#kind kolivan

[eternally--mortal]

I have an ongoing Maladaptive Daydream storyline for a Klance fic that won’t leave me alone but that I also know I’ll never write, partially because my brain treats it a little like a choose your own adventure story every time I imagine the storyline. But I wanted to write out the bare bones of it so that it doesn’t haunt me constantly.

Basic Background:

Basically takes place in the canon universe, but Krolia was the daughter of Zarkon and Honerva. She secretly joined the resistance and then faked her death when she stayed on Earth to protect the blue lion, then ran off to fully join the Blades full time to avoid alerting her parents that she was still alive. She left Tex and Keith back on Earth where they would hopefully stay undetected from the Galra Empire. Fast forward to the end of canon where they want to put Keith in charge but end up with Krolia as their ruler. Krolia reveals her heritage and history before she agrees to be Empress.

This causes a stir in different political factions and on various other planets with aliens who are still suspicious of the Galra Empire and especially of Zarkon’s family (even though Zarkon and Honerva were corrupted by Quintessence and were not naturally crazy evil warlords).

Keith ends up in his canon role as an Ambassador, traveling around with the Blades and helping to heal the damage done by the Galra Empire as it was under Zarkon and Lotor.

Lance stays on Earth and only ever leaves to meet up with the other paladins on Altea where they have an annual remembrance of Allura. As their lives get busier, fewer of the paladins are able to make it. At the start of the story, Lance and Keith have agreed to meet up on Altea, although the other paladins have either said that they can’t make it or that they will be arriving late.

So this is a time travel fic (because I’m addicted to them. I’ve said this before. I basically have a head-canoned time travel fic for ever fandom I’m in because I’m sort of obsessed with comparing the original characters to their later character growth. I get a little viscerally feral about it. I foam at the mouth for a good, realistic character-growth comparison).

Other background info:

Krolia is in a relationship with Kolivan.

Lance no longer travels space except between Altea and Earth once a year. He’s started to grow insecure about his place with the Paladins—whether he was really ever a hero at all. He hears about Keith traveling as an Ambassador, Pidge working with Alien technology, and Hunk traveling with Shay, and Lance feels overwhelmed—like he’s chosen to stay back and is now being left behind. He knows that Shiro mainly works on Earth with the Garrison, but even that seems miles away from what Lance is doing with his life. He looks at his younger self and wonders where that person went. He’s on a journey, in part, to find himself again.

The story itself:

We follow the story from the perspectives of the early Paladins who have been brought forward in time (whether Allura is there or not has sort of been a shifting element depending on what mood I’m in when I imagine it. That’s part of the whole choose-your-own-adventure thing. Lots of this changes around.) They end up in an underground lab within a sort of maze structure of tunnels. They meet an alien there who begs them for help and says that the Paladins aren’t there to protect them anymore and that he has a plan to bring down the Galra Empire. When the Paladins ask what happened he goes into a speech about how the Paladins were scattered and corrupted and how they would need to stop their future selves. The alien seems particularly interested in Keith based on the way his eyes keep drifting over to him.

Suddenly there are alarms going off in the chaos, the Paladins end up out of sight as the alien goes to check out the chaos. From their hiding spot, the Paladins see/hear Future!Lance. Lance has the alien backed against the wall and is threatening him, asking ‘Where is he?’ The alien is spitting insults at Lance and calling him a ‘Galra-Lover,’ etc. The alien also pokes at Lance for being out of practice, saying he’s not even really a Paladin anymore. He claims that Lance has betrayed the cause.

In the midst of the chaos, the future machine is damaged. Lance finds the younger Paladins and explains to them that Zarkon (and Lotor and Honerva—whom the Paladins don’t really know about yet) have been defeated and that the Galra Empire as they know it has largely been dissolved. The Paladins are a little wary to believe it, but, also, it’s Lance, so they give him the benefit of the doubt. Although they are a little thrown off by his Altean markings. At first they assume this is an alternate universe. Lance tells them it’s not, but hedges around his explanation for how he got the marks.

Lance ends up taking the Paladins with him. He figures the best way to get them home is to rendezvous with Future!Pidge, but Pidge is working on an independent project at the moment and is out of reach. Lance tells them that he’s in the middle of a mission and that he can’t delay it. He’s on his way to Daibazaal for more information and supplies. Reluctantly, the Paladins travel with him. Lance can’t really leave them alone and they want to investigate whether they can really trust Lance.

Upon meeting Krolia at Daibazaal, the young Paladins learn about Lance’s mission. Apparently the Galran Prince (*cough cough* Keith *cough cough* —but they don’t know that yet) and his party were attacked and drugged by a radical political faction—the same one that brought the Paladins forward in time. The group drugged the diplomatic meeting in an attempt to capture and kill the Galrans, but they were interrupted by a Second radical political faction. The second faction abducted the Prince before the First faction could enact the rest of their plan, and, in the chaos of the clashing political groups, the rest of the Galran diplomacy team escaped alive and relatively unharmed.

So the Paladins now understand that the people who brought them forward in time are part of a group intent on the destruction of the remainder of the Galran Empire and the death of the royal family. This is why Lance was there when they arrived in the future: to question the political faction. This is also why the alien that Lance questioned was so particularly bitter: because the plan he’d carefully lain out to capture the Prince had gone sideways. (Lance of course knows that the First radical faction brought the paladins forward in time in order to get a hold of Keith specifically and to turn the younger Paladins against their older selves. He does not share this information with the Paladins.)

What the Paladins don’t understand is why Lance is involved with this at all. They’ve been told that the Paladins are scattered and that Voltron no longer exists. But there are a lot of things they don’t know (that Altea exists again, why the Galra empire still exists at all, who the Blades are, etc. etc. etc.). They don’t trust Krolia, especially after discovering that Zarkon is her father, but they see that she and Lance get along well. While eavesdropping, the Paladins also catch a conversation between Krolia and Lance that seems to indicate that Lance has romantic interest in Krolia’s son (Krolia invites him to visit again and tells Lance that her son misses him and that she knows it would make him happy to have Lance there more often).

Krolia is especially kind to Keith, but she doesn’t tell him who she is. The cooks in the kitchens make food they know he’ll like, the guards direct him towards the training space they know he’ll appreciate, someone alludes to the art studio (although he does not have time to check it out properly). And Kosmo shows up and sticks to Keith like velcro.

Lance and the Paladins spend the afternoon and the night on Daibazaal before packing up to go the next morning. Lance has been in meetings getting information on the radical group and their possible location from the Blades. Krolia can’t leave Daibazaal during a time of crisis, but Kolivan is in communication with various sectors where members of the Blade are investigating leads. Lance agrees to follow up on one of the leads that has not yet been covered. He warns the Paladins to be careful. Apparently this Secondary radical group is a religious cult derived from Hagar’s Druids that worships Honerva and believes that she can be summoned so that she can return as their ruler. (They’d like to use Keith to try and reach her since he’s her grandchild and because of his powerful quintessence as a result of his time spent with Voltron and his mixing of human, Altean, and Galran blood.)

***

When they get to the sector in question, Lance and the Paladins find a massive ship. Lance sneaks onboard, instructing the Paladins to stay behind and wait for him. The Paladins of course do not listen. When the Paladins sneak on board, they find the ship largely deserted, but they walk themselves right into a hallway where the remaining members of the cult are preparing to make their final stand. From the shadows, a cloaked figure drops down, startling the Paladins and causing an uproar from the cultists. The Cloaked Figure grabs the dagger from younger Keith’s sheath and slides into battle. Keith shouts out in frustration that his knife has been stollen, but watches in confusion and awe as the dagger transforms into a sword. Shiro asks why Keith has that dagger and where he got it from, but they are all distracted by the Cloaked figure who is fending off the cultists.

Future!Lance turns the corner and begins to berate the Paladins for not listening to him and staying on the ship. Then he notices the Cloaked Figure. Lance pulls out a rifle and begins firing, shooting the enemies that are in the fighter’s blind spot. As the last of the enemy falls, the Fighter’s hood is pulled back and he turns to face them. It’s Future!Keith. Future!Lance goes up to meet him and Keith looks initially surprised. Lance comments that he ‘should have know’ when he ‘found the cells empty.’

If Keith is surprised to see the younger Paladins, he hides it well. He seems more shocked to see Lance, but grateful. They fall into an easy banter that surprises the younger Paladins by its friendliness. Shiro interrupts to explain to Keith that they’re looking for the Galran Prince. Lance tells them not to worry about it anymore. The Paladins find this odd, especially considering the conversation they overheard earlier where Krolia indicated that Lance had a crush on the Galran Prince. They also want to know why Keith is there. Lance tells them that Keith is an Ambassador who was traveling with the Galrans when the attack happened. Lance makes up an excuse for why they don’t have to go find the prince (in spite of Shiro’s protestations that they have a duty and that they made Krolia a promise), asking Keith if he’s stuck here because the Prince stole his ride. Keith sort of side-eyes Lance but easily falls in line with the ploy and says that yes, the Prince is fine and has a ride out. Lance gives Keith his actual knife (which Krolia had given to Lance earlier), and Future!Keith returns his knife to his younger self.

Together they all make their way back to the ship. They alert the Blades about the enemy cultists and their location. Lance asks younger Keith to fly them out of there and has younger Lance grab the first aid kit to he can patch up Future!Keith.

At some point there’s a meaningful conversation between Keith and Lance about how Keith is surprised to see him because Lance never leaves Earth except to visit Altea. Lance explains that Keith was late to their meeting on Altea and how Lance was at first upset to be ditched by all the other Paladins but came to the conclusion that Keith wouldn’t do that to him. He got into contact with some of the Blades and found out what happened and set out to gain some more intel for Kolivan and try and find Keith.

(Lance and Keith both like each other, but Lance is intimidated by the new life that Keith has built without him, and Keith is worried about whether Lance actually likes him / is over Allura.)

Here’s where I have a lot of divergence:

In some versions, Allura is there with them. She stays back on the ship while the Paladins sneak into the base. Allura refuses to let them back onboard until she realizes that it’s ‘just Keith’ who’s with them.

In some versions, before returning to Daibazaal, the Paladins, Lance, and Keith end up stopping for supplies or answering distress beacons. In some of these situations, they run into other members of the Blade (the one I replay most is running into Antok and his family so that there are cute little Galra kids interacting with ‘uncle Keith’ and close slip ups where the Paladins almost figure out that Keith is the Galran Prince. Most of it is explained away as Keith just being an important Ambassador who’s regularly on Daibazaal).

In some versions where they make pit stops, they run into more members of the radical groups or into hostile Galrans who are against the new rule. At some point, Keith’s eyes go yellow and his fangs come out and the Paladins have their little ‘aha’ moment.

Sometimes I have the Paladins just put two and two together—usually Pidge saying ‘what if we were Always going there to pick up Keith?’ And then younger Lance being in denial and being like ‘you mean, we were never there for the Prince?’ To which the answer is ‘No. what if Keith is the prince.’ Plus all the evidence.

Also scenes of Pidge using technology so the Paladins can spy on Lance and Keith while they’re talking alone to try and figure out whether their future selves are still trustworthy.

A scene where Keith and Lance talk about not advertising the fact that the cultists have been defeated so that they can fly under the radar back to Daibazaal.

A scene where the younger Paladins mention that Lance is totally in love with the Galran Prince in front of Keith and use Krolia’s conversation for reference. They talk about it because younger Lance is trying to puzzle out why his older self would travel all that way to rescue a guy and then would just ditch him to hang out with —ugh—Keith of all people. Cue a necessary conversation between Keith and Lance where they continue to be stupid because they’re both Still hedging around the issue.

The scene where they return to Daibazaal and Krolia hugs Keith and he calls her mom. And then Krolia insists that Lance join the hug as well. And, if the Paladins (or maybe just younger Lance) are still oblivious to Keith’s identity, you see their reactions as well.

Kosmo appearing to tackle Keith. Kolivan showing up as well. Lil Galra kids who Keith has gotten to know from his time on Daibazaal and random guards and Galrans in general being happy that he’s home safe. Members of the Blade who were there when he got captured being there and glad for his return.

Keith showing Lance the paintings and murals he’s done to remind him of Earth (because I’m a sucker for artist Keith). Cue another conversation about Keith not visiting Lance on Earth more because Keith thought Lance needed space. Also Lance being upset that Shiro didn’t come to help Keith even though they’re brothers when Lance knows for a fact that Keith would move heaven and Earth to help Shiro in the same situation (I headcannon that Shiro is really just worn out at this point and that while he cares for Keith it has grown to more of a distant brotherly respect at this point—that Shiro is very practical and figured that the Blades could handle it, while Lance tends to emotionally invest himself and not want to risk the chance that someone else Won’t take care of it).

Pidge showing up on Daibazaal to help figure out the time travel situation.

Keith and Lance asking Pidge about Matt, etc. and younger Pidge getting excited/asking questions.

The general journey of the Paladins to try and decide whether they like the future and whether they want to trust their future selves or not.

Lance admitting to Keith that he feels kind of worthless, especially since Keith basically escaped by himself. Keith emphasizing how important it was for Lance to be there and how much of an impact it made for Lance to actually leave Earth and Altea to come find him.

Alternate rescue scene where Keith has been basically drained of Quintessence by the cult and therefore was unable to rescue himself. Keith thinks he’s hallucinating Lance because of course there’s no way Lance would leave Altea or Earth just for Keith. Them explaining all of it away to the Paladins by claiming that Keith already rescued the prince and that the cultists captured and tortured Keith for retribution.

Any potential drama from a plotline that involves Allura / Lance coming to full terms that he’s not in love with her anymore / Lance trying to separate the version of Allura that he wants to remember from the young version of Allura that is currently hostile and racist towards the concept of the Galran Prince and therefore (unbeknownst to her) Keith, whom Lance is in love with. Allura having the hardest time coming to terms with the new Galra empire and the fact that Krolia is half Altean and that Keith is just as Altean as he is Galran. Young Lance struggling between Allura’s strong feelings about the Galra and the knowledge that his future self is in love with the Galran Prince. And gets along with Keith. Who, surprise surprise, happens to be the Galran Prince.

I’m sure there’s more. My brain is somehow too invested in this plotline and also not invested enough to make it cohesive.

#Klance #keith x lance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #voltron #voltron headcanon #that’s the gist of it #it lives rent free in my head #I just had to get it out somewhere #and writing it for real usually leads to me feeling irritable and impatient #which is a personal flaw that horrifies me regarding myself #vld headcanons #voltron legendary defender #I love Krolia and Keith family moments #plus Kolivan #and Kosmo #honestly their whole little troup is my favorite part of the show #voltron fanfiction #kind of #I mean it would be if I could get myself to sit down #and pick one plot #and have the strength to write it all out #also I don’t hate Shiro #I promise #it’s just that this story is really supposed to just be about Keith and Lance #and too many characters are hard to keep track of #especially when I’ve already doubled up the Paladins by bringing them from the past #it’s just how my head made the plot #and then I had to address the fact that Shiro wasn’t there #by making him a bad brother

[xochitai]

Portrait of an unknown Galra (era of Zarkon 9998)

Collection of [redacted]

#sketch that spiraled out of control... again #this was supposed to look more serene #but kolivan has such a serious face it's hard to get that kind of expression #and the no irises doesn't help #i tried to draw more fur texture but i gave up #when making this i always thought of it as a kolitor piece #but i decided to keep it subtle in the proper caption #so now it's just a lil secret between me and whoever clicked 'see all' on the tags #voltron: legendary defender #vld #kolivan

[autisticlancemcclain]

My Dearest La

Dear La

Lance,

I really hate it when you’re right.

I know you are smiling as you read this. I can see it so clearly in my head. You are rolling your eyes now, probably, in fact you are probably even straining yourself. But I bet you are still smiling.

…

I miss you.

You told me leaving was stupid. Well, we screamed about it. I don’t like that I left angry. I should have waited so we could have been — well, I don’t know. I just don’t like that I left without saying goodbye properly. I don’t like that I didn’t get to kiss the smush between your eyebrows that you get when you’re mad

The bottom line is that I’m sorry. And I can’t do anything about it now because what’s done is done but. I wish I did. I’m sorry this message is so dorky. I can’t help how I feel about you. I promise I’ll be more — suave, or whatever, in my next one. There’s this Blade I hang out with sometimes, Sedrit, she is awkwardly funny like you. She has promised to give me some pointers because she’s as nosy as you are and read over my shoulder all the other times I tried to write this letter. I don’t trust her judgement but I’d walk into a wall on purpose in front of Pidge’s cameras if I could guarantee it’d make you laugh I think we could always use a smile. I’m ending this letter now because I’m embarrassed and if I write one more line I’ll lose my nerve.

Love,

Warm regards,

Sincerely,

Love,

Keith

———

“Sir? Sir! Hold on! Sir!”

The Balmeran turns, looking back at him curiously. He leans heavily on his cane, back hunched but chin set squarely.

“Yes, Blade?”

Keith jogs all the way over to him, stopping a respectful distance away. He reaches up to deactivate his mask, which he is not supposed to do, but the mask is fucking creepy, okay, it makes people uneasy so clearly that even Keith can see it, so fuck Kolivan’s lectures. He’s vindicated by the visible relaxing of the Balmeran’s shoulders.

“I need — a favour,” Keith says haltingly. His own shoulders begin to hunch. “If you don’t mind.”

The Balmeran’s stiff brows lift in surprise. He looks deliberately down at his newly-bandaged leg, then back up at Keith. Keith flushes.

“A… favour.”

All the pockets on Keith’s uniform are square-shaped and small. Deep, but not very long. Anything he puts in there gets squished. Except for the long, thin pocket-thing hidden against the outside of his thigh.

The letter has been stuffed carefully in there for two weeks. It’s a miracle it hasn’t been destroyed. The top left corner of it has gotten frayed, because Keith keeps catching himself rubbing it with the pad of his thumb.

“I know you’ve been through so much,” Keith says quietly. “I’m sorry even to ask.”

The Balmeran’s stance is still carefully guarded, practiced —

“As have you.”

— but his eyes are soft and knowing.

Keith lets out a long, heavy breath. He slides the letter gently out of its spot, turning it over in his hands; inspecting the familiar creases, ink stains. It’s a rough, recycled envelope. Made out of old briefing notes, by the looks of it, thick black lines of censorship streaking across the pale yellow surface. An ugly thing, really.

“I need to get this to the Red Paladin of Voltron,” he says, forcing himself to hand the thing over. “I don’t — I can’t send it through the Empire delivery service, for obvious reasons. And Voltron’s location is always encrypted. I —” He stops, mouth clamping shut, because suddenly the words have become impossible to force out through the lump in his throat. He hasn’t talked to the team in weeks. He has no way of contacting them without putting them — or himself — in danger. There will be absolutely no way for Lance to send him a letter back, even if he wants to. The whole thing seems, abruptly, a painful kind of hopeless.

And yet.

“I will pass it along,” promises the Balmeran, voice flooded with kind understanding. He wraps his hands around Keith’s, squeezing once, before gently prying the letter out of his clenched fingers. “I don’t know how long it will take, but I have a someone who works in Emerg-med. She travels frequently, and should be able to take it farther than I can.”

“Thank you,” Keith chokes out, blinking rapidly.

The Balmeran smiles. “Keep strong, child.”

———

“Granddaughter,” greets the old man warmly. The young woman turns at his voice, laughing in delight when she sees him and enveloping him carefully in an embrace.

“Grandfather! You’re well!”

“I’m alive,” he corrects, teasingly.

She takes the jest in stride. “You are alive, and so you are well. I am so happy to see you.” There is genuine love in her voice. She holds tightly to his arm. “Are you staying in care long?”

He shakes his head. “No, dear. I dropped by only to see you. And,” he digs around in his pocket, carefully extracting a letter, placing it in her waiting hands, “to ask a favour.”

“A letter?”

“For the Red Paladin, from the Black.”

“I see.” She frowns thoughtfully, turning the paper over in her hands. “Last I heard, they were rebuilding on Ilso. I am going only as far as Igrendia, to visit my cousin.”

“Pass it along then,” he suggests.

She promises she will.

———

A young girl, to her cousin: “Imeld! Can you pass something along for me?”

A cousin, to her lover: “If you could drop it off at the supply camp when you stop by.”

A lover, to his father: “A friend of mine works in that fuel stop. Let him know I sent you?”

A father, to a friend of a friend: “Only a couple stops left, I reckon.”

A friend of a friend, to a friend of a friend, to a friend of a friend: “It’s almost there.

———

A friend of a friend of a friend, to a Paladin:

“I think this is yours. It’s travelled a while.”

———

A smile aches at the apples of Lance’s cheeks. Salt drips onto his tongue, and he swallows, breath shuddering.

“You — dorky asshole,” he whispers, and tucks the envelope in the secret pocket on the thigh of his undersuit.

———

Lance,

I have no idea if my last letter got to you. I hope it did, if not, here’s the rundown: you were right, I regret leaving, and I miss you.

Anyways.

Today I was on a mission in a planet that was just a huge wildflower field. Just — hundreds of hundreds of flowers, every colour you can imagine and then some. It smelled like you. I cried.

Do you remember when we snuck out of that negotiation — thing? Whatever it was? And you poked me hard in the arm and loudly complained about how much of a bummer I was being. And you dared me to roll down the hill with you. And when I was laughing at the bottom of the hill because you had just so much grass in your hair you crawled over me and kissed me like you’d been waiting to do it.

I remember how we kissed until my lips bruised after. And then we just lay there, until I got fidgety, and then you pulled us both up and walked around picking flowers and sticking them in my hair and snickering. This was the flower. Doesn’t it look like the one you brought back?

I thought of you a lot today. It hurt a little bit. A lot bit. I missed you until it ached.

I hope I see you in the flowers again soon.

I love you more than the stars

Love, and lots of it,

Keith

———

“Hey, Sedrit.”

His voice is as hushed as he can make it. He doesn’t want to wake the others. But she won’t be asleep — she never sleeps before big missions. She says it’s because the adrenaline keeps her alert, puffing up her chest. But Keith knows that she prays because she is afraid that she will die.

She doesn’t answer, so he kicks the bottom of the mattress above him. He hears a huff, and then seconds later, a curtain of hair flops over the side of the top bunk, and her wide, pupil-less eyes blink into focus.

“What do you want, shithead.”

He smiles at her guiltily. “A favour?”

“Ugh.”

But she looks at him in begrudging acceptance.

“I need you to — drop something off, when you go to El-dan. Ask another Blade there if they could pass on a letter.”

She must read his tone, because the annoyance vanishes from her expression. She reaches over and flicks him in the nose.

“Yeah, lovebird. I can pass on your letter.”

———

“Hey, man, could you send this along the next off-world?”

“What for?”

“For true love. Or because I asked you to.”

———

“I don’t know what it is. It’s classified. But it needs to get to the Red Paladin.”

———

“I heard it’s news of an ambush!”

“Well, it can’t be news now. It’s weeks old at least.”

“Yes, well, drop it off anyways. It’s Voltron business, you know.”

———

Lance’s door slide opens.

“I have — correspondence,” says Allura, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I was informed of a possible ambush? Perhaps we should read the letter together.”

Prepared remark about greetings and knocking and why they were invented flee Lance’s tongue, and his controller clatters to the ground in his haste to meet her.

“Lemme see,” he demands, snatching the letter straight from her hands. Her protests fall on deaf ears.

You were right, I regret leaving, I miss you.

He grins.

“What is that?”

“No ambush,” he says breathlessly, floating back over to his bed. He traces the shape of every letter, the blots of smudged ink. The scratch of the words is just as important as the content of the letter, Lance has found. He’s long since memorized the first letter, but he still finds himself drawing it out of his pocket, unfolding it with a shaky sort of reverence, studying every slanted T and looped L, closing his eyes and letting the impression of the ink burn into his eyelids. The cadence of the words have become song, hummed over and over and over again in his head.

This time, there’s a drawing. It does indeed look similar to the one hanging, dried, at the head of his bed. He presses the tip of his thumb into the center of it, breathing hard, rapidly blinking away the tears so they don’t drop and ruin the paper.

“I remember,” he manages, half-choked. “I remember, I remember.”

When he looks up again, hours have passed, and Allura has long since left, closing the door quietly behind her.

———

Lance, my love,

I know we do not talk about the observation deck.

It is your sacred place, I think. When you sit in the middle of the floor and look up at the glowing stars and the planets cast shadows on your face and make your eyes shine gold as sunlight the only way to describe you is holy. The first time I ever saw you like that it made my stomach hurt. When I think about it now I miss you so much the ache spreads all the way to my teeth.

When I was a kid I read about how grief makes you hurt but time makes you forget. I read about how men begin to forget the shape of their late wives’ smile. Or the slope of her nose. I read about how children begin to forget the slant of their fathers’ shoulder. How mothers forget the way their babies curled their fist.

Missing you hurts like unravelling. You’re all I think about. I will never forget the fit of your hand in mine as long as I remember how to speak. And I will know the ridges of your teeth so long as I can taste. I will know the length of your back as long as I can walk. I will remember the curve of your lips as long as I can blink. I will know the way you glowed in floating blue starlight until my brain shuts down and my organs fail me.

Patroclus said I will know him in death and at the end of the world.

I will know you every waking second of my life, and I will make myself remember for every nanosecond in between.

Nothing will compare to holding you in my arms again.

Keith

———

Sedrit has officially been declared missing in action. A new soldier has taken her bunk.

Keith’s stomach hurts all the time, now.

“Just — one time,” Keith begs.

“You have way more training than that job requires,” says Kolivan.

“I know. I just —” He realises, suddenly, that even if he had an argument he does not have the strength to make it. The letter creases in his clenched hands. “Please.”

For a long moment the Blade leader does not speak. Keith meets his searching gaze, but his eyes are blank, unfocused. Exhaustion pulls at his features. His hood droops on his shoulders.

“In an out, Keith,” Kolivan relents finally. “A supply mission should take less than four vargas. I want you back here then and not a tick later, so you understand?”

Keith could cry in relief, but Kolivan looks stiff enough already. Should Keith express an emotion in front of him he might be forced into a total system reset, and his programming might not be prepared for that.

“Thank you,” he says instead, and rushes off before he can change his mind.

Matt is leading the supply run. This letter might land right in Lance’s hands.

———

“I’ll get it to him, Keith.”

“Thank you, Matt. I owe you.”

“Take care of yourself, man. They all miss you.”

“…I miss them too.”

———

Matt hands him the letter without a word. No one else says anything, either, when he clenched it tightly between his thumb and forefinger and walks right out of the bridge. Not even Shiro, whose gaze Lance can feel bore a hole into the back of his head.

You’re all I think about, writes Keith’s neat cursive, and Lance presses the paper to his chest and cries.

———

My Lance,

I hate it here.

I miss you.

———

Alarm bells shriek through the headquarters. Keith has become numb to them, at this point.

He slides the letter in between the pages of an intelli-file and hopes.

———

CLASSIFIED

FOR VOLTRON’S EYES ONLY

BIOMETRICS REQUIRED

WILL SELF DESTRUCT

———

There is a letter waiting on his bed when Lance gets back from his mission on Efid-d. He has not slept in three days. His vision is blurry.

He falls asleep with the paper open in his hands, mirroring the curve of Keith’s body.

———

My love,

Naxzela. Soon. I think Kolivan knows there’s something wrong. I’m gonna I might I think I can stay, for a bit. Hopefully.

Well, I will see you again. Damn it all. I don’t care about the world I don’t care about the Empire I don’t care about anything, anymore, I just want to come home —

Naxzela.

It will be weeks until I see you face to face on this mission but already everything seems less bleak. I will admit some of the anger has crept in. I feel awful. I’m trying to remember what you said, in the very beginning, before you kissed me in the flowers. When you held my hands in the purple light and said we make a good team.

I know you say you don’t remember it, you goober. You do. You get embarrassed when I bring it up, that’s how I know. You always get embarrassed when you’re caught being vulnerable.

I loved you then, you know. I didn’t know it then but I did. I thought about your hand in mine for weeks. You have always been so central to me.

Soon, sweetheart. Soon I can hold you again.

Naxzela.

———

He doesn’t bother sending this one along. He tucks it in the secret pocket on the side of his pants, and with every passing day it grows heavier and the weight on his chest grows lighter.

———

When the shield closes over the planet and Keith says, it’s been an honour serving with you all, the scream starts at the bottom of Lance’s feet. It comes up to his knees when he sees the pod speeding towards it, up to his chest when Shiro barks at him to stay in formation. It catches in his throat as he wrenches Red away.

It echoes through space when the pod hits the shield in a shower of blue sparks and grey smoke, and Prince Lotor defects to their side one nanosecond too late.

———

The beep of the healing pod synchs with Lance’s heartbeat. It can’t quite drown out the screech echoing in Lance’s head; that keeps going, and going, and going.

Soon, sweetheart.

He sobs into the half-burned paper.

———

“You better keep your promise, you dorky asshole.”

———

Healing pods have always smelt, inexplicably, of burnt hair.

He hears the slide of the glass door opening, then the whoosh of air as he pitches forward before his arms are awake enough to stop him. Luckily, he falls right into bony arms, and the smell of flowers and sunshine quickly envelops him.

“You motherfucker,” says a voice, heavy with tears, and Keith smiles.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he croaks.

His Lance sobs. The hands on the sides of his arms slide slowly down to his wrists, gripping tightly. Keith forces his eyes open, blinking away the bleariness. Lance has his own eyes squeezed shut, like he’s too afraid to look, head bowed.

Well, that simply won’t do.

“Lance, baby, look at me.”

“You motherfucker,” Lance repeats, and finally he does look up but he’s glaring angrier than Keith has ever seen him. Keith grins wider. “You motherfucker, you damn near lied to me.”

Slowly, half convinced he’ll move to fast and wake up on his bunk, alone, he reaches up and cups Lance’s cheeks. He swipes his thumbs carefully over wet cheekbones, exhaling shakily, revelling in the feel of Lance’s skin under his, finally, finally, finally.

“I’m home, Lance,” he whispers. Tears spring from his own eyes. “Sweetheart, I’m home.”

“Stay,” Lance begs, like he should have months and months ago, like he meant to, like he wanted to.

“There’s no other option,” Keith promises, and as he leans in and presses their lips together, finally, tasting the salt and licking the ridge of his teeth and swallowing every shuddering breath, he vows to never send a letter again.

He’ll tell Lance all he needs to hear himself.

———

all art by @mothmanavenue

concept from this post

#THANK YOU MOTH I LOVE YOU TO PIECES YOURE RHE BESTEST #vld #voltron #lance #lance mcclain #keith #keith kogane #klance #establisbed klance #secret relationship #kind of #langst #keith angst #klangst #angst with a happy ending #naxzela #long distance relationships #brown eyed lance #blade keith #red paladin lance #soft keith #soft lance #soft klance #romantic keith #my writing #fic #longpost #artist keith

[miraculousbumbble]

When the paladins got back to Earth, they weren't thinking about politics or how tough it would be to integrate the entire universe with Earth's database. And of course, somehow, Keith ended up being the one person to have to deal with the Gala resistance fighters and making sure they filed their damn paperwork.

"Yes, I know you've already moved Acxa into your clan Kolivan, but Earth doesn't see it that way. You have to fill out adoption papers, so they know she's your kid."

"No, Ezor I know you and Zethred are bonded. But Earth needs you to fill a marital status. Why? In case you get hurt in Earth territory. Yes, I know you can handle yourself, but the government needs to know who to contact."

"Krolia you have to officially notice Romelle as your kindling by Earth standards. Why? Because mom, I'm a member of the government and they need to know who is considered family and who isn't."

"No, Ezor and I don't consider each other family but because Acxa does, it goes into my paperwork as us being family."

"Zethrid, Ezor, you can't take random alien babies and claim them as your own without bringing them in for a checkup and filing the paperwork... Because Zethrid, Earth thinks were family!"

Keith specifically spends as little time as possible on Earth just so he doesn't have to update his paperwork. Galra customs and Earth paperwork don't mix well, and Keith is kind of sick of it.

#voltron #voltron headcanons #Krolia #Zethrid #acxa #vld acxa #galra keith #keith kogane #keith voltron #vld keith #kolivan

[non-plutonian-druid]

the concept for this is "what if voltron aliens were like, a little bit less humanoid." Galra (and alteans, not pictured) get to be the most humanoid because theyre main characters lol

[ID: various voltron aliens redesigned to remove many of their humanoid features. The Galra are largely unchanged; the only difference is that they have six limbs. Keith is demonstrating standing on four limbs; he looks not unlike a centaur, although the "horse" part is just a continuation of his body, not a horse (and is also the same color as his human skin, because it is human skin. sorry not sorry). Kolivan is demonstrating standing on two limbs, and towers over everyone else. Krolia is demonstrating standing on all six limbs, which looks uncomfortable but possible.

There is also an example of an Olkari; whose face is unchanged but now is built similar to a praying mantis; a Puigian, who retains the approximate locations of the face markings and horns but looks more like some kind of deer creature; an Arusian, which is built like a snail; and a mer alien, which now looks like a fish with hands and antennae. The Olkari is based on Ryner, and the mer alien is Plaxum. End ID.]

#vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #keith kogane #i feel like people use that tag more than #keith vld #even tho that is not his name lol #krolia #kolivan #galra #olkari #probably there is not a tag for arusians or puigians #there probably WOULD be a mer alien tag except they didnt fuckin give them a name lmao #keith should probably be wearing pants but it was important to me that you all know from the outset that he is not a cool centaur #thats human flesh just shaped wrong #with. admittedly. cool purple tattoos #my art #contributing to the voltron tag in a non-gravity falls au capacity for the first time in forever #primarily because these days every time i poke through the tag theres new anti activity i have to block #and i wanted to contribute something constructive to the tag #its been six years guys arent you tired yet

[klaissance]

indulgent established klance long-distance boyfriends coalition paladins/BOM keith reunion event GO:

keith gets to the dinner early

he had to ask kolivan to put him on the list as one of the BOM agents going and if that dude ever laughed at anything keith would swear he was laughing at him when he uninvited somebody else to put keith on the list

it's this gorgeous bigass hall with lovely vaulted ceilings and the biggest longest table keith has ever seen

aproned aliens are in set-up mode, scurrying around setting utensils and plates and namecards and chairs all around this table

keith has his mask up and everything and he nods respectfully at some of the staff as he starts to walk the length of the table

it's been too long since he saw the team he knows that and they know it too

he knows they miss him, knows it in his bones that they miss him at least some fragment as much as he aches for them (which is so much all the time)

pidge hacked a touchpad to let it transmit through the signal jammer outfitted at the BOM base so he does get to message and call home sometimes but tbh he's not on-base very often before he's jetting off to the next crazy mission halfway across the galaxy

anyway he's in this hall scanning the namecards and letting his mind wander while he waits for the guests--but mostly his former team--to show up

he finds his own card next to kolivan's, only it just says "blade of marmora guest" anonymous and replaceable, just like usual

allura is set to be seated at the head of the table with the other important people and key speakers

keith smiles despite himself at the thought of allura pacing the halls of the castleship this past week, running through versions of speeches for anyone who will listen

the smile turns into an ache when he thinks of lance, perched on the kitchen counter, legs swinging, or draped across the lounge couch, head tipped off the edge, listening and humming appraisingly at all the right moments

turning those warm brown eyes to the ceiling and pretending to think hard on it when allura asks him if he thinks she's ready

"of course princess" he'd say, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently

"I think you were born ready"

because lance has always been good at that, at making you feel like the most capable person in the Universe

halfway down the opposite side of this grandiose table, keith finds what he hadn't known he'd been looking for: four name placards right in a row, each labeled with a name and "Paladin of Voltron"

takashi shirogane, pidge holt, hunk garrett, and lance mcclain

keith frowns sourly at the next name, some alien duke or duchess or whatever the fuck, somebody important who has just won the diplomacy dinner lottery by being offered the seat next to the blue paladin

he looks across the table from here to his own seat, looming positively miles away across and down this long ass mcfreaking table

who made this chart anyway???

keith is still grumping about it as people begin to show up and he shrinks a little into himself, scanning the room for those familiar faces, the anticipation buzzing under his skin

he's so lost in the looking that he forgets himself and gets totally ambushed by a voice right up against his ear

"Getting on just as socially as usual, I see"

he whirls ready to FIGHT but it's allura !!! and the relief and joy at seeing her in person for the first time in multiple space-months is such whiplash that he pitches straight into her open arms and holds tight

when he recovers he takes down the mask and squirms awkwardly

allura is gentle and kind, knows he hates the diplomacy part, knows he's only here because he misses all of them, one of them in particular...

they do small talk for a bit, allura growing worse and worse at hiding her amusement as keith continues to turn and stare at the door with increasing frequency

her eyes are sparkling the way they do when she gossips and she asks him point blank "so, you must be excited to see your boyfriend again"

keith's mind goes blank "n-no" yknow like a liar

she's downright snickering at him and he still can't resist scanning the room

she throws him a bone, tells him the other paladins are running late coming back from the parade but will arrive soon

keith is like coolcoolcool no doubt no doubt but really cannot stop staring at the door and feeling like he might throw up and is his hair okay he didn't really think about this before he showed up, hasn't even seen it in actually days because he's had the suit on, and the suit is DUMB what the fUcK--

they get approached by other diplomats from various coalition planets and allura turns on the schmooze

keith checks his touchpad--there are three messages from lance

"SORRY BABE RUNNIGN LATE"

"c u so SOON :3 <33333333"

"*RUNNING"

" :D "

#long post #my writing #this isnt a fic but like isnt it though #could make it one officially i suppose #this is really how my brain works though it's in colorful bullets #so so close to being real prose but not quite #klance #keith and allura being besties #bom keith #coalition lance #ermmmm idk what else to tag this #vld ficlet #sort of #idk lmk if people enjoy this type of post or if this is pointless for u #if u like it i can do more i have lots of these in a doc #if u hate it i can be more focused on turning them into actual fics #OH NO IT NEEDS A PART TWO BC CHARACTER LIMIT LMFAO

[klanceficatalogue]

Hey!! I was wondering if y’all knew of any fics where they’re super flirty and/or have lot of chemistry

Thank you <3

this is a bit of a random collection but i hope it's the kind of thing you're looking for! - k

I dreamed you were a cosmonaut (of the space between our chairs) by iybms (1/1 | 11,055 | Teen and Up)

"You know, you can be a pretty hard guy to find," Lance says, and his steps end at Keith's side, overlooking Orla'an canyon. "Funny you always say that," Keith remarks, "since you find me, regardless. And," he finally glances at Lance, "…always wearing something weird." --- Lance comes to Keith when he needs someone to pry him open.

//near death experiences

darling, i fancy you! by littencloud9 (1/1 | 2,277 | Teen and Up)

“You’re—! I’m supposed to fluster you, damn it! Not the other way!” Keith can’t help the genuine laughter that leaves his throat. Lance scowl melts, although he still huffs and turns away pointedly. “Lance,” Keith calls, still laughing as Lance defiantly ignores him. “Lance. Baby. Come on, I’m sorry. You’re a very good flirt, okay? Very charming.” - or, keith enjoys teasing lance

all the time we took by thethirdmuse (5/5 | 25,665 | Teen and Up)

The chattering picks up again, and Krolia and Kolivan are exchanging a look. “I’ll go,” someone finally says. Everyone turns to look at the source. Lance has pulled his hands out of his pockets, but they’re still hanging limply at his sides. He stares straight ahead, not breaking eye contact with the two Marmorites projected above the control room. For a second, no one says anything. Then Hunk starts to laugh. “Good one, buddy,” he says, snorting a little. Pidge wants to laugh as well, if only to show Lance that he’d successfully broken up the tension. But Lance doesn’t smile back at Hunk, doesn’t even look at him. He’s not joking, Pidge realizes with a jolt.   ~ Or, the one where Lance volunteer10s for a mission and ends up stuck on the space whale with Keith

//minor injuries

#asks #anon #klance #voltron #vld #klance fic #voltron fic #shiro #canon compliant #fluff #10to20k #teen and up

[lilflowerpot]

I know you’ve had these kinds of asks before but it’s just SOOOOO fucking funny to me to imagine how Kolivan figures out what’s going on bw his strategically placed for the best optimum results agent and the goddamned future emperor of the the known universe. This is so funny I can’t.

Like I imagine there’s a meeting of sorts prebattle or mission, the blades, paladins and the two in question are all there. Kolivan, already slightly sus bc of the informally addressing Lotor thing and Lotor is personally teaching you Zalkh?? thing, is just quietly observing. Keith and Lotor aren’t completely obvious or anything, just towards the end, Kolivan catches a look bw the two of them, lingering a bit too long and wtf is Keith baring his throat a little????

Kolivans just on the side w a major stress headache developing and mentally screaming into the abyss

I'm so genuinely looking forward to writing the chapter where Koli properly clocks the keitor dynamic asdjvvcfjasdk

#i can only hope that it lives up to expectation #Ao3 Little Blade #sa screams back #BoM #keith kogane #prince lotor #keitor

[discordiansamba]

spitballing some thoughts about the amnesiac blade AU:

Keith basically keeps his amnesia to himself when he joins the Garrison. He didn't have a choice at his old school- everyone there basically knew about it. But nobody has to know about it here.

James knows, and although he can't stand Keith, he keeps his mouth shut about it.

He still gets periodically pulled from classes to see his doctor, so there is a rumor that he has some kind of medical issue.

It takes him awhile to start actually responding to 'Keith', but he eventually gets the hang of it. 'Cadet Kogane' takes even longer to get used to. Having two names feels weird somehow?

He starts off living in the dorms, but eventually just kind of moves into the spare room in Adam and Shiro's shared quarters. Nobody disputes this.

Actually kind of has more of a social life than he did in canon? Not having any memories leaves him with a desire for normalcy, even if normalcy sometimes seems kind of... weird to him? But that's just the memory loss, right?

(no it's because you were raised in a VERY different environment)

he still self-destructs after the Kerberos failure though and gets kicked out. he feels angry- angry at the Garrison, and angry at himself for some unfathomable reason.

He stays in the shack he and Shiro found out in the desert. There's something about it that feels almost calming.

local amnesiac blade does not know he's returned to his mission when he starts trying to track the blue lion's energy.

once they're up in space, he starts to get... flashes here and there, of memory, but nothing that sticks with him for long. which is weird- he hasn't had any in the past five years. why now?

he doesn't recognize Ulaz's armor- he didn't have his for very long post amnesia- but he sure does recognize the Blade's emblem.

(when Ulaz sacrifices himself, Keith cries without knowing the reason why)

Kolivan believes that Yorak has lost his memories, as Ulaz said in his brief report. But it has been five years since they have last seen him, and he has clearly become someone different in that time. He has no intention of informing him of his past identity.

Keith is a lot more wary of the Blade of Marmora, because even though he doesn't have his memories, he's starting to piece things together and he's not sure he likes the endpoint his thoughts are heading to.

#amnesiac blade au #yorak had a tendency for impulsivity but Keith is downright reckless #yes in many ways this is a reverse abyss of memory #human becomes a galra blade vs galra blade becomes a human

[galraluver]

Erm, it has been literally a year since I've requested lmao. Anyways, I have a request while they are open.

One of the Galra (specifically looking for Thace or Kolivan) don't know that some humans dye their hair, so when they have a S/O who religiously dyes their hair purple they just assume they're half galra, until they catch them dying their hair. They hadn't actually said anything to their human S/O about assuming they're partially Galran, so it surprised when they say they thought that.

Thanks!

-🦭

I'm glad that you're still around, I apologize for the long wait for requests to be open 😅. That's actually a really interesting idea, I'll be happy to write them 😊

I think that someone else already requested something really similar on someone else's blog, but I'm still going to post this because I took my time to write it last year and I still want to fulfill your request

_________________________________________

Ever since (Y/n) was old enough to dye her hair purple she did because purple was her favorite color, other people didn't always like it but she didn't care. She dyed her hair purple each time the dye started losing its color, so naturally she always kept purple hair dye on hand in her bathroom. (Y/n) was glad that the Garrison allowed people to dye their hair, she would have died if she couldn't dye her hair. The students she taught always thought she was the cool teacher because she wasn't as old fashioned as the other teachers; that, and she allowed snacks in her class. After (Y/n) found herself in space with the paladins she thought that she would have to let her hair go natural since she didn't bring any hair dye with her, luckily she found a store at the space mall that sold hair dye for all hair types.

(Y/n) already wasn't expecting to end up millions of lightyears away from Earth; meeting aliens completely blew her mind and ending up in a romantic relationship with a buff alien man twice her height had seemed impossible until it actually happened. Kolivan, the man she would eventually be marrying after the war with the galra empire ended, was standoffish with almost everyone except for her and maybe Keith, depending on what kind of mood he was in. The reason Kolivan trusted her and Keith was because Keith was Krolia's son and he thought she was half galra too, only he was attracted to (Y/n) and wanted her to eventually be his mate. (Y/n) found it strange that Kolivan was so open to her ever since they got to know each other better, although she was glad that he reciprocated her feelings. One day while she was busy dyeing her hair in one of the bathrooms in the castle of lions, Kolivan went looking for her after attending a strategy meeting with the paladins; he decided to ask Shiro if he knew where his significant other was.

“(Y/n) is usually here waiting for me after our meetings, would you happen to know where she is?” Kolivan asked Shiro with genuine curiosity, wondering where his beloved was during that moment.

“I think she's fixing her hair in the bathroom near the bedrooms.” Shiro replied, telling the older man where (Y/n) was.

“Thank you.” Kolivan responded with gratitude before he started his journey to where his girlfriend was.

The corners of Shiro's mouth twitched upwards, he was happy for (Y/n) because she finally found someone who loved her; Kolivan might not have been the most social person out there, but he loved her and she loved him. One of (Y/n's) physical aspects Kolivan loved most was her hair, it was a beautiful shade of purple and he loved gently running his fingers through it. She obviously wasn't related to Keith, he often found himself wondering how and when another galra landed on Earth and had the time to mate with a human; he wondered if someone from the galra empire went to Earth before Krolia but had a change of heart after falling in love with a human. (Y/n) had the bathroom door open so she could have the proper ventilation, although she wasn't expecting Kolivan to be looking for her. Kolivan got the shock of his life when he saw (Y/n) dyeing her hair purple, his heart almost stopped when he saw her natural hair color; (Y/n) never knew that Kolivan thought she was half galra, she always assumed he knew that she dyed her hair.

“(Y/n)? What is all of this?” Kolivan asked (Y/n) in disbelief, hardly able to wrap his mind around the fact that she wasn't half galra; he didn't necessarily feel betrayed because her lineage never came up, although it was still a shock to him.

“Oh, hey Koli. I'm just dyeing my hair.” (Y/n) cheerfully greeted her boyfriend when she turned to look at him before facing the mirror again, not thinking much of it while she carefully rubbed the purple dye into her soft locks.

All Kolivan could do was stand there and stare, completely dumbfounded that he'd mistaken a simple dye job for galra genes. It made a lot more sense to him as to why (Y/n) was so nose blind and why she wasn't as strong as Keith, but it ultimately didn't matter what species she was because he would always love her no matter what. He watched as she finished putting the purple dye in her hair before she took off and placed the reusable gloves in the sink after she washed them off, watching his future wife dye her hair unnerved him a little. (Y/n) looked at Kolivan's reflection in the mirror and saw the conflicted expression on his face, she felt bad for not telling him sooner that she dyed her hair purple. She turned to face him after she set the timer on her phone, prepared to answer any of his questions.

“How long have you been dyeing your hair?” Kolivan questioned when (Y/n) fully faced him, trying his best not to offend her; he didn't want to make her feel bad, he just wanted to understand why she enjoyed dyeing her hair and for how long she had been doing it.

“I've been doing it for a few years. I- I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner, I just didn't think it would ever come up.” (Y/n) apologized, feeling anxious when she looked her boyfriend in the eye while she spoke to him.

“I thought you were half galra- I never considered that you simply dyed your hair. I don't love you any less, but it's a lot for me to take in.” Kolivan explained before he gave (Y/n) the wrong idea, he didn't want her to think he would break things off with her from a simple misunderstanding.

(Y/n) never would have thought he would think she was half galra, although it definitely explained why he was so friendly with her when they first met each other. Since Kolivan didn't seem too upset she began telling him why she began dyeing her hair purple and when; she didn't necessarily hate her real hair color, but she liked having purple hair a lot more. For a moment she was worried that he didn't like her dyeing her hair purple, thankfully he didn't hold it against her and accepted her sense of style. Kolivan knew about hair dye, he remembered a time when Ulaz accidentally dyed the fur growing out of his crest pink instead of dark purple like he'd originally planned, the memory would always be burned in his mind. He still thought (Y/n) looked very attractive with purple hair and offered to help her with the dyeing process if she needed his help in the future, (Y/n) appreciated Kolivan's offer to help her very much.

#Kolivan #VLD Kolivan #Kolivan x Reader #Galra #Kolivan x Reader Scenario #Voltron AU Where Everybody Lives #Voltron Legendary Defender #Voltron #VLD #SFW #SFW Scenario #Scenario #BoM Kolivan #Hair Dye #Jan 2024

[silentwillowwhisperer]

From Krolia to Keith

Okay I found this random angry speech in my drafts with absolutely no context, but whatever. Let's roll with it. (Because I don't feel like coming up with ideas right now.)

-----------------------------------------------------

What if Texas died and Krolia took Keith with her?

-

Keith is a Marmoran soldier. He may look different that his fellow fighters, but he was raised the same as them and now battles the Galra with them.

He doesn't know much about where he comes from, just that his father was from a planet called Earth and died a week after Keith was born.

In some ways, he's more driven than most other Marmoran soldiers, because he fights to avenge his father and the Earth culture that he was robbed of.

But that all changed when he was taken in by Voltron.

They had discovered the blade and landed their castle near to the base. The second Keith entered the castle he could feel something calling out to him. After he found red and fought off several Galran spies, he was accepted as a paladin.

He can tell that the other paladins are slightly wary of Keith thanks to his large fluffy ears, curving horns, and fiery temper, along with several other Galra traits that he inherited from his mother.

Or so he assumes, his mother disappeared on an assignment when Keith was 3, and he has no memory of what she looks like.

He does remember words, lessons, things that she had told him before leaving him behind.

Every time he thinks about her, he can remember a particular conversation clearly.

Krolia is moving quickly around the small dorm that she shares with her young son. She's about to be deployed on a mission, and she knows Kolivan doesn't appreciate lack of punctuality.

However, as she walks toward the door, she feels a soft tug on the tight material of her suit. She looks down to see Keith staring up at her with his large, deep eyes. He reminds her of Texas, both of them with their knowing gazes and endless hunger for knowledge.

“Someone told me about soulmates. They’re made for you and love you forever” He whispers out in his small voice.

Krolia immediately sours. If there's anything she's taught Keith, it's that he's self sufficient, and doesn't need silly reassurances like love to get by. She'll have to talk to Keith's instructor about planting futile ideas in children's minds.

“Ha. Bullshit. I met your father by crash landing on his planet. Those earth people have a way of spinning tales and lies that they create to make themselves feel something like permanence. But you know what? I watched your father die at the hand of my own kind after only a couple years of knowing him. The universe doesn’t care if you’ve finally found happiness, or that you want things to last forever. I watched my heart die along with that man. And when I die, don’t lie to yourself thinking that I won’t because I will, I’ll leave you behind too. And you will be all alone. Sure you’ll feel crushed and empty, but you know what? You’re gonna suck it up! People are a waste of time. The only person you can trust is yourself, got it? Families are only going to steal the breath from your lungs and claw your soul out. And if you are stupid enough to fall into that trap, you will go kicking and screaming. No one can pin you down if you don’t give in. We may be fighting them, but the Galra empire has the right idea. Vrepit Sa, victory or death. There is no in between.”

Keith tries to latch on to that, to keep himself from giving in to the false hope of belonging and security.

But it's hard to ignore the pleasant feelings that flutter through him whenever one of his team mates, his family, sends him a warm smile or gives him a firm pat on the back.

Here, he feels important, like he belongs to this band of chaotic people.

#vld #voltron legendary defender #keith kogane #voltron #keith vld #vld keith #galra keith #tawny post

[graphx]

VOLTRON HIRAETH AU!!

(link to my page here :D) https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraphX

Basically a rundown of the plot I have planned so far! I will be writing and posting in order on AO3!

But there are some specific scenes I wanted to write because I don't have the patience or time to write everything in order(I'll be posting them here under the Hiraeth AU tag) THIS ENTIRE THING IS GEN BTW!!!

Hiraeth

(n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for lost places of your past

• Allura from another reality goes quintessence crazy after defeating Haggar at the cost of the lives of the other Paladins

• She goes from universe to universe trying to gather enough quintessence to bring back her reality that she accidentally tore apart but only gets worse and worse the more quintessence she is exposed to

• In the current universe she experiments with quintessence and accidentally kills her parents along with Zarkon and Honerva. Villian!Allura turns the blame to the Galra, causing the Allura of this universe to wage war on them as the only successor to the Altean throne.

• Lotor tries to convince Allura that her other self is lying to her but she doesn't believe it, leaving Lotor to flee from the Galran commanders trying to kill him to gain the throne(he goes into hiding before organizing a resistance after meeting the other generals)

• Villian!Allura is concerned that the Paladins of this universe will try to stop her so she destroys Earth

• However prior to the Altean invasion the Kerberos mission took place with Sam and his crew consisting of Matt, Adam and Shiro(who are all 16/17 for plot reasons they were interns or something IT MAKES SENSE DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!!)

• Sam, Matt and Shiro are kidnapped and sent to the arenas while Adam manages to steal a ship to get back to Earth, only to find it destroyed

• The Galran Empire remnants (who were already planning on attacking Earth and communicating with Sanda(who sent Sam away on Kerberos because she thought he would get in the way of her failed "negotiations" and hoped he was kidnapped) fight with the Alteans, leaving Earth in the crossfire

• The Blade of Marmora attempt a relief effort and get one billion people off Earth before it explodes, finding Adam and establishing a planet they can live on before leaving them to their own devices

• In this AU all the Paladins are kids when Earth got destroyed (around 6 to 8) and Keith's dad dies during the evacuation helping defend the transports from Alteans but Kolivan saw that Keith's dad had a Marmoran knife(that he didn't give to Keith at 8 years old)

• Kolivan takes in Keith as a Blade agent since he has no human to provide for him but he keeps his identity as a human secret from the rest of the Blades to ensure none of them snitch since the Alteans have offered a lot for humans

• Kolivan knows the knife was Krolia's but doesn't tell her since she already jeopardized the Blade of Marmora once by leaving for Earth and without the temptation of her son she won't leave again

• Keith(as you can expect) did not have a very happy childhood growing up in an organization of trained killer assassin ninjas which resulted in more ~trauma~

• On one of his missions he is captured by Galra and put in the areans with Champion!Shiro and Keith meets another human for the first time who shows him kindness and starts to question if the Blades are right

• Keith escapes from the Arena with the Blades but convinces Ulaz to go back for Shiro and he meets up with Adam in the human colony

• On another mission Keith runs into Lance, Hunk and Pidge who are searching for a supposed superweapon in an attempt to defend themselves from Alteans and Galrans that prevent them from leaving their hiding spot at the edge of the universe

• he thinks to himself "wow these guys are annoying and weird I sure do hope I never see them again" before the Blades immediately order him to find the superweapon to keep it out of human, Altean and Galran hands because they are unreliable

• Krolia helps track down information it and Keith notices that whenever she is bored she recites star charts (kinda like his dad used to do) and the constellations look eerily familar

• Keith gets hurt, Krolia finds out his identity and takes him to the human colony so he doesn't have to stay in the abusive Blade environment anymore

• When she tries to get Keith to colony they are tracked by Alteans and Krolia manages to trick the Alteans and Keith crash lands on the surface only to see the ship leaving

• now that all the paladins are in one place they protect the colony after going on a couple of missions to find the lions while Keith tries to track down the very elusive Blade of Marmora

Theres more to it than that, BUT that's all for now!

#2023 #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #keith kogane #lance mcclain #pidge gunderson #hunk garrett #coran hieronymus wimbleton smythe #vld allura #my fic #my dribble drabbles #fic rec #voltron fanfic #pidge vld #keith vld #lance vld #hunk vld #shiro vld #VLD Hiraeth AU

[autisticlancemcclain]

Keith walks into his room after a deliciously vigorous training season, wiping his sweaty face with a towel, and immediately notices something is off.

He freezes, towel clamped to the back of his neck, and carefully scans his room from corner to corner. His lock was still intact when he walked in, so unlikely break-in. His bed is still exactly as messy as it was when he left it. His dresser drawer is still left cracked slightly open, as he always leaves it, because it’s harder to put a drawer back to the same level of open it was before than to close it (he’s caught Hunk snooping through his shit many a time with this method. Thanks, Pa’s paranoia).

His gaze lands finally on a nondescript black book on his nightstand, and his eyebrows shoot up. He finished his book this morning and returned it to the library on his way to the training room.

He did not leave that black book there.

Wary, a thousand anxieties running through his brain, Keith approaches his nightstand bayard-first, sword extended and sharp. He pauses before he comes in contact, taking time to analyse it, attempt to puzzle out any kind of traps or discrepancies before they jump out at him. He can’t see any — the book is on the newer side, with a roughened black hardcover, gold detailing on the spine but no title or author. The paper looks thick and it’s strangely uncut, raggedy.

Hesitantly, Keith pokes it.

Nothing happens.

Less suspicious, now, he prods at it with his hands, and when that does nothing, he picks it up. It’s heavier than he expected. He cracks open the cover to reveal a red paper lining. Stuck to the inside of the cover is a baby blue post-it note, crookedly place, with only a neatly drawn heart in glitter gel pen. Keith can’t help the smile, even as his eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“What even…”

Pinching the first page from the bottom corner so as to not accidentally rip any paper, he slowly turns it over.

He gasps, fumbling with the book as he nearly drops it.

“How did it…”

He recognises the first page — it’s his. Or he made it, anyway. Scrawled in every white space of the nearly parchment-esque alien paper is his own doodling, from a boring meeting several weeks back. He recognises the slightly mean drawing of the Capnir leader and his snooty expression in the left corner, and the ninety games of tic-tac-toe he played with Lance on the bottom half of the page (Lance insisted he won because he is a nasty cheater. Keith didn’t even know it was possible to cheat at tic-tac-toe, but it is. It’s crazy).

Gobsmacked, Keith begins to flip through the rest of the pages, eyes getting wider and nose getting closer to the book with every corner he turns. These are his doodles and drawings — hundreds of them, loose papers from meetings and scrawled diagrams from mission plans and notes to other paladins and dorky little drawings he made for his friends or because of his own boredom. There are grocery lists covered in drawings of engine parts and knives and strange alien vegetables, hand-to-hand manoeuvre diagrams, several drawings of Shiro as Captain America, of Pidge and Hunk covered in soot except for the line around their eyes from their goggles, of Allura with the mice in her hair, Coran in the wackiest outfit he’s ever seen, Shiro with his eye twitching from Slav, Matt making goo eyes at Allura. Some of Kolivan, even, with over-exaggerated eyebrows and a frown that touches his neck.

And dozens, maybe even hundreds, of drawings of Lance. Smirking at Keith from across the kitchen table before he instigates a Pidge-Hunk argument, crowing in victory after making a shot, serious and focused mid battle, face drooping and sad and fixed on a glowing blue Earth projection with his chin hooked over his knees. Drawings that itched at Keith’s fingers every hour of every day, that he barely tried to resist; snapshots of Lance that plagued his mind ‘til he finally found time to grab a pencil.

Drawings that he had, apparently, left scattered all over the castle without thinking.

He cradles his flaming face in his free hand, heart pounding in his ears. He’s sure — he knows he threw half of these out. Some of them he left lying around, sure, and others he left out deliberately for his friends to find, but — Keith knows he threw out the full-page and coloured portrait of Lance, bright and beautiful in a dozen shades of earth, smiling softly at Keith in the low-light of the common room well after midnight. He can see the creases and smudges from where he’d crumpled it, embarrassed, and where someone had fished it out of the trash and carefully straightened it back out, brushing dust out of the crevices.

“Oh my God.”

Hunk would never have been able to keep the secret with how long it would have taken to bind this book — by hand, by the looks of it. Allura couldn’t either. Both Pidge and Shiro would have been gleeful in mocking Keith about the clear affection in every pencil stroke. Coran would have probably stuck it proudly on the fridge — he did that, once, Keith remembers, with a sketch he’d done of the whole team during a movie night. It’s still there; it’s been so long that Keith doesn’t notice it anymore.

There’s only one person who would pick up the discarded slips of paper and slide them in his pocket — only one person who’s that kind of sentimental. One person who prints every photograph he takes of every planet they’ve ever been on, who pins up every drawing gifted to him by young children no matter how objectively horrible, who tears off notes written in the margins of battle plans and keeps them in a jar on his dresser. Only one person who has a scrapbook with a dried blade of grass from Arus and piece of sea glass from the mermaid planet and a napkin stained with food goo from their food fight all those years ago. Hell, there’s only one person on this castle with enough skill with a needle and thread to bind a whole ass book.

Keith drops his bayard to the floor with a clatter, book clenched in his fist, and sprints out of his room. He flies down the hallway, ignoring the startled shout from Pidge as she jumps out of his way and the wide-eyed stare from Allura. He almost runs straight into his brother, spinning to the right at the last minute and rushing past him without bothering to entertain his questions. He runs all the way to the MedBay, where he knows Lance is taking inventory for Coran, and nearly crashes right into the pods because he’s too pumped up to slow down properly.

“Whoa there, cowboy, cool it before you give yourself a concussion. Christ.”

Lance places a cool hand on his shoulder, concerned, bin of counted bandages left abandoned behind him. Almost immediately his face coils in disgust.

“Aw, gross, you’re sweaty.”

But he doesn’t move his hand.

Keith stares.

How did he — how did he miss it, before?

“Keith?” Lance asks again, alarm clouding his face. “You okay, buddy?”

His fingers curve absentmindedly along the junction of Keith’s neck, and he leans in closer, and he smells so fucking good and he always does and Keith is lightheaded from more than just his cross-castle sprint.

“You’re in love with me,” he blurts, and he didn’t mean to say it like that but there’s no doubt in his words.

Lance startles, yanking his hand back in shock. Keith darts out to stop it, fingers wrapped around his wrist, keeping him from going far. Lance’s breath hitches.

“…What?”

“You’re in love with me,” Keith repeats, steadier this time. He waits a moment, then says, much more urgently: “The book.”

Mortification rings off Lance in waves.

“Oh,” he croaks. His pulse is so loud and so fast that Keith can feel it in his wrist. “I didn’t think it was — oh.”

There’s a strange quality to his voice, besides the embarrassment of getting caught, and then it clicks — he’s afraid. Of rejection, of disgust, of Keith. Keith isn’t sure. But he hates that it’s there.

Faster than he can talk himself out of, he cups Lance’s face with his free hand, relishing in the sharp intake of breath, and leans in and kisses him. There’s a moment of rigid shock on Lance’s part and it could spell trouble but Keith holds steady. He keeps his hold loose and the pressure soft and soon Lance — melts, into him, there’s no other word for it; he sinks in close and sighs and the hand Keith has gripped goes slack. His lips are soft, and his hair tickles Keith’s forehead, and Keith can still feel his jackrabbit heartbeat, and he still smells like that intoxicating mix of flowers and — sunshine, somehow, straight from the brightest days in Earth. Keith’s hands have never been steadier.

“You collected my doodles,” he says, staying close when Lance pulls gently away. He can see the deeper browns in Lance’s irises, the places where the gold gives way to near-black. They look like the flecks of the precious metal Keith would see at the bottom of the river mud in the mountains of Arizona.

“They were worth keeping,” Lance says quietly. He holds Keith’s gaze. The tips of his fingers trace Keith’s temples; they’re rough with old guitar callouses.

“You think everything is worth keeping.”

“Only the things that — bleed.”

Keith thinks that they’re both right. Lance can’t leave anything behind because he aches for the soul he finds in it. He finds the worth in everything. He found the worth in Keith.

He found enough to make Keith stay.

Keith grips the book in his right hand, left still cupped around Lance’s cheek. The difference in textures is startling, grounding.

“No one has ever done something like that for me before,” Keith admits. There’s a lump in his throat but Keith thinks it’s manageable, thinks he can talk through it. Thinks he might hold the strength for it.

Lance waits patiently.

“I want to —” Keith stops. He opens the book. The drawn Lance smiles up at him, beautiful. He looks up and Lance smiles over at him, breathtaking. “I —”

He doesn’t know how to say it. It’s there, bubbling in his chest, spilling out of him; obvious. But he doesn’t know the words for it. He’s not sure anyone’s taught him before.

“Okay,” Lance says. He tugs his wrist out of Keith’s grip then laces their hands together, squeezing. His smile only widens and he — sparkles, almost. Keith’s throat goes dry.

“Okay?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Oh,” Lance repeats, teasing. He leans in again. “I’m going to kiss you again, now.”

“Please,” Keith begs, and he does.

———

based on this post

#there’s something about having a conversation without the words you can’t say yet that fuckinf gets to me #it’s about the Gestures babey it’s keithtober #vld #voltron #keith #keith kogane #keithtober #lance #lance mcclain #klance #whipped lance #pining lance #whipped keith #pining keith #pining klance #whipped klance #soft klance #soft keith #soft lance #artist keith #brown eyed lance #getting together #fluff #my writing #longpost #fic

[kidgetrash]

Kidge One-shot - All You Have To Do Is Ask

Character:  Keith Kogane, Pidge Gunderson/Katie Holt

Pairings:  Keith/Pidge

Warnings!:  None, really. Some tears. Happy ending.

Summary:  Post Season 8 off on a tangent, Keith is leaving to join the Blades while the rest of the Paladins stay on Earth.  Pidge, with her feelings for Keith, tries to tell him how she feels...

A/N:  I am not dead!  I am back on my bullshit!  Feeling emotional about my ship and had to write this!

All You Have To Do Is Ask

‘You’re really leaving?’

Keith turned as he shoved the final t-shirt into his bag to find Pidge standing in the doorway.  She was wearing her new lab coat rather than her garrison uniform, and it suited her.  ‘Well, yeah.  Kolivan and Krolia need help distributing aid to all the planets in the alliance.  Without Voltron, I’m not needed here.  At least I can do some good out in…’

‘Who says you’re not needed here?’  She interrupted.

‘I’ll do better out in space.’  He slid the zipper closed.  ‘I’ll be much more useful.’

She folded her arms stubbornly.  ‘We need you here, Keith, there’s plenty to be done on Earth.  The garrison…’

‘Has enough heroes.  I won’t be missed.’

‘Says who?’  Pidge spat.  She has been wrestling with her feelings for the paladin before her for well over a year and realised, as much as she hated to admit it, she was deeply, irrevocably, head-over-heels in love with him.  It was embarrassing.  Her heart raced when she thought of him, not to mention clammy palms and her stomach having what could only be described as some sort of gastrointestinal distress.  She had tried to hide what she felt in the hope it would pass, but much to her dismay, she found herself in the situation she was now.  Facing a personal ultimatum that this was her last chance, the one opportunity she had to take to tell him the truth.  Even if nothing came from it she had tried, and that was what mattered.

‘No one said it, but I know it’s the case.  I am needed up there.  Not here.’

‘You are needed here, more than you know!’  Pidge took two steps towards him.  ‘If you’re not here…when you left for The Blades before, that was bad enough, but now…now…’

He looked at her, her cheeks flushed, eyes blazing, her bottom lip trembling.  She was so passionate about what mattered to her, easily elated by the smallest breakthrough, or riled to anger when it counted.  But he didn’t remember seeing her like this before.  This was a different kind of passion, and it intrigued him.  Not that he had time to consider it.  He had places to be.  ‘You’ll get over it.  I need to go where people need me the most.’

‘I need you the most!  I mean, we!  We need you most!’  She rapidly corrected herself as tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes.  ‘And I don’t want you to go.’  She murmured the last quietly.

He sighed.  She hated goodbyes, he knew that, and she had been forced to say it so many times to people she cared for, but she survived every time.  This was no different.  He came to her, stopping less than an arm’s length away, and looked down at her, not comprehending why she was this upset.  ‘You’ll be fine.’  He rested his hand on her shoulder.  ‘And I’ll still come and visit.’  He could admit, if only to himself, that he wished she meant this in the way he had wanted for some time, on a personal level.  He was struggling to keep his relationship with the youngest paladin that of friends and colleagues, having started to notice every little thing about her and how it made him feel…more than he did for the others.  He knew leaving was the only way to set this right and avoid what could only be a one sided disaster.  He could dream, though.

She swallowed hard, she realised she was about to break her promise to herself.  ‘Right.  Well, have a safe trip.’  And she turned, leaving his room as she gritted her teeth, letting her tears run free as she bit back her sobs.

‘Hey, Pidge…what happened?’  Lance walked past her, noticing her tears as he levelled with her, but she just waved her hand at him and hurried away.  He frowned, having noticed the youngest paladin’s longing looks at Keith, and though he really couldn’t see why, he did recognise it.  Something must have happened.  ‘Mullet, what did you do?’  Lance marched straight into his room where Keith was putting his bag by the door, ready for the off.

‘Good to see you too.’  Keith replied at Lance’s indignant snapping.

‘What did you say to Pidge?’  He poked at his shoulder as Hunk walked in.

‘What happened to Pidge?’  He hooked his thumb over his shoulder.

‘I didn’t do anything.’  Keith pushed Lance’s finger away.  ‘We were just saying goodbye.  You know she hates them.’

‘What did she say, exactly?’

Pidge slammed into the lab, kicking a trash can across the room out of sheer frustration.

‘Couldn’t do it, huh?’  Matt called from their adjoining offices.

‘Not even close.’  She sat down hard on the swivel stool, making it spin.  As she turned by the bench she grabbed a spanner before stopping herself on the next pass and smashing the circuit board sitting there for all she was worth.

‘That isn’t going to fix things!’

‘No, but it might make me feel better!’

‘Pidge?’

She froze with her arm in the air as Keith’s voice came from the door she had entered through.  Her tears had mostly dried up by now but that didn’t mean her heart was ready to see him again.  She had been prepared to possibly never see him again.  ‘We said our goodbyes, Keith.  What more is there?’

‘Lance and Hunk said you were upset.’

She spun on the chair, still brandishing her spanner.  ‘Is that that this is about?  The fact I got a bit teary?’

Her eyes were no longer the watery amber pools then had been just minutes ago, now they blazed with a fire he was more used to seeing in battle.  ‘I just…uh…I wasn’t sure if I said something or…’

‘I wasn’t kidding, Keith.  I will miss you.  But you’re determined to do this so get gone, go.  I’m not doing another goodbye just to soothe your ego.’  She spun back to the table and started smashing the circuit board some more.

‘Okay, then.  See you, I guess.’  He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how he was supposed to react or respond.

Pidge listened as he left before whacking what was left of the circuit board three times in quick succession before throwing the spanner onto the table.  He was actually going and she still hadn’t been able to tell him how she felt.  She was an idiot and had no one to blame but herself.  Maybe it was for the best, but right now she didn’t know how that could be possible.

Matt waited a full three minutes of Pidge sitting with her head in her hands before he spoke, coming to the adjoining door between the lab and office.  ‘So, you’re just going to let him go?’

‘Yeah, Matt, I’m just going to let him go.’  She sniffed loudly.  ‘He wants to go and I’m not enough to keep him here.  Happy?’

‘Of course I’m not happy.  I don’t like seeing you like this.  I just don’t want you to have any regrets.’

‘Too late.’  She dropped her arms onto the bench and rested her chin on them, staring at nothing as reality beat down on her.

‘How hard could it be to tell him the truth?’  Matt pushed.

‘Too hard.’  She mumbled.  ‘I just don’t do good with feelings.’

‘You do, just not these ones.’  He finally crossed the room and rubbed her back soothingly.  ‘If you could have, what would you have told him?’

She sighed heavily, her breath shuddering through her petite frame in a way that had Matt hurt for her.  ‘I guess…I’d ask him to stay.  Not for the garrison, not for the rest of the paladins.  For me.  Because I’ve loved him so long I don’t know how…’  She paused as a small sob wracked her body.  ‘I don’t know how to carry on if he leaves again.’

‘Why couldn’t you tell me?’

Pidge’s head shot around at the sound of his voice, this time coming from the office doorway.  Her cheeks flamed as Matt took a step back, allowing her space.  She wasn’t sure if it was to put him out of striking distance, as she really felt like punching him out right now because he had obviously set her up, or just to give her space, but she couldn’t consider that right now.  Her mouth worked a few times, but nothing came out, unable to form any words after unknowingly confessing to the man she loved.

‘Why couldn’t you just tell me?’  He repeated as he came forward, allowing Matt the chance to slip away and out of the door.  ‘I just don’t get it, I thought we were close, that you could tell me anything.’

‘We were, are.’  She corrected herself, getting to her feet and backing up two steps, hoping to keep some distance between them so she could continue to think clearly, but the hurt and confusion in his eyes threatened to addle her further.  ‘And that’s exactly why I couldn’t.’

‘I don’t understand that.’  He shook his head.  ‘Shouldn’t stronger feelings make it easier to talk to me?’

‘No!’  She threw her arms up in the air.  ‘Not in the slightest!  You’re leaving and I might never see you again, even if you do say you’re going to visit, but if I had told you, if you knew, like you know now, you might avoid Earth all together just to save us having another awkward conversation like this one!’

‘I still don’t understand why this has to be awkward.’  He took another step towards her as her back bumped into a rack of spare parts.  He was still some way away but she couldn’t help feeling cornered, even if she could easily have escaped.  ‘Why would telling me you love me be so hard?’

‘Because…’  She started as he got ever closer.

‘I’m listening.’

‘Because…’

‘Yeah?’

‘Because nothing I say could make you feel the same way!’  She blurted as he reached her, one hand coming up to rest on the shelf beside her head.  ‘And nothing I say could make you stay.’  She murmured.

He sighed, lowering his gaze as he did so before speaking in an equally hushed tone.  ‘Quiznak, Katie.  How did you never realise that I’d stay…but only for you?’

‘You’dwhatnow?’  She garbled as he suddenly looked up at her through his eyelashes, a small smile on his lips.

‘Ask me to stay.  Not because the team need me, not because the garrison needs me, but because you need me.’

She took a shuddering breath before letting it out, her voice coming in little more than a whisper.  ‘Stay, Keith, please?  For me?’

His free hand came up to cup her cheek, angling her face towards him as his lips approached hers.  ‘For you?  Anything.  All you have to do is ask.’

Note:  No trash cans, spanners, or circuit boards were harmed in the writing of this one-shot.

#kidge #kidgetrash #kidge fanfic #voltron

[demenior]

Trick or treat!

An excerpt from the next story (Make Bullets Out of You) in the Switch series, that I lost steam on a few chapters into writing it.

I wanted this scene to double down on the feeling of 'just because we're on the same side does not make us friends' and echo the spiking tension/dread of the scene from Jurassic Park where the raptors break into the kitchen since my redesign galra have that air of 'oh shit oh shit oh shit' to them

[art of what the redesign galra roughly look like] [art of ulaz in his blade of marmora armor]

---

There’s a loud shout from outside, and immediately everyone is on their feet. Slavka’s hand goes for the blaster at her belt while Rahjim takes a nervous step back. 

A sharp knock on the door, and then, it cracks open.

The soldier looks terrified, “The, uh, the Blade of Marmora are here.”

Slavka groans, and shoves her blaster back into its holster.

“Send them in,” she says. 

Shiro knows he’s heard the name ‘Marmora’ before, but he can’t remember who they are. He thinks it might have been in the files the Alliance gave them— and then he forgets how to do anything but panic.

Stepping through the doorway, ducking to keep from knocking his head on the top, comes a long Galra snout. He’s wearing a mask that covers his face and upper jaw, lined with glowing spots that look like eyes. A heavy hood covers his ears and mane, hiding his identity. He’s panting in the humidity, blue tongue lolling out between rows and rows of sharp teeth. 

The Galra is massive. Just as big as Sendak, if not bigger. The Paladins shrink away from him, backing to the sides of the room. Shiro finds himself cut off from the others, with only Coran on his side. The Galra fills the doorway, lumbering inside, and stepping out of the way of the door. He comes close enough that Shiro could reach out and touch him. 

And just behind the first Galra, comes a second. He’s wearing the same mask and hood, and though he’s broad in the shoulders, he’s built a lot leaner than the first Galra. They both are crouching down, practically sitting to avoid the low ceiling. Their long tails hang out the open door behind them, where Shiro can see curious, and blatantly fearful, soldiers stealing glances in their direction. 

Shiro feels Coran’s hand on his wrist. He realizes he’s breathing hard. He hasn’t been in close contact with Galra like this since being captured by Commander Fovzak. He’s scared.

“Kolivan,” Slavka greets. She sounds like he’s an inconvenience. Kolivan could probably bite her in half without trying, and Slavka doesn’t show an inch of fear at being in his presence. Shiro recalls that Slavka once broke her hand punching Fovzak in the face. 

The larger Galra reaches up with his clawed hand and touches something just below his ear. His mask buzzes like a hologram, and then appears to dissolve. He pushes his hood back with a shake of his head. His ears pop free, as well as his bushy fur. His fur is thick on his neck, like a mane, and he has a scar over his right eye. In the shorter fur on his face, Shiro’s surprised to see streaks of red. He’s never seen a Galra with that kind of coloring. There's a sheen to the red areas that suggests scar tissue rather than fur.

The other Galra follows suit. He’s much paler in color, and all of his fur is short save for a light-colored crest down his spine. His ears flicker in attention to all of the noise coming from the open door behind him.

“High General,” Kolivan rumbles. His voice sounds like a diesel engine. 

“The Blade of Marmora?” Allura asks, “you are the Galra fighting the Empire?”

Kolivan and his partner’s attention goes to Allura. They turn their heads, ears forwards, yellow eyes focused on her. To her credit Allura doesn’t flinch, though Keith and Pidge certainly don’t like it. Both Paladins discreetly reach for their bayards. 

“Yes,” Kolivan says, “who are you?”

“The Paladins of Voltron,” Rahjim says. 

Both Galra’s eyes go wide and they take in all of the Paladins, and then, as one, they turn their heads and look at Shiro and Coran on the other side of the room. 

The second Galra ducks under Kolivan’s chin to get a better look.

“Champion?” he says, shocked. 

“Shiro,” Shiro corrects nervously. He doesn’t like being the focus of their cold yellow eyes. 

“He’s reformed,” Slavka says, though she sounds like she doesn’t believe it, “and the Black Paladin.”

The second Galra barks a HOO-HA-HA cackle.

#switch the beat series #tomorrow i'll switch the beat series #tomorrow ill switch the beat series #lmao idr how i tagged it #voltron #vld #wip

[dawnrider]

For the writing prompt “don’t” - Kidge -

1) don’t listen to them

2) don’t lie to me

3) don’t walk away

❤️💚❤️💚

Hello dear! So I decided to not only use all three prompts, I decided to use all three twice in the same one shot. It's the cheesiest kind of cheesy, but here we are. Enjoy!

Family Dinner

Kidge

Rated T

It was time for another one of their “Family Dinners." The ones they did every year to try to keep the memories of their old lives, their adventures together, alive. To keep Allura’s memory alive for Lance and each other. Keith almost hadn’t made it this year. He was busy most of the time in other parts of the galaxy, using his Blades training to the benefit of the coalition. There were always pirates, bigger planets bullying smaller ones, and vestiges of the Galran empire seeking to regain their former power. They wanted him to start training new recruits this year, though. He was a bit up in the air about the idea. What did he know about teaching?

The reminder popping up on his communicator that it was time to head back to Earth for Family Dinner was a welcome distraction from the decision making process.

He arrived at Lance’s front door, expecting the cacophony that met him but still feeling overwhelmed by it. Voices called out his name, hands clapped him on the back and ushered him inside. He wasn’t even entirely sure who all was greeting him. He smelled food, so he could assume Hunk was working away in the kitchen, and there was a murmur of lively chatter coming from the back patio. He tried to look around and identify where everyone was.

As the paladins had returned to more normal lives on Earth, or elsewhere, the invitees for Family Dinner grew in number. Lance and Veronica were always present, which now meant that Veronica’s husband and two small children were there too. Hunk and Shay made the trip every year and brought Shay’s cousin who had become her planet’s foremost expert in alien cultures. Shiro and Adam only missed the event once and that was strictly because they had been in quarantine with their newly adopted twin girls. Keith was looking forward to seeing the now three-year olds, likely creating a mess somewhere with Veronica’s kids.

Keith was about to look out onto the patio in search of the last paladin, but was redirected into the kitchen where he was nearly crushed by a Hunk Hug. Lance was close behind him, asking all kinds of questions about his last mission. “C’mon man, it can’t all be top secret!” Keith shrugged with a sly smile, leaning against the island in the kitchen as Hunk went back to checking something on the stove.

“Leave him alone, Lance.” Hunk tapped a thermometer on the outside of the oven. “I’m more curious about who he’s been seeing…” A wink was tossed his way and Keith sagged in frustration.

“No one…”

“No one? No one’s jumping at the chance to date an intergalactic savior with a physique like a comic book hero?” Lance nudged him in the ribs. Keith wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a compliment or not. “You really are on the job too much.” He couldn’t really argue with that.

“Well, that might be changing…”

“Oh?” Lance leaned on the island, dramatically cradling his face in his hands and blinking at him expectantly. “Do tell!”

“They uh… They want me to take over training new recruits.”

There was a lengthy silence. Lance stood slowly and nodded. “Like taking over for Kolivan, training?”

“Uh… Sort of.”

“Isn’t he basically a hermit?” Hunk questioned over his shoulder as he stirred a large pot of what appeared to be gravy of some kind. “Not much of a social life.”

Keith threw up his hands and vaguely waved. “I’m not much of a social person, you know.” Hunk was about to respond when a small gaggle of children came stomping into the kitchen, distracting both Lance and the chef du jour to keep anyone from getting spilled on or opening the oven. The former black paladin extricated himself from the room and sighed at the fresh air hitting his face.

“Don’t listen to them. You should do what you want.” He whirled around in response to the familiar voice, an involuntary grin tugging at his lips.

“Pidge!” The auburn haired engineer grinned up at him, the lightly applied lipstick on her mouth catching his attention. It was a very rare day that Pidge “got fancied up.” He looked around. Had she brought a date?

“Hi Mullet,” she teased, opening her arms to demand a hug and tugging on his ponytail in the process. He swept her up, unable to help the urge to take advantage of the difference in their height and relative strength. She laughed but pushed to be put back on her feet. “How ya been, huh? Hearing from you once a month isn’t enough.” Keith neglected to mention that their once a month communication was far more than anyone else got. He started telling her about how he’d been all over on different missions, then paused.

“You… Did someone come with you?”

Pidge looked around in confusion. “No? Was I supposed to bring someone?” He tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible and not show how utterly pleased he was.

Ever since they had first returned to Earth, before the war even, Keith had been finding himself drawn to Pidge in a way he couldn’t ignore. It was subtle at first, so he didn’t notice it. Finding her in the common room after lights out, the pair of them curling up to watch B-movie cryptid thrillers and often falling asleep after rousing discussions of the plausibility of the film. Sometimes he wandered into the hangar when he couldn’t sleep, finding Pidge puttering away on some invention or another and draping himself over a chair to watch her work.

After the war though… While physically they were galaxies apart, she wrote to him almost weekly at first. Commenting on the state of the planet, the clean up efforts, and the modifications to the Atlas they were making to better incorporate the Altean tech. She would sprinkle in commentary about how their friends were doing, what her family was up to. Keith appreciated the connection with home far more than he anticipated he would.

The weekly letters turned to monthly eventually as Pidge progressed in her career and had less time, he imagined, to dedicate to an intergalactic penpal. They had switched to video recordings which he preferred on her end because he got to see her face, but hated to do himself because he felt so awkward. “I miss our videos,” he blurted out.

“Don’t lie to me,” Pidge chuckled. “I could tell by your face you hated them.”

“I… didn’t.” He winced at how unconvincing that was. “I liked getting yours anyway.” The blush that lit her cheeks made him blink, watching her bite that red-clad lower lip and avert her eyes.

“Oh. You… uh… Didn’t really say.”

He rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously. “I didn’t want you to feel burdened or whatever.” Pidge turned and started walking the line dividing the two slabs of concrete making up Lance’s patio. He watched her put one foot directly in front of the other as though walking a tightrope. “I liked listening to you tell me about your projects,” he muttered sheepishly. “I had to look up half the stuff you were talking about, but it was… nice.”

She paused halfway down the patio, doing a half turn and brushing her hair away from her face. “Are you going to take the job?” she asked after a moment, watching him with a cautious look in her eye.

“I… I don’t know. It’s not just the Blades that want someone to do their training.”

“The garrison.” She already knew. Why hadn’t she said anything before?

“Yes. I just wasn’t sure if… I wasn’t sure if I was ready to come back to Earth yet. Or if there was a reason for me to.” She nodded slowly, thoughtfully, then turned away again. As she took a step toward the end of the patio, Keith felt like she was stretching away from him into the horizon and he couldn’t… “Don’t walk away,” he breathed. She stopped, head lifting as though she'd only partially heard him. “Don’t walk away, please?” he expanded on his plea.

Pidge turned immediately, her hazel eyes glittering. “I won’t if you don’t.” She took several steps in his direction. He followed suit, meeting her in the middle. “Are you sure about this?” she breathed. “Would you be happy here?”

Keith let out a sigh, the tension he hadn’t really realized he was holding onto melting out of his muscles. “I’ve missed home.” He took a fortifying breath. “I’ve missed you.” Their fingers met between them, twining together naturally. “Can you put up with someone who doesn’t have your smarts? Don’t lie to me,” he warned her. Pidge grinned in response, fingers tightening on his.

“Of course. How do you think I’ve put up with Lance all these years?” Keith couldn’t help the grin that lit his face and the chuckle that bubbled out of him. “If you’re at the garrison, you’ll have to see me almost every day. Are you ok with that?”

He let go of her hand so he could trail his knuckles against her cheek and cupped her chin. "I think I could get used to it."

"Oh my gawd, will you two just kiss already?!" Lance's voice cut through the air, jarring the two of them out of their tender moment. Keith threw a heavy scowl over his shoulder at the small crowd of former paladins lurking at the sliding door off the kitchen. "We've been waiting forever for you to figure it out!"

About to argue, Keith was startled by a pair of small hands gaining purchase of his face to turn it and pull it down. "Don't listen to them," she whispered. "The time is right, now." Her lips met his and his eyes dropped closed to savor the moment.

They managed to ignore the whooping and hollering behind them for a while before finally giving in, blushingly joining their friends inside.

"Family Dinner" soon had a very different weight for Keith Kogane.

#prompts #vld fandom #kidge #vld keith #vld pidge #Dawnrider fanfiction #family dinner