In This Reality

by beingzen

After Shiro disappears the lions fell asleep, but the war continued as Prince Lotor took up his father's role. Years later, the paladins are still fighting, they have grown up, mature and reformed their relationships through hardship, loss and love.

A.N.: I have just finished watching Voltron and this thing, whatever it is just popped into my head, mercilessly.

I never intended to even like this series as I usually avoid Mecha like the plague. Hell, I didn't even ship anyone until the final 3 or 4 episodes of the series! But here we are: me ignoring my 3 big fanfictions just to write this oneshot.

I suspect all the character are incredibly OOC, but I thought I had to somehow reconstruct their personalities to fit the AU (or reality, in Sven's words).

Please enjoy and leave some feedback if you can?

.o0o.

Allura sighed once again, for the uncountable time as she scanned once more the expanse of space her power allowed her for that particular signal she almost fear to forget in the passage of time…but as always, she found nothing.

'With how long you've been doing this, I can assure you you now have a morning ritual, princess.' Pidge's voice said from the entrance to the bridge.

Allura hadn't even heard the door open.

'I'm not even ashamed to say it has, although I wish otherwise…' Allura confessed as she faced the newcomer.

Pidge smiled at her as she struggled to get all her hair to stay up long enough for her to tie it up.

'Bad hair day?' Allura asked jokingly.

'Don't even…I even washed it in an attempt to tame it…' Pidge groaned, giving up her efforts and dropping her aching arms to her sides.

Allura smiled fondly and motioned for the girl…young woman…to step closer. Pidge did and turned her back to the princess to allow her access to her hair. She soon closed her eyes in a moment of relaxation while the princess's delicate, yet firm fingers combed through her auburn mess, gathering it dexterously and pinning it at the back of her head in a French roll similar to the one the princess herself wore daily.

As Allura finished pinning Pidge's hair back, the door to the bridge opened -and this time she heard it- to give access to the three other paladins, all ready in their colourful suits. Suits that had been improved a few times since they were forced to abandon Voltron and the lions, when they stopped being at all effective.

'-food would be cold by then.' Hunk finished saying as the boys, no young men lined up in front of Allura to wish her a good morning.

The Altean princess couldn't stop herself in that particularly nostalgic morning from admiring the paladins for a few seconds, how much they'd grown and how much they changed since…well, for one, Hunk hit a last minute growth spurt and surpassed all the others. Not to mention the collective resolve to not let that happen again showed in his muscular, rather beefy body.

Pidge grew more feminine, with the lack of need to hide her true identity any longer. She let her hair grow again, which sometimes, like that morning, proved to be a bit difficult and she threatened to just chop it off regularly out of frustration. Allura was secretly pleased, if somewhat guilty to admit, that Pidge had not been blessed with a plumper chest so that Allura herself could somehow keep her self-imposed status of "most beautiful woman on board the castle" even if nobody else cared and even if she was also the only single woman on board the castle…but she had her reasons…Hunk however didn't seem to have a problem with Pidge's body at all, though, so all the better.

Keith had become more handsome, if that was even possible. The sometimes emo teenager grew out of his troublesome moods and turned them into the patience and determination needed for the leader of the paladins, however temporary they all told themselves it was. He could not be bothered with a sense of fashion whatsoever and so his hair had grown longer and was permanently tied back in a low ponytail that everyone secretly knew represented the promise they all made years ago.

And Lance, well, he might have been the one that had changed the most, even if at first glance it wouldn't seem so. The usually carefree lad was always sensitive, underneath all his boasting facade, so it really was not a surprise that Allura was able to catch his gaze turning melancholic when nobody else was looking. He had filled out some of his lanky teenage body and, even though Allura would never say it- his ego would burst- puberty left him with quite a privileged appearance: Tan, lean and muscular, with bright sincere eyes and endearing freckles dusting his high cheeks.

That defeat had affected Lance and Keith the most out of the four paladins. Keith's feelings were never any secret to anybody, his deep admiration for him as clear as water in his young bright eager eyes. He had always been ready to prove himself. And Lance...Alura wasn't quite sure how they had all missed it, but in hindsight it should have been obvious how Lance wasn't quite able to hide how deeply he actually cared for Keith.

'Good morning everyone.' Allura said making them all smile. 'Yaltok and the rest have located one of Lotor's Commander's, just off planet Yuggar.'

'Planet Yuggar? where is that?'

'Planet Yuggar is a small planet of the Arah galaxy, outside the reach of Lotor's reach.' The deep voice of a Galra ally informed them, just as he entered the bridge in possession of a holographic tablet with the information he just declared mapped out in charts and graphics. 'It's the 87th and last planet of the Agarah solar system, valuable for its mineral resources and know for the pacific tribes that inhabit it. Some of our forces were sent to safeguard this planet as a risk area, but the residents refused, saying they would not allow weapons inside their atmosphere.'

'And now Commander Krokov has reached it and awaits the necessary staff to steal its quintessence.' Allura finished the report.

The Galra soldier that had just joined them was Thessar, a member of the former Blade of Marmora, before it joined forces with Voltron and formed the resistance. He was chosen by Coran himself to replace him as he spoke his last breath during a dire fight of the allies against Haggar herself. The mission had been declared a partial success as they had reached the objective, but the loss of Coran was a blow equivalent to defeat.

Allura watched the paladins take up their positions in the bridge, throwing ideas and conjectures out to form a course of action to defend the borders of the allied territory.

'We could set up a trap.' Hunk suggested. 'If they're after the quintessence they will have to be physically close the planet in order to aim the aspirating energy. That gives us a chance to attack them while they are immobile.'

'We should send the fighters out to take care of their fighters while we armour up and blow up their ship.' Pidge suggested as she typed in the info into her screen so as to show her strategy and measure the success rate of the created scenario against Thessar's calculations.

It was a testament to how dire their situation fell into after that defeat, the fact that Hunk, the mellow compassionate heart, was able to put aside his feelings for the life of the planet as it was robbed of quintessence in order to win the fight against Lotor's troops.

'So we have a plan.' Keith decided. 'Any objections?'

The short silence was enough of an answer.

'Then let's move out. Everyone to your ships.' Keith ordered, as a show of leadership everyone appreciated even though they were already on their feet when the words were uttered.

Allura sighed yet again when they left, thinking to herself that too much could have been different, if only that hadn't happened…

The four ships were out of the now larger, infinitely improved, upgraded and slightly overstaffed Lion Castle- if it could still be called that- in a blur of red, blue, green and yellow, the colours of the Lions that now slept like relics of an ancient time in the inner chambers of the fortress they called a ship.

'Fighters, go!' Allura ordered as she took up her ceremonial place at the centre of the bridge. He power was now hardly ever needed, even if she had grown infinitely stronger since the loss of Coran. She was the Supreme commander of the allied forces against Lotor and she would not fail again.

'Approaching enemy ships.' Keith's voice reached all communications and was heard by paladins and fighters alike.

'Fighters incoming.' Lance warned even if he knew that everyone could the numerous red signals in their radars.

'Leave it to us, commanders.' A male voice of a fighter reached them from the speakers.

'They're all yours.' Lance encouraged them and steered his ship to follow his commander, Keith, firing a shot now and again at the few enemy fighters that managed to get in line of shot of the red ship.

They were soon upon the enemy commanding ship as it began the quintessence extraction, the black mass of energy being shot from the bottom blades like Zarkon's own smaller ship had once, in a time where the small ship of the former emperor had seemed too large, too powerful and too daunting, yet the memory of it was never devoid of any fear, no matter how much the technology evolved.

And evolved it had, for now the enemy ship had enough capacity to fire against the paladins' ships as it extracted quintessence without missing a beat. But the paladins were used to that by then and started their evasive manoeuvres without the need for a command, opening fire at all the strategic points they knew so well they could fire with their eyes closed.

'I'm going in. Lance, cover me.' Keith informed in a firm voice, following the strategy to the t, without rash decisions like his younger self was prone to do.

'I've got your back.' Lance told him and steered his ship accordingly, shooting strategically and missing no shots. 'I've always had it…' he muttered to himself without meaning to as his sharp eyes followed all movement, and as usual he went unheard.

Taking down the enemy was easy as it had been for quite a while for this level of attack and supreme commander Allura used this chance to gain the approval of the Yuggar population to station a small base to protect them from further invasions and annex the planet to the allied forces.

At the end of the day, one more day in the fight to take back what was stolen by the Galra empire, the paladins all left to relax as they always did after debriefing, leaving Allura to her thoughts once again and to follow her daily ritual of searching…feeding the dwindling hope that she will find anything at all.

With a last melancholic look at Allura, Pidge followed Hunk through the corridor, listening to his voice as he continued whatever discussion he had been having in the morning with Lance, but not hearing the words at all. She was tired. They all were. Not just physically tired from the day's work, but tired. Worn out by their corrosive silent guilt and ever diminishing hope. Their memories spread too thin over the surface of their minds, trying incessantly, subconsciously to find a way of not forgetting that precious fragment, but failing nonetheless.

Especially the two males walking in front of her.

Pidge, just like everyone else on the ship who had known Lance and Keith long enough, was getting fed up with the dramatic cloud of angst that hung over them since that. The pair of paladins had had an enormous argument shortly after it happened, thinking that they had been alone when really she had been sitting right there. Allura had spent the whole week crying, Hunk stopped eating and Pidge herself shut everyone out. Only Keith and Lance seemed to keep their strength in everyone else's place without actually mourning which led to them blowing up, fortunately at each other. They insulted each other, cried on each other's shoulders and ended up kissing without confessing their undying feelings for each other and that, Pidge was sure of it, was what caused the whole misunderstanding of this terrible situation, even though it solved their sexual tension.

And she had enough.

'Hey Keith.' She called. 'Care to join me in a sparring match?'

Keith looked at her a bit puzzled for a moment before shrugging his shoulders in a silent "why not?" that the female paladin mentally congratulated herself for. She shot Hunk a meaningful look and turned back towards the training deck.

She wasn't sure she wanted to know what her boyfriend did to distract Lance, but it worked so it was mostly fine.

Of course, she had no intention of actually sparring, she was just really fed up with Keith and Lance's obliviousness, so as soon as they turned the first corner of the corridor, Pidge pushed Keith against the wall and interrupted his "Hey, what's the deal?!" with her own authoritative "Very well, mister lover boy, here's what's gonna happen!" that not only shut him up, but got his attention.

'You are going to have a very serious and very honest conversation with Lance in the next two hours or so because all the angst floating between you two is getting on everyone's last nerves.' She commanded adopting a dominant pose with crossed arms, both feet planted firmly on the floor and raised chin.

Keith looked at her for a moment, surprised before exclaiming a loud confused "What?!"

'I'll cut to the chase, just to save us the awkward conversation.' Pidge explained, now dropping the angry pretence. 'I think you and Lance need to have a very serious conversation, because it is very apparent that something is bothering the two of you and I am worried that it will affect your teamwork one day.'

To his credit, Keith didn't pursue the attempt at playing ignorant, but lowered his gaze instead and nodded.

'I know…but…I'm afraid this might affect our teamwork anyway…' he confessed, surprising Pidge.

She was aware they had all matured and grown closer as they grew stronger, but it was always a surprise to hear Keith talk about his feelings or his problems. So, as a sign of friendship and to soothe his worries even if just a bit, she patted his shoulder.

'People solve problems by talking, right?'

Pidge was happy with Keith's smile for an answer.

When they made their way back to the crew's quarter's section, they found Hunk and Lance were also walking to their rooms, saying their goodnights at the of corridors that separated Hunk and Pidge from Keith and Lance.

'That was a short sparring session…' Lance commented with a smirk.

'I got beaten and gave up.' Pidge lied with a shrug of her shoulders.

'Right…' Lance didn't seem convinced.

'We were having a conversation.' Keith answered instead and Pidge looked at him so fast she got whiplash.

'Dude, seriously?!'

Keith shrugged his shoulders once again.

'Ok. Well, I'm going now. Good night everyone.' Lance declared, visibly tired, like they all were.

'Lance, wait up!' Keith called and followed him after waving Pidge and Hunk goodnight.

'We all need a holiday…' Hunk commented.

Pidge waited a very short time to let Keith and Lance walk away, perhaps too short as she was almost sure the they heard her, to grab Hunk's hand.

'Can I sleep with you tonight?'

Hunk looked down at her squeezing her hand in reassurance.

'Of course.'

As for Keith and Lance, well, their return to their quarters was silent, charged as usual with the steadily mounting unease of too many complicated things left unsaid but never unknown yet poorly hidden behind smiles and jokes and even though they had been thinking of putting an end to the never ending string of unrequited mutualness of their dilemma, neither of the two males dared take the first step.

Pidge was right, Keith decided. It was high time he came clean to Lance. The tanned paladin didn't deserve what he was doing to him and Keith was not going to let that day be yet another missed opportunity when he reached his sleeping quarters, its door directly in front of Lance's.

'I'm gonna go down to the bath's tonight.' Lance announced, his eyes not meeting Keith's, unconscious behaviour he adopted at some point in the uneasy relationship.

'I think that's a great idea. I'm also…' Keith started to say, trying to keep his usual tone of voice, as hard as it had become when they were alone.

'I-' Lance interrupted him, looked at him and then turned his face to the side again with an endearing little blush on his cheeks that he tried to ignore with a high, smug stance as usual, but also with a distressed frown of his brows. 'I am very tired today, so I would rather go alone…I think.'

Keith mentally congratulated himself for keeping the frown out of his own face.

'We don't have to do anything tonight, Lance.' He clarified with a smile. 'I stink, you stink and we're both pretty tired. Let's just relax for a bit.'

'Hey! Who're you calling smelly?' Lance complained, but didn't refuse and met Keith after getting his bath towel.

The baths were always empty in this floor, mainly because these were the old baths, left there because the space wasn't necessary to the upgrading of the ship and new, better baths were made to the crew. The fighters had their own bigger baths one floor below anyway.

Keith and lance enjoyed the privacy of the unoccupied baths, undressing quietly as the water warmed up and the bubbles formed on the scented liquid. With a tired sigh, both males submerged their bodies and relaxed with their eyes closed for a while.

A while that Keith though was longer as he was woken up by the sounds of Lance swimming around.

'Sorry I woke you.' The tanned paladin said in a calm, low voice. Keith just shook his head to signal there was no problem. He watched Lance swim about until his eyes landed on his naked back where scars of the burns from the explosion he saved Coran from so long ago rested, now the same colour of Lance's skin, stretched with the muscles.

Keith reached out to Lance and gently placed his hand on the tanned back, admiring the scars, worshipping them for what they were: courage. Lance was tense under the touch, quiet even as he felt Keith rest his forehead on his back. He closed his eyes, feeling that familiar bittersweet tightness in chest as his heartbeat doubled.

'I can't do this any longer, Lance…' Keith finally said, the words as heavy as their consequence in his tongue.

'What can't you?' Lance asked, his voice heavy and Keith pressed his forehead harder against the warm tan skin.

'You know what…' Keith took a small breath and bid his heart to endure because this was the right thing to do. 'I can't keep using you like this.'

There was a moment of silence during which Keith put some space between them, ending their physical contact in an attempt to make this easier.

'What?' Lance asked, sounded genuinely perplexed, to Keith's confusion. 'What do you mean, you're using me?'

Keith just stared at Lance because seriously, for all he was worth, he was so sure Lance at least knew something was up…right?

'W-well…' He stuttered, put off by actually having to explain what he meant. 'I took advantage of your loss when Allura said she loved…you know…' Keith looked at a fascinating bubble that was totally worth his attention in that situation until it reached his pale skin and burst. He sighed, then looked up at Lance's face, noting the raised eyebrows in utter confusion and chuckling humourlessly at the sight. 'You're in love with Allura. You've always been, everyone knows. But when she broke your heart that day, all I could selfishly think about was that maybe-maybe I could have a chance…maybe I could make you see me like you saw her…maybe you could…love me…'

Lance gasped then, both eyes widening and his hands coming up to the surface but stopping there instead of finishing their path to wherever they were headed.

'What…are you saying, Keith?' Lance's broken voice as he asked that question and his broken expression close to tears tied a knot on Keith's throat and he didn't know what to do with his own hands, but he had to do this, he had to end this, no matter what.

It's for the best.

And then Lance started laughing, small and low at first, but growing fast into a full belly laugh, complete with tears and Keith seriously didn't know what to do then, because he was so sure that Lance was going to punch him or shout at him or...anything! but never laugh.

'The hell are you laughing about! I'm serious here, you jerk!'

It took Lance two good minutes to finally be able to talk. He rubbed at his face, cleaning up the tear tracks with the bath water and breathing in deeply before he faced Lance with the first true, full smile he has shown him in a long while.

'Keith, we're idiots.' Lance said and now it was Keith's turn to look totally lost at Lance and finding no explanation in his brain whatsoever for the statement. But Lance continued.

'I thought I was the one taking advantage of you all this time.'

'Hugh?' Was Keith's eloquent response.

Lance smiled a smile that was part embarrassed and big part bitter. 'All this time I believed you were in love with-you know, and I was just taking advantage of your feelings, you know.'

Lance walked closer the Keith then and touched his arms, caressing them up and down and then up again to his neck, stepping closer still until his forehead rested against Keith's.

'I am so happy right now my mouth hurts from smiling…' Lance confessed, pulling an awkward laugh from Keith, who placed his own hands on the smooth skin of Lance's waist.

'Please say it clearly now…' Keith heard himself beg against Lance's lips, finding the desperation in that request to be the most sincere emotion he's ever spoken in his twenty odd years of life. 'Lance?'

Lance looked straight into Keith's eyes as he spoke the next words, his breath ghosting over Keith's lips like a promise.

'I love you, Keith.'

And without missing a beat, smiling with all he was worth, Keith kissed that breath away, passionately, with hunger.

Lance licked at Keith's lips as he pushed them both towards the edge of the bath where he pushed his body flush against the creamy pale expanse of Keith's skin, creating friction between their bodies, especially between a part of their anatomy that was becoming increasingly excited.

'I thought you were too tired for sex…'Keith managed to joke between kisses.

'Maybe just a little…?' Lance answered, sincerely and aroused and captured Keith's bruised lips again with his own.

Keith had no complaints. He caressed Lance's skin from his back, down to his buttocks, grabbing the plump flesh firmly in his hands and pulling the tanned paladin's pelvis even closer to his with a moan of his name.

They didn't last very long, their arousal mixed with the adrenaline of being confessed to by the one they loved and the tiredness of the day urged their movements to be faster, rougher. Soon, they couldn't keep up the kiss without clashing their teeth, so they settled for breathing the same air, becoming high with the intoxicating delicious taste of each other on their lips.

Lance snaked a hand between their bodies, his eyes never leaving Keith's, and grabbed both their firmly aroused dicks, pumping them at the same rhythm their hips undulated.

'Lance…' Keith moaned, breathy and, like an order, their pace increased, became uncoordinated and irregular, until they both came, at the same time, moaning each other's names like a prayer.

Their breathing was heavy. As were their bodies. They were sated, relaxed and very happy, but also very sleepy and Keith didn't fancy drowning at all, so with much more difficulty than what was really reasonable and an adoring kiss on Lance's temple, he maneuvered them both out of the bath.

They got into their fluffy white robes and carried their clothes in one arm while their other hand held the other's in an unusual shy display of affection as they walked back to their rooms.

They stood in the middle of the corridor, between their rooms' doors' just looking at each other without the words to accompany the feelings that overwhelmed them.

'Good night, Lance…' Keith finally said, daring to kiss the tanned cheek of the other before retreating backwards into his room, not really wanting to end the contact between the both of them in case he woke up from his dream.

'Night…' Lance almost muttered with a hand on his cheek, seemingly in a trance as his brain processed everything that just happened between them.

Keith just stood in front of his door, even after it closed, listening to Lance's own door opening and closing and just…not thinking. But then there a knock and all of a sudden, he had his arms full of Lance as the other threw himself at him as soon as he was granted access into the room.

'I want to sleep with you.' Lance explained. 'Because if I wake up and you're the first thing I see, then I'll know I didn't just dream it…'

Keith's answer once again, was to kiss Lance deeply, cradling his head gently in his hands and pulling him towards the bed.

'You read my mind.'

They pulled the covers over themselves, turned off he light, kissed some more and fell asleep the deepest they'd had in a very long while.

.o0o.

Allura sighed again as she moved the universal starmap projection on the bridge, still searching, feeding the fire of her hope with ghosts and failing once more to find anything.

The door to the bridge opened, making the airy noise it always does and as usual, it was Pidge who entered, this time with her hair already up in her usual style.

'You surely know the entire universe like the back of your hand by now.'

'It is sad, but despite of that, I still haven't located the utility room inside the ship.' Allura confessed as a way to lighten up her mood before the rest of the paladin arrived.

'It's not as if you need it at all, princess.' Came Lance's cheerful voice from the entrance. He was closely followed by Keith and they were practically glowing. Behind them came Hunk, looking puzzled.

'Oh, I'm so happy for you two!' Allura exclaimed with a delighted smile.

Pitch just looked incredibly smug.

'I'm missing something.' Said Hunk, looking at the two women and then at the two other males who were blushing very hard and looking at everything but the people in the room. 'I'm missing something, aren't I?'

'Well, it is certainly pleasant to see that all of you are feeling positive today.' Thessar interrupted them with his arrival, pulling a map from his tablet and enhancing an empty area on it. 'Because I have picked up a very faint distress signal from this area not long ago, but it disappeared just as fast as it arrived.'

'It could be a trap.' Lance suggested.

'Allow me to disagree, Commander Lance. The signal didn't even last a tick and it was so faint our radars didn't even picked up on it. Thessar explained.

'Sounds more like they're trying not to be detected while they call for help.' Keith speculated.

'We should take a look.' Pidge suggested.

'Yes, we should. Everyone to their stations.' Allura agreed and so another day stared for the allied forces as they desperately tried to fight against the evil of Lotor.

.o0o.

A.N.2:I regret Nothing.