why do the stars shine so bright
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Summary
From the second Keith was born, he was fighting, screaming and yelling for someone who was always going to leave him anyway. Someone who knew that Keith would and could never stop fighting, as long as he lived.
Lance was born defending, trying to protect his mother from the cruelty of the world, as she cried softly with happiness about her little boy and how, he was alive and happy. Still Lance tried to protect.
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Or, Keith and Lance's early lives, told through both themselves and others they knew.
Series
- Part 1 of why do the stars shine so bright
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How To Make Friends: A Short Guide By Keith Kogane by orphan_account
Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender
25 Oct 2020
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The thing was that Keith couldn’t make friends. It was just something Keith came to accept a long time ago, probably when he was five and his father died. Shiro was probably his first friend since his father and then Adam. Now he was stuck on a spaceship with six other people and was trying to avoid speaking to most of them unless he had to.
That changed, when a certain Pidge "Pidgeon" Holt decides she's had enough of Keith being an emo and trying to keep himself away from the rest of them. And forces (or bullies, depends who you ask) him to play a video game. Which was the start of life long friendships. Also known as, how Keith learnt to trust again.
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“You weren’t asleep like how I’m not awesome,” Lance said, sticking out his chest a little and looking like a poor imitation of a rooster.
“What? Both are true.”
“No,” Lance’s face dropped. “Both aren’t true even if you keep denying both.”
Series
- Part 2 of why do the stars shine so bright
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It was supposed to be an easy in and out mission, which was simple enough, Keith had done them plenty of times, with plenty of people, including Lance. It wasn't even a high priority mission. But alas, if your name if Keith Kogane never expect anything to go right, because nothing did go right.
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“C’mon Shiro. What’s the worst that can happen? We get double crossed and kidnapped by Galra and die?”
Everyone shifted uncomfortably.
“Don’t jinx it.” Keith groaned.
Series
- Part 3 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Keith knew the others missed their families, it was pretty easy to tell. How Lance's face would fall when he spoke Spanish, to Pidge making herself busy, to Hunk looking at his creations wistfully and how Shiro's eyes would stay on happy couples for longer than he needed.
So when Keith gets a chance for them to contact home, he doesn't hesitate to steal off a rich looking lady. He knows how to steal and he knows that it'll bring his friends some peace. Which it does. But Keith finds very little solace in it, not worrying about his own needs and instead trying to comfort others.
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“Hey,” Lance said, his chest heaving. “Can you give me that bag?”
“You mean the bag I just stole? No.”
“Okay, well I’m taking the bag, whether you like it or not Samurai.”
Series
- Part 4 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Lance isn't one to be reckless, that's Keith's job. He sits on the sidelines observing everyone else, their strengths, weaknesses and how he works around those strengths and weaknesses. But when a mission goes slightly pear-shaped (again) and Keith is in danger. Suddenly Lance becomes the reckless one.
(Much to Shiro's dismay)
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“You need to stop getting stabbed, you hear me Kogane or I’m going to throw you out into the airlock!”
“I’d like to see you try... Let me go! Lance!” He shrieked. “Is this an excuse to touch my ass?”
“I’m not going anywhere near that thing."
Series
- Part 5 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Lance lives a pretty crazy life, living on a space ship with his friends (and space royalty) while they save the aforementioned space from a megalomaniac ruler. There is some domesticness to it, some constants. Even if those constants include your friends getting hurt, another friend being part-alien and arguing with a space princess.
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“I’m not that clumsy with my sword," Keith argued, "If I wanted your head off, it’d be at my feet.”
“Way to comfort a guy..." Lance grumbled.
Series
- Part 6 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Dreams. The wishes or mess that your brain makes up when they're sleeping. Sometimes excellent and funny, making you smile for days after having the dream. Sometimes nightmares. Everyone on the castle has nightmares, they've been through a lot.
Then Lance is trapped in his dreams and they're not the good kind.
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“Be careful,” Keith said with a smile.“Careful is my middle name.”
"Considering your middle name is Charles you need to be extra careful."
Series
- Part 7 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Being a paladin has its risks, someone could put a bullet through you, someone could just stab you in the guts, or you could get some weird alien virus. Lance always thought that his death would be a short and quick thing, without chances to say goodbye.
But hanging above your doom, with only an emo with a mullet to keep you from falling... that wasn't the way Lance expected to be going.
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“Keith. You need to let go.”
“No.” He grunted out.
“Think about it logically— we can’t hang here forever.”
“I’m going to fucking try!” Keith yelled back.
Series
- Part 8 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Moving forward is hard. When you blame yourself for dropping your best-friend to his death. It's hard when the life and heart of the team is gone, gone to a pit of lava. Moving on is hard. Moving forward is harder.
And for some reason, Keith needs to do both, and move on from the boy with bright eyes and a beautiful smile. The boy that Keith wouldn't forget even if he tried.
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“You expect us to forget?” Hunk’s voice broke completely and Keith shook his head.
“No, no, I don’t. Not Lance,” Keith’s eyes watered before he hunched over. Because he knew deep down that he'd never forget Lance, as long as he was alive Keith would remember him.
Series
- Part 9 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Keith needed a fucking holiday. He had thought he’d dropped his best friend to his death, (best friend that he had an awful, debilitating crush on), he’d been revealed as Galra (or part Galra) to his friends, he’d gotten very close to cutting his arms open. Then said friend contacted Voltron and he was revealed to be alive, and snuggling up with a hot alien prince.
He needed a holiday.
Everyone else needed a holiday too.
Currently, Keith was not having a holiday.
That needed to change.
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“You look like a raven.” Lance said.
“Huh?”
“Perched up here, wearing all black, being an emo,” Lance held out his hand and Keith dragged him up onto the rock. “Unlike other ravens you’re not smart.”
Series
- Part 10 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Shiro was the leader. That was his personality, he was their (sometimes) funny, yet serious leader. Everything was fine.
Until it wasn't. And The Black Lion needed a new paladin.
And everyone needed to adjust to everything, the sudden changes, the whiplash from jumping from thing to thing, from problem to problem. Someone had to inherit that. The chaos and the disorder and the general panic coursing through the paladins.
It was a wonder that anyone could thrive in that environment. Yet they did.
War stops for no one. So neither would they.
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“Are we going to ignore your many problems?” Lance asked, and it had no bite in it.
“Can we?”
“Sure.” Lance said softly, “If that’s what you want.”
Series
- Part 11 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Lance always loved parties, the joy, the laughter the amusement, the dancing and the bad food. However, Lance has always found it hard to find a party enjoyable when his ex-leader is still being odd, his current leader ditched to find out answers about what had happened to find the leader, and he ran into his kinda-ex boyfriend.
A disaster. This entire thing was a disaster.
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Lance dipped Keith, who scrambled for a grip. His fingers and nails digging into Lance’s back, he looked shocked, as Lance held the pair of them there. Before Keith relaxed a little in the hold and just looked up at Lance.
For a moment all they did was hold onto the other, and look at each other. Their chests heaving as they looked at each other, and they smiled. The music had died, but Lance didn’t even notice that, because all he could see was Keith, and his stupid, beautiful face.
Series
- Part 12 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Shiro has been acting... weird. For a long time. Keith and Lance, determined to find the answer, go onto a mystery planet. La-Kua, trying to find some answers about what had happened to their ex-leader. What they're not ready, is for the mess of what is essentially a cult, different colour robes and generally distress.
Because Keith cared about his family, and when his family were messed with. Keith messed back. But what was he supposed to do when his family, his brother, started messing with him.
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“Well we watched a girl have basically a cult ritual done on her, I had to hold Lance down. Then we broke several laws and I realised that Shiro is—”
Shiro popped up on the screen.
“Hey, Shiro,” he said through gritted teeth.
Series
- Part 13 of why do the stars shine so bright
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When Keith was little he was told to run, to leave, to learn when he wasn't wanted and run the other direction. To run when he wasn't needed, to save himself from the future hurt that was going to hit him like a truck and leave him more broken than he already was.
So Keith needed to run. Before this got painful.
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Keith took a deep breath. “I’m leaving Voltron.”
“Ha,” Pidge snorted, “Okay Keith, and I’m a flying turtle—” there was a long pause. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m leaving Voltron, stepping down, whatever you want to call it.”
Hunk dropped the bowl that he was holding. “You’re not leaving.”
“I am.”
Series
- Part 14 of why do the stars shine so bright
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They haven't been able to form Voltron. People are dying, planets are getting destroyed and Zarkon is getting an upper hand. But they just can't form Voltron, no matter how hard they tried. Voltron just... wouldn't form, they'd just fly in formation without anything happening.
Apparently all it took to snap out of that was Keith finding out what his team wanted the most and them dragging them away from that. Easier said than done.
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“You kissed me after the final battle, you kissed me when everyone thought I was dying, and I should’ve been dying because Zarkon stabbed me with some poison dagger… but I survived.”
“Why don’t I remember that?” Keith asked, “I think I’d remember the love of my life being inches close to death.”
“Come on,” Lance said through gritted teeth. “We’re talking to Mama.”
“Fuck,” Keith muttered to himself. “This isn’t real. Is it? Of course, it isn’t fucking real.”
Series
- Part 15 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Summary
People hurt others. A simple fact of life, like the sky being blue or that Keith's an idiot. But most of these times, the hurt heals.
A broken heart does get fixed. A bruise will fade.
Not all hurt gets fixed. No, some stays, for the rest of time.
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Shaky hands,” Lotor grinned, “Wouldn’t you agree that shooting would be quite difficult while shaking.”
Lance gulped, as he tried to move back as far as he could in the chair. Lotor smiled and he stood up straight, looking down at Lance. “How do humans handle electricity?”
Oh.
Series
- Part 16 of why do the stars shine so bright
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Weird things happen. All the time. It's part of being a paladin. Weird things happening is in the job description of being a paladin.
But this. This is a whole other weird. Shared dreams, weird lights and lullabies, and healing each other. That's on another, another level of weird.
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“It’s an easy mission,” Keith said, “Nothing will go wrong.”
“We’ve said that before.”
“Fair. Here’s to not dying.”
Series
- Part 17 of why do the stars shine so bright
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The key to taking down Zarkon, is strong alliances. People to rely on. People who will help fight the battles that they can't fight alone. As their numbers increase, more and more people ally with Voltron and join the coalition. It's hard not to hope. It's hard not to hope that one day, everything can and will be alright.
One day. They, and everyone else fighting can finally go home.
But first. They need people on their side.
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“The war will never be over!” Shiro yelled, “It can’t be. War is a state of mind, it’ll never be over. Ever. Until everyone who knew about this war is dead, the war isn’t over.”
“We— just need to defeat Zarkon…”
Series
- Part 18 of why do the stars shine so bright