Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender Note - This was written for the Open Novella 2019. The prompt I am using for the story is Suspense 1: Winter Sun.The prompt is, "the winter sun is shining low and bright. The three in the middle of the field seems bent under the weight of something, forming a dark silhouette against snow laden on its branches. A closer look reveals drops of splattered on the fresh snow..."

while some feel her relationship with Lance was a healthy one I am with the ones who feel the relationship was one-sides and toxic. For example, Allura was upset because she originally thought she and Coran were the last Alteans. Later they find out there were others who were alive, but they were being used for experiments and manipulated. Lance made her feel guilty and apologize for the way she felt about the circumstances her race found themselves in by pointing out the way she felt hurt him emotionally.

Allura was also told by Lance's mother that he isn't a ladies' man, but one of the things Lance loves doing is flirting with women which means he is one even though he's never been successful. A few fans feel Lance grew out of liking to flirt with female characters, but he was never seen after a certain point in a situation where he would be tempted to. Hunk also says he is the character most like Lance from DotU after Lance is supposedly no longer flirting with girls, but Lance from DotU is definitely a ladies' man.

I also like working with the headcanon of Keith and Shiro being biological siblings. Part of the reason I jumped on this is because in GoLions (the first version of Voltron) Shiro had a brother named Ryo. In DotU Shiro and Ryo were combined to make Sven, but in VLD they brought back Shiro instead of going with Sven and I wondered where Shiro's brother was from season one.

I actually didn't succeed in getting Lance to the character growth I wanted. This also got through the second round.

Winter Tree
Searching

"Keith..."

The sound of Allura's voice haunted Keith's dreams, but he found himself waking up in a cold sweat. The young leader of the paladins found himself sitting up straight looking into the pitch darkness thinking of the dream which haunted him every single night ever since Allura choose the path of self-sacrifice. Her voice called out, yet her thin fingers also reached out for him, almost as if begging for Keith to rescue her.

Keith found himself wracked with guilt. In the back of his mind, he kept wondering how Allura didn't feel as if she could turn to the rest of the team for help, yet in the same token, he found himself feeling the utmost guilt for having once done the same thing. At the time he simply thought of saving everyone he cared about, yet now feeling the pain of someone else sacrificing themselves he found himself left wondering how the others would have felt if he indeed succeeded.

The dream left a rather bitter taste which didn't abate as night turned into day and he progressed like everyone else upon the Atlas through the day to day routine. The urge to find Allura despite the fact everything told him he wouldn't find her anywhere in this universe echoed through the back of his mind and he found himself heading out in one of the spaceships much, in the same manner, he searched for Shiro, yet he never once found Allura.

"You've got to stop." Lance's voice drew Keith away from his current course of action. He found himself drawn into yet another attempt at searching Allura out by yet another dream. He slowly turned and looked at his teammate, and yet his throat tightened slightly as he wondered if they were really still a team now that Allura and Voltron were gone.

"What do you mean?"

Lance's facial features twisted in annoyance as his arms crossed his chest. "You're doing exactly what you did when Shiro disappeared."

"I found Shiro, remember?"

"No. You found his clone." Lance lifted a hand and pointed angrily at his chest. "Plus, she was my girlfriend."

A slight pang of jealousy hit Keith in the chest. He turned his head away in a poor attempt at not thinking of his unrequited feelings which he never said out loud to Allura when the chance existed. Even if he did succeed in finding her, he knew in the back of his head she was with Lance. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm telling you to butt out."

Keith felt a frown spread across his face. Something bothered him regarding what Lance said, yet mentally he couldn't figure out the exact issue. His hands reached up and gripped his arms tightly. Mentally he worked out what he should say to Lance.

"Did you hear me, Keith? This is none of your business."

The words Keith said next came out of his mouth quickly. "How is what happened to her your business alone? What happened to Allura didn't just affect you."

A rather murderous look appeared on Lance's face and Keith found himself turning away from the other paladin. Mentally the words said stung, yet the things Lance said and did still hurt despite the time the team spent working together. Keith started forward and headed towards the hangar. The spacecraft created so the people of Earth might fight the Galra loomed in front of him, yet something told him Lance followed close behind.

"You shouldn't be doing this." A voice from the shadows made Keith turn to see James standing there watching him carefully. Memories of the young man mentally bullying him during their time at the academy resurfaced, yet Keith found himself pushing back the feelings he felt. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance indeed did follow him.

"You as well?" Keith glanced back towards Lance. His facial features twisted with hurt. Mentally he knew his teammate was, in fact, angry at him for pursuing his search for Allura. "...though I guess you're more concerned about me breaking yet another rule or something and will likely tell Shiro."

James turned his head to look at Lance. "Let me guess. You don't think he should be going out with these anomalies that green monkey dude keeps picking up on, right?"

For a few minutes, Lance's blue eyes widened. A rather sheepish look appeared on his face and he turned his head away. "Well, yeah..."

Keith felt his eyes narrow, yet after a few seconds of neither Lance or James physically moving to stop him he turned towards one of the spacecraft and started up the ladder. Nobody stopped him from getting in, yet as he slipped into the seat and heard the cushioning squeak a little, he also heard James speak up again. "If I tell Shiro it isn't because he's the captain of the Atlas, just to let you know."

A turn of his head let Keith look James in the eye, but he also saw Lance climbing in with a spare spacesuit he'd somehow grabbed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going with you. After all, Allura's my girlfriend, so if anybody is going to save her it's going to be me."

"This is about Allura, not yourself." Keith turned towards the flight controls and pushed a few buttons which in turn brought the engines to life. Soon the two found themselves flying in deep space. The light of the stars greeted two paladins. Despite flying with a companion the expanse felt lonely.

"Keith..."

Keith's head snapped in the direction he heard Allura's voice coming from. His eyes widened and he found himself piloting the spacecraft in the direction. If he paid Lance any mind he would notice his fellow paladin sulking. "This is dumb. You'll never find her. I don't even see why you think you could."

"I don't need this from you, Lance." A warning bell went off in Keith's head. Instinctively Keith slowed the spacecraft so he might see what drew his attention. His eyes narrowed upon seeing a slight distortion off one side of the space shift. His arms reflexively pulled on the controls so the spacecraft moved away from the anomaly.

"Hey. What's..." Lance's comment from the backseat was interrupted by the pull of the anomaly which appeared. Keith couldn't see his fellow paladin's reaction, but the tone of Lance's voice indicated he wasn't happy. "You got us caught in an anomaly? How dumb can you get Keith?"

"Not appreciated, L..." Keith felt a sudden yank as the anomaly expanded. The spacecraft proceeded towards the anomaly despite Keith's attempts at redirecting their trajectory. Another jolt lurched the spacecraft into a tumbling motion. Keith observed a wide array of flashing colors, yet the controls didn't respond to his touch. Despite the lack at control the spacecraft somehow hurtled towards an opening. Keith's eyes widened upon seeing the sight of land and air spinning around them.

"Where..." Lance's question was interrupted by something hitting the windshield. Keith felt his body yanked from the cockpit meaning both the window of the cockpit and his bell gave away, but he thought he heard Lance call out his name as gravity carried him towards the ground below. In the back of his mind, Keith hoped the jetpack of his paladin uniform still worked.

"Lance!" Calling out for his fellow paladin proved fruitless for the spacecraft now headed in a different trajectory in its decent. Keith closed his eyes for a brief second and listened to the sound of the jetpack built into the uniform as he attempted utilizing the device to slow his descent. Somehow despite the lack of control, he managed to slow the descent, yet his body still made an impact when he unceremoniously hit the branches of a tree.

Pain coursed through his head, but he felt the helmet made on Earth as a replacement for his old helmet break and fall away. Keith's eyes opened and closed to the rhythm of the blood which he felt dripping from his body, but soon he blacked out completely.