"How long have you been sitting like that?"
"A varga. Maybe? There aren't any tickers in here."
Shiro's frown grew in intensity at Lance, who was sat upside down on one of the couches in the common area. "If you've got a varga to sit upside down, then you have a varga you could be working on strengthening your bond with Blue."
"Pshaw, Blue and I practically finish each other's sentences."
"Then you can get in that extra bit of work, so you can finish each other's sentences." Shiro countered with an amused smile.
His grumble of frustration aside, Lance was still relieved to have Shiro back… even if he seemed even more of a slave driver since his disappearance.
If he was going to be sitting down for another bonding session, Lance was gonna grab something to eat. The kitchen as often was the case was deserted, though there was always that hum in the air that made the Castle feel a little bit alive.
It was apparent however that it hadn't been deserted too long ago, as there was a splash of red in the otherwise white/grey/teal blue colour scheme that marked the rooms in the Castle of Lions.
A jacket. More specifically, Keith's jacket.
Lance ambled over to the kitchen counter and leant against it, giving the garment a good visual inspection. Keith wasn't in the habit of just leaving it lying around, either the Red Paladin had been really distracted (like on some occasions after he'd been fighting for four vargas straight on the Training Deck), or had been urgently called away (like if they'd suddenly had to fly into battle, except they hadn't had a battle with the Galra in quintants).
He glanced around, even though he knew there was nobody there, he always felt the sudden sensation of guilt whenever he was handling something that wasn't his.
He dropped his own olive drab jacket on the counter and slipped the red one on. Given their similar builds, despite Keith's more exhaustive workout regime, the cropped jacket didn't fit him too badly. Getting into the spirit of things, he struck some exaggerated Keith-like poses, complete with sound effects.
"I'm Keith, and I'm here to kick your ass. Your planet has just been saved by the red samurai of Voltron. I can punch a robot's head clean off."
The Blue Paladin threw a few over the top punches, and snickered to himself. Having had his fun, and knowing that the jacket's owner might be back for it sooner rather than later, Lance shrugged it off and dumped it back on the counter.
Something light and plastic fell from one of the inside breast pockets, and bounced onto the floor. Lance knelt down to inspect what the small object was…
A music player.
Lance's eyes lit up with curiosity, they'd been in space for months and he'd never once seen Keith using it. Unlike Pidge's which was bulky, and had a weight to it (and Lance suspected the device could survive a bomb going off thanks to the rubberized case), Keith's was discreet, and had almost no weight to it at all. The player had a pair of in-ear buds, rather than the noise-cancelling headphones that the Blue Paladin preferred (excellent for drowning out squabbling siblings). Lightweight, discreet and practical, Lance smirked; it definitely had Keith written all over it.
The device was scratched and scuffed along the edges, clear signs of a very active life. The front bore a round button-based interface, rather than a touch screen. The back displayed a logo that looked like a bitten-into apple that seemed familiar, had he learned about it in History Class?
Lance raised one of the white buds and held it to his ear as he tried to turn it on, the opportunity to get insight into what made Keith tick was irresistible. It took a few guesses to get the player working, but it sprang to life after he slid a switch on what was effectively the top side.
A piano began to fill his ear, and his mind was instantly sent racing. The music sounded so calm, emotional at moments… it seemed so out of character for team Voltron's resident hot-headed samurai.
He sat himself down and listened to a few tracks, letting them play through fully as he leant against the cool surface of the counter. He slipped the free bud into his other ear, and let himself become enveloped in the sound.
There were a few pieces which actually featured a whole orchestra, rather than just piano, as well as a couple of songs that actually were chart-toppers he remembered, but most of the tracks he'd previewed were performed on a piano.
A new track was playing, once again a piano performance… but he recognized this one.
Damn it, I know this…
The lyrics were within his grasp. It was an old tune, that was sure, but he thought he remembered it from his Dad's music collection back home.
Take me home… Blue Mountains… River… " Dun der duh, dah der dah… to the place, I belong… "
The music abruptly cut off as the ear buds were yanked forcefully from his ears.
"Whoa! Whoa! Jesus, lay off!" he shouted, raising his hands defensively. They lowered slightly when he registered the look on Keith's face: the Red Paladin was beyond furious.
"Who said you could touch this?"
"Nobody." Lance answered meekly.
"Why are you messing with my stuff? Do I mess with your stuff when you're not looking?"
Lance fumbled for an answer, how the quiznak was he supposed to answer that?
"…I… I wanted to know what you listened to."
"You could've asked." some of the fire had gone out of Keith's anger, but there was still a notable blaze below the surface.
I would've asked if I knew you even had it. He thought it, but he was in no position to say it.
Keith carefully gripped the music player in his gloved fist, as if he might've been scared he could break the small thing. The look and delicacy of the grip reminded Lance of how Keith held his knife when he was studying it. "I left the charger on Earth, so once it's run out of power… that's it. Dead."
Lance felt even guiltier, he hadn't even thought about that.
"So thanks a lot." Keith muttered angrily, grabbing his jacket and stuffing the player back into a pocket.
Lance watched as the Red Paladin stormed from the room, knowing full well he'd be in for quintants of cold shoulders from his teammate, and he deserved it.
It had been hard to not pick up on the tension between the Blue and Red Paladins, and although they'd been able to put their differences aside for the various Galra squads they came across, interactions were otherwise frigid outside of battle.
"Is Keith speaking to you again?"
"Nope." Lance responded, making the 'p' pop. "He only talks to me in battle and even then it's pretty slim. How long do you think he'll be upset at me?"
Coran rubbed his chin in thought. "Well… it was a violation of his personal space… but if it helps, Queen Lycia was once accidentally insulted by a suitor, and she eventually forgave him at his funeral."
"Thanks for the pep talk, Coran."
"Don't mention it!" the advisor responded with a smile. "To think though, all the upset could've been avoided if the suitor had simply made Queen Lycia a peace offering; she was quite fond of Juniberry bouquets."
Lance shot upright. Make a peace offering. "Coran, you're a genius!" Lance cheered as he ran for the door of the common area.
"I have my moments." he smiled happily as he twiddled his moustache.
Lance found Pidge and Hunk in Green's hangar.
"Guys, I need your help with something!" he asked as he skidded to a stop on the flawlessly smooth floor.
Pidge cast an intrigued look his way. "Is this going to get us into hot water with Keith? Or Shiro?"
"No, no, no, no no." Lance returned, waving his hands to dispel the notion of trouble. "I'm hoping to get myself out of hot water with Keith."
"Then I'm all ears." she responded, setting aside her laptop.
"What do you need?" Hunk asked, curious.
"Okay, so this is going to seem like a weird request… but I need a charger for a music player."
Pidge blinked, a look of suspicion filtering onto her face. "Wait, are we talking about my WavePlay?"
"No, this one's different… older."
A light of interest lit in both the hacker and the engineer's eyes. "How old? We talking a couple of decades here, or start of the last century?" Hunk enquired.
"Probably start of the last century. It had this apple on it, if that means anything."
"Oh! I know that one!" Pidge announced excitedly, she lugged her laptop back into her lap and began to type away. A dobosh later, and she spun it around to reveal a series of technical drawings for different music players, most appeared to be branded 'iPod'. "Is it one of these?"
Lance studied a few of the technical drawings for a moment, before he looked back at the Green Paladin. "Just how many blueprints do you have on this thing?"
She returned his look with a smirk. "This is nothing; you should see what I've got on my external drives."
Feeling like asking further might be more trouble than it was worth; Lance turned his focus back to the assorted music players. "That one… I think."
The Blue Paladin took a breath to steady his nerves; he really, really hoped that Keith would at least give him a chance to talk before shouting… or glaring at him. In fact he hoped that Keith just wouldn't shout or glare at him in general.
He knocked against the door to Keith's room and waited.
There was no answer.
"Keith?" he tested, knowing from personal experience (sometimes eavesdropping) that voices could carry through the door when they were near… maybe the doors had some sort of intercom for when people were nearby so they could announce themselves. He took another breath and began to speak. "I'm sorry I listened to your music player without asking, and I'm sorry I ran it down. I wanted to say sorry to you in person and give you a… uh… a 'peace offering'."
The silence dragged on, and Lance was beginning to consider that Keith may not have even been in his room at all. He moved to set the peace offering down on the floor beside the door, when it slid open.
Keith frowned down at him, his arms crossed over his chest in that familiar pose.
"What sort of 'peace offering'?" he asked suspiciously.
Lance rose to full height, and held out the object, it was contained in a box wrapped in vaguely luminous red paper that he'd found lying around. "Here."
Keith gingerly took the gift from Lance, almost acting as if it might explode, or release a practical joke of some kind when he opened it. He slipped off the lid and peered inside, frowning at the device. The largest part was a small rectangular block, furnished with chamfered corners and rendered in a semi-gloss white, with some grey details. The block was inset with a dark red 'V' insignia identical to those on the chest pieces of their Paladin armor. Attached to the block was a thin tube, similar in colour to the inset 'V'. At the far end of the tube from the block was a-
"Is that a power jack?" Keith asked confusedly, holding up the free end of the cable to peer closer at it.
"Yeah." Lance nodded. "It's a charger… for your Shuffle."
Keith glanced toward Lance, his eyes narrowing. "How do you know it's called that?"
"Pidge and Hunk. They helped make that for me to give to you."
Keith turned his attention back to the charger. He set the cable down, and peered at the block. On the opposite side to the one with the Voltron insignia, there was what looked like a contact point.
"They said that if you put that contact against any of the blue glowing lines, it should activate the charger and recharge your player."
Keith seemed skeptical, but he moved back into his room, and sat down beside his bed. Lance watched from the doorway as the Red Paladin extracted the well-loved music player, and plugged in the power jack. He then set the larger block on one of the teal-coloured light lines on the wall, and they both watched as the Voltron Insignia, and the cable began to glow red.
The indicator light on the Shuffle lit up, and it seemed happy to accept the charge.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Keith unhooked the iPod, popped in an ear bud, and began to listen.
As Keith seemed satisfied with the peace offering, Lance angled his body to leave.
"So I'm just going to go and leave you to that, then."
Keith regarded him for a tick, before he spoke: "You can stay."
The Blue Paladin studied him for a moment, before Keith patted the bit of floor next to him, indicating that Lance should sit down.
He'd only just settled down when Keith offered one of the buds to him. Not to look this gift horse in the mouth after the past several vargas of resentful silence, Lance took the earbud and popped it in.
He was instantly treated to piano music, and he recognized it as the song from earlier, the one that he remembered parts of.
After a spell, he asked: "I think my Dad used to have a copy of this song, but it was played on a guitar? What is it?"
"John Denver." Keith responded. "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
" To the place… I belong… " Lance sang in sudden realization, and on the spur of the moment.
"It's not the original version…" the Red Paladin added. "I like piano covers, they help me… they calm me down."
Lance glanced at Keith, whose head was pointing toward the far wall of the room, not looking at anything or anyone in particular.
"This was one of the few things I had when I was young that was really mine." the Red Paladin admitted in a soft voice, one that Lance couldn't remember ever hearing. "Like my knife, it was something I inherited from my Dad. He had some music on it, and I added more of my own."
The guilt came back at that revelation, though Lance didn't have long to wallow in it before Keith continued.
"It was one of last few ties I had to Earth, and I couldn't listen to it nearly as much as I wanted to. Sometimes I'd just listen to one song, and then shut it off… saving it for when I was really feeling down, or lost. That first night, after we found the Blue Lion, when the Castle tried to kill us, after we got back from being marooned… when I found out I was part Galra… and when Shiro went missing."
What could Lance say to that that didn't sound dumb, or insensitive, or immature? Not many people had bared their heart and soul to him, and this development was even more significant as it was his teammate, that it was Keith.
Shiro would know what to do. What would Shiro say?
"…You didn't have to go through this alone."
Keep going.
"We're all lost and alone… I mean, I don't say that to say that I'm worse off than you, or Pidge, or the Princess… but we'd get it, if you told us. We all know where you're coming from because we're coming from the same place… maybe at, like, different speeds, or starting points, but we're all finding out about ourselves, and missing our homes and gripping onto what little we have left."
Okay, so that probably wasn't like Shiro.
"Shit. Shiro's better at this, he'd know what to say."
"Yeah, maybe… but it wasn't bad… what you were saying. Plus, he's older than us; he won't be able to fully get what it's like, like you or me, or Hunk and Pidge."
"Pidge's three years younger than us."
"And she's three years smarter than us."
Lance conceded to that. "Point."
They lapsed into silence, the talk had been a little awkward, but it seemed to have done some good. Keith thumbed the iPod, skipping it back to the start of the track.
" Almost heaven… West Virginia… Blue Ridge Mountains… Shenandoah River… Life is old there… Older than the trees… " the Red Paladin sang softly.
The past few vargas had seen such a change, starting with a fight that had put their friendship and team under strain, to sitting side by side on the floor of Keith's room listening to music. Keith had set the tone by singing in front of Lance, why stop there now?
" …Country roads… Take me home… To the place I belong… "
Keith looked surprised when Lance picked up at the chorus, but the surprise lifted, to be replaced by a small smile.
They kept singing, Lance sticking more to the chorus that he could remember, with Keith filling in the verse. With the final refrain, the two Paladins ended up performing a duet.
" Country roads… Take me home… To the place… I belong… West Virginia… Mountain Momma… Take me home… Country roads… Take me home… Down country roads… Take me home… Down country roads… "
The Shuffle moved on to another piano song, although unlike with the John Denver track, it wasn't one Lance recognized. A short laugh escaped his lips, drawing Keith's attention back to him.
"It's funny, if someone had asked 'hey, what do you think Keith Kogane's favorite type of music is', I never would've gone with piano covers of country and westerns."
"Yeah? What would you have said I'd listen to?"
The Blue Paladin shrugged. "Dunno… Lazer Rays, Tara Wept, Black Friday?"
Keith rolled his eyes. "Electrogoth and Emote music?"
"You are kinda emo."
"No I'm not!"
"You are a little."
A daring look was crossing Keith's face now, and he began to hit the 'next track' button. "Okay, let's see what else we've got."
Shiro stepped away from the doorway to Lance's room; the Blue Paladin wasn't in there like he'd been hoping. When neither Lance nor Keith had shown themselves for several vargas, he'd joined the rest of team Voltron in looking for the two absent Paladins.
He waved the device Coran had given him over the door to Keith's room, a device that the Royal Advisor used to access parts of the castle that the Paladins weren't currently allowed into.
Inside he found Keith and Lance fast asleep, Keith's head lying on Lance's shoulder. He smiled and backed away, giving the two teenagers some peace. He would learn from them later that they'd listened to Keith's iPod until it had ran out of power, and that they'd fallen asleep talking about anything and everything while they'd waited for it to be recharged.
The End