This fic is in honor of my increadible friend Titans_R_Us for their birthday. Happy birthday my friend, I hope it's an amazing one.

Something Borrowed

Blue is the color of royalty, purity, and depression, but most of all it's the color of friendship. Lance may not have been so good at the first three. But in the friendship department…he knocked it out of the park. (All paladins are in their early to mid-twenties in this fic.)

They'd been planning this for months, or well, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge had. Lance would be the first to admit that he wasn't the biggest thinker…as long as there weren't any girls around to impress. But anyway—Months. Months of troubleshooting and getting everything into place for this final raid. They had it all worked out: their connection to their lions was strong their connection to each other even more so. They were ready to take out Zarkon. And they were finally here springing the trap they had laid for him.

Lance ducked back behind the corner just in time to see purple crescents of light shoot through where his head had just been, "I think that way might be blocked."

"Really, what gave it away?" Lance rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, sometimes he hated when Keith used the snarky voice. "Block or not the shield generator we're supposed to destroy is that way. Any bright ideas?"

"Why are you asking me? You're the strategist in our duo." Lance said.

"Because you have a knack for stating the obvious everyone else overlooks."

"I already did that_that way is blocked."

Keith stared blankly at Lance then spoke into his radio, "Pidge can we trade"

Then promptly ignored Lance's background shout of "hey!" to listen to Pidge "You know we can't, we need to stick to the plan and hurry up with our jobs so we can go back up Shiro."

The reminder snapped both men back into focus. "Right" Keith said, "We'll divide and conquer. Lance you go left and low I'll go right and high. We'll meet back up in the generator room."

"You've got it." Lance ran around the corner ducking low while screaming, "Eat laser thingy's Galra grunts." He could almost hear Keith rolling his eyes—mission "loosen up Keith…a little" accomplished.

.

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Keith was going to kill him. Lance just knew it. How could he have gotten lost? According to the plans Allura had shown them all, the shield generator should have been just down the hall from where they had been blocked by the Galra soldiers. He'd been down that hall, then another, and another hall. Now he was totally lost and certain that Keith was going to kill him. Nothing in this area looked anything like the plans Allura had shown them. Lance tripped and slammed into a wall as the building shook with the force of an explosion. With a groan he grabbed his throbbing shoulder and took off running in the direction the explosion had come from. Chances were good one of the other paladins had set it off.

.

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Lance stood frozen in the doorway. He-He wanted to move, to do something, but his body wasn't listening. His mind felt like it was stuck on a loop. Shiro's down, Shiro's down, Shiro's down. A picture, a nightmare that would flash through his mind for the rest of his life he was sure. Shiro lying facedown his Galra arm laying on its own on the other side of the room, and Zarkon standing over Shiro laughing that low creepy laugh of his, an expression of victory on his face as he held his sword over Shiro's still body, ready to plunge it into his heart.

Move. Move. Lance had shifted forward a mere few inches when Zarkon looked up. Lance felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Zarkon stopped laughing and looked Lance in the eye, a slow cruel smile slowly unfuled on his face. The sword plunged downward. Lance let out a battle cry as the terror that had frozen him shattered. He aimed his gun at the sword and fired, please let it be enough. The sword was knocked slightly to the side but not enough, not nearly enough. The sword still ran Shiro through. Too late. Lance saw Zarkons smirk twist into an angry snarl and let out a cry half anguish, half anger as he moved in close and punched Zarkon across the jaw.

The battle was pitifully short after that. Lance wasn't meant to be a close range fighter, he wasn't like Keith or…or Shiro. If he had thought, he would have hung back laid down cover fire with his space gun and waited for the rest of the team to back him up. But thinking had never been his strong suit. And as Zarkon's sword ran through his stomach the utterly pointless thought came, I punched his royal purpleness in the face…heh, so worth it. Then the world was tilting sideways, or he was tilting, he couldn't tell anyonre. And he landed with a thud on top of Shiro. He thought he heard shouts and weapons somewhere in the distance but they didn't matter. Beneath his ear he could hear Shiro's fluttering heartbeat.

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Lance woke up in one of the healing pods to the anxious faces of his team, well…mostly, "Where's Shiro?"

"He's over there." Pidge said as she pointed off to the right. "In one of the healing pods. He needed a longer cycle than you did."

"But he's going to be ok?"

"Yeah," this time it was Keith who spoke and Lance felt a cold shiver run down his spine, he had a feeling Keith was going to yell at him later. And not the snaky yelling that was his version of bonding either.

"What happened? Did we win?"

Pidge smiled, "Yeah, Hunk took Zarkon down while, Keith and I watched over you and Shiro."

Lance sagged back a little in relief. Zarkon was dead, Shiro wasn't, and they had finally, finally won the war.

Lance smirked "So then Pidge, when's your and Shiro's wedding gonna be?" He promptly ducked out of the way of the smack a blushing Pidge aimed at his head, while everyone laughed. Lance knew it was a dumb joke, but relief did funny things to people.

.

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"Aww, why does Hunk get to be the bridesmaid?" Lance whined.

Keith snorted, "Idiot"

"Hey!"

"Enough" Shiro cut in, "Pidge and I talked it over. We wanted every paladin to have a part in the wedding and since Hunk has worked with Pidge the most… He gets to be her bridesmaid along with Allura, while you two will be my groomsmen with Pidge's brother. Ok?"

Lance deflated a little, it was hard not to feel like Pidge was playing favorites, but Lance knew that wasn't true. "Ok." Besides he could see how touched Hunk was by this and it was hard to stay down when Hunk was clearly so happy. Plus, Hunk had always been the paladin Den mother, somehow being Pidge's bridesmaid was oddly fitting.

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Lance softly knocked on Pidge's bedroom door, "Hey bride to be, can I steal a minute of your wedding day."

"Of course, what's up?"

Lance held up a simple leather bracelet with a blue lapis lazuli woven onto it. "I have a wedding present for you. Keith found it at a flea market, so it's old, but it's new to him, and I borrowed it from him… and, well it's blue. I don't know if you follow that old nursery rhyme superstition or not, but I figured it couldn't hurt. And if anyone deserves good fortune on their wedding day it's you and Shi—

Lance's rambling cut off as Pidge threw her arms around his neck, "Thank you." If she sounded a little teary Lance would never tell a soul.

"…Just one thing Pidge…"

She pulled back and rubbed at her nose, "What?"

"…If Keith asks you didn't get it from me."

Pidge bit her lip in an obvious bid to keep from smiling, "Something borrowed huh?"

After seeing the sheepish look on Lance's face the halls echoed with Pidge's laughter.