Lance woke up to the sound of the Altean equivalent of an alarm clock with a groan, ignoring the splitting headache that clouded his head. It felt more like a migraine as the ticks passed, and he had a hard time trying to remember what he had been doing the previous night that had started the raging discordance in his brain.
He raised up his hand to rub at his tired eyes, then yawned and removed the headphones that were playing his nightly track mix of cascading waterfalls and patter of rain that easily put him to sleep. He took his sweet time getting up from the bed and getting ready for the day. Allura was going to make them run a course at the training deck that morning, doubtlessly the maze, or maybe it was gladiator sparring again. He'd most likely get out of it if he told her he was sick with what felt like a mental fissure. But knowing her, she'd simply brush it aside as it was only a temporary problem that wasn't going to affect him for the whole day.
He sighed, checking himself using his phones fore camera, not failing to notice his eyes were red rimmed. Was he crying last night? He couldn't remember. It was probably nothing, maybe he was sick? But his temperature felt fine so he didn't feel so certain.
Before he chucked his phone onto his bed, a notification went off, alerting him of an important event that was supposed to take place on earth. He wanted to ignore it. Since he wasn't on earth anymore, things like that didn't matter. Not in the middle of this space war.
Here he didn't have his mothers sweet, warm hugs, or the annoying yet comforting laughs of his siblings, nieces and nephews as they played and laughed and joked in the serenity of Josone park, the gentle strums of his Abuelo's Cuban Laud as he played an old 60's song, or the sounds of the overlapping current that made the waves splash against themselves at the Varadero beach. . .
He jolted as soon as he heard the sharp and urgent knock on the door, slipping him out of his reverie. The door slid open and he was expecting to see Shiro or Keith or maybe the Princess Allura herself coming to reprimand him on his belatedness. Same ole, same ole.
Lance was however, surprised to see Coran at his doors threshold as soon as it slid open, the goofy, yet enthusiastic uncle like countenance that took him back to his Tío Marco. "Lance, the Princess and your fellow paladins are waiting for you at the breakfast table and she expects you to be as fast as a Carvoxian malimba after a fuddela fly."
"Yeah, yeah Coran." Lance mumbled, quickly checking his phone just for the heck of it before tossing his phone on his bed, physically waving off the man's Altean similes that would still never make sense to him, and just go along with getting on with the day. The migraine in his head seemed to have dulled into a soft throb, and he was positive the tired, red rimmed look of his eyes was fading away.
As soon as he was sure he was out of sight, Lance did a little happy dance, instantly forgetting that he had cried last night. It was his birthday! And he was sure, because his notification said so, although he still wasn't certain why he needed to remind himself of his own birthday. But what the heck, today was his day and nothing was going to bring him down on his day.
He did another happy dance as he neared the door leading to the dining room where he'd have his breakfast with his friends. And speaking of friends. . .
He smiled brightly. Hunk and the others were probably planning some sort of surprise for him. Maybe even baked him a cake made up of several Altean substitutes for Earth ingredients. He was probably the first and only one that remembered since he was, after all, his best friend. Though he didn't count on Pidge, Keith or Shiro remembering. And he was sure Allura and Coran had no idea what birthdays were. But then he shrugged that off.
Hunk was going to tell them all that it was his special day, they'd all wish him a happy birthday and today was going to be the best day ever.
Lance was still so deep into his mental interlocution that he hadn't heard Coran calling his name still at the threshold of his room door.
xXx
"I can't possibly have been the only one to notice it." Hunk finally spoke up after Lance had left to his room as soon as training at the training deck was over.
They had gone through the maze today, and Allura had increased difficulty levels to 6, which was two levels higher than normal. It was supposed to increase their efficiency and mental synchronization, things like that. But Lance, even after cracking a thousand jokes than normal and incessantly picked fights with not only Keith, but maybe Pidge at some point, seemed so. . . out of it.
"What do you mean?" Keith asked, leaning against the wall beside the entrance to the training room. Pidge had paused her walk on the way to her room to join in on their conversation.
"It's Lance, didn't he seem. . . I dunno, he was acting sorta weird? Not weird as in freaky weird but like, he seemed a bit off."
Keith scoffed. "Lance is always goofing off. Shouldn't be a surprise to you."
"I know that but, something's bothering him. I think."
"Maybe it's his homesickness again." Pidge suggested, later diverting her attention to Coran who had just come out of the training room, Allura and Shiro not too far behind.
"You three wouldn't happen to have seen number three anywhere would you?" Coran inquired and Pidge shook her head meanwhile Hunk nodded. "He was heading in the direction of his room, but then that hallway also leads to the lounge so I'm not sure." He told the Altean man. "Why'd you ask?"
"I thought I would be able to give him his communication device after training." Coran handed Hunk Lances phone and he looked it over. Nothing was wrong. Coran continues. "It was making a strange noise. Equivalent to that of an Altean daybreak bell."
"A strange noise?" Keith frowned at him, later being startled by the familiar ringing sound of an alert/notification that would only have emitted from a phone. Coran pointed at it. "Yes, like that!"
"Relax Coran, it was just a notification." Hunk said calmly, imputing Lances password to enable him access into the device. "You know the password to his phone?" Pidge arched a brow at him, wondering how close their friendship was for Lance of all people to give out information like that.
"Yeah...?" Hunk somewhat shrugged and went back to checking what the notification on Lances phone meant. Shiro and Allura were now in front of the little paladin grouping, with the exception of Lance. Hunk suddenly gasped, pupils dilating like he had just been told his cooking had poisoned someone and they died.
"What big guy? What is it?" Keith asked, eyebrows arching in concern and confusion. Hunk slowly raised up the phone, turning the screen to where they could now see the cause of his worry.
"It's July 28th. So?" Keith blinked expressionless at the phone, whereas Pidge did a little gasp of her own, although not as dramatic as Hunks. "You guys." The green paladins eyes glanced over at everyone's faces, they were all concerned now. What was supposed to happen that day? "It's Lances birthday."
"What?!"
xXx
The little group disbanded after they had heard Lance walking their way. Everyone tried to act like they were all doing their own thing. Allura, Shiro and Coran were talking gibberish about the castles coordinates and schematics, Pidge was up on her computer, with Hunk peering over her shoulder and Keith leaning against the wall, arms folded and head down in his usual broody mannerism.
"Hey guys." Lance waved at them, a curious expression on his face. "What're we up to?"
"Nothing. We aren't doing anything, what about you?" Hunk said hurriedly , looking elsewhere but his eyes. Lance frowned sadly in disappointment.
"I'm... I'm good. You seen my phone anywhere?"
"Uh. . ." Hunk nervously checked himself, not finding the device he turned to Pidge. "Pidge, his phone?"
"Not with me." Pidge shook her head. "Checked your room?"
"That's the first place I checked."
"Oh Lance, you're here." Allura said upon seeing Lance in their midst. A casual, but small smile on her face. "Is something the matter?"
Lance tried to drop his expression, but failed to do so, and ended up looking sadder. "No, its nothing. Just lost something is all. If you need me I'll be in the lounge."
"Okay, see you later." Hunk waved at him. "And hope you find your phone." Lance sighed and trudged back down the hallway to the where the supposed lounge was located. He muttered a "Yeah me too." Before disappearing down the hallway.
xXx
Lance sighed for the third time since after he had slumped, face first, onto the couch. He had found his phone somewhere in his room right in between a stack of clothes oddly piled together. It was odd though, he hadn't seen that the first time he was searching for it. He sighed again, his mind going back to the fact that his friends forgot his birthday. He just couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe they forgot.
He couldn't believe Hunk forgot. And he was supposed to be his best friend.
He jolted slightly after he heard the blare of the castle alarms. He got up, swinging himself off the couch and got right into running. Looks like he'd have to tell them himself. By the time he got to the main control room after getting himself changed, everyone was already there and in their paladin suits as well.
He got on his seat and the holoscreens immediately popped up.
"Paladins," Allura began to inform them. "The castle has picked up a distress signal coming from this sector-.
"Hey guys, sorry to interrupt but do you have any idea what day it is?" Lance said, putting emphasis on the word 'day'. Allura looked somewhat annoyed at him for interluding, but remained quiet all the same.
"Yes. It's a Thursday on Earth." Pidge said, not looking up from her holoscreen. "Hey, Isn't this where the Space Mall is?" She was referring to the sector they were entering.
Lances face dropped. That did not just happen.
"Why of course." Coran said, matter-of-factly while twiddling his mustache. "It's the only place where the Unulu would be. They've probably run into trouble with Galra officials."
"We're here because of the space pirate people?" He gave him a deadpanned look. Coran couldn't be serious.
"Well why else? I did give them the direct Prograde access to contact the castle last three times I've been here."
"You gave space pirates- I mean, the Unulu, access to the castles direct contact- the one my father ban because enemies were using it to steal relevant information from our database- you used that one, for trading purposes?" Allura frowned at the man who still was looking quite accomplished of himself. She sighed and shook her head. "We'll get back to that after our mission." She said, turning to face the paladins, hands still on the ships controls. "And the distress call is not from the Unulu. It is from the small planet, Krandor, right by it."
"I don't see a Krandor any where on this systems coordinates." Pidge says, squinting through her glasses at the holoscreen. There was a one minute silence in between.
Lance decided to use that moment to try again. "Ahem." He fake coughed. Aside from today being a Thursday. What other day is it? July 28th, very special, something or someone was brought out into the world. . ."
The team stared blankly at Lance, impassive expressions etched on their faces, and his heart dropped. They forgot. . .
"Ooh, I know." Hunk raised up his hand politely and everyone waited for him to speak. Lances lip began to spread into a smile. "It's the day their releasing that new movie." Then his smile lowered.
"Oh yeah!" Pidge exclaimed, looking up from the screen. "I can't believe we're gonna miss that."
"What new movie?" Keith asked.
"It's the one with the spy from China who's also from Australia-"
"Enough guys." Shiro intervened their discussion. "I think Lance already knows what day it is." He didn't think his heart could drop any lower. "So if your done, would you like let Allura talk?"
"Oh, sorry Allura." Pidge said, and turned back to her holoscreen. The rest of the team went back to paying attention and Lance stayed slumped in his seat, the urge to cry pushing at his eyes. Though he didn't want to cry now, maybe in the solitude of his room after the mission.
"Thank you Shiro." Princess Allura said, and went to addressing the team. "Anyway, you won't find the planet on the coordinates." Allura opened the star map that expanded around them, pointing at a small planet that was there, or rather- supposed to be there. "It was a rather small planet. It got destroyed 10 decafeebs ago after an unaccounted war that occurred in this system. Now it is only an inhabited rock floating on a spot in space.
"Okay Paladins, I need two of you to hurry and retrieve whoever might be stuck on that planet."
"Sure Princess." Shiro says. "Lance, you go with Keith. The rest of us will monitor your progress from here."
"What? Why do I have to go with Keith?" Lance frowned indignantly, earning a glare from said Keith.
Shiro ignored the boys one-sided rivalry and continued, looking nervous, if not for half a tick. "You go, because. . . because I'm your leader and I say so."
He was sure he heard Keith mutter a small "smooth" to Shiro and Pidge simultaneously face palm.
Lance pretended not to notice the black paladins weird reply, but then shrugged. "That's not a good enough justification. But I'll go 'cause your the boss." He gave a mock salute before leaving with Keith to enter one of the castle pods. Allura had told them that the air on Krandor is pure, concentrated nitrogen and will 'turn your feeble lungs into ash, if you even dared to breath it in.' So they had to cover their heads entirely with their paladin helmets.
The small trip to the blown up planet was silent and uneventful, with Keith giving him weird side glances at different intervals and Princess Allura telling them instructions and orders on the what-to-do's when they land.
As they landed the pod, he noticed how silent and eerie the planet was. It was foggy and misty and Lance could barely see a thing besides the crevices that marred the terrain. He checked the life scanners on the holoscreen that projected out of the Altean wrist band on his paladin armor and saw only two life signatures. Okay, they had just two people they had to save before they leave. Shouldn't be too hard. Now, if only he could see in this fog...
"You seeing anything?" He heard Keith say from beside him as they began walking, and though he was a bit startled, he still managed a glare at him. "Oh of course I am." He said with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "I can see some rocks, some air, and I can never miss that stupid mullet."
"If you were going to say something stupid you should've just shut up."
"You shut up." Lance retorted.
"Sh sh shhhh." Keith silenced him, bringing a finger to his lips and looking looking around as if he had seen something. Lance scowled and swatted his hand away. "I wasn't saying anything-"
Something wooshed by him and he was forced to stifle his sentence. He looked high on alert as well, going back to back with Keith as the same thing wooshed by again, but slower so he could make out the creature to be at least 3m long and 70cm high, like the bigger version of a Jaguar. The thing started to circle them, like a predator hunting its prey. Sometimes it got lost in the midst but then it would appear again. Lance gulped, trying to keep himself from breathing too loudly as if the mere action would trigger the beast.
The creature was purely black, with little white spots accenting its face and fox like tail. It had fangs jutting out from it's maxilla that were longer than a sabertooth's and then then five snakelike eyes that lined it's head atop it's snout. It consisted of no fur, but it's hide looked reminiscent to the odd combination of a pebble and a boa skin.
"Um Keith?" Lance gulped and activated his bayard, Keith doing the same. "I think I see something."
xXx
For the past twenty vargas, Lance and Keith had been playing the weird combination of cat and mouse and hide and seek with this beast, the two of them sometimes losing sight of each other in the fog. He heard Keith swear after he had tripped on a crevice and almost fallen in. "Allura never warned me there'd be man eating creatures." Keith grunted, slicing his sword in the air upon sighting the creature. Lance had the great idea of naming it. If he wasn't going to get his due attention on his birthday, then he might as well make something his.
"Did you get the Saguar?" Lance called out, losing him in the fog again. He blasted randomly at the space in front of him, hoping at least one of his many blasts had hit it.
Keith swiped at the air again. "Saguar?"
"You know, since it looks somehow like the crossover between a Sabertooth and a Jaguar?" He turned around sharply upon the feel of something graze against his suit, his blaster at the ready. "But then it has a black hide like the panther so I guess it's more of Santher?-"
"Lance look out!" Keith yelled, shoving Lance down and bringing both of them to the ground. The creature- Santher, had jumped right in front of them, and the two scrambled to their feet, slowly stepping back from the Santher as it got into a leaping position. It let out a lowly growl, and it's dark empty eyes suddenly began to glow red. And if Lance knew anything, it was that red signified danger (no offence Keith) and danger was never a good thing.
"It's eyes are glowing red." Lance says, failing miserably to hide his panic. "That's never a good thing. What's the plan?"
"Uhh. . ." Keith's eyes darted around the foggy planet, resting finally on the Santher which looked just about ready to jump at them. Something told Lance that despite their very slow means of escape by backing away, the creature would still be able to reach them. "I'm not sure. Try seeing if you could shoot it with your blaster."
"I think I've already tried that-"
"Just do it!" He yelled and Lance immediately shot at the Santher, the creature leaping out of the way with agile grace and running right at them.
Lance could only think of the only reasonable thing to do at the moment. Run.
He took to his heels, not bothering to check if Keith was following because surely the hot- tempered idiot would be right behind him also running for his life. "Shiro! We're being chased by a huge Sabertooth, jaguar, panther thing that wants to eat our skulls. Requesting back up! Requesting back up!" He yelled into his com, a horrified expression on his face as he was met with only static. "Shiro! Allura? Pidge, Hunk, Coran where are you?" Lance yelped upon tripping on a jagged rock that jotted out of the ground and his face came to contact with the earth.
He groaned as he tried getting up from the floor, only to be pushed back down by a hefty paw which he was sure belonged to the Santher. Lances eyes watered as his nose was invaded by the repugnant smell that emitted from its mouth and he was sure that was it for him. Lance groaned once more.
"This is not how I wanted my birthday to go."
xXx
The last thing Lance had expected from a huge man- eating creature was for its thick, forked tongue to lick him right in the face. Well, not exactly his face since it was being protected by a glass pane.
Lance winced at the sudden change of temperament. One moment he was scared to death thinking how his birthday was going to soon become his death day. And the next he was being licked in the face like an owner saying hello to his dog.
"Aww, he likes you."
The Santher immediately got off of him, the source of the voice, which he was sure wasn't Keith's, giving him a hand. He saw that it was an alien. A female alien. And she was pretty.
Maybe this wasn't going to be his death day after all.
"Hey. The names Lance." He slipped into his casual smooth- talker mode as if it was a second nature. He glanced her over. She was blue in color, with the exception of her face and arms that were designed in green vine like tattoos that lined her features intricately. She had two small eyes with purple irises, her cornea being green as well. She wore something equivalent to what a pilot from Star Wars would've won, including the helmet with the goggles. But he could still make out the specks of yellow hair (fur?), that weren't covered by the helmet.
"Hello Lance." She waved her hand that consisted of only three thickly slender fingers. "I am-"
"Gorgeous, I know." He smirked at her and she still retained her normal, casual smile like he wasn't trying to flirt with her. "Actually Lance. I am Ciol'niora of the Phoenix Squadron rebellion," She put a hand to her chest, then gestured to the Santher creature, that was now sitting comfortably beside it's presumed master. "and this is my rephtoryne, Santher."
Lance blinked rapidly, unsure of whether or not what he heard was true. "I'm sorry, did you say that thing is actually a Santher and I didn't make it up?"
"I am not sure what you mean when you say 'make it up' but I assure you this is my Santher." She patted it's head. "Or, at least his name is Santher. Santhers species is rephtoryne. A very old species that have lived up to more than a thousand decapheebs."
"That's nice." He nodded, but more at himself. What a coincidence that his creative imagination actually became a reality. Sure, it applied on completely different semantics, but he was still right. He chuckled mentally. Maybe things are finally coming Up Lance.
"So what're you doing here?" Ciol'niora asked, tilting her head in question.
"I and my buddy- not sure where he is right now- are the paladins of Voltron. We picked up on your distress signal when we were gliding over this sector. We came here to come rescue you."
"Rescue?" Ciol'niora frowned in confusion. "I do not remember sending a-"
"Lance!" He heard Keith running from right behind him, sword bayard in one hand, the other was clenched in a fist of fury. He glared at Ciol'niora and Santher with eyes full of untrustworthiness. "Who are you, and what do you want from Lance?" He thrust his sword threatfully at them, Ciol'niora backing away in shock and Santher baring his fangs at him.
"Hey it's okay Keith." Lance said calmly and cautiously lowered his sword, Santher stopped baring his fangs. "These are Ciol'niora and Santher." He gestured to the two aliens. "These are the guys we came to rescue remember?"
"Rescue?" Keith looked bewildered for a moment. "I don't. . . are you serious?" He looked at Lance like he was joking with him.
"Yes? The distress signal was coming from this planet and we needed to come save them." Lance said slowly as if trying to teach Keith a new language with little patience. "Remember?"
Keith blinked at him, then widened his eyes in reminiscence. "Oh yeah. The, rescue mission. Right." He nodded curtly, muttering something about a 'change of plans'. Lance was about to ask about what that meant when something sharp sounded in his ear from the coms. It was a quick beep, which only meant that reconnection had been established.
Keith was already asking Ciol'niora if she actually wanted to leave the planet, although Lance wasn't too sure why he would be asking the people that were requesting to be saved that question. It was when he heard the tumult coming from the other side of the com that he decided to ditch the reasons for Keith's acts. It sounded like something bad was going down there.
"Hello?" He called into the com, the shouts of Princess Allura yelling out orders and the rest of the team screaming in prominent danger made his ears ring. "Guys?! guys! Hello?" That was all he could yell into the coms as the danger seemed to have escalated and Shiro was yelling out a "Brace yourselves!" to which everyone else responded with a scream. Dear God what was going on?
When the scrambly sound of static reached his ears once more, his face was pale and Keith and Ciol'niora were trying to awaken him from his stupor. The both of them looking deathly worried about him. He almost smiled. So Keith actually had a heart somewhere buried under all that emo.
"Hey what happened?" Ciol'niora asked, poking against his arm and Lance shook his head, steadying himself first and then went over to meet Keith.
"Keith, I think something's wrong with Shiro and the guys." Lance said, his face serious. "I lost a signal with them right after I heard a transmission of them screaming. Do you think the Galra are up there?"
Ciol'niora gasped at the mere mention of the Galra and Keith's expression remained neutral, although the tone in his voice said otherwise. "Then we have to go. Like, right now." He grabbed Lances wrist and they proceeded, but not without an interjection from Lance.
"Hey, hey hey what're you doing?" He pried his wrist out of Keith's hold just as they had reached their pod. "We can't just leave Santher and Ciol'niora here. Remember we came here to save someone in the first place." He gestured frantically at the two said aliens, who seemed to have just been standing there, waiting for them to leave, which was an odd behavior for someone who wanted to leave the dead planet.
"They can get off by themselves Lance." Keith groaned, shoving Lance as gently as he could into the pod despite his protests and questions.
"Wait, they can get off themselves?" Lance asked, looking more confused than shocked. He then looked back behind him to see another pod, quite similar to the one they saw Rolo and Nyma use. Ciol'niora waved at him through the pane before taking off. He turned back to Keith. "Then why did they send the distress signal?"
Keith huffed, setting the pods coordinates and preparing for take off. "I dunno Lance. People just. . .do things. And they don't think, before doing them." Keith spluttered out, wincing as soon as he heard what he said.
"Mmm. Try again." Lance says, the pod was already leaving the planets eerie atmosphere and into the vast wideness that was outer space.
"They... it was probably an accident. Maybe they sent a distress signal to the castle by accident." Keith says and he waits for Lances reply on how believable his explanation was. Lance hummed, a finger to his chin. "I'd say that was an improvement than the last one but it needs work."
As soon as they had ventured far out into space Lance gasped upon seeing a giant rip in he fabrics of space in the form of a hole. It looked like it was sucking the Castle of Lions in. "Did Allura create that wormhole?"
"Maybe." Keith acquiesced, and increased acceleration. "Let's go find out."
And with that, the pod flew right into the wormhole before it could disappear into nothing.
xXx
"Woah. What is this place?" Lance asked no one in particular as he marveled at the planet they had just landed on, right after entering the wormhole.
The pod had landed right in the planet after getting sucked in by it's gravitational pull into the atmosphere. They had lost control at first, but Keith had managed to let them land safely amid some purple and yellow trees and bushes.
"I have no idea." Keith says, stepping out of the pod and falling into place beside him. "Hey, I think I'm getting something from Pidge." He pointed at his helmet, indicating that his com was working. Lance checked his, seeing that he couldn't hear the static anymore but apart from that he wasn't hearing anything from his com.
"That's strange. I'm not hearing anything." He told Keith but he was sure he wasn't listening. Keith hurriedly grabbed his hand and pulled him down to hide in the leaves of a nearby bush.
The two of them peeked through the bush, and Lance gasped aloud after setting his eyes on a Galra soldier not too far from there. Keith put a hand over his mouth to silence him after the soldier made a move to turn around, before shrugging and continuing patrol. "Pidge says there are few Galra on the planet and we should be careful." Keith said and made a series of hand gestures to him that Lance didn't understand and soon after, jumped out of their hiding spot before Lance could interject.
Keith went straight into tackling the Galra soldier over a hedge with his sword and Lance had to wonder if Keith knew the meaning of the phrase, 'be careful.'
"Hey Lance." Keith called out to him, seeming to be struggling with the Galra, "Do you mind actually helping?"
Lance jumped up, grimacing after hearing the pained cry of Keith being hit by something. But he wasn't sure because of the thick, vegetation that somehow seemed to blind his vision partially. "Keith!" He pushed aside some huge leaves to get to his friend, activating his bayard.
He jumped right through the tall hedge, ready to kick some Galra ass. But he was met with only a small terrain of grass, circled around by willow like trees. He looked around, hoping to find Keith or the Galra. But was met with only silence.
For the first few seconds that is.
"Happy, happy, happy happy birthday. . ."
What? Lance gasped. That sounded like...
"Happy, happy, happy, happy birthday. . ."
The birthday song?
He felt something being placed on his head, and unexpectedly, he saw Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Hunk, who was holding a blue, 'S' shaped birthday cake, coming out from behind the trees and then Allura and Coran walked out from behind him. It is the birthday song!
"Everybody wants to wish you a happy birthday!"
Lance gasped, putting a hand to his head to feel that it was indeed, a birthday crown that had been placed there. He then moved the hand to place it above his heart, he was now smiling ear to ear. "Aw, you guys. You remembered my birthday."
"Well duh." Pidge says, holding a gift wrapped present. "What kind of friends would we be if we forgot?"
"But to be honest, we did forget when we were training this morning." Hunk confessed and Pidge sent him a glare. "What? It's true."
"But then Hunk remembered right after Coran came with your phone." Shiro explains. "We found out the date, and we were informed it was your birthday. So we did a little planning. . ."
"And thus the surprise." Keith interjected.
"Oh." Lance gasped. "So everything that happened was intended to happen?" He looked at Keith. "Even Ciol'niora?"
"Who the frack is Ciol'niora?" Pidge asked, arching a brow in question.
"Just someone we met on Krandor. She had this pet rephtoryne named Santher.."
"You mean to tell me, that there was someone actually on Krandor?" Allura sounded astonished. "But no life is supposed to survive there, unless she was wearing a space suit?" Lance shook his head. "But the only beings that can survive Krandor air is the Krandorians and few Alteans. But the Krandorian species is supposed to be extinct. They died 3000 decapheebs ago. So is there a possibility-"
"Princess," Coran intervened her soliloquy and gestured to Lance. "Maybe you can save the lingering questions for later. Remember, it's Lances day of birth."
Princess Allura flinched upon recollecting her memories of why they were there in the first place. "Ah, sorry Lance. I let my curiosity get the best of me."
"No sweat princess."
"Okay then" She clapped her hands together. "We must go to the Maura Lake now before we miss the sunset."
"Maura Lake?" Lance tilted his head.
"Yeah, it's pretty chill." Hunk said, already following Allura and Coran out through a thicket of vines and leaves. "At least that's what Coran says."
Lance nodded at him, still gleeful. Although he was sure the Altean man didn't exactly use the phrase 'chill'.
As soon as Lance made it through the thicket, he was welcomed by the lovely view of a beautiful, clean lake. The light pink sparkle of the sky reflecting off the surface of the water to give a wonderful glimmering hue. There was also a table with lots of food he was sure were made by Hunk. And then there was a beach ball and a volleyball net beside it. How and when they were able to get those things, he did not care. The only thing that mattered was that he had a great team- no, family. And they were the best.
"So we having a pool party now?" He asked, jittery and ready to jump into the alluring lake- swimsuit or not.
"Well, its more of a lake party than anything, really." Pidge replied, startling him a bit. She was already in her swimsuit, which was a coincidentally green one piece with boy shorts.
"How'd you get in so fast?"
"The same way the others did." She pointed to the guys, who were already in their trunks, save for Allura and Coran. Their swimwear were also coincidentally the same color of their lions. "The pods are over there by the castle if you wanna change soon." She pointed to another part of the forest, and in between some tall trees (tall enough to partly hide the castle) was a castle pod that had his swimwear in it.
"Now if you'll excuse me." Pidge pardoned herself and yelled, "Last one in gets to clean my room for 10 quintants!" She then started running towards a huge rock that stayed right on the lake bank, it had a flat surface and served as a great jumping board. Others followed right behind her.
"Hey, no fair!" Lance whined, already running to the pod to change. "I've not changed yet!"
Pidge who had gotten to the rock before the others yelled back. "Then consider yourself my personal maid for the next ten quintants, birthday boy. Cannonball!!!" She jumped off the edge of the platform, whooping as she dived beneath the waters, the others followed suit, Keith whooping the loudest, even managing to do a flip or two in the air. Showoff.
Pidge and Hunk applauded him, and Shiro contended with Allura, who had now changed into a pink one piece with a skirt bottom, competing against who could do better. He laughed as he approached the lake. No one could do better than Lance when it came to water themed sports. And the birthday king was about to prove it.
"Out of my way boys and girls," He announced. "Your king Has arrived!"
xXx
Towards the end of the day, they had thankfully not gotten any attacks or distress signals- real distress signals, for the whole time they were at the lake.
The team had had their fun, swimming, showing off and playing in the water. They had also played lake volleyball with the beach ball and net Pidge said they had gotten from the space mall while he and Keith had been running for their lives from a man eating rephtoryne at a planet brimming with poisonous gas. They tied the net in between two adjacent trees.
Allura, Keith and Pidge were on one team, while Shiro, Hunk and Lance were on the other. Pidge had explained the game to Allura, and as they were playing, it was as if the Altean princess had been playing it all her life. She played a pro, and she claimed to have no experience with the sport, with the only explanation being that she adapts easily. But she wasn't the only one that was good at adapting, because so was Lance, especially when it was water based, and team Hunk, (Lance insisted on it because why not) won team Pidge.
Everyone took photos, (there was one with Pidge dunking Coran with water because he was the only one that wasn't wet) and sat down for their picnic. Thankfully, Altean cutlery were designed to keep your food warm so the amount of time they spent in the water didn't matter.
"So," Lance began, already digging into his food, eating the space goo first so he could save the best for last. "You guys don't mind telling me how you planned all of this in that short time."
"Actually, we only planned the first phase in that short time." Pidge said. She sat at one end of the table. "The rest was 'along the way and improv' throughout."
"Along the way and improv?"
Pidge sighed and dropped her cutlery. "Looks like I have to explain." She said. "Look, it was when you left and Coran came with your phone. . ."
xXx
"It's Lances Birthday."
"What?!" The team exclaimed, exempting Pidge and Hunk. Allura and Corans exclamation was more of a question.
"Sorry, but what is a 'birthday?'" Allura asked politely, looking almost as clueless as Coran. "I understand it has the words 'birth' and 'day' so am I to assume it is his day of birth?"
"Right on Princess." Pidge finger gunned.
"And why is it so important to celebrate said birthday?" She asked.
"Because," Keith started. "if you don't, you get consumed alive by the gods of birthdays, in the burning bottomless pits, leaving nothing but your bones, the charred remains of your guts and-"
xXx
"Ew Keith, what's the matter with you?" Lance made a disgusted face at the boy, who was sitting right beside him on his left.
Keith just shrugged. "It was what I was told when I was 9 and the babysitter used to read me bed time stories before I went to sleep."
"And I told you to stop listening to her." Shiro intervened, sitting beside Keith and frowning at him.
Keith shrugged again and continued with his space goo while Pidge cleared her throat for attention and Shiro had the bright idea to help.
"Now if y'all are done interrupting, can you let Pidge talk?" Shiro says and Pidge sends him a thank you.
xXx
"...leaving the monsters of the dark to pick at them for dinner."
They stared at him with horrified looks, Allura looking the most shocked out of them all.
xXx
"Wait, wait." Lance interrupted and stared long at his leader, looking ready to laugh out all his food goo. "Y'all?"
Shiro suddenly blushed bright red in embarrassment, and Lance couldn't help himself, Keith also looked like he was struggling to hold in a laugh. Shiro was about to correct himself when Pidge cleared her throat again.
"Can we make fun of Shiro later? I'm telling a story."
"Oh right, sorry." Lance apologized, and the table was silent.
xXx
Shiro dropped his expression to a frown. "I told you not to listen to that story anymore Keith. Miss Greystone was a bad lady."
"Its not like I listen to her anymore. Besides, I just wanted to see the looks on their faces when I told them." Keith said calmly. "And it was so worth it."
"Hah, told you Galra Keith was funny. But anyway," Hunk interceded. "Those things don't happen when you don't celebrate your birthday. There are no birthday gods or anything." He assured Allura and Coran as they calmed down. "Its just really important that he does 'cause I'm his best friend and he'll never forgive me if I don't."
"Okay then," Pidge says, leaning against the wall with Keith. "You've been Lances friend since grade school. How do you suppose we celebrate it?"
"Well, I have been helping plan his surprise parties in forever, so here's what I think we're gonna do." Hunk began explaining. "We're gonna keep on pretending like we've forgotten his birthday, till then we need to take a stop at the space mall to get some things for his birthday party. Any suggestions?"
"Wait." Allura interluded. "Won't pretending we don't know it is his day of birth make him sadder?"
"It might." He confirmed. "But if we keep it this way. It makes the surprise party more of a surprise."
Allura nodded, somewhat understanding.
"Hey, I have an idea." Pidge says after a little thinking. . .
xXx
"...So, that's how and why we had you and Keith go to that planet nearby."
"No wonder Shiro was acting so weird." Lance said, eyeing the black paladin.
"Yeah Shiro, 'Because I'm your leader and I say so'? what the flip was that?" Pidge laughed, and Shiro buried his face in his hands to hide his mortification. "You're supposed to be good at improv."
"I am good at improv. I just didn't have enough time to think about my reply."
"Yeah. . ."
"So anyway," Hunk interluded, "after you guys had dropped off at the planet, I, Shiro and Allura went over to the Space mall, while Pidge waited in the castle with Coran. But then I had forgotten that we were kind of in trouble with the Space mall cop. . ."
xXx
"Wow, its a lot. . . bigger than I remember." Allura awed at the size of the place, marveling at how huge and advanced it was now. She had already shape shifted to imitate an alien species called the Disquonians. They were fairly tall, with grey skins, and pointier ears than any Altean he had ever seen, her eyes were purely black and her nose looked a lot like she had gotten it from a kitten.
Okay then, where do we start?" Shiro asked, and Hunk proceeded to look around for the department where Pidge had found that video game that she never got to use. But the place was a bit hard to find, seeing as how he couldn't read any of the signs that were supposed to lead him in the right direction.
"I'm... going to try and look for somewhere I can find some space flour for the cookies 'cause we ran out of those when I was making the cake." Hunk replied, using the term 'space flour' because he couldn't pronounce the actual name of the Altean substance and he had given up on trying.
"Maybe you guys should find something from the Earth store, Lance likes things that remind him of the beach. Allura can lead you there since she's the only one that can read these things." He pointed to a sign that was above him.
"So, we'll meet back at this same location as soon as we get the signal from Pidge, who will get the signal from Keith." Shiro instructed and everyone nodded in affirmation.
Hunk searched high and low for what he was looking for, but even then he had not found it. He tried to steer free of space mall cop and that Chef, Vrepit Sal, who had held him in his kitchen for ruining his stuff. But alas, he couldn't hide forever.
He was found out later when one of the customers he had served before recognized him and several gushing and pointings later, he found himself running for his life and sanity as he had Vrepit Sal, his customers and the space mall cop, Varkon apparently, on his tail.
xXx
"So how did you happen to escape?" Coran asked, intrigued by his tale.
"I'm getting to that." Hunk reverted, pushing aside his empty food bowl to start on another.
xXx
As Hunk was running, he just so happened to find a hoverboard nearby that had been resting, unused on a wall. So Hunk had a brilliant idea.
As he ran, rather tiredly, because he was never one up for running, he swiped the board from the wall and hopped on it. Someone from behind yelled "Hey!" But he just retorted with a quick "Sorry" and the promise to give it back.
Hunk had to be honest, he had never ridden a hoverboard in his life. Maybe a hover bike when he was 9, but never a hoverboard. So when he saw himself swerving around obstacles while also trying not to fall off on his ass, he had to say, he was a bit proud of himself. For a guy who had never had experience on a hoverboard until now, he was doing a pretty good job of not falling off. But, well, he had to or it was either back to the kitchen with Vrepit Sal and under custody with space mall cop Varkon, or finding Allura and Shiro and getting the heck out of there.
"Hey, Hunk. Where are you? Pidge has sent the signal." He heard Shiro through the com in his ear and he praised the heavens that at least his friends were ready. He turned the board at a familiar location where he was sure to find where Shiro and Allura were. "I'm heading your way."
"Good." He said and soon enough he had rounded their corner, Princess Allura and Shiro's eyes widened in surprise at the scene before them. Hunk decided to explain it to them later on and told them to hop on.
The rest was history, with Pidge having the great idea of pretending to be under attack by the Galra and being forced to wormhole their way to the beach planet Farva. He was a bit lucky because apparently there was enough flour to make a low fat, lattice topped pie instead of cookies. And Although it was somewhat hard on Allura because she had to leave the wormhole on, long enough for Keith and Lance to make it through.
xXx
"It was not hard on me." Allura interceded. "I already told you I'm fine."
"Princess, that's the same thing you said after you laid down on the floor as soon as Keith told us they had made it through." Coran said, and she folded her arms indignantly.
"Oh," Lance nodded, comprehensively coming to terms with the story. "I gotta say, it's kinda impressive how all of you were able to set these all up in just a few vargas." He gestured to the lake and picnic table.
"Mm, we try." Pidge shrugged, drinking some liquid, then spitting it out. She must have drank the nunvil.
"But I have to ask Hunk," Lance turned to face his best friend. "How were you able to bake the cake and pie on such short notice? I mean, you did only remember my birthday until after training and a lot of things happened in between."
"Sorry for forgetting your birthday, if I hadn't already said that before." Hunk said. "And about the cake thing, I had already started making one this morning before training, so I just had to transfer the cake mix into an 'S' shaped pan and rush the frosting. And the pie only took a few Vargas 'cause their oven's a 100 times faster than the one on Earth."
"The cake looks pretty good for something that was rushed." Lance leaned over to admire the cake that was protected by a cover in the middle of the table. "What does the 'S' stand for?"
"Sharpshooter." Keith replied and Lance shot Hunk his finger guns. "Nice."
Suddenly, Allura gasped while looking up, Coran doing the same thing. Everyone noticed and followed her eyes to the horizon of the forest, and for that moment, it was silent. Small smiles spread on all their faces.
The sunset was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was all the colors of the rainbow combined into one, giving out a soft glow through out the forest and the surface of the waters, making it more sparkly than before. The sunset was beautifully iridescent, and he could feel tears prick at the corners of his eyes. The sunset reminded him of everything he had ever known.
It reminded him of his family back on Earth, when they would wait till evening just like he was doing, just so they could watch the sunset descending down the horizon of the ocean on Varadero beach. His mother would be propped up right beside him, his favorite big sister on the other side. His dad, somewhere behind him and the rest of his family would be like that, leaning against each other and wishing all their hopes and desires on the very star that mattered to their lives and hearts and existence.
And soon, Lance remembered why he had been crying earlier on in the morning. He cried because he had that dream again, the one where he would be reuniting with his family, and then they would all go to the beach to watch the sunset. He must've cried much during the dream, which explains the headache. His sister, Rita, would always say how terrible he looked whenever he had one of those and he chuckled. It sounded similar to something Pidge or Keith would say to him.
Lance then knew that no matter what or where, whether outer space or on Earth, he would always have his family looking out for him. Screw Lotor and his badass group of generals. Team Voltron was gonna win and kick his ass into oblivion anyway.
"Well, what're we waiting for?" Hunk asked, appearing behind him as well as everyone else. He hadn't noticed when they had gotten up. "It's time to make a wish." He had put on his paper crown back after it had dried because he forgot to take it off before entering the lake.
And as Lance sighed contentedly and blew out his candles, he wished two things- the second one being wished on the sunset- that he would survive the space war to reunite with his family, and he would always have his Space family, the one he built with Allura, Coran, the lions and the paladins of Voltron. They would survive together and come back hero's together.
He heard a soft purr at the back of his head, it was Blue and he smiled inwardly as much as he did outwards, even as the sunset was coming down completely. Yeah, he would always have his Space family, wish or no wish. And today proved how much that affirmation meant to him.
"Happy Birthday Lance."