of the chair and batting his eyelashes up at him cheekily. He’s wearing the same baseball hat from the picture he sent Keith yesterday, but he’s got it on in the right direction this time, making him look minorly less like a douchebag. The baggy zip-up, which may very well be Hunk’s, over a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and sweatpants isn’t really helping though.

“When did you get back?” Keith askes instead of commenting on his poor outfit choices.

Lance shrugs. “A little after five. Pidge said you started to doze off around four.” He adds before Keith can ask. “Hunk made stir fry for dinner.”

Taking that to mean Lance was actually sent here to wake him up for dinner, rather than simply coming to terrorize him because he was bored, Keith steps around him to leave. A moment later Lance stumbles off the chair after him, complaining all the way.

“Hey,” Lance calls after him.

Keith is already rolling his eyes as he turns around, assuming Lance has a few more jabs he wants to get out before they get to the kitchen, so he is wholly unprepared for Lance to hook a finger in the collar of his shirt and pull him close.

“Is this my shirt?”

It takes all of his self-control not to fly away from Lance’s hold, though the heat rising rapidly to his cheeks is probably giving away his embarrassment all the same. “Maybe? I just grabbed something from your drawers after my shower this morning.”

Lance has a look in his eyes that Keith recognizes as usually meaning something dangerous is in store for him. He leans in closer, stopping just before the bill of his hat brushes the top of Keith’s head. “Did you use my shampoo too?”

“I think you’re a little too obsessed with your things for someone wearing someone else’s hoodie.”

“Well I think you missed me while I was gone.”

Keith isn’t entirely sure who moves first, but one second they’re staring each other down daring the other to give in and the next he’s shoved Lance’s baseball cap off his head, burying his fingers in Lance’s messy hair while Lance’s hands have dropped to his waist, pulling him close with a bruising grip. Their kiss is uncoordinated and messy. Keith is ninety percent certain he was not the only one missing someone a stupid amount this weekend. His back hits the wall, and he faintly registers Pidge yelling something about her room from the other side of the apartment.

Lance rucks up his shirt, warm hands brushing over his sides, and Keith is dangerously close to wrapping his legs around his hips and saying fuck dinner.

They finally break apart for air and Lance laughs against his throat, the sensation sending shivers down his back. “I knew you missed me.”

“And what?” Keith asks breathlessly. “You were ambivalent about it all? I don’t think so. Not kissing like that.”

Lance pulls back to look at him with a surprisingly soft look. “I just wanted to hear you admit it,” he teases.

Normally, Keith would have a comeback for that, probably, but now he’s distracted as he runs his fingers through Lance’s bangs. “You have blue hair.”

Just the tips of his hair that are dyed, actually, not his whole head, he’s still surprised by the change. It seems a little silly, but it still looks good on him.

Lance, not one to be deterred by much, winks at him, striking a pose. “Hot, right? Rachel did it.”

“Yeah, it looks good.”

That does give Lance pause and he blinks at Keith and his easy admission a few times. “Er, well…we should probably go eat now. If just to reassure Pidge we aren’t defiling her room.”

Dinner is great, as usual when Hunk cooks, and they sit in the living room with another show on in the background, but they fill most of the time talking about Lance’s trip and gossip in their department that Keith is somehow always unaware of.

It is well after eleven before conversation begins to fade and they start to disperse around the apartment. Keith is, maybe a little, embarrassed about it, but he doesn’t bother to hide his intentions to stay with Lance rather than going back to his own apartment now that the project is done. For once, Pidge and Hunk leave them be with minimal suggestive looks.

Considering the brief tryst in the hallway earlier, Keith isn’t entirely sure what to expect when they finally retire to Lance’s room, but Lance doesn’t seem to be in a particular rush to do anything. Keith shimmies out of his jeans and drops into bed while Lance puts on some kind of moisturizer. He strips down to his boxers after and Keith can see new, blue markings up and down his arms before Lance turns the light off. Predictably, a moment later there’s a crash and Lance swears. Keith leans over to turn on the lamp next to the bed. Lance is leaning against the footboard, rubbing his shin.

“What did you knock over this time?”

Lance sticks out his tongue. “Don’t worry about it. Move over.” He says. He doesn’t wait before he climbs over the end of the bed and flops down, half on top of Keith.

“I would have moved if you let me,” Keith says into his shoulder.

Lance hums in consideration before he shifts on the mattress. Keith lets him maneuver him around the bed, mostly curious as to what he’s doing, until they end up on their sides, legs tangled together and arms around each other. Lance’s head is pressed against his chest, and his hands are, conveniently, on his ass.

“Lance-”

“Shh,” Lance interrupts immediately. “I had to go a whole weekend without even being able to see this ass, give me a moment to enjoy it.”

Keith laughs despite himself, rolling his eyes. “You are ridiculous.”

Lance wiggles against him, sighing contently. “You like it.”

“Whatever.”

Absentmindedly, Keith runs a hand against Lance’s back, trailing nonsense patterns against his warm skin. Eventually, he looks down, just to make sure Lance hasn’t actually fallen asleep like that, and sees the blue drawings on his arm again.

“What is all over you?”

Lance lets go of him to roll onto his back and show off his arms. “After Rachel dyed my hair, Nadia and Sylvio wanted to match, but Lisa, their mom, wasn’t really thrilled with the idea, so we found these tattoo markers at the dollar store and they were washable, so we went kind of crazy.” Lance shifts so his side is up where the black outline of a shark tattooed into his waist is now black and blue. “They also colored in my tattoo.”

“Did you draw these?”

“Haha,” Lance elbows him in the side half-heartedly. “I drew the rocket ship on my wrist, and the constellations on my shoulder, if they’re still there, are from Veronica, but everything else is from Nadia and Sylvio. Oh, and Luis,” Lance points to a…something near his elbow.

“A flower?” Keith guesses.

Lance snorts. “A lion, according to him.”

“Not the most artistically inclined I’m assuming?”

Lance shakes his head. “Not at all. Nadia’s pretty good though,” he turns over his arm to show off a dog on his forearm. “That’s pretty damn good for a seven-year-old drawing on a moving canvas with dollar-store markers.”

They just spent the last few hours talking about this weekend with Hunk and Pidge in the living room, but Keith can’t help but ask more questions about his family and what they did over the weekend. He brushes Lance’s hair out of his face, and Lance settles deeper into his arms, waving his hands in the air as he talks about the piñata he had to fill for the party by himself, that was bigger than the birthday boy, and the balloon mishaps that had his mother ready to call the whole thing off more than once.

There’s a nagging worry in the back of his head that this is not normal friends-with-benefits behavior, but it is easily drowned out by Lance’s sleepy smile when he shifts again to face Keith.

“Did you guys have fun this weekend?”

Keith shrugs one shoulder. “As much fun as you can have the weekend before a Kolivan deadline.”

Lance grimaces sympathetically. “You finished everything though, right?”

“I think so. We were just checking each other’s work before I fell asleep. If there was more to do, I doubt Pidge would have let me sleep for long.”

Lance hides a wide yawn in his shoulder. “That’s good,” he tries to say, only to break off half-way through into another yawn.

“Those kids wore you out, clearly.” Keith observes, trying to fight back his own yawn.

Lance smiles fondly. “It was fun to see them, to go back and be with everyone for a while. But I’m really glad you were here when I got home.”

The admittance is so quiet in the still room, and almost immediately drowned out by the way Keith’s pulse races, blood roaring in his ears.

Lance had closed his eyes, but he opens them again and looks up at him curiously. Keith knows he has to be able to hear the erratic beating of his heart. He wonders if Lance is even remotely aware of how many lines they’ve crossed in the period of their relationship, if he thinks at all about how little like fuck-buddies they behave when they spend nights wrapped in each other’s arms saying soft things and doing nothing else and if it affects him at all or if this is just how he is casually intimate with everyone. And he wonders why he hates that idea so much.

“Can I kiss you?” Keith asks. It’s usually Lance’s question, but for once, Keith can’t help but ask, ignoring, for now, how overwhelmed he is.

Surprisingly, Lance is quiet, and just nods his agreement, watching Keith with wide eyes.

The kiss now is nothing like the ones they shared before dinner, slow and gentle where the others were rushed and near-frantic. Keith wraps both arms around Lance’s waist, and Lance cradles his face with one hand, threading his other hand through Keith’s hair.

“Good night,” Keith whispers against his lips as they break apart feeling like he’s doing something unbelievably stupid even as the words come.

Lance presses one more quick, closed-mouth kiss against his lips. “Good night.”

Keith flips off the bedside table lamp, dousing them in darkness.

He isn’t sure how long they lay in the dark before Lance finally relaxes and falls asleep, but it feels like at least another hour before Keith admits to himself, he can’t sleep yet and carefully extracts himself from the bed. Lance makes a quiet noise of displeasure in his sleep, but easily stretches out, taking up the empty space and doesn’t wake up.

Keith goes out into the hallway, thinking he’ll just go to the living room and calm down but a light shines through the crack of Pidge’s closed door and he finds himself drawn there instead. He knocks once and Pidge opens the door immediately, looking around the hall almost alarmed.

“Keith? What’s wrong? It’s almost four in the morn-”

“Pidge, I think I love him.” Keith interrupts. “I think I’m in love.”

#vld #voltron #klance #fic #au #fwb #vld lance #vld keith #rita writes #fic: get some #lance mcclain #keith kogane #6.13.20

13 notes · View notes

calligraphist-artemisia · 4 years

Text

The Smallest Blade (Part xv)

Summary: AU. Kolivan knew raising a half-Galra cub wouldn’t be an easy task, especially while running a super secretive organization dedicated to bringing down a corrupt empire. What he didn’t take in consideration was how much the boy would change his life.

Also posted on AO3 under the username Kishirokitsune

- - - - -

xv.

Keith gazed around their playroom as Katla and Shiro steadily took apart the obstacle course and rearranged it into something better for cubs who were younger than they were when they first saw the room. Seven years of memories were packed into the space, but they had both outgrown it.

It was time to make way for the next set of cubs who needed it more.

His gaze fell on Adamiv, who was quickly and quietly cleaning the tiny kitchen and putting everything in its proper place. He had barely said a word to any of them when he arrived, not even Shiro, and Keith had no idea what the reason was or how to bring it up without making things awkward. So he continued to say nothing and kept his questions to himself, instead monitoring the floor cleaning bots and stepping in whenever they found something too big to suck up.

Keith lifted one end of the couch so a cleaning bot could scoot underneath. Once it was done, he set it down and fixed the cushions.

The door slid open to reveal Mattox, who was back from running trash down to a compacter the next hall over. “Is there anything else I need to take out?”

“That was the last of it,” Adamiv spoke up without turning away from what he was doing.

Mattox shrugged and joined Keith in rounding up the cleaning bots, getting them back onto their docks so they would be ready whenever they were needed. All too soon, the playroom was back in order and ready for the next group of cubs who would be using it. They all gathered at the door for one last look.

“I know it's silly, but I'm really going to miss this. It's been our space for so long...” Katla murmured. She leaned against Keith for support and he reached for her hand, threading their fingers together. “I hope they like it as much as we did.”

“How could they not? This is easily the coolest spot on the entire base.” Mattox grunted as Shiro elbowed him in the ribs. “I mean, the Lounge is nice too.”

Katla snorted in amusement. “Thanks, Matt.”

“No problem, Pidge.”

Adamiv cleared his throat. “Well, if that is all you need me for, I should be on my way. Good luck on your next missions, Keith, Mattox. And you with your training, Katla.”

Keith watched, somewhat bewildered, as Shiro quickly chased after Adamiv, calling his name as the door slid shut behind them. He turned to look at Katla, hoping she had an idea of what was happening between them.

It was Mattox who answered. “Adamiv got an offer to move to another base. It's an incredible opportunity for him and plenty of room for Shiro to go with him, but apparently Shiro turned him down without even considering it.”

“That doesn't sound like Shiro,” Keith remarked with a frown.

“It's out of the way, primarily a scientific base, which is what makes it great for Adamiv but harder for Shiro to take on assignments. It would also mean I either go with him or I have to find a new mentor,” Katla said. “There's also one other reason he doesn't want to go.”

“Slav,” the siblings said in unison.

“Slav? Who's that?” Keith asked. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place where he heard it before.

“A lunatic,” Kalta said bluntly.

Mattox laughed a little. “He's a genius. He designed a lot of the technology we use to stay hidden and for hacking into the empire's systems. Unfortunately, he's also a little...”

“Crazy. Insane. Unhinged. Delusional. Do you need me to keep going, because I've got so much more,” Katla said.

“I think you've spent too much time with Shiro,” Mattox told his sister and then turned back to address Keith. “Okay, so Slav is a little bit nutty, but what genius isn't in some way? The thing is, he loves Shiro. I don't know why but he does, so whenever he has to travel outside of his preferred base, he requests that Shiro is the one to take him. It wouldn't be such a problem if he didn't drive Shiro up the wall with his strange superstitions. You have never seen Shiro lose his cool until you put him in a room with Slav.”

Keith couldn't imagine Shiro ever losing his temper with anyone, but Katla and Mattox had never lied to him before. And why would they lie about something like that?

“Adamiv has always thought he overreacts about it, but now it's the one thing preventing him from leaving, so they're fighting about it. I don't think they're going to make it through this one, to be honest,” Katla said, sounding a little sad.

Mattox clearly had a different opinion than his sister, as he shrugged and opened the door. “If you ask me, it's been a long time coming. They both deserve more and it's clear that whatever they did have no longer works for them.”

So that was it. Keith had his answer.

He felt a little guilty for thinking that he was glad Shiro wouldn't be leaving, knowing that it would spell the end of his relationship with Adamiv unless they attempted a long-distance thing, but it meant he didn't have to say goodbye to two of his best friends. Keith knew Katla would follow along if it meant keeping Shiro as a mentor and she would fit right in on a base devoted to advanced science and technology.

Katla squeezed his hand, as if reading his thoughts. “It'll be fine.”

Mattox lead the way down the hall, their goal known only to him. “Lets talk about something else. Shiro says he's been cleared to take you on a mission in a few weeks. You must be looking forward to that, Keith.”

“I am. I still don't know what it's about, but Kolivan never does that until we're leaving. I'm honestly surprised he's allowed to go. What about your training, Katla?” Keith asked.

Katla crinkled her nose. “I'm spending that week working down in the med-bay, learning basic first aid and all of that. Shiro's been preparing drills for me to run too.”

Keith and Mattox were quick to reassure her that basic first aid wasn't too difficult, though Mattox could speak more about it since he'd actually done the full week. With Ulaz as his mentor, Keith's training on the subject was much more thorough. It meant Keith could let his mind wander a bit as the two talked.

He really was looking forward to going on a mission with Shiro. From what he understood, it would be just the two of them going out on a scouting mission and checking in with some of the bases in the area. It didn't sound like there was much more to it.

Of course, he couldn't talk about it with anyone else.

Keith tuned in as Katla asked him a question and let his musings about his upcoming mission fade away in order to focus on her instead.

#voltron #vld fanfiction #kidge #kidgemas #The Smallest Blade

11 notes · View notes

arinaco · 4 years

Text

Crime without punishment

Translated and edited by @Nadezhda932

You can also find it here: https://www.teampurplelion.com/crime-without-punishment/

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.

I present to your attention a phased analysis of all the scenes with the participation of our beautiful Romelle. At the same time, I will add a few conclusions about what could actually happen.

The story begins with Keith and Krolia following the trail of the blue quintessence.

Krolia catches a signal, and this signal leads them straight to the Galran base.

Focus on the size of this base. It’s big… but it hardly reaches the size of even a city. A sort of large multi-story building.

They decide to scout this base. Not having met any security system, they penetrate into it and find a certain space with an illusion.

Large open space, meadows, flowers, trees. And the complete absence of signs of life. After wandering there for a while, Keith hears a girl washing clothes near the water.

That is, he didn’t find anything or anyone else. Only her. Moreover, if he managed to find her so quickly, then the space around wasn’t so big.

It means that:

a) Keith and Krolia found Romelle fast enough, which indicates the size of this base because they could go in any direction;

b) the only thing Keith heard was Romelle washing clothes in a stream. They found no other signs of the presence of intelligent creatures.

And by the way, an interesting point: in Romelle's story, a huge - simply gigantic - statue of Lotor is mentioned, and we know that it really exists, since Honerva talks with the Alteans near this statue. Keith and Krolia weren't far from the settlement, but when they went out into an open area - a meadow - they didn't see a huge statue that should rise above the houses and trees. Wherever this statue stands, but certainly not where Keith and Krolia arrived.

The remaining events are retold from the words of Romelle.

She says that she lived in a peaceful colony with her parents and brother, then only with her brother, and she never left her peaceful settlement before meeting with the Blades.

She claims that all her life she lived at this base. And that a bunch of Alteans live here too.

I remind you: when Keith and Krolia entered this base, on the scale of the whole settlement it turns out that they found Romelle almost immediately, and there were no other signs of life here except Romelle herself. Not even the security system. It’s an absolutely empty base.

Excuse me, where are the inhabitants of the rest of the colony? Even in a remote village, even in the middle of the night, some kind of movement takes place. And they appeared in the daytime, when it’s usually the height of work. Where are the millions mentioned by Lotor and seen by us in S8?

Instead of a whole colony, we meet only one girl who, in the midst of high technology, washes clothes in a stream. Apparently, on this base there is anything but a washing machine.

That is, from this moment on, Romelle begins to lie. Because she was alone at the base where Keith and Krolia arrived.

Let’s continue.

When the brother flies away, he leaves her a communicator. And at some point, this device gave a signal and led Romelle to the fallen ship.

That is, the ship flew in, broke through the ceiling of the base, fell down, and nobody noticed it. Only Romelle.

Have the inhabitants of the colony sharply developed selective deafness? Can you imagine what a rumble was supposed to come from a ship that broke through a thick ceiling?

And you know, I have big questions about how such a small ship managed to break through the dome and not turn into a metal pancake.

When Romelle looked inside the ship, she saw her emaciated dying brother. That is, it’s assumed that he piloted this ship.

And at the same time, she tells the Blades that none of the inhabitants of the colony knew how to use these ships.

“None of the Alteans in the colony would know how to fly one, even if we desired to”

Further, according to Keith’s story, they flew to the satellite, found a base there without any security system and half-dead Alteans in capsules.

And what do we have here?

That exhausted Bandor:

— got out of the capsule;

— crawled from the capsule to the hangar;

— managed to open the hangar;

— having no piloting skills, he managed to raise a ship into the air (which, of course, is easier to steal from a secret base than a car from a parking lot) and flew away on it;

— managed to direct the ship exactly to the place where Romelle lived;

— and all this in the presence of Lotor, who at that moment was at this base and rushed in pursuit.

You know… for me, it looks like sheer nonsense. Was there a door open button in the capsule? Or did the dying Bandor turn out to be stronger than the other hundreds of dying Alteans and managed to break through the glass and get out? And I won’t even talk about the hangar, which opens as easily as a window leaf.

This sad story caused even more sad WTF. It’s sad because of the stupidity of grateful listeners. Who were so expecting some meanness from Lotor that they’re ready to believe even such nonsense.

And after her tearful tale with pure innocent eyes full of sadness, the first thing that Romelle demands is to shoot all the cannons at the ship with Lotor.

“What are you waiting for? Open the fire!”

«I told you such a sad story here, I blinked sweetly with my eyes! Are you still waiting for something? Shoot, now!»

And that… gives us an interesting contrast, which we’ll meet further in the series. This is the contrast between what Romelle tries to portray to the public and what she does when she doesn’t control herself, or when she isn’t paid attention.

When she communicates with the paladins, she constantly portrays a cute little fool.

“..and now you’re simply moving on?”

But as soon as she forgets about holding onto her face, something amusing begins.

“Great!”

“What are you waiting? Shoot him!”

Where are you, dear innocent girl Romelle? Why is there a fighter who rejoices in the battle, and then calmly knocks the hatch and throws the enemy off the ship to certain death?

Sorry, but a country girl from a peaceful colony won’t behave like that in a combat situation. Just remember how Hunk, who studied at the Garrison, behaved in the first season.

A resident of a peaceful settlement in this situation will either sit in a corner and whine, or run in circles and yell «Aaah, we gonna diiie!».

And by the way, this frame also raised questions for me:

“Some of these ships are likely to belong to Lotor’s fleet”

Beauty, tell me one thing: you have lived all your life inside the base and you have never seen the ships, except for several Altean ones. How do you know what Lotor’s fleet looks like?

Interesting question, right?

New episode. Visiting a druid.

Once visiting «the survived Blade», Romelle doesn’t behave well-mannered.

“This place is disgusting”

But it’s not that. The fact is, that having caught herself she begins to lie openly, instead of just apologizing and saying that she didn’t want to offend him.

“Oh, well, “disgusting” is Altean for “lovely””

Even taking into account the fact that she plays the fool, we get… lies as a lifestyle?

You see, for an ordinary person who’s used to telling the truth, a certain moral strain is required for a lie. It’s hard to lie without experience.

For Romelle, lying is as natural as breathing.

The next scene is also wonderful. When Kolivan says that they found absolutely nothing other than an empty base by Keith’s coordinates. Look at the reaction of Romelle.

The complete lack of surprise.

And really, why should she be surprised? The base was empty, wasn’t it?

In the next episodes of S7 Romelle is virtually absent. It’s important to remember, and it’s absolutely reasonable. She simply follows Coran and does nothing, since she’s a civilian.

But then Launch Date (S8 Ep1) comes.

Romelle, along with Allura, looks at Luca. And immediately says a lot of interesting things.

She knew Luca. They didn’t get along, but she respected her for inner strength and a desire to be a part of something greater than herself.

“…and a desire to be a part of something greater than herself”

And yes, this is a very remarkable moment.

Millions lived in the colony of Lotor. And among these millions, Rommelle is incredibly «lucky» to have an acquaintance who turned out to be a pilot of the white mecha.

What an amazing coincidence.

And the way she told information about Luca… would you like me to translate Romelle’s words to what she actually meant while talking to Allura?

— You know, back on the colony, Luca and I didn’t always get along: Luca doesn’t like me, so you shouldn’t be surprised to it;

— But despite that, I always respected Luca: but I still treat her well, I’m a good girl and you can trust me;

— She had <…> a desire to be a part of something greater than herself: she’s a fanatic, so don’t believe her words.

And Allura understood exactly what Romelle wanted to say.

“If she was so desperate for something to believe in…”

“… it may have made her susceptible to being manipulated”

I’ll skip the scene where Romelle’s insisting on a date, but I’ll keep it in your thoughts. Romelle knows that Allura awaits Luca’s awakening with awe, and Romelle must wait for this too – logically, she should be worried about the fate of her people (remembering S7 – not a bit).

But the date, of course, is more important. Romelle literally begs Allura to agree, declaring her concern. By the way, after that episode Romelle never shows a desire to support Allura during the difficult period of her life.

Then the girls go looking for a dress for Allura, where Romelle demonstrates a picturesque lack of taste, which doesn’t at all coюmbine with her own, quite ordinary Altean clothing.

The next scene is with Luca. Romelle’s fawning, asking her where everyone is. But why should she fawn in front of a person with whom she, in her own words, is not in very good relations?

” I’m so glad to see you’re alright, Luca.”

And then she’s quite sincerely surprised that Luca knows about her act. Romelle didn’t take into account the variable represented by Honerva.

“What?”

There’s no Romelle in the next episode, but I just insert a frame with that bunch of Alteans who, as it’s said, lived freely at that base. And with whom Keith and Krolia managed not to meet.

“Today, the light of the universe shines inside our most brave”

The next significant appearance of Romelle occurs only in Day 47 (S8Ep7). Allura took her to communicate with pilots of white mechas, rescued by members of the Coalition.

So, we have six pilots of white mechas who refuse to make contact.

Romell persuades a pilot named Tavo to take the side of the Coalition, to which the man – absolutely calmly, emotionlessly and judiciously – responds that Romelle can go to hell.

“You and I grew up alongside one another”

“We were said that you’re a traitor, and I can see now that it is true”

Moreover, Romelle says that they grew up together and Tavo doesn’t deny it.

And then the fun begins. Interview with Romelle.

She says she knew all six pilots.

“Yes, I lived alongside them for many deca-phoebs”

But not even this is the most entertaining.

When she’s asked why the Alteans took up arms against the paladins, Romelle with sincere misunderstanding declares that she doesn’t know. Although it seems that Luca directly told her that the main reason was the killing of Lotor.

And even more. She says that humans should be sympathetic, because the Alteans were haunted nearly to extinction. That they’re afraid.

“But you must understand: my people were haunted nearly to extinction”

And you know, this is ridiculous. Because modern Alteans could learn about the persecution and extermination only from history books and educational films.

«Children, read about how St. Lotor saved the Altean people and write an essay on this topic.»

Thousands of years have passed since the establishment of the colony. Not a single Altean lives as much under ordinary conditions. The generation of those who survived the persecution has died. Moreover, many generations gave birth to so many Alteans that there are now millions of them. And they lived in full board at Lotor’s paradise. Full, dressed. Better than the rest of the universe.

Alteans aren’t scared. They’re in righteous rage.

All that Romelle says is sheer lies. And she just amazingly depicts emotions.

And by the way, about the pilots: there are millions of inhabitants in the colony. Why is Romelle familiar with those Alteans who were put in white mechas? Don’t you think that seven different Alteans are somehow too much, taking into account Romelle’s statement that the Alteans don’t have any defense forces and that they don’t know how to pilot ships?

How many questions… who would answer me?

I don’t see the point of further commenting on the series. For one simple reason: after Clear Day episode (S8Ep8), there is NO ONE normal animation with Romelle in the series. There are no full-fledged replicas, only static pictures. Sometimes moving static pictures. The animators tried to create the presence of Romelle where she initially wasn’t. She turned into a literal cardboard.

And I can say why.

In Clear Day, a conversation between Lotor and Allura was to take place. And it seems that this conversation had unpleasant consequences for Romelle.

Now a little bit of my conclusions.

I can’t imagine why Lotor built this empty base with all the amenities which Romelle occupied – but I can explain why the Blades didn’t find anything.

They didn’t find anything, because Lotor protected his objects from external search and they couldn’t be found so simply. Keith and Krolia were able to find the base with Romelle because Romelle made sure that they had this signal.

Therefore, no one discovered a real second colony on a neighboring green planet. After all, it remained protected.

And Romelle knew all the pilots… because they were her colleagues. Lotor had defense forces, and Romelle served in these forces – along with Tova, Luca and the rest. Romelle was a trained fighter and pilot.

What happened to Bandor is unknown, but Rommelle herself stole her brother from the capsule and took him aboard. Perhaps out of good intentions, but in the result he died in her arms. Because, most likely, it was strictly forbidden to remove Bandor from the capsule. Remember that all Alteans in capsules were still alive.

And I think that she planned to bring her brother to this empty base. The base was fully active, but abandoned. Perhaps the base was simply mothballed as unnecessary, and Romelle turned it on again. That is, the flight with a landing was real – Romelle ran away from Lotor, and then hid in the midst of an illusion. Lotor obviously had no desire to run and look for her in the illusory forest (and he could just turn it off – the base was empty!) And simply left, ordering the laboratory robots (not combat ones!) to repair the base.

Ultimately, Romelle got angry at Lotor, blamed him for everything and decided to take revenge by any means. Ruthlessly and calmly. And the paladins became pawns in her skillful hands.

You know, there’s such a series, She-Ra. And those who watched both She-Ra and Voltron are very fond of finding similar characters: Lotor, Shiro, Allura, Haggar, Zonerva-like ship…

Romelle also has her own analogy.

Double Trouble. Oh, yes.

Flutterina (Double Trouble) and Romelle. Find ten differences.

I like Zarkon with all his madness. And I like Haggar.

I love villains with principles. But I don’t like unscrupulous bastards at all, no matter how charismatic they are. It makes no difference to me how cool Double Trouble is, I just dream of Shadow Weaver dipping their face in a puddle.

And it’s unfortunate that in the series that we received, the main character Allura died tragically, and the unprincipled bastard Romelle won and remained unscathed.

#voltron #VLD #romelle #lotor #team voltron

3 notes · View notes

starfaring-princelotor · 5 years

Note

Ranting anon. I have a lot. I’ll try and split this into pieces. I wouldn’t say that Lotor was my absolute favorite character, but he was an enjoyable and interesting one. He was a more refined antagonist (not necessarily a villain) who had every capacity of being a great ally and friend. I won’t lie, I liked the idea of Allura and Lotor together, (1/?)

As a parallel to Zarkon and Honerva by being a Galra/Altean power couple that fought for good instead of evil. Lotor is clever and diplomatic and poised, so I honestly thought that he could help Allura cool down her impulsive nature and rash temper and help her become a good leader through example. (2/?)

But in the end, all we got was Lotor giving her an ego boost that in the end didn’t even matter because she dropped him like a hot potato in what feels like a forced “girl power!!” Moment. And I feel like that’s a big problem with how Allura’s character was handled. (3/?)

She’s meant to be this wise, kind, but fierce leader lady, but unlike say, Zelda (another warrior princess,) she doesn’t display the patience or level-headedness that Zelda does, despite people making numerous comparisons between the two. The argument that she’s inexperienced falls through halfway through the series at the very least. Allura never takes any steps to curb her temper or his pushy nature. (4/?)

And somehow no one calls her out on it! A big red flag for me was her reaction when Keith was revealed to be half galra and she just…turned fucking mean for no reason. And while Keith felt guilty for something he shouldn’t have felt guilty for, everyone else was…taking her side? (6/?)

And basically the matter is resolved by him mostly apologizing and her kind of mumbling a half-assed sorry. She was literally being racist to someone she called a friend right until she found out about his heritage. Despite him having done absolutely nothing to her. And no one called her out on it. That pissed me off. It feels like the paladins personalities suffered in order to make Allura look good. Like their moralities and personalities got tossed out the window to revolve around her. (8/8)

A forewarning to Lotura shippers, I never liked the ship in the first place, so if you are looking for validation about Lotura or even Allura herself, this rant is not for you. Allow me to pitch in my own two cents about myself, Allura, the Paladins, and the comparison referring to Zelda.

Anon, let me just say this first, I adore reading the asks you sent because all of it was basically the biggest problem I had with Allura the second she was revealed in Voltron. And the main reason for that? Was how she introduced herself by being a glaringly-obvious Princess-brat trope that does not think before she decides to speak. This was her first rash and impulsive act as a “royal” Princess.

This is why I have a hard time believing those who say Allura’s racism towards the Galra is valid because, I do not know about you, but being cryogenically frozen during the heat of war then waking up and thinking the main important thing to do is call someone’s ears hideous? What happened to “the war is still fresh in her mind”? And no, suddenly opening up a journal to remember “Oh, yeah, the war! Zarkon evil! I should be angry!” does not fly with me.

I am not saying her trauma is not real, only her reaction to it is slightly misplaced.

In any case, let us move on to the comparison of Allura and I being similar to Honerva and Zarkon. Oddly enough, I did not see this clicking at all in the show. Mostly because, in terms of what happened between them story-wise, Allura and I are more like Alfor and Zarkon. And this is just based off their relationship. Maybe I am a man who strives more for platonic relationships in shows aimed towards children, but I really did not feel the romance at all in Lotura.

Not even with the sickening way she suddenly started pining after me at the realization that I am half-Altean.

And this is the big point in the show. Zarkon and Honerva loved each other not because of their race, but because they just do. Alfor and Zarkon? They both use their power as royals to achieve a greater good. Except, in the case of Allura, she chose to commit unspeakable acts of betrayal based on feelings. Sounds oddly familiar to Alfor, no? Sacrificing all of Altea to ensure she lives? Because he is such a good father, pure of heart who must protect his daughter at the expense of not one, but two entire planets.

He loves her so much, he sacrificed his own people for her. That is why Allura is more like her father in that aspect. Both rulers let their feelings control their actions. Throughout the entire 8 seasons of Voltron, Allura has constantly gone either completely irrational or completely poised for the public, never in between. She does her self-sacrificing bit way too many times and, when she coincidentally lives afterwards, she puts herself on a pedestal as if she was right in her self-indulgent martyr actions.

Which she most certainly is not, because it is common knowledge that if you want to help people, you should be actively staying alive to do so. It is as though once she believed all “her” people died, she has no real purpose to stay around after her grand plan of eradicating all the “evil” Galra from space gets completed. I am sorry to say, or perhaps not, but she really does remind me of a terrible Mary Sue who can do no wrong. Alive or dead.

And this shit? Gets brushed aside or ignored by a majority of the Paladins. I will go ahead and blame it that most of them are all very, very young and lack the experience to speak out against those in charge. In fact, the only two who spoke against her in any sense were Shiro and Keith, even Pidge for family reasons. Shiro when he wanted to support putting myself on the throne and Keith? Well, that is a bit more complicated.

Anyone remember the scene where Keith kept telling Allura that he does not want to hear a lecture from her, and she does it anyways because she is just looking out for Voltron and emotionally guilting him is the best way to go about it? No? Oh, right, maybe it was because she acted like a mother admonishing him for “shirking” his responsibilities. I do not even need to go on about how much I heavily dislike one of the two female members mothering her teammates.

You know what would have been a great development here? If she supported him instead of “disciplining” him as if he stayed out past midnight. Maybe not even support him! Just be like “Okay, I know this is important for you, so tell us what we need to do to help you. We’re a team and as a team we will help you however we can.”

In this sense, Shiro was trusting Keith and doing the right thing by giving him the space he needed to find himself. Allura, on the other hand, was pushy and ultimately did not care at all for him as a person, but him as a useful Paladin tool. If he was so revered as the Black Paladin, then should she not be, I do not know, following his orders by the T? Or is her role as a royal, Altean Princess whose spirit is connected to Voltron more important?

And even before all this, she believes her and Keith are supposedly buddies now since she gave a half-assed apology for being a racist cunt to him. No one, I guarantee you, no one forgets racist comments, regardless of repaired friendships. Especially when her cold-shoulder and outright blatant ignorance is being seen as “Oh, it’s okay for her to feel like this! What do we know, we’re just humans from Earth who have apparently never read a history book.”

Before I get into the nitty-gritty details about why comparing Zelda and Allura are the same people, let me just say this concerning Allura’s hot-headed temper and unchecked racism involving a relationship with myself. That shit does not work and Allura should have taken the time to sort herself out before mixing in a “loving” relationship with an Altean and Galran man. I am all for equal support in a couple, but she did nothing to support myself as a person because she never saw both sides of my heritage.

Allura only saw Altean blood and hyperfixated on that alone. Which, do I even need to spell out how terrible it is to judge someone based on their appearance? Based on their race? Whether in a good or bad light, she once again goes from “I will not have some quiznaking Galra on my ship” to “Your mother was Honerva? You’re Altean!” mode. It is fine to be prideful, but she should have already known the dangers of being too prideful of one’s race.

Considering she is a royal, considering she was raised with political knowledge, considering her father and the Emperor of the Galra Empire worked together, Allura should have been aware of her Achilles Heel and understand her responsibilities.

Okay, now, Allura being like Zelda?

Alright, I only played a handful of LoZ games, but even I know that Allura is absolutely nothing like Zelda, even with both of them having the Princess title.

We already established that Allura is way too rash and irrational when under any duress. Even when shit is not going down, her way of thinking is very straight forward and linear, disregarding the bigger picture as a whole for her own closeted judgements. Allura has even ignored her royal advisor’s advice too many times to count, excusing her reasoning as “It’s the only way, Coran. I must do this.”

Zelda? Zelda does not, at all, follow Allura’s way of thinking. In fact, OoT has a similar plot to Allura and myself. Link skips 7 years of his life, wakes up to Hyrule being controlled by Ganondorf, and the Princess is MIA. Though, if any of you have played the game, then you know that the Princess was actively trying to save the kingdom. Not just Hylians, but Zoras and Gorons as well.

And the way she accomplished this was by disguising herself as Sheik. Not because she was a coward, but because she knew the importance that came with being a Princess, the next heir to rule, and the one who has the Triforce of Wisdom under her control. Key word here: WISDOM. Something Allura did not display at all in the show.

If we are comparing Zelda to any character, she is more like the exiled Prince than Allura herself. Both Zelda and myself have the wisdom and first-hand experience of suffering under active war. Both actively saved, or tried to save, those they came across. And both understood the political discourse that hurt everyone, not just one specific race. Everyone.

But if that is the case, then Link would be similar to Allura in the sense that they both woke up to disaster. The big difference between Link and Allura? Link would not have killed Sheik once he revealed himself to be Zelda. Not even because Sheik was being deceiving. Link would understand why Zelda had to hide for her own safety, because she was vital to the plan to restore balance to Hyrule.

Even if Link was miffed about Zelda not being truthful? He knows that, under no circumstances, can they chance the risk to kill her over his own personal feelings.

“But that doesn’t mean Zelda never curbed her temper!”

In Twilight Princess, when the kingdom was already starting to fall under evil clutches, Zelda teams up with Midna, an exiled Princess of the Twilight world. I can not imagine how helpless Zelda felt in the face of Zant overthrowing the kingdom, but did she go off and leave the citizens to suffer for all of eternity? No. She accepted aid from those who were willing, even the Princess of the other world.

And, on top of that, Zelda understood that Midna’s world and her own were like two sides of a coin. They must coexist with each other to achieve peace. In fact, I vaguely remember Zelda sacrificing herself to help Midna. Imagine that. Using your powers to help the “enemy” for the greater good. Tell me when Allura helped the Galra out of her own free will? Her own understanding that the Galra need her help just like every other race in the universe?

No, the BoM does not count. Not with her attitude shining through after her “Zarkon is in power because you guys are cowards!” spiel. Not when she begrudgingly helped save Warlord Lahn while simultaneously profiling him out of spite with “Did you buy those weapons or steal them?” And no, not when she built Sincline with myself with the intention to harvest unlimited quintessence then immediately turn around and aid in murdering me, the Emperor of the Galra Empire, over a weak accusation.

Overall, Allura really is the type of person to barge into other people’s problems, claim “I am here to help you all!”, then throw a hissy fit when people ask for specific aid rather than follow her “My way or the highway” attitude. Terrible writing or not, she was always like this since the very beginning. It is kind of like…she had many chances to improve, but she just made her own situation worse and refused to stop to reflect upon herself.

54 notes · View notes

b-kitsune · 5 years

Text

Many ways to say I love you: Day Twenty Five.

Kidge-a-palooza 2019 Prompt: Longing. Pairing: Kidge (VLD) Universe: Post canon. Status: Part 6/7

For the past five years, Keith was always clear that the war had left serious consequences in himself, many of which cannot be seen physically. After all, it was inevitable when fighting a 10,000-year-old empire, but not all of them usually hold negative characteristics.

One of them is his impeccable ability to react to critical situations with enviable speed and serenity, always giving the best option when his judgment is warranted.

But at that time, while being accompanied by Ezor and Zethrid through the aisles of the garrison with palpable anxiety, he may end up fainting right there.

Both women were worried about him, being their leader both in the intergalactic aid program, and in the control of Marmora leaf missions, so seeing him with the nerves to the surface is not something that can be considered good.

The message that the green paladin sent hours ago had certainly worried him, but Keith declined to mention anything about its content.

When they reached the restroom, they met Lance chatting animatedly with a couple of cadets who were part of a project that he was probably leading in his spare time. Keith ran quickly to him as if life were going out of it.

''Hi! I thought you would arrive in a few more weeks...''

''Lance, Where is Pidge?'' Lance looked at him in dismay, and with some fun on his face.

''Apparently, you read her message recently, right?''

''I don't have time for your games, tell me where it is!'' He asked anxiously, drawing the attention of Ezor and Zethrid.

''Hey calm down buddy, today is her day off, she must surely be at her parents' house.''

''Thank you.'' Without paying attention to Lance's questions, he went immediately to the exit, without first asking his companions not to follow him for any reason and disregarding congratulations on Lance's high before leaving the room.

''Did something happen with Miss Holt, Mr. McClain?'' One of the cadets asked.

''Nothing important, Pidge probably played a joke on our friend.''

''What type of joke?'' Ezor inquired, curious about the whole thing. ''Did say she was dying?''

''Nah, she will surely have told him that was a father.''

The screams of both girls were stuck in her throat as Lance approached the screen of his cell phone, and a sweet awww came out in their place on the part of everyone to see the images taken a couple of days ago.

...

When he arrived at the residence of the Holt family, he realized that his hands were sweating profusely, he didn't know very well what would do when he saw her after several months of absence on earth. Colleen received him happy to see him earlier than planned at the door, and without knowing what to say, he followed her silently inside the residence.

There, in the middle of many familiar faces, he could see Pidge sitting on the floor next to Kosmo and Bae Bae, surprised by his appearance.

''I'm glad you came back early! Did you read my message?''

''Hello...'' It was the only thing he could articulate while taking her hands tightly. He was shaking but dared not hug her in front of her parents at that moment. ''So it is true?''

''Of course, I couldn't believe it either.'' She brings him closer to their pets. ''Look, don't you think they are the cutest thing you've ever seen in the universe?''

Keith didn't give credit, he didn't know if it was because of the little puppies that surrounded his partner on her stomach, or the vile scam of the message Pidge had sent him. Kosmo had had a litter of four small wolverines, whose colors varied from white to dark blue that characterized it. The face of desolation was palpable, making Matt and Shiro laugh loudly, who had already guessed what Pidge had told him to force him to return earlier than expected.

''I am going to kill you.'' He said at last. Pidge, however, was falsely surprised by his threat, moving away from him to take one of the puppies in her hands.

''As you wish, but first we have to put names to our little babies.''

''Pidge...''

''Keith breathes.'' Shiro patted him on his back, seeing as a vein protruded over his hundred. ''If it had been true what I think Katie sent you, she wouldn't have told you by courier.''

''Already at this point, I think I have lost all faith in her, we will break.''

''Dramatic.''

''Learn not to scare people, damn it!'' Before pouncing on Pidge, she was approached by the puppy she had in her arms excited. He took it doubtfully after a few seconds, not even Kosmo had been as small as he did when he found him in the quantum abysm next to his mother, which touched him for a moment, slightly fading his frustration. ''It's... Too fragile.''

A loud sigh came out of his lungs as soon as he relaxed, calming the mood of the room, to sit next to Pidge and look more closely at the other puppies.

They searched for their mother's chest awkwardly, and barely had enough strength to open their eyes as they climbed on top of each other, complaining in the attempt. Keith laughed when one of them turned to try to get away from his brothers, completely relieving his annoyance with Pidge's lie.

He pulled her to his lap to lean on her shoulder when she told him how difficult it had been to help his space wolf to give birth, since that same night, a heavy storm fell that alerted Kosmo for many hours. Matt and Shiro had decided it was time to leave them alone, to give them some privacy.

''I'm very sorry that you took it so hard, I thought it wouldn't be so bad. '' Keith kissed the contour of her shoulder, in response to having been forgiven many minutes ago, Pidge sighed in relief. ''Aren't they beautiful?''

''They are, but ... What will we do with them as soon as they grow up? It is already difficult to take care of Kosmo and BaeBae when we are working.''

'' Well...'' Pidge turned to stare at him. ''Mom commented that it would be best to give them up for adoption.''

''Why?'' Keith couldn't help the trouble in his tone of voice. ''They are Kosmo's children, I will not get rid of them.''

''Okay, listen.'' She settled on the back of the chair to see his head-on. ''I knew you wouldn't like the sound of this, but you have to understand that having four cosmic wolf cubs is not a game, Keith. They need care, food and a lot of attention when they are young, we hardly pay attention to ours. How do you think they would feel seeing us only three hours a day?''

''Yeah, but...'' Keith felt doubtful about the issue. Pidge gave him a soft kiss on his cheek to appease the atmosphere that had tensed in a few minutes. ''I don't like how that sounds… I couldn't leave them.''

''You won't, in fact, when Mom mentioned the idea, it had occurred to me who could have the privilege of having a beautiful Kogane-Holt puppy.''

''Okay, I hear you.'' He replied laughing at the last. Hearing their last names from Pidge's mouth sounded temptingly pleasant.

''First, one of them is ours, right Kosmo?'' The wolf growled affirmatively; Keith's eyes shone with happiness knowing that they would stay with a puppy. ''Shiro said he planned to talk to Curtis to adopt one of them.''

''Seriously?'' Keith couldn't agree more with that decision. Pidge nodded animatedly.

''Before you arrived, he told me that he would tell him this week on his day off, so, if that were the case, Shiro would be the new home of one of the puppies.'' Both were satisfied with that decision, knowing that Shiro's home would be as ideal as being with them. ''One can go to the McClain family.''

''But Lance doesn't like Kosmo. And... Dogs in general.'' He commented skeptically. ''Why would he want one?''

''Because Lance didn't ask me, but Veronica. She said her family needs to have a guardian for the animals when they are not at home, and her nephews would do well to grow up with a pet.'' Keith nodded pleased once he thought carefully. It was a good idea, also considering that Lance's family was numerous and friendly, his puppy wouldn't feel alone at any time. So far, the options were adequate and close, so he felt no problem giving them to them. ''The other…''

''Who else? ¿Hunk? Koran?'' She slowly denied.

''Hunk said he didn't have time to have a recipe eater when he constantly travels through space. And Coran is not very interested in having a partner having the mice, and could eat his comb for the mustache.'' She sighed softly to say the last proposal, hoping that Keith wouldn't take it so badly. ''It's Iverson.''

...

Two months passed quickly since the last time Keith had embarked on land.

Many times, while in space, he didn't feel truly close to his planet. His family was close to him, complying with the control of the government of the galras, while his companions accompanied him on interstellar travel. Logically, he missed his friends more than he would admit out loud, but if by any chance of fate, Atlas returned to sail with all his neighbors inside, Keith would leave nothing behind to bind him on earth.

That thought was slowly eating him up. Somehow, he wanted to have what his friends missed when they walked away during diplomatic missions. Family memories, endearing sensations that would take him to a past day, and especially, a place where he could return when he was not busy. Those kinds of ideas had come as soon as Pidge had thrown that ridiculous joke that even her parents recriminated once they had heard.

For several days, Keith had the feeling that his first emotion upon knowing that lie was a disappointment, but he couldn't understand why.

''You have a strange face.'' Acxa let her look at the data on her screen to avert his gaze to Keith, worried when he didn't answer her in any way while still looking at nothing. ''Does something happen?''

''I... I've only been thinking a lot.''

''About the puppies?''

''What?'' He looked up confused.

''They have already turned three months. Veronica told me to take it this week because your wolf no longer breastfeeds them.''

''Oh yeah, you're right.'' He sighed wistfully to remember that fact, he had been close to the puppies to spend their last days with them, a soft smile was drawn on his face, making Acxa growl.

''You don't trust in me.''

''I do.''

He stopped her quickly, if something he had learned working with her, is that Acxa easily resented the minimum questioning of trust. He didn't recriminate her for that and had learned to cope with it. Working with Lotor had left sequels in her as in Keith with the war.

''I'm confused.''

''About Kosmo?''

''It's not about Kosmo!'' Keith sighed heavily before continuing, at least she seemed more relaxed. ''I... I received a message from Pidge before embarking on the Garrison.''

''I heard from Ezor, she told you that you were a father.'' Keith nodded silently.

''I thought it was she who was pregnant, and I think I lost my mind a bit in the process because I haven't stopped thinking about it.'' Keith was silent for a few seconds, saying it out loud felt lighter than many weeks ago, Acxa meanwhile, waited. ''I guess maybe I got more excited about it.''

''Well, who among us wouldn't want a family? It's something we never had when we grew up.''

A family.

Keith's mind stopped working at those words... As if he hadn't seen something too obvious that was written in his nose.

But before continuing to talk, Pidge and Iverson approached them.

''The ship will be ready to leave in another week for the A-78 galaxy, so we are loading the latest power supplies.''

''Thanks, Pidge.'' Keith mentioned while Acxa accepted the latest reports from his hand.

''I'll go show it to Kolivan so that everything is in order and we leave without contingencies.''

And with a soft smile towards Keith in an attempt to comfort, Acxa withdrew into the room. Seizing the opportunity, before Iverson said goodbye to Pidge and continued his work, Keith stopped him.

''Sir, I would like to speak with you.''

''What is it about?'' Inquired severely.

''Are you still interested in adopting one of Kosmo's puppies?'' Iverson was slightly confused for a few seconds, and with a drastically lower voice, he asked.

''I ... I didn't know if it would be considered.''

''When we first arrived on earth, you treated my wolf kindlier than many people. I really believe that our puppy would be in good hands if you wanted to.'' If there was some emotion in Iverson's eyes when Keith finished, it was immediately changed to a neutral face, although his smile remained.

''Well ... Yes, I'd love to.'' Pidge's smile widened at his response. ''Now, if you'll excuse me, I have issues to attend to.'' Pidge gave him a soft hug as they watched the officer entered through the hallways of the Garrison, clearly happier than normal.

''That was very sweet Keith, I thought you wouldn't want to give it to him.''

''What I said was true, Iverson loved Kosmo as soon as he saw her. After thinking about it for a few days, I didn't think it was a bad idea.''

Keith circled her waist while Pidge rested her arms on his shoulders, giving them a feeling of intimate comfort. There was nothing but machines and airplanes parked outside, with a few people who had more interesting things to do than observe them. So it was one of the few moments that could be affectionate outside the home without feeling uncomfortable.

''You're a mature man, Keith Kogane.'' Pidge smiled sweetly. So, Keith thought that moment would be ideal to let his worries out.

''You know, I've been thinking a lot about something.''

''Yeah, me too.'' Keith was surprised by the seriousness of her face, lightly squeezing his hands on her waist, had Pidge also had his same concerns all this time? ''How did BaeBae manage to breed Kosmo? Isn't she, like, three times bigger than my dog?''

''Oh my god, Pidge.'' He growled loudly, dropping onto her shoulder.

''What!? It is a genuine question.''

''I want a family.'' There he was, his low impulses acting again. He felt her back tighten on his fingers at that statement. So, without being able to continue fucking anymore, he continued. ''Not puppies, or rare machines that you do in your spare time, I want a family with children... And maybe more puppies, because they were very cute.'' When he looked up, he could see the alert in her eyes. Pidge was scared, or confused, he didn't know very well which of the two won her heart at that moment. ''I... I'll understand that you don't want to say anything for now, or send me to hell. But I want you to know that I have thought about it a lot, there is no one with whom I want to have a family, then with you, Ka-''

''Yes.'' It had been a whisper, almost inaudible if it wasn't for the proximity. Keith felt his heart pound so fast it would explode inside.

''Y-yes?''

''Yes... I would like to have a family with you.'' Pidge laughed while he saw Keith's face lighting up with joy, but before he wanted to kiss her, she pulled it away with a wave of her hand. ''But you have to talk seriously, not here. At home, both alone.'' He took hir fingers to give them a strong kiss on her yolks.

''Of course.''

Both smiled, with a project waiting to be evaluated in privacy.

#peith #kidge #kidgefanfic #monthofkidge #kidgeapalooza #kidgeapalooza 2019 #keith kogane #keith (voltron)#pidge gunderson #pidge holt #katie holt #voltron #voltronship

36 notes · View notes

mizu-writes-kumo · 5 years

Note

Qb shiro, geeky nerd Lance, biker kuro. College.

This was admittedly harder to do than I expected. I wrote with a gen sort of pairing in mind, since I wasn’t give a ship exactly. But I suppose it could be read in whatever way you wish.

I hope you enjoy it!

You can also read it here on AO3

–

“Oh, oh okay, I think I get it!” Shiro said excited as he looked at his notebook.

His pencil at the ready as he started at the work on the page. He moved to start for second before hesitating a fraction of a second later with a look of puzzlement on his face. And each time his confidence deflating more and more. Until…

”No, no I don’t have it.” He groaned miserably as he dropped his head down on the table.

“Careful, brother, your head already gets hit enough every game.” The voice of Kuro, Shiro’s younger twin brother said in a teasing tone. And he laughed loudly as Shiro growled at the words. “Hey, I am just looking out for you. You’re going to need all the brain function you can get for your rocket science degree.”

“It’s atroscience. ” Shiro corrected, head still on the table.

Kuro chuckled lightly at the comeback. Causing Shiro to lift his head just enough to glare at his brother on the other side of the booth. Which only made Kuro chuckle more as he slouched back as he took a drink from his shake. Sticking his tongue out behind the straw as Shiro continued to look at him.

Before Shiro kicked his brother’s shin.

A gentle chuckle beside Shiro cut off Kuro before he could curse and retaliate. Shiro turned to the sound to find Lance half rolling his eyes behind the frames of his glasses. Shaking his head at them, in the oversized Star Wars hoodie Shiro and Kuro had gotten him when they visited Japan like three years ago.

“Play nice you two.” Lance huffed lightly, as he moved to reach for Shiro’s notebook. To place it more in the middle of Shiro and him. “We’re in public. And Kuro’s already getting us a few stares as it is.” Kuro gasped loudly like he took a offense to comment. “What you look like Biker extra from a movie set?”

Shiro chuckled as Kuro grumbled into his shake. Stating all he was doing was wearing a moto jacket, his nice one with no patches. And like ripped black jean with a white shirt and combat boots. He looked biker inspired not…full on biker. Not mention he was sipping a cookie dough milkshake, he was like no level of threatening about it.

Lance shook his head beside Shiro before he turned to look at the notebook.

“Okay, why don’t you tell me what your not getting?” Lance asked softly.

“All of it.” Shiro explained dramatically as he flopped against the table.

“And that is why I took Japanese for my language credit. Easy A.” Kuro stated with a hum.

“Which is totally cheating.” Shiro countered back with a sharp glare and pointed finger.

“How?”

“We’re Japanese , Ryou. It was literally our first language, and we lived in Japan for like five years. You can’t take a class for a language you already know. That’s cheating and a waste of like everyone’s time.”

Kuro rolled his eyes as he shrugged.

But he doesn’t say anything back. They’ve have this argument like once a week since Shiro started taking Spanish 1. Because Shiro didn’t want easy, despite…well like everyone in the athletics department wanting him to take easy courses. Can’t have the school’s star quarterback flunking out of any sort of class.

Shiro doesn’t care though. He figured Spanish should be enough of a challenge to not feel like a walk in the park. As well as have the Athletics Department relaxing because that was standard and easy.

“Plus, he wouldn’t have the best Spanish tutor in the whole universe.” Lance stated proudly.

“Shiro corrected your spelling like ten minutes ago.” Kuro pointed out lazily.

Lance gasped in dramatic fashion at the words. Like how dare Kuro say something like that to his face. “It’s was a common mistake native speakers make all the time.” Lance returned with a pointed huff.

“Yeah, Kuro.” Shiro said supportively.

“Fine then,” Kuro said as he turned back to his own notebook. “I won’t proof either of your papers for grammatical errors next time you ask.”

“You won’t dare!” Lance hissed.

Kuro hummed thoughtfully.

In a way, Shiro knows is a lie. Well at least for towards Lance. Kuro can never really tell Lance no. Nor would he ever willingly let Lance turn in a paper that without at least a friendly glance over and proof. He wanted Lance to have the best shot at a good grade. With Shiro…he would probably follow through until Shiro was begging and offering to do some chores for a week. And even then he would still probably resist.

“Help me with Spanish please.” Shiro pleased lightly and dramatically. Pulling Lance’s attention from his brother. “Please, I’ll owe you forever and ever.”

“You already owe me forever, so I’ll take the additional ever.” Lance said with a warm smile.

Before he launched into explaining conjugations for Shiro again. As well as when and how to use each one correctly, with a few helpful examples. Then carefully walked to Shiro through a set of his units vocab words. Then Shiro had a go with Lance watching closely to make sure he was getting the hang of it.

Kuro would interject a comment here and there. But also started work on his own homework and study he needed to for his classes.

“Hey, you’re coming to the game next week right Lance?” Kuro asked once he finished the work he needed to get done…or he was just bored of doing. “You’re not leaving me to cheer my idiot smart brother alone again are you.”

“Keith, Matt, and Hunk went where there with you last time.” Shiro shot back.

“They’re not as fun.” Kuro returned.

“Yeah, I’ll be there, so you can relax, Kuro.” Lance stated as turned his attention to the plate of fries in the middle of their table. “I cleared the whole day. Especially since we lost last game, and Shiro took that nasty hit. Because apparently I am a good luck charm or something.”

“Well more like a pre-game ritual,” Kuro huffed playfully, and Lance laughed. “Shiro is a superstitious maniac on game day. You know I can’t do laundry the day before, on, or after game day. And Shiro has to eat a hard boiled egg for breakfast, as well as shine his helmet while–”

“No, Kuro, shut up , you loser. Lance, don’t listen to him, you the best good luck charm anyone could ask for.” Shiro said as he glanced up from his work.

Lance laughed lightly in reply. “Oh, I know.” Lance said smugly.

Shiro felt his cheeks heat up a bit at the words.

He turned back quickly to his Spanish homework. He ignored the way Kuro chuckled knowingly at the action. Or mostly he ignored Kuro. Shiro did after all kick his brother in the shin again.

And Kuro returned the action quickly.

Lance just rolled his eyes on them as he proceeded to pick at the fries.

–

AN: I hope you enjoyed this!

Also again, tumblr took out my italics and I am just too lazy to put it back int.

#shance #kurance #vld lance #vld shiro #vld kuro #kuro and Shiro are twins #fanfiction #ask fic #written as gen #but could be read however I guess #prompt fill

49 notes · View notes

hazelandglasz · 5 years

Text

Voltron Legendary Patissier (A Shklance AU)

I came across a wonderful drawing by @lemonjuiceday when visiting a con and I was immediately inspired to write this little fic. Nothing major, just a bout of fluff and food porn for our favorite boys (strictly food porn, you pervs ;))

On AO3

Lance didn’t expect to find himself in such a position, caught between two hard chests while working his part-time job.

Then again, he didn’t expect his part-time job to be in a bakery.

“A pâtisserie, not a bakery,” his boss insists, his fond, exasperated smile growing less and less fond and more and more exasperated with each time he has to repeat it to one of them.

Lance doesn’t blame him, he would be very specific too about his craft if he was … well, as crafty as Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane, his associate and their apprentices.

While Shiro splits his time between the kitchen and the till, Lance strictly works behind the counter, serving the customers and writing down the special orders.

And daydreaming about the way Shiro’s biceps flex so wonderfully in his tight shirt, and how mesmerizing are his eyes when he watches someone trying something new fresh out of the oven …

“Lance?”

And just how beautiful he is, inside and out.

“For Apicius’ sake, Lance, snap out of it!”

Lance blinks back into the moment and back to the voice calling his name in such a pissed off manner.

Sure enough, Lance’s binome glares at him, angrily shoving delicate little chouquettes in a paper bag while their customer smiles at them, her eyes moving back between them as if watching a tennis match.

“Yes, my dear colleague, how can I help you?” he replies sweetly--too sweetly to be subtle, if the intensification of Keith’s glare (and of the customer’s giggle) is any indication.

“For the third time, since we apparently lost you in the void between your ears,” Keith replies in the same dulcet tone, “can you, please, if it’s not too much of an imposition for you to move, get in the kitchen and get back mille-feuilles for the showcase?”

“Since you asked so nicely,” Lance says, winking at the still-giggling customer while simultaneously hip-checking Keith out of his way, “of course, of course.”

Keith’s sigh still reaches Lance’s ears before the door closes between the two rooms. Lance takes a moment to breathe.

As much as he finds Shiro attractive and amazing, he cannot shake the itch that has crawled under his skin ever since he met Keith Kogane.

A need to punch him in his perfect face, with his fist or with his mouth, the jury is still out on that one.

Keith has seniority over Lance but he also works only in the front of the store.

And thus lays Lance’s problem.

While he can escape Shiro’s … shironess every now and then, Keith’s mindfucking keithness is always around him, hovering, glaring, grumbling in a way that should not be as sexy as it is, dammit.

So, yeah, Lance is in a hell of his own making and, heartache be damned, he loves every minute of it.

Okay, this has gone on for too long.

Lance cannot prove it, but he would bet his favorite nerfgun that Shiro is doing it on purpose.

It here serves as a summary of everything that Shiro does around the shop: carelessly shaking his hips to the sound of the music drifting from the records shop next door, licking the tip of his fingers when he accidentally gets cream on them.

Accidentally, right, as if.

And he supposes Shiro also left a flour handprint on Keith’s ass by accident.

By all that he holds dear, Lance is not mentally equipped to deal with the image of those two together, together.

Separately, they are already forces to be reckoned with and Lance tries really har--ahem--he really tries his best to stay professional and not do something stupid, like drool all over them.

But if they are together?

Well, that takes care of his fantasies of dating either of them, but that sparks a fire under the possibility of dating them both.

Madre de dios, he’s only human and that’s just, to quote the great 21st century philosopher Bruno Mars, too hot, hot damn.

Lance sighs before shaking his head.

He needs to focus. If he cannot have the man, men, whatever, of his dreams, then he’s going to work, and have one aspect of his life that will be successful.

Oh, they’re out of Divorcés.

As there are no customers in the shop at the moment, Lance skips to the kitchen to get a tray of the delicious pastry.

Except that there is a conversation taking place that he is not supposed to hear and cannot resist any way.

“... insane, Shiro.”

“It would be complicated, sure, but--”

“Complicated? Try disastrous. You know that I agree with you on how attractive he is, but bringing him into our relationship? Let me spell it out for you: D-I-S-...”

“Keith …”

“Shiro …”

“Come on, babe,” a soft, wet sound pauses the conversation, “you’re always ranting about ways to shut him up.”

A soft laugh answers that, one that Lance would definitely characterize as a giggle if it didn’t come out of Keith “Badass” Kogane’s lips.

“You think that would do the trick?”

“No,” Shiro replies, laughter in the back of his voice, “but maybe you wouldn’t object if what came out of that beautiful, pouty mouth was moans and your name.”

“Or yours.”

“Or both.”

“God, Shiro …”

More wet sound that leaves little to Lance’s overactive imagination, and he flees the hallway to get back to the safety of the bright shop, where no one talks about threesomes and moaning and beautiful bodies intertwined …

Lance snaps his eyes shut and takes a deep breath just as the bell over the door rings.

“Welcome to Paladelicious, how can I sweeten your day?” he says reflexively, putting a smile on his face.

If he focuses on his job, he’ll find a way to bury his feelings, be it his lust or his jealousy over the man Shiro and Keith apparently want to bring into their bed.

Lucky bastard.

Or he can quit.

Lance doesn’t want to, he really likes this job, especially since he adores the world of pastry and really could see himself thriving in this field.

But.

This is just too painful.

He knows that neither Shiro nor Keith saw him eavesdropping on them, but ever since that day, Keith’s glare only intensified and Shiro is …

Well Shiro is Shiro, welcoming and warm like a cozy sweater and a hot chocolate with cinnamon sprinkled on top, but there is something behind his gaze that pulls on Lance’s heartstrings.

It’s with a heavy heart indeed that Lance came to the conclusion that he has to leave Paladelicious, and he’s not the only one already regretting it.

“Dude.”

“Hunk, don’t try to change my mind.”

“B-but, Lance!” Hunk still continues while Lance keeps on writing his resignation letter to Shiro--yes, he’s taking the cowards way out of writing to instead of facing Shiro, but can anyone really blame him?

“Lance, Lance, Lance, Lance, I’ll continue to say your name until you stop and look at me, Lance, Lance, Lance, L--”

“Hunk! Stop it,” Lance replies, making the rookie mistake of looking up at his best friend.

Because in spite of his height and bulk, the only real danger coming from Hunk Garrett is his puppy eyes.

“You don’t really want to leave us, do you Lance?”

“Of course I don’t want to!” Lance explodes. “But the alternative, it’s just too … too much for my--”

Before Lance can finish his sentence, his mouth finds itself otherwise occupied.

With an oversized chou, which is definitely on the petit side.

“Hmph!!!”

“Eat.”

“Hunpbdfrr!”

“You’ll thank me later. No one can be as moody as you were after my praline’d crème pat. And then we can close this silly conversation.”

As reluctant as he may be, Lance has to admit it: Hunk’s crème patissiere could ungrump the grumpiest of Grumps.

“Grumph.”

“Swallow.”

Lance laughs, most of the chou soothing his soul and filling his stomach already. “You know I always do.”

Behind them, at the piano, Pidge tsks as they boil several caramels in copper pans.

“Now, do you still want to leave? That means no more free goodies.”

“You’d still feed me some goodies when we get together, Hunk, don’t lie to yourself.”

Hunk blushes. “You’re probably right. But no more trying out my ideas if you’re not here.”

“You wanna leave?”

All three heads turn toward the door where Keith is standing, face even paler than usual and, oh dear Lord who has no mercy on Lance, hair tied in a messy bun.

Hunk and Pidge turn to Lance, a question in their eyes. What are you going to do now?

“I--I have considered it,” Lance mumbles. “May be best for everybody, all things considered.”

Even though I don’t want to. Even though it will hurt like a thousand knives dipped in hot sauce.

“But, I thought we--we bonded ...,”Keith opens and closes his mouth repeatedly, eyebrows going from a frown to sad before settling on anger again; funny how Lance never noticed how expressive those eyebrows were before.

“Fine,” Keith finally says, voice a lot colder than it ever was. “Do whatever you want, like I care. Not having to deal with you will bemmph?!”

Apparently, chou-shoving is Hunk’s move of the day.

“Do not. Finish. That sentence.” Hunk’s voice is frighteningly normal. Lance would be glad not to be on the receiving end of that tone if his mind was not replaying Keith’s words on repeat, with added acidic commentary.

Like I care. See, silly, he really does not need you in his life, not even as a co-worker so can you imagine dating him? It’s a wonder how you can even walk and breathe at the same time. Time for you to be useless somewhere else.

“Hunk, what the hell?!”

“We want Lance to stay and you are being mean.”

“You could have killed me!”

“With a chou? A deadly weapon for sure.”

“Guys?”

“What?”

“Lance left.”

Hunk glares at Keith. “Go fix what you broke.”

“But …”

“I am not afflicted with Lance’s obliviousness. Go; get him back. For everybody’s sake.”

Keith repeats his goldfish impression before giving Hunk a firm nod and rushing out.

Hunk picks a chou from the plate and munches on it. “Stupid men being stupid, amiright?”

Pidge nods vigorously, opening the chou open to suck on the creme. “Men being men, then.”

“Hey!”

“Not all men are as wise as you, Mr Garrett.”

“A’right, can’t deny it.”

Shiro doesn’t say a word, once Keith is done explaining what just happened in the lab.

He doesn’t frown, he doesn’t glare, he doesn’t yell.

He stands, shakes his head and opens the door to his office, aka the door to the back alley behind the store, nodding toward his bike.

Overall, Keith feels shittier than he did when he heard Hunk talking about Lance leaving, which is saying something.

He almost would have preferred for Shiro to scream at him.

At a redlight between the store and Lance’s place, Shiro pats Keith’s hands crossed over his stomach.

In Shironese, that pat means “it will be okay but you fucked up, my love.”

Keith tightens his hold on him.

In Keithan, that means “I am so sorry I got scared I fucked please forgive me.”

Since Lance took the bus back to his place, the three of them arrive at the same time.

Keith can see the moment Lance spots them on Shiro’s bike: Lance’s eyes widen and he stumbles.

“Lance, can we have a word?”

God bless Shiro for keeping his cool.

“What more is there to say?” Lance replies dejectedly with the saddest shrug Keith has ever witnessed. Now that he’s closer, Keith can see how red his eyes are and how pink his nose, and he cannot help the mixed feelings of guilt and adoration for the man standing in front of them that threaten to submerge him.

“I think Keith here has something to say,” Shiro replies softly, not so gently nudging Keith forward. “And I wouldn’t mind adding my two cents to what seems to be a classic miscommunication-provoked mess.”

Lance considers them, the unhappy downturn of his mouth increasing until he sighs, dropping his head to his chest. “Fine, come on up.”

Shiro and Keith exchange a look before following Lance up the flights of stairs leading to his apartment.

Keith spares a second to take in his environment and he has to repress the smile that threatens to appear at the sight around him. Lance’s place looks, well, it looks like him, warm and just a little bit messy but inviting and comfortable.

“Keith?” Shiro calls him, one eyebrow raised perfectly to push Keith to get on with his apology already.

Keith turns to Lance with a deep, strengthening breath. “Lance, I--I’m sorry for what I said back at the shop. I felt, um, I was hurt by the idea of you leaving us so suddenly, because, well, I--I, err, don’t want you to leave. The shop. Or,” he pauses, blidnly reaching for Shiro behind him, “or us, really.”

Lance’s eyes drop to their joined hands and if anything, his arms tighten around his torso.

Almost as if he’s trying to hold himself together.

“We don’t want you to leave,” Shiro repeats, taking a step toward Lance while still holding Keith’s hand.

Lance’s frown increases. “‘S not like I’m such an important cog in the Paladelicious’ machine,” he mumbles, turning his back to them.

Shiro blinks before sighing fondly. Keith is familiar with that sigh.

It’s Shiro’s “God knows why I am getting myself in such a mess, but boy do I love every minute with you” sigh.

“Lance,” he says quietly, letting go of Keith’s hand to put both his hands on Lance’s shoulders, “I didn’t say a word about my store.”

Lance freezes before following the motion Shiro’s hands are provoking.

When he faces them again, his eyes are wide and shiny. “What are you sayin’?”

“I’m saying that we,” Shiro moves his hands from Lance’s shoulders to his cheeks, “want you in our lives.”

Lance’s mouth parts open, eyes darting to Keith. “Both of you? You--with me?”

Keith takes the one step separating him from the two other men and cups the back of Lance’s head. “Both of us, with you,” he whispers before leaning over Shiro’s arm to lightly press his lips to Lance.

Pina colada flavored lipbalm. Of course.

Lance laughs and hiccups at the same time, resulting in an adorable “meep” sound. With one hand, he covers Shiro’s hand on his cheek while the other reaches for Keith’s waist.

“What do you say?” Shiro asks, voice barely above a murmur as he runs his nose along Lance’s temple before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I--I say,” Lance starts before pausing, eyes fluttering shut as Shiro continues on kissing odwn his cheek and jaw, “I say that I’m all in, baby!”

Both Shiro and Keith lean in to kiss Lance, which results in quite a messy situation where noses are bumped and lips don’t necessarily meet the previously aimed for location, but neither of them would have it any other way.

“Hey!” Lance exclaims, pushing both men away. “Does that mean you want to shut me up? I resent tha--mph!”

As a matter of fact, it turns out that Shiro was right.

Kissing the living Hell out of Lance is a perfectly efficient technique to shut him up.

The End.

#lemonjuiceday #sometimes i write #voltron au #vld #shklance #because i wanted to #food porn #you have been warned

9 notes · View notes

ladyemberswrites · 5 years

Note

Request: vld Lotor get too much emocional when he is drunk. Allura have a hard time deal with his drama. (Think in this as a comedy)

After Shiro had disappeared, Allura felt that she had been keeping things held together by the strings, even when Shiro came back, he hadn’t exactly been himself either and with Keith out the picture she’s back to square one keeping everything put by the skin of her teeth. Now, with Lotor in the picture, an enemy, now ally, she thinks she's found some like-minded and no nonsensed; only to find that he might not be as calm and collected as he portrays himself to be. That under the facade, and out of the public eye, he’s a dysfunctionally mess.

Allura isn't sure whether it's the alcohol or perhaps because he hasn't slept in weeks, regardless of the cause, she finds herself bewildered, caught between a hard place and an equally harder one.

She's alone, dressed in her suit , Voltron had made a brief visit to a rebel base in Yunar, a moon south of here. The people there were ...begrudging to say the least about the newfound alliance between Voltron and Emperor Lotor. Upon returning she had made a detour from the rest of the team to inform Lotor about had transpired.

"The Emperor's in his lab" Morgil, a guard she believed, answered her queries about the new Emperor's whereabouts.

"Lab? Didn't know he had one?"

"He's there often" he yawns, unabashedly.

"Is he busy?"

"Don't know. I don't think I've seen him come out of it, actually"

Allura frowned softly "What do you mean?"

"I mean-he hasn't come out from there in days, weeks since your return from Ori-whats-it"

"Oriande. She corrects "has no one checked on him"

"Besides me and Dayak. Not particularly." He shakes his head " He's in one of his-moods again." He mutters flippantly.

Allura isn't sure what to say.

"If I were you, I'd leave before you see something that'll make you lose respect for him"

Wrinkling her nose, she felt offended on his behalf "is that anyway to speak of your Emperor?" She plants her hand on her hips.

"Well no." Scratching the side of his face " But, I'm talking from experience. I've seen how he gets with alcohol in his system"

"Alcohol?"

"To be fair he has to-like drink pounds of that stuff to send him over the edge."

"Drinking!?"

"Yeah, he's drunk. In fact, he's been on a drinking binge since you left"

"I-and you've just left him to drink himself into a coma!"

"You try getting between him and alcohol when he's completely plastered"

Invigorated with a righteous fury, she has Mogril to lead her to his labs. He does so without qualms, but out right refuses to enter said lab no matter what she said. She sniffed, she wasn't going to ask in the first place.

Upon entering, she found herself met with a dark, dreary basement. The structure eerily reminded her of Haggar's lair, but somehow creepier, the creak of the air conditioner did little to soothe the worry gnawing at the back of her mind.

"Lotor?"

No answer.

It's surprisingly cool down here as she carefully watched her step, diving further and further into the bowels of Lotor's lab with her heart wavering the closer and closer she got the bottom.

"Emperor Lotor?"

Still no answer. Only her voice echoing off the steel reinforced walls. Swallowing, she reaches the bottom and is led into a large room that might as well be a hanger room. She found rows of computer screens, and vacant chairs and tables filled with clutter.

"Emperor Lotor?"

The only sound is her footsteps.

Quietly, she placed her helmet on one of the tables to only spy a large piece of grafting paper on it is a blueprint for something? She squinted her eyes, leaning closer "Delta:Project?"

It looked like a gate. A massive one. The blueprints she realized were scribbled in a language she's never seen before, its erratic and shaky, and she can't make out the symbols or alphabet if that what it is.

"I wonder what this is for?" Knowing she probably shouldn't, she touched it, the paper smooth under the tips of her fingers. But, nothing happened, it's not like she's going to magically understand anything written on here, all she knew is that it's Lotor's handwriting.

Speaking of which she hasn't seen hair nor hide of him, and she's beginning to think he might not be down here. Moving away from the strange papers, she found the walls actually had writing on them this time mathematical formulas that she couldn't even fathom to understand, but again it's in Lotor's handwriting.

"Why would he-feet?" Allura blinked, unsure if she were seeing things again, as she rubbed both her eyes, figuring the lack of sleep might be getting to her, she found a pair of boots sticking out behind one of the metallic desks.

Far more curious than outright alarmed she crossed over cautiously to find the boots attached to the one person she had been looking for, sprawled out on the floor. She blinked again with a furrowed brow; he's not wearing his armor, and now that she brought it up realized she had never seen him without it. Layers of black and dark purple robbing with a cape attached to his shoulders and hair tied up.

When did he wear hooped earrings?

If she didn't know any better he looked as if he had been prepared for his own funeral. With his hands crossed over his stomach and eyes closed.

But, his chest is moving so he's alive.

"Um-Emperor?" She whispers.

His lips twitched.

"I'm busy, Yayamei. Leave me to my torment" he mumbled.

Her eye fidgeted.

"Yayamei? I'm not this Yayamei. Lotor, it's me, Allura!"

Finally, he prys his eyes open "Allura? Sweetheart is that you" he lifts his head up slightly.

The endearment, sweetheart, barely registers in her mind, the creeping flush of her cheeks went ignored.

"Y-yes" she stammered "but, the question is what on earth are you doing on the floor" his head falls back.

"Contemplating"

"Er-contemplating? Is this about Oriande" she dared to ask knowing it had been a sore sore spot for him, since their return.

"Oriande? Oriande? Ah, yes, Oriande….."

"Lotor, are you-are you okay?"

"Besides, my whole entire life being a carefully constructed lie? No."

"You mean no you aren't okay, or no I am okay"

"Neither" he supplied "Speaking of which, your back, love" the topic is dropped like a sack of hammers. Allura's sure she heard a thud somewhere.

Her lips twisted "I-I am. Remember, I told you I had to go to Yunar"

"Ah. Yes. Yunar. Yes." He sits up, a few strands of hair fall in front of his face, as he stands to his full height, dusting off his clothing and readjusting the golden sash around his hips.

"And how was this Yunar"

Allura grimaced. She's absolutely out of her element here. This is different, Lotor's acting very different from the man she "knows". In the short time, she's known him, Lotor had been nothing but calm and composed. Collected and unnerved by anything.

She's lost and more importantly confused by this odd display of behavior, Mogril said that had been on a drinking binge, but she hadn't seen a bottle of booze yet.

"It definitely went better than expected. Though, everyone's still wary of you and the Galra Empire, but they’re willing to put differences aside only in the heed that you'll met with the Yunar leaders."

"I see, I see" he starts wandering around the room with no destination in mind "do they have a date in mind. I have many meetings. Much to do, so little time" he rambles.

“That’s what I came here to talk to you about. When would be a good time for you to come to Yunar?”

“Any time after this month I believe” she’s hit with a wave of relief she had been expecting something far later, but this is good. The sooner, the better “I still have generals to appoint, such...and such” he waved his hand around as he paced around the room, apparently searching for something particular.

“Which begs the question” she changed the topic “about the ships? Shouldn’t we start on a course for developing them, if we want to put most of the fighting to an end”

He didn’t reply this time “Emperor” he stopped near a table placed in the center of the room, feeling aggravated, she huffed through her nose and approached him from behind “Emperor. Are you even listening to a thing I’m saying?”

More paper-blueprints this time of ships and ship parts and again more erratic writing in a language she doesn’t recognize.

“Yes. The ships. I haven’t forgotten. See” he gestures towards the many blueprints.

Her previous annoyance abates “oh. Is this what you have been up to?”

“More or less, my dear” again with the endearments. And again she tries her best to ignore them “I’ve been trying to find a way to make them efficient in every manner of the word. Not to heavy, but not light enough that the r rift will rip them apart. The alchemical process of creating them is about the least of our issues when you consider the expenses.”

“I-” she blinked rather dumbly “I hadn’t considered that”

“As I reform our new empire there is much to consider. Many will not be to keen on the throne mindlessly throwing money away at a single chance that might not bare fruit. Perhaps even end in catsophere. The rift is a huge blind area, little is known about it, what’s in it or what happens to one after entering said place. As evident with my father. The effects are massively unpredictable. I can’t blame my people, not after the reign of terror that my father has brought on them. My private funds might be able to hold us for a while, but not forever.”

“Your meticulously creepy sometimes.”

“When your in my position you must consider all angles.”

“I understand. This really does set us back, doesn’t it. There is much to think about. The paladins are already wary enough about the rift, and I can only imagine what the rebels might think of this too.” it’d be all to easy to give this up, but she won’t, she’s gotten this far, there must be a way. There has to be.

“But, I won’t give-what are you doing?” it was now that she noticed that had a small device in his hand, and he's holding down a button down on it.

“Recording this conversation”

“Why!?”

“There’s a ninety percent chance I won’t remember this.”

Her mouth propped open, brows pinched “I’m incredibly drunk at the moment”

“You don’t do that often do you”

“All the time. I have hyperthymesia, or is that an eidetic memory.” he rubbed his temple “I can’t remember”

“That would mean you’d remember everything! If that’s the case you don’t need to be recording our conversations!”

“if I were sober yes."

“Please don’t do that” which begs the question how long had he been doing that. She honestly, didn’t want to know the answer to that question, the notion of it is just undeniably creepy in a sense, but she needed to know “do you do this all the time?”

“Only when I’m drunk, darling”

Allura frowned her eyes flickering back to the blueprints. Intricate and detailed, there’s no way he did all this plastered “did you draw all this”

“Mh” he follows her gaze “yes.”

“While, inebriated”

“Yes.”

“Do you always work while drinking, that doesn’t seem very…” she searched for a nicer word than the ones that came to mind.

“Professional.” he offered “ It isn’t. But, not all the time, but most times.”

“Why?”

“It’s better than nothing I suppose. Well, I use to use Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, but than that disaster occurred on J’aseera. Afterwards, I went clean. Mostly.”

“What?”

“Ecstasy" Allura presses her lips together she didn't know whether to be angry, puzzled, annoyed or just simply done with this farce.

"What do mean by mostly?"

He breaks out into laughter "How do you think I get any of this stuff done, my dear, sitting around working normal hours? I usually take a dose to keep myself going"

"Doesn't the quintessence in your system already make it so you can forgo sleep for long periods of time."

"Yes, and no"

"Stop be vague and answer the question"

"Yes, it does, but only a weeks top, the ecstasy usually boosts the side effects. Plus, with only quintessence your motor skills start to diminish"

Her brow twitched "when's the last time you've slept?"

"Three weeks top." He paused "I think"

"That is incredibly unhealthy and dangerous!"

"I know"

Her mouth snapped closed and she inhaled sharply "What do you mean"I know" she mimicked his low baritone " if you knew you wouldn't be endangering your health like this! As the newly ordained Emperor of the Galra Empire your well-being should an absolute priority! You have people lead, you can't do that always drunk and drugged! Apparently."

He looks at her lazily, smirking which only fueled the anger coursing through her veins, she did not think this situation is at all something worth smirking about "you care that much about me, Allura?" He cocks a brow "and here I thought you despised me. Really, I'm quite flattered.

"I-Ugh-what makes you think I hate you? We're allies aren't we"

"I figured our alliance is more out of reluctance than actual interest"

"You proved yourself, didn't you. You haven't given me a reason not to trust you"

"But, you don't trust me. I know deep down you expect me to be my father. In some ways worse than him"

Allura's heart stilled in her chest "I-you don't put words in my mouth, Emperor" she crossed her arms over her chest, looking away pointedly.

"It's fine if you wish to feign ignorance. I don't hold it against you." Her shoulders drop before her gaze flickers back to him, still smirking that stupid smirk. He really wanted to slap it off his stupid, handsome face.

The red flush of her cheeks returned "thinking of something, darling" he tilts his head.

"Absolutely not!" She snapped "get your bloody head out the gutter, you pervert" out of all the things she didn't think he'd be a lech. A drunk lech nonetheless.

"I'm wounded over your accusations, Princess"

"And I'm wounded by your tasteless behavior" she sniffed.

"Your beautiful"

"I stink. I haven't bathed in a week. The Yunar aren't particularly well-known for their hygiene."

"Speaking of which" another change in topics. Again. It's like his mind couldn't stay focused on one thing for too long "I had something I needed to give you"

Tried, she offered him the driest look she could give him "and that is?"

"I left it in my private quarters."

Lovely.

Thanks anon for the request!

#lotura #lollura #requests #allura x lotor #lotor x allura

8 notes · View notes

leakinghate · 6 years

Text

You are Wrong about Lotor

The advertisements for this season promised to blur the lines between good and evil and delivered exactly that. By the conclusion of Voltron Legendary Defender season Six our paladins have apparently killed the only true hero in this show, destroyed their only access point to unlimited clean energy, and kickstarted a civil war in the Galra Empire. Team Voltron, has become the villains.

What’s that?

Doesn’t sound like we watched the same show?

Let me explain.

The writing and framing this season were truly incredible. Meticulously calculated to provide just the right information at just the right time to draw the exact wrong conclusions. It aims to provoke a violent emotional reaction in the viewer and discourage them from thinking critically about what they’re seeing. Even better, it’s a double trick, as additionally, our protagonists in the show fall into the same trap. It’s so incredibly meta, to have your audience make the same, independent conclusion as your characters.

It’s emotional manipulation at it’s cruelest, and this is only the first of the one-two punch that’s due to land it’s second hit next season.

Because team Voltron is wrong about Lotor, and so are you.

To cut to the chase, the story the narrative wants you to conclude, is that Lotor is keeping a group of Alteans hostage to systematically drain them of quintessence for use in his experiments.

I’m going to tell you right now, that’s not what’s happening.

Romelle is either hopelessly naive or malicious: she straight up admits to only knowing parts of the truth. Suspiciously, she is the first and only person Keith and Krolia encounter, but just so happens to be the only person privy to the ‘dark secrets’ of the colony. What luck! Of course, they must avoid interacting with the other Alteans who reside in the colony, as nobody else would believe Romelle if she told them. Convenient. As far as I am concerned, everything she tells them that was not also directly witnessed by Krolia and Keith is suspect.

Speaking of, how is it, exactly, that we know Lotor is extracting quintessence from these people? Hmm? Do we have any concrete proof? No. Keith jumps to conclusions. Keith shoots first and asks questions later.

Upon discovering the emaciated Alteans in the pods Keith immediately declares that Lotor must be harvesting their quintessence. We see no actual quintessence in the lab, and by the accumulation of dust it appears that the facility has been unused for quite some time. Logically, the quintessence that the blade intercepted, and that Keith and Krolia have been seeking the source of, had to have come from somewhere, but that place isn’t this lab. But, this is no time for logic; Keith, Krolia and Romelle race off to the Castle of Lions to confront Lotor.

Sendak was absolutely correct when he said that the paladin’s greatest weakness was that they value the lives of others. Because just the suggestion that some innocent people may have lost their lives is enough to prompt the paladins to ambush someone, guns drawn, who has thus far proved himself a powerful and valuable ally. They ask Lotor exactly zero questions and don’t allow him the time to explain themselves. And it was the idea alone that caused them to act, because at no point did they seek out any proof whatsoever!

Allura alone I will grant some leeway in her reaction.

I 100% understand why Allura reacted the way she did, after all the shit she’s been through. She’s only just managed to feel that not all Galra are as monstrous as Zarkon. She’s fallen in love with his own son, and she’s hoping with everything she has that he’s really a good person. I’m sure there was still some residual fear there, it can’t have been more than two years from her perspective since everything she’s known and loved was taken from her. It takes so long to shake a trauma like she’s been through, and many people never fully do. And when she discovers that Lotor has been hiding the existence of other Alteans from her? That he admits to having to sacrifice a few? That fear and anger flared up.

It’s conspicuous, that circumstances conspire to both render Lotor unconscious and to remove him from the castle before he can explain himself. He doesn’t even hear half of the things that he’s been accused of doing and so wouldn’t know to deny them. No one ever, at any point, asks Lotor if he’s been harvesting quintessence from living Alteans. We’re left waiting to hear his side of things, and then, the next thing he says referencing Team Voltron is this:

“Zethrid, Ezor, my deepest apologies for lying to you both. But in order to gain the princess’s trust, and make the paladins of Voltron believe we were truly at odds, it had to be done.”

This comes at an interesting place in the narrative. Seemingly confirming that Lotor has been manipulating Team Voltron the whole time, and thus invalidating the sincerity of any of his prior actions since splitting from his generals. Because it follows immediately upon the horrific accusations he was denied the chance to refute it also tricks us into thinking he’s admitting to them. After all, if he’s been faking this entire time, what couldn’t he be capable of? Except. This apology is itself a lie.

In fact, regardless of whatever understanding Lotor and Axca have between them, it is impossible for them to have been working together at any point between Axca’s betrayal at Daibazaal and The Generals allying themselves with Haggar; after the point in which Allura and Team Voltron began extending some trust to Lotor. While it’s possible - even probable - that Lotor and Axca may have had contingency plans for faking a split between the generals and Lotor, and some of those plans may have included attempting an alliance with Voltron, there are far too many moving pieces for all that transpired between them to have been planned ahead of time. Far too many opportunities for one or all of them to have died. And, consistently, Lotor puts his own survival and that of his loyal allies above all other priorities.

Simply put, if the generals hadn’t been recruited by Haggar they would have been executed. If Axca was loyal to Lotor at this point she would have had no good reason to risk her life by returning to the empire, especially when Lotor had just killed Zarkon.

He says this when he does because he needs Ezor and Zethrid to not fight him over returning to the Castle of Lions. His words towards his generals, notably using ‘power’ instead of ‘peace’, are chosen to convince them to work with him again and to give the impression that he has control of the situation and a plan - which he absolutely does not.

We know this is a facade, because the moment Lotor comes face to face - or ship to lion - with Allura again he drops it and reverts to language and mannerisms he’s been using before with her. But he’s doing this openly in front of his generals and they’re visibly perplexed.

Lotor rushes back to the Castle of Lions to attempt to reason with Allura. He loves her, and he's willing to put aside his pride and plead with her in front of both of their teams. You can hear the panic in his voice as he tries to hold it together.

And then Allura accuses Lotor of being worse than Zarkon. Everything after that, isn't really him. He has a mental breakdown. He’s had every support ripped away, and 10,000 years worth of repressed pain and anguish come crashing down on him. He's lost everything that matters to him, had the one person he though he could trust, the woman he loves, accuse him of his own greatest fear, and he's hurting.

In meta about prior seasons I’ve seen it expressed that it’s a miracle that Lotor escaped his upbringing as apparently put together as he did. He’s paranoid, and occasionally willing to go against his own moral code if it means surviving another day, but surprisingly stable.

Well, it turns out he isn’t. Lotor fairly obviously has some degree of mental illness, and it unfortunately contributes to his decline in the season finale. At the risk of getting too personal in a fandom meta post, Lotor’s breakdown is eerily familiar to me - and I would expect many other fans with experience with mental health issues as well. I too have had crisis like that, complete with screaming, ranting and threatening to kill everyone who’s ever even so much as looked at you funny.

This whole situation went to hell because team Voltron has a history of making decisions based on emotions rather than logic. So far, it’s worked out pretty alright for them, but that’s about to change. They’ve lost their home, their best chance for stability and avoiding a civil war in the Galra Empire, and a loyal friend. Because they let their emotions get the best of them and couldn’t take fifteen minutes to sort out their facts from their fears.

The only negative thing. The only negative thing Lotor admits to, is that ‘many Alteans perished in [his] quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence.’ He does not say how they died, he does not say he killed them, he doesn’t even say that their deaths were intentional. For all we know, they died in a lab accident. Those Alteans in pods? Among the many functions pods like those are established to have in VLD are healing and cryopreservation. We don’t even know that those people are the deceased Alteans in question. We don’t even know if they’re dead!

The one and only time we see the blue quintessence used as intended in show is when Lotor uses the last of his supply of it to energize his Sincline ship and attempts to pass through the gate for the first time. In response to Zethrid’s concern that this is the last of their concentrated quintessence Lotor states that once they get into the rift they will have access to an unlimited amount of it. Therefore, it stands to reason that the white quintessence found in the rift contains the same properties as the blue of unknown origin. But that the yellow and purple the Empire uses apparently does not. Lotor doesn't need the quintessence in the rift for the empire: he needs it for the Alteans. He's not manipulating anyone, his goals are the same as theirs: peace and free energy for the universe. While it’s likely the blue quintessence does have some relation to the colony, whatever that is, there is currenly no evidence whatsoever that it’s being extracted from sentient beings. He’s clearly looking for a replacement source as it is. He likely wanted to tell Allura about the Altean colony, but felt he needed to secure reliable access to the quintessence field before he could do so.

So what’s this second punch that’s going to land next season?

If you haven’t guessed already, think how this is actually going to turn out. Because we know Romelle is wrong, whether on purpose or by accident. She basically conspired to kill the man who did everything in his power to save her people and her culture. And she did so by turning his friends against him.

How are the paladins going to feel when they realize this? How is Allura going to feel? She left Lotor to die in the rift. After he begged her to see reason. After he confessed his feelings for her. After she fell in love with him.

Ultimately, despite what many people expected, and indeed what many people are saying, Lotor has never intentionally manipulated the paladins and he didn’t betray Team Voltron.

Allow me to repeat myself:

Lotor didn’t betray Team Voltron

They betrayed him.

Sincere thanks to all my fandom family in the Lotura 18+ discord. Nearly all of the conclusions reached in this meta were origionally hashed out during chat sessions. Love you all, and I hope for anyone disheartened by s6 this meta can give you a bit of hope for the future.

I sincerely believe, that when all things are said and done, Voltron: Legendary Defender is going to go down as one of the best shows ever created.

#Lotor #JusticeForLotor #voltron s6 spoilers #vld s6 spoilers #meta #long post #Allura #Keith #Romelle #Hate tries to Meta #Voltron Legendary Defender

2K notes · View notes

dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.36

Stupid. He was stupid. Lance was potentially the most stupid person he knew. He’d made it as far as his car, before giving up. His idiocy on full display as his mood and feelings shifted again. God. His little anger loaf was standing on the steps of his house, watching him with concern. Sure enough, Lance soon heard the crunching of gravel under Keith’s boots, before the driver’s side door was opening

“Lance?”

Fuck it. Keith was going to hate him for lying, so he might as well make Keith really hate him with the truth

“I lied”

Mumbling softly, he flinched as Keith asked

“What was that?”

“I lied. I panicked and I lied to you”

“Miriam isn’t sick?”

Lance shook his head. She was old, and not about to get any younger, but not sick

“No”

“What the fuck? You had me seriously worried! Why would you lie to me like that?”

Lance couldn’t blame Keith for how mad he sounded

“I... I like you. Like, I really like you and I finally decided I was going to tell you, then Shiro called and I realised all over again that I was being stupid and I panicked... because I don’t know what to do. I’m a vampire and you’re a hunter. A human, hunter. I don’t even know your last name... But... all this confusing junk in my head won’t stop... I like you, Keith. And I’m sorry... I know I’m stupid. I know you’re only attracted to be me because of my body... but I’ve never felt the way about anyone I do when I look at you”

Lance knew he was done for. Keith said nothing long enough for Lance to start crying

“Move over”

Sniffling, Lance wiped at his face

“What?”

“Move over”

Shifting over, Lance moved all the way to the passenger door. He wasn’t sure what Keith was going to do, only that if he died, he wanted the mess to be as contained as possible. Climbing up in the driver’s seat, Keith pulled his seatbelt into place, before starting the bronco. He was going to be murdered. Keith was going to murder him. His body would disappear. His Mami would never know what happened to him. He’d never kiss Keith properly. He’d never cuddle up with him again, or think him stupid. He’d never find out what was wrong Keith’s heart... or internally freak out every time his body felt warmer than stone cold. He’d never see his precious Blue, or taste Hunk’s cooking, or be teased by Pidge... He didn’t want to die. Letting out a miserable groan, Lance’s hand was poised to pull the door handle open. It’d hurt to fall out, but Keith wasn’t driving too fast. If he rolled, he might have a chance of fleeing before he could him.

“Stop freaking out. You’re freaking me out!”

“I don’t want to die... I’m sorry I said anything, but I promise I’ll be good... I won’t say anything ever again”

Keith changed gears, Lance’s bronco lurching as he did

“I’m not going to kill you”

“That’s not what your face says”

Keith had amped “anger loaf” up to an “angry baker’s dozen”. Give him an axe and he’d look like an axe murderer on his way to dismember his victim

“Just shut up before I punch you in the dick”

Cowering in the passenger seat of the car, Lance pulled his knees to his chest, trying to make himself small. He didn’t want to turn into a bat, but right now it’d be handy.

Lance kept his head down as he mentally mapped the route Keith was taking... so he could flee back to his house and retrieve Blue once the death drive was over. He never should have told Keith. Keith was soooooo way beyond mad. He was mad and he hated him... but this kiss or no kiss thing they were messing with was too much for him. Slowing the car, Keith was none to gentle as they stop. Lance sent forwards, then backwards, thanks to his lack of seatbelt. Not raising his head, he hard the seatbelt click, then the creaking of the upholstery as Keith turned towards him

“You can stop hiding now”

“I don’t think I want to”

“Lance”

“You’re scaring me. If you want to murder me...”

Keith sighed at him

“I don’t want to murder you. I want to talk to you”

“Lies! You brought me out here to murder me!”

“Stop being dramatic. Why would I drive you so far away from the house to kill you? I’m a hunter, we know what to do about bodies”

“That doesn’t make feel better”

Keith grabbed him the arms, tugging against Lance who stubbornly kept them crossed

“I said I want to talk to you”

“And I said you’re going to murder me”

Keith kept tugging, Lance too much of a pussy not to let himself give way. Letting Keith hold his arms, Lance stared down at his crotch

“Would you look at me, already? It’s hard to have a conversation when you won’t look at me”

“No. Because if I look at you, I’ll see how much you hate me”

“I don’t hate you!”

He was trying Keith’s patience and he knew it

“You should! I’m a bad guy. I’m selfish and I’m dead!”

“You’re a fucking idiot. That’s what you are. First you lie, then you drop that confession out of nowhere, now you won’t even look at me”

“Because you hate me!”

Keith let out a growly kind of sigh, the hunter moving to kiss him as Lance raised his head at the sound, smacking their heads against each other as he did. Rubbing his chin, Keith pulled back, Lance arms finally freed

“So now you raise your head!”

“You growled at me!”

“Because you weren’t listening!”

Crossing his arms, Lance slid lower in the chair

“I made a mistake”

“A mistake about what?”

“About telling you”

“That you liked me?”

“What else? What am I even doing?! You’re only attracted to me because I keep going into heat like a damn werewolf! This is Curtis’s fault. He kept going on about soulmates and my pathetic arse went and had a crush on you. I’m like way older than you, barely functional at the best of times. I don’t like people. I don’t like people in my house. I don’t like stupid people. Of course I go and fall in love with the first person who accepts me. Of fucking course I do. I’m selfish and petty. I felt left out because heavens forbid you have an actual friend that knows what it is to be a hunter. I don’t know your last name. I don’t know the first thing. But nooooo. I want to kiss you. I want to be the centre of attention. You keep supporting me and I do jack shit, then betray you by having feels... I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“It sounds like you have a lot on your mind”

Fucking Keith. Why couldn’t he get angry? Or at the very least kick him for ruining his life

“I do. So if you’d be so kind, can you please just drive us home where I can bury myself in my death soil”

“Don’t I get a say in this?”

“Do you need to have a say in this?”

What was there to say? He was an idiot. An idiot with serious feels for a human

“Seeing you confessed to me, I think I do”

“Fine. Have at it. You can’t mess things up more than I have”

Keith groaned as he slumped against the seat

“You didn’t mess things up”

“I feel like I did”

“You didn’t mess things up, because I think I like you too”

“Yeah, because my body is weird”

“It’s not... okay, yeah. You’re pretty fucking weird. And you don’t me. But I don’t know much about you outside of what was in your file”

“How nice. At least you got footnotes”

“I’m trying to talk to you. Stop interrupting me”

Talking implied a two way street... Keith wasn’t talking to him, he was talking at him

“Fine. Just spit it out so I can take my humiliation to my grave”

“Gargh! Just shut up and listen to me. I like you too. You. I don’t know what I’m doing either but I do know I like being around you. You’re weird, but not too weird when you think about the fact this time tomorrow the house is going to have 2 hunters, 2 werewolves, 1 cursed ex-hunter, and a vampire in it. That’s not normal. I didn’t see this being my life. I don’t know how to date. I didn’t want to date. Losing Adam nearly destroyed Shiro. I didn’t want a person like that... then you came along and changed everything. I get jealous too. Of you and Hunk, and you and Pidge... I don’t know why they want to be friends with me. People who want to be friends are usually only making fun of me. You don’t do that. I keep wanting to kiss you. I keep going around in circles. I don’t know what to do about the junk in my head either...”

Lance worried his bottom lip as he looked to Keith. Maybe they were two desperately lonely idiots trying to be less lonely in a world where it was so easy to be lonely? He liked him... but couldn’t believe he was liked back

“... right now, I just want to kiss you”

“I don’t want to hurt you”

“You won’t... Can I kiss you?”

Lance nodded, stomach filled with butterflies and a million wriggling caterpillars waiting to take their place.

Closing his eyes, for a moment Lance feared Keith wouldn’t kiss him back. He didn’t need to fear though. Keith’s lips were chapped and he definitely needed to start using lip balm, but the kiss... it was the kind of kiss that made you feel happy to be alive... or dead. Soft and clumsy, Lance panicked slightly when he tasted Keith’s blood. Pulling back, he stared wide eyed at Keith who smiling

“You don’t need to be afraid”

“I cut you lip”

“Maybe I liked it?”

Keith bleeding was not something Lance liked

“I’m...”

“If you say you’re a monster, I really will punch you in the dick”

Keith, romance extraordinaire right there. Shiro had not taught him well

“I’m sorry... I can’t get them to retract any further”

“It’s fine. We’ll work something out”

“How?”

His teeth were kind of razor sharp

“I don’t know... Apparently this talking thing is a start”

“Why do you listen to all the lame things I say?”

“Because you listen to me. So... okay. Kogane. My mum’s a werewolf hunter named Krolia. My boots are size 11. I’m 5’11, 93kgs. I’ve killed three werewolves with the use of explosives and my other kills were with Shiro help. Lactose hates me. Tequila is evil. I have no biological siblings, probably because mum loves her work more than me. I’ve never been in a relationship. I the one time I kind of got close turned out to be a prank. I like photography. I usually ride my motorbike to unwind. People say I have anger issues. I say I have people issues. I get paranoid when people are watching me. I didn’t graduate high school... and I prefer practical over looks... oh, and I collect swords and knives”

Lance was shocked. Everything Keith said locked it’s self in his brain. Keith had been so damn open. Like way too open...

“Lance?”

“Sorry... I was processing... that was like a lot”

“A good a lot? Because I don’t know what to say now”

“No. You did really well, buddy”

Lance cringed at calling Keith “buddy”. Keith sighing at him over it

“Really?”

“I regret it already... I don’t know what to say”

“Tell me something about you?”

“Oh... um... like what?”

Keith knew his file. Heck, Keith probably knew more about him than he did

“I don’t know”

“Um... if... we’re being honest your hair is a mullet”

Groaning at him, Keith pushed his knee

“It grows that way”

“Um... maybe it’s not as annoying as I make it out to be?”

“Watch it, you’re being dangerously close to being nice about my hair”

Lance snorted. He was still filled with those butterflies, but he wasn’t getting murdered by the seems of it, so that was a temporary win

“You wish, mullet. I’ll give you one shot at asking me anything you want”

Keith’s expression changed, he seemed to be thinking, or trying to crap his pants. Lance wasn’t sure

“Can I ask you what happened the day you turned? You don’t have to tell me everything, but I want to understand”

Okay. Maybe Lance had expected that. Maybe that’s why he’d tried to deflect with banter. Maybe those butterflies were still in his belly because he had to tell Keith the truth

“I... Okay... Okay... just promise you won’t laugh at me”

“I’ve laughed at you over plenty of things, but this won’t be one of them”

“That’s not a promise”

Keith scooched forward, placing his hand on Lance’s knee

“I promise I won’t laugh”

“Okay... fuck... this is... okay...”

“Lance, it’s okay. I know Rolo and Nyma turned you. I know it was horrible and traumatic, but I’m not going to suddenly hate you for what happened”

“I hate me for what happened. I can’t ever forget that day... it’s the day my family was ruined forever...”

“What happened wasn’t your fault”

“It was... fuck... it was... So... We’d only left Cuba not that long ago and I didn’t fit in. My skin wasn’t the right colour. My clothes weren’t the right clothes. I had friends but I always seemed to ruin things. I was sitting on the swings at school, watching everyone else play soccer. They never picked me because I wasn’t right... Nyma... Nyma and Rolo came up to the swings... the day was really overcast, but maybe they could walk in the sun? I don’t know... but I was so lonely and there were these two adults... teenagers... I never knew how old they were... I knew Mami wouldn’t want me talking to strangers, so I told them. Nyma laughed and she said she wasn’t a stranger because she’d seen me around in school before. They asked me if I wanted to play. Someone was paying attention to me. I have a big family. No... I had a big family, so I never had much attention. Anything I wanted like ice creams, Mami would always ask my older siblings what they wanted and they never agreed. I just wanted to be... liked. Nyma asked me to come pick a soccer ball out the storage shed with her... Schools back there really were nothing like they are now... They found me the next day, but I was in a coma for like a while... Coran was there when I woke up, Mami too... and everything kind of went to shit. The shed was pulled down, apparently there was so much blood there that they thought someone slaughtered a cow as a joke. It’s not much of a story”

Lance nervously chewed at his lip, waiting for Keith to reply. Glancing to the hunter, he found Keith had tears in his eyes

“Keith?”

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry no one was there to help you”

Lance had often thought about that. About the “what ifs”. But one thing he did know was that you couldn’t go back in time and undo what’d been done

“You’re the first friend I’ve talked to about it, and you know the gist of things... but yeah. Basically I’ve had PTS and anxiety since. I’m on my fourth identity now. I went into law to help children... and this car was my gift from my family when I graduated the first time around. Before you came along, I was the only person who’d driven her. She’s been my trusty companion through it all”

“Kids can be total shits”

Lance nodded. They could. But they could also be sweet like his niece and nephew had been

“I kept wondering how they didn’t hear me, or if they did, if they laughed at me. I’m lucky I was the only one they took that day”

“They deserve to be dead. You’re nothing like them, you know. It makes me want to punch something”

“Please don’t punch my dick”

Keith flashed him a watery smile, Lance shifting close enough to lean against the hunter. Keith felt so reassuringly solid against him. Nervously he asked

“So where does that leave us? If you need space... I won’t be mad”

“I don’t know how to date. I’m probably going to make a lousy boyfriend”

“If you just want to be friends, that’s okay too. I just... I’ve been going slightly crazy with all these thoughts in my head. I don’t want to take your future from you”

“It’s my future to choose. I think I want to date you...”

“Maybe you should talk to Shiro? I don’t think he left you here with the intention of us shacking up together”

Keith sighed. After what happened with Adam, the hunter was definitely entitled to not be in favour of them dating

“I do... I mean, I’ve been going crazy too. Trying to tell if you’re flirting. Trying to figure out what I’m feeling”

“I feel bad for lying to you and for dumping this on you...”

“You should feel bad about the lying. I was seriously worried about Miriam... but I was more worried about you. But don’t feel bad for telling me. I wanted to know more about you. I still do”

“I’m old enough to be your dad... hell, you’re old enough to be a dad, a grand dad even... if you’d started young enough”

“I never really thought about kids. Or... thought I’d find someone I wanted to date... My childhood wasn’t the best. I was that problem foster kid that didn’t want help or trust people easily...”

“Are you glad you met me?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe how much of a dick I was”

“You did take it to a whole new level”

Keith’s stupidity had had to be seen to be believed. What kind of a moron claims to be turned when he’s the one who went and cut himself of Lance’s tooth to begin with?

“I’m sorry, you were supposed to be an evil bloodsucker”

“I can be evil... We vampires have egos. If we let our egos get out of check then we lose what makes us human. It’s not easy being dead”

“I’ve gathered that much... Why don’t you like my blood?”

They were back on this again? Why couldn’t Keith understand it wasn’t personal

“It’s not about liking it. The first time I tasted your blood was like eating mouldy socks... I’ve always drunk from bags... I always felt better about drinking from bags. Like it’s more humane”

“It’s not because there’s something wrong in there?”

Lance had the feeling feeding from Keith was going to be a fiasco all over again. He’d told him more than once he didn’t want to, yet Keith kept bringing it back up.

“Not anymore. You did let me feed when I was a bat. I haven’t thanked you for that”

His tiny bat body had eaten its fill. Lance had hoped that the blood would turn him back

“You’re much easier to understand when you’re a bat”

“I thought you said you didn’t speak bat?”

“I don’t... but you’re like a puppy. You’re soft and warm... and kind of funny when you’re angry”

He was a fearsome vampire. If anyone was like a puppy, it was Keith. A barely housetrained puppy with eyes that got him every time

“Puppy’s don’t have wings”

“I said you’re like a puppy. I do know what a dog looks like”

“Speaking of dogs, what are we going to tell Shiro? He’s turning up with Matt tomorrow”

“I’ll talk to him. It’s not like we rushed into bed together”

“I’m not ready for that, yet”

“It’s fine. I think both of us aren’t ready for that yet...”

“But my scent...”

“We’ve held off this long...”

“We weren’t dating... I don’t want my scent making you do something you don’t want to do”

“Trust me when I say your scent makes me want to do all kind of things to you, but waiting is good too”

“And what are going to tell Curtis?”

“Nothing for now. We’re still working this out. He’d probably throw condoms and lube at us if we told him”

That was highly likely. Being cursed really had to suck for Curtis

“I don’t think he likes me”

Keith snorted, Lance unamused that Keith found his upset funny

“He said the same thing. I told him we’d have a movie night tonight so we could all hang out together”

“Then you kidnapped me”

“I prefer the term “borrowed”. You’re too uptight at home”

“You’d be uptight too if you heard too much all the damn time”

“And that has nothing to do with you spending most of your time worrying over the changes you’re going through?”

“I spent 44 years as a man, now I’m apparently able to have kids on top of that. Who wouldn’t be freaked the fuck out? My swimmers are dead. I’m dead... it’s weird as fuck”

“You have a half cursed man in your house. I don’t think things could get much weirder right about now”

“Is it weird I want to see his tail? He said he had half a tail, so would it be like short or is it long but only half of it’s there?”

“Don’t make me think... I don’t know. He’d probably show you if you ask”

“I can’t just ask to see his tail. He thinks I hate him”

“Maybe you could show him your teeth?”

Lance rolled his eyes mentally. Curtis was a hunter, he would have seen fangs before, but his idiot kind of boyfriend wasn’t known for having all his ducks in a row. Less than smoothly Keith tried to bring his hand up so pull Lance into a hug, the problem being it was the hand holding Lance’s. Keith’s IQ was rivalling a teaspoon right now, but the gesture was sweet enough for Lance to let go of Keith’s hand and wrap his arms around the hunter

“You could ask. He likes you”

“He likes you too. You just don’t know each other”

“I suppose. I just wish every time we talked I didn’t feel like a science experiment. Next he’s going to have me eating bi-carb and chugging down vinegar”

“Don’t forget that food colouring. Though, it wouldn’t be the first time you blew up”

The joke was horrible and Keith should feel horrible

You have a really crappy sense of humour”

“You can blame Shiro for that”

“That seems like effort. How long are we going to sit here?”

“As long as you want. I didn’t have much of a plan”

“That’s so like you”

“Hey, you were acting weird. That’s not on me”

“You try developing a crush on a human. It’s a lot to deal with”

“Try being a hunter who likes a vampire”

“Touché. Okay. Okay. I’m okay now. We should head back home”

“You sure?”

Lance honestly just wanted to stay like this. Keith hadn’t even picked a romantic destination for this little heart to heart. They were parked out near the cemetery, which would have been the perfect place to hide his body, but... it was so him that it was ridiculous

“Yeah. I wanna make sure my house is still standing”

“Fair point. Buckle up, I’m not having the guy I’m kind of dating getting hurt while I’m driving”

Lance’s butterflies fluttered at “kind of dating”. It wasn’t a yes, and it wasn’t a no, so he took it as a hopeful maybe.

#once bitten twice stupid #oncebittentwicestupid #ashratherose

14 notes · View notes

klanced · 6 years

Text

here are all my dnd episode hot takes bc i love it so much

I’m guessing that, besides being the team’s mascot/furry, Lance also functions as a tracker of sorts.

His posture (squatting on the ground), the fact that he looks like he’s holding something (like mayhaps a scooped up bit of dirt), the way he’s looking over his shoulder as he gives the team his Opinion, the way they all seem decidedly unimpressed at his deductions considering he only sniffed dirt- Fantasy Tracker™, Babey!

Anyway, going off that, it looks like the party is trying to track something (a monster? Lotor’s character? Keith’s?).

I bet Pidge’s armor makes her super top-heavy. If she fell over, she’d look like a turtle on its back.

Also I can’t get over her CHICKEN ARMS and her BIGASS double-bladed axe like. She really is going all out huh.

I’m also digging the fact that Shiro is wearing a full-on black cloak in the middle of a somewhat sunny forest while hanging with his crew. King of wishing he stayed home! King of withdrawing from others!

I’m already in love with this episode like this is DEFINITELY going to be one of my top five favorite episodes. I feel it in my nerd loving bones.

I sincerely hope that whatever their riding is some big scary monster that scared the pants off everyone except for Allura, who immediately befriended it. Bonus points if there’s a scene where she rubs its tummy.

Maybe it’s some personification/manifestation of the White Lion? Idk, I never finished Season 5 so I don’t really know what’s up with Allura and the White Lion, but this could be a reference to that ep.

I saw a post where someone said that could be Keith’s character which is hilarious and I fully endorse.

... Y’know what? I bet whatever the team is tracking in the first pic ends up being the animal they’re riding in the second.

This is your daily reminder that I am a BIG lesbian who is in LOVE with Allura!

LIKE HELLO? THE PURPLE BODYSUIT? FLAWLESS. THE HAIR? CURLED AND FLOWING. HER EARS? POINTER THAN HER ARROWS, AND TWICE AS DEADLY. LEGOLAS SAW HER OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS EYE AND IMMEDIATELY WENT HOME.

I love her.

But seriously, just LOOK at her. She woke up that morning and she decided that yes, actually, she IS going to be That Bitch™! She’s winning the award for best dressed, and she damn well knows it.

I’m also still not over that one curled bang like UGH. YES. And the purple theme she’s rocking?? The way they almost match her pastel glowing marks? Her arrow feathers???? Cupid lined up the shot at my heart, and Her aim was true!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Allura’s eyes a bit bluer than normal??? Are these.... Fantasy Contacts™?

This is pure speculation, but in my opinion it looks like Allura’s character isn’t a princess. Her armory is fancy, but she lacks Allura’s usual “crown” (it’s not really a crown, but I can’t find the proper word for it lol). Which is interesting! And if true, would confirm some of my meta on Allura lol.

........... I just realized that Hunk isn’t actually bald at the top of his head, but is instead wearing a green hat. And you know what? I’ll take the Rock Lee look over the monk bowl cut any day.

He still looks like Doctor Strange took a vacation in the Earth Kingdom, but y’know what? We still stan. I mean, the beard alone is absolutely legendary, so quite frankly? Hunk’s outfit may be weird as hell, but he still looks good. Case closed! Legends only!

Hunk’s collar is popped because he’s too busy mmmmmmmmmmblockin out the haters.

His belly button is glowing. Absolute legends only.

Also what the hell, Hunk’s sideburns look so good??? His Fantasy Barber™ is a god????? Like OOF, that cut? That fade? Can he please call his barber and ask them to fix Kuron’s hair?? Lol.

Hunk lookes like he’s playing as some kind of monk/sage class, which really tickles my fancy because Hunk as a defensive magic user is (Allura voice) absolutely divine. I mean, just look at that staff! He could either heal you or hurt you with that borderline club, let’s leave it at that.

The longer I stare at his beard the more unbelievable it gets. How did he cultivate such a majestic lock of hair? He has absolutely no facial except for this single 1″ by 1″ square. Hunk is incredibly powerful.

Voltron really wants me dead, huh. Like, they want to loot my wallet from my cold dead corpse and spend my last two dollars at Starbucks. That’s the only explanation for... this.

He looks like if Kaden from Fire Emblem Fates had a baby with Odd from Code Lyoko and that baby raided the closet of Mako from Legend of Korra.

If he has a tail, I will go full on nuclear winter, mark my fucking words.

If his ears so much as TWITCH I will really lose it I am not joking. Voltron has gone TOO FAR, and I will be the one to end it.

Okay I might be imagining things but in the picture on the left, it looks like Lance still has a right earlobe/right ear, so uh. What’s up with that. Does Lance just have four goddamn ears. Are his furry ears fake? Oh my god, is Lance faking being furry kin?

If he has claws tho, I can accept that because that’s cool as hell. I’ll also tolerate Lance having sharp canines, but only if he’s constantly biting his tongue lol.

Lance is wearing quite a bit of jewelry for someone whose clothes look like shit which begs the question of how... he has them.

If Voltron makes Lance’s dnd character a thief we riot.

Also his facial markings look like Krolia’s which is either a funny coincidence, OR the dnd episode takes place after Keith reunites with the team and introduces them to Krolia, and Lance’s markings are inspired by hers. Which is cute.

I honestly cannot tell if she’s wearing a furry cape or if that’s just her hair, but either way I’m loving it. You go, you fierce little warrior you!

I JUST NOTICED THAT HER SHOULDERS ARE AS BROAD/BROADER THAN HUNK’S NOW GHSKDGHDJGSDGDS

I mentioned this in a different post but I genuinely thought Pidge was going to be a rogue or some sort of magic user, so DPS/Tank Pidge has completely blindsided me and I’m loving every second of it.

Pidge doesn’t roleplay based on her actual self and personality. No, she’s creating Fantasy Pidge™ for a Fantasy World™ which means living out every wild dream she’s ever had!!! She’s chaotic neutral bitch and LOVING it.

She has a DOUBLE-BLADED AXE and it it’s not at least 3/4 her size then what, pray tell, is the point. I want Pidge to heft her axe around like it’s nothing, and then when she puts it down it literally shakes the ground. That’s the ultimate power move.

Lance being a goddamn furry PROVES the existence of other Fantasy Races™ so fingers crossed that Pidge decides to play a dwarven character to explain why she’s so short ghdkjsghdkjs

Pidge looks so happy in the second pic. This really is the best day of her life.

(ZOOMS IN ON THE SECOND PICTURE) YO IS THAT A CROWN???? 👀👀

Okay but seriously, if Shiro’s character is a prince/king I will EXPLODE!!!! Let Shiro make a dnd character with an unnecessarily tragic and dramatic backstory!! Let Shiro roleplay as a prince on a mission to avenge his fallen kingdom and free his people!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would also explain why Shiro is constantly wearing a black cloak and hiding his beautiful, perfect face. Because he’s on the run and has to stay undercover, bitch!

NGL, I’m a lesbian but I stared at the second picture of Shiro for a good ten seconds. Mostly because Shiro’s hair looks really, really good, and it’s a balm to my eyes after season 4 and 5.

Also, I just realized, his crown/coronet/WHATEVER is in the same place/represents his tuft of white hair! You can see this most clearly in the first pic :3c That’s so cute!

I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed because at first, I thought Shiro was wielding a gigantic two-handed sword, which is absolutely badass and kickass. However, on closer examination I can see what looks to be a shield strapped to Shiro’s back (apparently over the cloak, which is weird lol), so Shiro most likely wields a so-called “one-handed” sword.

I won’t lie, for a hot second I thought Shiro might be wielding a club or something because I couldn’t see a sword hilt, but if you look at the left picture really closely, you can see what looks to be a black sword hilt. I did some googling, because swords are cool, and I’d guess Shiro’s sword is based off a knightly sword.

#voltron #allura #pidge #hunk #lance #shiro #voltron spoilers #long post #REALLY long post lol #image #shitpost #caps #header text #italics

2K notes · View notes