#that Shiro keeps taking him on dates to stop him may have something to do with it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aspenmissing · 10 months

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𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙵𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 (𝙿𝚝 𝟷)

In the Castle of Lions, Lance is sleeping inside a pod within the Sleep Chamber as his team watches, sans Coran who is at the console. They are all in their normal attire, minus Allura.

"I can't tell if he looks healthy... or not" Hunk says.

"I think he's breathing weird" Pidge says.

"Oh, come on!" Keith says "Y/N wasn't in there for long"

"Don't bring me into this" Y/N says, Soul sat on her head. Keith tries tapping on the pod; Allura stops him.

"Not yet! A few more ticks." Allura said.

"How much better do you think he's gonna get in a few more ticks?"

"And what exactly is a tick?" I asked standing next to shiro, Iris in my arms

"You know, a time slice"

"Like a second?" Shiro asks. Every turns around,

"What is a second?" Allura asks. Pidge takes out a clock counting second to show Allura,

"Like this"

I'm not sure. I think ticks are bigger. Coran, do you have a ticker?"

"Right here, Princess" Coran takes out a ticker counting ticks to compare. Hunk, Pidge and Allura walk over to Coran.

"I think ticks are a little slower"

"I can't tell. We have to start them at the same time"

"Okay. Ready, go!" Both counters start together, everyone huddles around to watch.

"Yes! I think we're winning" Y/N says, from besides Coran. Shiro besides her.

"Winning what? The intergalactic time-measuring competition?" Keith asks, looking to her.

"Yes" Unbeknownst to the team, Lance exits the Sleep Pod and stumbles over.

"Aw, Lance, you ruined it. Uh-- Hey, Lance" Hunk hugs Lance.

"What happened?" Lance asks.

"We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?" Allura asks, smiling.

"Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?" Lance flirts. Allura in unimpressed, as is most of the team.

"Yep. There he is"

"Yep, he's okay"

"Classic"

"Hasn't changed"

The Team moves to the Dining Hall while Lance eats food goo with the Altean Mice and Soul.

"He'd be Sendak's prisoner and Y/N would be in the Gladiator Fights right now, if not for Pidge." Allura says.

"Well, you and Y/N wouldn't have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn't gotten a new crystal" Pidge says as Lance feed Soul a spoon full of goo.

"Wow. Thanks, everybody. Sounds like the mice did more than you, though" Lance says.

"I punched Sendak!" Keith shouts.

"Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off"

"And I woke up from my tortured state and pushed him back into the barrier" Y/N adds.

"We had a bonding moment. I cradled the two of you in my arms!" Keith said lifting his arms in the air. Lance and Y/N share a look.

"Nope" Y/N says.

"Don't remember, didn't happen" Lance adds "So, what happened to Sendak?"

"He's frozen in a cryo-pod. We're keeping him here in the Castle" Allura answered.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"He's too dangerous to be set free. Besides, we might be able to get some information about Zarkon from him"

"So, what's the plan now?" Lance asks.

"We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people." Hunk said.

"Wow! You are really hung up on this lady" Y/N hits Lance's arm.

"Lance, let him finish" Y/N said.

"No, it's not like that. Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home-- They've been under his thumb for so long, they don't know what it is to be free. It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up." Hunk said. Pidge frowns.

"Then let's get moving. Time to go defend the universe" The team begins to leave the Dinning Hall. Pidge stops them.

"Wait, I have something to say first. I need to come clean. And I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can't "man up." I'm a girl." She says, bluntly. Lance looks flabbergasted "I-I mean, I can "man up" because that's just a figure of speech. I don't have to actually be a man to "man up." I just have to be tough. But what I'm saying -" Pidge is cut off by Lance.

"Huh—Eh—Wha—?! You're a girl!? HOW!?"

"I've known for some time, but I'm glad you've shared it with everyone" Allura says.

"Yeah, I figured" Hunk says.

"Oh, yeah, me too." Keith says.

"I'm proud of you Pidge" Y/N says, smiling. Soul sat on her shoulder, nodding.

"Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?" Coran asks.

"Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better paladin" Shiro says. Pidge smiles in relief.

"It's good to get that off my chest. Now, let's launch this Castle-ship!" The Team leaves; Lance remains behind and shakes his head in disbelief.

"Wait, what? Pidge is a girl and the Castle is a ship? How long have I been out?" Lance said.

The Team arrive at the bridge, in their Paladin uniform. and six chairs rise from the ground. Shiro and Y/N are in the centre, side by side. Allura behind them. Then Keith, Lance; Hunk and Pidge surround them. Coran stands up front at the controls with Soul sat on the control desk.

"Activate interlock" Allura says.

"Dynotherms connected" Coran stays.

"Mega-thrusters are go."

"We are ready to depart Planet Arus on your mark, Princess"

"Firing main engines for launch" The Castle of Lions launches from Arus as the Arusians watch.

In the Castle of Lions, Hunk is pacing the Bridge as everyone sits around, watching.

"Okay. So, when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and like, start blasting? Or do we land and have some... kind of public address system, like, 'Attention, Galras. This is Voltron. Turn yourselves in!'" Hunk pauses and looks around "No. Blasting, right?"

"Hunk, calm down. And, yes, blasting" Keith says, leaning against the wall.

"It's our first big rescue mission. He's excited." Shiro says.

"Excited to see his new girl-friend~" Pidge teases, bending her head back.

"Aww~" Y/N chuckles, Soul besides her also makes a noise sounding like laughter. Hunk gasps in defence.

"She's not my girlfriend! She's just a rock that I met and I admire very much" Unusual alarms start blaring.

"What is it? Are we being attacked?" Shiro asks.

"No, it seems to be a distress beacon" Coran replies.

"It's coming from a nearby moon. Apparently, a ship has lost power." Allura said.

"I wonder who it is." Pidge said.

"I hope their nice" Y/N adds. Soul nods in agreement.

"Whoever it is will have to wait. Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we're done" Hunk crosses his arms.

"The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need." Allura said. Hunk crossed his arms and frowned. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder and softly smiled at him, he returned it.

"Wow! This is so cool. It's like we're space cops on space patrol. Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?" Lance asks.

"Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them" Coran said.

"Perfect!" Lance shouted. Lance tries to imitate a siren. Shiro places a hand over Lance's mouth

"No, not doing that" Shiro said.

The Castle of Lions land on the moon where the distress beacon was sent from. Allura speaks over the intercom.

"Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to assist you." The ship lands and Allura prepares to exit with the Paladins "Stay aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra crystal energy as you can. We'll see who hailed us"

"Yes Princess" Coran replies.

Allura, Soul and the Paladins descend to greet the stranded crew on the moon's surface.

"You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra" The male says.

"So, you guys are fighting the Galra?" Y/N asks.

"Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can" He says "I'm Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer." He introduced.

"Hi" Nyma says. Lance is struck by Nyma's beauty; Pidge is amazed by Breezer.

"Cool robot" Pidge says.

"Hi! Name's Lance" Lance flirts.

"Was your ship damaged in a fight?" Shiro said.

"Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I-" Rolo said.

"We're happy to help. I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side" Allura says. Rolo compares the serious Shiro, Keith, Hunk and Y/N with Lance and Pidge, who are goofing off with Nyma and Breezer. He isn't impressed.

"...Okay" He agreed. Y/N sighs.

"I don't think they've heard of us" Y/N says. Soul nods

"It has been ten thousand years" Keith says, arms crossed.

"Voltron? Six robot lions that combine into this big robot... guy?" Lance says.

"Sounds impressive. I'd love to see it. Or-or him. Them"

"Why don't we get to work on your ship? I'm sure we all have places to be." Hunk says impatiently.

"Sure" Rolo says. He opens his spacecraft

"Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it" In the background, Lance flirts with Nyma. Shiro smacks him while Nyma laughs.

"I'm sure we can get you back up and running. Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it" Allura says.

"Okay"

"We'll go with you. Don't want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come on, guys" Rolo says. Rolo tries walking forwards to the Castle of Lions only for Hunk to stop him.

"Uh, I don't think so. You can just wait out here." Hunk said.

"Hunk, don't be rude" Allura says.

"Yeah, mind your manners. There are ladies present" Lance winks at Nyma "Hey" Y/N then smacks him. Shiro sighs.

"Oh, I'm sorry, oh but does anyone remember the last time we let our defences down? Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance? Y/N? You two were almost killed" Hunk says.

"Oh, yeah..." Lance says.

"Good point" Y/N adds.

"Hunk's right. Sorry, but we have to be cautious" Shiro says.

"Hey, I don't take it personal" Rolo says "That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own. You're doing a good job, big man" Rolo hands Hunk a list of parts from Breezer.

"Yeah. Thanks"

Rolo sits with Allura, Shiro, Keith and Y/N. Pidge is distracted with Breezer. Lance is with Nyma.

"My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. I managed to escape, but not before I lost something" Rolo displays his prosthetic left leg.

"I know exactly how it feels" Shiro says. Hunk drags a hovercart full of parts over.

"Well, I hope there are some parts in here that'll fit" Rolo doesn't respond "You know, to get your ship moving?" Hunk says.

"Great! Thanks" Rolo shouted.

"So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?" Allura says. While in the background, Pidge zooms past on Breezer. Soul moves her head, following Pidge's movements.

"Well, his command ship sits right in the centre of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak"

"Oh, we've met" Keith says.

"How far are we from the centre?" Shiro asks.

"We're way out on the fringes" Hunk walks over

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. It's just that we're in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people. You understand"

"Sure. Sorry" Rolo places a hand on Hunk's shoulder and then walks over to the hovercart to inspect the parts. Shiro approaches Hunk to whisper quietly.

"Hunk, we're going to get going soon, but I think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us" Shiro says.

"Not for nothing but I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him. We ought to leave him with parts and just say, "Adiós, amigo" Hunk

"Hey, bud! Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?" Rolo asks, using his hands to gesture the length.

"On the way" Hunk groans and leaves. Shiro, Y/N, Keith, and Allura approach Rolo.

"So, are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?" Shiro asks.

"Only folks who haven't been colonized yet, or the lucky few, like us, who managed to escape somehow." Rolo answers

"Well, we're going to change all that" Keith sys. Y/N nodding in agreement.

"Yup" She says.

"That's good to hear, but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You don't know what you're up against"

#Voltron #Reader Insert #Voltron F andom #Voltron Fanfiction #Fanfiction #Keith x Reader #Keith Kogane x Reader #Voltron Legendary Defender

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queerquintessence · 3 years

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heyo

so i recently have been obsessed with the idea of the voltron paladins living in the same house together sooo

i may or may not have spent the last like 3 hours working on headcannons

the characters in the house are keith, lance, hunk, pidge, and allura

(since they’re all relatively similar in age)

so sadly no shiro or coran but

anyway

yeah here they are

(once again a bit unorganized but it’s whatev)

• first off allura and lance are both housewifes

• and neither of them take any shit from the others

• allura: keith, could you pick your feet up? i’m trying to vacuum down here

• keith, sitting on the couch: couldn’t you just do it later

• allura:

• allura: move your feet or i’m telling lonce you have a crush on him

• hunk does the dishes most of the time because he’s mainly the one who cooks their food

• but they also alternate on a schedule

• lance, sighing dramatically: i do everything around here! keith, when was the last time you washed the dishes?

• keith: i literally washed them last night

• lance: well you missed a plate so it doesn’t count

• keith takes out the trash a lot except he doesn’t wear shoes so his feet are always dirty

• lance yells at him for it

• whenever lance takes out the trash he puts on whoever’s shoes are closest

• pidge: lance are those my shoes?

• lance, tiptoeing in sneakers that are 3 sizes too small: maybe

• the couch that they own is too small to fit everyone

• they either argue for 10 minutes over who gets to sit where or they just pile on top of each other

• pidge usually lays on top of someone’s lap when it gets crowded

• she can just flop on top of someone and they’ll just let her- no words spoken

• keith sits on the armrests and everyone gives him shit for it

• lance: aren’t you uncomfortable?

• keith: i like sitting here

• lance: alright edgelord

• lance lays with his legs sprawled on top of the couch

• sometimes pidge will lay on lance who will have his legs on keith

• hunk is fine with sitting on the floor but even he’ll start arguing over the good spot on the couch

• hunk: lance, buddy, you sat there last time- why not give someone else a turn?

• lance: hunk when was the last time you did your own laundry? huh. that’s what i thought

• dinners pretty chaotic

• that’s usually when they have their debates

• lance, pounding his fist on the table: mac and cheese is to be eaten with a fork and that’s that

• pidge: why the hell would you use a fork? spoons are just fine in my opinion

• keith, silently munching on his food knowing he eats it with a knife:

• pidge: alright, we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room

• everyone:

• pidge:

• pidge: keith, you gotta stop putting corn syrup on your peanut butter sandwiches it’s fucking weird

• allura: everyone in favor of limiting lance’s shakira privileges say I

• keith, pidge, and hunk: I

• lance, who’s totally offended: wh

• luckily, they all have their own rooms

• except the walls are super thin

• lance scream singing beyoncé: GOT ME LOOKING SO CRAZY RIGHT NOW YOUR LOVES GOT ME LOOKING SO CRAZY RIGHT NOW

• keith: why has god forsaken me

• even when they try to play music relatively quiet it can still faintly be heard

• muffled music from keith’s room: when i was, a young boy

• pidge: HA fucking EMO

• they all have Alexa’s in their rooms

• and pidge has access to all of them on her laptop

• pidge: psst- hey lance, watch this

• pidge: *fast typing on laptop*

• blasting from keith’s room: COUNTRYYY ROAAADS TAKE ME HOOOOME

• muffled keith screaming: pIDGE I SWEAR TO GOD

• in the morning during breakfast

• allura: why has lonce not come out of his room yet?

• pidge: hang on, i’ll wake him up

• lance’s alexa in the distance: I’M A GOOFY GOOBER YEAH YOU’RE A GOOFY GOOBER YEAH

• lance’s startled scream is then followed by a loud thud

• once a week they have a movie night

• keith: lance i am not watching a cheesy romcom for the 2nd week in a row

• lance: i have to listen to ‘welcome to the black parade’ eighteen times a day sit the fuck down

• keith, crossed arm for the duration of movie night: this love story is completely unrealistic

• everybody shushes him on cue

• they also have monthly sleepovers in the living room where they giggle like middle schoolers

• keith knocks over an entire bowl of popcorn

• allura discovers the concept of a pillow fight and effortlessly knocks everybody to the ground

• lance flops on the air mattress and launches pidge across the room

• while everyone is trying to sleep

• lance: guys guys i’m gonna say something

• lance:

• lance: mayonnaise

• everybody loses their shit laughing because it’s 2 in the morning and they’re sleep deprived

• the bathroom sink is a mess

• their toothbrushes are color coordinated

• since they have to fit so much shit on the sink they have specific spots where they put their stuff

• pidge: hunk, your toothbrush is in my spot

• hunk: what? no- this corner of the sink is mine

• the debate results in all of them crowded in the bathroom arguing for 10 minutes

• keith: i don’t even remember having a designated spot on the sink

• allura: we need a toothbrush holder

• sometimes they do their nightly routines together

• which is also chaotic

• lance is applying a face mask, which drips onto pidge’s arm

• pidge then jerks her arm away- hitting keith’s toothbrush

• it then catapults off the counter and sticks to the wall

• keith: i left the room for one second what the hell did you do

• i’ve seen this headcannon somewhere before and i love it so i’m elaborating

• whenever keith is tired he’s giddy and hyper and loopy

• keith after not having a good nights sleep for 3 weeks, getting a running start and flipping onto the couch: a woop

• pidge: what in fucks name are you doing

• lance is the same exact way when he’s tired so they act like complete and utter idiots

• keith: lance, hey lance guess what

• lance: what

• keith:

• lance:

• they both burst out laughing

• lance: keith, omg you know what- keith rhymes with teeth

• keith:

• keith: holy shit

• eventually they both burn out and are just exhausted

• lance with his face planted in the carpet: uuuggghghggg

• allura: you finally done?

• lance: *angry muffled grumbling*

• pidge tends to fall asleep anywhere in the house

• usually with her computer on her lap or nearby

• she’s usually discovered the next morning

• hunk walking into the kitchen, sleepily rubbing his eyes: kinda want some orange juice

• pidge is just asleep on top of the fridge

• everyone else eating breakfast at the table

• keith: has anyone seen pidge?

• soft snoring is heard from under the table

• keith: ah

• they just put up with each other’s bullshit all day everyday and i love it

• lance, slamming his bedroom door open: everyone in my room i had a nightmare and need affection

• everyone emerges from their rooms grumbling and all file into lance room with their pillows and stuffed animals

• pidge trying to keep the remote away from lance: go long, hunk!

• keith appearing in the doorway and getting hit straight in the forehead with a remote: fUCK

• lance: are those my socks?

• keith: huh? oh, i dunno they were in my laundry pile

• lance: no those are totally my socks give them back right now

• when they all moved in together it was before keith and lance started dating so obviously there was shipping

• pidge, bursting into hunk’s room: i have klance tea

• hunk: spill

• lance: wh- keith and i are NOT dating

• pidge: you guys literally live together!

• lance: WE ALL LIVE TOGETHER

• allura, to hunk during dinner: i don’t know about you, but it seems to me like keith has a thing for lance

• keith: princess you’re not even whispering we can all hear you

• keith and lance secretly holding hands under the dinner table while lance is telling a story

• lance, being dramatic and expressive, lifts his hands in the air to accidentally reveal that his hand is intertwined with keith’s and its immediate chaos

• keith letting go immediately: wH HUH HOW DID THAT GET THERE

• pidge: I FUCKING TOLD YOU

anywayyy that’s all

i literally love this so much so don’t be surprised if i come up with some more later

yeah

bye

#lmao whoops i was so tired when i posted this i forgot to tag it #in my defense #it was 1:30 am #vld #voltron #vld headcanons #queerquintessence hcs #klance #kl #voltron funny #voltron legendary defender

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pretty-setter-bois · 3 years

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cute

request; The paladins headcanon reaction to started dating their crush and it’s been like 2 weeks and maybe like they’re both just doing something together and s/o with the straightest face ever says: “oh my god… you’re so cute…”?

summary; fluffy shenanigans with the paladins of voltron.

word count; 822™

warnings; none.

SHIRO

shiro is a very straight forward man

but there are times where he may lose his composure

so when you accepted his proposal (to date) he was the happiest man alive

he was still getting used to calling you his and enjoying your company

so during the times that he’d review battle plans

you’d join and help

and this one time you were helping him with the notes

you recommended he take a break after working for so long

when he comes back, he finds all the work done

even a cute little note heh

‘don’t over work yourself <3’

he had a little blush on his face

and it was one of those moment where he realized you were dating

and he just

squeezed the life out of you

‘thank you’

‘what for?’

‘for being you, for being mine’

KEITH

literally the ceo of antisocial

let’s be real here, you probably asked him out

he got all flustered (like the red lion flustered) and almost said no

lance was def in the back yelling something like ‘say yes, idiot!’

anyways, theres two things he’s overprotective over.

one: you

two: his belongings

one time he was training

and you being you, took the chance to come and see him

he didn’t notice you when you came in, so you sat on the bench to wait

you wear his jacket

he finished training after a while

he catches a glimpse of you in his jacket

at first he’s confused

he’s sure you must have bought another one to match his

but then he goes to grab his

it’s gone

he looks at you

you look at him

‘is that… my jacket?’

‘oh, uh, yeah. i was waiting for you, and i don’t know why i wore it, but i’ll give it back.’

you begin to take it off and he stops you

‘n-no. keep it.’

he even zips it up to your chin, and you look even cuter than before

you look up at him, confused

‘cute. i-i mean, y-you. you’re… cute.’

LANCE

we all know resident lover boy has tried every trick in the book to get you to date him

every trick

but every time, something had to go wrong

or you wouldn’t understand

so when you asked him out, he had to back track a little

‘w-wait, really? y-you, want to date… m-me?’

long story short he began to run around the castle on pure adrenaline but got lost and got tired

anyway, lance sometimes forgets you’re dating — or it seems too good to be true

and he just can’t get used to your cute little gestures

one time, when coran had dragged him off to help him clean the cryopods, you offered to come with

coran said he was going to get more cleaning supplies, and left you two

you began to clean — to which lance payed no mind — and somehow got your towel stuck above the cryopod

so, you nervously approach lance

tug on his sleeve (and your hand stays there)

and mumble something about your towel

although you can’t see his face, he’s blushing because he can’t believe how cute you are

he hands you the towel, and you shyly thank him

‘c-cute!’

‘um… huh?’

‘you, you’re really… cute.’

‘oh. thanks.’

and then you smile

and lance isn’t sure how to keep it together

HUNK

ahh

i feel like he would worship the land you walk on if you dated

he gets such an ego boost once he remembers that you’re dating

‘yes, my s/o is that absolutely good-looking person over there. need anything?’

he’s very respectful of boundaries though, and won’t hesitate to try and make you feel better if you’re feeling down

he’d find everything you do cute, to be honest

his reaction would always be the same,

bear hug

wide smile

‘you’re so cute!’

and it would instantly make you feel better :)

PIDGE

she’s not very romantic

it’s always slipped her mind, really

until it came to you

it felt like you were the first person that understood her, besides matt

you would always find her in her lab

help her out with experiments

and you soon began dating

anyway, you were helping her out in her lab again one day

and she said she had to grab something from coran

and left you

you decided to try and understand her experiments

so you looked at the open books and beakers and her laptop

you end up getting what she needed to finish it, and did it for her

she comes back, defeated because coran didn’t have what she needed

you show her the experiment

she instantly perks up

‘you… finished the experiment?’

‘well, of course.’

‘you… you’re… cute.’

‘oh… thanks. you too.’

awkward mess of a tech whiz and science nerd

#voltron #voltron imagines #voltron x reader #voltron paladins #vld #vld x reader #vld paladins #takashi shirogane x reader #keith kogane x reader #lance mcclain x reader #hunk garrett x reader #pidge gunderson x reader #katie holt x reader

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musicanddancingthroughlife · 3 years

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I Lived

I finished it! So this is really all I had planned for this particular au, though I might include a bonus chapter or oneshot or whatever, depending on how you guys feel about this. It’s not really my favorite, and I’m realizing that a lot of my fics have a lot of holes in them but whatever, it’s good practice still haha. Anyway, this is the sequel to “I Died,” which should actually be probably the last story I posted on here. It’s been a very long time since I posted anything fic-wise, and for that I apologize! This guy’s a little longer to make up for that!

In other news, my life has finally got to a point where it’s calmed down and I have real time to be writing, so now all I need to push through is my motivation issues, which I can make no promises for, but I do promise I’m working hard to overcome it and make this more of a daily habit so that we can have more fanfics! Anyway, hope you enjoy the story!

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

So. Apparently sharing it now was not okay. What was he supposed to do when even Pidge was crying? Seriously, it had been so easy to cheer her up when they were in space, but no matter what he tried to say to convince her he was fine, she just kept tearing up again.

And sure, Lance had known that his friends cared, that they genuinely liked him and probably wouldn’t be happy if he died, but he really thought that had been more because. He was necessary.

He was a paladin, even if it did seem a little too much like he was a spare. Even spares were useful! Voltron was able to continue even after Keith left to find answers about his past, and Lance was half the reason that was possible! So obviously, he was useful.

But with that logic, the way that they all seemed upset and devastated so long after the fact didn’t make sense. And Lance appreciated it, he did. But it also… Just didn’t matter anymore. Obviously he’s fine, and he’s living life. And yet….

“Why didn’t Allura say anything?” Keith demanded again. Although it was probably the fourth or fifth time he had done so, Shiro just gave the same response.

“Keith, we don’t know how it affected her, too, maybe she was too shocked to say anything. From the sounds of it, that could’ve been her. It’s fair to assume she didn’t know how to handle it.”

“Or maybe she forgot,” Hunk muttered mutinously. Keith nodded quickly in agreement. Lance gaped.

“Who the hell are you and what happened to Hunk?” he asked. Hunk glared back, and it was so unexpected that Lance nearly flinched back before remembering this was his oldest friend. They may not have seen much of each other in the last year, but there was still no one that Lance trusted more.

“Lance, none of that is okay. You were really struggling, and the fact that Allura knew about even a portion of that and didn’t say anything to the rest of us…”

“It’s irresponsible. Even if she couldn’t personally handle it, she should’ve told us so we could’ve stepped up in her place. Instead, she left you alone to suffer. That’s not how a leader should behave.” Shiro glanced at Keith, and ran his knuckles against the back of Lance’s neck. Lance startled at the action, but before he could speak up, he felt Keith’s hands settle on his shoulders, kneading and massaging at the muscles there. He couldn’t tell if it was a tactic to show support, or if it was meant to relax him, but truthfully? Keith’s and Shiro’s hands were warm and it felt like it had been ages since Lance had been touched so deliberately. So even though he wanted to speak up and ask what they were doing or why, he instead felt himself melt further in his chair, brain turning to mush at the warmth soaking through his jacket.

Keith spoke up before Lance could fight the fuzzy feelings invading his brain. “Did Allura ever bring it up to you again? While you were… dating?”

Lance ignored the hesitation, far too used to it (and he tried to ignore the pang in his chest at the disbelief that always colored questions or comments on their relationship). “Ummm… We didn’t really… get a chance to?”

Keith’s hands stopped froze. “What?”

“I mean, it just never came up.”

“You almost died, and it never came up while you were together?”

“Hey! We were busy, we were all distracted back then…”

Hunk spoke up, “Didn’t we literally play Coran’s game like. Not even a week later?”

“Wait, you guys had time to play board games but Allura couldn’t talk to Lance about his death?” Even Shiro looked guilty at that, which just wasn’t fair!

“Come on, Keith, they didn’t know!”

“And you!” Lance tried not to shiver when those fierce, fiery eyes were focused on him. “Why didn’t you say something about it?”

“I thought they knew,” even as he said it Lance knew it was feeble and weak. Ugh and now Pidge and Hunk were tearing up again.

“And what, you assumed we just didn’t care?”

“We were busy! I told you that already, we were already distracted!”

“Pidge and I were playing with robots!” Hunk roared. Lance had been half standing by that point, but as soon as Hunk stood he found himself all but slamming himself back into his seat. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen his friend look so imposing. Honestly, it was probably never. It was really hard to get Hunk this heated. “And there is nothing that should be more important than my friends, than my family. And I thought that’s what we were out there.” He glared at everyone, as if daring them to contradict him. Predictably, no one did.

“Okay, but that doesn’t answer why Allura never said anything, what happened there? What did you guys do when you were together?”

Lance shifted uncomfortably, moving as if to stand again, but Keith’s hands grew firm again, continuing to hold him in place.

When the silence stretched on, Shiro finally murmured a quiet, “Lance.”

“She was hung up on Lotor. I think.”

No one said anything for a minute. “You think?” Pidge finally ventured.

“I mean, she was distracted with the war and everything else that was going on, the magic, Haggar, all of it. But I know that she was spending lots of time with him planning missions and everything.”

“She was ignoring you,” Hunk realized.

“No, she wasn’t!” Lance protested immediately. “Lotor just had better ideas and strategies, so she didn’t really… want my help.”

Hunk looked like he wanted to continue that argument, but Keith spoke first.

“Okay, but like, what about when you guys had down time? What did you do to relax and just spend time together? Outside of battle planning?”

Lance wracked his brain, but couldn’t think of anything other than Monsters and Manna that might count, but did it count? It was in a group setting… “You’re one to talk, Mullet, did you ever willingly leave the training rooms?” His voice broke, and Lance winced.

Rather than rise to the bait, Keith simply moved to stroking against the nape of Lance’s neck. Shiro’s hands felt a little tight around the base of his skull, but rather than being uncomfortable, Lance found it comforting. They were still there. They weren’t ignoring the situation. As painful as it was, it was nice to have all of this in the open. Lance relented.

“We played that game with everyone. Coran and Shiro and everyone.”

Another pause and then, “Lance…”

“That’s it, okay? I can’t remember anything else we did, except for maybe dinner with my family. We talked a bit when it was the two of us, but… It never seemed like I had all of her attention. There was never a chance to talk about what happened.”

“Lance,” Keith started, but he was interrupted. Lance’s phone was ringing again, and this time Lance was ready to take it. He shrugged off the hands that had been holding him steady, and stood so quickly his chair toppled. He moved a short distance away, ignoring how his friends’ concerned eyes followed.

Shiro and Keith were heartbroken. How could they have known that their friend had been suffering so much for so long? Especially this friend? They had had such hopes for this reunion, had spent hours across weeks discussing how they might invite Lance to travel with them, how they would reveal their feelings for him. Instead, they find that not only are they not even worthy of his attention (what kind of friends or lovers wouldn’t notice something like that???), but that their plans were now going to take a lot more work to prove successful.

Because they weren’t going to give up. If anything else, this proved to them that Lance needed someone who could and would take the time for them, who would work to make him happy and make him feel loved and wanted.

And if their small talk about Lance’s death and relationship with Allura hadn’t proved that to them, then this phone call would.

Keith couldn’t keep himself from glaring over in Lance’s direction. Shiro’s hand had snuck into his own. Every time Keith snarled or growled at the conversation he could overhear, Shiro’s hand would squeeze just that little bit tighter. It was a nice sentiment, but Keith was done. He tugged Shiro over to the other end of the table, leaving Pidge and Hunk to fall into their own conversation.

“He’s not happy here, Shiro.”

Shiro gave Keith a disappointed look. “You can’t decide that for him, Keith.”

Keith growled, “I’m not, okay? He’s on the phone with his sister or mom or something and from the sounds of it, Lance has really been missing space and the missions and us.”

At that, Shiro perked up. “He’s been missing us? Really?”

Keith blushed. “Well, he’s been missing the team at least. And we’re on the team, so…”

Shiro chuckled, but Keith could see that the back of his neck was flushed, too. “Not exactly what I meant or what we wanted, but all right. So you think he would say yes if we asked?”

Keith thought for a minute, which Shiro appreciated. This was too important to ruin by rushing it.

“I think there’s a very good choice he will.”

After the phone call ended, it took Lance a few minutes to regain control of himself. He hadn’t realized his whole family had been so aware of the fact that Lance had debated asking to go to space again. He’d been going back and forth on the whole thing for a while, because yes he missed his friends and the adventures, but really, would his friends even need him? What help would he be, what could he offer them? Nothing, plus he felt it was wrong of him to spend all of the war missing Earth and his family, but then ditch them just because now he missed space. He’d thought that maybe he would use this dinner to gauge if he could still fit with the team, but now he wasn’t sure where he stood with them. Were they mad that he had (inadvertently) kept secrets from them? Were they going to be worried that he would be a liability? Or would they love to have him back because they’d missed him? Well, probably not the last one, but maybe…

Lance sighed and used his sleeve to carefully wipe away the tears from his face, hoping desperately that his eyes weren’t so puffy that everyone would know he had been crying. But when he turned to rejoin his friends, he could tell that they knew anyway. The sympathy and concern in their eyes made his own water again. He gave them a wobbly smile.

“Lance?”

Lance rubbed his mouth, then tried to subtly swipe at his eyes again, “Yeah?”

“I know that we… we failed you. And honestly, I’m not sure that I could forgive that in your place, but we were wondering…” Keith faltered, looking to Shiro for help. Pidge and Hunk watched on in curiosity.

“Would you come with us this time?” Shiro asked smoothly.

Lance stared. “What?” he felt numb. Before he could even formulate another thought, Hunk gasped in excitement.

“Yes, Lance you should totally come out with them! Pidge and I are going out again, too, and we were going to meet them on one of the planets the Blade is working with right now, it would be so fun to have everyone together again and --!” Hunk broke off with a yelp. Pidge must’ve kicked Hunk to get him to stop rambling. Hunk glared at her halfheartedly.

No way in hell was one of his real life heroes actually asking him to come with them on a space mission. Sure, he’d completed several missions by now, but this wasn’t even just a personal hero! It was one of his crushes! And his other crush was asking the same thing? In what universe would something like that happen to Lance? Was this just because it was a group thing? In that case, he should say no, shouldn’t he? He’d spent all of the war being a 7th wheel, was he really now considering putting himself in that position again? Before his thoughts could spiral anymore, Shiro took his hand, settling himself in the chair next to his own.

“We’ve missed you, very much. And even though we don’t really travel in a group much anymore, Keith and I would love to have you come with us.”

“But… why?”

“Why not?” Keith asked.

“Well, what would you want me to do? I can’t do the tech stuff, or the engineering stuff, and Keith plays such a big role as is…”

Shiro shook his head. “We just want you, Lance. We’ve missed you. You make missions more fun, you always forced us to take breaks, you always knew when we needed a laugh or when we needed to talk, and you made sure you were there to help us with that. We don’t need you to do or be anything more than who you are. And if you really feel like you want to do more, we would love to have your help in planning the missions. You’ve always been good at strategizing, even if most of us weren’t able to see or acknowledge that at the time.”

Lance hesitated still, “What about Allura? Shouldn’t you be asking her about this first?”

Keith snarled, but when Lance jerked at the sound, his voice softened. “Let us worry about that. She’s actually been trying to plan her maternity leave for her baby, so she was going to be taking a step back, and she hadn’t decided on how long yet. Besides, Shiro is the captain of Atlas, not Allura.”

Shiro nodded, eyes warm.

And even though this was something Lance had been dreaming of, he still wasn’t sure that he was ready for it. It felt daunting, almost like… Almost like driving a mecha lion through a wormhole with a group of people he barely knew. It felt like a beginning, an adventure.

And who was Lance to turn down adventure?

#shklance #shklance fic #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #lance mcclain #voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #vld fic #voltron fic #jessi rambles #mywriting #my writing #idk what else to tag lol

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vs-redemption · 3 years

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Crime is Common. Logic is Rare. (Ch.28)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Holidays (HawksxGN!Reader)

Plot summary: As a quirk geneticist, you never really imagined yourself getting involved in hero work. Of course, you never imagined catching the eye of a pro hero either. What starts as a great career opportunity turns into a relationship built upon mutual secrets and trust.

Warnings:

⚠️This story contains spoilers from the manga.

⚠️Some events and plot points have been altered from the original manga

Tag List: @gayforkeigo @marshmallow-witch @redflannel @toyo-shiro @elsasshole @astronomyturtle @iambashfulperson @omiwashere

Chapter Guide

You had hoped the holidays would provide another much needed break from the stress of your everyday schedule, but going home for Christmas only ended up being a solid two days of downtime for you to sit and worry about everything going on in your life. Whether the Hero Commission really needed your boyfriend around for the weekend or the villains were subtly punishing you for refusing Dabi’s offer, Hawk ended up being far too busy to return to your hometown with you like you’d originally planned. So, you hopped on a train and made the journey home by yourself.

Visiting with your family was something you normally really looked forward to, but this time you found yourself in the awkward situation of dodging questions about your boyfriend that you yourself didn’t know the answers to, and giving vague replies to their inquiries about what you had been up to in the lab with Dr. Garaki. Your entire life and somehow become confidential, and you wondered if being around the people you loved had really been the smartest choice, especially given the threats Dabi had made the day you met him. The more you thought about it, the more your imagination tortured you with worst case scenarios.

Even stopping by your old lab did not provide a break from the interrogations. Instead of finding work to keep your mind off the troubles waiting for you back in Tokyo, you just ended up on the receiving end of a ton of gossip relating directly to the problems you’d been trying to avoid.

“Looks like all the top hero schools are doing an extra round of internships this year,” your boss says conversationally as you try to sort and put away the newest shipment of research journals she’d ordered. “I suppose with all the fuss about the League of Villains, not to mention the nomus, they’re trying to toughen up the next generation of heroes. It makes sense, but I’m a little surprised since UA has even required their first year students to get provisional licenses. Seems a bit much to me.”

“Yeah, I guess, but UA is known for pushing the envelope with the standards held for its students, you know?” you reply with a shrug. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth either. Hero course students around the country weren’t just training themselves to face more dangerous villains. At the moment, they were being prepped for an outright battle that they had no idea was coming. The general public knew about the League and the nomus, but they had no clue about the Liberation army or the monster quirk guy that the commission was so worried about. Apparently, the current heroes weren’t expected to be enough to handle the magnitude of the threat, so the pressure of securing a victory would fall mostly on the students in the end. It was just another reason for your distaste with the Hero Commission to intensify.

“I noticed Hawks hasn’t been working with any interns this time around though,” Your boss had clearly been keeping a close eye on her favorite hero. Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t mind, but you really didn’t want her digging for information that would put her in danger if she got too close to the truth. “Even Endeavor has been patrolling with three students over the holidays.”

“Unfortunately, his plate has been a little full recently,” you hoped she would be satisfied with that answer. Although it was only natural, it made you feel anxious that she was asking so many questions. All the secrets were piling up and now that a plan for ending all this madness was falling into place, there was even more pressure for you to tread carefully with your actions and words. Even if you weren’t being monitored as carefully as Hawks, there was every possibility that the villains were keeping an eye on you too.

“Well, just as long as you two aren’t fighting or anything,” Your boss hums, eyeing you curiously. “I felt a bit concerned when he didn’t come here with you this time.”

“No, we’re both just busy,” you assure her. Fighting wasn’t the right word, but there had been a lot more intense discussions between you and your hero boyfriend recently. The thing with Dabi had, unfortunately, only been the tip of the iceberg. With the issue of giving up information about Hawks to the league basically resolved, now you were both having disagreements about where you’d be during the massive raid that would be taking place in just a couple of months.

Thanks to Hawks, the Commission knew exactly where the League of Villains and their army were hiding out. And thanks to you, they knew exactly where the high-end nomus were being created and kept. The plan was to attack both locations simultaneously before Shigaraki’s procedure could be completed in order to reduce the amount of damage and casualties in the attack. Even with the element of surprise though, it was sure to be a literal warzone. Hawks had been trying to convince you to take a day off from the lab once the date was set, but as usual you had to deny his request, fearing that you could somehow tip them off about the raid just by calling in. For the plan to work, the villains could absolutely not suspect anything.

Of course, it wasn’t like you wanted to be there when all hell broke loose. Actually, the more you thought about, it the more terrified you were. Any number of things could go wrong, and you had no way to defend yourself if you got caught up in the conflict. It scared you even more knowing that Hawks would not be there to protect you. He would most certainly be assigned to the Villain’s location so that he could play his role with them as long as possible. You would have to rely on the team assigned to the hospital to keep you safe. The only thought giving you any sort of comfort was that, as long as the Commission was able to finalize and prepare their plans in time, both Shigaraki and the nomus should remain in their dormant state until all the fighting was already over.

Thankfully, Hawks was an incredible boyfriend and had somehow managed to arrange to be at your apartment when you finally got home after the holiday was over. You honestly could have cried in relief when you opened the door to find him waiting for you with open arms.

“I missed you,” you sigh while tucking yourself into his chest and wrapping your arms around him tightly.

“I missed you too, love.” He smiles while leaning his cheek on the top of your head. “How’s your family? Do they think I’m the worst for not being there with you?”

“Not at all,” you smile and enjoy the warmth of his embrace for a moment longer. “They’re all fine, but my boss had a few things to say about it though.” Hawks lets out a dry laugh.

“Of course she did.” He didn’t seem to want to let go of you either. You weren’t looking forward to the novel he most likely had written for you to read and catch up on everything that had happened in the few days you’d been gone. When you finally step back and look up at his face, there’s a small smirk on his lips.

“What?” You narrow your eyes suspiciously.

“I may have set a little trap,” he glances up and you follow his eyes to see mistletoe hanging above the doorway. Some of the tension finally leaves you as a laugh escapes your mouth.

“Cheesy,” You shake your head at him. “You know I would’ve kissed you anyway.”

“Maybe, but this seemed like a fun idea anyway.” His smile chased away the last of your worries for a moment and you gladly kiss him back when he presses his lips to yours. The way his hands move to grip your sides and hold you closer hinted that he hadn’t enjoyed the time apart any more than you had. The fact that you only got to see each other for minutes at a time when you both were in town didn’t mean much since there was at least some comfort in knowing you were at least together in the same city.

“Mmm, you’re right.” You say breathlessly after he pulls away. “That was a fun idea.”

“But wait, there’s more!” He says in a bad impression of a TV commercial before chuckling at himself. “I also have a Christmas gift for you.”

“I may have gotten something for you too,” you admit. He takes your hand and leads you into the house so you can sit down. You’re surprised to see he’d put up a few decorations and even bought a small little Christmas tree to put by the window. “You know you didn’t have to do all this, bird-kun.”

He smiles almost shyly while taking a wrapped box from under the tree and handing it to you. “Sure,” he shrugs, “but this is our first holiday together and I felt bad I couldn’t spend more time with you. It only took me a few minutes to set it all up with my feathers anyway. I wish I’d had time to do more.”

“This is perfect,” you pull him down to sit next to you, leaning forward to give him another lingering kiss. “How about using those feathers to get the box on the top shelf of the closet?”

“You got it,” He nods as a couple red feathers shoot from his wings towards your bedroom, coming back just a few seconds later carrying the gift you’d hidden away for him. “This the one?”

“Yeah,” you confirm before looking down at the pretty wrapped box in your lap, wondering what was inside. You were so thankful that Hawks hadn’t bombarded you with too many questions about your trip home, or jumped straight to business with updates on the league. It was nice to come home to a normal life situation and have a few sweet moments as a regular couple celebrating Christmas together. Hopefully, after enduring the next few torturous months, you could have this kind of life full time with Hawks.

#Hawks x reader #keigo takami x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #Hawks #Keigo Takami #bnha #mha #Cindy's Writing

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curtashiism · 3 years

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Curtis’s personality headcanons

Curtis is that kind of quiet person who is quiet not out of shyness, but because he simply prefers to observe, ironically for a Communications Officer. It's not that he doesn't like people; he just prefers watching and listening over contributing to conversation.

People tend to ignore him for this reason, thinking that he's not engaged. In truth, he's listening to every word, and the instant he feels his input is needed, he won't hesitate to give it.

This quiet demeanor leads him to have a very small but close circle of friends.

At the Galaxy Garrison, this tendency to be overlooked is beneficial because it means his superior officers tend to, without realizing they're doing so, give him far more freedom than he would get if he were in their faces. This suits him well because, again, ironic for a Communications Officer, he does his best work either alone or in a room quiet enough that he can pretend he is alone. When people do witness him at work, he feels pressured, though he doesn't let that affect his quality of work.

What Curtis may lack in number of friends, he more than makes up for in quality. Once he's decided he trusts a person, they're his friend pretty much forever, barring some kind of awful betrayal. He's willing to talk out almost any conflict (since, again, Communications Officer.)

He'll stay by a friend's side through thick and thin; for this reason, his friends tend to be fiercely protective of him. Sometimes to his annoyance, such as when they all gathered to give Shiro, of all people, a shovel talk once they got engaged.

In terms of family: He was close to his, but lost most or all of them in the invasion (I keep changing my mind based on how dark or not-dark I want his backstory.) He very much desires to have children one day.

And in terms of romance, Curtis isn't a “romantic type” per se, but he definitely isn't not romantic. He's somewhere in between. However, he is absolutely awful at flirting. Due to some issues with self-doubt (which I'll explain below) he tends to assume that anything he thinks of as possible flirting must be a misinterpretation on his part. He worries he's being arrogant (despite being quite humble in actuality). So he gains a reputation as being oblivious to love, while Curtis himself thinks no one is actually interested in him. This creates a feedback loop on his self-confidence (Again, more below on that particular hangup.)

His greatest strengths are his kindness, ability to work well in a crisis, and his willingness to step up and do what needs to be done, even when he doesn't want to do it. He never asks anything of those under his command that he wouldn't do himself. He's a great leader, perhaps not as good as Shiro, but definitely someone Garrison crew are thrilled to be assigned to.

Despite being quiet in most situations, Curtis can always be counted on to speak up against any blatantly unfair situations. And he will do anything in his power to help someone who truly needs it, even if that is to his own detriment. A true caretaker, but not to the point of smothering; protective without being patronizing.

Now, what are his flaws? His fatal flaw is the lack of self-confidence that arises in certain situations. He isn't like this across the board; he knows, for example, that he is one of the best Communications Officers that the Garrison has. But the reason that's the case is that he has constant reassurance; his position on the bridge of the Atlas, and others' reliance on him, proves it. In terms of more nebulous parts of his life- such as his romantic prospects- where he doesn't have that reassurance, he worries. He worries that he is unattractive (because, due to his constant misreading of those situations, he thinks no one has shown interest in him). He worries at times about whether he is actually "good"; he worries being kind isn't enough to make him "good".

And he has a tendency to judge himself against others, especially when he and Shiro start dating. "What does he see in me?" is a question he asks himself often. He doesn't see what could make him stand out against a Paladin or some other extraordinary person. In fact, he is incredibly intimidated by all of the Paladins save Shiro at first. Yes, even Hunk. How could he not be scared to talk to these literal heroes, these defenders of the universe?

Thankfully, in this case, Curtis's reputation of reticence helps him. Since he's known for not talking much, others are quick to assure the Paladins that it's not personal. They assume he's somewhat like Keith, and give him the space he needs. This lets him eventually see that these guys are all just people like everyone else. That doesn't stop him from being respectful, deferent to them, though. And if he ever goes on a mission with them, he will absolutely view himself as more expendable than them, and will plan all risk-taking activities accordingly.

Another flaw Curtis has is a fear of major change. He is flexible in many ways, but the thought of things like moving or making a career change terrify him. He will do them, if he's convinced it's worth it (I.E. having children with Shiro) but he will agonize over the decision.

Sometimes Curtis can be accidentally impolite or insensitive. He knows that his own preference for privacy is much greater than the average person's, and sometimes forgets where on the "scale" most people fall. He apologizes immediately when corrected, though.

Lastly, Curtis dwells way too much on past mistakes, whether they're in his professional or personal life. When this is pointed out to him, he argues that understanding his mistakes will prevent him from repeating them. Others will then promptly point out that Curtis isn't actually doing that, he's straight-up beating himself up over it to the point of being illogical. He will always be the first to blame himself for things going wrong, even things that couldn't possibly have been his fault.

This can be attributed partially to his lack of self-confidence. Another part of it is that subconsciously, he wants to shield others from the blame if something goes wrong, even if that comes at his own expense. That trait can mostly be traced back to his days as a cadet, where his quiet nature was mistaken for weakness, and therefore a lot of other cadets tried to implicate him in their misbehaviors. When he spoke up in his defense, it tended to make the others' punishments more severe. And this then made them angry at him, so he sort of learned to internalize blame for things before others actually got around to blaming him, as a way to get through the situation. And he never was really able to unlearn that. This nearly ends up getting him in serious trouble on more than one occasion, and even when he is exonerated he still gets reprimanded for "lying to protect others" and such. He always says he'll work on fixing that trait; he never does.

And that’s it for my first Curtis personality headcanon post! Hope you guys enjoy!

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #vld meta #curtis voltron #voltron curtis #vld curtis #curtis vld #curtis personality

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comicgeekscomicgeek · 3 years

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Their Hero Academia -- Chapter 79: Drop the Bomb

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

A snout pressed to the ground along the side of the road, where the highway gave way to more densely wooded country. Yes, that was the scent they were after, no mistaking it. Less than another day’s travel ahead. Lips curled back past sharp teeth, releasing a low growl of satisfaction. They had missed the departure of the students, all nestled into their transport and none the wiser that something was just behind them. It wasn’t a short journey from the school to their destination, but traveling cross country, a nearly straight line whenever they didn’t have to stop to find the scent again, made up considerable time. They did not tire. This terrain was what they were bred to cross. They moved back into the cover of the trees as they followed the smaller road, claws digging into the dirt as they pushed forward.

They’d be at the camp soon.

***

“Ooooh, that had to hurt,” Isamu winced.

“I’ve told him he relies on his Quirk too much,” Midoriya replied, gazing at the scene before them through his fingers. “Tell me he’s still breathing?”

“He’s groaning, Toshi,” Tokoyami said. “He’ll be fine.” She chirped a few times. “I think.”

“She really hit him hard!” Frog-Shadow said, adding her own opinion from Tokoyami’s shoulder.

“Poor Shota,” Izumi said. “Still, he lasted longer than I expected him to.”

“Well… that was definitely something,” Boost-Rush said. “Where’d you learn a move like that, Kaniyashiki?”

Kaniyashiki was busy helping Shinso back to his feet, but she looked over in the Rookie’s direction. “My Aunt Monika’s a police officer, sir,” she said, tossing off a salute with her free hand, before turning it into a crab-claw V. “She taught me a lot of self-defense stuff.”

“Well, tell her she did a good job,” Boost-Rush said. He looked to the larger group of U.A. and Shiketsu students. “And I think that’s our best example so far of why being able to fight without your Quirk is important. Shinso here has one of the most powerful Quirks in either class, and Kaniyashiki laid him out in two moves.”

The morning’s instruction had largely been focused on Quirkless exercises, directed by Boost-Rush. The powerfully-built Rookie was an extremely good hand-to-hand combatant, though he’d admitted that Doc Clock was even better than he was, something which had gotten Aizawa beaming with pride for all of about three seconds before his natural resting grump face had taken back over. Boost-Rush had put them through a number of exercises, before he’d set them up sparring. Eventually, they’d break off into pairs, but for now, they were also getting a bit of a show out of it, as he called different combinations to spar against each other and demonstrate what they’d learned so far.

A few students, mostly those with heavy mutation-type Quirks like Shoji and Bondo, had largely been exempted, and would get some other specialized instruction, since their Quirks were more innate Mutant types. Ground Zero, Aizawa, and a couple of the other Rookies were with them. Some of the others had also been peeled off for other types of training with some of the other Rookies.

He had to admit, though, it had been especially exciting when Boost-Rush had opened it with Kana against Kimiko Ojiro. As the two best martial arts in any of the classes, it had made sense. It hadn’t been one hundred percent Quirkless, since Ojiro couldn’t turn off her invisibility, but she’d wrapped her arms and legs, donned gloves, and wore the visor from her costume so that Kana would have a decent idea of where her limbs and face were.

It had been, in a word, spectacular. And not in a “two attractive girls fighting” sort of way (Though he’d be lying if he completely denied that part. His girlfriend was very hot. And also very scary when she went full out like that. He was starting to realize the comparisons to Kirishima-Bakugo weren’t entirely inaccurate.), but also in a “two incredibly skilled people giving it their all” sort of way. Kana’s style was more aggressive than Ojiro’s, focusing on powerful strikes and kicks, while Ojiro focused on speed and repeated strikes to confuse and disorient. Both of them were absolutely on the top of their game and on a completely different level than just about anyone else. Shiro Monoma had watched the whole thing with rapt attention.

“That,” Shinso said, “was so cool! She just grabbed my wrist, and the next thing you know, bam! I’m on the ground!” He stared at the 1-B girl with wide eyes. “You’ve got to teach me how to do that!”

That got a groan from Isamu, Midoriya, and Tokoyami. That would be Shinso all over. The kid was trying really hard lately, had been ever since the end of their Internships, but at that end of the day, he was still a ray of sunshine fanboy. Somethings just never changed.

Kaniyashiki threw back her head and let out a laugh. “Sure thing, shorty.”

“Hey!” Shinso said, crossing his arms as a grumpy look spread across his face. “I’m not that short!” Of course, he was the shortest one in the class, but he was also several months younger than most of them too…

“Anyway,” Boost-Rush went on, “next up, we’ve got… Haimawari against Awase!”

“Oh boy…”

***

Since he was dating their Class Representative, Isamu had gotten to know several of the members of Class 1-B reasonable well, and several more of them in passing. Bondo, Kaniyashiki, and Fukidashi were some of Kana’s best friends. The first two were a terrible twosome, usually cracking jokes and up to some small measure of no good, and both of them really loved antagonizing Monoma. And he had yet to determine whether or not Fukidashi was legitimately crazy or just extremely differently wired. He’d been surprised, though, to learn her mother was the support equipment designer, Bibimi Kenranzaki. Though honestly, that may have explained some of her more extreme tendencies.

He’d had several pleasant and lengthy conversations with the bat-like Koumori about music. Koumori’s musical choices tended themselves more to rock than pop, but they’d found some common ground in that both of them had an appreciate for the horse-headed American rock duo, Wild Stallions. And the giant Fukui seemed to be able to get along well with anyone. He’d even managed to make sure there were no hard feelings with the force field generating Kido, even after he’d bested him at the Sports Festival.

Hell, he’d even managed to have a couple civil conversations with Monoma. Even if the blond also did a lot of “I’m watching you” gestures at him when he thought no one else was looking.

Awase, on the other hand, he didn’t really know. The Vice Class Representative was studious and not particularly talkative. He’d probably said hello to him in passing, but beyond that, he didn’t know him. Awase was dark-haired and athletically built and, if Isamu remembered right, his Quirk had something to do with being able to fuse his molecules with other substances, taking on their properties. Not that that would matter much in a Quirkless spar.

He stepped into the circle that had been set up for sparring, watching Awase as he did the same.

“You can do it!” he heard Shinso call out, bringing a smile to his face.

“Show them what 1-B’s made of, Awase!” And that would be Monoma, as expected.

“You’ve got this, Isamu!” He heard Kana call out. Followed by, “What? He’s my boyfriend. I’ve got to support him.” Which was probably her defending herself against Monoma.

Awase dropped into a fighting stance, hands up, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. Isamu on the other hand, dropped lower, legs spread wide, arms flared out to his sides. Even without his Quirk, his style was never going to be about all out brawling. Keep it fast and loose. He didn’t have the raw strength to do otherwise.

“Are you both ready?” Boost-Rush asked.

“Yes, Sensei,” Awase said simply.

“I’m ready,” he agreed.

“Then begin!”

Awase didn’t make any sounds as he charged forward, but he was telegraphing his right hook pretty badly. Isamu dropped all the way to the ground, like he would when using his Quirk and pivoted, swinging his leg out. It connected solidly with Awase’s leg, tripping him up and knocking him down.

But Awase was just as quick to spring back up, and Isamu got back to his feet, back-peddling away from a flurry of punches. “Oooffff!” All the air got knocked out of him as one of Awase’s punches connected with his stomach. Guy definitely had a lot of power behind him, even without his Quirk.

Isamu wasn’t completely helpless though, and he managed to get his hands up and ward off the next punch, just like Midoriya had taught him before the Sports Festival. He managed to fire off a few rapid fire punches of his own, putting Awase back on the defensive. Isamu had a few inches on the other boy and his arms and legs were longer too. It gave him a reach advantage that he pressed, throwing a couple more strikes to unbalance him.

Unfortunately, Awase was quicker on the recovery than he expected, delivering a punch that set his head spinning back around. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his blurring vision as Awase came in for another round of strikes.

This time, Isamu was able to dodge, bobbing this way and that, leaning and ducking out of reach of Awase’s blows. When he was fighting with his Quirk, he relied on movement, keeping out of the way, and staying just long enough to get a couple of hits in. There was no reason not to apply the same principle to Quirkless fighting.

“Stand still, dang it!” Awase shouted, after he’d missed with yet another blow.

“Ah,” Isamu said, “how about no?” He dodged again, ducking under another blow. His picked up his speed a little, so that he continued to circle Awase, letting him wear himself out trying to keep up and throwing blows. The other boy should have been aiming for where he was going to be, but instead kept trying to catch him, which resulted in most of his blows being too slow to hit anything or only scoring a glancing hit.

So he kept it up, dodging several more blows that way. Awase was definitely slowing down, starting to tire. So when he launched his next blow, Isamu moved as though to duck and dodge to the left, but instead came up with an uppercut, knocking Awase down once more (And ow, ow, ow, boy did that leave his hand smarting!).

“He did it! He did it!” Isamu heard Shinso shout, before hearing Tokoyami try to quiet him.

Awase let out a groan, before slowly getting back up to his feet. “Dang,” he grunted. “You’re fast as heck even without your Quirk.” Isamu could already see a bruise forming where he’d punched him. For a moment, things seemed like they were going to get tense, but Awase nodded decisively. “Good job. Easy to see why you won the Sports Festival.”

He offered a hand, and Isamu took and shook it, trying very hard to take the praise. He still had a lot of trouble believing his own win, even months out. But he was getting that self-confidence up. “Thanks,” he said.

The sound of applause broke the moment. “Good job, both of you,” Boost-Rush said. “Go see Bioshock if you feel like you need it.”

The Hero looked down at his clipboard. “Okay, next… Let’s have Kirishima-Bakugo and Tatsuma.”

***

Katsumi may not have had Papa’s shark-teeth, but she’d been told that her grin was very frightening indeed. Right now, her grin seemed to be so scary that several of her classmates and 1-B students were actively backing away from her. Sero had, in fact, let out a rather high-pitched shriek and leaped into Tensei Iida’s arms. At least Izzy had stayed by her side.

“You’re being deliberately frightening again,” Izzy said. There was a disapproving tone in her voice and Katsumi did feel a little bad about that. Disappointing Izzy was not something she liked doing. Maybe she could live with it for this the chance to teach the Shiketsu girl a lesson.

The giant girl was giving her a look that seemed to match her own. She stepped into the ring and for the smallest of moments, Katsumi wondered if she wasn’t biting off more than she could chew. Tatsuma’s overall build was comparable to her own. Both of them were muscular, especially for women, though Katsumi’s build was the result of rigorous training and hard work. She couldn’t tell it that was the case for Tatsuma or if it was related to her Quirk, not that she knew what that was. But Tatsuma had considerable height, reach, and weight on her. Katsumi was the second shortest person in the class, only barely taller than the Loud Kid. But it wouldn’t be Womanly to step away from a fight, no matter how big the other person was.

She didn’t know what Tatsuma’s deal was, why she thought she was so much better than U.A. students. Izzy had said something about Tatsuma having a good reason, but she also didn’t especially care. You disrespect her, you disrespect her friends, her school, she’d kick your ass, plain and simple.

“I look forward to educating you,” Tatsuma said. She cracked her knuckles. It was noisy. Definitely a show of intimidation. Katsumi approved of the strategy. If she was anyone else, it might have worked. But she was too damn tough to be scared by some wannabe from some pretentious school like Shiketsu.

“You can try,” Katsumi shot back. She rolled her neck casually, tensing the muscles in her arms. No backing down. Never let them think they can intimidate you. And give back as good as you got. She shot back with a glare of her own. It’d be a lot more satisfying to unleash some explosive hell on her, but punching would do pretty nicely.

“Oh hell no, this isn’t happening.”

Katsumi spun around, realizing it was Vanish Veil who had spoken. What the hell? This was like the time Toshi had tried to tell her that picking her battles didn’t mean she could pick all of them. Why were people so opposed to her using violence on the deserving?

“You two’ll kill each other and nobody’ll learn anything,” Vanish Veil said, crossing her arms. She sounded more annoyed than anything, but there was a little of what sounded like concern in her voice too.

“Don’t think I can take her, Old Lady?” Katsumi snapped.

“I told your dad I wouldn’t let you cause a scene, Brat,” Vanish Veil snapped back. Katsumi’s usually ability to wind Mahoro up was failing her here, it seemed. Damn it.

“You have a problem with my teaching choices?” Boost-Rush asked, approaching Vanish Veil. Katsumi could nearly hear the sneer in his voice. If she didn’t already know he was a Monoma, that would have confirmed it.

“Only when you don’t get the memo,” Vanish Veil told him flatly. She walked over and poked him hard in the chest with a finger. Her twintails swayed with the motion. “Pick somebody else, you sanctimonious ass.”

Boost-Rush just laughed at that. He was wearing his helmet, but Katsumi could hear the smugness in his voice. “Oh, if you insist,” he said, sounding as though he was the one doing Vanish Veil a favor. “Still… how about Park?”

Vanish Veil seemed to be weighing her options there, her mouth set in a frown. “Yeah, okay… that’ll probably be all right…”

***

Well, at least she’d get to show up one of those Shiketsu kids, Katsumi thought. Windbag was all right in extremely small doses, but the rest of them could go hang. Definitely time someone knocked one of them down a peg and she was very good at knocking. Didn’t really matter which. Could have just as easily been the pretty boy cat guy. He’d have probably been real satisfying to punch.

Park… Hmm. Katsumi considered herself pretty decent at reading people. Tatsuma was simmering fury, waiting to erupt, buried just barely below the surface. A lot like herself, really. Not that she’d admit that to anyone. She went from zero to one hundred in no time, even when the situation didn’t really call for it. It was pretty much a family trait. She had it, Dad had it, the Hag had it.

Park, though, Park was a quieter kind of angry. A cold one. As Katsumi began sizing her up, she wondered, possibly for the first time in her life, if she hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew.

“And begin!” Boost-Rush called out.

Katsumi got her hands up and she and Park circled each other cautiously, both looking for an opening. She’d taken some different martial arts classes as a kid and she had had plenty of instruction from Dad and Papa, Uncle Deku, and even Ojiro’s dad. But overall, her style mostly focused on single, powerful moves, putting someone down with just a punch or two. It was best to take them out before they had a chance to be a threat.

“DIE!” she bellowed, throwing the first punch, a powerful left handed strike that had a lot of her weight behind it.

Park sidestepped her blow and came in close. Her hand snapped out and grabbed into the shirt of Katsumi’s gym uniform. Before she could even react, Park’s leg shot up, slamming into her side several times in rapid succession. Katsumi let out a growl and managed to shove her away, buying herself a little space.

“Okay,” she snarled. Her side was protesting furiously as she kept moving. “You got one in. Congratulations. But that’s all you’re going to get.”

Park’s expression didn’t change much, but one eyebrow raised slightly, as if to say I disagree. She calmly took a couple side steps, her eyes maintaining that cold indifference. “Angry already? If being struck upsets you, then you’re aspiring to the wrong profession.”

Katsumi knew the other girl was trying to get in her head. But knowing that didn’t make her any less angry about it. “I don’t know about you,” she growled, “but I was born to fight.” She shouldn’t have been talking either, she knew. Wasted breath. Maybe it worked for some people, like Horse Girl. Katsumi would, under duress, admit that Mineta had made provocation a weapon she could use. But that wasn’t her.

She charged, throwing a right hook at Park’s head. Park’s head shot to the left, her hand coming up and grabbing Katsumi’s wrist. In a single fluid motion, she bent and twisted it. Pain shot up her arm light a bolt of lightning, overriding her rage, overriding everything except for the white-hot sensation of pain. It felt like her wrist was one small increment of pressure away from snapping like a twig.

“I’m aware this would likely not work if you could use your Quirk, but since our esteemed instructors insist on this human cockfighting, I might as well emphasize their point. Though I suppose with your Sports Festival, you’re used to bread and circuses.” She twisted it more. “Perhaps if they bothered with a more extensive self-defense course this wouldn’t be necessary.”

Pain shot up Katsumi’s arm so intensely that she had to grind her teeth hard to keep from crying out. No way she’d give Park the satisfaction of hearing her scream. What the hell kind of fighting style was this? Aunt Ochaco had done a lot of the grab and flip stuff, but…

At least she still had her other hand free. With Park’s attention on her other arm, Katsumi brought her left hand in low for a body blow.

Park saw the blow coming and released the hold, but she wasn’t not fast enough to dodge all of it. She let out a small growl as Katsumi’s strike connected, though it was more of a solid graze than a full hit. She moved with the dodge, twisting and sending a kick up at Katsumi’s head.

Even if she wasn’t using a Quirk, Katsumi had to admit that Park was fast. Deceptively powerful too. She might have been impressed, if she wasn’t so damned angry. She saw the blow coming, fortunately, moving out of the way. Her right arm still hurt from the wrist grab, meaning her options were limited, but she knew how to play through the pain. She faked left, throwing a couple blows to try and get Park moving the way she wanted, then followed up with a roundhouse kick from the right.

Park had obviously been expecting punches, and hadn’t expected Katsumi to throw a proper kick. As she made to defend against the punches, the kick sent her down. She gathered herself quickly and rolled so that she came to be resting on the soles of her feet.

“That had to have been learned outside class.” Her look was harsh, judgmental somehow. “Makes sense with the amount of enemies the child of a pro hero has.”

Park got up, her eyes narrowing. “But how will that do against someone who’s had enemies the moment they were born?” She darted toward Katsumi, looking to launch a kick, but instead threw a straight-forward punch like something out of a street fight.

Okay, what the hell was that supposed to mean?! And sure, they’d all had some basic self-defense lessons, some of them more than others. You heard horror stories about the kids of Pro-Heroes being threatened or kidnapped. A few of them had even come damn close to it.

The punch hurt, leaving Katsumi seeing stars, her vision swimming. “You haven’t rung my bell yet,” she growled in the direction of what she hoped was the actual Park. The world was spinning and it felt like a struggle to stay upright, but she forced herself to keep fighting.

She moved quickly this time, throwing one punch after another. Not too much style, but plenty of power. Park was good and, as much as it pained her to admit it, more technically proficient than she was. But she had more raw power than the other girl. She just needed one really good punch to make an end of it.

Park dodged the punches, attempting to once more grab and twist Katsumi’s arms. This time, she was ready for that crap and kept herself moving too quickly to be caught. Katsumi’s style may have been straightforward, but the speed was forcing Park to stay on the defensive.

***

‘This is stupid. Beating each other for the sake of some trite lesson that could easily be fixed with a proper martial training program. Look at them: So self-important while others are thrown aside.’ Park’s thoughts raged through her mind. She cast a glimpse once more at Boost-Rush. ‘Alright you son of a bitch. You put a child in this situation. Don’t whine at me when the expected happens.’

***

Park darted as if dodging again, but grabbed the waistband of Katsumi’s pants, using the leverage to throw her down. It was a hard, bone rattling impact that knocked her senseless for a moment. Katsumi’s first instinct, drilled into her, is to protect her head, but Park snarled and instead threw a kick at her back.

The kick hurts, Katsumi’s damn sure that was one of her kidneys. The pain kept her down even as she tried to get herself back up. There wasno way she’s going to let herself be beaten like this. She’s one of the toughest damn U.A. students there is. Daughter of two Top Ten Heroes. Practitioner of the Art of Womanly Living. And when it comes to a fight, she doesn’t quit. Ever.

“You’re going down!” she screams, forcing herself back to her feet, swinging wildly.

“That’s my line.” Park dodged to the side again. Her arm shot out like a stone from a sling and grabbed Katsumi’s arm, wrapping her fingers around it in an iron grip. She twisted it, and used the momentum to drive Katsumi into the ground. Park hung onto her arm this time, pulling it back and locking in her grip behind Katsumi’s back.

***

A little more torque and she could easily break it. For a moment she felt herself wanting to. To share even a small ounce of the suffering. She looked into the crowd, and saw the kind rock girl who shared her faith. Akaya. She looked concerned and scared for her classmate.

“I’m not as good a Christian as I’d like to be.” She had told Akaya that. She turned away from her, looked at Katsumi’s struggling face, then looked back at the U.A. students and Rookies. She let go of Katsumi.

***

“This is stupid. Find another pawn.” Park then got up and walked toward her classmates, then past them entirely. Tatsuma tried to stop her, but she brushed her off.

Katsumi forced herself to her feet, her limbs absolutely aching. “Get… get back here,” she started to growl, eyes locked on Park’s retreating form. “I… I can do this… all day…”

She couldn’t lose to some pretentious Shiketsu brat. And she definitely wasn’t losing to someone who wouldn’t even stick around to assure their victory. Who just gave up in the middle of a fight like that? Especially one they were winning? None of it added up.

Wasn’t she worthy of fighting? Or finishing off?

What the hell was wrong with Park?!

Someone helped her to her feet. It was the Old Lady. Of course. “I’m fine,” she grunted. A lie. She was not fine. She didn’t think anything was broken, but she could practically feel the bruises growing in all kinds of uncomfortable places. There was still pain radiating from where she’d been kicked and she was still seeing double.

“You’re not fine,” Vanish-Veil said, sounding guilty. “C’mon. We’ll get you to my brother. Hopefully before your dad finds out about this…”

***

“She… she lost,” Toshi said, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. The fight had been incredibly short, but incredibly brutal. It’d been deeply uncomfortable, even unsettling to watch. He’d wanted to intervene, no matter how much Katsumi would have yelled at him for it, but the sheer brutality had left him paralyzed where he stood. He was sure if it hadn’t been so quick, the Rookies surely would have intervened…/

It was only then that he realized that his arm was hurting and had been for some time. “Izumi…?”

“What? Oh! Oh my…!” Izumi quickly released her death grip on his arm and he could feel the circulation returning to it. Izumi was willowy and often looked like she’d blow over in a strong breeze, but she apparently had ferocious grip strength. “I’m so sorry, Toshi…”

He shook his head. “It’s okay. I think we were all a little shellshocked.”

“I don’t believe it,” Haimawari said. He was shivering, Toshi realized, and then realized he was too. Izumi must have been drawing in heat as she’d grown more and more frightened for Katsumi. “I saw it, but I still don’t believe it.”

Toshi never would have thought it possible either. He’d seen Katsumi lose, of course. The two of them were about evenly matched when they’d sparred in the past and he’d won about as many as he lost. And, of course, Katsumi had lost against Izumi during the Sports Festival. But those had been friendly competitions, between people who had known each other for years. This had been different. This had been a beating.

Both Katsumi and Park had been looking to prove something, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what it was for Park. He knew already, that Tatsuma didn’t think especially high of them. But it didn’t look like Park did either. He’d spent of a lot of time thinking over Tatsuma’s reasons for disliking the Hero System and what this class represented, and was still grappling with those. But he didn’t know what drove Park, not yet.

Katsumi, he knew, just wanted to prove she was better than the Shiketsu students. They’d gone after her pride and she really wasn’t the best decision maker where that was concerned.

He was also fairly certain this wasn’t something he could fix, wasn’t something he could make right. That was a hard admission for him to make. Dad had always said you couldn’t save everyone but that you still had to try. He’d thought maybe he could still try here, but after this…

Katsumi was his friend. And she was confident and powerful. She was one of the best fighters in the class, with a strong Quirk and an iron will. Even in friendly sparring with him, she just took every loss as a way to get stronger still. To see her humbled like that…

“Is it over?” Shota asked. Toshi looked over and jerked with surprise as he saw that Shota had his eyes scrunched up tight, with his hands over his ears.

Asuka put a reassuring arm around his shoulders. “It’s all right,” she told Shota, gently removing his hand from over his right ear with her other hand. “You can look now.”

“She didn’t win, did she?”

“I am afraid not,” Asuka replied.

“This will not be good,” Izumi said, worry filling her soft voice. “Even though her injuries can be treated, Katsumi will treat this as a grievous wound to her pride and a personal insult besides. She won’t let that go any time soon. And I fear what she may try in retaliation.”

“She’s right,” Asuka said. She chirped softly and worriedly. “Izumi, Toshi, you know her the best. What do we do?”

Toshi frowned. Tatsuma and Katsumi had been ready to tear each other apart, before Aunt Mahoro had intervened. She hadn’t objected to Park, but…

If they didn’t do something to try and buy a little peace with the Shiketsu students, then someone was just going to get hurt worse.

Looking around, he could see, not just the concern, but the anger, on so many of his classmates’ faces. Even many of the 1-B students looked disturbed by it, especially Monoma and Kana.

Of the Shiketsu students, only Tatsuma and Yoarashi were there. Park had walked off somewhere, and Tsuchikawa and the spider-girl were with one of the other training groups. Tatsuma was looking vaguely smug and satisfied, though Toshi couldn’t help but notice that she was also looking off in the direction Park had left. Yoarashi had gone pale and oddly quiet. Toshi didn’t know him as well as some of his friends, but he’d still known him for years. Yoarashi didn’t do quiet.

If they didn’t do something to try and make peace with the Shiketsu students, someone was going to get hurt.

Get hurt worse, he realized, as Aunt Mahoro led Katsumi away.

“Oookay,” Boost-Rush said, much of his earliest bravado gone. “That’s… that’s enough direct sparring for today. Why don’t we break into small groups to work on what’ve learned so far.”

A stupid, desperate plan dropped into his mind. He couldn’t exactly slip away, but… “I hate to ask you to lie,” Toshi whispered to Izumi, “but…”

Izumi nodded. She grasped his plan without him having to even say it. They’d been friends a long time. He wasn’t as close to her as Katsumi was, he wasn’t sure anyone could be as close as the two of them were, but Izumi was still one of his best friends. Hell, after a hopeless childhood crush on Nejire Togata, he’d had a crush on Izumi for a little while too, though he’d never worked up the courage to ask her out or anything. If nothing else, Katsumi’s looming presence in both their lives had made it clear if anyone really loved Izumi, it was her.

“I do believe I’m feeling a bit of a flare up,” she said, stretching exaggeratedly. I should probably go get checked out.”

***

Izumi arrived at the first aid station that Bioshock had set up. The Metabolic Hero was laying hands on Katsumi as she approached and she could see her friend’s bruises start to fade already and a bit of her color return. Bioshock’s Quirk was not quite the cure-all that Doctor Izumi’s was, but it was still very effective. She knew now, from what she had read, that he had run himself ragged during Plague’s assault on Japan, pushing himself nearly to death’s door until Uncle Izuku and his sister had literally had to drag him away from the hospital wards.

“Okay,” Bioshock told Katsumi, “I think that should be good. Nothing broken, thank goodness.” His features darkened. “What the hell was Boost-Rush thinking? Dammit…”

He shook his head, his eyes going wide as he realized he’d spoken out loud. “My apologies. That was unprofessional.”

Katsumi waved him off. “Eh, you said what you said, Doc. Own it.” Her red eyes had locked with Izumi’s. For all the fierceness and bravado Katsumi put on for the rest of the world, Izumi could easily tell when she was faking it. Such as now.

“Oh, hey, Todoroki,” Bioshock said when he noticed her. “Everything all right?”

“I’m feeling a bit fatigued,” Izumi told him. She spoke each word carefully, trying to project some measure of exhaustion into her voice. She was tired, but not that tired. “I fear this new schedule is playing havoc with my body.”

Bioshock looked between her and Katsumi for a moment, then his expression changed ever so slightly. “Oh, sure,” he said. “Let me go check the coolers, see if we’ve got anything with some electrolytes for you. Why don’t you keep Kirishima-Bakugo company while I’m gone?” He gave them a little wave as he walked off.

Katsumi just gave her a look as she took a seat next to her, in one of the small folding chairs. It wasn’t especially comfortable, but that was of little importance. “You are the worst liar I have ever met, Iz.”

“What?” Izumi asked. “But Bioshock…”

“He was humoring you, Iz.”

Oh. Well. She supposed that was all right. She was still able to achieve her goal of getting to talk to Katsumi. Though perhaps she could work on the lying? Heroes did need to sometimes, well, not exactly lie, but certainly project more hope and certainty than they might have been otherwise feeling.

“Are you all right?” she asked instead. “Not physically,” she added quickly. “That much I could see.”

Katsumi looked down at the dirt. “That wasn’t a fight, Iz.” The words were said so quietly that Izumi could barely hear her.

“That level of brutality was well outside the bounds of a friendly spar,” she agreed. “Though you too were quite ready to rise to violence.”

Katsumi’s head snapped up, a snarl starting to pull at her lips. “Damn right I was. Did you see the way that giant was looking down her nose at us? She disrespected me and she disrespected the school. I had to teach one of them a lesson.”

“Did you?” Izumi asked, when she was certain Katsumi’s rant had finished. “Or were you just seeking conflict?”

“So I like a good fight,” Katsumi replied, looking rather annoyed still. “Is that a crime?”

“How badly would you have hurt one of them?” Izumi asked instead. Answering Katsumi’s question would do no good to anyone, and likely lead to a very circular conversation. Sometimes you had to point Katsumi in the direction you wanted her to go. Even if you usually had to make her think it was her idea.

“Broken nose, maybe,” Katsumi said, shrugging. “I just really wanted to punch one of them.”

She sighed. “But that wasn’t a fight, Iz. That was a damned beatdown. She was toying with me. Whatever damn style she was practicing, it’s damn good at causing a lot of pain. And… she’s better than me.”

Katsumi trailed off. She’d said something, but so softly that Izumi couldn’t hear it. “I’m sorry,” she said, “what?”

“I said she’s better than me!” Katsumi snapped. “She could have kicked my ass from here back to U.A., up and down both sides of the street, easy. But she wanted to make it hurt and she wanted to make sure everybody saw it.” Her fists were clenched hard, her knuckles going white. “This wasn’t even about putting me in my place. She was making a damned statement. Hell if I know what it was though…”

Katsumi bolted up out of her chair suddenly, grabbing it and spinning around sharply, letting it go flying through the air. It landed several feet away, bouncing a few times before it finally stopped. Izumi would give her friend credit: she’d expected it to explode.

Katsumi was visibly shaking and Izumi rose to embrace her. Katsumi’s strong arms soon found their way around her and Katsumi’s head came to rest against her. As Izumi held her, Katsumi’s shaking began to subside.

“I’m supposed to be the toughest woman around here, Iz,” Katsumi said quietly, but there was a growing fire to her words. “This isn’t over.”

Katsumi was right. For more reasons than she thought. If they didn’t do something soon, to try and bridge the gap between the two schools, things could very likely explode, in more ways than one.

#my hero academia #their hero academia #toshi midoriya #katsumi kirishima-bakugo #izumi todoroki #isamu haimawari #fan fiction #fan fic #my writing

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 3 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 176

176

Keith didn’t wake. Not the next day, not the day after the next day, or the day after that. Bringing him to see Keith, Hunk must have had the timing wrong. His best friend stopping in the hallway, as whoever had visited Keith last hadn’t closed the door properly.

Inside the room Shiro was yelling at Coran. Hunk trying to back pedal, but Lance had heard enough. Coran wasn’t sure Keith would wake back up. The signs weren’t promising. Keith now intubated. Shiro yelling at Coran to fix him, Coran trying to keep the peace while explaining there was nothing he could do that he hadn’t already tried. As Hunk tried to wheel him back, Lance took the wheels of the wheelchair in his hands, propelling himself forward. As Keith’s boyfriend, he deserved to know what the fuck was going on.

Shiro and Coran both stared at him as Lance banged the doorframe. Shiro’s face clouding with guilt, as Coran pushed a fake smile to his lips

“Lance, my boy. I didn’t think it was time for your visit”

Lance was done being polite. He was tired. He was agitated. And he refused to be kept out of the loop any more

“Cut the crap, Coran. Tell me the truth”

“The truth about what?”

Lance’s ego nearly had him going Coran’s throat for the cheap trick he’d tried to pull. He felt disgusted Coran would bother trying that with him

“You don’t think Keith will wake up. I heard you. I heard both of you yelling”

“Ah, yes... well...”

“Is he going to wake up, or not?!”

Coran flinched at his angry yell. Shiro startled too, but more willing to be honest. Staring down sadly, his eyes said it all

“We don’t know. We don’t know why he hadn’t come out of it yet...”

“There has to be something you can do”

Shiro cast a glance at Coran, then back to him

“I’m sorry, Lance. He hasn’t responded to anything they’ve tried”

“There has to be something!”

Coran could fix anything except for death, and Keith wasn’t dead! He was right there. Heart rate monitor showing each beat of his heart. Coran shook his head

“There isn’t... I mean...”

“Can’t you wake him up?! Can’t you manipulate his quintessence?!”

“I’ve already tried, my boy. It’s in god’s hands now”

“You said if he turned, he might pull through”

Lance blinked in shock at Shiro’s suggestion

“You... what?!”

“I’m afraid I’ve done all I can do... a bite may turn him, or he might not survive the strain”

“You can’t fucking turn him! You have to fix him!”

“I... can’t... I can’t, my boy. I’ve tried. His scans are looking good, but there is a drop in his brainwaves. If this continues, I’m afraid there’ll be nothing we can do. I did find traces of vampire DNA in his, minute, and insignificant, hardly worth mentioning as the number is so low that it wouldn’t have any effect on his current condition”

Lance was taken back

“So I’m to blame for this? Keith loses his life because I’m a vampire?!”

“Lance...”

Tears rolled down his cheek. No one survived a vampires’ “bite” this late in life

“This is all my fault. He had headaches. Since Curtis slammed him into the nursery wall... and I thought it was stress... I told him to talk to you. He said he was okay. He said he... he said he was okay!”

“He could be. If he takes the bite”

Lance shook his head quickly

“You can’t turn him into a vampire! He won’t survive!”

Shiro’s voice firmed

“Not a vampire bite, but possibly a werewolf bite”

“Keith wouldn’t want that. He wouldn’t... He likes being human”

He’d done all he could dissuade Keith from taking the bite. He loved Keith. He loved everything about him. A bite wasn’t something to take lightly. Shiro clucked his tongue in anger

“Keith wouldn’t? Or you wouldn’t be able to love him if he wasn’t human?”

“How dare you?! He had a mental breakdown at the thought of being turned! Now you want to give up on him?!”

“He either takes the bite or he dies! I don’t care if your ego doesn’t like it, those are the only two options we have!”

“My fucking ego has nothing to do with this?”

“Then why won’t you consider the option?!”

“Because it wouldn’t be Keith’s choice!”

“That has nothing to do with your past trauma! You can’t take his life away from him!”

“Get the fuck out!”

Rising to his feet, Lance snarled at Shiro. This had nothing to do with Nyma and Rolo. Keith’s views on vampires and werewolves may have changed, but the instant he knew he’d changed, he’d instantly start second guessing every fibre of his being

“Lance”

“No! Get out! Get the fuck out! You’re supposed to his brother! How can you not think about how much he’s going to hate himself after everything he’s been through!”

“Even if he does, at least he’d be alive! This isn’t a decision I’ve made lightly!”

“Well right now it seems like you did. Now get out!”

“You can’t kick me out, I’m his brother!”

“And I’m his boyfriend! Pregnant with his twins! Did you even know Keith wanted the bite?! That he wanted to do that because he thought it was best?! Did you know?! The bite isn’t a magical cure! He might not survive through the curse taking! He might not even be the same Keith on the other side of it! Insanity, paranoia, rage! He could suffer from any of that!”

“And he might not! Matt...”

“So you’ve run behind my back and dragged Matt into this already?! Thanks a fucking lot for letting me know where I fucking stand with you! Now get out!”

Shiro sighed as he rose his good hand to pinch the bridge of his nose

“Look, Lance...”

Snarling, Lance let his ego flare. Claws and fangs exposed as he showed Shiro that ugly side of himself

“Out of respect I won’t hurt you, but if you don’t get out of this room right now, I can’t guarantee the same for my ego. Now leave!”

Shiro jumped as if startled to see him this angry, or maybe it was at the frostiness in his tone. Lance’s eyes focusing on the pulsing of the man’s jugular. He could hear every beat Shiro’s heart was giving. It’d be so fucking easy. Too fucking easy. He needed Shiro out his sights before he snapped and went him, doing something he knew he’d regret and would haunt him for the rest of his life

“I’ll be back. Unlike you, I haven’t given up on him”

Shiro swept from the room, Coran meeting Lance’s eyes

“Lance”

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it”

“My boy...”

“Coran, I’m warning you, I can’t take what I know you want to say. The other half of my soul is laying right in front of me dying. Keith deserves a life where he isn’t forced to second guess his existence”

“I understand. Please try to get some rest”

Coran left, leaving only Hunk standing behind him. He had to say something to Hunk, to let him know he wasn’t mad at him, not like he was with Shiro. It occurred to him that Hunk could possibly already know

“I know you think I’m being selfish. But I can’t...”

“Should I leave you two alone?”

“Please”

Hunk shifted his weight, Lance feeling the impulse to beg for his forgiveness. Keith was Hunk’s friend too. Turning his head, he gazed brokenly at his friend

“Please don’t hate me... I can’t... I just... can’t”

“I don’t hate you, man. I can’t hate you”

God. Hunk was too pure

“Thank you... I’m sorry”

“I’m sure it’ll be okay...”

“I don’t think so... but thank you”

Climbing up to lay next to Keith, Lance pulled the covers up to their shoulders, careful not to disturb any of the sensors connected to his boyfriend’s body. He didn’t know what to do. He needed Keith to wake up and tell him what to do. To kiss the top of his head, as he looped his arms around him and told him how much he loved him.

The fact there was nothing he could do, they could do... he couldn’t get his mind around it. Coran fixed everything. For the last 38 years, that’s how it’d been. He was hurting, he went to Coran and they figured out to make it better. Listening to Keith’s heart, he couldn’t bare a life where he’d never hear it again. The hiss of the ventilator mocked him with each breath. He loved this stupid idiot bastard with everything.

Keith was like fire. He hot and ruthless in the wrong conditions. He drew people to him, though he didn’t realise his own warmth. If they’d met sooner, or even later, they wouldn’t be where they were now. He wouldn’t have this gaping hole in his heart that threatened to swallow him whole.

From the man who thought he didn’t deserve friends, that someone too close was bound to turn, Keith had grown. He’d grown and bit by bit he’d opened up his heart. Okay, so it took them like a month to admit they could at least try this dating thing, but all the chances Lance gave Keith to leave, Keith never left. He loved wholly and completely. He’d made friends and come right out his shell. His life tipped upside down, then managed to struggle his way back up right. Lance respected him. He respected the effort that took. He respected the path he walked. He respected his wishes, even when he pushed Keith on them. He respected the way Keith could identify the parts of himself that he felt he was lacking and still followed his heart.

If the bite was the only thing that could save Keith, he still didn’t know if he could support it. He’d love Keith. He’d always love him. But Keith... having an ego was hard. A newly turned werewolf would identify him as a threat and not a lover. Keith’s whole life would tip upside down again, and Lance didn’t know how they’d ever right it again. A vampire and a werewolf, as a couple, it was never heard of. They killed each other. They always had and always would. When he was with Keith, he could do anything because he felt Keith had his back. Kept him safe. When they snuggled together, the weight of the world lifted, both safe in each other’s arms. What if Keith no longer felt safe in his? What if he no longer felt safe when Keith held him?

Matt and Rieva were so fucking rare. Werewolves who formed a pack with a vampire like him. Werewolves that didn’t hate his existence and supported and comforted him. Matt might have his moments, but to Lance he was his brother. Rieva the sister, and sometimes aunt, that he longed for. He loved the pair of them for who they were, wolf side included.

Then there was Pidge and Hunk. Their human friends. Their human friends who knew Keith was another human, like them, could stand against vampires and werewolves. That someone in their side would be lost. Sure, now Curtis was curse free, he’d be a human by their side, but he wasn’t Keith. Neither was Shiro. Just the thought of him made Lance mad. He hadn’t been fair, but he was big time disappointed in Shiro. It was natural Shiro would want to pursue everything and anything that could bring Keith back to them. But he hadn’t told him. He hadn’t been honest. He’d sat through all Coran had to say about Lance and the pregnancy, then not told him a damn thing. That’s what hurt the most. That honestly hadn’t been a two way street.

If the bite saved Keith... how did they take back those times they wanted to. Take back that life. What happened when Keith transformed under the light of the full moon? What happened to his urges? What happened when they could no longer have sex because it’d become too uncomfortable? Would Keith turn to someone else? A human without the scent of death? Would their bond dissolve like the happiness dangled before them? What was the right move to make? Allura had said “a boy and a girl”. That had to be Hunk and Pidge, when Shiro left the room. “He” could only be Keith. But how did they get that happy ending? How did this fix itself so it’s all alright in the end? What did Krolia tell the Vatican and Blades? Keith had said his mother was skilled at exterminating werewolves. Would her love for Keith waver when he was the same as the people she’s killed?

They’d only just found each other again. They’d met. They’d interacted. But they’d only just become family again. Would Keith even be strong enough to the take the bite if his brainwaves were dipping? Taking a curse wasn’t an easy thing even for someone in peak condition. If he was to fall pregnant again in the future, could Keith love the child if it was part wolf? Would they turn their siblings? Even by accident? Keith would be destroyed if that ever happened. His boyfriend need any more psychological wounds. He needed love and to be loved.

He was being selfish. Gripping the hospital gown Keith was wearing, Lance nuzzled into Keith’s chest. Shiro was a little annoyingly right. He didn’t have the option to say no when he was turned. Turning someone without permission made him feel sick. How did he turn away from that golden rule of his, and accept it was the only thing to do. So many times he’d failed to help Mami, not risking his blood near her. He’d never have given her the curse, even with a one thousand percent certainty that she’d come through unharmed. How had kept ended up with his DNA in his system and not exhibited any signs of turning? There was no such thing as immunity. Why had Coran mentioned it if it wasn’t some kind of factor contributing to Keith not waking?

Sighing through his tears, he raised his head to look up at Keith. If Keith would just smile, he’d know everything was alright. Just one smile on those thin lips of his and all this pain would wash away

“Babe... I know you can’t hear me, but right now, I don’t know what to do. I need you to wake up for me. I need you to wake up for the twins. I can’t raise them without you. I can’t... I can’t lose you, so you have to wake up. You have to wake up and show everyone they’re wrong. Please, Keith. I’m begging you here... I love you, you stupid anger loaf! You can’t do this to me! You can’t! I will never forgive you if you leave me behind! You said we’re family! You’re my family! You’re... my everything”

#once bitten twice stupid #oncebittentwicestupid #ashratherose

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luhlust · 4 years

Text

Revenge Game

Anime: Kuroko no Basuke

Pairing: Kise Ryouta X Reader

Overview: You are Kise's S/O in the timeline where they had to face the Jabberwocks.

•-–-•

"The Jabberwocks?!" You stood up in your seat, walking towards your boyfriend who is casually drinking water acting like what he just said was not a big deal. "You got to be kidding me Ryou, you saw how they played agains-" Kise placed the glass down heavily as if he had the intention to break it.

You saw his eyes, you know this look.

You know this too well.

His eyes sparked with anger and excitement.

"I did, (y/n)-cchi. That is why I have to play, I'm not going to seat back and watch those fuckers mock us." You sighed, with him like this, no matter what you say or do to stop him, even if you break an arm or two, Kise will still have his way. Stubborn but that's one of his likeable trait, well, for you, that is.

When he sets his mind into something, he'll definitely succeed with a hundred percent rate.

Kise pouted upon seeing you worried for him.

"(y/n)-cchi, I'm getting sad that you don't trust me." He cried making you shake your head at his antics, typical Kise. You wrapped your arms around his big frame, looking up you said, "Of course I trust you stupid! I just don't want them to hurt you! They play dirty!" Kise grinned and lifted you up, his hand supported you by placing it under your soft thighs, gaining much protest from you. "Ryou! I'm heavy!" You groaned while trying to break away from his grasp. This just made Kise chuckled and he gave your lips a small peck.

"You're not heavy! Who says you heavy! I can carry you all day, (y/n)-cchi..." You rolled your eyes at his flirtatious state, you didn't noticed that Kise is already moving towards the bedroom.

"But I rather want to see under me.." He winked at you before pinning you down the bed.

"Ryouta, we are supposed to eat!" Kise bent down and nibbled on your neck, you gasped at the sudden touch. "I want to start with the dessert first, do you mind?"

Kise was about to kiss you when his phone beeped. Uttering several complaints he grabbed his phone and saw that Kuroko has texted him. After seeing the text, he bolted up from the bed. "Sorry, (y/n)-cchi! But Kuroko-cchi is asking me to go now! Such a cockblocker." You throw the pillow at him and of course, he caught it. "You and your damn reflexes, go dummy." Kise gave you a flying kiss before taking a quick shower.

Right as he was about to open the door, he turned at you with his puppy-dog eyes mode on. "You're coming to watch right?"

He shouldn't even have to ask, it was obvious. You will always be there to support him even if it hurts to see him in pain. You were there even before they became the well-know Generation of Miracles.

You started to like Kise ever since he blocked a ball during a volleyball tournament. After that, you became his fan, his first ever fan, giving him refreshments and going to every game.

As his fame rises though, it became a different story.

He became hard to reach.

You gave up on Kise but the feelings stayed. You realised that you weren't just there as a fan, you have already fallen for him. Watching him play for Kaijou, the feelings grew especially at the time when their team lost to Seirin, you decided to try again. Kise thought of you as just a fan but the more he saw you, the more he got used to you, part of it was because the two of you are already comfortable seeing how you were both schoolmates in Teiko and Kaijou. Kise began to see you as his friend during the incident when you helped him with his injuries due to being mobbed by girls. He then always looked for you, always wanted to be with you. It took a lot of nagging and punches from Kasamatsu for him to notice his feelings for you.

After that, you two started dating and the rest is history as here you are now, still happy with each other despite the downsides.

Given the situation, there's no reason for you to not watch his game. You flicked his forehead and Kise scrunched his nose in pain. Before he could even start to cry being the big baby he is, you gave him a deep kiss. Your hands found it's way to pat his golden locks of hair.

Kise melted against your touch, you always knew how to give him strength.

You pulled away, staring deeply into his eyes as he blinked in confusion. You beamed and said, "I'll make sure to cheer for you very loud while wearing your jersey!"

Kise wanted to thank all the gods and goddesses upon seeing your lovely smile. He really was lucky to have you. He gave you another tight hug and several kisses. With that, he left and vowed to not only avenge Kasamatsu but to make his girlfriend proud.

A week has passed and it sucks not having your incredibly chatty and clingy boyfriend. You missed him, a lot. Still, you're happy whenever he calls you and give you an update. Even if it's during a random time. You can't help but chuckle at how excited he is.

Right now, you're currently in Roppongi.

Your family is known to have different businesses and one of them is a famous bar which has been passed into your care. Like always, you're checking the status of the place, helping out and gathering reports. Kise didn't like your workplace as you can't deny, it is place where trouble can happen now and then.

Akashi gladly helped by partnering with you and you gave an opportunity to have the best security there is.

But the night just started and there are some foreigners demanded to have the most luxurious private room while eyeing one of your employee with lust.

"Y-Yes, come this way sir." Your employee, Shiro, escorted them. Your blood boiled when you saw them slap her butt and laughed.

You gritted your teeth as you began to walk towards them. "Excuse me, welcome to our bar. I'm the owner of this place."

"I'll be in charge of this, Shiro-san." You whispered and she muttered a soft thankyou before going back to the counter.

That's when you got a good look at them, you recognised these people. "Jabberwocks?!" You thought as you hide your disgust with a smile. You mentally cursed, out of all you could meet, why did it have to be them?

You tried to keep yourself calm as they continued to make flirty comments with you. There's this one guy who you felt the most uncomfortable, it's the one who had a silver colored hair. He kept trying to be more touchy but you abruptly opened the door to their room, stopping him from whatever he was planning to do.

"Here you go, ring the bell when you guys are ready to order." You bowed and closed the door, hearing their disgusting comments.

"Man, she got this big ass and breast! I'd fuck her all night long."

"Dibs on her, I want to know if those beautiful lips can do wonders."

"Okay, punching a customer is not good for business.." You tried to calm your mind, stomping your way to the counter. Shiro, your employee immediately apologised and you just gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'll deal with them, I won't let you guys in danger." Saying that was easier said than done. They continued making a ruckus, you decided it was time for them to go.

You took the tray and went to deliver their last order. "Excuse me.." You opened the door just to see them towering a familiar figure before he got kicked.

"Kuroko!" You dropped the tray and went to his aid. This is it, the last straw. You stood infront of Kuroko and glared at them. "Alright sir, you have to leave." You were about to grab the phone to call security, but the man who you learned to be called as, Silver grabbed your arm. "Oh, look at her get so feisty." He licked his lips, his face was inches away from yours.

You slapped him, hard. Silver did not expect you to be this aggressive. He dropped your arm and placed his hand on where you have just touched him. He smirked, you were in big trouble now.

"You know? I don't really pick on pretty girls, but someone's being such a bitch."

Your eyes widened, everything happened too fast. You couldn't dodge his fist, he was just, too much. You fell to the ground, coughing out blood. "Stay away from my (y/n)-cchi!" Kise cradled you, you can feel him shaking from anger. "Ryouta? Why are you.." You continue to cough, he got you good there.

You felt dizzy. You heard Kise's voice gradually became distant as your vision became blurry before passing out.

Everyone can sense the tension from the room as Kise stood up, carrying you gently. "She's your girl? She could do better." Kise clicked his tongue, he was ready to pounce on him but Midorima placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Athlete's should settle their scores through sports, right?" Akashi stated.

Kise can't deny that he was right.

You and Kuroko were brought to the hospital for a quick check up. The doctor just said you were knocked out unconscious due to the sudden impact in the heart area.

"Rest assured, everything is actually okay. She just need to stay hydrated." Kise thanked the doctor.

"Just you wait, (y/n)-cchi. I'll beat them up tomorrow. I promise." He held your hand and kiss you.

Kise was relunctant to leave you in the hospital but they had to go. His heart dropped knowing you won't be there to cheer on him, your smile when saying you 'll be there flashed through his mind.

Kise may be perceived as happy-go-lucky, immature, but promises are something he never breaks. Never.

"Fuck!" You were running at full force despite the judgement of the doctors. You have arrived late to the game as you had just woken up from the hospital. They wanted you to rest up but no, you can't let Kise be alone right now.

You immediately saw the rest of the team. "Everyone! I'm sorry I'm late!" You sat beside Kuroko, who was surprised to see you. Everyone was concerned but you didn't care. You didn't even bother to greet the rest of team as you noticed Kise's ragged breathing. He was tired, your heart ached at his form.

You stood up, it was now or never. You took a deep breath and screamed with allyour might.

"KISE RYOUTA I LOVE YOU!"

The whole court went quiet, all eyes were now on you. "Is that chick a lunatic?" Kise smirked, you're the only one who can give him strength at a time like this.

Kise was able to pass throughSilver's defence and dunk the ball. Kise searched for you, your eyes met his. He was now in the zone.

You continued to cheer and he continued to score. He was slowly catching up to the Jabberwocks! The crowd went wild, your heart was beating so loud from excitement. Kise is really a different person when in game.

When Kise dropped to his knees you dashed towards the court. "How lame.." He sighed, he felt a little ashamed that he didn't last too long especially when a certain someone is watching.

"Don't be ridiculous! You did great." Although it felt good to be complimented by Akashi, it did not compare to you running towards him with that goofy smile on yo ur face and hugging him tightly even if his whole body aches.

"(y/n)-cchi.." You rested your forehead against his before leaning to kiss him.

"I'm proud of you, Ryouta."

BONUS

"(y/n)-cchi! That hurts!" Kise complained for the nth time, it started to irritate you now. You got up from the seat, calling your father. "Hi papa! Have you considered my proposition?" You eyes Kise who gave you an innocent smile.

"Yeah, about that Jabberwocks? Good. Cut off all resources connected to them. Thanks papa." You placed your phone on the nightstand before cuddling with your dramatic boyfriend.

No one hurts your Kise Ryouta and gets away with it.

#kuroko no basuke #kuroko's basketball #kuroko no basuke scenarios #kuroko no basuke imagines #kise ryouta #midorima shintaro #akashi seijuro #generation of miracles #kagami taiga #aominr daiki #murasakibari atsushi #kuroko tetsuya #GOM X Reader #Kise Ryouta X Reader #Anime #Fluff #Angst #jabberwocks

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onlyforevervoltron · 3 years

Text

Chapter VIII

OH MY GOD! It's been forever and I'm so sorry! I go into these moods with different shows and it's been... It's been a while since this one. I AM WRITING IT AGAIN! I am finding certain mistakes in them and I need to find them, thank you for understanding! Love you guys!!

What felt like hours was nothing more than less than a day – Lilith wakes up seeing everyone in a circle watching Pidge and Coran doing something with the timers. Groaning, Lilith stumbles over there, holding her now throbbing head. She turns seeing Lance out of his pod as well, stumbling over as well, sighing quietly she follows him slowly.

“You guys having a clock party?” Lance asks, raising a brow also sounding very tired. Lilith standing beside Shiro, watching everyone.

“It sounds like they are…” Lilith grumbles under breath, narrowing her eyes. “… how dare they have a party without us…”

“Aw, Lance, Lilith…” Hunk begins looking back at Lance, seeing how tired Lance was from just waking up. “You just ruined it… Uh – Hey! Lance!” Hunk throws his arms around his best friend, trapping him in a hug. “Lilith!” Lance groans from being hugged so tightly, while Lilith winces from Hunk’s loud voice.

Lilith slowly waves at them with a small smile on her face. “What happened?” questions Lilith as Hunk lets go of Lance, holding him up as they both look at everyone.

Allura smiles at both of them, “We can tell you all about it while you both get something to eat,” Allura touches Lilith’s shoulders gently. “Are you able to walk?” inquires the Princess, looking at Lance and Lilith as she takes her hand off Lilith’s shoulder.

“I am, I’m fine,” Lilith waves off turning around, she was lying to herself knowing she couldn’t quite walk a long distance – but she had to try, right?

“Talking? Eating?” Lance begins and begins flirting with Allura making Lilith roll her eyes. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yep. There he is…” Pidge sighs putting a hand to her head making Lilith nod shaking her head.

Shiro nods in agreement, “Yep, he’s okay.”

“Classic,” Keith shakes his head a little bit.

They all began walking towards the kitchen where Coran went to make something for both Lilith and Lance. Shiro paused mid-walk and grabbed Lilith’s wrist gently making her stop and look at him. When she finally got a nice look at him, her heart dropped into her stomach.

“… Yes?”

“Are you okay, really?” asks Shiro looking over her body as she nods. “You sure? You took quite a beating back there with Sendak.”

“Shiro, really, I’m fine.” Lilith smiles his way and touching his cheek. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I know it keeps you and everyone else safe.”

“You don’t have to keep me safe,” Shiro reminds her, putting his hand on hers. “I was scared you were really hurt and wasn’t going to wake up.”

Lilith scoffs quietly looking at him. “I promise you, Shiro, I’m truly fine,” Lilith removes her hand. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to shower quick and change my clothes.”

Shiro chuckles walking to catch up with everyone while Lilith heads to her room.

After finishing up with her shower, she walks into her room seeing her own clothes laid out. Lilith smiles looking in the mirror in her room seeing all the battle scars she had around the mid part of her body. She then looks at her neck seeing as if nothing happened. That chamber worked on removing the bruises and cuts Sendak gave her, but – not what Iverson had done to her. Lilith smiles touching one of her scars lightly, and then begins changing into her clothes and brushing her hair so she could put it up into her usual pigtails.

Lilith walks out of the room after finishing up with her pigtail and saw Shiro waiting for her. She smiles at him, as he leans away from the wall and walks with her.

“I have to ask, were you wearing contacts the whole time since the day we met?”

Lilith nods. “Yeah, I was afraid people were going to make fun of me because of my eyes.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that, Lily, because I’m here to protect you so you don’t have to do it by yourself anymore.”

The young maiden smiles lightly, stopping in her steps happy to hear that. In the twenty-four years that she’s been alive, Lilith was happy to have someone care about her – let alone a group of friends. Sure, she had just Shiro and Matt around her – but, now she has more people to care for. She quickly caught up to Shiro and grabbed his hand gently, as he wraps his fingers around her hand assuring her, he was there.

And nothing would change it.

Sitting at the table with their friends surrounding them, Allura had explained what had happened after everything with Sendak.

“They both would be Sendak’s prisoners right now, if not for Pidge.” Allura stated looking at them both while they eat the goo.

“Well, you wouldn’t have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn’t gotten a new Crystal,” Pidge added on looking at Lance. “And Lilith probably would’ve fought until she passed out,” Lilith chuckles while nodding.

“Wow.” Lance breathed out, looking at everyone. “Thanks, everybody. Sounds like the mice did more than you, though.”

“I punched Sendak!”

I punched and kicked Sendak but… Whatever… Lilith sighs a little bit. She looks at the goo and sighs a little bit. Not really wanting to eat. She looked when Allura told them where Sendak was.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asks Lilith raising a brow.

“He’s too dangerous to be set free.” Allura stated to her, looking at her as well. “Besides, we might be able to get some information about Zarkon from him.”

Lance, while feeding the mice, looks at everyone. “So, what’s the plan now?”

“We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people.”

“Wow! You are really hung up on this lady.”

“No, it's not like that.” Hunk shakes his head and glances at everyone. “Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home –” Hunk looks down slightly, “they've been under his thumb for so long, they don’t even know what it is to be free.” Lilith sighs a little bit looking at him. “It’s up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It’s time to man up.”

“Technically, I’m not a Paladin, or a man for that matter, thanks for that Hunk. But, I’m willing to help if it’s needed,” Lilith shrugs standing up looking at Hunk. “Shiro?”

“Then, let’s get moving,” Shiro nods with a small smile on his face. “Time to go defend the universe,”

Lance stands up as they all get ready to leave the dining hall, but Pidge doesn’t move. Lilith takes notice stopping quickly and turns looking at her friend. Pidge took a deep breath looking at Lilith who nods with a smile on her face.

“Wait!” Pidge suddenly says, as everyone stops turning towards Pidge who looks at them. “I have something to say first. I need to come clean and… I’m afraid this may change the way you all think about me.”

“I hardly doubt it for me,” Lilith shrugs as Shiro elbows her in the side making her wince a little bit.

Pidge chuckles, rolling her eyes. “Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can’t “man up”.” She pauses, turning red in the face, trying to get it out. “I’m a girl.”

Lance looks flabbergasted and Lilith grins her way, trotting up to Pidge grabbing her gently as she brings her into a hug. Pidge smiles and continues; “I-I mean, I can “man up” because that’s just a figure of speech.” Lilith releases Pidge from her hug gently and Lilith looks at them. “I don’t have to actually be a man to “man up”. I just have to be tough, but – what I’m saying…”

“Huh-Eh… WHA!!??” Lance studders out making Lilith chuckle loudly. “You’re a girl!? HOW!?”

Lilith laughs harder and then tries to quiet herself. “I’ve known for some time, but I’m glad you’ve shared it with everyone.”

The men began saying they’ve known or guessed that she was a female, Lilith looks at Shiro as he speaks. “Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin.”

Lilith bends down to Pidge’s height, “A fantastic Paladin who will find her family with our help, right?”

Pidge nods and then sighs in relief, “It’s good to get that off my chest. Now, let’s launch this Castleship!”

Everyone gets prepared to launch, four chairs pop up from the floor, while Shiro sits in front looking out. Lilith just stands there like an idiot, pinching her lips tightly. She doesn’t know where to go, where to sit or anything.

“Activate interlock,” Allura commands and Coran smiles nodding, pressing a few buttons.

“Dynotherms connected,”

“Mega-thrusters are go!”

This continued for a couple minutes while Lilith looked outside seeing the blue sky in front of her. Shiro looks back seeing Lilith just standing there, he waves to her making her stare at him lightly. Shiro pats his seat making her blush a light shade of red.

“Come on, you can sit here,”

Lilith pinches her lips lightly, walking slowly over there as her heart pounded in her chest fairly heavy. Lilith sits on the chair while the ship takes off and she saw the view and it was wonderful.

After a little while, everyone got up and walked towards the steps and they began talking strategy. Lilith sat down on the steps wondering what their next step is.

“Okay, so…” Hunk began looking at everyone. “When we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and like – start blasting?” Hunk asks looking around. “Or do we land and have some… kind of public address system, like, “Attention, Galras. This is Voltron. Turn yourselves in!”…”

Lilith blinks and lets out a breath. “Not exactly…”

“No… Blasting, right?”

“Hunk, calm down.” Keith assures him, crossing his own arms. “And yes, blasting.”

“Eh, it’s our first big rescue mission,” Shiro shrugs making Lilith roll her eyes. “He’s excited.”

Lilith sighs a little bit and looks at Pidge who tilts her own head back and teases him. “Excited to see his new girlfriend~”

“Yes!” Lilith cheers high-fiving Pidge as they both laugh a little bit while Hunk gasps in defense.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” defends Hunk, shaking his head. “She’s just a rock that I met, and I admire very much.”

“… Girlfriend…” Lilith whispers making Hunk glare at Lilith while she grins then frowns when unusual alarms began blaring, she stands up. “What’s going on?”

Allura shakes her head a little bit. “No, it seems to be a distress beacon.” She confirms while looking at her monitor. “It’s coming from a nearby moon, apparently, a ship has lost power.”

“I wonder who it is…”

“Whoever it is will have to wait,” Hunk states, pumped to save his friend. “Shay had first priority and we can check back on them when we’re done.”

“Hunk…” Lilith began looking at him. “The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need. Your girlfriend can wait for a little bit.”

“She’s right, Hunk,” affirms Allura with a small nod.

“Wow!” cheers Lance jumping once in the air. “This is so cool. It’s like we’re space cops on space patrol.” Lilith sighs and puts a hand on her head. “Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?”

“Uh, no,” Coran shakes his head turning to Lance. “But we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them.”

“PERFECT!” Lance gets ready to imitate a siren, before a sound leaves his mouth, Lilith slams her hand against his mouth and shakes her head.

“No… No, not doing that!” He stays silent while she releases his mouth and looks around at everyone with a curt sigh. “I’m going to put on my uniform quick, since I’m only in… My regular clothes…”

She quickly makes haste to her room to change.

After changing quickly, she had walked by to the Bridge seeing everyone standing there as they approached the moon. When they entered the atmosphere, Lilith hears Allura over the speaker. “Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura,” She announces making Lilith look over seeing the craft sitting there. “We are coming to assist you.”

As Allura lands the ship, she turns to Coran while she prepares to exit with the Paladins. “Stay aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra Crystal energy as you can.” Allura asks Coran as he nods lightly. “We’ll see who hailed us.”

“Yes, Princess.”

They descend to the ground as the door opens, Lilith and the Paladins had on their helmets on just covering their noses while Allura didn’t have on her Helmet.

“You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces,” The man said looking at them. “Most folks don’t want to get tangled up with anyone who’s on the run from the Galra.”

“So, you guys are fighting the Galra?” asks Keith, raising a brow.

“Well,” the man pauses a bit. “I don’t think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us,” He chuckles. “Be we do what we can. I’m Rolo. This is Nyma and our cyber-unit, Beezer.”

Lilith looks over and sees Lance and Pidge making faces, letting out a small sigh, she shakes her head once more.

“Was your ship damaged in a fight?” questions Shiro, looking at Rolo.

Rolo nods a little bit; “Yeah, we’ve really been through it with the Galra,” Rolo states with a sigh. “Partys are really hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn’t pick up our distress signal, I didn –”

Allura smiles his way. “We’re happy to help,” She tells him. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won’t be alone fighting the Galra. You’ll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side.”

Something about him… I don’t trust him… Lilith grits her teeth a little bit, trying to stay weary as she stays close to Shiro. Staying quiet while they talk about stuff.

“… Okay?”

Shiro deadpans with Keith, “I don’t think they’ve heard of us…”

“It has been ten thousand years…”

“Voltron?” Lance begins demonstrating. “Five robot Lions that combine into this big robot… guy?”

Rolo chuckles looking at everyone; “Sounds impressive. I’d love to see it – or him… Them?”

“Why don’t we just get to work on your ship?” Lilith begins with a small smile. “I’m sure we all have places to be.”

“Sure,” Rolo nods walking up to his spacecraft and opens it. “Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot,” he explains looking at everyone. “I don’t know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

While Rolo was explaining, Lance was flirting with Nyma, Lilith sighs, smacking him upside the head making Nyma chuckle.

“I’m sure we can get you back up and running,” Allura assures him. “Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it.”

Hunk sighs quietly and nods; “Okay…”

“We’ll go with you,” Rolo offered stepping up. “Don’t want you have to carry all that yourself. Come on, guys!”

Rolo tries walking towards the Castle but Hunk stops him, Lilith raises a brow. Does Hunk have the same feeling she does? “Uh, I don’t think so,” Hunk states putting his arm down. “You can just wait out here,”

“Hunk,” snaps Allura, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t be rude.”

“Yeah, mind your manners,” Lance chimes in making Lilith roll her eyes. “There are ladies present,” Lance wiggles his eyebrows at, Allura, Nyma and Lilith making Nyma chuckle while Allura and Lilith roll their eyes. Shiro nudges Lance as he looks back at Shiro. “Hey!” Shiro shakes his head and sighs.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hunk said sarcastically rolling his eyes. “Oh, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down?” Hunk states. “Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance? You were almost killed! And don’t forget Lilith almost died protecting all of you.”

“…” Lilith sighs. “Not a memory I’d like to remember, thanks Hunk…” Lilith whispers glaring his way as he shrugs.

“Oh, yeah…”

Shiro looks over at Lilith who is frowning deeply. “Hunk’s right,” Shiro agrees with Hunk. “Sorry, but we have to be cautious…”

“Hey, I don’t take it personal.” Rolo shrugs looking at Hunk. “That’s how it is out here, you’ve got to look out for you own.” He touches Hunk’s shoulder. “You’re doing a good job, big man.” Rolo then hands Hunk his list of parts from Beezer.

“Yeah.” Hunk grunts walking off. “Thanks,”

Rolo had built a fire so everyone could sit next to it. Allura was on the left side of Shiro while Lilith sat on his right, Keith next to Lilith as they listened to Rolo’s story. Lilith pretty much tuned them out while she was looking at the fire, watching it.

Shiro touches her shoulder, knocking her out of her thoughts, as she stands up looking at Rolo and Hunk fixing the ship. Lilith looks at him while he stares at her.

“What’s on your mind?”

“I don’t trust him…” Lilith whispers looking at Rolo. “Something about him doesn’t sit well with me, Shiro…”

“I know, but like I told Hunk – he could have information that we just might need to defeat Zarkon…” Shiro told her, making her sigh again while she nods lightly. Shiro puts a hand on her shoulder gently, squeezing it. “I promise you; nothing will happen.”

“If you say so, Shiro…” Lilith whispers as he squeezes her shoulder again in reassurance. Lilith raises her hand to touch his gently. “I trust you…”

“I know you do…” Shiro told her, gently touching her head. Lilith smiles as they both look over seeing Hunk and Rolo fixing his ship. Taking a deep breath, she walks over there, and stands there. “Hunk, tell me what needs to be done.”

Hunk looks up and smiles her way, knowing she felt the same way he did. Hunk begins explaining what to do and she goes underneath and begins fixing what needs to be done, but – to her surprise, nothing needed to be done so, it confused her. Lilith narrowing her eyes when she heard beeping.

“I think this thing is just about ready for a test flight.” Rolo said closing the engine hood and begins walking towards the pilot spot. “Beezer, come co-pilot for me. Be back in a tick.”

Blinking after they leave, something about that didn’t sit right. Lilith went to stand by Shiro and looks at him. “Shiro…”

“… Yep…” Shiro nods, knowing she was right.

“Guys? Hello? Little help?”

Lilith blinks looking at her helmet that was sitting next to Shiro’s as they all grabbed their helmets. “Lance?” Lilith began speaking to her comm, looking at Shiro. “Lance! Are you all right?” She asks him, almost worried. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I’m kind of chained to a… a tree…”

Hunk lets out a breath. “Lilith and I knew it!”

“And I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion…”

“Knew it!” Hunk tells them again.

“Where are they?” asks Shiro rolling his eyes, as they all run to the Lions with Lilith in tow,

“Uhh, space…”

“Uh, I never trusted those guys right from the beginning!” Hunk ranted as everyone continues their way to their proper Lions. Lilith rolls her eyes while Shiro chuckles, Shiro slowly rides the zipline down to his Lion while Lilith hangs onto his chest, securely and tightly. “I mean, y’know, at first!”

“Here we go…” Lilith begins with a small roll of her eyes as Shiro chuckles again. “Don’t laugh…”

“I’m not,” Shiro assures her, looking down at her as he smiles at her. She slightly smiles back at him.

“It was just like a feeling in my gut, and I’m sure Lilith felt the same way, y’know?” Lilith sighs loudly again, putting her forehead on Shiro’s side gently. “But when I was replacing that thermal pipe, the pipe was cracked but none of the hardware around it was damaged.”

“Okay, we get it!” Keith and Lilith stated to him as Shiro and Lilith land on the Black Lion. Shiro opens the hatch as enters in with Lilith jumping in behind him.

“I mean, if the thermal pipe is cracked, then, obviously, hello!” Hunk continues as Shiro sits in his seat with Lilith hanging onto the seat behind him. “The entire assembly should be totally roasted!”

Keith sighs much louder than Lilith making Shiro shakes his head. “Okay! We get it!”

“We should’ve had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So, right then, I was, like, positive. Foul play.”

“Okay, we get it!” Everyone told him as Hunk went quiet as Shiro led the charge for Lance’s Lion. Lilith watching the sky in amazement.

“Whoa…” Lilith breathes out gently looking around. “This is so cool…”

Shiro chuckles looking at her. “I’m glad you like it,”

Thankfully, the radios were off for a moment, Lilith looks at him going red in the face. Shiro looks back while they continue their lookout for Rolo’s ship. “Shiro…”

“Hmm?”

“…Thank you…” Shiro looks at her with a questionable look on his face while she keeps her gaze outside, trying to avoid his gaze. “… You know… for everything…”

Shiro smiles and raises his hand touching hers gently. “Don’t worry… I’m here for you.”

Lilith smiles as well, looking ahead and points. “There they are!”

“We’ll never get through this asteroid field!”

“Maybe I can just bust through!” Lilith watches the Yellow Lion fly and ram into an asteroid, cause all of them to bump against each other. Lilith smacks her helmet gently. “Nope! That was wrong! That was a bad idea…”

“Ya think?”

“Keith, you’re the only one who could possibly fly through this.” Shiro suggests to Keith watching everyone as Shiro smirks widely. “We need you, buddy. Get in there and flush him out."

“You got it. See you on the other side.”

As Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk fly to get around the asteroid field, Lilith watches slowly seeing everything fly by. Lilith was watching for Keith and the ship he was chasing. Shiro was watching as well, trying to find them as well. When they saw the smoke, the Lions quickly head over there to stop them as well.

“Can’t run away now,” Lilith said looking down at them.

When they got back to the planet, they’re ship was damaged now, they needed to wait until help actually arrives.

“Since your ship really doesn’t work now, you’ll have to wait here for a rescue.” Lilith informed them crossing her arms while looking at them.

“Thanks... for sparing our lives.” Rolo thanked them with a curt smile on his face while Shiro nods his way.

“Now that these guys are dealt with,” sighs Hunk looking at everyone. “Let’s get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family.”

“You may not believe this, but I hope you do stop Zarkon.” Rolo told them, Lilith looks at him while he smiles at them. “It’s a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me to where I am today.”

Everyone loads into the ship and they take off to the Balmera.

Enjoy this chapter! Love you all!!!!

Chapter VII

Chapter IX (Coming Soon)

#voltron #voltron fanfic #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #lance mcclain #hunk garrett #pidge gunderson #onlyforever

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codevassie · 4 years

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Canonverse VLD Fic Recs

[***Let me know if I’ve missed anything on the Content Warnings!]

[**Do Not Ask Authors for Updates!]

[*Leave these authors Comments, please and thank you!]

Keith’s Type by AmbitiousSkychild

Status: Complete

Summary: “How would anyone notice what anyone else’s type is in the middle of all this?!” Matt demanded, laughing. “What’s Keith’s type?” Lance blurted out like an idiot. “It’s… obvious,” Pidge said. “He gets all flustered over shitty puns and most physical comedy. And have you seen the way he stares at Hunk when he’s going on about the mechanics of something? Like how the lions work? I’ve literally seen him blushing when Hunk goes into explanation mode.” “So, you think he has a crush on Hunk?” Lance squawked. “No. You bonehead,” Pidge laughed. “I’m saying any dad-joke-telling, klutzoid with good grades has probably got a pretty good shot at Keith.” Or: It figures that after years of getting it hilariously wrong face-to-face, Lance finally gets good at talking to Keith through a screen, which is, like, one of his biggest accomplishments. Then, Pidge makes the comment that Keith has a type, while heavily implying that it's Matt. But, listen, with everything going on with Voltron, the coalition, the Blade of Marmora, and Coran, Lance isn't going to get distracted worrying about it. Ask anyone, he's always been great with measuring levels of importance....

Relationships: Klance

CW: Jealousy, Referenced Suicide

My thoughts: As disappointing as canon can be, the canon universe has so much potential that authors take full advantage of. When canon posed the problem of Keith being apart from the team for oh so long, our wonderful authors simply took it as a challenge. This is one of the brilliant fics that roll with the long-distance thing, and it takes place throughout season four. I love fics from this season because A Lot happens and I thought there was so much more to it than what canon gave us--the team breaking apart was a big deal to me, so focusing on team dynamics, Keith’s time with the Blade, and--gosh--the end of this season, just means a lot to me. It focuses on a klance relationship in the heat of utter turmoil, and Lance’s jealousy was a cute and humorous aspect, especially with how harmless it was through Lance’s personality and the realization that he likes Keith.

The Loverboy Trials by PM_Writes

Status: Complete

Summary: He can tell Shiro is struggling to remain collected. “And why do you think Keith is your…sex…god?” And geez, that would be so much funnier if this wasn’t so disturbing. The representative leads them to the back of the council room where she pulls aside a large curtain. Behind it, a huge mural stretches to the ceiling. It looks exactly like Keith.

Relationships: Klance

CW: Referenced Suicide, Violence, Talk of Dubious Consent and Sex, Suffocation, (Alien) Alcohol, Injury

My thoughts: Another #FuckNaxzela2017 fic. This takes place after season four and Keith stays with Voltron for a bit after what happened. The team goes on a mission and things get weird--so, like, a regular canonverse fic, but when the war is getting really serious and we most need a bit of that Voltron normalcy (discretion: Voltron “normalcy” is missions going wrong and wonky). It’s really cool because the team is sort of back together, but Keith is still separated from them for the majority of the fic--just not with the Blade. It’s really weird circumstances, but Keith and Lance still interact throughout the fic a lot, so don’t let that discourage you. Its absurdity is hilarious; there’s excellent klance banter, and great fluff and angst.

Of Escorts and Espionage by hisboywriter

Status: Complete

Summary: Lance preened. Escort? That sounded kind of sexy and badass. “Why, of course, Princess,” he said, standing up to offer his hand at Allura. “I would escort you to the most Galra-infested reaches of the galaxy if you asked.” Allura’s arm rose but the hand she placed in Lance’s palm was not hers.It was Keith’s. ~ AKA I just really wanted klance blossoming through an adventure

Relationships: Klance

CW: Sexual Content, Blood and Violence, Vehicle Crash, Injury, Alcohol, Jealousy, Nightmares, Hyperventilation, Attempted Kidnapping, Fainting, Torture, Death

My thoughts: Remember this one? No? Seems like you’ve got an exciting read ahead of you. This is one that I read pretty early on in the fandom, so it’s a big nostalgia pick. It really emphasizes that enemies to lovers trope, and there’s secrets across the freaking spectrum. Lance and Keith are keeping secrets bc they’re undercover, but there’s also a whole bunch of shady stuff going on at this planet, and Keith is getting those Bad Vibes constantly. It is exciting and breathtaking and so beautifully written.

and, we dream of home by mothpoem

Status: Incomplete, Continuation Not Determined

Summary: “Then come see me,” Lance murmurs, and it makes Keith’s heart pound behind his breastbone. “Us, I mean. Once a week or something? Like mental health check-ins. We can just hang out, or...or go on low-priority, low-stress missions? Scouting, or flower-picking for Coran, or supply runs. Dumb stuff. Just...so we know how you are. I don’t want...I mean, we all miss you. And I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but...it feels like you’re not...not okay, Keith.” Well, Keith thinks, a little weakly. He never really stood a chance, did he? “Okay,” he says, right away. No fight. No refusal. His life is a hell of a lot easier when he lets himself cave under all the ways he wants Lance's luminous attention, and company, and friendship. All the ways he wants Lance, full stop.

Relationships: Klance

CW: Swearing, Immature Teen Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol, Dream Major Character Death, Referenced Suicide, Death Mention, Self-Deprecation, Bullying, Injury and Blood, Miscommunication

My thoughts: This fic makes me. So Happy. It’s another one after season four--really, during season five--because I have a problem, but oh my gosh look at how happy these boys are and tell me your heart isn’t full of joy. I’ll wait. Really, that’s the point of the recs; go read. Stupid teenagers in love stuck in the middle of a war, but they really need a freaking break and I support that. They deserve a break. They’re like fucking twelve. This fic just is so cute and so soft and so funny; it gives me life every time.

Crossroads by manamune

Status: Complete

Summary: When Keith crashed his Lion into a Galra warship in order to stop it from destroying a solar system, and more importantly, his friends, he was fully prepared to die for it. What he didn’t prepare for was to wake up in an alternate universe where he and Lance were dating.

Relationships: Klance

CW: Panic Attacks, Dubious Consent, Referenced Suicide, Blood and Violence, Injury, Coma, Medication Mention, Sex and Sex Tape Referenced, Trauma, References to Hallucinations

My thoughts: Another throw-back! The Naxzela of its time, if I may say so. I'm joking. Sort of. It really kind of predicted that shit, though, didn't it. Anyway, this was another fic I read early on in this fandom and can I just tell you how blown away I was? It's labeled as a murder mystery, and, you know what, it is. You are absolutely trying to figure out what's going on the whole time, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. It doesn’t... technically... take place in canonverse the whole time, but the main Keith is from canonverse. So it counts. Absolutely enthralling read.

#fic recs #vld #voltron #klance #friday fic recs #as y'all can tell i love season four so if you've got any recs for that PLEASE send them my way #maybe i'll make a rec list specifically for season four one of these days haha #looking for CWs has once again caused me to go bonkers #this is the best i can do #just let me know if i should tag anything else #have a good one y'all #and if you have any tropes you want me to do for banana fish next week let me know

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justheretobreakthings · 4 years

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Kings Over Aces - Chapter 8

(Previous Chapter)

Word Count: 3,994 (Total Word Count: 30,980) Read on AO3 My house, my rules, my ko-fi

Story Summary:

The Voltron Coalition has an alliance in the works with the resource-rich planet of Yuipra, and it’s the paladins’ job to keep on the king’s good side while the deal is made. That shouldn’t shouldn’t be too great a challenge; after all, they’ve courted plenty of planets before for the sake of alliances.

Unfortunately, things are made much more complicated when the king takes a special interest in Keith.

Fic content warning for attempted rape.

“Fancy a sparring partner?”

After one finishing blow to the training bot, Keith lifted an arm to wipe away the salty sweat dripping down his forehead into his eyes and turned on his heel toward the source of the voice, the bot evaporating in a puff behind him. Allura stood on the edge of the training deck, dressed in her pink armor and with her dormant bayard in her hand.

“Allura,” he said. “When, uh, when did you get here?”

“Just a few doboshes ago,” she answered. “But, I didn’t want to speak up until you finished off that bot, didn’t want to interrupt.” She tilted her head. “You all right there, Keith? You’re redder than usual. You haven’t been in here all morning, have you?”

Keith shrugged. “I was getting out of practice. Had to make up for it.”

“Mm.” A hint of a frown passed over the princess’s features, but she didn’t say anything more about it. “Well, if you still want to keep training, I’ll be happy to join you. You can catch your breath a bit if you’re sharing the load.”

Keith grimaced. “Actually, ah - ” He let his bayard return to his resting state in his hand. “I was just finishing up. The deck’s all yours.”

“I see. You’re certain you don’t want to do some light cooldown exercises? Better for your muscles that way.”

“Nah, I’m okay.” He rolled his shoulders back and started toward the exit. “Some other time.”

The frown on Allura’s face deepened, no longer just a hint. “I hope I didn’t put you out by interrupting here. If you want me to go, give you some more time on your own to train - ”

“Forget it, it’s fine,” Keith muttered.

He ducked his head as he stalked past her toward the door, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t a hard grip, and it was high enough on the arm to only be touching the sleeve of his tee shirt, not his skin, but he still had to bite back a wince at the sudden contact.

“Keith,” Allura said slowly. “You’re allowed to be angry at us, you know.”

Keith took a step back. “Hm?” he said, lifting his head to meet Allura’s earnest gaze.

“You’ve been keeping your distance from me, from all your teammates. And of course, I suppose that’s only natural, after… after everything. But I hope you don’t feel that you need to keep that distance up forever. We’ve all come so far, in becoming a team, you especially. I just would hate to see this mistake making all of that for naught. However severe a mistake it may have been.”

Keith said nothing, and after a few ticks of hesitation, Allura continued. “We’ve apologized, I know, but that’s still very little. And I know we’ve had talks with you before, about your, er, your volatility...”

“My temper,” Keith said flatly.

“Well, yes.” She took a deep breath. “And we’ve all noticed that you’ve been uncharacteristically… restrained, ever since returning from your evening in Yuipra. I just want to make sure you know, you don’t need to be holding back for our sake, not right now. It’s not healthy, and, well, you are perfectly within your rights to be angry with us.”

“...Yeah. I guess.”

“So I’ll understand if you, er - if you need to yell, if you need to snap. I’m glad that you’re finding an outlet, of course.” She gestured with a wave of her hand to the training deck around them. “But if there’s more that you need to let out, you’re free to. Better to have it in the open, yes?”

A pause reigned between them, Allura watching Keith with a furrowed brow and pursed lips, her posture stiff as though she were bracing herself to absorb the blow when Keith exploded. But instead, he finally sighed. “Look, Allura,” he said. “I was mad, okay? I was pissed off. I was mad that I came out to you all and you treated it as an inconvenience, I was mad that you made me do that stupid date training, I was mad as hell at the way Olren was treating me that whole night. But once I got chained to that goddamn bed, I was too busy being scared out of my fucking mind to be mad, and after it was all over? I was tired. I’m tired, Allura. I’m just tired. Don’t really think I’ve got the energy to be angry with everyone right now.” He shrugged. “Wouldn’t do any good to scream at you guys anyhow. It’s over.”

“Keith - ”

“I really don’t know what you want from me right now.” He ran a hand through his hair, grabbing at the ends when he reached them and tugging. “You’ve all said your piece, I’ve said mine, and I’m coping. So why are we talking about this?”

“I only - ” Allura swallowed. “I only want to ensure that you’re aware that we’re there for you. Your whole team is. And if there’s anything we can do to help get things back to normal, we’d be more than happy to.”

“Back to normal,” Keith repeated. “Like, back to the way things were before Yuipra? Or before I became the black paladin? Or before Voltron? Ship’s already sailed on all of them, Allura. And if you’re seriously suggesting that we try and pretend all this shit didn’t happen - ”

“No, stars, no, that’s not what I’m trying to say,” Allura said, looking properly aghast. “Of course I’m not suggesting that, we oughtn’t sweep anything under the rug. I meant - I only meant - ” With a sigh, she stepped back, leaning the back of her head against the wall, somehow still managing to regal despite the posture. “I only want to make things easier, however that happens. For our team’s sake. For your sake. And I don’t know how.”

Keith pursed his lips, crossing his arms.

“There have been plenty of times since our Voltron team began,” Allura continued softly, “When I just wished I could somehow magically undo everything. All the conflict, all the hard decisions we’ve made. All the wrong ones. Every instance when any of us ends up hurting. Of course, there’s not enough magic in the universe to manage that. And there’s no good to come of just wishing it.”

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” Keith mumbled.

Allura quirked a brow at him. “What’s that?”

“Oh. Just some Earth expression. Shiro’s said it to me a couple of times, in the past.”

“But what does it mean?”

Keith shrugged. “No clue. Never asked. Just, you know, he says stuff like that so confidently, I tend to just kinda accept it. He’s pretty much got an endless supply of proverbs and stuff, they can’t all be winners.”

“I suppose… He’s worried about you too, you know,” said Allura.

“Shiro?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Figures. He’s always worried about me.” He paused then, tightening his arms where they were crossed over his chest. “He’s - he’s been different, hasn’t he. Ever since he came back.”

Allura hesitated. “Well, I imagine the stress of captivity takes a toll, and the strangeness of his role on the team changing. It’s understandable if he’s having some difficulty.”

“The other day,” Keith said softly, “He asked if I was okay, and I said yes. And he said, ‘good.’” Without conscious thought his thumb moved, beginning to make small circles against the curled knuckle of his index finger. “He never takes my word for it when I say I’m okay.”

“Were you okay?”

Keith didn’t answer, and Allura sighed. “Right. I suppose I should already know the answer.” She took another long, slow breath, before continuing, “Pidge told me that you mentioned feeling that you need a break from Voltron. Is Shiro part of that? Or is it just due to what happened on Yuipra?”

“It’s - it’s a lot of things. Yuipra, Shiro. Being Black Paladin. Just… a lot of things.”

“Do you think that perhaps you need more leisure time at the Castle? Or do you want to try refocusing your duties away from so much time spent on Coalition recruitment? Something else?”

He let another long pause pass between them before quietly answering, “I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking - I’ve helped out on a couple of those Blade of Marmora missions, lately. I’m an official Blade, and I think I can be of more use to them.”

Allura’s brows shot up. “You’re thinking of switching to the Blade full-time?”

“We’ve got Shiro back now. I’m just thinking about where I’m probably most needed. And, well - ” He shrugged. “The Blade never has to worry about diplomacy.”

“And you’re - you’re certain you want to do this?”

“I haven’t made concrete plans or anything, but… I’ve been thinking about it. It seems like it could be a good option.”

“I… I see.” Allura’s brows pinched as she frowned pensively, and she continued slowly, as if she were carefully, individually, picking out each word. “I would be… disappointed, to see you go, as I’m sure your other teammates would be. Especially on unfavorable terms. But… if you decide it’s what would be best for you, I will support you. We owe you that much.”

“You guys don’t owe me anything,” Keith mumbled.

Allura smiled sadly at him. “That’s a charitable thing to say, Keith, but patently untrue. If anything - ”

She was cut off by a beep overhead, and they both looked up at the sound of Coran’s voice over the PA system. “Allura, to the bridge, if you will. We’re receiving a hail from Yuipra.”

Allura and Keith caught each other’s startled eyes before Allura pulled up the comm unit in the gauntlet of her armor. “Coran?” she said. “What is this in regards to, specifically?”

“Ah, erm.” Coran cleared his throat. “Apparently Yuipra wants to do some negotiating.”

“For the alliance? We’ve already messaged them, we could not have been clearer that we are no longer interested.”

“No, er, now they’re actually interested in, er… reparations.”

“They have got to be joking,” Allura whispered, before shutting the comm, turning on her heel, and marching out of the training deck.

Keith dropped his bayard, letting it lay where it fell, and hurried to catch up with her, matching her brisk pace as they set off down the hall together. Allura glanced warily toward him, but didn’t slow her step. “You don’t have to come, Keith,” she said.

“What, you don’t want to risk me going off on him?” Keith snapped.

“That’s not it. I simply meant, well, the last time you saw Olren, he was, er… I just imagine it’d be difficult for you to dredge that up. Are you sure you’d be all right, seeing him again? Hearing this?”

Keith nodded after only a brief moment’s hesitation. “I’m sure. Like hell am I gonna give him the satisfaction of knowing I’m hiding away from him.”

Allura pursed her lips thoughtfully before slowly replying, “If you’re certain.”

“Besides,” Keith added, “I’ll wanna be able to look him in the eyes while you all tell him where he can stick his reparation requests.”

They made it to the elevator that led to the bridge, having to pause and hold the door open at the sound of approaching footsteps that turned out to belong to Lance and Hunk. “You know, Coran only called me up to the bridge,” Allura said as they slid into the elevator.

“Yeah,” said Lance. “But he said it was Yuipra calling. Come on, you can’t expect us to just wait around for you to finish up to find out what they want. ‘Sides, if they’re calling to declare war on Voltron or something - ”

“They’re not,” Keith grunted. “It’s something about ‘reparations’.”

Lance’s brows shot up. “Wait, isn’t that, like, compensation? What the fuck do they think we need to compensate them for? They’re the ones who attacked Keith!”

Hunk sheepishly reached a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Well, uh, to be fair, I did shoot up a lot of the decorations in the palace when we were holding those guards off. You know, as distractions. And because, um, it just felt right…”

“They’re lucky we didn’t just smash the palace to pieces,” Lance said, crossing his arms.

The elevator door opened then, and they stepped out onto the bridge, Allura hurrying to join Coran at the control console. Shiro and Pidge had beaten them there, it seemed, as Shiro was already bent over the screen beside Coran, Pidge bouncing on tiptoes behind them to get a glimpse.

Coran was speaking to a monitor on the console. “It is hardly the time for us to be quibbling over - ” He paused and turned as Allura strode up beside him. “Ah, there you are.”

“Go ahead and move the call to the overhead monitor, Coran,” Allura said.

Coran glanced uncertainly back toward where the other paladins were joining the group on the bridge. “Are you sure we should all be here for this call?”

“It’s not like no one here knows what happened,” Keith said. “They can stay.”

“Erm, I was actually asking Allura to decide - ”

“It’s Keith’s call,” Allura said. “If he’s fine with the others joining, then so am I. Overhead monitor, Coran.”

“Right, of course.” And after a couple of taps on the console, the enormous holographic screen popped up, and Keith felt his blood race at the sight of the figure centered in the shot. King Olren appeared just as polished as ever, hair slick beneath his polished crown and cape perfectly aligned across his shoulders, golden guards standing half out of the frame on either side of him. But now, his face bore none of its old pretense of hospitality. His mouth was pressed to a firm line, jaw stiff, and his eyes were narrow and cold.

Last time Keith had seen those eyes, they had been boring into him lecherously, hungrily, ready to devour Keith whole. The memory of it made his skin crawl, and he shivered involuntarily, wishing he had made a detour to his room to grab his jacket before following Allura to the bridge.

A finger tapped against his arm, and he flinched away before seeing that it belonged to Hunk, who quickly yanked his hand back at Keith’s reaction. “Sorry,” Hunk whispered. “Just checking that you’re okay.”

Keith swallowed and nodded. “I’m fine,” he whispered back.

“Your highness,” Olren said as his eyes roved to Allura. His voice was low, direct.

“Olren,” Allura replied, and Olren scowled at the address. “We’ve already established that our dealings with your planet are over. Why have you contacted us?”

“I already informed your advisor as to the purpose of my call,” Olren said. “My palace’s staff has completed assessment at the damage done to our building, the art and artifacts therein, and the health of myself and several members of my royal guard.”

“Did they now,” Allura said flatly.

“I wouldn’t take such a flippant tone with me, Princess,” Olren said, his scowl deepening. “You cannot expect that your attack on my palace would be ignored. In addition to structural damage your paladins’ weapons caused to my entry hall and entire east wing, many of our furnishings sustained irreversible damage, several of which are of great historical significance and cannot be replaced. Additionally, members of my guard have sustained severe injuries due to your attack.”

“That’s an occupational hazard that they should have seen coming,” Allura said. “More importantly, I would hardly call what my paladins did an ‘attack’. They had every reason and right to defend one of their own, whom you assaulted and violated in the first place.”

“Ah, yes, your red paladin,” Olren said. His eyes roamed along the bridge to find Keith, and when they landed on him, he could feel ice forming in his gut. “A pity, that things had to end between us the way they did. Especially when we could have had such a fortuitous alliance. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I was not hurt by your repudiation, Keith.” He clicked his tongue. “We would have been beautiful together, you know.”

Keith’s vision of the king was blocked as Hunk suddenly stepped in front of him, arm out to hide him entirely from Olren’s predatory gaze. Even though Keith couldn’t see Hunk’s face, the set of his shoulders and the redness climbing up his neck spoke to just how pissed he was.

He wasn’t the only one. Pidge managed to dodge around Coran to slam her hands against the console and snarl up at Olren. “Oh my god, don’t fucking talk to him like you’re a couple who had a bad breakup! You tried to rape him! You’re a fucking monster and you know what, we can turn this castle ship around right now and - ”

“Now, now, Pidge,” Coran said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “We’re not going back to Yuipra. Not to attack, and certainly not to compensate for any ‘damages’ they claim.”

“We are more than entitled to recompense for the damage you’ve done!” Olren snapped. “The appraised monetary cost of material damages to my palace probably nears the value of your entire castle. And that’s not even accounting for bodily damages - ”

“To be frank, your majesty,” Shiro spoke up, the regal address dripping with sarcasm, “There is absolutely no damage Voltron possibly could have inflicted on you and your palace that could even come close to what you tried to do to Keith.”

Olren scoffed. “Either you are simply horrifically naive as to the worth of myself, my palaces, and my resources, or you absurdly overestimate the value of your paladin’s virginity.”

“Ex-fucking-scuse you?!” Pidge cried, as Shiro let out a wordless splutter of indignation and Keith began to shake. Whether out of anxiety or fury, he couldn’t say.

“That is quite enough,” Allura said. “Voltron owes you nothing. Keith owes you nothing. And if you are even incapable of speaking of him with some semblance of decency - ”

“You owe me plenty! You assaulted me in my own home, in my own private chambers! One of your little paladins rendered an indefensible attack on my person which my palace’s healer assures me very nearly left me impotent!”

“Only nearly?” Lance said. “Shit, sorry, I’ll kick harder next time.”

Olren ground his teeth as he glowered down at the paladins. “You are playing a dangerous game, paladins of Voltron. You have given up a partnership that could very easily turn the tides of a war. None of Yuipra’s own allies would dare provide any help to you either, not after we inform them how the Voltron Coalition has treated us.”

Keith’s own jaw set as his blood reached its boiling point, and with a deep breath, he stepped out from behind Hunk. “We don’t need your alliance,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady and sharp. “We don’t need you. And if this is how you form alliances, I’m betting it won’t take much convincing for your ‘allies’ to side with Voltron.”

Olren’s lips curled, his shark-like smile looking more grotesque than ever when paired with the deadly look in his eyes. “I wouldn’t be so quick to make threats like that, boy. If we decide to take you seriously - ”

“Then once we’re done with the Galra Empire, we’ll know who to take down next.”

“You insolent little - ”

“We are finished here,” Allura cut him off, striding up to the control console. “On behalf of the Voltron Coalition, I would like to state with the utmost clarity that we have no desire to conduct any further dealings with you and your planet, and inform you that any effort you take to go on the offensive against us will be met with resistance and retaliation.” She glanced over her shoulder toward Keith before returning her gaze to Olren. “And on behalf of my paladin, I would like to invite you to take your demands for reparations, and shove them up your arse.”

She shut off the screen before Olren could respond, and brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “Oh, that was so inappropriate to say,” she said softly. “Oh, ancients, that was so undignified…”

“Nah, it was great,” Lance said, striding up to her and giving her a hearty slap on the back. “Sure as hell was a lot more dignified than what I would’ve suggested for him.”

“The nerve of that guy,” Pidge growled. “If I ever see that fucker in person ever again, a hard kick in the nads is gonna seem like a spa day in comparison.”

Keith let out a shaky breath and hugged his arms around his middle. “Hey, uh,” he said. “What he said, about having Yuipra go up against the Coalition - ”

“Not to worry, Number Four,” Coran said. “I can guarantee it’s an empty threat. Siding against the Voltron Coalition would make them appear to be on the side of the Empire, and the other planets in their sector would never stand for that. Definitely wouldn’t be worth their while to risk something like that.”

“Good,” Keith sighed. “Just, God, if a whole other war started over this - ”

“It won’t,” Shiro said. “That’s one thing you won’t have to worry about.”

“Quite right,” said Coran. “Our fight is with the Empire alone, just like always. And even if that changed, I assure you, we would stand by you, until the end.”

“Thanks,” Keith mumbled.

Allura turned away from the console, starting toward the bridge’s center. “For now we should work to put Yuipra behind us,” she said. “Yes, we didn’t get the Yuipran alliance, but we understand now that we didn’t need it, not as badly as we had thought. There are other planets we can look toward to join our Coalition, and we’re going to need to get back to it. The sooner we start looking into new alliances, the better.”

“Of course,” Shiro said with a nod. “Should we start making plans to resume diplomatic efforts?”

“Coran and I will need to begin correspondence with some new planetary representatives to determine where specifically we’ll need to visit and what tactics we’ll need to employ, but yes, we should. In the meantime, I believe we can resume group training this evening. We may not be making attack plans toward the Empire at this precise moment, but that’s no reason to get complacent.”

The other paladins murmured their assent, and Allura turned to Keith. “Keith,” she said. “Are you, er… how are you holding up?”

“Fine,” he said automatically. At her skeptical look, he amended, “I mean, relatively. Fine as could be expected, after, um…” He gestured toward the front of the bridge where the holographic screen had been.

Allura nodded. “Understandable. Well, you are free to join us in training this evening, and in our diplomacy efforts once we begin them. Or you are free to sit them out, if you need the time. Whatever you decide, I’ll support you. We’ll support you. No matter what.” Her gaze was intense as she spoke, the weight of her words clear.

“Allura?�� Shiro said. “Are you, uh, getting at something?”

“That’s not really for me to - ”

“Yeah,” Keith interrupted. “Yeah, she is.” He took a deep breath. The others were all gathered here, all ready to defend and support him. And he was grateful for that, he truly was. Grateful for the anger they’d shown toward Olren on his behalf, grateful for their efforts to make things right.

But he still needed time. He wasn’t ready yet to fully move past what had happened, and he needed the space to do so on his own terms.

And now seemed as good a time as any to tell them that.

“I’ve… been doing some thinking,” Keith said. “About what I need to be doing right now, and where I need to be. And, um, well - we need to talk…”

#aroace keith #vldgen #keith angst #keith #vld #my writing #fic: kings over aces

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judgmentofcorruption · 4 years

Text

Episode 4–Farewell My Friend; Scene 3

Judgment of Corruption, pages 115-124

Gallerian’s injuries hadn’t completely healed up.

Rather than the wound from the bullet Shiro had fired at him, the frostbite had been more severe. It seemed he still couldn’t really move the pinky on his right hand.

Gallerian was resting in ‘Lunaca Labora’ again today for the purpose of recovery.

Though, he wasn’t doing anything special in particular. He had just swallowed a medicine capsule that Ma had prepared for him and rubbed some clear gel on his finger. But according to Ma, these medicines were of a sort that couldn’t be refined at this facility. And Ma was the only one who could make them.

“I’m not a doctor, so I don’t understand all of it. –However, you’ll probably never be able to use that finger again,” Ma had told him, yet even so she continued to apply the medicine to give Gallerian at least a sliver of hope.

Though he couldn’t move his pinkie, he could at least hold a pen.

That night, he was reading over something on a sheet of paper at the desk that had been set aside for him.

“—Don’t work too hard.”

Before he knew it, another man was in the room.

“Bruno. You came.”

“Yeah. I wanted to see how you were doing. How has it been living here?”

“Outside of it being inconvenient to head to other towns, it’s been alright.”

“You’re not in any position to be going outside much anyway. You need to be patient a little while longer—How are you for food? Have you been eating well?” Bruno said, bringing out a largish package. “I might not look it, but I’m quite skilled at cooking. I don’t know if it’ll suit your tastes, but I’ll make something for you now.”

“Ah…That’s very kind of you. But—"

Before Gallerian could finish speaking, a girl appeared from the opening in the space carrying a tray lined with food.

“Sorry to keep you waiting~ I’ve finished your supper.”

Bruno looked surprised at seeing her face. “Lady…Mira! What are you doing here—”

“Oh, Bruno. So you’re here. Good evening!”

“…You as well. –Hey, Gallerian.” Bruno walked up to Gallerian and whispered in his ear, “Why is she here in Lunaca Labora? Isn’t she Loki’s girlfriend!?”

“Yeah…She insisted on taking care of me. I figured I might as well let her.”

“Are you a fool?! If Loki gets wind of this, the plan will be ruined!”

“Mira won’t betray me. And her brother has promised to help us. –Mira’s already our ally.”

“…It’s not wise to be so trusting. Have you forgotten so soon that you were betrayed by your best friend?”

Dumbfounded, Bruno tossed the package he’d been carrying aside and sat down in a nearby chair.

Mira casually set some food down on the desk and turned to Bruno. “I made quite a bit—will you be having some, Bruno?”

“No, I—”

“You’re already here, join in. The herring quiche she makes is delicious.”

Thus urged by Gallerian, Bruno reluctantly nodded.

“Wait right there. I’ll go get some now.”

Mira happily passed through the opening and out the room.

“—How often does she come here?”

At Bruno’s question Gallerian replied, while continuing to write, “On days when she doesn’t meet Loki after work. Probably about two or three times a week.”

“Does she stay here?”

“Mira drives here by automobile, but even so it’s dangerous for a woman to be on the road at night alone.”

“A woman driving a car. I’m surprised.”

“You didn’t know?”

“She’s Loki’s girlfriend. Naturally I’ve seen her many times before, but I’ve never had an actual conversation with her.”

“Well, Mira is a daughter of the Yarera Zusco Conglomerate. She should at least be able to rate driving as one of her accomplishments, wouldn’t you think?”

“—You’ve been writing something for some time now…”

When Bruno asked his question, Gallerian stopped writing and turned to him.

“I’m preparing my bill of indictment. I have most of the information assembled here so I’m putting it all together. –I’ve also properly put in the details you wanted me to add, so relax.”

“Thank you. If you hadn’t I don’t think there would have been much point in having you work with us.”

“—I think now that I’ve heard all that, I have the gist of why you bear a grudge against the Freezises, Bruno.”

“…I don’t bear a grudge against them. I just want to stop their evil deeds.”

“To keep there from being any more victims like you, you mean?”

Bruno’s expression grew more severe. “…Who did you hear this from? Ma?”

“I didn’t hear anything from anyone. I was just able to put together a guess based on the contents of your complaint and your current circumstances.”

“You shouldn’t be drawing conclusions on someone like me based solely on a guess.”

“Then tell me the true version yourself.”

On seeing Gallerian’s gravely serious gaze as he pushed, Bruno made a resigned sigh.

“—I was born a slave. From a young age I worked for my master, a farmer, in the United States of Maistia alongside my parents, my older brothers, and my little sister. I can’t say we were happy, but we weren’t necessarily unhappy either. The work was hard, but at least our family was together, and we never had to worry about our next meal. But when I was twelve years old, our master fell on hard times and sold my family to the Freezis Conglomerate. …Our hell began from that point on.”

There was bitterness in Bruno’s eyes as he spoke.

“The Freezises are the largest trade organization in the United States of Maistia. So naturally my parents and siblings had hoped for better treatment. But the reality was the exact opposite. They thought of the Black Valkyrians who are native to Maista as little more than chattel. They furnished us with filthy shacks as small as animal pens, and worked us twenty-four hours a day—The fact of the matter is that the Freezises’ lofty achievements are comprised of the sacrifices of us Black Valkyrians. …And then, one day, I and my entire family were made to play in a ‘game’ with one of the Freezis Family’s sons.”

“…Loki?”

“That’s right. At the time he was a very young brat. About the same age as my sister, but he wore much nicer clothes and had a healthier complexion, probably because he was always eating good food. –We were set loose to run in a forest, and then made into prey for Loki’s ‘human hunt’. My little sister was the first one he shot. She was his first kill in his life. So, ghastly enough, my sister’s body was stuffed and put up in Loki’s room, where it remains to this day.”

“—This story makes me ill.”

“My parents and my older brothers were all killed as well. A child though he might have been, unarmed we had no hope of fighting back against someone with a gun. …I survived to the end, and as a “reward” I was elevated in status to being a butler of the Freezis Family. Despite that though, nothing really changed in how I was treated. On the contrary, you could say it got worse. There were several other Black Valkyria stewards like myself. But all of them had died off by the time I became an adult. Sometimes they would break down and die from overwork, and sometimes they would despair of their circumstances and kill themselves.”

“But…you managed to survive.”

“I just couldn’t let myself die. I knew that I had to find some way to live until the day when I could settle the score for my friends and family. During that time, little by little I made my preparations, and gained new friends. …The first one I met was Shiro Netsuma.”

“The woman who shot me.”

“Would you just forget that already? Ordinarily she’s a very kind girl. Even her shooting you was solely to save your life. –Shiro is a Netsuma. And you may know this already, but Netsuma are a race that’s always been discriminated against here in the Evillious region. Just as the Black Valkyrians are in Maistia.”

“So you two were able to sympathize with each other over your similar circumstances.”

Bruno faintly smiled at Gallerian’s words.

“Though, the way she was treated by the Freezis Conglomerate is far superior to how I’m treated. Surprisingly enough they’re quite hospitable to the Netsuma clan.”

“That’s because the Freezis Conglomerate has deep ties to the Sisters of Clarith. The founder of that organization was also a Netsuma, if memory serves.”

“Shiro was hired on as the bodyguard for Commander Freezis. Banking on her skill with a gun, you see. That she would promise to aid me despite being in such a position—they truly offended her sense of justice. After that, I quietly added Hel Jaakko and Feng Li to my group of allies.”

“Hel is a clerk for the conglomerate, and Feng is…a pet, wasn’t he?”

“Feng’s origins are fairly interesting. He was born in ‘Mukoku’ to the east.”

“’Mukoku’…Is that that legendary ‘nothing country’?”

“I think if you have a spare moment you should ask him about it next time you see him.”

“—There is one other, that fellow called Postman. The delivery person who doesn’t speak.”

“Ma brought them along. As for what kind of person Postman is…Frankly, I don’t know myself. They never say anything, so we can’t exactly talk about it. Well—I’m certain of their job at least.”

“How did you and Ma meet? I wouldn’t think there’s much that the Freezises’ butler and a screenwriter would have in common.”

Bruno had been quite loquacious up to this point, but when Gallerian said that his expression immediately grew conflicted.

“Well…That’s not really worth going over.”

“Whether you or Ma, you both clam up on the issue of your relationship. –You two wouldn’t happen to be dating, would you?”

“Absolutely not,” Bruno firmly denied.

“…Ah, whatever. Doesn’t look like I’ll get an answer out of you no matter how much questioning I do. Let’s change the subject. About this indictment here—” Gallerian showed the paper he was writing to Bruno. “Even if, for the sake of argument, I send this to the World Police, I don’t know if they’ll do anything. There is a very strong connection between the World Police and the Freezises. In the worst case scenario they may just crumple it up.”

“I know. That’s why—we’ll use the media. When you hand in your bill of indictment to the World Police, at the same time we’ll send a letter with the same contents to the newspapers and radio stations. The media may not lend an ear to a mere Maistians’ grievances, albeit… But the indictments of a man who’s an elite as a judge of the Dark Star Bureau, and was publicly thought dead to boot—the response would be different.”

“So if it’s reported on a broad scale, you’re saying that the World Police will have no choice but to take action.”

“Our biggest concern is whether or not Hanma Baldured will act according to our expectations. Hel has met with him several times already, but apparently he’s a hard man to read. Honestly the fastest method would be to have you act as the head judge, but—”

“The one making the lawsuit can’t work as the head judge for the trial.”

“That’s true. So ultimately the deciding factor is going to be how much money the Yarera Zusco Conglomerate is able to set forward. And how Hanma will act in response to it…”

“’Money is the best lawyer in hell’…so it goes.”

Mira returned with the food in her hand.

“Sorry for the wait! It took a little time to heat it back up. I don’t really know how to use the kitchen here…Alright, help yourself.”

“…Thank you very much.” After being handed the herring quiche, Bruno gave his thanks and then brought it to his mouth. “—It’s tasty.”

“Right?” Gallerian then butted in, grinning, “—Five days from now I’ll finish this indictment and head to the World Police. Is that alright?”

“Yes. We’ll have our preparations set in order by then.”

“Are you going to stay here today?”

“No, it wouldn’t be good for Loki to take issue with me for being absent. And—I feel I’d get in the way.” Bruno looked at both Gallerian and Mira’s faces and then got up from his seat. “I shall have the leftovers of my quiche on the way home. Well then—”

He scooped up the bundle that he’d carried in, put the quiche inside, and left.

Five days later, Gallerian sent the bill of indictment to the World Police as planned.

At the same time, his survival and the contents of his indictment were sent en masse to every media company.

Another day after that. Second Level Judicial Aide of the Dark Star Courthouse Loki Freezis was captured and arrested by the World Police.

The primary charges were “Attempted murder” of Gallerian at first, but later it was changed to “murder” in accordance with the contents of the indictment.

One month after that Loki was prosecuted, and made to receive trial at the Dark Star Courthouse.

The one acting as head judge was Hanma Baldured.

--About a whole year had passed since Gallerian was almost killed by Loki in the snow field.

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ggfj84 · 4 years

Text

“You and Me Against the Universe” - Chapter Two

I didn’t realize it was @sheithmonth! Unfortunately, this story is only three-fourths done, but I wanted to post something for the event. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

For Day 24 - Soulmates

Story on AO3 (including Chapter One)

Chapter Two

“You’re married?” Lance, the Blue Paladin from Nalquod, squawked once Shiro explained the situation. Lance’s otherworldly blue hair stood on end long after he had gripped both sides of his head. “You got married at the last coalition meeting, and you didn’t even invite us?”

Shiro wrung the back of his neck and offered a sheepish smile in apology. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“No shit, Shir-lock. Perhaps the plait in the room wasn’t a big enough clue.”

Propped up on the couch’s arm, Keith took in the whole scene in a daze. Less than a varga ago, he became the bondmate to the Black Paladin and leader of Voltron in front of the entire coalition and now sat in the paladins’ private quarters with Krolia and Kolivan as they all recovered from the whirlwind ceremony.

“There wasn’t much time,” Allura assured, resting a hand upon the Blue Paladin’s shoulder. “I know you’re hurt –”

“I’m not hurt!”

“I am,” the Olkari next to him, Pidge, replied. Her long antennae jutted out as if they could pierce Shiro’s armor. “It feels like when Matt eloped with his girlfriend out on that casino planet. You could have called us.”

Shiro’s shoulders slumped, and Keith’s own chest threatened to burst from the guilt that swelled within it. “Lotor was making a move to control the entire Daibazaal delegation. I had to act fast or Keith would have been –”

“So you listened to your dick rather than your brain, huh?” Lance spat.

Keith’s translator must have malfunctioned in the middle of Lance’s tirade because one word didn’t come across in Marmoran.

He looked toward Krolia and Kolivan. “What’s a –”

“You don’t want to know,” Shiro cut him off before turning back to the paladins with a heavy sigh. “Look, nothing has changed. Not really. Yes, Keith and I are bonded now, but that’s not going to stop me from being there for you guys.”

“It is a bit more involved than that,” Kolivan admonished, arms crossed and expression severe, while Krolia played with the wayward strands of Keith’s black and indigo braid. “Galran society deems bonding partners as sacred. As such, Shiro, you will be required to attend Blade functions as Keith’s bondmate and accept any invitations to the House of Sincline.”

Allura sighed. “Likewise, partners of paladins and coalition members are appreciated at meetings and galas. Delegates will expect to see you two together.”

“I thought you said you were going to submit a grievance to remove the bonding clause?” Keith asked. Out the corner of his eyes, he noticed Shiro stiffen, but by the time he turned, the Black Paladin had already looked away.

Krolia pushed a stubborn strand of Keith’s bangs behind his ear. “We can try, kit, but the coalition may decide the removal will be applied to the next delegation’s heirs. Or they may not approve it at all. At the very least, the grievance won’t be heard until the next session, more than three phoebs from now.”

Dread pooled in Keith’s gut. “So you’re saying Shiro and I must stick together until then.”

“At least then.” There was a hint of something in Kolivan’s voice Keith couldn’t place. He thought it might have been resignation…or perhaps relief? “I would suggest you two take some time to discuss your plans as well as your living arrangements. I will be mindful of your new schedule when assigning your missions.”

Krolia pressed a kiss to Keith’s forehead. “We’ll be in our quarters. Come see us after you and Shiro finish your discussion.” She approached Shiro then and coaxed him into a tight embrace. “Thank you, Paladin Shirogane. The Blade of Marmora is in your debt.”

“Uh, my pleasure,” Shiro murmured, ears pink.

Once they left, Allura clapped her hands and turned to the paladins. “We must be off as well. Keith.” She cradled his forearm and offered him a precious, warm smile. “Welcome to the family.”

It should have reassured him, but instead, Keith’s stomach churned. What had he gotten to?

And then he was alone with his new bondmate and consumed by an intense, awkward silence he didn’t know how to traverse.

Shiro let out a quick, rushed laugh. “Bonding…was not my schedule for today. How about you?”

Keith debated about wielding his knife, just to intimidate. “I still don’t understand why you did it.”

Shiro sighed and collapsed to the chair across from Keith, arms dropping over the sides. “Full disclosure? I was engaged once. Few decaphoebs ago. It wasn’t a messy break-up so much as a quick one. Since then, Hunk’s tried to fix me up with his brother-in-law Rax. Allura’s introduced me to every single diplomat on Altea. Lance tried to hook me up with every member of his family. I think he almost convinced his mother to date me.”

Keith surveyed Shiro’s troubled frown, his trembling eyes, and utterly devastating grin. “So…you’re still in love with your ex?”

“What!” Shiro shot straight up. “No. We’re over. I just…I’m tired of everyone trying to find someone for me. Adam was—well, my flight partner for decaphoebs. We weren’t even together for the longest time. I learned that I just don’t…date. I meet someone, get to know them, and then fall in love.”

That made sense, though Keith wondered how many members of the coalition would volunteer to get to know Shiro over dinner. “Then this is mutual beneficial. You help Marmorans keep the Daibazaal delegation reflective of our planet’s people –”

“—and you help me stay sane.”

That was doable, even if Keith’s heart plummeted. “I can do that. So what happens now?”

Shiro struggled and looked down at his cut-off gloves, palms open and wondering. “I guess we get rings, exchange numbers, and then see you at the next diplomatic function for the coalition?”

Keith jerked a shoulder. Their bond already tugged at Keith’s soul, yearning to get to know his mate more intimately, if not physically then emotionally. But Shiro wouldn’t know about the bond, and Keith couldn’t possibility bother him with the unnecessary details. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Great.” Shiro snagged Keith’s wrist, and fire shot through his veins. Shiro typed his number into Keith’s gauntlet and then flashed his patented disarming smile. Did Shiro know how charming it – he – was? “Don’t forget to write, my mate.”

Keith still hadn’t managed to lift his jaw by the time he meandered out of the paladins’ common room. He stopped short when he noticed Lance standing opposite the exit door, one foot flat against the wall behind him, arms crossed.

“Look, go easy on him, okay?” Lance asked. “And be good to him. He deserves the universe, and he’s decided that’s you.”

If Shiro and he were going to spend time together, Keith was going to need to get along with Shiro’s family. “It’s not like that for him. He’s still getting over his ex, and he could use a break from the endless stream of suitors you and your friends have sent his way.”

Lance snorted and glanced away. “He told you that? And you bought it?”

How else was he supposed to take his mate if not at his word? “What are you saying?”

“I haven’t seen Shiro look at another person since he joined the paladins. I haven’t seen him smile at anyone, not like he does with you. And now he’s jumping into the deep end.” Lance shook his head while stifling a laugh. “Look, just give him time to adjust, find out what he really wants.”

Keith’s heart ached as he glanced over his shoulder at the door. If only Keith didn’t know what he wanted. “I don’t want to hurt him, Lance. I…I want to help him.” Whatever that would actually entail.

Lance’s eyes narrowed, searching Keith for something, but before Keith could retort, Lance dropped his arms and cocked a wide, mischievous grin. “You said it wasn’t like that for him. You didn’t say it wasn’t like that for you.”

Keith’s mouth dropped, agape, and as he struggled to recover, Lance clasped him on the shoulder. “That’s all I needed to know. See you around, Plait.”

As Lance retreated down the hall, Keith sighed and started off in the opposite direction. In the Galran diplomatic quarters, his mother and Kolivan waited, and he just wanted to forget the day ever happened.

If only the bond pulsating deep within his soul would let him.

---

Hoping to post at least one more chapter by the end of Sheith Month!

#sheithmonth2020 #sheith #shiro #keith #you and me against the universe #paladins #krolia #kolivan

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theprojectava · 5 years

Text

The Silent War

Sooo...remember the last post s8 fix-it post I made? I wrote a little something for it (I’ll upload it on ao3, too, but I still have to make an account there).

It’s not beta read and I suck at writing stuff in English since it’s not my mother tongue. Please bear with me. :)

(Fic’s under the cut)

Our room is dark, the blinds are shut tight

And everything is still too much outside

When he left it hurt like hell. It felt like Shiro had finally run out of time. He should've said something sooner.

There had always been tomorrow, another time, next week, after this mission,when this meeting's over, promise, I'll tell him then!

The war had finally, officially ended. But not for them. The universe was in disarray – all the Galra Empire had left in its wake were ruins and ashes of whole worlds burnt to nothing. The war had never stopped and so their duties as Paladins and diplomats of planet Earth continued to tear them apart. Silently. For no one to see. Not even Shiro.

He only felt the sensation of something finally ripping, when it was too late. Keith was gone. By the time they noticed, he was already on the other end of the known universe, fighting off war criminals and rebuilding what was left of civilizations that had taken the brunt of the Empire's wrath over thousands of years. Somebody had to do it, Shiro told himself again and again. And of course it had to be Keith. This was what he was born for. The stars. If he was completely honest with himself he had always known that the younger man was never meant to stay on the ground with both his feet. The moment he had seen him so many years ago, he had known. Keith was meant to fly and reach for the stars or go crashing down with them.

But it still hurt so much. Because in spite of knowing that this day would come, he still wasn't prepared to let him go. He wasn't prepared to lose the man that meant everything to him.

Maybe it had taken him too long to realize what Keith really meant to him. That he couldn't live without him by his side. There had always been tomorrow, another time, next week... The possibility that there would be a tomorrow without Keith by his side seemed so impossible after all they went through. But maybe that's what went wrong in the end. Shiro had taken Keith for granted – a constant in his life that would always be there, no matter what. And now it was too late.

It may be over but not tonight

I may be older but I still cry

I can't stop sleeping in your clothes

You can't stop calling on the phone

Keith never reacted to any of his text messages. Whether it was because he was busy... or for a whole different reason Shiro didn't even want to think of, he didn't know. Silence was all there was between them now. With every unanswered message the hurt sunk deeper into his heart. It festered there and turned into bitterness with every passing month. He felt hollow inside. As Admiral and part of the Terran Delegation there was quite enough work on his hands to keep him busy for most of the day. But every time he'd come back home to a dark apartment and cold sheets he felt like sinking deeper into an all consuming emptiness. He should've given up trying to contact Keith by now. He knew that. In fact he should've stopped thinking about the other man every waking hour. The only problem was... he didn't know how. It was all he'd ever done.

Can't you see I'm in recovery?

Just let it be, I'm in recovery

I'm holding on, I know I'm almost there

Storm reach out and tell me that you care

It stung like a knife to the chest when he found out that he seemed to be the only one who hadn't heard of Keith for almost a year. He'd met up with Pidge at one point, visited Lance and Allura on New Altea merely two months ago. He'd even made it to congratulate Hunk on his family's new house in person... The only one who hadn't seen him ever since he left... was Shiro.

Later he'd wonder if that had been the last straw. If that was what finally broke him. When he found out Keith was back on earth for a few days without telling him, he snapped. He packed all his stuff and left his office like a raging storm. He knew he shouldn't corner Keith like that. He knew deep down, that it was wrong. Patience yields focus, remember? But he didn't care for one second. His whole body felt numb, yet at the same time so full of cold anger. He needed answers. Nobody stopped him when he mounted one of the hoverbikes and sped off into the desert. He knew exactly where to find Keith.

When he reached the shack he knew Keith was there, even before he saw the younger man's pale face in the door frame. He was hurting them. Both of them and Shiro knew. But there was no turning back from this conversation now. There was no way this could go on for any longer. Shiro already felt like crumbling to pieces, he couldn't stand the silence anymore. At this point he really believed that he couldn't hurt much more. He'd been through torture and war. He'd survived the pits. He'd survived experimentation and losing his arm. He died and came back... But there was no way he could withstand this.

The moment they started talking Shiro could already tell Keith was closing in on himself, building up walls even he couldn't tear down anymore. The telltale twitching of his hands, the way his shoulders hunched... Keith was unreadable to most people. Anyone else would've thought of him as indifferent to what was going on. Shiro, on the other hand, knew what to look for. He could read Keith like a book. And that's where the fighting began.

Being shut out felt like a slap in the face. It burnt right down to his very core.

“It's better this way”, Keith told him. “I'm sorry...”

They screamed at each other. They cried. Two thrashing animals caught in a trap, neither of them ready to go down. Ultimately, it was all in vain. Keith had made his decision, for reasons unknown. He'd take this secret to the grave if he had to. Shiro would never know what drove the former Red Paladin away from him. But his choice was final.

Tears burnt in his eyes, when he turned to leave. He never wanted to do this... But the words bubbled up unbidden, nonetheless.

“Fine... If that's what you want. I won't stop you”, he looked back at Keith and saw the exact moment the words registered and hit home. “But don't expect me to be there when you decide to come back one day.”

That day he had hurt Keith in a way, he'd never forgive himself for. There was no going back from this. The damage had been done. He left without looking back, not expecting Keith to reach out and keep him from leaving. He never did, anyway.

I'm finally sober, I see the light

The worst is over, nobody died

I'm still trying to let you go

Oh baby, please, leave me alone

A brand new war began. One that Shiro wasn't sure he'd survive – a silent war. No one else could see it, but they could feel it. There was tension wherever Shiro went, hanging in the air around him like thick rain clouds. None of his friends dared saying anything – they all knew. They had to know. Because Keith never showed up to any of their anniversaries on New Altea, again. It was a silent war and this... this was Keith's way of opening fire. Shiro embraced it. Swallowed it. And then cried it out into the darkness of his empty bedroom, when no one else would hear.

Can't you see I'm in recovery?

Just let it be, I'm in recovery

I know you wanna say you're sorry

But I don't wanna hear that story

Days bled into weeks, weeks bled into months. His heartache wouldn't fade. Shiro's chest had become an open wound refusing to heal. When was the last time he had laughed? He didn't know. All he did these days was work himself into the ground, working overtime for hours on end until he was either too tired to think or fell asleep in his office. That was until he fainted during a meeting. There's only so much sleep deprivation a human-Galra-hybrid clone body can endure.

When he came to himself again there was a man hovering over him. He remembered him from the Atlas. One of the bridge staff. What was his name again? Carl? Curtis? Curtis.

“Are you alright, Sir?”, he asked.

It's weird... how things change so fast.

Turned out Curtis was what Shiro needed. For the moment. Talking to him was easy... kissing him was easier. Easy was good for now.

They moved in together after dating for a few months. Shiro proposed after another two or three. Of course Curtis said yes. Everything was easy with him. So why did Shiro feel like he was drowning? Sending the invitations to their wedding earned him a few rounds of interrogation from his friends, especially Allura and Pidge. They'd picked up on what had occurred between him and Keith – mainly because Keith had quite regular meetings with Allura and Lance on New Altea, since he became a senior member of the Blades... At least that's what Shiro heard. Both of them knew how much Shiro was hurting, but all they could do was give him sympathetic glances. They knew why Keith did what he did. That maybe protecting his own poor heart from potential hurt was what led to them silently tearing each other apart. It hurt to watch.

Of course they sent an invitation to Daibazaal, too. Since none of them knew Keith's current location, they'd chosen to send it to Krolia instead, knowing Keith would get it, sooner or later. That was Shiro's counterblow in this cold war between them.

Always thought you'd be the one

Who always needed me

My home, you'd be my home

After the wedding, the silence only grew. As did the emptiness in Shiro's life. His marriage lasted for a whole 2 years. The time it took them to get divorced included. There were no “I told you so”s from his friends – only support and a lot of hugs. Shiro didn't know what was worse. Because he himself had known this relationship was meant to crash and burn the moment he had proposed. Maybe before.

He felt terrible. Throwing his own heart in the line of fire because he couldn't let go of someone who clearly didn't want him was one thing... Pulling Curtis into this and putting his heart on the line as well, was a whole different thing. Has he always been such a terrible human being? Could this be the reason why Keith left? Because he'd seen how Shiro hurts the people around him on purpose? There was no way of knowing now. Keith was long gone... and yet, he was still everything Shiro ever knew.

Suddenly, your memory

In time is like an enemy, so cold

Five years. It had been five years since the last time they saw each other. Back in Keith's shack. Shiro's last words still rang in his ears, loud and clear. It had taken him a year or so, until he realized he'd used the same words Adam had thrown at him, before he'd left for the Kerberos mission. It felt like a lifetime ago. Another thing in a long line of things he regretted voicing or not voicing in front of Keith. It seemed like he never told Keith the most important things. But if he did tell him anything, only the wrong things came out. Things he never wanted anyone to hear. Unfair things.

The universe, as Shiro had known it, was in shambles.

A soft ping was all it took to tilt the universe back into the right direction. It was 3:00 am. An unusual time to get notifications nowadays. Shiro had stepped back from a few positions in the past year, slowly letting others take the reins. It was time for him to go back and teach at the Garrison... Or maybe... Maybe one day he'd see the stars again. He could hear them calling already.

Another ping and he was fully awake. With half lidded eyes a grabbed his phone. The bright orange light was nearly blinding in the darkness of his bedroom. He took one look at the display and nearly dropped the device into his own face. Wha-... Was he dreaming?!

There were two messages glaring back at him, taunting him. This had to be a dream. It had to.

Keith (03:02):

Dear Shiro.... I know I fucked up royally. Fuck, I'm not good at this. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's been a while..... But can we maybe talk?

Keith (03:03):

I understand if you don't want to. I'll leave you alone if you don't want to see me. But I... I can't do this any longer.

Shiro's heartbeat was deafening. Blood rushed in his ears. He had to pinch himself to make sure this wasn't another cruel dream.

This was happening. This was really happening. It had been five years. Five years of silence.

His fingers moved before he could even register what was happening and pressed “send”.

Shiro (03:05):

Don't be. We both did a lot of fucking up. We can talk whenever you want.

It took about ten minutes and Shiro was ready to dose off again, when his phone went off. It wasn't a text message this time. But a video call.

“Hey.”

A single word. It only took a single word... His voice was tinny and rougher than he remembered. His hair had gotten longer. Long enough to be braided actually. There was an edge to his face that hadn't been there when Shiro last saw him. But it was Keith. Sweet, beautiful Keith.

“Hey”, Shiro replied, his voice raspy and thick with emotions.

They talked. They actually talked. At 3:00 am. Not about what happened between them, not about the reason why Keith left, not about Shiro's marriage or divorce. But they talked about small things, like Keith's latest mission or that annoying woman from the canteen who didn't get the message Shiro was into men. But who could blame her? Ever since Curtis Shiro had never tried dating again.

When they finally hung up it was with the promise of meeting up when Keith got back to earth next month. It was almost 5:00 am. Neither him nor Keith had said it out loud, but it hung between them, so thick it was almost palpable.

“I miss you.”

Can't you see I'm in recovery?

Meeting Keith after all this time was like finally, finally putting the shards of his universe back together. Like finally laying their weapons down and calling off the war they had started on that fateful day in the shack.

It was awkward at first... until it wasn't.

One touch, a simple hand on a shoulder kind of touch, was all it took to open the gates to a flood. There were tears. Lots of tears. Tears of joy and sorrow, of forgiveness and apology. Years worth of silence were shattered by a flood of words. Once they started they couldn't stop. Hugging each other and holding on tight, never wanting to let go ever again.

“I'm so sorry”, whispered Keith in between ugly sobs. “I'm so, so sorry. I thought-... I thought-”

“Shhh”, Shiro tried to calm him, tightening his hold on Keith. But the younger man wasn't having it.

“No-... No, you have to hear this.”

He leaned back a little until he could look into Shiro's eyes. His eyes were red and still full of unshed tears.

“I'm sorry I ran”, Keith tried again. This time his voice was steadier. “I didn't know what to do. I thought... After the war you... You deserved better.”

“Better?”, Shiro frowned. “Better than what?”

“Me.”

At that moment it felt like Shiro's heart would burst out of his chest.

Before he could say anything Keith continued: “I... I thought after all you've been through, you deserved a life far away from war and fights and-... I knew I couldn't give you this.”

Another sob rocked Keith's lean body. He'd bulked up a little over the past few years, but he still felt so small and fragile in Shiro's arms.

“I never wanted to hurt you. But... I was afraid... Of hurting myself.”

There was a moment of silence. But a different kind of silence – a pleasant one. Finally, finally Shiro understood.

“You were trying to protect your heart”, he whispered.

Keith's eyes went wide for a second. But he nodded nonetheless. There was nothing left for him to lose. He'd lived five years without Shiro by his side... He'd been through hell already. All because he couldn't just tell Shiro how he felt.

“Well”, the corners of Shiro's mouth turned up into a soft smile. “there's no need to. Never was.”

Again Keith's eyes went wide, his brows rising almost comically high. Slowly, to give him enough time to pull back if that wasn't what he wanted, Shiro leaned down, until their lips were almost touching.

“I never told you this. I never found the right moment... and then you were gone”, with every word their lips brushed against each other. Keith closed his eyes. “Maybe I can tell you now.”

And with that he closed the distance between them.

Kissing Keith was everything he ever imagined it would be... and still so much more. The soft, warm feeling of his lips, the slow drag of his tongue against Shiro's bottom lip were intoxicating. He was done for. He knew that the moment he had to lean back and take a breath. He already missed the warmth of Keith's lips on his.

“I love you.”

The confession left his lips and he couldn't stop. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Tears filled the younger man's eyes again.

“I love you, too.”

For the first time in years it felt like there was a silver lining at the horizon.

They could to this. They could make this right. It had taken them five years, but finally, finally the universe seemed whole again.

The war of silence was finally over.

Song: “Recovery” by LP

#sheith #voltron #voltron legendary defender #shiro voltron #keith voltron #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #fix it fic #this is how i cope with the s8 ending #i suck at writing i'm sorry #vld #alternate ending #alternate universe #vld au #shiro loves you baby #i did a thing #gays in space #hell yes

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