Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Someone needs to pilot Black,” Allura had said, on the fifth day of no one even going into the hangars. The fifth day of no one seeing Shiro. “We can not stay like this forever.”

“Black will respond to him,” Keith said, shifting from foot to foot, and Lance could see the uncomfortableness on his face and the awkwardness. “Just — give it some time. Please.”

Allura had rolled her eyes, but nodded fondly, before looking at Hunk. “I was told that you are making some food goo, that tastes like one of your delicacies back on Earth?”

“Pizza,” Hunk replied shyly, the way that anyone did when they complimented him, which was really something that Lance needed to get on and do more. “It’s really good.”

“All your food is good.” Allura said with a bright smile and everyone had nodded, making Hunk mumble something and walk off, looking flustered.

“It should be you,” Keith said, staring up at Black’s open jaw. Which wasn’t inviting like Blue or even Red, it was menacing, the promise of the burden which had been pulling down on Shiro’s shoulders and weighing down on him.

Lance didn’t want that for himself.

Keith didn’t want that for himself either.

No one wanted to pilot Black. Allura had a crack at it, and Black hadn’t as much twitched. Pidge and Hunk had also tried, even Coran had a pretty good shot at it. But nothing. Keith and Lance had refused to even try it.

Then Allura locked them in here, and wasn’t going to let them out of the hangar until both of them did it. Lance was a coward, he wasn’t going first, not because he feared if Black barely moved, but because he feared if Black did move… then what happened?

Lance couldn’t lead the team, not by himself. Maybe he could co-lead with someone, Allura, Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, even Coran if he needed to. But he could not, for the life of him lead by himself.

Apparently Keith felt the same, as he was still here and hadn’t moved an inch. “You should pilot Black,” Keith said, “You’re smart and kind, and know how to cheer people up. That’s something that Voltron needs.”

He shook his head, “No. Absolutely not,” Lance said. “Did you see what piloting Black did to Shiro? I don’t want that—”

“It’s not about what you want Lance, it’s about what the team needs.”

“The team doesn’t need me to lead,” Lance said, crossing his arms and glaring at Black. “I don’t want to lead, why does the team need a leader? Democracy’s never hurt anyone!”

Keith just sighed, running a hand down his face. “It’s not going to be me,” he said looking up at the roof of the hangar. “Why am I worried?” He glanced at Lance and that must’ve been his answer because Keith basically deflated. “You really don’t want to…”

“No.” Lance shook his head almost manically, “I really, really, don’t.”

Pidge hadn’t been able to reach the controls. Black had not budged a little bit. She’d stayed still for everyone, even Allura, who was the most capable and probably should’ve been the leader instead of anyone else.

Hunk had barely sat down before walking out, deciding that Black wasn’t going to move no matter how long he’d stayed in there and Hunk seemed completely fine with that. Coran had just laughed, like it was obviously never going to be him, and he didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

That left Keith and Lance. Who everyone had decided, ‘it has to be one of them’ and Lance didn’t think it would be him, and Keith didn’t think that it would be them. 

“What if it’s neither?” Lance said, “Then what?”

Keith sighed, “I think it will be… you can hear her calling.”

“Yeah,” Lance sighed.

It was a soft hum, like a song that someone didn’t quite know the lyrics too, quiet and thumping in the back of his head. Lance had pointed it out and everyone looked at him like he was insane, before Keith nodded and everyone knew it would be one of them.

“I think it’s a decision,” Keith said. “Maybe we’re both worthy, but whoever makes the decision first is the leader.”

Lance sat up at that, his eyes looking at Black. It seemed about right. “Well, if we don’t get Black, we’ll get Red… so no matter what happens. Even if both of us fail and we can’t pilot Black. We still have our lions.”

Keith sighed, hunching over himself. “It’s going to be one of us… isn’t it?”

“Probably,” Lance sighed, “Why can’t Shiro do this? He’s better than all of us, he’s a natural leader, he’s likeable, he’s everything I’m not.”

“No one’s like Shiro,” Keith frowned. “Maybe that’s why Black kicked him out? He was exhausting himself. Or because he’s acting… weird.”

Lance nodded, “Yeah. He’s acting weird. Any leads on that?”

“No.” Keith scowled up at Red. “There aren’t any leads on someone being slightly wrong. Maybe it really is just everything he’s been through catching up.”

“Have we considered Odziz?” Lance asked, “I mean, Odziz said something to Shiro about not having that long to live…”

“What?” Keith asked, snapping around. 

Lance shook his head a bit, thinking back to what felt like centuries ago. “Um. Odziz, said something about finding the love of his life and happiness and then he found out he only had years left to live .”

“Oh my God,” Keith whispered. “How did you forget that?”

“I got a bit preoccupied by everyone thinking I was dead!” Lance squeaked, and that seemed like a valid excuse. “That was kinda top priority, and then we had the holiday and then —” he waved around himself, which was an explanation enough. “Then… yeah…now this!”

Keith looked forward, before bolting upright. “Shiro used to go to the doctors all the time, and he’d come back with this wristband, or different medicine and one time he went in for surgery, and he still has a scar—”

Lance was listening intently. “Hey,” Lance said softly. “We’ll figure this out. All of it. We’re a team after all?”

“Thanks,” Keith sighed, running his hands down his face. “Do you reckon Allura would let us starve?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Right,” Keith muttered, “I forgot we live with a tyrant.”

Lance laughed before looking at Black. He didn’t want this, but he didn’t want this for Keith either, he also didn’t want to pilot Black and it seemed like one of them were going to have to pilot this beast and the other would have the side-effects of that.

Then an idea popped up in Lance’s head, he didn’t have great ideas often, but he had them often enough to know that this was a great idea. 

“What if,” Lance said, “We have a co-leading situation. Like whoever and whoever co-lead.”

Keith looked at him, “That’s not how it’s done Lance, traditionally—”

“Fuck tradition,” Lance said, probably a bit too loudly. “Look, we know what being the leader does to people, look at Shiro, look at Zarkon—”

“Zarkon didn’t—”

“Not my point,” Lance raised a hand, “My point is, that being The Black Paladin is stressful, so if one of us does pilot Black, and I think one of us will. Then maybe we can share the role? Like, not exactly of course— do you know what I’m saying?”

“Yeah,” Keith sighed, “Yeah, I know. It’s just not what Shiro did—”

“Shiro is also Shiro,” Lance explained, and Keith looked at him like it explained nothing and it probably didn’t. “He’s like… this powerhouse, and he’s led missions before Voltron and he’s Shiro… he’s a natural at doing  whatever this is and the rest of us, apart from Allura maybe, aren’t.”

Keith sighed, “You asked not that long ago why you think Red chose me?”

Lance glanced over, watching Keith’s face contort as he thought and Lance watched him struggle, he opened his mouth, closed it again, before sighing deeply, like the way an old man would. Not an eighteen-year-old boy.

“Red chooses people who fight. I’ve always been fighting, since I was four I’ve been fighting things— the institutions, the people who think they know better, children who were assholes. Red looks for that, people who are battered and bruised and hurt in every conceivable way and still get up.”

Silence. Lance had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that. Instead he stayed quiet, just looking at Keith who was looking at him.

“Happy, I know,” Keith crossed his arms and stared at Black. 

“Red chose me,” Lance said quietly. “What does that mean about me, I’m not a fighter like you—”

“You are,” Keith was smiling as he said it, almost fondly. “You fight for others, I fight for myself. We’re very different people.”

“We’re more alike than anyone thinks,” Lance smiled.

“Yeah…” Keith said, “But we’re still different.”

Lance nodded, before looking at Black. Stretching and standing up. “I’ll go first,” Lance said as his back popped. 

Keith stood up, ready to fight him, but Lance darted up the runway into Black’s mouth and it closed behind him.

Revealing the cockpit, Lance spun around, looking at everything with awe. Black’s cockpit was so much bigger than Red’s or Blue’s, he snorted at the joke which he was not going to repeat out loud before sitting at the seat. Spinning around instead of being practical.

“Hello.” Lance said.

He got nothing back. 

“I’m Lance. Now— can you tell me what’s wrong with my good friend Shiro—”

He did not listen. A low hum came through his mind, fleeting, but there. He never listens to those when he should. Your friend is compromised and cannot pilot me.

“Compromised?” Lance asked, spinning around in his chair. “Let me guess, you’re going to be all mysterious and not tell me what that means.”

You’d be correct. Black hummed.

“Why don’t you make this easy?” Lance whined, throwing himself back in the chair which tilted dangerously. “Just tell me what’s up with Space Dad and I’ll leave.”

I do not know exactly. Black hummed, that is why I can not tell you.

“Fuck you,” Lance complained, “We have to do everything around here.”

You’re not doing much to sway me over.

That was true, but Lance didn’t really want to sway Black over. He really, really, didn’t want this. Lance’s hands hovered over the controls for a split second, just watching and waiting for something.

Then he put his hands on the controls and Black lurched forwards, but didn’t light up and Lance was thrown from the seat, into an ugly mess on the ground. Staring up at the ceiling of Black muttering swear words under his breath.

“You’re all awful,” Lance said. “Why do all the lions insist on throwing me around like a sack of potatoes?”

It was quiet for a moment and Lance stood up.  “Thank God,” he stood up going to leave Black.

Not yet. Black purred and Lance froze completely in his step. One day.

“What?” Lance turned around, “Wait, no, no, no, what do you mean—”

Something invisible pushed him and he stumbled out of Black into the hangar where Keith was looking at him, slightly tired, but still fond.

Keith stood up, walking past Lance and Lance grabbed him before he could enter Black. Just looking at him for longer than he needed to. “It’ll be okay, no matter what happens.”

He smiled back, it looked a bit forced, but there was a real smile lying underneath it. “I know,” Keith said. “We’ll be okay.”

And Lance watched as Keith went into Black. Waiting a few moments before Black roared and her eyes lit up, and Lance just stared at Black, in all of her glory. Before Keith stumbled out his eyes filled with unshed tears.

“Why is it always me?”

Lance just hugged him.

Allura let them back into The Castle not long after that.

Everyone stared at Keith and Keith stared firmly down at the toe of his boots. Everyone was waiting for him to speak, give some sort of speech. But Keith didn’t say anything for a long time. Before looking up and saying.

“I’m not doing this.” And turning around.

Lance didn’t hesitate to go after him, “Keith!” He yelled down the hallway that Keith was speeding down. “Keith Akira Kogane!”

“Fuck off, Lance!” Keith yelled back and they both knew that he didn’t mean it.

“I know you’re trying to be dramatic and make me run after you, but we both know you’re going to talk to me eventually, so we can cut out this bit, or I’ll chase you.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation in the middle of a hallway, Lance.”

“It’s our hallway,” Lance said, “No one else comes down here.”

Keith sighed dramatically, before spinning around. “Let me do my bit.”

“Your bit is done as soon as you say, ‘let me do my bit’ now, what’s the actual problem?”

“This!” Keith gestured around himself, “Everything! I’m not a leader! You’re the leader out of the two of us, and I don’t know why Black chose me, and something’s wrong with Shiro and I don’t know what. I keep hearing this singing and I’m going insane and there are these weird purple spots on my skin and it’s too loud but it’s not loud enough and I miss Earth despite I have no one there to miss and I’m so tired!”

Okay. They didn’t have time to unpack all of that.

“Singing?” Lance started with and Keith looked at him. “Yeah, it’s a weird thing to start on but…” he paused before tapping his foot on the ground. “Me too… I thought it was just Red calling out to me, and maybe that has something to do with it but, I dunno.”

Keith relaxed a little, great, Lance only had the other one-hundred things to wade through instead of one-hundred and one. Lance crossed his arms, “We’ll figure everything out, the thing with Shiro, the spot situation, the missing Earth thing.”

“But—”

“Nothing,” Lance cut him off. “Black chose you for a reason, and I respect that reason. Black would never choose someone incapable, she’d never choose someone who couldn’t do this. You can do this Keith, and the team are here for you. No one’s expecting this to be as easy, but they do look up to you—”

“Ha.” He said tonelessly. “Sure.”

“Pidge looks like she’s seeing the stars every time you walk in, you’re like the emo big brother that she never wanted and now loves with everything—”

“Lance.”

“Allura, sure she can still be a bit cautious, but she looks at you like you’re the future, because you are, part-Galra, part-Human, you’re like a building bridge or whatever. She also looks up to you, or at your eye level. She looks at you like you’re her equal, she only does that with Shiro, she looks at the rest of us like we’re her idiot siblings, and we kinda are, but she looks at you like you’re the brother about her age.”

Keith stayed quiet. 

Good. Lance was nowhere near done.

“Hunk,” Lance continued, his hands were waving around him now and he didn’t know if he was even speaking English or if he’d slipped back into Spanish, because Keith was looking at him like he had two heads. “He looks up to you, not literally because you’re short, but he doesn’t see some emo. He sees someone who would die to protect his friends and Hunk respects that—”

He paused. Keith was looking at him.

“I said Hunk’s bit in Spanish? Didn’t I?” Lance sighed.

“Yup.”

Lance groaned, “Hunk looks up to you, because you’re protective and Lance respects that.”

“Oh,” Keith said. “I—”

“Not done yet,” Lance said. “Last and least is me, and you fall into all of those categories.” Keep it straightish. Keep it straightish. “Keith, you’re.... Everything, I get why Black chose you. But I also get why you don’t want this—”

Keith looked up, really meeting his eyes. “And the others might not, and that’s okay too… just— whatever it takes, if you need to step back and need me to do some leadership things while you’re stressed or whatever, I will.”

Lance smiled, putting a hand on his hip. “Look, no one can live up to Shiro and I reckon you’ve always kinda been in his shadow, but— Black chose you for a reason, and Allura is probably coming to chew you out right now…”

There were loud footsteps and Keith winced. 

“Keith Kogane!” Allura yelled and Keith winced a little bit more. But he turned around and stood in front of Lance.

It was one of the habits that he had, one of the habits that Lance didn’t want to know how or really, why he did them. But he had a few ideas and each were just as horrifying and heartbreaking as the last.

And if Allura was properly yelling and Keith was going to just take it—

Lance shoved in front of Keith and met Allura in the middle. Stepping in front of her when she tried to step around him. Then moving as Allura tried to step around him again, and repeating that for an annoyingly long time.

“Lonce,” she snapped. “Move.”

“No can do Princess,” Lance said, stepping in front of her again, “You see, I’m going to keep this up, until Keith leaves so he can have some time to process without you yelling at him.”

“Oh.” Keith said, “That’s— okay—”

There were footsteps, quickly moving in the other direction as Lance moved in front of Allura, a cheeky grin on his face every time he did it. Turning out the sparring practise with Allura did mean that he knew how she moved.

“Sorry Princess, sorry— I’ll just—” Lance said every time with a smile that was widening. He totally didn’t need to do this anymore, Keith was probably locked in his room playing something emo.

After what was, probably too long, Allura sighed. Pausing completely. “Lance, I do not know what you’re playing at, let me past before I break your nose.”

“Look, ‘Lura, you know that Keith doesn’t cope well with being proper yelled at, sure, you can playfully yell, but proper yelling at him isn’t the best way to get something through his thick skull.”

“He needs to take responsibility—”

“He needs time,” Lance reaffirmed. “Imagine if your father was kicked out of Red and you had to almost immediately take over. You’d need a moment to process. Look, this might be based off nothing, but I think Keith has always been in Shiro’s shadow, and now to him it seems like he’s only The Black Paladin because Shiro’s outta commision.”

Allura’s eyebrows furrowed together, and it looked like she knew that feeling. Because she crossed her arms, and nodded once. “Yeah. I am aware of what that is like.”

“So,” Lance clapped his hands together. “Don’t yell at him, let him figure it out.”

“Maybe Black should’ve chosen you,” Allura’s eyes were sparkling in a way that Lance knew meant that she was joking. “Are Pidge and you still having a movie night with me?”

“Unless something comes up,” Lance stepped to the side letting Allura go past. “Don’t knock down Keith’s door.”

“Quiznack,” she muttered, before smiling at Lance. “You know me well, Lance.”

“I know.” 

Allura went down the hallway, and Lance trudged to his bedroom, deciding he was going to sleep for a thousand years. Opening the door with a squeak and walking over to his bed—

When someone yanked him backwards, with a hand pressed over his mouth and Lance started struggling against whoever had hold of him. Slamming his foot over someone else’s foot.

“Shuddup,” Keith muttered. Holding his hand firmer. “Shuddup, shuddup, shuddup!”

“What the fuck?” Lance said into Keith’s hand. “¿Qué mierda estás haciendo, maldito bastardo?”

“Don’t call me a bastard,” Keith drew his hand away and wiped it on his leg, “You swore like.. Three times in that sentence.”

“You know Spanish?”

“From you,” he said with a shrug, before looking around Lance’s room and sitting on the bed like he belonged here, and this was not how he imagined getting Keith in his bedroom. “You speak it all the time, it’d be sad if I didn’t pick up something.”

“So you know the swear words?”

“Yup,” Keith stretched out and Lance was struggling a little bit to think.

“Eres hermoso y te golpearé la estúpida nariz,” he said angrily, before smiling, “You know what that means?”

“You called me stupid,” Keith looked up at the roof.

“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.”

So that’s what they did, they talked about nothing, and everything. Lying around lazily, stretched out, Keith ended up with braided hair and advice on how to not make his skin that awful and his hair softer.

Lance ended up with a more painful crush.

It was that damn laugh, the sweetest thing in the entire world. Keith’s laugh was different here, it was either, a snort in between laughs, or laughing so hard that no sound came out. And it was the cutest thing that had ever happened.

Keith wasn’t cute… it’s not a word that Lance would normally use. But he was using that word for Keith.

Lance was sitting behind Allura, braiding her hair, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he focused on making it not crooked. Pidge was humming, sitting in front of Allura, because Allura needed more practise and Pidge’s hair was just long enough.

Maybe they needed Keith. Lance tied off Allura’s braid before looking at Pidge’s which was barely done. “I’m going to find our resident emo.”

“Is that a good idea?” Pidge said, “He’s being more emo than usual and Keith is normally pretty emo.”

“You all underestimate my power. If I get him in here you have to do my chores for a week.”

“Deal. You can’t carry him,” Pidge said grinning.

It was pretty easy to persuade Keith to go to the slumber party, Lance promised that, ‘he’d do anything!’ And Keith turned bright pink before waving his hand and looking at Lance, an eyebrow quirked. ‘Train with me’ he had said, ‘just once.’ So he managed to get his chores done for a week and Pidge was salty, but less salty when she got the chance to braid his hair and put a bunch of bows in it.

He looked cute.

Lance was struggling.

Shiro popped up not that longer after, when Keith was still in denial. Lance was the only one there, sitting at the table, eating his food goo as he flipped through a tablet, trying to figure out how to hack into Garrison records.

“Oh.” Shiro said, “Who is it?”

“What?”

“Black’s pilot.”

“Keith?”

“Oh.” Shiro relaxed completely and Lance took this as a moment to really look at him. Shiro looked exhausted, like somehow moving out here was a monumental task, there was bruises littered everywhere, small bruises, but bruises nonetheless. Which made Lance just stare. “Good.”

Lance was following the trail of bruises before scooping some food goo into his mouth, chewing absent-mindedly, making Shiro wait for him to finish.

“Something’s wrong,” Lance said casually, like he was talking about the weather.

“What?” Shiro glanced around, “Is everyone okay—”

“No,” Lance stirred the food goo around his bowl. “You. You haven’t been here at all and yeah, getting kicked outta Black must’ve sucked. But… you should try and be here, try and do something, because Keith is struggling and the Shiro I know would not stand for that.”

Something flickered on Shiro’s face and Lance didn’t have the time to dissect that the way he’d like to. 

“He’s not the only one,” Shiro said.

“Shiro. What’s wrong?” Lance asked, “You can tell me.”

“I can’t.” Then he turned around and walked away, leaving Lance somehow more confused than before and Lance started reading the files on his tablet a bit faster. 

Because Keith was right. Shiro was acting wrong, sometimes he’d be completely Shiro, like just then and sometimes he’d act like he was another person completely.

And Lance was worried.

Keith did his big speech when everyone else was at breakfast, Lance was reading, glancing up and down from his tablet as everyone talked normally. (Everyone minus Keith. Who knew where he was.) 

Hunk was talking about his new cooking invention and everyone was listening intently, Coran was adding bits and pieces of advice as Hunk got more and more animated, his hands flying around as he was basically out of his seat, talking about the textures of different space ingredients as Lance nodded enthusiastically, adding in his own idea every now and again as Pidge would jump off of what Hunk was saying, go off on her own tangent and then bring the attention back to Hunk.

That was it. That was the dynamic.

Allura was floating around, apparently waiting for Keith, but did throw in the odd comment, (mostly insulting Lance, but he wasn’t even mad because they were good roasts). Eventually Keith shambled out.

He looked awful.

Lance did have a big fat crush on Keith, but holy shit, he looked awful. So he said that, “Holy shit, you look awful.”

“You try getting no sleep,” Keith collapsed in the seat next to Lance, looking over his shoulder at his tablet, before nodding approvingly and basically flopping onto the table as everyone looked at him. “Oh.” Keith sat up. 

Pidge snickered and Allura shot her a glare which shut her up pretty quickly. 

“So. I’m the leader, I guess. First of all, I am winging this—”

“This speech isn’t inspiring,” Lance muttered and Keith shot him a dirty look. “Rile your troops captain.”

“I am winging this, but I have the best team by my side and I have the best right hand-man at my side. So I can’t promise I’m going to be great at this, but I can promise that I’m going to try really hard to be the leader y’all deserve.”

It was silent for a long moment.

Before Allura clapped enthusiastically, and everyone else joined in. Pidge even crying. “Encore! Encore!”

Keith gave a lazy smile. Before promptly passing out on top of the table and Lance dove to stop his nose from hitting the table.

Everyone stayed quiet, trying to process what had just happened. Before Pidge laughed, clapping her hand over her mouth in fear of waking up Keith and Hunk shook as he laughed too. Allura was shaking her head but smiling fondly and Coran was looking at all of them fondly and shaking his head.

“A true leader,” Coran said, “Number Four really has a knack for this.”

“A knack?” Pidge repeated. “That’s one word for it.”

“The speech was sweet though,” Hunk smiled, and Allura nodded. “Like disgustingly sweet, I’m going to get a toothache from it.”

“Toothache?” Allura repeated, “What’s that?”

Their chatter seemed to fade into the background, or Lance just wasn’t taking note of it and both seemed equally likely. He was still holding Keith, who was breathing softly, looking a bit too peaceful to really be Keith.

Keith mumbled something.

“Pardon?” Lance asked.

“Look who’s cradling me now,” Keith murmured, through a sleepy voice, before going limp again and snoring quietly.

Lance snorted, before realising everyone else was looking at him. Pidge’s eyes were wide with realisation, Hunk looked smug and Allura looked a bit tired but still fond. Coran slowly picked up the empty bowls.

“Holy shit!” Pidge whispered. “You and K—”

“Shut up,” Lance whispered, “Say it a bit louder.”

“YOU—”

“That was rhetorical,” he pulled Keith a bit closer to him. Getting ready to carry him to bed. “I’m taking the emo to bed.”

“Not in the context you’d like—”

Lance rolled his eyes, before heaving Keith up, and carrying him.

Halfway down the hallway Keith stirred. Lance was carrying him like how he’d carry a child. Keith’s face pressed into his chest, Keith hummed softly, before sitting up a little bit straighter so he was looking straight into Lance’s eyes.

“You’re an idiot,” Keith whispered, like it was somehow a secret, then went slack again.

 Everyone adjusted. Keith started being all leadery, planning some missions with Allura. Lance would sit in on these meetings and watch Keith become more and more confident with his decisions, Allura’s smile would get wider and wider when he made these decisions.

And Lance would feel prouder and prouder.

Keith spent way more time with everyone now. Even after they’d just done his training, which was vigorous and Lance almost passed out one time. But he’d hang out with Pidge, talking about conspiracy theories.

He’d hang out with Hunk and cook, do whatever Hunk asked of him, cutting vegetables. With Allura he actually talked with her sometimes, real, proper conversations about abandonment and something. Lance had only overhead a conversation once and that’s what that had been about.

Even with Coran, Keith was learning how The Castle worked, following Coran asking a bunch of questions about anything and everything.

And late at night he’d sit outside of Shiro’s door. Just looking. 

Lance would collect him, from outside of Shiro’s door. Putting a hand on his shoulder and Keith without fail would jump every time, before looking up at Lance a little bit sadly.

“You need sleep,” he’d say that, or some variant everytime. “We’ll find out what happened with Shiro. We’re getting closer and closer everyday.”

He’d said that for the eighth night in a row, and unlike usually Keith just laughed. “We’re not.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I guess.”

“We will, we’re a team, Mullet.”

Keith looked up at him, “That I’m sure of.” He held out his hand, “Help me up, I’m old.”

So they adjusted. But not enough to keep the absence of Shiro not noticeable.

So. Keith had fucked up. It really was that simple, and that complicated. Basically. He’d sent Hunk and Pidge and himself down into a situation that they probably shouldn’t have gone into. 

Leaving Lance by himself.

There was the key mistake. They’d left Lance by himself, and there was only so much Lance could do against an entire fleet of Galra soldiers. Hence why he was now chained to a chair, and not even in a fun way.

Once upon a time, Lance used to be freaked out when he got captured. But now it was another day in the office, Lance had yelled which fleet had taken him, so it was basically just holding out until his team got here.

Until Keith, hopefully, made a good decision. A better one than leaving Lance alone to take out of a fleet of Galra soldiers. In Keith’s defence, there weren’t that many when they left, but then they left and there was another wave.

Hence why, Lance is chained to a chair, the side of his head bleeding, and his stomach had some sort of injury. The armour really needed to protect the stomach too, he’d have to talk to Allura about that when he got back.

Lance was sitting there, looking around. He couldn’t remember being dragged here, only how blurry everything had been since he was being carted around with a concussion. 

So it’s up to him to figure out what type of ship he’s in, and where in that ship he’s in.

He wasn’t in the cells, he was just in the middle of a giant room. With doors on all four sides, and Lance strained trying to think of which ship had a central room. Fighter ships didn’t, neither did cargo or passenger ships. The only other types of ships were customized ones, the ones important people had.

Lance had been captured by someone semi-important.

Great.

He groaned, pulling at the chains which didn’t budge.

Just a short recap: He didn’t have his armour, or bayard, or even his helmet. He had himself and a flimsy undersuit and a bleeding head. 

This was going really well for him.

“Thank you, Keith Kogane,” he said to the room. He didn’t actually blame Keith, but right now Keith was easier to blame, and he did have some of the fault in this situation. (So did Lance, but he wasn’t going to focus on that.)

This wouldn’t have happened with Shiro. But with Shiro there were five paladins. Currently there were four, although Lance kinda could be two because he could pilot both of the lions. He’d taken Red today.

Red was protective, right? And Keith could still pilot her. All he had to do was get roughed up a bit, and Keith had to get in Red, and viola, he was saved.

Lance sighed again. If they could hurry this up and just torture him already, this waiting thing was not Lance’s strong suit. He sighed and strained against the chains again, pulling hard enough that his wrists would bruise tomorrow.

“This. Is. Bullshit.” Lance said into the room. “I wanted a nice day and a nice easy mission, but no, I get this.”

A door opened behind him, and Lance tried to whip around but his neck didn’t quite move in the right way. Considering the chains wrapped around him like he was a mummy. 

He was really stuck here.

“Nimage ēnu kalmaṣa bēku.” Lance snapped, the best insult he knew.

No response, just footsteps moving around him. Stopping in front of him.

“Lotor?” Lance said, straining against the chains. “Oh, hell no. I am not doing this, go away.”

Lance was just met with a low chuckle, before crouching down so he was at Lance’s eyeheight. “Hello.”

Nope. He said nothing, instead just glaring at Lotor who gave a shrug in response, his face was blank. Eerily, annoyingly blank, Lance could read Keith, if he could read Mister-Lone-Wolf who has more walls up than… something with walls. Surely he’d be able to read Lotor.

Great. Cool. This really wasn’t going to end well for him. Like really not well for him.

Lotor. Okay. He could do this. Sure, no one knew anything about Lotor, and Allura only knew that he was Zarkon’s son… maybe, and that he knew how to use a sword. That was all anyone knew about him.

Voltron hadn’t crossed paths with him yet. Looks like Lance was the first contact.

Lotor was annoyingly attractive, with pale purple skin, and white hair that flowed over his shoulders, and a cocky smile that Lance wanted to punch right off his face, and he’d be all for that.

“The fuck do you want?” Lance struggled slightly against his restraints.

“Oh,” Lotor said, and even his voice sounded cocky and annoying and if Lance could’ve just got his hand out and punch Lotor in his stupidly perfect nose. 

“Nothing.”

So he wanted something then.

Lance sighed, trying to wiggle around in his chair to be met with no success. “Look. Lotor. That is your name right?” He didn’t say anything so Lance kept on, “Can you do me a huge favour that I’ll never repay and let me go?”

“Ah,” Lotor said, and why did his voice always sound that… good? “That I can not do.”

“Bummer,” Lance sighed.

“As this is my first interacting with a paladin of Voltron—”

“What about your dad?” Lance said flatly, and watched the way Lotor almost seemed to flinch at the mention of his dad. Interesting. Lance could use that. “Since he y’know… piloted the black lion.”

Lance fake pouted, before making his voice as teasing and fake-upset as he could. “Unless you have daddy issues?”

“You are insufferable,” Lotor snapped. “How do any of your team put up with you? You are loud, stupid, and a waste of space.”

“At least my dad loves me—”

There was a loud slapping noise, which made sense. Considering Lotor just slapped him. He winced and looked at Lotor. Glaring as Lotor glared back at him, before walking a few paces away.

Then a quiet moment, as Lotor took in a deep breath. His back was facing Lance, so Lance couldn’t see his face, but Lance would bet any amount of money that Lotor was trying to regain his composure. 

He turned back around, his face blank. “I have many questions.”

“I bet you do,” Lance muttered, yawning. 

“First of all. Who is your leader?”

“Keith,” Lance yawned again, wishing he could rub at his eyes. “Our leader’s Keith, it’s kinda a new development. But he’s been doing pretty well, until he left me by myself and I got captured. But, oh well.”

Lotor hummed.

Lance was going to talk forever about things that didn’t matter and hopefully annoy the shit out of Lotor, and maybe buy some time for his team to come and get him, before he started to like… rot away.

“How does The Castle work?” Lotor asked, “Is it Altean technology?”

“Not completely,” Lance said, “It’s kinda a hybrid. Like those cars we have back at home, and they use fuel but they also use electricity which is way better for the environment. But what’s even better is just electric cars, and they’re pretty much the standard now, but some people have the older grosser cars now, but they cost a huge amount of money to buy and sustain. I’m not really sure why anyone would even have them, but whatever floats your boat I guess… even if you’re destroying the already destroyed environment with the carbon emissions you don’t need, because electric cars are way cheaper than fuel ones. Rich people annoy me, in case you couldn’t tell.”

Lotor raised an eyebrow. “I fail to see the relevance?”

“Oh, it’s so relevant,” Lance lied, having way more fun with this than he probably should’ve. “Why aren’t you taking notes?”

“What?”

“So The Castle works by the power of friendship, basically our bonds with each other power The Castle. It’s a popular trope in books and stuff, and it’s like how close we are helps us win battles and it’ll help us win this damn war—”

“You’re not going to win,” Lotor said. It was more like a fact than an opinion. “Many have risen against… him… none have succeeded, Voltron will just be another one of these many and he’ll win.”

Lance raised an eyebrow.

“Rebelling against… Zarkon,” he said the word like it brought him pain and Lance couldn’t help but wonder, if saying Zarkon’s name made Lotor, the most stoic, unreadable person look like he was in pain, what had Zarkon done to him?

He was using the exact tone that Keith used when he spoke about someone named Phillip Jeffrery, one of his first foster-families, and one of the ones that had traumatised Keith the most.

For a long time Lance stared at Lotor, trying to figure him out. Before Lotor turned around, so he didn’t look Lance in the eyes, and that was to probably say the next bit. “You won’t win. No one rebels and wins, it’s impossible.”

“You rebelled…” Lance’s voice was barely above a whisper. 

Lotor didn’t say anything or move, and Lance was forced to stare at his back as the only movement was Lotor breathing. Considering the break that there was between Lance speaking, he’d say pretty confidently that, yes, Lotor had tried to rebel.

What had happened?

“The Castle is safe we can—”

“Nowhere is safe!” Lotor yelled, whirring around and he now had a sword in his hand as he advanced on Lance. “I have tried everything, nowhere is safe, and you’re a fool to think that it is safe.”

Lance just looked at Lotor, staying silent as possible as Lotor advanced and stuck his sword under Lance’s chin. And for some reason, Lance hadn’t even considered being scared. Lotor looked more scared out of the pair of them, like he had a sword at his throat.

“It’s safe,” Lance repeated. “We’re willing to help if you’re willing to be helped—”

Lotor urged the sword forward, and it was pushing into Lance’s throat. Enough to draw some blood, but not enough to hurt him.

“I am going to tear out your vocal chords,” Lotor said, even if his voice wavered the tiniest bit. 

Lance knew he wasn’t.

He’d seen this look in Keith, when he felt trapped. He’d seen this look in Keith, when he felt helpless and so lashed out to pretend he had some control over the situation. He saw it in Shiro when something reminded him of The Arena, or when he had a nightmare that seemed a bit too real.

It was a wild animal look.

Still, Lance wasn’t scared. Because he wasn’t ever scared of Keith, not when he got mad and threw things, not when he yelled because he needed space and didn’t know how else to get it. He wasn’t scared of Shiro, not when he went on auto-pilot and prepared for a fight, or not when after a nightmare he’d throw a punch.

Maybe it was a thing in Lance. That he understood people being scared because he’d been scared of… things since he was born.

Lance didn’t say anything, just looking Lotor in the eyes as he looked away, before his eyes hardened. 

“Lotor, you really don’t want to do this. I promise you, it’s safe. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“It’s not safe,” he said through teeth gritted so tight that they probably should’ve snapped. “And you’re a fool for thinking so—”

The ship turned sideways, with a sharp jolt and Lance smiled, even if the sword nicked his throat and Lance was thrown sideways with a thump. Lotor swore several times, in what was Galran.

Things that the translations were too gross to even think about the translations. Lance groaned from on the ground. “My bitches are here,” Lance said.

Because it seemed, no matter how many times he got captured, or injured, or generally was an idiot, he’d always have his team behind him. In return, everytime Keith fucked up at leading, Lance would be behind him.

“That was reckless!” Allura yelled and Keith looked at her, his gaze cold. “Leaving Lance by himself could’ve been fatal!”

“Actually—”

“What would we do if Lance had been severely injured or dead? We’re already done one paladin, being down two would be devastating. You jeopardize Voltron, you’re not capable of leading this team.”

“Um. Guys—”

“Yeah, I know!” Keith yelled back and Lance was already figuring out a way to put Keith and Allura in the airlock. They always got like this. Allura wanted Lance to pilot Black, and Keith wanted Lance to pilot Black.

So. Tension there.

“I know I’m not capable and I have no idea why Black chose me, she should’ve chosen Lance!”

“I’m right here—”

“I am sick of you putting everything on my back,” Keith kept yelling, his arms were crossed tightly. “Lance said he’d take out the last couple of sentries, then as soon as he said another fleet showed up we were turning around, what else do you want from me!”

“Hello?”

Allura grit her teeth, “I want you to step up. I do not care if you are some orphan kid who is incapable of caring for other people. You have people to look out for now, and you can’t just look out for yourself!”

Lance looked at Pidge and Hunk, who shrugged as Pidge shoved more space-popcorn into her mouth, offering some to Lance who pushed it away.

Keith was quiet. For a beat too long. “Well I don’t care if you're some entitled princess of a planet that doesn’t exist anymore. You can’t be an asshole everytime I mess up, because then you’ll be an asshole all the time.”

Hunk gulped nervously. Keith and Allura just had this… conflicting energy, that was the only way Lance could describe it. They either got along like best friends or hated each other with everything they had. Lance would basically call them siblings.

Allura’s hands clenched into fists. “How dare you?” She was seething now, and Lance needed to step between this before actual fists were flying. “How dare you insult my home!”

“Your home, which is, exploded like the rest of your people!” Keith yelled back, and Allura looked like she’d been slapped.

“At least I have a home,” Allura spat. “And I don’t pretend that I belong in places where I’m not wanted.”

Okay. Nope. Lance psychically held Keith back as Coran held Allura. Before they actually killed each other, and Lance did not doubt that they’d try to kill each other, not a little bit. Keith struggled against his grip and Allura managed to break free of Coran’s.

She approached Keith.

“Enough!” Lance yelled, and all eyes shot to him. “That is enough, you’re both being horrible. Go to your rooms and cool off, we can talk about this mission when you want to be rational!” Lance finished.

“I am a princess,” Allura snapped, still glaring at Keith. “You can’t just send me to my room—”

Lance shot her a withering look. She turned around and left. Stomping, and kicking over a chair as she went. 

Keith went off in the opposite direction, shoving Lance a bit harder than he probably needed to and Lance glared in a way that had Keith looking away and scurrying off. 

“I should’ve recorded that.”

“Not the time, Pidge,” Lance sighed. Pinching the bridge of his nose. “Were Keith and I this bad?”

“Yes.” Hunk, Pidge and Coran said at the same time. “You two were awful,” Pidge continued, shuddering a little. “Like seriously, even with Shiro having both of you on a leash, I wanted to throw you out of the airlock.”

Lance sighed, running his hands down his face. “I’ll go talk to them.”

“I’ll talk to Allura,” Hunk said, giving a supportive smile and Lance gave a grateful smile back at him. Pidge pouted.

“You can talk to Keith if you like,” Lance said, “He’s less likely to throw something at you than me.”

Pidge brightened and ran down the hallway that Keith had stomped down, as Hunk went down the one that Allura had gone down. Picking up the chair as he went.

Coran looked at him, smiling fondly. “Well, Number Three, I see why everyone wanted you to be The Black Paladin.”

“Nah,” Lance waved a hand, “That’s Keith’s job. I just… clean up his messes sometimes.”

Coran smiled, patting Lance on the back a few times. “You’re a good man, Number Three. There is a reason why you’re everyone’s favourite.”

Lance laughed, shaking his head.

Allura and Keith apologised. 

By that, they both had a broken nose and were smiling through the blood. Lance just sighed. “Do I even want to know?”

Allura looked at Keith, who shrugged before the pair of them started laughing. Lance did not get these two. He’d seen Keith throw a book at Allura’s face and break her nose, then Allura swung at him.

Neither of them seemed scared.

Lance didn’t get these two.

They laughed a bit harder, before Lance sighed. “You two are hopeless. And to think I thought either of you should’ve piloted Black.”

Keith tried to say something, but couldn’t say much through the thick blood that was everywhere. 

Coran sighed from behind them. “Stop breaking each other’s noses,” Coran sounded exhausted. “Otherwise you won’t have any noses when I keep having to set them.”

Allura laughed and Keith joined in.

Lance went to throw himself out of the airlock.

“Siblings,” Pidge muttered. “They’re really like siblings.”

“Are they?” Lance asked,

“Yeah…” Pidge grinned, “The ride-or-die siblings, the ‘only I can call him a fucktard’ siblings. They’re some of the best.”

Keith winced as his nose was reset and he grabbed Allura’s hand.

Maybe Lance did understand these two a little bit more.

Lance found out that all the pods had histories. He was bored, Allura and Keith were strategising. Hunk and Pidge were nerding, Coran was… doing whatever Coran did and Shiro was. Well Shiro just wasn’t around anymore.

He was still in The Castle, everyone checked that everyday. But he basically never left his bedroom. 

Still he was pressing buttons and then: Pod History popped up and Lance raised his eyebrows, before going to the main pod that everyone was thrown into, unless more than one people needed a pod and then they were put in the ones around it.

Lance wasn’t expecting to find much, but he clicked on his record from the mission which led to his run in with Lotor. Which Lance probably had to mention at some point. It showed everything.

Where he was injured, how long it needed to heal. (Barely any time at all, about fifteen minutes). But it also showed his BPM, his oxygen levels, blood pressure, brain activity and seemed to be calibrated to any of his other conditions.

He didn’t have as much strength in one arm, from what was possible minimal nerve damage from getting shot in the arm, falling to his “death” and not getting medical help for several days. Lance nodded slightly.

Made sense.

Then he scrolled to Shiro’s last record before he started acting weird. Which was… the planet with Odziz. The giant snake who threw him into a dream-scape and totally fucked with his brain.

Odziz had said that, “ you found out you had years to live…” which was a direct quote. Then Shiro started acting weird.

It was the pod record from a week before that, Lance wasn’t expecting to find anything worth noting. 

Name: Takashi Shirogane

Species: Human

Age: 25

Sex: Male

It prattled on about height and weight, things Lance had skipped past on his own record but read on Shiro’s because, for some reason, he wanted to know these things. Everything in itself was a clue.

He kept scrolling.

Then BPM, blood pressure, blood sugar, oxygen levels, brain waves and all the levels. Lance didn’t know what half of them meant, as they seemed to be in a smash of Altean gibberish which Lance didn’t know how to translate.

And acronyms, there were so many damn acronyms.

Before Lance kept scrolling. Before pausing and scrolling back up.

Muscle Capacity: 54%

Lance felt freezing, all over. Shiro’s muscles were only working at 54% of what they were supposed to. He stared at it, for a long moment. Before taking a photo of it with his phone and scrolling like mad down to the pre consisting conditions.

Pre Consisting Conditions:

          Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy

“What?” Lance whispered, also taking a photo of that on his space-phone. “Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy…” he repeated, like the word was foreign in his mouth, and it really was. “That’s not good.”

“Hey.” Shiro’s voice echoed and Lance jumped, closing Shiro’s screen to bring his back up. 

“Oh,” Lance said. “Hey.”

“What are you doing?”

“Looking at my medical records, did you know that it is suspected I have minor nerve damage in my left arm from a laser blast.”

“Oh?” Shiro said, “You can see medical history and stuff?”

So his records were getting deleted then. Lance nodded stiffly, before closing his own records. 

There was a recording button. 

Why was there a recording button?

Lance turned the pod off and it descended into the ground. He now had a single clue. Shiro’s eyes followed the pod for too long and Lance crossed his arms.

“You alright?” Lance asked, “Look, I get this is hard. It’s hard on all of us,” an idea popped into Lance’s head. “Leading isn’t easy,” he laughed, “I of all people should know that, it’s like wrangling toddlers.”

Shiro’s eyes widened slightly. “Yeah… piloting Black can’t be easy Lance.”

Lance just stared at him. “I’m not piloting Black?” He said, “I’ve told you this.”

“Have you?” Shiro asked, his gaze was challenging and Lance was challenging right back. “I think you imagined that.”

“I didn’t.” Lance scowled. “I said that,” before he waved a hand casually, “No big deal, everyone forgets stuff.”

And he hoped that there was a hidden threat under there. Before Lance felt an undertone of a threat from Shiro. Lance didn’t care how much Shiro outranked him, if he even tried something — 

If he tried something then Shiro would regret it.

 “We need to talk,” Lance said, and he saw Keith go through the seven stages of grief, before giving a curt nod and standing up. Pidge and Hunk watched them go, confusion on their faces.

Lance grabbed Keith, dragging him into the closest room and slamming the door shut. Before leaning on it. “I know what was wrong with Shiro.”

“Was?”

“Medical condition,” Lance said, “He had Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, it’s basically his muscles breaking down until he has a heart attack and dies…”

Keith stared at him. “Wait, wait, wait, hold up. When we say die, how young are we talking? Like fifties or sixties — ”

“He probably shouldn’t be alive here. Most didn’t make it past their teens. It seems that Shiro had a severe case, so with the treatment we have today — thirty.”

“Thirty?” Keith repeated. “The war could still be—”

“Happening. Yeah,” Lance nodded. Crossing his arms tightly. “But—”

“There’s a but?”

“We’re out in space, surely someone somewhere has a treatment for it.” Lance waved his hands around. “Every culture has their illnesses, there has to be somewhere where muscular dystrophy is like having a flu? We can fix this.”

Keith stared at him, his eyes were wide and full of hope. “We can?”

“Yeah,” Lance whispered, and it felt like a secret. He brought out his phone, before showing the photos of the pod. “I think they’re deleted now, Shiro was messing around with a pod earlier today.”

Keith took the phone from Lance’s grip and grasped it. Staring at it, then back at Lance, then back at the phone. Before flinging his arms around Lance, and hugging him so hard that the life was squeezed out of him.

Lance just laughed, and hugged Keith back twice as hard.

The whole, them against the world thing was going pretty well. And Lance was pretty sure he’d fight the whole universe a thousand times over to see Keith smiling and alight, despite the tiredness seeping into his expression.

Despite everything.

Lance would die a thousand deaths to make sure Keith got one good life.

There was beeping, their shields were deteriorating. Lance grabbed onto Blue’s controllers as Allura yelled orders at him, telling him to go up, and pull out of the plummet he was in.

Someone got a good hit on Blue.

Then they were tumbling and falling down to an asteroid of some sort. Allura was yelling nonsense, and Lance was muttered in Spanish and English with the speed that he’d expect a rapper to use.

Something crashed and Lance was flung to the side, hitting the side of Blue with a loud crack.

Allura screamed, and Lance’s head felt dizzy, light almost. Everything was spinning, and falling and tumbling.

They were going to fall into the asteroid. Unless Lance got up right now, they were going to fall into the asteroid and die.

Lance stumbled, before another hit sent him reeling, hitting his head so he felt lighter, and some wetness was covering the side of his face. Allura looked completely and utterly terrified.

He was going to pass out.

He was going to pass out.

His vision had grey edges, and he was basically pinned to the side of Blue by the consistent force. “Allura!” He yelled, even if it was slurred. “You need ta’ pilot Blue!”

“I can’t!” Allura yelled frantically, “I’m not a paladin.”

“Not with that attitude,” Lance tried to get up again but his head was throbbing, and something in his ankle wasn’t working. “Anyone can be a paladin, you’re the best of all of us ‘Lura. Try.”

“I can’t!” Allura yelled again.

“Try!” Lance yelled back. Seeing them getting eerily close to the asteroid. Even Keith would have trouble getting out of this one. “Please! We can’t die not knowing! You’re capable Allura!”

Allura put her hands on the controls, and Blue roared to life.

He passed out after that.

Allura was a paladin. Finally.

Lance felt no regret handing over his bayard, smiling widely. “I told you,” he said, still holding an ice pack to his head. “You’re a princess of Altea, that was a piece of cake.”

“I suppose it was,” Allura laughed and scratched the back of her neck. “Thank you, Lance.” She held eye-contact. “I wouldn’t have done it without you, even if your methods were… unconventional.”

“Passing out?” Lance asked and Allura nodded, laughing. “It’s a great method, but don’t try it, we need your head in the game.”

Allura rolled her eyes, but clutched the blue bayard to her chest and smiled widely. “Thank you. For everything.”

“You’re welcome… for everything.”

“We need new armour.” Keith announced late at night, when everyone was supposed to be asleep rather than on the couch. “It’s getting confusing.”

“Also,” Lance added, “We need armour that protects the stomach. It’s a really bad design flaw.”

“We must honour our dead and our living,” Allura added, “I believe we should have pink sleeves. To honour those fallen before us, and to honour that we will continue the fight that they weren’t able to.”

Pidge nodded, and Coran was scribbling frantically. “Those ideas are splendid,” Coran said smiling. “Pidge and I will start working on them immediately.”

“We will?” Pidge asked, before nodding enthusiastically. “We will!”

It didn’t take them long to have the armour.

But hey, between Pidge and Coran nothing was impossible. Nothing at all.

Hence why Lance was in his red paladin armour, a few days later, trying to get the chestplate to fit. It extended down a lot further now, more like a medieval chestplate than the Voltron ones. But they did need more protection for their stomach.

The gap between their gauntlets and gloves were pink, and Lance would see the pink out of the corner of his eye and jump, before realising that it was his armour, and not some random trying to kill him.

Movement was slightly more restricted, because the chestplate was longer, but not enough that Lance knew he wouldn’t adjust. He also thought the old armour was restrictive before he’d started training properly.

Keith walked out eventually, looking a little bit awkward, but more at ease than awkward. Running a hand through his hair, and smiling at Lance.

Bi panic attack.

Because Keith looked hot. Like annoyingly hot.

Keith sighed, running a gloved hand over the black shoulder pads, which really said everything. He was The Black Paladin, not some guy piloting Black anymore, he was The Black Paladin.

And Lance was The Red Paladin, by Keith’s side. Whether they liked it or not. 

“I look stupid,” Keith muttered. 

“You look perfect,” Lance returned. Smiling widely. “You look like The Black Paladin, not someone trying to follow in Shiro’s footsteps.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but didn’t deny it. “You look like an idiot,” Keith grinned and Lance threw his helmet at Keith who caught it easily. 

“An idiot who you’re stuck with,” Lance responded as Keith threw his helmet back. “An idiot who always has your back. Even when you don’t have your own.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Shut up, Mullet.”

Allura emerged later, looking snazzy and like the armour was a fashion accessory and not something they needed to survive. She strutted around a bit, causing Keith and Lance to laugh.

She grinned, running her hands over anything on her armour that was remotely blue, her tiara-headband was still on her head as she spun around. Even if her hair was out, which wouldn’t be realistic, she looked awesome. And the pink marks on her cheeks were glowing a little bit.

“It’s quite impressive,” Allura said. “How comfortable I feel in something that I’ve never… been.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah…”

Hunk and Pidge emerged later, their colours hadn’t changed. But they also looked good, and Hunk was excited about the pink sleeves and what they represented and why it was important to honour Altean culture.

Allura had teared up.

Keith sighed and everyone’s eyes shot to him. “I am not ready for this,” he confessed. “I’m not going to be perfect all the time,” his eyes shot to Allura, “And I’m going to mess this up.” He looked at the rest of his team, standing tall and proud, and Lance swore that Keith’s eyes teared up for a second.

“But dammit, we’re Voltron. And I’m The Black Paladin.”

“And I’m The Red Paladin,” Lance added to be met with a dazzling smile from Keith.

“I’m The Blue Paladin,” Allura whispered excitedly. “And I am going to…” she looked at Pidge. “How do you say it? Smoke these bitches!”

“Yes!” Pidge yelled, “I’m The Green Paladin, bitches, and I’m in the best team in the world.”

Everyone’s eyes darted to Hunk, who was smiling widely and his eyes were slightly teary as he smiled at his team. “I’m The Yellow Paladin.”

“It’s a title,” Keith said, “And I’m going to wear my title, like how I wear fingerless gloves.”

A chorus of laughter met that, and Keith looked at everyone.

“We’re Voltron dammit, and I’m not letting the Galra take the universe!” He yelled. “Who’s with me?”

There were a chorus of ‘yes’ and ‘totally’ and Pidge adding. “Smoke these Galra bitches!”

Lance smiled. For the first time since Shiro had… tapped out. He really felt like they had a team, and Keith was to thank for all of that.

Keith. The Black Paladin. It sounded good.