Work Text:
Shiro was gone.
That was all Keith could think as he stared up at the Black Lion. He was gone. There had been no trace of him; nothing to track, only the black paladin armour and the bayard left in Black’s head. As soon as they’d removed those items, Black’s particle barrier had gone up. She had yet to let anyone back inside, despite it having been weeks. Maybe it had been a month? Keith couldn’t be sure when all that changed around here was how bright the lights were.
Keith knew Shiro had given him the leadership role (and everyone else knew now too, once they were able to talk replacing Shiro for a time without anyone breaking down), but he doubted he would be able to do it. How was he supposed to lead the team when even the Head of Voltron didn’t think he was good enough?
He had been coming here for a week straight, just sitting and talking to Black; trying to bond. He was shut down every time. Which wouldn’t be so much of a problem if they didn’t need Voltron. But soon after Zarkon had been defeated, it seemed someone took his place. The Galra hadn’t let up at all, conquering the galaxy with an efficiency Zarkon had never possessed. They were taking planets five times faster than Team Voltron could free them. Which wasn’t saying much, seeing as the team had fallen apart a bit since Shiro went missing. It was surprising that they hadn’t been turned into stardust yet.
Keith hardly talked to his fellow paladins. His routine consisted of training, stealing some food, training some more, eating again, fending off Lance, talking to Black, having dinner with the others, training again, then sleeping sometime around midnight. He’d wake up at six to do it all again. He understood that, as the appointed leader, he should be communicating with his team. But he didn’t know how.
“We all miss Shiro, Black. That’s no reason to sulk about it and leave the universe in danger.”
Keith had made this argument before. It still hadn’t worked. Almost everyone had tried something. Pidge had tried to hack into Black, which ended in her getting a warning growl. She’d backed off immediately. Hunk had attempted to have a ‘feelings jam’ with the lioness. There was no reaction. Even Allura and Coran had attempted to do something, thinking maybe Allura could be the paladin for a while, but she was shot down almost as fast as Keith was. No one knew what to do.
“Shiro left me in charge! Me, meaning I’m your paladin now! Why won’t you open?!”
Keith kicked the particle barrier, sending a ripple through the energy. He punched it next. He continued hitting the unbreakable barrier until he ran out of steam, then sat heavily. His sigh rang through the room.
“I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Maybe a written statement that I’m better than you at everything.”
Keith didn’t need to turn to know who spoke. “What do you want, Lance?”
The blue paladin’s footsteps grew louder, and suddenly he was sitting next to Keith. “Just checking up on you, buddy. I see Black still hasn’t warmed up to you.”
“Yeah, well I maybe I don’t want her either.” Keith snapped, glaring at his feet.
Lance snorted. “She definitely won’t accept you if that’s how you talk to her. C’mon, you’ve got to have more tact than that.”
“I’ve been trying! She doesn’t respond to anything.” His shoulders slumped. “She really doesn’t want me, Lance. This isn’t about being respectful or not. She doesn’t want to take me as her paladin, and I don’t want to be her paladin. Simple as that.”
Kieth pushed off the floor, Lance scrambling to follow. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to go find Shiro. The sooner we do, the sooner everything will go back to normal.”
“But, man, we don’t know when we’ll find him. What if we don’t for, like, years? I’m not saying it will take that long. I’m just saying that we need to be prepared for whatever happens.”
Keith fixed his glare on Lance, making eye contact for what might be the first time since Shiro went missing. “We are prepared. We can fight whatever comes. I can fight whatever comes.”
Lance huffed, glaring right back. “Not without a leader! None of us can do shit without one. I hope you realized that we’ve lost all the battles we tried to fight, and had to run away from almost any combat situation since then!” He ran a hand through his hair, scowling. “Look, Shiro chose you to lead Voltron. It was a stupid choice, but he made it. No one else can do it. Well, okay, maybe Allura could, but she’s got too much on her plate already and Black already made it obvious she wants nothing to do with the princess. So, just…. Just try, okay?”
“I have been trying!” Keith could almost hear his teeth grinding together. “I’ve been trying, and I’m telling you: I can’t do it! You’re right, Lance, you win. Shiro made the wrong call on this one.”
“Dude, that’s not- I didn’t mean-”
“Then what did you mean?!”
Lance threw his hands up. “I meant that you’re giving up too soon! But hey, maybe you are right, and you aren’t cut out for this. I mean, have you seen Pidge? Have you seen how little she sleeps? Or maybe how Hunk is eating way less than what’s healthy! Or have you asked Allura about the last time she stepped out of the control room? Or talked to Coran about how he’s doing?” Keith winced, opening his mouth to either apologize or defend himself, but Lance didn’t let him. “No, because you’ve cooped yourself up in your own little world where everything revolves around how miserable you are!” He tossed his arms out. “We all miss Shiro, Keith! We’re all worried for him! Sure, you two were the closest, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to be more of a dick than you already are.”
The silence rang out in the place Lance’s voice had echoed. Keith’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. He wanted to punch the idiot in the face, because dammit, he was right. Keith really needed to pull himself together. And he knew that. It was just hard when every time he tried, Shiro’s words would echo in his head; “Patience yields focus.” It was like a blast to the chest every time.
Lance watched him as he seethed. He didn’t look smug or victorious, just concerned and annoyed. He must have seen something in Keith’s expression, because he smiled before turning and walking towards the door. “I’m making something close to ice cream for tonight. You should stay after dinner and, y’know, maybe talk to us.”
And with that, he swept out of the room.
Keith stared after him, fists slowly loosening. His mind wandered and gave him a new thought. That thought stuck with him for the rest of the day.
“Lance would make a good leader.”
The next day, Lance found Keith in the Black Lion hangar again.
“-eader, can I? Anyways, the others look like shit. I think they’re getting even less sleep than I am. I mean, I’ve been training so I can sleep, but the others aren’t like that. I didn’t really notice they were doing so badly.” Keith fell silent, his monologue seeming to turn inwards.
Lance took the silence as an invitation. He walked in and dropped himself down next to the red paladin, pulled his knees to his chest, and stared at Black along with him. Keith didn’t react past a glance in his direction.
After a few minutes of silence, Keith sighed. “Lance-”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to scold you again. I’m all scolded-dry from chewing Allura out for not going to bed. I managed to lock her in her room, with Pidge’s help. She should be passed out.”
Keith turned to look at Lance slowly, eyes wide. “...You locked the princess in her room?”
Lance shot him a cheeky grin. “Sure as hell did.”
“How did you-”
“A whole lot of work, Keith. Let’s leave it at that.”
Lance smiled as he watched Keith fight the twitch of his mouth, then his gaze back to Black. He had avoided coming in this room since Shiro disappeared, because it always felt like Black’s eyes followed him. It was the same feeling he had when he met Blue, and he didn’t like the implications.
“So, if you’re not here to waste my time yelling again, why are you here?”
Lance shot Keith the most offended look he could muster, gasping and placing a hand over his heart. “Why, I give you a pep talk out of the goodness of my heart, and you have the audacity to insult me? Why, I never!”
Keith only snorted.
Lance dropped the act with an easy grin. “Nah, I’m here to see how things are going. You were stressing out pretty hard yesterday. I’m just making sure you don’t do the same thing.”
Keith shrugged. “Well, I’m doing alright, I guess. Ice cream definitely helped. Black still isn’t responding, but that’s to be expected now.” Keith glanced towards the door. “At this point, I think Black would take Kolivan over me.”
Lance barked out a laugh. “Well that’s unfair. Kolivan would be picked over anyone, Keith. He’s just that good.” He adjusted his position, stretching out one leg. “Black might just need time. Either that, or for someone to show her that they’re a good leader. Either way, even if you are a corner emo, I think you can do it.”
Lance could see the doubt still lingering in Keith’s eyes, but appreciated the attempt of a smile he was given for his efforts. “Corner emo?”
Lance returned the smile with a bright one of his own, deciding to not answer Keith’s questioning tone. He clasped a hand on Keith’s shoulder and used it as leverage to stand.
“Welp, I gotta go check on Hunk. The big guy’s been trying to get back into cooking, and I said I’d help him. See you at dinner?”
“Yeah. See you.” Keith didn’t turn to watch Lance leave.
Lance came back to the hangar everyday since then, sometimes loudly announcing his presence, sometimes sitting quietly and watching Black with him. They started walking to Black’s hangar after lunch together if Lance didn’t have anything else to do, arguing about anything and chatting about everything. How Keith’s training went, how Lance was doing taking care of the others, how they could help each other, etc. Smiles became more frequent between the two.
That particular evening, however, Allura joined them part way through. After the castle gave a strong shutter, Allura stormed in, all elegance and poise even when exhausted and annoyed. Keith and Lance watched with wide eyes as she planted herself in front of them, hands on her hips, and glared.
“Keith!”
Both boys startled at Allura’s shout.
“Y-Yes, princess?”
“Why hasn’t the Black Lion accepted you as her pilot yet?”
Keith’s body went rigid. His mouth worked, but no sounds came out. Allura raised an expectant brow.
“It’s my fault!” Lance said quickly, leaning into Allura’s view. “I’ve been distracting him.”
Allura’s eyebrows raised. “Is that so?”
Keith pushed Lance out of the way, shooting him a questioning look before turning his attention back to the princess. “No, it’s not. I’ve tried, princess, but Black won’t open up. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but she clearly doesn’t want me to be her paladin.”
Allura sighed, shifting her weight to one leg and crossing her arms, glancing over them both. “I’ve had to make the ship go through five wormholes in the last three quintants. If the Black Lion won’t accept a pilot soon, I’ll run out of energy. We need to figure this out, Keith.”
Keith slumped. “Can’t we just… find someone else to do it? There’s got to be another candidate somewhere in the universe.”
“Then what will we do when we get Shiro back?”
Keith didn’t answer. Allura watched him.
“We don’t have much longer, Keith. I know you are trying, and I am grateful. Just try to be quick about it, alright?”
She walked out without receiving an answer. Lance watched her go, brows creased. He reached an absent hand out and rested it on Keith’s shoulder, turning towards the other. “Hey, man, you’re doing the best you can. This isn’t your fault. You know that, right?”
Keith was silent for a moment. “I feel like I’m doing something wrong.”
The hand on Keith’s shoulder squeezed. “You aren’t.”
The simple reassurance somehow made Keith feel a bit better. Not great, but better.
Lance had tripped when it happened.
The night before, Lance had spent all his time rushing around trying to get the others to just sleep for once. Allura had to be locked in her room again. Pidge had to be rangled to bed by Hunk, who didn’t come back, so Lance assumed his best friend had stayed with her. Keith and Coran had, thankfully, already been in bed. Lance had then done a lap of the rooms to make sure they were all actually asleep. Allura had to be convinced through the door.
Then Lance had sat on the observation deck and watched the stars, trying to pinpoint anything familiar in the ever-changing constellations. He knew it was useless, but he tried anyways. If he could convince himself that Earth wasn’t so far away, his heart wouldn’t hurt as much.
Safe to say, he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep. Lance realized he was a bit of a hypocrite, but he really didn’t care. As long as the others stayed somewhat healthy, he’d be fine.
He had walked into the hangar the next morning, prepared to sit and talk with Keith like usual.
“Heya Keith, prepared to spend another fabulous day w-” Lance cut himself off with a squeak, catching his foot on the heel of his other leg. Instead of trying to balance himself, Lance slumped into the fall, arms swinging wildly to catch him. His hands connected with the Black Lion’s particle barrier, and for two seconds, he was safe.
Then the barrier disappeared, Black’s eyes lighting up, and Lance dropped unceremoniously to the ground in a heap with a small ‘omf’.
Keith and Lance stayed in their positions for a long moment, neither daring to breathe. Then, Keith slowly made eye contact with Lance, both boys gaping.
There was a few more moments of silence.
“...Lance-”
“No.” Lance hopped up, taking a few steps back. “Nope. Nu-uh. Noooo way. I’m not a leader. I can’t- I’m not leaderly! I’m just me. And me isn’t what Black wants.”
Keith rose slowly. “Lance-”
“Yeah, this is all some big misunderstanding. Maybe Black decided to stop being picky the exact moment I touched her barrier. It’s got to be a coincidence.”
“Lance, that’s not-”
“I mean, I’m great but, leader? No thank you. There is absolutely no-”
“Lance, shut up!” Keith snapped, grabbing hold of Lance’s shoulders.
Lance’s mouth snapped shut. He squirmed under Keith’s gaze, but otherwise made no move to get out of Keith’s grip.
“Lance,” Keith said, softer, “You’ve been trying to tell me this entire time how important it is that we have a black paladin, a leader. Someone to guide us. You can’t go back on your words now that Black has chosen you. You’ve been taking care of us this entire time. I think it’s best if you take Shiro’s spot, until we find him. It won’t be forever, okay?”
Lance swallowed, eyes darting uncertainly.
“Okay?” Keith gave Lance a light shake.
“Okay,” Lance nodded, “Okay. I can do this.”
“You can do this.”
“I’m leader material.”
“You’re leader material.”
“I’m way better than you.”
“That’s a lie and you know it.”
Lance shrugged, grinning wobbly at him. He turned to Black, who knelt and opened her mouth for her new paladin.
“Alright,” Lance moved towards Black, gulping in air deeply, and looked back at Keith, “Let’s see what she and I can do.”