'Feeling like only an extra? Someone, to be replaced soon? Sure... I don't like it here, I don't fit in. Everyone has their roles, and then there is me. I'm like the extra in the play, the one everyone will laugh at and seen as the clown.' That seems like all Lance is, to him, everyone, even to Keith. Keith Kogane, the one person who Lance truly wants to like him. How is that going? Lance laughed at himself with the thought.
"Lance? Lance!" Lance could hear Hunk yelling from outside my room. "Food is done," he muttered. Footsteps fading as he probably goes back to the others. The others, somewhere.
Laying in his bed, motivation fading, Lance looks around his room emotionless and in thought. Maybe I should ask them to take me home? With Shiro back I'm of no use now, Allura is the blue paladin now. Shiro is back to take the black paladin again, Keith will take the red from me, and I'm no jerk to take Blue from Allura. So maybe I should just go home. It would fit better than staying here.
"Lance?" Lance could hear Keith's voice and his hand knocking on his door. Ignoring the call for him, he waited to see if he has anything else to say, but just like everyone else, the footsteps fade. He leaves.
It was the next day when Lance gets up and go to his room. Knocking carefully and he opens the door. He looks surprised.
"Yeah? Hey man," Keith says to Lance as he lets me in.
"I just wanted to talk to you because, well, because I've been worrying about something," Lance told Keith nervously.
"Must really be bothering you if you're coming to talk to me," Keith replied put off.
"Well, I mean, you're the leader now, right?"
"I guess."
"Well, I've been doing some math. With Shiro back, that makes six paladins, but there are only five lions, and if I'm right, that's one paladin too many," Lance replied, explaining his point further with putting up and down his fingers.
"Solid math," Keith replied.
"Look, when Shiro takes over the Black Lion, you're going to want your Red Lion back. If I get a lion, I'd have to take Blue from Allura. But she's progressed a lot faster than any of us did. She might even be able to unlock powers we don't know of!" Lance exclaimed looking at Keith.
"That's true," Keith replied carefully.
"So, many the best thing I can do for the team steps aside?" Lance replied looking anywhere but Keith.
"What are you talking about?" Keith wondered.
"This isn't a participation game, this is war, and you want your best soldiers on the front lines," Lance told Keith.
"Stop worrying about who flies what and just focus on your missions. Things will work themselves out," Keith tried to convince Lance. But for someone who had been thinking about it since Shiro was gone, it wasn't easy to convince himself.
"Okay," Lance agreed anyways. "Thanks," Lance tried, empty words he knew.
"And, Lance? Leave the math to Pidge," Keith replied before Lance smiled. Turned away and cried.
Once again Lance was stuck in his room, Lance couldn't get to his feet.
That was the first time Keith realized, the first time Lance gave Keith the chance to step in. To save him from his own self-doubt, before it got too late.
As Lance looked out of the castle ship, he looked discouraged. Keith stepped close by, curious and worried.
"What's wrong?" Keith questioned.
"Maybe I should leave," Lance replied without thinking. He didn't register the shock from Keith, so he continued. "I should go back to Earth. Even in Garrison, I couldn't be enough, I had to wait till you dropped out. When we were there you were better than me, here you are better than me, I shouldn't be her-"
Just like the shock, Lance didn't register the smack to the face. The tears from Keiths face, and the retreating figure as Lance was now alone.
"Keith left," Lance muttered as him and Hunk sat in the lounge alone.
"He did."
"Hey guys, can you...um...hit Keith for me?" Matt, Pidge's older brother had asked while walking up to three of the five paladins. In the background, Lance could see Coran hugging Keith like something bad happened. Like something was going to have Voltron didn't know about. Except what was happening with Keith and Coran was in the background as Lance stared at Matt mad.
"What are you talking about? Why!" Lance exploded looking at the older male looking Pidge.
"Lance, calm down," Hunk and Pidge both tried to hold Lance back.
"It's just... Before Lotar showed up..." Matt tried off.
With only the bare minimum of information, Lance took off, charging for Keith. As Coran had separated from Lance, and the two were looking at each other was when Lance had shown up. Punch Keith in the face harshly, trying to get the point across the boy's thick skull.
"What the heck were you thinking? You idiot!" Lance yelled.
Shiro and Allura both were shocked as they watched the scene, ready to step in at any moment needed. Coran sent them a shake of the head, and the two looked around. No one else was moving to stop the two, what happened? Shiro and Allura thought as they tried to figure something out.
"What the heck were you thinking Mullet? Not being able to hit the ship because of the shield, it does not give you the choice to charge into the shield like a madman! What would have happened if it didn't work? How do you think we would have reacted? We would have lost a friend, we wouldn't have been able to say you sacrificed yourself wisely. Because no! You didn't! You could have died a useless death, but you would have destroyed us!" Lance yelled. Tears dripping from his face.
"Lance," Keith muttered out, his hand holding his jaw.
"Hunk, take Lance," Shiro directed.
"Got it," Hunk agreed, taking the crying red paladin away from the other boy.
"Lance, Lance, breath," Hunk tried to calm down the paladin.
"It's my fault he left, he knew that I would have left. He put me before himself, he was stupid. He should have just kicked me off the team, he would've been the stronger team. He wouldn't have needed to do that stupid thing," Lance cried as he was forgetting to breathe.
Soon enough he couldn't even get air into his lungs, his erotic breathing as it was, along with the crying, he ended up hyperventilating. Soon enough Lance had passed out no being able to calm down the boy at that moment, Hunk had brought the red paladin to his bed.
"Keith," Shiro had looked at the mullet-haired boy.
"I know, it was stupid. I shouldn't have done it either. I won't again, I promise," Keith told the leader of Voltron.
"Good, you should probably patch things up with Lance," Shiro replied. Patting the boy on the back in a brotherly matter. Nodding his head, Keith took off to where he saw Hunk taking to Lance. To the kitchen if Keith remembered right.
"Alright, I know this isn't the time for this, but who wants to bet that Klance will happen?" Matt asked with a smile.
"Oh, you're on," Pidge, Shiro, and Allura all agreed. Coran simply looking confused.
"What is Klance?" Coran asked which resulted in all four laughing.
"Alright, we should probably get some stuff sorted out now," Allura stated.
"Agreed princess!" Coran jumped up.
"Where is Lance?" Keith slid into the kitchen where he saw Hunk simply cooking anxiously.
"I brought him to his room," Hunk replied simply. Still pouring items that look inedible into a dish.
"Okay, thanks," Keith replied before he could question anything else going on. Already racing to the red paladin's room.
It was when he finally got to the room when he took a deep breath and looked at the door in front of him. Alright, Keith thought to himself pushing open the door.
Lance was laying with his back to the door, laying on his side. Keith wasn't sure if Lance was sleeping or just ignoring the noise of him walking into the room. Choosing to believe the first option, Keith had taken one of the chairs nearby and sat down looking at the boy.
"Listen, Lance. I'm sorry, if you're awake look at me," Keith told the teen trying to hold back his own tears. Yes, he was gay. Yes, he liked Lance since he was in Garrison. And yes, Keith did remember Lance, but it was just like Lance had "forgotten" about the bonding moment. "Lance," Keith tried again.
"What would have happened if I just heard you were gone? If you disappeared and I had no idea during that confusion? You never said anything to anyone, you just went off on your own. You hot-heading idiot," Lance had spoken, still looking at the wall.
"Lance, look at me," Keith tried again.
"You are a jerk," Lance told the boy turning around to look at him.
Both looked miserable, Keith with his bruised cheek, and Lance with his bloodshot eyes.
"I'll do anything to repay you," Keith told the boy without truly thinking about what he had just spoken.
"Cuddle with me," Lance said. Truth be told, he had been wanting physical contact, the simple hugs he had gotten back on Earth with his family. He missed them.
"Alright," Keith agreed, face burning red.
"It's been quiet for a while..." Pidge trailed off looking at everyone else as they surrounded outside of Lance's room.
"Does that mean they made up?" Hunk asked munching on his anxious baked sweets he made.
"Hopefully," Shiro mumbled.
"Why don't we just go check on them?" Coran asked with a light bulb flashing above him.
"Great idea Coran," Allura agreed. Using the master room key she had always owned.
As the door slid open, all the paladins, Coran and Matt could see the scene in front of them. Shiro and Allura reluctantly handing over some money to the Holt siblings.
"I knew they would get together but I didn't think they would have actually done something besides make up," Shiro grumbled as everyone left the two in their own silence and moment.
"Klance is a thing, what can I say?" Pidge smirked as Matt and her walked side by side.
"They scare me," Hunk mumbled walking slightly behind with his platter of...cookies?
Thank you for reading! Voltron does not belong to me. Thank you again, and see you later! Bai~
